JEWS.

The character and fate of this singular people, in their relation to the Christian faith, belong to other departments of this work. In the present article we shall confine ourselves to a brief outline of the leading events in their annals, as a part of general history. They derive their origin from Abraham, a native of Chaldea, who flourished about 2000 years before the Christian era. At that period the whole world was sunk in idolatry, and Abraham was chosen by the Almighty, that by him and his posterity the knowledge of the essential principles of true religion might be preserved on the earth, and the way prepared for the revelation of a more comprehensive system to mankind. Under the divine direction, Abraham, at an early period of his life, withdrew from his country and kindred, and from the infectious influence of their superstitions; taking up his abode in the country now known by the name of Palestine, a small stripe of land along the Mediterranean, naturally sterile and rugged, but capable of extraordinary fertility through attentive culture, and commanding advantages, by its local situation, for securing an easy intercourse with the whole habitable world. In the days of Abraham, part of it was altogether unoccupied, and the rest was inhabited by different small tribes of the Canaanites, who seem to have migrated from Arabia. Among these, Abraham lived as an Emir or chief of a nomadic tribe, moving from place to place, as the increase of his flocks and the condition of his dependents required. A similar course of life was pursued by his immediate descendants, who, amidst their increasing numbers and enlarged possessions, did not depart from the habits of pastoral simplicity; so that during the period of 215 years, from the time of the arrival of Abraham till the departure of Jacob into Egypt, little progress seems to have been made in the arts of civilized life. The migration referred to, of all the descendants of Abraham, was occasioned by the well-known promotion of Joseph in the court of the king of Egypt. The Egyptians at this period were living under a regular form of government, and had made considerable advances in the arts and sciences. Policy as well as habit led them to look upon the nomadic life with an unfavourable eye; and from this circumstance, as well as from the hereditary character of offices among the Egyptians, the two races were kept entirely distinct. A separate district of the country was assigned to the Israelites, where they retained to a considerableextent the character of a pastoral tribe; the Egyptian deserts, and the neighbouring country of Arabia Petraea, affording ample opportunities for indulging in their primitive customs. The ordinary influence, however, of a more civilized and powerful people upon their dependents or allies, by degrees became perceptible; and we find the Israelites beginning to practise some of the arts of the Egyptians, and falling gradually into their idolatry. Gratitude or contempt secured the descendants of Jacob from the jealousy that their increasing numbers was calculated to awaken, till the founder of a new dynasty perceived the full extent of the danger to which his usurped dominion was exposed, and, regardless of national obligations, formed a plan for the extermination of the dangerous visitors. The rigour with which his savage plan was carried into execution, led to events by which it was frustrated, and proved the occasion of the establishment of the Israelites as a separate and independent people. Under the visible interposition of the Most High, Moses, who had been marvellously preserved from becoming the victim of the royal mandate, gave a new aspect to the destinies of the race. He led forth his countrymen from the house of their bondage, delivering to them a body of laws and institutions, which not only gave an indelible stamp to the Jewish character, but exerted an influence that continues to be experienced throughout the Christian and Mahommedan world. Like other lawgivers, he appointed religious ceremonies to be mingled with political institutions, but with this remarkable difference, that while under other systems religion is used as a means for civil security, the institutions of political society were employed by Moses to give permanency to the doctrines and practices of a pure theology.

The plan which had been entered upon by Moses for the introduction of the descendants of Abraham into the land promised to their progenitor, was carried into effect by Joshua, who succeeded to Moses; and who proceeded against the tribes which now inhabited that country, with a severity that can be condemned only by those who forget or deny the authority under which he acted, or the atrocious wickedness which warranted or called for the extremest manifestations of the divine displeasure. The command for the total destruction of the Canaanites, however, was only partially executed; and many of the evils which afterwards befell the Jewish people arose from the example of the families which had been spared with an ill-judged and presumptuous clemency. # Many of the tribes also seem to have saved themselves by a timely flight, which it does not appear that the Israelites were called upon to interfere with. Procopius mentions that the peopling of Northern Africa by the Phoenicians took place in consequence of the flight of that people before the victorious Joshua.

Possession being taken of the land of Canaan, it was parcelled out among the twelve Israelitish tribes, which were to a certain extent independent of each other, though, descended from the same stock, and worshipping at the same shrine, and united by certain general interests, they formed but one nation. Their government was strictly theocratical, without, however, excluding the ordinary forms of earthly rule. During the life of Joshua, the supreme power was exercised by that individual, as it had been by Moses, under the sanction of di vine appointment, with the assistance of certain ordinary magistrates. From the death of Joshua, during a period of 450 years, in the absence of a regular succession of recognised rulers, the civil constitution of the confederated tribes was fluctuating and uncertain. Their common origin and religion, the chief bonds of their union, often proved too feeble to withstand the influence of local interests and jealousies. Single tribes followed their own views, to the neglect of the common wishes or the common weal; leagues formed between two or more tribes for special purposes awakened the suspicions of their neighbours; these circumstances were aggravated by hereditary rivalries; and the government was preserved from dismemberment only by the rulers or Judges whom Providence upon great emergencies raised up to undertake the cause of the people, defending them from their enemies, or preserving them from intestine commotions.

At last the people, impatient of the uncertain government which seemed to be exerted over them, resolved upon the establishment of a monarchy, which might unite all in one peaceful kingdom. A member of the tribe of Benjamin, named Saul, was raised by common suffrage to the sovereignty, and held the sway over all the tribes of Israel about forty years. Fl is reign was far from being either prosperous or happy; and though his bravery preserved the Israelites from external adversaries, he was deficient in that political sagacity which was necessary to consolidate the principles of the new monarchy. Upon his death, the tribes of Judah[7:12:568] and Benjamin refused to acknowledge the authority of his son, and elected as his successor a youth named David, who had been marked out by the prophet Samuel as destined to kingly honours, and whose adventurous exploits, generous enthusiasm, and princely bearing, had endeared him to his tribe. His prudence proved equal to his valour and his piety; and in a short time he succeeded in uniting all the tribes in one kingdom, fixing his capital at Jerusalem. He was succeeded by his son Solomon, under whose reign the kingdom of Israel was carried to its highest degree of prosperity. The descendants of Abraham now formed the principal monarchy in Western Asia. From the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates, from the river of Egypt to Berytus, and towards the east to the Hagarenes on the Persian Gulf, all were subject to the sway of Solomon, under whose wise and peaceful rule trade flourished, commerce was extended, and the arts and sciences found patronage and protection. It often happens, that when a prince like David has settled a kingdom on solid foundations, his son is induced to indulge a taste for luxurious magnificence; and to this, as well as to his sense of religion, some have ascribed the building of the temple, the great event of his reign.

Upon the death of Solomon, the kingdom fell asunder under the feeblc and impolitic sway of his son and successor Rehoboam. The causes of disunion lay deep in the character and situation of the different tribes; and, though counteracted for a time, they were ever ready to operate when occasion was afforded. The jealousy that subsisted between the twelve sons of Jacob seems to have been inherited by their descendants; but it was only among the more powerful tribes that such jealousies could lead to a dismemberment of the commonwealth. From the beginning a rivalry may be observed between the tribes of Joseph and Judah. The former inherited a double portion in the allotments to Ephraim and Manassch, the two sons of Joseph; and their founder had been distinguished from his brethren by the blessings pronounced upon him. The tribe of Judah had the right of primogeniture, and the promised Messias was to spring from them. In this way the two tribes regarded each other with ill-concealed sentiments of hostility; and Shechem and Jerusalem, their respective capitals, were each the focus of a party ready to engage in active warfare. The impolitic exactions of Rehoboam, while they gave dissatisfaction to all his subjects, inflamed the Ephraimites to open revolt, which, fomented as it was by the ambition of Jeroboam, terminated in the establishment of a separate kingdom. This kingdom comprehended all the tribes, with the exception of the two southernmost (those of Judah and Benjamin), together with all the tributary nations as far as the Euphrates. The royal residence in the new kingdom was in Shechem, where the Mosaic ritual was superseded by a new mode of worship, and the link that bound Ephraim and Judah together finally severed.

The kingdom of Israel, as distinguished from that of Judah, had a distinct existence about 235 years, when it was invaded by Shalmaneser, who carried away the principal inhabitants into captivity. From that period all traces of the ten tribes as a distinct people are in a great measure lost. Colonists from Babylon and other eastern cities mingled with the Israelites who were left in the land of Palestine, and the mixed race were afterwards known by the name of Samaritans.

The kingdom of Judah enjoyed a somewhat longer existence than that of Israel. At last, however, about 135 years after the transference of the ten tribes to Media, the king of Babylon carried away captive the inhabitants of the land of Judah, which was left for a time wholly desert, or occupied only by wandering tribes.

During the captivity of Judah, the vanquished people seem to have enjoyed a more than usual share of the favour of their conquerors, and were considered more in the light of colonists than of captives. They were not, as they had been in Egypt, confined to a separate territory, but mingled freely with the Babylonians; being settled in thinly peopled districts, where, by a moderate degree of industry, they found an abundant sustenance. Upon the banks of the Euphrates they met some of the expatriated Israelites, who attached themselves to the tribes that had adhered to the pure worship of their fathers; and the name of Jews, from the larger tribe, was applied from this period to all who were recognised as the descendants of Jacob. The wisdom of many of the institutions of Moses now appeared, as they preserved the Hebrews a distinct people, notwithstanding the most intimate intercourse with another race, and secured their attachment to the great principles of monotheism in the midst of prevailing idolatry.

The captivity of the Jews continued till the year 536, when Cyrus ascended the Medo-Persian throne. This great prince had been foretold by the Jewish prophet Isaiah, as the man from whom deliverance was to come to the captive people; and in the first year of his reign he proclaimed a decree, permitting, or rather inviting, all the people of the God of Heaven, without exception, to return to Judea, and rebuild the temple of Jerusalem. About 50,000 availed themselves of this permission. They assembled at an appointed place, according to the usual mode of collecting a caravan, and proceeded under the conduct of Zerubbabel, who was nominated leader of the caravan, and governor of Judea. The return to Jerusalem took place about the close of the first year of Cyrus, after seventy years of captivity.

The building of a new temple, and the rebuilding and fortifying the city, were the two national objects which the restored captives had most at heart; and in the second year of their return the foundation of a new temple was laid. The jealousies and enmities, however, of the colonists at Samaria presented obstacles to the advancement of the work, and for a time it seems to have been abandoned. This lukewarmness on the part of the people called forth the indignant expostulations of the prophets FIaggai and Zechariah, which were attended with such effect, that, by the joint application of Zerubbabel the governor, and Jeshua the son of Josedek the priest, the original decree of Cyrus was renewed by Darius, one of his successors, and the temple was finished without farther interruption. The obstacles towards restoring the city of Jerusalem were not so soon overcome. The fears of the Persian government were wrought upon by the representations of the Samaritans, as to the danger of the defection of the Jews if their city were again fortified; and thus, though Ezra was allowed by Artaxerxes Longimanus to take 'with him to Jerusalem as many of the Jews of Chaldea as weredisposed to return,his powers, though considerable, did not extend to the fortifying of the city. It was not till the death of Zerubbabel, about twelve years after the return of Ezra, that Nehemiah was appointed his successor as governor of Judea, with authority to repair the city and rebuild the walls. This change in the policy or the Persians towards the Jews has been ascribed to the humiliating conditions of the peace which Artaxerxes was obliged to make with the Athenians after the signal defeat of his forces by Cimon, by which conditions no Persian army was to approach within three days’ march of the sea. Being thus excluded from the fine of sea-coast, it became an object to the Persians to have a fortified town like Jerusalem in their interest, which, without infringing upon the treaty with the Athenians, might serve as a pass for keeping open the communication between Persia and Egypt, which latter country had been reduced [7:12:569]anew under the Persian yoke. The extraordinary rapidity with which Nehemiah executed the important trust committed to him, the abuses which were introduced upon his return to Persia, and the steps which he took in consequence for the restoration of the Mosaic polity, and which he completed in the reign of Darius Nothus, are set forth in the book which bears his name, which, with that of his contemporary Malachi, closes the Old Testament canon,

From the time of the return from the Babylonian captivity, a remarkable change is observable in the character of the Jews, and in the features of their policy, civil and ecclesiastical. The infliction of the judgments threatened in their sacred books for their disobedience, seems to have impressed upon their minds a deeper reverence for the institutes of their Great Lawgiver; while the fulfilment of the predictions respecting their restoration to their own country led them to direct their views to the prophecies which spoke of the whole earth being brought to acknowledge the sovereignty of the God of Jacob. Of the tendency to idolatry, accordingly, for which they had hitherto been distinguished, we find few farther traces; and it was succeeded by a scrupulous adherence to the Mosaic ritual, on the observance of which they built their hopes of the accomplishment of the divine promises to their nation under the expected Messias. This change was connected with certain alterations in their institutions, which exercised a decided influence upon the destiny of the Jewish people in succeeding times. We refer to the establishment of the national councils known by the name of the Sanhedrims, and to the introduction of the synagogue worship. The precise period of their origin cannot be ascertained, but it seems not improbable that it was almost as early as the time of the return from Babylon, though a considerable period intervened before either system was in full operation. It has been conjectured that Nehemiah, in the conduct of his government, sought the assistance of a council or senate, consisting of the most influential individuals in Jerusalem; and that, in imitation of this national council, smaller senates were formed by degrees in each separate district, conducting the affairs of the community under the authority of the great Sanhedrim. These councils were intimately connected with the synagogues. As the Mosaic law was made to extend to all the actions of civil as well as to the duties of religious life, the Scriptures became of constant reference in each community. The people assembled to hear it read and explained as a religious exercise; and as it was the statute-book of the magistrate, its true meaning and right application to the circumstances which occurred became a matter of daily consideration. This gave rise to a class of men qualified for the important office of explaining the law. Skill in this department became the great distinction to which all paid reverential homage; and the direction of the worship of the synagogue, and the conduct of the courts of law, fell under the authority of the learned doctors or scribes, in whom were united the professions of law and of divinity. This was followed by a loss of power on the part of the priests, who became little more than the ministers of the sanctuary, without any authority as leaders of the people. Such was the great change effected in the course of a few centuries after the return from the captivity. The power of the priests passed into the hands of the rabbis; and instead of the schools of the prophets, and worship on high places, we have the Sanhedrims and the synagogues. The Jews who remained between the Tigris and the Euphrates, and those also who from this period began to scatter themselves throughout Egypt, Syria, and Asia Minor, and, at a later period, over Greece and Italy, and the other parts of the western world, adopted or carried along with them the synagogue service. While their personal interests prompted them to wander over different lands, a common feeling united them all to the country promised to their fathers, and to the hopes connected with its possession. These expatriated Jews conformed themselves to the regulations prescribed from time to time by the learned doctors of Judea; they contributed to the support of the services of the temple so long as it remained; and by these means, and by avoiding all intercourse by marriage with other nations, the Jews were distinguished as a separate people over all the world, and the spirit was confirmed which has preserved them from being confounded with others even to the present time.

After the death of Nehemiah, Judea was annexed to the prefecture of Syria, the administration of Jewish affairs being left to the high priests, subject to the control, however, of the provincial rulers. In this condition the Jews continued till the overthrow of the Persian empire by Alexander the Great, when Jerusalem became subject to the power of that mighty conqueror.

Upon the death of Alexander, the peace and security which the Jews had enjoyed under the Persian dynasty were changed for scenes of bloodshed and devastation. In the wars which took place amongst the successors of Alexander, Judea, from its situation between Syria and Egypt, became alternately the prey of each. In the words of Josephus, the Jews resembled a ship tossed by a hurricane, and buffeted on both sides by the waves, while they lived in the midst of contending seas. At first their country was allotted to Laomedon, along with Coele-Syria and Phoenicia. But the ambitious views of Ptolemy Lagus, king of Egypt, being directed to the whole of Syria,, he entered Judea, and choosing the Sabbath day for the assault of Jerusalem, he met with no resistance from the inhabitants, 100,000 of whom he carried off as captives, settling them in Cyrene and Alexandria; thus laying the foundation of the Jewish colony in Alexandria, which for 400 years holds a conspicuous place in the Jewish annals. With the exception of the period when Judea was overrun by Antigonus, it continued under the power of Ptolemy, whose policy towards the Jews was wise and liberal. During the reign of this prince, Simon the Just was high priest, who, according to Jewish tradition, was the last member of the great synagogue, and in this character completed the sacred canon. Ptolemy Lagus was succeeded by Ptolemy Philadelphus asking of Egypt. Under his reign the translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into the Greek (named the Septuagint, from an idle legend as to the number of individuals employed in the work) was probably begun, though not completed till a later period. During the wars of Antiochus the Great with the Ptolemiés, the inhabitants of Judea were subjected to severe suffering. Their country was laid waste, and to which side soever victory inclined, they were equally exposed to injury. Though they had received many favours under the sway of the Ptolemies, the Jews espoused the cause of Antiochus, who showed his gratitude by lightening their burdens, by gifts towards defraying the expenses of their sacrifices, and by securing them in the peaceable observance of the rites of their religion.

A very different policy was pursued by Antiochus Epiphanes, who, in all his dealings with the Jewish people, was influenced only by his rapacity, and bigotry, and cruelty. The first act of his reign was to depose the high priest Onias, that the vacated office might be conferred upon Joshua, brother of Onias, who had bribed the king to this injustice by the promise of a large tribute, to enable him to pay which, certain privileges were conferred on him, to be employed in introducing Grecian customs among his countrymen, and in weaning them from their national pe-culiaritics[7:12:570]. The new high priest assumed the Grecian name of Jason, allowed the services of the temple to fall into disuse, and established a gymnasium, where, under the pretext of practising athletic exercises, the Jews were won over to heathenism. Jason was soon supplanted in his turn by his brother Menelaus, who, in like manner, made it his aim to substitute Grecian for Jewish customs. In the mean time, the attention of Antiochus was attracted towards Egypt, which he invaded with a powerful army that was everywhere victorious. While there, exaggerated reports reached him of a revolt of the Jewish people, and his arms were immediately directed against Judea. Jerusalem was taken; 80,000 of the inhabitants were sold as slaves or put to the sword; and, while he plundered the temple of all its treasures, he showed his enmity against the Jewish religion by desecrating with every abomination all that the Jews esteemed most holy. After this, he anew directed his attempts against Egypt. For a time success seemed doubtful; but the weaker party made an appeal to Rome, and the firmness of Popilius Lenas compelled Antiochus to submission and retreat.

Disappointed in his designs against Egypt, Antiochus returned to his capital, where he issued a decree commanding all the inhabitants of his empire to worship the gods of the king, and to acknowledge no religion but his. It may be doubtful whether in this edict the sovereign consulted most his rapacity or bigotry. At that time the temples were not only enriched by the offerings of the votaries, but, from the security afforded by the character of their sanctity, were the great banks of deposit; and Antiochus seems to have laid the plan for plundering the temples throughout his dominions, after suppressing their worship. Among his heathen subjects, the decree met with ready obedience. The compliance in Judea, however, was not universal, and the partial opposition which was made led to those measures of frantic severity on the part of Antiochus that awakened into life the spirit of the Maccabees, whom God raised up among their degenerate countrymen to defend his cause, and give an example to mankind.

A Grecian named Athenaeus, well acquainted with all the forms of heathen worship, was sent to Jerusalem to instruct the Jews in the religion they were henceforth to observe, with full powers to enforce compliance. He dedicated the temple to Jupiter Olympus; the statue of Jupiter (the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet DanieD was set up on the altar of Jehovah; and throughout all Judea idol altars were erected, upon which, under penalty of the most barbarous tortures, the Jews were compelled to offer sacrifice. Circumcision, the keeping of the Sabbath, and other observances of the ceremonial law, were made capital offences, and all the copies of the sacred books that could be found were destroyed. Groves were planted and idolatrous altars erected in every city ,∙ and at fixed periods the citizens were required to offer sacrifice, and to join in the religious processions; and officers were sent into all the towns, attended by a military force, to command obedience to the royal edict. At first they met with no opposition; but the hour of resistance was approaching. We learn from the first book of the Maccabees, that when the officers of King Antiochus, in traversing Judea, came to the city ofModin to make the people sacrifice, they commanded Mattathias, a priest of the sons of Joarib, to come first and fulfil the king’s commandment. “Mattathias answered with a loud voice, God forbid that we should forsake the law and the ordinances: We will not hearken to the king’s voice to go from our religion, either to the right or to the left. Now, when he had left speaking these words, there came one of the Jews, in the sight of all, to sacrifice on the altar which was at Modin, according to the king’s commandment. Which thing, when

Mattathias saw, he was inflamed with zeal, and his reins trembled, neither could he forbear to show his anger according to judgment; wherefore he ran and slew him upon the altar. Also the king’s commissioner, who compelled men to sacrifice, he killed at that time, and the altar he pulled down. Thus dealt he zealously for the law of God, as Phineas did unto Zambri the son of Salom. And Mattathias cried throughout the city with a loud voice, saying, whosoever is zealous of the law, and maintaineth the covenant, let him follow me. So he and his sons fled unto the mountains, and left all that they ever had in the city·”

Such was the commencement of that noble stand which Mattathias and his sons made for the religion and liberties of their country. Mattathias was the son of John, the son of Simeon, the son of Asmoneus, from whom the family had the name of Asmonean. Different accounts have been given of the name of Maccabee, by which they are more generally known. The common explanation is, that it was from the four initial letters of the words which were displayed on their banner (Mi Cha-nioka Baelim Jahoh, who is like unto thee among the gods, 0 Lord). Others conceive that it was the surname given by Mattathias to one of his sons, on account of his valiant exploits,— the Hammerer.

Having fled to the mountains, Mattathias was soon joined by associates from all parts of the country, who needed only a leader to animate them to resistance. Mattathias lived but a short time to direct the energies of this devoted band; but upon his death he left fit successors in his valiant sons, who, during a period of twenty-six years, maintained a war with five successive kings of Syria, which terminated in the establishment of the independence of their country. Judas Maccabeus, the third son of Mattathias, was the first who undertook the management of affairs. His successes were for a time uninterrupted. From a petty revolt, the contest soon assumed the character of a mighty war; the chosen generals of Antiochus were defeated at the head of assembled hosts; in less than three years Jerusalem was once more in the hands of the Jews, its altars repaired, its temple purified, and the sacred services restored; and, soon after the death of Antiochus, the Syrians were compelled to conclude a peace with the Maccabee.

Had the Jews been united among themselves, they might now have defied the power of their enemies. But there were many elements of disunion in this ill-fated nation. The zealous attachment to their ceremonial and traditionary law, which animated the greater part of the followers of Judas, and which was one great cause of their success, was offensive to the party which had arisen with less rigid views, and who were afterwards distinguished by the name of Sadducees; and there was a numerous party, who, having conformed to the Grecian worship, were wholly in the interest of the Syrians. The Syrians were not slow in availing themselves of these internal differences, and war again began to rage. Though deserted by many of his followers, success still attended the arms of Judas, till he was slain in a furious conflict with the flower of the army of Demetrius, which with desperate resolution he had attacked near Azotus with only eight hundred men.

Judas was succeeded in command by his brother Jonathan. He fought at first with various fortune; but the prudence and enterprising valour of which he partook in common with the whole family were crowned at last with success. In the contests for the crown of Syria between Demetrius and Alexander Balas, the alliance of Jonathan was courted by the rival parties; and he was thus enabled to make terms most favourable for Judea. But in the wars that succeeded the death of Balas, he was treacher [7:12:571]ously slain by Trypho, who, under professions of friendship, had tempted him to enter Ptolemais without a sufficient force for his protection.

Simon was now the only brother who survived of the house of Mattathias; but the fate of his family did not daunt him, and he at once accepted of the hazardous preeminence to which the suffrages of his countrymen called him. “Since all my brethren,” said he, <£ are slain for Israel’s sake, and I am left alone, far be it from me to spare my own life in any time of trouble, for I am no better than my brethren; doubtless, I will avenge my nation and the sanctuary, and our wives and children.” The pledge thus given he soon fulfilled. With characteristic energy, he put the whole country in a posture of defence; and entering into a league with Demetrius, the rival of the perfidious Trypho, he secured such privileges for the Jews, that from this period, b. c. 143, they date their freedom from the Syrian yoke. At this time the Jews elected Simon ethnarch or prince, as well as high priest; the office to be hereditary in his family. The government of Simon was marked by vigour and wisdom. But, like the rest of his family, he was doomed to a violent death, being assassinated at an entertainment by his own son-inlaw, who had entered into a plot with Antiochus king of Syria, for the extirpation of the Maccabean race. Two of his sons were murdered with him; but a third escaped to Jerusalem, where he succeeded to his father’s government. This was John Hyrcanus, whose surname was derived from his valiant exploits in Hyrcania, with Demetrius king of Syria. The reign of Hyrcanus lasted thirty years, and was eminently prosperous. The kingdom of Judea was extended on every side. Samaria was reduced, and the temple on Mount Gerizim destroyed. The Idumeans were subdued, and became proselytes to the Jewish religion. A league with the Romans, which had first been sought by Judas Maccabeus, and was renewed by Simon, was now confirmed on terms most advantageous to the Jews in their relations with surrounding states; and the glory of the Asmoncan princes was raised to its height

About the time of Hyrcanus we first find mention made of the Sanhedrim or Great Council, which for a considerable period exercised a power, partly legislative and partly judicial, among the Jews. It consisted of-seventy individuals, priests and men learned in the law. Some have conjectured that it owed its origin to the policy of Hyrcanus, who wished to avoid the appearance of exercising an unlimited authority, by an institution which might protect, while it seemed to limit, the new monarchy.

The sons of Hyrcanus were unworthy of the stock from which they sprung. The short reign of his eldest son Aristobulus, which lasted only a year, was darkened by monstrous crimes. By his orders his own mother was imprisoned and starved to death, and his brother Antigonus was assassinated. An agony of superstitious horror at the enormity of his guilt, terminated his miserable existence. His brother Alexander Jannaeus, who succeeded him in the government, was a man of enterprising valour, but cruel, deceitful, and tyrannical. The greater part of his reign was occupied in quelling revolts among his subjects, occasioned partly by the turbulent spirit of the Pharisees, but chiefly by the oppressiveness of his own sway. Immediately before his death, which was hastened by intemperance, he urged his queen Alexandra to unite herself to the Pharisaic party, as the only means to preserve the kingdom. The policy was wise for the house of the Asmoneans, and was scrupulously followed by Alexandra. Her reign, which continued nine years, was conducted with prudence and vigour, and her kingdom preserved in tranquillity.

Upon the death of Alexandra, her two sons, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, were both competitors for the vacant throne. Hyrcanus was deficient in all the qualities that were necessary for command, and would have yielded to his brother without opposition, had he not been urged by Antipater or Antipas (father of Herod the Great) to maintain his cause. According to Josephus, Antipas was of a noble family of Idumeans who had adopted the Jewish religion. His father had been governor of Idumea during the reigns of Alexander Jannaeus and Alexandra. Antipas himself was educated in the Jewish court, where he attached himself to the interests of the eldest son, whom be looked upon as the successor to the throne. The arts of Aristobulus, who, in the prospect of his mother’s death, had made himself master of several of the strongest fortresses of Judea, presented an unexpected obstacle to the hopes of the friends of Hyrcanus. The prize, however, was too important to be lost without a struggle; and Hyrcanus, under the influence of Antipas, engaged in a contest for the throne. It was continued for a considerable time with doubtful issue. At last the brothers submitted their claims to the decision of Pompey, now crowned with all the glories of the Mithridatic war. Pompey delayed from time to time pronouncing in favour of either party, till at last Aristobulus, disappointed in his hopes of the support of the Roman, took up his ground in Jerusalem, and prepared for war. Upon this Pompey marched against the Jewish capital, which, after a siege of three months, was taken by assault. Had it not been for the religious scruples of the Jews as to making resistance to the progress of the works of the enemy on the Sabbath, the fortress might have proved impregnable. The attachment of the Jews to their sacred ceremonies was strikingly evinced at this period in another respect. At the moment when the temple was taken, the priests were engaged in the daily sacrifices; and, amidst all the horrors which surrounded them, they proceeded in their solemn services unmoved, thinking it better, says Josephus, to suffer whatever came upon them at their very altars, than to omit any thing that their law required of them. The curiosity of Pompey led him to visit the whole of the sacred edifice, and he entered into the holy of holies. The sacred utensils of the temple he left untouched, and even the treasures, which amounted to two thousand talents of gold. He also gave orders for the purifying of the temple, and for the continuance of the divine service as before. He appointed Hyrcanus to the office of high priest, giving him at the same time the government of Judea, tributary to the Romans, but without the title or ensigns of royalty. The cities of Phoenicia and Coele-Syria, which the Jews had conquered, were separated from Judea and joined to Syria, which was now made a province of the Roman empire, Judea being reduced to a subordinate principality, b. c. 63.

Aristobulus, his sons Alexander and Antigonus, and his two daughters, were carried away by Pompey as prisoners to grace his triumph, Hyrcanus being left as governor of Judea. This feeble prince was wholly under the influence of Antipater the Idumean, by whose instigation he had made the effort which gave him his present supremacy. Unfit himself to hold the reins of state, he intrusted every thing to this crafty and ambitious favourite, who appointed his own sons, Phasaelis and Herod, the one governor of Jerusalem, the other of Galilee, though both nominally under the control of Hyrcanus. Herod, at this time only twenty-five years old, comsnen-ced his government with a vigour and severity that bespoke the future tyrant. A band of robbers who infested his province were made the first victims of his cruelty; and when summoned before the Sanhedrim, who were jealous of the rising powers of Antipater and his sons, to answer for his stretch of authority, he entered the council[7:12:572] in so menacing a form, that all, with the exception of one individual, were awed into silence. The attack which the discontented Jews were afraid to commence openly, they soon after attempted in secret, and the leading men among them entered into a plot for the destruction of the family of Antipas. The father was poisoned at an entertainment given by the high priest; and when Herod and Phasaelis escaped the snare which was laid for them, means were used to alienate from them the affections of Hyrcanus. These arts, however, were baffled by Herod, who contrived to increase his influence with the prince oy marrying his grand-daughter Miriam or Mariamne. The enemies of Herod now openly espoused the cause of Antigonus, son of Aristobulus, who had lately effected his escape from Rome, and who had found a supporter of his pretensions to the Jewish throne in Pacorus, the Parthian leader. In the war which ensued, Hyrcanus, with the assistance of the sons of Antipas, was generally successful. But, under the pretence of coming to an amicable arrangement, Hyrcanus and Phasaelis were entrapped into the enemy’s camp, where Phasaelis was put to death, and the barbarous punishment of cutting off the ears was inflicted upon the aged governor by his unfeeling nephew Antigonus.

The discovery of this treachery aroused the energies of the surviving brother to the uttermost. Having placed his family, and whatever of value he could collect, in Massada, a fortress on a mountain near the Dead Sea, he sailed to Italy to implore the assistance of the Romans. In all the changes which had taken place at Rome, it had been the policy of Herod to ingratiate himself with the successful party. And it is a sufficient proof of the arts and talents of this extraordinary man, that he enjoyed the favour of Julius Caesar, and Cassius, and Mark Antony, and that he was ranked as one of the friends of Augustus and Agrippa. At the present time Antony was in power at Rome. And when Herod asked merely that the brother of Mariamne should be placed on the throne of Judea, as uniting by his descent the claims both of Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, Antony named Herod himself the king. Before the end of the year Herod was again in Judea, raised a large body of soldiers, relieved his friends at Massada, and was in readiness to take the field against Antigonus. The war continued about three years, in the course of which Jerusalem again stood a long siege. When it was at last taken, the Romans, exasperated at the obstinacy with which it had been defended, would have made a general massacre, and reduced the city to ashes, had they not been restrained by Herod, who complained that “they. were going to make him king of a desert.” The pusillanimity of Antigonus upon his surrender subjected him to the scorn of the Roman general, who sent him in chains to Antony, under the contemptuous name of Antigona, as if he were unworthy to bear that of a man. Antony, at the cruel but perhaps politic solicitation of Herod, gave order for his execution as a common malefactor, by the rods and axe of the lic-ţors. With Antigonus ended the Asmonean dynasty, after it had subsisted 126 years. Josephus expatiates with a natural pride upon the merits of this illustrious house, as distinguished by their descent, by the dignity of the pontificate, and by the great exploits of their ancestors.

Upon the accession of Herod to the Jewish throne, his character began more fully to develope itself. By one of the first acts of his reign, the whole of the members of the Sanhedrim were put to death, with only two exceptions. One exception was in favour of Sameas, the individual formerly referred to as standing alone in arraigning Herod to his face. If there was any generosity in the conduct of Herod towards Sameas, he forfeits the admiration it might have excited, by his unworthy jealousy of Aris-

tobulus, the brother of his wife Mariamne. When the popular feeling was manifested in their admiration of the rightful heir of the Asmoneans, Herod saw in him a dangerous rival to his power, and by his order the youthful high priest was put to death. The mother of Aristobulus appealed to the justice of Antony to avenge the murder of her son. Herod saw his danger, and secured his safety by the homage of a personal interview. The battle of Actium put an end to his farther hopes from Antony, and his crown and even his life were exposed to a new jeopardy. He resolved therefore once more to have recourse to the expedient of a personal interview; he presented himself before Augustus upon his arrival in Egypt; and the arts which had formerly prevailed with Roman generals were still successful. But the qualities by which he was able to attach to himself many illustrious friends, and the munificent acts and proud and princely undertakings which shed a barbaric splendour over his reign, formed no atonement for the many deeds of blood by which he had arrived at his guilty pre-eminence. His crimes, however, were not allowed to pass unpunished. He regarded not how much misery might be endured by others, that his own passions might be indulged; and in those passions his guilt found its avengers.

When he left Judea to plead his cause before Antony, he gave the extraordinary injunction, that if he were condemned, Mariamne should be put to death, to prevent the possibility of her ever being the wife of another. And during his absence at the time when he paid his court to Augustus, he gave the same instructions; his love being such, that he could not think of Mariamne but as his own; if the name of love can be applied to that combination of tyranny, and pride, and selfishness, and lust, which filled his guilty bosom. The fatal secret had been communicated to the queen during his first absence, and upon his return she upbraided him with his barbarous cruelty. The jealousy of the tyrant was awakened in a moment, and, wild with rage, he rushed upon her with his sword, asking if such a secret could have been revealed except by a lover. But the paroxysm passed away, and his suspicions were forgotten in his efforts to soothe the resentment of his injured queen. Upon his second return he found that his secret had again been disclosed; and, goaded on by the enemies of Mariamne, he issued orders for her execution. Remorse and despair now took possession of his mind. He fled from all society, and, under a complication of mental and corporeal suffering, he sunk into a state of insanity. The derangement was temporary, though traces of it were discoverable to the end of his life.

As the sons of Herod by Mariamne grew up to manhood, attempts were made to poison the mind of their father against them; and the obvious interest with which they were viewed by the Hebrew nation awakened his jealousy. After a succession of scenes, in which the tyrant and the father strove for the mastery within him, he appeared as the accuser of his own sons, first before Augustus, and then before the deputies Saturninus and Volumnius; and the sanction of the Roman authority being obtained, the unhappy brothers were strangled by the orders of the unhappier father. Macrobius has preserved a saying of Augustus upon hearing of the unnatural conduct of Herod, in allusion to the Jewish faith, “that he would rather be Herod’s sow than his son.” Antipater, his son by a former marriage, who had instigated the proceeding against his brothers, was himself found guilty of a plot to poison Herod. Sentence of death was immediately pronounced against him, but the tyrant’s own death prevented it from being carried into effect.

Amidst the dark shades of the character of this extraordinary man, the splendid acts of his administration [7:12:573]are not to be forgotten; the fortresses by which he sought to give security to his kingdom; the harbours he constructed; the cities he built; the magnificent palace he reared for the royal residence; and the temple which he restored to almost its original greatness. The rebuilding of the city of Samaria, the building of the city and harbour of Caesarea, with the rebuilding of the temple, must be allowed to be monuments of a princely and patriotic mind.

Upon the death of Herod, Palestine was divided amongst his three surviving sons, Archelaus, Antipas, and Philip. Archelaus was appointed ethnarch or governor of Judea, Idumea, and Samaria, which formed the largest part of the province. Antipas was named tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip tetrarch of Trachonitis. Archelaus followed in the footsteps of his father, and being without his talents or his arts, he was deposed by Augustus in the tenth year of his reign, in consequence of repeated complaints from his subjects, and banished to Vienne in Gaul. The part of Palestine which had been under Archelaus was now reduced into the form of a Roman province, being placed under the superintendence of a Roman governor, subordinate to the prefect of Syria. No fewer than three of these subordinate governors were appointed in succession towards the close of the reign of Augustus. During the reign of Tiberius there were only two, Valerius Gratus, A. d. 16, and Pontius Pilate, a. D. 27. Pilate seems to have been the first who took up his residence at Jerusalem, those who preceded him having dwelt at Caesarea. The condition of the Jews under the Roman governors was miserable in the extreme. The extortions of the publicans, whose office it was to collect the revenue, were excessive; and the whole of their proceeding was vexatious and oppressive. It was vain to hope for redress from the governors, whose avarice and injustice were proverbially great. The very fact of paying tribute to a heathen government was felt to be an intolerable grievance. And the Roman soldiers quartered over the whole country, though they prevented a general insurrection,.yet, by their very presence, and by the ensigns of their authority, exasperated the minds of the Jewish people, and led to many tumults, and seditions, and murders. A numerous party existed in Judea, whose religious prejudices were opposed to the idea of paying taxes to a foreign power, and who cherished the vain hope of restoring the Jewish kingdom. Attempts were made by different individuals, and particularly by Judas the Gaulonite, to instigate the Jews to a general revolt, which were repressed as they arose. But the fanatical principles were widely spread, and led to excesses, to which, in no small degree, may be ascribed the final destruction of Jerusalem. The party was distinguished by the name of Zealots.

The removal of Archelaus was not connected with any act on the part of the Romans towards his brothers. Trachonitis continued under Philip till the time of his death, when it was annexed to the province of Syria. Herod Antipas continued tetrarch of Galilee till after the accession of Caligula, who, upon the discovery that he had entertained treasonous designs, deprived him of his tetrarchate, and banished him to Lyons, in Gaul.

The period at which we are now arrived is by far the most important in the Jewish annals, or rather in the annals of the world. A short time before the death of Herod the Great, Jesus Christ, the promised Messias, was born at Bethlehem, one of the cities of Benjamin. He commenced his public ministry about the 30th year of his age, and was put to death by the sentence of the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. The circumstances connected with his life and death and resurrection belong to Christian rather than to Jewish history.

Agrippa, a grandson of Herod the Great, having ingratiated himself with the Emperor Caligula, was appointed tetrarch of Trachonitis, upon the death of his uncle Philip; and upon the banishment of Herod Antipas, the tetrarchy of Galilee was added to the dominion of Herod, and ultimately he was named king of the whole territory that had belonged to his grandfather. This prince, upon his death, left a son, also named Agrippa. He was represented to Claudius as too young to be appointed to such a kingdom, and Palestine was again placed under a Roman governor. A considerable extent of territory, however, was ultimately given to young Agrippa; but Judea and Samaria were reserved as a Roman province.

The policy of the Romans led them to give toleration to their subject provinces in all matters connected with their national worship; and, from Pompey to Tiberius, countenance was given to the celebration of the Mosaic ritual. It was otherwise with Caligula, under whose reign was laid the foundation of those dissensions between the Jews and Romans which led to the utter destruction of the Jewish polity. The insane vanity of Caligula prompted him to enforce divine honours from all his subjects, which threatened the worst consequences to the Jewish people in every part of the empire. The Jews of Alexandria were the first who suffered. By their refusal to comply with the imperial edict, a pretext was afforded to the Grecian party in the city to commence a prosecution against them. The miserable Jews resolved upon sending a deputation to Rome to implore the clemency of the emperor. This deputation was headed by Philo, the greatest of all the uninspired Jewish writers, who has left an account of his interview with Caligula, and of the uncertain respite which was granted to his fellow-citizens. The governor of Syria received orders to place the statue of the emperor in the temple of Jerusalem; but he was induced, by the spirit of calm but determined resistance threatened by the whole nation, to delay the execution of the order till he received farther instructions from the emperor. There is a difference in the account of the manner in which Caligula acted upon this occasion, by Philo and Josephus; it is certain, however, that the Jewish nation remained in a state of suspense and fear till the death of the tyrant.

The worst evils, however, endured by the Jews at this period were not directly from the emperors themselves, but from their provincial governors, who, without exception, seem to have been men insensible to the claims of justice, and actuated solely by a spirit of violence and rapacity. Gessius Florus is represented by Josephus as spoiling whole cities, and ruining entire bodies of men; as giving security to robbers and lawless men when made a sharer in their depredations; and finally, as aggravating the oppressions of the people, to instigate them to open rebellion, that he might escape the danger of a representation of his crimes being made to the emperor. It was natural for the Jewish historian to represent the revolt which terminated in the destruction of his country, as originating in the injustice of their enemies; and it must be allowed, when we contemplate the proceedings of the Romans, that if ever there was a case in which revolt was justifiable, it was in that of the Jews. It may be doubted, however, whether they can be looked upon with that generous sympathy which is always awakened by the history of a people nobly uniting in the assertion of their rights and liberties. Judea, at this period, was torn by factions, a spirit of insubordination and fanaticism, chiefly connected with views of their promised Messias, pervaded the great body of the people; and miserable as was their condition under the oppressions of the procurators, it is impossible not to perceive, in perusing the works of their own historian, that their greatest sufferings were occasioned by the unsettled and violent spirit that reigned among themselves.
[7:12:574]

The commencement of the war was connected with circumstances which took place in Caesarea. The Syrian party in that city had been favoured by the Roman emperor, and they abused the advantage which this circumstance gave them, in provoking and harassing the Jews, till at last there was a violent collision, and the Jews were driven out of the city. The leading men among them appealed to Florus, who, instead of affording them redress, cast them into prison. The news of this indignity kindled a flame in the Jewish capital; and the excitement among the people was such as to give Florus the* pretext which he had long desired, of letting loose the soldiery upon the citizens. Great cruelties were inflicted, and no distinction was made between the innocent and the guilty. The influence of Berenice, sister of Agrippa, who was in .Jerusalem at the time, and the arrival of Agrippa himself from Egypt soon after, promised to restore tranquillity. They both seem to have been sincere in their efforts towards a pacification, and for a time happy results followed the soothing counsels of Agrippa. It was, however, but for a time. All over Judea there were spirits determined not to allow so favourable a pretext for war as had been afforded by Florus, to pass away; and Agrippa, soon seeing that his attempts at mediation were to be in vain, withdrew to his own kingdom, and left Jerusalem to its fate. This was in the year 66. Hitherto the people professed that it was against Florus, and not against the Romans, that they had taken up arms. The distinction would not probably have been acknowledged at Rome, and the Jews did not allow the question to be tried. Eleazar, the son of Ananias the high priest, persuaded the people to reject the offerings which were made by the emperor to the temple, and which had been received since the time of Julius Caesar; and about the same time the fortress of Massada, near the Dead Sea, was taken, and the Roman garrison put to the sword. Allegiance to the Romans was now in effect renounced, and from this period we may date the commencement of the war.

Eleazar took possession of Aera and the temple; and receiving numerous reinforcements of Zealots or Siccarii from different parts of the country, he not only resisted the assaults of the Romans and of the soldiers of Agrippa, but soon sallied out and made himself master of the whole city. He granted a safe passage to the Jewish soldiers who were against him, and to the troops of Agrippa; but a different fate awaited the Roman garrison. They had capitulated on condition that their lives were to be spared. But the moment they yielded up their arms, the followers of Eleazar commenced an attack, and, with the exception of their leader, they were all put to the sword. This monstrous breach of treaty was on a Sabbath day; and the minds of all those who had not as yet joined in the revolt were filled with gloomy forebodings of the evils which were now inevitable. But the Jews were not the only guilty parties in the deeds which darken the annals of these dreadful times. On the same day of the massacre of the Roman garrison, the Jewish inhabitants of Caesarea, amounting to 20,000, were put to the sword. Upon this the fire spread at once over all Judea, and an attack was simultaneously made upon the neighbouring territory of Syria. Cestius Gallus, the prefect of Syria, took immediate measures for chastising this presumption. He ordered the twelfth legion into Galilee, and soon afterwards he himself entered Judea with an army of about 10,000 men. He advanced without opposition to Jerusalem, and, from the state of parties in the city, there seems little doubt, that if he had shown common prudence, or common bravery, it would soon have been in his power. But a severer doom was in reserve for it. Cestius, to the surprise of all, in a few days raised the siege, withdrew his troops, and commenced a retreat, which the pursuit of the Jews soon changed into a general flight, in the course of which he lost more than half his army. The Jews only lost a few men.

The news of this defeat was received by Nero with such alarm, that he immediately appointed Vespasian, who was considered as the most experienced general in the empire, to quell the insurrection. Without the loss of an hour after his appointment, Vespasian despatched his son Titus to Alexandria, whence, with the sixth and tenth legions, he was to proceed to Judea. Vespasian himself advanced to Syria.

-Upon the retreat of Cestius, many Jews departed from Judea, as from a foundering bark, that was soon to go down in darkness and death. The Christians, we are informed by Eusebius, about this time, also remembering the prophecies of our Lord, retired to the town of Pella to avoid the approaching calamities.

The Jews who remained in their own land were diligent in putting all their strong places in a state of defence.

Vespasian opened his first campaign in Galilee in the spring of 67. His army consisted of about 60,000 men, horse and foot, including auxiliaries. On the first assault he took and burned Gadara. He then presented himself before Jotapata, which was commanded by Josephus, who afterwards wrote the history of the war. After a siege of forty days, the town was taken and destroyed. Above 40,000 men were killed during this siege. Josephus surrendered at discretion, and continued during the remainder of the war a prisoner at large among the Romans. In his history, accordingly, of this miserable period, we have the account of an eye-witness. The fact that the capture of Jotapata was the chief event of the first season, proves that the Roman had met no unworthy foe.

In the spring of the following year, Vespasian commenced by reducing the whole of Peraea, it not being his policy to march directly upon Jerusalem. He then advanced from Caesarea towards the south, laid waste Judea and Idumea, secured Samaria, and then drew back to Caesarea, to be in readiness to march with all his forces against the capital itself.

Vespasian had now made all his preparations; he had occupied two seasons in clearing the whole territory round and round, that nothing might interpose to break his onset; Jerusalem itself stood like an isolated tower, against which all the engines of destruction were arrayed; the force of Rome was drawn back to Caesarea, that it might be sent off with an irresistible shock; but at that critical moment the moving power of this machinery of desolation took another direction, and a period was given to the Jewish people to repent,—or to fill up the measure of their iniquities. Upon arriving at Caesarea, Vespasian received intelligence which fixed his whole attention upon Rome. Nero was dead, and the fate of the empire was in balance. A more important prize than Jerusalem was now presented to his view, and, called to the purple by the voice of his soldiers, he set sail for Italy, leaving his son Titus to conclude the war.

Throughout the protracted period during which Vespasian had been devastating Judea, Jerusalem, instead of making preparations to withstand the approaching attack, was the scene of contentions so ferocious, that the advance of the Romans was longed for by the great proportion of the inhabitants, as the only earthly means for their deliverance from the terrible evils under which they were suffering. There were three factions within the walls, animated against each other with sentiments of the deadliest hate, and often engaging in actual conflict. Eleazar had seized the temple, and kept himself in strength there with 2400 men. John, [7:12:575]the rival of Josephus, had his position in the inner court of the temple. He had a party of 6000. Simon, the son of Gioras, called Simon the assassin, occupied the upper city. His force was the largest, consisting of 10,000, and 5000 Idumeans. Such was the position of the three factions when Titus took the command, and the miseries of the siege itself scarcely exceeded what had been endured amidst the daily encounters of the Jewish soldiery. Death was become so common a spectacle, that it was viewed without emotion. The feelings of kindred were dried up; a callousness of heart seized upon all; the interest in life itself seemed to be extinguished.

At last, about the beginning of April of the year 70, the tide of war took the direction of Jerusalem; and Titus, with the Roman host, advanced from Caesarea through Samaria, and encamped under the walls. The contending chiefs, when it was too Jate, entered into negociations for uniting their forces against the Romans. Their mutual hatred, however, was never laid aside, nor did they repose confidence in each other, though they fought with the valour of desperation against the common enemy.

The city was fortified by three walls of prodigious strength. The one built by Agrippa was seventeen and a half feet broad, the stones thirty-five feet long, and so compacted as not to be easily shaken by the battering rams. The walls were everywhere guarded by towers, at intervals of about 350 feet, of solid masonry, and of great height. The tower Psephina, opposite to which Titus encamped, was 122 feet high; it is said to have commanded a view of the whole territory of Judea to the border of Arabia and to the Red Sea; and there were other towers of scarcely less imposing appearance, and of equal strength. Above the whole city stood the temple, the walls of which were in no place lower than 500 feet. It covered a square of a furlong each side, and was of such strength as to be supposed impregnable. Some of the stones employed in the work were seventy feet square ;—and not one of these was to be left upon another.

At first the Jews made some sallies, so vigorous as to astonish the Romans themselves. Had the parties within been united, and had the time from the commencement of the war been employed in putting the city in a state of complete defence, it might have withstood the whole Roman power for years. But the day and the hour of its overthrow had been fixed in the counsels of heaven.

After strenuous fighting for every inch of ground, two walls were successively abandoned by the Jews. But the heights of Zion, the Antonia, and the temple, still remained, which might be considered the strength of Jerusalem; and so hopeless did every attempt seem to take any of them by storm, and so paralysing were the desperate efforts of the Jews upon tĥe Roman power, that Titus found it necessary to blockade and starve the city and garrison. The inhabitants of Jerusalem now saw their enemies “casting a trench round about them, and compassing them round and keeping them in on every side." The wall, which was nearly five miles in circumference, was completed in three days. The horrors that ensued are beyond description. Even before this time the evils of famine had begun to be experienced. In the extremities of hunger, many ventured out of the city to gather herbs. Strict orders were given by Titus that such individuals should be seized upon, and an example made of them, to the terror of the besieged. Those who were found with arms were crucified, sometimes to the number of 500 in a day; and the soldiers used to expose them in mockery to those upon the walls, nailed in different postures. At last wood "’as awanting to place the bodies upon, and room on which to erect the crosses. When the wall was completed, there was no longer the possibility, at any risk, of finding sustenance from without, and the ravages of hunger became inconceivably great. Whole families perished. Houses were filled with dead women and children, the streets with aged men. The young had not strength to bury the dead. Many died in the attempt to give burial to others, and many repaired to the tombs to wait for death. There were no more tears seen, nor cries heard. They sat with dry eyes, and mouths drawn up into a bitter smile. A deep silence was spread over the city, forming a horrible kind of night. The only 7 noise was from those who were engaged in the work of plunder, whose mirth it was to try their swords upon the bodies of the dead; but if any one begged them to put an end to their misery, they would not kill them. Tĥe dying turned their eyes to the temple, as if to complain to God that these wicked men were suffered to live. Everything was eaten; their girdles, the straps of their sandals, the remains of old hay, the refuse of the dunghill. Scenes still more horrible discovered the depth of dreadful meaning in the words of our Saviour: “Eehold the days are coming in which they shall say, blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps that never gave such." And the predictions of Moses were fulfilled even to the letter: “The tender and delicate, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil towards her husband, and towards her son, and towards her daughter, and towards her young one that cometh out from between her feet, and towards the children that she shall bear ; for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege, and straitness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee within thy gates.”

The cup was now full, and “for the elect’s sake the days were shortened.” The fortress of Antonia, after many furious assaults, was taken and destroyed; and, on the 17th of July, Titus advanced as far as the temple, where the perpetual sacrifice ceased for want of a sufficient number to offer it. Still the Jews refused to surrender, and the works of the Romans proceeded. On the Sth of August, Titus attacked the second court of the temple. The walls could not be beat down, from the size of the stones, and the defence of the Jews prevented the scaling of the galleries. Fire was therefore set to the doors, which soon spread into the temple itself, and reduced the splendid edifice into a heap of ruins. Still the upper city held out. But at last a breach was effected, and on the 8th September the whole of Jerusalem was in the hands of the Romans, and orders were given by Titus for demolishing the city and temple.

Three forts in Judea still held out against the Romans, Herodion, Massada, and Machaeras. Two of these made a long and vigorous defence, but before the end of the year 72 Judea was in a state of entire subjugation. Contrary to the usual policy of the Romans, the territory was not shared among military colonists. All the lands were exposed to sale. In the northren districts the chief purchasers were Syrians. Individuals among the Jews themselves bought considerable properties in the south; the proceeds were reserved for the imperial treasury; and a capitation tax was imposed upon the Jewish people throughout the empire, and exacted with the most galling severity, for restoring and adorning the Roman capitol, which had been destroyed in the civil wars some time before the fall of Jerusalem.

From the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, there is no longer any connecting tie in the history of the Jewish people, except their imperishable love to the religion of their fathers. Scattered abroad in almost every country of the world, in every variety of outward condition, their fate presents matter for a subordinate chapter in the history of other nations, rather than a separate subject of history. We are presented with a mass of materials, [7:12:576] to which the ordinary rules of historical arrangement, by epochs and by countries, do not apply. The condition of the Jews from this date varies in different kingdoms, and even in different parts of the same kingdom at the same period, and is so intimately connected with the varieties of national policy, and with local and temporary causes, that it cannot perhaps be fully understood in all its parts, except when viewed as incorporated with universal history. There are, however, a few general heads, under which the more important particulars connected with their destiny may be classed; the classification must indeed be imperfect, from the discordant and impracticable nature of the materials with which we are presented; still, however, there is one principle which gives a unity to them all. And in the absence of the definite lines which limit historical narrative in other instances, we must be more forcibly struck with the peculiarities of this singular race, among whom the want of a native country has formed a bond of connection more powerful than all the ties of country to other tribes; while the efforts made to sever them from their religion has made them cling to it with an energy that seems to have incorporated itself with the very essence of their being. The circumstances which preserved the Jews as a separate people after the termination of the temple worship, were similar to those which operated during the time of the captivity, with the addition of the rabbinical system, which was now in full operation. In whatever country a few families of Jews were collected into one place, the worship of the synagogue brought them into religious fellowship; and pride in their privileges as God’s peculiar people, a principle of honour in not deserting a persecuted cause, revenge against a world from which they received so much injustice, combined with never-abandoned hopes of blessings yet in store for themselves or their children, and the magic influence of associations connected with their ancient ritual, have perpetuated the Jewish name in every country where cupidity has allured or cruelty banished any of the members of the race.

There is little that is interesting in the history of the Jews for near forty years after the destruction of their city. The ruins of Jerusalem were occupied by a Roman garrison, to prevent any attempt to rebuild it; and the tax imposed by Vespasian continued to be exacted by his immediate successors, who exhibited considerable jealousy of the Jews, and often subjected individuals among them to great hardships and indignities. Upon the whole, however, the race seems to have enjoyed considerable security; and though forbidden to approach Jerusalem, large communities were suffered to be formed in Palestine.

In the beginning of the reign of Trajan, a spirit of restlessness and sedition again began to appear among this unhappy people in all quarters of the world. When the emperor was engaged in the war with Parthia, the hereditary enmity of the Jews and Greeks in Egypt broke out in hostilities, in which were shed oceans of blood. No effective attempt seems to have been made for some time on the part of the Romans to put an end to these commotions. At last, however, Hadrian interposed, and inflicted on the miserable Jews signal punishment. About the same period, a. d. 116, the Jews of Mesopotamia, whom the victories of Trajan had subjected to the Roman instead of the Parthian sway, rose in unsuccessful rebellion against their new masters. In the following year Trajan died, and, under his successor Hadrian, the Mesopotamian Jews were again left to the sway of their ancient monarchs.

The accession of Hadrian was not likely to prove advantageous to the Jews in general, as it had accidentally been to those of Mesopotamia. He had indicated his sentiments towards them by his proceedings in Cyprus and Egypt before the death of Trajan; and when he succeeded to that prince, he issued an edict forbidding circumcision, the reading of the law, and the observance of the Sabbath; and he announced his purpose of establishing a Roman colony on the ruins of Jerusalem, and of erecting a temple to J upiter on the place where the temple of Jehovah had stood. To this new city was to be given the name Aelia Capitolina, from his own praenomen, and from the dedication of the capital to Jupiter. For a time the Jews submitted, with ill-concealed purpose of resistance, to the authority of Hadrian. But in the year 129 we find the whole of Judea once more in a state of rebellion. The leader of this new revolt was Barchochab, which, in the Syriac, signifies the son of the star. He assumed the character of the Messias, pretending that he was the Star of Jacob foretold by Balaam, who was to deliver the Jews and subdue the Gentiles. Little is known of his previous history. According to report, he had been at one time a robber; and his conduct shows that he must have been a man thoroughly conversant with scenes of blood and rapine; while the devotedness of his followers, and the vigorous and for a time successful resistance he made to the Romans, evince him a man of talent and energy. The war against Barchochab presents a repetition of the scenes of that of Titus. Success at last declared wholly in favour of the Romans, and, about the year 134, Judea was again made desolate. About a half million fell by the sword in the course of this war, besides those who perished by fire, famine, and sickness. Those who escaped were reduced to slavery by thousands. Such as could not be thus disposed of were transported into Egypt, and Palestine was almost wholly depopulated. The Jews were now forbidden to enter Jerusalem, or even to look upon it from a distance; and the city, under the name of Aelia, was inhabited by Gentiles only, or such Christians as renounced the Jewish ceremonies.

However severe the Romans might be in the wars which they carried on against the Jews, they seem to have been ready to lay aside their resentment when the occasion passed away; and under Antoninus Pius we find the Jewish people again restored to their ancient privileges, with a prohibition merely against proselytizing. They were still excluded from Jerusalem, but they were permitted to form and to maintain considerable establishments both in Italy and in the provinces; and while they were exempted from many expensive and burdensome offices, they enjoyed municipal honours in common with other citizens. The erection of new synagogues was permitted in the principal cities; and the Jews were allowed to celebrate the solemnities of their religion without molestation.

At this period we find the eastern and western Jews divided under two great spiritual monarchies, viz. the patriarchates of Tiberias and Babylon. The origin of both is involved in considerable obscurity. In regard to the former, viz. that of Tiberias, the tradition among the Jews themselves is, that the Sanhedrim, after moving from Jerusalem, settled at Jamnia, and finally fixed their abode upon the banks of the Lake Genesareth, where their supremacy was acknowledged as of divine appointment, their chief or president exercising the authority of a spiritual head over the Jews in the provinces of the Roman empire. He was acknowledged as their patriarch or pontiff. An annual contribution was raised for him by the dispersed brethren, and his legates or apostles visited every synagogue, bearing his mandates, and deciding in all questions that were brought before them. To this new form of government a legal sanction was given by the Roman emperors, and it continued in existence till about the beginning of the fifth century. As the law was still made to extend to every moment of time, and to every [7:12:577]variety of thought and action, with a burthensome and perplexing minuteness, and no memory could retain the multitude of statutes which were prescribed, and difficulties were constantly arising as to the duty required in new combinations of circumstances, the Jewish lawyers continued to possess an unbounded power over the consciences of the people. And as it was indispensable that all the rabbis should agree in their decisions, reference was constantly necessary to the spiritual patriarch, so long as the traditionary law was not committed to writing, and was to be found only in the living decision of the patriarch and his senate. The publication of the Talmud, though it exalted the character of the special patriarchs by whom the work was undertaken, was calculated to diminish the influence of the patriarchate. It took away the necessity of appeal from the inferior courts, by affording the means to every rabbi to give a just decision. This must be considered as the chief cause of the fall of the patriarchate of Tiberias, which took place about the beginning of the fifth century; though other circumstances contributed. The exportation of the annual tribute from Rome was prohibited by the Emperor Honorius; by a law of Theodosius the title of prophet was taken from the patriarch Gamaliel; and upon the death of that individual, though the office was not abolished, its authority being destroyed, no successor was found, and the power which had been exercised by the patriarchs passed into the hands of the rabbinical aristocracy.

The power of the patriarch of the West was of a spiritual nature; but in the East, the office corresponding to the patriarchate involved a mixture of temporal authority. The Babylonian Jews are those inhabiting between the Tigris and the Euphrates. During the wars between the Jews and Hadrian, this colony was greatly increased by fugitives from the West. In their early history, and till a considerable time after the introduction of rabbinism, the Babylonian Jews were less distinguished from the people among whom they lived than their brethren in the West. So long as the temple remained, it formed a bond of union between the two classes, as they all contributed regularly to its support. In addition to this religious tax, they paid another to the kingdom to which they belonged. A system of taxation was organized for this latter purpose, which was intrusted to a chief person among themselves, named the Resch Glutha, that is, a chief of the colonists, or, as he is usually called, Prince of the Captivity. The office of this individual was at first wholly of a temporal nature, and all that related to matters of faith and worship was regulated by the decisions of the Sanhedrim at Jerusalem. After the destruction of Jerusalem an attempt was made to throw off the dependence upon the schools of Palestine, which was frustrated for a time by the arts of the patriarch and his senate. By degrees, however, the inconvenience of a constant reference to a distant country, and the growing celebrity of the schools of Nisibis and Nahardea, enabled the Resch Glutha to establish his independence. He formed a court after the model of that at Tiberias; and, under the prevailing belief that he was the lineal descendant of David, he succeeded in establishing his claim to a spiritual, in addition to his temporal authority. He exercised a power almost despotic over the Jewish people; and, though a vassal of the king of Persia, he maintained an almost regal state. The rabbis were in complete subjection to him; and from his being able to bring his power as a temporal prince to bear upon his ecclesiastical mandates, his influence over the Jewish community was greater than that of the Nasi. From our ignorance of the state of the East beyond Persia, the extent of his dominions cannot be ascertained. His subjects consisted of shepherds, husbandmen, artisans, and merchants; °f the latter many were wealthy. They do not seem to have been subjected to persecution, and, in the enjoyment of peace, the interests of learning flourished. Schools rose rapidly in different parts of his dominions; and to one of these we are indebted for the Talmud of Jerusalem, which has exercised such an influence upon the Jewish people in all succeeding times. The increasing number of the schools, and of the learned men proceeding from them, gradually lessened the influence of the Resch Glutha, though the office continued in existence till the middle of the eleventh century, when it was suppressed by the tyranny of one of the caliphs.

The establishment of Christianity as the religion of the Roman empire, the irruption of the northern nations, and the rise and progress of Mahommedanism, had all a marked influence upon the condition of the Jews. The first Christian emperors conducted themselves towards the Jewish people with a lenity and forbearance that was not always agreeable to some of their subjects. Under Constantine the right of the Jews to the privileges of Roman citizenship was fully recognised, while the rabbis had the same exemption from civil and military offices as the Christian clergy. Christians, however, were prohibited from becoming Jews, while converts from Judaism were protected from the resentment of their Countrymen. Under Constantius the Jews of Palestine subjected themselves to the severity of the laws by their interference in the contests between the Arians and Athanasians. Several of their cities were destroyed, and the law of Hadrian was renewed, by which they were forbidden to approach Jerusalem. The hatred of Julian to the Christians disposed him to view their enemies the Jews with a favourable eye. He entered into a correspondence with the patriarch of Tiberias, and wrote a friendly letter to the Jewish community, in which he promised to put them again in possession of Jerusalem, and to restore their temple. At last an edict was issued for the rebuilding of the sacred structure, and instructions were given to Alypius, prefect of Syria, to carry it into effect. Jerusalem was once more filled with Jews, who assembled from all sides, emulous to give their aid in an undertaking which was to prove a new era in their history. Materials for the vast fabric were collected, and the mountain was purified from the abominations of idolatry. But when the workmen proceeded to dig for a foundation, they were surprised by a subterraneous explosion, in which some perished, while the rest took to flight in dismay. Though a difference of opinion has existed as to the character of the igneous irruption, the evidence that the work was in fact suspended is of the strongest nature, and the truth of the predictions of Scripture was fully maintained. The death of Julian prevented the renewal of the attempt, and put an end to all his schemes for the benefit of the Jewish community. His successors showed in general a tendency to favour the Jews as useful subjects, and frequently protected them from the violence of the people, though in some instances the bigotry of the more powerful prelates prompted to measures of severity. It must be added, that the blind zeal of the Jews often rendered them the just objects of the popular indignation.

Upon the division of the Roman world, the condition of the Jews in the eastern empire became less favourable than that of their brethren in the West. For a time, indeed, they continued to enjoy the rights of Roman citizens according to the law; but under Justin I. they were pronounced as belonging to the same class with heretics, and consequently disqualified for civil and military offices. The laws of Justinian were framed for persecuting them into proselytism. By the imperial edicts the duties of citizens without the honours were rigorously exacted. In mixed marriages, the education of the children was confined to the Christian parent: if the children grew up unbelievers, [7:12:578]they were deprived of their inheritance; and in law-suits, except in cases where both parties were Jews, their testimony was inadmissible. Another law was passed by this emperor, in consequence of a division among the Jews themselves, which, had it been observed, might have been followed with serious consequences to Judaism. Upon the suppression of the patriarchate, the power which had been enjoyed by that spiritual chief was divided among the primates or chief rabbis of the separate Jewish communities. The power of the rabbis arose principally from the respect in which the Talmud was held, and from the right which they enjoyed of expounding the sacred volume. From policy or habit their instructions were conveyed in ancient Chaldaic; and as this ceased to be understood by many of their hearers, who adopted the language of the country in which they settled, a very general wish prevailed for a change in this custom, and for a translation of their Scriptures. This alarming spirit of innovation was resisted by the rabbis; and the contending parties resorted to the extraordinary expedient of referring the cause to the Christian emperor. The decision of the emperor was in favour of the rights of the people. In the edict which was issued, the fullest license was granted for reading the Scriptures in the vernacular tongue; the Mischna was declared to be of human composition merely, and full of such errors as belong to all the works of men; and the hope of the emperor was expressed that the perusal of the Scriptures in a known language might lead to the conversion of many to the Christian faith. It is probable that this intimation awakened the suspicions of the people, who do not appear to have availed themselves of the permission that was given them.

In the western empire, upon the irruption of the barbarous tribes, the Jews suffered less than their Christian neighbours. Ready to accommodate themselves to every change of circumstances in the pursuit of gain, we find them following in the rear of conquering armies, or retreating before advancing hosts, contriving in one form or other to make their harvest of traffic in both cases, and frequently growing rich amidst the general ruin. In all the kingdoms which rose up out of the ruins of ancient Rome, the Jewish people formed a part; but our information respecting them for a considerable period is far from being complete. In the absence of a literature of their own, we know of them only by ecclesiastical writers, who take notice of them chiefly as the objects of the converting zeal of the catholic church. The success of the Christian priesthood among their barbarous invaders inspired them with hopes of gaining converts among the Jews. But the circumstances of the two classes were altogether different. Among the heathen, when a prince or a successful warrior was converted to the faith, he carried along with him all his subjects, or his companions in war. But the Jews moved in masses only in matters connected with their own religion; in every other respect they were wholly independent of each other. Their conversion, therefore, could only be the effect of conviction on the part of each individual. The character of the Christian clergy did not fit them for so arduous an undertaking. Their ignorance and frequent immorality placed them at a disadvantage in regard to the Jews, who were in possession of the Old Testament Scriptures, and had arguments at command which their opponents could not answer. Besides, there were no inducements of a worldly nature at this period to influence the Jews to exchange their religion. They had no wish for the retreat of the cloister, nor did they stand in need of protection for deeds of violence and rapine. Their habits were of a description altogether different from those of the monk or brigand. The attempts of the clergy, however, were unremitted, and threats and blandishments were alternately resorted to, and the struggle was constant between Catholicism and Judaism. In the political contests between the Arians and the Catholics, the Jews, as they had done in Asia, took advantage of the divisions, naturally ranging themselves on the side of the Arians, and they found their advantage in this alliance. The Gothic tribes, however, were soon brought over to the orthodox belief, when the Jews stood opposed to the united body of Christians, till the appearance of a new religion wrought a diversion in their favour.

The rise and progress of Mahommedanism proved, upon the whole, highly advantageous to the Jewish people. Equally descendants of Abraham with the followers of the prophet, they had in so far a common cause against idolators, and against the defendants of the Christian doctrine; and this for a time made them forget the points of difference. In the new impulse given to trade by the progress of the Moslem arms, the Jews, ever awake to their own interests, took their advantage. In the wide extent of conquest, new wants were created by the advance of victorious armies, kingdoms which had long ceased to hold intercourse with each other were brought into union, and new channels of commercial intercourse were opened up; and, leaving the pursuits of agriculture, which were placed at a disadvantage by the policy of the caliphs, the Jews became the merchants by whom the business between the eastern and western world was conducted. In the court of the caliphs they were favourably received; and for centuries the whole management of the coinage was intrusted to them, from the superior accuracy and elegance with which they could execute it, and from their opportunities, by the extent and variety of their commercial relations, to give it the widest circulation, and at the same time to draw in the previous issues of other mints. Nor did they flourish only in commercial greatness. Not a few of them distinguished themselves in the walks of science and literature. They became eminent in astronomy, astrology, medicine; the principal translations by which the Arabians became acquainted with the discoveries and theories of Grecian and Roman authors were conducted by them, though their chief attention was directed to the Talmud, and to the literature connected with it.

Wherever the Moslem arms extended, we see the Jews for a time in a prosperous condition, though with various exceptions, in different countries and under different caliphs. In North Africa, in Egypt, in Persia, we find Judaism in a more favourable state than formerly; and in Spain, the Jews rose to a height almost as great as that of the Moors themselves. In that country their religion enjoyed full toleration, and the Arabico-Jewish literature forms an important chapter in the history of learning from the seventh till the twelfth century.

There is a tradition, that during this period a Jewish kingdom was established on the shores of the Caspian, named Khazar. The inhabitants of the territory consisted indiscriminately of Jews, Christians, and Moslemites, drawn to the spot by the advantages which the situation of the country presented for trade. A king of the country (740) was converted to the Jewish faith, and for some time the affairs of the nation were conducted by a Jewish prince, with the assistance of a council, whose members were of different religious persuasions. A period of only a century and a half is fixed for the succession of Jewish princes, though at a later date a considerable part of the population consisted of Jews.

About the same period a combination of circumstances proved favourable to the condition of the Jews throughout Christendom. Charlemagne protected their interests. He is said to have had a Jewish merchant always near his person, and the correspondence between that great monarch and Haroun. Alraschid was under the care of a Jew.
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The immediate successors of Charlemagne followed the same line of policy. France numbered the sons of Abraham as the richest of her merchants. Their fame as physicians was also widely spread; and their intelligence and activity commended some of them to high political offices.

But a time of change was approaching; and we have now to trace a gradual decline in the Jewish character and condition, till at last we find that unhappy people trampled upon, crushed, butchered, proscribed, in almost every country in Europe. The special causes of the persecutions to which the Jews were subjected were different in different countries, and it would far exceed our limits to trace them minutely. Throughout the greater part of Europe, however, we witness the advances of a similar process. We find the Jews abhorred by the superstitious on account of their religion, envied by the powerful on account of their riches; and, amidst the contempt and injustice to which they were subjected, courting, if not meriting their fate, by crouching before and cozening their hated oppressors. In many parts of Europe they were not allowed to possess land, and were forbidden to aspire to offices of trust or honour. The injurious effects of this exclusion were soon manifest in their character and habits. Shut out from all the paths which lead to distinction, the aspiring aims of honourable ambition, and the ennobling feelings connected with the love of country became strangers to their bosoms. Their efforts were limited to the accumulation of wealth; and in the decay of commerce during the middle ages, their minds were debased by the petty details of the lower species of traffic, which was all that was now open to them. Their ambition being thus fixed upon one subject, they soon mastered all the degrading arts of accumulating gain; and, prohibited from investing their gains in the purchase of land, they found a more profitable employment of it in lending it at usurious interest to the thoughtless and extravagant. The effect of this was inevitable. At a time when commercial pursuits were held in contempt, the assistance of the Jews became indispensable to the nobles, whose hatred rose in proportion to their obligations; and, where there was the power, the temptation to cancel the debt by violence became often irresistible. The Jews had no means of resisting such injustice, and their only revenge was in the exaction of more exorbitant terms when the necessitous again had recourse to them. The meanness and injustice of which they were thus unquestionably guilty inflamed the public feeling against them, till every atrocity was considered as justifiable when directed against a Jew.

In the Germanic empire the rights which the Jews had enjoyed under the ancient Roman law were to a certain extent continued to them; and though they gradually became the objects of aversion to all classes, the imperial protection and the papal ordinances preserved them from general attack till the time of the Crusades. It was at Treves that the suggestion was first made to the fanatical multitude proceeding under Peter the Pennyless to take possession of the Holy Land, that they should fall upon the enemies of the cross living among themselves. The choice of death or of conversion was given to the miserable Jews of that city, and only a few escaped alive from the general massacre. Fathers presented their breast to the sword after putting their own children to death, that they might be rescued from the danger of being trained up as Christians; and wives and virgins sought for refuge from the brutality of the soldiers by throwing themselves into the river with stones fastened to their bodies ( 1096). Similar scenes were repeated in Cologne, Mentz, Worms, and in all the cities on the Rhine; and the progress of the armies was marked by the blood of the Jews till they reached the plains of Hungary. Upon a moderate computation, not fewer than. 17,000 are supposed to have perished. The minds of those who escaped were filled with consternation; and their synagogues resounded with their appeals to the justice and mercy of the God of their fathers, who seemed to have forsaken them who refused to forsake Him. Many fled to Silesia, Moravia, and Poland, where they laid the foundations of great communities. A few, however, still continued to cling to the land that had given them birth; and we find them again in sufficient numbers to excite the persecuting zeal of the second Crusaders (1146). Upon this occasion the greater part saved themselves by a timely flight. Forty years later, the Emperor Frederick gave his protection to his Jewish subjects till the tempest of the third Crusade swept past. Disastrous as the period of the Crusades was to many of the Jews in Germany, there were some of them who yet contrived to reap a golden harvest. A demand for money was created for the support of so numerous armies. Many chiefs parted with their estates to enable them to proceed with their retainers to the Holy Land; and in the transfer of property which thus took place, as well as in the trade that was occasioned by the fitting out or march of numerous hosts, many Jews accumulated great wealth.

From the time of the Crusades, the condition of the Jews in Germany continued unsettled and degraded. History is full of instances of the injustice which they suffered from the rapacity of princes, and from the tumultuous assaults of the people. From certain states and cities they were interdicted altogether. In others, however, they had a right of residence, and a particular quarter of the city was assigned to them. But the privileges conferred upon them often proved the occasion of new injuries. They were frequently expelled from the streets to which they had a legal-right, in order that a sum of money might be extorted from them for permission to return to their own dwellings; the popular fury was ever ready to break out against them; and needy princes held out the threat, that unless their coffers were replenished by contributions from the Jews, an incensed populace would *be let loose upon them. Upon other occasions, the necessity of their conversion was insisted upon, and they were compelled to pay large sums to avoid the misery of being forcibly baptized. Reports were continually circulated to their disadvantage. Stories were told of Christian children having been found murdered in the house of a Jew, or of their own children being prevented by cruel threats from adopting the Christian faith, or of their stealing the consecrated host to crucify afresh the Son of God. And such fabrications had the effect of subjecting the Jews to the cruelty of lawless mobs, of circumscribing their rights, and of placing their lives and fortunes at a miserable uncertainty. Enthusiasts arose, who considered themselves commissioned by Fleaven to proclaim war against the unhappy people. A nobleman named Rhindfleish, in the thirteenth century, proceeded through many of the most populous towns in Germany, followed by a multitude, who destroyed whole communities. A peasant named Armleder followed a similar course (1337), till his atrocities awakened the tardy justice of the emperor, by whom he was put to death. In 1346, the Flagellants came into a collision with the Jews of Frankfort, which terminated in a battle between the other citizens and their Jewish neighbours. A few years later, the whole of Europe being desolated by a plague, in Germany it was believed that the Jews had thrown poison into the public wells. The result was terrible. At Basle the Jews were brought into a vessel on the Rhine, which was set on fire, their children being spared that they might be educated as Christians. It would be tedious to enumerate the various forms in which the Jews met their death in other cities. But from Switzerland to Silesia the land was drenched with innocent blood, and even the interference of the emperor and the pope proved long insufficient to put an end to the atrocities that were perpetrated.
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Feelings of humanity, as well as the interests of his kingdom, led the Emperor Charles IV. to grant to certain states and cities privileges which they had long in vain petitioned for; and in the Golden Bull the condition of the Jews was determined in such a way as preserved them from the hazard of the massacre of whole communities, though it left them still exposed to the evils of individual oppression and injustice.

Though thus subjected to every variety of inhumanity and injustice in the German empire, they were still permitted to remain in the country; and in some states and cities considerable immunities were possessed by them. It was otherwise in France, Spain, and Britain, from which countries, after being subjected to the most galling persecution, they were ultimately driven into banishment. In France the condition of the Jews had always been more precarious than in Germany; and from the tenth century we see them gradually and rapidly declining from a learned, and influential, and powerful class of the community, to miserable outcasts; the common prey of clergy, and nobles, and burghers; and existing in a state worse than slavery itself. Even in this wretched situation, though deprived of every thing else, and denied the common rights of humanity, they were still possessed of gold. This was at once their strength and their weakness; though hated by all, all were dependent upon them; and, possessed of a large proportion of the wealth of the kingdom, they had articles of value in pawn from all classes of the community. They suffered here, as in Germany, by popular violence; and the proceedings of the princes were if possible more arbitrary and tyrannical. The archives of the kingdom, however, contain evidence of usurious extortion so monstrous as loudly to call for legal interference, though not certainly in the way in which it was actually made. The edicts which terminated in their final expulsion from the kingdom began with Philip Augustus. He issued an ordinance for the relief of those who were indebted to the Jews. According to it, all the pledges in their hands were to be restored. Among these a golden crucifix and a Gospel being found, the popular suspicion was awakened, and all the Jews of Paris were sent into banishment. The necessities, or cruelty, or superstition of succeeding kings varied the modes of Jewish persecution. Louis VIII. annulled all interest on debts due to the Jews. Under Louis IX. an edict was promulgated for the destruction of the Talmud. By other laws, Jews were forbidden to hold social intercourse with Christians; and no punishment was to be inflicted upon a Christian who killed a Jew. As in Germany, monstrous tales were spread abroad, and believed, of their sacrilege and cruelty. They were accused of throwing poison into rivers, of practising magic, of holding correspondence with infidel kings. They were proscribed, hunted down, burnt to death. Yet still they sought to live in the land that oppressed them, paid a price to live in it,—and their revenge upon their oppressors was to drain them of their gold. At last, in the latter part of the reign of Charles VI. (1594), they were commanded to quit the kingdom. This sentence was rigidly put into execution; and the greater part of the exiles withdrew to Germany, Italy, and Poland.

The time of the introduction of the Jews into England is unknown. Traces of them are discoverable before the Norman invasion; after which event a considerable addition was made to their numbers. William II. found in his Jewish subjects so great a source of profit, that he refused to allow them to become converts to Christianity. The Jews flourished accordingly under his reign; they increased in numbers and in opulence in various cities throughout the kingdom, and the greater part of Oxford is said to have belonged to them. It is somewhat remarkable, however, that their only burial-place was in London, and it was not till the time of Henry II. that they were allowed the privilege of interring their dead elsewhere. Though favoured for a time by the English monarchs, from the advantages they derived from them, the Jews became the objects of popular hatred, partly from motives of superstition, and partly from the odium that at that time was generally attached to the practice of lending money upon interest, as well as from the rigour with which this practice was exercised by them. The first general display of the public hatred was in the reign of Richard I. On the day of the coronation of this prince, some Jews, contrary to an express prohibition, were discovered as spectators of the ceremony. An attack was made upon these individuals, which terminated in a general assault upon the Jews. Their houses were plundered, and in many instances committed to the flames. Richard in vain attempted to repress the tumult, which continued to rage two days. Similar outrages ensued in Norwich, Stamford, and in several other towns. Knights who were proceeding to the Holy Land considered themselves justified in robbing the rich Jews, to aid them in their pilgrimage. And, in many cases, those who had borrowed money from their Jewish neighbours stirred up the people to a tumultuous onset, as the easiest way of cancelling their debts. In York the Jews took refuge in the castle, and made a vigorous resistance; but finding their situation hopeless, they devoted themselves to a voluntary destruction. They first destroyed everything of value that belonged to them. After this their chief with his own hands murdered his wife and five children, and then submitted to death himself. Their dead bodies were thrown over the ramparts. The example was followed by five hundred others. In the mean time, those who were indebted to the Jews proceeded to the cathedral, where the bonds were kept, and committed them to the flames. During the two following reigns, the history of England abounds in instances of the oppressions to which the Jews were subjected, and of the vast sums extorted from them by the necessities of the monarchs; though privileges were occasionally conceded to them, in such forms as insured a profitable return. The tyrannical proceedings of King John in reference to the unhappy race are well known, and in particular the anecdote of his ordering that a rich Jew of Bristol should lose a tooth daily till he paid 10,000 merks. The Jew lost seven teeth before he yielded. Their situation was in no degree improved under Henry III. Though various decrees were issued in their favour, the superstitions of the clergy and the people, and the necessities of the government, subjected them to every varied form of contumely and wrong. After the king had repeated his extortions so frequently that the Jews made the vain threat of leaving the kingdom, he sold to his brother all the Jews in his realm for 5000 merks, with full power over their persons and property. At last, in the succeeding reign (of Edward I.), an edict was issued (1290), without any known pretext afforded by their conduct, for their expulsion from the country altogether; and, after having been deprived of all their possessions, the wretched race, amidst the mockery and triumph of the common people, proceeded to the shore, and finally left the island. The exiles amounted to 15,000, or, according to others, to upwards of 16,000.

The history of the Jews in the Spanish peninsula forms one of the most interesting and affecting chapters in the strange vicissitudes of that ill-fated race. During many centuries their situation, both in Spain and Portugal, was more. favourable than in any other European country. The political influence which they enjoyed with the Moslems commanded for them the respect of the Christians, if it increased their hatred; and after the decay of the Mahommedan power, their superior education, their talents for affairs, their wealth and their industry, in a country where [7:12:581]the lower orders were sunk in the deepest degradation, while the nobles were engaged almost wholly in war, rendered them too important a class of the community to allow their rights to be rashly interfered with. The protection which they enjoyed arose in no small degree from the policy of the sovereigns, who found their Jewish subjects invaluable, not only to themselves individually in various departments, as physicians or ministers of finance, but also to the country generally, from the life which their industry gave to trade, and from the unfailing certainty with which recourse might always be had to them upon every occasion when money was required. The nobles, and even the priesthood, were by no means insensible to the latter of these advantages; and when, in some instances, the sovereigns, forgetting their true interests, prepared to make the Jews the subjects of their extortion, we find the clergy overcoming their superstitious feelings, and interfering in their behalf.

The political or rather legal position of the Jews in Spain varied in different periods, and even at the same time in different parts of the country. In the most favourable circumstances, they were considered as belonging to the king directly, and indirectly to his greater vassals; and thus they enjoyed the right of self-defence, and could claim the protection of their liege lords when unjustly attacked. In all their greater communities they had their own courts of law, which enjoyed a certain jurisdiction both in civil and criminal affairs. They could possess landed property, though many efforts were made to restrict this right, which induced them here, as in other countries, to engage in the practice of lending money upon interest. The rate of interest was fixed by the law; and we do not find charges of chicanery and extortion brought against them similar to those made against their countrymen in France, or England, or Germany. Among their other privileges, they could not be imprisoned on account of debt, and, with certain limitations, their evidence was received in courts of justice. In Portugal they enjoyed similar privileges as in Spain.

The superior character of the peninsular Jews proved that these advantages were not unworthily conferred. They held a much higher rank than in the other parts of Christendom. Not compelled to have recourse to arts that sunk them in their own esteem, they maintained a generous rivalry in the liberal use they made of the wealth which they acquired in the walks of honest industry. Their literature betokens no ordinary progress in civilization. Their acquaintance with Arabic put them in possession of all the treasures of that language. Their poets, grammarians, mathematicians, naturalists, are of no mean reputation. And their astronomers were in so great renown, that some of them were employed by Alphonso the Wise in the construction of his celebrated Tables. The study of mental science was also cultivated with no ordinary care, though the pursuits of science, whether natural or metaphysical, were ever more or less connected with their theology. Three epochs have been marked in the progress of the philosophy of the Jews of Spain. In the first, we have the endeavour to connect the discoveries of science with the doctrines contained in the Talmud, and to present the peculiarities of Judaism in a philosophic form. In the second, we find the spirit of rabbinism lording it over the efforts of philosophic genius. In the third, a contest was carried on, sometimes under the forms of philosophy, between the advocates of Judaism, and those who endeavoured by the force of argument to gain converts to the Christian faith.

The point at which the star of the fortunes of the Spanish Jews might be said to culminate, was in the thirteenth century, during the reign of Alphonso X. From that period the superstitions of the people were more bitterly directed against the unfortunate race, and in the succeeding reigns constant attempts were made to diminish their privileges, while local outbreakings of popular dislike subjected individuals and> whole communities to severe suffering. Alphonso XI. though himself favourably disposed towards them, was compelled (1325) to yield in various particulars to the feeling that began to be expressed against them. In this reign they were enjoined to confine themselves to particular streets, at the greatest distance from the churches; and thenceforth particular districts were known in every city where a community existed as the Jews’ Quarter. The greatest misery, however, to which they were subjected arose from attempts for their conversion. A proselytizing spirit had manifested itself in various forms from an early period. An institution was erected in Aragon in 1250, for the express purpose of training men to enter into controversy with the Jews; but, not trusting to the mere force of argument, the rabbinical writings were frequently subjected to a censorship, by which whatever was supposed to be injurious to the interests or hurtful to the feelings of churchmen was cancelled. Such instances of intolerance, however, afforded but feeble presage of the fearful hurricane that at last arose.

The attack commenced in Seville in 1391, where the minds of the citizens were inflamed by a sermon which an archbishop delivered in the cathedral. Individuals among the Jews were insulted and plundered. The attempts made by the civil authorities to restrain the popular fury increased its violence, till at last a general attack was made upon the Jews’ Quarter, and of 7000 families upwards of one half were put to death, while the remainder sought for safety by a pretended conversion to Christianity. The example was followed in Cordova, Toledo, Valencia, and in all the cities where the greatest communities of the Jews were to be found. Many thousands were butchered; not a few left the kingdom, seeking for refuge in Italy, Turkey, and the states of Barbary; and it is calculated that 200,000 were forced into a profession of Christianity. The condition of these converts, or pretended converts, was truly deplorable. Subjected to the suspicions of the Christians, and to the hatred of those of their countrymen who continued stedfast to their ancient creed, many of them found their situation altogether insupportable, and became voluntary exiles. Not a few returned to the profession of Judaism, choosing rather to brave all the horrors of persecution than to submit to the odium of a suspicious apostacy.

The government showed its disposition to protect those who did not depart from the Jewish religion; several of the princes were opposed to extreme measures; and affairs began to wear a more favourable aspect. But the calm was only temporary. The sincerity of the whole of the Jewish converts, or, as they were called, the New Christians, began to be questioned. The honour of the church was considered as at stake; and, by the influence of Alphonso of Godeja, a bull was obtained from Pope Sixtus IV. for the institution of the inquisition, effectually to prevent a return to Judaism. The queen, the Jews, even the Cortes, resisted the introduction of this dread tribunal; but the priesthood prevailed. The tribunal was opened in Seville, and invested with full power to summon every individual suspected of secret attachment to Judaism. The unsparing energy with which it was to proceed was marked by the fact, that in a short time Seville numbered more prisoners than inhabitants; and in the course of a single year, in that city and in the immediately surrounding country, upwards of 2000 were put to death, several were imprisoned for life, and 17,000 were subjected to corporal punishment. At last a large stone building was constructed for containing a multitude [7:12:582]of prisoners,.combustible materials were placed around the outside of the walls, while the wretched inmates were left to perish by a slow death. Four inferior inquisitions were erected in other quarters, and each tribunal received the strictest injunctions to use every effort to preserve the church from the stain of a return to Judaism. The different signs that were supposed to indicate a secret attachment to the abjured religion were defined by law; and wherever any one of them was observed, the individual was to be brought to trial. A free pardon was offered to those who confessed their guilt, if they evinced the sincerity of their contrition by revealing the names of such as had shared with them in their deceit. The rabbis were forced, upon their oath, to declare if they knew any who secretly adhered to the hated worship. Death was the punishment of concealment. The fiercest civil war, the wildest incursion of barbarous hordes, could not hâve occasioned the deaths of so many innocent men, or annihilated so many sources of advantage to the kingdom. The impolicy was not less infatuated than the injustice and cruelty were monstrous.

Hitherto the persecution had been confined to those who were suspected of insincerity in their profession of the catholic faith; it was now to be extended to wider limits. The arms of Ferdinand and Isabella had been prosperous against the Moors, and the soil of Spain was freed from the infidel race. The inquisition gave the horrid promise of torturing the new Christians into sincerity, or of destroying them by death; and nothing now remained but the expulsion of the Jews to deliver the kingdom from every taint of heresy. The ambition of the crowned heads became alive to the glory and advantage of reigning over a land purified from all admixture of error, and in 1492 the order was given, that within four months every Jew should leave the country. Upon the issuing of this memorable edict, the minds of the unhappy people were filled with astonishment and horror. From the one end of Spain to the other, the voice of lamentation was lifted up. But superstition is inexorable; and the appeal to the justice or mercy of Ferdinand or his queen was alike in vain. The decree was passed, and it was not to be recalled. The Jews now acted worthy of the high character which they had sustained in Spain for nearly a thousand years. The resource of apostacy still remained; but the temptation was spurned, and the sincerity of their attachment to their faith was shown by their preferring it to everything. Upwards of 300,000 left all that was dear to them on earth, and went forth in search of lands where they might be allowed to worship the God of their fathers in peace. But misfortune continued to follow them on their path. The account of their sufferings is heart-rending; our limits permit us only to mention in general, that the richer part of them withdrew first to Portugal, where the Jewish faith had been hitherto tolerated. But the contagious influence of the proceedings in Spain extended to the sister kingdom; and the wretched exiles, after being made the objects of new forms of cruelty and injustice, were at last expelled from that kingdom also. Others, who directed their course for the states of Barbary and Morocco, were subjected to the horrors of shipwreck and pestilence; some were set ashore on desert islands by the inhuman shipowners, and some were sold as slaves.. Some went to Italy, where the hardest fate of all awaited them, in the cruelty with which their own countrymen refused to receive them. Thousands lay perishing for hunger on the shore, till even the pope (Alexander VI.) interfered by a sentence of banishment against the resident Jews. But, notwithstanding all the sufferings to which they were exposed, and which so materially diminished their numbers, flourishing communities were formed by the offspring of the exiles in Barbary, Turkey, Italy; and this perhaps more than any thing else evinces how great multitudes had been sent into banishment.

In Spain there were now no professed Jews. There were still, however, many secret adherents of the proscribed faith. Of these, many were so dexterous in the concealment which they practised, as to escape every effort for their detection; and some of them were seated as judges in the very inquisition that had been instituted for their destruction. Others, however, were less successful, and against them horrible cruelties were exercised under the Emperor Charles V. and by Philip II. and HI.

The policy of the Spanish government was extended also to Naples, from which city the Jews were expelled by Charles V. The example, how ever, was not followed in other parts of Italy. In that country, from the time of Charlemagne, the legal position of the Jews was nearly the same as it was in Germany. They were placed under the protection partly of the popes and partly of the emperors, to both of whom they were bound to do homage. Here, as elsewhere, they were chiefly engaged in money-lending and in petty traffic. Their head-quarters was Rome, but numbers of them were to be found in all the other principal cities. The conduct of the popes varied in reference to the Jews, according to their personal character. Paul IV. was the first who shut them up in a confined quarter in Rome, called the Ghetto. By other popes they were compelled to assemble regularly in a church at stated periods, where sermons were preached for their conversion. They were subjected to many other galling interferences till the time of Sextus V. who annulled most of the vexatious regulations of his predecessors, and restored them to some degree of liberty.

The changes effected upon the character and condition of the Jews by the restoration of letters, and by the movements occasioned by the reformation, were less than upon any other portion of European society. There were indeed individuals among them who made noble use of the newly-discovered art of printing, and who were distinguished in the walks of literature and philosophy. But the great proportion of the people, excluded from all share in the government of the countries in which they lived, viewed the mighty changes which were taking place without interest or advantage. The great events that were stirring other men’s minds into activity, freeing them from the shackles of ancient prejudices, and opening new views of human affairs, were looked upon by the Jews as a spectacle in which they had no concern. Their spirit was even more concentrated upon their individual gains and their national hopes; and in the progress of the human mind, and in the new views that were continually opening up, they saw nothing more than the fluctuations of a wild uncertainty, that wedded them with a deeper pride to the contracted principles of their unchanging rabbinism. On the other hand, the benefit of more enlarged views that began to be entertained upon the subject of liberty, and respecting the rights of citizens, were not for a long period extended to them; and it is not till within the last fifty years that an instance has been afforded of the tull concession of the privileges of citizenship to a Jew.

Still the progress of civilization was silently preparing the way for greater justice being done to this people; and their conduct, in circumstances where they were allowed scope for the development of their better qualities, tended greatly to the removal of the predjudices that existed against them. In no history have we more remarkable illustrations of the great truths, that to enslave is to degrade, and that to render men useful citizens, it is essential to bestow upon them the rights of citizens.

Upon the revolt of the Netherlands, many of the Portuguese Jews (a name applied to all the Jews of the Spanish[7:12:583] peninsula) took refuge from the persecutions of Philip II. and III. in that country. The distinctions on account of religion were to a certain extent removed, and the Jews of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Antwerp, vied, in the highest qualities of commercial greatness, with the citizens of the new republic. They were afterwards joined by many of their countrymen, but of a lower order, from Germany and Poland. Offshoots from the new community in Holland grew up in circumstances scarcely less favourable in Denmark and Hamburg. The continued persecution of the new Christians in Spain drove other Jews to seek their fortune in the Spanish and other colonies in the New World. They settled in the Brazils, and in some of the West India islands, with various fortunes; but many distinguished themselves by their regularity, and enterprise, and wealth, in such a way as to produce an impression favourable to their European brethren.

The recognition of the independence of the United States in America may be marked as the epoch that secured to the Jews the prospect of their being admitted to the full privileges of citizenship, and freed them from the disabilities that had been so long considered as inseparable from their religious condition. The fundamental principle of the new republic involved the treating of the Jews upon the same terms as the other inhabitants. It was not acted upon, however, throughout all the states, till the year 1822. They are now distinguished in no respect, except their religion, from any other part of the population. They have synagogues in New York, Philadelphia, Charlestown, Richmond; and much attention is paid by them to the education of the young.

The movements in America were intimately connected with the changes which soon afterwards took place in France; and to this may in some degree be traced the new policy that was observed in that country in reference to the Jews at the beginning of the revolution. Notwithstanding the edict of exclusion by Charles V., some Portuguese Jews had been allowed by Henry II. to settle in Bordeaux and Bayonne; and at a later period, the conquest of Alsace, and other changes, added some of their communities to the French dominions. The condition of these communities was taken into consideration in 1789, without any thing, however, being done in that year. But in 1791 they were admitted to equal rights as citizens. In 1806 a sanhedrim was assembled by Bonaparte at Paris; and, upon satisfactory answers being returned to certain queries proposed to them respecting their civil institutions, and their views as citizens and subjects, a plan for the organization of the Jews throughout the empire was adopted. The abuse made of their privileges in some of the provinces of the Rhine, led subsequently to partial restrictions in regard to money lending; and an effort was made to turn their attention to agricultural pursuits. The privileges conferred by Bonaparte were not interfered with upon the restoration of the Bourbons; and, since the revolution in 1830, the Jewish rabbis, as well as the clergy of the different Christian sects, receive a stipendiary allowance from the state. Though by no means approving of such a measure, we conceive it to be worthy of remark, that the minister by whom it was proposed supported it upon the ground that they had shown themselves deserving of the patronage of the state, having, during the preceding quarter of a century, acted in such a way as to give the noblest refutation to all the slanders of their enemies.

Ata national assembly held in 1796, they were declared as in every respect citizens of the Batavian republic; and the union of France with Holland led to the removal of every disability of the Dutch Jews.

In Germany little change had taken place in the condition of the Jewish inhabitants for many centuries. The diet of Frederick the Great (1750), for the regulation of his Jewish subjects, was of the most intolerant description. 1he severest measures were resorted to for preventing their increase beyond a fixed number. They were excluded from all civil offices, and from many departments of lucrative and honourable employment, and subjected to an unequal load of taxation. Their condition in other parts of the empire was not more favourable till towards the end of the last century. Various circumstances contributed about that period to a decided improvement. Among these, the writings and character of Moses Mendelsohn may be mentioned as having had considerable effect in elevating the character of the people in the general opinion. An edict of toleration was published by the Emperor Joseph II. The most important part of it perhaps consisted in the attention it directed, and the support which it promised, to elementary education, and to its throwing open the schools and universities of the empire to the Jews. Freedom of residence and of trade was also granted to them. They were no longer excluded from public places of amusement; and they were permitted to wear certain decorations, and might be created barons. The influence of Bonaparte was exerted for the advantage of the Jews in many parts of the German states; and from 1809 to 1813, we find ordinances issued for the melioration of their condition, admitting them to civil rights, and abolishing odious distinctions. By an act of the congress of Vienna in 1815, the diet is pledged to turn its attention to the melioration of the state of the Jews; and it may be safely affirmed that their condition has of late years been of progressive advancement. In the Rhenish provinces of Prussia, some restrictions have taken place in their privileges, by disqualifying them for certain civil offices; and, in 1822, their learned men were excluded from holding offices in schools or universities. In the free towns, commercial jealousy more than feelings of a religious nature still places the Jews in some respects at disadvantage.

In Switzerland, the privileges which the Jews enjoyed during the reign of Bonaparte have been done away. In Italy also their condition is less favourable than formerly. In the ecclesiastical states they are again shut up in the Ghetto, and 300 every Sabbath are obliged to hear a sermon for their conversion; in 1829 a proposal was made for banishing them from the dominions of the pope, which, however, has not been carried into effect.

The greatest accumulation of the Jews in any one point is in the countries of ancient Poland, now divided amongst the emper'ors of Russia and Austria and the king of Prussia. Their state has long continued fixed. They form the middle class between the nobles and the serfs, occupying all the common branches of traffic. The rabbinical spirit exists here in greater severity than in any other country. The Austrian emperors have shown a laudable zeal for the melioration of the condition of their Jewish subjects. The Emperor Nicholas of Russia, though his attention has been directed to the subject, has shown a less enlightened spirit.

In England the Jews again obtained a legal re-establishment under the protectorate of Cromwell, and have ever since maintained their footing. A bill for their naturalization was passed in the year 1753; but the prejudices against the measure were so strongly expressed, as to lead to its repeal in the following year. They are still excluded from civil offices, and are subjected to certain restrictions that interfere with some departments of their trade; but their rights have of late years been made the subject of discussion, with every prospect of a favourable issue.

The number of Jews at present existing cannot be accurately ascertained, but it is conjectured to amount [7:12:584]to between five and six millions. In Asia, they are to be found on the coast of Malabar, in Persia, in Bokhara, in Mesopotamia, in Arabia, and in Palestine, and may amount to about one million. Along the whole of the northern coast of Africa they are to be met with in considerable numbers, and they are probably underrated at half a million. In Europe they have been supposed to amount to two or three millions. The Jews of Poland have been variously estimated at from a half million to four or five times that number; in Prussia, there are 200,000; in the Netherlands, 80,000; in France, 60,000; in Italy, 30,000; in Great Britain, 12,000. They are to be found in numbers gradually decreasing from this to a few hundreds, in Cracow, the Ionian Isles, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden. In America they are estimated at 12,000.

For information as to the different sects of the Jews, their antiquities, literature, customs, and respecting the means which have been employed for their conversion to the Christian faith, we must refer the reader to other parts of this work. (d. d. d. d.)