Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

fynagogue within his dominions, was to pay ten crowns per them, A. an. for the inftruction of the catechumens who were willing C. 1555. to embrace Christianity; and by the fecond they were ob liged to wear, the men yellow hats, and the women yellow hoods, to live feparate from the rest of the Christians, and to have their quarter fhut up every night. They were moreover deprived of all fociety, places, merchandize or commerce with the Chriftians, except that of cloth-brokage, which was the only traffic allowed to them. They were limited to one fynagogue in every city, and ordered to fell all their lands in fix months; which fo lowered the price of them, that they did not get the, fifth part of their value, which yet amounted to 500,000 crowns 9. He iffued likewise an ordinance against their books; not indeed like that of his predeceffor Julius III. who caufed them all to be burnt in the lump; for this diftinguished between thofe that contained blafphemies against Christ, and those which only taught or expounded the Jewish religion; the latter of which were tolerated, and the former Aung into the flames (U).

1 BASNAG. ab. fup. §. 17, & feq.

(U) They were likely to have fared much worfe, on an information of 89 women converts from Judaism, who pretended to be poffeffed; and, upon being exorcifed, answered, that the Jews had fent thofe devils into them out of fpight and revenge. The pope, who hated them, and was no great divine, was, on hearing of it, refolving to banish them all, when a Jefuit diverted him from it, by reprefenting to him the abfurdity of the accufation, and the neceffity of making a stricter enquiry into it. The pretended demoniacs were accordingly ordered to be examined by fcourging; and upon receiving the firft ftrokes, confeffed that they had been drawn into this impofture by fome courtiers, who hoped to inrich themselves by the fpoils of the

Jews, whether they were ba-
nished or put to death. Those
courtiers were thereupon put to
death that night; and the pon-
tif, being informed of it, cried
out, I might have been damned, for
unjustly putting the Jews to death,
had not my good Jefuit prevent-
ed it. I will pray God to convert
them; but whilst I live will I ne-
ver hate nor moleft them as I have
done. This flory we have from
an author (18) who lived pretty
near this time, and who tells us
he had it from his own brother,
who was chaplain to cardi-
nal Granville; and, if true, may
be a good caution against giv
ing too eafy a credit to fuch
kinds of accufations against the
Jews, as well as to the notion
of poffeffions and witchcraft
(19).

(18) Lewis Guion diverf. lessons, tom. ii. lib. iii. c. 9. (19) Bafnag ub. fup.

[ocr errors]

§. 18.

THE

Council

THE cardinal Charles de Boromeo, bishop of Milan, and of Milan's fince canonized, not only enacted feveral canons against alts them, in the first council he held in that metropolis, which against were much of the same kind with those of Paul IV. abovethem, A. mentioned; but defired all the Chriftian princes to do the C. 1565. fame'; and all this in order to promote as much as poffible their converfion. But that edict fhews at the fame time that they were become fo numerous and powerful, as well as interfperfed with the Chriftians, that there was fome reason to fear them, not only at Milan, but in other places of Italy, unless they were confined to their own feparate quarters, and interdicted as much as poffible all kind of converse and dealings with the Chriftians.

Pius V's

POPE Pius V. was still more fevere to them, not only layedict ing them under the same harsh restrictions, but charging them against in his bull against them with treachery and falfhood; with enthem, A. couraging theft, lewdnefs, and other vices; with dealing in C. 1569. magic, forcery, and fortune-telling; and with every thing that could render them odious to the Chriftians: on which ac

count they were ordered to be banished out of all places of his dominions, excepting the cities of Rome and Ancona (W). Sextus V's Sextus V. acted with more franknefs towards them, and fairly grant, A. owned that the profit he reaped from them was the chief C. 1587. motive of his tolerating them. A certain rabbi named Meir,

or Magin, of French extract, but who had refided fome time at Venice, came about this time to Rome, and being a man of learning and address, dedicated a book to him, with fome verfes in his commendation; and presently after petitioned him for the fole privilege of fettling there a filk manufacture; pretending that he had an excellent fecret for multiplying of filk-worms. Sextus not only granted his request, but revoked all bulls and edicts of his predeceffors to the contrary,

r Concil. Mediolan. I. an. 1565. cap. 14. De Judæis Conc. tom. xv. p. 333. ap. eund.

*

(W) It is fomewhat furprife. ing, that if they were really guilty of thofe crimes, they fhould be fuffered to ftay in any place, much more in his capital; but that pontif had his reafons for it; tho' thofe he gives in his edict will hardly be deemed ferious, viz. that he indulged them to live there, to put the people in mind of Chrifl's

fufferings that he might have a more watchful eye over them; that the fanctity of the place, and example of the Chriftians, might encourage their conver fion, &c. But the true motive was the promoting commerce with the eastern parts, and the great advantage accruing to the holy chamber from it.

tho'

tho' confirmed by oath, or backed with fentence of excommunication. His view was to enrich himself by laying a good heavy tax on every pound of filk; tho' his granting the monopoly to him could not but prove prejudicial to all that dealt in that commodity.

CLEMENT VIII. confirmed the bull of Pius V. against Clement them ", by which they were banished cut of the ecclefiaftical VIII. his ftates; but added the city of Avignon to thofe of Rome and bull, A. C. Ancona, where they have been settled ever fince, with full li- 1593. berty of their religion. He gave much the fame reason for his indulgence that his predeceffor Pius had done, viz. the promoting their converfion. However, they did not make him a fuitable acknowlegement for it, but, on the contrary, applied to him that prophecy of Zechariah, Smite the Shepherd, and the fheep fhall be fcattered (X); which made Abraham Echelenfis tax them with horrid ingratitude, for curfing, like Shimei, a prince from whom they had received fuch fingular favours. But it is time to take a view of them in other parts of Italy, where they had likewife very confiderable fettle

ments.

THEY are tolerated in all the Venetian territories x, and Jews at claim in part their protection from that republic, on account Venice. of fome eminent fervices they did to it in the wars with the Turks, particularly at the fiege of Candia. But they are still more numerous and flourishing in its capital, whither the Hebrew great printer, Daniel Bomberg, came from Antwerp, and bebible printgan for the first time to print Hebrew bibles y; for the cor- ed, A. C. recting of which he kept several, some say above 100, learned 1511.

t BULLAR, tom. ii. Pii V. Conftitut. 80. SPOND, ann. fub. an. 1569. See his Privilege in BARTOLOC. Bibl. Rabb. tom. iv. p. 20. BASNAG. ub. fub. §. 22. * LUZAT CARDOZO, ap. Eafnag. ibid. c. 32. §. 1. Y GANTZ TZEMACH, fub. an. 1271. p. 151.

(X) This prophecy (20) was variously applied by them; by fome to the grand fignor, under whom they lived a miferable life, as we have lately feen, and whofe empire being destroyed, the Jews were to conquer the Holy Land, and afterwards the world. R. Solomon Farchi applied it to the Roman emperors.

8

But the famed Manaffe ben If-
rael hath fixed it upon the Ro-
man pontif, who files himself
the great shepherd, the head fhep-
herd next to God, and his vicar
upon earth. And it was this his
comment on the prophet which
filled Echelones with fuch indig
nation against them.

(20) F. Simon Catal. Biblior.

Jews

[ocr errors]

Jews in pay (Y). Bomberg was likewife defirous to print fome good Hebrew grammar, and R. Abraham de Balmis was ordered to compile one accordingly; but dying before it was finished, it was afterwards compleated by R. Calonymos, a learned Jew, then at Venice. Besides those two books, he printed a great number of other works of the Jewish rabbies, for which his memory is still dear to the learned world, R. David especially to the Jews. Here likewife lived R. David, the fon de Pomis. of Ifaac de Pomis, who, in gratitude to this republic, wrote a book to prove that its laws were of divine original, and that God had promifed by his prophet to preferve fo holy a commonwealth. This learned rabbi boafted himself to be defcended from fome of those Jewish families, whom Titus had transported from Jerufalem to Rome; and mentions two of his ancestors; viz. Ifaac Rich, and Eliah Hakkodefb, or the faint, over the tombs of which two miraculous fires had been observed to shine during the space of seven nights. David must have been a prodigy of learning even from his infancy, if, as Bartolocci affirms, he wrote his Tzemach David, the sprout or branch of David, but different from that often quoted in this chapter, at the age of feven years. But this is a mistake of that author (Z); and he

His Tze

mach David.

only

BARTOL. ub. fup. tom.

z Vid. MAITTAIR annal. Typogr. Orlandi. Orig. della Stampa. PALMER'S Hiftory of Printing, &c. ii. p. 40.

(Y) Felix Pratenfis had the care of that impreffion of the bible, with the Chaldee paraphrafe, and the commentaries of feveral learned rabbies, and dedicated it to pope Leo X. But the edition is far from being the beft, thro' the difficulty of rangeing the various Mafforetic readings in a right order. He printed a fecond, in which the inquifitors retrenched feveral things, which they thought injurious to Chriftianity; the preference is therefore given to a third in folio, printed ann. 1548, at the head of which is a preface of R. Faacob Chajim, formerly mentioned.

(Z) Bartolocci feems quite to have mistaken his meaning, where he tells us, that being at

Bevagna (whither his father and he had retired from Spoleto, and having been plundered of all their effects on their journey, were reduced to the greatest poverty) he found the book of R.Ñathan, and having read it attentively, formed the defign of abridging it. Some time after, the Meturgaman and Thibby of Elias Levita being fallen into his hands, together with Kimchi's Roots, from all these he compiled his Tzemach, at his leifure, and called it by that name, because he wrote it by little and little; and it is plain that he did not publish it till the year 1587, that is, after fome others of his works.

He was invited into feveral places where he practised phyfic, with great fuccefs; but the

bishop

only compiled it at his leifure, from a MS. dictionary in Hebrew, written by one of his ancestors, about the beginning of the 12th century, which he enriched with every thing valuable in those of rabbi Nathan, Elias Levita, and D. Kimchi; fo that it hath all the Hebrew words, and all the rabbinic terms, in an alphabetical order, together with the Latin and Italian explanation of them.

HERE flourished likewife R. Shimfba, fince named Simeon R. ShimLuzati, who published his Socrates, in which he fhews that fha, A. C. the greatest geniufes are weak, and apt to err, when they are 1613. not guided by revelation b. He published likewise another treatise on the prefent ftate of his nation, of which we shall have a more proper occafion to speak in the close of this chapter. R. Samuel Nachmiah, a native of Theffalonica, alfo Samuel fettled in this metropolis; and, with his fon David, and fome Nachmiof his family, abjured Judaifm, and took the name of Morofi- ah, A. C. ni. Samuel, to fhew the fincerity of his conversion, wrote the 1649. book called Derek Emunah, or, The way to the faith, in Italian; wherein he fhews the ufeleffnefs of the Jewish ceremonies; that the 613 precepts taken from the law †, are obferved by no Jew, and explodes all the fects and fuperftitions of the Jews. He retired to Rome, where he died in a good old age, an. 1687 o. R. Mordecai Korkos, who taught R. Mor at Venice, and was a native of it, did an action no lefs bold decai and odious to thofe of his nation, in writing a treatise against Korkos's the Cabbalah, and even against the ten Sephiroth, the moft fub- book alime part of it, which fhews his excellent tafte for true gainft the found divinity, as well as his courage in expofing himself to the hatred, refentment, and anathema of the cabbaliftic tribe. For fo high is their efteem of that science, that they look upon every fuch attempt againft it; as levelled against the fundamentals of religion; for which reason their doctors would not fuffer it to be printed.

FRA. PAULO. Hiftor. Degli. Ufcocchi. De his vid. fup. vol. iii. p. 6. & (C). BARTOLOC. ub. fup. tom. iv. p. 404.

bishop of Chiufi caufed the gates of that city to be fhut up against him, tho' he was very much wanted there. He paffed from thence to Rome, and thence to Venice, where he ended his days; and there, to comfort himself in fome measure for the great mif

fortunes he had gone thro', he
wrote his Treatise on the miferies
of human life; which he inter-
fperfed with fome of the bright-
eft texts in Ecclefiafle:, and is
rather a comment in Italian on
that facred book, with his notes
upon it (21).

(21) Vid. Bartoloc, ub. fup. Walf, Bibl. Rabb. N. 499. Bafnag.ub. fup &c.

Cabba

lah, A. C.

1672.

1674.

MOD. HIST. VOL. XIII.

D d

MUCH

« AnteriorContinuar »