this could only be effected in a long and gradual manner, and could only be consummated by a cruel and violent measure-their forced expulsion.

The struggles of the Mohammedans and the Christians for supremacy had for centuries excited the minds of the Spaniards, and imbued them with a crusading spirit which would tolerate no dissidence in matters of religion; and this feeling was easily worked upon by the clergy, in regard to a numerous and thriving community, which remained utterly without the pale of the Christian Church.

Measures of restriction were followed by efforts at conversion on a scale of unprecedented magnitude, till such efforts grew into a persecution, and, still failing to attain the desired end, culminated in the edict of banishment.

Had the Jews possessed more tact during the earlier stages of their troubles, and adhered more closely to their scientific and literary pursuits than to the acquisition of wealth, they might probably have retarded, and possibly have averted, the final doom. It is, however, hardly likely that a population of little less than a million Jews would ever have been allowed to dwell in peace in a land ruled by monarchs as bigoted as Philip II. and his successors, and which almost till our own times permit

ted a court as arbitrary and as cruel as the Inquisition to hold an undisputed sway. The installation of this Tribunal under Ferdinand and Isabella forms an epoch in the history of Spain, and weighing as an incubus on all freedom of thought and action, was one of the main causes of the decadence of that great country, the effects of which are now so sadly visible. In expelling the Jews, Spain gave the greatest blow to her commerce, as in driving out the Mohammedans she did to her agriculture. Thus, the effects of bigotry and intolerance have recoiled with more lasting evils on the persecutors than on the persecuted; and Spain and Portugal languish, while more tolerant lands have flourished and are continually acquiring strength.

The following are the principal sources from which I have derived my facts:

GRAETZ. 'Geschichte der Juden.'

KAYSERLING.

'Geschichte der Juden in Portugal.'

KAYSERLING. Ein Feiertag in Madrid.'

LINDO. History of the Jews in Spain and Portugal.'

LLORENTE.Historia de la Inquisicion de España.'

HERCOLANO. Da origem e establecimento da Inquisição em Portugal.'

AMADOR DE LOS RIOS. 'Estudios sobre los Judios en

España.'

AMADOR DE LOS RIOS. 'Historia de los Judios en España,' vols. I. and II.

6

BEDARRIDE. Les Juifs en France, en Italie, et en Espagne.' ANONYMOUS (NIETO). Procedimiento de las Inquisiciones

en España y Portugal,' etc., etc.

The subject is one which is capable of very considerable elaboration, both as concerns the position and history of the Jews in the Peninsula, and the workings of the Inquisition itself; and I feel that I have rendered but very scant and imperfect justice to a theme at once so interesting and so instructive. I must therefore crave the indulgence of the reader for putting before him a sketch so incomplete, my only excuse being the very limited knowledge of the subject which is generally possessed.

F. D. MOCATTA.

LONDON: March 1877.

THE JEWS OF SPAIN AND PORTUGAL

AND

THE INQUISITION.

THE period when Jewish settlers were first attracted to the Iberian Peninsula, where they afterwards attained so high a position in learning and in wealth, and where for some centuries they so thoroughly acclimatised themselves as almost to forget their captivity and to regard themselves as in a new Judæa, is so remote, that no reliable historical data exist on the subject.

No doubt the Phoenicians, at a very early period, traded with the various ports on the Mediterranean, and, as is well known, the Carthaginians-a people closely allied to them in race, and both to them and to the Hebrews in language-founded several cities, and established colonies on the coast. This may probably have given rise to the tradition that Jews were already settled in the Peninsula in the days of Solomon, and that the Tarshish of the Bible was identical with the Tartessus of the ancients, a dis

B

trict of Southern Spain, the principal city of which was Gades, the modern Cadiz. It was also stated that Nebuchadnezzar made conquests in Spain, and sent captives from the vanquished kingdom of Judah to colonise them. These legends, fanciful as they are, and entirely unworthy of credence, were studiously kept alive by the Spanish Jews of later times. Certain it is, however, that Jews very early found their way to the Peninsula, and that when, on the fall of the Roman Empire, the Goths and Vandals conquered the country, large numbers of them were already established in various districts throughout the land.

Even under Roman rule the first restrictions against the Jews were promulgated at the Council held at Elvira (Iliberis), near Cordova, soon after the year 300, but the general confusion which followed the irruption of the barbarians, and the toleration of the earlier Gothic kings, who were Arians, afforded a period of comparative repose for more than two centuries. When, however, at the end of the sixth century, the Roman Catholic form of Christianity became the recognised religion of Gothic Spain, fresh edicts of intolerance followed fast from the various Councils, held principally in Toledo, and soon after, we begin to hear of those forced, and