last of March they made an Edict in the same City in which they expressed That seeing the Iewes in their Countries drew many Christians to turne Iewes and especially some Noble-men of their Kingdome of Andaluzia that for this cause they banished them under most heavy penalties c. So that the cause of their banishment was not any disloyalty at all Now what amongst many others in all Christendom one famous Lawyer in Rome and Osorius an excellent and most eloquent Historian have thought I shall here relate In the year 1492 saith the Lawyer Ferdinand called the Catholick being King of Spaine drove out of his Country all the Iewes that were living there from the time of the Babylonian and Roman Captivity and were very rich in houses and goods and that upon pain if they went not away within the terme of 6 moneths that all their houses and goods should be confiscated unto the Exchequer which as we have said were very great Whereupon they leaving the Kingdome of Castile they went over many of them into Portugal as being the nearest place In the year 1497 there being an Alliance contracted between the Kings of Castile and Portugal the Iewes at the request of the said King Ferdinand were banished out of Portugal but it being against the will of Emauël King of Portugal to have them banished out of his Country he resolved to oblidge them to become Christians promising never to molest them neither in Criminall matters nor in the losse of their goods and exempted them from many burdens and Tributs of the Kingdome This Emanuël being dead Iohn III. succeeded in his place in the Kingdome of Portugal who being excited by others said That what his Father Emanuë had done concerning the not-troubling them was of no valew because they lived not as was convenient and that without the authority of the Pope of Rome his father could not graunt any such thing for which cause he would that for those that lived amish there should be proceeded against as against the Mores in Castile And sending to Rome to disanull the said promises it was not onely not graunted to him but moreover they reprooved his appearance there and praised and approoved the promises made by his Father Emanuël to the Iewes publishing a general pardon to all that were taken which were about 1500 and they all were set free Which Bull was granted by Clement VII by the intervention of all the Consistory of Cardinals Afterwards the said king Iohn sent once againe to desire the former Licence with so many replications and triplications that at length the Pope granted it But a few dayes after it was revoked againe with a generall Pardon to all that were taken which were 12000 with such a determination that the same Licence should never be granted as being against all right and reason This troubled Don Iohn the King very much and withall the Cardinal his brother who came in these last dayes to be King of Portugal himself Great Paul III. of the house of Farnesia succeeding to Clement the VII there was a request tendred to the Pope for power to bring in the Inquisition into this Kingdome The Pope would not grant it saying He could not and that it was a thing against reason and Iustice but on the contrary confirmed the promises made by the King Don Emanuël his Father and pardonned all the delinquents since the time of violence unto that day Don Iohn seeing this sent an Embassadour meerly for that busines to the Pope but could obtaine nothing at all for which cause King Iohn resolved to entreat the Emperour Charles the V. than passing for Rome as Conquerour over the Turks having wonn Tunis and Goleta that in this his Triumph he would take occasion to desire this favour from the Pope that the King of Portugal might set up the Inquisition in his Kingdome it being an old custome that those that triumphed should aske something of the Pope that they most desired The Emperour than having desired this the Pope answered him that he could not do it by reason of the agreement made and the promises of the King Don Emanuël which he had found by an Apostolicall Nuntio in Portugal in the year 1497 at which time the Iewes were forced and compelled to become Christians The Emperour replied Let that sinne fall on him and the Prince his sonne the Apostolicall seat shall be free from it So the Pope granted it because the Emperour Charles the V. was brother in law to King Don Iohn of Portugal and besides they treated at that time to enter further in affinity and to marry their children which since was effected After Paul the III. granted this there was a new Pardon given in generall to all that were taken unto that time amounting the Number unto 1800. But the King refusing to obey the Pardon and to free the Prisonners the Pope tooke it very ill and sent for this onely busines for his Nuntio one Monsegnor Monte Paliciano who since was Cardinal of the Church of Rome And the King for all this not obeying the Pope made the Nuntio to six the Pardon upon the doores of the Cathedral Churches and the Nuntio caused the Prisons to be opened and there were set free about 1800 prisonners He that sollicited this busines at Rome was one Seignor Duarte de Paz a Cavallier of the Order of St. Iohn whom to search out there were appointed at Rome ten men disguised these having found him gave him fifteen wounds and left him for dead thus wounded he was carried to the house of Seignor Philip Estrozi This being reported to the Pope Paul the III. he caused him to be carried to the Castle of S. Angelo where he gave order to have him nobly cured That same Seignor was by the Pope by all the Cardinals and the whole Court in great respect At the same time that this man was hurt the Emperour Charles the V. was at Rome with his Army On the time when he began to treat of this busines with Clement the VII seeing the Kings importunity he made a Bull and gave licence to all the Portugals of that Nation of the Iewes that they might go and live in the Church-Dominions and whosoever will come in the said Dominions that he shall have freedom to live as at the first in his Iewish profession and that at no time they should be enquired into but after the same manner as they were wont to live in Portugal so they should live there The said Bull passed all the Consistory and being confirmed and received by the said Portugals they began some of them to depart to live in Ancona being a sea-port more commodious then others which being known by the King and Cardinal of Portugal they caused to be proclaimed in all the Kingdome that upon paine of death and losse of all their goods no man should dare depart the Kingdome Clement being dead in his place succeeded as we have said Pope Paul
the III. who confirmed the same Priviledges Afterwards in the year 1550. Paul the III. died and Iulius the III. succeeded who ratified the fore-mentioned Priviledges given by his Praedecessours and the whole Apostolike Seat inviolably In those times there were many Doctors that wrote on this matter amongst whom the chiefest were Alciat and the Cardinal Parisius in 2 3 parte Consiliorum pro Christianis noviter conversis shewing by reason and law that considering they were forced and not converted willingly that they had not fallen nor do fall under any Censure These reasons being considered of by the Princes of Italy they graunted likewise the same Priviledges viz. Cosmo the Great Duke of Florence and Hercules Duke of Ferrare and within few yeares Emanuël Felibert Duke of Savoye and were by all his successours confirmed In the yeare 1492 when they were banished from Castile we read in the Chronicles of that Kingdome that the Lords of that place did complain that their Cities and Townes were destroyed and dis-inhabitated and had they beleeved any such thing that they would have opposed the Kings decree and would never have given their consent to it That was the cause that Don Emanuël of Portugal seeing on the one side apparent dommage should he let them depart his Kingdome and on the other side not being able to breake his promise made to the King of Castile he caused them to be compelled to the Faith upon paine of Death that they should not depart out of his Dominions The Catholiq King was blamed of all Christian Princes and especially by the Senate of Venice as Marcus Antonius Sabellicus doth write for having banished a Nation so profitable to the Publicq and Particular good without any kinde of pretence And so the Parlement of Paris likewise did extreamly wonder at such a determination And truely good reason there was to wonder for we see since what the Senat of Venice hath done who never deliberats or puts into execution any thing without great judgement having the advantage of all Republicqs in their gouvernment and leaving behinde them the Romans Carthagenians Athenians and most learned Lacedemonians and that Parlement of Paris which in the gouvernment of affaires was alwayes most prudent Most of those that were banished passed to the Levant who were embraced by the Ottoman-familly al the succeeding Kings wondring at it that the Spanjards who make profession to be a politiq Nation should drive out of their Kingdoms such a people Moreover Sultan Bajazet and Sultan Soliman received them exceeding well the coming of the Iewes to them being very acceptable and so did likewise all their successours considering of how great a profit and benefit their residing in their dominions was And in the yeare 1555. Paul the IV. being chosen Pope of Rome who before was called Cardinal de Chiesi an intimate to the Cardinal of Portugal caused the Iewes to be held in Ancona and other places of the Church according to the Priviledges graunted to them by the Popes his Predecesseurs in the name of the Apostolical Roman seat Licurgus Solon and Draco and all Founders of Common-wealths gave counsell that strangers ought to be loved and much made of as in the Discourses of Se. in 7 de Legibus de Rep. is amply to be seen And by the Divine Law as Moses commandeth us we ought not to trouble a stranger but he sayes Remember you were strangers in the Land of Egypt In summa to the same purpose might be brought many other and more powerfull reasons but because they are out of our consideration we passe them over And here to declare some particulars worthy to be known for advise and exemple that befell our Nation in those bitter banishments part whereof Hieronymus Osorius recites more at large in the first of his elegant two Bookes de Rebus Emanuëlis The first title he giveth to those miserable successes is this which he puts for a Postil in the margent of his booke Iudaeorum Liberi per vim ad Christianismum pertracti and than rehearses how that in the yeare 1496 the King decreed that all the Iewes and Mores that dwelt in his Kingdome and would not become Christians should depart his Dominions in a short time which being past all that should be found in his Kingdome should loose their liberty and become slaves to the King The time being now at hand as Osorius proceeds in which the Iewes that would not turne Christians were to depart the Kingdome and all of them as many as they were had with all their power provided and taken a firme resolution to be gone which the King seeing and not able to endure it thought upon a busines as he saith facto quidem iniquam injustam which to do was realy wicked and unjust and that was to command that all the children of the Israëlites that were not above 14 yeares old should be taken out of the power of their owne Parents and when they had them they should force them to become Christians a new thing that could not be done without a wonderfull alteration of their minds for it was as Osorius speakes a horrid and miserable spectacle to see the tender Infants wrestled out of the arms and brests of their lamenting mothers to dragge along their poore fathers that held them fast and to give them many wounds and blows to draw them out of their handes to hear their cryes that ascend to heaven their groanes lamentations and complaints every-where so that this cruelty was the cause that many of those distressed Fathers threw their children into wells and others killed themselves with their owne hands that they might not see so bitter a thing with their eyes The cruelty of Emanuël ended not here but going on with compulsion and revilings gave cause to his owne Chronographer to make the second title or postil with these words Vis Dolus Iudaeis illata That is The force and deceit used towards the Iewes And so he goes on declaring how he had promised in the condition they had made that he would assigne them three Ports in his Kingdome to embarque at viz. Lisbon Setuval and Puerto and neverthelesse he forbad them afterwards to embarque themselves in any place but Lisbon for which cause all the Iewes of the Kingdome came to that City from whence besides a thousand molestations and extortions he drove them as Vasquo saith as sheep in the stalls and there forced their afflicted bodies to counterfeit that which their soules and thoughts never meant nor approoved of Works of which his owne Chronologer saith Fuit hoc quidem neque ex Lege neque ex Religione factum That is This was done neither according to Law nor Religion Let men of clear minde and free from passion consider for Gods sake if such violences can worke any good impression or character in men or what Law either Humain or Divine National or Moderne can beare that the soules of men which the Most
TO HIS HIGHNESSE THE LORD PROTECTOR OF THE COMMON-WEALTH OF England Scotland and Ireland THE HUMBLE ADDRESSES OF MENASSEH Ben Israel a Divine and Doctor of PHYSICK in behalfe of the Jewish Nation TO His Highnesse the Lord PROTECTOR OF THE Common-wealth of ENGLAND SCOTLAND and IRELAND The Humble Addresses of Menasseh Ben Israel a Divine and Doctor of Physick in behalf of the Jewish Nation GIve me leave at such a juncture of time to your Highnesse in a style and manner fitting to us Jewes and our condition It is a thing most certain that the great God of Israel Creator of Heaven and Earth doth give take away Dominions and Empires according to his own pleasure exalting some overthrowing others who seeing he hath the hearts of Kings in his hand he easily moves them whithersoever himself pleaseth to put in execution his Divine Commands This my Lord appears most evidently out of those words of Daniel where he rendring thanks unto God for revealing unto him that prodigious Dream of Nebuchadnezar doth say Thou that removest Kings and sets up Kings And elsewhere To the end the living might know that the Highest hath dominion in Mans Kingdome and giveth the same to whom he please Of the very same mind are Thalmudists likewise affirming that a good Government or Governor is a Heavenly Gift and that there is no Governor but is first called by God unto that dignity this they prove from that passage of Exodus Behold I have called Bazale'l by name c. all things being governed by Divine Providence God dispensing rewards unto Vertues and punishment unto Vices according to his owne good Will This the Examples of great Monarchs make good especially of such who have afflicted the people of Israel For none hath ever afflicted them who hath not been by some ominous Exit most heavily punished of God Almighty as is manifest from the Histories of those Kings Pharaoh Nebuchadnezar Antiochus Epiphanius Pompey others And on the contrary none ever was a Benefactor to that people cherished them in their Countries who thereupon hath not presently begun very much to flourish In so much that the Oracle to Abraham I will blesse them that blesse thee and curse them that curse thee seemeth yet daily to have its accomplishment Hence I one of the least among the Hebrews since by experience I have found that through Gods great bounty toward us many considerable and eminent persons both for Piety Power are moved with sincere and inward pitty and compassion towards us do comfort us concerning the approaching deliverance of Israel could not but for my self and in the behalf of my Countrey men make this my humble address to your Highness beseech you for Gods sake that ye would according to that Piety Power wherein you are eminent beyond others vouchsafe to grant that the Great Glorious Name of the Lord our God may be extolled and solemnly worshipped and praised by us through all the bounds of this Common-wealth to grant us place in your Countrey that we may have our Synagogues and free exercise of our Religion I nothing doubting but that your Clemency will easily grant this most equitable Petition of ours Pagans have of old out of reverence to the God of Israel and the esteem they had to his people granted most willingly free liberty even to apostated Jewes as Onias the High Priest to build another Temple in their Countrey like unto that at Jerusalem how much more then may we that are not Apostate or runagate Jewes hope it from your Highnesse and your Christian Council since you have so great knowledge of and adore the same one onely God of Israel together with us Besides it increases our confidence of your bounty towards us in that so soon as ever the rumour of that most wished-for liberty that ye were a thinking to grant us was made known unto our Countrey-men I in the name of my Nation the Jewes that live in Holland did congratulate and entertain their Excellencies the Ambassadors of England who were received in our Synagogue with as great pomp applause Hymns and cheerfulnesse of mind as ever any Soveraign Prince was For our people did in their own minds presage that the Kingly Government being now changed into that of a Common-wealth the ancient hatred towards them would also be changed into good will that those rigorous Laws if any there be yet extant made under the Kings against so innocent a people would happily be repealed So that we hope now for better from your gentlenesse and goodnesse since from the beginning of your Gouernment of this Common-wealth your Highnesse hath professed much respect and favour towards us Wherefore I humbly entreat your Hignesse that you would with a gracious eye have regard unto us and our Petition and grant unto us as you have done unto others free exercise of our Religion that we may have our Synagogues and keep our own publick worship as our brethren doe in Italy Germany Poland and many other places and we shall pray for the happinesse and Peace of this your much renowned puissant Common-wealth A DECLARATION TO THE Common-wealth of ENGLAND BY Rabbi Menasseh Ben ISRAEL shewing the Motives of his coming into England HAving some years since often perceived that in this Nation God hath a People that is very tender hearted and well wishing to our sore afflicted Nation Yea I my self having some Experience thereof in divers Eminent persons excelling both in Piety and Learning I thought with my self I should do no small service to my own Nation as also to the People and Inhabitants of this Common-wealth if by humble addresses to the late Honourable Parliament I might obtain a safe Conduct once to transport my self thither Which I having done and according to my desire received a most kinde and satisfactory Answer I now am come And to the end all Men may know the true Motives and Intent of this my coming I shall briefly comprehend and deliver them in these particulars First and Formost my Intention is to try if by Gods good hand over me I may obtain here for my Nation the Liberty of a free and publick Synagogue wherein we may daily call upon the Lord our God that once he may be pleased to remember his Mercies and Promises done to our Fore fathers forgiving our trespasses restoring us once again into our fathers Inheritance and besides to sue also for a blessing upon this Nation and People of England for receiving us into their bosomes and comforting Sion in her distresse My second Motive is because the opinion of many Christians and mine doe concurre herein that we both believe that the restoring time of our Nation into their Native Countrey is very near at hand I believing more particularly that this restauration cannot be before these words of Daniel Chap. 12. ver 7. be first accomplished when he saith And when the dispersion of the Holy
being a Nation not very finely garnished by reason of their vile cloathing yet notwithstanding there is not wanting amongst them persons of great quality The Emperour Matthias made Noble both Mardochai Mairel and Ferdinando Jacob Bar Seba. But yet a greater number of Iews are found in the Kingdome of Poland Prussia and Lethuania under which Monarchy they have the Iurisdiction to judge amongst themselves all causes both Criminal and Civil and also great and famous Academies of their owne The chief Cities where the Nation liveth are Lublin and Cracow where there is a Iew called Isaac Iecells who built a Synagogue which stood him in one hundred thousand Francs and is worth many tons of gold There is in this place such infinite number of Iewes that although the Cosaques in the late warres have killed of them above one hundred and fourescore thousand yet it is sustained that they are yet at this day as innumerable as those were that came out of Egypt In that Kingdome the whole Negotiation is in the hand of the Iews the rest of the Christians are either all Noble-men or Rustiques and kept as slaves In Italy they are generally protected by all the Princes their principall residence is in the most famous Citie of Venice so that in that same City alone they possesse about 1400 Houses and are used there with much courtoisy and clemency Many also live in Padoa and Verona others in Mantua and also many in Rome it self Finally they are scattered here and there in the chief places of Italy and do live there with many speciall priviledges In the Gouvernment of the great Duke of Tuscany they are by that Prince most graciously and bountifully dealt with having power from him graunted to have their Iudicatory by themselves and to judge in all matters both Civill and Criminall besides many other Priviledges whereof I my self have the Copies in hand The rich and illustrious families that flourished in these Countries are many viz. The Thoraces who being three Brethren shared betwixt them above 700 thousand Crownes In Ferrara were the Viles whose stock was above 200 thousand Crownes The Lord Ioseph de Fano Marquis de Villependi was a man much respected of all the Princes in Italy and was called by them The Peace-maker and appeaser of all troubles because he by his auctority and entremise was used to appease all troubles and strife rising amongst them Don Daniel Rodrigues because of his prudency and other good qualities was sent in the year 1589 from the most Excellent Senat of Venice into Dalmatia to appease those tumults and scandals given by the Usquoquibs in Clissa which he most manly effected and caused all the women and children that were kept cloose prisonners to be set at liberty brought also to an happy issue many other things of great moment for which he was sent Alphonso II. the Duke of Ferrara sent also for his Ambassador to the Imperiall Majesty one Abraham de Bondi to pay and discharge Investiture of the States of Modena and Reggio The Prince of Sasol and the Marquis of Scandia likewise had to their Factors men of our Nation In the King dome of Barbary there lives also a great number of Iewes who-ever cruelly and basely used by that Barbarous Nation except at Marrocco the Court and Kings house where they have their Naguid or Prince that gouverns them and is their Iudge and is called at this day Seignor Moseh Palache and before him was in the same Court that Noble family Ruthes that had power and Iurisdiction of all kinde of punishment onely life and death excepted In the Low-Countries also the Iewes are received with great Charity and Benevolency and especially in this most renowned City of Amsterdam where there are no lesse then 400 Families and how great a trading and Negotiation they draw to that City experience doth sufficiently witnesse They have there no lesse then three hundred houses of their own enjoy a good part of the West and East-Indian Compagnies and besides have yet to set forth their Traficq such a stock that for setting a side onely one duit of every pound flamish for all kind of commodities that enter and again as much for all what goes out of this towne and what besides we pay yearly of the rents we get from the East-Indian Compagnie to the reliefe and sustenance of the poore of our Synagogue that very money amounts ordinarily every year unto the summe very neare of 12000 Franks whereby you may easely conceive what a mighty stock it is they trade with and what a profit they needs must bring into this City In Hambourg likewise a most famous City of Holsace in Germany there lives also a hundred families protected by the Magistrat though molested by the people There resides Sr. Duarck Mines d'Acosta Resident for his Majesty the King of Portugal Gabriel Gomes Agent for his Majesty the King of Danemarck David de Lima a Ieweller for the same his Majesty and Emanuël Boccaro Rosales created by the Emperour a Noble-man and a Count Palatin In all these places the Iewes live in a manner all of them Merchants and that without any prejudice at all to the Natives For the Natives and those especially that are most rich they build themselves houses and Palaces buy Lands and firme goods aime at Titles and Dignities and so seeke their rest and contentement that way But as for the Iewes they aspire at nothing but to preferre themselves in their way of marchandize and so employing their Capitals they send forth the benefit of their labour amongst many and sundry of the Natives which they by the traficq of their Negotiation do enrich From whence it 's easy to judge of the profit that Princes and Common-wealths do reap by giving liberty of Religion to the Iewes and gathering them by some speciall priviledges into their Countries as Trees that bring forth such excellent fruits So that if one Prince ill advised driveth them out of his Land yet another invites them to his and shews them favour Wherein we may see the prophety of Iacob fulfilled in the letter The staffe to support him shall not depart from Iacob untill Messias shall come And this shall suffice concerning the Profit of the Iewish Nation How Faithfull The Nation of the Iewes are THe Fidelity of Vassals and Subjects is a thing that Princes much most esteem off for there-on both in Peace and Warre depends the preservation of their estates And as for this point in my opinion they owe much to the Nation of the Iewes by reason of the faithfulnesse and loyalty they show to all Potentates that receive and protect them in their Countries For setting aside the Histories of the Ptolomies Kings of Egypt who did not trust the Guard of their persons nor the keeping of their Forts nor the most important affaires of their Kingdom to any other Nation with greater satisfaction then to the Iewes the Wounds of Antipater shewed to Julius Caesar