An attempt was made to induce the king to forego his purpose. The celebrated Isaac Abarbanel[156] was at the time high in his confidence and favour. He threw himself at Ferdinand’s feet, and offered, in the name of his people, no less than 30,000 ducats, as the price of their continuance in Spain. So large a sum tempted Ferdinand, who was at all times avaricious, and was at that moment greatly in need of money. He wavered, and might perhaps have revoked his edict, if Torquemada, who had heard of the offer, had not burst into the presence-chamber, holding a crucifix in his hand. ‘Behold,’ he cried, ‘Him whom Judas sold for thirty pieces of silver! Sell Him again, if you will, and render an account of the bargain to God!’ Isabella also took part against the Jews. It may well be, that the notion of being bribed to forego her duty roused an indignation which she would not otherwise have felt. Any way, the offer was rejected, and the miserable Jews had to set about making the best provision they could against the approaching day of exile. They were allowed to sell their landed property and houses, but only, of course, at an enormous disadvantage. Bernaldes states that he saw Jews give a house in exchange for an ass, and a vineyard for a small bale of cloth, purchasers continually holding off from completing a bargain, which they knew they must ultimately get on their own terms. They were forbidden to carry away with them gold or silver; but we are told that they contrived to secrete large quantities of it in the saddles and halters of their horses. Some even swallowed it, and it is said, in some instances, to the amount of thirty ducats! The rich Jews paid the expenses of their poorer brethren,[157] practising towards each other the greatest charity.
At the beginning of July, they set out on their mournful journey to the seaports, old and young, rich and poor, a long and melancholy cortége. The Rabbins, we are told, encouraged them, and engaged musicians to play, and bade the boys and girls sing, so as to keep up the spirits of the wayfarers. But the mirth must have been forced and hollow. Their fathers could not sing the Lord’s song while compelled to dwell in a strange land—how should they sing it when forced to leave their own?
There is considerable difference in the estimate made by historians of the numbers that went into exile. Mariana reckoned it at 800,000. Others place it much lower; but at the least calculation it must have reached some hundreds of thousands. An immense concourse assembled at Barcelona, Valencia, Carthagena, Port Maria, and Gibraltar. Vessels had been provided at all those ports, whence they were transported to Italy, or various places on the coast of Africa. The miseries endured during the voyage, and after the landing had been effected, exceed all power of description. Some of the vessels took fire; others were so overloaded that they sank. Many were wrecked on barren places along the African shore, and died of cold and hunger. Some captains purposely prolonged their voyages, in order that the provisions might run short, and their passengers be obliged to purchase water and food of them at any price they might choose to exact. On board one vessel, a pestilential disease broke out. The captain landed all the emigrants on a desert island, where many perished of famine. Another party was forced to go ashore at an uninhabited spot, where a large portion of them were devoured by wild beasts. Those who reached Fez, in Morocco, were not allowed to enter the town, but were compelled to encamp on the sands, suffering the most grievous privations, and exposed to the brutal insults of the natives.[158] A Sallee pirate allured a number of boys on board his vessel, promising to bestow some provisions on them, and then carried them off before the faces of their parents, who stood imploring and shrieking for mercy on the shore, to sell them as slaves at a distant port.
Those that were conveyed to Italy were somewhat less harshly treated. The captain of a vessel bound for Genoa, passing along the African coast, saw a number of naked wretches, who apparently had been cast by the sea upon it. On inquiry he found that these were a number of Jewish exiles, who had been barbarously compelled to land there. He took them on board, made them some clothes out of sailcloth, and conveyed them to Genoa. There they were permitted to land; but were met by priests carrying bread in one hand and a crucifix in the other, nor would they bestow the former on them until they had consented to accept the latter also. Nine crowded vessels reached the Bay of Naples; but disease, caused by the hardships and privations of the voyage, was raging amongst the passengers. The infection was speedily communicated to the city, and 20,000 persons are reported to have died in consequence. In Rome, even the selfish nature of Alexander VI. was moved at the recital of their sufferings. He not only gave them shelter in his own dominions, but wrote to all the Italian States, desiring them to extend to the Jewish exiles the same privileges which had been enjoyed by their resident brethren.[159]
FOOTNOTES:
[153] It was with great difficulty that this was obtained. Isabella, though a dutiful daughter of the Church, had a superior intellect and a tender heart; and both revolted against the proposed measure. Torquemada, who had been her confessor, was obliged to appeal to a promise she had made him, years before, to extirpate heresy, if she ever could. Even then, her assent was most reluctantly given.
[154] By a previous law of Henry II., he had become punishable if he gave his children Christian names. It must have been a hard matter to know what to call them.
[155] The wholesale butchery of the Autos da Fé, as these executions were called, is one of their most shocking features. On the 4th of November, 1481, three hundred Jews were burned in Seville, and in other parts of the same province two thousand more. In Saragossa the two surviving inquisitors avenged the assassination of their colleague by two hundred deaths at the stake.
[156] Don Isaac Abarbanel was born at Lisbon in 1437, and early gained the notice of Alphonso V. He was obliged to leave Portugal suddenly in 1482, having been suspected of taking part in Bragazza’s conspiracy against John II. He was kindly welcomed by Ferdinand and Isabella, who made him their Minister of Finance. In 1492, he was obliged to quit Spain along with his countrymen. He found refuge at Naples, where he was employed by Ferdinand and Alphonso II. He shared the exile of the latter monarch, and removed to Venice, where he died.
[157] The charge of sordid indifference to the sufferings of others has always been made against the mediæval Jews; nor can it be denied that there is truth in the allegation. But it was only towards the Christians that this was displayed. To their own countrymen they have in all ages been generous and charitable in the extreme. Be it remembered what kind of charity had been shown them by their Christian brethren, and that they had not been taught ‘to do good unto them that persecute you.’ When the Jews at Rome were unwilling to receive their exiled brethren of Spain, Alexander VI. expressed the utmost surprise. ‘This is the first time,’ he said, ‘that I ever heard of a Jew not having compassion for a Jew.’