CHAPTER XIX.
SETTLEMENT OF JEWS IN HOLLAND. – FEEBLE ATTEMPTS AT ENFRANCHISEMENT
Revival of Catholicism – Decay in European Culture – Ill-treatment of Jews in Berlin – Emperor Rudolph II of Austria – Diminution in the Numbers of Italian Jews – Pope Gregory XIII – Confiscation of Copies of the Talmud – Vigorous Attempts at the Conversion of Jews – Pope Sixtus V – The Jewish Physician, David de Pomis – Renewal of Persecution by Clement VIII – Expulsion from Various Italian States – The Censors and the Talmud – The Jews of Ferrara – Settlement of Jews in Holland – Samuel Pallache – Jacob Tirado and the Marranos in Amsterdam – Tolerant Treatment – The Poet, David Jesurun – Moses Uri – Hebrew Printing in Amsterdam.
1593–1618 C.E
The free spirit of the nations of Europe, which at the beginning of the century had taken so bold a flight, had broken the ancient bonds in which the church had long held minds captive, and cast the blight of doubt on the hitherto sacred authority of the wearer of the Roman purple – this spirit, which promised to bring the regeneration of civilized humanity and political freedom, seemed in the second half of the century to be utterly cast down. The papacy, or Catholicism, had recovered from its first feeling of terror, and collected itself. Extraordinarily strengthened by the council of Trent, it forged new chains to which the nations that had remained faithful, willingly submitted. The order of the Jesuits, restless and indefatigable champions, who not only disarmed their opponents, but even drew them over to their own ranks, had already reconquered much lost ground by their widespread plots, and had conceived new measures in order to win back with double interest what they had lost. Italy, a great part of southern Germany and the Austrian provinces, France – after long civil wars and convulsions, after the blood-stained eve of St. Bartholomew, and the murder of two kings – as also to a great extent Poland and Lithuania, had once more become Catholic, as fanatically Catholic, too, as Spain and Portugal, the blazing hells of the Inquisition. In Lutheran and reformed Germany another papacy had gained the mastery, a papacy of dry formulas of belief, and slavery to the letter of the law. The Byzantine quarrel about shadowy dogmas and meaningless words divided the evangelical communities into as many sects and subsidiary sects as there were points of discussion, and had a harmful influence upon political development. Classical philology, at first liberalizing and suggestive, was neglected, owing to excessive belief in the Bible by the one party and the sway of authority over the other, and had degenerated into fanciful dilettanteism or learned lumber. The study of the Hebrew language, which for a time had kindled great enthusiasm, was similarly debased, or only carried on superficially for the purposes of ecclesiastical wrangling. The knowledge of Hebrew had always been considered, at any rate was now thought, in orthodox Catholic society, to be actual heresy. And the same was still truer of rabbinical literature. The learned Spanish theologian, Arias Montano, published the first complete polyglot Bible in Antwerp, at the expense of Philip II. He also compiled grammars and dictionaries of the Hebrew and cognate languages, in which regard was had to the older Jewish expositors. He, the favorite of Philip II, who had himself drawn up a list of heretical books, was accused by the Jesuits and the Inquisition of favoring heresy, suspected of secret conversion to Judaism, and stigmatized as a rabbi. Thus, Europe seemed to be actually making a retrograde movement, only with this distinction – what had formerly been cheery, naïve credulity now became sinister, aggressive fanaticism.
Refined ecclesiasticism, resulting in the tension which subsequently relieved itself in the general destructiveness of the Thirty Years' War, made the sojourn of Jews, both in Catholic and Protestant countries, a continual torture. Luther's followers in Germany forgot what Luther had so earnestly uttered in their favor, only remembering the hateful things of which, in his bitterness, he had accused them. The Jews of Berlin and the province of Brandenburg, for instance, had the sad alternative put before them of being baptized or expelled. A Jewish financier, the physician Lippold, favorite of Elector Joachim II, and his right hand in his corrupt, financial schemes, examined and tortured on the rack by Joachim's successor, John George, admitted, though afterwards recanting, that he had poisoned his benefactor. The Jews were driven also out of Brunswick by Duke Henry Julius. Catholic nations and princes had no cause to reproach their Protestant opponents with toleration or humanity in regard to Jews.
It was, in some respects, fortunate for the Jews of Germany and Austria, that the reigning emperor, Rudolph II, although a pupil of the Jesuits, educated in a country where the fires of the stake were always smoking, and a deadly enemy of the Protestants, was not greatly prejudiced against Jews. Weak and vacillating, he was not able to check the persecutions directed against them, but at least he did not encourage them. He issued an edict to one bishop (of Würzburg) that the Jews should not be deprived of their privileges, and to another (of Passau) that they should not be tortured on the rack. But, in order not to be decried by his contemporaries or by posterity as a benefactor of Jews, he not only maintained the heavy taxation of Jews in his crown land, Bohemia, but from time to time increased it. He also ordered the Jews to be expelled from the archduchy of Austria within six months.
In this position, robbed by Catholics and Lutherans alike, trampled down or driven into misery, barely protected by the emperor, but taxed under the pretense of enjoying this protection, the ruin and degradation of German Jews reached ever lower depths. They were so sorely troubled by the cares of the moment, that they neglected the study of the Talmud, once their spiritual food.
The Jews of Italy fared even worse at this time, and they, too, sank into misery and decay. Italy was the principal seat of the malicious and inexorable, ecclesiastical reaction, animated with the thought to annihilate the opponents of Catholicism from the face of the earth. The torch of civil war was hurled from the Vatican into Germany, France, and the Netherlands. And as the Jews, from the time of Paul IV and Pius V, had been upon the list of heretics, or foes of the church, their lot was not to be envied. With the loss of their independence, their numbers also decreased. There were no Jews living in southern Italy. In northern Italy, the largest communities, those of Venice and Rome, numbered only between 1,000 and 2,000 souls; the community in Mantua had only 1,844; and in the whole of the district of Cremona, Lodi, Pavia, Alessandria, and Casalmaggiore, there dwelt only 889 Jews. Pius V, by nature a sinister ecclesiastic delighting in persecution, who treated Jews as the cursed children of Ham, was succeeded by Gregory XIII (1572–1585), who had been skillfully trained to fanaticism by the Jesuits and the Theatine monks. As regards Jews, Gregory was a most consistent follower of the cruelty of his predecessor. In spite of repeated warnings, there were still many Christians in Italy, who, in their blindness, preferred Jewish physicians of proved excellence, such as David de Pomis, or Elias Montalto, to Christian charlatans. Gregory was desirous of prohibiting their employment. He renewed the old canonical law that Christian patients were not to be treated by Jewish physicians; not only visiting Christians who transgressed this command with severe penalties, but also punishing the Jewish physicians if they ventured to prolong the life of a Christian patient, or even alleviate his sufferings. His severity succeeded. Another of Gregory's edicts referred not to one profession, but to the Jewish race in general. He placed them under the Argus eye of the Inquisition. If any of them maintained or taught what was heretical, i. e., obnoxious to the church; if he held intercourse with a heretic or an apostate, helped him or showed him sympathy, he was to be summoned by the Inquisition, and according to its verdict was to be condemned to confiscation of his property, the punishment of the galleys, or even sentenced to death. If, then, a refugee Marrano from Spain or Portugal was caught in Italy, and it was proved that a brother Jew had given him food or shelter, both might expect to be seized by the inexorable arm of the Inquisition of Italy. The anger of Pope Gregory XIII was poured forth also against the Talmud. The Jews were once more admonished to deliver up the Talmud and other works suspected of being hostile to the church. The Inquisitors and other spiritual authorities were appointed to institute search for these books everywhere. Anyone subsequently found in possession of them, even after declaring that the offending passages had been expunged, was rendered liable to severe punishment. Pope Gregory XIII's most zealous effort was directed to the conversion of Jews. This pope, who most heartily encouraged the Jesuits and their proselytizing school of thought, endowed a propagandist seminary of all nations – the curriculum included twenty-five languages – called the "Collegium Germanicum," issued a decree that on Sabbaths and holy days Christian preachers should deliver discourses upon Christian doctrine in the synagogues, if possible in Hebrew, and that Jews of both sexes, over twelve years of age, at least a third of the community, must attend these sermons. The Catholic princes were exhorted to support this vigorous attempt at conversion. Thus an ordinance of a half-mad, schismatic pope, Benedict XIII, issued in a moment of passionate excitement, was sanctioned, and even exaggerated in cold blood by the head of the united Catholic church, thereby exercising religious compulsion not very different from the act of Antiochus Epiphanes in dedicating the Temple of the one true God to Jupiter. It is characteristic of the views then prevailing, that the Jews were to provide salaries for the preachers, in return for the violence done their consciences! Like his predecessor, Pius V, Gregory spared no means to win over the Jews. Many allowed themselves to be converted either from fear or for their advantage; for Gregory's edicts did not remain a dead letter, but were carried out with all strictness and severity. The consequence was that many Jews left Rome.
The condition of the Jews in Rome was apparently altered under Gregory's successor, Sixtus V (1585–1590), who rose from the position of a swine-herd to the office of the shepherd of Catholic Christendom, and whose dauntless energy in the government of the Papal States stamped him as an original type of character. He allowed Jews to be around him, and harbored Lopez, a Jewish refugee from Portugal, who made various suggestions as to the improvement of the finances. He went still further; he issued a bull (October 22d, 1586), which did away with almost all the restrictions made by his predecessors. Sixtus not merely granted Jews permission to dwell in all the cities of the Papal States, but also allowed them to have intercourse with Christians and employ them as assistants in business. He protected their religious freedom by special provisions, and extended to them an amnesty for past offenses, i. e., for condemnations on account of the possession of religious books. Moreover, he forbade the Knights of Malta to make slaves of Jews traveling by sea from Europe to the Levant, or vice versâ, a practice to which these consecrated champions of God had hitherto been addicted. Pope Sixtus knew how to secure obedience to his command when it became law, and the Jews previously expelled now returned to the papal dominions. Under him the Jewish community at Rome numbered two hundred members. Finally he removed the prohibition which prevented Jewish physicians from attending Christian patients. The compulsory services instituted by his predecessor were the only ordinances that Sixtus V allowed to remain.
The permission, so important at that time, for Jewish physicians to have access to Christian patients, was probably gained for himself and his colleagues, by the then celebrated physician, David de Pomis (born 1525, died 1588). With medical knowledge he combined linguistic acquirements, and familiarity with Hebrew and classical literature, writing both Hebrew and Latin with elegance. In the course of his life he felt keenly the changes in the papal policy. He lost all his property through the hostile decrees of Paul IV, was kindly treated by Pius IV, and allowed by way of exception to practice among Christians in consequence of a splendid Latin discourse delivered before the pope and the college of cardinals. But he was again subjected to irritating restrictions by Pius V, and had to employ his skill in the service of petty, capricious nobles. To dispel the unconquerable prejudices against Jews, particularly against Jewish physicians, De Pomis wrote a Latin work, entitled "The Hebrew Physician," which affords favorable testimony to his noble mind and extensive culture. With considerable eloquence De Pomis maintained that the Jew was bound by his religion to love the Christian as his brother, and that a Jewish physician, far from wishing to do harm to his Christian patient, was wont to treat him with the utmost care and solicitude. He enumerated various Hebrew physicians who had attended princes of the church, cardinals and popes, had restored them to health, and had received distinctions from them and from cities. In conclusion, De Pomis adduced some proverbs from the Talmud in a Latin translation, to show that this much-calumniated book was not so harmful and corrupt as enemies of the Jews asserted. This apology for Judaism and Jewish physicians, dedicated to Prince Francesco Maria of Urbino, the elegant Latin style of which was highly praised by an experienced critic of the time, appears to have made an impression upon Pope Sixtus. De Pomis must certainly have been intimate with him, as he was allowed to dedicate to him his second important literary work, a dictionary of the Talmud in three languages.
The pope severely punished a Christian Shylock, because he claimed a pound of flesh from a Roman Jew as the result of a wager. This Christian, named Seche, had wagered with a Jew, named Ceneda, that St. Domingo would be conquered, and on winning his bet he claimed the penalty. On hearing of this, Sixtus condemned him to death, but afterwards mitigated the punishment to banishment, and allotted the same fate to Ceneda for wagering his body, the property of his sovereign.
The favorable attitude of Sixtus towards Jews encouraged them in the hope – to them a matter of conscience, of life itself – that the prohibition directed against the Talmud and the Hebrew Scriptures would be removed forever. Under the last two popes no copies of the Talmud had been allowed to appear without causing the possessor to incur the dangers of the watchful Inquisition. Nor was the possession of other perfectly harmless Hebrew works without risk, for as the Inquisitors and clerical authorities did not in the least understand them, they condemned all without exception as inimical to the church, a category which afforded ample room for denunciation. Whether the possessor of a Hebrew book should be condemned to lose his property, or be sent to the galleys, depended, in the last instance, upon the decision of baptized Jews acquainted with rabbinical literature. To escape these annoyances the communities of Mantua, Ferrara, and Milan addressed a request to Sixtus V to allow the Jews to possess copies of the Talmud and other books, provided these works were previously expurgated of the passages objectionable to Christianity. They referred to the decision of Pope Pius IV that the Talmud could not be entirely condemned, but that it contained passages worthy of censure, which were to be struck out by the censor's marks. A Jewish delegate, Bezalel Masserano, had gone to Rome, provided with 2,000 scudi, in order to lay the request of the Jews at the feet of his Holiness. It was granted in the bull of October 22d, 1586. Sixtus allowed the reprinting of the Talmud and other writings, though only after censorship. For this purpose two commissions were appointed, in which baptized Jews were naturally included as experts. The Italian Jews began to rejoice at being allowed to possess even a mutilated Talmud. But scarcely had the commission arranged the conditions of the censorship (August 7th, 1590), when the wise pope died, and the undertaking, just begun, of reprinting the mutilated Talmud was at once discontinued.
The regard paid Jews by Sixtus V arose not from any sentiment of justice, but from his passionate desire to amass treasure. "This pope bled Christians from the throat," says his biographer, "but he drew the blood of Jews from all their limbs." They often found themselves compelled to pay immense sums into the papal treasury.
With Clement VIII, however (1592–1605), the system of intolerance, practiced by Paul IV, Pius V, and Gregory XIII, once more came into vogue. He repeated the edict of expulsion against the Jews in the Papal States (February 25th, 1593), and allowed them to dwell only in Rome, Ancona, and Avignon. If a Jew were caught in any other papal city, he was to expiate his offense by the loss of his property and the penalty of the galleys. Clement re-imposed the old restrictions upon the Jews in the three cities mentioned, forbidding them either to read or possess the Talmud and other rabbinical writings. The Jews, expelled from the Papal States, seem to have been received by Ferdinand, Duke of Tuscany, who assigned Pisa to them as a dwelling-place (July, 1593). He allowed them to possess books of every kind and of all languages, including the Talmud, but the copies first had to be expurgated according to the regulations of the commission instituted by Sixtus V. So great was the fanaticism of the apostolic throne that even noble princes, like Ferdinand de Medici, of Tuscany, and Vicenzo Gonzago, of Mantua, did not venture to relax it. Even in places where, as a favor, the Jews were allowed to possess expurgated books, they were exposed to all kinds of annoyances and extortions. They had to pay the censors, mostly baptized Jews, for the mutilation of these writings, nor were they assured that even then their books would not again be confiscated, and the owners punished, merely because some obnoxious word or other had remained unobliterated. Woe to those who rubbed out one of the censors' marks! To avoid being exposed to vexation, Jews themselves laid hands upon their sacred literature, and expunged not only everything that referred to idolatry, but also everything that glorified the Jewish race, or made mention of the Messiah and his future advent. As Italy, at that time, was the chief market for printed Hebrew works, the Jews in other countries received only mutilated copies, from which open or covert protests against Rome were completely obliterated.
Expulsion of the Jews from all Italian cities was the order of the day in the reign of this pope. Thus the Jews were expelled (in the spring of 1597) from the Milan district, i. e., from the cities of Cremona, Pavia, Lodi, and others, to the number of about a thousand. They were forced to beg for shelter in Mantua, Modena, Reggio, Verona, and Padua. During their migrations, they were robbed by heartless Christians. The sword of the church hovered for a time also over the Jews in Ferrara, a town that had always been a safe refuge for them, and even for the new-Christians from Spain. The ducal race of De Este, whose representatives vied with the Medici in magnanimity and culture, had died out. The Jews of Ferrara felt themselves so identified with the fortunes of this princely house, that they offered public prayers in the synagogue on the occasion of the severe illness of the thoughtful Princess Leonore, whom two great poets have immortalized by placing her in the glorified heaven of poetry. She herself was a benefactress of Jews, and frequently protected them. But now the last representative of the race, Alfonso II, had died without heirs (1597), and, in opposition to his last wishes, Ferrara was incorporated into the Papal States by Clement VIII. The Jewish community, consisting chiefly of Marrano refugees, was prepared to endure banishment, as it could expect no mercy from this pope. They only asked Aldobrandini, the pope's relative, who had taken possession of Ferrara, to grant them a respite that they might make preparations for departure. As Aldobrandini saw that a great portion of the trade of the town was in the hands of Jews, he had sufficient consideration not to injure it, granted them permission to remain for five years, and had this decree carried out in spite of the fanatical wishes of Clement VIII, who had hoped to banish them. No fugitive new-Christian, however, could now stop in Ferrara without falling into the clutches of the bloody Inquisition. Thus the last refuge in Italy for this class of Jews was destroyed, and there was no longer any place of safety for them in all Christendom.
It seems providential that the Jewish race, which, at the end of the sixteenth century, had no longer a footing, properly speaking, in Europe or Asia, under Christianity or Islam, should have taken firm root in the empire of their obstinate foe, Philip II, of Spain, and should have been able from that vantage ground to gain a position of equality. Indeed, in the chain of causation it was the bloody Inquisition itself which helped gain them freedom. Holland, a land wrung from the sea, became for the hunted victims of a horrible, refined fanaticism, a resting-place where they could settle down, and develop their national characteristics. But what changes and vicissitudes they had to undergo before this almost undreamed of possibility could become reality! The northwest corner of Europe had hitherto been inhabited by only a few Jews. They suffered, as did their brethren, under the extravagances of excited fanaticism, were hunted down, and massacred at the time of the crusades and the Black Death, bearing all in silent obscurity and patience. When the country, under the name of the Netherlands, beneath the far-reaching scepter of Charles V, was united to Spain, the Spanish principle of hostility to Jews was transferred to it. The emperor issued command after command that the Jews in the cities of the Netherlands, small though their numbers were, should be expelled. Every citizen was required to make known to the royal officers the presence of Jews contrary to law. In consequence of the introduction of the Inquisition into Portugal, several Jewish families had betaken themselves, with all their wealth, industry, and skill, to the flourishing cities of the Netherlands, Brussels, Antwerp, and Ghent, in order to lead a religious life secure from danger. The severe edict of Charles V, and his repeated command not to allow their presence, extended to them. The magistrates duly fulfilled the commands of their ruler in this matter, because they feared that the presence of new-Christians would cause the Inquisition to be introduced – an evil which seemed to their anxious hearts to forebode great danger for themselves.
The people of the Netherlands could not escape the Inquisition. Although an appendage of Spain, were they not surrounded by Lutheran heretics, and did not these dwell in their very midst? So this institution was to be introduced among them also. This was one of the main causes of the revolt of the Netherlands, and of that long-continued war, so small in its beginnings, and so great in its results, that rendered powerless the might of Spain, and raised the tiny land of Holland to a power of almost the first rank. It seemed as if from every head that Alva struck off in the Netherlands, hundreds of others sprang, as from the Hydra of old. It was a matter of course that in this sanguinary struggle which transformed the whole land into an arena of battle, there was no place for Jews. Upon the advice of Arnheim and Zütphen, Alva had issued an edict that if Jews were found there, they were to be kept in custody until such time as he should pass judgment upon them. It was well known what this meant from his mouth.
The Portuguese Marranos, or new-Christians, who, even in the third generation, could not forget, and would not repudiate, their Jewish descent, turned their eyes towards the Netherlands, now wrestling for freedom, the more as the Inquisition was raging more furiously than ever, and dragging them to the dungeon or the stake. Since the first symptom of the decline of Spain's fortunes, since the collapse of the invincible Armada, by means of which Philip II had thought to carry the chains of actual and spiritual bondage not only to England, but, if possible, to the ends of the earth, there had arisen in the hearts of the pseudo-Christians, under the iron rule of this tyrant, an eager desire for freedom. As Italy was closed to them by the persecuting policy of the reactionary popes, their only hope of refuge was in the Netherlands.
An eminent Jew, Samuel Pallache, sent by the king of Morocco as consul to the Netherlands (about 1591), proposed to the magistrate of Middelburg, in the province of Zealand, to receive the Portuguese Marranos, and allow them religious freedom. In return, they would develop the city into a flourishing, commercial center by means of their wealth. The wise city fathers would willingly have agreed to this plan, but the war for religion and freedom, so passionately waged against the two-fold despotism of Spain, had made even the reformed preachers fanatical and intolerant. They were opposed to the admission of Jews into Zealand.
But the Portuguese new-Christians did not abandon the idea of seeking security in the provinces of the Netherlands already freed from the Spanish yoke. They felt themselves drawn towards this republic by mighty bonds; they shared its fierce hatred against Spain with its thirst for human sacrifices, and against its fanatical king, Philip II. The great Protector, William of Orange, the soul of the struggle for independence, had uttered the idea of mutual toleration and friendly intercourse between different religious parties, creeds, and sects. Although this first germ of genuine humanity at first fell to the ground, the Marranos clung to it as affording hope of release from their daily torments. A courageous Marrano woman, Mayor Rodrigues, appears to have formed the plan of seeking a refuge for her family in Holland. She, her husband, Gaspar Lopes Homem, her two sons and two daughters, and several other members of this rich and respected family, were devotedly attached to Judaism, and weary of the pretense of following Christian customs, a pretense, after all, powerless to protect them from the horrors of the Inquisition. When a ship sailed from Portugal with a load of fugitive Marranos, under the leadership of one Jacob Tirado, Mayor Rodrigues intrusted to this vessel her charming and beautiful daughter, Maria Nuñes, and also her son. The mother appears to have relied upon the magic of her daughter's charms; the extraordinary beauty of Maria Nuñes was to serve as an ægis to these wanderers, surrounded by dangers on all sides, and secure to them a place of refuge. As a matter of fact, her beauty was successful in averting the first danger that threatened the party of refugees, consisting of ten persons, men, women and children. They were captured by an English ship making raids upon vessels sailing under the Spanish-Portuguese flag, and were taken to England. Maria Nuñes so bewitched the captain, an English duke, that he offered her his hand, thinking that she belonged to the rank of the Portuguese grandees; but she refused this honorable offer, because she wished to live as a Jewess. The beauty of the fair Portuguese prisoner made so great a sensation in London, that the virgin queen, Elizabeth, was curious to make the acquaintance of this celebrated beauty, inaccessible even to the love of a duke. She invited her to an audience, and drove with her in an open carriage through the streets of the capital. Probably owing to the mediation of Maria Nuñes, the fugitive Jews were allowed to leave England unharmed, and set sail for Holland. After enduring a most stormy voyage, they were able to make for the harbor of Emden, where, as in the rest of East Friesland, some few German Jews lived.
As soon as the Marranos became aware, by Hebrew letters and other signs, of the presence of brethren in this city, Jacob Tirado, the most eminent among them repaired to Moses Uri Halevi, who had the reputation of being a learned man, and on whose house Hebrew characters had been noticed. He discovered to him his own and his companions' intention to give up pseudo-Christianity, and to be received fully and, if possible, immediately into Judaism. But Moses Uri had scruples about taking such a decisive course, the apparent conversion of Christians to Judaism, in a small town, where nothing could long remain hidden. He, therefore, advised the fugitives to betake themselves to Amsterdam, where greater toleration was enjoyed, and promised to come to them with his whole family, to remain with them, and instruct them in Jewish doctrines. Accordingly, the Marranos, led by Tirado, arrived at Amsterdam (April 22d, 1593), sought an abode which would allow of their remaining together, and were received back into Judaism as soon as Moses Uri and his family came to them.
Moses Uri and his son arranged a house of prayer for the Marranos, and officiated as conductors of the services. Great zeal was shown, not only by Jacob Tirado, but also by Samuel Pallache, the consul, and a Marrano poet, Jacob Israel Belmonte, come thither from Madeira, who depicted the tortures of the Inquisition in verse, giving his poem the appropriate title of "Job." The youthful community was strengthened in numbers and in standing by fresh arrivals. An English fleet, which, under the Earl of Essex, surprised the fortress of Cadiz, and inflicted serious injuries upon the Spaniards (in the summer of 1596), conveyed several Marranos to Holland, amongst them a man of great originality, not without importance for posterity. Alonso de Herrera was descended from Jewish and ancient Spanish families. His ancestor was the great Gonsalvo de Cordova, the conqueror of Naples for Spain. He himself was the Spanish resident in Cadiz, and on the capture of this city was taken prisoner by the English. On being liberated he went to Amsterdam, became a Jew, and adopted the name of Abraham de Herrera (wrongly called Irira).