cruelty and treachery with which king Emanuel had used them. But tho' this action of his hath been fo highly applauded by fome of his flatterers ", it hath been no lefs condemned by fome of their more candid and equitable hiftorians. h We have now feen the Jews banished out of four king- An acdoms of Europe, viz. Great-Britain, France, Spain, and Por- count of tugal; but before we pafs into the eaftern parts, it will be thofe that very proper to fay fomething of those which ftill remain in the faid. two laft-mentioned kingdoms, in great numbers, tho' under the cloak and title of new Chriftians, and under the mask of zealous catholics, tho' in their hearts as firmly attached to Their dif Judaifm, as thofe who make open profeffion of it where they fimulation. are tolerated. It is indeed furprifing to fee how fo impious a diffimulation hath been able to fupport and propagate itfelf thro' fo many generations as it has done; fo that the grandees of thofe two nations have in vain made new alliances, changed their names, and have taken up ancient coats of arms; they are still known to be of Jewish extract, if not ftill Jews in their hearts. The monafteries and nunneries are full of them, and the greatest parts of their prebends, priests, inquifitors, and even bishops, are defcended from the fame stock *. This ought to make both clergy and laity tremble, to think that fuch ecclefiaftics do only abuse and prophane their sacraments, and most folemu part of their worship and religion. And yet, Orobio, who relates the fact, was not only perfectly The numacquainted with thofe diffemblers, and had been himfelf of ber and the number †, but gives pregnant proofs of what he fays; in- danger of i OSORI h LEGUIRA Nouvel. Hift. de Portug. lib iv. p. 8. us, lib. i. MARIAN. lib. xxvi. c. 13. Vide LIMBORG Collat. cum Judeo. p. 102. † Ap. BASNAG. 1. ix. c. 25. §. 14. butchered them, and fnatched them even out of the churches, and from the foot of the altar; whilft the magiftracy, inftead of fuppreffing, encouraged the butchery. At length the king himself puta ftop to it, and upon full enquiry into the cause of it, condemn'd the two friers to be burnt, and the magistrates to be degraded. Some foreign authors have indeed pretended that thefe converts had been found celebrating their Paffover after the Jewijh manner; but Mariana's teftimony (23) ought to be of more weight than that of Germans or ftrangers, who relates the fact as we have done. Tho' it must be owned, at the fame time, that the greatest part of those who staid both in Spain and in Portugal, were rather diffemblers than fincere profelytes; and fuch muft prove all conver fions which are wrought by vio·lent means. (23) Hift. de Røb. Spanic. lib. xxviii, tam. ii. c. 17. p. 593 A a 3 fomuch them. Some of their learned turn Jews again. fomuch that he mentions in the very fynagogue of Amster dam, Jews and Jewelles, which are brothers, fifters, or near relations to fome of the best families in Spain and Portugal:" as likewise others that have heretofore been friers and nuns of almost every order, the Jefuits not excepted, who came thither to do penance and reparation for their former apoftacy. WE may add that among thofe who being at length tired with fuch impious diffimulation, have returned to Judaifm, feveral of them were men of great learning, and appear by their works to have been better verfed in the Jewish law than in the gospel. Of that number was Joseph the son of Jehofbuah, who hath continued his chronology down to A. C. 1554. He was a Spaniard by birth, and perhaps the best hiftorian that the Jewish nation hath had fince the great Jofephus. Such was alfo Jofeph Ben Sheveth, or the fon of the rod, another Spaniard, who hath written a collection of fundry neceffary rules, for the right understanding of the Gemarrah, The last we shall name was the famed Ifaac Cardofo, descended from fome of the falfe converts of Portugal, and became one of the first phyficians in Caftile, one of whose works we have often quoted in this chapter (G). For these reasons the (G) He wrote two treatifes in Spanish, one on the ufefulnefs of common and fnow-water, and of drinking liquors hot or cold. The other on the then excellencies or prerogatives belonging to the Jewish nation, and which ought to be esteemed an honour to it, in fpight of all the misfortunes and difperfions which have happened to them for the punishment of their fins. He therein obferves, that God chose them for his peculiar people; that they alone are feparated by him from all other nations; that they received the Sabbath and Circumcifion from him; and that they were taught his law by men infpired by him. This work is followed by a kind of fecond part, which he ftiles Las Calonias de los Hebreos; wherein he confutes ten accufations which the Christians object against them. This laft treatise was written after he had left Spain, and his name of Ferdinand, which he had received at his baptifm, and retired to Venice and Verona, where he took that of Ifaac, about the middle of the laft century. He wrote likewife a treatife at Madrid, concerning fevers; and another of the origin and reftoration of the world; both learned and curious in their kind (24). It is furprising that Bartolocci, who was fo well verfed in Jewish learning, and their writings, fhould have made no mention of the treatise de las Excellencias above-mentioned. (24) De boc. vid. Bafnag, ub. fub, c, 25. §. 18. Wolf Bibl. Hæbr. N. 1265. .689. inquifition inquifition always keeps a watchful eye over all thofe new Chriftians; and the least cause of fufpicion given by them, is fufficient to bring the fevereft punishments upon them; and both Spaniards and Portuguese are still fo fuperftitiously prejudiced against them, that there fcarcely happens any public calamity, but they look upon them as the cause of it, and make them fuffer for it, as they formerly did the profeffed Jews. Cardofo laft-mentioned, hath given us a flagrant inftance of it, which happened towards the beginning of the last century, when a Dominican, at the head of a numerous populace, on fome fufpicious pretence, fell upon those new converts, and plundered and maffacred between four and five thousand of them '. NOTWITHSTANDING all thefe cruel feverities both on Addrefs ftaunch Jews and false converts, they made once more a bold Charles V. push for getting a fresh fettlement in Spain, as foon as they for liberty. heard that Charles V. was come to that crown. They fent fome of the most confiderable of their nation to him into Flanders, to represent to him, that they groaned under the yoke of a religion, which had they been forced to embrace, and were daily expofed to the rigorous profecutions of the mercilefs tribunal of the inquifition: that they carried on with honour the whole commerce of the nation, and were the most ufeful and perhaps the most faithful fubjects of the kingdom; on which account they trufted in his juftice and goodness, that he would grant them the free exercife of their religion; and engaged, on that condition, to give him all the affiftance they could, and to make him a prefent of 800,000 crowns in gold, in return for his kindness. They met with a very gracious re- Gracious ception from that monarch; and the council of Flanders was reception. likewife of opinion, that he ought to accept of their offer, and grant their requeft. But cardinal Ximenes no fooner heard Cardinal of this refolution, than he fent a courier with all speed to in- Ximenes form him, that it was not lawful for him to make a traffic of opposes religion, and to barter the blood of Chrift for money; and that them. the tribunal of the holy inquifition had been inftituted for very good and wife ends; that he ought therefore to follow the steps of king Ferdinand the Catholic, who, in his greatest need, had refufed the 600,000 crowns which thofe very Jews had offered to him for the liberty of continuing peaceably in his dominions : that those who had rejected Chrift from reigning over them, were unworthy of the protection of a Chriftian prince. Our author adds, that Charles yielded to these reasons, and pre 1 CARDOSO las Excellencias, fub. an. 1605. p. 383. FLECHIER'S Life of Cardinal Ximenes, lib. vi. p. 772. A a 4 m Vid. ferred ferred the wholfome council of the cardinal to the perfuafions of his felffb minifters. This was their last effort; which proving fo fuccefslefs, they have had recourfe ever fince to diffimulation, and by pretending to a greater zeal than ordinary for a religion which they abhor, do for the most part pass unobferved, if not unfufpected. The hard WE need not here give an account of the inquifition's fate and proceedings against fuch as are indicted for apoftacy, nor of punishment their dreadful punishment when found guilty. It will be of the ju- fufficient to fay, that in fuch cafes they are delivered up to the daifing fecular power to be put to death, tho' with a strict and foconverts. lemn charge not to fhed their blood; to prevent which they are condemned to be burnt alive. The Jewish authors do bitterly complain that these severities are ftill continued in full rigour against them, at Cordoua, Lisbon, Coimbra, &c. and even in the East and West Indies; and for want of better reprifals, do in their return canonize all thofe fufferers for faints and martyrs, and embellifh their fufferings with legends of miracles wrought in their favour, that is, either to fave them from, or to revenge their deaths: the reader may see a specimen in the margin (H). In the mean time, in order to honour and (H) Thus they tell us of one Sylva a phyfician, who had been kept a prifoner at Lima, during the space of 13 years, where he circumcised himself,' forbore eating of flesh and drinking of wine, and became a perfect Nazarite, under the name of Heli Nazareno Indigno Siervo de Dios al. Sylva. Being at length condemned to the flames, he was no fooner flung into them, than a prodigious ftorm arofe, which overturned the houfe in which he had received his fentence, to the great aftonishment of the very Indians, who owned they never had feen any thing like it (25). Another that was burnt in Portugal, beheld his chains fall off in the midst of the flames, and was no more feen; which made his executioners say that the devil had fetched him away; but the Jews believe that he was miraculously preserved. One Sobremont, a phyfician at Lima, was there burnt alive, after an imprisonment of 22 years, Dom. Lope de Vera, of a noble and Chriftian family, having ftudied fometime at Salamanca, turned Jew, and cir cumcifed himself in prison, and gave himself the name of Judab the believer. He was likewife burnt alive at Valladolid, An. 1644, and died with fuch furprifing conftancy, that the chief of the inquifition was forced to own, that he had never feen fuch an ardent defire to die, fuch a firm affurance of falvation, and fuch an intrepidity, as he beheld in that young man, who died in the flower (25) Cardofo las Excellent.c. 10. p. 322. of and perpetuate their memory, they have taken the method of Made marwriting martyrologies of them in fome places ". which may likewise be seen in the fame note. time to pass over into the eastern parts. A sketch of tyrs by the But it is now Jews. WE begin with those that were fettled in Perfia, Media, Arme- Jews in nia, under the Great Mogul, &c. where, to avoid the frequent the Eaft breaking off the thread of their history, as well as the fcarcity during the of materials, we shall continue their hiftory thro' the 15th, three laft 16th and 17th centuries. They had hardly recovered them-centuries. felves from the long and fatal difafters which they fuffered during the wars of the great Timur Bekh + and his fucceffors, during which thofe in Perfia and Media were not only greatly attenuated and impoverished, but their academies, learning, and learned men, had totally difappeared (I), before they received At Amfterdam, vid. BARRIOS GOUVIRNO popular. Judaico, p. 42. MENASSEH. Efperanza d'Ifrael, p. 99. See the hiftory of that conqueror in vol. v. p. 215, & feq. of his age (26). Thus they preferve their memory to pofferity; and affirm, that God fuffers thefe frequent executions, because he is willing to have fuch faithful witnesses of his unity in all ages and nations of the world. (I) We are told, however, that one of the provinces of Cochemir was filled with Jews which had come thither ever fince the time of Solomon, or of Shalmanezer. Mr. Thevenot defired a correfpondent of his there to enquire of them whether they had the holy fcriptures, and whether they were the fame with ours; but was anfwered, that if there had been any Jews there formerly, there were none of them left then, and that all thofe inhabitants were either Mohammedans or heathens (27). That author tells him, however, that there were fome in China, who still preferved the Old Testament, (26) Carta del Inquifidor Mofcofo a la Condesa de Monterey, ap. Bafnag. lib. ix. 6, 25 ad fin, (27) Bernier Voyag, tom, ii, parts, |