RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Israel, History of
cultivated the healing art. In the second half of the fifteenth century the charge was again made that Jews murdered Christian children, and this calumny continued in spite of repeated failure to convict in the courts. The fact that Jewish converts to Christianity held many of the most lucrative offices caused numerous anti-Jewish riots.
The turning-point was the marriage (1469) of Isabella of Castile to Don Ferdinand of Aragon. In 1480 the Inquisition was set at work 5. The In- agamst tfoe Jews, with whom the prisons were soon filled, and four days aft-
quisition in Spain.
er the setting up of the Holy Office six Jewish converts to Christianity were burned at the stake. Converts and all Spaniards were invited to betray converts suspected of secretly Judaizing, and a list of suspicious circumstances was published to aid in detecting the apostates. Between January and November, 1481, 298 of these supposedly false Jewish converts suffered death, while in the archbishopric of Cadiz in the same year 2,000 Jewish heretics were found. The proscribed who had already died were exhumed and their bones burned, while their property was confiscated. Sixtus IV censured the proceedings of the inquisitors and disapproved the request of Ferdinand to have the tribunal set up in his other dominions. In 1482 Torquemada was made chief inquisitor, the Inquisition was released from restriction to legal forms and its sphere of influence extended to Aragon. Attempts were made against the highest dignitaries of Church and State if only they were of Jewish blood. At the court of Ferdinand Isaac Abrabanel was minister of finance, but in spite of his influence the edict was issued to exile all Jews from Castile, Aragon, Sicily, and Sardinia. To the number of 300,000 they fled into Portugal, Navarre, Italy, Morocco, and Turkey. The princes of Europe censured the regulations of Ferdinand, while the Sultan Bajazid remarked, " You call Ferdinand a clever king, who has impoverished his own land and made ours rich." In 1496 Emmanuel of Portugal issued an edict giving the Jews the alternative of baptism or exile. Many chose exile, thousands were baptized, while hundreds killed themselves and their families in order to escape enforced baptism.
In France Charlemagne favored the Jews because they were the only merchants in the realm. To the embassy to Harun al-Rashid he made a Jew interpreter, and after the death of the ambassador the interpreter carried through the work of the mission. Under Louis the Pious, Jews held an important place at court, though opposed by Agobard of Lyons. At the Synod of Meaux the bishops reenacted the old ecclesiastical laws against the Jews, which Charles the Bald prevented from taking effect. Yet popular demonstrations were made against the Jews. In Toulouse it was the right of the count on Good Friday to administer to the chief of the Jewish community a box on the ear. The Jews secured immunity from this by paying a yearly tribute, and in the same way elsewhere they purchased the good will of the powerful. Hugh Capet's death in 996 was charged against the Jews because Hugh's physician was a Jew. The crusades gave new
6. Jews
in France.
opportunities to despoil this people. The principal colony was at Narbonne, consisting of 300 families, among them that of the Hebrew grammarian Kimchi; another great colony was at Montpellier. In the twelfth century the story was told that Jews were killing the children of Christians to use their blood in the Passover. On the basis of this charge, King Philip August, about the year 1180, mulcted the Jews of his realm in 15,000 marks silver and declared all debts to Jews void except such as paid him one-fifth of the entire amount. The possessions of Jews were regarded as the property of the barons, and nobles made sales of " property and Jews." At this time arose in France the Cabala (q.v.) with its mysticism, magic and theosophy, exercising influence not only upon Jewish, but upon Christian thought, and playing its part in exegesis of both Talmud and Bible. Its force is felt to the present, since the modern Chasidism of Russia and Galicia is the Cabala in its most recent form, and its essence reflects the spirit of Jewish thought. In the third crusade the Jews of various parts of France suffered as they had in the first and second, although Pope Gregory IX. declared that the Church desired neither their enforced conversion nor their destruction. But this pope committed to the bishop of Paris the question whether the Talmud reviled Christ and his mother and contained statements derogatory of Scripture and of God. The Talmud was condemned, and in 1244 twenty-four wagon loads of copies of this work were burned in a square of the city. At this time the Jews themselves condemned and burned the writings of Maimonides. In 1269 Louis IX. required all Jews to wear a badge of yellow on breast and back, and in 1306 Philip IV. ordered them driven from the kingdom, and their gold, silver, and jewels were forfeited to him, while only their clothes were left in their possession. In 1360 they were allowed to return under favorable conditions, such as that permitting them to charge interest at eighty per cent., only to be driven out again under Charles VI. in 1394.
In England after the conquest by the Normans the Jews found themselves in fortunate circumstances, and in London their dwellings were like royal palaces. These condi-
7. In England.
tions were first disturbed at the coronation of Richard in 1189, for when the Jews of the realm were about to bring their dues of homage, in popular uprisings in many of the cities numbers of them were slain, and some were burned in their houses. In York they intrenched themselves in the fortress and, when hope of escape was gone, set fire to it and perished in the flames. John Lackland and Henry III. extorted from them more than 10,000,000 francs, and the latter encouraged efforts to convert them (see Jews, Mission to the). In 1275 parliament by statute interdicted the collection of usury, yet Jews might buy houses and lands and engage in commerce. In 1278 the circulation of counterfeit coin was attributed to the Jews and 293 were hanged. In 1290 Jews were banned, mortgages held by them canceled, and they were compelled to sell their property; 16- 000 left the country and were not permitted to return till the time of Cromwell, when individuals
Israel, History of