The distinguished French-Huguenot scholar Isaac de La Peyrère (1594–1676) of Bordeaux, probably of marrano Jewish blood, author of many works, wrote and published anonymously Dv Rappel des Ivifs, M.DC.XLIII.[¹] (Appendix xiv) which was intended to be part of a greater work on the same subject.[²] He demands in this book the restoration of Israel to the Holy Land in an unconverted state, in the belief that this restoration will lead to the final triumph of Christianity. He expects France to carry out this idea, and appeals in this sense to the Royal Dynasty in a somewhat strange homiletical manner.[³] In 1644 he was appointed French Ambassador at Copenhagen. Being on intimate terms with the eminent scholars Isaac [Vos] Vossius (Appendix xv) (1618–1689) and Hugo Grotius [Huig van Groot][⁴] (1583–1645) he became acquainted with their mutual friend Manasseh and with Manasseh’s friends, Caspar [van Baerle] Barlaeus (1584–1648), Simon Episcopius (1583–1643), Gerard John [Vos] Vossius (1577–1649),[⁵] Johannes [van Meurs] Meursius (1579–1639), David Blondel (1591–1655), [Peter] Petrus [Serrurier] Serrarius (fl. 1650–1700) and Paulus Felgenhauer (circa 1625), who all supported similar ideas.
[¹] “... the curious will be rather surprised to learn that the Abbe [Henri] Grégoire (1750–1831) and others have been under a mistake in asserting that Peyreyra’s Rappel des Juifs was printed during his life-time, upwards of 120 years: for this singular book, as it appears from the learned Jesuit, his friend, he could never obtain a license; but the fair copy, which he deposited in a public library, only appeared in print in Paris, after it became the pleasure of the head of the French government to assemble a Jewish Sanhedrin in May, 1806, for reasons that are obvious....”
(Gentleman’s Magazine, vol. lxxxii., November, 1812, p. 432.)
[²] p. 373: Advis av Lectevr. Ce petit Traittè n’est qu’vn Essay et un Extraict d’un plus grand Desseing que i’ay conceu; intitulé Synopsis doctrinæ Christianæ ad vsvm Ivdæorvm et Gentivm .
[³] “Ie fonde cette Cõiecture sur ce que cette grãde Deliurance des Iuifs fut traittée & concluë dãs la ville Royale de Susan: Svsan, qui signifie Le Lys. Ville Royale de Susun qui est donc mesme chose que la ville Royale du Lys: and mesme chose ville Royale de France.”
This appeal recalls another of a similar kind addressed in 1672 by Baron G. W. von Leibnitz (1646–1716) during his sojourn in Paris (1672–1676) to Louis XIV. (1638–1715) about the conquest of Egypt. “Epistola ad regem Franciæ de expeditione Egyptiaca.” This interesting appeal, which contains also some references to Jerusalem and Syria, was discovered in Hanover during the first occupation by the French and transmitted to the First Consul Bonaparte, who wrote from Namur on the 4th August, 1803: “Mortier m’envoie à l’instant même un manuscrit, en latin, de Leibnitz, adressé à Louis XIV., pour lui proposer la conquête de l’Egypte. Cet ouvrage est très-curieux.” M. de Hoffmann published this document in a pamphlet which appeared in French in 1840: “Mémoire de Leibnitz à Louis XIV. sur la conquête de l’Egypte.”
[⁴] Swedish Ambassador in Paris, 1635–1645.
[⁵] William Laud, Bishop of London (1628–1633), presented Gerard John Vossius to a canonry in Canterbury Cathedral in 1629. His son, Dionysius Vossius (1612–1633), translated the Conciliador (Pentateuch), Francofurti 1632 [I. S.] of Manasseh Ben Israel into Latin. Francofurti, 1633 [I. S.] and Amsterdami, 1633 [I. S.].
The Rev. Thomas Draxe[¹] (ob. 1618), a theologian of great knowledge and influence, demonstrated that “all the particular promises, such as the land of Canaan, a certain form of government ... were proper to the Jews...,” and “that we (Christians) must therefore acknowledge ourselves debtors unto the Jews, and deeply engaged unto them, we must be so far off from rendering or returning them evil for good....”[²]
[¹] The History Of The Worthies Of England. Endeavoured by Thomas Fuller, D.D., London,... MDCLXII., pp. 125–126.