gogues in fuch numbers, that pope Innocent XI was obliged Chriftians to threaten them with excommunication, and to lay a fine offorbidtheir twenty crowns on every one that goes into them ". The Jews Synagogues were heretofore wont to be employed by the popes, as we have had occafion to observe; but, as it was apt to give offence, it hath been fince left off°. 1685. POPE Innocent XI. gave them several marks of his favour; Innocent particularly when the Venetian general Morofini, after his XI. a fuccefsful war in the Morea, brought back a good number of friend to Jewish and Chriftian captives, and gave liberty to the latter, the Jews, but would have kept the former under flavery; that pontif, A. C. being applied to by their brethren, who are there very numerous (G), ordered a congregation to take cognifance of their cafe, and cenfured the conduct of the Venetians; whereupon these gave them their liberty, without fuffering the pope's minifters to intermeddle farther in that matter P. Means to The fame pontif ftrove much to promote their converfion, promote and built feminaries for the maintenance of these new con- their converts, hofpitals for their fick, and caufed fermons to be verfion, preached, to prove that the Meffiah was come, and that Jefus Christ was that Meffiah; but little benefit was reaped from it; because the Jews either abfented from them, or only came to ridicule them, and fometimes committed fhameful indecencies in the churches, where they were preached, tho' there were proper officers to punish them for it. As a farther encouragement to new converts, fome cardinal, or great perfon, was commonly their godfather, and made them fome handfome present after baptifm; they were dreffed in white fattin, and carried about the city in a fine coach during a fortnight, to be seen and congratulated by the fpectators; after which they appeared in a common drefs; and, to prevent their apoftatifing, all that were found guilty of it were condemned to the flames t. But, after all these pains and coft, one fees prove inef plainly enough, that the far greater part ftill remain in their fectual. unbelief; and as for thofe few converts they make, cardinal Barberini, who had bestowed great pains and fums towards " LA ROCQUE'S Memoirs de l'Eglife, lib. v. p. 6o5. NAUDEANA, P. 54. P LA ROQUE, ubi fup. † NAUDEANA. (G) They are reckoned to amount to about 2000 in that capital,where they enjoy full liberty of confcience, have their fyna gogues, academy, and burying- (29) La Rocque's Memoirs, ubi fup. See also the Description of the city of Venice. Their bo that work, was forced to own, a litte before his death, that fuch converfions were only feigned and infignificant o. IT must be owned, however, notwithstanding their tenacimage to the oufnefs for their old religion, that they are not over fcrupunew popes lous whenever their interest clashes with it; fince they oblige themselves to celebrate the inauguration of every new pontif, and to wait on him in the way to the Lateran church, to pay their homage to him. They do indeed endeavour to difculpate themselves, by pretending, that they pay it to him only as to a temporal prince; but they cannot be ignorant that the inauguration of a pope is a mere act of religion, by which he is raifed to the dignity of head of the church, and vicar of Christ upon earth. After all, it is hard to fay who are most to blame; the Jews, for paying fuch an homage to the vicar or representative of Chrift, whom they abhor; or the popes, for exacting that homage to be paid to themselves, whilft they fuffer them to refuse it to their divine master (H). Jews in THE Jews have been fettled a long time at Turin, the caPiedmont. pital of Piedmont or Pignerot, and fome other places of that principality, by an edict or grant, which fecures to them a plenary liberty of confcience; and, though they now-andthen meet with fome difafter from the zealous populace, yet they live more quietly and friendly than in other places of Italy. They had indeed an accident happened to them, an. 1671, which was like to have been attended with fome ill confequences (I), but was by fome means compromised, for 9 WAGENSEIL'S Tela Ignea præfat. (H) There is another ceremony performed at Rome, which, though they have no hand in it, is very mortifying to them. It is the custom for the pope and pricfts to pray for their conver. fion in all churches, on Good Friday; in doing which, inftead of kneeling, as they do at the reft of the prayers, they ftand up whilft that collect is faid, to teftify their abhorrence for the indignities they offered to Chrift on that day, in mocking him with their bended knees (30). (I) A Jewish boy going by fome water, a Chriftian boy took fome of it, and threw it over his head, pronouncing the form of baptifm over him whereupon the grand vicar of Turin, being informed of it, caufed him to be taken from his parents, pretending he now belonged to the church (31). The doctors of Sorbon, and other univerfities, were confulted upon it, but differed in their opinion. At length the Jews appealed to the pope; but we have not been able to learn how that pontif decided the matter. (30) Miffal. Rom. Ferr. in parasc. p. 182, Cajetan. orde Roman, xiv. p. 358, apud Besneg. ubi fup, c, 30, §. z3. - (31) Id. ibid. §. 24. We we have heard no more of it fince r. And thus much fhall Total of fuffice for the hiftory of the Jews in Italy down to the end of their fynathe last century. Thofe who defire to have a fuller account gogues in of their number, wealth, and the present state of their syna- Italy. gogues, may confult the tax of those that are in the ecclefiaftic territories; of which they reckon nine at Rome, nineteen in Campania, thirty-fix in the Marcha D'Ancona, twelve in the patrimony of St. Peter, eleven at Bolonia, and thirteen in Romandiola; for all which, befides what may torted from them by vexatious fuits, they are obliged to pay a yearly tax of 700 crowns and upwards to the holy fee (K). be ex Oppressed revea 1401. WE come now to fpeak of thofe of Germany, and the more Jews in northern regions, during the three laft centuries, where they Germawere very numerous, though much poorer than thofe of ny, PoItaly, as well as worse treated by the priests and populace. land, &c. The fifteenth century opened upon them with a very melancholy profpect. Great numbers had fettled themselves in Thuringia and Mifnia, where the Landgraves, whether thro' avarice or need, made them pay dear for the quiet and liberty they enjoyed, and were still exacting vaft fums from them. Particularly at the very entrance of this century, fuch a large one was imposed on them as they refused to pay; upon which they were all arrested and imprisoned, and could not be dif charged till they had complied. They had however fome Learned learned men among them; particularly the famed R. Jaacob men, Movilin, who was no lefs eminent for the number of his difciples, than for his judicious answers which he wrote to the Sanctiones ceremonial. Roman. lib. i. fect. z. pag. 26. BASNAG. ubi fup. c. 32, §. 25, & feq. Id. ibid. chap. 33. §. 1. (K) The reader may further confult the last will of Zachariah a Porto, a rich Jewish merchant of Urbino, that died at Florence, an. 1671, after he had compiled a concordance on the comments of the thalmud, which he left at his death to the rabbies at Rome, and his library to the academy of it. He bequeathed moreover 24,000 piaftres to his nation; one-fourth part of which was to be divided between the academies of Leg born, Venice, Jerufalem, and of (32) Id. ibid. c. xlt. Wolf, Bibl. Hab. N. 573. p. 358. questions A. C. 1427. Council of cree a gainst them. queftions that had been propofed to him "(L). About this THEY received foon after a new mortification from the council of Bafil; which, finding them very numerous in that city and elsewhere, iffued out a decree, by which all the prelates, where-ever any Jews were, should be obliged to have fer" GANTZ TZEMACH, P. 147. (L) It is fuppofed to be about this time, that the famed concordance, intituled, Meir Nelib, or, The Enlightener of the Way, was compiled. The learned are indeed divided about its genuine author, though it is univerfally allowed that his name was R. Nathan, who flourished foon after the beginning of this fifteenth century. However that be, Reuchlinus caufed it to be printed; fince which there have been feveral editions of that work; the most approved of which is that of Marius Calafio, a learned monk, who made fome confiderable additions to it, particularly a concordance of the books of Efther and Daniel, and an explanation of fundry Chaldaic terms, and of whatever relates to the defcription of the places mentioned in Holy Writ. Calafio died at Rome, an. 1602, and his book was printed, an. 1622 (†), but was become fo fcarce, that a new edition was greatly wished for by the learned; and this is what the Rev. Dr. Romain hath lately obliged them with, with very confiderable improvements. (M) There was about this time a ftrong difpute among the Jewif rabbies concerning divorce; fome young and unlearned fellows among them, having taken upon them to write thefe bills or inftruments, had committed fuch faults in wording them, for want of being well versed in the Jewish rites, as rendered them null and ineffectual. To prevent which therefore, the old ones made an order, that none of thofe bills fhould be valid, but fuch as were drawn by perfons that had been dubbed doctors. And in imitation of the Germans, who bestowed that title on theirs with great ceremony, they began likewife to ufe fome formality in it: and hence is fuppofed that change to have been owing here, as thofe in Spain and Portugal had done by affuming that of Dom. inftead of the worn-out one of Rabbi. Abravaner however was not a little surprised to see the ceremony performed, and the title of Morena, our doctor or teacher, given to those men; but his wonder ceased, when he found the fame done in Italy (33). (†) Vid. Imbonat. Bibl. Rabb, tom. p. 156. (33) Bafnag, ubi fup. c. 33. $3. mons A. C. 1434 mons preached against them, and oblige them to affift at them, under fevere penalties. They were likewife excluded from having any commerce with Chriftians, to be used for fervants, nurses, farmers, or even physicians, or to have any houses near the churches, or towards the centre of cities. They were farther obliged to wear a different habit, by way of distinction; and condemned to lofe whatever fums they lent on church-books, utenfils, and ornaments" (N). All Banished this ftruggle, however, produced little or no change in Ger- Bavaria, many; except that about twenty years after, Lewis X. duke A. C. of Bavaria, banished them out of his dominions, in fpite of 1454. all remonftrances from them or their friends, as well as against his own interest. He even ordered them to march out of forty towns, and as many boroughs as they were fettled in, at one and the fame day and hour, confifcated all their goods, and built gaols, and other public edifices, in the places where they had lived *. A. C. 1492. THERE was a dreadful execution made of thirty of them Burnt at in Mecklenburgh, who were condemned to the flames, toge- Meckther with a prieft, accused to have fold them an hoft, which lemburgh, they had pierced, and was found bloody. Some women and children being of the number of the condemned, a mother in defpair killed two of her daughters with her own hand; and was going to kill a third, but fhe was fnatched out of her hands to be made to undergo a feverer fate . Two years A. C. after, fome others were accufed at Tirnaw in Hungary, to Concil. Bafil. feff. 19. art. 5 & 6. c. 2. p. 547. × AVENTINE'S Annal. Bojor. lib. vii. p. 513. Status Europ. fub Frederick III. c. 32. ap. FREHER's Hift. Germ. tom. vi. p. 79. Y NAUCLER. Chronogr. gener. tom. ii. p. 1110. (N) The fame council made likewife fundry regulations for the encouragement of new converts; fuch as their being allowed to enjoy all their wealth, except what they had got by ufury, which they were obliged to refund to the owners or their heirs. They were likewife allowed to be chofen to offices and places in those cities where they received baptifm; but, left they fhould corrupt each other, as they often did, they were forbid to converfe with each (34) Concil. Bafil. ubi fup. 1494. |