There have been innumerable false Messiahs, from the days of Judas of Galilee almost to our own time; and to each of these in turn the Jews of their day accorded, for the time at least, a ready welcome, which, in almost every instance, ultimately gave place to a total disbelief in their pretensions. In the instance of this man alone, the faith placed in him was not exchanged for contempt and distrust. Yet he was certainly the one among all the pretenders to a Divine mission who most deserved such ignominy. Judas,[198] Barchochebas, David Alroy—however unfounded their claims to be the Messiah—at all events persisted resolutely to the last, and died with the same watchword on their lips that they had uttered during life. But though Sabbathai openly avowed his own imposture, his followers continued to believe in him. More than one prophet arose after his death, and obtained credence by affirming that Sabbathai had been translated into heaven, as Enoch and Elijah before him, and would, after a stated interval, reappear on earth. Sabbathaism, as it was called, became the creed of a powerful and numerous sect, of which we shall hear in the ensuing century. It is said that even now it is not extinct. This example is one proof out of many that human credulity exceeds all bounds of calculation.

Among those who continued to uphold Sabbathai after this fashion long after his death, the most noted were Nehemiah Chajon and Abraham Michael Cardoso. The plea urged by the latter in behalf of his principal may safely be pronounced the most extravagant that has ever been advanced. It was doubtless great wickedness, he said, to apostatize to Islamism; but then it should be remembered that the Messiah was not to come until mankind were all good or all bad. There was no prospect of their all becoming good. So Sabbathai, by his wickedness in accepting Mahomet, was helping on, like a true prophet, the coming of the Messiah!

FOOTNOTES:

[197] He is said to have quoted Isaiah xiv. 14: ‘I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,’ and to have appealed to his followers to say whether they had not seen him so ascend; to which they made answer that they had! It must be added, however, that, if he did quote the passage in question as applicable to himself, he could hardly have studied its context.

[198] Whether Judas himself ever claimed to be the Messiah is doubtful. But a considerable section of his followers certainly believed him to be such.

CHAPTER XXXVII.
A.D. 1700-1800.
THE JEWS IN SPAIN, ITALY, AND FRANCE.

We enter now on the eighteenth century, and are, as it were, in sight of the history of our own times. The position in which we find the Jews is in the main the same which they at present occupy. In Romish countries they were still liable to sharp persecution, sometimes from mob violence, sometimes from the action of the Church. The lands in which the severest measures were enforced continued to be Spain and Portugal, where the Inquisition was dominant throughout the entire century, though its power gradually but very evidently diminished as the years passed on. In the reign of Philip V., who succeeded to the Spanish throne A.D. 1700, and held it till 1746, the first direct blow was given to its authority. In the War of Succession, which began at the outset of his reign, his French allies treated the Inquisition with very scant respect. They broke open the prisons of the Holy Office, released the prisoners, and even seized the silver images in the Dominican chapels, melting them down to pay the expenses of the campaign. The king took no part in the spoliation; but when the Inquisitors appealed to him against the sacrilegious violence of the French, he replied that he could not interfere with the measures taken by his allies. He was a weak and sombre-tempered young man, though not, it would seem, a religious bigot, and allowed the clergy in the main to have their way. One Auto da Fé was held every year throughout his reign; and the number of victims is said to have amounted to 14,000. There can be little doubt that the greater part of these were ‘secret Jews.’ It is beyond dispute that throughout this century, and long afterwards—even, it is said, to our own times—secret Judaism continued to maintain its hold; and from time to time discoveries were made, and executions followed.

In 1713 the English were confirmed in the possession of Gibraltar, which had been wrested from Spain some ten years before. But it is a singular fact that the Spaniards, even when yielding up their stronghold to Great Britain, could not endure that the Jews should be allowed to live in peace there; and one clause of the treaty stipulated that ‘no Jew should be tolerated in that city.’[199]

Ferdinand VI. succeeded his father in 1746, and reigned till 1759. He bears the character of a good and wise prince, and no public Auto da Fé took place in his time, though there appear to have been a considerable number of petty local executions. Probably these took place without his sanction, or even knowledge. He died without issue, and was succeeded by his brother, Charles III. He again was an able and vigorous sovereign, and the power of the Inquisition still further diminished during his reign. Three years after his accession he took the decided step of banishing the Grand Inquisitor for encroaching on the privileges of the Crown. In 1770, and again in 1784, he ordered that any procedure against offenders must be approved by the king, and sufficient evidence adduced to justify imprisonment. He was succeeded by his son, Charles IV., the weak and miserable victim of Napoleon’s ambition. The Inquisition was upheld during his reign, though it does not appear that any Auto da Fé took place. Very much the same is the history of the Jewish persecution in Portugal, the power of the Inquisition, though greatly limited, still subsisting to the very end of the century.

In Italy very nearly the same state of things continued as has been described under the history of the previous century. On the separation of the kingdom of the Two Sicilies from that of Spain, Charles, who succeeded to the sovereignty, reversed the policy which had been pursued by his predecessors, and invited the Jews to settle for sixty years in his kingdom. He offered to confer upon them rights and privileges which would have left them little ground of complaint. They were to be allowed to hold lands, except such as conferred feudal rights on their possessors. They were to be permitted to trade with all parts of the world, exempt from any special impost—on the same terms, in fact, as his Christian subjects. They might practise all professions, that of the physician included, and have Christian patients, if the latter desired it. They might also follow any handicraft; they might serve in the army; they might freely print and circulate their literature; they might have Christians in their service. They were to be free also to build synagogues and celebrate their religious rites; and the authority of their clergy was to be upheld by the State. All men, in fine, were forbidden, under severe penalties, to insult or wrong them; and all attempts to proselytize their children were to be discouraged. We do not wonder at hearing that Jews in great numbers, from all parts of Europe, accepted King Charles’s invitation; neither can it move our surprise to hear that his subjects were not inclined to acquiesce in their sovereign’s enlightened views. The Pope of the day, Clement XII., and his confessor, a man of great influence in the Church, denounced the concessions made to the Jews; the clergy preached inflammatory sermons from their pulpits, a Capuchin friar publicly warned the king that, as the punishment of his guilty act, he would die childless. The Jews could not face the storm. They knew that any attempt to open shops, or bring their merchandise into Naples, would be the signal for a riot, not improbably for a massacre. After a brief sojourn in the city, they withdrew from it.