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By Dr. Julius Furst.
1. It was in the year 411, Ch.
Era, when the German barbaric tribes, the Suevi,
Vandals, Alans, and Silingi, finally took possession
of the Pyrenean peninsula, after plundering and
devastating it for a space of two years, and settled
themselves in the once paradise-like, but now
desolate country, having become tired of a nomadic
life. The quiet which this peninsula had enjoyed
since the reign of Augustus, as a Roman province,
was disturbed by the irruption of the barbarians
about the year 409; the prosperity and wealth
consequent on the long peace, were annihilated
through the outrages of the savage immigrants
<<420>>and in this desolate condition, the peninsula
ceased to be a Roman province in the year 411. The Suevi settled in Gallicia, in the north‑western
portion of the Peninsula, the Vandals in the centre
of the country, the Alans in Lusitania and
Carthagena, and the Silingi in Andalusia (Boetica);
and the Romans maintained themselves only in the
present Catalonia, Arragon, and Navarre.* In the
latter part of the year 414 these barbarians were
yet farther joined by Ataulph, King of the
Visigoths, who came to Spain from Narbonne, in Gaul,
with a large army of Goths, and this one was the
first Visigothic King on Iberian soil who brought
the Goths to Spain and founded a kingdom in that
country which lasted nearly three hundred years.†
This new swarm of barbarians already professed
Christianity. But the Gothic dominion lasted, in the
first instance, but five years, (414-19,)
since Wallia, the second in secession after
Ataulph, surrendered nearly the whole of conquered
Spain to the Romans, and was content to select as
the residence of his hosts the country of
Septimania (a territory of seven districts on
the Garonne extending to the sea), which he had
received as a present from the Roman Emperor. It was
in Septimania that the Visigothic state of Tolosa
sprung up, whilst the Roman dominion maintained its
existence in Spain under many trials and contests
till 481; and the first King of the Visigoths with
whom commenced the uninterrupted rule of the Goths
in Spain, was Eurich, who already gave
written laws. The Jews were then
already in the country. From the year 481 till
531, was the Visigothic kingdom at Spain united with
that of Tolosa; the centre of the Visigothic power
was in Gaul, and the laws which may have been made
in respect to the Jews must therefore be sought for
in the older history of the Visigoths in Gaul. It
was only as late as in the reign of Theudas
(531), that Spain was separated from Gaul as a
special kingdom, and he chose Barcelona as the seat
of his government.
2.
The Spanish histories and the ancient chronicles
furnish fabulous accounts concerning the immigration
of the Jews; it is said that in the time of the
first, in the time of the second temple, previous
and subsequent to the destruction of Jerusalem,
Jews in numerous bodies should have sought a new
home in Iberia. But all these reports which we
prefer to pass by here with entire silence, are only
disjointed legends put in circulation at a late
period, and the only result which we can adduce in
the entire absence of any positive data, is that the
Palestine <<421>>refugees must have travelled with
the Romans to Spain, since they experienced,
together with the Romans, the weight of the iron
hand of barbarism, at the irruption of the
barbarians, about the year 409. The Jewish
historian, Josephus,* has a report of Jews in
Spain through the Romans; Suetonius† and
Tacitus,‡ speak of a transportation of Jews to
that country; and though we cannot absolutely
maintain the literal historical truth of the report
of the Spanish historian Juan Vasaeus,§ that
Hadrian had in the first half of the second century
sent to Spain numerous Jewish prisoners of war on
the occasion of his terrible war against the Jews,
it nevertheless must be admitted to bear the stamp
of probability.
At
all events, the Jews were in Spain together with the
Romans before 409; and about a century later, when
there was but one Visigothic kingdom in Spain, the
Jews were there, distributed through the country in
numerous congregations, as an antithesis to the
Christian barbarians, celebrating their own Sabbaths
and festivals, circumcising their children,
solemnizing marriage after the Jewish custom, and
strictly observing the dietetic laws, and even
occasionally converting heathen slaves to Judaism.
In such a state of Jewish isolation, towards which
heathen Rome was perfectly indifferent, were they
found by the Christian Visigothic barbarians; and
what history has omitted to record, we now, for the
first time, learn from the tenor of the bloody laws
which were enacted at the time of which we are
speaking.
In
the contests with the Romans, which lasted
seventy-two years (409-481), it was but natural that
the Visigoths could not think of the Jews, and they
hence suffered only from the inflictions of the
devastating war. In the succeeding fifty years
(481-531), in which Spain appears more as an
appendage of the Tolosanian kingdom in Gaul, they
were, so to say, outside the enemy’s horizon; and it
is well known that the Jews at Arles, when it
already belonged to the Visigoths, at the
commencement of the sixth century, still possessed
the right of Roman citizenship. But scarcely had the
Spanish Visigothic kingdom acquired an independent
position and organization (531), when religious
hatred was sufficiently strong and violent to
inflict such deep wounds on the congregations of
Spain, that their existence after three centuries so
full of horrors (411-711) must fill the coldest and
the simple severe historian with shuddering and
admiration.
*
* * * * * *
Recared I.
(586-601). This Visigothic King of Spain
promulgated a series of laws against the Jews (Leges
Visigothorum xii. tit. 11, <<422>>Lex 4-12. Canciani
iv. pp. 185-187). He prohibited baptized Jews, to
offend against the Christian faith, through words or
deeds, or to withdraw themselves from its confession
through flight from the country. Those who remained
Jews in despite of all their sufferings, he
interdicted the celebration of the Passover, the
Sabbaths, and other festivals in the customary
manner; the solemnization of marriage, after the
custom of the Jews; the circumcision of the
children, and the making of any distinction between
clean and unclean food. He deprived them of the
right to testify against Christians in a court of
justice, or to cite a Christian before a judge, and
all this under penalty of being burnt at the stake
or stoned to death. In case the king should grant
their life to guilty Jews, they should still become
slaves and lose their property. He further ordained
that no Jew should have a Christian servant; and if
a Jew should dare to circumcise his Christian slave,
then should the servant be free, and the property of
the Jew should be forfeited to the king’s exchequer;
so also Jewish servants, whether male or female,
should obtain their freedom if they would become
converted.
Liuva (601-603). This son and successor of
Recared did not ameliorate these laws. He was
murdered by his successor, Witteric (603).
Witteric (603-610). Under this king, who was
the enemy of the Catholic clergy, the Jews breathed
more freely, as they were forgotten amidst the
contest of Catholicism against the doctrines of
Arius. He was murdered (610).
Gundemar (610-612). This king was again an
instrument of the clergy, and the misfortune of the
Jews would have already commenced at this period,
had not his reign been so brief. The more sorrowful
became their lot under his successor Sisebut.
Sisebut (612-620). Rendered fanatical through
means of the clergy, and possessing an iron-like
stubbornness of character, this king became the
terror of the Spanish Jews. Sisebut confirmed the
cruel ordinances of Recared,* and proceeded in this
way with indescribable tyranny. He ordained (614),
that every Jew who would abstain from having himself
or his children and servants baptized for more than
one year, should be punished with a hundred blows,
be banished from the country and deprived of his
possessions.† He went still farther. Through murder,
the rack, and fearful severity, he compelled 90,000
to be bap<<423>>tized, and the most obstinate were
maltreated in the most cruel manner,
and deprived of their property; and with their bare
life even they were not permitted to escape from the
country, since the barbarian caused the frontiers to
be strictly watched, so that not a Jew should escape
him.‡
To
enhance yet more these persecutions, he promulgated
a law that all his successors should swear at the
commencement of their reign, to maintain these
measures against the Jews, and in his fanatic zeal
he placed before his more humanely inclined
successors the prospect of the flames of hell-fire
at the last judgment.* The cruelty of Sisebut
against the Jews excited such a horror, that even
many among the fanatical clergy disapproved of it.
The celebrated Isidore, Archbishop of Seville,
although himself a fanatic, says in his history of
the Goths,† “Sisebut had, in his persecution of the
Jews, displayed, it is true, zeal for the Cause of
God, but not a wise one, because he employed
violence, whereas conviction could only be justified
by good reasons.” But fanaticism paid no attention
to this. It is true, that Isidore succeeded in the
fourth Synod of Toledo, where he presided, to have a
canon law passed‡ that in future no Jew should be
any more compelled to be baptized; but the
comparatively mild canon law was not regarded.
Recared II. (620), Sisebut’s son, reigned but
a few months, and could exercise no influence on the
condition of the Jews. It was only under his
successor that the rigour was relaxed.
Swinthila (620-631). Under this Visigothic
king, who, in lessening the power of the clergy, had
to contend against them as well as the nobles, the
Jews could breathe again in some slight degree. When
the clergy did not rule, the Jews had at least some
little peace.
Sisenand (631-636). After the expulsion of
Swinthila, Sisenand ascended the throne, protected
and sustained by the clergy. The fate of the Jews
would have been mournful indeed, had not the already
Archbishop Isidore, of Seville, who was mildly
disposed towards them, possessed the highest
consideration and influence. He enforced a milder
treatment of the Jews; and at the Synod, called at
Toledo in the year 633, at which sixty-nine bishops
appeared, the rights of the Jews were likewise
regulated under the presiding of Isidore, among the
seventy-four enactments there passed.|| It is true
that Isidore was a zealous, fanatical Catholic, and
even wrote a work concerning the conver<<424>>sion
of the Jews;* but he only recommends mild measures.
Isidore died in the same year with the king (636).
Chinthila (636-640). The next successor,
Chinthila, also a tool of the clergy, immediately
promulgated a decree (637), that all the Jews,
without exception, should quit the kingdom, because
Isidore no longer lived to induce the clergy to
adopt a milder course of proceedings. At a Synod
held in 638, was this decree, together with all the
prior resolves of the councils, solemnly confirmed,
and yet farther extended, so that in future every
king, before ascending the throne, should obligate
himself by an oath to sustain, in full rigour, the
decrees of Chinthila against the Jews.† The
just-mentioned Synod also held up in prospect the
curse of Heaven and everlasting hell-fire, should
ever any one of the successors to the throne be bold
enough to act contrary to this ordinance.
(To be continued.)
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