of the wealth of the kingdom, in the hands of the Hebrew people.*

Still, they never could have accomplished the result they aimed at, had not the treasonable excesses and unpardonable crimes of a portion of the Jews themselves, afforded them an occasion. Animated by a spirit of revenge, for the severity with which the secret adherents of their sect had been treated by the Inquisition,† they disfigured crucifixes, exposed to unmentionable indignities consecrated hosts they had stolen, committed many other shameful sacrileges, and exhibited their hatred of Christianity in ways equally criminal and audacious.‡ Jost, Llorente, and Ferreras mention likewise the warrantable suspicion they were under of having kidnapped and crucified Christian children, as at Guardia in la Mancha, in 1490, and also at Valencia.§ Their apothecaries and physicians were accused of poisoning their Christian patients, and popular hatred and jealousy very possibly exaggerated the isolated atrocities of a few Jewish fanatics into crimes common to the whole nation. It is the misfortune of excited and turbulent times that the outrages of a small minority are visited indiscriminately upon the whole body of which they are members, although the excesses they have perpetrated may be condemned and abhorred by the greater number. Besides mere

social enormities, however, the treasonable intrigues of the Jews had become established beyond a doubt. Intercepted letters in cypher had proved that the Moors were concerting measures with their brethren in Africa to regain their lost power in Spain, and the Jews were deeply engaged in these plots. In 1835, when their hopes of successful insurrection were less well founded, a conspiracy had been discovered among them at Toledo, to obtain possession of the town on the feast of Corpus Christi, and massacre all the Christian inhabitants. De Maistre well remarks, in speaking of that critical time, that the greatness of the political disorder demanded "the adoption of means alike violent and energetic,"¶ *Prescott, 1. c., t. ii., pp. 135-140.-Hefele, S. 272.-Jost, Theil. vii., S. 82. + Hefele, S. 272. Ibid.

Jost, a. a., D., Theil. vii., S. 56, 81.-Hefele, S. 273.-Llorente, t. i., p. 258, N. iii., et seq.-Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. viii.-xi., pp. 132, 231.Balmes, 1. c., p. 207.-The oppressive usury of the Jews has undoubtedly been a chief cause of the hatred against them of the common people; yet there is no doubt that the infanticide, of which certain wild Hebrew fanatics were frequently guilty, occasioned the bloodiest outbreaks from which they heve suffered. For additional proofs, see Raumer, Geschichte der Hohenstaufen, V. Band, S. 272-273. Depping Les Juifs dans le moyen age (Paris, 1834), pp. 118-123, etc. Carnicero, 1. c.. t. i.. p. 90.

and it is unquestionable that the entire destruction of the Jewish nation would have met with popular applause throughout all Spain.

The pecuniary necessities of the Spanish monarchs nearly diverted them, however, at one time, from the severity of their purpose. Prescott relates that "the Jews, who had obtained an intimation of the proceedings against them, resorted to their usual crafty policy for propitiating the sovereigns. They commissioned one of their body to tender a donative of thirty thousand ducats towards defraying the expenses of the Moorish war. The negotiation, however, was suddenly interrupted by the Inquisitor General, Torquemada, who burst into the apartment of the palace where the sovereigns were giving audience to the Jewish deputy, and drawing forth a crucifix from beneath his mantle, held it up, exclaiming, 'Judas Iscariot sold his master for thirty pieces of silver. Your highnesses would sell him anew for thirty thousand; here he is, take him, and barter him away.' So saying he threw the crucifix on the table and left the apartment."* The

* Prescott, 1. c., t. ii. pp. 137-138. Llorente, t. i. p. 160, n. v. Ferreras, t. viii. § 242. Torquemada seems to have been actuated, in this instance, by a purely patriotic spirit. Contemporary authorities agree with regard to the imminence of the danger to which Spain was exposed from the Jews, and that they brought upon themselves the severity of the government by their treason and crimes. Prescott (t. ii. p. 151) acquits the Spanish monarchs of any interested motives in their banishment, and admits (p. 152) that "Spanish writers, without exception, celebrate it as a sublime sacrifice of all temporal interests to religious principle." "The best instructed foreigners," he adds, "commend the act." It cannot be attributed, however, to religious prejudices alone, that the Jews have been regarded as traitors to every Christian state, in which their influence has been allowed greatly to increase; for they were so notoriously protected by the Holy See, during the Middle Ages, that Rome was called the "paradise of the Jews," and Sixtus V. was, perhaps, the first Christian monarch, under whom they acquired equal rights with other subjects. Jews have ever been, and ever will be, not a mere religious sect, but a people within the people, looking forward to the great Jewish empire; to embrace the earth, which is the term of their hopes, and observing a fidelity and loyalty to existing governments, always secondary to this great end. They have, therefore, been regarded as aliens, by pagan as well as by Christian states, and have been frequently persecuted, because their interests have often conspicuously clashed with those of the countries where they have sojourned. Catholic governments, previous to the sixteenth century, were not less favourable to the Jews than Protestant rulers have been, since that period. Luther advised that "their synagogues should be destroyed, their houses pulled down, their prayer-books, the Talmud, and even the books of the Old Testament, be taken from them; and that their Rabbins should be forbidden to teach, and compelled to gain their livelihood by hard labour." Philip of Hesse (1518--67) long excluded them from his dominions, and, when they were admitted, it was under the most oppressive conditions. John George II., of Brandenburg, gave them no other option than conversion or exile; and, as late as the last century, Frederic the Great, certainly for no

sovereigns were overawed by a scene so emphatic, and the edict for the expulsion of the Jews was signed, immediately after, on the 30th of March, 1492.

It decreed, "that all unbaptized Jews, of whatever sex, age, or condition, should depart from the realm by the end of July next ensuing; prohibiting them from revisiting it, on any pretext whatever, under penalty of death, and confiscation of property. It was, moreover, interdicted to every subject, to harbour, succour, or minister to the necessities of any Jew after the expiration of the term limited for his departure. The persons and property of the Jews were taken, in the meantime, under the royal protection. They were allowed to dispose of their effects of every kind on their own account, and to carry the proceeds along with them, in bills of exchange, or merchandise not prohibited, but neither in gold nor silver."*

All possible means were employed, until the time appointed for their emigration, to induce the Jews to receive Christian baptism; and Torquemada instructed the Dominicans to labour strenuously for their conversion.† High honours were bestowed upon Israelites who embraced Christianity, and three such converts are named by Prescott, who were made secretaries to the queen.‡ But though very many abjured Judaism, the greater part preferred wandering into exile; and Ferreras, who details their numbers by the respective provinces, gives the entire aggregate of those who left Spain, at thirty thousand families, or about a hundred thousand souls.§ They travelled into Portugal, France, the Italian peninsula, and even as far as England, and a considerable number embarked for the coast of Barbary, where they fell into worse hands than those of the Spaniards, and suffered cruelties from the roving tribes of the desert, over the loathsome details of which decency demands that we should cast a veil. Thousands of Jews returned, in

religious motive, banished them from Prussia. The Emperor Napoleon, in 1807, confirmed to the Jews the same rights with other French citizens; but found it expedient, the very next year, partially to restrict them. The dangers menacing Spain, in 1492, from their influence and power, were greater than have threatened any state from a like cause, in modern times, and neither the fears of Ferdinand, nor zeal on the part of the Grand Inquisitor, were misplaced.

* Prescott, 1. c., t. ii., p. 139. Llorente, ut supra.

Prescott, 1. c., t. ii., p. 136, note.

+ Hefele, s. 274.

§ Ferreras, t. viii. § 242. Hefele, s. 214. Llorente quotes Mariana falsely, to prove that there were eight hundred thousand Jewish exiles; a number so preposterous that even Prescott rejects five-sixths of it, which still leaves an exaggerated estimate.- Prescott, t. ii., 148.

Mariana, S. J., Histor. de rebus Hispan. lib. xxiv., c. 17. Pulgar, Cronica de los reves Catolicos, p. ii., c. 77. D. 137. Hefele, s. 328.

peaceful means, the doctrines of Christianity among their newly acquired subjects. Two of the most virtuous prelates of the age, Talavera and Ximenes, were commissioned to preach the gospel to them, and to win them over, if possible, to the Catholic faith.* Especial civil privileges were accorded to converts, in order that both spiritual and temporal advantages might combine to conciliate the inhabitants of the subjugated provinces, and attract them to the religion of Christ.†

For several years the charitable work of these two missionaries proceeded slowly; but, in 1499, great numbers in Granada abandoned Moslemism. Not only many Moorish doctors embraced Christianity, but, on the 18th of December of that year, as many as four thousand disciples, among the common people, were admitted to baptism, and so considerable a portion of the inhabitants of Granada was converted that the city assumed a Christian appearance. All this could not be otherwise than distasteful to the more zealous of the Mahommedans; and obstacles of so seditious a nature were thrown in the way of further conversions that Ximenes was compelled to subject some of their ringleaders to imprisonment. How highly he is deserving of praise for his firmness at this point of time can only be judged, among the many conflicting authorities, by clinging to a purely Apostolic standard. Some of his measures, it is not possible to deny, were highly calculated to excite Moorish prejudices, and arouse their heathenish indignation. Copies of the Koran, and an immense collection of devotional Mahommedan works, surrendered to him voluntarily by the new Christians, were publicly burnt, || and the Elchi, as the children of renegades from Christianity were called, were taken from their apostate parents, to be brought up under Catholic direction. An incident of this kind led to an open revolt in the Albaycin,** a quarter of Granada inhabited exclusively by the Moors, which, but for the heroic

*Hefele, Card. Ximenes, viii., s. 53-55. Prescott, ut sup., p. 401, et

Hefele, s. 55, 56. Prescott, t. ii., p. 410.

§ Even Llorente does not, however, blame Ximenes himself; but censures his subordinate. T. i., p. 335, n. iii.

The number of volumes destroyed has been variously estimated, from five thousand to a million. Condé says eighty thousand, in which he is followed by Prescott. Only those works relating to medical science were preserved for the library of the university, founded by Ximenes, at Alcala. (Vid. Prescott, t. ii., pp. 413, 414, note.)

¶ Mariana, "De rebus Hispaniæ," lib. xxvi., c. v., p. 238.