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 HEBREWS 597 of their bloodiest persecutions, the most fright- ful of which took place in the cities on the Rhine during the great desolation by the black plague which depopulated Europe from the Volga to the Atlantic (1348-'50). Pointed out to the ignorant people as having caused the pestilence by poisoning the wells, the Jews were burned by thousands on the public squares, or burned themselves with their fami- lies in the synagogues. Almost every imperial city had a general persecution of the Jews. The Swiss towns imitated their neighbors, almost all banishing their Jews. With the growing influence of the inquisition, the Jews of southern Europe, too, suffered the same fate. The pro- tection of the popes being gradually withdrawn, they were banished from the cities of Italy into separate quarters (ghetti), and obliged to wear distinctive badges; persecutions became more frequent ; in 1493 all the Jews of Sicily, about 20,000 families, were banished. In Spain, du- ring a long drought in 1391-'2, the Jewish in- habitants were massacred in many cities. The condition of the Jews grew worse in the fol- lowing century, until their extirpation from the whole country was determined upon, and, after repeated but fruitless attempts at con- version by the stake, finally carried into effect by Ferdinand and Isabella (1492). More than 70,000 families sought refuge in Portugal, where for a large sum of money the fugitives were allowed to remain for a few months, in Africa, Italy, Turkey, and other countries. Not the fifth part of them survived the hor- rors of compulsory expatriation, shipwreck, and subsequent famine. The feeling observer may find a compensation in the fact that while these events happened, propitious winds car- ried three small caravels across the Atlantic to a new world, whose enervating treasures were destined to assist the inquisition in undermi- ning the power of the oppressors, and whose future institutions were to inaugurate an era of freedom to the descendants of the oppressed. The Jews of Portugal were banished soon after (1495) by King Emanuel, being robbed of their children under 14 years of age, who were sent to distant islands to be brought up as Chris- tians. The numerous converted Jews of the peninsula and their descendants were still per- secuted for more than two centuries by govern- ments, inquisitors, and mobs. These persecu- tions, which eventually carried the bulk of the European Jewish population into the provinces of Poland and Turkey, similar events in the East during the crusades, a long series of per- secutions in Germany, and in central and south- ern Italy in the 16th century, and bloody mas- sacres by the revolted Cossacks under Chmiel- nicki in the S. E. regions of Poland, together with a general and minutely developed system of petty oppression, extortion, and degradation, to which the Jews were subjected in most parts of Europe during the 250 years following their expulsion from the Iberian peninsula, could not but exercise a disastrous influence upon the cul- ture and literature of the people. The spirit of cheerful inquiry, study, and poetry which dis- tinguished the Spanish-Provencal period, was gone. The critical knowledge and use of the Hebrew was neglected, the study of the Talmud and its commentaries became the almost exclu- sive occupation of the literary youth, and ca- balistic speculations replaced philosophy, pro- ducing in Poland various schools of religious enthusiasts called 'Hasidim (pietists). A bold Turkish Jew, Shabthai Tzebi, who, like the Persian Aldaud or Alroy in the 12th century, was proclaimed by his cabalistic followers the expected Messiah of Israel, found numerous adherents even in various parts .of Europe (1666), whose delusion was destroyed only by his compulsory conversion to Mohammedan- ism. Literature and science, however, still found scattered votaries, especially in northern Italy, Turkey, and Holland; and besides the great talmudists, theologians, or commentators of this period, Don I. Abarbanel, I. Arama, J. and L. Habib, Mizrahi, O. Bartenura, O. Sforno, I. Luria, J. Karo, the author of the talmudical abridgment or code Shulhan arukh, E. Ash- kenazi, Alsheikh, S. Luria, M. Isserels, M. Ja- feh, Sirks, S. Cohen, Lion of Prague, E. Lent- schiitz, J. Trani, J. Hurwitz, H. Vital, S. Edels, Y. Heller, Shabthai Cohen. A. Able, D. Op- penheimer, the collector 01 the best Hebrew library (now in Oxford), Tzebi Ashkenazi, H. Silva, J. Rosanis, D. Frankel, J. Eybeschutz, J. Emden, H. Landau, Elias of Wilna, &c., we find the philosophers and men of science Bibago, S. Cohen, Amatus, Almosnino, De Castro, A. Zacchuto, J. del Medigo, M. Hefetz, and Nieto; and among the poets, grammari- ans, critics, lexicographers, and historical writers, De Balmes, Elias Levita, A. Farissol, Solomon ben Melekh, Jacob ben Hayim, Geda- liah, Yahiah, A. de Rossi, De' Pomi, D. Gans, S. Arkevolte, Lonsano, Manasseh ben Israel, the defender of the Jews before Cromwell, S. Norzi, S. Luzzato, Leo de Modena, S. Mortera, J. Orobio, Shabthai ben Joseph, B. Mussaphia, De Lara, J. Cardoso, J. Abendana, S. Hanau, M. H. Luzzato, J. Heilprin, Azulai, and others. Beyond the limits of the Turkish empire there was scarcely any trace of Jewish literature in the East, though there were and are still nu- merous Jewish communities in Persia, north- ern Arabia, Independent Tartary, and Afghan- istan, as well as scattered colonies, mostly of more or less mixed race and religion, in India, China, Cochin China, Yemen, Abyssinia, and other parts of Africa, partly of very ancient date, partly founded by escaped Portuguese and Spanish New Christians, some of whom also settled in parts of Brazil and Guiana du- ring the occupation by the Dutch. In Europe the last of the three great religious struggles, against paganism, against Mohammedanism, and between the contending Christian sects, all of which were destructive to the Jews, was terminated by the peace of Westphalia (1648). Catholicism was triumphant in the south and