ple, and brought the Jews into great tribulation (see Maimonides, Kjnstol. ad Judaeos in MassiUa agentes). Another of these impostors, a great cabalist, arose, A.D. 1 170, in Jloravia, who was called Darid A Imasser. He pretended he could make himself invisible ; but he was soon taken and put to death, and a heavy fine laid upon the Jews. A famous cheat and rebel exerted liimself in Persia, A.D. 1 199, called David el-David. He was a man of learnhig, a great magician, and pretended to be the Messiah. He raised an army against the king, but was taken and imprisoned; and, having made his escape, was afterwards retaken and beheaded. Vast numbers of the Jews were butchered for taking part with this impostor.
In the 13th and 14th centuries the Messiah imposi- tion had come to a comparative stand-still. It is true the most learned of the rabbis, the celebrated Saadia, Abraham Ibn-Chija, Nachman, and (iersoni, had taken upon themselves to calculate the time of the actual coming of the veritable deliverer, and had fixed ujion 1358 as the Messiah year; but no one came forward and sought to impose himself upon the waiting multi- tude. Towards the close of the 15tli century, however, the opportunity was renewed by the terrible fate of the Jews, especially in the Iberian peninsula, where for so many years they had enjoyed a haven of rest. On the Continent the Jews had suffered from the very start of the Crusading movement, but in the Iberian peninsula they had found a pleasant home and a quiet retreat, fre- quently even positions of power and of honor. Gradu- ally, however, their position was undermined. First the Church of Rome trained men as polemics against the Jews. Later it was determined to make converts of them at any price, and if they could not be secured peacefully, to subject them to bloody persecution. This policy vias inaugurated at Seville in 1301-92, and soon spread over the peninsida. Escape was difficult, and, if made, hardly augured a brighter future in other lands; and thus reasoning, they remained, and some 200,000 Jews were made to accept baptism at the point of the sword. This event forms the saddest turning-point in .Jewish history. I'ersocution upon persecution followed. The Jew, finding no alternative, was forced to jilay the part of the hyjiocrite, and, while pressing the cross to his lips, vowed in his heart more faithful devotion to the cause of Israel. The gloomiest day came with the date of America's discovery. The year that shed new light upon Europe shrouded the Jew in darkness, and forms at the same time the grandest and tlie most melan- choly hour of modern history. But though at lirst many had been made converts in the hours of oppression, they gradually came to believe in the vital truths of Christi- anity ; and though the examples before them were not promotive of a true Christian life, the fact that no de- liverer had come to Israel in the most trying liour made them not only faint but wavering, antl there seemed danger that, if not soon inspired with new hope, the last day had come for the Jewish race. There re- mained, it is true, a small remnant that had continued thus far in open defiance to all demands of the govern- ment, and valiantly contended for liberty of conscience. But even these successive trials had broken their cour- age, and had robbed them of the prospect of a more au- spicious future. Not only the uneducated, but even the learned and the devoted, were yielding up the long cherished Jlcssianic ho]ie, as a sweet dream, an idle fancy, whidi lacked all chance of reality. The Jewish race, they declared, was bom to suffer forever, and the day would never come for deliverance from ojipression ; never should they see a day of freedom and indepen- dence. This hopeless and hapless condition of his coun- trymen determined the learned Jewish rabbi Abrabanel (q. V.) to employ his i)cn in defence of the O.-T. Script- ures, and of .Jewish interpretation. Aware that if tliis spirit of discontent and unbelief were suffered to grow it would result in tlie ultimate defunction of the Jewish ranks, he essayed to combat it by inspiring them anew
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with the prospects of an early dehvery from oppression, and the dawn of a happy change. Though hoary with age, he -(vrote with trembUng hands book after book to explain the principal jNIessianic passages of the O. T., especially those of Daniel, and argued that Israel could safely depend upon a glorious future, and that the day of the Messiah was near at hand. He even went so far as to determine the date, and fixed upon 1503 as the year of their delivery. As a leader in Israel, Abraba- nel's word commanded attention, and the wretched peo- ple were encouraged to take new hope.
At such a moment there was room for imposition, and it came immediately with the very opening of the IGth century. Enthusiasts declared that the time had ar- rived for removal to the Holy Land, to anticipate the change so near at hand. One German rabbi, Ascher Liimmlein (or Liimmlin), a resident within the Austrian dominions, actually gave himself out as the forerunner of the approaching INIessiah, and, as pseudo-John, about A.D. 1502, called the people to repentance, and urged an immediate removal to the East. He pulled down his own house, presaging that by another year- he and his breth- ren who would follow him should live in peace under the reign of the " King of the Jews." Liimmlein lived near Venice, but his admonitions travelled all through Ger- many, Italy, Spain, and France. Every^v'here his cause made converts; even Christians are said to have be- lieved in his mission (see Grittz, Gesck. d. Jiiden, ix, 243). But the prophet died suddenly, and all hopes lay pros- trate in the dust. The agony of the people, so basely deceived, lacks description. A few flocked to the cross of Christ, and in this their most trying hour declared that Jesus was the Christ; but the greater number, with that stubbornness characteristic of the Shemitic race, yet refused to look for help from the (/reat Physician.