THE

JEWS OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

THE INQUISITION
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 THE

JEWS OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

A XI)

THE INQUISITION

BY

FREDERIC DAVID MOCATTA

LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1877

All rights reserved

 PBEFACE.

THE following little sketch was originally composed

as a lecture to some Jewish working-men at the
East end of London. The subject is, to ine, natu-

rally an interesting one no less from a national than

from a family point of view ;
I hope the Essay may
also prove of some general interest. The position of
the Jews in Spain and Portugal during a great part
of the middle ages forms an exceptionally bright

spot in their dark and chequered history, and deve-

loped some striking intellectual and moral features
in an age when a great part of what now constitutes
Civilisation was wrapped in mental darkness. The
favoured position of the Jews in the Peninsula in-
duced a vast Hebrew population to settle there ; and
although it became evident, after a time, that their

prosperity, attracting, as it did, the jealousy of the

bulk of people, would lead to their ultimate ruin,

2092517
vi Preface,

this could only be effected in a long and gradual

manner, and could only be consummated by a cruel
and violent measure their forced expulsion.
The struggles of the Mohammedans and the
Christians for supremacy had for centuries excited
the minds of the Spaniards, and imbued them with
a crusading spirit which would tolerate no dissidence
in matters of religion ; and this feeling was easily

worked upon by the clergy, in regard to a numerous

and thriving community, which remained utterly
without the pale of the Christian Church.
Measures of restriction were followed by efforts

at conversion on a scale of unprecedented magni-

tude, till such efforts grew into a persecution, and,

still failing to attain the desired end, culminated in

the edict of banishment.

Had the Jews possessed more tact during the
earlier stages of their troubles, and adhered more
closely to their scientific and literary pursuits than
to the acquisition of wealth, they might probably
have retarded, and possibly have averted, the final
doom. It is, however, hardly likely that a popula-
tion of little less than a million Jews would ever
have been allowed to dwell in peace in a land ruled
by inonarchs as bigoted as Philip II. and his suc-
cessors, and which almost till our own times permit-
 Preface. vii

ted a court as arbitrary and as cruel as the Inquisi-

tion to hold an undisputed sway. The installation

of this Tribunal under Ferdinand and Isabella forms

an epoch in the history of Spain, and weighing as
an incubus on all freedom of thought and action,
was one of the main causes of the decadence of that
great country, the effects of which are now so sadly
visible. In expelling the Jews, Spain gave the

greatest blow to her commerce, as in driving out the

Mohammedans she did to her agriculture. Thus,
the effects of bigotry and intolerance have recoiled
with more lasting evils on the persecutors than on
the persecuted; and Spain and Portugal languish,
while more tolerant lands have flourished and are

continually acquiring strength.

The following are the principal sources from
which I have derived my facts :

'
GRAETZ. Geschichte der Juden.'
KAYSERLING. Geschichte der Juden in Portugal.'
'

KAYSERLING. Ein Feiertag in Madrid.'

'

History qf the Jews in Spain and Portugal.'

'
LINDO.
'
LLORENTE. Historia de la Inquisicion de Espafia.'
HERCOLANO. Da origem e establecimento da Inquisi9.o em
'

Portugal.'
AMADOR DE LOS Rios. 'Estudios sobre los Judios en
'

Espana.
AMADOR DE LOS Rios. '
Historia de los Judios en Espana,'
vols. I. and II.
viii Preface.

BEDARRIDE. '
Les Juifs en France, en Italic, et en Espagne.'
'*
ANONYMOUS (NiEro). Procedimiento de las Inquisiciones
en Espana y Portugal,' etc., etc.

The subject is one which is capable of very con-

siderable elaboration, both as concerns the position
and history of the Jews in the Peninsula, and the
workings of the Inquisition itself; and I feel that I
have rendered but very scant and imperfect justice
to a theme at once so interesting and so instructive.

I must therefore crave the indulgence of the reader

for putting before him a sketch so incomplete, my
only excuse being the very limited knowledge of the
subject which is generally possessed.

F. D. MOCATTA.

LONDON : March 1877.

THE JEWS OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL
AND

THE INQUISITION.

THE period when Jewish settlers were first attracted

to the Iberian Peninsula, where they afterwards at-
tained so high a position in learning and in wealth,
and where for some centuries they so thoroughly

acclimatised themselves as almost to forget their

captivity and to regard themselves as in a new

Judsea, is so remote, that no reliable historical data
exist on the subject.
No doubt the Phoenicians, at a very early period,
traded with the various ports on the Mediterranean,

and, as is well known, the Carthaginians a people

closely allied to them in race, and both to them and

to the Hebrews in language founded several cities,

and established colonies on the coast. This may

probably have given rise to the tradition that Jews
were already settled in the Peninsula in the days of
Solomon, and that the Tarshish of the Bible was
identical with the Tartessus of the ancients, a dis-
B
2 The Jews of Spain and Portiigal,

trict of Southern Spain, the principal city of which

was Gades, the modern Cadiz. It was also stated

that Nebuchadnezzar made conquests in Spain, and

sent captives from the vanquished kingdom of
Judah to colonise them. These legends, fanciful as

they are, and entirely unworthy of credence, were

studiously kept alive by the Spanish Jews of later
times. Certain however, that Jews very early
it is,

found their way to the Peninsula, and that when, 011

the fall of the Roman Empire, the Goths and
Yandals conquered the country, large numbers of
them were already established in various districts
throughout the land.
Even under Roman rule the first restrictions

against the Jews were promulgated at the Council

held at Elvira (Iliberis), near Cordova, soon after the

year 300, but the general confusion which followed

the irruption of the barbarians, and the toleration
of the earlier Gothic kings, who were Arians,
afforded a period of comparative repose for more
than two centuries. When, however, at the end
of the sixth century, the Roman Catholic form of

Christianity became the recognised religion of Gothic

Spain, fresh edicts of intolerance followed fast from
the various Councils, held principally in Toledo, and
soon after, we begin to hear of those forced, and
 and the Inquisition.

consequently feigned, conversions which, in later

times led to such sad and disgraceful results. The

persecutions became so frequent and so violent that

large numbers of Jews from Southern Spain sought
refuge on the African coast, and a good understand-
ing arose between them and the Moors, which the
latter used to their advantage when a little later

they crossed the Straits and invaded the Peninsula.

The first successful irruption of the Moslems took
place in 711, and such was the impetuosity of their
onslaught, and the disorganisation of the Gothic
states, that in less than five years the whole of Spain
and Portugal was subjected to their rule. No doubt
the sympathies of the Jews, oppressed and hunted
down under the Goths, were strongly in favour of
the invaders, to whom they were moreover allied by
a kindred monotheistic principle, and a common
Semitic race. At but tacit spectators of the
first

struggle, they were soon sufficiently admitted into-

the confidence of the Moslems to be entrusted with
the garrisoning of Seville, Granada, and other large
towns ; they were also allowed a perfect toleration
in the exercise of their religion. It is asserted, but

without sufficient proof, that the Jews opened the

gates of Toledo to the invaders while its defenders
were occupied in celebrating a procession, on Palin
B 2
4 The yews of Spain and Portugal,

Sunday, in 712. At any rate, it is certain that the

forced converts to Christianity at once returned to

and that large numbers of other Jews
their old faith,

followed in the wake of the Moslem hosts, and

vastly swelled the Hebrew population of the Penin-

sula. Once established on Spanish soil, they firmly

retained their footing, even when, after the lapse of
a few generations, a considerable territory had been
reconquered from the Mohammedans by Christian
valour. Communities of Jews not only flourished in
all the more important towns of Spain and Portugal,
but also established themselves north of the Pyrenees

throughout the South of France. The new conquests

of the Moslems were at first subjected to the Arab
Caliphs of Damascus, but about the year 750, profit-
ing by a revolution in the eastern capital, 'Abd-er-
Ra/jman succeeded in establishing his indepen-
I.

dence, and governed the country with great wisdom

and moderation. This monarch founded the Uni-

versity of Cordova, which in the course of a few

generations became, with the schools of Seville,

Granada, and Lucena, established by his successors

'Abd-er-Ra/tman II. and the great seats of the
III.,

learning of the day. In order to shed additional

lustreround his new foundation, 'Abd-er-Ra/iinan
encouraged and invited the presence of numerous
 and t/ic Inquisition.

Jewish scholars, who were not slow to avail them-

selves of the advantages offered. The Jews, not-
withstanding the downfall of their nationality, had
preserved their intellectual vigour through the con-
stant and assiduous study of the law of Moses. In
the course of this, they had elaborated the vast
codex of the Talmud, on which they piled commen-

tary after commentary, holding philosophical dispu-

tations on almost every subject relating to physical

science, civil polity, and social

economy. These
studies, which saved the Hebrew people from lapsing
into that state of mental atrophy which characterised
'
what are usually called the dark ages,' were carried
on in the colleges, which they had, in the first
centuries of the Christian era, founded in Palestine,

Persia, and Egypt. The persecutions which raged

in Alexandria, and the fanatical outbursts which
followed the sudden rise of Islamism, had forced the
Jews to close these cherished abodes of learning, and
they were therefore naturally only too pleased to
nock to the new establishments where they had so
valuable an opportunity both of acquiring and of

disseminating knowledge. The Moorish rulers who

succeeded 'Abd-er-RaAman I. were equally favourable
to Jewish scholars, and so much interest was excited

by Hebrew literature, that by command of Caliph

6 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

Hakim, about the end of the tenth century, Eabbi

Joseph Ibn-Abitur Santos translated the whole of
the Mishnah into Arabic. It would appear, by the
names which are left on record, that by far the

greater number of those who distinguished them-

selves in these centres of learning belonged to the

Hebrew race. Numerous Jews attained high honour

and lasting fame as poets, philosophers, astronomers,

physicians, mathematicians,and grammarians, and

many through their linguistic skill rendered an
invaluable service to science and literature, by

translating the classical authors of antiquity into

Arabic, while they handed over to the Western

world the treasures of Eastern lore, thus uniting
the whole into one common heritage of human
knowledge.
It is a very remarkable fact that, whatever branch

of science or literature was cultivated by the learned

Jews of these ages, the study of their scriptures, and
of their ancient traditional writings which explained
and illustrated them, always formed the basis of
their mental operations. Deeply versed in Hebrew,
the Jewish authors and poets of the eleventh, twelfth,
and thirteenth centuries resuscitated the language of
their ancestors, and numerous treatises on religious

subjects, on philosophy, medicine, and general science

 and the Inquisition.

were produced in classical prose; whilst touching

and beautiful hymns and odes in verse rivalled, in
loftiness of conception and in elegance of diction,
the best periods of biblical composition. Thus for

fully four centuries nourished in Spain, Portugal,

and Southern France, a long list of distinguished
Jewish authors, writing on a great variety of subjects,

generally in Hebrew, but frequently also in Arabic.

The abstruse philosophy of that age has long since

given place to more practical studies, and the

languages employed are too little known
Europe in

for the mass of these works to be in any way familiar

even to scholars of our own days. Moreover, in
and persecution, a large number
after ages of bigotry

of the writings of these learned Hebrews were

wantonly given over to destruction, both in the East

and West, as being the productions of a hated and
heretical race, so that many of them have been
totally lost. Several of the poetical compositions,

however, still survive in the Jewish liturgy, and are

charming no less from the soul-stirring depth of

feeling which pervades them, than from the ele-

gance of their versification and their purity of

diction.

It may not be out of place here to name a very

few of the more prominent of those distinguished
8 TJu yews of Spain and Portugal,

men, who illustrated not less the race to which they

belonged, than the age and countries which gave

them birth. Among such may be mentioned the
poet and philosopher Solomon Ibn-Gebirol, in the
eleventh century, the poet Jehudah ha-Levi in the

twelfth, at which period also nourished the dis-

tinguished family of Ibn-'Ezra, many of whom held

responsible positions in the State, and whose most

remarkable member was the grammarian, commen-
tator, and mathematician, Abraham Ibn-'Ezra, who
died in 1194. The same century produced the
well-known traveller Benjamin of Tudela, and the
great Moses-ben-Maimon, or Maimonides. This

extraordinary man (born at Cordova, 1135; died at

Fostat, near Cairo, 1204), remarkable alike as phi-

losopher, physician, astronomer, or commentator, is

perhaps the greatest illustration produced through-
out the middle ages, in any nation, or of any
creed. His writings, which are voluminous, and are
some in Arabic, and some in Hebrew, exercised a
marked determination in forming the mind of his

contemporaries, and established a lasting influence

on his co-religionists, who have expressed the
estimation in which they hold him, in the proverb,
'from Moses till Moses, there never was one like
Moses.'
 and the Inquisition.

In the twelfth, and thirteenth centuries flourished

in Southern France the illustrious family of gram-

marians, the Kirnchis, of whom the best known is

David, who died in 1235. Eabbi Moses ben Nach-

inan, or Nachmanides, also in the thirteenth century,

was distinguished as a commentator and physician,

'
and Alfonso X. of Castile, surnamed the Wise/
who laid the basis of a new system of astronomy,

chiefly availed himself in his researches of the services

of Jewish savants, whom he took pleasure in rallying
round him.
In the course of a few centuries the Moors were
gradually forced to give up. the greater part of their
conquests in the Peninsula, first the Northern
portions, then Toledo, the whole of Portugal,
Valencia, Majorca, Seville, and Cordova, so that

they retained, from the middle of the thirteenth to

the close of the fifteenth centuries, nothing more
than the Kingdom of Granada. At this period a
Hebrew population, probably exceeding a million,
and forming nearly an eighth of the whole inhabitants,
was scattered over the land. This vast aggregate
of the Jewish race not only included men foremost
in literature and science, and especially valuable
from their skill in medicine, but also all those who
were best fitted for trade and commerce, and who
io The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

understood almost by intuition the then little-known

rules of finance, and the practical elements of political

economy. The great nobles, who, being given up to

plans of ambition and to martial pursuits, disdained
the details of business, employed the Jews in the

management of their vast estates, and thus frequently

the thrifty vassals became the creditors to a large
extent of their spendthrift lords. The clergy, too,

very generally availed themselves of the services of

Jews, as the administrators of the enormous landed
endowments of which they were possessed, and the
kings frequently conferred on them the office of
Treasurer ;
while almost all fiscal charges were
confided to their care, and the collection of the taxes,
which they usually farmed, was almost exclusively
left in their hands.
It is true that the Jews laboured under certain

disadvantages ; that they had to pay a capitation-tax

of thirty-four maravedis, or about eighteen pence, a

year ; that they were forbidden the use of arms ; that

they were compelled by law to inhabit a particular
quarter of the town, and to wear a distinctive badge
on their garments, provisions which, however, they
often contrived to elude ;
and also that, as time went
on, restrictive enactments were multiplied and pressed
more heavily upon them ; but for all this, the Jews
 and the Inquisition. 1 1

became vastly enriched, and acquired so large an

amount of power in the State, that it would have
been well-nigh impossible to have dispensed with
their services. It may easily be imagined that an

alien race, devoted to another creed, and possessing

to a certain extent an autonomy of its own, a race
too which, by and intelligence, knew how
its thrift

to attract to itself so large a portion of this world's

material gifts, would in course of time become the
object no less of the dislike than of the jealousy of
the great bulk of the population.
The office of tax-collector, however properly
administered, has never rendered those who held it

very popular, more especially where it has been the

practice to farm the taxes. The functions of the

capitalist, too, may be indispensable in enabling
various trades and enterprises to be carried out, but
in circumstances where the lender had so slight a

security that the legal rate of interest varied between

20 and 30 per cent., it is easy to understand how
those who loaned out their capital could be stigma-
tised as usurers, and held up to the opprobrium of
the very parties who availed themselves of their
resources. Moreover, those who allow the accumula-
form the chief study of their lives,
tion of wealth to

and who nourish on the needs of their neighbours,

1 2 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

are sure to fall into a state of mental and moral

degradation ;
and it is likely that the Jews of the
Peninsula afforded much colour of truth to the

allegation that they were grasping and avaricious.

Their natural love of display also caused them, in
defiance of sumptuary laws and popular prejudices,
to indulge in splendour of domestic arrangements
and costume, which still more excited against them
the envy and jealousy of those by whom they were
surrounded.
It is easy to imagine that the clergy were not
slow to avail themselves of the growing unpopularity
of the Hebrew race. The pulpits resounded with
denunciations and menaces, laws of repression
succeeded each other, and every inducement to
conversion was offered. Sons of converted Jews
were sure of promotion in the Church, then the great
highway to all distinction and honour, and inherit-
ance was by special enactments diverted from those
who remained steadfast to their ancestral faith, for
the benefit of such relatives as adopted the Christian
tenets. Occasional outbursts, resulting in pillage
and bloodshed, occurred from time to time, from
the beginning of the fourteenth century. These
hostile demonstrations, which it required all the
force of the law to repress, became more violent
 and the Inquisition.

in intensity, and of more constant recurrence, until

they terminated in the final catastrophe of the

expulsion.
In 1321 was organised a savage persecution in
the South of France, under the name of the War of
the Shepherds, which, spreading into Northern
Spain, was only put down after much bloodshed by
James II., of Aragon, chiefly by the arms of the

Jews themselves. Soon after this that fearful pesti-

lence called the Black Death, spreading from Asia,
desolated every country throughout Europe, and the

origin of the plague, being inscrutable, was assigned

to the Jews, who, although as great sufferers as
the rest of the community, were accused of having

poisoned the wells. Nevertheless, the wealth and

intelligence of the Hebrews in the Peninsula were

so indispensable that they continued to enjoy the

highest places in the State, which still protected

their worship and legalised the profession of their
faith.

Under Alphonso XI. (1312-1350) and his son

Pedro, surnamed the Cruel (1350-1369), the Jews
njoyed great favour, and by the latter, Don Samuel
Levi Abulafia was placed at the head of the finances
and, surrounded by a number of subordinates of his
own religion, faithfully performed the duties of his
1
4 The yews of Spain and Portiigal,

trust. This officer was permitted to build, at liis

own expense, the sumptuous synagogue at Toledo,

now the church of Nuestra Senora del Transito,
which still gives evidence no less of his munificence
than of his consummate taste. After having lived
in a state of unexampled magnificence, he at length
fell a victim to the envy which his ostentation and

pride had excited, and died in prison and under

torture in 1360.
Even Don Henry of Trastamare, who violently
wrested the sceptre from his half-brother Don Pedro,
found himself obliged to confide many of the highest
places of the crown to Jewish hands, and in the
neighbouring country, Portugal, the Jews were at
the very zenith of their power.
The greater, however, were the worldly fortunes
of the Hebrews, the more determined were the clergy
upon their fall, and finding that they could make

but little impression on the governing classes, they

allied themselves with the populace, on whose pre-

judices and superstitions it was by no means a diffi-

cult task to work. The denunciations from the
pulpit grew more frequent and more heated, the
populace became inflamed, and the Jewish quarters
forthwith presented scenes of havoc and bloodshed.
No accusation could be too absurd or too improbable
 and the Inquisition. 1
5

to obtain credence : at one time it was that the Jews

had blasphemed by cutting in pieces the Host, or
consecrated Wafer, when the blood was seen to issue
from and pour down the streets ; at another, it
it,

was asserted that they had betrayed mocking gestures

while a religious procession was passing ;
whilst the
most frequent and horrible accusation was, that they
had stolen and murdered a Christian child for the
purpose of celebrating their paschal rites. In con-

sequence of all these allegations the sumptuary laws

were again insisted on, obsolete edicts of restriction,
dating from the period of the Gothic kings, were
brought to and the Jews were kept in a con-
light,
stant state of terror, which made their lives a burden
and a continual dread. It must be owned that
among the Jews themselves a state of demoralisation
had set in, and though the tales invented against

them were no less improbable than impossible, it

has been shown that their intense devotion to the

pursuit of worldly gain had induced habits of osten-

tation, and much lowered their moral and intellectual

status since the days of Maimonides, and of the

scholars of Cordova and Seville. With the exception
of medicine, of which the Jews held almost a mo-
nopoly for many centuries, and in which they were
so distinguished that, amid the most violent perse-
 1 6 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

cutioiis, there was hardly a great personage of Church

or State who did not employ the services of a Jewish

physician, pure science was no longer cultivated.

Philosophy and legitimate Hebrew literature had

given place to the abstruse and often absurd mysti-
cism of the Cabbala, and to the mazy subtleties of
the Sohar and poetry, no longer aspiring to the
;

loftiest conceptions, and the greatest elegance, aimed

chiefly at clever conceits, in which alliterations and
acrostics seemed the highest end. Moreover, nume-
rous men of worldly mind, seeing the horizon of their
ambition limited by their religious profession, passed
over to the dominant creed, generally entering the
clerical career as the readiestroad to preferment,
and frequently becoming among the most hostile
adversaries of their brethren in race. These men,
armed with their previous knowledge of Judaism
and of Hebrew lore, were employed to refute their
former associates by means of their own weapons,
and wove specious subtleties to prove that the

dogmas of the Catholic Church were established no

less by the Hebrew scriptures than by the Talmud
itself. Towards the end of the fourteenth century
it became the custom to hold religious disputations
between the clergy (generally converted Jews) and
the Rabbis, and, as is usual in such cases, neither
 and the Inquisition. 1 7

side being convinced, the doubtful palm was always

1

accorded to the stronger party, and the Jews were

further stigmatised as obstinate adherents to a
1
proven fallacy.
The storm which was to culminate in the final

expulsion of the Jews from the Peninsula was silently

but surely gathering. Early in 1391 a fanatical
archdeacon, named Martinez, fulminated a most
tremendous diatribe against the Israelites in the
public square in Seville
;
the populace, goaded to

phrensy, rushed on the Jews' quarter, destroying,

pillaging, and massacring in every direction, and

when at last, by means of the strong arm of the law,
the fury of the marauders was stayed, it was found
that no less than 4,000 Jews had fallen victims in
this barbarous onslaught. Hardly three months
later the same horrid scenes were repeated, and this
time with far more fearful results. The slaughter
was about equally enormous; many succeeded in
effecting their escape, whilst numbers were sold
into slavery to the Moors, and multitudes sought

safety by submitting to be baptised, so that of the

1
It is said that these disputations were the cause which led
the Jews to adopt the Christian mode of dividing the text of the
Hebrew Scriptures into chapters and verses, for the purpose of
reference, there being no such division in the original text.
1 8 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

30,000 Jewish inhabitants of Seville hardly any

remained.
These terrible atrocities were repeated in numerous
other towns throughout Spain in Cordova, Burgos,

Logrono, Barcelona, Gerona, the Island of Majorca,

&c. In Gerona the B-abbis assumed a firm attitude,
and counselled their brethren rather to abandon life
than their ancestral faith ;
in many places the congre-
gations were fearfully reduced, and in others utterly
rooted out. Numbers of Jews migrated into Por-

tugal, where still for two or three generations they

enjoyed rest and full toleration, while others sought

refuge in the Moorish kingdom of Granada, where
liberty of conscience existed to a great degree ; but

many more ostensibly embraced Christianity, seeking

under the shadow of the cross that protection for

life, family, and possessions which as Jews could no

longer be theirs. The precedent of persons who

under violent persecution had outwardly simulated
a change of religion, whilst privately following out
their own faith, their belief in which remained un-
changed, was by no means wanting in the Peninsula.
At various periods numbers of Mohammedans had
outwardly professed themselves Christians, returning
to their own faith when the storm of persecution
had passed, and in like manner Christians had often
 and the Inquisition. 19

in appearance temporarily embraced Islam to tide

over a period of fanaticism, whilst from time to time
Jews had been forced on an emergency to put on the
garb of either of the dominant creeds, without in any
way giving up their inward convictions. Even the
great Maimonides himself is said to have been com-
pelled, while wandering in Morocco, to assume, with
the rest of his family, the externals of Mohamme-
danism. His father had removed with his children
to Fez, it is thought for the purpose of strengthening

his afflicted brethren in their wavering constancy,

the Moorish Jews being, at that time, subjected to a

most galling persecution. At a later period, when
the great philosopher was assailed for his conduct
on this occasion, he thought fit to publish a state-

ment, less as own action, than as

a vindication of his
a guide to other Jews, who might find themselves
overwhelmed by a sudden persecution without having
the means of escape. The whole story of Maimo-
nides's simulation of Islamism is, however, entirely
denied by many eminent Jewish writers, and by such
the 'Iggereth-ha-Shemad,' or Letter on Apostasy, is
considered as a spurious document.
Thus at this crisis arose groups of pseudo-con-

verts, whose number, at first limited, became larger

by every new outburst of persecution, till, in the

c 2
2O The yews of Spain and Portugal,

early part of the fifteenth century, they were esti-

mated at no less than 200,000. These ostensibly
converted Jews were called by their brethren in race
'
Anusim,' or '
Forced,' and by the Christians
'
Cristianos Nuevos,' or '
New Christians,' whilst
the populace branded them with the name of Ma- '

rannos,' a word of uncertain derivation, probably a

' '
corruption of Maranatha,' and signifying accursed.'
While things were in this state, towards the close
of the fourteenth and rise of the fifteenth century

appeared the Dominican monk Vincent Ferrer, after-

wards canonised for the result of his missionary
labours. This wild fanatic, with a crucifix in one

hand, and a scroll of the Law of Moses in the other,

thundered out his arguments against the Jewish re-

ligion, holding forth sometimes in the open market-

places,sometimes in the churches, and not unfre-

quently in the very synagogues themselves. His
phrensied ravings terrified the Jews to the verge of
madness, and wrought the populace into so excited
a state that his discourses were rarely over before
the Jews' quarter became a scene of havoc, and
multitudes of terror-stricken Hebrews begged for
the waters of baptism to save them from imminent
destruction. The conversions effected in this manner
were really very considerable, but such was the
 and the Inquisition. 2 1

miraculous power with, which, the Fray Vicente was

popularly endowed, that the wildest statements ob-

tained easy credence.He is by some reported to
have brought over no less than 35,000 Jews in
Salamanca alone, in one year (1411) ; and it is
seriously asserted that he effected 50,000 conversions

during the quarter of a century of his preaching.

But St. Vincent Ferrer was not the only adver-
sary to the Jews at this period. Another Domini-
can monk, Cardinal de Luna, assumed the Papal
Tiara, under the name of Benedict XIII., and al-

though he was never recognised as other than anti-

pope by the mass of Christendom, he was supported
in his pretensions by the kings of Aragon, and held
his court ingrand state at Tortosa in Catalonia from
1412 to 1417. In order to signalise his zeal, and to
insure the support of the clergy, Benedict was
violent in his hostility to the Jews. He and his

confidential physician, a converted Jew, Joshua

Lorqui, who had assumed at the font the name of
Geronimo de Santa Fe, and who was a profound
Talmudist, devised a grand disputation to be held
in Tortosa in 1413. Sixteen learned rabbis were
invited to argue on the tenets of Judaism, especially

coming of the Messiah, with Geron-

as regards the

imo, and some others, among whom was Andreas

22 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

Beltra9O, another converted Jew, and almoner to the

Pope, Benedict himself presiding over the conference.

The proceedings were opened in grand state, with

Pope and cardinals, and a vast assemblage of noble

and learned auditors, and no less than sixty-nine
sittings were extending over a period of
held,

eighteen months, Latin being the language employed.

The first meetings maintained a show of calmness
and dignity, but as time wore on, and it became
evident that the arguments on the one side made no

impression on the other, declamation and menace

assumed the place of reasoning, and the conference
broke up in the wildest disorder, it being finally
ruled that the Talmud was a mass of blasphemy and
heresy, which the Jews could no longer be permitted
to use. A string of papal Bulls, offensive and op-

pressive to the last degree to the Hebrew race, im-

mediately followed, and as a natural consequence a

further large number of pretended conversions took
place. At length in 1417 the great question of the
papacy was set at rest, Benedict XIII. was deposed,
deserted, and left to die in obscurity, and Martin V.,
a pontiff who appears to have been favourably in-

clined towards the Jews, was universally recognised

as the successor of St. Peter. But the harmful
influences thus powerfully set in motion could not
 and the Inquisition. 23

be lulled to rest ; tlie Church teemed with converts

from Judaism, who sought to show their zeal by the

oppression of their former brethren. Among these

Paul de Sta. Maria, Bishop of Burgos, and his sons,
one of whom was Bishop of Cartagena, and Alfonso
de Espina, who became Rector of the University of

Salamanca, notably distinguished themselves, and

fanned the flame of persecution which the populace
were only too ready to keep alive.
While matters were in this threatening position

in Spain, alarming indications showed themselves in

the western kingdom of the Peninsula. In Portugal
the position of the Jews had hitherto been highly

favoured; as in Spain, they were liable to certain

which were not very rigorously enforced.
disabilities

They dwelt generally in separate quarters, and were

nominally subject to sumptuary laws as to apparel,
&c., but they were internally governed by their own

regulations, their counsels being presided over by

their Chief Eabbi, while frequently many of the

highest offices in the State were confided to members

of their body. The Chief Eabbi (Arrabi-M6r) was
always appointed directly by the Crown, and so
important was deemed the post that the filling-up of
a vacancy in the office, which occurred in 1384, gave
rise to a court intrigue, the effects of which exercised
24 The Jews of Spain and

a lasting influence over the destinies of the country,

and became the main cause of placing Don John of
Aviz on the throne of Portugal, and averting the
threatened fusion of that kingdom with Castile.
The wealth and position of the Jews, added to their
inordinate love of display and supercilious manners,
had long rendered them unpopular, and the recent
persecutions in Spain had tended to vastly increase
their number in the sister country, whilst the clergy

studiously favoured the growing aversion, which first

terribly exploded in Lisbon in December, 1449. The

outburst appears to have originated in a street riot,

in which several Jews were insulted and maltreated,

and on their offering resistance the mass of the

populace precipitated itself on the Jews' quarter,

'
crying out : Murder them, pillage them
'
Acting!

in the spirit of their words, the rabble ransacked the

whole district ; many Jews were killed, and more
were wounded, and it was only through the efforts
of the military, and by the personal intervention of
the king (Alfonso V.), who hurried to the capital,
that order was at length restored. The condition of
the Jews in Portugal was visibly growing worse, yet
for more than forty years no open outburst of perse-

cution is recorded, and many high offices still con-

tinued to be confided to them. The brothers Ibn
 and the Inquisition. 25

Jachia, who belonged to a long line of counsellors

and physicians, still maintained those charges at the
court of Alfonso V. Abraham de Beja and Joseph
Zapateiro were commissioned to accompany the
voyage of discovery to the East Indies; and the
names of other Hebrews are also found in prominent
places. Moreover, though the Jews of Portugal
hardly attained as high a position in learning as
their brethren in Spain, Hebrew literature was

largely cultivated, and in the reign of John II.,

Hebrew printing was introduced into Portugal, and

continued up to the year of the expulsion, exhibiting
a very great perfection. But the man who shed the

greatest lustre over the declining period of the Jews

in the Peninsula was Don Isaac Abravanel (b. 1437,
d. 1509), of a family which, descended from the
royal house of David and lately immigrated from
Spain, had already through several generations dis-
tinguished itself by its attainments, and was destined
to enjoy in other lands an honourable succession for

nearly a couple of centuries. This great man was

for many years Minister of Finance, and confidential
counsellor of the king. Endowed with wonderful
mental abilities, and with a determination to achieve
greatness, giftedby nature with a remarkable power
of acquiring influence over other men, and with a
26 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

rare desire to benefit others through his own advan-

tages, Abravanel became no less the friend and
adviser of his sovereign than of those royal and noble
personages who formed the Court, avoiding with the
rarest tact those difficulties and jealousies to which
his exalted position rendered him eminently liable.
Possessed of large wealth, he was munificent in acts
of charity, a notable instance of which occurred on
the taking of Arzila, a port on the African coast,

by the Portuguese, on which occasion 250 Jewish

captives were sold into slavery. Abravanel sub-
scribed largely to purchase the freedom of these
unfortunate persons, and collected from his wealthier

brethren, both in Portugal and in other lands, suffi-

cient funds not only to place them in liberty, but

also to provide for their future necessities.

Deeply
imbued with the love of Hebrew he gave
literature,

up his hard-earned leisure to serious studies, and

commenced amid the cares of business and the toils
of State a learned commentary on the law of Moses,
and other portions of the and several philo-
Bible,

sophical works, tasks which, carried on through all

the vicissitudes of his career, were only brought to a
close at a later period of his life, when exile gave

him comparative repose. At the death of his great

friend and protector, Alfonso Y., in 1481, and the

 and the Inquisition. 27

accession of his son John II., the whole of the

courtiers of the late king were disgraced, and Abra-
vanel with difficulty succeeded in eluding the pursuit
of the new sovereign, who confiscated the whole of
his vast estates. Reduced to poverty he managed
to escape into Spain, where he joined Don Abraham
Senior, the great farmer of taxes in Toledo, who
admitted him into his partnership, and thus enabled
him to re-construct his ruined fortune. He now
pursued his studies with unremitting zeal, termin-

ating some of his earlier works, and publishing some

very original and valuable commentaries on the
prophetical and historical books of the Bible. We
shall presently see how he nobly came forward to
endeavour to avert the doom of expulsion from his
brethren in Spain, foiled in which he fled to Naples,
where he was hospitably received by the King,
Ferdinand I. On the death of this sovereign Abra-
vanel accepted office under his son and successor
Alfonso II., and when that prince was shortly after-

wards forced, through the irruption of the French,

to abdicate in favour of his son, and to flee to Sicily,

he accompanied him thither. His family, however,

were dispersed in flight, and the infant child of his
eldest son Judah, himself a very distinguished man,
Avas kidnapped by the King of Portugal, and forcibly
28 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

brought up in the Christian faith. Alfonso died in

1495, when Isaac Abravanel fled to Corfu, whence he

afterwards returned to Monopoli, near Bari, and

finallybetook himself with the remnant of his family

to Venice, where he died in 1509. Meanwhile things

were tending to a crisis in Spain, where edict fol-

lowed edict, to embitter the lot of the Jews, and in
1474 Ferdinand and Isabella succeeded to the united
crowns of Aragon and Castile. The creation of so

important a monarchy inspired no less rulers than

subjects with the dominant desire to bring under
the same sceptre those provinces of southern Spain,

which, though tributary since 1244, were still

governed by the Mohammedan kings of Granada,

and thus subjecting the whole country to Christian
rule. The King was ambitious, unscrupulous and
avaricious to the last degree; the Queen, though

possessed of many womanly virtues, was superstitious,

and entirely in the hands of the priests, and both
entered warmly into the new crusade. At such a
juncture, when religious feeling was so excited, it was
not likely that the Hebrew race, as much an object
of aversion from the obstinacy with which it rejected

Christianity as of jealousy 011 account of the vast

wealth which had accumulated, would meet with
it

much toleration. The sect of New Christians had

 and the Inquisition. 29

been rapidly growing, and as it increased, the line of

'
demarcation between them and the ' Old Christians
had become more marked, so that it was now hard
and fixed, and as it became evident that the Christi-
anity of the neophytes was little more than a pre-
tence, their condition was but slightly improved by
their apparent conversion. It is true that the con-

verts ostensibly conformed to the tenets of the

Catholic faith, assuming fresh names, filling their
houses with crucifixes, images of saints, and other

symbols of Christianity, and regularly attending the

services of the Church ; but these new habits sat

uneasily on them. It is by no means difficult to

imagine that persons, brought up in a faith which

they were forced to abandon through fear or worldly
interest, would not in their hearts be very zealous
in theirattachment to the religion which they were
constrained to adopt. In secret they observed as

many of the practices of Judaism as they were able

to do without fear of discovery, studiously inculcating

Jewish notions into the minds of their children, and

endeavouring by every means in their power to keep

alive in their descendants the memory of the old

religion. Thus they led, as it were, lives of perpetual

deceit, and ill at ease within themselves, were ever

silently praying that their conformity to practices,

30 The Jeivs of Spain and Portugal,

which appeared to their mind but little less than

idolatry, might not be accounted to them as mortal
sin. It was therefore, in a great number of cases,

easy to obtain proofs that the New Christians were

by no means purified from their old errors and

superstitions, and thus their assumption of the
dominant them from the
faith did not long shield

violence of the populace. Hence we hear of perse-

cutions specially directed against the New Christians,
in Yalladolid, in 1470, in Cordova, in 1472, and so
on, during the next twenty years, in various other
towns.
The relations between the converts and their
former co-religionists appear to have been of the
most intimate nature ties of blood, and feeling,
:

and a strong bond of commercial interest, created a

powerful link between those Hebrews who had placed
themselves without the pale of Judaism, and those
who still remained within. The
appeared to
latter

recognise in the defection of the former the inevi-

table force of circumstances, and sought to aid the
'
c
Anusim by all means in their power, to keep up
the clandestine exercise of such rites of Judaism as

they still contrived to practise. Thus the Jews still

more drew upon themselves the animadversion of

the clergy, and gave rise to a future source of accu-
 and the Inquisition. 3 1

l
being guilty of Judaising/ for which
sation, that of

they were about to suffer in a terrible manner.

Matters were evidently growing to a climax ; and
the materials for the great act of state-policy, which
was to purge Spain from the stigma of Judaism, were
only awaiting some bold master-hand to combine
them and give them full force. Such soon arose in
the person of Fray Tomas de Torquemada, a Do-
minican monk, who had been confessor to the Queen
in her younger days, and who was possessed of an
iron will, joined to great mental power, and an un-

flinching pertinacity of purpose. For the carrying

out of his ideas, the creation of a great religious and
political engine, which would become their legal
embodiment, was absolutely necessary, and accord-
ingly he laboured with all the energy of his nature
to procure the establishment in Spain of the Court
of the Inquisition. This tribunal had originally
been devised to crush the heresy of the Albigenses
early in the thirteenth century, by Fray Domingo
de Guzman, better known, as St. Domenic, who ob-
tained from Pope Innocent III. (in 1212) the title of

Inquisitor-General. It first began its career in

Sicily,whence shortly extended to other states of

it

Italy, to Southern France, Catalonia, and afterwards

to Aragon, in which kingdom from time to time
32 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

heretics were given over to the flames. Castile and

Portugal were also to some degree under its in-
fluence, but as the heresies which called it forth no

longer could be said to exist, and the Church of

Rome held undisputed sway over Western Christen-

dom, the Inquisition, by the middle of the fifteenth

century, had become generally a languid institution,
and in most countries had already ceased to be.

It might easily have been thought that at the

period when the revival of letters, the invention of

printing,and the discovery of America gave a new

tone to human thought, and opened fresh avenues to

public and individual enterprise, this organisation

for diving into the minds of men and watching the
habits of their privacy, in order to guard against any

original speculation on matters of belief, would have

died out, scared away by the day-light of advancing
civilisation. Unfortunately, the very reverse oc-

curred, and the institution became re-organised and

intensified at the precise juncture when it might
naturally have been expected to become extinct. It

so happened that in 1477 Philip de Berberis, In-

quisitor of Sicily, which formed part of the dominions

of Ferdinand, came over to seek the confirmation of

a privilege accorded by the Emperor Frederic II., in

right of which one third of the possessions of con-

 and the Inquisition* 33

demned heretics became the property of the Inqui-

sition; and this iniquitous system having received
the royal sanction, it became evident how magnifi-
cent a prey would be ready to fall to a similar in-
stitution in Spain, could such but obtain a legal
establishment. Fray Alonso de Hojeda, prior of the
Dominican convent in Seville, and Nicholas Franco,
the papal nuncio, exerted all their energies to this

end, and succeeded in obtaining from Sixtus IV., in

1478, a Bull authorising Ferdinand and Isabella to
choose sundry archbishops, bishops, and other persons,
clerical and lay, for the purpose of conducting in-

vestigations in matters of faith, and proceeding

against and those who protected them.
heretics

Ferdinand entered readily into a scheme which pro-

mised such brilliant results to his cupidity ;
but the

Queen hesitated to sanction in Castile the establish-

ment of a tribunal which not only threatened pro-
ceedings of a most vexatious and cruel character,
but which was odious to the greater part of her

subjects, and disliked even by a large portion of the

clergy. It was at first sought to temporise ; Cardinal

Mendoza, Archbishop of Seville, published a special

catechism for the use of the New Christians, and
various other methods were adopted in order to avert
the threatened crisis, but the Dominicans were not
D
34 The yews of Spain and Portugal,

to be thwarted. Alonso de Hojeda, Fernando de

Talavera, confessor of the Queen, and afterwards
Archbishop of Granada, Diego de Merlo, Pedro de
Solis, and other priestly personages in favour at

Court, headed by Torquemada himself, whose in-

fluence was unbounded, never for a moment relaxed
their energies. They constantly represented to her
'
the wickedness of the evil seed of Israel,' the blas-

phemies they were ever uttering, the intrigues they

were ever weaving, and the impiety they were ever
practising under the veil and cover of their assumed
Christianity. Such arguments could not fail to

triumph in the end, when addressed to a weak and

superstitious woman like Isabella, and
September in

1480 she reluctantly and tremblingly affixed her

signature to the document which established the
Inquisition in her dominions. Soon afterwards Fray
Tomas de Torquemada was created Inquisitor-
General, the convent of St. Paul, to which was
shortly added the castle of Triana, in Seville, was
given up as the first seat of the Tribunal, and a field

adjoining was appointed as a Quemadero, or burning-

place for heretics, a spot marked by a square stone
pavement, with a colossal statue of a prophet at each
corner, and which retained its name down to the
commencement of the present century.
 and the Inquisition.

The opening of the year 1481 saw the installa-

tion, in its more extended and terrible form, of that

horrible court, which stands unequalled for acts of

atrocity perpetrated in the name of religion, and

which, under the pretext of purging Spain from

heresy and Judaism, gradually involved the whole
country in ruin, from which it has never been able
to recover. Since the Church claimed no jurisdic-
tion over acknowledged Mohammedans or Jews, and
since accusations of heresy and witchcraft were at
this period by no means frequent, the whole force of
this new and tremendous engine was directed against
the Marannos or New Christians. Frightened out
of their senses by this terrible apparition, vast num-
bers of these unfortunate people fled from Seville,

seeking refuge with the Duke of Medina Sidonia,

the Marquis of Cadiz, and other great nobles, whose
almost sovereign position in their various domains
was thought to be able to afford protection from the
impending storm. Hospitably received as they were,
their flight proved of no avail, for the first edict of
the new court was to summon all nobles, barons,
and feudatories to send back all the fugitives to
Seville within a fortnight, under pain of deprivation
of their titles and honours, and sequestration of their
estates. Within four days of the installation of the
D2
36 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

Inquisition took place the first auto-da-fe, or Act of

faith, when six persons perished in the flames. In
March, April, and November followed fresh human
sacrifices, to such an extent that, in the first year,

298 individuals were burned, and in the second, no

lessthan 2,000; besides which 17,000 persons were

subjected to do penance, involving either total or

partial loss of their property, and the disgrace of
themselves and their families.
The large scale of the proceedings of this second
year (1482) was no doubt induced by an artful snare,
devised by the Inquisitors to entrap the largest pos-
sible number of the This was the issuing
converts.

of an '
Act of Grace,' by which within thirty days all
those New Christians, who had been guilty of prac-
tices denoting a relapse into Judaism, were sum-
moned to come forward and declare themselves, and

holding out the assurance of full absolution, and the

preservation of their lives and property, to all such
as were contrite and promised amendment.
Numbers of the unfortunate Marannos were lured
by Edict of Grace,' and consequently the Tribu-
this '

nal became possessed of a register of the suspected,

which was indefinitely enlarged, as none who made
confession were allowed to depart until they had
given a list of all those'of their relations or acquaint-
 and the Inquisition, 37

ances who might possibly be guilty of a similar

relapse, a plan which afforded in many instances a
fruitful means of gratifying private malice and per-
sonal vindictiveness. The individuals thus named
*
were, on the expiration of the term of the Edict of
Grace,' ordered to present themselves within sir

days, and if they refused to comply, they were taken

by force from their houses and lodged in the dun-
geons of the Inquisition.
It is interesting to know what were considered
as proofs .of a relapse into Judaism. Thirty-seven
articles were drawn out, and the mention of a few
of them is sufficient to prove how frivolous and
absurd were the grounds, which sufficed to deprive
multitudes of unfortunate fellow-creatures of happi-

ness, property, and life. It was to be investigated

whether an individual had made a difference between

Saturday and other days, by laying a white cloth on
the table, or putting on a clean shirt, or better
clothes than on other days ; whether he had cut the
throat of a fowl in killing it for food, or had with-
drawn the sinew from an animal destroyed for the
same purpose whether he had eaten meat during
;

Lent, or on the Fasts prescribed by the Church, or

had abstained from food on the Jewish day of Atone-
ment, or other Hebrew Fasts, or had used baths, cut
38 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

his hair, or pared his nails on days preceding such

Fasts, or had eaten unleavened bread, or used certain

herbs in Passover, or procured green branches, or

made presents of fruit to friends at the time of the
l '
Feast of Tabernacles, or drunk Casher wine, (that

prepared for Jewish ceremonials,) or eaten meat

killedby Jews, or repeated certain Jewish blessings
on particular occasions, or recited the Psalms of
*
David without concluding with the words Glory be
to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy
'
Ghost ; whether any parent had given Hebrew names
to his children, or washed or shaved the head of a

child on the part on which the chrism of baptism

had been poured, or invited his friends and relations
to dine before leaving on a long journey, or whether
a dying man had turned his face to the wall, or had
it so turned by others, or a dead body had been
washed in warm water, or the water had been
emptied out from all vessels in the house of a deceased

person, together with a long catalogue of similar

enquiries.
Such were among the proofs of relapse from the
newly adopted faith into the errors of the old super-
stition. Sad indeed was the fate of those, of whom
it could be pretended that they cooked their stews
in oil instead of lard, and many Old Christians in
 and the Inquisition. 39

after times had to repent that their casual dislike to

pork or shell- fish had brought them under the

suspicion of being secret votaries of what it pleased
'
the Inquisitors to designate as the impious law of
Moses.'

By such means and by the agency of the machinery

which is about to be described, it is certainly not
surprising that the victims of the Inquisition were
no longer counted by hundreds, but by thousands,
and tens of thousands, especially as the tribunal
established in Seville was only the prototype of
numerous other similar courts instituted in all the

larger cities of Spain :

Toledo, Cordova, Ciudad
Real, Saragossa, Valencia, Barcelona, Madrid,
Salamanca, Valladolid, Segovia, and various other
places, all could boast of their courts of Inquisition,
their dungeons, and their Quemaderos, which,
established generally despite the most lively opposi-
tion of the inhabitants, grew to be regarded in after

times as fixed institutions.

In Aragon the creation of the New Tribunal was
so unpopular, that a plot was laid against the first

inquisitor in Saragossa, Don Pedro de

Arbues, who,
though he was made aware of the conspiracy, and
consequently wore armour beneath his clerical habit,
was smitten down and killed in the cathedral of that
4O The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

city in September, 1485. As is the usual result of

crimes of this description, a revulsion of feeling-

followed, with a persecution of the New Christians,

who were accused of having instigated the deed.
The Aragonese Inquisition became an accomplished
fact, and the slain Inquisitor at a later period received

the beatification of the Church.

It may easily be imagined how the new proceed-
ings inspired fear far and wide, when it is considered
that not only some hundreds of thousands of the

population were known to belong to the New Chris-

tians, but also that by intermarriage with the

converts vast numbers of the people, largely including
the highest nobility and clergy, were the descendants
of Jews, and were consequently amenable to the
proceedings of the dreaded tribunal. Many of the
more sober-minded Spaniards saw with horror the
extent to which this abuse of power was carried, and,

joining in a common protest, petitioned the Pope

for a curtailment of the functions of the new magi-
strates ;
the New Christians supported the petitioners
by the more forcible arguments of their gold, and
vast were the sums sacrificed to obtain Bulls for the

mitigation of the severity of the courts. In the first

instance the result was successful, and Sixtus IV. in

1482 issued a Bull blaming the indiscriminate zeal
 and the Inquisition. 41

of the Inquisition; but Ferdinand was inexorable,

and by means of lavish gifts he extorted from this
Pope, and his successors Innocent VIII. and Alex-
ander VI., fresh powers confirming the Tribunal in
the full exercise of its office.

Anxious to give a precise legal embodiment to

the institution, Torquemada and his associates drew

up an elaborate code of twenty-eight articles, or

constitutions, defining the duties and aims of the

Holy Court in the following manner. After an-

nouncing the establishment of the Inquisition in

Seville, and decreeing the institution of similar
courts in various towns throughout the country, the
Edict of Grace was set forth, inviting heretics and
Judaisers within thirty days to come to declare
themselves, and to denounce all others whom they
knew to follow similar practices. Those who volun-
tarily came forward and confessed within this term
were subjected to fines in money, and to the cere-
mony of a public absolution, which involved the
deprivation of titles and honours, and rendered the
absolved ineligible for all offices of public trust ;
a
e '
re-habilitation was, however, in some instances

procurable at the expense of a large portion of their

fortunes. No absolution was granted unless the
persons who claimed it not only penitently confessed
42 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

their transgressions, but also furnished a list of all

those whom they believed to be guilty of similar

relapses. Against all those who did not offer their
confession within the thirty days assigned, the entire
confiscation of their property was decreed. For this
purpose their possessions were assessed, not at the
date of their accusation, but at that of their assumed
committal of the crime of heresy, so that if they had
made them over to other hands, they were to be
restored to the Inquisition. Persons under twenty

years of age, who pleaded that they had been led

into error by their parents or guardians, were to do

penance by being condemned to wear during one or

two years the disgraceful garb of the Sarabenito, in
which they were to appear in all church ceremonials.
The Sambenito (or saco bendito), which we shall
often have occasion to mention, as figuring in acts
'
of penance and in acts of faith,' was a cloak of
coarse serge, which varied in form and in design at
different periods. The garment covered the whole
body, and was yellow in colour, with flames, demons,
serpents, and crosses painted on it in red, and arranged
according to the delinquency of the wearer. With
the sambenito was worn the ' coroza,' or high-pointed

cap, made of a like material, and covered with similar

devices, and generally bearing on its front a placard,

 and the Inquisition. 43

on which were written the name and offences of the

wearer.
Those who were committed to the dungeons of
the court with a view to their being handed over to
the secular arm, for capital punishment, as impeni-

tent,and who afterwards declared their repentance,

obtained the commutation of their sentence to im-

prisonment for life in the cells of the Inquisition.

Those who remained impenitent, or who relapsed
from their penitence or were supposed to have made
a feigned confession, were handed over to the secular
arm to be committed to the flames. Such as refused
to confess, or were suspected of having made only a
partial confession, were to be subjected to torture,
which was to be administered under the eyes of two
Inquisitors, or, where such could not attend, of their
appointed delegates, who were to conduct the inter-
rogations, and to take down the depositions of the
accused. In cases where such confessions were
afterwards retracted, as naturally often happened, a
fresh application of torture might be made, and
though this second infliction was at a later period

pronounced illegal, the effect was the same, since

'
the procedure was merely declared to be suspended,'
and the prisoner was subjected to its continuation at
a subsequent period. Those who, being accused,
44 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

were able to elude the officers of the tribunal, were

considered condemned bj default, and were deprived
of their property, and often burned in effigy. A
deceased person, against whom an act of heresy
could be proved at any period subsequent to 1479,
was condemned to have his body exhumed and

burned, and all the property he had left was to be

taken from those who had inherited it, provision

only being made in these, as in other cases of con-

fiscation, that children under age, who were thus

disinherited, should be brought up on some small
provision allowed by the State, and duly educated in
the Catholic faith. All inheritances derived from

persons who had incurred condemnation were de-

clared invalid and forfeited to the Crown. The Inqui-
sition claimed full jurisdiction over all seignorial
domains, as well as over the Crown lands, and was
free to form such establishments as it deemed neces-
sary throughout the whole country. Lastly followed
certain clauses concerning the discipline of the Inqui-
sitors themselves, adjuring them to live in peace with

each other, prohibiting them from receiving presents

or bribes, and enjoining that all disputes which might
occur between them were to be settled in secret

by the Inquisitor-General, without reference to the

bishop of the diocese or to the ecclesiastical courts.
 and the Inquisition. 45

Besides the foregoing, eleven additional acts were

promulgated relating to tlie internal government of

the tribunal, defining the duties of the Inquisitor-

General, of the various Inquisitors throughout the

provinces, of the registrars, secretaries, legal officers,
alguazils, and of the vast assemblage of subordinate
officers, who were afterwards known as the '
familiars
of the Holy Office.' Moreover, a resident at the
Court of Rome was appointed to represent the In-
quisition at the Papal See.
Such form the bases of the constitution of that
celebrated tribunal which was, for more than three
centuries, to place its iron hoof on the liberties of

the nation, crushing out all freedom of human

thought, and reducing the minds of men to one dead
level of stagnant uniformity. With so terrible an
engine invented specially for their destruction, it is
not wonderful that the New Christians should become

panic-stricken, and, leaving their homes in despair,

should seek refuge in other lands. Their former

Hebrew brethren in faith, trembling for their own
fate, liberally assisted them for this purpose, and
tens of thousands poured out of Spain, the greater

part flocking into Portugal, many into the still

Mohammedan kingdom of Granada, while others

sought a refuge in Italy, and even in Eome itself.

46 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

But since the year 1481 ,

Ferdinand and Isabella had
been strenuously prosecuting their campaign against
the Moors in the south, and at length, after more
than ten years of arduous struggle, the war ended in
the triumph of the Christian arms the Moorish ;

King, Abdallah or Boabdil, submitted, his capital,

Granada, surrendered, and by the opening of 1492
the Moslem rule in the Peninsula had disappeared
for ever, and Ferdinand and Isabella became undis-
puted monarchs of the whole of Spain.
While the sovereigns, elated with their recent
success, were still at Granada, surveying from the

Alhambra the crests of the snowy Sierra, with the

fertile Yega at its base, and the rich and vast terri-

tory which they had won, no less for themselves

than for Christendom, the Inquisitors brought to
bear on them all the sophistry of their arguments to

carry out at this favourable juncture the long con-

ceived and desired project of the expulsion of the
Jews from Spain. The plan was by no means with-
out a precedent; in 1290 Edward I. had, without

consulting parliament, banished the Jews from

England ;
in 1306 Philippe le Bel pronounced their

firstexpulsion from France, their final exile, after

having been recalled, being effected by Charles VI.
in 1394 ; they had been also expelled at various
 and the Inquisition. 47

periods from most of the states of Northern Italy,

and from Sicily, as also from various states of Ger-

many.
The Hebrew race, as has been seen, had very long
been an object of intense jealousy and superstitious
aversion in Spain, and probably the popular anti-

pathy, coupled with the anticipation of the speedy

reversion to themselves of the huge wealth of the

Jews, which it would be quite impossible that they

could carry away with them, acted as powerful in-
centives towards the consummation of the measure.

Torquemada, as may readily be supposed, was an

earnest supporter of the project ; his wrath had

always been rabid against the insincerity of the New

Christians, and the secret communications which

they maintained with the Jews had further incensed

him against the hated race. Moreover, he had re-
cently insisted on the deposition of two bishops, sons
of converted Jews, because they had refused to
authorise the bodies of their fathers to be taken
from their graves, upon a demand which had been
made under the pretext that they had died in heresy.
He had attempted to compel the Rabbis of
also

Toledo to give up upon oath the names of all those

converts to Christianity who still practised Hebrew
rites, a demand which was boldly refused.
48 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

In order to prevent all connivance between the

Jews and the Converts, Torquemado made a firm
resolution never to cease from his efforts till he had

succeeded in the design of driving all the former

from the realm, a project in which he found but
little resistance from Ferdinand. That prince,
though mainly relying upon Jewish capital for the
prosecution of his wars against the Moors, had never
disguised his antipathy to the Hebrew race. On the

taking of Malaga in 1487 he had caused twelve New

Christians who had fled thither and resumed their
old faith to be transfixed with lances, and had sold
450 Jewish captives, mostly women, into slavery,
from which they were nobly ransomed by Don
Abraham Senior for the sum of 20,000 doblas of
gold. The assent of Isabella was less easy to obtain,
for she always evinced an under-current of feeling
which made her at first recoil from sanctioning acts

of cruel and oppressive persecution.

The force of bigotry and fear, and the distorted
reasoning of the Inquisitors, proved however too
strong for any sentiment of compassion, and on
March 31, 1492, went forth the fatal edict enjoining

that allnon-baptised Jews must quit the whole of

the Spanish dominions, including the islands of
Sicily and Sardinia, within the space of four months.
 and the Inquisition. 49

The proclamation was based entirely on the grounds

that the Jews were proved guilty by the Inquisitors
and others of perverting Christians to their own
belief, and spreading among them the knowledge

and practice of Jewish rites and ceremonies. It stated

that originally it had been contemplated to limit the
measure to the expulsion of the Jews from all the
citiesand places in Andalusia, but that it had been
found necessary to extend it to the whole country.

Despite the ordinances which had been passed for

preventing communication between Jews and Chris-
tians throughout the land, the former had continued

to use every means in their power to subvert the

holy Catholic faith by endeavouring to bring over
faithful Christians to the observances of the law of
Moses. Itwas thus deemed absolutely imperative,
after mature deliberation, to banish the Jews from
the whole kingdom, and accordingly they were all

ordered to depart, never to return, before the end of

the month of July in the current year, 1492. All
such as remained after that date incurred the penalty
of death, and of confiscation of their entire property
to the royal treasury. All persons, of whatever rank,
who harboured any Jew or Jewess after that date,

were to forfeit their estates or property. The edict

concluded by a promise of royal protection to the

E
5<D The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

Jews during the remaining four months, with per-

mission to travel in safety, and to sell, alienate, or
otherwise dispose of all their moveable or immoveable
property. They were also to be allowed to export

their wealth and substance either by sea or land,

with the exception of gold, silver, or other articles

prohibited by law.

It may be deemed highly creditable to the Jews

that the accusations brought against them were
strictly limited to their wishing to bring over
Christians to Judaism, a charge which could only
have been meant to apply to the New Christians,
who were in reality Jews themselves. The then
prevalent and favourite accusations that the Hebrews
were given to practices of usury and false dealing,
that they had abducted and crucified Christian
had desecrated the Host, or had poisoned
children,

large numbers of the population in the course of

their extensive medical practice, might, not un-
naturally, have been expected to find a place in the
document ;
to none of these subjects, however, was
the slightest allusion made, although the Inquisitors
were industrious in circulating all these charges in

justification of the measure.

This remarkable and final edict, although it

might have been seen looming in the distance for

 and the Inqidsition. 5 1

many years, fell like a thunder-bolt on the Jews.

To be forced to quit the soil which their ancestors
had inhabited for so many centuries, which they
loved as no other land had been loved by Israelites
since the destruction of Jerusalem, to abandon those
many relatives, who though they had nominally
quitted their faith, still remained Jews in feeling,
and who were now to be handed over to a ruthless

persecution, to exchange the wealth which they had

so long enjoyed for poverty and exile, was too bitter

a thought for endurance. Great was the interest

used, and vast were the efforts made to avert the
fatal decree. The Jews offered to submit to any
terms, and to sacrifice any amount of treasure, merely
to be permitted to remain on Spanish soil.

At this crisis thatgrand and remarkable charac-

ter, Don Isaac Abravanel, who, as we have seen, had

long been established at Toledo, stepped boldly

forward, and accompanied by some of the more
notable of his co-religionists, threw himself at the
feet of the King and Queen, offering to raise 300,000
ducats, provided the degree were revoked. It is

stated that the arguments he used were so cogent,

that the royal pair were on the point of consenting,
when Torquemada rushed into the royal presence
with a crucifix in his hand, and thrusting it before
B2
52 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

c
the sovereigns, exclaimed : Judas Iscariot sold his
master for thirty pieces of silver ; you wish to sell

him for 300,000 ducats ;

here he is, take him and
sell him.' This concluded the argument ; the fate
of the Spanish Jews was now irrevocably sealed. In

proportion as the day of their departure drew near,

and the means of realisation became more difficult,

their anxiety to dispose of their worldly goods grew

greater ;
valuable plots of land were sold for a few

pieces of cloth, fine houses were exchanged for a

couple of mules, and in many cases the riches of the

Israelites melted away into those few articles, which

they could carry with them, and the beasts, which
were to transport them. Moreover, the convents and
public institutions, the nobles, and persons of every
class, were largely indebted to the Jews, and as no

provision was made for the collection of the debts

becoming due to them after the date of their en-

forced departure, their losses from this source were
almost incalculable, and the gain to the debtors was
of course proportionately enormous. Despite the

edict, saddles and furniture were

stuffed full of gold

pieces, while such as could succeed in transmuting

their money into bills of exchange, which were not

then very general in Spain, did so on any terms,

however ruinous.
 and the Inquisition. 53

Sad and harrowing were the scenes presented in

In most com-
these last days of sojourn in Spain.
munities visits were paid by the Jews to the tombs
of their ancestors, to which they bade a long fare-
well. In Plasencia the Jews made over to the city
their cemetery and a considerable tract of adjoining

land, under condition that their burial-ground should

never be built over ; in Yitoria a similar compact
was arranged, and in Segovia amid tears and lamen-
tations they removed many of the tomb-stones of

their fathers, and carried them with them in their

long wanderings. During the whole of that sad
month of July were to be seen, along the high-roads

of Spain, the long files of the Hebrew people, down-

cast and sorrowful, some in the decrepitude of age,

others in the tenderness of youth, the sick, and the

halt, the infirm and the weak, included in the com-

mon fate. The outcasts wended their weary way
under a scorching sun, toiling over the arid, dusty

plains, and the rugged mountains, and through the

rocky which characterise the Peninsula, con-

defiles

veying with them the scrolls of their holy law, and

the few remnants of their wrecked fortunes, and

frequently casting a lingering look back towards

those dear homes which they were never to see

again. The mocking gestures of the peasantry and

54 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

townsmen, as they passed along, the contempt and

scorn which they met with on every side, made these

melancholy processions still more painful, and at

length by the first days of August the exodus was
completed, and the doom was fulfilled. By a strange
coincidence the 2nd of August 1492 upon the
fell

9th Ab, 5252, A.M., and this anniversary of the

destruction of the first and of the second temples,
and of so many troubles to the House of Israel, had
never recurred before with such sad reality as on
the present occasion. The number of Jews who thus

quitted Spain has never been ascertained ; Mariana

puts it as high as 800,000, whilst some other his-

torians estimate it as low as 160,000 ; so that taking

a middle course we may probably assume it to have

been little short of 400,000.
The fate of the exiles was varied in the different

lands where they sought refuge. Those who escaped

to Morocco and Algiers found an inhospitable re-

ception ; many were sold into slavery, some starved

to death, whilst others were ripped open in the

hopes of finding gold pieces in their bodies, and a

few preferred to return to Spain and receive baptism,
a fate which was forced on some others, who were
wrecked on the Spanish coast. In Turkey they were
well received, and Sultan Bajazet is said to have
 and the Inqiiisition. 55

remarked: 'A politic king, indeed, must be this

Don Fernando, who impoverishes his kingdom to
enrich our own.' In Italy, though Genoa would
only allow them to remain three days, they found
in most states permission to abide, and in some, as
in Naples, they received a hearty welcome ; into

Navarre some few were admitted, but only to await

in a couple of years an entire expulsion with the rest

of their brethren. The major part emigrated to

Portugal, the aged and noble Kabbi and great Tal-

mudist, Isaac Aboab of Toledo, having obtained,

despite much opposition, the permission of King

John II. to their entering the country, though only
in consideration of each
immigrant paying a capi-
tation-tax, and on the understanding that within
eight months they should leave the country, for
which purpose proper ships should be provided by
the government at moderate rates of passage-money.

Indeed, it appears that the Portuguese Jews them-

selves were alarmed at this enormous immigration
of their brethren. Their own position was at this

period by no means assured, and so sudden an in-

crease of their number, composed of persons mostly
in distressed circumstances, was naturally calculated
to create the most anxious misgivings. Nevertheless,
it is stated (though there are great discrepancies as
56 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

to numbers), that nearly 150,000 of those expelled

from Spain availed themselves of this temporary
refuge.
A remarkable fact connected with this expul-
sionwas the firm attitude of the Rabbis, who every-
where counselled steadfastness and resignation;
people bowed down by suffering passively submitted
doom, and thus, though some few Jews, and
to their

among them Abraham Senior and his son, preferred

conversion to banishment, the total number who
rather submitted to baptism than to exile was quite

insignificant. The fires and terrors of the Inqui-

sition had already proved that conversion
sufficiently
afforded but slight guarantee for safety, and that
New Christians were but little more free from perse-
cution than had been those who had not abandoned
the faith of their fathers.
Thus was Spain deprived of her large Jewish
population ;
the synagogues were purified and used
as Christian churches ;
the vast sums of money which
were owed to the Jews, and the still larger amounts
which they were forced to leave behind them, found
their way partly into the hands of their debtors, or

still more into those of the sovereign ; the chief

professors of medicine were sent out of the country,

to the terrible inconvenience of the population, and
 and the Inquisition. 57

trade and industry languished till they almost died

out.

Unfortunately at the time of the expulsion the

plague was raging in Castile, and the fugitives
brought with them the disease, propagating it
wherever they went, and not unnaturally causing
their advent to be viewed with loathing and horror.

This circumstance induced King John to hasten

their departure from Portugal, for which purpose

ships were duly provided according to the agreement,
but such was the temper of the captains and sailors,
that they subjected the Jews to the hardest possible
conditions ; they plundered them of their goods and
valuables even to their very clothes, and landed them
naked and bare of everything on barren points of
the African coast, leaving them to die of starvation
or to be sold into slavery to the Moors. Nor was
this all the King wrested from their parents all
:

children between the ages of three and ten of those

Jewish immigrants who from poverty or otherwise
had omitted to pay the capitation-tax on entering,
orwho were forced to remain in Portugal, and had
them transported to the newly discovered Islands of
St. Thomas, which then swarmed with alligators and
other beasts of prey, to be brought up as Christians.
Six hundred of the richest families of the Spanish
58 TJie Jews of Spain and Portugal,

Jews, .however, had by a separate transaction pro-

cured for themselves the right of remaining in Por-

tugal,on payment of 60,000 gold cousados, and a

few useful mechanics were also exempted from the
action of the general decree.
These painful proceedings on the part of the King
of Portugal lead us to consider the state of the

indigenous Jewish population in that country. We

have seen the high' position which they had occupied
for many centuries how they had held charge of the
;

greatest trust; how they had farmed the revenues

of both Church and State, in the exercise of which

office,though bringing on themselves the animadver-

sion of the populace, they had been found to be more
liberal than Christian collectors, and how until 1449

few or no attempts at persecution had been made.

As has been related, Alfonso V., who reigned from
1438 to 1481, and who was principally engaged in his
African campaigns, employed many Jews in places
of high trust, and was generally favourable to them.

It is true that during the latter part of this reign,

and in the succeeding one, jealousy and bigotry were
steadily growing, that edicts had been passed con-
fining theJews more severely to their own quarters,
prohibiting them from having Christian servants,
from wearing silk or jewels, or using plate, or riding
 and the Inquisition. 59

on horses, edicts which must have been especially

galling to persons used to a splendid mode of life,

and fond to excess of display, but for all this, they

were tolerated. Their worship and observances

were recognised by the law, and beyond the privileges
largely conceded to converts, one of which, highly
immoral in its tendency, was, that any child of
Jewish parents, who became a Christian in their life-
time, was to take immediate inheritance, as though
the parents were already dead, their religion was
not interfered with.
Alfonso's successor, John II., notwithstanding
his barbarous treatment of the unfortunate Jewish

fugitives from Spain, firmly resisted the introduction

of the Inquisition, neither was he disposed to expel a

population, whose wealth and intelligence were

eminently useful ; but the horrible cruelties he had

perpetrated, and the persecuting spirit he had dis-

played, could not fail to have a fearful influence on

the minds of the people in regard to the native Jews
of Portugal. The bitterness of feeling which had
been growing for many generations was gathering to
a climax, when in 1495 Don John died, and his only

legitimate son, Don Alfonso, having been killed by

a fall from his horse four years before, his cousin,
Don Manoel, ascended the throne.
60 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

This prince, whose success in his various enter-

prises and discoveries won for him the appellation of

'
the Fortunate,' commenced his reign by evincing
the most tolerant spirit. He revoked the oppressive
edicts of his predecessor, and restored the Jews to
the position they had held before, trusting rather to
obtain their conversion by mildness and mercy, than

by harshness and compulsion. The Hebrews sought

to show their gratitude by the offer of a large sum
of money, which the King refused to accept. A
learned astronomer, who in those days passed also
for an astrologer, by name Abraham Qacuto, was
consulted by Don Manoel on every great occasion,
and other learned Jews enjoyed his protection and
support. This was however but a transient gleam
of sunshine, and the storm soon gathered more
darkly than before. Don Manoel had hardly been
a year on the throne when he sought the hand of
Donna Isabella, the young widow of the late crown-

prince Alfonso, and the eldest daughter of Ferdinand

and Isabella. Whether he was smitten by the charms
of the princess, or whether the alliance with her

opened out to his ambition the vista of the eventual

union of the two crowns of Spain and Portugal on
his own head, and on that of his progeny, the
Catholic sovereigns having but one son, has never
 and the Inquisition. 61

been proved, but certain it is, he was excessively

ardent in his suit.

The princess inheriting to a marked degree the

bigotry of her parents, absolutely refused to listen
to the addresses of Don Manoel, unless that prince
consented to banish from his dominions Moham-
all

medans and Jews. With regard to the former, of

whom no very large number still remained in Portugal,
it was agreed that their forced conversion would
lead to reprisals on the many Christians who were

scattered through Moslem States, and therefore it

was decided to limit their penalties to expulsion,
every facility being granted for their leaving the
country ; whilst the Jews, who had no means what-
ever of recrimination, were to be dealt with according
to the pleasure of the sovereign. It was for many

months debated whether the elimination of so large

a number of the wealthiest and most industrious of

the population could be effected without causing a
national misfortune, and on the other hand the more
moderate among the clergy submitted that baptism
received under compulsion possessed no power of

salvation, and was therefore inoperative ; but the

King was deaf to all these arguments. In December

1496, Don Manoel issued a proclamation ordering
that all non-converted Jews should leave Portugal
62 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

within months under pain of confiscation of

ten

property, which was to fall to those who informed

against all such as should disobey. Those who
agreed to depart were to have powers afforded them
of collecting their debts, and realising their property;

they were also to have means of transport duly

provided. But this was not all in the following
;

April appeared another edict ordaining that all the

children under fourteen of those who had chosen
-exile rather than conversion, should be forcibly
taken from their parents, and being distributed

through the whole country, should be handed over

to persons, who should bring them up in the Christian
faith. This barbarous edict was to be carried out
at the approaching Feast of Passover, which all Jews
celebrate together in family groups.
The state of desperation and agony into which
the Jews were plunged is hardly to be imagined.
Multitudes of children were hidden away by their

parents, and many were concealed by the more

merciful among the Christians, but all these were

diligently sought out, dragged forth, and forced to

the font, while many instances occurred in which

maddened and mothers first destroyed their

fathers

offspring with their own hands, and then committed

suicide.
 and the Inquisition. 63

During the few months which remained to them,

the Jews tried every means in their power to soften

the heart of the King, and lastly finding all efforts

without avail, they sought to be allowed three points

from which they might make their exit, instead of
the one sole port, which had been allotted. After

dallying with them for some time, Don Manoel

informed them that only one place of departure could
be assigned, and that was Lisbon itself. More than
20,000 Jews under these circumstances assembled in
the capital, and were lodged in a vast barrack called
the Estaos, where every means of fair promise and
foul intimidation was employed to make them re-

nounce their faith. A fresh edict now went forth

that all children between fourteen and twenty should
also be taken from their parents and baptized, and
multitudes were dragged forcibly by their hair and

by their arms into the churches, and compelled to

receive the waters of baptism, together with new
names, being afterwards given over to those who
undertook to instruct them in the Catholic faith.
Next the parents themselves were seized, and were
offered to have their children restored to them, if

they would consent to be converted ; in case of their

refusal they were to be placed in confinement for

three days without food or drink. It is indeed

64 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

wonderful that any mortals could be proof against

so terrible and fiendish an ordeal ; yet to the glory
of the Hebrew race very many still remained un-
moved. Resistance was, however, not to be tolerated,
and it was therefore decreed that the same fate was
to be meted out to the adults and to the aged, as

had already been the portion of the younger members

of the race of Israel. Amid the most heart-rending
cries and the most determined resistance, men and
women in the flower of their days, or the decrepitude

of age, were dragged into the churches, and forcibly

baptized amid the mocking and exultation of an

excited populace. But seven or eight of the whole
number of those who maintained their constancy,

succeeded in eluding force, and managed to secure

a passage to the coast of Africa.
The Jews who were still scattered through other

parts of the country, seeing the fate of their brethren,

were forced to assume the garb of Christianity, many
seeking in a self-inflicted death the only refuge from
apostasy, and thus, nominally, was Judaism extin-
guished in Portugal, as it had been five years before

in Spain.

Amid these horrors and barbarities were cele-

brated the nuptials of Don Manoel and Donna Isabel,
but the union was of short duration ;
the princess
 and the Inquisition. 65

died in little more than a year, following to the

tomb her brother Don John, the only son of Ferdi-
nand and Isabella, and later on the King married
her sister Donna Maria. The wily monarch, who

by such absolute and ruthless acts had complied

with the conditions of the princess and her bigoted

parents, and had thus managed ostensibly to purge

the land from Judaism and Mohammedanism with-
out conceding the establishment of the Inquisition,

despite all the powerful interest which had been

brought to bear upon him to that end, now sought
by outward acts of conciliation and mildness to re-
concile the New Christians to the religion they had
been forced to adopt. Later in the year 1497 ap-
peared an edict by which the converts from Judaism
were shielded from persecution for the next twenty

years, during which time every means was to be

provided for instructing them in their new faith.

At the end of this period all difference between Old

and New Christians was to cease. Those then ac-
cused of Jewish practices were to be handed over to
the civil law, and if found guilty were to be punished
with the confiscation of their property, which was
to fall to the next Christian heir. The population,
however, were not to be satisfied with this mild
treatment of the Hebrew race, and the hatred they
F
66 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

bore to the converts was, if possible, more deadly

than that which they had manifested while they
openly remained Jews. Restriction followed restric-
tion, till the position of the New Christians became
so intolerable, that large numbers sought refuge,
after disposing of their worldly goods, by emigrating
to other lands ;
but to the great majority this course
was evidently impossible.
The Spanish monarchs continued to work vigo-
rously to induce their son-in-law to allow the intro-
duction of the Inquisition into his dominions ;
but
all they could obtain was a law which prohibited any
Spaniard from fixing his residence in Portugal, un-
less he could show that he had nut been guilty of

any offence against religion. This law, however,

was quite inoperative, and numbers of New Christians
from Spain, terrified by the proceedings of the In-
quisition, still continued to cross the frontier, adding
thereby to the popular outcry. In 1503 a famine,
and in 1504 a riot in the streets of Lisbon, gave rise

to outbursts of the rage of the populace, and in 1506

the plague further worked up the feelings of the

multitude. On Whitsunday of this year, whilst
the congregation were supplicating for a deliverance
from the scourge in one of the principal churches,
the reflection of light from a crystal covering the
 and the Inquisition. 67

Host above a crucifix caused the excited populace to

cry out,
e
A miracle, a miracle!' The effulgence
was evidently but the play of light, and one of those
present, unfortunately a New Christian, was heard to
observe that he could see nothing remarkable in the

appearance.
Those near him, hearing the observation, rushed
on the unfortunate man, killing him on the spot,
and burning his body on a pile heaped up in a mo-
ment in the public square. Soon the whole city was
in an uproar, and the air was rent with cries of
'
'
Heresy, heresy ! The populace seized hold of all

the New Christians they could find, indiscriminately

slaying among the number many Old Christians, who

Avere thought to have Jewish features, destroyed and

pillaged houses, and gave over the capital to scenes

of havoc and destruction. Men, women, and chil-

dren were dragged from the ch arches, where many

had sought refuge, and burnt alive in the public
streets, and it was only at the end of the third day,
when more than 3,000 persons had been sacrificed
to the popular fury, that the tardy intervention of
the law managed to secure a semblance of order.

Don Manoel, incensed at these rabid persecutions,

sought to reassure the New Christians by a fresh

edict, by which he granted them full equality before
F2
68 The Jezvs of Spain and Portugal,

the law, and extended their term for thoroughly-

instructing themselves in the tenets of the Christian

1

faith till the year 1526. It was furthermore or-

dained that all New Christians were at liberty to

leave the country if they pleased, whilst those who
had already quitted, were assured that they would
be unmolested if they chose to return.
During the remainder of this reign, which closed
in 1521, it does not appear that the converts suffered

any violent persecution, though the feeling towards

them but little improved. The new King, John III.
(1521-1557), was possessed with the most intense
hatred of the Jewish race ; nevertheless, urged by
the ministers of his father, he began his reign with
a semblance of toleration, and promised the New
Christians a prolongation of their time of sufferance
till 1534.
And now recommenced in earnest the intrigues for
the establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal. A
converted Jew, named Henriquez Nunez, surnamed,
*
from his orthodox Catholic practices, Firma-fe,*
wormed himself into the confidence of his former

brethren in faith, and making use of the secrets thus

treacherously obtained, conveyed to the King the

alarming fact that the greater part of the New
Christians were still entirely Jews at heart, and
 and the Inquisition. 69

bore but the outward semblance of their adopted

faith. He therefore strongly urged the institution
of the Tribunal, which in Spain had proved so emi-

nently useful in detecting and eradicating heresy.

This man was stabbed to death in 1524, a deed
which was visited with terrible consequences on the
New Christians. Neither the Pope nor the Portu-

guese clergy, nor even the mass of the people, viewed

with much satisfaction the institution of the Inqui-
sition but the Queen, a sister of Charles V., that
;

powerful monarch himself, and the Dominican

monks, were untiring in their efforts, and in De-
cember, 1531, Clement VII. issued a Bull for the
establishment of the Tribunal in Portugal. For ten
years, however, the matter was kept pending ; the
New Christians were naturally horror-stricken, and
vast sums of Jewish gold found their way to the

treasury of St. Peter, to endeavour to avert the

threatened doom. Among other means they main-
tained a secret envoy at Rome, a converted Jew
named Duarte da Paz, high in the confidence of the
King; but in 1539 this man, who only worked for
his personal interests, found it to his advantage to

denounce the proceedings of the New Christians to

Don John. happened, however, that Duarte had
It

incurred the suspicion of the Pope ; he was thrown

70 The yews of Spain and Portugal,

into prison, and on his liberation lie fled into Turkey,,

and there died as a Mohammedan.

Many were the plots and counter-plots, the Bulls
and Counter-Bulls, till at last, in 1541 ,
the Court of
the Inquisition began its terrible career in Lisbon,
and the first auto-da-fe was celebrated there in
October of that year. One final effort was made in
15 19 by the Jews to procure their readmission into

Spain, when on the accession of Charles V. (First, of

Spain) to the throne, an important deputation of
Marannos waited upon him in Flanders, and offered

the sum of 800,000 gold ducats, provided he would

grant them permission to return, with the free exer-
cise of their The monarch, who was at
religion.
the time hardly pressed for money, showed every

sign of yielding, but Cardinal Xirnenes, who after

the death of Deza, the successor of Torquemada,

had become Inquisitor-General, despatched an envoy
to Brussels, begging the Emperor to desist from a
transaction by which the interests of the faith were
to be bartered away for vile lucre.

Thus in the middle of the sixteenth century, the

golden age of modern art, the flourishing period of

newly-revived literature, when the rough habits, en-

gendered by constant turmoil and discord, were

giving place to milder manners, the awful spectre of
 and the Inqrisition. 7 1

the Inquisition became a living reality in the whole

breadth of the Peninsula, and throughout those enor-
mous colonies in America, in Africa, and in Asia,
which were subject to the crowns of Spain and Por-
tugal. There is little doubt that the recent birth of
Protestantism, which threatened to overwhelm the
whole of Roman Catholic Christendom, and which

gave so vast an amount of trouble to the Emperor

Charles Y. in his German and Flemish dominions,

strengthened the hold of the Inquisition in Spain,

and operated largely in procuring its establishment

in Portugal. As, however, the new doctrines found

but little favour in either country, the weight of its

terrors fell principally on the Jews, its machinery

being also often artfully adapted, so as to draw
within its meshes all individuals who were in any
degree deemed by the Holy Court to be obnoxious,
but whose position rendered them difficult to deal
with by any other process.
Even cardinals and bishops, and the princes and

princesses of the royal house, did not escape without

incurring the censure of the Tribunal, and the un-
fortunate Don Carlos, Philip II.'s only son then
was probably a victim to its machinations.
living,
Prominent political personages and ministers of
state were particularly amenable to the suspicion of
72 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

the Inquisition, and all those in authority, whom it

in any way desired to remove, were sure to fall into

its grasp, and to be crushed within its fearful fangs.

Thus became a gigantic engine no less politically

it

than socially, and assuming to control the religious

life of men, grew to be in reality the most vital, or

rather the most deadly organ of the State. The

press too was subjected to the control of the holy
office, and thus through the aid of the strictest cen-

sorship it stifled scientific investigation and original

thought, and made itself master of every avenue of
the human mind. The system of delation and secret
information was so subtle and so widely spread, that
no person, whatever might be his condition, or how-
ever orthodox might be his practice, was free from

incurring suspicion. The most elaborate method of

espionage was devised, children were encouraged to
reveal the private practices of their parents, servants
were invited to divu]ge the secrets of the closet,
workmen were enticed to denounce the procedure of
their employers, and the domesticity of the family
was unveiled by every possible artifice. Thus
mutual confidence between man and man was closed
up; reticence and deception took the place of
brotherly intercourse and good fellowship, and a
sullen reserve begotten by suspicion and fear reigned
 and the Inquisition. 73

through the whole of society, and in time assumed

the form of a national characteristic.
In order to extend the working of the Tribunal
over as wide a field as possible, anonymous declara-
tions were accepted as valid, and many were induced
to betray others in the hope of thereby avoiding

suspicion for themselves, while private enmity and

malice found no easier manner of gratification than

by handing over the enemy to the tender mercies of

the Holy Court. The suspected were seized without
notice, and dragged, often from their beds, from
their family circle, to be lodged in the dungeons of

the Inquisition. Family and friends were neither

allowed to know the charges preferred against the
prisoner, nor to hold any communication with him,

and thus wives frequently found themselves in a

moment condemned to widowhood, and children to

orphanage, without knowing the fate of the dear one

so ruthlessly snatched from their embrace. Long
years of anxiety and watchfulness, of painful expec-
tation and wearing uncertainty, tediously passed
away, and when such prisoners as obtained a pardon
came forth, and were restored to their families, their
sickened forms and emaciated frames long betokened
the treatment to which they had been subjected.

Moreover, through the remainder of their lives they

74 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

'
were ever afterwards zealously watched, as a re-
'
lapse was never forgiven.
The course of legal procedure was arranged in

such a manner as to leave it entirely in the power of

the judges to establish the guilt or innocence of the
' '
accused. Prisoners were to be admonished on
each of the first three days of their imprisonment,
and in urging them to confess, the Inquisition lost
no opportunity of asserting that voluntary penitents
would be mildly dealt with. As the accused were
never informed who were the parties who denounced
them, or what formed the leading points of accusa-
tion, it was rare that confessions either of innocence
or guilt proved satisfactory to the judges. If at the
end of these admonitions and examinations no satis-

factory result could be arrived at, a paper compiled

by the Inquisitors, and setting forth the nature of

the accusations, together with a number of other

crimes, of which the prisoner had never been really

accused, was handed to him, and an advocate from
among the legal officers of the court was, if desired,

placed at his disposal. As, however, the accused

could only communicate with his counsel in the

presence of the Inquisitors and the registrar, this

advantage proved entirely nugatory, and the prisoner
was remanded and committed anew to his cell, either
 and the Inquisition. 75

for a future interrogation, which might be delayed

for weeks, months, or, even as was often the case,
for years, or else in order to be
dragged forth again
to submit to torture,
by which means it was hoped
to bring forth more satisfactory confessions. To
such as yielded readily to the admonitions of the

Inquisitors, and, admitting the truth of the accusa-

tions against them, promised amendment for the

future, absolution was generally accorded, on con-

dition of performing penance.

This was of various degrees, according to the

offence, involving a longer or lesser term of im-

prisonment, at the end of which the absolved were

led forth from theirdungeons clad in the sambenito,
in which they were bound to stand at the doors of
certain churches, and exposed to the revilings of the

multitude. This process had to be repeated during

a given period, and sometimes for life, from Sunday
to Sunday, and on various festivals, and from time

to time they had to listen to sermons in which the

wickedness of their acts was portrayed in lively

colours, and every exhortation to repentance was

rehearsed.
The loss of their property was entailed on such
as were more deeply dyed with infidelity, while to
those who were more easily absolved a total or
76 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

partial restitution was conceded ;

but the adminis-
tration of the officials who were appointed to take

charge of the effects of prisoners, while undergoing

trial, was generally found to have ruined the estates,

and the less wealthy equally experienced that their
various industries had suffered, or had actually died
out. Thus the pardoned were returned to the world,
beggared in means of existence, and branded for
ever with the mark of heresy and infamy ; moreover,
the withering glance of the Inquisition, like the
* '
evil eye of oriental superstition, was in future

always directed towards them, and tales of relapse

were easily invented and fastened on to those who
had once owned themselves guilty of the crime of
having wavered in their belief.
The tribunals of the Inquisition were as a rule
installed in stately, though generally gloomy, palaces,
where the Inquisitors, their secretaries, registrars,
and familiars were lodged in a becoming manner.
These buildings contained audience-chambers, halls
for theexamination of prisoners and witnesses (who
were never allowed to be confronted together), and
also the prisons, which were of three kinds : the first
'
were denominated public,' and were intended for

such as, not having been guilty directly of crimes of

faith, were yet deemed legally amenable to the In-

 and the Inquisition. 77

' '
quisition ;
the second were called intermediary,
and were reserved for such, officers of the Holy Court
as had misconducted themselves ;
and the third were
' '
the secret cells, which formed the great bulk,
being reserved for those who were accused of breaches
of faith, and who had been condemned to incarcera-
tion for a term or for life.

These secret prisons were generally in the base-

ment of the building, deep below the soil, dimly
lighted, hardly ventilated, and reeking with filth,

which was but rarely removed sometimes the pri- ;

soner was solitary, sometimes four or five persons were

thrust into the same narrow cell, about eight feet by
six in size, where the fetid atmosphere, intense heat,
and close confinement frequently generated fevers.

Moreover, the food afforded to these unfortunate

captives was of the coarsest and most unwholesome
description; hard and mouldy bread and impure
water, of which one jar only a week was supplied for
all purposes, formed the staple of their diet, and
when on rare occasions more generous food was
allowed, it was frequently tainted, and hardly ever

really nourishing.
Thus lodged and thus fed the prisoner might
languish, neglected and forgotten, year after year,
and many were the instances in which a prolonged
78 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

incarceration, under these painful circumstances,

finished by depriving the captive of
his reason,

leaving him to end his days in the condition of a

brute. It was a frequent practice, when prisoners

were awaiting further interrogation, to send persons

into their cells under pretence of affording them

consolation, but in reality to entice them into con-

versation, and thus to worm

by means of un-
out,

guarded expressions, proofs which might lead to

their condemnation. Far away, in the remotest part
of the building, was the subterranean chamber where
torture was administered a large bare vault,

dimly lighted by lamps, and whose whole furniture

consisted of a crucifix hung on the wall, and the

grim apparatus of agony, under which the victim

^vas to writhe. It is neither profitable, nor desirable,
to dwell on the various modes of torture which the
demoniacal ingenuity of one portion of our species
has invented, in order to inflict suffering and agony
on another.
In various times and countries we hear of the
rack and the wheel, of thumb-screws, iron boots,
collars and girdles of inverted nails, metal stools
under which a slow was kindled, and similar
fire

atrocious engines, and as we gaze at these rusty

emblems of infernal cruelty in various museums and
 and the Inquisition. 79

collections, we shudder to think that men with minds

similar to our own could have devised such horrors.
It is, however, proper to enumerate three special
modes of which were, it is said, devised by
torture,
the Inquisition, and were certainly generally em-

ployed by it in addition to those instruments we have

mentioned above. One was that by which the
prisoner was drawn up by the hands by means of a
pulley, cords being tied round his wrists, and heavy

weights attached to his feet when near the ceiling

;

he was suddenly allowed to drop to within a few feet

of the by which awful shock his limbs were
floor,

dislocated. This process was often repeated two or

three times on the same individual. Another was
the placing of the prisoner in a horizontal position,
the middle of the body being slightly elevated above
the extremities, and resting on an iron bar, and the
head and being made fast by passing tight ropes
feet

round them ; while thus held his nostrils were

stopped, and his open mouth covered with a cloth,
on which water was allowed to fall from a height,
till it almost forced the cloth down his throat, when
itwas pulled out again, so as to allow respiration to
return, and then the same proceeding was gone

through over again. The third mode of torture was

the strapping of the prisoner on the ground with his
8o The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

feet, which had been greased with lard, turned to-

wards a roasting fire, in which position of agony he
might be kept for an hour.
'
These tortures were administered by familiars '

dressed in black, wearing mantles which covered

their faces, holes being left for the eyes and mouth.
Two Inquisitors were present to conduct the interro-
gation, and to take down the deposition of the
accused. As may readily be supposed, very few
could maintain their composure or their constancy

under such terrible inflictions ; maddened with agony

the sufferers confessed to the most improbable,
frequently impossible crimes, generally implicating
by their incoherent statements as well friends and
relations as many other persons whom they hardly
knew. The next day, or as soon as the prisoner was

sufficiently recovered, a copy of his confession was

presented to him for ratification, and notwithstanding

the falsity or absurdity of its various points, such
was the fear of a repetition, or as it was called,
f '
continuation of the torture, that it rarely happened
that the prisoner failed to confirm his depositions.
In those instances, where the accused recanted, the
further application of torture was, as a rule, successful
in wresting from him a full confirmation of all the

previous statements, and usually much additional

 and the Inquisition.

matter. In fact, courage and constancy availed

nothing, as, in the parlance of the Inquisitors, these
and impenitence,
virtues were qualified as obduracy

and those who displayed them were rewarded by

being immured for years or for life in horrible
dungeons, or were handed over to the secular arm,
an euphemistic expression, which signified that the
victims were to be sentenced to perish in the fires of
an auto-da-fe, the Holy Court being too merciful
itself to pronounce a sentence of death.
It is hardly remarkable that with so elaborate a
process to criminate the accused, and with so little

facility for establishing innocence, the instances of

complete acquittal were so rare as hardly ever to

occur, and it is reckoned that far less than one

prisoner in a thousand left the walls of the Inquisi-

tion entirely unscathed, so that it became a proverb,
1
A man may leave the Inquisition without being

burned, but he is sure to be singed.'

Those condemned to form part of an auto-da-fe
were kept imprisoned often for many years, till some
grand festival, such as a coronation or a royal marriage,
gave occasion for public rejoicing, when the grim
spectacle was exhibited to the multitude of the
faithful. An attempt must be made to describe this

proceeding in order to give an idea of its full

meaning.
82 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

About a month before the date appointed, generally

on a high festival, the announcement was made that
an auto-da-fe was fixed for a given date. The pro-
clamation was made in grand state by the Inquisitor-
General with his numerous staff, his proud standard
of scarlet and gold floating before him, and amid an

array of troops in gay uniforms, and of priests and

monks in varied habits, with heralds accompanied

by a long procession of saints, images, relics, and

crucifixes glittering with precious stones, parading
'
the city amid cries of ( Viva la fe '
the faith for
!

'
ever ! The interval between the proclamation and
the execution was occupied in erecting, in the prin-

cipal square or Plaza Mayor, the vast theatre for the

spectators and performers in the grand '

Fiesta,' as
it was called.

One of the most remarkable of these shows took

place in Madrid on Sunday, June 30, 1680, on the

occasion of the marriage of the almost demented

King, Charles II., then about twenty years of age,

with the Princess Marie Louise of Orleans, niece of
Louis XI V., the account of which, gathered from
various sources, by Kayserling and others, it may be

interesting to follow. An amphitheatre had been

constructed on the Plaza Mayor, with the box for the

King, Queen, and royal family on the one side, and

 and the Inquisition. 83

on the other a raised dais for the Inquisitor- General,

his superior officers, and the higher clergy. The

ministers and Court officials in gala uniforms, and
the various trade corporations in state dresses, with
a motley group of monks in their respective habits,

together with an overwhelming multitude of the

populace, all assembled in the imposing arena, amid
the pealing of bells and the chaunts of priests.
The ceremony began about six in the morning,
and by eight, theKing, Queen, Queen-mother, and
Court, the foreign ambassadors with numberless
ladies in Court dresses, and the innumerable digni-

taries of the State, had taken the places reserved for

them opposite the gallery of the Inquisitors, before

which floated the green cross, the banner of the
'

Holy office. The cry Viva la fe

'
burst forth from
!

myriads of throats, as the melancholy procession

was seen entering the arena. A hundred charcoal-
burners, clad in black, and armed with pikes and
helmets, came first, as was their prescriptive right,

they having furnished the wood for the sacrifice ;

then followed a number of Dominican monks, and
the Duke of Medina Celi, hereditary standard-bearer

of the Inquisition, with other friars and nobles

bearing banners and crosses. Thirty -four images of
life size, with their names inscribed in large letters,

G 2
84 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

and borne by the familiars of the Inquisition, repre-

sented those who had died in prison, or escaped by

flight; Dominican friars with coffins came next,

bearing the bones of those who had been convicted

of heresy after death, and then appeared fifty-four
men and women holding lighted tapers, and clad in
the sambenito and coroza, or high cap, almost all of
whom had been convicted of Judaising, but had
confessed and repented. Lastly followed eighteen
Jews and Jewesses, mostly persons of humble rank,
also wearing the sambenito and coroza, who were to

bear witness in the flames to their steadfastness to

the law of Israel. Most of them, haggard and worn
by long imprisonment, seemed languid and indifferent,
quite resigned to quit the world in which they had
suffered so intensely, but one beautiful girl about
seventeen, as she approached the royal stand, called
*
out, Noble queen, cannot your royal presence save
me from this ? I sucked in my religion with my
'
mother's milk ; must I now die for it ?

The young Queen's eyes filled with tears ; she hid

her face, and the sad procession passed on. High
Mass was then celebrated before a grand altar, which
had been erected for the purpose, with all the pomp
which was thought befitting to the occasion. At
noon the Inquisitor-General with a staff of his
 and tJte Inquisition. 85

officials passed over to the King, with the Gospels in

his hands, upon which he administered to Charles
the oaths that he would support the faith and the

Inquisition, and do all that lay in him to extirpate

heresy. Next followed a sermon from one of the

principal chaplains of the King, Fray Tomas Navarro.
The text of this lengthy lecture which lasted a couple
'
of hours was, Arise, Lord, and judge thy cause,'
and was the refrain of the whole composition,
this

which from beginning to end was one vast tissue of

abuse of the Hebrew people, and one long string of
curses supported by passages from Scripture violently
wrested from their context. He adjured the Jews
before him to acknowledge the wickedness of their
ways, and to accept the doctrines of salvation before
that last moment of life, which was so painfully

drawing near. After this the prisoners were brought

to the staging, which had been erected in the middle
of the arena ; each entered a sort of cage, and the
name of the individual, with the nature of the crimes
of which he or she was convicted, was read out in a
loud voice. The day was unusually sultry, but the

King sat out the fourteen hours without so much as

moving to take a mouthful of food.

Monks were continually hovering round the un-
fortunate Jews urging them to repent, and to acknow-
86 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

ledge their abominable heresy, but all in vain the :

harder the trial to which they were subjected, the

higher rose the heroism of these Hebrew men and

women, who were thus barbarously exposed like wild

beasts in the arena, when

separated by but a few
hours from the most painful death. At length the

long-delayed shadows of this summer's eve drew on,

the evening Angelus pealed forth in its impressive
were grandly chaunted, absolution was
tones, vespers

pronounced, and the Inquisitor leaving his throne

passed over to the King, when the fictitious ceremony

took place of handing over the prisoners to the secular

power, since the Church could not pronounce a ver-

dict of death. Then in the growing darkness was
organised the horrible procession to the Puerta
de Fuencarral, outside which was the Quemadero,
where the final scene was to take place. Those who
at the last moment confessed their penitence, had
the grace conceded to them of being strangled at the
foot of the pile ;
the bodies of such, the bones of the
dead heretics, and the effigies of the absent were
first deposited at the stake, and lastly the living

victims, men and women, mounted the pile with so

firm a step that the chroniclers were fain to ascribe

their courage to some diabolical charm, in order not

to be forced to own their admiration. The King
 and the Inquisition. 87

himself kindled with his own hand the fatal pile, and
soon the flames in which these noble beings perished
mounted towards heaven amid the deafening plaudits
of the multitude, and the whole city was lit up by
the lurid light, which represented so vividly, as it
was meant to represent, the flames of hell.
Those so-called penitents, who had life spared to
live a life -long torment, were forced to assist at the

which they were taken back

horrible spectacle, after

to their dungeons, which many of them were never

to leave again, whilst others in a few days were sent

off to the galleys.

Such were the scenes which with more or less

similar circumstances were enacted in every large

city in Spain, and Portugal, and in all the immense

colonies, and dependencies of the two crowns. Some-
times twice or thrice in a year, sometimes not for
several years together, depending much on the

personal character of the sovereign, and still more

on the greater or less degree of severity, which
marked the Inquisitor-General. The monarchs of
the Bourbon dynasty refused to be present at any

autos-da-fe, and though one was celebrated on the

accession of Philip V., in 1701, the King could not
be persuaded to witness it ;
from this time the exhi-
bition grew less frequent, and the last occasion on
88 The Jews of Spain and Portugal^

which a human being was burned alive in the name

of the faith was at Seville in 1781, and the victim
then was not a member of the Hebrew race.
In Portugal these human sacrifices did not sur-
vive so long, and although a grand auto-da-fe was
celebrated in Lisbon in 1705, on which occasion the

Archbishop of Cranganor delivered the voluminous

and vituperative sermon, to which David Nieto,
Chief Rabbi of the Jews in London, afterwards pub-
lished a reply, the close of this long series of trage-
dies was not far distant. This took place in October
1 739 ;
the last sacrifice was an illustrious one,
namely, Antonio Jose da Silva, a dramatic author of
much merit, who was born in Brazil, to which coun-
try, taken from the Portuguese by the Dutch, and
afterwards restored to the former, large numbers of
converted Jews had flocked, and had there resumed
their faith.
Antonio had been brought by his father, with the
rest of his family, to settle in Lisbon ; but it was

not long before both father and son incurred the sus-

picion of the Inquisition, from the censures of which,

however, they contrived to purge themselves. Da
Silva henceforward led a secluded and literary life,

enjoying the society of his young wife, and blessed

with a little daughter, whose second birthday he was
 and the Inqidsition. 89

celebrating, when the familiars of the Holy Office

pounced in upon the family circle, and hurried off

him and his wife and mother to the dungeons of the
Inquisition, upon the depositions of a negro maid-
servant. After two years of painful confinement,
and despite great interest exerted on his behalf, the
young author was condemned to the flames, his wife
and mother being sentenced to imprisonment as
penitents, the latter surviving her son's sacrifice but
1
three days.
As may easily be imagined, many of the New
1
The terrible earthquake of Lisbon, which happened on No-
vember 1st, 1755, and laid the greater part of the city in ruins,
spreading death and desolation everywhere, and destroying between
30,000 and 40,000 of the inhabitants, proved the means of saving a
considerable number of Jews from the jaws of the Inquisition.
The palace of the Holy Court was overthrown in the common ruin,
the walls of the prison house were violently split open, the gaolers
fled for their lives, and such of the captives as escaped the general

destruction, scared and horror-stricken, found themselves suddenly

and fearfully restored to freedom. Bare of everything, and only
possessed of the clothes they stood in, they lurked about among the
smouldering ruins till they found, amid the general horror and
consternation, a means of escape. Many of the New Christians
thus freed managed to communicate with their families, and hastily
collecting such valuables as were portable, and which were spared
from the wreck of the earthquake, sought refuge on board the
English and Dutch vessels in the harbour, meeting with a hospitable
reception, and securing a passage to more tolerant lands. The
Palace of the Inquisition in Lisbon seems never to have been
rebuilt on the same scale as before, and its site is now occupied by
the Great Theatre, in the Praza de Maria Segunda, commonly called
'
the Rocio.'
90 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

Christians who still remained attached to Judaism

sought, where possible, to effect their escape from
Spain and Portugal to happier countries. Those
who from force of circumstances, or from worldly

considerations, remained behind, endeavoured by a

public profession of Catholic orthodoxy, and the

secret practice of Jewish ceremonies, to temporise
between the loss of earthly possessions, or of life

itself, and the sacrifice of every consideration, which

their consciences held sacred. Many learned Jews

sought refuge in the various Courts of Italy, where

science and were specially cultivated. The
literature

distinguished family of the Usques were warmly re-

ceived by the Duke of Ferrara, under whose patron-

age Abraham Usque published his translation of the

Bible into Spanish a work which had become very

necessary, since the New Christians, being forced to

abandon the study of Hebrew, were gradually losing
all knowledge of the sacred language. Congregations
of Spanish Jews were planted in Florence, Venice,
and Leghorn, where their beautiful synagogue still
attests no less their devotion than their wealth. The

whole littoral of the Mediterranean, Morocco, Algiers,

Tripoli, Tunis, Egypt, Syria, and the Turkish Em-

pire, with the many islands of the Archipelago,
became seats of Jewish industry, and to this day
 and tlie Inquisition. 91

the Spanish language, full of antique forms, and

written in Hebrew characters, constitutes the ver-
nacular of hundreds of thousands of the descend-
ants of the exiles throughout the whole of these
countries.

Numbers found their way to the American colo-

nies, whither the Inquisition followed them, so that

they were forced to settle in the various territories

and islands acquired by the Dutch and the English,
where they openly re-assumed Judaism. A vast
number established themselves in Holland, where,
after its dearly-bought independence was established,
.a toleration, at first begrudged, was soon fully ac-
corded to them. Here they founded synagogues, the
first of which was opened in Amsterdam in 1598 ;

here too they established charitable institutions and

and here they flourished during the seven-
schools,
teenth and eighteenth centuries in a remarkable

degree. Some were allowed by Henry II. to settle

in Bordeaux, Bayonne, and other towns in the south

of France, and a few wandered into Hungary and
the German Empire, thus reuniting themselves with
the mass of their brethren, from whom they had for
so many centuries been severed, and who had from
time immemorial inhabited Central Europe, forming
in this manner a slender chain between the Sephar-
92 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

dim (Spanish Jews) of the East with those of Holland

and the West.
The Dutch Republic became a second Spain to
them, as Spain had been a second Judsea. Here the
fugitives, freed from the horrible incubus of the In-
quisition, threw off the hated garb of Catholicism,

assuming Hebrew names in addition to those high-

sounding family appellations with which they had
been endowed by the noble Spaniards, who had stood

sponsors for them at the font the Alvarezes, the de

Castros, the Mendozas, the de Souzas, the Aguilars,

the d'Almeidas, the de Laras, the da Silvas, &c., all

recalling the noblest names of Castilian and Lusi-

tanian chivalry. Here they at once sought to be

inducted into the practices and ceremonies of the

Jewish religion, which generations of disguise had
almost effaced from their recollection, and here they

diligently studied the Hebrew language, to which

they were entirely strangers.
Numbers of authors soon appeared, and a copious
flow of elegant literature, in verse and in prose,

chiefly bearing on religious subjects, generally in

Spanish, sometimes in Portuguese, and occasionally

in Hebrew, issued from the press. The Jews of
Holland were eminently successful in pursuits of

industry and commerce, by means of which large

 and the Inquisition. 93

fortunes were accumulated, and important families

were founded. The present splendid Portuguese
synagogue of Amsterdam, bearing testimony to the
importance of the congregation, was finished in 1660,
four years prior to which date Manasseh ben Israel
had obtained, from the Lord Protector, Cromwell, a
somewhat informal permission for Jews to re-enter
England, to which country many emigrated from
Holland before the close of the century. Congrega-
tions were also formed in Hamburg and in Copen-

hagen, and the Spanish Jews, bearing with them

their traditions, their industry and their wealth,

together with the courtly bearing and gentle lan-

guages of the Peninsula, became diffused through all

the leading centres of civilisation.

Among the many learned Jews who shone forth

brilliantly amid the revived lustre of their community

in Holland, one stands pre-eminent, namely, Baruch
de Espinoza, better known as Benedict Spinoza, who
was born in 1632, but whether in the Peninsula or
in Amsterdam is not fully proved. This bold and

profound philosopher, who had in early youth deeply

studied the Hebrew writings, soon found the circle
of Rabbinical reasoning too narrow for him, and
after perfecting himself in Latin, he threw the whole
force of his intellect into the rationalistic philosophy
94 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

of Descartes. Boldly announcing his deistical, or

rather pantheistical convictions, he entirely withdrew
from the practices of Judaism, and though not
adopting any other form of religion, he became so
estranged from the Jews, to whom, his philosophy
was eminently distasteful, that a public ' Herem or '

excommunication was fulminated against him from

the synagogue in 1656. Shunned by his own people,
he pursued his studies in retirement, maintaining
himself as an optician in the suburbs of Amsterdam,
whence he afterwards withdrew, first to Leyden, and
then to the Hague. His f Principles of Philosophy,'
in which he geometrically demonstrated the system
of Descartes, whilst opening out a new and original
field of metaphysics, aroused no less the wonder of

the learned than the animadversions of the orthodox

of every denomination. He afterwards published his

Treatise/ and
* '
Theologico-political Metaphysical
Meditations,' and shortly after his death appeared
his posthumous works, including the celebrated
f
treatise on Ethics, geometrically demonstrated.'

Throughout all his works Spinoza exhibited won-

derful depth of thought and close reasoning, but,
unfortunately, his propositions never lead up to any
result of practical utility, since he always chose as
the objects of his definitions those insoluble subjects,
 and the Inquisition. 95

which, are beyond all human comprehension the

Nature of the Deity, and the origin and destiny of
man. Though in active correspondence with most
of the greatest thinkers and many of the most illus-

he led a simple, obscure

trious personages of his day,

life. Never a strong man, and subjected to a moral

persecution of the most galling kind, Spinoza died
at the Hague in 1677, in the forty-sixth year of his

age.
Many other distinguished men might be men-
tioned, most of whose writings display much elegance
of style, and deep religious feeling, but we can hardly
find space to dwellupon them here. The material
substance of the Spanish Jews played a part in the

history of the times almost as important as their

mental superiority. Many of the most important
transactions of the age were worked out by means of
funds furnished by Jewish capitalists, and among the

undertakings so helped is to be included the expe-

dition of William of Orange, which placed him on
the British throne.
In conclusion we must cast a lingering regard on
those unfortunate Jews who still remained in the
Peninsula under the name of New Christians. The
Inquisition, as we have seen, continued its fell course,
and sat as a ghastly incubus on the thoughts and
g6 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

actions of men. The unhappy Marannos, outwardly

the most devout among the whole Catholic popula-
tion, continued to follow out in the depths of secrecy
the observances of the old faith, despite the excessive

peril with which this course was fraught. Informers

were so largely benefited by their delations, and sus-
picion was so easily aroused, that no man felt safe
from the detractions of the servants of his household,
from secret enemies, or from unguarded friends.
The utmost caution hardly secured the New Chris-
tians from the suspicion of showing signs of a ten-
dency towards Judaism. Their habits, dress, and

especially diet, were carefully noted down ;

their ab-

stention from or manner of performing any Catholic

rite, their conduct on Jewish sabbaths and festivals,
their very looks and gestures were diligently watched,
and often the slightest unintentional action was re-

ported on, and the grim familiars of the Holy Court

were heard knocking at the door, ready to carry off
their unsuspecting victim to its dungeons for months,
for years, perhaps for ever.

Thus passed on generation after generation of

secret Jews, mingling with every grade of society,

and filling every office of the State, and more espe-

cially of the Church, living in constant fear and

trembling, still steadfast at heart, and from time to

 and the Inquisition. 97

time yielding their steady tribute to the dungeon

and the stake. Partly from the aversion of the
'
people to mingle their blood with that of the ac-
cursed seed of Israel,' partly from the desire of the
Marannos themselves to keep alive the remembrance
of Judaism in their progeny, the New Christians

generally intermarried among each other but marry ;

were the occasions in which the bluest blood con-

descended to ally itself with heiresses of Hebrew

lineage, so that there were few among the noblest

families of Spainand Portugal who did not derive
descent from Jewish ancestors. To so great an
extent was this the case, that, when Joseph, King of

Portugal, asked his great Minister Pombal, in the

middle of the last century, whether he could not
devise a peculiar hat to be worn, as a distinguishing

mark, by the New Christians, to keep them separate

'
from persons of ' pure blood, the great statesman

brought three such bats to the king on the following

day, and when asked for whom they were intended,
he replied :
*
The one is for the Inquisitor-General,

another for myself, and the third for your Majesty,'

thus indicating tbat Jewish blood flowed in the veins
of all.

By means of constant emigration, however (and

in 1629 a law was passed in Portugal, allowing secret
H
98 The Jews of Spain and Portugal,

Jews to leave the country), by unrelenting persecu-

tion, by intermarriage, and by the natural conse-

quences of separation from the rest of their brethren,

the Jews assimilated more and more with the rest of
the population. All through the last century families
of New Christians, in groups or singly, continued to
find their way out of the Peninsula, and, after two
hundred and more years of disguise, openly resumed
Judaism ; even in our own times isolated examples
of the same circumstance are known to have hap-

pened. Since the beginning of the present century

foreign Jews have been permitted to settle in Por-

tugal, and there are now synagogues in Lisbon and
two or three other cities ; the Portuguese Inquisi-

tion, however, was only formally abolished in 1821,

although it had long become practically inoperative.
In Spain, Napoleon put an end to the Holy Court
in 1808 ;
it was reopened, however, when Ferdinand
VII. was restored, and the reaction set in, but finally
the Inquisition was closed, let us hope for ever, in
1820. At this day there are probably no secret Jews
in Spain or Portugal, for though there are still re-
mote parts of Andalusia, and certain districts, espe-
cially in the neighbourhood of Braganza, where the

greater part of the population is known to be of

Jewish origin, and where still some lingering tra-
 and the Inquisition. 99

ditions of Hebrew observances can be traced, the

meaning of such practices has now become lost, and

they are merely recognised as customs of unknown
significance handed down from preceding genera-
tions. Jews who settle in Spain are in these days
in no way interfered with ;
but the establishment of
a synagogue has not as yet been attempted, and
would probably not be allowed, as, despite certain

vague clauses in the constitution enjoining tolera-

tion, the spirit of the Inquisition still lingers in the
minds of the people, and the edict of Ferdinand and
Isabella has never been formally repealed.

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