The history of the Jews: From the war with Rome to the present time

by H. C. Adams

The scenes of violence and bloodshed which had been provoked by the fanatic zeal of the Archdeacon of Ecija were a foretaste of the fearful tragedy which was to take place in Spain in the ensuing century. But it can hardly be said that he occasioned it. The evil had long been gathering, and must have broken out, sooner or later, in Spain. He may have precipitated it, but nothing more.

The main cause of the mischief was, beyond doubt, the improvidence and want of steady industry among the people. In all business transactions they were continually applying to the Jews, unable, as it seemed, to buy or sell, to sow or reap, without resorting to them. The result was the pauperizing of all classes of the community except the Jews, who continued to heap up enormous wealth.[151] The people would not believe that this was the result of their own improvidence, and that there could be no remedy for it except in persistent industry and prudence. They made repeated complaints of having been overreached and defrauded; but, when the cases were inquired into in a court of law, it was found that nothing could be proved against the alleged offenders. This only fomented the growing discontent. To all thoughtful observers it was evident that a popular convulsion could not be far distant.

Henry III. died in 1406, and was succeeded by his son John II., an infant not two years old. Early in his reign Vincentius Ferrer, a Dominican, made his appearance as an itinerant preacher in Castile and Aragon, calling on the Jews to renounce their ancient faith, and accept that of Christ. He was a man of the most ardent zeal, indefatigable energy, and burning eloquence; and the stern asceticism of his life caused him to be regarded as a saint. His fierce invectives against the impiety and obstinacy of the Jews exasperated the people against them; and it very soon became evident that there were for them two alternatives only—conversion or destruction. Vincent went from town to town, carrying a crucifix in one hand and a copy of the Mosaic Law in the other, followed everywhere by an armed rabble, who maltreated and murdered all who refused to hearken. Many of the Jews embraced, or pretended to embrace, Christianity. Many more abandoned all their worldly possessions, and fled to Barbary; some also to Portugal,[152] and other Christian States. Some would neither abjure their faith nor fly, and their descendants underwent the terrible consequences of their parents’ constancy. Ferrer is said to have converted 35,000, or, according to others, 50,000 Jews. Even a Hebrew authority places it at 20,000. How many of these converts were real believers in Christ we shall have occasion subsequently to inquire.

In 1406 the old charge of insulting the Host was revived, though with some variation in the circumstances. Some Jews were accused of having bought the consecrated wafer from the sacristan of the cathedral at Segovia. They threw it into a caldron of boiling water, when it rose to the surface. Alarmed at the sight, they wrapped it in a cloth, and gave it to a Dominican friar, who informed the bishop of the occurrence. The bishop caused the Jews to be arrested and tortured. Among them was Don Meir, the king’s physician. The torture not only elicited a confession of the particular crime charged on the sufferers, but of the murder of the late king by poison. Don Meir and the others were drawn and quartered at Segovia; soon after which it was discovered that the whole charge was a fabrication.

Another similar story is related about the same time. A nobleman, who bore a bitter dislike to a bishop, bribed his cook to poison him. The conspiracy was discovered, and the cook put on the rack; but he would not confess the name of his suborner. By the advice of the latter, the next time he was racked he declared it was the Jews who had bribed him. This was instantly credited; and, as he had named no particular persons as his accomplices, a great many Jews were put to death on suspicion.

In 1412 the queen-regent Catherine promulgated a series of ordinances against the Jews, equalling in severity anything that had been issued before. They were not to be physicians or surgeons; they were not to sell bread, wine, or any other provisions; they were to keep no Christian servants; were not to eat and drink with Christians, or attend Christian marriages or funerals; they were to live in the Jewries or ghettoes only, and these were to be surrounded with a high wall, having only one entrance-gate; they were to wear a carefully prescribed dress of very common material; and any Jew or Jewess who ventured to put on costly attire was liable to have the whole stripped off their backs. They were not permitted to change their place of residence, and were allowed neither to shave their beards nor cut their hair! No Christian woman was to enter the Jewish quarter, on pain of a heavy fine, if her character was respectable, or of being whipped out of it, if it was not! Finally, they were not to be smiths, carpenters, tailors, shoemakers, curriers, clothiers, or to sell any of the goods made by these, except to Jews.

In 1413 the Antipope, Benedict XIII., convened an assembly at Tortosa, for the purpose of presiding at a disputation between certain chosen advocates of Judaism on one side, and of Christianity on the other—the subjects of discussion being, whether the Messiah had already come, and what was the value of the Jewish Talmud. Considering who were to be the judges, it is no great wonder that the Jews were anxious to decline the discussion. But this they were not suffered to do. The Christian champions were Jerome of Santa Fe, Beltran, Bishop of Barcelona, and Garcia Alvares—all of them able men and converts from Judaism. Sixteen learned Talmudists appeared for the Jews. Sixty-nine meetings were held; and it is almost unnecessary once more to add that both parties claimed the victory. A bull was issued by the Pope, commanding the burning of the Talmud, and imposing fresh penalties on such Jews as remained unconverted. It appears, however, that large numbers submitted to baptism.

In 1420 the young king assumed the regal authority, and held it till 1454. During his reign the Jews seem to have been, comparatively speaking, unmolested; and, as was always the case under such circumstances, to have regained both their wealth and their political influence. In 1435 the Jews at Palma were charged with the old stock offence of crucifying children, though this time the victim was a Moor. They confessed, as usual, under torture, and, having agreed to accept baptism, were pardoned. In Toledo, in 1441, the Infante Henry, who was in rebellion against his father, being greatly in want of money to pay his troops, was advised to plunder the houses of the Jews—both those who adhered to their old creed and those who had recently been converted—as the surest and most popular mode of raising funds. He greatly approved of the counsel, and proceeded straightway to follow it, notwithstanding the opposition of the principal citizens and the clergy. The populace, we are told, followed his example. In 1445 the Jews of the same city were accused of having undermined the streets through which the procession of the Host was to pass; and one of the customary massacres would have taken place, if the authorities had not made inquiry and ascertained that the charge was wholly without foundation. Again, at Tavora, some youths, after one of their feasts, sallied forth into the streets, and slew several Jews whom they met, their excuse being that they thought the Jews were on the point of making an attack upon them. A similar story to that propagated at Palma was also fabricated at Valladolid of some Jews at Savona. But in no case did any of the wholesale massacres take place by which the Spanish cities were disgraced both in previous and after times.

In 1454 Henry IV. succeeded his father. His action at Toledo, thirteen years before, in plundering the Jews, caused the idea to be entertained that he would be unfavourable to them; but his conduct, when he came to the throne, did not bear out the notion. A riot having occurred in 1461 at Medina del Campo, in consequence of the preaching of an enthusiastic monk; and a number of Jews having been slain and their property pillaged, Henry put the outbreak down, and executed due justice on the rioters. He also appointed a Jew, Gaon by name, as his finance minister, and sent him to levy the taxes in the Basque provinces. But this was regarded by the Basques as an infringement of their constitutional rights. The Jew was assassinated in the streets of Tolosa; and when the king sent to require the surrender of the murderers, he received a defiant refusal, nor did he venture to take any measures against them.

It was evident that the feeling against the Jews was once more growing to the fatal height it had attained in other lands. In 1468 the Jews of Sepulveda, a town near Segovia, had, it was averred, seized on a Christian infant, carried it to a sequestered spot, and there, after barbarous ill-usage, crucified it. Their Rabbi, Solomon Picho, was declared to have been the instigator of the deed. The Bishop of Avila put the accused, sixteen in number, to the torture, and having elicited the usual confession, caused some to be burned and some hanged. But these severities did not satisfy the people of Sepulveda, who required the extermination of the Jews. They rose accordingly, and massacred all who did not save themselves by flight. Similar insurrections took place in Cordova, Jaen, Toledo, Segovia, and other cities.