The whole of western Europe was now closed to the Jews, ex cept parts of northern Italy and a few regions of Germany, together with the exiguous papal possessions in France. The Marranos, indeed, continued a surreptitious existence in the Pen insula, handing on their traditions in secret from generation to generation at the risk of their lives. It was their descendants, fleeing from the fires of the Inquisition, who founded the mod ern communities in France, Holland, England, and even America. Of the earlier refugees the vast majority made their way, with indescribable difficulty, to the Muslim countries of the Mediter ranean littoral. With them they brought their native Spanish tongue, which is spoken by their descendants to the present day. The greatest haven of refuge was Turkey, where the newcomers were sedulously encouraged by the Sultans and treated with a favour which reached its climax in the meteoric career of Joseph Nasi, duke of Naxos (d. 1579) (q.v.). The greatest masses of the Jewish people were thus to be found once more in the East, in the Polish and Turkish empires. The second westerly move ment, which has continued to our own days, may be said to begin 'For the importance of the Portuguese Jews see PORTUGAL: History.
with the deadly Chmielnicki massacres of 1648-49 in the former country. The few communities suffered to remain in western Europe were meanwhile subjected at last to all the restrictions which earlier ages had usually allowed to remain an ideal; so that, in a sense, the Jewish dark ages may be said to begin with the Renaissance. (C. R.) The ghetto, which had prevailed more or less rigorously for a long period, was not formally prescribed by the papacy until the beginning of the i6th century. The same century was not ended before the prospect of liberty dawned on the Jews. Holland from the moment that it joined the union of Utrecht (1579) deliberately set its face against religious persecution (Jewish Encyclopedia, i. 537). Maranos, fleeing to the Netherlands, were welcomed; the immigrants were wealthy, enterprising and cul tured. Many Jews, who had been compelled to conceal their faith, now came into the open. By the middle of the 17th century the Jews of Holland had become of such importance that Charles II. of England (then in exile) entered into negotiations with the Amsterdam Jews (1656) In that same year the Amsterdam community was faced by a serious problem in connection with Spinoza. They brought themselves into notoriety by excommuni cating the philosopher—an act of weak self-defence on the part of men who had themselves but recently been admitted to the country, and were timorous of the suspicion that they shared Spinoza's then execrated views. It is more than a mere coinci dence that this step was taken during the absence in England of one of the ablest and most notable of the Amsterdam rabbis. At the time, Menasseh ben Israel (q.v.) was in London, on a
mission to Cromwell. The Jews had been expelled from Eng land by Edward I. in 1290; Cromwell in 1655, tacitly assented to their return and at the restoration his action was confirmed.
The English Jews "gradually substituted for the personal pro tection of the crown, the sympathy and confidence of the nation" (L. Wolf, Menasseh ben Israel's Mission to Cromwell, p. lxxv.). The City of London was the first to be converted to the new atti tude. "The wealth they brought into the country, and their fruit ful commercial activity, especially in the colonial trade, soon re vealed them as an indispensable element of the prosperity of the city. As early as 1668, Sir Josiah Child, the millionaire gover nor of the East India company, pleaded for their naturalization on the score of their commercial utility. For the same reason the city found itself compelled at first to connive at their illegal representation on 'Change, and then to violate its own rules by permitting them to act as brokers without previously taking up the freedom. At this period they controlled more of the foreign and colonial trade than all the other alien merchants in London put together. The momentum of their commercial enter prise and stalwart patriotism proved irresistible. From the ex change to the city council chamber, thence to the aldermanic court, and eventually to the mayoralty itself, were inevitable stages of an emancipation to which ,their large interests in the city and their high character entitled them. Finally the city of London—not only as the converted champion of religious liberty but as the convinced apologist of the Jews—sent Baron Lionel de Rothschild to knock at the door of the unconverted House of Commons as parliamentary representative of the first city in the world" (Wolf, loc. cit.).
The pioneers of this emancipation in Holland and England were Sephardic (or Spanish) Jews—descendants of the Spanish exiles. In the meantime the Ashkenazic (or German) Jews had been working out their own salvation. The chief effects of the change were not felt till the 18th century. In England emanci pation was of democratic origin and concerned itself with prac tical questions. On the Continent, the movement was more aristocratic and theoretical ; it was part of the intellectual renaissance which found its most striking expression in the principles of the French Revolution. Throughout Europe the i8th century was less an era of stagnation than of transition. The condition of the European Jews seems, on a superficial examination, abject enough. But, excluded though they were from most trades and occupations, confined to special quarters of the city, disabled from sharing most of the amenities of life, the Jews nevertheless were gradually making their escape from the ghetto and from the moral degeneration which it had caused.