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CHAPTER XXXVII.

JEWS IN ITALY AND SPAIN.

"And thy life shall hang in doubt before thee.”—DEUT. xxviii. 66.

"BUT

OUT what about the popes, mamma?" Janet said. "I think you said that some of them were rather good to the poor Jews."

"Yes; a good many of the early ones certainly were; though we have scarcely reached the times when they actually interfered to protect them. At this period of which we have been speaking, when the popes uttered their voices, it was generally to prevent the holding of Christian slaves by Jewish masters."

"What! did that ever happen? thing!" exclaimed Martin.

What a horrid

"There was a

"Yes, indeed," Mrs. Conway replied. good deal of slavery in Europe in those days of war and desolation in the old Roman empire; and sad to say, the dreadful trade was chiefly in the hands of those Jews who had contrived to grow rich amidst the general ruin of society. And you can easily imagine what a source of satisfaction it would be to this proud people thus to be able to buy the very children of their old oppressors for their own domestic service; while in the Christian Church this was regarded as one of the greatest evils of the day.

"Constantine had forbidden any Jew to hold a Christian slave; and Honorius prohibited any effort at the

conversion of such to Judaism: but when Roman emperors lost their power to make laws, the councils and popes issued such edicts as could be enforced. One council ordered that if a Christian slave, who had been set to do something contrary to his religion by his Jewish master, should take refuge in a church, the clergy should not only protect him, but also pay his full value to that master. Indeed, the redemption of oppressed Christian slaves was then regarded as a common Christian duty.

"In that disorganized state of society, laws and edicts produced but little effect; yet Christian slaves had some powerful champions; and at the end of the sixth century we find Gregory the Great protesting strongly in one of his pastoral letters against this cruel and impious traffic.

"The Jews had by that time gained a great footing in Italy, and were become large landed proprietors; but the popes and bishops were also acquiring a power to speak more and more as law-makers and temporal rulers, as we may see by the tone of these letters. But Gregory certainly used this power well when he set himself to oppose such a cruel state of things; and he evidently did so with all his might; writing to one bishop to applaud his righteous zeal in so good a cause, and to another to reprove him for the contrary conduct; then to powerful sovereigns, to express his surprise that in their kingdoms such a state of things should be allowed to exist. At the same time Gregory was ever the advocate of toleration towards these enemies of the faith; and indeed this was a period in which they were generally unmolested and at ease in the western empire. I say generally, because there were exceptions to the rule.

"But a terrible persecution was soon to come on the whole race. No doubt their own hostility to Christianity and to Christians had provoked it and it came first from

the east, where, in alliance with the Persians, they had shewn themselves so ferociously cruel.

"It was the Emperor Heraclius who stirred up this hostility. He had been sitting on the throne of Byzantium in fancied security, until the Persian king was almost at his gates; and then suddenly arousing himself, he drove the invader back to his own territory, and, urged on by the clergy, as it is said, began to avenge himself on the Jewish abettors of his adversary, and henceforth he seems to have entertained a most bitter aversion against the whole race, and to have done his utmost to set other kings and rulers against them.

"The Spanish king, Sisebut, was one of those whom he successfully influenced. There had been many Jews in Spain ever since the days of Hadrian: probably some from the time of the destruction of the Temple; and many of them had amassed great wealth. To most of these, Hebrew soon became a dead language; but there is a clear proof that they retained their own customs and faith in the fact that in the fourth century they were accused of trying to bring over the Spaniards to their religion, while in the sixth it was decreed that they should not hold public offices or have Christian slaves.

"Sisebut was quite a religious zealot; rather, perhaps, a bigot. He was therefore perfectly ready to accede to the terms on which Heraclius offered to make peace with him : namely, that all Jews should be compelled either to receive baptism or to quit the kingdom. A dreadful persecution at once ensued. Many wealthy Jews were imprisoned, their estates confiscated, their bodies tortured, until a good number consented to profess Christianity ; while many others, after this king's death, fled into Gaul, a choice which they say he did not leave to them. Nor was it of much avail; for Dagobert, king of France, followed the example of Sisebut, and was very cruel to

them. I must tell you, however, that a certain bishop, Isidore, and many of the Spanish clergy, by no means approved of these attempts to force the consciences of the poor Jews; indeed, one council the fourth of Toledodeclared such measures unlawful. Nevertheless the king persevered, and his successor, Chintilla, pursued the same course, as did also their successors. The Visigothic kings were persecuting kings, and after a time they got the Spanish clergy to support them. Subsequent councils of Toledo disclaimed the moderation of the former one; and so matters became very bad. And one of the bitterest drops in the cup of suffering which this unhappy people had to drink must have been the loss of their children.

"It was ordained that Jewish children should be taken from their parents, and brought up in the Catholic faith, just as had been foretold: Thy sons and thy daughters shall be given unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail with longing for them all the day long.' (Deut. xxviii. 32.)

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"It is no wonder that in this desperate extremity multitudes should apparently conform to Christianity; yet in general the conformity was but apparent: when closely watched, it was usually found that in secret they observed their own sacred rites.

"One hope alone indeed seemed to be left to them; and that was in the growth of that wondrous Mahometan power, which beginning in the early part of the seventh century, was now sweeping like an impetuous torrent from east to west. The Persian kingdom and Magian religion had already fallen before it; a mosque stood on the but lately Christian Jerusalem; and where Cyprian and Constantine had ruled over flourishing African churches, Christians had now to hide their heads, or adopt the religion of the Koran.

"And thus the resistless host was even now knocking

at the gates of Spain, and Spanish Jews heard with secret. triumph of their victories; while they hastened, through their African brethren, to send assurances of support to the Saracen army. This may have been only because, catching at the slightest glimmer, they hoped something from a change of masters; for certainly Mahomet had not in the least been favourable to them. At first, indeed, he and they had been mutually attracted to each other. He had met with many of them in Arabia; for in one part of it, Yemen, there had existed a colony of Jews for centuries. Indeed, in the district of Homeritis we read of a line of Jewish kings; and there, though this was succeeded by a Christian dynasty, and that finally subdued by Chosroes II., many Israelites continued to live.

"Now Mahomet thought to make of them his earliest disciples. But though they could heartily assent to his first dogma, the unity of the Godhead, they refused to Jesus Christ even that measure of respect which the Arabian impostor accorded Him, and moreover would not receive a prophet who was of the race of Ishmael. He therefore soon offered them the choice of Islamism or war. At the intercession of Abdallah their lives were spared, but the community was plundered and pillaged.

"Outside the Arabian peninsula, however, the persecution of Jews did not extend; and under many of the Caliphs they enjoyed far greater peace than they had done under Christian rulers. The hopes of Spanish Jews were therefore realized; and it was, indeed, so very much through their assistance that the Moorish kingdom in Spain was established, that it is no wonder they were favoured.

"The conquest was accomplished thus: Roderic, the Goth, having usurped the throne, the children of the late king, Witiza, foolishly appealed to Muza, the Saracen general, for help to regain their rights. He would do