Jews are not. Thefe, however, do not amount to above 200; but they are more numerous at Smyrna, where they are reckoned about 6000, and have a good number of fynagogues. Upon the whole, there is hardly any confiderable city or town in the Ottoman empire in which there are not fome of them, tho' every-where oppreffed by the Sultan's officers, in which they only fare as the reft of his fubjects do. centuries, THUS much may fuffice for their history in the eastern Jews in parts, during the three last centuries; it is now time to return Italy, &c. into Europe, and take a view of them thro' all those Chriftian during the three laft ftates wherein they are still tolerated. But here we hope our readers will gladly permit us to be more brief than we have been, with refpect to the fufferings and horrid perfecutions they have been forced to undergo, especially during the 15th and 16th centuries, and beyond, on falfe accufations of crucifying Christian children, stealing confecrated wafers, to ufe them in their conjurations, and the various miracles by which their pretended crimes have been brought to light, and expofed them to the barbarous fury of a zealous populace, and fubjected them to fuch dreadful punishments, as can hardly be read without horror. Thefe, we fay, have been fo frequent, and in fo many parts of Europe, during this epocha, that a bare narrative of them would more than fill one of these volumes; for which reason we shall content ourselves with mentioning fome of the moft confiderable inftances of this zealous cruelty, and the year and place where they have happened, without descending into the many fhocking particulars that attend them. As for matters of a different nature, and which we think worth a curious reader's notice, we shall gladly impart them to him, as they come in course. John XXIII. A. C. WE begin with Italy, where, tho' we have seen them hitherto protected and favoured for the most part by the popes, yet their writers open this 15th century with a dreadful perfecution, which the then warlike pontiff John XXIII. raised Perfecuted by his feveral edicts against them; and not content to perby pope fecute them in his dominions, wrote a letter to the then queen regent of Spain, during the minority of her fon John II. defiring her to act in concert with him; which she did accordingly, and with fuch feverity, that the obliged 16000 of them to renounce Judaifm, whilft of those who perfifted in it, one part were condemned to the flames and other cruel deaths, and the reft were maffacred by the peasants in their flight, except fome few who bought their lives by dint of money. This calamity, however, proved but of fhort duration, at least SMITH Sept. Eccl. notit. • SOLOM BEN VIRG. p. 312. Cc 3 in 1412, 1 Jews do ftill fend their children from Conftantinople, and other parts, to be taught the Hebrew tongue. WE read of about 6000 being fettled at Gallipoli, a city in the Thracean Cherfonefus, near the mouth of the Propontis, and a much greater number at Prufia, on the Myfian coaft, near Mount Olympus; there being reckoned near 12,000 living within the walls of it, whilft the Christians are forced to dwell in the suburbs. They had formerly also a fettlement at Rhodes, near one of the walls of the city, which was thence called the wall and quarter of the Jews; but foon after the raising of the fiege by the Turks, the master of the Rhodian knights proposed to their council the banishing of them; which was readily agreed to, not only out of the whole island, but out of all the places under their dominions. It was likewife there refolved that the Jews not having the fame natural right over their children that other parents have, they fhould baptife and educate them at the public charge, lest they in time should go out of the island, and return to their old religion. As for their parents, they were ordered to fell their effects, and depart within the space of forty days, but were forbid to go and fettle in the Levant, left they should Rhodes ferve as fpies to the Porte. However, upon that island being re-taken by re-taken by the Turks, the Jews returned and fettled in it, the Turks, and are used with greater mildness than the Christians, who A. C. are obliged to leave their shops and warehouses at night, and go and lie in the fuburbs, and villages adjacent, which the 1652. a Sr. G. WHEELER id. ib. p. 185. SPON. Voy. tom. i. p. 209. • STOCHOVE. Voy. of the Levant, p. 227. THE VENOT, ubi fup. tom. i. pofe on the doctors of fo famed This was also the place where other things, that all the bibles were fadly corrupted, except thofe of the original Hebrew, which he faid he had closely ftudied fince his coming to Salonichi. He moreover declared himself a firm adherent to the Jewish religion, which, he said, was allowed on all hands to be of divine original; whereas mankind was much divided about Chriftianity; and in that faith he died, tho' very poor and troubled in mind (6). (6) Epift. Mof. Pardo, ap. Shud Compen. Hift. Jud. Hib. iii. c. 1. Vid. Bafnag, wb. fup. §. 13. Jews Jews are not. Thefe, however, do not amount to above 200; but they are more numerous at Smyrna, where they are reckoned about 6000, and have a good number of fynagogues. Upon the whole, there is hardly any confiderable city or town in the Ottoman empire in which there are not some of them, tho' every-where oppreffed by the Sultan's officers, in which they only fare as the rest of his subjects do. centuries, THUS much may fuffice for their history in the eastern Jews in parts, during the three laft centuries; it is now time to return Italy, &c. into Europe, and take a view of them thro' all thofe Chriftian during the ftates wherein they are still tolerated. But here we hope our three laft readers will gladly permit us to be more brief than we have been, with refpect to the fufferings and horrid perfecutions they have been forced to undergo, efpecially during the 15th and 16th centuries, and beyond, on falfe accufations of crucifying Chriftian children, ftealing confecrated wafers, to use them in their conjurations, and the various miracles by which their pretended crimes have been brought to light, and exposed them to the barbarous fury of a zealous populace, and fubjected them to fuch dreadful punishments, as can hardly be read without horror. These, we fay, have been fo frequent, and in fo many parts of Europe, during this epocha, that a bare narrative of them would more than fill one of these volumes; for which reason we shall content ourselves with mentioning fome of the most confiderable inftances of this zealous cruelty, and the year and place where they have happened, without descending into the many fhocking particulars that attend them. As for matters of a different nature, and which we think worth a curious reader's notice, we shall gladly impart them to him, as they come in course. queen by pope John XXIII. A. C. WE begin with Italy, where, tho' we have feen them hitherto protected and favoured for the most part by the popes, yet their writers open this 15th century with a dreadful perfecution, which the then warlike pontiff John XXIII. raised Perfecuted by his feveral edicts against them; and not content to perfecute them in his dominions, wrote a letter to the then regent of Spain, during the minority of her fon John II. defiring her to act in concert with him; which she did accordingly, and with fuch feverity, that the obliged 16000 of them to renounce Judaism, whilft of those who persisted in it, one part were condemned to the flames and other cruel deaths, and the reft were maffacred by the peasants in their flight, except fome few who bought their lives by dint of money . This calamity, however, proved but of short duration, at least SMITH Sept. Eccl. notit. • SOLOM BEN VIRG. p. 312. Cc 3 in 1412. in Italy; and the Jews had the pleasure foon after to hear that their perfecutor was himself reduced to a more desperate Protected fate than they (L). Nicholas II. being come to the papal by pope chair, began not only to comfort and protect thofe within his Nicholas dominions, but to fupprefs the inquifitors that plagued them. II. A. C. He likewife fent letters into Spain, to prevent their forcing $447. A new ftorm againft them, A. C, 1472. them to abjure their religion; and as to thofe who did it with a good will, he affirmed that they had a right to be admitted into the public pofts, from which the city of Toledo had unjuftly excluded them, as hath been hinted before. THEY had not enjoyed the fruits of that pontiff's patronage many years, before a new storm arose against them from another quarter; but whether defignedly or no, we will not affirm. Sextus IV. had been prevailed upon to canonize the little Simon, who had been murdered, or pretended to have been fo, by the Jews (M), in the city of Trent, ever fince the year 1276; but, for what reafon may be better guessed than told, had not been fainted till now, that is, near 200 years after his pretended martyrdom. This at once revived the hatred and zeal of the people against them, not only in that city and bishopric, but in the territories of the city of Venice. The preachers, under pretence of some special miracle, excited them to fuch a degree, that they plundered and killed all the Jews that fell in their way; infomuch that the doge and fenate were obliged to interpose their authority, to fup, (L) The dire change of fortune of that haughty pontiff is elegantly fet forth in the follow- Qui modo fummus eram gaudens & nomine præful Cunctaque gens pedibus ofcula prona dabat; (M) The Jews are accufed two filver tumblers, out of which they had drank it. The whole ftory of that butchery is painted at full length in one of the churches of that city, in a chapel dedicated to the little faint (8). (7) Vid. Bafn. lib. ix. c. 31. §. 1. (8) Miffon, wb. fup. Bafnag. ub. fup. prefs vour. press the disaster; and in their order to the magistrates of Senate of Padua, commanded them to be treated like their other fub- Venice's jects, and to prevent their being ill used by the populace; be- order in caufe the rumour spread at Trent appeared to them to be falfe, their fa and artfully invented, for some ends which the fenate did not care to dive into. However, this did not hinder the less equitable magiftrates of Trent from banishing them, tho' fome Banished time after they obtained leave to tarry there three days, be- Trent. cause they drove a confiderable commerce in that city. We learn fince, that those three days were fhortened into three hours, on account of their so strenuously defending the city of Buda against the Christians, in the last war with the Turks. out of POPE Alexander VI. not only received thofe whom the kings of Spain and Portugal-had banished, but observing that those that came to Rome met but with a forry reception from their unnatural brethren there, (infomuch, that they must have perished with hunger and mifery, if he had not affifted them) fent exprefs orders to the rest to alter their conduct Some come towards them, and to fupply those poor refugees with means toNaples, to fettle themselves in his dominions, and threatened to banish and are them if they did not comply. To thofe that ftaid in his ter- perfecuted, ritories he gave the fame privileges as the ancient Jews had enjoyed, and endeavoured to procure the fame for the rest 1510. from the other states of Italy, which foon brought vast numbers thither (N). Another part went and fettled in the king dom * See the order of the doge Moceningo, dated April 22, indiction viii. an. 1475, ap. CARDOSO's Las Excellencias, p. 27. MisSON's journey into Italy. (N) Among those whom that pontiff's kindness had invited to Rome, was the learned R. Jochanan, a German, who had been lately fettled at Conftantinople, and became afterwards the master of the famed Picus of Mirandula a prince who had already betrayed an extraordinary fondness for the cabbaliftical writings (9), and was fo confirmed in it by that Jew, that he is reported to have declared, that those who dived into them, dived in the true Picus hath been much cenfured (9) Ap. Manaffe. de Fragilit. præfat. CC 4 for A. C. |