The Jews In Great Britain:
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THE
JEWS IN GREAT BRITAIN:
BEING A
SERIES OF SIX LECTURES,
DELIVERED IN THE
LIVERPOOL COLLEGIATE INSTITUTION,
ON
THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS IN ENGLAND.
BY THE
REV. MOSES MARGOLIOUTH,
INCUMBENT OF GLASNEVIN, DUBLIN.
LONDON:
JAMES NISBET AND CO., BERNERS-STREET.
WILLIAM CURRY, JUN. AND CO., DUBLIN.
1846.
Dublin: Printed by Edward Bull, 6, Bachelor’s-walk.
TO
THE RIGHT REVEREND
JOHN BIRD SUMNER, D.D.,
LORD BISHOP OF CHESTER,
AND
VISITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL COLLEGIATE INSTITUTION,
These Lectures,
ON
THE ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS IN ENGLAND,
ARE, BY KIND PERMISSION, INSCRIBED,
WITH FEELINGS OF PROFOUND RESPECT AND ESTEEM,
BY
HIS LORDSHIP’S MOST HUMBLE
AND OBEDIENT SERVANT,
THE AUTHOR.
The following Lectures form a complete History of the Jews in Great Britain, with reference to their literary, religious, political, and civil constitution, up to the eighteenth year of Edward I., A.D. 1290. They are published in deference to, and compliance with, the strong wishes of many who heard them delivered.
CONTENTS.
Introduction.—Lecturer’s Disadvantages.—Importance of Jewish History.—the Antiquity of the Jews.—The intense Interest now taken in this Subject.—Subject of these Lectures.—Deficiency of Information on the Subject.—The Literary Character of the Jews.—The Dilemma of the Jewish Historian.—Reasons for Historical Deficiency.—The Jews visited Britain before the Norman Conquest.—Jews trained to be a wandering Nation.—A maritime Nation.—The Renown of Solomon’s Fame.—the Phœnicians’ Marine Expeditions.—Ezekiel’s Description of the same.—The Meaning of Tarshish.—Wealth of Spain and of Solomon.—Two Monuments found in Spain.—their Inscriptions.—Villalpando institutes an Inquiry.—Adoniram’s tomb-stone.—Decyphered not by Jewish but by Christian DivinesThe same Monument noticed by a Jewish Traveller.—Villalpando’s Conclusion not premature.—Britain a compound Hebrew Word.—Striking Affinity between the Hebrew and Cornish Languages.—Whole Sentences alike in both Languages.—the Jews Fathers in Literature.—Britain one of “the Isles afar off”.—The Terms of the Alliance between the Jews and the Romans.—Augustus’s Edict in Favour of the Jews in Britain.—A curious ancient Brick found.—Richard Waller’s Conjecture respecting it.—St. Peter may have visited Britain for the sake of the Jews.—The Success a Missionary meets with among unprejudiced Jews.—Wolff’s Success in Bokhara, and Stern’s in Persia.—St. Paul’s Visit to Britain fully established by Bishop Burgess and many other learned Divines.—The British Church established by Jews.—Appendix A. A Letter from Mr. Holdsworth, Governor of Dartmouth.—B. Bochart on תרשיש.—C. Villalpando’s Account of the Inscription on the Monument.—His Opinion respecting the Dispersion of the Jews.—D. The Opinions of the Ancients respecting the Andalusians.—E. Ancient Gentile Writers were not acquainted with Jewish History.—A Chapter from Trogus Pompeius.—F. Bochart’s Etymology of Britain.—G. The Scripture Names of the Welsh.—H. Josipon’s Account of Augustus’s Edict in Favour of the Jews in Britain.—I. Rabbi David Ganz’s Account of the same.
Objections answered.—Bede the first English Writer who mentions the Jews.—Ecgbright’s Edict.—[♦]Whitglaff’s.—Edward the Confessor’s.—William the First invited the Jews.—Two distinct Colonies of Jews.—The Conqueror’s Policy.—Rufus’s Convocation of Christian and Jewish Divines.—Stephen, the Jewish Convert.—The State of the Jews at Oxford.—Jews prosper in the Reign of Rufus and Henry I.—Eum Crescat and St. [♠]Frideswide.—There was no Peace to the Jews after the Reign of Henry I.—With the Reign of Stephen the Jewish Troubles commenced.—The Jews accused of crucifying Christian Children.—Absurd Reasons assigned for the Use of Christian Blood.—Ecclesiastics already Jewish Debtors.—The Ecclesiastics incensed the King against the Jews.—Anecdote of a Jew, and Archdeacon Richard [♣]Peche, and Dean Deville.—The Accusations against the Jews a bountiful Revenue to Church and State.—Jews required to support the Crusade.—The King’s Death afforded them some respite.—their learned Men and their Seats of Learning.—Aben Ezra visits England.—Jews distinguished Physicians.—Appendix A. 146 and 149 Paragraphs of Archbishop Ecgbright’s Canonical Excerptiones.—B. The Original of [♦]Whitglaff’s Edict.—C. Of Edward the Confessor.—D. Of William the First.—E. Dr. M‘Caul’s Remarks on the Charge against the Jews of using Christian Blood.—F. Aben Ezra’s Preface to his אגרת השכת—Drs. Jost and M‘Caul’s Testimonies of Jewish Medical Knowledge.
[♦] ‘Whitglaf’s’ replaced with ‘Whitglaff’s’
[♠] ‘Friedswide’ replaced with ‘Frideswide’
[♣] ‘Peeche’ replaced with ‘Peche’
A brief Retrospect of the last Lecture.—Jewish Physicians preferred.—The Jews sadly disappointed.—Jewish History of that Period a dreary Tale of Woe.—Richard’s Reign ushered in with a Massacre of the Jews.—Rabbi Jacob, of Orleans, one of the slain.—Benedict feigns to become a Christian—soon after avows his unbelief.—The Jews attacked in other Places.—Their misplaced Zeal brings them into many Troubles.—Effect of the Crusade upon the Jews.—Their Treatment at Stamford.—At Lincoln.—The Origin of their Sufferings at York.—They take possession of the Castle.—The Rabbi calls a Convocation.—His Address.—The Jews in the Castle terminated their Existence by murdering each other.—The Cause of that awful Event.—Some of the Offenders punished.—Richard establishes the Exchequer of the Jews.—Regulations of the same.—Appendix A. Rabbi Gedaliah’s Account of the Murder of the Rabbi Jacob, of Orleans.—B. The Origin of the Epithet משומד M‘shoomad.—C. Henry de [♦]Knyghton’s Account of one of the Roaming Saints, or Crusaders.—D. The Address of the Rabbi at York.—A Digest of Eleazar’s Speeches in the Fort of Masada.—E. The Writ of Ricardus [♠]Malebisse.—F. Specimens of Hebrew, Latin, and French Starras.—G. Court of Star Chamber.
[♦] “Knighton’s” replaced with “Knyghton’s”
[♠] ‘Malbisse’ replaced with ‘Malebisse’
The Jews allured by John to remain in England.—The Charter granted by the King to Rabbi Jacob—the Second Charter.—The Great Charter of Jewish Privileges.—The English Jews’ especial Charter.—English became envious of the Jews.—John’s Letter to the Mayor of London.—The King appears in his own Character.—He begins to extract their Wealth by most barbarous Tortures.—Why the Jews are noticed in the Magna Charta.—An ancient Tombstone found.—John’s last Act towards the Jews.—The Conduct of the Earl of Pembroke towards them.—Hubert de Burgh equally kind.—Reasons for the distinguishing Badge.—The apparent Kindness allured them again into this Country.—Reasons of the Clerical Hatred towards the Jews.—Stephen Langton’s Edict.—The Royal Counter-Edict.—The Jewish Troubles commence.—Augustin a Jewish Convert.—Jewish Synagogue turned into a Christian Church—the Armenian Bishop and the Wandering Jew.—Henry’s cruel Conduct.—The Jewish Convert’s House.—Charter of the same.—Appendix A. The State of the Jews in Spain.—B. C. D. The original Charters of John.—E. The original Indictment against a Bedford Jew.—F. John’s original Letter to the Mayor of London.—G. H. Two original royal Acquittals of Jewish Debts.—I. The Clause in the Magna Charta referring to the Jews.—K. King John affects to become a Mahometan.—L. The original Writ of the Cinque Ports.—M. Royal Counter-Edict to Stephen Langton’s.—N. Prior of Dunstable’s License to Jews to dwell within his Jurisdiction.—O. The Writ in Favour of Augustin, a Jewish Convert.—P. The Original Charter of the Jewish Convert’s House.
The King’s Wants.—The Norwich Jews’ Sufferings.—The infamous Trial of Jacob of Norwich.—Parliament could not find the accused guilty.—The cruel Conduct of the Christians drove the Jews from Christianity.—Jews prohibited keeping Christian Nurses.—Jews supply the King’s Wants when the Barons will not.—They remonstrate.—The Jews obliged to yield.—The Jews were, at the time, extremely rich.—Baseless Calumnies invented against them.—Jewish Parliament.—Martyn, a Jewish Convert.—Jewish Converts instigated to accuse their Brethren.—The Conduct of the Jewish Converts honourable.—Earl Richard’s Wedding.—The Welsh Incursions.—Westminster Abbey.—Jewish Alms.—The Pope’s Usurers.—His Method of taking Usury.—Jewish Cemetery out of repair.—Jewish Hatred of Images.—Abraham murders his Wife Flora.—Accuses his own Nation.—Henry never satisfied.—The Remonstrance and Address of Rabbi Elias.—Earl Richard’s Reply.—Jewish Memorial—the King’s Reply.—The Lincoln Jews.—Calumniated as Crucifiers of the boy Hugo.—A false Confession extracted from Copin, the Jew.—Falsely accuses his Brethren.—The murderous Effect of that venomous Calumny.—Earl Richard ill-treats the Jews.—Ecclesiastical Animosity.—Henry sanctions the cruel Edicts of the Church.—Sancha’s Funeral.—Henry breaks his Agreement.—Barons massacre the Jews.—Jews banished from many Places.—Epidemic Fury against them.—The Jews given to Prince Edward.—The Effect of the Battle of Lewes upon the Jews.—Jews enjoy a short Respite.—A Jew accused of forging a Bond.—The Oxford Jews.—Merton College.—the University in want of a Cross.—The Jews obliged to erect one.—The Brentford Jews.—The Lincoln and Cambridge Jews.—Aaron given to Prince Edmund.—The Favour Individuals experienced stirred up the Envy of the Populace.—Henry’s plundering Jews proved oppressive to the Nation at large.—Henry’s Charter against the Jews.—Edward’s Crusade.—Jews mortgage again to Earl Richard.—Another Synagogue taken from them and given to the Friars’ Penitents.—The last cruel Conduct of Henry towards the Jews elicited Commiseration even from their virulent Foes.—The Jewish Converts’ House improved. Appendix A. The original Record of the infamous Trial of Jacob of Norwich.—B. The Relapse of a converted Jew, a Deacon, into Judaism.—C. The Writ of the Expulsion of the Newcastle Jews.—D. The Decree forbidding Christian Women serving Jews.—E. Pope Innocent’s Reason for the Act.—F. Henry’s Writ for the extracting of 10,000 Marks from the Jews.—G. The Memento of the Jewish Honesty in the original.—H. The Writ for the Assembly of the Jewish Parliament.—I. The Names of the Representatives.—J. The Writ given to the Collectors.—K. A Clause from Bishop Rupibus’s Will.—L. The original Writ respect the King’s heirship to Jewish Property.—M. The Writ respecting the Removal of Rabbi Elias from his Office.—N. The French King’s Edict against the Jews.—O. A Ballad composed on the Story of Jews crucifying Children.—P. The Deed of the Site of Merton College.—Q. The Writ of Release of the Oxford Jews.—R. The Inquisition on a Jew murdered in Oxford.—S. Writs of Protection towards the Jews.—T. Aaron’s Enfranchisement.—U. Henry’s original Charter against the Jews.—V. Charter for improving the Jewish Converts’ Institution.—W. A Converted Jewess.
An Epitome of the last Lecture.—the Jews treated kindly in the Beginning of Edward’s Reign.—The Son soon began to imitate his Father.—The Jews accused of Treason.—Their Children began to be taxed also.—The Punishment of Imprisonment changed into Transportation.—An Irish Bishop and two Friars appointed to carry the stern Threat into Execution.—[♦]Statutum de Judaismo.—The Colour of their Badges changed.—The probable Reason for the Change.—Jews prohibited to blaspheme.—The Jews considered their Character defamed, if called Christians.—Jewish Women also ordered to wear Badges.—Edward’s Zeal in promoting Christianity amongst the Jews.—The Dominican Monks petition the King to compel the Jews to listen to their Sermons.—The Jewish Converts’ Institution much patronized.—Belager, a Jewish Convert of Oxford.—Edward wants Money.—The Jews are accused of clipping the Coin.—The Charge of clipping the Coin examined.—Edward’s Vow.—The King wanted £20,000; he imprisoned, therefore, all the Jews in England.—Asher chronicles the Imprisonment on the Walls of the Winchester Prison.—The Enmity against the Jews epidemic.—The Clergy and the Laity prevail with the King to banish the Jews.—All the Jews banished this Country, A.D. 1290.—The Barbarities practised upon them.—The King and the Queen profited much by their Banishment.—The Mariner’s Stratagem.—Ben [♠]Virga’s Account of the Banishment of the Jews.—Rabbi G’daliah’s Account.—Dr. Jost’s Estimate of the English Jews incorrect.—The Jewish Chronicle.—The unjust Cruelty the Jews experienced.—A Picture of the Exiles.—De Lyra an English Jew.—His Writings.—L’Advocat’s Account of him incorrect.—Appendix A. Edward’s first impartial Proclamation.—B. The Prohibition of Jewish Blasphemy.—C. Edward institutes an Investigation respecting Suetecota.—D. The Writ for compelling the Jews to attend Church.—E. Belager’s Goods and Chattels.—F. The Proclamation against accusing the Jews of clipping the Coin.—G. The Original of Ben [♠]Virga’s Account.—H. Of Rabbi G’daliah.—I. Letter to the Editor of the Jewish Chronicle.—J. Extract from Bishop Bale.
[♦] ‘Satutum’ replaced with ‘Statutum’
[♠] “Verga’s” replaced with “Virga’s”
LECTURES
ON
THE HISTORY OF THE JEWS.
LECTURE I.
Before I begin with the immediate subject which brings me before your notice this evening, I would venture to crave your indulgence if my lisping, broken accents, and my limited attainments, should not reflect the credit upon your noble Institution which it so richly deserves. I humbly trust, that you will kindly take into consideration that it is comparatively but a short time since I began to pay attention to your language and literature.
It is but little more than eight years since I landed on the shores of England, and eight years to a day[1] since I arrived in your town of Liverpool, at a time when you, in all probability, little thought of erecting such a magnificent edifice for so laudable a purpose. As for me, I positively aver that I did not then entertain the least ambition of ever appearing before you as lecturer in any shape whatever, being then totally ignorant of your language. I trust, therefore, to your kind and well-known courtesy, that you will put the best construction you possibly can on my humble efforts.
[1] – October 28th, 1845.
Whilst it would be unpardonable presumption in me, seeing as I do before me such a host of learned and highly-gifted men, to imagine that there were not those present who, from more extensive reading, were not better acquainted with several, if not with all the subjects which will come before them in the progress of these lectures; it would be, at the same time, regarded as mere affectation and false modesty if I pretended that there were not others less conversant with these subjects than myself, and to whom it may be in my power to impart some information which they may not before have possessed.
The history of the Jews—part of which I purpose bringing before you in this and five following lectures—stands indeed associated with all that is sublime in the retrospect of the past, affecting in the contemplation of the present, and magnificent in the future history of mankind.
No one who has any feeling at all can help manifesting it at the mention of the name Jew—a name “big with a world of import.” The Jew stands forth until the present day, in the face of the whole world, a living and lasting miracle—a mighty, though shattered monument, on every fragment of which is inscribed, in letters of the brightest gold, the truth of holy writ. No wonder, therefore, that Lord Rochester, when a conceited infidel (for such is the character of all infidels), was obliged to make the following confession: “I reject all arguments with one single exception, that founded on the existence of the Jews; that alone baffles my scriptural infidelity.” I say, no one can help feeling interested in the history of the most ancient and venerable people on the face of the whole earth. The Jewish people can trace back their progenitors to the very cradle of the human race: the nations about them are infantine when compared with their hoary antiquity. The following are the words, respecting them, of a learned English divine, father of the celebrated Addison, author of “The Spectator:”—“This people, if any under heaven, may boldly glory of their antiquity and nobleness of descent; there being no nation who can prove its pedigree by such clear and authentic heraldry as the Jews. For, though a ridiculous vanity hath tempted some to date their original before that of the world, and others, with great assurance, have made themselves sprung from their own soil, yet the Jews, by an unquestionable display through all periods since the creation, can prove their descent from the first man. So that all other nations must have recourse to the Jewish records to clear their genealogies and attest their lineage.” The interest in the history of such a people must at all times be intense, and, if at all times, more especially so now.
It is a singular fact that, at this present moment, that people draws the eyes of all the civilized nations with an intensity never experienced before. The facilities of locomotion have covered Syria and Palestine with visitors of the curious, or the devout; the claims of the rightful proprietors of Canaan engage the attention of the statesman; the tide of worldly interest rolls back upon the shores of Palestine; and upon a question as to the possession of the land of promise, lately depended, perhaps still depends, the peace of Europe, the fate of the habitable world. The dominion of the heathen Roman has long since ceased, the conquest of the Khosroes is forgotten, the Saracens have passed away, the Crusaders and the Califs have alike crumbled into dust; all those are gone, and have left scarcely a vestige behind, whilst the Jews are once more brought prominently into view. They exist still in very great numbers, and in all the separatedness of their original character, in spite of all the persecutions they have gone through. How true did the Jew speak when he said, “persecution cannot dismay us—time itself cannot destroy us.” I repeat again, the interest in the history of such a people must be intense.
The portion of Jewish history to which I wish particularly to call your attention in this first series of lectures, is that connected with this country up to the year 1290, when all the Jews were banished by Edward the First. The second series, which I may deliver at some future period, will form the history of the Jews from the time of Oliver Cromwell to our own day.
Difficult as the historian may find it to fathom the origin of the first inhabitants who peopled this country, certain it is that the most difficult part of the same is that of the Jewish early introduction and establishment in this realm; which is enveloped almost in impenetrable obscurity. The sources from which we can draw any information at all on the subject, are very scanty. English historians afford us no information whatever, and neither have the ante-expulsion Jews bequeathed us any records or chronicles of their antiquities in this country. We are left therefore to conjecture from the glimmering sparks which we now and then catch in the pages of foreign literature; but no one can venture to fix a positive date to the first landing of the dispersed of Judah on the shores of Britain.
In order to prevent erroneous conclusions, however, it may be well just to state the probable reason why the ante-expulsion Jews yield us no light on their early history. I am aware that prejudice will readily exclaim, as a reason, “The Jews had no learned men amongst them to record their passing events;” or, “They were too much absorbed in money getting, so that they could not find time to think of anything else.” But any one acquainted with the national character of the Jews, will at once produce an array of facts which will prove incontrovertibly the fallacy of such reasons. I have already demonstrated elsewhere, that there never has been a period in their history when they were destitute of first rate genius and learning. It is a striking fact, that there is no science in which some Jewish name is not enrolled amongst its eminent promoters. They always entertained a profound love for learning, and were inspired with an uncontrollable energy in the pursuit of knowledge. They grace the literary pages of Spain, as pre-eminent philosophers, philologists, physicians, astronomers, mathematicians, historians, grammarians, orators, and highly-gifted poets.[1] D’Israeli does not improperly put the following sentence into Sidonia’s mouth: “You never observe a great intellectual movement in Europe in which the Jews do not greatly participate”[2]—which he illustrates by notorious facts, and which Dr. Wolff corroborates. But besides all this, we shall see from their history in this country, even from the little that we can gather of it, that the ante-expulsion Jews really had learned men, who were able even to vie with the most learned ecclesiastics of their day, as I shall show in the progress of these lectures. Mr. Moses Samuel, a learned Jew of this town, (Liverpool) observes—“Let me tell you,” addressing his brethren in this country, “that you had great men living in England eight hundred years ago. The sayings of the wise men of Norwich and of York are quoted in some of the additions made by the expounders of the Talmud.”[3] A modern Christian writer bears testimony to the same effect; he says—“Their (i.e. Jews’) schools afforded a far more superior education than those of the Christians, and the children of the latter were invariably instructed in those schools in arithmetic and medicine, and also in higher branches of study.”[4]
[1] – See “the Fundamental Principles of Modern Judaism investigated”—“An Address to Christians.”
[2] – Coningsby, vol. ii., p. 201.
[3] – “An Address on the Position of the Jews in Britain,” p. 27.
[4] – Knight’s London, part 31, p. 5.
But what then may the reason be for the melancholy deficiency of their own historical records? The probable reason strikes me to be this; the severe ill-usages which have been their painful lot to encounter. For the history of the then Jews is an extremely dreary tale of woe.
The Jewish historian finds himself in the same dilemma in which Gildas, commonly called “the wise,” found himself; who sadly lamented (in the beginning of his epistle, in which he has undertaken to give some account of the ancient British Church) the want of any domestic monuments to give him certain information. “For,” saith he, “if there were any such, they were either burnt by our enemies, or carried so far by the banishment of our countrymen, that they no longer appear, and therefore I was forced to pick up, what I could, out of foreign writers, without any continued series.” So it is with the Jewish historian.
Fearful in length is the catalogue of the massacres, extortions, and persecutions which the Jews have sustained in this country during the dark ages of its annals. Consider how many times they were plundered, how often fire was set to their houses, which destroyed all their possessions. Behold them at York, how that before they destroyed their own persons, they first burnt every thing belonging to them—view them just before their final banishment, robbed on every side—all which I shall show more fully in their proper places. I say, take all this into consideration, and the probable reason will suggest itself—viz., that the Jewish records perished with their persons and other possessions. It is not too much to assume, for any one who knows the real character of the Jews, that they were in possession of valuable documents relative to their earliest introduction into this country, but which were lost with the rest of their valuables, by which not only they themselves sustained a great loss, but also their survivors.
Deprived as we are of the Jewish own information respecting this important inquiry; and silent as are the ancient English historians about their first setting foot on Albion’s ground, which put it beyond the modern historian’s power to ascertain the positive date of their doing so: still any one who, having paid critical attention to the subject, must come to the conclusion that those English historians who fixed the time of their introduction into this country to be coeval with the Norman conquest, were wrong. It is highly probable that the Jews visited this country at a very early period.
Be it recollected that the Jewish nation had been trained to be a wandering nation, to prepare them, no doubt, for their mighty dispersion. Their progenitor, Abraham, seems to have been a type of the same, who was commanded (Genesis, xii. 1), “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee;” and his descendants have ever and anon manifested a peculiar migratory disposition, as you always find in holy writ.
Methinks, however, I hear some one say, It may be all true that the Jews betrayed a migratory disposition at a very early period of their history, which must, however, be confined to the east, for surely it cannot be imagined that they travelled as far as the west, at a remote age; especially, when we take into consideration the rudeness of the state of navigation in those days. I would respectfully call to such objectors’ minds a statement of an eminent ancient writer—I mean Tacitus—who says that the first colonizing expeditions were performed by water, not by land;[1] and the result of research into the affinities of nations seems to have established, that at no time, however remote, has the interposition of sea presented much obstacle to the migratory dispositions of mankind.[2]
[1] – “Nec terra olim, sed classibus advehebantur, qui mutare sedes quærebant.”
[2] – See [Appendix A].
As I said before, however, that Abraham’s descendants were trained to be a wandering people, so say I, moreover, now, that they were trained to be a maritime nation; in which pursuit we find them employed soon after they entered the land of promise. Not only did they possess the small sea of [♦]Galilee, but they were placed all along the upper border of the great, or Mediterranean, Sea; and no sooner were they established in their country than they began to be engaged in maritime affairs, as we read in sacred history (1 Kings, ix. 26–28)—“And King Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion-geber [♦]which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. And they came to Ophir, and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon.”
[♦] ‘Gallilee’ replaced with ‘Galilee’
[♦] ‘whieh’ replaced with ‘which’
As also in chap. x. 22—“For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish, with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, &c.”
The Israelites, therefore, had an opportunity of traversing the known world at a very early period of their history, and thus made known the wisdom of their heaven-taught monarch; we can, therefore, admit in the amplest magnitude of signification the narrative contained in verses 23–26 of the same chapter. “So King Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom.
“And all the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.
“And they brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and garments, and armour, and spices, horses, and mules, a rate year by year.
“And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen: and he had a thousand and four hundred chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he bestowed in the cities for chariots, and with the king at Jerusalem.”
It will be interesting to our subject to take a brief view of the navigating expeditions of the Phœnicians at that period, which was their most prosperous epoch, and who, with far more knowledge of the art of navigation than modern assumption gives them credit for, were to be seen in the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the Atlantic—every where upon the waters; and in doing so, I must refer you to the twenty-seventh chapter of Ezekiel, where we have a concise, but precise description of their marine expeditions, which is as follows—“O thou that art situate at the entry of the sea, which art a merchant of the people for many isles, thus saith the Lord God; O Tyrus, thou hast said I am of perfect beauty.
“Thy borders are in the midst of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty.
“They have made all thy ship boards of fir trees of Senir; they have taken cedars from Lebanon to make masts for thee.
“Of the oaks of Bashan have they made thine oars; the company of the Ashurites have made thy benches of ivory, brought out of the isles of Chittim.
“Fine linen, with broidered work from Egypt, was that which thou spreadest forth to be thy sail; blue and purple from the isles of Elishah was that which covered thee.
“The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners: thy wise men, O Tyrus, that were in thee, were thy pilots.
“The ancients of Gebal and the wise men thereof were in thee thy calkers; all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandize.
“They of Persia, and of Lud, and of Phut, were in thine army, thy men of war; they hanged the shield and helmet in thee; they set forth thy comeliness.
“The men of Arvad with thine army were upon thy walls round about, and the Gammadims were in thy towers: they hanged their shields upon thy walls round about; they have made thy beauty perfect.
“Tharshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.
“Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market.
“They of the house of Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses, and horsemen, and mules.
“The men of Dedan were thy merchants; many isles were the merchandise of thine hand; they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony.
“Syria was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the wares of thy making: they occupied in thy fairs with emeralds purple, and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and agate.
“Judah and the land of Israel, they were thy merchants; they traded in thy market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm.
“Damascus was thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, for the multitude of all riches; in the wine of Helbon, and white wool.
“Dan also and Javan going to and fro, occupied in thy fairs; bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy market.
“Dedan was thy merchant in precious clothes for chariots.
“Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these were they thy merchants.
“The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold.
“Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants.
“These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise.
“The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market, and thou wast replenished and made very glorious in the midst of the seas.
“Thy rowers have brought thee into great waters; the east wind hath broken thee in the midst of the seas.”—Ezek. xxvii. 3–26.
It would be beside my subject to enter into an investigation, on this occasion, of all the places mentioned in this portion of Scripture. I will therefore confine myself to the meaning of Tarshish, which bears close connexion with the object I have in view. After a rigorous and critical examination of different works written on it, I am led to adopt the view of the profoundly learned Bochart—viz., that the Tarshish of the Scriptures was the Tartessus of Spain, with a district around including Cadiz.[1] Let us view for a moment the state of Spain in ancient times. Its treasures of gold and silver were immensely vast. We read in Strabo a description of the natives by Posidonius, who, he says, used mangers and barrels of gold and silver. Such a country could not fail being very attractive to the Phœnicians. Indeed, it is a well authenticated fact that the Phœnicians did trade to Carthage and Spain.
[1] – See [Appendix B].
But we also read of Israel’s monarch (1 Kings, x. 21, 22)—“And all King Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the house of the forest of Lebanon were of pure gold; none were of silver; it was nothing accounted of in the days of Solomon.
“For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, &c.” Now if Tharshish be Spain, the conclusion is inevitable, the Israelites must have visited the western countries in the days of Solomon.
The conclusion resulting from the examination of the meaning of Tarshish, is confirmed by two very ancient sepulchral monuments found in Spain. As these monuments attracted the attention of the learned Christian antiquarians about two hundred years ago, it may not be uninteresting to give a short sketch of their history, and especially since they form an important link in the chain of evidence of the very early wanderings of the Jews.
The Duke of Savoy, formerly viceroy of Valencia, presented Francis Gozanga, Bishop of Mantua and General of the Franciscans, with a manuscript which was originally dedicated to Alfonso Duke of Segorbe and Count of Ampurias, written in an antique Spanish dialect, in which the ruins of Saguntum are noticed. After many Roman monuments being described, a sepulchral monument, bearing a Hebrew epitaph, is mentioned as being of far greater antiquity than the Roman monuments; for the characters were more ancient than the square alphabet now in use, which must have been the Samaritan, as those characters were used by the Hebrews prior to their Babylonish captivity. In consequence of the stone being much fractured and defaced, the following could only be decyphered, but which gives us still a somewhat correct idea of its date. It runs thus:
זהוא קבר אדונירם עבד המלך שלמה
שבא לגבת את־המס ונפטר יום . .[1]
of which the following is the Spanish manuscript version:—“De Adoniram la fossa es esta, que vigne Salomo del Re servent dia, y mori tribut lo pera rebre....” The following is a literal English translation:—“This is the grave of Adoniram, the servant of King Solomon, who came to collect the tribute, and died on the day....”
[1] – See [Appendix C].
The Bishop of Mantua published a history of the Franciscan order, in which he mentioned, on the authority of the manuscript alluded to, the existence of the above-menioned monument. Villalpando, a learned Jesuit and a shrewd critic, read the book, but not being willing to put implicit confidence in the bishop’s startling assertion, desired his brethren, the Jesuits, who lived in Murviedro, a beautiful little place built from the ruins of Saguntum, to make great search for that particular stone on the site described; his request was complied with; an investigation was instituted. The Murviedro natives immediately pointed out a large stone near the gate of the citadel, which was commonly called by the natives, “The Stone of Solomon’s Collector.” There was an almost obliterated Hebrew inscription on the self-same stone, but not corresponding to the one looked for: which we shall presently notice. There was, however, a manuscript chronicle preserved in the town, in which they found the following entry: “At Saguntum, in the citadel, in the year of our Lord 1480, a little more or less, was discovered a sepulchre of surprising antiquity. It contained an embalmed corpse, not of the usual stature, but taller than is common. It had, and still retains on the front, two lines in the Hebrew language and characters, the sense of which is—‘The sepulchre of Adoniram, the servant of King Solomon, who came hither to collect tribute.’ Of this Adoniram, the servant of Solomon, mention is made in the 5th chapter [14th verse] of the first book of Kings, and more expressly in the 4th chapter [6th verse] of that book. The Hebrew letters rendered into Roman are these: ‘Ze hu keber Adoniram ebed ha Melec Selomo, seba ligbot et hammas, voniptar yom.’”
In page 112 of the same chronicle they found the following: “The marble mausoleum of surprising antiquity, which was discovered at Saguntum in the year of our Lord, 1482, and was inscribed with the Hebrew letters which are these in Roman, ‘Ze hu keber,’ &c. [as above], still exists in the citadel before the outer gate.” Villalpando did not stop there; he succeeded in possessing himself afterwards of a careful copy (through others of his order) of some other manuscript, which makes honourable mention of the same monument.
Were the rabbies the originators of this circumstance, I would certainly have hesitated before I brought it before you; not because I think that every thing rabbinical is of necessity absurd, ridiculous, and false; but in order to conciliate the strong prejudices of some who do think so, and treat every thing coming from that quarter with contempt; and generally, because they do not understand them. Not a word of the whole transaction is mentioned by any of the rabbies. The investigation was set on foot by Christian authors of great learning and extensive reading. Nor can it be said that it was a story conjured up by the Jesuits. There was no object in their doing so. They were never friendly to any thing Jewish; and in Villalpando’s time the most venomous animosity prevailed in their breast against every thing Jewish. Again, if their object was to deceive, why did they not make out the inscription on the monument which the natives have pointed out to them, to correspond with the one recorded in the Duke of Savoy’s ancient manuscript. There is not the remotest affinity between the two epitaphs. All the incidental circumstances connected with those monuments seem to me to conspire to attest that it was not their object to deceive in this matter.
Now, I wish to call your attention for a few minutes to the inscription which Villalpando’s friends discovered on the stone pointed out to them by the natives. It is the following, according to their decyphering:—
שארן נבח פקוד מרה
לשרו קחו יה
והדה עד מלך אמציה ...
The inscription, as thus given, though it makes rhyme, certainly makes no sense whatever. To say the least, it is very bad Hebrew, if Hebrew at all; and is enough to puzzle the worst Hebrew scholar to make any sense of it.[1] Strange to say, however, there were found such bad Hebrew scholars, who were able to favour the world with a literal translation, as they think, of the inscription; and it is the following: “Of Oran Nebahh, the President, who rebelled against his prince. The Lord has taken him ... and his glory to King Amaziah.” The only words which I conceive to be Hebrew are מרה Marah, which has been translated “rebelled,” instead of bitter; יה yah, the Lord; and מלך אמציה Melech Amaziah, King Amaziah. I candidly confess, that were I asked to translate the above, I would have humbly acknowledged my ignorance, without the least compunction. I find, however, in an old Hebrew book, called דרכי נעם Darcay Noam, or “Ways of Pleasantness” (written by R. Moses, bar Shem Tob, Aben Chaviv, above a century before Villalpando instituted the inquiry), an account of an epitaph which, I have no doubt, is none other but the same with the one which the Jesuits attempted to decypher; and the following is the rabbi’s account of it according to his own words: “When I was in the kingdom of Valencia, at the synagogue of Morvitri [Murviedro], all the people at the gate, as well as the elders informed me, that a sepulchral monument existed there, of a prince of the army of Amaziah, King of Judah; I hastened, therefore, to inspect it. The monument stands on the summit of a hill; whither having ascended with labour and fatigue, I read the inscription, which was in verse, and as follows:—
שאו קינה בקול מרה
לשר גדול לקחו יה׃[2]
“Raise with a bitter voice, a lamentation
For the great prince; the Lord has taken him.”
[1] – The author has met with many indifferent linguists who were quicker in making sense of a bad composition than many learned philologists.
[2] – Any one acquainted with the Samaritan alphabet can easily trace the blunders in the Jesuits’ version of the same.
I could not read more; but at the conclusion was the word לאמציה “To Amaziah.” It seems evident that there was more than one Hebrew monument at Murviedro.
I hesitate not in saying that, after having examined rigorously these and various other evidences bearing on the same question, I see no reason for disbelieving that there were Jews in Spain in the time of David and Solomon—startling as it may appear. It is easy indeed to treat the arguments of a young lecturer with a sneer, and to resolve them into the rashness, or conceit, of inexperience; allow me to suggest, however, that denial is not answer, and that of all logic flat contradiction is by far the most illogical.
Villalpando did certainly not arrive hastily at his conclusion; but it was after mature consideration that he decided that there existed colonies of Hebrews all over the world, in the reigns of David and Solomon, and that the Hebrews thus scattered remitted large sums of money for the erection and support of the temple.[1]
[1] – See [Appendix D].
The short time allotted for a lecture of this kind, prevents me from dwelling much longer now on this subject. To do justice to this investigation would require a whole series of lectures, exclusively, on it.[1] I proceed, therefore, at once to trace the probable footsteps of the Israelites into Britain.
[1] – See [Appendix E].
Taking for granted that it is highly probable that the Jews visited Spain in the days of David and Solomon, in company with the Phœnician merchants; may we not extend the probability also to Britain?
Appian tells us, that the Spaniards of his time used to perform the passage to Britain in half a day.[1] Britain was a place of attraction to mercantile persons at a very early period, and London was styled by the ancients, at a remote date, “nobile emporium.” There remaineth now no doubt whatever respecting the early intercourse between the Phœnicians and the Britons—all historians are unanimous upon it.
[1] – “Quando in Britanniam, una cum æstu maris transvehuntur quæ quidem trajectio dimidiati diei est.”
Sir Isaac Newton tells us, “With these Phœnicians came a sort of men skilled in religious mysteries.” Might they not have been Jews? True it is that we cannot appeal to monuments in order to establish our position; but we can, at the same time, appeal to the languages of the Hebrews and ancient Britons, which furnish a strong argument that they have known something of each other.
I begin with the name your country bears, viz. Britain. Various are the conjectures which antiquarians and philologists advanced in order to account why this island is so called. Herodotus calls the British Isles Cassiterides, which signifies, the islands of tin. It is a name whereby the Phœnicians jealously contrived to conceal from their Mediterranean neighbours the locality of these islands, being the remote sources of their wealth. Now, Strabo calls Britain Βρετανικη. Bochart, a profound Oriental scholar, shows that Βρετανικη is a corruption of the Hebrew words ברת אנך Barat-Anach, which are in signification the same with Cassiterides.[1] Is it not highly probable that Jews came over to this island with the Phœnicians, and named it according to its peculiar quality; which designation was ultimately adopted by the aborigines when they began to have intercourse with the Jews.
[1] – See [Appendix F].
Any one having paid critical attention to the early history of this country, can scarcely remain in doubt as regards the existence of an intimate acquaintance between the Jews and the old Britons or Welch. An eminent Cornish scholar of last century, who devoted a great deal of his time to prove the affinity between the Hebrew and Welch languages, observes,[1] “It would be difficult to adduce a single article or form of construction in the Hebrew grammar, but the same is to be found in Welch, and that there are many whole sentences in both languages exactly the same in the very words.” From two columns of quotations, which he adduces, I select the following for your satisfaction, and shall translate them according to the Welch:—
[1] – See Monthly Magazine, 1796, vol. ii., p. 543.
בני אלים
Beni Elyv,
Reared ones of power.—Ps. xxix. 1.
מחיה מתים
Mychweii Methion,
Thou dost quicken those that have failed.
בלע אדני את כל נאות יעקב
By-llwng adon-ydh holl neuodh Iago,
The Lord has swallowed up all the tabernacles of Jacob.—Lam. ii. 2.
דרך ביתה יצעד
Dyrac buth-hi ai-i-sengyd,
The avenue of her dwelling he would go to tread.—Prov. vii. 8.
דרכי שאול ביתה יורדות אל חדרי מות
Dyracei sâl buth-hi ea-warededh ill cadeiriau mêth.
That leads to vileness is her abode, going the descent to the seat of failing.—Prov. vii. 27.
ברוך אתה יהוה אלהינו מלך העולם
Barwch wytti iâ el-eini maelog y-hwylma,
Seat of increase art thou, Supreme, our intellectual power, possessor of the space of revolution.[1]
[1] – The first sentence of almost all Jewish thanksgivings to this very day.
מגיני על אלהים
Meigen-i hwyl elyv.
My protection is from the intelligences.—Ps. vii. 11.
מיהוא זה מלך הכבוד יהוה צבאות חוא מלך הכביד סלה
Py yw-o sy maeloc y-cavad I-A-YW-YO savwyod yw-o maeloc y-cavad. Sela.
Who is he that is possessor of attainments? I THAT AM HIM of hosts, he is the possessor of attainment—Behold.—Ps. xxiv. 10.[1]
[1] – This passage must have been a great favourite with the Jews. The whole of the twenty-fourth Psalm is supposed to have been written for, and sung on the occasion of the removal of the ark by David to Jerusalem. It is moreover supposed, and very justly, that this Psalm had been employed when the ark was carried into the majestic temple which Solomon had erected. The Levites are regarded as approaching in solemn procession, bearing the sacred depository of sacramental treasures. As they approached the massive gates, they claimed admission for the King of Glory, who was perpetually to dwell between the cherubim that should overshadow the ark, in the words of the Psalmist, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in!” The keepers of the gates are supposed to have heard the summons, and they demanded from within, “Who is this King of Glory?” The answer was, “The Lord strong and mighty in battle;” and then we are to imagine the ponderous gates thrown open, and the gorgeous throng of priests and Levites pressing towards the recesses of the sanctuary. Such a glorious scene could not fail to make a lasting impression on the Israelite’s mind, and cause him to adopt the above passage alluded to as a motto for his God, of whom he had every reason to be proud. It is not at all unlikely that the aborigines Britons ultimately chose the same as their motto.
Now, if the aborigines Britons knew not the Jews, where could they have got hold of such whole Hebrew, purely Hebrew, sentences? I say, then, again, Is it not highly probable, if not demonstrated, that the Jews visited this island at a very early period, and tried to teach the natives the lessons which they have themselves learned?
They possessed already the simple but most sublime Mosaic records, written above 1000 years before the history of Herodotus; the Psalms and Proverbs written 1040 years before Horace; and probably Isaiah and Jeremiah, for they were written 700 years before Virgil. Many Jews were fathers in literature before any of the present nations, especially those of Europe, had their existence. Did time permit,[1] I would have called your attention to some of the proper names which have prevailed among the aborigines Britons, as Solomon, of which name, according to Lloyd’s Cambria, they anciently had three kings. We read of a Duke of Cornwall, Solomon by name, openly professing Christianity about the middle of the fourth century; Daniel, also Abraham, Asaph, and Adam, from which circumstance some antiquarians attempted to prove that the Welch are descendants of the children of Israel.[2] I think that I am very moderate in endeavouring only to establish a probability of the Jews mixing with the Britons earlier than it is generally supposed.
[1] – See [Appendix G].
[2] – See Jewish Expositor, 1828, pp. 125–130.
It may not be out of place here to state that “The isles afar off” (Jer. xxxi. 10) were supposed by the ancients to have been Britannia, Scotia, and Hibernia. The following statement was made by a celebrated and venerable divine of the Church of England, when pleading the cause of the “London Society for promoting Christianity amongst the Jews”—I mean the Rev. Dr. Marsh:—“The command is to declare the Lord’s purpose concerning Israel ‘in the isles afar off’ (the expression always used by the Hebrews for these islands—known to them through the reports of the merchants of Tyre—Britannia, Scotia, and Hibernia). The proclamation is to be made here.” This notion receives additional force from the command contained in the 7th verse of the same chapter. “For thus saith the Lord, sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O Lord, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.
“Hear the word of the Lord, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattereth Israel will gather him, and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock.”
The prophet seems to behold Britain in his vision. There can be no doubt that Britain is now the chief of the nations. Her monarch’s territory is one upon which the sun never sets. The expression “The end of the world,” mentioned in Isaiah lxii. 11, is also supposed to mean Britain, which was a common appellation for this island in remote ages. An expression which readily brings to our mind the phrase
“... ultimos
Orbis Britannos.”
I wish now to call your attention to another circumstance, which also gives colour to the idea, that the Jews visited this country earlier than is generally supposed.
There existed once a very amicable alliance between the Hebrews and the Romans. It is a well-known fact, that many Jews served as soldiers in the Roman army; they resided in great numbers at Rome and other western countries in the days of the Cæsars. Josephon ben Gorion informs us that when Julius became Cæsar, Hyrcanus sent messengers to Rome to renew the alliance, which had just then expired. Now (B.C. 55) Cæsar invaded Britain twice, and defeated its gallant natives in several battles, and compelled them to give hostages, and ultimately planted the Roman standard in this country. Why should it be a thing unlikely that the Jews went with him as warriors into Gaul, and aided in his conquests, and from thence accompanied him into Britain, and remained here under the protection of the Roman banner. For to assist each other in war was just in accordance with their original agreement, which is preserved in the 1st book of the Maccabees, viii. 22–29, and which is as follows:—“This is the copy of the epistle which the senate wrote back again, in tables of brass, and sent to Jerusalem, that there they might have by them a memorial of peace and confederacy:—
“Good success be to the Romans, and to the people of the Jews, by sea and by land for ever: the sword also and enemy be far from them. If there come first any war upon the Romans, or any of their confederates throughout all their dominion, the people of the Jews shall help them, as the time shall be appointed, with all their heart. Neither shall they give any thing unto them that make war upon them, or aid them with victuals, weapons, money, or ships, as it hath seemed good unto the Romans, but they shall keep their covenant without taking any thing therefore. In the same manner also, if war come first upon the nation of the Jews, the Romans shall help them with all their heart, according as the time shall be appointed them. Neither shall victuals be given to them that take part against them, or weapons, or money, or ships, as it hath seemed good to the Romans, but they shall keep their covenants, and that without deceit. According to these articles did the Romans make a covenant with the people of the Jews.”
A copy of a letter preserved in Josephon ben Gorion, which the Jews of Asia sent to Hyrcanus and to the nobles of Judah, contains the following passage:—
“Be it known to you that Augustus Cæsar sent, by the advice of his ally, Antoninus, throughout all the countries of his dominion, as far as beyond the Indian Sea, and as far as beyond the British territory, and commanded that in whatever place there be man or woman of the Jewish race, servant or handmaiden, to set them free without any redemption money. By the command of Cæsar Augustus and his ally, Antoninus.”[1]
[1] – See [Appendix H].
In the צמח דוד or “Branch of David,” a Jewish chronicle of some importance, written by Rabbi David Ganz, we have the following paragraph:—
“A.M. 4915.—Cæsar Augustus was a pious and God-fearing man, and did execute judgment and justice, and was a lover of Israel. And as to that which is recorded in the beginning of the book, ‘Sceptre of Judah,’ that Cæsar Augustus caused a great slaughter amongst the Jews, his informant deceived him, for I have not met even with a hint respecting it in all the chronicles I have ever seen. On the contrary, in all their [i.e. Gentile] annals, and also in the fifteenth chapter of Josephon, it is recorded that he was a faithful friend of Israel. He also records in the forty-seventh chapter, that this Cæsar sent an epistle of freedom to the Jews in all the countries of his dominion; to the east as far as beyond the Indian Sea, and to the west as far as beyond the British territory (which is the country Angleterre, and which is designated England in the lingua franca.”)[1]
[1] – See [Appendix I].
The Jews in this country chronicle the same event, annually, in their calendar; in the following words:—“Augustus’s edict in favour of the Jews in England, C. Æ. 15.”
An ingenious antiquary of the seventeenth century, Mr. Richard Waller by name, came to the same conclusion in consequence of a curious Roman brick which was found in his time in London, when digging up the foundation of a house in Mark-lane. The brick had on one side a bass-relief, representing Sampson driving the foxes into a field of corn. The whole circumstance is thus related in Leland’s Collections, in the preface to the first volume, pp. 70, 71:—
“And now I shall take notice of a very great curiosity found in the Mark-lane—more properly called Mart-lane, it being a place where the Romans, and not improbably the ancient Britains, used to barter their commodities, as tin, lead, &c. with other nations, it may be the Greeks, who often came into this island to purchase the like goods.... The curiosity I am speaking of is a brick, found about forty years since [i.e. about 1670], twenty-eight feet below the pavement, by Mr. Stockley, as he was digging the foundation of an house that he built for Mr. Wolley.... This brick is of a Roman make, and was a key-brick to the arch of a vault where a quantity of burnt corn was found. ’Tis made of curious red clay, and in bass-relief on the front hath the figure of Sampson putting fire to the foxes’ tayles, and driving them into a field of corn. This brick is deposited in the museum belonging to the Royal Society’s house, Fleet-street.” Dr. Leland then gives an extract from a letter of Mr. Richard Waller, which is the following: “How the story of Sampson should be known to the Romans, much less to the Britains, so early after the propagation of the Gospel, seems to be a great doubt, except, it should be said, that some Jews, after the final destruction of Jerusalem, should wander into Britain; and London being, even in Cæsar’s time, a port or trading city, they might settle here, and in the arch of their granary record the famous story of their delivery from their captivity under the Philistines.”
All these circumstantial evidences are sufficient, to my mind, to establish a probability, at least, that the Jews visited this country at a remote age.
Baronius may therefore be right after all, that St. Peter preached the Gospel in Britain, notwithstanding the learned Stillingfleet’s opposition. The principal argument which the Bishop of Worcester advances against St. Peter’s visiting this island for the purpose of preaching the Gospel, is, that St. Peter was emphatically called the “Apostle of the Circumcision;” but—argues the learned prelate—as there were no Jews in Britain at that time, consequently Baronius must be wrong. With all due deference to the most learned Stillingfleet, I venture to say, that his lordship took for granted what remains to be proved. Baronius himself must certainly have been convinced that there were Jews in this realm in the days of the Apostles, or else he must have contradicted himself. He states that, until the 65th year of our Lord, the Gospel was preached to none but to the Jews; but he also tells us, that A.D. 61, Peter came over to Britain in order to preach the Gospel. Of course, he must have meant, to the Jews of Britain.
Lippomanus declares, and Nicephorus makes use of his declaration, that St. [♦]Peter preached also to the Britons; “for he carried,” says the latter, “the same doctrine to the Western Ocean and to the British Isles.”
[♦] ‘Petre’ replaced with ‘Peter’
But methinks I hear one say, Suppose there were a few Jews in this island, would that circumstance afford St. Peter sufficient encouragement and invitation to visit it. I answer, yes—there was encouragement and invitation enough for an apostle to the Jews to travel such a great distance. The Jews, being thus far removed from Jerusalem, had no opportunity of hearing any thing of the awful scene that was exhibited on Calvary, they would, therefore, be free from all the prejudices which prevailed in the breasts of their brethren in Palestine. The apostle might, therefore, calculate on sure success, for he would come to them, and preach the things noted in their Scriptures of truth respecting their Messiah, who was then universally expected by them. St. Peter would unfold to them the ninth chapter of the Book of the Prophet Daniel, where the time of Messiah’s first advent was fixed, as also that He was to “be cut off, but not for himself;” all of which is, to unprejudiced and unbiassed minds, so self-evident, that the then British Jews could not but believe, especially when preached by a holy and pious countryman of their own. Dr. Wolff’s last journal of his travels to Bokhara convinces me, that where the Jews are ignorant of the controversy at issue between Jews and Christians, the Gospel meets with an easy and favourable reception by them, as you will perceive from the following extract:—
“Here I may as well notice the Jews of Yemen generally. While at Sanaa, Mose Joseph Alkaree, the chief rabbi of the Jews, called on me. He is an amiable and sensible man. The Jews of Yemen adhere uniquely to the ancient interpretation of Scripture in the passage (Isaiah, vii. 14), ‘A virgin shall conceive,’ and they give to the word עלמה the same interpretation, virgin, that the Christians do, without knowing the history of Jesus. Rabbi Alkaree asserted, that in Isaiah, liii. the suffering of the Messiah is described as anterior to his reign in glory. He informed me that the Jews of Yemen never returned to Jerusalem after the Babylonish captivity; and that when Ezra wrote a letter to the princes of the captivity at Tanaan—a day’s journey from Sanaa—inviting them to return, they replied, ‘Daniel predicts the murder of the Messiah, and another destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, and therefore we will not go up until He shall have scattered the power of the holy people, until the thousand two hundred and ninety days are over.’ I demanded, ‘Do you consider these days to be literal days?’ The Alkaree replied, ‘No; but we do expect the coming of the Messiah from the commotions now going on at Yemen. We think he begins to come from Teman, i.e., Yemen, for you see the tents of Cushan are now in affliction, and the curtains of Midian tremble. There is now war in the wilderness unprecedented in our memory. There are twelve gates at Sanaa. As soon as one of them—the Bab Alstraan, which is always kept closed—is opened, we expect Him. Rechab and Hamdan are before it.’ I then expounded Isaiah, liii., and read him the holy history of Jesus. He said, ‘Your exposition is in better agreement with the ancient interpretation; I approve it much more than that of our nation, which ascribes the passage to Josiah.’ This kind Jew assisted me in the distribution of Testaments among his people. Sanaa contains 15,000 Jews. In Yemen they amount to 20,000. I conceive the total population of the Jews throughout the world amounts to 10,000,000. I baptized here sixteen Jews, and left them all New Testaments.”[1]
[1] – Vol. i., p. 60.
The latest intelligence we received from Persia bears testimony to the same striking fact. The following is an extract from a letter of the Rev. H. A. Stern, dated Tehran, June 19, 1845:—
“May 16th, Kermanshah.—We were visited by Hassan Khan Kalentar: he was very polite, and offered us the use of his house, but we declined his offer, prefering to remain where we were. We went to the Jewish quarter, which is situated in the lowest part of the town, and inquired for the synagogue. A crowd of Jews quickly surrounded us, and conducted us to it. We had to wait several minutes while a messenger was despatched for the keys. On entering, we descended into an extremely poor place of worship, affording the strongest evidence of the poverty and oppression of the Jews here. They told us that they had repeatedly laid down expensive carpets, and ornamented the books of the law, but the soldiers had as often broken in at night, and stolen every article of value. We then called upon one of the mullahs or rabbies, and preached Jesus of Nazareth to him. He confessed he had never heard of the message of salvation, and was entirely ignorant of every thing respecting a Redeemer. He repeatedly said, ‘Did our forefathers so err?’ During our conversation the greater part of the Jewish population had crowded round the door, and the people were anxiously listening to what was said.
“May 17th.—We went again to the synagogue, and had scarcely entered before we were called up to the oratory. The mullah, with whom we had the conversation after our former visit, said he was very sorry that we did not come before the reading of the law, as he would have conferred the honour upon us. Some of the Jews gave us vases of roses which were standing near the reading-desk; and at the conclusion of the service, two of the mullahs and another influential Jew requested the congregation to remain quiet while we addressed them. We did so, for some time, on the first advent of the Messiah, his rejection by the Jewish nation, his sufferings and atonement, the reason of his coming in humility the first time, and of his future coming in glory. We entreated them to believe in Christ, and no longer to reject the proffered salvation.
“One of the Mullahs—‘We are in captivity, and groan under oppression. What can we do?’
“I—‘Believe in Jesus Christ, and he will redeem you. It grieves us much to see you scattered like sheep without a shepherd—instead of hearing the lovely songs of Zion, to hear the wailings of affliction. Shall the gold always remain dim, and the sword always reek with your blood? No: come to Jesus, hear the blessed Gospel, and you will then find peace here and life eternal hereafter.’ Upon which, the whole synagogue—men, women, and children—loudly answered, ‘Amen! speedily, speedily; and may the blessing of God rest upon your heads!’ We spoke Hebrew, and the mullahs interpreted all we said to the people. We gave each of the mullahs a New Testament, and presented a Bible to the synagogue. Thus were we enabled, by God’s grace, to preach Christ to no less than three hundred souls, and in a public synagogue.
“As we were on our way home, one of the mullahs sent a messenger to invite us to his house; but his wife being ill, and he poor, we did not accept the invitation.”[1]
[1] – See Jewish Intelligence, 1845, pp. 362, 363.
But Dr. Wolff’s late enterprise convinces us, likewise, that it is possible for a man who is inspired with benevolence and zeal, to travel 5,000 miles, in order to deliver two fellow-creatures only. Considering the superiority of the Apostle’s mission, there will be no reason to object to the probability of St. Peter’s visiting the Jews in this island, few as they may have been, in order to rescue them from that eternal death which ever dying never dies.
As to St. Paul’s being one of the first heralds of salvation in this island, there can scarcely be any doubt on the subject. Indeed, if we do not believe it we must make up our minds to reject all the hitherto authentic historians. By them we can prove to a demonstration, that St. Paul did preach the Gospel in Britain. However, as to prove this is not my object at present, I shall, therefore, only confine myself to a few writers on the subject.
Dr. Burgess, late Bishop of Sarum, one of the most learned and pious bishops of our Church, has shown most satisfactorily, in the tracts he published, that whilst to the Apostles generally—to St. Paul most particularly is Britain indebted for the foundation of her national Church. Clemens Romanus, who was an intimate friend and fellow-labourer of St. Paul, declares in his Epistle to the Corinthians, that “St. Paul having been a herald of the Gospel both in the east and in the west, he received the noble crown of faith, after teaching righteousness to the whole world, and gone even, ἐπὶ τὸ τέρμα τῆς δύσσεως, to the utmost bounds of the west:” an expression, well known to every scholar, that always designated, or at least included, the British Islands.
Theodoret, one of the most learned and sound Church historians of the fourth century, mentions Britain among the nations which had received the Gospel. He states in his observations on Psalm cxvi., that “Paul carried salvation to the islands which lie in the ocean.” Jerome shortly afterwards writes, when commenting on the fifth chapter of Amos, that “St. Paul’s diligence in preaching extended as far as the earth itself.” Again, after his [♦]imprisonment he preached the Gospel in the western parts” (De Script. Eccl.), in which (as is evident from a passage in his Epistle to Marcella) he included Britain. Venentius Fortunatus, Bishop of Poitiers, who lived in the fifth century, states that “Paul having crossed the ocean, landed and preached in the countries which the Britons inhabit.” I could multiply quotations on this subject almost without end; but they would be as tedious, as they are unnecessary. I may, however, observe, that some of the greatest men of this country, who spent a great part of their lives in such researches—viz. the most learned Ussher, Parker, Stillingfleet, Cave, Camden, Gibson, Godwin, Rapin, and a great many others—have clearly shown that St. Paul was the founder of the British Church. But Archbishop Ussher proves also, that St. Paul did not quit this island before he had appointed the first bishop or bishops, and the other ministers of the Church—that Aristobulus was the first bishop he had appointed. Some of the old Welch writers state, that Bran, son of Llyr Llediaeth (who had been a hostage for several years at Rome, for his son Caradoc or Caractacus), brought with him as preachers, on his return from Rome, one Aristobulus, an Italian, and two Israelites, named Ilid and Cynvan (Hughes’ Hora Britanica, vol. ii., p. 23), which must have taken place soon after St. Paul left Rome.
[♦] ‘imimprisonment’ replaced with ‘imprisonment’
As far as the investigation of my subject is concerned, all the above rays of historical light converge to one point, which is, that some Jews must have been in this country during the first century; yea, the government of the British Christian Church was established and set in proper scriptural order by Jews themselves, be they who they may—Peter, Paul, Simon Zealotes, Joseph of Arimathea. So that the British Church actually owes to the Jewish nation a great debt of gratitude, for her beautiful and scriptural order, and for all her godlike religion.
APPENDIX TO LECTURE I.
A.
The following is an extract from a letter I received from the governor of Dartmouth, A. H. Holdsworth, Esq., a man of great research and scientific attainments. I have every reason to believe that its perusal may prove interesting to some, as well as instructive to others; I offer no apology, therefore, for giving it so largely. The letter I allude to was dated “Brookhill, October 15th, [♦]1845:”—
[♦] ‘1485’ replaced with ‘1845’
My dear Sir—I believe that man, as he was created, had a mind in that state of perfection which we can best understand by the term ‘civilized’—that is, capable of discerning the means of gratifying every wish and providing for every want, whether bodily or intellectual, that circumstances brought upon him, until society became so corrupt that the Almighty found it necessary to destroy the whole human race, except Noah and his family, whom he preserved in the ark, and that through them the same civilized mind was transmitted to those that were born to them, and to those who descended from them; and that all the heathen nations (as they are now termed) have fallen off from that state in which their forefathers existed, and that as the local distance increased which divided their several families from the parent stock, so did their minds become more degraded and ignorant, until they arrived at the state in which they are now found, endued with sufficient intellect to enable them to avail themselves of the means which nature has placed around them to supply their bodily wants, but continuing from father to son in the same state of mental ignorance, and devoid of all improvement or intellectual enjoyment. I was first impressed with this view of the heathen nations from finding that the same canoes exist at this time, the same rafts or balzas are seen on the same coasts as were found there when those coasts or islands were first visited by our earliest navigators, although our own ships have been so much improved during the same space of time as to be most sensibly distinguishable.
“These facts induced me to ask myself this question. If we can trace the same unimproved canoes through such a series of years, how happened it that ships were ever built? How did those persons who first discovered the people possessing these canoes, get the ships which conveyed them to those distant regions? Or why should one set of men turn their canoes into ships (if our ships grew out of canoes), and other sets of men never make any improvement in theirs? Why have not the natives of the coasts of Africa turned their canoes into ships, as well as the natives of Britain? To solve these questions I had to trace back the history of shipping from century to century—rising and falling with the nations to which it belonged, varying in size and form as adopted by newly civilized countries, but maintaining the same principle of construction; and when I searched from nation to nation in the Mediterranean, and thence up the Nile to Thebes, I could not find any period of time in which it did not appear that ships have existed—that is, vessels composed of ribs and planks with beams and decks, as are seen at the present day. We may pass over the more recent time and go back 1000 years before the birth of Christ. We then find Solomon with a fleet of ships in the Red Sea, and we read in the 1st of Kings—‘And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.’ Hiram, therefore, had long possessed a fleet; and 450 years before Solomon’s time we find Balaam saying—‘And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim and shall afflict Asshur,’ from which it is clear that Balaam must have known that those whom he addressed understood what he meant by ships, or his prophecy would have been useless. But there is little doubt but that at that time there was a large fleet of ships in the Red Sea. Sesostris is said to have had about four hundred sail of war ships, with which he carried his army to the conquest of various countries down the coast, and which are represented on the walls of his palace at Thebes. The pictures on the walls of the tombs also afford much information on this subject, as well as some on the inside of mummy cases.
“The size of these vessels is to a certain extent ascertained by the number of men which are represented within them, but more accurately by the models of two vessels which were found in a tomb, and brought to England by Mr. Salt. These were bought for the British Museum at the sale of his Egyptian relics. I have measured them, and taking the figures on the deck as a scale, and calling them six feet, I make the vessel to be thirty feet long, six feet wide, and four feet deep; and when to the size is added the form, which is that of an irregular half-moon, it is clear that such vessels could not be made out of a single tree, but must have been regularly built with ribs, planks, and beams to support the deck. And as these were said to have been found in an early tomb, it is clear to my mind that the persons who built them must have been in a state of civilization, that they had a thorough knowledge of the art, and that it affords a proof that those persons who established themselves at Thebes at a very short space of time after the Mosaic flood, had no difficulty in constructing vessels, when such machines were found necessary to them. If the facts are, as I believe them to be—viz., that the canoes of the uncivilized nations or tribes are in the same state as when first seen by our earliest navigators, and if we cannot find any trace that canoes were used by the Thebans before they constructed vessels or ships, although we can find boats or smaller vessels of different sorts existing at the same time with such ships or vessels upon the waters of the Nile, have we not a right to believe that the ship is the work of a civilized mind, and that it has been constructed where it has been required by the civilized inhabitants of our globe from the earliest periods of its existence? Much might be added as to the state of shipping at the various periods of history, as nations rose into eminence and fell again into obscurity, and as nations became civilized and adopted the usages of those who had preceded them in civilization; but this is not necessary to the subject at present. There are a variety of other things which are to be found equally curious and worthy of notice, indirectly connected with this subject, but leading to very different considerations; I will not, therefore, touch upon them.”
B.
“His perlectis non puto quemquam esse qui non videat Tarsis, vel esse Hispaniam, vel Hispaniæ partem, quam Tyrii maxime frequentabant, Gades nimirum et Tartessum, in loco Ezechielis quo Tyrum ita compellat, cap. 27, v. 12. Tarsis negotiatrix tua præ copia omnium divitiarum: argento, ferro, stanno, et plumbo negotiati sunt in nundinis tuis; cum his ipsis metallis divitem fuisse Hispaniam, et hanc illecebram Tyrios eo terrarum pellexisse, jam abunde probaverimus. Tartessus aliis est Carteia civitas prope Calpe unde initium freti Herculei, aliis insula Gades in Oceano, aliis denique insula et urbs interamna inter duo Bætis ostia, qui et ipse Tartessus dicitur ab Aristotele, Strabone, Pausania et Avieno. Inde et Straboni Tartessis est regio circa Bætis ostia. Circa hæc loca videtur fuisse Tarsis.
“Quin et nomen Hebræum Tarsis potuit a Phœnicibus mutari in Tartessum, vel prima geminata per pleonasmum, vel in תרשיש Tarsis altero ש id ת mutato, ut cum אתור Aturia dicitur pro אשור Assyria, et בתנן Batanæa pro בשן Basan.”—Bochart, vol. i., p. 170.
C.
Villalpando and others have it thus:—
זהואכבר אדונירם עבד המלך השלמו
.שבא לגבת את חמס ונפטר יום . .
A slight acquaintance with the Hebrew language will show that the transcribers knew very little or nothing of that language, and it is therefore natural that they should make such mistakes.
D.
“Ex quibus omnibus aperte demonstrari potest Hebræos olim usque a Davidis, et Salmonis ætate totum pene terrarum orbem replenisse: eosdemque tributa, nec pauca, nec parvi precii quot annis manu supremi tributorum Principis misisse Hierosolymam.”—Villalpandus in Ezechielum, vol. ii., part ii., p. 544.
E.
Polybius, Ptolemy, Pliny, and Strabo have mentioned a people inhabiting Andalusia and the modern Algarve, differing from all their neighbours, speaking a peculiar language, using refined grammatical rules, and possessing inscribed monuments of antiquity, as also poems, and even laws in verse. Strabo mentions that they say “their laws are of 6,000 years.” Palmerius proposes to read “six thousand verses,” by [♦]introducing ἐπῶν instead of ἐτῶν. Men of great erudition and research maintained that that people was a Jewish population, descendants of the old colonists in the times of Solomon, Amaziah, and Nebuchadnezzar. They also maintained that the books of Genesis, Exodus, and Deuteronomy contained poems, to which may be added the Psalms and Proverbs. The above-mentioned district also included Tarshish; and many other arguments were advanced to prove that it was a Jewish colony. However, the theory is rejected by others, and I must say that I think on too slender grounds. It is argued that “these people are denominated Turdetani and Turduli, by authors whose information was extensive upon national peculiarities, and who were at least so well acquainted with the Jews as to have been able to pronounce at once, if warranted by facts, that these Andalusians were of that nation.” Now, it might as well be argued that the people whom Haman sought to destroy were no Jews, because he did not pronounce them so at once. He only “said unto King Ahasuerus, there is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people, neither keep they the king’s laws, therefore it is not for the king’s profit to suffer them.”—Esther iii. 8. The acquaintance of the heathen authors with the history of the Jews, is nothing more than an assumption. Trogus Pompeius, a writer in the time of Augustus, professes to have been best acquainted with the Jews, indeed, at that time he ought to have been so. He wrote the history of all nations in forty-five volumes, of which we have only an abridgment by Justin. Judge from the following chapter of the acquaintance which the heathen had with Jewish history:—
[♦] ‘iutroducing’ replaced with ‘introducing’
“Namque Judæis origo Damascena, Syriæ nobilissima civitas; unde et Assyriis regibus genus ex regina Semirami fuit. Nomen urbi a Damasco rege inditum; in cujus honorem Syrii sepulcrum Arathis uxoris ejus pro templo coluere, deamque exinde sanctissimæ religionis habent. Post Damascum Azelus, mox Adores et Abraham et Israhel reges fuere. Sed Israhelem felix decem filiorum proventus majoribus suis clariorem fecit. Itaque populum in decem regna divisum filiis tradidit, omnesque ex nomine Judæ, qui post divisionem decesserat, Judæos appellavit; colique ejus memoriam ab omnibus jussit, cujus portio omnibus accesserat. Minimus ætate inter fratres Joseph fuit; cujus excellens ingenium veriti fratres, clam inceptum peregrinis mercatoribus vendiderunt. A quibus deportatus in Ægyptum, cum magicas ibi artes solerti ingenio percepisset, brevi ipsi regi percarus fuit. Nam et prodigiorum sagacissimus erat, et somniorum primus intelligentiam condidit; nihilque divini juris humanique ei incognitum videbatur: adeo, ut etiam sterilitatem agrorum ante multos annos providerit; perissetque omnis Ægyptus fame, nisi monitu ejus rex edicto servari per multos annos fruges jussisset; tantaque experimenta ejus fuerunt, ut non ab homine, sed a Deo responsa dari viderentur. Filius ejus Moses fuit, quem præter paternæ scientiæ hereditatem, etiam formæ pulcritudo commendabat. Sed Ægypti, quum scabiem et vitiliginem paterentur, responso moniti, eum cum ægris, ne pestis ad plures serperet, terminis Ægypti pellunt. Dux igitur exsulum factus, sacra Ægyptiorum furto abstulit: quæ repetentes armis Ægyptii, domum redire tempestatibus compulsi sunt. Itaque Moses Damascena antiqua patria repetita montem Synæ occupat; quo septem dierum jejunio per deserta Arabiæ cum populo suo fatigatus, cum tandem venisset, septimum diem more gentis Sabbatum appellatum in omne ævum jejunio sacravit, quoniam illa dies famem illis erroremque finierat. Et quoniam metu contagionis pulsos se ab Ægypto meminerant, ne eadem causa invisi apud incolas forent, caverunt, ne cum peregrinis communicarent: quod ex causa factum paulatim in disciplinam religionemque convertit. Post Mosen etiam filius ejus Aruas, sacerdos sacris Ægyptiis, mox rex creatur; semperque exinde hic mos apud Judæos fuit, ut eosdem, reges et sacerdotes haberent; quorum justitia religione permixta, incredibile quantum coaluere.”—Justini, lib. xxxvi., cap. ii.
F.
“Et Britanniam Strabo passim appellat Βρεττανικην, et uno T Βρετανικην. Porro Bretanica mihi quidem nihil videtur esse aliud quam ברת־אנך Barat-anac, id est, ager, seu terra stanni et plumbi. ברא bara, et in regimine ברת barat Syris agrum esse sciunt omnes, et ex Daniele abunde notum.... Et אנך anac stannum aut plumbum Hebræi explicant in Amos 7, 7. Nempe utrumque significat.... Mihi docuisse sufficit ab horum metallorum fœcunditate has insulas, ut a Græcis Cassiteridas, ita a Phœnicibus dictas fuisse ברת־אנך barat anac agrum stanni et plumbi.”—Samuel Bochart, vol. i., col. 647–650.
G.
“I may instance Rice or Rees (written in Greek Ρησα—see Luke, iii. 27), Davis, Jones, Lewis, &c., which are names greatly abounding in Wales, and only later corruptions, as I apprehend, of Jewish patronymics. The final s is, I believe, admitted to be, in most proper names, not the sign of the plural number, but of the genitive case, and is one way of signifying the son of the person, and thus we have David’s-son, David’s, Davis;—Jonah’s-son, Jonah’s, Jones;—Levis’-son, Levis’, or Lewis.
“Levi, by the writers of the New Testament, is written Λευϊ, and also Λευις, which is the identical Levvis of the Welch, and possibly a corruption of the Greek genitive for the nominative, by a similar process with the above, and perhaps also Ιωνας. The other Welch form of denoting a man’s son—viz., by the word ap, as Davis-ap-Rees, or Rice, whence it slides into the word itself, and from ap-Rice becomes Price, is probably Hebrew also; since the sacred historian tells us that Ab-ner is son of Ner. Ab indeed signifies father rather than son, and it would appear, from many of their names, that they were in the habit of recognizing a man by the person whom he had for his father; but it comes practically to the same thing as if it literally meant son: for we can scarcely avoid saying of him of whom we would speak as having Ner for his father, he is Ner’s son.”—Abdiel in the Jewish Expositor, 1828, pp. 126, 127.
H.
ודעו כי שלח אגוסטוס קיסר בעצת אנטונינוס חברו בכל ארצות ממשלתו עד מעבר לים הודו ועד מעבר ארץ בריטאניאה והיא ארץ ים אוקיאנוס. ויצו את כל מקום אשר בו איש או אשה מזרע היהודים עבד או אמה לשלחם חפשים בלא פדיון במצות הקיסר אגוסטוס ואטונינוס חברו׃
I.
תשעה תו הקיסר אגושטי היה איש חסיד וירא אלהים והיה עושה משפט וצדקה ואוהב ישראל׃ ומה שכתוב בראש ספר שבט יהודה שקיסר אגושטי עשה הרג רב ביהודיס הלא המגיד כיחש לו כי לא מצאתי רמז מזה בכל הקרוניקים שראיתי מימי אדרכא בכל ספרי זכרינתיהם גם ביוסיפין פר טו כתב שהיה אוהב נאמן לישראל גם בפּרק מז כתב שהקיסר הזה שלח כתב לים הודו ולמערב עד מעבר ארץ בריטוניאה׃ (חיא מדינת אנגאלטירה הנקרא בלא ענגל לנד׳)׃
LECTURE II.
When I had the honour of addressing you from this platform on Tuesday evening last, I endeavoured to establish, by circumstantial evidence, the probability that the Jews visited this country at a very early period of their history. I flatter myself, however, that I have succeeded in demonstrating that some Jews were certainly in this island in the very first century of the Christian era. How few, or how many, is doubtful.
It is not too much, however, to expect that some of your minds, at least, have been exercised on this important inquiry since we last met together. It is not at all unlikely that some objections against my arguments suggested themselves to your minds—objections which may at first sight seem both plausible and natural. For instance, I know that a question suggests itself on taking my view of the early introduction of the Jews into this country—why did not Julius Cæsar make any mention of them in his history of Britain? I meet it by another question. Did Cæsar omit nothing else? Read his writings and compare them with the works of later historians, and then tell me whether his silence on the existence of the Jews in this country furnishes any argument against their having really been here. If indeed he omitted nothing else but the Jews, there would then be some force in the argument, but since we know that Cæsar’s history of Britain affords us but a bird’s-eye view of the state of the country in his time, what then is the value of such an argument? Again, supposing that Cæsar wrote a minute and detailed description of Britain, would there have been any necessity on his part to mention the existence of the Jews? Certainly not; he wrote for the benefit of his countrymen, to give them some information respecting the Britons. The Romans knew who the Jews were; it would have been a waste of time on Cæsar’s part to have given them information on a subject they were already acquainted with. He might as well have described the Roman army; especially since it is supposed that many Jews accompanied him as soldiers to Britain.
Another argument has been advanced against their establishment in this country at so early a period, which was—“It is not probable that a total silence respecting them would have prevailed among the British writers of those days, had any portion of them been then established in Britain.” I mention those objections because they are the strongest which have been produced, and you will find them in the eighth volume of the “English Archæologia,” page 390.
Now, I must meet this again by another question. To what early British historians does Mr. Caley refer?—for that is the name of the writer of the article on this subject in the “English Archæologia.”—England had no literature for a very long period. Gildas, commonly called the Wise, is the most ancient British historian now extant. Any one who has ever taken the trouble to read through his “De Calamitate, Excidio, et Conquestu Britanniæ” (this is the only work of his printed, and probably existing), will despair of finding in it any thing of importance. Next to him comes the venerable Bede, who was, indeed, the brightest ornament of the eighth century, but he confined himself to ecclesiastical history. Bede, however, does incidentally mention the Jews, as I shall presently show, which proves that they must have been here anterior to his time.
I wish, however, first to call your attention to a striking feature in the history of the Jews in this country. The Jews are never mentioned in the early history of England, except to record some flagrant persecution, or horrible massacre; to reckon up the amount of sums extorted from them by kings in distress, or to detail some story about the crucifixion of infants, got up by their enemies for the sake of making the objects of their injustice odious as well as unfortunate. And when these subjects did not occur to the monkish historians of the time—that is to say, when the Jews were unmolested, peaceably employing themselves in traffic, and gradually acquiring wealth which was not demanded from them too largely or too rudely, in return for their safety and opportunities of commerce—it would be conceived that they were unworthy of mention on any other account. Historians always find the most prosperous to be the most barren periods of history; as the richest and most fertile country affords but an uninteresting landscape to the poet or the artist, when compared with the wild rocks, rugged precipices, and unproductive solitudes of mountain scenery. So we may fairly conclude that, until the reign of Stephen, they were enjoying, without molestation, the benefits of their traffic, and increasing in riches and wealth, whilst the peace of their Gentile brethren was all that time rent asunder by different invasions and seditions.
The first mention I find of the Jews in English works, is that in Bede’s “Ecclesiastical History,” in connexion with the ridiculous and absurd controversies which prevailed between the Romish and British monks, viz., about the form of the tonsure and the keeping of Easter. The priests of all the then Christian churches were accustomed to shave part of their head; but the form given to this tonsure was different in the Britons from that used by the Roman monks, who came over to this country with Augustine. The latter made the tonsure on the crown of the head, and in a circular form, whilst the former shaved the forepart of their head from ear to ear. The Romish monks, in order to recommend their own form of tonsure, maintained that it imitated symbolically the crown of thorns worn by our Lord in his passion. But as to the Britons, their antagonists insisted that their form was invented by Simon Magus, without any regard to that representation. The Britons also celebrated Easter on the very day of the full moon in March, if that day fell on a Sunday, instead of waiting till the Sunday following. The Britons pleaded the antiquity of their usages; the Romans insisted on the universality of theirs. In order to render the former odious, the latter affirmed that their native priests once in seven years concurred with the Jews in the time of celebrating that festival.
This incidental circumstance proves that there must have been Jews here who had synagogues, and observed the feast of Passover. The Jews must also have had learned men amongst them to arrange their calendars: and such an arrangement requires a fair astronomical knowledge, or else the charge would have been totally unintelligible to the Saxons.
The above charge will account for the edict published soon after by Ecgbright, Archbishop of York, in the “Canonical Excerptiones,” A.D. 740, to the effect, that no Christian should be present at any of the Jewish feasts,[1] which establishes the fact that Jews must have resided in this country at the time of the Saxon heptarchy, in tolerable numbers, and celebrated their feasts according to their own law; and what is more, they desired to live peaceably with their Christian neighbours.
[1] – See [Appendix A].
It also appears from a charter granted by Whitglaff, King of the Mercians, to Croyland Abbey, ninety-three years after the above edict was issued, that there were Jews in this country at that period, and possessed landed property; and what is most remarkable, they endowed Christian places of worship.
Ingulphus, in his “History of Croyland Abbey,” relates that in the year 833, Whitglaff, King of the Mercians, having been defeated by Egbert, took refuge in that abbey, and in return for the protection and assistance rendered him by the abbot and monks on the occasion, granted a charter, confirming to them all lands, tenements, and possessions, and all other gifts which had at any time been bestowed upon them by his predecessors or their nobles, or by any other faithful Christians, or by Jews.[1]
[1] – See [Appendix B].
The Jews in this country chronicle now in their almanack the following:—“Canute banished the Jews from England,” A.D. 901.[1] Basnage also asserts that “they were banished from this country in the beginning of the eleventh century, and did not return till after the conquest.” I cannot find the authority upon which these two statements rest, and moreover it seems to me that some Jews were certainly resident in England towards the middle of the eleventh century, and prior to the Norman invasion. By the laws attributed to Edward the Confessor, it is declared that “the Jews, wheresoever they be, are under king’s guard and protection; neither can any one of them put himself under the protection of any rich man, without the king’s license, for the Jews and all they have belong to the king; and if any person shall detain them or their money, the king may claim them, if he please, as his own:”[2] another proof that the Jews were resident in this country prior to the invasion of William the Conqueror.
[1] – This is decidedly erroneous, for we know that Canute did not arrive in England before the beginning of the eleventh century.
[2] – See [Appendix C].
From the time of the Conquest, the information afforded by your historians respecting the Jews, becomes gradually more extensive. William the First, soon after he had obtained possession of the throne, invited the Jews to come over in large numbers from Rouen, and to settle in England; and he is reported to have appointed a particular place for their residence.
Of the name of this town we are not accurately informed. But Peck, in his annals, relates that many of the Jews who came over in this reign, took up their residence at Stamford. And Wood, in his “History of Oxford,” shows, upon the authority of some ancient deeds, that in the tenth year after the Conquest, the Jews resided already in great numbers in that university.
It appears that there were two distinct colonies of Jews—the one within the walls of the city of London, the other in the liberties of the Tower. I am inclined to adopt the idea that the Jews who came to this country under the encouragement of the Conqueror, settled within the jurisdiction of the constable of his Palatine Tower; and that the Jews who settled in England before the Conquest, and who, according to the laws published by Edward the Confessor, were declared to stand under the immediate authority and jurisdiction of the king, were found immediately adjoining that quarter of the city which appears to have been the court end under the Saxon monarchs. Mathew Paris, a monkish historian, asserts that St. Alban’s Church, which stands nearly in the middle of a line drawn from “the Jewerie” within the city, to the angle of the wall at Cripplegate, was the chapel of King Offa, and adjoining to his palace. Mund mentions in his edition of Stow, that the great square tower remaining at the north corner of Love-lane, in the year 1632, was believed to be part of King Athelstan’s palace. The name of Addle-street is derived by the same antiquarian from Adel or Ethel, the Saxon for noble. The original council chamber of the alderman is known to have stood somewhere in Aldermanbury, which had its name from it. Without a certain, a positive belief in any one of these statements, their coincidence seems to render it extremely probable that the royal residence was in that quarter, which may account for the king’s men—the Jews—taking up their residence near it.[1]
[1] – See Knight’s London.
William the Conqueror, as soon as he got the Jews into this country, adopted the policy of Edward the Confessor. The chronicler Hoveden states that in the fourth year of William the Conqueror’s reign, he held a council of his barons, in which, among other things, it was provided “that the Jews settled in this kingdom should be under the king’s protection; that they should not subject themselves to any other without his leave: it is declared that they and all theirs belong to the king; and if any should detain any of their goods, the king might challenge them as his own.”[1]
[1] – See [Appendix D].
The first regular account we meet respecting the Jews in England is during the reign of William Rufus, who, according to the unanimous testimony of historians, seemed to have a mind capable of rising above the superstition and ignorance of the age in which he lived, although not sufficiently enlightened to receive the glorious light of the Gospel; and owing to the distorted exhibition of Christianity by the teachers of the same, he almost fell into infidelity, and from the consistent conduct of the Jews, he was led to believe that Judaism was at least as good as Christianity. He went therefore so far as to summon a convocation at London of Christian bishops and Jewish rabbies, for the express purpose of discussing the evidences of their respective creeds; and the king swore by St. Luke’s face—a favourite oath of his majesty—that if the Jews got the better in the dispute, he would embrace Judaism himself. The Jewish disputants seemed to stand their ground with vigour, for the Christian champions appeared rather apprehensive of the result. At the conclusion, as it is generally the case in public controversy, both parties claimed the victory. The former added, however, publicly that they were overthrown more by fraud than by force of argument. The Christians claimed the victory in consequence of a tremendous thunder-storm and a violent earthquake. All this, however, produced but little effect on the king’s mind.
The conduct of Rufus towards the Church, and his frequent disagreement with the clergy, rendered him an object of dislike to the monkish writers, who were the principal historians of this period. The following is recorded of him by Hollingshed, and if true, his conduct was certainly chargeable with no small measure of guilt:—
“The king being at Rhoan on a time, there came to him divers Jews who inhabited that city, complaining that divers of that nation had renounced their Jewish religion, and were become Christians; wherefore they besought him that, for a certain sum of money which they offered to give, it might please him to constrain them to abjure Christianity, and to turn to the Jewish law again. He was content to satisfy their desires. And so, receiving their money, called them before him; and what with threats, and putting them otherwise in fear, he compelled divers of them to forsake Christ, and to turn to their old errors. Hereupon the father of one Stephen, a Jew converted to the Christian faith, being sore troubled for that his son was turned a Christian (and hearing what the king had done in like matters), presented unto him sixty marks of silver conditionally, that he should enforce his son to return to his Jewish religion; whereupon the young man was brought before the king, unto whom the king said—‘Sirrah, thy father here complaineth that without his license thou art become a Christian: if this be true, I command thee to return again to the religion of thy nation, without any more ado.’ To whom the young man answered—‘Your grace (as I guess) doth but jest.’ Wherewith the king being moved, said—‘What! thou dunghill knave, should I jest with thee? Get thee hence quickly, and fulfil my commandment, or by St. Luke’s face, I shall cause thine eyes to be plucked out of thine head.’ The young man, nothing abashed thereat, with a constant voice answered—‘Truly I will not do it; but know for certain that if you were a good Christian, you would never have uttered any such words; for it is the part of a Christian to reduce them again to Christ which are departed from him, and not to separate them from Him which are joined to him by faith.’ The king, herewith confounded, commanded the Jew to get him out of his sight. But the father perceiving that the king could not persuade his son to forsake the Christian faith, required to have his money again. To whom the king said, he had done so much as he promised to do; that was, to persuade him so far as he might. At length when he would have had the king dealt further in the matter, the king, to stop his mouth, tendered back to him the half of his money, and kept the other himself. All which increased the suspicion men had of his infidelity.”
The state of the Jews in Oxford at that time became very interesting; they were so exceedingly numerous and wealthy in that place, as to become the proprietors of the principal houses, which they let to the students. Their schools were at this time called, from their Jewish proprietors, Lombard Hall, Moses Hall, and Jacob Hall; and the parishes of St. Martin, St. Edward, and St. Aldgate, were designated the Old and New Jewry, because of the great number of Jewish residents there. In one of these parishes they had a synagogue wherein their rabbies instructed not only their own people, but several Christian students of the university.
When a see or living in the gift of this wary king fell vacant, he was in the habit of retaining it in his own hands until he became pretty well acquainted with its revenues, when he sold it to the best bidder.[1] The royal simonist was in the habit of appointing Jews to take care of the vacant benefices, to farm them, and to manage these negociations for his benefit; from this mark of confidence, and from the increasing wealth of the Jews, we may conclude that the reign of Rufus was very advantageous to the interests of his Jewish subjects. This king, however, did not enjoy his kingdom for any long duration. His tragical end is well known.
[1] – When Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, died, William Rufus appointed no successor for five years after, but kept the possession of the archbishopric in his own hands.
In the long reign of Henry the First, we hear almost nothing of the Jews, which I look upon as evidence that they went on prosperously, and perhaps began to make some progress amongst their Christian brethren. Prynne, a Puritan writer, and the most virulent enemy of the Jews from among Protestants, informs us that the Jews were then beginning to proselytize and even to bribe some Christians with money, in order to induce them to embrace Judaism, which may account for the incident mentioned in this reign, that monks were sent to several towns in which the Jews were established, for the express purpose of preaching down Judaism.
We read in Peck’s “Annals of Stamford,” that “Joffred, abbot of Croyland, in the tenth year of Henry the First, sent some monks from his abbey to Cottenham and Cambridge, to preach against the Jews; and about the same time some ecclesiastics were sent from other parts to Stamford, to oppose the progress of the Jews in that place;” where, as we are told by Peter of Blessens, that “they preaching to Stamfordians, exceedingly prospered in their ministry, and strengthened the Christian faith against Jewish depravity.”
It appears from the history of Philip, prior of St. Frideswide, of Oxford, that the Jews used then to mock publicly the lying fables of the priests.
The prior, when writing of the miracles performed by the body of that famous saint (which was preserved in his monastery), tells us that “whereas people flocked from all parts of the kingdom to worship St. Frideswide, and were cured by her of all manner of distempers; a certain Jew of Oxford called Eum Crescat, the son of Mossey, the Jew, of Wallingford, was so impudent as to laugh at her votaries, and tell them that he could cure their infirmities as well as the saint herself, and therefore hoped they would make him the same offerings. To prove which he would sometimes crook his fingers, and then pretend he had miraculously made them straight again; at other times he would halt like a cripple, and then in a few minutes skip and dance about, bidding the crowd observe how suddenly he had cured himself. Wherefore (the most devout amongst them wishing some exemplary judgment might befall him) St. Frideswide, no longer able to suffer his insolence, caused him suddenly to run mad and hang himself; which he did with his own girdle, in his father’s kitchen.” Upon which, says the historian, “he was, according to custom, conveyed in a cart to London, all the dogs of the city following his detestable corpse, and yelping in a most frightful manner.”
The Jews having experienced so much favour and protection from the first three Norman monarchs, were naturally led to hope that they had found in this country a permanent asylum from their persecutions. Under this impression, they had employed the season of their tranquillity in the acquirement of property. They were, however, soon made to experience the fallacy of their expectations; for with the accumulation of wealth their security vanished, and as their riches increased, so, in proportion, did their oppressions. From the period of this monarch’s death to the time of their expulsion, your histories abound with details of their hardships. A melancholy monotony pervades the history of those two hundred years. Indeed, the treatment which they received in this country, during that period, was of a nature more disgraceful than that they received in other parts of Europe; for while elsewhere, as in Spain and Germany, the monarchs generally exerted themselves to repress the hostility of the clergy and people, the English kings, scarcely one excepted, manifested as persecuting a spirit as any of their subjects. It would be as useless as it would be tedious, to notice each particular instance of cruelty and tyranny which is mentioned to have been exercised towards them, for there is scarcely a year without some records concerning them, and hardly a record which relates to them but furnishes some evidence of their sufferings. Taxes and contributions to an exorbitant amount, were continually imposed upon them at the mere will of the crown, and payment enforced by seizure of their properties, by imprisonment, and frequently by the infliction of the most cruel and wanton bodily torture. Crimes of every description—many of a nature the most absurd and groundless—were laid to their charge, and the severest penalties inflicted for them. Tumults were, on the most frivolous pretences, excited against them; their houses pillaged and burned, and hundreds of them massacred by the populace, without regard to either age or sex. That, under such an accumulation of misfortunes, the Jews should not only have continued to reside in England, but greatly to increase in numbers, cannot fail to excite wonder and surprise.
If Jews were the historians who handed down to us the accounts of their sufferings, we might doubt the veracity of their statements, or believe them greatly exaggerated. It is not, however, from themselves that much of my information is derived, for, as I have already stated in my last lecture, they did not bequeath us any annals of their own in this country; my information is derived principally from the testimony of Christian writers—from authorities which admit of no dispute.
With the reign of the usurper Stephen, the Jewish troubles commenced. He being solicitous to obtain the good-will of the clergy, the best means to compass such an end in those days was to inflict cruel injuries on the poor Jews; and as he gave up the sources of income which his predecessors had enjoyed—viz., the appropriation of the revenues of the vacant sees and benefices, he therefore fixed his avaricious eye upon the wealth of the Jews: and in the fifth year of his reign exacted a heavy fine, amounting to £2000, from the Jews residing in London, under pretence that some one of their body had been guilty of manslaughter.
The Empress Maud, to whom, as it was well said, “moderation in prosperity was a virtue unknown,”[1] during the eight months of her authority in England, compelled the Jews settled at Oxford to pay her an exchange of money. Stephen, upon coming again to the possession of power, followed the example of the empress, and required the Jews at the same place to give him three and a-half exchanges; threatening on default of immediate compliance to set fire to their houses. The Jews first attempted to evade the payment; the king, to show that he was in earnest, ordered the house of one of the richest of their body to be burned, and this command having been put into execution, the whole sum was forthwith produced.
[1] – Henry’s Britain, vol. v., p. 104.
In the ninth year of this reign, the Jews were for the first time accused of the crime of crucifying an infant—William by name. The circumstance in this instance is only shortly noticed by historians, and is stated to have taken place at Norwich; so that to the England of the middle ages are the Jews indebted for the many persecutions which they had to undergo in consequence of that foul calumny in different parts of the world. Various are the absurd reasons which were advanced to account for that base and false calumny which was subsequently brought against the unfortunate Jews, in various countries of their captivity.
Some asserted that the Jews required Christian blood for the celebration of the Passover. Another set of ignorant fanatics affirmed that they wanted it to put into their unleavened cakes at Easter. It was also gravely stated that the Jews used Christian blood to free them from an ill odour which it was supposed was common to them; others said that of Christian blood they made love potions; others that with it they stopped the blood at the circumcision of their children; others that it served as a remedy for the cure of secret diseases; others that it was required for the Jewish bride and bridegroom during the marriage ceremony; others that the Jewish priests were obliged to have their hands tinged with it when they pronounced the blessing in the synagogues; others that it helped Jewish women in childbirth, and promoted their recovery; others that the Jews used blood to make their sacrifices acceptable. But the most common story was, that the blood was used to anoint dying Jews; that at the point of death the rabbi anointed his departing brother, and secretly whispered into his ear these words—“If the Messiah on whom the Christians believe, be the promised, true Messiah, may the blood of this innocent murdered Christian help thee to eternal life!” “Pierius Valerianus assures us that the Jews purchase at a dear rate the blood of Christians, in order to raise up devils, and that by making it boil, they obtain answers to all their questions.”[1]
[1] – See Dr. M‘Caul’s excellent pamphlet, entitled “Reasons for believing that the Charge lately revived against the Jewish People is a baseless Falsehood,” p. 23; [Appendix E].