The history of the Jews: From the war with Rome to the present time

Up to this time, as has been already remarked, the Spanish Jews had enjoyed a freedom from persecution which presents a favourable contrast to the monstrous wrongs and cruelties which they underwent in other lands. The fourteenth century witnessed the gathering of the storm which, in that which ensued, was to burst with such deadly fury on the devoted race; nor were they even now exempt from occasional foretastes of its visitation. At its outset Ferdinand IV., known in Spanish history as ‘the Summoned,’[142] a youth at that time under age, occupied the throne, but the administration of affairs was in the hands of his mother, the queen regent. It should be noted that, although the Jews still retained the rights and privileges accorded them by previous generations, they were fast becoming odious in the eyes of all classes. The haute noblesse were jealous of the court favour which the Jews had so long enjoyed, and were seeking for an opportunity to oust them from it; the lesser nobles were deeply in their debt, and looked to a popular outbreak as the readiest mode of ridding themselves of their encumbrances; the priesthood were, as a rule, though with some noble exceptions, their bitter enemies, continually denouncing them to the people, as the causes of every national misfortune that befell them. This was partly due to religious bigotry, partly to their jealousy of the greater wealth and the superior medical skill of the Jews, which prevented them from acquiring the money and the influence over the people which a successful exercise of that profession would have ensured. As for the people, they were largely under the influence of the clergy, and readily believed the stories poured into their ears. Besides, the spectacle of the riches and luxury in which the Jews lived provoked at once their indignation and their rapacity. The train had been laid, and it needed nothing but the application of the spark to fire it.

Ferdinand’s favourite minister was a Jew named Samuel, a man of great ability, and, it is said, of a haughty, imperious temper. His death was mysterious. An assassin, who was never discovered, entered his house, A.D. 1305, at Seville, and stabbed him to the heart. It was not difficult to guess at the motives or the instigators of the deed; but nothing was brought to light. His successor seems also to have been a Jew, for a league was formed among the grandees against him. They presented a petition to the Cortes, assembled at Medina del Campo, requesting that measures might be taken to restrain the insolence of the Jews. An order was passed, accordingly, that they should not in future be collectors of taxes.

This was soon followed up by other like attacks. In 1313, Rodrigo, Bishop of St. Jago, held a provincial council at Zamora, at which manifestoes were presented, which showed but too plainly how fast the animosity against the Jews was ripening. Several of the constitutions of the council breathe the same spirit. It was enacted that Jews, henceforth, shall hold no post or dignity; and any Jews who hold them shall resign such within thirty days. They shall not be admitted as witnesses against Christians, nor claim, as hitherto, the benefit of the laws. No Christian women shall be nurses to Jewish children. Jews shall not attend Christians as physicians. They are prohibited from inviting Christians to their feasts. They shall not associate with Christians, lest they teach them their errors.

Some of these decrees were re-enacted at the Councils of Burgos and Salamanca, in 1315 and 1322, where it was also ordered that any Christians should be excommunicated who were present at Jewish marriages; and any Jews who called themselves by Christian names should be punishable as heretics!

In 1325, Alphonso XI., son of Ferdinand IV., was declared to be of age. His first acts showed that, whatever might be the sentiments of the nobles, the clergy, or the people, he was resolved to uphold the Jews. He chose as his minister of finance, Joseph of Ecija, a Jew of great administrative ability; and one of his first acts was to declare null and void various bulls and prelates’ letters, which had been obtained by persons owing debts to Jews, by which those debts were cancelled. He also granted the Jews licence to acquire landed property, though he limited the amount which they might hold. But he could not overcome the popular animosity against them. Don Joseph was presently accused of having, in concert with Count Alvar Osorio, bewitched the king by giving him magical potions. Osorio was sacrificed to these machinations; and Don Joseph, though he escaped on that occasion, was not long afterwards charged with keeping fraudulent accounts, and dismissed from his office. Probably, however, the king deprived him of his situation as the only mode of saving him from the malice of his enemies, for we find that he did not withdraw his friendship from him.[143]

In 1348, the king was induced to sign an order for the banishment of all Jews from his dominions, on account of an insult which they had offered to the Host, as it was being carried in procession through the streets. The order was cancelled, however, on the discovery being made that the supposed insult was a mere accident, and the person by whom it was thought to have been offered was a Christian. The revocation provoked a riot, which was with difficulty put down by a determined exercise of the royal authority.

This disturbance had hardly been quelled, when one more furious still broke out, caused by the spread of the plague, which had originated in Germany, into the Spanish peninsula. The cry was raised here, too, that the Jews had poisoned the waters of the Tagus—a crime impossible of commission! Nevertheless, on that indictment massacres were perpetrated in several of the cities, especially in Toledo, and 15,000 Jews are said to have been murdered.

During the reign of Pedro, called the Cruel, who succeeded in A.D. 1350, the Jews recovered all, and more than all, their former ascendency. Notwithstanding the prohibition of the law, Samuel Levi, a Jew, became the royal treasurer. He it was who built the famous synagogue at Toledo, which in its own peculiar style has no rival. He was a man of rare ability, and his administrative genius soon filled King Pedro’s coffers; but, unhappily for himself, it filled his own also. A charge was brought against him of mal-administration of the revenues; and, though it does not appear that this was proved, it brought to light another and far more grievous offence—that of being too wealthy. He was sent to prison where he was racked, to oblige him to disclose the full extent of his riches, and he expired under the torture.

But though the king sacrificed his favourite minister to his own avarice, he did not withdraw his countenance from the Jews. They continued, to all outward appearance, to prosper; but the public hatred of them was ever on the increase, and the time approaching nearer and nearer when a heavy reckoning would have to be paid. Lopes de Ayala, the chancellor of the Count of Trastamara, afterwards king, under the title of Henry II., expresses the general sentiment of the Spanish people respecting them. He describes them as ‘the blood-suckers of the afflicted people, as men who exact fifty per cent., eighty, a hundred—.... Through them,’ he writes, ‘the land is desolate; ... tears and groans affect not their hard hearts; their ears are deaf to petitions for delay.’ Much of Pedro’s unpopularity was due to the favour he showed to this people. He was himself stigmatized as a Jew. It was affirmed that he was the child of a Hebrew mother, who had been substituted for the true Infant of Spain. The Jews stood bravely by him, and suffered heavily in consequence. Many were slain for espousing his cause at Toledo, many more at Nejara; and at Monteil, where the final struggle between Pedro and Henry took place, the slaughter of Jews was enormous.

But Henry, when once seated on the throne (A.D. 1369), was too politic a ruler to alienate such useful servants of the crown as the Jews had proved themselves to be. He pursued the traditionary policy towards them, interposing the shield of his protection between them and the hostile people. To the remonstrances addressed to him by the Cortes against their occupation of posts of dignity and importance, or possessing the same rights and advantages enjoyed by Christians, he simply replied that he considered it right that their ancient status should continue.

Henry died A.D. 1379, and was succeeded by John I., who pursued the policy of his father and grandfather, so far as the Jews were concerned, refusing to listen to the angry remonstrances continually addressed to him by the Cortes respecting them. Early in his reign occurred the strange but successful plot of the Jews against their countryman, Joseph Pichon, a man of wealth and influence, holding the office of Crown Treasurer. They had apparently become jealous of his favour with the king, and resolved on compassing his death. They applied accordingly to John for a warrant to punish a convicted unbeliever,[144] though without revealing his name. The king having unsuspiciously signed it, they bribed the executioner to put the sentence immediately into effect, and Pichon was seized and beheaded, without having even been informed for what crime he was arraigned. The king, when he discovered the trick that had been played on him, was extremely indignant. He punished the immediate authors of the crime with death, and deprived the Jews of the right of determining their own causes.

The king’s influence was to some extent successful in restraining the popular hatred of the Jews. But when he died, A.D. 1390, and was succeeded by his son, Henry III., a lad eleven years old, there was another popular outbreak. Ferdinand Martinez, Archdeacon of Ecija, had, during the reign of John, been continually in the habit of reviling the Jews, and stirring up the populace to attack them. The late king had discountenanced his proceedings; but he was no sooner removed than Martinez threw aside all restraint, and by his harangues roused the smouldering hatred towards the Jews, which had long possessed the people, into a fierce and destructive flame. The Jews’ quarter was attacked. Pillage, murder, violation, followed; four thousand were slaughtered, the archdeacon heading the mob, and urging them on to still greater atrocities. No steps were taken to punish the perpetrators of this violence. The contagion soon spread to other cities. In Cordova, in Valencia, in Burgos, in Toledo, in Barcelona, in Pampeluna, and other towns of Aragon and Navarre, there were similar massacres. As many as two hundred thousand Jews are said to have been forced to receive baptism. Such as escaped with their lives were stripped of all their possessions, and their houses plundered and burned.

King Henry III., who, like many other sovereigns, was largely dependent on the Jews for the maintenance of his revenues, was reduced to great straits to support his household expenses. An anecdote is related of him which, if true, curiously illustrates the history of those times. He is said to have found his exchequer so low one day as to be obliged to pawn his cloak to pay for his supper. He was informed that in the palace of the archbishop an entertainment was in progress, at which every delicacy was provided in profuse abundance. He repaired thither in disguise, and learned not only that the wealth of the revellers had been truly reported, but that it had been amassed by fraud and peculation. The next day he sent for the grandees of the court, and among them the archbishop, and inquired of him, ‘How many kings have you known in Spain?’ The archbishop answered, ‘Three—your grandfather, your father, and yourself.’ ‘Nay,’ rejoined Henry; ‘young as I am, I can remember at least twenty, though there ought to have been only one. But it is time that I put my rivals down, and reign alone.’ At the same moment a band of soldiers, accompanied by an executioner, and carrying ropes and gibbets, entered the apartment. The grandees threw themselves at his feet, and entreated his mercy. He spared their lives, but required a strict account of their management of his affairs, obliging them to refund large sums which they had embezzled.

Many Spanish Jews were eminent in literature during this century. Rabbi Abner, the physician, known as a Jewish writer previously to his conversion, wrote afterwards an able refutation of Kimchi’s work against Christianity. Solomon Levi, also a convert to the Gospel, is known in history as the Bishop of Burgos, a learned and successful writer. This also is the age of Don Santo de Cañon, the celebrated troubadour, who, like the two before mentioned, renounced Judaism for Christianity.