Cromwell on the Re-admission of the Jews to England in 1655

Oliver Cromwell’s summing up of the 1655 debate on whether to readmit the Jews to England:

Now the Protector having heard all their [theologians] sentiments upon this affair, declared, “That he had no engagement to the Jews, but what the scriptures held forth, and that since there was a promise of their conversion, means must be used to that end, which was the preaching of the gospel, and that could not be had unless they were permitted to reside where the gospel was preached. That he had hoped, by these preachers, to have hade some clearing of the case, as to matters of conscience, but seeing these agreed not, but were of different opinions, it was left more doubtful to him, and the council, than before: And he hoped he should do nothing herein hastily or rashly, and had much need of all their prayers, that the Lord would direct them so as might be to his glory, and the good of the nation.”

Two journeys to Jerusalem: Containing first, A strange and true ..., Volume 1. Page 152

A debate held at white-hall about the admission of the Jews, 1655

A failed attempt by Manasseh Ben Israel to win admission to England in 1655:

“Upon the tendring of certain Proposals to the Protector by Manasseh Ben Israel, a Jewish Merchant, in the behalf of his Hebrew Nation, for their free admission to Trade and exercise of the Religion in England, a Conference was held about it several days at White hall, but the Members of the Council, and certain Divines of the most Eminent then in esteem: and many Arguments being urged, some for, others against their admission; those against it so far prevailed, that the Proposals took no effect.”

Sir Richard Baker, Edward Phillips, Sir Thomas Clarges. A chronicle of the kings of England. 1684. Page 627

Jewish Exodus from Spain and Portugal, 1720-40

Mirabeau appears to say that 20,000 Sephardim left Iberia for England between 1720 and 1740. This figure seems very high.

It is a somewhat extraordinary circumstance, that the Spanish and Portuguese Israelites consider their German and Dutch brethren as vile remains of the tribe of Benjamin. With regard to themselves, they affirm that they are descended from the tribes which Nebuchadnezzar had transplanted to the banks of the Euphrates. The Arabian Caliphs, becoming masters of Asia, extended their conquest, by degrees, to Spain, where several Jewish families came to establish houses of commerce; and where they multiplied to such a degree, that, if we may believe them, all the families, both in Spain and Portugal, most distinguished for noble birth or opulence, are of Jewish extraction. The Spanish and Portuguese Christians warmly defend themselves from this imputation. They prefer, contrary to all probability, representing themselves as descended from Visigoth or Arian soldiers. Strange enough, for the Jewish race, being the most ancient, is consequently the noblest, in the world.

These Jewish families, after the establishment of the Inquisition, found means to compromise matters with that body. For money, and external conformity to the Christian religion, the inquisitors winked at them: they gave vent to their rage only against such fanatics as were obstinately determined to get themselves burnt. Tired of such a state of constraint, disgusted with the contempt which accompanied it, and allured by the tolerating spirit of the English, the Spanish and Portuguese Jews crossed the seas in great numbers, with immense wealth. From 1720 to 1740, the number exceeded twenty thousand.

Honoré-Gabriel de Riquetti Mirabeau. Mirabeau's letters during his residence in England: with anecdotes ..., Volume 2. 1832

English cleric's view of Jews pretending to be Christians, 1676

This extract from The Present State of the Jews by Lancelot Addison, a chaplain to King Charles II was published in 1676. Addison spent seven years as a chaplain in Tangier, although apparently sections of his book are simply repetitions of the translation of an earlier work by Johannes Buxtorf.

I have absolutely no idea why they illustrated the book with an Indian.

I think there is some interesting, and funny, stuff in here. I am surprised Addison is sanctimonious. I would think an Englishman of that time would have a good understanding of the need to bend in the wind to survive. Perhaps a plagiarist shouldn’t be so self-righteous.

“And yet it cannot be denied but that there are several Jews who make use of a scandalous complyance in this particular. Of which sort are many of those who coming within the cognizance and power of the Papal Inquisition, can joyn themselves to a Crucifix and Rosary, as well as to the Zizith and Tephillim.

And I am assured that some Jews have gone herein so far as to enter into Holy Orders, and the Profession of a Religious Life, who yet coming to places where the Jews have publick Toleration, have joyned themselves to the Synagogue.

And of this, we have a very late instance of two Jews, who in Spain having for several years professed the Religion of Saint Dominique coming to Legorn in their Fryar-Habits, they instantly changed their Cowl for a Ganephe, and of idle Fryers became progging Jews.

Another Jew (of my acquaintance, who for about five years had studied Physick at Saragoza in Spain) being asked how he could comply with the Religion, he merrily made this reply, That his complyance was only the work of his Nerves and Muscles, and that his Anatomy told him nothing of the heart was therein concerned.

Another Jew who in Malaga counterfeited Christianity so well as to be intrusted with the Sale of Indulgences, having made a good Market thereof in Spain, came with what he had left to a Christian City in Barbary, where his Indulgences being all bought up by the Irish and others of the Papal persuasion, he declared his Religion. The Papists who had bought his Indulgences impeach him to the Governor for a Cheat, and clamour to have him punished according to demerit. The Jew pleaded the Laws of the free Port, that he had neither imported nor sold any thing but his professed Merchandise, and therefore desired (and obtained) the Liberty and Priviledges of such as traffick'd to that Port. I report nothing but matter of personal knowledg.”

Livorno

On 10 June 1593 Jews received rights in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. In showing the Jews more respect than their rival states, the Medici attracted Jewish settlement and commerce to the city of Livorno (then called Leghorn in English). Tuscany quickly became a player in the East-West Mediterranean trade that had formerly been dominated by Genoa and Venice. Regardless of who dominated the seas – Dutch, French or English – the trade still flowed.

I used to think that the decline of this trade was a consequence of all the wars. The Mediterranean was no longer safe for shipping. I begin to wonder if the absolute and relative economic decline of the Ottoman Empire was the real cause. Once, spices and other exotic items came from the eastern Mediterranean. By the 18th Century there were trade routes that circumvented the Ottoman Empire. Perhaps the defeat at Vienna in 1683 marked the moment at which the Turks went into decline. Economic growth in Europe and new markets in the Americas and Asia meant that the Turkish trade became a backwater. For Jews, who operated as middlemen in this trade, the options were to accept this change in circumstances or leave. The Jews of Livorno lived by this trade. Certainly a number of Livornese Jews moved to Amsterdam and London in the late 17th and early 18th Centuries. Others seem to have moved to Arab ports such as Alexandria or Tunis, perhaps to use their skills in the local market.

Maybe the last gasp of Livorno as a major port was the Napoleonic Wars. I have seen that Tunis was France’s main market in Africa, and it seems likely that (notwithstanding the British naval blockade) much of this trade passed through Livorno.

The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was overrun by the French revolutionary armies in 1799. It was then abolished. Between 1801 and 1807, Livorno was part of the short-lived Kingdom of Etruria, a French client-state. That state was then abolished, and territory became part of metropolitan France. Livorno was made capital of the new département of Méditerranée which, incidentally, included the island of Elba to which Napoleon was exiled in 1814.

The Grand Duchy of Tuscany was reconstituted after Napoleon’s defeat. The Government was overthrown by a popular revolution in 1859. Livorno was briefly part of the short-lived United Provinces of Central Italy, but voted for annexation by Piedmont-Sardinia in 1860. Italy was unified around Piedmont-Sardinia. With Italian unification, Livorno became just one of many Italian ports.

The image of Livorno above is somewhat romanticised, but note the two men in the right foreground. One merchant is in European dress and the other oriental.

The Spanish and Portuguese Jews in Germany, 1825

The Portuguese and Spanish Jews, but especially the former, have long held a high rank among their nation. Persecution drove numbers of them, from time to time, to Germany, whither they carried with them considerable treasures, These they invested in the public funds of England, France and Holland; and hence they soon became distinguished for that ambiguous sort of speculation in the stocks, which is more allied to the practices of gambling than of honest trade. They have kept themselves in a great measure distinct from the German Jews, whom they look upon as an inferior race; and they form a separate congregation, with religious rites and ceremonies peculiar to themselves.

The Monthly Review article by M. Paul Van Hemert, translated from Dutch by Lewis Jackson. State of the Jews in the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century. London, 1825.