be lulled to rest; the Church teemed with converts from Judaism, who sought to show their zeal by the oppression of their former brethren. Among these Paul de Sta. Maria, Bishop of Burgos, and his sons, one of whom was Bishop of Cartagena, and Alfonso de Espina, who became Rector of the University of Salamanca, notably distinguished themselves, and fanned the flame of persecution which the populace were only too ready to keep alive.

While matters were in this threatening position in Spain, alarming indications showed themselves in the western kingdom of the Peninsula. In Portugal the position of the Jews had hitherto been highly favoured; as in Spain, they were liable to certain disabilities which were not very rigorously enforced. They dwelt generally in separate quarters, and were nominally subject to sumptuary laws as to apparel, &c., but they were internally governed by their own regulations, their counsels being presided over by their Chief Rabbi, while frequently many of the highest offices in the State were confided to members of their body. The Chief Rabbi (Arrabi-Mór) was always appointed directly by the Crown, and so important was deemed the post that the filling-up of a vacancy in the office, which occurred in 1384, gave rise to a court intrigue, the effects of which exercised

a lasting influence over the destinies of the country, and became the main cause of placing Don John of Aviz on the throne of Portugal, and averting the threatened fusion of that kingdom with Castile. The wealth and position of the Jews, added to their inordinate love of display and supercilious manners, had long rendered them unpopular, and the recent persecutions in Spain had tended to vastly increase their number in the sister country, whilst the clergy studiously favoured the growing aversion, which first terribly exploded in Lisbon in December, 1449. The outburst appears to have originated in a street riot, in which several Jews were insulted and maltreated, and on their offering resistance the mass of the populace precipitated itself on the Jews' quarter, crying out: 'Murder them, pillage them!' Acting in the spirit of their words, the rabble ransacked the whole district; many Jews were killed, and more were wounded, and it was only through the efforts of the military, and by the personal intervention of the king (Alfonso V.), who hurried to the capital, that order was at length restored. The condition of the Jews in Portugal was visibly growing worse, yet for more than forty years no open outburst of persecution is recorded, and many high offices still continued to be confided to them. The brothers Ibn

Jachia, who belonged to a long line of counsellors and physicians, still maintained those charges at the court of Alfonso V. Abraham de Beja and Joseph Zapateiro were commissioned to accompany the voyage of discovery to the East Indies; and the names of other Hebrews are also found in prominent places. Moreover, though the Jews of Portugal hardly attained as high a position in learning as their brethren in Spain, Hebrew literature was largely cultivated, and in the reign of John II., Hebrew printing was introduced into Portugal, and continued up to the year of the expulsion, exhibiting a very great perfection. But the man who shed the greatest lustre over the declining period of the Jews in the Peninsula was Don Isaac Abravanel (b. 1437, d. 1509), of a family which, descended from the royal house of David and lately immigrated from Spain, had already through several generations distinguished itself by its attainments, and was destined to enjoy in other lands an honourable succession for nearly a couple of centuries. This great man was for many years Minister of Finance, and confidential counsellor of the king. Endowed with wonderful mental abilities, and with a determination to achieve greatness, gifted by nature with a remarkable power of acquiring influence over other men, and with a

rare desire to benefit others through his own advantages, Abravanel became no less the friend and adviser of his sovereign than of those royal and noble personages who formed the Court, avoiding with the rarest tact those difficulties and jealousies to which his exalted position rendered him eminently liable. Possessed of large wealth, he was munificent in acts of charity, a notable instance of which occurred on the taking of Arzila, a port on the African coast, by the Portuguese, on which occasion 250 Jewish captives were sold into slavery. Abravanel subscribed largely to purchase the freedom of these unfortunate persons, and collected from his wealthier brethren, both in Portugal and in other lands, sufficient funds not only to place them in liberty, but also to provide for their future necessities. Deeply imbued with the love of Hebrew literature, he gave up his hard-earned leisure to serious studies, and commenced amid the cares of business and the toils of State a learned commentary on the law of Moses, and other portions of the Bible, and several philosophical works, tasks which, carried on through all the vicissitudes of his career, were only brought to a close at a later period of his life, when exile gave him comparative repose. At the death of his great friend and protector, Alfonso V., in 1481, and the

accession of his son John II., the whole of the courtiers of the late king were disgraced, and Abravanel with difficulty succeeded in eluding the pursuit of the new sovereign, who confiscated the whole of his vast estates. Reduced to poverty he managed to escape into Spain, where he joined Don Abraham Senior, the great farmer of taxes in Toledo, who admitted him into his partnership, and thus enabled him to re-construct his ruined fortune. He now pursued his studies with unremitting zeal, terminating some of his earlier works, and publishing some very original and valuable commentaries on the prophetical and historical books of the Bible. We shall presently see how he nobly came forward to endeavour to avert the doom of expulsion from his brethren in Spain, foiled in which he fled to Naples, where he was hospitably received by the King, Ferdinand I. On the death of this sovereign Abravanel accepted office under his son and successor Alfonso II., and when that prince was shortly afterwards forced, through the irruption of the French, to abdicate in favour of his son, and to flee to Sicily, he accompanied him thither. His family, however, were dispersed in flight, and the infant child of his eldest son Judah, himself a very distinguished man, was kidnapped by the King of Portugal, and forcibly