Far more distinguished was Manasseh ben Israel (born 1604, died 1657), a child of the Amsterdam community, to which his father had come broken down by the torture of the Inquisition, and robbed of all his property. Young Manasseh, eager for learning, was trained under Isaac Uziel, and while his knowledge of the Bible and the Talmud did not attain to perfect mastery, it was extensive and ready. Directed by his personal circumstances to the study of ten languages – including Portuguese as his mother tongue, and Latin as the literary language – Manasseh learnt to express himself in speech and writing with more or less perfection in all these languages and in an elevated style. A ready speaker by nature, he educated himself as a preacher, displaying all the lights and shadows of his profession. He became a prolific writer, and, though he died young, performed incomparably more than his colleagues. In the case of this amiable man, who rendered essential service to Judaism, we should not take the part of severe critics, nor inquire how large a share enthusiasm and a certain vanity had in his work. But history is a stern judge. What his contemporaries admired in Manasseh was not his profound intellect, nor his overpowering, far-reaching greatness, but his quiet, yielding, modest behavior, and his simple nature. He correctly and briefly described himself without under- or over-estimation: "I rejoice in the modest though happy talent of being able to describe, with a certain degree of order, the objects that the will presents to the mind." He brought no great and fruitful thoughts into the world, but fostered the intellectual offspring of others, treating them as his own. He knew rather than thought much. Although familiar with profane literature and Christian theology, he clung firmly not only to traditional Judaism, as represented by the rabbinical system, but also to the Kabbala, and, like his less educated colleagues, regarded every word in the Talmud and the Zohar as a profound truth. Like others, Manasseh ben Israel was subject to superstitions, which had a strong influence over him, and spurred on his will.
Such was the character of the men called to guide and instruct the young, ignorant, catholicizing, and tractable Amsterdam community. Great power was in their hand. Important affairs were discussed and decided at the public sittings of the rabbis (Maamad) with the trustees elected by the members. In religious matters the Chachamim alone decided, because the laity did not trust their own judgment. The decisions of the rabbis were binding on the members. Nobody might oppose them, because the government had a despotic character. The authorities allowed the board of trustees and the college of rabbis full liberty to inflict spiritual penalties on disobedient members. Of this liberty and this power the leaders made only too extensive a use. They had brought from Spain mischievous zeal in maintaining the faith pure and uprooting heresy. The Amsterdam rabbis introduced the innovation of bringing religious opinions and convictions before their judgment-seat, of constituting themselves a sort of inquisitional tribunal, and instituting autos-da-fé, which, even if bloodless, were not less painful to the sufferers. The character and organization of the largest Portuguese community in Europe had a powerful influence on the course of Jewish history. Branch communities were formed, which took for their model not only the organization, dignity, devoted piety, and benevolence, but also the follies and perversities, of their mother. The second community on Dutch soil was gradually formed at Rotterdam. Two brothers, as pious as wealthy, Abraham and David Pinto, laid the foundation of this community, and elected as Chacham and principal of the institute which they founded (Jesiba de los Pintos), a young man, Josiah Pardo, son of David Pardo, and son-in-law of Morteira, who, however, did not distinguish himself.
In Haarlem, also, the Jews were on the point of obtaining permission to settle. The Humanists and favorers of toleration, like Joseph Scaliger, the prince of philologists, were already rejoicing; but, in the end, intolerance prevailed, and nothing came of the movement. Instead, Portuguese communities arose in North Germany beyond the sea, and gradually in other cities of the Netherlands.
In Hamburg an important colony of the Amsterdam community was next formed. But there were difficulties in overcoming German prejudices and German pedantry. Against the advantages arising from the settlement of wealthy and intelligent Jews, which the Amsterdam people had quickly comprehended, the Hamburg citizens struggled hand and foot. For the fierce Lutherans it was an abomination to have Jews in their midst. A Jewish jeweler named Isaac, from Salzuflen, in Lippe, with twelve of his co-religionists, who were compelled to go in search of a new home, made an attempt to settle in Hamburg. He presented a petition to the senate to receive them for twelve years, offering the sum of 9,000 marks and a yearly tax of 400 marks. The negotiator, Isaac, exhaustively set forth all possible reasons for the reception of Jews, and declared that they were willing to submit to any conditions. He adduced that Jews were tolerated not only in Catholic, but also in evangelical countries, both in the West, at Frankfort and Worms, and in northern Germany, in Hanover, Minden, Hildesheim, Göttingen, Norden, Dortmund, Hamm, Lippe, and Emden. All was in vain. Hamburg, then delighting in popish quarreling about orthodoxy and heresy, refused a home to Jews.
It is curious that Hamburg, at the very time when it so strongly opposed the temporary admission of Jews, harbored some in its midst without being aware of it. With these, under the mask of Portuguese papists, orthodox Christians had daily intercourse. Marrano fugitives had escaped from the Inquisition, settled in the North German free Hanse town, and passed as Portuguese "traders." Hearing that their brethren in Amsterdam, with whom they were in communication, openly professed Judaism, and were tolerated, they also lifted their mask, and wished to be recognized as Jews, but continued to have their children baptized. The strict Lutheran citizens raised a loud outcry, and demanded of the senate that the wealthy Jews who had been driven from Portugal and other places should be got rid of, and not be tolerated. But to this the senate did not like to accede; they felt shame at treating these Portuguese of noble demeanor and intelligent character as vagrants or Jews. To the secret Jews of Hamburg there belonged at that time the beloved and much-sought physician, Rodrigo de Castro (born about 1560 at Lisbon, died 1627 or 1628), who, in the violence of the pestilence, hastened with self-sacrifice to the bedsides of those stricken by the plague, and saved the lives of many. De Castro was also a skillful physician for women, and won the favor of the weaker sex, strong in sympathy and antipathy. Able physicians were not numerous, especially not in North Germany. Other "Portuguese," as the disguised Marranos in Hamburg called themselves, and were called, possessed capital, or, as agents, conducted important business for Spanish or Portuguese houses. In short, it did not seem practicable to send these Portuguese away. The senate, therefore, at first put off the citizens with an official denial that there were Jews among them; and afterwards admitted the presence of a smaller number than was correct – about seven Portuguese Jews "who have fire and smoke here," i.e., households. But the Lutheran clergy in Hamburg behaved most intolerantly, excited people against the Portuguese Jews, and charged the senate with neglect of duty. That body, which guarded only the commercial interests, did not care to dispense with the Jews, but being unwilling to burden its conscience, or rather to incur the reproach of unchristian feeling, turned from the Hamburg clergy – the ministry – to a higher court, the theological faculties of Frankfort-on-the-Oder and Jena. The theological grounds of which the senate availed itself for the toleration of Jews are very ridiculous, and prove the ossification of Lutheranism at that time. The judgment of the Frankfort faculty proceeds upon these grounds, and indulges the hope that the Portuguese Jews – who for the sake of their convictions had given up honors, fortune, and a beloved home – would be converted to Christianity in Hamburg. The decision of the Jena faculty looks as if a professor of Dominican theology of a century before, in the time of Hoogstraten, had written it, and as if the index on the dial of history had stood still. Like the intolerant papists, the Lutheran theological faculty wished to compel Jews to listen to Christian preaching.
The senate, sufficiently protected on the ecclesiastical side by these two judgments, in February, 1612, with restrictions growing out of the German spirit or the German narrow-mindedness of that time, granted the Portuguese Jews free residence in Hamburg, avoiding a consideration of the consequences on both sides with pedantic scrupulousness. They really became protected Jews (Schutz-juden), who had to pay an annual charge or protection fee of 1,000 marks. They were not allowed to have synagogues, or private religious service according to Jewish customs, or to practice circumcision, but they might bury their dead in a cemetery of their own at Altona. There were then in Hamburg 125 adults of Marrano descent, among whom were ten capitalists, two physicians, and three artisans. It was an important article in the agreement that new-comers might obtain admission, "if the high and wise council found their qualifications of such a nature that it had no objection to take them under its protection." Thus the young, semi-tolerated Hamburg community grew from year to year, and within a decade several capitalists were added. The increase of the community through the accession of such settlers, admitted openly as Jews, no longer disguised as Portuguese, in 1617 rendered necessary a fresh agreement with the senate, enlarging their privileges in commercial respects, but diminishing them in point of citizenship. They could not possess houses or land, and had to dispose of any they might own. Exception was made in favor of the physician, Rodrigo de Castro, in consideration of his faithful services of many years, but even he could not bequeath his house to an heir.
The more the Portuguese Jews, by their capital and business connections, gained weight with commercial men in the senate, the more they broke through the boundaries drawn by narrow-minded legislation. When the bank at Hamburg, to which this city owed its commercial prosperity, was founded (1619–1623), no less than twelve Jewish capitalists supported it with their funds and efforts, as the Amsterdam Portuguese had done at the formation of the Dutch companies trading beyond the sea. The Portuguese Jewish settlers alone founded the important trade of Hamburg with Spain and Portugal. Hence they might assume that the senate, which held the reins of government, would connive at violations of the articles. They were especially anxious to be permitted to assemble for public worship, and this was directly forbidden. Relying on their indispensability, they quietly erected a synagogue in about 1626. It was Elihu Aboab Cardozo who risked this venture. They named it Talmud Torah, and appointed as Chacham, Isaac Athias, of Amsterdam, a disciple of Isaac Uziel.
This probably simple synagogue, consisting of two large rooms, caused wide dissension, and produced much bitterness. Emperor Ferdinand II, the terror of the Protestants, indignant that the arch-Lutheran city on the Elbe would not allow Catholics to build a church, sent a threatening letter to the senate, July 28th, 1627, because for the sake of trade a synagogue was openly permitted to Jews, while Roman Catholics were forbidden the exercise of their religion. Nothing more was needed to excite the Lutheran fanatics. If free exercise of their religion was granted to Jews, it must also be granted to Catholics, and even to Calvinists, they said. A frightful consequence indeed! When the ministry, or spiritual assembly, which had great power in Hamburg, reproached the senate on account of the violation of articles in the agreement with the Jews, and that body in turn arraigned the Jews, the latter declared that they had no synagogue, merely a place of meeting to read the Law of Moses, the Psalms, the Prophets, and other books of the Old Testament; if they prayed there, it was only for the welfare of the city and the government. The senate proceeded no further, because the Jews threatened that, in case they were denied the worship of God, they would leave Hamburg in a body, and transfer their capital and business connections to a neighboring place. That argument prevailed. But the clergy demanded nothing less than that a Christian rabbi be appointed to preach Christianity to Jews in the synagogue, or elsewhere. The physicians also viewed with indignation the popularity of their Jewish colleagues, and sought to bring not only them, but Jews generally, under suspicion, and stirred up the people against them.
But the community grew in prosperity from year to year, and the senate gladly received those who came with capital and business connections. Even if the descriptions by John Miller, the arch-foe of the Jews, appear exaggerated, yet an idea may be gathered from them of the wealth of the Portuguese Jews of Hamburg. "They strut along adorned with gold and silver, costly pearls, and precious stones. At their weddings they eat and drink from silver ware, and drive in such carriages as become only persons of exalted rank, and, moreover, have outriders and a large following." The extremely rich Texeira family, settled in Hamburg, lived in princely luxury. The founder of this banking house, Diego Texeira de Mattos, was called in Hamburg, like Joseph of Naxos in Constantinople, "the rich Jew." He was of Portuguese descent, bore a title of high nobility, and had previously been Spanish resident in Flanders. Over seventy years of age, he underwent the operation of circumcision in order to become a Jew in reality. By means of his wealth, and his connections with both the nobility and capitalists, Diego Texeira could play the aristocrat. He drove in a carriage lined with satin, and had liveried servants.
The Portuguese Jews already had three synagogues, the second built by Abraham Aboab Falero, the third by David de Lima. A German community, also, had gradually assembled at Hamburg, and built a house of prayer. And were the faithful followers of Luther to behold it calmly, although almost on his death-bed he had ordered the Jews to be treated as gypsies, and the tongues of the rabbis to be cut out? The Hamburg pastors could not endure it, they pressed the senate, and stirred up the citizens to withdraw even this small amount of religious toleration. Among them stood forth an arch-bigot, John Miller, senior at St. Peter's church, a Protestant inquisitor and chief persecutor, an abusive man given to scandal, who cast aspersions upon his reverend brethren from the pulpit and in libelous writings. With this virulent pastor, who considered himself a pillar of Lutheran orthodoxy, it was a matter of conscience thoroughly to hate and humiliate the Jews. In writing and in talking, in the pulpit and in the circle of his disciples, in private conversation and in official addresses, his favorite theme was the Jews and their humiliation. Everything in the Jews vexed him: their joy and feasting on Purim, their mourning on the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple, their dress, their friendship with Christians, and their funerals. The bigot was not wrong on some points, as, for instance, his censure of the hereditary failing of the Portuguese Marranos, as illustrated in their misconduct with Christian women, and of the way in which some of them challenged Christianity. A Jewish author (Jacob Jehuda Leon?) had composed a work entitled "Colloquium Middelburgense," a Latin dialogue between a rabbi and a Christian on the value or worthlessness of Christian doctrines, the gospels, and the ecclesiastical writings, in which the weak points of Christianity were laid bare. Miller composed a defense, or rather a libel, entitled, Judaism, or the Jewish Doctrine, a full account of the Jewish people's unbelief, blindness, and obduracy (1644). This was dictated neither by the Holy Ghost nor by Christian love. Luther's virulent language against Jews seemed an undeniable revelation to the pastor. Out of it spoke Lutheranism, pure and unadulterated, which had as little heart as the popery attacked by it, and the essence of which consisted of dry formulas of belief. Miller's absurdity and uncharitableness are not his own; they are part and parcel of the corrupt Lutheran church of the time. Three theological faculties, the arch-Lutheran faculty of Wittenberg, and those of Strasburg and Rostock, in reply to Miller's inquiry, decided that Jewish physicians should never be admitted to Christian patients. Thus, in the face of the seventeenth century, when the Thirty Years' War was teaching toleration with an iron rod, the leaders of Lutheranism were issuing a new edition of the decrees of the Visigothic councils against Jews. But, after all, times had changed. Christian IV, king of Denmark, Schleswig and Holstein, next to Gustavus Adolphus the champion of the Protestants, to whom Miller dedicated his book, had appointed Benjamin Musaphia, a Jewish physician, his medical attendant.
Even in Hamburg Miller's fanatical zeal did not meet with great success. The citizens gradually got accustomed to Jews, and learnt to respect them. Some of them were appointed business agents or residents even by high Catholic potentates. The king of Portugal first appointed Duarte Nuñes da Costa, and then Jacob Curiel, as his agents, and his Catholic majesty, Philip IV, elevated Immanuel Rosales, a Jewish author of Portuguese descent, to the dignity of count palatine. The Portuguese Jews, in general more favorably situated than their German brethren, felt so happy at Hamburg, that they called it their "little Jerusalem."
A colony of the Amsterdam mother-community was formed in Brazil, South America, discovered and peopled by Portuguese, and a number settled in the town of Pernambuco. Thither the Portuguese government had often transported Jewish offenders, i. e., Marranos, whom it did not wish to deliver to the burning-pile, together with prostitutes, and other rabble. These disgraced Marranos assisted the Dutch in conquering Brazil, which became a Dutch colony, with a Stadtholder of its own, the intelligent John Maurice, of Nassau (1624–1636). Connections were immediately established between the Amsterdam and the Brazilian community, which threw off the mask of Christianity, and was almost spoilt by the favor of the Dutch. The Jews at Recife, near Pernambuco, called themselves "the holy community" (Kahal Kados), and had a governing body consisting of David Senior Coronel, Abraham de Moncado, Jacob Mucate, and Isaac Cathunho. Several hundred Amsterdam Portuguese, either by invitation, or of their own accord, sailed to Brazil to form business connections with the colony, and took with them the Chacham Isaac Aboab. He was the first Brazilian rabbi, settling probably at Recife. At Tamarica a community was formed, which had its own Chacham, Jacob Lagarto, the first Talmudical author in South America. Of course, the Brazilian Jews enjoyed perfect equality of rights with other citizens, for they rendered the Dutch essential services as advisers and warriors. When the native Portuguese, who bore the yoke of the Dutch impatiently, formed a conspiracy to get rid of the Dutch authorities at a banquet in the capital, and attack the colony bereft of government, a Jew gave warning, and saved the colony from certain destruction. Later, in 1646, when open war broke out between the Portuguese and the Dutch, and the garrison of Recife, exhausted by famine, was on the point of surrendering unconditionally, the Jews encouraged the governor to brave resistance.
A fanatical war of race and religion between the Portuguese and the Dutch devastated fair Brazil, and a famine ensued. The Jews vied with the Dutch in suffering and bravery. Isaac Aboab, the Chacham of the Brazil community, paints the sufferings of the war, which he himself endured, in lurid colors:
Volumes would not suffice to relate our miseries. The enemy spread over field and wood, seeking here for booty and there for life. Many of us died, sword in hand, others from want; they now rest in cold earth. We survivors were exposed to death in every form; those accustomed to luxuries were glad to seize mouldy bread to stay their hunger.
At last, the States-General were compelled by European wars to surrender the colony to the Portuguese. The devoted zeal of the Jews for the political welfare of the Dutch was a firm bond, never afterwards dissolved, between them and the republic. The toleration and equal position of Jews in the Netherlands were ensured for ever.
Whilst the first ray of a better time glimmered in Holland, the rest of Europe was still full of darkness for Jews. In Germany especially, the Jew even in the seventeenth century continued to be an outcast for whom there was no sympathy. He was pelted with mud, his beard was singed, and he was treated almost worse than a dog. There were only three or four important communities in Germany: Frankfort-on-the-Main, with over 4,000 souls; Worms, with 1,400; Prague, with 10,000 at most; and Vienna, with 3,000: the rest did not number many. Hamburg was still a young community. In the West German free cities of Frankfort and Worms, almost stronger antipathy to Jews prevailed than in Hamburg, having its root in the narrow-mindedness of the Philistine citizens and the guilds rather than in religious antipathy. Both cities treated the Jews within their walls as their "servi cameræ," and appealed in all seriousness to a deed of Emperor Charles IV, declaring that they had been sold to them in person and property. When Portuguese Marranos, wishing to remove from the Netherlands to Frankfort, and raise it to a commercial center of the first rank, like Amsterdam and Hamburg, asked permission to build a house of prayer there, the council roundly refused. The Jewish capitalists then addressed themselves to the lord of Hanau, and obtained very favorable terms.
The bitterness of the people of Frankfort against their Jewish neighbors was crystallized in a most revolting and absurd legislative enactment, entitled "the permissive residence of Jews" (Judenstättigkeit), and defining under what conditions or restrictions Jews might breathe the Frankfort air, or rather the pestilential atmosphere of the Jewish quarter. The city, chiefly Protestant, retained all the canonical restrictions introduced by the papacy for the purpose of branding Jews, such as, prohibiting them from having Christian servants or nurses, and requiring them to wear an opprobrious badge. They were treated exactly like criminals. Jews might not go outside their quarter except for necessary business, and two might not walk together, certainly not in the neighborhood of the town-hall, and especially not during Christian festivals or weddings, or if princes were staying in the city. They were also required to observe silence in their Ghetto, avoid offending Christian ears with any shrill sound, and see that strange Jews visiting them went to bed in good time. In fact, they might not harbor any strangers without the knowledge of the magistracy, nor even admit a patient into their hospital. They might not purchase food in the market at the same time as Christians. Though their business was jealously restricted, they were forced to pay more taxes than the Christian inhabitants. As they were obliged to wear special badges on their clothes, so they were required to have on their houses shields, with strange figures and names, such as "the garlic," "the ass," "the green or white shield," "red shield," "black shield." After these shield figures the inhabitants were named, "The Jew N of the ass," "the Jew N of the dragon." On the admission of a Jew, he was obliged to promise on oath to obey these stupid and heartless directions. Even this wretched existence depended on the favor of the magistrate, for in one paragraph the council reserved the power of depriving a Jew at any time of the right of residence. In such case the individual or family had to leave the city within a fixed space of time.
As the magistrate was empowered to deprive a single Jew of the right of residence, he could banish all from the city. This was inferred and demanded by the citizens or the guilds at variance with the council. They aimed at enlarging their liberties by limiting the aristocratic power of patricians in the magistracy, and they began with the Jews. The reason was that the councilors, in return for the substantial gratitude of the Jews, were indulgent in the administration of the laws issued against them; else they would not have been able to exist under the pressure of opprobrium and the "permissive residence." But this indulgence of the magistracy towards Jews was doubly hateful to the guilds. Hence they strove by all possible means to bring about the expulsion of the Jews from Frankfort. The Jews had obtained assurance of their safety as a community by charter from the emperor, but the decrees and threats of the emperor were little heeded at that time. At the head of the discontented guild-members stood the pastry-cook, Vincent Fettmilch, who, with his workpeople, belonged to the Reformers, a sect excluded from civic honors, and who sought to sate his fury against the Lutheran authorities by taking vengeance on the Jews. He was a daring man, who kept the councilors in awe, and openly called himself "the new Haman of the Jews." He was chosen by the citizens as their spokesman and ringleader, and deserved this leadership, for he executed his plans with much circumspection.
On an appointed day (27 Ellul == September, 1614, new style), while the community was assembled in the house of prayer, blow followed upon blow and thrust upon thrust, mingled with furious shouting, on the door of the Jewish quarter. Thereupon followed cries of anguish on the part of the Jews, who rushed hither and thither in despair and distracted flight. Bold youths and men seized weapons to ward off assaults or die manfully. On both sides fell the wounded and dead, until the superiority of numbers and the daring of the Fettmilch party decided the victory. Then all through the night until the next day followed plundering, desecration, and destruction of sacred places with brutal fury. The imperial commissioners could do nothing to check the riot; they were even compelled to put up a notice that the murderous band was not liable to punishment. Most of the Jews not sheltered by philanthropic citizens awaited death in trembling at the burial-ground, crouching together, many of them in shrouds. The rabble purposely left them in uncertainty as to the fate to which they were destined – life, death, or banishment – so that the Jews regarded it as a mercy from God when the fisherman's gate was opened in the afternoon of August 24th (new style), and they were allowed to depart, 1,380 in number, but without property of any kind. The advance of humanity, compared with earlier ages, is seen in the circumstance that compassionate Christians gave bread and other provisions to those who departed utterly destitute, and the smaller towns and villages sheltered them, though Fettmilch and the foes of the Jews had warned them against receiving the exiles.
It was long before the Frankfort Jews obtained satisfaction for these atrocious injuries. The magistracy and Emperor Matthias were equally impotent. Fettmilch's rabble for a whole year so tyrannized over the council that it could do nothing for the Jews. Some of the law faculties defended the robbers, by issuing an opinion that their attacks on the property of the Jews could not be regarded as theft, since they had occurred in the daytime or by torchlight. It was only by similar events at Worms that the end of the Frankfort troubles was hastened.
There the bitterness against one of the oldest German-Jewish communities, arising out of hatred of Jews and trade jealousy, took a different course. Not the guilds, but some members of the magistracy urged the banishment of the Jews, and the chief enemy of the Jews, instead of being a brutal but straightforward workman, was a crafty advocate and perverter of the law. Here, as in Frankfort, the chief motive was opposition to the magistracy, but the guild-members acted with more resolution and unanimity. The leader, adviser, and director of the committee of citizens was a learned lawyer, Dr. Chemnitz (Chemnitius), who thought that by lawyers' tricks he would be able to effect the banishment of the Jews with less danger than the Frankfort people had incurred by brutal violence. At first chicanery and insults of every sort were employed. The committee did not care to use violence, but strove to wear them out. It closed the outlets of the city against them, hindered them from purchasing food, drove their cattle from the meadows, and would not permit milk for Jewish children to be brought to the Jewish quarter.
After various movements, the Worms guilds, by Chemnitz's advice, assembled unarmed in the market place to take counsel, and sent a deputation to the Jews, ordering them "to retire from the city with bag and baggage" within an hour. The deputation reproached them with having caused the citizens to be suspected by the emperor, with having excited his hatred against them, and deprived them of every means of obtaining justice. The magistrates protested, but without effect, and so nothing remained for the Jews but to depart on the last day but one of the Passover (April 20th, 1615, new style). Fanaticism could not refrain from venting its fury on the holy places of the Jews, from devastating the synagogue which had stood for a thousand years, desecrating the burial-ground, and breaking to pieces several hundred tombstones, some of which gave evidence of the high antiquity of the community. The archbishop of Mayence and Count Louis of Darmstadt granted residence to the exiles in small towns and villages, and thus some of the exiles met their suffering brethren of Frankfort.