Christianity and Islam in Spain, A.D. 756-1031 Part 22

APPENDIX.

A.

THE JEWS IN SPAIN.

The persecution of the Jews by the Gothic Spaniards naturally made them the implacable enemies of the Christians. Being a very numerous colony in Spain--for Hadrian had transported thither many thousand families--the Jews gave the Arabs very effective help in conquering the country, both by betraying places to them, and garrisoning captured towns while the Arabs went on to fresh conquests. Consequently the relations between the Jews and Moslems were for a long time very cordial, though this cordiality wore off in the course of time. Their numbers seem to have been considerable under the Moslem occupation, and whole towns were set apart as Jewries.[1]

In France the prejudice against the Jews shewed itself very strongly among the clergy, though Louis I. and his wife Judith favoured them.

They were generally ill-treated, and their slaves were induced by the clergy to be baptized. Thereupon they became free, as Jews were not allowed to have Christian slaves.[2] But it must be admitted that the Franks had reason for disliking the Jews, as it was well known that they sold Christian children as slaves to the Moslems of Spain.[3]

[1] Al Makkari, ii. 452.

[2] Fleury, v. 408.

[3] _Ibid._

They also seem to have been able to make some proselytes from among the Christians, and we hear of one apostate of this kind, named Eleazar, to whom Alvar addressed several letters under the t.i.tle of "the transgressor." This man's original name was Bodon. A Christian of German extraction,[1] he was brought up with a view to Holy Orders. In 838, while on his way to Rome,[2] he apostatised to Judaism,[3] and opened a negotiation with the Jews in France to sell his companions as slaves, stipulating only to keep his own grandson. The next year he let his hair and beard grow, and went to Spain, where he married a Jewess, compelling his grandson at the same time to apostatise. In 845 or 847 his att.i.tude became so hostile to the Christians in Spain, that the latter wrote to Charles, praying him to demand Eleazar as his subject, which however does not seem to have been done. There seems good reason to believe that Eleazar stirred up the Moslems against the Christians, and the deaths of Prefectus and John may have been due to him.[4] After this we hear no more of Eleazar; but the position of the Jews with regard to the Arabs seems to have been for long after this of a most privileged character.

Consequently the Jews in Spain had such an opportunity to develop their natural gifts as they have never had since the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar; and they shewed themselves no whit behind the Arabs, if indeed they did not outstrip them, in keeping alive the flame of learning in the dark ages.[5] In science generally, and especially in the art of medicine they had few rivals, and in learning and civilisation they were, no less than the Arabs, far ahead of the Christians.[6]

[1] "Ann. Bertin.," 839.

[2] Orationis gratia, "Ann. Bert," 1.1.

[3] Florez, xi. p. 20 ff.

[4] The "Ann. Bert." say that he induced Abdurrahman II. to give his Christian subjects the choice between Islam, Judaism, or death. See Rohrbacher, xii. 4.

[5] Prescott, "Ferd. and Isab." p. 153.

[6] _Ibid._, p. 134.

The good understanding between the Jews and the Arabs with the gradual process of time gave place to an ill-concealed hostility, and at the beginning of the twelfth century there seems even to have been a project formed for forcing the Jews to become Moslems on the ground of a promise made by their forefathers to Mohammed that, if in five centuries their Messiah had not appeared, they would be converted to Mohammedanism.[1]

Perhaps this was only a pretext on the part of the Moslems for extorting money; at all events the Jews only succeeded in evading the alternative by paying a large sum of money. Even in the early years of the conquest they were subject to the rapacity of their rulers, for when, on the rumour of the Messiah having appeared in Syria, many of the Spanish Jews, leaving their goods, started off to join him, the Moslem governor, Anbasa, seized the property so left, and refused to restore it on the return of the disappointed emigrants.

From their contact with Arabs and Christians the Jews seem to have lost many of their distinctive beliefs, and in the twelfth century Maimonides,[2] the greatest name among the Spanish Jews, wrote against their errors. One of these seems to have been that the books of Moses were written before the Creation;[3] another, that there was a series of h.e.l.ls in the next world.[4]

Many Jews attained to very high positions among the Arabs, and we hear of a certain Hasdai ibn Bahrut, who was inspector of customs to Abdurrahman III., amba.s.sador to the King of Leon in 955, and the king's confidential messenger to the monk, John of Gorz, a few years later. He was also distinguished as a physician.[5]

[1] Conde, ii. 326.

[2] Fleury, v. 409.

[3] Cp. the Moslem belief about the Koran. Sale, Introduc., p.

50. (Chandos Cla.s.sics.)

[4] _Ibid._, p. 72.

[5] Al Makk., i., App. v. p. xxiv. Note by De Gayangos.

While the Arabs still retained their hold on the fairest provinces of Spain, the lot of the Jews, even in Christian territories, was by no means unendurable. They were sometimes advanced to important and confidential posts, and it was the murder of Alfonso VI.'s Jewish amba.s.sador by the King of Seville which brought about the introduction of the Almoravides into Spain.

There is a strange story told of the Jews at the taking of Toledo by the Christians in 1085. They waited on Alfonso and a.s.sured him that they were part of the ten tribes whom Nebuchadnezzar transported into Spain, and not the descendants of those Jerusalem Jews who crucified Christ.

Their ancestors, they said, were quite free from the guilt of this act, for when Caiaphas had written to the Toledan synagogue for their advice respecting the person who claimed to be the Messiah, the Toledan Jews returned for answer, that in their judgment the prophecies seemed to be fulfilled in Him, and therefore He ought not by any means to be put to death. This reply they produced in the original Hebrew.[1] It is needless to say that the whole thing was a fabrication.

Gradually, as the Christians recovered their supremacy in Spain, the tide of prejudice set more and more strongly against the Jews. They were accused of "contempt for the Catholic wors.h.i.+p, desecration of its symbols, sacrifice of Christian infants,"[2] and other enormities.

Severe laws were pa.s.sed against them, as in the old Gothic times, and their freedom was grievously curtailed in the matters of dress, residence, and profession. As a distinctive badge they had to wear yellow caps.[3]

[1] Southey, "Roder.," i. p. 235, note.

[2] Prescott, "Ferd. and Isab.," pp. 134, 135.

[3] Al Makk., i. 116.

At the end of the fourteenth century the people rose against them, and 15,000 Jews were ma.s.sacred in different parts of Spain. Many were nominally converted, and 35,000 conversions were put to the credit of a single saint. These new Christians sometimes attained high ecclesiastical dignities, and intermarried with the n.o.ble families--the taint of which "mala sangre" came afterwards to be regarded with the greatest horror and aversion.

It was against the converted Jews that the Inquisition was first established, and they chiefly suffered under it at first. In 1492, on the final extinction of the Arab dominion in Spain, a very large number of Jews were expelled from Castile,[1] the evil example being afterwards followed in other parts of Spain. The story of the treatment of Jews by Christians is indeed one of the darkest in the history of Christianity.

[1] Variously estimated at 160,000 or 800,000.

B.

SPAIN AND THE PAPAL POWER.

Perhaps no part of the history of Spain affords so interesting a study as the consideration of those gradual steps by which, from being one of the most independent of Churches, she has become the most subservient, and therefore the most degraded, of all. The question of how this was brought about, apart from its intrinsic interest as ill.u.s.trating the development of a great nation, is well worth investigating, from the momentous influence which it has had upon the religious history of the world at large. For it is not too much to say that Rome could never have made good its ascendency, spiritual no less than temporal, over so large a part of mankind, had not the material resources and the blind devotion of Spain been ready to back the haughty pretensions and unscrupulous ability of the Italian pontiffs.

In fact, Spain is the only country, apart from Italy, that as a nation, has accepted the monstrous doctrines of Rome in all their entirety--doctrines which the whole Christian East repudiated from the first with scorn, and which the North and (with the exception of Spain) the West of Europe--the birthplace and cradle of the mighty Teutonic races--have agreed with equal disdain to reject and trample under their feet.

This result is all the more remarkable, from the fact that in early times the Church of Spain, from its rapid extension, its greatness, and its prosperity, held a position of complete equality with the Roman and other princ.i.p.al churches. The See of Cordova held so high a rank in the fourth century that Hosius, its venerable bishop, was chosen to preside at the important councils of Nice (325) and Sardica (347).

The Gothic invasion at the beginning of the fifth century made Spain still less likely to acknowledge any supremacy of Rome, for the Goths, besides being far more independent in character than the Romanized Kelts, were Arian heretics, and cut off, in consequence, from all communion with Rome. The orthodox party, however, gradually gained strength, and in 560 the remnants of the Suevi abjured Arianism, and the Gothic king's son Ermenegild, with their help, revolted against his father. He was finally put to death for his treason, but his brother, Recared, on ascending the throne in 589, avowed his conversion to the orthodox creed, his example being followed by most of his n.o.bles and prelates.

The reception of Recared and his Court into the Catholic fold was the signal for an attempt to establish the papal authority, which was the more dangerous now, as the popes had gained a great increase of power since Spain was cut off from orthodox Christendom by the invasion of the Arian Goths.

One of Recared's first acts was to write to the pope and, saluting him, ask him for his advice in spiritual matters. The papal authority thus acknowledged was soon exercised in--

_(a.)_ Deciding ecclesiastical appeals without regard to the laws of the land;

_(b.)_ Sending to Spain pontifical judges to hear such cases;

_(c.)_ Sending legates to watch over the discipline of the Church;

_(d.)_ Sending the pall to metropolitans.

These metropolitans, unknown in the earlier history of the Spanish Church, came gradually to be recognised, owing to the papal practice of sending letters to the chief bishops of the country. They became invested in consequence with certain important powers, such as those of convoking provincial councils; of consecrating suffragans; of holding ecclesiastical courts, and watching over the conduct of bishops.[1]