The Marranos in Amsterdam did not find the practice of their religion altogether easy. When this first Portuguese community was secretly celebrating its fourth Fast of Atonement (October, 1596), their Christian neighbors were surprised at the secret meeting of disguised figures in one house; they suspected treacherous assemblies of Catholic conspirators, and denounced them to the magistrates. Whilst the Jews were engaged in prayer, armed men suddenly rushed into the house, and spread terror amongst the assembled worshipers. As most of them, mindful of the cruelties of the Inquisition, and fearing a similar fate in Amsterdam, tried to save themselves by flight, the suspicions of the Amsterdam officials were increased. The latter searched for crucifixes and wafers, and led Moses Uri and his son, the leaders of the service, to prison. However, Jacob Tirado, who was able to make himself understood in the Latin language, succeeded in convincing the authorities that the assembly was not one of papists, but of Jews who had fled from the Moloch of the Inquisition. Moreover, that they had brought much wealth with them, and finally that they would induce many co-religionists to come from Spain and Portugal with their riches, and thus give an impulse to the trade of Amsterdam. Tirado's speech made a great impression. The prisoners were released, and the terrified Portuguese Jews were able to conclude the service of the Fast of Atonement. Now that their religion was made known, they ventured upon the step of petitioning the magistrate to allow them to build a synagogue in which to hold their religious services. After much consideration the request was granted. Jacob Tirado bought a site, and in 1598 built the first Jewish temple in the north of Europe, called the "House of Jacob" (Beth Jacob). It was consecrated amid the enthusiasm of the little community.
The favorable news about the Marrano colonists, carried secretly to Spain and Portugal, afforded additional inducement to emigration. Mayor Rodrigues Homem, the first promoter of this course, also found an opportunity of escaping from Portugal and joining her beautiful daughter, Maria Nuñes (about 1598). She brought her younger son and daughter with her; her husband had probably died before this time. Simultaneously, barely escaping the Inquisition, another eminent family arrived from Portugal, that of Franco Mendes, including the parents and two sons, Francisco Mendes Medeïros, a cultured literary man, who took the Hebrew name of Isaac, and Christoval Mendes Franco, rich and benevolent, who called himself Mordecai. Both played important parts in the Amsterdam community, but subsequently caused a division.
Philip II lived to see the two races whom he had most savagely hated and persecuted, the Netherlanders and the Jews, in a measure join hands to destroy what he had created, for Holland derived advantage from the Jewish settlers from Portugal. Previously it had been one of the poorest states, and the bitter, destructive wars had made the land still poorer. The capital brought by the Marranos to Amsterdam was very acceptable, and benefited the whole country. The Dutch were now enabled to lay the foundations of their prosperity by taking the Indian trade out of the hands of the Portuguese, who had been connected with Spain in an unprofitable alliance. The capital of the fugitive Jews made it possible to found great transmarine companies and fit out trading expeditions, in which they participated. The connections, too, of the Portuguese Jews with their secret co-religionists in the Portuguese possessions in the Indies assisted the undertakings of Dutch merchants.
Philip II died in September, 1598, a terrible warning to obstinate, unscrupulous despots. His body was covered with abscesses and vermin, which made him such an object of horror that his trembling servants approached him only with disgust. The great empire which he bequeathed to his feeble son, Philip III, was likewise diseased. It was succumbing to its infirmities, and no longer possessed influence in the councils of Europe. The reins of government were loosened, and thus the new-Christians found it still easier to escape the clutches of the Inquisition. They now had a goal to which to direct their steps. An extraordinary occurrence in Lisbon had excited the most lukewarm apostate Jews to return to Judaism. A Franciscan monk, Diogo de la Asumção, of an ancient Christian family, had become convinced of the truth of Judaism and the falsity of Christianity by reading the Bible – Bible reading has its dangers – and had openly expressed his convictions to the other monks of his order. For what purpose had the Inquisition been instituted, if it were to let such crimes go unpunished? Diogo was thrown into a dungeon; but it was not necessary to extort confession, for he openly and without reservation admitted his offense, love for Judaism. The tribunal needed to put him to the rack only to induce him to denounce his accomplices, he having asserted that several of his fellow-monks shared his convictions. Certain learned theologians were charged to dissuade the apostate Franciscan from his belief, and remove so dark a stain from the order and Christendom in general; but in vain. Diogo remained true to his belief in the truth of Judaism. After he had spent about two years in the dungeons of the Inquisition, he was finally burnt alive at a solemn auto-da-fé in Lisbon, in the presence of the regent (August, 1603).
The fact that a Christian by birth, a monk to boot, had suffered for the sake of Judaism, and had died steadfast in faith, made a powerful impression upon apostate Portuguese Jews, and impelled them to return publicly to the faith of their fathers. The Inquisition lost its terrors for them. They reverted to Judaism, without heeding whether or not they were rushing upon death. David Jesurun, a young poet, a favorite of the Muses since his childhood, on this account called "the little poet" by his acquaintances, celebrated the burning of the martyr, Diogo de la Asumção, in a fiery Portuguese sonnet:
"Thou wast the gold, buried in the dark vaults of the tribunal of blood;
And even as gold is purified from dross by flames,
So, too, by flames would'st thou be purified.
Thou wast as the phœnix, renewing his life,
Disdaining to remain the slave of death.
Thou wast consumed in the fire.
Only to rise again from thine ashes,
A burnt-offering
Brought to God in the flames.
In heaven dost thou laugh at those who tortured thee;
And no more art called Brother Diogo,
But Golden Phœnix, Angel, Sacrifice."
This eager young poet was fortunate enough to escape the Inquisition, and hastened to Amsterdam. He composed a powerful poem in Spanish on seeing this city, which seemed to him a new Jerusalem. Another young Marrano poet also reverted to Judaism through the tragic death of Diogo, the Franciscan. Paul de Pina, a man of some poetic talent, was inclined to religious enthusiasm, and was on the point of becoming a monk. This step caused great sorrow to his relative, Diego Gomez Lobato, at heart faithful to Judaism, and he wished to hinder him from apostasy. When he was about to make a journey to Italy, Diego, therefore, gave him a letter, addressed to the celebrated Jewish physician, Elias Montalto, known as Felix Montalto when professing Christianity. The letter was as follows: "Our cousin, Paul de Pina, is going to Rome to become a monk. Your Grace will do me the favor to dissuade him."
If this letter had fallen into the hands of the Roman or Portuguese Inquisition, it would have cost both the writer and his correspondent their lives. Elias Montalto endeavored to dissuade young De Pina from his purpose and win him back to the religion of his fathers. He seems to have succeeded only in so far that De Pina abandoned his journey to Rome, went off to Brazil, and then returned to Lisbon. The martyrdom of Diogo de la Asumção appears to have finally decided him against Christianity. He hastened to Amsterdam with the sad news (1604), became an eager convert to Judaism, and adopted the Hebrew name of Rohel Jesurun. He became a most enthusiastic Jew, an ornament to the Amsterdam community.
The loyalty to Judaism manifested by the Portuguese Marranos regardless of consequences naturally swelled the numbers of the victims of the Inquisition. Not long afterwards, one hundred and fifty of them were thrown into gloomy dungeons, tortured, and forced to confess. Even the regent of Portugal hesitated to burn so large a number. Moreover, the new-Christian capitalists had a certain amount of power over the Spanish court, to which, since the union of the two kingdoms, Portugal now belonged. The court owed them large sums which it could not pay in consequence of the increasing poverty of both countries. The Marranos offered to release Philip III from this debt, and give in addition a present of 1,200,000 crusados (£120,000), if the imprisoned Jews were pardoned. They also spent 150,000 crusados to persuade the councilors to make the king grant this favor. Hence the court manifested an inclination to mercy, and applied to Pope Clement VIII to empower the Inquisition to deal mildly with the sinners on this occasion. The pope remembered, or was reminded, that his predecessors, Clement VII and Paul III, had granted absolution to Portuguese Marranos. He did the same, and issued a bull pardoning the imprisoned Jews (August 23d, 1604). The Inquisition contented itself with the hypocritical repentance of its prisoners. Several hundred of them, clad in the garb of penitents, were led to the auto-da-fé at Lisbon (January 10th, 1605), not, however, to mount the stake, but to make public confession of their guilt, and be condemned to deprivation of all civic rights. All, or a large proportion, of those set free, repaired to their new place of refuge. Among them was Joseph ben Israel, who had thrice suffered torture, and escaped with shattered health and the loss of his property. He took with him his son Manasseh – or whatever his name may have been as a pseudo-Christian – then a child, subsequently destined to fill a distinguished rôle in Jewish history.
Moses Uri (born 1544, died 1620) at different times received into the Hebrew faith two hundred and forty-eight men, so greatly did the numbers of the community at Amsterdam increase. They sent to Salonica for a rabbi of Sephardic descent, by name Joseph Pardo, who well understood the character of the semi-Catholic members of the community. He put into their hands a book written in Spanish, Christian rather than Jewish in tone. The synagogue Beth Jacob, built by Tirado, no longer sufficed for the accommodation of its worshipers, and a new one had to be built in 1608, called "Neve Shalom." It was founded by Isaac Francisco Mendes Medeïros and his relatives. As the discoverers of a new country regard every step they take in it, every new path into which they strike out, and every person prominent in the enterprise, as important and worthy of remembrance, so the young Amsterdam community joyfully recorded everything that occurred in their midst at the commencement of their career.
The arrival of Isaac Uziel (died in 1620) was a piece of good fortune for this unique community. Apparently of a family of refugees, this rabbi could thoroughly sympathize with his companions in misfortune at Amsterdam. He was a poet, grammarian, and mathematician, but, above all, a preacher of rare power and influence, the first who dared arouse, with his mighty voice, the consciences of his hearers, lulled to sleep by the practice of Catholic customs, and warn them not to believe that they had purchased indulgence or remission for their sins, follies, and vices, by religious observances thoughtlessly practiced. Isaac Uziel did not spare even the most respected and powerful in the community, although he thereby drew upon himself their hatred, which went so far as to cause a split; on the other hand, he gained devoted followers, who celebrated him in spirited verse.
In this manner religious union was encouraged and faith strengthened among the Portuguese fugitives, who had so degenerated in religious matters. But as yet no arrangements had been made for the proper burial of their dead. They were compelled to bury them far away from the city, at Groede, in northern Holland. By the endeavors of the leading members of the community, they succeeded in obtaining a burial-ground, not too far from Amsterdam, in Ouderkerk, near Muiderberg (in April, 1614), at which they rejoiced greatly. The first person buried there was Manuel Pimentel, or, by his Jewish name, Isaac Abenacar, called "king of players" by the French king, Henry IV, who was in the habit of playing with him. Two years later, the body of an eminent and noble man, Elias Felice Montalto, was brought from far off to be buried in this peaceful spot. He had formerly professed Christianity, but afterwards became a faithful Jew, was a clever physician and elegant author, and lived in Livorno, Venice, and finally in Paris as private physician to Queen Maria de Medici. He died in Tours while on a journey with the French court, on February 16th, 1616. The queen caused his body to be embalmed, and taken to the cemetery at Ouderkerk, accompanied by his son, his uncle, and his disciple, Saul Morteira.
The Jews of Amsterdam were long compelled to pay a tax, for every corpse, to the churches past which the body was carried. On the whole, they were at first not tolerated officially, their presence was only connived at. They were distrusted as Catholic spies in the service of Spain, plotting treason disguised as Jews. Even when the authorities and the population in general had become convinced of their genuine hatred of Spain and Portugal, they were still far from being recognized and tolerated as an independent, religious body. For a short time the synagogues were closed, and public worship prohibited. Jewish refugees from the Spanish peninsula, on arriving in Havre, were thrown into prison. This intolerance in the country destined to be the first where religious freedom was to raise its temple, was chiefly caused by the passionate conflict between two parties of Reformers – the Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants. The former were more gentle in their exposition and practical application of Christianity than their opponents, the gloomy Calvinists, Dutch Independents. In Amsterdam the latter party predominated and persecuted their opponents, considered secret, treacherous adherents of Spain. Although the Remonstrants had cause to try to effect toleration for all sects, it was they who came forward as the accusers of the Jews. They complained to the chief magistrate of Amsterdam that all kinds of sects, even Jews, were tolerated in the capital of Holland, they being the sole exception.
The governor, Prince Maurice of Orange, was certainly favorable to Jews, but he could do nothing against the spirit of intolerance, and the independence of the cities and states. Consequently, even in Holland the Jewish question came up for discussion, and a commission was appointed for its settlement. Finally it was decided (March 17th, 1615) that every city, as in the case of Amsterdam, could issue a special regulation about Jews, either to tolerate them, or to expel them; but in those cities where they were admitted, they were not to be forced to wear a badge. Upon the repeated complaints of the Remonstrants, the burgomaster, Reinier Pauw, laid before the council (October 15th, 1619) the question as to what was to be done in the case of the numerous fugitive Portuguese Jews who had intermarried with the daughters of the land, thereby causing great scandal and annoyance. Hereupon it was decided (November 8th), that intercourse between Jews and Christian women, even prostitutes, was to be strictly forbidden. On the other hand, permission was granted to Jews freely to acknowledge their religion.
As Amsterdam was not so wealthy as it afterwards became, it could not do without Jews, who had transferred to it their riches and their knowledge of affairs. The old-established prejudices against them disappeared more and more upon closer acquaintance. The Jews from Portugal betrayed neither by their cultured language, their demeanor, nor their manners, that they belonged to a despised caste; on the contrary, their carriage was that of people of rank, with whom it was an honor for many a Christian burgher to be acquainted. They were, therefore, treated with a certain amount of consideration. Their number soon increased to four hundred families, with three hundred houses in the city, and before long, a Hebrew printing press was set up in Amsterdam, without fear of the Argus eye of the censor.
The prosperity of Amsterdam, caused by the influx of Portuguese Jews, excited the envy of many Christian princes, and they invited the Jews into their dominions. Christian IV, king of Denmark, addressed a letter to the Jewish Council of Amsterdam (November 25th, 1622), asking them to encourage some of their members to settle in his state. He promised them freedom of worship, and other favorable privileges. The Duke of Savoy invited Portuguese Jews to come to Nice, and the Duke of Modena offered them the right of residence in Reggio, both granting them extensive privileges. Thus, in the midst of the gloomy persecution of Christendom, whose two religious factions were drawing the sword against each other in the Thirty Years' War, the Jews found pleasant little oases, as it were, from which they could recover their lost liberty, and gradually raise themselves from their heavy bondage.
CHAPTER XX.
THE DUTCH JERUSALEM AND THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR
The Amsterdam Jewish Community – Its Wealth, Culture, and Honored Position – Zacuto Lusitano – Internal Dissensions – The Talmud Torah School – Saul Morteira, Isaac Aboab, and Manasseh ben Israel – The Portuguese Congregation in Hamburg – The First Synagogue – Lutheran Intolerance – John Miller – Jewish Colony in Brazil – The Chief Communities in Germany – Persecution in Frankfort – Dr. Chemnitz – The Vienna Congregation – Lipmann Heller – Ferdinand II's Zeal for the Conversion of Jews – Influence of the Thirty Years' War on the Fortunes of the Jews.
1618–1648 C.E
The Jewish race during its dispersion of nearly two thousand years may fitly be compared to a polyp. Though it was often wounded and cut to pieces, the parts severed from the whole did not die, but began an independent existence, developed organically, and formed a new rootstock. Driven from their original Palestinian home, the scattered members of this peculiar national organism assembled on the banks of the Euphrates and Tigris and in the palm district of Arabia. Doomed to ruin there, they emigrated to Spain with the Arabs, the most cultured people of the Middle Ages, and became the teachers of Europe, then plunged in barbarism. Expelled thence, weakened in heart and numbers, they proceeded eastwards, and, as again they found no resting-place, they settled in the north, always following advancing civilization. The admission of Jews to Holland was the first quivering dawn of a bright day after dense gloom. Amsterdam, the northern Venice, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, had become a new center for Jews; they rightly named it their new, great Jerusalem. In time this city became an ark of refuge for the Jewish race in the new deluge. With every trial conducted by the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal on account of the Judaizing practices of the Marranos, with every burning pile set ablaze for convicted or suspected persons, the numbers of the Amsterdam community increased, as if the fanatics aimed at depopulating and impoverishing the Catholic countries to render the heretical states of the Netherlands populous and wealthy. The Amsterdam Portuguese community, consisting of more than four hundred members, already possessed three hundred stately houses and palaces in this city, raised by them to a flourishing seat of commerce. Their capital enabled them to carry on trade, for the most part on a large scale, and they were interested in the East and West India Companies, or conducted banking houses. But to usury, which made the Jews of other countries so hated, they were sworn foes. The synagogue dues imposed upon themselves give an approximate idea of the extent of their capital and trade. For every pound of goods exported or imported by them they were accustomed to pay a doit, and these taxes, exclusive of those on the receipts of merchants interested in trading companies, amounted to 12,000 francs annually.
Not on account of their wealth alone did they occupy a distinguished position in the new Batavian seat of commerce. The immigrant Marranos belonged for the most part to the educated class; in Spain or Portugal, their unnatural mother country, they had occupied positions as physicians, lawyers, government officials, officers, or clergymen, and were familiar with the Latin language and literature no less than with belles-lettres, and were accustomed to the usages of society. In the Netherlands, then the most civilized part of Europe, humanistic culture was in itself a recommendation. Hence, in Holland, cultivated Jews had intercourse with educated Christians on terms of equality, and obliterated the prejudices against the Jewish race. Some of them obtained a European reputation, and were connected with personages of high rank. Abraham Zacuto Lusitano (born 1576, died 1642), great-grandson of Zacuto, the historian and astronomer, was one of the most celebrated physicians of his time. He corresponded with Frederick, prince of the Palatinate, and his learned wife, the unfortunate couple that occupied the throne of Bohemia for a brief space, and was the cause of the Thirty Years' War. Zacuto's praise was sounded in poetry and prose by Christian as well as Jewish professional brethren. The Stadtholders of the Netherlands, princes of the house of Orange-Nassau, Maurice, Henry, and William II, like the founder of their race, William I, were well disposed towards Jews, and treated them as citizens with full rights. Even the Spanish and Portuguese kings, the persecutors of the Marranos in their own countries, condescended to show respect to the descendants of their hunted victims, to confer appointments upon them, and to intrust them with consular functions for their states.
The attachment of the Amsterdam Jews to their re-adopted religion, purchased with so many dangers, was deep, and was renewed at every accession of fresh fugitives, and every report of the martyrdom of their brethren on the burning pile of the Inquisition. This devotedness was reflected in their conduct, and embodied in verses composed in the language of their persecutors.
Paul de Pina, or Rëuel Jesurun, the poet, who had once been on the point of becoming a monk, composed for a sacred festival part songs in Portuguese, performed by seven youths to do honor to the first synagogue (Beth-Jacob) in 1624. The mountains of the Holy Land, Sinai, Hor, Nebo, Gerisim, Carmel, and Zethim (Mount of Olives), in melodious verses celebrated the excellence of the Jewish religion, the Jewish Law, and the Jewish people. They praised the thousand merciful ways in which God had led His people from the earliest times to the present. The unity of God, the holiness of the Law, and the expectations of the Messianic age of grace, the more deeply felt by the Sephardic Marranos because they were newly acquired and dearly gained convictions – these were the inexhaustible themes of their poetry. But in the background of the splendid picture there always lowered the dreadful dungeon, the priests of Moloch, and the blazing flames of the Inquisition.
In this mood, exalted by the recollection of sufferings and torture endured, the members of the Amsterdam community, with full heart and bountiful hand, founded benevolent institutions of every description, orphan asylums, benevolent societies (brotherhoods), and hospitals, such as were not in existence in any of the older communities. They had the means and the disposition. Their piety was shown in charity and generosity. But, exalted though their mood was, they were men with passions, and dissensions arose in the young community. Many members, born and brought up in Catholicism, brought with them and retained their Catholic views and customs; they thought that they could combine them with Judaism. "Can one carry coals in his bosom without singeing his clothes?" From childhood the Marranos had heard and seen that one is allowed to sin, if from time to time he is reconciled with the church. Catholic priests of all ranks were at hand to effect the reconciliation, and by ecclesiastical means ward off future punishment from the sinner. In the eyes of most Marranos, the rites and ceremonies of Judaism took the place of the Catholic sacraments, and the rabbis of father-confessors. They believed that he who conscientiously observes Jewish rites, and in addition does a few other things, may yield to his desires without forfeiting his soul's welfare. At any rate, the rabbis could give him absolution. Hence the Marranos led a life far from perfect, especially in point of chastity. The first two rabbis of the Amsterdam community, Joseph Pardo and Judah Vega, in consideration of the circumstances were indulgent to these weaknesses and shortcomings. But the third, Isaac Uziel, did not restrain himself; with inexorable rigor he scourged the evil habits of semi-Jews and semi-Catholics from the pulpit. This severity wounded the attacked, but, instead of mending their ways, they were angry with the preacher, and several left the community and the synagogue, and combined to found a new one (the third) in 1618. At the head of the seceders was David Osorio; possibly he felt most deeply wounded by Uziel's severe sermons. For the new synagogue (Beth Israel) which the seceders erected, they chose David Pardo, the son of Joseph Pardo, as rabbi and preacher. He defended the acceptance of this office in the new body, founded to some extent in defiance of Isaac Uziel, by alleging that he wished to lessen dissension. However, the tension lasted for twenty years (1618–1639).
Meanwhile German Jews, whom the ravages of the Thirty Years' War had driven out of their Ghettos, sought the asylum of Amsterdam, and were admitted to its shelter. If the Amsterdam Council had at first merely connived at the immigration and settlement of Jews, at a later period it decidedly furthered their admission, because it perceived the important advantage which they brought the state. The immigrant German Jews naturally could not unite closely with the Portuguese community, because they differed, not only in language, but also in demeanor and manners. A wide chasm divided the Portuguese and the Germans of the same race and religion from each other. The former haughtily looked down upon the latter as semi-barbarians, and the latter did not regard the former as genuine Jews. As soon as a sufficient number had assembled, the German Jews formed a synagogue, with a rabbi of their own. Their first chief was Moses Weil. The breach within the Portuguese community was painfully felt. Jacob Curiel, a distinguished man, afterwards resident of the Portuguese court in Hamburg, by the greatest exertions brought about a reconciliation, and not till the union of the three synagogues in one single corporate body, in April, 1639, did the Portuguese community, by the harmonious co-operation of its powers, stand forth in all its splendor, and surpass all its elder sisters in the three divisions of the globe. The Amsterdam community in some points resembled the ancient Alexandrian Jewish congregation. Like the latter, it possessed great wealth, cultivation, and a certain distinction of character; but, like it, suffered from insufficient knowledge of Jewish religious and scientific literature. Nearly all Marrano members had to commence to learn Hebrew in advanced age!
On uniting the three communities, for which statutes were passed, the representatives took pains to obviate this ignorance of Hebrew. They founded an institute (Talmud Torah) in which children and youths might have instruction in the useful branches of Jewish theology. It was, perhaps, the first graded institution of the kind among Jews. It consisted, at first, of seven classes. Students could be conducted from the lowest step, the Hebrew alphabet, to the highest rung of the Talmud. It was at once an elementary school and a college for higher studies. Thorough Hebrew philology, elocution, and modern Hebrew poetry were also taught there, which was not usual in other Jewish schools. In the highest departments, the first rabbis, or Chachamim, at that time Saul Morteira and Isaac Aboab, gave instruction. These two men, with Manasseh ben Israel and David Pardo, formed the first rabbinical college. This richly endowed institute became a nursery for the training of rabbis for the Amsterdam community and its daughters in Europe and America. From it pupils went forth who labored in wider spheres; among whom may be mentioned, for the sake of contrast, the confused Kabbalist Moses Zacuto and the clear-headed Baruch Spinoza.
It was a misfortune for the Amsterdam community that its first spiritual guides, who exercised remarkable influence, were possessed of only mediocre talents, in some degree lacked mental poise. With the vast resources which this first Dutch community had at command, with the fund of culture characterizing its members, and their devotion to Judaism, its leaders might have brought about remarkable results, if they had possessed more independence, profounder intellect, and greater genius. The first Amsterdam rabbinical college had nothing of all this. David Pardo appears to have been of very little importance. Saul Levi Morteira (born about 1596, died 1660) was not even a distinguished preacher; his colleagues, Aboab and Manasseh ben Israel, far outshone him. His sermons, the only printed productions of his literary activity, have a philosophical complexion, but no depth of thought. Morteira followed the broad, beaten paths, repeating what had been thought and pointed out before him. Even in rabbinical learning he had no mastery, and was not considered an authority by contemporary Talmudists. His colleague, Isaac Aboab de Fonseca (born 1606, died 1693), was even less distinguished. He, also, was a Portuguese by descent, and, it seems, came to Amsterdam as a child with his mother, who was fifty years old at his birth. He was trained under Isaac Uziel, and acquired from him pulpit eloquence, if that can be learnt. Aboab became an excellent and beloved preacher. His style of speaking has been very well described by Antonio Vieira of Lisbon, a wise Jesuit, possessed of goodwill towards Jews. When once in Amsterdam, he heard Aboab and Manasseh ben Israel preach, and when asked how he liked them, he replied: "The one (Manasseh) says what he knows, and the other knows what he says." But a well-arranged, impressive, attractive sermon is not always the fruit of solid knowledge and clear conviction. At any rate, it was not with Aboab. In character he was vacillating, submissive to the influence of others, open to flattery, hence not independent. To this man was given the control of the Amsterdam community for nearly seventy years. Aboab was superstitious like the multitude, and, instead of leading, was led.