CHAPTER V.
Jewish Converts in the Western Church.
In giving an account of well-known Jewish converts in the Christian Church, one is limited to the information which is supplied from sources generally connected with the Western or Roman Catholic Church. The subject naturally divides itself into two parts—(a) The pre-reformation period, (b) The post-reformation period. In the former the Roman Church displayed great zeal, though not according to knowledge, in her energetic missionary enterprise among the Jews. There was a missionary seminary in Spain in which men studied Hebrew literature and qualified themselves for carrying on the controversy with the Jews. Hence we read of frequent disputations which were held by the Jewish and Gentile missionaries with the most learned rabbis, often in the presence of bishops, noblemen, and princes. But, alas! the methods employed were also often those of force and intrigue, and consequently un-Christian in the extreme, and the converts thus gained were only such in appearance, and this led as we know to the terrible Inquisition and to the final expulsion of the Jews from Spain. In the latter period, after the Reformation and onwards, the Roman Church has apparently slackened her zeal for the conversion of the Jews. She has no distinct missionary organization, and we only hear now and then of clandestine abductions, generally through the instrumentality of domestic servants, like the famous Mortara case and the Coen case in the time of Pius IX., and that of the Jewish girl of Prague, enticed into a nunnery, which the Jewish Chronicle reported a few years ago.
Nevertheless, among those who have voluntarily joined the Roman Church in various centuries, we verily believe—on the ground of their social standing, their public works, published writings and personal character—that they embraced Christianity out of pure conviction, and conscientiously discharged their duties according to the light that was in them at the time.
The following is a list of Jewish Roman Catholic converts, who have become historical, very often by making a good impression upon their contemporaries, and having sought the welfare of the people from whom they sprung. The names are given in alphabetical order, as this method seems to be the more convenient for the compiler, and the time and country in which they lived are added. As they all were members of one Church, it is not very material to follow the centuries in regular succession, or to treat of the countries they belonged to separately. An exception is however made with regard to England, in which the "Domus Conversorum," the house of converts in London, requires a separate notice.
Abiathar ha Kohen Esther, of Saragossa, Spain, after her baptism, in the fifteenth century, married Don Alfonso, son of the King of Aragon. Her sister Leah also embraced Christianity, and married the Marano Martin Sanchez. From them some of the Spanish nobility are descended.
Abilis, Simon, a convert in Prague. According to the report of the Jesuit Eder, he was killed by his father, Lazarus, March 21, 1694, because he refused to renounce Christianity. The father was put in prison, where he committed suicide by hanging himself with his phylacteries.
Abner, of Burgos (called also Alfonso of Valladolid), born in 1270, died in 1348, became a Christian at the age of sixty. He was a physician by profession, and learned in Talmud, philosophy and astronomy. He wrote the following works: 1. "Moreh Zedek" (Teacher of Righteousness). 2. "A Dialogue between a Christian and a Jew." 3. "A Reply to Kimchi's book and on Wars of the Lord." 4. "Old Testament Foundations for Christian Doctrines." 5. "Libro des los tres gracias." 6. "The Offering of Jealousy." 7. "A Reply to Replies." 8. "Igereth hagezerah," in which he gives reasons for his conversion.
Abraham Beneveniste, senior chief rabbi of Seville, together with his son and son-in-law, also rabbis joined the Church in 1492, when they assumed the name of Cosonel.