The Spanish Jews, among their other effects, brought their printing-presses into Turkey, where, by the favour of the Sultans, they were set up. At Constantinople and at Saloniki they were soon in active employment. The Old Testament Scriptures in Hebrew and Spanish were printed and largely circulated, as well as many Jewish writings which had hitherto remained in manuscript. At Saloniki a famous college was established, at which there were said to be as many as 5000 students. There was also a valuable library, which unfortunately was destroyed by fire in 1545.
The Holy Land is another country to which, as we might naturally expect, refugees from other lands resorted. It had always been regarded as a befitting thing for Jews of an advanced age to make a pilgrimage thither, and die among the hallowed scenes of their cherished traditions. With every persecution in European countries the number of these increased; and at the beginning of the sixteenth century Palestine was filled with swarms of Israelites, who, as a rule, were poor and destitute, and suffered greatly from the rapacity of Turkish officials. The Jewish communities in other parts of the world regarded it as their duty to support these needy brethren, and in larger cities collections were regularly made in the synagogues for this purpose. As no attempt apparently was made to provide them with the means of supporting themselves,—and possibly none could have been made with success,—the distress was always considerable, and after the Spanish exodus rose to a still greater height.
Another quarter to which large numbers of the expelled Jews migrated was the northern coast of Africa. This was a region already familiar to them. Egypt had, for a great length of time, been a favourite place of abode with them, and this had more particularly been the case since the time of Maimonides. Schools had been established in Cairo, Damietta, and other Egyptian towns, to which great numbers of students resorted. In the kingdom of Morocco, again, the banished Jews settled in great numbers. This was, indeed, the nearest country to Spain, Portugal excepted, and communications had for a long time been kept up between the inhabitants of the two kingdoms. In Tripoli also, Oran, Fez, Tunis, and Algiers, many Jewish families established themselves. But they did not receive the same friendly welcome which their brethren experienced in the East. They were allowed liberty of conscience, no doubt, and the protection of the law; but that was all the favour accorded them. The authorities laid heavy burdens on them, and at times exacted large sums as subsidies, after a fashion which greatly resembled the dealings of the English and French sovereigns several centuries before. The lower orders looked on them with fanatical prejudice, and they were obliged to wear black turbans, and boots of a different colour from those of the natives of the country. Yet their position, on the whole, was not unhappy. They were largely employed in the iron-works among the mountains of Morocco, as well as in building and agriculture.
One feature in their history deserves especial mention. In 1578, when the ill-fated expedition of Sebastian of Portugal took place, large numbers of Portuguese nobles and gentlemen were made prisoners, and sold as slaves in the market-places of the chief towns of Morocco. Many of these were bought by Portuguese Jews, who must have been sorely tempted to requite the injuries themselves and their fathers had received on these captives, who were wholly at their mercy. But they took a nobler revenge. They not only exacted no ransom of them, but allowed them to return to their homes, requiring of them no other condition than that of passing their word of honour that they would, on arriving in Portugal, remit to their former masters the sums that had been paid for their redemption from slavery. History has recorded few nobler actions.
FOOTNOTES:
[177] Some Observations of a London Merchant about the Bill for the Naturalization of the Jews, A.D. 1753. The writer had probably conversed with persons who remembered the state of things in England before the readmission of the Jews. As regards the assertion of the Spanish historian, therefore, there is very reasonable likelihood of the Jews having been allowed to live without molestation in England during the reigns of the Tudors. Indeed, as Disraeli has remarked, if there had been no Jews in England, Sir E. Coke would hardly have insisted so forcibly on their not being admissible as witnesses. But the statement respecting the building and public use of synagogues must be taken with reservation. The expulsion from Spain occurred a little before the close of the fifteenth century. Scarcely more than fifty years afterwards we find Cromwell’s divines declaring that ‘for the Jews to have synagogues, or any public meetings for worship, was not only evil, but scandalous to Christian churches.’ Surely they could not have said this, if synagogues had so recently existed in London, and worship been celebrated in them!
[178] This king seems to have had a dislike to excessive homage, which was a rare feature in an Eastern prince. It is recorded of him that on one occasion, after one of his great victories, his soldiers saluted him with Oriental adulation, some declaring him to be a prophet, others an angel, and others God Himself. Finding that he could not dissuade them from their impiety, he ordered a deep pit to be dug, and then, throwing one of his shoes into it, gave out that the man who honoured him most was to fetch it out. Numbers instantly threw themselves into the pit. He then gave orders to have the earth thrown back again, burying the whole of his worshippers alive! Doubtless none ever offered him adoration again.
[179] A Turk, having reason to suspect one of his neighbours of an attempt to seduce his wife, assassinated him, and to escape suspicion threw the corpse into the Jewish quarter. It was found there, and occasioned a popular insurrection, in which the Jews would have been murdered to a man, if Moses Hamon had not prevailed on Solyman to order an inquiry, by which the truth was elicited.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
A.D. 1600-1700.
THE JEWS IN GERMANY AND CENTRAL EUROPE.
At the commencement of the seventeenth century the Reformation may be regarded as an accomplished fact. The great flood of controversy which had broken up the Church had begun to subside, and whatever countries had been gained by the new opinions, or had been retained by the old ones, remained in both instances firm to their allegiance. It might have been expected that the great changes which had been worked would largely affect the condition of the Jews, and ultimately, no doubt, they did so; but for the time the effects were scarcely discernible. No doubt, in Protestant countries the clergy could no longer put in force the terrible engines of persecution which had hitherto been ready to their hand; and this was in itself an immense relief. Again, in lands which still owned the supremacy of Rome, much of the virulence of the priesthood against the Jews was of necessity abated. They had graver and more absorbing occupation for their thoughts. In the momentous struggle which was in progress the Jews were more or less overlooked. But the bitterness of feeling towards them was scarcely, if at all, diminished. The leaders of the Reformed movement themselves regarded the Jews with but little favour. They could not, indeed, but abhor the barbarities which had been employed against them by the rulers of the Church; but they had little idea, so far as themselves were concerned, of showing consideration towards the obstinate and rebellious race which persisted in rejecting Christ.[180] This, however, was not universally the case. Frank du Jon (Franciscus Junius), the well-known Dutch Reformer, urged on his countrymen, in earnest and emphatic language, the duty owing by all Christian nations to their brethren the Jews, who were to be won by the spirit of love to the fold of Christ. So did Isaac Vossius, Professor at Amsterdam, who addressed a letter to the Jews, strongly indicative of this temper. The Arminians of Holland again, and their allies, evinced a most brotherly kindness towards such Jews as had taken refuge in their country. The celebrated Hugo Grotius was especially remarkable for the respect he entertained for the Rabbins and their opinions. Indeed, though some of the leading Reformers occasionally expressed themselves in a manner which was inconsistent with the wise principles they professed, yet the general effect of their teaching grew and strengthened as generations went on, and resulted at last in a widespread and enlightened toleration.