Part 6
Charles II. did not confine himself to ignoring the anti-Semitic petitions. Having made up his mind that the Jews should be protected, he sought, like Cromwell, to throw the responsibility for his decision on the Constitutional Government. Before the end of 1660 an Order of the Lords in Council was sent to the House of Commons, recommending that measures should be taken for the protection of the Jews.[174] There is no record of any such measures having been adopted. It was probably felt that the most convenient course to pursue was to continue the policy of personal connivance inaugurated by Cromwell, as by that means men’s minds would be least disturbed, and an experiment which was likely to produce good results would not be hampered. Moreover, should the experiment fail, it would be all the easier to deal with it if it had not received any legislative sanction.
Accordingly, the Jews passed from the personal protection of Cromwell to that of Charles. In 1664, when an attempt was made by the Earl of Berkshire and Mr. Ricaut to obtain their expulsion, the King in Council disavowed the scheme, and assured the Jews “that they may promise themselves the effects of the same favour as formerly they have had so long as they demean themselves peaceably and quietly with due obedience to his Majesty’s laws and without scandal to his Government.[175]” A similar course was taken by the Privy Council in 1673 and 1685, when attempts were made by informers to prosecute the Jews for the exercise of their religion.[176] Finally the King marked his personal gratitude to the Jews by knighting Coronel soon after the Restoration, and by a generous distribution of patents of denization among the members of the Synagogue.[177]
Thus the Cromwellian settlement was confirmed, and the path was definitely opened by which the Jews might win their way to the citizenship of the United Kingdom.
How that path was successfully trodden is a story which cannot be told in detail here. Its main feature, however, must be briefly referred to, for it supplies the justification for the campaign which Menasseh ben Israel and Oliver Cromwell waged so gallantly on behalf of the Hebrew people in the first half of the seventeenth century.
The Jews won their way to English citizenship not because they remained the _servi cameræ_, which had been their status under the Norman and Angevin kings, and which they had practically resumed under the Protectorate and the Restoration, but because they literally realised the portraiture of the Hebrew citizen which Menasseh ben Israel vainly placed before the British nation in 1655 in his tract, _De Fidelitate et utilitate Judaicæ Gentis_. In this way they gradually substituted for the personal protection of the Crown the sympathy and confidence of the nation.
Their old enemies in the City of London were their first converts. The wealth they brought into the country, and their fruitful commercial activity, especially in the colonial trade, soon revealed them as an indispensable element of the prosperity of the City.[178] As early as 1668 Sir Josiah Child, the millionaire governor of the East India Company, pleaded for their naturalisation on the score of their commercial utility.[179] For the same reason the City found itself compelled at first to connive at their illegal representation on ’Change, and then to violate its own rules by permitting them to act as brokers without previously taking up the Freedom.[180] At this period they controlled more of the foreign and colonial trade than all the other alien merchants in London put together. The momentum of their commercial enterprise and stalwart patriotism proved irresistible. From the Exchange to the City Council Chamber, thence to the Aldermanic Court, and eventually to the Mayoralty itself, were inevitable stages of an emancipation to which their large interests in the City and their high character entitled them. Finally the City of London—not only as the converted champion of religious liberty but as the convinced apologist of the Jews—sent Baron Lionel de Rothschild to knock at the doors of the unconverted House of Commons as parliamentary representative of the first city in the world.
Jewish emancipation in England was, in short, the work of the English democracy—almost of the same democracy which in the thirteenth century had spued the Hebrews forth, when their kingly protectors had made their residence in the land conditional on their acting as the usurious instruments of the Royal Exchequer, and which in the seventeenth had resented their readmission under the influence of deeply rooted prejudices, inherited from that dark age. It was no mere homage to the abstract principle of Religious Liberty like the emancipations on the Continent which, in the name of the Rights of Man, suddenly called forth the oppressed Jews from their Ghettos and bade them take up a new life, from which they were sundered by centuries of mediæval seclusion. Religious Liberty in England broadened on more cautious lines. Dissenters, Roman Catholics, and Jews have each been taken into the bosom of the nation by separate legislative action, and as the result of practical demonstrations of the futility, nay, the disadvantage, of their exclusion. The gradual emancipation of the English Jews, first socially and then in the municipalities, enabled them to show that their civic qualities entitled them to the fullest rights of citizenship; and it was the realisation of this fact—not by statesmen or philosophers, but by their neighbours and fellow-citizens themselves—that eventually gave them the position they now enjoy.
The story of Jewish emancipation in England is the true _Vindiciæ Judæorum_—the avenging of Menasseh’s broken heart and the vindication of his touching trust in his people. It is something more. It is one of many justifications of that fine conception of statecraft, deeply rooted in infinite sympathy with human freedom, which is the secret of Britain’s greatness, and of which Oliver Cromwell must ever be regarded as the typical exponent in English history.
VII. DOCUMENTS
The following is a selection of the documents referred to in the foregoing narrative. They have been selected chiefly on account of their personal bearing on Menasseh’s efforts:—
1. Fragment of a letter from Menasseh ben Israel to an unknown correspondent in London (Harl. Miscel., vol. vii. p. 623). The original was probably in French or Latin:—
“AMSTERDAM, _September 5407_ [1647].
“_Senhor, no pueda enar!_ that is, sir, I cannot express the joy that I have when I read your letters, full of desires to see your country prosperous, which is heavily afflicted with civil wars, without doubt by the just judgment of God. And it should not be in vain to attribute it to the punishment of your predecessor’s faults, committed against ours; when ours being deprived of their liberty under deceitfulness, so many men were slain only because they kept close under the tenets of Moses, their legislator.”
2. Abstract of a letter relating to the “Hope of Israel” from Menasseh ben Israel to John Dury (Thorowgood, “Jews in America,” 1650, p. xvii). The original seems to have been in French:—
“AMSTERDAM, _November 25_, [1649].
“By the occasion of the questions you propose unto me concerning this adjoyned Narrative of Mr. Antonio Montezinos, I, to give you satisfaction, have written instead of a Letter a Treatise, which I shortly will publish & whereof you shall receive so many copies as you desire. In this Treatise I handle of the first inhabitants of America which I believe were of the ten Tribes; moreover that they are scattered also in other Countries, & that they keep their true Religion, as hoping to returne againe into the Holy Land in due time.”
3. Portion of a letter on the same subject from Menasseh ben Israel to John Dury (Thorowgood, _ibid._). Like the foregoing, the original was in French:—
“AMSTERDAM, _December 23, 1649_.
“[In my Treatise] I declare how that our Israelites were the first finders out of America; not regarding the opinions of other men, which I thought good to refute in few words onely; and I thinke that the ten Tribes live not onely there, but also in other lands scattered every where; these never did come backe to the second Temple, & they keep till this day still the Jewish Religion, seeing all the Prophecies which speake of their bringing backe unto their native soile must be fulfilled: So then at their appointed time, all the Tribes shall meet from all the parts of the world into two provinces, namely Assyria and Egypt, nor shall their kingdome be any more divided, but they shall have one Prince the Messiah the Sonne of David. I do also set forth the Inquisition of Spaine, and rehearse diuers of our Nation, & also of Christians, Martyrs, who in our times have suffered seuerall sorts of torments, & then having shewed with what great honours our Jews have been graced also by severall Princes who professe Christianity. I proue at large, that the day of the promised Messiah unto us doth draw neer, upon which occasion I explaine many Prophecies.”
4. Letter from Menasseh ben Israel to Paul Felgenhauer (_Bonum Nuncium Israeli_, pp. 87 _et seq._):—
“D. Paulo Felgenhauer, Salutem & Benedictionem, à Deo Israelis reprecatur, Menasseh Ben Israel.
“Bonum istud, in novissimis & afflictissimis hisce temporibus populo Israeli à te, Vir spectatissime, allatum Nuncium, tanto fuit animo meo gratius, quo, post tot seculorum aerumnas & tam diu protractas spes nostras, flagrantius idipsum exoptare non desino; modò præ rei magnitudine verbis tuis fides constare possit. Siccine, Bonarum rerum Nuncie bone, in procinctune jam est, ut adveniat Deus noster, Miserator Nostrum, utque nobis Desiderium tot seculorum, Messiam caput nostrum, tam brevi sit missurus? Siccine tempus illud imminere ais, quo Deus; hactenus offensus & aversus à nobis, iterum Populum suum consolabitur, & redimet non solum â Captivitate hac plusquam Babylonicâ, à servitute plusquam Ægyptiacâ in qua jam elanguit præ morâ, sed & ab iniquitatibus suis, in quibus quasi consumptus est! Vtinam tam Verum esset, quam Bonum Nuncium tuum, tibique, tam Credere possem quàm vellem! Utcunque quæ ad gaudii nostri confirmationem ex scriptis Propheticis Signa adfers Adventus Messiæ (ut fatear quod res est) lubens amplector; & quo plus animo meo volvuntur ea, hoc magis spes mihi inde aliqua affulgere videtur.
“Ad Primum quod attinet, apud nostros Rabbinos id signum in confesso est: quum enim necesse sit Imperia hujus mundi omnia corruere, antequam Regnum & Potestas & Magnitudo Regni detur Populo sanctorum Altissimi, cui omnes Reges servire & obedire oportet, inde non obscure sequitur, immediatè ante adventum illum Messiæ & Instaurationem Regni ipsius, magnas Conturbationes, Tumultus, seditiones, intestina & crudelissima Bella, Regnorum & Populorum hinc inde devastationes præcedere debere; Quæres quod brevi sit effectum sortitura, ex præsenti Imperiorum Mundi facie vero haud dissimile videtur.
“De Elia, secundo Adventus Messiæ nostri signo, quod ais, non diffitemur, quin & gaudemus maxime, quod in eo nos Judæi cum selectissimis Christiani Nominis Viris, in unam eandemque sententiam concurrimus, fore illum ex nostrâ Gente oriundum. Verum enim vero Elias ille cum nondum comparuerit nobis, eo usque saltem suspendatur spes nostra necesse est: adeo ut, donec illum Deus nobis revelaverit, certi & indubitati quicquam de Messiæ Adventu statuere minus tuum videatur.
“De Tertio isto Adventus Messiæ signo quod ais, nempe de hac Regni Israelis per totum Terrarum orbem prædicatione, id mihi non solum verisimile videtur, sed & tale quid jam in lucem prorumpere & effectum sortiri haud obscurè videmus: quin & Prædicatorem istorum haud contemnendus numerus mihi ipsi per literas innotuit, qui ex diversis mundi partibus ad consolandum Sionem prodierunt; inter alios Viros Nobilitate & Doctrinâ insignes, qui ad manum jam sunt. En ex Silesia habemus _Abrahamum à Frankenberg_, ex Borussiâ _Joh. Mochingerum_, ex Galliâ Autorem Libelli Gallico idiomate editi, _Du rappel des Juifs_. Ex Angliâ quos non? Nuper auctoritate publicâ _Nathanael Homerius_, SS. Theol. Doctor, librum in folio edidit anglico idiomate, de hac ipsa materiâ; & _D. Henricus Jesse_, nobis librum Belgico idiomate de _Gloriâ Jehudæ & Israelis_; publicè dedicavit. Plures allegare possem, qui instar Nubeculæ istius 1 Reg. 18 (quam Elias ascendentem de mari vidit, & subito in tantam molem excrevit ut totum Cœli expansum contegeret) Indies numero & virtute accrescunt, donec tandem totum Terrarum ambitum prædicatione suâ sint completuri: Vt autē aliquod hajus rei specimen, ad testimonium tuum confirmandum tibi, mi Paule prebeam; selegi tibi aliquot Virorum istorum ad me literas, quæ jam præ manibus habebam, quas legere poteris, & mecum gaudere, de ijs qui dicunt nobis, _Ibimus in domum Domini, stabunt adhuc pedes nostri in atriis tuis Ierusalem_; qui ad cor Ierusalem loquuntur, prædicantes salutem & dicentes Sioni, _Deus tuus Regnabit_.
“Sed præter hæc mitto quoque ad Te, Vir Doctissime, autographum Panegyrici cujusdam quem meo Nomini inscripsit D. _Immanuel Bocarus Frances y Rosales_ alias _Jacobus Rosales Hebræus_, Mathematicus & Medicinæ Doctor eximius, quem Imperator Nobilitatis Insignibus & Comitis Palatini dignitate donavit; idque eâ potissimum intentione mitto, ut videat Dominus exstare adhuc & discerni ad hunc usque diem surculos ex stirpe Davidicâ ortum ducentes. Denique ut desiderio tuo faciam satis, en quoque Catalogum librorum, quos vel in lucem edidi jam, vel edendos penes me in parato habeo, sive Latino sive Hispanico idiomate. Hisce te Deo Patrum nostrorum ejusque gratiæ & benignitati animitus commendo, Datum Amsterodami An. 1655, die 1 Febr.”
5. Enclosures in the foregoing, being a letter from Nathaniel Holmes, with a postscript by Henry Jessey (_Bonum Nuncium Israeli_, pp. 103–106):—
“Nunc sequitur Clarissimi Viri, Nathanaelis Homesii SS. Theol. Doctoris Anglici ad me Epistolium, datum 24 Decemb. An. 1649, cum Subscriptione Reverendi D. Henrici Jesse ei annexâ.”
“_Decemb. 24, 1649._
“Animus mihi fuit, citius adte scribendi, Vir egregie, otium non fuit, Nec hodie ita mihi vacat, ut menti meæ, tantisque tuis scriptis (quamvis expectatione paucioribus) satisfaciam. Nondum de loco decem Tribuum, ex tuis literis responsum accepi; quod in meis desideratum fuit; non astu, vel curiositate. Veritatem insequor, ne Impostores pro Ebræis nobis obstrudantur. Scripsit quidam nuperime, Innodos Novæ Angliæ decem Tribubus esse prognatos. Alii Tartyros esse contendunt. Alii alios. Discrucior animi, ne fallar, usque dum literas tuæ me fecerint certiorem. Delectari videris D. Nicolai Apologiâ. Spero (ne glorier) te plura (ne dicam majora) visurum, meo de Mille Annis prodeunte tractatu. Quod opus ita me tenet occupatum, ut meæ ad te ituræ morentur literæ. Martyres in tuis literis vox est; quæ, ni fallor, veteri Testamento haud innotuit. Verum sub Novo, viri celebres, Christum, ejusque Evangelium, ad mortem asserentes, primi illud nomen obtinuerunt. Facilè tamen concedo, quoslibet veritatis alicujus testes, Martyres Græce dictos fuisse. Sed (parcatur nostræ libertati Conscientiæ, quam lubentissimè tibi inter scribendum indulsero) nec pontificii jam post Concilium Tridentinum ullatenus habeantur propriè Christiani: nec Martyrium esse mihi videatur, pro hodiernâ Legis Mosaicæ observatione animam deponere. Quippe Lex illa quoad usum, ex plurimis veteris Testamenti suffragiis, ante hoc abolenda esset. Deut. 18, v. 18, 19. Psal. 50. v. 6–15, 23. Iesaiæ 66, v. 1–3. Vt olim multis jam annis transactis, Iudei ubi maxima indulgetur libertas non sacrificantes, vosmetipsos tamen vere Deum colere arbitramini, Libet tamen, non obstanti hâc dicendi libertate nos edoceri, dedocerique, quâ in re â veritate subsidimus, vel hallucinamur. Tractatum itaque quem nominas _De debito Christianorum erga Ebræos affectu_, mittas; ut quantum in me est, typis mandetur, & in publicum promoveamus. De tempore adventus Messiæ quod incertum pronuncias, idque incertum comprobares experientiâ; in promptu est responsio; Illud Danieli prius ignoranti, tandem revelatum est; idque ex libris illius, nobis. Et quamvis nonnulli (quos nominas) computando hallucinantes, in errorum gyris, & labyrintho sunt involuti; non tamen hâc ratione deponendæ sunt de eâ re (tanquam nullius usus) Prophetiæ. Quippe quod expectamus, Danielis more cap. 9. v. 2 & v. 21. ut jam Vesperi ætatem, quo propius accedunt liberationum periodi, eo clarius elucescant revelationes ad easdem spectantes. Ægyptii Ethnicorum barbariores (te teste Egregie Vir) nascendum Mosen præsentiscebant, nescientibus tunc Israelitis natum Liberatorem. Quidni etiam Christiani Scripturas amplexi, adventum vestræ Messiæ secundum præviderent? In cujus adventu, (pace eruditionis vestræ asserentis, quod stupens mirabar, _Vestram salutem in ejus Adventu non esse sitam_) fundatur nostra, præsertim vestra æterna salus. Si enim verum foret, eum nondum venisse, & posthæc illum venturum ambigitur, labitur omnis prophetiarum Compages, totumque veteris Testamenti Systema ruit. Et ita de Scripturarum veritate actum est; ut de salute tum nostrâ, tum vestrâ actum est. Quæ si quippiam asserere videantur, Christi Messiæ _passionem_ (Psal. 22. Isa. 53) _resurrectionem_ (Psal. 16) _ascensionem_ (Psal. 68) _sessionem ad dextram Patris_ (Psal. 110) _potestatem super omnia regnantem_, more Adami novissime creati (Psal. 2. Psal. 8) omnino asserunt. Quæ omnia acurate comparata, Messiæ Filii Davidis adventum, abitumque, reditumque, elenchicè satis demonstrant. Non novum urgeo Testamentum, quod æquis miraculorum portentis nobis commendatum fuit, ut vetus Israeli. Vobis tamen Hebræis libentissimè favemus, utinamque plus multò favere possemus; quamvis nec Meritum, nec pro merito (vox Bibliis ignota) quicquam expectamus. Merces ex gratiâ datur non merito. Malum possumus, qui perfecte peccamus, mereri; bonum in quo omnimodo deficimus. Malum itaque pro nostro, bonum pro Christi merito (si voce utar) nobis compensatur. Hominum (fateor) alter de altero mereri dicatur, ut egomet tibi (vir Candidissime) pro tuis literis me multum debere agnosco. Quin & universa vestræ Nationi, flexis genibus servire molior, ut sive Nos Vobis, Vosvè Nobis facti Proselytæ utrique juxta Isaiam, & Ezechielem, cæterosque Prophetas, in unam coeamus ecclesiam. Nec non (confido) dilectissimus noster Iesseus idem meditatur; cui literas communicavi tuas, ad me missas. Pudet multum me tamdiu siluisse, verum tibi rescribenti, duplâ quoad possim diligentiâ compensabitur.
“_A Tui Observantissimo_,
“NATHANAELE HOMESIO.
“Tuis hisce ex animo attestatur, assentitur, negociis à scribendo jam detentus, qui Sionis pulverem commiseratur, qui hæc propriâ manu subscripsi
H. IESSE.”
6. Original French text of Menasseh ben Israel’s demands on behalf of the Jews presented to Oliver Cromwell (S. P., Dom. Inter., ci. 115).
“Ce sont icy les graces et les faveurs qu’au nom de ma nation hebreue moy, Menasseh ben Israel, requiers a vostre serenissime altesse que dieu fasse prosperer et donne heureux succez en toutes ses entreprises comme son humble serviteur lui souhaitte et desire.
“I. La premiere chose que je demande a vostre Altesse est que nostre nation hebreue sont reçeue et admise en cestee puissant republique sous la protection et garde de vostre altesse comme les cittoiens mesmes et pour plus grande securité au temps advenir je supplie votre altesse de faire jurer (si elle l’a pour aggréable) à tous ses chefs et generaux d’armes de nous deffendre en toutes occasions.
“II. Quil plaise a vostre altesse nous permettre synagogues publiques non seulement en Angleterre, mais aussi en touts austres lieux de conqueste qui sont sous la puissance de Vostre Altesse et d’observer en tout nostre religion comme nous devons.
“III. Que nous puissions avoir un lieu ou cimetiere hors la ville pour enterrer nos morts sans estre molestes d’aucun.
“IV. Qu’il nos soit permis de trafiquer librement en toute sorte de marchandise comme les autres.
“V. Que (afin que ceux qui vendront soyent pour l’utilité des citoyens et viven san porter prejudice à aucun ni donner scandale) vostre serenissime Altesse elise un personne de qualité pour informer et recevoir passeport de ceux qui entreront, les quels estant arrivez le faira scavoir et les obligera de jurer et garder fidélité a vostre Altesse en ce peix.
“VI. Et pour n’estre point à charge aux juges du peix touchaut les contestations et differents qui peuvent arriver entre ceux de nostre nation que vostre serenissime Altesse donne licence aux chef de la synagogue de prendre avec soy deux ausmoniers de sa nation pour accorder et juger tous les differents de procez conforme à la loy Mosayque avec liberté toutefois d’appeler de leur sentence aux juges civils déposant premierement la somme à laquelle la partye aurait esté condamnée.
“VII. Que si paradventure il y avait quelques loix contraires à nostre nation juifve que premierement et avant toutes choses elles soient revoquées affin que par ce moien la nous puissons demeurer avec plus grande securité sous la sauvegarde et protection de vostre serenissime Altesse.
“Lesquelles choses nous concedant vostre serenissime Altesse nous demeurerons toujours les très affectionnés et obligez à prier Dieu pour la prospérité de vostre Altesse et de vostre illustre et très sage conseil. Qu’il luy plaise donner heureux succez à toutes lés enterprises de vostre Serenissime Altesse Amen.”
7. Circular issued by Cromwell’s Council convening the Whitehall Conference (S.P. Dom. Inter., i. 76, 1655, pp. 378–79).
“SIR,—His Highness the Lord Protector and the Council having determined of a certain number of persons (whereof yourself is one) to meet with a Committee of the Council on Tuesday the fourth of December next in ye afternoon neare the Council Chambers in Whitehall to the intent some proposalls made to his Highness in reference to the nation of the Jewes may be considered of you are therefore desired by his Highness & the Council to take notice thereof & so meet at the said time and place for the purpose aforesaid.
Signed in the name & by order of the Council HE. LAWRENCE Presidt
WHITEHALL, 16 Novem. 1655.”
8. Report of the Sub-Committee of the Council of State after the Conferences at Whitehall (S. P., Dom. Inter., ci. 118).
“_That the Jewes deservinge it may be admitted into this nation to trade and trafficke and dwel amongst us as providence shall give occasion._[181]
“That as to poynt of conscience we judge lawfull for the magistrate to admit in case such materiall and weighty considerations as hereafter follow be provided for, about which till we are satisfyed we cannot but in conscience suspend our resolution in this case.
“1. That the motives and grounds upon which Menasseh ben Israel in behalfe of the rest of his nation in his booke lately printed in this English tongue desireth their admission in this commonwealth are such as we conceave to be very sinfull for this or any Christian state to receave them upon.
“2. That the danger of seducinge the people of this nation by their admission in matters of religion is very great.