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Baptism Bar

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Two

Venetian

niani,

were

patricians, Bragadini

bitter competitors in the

and

Giusti-

Hebrew

print-

ing-trade, and, in their eager desire to crush each other, hit on the scheme of sending Jewish converts

Rome to denounce the Talmud and all Hebrew writings as dangerous to Christianity. Baptista, with two other baptized Jews, Joseph Moro and Ananel di Foligno, undertook the mission, and appealed to Pope Julius III. to destroy the Talmud because of its alleged denunciation of Jesus, the Church, and to

Christianity,

which denunciation, they claimed,

vented the conversion of the Jews.

Julius

preIII.,

—

though rather friendly to the Jews as is shown by the fact that he had two Jewish private physicians, Vital Alatino of Spoleto, and the Marano Amatus Lusitanus had, unfortunately, no power to settle the question about the Talmud, as such matters belonged to the jurisdiction of the Inquisition, which was then under the control of Caroffa, a notorious Jew-hater. Accordingly, the pope was forced, at the instance of the grand inquisitor, to issue a bull (Aug. 12, 1553) "to the princes, bishops, and magistrates," ordering them to confiscate and burn all books of the Talmud. The Jews were ordered, under penalty of

—

the confiscation of their property, to deliver all such books to the officials of the Inquisition; and Christians were warned not to conceal such books, nor to assist in writing or printing them. On the Jewish New -Year's day, Saturday, Sept. 9, 1553, the officers of the Inquisition carried the pope's edict into effect. Despite the petitions and entreaties of the Jews, all Talmudic, and a great many other, Hebrew books were publicly burned on the Campo di Fiore in Rome. Similar outrages were committed in Ravenna, Perrara, Mantua, Padua, Venice, in the island of Candia (Crete), which was then under VeneThe despair of the tian rule, and in all Romagna.

Jews was

indescribable,

and

their feelings

toward

the apostates that were the cause of their suffering can be easily imagined. When Baptista came to Egypt in 1561 on a mission of Pope Pius IV., he was bitterly persecuted by the Jews of Alexandria at the instigation of his own mother. Bibliography: Gratz, Gesch. der Juden, ix. 344 et seq.; Vogelsteln and Rieger, Gesch. der Juden in Rom, ii. 146 et Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. i. 811 Joseph ha-Kohen, 'Em* seq., 156



(Wiener's transl., pp. 89 et seq., Leipsic, 1885). For references on the burning of the Talmud in 1553: Gratz,

ha-Baka

Gesch. der Juden, d.

BAPTISTS

ix. 346,

note

1.

A. R.

A

Christian denomination or sect denying the validity of infant-baptism or of any baptism not preceded by a confession of faith. Baptists and their spiritual progenitors, the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century (including the Mennonites), have always made liberty of conscience a cardinal

Balthasar Hubmaier, the Anabaptist " leader, in his tract on " Heretics and Their Burners but Christians heretical not only insisted that (1524), also Turks and Jews were to be won to the truth by moral suasion alone, not by fire or sword yet as a Catholic, but a few years before, he bad cooperated in the destruction of a Jewish synagogue in Regensburg and in the expulsion of the Jews from the city. doctrine.



Hans Denck and Ludwig Hetzer— among

the most

scholarly of the Anti-Pedobaptists of the sixteenth century, who had devoted much time to learning

Hebrew and Aramaic

—made, in 1527, a highly meri-

torious translation of the Prophets text,

and contemplated a mission

from the Hebrew

to the Jews.

Their

early death prevented the execution of this purpose. The Mennonites of the Netherlands, who became wealthy during the seventeenth century, were so

broad-minded and philanthropic that they made large contributions for the relief of persecuted Jews. In England, Henry Jessey, one of the most learned of the Baptist ministers of the middle decades of the seventeenth century (1645 onward), was an enthusiastic student of Hebrew and Aramaic, and an ardent friend of the oppressed Hebrews of his time.

The Seventh-Day Baptists of England and America, from the seventeenth century onward, have insisted on the perpetual obligation of Christians to observe the Jewish Sabbath, and have made this obligation the distinctive feature of their creed. Many of the Seventh-Day Adventists, especially those that practise believers' baptism, have still more in common with Judaism than have the SeventhDay Baptists proper, and their ideas of the Messianic Kingdom are in many respects Jewish. The colony of Rhode Island was founded by Roger Williams and John Clarke the former for a time and the latter throughout his life connected with the Baptists on the principle of liberty of conscience for all. Jews early availed themselves of the privileges thus offered, and became influential citizens. In the latter part of the eighteenth century, Baptists were foremost in the struggle for civil and religious liberty throughout the British colonies (United States) and to Baptists was due, in large measure, the provision in the United States Constitution against religious tests of any kind. Bibliography Newman, A History of Antv-Pedobaptism, 1897 Brons, Ursprung, Entwickelung, und Schicksaie der Taufgesinnten Oder Mennoniten, 1884; Keller, EinApostel der Wiedertilufer (Joh. Denck), 1882; Miiller, Gesch. der Bernishen Tdufer, 1895 Ivimey, Hist, of the English Baptists, 1811-18; Oscar S. Straus, Roger Williams, 1894; A. H. Newman, A Histrrry of the Baptist Churches in the United

—

—









States, 2d ed., 1898.

A. H. N.

J.

BAPTJGEE,

HASKEL (EZEKIEL)

One of the Beni Israelites of Bomba}', subedar-major in the Indian native army; died Feb. 14, 1878, and was buried with military honors by special order of the He held the rank of sirdar baofficer commanding. hadurof the 12th regiment native infantry.and served with distinction throughout the Indian mutiny.

Bibliography: Anglo-Jewish Exhibition Catalogue,

1887,

p. 46.

G. L.

j.

Aramaic equivalent of Hebrew Ben, "a

BAB, son

"

or "son of."

BAB

Town in the district of Mohilev, province of Podolia, Russia, on the River Rov, affluent of the Bug; with a Jewish population of 8,000, of a total

population of 10,614 (1897). The Jewish commuThe nity of Bar is one of the oldest of Podolia. town was formerly called " Rov, " and was destroyed by the Tatars in 1452. In the sixteenth century it received its Sforza, who

whom Among

by

it

new name

in

was born at was rebuilt.

honor of the queen Bona and

Bari, in Apulia, Italy,

the seventeen landlords entered in the lists of the aldermen of Bar in 1565, there are mentioned