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 JEWS

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JEWS

to starve or give up Judaism. In Rome, their fellow- Jews offered 1000 ducats to Alexander VI to prevent their admission, an offer which was indignantly re- fused. In Naples, they were compassionately received by Ferdinand I, but also carried off in numbers by the pestilence which broke out among them. In Portu- gal, John II tolerated them only eight months, after which all remaining were made slaves. It is true that John's successor, Emmanuel (1495-1521), at first freed those enslaved Jews; but he finally signed in Dec, 1496, the decree expelling from Portugal all Jews who would refuse to be baptized, and in 1497 had it carried out. The country where the Spanish refugees were most hospitably received was Turkey, then ruled over by Bajazet II.

"(10) Modern Period (1500-1700).— These expul- sions of the Jews gave rise in the sixteenth century to the important division of the European Jews into "Sephardim'' (Spanish and Portuguese Jews) and " Askenazim" (German and Polish Jews), thus called from two Biblical words connected by medieval rabbis with Spain and Germany respectively. Wherever they settled, the Sephardim preserved their peculiar ritual and also their native refinement of diction, manners, dress, etc., which stood in striking contrast with those of the Askenazim and secured for them an influence which the latter did not exercise despite their closer acquaintance with the Talmud and greater faithfulness to ancestral virtues and traditions. Thus were formed two deep currents of Judaism requiring to be treated separately during the modern period of Jewish historj'. In Italy, the Sephardim found a ref- uge chiefly in Rome, Naples, Florence, and Ferrara, where they were soon rejoined by numerous Maranos of Spain and Portugal who again professed Judaism. In Naples, they enjoyed the high protection of Samuel Abrabanel, a wealthy Jew who apparently adminis- tered the finances of the viceroy, Don Pedro of Toledo. In Ferrara and Florence, Jews and Maranos were well treated by the respective rulers of these cities; and even in Venice, which considered the expediency of their expulsion lest their presence should injure the interests of native merchants, they were simply con- fined to the first Italian Ghetto (1516). The early Roman pontiffs of the sixteenth century had Jewish physicians and were favourable to the Jews and the Maranos of their states. Time soon came, however, when the Sephardic Jews of Italy fared differently. As early as 15.32, the accusation of child murder nearly entailed the extermination of the Jews of Rome. In 1555, Paul IV revived the ancient canons against the Jews which forbade them the practice of medicine, the pursuit of high commerce, and the ownership of real estate. He also consigned them to a Ghetto, and compelled them to wear a Jew badge. In 1569, Pius IV expelled all the Jews from the Pontifical States, except Rome and Ancona. Sixtus V (1585-1590) re- called them; but, soon after him, Clement VIII (1592- 1605) banished them again partially, at the very moment when the Maranos of Italy lost their last place of refuge in Ferrara. Similar misfortunes befell the Jewish race in other states of Italy as the Spanish domination extended there: Naples banished the Jews in 1541; Genoa, in 1550; Milan, in 1597. Hence- forward, most Sephardic fugitives simply passed through Italy when on their way to the Turkish Em- pire.

During the whole present period, Turkey was, in fact, a haven of rest for the Sephardim. Bajazet II (d. 1512) and his immediate successors fully re- alized the services which the Jewish exiles could render to the new Mohanimedan Empire of Constan- tinople, and hence wolconifil them in their states. Under Selim II (1566-1574), the Marano Joseph Nassi, become Duke of Naxos and the virtual ruler of Turkey, used his immense power and wealth for the benefit of his coreligionists, at home and abroad.

After Nassi's death, his influence passed partially to Aschkenazi, and also to the Jewess Esther Kiera who played a most important role under the Sultans Amiu-ath III, Mohammed III, and Achmet I. During the remainder of the period, the Jews of Turkey were generally prosperous under the guidance of their rabbis. Their communities were spread through- out the Ottoman Empire, their most important centres being Constantinople and Salonica in Euro- pean Turkey, and Jerusalem and Safed in Pales- tine. It is true that the Turkish Jews of the period were repeatedly disturbed by the appearance of such false Messiases as David Rubeni, Solomon Molcho, Lurya Levi, and Sabbatai Zevi; but the public au- thorities of Turkey took no steps to pmiish the Jews who shared in such Messianic agitations. The coun- try in which, next to Turkey, the Sephardim fared best, was Holland. The origin of their settlements in the Netherlands is chiefly due to the immigration of Portuguese Maranos who, under Emmanuel's succes- sors, were repeatedly subjected to the terrors of the Inquisition despite the laudable efforts of several popes in their behalf, and who, after the conquest of Portugal by Philip II of Spain, in 1580, reached Hol- land, now in full revolt against the Spanish domina- tion. Their first congregations of 1593 and 1598 in Amsterdam were acceptable to the city authorities who saw in the new-comers a means of extending Dutch commerce, and who, in 1619, allowed the pub- he exercise of Jewish worship under liberal conditions. During the seventeenth century, the Amsterdam Jews contributed actively to the home and foreign prosperity of their adopted country. They greatly in- creased in numbers by new accessions of Portuguese Maranos, and estabhshed communities in Hamburg, in Guiana, and in Brazil. It was also in Amsterdam that the movement originated for a legal re-establish- ment of the Jews in England from which Jews had been strictly excluded since 1290. Oliver Cromwell, protector of the realm (1653-1658), was personally in favour of the movement, and he actively seconded the skilful pleadings of Manasses ben Israel, the leading rabbi of Amsterdam, for that purpose. Cromwell, however, did not dare openly to bring about a change generally hateful to the English clergy and nation. Under Charles II (d. 16S5), the Jews stole insensibly into the kingdom, where they have ever since main- tained their footing. The chief difficulties of the Sephardim in Holland were of an internal order: their rabbis used rather freely the power of excom- munication, one of the victims of which was the cele- brated Spinoza (1656); and the majority of the Jewish population of Amsterdam was more or less seriously disturbed, about this time, by the Messi- anic pretensions of Sabbatai Zevi.

During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Askenazim or German Jews were less fortu- nate than their Sephaidic contemporaries. Their gen- eral condition remained much the same as during the preceding period. It is often, but wrongly, asserted that the invention of printing, the revival of learning, and the Protestant Reform:ition were beneficial to the Jews. When, early in t li(> sixtcent h century, the German Jews began to use the jirinting |)ress for their own literature, sacred or otherwise, the Emperor Maximilian (d. 1519) was urged to order all Hebrew books to be burned, and but for the strenuous exertions of Reuchlin, the burn- ing of the Talmud would have taken place. "That the Reformation itself had nothing to do with the sub- sequent ameliorations in the conditions of the Jews, is plain from the ftict that in many parts of Germany, Protestant as well as Catholic, their lot became ac- tually harder tluin before" ("The New Inter. Cy- clop.", vol. X, New York, 1903). Luther himself, towards the end of his life, was their greatest oppo- nent. " He poisoned the Protestant world for a long tinie to come, with his Jew-hating testament. Prot-