Page 1 - [see page image]

BERNARD GLASSMAN
Mill-
SEHIITK
STEREO-
TVPES
IUITH0UT
IEUIS
IMAGES OF THE JEWS IN ENGLAND 1290-1700

Page 2 - [see page image]

MlII-5EmiTI(
STEREOTYPES
WITHOUT JEUIS

Page 3 - [see page image]

Page 4 - [see page image]

BERNARD GLASSMAN
nnn-SEmiTic
STEREOTVPES
UJITHOUT JEUJ5
IMAGES OF THE JEWS IN ENGLAND
1290-1700
WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS DETROIT
1975

Page 5 - [see page image]

Copyright © 1975 by Wayne State University
Press, Detroit, Michigan 48202.
All material in this work, except as identified below, is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerciaI 3.0
United States License. To vie w a copy of this licen se, visit https://
creativecommons.Org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/.
All material not licensed under a Creative Commons license
is all rights reserved. Permission must be obtained from the
copyright owner to use this material.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Glass man, Bernard, 1937-
Anti-Semitic stereotypes without Je ws.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Antisemitism—England. 2. Jews in England—
History 3. England—Civilization. 1. Title
DS146.G7G56 91 WOOL921 75-16391
ISBN 978-0-8143-4354-8 (paperback):
978-0-8143-4353-1 (ebook)
-3^1 NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE
^,0 Humanities
THE
ANDREW W.
MELLON
FOUNDATION
The publication of this volume in a freely accessible digital format
has been made possible by a major grant from the National
Endowment for the Humanities and the Mellon Foundation
through their Humanities Open Book Program.
http://wsupress.wayne.edu/

Page 6 - [see page image]

TO SUE, ARTHUR, and VIVIAN

Page 7 - [see page image]

Page 8 - [see page image]

[oniEnis
PREFACE 9
GENESIS OF A STEREOTYPE 14
EMBELLISHMENT OF A STEREOTYPE 21
THE NEW JEWISH VILLAIN 51
THE PERSISTENCE OF A PREJUDICE 84
THE READMISSION CONTROVERSY 106
THE REKINDLING OF OLD HATREDS 134
CONCLUSIONS 152
NOTES 156
BIBLIOGRAPHY 172
INDEX 185

Page 9 - [see page image]

Page 10 - [see page image]

9
PREMIE
There is certainly no lack of com
petently researched material dealing with the histoiy of the Jews
in England from early times through the modern period. The pio
neering work of Joseph Jacobs, Lucien Wolf, E. Nathan Adler, H.
S. Q. Henriques, and Cecil Roth has been supplemented by a
number of articles and studies in Transactions of the Jewish His
torical Society of England and other learned journals. My prime
concern in writing this book is not to repeat the facts of An-
glo-Jewish history, but to explore how the Jew was viewed by the
Christian community during the centuries after the expulsion of
f290 through the time of the resettlement and why these atti
tudes developed. During a large part of this period (up to 1656)
England was virtually Judenrein (without Jews); and except for a
small group of Crypto-Jews, there was no real Jewish community
in the country. Yet anti-Jewish sentiments continued to be spread
by the preacher, the playwright, the writer, and the storyteller. If
flesh-and-blood Jews were not present in any significant numbers,
the molders of public opinion kept a shadowy image of them alive
in the minds of the English people. It was this medieval stereo
type, cultivated during the Tudor and early Stuart periods, that
ultimately forced Cromwell to give up his plans to formally read
mit the Jews into England. It was to plague Anglo-Jewry even
after a small community was unofficially reestablished in the
second half of the seventeenth century. Enlightened social

Page 11 - [see page image]

10
PREFACE
philosophers and religious leaders were to find that this hideous
image from the Middle Ages, though not as extreme as anything
found on the continent, could not be passed over lightly.
In this book I have touched upon various religious and literary
sources of histoiy that have either been neglected or only partial
ly utilized in the examination of attitudes towards the Jewish peo
ple. Many of the original sources cited in this work are represen
tative samplings of a vast amount of material that has yet to be
fully studied and evaluated. Perhaps a few comments on the na
ture of the works cited will aid the reader in appreciating the
scope of this study and indicate to him various avenues for fur
ther research.
It is unfortunate that the students of this period of histoiy have
failed to appreciate the importance of Christian sermonic material
in understanding the image of the Jew in the mind of the English
people. Throughout the period of time covered in this book, ser
mons were an important means of shaping public opinion. Hand
books containing source material for preachers were veiy popular
among the clergy, and they present a veiy good picture of the offi
cial attitudes of the religious establishment as well as the ideas to
which the common man of the era was exposed. These sermons
preserved and popularized some of the crudest forms of anti-Sem
itism that were found in the folklore of the times. In addition,
they perpetuated the centuries-old stereotype of the Jew that orig
inated in the pages of the New Testament and which was an im
portant part of Christian theology. The effect of sermons upon
popular attitudes should not be underestimated in studying the
development of anti-Semitic sentiments. For several centuries,
Jews appeared in numerous popular stories that were used for ser
mon illustrations. It was this portion of the religious instruction
that remained in the mind of the faithful for the longest time. In
addition, the written sermon became a popular form of literature,
and quite often the preachers words reached a much larger audi
ence than those who were present at his religious services.
In presenting dramatic and nondramatic material, I have tried
to avoid the simplistic procedure of using literature as documen
tation for the writing of histoiy. Some early Jewish scholars who were
guilty of this have distorted the significance of several of the great

Page 12 - [see page image]

11
PREFACE
works of English literature. Although there is no reason to believe
that the dramatists and poets were not guilty of the same preju
dices that were echoed from the pulpits, it is wrong to assume,
for example, that Chaucer and the Prioress speak with one voice.
As I have pointed out in chapter 2, there are complex ironies in
the Canterbury Tales which should not be overlooked. The same
can be said for Marlowe, Shakespeare, and the other Elizabe
thans. In amassing diverse materials which include, in addition to
the works mentioned above, religious drama, mystical literature,
ballads, folklore, travellers’ accounts, political tracts, and conver-
sionist literature, I have tried to evaluate each source in its own
literary and historical context, appreciating that their value in
shaping public opinion varied greatly.
The student of public opinion and propaganda can argue that
the mass media may reflect rather than shape the thinking of the
people. This may be true in a society where Jews have made their
presence felt and where popular attitudes toward them are the
result of a combination of real and imagined experiences. Since
there were so few Jews in England during this period, the aver
age Englishman was obliged to rely upon what he heard from the
pulpit, saw on the stage, and absorbed from the wandering min
strel and storyteller to form his opinions. This oral tradition,
which was supplemented by various tracts and pamphlets, was an
important source of information about Jews, and there was virtu
ally nothing in society to counterbalance these forces that had the
weight of centuries of Christian teachings behind them.
Unfortunately, there is little reliable data to accurately deter
mine what the common man actually thought about the Jews. Al
most all of the material presented in this book reflects the atti
tudes and prejudices of the religious establishment, the court, and
the intelligentsia. Certainly the expulsion of 1290 did meet with
the approval of the masses. Subsequent public expressions against
individual Jews like Rodrigo Lopez, personal physician to Queen
Elizabeth, and the readmission controversy concerning the right
of the Jewish people to return to England in the middle of the
seventeenth century, betrayed an anti-Semitism that affected all
strata of society. This is not to say that the English quality of “live

Page 13 - [see page image]

12
PREFACE
and let live” did not permit a veiy small number of Jews to live
unmolested in the country as long as they did not openly practice
their faith or focus undue attention upon themselves. The lack of
hard facts prevented me from determining if there really was any
significant gulf between the attitudes of the religious and political
establishment and those of the average man. There is no lack of
evidence, however, to show how anti-Semitic sentiments in a soci
ety almost devoid of actual Jews reflected deep-seated irrational
responses to the Jewish people, rooted in the teachings of the
church and exploited by men who needed an outlet for their reli
gious, social, and economic frustrations. I leave it to men of good
will to ponder the sentiments of Nicholas Berdyaev:
For us Christians the Jewish problem does not consist in knowing
whether the Jews are good or bad, but whether we are good or bad.
For it is more important that I should consider this question with
reference to myself rather than to my neighbor, since I am always
inclined to accuse him. 1
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all those who
were of assistance in preparing this book. Warren Spencer and
Joseph Tyrrell were responsible for guiding my early research in
British histoiy. Abraham Halkin continued their work, and also
directed my doctoral studies in this area at the Jewish Theological
Seminary. Gerson Cohens invaluable comments crystallized some
of the analyses found in this book, and I deeply appreciate the
advice and encouragement that he gave me throughout the writ
ing of this work. Gavin Langmuir read the chapters dealing with
the medieval period. Jacob Neusner was most generous with his
time, and his advice was always welcome. His encyclopedic
knowledge of Jewish history and his sense of style and organiza
tion was a great help to me. I am particularly grateful to B’nai
Brith and the Merrill Trust for providing a research grant to do
work at the British Museum. I also received help from the staffs
of the libraries at Brown University, the Jewish Theological Semi
nary, Old Dominion University, Southeastern Massachusetts Uni
versity, and Union Theological Seminary.
This book was written while I served as rabbi at the Gornley
Chesed Synagogue in Portsmouth, Virginia, and at my present

Page 14 - [see page image]

13
PREFACE
pulpit, the Tifereth Israel Synagogue in New Bedford, Massachu
setts. I consider myself most fortunate that my congregants have
appreciated the need for their rabbi to be allowed time for schol
arly pursuits, and I am deeply indebted to them for their many
kindnesses.
B. G.

Page 15 - [see page image]

14
one
GENESIS OF A STEREOTYPE
For almost four centuries the
English people rarely, if ever, came into contact with flesh-ancl-
bloocl Jews. Yet they considered the Jews to be an accursed group
of usurers, who, in league with the devil, were guilty of eveiy
conceivable crime that could be conjured up by the popular imag
ination. To fully appreciate these attitudes towards Jews and Ju
daism from f290 to f700, one must understand the place of this
alien people in English society prior to the expulsion of the Jews.
Just as historical studies of any particular period cannot be neatly
confined to certain blocks of time, any analysis of prejudice must
also go beyond the period in question. In the case of Anglo-Jewry,
Christian attitudes formed prior to 1290 were to continue for sev
eral centuries. Although in later years other factors influenced
public opinion, both religious and secular literature contained re
membrances of the pre-expulsion community.
William the Conqueror brought the first group of Jews over
from France in 1066. From the beginning the Jews were protected
by the king, and in return they provided a small part of William s
wealth. Because of the church’s policy of forbidding any Christian
from indulging in money-lending or virtually any form of commer
cial speculation, the Jews were given free rein in this lucrative
area. In a relatively short time, some of them were able to multiply
the funds that they had brought with them from the continent, and
by the middle of the twelfth century, Aaron of Lincoln, a Jewish

Page 16 - [see page image]

15
GENESIS OF A STEREOTYPE
financier, was supposedly the wealthiest member of the commer
cial classes. The king used his Jewish subjects as a kind of sponge
to absorb the wealth of his people. It was, after all, a simple task
to squeeze the money out of the Jews after they had diligently
acquired it through their money-lending activities.
In England, as in other countries in Western Europe during
the late Middle Ages, legal recognition and the support of the right
of the Jews to maintain their own separate religious and communal
organizations were in direct proportion to their fiscal contributions
to the crown. As long as the Jews could supply the king with mon
ey in the form of fines, special taxes, and loans, they were allowed
to maintain what amounted to a privileged place in society. 1
The special position enjoyed by the Jews aroused the ire of
the church, and both the hierarchy and the lower clergy found
the apparent wealth and position of the Jews to be a source of
constant annoyance. Through the centuries the church fathers
had viewed the Jews as an accursed people, who by rejecting Je
sus were condemned to be wanderers and fugitives over the face
of the earth. These clerics never advocated that the Jews be phys
ically harmed or restricted in the practice of their faith. However,
they wanted the Jews to be kept on as lowly a level as possible to
support the theological contention that the Christians were the
true elect of God and that the Almighty had rejected the Jewish
people. For example, Robert Grosseteste (1175-1253), Bishop of
Lincoln, firmly believed that the Jews, “being guilty of murder in
cruelly killing by crucifixion the Savior of the world,” 2 were con
demned to bear the mark of Cain and live a wretched life among
the Christian people. Though cursed by God to be eternal wan
derers, like Cain, they were to be protected from being killed and
they were to be allowed to remain “witnesses of the Christian
faith against the unbelief of the Pagans.” 3
In an attempt to reduce the influence of the Jews upon the
Christian people and to keep them on a lower social and economic
level, the popes and councils issued various proclamations. They
reflected a growing intensity of the church’s discriminatory and
segregationist policies towards the Jews, which began at the end of
the twelfth century and became progressively harsher through the
next century. Stephen Langton (P-1228), Archbishop of Canterbury,

Page 17 - [see page image]

16
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
was one of the leading spirits at the Fourth Late ran Council that
was called by Innocent III in 1215. Partially through his efforts,
attempts were made to limit Jewish commercial and social inter
course with Christians. Owing to his zeal and that of other clerics
in the country, England was the first nation in Europe to adopt
the infamous Jew Badge in 1218.
The official church policy of degrading the Jews and alienating
them from Christian society had little influence on those English
men who had profitable commercial dealings with them or who
knew them on a personal basis. However, by taking advantage of
the fears and superstitions of the masses, most of whom rarely if
ever had any contact with Jews, the church built up a diabolical
image of the Jew that was to persist for centuries. Many accusa
tions against the Jews came from the overzealous local clergy and
not from the hierarchy of the church. But the people accepted
these slanderous remarks as being the official church teachings. 4
The prejudice that the lower clergy felt towards the Jews can
be found in the manner in which the chroniclers treated the de
tails of the notorious ritual murder accusations that first shook the
Jewish community of England in the middle of the twelfth centu
ry, and which continued to affect Jewish-Christian relations for
many years to come. Thomas of Monmouth’s 5 gruesome descrip
tion of the supposed tortures inflicted by the Jews upon William
of Norwich in 1144, and Mathew of Paris’s 6 account of the alleged
ritual murder of Hugh of Lincoln in 1254 followed a certain styl
ized pattern and revealed an underlying theme. The villains were
not merely nonbelievers in the same categoiy with Moslems or
heathens; they were actually antagonists of Jesus, who knew he
existed and yet crucified him rather than accept him as their
king. 7 Many Englishmen, influenced by the stories in the gospels
which vividly depicted the Jewish role in the Crucifixion, needed
no proof of Jewish guilt for alleged crimes committed in contem
porary society. If the Jews had crucified Jesus, they readily be
lieved that Jews also tortured and killed young children before
Passover and committed other such fiendish acts.
It is easy to understand how such stories of Jewish treachery
were readily believed in a society that did not have any empirical
verification of such incidents. However, it is more difficult to

Page 18 - [see page image]

17
GENESIS OF A STEREOTYPE
explain why they persisted for so many centuries. Perhaps the
blood libel was a means of transferring onto their victims the guilt
that the Christians felt for their own acts of oppression. By mak
ing the Jews guilty of the veiy crimes that Christians had commit
ted, the Christians’ burden of guilt was shifted. Also, any acts tak
en against the Jewish community could be conceptualized as just
punishments for previous crimes. 8
On a somewhat deeper level, the Jews became the scapegoats
for the repressed desires of Christian society. In the stories of the
alleged ritual murders, the Jews were invariably pictured as being
the members of the older generation who inflicted pain upon in
nocent children. Here is a continuation of the theme of the Cru
cifixion where the “Son of God” was put to death by the Jewish
elders who worshipped “God the Father.” In later literature,
plays, and sermons, Christian attitudes towards the Jews were to
be tied up with this conflict between the generations and the oe-
dipal fantasies that resulted from it.
The ritual-murder accusations pointed out another important
aspect of the anti-Jewish sentiment of the time and of the centu
ries that followed. They reflected the deep-rooted belief that the
Jew, as the sorcerer, needed Christian blood for magical purpos
es. Human blood, preferably from a child, was believed to be a
necessary ingredient in various witches’ rituals, in preparing poi
sons, and in writing compacts with the devil. Therefore, it was not
too difficult for the masses to accept the idea that the Jews kid
napped children and slaughtered them in some demonic rite. The
pagans, in ancient times, had leveled this same charge against the
early Christians, and in the mediaeval period they in turn made
the same accusations against both Jews and heretics. 9 It was a
simple but effective means of showing the faithful that, with the
enemies of Christendom lurking about, the church and its stron
ger magic were needed to protect them. The more sinister the
Jews appeared, the greater role the church could play in defend
ing good Christians from their devilish attacks.
The English clergy was the first to fabricate the ritual-murder
accusations against the Jews and the first in Europe to spread the
myth of the “Wandering Jew.” 10 In these stories, as well as in
those that centered around the Crucifixion, the Jews were closely

Page 19 - [see page image]

ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
associated with the devil. Through the years they were to play in
terchangeable roles as the eternal adversary of God, the Anti
christ, as well as the usurer and the sorcerer. The devil was need
ed as an object for the projection of hostilities, and the Jew served
equally well in this capacity. 11 The teachings of the church which
echoed from the pulpit and which appeared in the drama and in
the secular and religious literature of the country reflected these
themes clearly.
After the Lateran Council of 1215, the sermon became an im
portant means of teaching church doctrine and of spreading some
anti-Jewish prejudice as well. At this time the friars began to cir
culate among the people and preach to them on a regular basis.
Instead of delivering sermons four times a year, these men went
out as often as they were able to the market places, the private
homes and castles, the cemeteries, the churches, and the preach
ing crosses, both to entertain and instruct the people. 12 Through
songs, poems, and stories the friars presented their messages to
people who could not comprehend the subtleties of the usual
church teachings. They drew heavily upon the exempla and other
legends of their time to hold their listeners’ interest. Mariales or
anecdotes that described miracles attributed to the Virgin were
particularly popular. In keeping with their general tone, many of
these selections contained unflattering and often slanderous ref
erences to Jews. 13
These sermon illustrations were further developed after the
expulsion, and they continued as an anti-Jewish tradition through
the fifteenth century. In the church’s early years missionaries had
used miracle stories to convince the masses of the superiority of
Christianity over the powers of paganism, and the mediaeval
church furthered this tradition. That some of the villains in these
stories were Jews did not disturb the clerics. They were disturbed
by many of the grossly superstitious folk beliefs that were to be
found in the stories. However, the clergy did not want to disparage
any attitudes that might encourage greater piety on the part of the
masses. If, for example, the stories of the wondrous powers of the
Host would elevate the power of the church in the eyes of the
faithful, the clergy were willing to tolerate such beliefs. 14 Thus, for
the sake of strengthening Christian beliefs and enhancing the
IS

Page 20 - [see page image]

19
GENESIS OF A STEREOTYPE
image of the church the wonder tales along with the wicked Jews
who were so often found in them remained. In chapter 2 I dis
cuss how the germ of many of the great narratives in secular liter
ature appeared first in these naive and sometimes crude stories
that were of such interest to the mediaeval English community.
The sermon illustrations that portrayed the Jew as the crucifier
of Jesus, the devils agent, and the enemy of good Christians left a
deep impression upon the minds of the general population both
before and after the expulsion. The same can be said for the early
religious pageants and plays that were popular forms of instruction
and entertainment. In the summer festival of Corpus Christi,
founded by Pope Urban IV in 1264, for example, Judas was por
trayed by a person wearing a red beard who was bent beneath the
weight of his money bags. He was closely followed by someone
dressed as the devil to remind the spectators of the kinship that
existed between the two of them. The masses who witnessed the
spectacles and who had no contact with Jews in their personal
lives, accepted the distorted, diabolical stage Jew as the real thing. 15
In the next centuries, the crude productions of the Corpus Christi
pageant began to evolve into modern drama, and the characteriza
tion of the Jew was to become more complex and more grotesque.
In addition to the effects of anti-Jewish sentiments in the offi
cial and unofficial teachings of the church and the effects of vari
ous attempts to segregate them from society, the general popula
tion tended to distrust them because they considered the Jews to
be strangers in their midst. They were separated from the English
people not only by their religious beliefs but also by their national
and ethnic origins. 16 Although there was no official ghetto in En
gland, the Jews were set apart from their neighbors because they
were considered to be part of a displaced nation living in a for
eign land. Thus, when Edward found it expedient to expel the
Jews from England, after they were no longer of economic value
to him, he was overwhelmingly supported by public opinion. As
Trevor-Roper has noted:
no ruler has ever carried out a policy of wholesale expulsion or de
struction without the cooperation of society. To think otherwise, to
suppose that a ruler, or even a party in the state, can thus cut out part

Page 21 - [see page image]

20
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
of the living tissue of society without the consent of society, is to defy
the lesson of history. Great massacres may be commanded by ty
rants, but they are imposed by peoples. Without general social sup
port, the organs of isolation and expulsion cannot even be created. 17
The expulsion of 1290 fit into this pattern, and this anti-Jewish
sentiment was deeply ingrained in the fabric of English life
throughout the next several centuries.

Page 22 - [see page image]

21
TUIO
EMBELLISHMENT OF
A STEREOTYPE
From the time of the expulsion
of the Jews to the reign of Elizabeth, the crude sermonic homilies
of the past were embroidered with vivid imagery and with new an
ti-Jewish themes. The increasing popularity of the drama as a
means of teaching religious lessons created the stage Jew, a figure
who acted out his role as the adversary of both Christians and
Christianity. He added a touch of reality to the image created in
the ballads and in the folklore. Secular writers also began to use
the Jew for their own literary purposes and to make him an infa
mous figure in their works. During this period the growth of inter
est in Hebraic studies brought a small number of Jews who had
converted to Christianity to England to teach at the universities.
Additional secret Jews also settled in the country. However, the
stereotype of the Jew as the accursed usurer, the Host desecrator,
and the murderer of innocent children was to continue in a society
where the absence of a significant number of practicing Jews pre
vented any possible means of disputing these irrational accusa
tions. The popular image of the Jew had developed out of the need
for Christianity to show itself superior to Judaism and to justify its
claims that it was the new Israel. Thus, Christian anti-Judaism con
tinued to be a central and an essential element of the daughter
religions system of beliefs. Out of the theology of the church, a
focus was provided for those individuals, religiously motivated or
not, who had the need to displace and project guilt and hatred

Page 23 - [see page image]

22
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
through a socially accepted outlet. 1 Dramatists, preachers, writ
ers, and folk singers were to share in this inheritance and to en
hance it as well.
Lancia claims that “in no department of human activity has
Jew baiting been more persistent and popular than in the realm
of drama.” 2 This form of anti-Jewish propaganda affected both
the performers and viewers of the productions. For the actors
and the audience, the physical representation of sacred events
was proof of their reality. “The play was a spiritual force superior
to the material world and able to transform it, enoble it, or even
to ward it off,” Sieferth notes. 3
Although the earliest examples of English drama appeared
prior to the expulsion, it was not until the end of the thirteenth
century that drama broke away from the confines of the church
and attracted the general populace. The use of the vernacular and
the direct involvement of the guilds in the various productions
brought the drama to the masses. The Jew was “fair game for the
merciless sport of the ignorant people whom the ecclesiastical
writers of the mysteries and the miracle plays were anxious to im
press,” according to Lancia. 4 The image of the Jew, as it appeared
on the stage, was widely accepted by the people and lasted for
centuries. Even when the drama developed various secular
themes, the Jew with all his grotesque attributes remained. In the
more enlightened centuries that followed, the Jew remained the
villain, for he was far too popular with the masses to be cast aside.
In the years after the expulsion, the simple Corpus Christi pag
eants grew increasingly complex. The mystery cycles developed
from these annual productions, and they became a regular part of
the life of the larger towns in England. The size and scope of these
productions varied in different localities, but their treatment of
the Jew was consistent. There was little, if any, deviation from offi
cial and unofficial church policies. In Christ’s Passion, one of the
Chester mystery plays, virtually the entire guilt for crucifying Jesus
was placed upon the heads of the Jews. The work reflected the
spirit of other Passion plays that were written before and after the
year 1375, when this particular cycle was first performed.
The unknown author of the play described how the Jews
brought Jesus before Pilate for punishment. Pilate, pictured as a

Page 24 - [see page image]

23
EMBELLISHMENT OF A STEREOTYPE
just and merciful ruler, could find no reason for harming Jesus,
and he protested to the Jews:
Fault in him I find none.
Therefore it is best that we let him be gone
And out of these doors let him go yon
Wither he will to take his way. 3
The Jews were not satisfied with his decision and loudly protested
that Jesus should be put to death on the cross. Pilate decided to
wash his hands of the whole matter, and the Jewish community
immediately took the initiative in punishing Jesus. It was the Jews
who stripped Jesus of his cloak and beat him. They were the ones
who tormented him and who cast dice for his clothes. The Roman
soldiers were not mentioned once in the Crucifixion scene, and
the author portrayed the conflict as between the Jews and Jesus.
Pilate was just an innocent bystander. 6
In the York mysteries, the Jews were depicted with powerful
realism. Judas was given perhaps a fuller treatment here than in
any other production of the time, and he became a veiy real char
acter to the audience. In the scene in which he offered his services
as the betrayer of Jesus and in another where he implored the
High Priest to take back the thirty pieces of silver, Judas was an
impressive figure who was filled with villainy. The Jew in general
became associated with Judas’s treachery and also with his flaming
beard. 7 Traces of both Judas’s inner and external nature were to
continue to be part of the portrayal of the Jew for centuries.
The various authors of the mysteries treated the Jews of the
Old Testament in a positive manner. In plays like Abraham and
Isaac, Jacob and Esau, and Joseph, the main characters were por
trayed as good Christians. However, the Jews of New Testament
times were totally different creatures. They followed closely the
diabolical image that began in the Epistle of Paul to the Romans
and which was perpetuated and embellished through the centu
ries. What was true of the authors of the mysteries was equally
true of those playwrights and authors that came after them.
During the fourteenth century virtually any subject of religious
significance could be made into a play. Thus, it is not surprising

Page 25 - [see page image]

24
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
that the legends that Jews desecrated the wafer of the Eucharist
would eventually be put on the stage.
In 1378, such a work, The Play of the Sacrament, appeared.
Before the actual performance of the play, Banns, or public an
nouncements, were made in the neighboring towns and villages
by men known as vexillatores (banner-bearers). The Banns of this
work described the cruelty of the Jews and the way they mistreat
ed the wafer. Thus, anti-Jewish sentiment was spread to many
who did not see the actual performance. Through the Banns the
people heard how the Jews “grevid our Lord gretly on the grownd
and put him to cruell passyon” and how they “Nayled hym to a
pyller; with pynsons plukked hym doune” (Banns, 36-40).
The plot of the play centered around Syr Arystory, who was
bribed by the Jew Jonas to steal a consecrated wafer. The motive
for the sacrilege was the Jew’s curiosity over the Christian belief
that it actually contained the blood and the flesh of Jesus. Per
haps the most horrible scene in the play occurred when the Jews,
having gained possession of the wafer, pierced it with their knives
and nailed it to a post. They were portrayed as hateful people
who symbolically wanted to re-crucify Jesus. The audience likely
associated the Jews’ dialogue in the play with that which was ut
tered in Jerusalem at the time of the Crucifixion. One of the Jews
in the play drew his knife and proclaimed:
Now am I bold with batayle hym to bleyke,
This mydle part alle for to prene;
A stowe stroke also for to stryke,
In the myddys shalbe scene!
[396-400]
After the Jews had tried to mutilate the wafer with their dag
gers, they threw it into a cauldron of boiling oil and then placed it
in a redhot oven. Finally, the bleeding image of Jesus appeared
and pleaded with his tormentors. The Jews, stricken with remorse
for their deeds, then asked for forgiveness and prepared them
selves for a penitential pilgrimage and ultimate conversion.
Miracle plays such as The Play of the Sacrament gradually gave
way to the moralities, works that dealt with the personification of

Page 26 - [see page image]

25
EMBELLISHMENT OF A STEREOTYPE
such abstract qualities as Beauty, Strength, Gluttony, and Mam
mon. The stage Jew was very much a part of this transition. For
example, in the play, St. Many Magdalen, Infidelity portrayed
Mary’s lover. He boasted that at the time of the Crucifixion his
name was Moysaical Justice and that he was so much a part of the
Jews that he prevented them from believing in Jesus. Infidelity
played the part of some of the Jews, especially Judas, in the play.
Alongside of him were other Jewish characters, one of whom was
Simon the Pharisee, a sly criminal character who was able to com
mit crimes without being caught.
Another effective means, in addition to the drama, of shaping
the religious attitudes of the masses during this period was the
sermon delivered by the parish priest or the friar. In a society
where the ability to read and write was limited to a select few, the
spoken word assumed great importance in reminding the faithful
what the church expected of them. The content of these discours
es, preserved in various sermon manuals, reveals what the clerics
were preaching and, assuming that the listeners were attentive,
what the average churchgoers were digesting.
References to Jews were most numerous in sermons delivered
during the Easter season. The rituals of Holy Week provided the
preacher with a volume of material to fix in the minds of the
faithful the enormity of the crime that the Jews had committed
against Jesus. For example, part of the Shere Thursday ritual was
the snuffing out and then the relighting of a candle. The anthem
and the psalms that were sung at this point in the service were to
be “with an hye voice and as a ferclcleful sowne,” which was to
represent the cries of the Jews who came to seize Jesus. The altar
was not to be covered so as to serve as a reminder of how Jesus
was naked before the Jews in his Passion. On Good Friday there
was to be no bowing during the service “because of the scornes
that they [the Jews] scorned Crist with here bownge.” 8
The supposed role that the Jews played in the Crucifixion, as
described in the New Testament, embellished in legend, and por
trayed on the stage was familiar to both cleric and layman, and it
was a good starting point for moral teaching. One of the richest
sources of sermonic material dealing with the last days of Jesus was
The Northern Passion, 9 a collection of various legends that were

Page 27 - [see page image]

26
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
designed to appeal to the emotions of the masses. The author por
trayed the Jews as the chief villains in the Crucifixion. He made it
clear from the beginning that their leaders feared him and that
they believed that if Jesus would be allowed to continue to preach
to the people, they would leave their faith and follow him. At a
banquet they remarked, “If we lat hym thus forth gone/ Oure folk
wyll all turn hym tyll/ And all will tha follow hys wyll” (26-28).
Thus, it was the Jewish leaders, headed by Caiaphas, who de
cided to put Jesus to death. They gave Judas thirty pieces of mon
ey to betray Jesus and seized him and brought him to Pilate.
Along with these stock accusations, the author included a legend
about Judas which further blackened the image of the Jew. After
Judas had done his deed, he was stricken with remorse and told
the Jews that it was a mistake to betray Jesus. The Jews insisted
that the bargain stand. They had paid him, and they refused to
free him from his obligation to them. Judas then threw the money
at the Jews and, filled with guilt, went off to hang himself. The
Jews picked up the silver and started to argue over it. Because the
money was “full of felony,” they determined that it was not fit to
be placed in the treasury and decided to use it to buy a field for
the burial of wicked Jews and strangers. Thus, not only did the
Jews use money to bribe Judas, but they were also responsible for
the purchase of the infamous place where Jesus was put to death.
The author included the usual story of how the Jews persuad
ed Pilate to allow Jesus to be put to death by assuring him that
they would accept full responsibility for the act. They proclaimed,
“Al hys blode be on vs sene/ Cryst leue that it be falle/ On vs And
oure children alle” (1136-39).
Other legends which added to the Jews’ guilt for the death of
Jesus and further tarnished their image dealt with the great lengths
the Jews went to to persuade a smith to make the nails that were to
be used in the Crucifixion. There was a tradition that after the cross
had been made, three nails were needed to crucify Jesus. The Jews
then went to a smith and told him, “Make thre nayles stif and gude/
At naile the prophet on the rode.” 10 The smith, who believed in Je
sus, refused to follow their orders and claimed that he could not
fashion the nails because his hand was sore. Just as the Jews were
about to leave the shop, the smith’s wife came and offered to make

Page 28 - [see page image]

27
EMBELLISHMENT OF A STEREOTYPE
them. The Jews helped her to strike the iron, and when the nails
were finished, they cheerfully went off to Pilate. Thus, the veiy
steel which pierced the flesh of Jesus was fashioned by the Jews.
A major work that dealt with this theme and supplied addi
tional sermonic material for the preacher was The Siege of Jerusa
lem; which was completed in the last decade of the fourteenth
century. 11 It began with the stoiy of Jesus’ torture on the cross.
Revenge for this act took place during the time of Nero, when
the emperor sent Vespasian and Titus to Judea to subdue the
Jewish people. The Romans sent twelve knights to Jerusalem to
tell the inhabitants of the city that they had come to avenge the
death of Jesus and to ask for their immediate surrender. The
Jews, in ungentlemanly fashion, disfigured the messengers and
prepared to defend themselves. In a fanciful description of the
war with Rome, the author related how the Jews, equipped with
elephants, were ultimately defeated after a bloody siege. The Ro
mans were victorious because they had been told by Vespasian
that they had come to avenge the Crucifixion. In the early stages
of the battle, Caiaphas, the High Priest, was captured and con
demned to a painful death. This was “In tokne of tresoun” that he
had committed against Jesus. When the city was finally in Roman
hands, Titus asked Pilate about the details of Jesus’ death. When
he learned that the Jews had sold Jesus for thirty pence, he im
mediately made a decree that the Jewish captives should be sold
thirty for a penny. Pilate, for his part in the crime, was put into
prison, where he later died.
In this stoiy the blame for the Crucifixion fell upon both Pi
late and the Jews. Yet, the Jews, as individuals and as a people,
suffered much more than Pilate. The Roman conquest of Judea
was turned into a holy crusade; the destruction of Jerusalem and
the slaughter of the city’s inhabitants were portrayed as a pious
act. The Jews were pictured as the villains in the struggle, a peo
ple who did not fight fairly, as when they mutilated messengers
sent under a flag of truce to ask for their surrender. The Romans,
filled with noble motives, punished them measure for measure.
The author showed that the temple was destroyed because of the
Jewish involvement in the Crucifixion.
The Jews, their hands stained with the blood of Jesus, were evil

Page 29 - [see page image]

28
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
incarnate, a perfect example of a debased people who could be
contrasted with those enlightened individuals influenced by the
church’s teaching. Thus, Bishop Brunton of Rochester used in a
sermon the example of Jewish behavior at the time of Jesus’ pas
sion to denounce the corruption of justice in his own day. After
quoting a passage from the book of Proverbs, “the vows of the
just are acceptable with God” (15:8), he noted:
But these things notwithstanding, to speak solid truths, it is the same
with the Justice of the English as it was with the Justice of the Jews
at the time of Christ’s Passion. For, just as Christ had manifold testi
mony of his own justice from his opponents, namely from Pilate, Pi
late’s wife, Judas the Betrayer, the thief and the centurion, yet con
trary to all justice was betrayed to death, and Barabbas, the famous
thief and murderer, was freed from the death of Christ, in these
words—“Come, let us oppress the just man, who is contrary to our
doings,” so also is it with the powerful men of the world to-day and
the leaders of the realm. 12
Preachers often used references to the Crucifixion to attack
those things that the Jews stood for and which the church op
posed. For example, Thomas Wimbledon, a fourteenth-century
cleric, denounced the Jewish practice of accepting the binding
authority of Mosaic Law: “Wo to the Iewe, that tristecl so rnoche
in the olcle/ lawe; than schal he see Marie sone demynge the/
world, whom he despised and sette on the Cros.” 13 It is significant
that the preacher associated the Crucifixion with those who fol
low “the olcle lawe.” For him, such an outlook was reserved for
those who despised Jesus and who put him to death and was
something which no self-respecting Christian would accept as
part of his religious philosophy.
In the sermons of post-expulsion England, the image of the
Jews varied from that of a people who were morally neutral but
blind to the “true faith” to one of outright villains who were ene
mies of the church and the Christian people. Even in what ap
peared to be contemporary stories, the guilt of the Crucifixion
often seemed to hover over the Jews, and there was the inference
that this type of crime was something that they were capable of
repeating if given the opportunity.

Page 30 - [see page image]

29
EMBELLISHMENT OF A STEREOTYPE
The need to convert the Jews, save their souls, and enable
them to merit the rewards of heaven appear in numerous sermon
illustrations of the period. The clerics were convinced that if only
the Jews would be exposed to the truth of Christian doctrine,
usually through some supernatural occurrence, they would re
nounce their faith and accept Christianity. The fact that there
were no Jews in England who openly practiced their faith did not
seem to deter the preachers. The stories containing references to
Jews, which in many instances were carried over from earlier cen
turies, could be used to point out the superiority of Christianity
over Judaism and to strengthen the faith of Christians who ques
tioned the teachings of the church. The Jews, shrouded in legend,
were an excellent foil, and the clerics used them often in their
sermons. Thus, if they did not exist in the flesh, their imaginary
spirits were resurrected to enhance the power of the church in
the eyes of the faithful.
Mirk’s Festial, one of the more popular sermon collections,
contains a stoiy of a Jew and a Christian who were discussing the
“cornyng of our lady.” The Jew refused to believe in the supernat
ural powers of the Virgin unless a lily, the symbol of Maiy, sprang
from a wine pot that stood between the two. When the lily imme
diately appeared, he converted. 14 In another stoiy in this collec
tion, a Jew who came to England from France was captured by
thieves. After the thieves had robbed him, they bound him and
placed him in an abandoned house. While he was there, the Vir
gin appeared to the Jew and announced, “I am Maiy that thou
and all thi nacyon despysythe.” She then unbound him and
showed him the “paynes of hell” and revealed to him places of
“gret ioye and blysse.” After this experience, the Jew, impressed
with the powers of the Virgin, converted. 15
A more complicated tale of a Jew who learned of the power of
the cross and then was converted to Christianity appeared in an
other collection of legends which made up another sermon hand
book. It tells of a bishop who was tempted by the devil to have
sexual relations with a woman until he finally decided that he
“wolde hafe a do with hur.” One night a Jewish traveller who was
passing through the area could not find a place to spend the night
and was obliged to sleep in the temple of Apollo. At midnight, a

Page 31 - [see page image]

30
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
company of fiends appeared with their chief and started to dis
cuss their treachery. One of them boasted to his comrades how
he had tempted the local bishop with a woman. He was com
mended by the chief of the group and told to continue his work.
The leader also advised the fiends to search the temple and to
make sure that no one had overheard their conversation. When
the Jew saw the fiends approaching, he made the sign of the cross
and they promptly disappeared. The next morning the traveler
went to the bishop and told him what had happened. The cleric
repented for his misdeeds and sent the woman away. The Jew,
who was now duly impressed with the power of the cross and of
the Christian faith, converted. 16
In these tales, Jews were pictured as basically decent individu
als who were receptive to the power of the church. These stories,
however, were not the most common ones in the preachers rep
ertoire. M ore often than not, the Jews were depicted as brutal
individuals who appreciated Christianity as the true faith only
when confronted with dramatic proof. This portrayal is under
standable. The more stubborn and cruel the Jew appeared to be,
the greater were the powers of Christianity that brought about his
conversion. There is, for example, the story of the Jewish store
keeper who made an image of Saint Nicholas and set it in his
shop along with his goods. He asked the image to protect his
property while he was away on a trip. When the Jew returned, he
found that someone had entered and stolen his property. He be
came angry and began to beat the image, threatening to continue
until his goods were returned. The saint went to the thief and
showed him his “sycles all blody.” He explained that he had re
ceived this beating from the Jew because he had failed to guard
his property. The next day the goods were returned and the Jew,
out of gratitude and amazement, became a Christian. 17
But even this stoiy about a particularly brutal Jew converting
to Christianity was restrained in comparison to one that centered
on an attempt by a group of Jews to steal a consecrated wafer. A
Jew who was friendly with a cleric agreed to meet him after the
good Christian had participated in a mass on Easter Sunday. After
the Christian had received the sacrament, he went to the meeting
place only to find that he was surrounded by a group of Jews who

Page 32 - [see page image]

31
EMBELLISHMENT OF A STEREOTYPE
seized him and cut him open to steal the wafer that was lodged in
his intestines. When the band finally got at it, the wafer shone so
brightly that it blinded the Jews and attracted a crowd, who re
leased the cleric. Immediately, all the cleric’s organs returned to
their former positions, and he was healed. As a result of the mira
cle, many thousands were converted to Christianity. 18
In the contexts of the sermons, the purpose of this stoiy was
to remind the faithful that God looks after those who believe in
him. To mediaeval men, the church was pictured as a vast store
house of magical power. Tales about the powers of the Host and
the miraculous punishments that were meted out to those who
tried to steal it reinforced this image in the eyes of the faithful at
the expense of the Jews. No doubt the vivid portrayal of the Jews’
cruel attempt to steal the wafer remained in the minds of the
people longer than the lesson that was to be learned. At least one
mediaeval preacher complained that his flock missed the main
points of his sermon. “When they should be like glass windows
letting in the light, excluding tempests they are only wretched
sieves retaining, while steeped in the waters of preaching, noth
ing from without but the filth.” 19 After hearing these types of ser
mons, the masses likely remembered the earthy stories about the
Jews far better than the Christian teachings associated with them.
The brutality of the Jew, coupled with a narrow and erroneous
religious outlook, was another popular theme of the mediaeval
preacher. A stoiy that must have aroused the interest of many a
half-dozing congregant centered around a clerk who got a Jewish
girl pregnant. Fearful as to how her parents would react, he con
cocted a plan to remove any blame from himself and from the girl
as well. He took a long hollow reed, placed it next to the elders’
bedroom, and told them that their virgin daughter had conceived
the Messiah. The parents, convinced that they had heard a divine
call, went to their daughter’s room, examined her, and found her
to be pregnant. The girl, who had been rehearsed by the clerk,
said that she was still a virgin. The parents were overjoyed. When
the time for her delivery drew near, a large group of Jews assem
bled anxiously awaiting the birth of the Messiah. The baby turned
out to be a girl, and the crowd filled with rage, killed the child by
throwing it against a wall. 20

Page 33 - [see page image]

32
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
Another assumption perpetuated in the sermons was that
when a Jew saw the light and converted to Christianity, he be
came a new person and left his supposedly “Jewish” traits behind.
In one particular sermon illustration, the preacher was not fully
convinced that this was true. This story was supposed to illustrate
the problem of temptation. However, the cleric’s choice of sub
ject matter reflected a deep hostility to the Jew who had convert
ed but, who in the eyes of the cleric, was still a basically untrust
worthy, conniving person. The story centered around a Jew who
became a Christian and who studied with some monks. When the
monks could teach him nothing that he did not already know, he
went out into the world to seek more knowledge. During his trav
els, the devil appeared to him in the likeness of an angel and
urged him to learn quickly because he would soon become a bish
op. Later, the devil appeared again and told him that the local
bishop had died and that on the next day he would take his place.
The converted Jew had been spending the night at a priest’s
house when the message came to him, and, anxious to make a
good impression on the people whom he would soon meet, he
stole his host’s horse and cloak. His act was soon discovered, and
the converted Jew was brought before the authorities and sen
tenced to death. Thus, the preacher pointed out, he ascended not
as a bishop upon a throne but as a thief on the gallows. 21
In the previous stoiy, the Jew succumbed to temptation, but a
more common theme portrayed him as associated with the devil,
acting as an agent who led others astray. The best example can be
found in the legends that centered around Theophilus, who was
described as the clerk of the Bishop of Cizile. 22 Theophilus was a
good man, beloved by the people. When his superior died, they
urged him to take his place. Theophilus was influenced by a fiend
not to take the bishopric, and so another cleric was chosen. The
ophilus retained his previous position until malicious reports cir
culated by the devil forced his superior to put him out of his ad
ministration. For a while Theophilus continued to live a humble
life, but after a time he began to brood over his lost power. Final
ly, he went to a Jew who was a known agent of the devil and who
had sent many souls to hell to seek help in regaining his former
position. The Jew led him to the devil and told his master of

Page 34 - [see page image]

33
EMBELLISHMENT OF A STEREOTYPE
Theophilus s plight. The rest of the tale centered around the hero’s
return to power, his life of honor, and ultimately his repentance to
the Virgin for the pact that made him, like the Jew, the devil’s man.
The Jew was the devil’s man not only because he brought
Christians into the clutches of Satan but also because of his prac
tice of usury. On the continent as well as in England, preachers
reminded their flocks that God had created farmers, priests, and
soldiers, but that the usurers were invented by the devil. Satan
was the Jew’s partner in all his financial transactions; the two of
them were closely identified with each other. 23 Although the En
glish preachers never approached the continental clerics in the
intensity of their scorn of the Jewish usurers’ devilish practices,
they did include some biting references to them in their sermons.
A popular legend, adapted for sermonic purposes, told of how
Constantine saw the original cross in a vision and sent his mother
and two messengers, Benciras and Ansiers, to search for it. The
queen had with her a goldsmith who owed a large sum of money
to a Jew. Eie had agreed to surrender an equivalent weight of his
own flesh to the Jew if he could not repay the debt on the day that
it was due. When the time for repayment came, the goldsmith was
unable to satisfy the Jew’s claims, and the case came before the
queen’s court. Benciras and Ansiers, who served as judges, asked
the Jew how he intended to claim his bond. The Jew replied that
he would first put out the Christian’s eyes, then he would cut off
his hands, and lastly, he would cut off his tongue and nose. The
judges agreed to allow him to proceed, but they warned him not
to take any blood because this was not part of the contract. The
Jew protested that this was impossible and cursed the judges. They
then acquitted the Christian and condemned the Jew to forfeit his
goods to the queen and to lose his tongue. The rest of the tale
dealt with the Jew’s plea for mercy and his offer to show the queen
where the original cross was buried if she would pardon him. 24
As agents of the devil, Jews were not considered to be fully
human. They also were subject to some very peculiar maladies.
According to legend, both Jewish men and women menstruated,
and they also suffered from hemorrhoids and other similar ailments
that required the therapeutic use of Christian blood. They bled
abnormally because they were devil-like and also because their

Page 35 - [see page image]

34
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
ancestors had promised Pilate that if he would allow Jesus to be
killed, his blood would be upon them and their children. There
were several references to the idea in sermonic literature of the
time, and perhaps the most popular stoiy used by the preacher was
the one of “the canon and the Jews daughter.” In this tale a young
cleric fell in love with a Jewish girl whose parents were veiy strict
with her. Because they watched her so closely, the lovers could
only meet on Good Friday night, a time when, according to the
author, “alle iewes bleclyn benethyn for wreche of cristes death.” 25
The next morning when the bleeding had stopped, the father of
the girl discovered her in bed with the canon. The Jew gathered
his neighbors together and went to the church to complain to the
local bishop about the young mans behavior. The canon, realizing
that he had sinned, repented in his heart and promised to do pen
ance. When the Jews came before the bishop, they found that they
could not speak, and they could not accuse the young man of hav
ing committed any misdeeds. The canon then entered a stricter
order, and the Jews daughter was baptized and became a nun. The
stoiy was used in the sermon to show the power of contrition and
to demonstrate how a penitent individual was saved from shame.
However, it was another reminder of how the “bloody Jews” were
defeated by the stronger magical powers of Christianity.
As agents of the devil and as heretics, the Jews were a physical
threat to both Christians and Christianity. Preachers found any
number of instances in the past where Jews persecuted the early
followers of Jesus and attempted to suppress their teachings.
They told, for example, of how after the Crucifixion, Stephen
preached against those who did not believe in Jesus. The Jews
“stoppicl here eres” so that they should not hear him and finally
took Stephen outside the city and stoned him. 26 Another legend
focused on an incident that supposedly occurred when Mary’s
bier was being carried toward its final resting place. “A prince of
prestes of Iewes” was filled with wrath against her and attacked
the funeral procession of the woman whom he claimed had “trow-
belycl vs and alle oure kyncle.” Miraculously, his hands stuck to
the bier, and all those who were with him were blinded. Only
when they all accepted Jesus did the torment end. 27
In the latter case, the superior magic of Christianity again

Page 36 - [see page image]

35
EMBELLISHMENT OF A STEREOTYPE
prevailed. This was not limited to the distant past, but it was an
ongoing process that spanned the centuries. Belief in the powers
of the Christian faith, particularly in those of Mary, was good in
surance against the designs of the devilish Jews and of all other
sources of harm.
One of the oldest miracle tales of the Virgin that found its way
into the sermons of the time served as a reminder of the protec
tion that Christianity offered the faithful. The story related how a
Jewish youngster enjoyed playing with his Christian friends, who
accepted him and treated him as an equal. One day he went with
them to church where he admired the image of the Virgin and
observed the mass. When he returned home, his father flew into
a rage over his visit to the church and threw the boy into a fiery
furnace. The child’s mother was shocked by what her husband
had done, and she immediately ran out of the house to summon
help. When she returned to her house with several townspeople,
they found that the fires in the oven had not harmed the boy.
They stood in amazement as he told them how the Virgin Mother,
whose picture he had seen in the church, had protected him from
the fires. At the conclusion of the tale, the youngster’s mother
converted with him to Christianity, and the wicked father was
condemned to death in the same oven into which he had thrown
his son. 28
The sermon was not the only part of the church service and rit
ual that perpetuated the anti-Jewish sentiments of the time. The
various statues and images viewed by the faithful each time they
came to pray also contributed to these negative attitudes towards
Jews and Judaism. In England, as on the continent, the synagogue
was often represented as a woman with a broken spear who had
been cast down from her once exalted place. She was subservient to
the image of the church that was now chosen by God to represent
him on earth. Such statues were constant reminders of the sins of
the Jews, their rejection of the true faith, and the punishment that
they so rightfully deserved. Illuminated works like The Holkham
Bible Picture Book, which was probably painted during the reign of
Edward II, depicted among the scenes of the Crucifixion the
legend of the smith’s wife who fashioned the nails that were to be
used by the Jews to pierce Jesus’ flesh. 29 Although such books were

Page 37 - [see page image]

36
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
the property of the privileged few, the common people could
learn their Bible stories from wall paintings that reflected similar
themes. “To see such pictures is to understand how simply and
entirely mediaeval people accepted Christian teaching, and how
the gospel stories, elaborated by some legendary traditions, early
became an indelible factor in eveiy persons life.” 30
Various forms of devotional and secular literature influenced
by the teachings of the church also perpetuated anti-Semitic ste
reotypes. In the fourteenth century, mystical literature was a pop
ular means of fostering religious feelings and furthering lay edu
cation. Veiy often in these works, hatred of the Jews was presented
as an appropriate companion to Christian devotion. For example,
Juliana of Norwich, an anchoress who was filled with love for
Gods creatures, did not include the Jews in this categoiy. Those
Jews who had put Jesus to death, and their descendants as well,
were “accursed and condemned without ends”; 31 they were not
worthy of Christian compassion. The Jews served as a perfect ob
ject for her hostilities, and they allowed her to be that much more
charitable and understanding to those worthy of her concern.
Other mystics used the Jews as a means of aiding them in
their quest to rid their bodies of sin. In the “Orison on the Pas
sion,” the author began his work by expressing his hope that Jesus
would write in his heart the remembrance of the Passion. By re
viving Jesus’ agony, he hoped to find a certain measure of self-pu
rification. Accordingly, he recounted the stoiy of the Crucifixion,
sparing none of the grisly details. To further dramatize the effect
of the deed, the author asked Jesus to describe his suffering, how
he felt as he was tortured by the Jews.
Write how douneward thou can loke
Whan Iewes to the crosse betook;
Thou bare it forth with newly chere,
The teres ran dound by thy lere.
[37-40]
Those who read this devotional piece, like the author, yearned
to relive the Passion for the sake of their own purification.
Margery Kempe, another religious enthusiast and mystic of the

Page 38 - [see page image]

37
EMBELLISHMENT OF A STEREOTYPE
time, wished to recapture the pain and the suffering of Jesus so
that she could deepen her own spirituality. Her diaiy provides a
good insight into the inner workings of the minds of the devout,
and it reflects the effect of the church’s teachings upon them.
During her pilgrimage to Jerusalem, she had a vision of the
Crucifixion which became a veiy real and moving experience for
her.
And then anon she saw Judas come and kiss Our Lord and the Jews
laid hands upon him full violently. Then had our lady and she much
sorrow and great pain to see the Lamb of Innocence so contempt
ibly hauled and dragged by his own people The Jews beating him
and buffeting him on the head and jogging him on his sweet mouth,
crying full cruelly unto him: “Tell us now who smote thee.’’ 32
Margery Kempe also saw in her vision how the Jews gave Jesus
his cross to bear, how they tore off his garments, and finally how
they nailed him to the cross. These supposed deeds of the Jews
increased her religious sensitivities while more firmly establishing
the Jews as Christ killers.
Perhaps the most popular remembrances of the Jews that
were perpetuated in both religious and secular post-expulsion lit
erature were their involvement in usury and their practice of ritu
al murder. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, for example,
the Prioress, who reflected the religious teachings of the four
teenth century clerics and the general intolerance of the time,
portrayed the Jews as murderers, parasites, devils, and usurers.
Her tale of the “litel clergeoun,” who was redeemed by Maiy af
ter having been brutally murdered by the Jews, was a synthesis of
various legends and belongs to the cycles relating to the miracles
of the Virgin. 33 It was a story that she could veiy well have learned
in the course of her religious training, one that she would natural
ly share with her companions on their pilgrimage to the shrine at
Canterbury.
This “gentle” lady’s intense hatred of the Jews and her distort
ed image of them is evident in the opening verses of her tale.
Ther was in Asye, in a greet citee,
Amonges Cristene folk, a Jewerye,

Page 39 - [see page image]

38
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
Sustened by a lord of that contree
For foul usure and lucre of vileynye,
Flateful to Crist and to his compaignye.
[1678-82]
For the simple-minded Prioress, believing the legends of Jewish
involvement in the murder of innocent children, a crime of such
magnitude could only have been committed by a people, who like
Judas, were agents of the devil and were easily influenced to do
his bidding. She reminded her companions of the close bonds be
tween Satan and the Jews when she graphically described how
these accursed people were persuaded to seize and ultimately to
kill the child:
Oure firste foo, the serpent Sathanas,
That hath in Jues herte his waspes nest,
Up swal, and seide, “O Hebrayk peple,
alias!
Is this to yow a thyng that is honest,
That swich a boy shal walken as hym lest
In youre despit, and synge of swich sentence,
Which is agayn youre lawes reverence?"
[1747-54]
The Jews, with their fanatical beliefs and blind hatreds, allowed
Satan to dwell within their hearts and were easy prey for his dia
bolical schemes. In line with the tradition of Judas, they took the
life of an innocent boy whose only crime was to sing the Alma
reclemptoris as he walked to and from school. In pious indigna
tion, she cried out:
O cursed folk of Herodes al newe,
What may your yvel entente yow availle?
Mordre wol out, certyn, it wol not faille,
And namely ther th’onour of God shal sprede;
The blood out crieth on youre cursed dede.
[1764-68]
The Prioress had great compassion for the mother who
searched in vain for her missing son and ultimately learned of his

Page 40 - [see page image]

39
EMBELLISHMENT OF A STEREOTYPE
tragic fate. However, the Jews who were brutally tortured and put
to death for their part in the crime were not to be pitied. They
simply received what they deserved. As subhumans, their torment
was stated in a very matter-of-fact way that was devoid of emo
tion. At the conclusion of her tale, the Prioress mentioned the
well known story of Hugh of Lincoln, who had also been mur
dered by Jews. Although the incident had taken place some f30
years before, she treated it as something that happened “but a li-
tel while ago.” She no doubt used the story that was so familiar to
her travelling companions to add credibility to her own tale. Her
chilcl-like faith and her naive acceptance of the legend of the fa
mous boy saint transformed what had allegedly occurred in Lin
coln into an almost contemporary event.
Critics note a definite irony in “The Prioress’s Tale” and in her
own spiritual makeup as well. In the Prologue she appeared as a
veiy sensitive person who “wolcle wepe if she saugh a rnous
kaught in a trappe” and who “sore wepte” if one of her pampered
pets would die. Yet, she could calmly report the torture and mas
sacre of the Jews with calm detachment. Although the Prioress
compared the boy’s mother to Rachel, who wept for her children
in captivity (Jer. 31:15), she had no compassion for the more con
temporary wandering and oppressed Jew. Her tenderness and
charity was limited to small animals, little children, and bereaved
mothers. In light of the horrible punishment suffered by the Jews,
the Prioress’s final prayer for mercy is ironic.
R. J. Shoeck takes the position that “in the tale which Chaucer
assigned to the Prioress, the widely circulated ritual murder leg
end is held up for implicit condemnation as vicious and hypocriti
cal.” He believes that the disparity between the Prioress’s pro
fessed piety and religious devotion and her bigotiy would have
been recognized by the more sophisticated people of the time.
While he realizes that not everyone could appreciate the extent of
this disparity, those who could recognize in the other tales the
Pardoner’s hypocrisy or the Shipman’s knavery and deceit could
also detect the Prioress’s pious hypocrisy. 34
Many admirers of Chaucer would like to believe that he shared
some of the post-Auschwitz sympathies towards oppressed minori
ty groups. However, for the clergy and the laymen of the time, the

Page 41 - [see page image]

40
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
Jew was a creature who stood outside of the pale. From the time
of the Crucifixion, he had been involved in usury and in the mur
der of innocent children, and since he was hardly human, he did
not merit Christian compassion. Florence Ridley believes that,
considering the spirit of religious intolerance of his age, “it would
have been most unlikely for a fourteenth century English poet to
satirize a nun and a legend of the Virgin in order to attack an
ti-Semitism.” Chaucer, she believes, “intended to satirize her sim
plicity, emotionalism, and frustrated feminity with an air of mild
amusement—but not her religious prejudice.” 35
From a literary standpoint, Chaucers use of “The Prioress’s
Tale” rounded out the image of her limited mentality, sentimen
tality, naivete, and trusting nature. It was a stoiy that in so many
ways perfectly matched her description in the Prologue. Yet, at
the same time, he unwittingly placed before his readers a beauti
fully written piece that raised the miracle tales of the Virgin to
the level of great literature. When these crude legends would lose
their popularity and be pushed into the background, “The Prior
ess’s Tale” would continue to perpetuate the old stereotypes of
the Jew and negatively shape the attitudes of future generations.
Another literary figure who mentioned Jews in his works was
John Gower (1330-1408), a contemporary of Chaucer whom
Chaucer referred to as “moral Gower.” Gower was a didactic poet
who used stories to make his teachings more palatable for the
readers of his day. In this regard, he resembled the mediaeval
preachers. One of his tales concerning the Jews is veiy similar to
those that appeared in the sermons of the time.
In Confessio Amantis, Gower related the stoiy of two travellers
going through a desert together. Each asked the other about his
religious beliefs. The first said that he was a pagan and that his
faith dictated that “I ought to love all men alike and do to others as
I would they should do to me.” The second said, “I am a Jew and
by my faith I ought to be true to no man, except he be a Jew as I
am.’ ’ It was a hot day, and the Jew, who was on foot, asked the pa
gan if he could ride on his donkey. The pagan agreed, and the two
changed places. After a while, the pagan asked for his donkey back,
but the Jew refused to return it, claiming that he was following the

Page 42 - [see page image]

41
EMBELLISHMENT OF A STEREOTYPE
precepts of his faith. As the Jew rode on, the pagan prayed that
God would judge between them. Later on he found the body of
the Jew torn to pieces by a lion. His donkey was standing nearby
unharmed. From this Gower concluded that:
Lo, thus a man mai knowe at ende,
How the pitous pite deserveth.
For what man that to pite serveth,
As Aristotle it berth witnesse,
God shal hise foomen so represse.
[7. 1724-29]
Though the lesson of the stoiy had nothing to do with either Jews
or Judaism, the image of the crafty Jew getting his just reward
likely remained in the mind of the reader.
Gowers approach to the Jewish people was rooted in the
teachings of the church, and he did not deviate from the standard
doctrines of the past centuries. For example, in his discussion of
ancient religions, Gower presented a brief history of the founding
of the Jewish faith. He noted how God had chosen the Jews to be
his own special people and how he had delivered them from
bondage and brought them to the Promised Land. When they re
jected Jesus, they lost this special relationship, and they were dis
persed throughout the world.
So that thei stonde of no merit,
Bot in truage as folk soubgit
Withoute properte of place
Thei liven out of goddes grace,
Dispers in alle londes oute.
[5. 1724-29]
Gower used examples from ancient Jewish history to illustrate
divine justice in the world. He noted in his Vox Clam-antis that
when the Hebrew people sinned and worshipped idols, the Lord
handed them over to their enemies. When they repented and re
turned to God, he helped them to overcome their adversaries.
From this, Gower concluded that whatever happens to the human

Page 43 - [see page image]

42
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
race is based on merit. Thus, the wretched state of the Jews
throughout the world and their virtual absence in England result
ed from their rejection of the Christian faith.
Gowers positive statement about Judaism was used to point
out certain weaknesses in Christian practices:
For we are so bent upon money at all hours that scarcely one festival
day now remains for God. O how the Jew preserves the sacred Sab
bath of the Lord, neither buying nor selling nor seeking for gain.
[5. 11. 687-88]
There were some Jewish practices, like the observance of the
Sabbath, that impressed him. But on the whole, Judaism was
superseded by Christianity, and its followers were rejected by
God.
During the latter half of the fourteenth century, there was a
revival of interest in alliterative poems, the most important of
which were works of social and moral protest. William Langland’s
Piers the Plowman, a work based in part on some of the sermons
of the time, was probably the greatest of these poems, and it
graphically expressed the attitude of the common man towards
the evils of society. The poem contains several references to Jews
worth considering as illustrations of contemporary attitudes to
ward them.
Modern critics, who want to show the authors liberal spirit,
invariably show how he believed that there must somehow be a
place in heaven for the good Jew and for the good pagan. 36 They
also point out that he mentioned how, in contrast to the Chris
tians, the Jews practiced true charity towards each other.
If the prelates did their duty, no Christian man would ever stand at
the gate crying for alms, or be without bread and soup. For never
would a Jew see another Jew go begging, if he could help it, not
for all the riches in the world! Alas! that one Christian should be
unkind to another, when the Jews, whom we class with Judas, all
help one another in need! Why cannot we Christians be as charita
ble with Christ’s gifts as the Jews who are truly our teachers, are
with theirs?
[9. 81-87]

Page 44 - [see page image]

43
EMBELLISHMENT OF A STEREOTYPE
On the surface these statements seem to indicate a liberal
spirit and a strong admiration for the Jews. However, the authors
lavish praise was primarily intended to point up the corruption of
the church and not to modify the anti-Semitic prejudices of the
reader. The Jews were an accursed people who could only attain a
place in heaven if they would accept Jesus and undergo baptism.
Langland, like so many writers who preceded and followed
him, dwelled on the Crucifixion of Jesus. Although he admitted
that “Jesus Christ chose as His Mother a Jews daughter” (chap,
ff), he blamed the Jews for accusing Jesus of being a sorcerer
and for bringing about the Crucifixion. He pictured them as mali
cious people who plotted against Jesus and who took delight in
their actions. Langland described how they forced a blind knight
to pierce Jesus with his lance while he was bound to the cross.
For this they were cursed with the words:
May God’s vengeance fall on the lot of you, cowards that you are!
For this vileness you shall be accursed for ever ... never again shall
you prosper, never have land or dominion or plow the soil again. But
you shall lead barren lives, and make your money by usury, a liveli
hood condemned by God in all His commandments.
[chap. 18]
During the period following the expulsion, several ballads and
folk legends that defamed the Jew were spread among the people
and supplemented the work of the dramatist, the preacher, and
the writer. It is difficult to date this oral tradition; many of these
works were composed before 1290 and were further embellished
during the next centuries.
The Jew’s Daughter was a popular ballad that existed in sever
al different versions and was circulated for many years. It told of
a Jewish girl who enticed an innocent Christian boy to dine with
her. When the youngster entered her house, she stabbed him,
dressed him like a swine, rolled him in a cake of lead, and
dropped him into a well. The boys name was Hew, and it is rath
er obvious that the authors of the legend used the stoiy of Hugh
of Lincoln as a model for their tale.
Judas, the symbol of the supposed Jewish involvement in the

Page 45 - [see page image]

44
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
Crucifixion, was a popular figure in folklore. The more diabolical
he appeared, the better he served as a scapegoat for Christian
hostility. The Legend of Judas Iscariot was one of many that re
flected “a pious intention of blackening the name of Judas,” 37 for
it claimed that he was guilty of parricide and incest as well as be
traying Jesus. The Ballad of Judas Iscariot, another well known
piece, related how Jesus sent Judas to Jerusalem to buy food for
thirty pieces of silver. On the way, his sister persuaded him to go
to sleep with his head on her lap. When he awoke, the silver was
gone. In despair, he made a bargain with a rich Jew named Pilate
to sell Jesus for the amount of money that had been taken from
him. By associating Pilate with a wealthy Jew, the ballad deep
ened the Jewish involvement in the act.
Jewish usuiy was another theme that was perpetuated in the
folklore of the period. The Ballad of Genintus, for example, dealt
with a Jewish usurer who lent a Christian merchant a hundred
crowns on the condition that if he could not pay the amount by a
set date, the Jew would cut a pound of flesh from his body. These
ballads and legends persisted for centuries among the people of
England. Their legacy of anti-Jewish sentiment is probably as rich
as any other form of expression.
Although the distorted image of the Jew did appear in the
drama, the sermons, the literature, and the folklore of the people,
there was no concerted effort in England, as there was on the
continent, to foster anti-Semitic attitudes. 38 The English people
harbored various degrees of hatred towards the Jews; however,
there was no official attempt on the part of the church or the gov
ernment to bring it to the surface. By and large, the English peo
ple adopted a “live and let live” approach to the few Jews who
trickled into the country after the expulsion. With the exception
of a few scattered incidents, only many years later, when there
was talk of officially readmitting a large number of Jews, did an
ti-Semitic sentiments come to the surface.
In the years immediately following the expulsion, individual
Jews had some dealings with the English government and with the
people of England, but they exerted little influence upon the
course of Anglo-Jewish history. 39 These few individuals are
significant only as a kind of barometer to measure the intensity of

Page 46 - [see page image]

45
EMBELLISHMENT OF A STEREOTYPE
feelings that existed among the general populace toward a group
of people who were condemned by the church and banished by
the crown.
In 1310, six Jews came to England to negotiate for the read
mission of members of their faith to the land that had expelled
them twenty years earlier. Except for the announcement of the
mission, nothing else appears in the records of the time. They ob
viously were unsuccessful in their quest, and permission to reset
tle was denied to them. Although the Jews as a people were for
bidden to settle in England, certain individuals in both an official
and unofficial capacity managed to enter the country. During the
reign of Henry IV, certain Jewish doctors received royal permis
sion to enter London to take care of Lady Alice Whittington, the
wife of the Lord Mayor. In 1410, an Italian Jew, Elias Sabot, was
allowed by the king to settle in England and to practice medicine.
Other Jews, who could be of service to either the crown or the
nation, were also allowed to live in England.
In addition to these few known Jews who were entering En
gland with government permission, there were probably more
who came unofficially. Proof of this can be found in the records
of the Damns Conversonim, or Home for Converts, that had
been built by Henry III. Before the expulsion there were some
one hundred Jews who had entered the home at one time or an
other. Immediately after the events of 1290, eighty men and
women were on the rolls of the institution. Fifteen years later,
there were twenty-three men and twenty-eight women in resi
dence. In 1450 there were five converts in the home, and as late
as 1500, four individuals appear on the rolls. 40 The fact that there
were residents in the home for centuries after Edward’s decree
suggests that there was a small influx of Jews into England from
Europe. The Spanish-sounding names of the residents of the
home indicate that the immigrants were originally from the Iberi
an peninsula. The records of Domus Conversonim indicate that at
least seven Jews from Spain and Portugal used the facilities of the
home between 1492 and 1581. 41 This is rather a small figure, but
it is probable that others entered England from these countries
and quietly took up residence.
Duarte Brandao, or Edward Brampton as he was later called, is

Page 47 - [see page image]

46
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
a good example of one of the Portugese Jews who lived in the
home. Brampton was a man of many talents who achieved consid
erable fame and fortune after he was converted to Christianity.
Edward IV was his godfather at the conversion ceremony and
Brampton used this personal contact to develop a close relation
ship to the king. Through the years he served the crown in vari
ous capacities. He was knighted and later made governor of
Guernsey. After Edwards death, he temporarily fell out of royal
favor and returned to Portugal. Later Brampton returned to En
gland and regained his former prominence. 42 Somewhere in his
wanderings Brampton met Perkin Warbeck, a pretender to the
English throne who proclaimed himself Richard IV, and told him
of his experiences at court. It is believed that Warbeck used these
stories to good advantage in fabricating a life history that would
convince the people that Warbeck was the rightful heir to the
throne. The following excerpt from Warbeck s confession is proof
that Brampton indirectly aided him in his pretensions:
Whatever I told you so readily of bygone signs or times, I kept all that
in mind as a youth when I was in the service ... of a certain Edward,
a Jew, godson of the aforementioned King Edward: for my master
was on the most familiar terms with the said king and his sons. 43
The excerpt suggests that Brampton’s Jewish origin was well
known, and yet it did not stand in the way of his many successes
at court. The fact that a converted Jew could achieve such promi
nence is not surprising, since proselytes were viewed with favor
and were no longer associated with a cursed or rejected people.
As living proof of the superiority of Christianity, they were often
given special privileges.
Of greater significance were the attitudes of the English peo
ple towards the few professing Jews in their midst. These atti
tudes can be inferred from several incidents which took place in
the beginning of the Tudor period. These occurrences, and others
during the reign of Elizabeth, show how there was little correla
tion between the church’s attitudes towards the Jews and govern
mental practices in situations where the welfare of the country
could be furthered by ignoring the Jews’ presence.
The Spanish State Papers of 1493 contain, for example, a brief

Page 48 - [see page image]

47
EMBELLISHMENT OF A STEREOTYPE
account of an action brought by several Jewish refugees in the
city of London against a Spanish merchant, Diego cle Soria. It
was for the recovery of some 428,000 marvedis that was due to
them on a bill of exchange. Although the case was an open affair,
nothing was done to disturb these Jewish refugees. 44 They seem
to have lived in London unmolested by the law.
Five years later Ferdinand and Isabella sent a special envoy to
England to negotiate a marriage between Arthur and Catherine
of Aragon. The envoy carried with him a complaint registered by
the king and queen of Spain that the Jews of England were be
coming an “infesting scourge.” Henry VII responded to the note
by promising to “prosecute without mercy any Jew or heretic that
the King or Queen of Spain might point out in his Dominions.” 45
Despite the reply, there is no record of any actions taken against
the Jews of his realm. The Spanish Jews who settled in London
after the expulsion from Spain in 1492 were a small and fairly in
significant group. It was the exiles from Portugal in 1496 that had
the greatest impact upon the Jewish communities in England.
The Jews of Portugal had been prominent in international
commerce for many years, and they had established agents in var
ious countries. These agents were usually relatives or close associ
ates of the heads of the firms in Portugal and served a valuable
purpose in providing information for those Jews who wished to
leave the country for safer havens. Many Portuguese Marranos
were anxious to settle in the Low Countries. Because conditions
were changeable, ships carrying immigrants from Portugal would
stop off at Southampton or Plymouth to learn whether or not it
was safe to proceed to their destination. On several occasions,
when warnings would be posted, the Portuguese Marranos would
temporarily settle in London, where there was the nucleus of a
Jewish community. Several of the permanent residents were con
nected with the financial house of Mencles of Antwerp. This was a
Marrano firm that conducted considerable business with Henry
VIII. The increased value of the Jews in the mercantile trades of
England brought about an attitude that was unknown in Spain
and Portugal. The Bristol community is a classic case of this spirit
of unofficial toleration of the Jews that was felt in England during
the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII.

Page 49 - [see page image]

48
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
As early as 1492, the Jews of Bristol were involved in the cloth
trade. Although they professed to be practicing Christians, there
is evidence that most of them were observant Jews with strong
traditional ties. For example, Dr. Henrique Nunes had a secret
synagogue in his home in which the local Marranos gathered to
worship on the Sabbath and festivals. His wife conducted a school
in basic customs and ceremonies for Marrano immigrants from
Spain and Portugal. She was strict in her observance of the Jew
ish dietaiy laws, and she boasted of her zeal in keeping the cus
toms and ceremonies of her people. On the Passover, Seder ser
vices were held and she personally baked the matzoth that were
used for the holy day rituals. In a small city such as Bristol, the
Jewish practices of these Marranos must have been known to the
authorities. Yet, it was not until 1553, when Maiy Tudor came to
the throne, that the Jews of Bristol encountered any difficulties.
The restoration of papal power and the reenactment of the penal
laws against heresy caused many of the Marranos to leave the
country.
During the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII, the small
colonies of Jews in London and Bristol were untouched by the
authorities. Although Henry VIII “sware to persecute without
mercy any cursed Jew in his domain,” he found it to his advan
tage to ignore their presence. 46 Interestingly enough, his matri
monial problems focused considerable interest in Judaic studies
and helped to acquaint the learned Christians of the time with
the Hebrew language and the works of the rabbis. Henry became
so desperate to find some support for his claim that his marriage
to Catherine should be annulled that he sought out the opinions
of Italian Jewish scholars. He hoped that their interpretation of
Leviticus 18:16 and Deuteronomy 25:5 47 would support his argu
ments that he should be released from his marriage vows. Henry
insisted that rabbinical opinion be submitted to him personally,
and he had Marco Raphael, a recent apostate to Judaism, brought
to England. (Ultimately, most of the Italian rabbis denied the va
lidity of his claims, and he found that he could hope for little sup
port from Jewish sources.)
Henry’s quest for a solution to his marital problems that was
based on rabbinic sources focused attention on the study of the

Page 50 - [see page image]

49
EMBELLISHMENT OF A STEREOTYPE
Hebrew language that was being pursued by the humanists in
Europe. In Germany, men like Johanan Reuchlin (1455-1522)
were interested in learning Hebrew so that they could study the
Old Testament in the original and also master cabbalistic (mysti
cal) literature. Reuchlins conflict with the Cologne Dominicans,
who had placed a ban on Hebrew studies in 1509, led to a serious
split between German humanists and scholastics. It also strength
ened the revival of interest in rabbinic literature. 48
New developments in Italy also affected English attitudes to
wards Jewish studies. By the end of the fifteenth century English
scholars had already started to draw close to the Renaissance
spirit of Italy. Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) and Marsilio Fi-
cino (1433-1499) had introduced humanist scholars to the study
of the Hebrew language and rabbinic literature along with other
classical subjects. During the period of Henry VIII, humanism in
England spread rapidly, and in the latter part of his reign (after
1520) Renaissance ideas in any number of areas poured into the
country. 49 Under the influence of the northern and southern hu
manists, the Hebrew language developed considerably during the
reign of Henry VIII. Medals struck in 1545 to commemorate his
recognition as head of the church contained Hebrew inscriptions.
In addition to this, the Act of Uniformity that was passed in 1549
authorized its use in private devotions.
The interest in this ancient language ultimately brought He
braic scholars to England to teach at the universities. One of them
was John Immanuel Tremellius, who was born in Ferrara of Jew
ish parents in 1510. He was converted to Catholicism by Cardinal
Pole and later became a Protestant. In 1549, he became the King’s
Reader of Hebrew at Cambridge and achieved considerable rec
ognition as a first-rate scholar. Tremellius was but one of many
Jewish scholars who gravitated to England. For example, there
was Philip Ferdinand, a Polish Jew, who later was converted to
Christianity and taught Hebrew at both Oxford and Cambridge.
He published a Latin version of the 613 precepts found in the
M osaic Code. The book, which contained various selections from
rabbinic literature, was the first serious piece of Jewish scholarship
to appear in England since the expulsion. Ferdinand was a poor
teacher, and he was forced to leave the university to find a teaching

Page 51 - [see page image]

50
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
position elsewhere. Joseph Scaliger, a renowned scholar at the
time, was able to secure for him a position in Leyden, where Fer
dinand taught until his death. Scaliger often praised his friend,
and in a letter to a colleague he wrote the following: “Two years
ago I was the means of procuring a Professorship in this Universi
ty for a Jewish convert, my teacher in the Talmud, but he died
and left my studies barren and desolate.” 50
The Jewish scholars who came to England during the time of
Henry VIII set a trend that was to continue for several genera
tions. They “familiarized the Englishman for the first time in
three centuries with the existence and the appearance of the au
thentic Jew (albeit in most cases converted).” Certainly, they were
able to alter only to a veiy limited extent the mediaeval image of
the Jew created by the church and perpetuated in the literary
works of the time. Their greatest contribution was in the teaching
of the Hebrew language, as they were responsible for training na
tive-born scholars who would be able to study the Bible in its
original form. Indirectly, they brought the spirit of their age-old
tradition into the translations of the Bible that were soon to ap
pear, which, in turn, were to create new interest in “the People of
the Book.” 51
The progress made in both the general and the academic
communities of England during the reigns of Henry VII and
Henry VIII come to a standstill under Mary. Little is known about
Jewish life in England at this time, but it has been established
that the community in Bristol was disrupted and that its leader,
Henrique Nunes, fled to France. 52 In addition, these few Jews
who outwardly were Protestants and who secretly practiced their
faith suffered the same fate that the genuine Christian members
of this group experienced. When Mary was deposed, conditions
improved somewhat for these Jews. However, the returning cler
ics who were forced into exile during her reign and who now
were given high positions in the church had been exposed to the
witch-hunting and Jew-baiting that was so popular on the conti
nent. This influence, along with hatreds inherited from the past,
was to shape the attitudes of the Elizabethans towards the Jews as
well as other groups which they deemed socially and religiously
undesirable.

Page 52 - [see page image]

51
THREE
THE NEW JEWISH VILLAIN
The reign of Elizabeth marked
an age of conquest and discovery, an era when the people of En
gland expanded their horizons through their travels over the face
of the globe and through their interests in the classics. Commerce
and industry provided many Englishmen with wealth, and with
this increased prosperity came an ever widening audience for lit
erature and drama. However, along with the changes in eating
habits, in dress, in morality, and in commercial and leisure-time
pursuits, there was a general acceptance of the religious doctrines
of the past. It is not surprising, therefore, that Elizabeth translat
ed Boethius, that Raleigh was, among other things, a theologian,
and that sermons were as much a part of Elizabethan life as bear-
baiting. 1
As far as the Jews were concerned, the old prejudices of the
mediaeval world continued. In the sermons of the time Jews were
the Christ killers, the eternal adversaries of Christianity. This
theme was repeated in the Protestant religious drama that contin
ued in the tradition of the Passion plays. The most significant
changes in the image of the Jews occurred in the secular drama,
where the stage Jew evolved into a three-dimensional figure who
was a living, breathing, character and not simply a cardboard cut
out. Although remnants of the earlier morality tradition were
found in these productions that highlighted Jewish wickedness,
the Jewish villain now became more human than his predecessors

Page 53 - [see page image]

52
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
had been. His evil qualities did not diminish, however, and he
was equally hateful.
Although the number of Jews in Elizabethan and Jacobean
England was small, and most Englishmen had little contact with
them, travelers came across Jewish communities that were scat
tered throughout Europe, Asia Minor, and along the coast of Afri
ca. Englishmen often viewed Jews as curiosities. Although lengthy
descriptions of Jewish customs and ceremonies were to be found
in the accounts of their travels, they preferred to view the Jewish
people at a distance and not too close to home. During this peri
od, interest in biblical studies and in ancient Jewish histoiy also
brought Christian scholars into contact with their Jewish counter
parts on the continent. These contacts generated some sympathy
for the Jewish people, but it was limited to a veiy few people
who, more often than not, were interested primarily in converting
the Jews.
In England, as on the continent, the general attitude of Chris
tian society towards Jews “resulted from the trends, the contra
dictions and the contrasts which characterized the thinking of the
leaders of the reformation in their attitude towards heretics and
nonbelievers generally.” 2 True, the reformation in the church that
had started under Henry VIII had put an end to the use of won
der tales with their assorted Jewish villains in the preaching and
teaching of religious values. But old prejudices were to continue
in new garb, a bit more refined perhaps, but cut from the same
cloth. The theological need to prove Judaism inferior to Christi
anity was not limited to Catholicism; it was readily made a part of
Anglican and Puritan doctrines. In addition, pent-up hatreds con
tinued to seek socially acceptable means of expression. The Jew,
long associated with the devil, would now be linked together with
witches and Catholics, and would become part of the general
“M enace” of that age, like the “Red Menace” of the 1950s.
In spite of the increased interest in humanistic studies that
marked the Elizabethan Age, the world view of most of the intel
lectual and religious leaders continued to rest upon what had
been inherited from mediaeval Catholicism. The writings of Saint
Paul and Saint Augustine continued to influence the thought of the

Page 54 - [see page image]

53
THE NEW JEWISH VILLAIN
new age. The Elizabethans, though living in an age of rapid
change, accepted that the world was so constructed that nothing
could be omitted and that everything had a definite place in the
scheme of things.
Lord Burghley (1520—1598) expressed the underlying ideal of
order and harmony when he noted that “Every degree of people,
in their vocation, calling and office, hath appointed to them their
duty and order. Some are in high places, some are in low.... Re
move this divine order and there reigneth all abuse, carnal liberty,
enormity, sin and Babylonical confusion.” 3 In the Elizabethan
world view, everything came from God in a definite descending
order. After God came the angels, followed by man, and then the
beasts. The Jews had their place in this great chain of being, and
they were placed somewhere between the third and fourth or
ders. True, they had the form of men, but they were the personi
fication of evil, and they, therefore, had to be separated from the
rest of mankind. Nevertheless, they were more than beasts since
they did have the potential of converting to Christianity and could
thereby achieve redemption from their sins. 4
Although the unconverted Jew was evil incarnate, the Elizabe
thans, like their mediaeval predecessors, drew a line between
those figures in the Bible who came before Jesus (who they be
lieved would have accepted him had they lived in his day) and
their descendants who rejected him and were doomed to eternal
damnation. By placing the Israelite and the Jew in separate cate
gories, the Elizabethans could deepen their interest in the study
of the Bible while at the same time castigating the contemporary
Jew. This can explain why there is no contradiction between the
Elizabethan interest in ancient Jewish histoiy and the delight they
took in booing the stage Jew, a popular dramatic figure of the pe
riod.
Although the place of the Jews in the theoretical general order
was fairly well determined, there was no real attempt to either
punish or segregate them in the real world. As in the years imme
diately following the expulsion, the few Jews who resettled in En
gland were left alone as long as they did not make their presence
too obvious because of the commercial benefits that they brought

Page 55 - [see page image]

54
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
to the country and the skills that they as individuals possessed. A
handful of Jews who practiced their religion in secret were no
real threat to society, and they were generally ignored.
During the Elizabethan period, England’s foreign relations
underwent important changes. English merchant ships traveled to
all parts of the world, and foreign merchants flocked to London
and other important cities. England at this time had also become
the champion of Protestantism in Europe, and persecuted Protes
tants from Italy, France, Holland, and Germany were welcomed
by their English co-religionists. At first the newcomers were ac
cepted by the people. However, the growing numbers of immi
grants eventually alarmed the native population, and anti-foreign
sentiments began to appear. Native artisans and merchants com
plained of foreign competition, but there were no legal barriers
raised against the entrance of these immigrants. In 1593 the sub
ject was debated in the House of Commons when a bill was intro
duced to limit the commercial activities of aliens. It was at this
time that Robert Cecil asserted that the relief that England of
fered to the strangers to her shores: “Hath brought great honours
to our kingdom; for it is accounted the refuge of distressed na
tions, for our arms have been opened unto them to cast them
selves into our bosoms.” 5 Certain minor restrictions were placed
upon aliens. They were taxed more heavily than native English
men, and at times exceptional duties were placed upon their im
ports and exports. However, they suffered few real disabilities
and, on the whole, occupied a secure place in English society.
Cecil’s statement reflects what ultimately became an official gov
ernment point of view, which indirectly benefited the Jews from
Spain and Portugal.
This tolerant spirit towards aliens is well illustrated in a case
tried in the Court of Chancery in 1596 between Maiy May, the
widow of Richard May, an English merchant, and Ferdinand Al-
vares and Alvaro de Lyna, two Portuguese Jews who had suppos
edly been converted to Christianity. During the proceedings, Mrs.
May claimed that her deceased husband’s partners, the above
mentioned defendants, had spent a great deal of his money pay
ing blackmailers who had discovered that they were really secret
Jews. (This was a serious crime in the eyes of the Portuguese

Page 56 - [see page image]

55
THE NEW JEWISH VILLAIN
authorities and could be punishable by death). Alvares and de
Lyna, however, told the court that considerable sums had been
spent in bribing certain Portuguese officials who were suspicious
about the ownership of the cargo that they were transporting to
Portugal. During the trial, witnesses were called who described
various Jewish rituals that were practiced in the homes of the de
fendants. A former servant of Alvares told the court how his mas
ters family had maintained their ancestral faith in England “be
cause they have not been troubled about their relygyon or use of
superstycyous ceremonies since they come to dwell there as they
now do.” The testimony was recorded, but no action was taken
against the defendants for their religious practices.
Perhaps the most significant conclusion that can be drawn
from this generally insignificant court case is the attitude of the
legal authorities towards the Jews of England. The court dis
played scrupulous concern for the fair treatment of both parties.
To ensure that justice would be done, a foreign merchant worked
with two aldermen of London to assist the court. Finally, the
court “being moved with the losses and troubles which the poore
straungers indured persuaded Mrs. May being present to deal
charitably with Alvares in regarde thereof.” 6 It pressed for relief
to be given to the two men beyond the limits of pure equity, and
tempered justice with mercy. The decision that was reached
shows how, in at least one instance, the alien Jew was considered
to be worthy of the courts full protection.
Gradually, over a period of several years, Jews from Spain and
Portugal posing as alien merchants established an unofficial com
munity in England. Lucien Wolf, the first historian to study the
period thoroughly, has concluded that there were at least ninety
known Jews in the country at the time of Elizabeth. 7 They were
sustained spiritually by a secret synagogue in Antwerp that exist
ed between 1579 and 1583 and also in 1594. Members of the
congregation kept in close touch with their co-religionists in En
gland, and their brethren in London reciprocated by raising funds
for the maintenance of the Antwerp synagogue. This close rela
tionship is documented in a letter addressed to Rodrigo Lopez
dated February 18, 1594. Although the text is vague, the author
of the note acknowledged the receipt of money sent to him from

Page 57 - [see page image]

56
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
London for the upkeep of the synagogue in the Netherlands. He
mentioned the generosity of the donors and also reminded them
that they had not, as yet, fully paid their pledges. 8
Evidence exists that the Jews of London were sometimes able
to hold religious services. For example, when Solomon Cormano
was in the city in f592 as the envoy of the Jewish Duke of Metilli,
he used his diplomatic privilege to hold services in his home. Ed
ward Barton, in a letter to Lord Burghley dated August 19, f592,
mentioned that Cormano was boasting that “he and all his trayne
used publickely the Jewes iytes in prayinge, accompayned with
divers secrett Jewes resident in London.” 9 If such statements
were circulated, the presence of an active Jewish community
must have been an open secret.
Though the existence of practicing Jews was known to the au
thorities, nothing was done to outlaw them. Only when there was
a public scandal did the government take action. A good example
of this can be found in the story of Joachim Gaunse of Prague,
who was invited to England to help develop the mineral resourc
es of the country. He lived openly as a Jew for eight years while
conducting mining operations in Keswick and in South Wales. In
1589, while in Bristol, Gaunse met Richard Curteys, a Protestant
minister who was anxious to converse with him in Hebrew. In the
course of their conversation, Gaunse vehemently denied the di
vinity of Jesus. When he was summoned before the mayor and
the aldermen, it was recorded that he defiantly proclaimed that
he did not “believe any Article of our Christian faithe for that he
was not broughte uppe therein.” 10 This created a public scandal,
and he was sent to London to appear before the Privy Council. It
is not known whether Gaunse was punished for his avowal of Ju
daism, or whether his friend Walsingham was able to secure his
freedom.
As long as Jews did not break the law or outrage public senti
ment, they were allowed to live in peace. One very prominent
member of the Jewish community, Dr. Rodrigo Lopez, the per
sonal physician to Elizabeth, was tolerated as a secret Jew until
he was involved in a case of treason. Only then did he experience
the bitter hatred of the nobility and the mob as well. His life
illustrates the conditions under which the Jews of Elizabethan

Page 58 - [see page image]

57
THE NEW JEWISH VILLAIN
England lived. Lopez was one of the Jews who fled from the In
quisition in Portugal and who settled for a short time in Antwerp.
From Antwerp he came to London and obtained the appointment
of household physician to Robert, Earl of Leicester, a favorite of
the queen. Although he was a convert to Protestantism, he was
always referred to as a Jew by friend and foe alike. A letter to
Lord Burghley in 1594 by Waad, the clerk of the Council, showed
that the two of them had known for years that Lopez was not
merely a new Christian but a practicing Crypto-Jew. 11 In any
event, Lopez received support from Leicester, Walsingham, and
Essex, favorites of the queen, and through their recommenda
tions he was appointed as personal physician to Elizabeth. Lopez’s
religious beliefs did not hinder him from achieving considerable
wealth and social prestige; he was granted a monopoly for several
years for the importation of sumac and aniseed into England.
This special privilege ultimately generated great hatred against
him. By the end of the sixteenth century, monopolies, which were
a reward for service to the crown, were the single most aggravat
ing issue in Parliament, and they became a wedge which widened
the split between the court and the country gentry. As England’s
economic situation worsened, the sight of a few court favorites
enjoying what seemed to be an unfair means of amassing wealth
antagonized a great many Englishmen faced with economic strug
gles. 12 Lopez, the Jew and the man of special privilege, made
many enemies who hoped for his fall from power. They were not
to be disappointed for veiy long.
As court physician, Lopez became involved in some intrigue
involving Don Antonio, a pretender to the throne of Portugal. Lo
pez apparently divulged some secrets that were entrusted to him
by Essex, and it is believed that Essex tried to absolve himself by
finding Lopez guilty of treason. Some fairly convincing evidence
suggests that Lopez was innocent of any attempts to poison the
queen (as charged by Essex), and that any confession that he
might have made was done under the threat of torture. 13 The trial
itself brought to the surface the anti-Jewish prejudices of the
times. The prosecution, led by the Solicitor General, referred to
the accused as “that vile Jew” and described him as being
“mercenary, wily and covetous and corrupt.” The economically

Page 59 - [see page image]

58
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
struggling gentry and the general population avidly followed the
proceedings. They rejoiced when Lopez was convicted, and they
flocked to see him executed. Lopez was hanged at Tyburn on
June 7, 1594. The affair created so much excitement that no less
than five official accounts, in addition to numerous private ones,
were published. The Lopez incident indicated just how deeply all
classes of Englishmen disliked the Jews when their existence was
brought out into the open. Although Lopez was not punished for
being a Jew, his trial and subsequent execution revealed the an
ti-Jewish sentiments of the time.
The hatred generated by Lopez lingered on for many years.
Early in the reign of James I an illustrated sheet entitled Popish
Plots and Treasons from the Beginning of the Reign of Queen
Elizabeth Illustrated with Emblems and Explained in Verse was
published. One of the drawings was labeled, “Lopas compound
ing to poyson the Queene,” and it was followed by the inscription:
But now a private horrid Treason view
Matcht by the Pope, the Devil and a Jew;
Lopez a Doctor must by poison do
What all their plots have failed hitherto:
What will you give me then, the Judas cries:
Full fifty thousand Crowns, t’other replies.
Tis don—but hold, the wretch shall miss his hope,
The Treasons known and his Reward the Rope. 14
The association of the Jew with the devil was nothing new. Now,
however, he was lumped together with the Catholic, and he was
considered to be a subversive element in society.
While Jews had long been considered to be sorcerers, their
powers were limited to effecting good or evil upon single individ
uals and not to influencing the stability of an entire community or
nation. In popular tradition, the biblical heroes had been magi
cians. Adam s knowledge of all natural things had been lost when
he was expelled from Eden, but somehow it was transmitted
through Noah, Moses, Solomon, and other biblical figures. Mo
ses, in particular, was famous for the magical powers that he had
learned from the Egyptians, and he was portrayed as a sorcerer in
some of the mediaeval mystery plays. 15

Page 60 - [see page image]

59
THE NEW JEWISH VILLAIN
In England a tradition held that even the converted Jew had
certain magical powers that were at the disposal of individuals in
need of them. In 1390, for example, John Berkyng, a Jewish con
vert to Catholicism, was approached to use his powers to find the
person who had stolen two silver dishes from the Duke of York’s
house in Fleet Street. (He falsely accused the duke’s servant of
the crime and was subsequently punished for his fraudulent
claims.) In 1546, Harry Lord Nevell, son and heir of the Earl of
Westmoreland, engaged a man named Wisdom to help him win at
gaming and also to hasten his father’s death so that he could col
lect his inheritance. Wisdom told Sir Harry that he had mastered
certain magical powers from someone who had learned them
from “a blind man which was a Jew born and a practicer of the
same art.” 16
Astrological almanacs were veiy popular in the sixteenth centu
ry, and one of the most famous was the Prognostication of Erra
Pater; the author of which was allegedly “a Jew out of Jewry.” It
contained a table forecasting the weather according to the day of
the week on which the New Year began and also a list of unlucky
days. The religion of the author obviously helped to sell copies of
the almanac, for as a contemporary jingle proclaimed, “If one af
firm he learned it of a Jew, the silly people think it must be true.” 17
The Lopez incident with its deeper overtones of treason went
beyond the stock accusations that the Jews practiced sorcery or
that they possessed certain occult powers. Overtones of the conti
nental approach to witchcraft which considered such practices to
be a crime against society were evident. The Jew in the wonder
stories of the mediaeval preacher had been in league with the
devil and had led good Christians astray. He was the natural per
son to be branded as a subversive, and, along with the witch, he
could now become the focus of the irrational fears of the multi
tudes. Thus, the church’s teachings which portrayed the Jew as
the devil’s man could be used to turn him into a scapegoat for
social frustrations as well. Trevor-Roper has noted: “In its periods
of introversion and intolerance Christian society, like any society,
looks for scapegoats. Either the Jew or the witch will do, but soci
ety will settle for the nearest.” 18 Lopez, the Jew, was right at hand,
and he paid the price for being so accessible.

Page 61 - [see page image]

60
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
How widespread this hatred was during the period of James I
is difficult to determine. At least one adventurer thought that the
time was ripe to have the Jews readmitted to England. In the ear
ly part of the seventeenth century Sir Thomas Sherley 19 schemed
to bring a group of Levantine Jews into England, and he prom
ised them, no doubt for a substantial fee, to plead their case be
fore James I. These Jews wanted to settle in England, build syna
gogues, and practice their religion freely and without fear. They
were willing to pay an annual tribute in exchange for these privi
leges. Sherley failed to convince the king of his views, so he di
rected his attention to settling them in Ireland instead. For the
right to enjoy religious freedom, he promised James that Jews
would pay two ducats per head. He pointed out to the king that
the Jews were experienced merchants who could develop a flour
ishing trade with Spain in such Irish goods as salted salmon, corn,
hides, wool, and tallow. Such commerce would bring considerable
bullion into the country, and the customs and excise taxes would
enrich the king. Reminding him of the conditions in pre-expul
sion England, Sherley pointed out the advantages of having the
Jews in the country. They could be subjected to forced loans
which would yield a considerable amount of money, and he pre
dicted that they might be able to supply the King with as much as
a million pounds. This was compared to the 10,000 pounds James
could only hope to exact from the London merchants. To support
his argument, Sherley showed how the Duke of Mantua exacted
between 300,000 and 400,000 crowns from his Jews once eveiy
three years. Certainly, he argued, once the Levantine Jews would
settle in the country, the king could do even better. 20
To fully guarantee the success of such a plan, and to feather his
own nest, Sherley suggested that “at first they [the Jews] must be
tenderly used for there is a great difference in alluring birds and
handling them when they are caught; and your agent that treats
with them must be a man of credit and acquaintance amongst
them who must know how to manage them, because they are veiy
subtile people.” 21 James either ignored or rejected the proposal.
Public opinion would have been outraged at the prospect of sub
stantial numbers of Jews returning to England. It is surprising that
as shrewd as Sherley was, he failed to realize that the king was not

Page 62 - [see page image]

61
THE NEW JEWISH VILLAIN
anxious to stir up his people over the official readmission of a
sizeable Jewish community. In fact, in the few dealings that James
had with the secret Jews of his kingdom, he was less tolerant than
Elizabeth had been.
During the reign of James I, a small group of Jews was ex
pelled from England as a result of a quarrel which broke out
among them and which revealed their true faith to the authori
ties. The Tuscan envoy, Ottaviano Lotto, describing the “expul
sion” on August 12, 1609, wrote the following: “There are many
Portuguese here who are trading, and have lately fallen out
among themselves. Some of them have been accused of Judaism
and have, therefore, been ordered to leave the kingdom and with
much dispatch, for the law concerning the matter prescribes the
death penalty.” There is the possibility that some of these Jews
“might have thrown off their disguise in the hope that England
was ready to follow Hollands lead in readmitting the Jews.” 22
They obviously failed to appreciate James’s narrow-minded com
mercial policies and the climate of anti-Jewish sentiment that the
English people had inherited from the past.
The “expulsion” of the Jews during the reign of James I was
only a temporary inconvenience to the secret Jews. Many of them
remained in England, while others found various loopholes that
enabled them to return. 23 Jewish merchants continued to enjoy
the protection of the Privy Council and the courts.
In 1614, Samuel Palache, an envoy of the Sultan of Morocco to
the Dutch States General and a distinguished member of the Jew
ish community of Amsterdam, was arrested in Portsmouth, En
gland, through the instigation of the Spanish ambassador. The
Spaniard accused Palache of committing piracy and outrage against
the subjects of his nation and demanded that he be punished. The
Acts of the Privy Council record how “Samuel Palache, a Jew” was
taken into custody and given a hearing before the Court of the
Admiralty. Three distinguished jurists, Sir Edward Coke, Lord
Chief Justice of England, Sir Julius Caesar, Master of the Rolls,
and Sir Daniel Dunn, Judge of the Admiralty, after evaluating the
evidence submitted, released the defendant. Because Palache was
a subject of the king of Morocco, then at war with Spain, they con
cluded that he could not be prosecuted for any criminal acts.

Page 63 - [see page image]

62
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
Several months later the Spanish ambassador was also unsuccess
ful in his attempt to secure the release of a large cargo of sugar
that had been brought to England by another Jew. According to
Lionel Abrahams, “The fact that two Jews received the protection
of the Privy Council and the Law Courts in England in the reign
of James I is of some importance in its bearing on the difficult
question of the legal status of the Jews in England before the pe
riod of the Commonwealth.” 24 The legal authorities were perhaps
the most liberal group in regard to the Jews, and if the problem
of Jewish rights would have been entirely in their hands, there
would have been little problem in readmitting them to England.
It was the climate of hatred existing among the people of En
gland that prevented the resettlement. The intensity of this preju
dice is revealed in references to Jews in the sermons, the drama,
and the literature of the period.
Several references to Jews in Elizabethan and Jacobean ser
mons reflected the inheritance from the mediaeval preacher, as
well as the contemporary attitudes towards them. In keeping with
past tradition, Jews were hardhearted blasphemers who were also
vain, ostentatious, and deceitful. Miracle tales with their Jewish
villains were almost nonexistent, but references to their suppos
edly evil qualities still remained in the discourses from the pulpit.
For example, Miles Coverdale (1488P-1569) pointed out in one of
his sermons how at the time of the Crucifixion the earth quaked,
rocks split, and the veil of the temple was torn, and yet the Jews,
being blind and stubborn, would not accept Jesus. 25 Another
preacher linked Jewish attitudes toward Christianity with those of
the devil. He noted that in regard to the virgin birth of Jesus,
there were those who “most Jewishly or rather devilishly ... go
about to teach or maintain the contrary.” 26
At least one cleric equated Jews with those who dressed in an
exceedingly lavish way. In discussing the vain wife he stated: “She
doth but deserve mocks and scorns, to set out all her commenda
tions in Jewish and ethnic apparel, and yet brag of her Christiani
ty. She doth but waste superfluously her husbands stock by such
sumptuousness” 27
Other clerics, like their mediaeval predecessors, used Jews as
examples of a basically evil people who managed to outshine

Page 64 - [see page image]

63
THE NEW JEWISH VILLAIN
Christians in some particular area of religion. One of them, for
example, praised the Jews for coming long distances to the tem
ple in Jerusalem while his own parishioners were negligent in at
tending a church that was so close by. “We abhor the very name
of the Jews, when we hear it, as of a most wicked and ungodly
people,” 28 he told his flock. Yet, he had to admit that they put
Christians to shame. Another backhanded compliment which re
flected hostility towards Jews was made in connection with their
loyalty to ruling powers. In urging his congregants to give greater
allegiance to the crown, one preacher pointed out that even the
“Jews whom yet we account as the worst of all people” gave their
support to foreign rulers. Certainly good Christians could do no
less than this “stubborn people.” 29
Some of the more enlightened clerics of the age did preach
that Jesus died for the sins of all of mankind and that the Jews
were merely agents of God. One of them, Lancelot Andrewes
(1555-1626), noted:
It is we, that are to be found the principals in this acte; and those on
whom we seeke to shift it, to derive it from ourselves, Pilate and
Caiaphis and the rest, but instrumental causes onely.... Sinne onely
is the murtherer and our sinnes the murtherers of the Sonne of
God. 30
The implications of his teachings were lost to those who heard his
message, and the scorn for the Jews that stemmed from their be
ing deicides was to continue.
The good Christians of the time, and in the succeeding gener
ations, wanted to believe that the Jews were responsible for the
death of Jesus and for a host of ills that plagued both ancient and
modern society. To deny the Jewish role in the Crucifixion would
challenge an evil image that had been built up over the centuries
by the church—one which fit so comfortably into their scheme of
thinking and which served as a focus for so many of their fears
and frustrations. This theme is evident in the plays of the period
that were popular among all classes of the people.
Any study of the Jew in the drama of Elizabethan and Jacobe
an England must include the Protestant religious plays, which

Page 65 - [see page image]

64
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
strongly resembled the earlier works of the church. Between 1530
and 1560 a number of those were produced that were influenced
by continental Lutherans. One such play, The Resurrection of Our
Lord, contained many of the elements of the old Passion plays.
The setting of the story was after the Crucifixion, and, as in the
past, the blame for the act was placed upon the Jews. At the veiy
beginning of the production, the author described how Pilate,
looking back at what had happened to Jesus, protested his inno
cence to a fellow Roman with the words:
What he was or shoulde be, that knowe not I but this I knowe, that
they accued hym of Envye they layed upon cryme, never to him
charge but words of blasphemye, agaynst their God and vsage and
you knowe howe I would fayne have delivered hym but that they
were so busye on me, for the Death of hym.
[20-26]
Caiaphas, the High Priest, was pictured as an unscrupulous per
son who convinced Pilate that Jesus was “worthyer death, than any
theiffe or murtherer” because “he murthered our people in a faulse
beleife and stale them from our lawe like a faulse theiffe” (75-78).
Not only were Caiaphas and his followers guilty of instigating Jesus’
death, but they also tried to conceal his resurrection by bribing the
guards at his tomb, whom they paid to spread the tale that Jesus’ dis
ciples had stolen his body and had concocted the stray of his return.
The earliest play of the period that featured contemporary
Jewish characters was a drama called The Jew that was performed
at the Bull Inn in 1579. Its plot was defined by Stephen Gosson, a
leading pamphleteer and critic, as representing “the greediness of
worldly choosers and the bloody murder of usurers.” 31 Unfortu
nately, the play itself has been lost, and scholars can only guess
about its contents.
Five years later The Three Ladies of London, comedy written
by Robert Wilson, appeared. It was actually a morality play
with the usual allegorical framework associated with such produc
tions. But in addition to such standard characters as Lucre,
Love, and Conscience, the author included in his stoiy an
unscrupulous Italian merchant, Mercatore, who was pursued by
Gerontus, a Jewish creditor. In order to cheat the Jew out of his just

Page 66 - [see page image]

65
THE NEW JEWISH VILLAIN
compensation, Mercatore went through the motions of converting
to Islam, an act which, according to Turkish law, automatically re
leased him from all his obligations. (He later returned to his old
faith and congratulated himself on his treachery.) Gerontus, who
was far from being a grasping usurer, asked only for his principal,
and he was willing to give up any claim to the interest on the
loan. He begged Mercatore to respect his Christian convictions
and not to practice deceit. This prompted the Turkish judge who
released the merchant from his debts to comment, “Jews seek to
excel in Christianity and Christians in Jewishness.” 32 The Jew in
the play is far from being the mediaeval villain; he appears rather
to be a victim of cruel circumstances. However, the playwrights
who followed were not as kind to their Jewish characters as Wil
son was to his. The Three Ladies of London was to be overshad
owed by The Jew of Malta and The Merchant of Venice in shaping
anti-Jewish prejudices.
Christopher Marlowe’s veiy popular play, The Jew of Malta,
which appeared in more than one of the theaters in London be
tween 1591 and 1595, marked a transition from the morality plays
to the newer forms of drama. 33 The prologue, delivered by Machia-
vel, resembled the conventional morality device of heralding the
appearance of the evil protagonist. However, instead of introducing
such characters as Avarice, Greediness, and Usuiy, Marlowe pre
pared his audience to meet another of Satan’s lieutenants, the Jew.
I come not I
To read a lecture here in Britain.
But to present the tragedy of a Jew
Who smiles to see how full his bags are crammed
Which money was not got without my means.
[Prologue, 29-30]
Barabbas was the personification of several of the vilest myths in
herited from the past. Into his character Marlowe fused the infi
del Jew with the ruthless Machiavellian and mediaeval Vice. Thus,
he produced a figure who was the incarnation of the “inverse of
orthodox Elizabethan virtues and values.” 34 Barabbas was the sor
cerer and poisoner who went “abroad of nights to kill sick people

Page 67 - [see page image]

66
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
groaning under walls” (3.3. 177-78). H e was the man who showed
no particular loyalty to any country and who could boast: “And in
the wars ’twixt France and Germany,/ Under the pretence of
helping Charles the Fifth,/ Slew friend and enemy with my strat-
egems” (2.3. 188-90).
In keeping with the morality tradition, Barabbas was more a
theological abstraction than a flesh-and-blood person. His veiy
name, taken from the pages of the New Testament, was associat
ed with the Jews’ rejection of Jesus and their acceptance of the
treasures of this world. 35 He was the classic adversary of Christian
belief and practice who spanned the centuries and who was a di
rect descendant of Judas Iscariot. For example, Ithamore, Barab
bas s servant, noted, “The hat he wears, Judas left under the elder
when he hanged himself, (4.6. 67). Ithamore s seemingly harmless
and comic remark, “O’ brave master! I worship your nose for
this,” (2.2. 174) was another reference to the close association be
tween Barabbas and the hooked-nosed Judas of the Passion play
who betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.
In the first few scenes of the play Marlowe invested Barabbas
with some decent qualities. Before very long, however, they
crumbled away, and his human attributes were overshadowed by
the monster image that he ultimately projected. In the final anal
ysis, he was a vile creature without scruples of any kind, a miser
who would stop at nothing to accumulate and protect his wealth.
His brutal death in a fiery cauldron, symbolic of a descent into
the mouth of hell, 36 was a fitting end for Barabbas, who so closely
resembled the Antichrist.
Marlowe was not interested in flesh-and-blood Jews, and it is
doubtful that he modeled Barabbas in the image of any contem
porary figure. He wanted to construct an image of evil incarnate
to show the hypocrisy of those who claimed that they were good
Christians, but who failed to live up to the ideals of their faith.
Among other things, Marlowe wanted to condemn the usurer and
to show the great lengths to which his passion for money would
drive him. 37 According to G. K. Hunter, “Marlowe has missed no
opportunity to use his damned Jew as a means of tormenting and
exposing those who pride themselves on their Christianity, but
give little evidence of charity.” 38 Certainly, the same self-

Page 68 - [see page image]

67
THE NEW JEWISH VILLAIN
righteous people who condemned Barabbas for his unbridled ma
terialism unscrupulously victimized him at every turn. If at the
end of the play they were triumphant, it was only because they
outdid him in his own villainy.” 39 David Bevington believes that
the play “ends where it began, without the establishment of a
moral order on Malta.” The appeal to divine justice made at the
conclusion of the work is a mockery, and the Christian rulers
were no better and no worse than Barabbas. 40
Marlowe’s attitude towards the clergy was similar. He por
trayed the two friars who tried to persuade Barabbas to join their
respective orders (and turn his money over to them) as two
greedy and corrupt men who, ethically and morally, were no bet
ter than the Jew. Although Marlowe did criticize the hypocrisy of
individual Christians, he did not challenge the teachings of the
church. Whatever he may have felt about Christianity did not col
or his approach to the traditional image of the Jew. Barabbas,
therefore, was not a tragic hero in the Aristotelian sense because,
as a member of a theologically accursed people, he lacked nobili
ty and the ability to learn through his suffering. The Jew, associat
ed with the Antichrist, was more a caricature than a real person,
and he could not evoke any really deep emotions from the audi
ence. It remained for other playwrights to make him more human
and, consequently, more hateful.
William Shakespeare, the greatest of the Elizabethan drama
tists, continued the legacy of the stage Jew that had been handed
down through the ages, and he also added some new dimensions
to it. In his plays, with the exception of The Merchant of Venice,
he made only scattered reference to Jews, and only in his charac
terization of Shylock did he forcefully portray the Jew on the
stage. The play in several aspects resembles The Jew of Malta.
Both plays concern an old Jew, father of a beautiful daughter,
who was so obsessed with his wealth that he loved his ducats
more than his own flesh and blood. 41 Both Barabbas and Shylock
had Christian servants who directed the laughter and the scorn of
the audience against their masters. (This was an inheritance from
the morality plays where the devil was accompanied by his
vice or clown.) In addition, each playwright dealt with the ten
sions that existed between the Jew and the Christian world that

Page 69 - [see page image]

68
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
engulfed him. There was the need for the Jew’s services, on one
hand, and the contempt for his person, on the other. 42
It must be stressed, however, that neither Marlowe nor Shake
speare were interested in the “Jewish question” in the modern
sense of the term. They were concerned neither with fighting nor
with encouraging anti-Semitism, and their plays should not be
viewed in these terms. The Jewish villain’s attitudes and practices
served as a contrast to the superior values of Christianity. Shake
speare, in particular, used Shylock to deal with such themes as
the superiority of Christian love, the proper value of material
wealth, the conflict between justice and mercy, and the contrast
between the old law and the new. 43 In addition, like Marlowe, he
used the Jew as a means for exposing the absence of Christian
virtues in contemporary society.
According to Barbara Lewalski, Shylock was in so many ways
the antithesis of Christian love, which involves both giving and
forgiving and which “demands an attitude of carelessness regard
ing things of this world founded upon a trust in God’s provi
dence.” It also requires a readiness to give and risk everything,
possessions and person, for the sake of love and a willingness to
forgive injuries and to love enemies. In all but this last respect,
Antonio was its veiy embodiment and Shylock its antithesis. 44 An
tonio was willing to practice true Christian love by giving away all
his possessions, including a pound of his flesh to help a friend. He
dispensed his wealth freely to those in need without the thought
of personal gain. In contrast to him, the usurous Shylock tightly
clutched eveiy coin that came into his possession. His wealth poi
soned his relations with everyone, particularly his daughter. When
Jessica stole his money and eloped with her Christian lover, he
could scarcely decide whether she or the contents of his strong
box was dearer to his heart. After he discovered her absence, he
shouted, “My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!” (2. 8. 15).
On an allegorical level, the conflict between Shylock and
Antonio represented the confrontation between the old law and
the new, between justice and mercy. Shylock reflected the sup
posedly Jewish approach of narrow-minded legalism when he
refused, for example, to provide a surgeon to stop Antonio’s
wounds, since there was no stipulation for it in the agreement

Page 70 - [see page image]

69
THE NEW JEWISH VILLAIN
between them. His stunning defeat in the trial scene and his
forced conversion was symbolic of the triumph of the new law
over the old and the superiority of the Christian value system. 45
The viciousness of the Christians’ attack upon Shylock, their
slurs, biting remarks, cruel jests, and the manner in which they
finally outwitted and reduced him to poverty “does not celebrate
the Christian virtues so much as expose their absence.” 46 The fact
that Shakespeare portrayed him as a three-dimensional character
with feelings and emotions highlighted their inhumanity and their
lack of charity. There is a danger, however, in reading too much
into Shakespeare’s apparent sympathy for the accursed Jew. Ber
nard Grebanier, one critic who is convinced that Shakespeare
“stood like an Everest above his contemporaries,” views his por
trayal of Shylock as an example of his ability to rise above the
prejudices of his own generation. 47 This is an exaggeration with
little basis in fact. As a sinner who was also sinned against, 48 Shy
lock uttered several lines that evoke sympathy for his wretched
state. Nevertheless, their importance has often been overstated.
Shylock’s famous remarks about the miserable position of the Jew
are well known to the students of the drama.
I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, di
mensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt
with the same weapons subject to the same diseases, healed by the
same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter as a Christian
is? If you prick us do we not bleed?
[3. 1. 54-60]
Critics have interpreted these lines as a plea for tolerance, and
yet if they are viewed in their entirety and put within the context
of the play, they become not a plea for charity but for revenge. 49
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch believes that Shylock has been
“over-philosophized and over-sentimentalized.” 50 Perhaps this
stems from the fact that Shakespeare lovers would like to believe
that their idol did not really draw an anti-Semitic portrait. But as
Herbert Bronstein notes:
No critical card tricks, no juggling of lines can obscure the fact that
Shylock is a greedy usurer who dreams of money bags and is

Page 71 - [see page image]

70
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
implacable in his demands for Antonios pound of flesh ... he is a
cantankerous old man who hates music and parties and speaks to his
daughter only to issue orders. He is also comic in his parsimony and
meanness. 31
Whatever human qualities Shakespeare invested in Shylock’s
character, they do not detract from his basically evil nature. As
John Russell Brown suggests, our insight into his hatred, frustra
tion, and pain makes his contrast with Antonio and the other
Christians that more poignant and lively. He is still the foil for the
good Christian, the evil Jew whose devilish practices highlight
what is or should be the true practice of Christian love. 52
Shylock was originally played on the stage as a ludicrous old
man, mimicked by his servant Launcelot and made the butt of
jokes by his young adversaries. It was only after 1741 that he was
transformed by the actor Charles Macklin into the serious villain
so familiar to modern audiences. But no matter how Shakespeare
had intended Shylock to be played, wittingly or not, he further
associated the word “Jew” with usury, cruelty, and revenge against
Christians. Shylock’s villainies could not be separated from his
Jewishness, and his vices and faults were considered to be typical
of his people. In essence, Shakespeare transformed the “monster
Jew” into a creature of flesh and blood with feelings and emo
tions. In this regard, he was ahead of his time, but any claim that
he actively tried to combat the intolerance of his age cannot be
supported in the text of the play. Shakespeare’s skill in humaniz
ing certain qualities of the Jew actually fostered anti-Semitic prej
udices for years to come. He provided a Jewish character whose
evil nature could be accepted by sophisticated people who might
normally reject the completely negative image of the mediaeval
myths. By being cast in a human mold, Shylock’s devilish qualities
became more credible and hateful to the Elizabethans and to En
glishmen in future generations as well. From that point on, any
playwright who wanted a Jewish character in his work had a pow
erful model to copy.
In the fifty-year period prior to the closing of the theaters by
the Puritans (1642), a few plays which featured Jewish characters
appeared. In The Tragicall Raigne of Selimus, Emperor of the

Page 72 - [see page image]

71
THE NEW JEWISH VILLAIN
Turks, written by Robert Greene in 1594, a Jew, Abraham, was
engaged by Selimus to poison Bajazet, his father. These verses
spoken by Selimus reflected the popular notion of the Jew as the
poisoner—the man willing to do anything for money.
Bajazet hath with him a cunning Jew
Professing physick; and so skilled therein,
As if he had pow’r over life and death,
Withall a man so stout and resolute
That he will venture anything for gold.
This Jew with some intoxicated drink,
Shall poyson Bajazet and that blind Lord;
Then one of the Hydra’s heads is clean cut off.
[1681-1688]
Jack Drum’s Entertainment, written by John Masters in 1601,
had a character, Mammon the usurer, whose large nose was mod
eled after Shylocks Semitic appearance. Thus, the distorted phys
ical features of Judas as they appeared in the Passion plays were
reinforced in the portrayal of Shylock and were perpetuated by
the imitators of Shakespeare. In the play The Travels of the Three
English Brothers, by John Day, the Jewish character resembled
Shylock in his physical appearance, in his desire to extort money
from good Christians, and in his lack of compassion and sympa
thy. The Jew was a “crucifying hangman” who was filled with a
love of money and a thirst for revenge. Once again he was por
trayed as the villain who threatened to harm a good Christian if
his bond was not paid.
The portrayal of the Jew in Elizabethan drama and in the
plays leading up to the Puritan period continued to perpetuate
the pre-expulsion image. Montagu Modder stresses how the
“monster Jew” was humanized. 53 Although this is obviously true,
the dramatist, by updating the Jew and by putting his villainy in a
more credible form, also kept alive the hatreds of prior centuries
and adapted them to new situations. Jewish crimes were no lon
ger in the dim mediaeval past, but they were real and current.
The evolution of the drama encouraged the development of anti-
Semitic sentiments, and it was responsible in part for the climate of

Page 73 - [see page image]

72
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
hatred which encouraged the opposition to the readmission of
Jews in the seventeenth century. 54
In the realm of nondramatic literature there was one relatively
important work which contained Jewish characters of any signifi
cance. In Thomas Nashe’s The Unfortunate Traveller (1594), the
hero, Jack Wilton, while passing through Rome literally fell into
the clutches of an evil Jew, Zadok, who sold him to a co-religion-
ist, Zacharie, for use in some fiendish medical experiments.
Through the aid of the popes concubine, Juliana, he was saved,
and his Jewish tormentors were severely punished. Nashe por
trayed Zadok as a grotesque person who threatned to wipe out
the entire population of Rome by poisoning the city’s drinking
water and by contaminating its bread supply. In addition, the Jew
was pictured as an expert in the art of flagellating Christian wom
en. According to the author, “He had the right agilitie of the lash,
there were none of them could make the corde come aloft with a
twange halfe like him. ” 55 Zadok’s torture and execution was de
scribed with a ferocious glee, and Nashe exulted in eveiy horrible
detail. It was one of several examples of his deep attraction for
the gruesome and the sadistic, which in this instance was com
bined with a savage anti-Semitism. 56 The book contained definite
overtones of the ritual murder legends, stripped of their religious
character, and of the execution of Lopez. 57
By and large, outside of the drama, Jews occupied a minor
role in Elizabethan and Jacobean literature, and they were inci
dental to the main themes of the works. Sir Thomas North’s
(1535-1601) translation of Dial! of Princes, which appeared in
1568, contained the lines, “Let him take heed also, that he do not
call his servants, drunkards, thieves, villains, Jews, nor other such
names of reproach.” 58 John Lyly (1554-1606) in his Euphues
which appeared some ten years later used the word “Jew” as a
curse word of the lowest sort. Thus, old stereotypes were perpet
uated by making an entire people a derogatory term in the En
glish language. Jews were identified to a countless number of
people who had never seen them face to face, but who were con
vinced that they knew what they were really like.
One exception to this literary treatment of the Jews can be
found in Holinshed’s Chronicles, which was first printed in 1578.

Page 74 - [see page image]

73
THE NEW JEWISH VILLAIN
In this work the author displays a sense of humanity in his de
scription of Jewish life in pre-expulsion England. The story of
Hugh of Lincoln, for example, was treated simply and without
embellishments. There was no bitterness or hatred in his accounts
of what happened, for he merely recorded what he considered to
be the true facts. In his description of the expulsion of the Jews
in 1290, he felt compassion for the exiles. He described how one
particular captain of a vessel that was carrying the Jews out of the
country tricked his passengers into leaving the ship so that they
would drown in the incoming tide. Holinshed described the an
guished cries of the travelers and the cruelty of the captain, who
stood by and mocked them. He ended the account with the state
ment: “These mariners which dealt so wickedlie against the Jews,
were hanged for their wicked practice, and so received a just re
ward of their fraudulent and mischeevous dealing.” 59 Other
chroniclers did not share Holinshed’s sympathy for the Jews, and
thus it is doubtful if he was able to modify the prejudices that had
been perpetuated in the mediaeval works of men like Mathew of
Paris.
The chief source of knowledge of contemporary Jewry came
from the accounts of travelers and adventurers who wrote of their
experiences in Jewish communities abroad. With rare exception,
however, these men brought preconceived notions with them on
their travels, and they were far from being objective in their de
scriptions of Jewish life. 60 Selections from the works, the diaries,
and the letters of these men reveal the image of the Jew that they
presented to their readers and admirers.
Thomas Coiyat (1577-1617) was perhaps the most famous of
these adventurers. His description of his visit to the Venetian
ghetto reflected many of the prejudices against Jews which were
prevalent in Elizabethan society. Coiyat, a very proper English
man, was appalled at what he found in a synagogue that he visited
there on the Sabbath.
One custome I observed amongst them very irreverent and profane,
that none of them, eyther when they enter the Synagogue, or when
they sit downe in their places, or when they goe forth againe, doe any
reverence or obeysance, answerable to such a place of the worship of

Page 75 - [see page image]

74
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
God, eyther by uncovering their heads, kneeling or any other exter-
nall gesture, but boldly dash into the roome with their Hebrew
bookes in their handes, and presently sit in their places without any
more adoe. 61
Coryat was annoyed with the constant babbling that he heard
during the service—something which he considered to have been
condemned by Jesus. He was also bored with the repetition of
their prayers and with the length of the devotions. Coryat may
have found fault with the services, but he was impressed with the
way that the Jews kept the Sabbath. He noted that
they keep their sabbath so strictly, that upon that day they wil nei
ther buy nor sell, nor do any secular, prophane, or irreligious excer-
cise; (I would to God our Christians would imitate the Iewes herein)
no not so much as dress their victuals, which is alwaies done the day
before, but dedicate and consecrate themselves wholly to the strict
worship of God.
[P. 300]
He was also impressed with the physical appearance of the
Jews that he observed at the services and throughout the ghetto.
The men were quite handsome and well dressed, and he came to
the conclusion that the negative English expression “to look like a
Jew” was not true. He was a great admirer of the Jewish women
whom he met, and he considered them to be as beautiful and as
well dressed as English royalty.
But with all his compliments, Coiyat still viewed the Jews in
the light of centuries of the church’s teachings, and he lamented
over “the damnable estate of these miserable Jews” who reject Je
sus and seek salvation through law rather than through belief in
the “Saviour of the World.” His negative feelings towards both
Jews and Judaism were quite apparent in his description of a
seemingly accidental meeting with a “Jewish Rabbin” who was no
doubt the famous Leon da Modena. Coryat related how he had
asked the rabbi about his opinion of Jesus. What began as a friend
ly discussion soon turned into a heated debate that attracted con
siderable attention in the ghetto. Coryat claimed that some forty
or fifty Jews gathered around him, and that he, fearing that they

Page 76 - [see page image]

75
THE NEW JEWISH VILLAIN
would harm him, fled from the scene. Luckily, Sir Henry Wotton
was passing by in a gondola and he was able to remove the author
from the clutches of these “unchristian miscreants” (p. 304). In
the frontpiece of the early edition of his Cnidifies, the author was
pictured fleeing from a turbaned Italian rabbi who had a knife in
his hands. 62
Another Elizabethan traveler was William Davies of Hereford,
who in 1597 journeyed through Southern Europe and wrote a de
scription of the Jews of Italy, France, and Turkey. Davies was ob
viously unaware of the small colony of Jews that existed in his
native country when he noted that they inhabited all parts of
Christendom with the exception of England. He was grateful they
did not disturb the tranquility of his homeland. After he had ob
served their communities on the continent, he exclaimed, “I be
seech the Almighty God that this our land of England never be
defiled either by Pope, Turk, or Jew.” 63
Fynes Moryson (1566-1630) published in 1617 an account of
his many years of traveling through Europe and Asia Minor. When
in Italy he came across a number of Jews and noted that the princ
es of the various localities, for their own profit, admitted them into
their cities and permitted them “to use horrible distortions upon
their subjects, in the lending of money, and in selling or letting out
by the day or week upon use both men’s and women’s apparel and
furniture for horses and all kinds of fripery wares.” 64 His readers
must have recalled how the Angevin kings used the Jews for simi
lar purposes before the expulsion, and perhaps they also wondered
if Jews could ever be engaged in productive labor.
Not all the travelers reacted unfavorably to the Jews that they
met abroad. One of these, John Sanderson (1560-1627?), praised
a Jewish merchant, Abraham Coen, his traveling companion, with
the words, “I cannot speak too much good of him in regard to his
great humanity and extraordinary charity, his measure being more
in those performances than is to be found in many of us Chris
tians.” 65 Another traveler, L. A. Addison (1632-1703) noted that,
“setting aside the artifices of commerce and collusions of trade,
they [the Jews] cannot be charged with any of those debauches
which are grown into reputation with whole nations of Christians,
to the scandal and contradictions of their profession.” 66

Page 77 - [see page image]

76
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
Yet, on the whole, while admitting that Jews did have a few
good qualities, the great majority of the reports about them were
negative, and the impression was created that such people were
indeed a very strange breed that no self-respecting Englishman
would want to have in his own country.
As noted previously, the study of the Hebrew language and of
ancient Jewish history was quite popular in Tudor England. This
trend continued during the time of Elizabeth and in the years
that followed. In 1558, Sefer Yosippon, a mediaeval work written
by Joseph Ben Gorion, was translated by Peter Morwyng. He
called it A Compendious and Most Marveilous History of the Lat
ter Tijmes of the Jews Commune-Weale. It was a veiy popular
book, and by 1615 it had gone through some ten editions. Jose
phus’s historical works were also widely read. Thomas Lodge
translated these books into English in 1602, and some five edi
tions and three reissues appeared before 1640. 67
In addition to the translation of the Bible and other Jewish
classics, various Christian scholars began to publish books that
dealt with the laws, customs, and institutions of the Jewish com
monwealth. One of them, Edmund Bunny (1540-1619), a theo
logical writer and preacher, expressed a warm attachment to the
ideals of ancient Israel in three books that he wrote. 68 In each he
noted that the practices of the Jews both in the religious and po
litical areas were originally ordained by God and could be a
source of inspiration for the Christians of his day. Bunny was in
terested only in antiquity, and he avoided coming to grips with
the problem of the Jew of his time.
For the most part, Christian scholars who showed an interest
in contemporary Jewry did so out of a desire to convert them to
the “true faith.” Hugh Broughton, for example, a student of He-
braica and a zealous Puritan, believed that by translating the New
Testament into the Hebrew language and by writing commentar
ies that reflected Christian ideas, he would be able to persuade
the Jews to convert. With this thought, he urged James I to supply
funds for such a project. 69 In his various tracts, Broughton men
tioned how Jews on the continent were interested in conversion,
and how from his wide correspondence he detected that some of
the most learned Jews of his day wanted to be taught the gospel.

Page 78 - [see page image]

77
THE NEW JEWISH VILLAIN
In his work, A Require of Agreement, etc., he listed the names of
several rabbis in Western and Central Europe who were anxious
to learn more about Christianity so that they might ultimately
convert. The author conceded that the Jews were a stubborn peo
ple, but he felt that a door was now opened for them to be
brought into the fold. 70 One of Broughtons most interesting
works was his commentary on the book of Daniel in which he at
tempted to show the “Thalmudiques” the Christological implica
tions found in this Old Testament work. He hoped that the new
insights that he presented would help them to “learne to feare
God better lest they fall into the rivers of Eternal fyre which
Daniel describeth.” 71
Christian interest in Hebraic studies also brought leading
thinkers into contact with Jewish scholars on the continent who
directly and indirectly were able to modify their own views about
the Jewish people. For example, Sir William Boswell, a noted
scholar, politician, and diplomat of his day, corresponded with
Leon da Modena and raised various questions concerning Hebra
ic scholarship. The questions were in Hebrew, and Modena an
swered them in the form of rabbinic responsum. Of particular in
terest is one of Modena’s letters that touched upon Jewish
responsibility for the Crucifixion. The rabbi stated explicitly:
According to my opinion, the Jews never put any person to death by
Crucifixion: For they were not permitted nor accustomed to execute
sentence excepting by the four penalties of the Court of Justice—
stoning, burning, decapitation and strangling. Crucifixion, however,
was the penalty inflicted by the Romans: and even though they were
then ruling over Israel, the Jews did not administer their law. 72
Sir Henry Wotton, ambassador to Venice, was another of Leon
da Modena’s correspondents. Wotton asked him to prepare a
work that would explain the basic tenets of the Jewish faith to
James I. Modena’s effort, Riti Ebraici, was one of the earliest
books produced by a Jew in the modern period to explain Juda
ism to the Gentile world. 73
This contact between Christian and Jewish scholars persisted
for many years and was ultimately an important factor in encourag
ing the readmission of Jews to England. However, in many ways it

Page 79 - [see page image]

78
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
proved to be a mixed blessing for the secret Jews of the country.
Several good Christians became so attached to Jewish practices
that they began to follow certain Jewish rituals, and some of these
“Judaizers” went so far as to convert to Judaism. This caused quite
a stir among both the civil and religious leadership of the time and
hardened their attitudes towards the small Jewish colony in their
midst. The most prominent example of this reaction to Judaizing
was centered around the practices and beliefs of John Traske.
John Traske was born in Somerset in 1583. He was a zealous
Puritan who adopted the Old Testament views of Hamlet Jackson,
an itinerant preacher and tailor by trade, who persuaded Traske
to follow the rituals and beliefs of the ancient Israelites. Accord
ing to H. E. Phillips, he passed from “extreme Puritanism to an
almost orthodox Judaism.” 74 Traske and Hamilton preached about
the necessity to keep the Sabbath within the Old Testament tradi
tion, the importance of the dietaiy laws, and the need to keep the
Passover in accordance with the Mosaic code.
Traske attracted several disciples and raised quite a commo
tion. He was attacked by at least one Catholic priest who chal
lenged his approach to Old Testament practices. The cleric called
Traske a “Puritan Minister lately grown half a Jew in his singular
opinions concerning the old sabaoth and moysaical differences of
rneates held by him and many other men and women obstinately
professing and practicing the same doctrines.” 75 More serious
were the charges that the state leveled against him and his disci
ples, who were considered to be subversive elements. On June
19, 1618, Traske was severely punished for his outspoken views.
In addition to a heavy fine and a good whipping, he was impris
oned for life and branded with a large letter “J” on his forehead.
Traske was severely punished for two reasons. First of all, he was
considered to be a threat to the existing order of the government
and the church, and his denunciation of the bishops as “bloody
butchers” was treasonous and liable to severe punishment. Sec
ondly, he appeared to be trying to convert Christians to Judaism.
Bishop Lancelot Andrewes expressed the official reaction to his
Judaizing when he spoke against Traske in the Star Chamber stat
ing: “It is good work to make a Jew a Christian: but to make
Christian men Jewes hath ever been holden a foul act, and severly

Page 80 - [see page image]

79
THE NEW JEWISH VILLAIN
to be punished. ... he is a veiy Christened Jew, a Maran, the
worst Jew that is.” 76
Eventually John Traske recanted and was released from pris
on, yet the stigma of his Jewishness remained with him until his
death. The Bishop of London referred to him as “an unworthy
person and a Jew,” 77 and the letter “J” branded on his forehead
was a constant reminder of his former “Judaical tendencies.” The
case of John Traske reflected the intensity of anti-Judaizing senti
ment and suggested that Judaism was now linked with subversive
activities against both the crown and the church. As Christopher
Hill points out: “Judaizing meant, among other things, looking
back to the customs and traditions of a tribal society, still relative
ly egalitarian and democratic, its standards and myths could be
used for destructive criticism of the institutions that had been
built up in mediaeval society.” 78
Another small group of Englishmen, dreamers, who spoke in
terms of the restoration of Zion, created similar problems. These
men, called millenarians, also aroused the anger of the king and
the church against those who showed an interest in the Jewish
faith. Their message, on the surface at least, seemed harmless,
but it had political overtones. From their deep love and attach
ment to the Bible, which at the end of Elizabeths reign was per
haps the most popular book in England, these men began to
yearn for the establishment of the kingdom of God. They envi
sioned a time when the Jews, properly converted to Christianity
and freed from the sin of having rejected Jesus, would reestablish
a perfect theocracy in Palestine. This would signal the end of tyr
anny and the redemption of all of mankind from political and re
ligious absolutism. Actually, the earliest literary expression of this
doctrine appeared in the writings of the thirteenth and fourteenth
century Franciscans Duns Scotus and William of Occam. John
Wycliffe (1320-1384) also included in his teachings various ideas
relating to the role that the converted Jew would play in the ulti
mate struggle with the Antichrist. However, it was during the lat
er part of the Elizabethan era that the whole question of the res
toration of the Jews to their homeland became a serious subject
of theological inquiry. 79
In 1585, Francis Kett (P-1589) published a tract, The Glorious

Page 81 - [see page image]

ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
and Beautiful Garland of Man’s Glorification: Containing the
Godlye Misterie of Heavenly Jerusalem- with a Dedication to
Queen Elizabeth. The author considered the site of the ancient
Jewish commonwealth to be the place of the ultimate redemption
of mankind and awaited the return of the Jews to their homeland.
Kett was burned alive for his supposed blasphemies. His book ob
viously made an impression on the people of his time because,
after his death, the Calvinist theologian Andrew Willet (P—1621)
challenged the notion that the Jews could ever hope to reestab
lish their ancient form of government. Thomas Draxe (? -1618),
another prominent theologian, upheld the ideas of Kett and
forcefully argued that Christians should pray for the Jews and set
a worthy example for them so that they might more readily con
vert to the true faith. Like Kett, Draxe believed in an earthly res
toration of Zion. 80 Thomas Brightman (1562-1607) and Giles
Fletcher (1549-1611) also continued this tradition. They paved
the way for Henry Finch (1558-1625), who further developed the
idea of the reestablishment of the ancient Jewish commonwealth.
Finch was perhaps the most famous of all those who wrote on
the subject. His book, The World’s Great Restauration or The
Calling of the Jews and (with them) of all the Nations and King
doms of the earth, to the faith of Christ, caused a stir in church
and court circles. His work, printed in 1621, began with a sum
mary of the various prophesies in both the Old and New Testa
ments which dealt with the redemption of the Jewish people.
Finch viewed the Jews as a holy people who would soon be re
deemed after the fall of Turkey, a country that he associated with
the “little horn” mentioned in the seventh chapter of Daniel.
Through some involved calculations, he came to the conclusion
that Israels redemption would come about in 1650 after the
twelve tribes defeated the Turks in battle. The Jews would then
convert to Christianity and struggle for an additional forty-five
years until finally the biblical prophesies would be fulfilled. At
that point they would restore Zion and become even more power
ful than they had been before the destruction of the Second Tem
ple. A theocracy would then be established which would put all
other rulers and forms of government to shame. 81
For James I, the most objectionable part of the book was the
SO

Page 82 - [see page image]

81
THE NEW JEWISH VILLAIN
authors belief that all the rulers of the world, including the Chris
tian ones, would pay homage to “the most glorious kingdom of
Jerusalem.” Not only did Finch dare to challenge the doctrines of
the church, but he also implied that James’s reign was not a per
fect theocracy. Finch was subsequently imprisoned and forced to
apologize for what he had written. 82
Finch’s views about the future power of the restored Jewish
commonwealth also aroused the anger of several members of Par
liament. These men feared the Judaizing tendencies of good
Christians, and they were also concerned with Jewish world dom
ination. In a debate concerning whether or not Sunday should be
referred to as the Sabbath, Lord Canterbury remarked, “We de-
syre the word Saboth should lefte oute, because many of late
times have run to Judaisme, as sornin have written for the veiy
day: A booke or two ther is lately sett forth of the Jewes ruling
over the world etc.” 83 A few days later while the debate still raged,
Sir Edward Coke expressed similar sentiments, noting that there
were many Christians who were inclined to Judaism and who
dreamed of the day when kings would lay down their crowns at
the feet of the Jews in their restored commonwealth. 84
The remarks made in Parliament show how Judaizers and mil-
lenarians who were drawn towards Jewish ritual, belief, and na
tional aspirations also created a climate of distrust against the Jews
who were in England at the time and their brethren throughout
the world. The debates focused unwelcome attention upon the
small Jewish community that struggled to maintain its anonymity.
Although the Judaizers and millenarians were groups composed of
a few eccentric individuals who were intrinsically unimportant,
their ideas lingered on for several generations. Their approach to
M osaic law, their belief in the restoration of the Jews with a prior
conversion to Christianity, and their messianic hopes appeared in
the sermons and religious literature for several decades to come.
These religious beliefs ultimately became part of the arguments
for the readmission at the time of Commonwealth.
Of greater importance, however, were the ideas generated by
another small group of Englishmen who began to think in terms
of religious toleration. By and large, the Baptists were the most
interested in this area. Having suffered religious persecution, they

Page 83 - [see page image]

82
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
felt that it was wrong to impose upon any person ideas that were
against his will—even if they were correct. 85 But along with this
liberal spirit there was a strong desire to convert the Jews. They
believed that a more humane attitude towards Jews would result
in their quicker acceptance of the fundamentals of Christianity.
One of the leading exponents of this point of view was Leon
ard Busher, a Baptist who fled to Holland sometime during the
religious persecutions that took place at the end of the reign of
Elizabeth or possibly at the beginning of the reign of James I. In
his book, Religious Peace of a Plea for Liberty of Conscience, he
stressed the need to teach the message of Christianity to combat
the false doctrines of other faiths. He was opposed to the forcible
conversion of the nonbelievers and noted:
And for as much also that the false and anti-Christian religion did
come by the spirit of error and doctrine of devils and not by fire and
sword: Therefore by the spirit of Christ, and the doctrine of the
word of God must it be driven out of the hearts and consciences,
both of Prince and people and not by fire and sword. 86
In listing the evils of religious persecution, he pointed out that
Jews and other strangers would thus be kept out of the country.
They would be denied the opportunity of being taught the “Apos-
tolique faith” and the rewards that go with it. England, too, would
suffer the loss of revenue that they might bring to the kingdom.
Tolerating the Jews and allowing them to settle in the country
would be to their spiritual benefit, since the Jews would be ex
posed to Christian teachings and to the profit of the entire coun
try.
Then shall the Jewes inhabit and dwel under his majesties dominion,
to the great profit of his Realmes and to their furtherance in the
faith: to which we are bound to seeke in all love and peace, so well
as others, to our utmost endeavour, for Christ has commanded to
teach all nations and they are the first. 87
Although by the end of the Jacobean period Englishmen
showed a new interest towards both ancient and contemporary
Jews, in most instances this new spirit was only a thin veneer that
covered the accumulated prejudices of centuries. The general cli-

Page 84 - [see page image]

THE NEW JEWISH VILLAIN
mate of opinion towards the Jews was one of hatred and distrust.
The dramatist, the writer, the traveler, and the religious leader
had done such a thorough job that the few men of conscience
who spoke and wrote had little impact upon public sentiment.
Lancelot Andrewes could preach that the Crucifixion was the sin
of all of mankind; however, for all intents and purposes, the En
glish people viewed the Jews as Christ killers. While dreamers
could envision the restoration of the Jews and a return of all Jew
ry to their ancient homeland, for all of them the Jews’ conversion
to Christianity was a precondition for this miraculous event. Some
more tolerant religious thinkers could talk about the readmission
of the Jews to England but, here again, it was only to hasten their
own conversion to “the true faith” through kindness rather than
open persecution.
In the next decades, England was to undergo a severe upheav
al; the whole structure of the monarchy was to be overthrown,
and a new political and religious party was to take control. During
these tumultuous times the people tended to retreat to fixed prej
udices and old hatreds. The stereotypes offered a kind of stability
in a rapidly changing world, something to hold on to in a time of
flux, as well as providing a much-needed scapegoat for the peo
ple’s collective fears. Witches and Papists were the center of at
tention, but the rich folklore relating to the Jews kept them from
being forgotten as villains.
S3

Page 85 - [see page image]

84
FOUR
THE PERSISTENCE OF
A PREJUDICE
Ulhen Charles I ascended the
throne, the Jewish community of England was at an ebb; only a
small number of Jews remained in the country following the ex
pulsion of f609. Little is known of their religious activities; they
likely tried to be as inconspicuous as possible in the few Jewish
rituals that they maintained. As refugees from the Iberian Penin
sula, they appeared on the surface, at least, to be practicing Cath
olics. In 1643 a small group of Jews from Amsterdam, motivated
by new commercial opportunities that were developing in the
country, settled in London. The Portuguese ambassador at the
time was Antonio de Souza, a secret Jew, and the Jewish mer
chants of London possibly may have gathered in the private chap
el of his embassy for worship. Though they were few in number,
there were some prominent men among them. One was Antonio
Fernandez Caravajal, a wealthy merchant who imported into En
gland bullion that was valued at one-twelfth of the entire national
income. He was of such value to the crown that when he was de
nounced by an informer for failure to attend church services, no
action was taken against him. 1 Other lesser merchants such as Si
mon de Caceres and Antonio Robles were also important to the
government.
Even with the influx of new blood from Amsterdam, the entire
community consisted of only about 100 to 150 persons, and it posed
no threat to the status quo. Charles I had few dealings with them

Page 86 - [see page image]

85
THE PERSISTENCE OF A PREJUDICE
and seemed unconcerned with their existence. Except for a few
scattered references to Jewish traders in Asia Minor, Jews were
rarely mentioned in any of the state publications and documents.
The average Englishman was probably unaware of their presence
in the country, and once again it was the “stage Jew,” the Jew of
history, and the Jew of the Bible who were in the public eye.
During Charles’s reign, the Jew again appeared in contemporary
drama as the villainous usurer and the social outcast. In a typical
play produced in 1636, one of the characters exclaimed, “Your
English Jews, they’ll buy and sell their father, prostrate their
wives, and make money of their own children.” 2
Travelers continued to write about their meetings with “exot
ic” Jews abroad, describing the rituals they had observed. John
Evelyn (1620-1706) reflected the persistent prejudice of his age
when he recorded in his diaiy how, while visiting the Roman ghet
to in 1645, he witnessed a “barbarous” circumcision. He ended
his description of the ritual with the words “so ended the slovenly
ceremony.” 3 Another traveler, James Howell (1594-1666), allowed
his theological biases to color his observations of Jewish people.
In his letters he noted that Jews did not live in any one particular
place but were scattered all over the world. This, he believed, was
a punishment for the sin of having crucified Jesus. He further
noted that “This once select nation of God, and the inhabitants of
the land flowing with milk and honey, is become now a scorned,
squandered people all the earth over, being ever since incapable
of any coalition or reducement into one body politic.” 4
The reign of Charles I marked the continued growth of the
Puritans and their ultimate political and religious triumph. They,
along with the Anglicans, were responsible for keeping the image
of the biblical Jew alive in the minds of so many Englishmen. In
addition to their common attachment to the narrative portions of
the Bible, which described the triumphs and the tragedies of the
ancient Israelites, the Puritans’ minds gravitated towards the Mo
saic laws. These statutes “offered a regimen which answered a
genuine longing on the part of many of these people for a more
decent, more self-controlled and self-respecting existence,”
according to William Haller. 5 Not only did the Bible mold
their speech, but it also shaped their thoughts and served as an

Page 87 - [see page image]

86
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
important means of expressing the new social and religious ideals
that were spreading through the country. 6
Both Puritan and Anglican preaching during the reign of
Charles I reflected a love of the Old Testament and of the He
brew language. Sermon quotations were often taken from the
original Hebrew, and many of the preachers displayed a good
command of the ancient tongue. Very often the men in the pulpit
compared their contemporary struggles with those that the an
cient Israelites experienced in their day. It was not uncommon for
both the Anglicans and the Puritans to label their enemies with
the names of the traditional adversaries of the Jews.
One Anglican preacher demonstrated in great detail the simi
larities between ancient Israel and modern England. Just as
God had delivered the Children of Israel when they were threat
ened, so had the Almighty saved the English people. He had pro
tected English Protestants during the time of Mary, he had
shielded them from the Spanish Armada, and he had delivered
them from the Gunpowder Plot. God was ever with his people,
joining with them in their conflicts with Catholicism. The Al
mighty had blessed the English people with a land that in so
many ways was similar to Israel, and he had established “the
choicest Religion, that of Protestants” and had set up Episcopal
authority. In addition, he had chosen for his people a wise and
kindly king. Quoting the verse from Amos (3:2) “You only have I
knowne of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish
you for all your iniquities,” the preacher claimed that all those
who were rebelling against the king would suffer the fate of
Israel’s enemies. 7 Several Puritan preachers also preached similar
sermons against the Anglicans.
Although the Puritan and Anglican preachers used Hebrew
quotations, based their sermons on Old Testament texts, and
compared the lot of their congregants with that of the ancient Is
raelites, they, like the pamphleteers and the Bible scholars of the
time, had little respect for the unconverted post-biblical Jew. In
this regard they hardly differed from each other, and both camps
held the same view of the Jews’ guilt for the Crucifixion, their evil
nature and accursedness, and their need to be redeemed through

Page 88 - [see page image]

87
THE PERSISTENCE OF A PREJUDICE
conversion. Puritan and Anglican sermons on this topic reveal a
common bond of hate that both groups shared.
The pulpit oratory of both groups reflected a preoccupation
with the failure of the Jews to accept Jesus. Although the theme
was a very old one, the preachers displayed some imaginative in
terpretations of Old Testament texts to emphasize their messages.
In one sermon delivered before the House of Commons the
preacher interpreted the verse (Isaiah 2:5) “O house of Jacob
come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord” to refer to those
Jews who accepted, and those who rejected, Jesus. Jacobs halting
represented the unbelievers who did not receive Jesus, while his
going upright referred to those who believed in him. In the same
sermon the preacher interpreted Isaiah’s vision of the end of days
in the same way. The mountain of the Lord was the church, and
one day it would truly be “advanced in the top of the mountains”
and all nations would flock to it. Isaiahs vision was intended “to
persuade the Jews, Abrahams seed, Isaacks posterity, Jacobs
house to come in and receive Christ.” 8 The Jews were constantly
used as illustrations of a people who was blind to the true faith
and who failed to appreciate the significance of the coming of Je
sus. Usually, this was done to show the Christian listeners how
fortunate they were in being able to appreciate the truth. But by
pointing out the superiority of Christian beliefs, the preachers
concurrently lowered the Jews in the esteem of the listeners. By
mocking their appearance and their honesty, preachers also
helped to make them the outcasts of society. For example, one
minister, in order to show the magnitude of Jonahs accomplish
ments with the people of Nineveh, told his congregation: “Sup
pose a weather-beaten wandering Jew (Jonah look’d now like such
a one) should come into our chief city, and proclaim that within
fourty clayes it should be overthrown. O how ridiculous would
men think such words as these, they would certainly take them
but for some Jewish fables.” 9
Jewish hypocrisy was another theme which appeared in any
number of the sermons delivered during the period. In many in
stances it was used to point out the corruption in society that exist
ed at the time of Jesus and to contrast the evils of the Jews with
the ideals of Christianity. Both Anglican and Puritan preachers also

Page 89 - [see page image]

88
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
compared their rivals’ false piety with that of the Jews during the
time of Jesus. For example, in a sermon delivered in Oxford
shortly after the surrender of the local garrison in f646, the
preacher, Jasper Mairne, who received his theological training at
Christ Church, spoke at length about the false prophets who
practiced all kinds of hypocrisy. Fie used the Jews who lived at
the time of Jesus as a key illustration and noted:
Thus among the Jewes in our Saviour Christs time there were some
who tithed Mint, that they might withold Justice and some payd
Cummin, that they might keepe backe the weightier matters of the
law. Some made cong Prayers that they might devour Widows Hous
es and some wore broad phylacteries that they might swallow or
phan goods. 10
Perhaps the strongest sermon preached against the Jews
during this period was delivered on February 4, f648, by the
Bishop of Rochester. It was centered around the old theme of the
Jewish involvement in the Crucifixion and contained some new
flourishes resulting from the country’s political situation. As a loy
al subject of Charles I, the preacher added treason to the long list
of crimes committed by the Jews. In fact, it was the most serious
aspect of the deed that they had committed. The bishop noted
that had the Jews taken the life of just any man it would have
been bad enough. However, they killed their true king, an unpar
donable crime. “And this Sonne of Man the king (their king) is
the man whom ye shall find so betrayed, clespitefully used and
murdered by his owne subjects, the bloucly barbarous and inhu
mane Jewes.” 11 All the Jews of the time were guilty of participat
ing in the act, and all had a share in the guilt. They, with the
devil’s help, hoped to seize the inheritance of the church, and
when Jesus refused to surrender it to them, he was killed. 12
The preacher pictured Herod as being shocked at the news of
the Crucifixion, and he put the following words into his mouth:
“O ye Jewes! doe ye believe or acknowledge a God? or nature? or
reason? or have you any law? or religion and will ye contrary to
all these put your king to death. ... all people, be they never so
heathenish will conclemne you for it.” 13

Page 90 - [see page image]

89
THE PERSISTENCE OF A PREJUDICE
The good bishop, stirred by the events of the time, was pri
marily attacking those who opposed Charles I and who had made
plans to do away with him. The stress that he placed on regicide
in the story of the Crucifixion was a powerful sermonic device to
stress the message to his listeners. Yet, the sermon also reminded
them that the Jews were a people who violated all laws of decen
cy and respect. If they were ever to be allowed to practice their
religion openly and to resettle in England, they would be a most
untrustworthy group. Whatever the bishop’s intentions were, he
damaged the image of the Jews and cast doubts on their loyalty to
the crown.
Not only were the Jews caught in the middle of the controver
sy between the Anglicans and the Puritans, but they were also in
volved in the almost constant battling that went on between the
Protestants and Catholics. Directly and indirectly the Jews’ reli
gious beliefs, integrity, and patriotism were questioned by both
sides. William Lithgow (1582-1650), a noted traveler and writer,
lumped the Jew and the Catholic together and condemned them
both in the strongest possible terms.
The Jews and Jesuits are brethren in blasphemies, for the Jews are
naturally subtil, hateful, avaricious, and above all the greatest calum
niators of Christ’s name; and the ambitious Jesuits are flattering
bloody gospellers, treasonable tale tellers, and the only railers upon
the sincere life of good Christians. Wherefore I end with this ver
dict, the Jew and the Jesuit is a Pultrone and a Parasite. 14
A more indirect attack upon the Jews and their attachment to
Catholicism appeared in an anonymous pamphlet entitled A False
Jew: Or a Wonderful Discovery of a Scot, Baptized at London for
a Christian, Circumcized at Rome to Act a Jew > Rebaptized at
He.xam for a Believer; But Found Out at Newcastle to be a Cheat.
The author told how Thomas Ramsey, who was born in London,
was instructed by the pope to pose as Jew and come to England
to seek baptism. He was then to “take up preaching and ciy up
notions” 15 and thereby undermine the authority of the Protestant
faith. Through clever detective work, the alleged spy was caught
and exposed, and his plans came to nought. The work was not an

Page 91 - [see page image]

90
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
anti-Jewish tract, and its primary purpose was to show the evil
designs of the Catholic church upon the people of England. Yet,
it may very well have aroused the suspicion in the minds of its
readers that the Jews who were entering the country, and those
who were already in England, were Catholic spies. It also may
have heightened the normal distrust that the people had towards
foreigners and suggested that if the Jews would officially be al
lowed to settle in England, they might bring with them the secret
agents of the pope.
The Catholics, along with various Protestants, attacked previ
ously discussed Judaizers like John Traske. Their quarrel with Ju
daism was more theological than political. They considered Juda
ism and Protestantism to be inferior religions, and to prove the
superiority of their own beliefs, they wrote various tracts dealing
with the supposed conversions to Catholicism of leading Jewish
figures. In one such work, “Micheas, a learned Jewish Rabine,”
after much contemplation and study, joined the church and be
came a priest. His supposed confession of the errors that he made
while living as a practicing Jew put Judaism in a poor light and
perpetuated the anti-Jewish sentiments of the past. The words
put into Micheas s mouth reflected the theme of the Passion plays
and the classic teachings of the church.
I do freely confesse (and indeed with an ineffable griefe) that, that
Holy One, whone my Fore Fathers (and in them my selfe) did put to
the most opprobious death of the Crosse, was, and is the Sonne of
the Highest and the true saviour of the World; and therefore I thinke
it the lesse wounder that the stony harts of us Jewes (best discovered
by such our cruell proceedings) werin the Law was first given to us. 16
During this period Englishmen were interested only in histor
ical Jews, and Christians did not feel that the modern-day descen
dants of ancient Israel who rejected Jesus were worthy sources
of religious authority. 17 Yet, they could not fully ignore modern
Jewry. One group of Puritans concerned with the Jews of their
day were the mystics, who, like their predecessors during the
reign of James I, believed that the restoration of the Jewish peo
ple was at hand and that it would be tied up in some way with the
coming of the Messiah. Another interested group consisted of

Page 92 - [see page image]

91
THE PERSISTENCE OF A PREJUDICE
those Puritans who were anxious to convert the Jews to Christian
ity and thereby save their souls. There were also some who felt
guilty about treatment given the Jews at the time of the expulsion
and who wanted to make amends to their descendants. Lastly
there were a handful of far-sighted individuals who during the
reign of Charles argued for religious toleration for all men, in
cluding the Jews. Mixed in with all of these dreamers and ideal
ists were a small number of Englishmen who viewed the Jews of
their day strictly in economic terms and believed that their return
to the country would stimulate the economy. It is difficult to
separate out the various groups, and at times mysticism and
materialism were combined in the minds of individual thinkers.
Taken together, the membership of these groups was not veiy
large, and the writers who will be noted here were distinctly in
the minority.
During the reign of Charles I, the messianic interest of the
Puritans intensified. Both they and the Sectarians became deeply
concerned about the “second coming” just before Charles’s exe
cution in 1649. “Most of them were looking forward to . . . some
new communion of saints, some republic, some peaceful kingdom
of truth and justice,” Nahum Sokolow observes. 18 The biblical
prophesies of the restoration of Zion were combined with the
coming of the Messiah, and many of these dreamers looked for
ward to some miraculous deliverance of the Jews as the signal
that the messianic age would begin. According to one of these
mystics, Robert Maton, “A most righteous and flourishing estate
of the Jewes in their own land” was necessary before the “Second
Coming would become a reality.” 19 The thousand-year reign of
the saints with Jesus would occur in Judea and “concurre with the
happy establishment of the Jewes.” 20
Perhaps the best summary of the hopes of the English mes-
sianists of the period appeared in the anonymous pamphlet
Doomesclaij: Or the Great Day of the Lords Judgement. The au
thor noted that the second coming of Jesus was near and that al
ready most of the prophesies concerning the destruction of the
world had been fulfilled. “The Jews who betrayed the Lord of life
and crucified their redeemer . . . have been scattered among all
the nations.” The writer further believed that the Jews had already

Page 93 - [see page image]

92
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
suffered the “abomination of desolation” that was prophesied by
Daniel. Before Jesus would appear, it was necessary for Israel to
be restored to its land. The author was comforted by the fact that,
according to certain letters from abroad, the Jews were making
plans to recapture the Holy Land. Already, he claimed, a Jew by
the name of Josias Catzini was gathering an army in Illyria, Be-
thinia, and Cappadocia for this purpose. 21 John Sadler (1615—
1674) also believed that the time of Israels redemption was draw
ing near, though he was too realistic a person to pay much
attention to wild speculations of Jewish armies marching towards
the Holy Land. As far as he was concerned, the conversion of the
Jews was the prime prerequisite for their national redemption. 22
Messianists like Sadler were not the only Englishmen who
were concerned about converting the Jews. As the Puritans be
came increasingly powerful, several of their leaders felt that if the
Jewish people were exposed, in a loving and compassionate man
ner, to their kind of Christianity, they too would accept Jesus.
Perhaps one of the strongest pleas for Christians to actively seek
the conversion of the Jews through a more kindly approach to
them was expressed by Thomas Calvert (1606-1674) in his intro
duction to a work written by a Jewish convert, Samuel Marochita-
nus. Calvert’s reactions to the mediaeval myths prevalent during
the period, his use of contemporary proverbs, and his approach to
Anglo-Jewish histoiy provide a fairly good picture of the prevail
ing attitudes towards the unconverted Jews during the reign of
Charles I. Calvert began his introductory chapter with the state
ment that Protestant ministers should spend time in Judaic stud
ies so that they would be better prepared to debate with the Jews
and ultimately convert them. “Next to Scripture, Jewish state and
Jewish learning is to be sought into, as an help to us, as a weapon
against them.” He looked forward to the day when the “Church
of the Jews” would join with the Christians in worshipping “the
son of David.” For Calvert this would be “as the Resurrection
from the dead.” 23
Calvert reiterated the classical sins committed by Jews against
the Christians. They ranged from the killing of Jesus to the re
jection of his teachings and the persecution of his disciples. He
also blamed Judaism for being the fountainhead of various

Page 94 - [see page image]

93
THE PERSISTENCE OF A PREJUDICE
heresies, the most notorious of which was Islam. The author me
ticulously listed the accusations leveled against the Jews through
the centuries and accepted many of the myths that had been
spread by the mediaeval chroniclers, preachers, and dramatists.
For example, he noted:
They used by craft or coyne to buy and get of the consecrated bread
which was left at a Christmas Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, and
prick it, burne it, and very basely and scornfully abuse it, Because
they heard Christians call it the body of Christ.
[p. H7]
He was sophisticated enough to reject some of the more vile
accusations, and could not accept the popular notion that “Jews
yeeld a stinke and filthy favour to them that converse with them”
and that this odor could be cured by drinking Christian blood (p.
31). He also doubted that they had “a monthly Flux of Blood or a
continuall maloderiferous breath (p. 31).
In his review of Jewish histoiy, Calvert noted that not all the
accusations made against the Jews were just, noting that many of
them were motivated by a desire to confiscate Jewish property (p.
35). Though the Jews were deserving of punishment, he did not
condone the excessive cruelty that the Christians showed towards
them and believed that church leaders should have acted more
charitably. He concluded his work with the hope that the Jews
would discover that the only way they could find peace was to
convert. “There will be no end of their misery, till they take hold
of the skirt of a Christian and look upon Christ whom they have
pierced” (p. 43). To help them along, he urged a greater sense of
compassion on the part of the Christian people.
In his zeal for converting the Jews, Calvert refuted two popular
proverbs that were current at the time. The first was “Happy is
that commonwealth, in which there is neither an Abraham, a Nim
rod, nor a Naaman. (A nation that is not troubled by a Jew, a ty
rant or a leper)” (p. 23). This was an obvious anti-Jewish remark
intended to prevent the Jews from ever returning to England. The
second proverb was “There are five things exceed in stubborness
and pertinaciousnesse, the Dogge among beasts, the Cock among

Page 95 - [see page image]

94
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
birds, the Goat among Cattle, the Prickthorn among plants, and
the Jew among men” (p. 43). This derogatory statement pointed
up the traditional refusal of the Jew to accept Christianity. Al
though the Jews were few in number in the country, they were
part of everyday speech, and they were clearly associated with the
outcasts of society who stubbornly resisted any attempts to change
their ways. These proverbs that Calvert quoted likely were indica
tive of the way the average man pictured the Jews, and the max
ims probably reflected the attitudes of a good part of the popula
tion.
Hugh Peters (1598—1660) was another cleric who advocated
that Jews be allowed to enter England and experience Protestant
compassion so that they would convert. He combined this theo
logical hope with a practical approach to reviving England’s for
eign trade, which had suffered during the Civil War. In his tract,
A Word for the Annie and two words the Kingdom, he listed
some fourteen cures for the ills that he found in society. In his
tenth section he noted:
That Merchants may have all the manner of encouragement, the law
of Merchants set up, and strangers, even Jewes admitted to trade
and live with us, that it may not be said we pray for their conversion,
with whom we will not converse, we being all but strangers on the
Earth. 24
In addition to those Puritans who were interested in the Jews
because of the role that they would play in the second coming,
and for conversionist and mercantile purposes as well, there were
others who believed that the readmission of the Jews to England
would be a means by which the English people could atone for
the sins that they committed at the time of the expulsion. Samuel
Richardson, a Baptist, published in 1647 a tract in which he stated
that the religious outlook of a person did not prevent him from
fulfilling his role as a productive citizen, and that even a non-
Christian could be a useful member of society. Any nation that
failed to recognize the equality of its subjects and made distinc
tions among them on the basis of religion was doomed to suffer.
Richardson believed that the bloodshed that England had experi
enced was a result of the country’s intolerance of the Jews. “And

Page 96 - [see page image]

95
THE PERSISTENCE OF A PREJUDICE
who knows but this is come upon us for troumbling, undoing,
clepising and banishing the people of God into so many wilder
nesses.” 25
Johanna and Ebenezer Cartwright shared Richardson’s views
regarding the Jews. In addition to their messianic belief that the
day of deliverance for the Jewish people was close at hand and
that England and the Netherlands had the obligation of trans
porting the Jews to their ancient homeland, they also wanted the
English expulsion order annulled. They promised Parliament that
if this would be done “the wrath of God will be much appeased
toward you for their innocent bloodshed.” 26
In addition to those clerics who spoke in terms of atoning for
the sins of the past, there were others who directed their thoughts
towards the problem of religious toleration without touching upon
Christian guilt. Leonard Busher’s plea that the Jews be allowed to
settle in England and openly practice their religion, which was
first made in 1614, was echoed by various writers during the reign
of Charles I.
In 1636 John Weernse (1579-1636) dealt with the general
problem of whether or not Jews could be allowed to live in a
Christian country. 27 He believed that the relationship between the
Christian state and the Jew should be similar to the one that ex
isted in ancient times between the Jewish commonwealth and its
non-Jewish residents. In those days there were three different
categories of non-Jews. The first group were those who were non-
Jews by birth but who wanted to become part of the Jewish peo
ple. The second consisted of those who were by birth and convic
tion non-Jews and who wished to remain so. The last categoiy
was made up of those who were hostile to the Jews. Weernse be
lieved that in ancient Israel the first group was fully accepted and
welcomed into the fold as equal members of the Jewish people.
Those in the second categoiy were allowed to live in peace as
long as they kept the Sabbath and observed the “Seven Com
mandments of the Sons of Noah.” The third group, those who
were hostile to Judaism, were not permitted to live in this society.
Using the structure of the ancient Jewish commonwealth as a
starting point, Weernse drew an analogy between its laws towards
the non-Jew and the Protestant state’s relationship to its Jewish

Page 97 - [see page image]

96
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
minority. Thus, any Jews who wanted to become Christians were
to be given full and equal rights with the rest of the citizens.
Those who wanted to remain Jewish, but who would be loyal to
the state, were to be allowed to live in peace. The state had the
obligation of showing them the advantages of becoming Chris
tians and to acquaint them with the values of the Protestant faith.
However, Weernse opposed any attempts to convert them by
force. He noted that “many of them who have beene compelled
to bee baptized have fallen backe againe to their vomit of Iuda-
isme.” 28 Jews resident in a Christian commonwealth were to be
allowed to follow all their religious laws and to build synagogues.
He justified their right to read the Law in their houses of worship
by stating that “the word of God [the Law] is still the word of
God, although they abuse it to a wrong end.” 29
Although the Jews were to enjoy full religious freedom, they
were forbidden to engage Christian servants, and in cases of in
termarriage they were obligated to raise their children as Chris
tians. Jews who were openly hostile to the Christian state, like
pagans who lacked affection for the ancient Jewish common
wealth, were not to be allowed to live in society. Weernse was pri
marily interested in writing a theological treatise, and he failed to
touch upon many practical problems of Jews living in a Christian
country. He did not discuss, for example, whether or not the Jews
would be allowed to possess their own cemeteries. Even though
Weernse dealt only in general terms concerning the relationship
of the Jew to the Christian state, and not specifically with the
problem of the readmission of Jews to England, his work pre
pared the way for the debates regarding the return of the Jews at
the time of Cromwell. 30
Many of the ideas concerning the toleration of the Jews in a
Christian country that were found in the words of Busher and
Weernse were repeated by Roger Williams (f604-f683), who was
a leading figure in the fight for religious liberty both in England
and in the New World. In 1644, William returned from the colo
nies for a visit and expressed his views in a pamphlet entitled The
Bloucly Tenent of Persecution, for cause of Conscience discussed in
A Conference betweene Truth and Peace. The author vehemently
opposed any state religion which would prevent the people from

Page 98 - [see page image]

97
THE PERSISTENCE OF A PREJUDICE
worshipping according to the dictates of their individual con
sciences. He believed that it was the will of God that “paganish,
Jewish, Turkish, or Antichristian consciences and worships, he
granted to all men in all Nations.” 31 He feared that any enforced
religion in a civil state would be to the detriment of Christianity,
since it would prevent the Jews from entering the country and
being exposed to the teachings of the faith of Jesus. He was con
vinced that although the Jews were rebellious against the teach
ings of Christianity, they would still be loyal to the state. If given
the opportunity, they would be productive citizens as well as con
verts to Christianity. 32 Williams’s notion, that “to molest any per
son, Jew or Gentile, for either professing doctrine, or practicing
worship rneerly religious or spiritual” 33 was evil, was far ahead of
his time. His book was publicly burned. Although public opinion
was not ready for such radical ideas, other thinkers supported the
view that responsible citizens who would not attack the official
religion of the state should be allowed to practice their own faith.
One was Samuel Hartlib (1599-1670) who expressed the opinion
that:
The duty of the Magistrate towards the Religious Conversation of
his Subjects, is in this: That open Contempt of religion and Profane-
nesse be restrained, That the Publike Ministery be Protected from
injury, Preserved from contempt, and Maintained comfortably; and
that a just Liberty of Conscionable Profession be not denyed to such
as walke orderly in the things wherein they differ from others about
Religion. 34
John Vernon, 35 another advocate of religious liberty in En
gland, stated, “I would all Jews or heathens, or what ever igno-
rants are native, with all such foreign you invite to traffique and
suffer to inhabit, as freely to converse as commerce with you,
without restraint upon religious causes.” 36 Such a policy, he
believed, would benefit England commercially and would also
establish strong bonds of loyalty among its citizens. Using the ex
ample of the advantages that Holland derived from allowing its
citizens to worship according to their personal convictions,
Vernon wrote that such a policy of religious toleration would en
hance the popularity of the English government.

Page 99 - [see page image]

98
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
Edward Nicholas managed to extract all the positive ideas
about the Jews from the writers of the period without including
any of their negative attitudes. He, like Samuel Richardson and
the Cartwrights, believed that many of the troubles that England
had witnessed were a direct result of the way that the nation had
mistreated the Jews. The Jews were, after all, God’s chosen peo
ple, and Nicholas, quoting from Jeremiah, showed how anyone
who persecutes them will in turn suffer the wrath of the Al
mighty. 37 He urged that the English people comfort them and al
low the Jews to return to England once again and become in
volved in productive labor. Unlike so many of his contemporaries,
he felt simply that this was the only just thing to do. His plea was
not connected with any attempt to convert the Jews through kind
ness. Nicholas came to grips with the problem of the Crucifixion
and treated it in a much more liberal way than most of his con
temporaries. He thought it wrong, for example, for Christians to
base their anti-Jewish sentiments on the fact that several centu
ries earlier the Jews had crucified Jesus. The author believed that
the multitudes of the Jews had not been involved in the act, and,
if the blame should be placed on anyone, it should be directed to
the elders. 38
Although Nicholas’s friendly attitude towards the Jews was not
motivated by a desire to win them over to Christianity, it may
have been rooted to some extent in his great hatred of Catholi
cism. He noted how the Jews had suffered at the hand of the
Catholic church and how they were persecuted because they re
jected the church’s idolatrous doctrines. Nicholas even urged his
countrymen to fight all those who hated the Jews, even if they
lived beyond the borders of their country, “that our weapons
(When quiet here at home) may be bent against the cruel oppres
sors of his people in forraign parts, and those mercyless Tyrents
so rigorous towards the Jews where they are, vexing them and
spoiling them of their lives and livlyhoocl.” 39
During this stormy period of bitter conflict some men isolated
themselves from the world and devoted themselves to scholarship,
oblivious of the turmoil that engulfed English society. One such
person was Robert Burton (f576-f640), an English cleric whose
patron, Lord Berkeley, provided him with a living so that he could

Page 100 - [see page image]

99
THE PERSISTENCE OF A PREJUDICE
spend most of his adult life in semi-seclusion studying mathemat
ics, divinity, astrology, magic, medicine, and the classics. He pub
lished only one book, The Anatomy of Melancholy (1629), which
became one of the most popular works of its time and which con
tained the collected wisdom of its author. In this ponderous piece
of scholarship, Burton made several references to the Jews, and
these notations reveal some of the prejudices of the Anglican
mind. In many cases he merely repeated the classical anti-Jewish
statements of the past; however, he was creative enough to em
bellish them and also to add some original observations.
Burtons first major criticism of the Jews centered around
their seemingly “holier than thou” attitudes towards the Chris
tians. While he admitted that no one could love God in excess, he
attacked those who were “zealous without knowledge, and too so
licitous about that which is not necessary busying themselves
about impertinent, needless, idle and vain ceremonies, to please
the populace as the Jews did about sacrifices, oblations, offerings
etc.” 40 He put the Jews in the same categoiy with “superstitious
Idolaters, Hereticks and Divinators” and attacked them for trying
to appear “more divine and sanctified than others.” Burton criti
cized all those who felt that they had the only true faith. He was
particularly critical of the Jews when he noted:
The Jews at this day are so incomprehensibly proud and churlish,
saith Luther, that they alone wish to be saved, they alone wish to be
lords of the world. And as Buxtorfius adds, so ignorant and self-
willed withal, that amongst their most understanding Rabbins you
shall find nought but gross dotage, horrible hardness of heart, and
stupend obstinacy, in all their actions, opinions conversations: and
yet so zealous withal, that no man living can be more and vindicate
themselves for the elect people of God.
Although he attacked other religions and was equally caustic
towards the Mohammedans, 41 for example, he seemed to be
more systematic in his condemnation of the Jews than of any oth
er non-Christian group. In his remarks about Judaism he de
nounced virtually every aspect of its theology and practices. His
cutting remarks extended from “the Rabbins ridiculous com
ments, their strange interpretation of Scriptures” to “their absurd

Page 101 - [see page image]

100
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
ceremonies ... their foolish customs.” Burton repeated the mediae
val accusation that “the Jews stick together like so many burrs” and
the crude stories about them which had been the favorites of medi
aeval preachers. His most serious attacks centered around the tol
eration of Jews and other nonbelievers in a Christian society. Bur
ton believed that “to purge the world of Idolatry and superstition
will require a monster-taming Hercules.” He realized that some
people had suggested that Jews and other idolaters be allowed to
live unmolested. For him, this was far from being satisfactoiy, and
he came to the conclusion that “a wound that cannot be cured must
be cut away ... In Divinity the fire cures what the sword cannot.”
Another scholar who was almost totally removed from the po
litical turmoil of his age and who dabbled in a number of areas
was Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1681). Like Robert Burton, his in
terests varied widely from theology to the physical sciences. He
received a thorough classical education at Winchester and Oxford
and then went on to study medicine at Montpellier, Padua, and
Lyclen. For most of his life he was a provincial doctor in Norwich.
Except for a few restrained passages in his letters which expressed
his disapproval of the execution of Charles I, he completely ig
nored the political situation in England. 42 In his works, the most
famous of which was Religio Medici (1642), he mirrored the sci
entific spirit of his age. However, he evidently could not shake off
the anti-Semitic teachings of the Church of England. In the
opening pages of his work Browne stated that though he was a
Christian and a member of the Episcopal church, he considered
himself to be tolerant of other faiths and somewhat sympathetic
to superstition. This “tolerance” did not seem to affect his atti
tudes towards the Jews. For example, he had little respect for the
rabbinic interpretation of scripture. This came to the surface
when he mocked those rabbis who believed that Adam was a her
maphrodite. Browne scathingly remarked:
I am amazed at the Rabbinicall Interpretation of the Jews, upon the
Old Testament, as much as their defection from the New: and truely
it is beyond wonder, how that contemptible and degenerate issue
of Jacob once so devoted to Ethnick Superstition, and so easily se
duced to the Idolatry of their Neighbors, should now in obstinate
and peremptory beliefe, adhere unto their owne Doctrine, expect

Page 102 - [see page image]

101
THE PERSISTENCE OF A PREJUDICE
impossibilities, and in the face ane eye of the Church persist with
the least hope of conversion.
[Pt. f, sec. 25]
Although Browne had little respect for Jewish beliefs and criti
cized the Jews’ stubborn adherence to the tenets of their faith, he
did not believe in forcibly converting them. “The persecutions of
fifteene hundred yeares have but confirmed them their error . . .
[it] is a bad and indirect way to plant Religion” (pt. 1, sec. 25).
In a later work, Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646), Browne used his
crude scientific method to analyze the nature of the Jewish people,
and he devoted an entire chapter to the problem of the odors that
they supposedly gave off. It was sandwiched between an essay enti
tled “Of Sneezing” and another “Of Pigmies.” Browne demonstrated
that it was wrong to assume that foul odor was a national trait. He
noted that the Jews were not a pure race, and that any scientific
generalizations concerning them were not valid. He attacked the be
lief that their supposed “ill savour” was really a curse “derived upon
them by Christ, and stands as a badge or brande of a generation that
crucified their Salvator” (bk. 4, chap. 10). In his exploration of the
problem, he tried to be objective, and he examined such areas as
Jewish diet and sexual customs. He was impressed with their mod
erate diet, their choice of foods, and their bodily self-control. Yet his
overall view of the Jews was far from kind. After absolving the Jews
of any physical guilt for the accusations leveled against them,
Browne noted that the Jews had received this reputation because
“the nastiness of that Nation, and sluttish course of life hath much
promoted the opinion occasioned by their servile condition at first,
and inferior ways of parsimony ever since” (bk. 4, chap. 10). His
study of the odors that Jews supposedly emitted was designed mere
ly to dispel an unscientific notion, not to overcome prejudices against
the Jews in general. In this spirit Browne admitted that the stray of
the wandering Jew as recorded by Mathew of Paris was “very strange
and will hardly obtain belief.” He came to the conclusion that if the
tale was really true, this Jew who had lived through evolution and
development of the Christian religion would condemn “the obstina
cy of the Jews, who can contemn the Rhetoric of such miracles, and
blindly behold so living lasting conversions” (bk. 7, chap. 171).

Page 103 - [see page image]

102
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
In addition to these general scholars whose interests touched
upon so many different areas including the Jews, there were oth
ers who were interested primarily in studying the Hebrew lan
guage, the Bible, rabbinic literature, and the laws and customs of
the Middle East. They persuaded Parliament in 1648 to spend
some 500 pounds for a collection of Hebraic books to be housed
in the library of Cambridge University so “that the Kingdom may
not be deprived of so great a Treasure nor Learning want so great
an Encouragement.” 43 Both Anglican and Puritan scholars were
engaged in this area of scholarship, and political and religious af
filiation had little effect upon their attitudes towards the litera
ture or the nation that had produced it.
John Lightfoot (1602-1675), one of the most prominent of
these scholars, excelled in both the study of the Bible and rabbin
ic literature. In one of his earlier works, Ervbhin or Miscellanies
Christian and Judaicall and others, published in 1629, he re
vealed his attitudes towards the Jews and their literature. Light-
foot was filled with praise for the Hebrew language and believed
that “for Sanctitie it was the tongue of God, and for Antiquitie it
was the tongue of Adam: God the first founder, and Adam the
first speaker of it.” 44 He also found a great deal of wisdom in the
rabbinic works that he studied. However, he was narrow-minded
and accepted only those interpretations of the Bible that agreed
with his own understanding of the text or which were in accord
with his own approach to religion. For example, Lightfoot was
veiy much impressed with one observation that the rabbinic com
mentator, Kimchi, made concerning why Jonah was kept in the
big fish for three days. He agreed with the rabbis that it was part
of Gods plan to show mercy to the penitent and noted:
Could wee looke for a truth from a lew, or comfort from a Spaniard?
And yet here the Spanish lew affords us both: Comfortable truth
and true comfort... When a lew thus preaches repentance, I cannot
but hearken, and helpe him a little out with his sermon.
[P. 38]
He was not so kind when he came across the legend that the fish
that swallowed Jonah brought him to the Red Sea and showed him

Page 104 - [see page image]

103
THE PERSISTENCE OF A PREJUDICE
the veiy place where the ancient Israelites crossed over. Lightfoot
believed that “the fabling Iewes must find some sleight to main-
taine their owne inventions” (p. 54). Lightfoot headed chapter 20
of his book, “Wit Stollen by Iewes out of the Gospell.” He listed
several selections from the New Testament that resembled state
ments found in rabbinic literature and concluded that the Jews
had stolen this material from the Christian work and that “By this
Gospell which they thus filch they must be judged” (p. 58).
John Selden took a much more enlightened approach to the
Jews than most of his contemporaries. His scholarly interests ex
posed him to a great many Hebraic and rabbinic works, and he
admired the legal structure of the ancient Jewish state as well as
many of its religious statutes. Unlike most of his learned col
leagues, he allowed his admiration of the Jews of the distant past
to shape his attitudes towards their modern day descendants. He
saw no reason why this group of people who maintained their an
cient heritage should be viewed with suspicion and treated as
outcasts. “God at first gave laws to all mankind, but afterwards he
gave peculiar laws to the Jews, which they only were to observe.” 45
He compared this to the legal system that he found in his coun
try, where in addition to the common law that applied to all of
England, there were corporations that maintained their own dis
tinct laws and privileges. Selden was well aware of the popular
prejudices against the Jews of his time. Although he may have
shared some of them, he could rise above the hatreds of his gen
eration and point out some positive aspects of their existence in a
Christian society. He wrote:
Talk what you will of the Jews, that they are cursed, they thrive
where’er they come; they are able to oblige the prince of their coun
try by lending him money; none of them beg; they keep together;
and for their being hated, my life for yours Christians hate one an
other as much.
[P. 112]
Selden, in addition to his scholarly pursuits, was a practical
man who believed that a modern state should utilize its financial
resources to the fullest. He argued that the old prohibitions against

Page 105 - [see page image]

104
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
lending money that had been maintained by the church and the
hatred directed against the Jews as usurers had no place in con
temporary society. In his comments on usuiy, Selden noted that
according to Jewish law, “The Jews were forbidden to take use of
one another, but they were not forbidden to take it of other na
tions.” Instead of issuing the usual tirade against the Jews’ hypoc
risy, the author approved of their actions and added, “That being
so, I see no reason why I may not as well take use for my money
as rent for my house. Tis a vain thing to say money begets not
money; for that no doubt it does” (p. 204). Selden further justified
the lending of money by Jews by showing that many good Chris
tians, including some noted churchmen, practiced it. “No bishop
or ecclesiastical judge, that pretends power to punish other faults,
dares punish, or at least does punish, any man for doing it (p. 204).
Another more enlightened scholar of the time was Robert
Sheringham, who in 1648 published the Hebrew text of the Mish-
naic tractate of Yoma with a Latin translation and various com
ments and annotations. 46 In his preface the author made note of
the importance of studying rabbinic literature. He pointed to the
intrinsic value of the material, the aid it offered in interpreting
the Bible, and the fact that the gospels owed a great deal to the
rabbis. Sheringham believed that the New Testament borrowed
much from rabbinic literature and that the works of these Jewish
sages contained many traditions that were of value to both Jews
and Christians. 47
Although the reign of Charles I and the beginnings of the
Commonwealth marked an increase in scholarly Judaic works and
in the number of tracts concerning the acceptance of the Jews in
a Christian state, the rise of the Puritans did not encourage a rad
ically new approach to the Jews. The prejudices of the preachers,
the scholars, and the common people suggest that the modern
Jews were still more closely identified with their ancestors who
crucified Jesus than with the Patriarchs. The Puritans considered
themselves to be the “New Israel,” and they had little love for the
contemporary Jews, who continued to reject Jesus. The Anglicans
shared the Puritans’ theological hatreds, and they also associated
the Jews with the Judaizers who were anxious to overthrow the
monarchy.

Page 106 - [see page image]

105
THE PERSISTENCE OF A PREJUDICE
Still with rare exception, interest in the Jews, even on the part
of those who advocated religious toleration, was related to the
hope of their ultimate conversion. The Puritans who stressed the
need to bring Jews into the fold likely were sincere in their zeal;
in keeping with Christian tradition they wanted to save souls.
Most of them believed that the stubborness of the Jews in hold
ing onto their ancestral faith stemmed from their hatred of the
Catholic church. If the Jews could be exposed to the Puritan
brand of Christianity which did not resemble the idolatries of Ca
tholicism, they would willingly convert. They believed that the
Jews should be allowed to enter England and experience this re
fined and purified faith. And yet there was a strong distrust of
Jewish converts to Christianity, especially by Englishmen who had
actually come in contact with them. With all that Weemse had to
say about the need to convert the Jews, he still accepted the folk
belief that neither a baptized Jew nor a tame wolf should be trust
ed. 48 John Evelyn also shared this view. During his travels through
Italy, he was invited to be a godfather to a converted Turk and a
Jew. Evelyn noted that the Turk seemed to be faithful towards his
new religion. However, he considered the Jew to be a “Counter
feit.” 49
This conflict in the English mind over the desire to bring the
Jews to England to convert them and the distrust of all Jews, in
cluding those who converted, surfaced when the readmission be
came a real possibility. Menasseh ben Israel’s mission to England,
which will be discussed in the next chapter, brought these deep
ly-rooted prejudices out into the open.

Page 107 - [see page image]

106
FIVE
THE READMISSION
CONTROVERSY
The establishment of the Com
monwealth raised new questions about the place of the Jews in
Christian society, and more specifically, it reopened the contro
versy about whether or not they should be readmitted into En
gland. Despite the efforts of a few men of conscience, the accu
mulated prejudices against the Jews and their faith were as strong
as ever, and those merchants and clergy who feared Jewish eco
nomic competition or religious domination resurrected the stock
accusations against them. The stories that had been circulated by
men like Mathew of Paris in earlier ages appeared once more.
Various tracts and pamphlets pictured the Jews as murderers of
innocent children, usurers, clippers of coins, and the archenemies
of good Christians. Much of the so called philosemitism of the
time was limited to Old Testament figures. The contemporary
Jews, in contrast, were associated in the popular imagination with
the vilest of creatures who were unfit to dwell among God-fearing
people.
Although in the theological view the Jews were considered to
be rejected by God, the new religious makeup of English society
during the period of Commonwealth encouraged their resettle
ment. The multiplicity of sects, each struggling for recognition,
brought religious pluralism that much closer to becoming a reali
ty. For example, the Leveller leader, Richard Overton, criticized
the intolerance of the government and argued for toleration of

Page 108 - [see page image]

107
THE READMISSION CONTROVERSY
Brownists, Independents, and Anabaptists. He was no less em
phatic in defending the rights of the Jews. 1 The problem of reli
gious liberty proved to be embarrassing to the Puritans. They re
alized that complete toleration of other groups would enable their
opponents to overthrow the new government. To dodge the issue
the pamphleteers argued that Jews and Mohammedans might be
tolerated. However, Roman Catholics and Anglicans, who had the
opportunity to embrace the true faith and who rejected it, should
not be allowed the privilege. The Jews were not considered to be
a threat to the government, and it was possible that they could
become a recognized religious group. 2
In 1651, Captain Robert Norwood wrote a pamphlet, Propos
als for Propagation of the Gospel, which in essence was an answer
to the charges of blasphemy made against him. He wrote that the
state should not compel any man to accept any specific religious
doctrines because he felt that this was against the teachings of the
New Testament. He followed this idea to its logical conclusion
and claimed that the Jews should be tolerated in England, even
though their religious practices were different from those of the
Christians. He felt that this was only fair, since, if the situation
were reversed, those who believed in Jesus would want such a
freedom for themselves. This was a very simple application of the
“Golden Rule,” which he believed had escaped many of his con
temporaries. 3 From a theological viewpoint, Norwood also hoped
that through religious freedom the Jews would be drawn to Chris
tianity. He was annoyed with the Christian clergy who failed to
appreciate the need to allow the Jews to come to England to be
exposed to the teachings of Jesus, and he believed that the clergy
were unduly afraid of the corrupting influence that the Jews
would have upon the Christian people. 4
Several similar works were being written at the time, but it
probably was the attitude of Oliver Cromwell towards the Jews
that was the most important factor leading to the readmission.
Cromwell was a rare personality who combined practical consider
ations with lofty religious idealism. He was a shrewd politician
who appreciated the realities of the times, and he was also a deep
ly religious individual who struggled to do the will of his creator.
He claimed to be tolerant of most non-Catholic religious groups,

Page 109 - [see page image]

108
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
including the Jews. “I profess to thee I desire from my heart, I
have prayed for it, I have waited for the day to see union and right
understanding between the godly people (Scots, English, Jews,
Gentiles, Presbyterians, Independents, Anabaptists, and all).” 5
On a practical level, Cromwell had eveiy reason to be friendly
to the Jews. From the very beginning, the small community of
Marranos who lived in London had supported the parliamentary
cause. Their loyalty to Cromwell had prompted a royalist spy to
report: “I find the Jews here and at London most malicious ene
mies to our monarchy, and daily wishing England were a com
monwealth like Holland.” 6 Cromwell did not hesitate to call upon
them or their brethren in Europe for help. He believed in using
the services of any people as long as they would benefit the state.
“The State in choosing men to serve it, takes no notion of their
opinion; if they be willing faithfully to serve it—that satisfies ...
Bear with men of different minds from yourself.” 7
Cromwell’s toleration of the Jews was a wise policy decision
which proved to be invaluable to him in many ways. Members of
the London Jewish community acted as contractors to the govern
ment, supplying it with both money and stores. Antonio Carvajal,
a successful merchant, served as a secret agent for Cromwell.
Through his efforts the government was kept informed about the
movements of royalist forces on the continent, and his intelli
gence also detected one of the plots against Cromwell’s life. Fur
thermore, he relayed to the Protector information which enabled
the government to seize royalist shipping at Ostencl and thereby
prevent a renewal of the civil war. 8 Cromwell was well aware of
the commercial implications of the readmission. He hoped to in
duce the Jewish merchants of Amsterdam, who were trading with
Jamaica and Barbados, to establish their firms in London. Also,
he was constantly in need of funds, and he no doubt looked on
the wealthy Jewish merchants as a dependable source of finance
in times of stress. 9 Cromwell’s patronage of the Jewish resettle
ment was motivated by several veiy different factors. As one
modern historian so aptly put it:
Was this because the Old Testament had taught him to think of them
as God’s chosen people, or was it for commercial reasons and because

Page 110 - [see page image]

109
THE READMISSION CONTROVERSY
they worked for his intelligence service? His mind moved to and fro
between the city, Whitehall and the Holy Land without a sense of
incongruity; the probability is that all three considerations influ
enced him. 10
In addition to those far-sighted men who thought in terms of
greater religious toleration, and individuals like Cromwell who
combined religious sensitivity with practical considerations, an as
sortment of mystics continued to put forth the messianic doc
trines which favored readmission of the Jews. With the establish
ment of the Protectorate, they openly preached their doctrines to
anyone who would listen. One of these men, John Robins, thought
that he was God and that he had given life to Adam. He told his
disciples that he would soon gather 144,000 men in England and
transport them to Jerusalem, where they would be sustained by
manna. He also promised that he would cause the Red Sea to
split so that his followers could cross on dry land. 11 Another
dreamer, Thomas Tany, appeared in 1650 and claimed that as a
descendant of the tribe of Reuben, he had come to proclaim that
the return of the Jewish people to Zion was fast approaching. In a
one page announcement he wrote the following:
Now unto ye Jewes, my Brethren, am I sent to proclaim from the
Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, your Returne from your Captivity
in what nation soever ye are scattered. From thence ye shall be
gathered into your own land: and Jerusalem shall be built in glory in
her owne land, even on her own foundation. 12
Although Tany claimed that he was a Jew in the fullest sense
of the word, all of his proclamations about the return to Zion
were put on a christological basis. 13 Both New Testament and Old
Testament prophesies were used freely by the self-appointed
“High Priest of Israel.”
Ultimately, it was a combination of idealism, commercialism,
and mysticism that brought Menasseh ben Israel to England to
seek the formal readmission of the Jews to the land that had cast
them out three-and-one-half centuries earlier. His trip served as a
catalytic agent which aroused the deeper feelings of the English
people toward Jews. Menassehs preparation for the journey, and

Page 111 - [see page image]

110
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
his experiences in London, can serve as a framework for the study
of the many pamphlets and tracts that were written regarding the
readmission. These works provide excellent source material for
understanding the Christian attitudes toward both the Jews and
Judaism during the period of the Commonwealth.
Menasseh ben Israel’s parents had fled from the Inquisition,
settling in Amsterdam at the beginning of the seventeenth centu
ry. It was there that he received his Jewish training. Although he
was a diligent student of rabbinic and mystical literature, he nev
er became a first-rate scholar. Much of his fame was derived from
his influence among the non-Jews. Most of his pamphlets, peti
tions, and scholarly writings were addressed to a Christian audi
ence, and he was the first rabbi that many of these scholars had
known. 14 As a result of his wide correspondence with Christian
scholars, Menasseh knew of events in England. Like most Jews
on the continent, he was attracted to the increasing Hebraism of
English thought and was impressed with the pro-Jewish tenden
cies of the Commonwealth. Menasseh, the mystic, was also drawn
to those English clerics who were thinking and writing about the
redemption of Israel. He, too, was awaiting the coming of the
messianic age.
Menasseh, like some of his English contemporaries, viewed
the civil war as divine punishment for the expulsion of the Jews
from England. As early as 1647, he began to think of resettling the
Jews in that country, but not until 1649 did he decide on a plan of
action. In that year, John Duiy, an English Puritan, wrote to the
Dutch rabbi and asked for a copy of a stoiy that Antonio de
Montezinos had told Menasseh about his travels in America.
Antonio de Montezinos, or Aaron Levi as he was known among his
Jewish brethren, believed that he had found a group of natives
deep in the jungles of South America who were descendants of
the Ten Lost Tribes. He told Menasseh the accounts of his explo
rations, and the good rabbi believed them. Duiy wanted a copy of
the stoiy to send to Thomas Thorowgood, who was interested in
missionary activities among the Indians. Duiy was certain that if
the Indians were really descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes,
Thorowgood would receive additional financial support for his
work. Menasseh sent Duiy a copy of the affidavit that Montezinos

Page 112 - [see page image]

111
THE READMISSION CONTROVERSY
had signed in Amsterdam, and Thorowgood made good use of it
in his work, Jews in America. 15 Thorowgood claimed that the Ten
Lost Tribes were scattered among the nations of the world to the
utmost ends of the earth. Because they had sinned, they were
punished by God. However, he believed that in the last days
Christ would find the lost Children of Israel and bring them to
his kingdom. Thorowgood used Montezinoss story as proof that
the tribes were indeed scattered and that the coming of Christ
was soon at hand. The support of missionary activity would obvi
ously hasten the process. 16
Menasseh was at first hesitant about publishing Montezinoss
narrative because it seemed to prove the need to support Chris
tian missions, but he gradually realized that it could be used for a
Jewish purpose. Daniel had prophesied that the scattering of Is
rael would be the forerunner of their restoration. It was clear that
they had already reached one end of the earth. Let them enter
England and they would have reached the other end. In Jewish
mediaeval literature the name Angleterre had been literally trans
lated into Hebrew as Ketzeh Haaretz, the angle or the limit of the
earth. 17 Only if the Jews would be admitted into England would
Gods promise be fulfilled. Then they and all of mankind would
experience a truly golden age. It was with this thought in mind
that Menasseh wrote Mikveh Yisroel, The Hope of Israel. 18
The Latin edition of the work, translated into English, was
dedicated to “the Parliament, the Supreme Court of England and
to the right Honourable the Council of State.” It began with a
flowery preface in which Menasseh stated that he wrote the book
to gain favor and good will for the Jewish nation. He expressed
his gratitude for all the kindness and understanding that England
had already shown his people and prayed for the coming of the
Messiah. 19 In the introduction, Menasseh mentioned some theo
ries concerning the origins of the inhabitants of America. He be
lieved that the most reasonable one was that of Montezinos, who
claimed that the first inhabitants of America were descendants of
the Ten Lost Tribes. Menasseh was convinced that they had kept
their ancestral rites through the years and that they and their
brethren all over the world would soon be governed by the Mes
siah, son of David. This coming of the Redeemer, Menasseh

Page 113 - [see page image]

112
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
maintained, is the hope of Israel. The translator of the Latin edi
tion of the work stated in the beginning of the book that he want
ed “to give some discoveiy of what apprehensions and workings
there are this day in the hearts of the Jews; and to remove our
sinful hatred from off that people.” 20 He seemed sincere in his
desire to right some of the wrongs committed in the past.
Menassehs work made a deep impression throughout En
gland. The Puritans were flattered by his compliments paid to the
republican government, and those who waited for the imminent
coming of the Messiah were delighted that their beliefs were
sanctioned by a learned sage of Israel. Readmission, however, had
to be based on something more than messianism. Eventually,
Cromwell used his influence to allow Menasseh to come to En
gland to plead for his people. After several delays caused by the
war between England and Holland, the rabbi was finally able to
prepare for his visit. In the summer of 1655, before leaving Hol
land, he sent out a printed letter to the leading Jewish communi
ties of Europe telling them of his plans and asking for their
prayers and good wishes. He mentioned in his message how he
had been encouraged to make the journey by “virtuous and pru
dent individuals” who had informed him that: “today this English
nation is no longer our ancient enemy, but has changed the Pa
pistical religion and become excellantly affected to our nation, as
an oppressed people whereof it has good hope.” 21
Menasseh arrived in England in October 1655. He brought
with him some petitions from the Jews of various parts of Eu
rope, as well as the English manuscript of his Humble Addresses.
On October 31 he presented copies of this work to the Council of
State. It reflected not only Menassehs hopes, but also what he
thought were the attitudes of the Christians towards the Jews.
Menasseh began his work by stating that God puts righteous rul
ers in positions of power and removes those who are wicked. Me
nasseh referred to those men who had been good to the Jewish
People as righteous and to those who had oppressed them as
wicked. Quoting the verse, Genesis 12.3, “I will bless them that
bless thee and curse them that curse thee,” Menasseh stressed
the rewards in store for any ruler who dealt kindly with the Jews. 22
In the name of all that is holy he asked that Cromwell grant:

Page 114 - [see page image]

113
THE READMISSION CONTROVERSY
That the Great and Glorious Name of the Lord our God May be ex
tolled and solemnly worshipped and praised by us through all the
bounds of this Commonwealth; and to grant us peace in your country
That we may have our synagogues and free exercise of our religion.
Ip. 78]
Menasseh then directed his attention to the officials of the
Commonwealth. He repeated the quotations from Daniel that ap
peared in his earlier work, The Hope of Israel, and briefly men
tioned that the resettlement would hasten the coming of the Mes
siah. He then demonstrated the material advantages which
England would receive if Jews were allowed to return. Here the
mystical rabbi became a realist, and his message was clear and
pointed:
My third motive is grounded on the profit that I conceive this Com
monwealth is to wreap, if it shall vouchsafe to receive us; for thence
I hope there will follow a great blessing from God upon them, and a
very abundant trading unto, and from all parts of the World, not
only without prejudice to the English Nation, but for their profit,
both in Importation and Exportation of goods.
[P. 79]
Menassehs new approach evoked a storm of criticism. Those
groups who strongly advocated readmission on religious grounds
resented the emphasis placed on the economic aspects of the
problem. On the other hand, opponents of readmission doubted
the validity of Menasseh s arguments. They wondered if perhaps
the Jews would benefit more than the English through the read
mission.
The most vocal opponent of the readmission was the Puritan
zealot, William Prynne. His biographer, Ethyn Williams Kirby,
described him as follows:
A versatile man, Prynne combined wide knowledge and violent prej
udices, a legal mind and a fanatical spirit. From such a character one
would expect his strange writings, cramned with facts, burning with
violent likes and dislikes Dominated by a zeal to propagate the
social ecclesiastical, and political ideals which he believed right, he
was indeed a typical Puritan. 23

Page 115 - [see page image]

114
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
Prynne, who led a life of almost monk-like severity, was devot
ed to the eradication of evil. He preached against women who
wore their hair too short and against men who wore theirs too
long. He viciously attacked the theater and dancing as inventions
of the devil. Because of his violent outbursts, both his ears were
cut off and the letters “SL” (seditious libeler) branded on his
cheeks. His punishment only increased his zeal, and it enshrined
him as a martyr in the eyes of his followers.
Prynne found the Jews to be a perfect target for his venomous
pen, and his pamphlet, A Short Demurrer to the Jewes, became a
classic anti-Jewish tract that was copied by many of his admir
ers. 24 In the preface to the reader he explained how he became
interested in the problem of the readmission. Prynne described
how, on December 7, 1655, as he walked past Whitehall, a certain
Mr. Nye (1596-1672), a Protestant cleric who favored Jewish re
settlement, asked him “whether there were any law of England
against bringing the Jews amongst us?” 25 Prynne reminded him of
the banishment of 1290, which he believed was an edict of both
Edward I and of Parliament as well. He also told Nye that it was
a most inopportune time to bring the Jews into England, consid
ering how the people “were so dangerously and generally bent to
apostacy, and all sorts of novelties and errors in religion.” Prynne
was afraid that the English people would sooner turn to Judaism
than the Jews would turn to Christianity. He also reminded his
friend that “the Jews had formerly been great clippers and forgers
of mony and had crucified three or four children at least, which
were the principal causes of their banishment.” Nye challenged
Prynne s accusations against the Jews, and Prynne decided to dig
into the records to satisfy himself that his judgment was sound.
He thus began his work with a preconceived notion and searched
for material that would support his conclusions. When he could
not find evidence to substantiate his accusations, he fabricated it.
Prynne attacked the readmission on religious, legal, and
economic grounds, and he provided a rich storehouse of anti-
Jewish material that was to be used by other writers in his
generation and in those to come. Like other opponents of the
readmission, he tried to show that the Biblical bond that existed
between God and his chosen people had been severed when the

Page 116 - [see page image]

115
THE READMISSION CONTROVERSY
Jews rejected Jesus. He argued that if the Almighty had viewed
them as a stiff-necked people who were incorrigible in their ways,
then certainly they would not be an asset to England. Prynne fur
ther claimed that if God had chosen to punish them by dispersing
them over the face of the earth, it would be against Gods will to
gather them in England (p. 63). Prynne also pointed out that if
the Jews would be encouraged to resettle in England, it would
logically follow that the Catholics and the royalists should also be
allowed to practice their religion and that the country should
throw open its doors to all who rejected the Puritan faith. He
challenged the notion that the non-Christian countries were more
tolerant to the Jews than England was. In his opinion, they, too,
refused to fraternize with the Jews and excluded them whenever
possible (p. 78ff).
Prynne also challenged the readmission on legal grounds,
claiming that the Jews had been banished by an act of Parliament
in 1290 and that they could not be allowed to resettle in the
country unless Parliament repealed the decree. Prynne admitted
that the “Edict and Decree” was not to be found in the Parlia
mentary rolls, but he claimed that they had been lost (p. 49). Al
though the Instalment of Government, which was a sort of consti
tution of England during the period, stressed religious toleration,
he argued that it did not include Jews but only those of the Chris
tian faith, excluding Catholics and royalists. Because the Jews
were infidels, he believed that they were excluded from the intent
of the law (p. 55).
Finally, Prynne attacked the readmission on purely economic
grounds (p. 99ff). Although he contradicted himself in his state
ments regarding the economic value of the Jews, his anti-Jewish
sentiments were clear. He first claimed that the Jews only bring
profit to the king and to the officials of any country that admits
them. Citing the example of pre-expulsion England, he showed
how eventually Jews must receive special privileges which hurt
the general Christian community. After he admitted the econom
ic value of the Jews, Prynne asked if economic advantage was a
proper motive for admitting nonbelievers into England. He com
pared the situation to the Old Testament story of Harnor, who
urged the men of Shechem to accept circumcision for purely

Page 117 - [see page image]

116
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
economic reasons (Genesis 34:20-23). Prynne later claimed that
the Jews did not bring economic profit to a country. Referring
back to pre-expulsion England, he concluded that the Jews of the
time were of no financial value, and that once they had been ban
ished, trade had immediately increased. Prynne unhesitantly dis
torted any facts of histoiy that could be used to stir up anti-Jew
ish sentiments, and he perfected the “Big Lie.” He was a master
propagandist, and his work embraced many mediaeval myths and
half-truths. In addition, he unscrupulously maligned clerics and
legal experts who favored the readmission.
Prynnes attack against the Jews was motivated by his antago
nism towards Cromwell and government members who favored
readmitting them into England. The pain and the humiliation
that he experienced at the hands of the authorities increased his
antagonism towards the readmission, and his attack was just one
of his many outbursts against his enemies or those connected
with them. 26 None of his pamphlets either before or after the
printing of his Short Demurrer dealt with the Jews; and his an
ti-Jewish sentiments seem to have been only a veiy brief expres
sion of hatred towards them. But it was significant that Prynne
could amass so much anti-Jewish material within such a short pe
riod of time. It apparently was readily available and part of the
sentiments and folklore of the time.
Prynnes attacks demonstrated how latent hatreds based on
events long since past could be activated when the proper situa
tions arose. His attack upon Cromwell, through his opposition to
the readmission, showed how the Jews of the time, real and imag
inary, were a tool in the hand of the zealot or bigot. They could
be summoned, however briefly, for a purpose and then quickly
forgotten. Along with the witches and the Catholics, they could
be used to achieve political or social goals. The opposition to the
readmission went beyond questions of theology. However, the
teachings of the church supplied the forces opposed to Cromwell
with a basis for their arguments against resettling the Jews in the
country. The church had created through the centuries a climate
of public opinion receptive to their anti-Jewish tirades, and the
zealots found a ready audience for their venomous tracts.

Page 118 - [see page image]

117
THE READMISSION CONTROVERSY
Alexander Ross (1591-1654), like Prynne, attacked Cromwell’s
plans for the readmission by trying to discredit Jews and Judaism
in the eyes of the English people. He began his rather lengthy
book with the statement that the Jews would soon be coming to
live in England and that he wanted to give the Christian reader
an idea of what the Jews believed and practiced. He claimed that
he would not draw any conclusions about these newcomers, but
his intense prejudice against them quickly became clear. Ross be
lieved that after the English people actually saw Jews practicing
their religion, they would better appreciate how fortunate they
were to be Christians. He wrote, “That having before our eyes
their sensuall stupidity and obdurate incredulity, together with
the great wrath and severity of God against them, we may be put
in serious remembrance of the wonderful bounty and goodness of
God unto us.” 27
Ross heaped scorn upon virtually every area of Jewish scholar
ship, worship, and ritual observance. He believed that the rabbis
should be ashamed of their “grosse stupidity,” which they dis
played in their distorted interpretations of scripture, and he ac
cused them of bringing the dreams and fancies of mad people
into their commentaries (p. 27). Ross viewed Jewish prayer as a
means by which the Christian people and Jewish proselytes to
Christianity were cursed each morning and evening. He was a
veiy knowledgeable person who had thoroughly researched the
area, and, as a result, his slanderous statements about the con
tents of the liturgy carried great authority. In his detailed descrip
tion of Jewish customs and ceremonies, he combined some accu
rate observations with various derogatory statements resulting
from his own prejudices. For example, after discussing the ritual
obligations that the Jews performed each morning, Ross added:
Sloth and remisness is no way becoming a Jew, who ought to give
constant proof of his alacrity and readiness in rising; and thus to
think with himself; if any Christian were at the doore who owed me
mony, or would pawn something of value, whose coming might be
gainfull unto me; or if I was invited by a prince or some great per
son, from whom I had expectation of some favour.
[P. 95]

Page 119 - [see page image]

118
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
Thus, the old stereotyped image of the stage Jew was strategically
placed alongside the practices of Judaism that many Christians
admired.
To further combat any possible positive attitudes towards Jews
and Judaism, Ross attacked the Jewish concept of the Messiah
and tried to show how it reflected a desire to subjugate other reli
gious groups. He claimed that the Jews believed that when the
messianic age would come “the Christians and those nations
whose throats they do not cut, shall build them houses and cities,
till their ground, plant their vineyard for no hire ... even the
princes shall serve them” (p. 425). Ross’s concluding remarks
were very significant. He pointed out that Judaism was “not
founded upon Moses and the Law, but upon idle and foolish tra
ditions of the Rabbins” (p. 427). Like so many other Christian
thinkers, he sought to show that the contemporary Jews and their
religious practices were divorced from the biblical world that
many Englishmen admired.
An anonymous pamphlet, The Case of the Jewes Stated: or the
Jewes Synagogue Opened, which may also have been written by
Ross, 28 combined a description of Jewish customs and ceremonies
related to home observance and synagogue worship with pseu
do-history and anti-Jewish prejudice. After a brief introduction to
the rituals of the synagogue, the author recounted how the Jews
of pre-expulsion England were guilty of torturing Christian chil
dren and putting them to death. He uncritically accepted Mathew
of Paris’s account of one such incident and summarized the al
leged crime and the subsequent punishment. 29 At first glance it
appears that the author rather haphazardly arranged his material.
The supposed incidents of the blood libels are immediately fol
lowed by a description of the rituals of the Jewish people, for ex
ample. It is possible, however, that he inserted the selections
about the ritual murders to remind the readers not to be too im
pressed with Jewish customs and ceremonies, because they were
practiced by some very devilish creatures. He strategically placed
slanderous statements about the Jews throughout this short pam
phlet to prevent undue admiration of them and their religious
practices. Thus, after he described how the Jews prayed for the
restoration of the temple, he noted that they also offered prayers

Page 120 - [see page image]

119
THE READMISSION CONTROVERSY
for the destruction of Christianity. The author also wrote that in
their private writings the Jews claimed that “the soul of Esau en
tered into the body of Christ, and that Christ and Christians are
no better than Esau” (p. 4).
Another vehement opponent of readmission was a writer
known only as W. H. In his work, Anglo-Judaeus, he violently at
tacked both the Jewish people and their religion. It was a careful
ly documented refutation of Menassehs Hope of Israel and his
Humble Addresses. In the preface, the author challenged the con
tention that the Jews of pre-expulsion England had been an asset
to the country and that they had lived in “profitableness and faith
fulness.” He also questioned, on strictly religious grounds, the
wisdom of readmitting them to the country. He noted that among
the general population of England there were “too many having
already taken up, if not their opinions, yet such as border near
upon their hold.” 30 He referred obviously to the various Judaizing
sects, which the author considered to be a threat to the Protes
tant faith. The presence of any substantial number of Jews could
only cause heresy to increase and further undermine Christianity.
He supported these contentions with what he considered to be
historical facts. W. H. began with the Bible as a source of proof of
the evil nature of the Jewish people. He cited the ingratitude of
the ancient Israelites, who had rejected God after he had liberat
ed them from Egyptian bondage, and showed how this became a
national trait that continued through the biblical period and the
time of Jewish commonwealths. All the persecutions that the Jews
had experienced were the result of their sinful and rebellious
character, and the Jews were not worthy of the sympathy of the
Christians. The author took the same approach when he touched
upon the histoiy of the Jews in England. He was objective enough
to realize that the Jews had been used as sponges by the Angevin
kings to “suck up the English treasure which they [the rulers]
then squeezed into their own coffers” (p. 6). Nevertheless, he
condemned them for their great zeal in accumulating wealth for
the treasury and for “the insolency of their carriage” which
aroused the hatred of the general population.
All of this was relatively mild compared to the authors total
acceptance of the mediaeval myth that the Jews killed Christian

Page 121 - [see page image]

120
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
children for ritual purposes. His description of the Norwich blood
libel closely followed the accounts of the mediaeval chroniclers,
and once again the modern Jews were accused of following the
example of their ancestors by cruelly crucifying and murdering in
nocent Christians. He considered the York massacre to be an act
of God, a punishment for the Jews’ stubborness and cruelty, and
he believed those who perished were not worthy of Christian sym
pathy. Each succeeding persecution was prefaced with some men
tion of alleged Jewish crimes, so that all their sufferings appeared
to be just punishments for treacherous behavior. The author be
gan his description of one massacre with the statement “By this
time their iniquities were grown so high, that they were counted a
burden to the earth on which they trod; no rising, no stir, but part
of it must fall upon them” (p. 14). By cleverly distorting the facts
of histoiy, W. H. concluded that in the years that the Jews were in
England, they held the people in bondage. They afflicted the
Christian population by murdering their children, clipping their
coins, charging them usurous rates of interest, and encouraging
those who believed in Jesus to leave their faith. The author won
dered how the English people could possibly accept Menasseh
ben Israel’s statement that the Jews had once been an asset to the
country (pp. 39-40). He realized how earnestly the Christians
wanted to convert the Jews and bring them into the fold. Howev
er, he had strong doubts if such a plan would really work, wonder
ing if it was “probable that this people, which hath now been
blincle for above 1600 years, should be restored to sight by any but
extraordinary power, by any work but one miraculous” (p. 50).
The pamphlet is valuable not only for the clearly stated opin
ions of the author, but also for the light that it sheds upon the
common man’s attitudes towards the Jews. W. H. noted, for exam
ple, that although some 365 years passed from the expulsion to
the time of the writing of his work, in the popular mind Jews
were remembered as a people “either apt to do, or fit to suffer
any violence.” He stated further that the word “Jew” was used to
describe a person who was of the lowest and most despised group
in society. Among the people of England, cutthroat dealing was
commonly described by the expression “None but a Jew would

Page 122 - [see page image]

121
THE READMISSION CONTROVERSY
have done so.” Popular expressions to describe a terrible misfor
tune were “This had been enough for a Jew to suffer” and “I
would have done so to a Jew” (p. 47).
In addition to the Protestant writers who opposed the read-
mission and attacked both the Jews and Judaism, Paul Isaiah, a
convert from Judaism (1626-1656), added his voice to those who
tarnished their image. He was something of a professional con
vert, a man who changed his faith three or four times in as many
years. Yet his writings about his former religionists influenced
public opinion, and they cannot be passed over lightly. They ap
peared at a time “when the taste of the average Englishman in
clined towards religious works, particularly to those concerned
with the chopping of texts.” 31 Paul Isaiah claimed that he was
born an “unworthy superstitious Jew” and that for the first twen
ty-four years of his life he had practiced Judaism. Then he sud
denly and miraculously became aware of the truth of Christianity
and left his people. The convert showed his scorn of his former
religionists when he criticized them for their stubbornness in re
jecting the message that he hoped to deliver to them. He felt that
“it may seem more easie and possible to turn an hard iron or
stone in an instant into water, as soon as a Jews heart unto Chris
tian Religion.” 32 Such a statement from the pen of a converted
Jew must have added weight to the arguments of those opposed
to the readmission who said that there was little hope that the
Jews would accept the Christian faith once they came to England.
Paul Isaiah was particularly critical of the rabbis who, he be
lieved, kept the Jews from experiencing the true faith. He ac
cused them of teaching vicious doctrines that prevented their fol
lowers from discovering the blessing of Christianity. This was
particularly true in the Jewish approach to the Messiah.
Here may every good upright and Pious Christian behold and per
ceive, how this blind and heart-stopped people reject the holy Scrip
tures, Prophets and Ministers, through their Rabbies ignorant and
unfit knowledge; for they have no thought in the least of such
Messias as should redeem them from their sinnes and spiritual
captivity, but of a Valiant Man, who shall so valiantly fight with the
Christians, shall slay them and overcome them, take their houses,

Page 123 - [see page image]

122
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
goods and lands from them and give them to the Jews for their in
heritance, having no other thoughts in them, but how they may rob
the Christians of their goods. 33
Paul Isaiah was not content to show how the rabbis supposed
ly taught that one day the Jews would seize Christian property.
He also pointed out that in the prayer services, which were con
ducted twice each clay, the Jews were “bound to blaspheme Christ
and to curse him, and all true Christians which believe in him.” 34
One of the best rebuttals of the arguments and slanders of
men like Prynne, Ross, and Paul Isaiah was offered by a writer
known as L. D. In his work, Israels Condition and Cause Plead
ed, etc., the author revealed the effects of some of Menasseh ben
Israel’s arguments upon a small segment of the English popula
tion. He obviously had been won over to many of the rabbi’s ar
guments concerning the readmission, and his pamphlet reflected
both an interest in the Jewish people and a strong desire to see
them resettled in England. L. D. connected the readmission of
the Jews with their ultimate redemption, and he noted:
For though God in his justice did threaten to scatter them into all
Nations, yet he doth not say they shall be cast out of all nations ... If
they should not be amongst all Nations, how should God (as he in
tends it) gather them out of all Nations? A general collection implies
a general casting and if so why not some into England. 33
Like many other Puritans, he believed that once the Jews would
be readmitted, the chance of their eventual conversion to Christi
anity would depend on the general population’s attitudes towards
them. The power of Puritan preaching, the manner in which the
Jews would be treated by the merchants and bankers, and the love
shown to them by the people would all be important facts in bring
ing them into the fold. L. D. urged his readers “to forgive and
forget what is past fully and freely, and to cover all with love and
charity.” He noted that Jesus himself had prayed that Jews would
be forgiven for their sins and “to say he was not heard, and his
petition not granted is impious and desperate blasphemy” (p. 60).
The author strongly opposed any persecution of the Jews,
viewing such acts as against the will of God. He accepted them as

Page 124 - [see page image]

123
THE READMISSION CONTROVERSY
“God’s own peculiar People” and admitted that although the Al
mighty may have punished them temporarily for their sins, it was
wrong for the Christians to continue to cause them to suffer (p.
68). L. D. refuted the arguments raised against the readmission
by claiming that the Jews would in no way threaten Christian so
ciety. He believed that they only wanted the opportunity to dwell
in peace without any external pressures. He described them as
witty, wise, ingenious, well bred, addicted to curious and neat arts
and inventions, pleasing themselves in solitary retiredness (p. 74).
Thomas Collier attempted to answer the attacks made against
the Jews by W. H., the author of Anglo-Judaeus. In his pamphlet
A Brief Answer to Some of the Objections and Demurs Made
Against the Coming in and Inhabiting of the Jews in this Com
monwealth etc., he pointed out that the Jews were punished by
God for their rebelliousness for a just reason. Collier believed
that “by their fall the Lord hath taken his way to bring forth sal
vation to us gentiles, which could not be, but in their fall.” 36 Thus,
the Jewish crime against Jesus was part of a divine plan designed
to provide salvation for the Christians. He argued that the hatred
that had been focused on the Jewish people through the centuries
was unwarranted, since the Crucifixion was ordained by God. He
wrote: “Though it was their sin yet it was Gods counsell; yea it is
by Christ crucifyed, that we have life ... so God hath wrought
good to us out of their evill, Let us not therefore envy them, but
admire the unsearchable wisdom of God” (p. 31). Collier warned
his readers against being excessively cruel to the Jews, and he felt
that it was un-Christian to “add affliction to the afflicted.”
The author attempted to refute several of the standard objec
tions raised against the readmission. He noted for example, that
the Christians as well as the Jews were guilty of usury. He asked,
“Is there any more reason to keep out them for usuiy, then to
banish those Usurers that are already amongst us?” (p. 25). Col
lier noted that those who objected to the readmission claimed
that Jews were guilty of crucifying children. He questioned the
truth of such statements and reassured his readers that if the Jews
were caught committing such crimes, they would be guilty of
murder and would be properly punished (p. 30). The author re
jected the old argument that the Jews could never be readmitted

Page 125 - [see page image]

124
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
because they had been banished permanently from England. He
pointed out that the expulsion had been ordered by “popish
Princes” and that contemporary Englishmen should not perpetu
ate their sins. Instead, his countrymen should repent and turn
from the evils committed by their fathers. Collier was realistic
enough to realize that the religious leaders of his generation and
public opinion as well opposed the readmission. Yet he was en
couraged by those who were waiting for the redemption of Israel
and who did not share the anti-Jewish sentiments of the majority
of the people (p. 31).
Although much that Collier expressed was ahead of his time,
his motives were far from being pure. Perhaps he may have ad
mired the Jewish people and wanted to see that justice was done;
yet he was also motivated by a strong desire to convert them to
the true faith. This can be seen when he noted: “It is neither hon
ourable to God nor our Profession, nor can we perform our duty
to God in keeping out a people from us... who might be through
the blessing of God converted to us” (p. 34). His interest in con
version detracts from his seemingly idealistic exhortations. Thus,
Colliers plea that Christians cannot pretend to love Abraham
without showing affection to his descendants, and his strong
statements concerning the need to protect both the body and the
soul of contemporary Jewry, cannot be accepted on face value.
Consciously and subconsciously the conversion of the Jews shaped
many of his attitudes and opinions. Like other writers of the
time, Colliers interest in the Jews and his desire to see them re
admitted into England was linked with their ultimate acceptance
of Jesus.
One of the most important historical works that advocated the
readmission was written just before Menassehs visit, and it was
available to those who were engaged in the controversy with such
writers as Prynne and Ross. The author, who went under the name
of Philo Judaeus, was probably one of the Fifth Monarchy Men,
who believed that the rule of Jesus was fast approaching. However,
he had a great deal of love and respect for the Jewish people that
was not often found in similar pamphlets. He stressed the fact that
if the Christians had any hope of winning over the Jews to their
faith, they would have to do so through a genuine concern for the

Page 126 - [see page image]

125
THE READMISSION CONTROVERSY
Jews’ welfare. He urged his readers to gird their loins so that
“when the Hebrews shall by providence come into this Nation,
they may see such a lustre and beauty in your conversations, and
such loveliness in your affections, as it may allure them to irn-
brace your faith.” 37 Although theologically the author maintained
the usual approach to the Crucifixion, he emphasized that Chris
tians should learn the art of forgiveness. He noted that if a Chris
tian would taunt the Jews over the fact that they crucified Jesus,
“he does crucifie the son of God afresh” (p. 99). True, the Jews
were guilty of the act. However, one who taunts them for having
committed such a deed “keeps the wound open and thereby our
blessed Saviour bleeds afresh (p. fOf).
The author praised the Jewish people for their contributions
to Western civilization and commended them for the patience
they displayed in waiting for the Messiah, their zeal in studying
the Torah, and their generosity in giving charity to the poor. He
also defended the Jews against the accusation that they charged
excessive rates of interest. Not only did he point out that they
were honest in their business transactions, but he also noted that
English Christians were engaged in identical practices. Since En
gland had always opened her gates to the dispersed who wanted
refuge, certainly the Jews, who were known to be faithful to the
laws of the countries in which they lived, should be allowed to
resettle. Expressions of Christian sympathy were not sufficient.
The opportunity had come for Christians to demonstrate their
feelings through concrete actions. The reader was reminded that
this was not a social or economic problem, but one that was tied
up with the ultimate redemption of the Jews, through conversion,
and the second coming of Jesus. Thus, Christian apathy in foster
ing the readmission was a direct sin against God. The author not
ed that “truly in the neglecting of this duty we keep silence, and
so become guilty of a hainous crime. For what do any of us know
whether they may not be part of that means which God will use
concerning their restauration” (p. 90).
Menasseh ben Israel’s presence in England and his request
that Jews be readmitted gave urgency to the whole problem of
Christian-Jewish relations. It inspired more than one cleric to
rethink his attitudes towards the flesh-and-blood Jews. In theoiy,

Page 127 - [see page image]

126
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
it was not too difficult to talk about extending Christian love to
Jews in the hope that they might convert. But when the prospect
of a flood of Jews entering the country became pressing, old irra
tional animosities came to the surface. The change of heart that
came about from Menassehs specific requests can best be noted
in the works of men like John Dury.
John Duiy (1596—1680), a Protestant cleric, was regarded as
one of the most important theologians of his time. While Duiy
was on the continent, Samuel Hartlib, an English scholar, asked
him if it was possible from both theological and legal points of
view to allow the Jews to be readmitted into England. Duiy an
swered him in his pamphlet A Case of Conscience. He pointed
out that it was not only lawful but expedient to allow them to re
turn. He believed that it was a Christian obligation to show con
cern for the wayfarer, and that no nation needed compassion
more than the Jewish people. 38 He beleived, as did other writers,
that certain restrictions would have to be placed upon Jews after
they entered the country. They would be forbidden to commit
blasphemy against Jesus, to seek converts, or to profane the
Christian Sabbath. In addition, they would be obligated to attend
lectures on the principles of Christianity and to engage “in a
friendly way” in discussions of the religion. Duiy hoped that the
Jews would appreciate the truth that God revealed to the Chris
tians through the gospel and that they would ultimately convert.
Other restrictions to be placed on the Jews included their separa
tion from the general community in more “friendly ways” than
were currently being practiced in Germany. He hinted that it
would be necessary to limit their usuiy and their unethical prac
tices, but he did not go into detail beyond the suggestion that the
officials of the state look into the matter (p. 8).
After Dury’s somewhat tolerant opinion was circulated, he re
ceived some letters in January 1656 that contained the requests
that Menasseh ben Israel had made regarding the readmission.
Dury then added a postscript to his pamphlet which reflected his
change of heart now that the problem of the return of the Jews
was a real one. Those few lines that he added to his work are tes
timony to the deep-seated hatreds of not only Dury but a great
many so-called enlightened clerics.

Page 128 - [see page image]

127
THE READMISSION CONTROVERSY
Our state doth wisely to go warily and by degrees in the business of
receiving them. Menasseh ben Israel’s demands are great; and the
use which they make of great privileges is not much to their com
mendation here and elsewhere. They have ways to undermine a
state, and to insinuate those that are in office, and prejudicate the
trade of others; and therefore if they be not wisely restrained, they
will in short time be oppressive, if they be such as are here in Ger
many.
[P.8]
Thomas Barlow (1607-1691) was another cleric whose theo
retical approach to Jews and Judaism was far different from his
practical attitudes towards the readmission. 39 When a correspon
dent of his, Thomas Godwin, asked his opinions concerning the
return of the Jews to England, Barlow replied in a pamphlet The
Case of the Jews. He noted that if the readmission would benefit
the country financially, it should be approved. The good of all
people was the supreme law of any state, and it was important to
decide if the return of the Jews would indeed aid the economy of
England. Since Barlow believed that the Jews of pre-expulsion
England had been an asset to the country through their financial
dealings, he saw no reason why this would not happen again. He
did not fear Jewish usury, since he believed that it could be easily
controlled in the modern state. 40 In relation to the religious as
pects of the problem, he saw no reason why Jews and Christians
could not live side by side. Certainly, if British merchants had
dealings with Jews in foreign countries, they could do the same
thing at home. He did not feel that Christianity would be threat
ened by the coming of the Jews, because in no country had large
numbers of Christians ever converted to Judaism. In fact, the op
posite would probably happen; the Jews would convert. In typical
conversionist fashion, Barlow felt that the nations should not per
secute the Jews, but that they should spread the gospel and tiy to
influence them by allowing them to have a greater contact with
Christians (p. 48). Thus, for the sake of financial gain and the
possibility of encouraging conversion, Barlow believed that the
Jews should be readmitted to England.
When the question arose of what restrictions should be placed
upon the Jews once they arrived in England, Barlow changed his

Page 129 - [see page image]

128
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
tone. He now had to deal with practical matters, and he laid down
seventeen conditions which were almost mediaeval in tone and
content. He believed that Jews should be prohibited from dress
ing like their neighbors, that they should be forbidden to employ
Christian servants and midwives, and that Jewish doctors should
not be allowed to treat non-Jewish patients. In addition, Jews
were to be compelled to discuss religious matters with Christian
clerics. He even would have forbidden that the Jews leave their
homes on Good Friday (pp. 73-77). There was a marked differ
ence between his academic interest in Jews and Judaism, his the
oretical tolerance, and his own deep-rooted prejudices. 41
This change of heart on the part of the Puritan clergy was par
ticularly evident at the Whitehall Conference, which Cromwell
called in December of 1655 to settle the matter of the readmis
sion. Although he picked as delegates those clerics and laymen
who had openly favored religious toleration, the meetings at
Whitehall disappointed supporters of readmission. One of the best
accounts of the religious controversy at the Whitehall Conference
was written by Henry Jesse, a friend of Menasseh who was present
at all of the sessions. In his short pamphlet which described the
proceedings, Jesse stated that he decided to put down on paper
what had transpired in order to satisfy the curiosity of “many good
people in divers parts of this Nation who have often prayed for the
Jews Conversion.” 42 He noted that many Englishmen had written
to their friends in London asking about the proceedings, and he
hoped that he could supply them with an accurate eyewitness
account of the issues that were raised during the debates.
Jesse was primarily concerned with the religious and moral as
pects of the readmission. Except for acknowledging that the law
yers agreed that there was no law against readmitting the Jews
and that the merchants had mixed feelings about it, he centered
his concern on the views of the clerics attending the conference.
He treated the major religious arguments for allowing the Jews to
return fully and sympathetically, and he showed how some of the
clergy were concerned for the needs of the stranger. It was this
sense of compassion for these oppressed people, as well as a defi
nite feeling of guilt for the sins of the pre-expulsion period, that
moved these religious leaders to advocate the readmission. But

Page 130 - [see page image]

129
THE READMISSION CONTROVERSY
Jesse also understood how keenly they sought the conversion of
the Jews. The author noted how some of the clerics believed that:
In no nation hath there been more faithful, frequent and fervent
prayers for the Jews than in England. None are more likely to con
vince them by scripture, and by holy life, then many in England:
And Gentiles ... must provoke Jews to jealousie, or emulation; and
happy is England, if it be instrumental in so blessed a work.
[P.4]
The conversionist sentiments of the assembled preachers was
reflected in a prayer that was offered at one of the sessions. Jesse
recorded it as follows:
O Lord Jesus, thou indeed justly revengest the contempt of thy self
and worship, upon this ungrateful people, whom thou punishest
most severely. But O Lord, remember thy Covenant and respect
them now in misery for thy namessake. And grant this to us ... that
we going on in thy grace, may not be instruments of thine anger
against them; but rather, both by the knowledge of thy word, and by
the examples of holy life,... we may recall them into the right way.
[P.4]
The prayer expressed the belief of several of the clerics that al
though the Jews had been rejected by God for having refused to
accept Jesus, they were once “Children of the Covenant” and
were worthy of any proselytizing efforts that would bring them
back to this special relationship with their creator.
Not all of the clerics at the conference were so ethereal.
Though many were interested in converting the Jews, others feared
that the coming of substantial numbers of Jews would cause good
Christians to turn to Judaism. Unfortunately, Jesse did not go into
too great detail concerning the arguments raised by those opposing
the readmission, yet, it is clear from his brief work that some of
these men feared that if the Jews would be allowed to resettle,
they would institute Moloch worship and other idolatrous practices
in England. This opposition on the part of the clergy was quite
strong, and the author noted that Cromwell “had hoped by these
preachers to have had some clearing the case, as to conscience. But

Page 131 - [see page image]

130
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
seeing these agreed not, but were of two or three opinions, it was
left the more doubtfull to him and the Councel” (p. 4).
The clerics were hopelessly divided in their attitudes towards
the readmission. As the conference continued, their anti-Jewish
prejudices became more intense as they realized the negative ef
fects the Jews would have upon their parishioners. Hugh Peters
(f598-f660), who for several years had urged that England emu
late the Dutch spirit of toleration, was one who gave in to the
prejudices of the times. When he was informed that the Cryp-
to-Jews of London had outwardly practiced Catholicism for many
years, he denounced them as a self-seeking generation “who
made but little conscience of their own principles.” 43
The supporters of the readmission could hope at best to admit
the Jews under certain religious and commercial restrictions. This
was unacceptable to Cromwell, and he ended the conference. He
was interested, among other things, in bringing commercial pros
perity to the country by attracting Jewish capital and Jewish com
mercial talents. To banish these people to decayed ports and cit
ies and to penalize them by double customs duties, as some of
the compromisers had suggested, would defeat his plans. In addi
tion, the Crypto-Jews in London, who had served him so well in
the past, would be forced to leave the city.
Lor the next few weeks many observers expected that Crom
well would decide to readmit the Jews on his own authority. How
ever, he did nothing at this point. The Whitehall Conference had
revealed to him the intensity of the bias against the Jews and had
demonstrated how even those who in theoiy favored the readmis
sion opposed it as a practical policy. If the clergy could not fully
support such a plan, what could he expect from the merchants in
the country whose livelihood would be affected by the arrival of
the Jews? Certainly, the rumblings that he heard at Whitehall
would reverberate throughout England. When a subcommittee is
sued a report in favor of a severely restricted policy of readmis
sion, Cromwell promptly suppressed it. Otherwise, he deliberate
ly tried to ignore the problem. A few Jews who accompanied
Menasseh to London lost hope and returned home. The general
public became apathetic to the problem and directed its attention
to more pressing issues.

Page 132 - [see page image]

131
THE READMISSION CONTROVERSY
Menasseh remained in London to compose a book answering
the charges that had been leveled against the Jews during the
controversy over the readmission. He was particularly anxious to
answer the attacks of Prynne. Menasseh’s book, Vindiciae Juclaeo-
nim or A Letter to Certain Questions propounded by a Noble and
Learned Gentleman, touching the reproaches cast on the Nation
of the Jewes, wherein all objections are candidly and yet fully
cleared, was one of the most popular pieces of Jewish apologetic
literature ever published. The work was divided into seven sec
tions, each dealing with an area of anti-Jewish prejudice. Me
nasseh began with a refutation of the old argument that Jews
used Christian blood for ritual purposes, and systematically
delved into the prejudices of the time. In the last section he told
of his mission to England and how his high hopes had come to
naught. In spite of his bitter experience, Menasseh naively be
lieved that all of the accusations against his people had been fab
ricated by only a few individuals and that they stemmed from
purely selfish motives. “I can not be persuaded that anyone hath
either spoken or written against us, out of any particular hatred
that they bare us, but that they rather supposed our coming might
prove prejudicial to their estates and interests.” 44
Although the attack upon the Jews by such men as Prynne and
Ross stirred up considerable controversy, Cromwell remained loy
al to the Jews and gave them verbal permission to maintain a syn
agogue in London, provided that it did not attract too much at
tention. This semi-official act on the part of Cromwell aroused
some resentment from those at the conference who had opposed
readmission. The war with Spain that broke out in 1656 gave
these men an opportunity to get their revenge.
The Crypto-Jews were able to live unmolested in England by
claiming that they were Spanish subjects. At the veiy beginning of
hostilities, the Privy Council issued a proclamation declaring that
property belonging to Spanish subjects could be confiscated as a
lawful prize. Shortly after this, at the instigation of an informer, the
property and papers of a Marrano merchant, Antonio Rodriguez
Robles, were seized. Robles first protested against the confiscation
of his goods on the grounds that he was Portuguese and not Span
ish. However, it was known that he had lived in Spain and had

Page 133 - [see page image]

132
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
passed himself off as a Spanish Catholic. Also, he had been
employed by the Spanish government. Robles turned to his co
religionists for help, and they convinced him to base his plea of
innocence on the grounds that he was a Jew. They promised to
support him in his quest for justice and were convinced that
Cromwell would come to their aid. After thorough investigation,
the council ordered the immediate discharge of the warrants is
sued against Robles and ordered that his ships and merchandise
be returned. 45
The case was the turning-point in the history of the London Congre
gation of Marranos. It brought them for the first time into the light
of day as a Jewish community. Thenceforth they were compelled to
rely for whatever privileges they might claim in this country not
upon their foreign birth, but upon their quality as Jews. 46
The Robles Case gave the Marranos the courage to petition for
the formal right to conduct services and maintain a cemetery. In
the words of their request:
Wee pray with all Humblenesse yt by the best meanes which may be
such Protection may be granted us in Writting as that wee may
theren meete at owr said priwate deuosions in owr Particular houses
without feere of Molestation either to owr persons famillys or es
tates, owr desires Being to Liue Peacebly under yor Highnes Gouer-
nement, And being wee are all mortall wee alsoe Humbly pray your
Highnesses to graunt us License that those which may dey of owr
nation may be buryed in such place out of the cittye as wee shall
think conuenient. 47
The Marranos essentially were asking for permission to practice
their faith openly and to begin to function as a recognized com
munity. Cromwell willingly granted the request. In December
1656 their presence in England became an established fact when
they rented a house in Creechurch Lane as a place of worship and
openly practiced their faith. But the small colony of Jews in En
gland owed their existence to Cromwell and not to any dramatic
change in Christian attitudes. Menasseh had failed to alter public
opinion to any significant extent, and, except for some personal

Page 134 - [see page image]

133
THE READMISSION CONTROVERSY
friendships that he had made in England, he did little to change
the anti-Jewish prejudices that had been building up over the
centuries.
In the years ahead the Jews of England were to continue to be
viewed with curiosity and scorn. Zealous clerics would pray for
their conversion, and mystics would view them as harbingers of
the Messiah. Their commercial talents and capital would be put
to good use, but for the most part they would still be haunted by
the mediaeval stories told about them, and the old fears and jeal
ousies would linger on.

Page 135 - [see page image]

134
THE REKINDLING OF
OLD HATREDS
From the time of the readmis
sion of Jews to England through the turn of the century, the im
age of the Jews did not significantly change. The Jews still were
viewed as a stubborn people who refused to accept Christianity,
and they were, as in the past, the object of scorn and ridicule in
many of the conversionist tracts and sermons of the day. The
stage Jew almost disappeared from the drama, but scattered neg
ative references to Jews were found in Restoration plays. Mystics
continued to view them as harbingers of the end of days and fan
ciful accounts of Jewish armies which were made up of descen
dants of the Ten Lost Tribes and which were preparing to invade
the Holy Land, were popular. During this period theological
speculations about the coming of the messianic era were of di
minishing importance. Economic jealousies had a more profound
effect upon Christian attitudes, and they caused deep feelings of
insecurity among the leaders of the emerging Jewish community.
The anti-Semitic tracts that had been prepared during the read
mission controversy were cited by men who envied and hated the
Jews for their economic position in English society, and old theo
logical hatreds found in these works were revived when it proved
to be financially advantageous.
Through the efforts of Cromwell the Jews were able to establish
a synagogue and openly practice their faith in England. It was also
through the strength of his personality that those who hated the

Page 136 - [see page image]

135
THE REKINDLING OF OLD HATREDS
Jews remained somewhat subdued. The negative reactions of the
public to the establishment of a small Jewish community were
limited to private correspondence and entries in personal diaries; 1
little, if anything, was stated publicly. The Jews, under Cromwell’s
protection, actually enjoyed certain privileges that were denied to
some Christian groups like the Catholics and the Quakers. In ad
dition to being allowed to hold their own worship services, they
were given permission to purchase a cemetery and to engage
freely in trade. By 1657 they were admitted as brokers on the
City Exchange, a privilege that was only supposed to be granted
to freemen. 2
On the surface, the Jews seemingly enjoyed a peaceful, un
eventful existence. The building in which they conducted their
services was part of an ecclesiastical trust, and they paid their rent
to the parish of St. Katherine. Both the tenants and their landlord
were on good terms, and the Christians who came in contact with
the Jewish community developed strong bonds of friendship with
their neighbors. The churchwarden’s record of the early burials of
the congregation note that the bells of the Church of St. Kather
ine tolled to mark the passing of some of the early Jews of the re
settlement. On the occasion of the first Jewish funeral, the church
lent the Jews their pall. 3 These were simple acts of kindness and
respect that were shown by the leaders of the parish.
From the beginning of the period of the resettlement, the Jews
mixed freely with their Christian neighbors. Unlike their brethren
on the continent, the English Jews never established a ghetto. In
the absolute monarchies on the other side of the channel, the Jews
who were emancipated had to adjust to a new life in an open soci
ety. To gain acceptance they had to struggle to overcome their alien
character and their alien dress and social customs. The Jews of En
gland did not isolate themselves from society, and in a relatively
short period of time they assimilated themselves into the English
national character. Thus, they achieved social emancipation before
they attained full political freedom. 4 That there were a veiy small
number of Jews in England at this time was an important factor in
keeping down any hostile outbreaks against the newcomers. By
1656 there were only twenty-seven Jewish families in the country, 5
and most Englishmen were scarcely aware of their presence.

Page 137 - [see page image]

136
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
But underneath this seemingly secure existence there were un
dercurrents of strong hatred. The privileged status of the Jewish
minority aroused the jealousies of the merchants and the city fa
thers of London. The animosities that had been stirred up during
the debates over the readmission were not completely forgotten,
and Cromwell could not completely suppress the lies and exagger
ations circulated by Prynne and his disciples. As long as the Lord
Protector was alive, the enemies of the Jews remained silent, and
it was only after his death that they came out into the open.
Richard Baker represented the anti-Jewish interests when he
presented to Richard Cromwell a petition calling for the banish
ment of the Jews from the country. Pie further suggested that
they be fined for the amount of goods that they had exported that
exceeded their imports. 6 Richard Cromwell took no action on the
proposal, and the matter was temporarily dropped. The enemies
of the Jews waited for the restoration of the monarchy to resume
their anti-Jewish activities. They hoped that the new king would
be more receptive to their demands.
When Charles II entered London, he was presented with a
petition from the mayor and the alderman of the city protesting
against the allowing of the Jews to hold public worship services
that were in opposition to the Christian faith. The signers of the
petition also expressed the fear that English blood would be taint
ed through intermarriage with these foreigners. However, the
main complaints against the Jews were economic, and the city of
ficials were primarily concerned with Jewish mercantile competi
tion. They noted how the Jews, through nefarious means, had be
come so successful in trade that they “retired themselves with ye
English estates to ye ruin of many good families.” 7 Thus, for the
safety of the Christian faith and the good and welfare of the En
glish people, they believed that it was best that the Jews be ex
pelled from the country permanently.
Thomas Violet, a notorious informer and exporter of contra
band bullion, also tried to convince the king to punish his Jewish
subjects. 8 In a petition submitted in December 1660, he claimed
that it was a felony for any Jew to be in England, and that they
should therefore have their estates confiscated and then be thrown
into prison. He believed that they should be kept there until their

Page 138 - [see page image]

137
THE REKINDLING OF OLD HATREDS
co-religionists would ransom them. 9 Violet copied many of
Prynne s anti-Jewish prejudices that had appeared in A Short De
murrer. He began his bitter attack by considering the arrival of
the Jews in England at the time of William the Conqueror. He
tried to show how, through the years, the Jews had been a thorn
in the side of the English people. He claimed that in the past
they had bribed good Christians to convert to Judaism and that
they had also bribed the king to side with them against the clergy.
The Jews had entered into open disputations with the clerics and
had done everything in their power to challenge the Christian
faith. Violet believed that they would repeat their actions during
the restoration when there were already a great number of athe
ists, heretics, and Anabaptists in the kingdom. He was also con
vinced that the economic crimes that the Jews commited in
pre-expulsion England would be repeated during the reign of
Charles IT He claimed that the present-day Jews in the country,
through their devious practices, had already taken over the na
tions economy at the expense of the Christian merchants. The
Jews had supposedly robbed the state of f00,000 pounds in wine
trade alone, and they had deliberately dumped unnecessary com
modities on the English market to ruin the economy. 10
Fortunately for the Jews, however, Charles II did not revoke
the privileges that Cromwell had bestowed upon their community.
Charles, like numerous gentlemen of his day, was apathetic about
religion, and his theological opinions, when he bothered to express
them, were cleistic in tone and content. He was tolerant of differ
ences in worship and belief, and he was bored with religious con
troversy. 11 Charles had been assisted by Jews on the continent
during his exile, and he appreciated their role in the economy of a
mercantile nation like England. Even though they might arouse
the jealousies of the native merchants, their skills in foreign trade
would be a definite asset to the crown. His queen, Catherine of
Braganza, who had Jews in her service, may also have influenced
him in favor of allowing them to live undisturbed in the country. 13
Those who petitioned the king to expel the Jews from the country
failed to reckon with Charles ITs personal feelings of tolerance
and also with his strong interest in promoting Cromwell’s mercan
tile policies. During Charles’s lifetime, the position of the Jews in

Page 139 - [see page image]

138
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
England was fairly secure, and it was only after his death that the
enemies of the Jews created any real trouble.
In 1685, after James II had assumed the throne, Samuel
Hayne, a political writer, published a pamphlet in which he at
tacked the Jews for having an unfair advantage over the native
merchants because of their exemption from alien duties. Hayne
made particular mention of the way that the Jews had accumulat
ed great wealth through trickery and deceit at the expense of the
native Englishmen. 13 Although he was joined by the Corporation
of London in his attacks upon the Jews, the king continued to al
low the Jewish merchants special privileges in their mercantile
dealings. Unable to change the favored commercial status of the
Jews, their enemies decided to attack them on purely religious
grounds. Thomas Beaumont tried to have the entire Jewish com
munity punished for violating an old anti-Catholic law that had
been passed during the reign of Elizabeth which imposed a fine
of twenty pounds a month for nonattendance at church services.
After considerable lobbying by the Jewish community and some
well-placed gifts, the charges were dropped, and James II reaf
firmed the right of the Jews to practice their religion in peace.
The leaders of the Jewish community realized that their right
to exist in England hung on a veiy thin thread, and they did every
thing in their power to see that their members did nothing to an
tagonize either the civil or the religious authorities. Their feeling
of insecurity and their awareness of undercurrents of anti-Jewish
prejudice can be noted in the synagogue rules which they imposed
upon their co-religionists. They specified that no Jew was to dis
cuss religion with a Christian neighbor for fear that it would pro
voke ill will between the two groups and eventually affect the well
being of all the members of the Jewish community. 14 To prevent
overzealous clerics from blaming the Jews for trying to seduce
good Christians from the faith of Jesus, the Jewish communal
leaders prohibited the acceptance of converts. 15 This had caused
considerable friction in the past, and the Jewish leaders wanted to
avoid the possibility of its ever recurring. Having been accused for
centuries of taking delight in cheating Christians, the leaders were
veiy strict with Jews who were involved in any crimes. They made
it absolutely clear that those who violated the laws of England

Page 140 - [see page image]

139
THE REKINDLING OF OLD HATREDS
would have to suffer the consequences of their actions without
any assistance from the Jewish community. 16
Although the leaders of the Jewish community tried to keep
their members out of public scrutiny as much as they could, some
Englishmen were inevitably drawn to the newly formed syna
gogue to see how the Jews conducted their religious services.
These visitors were struck by the way the Jews prayed, by the
melodies that they chanted, and particularly by the lack of deco
rum in the sanctuary. The Jews’ physical appearance and their
manner of dress also interested the observers. The reaction of
these visitors to flesh-and-blood Jews at worship is a good indica
tion of their general attitudes towards both Jews and Judaism at
the time. One of the most prominent Englishmen who visited the
synagogue in Creechurch Lane was Samuel Pepys. In December
of 1659 he attended services which marked the conclusion of the
thirty-day mourning period for Caravajal. He noted in a letter to
his patron, Edward Montagu, that he had gone there “for obser
vation sake.” 17 This may have been a way of reassuring his patron
that he was not one of the Puritan Judaizers who was enamored
with Jewish rituals and beliefs. In any event, Pepys was sufficient
ly interested to return for at least one more visit. His timing was
poor, and he was present at Simchat Torah, when traditionally a
veiy lighthearted atmosphere fills the synagogue. He recorded
the following observations in his diaiy:
But, Lord! to see the disorder, laughing sporting and no attention,
but confusion in all their service, more like brutes than knowing
the true God, would make a man forswear ever seeing them more:
and indeed I never did see so much, or could have imagined there
had been any religion in the whole world so absurdly performed as
this. 18
Another visitor to the synagogue was John Greenhalgh (?—
1691), a schoolmaster, who had a strong curiosity regarding the
religious practices of the Jews. In a letter to his good friend, the
Reverend Thomas Crompton, in April 1662 he gave a lengthy
description of the services that he had observed. Greenhalgh
admitted that at first “... the Jews with their taleism over their
heads presented to the observer a strange, uncouth, foreign,

Page 141 - [see page image]

140
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
and... barbarous sight.” 19 He was able, however, to overcome
these prejudices and appreciate the deeper significance of the
service. He was particularly moved by the prayers for the coming
of the Messiah and the restoration of the Temple. He wrote: “I
was strangely, uncouthly, unaccumstomedly moved, and deeply
affected; tears stood in my eyes the while, to see those banished
Sons of Israel standing in their ancient garb (veiled) but in a
strange land, solemnly and carefully looking East towards their
own country.” 20 Near the end of the letter, much of this compas
sion seemed to disappear, and the “irrational reasoning against
Christ” that he discovered in his conversations with the rabbi of
the congregation caused him to write, “In a word the curse is
upon them to the uttermost; and they have a grosser veil over the
eye of the soul, than that which covers their heads.” Greenhalgh
was annoyed that the Jews refused to accept Christianity and that
even the most convincing argument was “but an arrow shot
against a wall of brass.”
Later in the century another distinguished visitor, Robert Kirk
(1641-1682) was particularly unkind in his description of Jewish
services. He stressed the fact that the Jews were aliens and that
their mode of worship was grossly inferior to that of the Protes
tant faith. He commented on the poor English that was spoken
by the Jews, the lack of dignity that the rabbi of the congregation
displayed, and the poor decorum that he found in the sanctuary.
He was shocked to discover that both the rabbi and his congre
gants laughed and talked after each paragraph in the Torah read
ing was completed. Kirk claimed that “They never prayed nor dis
covered their heads, nor bowed the knee... They had no
methodical worship. They were all very black men and indistinct
in their reasoning as gipsies.” 21
Just as the leaders of the Jewish community could not remove
their members from public view, they could also do nothing to
keep the Jews out of the religious literature and the Christian ser
mons of the time. During the period of the resettlement, various
conversionist tracts appeared which indirectly affected the image
of the Jews in the eyes of the Christian population. One of these
works dealt with the conversion of Eve Cohan, a Jewess, to the
Protestant faith. In the preface the author stated that the main

Page 142 - [see page image]

141
THE REKINDLING OF OLD HATREDS
purpose of the book was to show the sincerity of converts to
Christianity. However, throughout the work there was a generous
sprinkling of anti-Jewish remarks which turned it into a tract that
bitterly condemned the Jewish community. The Jews were pic
tured as a treacherous group who would stop at nothing to pre
vent an innocent young woman from leaving their fold and em
bracing Protestantism. “They betook themselves to all the Arts of
Villany, in which they are so well practiced” 22 to achieve their
ends—only to be stopped by a determined convert and some
sympathetic Christians.
The author described how Eve Cohan, having been convinced
of the validity of Christianity, left her home to be baptized. Her
mother, a cruel and heartless woman, and members of the Jewish
community threatened her with physical harm and used eveiy
means at their disposal to force her to renounce the Christian
faith. According to the author, the Jews were motivated by a theo
logical hatred for Christianity which went back to the time of the
Crucifixion. He was convinced that “those whose ancestors in Un
belief, had with so bloody a Malice crucified our Blessed Saviour,
would have spared no invention of Mischief, to execute their Re
venge on one, that was now resolved to believe in Him” (p. 12).
When physical force failed, the Jews tried to use the courts to
achieve their purposes. In the biased eyes of the author, the Jews
had the ability to pervert justice through their influence with men
in high places. They were also skilled jurists who used their abili
ties to take advantage of the hated Christians. In this instance
they were unsuccessful, and Eve Cohan managed to start a new
life as Elizabeth Verboon. At the conclusion of this tale of Jewish
cruelty and Christian perserverance, the author noted that “This
Recital was thought necessary to let the Nation see what sort of
People these Jews are whom we harbour so kindly among us” (p.
25). Not only did they persist in their idolatrous beliefs, but they
“still thirst after the Blood of such of their Nation as believe in
Him whom their Fathers Crucified” (p. 25). The author wanted
to point out the dangers of allowing such people to live in the
country. No convert was safe with them around since they would
not hesitate “for little rnony (to) betray a Member of Christ to be
Crucified by them” (p. 27).

Page 143 - [see page image]

142
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
George Fox’s (1624-1691) conversionist tract, A Declaration to
the Iewes, repeated many of the classic Christian accusations
against the Jewish people concerning their part in the Crucifixion.
After reminding the reader how the Jews had rejected Jesus, put
him to death on the cross, and cast lots for his garments, Fox
tried to show that this was in fulfillment of various biblical proph
esies. It was proof that Jesus was the Messiah and that the Jews
should accept him as such. Although the work was not intended
to be an anti-Jewish tract, Fox’s description of the alleged crimes
of the Jews reinforced the classic beliefs that had been taught by
the church for centuries. For example, he wrote the following
concerning Jewish involvement in the Crucifixion: “you would
have no King but Caesar, and desired a murtherer, and crucified
him; and when Pilate said to you behold your King, and washed
his hands from his blood, you cried let his blood be upon us and
our children.” 23
Thus, for the sake of bringing Jews closer to Jesus, they and
the Christian public had to be reminded of their supposed past
sins. Those who were willing to convert would no doubt be for
given. However, men like Fox stigmatized the great majority of
the Jews who resisted such attempts at conversion.
The strong feeling, stimulated by the Puritans and other reli
gious groups, that the Jews should be converted to Christianity if
they were to be accepted as part of a Christian commonwealth
continued through the end of the century. The fact that the Jews
stubbornly rejected the attempts to bring them into the fold made
them, in the eyes of the clergy, the objects of both pity and scorn.
This can be noted not only in the conversionist literature of the
times but also in the many references to Jews made from the pul
pits. John Evelyn noted in his diaiy that he was appointed as a
trustee of a bequest by a certain Mr. Boyle to see to it that a min
ister be appointed to preach a sermon on the first Sunday of each
month “expressly against Atheists, Deists, Libertins, Jews, etc.
without descending to any other controversy whatever.” 24
Aside from such deliberate attempts to challenge the Jewish
faith and to attack the Jewish people, there were numerous de
rogatory remarks made against Jews and Judaism in sermons
which were devoted to the central concerns of the Anglican

Page 144 - [see page image]

143
THE REKINDLING OF OLD HATREDS
preachers, including “the rise of infidelity, the danger of scoffing
at religion, the problem of justifying faith, and the question of
obedience to spiritual guides.” 25 On one hand, the clergy had to
combat the Puritanism that still remained in the country, and, on
the other, they had to deal with deism, which was becoming in
creasingly popular among those Englishmen who were sick of the
strife caused by organized religion. The Jews who had rejected
Jesus and his teachings were the classical adversaries of Christian
ity, and preachers like Isaac Barrow (1630-1677) could use them
to illustrate the sins of the modern day enemies of the church. In
one popular sermon, Barrow listed the different kinds of infidelity
that existed in society. He noted that they stemmed from “stupid
ity or dullness of apprehension ... a stupidity rising from mists of
prejudice, from steams of lust and passion.” 26 He then pointed
out, “This is that, which is so often charged on the Jews as cause
of their infidelity; who did hear but not understand, and did see
but not perceive; because their heart was gross, and their ears
were dull of hearing, and their eyes were closed.” Another source
of infidelity was perverseness of will, which was a stubborn desire
to maintain an opinion in the face of convincing contrary evi
dence. Barrow noted that “such was the temper of the Jews whom
St. Stephen therefore called a stiff-necked people, uncircumcised
in heart and ears,” who would not yield to “the most winning dis
course that ever was uttered.” He continued to show how infidel
ity arose from “Blind zeal grounded upon prejudice” and from
corruption of mind by any kind of brutish lust, any irregular pas
sion and bad inclination. In each case he used the Jews as exam
ples to illustrate this sinfulness.
The preachers of the Restoration often repeated the old cli
ches concerning the Jews, and, like their predecessors, they per
petuated the story of the Crucifixion and the barbaric way that
this “cursed people” had supposedly put Jesus to death. Good
Friday was always a popular time for such sermons, and Evelyn
noted in his diaiy that on this day in 1689 the Bishop of St. Asaph
devoted his talk to the “cruelty and malice of the stubborn Jewes”
and how they “crucifie him still by their sins.” 27 Advent was another
popular time to discuss the Jewish involvement in the Crucifixion.
In a sermon delivered in November 1697 at St. Clements, the

Page 145 - [see page image]

144
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
preacher, a Mr. Adams, discussed how when Jesus came to his
people (the Jews), they rejected him. He believed that the Scribes
and the Pharisees had poisoned the minds of their countrymen and
that when Jesus tried to point out their hypocrisy, they not only
persuaded the people to reject him, but they did not rest until they
“murdered the Lord of Life which was their utter destruction.” 28
A few preachers of the time tried to reinterpret the Crucifix
ion, but the slurs against the Jews endured. For example, Dr.
Jeane, a divinity professor at Oxford, delivered a sermon at
Whitehall during Lent in which he mentioned how “the most
wicked Tyrants and men did frequently bring about God Al-
mightys purposes for the good of his children defeating their in
tentions.” 29 He considered the malice that the Jews displayed to
wards Jesus to be the “instruments of the greatest blessing that
ever was bestowed upon mankind.” 30 But if the Jews were part of
a divine plan, their malicious behavior was still inexcusable. As
another preacher so aptly put it, “God determined the death of
his sonn, but the Jews did wickedly to put him to death.” 31
In their attempts to stress what they considered were the su
perior qualities of Christianity, many preachers downgraded Juda
ism and encouraged anti-Jewish prejudices. For example, one
cleric based a sermon on the verse in the Sermon on the Mount
which contained the words “resist not evil.” He noted that a true
Christian should not revenge himself by word or deed upon his
neighbor for eveiy slight injury that he might suffer. The Jews,
whom he referred to as “a very malicious and revengeful people,”
had permission to take an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Jesus came to perfect this law, and he prohibited “all these Jewish
revenges and severitys, persuading and requiring meekenesses,
and patience, Charity and mercy after his owne blessed Exam
ple.” 32 Another cleric admitted that Jesus’ commandment of lov
ing one another was not really new and was a part of Jewish tradi
tion. However, it was so “worn out and forgotten among the
Envious and uncharitable Jewes, that it needed renewing.” 33
Beginning with the Restoration and persisting through the end
of the century, the past prejudices against the Jews continued to be
echoed from the pulpits of England. The language of the preachers
was more refined, and the coarse mediaeval stories were omitted,

Page 146 - [see page image]

145
THE REKINDLING OF OLD HATREDS
but the classic attitudes towards Jews and Judaism were virtually
unchanged. The Jews were still guilty of contempt and blasphe
my. They were a malicious people who failed to appreciate the
truth and who had to pay the price for their rejection of Jesus. In
what appeared to be an era of greater social acceptance of the
Jew in English society the pulpit orators clung stubbornly to their
anti-Jewish doctrines. Of all the molders of public opinion, they
were the most reactionary and the most bigoted. This can best be
appreciated when their utterances against the Jews are compared
with those of playwrights of their day. In the past the theater had
been as rich a source of anti-Jewish sentiments as the religious
press and the pulpit. This was no longer the case when the play
houses reopened during the reign of Charles II.
Although there had been a number of Jewish characters in
English drama during the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, they
were usually ignored by the Restoration dramatists. Perhaps the
fact that Charles II gave the Jews his protection when they were
threatened by their enemies discouraged the writers under royal
patronage from publicly attacking them. It is also possible that
these playwrights had such an abundance of source materials for
their plays that they did not need the stage Jew to enliven their
works. 34 Certainly, during the Restoration, the church had less of
an influence upon public opinion than it had enjoyed in the past,
and the old religious themes found in earlier plays were not veiy
popular with the playgoers.
It is difficult to locate any significant Jewish characters in
Restoration plays. In John Dryden’s (1631-1700) Love Trium
phant (1694) an apostate Jew named Sancho appeared as a minor
character. The references made to his Jewish ancestry and
personality reflect some of the milder anti-Jewish prejudices of
the time. For example, he was referred to as follows by one of his
enemies: “His outsides Tawdry, and his inside’s Fool. He’s an
Usurer’s Son, and his Father was a Jew” (1.1). Although Sancho
had converted to Christianity, he was never allowed to forget his
Jewish ancestry. When he was advised not to fight with a Christian
lest blood be spilled, Sancho remarked, “Well to save Christian
Blood, I will. His opponent replied, “And to save Jewish Blood,
that’s your Blood Sirrah, I am contented too” (3.1). Sancho was

Page 147 - [see page image]

146
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
portrayed as a rascal with few scruples, and yet his morals were
no better or worse than those of the other Christian characters in
the play. This dramatic work, which was the last that Dryden
wrote, was a failure; both the play and its Jewish character were
quickly forgotten.
A more popular play that contained some minor Jewish char
acters was Belphegor, or the Marriage of the Devil (1691), written
by John Wilson (P-1696). The Jews in this particular work were
bailiffs who seized furniture that had been sold on credit to some
Christians. A few negative remarks were directed to them, but
their roles in the play were unimportant. In another work written
by Wilson, The Cheats (1663), the word “Jew” was used in a de
rogatory sense to describe a Scotsman, Alderman Whitebroth.
When he was referred to as “a Jew indeed” (1.2), he was being
described as a stingy, hard-hearted individual. This was the gen
eral connotation of the word for the average member of the audi
ence, and it was a part of the eveiyday speech of the time.
The Jews were considered to be shady individuals with a dis
reputable past, but there seemed to be no conscious attempt to
spread anti-Jewish sentiments from the stage. Jews were not
prominent in the mind of the average Englishman, and play
wrights did not need to portray them in depth. This was true of
other writers of the period. Dryden mentioned the Jews in his
work Absalom and Achitophel (1681), a biting satire on the politi
cal conditions of the country. However, the use of biblical names
and places was merely a vehicle to convey the authors political
sentiments, and it is doubtful if Dryden had any desire to cast as
persions on either ancient or modern Jewry. He was referring to
internal problems in English society when, for example, he wrote:
The Jews, a Headstrong, Moody Murmuring race,
As ever try’d th’ extent and stretch of grace;
God’s pamper’d people whom, debauch’d with ease,
No King could govern, nor no God could please.
[45-48]
The same can be said for references to Jews in works written in
answer to the poem. 35

Page 148 - [see page image]

147
THE REKINDLING OF OLD HATREDS
Although the native Jews of England were almost ignored by
the writers of the period, their brethren on the continent and in
Asia Minor continued to interest the public. As in the past, travel
ers included descriptions of Jewish communal life, customs and
ceremonies, and such in their accounts of voyages. In addition,
those mystics who anxiously awaited the end of days still believed
that the Jews would be instrumental in bringing about this great
event. Like their predecessors in Puritan England, they circulated
in pamphlet form any accounts of Jewish activities abroad, no
matter how fanciful, that would support their views.
In 1665 a short pamphlet, The Restauration of the Jews: Or a
True Relation of Their Progress and Proceedings in Order to the
Regain ing of their Ancient Kingdom, appeared. It consisted of ex
cerpts of letters written from Antwerp, Leghorn, and Florence
that described how the Jews were supposedly preparing for the
conquest of Israel and the reestablishment of their national state.
The author did not identify any of the correspondents, but they
all had veiy vivid imaginations and believed the rumors and half-
truths about Jewish armies that were being organized to conquer
the Holy Land.
In the first letter, sent from Antwerp and dated October 20
1665, the correspondent described how a band of Jews carrying
swords, spears, and bows and arrows was being led by a mira
cle-working holy man on a mission of conquest. He noted that
“They had many encounters with people in the way and have tak
en some places, none being able to withstand them; they put all
to the sword except Jews.” 36 The writer further claimed that these
warriors were all descendants of the ten tribes, whose ancestors
did not know Jesus and who now wanted to receive the gospel.
They supposedly felt that the church in its present state was cor
rupt and that their task was to purify it so that the reign of Jesus
and his saints could be established. He believed that in the year
1666 the prophesies of both the Old and New Testaments would
be fulfilled and that a new era would begin.
In the second letter in the pamphlet, sent from Leghorn, the
correspondent described how a group of Jews miraculously de
feated a large force of Turkish troops. He claimed that the arrows
shot against the Jews turned around in flight and struck down the

Page 149 - [see page image]

148
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
archers who had aimed them. An equally fanciful tale was told in
the next letter in the pamphlet, one sent from Florence. It de
scribed a battle between the Jews and the Turks where some
eight thousand of the latter group had been killed when their
swords and muskets turned against them. 37
Many mystics in England were drawn to the supposed miracu
lous deeds of the pseudo-messiah, Sabbetai Zevi (1626-1676),
whose meteoric rise to fame occurred at about the time they ex
pected to witness the “end of days.” Any news about this “King of
the Jews” was eagerly sought after by them and by a great many
Englishmen who wanted to know more about this exotic personal
ity. In 1666 a letter sent by the French ambassador at Constanti
nople to his brother, a resident of Venice, was translated and dis
tributed in London. It disclosed that the ambassador took the
stories of Sabbetai Zevis miracles quite seriously. He repeated the
tales that the “King of the Jews” was able to predict the time of
death of people and that he could walk through fire without dam
aging his clothes or singeing a hair on his head. He quoted Sabbe
tai Zevi as promising “that in the month of June next, the Re
demption of Israel will be published through the whole World.” 38
Henry Oldenburg, (1615P-1677) secretary of the Royal Soci
ety, was so interested in the stories and half-truths he had heard
regarding the pseudo-messiah that he wrote to Benedict Spinoza
and asked if it were true that the Jews would soon be returning to
Israel. He noted in the letter that “Few in this place believe it,
but many wish it.” Oldenburg seemed in favor of a return of the
Jews, but he was also concerned about the implications of such an
event. “I should like to know what the Jews in Amsterdam have
heard about the matter,” he asked Spinoza, “and how they are af
fected by such an important announcement which if it were true
would seem to bring a crisis in the whole world.” 39
The following entry in Pepys s Diary for February 19, 1665,
sums up the intensity of the messianic fervor of the time and il
lustrates how both Jew and Christian sensed that dramatic events
were about to unfold:
I am told for certain what I have heard once or twice already, of a
Jew in town, that in the name of the rest do offer to give any man ten

Page 150 - [see page image]

149
THE REKINDLING OF OLD HATREDS
pounds to be paid 100 pounds if a certain person now at Smyrna ...
is the true Messiah. One named a friend of his that had received ten
pieces of gold upon this score, and says that the Jew hath disposed
of 1100 pounds in this manner, which is very strange; and certainly
this year of 1666 will be a year of great action; but what the conse
quences of it will be, God knows.
[5:212]
Although several Jews in England continued to believe in Sabbe
tai Zevi even after he renounced his faith, the Christian commu
nity soon lost interest in him, and it is doubtful if he had any last
ing effect upon Christian-Jewish relations. 40
During the last decades of the century, the major interest in
the Jews centered around their mercantile status and their grow
ing affluence. William III, who succeeded James II in 1688, con
tinued the friendly policies of his predecessors towards the Jewish
community. 41 Because he was the ruler of both England and the
Netherlands, the Jewish merchants and bankers of London and
Amsterdam established even closer connections than had existed
in previous decades. This connection had definite advantages for
the Jews and the king, but it was detrimental to the English mer
chants. Although the enemies of the Jews attacked them for being
both aliens and infidels, the Christians used this religious abuse
to strengthen their arguments against Jewish commercial privileg
es and in favor of having Jews pay alien duties. 42 As in the past,
jealousy over commercial success resulted in slanders against the
Jewish community. Jews were blamed, for example, for the miser
able condition of the English subjects who were enslaved in Al
giers and for the difficulties encountered in arranging for their
ransom. In addition, the city fathers of London were always anx
ious to discover any petty breach of the law involving Jews. Even
tually, high officials from the Lord Mayor on down received gifts
from the Jews of the city to maintain their good will.
But more important considerations than this bribery persuad
ed the authorities to allow the Jews to remain in the country un
molested. Economic writers advocated liberty of conscience as a
means of attracting foreign immigrants, discouraging emigration,
and improving trade. Those who studied the commercial success
of the Netherlands appreciated the financial benefits of religious

Page 151 - [see page image]

150
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
toleration and urged that it become part of the English way of
life. As early as f669 a parliamentary committee dealing with the
decay of trade that England was experiencing advised that “some
ease and relaxation in ecclesiastical matters would be a means of
improving the trade of this Kingdom.” 43
In 1685, when Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, En
glish industry benefited from the immigration of thousands of
Huguenot craftsmen, many of whom were skilled in the weaving
of silk. Realizing the advantages that his country would gain over
her commercial rivals, Sir Joshua Child (1630-1699), president of
the East India Company, urged that Jews and other foreign mer
chants be allowed to become citizens of England. He believed
that although they might hurt a few native traders, they would
nevertheless benefit the country as a whole. Jewish thriftiness
would also set a good example for the English to follow. He advo
cated that the Jews be granted internal autonomy as an incentive
to settle in the country. 44 This hope, expressed by men like Joshua
Child, of ultimately emancipating the Jew was in keeping with the
spirit of the emerging capitalism of the time, which stressed the
need for individual freedom so that each person would have the
maximum opportunity to develop his economic potential and that
of society as well. 45 The acceptance of the Jew as an equal was
part of this new freedom that went beyond the realm of econom
ics and which touched upon the religious toleration of all dissent
ing groups. John Locke (1632-1704) was one of the most persua
sive spokesmen for those who advocated religious liberty. He
firmly rejected the idea that church and state were integrally
linked and that membership in one involved membership in the
other. The role of the state was to preserve order, settle disputes,
and protect life and property. The church, in contrast, was con
cerned with the worship of God and with the salvation of souls.
Neither should have the right to interfere with the affairs of the
other. Locke viewed toleration in terms of the extent of power
that the civil magistrates had in religious affairs. 46 He believed
that only for the sake of preserving the peace did the government
have the authority to restrict the practices of any group. Locke
considered the few Jews who lived in the country to be members
of a community who, unlike the Catholics, were no threat to the

Page 152 - [see page image]

151
THE REKINDLING OF OLD HATREDS
civil government. They were, therefore, entitled to be treated as
equals with other law abiding citizens.
Those whose doctrine is peaceable, and whose manners are pure
and blameless, ought to be upon equal terms with their fellow sub
jects. ... If we may openly speak the truth, and as becomes one man
to another, neither pagan nor Mahometan, nor Jew, ought to be ex
cluded from the civil rights of the commonwealth because of his re
ligion. 47
In his personal attitudes Locke may have been able to shake
off anti-Jewish prejudices inherited from the past. Yet they per
sisted not only in religious and secular literature, but in Parlia
ment as well. As late as 1689 the House of Commons passed a
resolution ordering a bill to be introduced that would place an
additional tax of 100,000 pounds on the Jewish community. The
bill, despite its defeat, showed that for some Englishmen the me
diaeval approach of squeezing the Jew for needed revenue was
not dead.
By the turn of the century the Jews in England were in a
much better situation than were their brethren elsewhere in Eu
rope. Economically, they were secure, and their right to live in
peace and to practice their faith was established. They were not
restricted to a ghetto, and there were no government sanctioned
anti-Jewish outbreaks. Zealous churchmen were still concerned
about saving the Jews’ souls and keeping Christians out of their
clutches. Jews still were objects of scorn for those who needed an
outlet for their frustrations. However, the decline of the authority
of the church, the growth of industry and trade with its stress
upon the need for individual freedom, and the social philosophies
of men like John Locke all contributed to a greater toleration of
the Jews in England. The progress that the Jewish community of
England had made up to the end of the century was to be consol
idated in the years ahead. Complete economic, social, and politi
cal emancipation would ultimately be theirs.

Page 153 - [see page image]

152
SEUEn
CONCLUSIONS
Hnti-Jewish attitudes in England
during the four centuries that elapsed from the time of the ex
pulsion through the period of the reestablishment of a small
Jewish community in England, quite clearly originated from, and
were nurtured by, the fundamental teachings of the church. The
clerics believed that if Christianity was indeed the true faith
and its followers were the new Israel, then Judaism had to be dis
credited in the eyes of the faithful. In mediaeval sermons, plays,
and religious literature, the Jews were often portrayed as the ad
versaries of the church who from the time of the Crucifixion
threatened good Christians. They were pictured as grotesque in
dividuals, ever ready to steal consecrated wafers, murder inno
cent children, and mock the rituals and the beliefs of the true
faith. Christianity’s superior powers could ultimately defeat these
demons, and the faithful were reassured that their trust in the
sacraments would protect them from all harm. By constantly
downgrading the Jews and their beliefs, and by linking them with
the devil as an object for the projection of hostilities, the clerics
hoped that the people would better appreciate the Christian faith.
Whatever success the church enjoyed in enhancing its image in
this manner was achieved at the expense of the Jews. While there
was hardly a significant number of Jews in England after 1290,
their role as scapegoat was hallowed by tradition and became
part of religious teachings transcending Christian denominational

Page 154 - [see page image]

153
CONCLUSIONS
lines. The three major religious groups which successively exer
cised religious authority during these four centuries—Catholics,
Anglicans, and Puritans— shared a common approach to the
Jews. Whatever differences existed among them in the realm of
Christian practices and beliefs disappeared when they wrote or
spoke about ancient or contemporary Jewry. There was a remark
able similarity in the way that the Jews were treated in the ser
mons delivered by the clerics of the three groups, and, with the
exception of some of the cruder stories found in the orations of
the mediaeval preachers, the seventeenth-century clergymen re
peated from their pulpits the stock anti-Jewish sentiments of the
past. In many instances the Jews were mentioned only indirectly
to emphasize the superiority of some Christian principle. Yet, the
cumulative effect of these derogatory references was consider
able, especially as this blended into an already rich anti-Jewish
folklore. The few clerics who attempted to reinterpret the signifi
cance of the Crucifixion and to minimize the role played by the
Jews were certainly not in the mainstream of Christian thought. It
is doubtful if they had any meaningful effect upon attitudes.
Much has been written about the Puritan identification with
ancient Israel and with the Hebraic Bible. Yet, from a theological
viewpoint, in the Puritan literature and sermons the position of
the Jews in relation to the Christians had not changed. Writers
and preachers who urged that the Jews be treated with respect
and love were motivated primarily by strong desires to convert
them. Many of these Puritans had messianic dreams, and they be
lieved that the ultimate conversion of the Jews would be an im
portant part of the final redemption of all mankind. Scarcely any
of them could accept the Jews on their own, and any attempts to
read genuine religious toleration into their works is doomed to
failure. The final rejection of any open readmission of the Jews on
the part of the clergy is indicative of their belief that the Jewish
people were a despised, accursed group who should not come
into contact with good Christians. The mediaeval image which
Christians had inherited and which they had willingly sustained
was too much a part of them to be cast aside.
Christian teachings concerning the accursedness of the Jew
radiated out into all aspects of English culture. Once the church

Page 155 - [see page image]

154
ANTI-SEMITIC STEREOTYPES WITHOUT JEWS
had created a socially accepted scapegoat, the dramatist and the
writer had a ready-made villain that they could exploit in their
works. The hook-nosed, red-bearded Judas evolved in Elizabe
than drama into the characters of Barabbas and Shylock. Their
veiy features were enough to remind the audience of the connec
tion that existed between these men and the Jew who betrayed
Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. The church had done its job well;
whenever the Jew appeared on the stage, he was haunted by the
demonic image that had been perpetuated through the centuries.
In Restoration drama; the Jewish villain almost disappeared, yet,
the mention of the word “Jew” carried connotations of scorn and
contempt. The same can be said of the evolution of the Jew in
fiction, where old prejudices lingered on, nurtured by the teach
ings of the church.
The Jew, long associated in Christian teachings with the devil,
was the logical person to be branded as a subversive. Along with
the witch and the Catholic, he was the focus of the irrational fears
of the multitudes. Yet, with the exception of the Lopez trial and a
few less dramatic incidents, the actual Jews living in England were
left in peace. Perhaps the main reason why England never had an
organized anti-Jewish policy after the expulsion was that there
were too few Jews in the country to pose a serious threat to the
religious establishment. Thus, scattered Jewish families were not
disturbed, even though theoretically they were forbidden to live in
the country. There is evidence that on a number of occasions both
their neighbors and the authorities knew of their presence. Only
when undue attention was focused on individual Jews was any ac
tion taken. The mind of the English people was such that a group
of strangers could be tolerated in their midst as long as they re
mained small in number and did not disturb the status quo.
During Cromwell’s time the thought that a large number of
Jews might swarm into the country aroused the ire of religious
leaders and of the common citizen as well. In addition to being
objectionable in a religious sense, the Jews were viewed as a group
of foreigners who owed their prime allegiance to a nation in exile.
They were strangers not only in a religious sense, but also in a
national and ethnic one. An occasional Jewish trader who sought
freedom from Spanish oppression could be tolerated and even

Page 156 - [see page image]

155
CONCLUSIONS
protected in the law courts. However, the thought that the coun
try could be flooded with many such individuals who had connec
tions with their co-religionists all over the world was unaccept
able to the people, particularly to the native merchants. The
rulers of England saw the value of Jewish mercantile connections,
and men like Cromwell appreciated their potential value to the
country. However, the masses, having been exposed to the classic
Christian approach to the Jews, the mediaeval folklore concern
ing their mysterious rites and barbaric customs, and the image of
the usurous stage Jew, were not sympathetic to the readmission.
The fact that a man like William Prynne could amass in such a
short time so much anti-Jewish material is indicative of the covert
hatred that existed in English society during the Commonwealth.
The Jews of the Restoration were able to live undisturbed be
cause of the protection they received from the crown in exchange
for their economic services and because of the tact that their
leaders displayed in keeping them out of the public eye. Although
Jews appeared in a negative light in conversionist tracts and their
observers both at home and abroad viewed them through glasses
tinted with centuries of prejudice, the small number of Jews in
the country was important in minimizing hostility towards them.
Periodically, the hatred spawned in the past came to haunt the
Jews. M en like Thomas Violet and Samuel Hayne, for example,
claimed that in addition to their economic crimes the Jews were a
threat to Christianity; clearly the teachings of the church could be
used for any number of purposes by the hate-monger or by the
charlatan who was seeking financial gain.
Ultimately, the increasing secularism of the age, the spirit of
emerging capitalism, and the new social philosophies pushed
many of these anti-Jewish attitudes into the background. It was
not any significant change in Christian doctrine that encouraged
the eventual toleration of the Jew in society. Instead, in the years
that followed, forces beyond the realm of organized religion
brought this goal to fruition, and they eventually made England a
haven for Jews seeking refuge from persecution.

Page 157 - [see page image]

156
noiES
PREFACE
1. Nicholas Berdyaev, Christianity and Anti-Semitism (Sussex, England: Ditchling Press,
1952), p. 9.
CHAPTER 1
1. Salo W. Baron, The Jewish Community—Its History and Structure to the American
Pievolution (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1948), 2: 246. (Hereafter Jewish
Publication Society will be referred to as J.PS.)
2. Letter to Lady Margaret de Quincy from Robert Grosseteste as cited by Lee M.
Lriedman, Piobert Grosseteste and the Jews (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University
Press, 1934), p. 13.
3. Ibid., p. 15.
4. Joshua Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Jews: The Medieval Conception of the Jew
and its Pielation to Modern Anti-Semitism (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), p. 7.
5. Thomas of Monmouth was a monk in the Benedictine monastery of Norwich who
lived at the time of the ritual murder accusations of 1144. Lor a full account of the
alleged crime committed by the Jews, see his work, The Life and Miracles of Saint
William of Norwich.
6. Mathew of Paris (1200-1259) was a noted chronicler who recorded in his Chronica
Majora the supposed role of the Jews in the murder of Hugh of Lincoln.
7. Cecil Roth, “The Medieval Conception of the Jew,” in Cecil Roth, ed., Personalities
and Events in Jewish History (Philadelphia: J.P.S., 1962), p. 67.
8. As Harold Lisch points out, “It is no accident that the revival of the blood libel has
always been associated with actual outbreaks of violence against the Jews: The myth is
clearly produced to justify by anticipation the crime already meditated in the uncon
scious.” The Dual Image: The Figure of the Jew in English and American Literature
(New York: Ktav Publishing House, 1971), p. 23.
9. Trachtenberg, p. 140.
10. Langmuir notes that this was due to the newness of the Jews in the country and the
peoples relative unfamiliarity with them. This situation, combined with the Jews 3
theological status as deicides made them a much more suitable object for fantasies in
England than on the Continent. (Lrom Gavin Langmuir, “Rumours Spread,” unpub
lished ms., Department of History, Stanford University.)
11. Harry Lowenfeld, in discussing the importance of the belief in the Devil, points out

Page 158 - [see page image]

157
NOTES
that: “he [the devil] arises from the ambivalence of the drives, from the need to pre
serve the love object and to protect it from hostile feelings and from the resulting
necessity of finding an object for ones hatred. The projection of ones hostile wishes
onto the adversary—the evil fiend—is critical in this mechanism. It serves to remove
the burden of guilt, since all guilt can be ascribed to the Evil one.” “The Decline in
the Belief in the Devil,” Psychoanalytic Quarterly 38 (1969): 457.
12. Homer G. Pfander, “The Popular Sermon of the Medieval Friar in England,” unpub
lished Ph.D. dissertation, Department of English, New York University, 1937, pp.
3-5.
13. According to Gerould these legendary anecdotes in praise of the Virgin “contain very
much that is sordid, a great deal that is frivolous, and not a little that seems to us im
moral and blasphemous.” Gordon Hall Gerould, Saints' Legends (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Co., 1916), pp. 149-50.
14. Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Six
teenth and Seventeenth Century England (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971),
pp. 26, 49.
15. Katherine Lee Bates, The English Pieligious Drama (1893; rpt. Port Washington, New
York: Kennikat Press, 1966), p. 21.
16. Ezekial Kaufman, Golah Venechar (Tel Aviv: Dvir Ltd., 1930), 2: 461.
17. H. R. Trevor-Roper, “The European Witch-Craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth
Centuries,” in his The European Witch-Craze of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Cen
turies and Other Essays (1956; rpt. New York and Evanston: Harper Torchbook,
1969), p. 114.
CHAPTER 2
1. Gavin Langmuir, “Anti-Judaism as the Necessary Preparation for Anti-Semitism,” Via
tor 2 (1971): 388.
2. M. J. Landa, The Jew in Drama (New York: William Morrow & Co., 1927), p. 9.
3. Wolfgang S. Seiferth, Synagogue and Church in the Middle Ages: Two Symbols in Art
and Literature (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1970), p. 80.
4. Landa, pp. 10-11.
5. Maurice Hussey, ed., The Chester Mystery Plays (New York: Theatre Arts Books,
1957), p. 99.
6. Williams notes that “the attempt to excuse Pilate as far as possible began very early
and is probably a reflection of early Christianitys turning from the Jews to the Gen
tiles. The development of a sympathetic attitude towards Pilate can be traced even in
the canonical gospels.” He states that in the Chester Cycles in addition to the compe
tition from characters like Annas, Caiaphas, Judas, and Herod, Pilate is portrayed as a
weak individual who was pushed by the Jews to condemn Jesus. See Arnold Williams,
The Characterization of Pilate in the Towneley Plays (East Lansing: Michigan State
University Press, 1950), pp. 2, 19.
7. Hiiman Michelson, The lew in Early English Literature (Amsterdam: H. J. Paris,
1926), pp. 59-60.
8. Edward H. Weatherly, ed., Speculum Sacerdotale (London: Oxford University Press,
1936), pp. 104-5.
9. The Northern Passion was a lengthy poem composed in the north of England between
the close of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth. It was written to
give religious instruction to the masses in a popular form. Minstrels incorporated it into

Page 159 - [see page image]

158
NOTES
their repertoires, and the work became source material for playwrights. Selections
from the poem also found their way into the Northern Homily Collection, a kind of
sermon manual for parish priests. Thus, its message was heard from both the stage
and the pulpit. The fairly large number of extant manuscripts of the poem is a good
indication of the popularity of the work. Francis A. Foster, ed., The Northern Passion
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1916), pp. 1-2.
10. Richard Morris, ed., Legends of the Holy Rood: Symbols of the Passion and Cross-Po
ems in Old English of the Eleventh, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries (London: N.
Trubner & Co., 1871), p. 84.
11. Eugen Kolbing and Mabel Day, eds., The Siege of Jerusalem (London: Oxford Univer
sity Press, 1932), pp. xix-xxix.
12. Cited in part in G. R. Owst, Literature and Pulpit in Medieval England (Oxford: Ox
ford University Press, 1961), p. 339.
13. Thomas Wimbledon, Wimbledon's Sermon Piedde Piationem Villicationis Tue: A Mid
dle English Sermon of the Fourteenth Century, ed. lone Kemp Knight (Pittsburgh:
Duquesne University Press, 1967), lines 1051-54.
14. John Mirk, the author of this work, was canon of Lilleshall in Shropshire. He lived
sometime in the fifteenth century. See Mirks Festial: A Collection of Homilies, ed.
Theodore Erbe (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1905), pp. 108-09.
15. Ibid., pp. 248-49.
16. Mary Macleod Banks, ed., An Alphabet of Tales: An English 15th Century Translation
of the Alphabetum Narrationum of Etienne de Besancon, Parts 1 and 11 (London: Ke
gan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1904-05), p. 159.
17. Mirk, pp. 14-15.
18. Middle English Sermons Edited from British Museum MS. Pioyal 18B xxiii, ed. Wood-
burn Ross (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1960), pp. 63-65.
19. G. R. Owst, Preaching in Medieval England-An Introduction to Sermon Manuscripts
of the Period 1350-1450 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1926), p. 185.
20. Alphabet of Tales, pt. 2, pp. 277-78.
21. Ibid., pp. 176-77.
22. The legend of Theophilus was probably the most popular legend in the mediaeval
world and it exists in several different versions. He was the Vicedominus of the bish
op of Cilia in the sixth century. This was confused by later writers with Sicily and in
the North English Homily Collection it appears as Cizile. Gordon Hall, The North
English Homily Collection: A Study of the Manuscript Pielations and of the Sources of
the Tales (Oxford, 1902), p. 76.
23. Trachtenberg, pp. 142-43.
24. Alphabet of Tales, pp. 110-12.
25. Arthur Brandeis, ed., Jacob's Well: An English Treatise on the Cleansing of Man's
Conscience (London: Oxford University Press, 1900), p. 177.
26. Speculum Sacerdotale, p. 10.
27. Ibid., pp. 187-88.
28. Mirk, pp. 149-54.
29. J. J. Bagley, Historical Interpretation: Sources of English Medieval History, 1066-1540
(London: Penguin Books, 1965), p. 174.
30. Ibid., p. 171.
31. Juliana of Norwich, Sixteen Pievelations of Divine Love, ed. Grace Warrack (London:
1972), p. 68.

Page 160 - [see page image]

159
NOTES
32. The Book of Margery Kempe, ed. W. Butler-Bowdon (London: Jonathan Cape Ltd.,
1963), p. 274.
33. Edgar Rosenberg, From Shylock to Svengali—Jewish Stereo-Types in English Fiction
(Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1960), p. 24.
34. Richard J. Schoeck, “Chaucers Prioress: Mercy and Tender Heart,” in Chaucer Criti
cism, ed. Richard Shoeck and Jerome Taylor (Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre
Dame Press, 1960), pp. 246, 253.
35. The Prioress and the Critics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965), pp. 1,
35. See also Edwin J. Howard, Geoffrey Chaucer, Twaynes English Author Series 1
(New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc. 1964), p. 168.
36. See, for example, Shoeck, p. 255.
37. Paul Franklin Baum, “The Mediaeval Legend of Judas Iscariot,” PMLA 21 (1916), p.
483.
38. James Parkes, “Jewish Christian Relations in England,” Three Centuries of Anglo-Jew-
ish History, ed. V. D. Lipman (Cambridge: Jewish Historical Society of England,
1961), p. 151. (Hereafter Jewish Historical Society of England will be referred to as
J.H.S.E.)
39. It should be noted the chroniclers such as Richard Grafton and John Fortesque, who
wrote about the events in England after 1290, did not mention the presence of Jews
in the country. One exception was John Capgrave (1393-1464), who made a vague
reference to some Jews who were put to death in 1318 for assisting in the poisoning
of some wells. See his The Chronicle of England, ed. Francis Charles Hingeston
(London: Longman, Brown, Green, Logmans and Roberts, 1858), p. 186.
40. E. Nathan Adler, History of the Jews in London (Philadelphia: J.P.S., 1930), p. 73.
41. E. Nathan Adler, Auto da Fe and the Jew (London: H. Frowde, 1908), p. 20.
42. Cecil Roth, “Sir Edward Brampton, Alias Duarte Brandao Governor of Guernsey
1482-1485,” in Roths Essays and Portraits in Anglo-Jewish History (Philadelphia:
J.P.S., 1962), p. 68.
43. Ibid., p. 79.
44. Lucien Wolf, “Jews in Tudor England,” in Essays in Jewish History, ed. Cecil Roth
(London: J.H.S.E., 1934), p. 74.
45. Ibid.
46. Adler, Auto da Fe, p. 19.
47. Levit. 18:16 states, “Thou shalt not uncover the nakedness of thy brothers wife: it is
thy brothers nakedness.” Deut. 25:5 seems to contradict this. “If brethren dwell to
gether, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not be
married abroad unto one not of his kin; her husband s brother shall go in unto her
and take her to him to wife and perform the duty of a husband s brother unto her.”
48. R. Weiss, “Learning and Education in Western Europe from 1470-1520,” in The
Cambridge Modern History. 1: The Pienaissance 1493-1520, ed. G. R. Potter (Cam
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1961), p. 120.
49. Hans Brown, “Fifteenth Century Civilization and the Renaissance,” in The Cam
bridge Modern History, 1: 56.
50. H. P. Stokes, “The Jews in Cambridge from the Expulsion to the Return,” in Studies
in Anglo-Jewish History (Edinburgh: Ballantyne, Hanson & Co., 1913), pp. 209-10.
Stokes does not give the full citation of this letter.
51. Cecil Roth, A History of the Jews in England (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964), p.
148.
52. Wolf, “Jews in Tudor England,” pp. 89-90.

Page 161 - [see page image]

160
NOTES
CHAPTER 3
1. E.M.W. Tillyard, The Elizabethan World Picture (New York: Vintage Books,), p. 4.
2. S. Ettinger, “The Beginnings of the Change in the Attitude of European Society To
wards the Jews,” in Scripta Hierosolymitana, ed. Alexander Fuks and Israel Elalpern
(Jerusalem: Hebrew University Press, 1961), 3: 195.
3. Execution of Justice in England, cited by Godwin Smith, A History of England (New
York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1966), p. 261.
4. Hersch L. Zitt, “The Jew in the Elizabethan World Picture,” Historia Judaica 14
(1952): 53-54.
5. D’Ewes Journals, pp. 508-9, as cited by Sidney Lee, “Elizabethan England and the
Jews,” Transactions of the New Shakespeare Society (1887-90), p. 155.
6. C. J. Sisson, “A Colony of Jews in Shakespeares London,” Essays and Studies 23
(1938): 41, 45, 51. Sisson does not give the source of the last two statements.
7. “Jews in Elizabethan England,” Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of En
gland 11 (1928): 33-35. In this lengthy article Wolf gives a full listing of all the known
Jews who lived in England at the time of Elizabeth. (Hereafter Transactions of the
Jewish Historical Society of England will be referred to as T.J.H.S.E.)
8. Letter to Rodrigo Lopez as cited by Wolf, “Jews in Elizabethan Society,” p. 20.
9. Ibid., IT 21.
10. Albert M. Hyarnson, A History of the Jews in England (London: Methuen & Co.,
1928), p. 116.
11. Wolf, T.J.H.S.E. 11:22.
12. Norman F. Cantor, The English: A History of Politics and Society to 1760 (New York:
Simon & Shuster, 1967), p. 396.
13. Martin Hume, “The So Called Conspiracy of Dr. Ruy Lopez,” T.J.H.S.E., 6(1908):37.
14. Lee, p. 162. Lee does not give any direct citation for this poem other than the fact
that it was found in Popish Plots and Treasons from the Beginning of the Pieign of
Queen Elizabeth.
15. Thomas, Pieligion and the Decline of Magic, p. 271.
16. George Lyman Kittredge, Witchcraft in Old and New England (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard University Press, 1929), pp. 195, 68.
17. Thomas, p. 295.
18. “European Witch-Craze,” p. 110.
19. D. W. Davies describes the Sherley family as follows: “Like so many of their contem
poraries they were gentlemen on the make. Chicaner)/, larceny, adultery, heroism, and
treachery figured in their story. Such peccadilloes were to be found in the lives of
many of their peers, but the Sherleys possessed a talent for carrying such matters to
extremes.” Elizabethans Errant: The Strange Fortunes of Sir Thomas Sherley and His
Three Sons (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1967), p. 1.
20. Ibid., pp. 181-82.
21. Sir Thomas Sherley the Younger to James I, 1607. H.M.C. Salisbury Mss., 19(1965),
cited by Davies, p. 182.
22. E. R. Samuel, “Portuguese Jews in Jacobean London,” T.J.H.S.E. 18 (1953-55): 183,
187.
23. Fernando de Mercado, one of the secret Jews who started the trouble, was able to
bribe the Earl of Suffolk not to “discover” his Judaism. He thus remained in England
unmolested. Francisco Pinta de Britto, another secret Jew who was well known on
the Royal Exchange, remained in England until his death in 1618.

Page 162 - [see page image]

161
NOTES
24. “Two Jews Before the Privy Council and an English Law Court in 1614—15” Jewish
Quarterly Pieview 14 (1902): 354. (Hereafter the Jewish Quarterly Pieview will be re
ferred to as J.Q.Pi.)
25. “Fruitfull Lessons Upon the Passion,” in Writings and Translations of Myles
Coverdale, ed. George Pearson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1844),
p. 311.
26. “An Homily or Sermon Concerning the Nativity of our Saviour Jesus Christ,” in Cer
tain Sermons Appointed by the Queens Majesty, ed. G. E. Corrie (London: John W.
Parker, 1850), p. 407.
27. Bishop Pilkington, “An Homily Against Excess of Apparel,” ibid., p. 316.
28. Bishop Pilkington, “An Homily of the Right Use of the Church or Temple of God and
the Reverence Due Unto the Same,” ibid., p. 569.
29. “An Homily Against Disobedience and Willful Rebellion,” ibid., p. 569.
30. “A Sermon Preached before the Kings Majestie at White-Hall on the VI of April,
MDCIII, Being Good Friday,” in Sermons, ed. G. M. Story (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1967), p. 159.
31. Lee, p. 143.
32. Robert Wilson, The Three Ladies of London, in A Select Collection of Old English
Plays, ed. W. Carew Hazlett (London: Reeves & Turner 1874), 6: 397.
33. Arthur Bivins Stonex, “The Usurer in Elizabethan Drama,” PMLA 31 (1916): 195.
34. Douglas Cole, Suffering and Evil in the Plays of Christopher Marlowe (Princeton,
New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1962), p. 123.
35. G. K. Hunter, “The Theology of Marlowes The Jew of Malta,” Journal of the War
burg and Courtauld Institutues 27 (1964): 214.
36. Ibid., p. 234.
37. David Philipson, The Jew in English Fiction (Cincinnati: Robert Clarke & Co., 1889),
p. 27.
38. Hunter, p. 235. Cole states that “the Christians come in for criticism, either directly
through the words of Barabbas or indirectly through the implications of their actions,
to the degree that they betray their faith and approach the absolute ‘Jewishness 3 —the
avarice and the egoism—of Barabbas, to the degree that they substitute gold for God”
(p. 135).
39. J. B. Steane, Marlowe: A Critical Study (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1964), pp. 168-69.
40. “The Jew of Malta,” in Marlowe: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. Clifford Leech
(Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1964), p. 156.
41. Hyam Maccoby believes that this is very significant and claims that “The Jew is the
Man in Possession, who possesses both the Treasure and the Daughter. The Chris
tians whose power over the Jews was actually limitless, never lost the feeling that they
were dispossessed. They identified themselves with the Young Man, who comes to the
rich Father and carries off his material and sexual treasure.” He suggests that the
plays reveal that Christian hatred of the Jews was oedipal in nature. They viewed the
Jew as the bad father and identified him with the angry Christian Father-God. See
Maccobys “The Delectable Daughter,” Midstream 16 (Nov. 1970): 51.
42. Fisch, p. 35.
43. Nevill Coghill, “The Basis of Shakespearian Comedy,” in Essays and Studies III, ed.
Rostrevor Hamilton (London: John Murray, 1950), p. 21. See also Barbara K. Lewals-
ki, “Biblical Allusion and Allegory in The Merchant of Venice,” Shakespeare Quarter
ly 13 (1962): 331.

Page 163 - [see page image]

162
NOTES
44. Lewalski, pp. 328-29.
45. Ibid., pp. 331, 338.
46. A. D. Moody, “An Ironic Comedy,” in Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Mer
chant of Venice, ed. Sylvan Barnet (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1970), p.
101.
47. The Truth About Shylock (New York: Random House, 1962), p. 34.
48. The two sides of Shylock, i.e., being a sinner and also being sinned against, prompted
Arye I bn Zahav to propose the theory that the personality of Shylock is actually a
composite picture of two different characterizations of the man written at different
times. He believes that Shakespeare first pictured the Jew in bleak terms in a work of
his, The Jew of Venice. Later, after the Lopez incident, Shakespeare realized the hu
man qualities of the Jew, Shylock, and added to his original work a new dimension to
his personality. I bn Zahav attempts to prove this by showing how in The Merchant of
Venice there is contradiction between the man who supposedly lends Bassanio money
in the hope of teaching him a lesson in humility, and the hate-filled usurer who is
willing to kill the Christian for the sake of revenge. Although his whole theory is
based on the flimsiest evidence, it does point out that Shylock is much more than a
simple villain without any trace of humanity. See his “Dernuto Shel Shylock Mehas-
ocher Mevenetzia,” Tarbiz 13 (1942): 178-90.
49. Cary B. Graham, “Standards of Value in The Merchant of Venice,” Shakespeare
Quarterly 4 (1953): 147.
50. William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, ed. Arthur Quiller-Couch and John
Dover Wilson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962), p. xviii.
51. “Shakespeare, the Jews and The Merchant of Venice ” Shakespeare Quarterly 20
(1969): 4.
52. “Loves Wealth and the Judgement of The Merchant of Venice.” in Twentieth Century
Interpretations of The Merchant of Venice, ed. Sylvan Barnet (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Prentice Hall, 1970), p. 89.
53. Modder, pp. 28-29.
54. In 1652, when there was talk of readmitting the Jews to England, a special edition of
The Merchant of Venice was published. At the time the theaters had been closed by
the Puritans, and it is possible that it was printed to sway public opinion against the
readmission.
55. The Unfortunate Traveller, in The Works of Thomas Nashe, ed. Ronald B. McKerrow,
Vol. 2 (London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1910), p. 310.
56. G. R. Hibbard, Thomas Nashe: A Critical Introduction (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, 1962) pp. 172-73.
57. Lisch, Dual Image, p. 38.
58. Montague Lrank Modder, The Jew in the Literature of England to the End of the
Nineteenth Century (1939; rpt. Philadelphia: J.P.S., 1944), p. 19.
59. Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (New York: AMS Press, 1965), 3: 492.
60. Henry Blunt, the author of A Voyage to the Levant, which described his travels in the
early part of the seventeenth century, noted in the opening pages that one of the ob
jects of his journey was “In some measure to acquaint my selfe with those other sects
which live under the Turkes, as Greekes, Armenians, Lreinks, and Zinganaes, but es
pecially the Iewes; a race from all others so averse both in nature and institution, as
glorying to single selfe out of the rest of mankinde rernaines obstinate contemptible
and famous. Blunts A Voyage to the Levant (1636) is cited by Albert Hyamson, “The
Lost Tribes and the Return to England,” T.J.H.S.E. 5 (1902-1905): 128.

Page 164 - [see page image]

163
NOTES
61. Coryat's Crudities (London: Printed for W. Cater, 1786) 1: 298. (This is a reprint of
the edition of 1611.) Page numbers for future citations from this work are given in
the text.
62. The caption for this picture on the frontpiece of the work was: “In vaine doth Cory ate
pipe and dispute,/ His wench was, Iewes will not be caught with his flute.” or “Thy
Cortizan dipt thee, ware Tom I advise thee,/ And flie from the Iewes lest they cir
cumcise thee.”
63. Cited by Lee, p. 150.
64. Shakespeare's Europe—Unpublished Chapters of Fynes Moryson's Itinerary. Cited by
A. Cohen, An Anglo-Jewish Scrapbook 1600-1840 (London: M. L. Cailingold, 1943),
p. 143.
65. The Travels of John Sanderson in the Levant (1584-1602). Cited by Cohen, p. 15.
66. The Present State of the Jews: More Particularly Pielating to Those in Barbury. Cited
by Cohen, p. 330.
67. Louis Wright, Middle Class Culture in Elizabethan England (Ithaca: Cornell Univer
sity Press, 1958), p. 326.
68. These books are: The Scepter of Ivoah (London: Printed by N. Newton and A. Hat
field for Iohn Wright, 1584); The Coronation of David (London: Printed by Thomas
Orwin for Thomas Gubbin and John Perin, 1588); and Of The Headstone: By Builders
Still Over Much Omitted (London: Printed by W. laggard, 1611).
69. Broughtons arguments for this project can be found in A Petition to the 'King (and the
Lord's of the Council) to hasten allowance for Ebrew institution of Ebrewes (London:
1608).
70. A Piequire of Agreement to the Groundes of Divinitie Studie: Wherin great scholars
falling, and being caught of Iewes disgrace the gospel and trap them to destruction
(No place or publisher given, 1611), p. 1. See also, Broughton, Two Epistles unto
Great men of Britanie in the year 1599 requesting them to put their neckes unto the
work of theyr Lord... (No place or publisher given, 1606), pp. Aii-Aiii.
71. Daniel with a Brief Explication (Hanaw: Printed by Daniel Aubri, 1607), p. 128.
72. Leon da Modena to Sir William Boswell, 1615, in Cecil Roth, Anglo-Jewish Letters
(1158-1917) (London: The Soncino Press, 1938), pp. 44—45.
73. Cecil Roth, “Leon da Modena and His English Correspondents,” T.J.H.S.E. 11 (1924-
27): pp. 206-7.
74. “An Early Stuart Judaising Sect,” T.J.H.S.E. 5 (1939-45): 65.
75. B. D., A Brief Piefutation of John Traske ludaical and Novel Fancy es (1618), p. A 2.
Another critic of Traske was E. Norici, who wrote a similar tract in 1638 entitled A
Briefe Piefutacyon of John Traske.
76. The speech is cited from the Pagitt Collection in Phillips, p. 67.
77. For the full account of the reason for this statement, see Calendar State Papers Do
mestic, 1627-28, p. 281.
78. Society and Puritanism in Pre-B.evolutionary England (New York: Schocken Books,
1964), p. 204.
79. Franz Kobler, “Sir Henry Finch (1558-1625) and the First English Advocates of Res
toration of the Jews to Palestine,” T.J.H.S.E. 16 (1945-51): 105.
80. See, for example, Thomas Draxe, The Worlde's Piesurrection (London: 1608).
81. The World's Great Piestauration or The Calling of the Jews. ... (1621), pp. 3-6. Cited by
Mordecai Wilensky, Shivat Hayehudim L'Angliah (Jerusalem: Reuven Mas, 1943), p. 5.
82. Kobler, p. 116.
83. Wallace Notestein, Helen Francis Relf, and Hartley Simpson, Commons Debates 1621

Page 165 - [see page image]

NOTES
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1935), 3: 299. (The debate was held on May 24,
1621.)
84. Notestein, Commons Debates 2: 70. (The debate was held on May 28, 1621.)
85. Wilensky, p. 1.
86. Leonard Busher, Pieligious Peace or a Plea for Liberty of Conscience (London: Print
ed for John Sweeting, 1646), p. 2.
87. Ibid., p. 33.
CHAPTER 4
1. Hyamson, History of the Jews in England, pp. 135-36.
2. A Challenge for Beauty, cited by Modder, The Jew in the Literature of England to the
End of the Nineteenth Century, p. 28.
3. John Evelyn, Diary, ed. E.S. de Bear (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955), 2: 293 (Jan.
15, 1645).
4. Letter to Dr. B in James Howell, Familiar Letters or Epistolae Ho-Elianae (London:
J. M. Dent & Co., 1903), 2: 114.
5. The Rise of Puritanism or The Way to the New Jerusalem As Set Forth in Pulpit and
Press From Thomas Cartwright to John Milton (New York: Harper Torch Books,
1957), p. 117.
6. W. B. Selbie, “The Influence of the Old Testament on Puritanism,” in The Legacy of
Israel, ed. Edwyn R. Bevan and Charles Singer (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1953), p.
407-8.
7. Paul Knell, Israel and England Paralelled, In a Sermon Preached Before the Honor
able Society of Grayes-Inne, Upon Sunday in the Afternoon, April 16, 1648 (London,
1648), pp. 14-15. The preacher referred to himself as “Sometimes Chaplain to a Reg
iment of Curiasiers in his Majesties Army.” The text quotation is from p. 16.
8. Robert Johnson, Lux and Lex or the Light and the Law of Jacob s House: Held Forth
in a Sermon Before the Honorable House of Commons March 31, 1647 (London:
Printed by A. Miller, 1647), pp. 1-2.
9. J. G., “A Severe Sentence Against Secure Citizens. A Sermon Preached at St. Maries
in Oxford,” in The Sage Senator (London: Printed by J. Cottrel for Sam Speed, 1660),
p. 155. The sermon was delivered in 1644.
10. A Sermon Against False Prophets Preached in St. Maries Church in Oxford, Shortly
After the Surrender of that Garrison (1646), p. 8.
11. The Devilish Conspiracy, Hellish Treason, Heathenish Condemnation and Damnable
Murder Committed, and Executed by the Jews Against the Anointed of the Lord
Christ their King (London: 1648), p. 2. In the copy that I used in the British Muse
um, the date was altered in ink to read 1649. Either officially or unofficially, the same
person who changed the date noted that the author of this printed sermon was the
Bishop of Rochester.
12. Ibid., p. 23.
13. Ibid., p. 38.
14. Lithgow cited in Cohen, Scrapbook, p. 324.
15. (Newcastle: Printed for William London, 1653), p. 13.
16. John Clare, The Converted Jew of Certaine Dialogues Between Micheas a Learned
Jew and Others Touching Divers Points of Pieligion, Controverted Between Catholics
and Protestants (MDCXXX), p. 2.
17. One exception to this occurred when a group of freeholders protested against their
164

Page 166 - [see page image]

165
NOTES
tithes. They claimed that such a custom was limited in the Bible to the Land of Judea
and after several quotations from scriptures they noted, “And it is the opinion of the
Jews at this day (as it is reported by most men that have been amongst them) that if
they should come again into the land of Canaan, it were not lawfull for any of them to
receive tithes: because they could have no lawfull priesthood, there being none can
prove themselves to be of the tribe of Levi.” The Husbandman's Plea Against Tithes
(London: 1647), p. 49.
18. History of Zionism 1600-1918 (London: Longmans Green & Co., 1919), 1: 40.
19. Israel's Redemption or the Prophetical History of our Saviours Kingdom on Earth
(London: Printed for Daniel Frere, 1642), pp. 5-6.
20. Robert Maton, Gog and Magog or the Battle of the Great Day of God Almightie
(Printed by R. Cotes for Daniel Frere, 1642), p. 113. No place of publication given.
21. (London: 1647), pp. 1-2.
22. Wilensky, Shivat Hayehudim, p. 32.
23. The Blessed Jew of Marocco or a Blackmoor Made White (York: Thomas Broad. 1649),
pp. 132-33. Further page references to this work are given in the text.
24. A Word for the Armie and Two Words to the Kingdome To Cleare the One and Cure
the Other (London: Printed by M. Simmons for Giles Calvert, 1647), p. 11.
25. The Necessity of Toleration, p. 265. Cited by Wilensky, Shivat Hayehudim, p. 13.
26. Johanna and Ebenezer Cartwrights family settled in Holland during the persecutions
of “Bloody Mary.” It was there that they came in contact with Jews who told them of
the persecutions that their ancestors had suffered in England at the time of Richard
and Edward. See The Petition of the J ewes for the Piepealing of the Act of Parliament
for their Banishment Out of England (London: Printed for George Roberts, 1649), p.
3.
27. Treatise of the Foure Degenerate Sonnes ... (London: 1636), pp.335-42. The material
that follows is from this section.
28. Ibid., pp. 339-40.
29. Ibid., p. 341.
30. Wilensky, p. 7.
31. The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, for cause of Conscience, discussed, in A Conference
betweene Truth and Peace (1644), p. 1 of the preface.
32. Ibid., chap. 56.
33. Ibid., pp. 37-38.
34. Considerations Tending to the Happy Accomplishment of England's Pieformation in
Church and State (London: 1647), pp. 23-24.
35. Vernon is difficult to identify. See W. K. Jordan, The Development of Pieligious Tolera
tion in England, vol. 4: Attainment of the Theory and Accommodations in Thought
and Institutions 1640-1660 (1932; rpt. Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, (1964), p. 332.
36. The sword's abuse asserted: or a word to the army: shewing the weakness of carnal
weapons in spiritual warfare etc. (London: 1648), pp. 13-14. Cited by Jordan, Reli
gious Toleration, 4: 335.
37. Nicholas (1593-1669) was a privy councillor and secretary of state to Charles I. See
Nicholas’s An apology for the honourable nation of the Jews and all the sons of Israel
(London: 1649). Nicholas quoted Jeremiah 30:16, “Therefore all who devour you shall
be devoured, etc.”
38. Ibid., pp. 8, 6.
39. Ibid., p. 15.
40. Anatomy of Melancholy, ed. Floyd Dell and Paul Jordan Smith (New York: Tudor

Page 167 - [see page image]

166
NOTES
Publishing Co. 1938), pt. 3, sec. 4. The following text citations are to this section of
the book.
41. Burton viewed the Koran as a “gallimaufry of lies, tales, ceremonies, traditions, pre
cepts, stole from other sects, and confusedly heaped up to delude a company of rude
and barbarious clowns.” Ibid.
42. William Parncy Dunn, Sir Thomas Browne, A Study in Fieligious Philosophy (Minne
apolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1950), p. 14.
43. Commons Journals, 5:512. Cited in Israel Abrahams and C. E. Sayle, “The Purchase
of Hebrew Books by the English Parliament in 1647,” T.J.H.S.E. 8 (1915-17): 70.
44. Ervbhin or Miscellanies Christian and Judaicall and Others (London: G. Miller,
1629), p. 103. Page numbers for further citations from this work are given in the text.
45. Selden lived through the reigns of Elizabeth, James I, Charles I, and Cromwell (1584-
1659). He was a noted jurist, scholar, and statesman. Some of his works relating to
Judaica included, Dissertatio de anno civili et calendario reipublicae Judaicae (1644)
and Uxor Ebraica (1646). For source of the quotation, see Robert Waters, John
Selden and His Table Talk (New York: Eaton and Mains, 1899), p. 112. Further cita
tions from this work are noted by page numbers in the text.
46. Sheringharn (1602—1678) was a royalist clergyman who was educated at Cambridge.
Deprived of his office during the time of Cromwell, he fled to the Netherlands where
he taught Hebrew and Arabic in Rotterdam.
47. Israel Abrahams, “Isaac Abendanas Cambridge Mishnah and Oxford Calendars,
T.J.H.S.E., 8 (1915-17): 116-17.
48. Foure Degenerate Sonnes, p. 303.
49. Diary, 2: 377 (Feb. 25, 1645).
CHAPTER 5
1. H. N. Brailsford, The Levellers and the English Pievolution (Stanford: Stanford Uni
versity Press, 1961), p. 55.
2. Wilbur Cortez Abbott and Catherine D. Crane, The Writings and Speeches of Oliver
Cromwell with an Introduction, Notes and Account of His Life (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1937-39), 2: 182-83.
3. Proposals for the Propagation of the Gospel, Offered to Parliament (March 20, 1651),
p. 17.
4. For example, Norwood stated, “Why fear not, if you and your doctrines have their
foundation in and upon Christ, they shall, they must stand, let the windes blowe, the
floods beat. Why man, Christ is a Rock.” Ibid., pp. 18-19.
5. Letter to Col. Hammond dated Nov. 6, 1648. Cited by Abbott and Crane, 1: 697.
6. Seventh Pieport of the Pioyal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, p. 401b. Cited by
Mordecai Wilensky, “The Royalist Position Concerning the Readmission of Jews to
England,” J.Q.R. 41 (1951): 398.
7. Carlyle, Cromwell's Letters and Speeches, 1: 148. Cited by Lucien Wolf, Menasseh
ben Israel's Mission to Oliver Cromwell (London: J.H.S.E., 1901), p. xxix.
8. Hyamson, History of Jews in England, p. 140. For a detailed account of Jewish aid
see Lucien Wolf, “Cromwells Jewish Intelligencers,” in Essays in Jewish History, ed.
Cecil Roth (London: J.H.S.E., 1934), pp. 91-114.
9. D. Patirnkin, “Mercantilism and the Readmission of the Jews to England,” Jewish So
cial Studies 7 (1946): 177.
10. Brailsford, p. 395.

Page 168 - [see page image]

167
NOTES
11. Judaeorum Memorabilia, pp. 189-91. Cited by Wilensky, Shivat Hayehudim, p. 69.
12. I Proclaim From the Lord of Hosts the Returne of the Jewes From Their Captivity,
and the Building of the Temple in Glory in Their Owne Land (London: Printed by
Charles Sumpter for Giles Calvert, 1650). This is a one page proclamation that was
probably handed out to anyone who would read it.
13. Tany explained his Jewishness in the following way, “I am a lew. My Jesus is the lews
Iehovah, the lews Iehovah my Jesus, these two are but the names of the same intend
ed thing.” See Tany’s His Aurora Tranlagorum in Salem Gloria (London: Printed for
S. B. by Henry Hills, 1655), p. 11. Also see, for example, the criticisms he made
against the faculties of Oxford and Cambridge. “You say that you are called and sent
of Christ; it must be then messengers of his second coming, that is, to restore the
captive Iewes according to the promise.” Tanys Theaurau Iohn High Priest of the
Iewes His Disputive Challenge to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and the
Whole Hirach of Pioms Clargical Priests (London: 1651), p. 3.
14. Cecil Roth, A Life of Menasseh ben Israel (Philadelphia: J.P.S., 1945), pp. 64-66.
15. Wolf, Menasseh ben Israel's Mission, p. xxiv.
16. Jews in America (London: Printed for Henry Brown, 1660), p. 36.
17. Cecil Roth, “New Light on the Resettlement,” T.J.H.S.E., 12 (1927): 113-14.
18. Wolf, Menasseh ben Israel's Mission, p. xxvi.
19. (London: 1650), p. A 3.
20. Ibid., p. 9.
21. Roth, “New Light on the Resettlement.”
22. Menasseh ben Israel, “Humble Addresses.” Cited by Wolf, p. 78. Page numbers for
additional citations from this work are given in the text.
23. William Prynne: A Study in Puritanism (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
1931), pp. 185-86.
24. The book was issued in two parts, the first completed in December 1655 and the sec
ond in February 1656.
25. A Short Demurrer to the Jewes Long Discontinued Barred Piemitter into England
(London: Printed for Edward Thomas, 1656). The quotations in this paragraph in the
text are all from preface of the book, “To the Christian Reader.” Citations from other
sections of the work are noted by page number.
26. Mordecai Wilensky, “The Literary Controversy in 1656 Concerning the Return of the
Jews to England,” Publications of the American Academy for Jewish Piesearch 20
(1951): 360.
27. A View of the Jewish Pieligion (London: Printed by T. M. for E. Brewster and S. Mill
er, 1656). The last page of “To the Reader.” Further citations are given by page num
ber in the text.
28. Osterman believes that Ross wrote the pamphlet. Wilensky feels that it reflects his
spirit but will not commit himself. See Nathan Osterman, “The Controversy Over the
Proposed Readmission of the Jews to England,” Jewish Social Studies, 3 (1941): 308,
and Wilensky, Shivat Hayehudim, p. 177.
29. The Case of the Jewes Stated: Or the Jewes Synagogue Opened (London: Printed by
Robert Ibbitson, 1656), pp. 1-2.
30. Anglo-Judaeus, or the History of the Jews Whilst Here in England (London: Printed
by T. N. for Thomas Heath, 1656), p. 2 in the “Epistle Dedicatory.” Further citations
from this work are noted by page number in the text.
31. Wilfred Samuel, “The Strayings of Paul Isaiah in England (1651-1656),” T.J.H.S.E. 16
(1945-51): 82.