Jews

Jews (corrupted from Yehudim), the name given, since the Babylonian captivity, to the descendants of the patriarch Abraham, who, about the year 2000 B.C., emigrated from Mesopotamia, on the east side of the Euphrates, to Canaan or Palestine. They were originally called Hebrews (see HEBREW LANGUAGE). In consequence of a famine in Canaan, Jacob, on the invitation of his son Joseph, who had become chief minister of the king of Egypt, went down thither with all his family, which numbered seventy 'souls,' and obtained from Pharaoh permission to settle in the land of Goshen. Here the Hebrews resided, according to Exod. xii. 40, 430 years. According to the genealogical table of the Levites, in Exod. vi. 16-25, however, their sojourn would not have lasted longer than 210 or 215 years; most of the commentators, therefore, take, with Josephus, the 430 years to indicate the period from Abraham to the Exodus (cf. Galat. iii. 17). During the lifetime of Joseph, and probably for some generations afterwards, the Hebrews were well treated, and prospered; but a new dynasty—probably the 19th—arose, and they were reduced to relentless slavery. A deliverer at length appeared in the person of Moses (q.v.). The circumstances of the exodus (about 1320 B.C.)—such as the ten plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea—are a source of continual controversy between the Rationalistic and the Supra-naturalistic schools of biblical criticism; but the fact of an exodus would be disputed only by the wildest scepticism.

The wandering in the wilderness of the Sinaitic peninsula is said to have lasted forty years, though a record of the events of two years only has been preserved. These, however, are obviously the most important, as they contain an elaborate account of the giving of the law (Exod. xix. et seq.), which is represented as a direct revelation made to Moses by Jehovah Himself, who descended upon Mount Sinai in fire, amid the roar of thunders and the quaking of hills. The antiquity, however, of the priestly or ecclesiastical portions of the Pentateuch is keenly disputed by a rapidly-growing majority of modern scholars, even so orthodox an authority as Fr. Delitzsch having become a convert to their views shortly before his death. The modern school seek to show the probability of such passages having been composed and inserted subsequent to the great organisation of the priesthood by David; and in proof of this point, among other evidences, to the Book of Judges (q.v.), which narrates the history of the Hebrews some 200 years after the conquest of Canaan, and which yet contains scarcely a single trace of the existence of Mosaic institutions among them. For the origin of the law as we now have it, the development of the national consciousness, and the growth of the Old Testament literature, see BIBLE. There is a growing tendency among critics to localise the giving of the law and the various events connected with revelation at Kadesh rather than in the so-called Sinaitic peninsula.

The 'land of promise' became theirs at last (about 1274 B.C.), under Joshua (q.v.), the successor of Moses. Tribe after tribe was swept from its ancient territory, and for the most part either annihilated or forced to flee. Yet the whole bulk of the native inhabitants was not extirpated or expelled, nor even subdued till a much later period. The country was now divided among the Hebrew tribes. The magnificent pastoral region to the east of the Jordan was now occupied by the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh; while the land west of the Jordan was parcelled out to the remaining—Judah, Simeon, Dan, Benjamin, Ephraim, the second half-tribe of Manasseh, Issachar, Zebulon, Naphtali, and Asher. The tribe of Levi received, instead of a province, forty-eight cities scattered throughout Canaan and the tenth part of the fruits of the field, and were allowed generally to settle individually throughout the land where they chose.

After the death of Joshua (about 1254 B.C.) the want of a chief to the young state became sadly palpable. Little regard was paid to the Mosaic institutions; the single tribes pursued their own individual interests; intermarriages with the idolatrous natives weakened the bond of union still further; and the next consequence was that the tribes were singly subdued by the surrounding nations. At this juncture there arose at intervals valiant men and women, Judges (Shofetim), who liberated the people from their oppressors, the Moabites, Philistines, Ammonites, Amalekites, &c. Fifteen of these are named, some of whom appear to have been contemporary with each other, and to have exercised authority in different parts of the country. This period constitutes the 'heroic' age of Hebrew history. Among these Judges the prophetess Deborah, Gideon, Jephthah, the herculean Samson, and the prophet Samuel are especially notable; the last mentioned was, in every sense of the word, the greatest Hebrew that had as yet appeared since the days of Moses. The first of the prophets, he was also the last of the republican chiefs of the confederate tribes. Weared of their intestine feuds, harassed by the incursions of their predatory neighbours, chiefly, however, goaded by the characteristic desire 'to be like all the other nations' (1 Sam. viii. 5), the people compelled him, in his old age, to choose for them a king (1067 B.C.).

The first who exercised regal authority was Saul, the Benjamite (1067–1055 B.C.). But, though a distinguished warrior, and a man of royal presence, he appears not to have possessed the mind of a statesman; and his wilfulness and paroxysms of insanity finally alienated from him many of the bravest and best of his subjects. After his death on Mount Gilboa, David (q.v.), his son-in-law, was proclaimed king (1055–1015 B.C.). This monarch was by far the greatest that ever sat on the throne of Israel. His reign, and that of his equally famous son, Solomon, are regarded as the golden time of Hebrew history. The remaining aborigines of Canaan and its borders—viz. the Philistines, Edomites, Amalekites, Moabites, &c.—were thoroughly subdued; the boundaries of the Hebrew kingdom were extended as far as the Euphrates and the Red Sea; Jerusalem was captured, and made the capital of the conqueror; the priesthood was reorganised on a splendid scale; the arts of poetry, music, and architecture were cultivated; schools of prophecy (first established, probably, by Samuel) began to flourish; a magnificent temple for the worship of Jehovah was built in the capital; and commercial intercourse was carried on with Phoenicia, Arabia, Egypt, with India and Ceylon, and perhaps with even Sumatra, Java, and the Spice Islands. But there was a canker at the root of all this prosperity. The enormous and wasteful expenditure of Solomon forced him to lay heavy taxes on the people. His wealth did not enrich them; it rather made them poorer; and although gifted with transcendent wisdom and the most brilliant mental powers, towards the end of his life he presents the sad spectacle of a common eastern despot, voluptuous, idolatrous, occasionally even cruel, and his reign (1015–977 B.C.) cannot but be regarded, both politically and financially, as a splendid failure. After his death the Hebrew monarchy, in which the germs of dissension—chiefly jealousy against the influence of Judah—had been silently growing up for many a year, split under Rehoboam into two sections (975 B.C.)—the kingdom of Judah, under Rehoboam, son of Solomon, and the kingdom of Israel, under Jeroboam, the Ephraimite. The former of these countries comprised the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, together, probably, with some Danite and Simeonite cities; the latter, the remaining ten. After nineteen kings of different dynasties, among whom Jeroboam, Ahab, Joram, Jeroboam II., Pekah may be mentioned, had reigned in Israel, few of whom succeeded to the throne otherwise than by the murder of their predecessors, the country was finally conquered by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, its sovereign, Hoshea, thrown into prison, the mass of the people carried away captive (720 B.C.) into the far east, the mountainous regions of Media, and their place supplied by Assyrian colonists. These, mingling and intermarrying with the remnant of the Israelites, formed the mixed people called Samaritans (q.v.). Among the twenty kings of the House of David who ruled over Judah, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Hezekiah, and Josiah distinguished themselves both by their abilities as rulers and by their zeal for the worship of Jehovah. Yet even they were, for the most part, unable to stay the idolatrous practices of the people, against which the prophets' voices even could not prevail. Other kings were, for the most part, more or less unfaithful themselves to the religion of their fathers, and unable to withstand the power of the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians, to each of whom they in turn became tributary, until at last Nebuchadnezzar stormed Jerusalem (588 B.C.), plundered and burned the temple, put out the eyes of King Zedekiah, and carried off the most illustrious and wealthy of the inhabitants prisoners to Babylon. The Israelites, who had been exiled 134 years before the inhabitants of Judah, never returned. What became of them has always been matter of vague speculation (see BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY, ANGLO-ISRAELITE THEORY, BENI-ISRAEL).

All that we know of the condition of the Hebrews during the captivity relates exclusively to the inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah. And so mild, especially during the later years, was the treatment which they received in the Babylonian empire that, when liberty was announced to the whole body of the captives, only the lowest of the low returned, together with the Levites and Priests. The Book of Esther likewise bears testimony to the numbers that had remained scattered over the vast empire.

The influence of this exile, however, was of a most striking and lasting nature. Babylon henceforth became, and remained up to about 1000 A.D., the 'second land of Israel'—in many respects even more highly prized than Palestine. To this brief period of the captivity must be traced many of the most important institutions of the synagogue in its wider sense. Common religious meetings, with prayer, were established; many of the Mosaic laws were re-enforced in their primitive rigour; and the body of the 'oral law' began to shape itself, however rudely, then and there. Besides, there began to grow up and unfold itself the belief in a Messiah, a Deliverer, one who should redeem the people from their bondage. The writer of the last twenty-seven chapters of Isaiah, who is usually called by modern scholars the 'Younger Isaiah,' is held to belong to this period, and expresses in glowing language the hopes of the exiles; no less do many of the Psalms belong to this time. From this period, likewise, the belief in the resurrection of the body and the immortality of the soul, as well as the notion of angels and demons, begins to enter more distinctly into the general creed.

The exile is generally computed to have lasted seventy years. This is not strictly correct; it lasted seventy years if reckoned from the capture of Jerusalem in the reign of Jehoiakim (606), but only fifty counting from the destruction of Jerusalem. When Cyrus, the Persian king, had overthrown the Babylonian kingdom (538 B.C.) he issued an edict permitting the exiles to return home; and a minute account of the circumstances attending this joyous event is given in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

The foundations of the Second Temple were laid in the second year of the return, but in consequence of the interference of the Samaritans the work had to be laid aside. It was not resumed till the second year of Darius Hystaspes (520 B.C.), and was finally completed in the sixth year (516 B.C.). The waste cities were likewise rebuilt and repopulated. During the long reign of Darius the Jews were blessed with a high degree of material prosperity. Under his successor, Xerxes, probably occurred the incidents recorded in the Book of Esther. In the seventh year of Artaxerxes, the successor of Xerxes, Ezra the priest, invested with high powers, headed a second migration. Thirteen years later Nehemiah, Artaxerxes' cup-bearer, but a man of Jewish family, was ordered to proceed to Jerusalem, and, aided by Ezra and others, succeeded in secretly fortifying the city, notwithstanding the continuous opposition from Samaritans, Ammonites, and Arabians. The strictest observance of the 'written law,' even of those of its parts which had been for some reason or other disregarded, was now rigorously enforced, and many 'oral ordinances' were put into practice which do not seem to have been much heard of previously. The supreme spiritual authority was vested in a society of pious and pre-eminently learned men, founded by Ezra, out of which grew the 'Great Synagogue.' The compilation and transcription of the sacred records began, periodical public readings and expoundings of the law were instituted, and the vast Targumic, as well as the so-called rabbinical literature, generally dates—in its earliest beginnings—from this point. During the life of Nehemiah the breach between the Jews and Samaritans became final, by the erection on Mount Gerizim (q.v.) of a rival temple to that at Jerusalem, and the creation of a rival priesthood.

Alexander the Great, on his way to conquer the whole East, did not deem it necessary to storm Jerusalem. The inhabitants submitted (332 B.C.), and he even deigned to have sacrifices offered on his behalf to the national god of his new subjects, a great number of whom, and of Samaritans, he carried away to Egypt, and with these Jewish captives peopled a third of his newly-founded city Alexandria. After him Ptolemy Soter, one of his generals, who had become king of Egypt, invaded Syria, took Jerusalem (301 B.C.), and carried off 100,000 of the inhabitants, whom he forced to settle chiefly in Alexandria and Cyrene.

The Egyptian or Alexandrian 'Dispersion' (Golah)—destined to be of vast importance in the development of Judaism and Christianity—gradually spread over the whole country, from Libya to Ethiopia. They enjoyed equal rights with their fellow-subjects, both Egyptian and Greek, and were admitted to the highest dignities and offices, so that many further immigrants followed of their own free-will. The freedom they enjoyed enabled them to reach, under Greek auspices, the highest eminence in science and art. To this period belongs the Greek translation of the Bible, the Septuagint (q.v.), which, in its turn, while it estranged the people more and more from the language of their fathers, gave rise to a vast pseudo-epigraphical and apocryphal literature—not to mention the peculiar Græco-Jewish philosophy, which sprang from a mixture of Hellenism and Orientalism.

For a hundred years Judæa herself remained under Egyptian rule. During the reigns of the first three Ptolemies it prospered; but after the accession of Ptolemy Philopator a change for the worse came over the fortunes of the Jews. After his death Antiochus III. (q.v.) of Syria incorporated Palestine with the dominions of the Seleucidae, and treated the Jews less favourably than their Egyptian masters had done. Their fate became harder still under his son, Antiochus Epiphanes, or Epimanes ('the Madman'), who, by every means a cruel and foolhardy policy could devise, outraged the religious feelings of the nation. To force the Jews into the Greek religion, the temple at Jerusalem was dedicated to Jupiter Olympius; idol altars were built in every village, and the people constrained to offer swine daily. Some yielded, many fled, the greater part preferred martyrdom in some shape or other.

At this juncture the heroic family of Mattathias, a priest of the house of the Hasmoneans, rose, together with a few patriots, against the immense power of the Syrians. The national cause quickly gathered strength, and after the death of Mattathias (166 B.C.), Judas Maccabæus (q.v.) led the national hosts to victory against the Syrians. After his death (161) his brothers Jonathan and Simon completed the work of deliverance, and instituted the Sanhedrin (145). During their rule alliances were twice formed with the Romans, and the country once more began to prosper. Under Simon more especially, Syrian rule became a mere shadow: his was an almost absolute power, so much so that in the year 170 of the Seleucidian era (142 B.C.) a new Jewish era was commenced, and public documents bore date, 'In the first year of Simon, high-priest and chief of the Jews.' Simon's son, John Hyrcanus (q.v.), after a brief period of vassalage to the Syrians, extended his authority over Samaria, Galilee, and Idumea—the Idumeans being converted to the Jewish religion. His son, Aristobolus, added Iturea to his dominions; Alexander Jannæus, succeeding his brother, further contrived to enlarge his territories. He was disliked by the mass of his countrymen, and a civil war of six years' duration ensued. His wife, Alexandra, securing the support of the Pharisees (q.v.), governed, on the whole, prudently for nine years. The Pharisaic party, however, abused the power which fell into their hands, and a reaction took place. Aristobolus, youngest son of the queen, marched to Jerusalem, and ejected his elder brother, Hyrcanus II., from the sovereignty. This led to the interference of the Romans, who were then fighting both in Syria and Armenia. Jerusalem was captured (63 B.C.) by Pompey, Judæa made dependent on the Roman province of Syria, and Hyrcanus appointed ethnarch and high-priest.

In 54 B.C. Licinius Crassus plundered the temple, which Pompey had spared. When the war between Cæsar and Pompey broke out, the partisans of Pompey were numerous in Syria, and contrived to poison Aristobulus and execute his son Alexander, who were Cæsareans (49 B.C.). After the death of Pompey, however, things changed; and Hyrcanus, or rather Antipater the Idumean (who was both his minister and master), saw the necessity of securing the favour of Cæsar. With Hyrcanus II. ended the line of the Hasmonean princes. They were nominally both sovereigns and high-priests; but the real religious authority had passed into the hands of the priesthood, and especially of the Sanhedrin (q.v.). The Idumean dynasty virtually commenced with Antipater, who prevailed on Cæsar to restrict Hyrcanus to the high-priesthood, and obtained for himself the office of procurator of Judæa, while his eldest son Phazael was appointed governor of Jerusalem, and his younger son Herod governor of Galilee. The Jewish or national party took alarm at this sudden increase of Idumean power; strife ensued, and ultimately Antipater perished by poison; but Herod, by the assistance of the Romans, finally entered Jerusalem in triumph (37 B.C.), caused Antigonus, the last male representative of the Hasmonean line, and his most dangerous enemy, to be put to death, and commenced the difficult task of governing a people who were growing more and more unruly every day. For the history of the next period, see HEROD. After Herod's death (4 B.C.), Archelaus, one of his sons, ruled Judæa and Samaria; but his arbitrariness, and still more his constant attacks upon religion, made him hateful to the people; and Augustus, listening to their just complaints, deprived him of his power, and banished him to Vienne. Judæa was now thrown together with Syria, and was ruled by Roman governors.

In the year 38 A.D. the Emperor Caligula issued an edict ordering divine honours to be paid to himself. Everywhere throughout the Roman dominions the Jews refused to obey. At Alexandria a frightful massacre took place, and for a time it seemed as if the whole of the inhabitants of Judæa, too, were doomed to perish. Herod Agrippa obtained anew from Claudius the dominion over all the parts once ruled by his grandfather Herod, and many privileges were through his influence granted to his Jewish subjects, and even to foreign Jews. They received the rights of Roman citizenship (41 A.D.), and their ruler even tried to conciliate their religious prejudices by the strictness with which he observed their law; yet the national party remained malecontent, and in an almost permanent state of mutiny.

After the death of Herod Agrippa I. the country was again subjected to Roman governors. The confusion soon became indescribable. The whole land was overrun with robbers and assassins, some of whom professed to be animated by religious motives, while others were mere ruffianly freebooters and cut-throats; the antipathy between Jews and Samaritans waxed fiercer and fiercer, and the latter waylaid and murdered the orthodox Galileans as they went up to worship at Jerusalem; all sorts of impostors, fanatics, and pretenders to magic made their appearance; the priesthood was riven by dissensions; the hatreds between the populace and the Roman soldiery (mostly of Græco-Syrian origin), and under the command of cruel procurators, such as Albinus and Gessius Florus, increased; frightful portents (according to Josephus) appeared in the heavens, until, in 66 A.D., in spite of all the precautionary efforts taken by Agrippa, the party of Zealots, also called Sicarii or 'Assassins,' burst into open rebellion, which, after a horrible carnage, was terminated (70 A.D.) by the conquest of Jerusalem by Titus, the destruc- tion of the temple, and the massacre and banishment of hundreds of thousands of the unhappy people, who were scattered among their brethren in all parts of the world.

The defence of Jerusalem as narrated by Josephus is one of the most magnificent and melancholy examples of mingled heroism and insanity that the world affords. Very considerable numbers of Jews were still allowed to remain in their native country, and for the next thirty years, although both hated and treated with rigour, they appear, on the whole, to have flourished. The Emperor Nerva was as lenient to them as to the rest of his subjects; but as soon as they had attained some measure of political vitality, their turbulent and fanatical spirit broke out anew. Their last attempts to throw off the Roman yoke, in Cyrene (115 A.D.), Cyprus (116), Mesopotamia (118), and Palestine, under Bar-Cochba (q.v.), were defeated after enormous and almost incredible butcheries. The suppression of Bar-Cochba's insurrection (135 A.D.) marks the final desolation of Judæa, and the dispersion of its inhabitants. The whole of Judæa was made like a desert, about 985 towns and villages lay in ashes, 50 fortresses were razed to the ground; the name of Jerusalem itself was changed into Ælia Capitolina, and a heathen colony settled in the city, from entering which every Jew was strictly debarred. The hardships to which the unfortunate race were subjected were again alleviated in the reign of Antoninus Pius; Alexander Severus placed Abraham on the same divine level as he did Christ. Heliogabalus, among his many senseless whims, patronised various Jewish practices, such as circumcision and abstinence from swine's flesh; and, generally speaking, from the close of the 2d century till the establishment of Christianity under Constantine (330 A.D.), when their hopes were once more dashed to the ground, the Jews of the Roman empire appear to have thriven astonishingly. In this period falls the redaction of the chief code and basis of the 'Oral Law,' the Mishna, completed by Jehuda Hanassi ('the Prince'), or Hakkadosh ('the Saint'), president of the great school at Tiberias (220); and upon this code were grafted subsequently the two gigantic commentaries or complements, the Palestinian and the Babylonian Genaras. The Babylonian Jews were even more fortunate than their western brethren, though they did not perhaps attain the meridian of their prosperity till the revival of the Persian, on the downfall of the Parthian empire. Their leader was called 'The Prince of the Captivity' (Resh Gelutha), and was chosen from among those held to be descended from the House of David. He lived in great splendour, assuming among his own people the style and state of a monarch. The reputation for learning of the Babylonian schools, Nehardea, Sura, and Pumbeditha, was very great. What their condition was at this time farther east we cannot tell, but it seems quite certain that they had obtained a footing in China, if not before the time of Christ, at least during the 1st century.

In Europe the ascendancy of Christianity was baneful to the Jews. Imperial edicts and ecclesiastical decrees vied with each other in the rigour of their intolerance towards this unhappy people. They were prohibited from making converts, and from marrying Christian women; they were burdened with heavy taxes; yet no persecution apparently could destroy the immortal race. In the 4th century they are found in large numbers in Illyria, Italy, Spain, Minorca, Gaul, and the Roman towns on the Rhine; they are agriculturists, traders, and artisans; they hold land; their services, in fact, cannot be dispensed with; Constantine, during whose reign a fierce revolution broke out among the Arians and Jews (353), terms them 'that most hateful of all people; 'yet in spite of this they fill important civil and military situations, have special courts of justice, and exercise the influence that springs from the possession of wealth and knowledge. The brief rule of Julian the Apostate even shed a momentary gleam of splendour over their destinies, and secured for them permission to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem. The death of this emperor, however, frustrated their labours, and the rapid increase of ecclesiastical power was hurtful to them in a variety of ways; although the emperors now began to protect them as far as they could. In 418 they were excluded from military service. After the fall of the western empire their fortunes were different in different countries. In Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia they were for a time unmolested; in the Byzantine empire they suffered many oppressions; while in the 6th and 7th centuries the Franks and Spanish Visigoths inflicted on them frightful persecutions.

The sudden volcanic outburst of Mohammedanism in the Arabian peninsula was at first disastrous to the Jews in that part of the world. For several centuries a Jewish kingdom had existed in the south-west of Arabia, called Himyaritis or Homeritis, which was in a flourishing condition in 120 B.C. About 230 A.D. a prince of the Jewish faith mounted the throne of Yemen; twice, however, the Jewish kings were driven from it, and the Christian religion was introduced in that part in 530. At first Jewish tribes around Mecca and Medina entertained opinions favourable to Mohammed as an Arabian chief, but when Islam began to threaten their own faith they rose in arms against its founder. Mohammed proved the stronger; he subdued the Chaibar tribes in 627, and the Arabian Jews were finally removed to Syria. The spread of Mohammedanism through Asiatic Turkey, Persia, Egypt, Africa, and the south of Spain was, nevertheless, on the whole advantageous to the Jews. Excepting accidental persecutions, such as those in Mauritania (in 790) and in Egypt (1010), they enjoyed, under the califs and Arabian princes, comparative peace. In Moorish Spain their numbers greatly increased, and they became famous for their learning as well as for trade. They were counsellors, secretaries, astrologers, and physicians to the Moorish rulers; and this period may well be considered the golden age of Jewish literature. Poets, orators, philosophers of highest eminence arose, and in considerable numbers; and it is a well-established fact that to them is chiefly due—through the Arab medium—the preservation and subsequent spreading of ancient classical literature, more especially philosophy, in Europe. But in Christendom few and far between were the monarchs who rose above the barbarism of the churches. About the beginning of the 11th century the Byzantine emperor Basil II. renewed the persecution. In Babylonia, too, the califate had passed into the hands of rulers hostile to the Jews; and before the close of the 11th century the Prince of the Captivity had perished on the scaffold, the schools were closed, the best of the community had fled to Spain, and those that remained were reduced to an abject condition, from which they have never risen. In Italy their position was made tolerable by considerable pecuniary sacrifices; here and there at intervals a spirit of Christian intolerance might break out, but they enjoyed for the most part the protection of the popes.

Less favourable was their lot in France. Under the weaker of the Carolingians the church advanced with imperious strides, and a melancholy change ensued: kings, bishops, feudal barons, and even the municipalities, all joined in cruel persecution. From the 11th to the 14th century their history is a series of successive massacres. All manner of wild stories were circulated against them: it was said that they were wont to steal the Host, and to contemptuously stick it through and through; to inveigle Christian children into their houses, and murder them; to poison wells; and the like. They were also hated for their excessive usury, though there can be no doubt that the principal blame of this is to be attributed to those whose tyranny, by depriving the Jews of the right to possess land, had compressed their activity into the narrower channels of traffic. Occasionally, however, their debtors, high and low, had recourse to a very easy means of getting rid of their obligations. Thus, Philip Augustus, under whose rule the Jews seem to have held mortgages of enormous value, simply confiscated the debts due to them, forced them to surrender the pledges in their possession, seized their goods, and banished them from France. Yet in less than twenty years the same proud but wasteful monarch was glad to let them come back. Louis IX. cancelled a third of the claims which the Jews had against his subjects, 'for the benefit of his soul.' An edict was also issued for the seizure and destruction of their sacred books; and we are told that at Paris twenty-four cart-loads of the Talmud and other books were consigned to the flames. In the reign of Philip the Fair the Jews were again expelled from France (1306) with the usual accompaniments of cruelty; but the state of the royal finances rendered it necessary, in little more than a dozen years, to recall them; and they were allowed to enforce payment of the debts due to them, on condition that two-thirds of the whole should be given up to the king! But a religious epidemic having seized the common people in Languedoc and the central regions of France (1321), they signalised themselves by horrible massacres of the detested race. In the following year the plague broke out, and the wildest crimes were laid to the charge of the Jews. One shudders to read what followed; in whole provinces every Jew was burned, and at Chinon a hundred and sixty of both sexes were burned together! Christianity never produced more resolute martyrs: they sang hymns in the place of torment. Finally, in 1395, they were banished from the centre of France.

In England they are mentioned in the ecclesiastical constitutions of Egbert, Archbishop of York, in 740; they are also named in a charter to the monks of Crowland, 833. William the Conqueror and William Rufus favoured them; the latter carried his contempt for the religious institutions of his kingdom so far that he actually farmed out the vacant bishoprics to Jews; and at Oxford, even then a seat of learning, they possessed three halls—Lombard Hall, Moses Hall, and Jacob Hall, where Hebrew was taught to Christians as well as to the youths of their own persuasion. As they grew in wealth they grew in unpopularity. On the day of the coronation of Richard the Lion-Heart (1189), some Jews being found present at the spectacle, from which their nation had been strictly excluded, a popular commotion against them broke out in London; their houses were pillaged and burned; and though Ranulf de Glanvill, the chief-justiciary of the realm, partially succeeded in arresting the havoc, and even in bringing some of the mob to justice (three were hanged), yet the barbarous bigotry of priests and people prevented anything like just or salutary punishment. Similar scenes were witnessed at Norwich, Edmundsbury, Stamford, and York; in York most of the Jews preferred death to forced baptism. When Richard returned from Palestine their prospects brightened a little; though they still were treated with great rigour, their lives and wealth were protected—for a consideration! John at first covered them with honour, but suddenly turned round on his protégés, after they had accumulated great wealth, and imprisoned, maltreated, and plundered them in all parts of the country. Under Henry III. they were mulcted enormously. Accused of clipping the coin of the realm, they had, as a penalty, to pay into the royal exchequer (1230) a third of their movable property. To this reign belongs the now exploded story of the crucifixion of the Christian boy, Hugh of Lincoln (q.v.). The accession of Edward I. did not mitigate their misery; some efforts were made to induce them to give up their profession of usury, as was also done in France and elsewhere during the same period; but, heavily taxed by the sovereigns or governments of Christendom, and debarred by special decrees or by vulgar prejudice from almost every other trade or occupation, they could not afford to prosecute ordinary callings. The attempt made by the Dominican friars to convert them, of course, failed utterly; and in 1253, the Jews—no longer able to withstand the constant hardships to which they were subjected in person and property—begged of their own accord to be allowed to leave the country. Richard of Cornwall, however, persuaded them to stay. Ultimately, in 1290, they were driven from the shores of England, pursued by the execrations of the infuriated rabble, and leaving in the hands of the king all their property, debts, obligations, and mortgages.

In Germany they were looked upon as the special property of the sovereign, who bought and sold them, and were designated his Kammerknechte ('chamber-servants'). About the 8th century they are found in all the Rhenish towns; in the 10th century, in Saxony and Bohemia; in the 11th, in Swabia, Franconia, and Vienna; and in the 12th, in Brandenburg and Silesia. The same sort of treatment befell them in the empire as elsewhere; they had to pay all manner of iniquitous taxes—body tax, capitation tax, trade taxes, coronation tax—and to present a multitude of gifts to mollify the avarice or supply the necessities of emperors, princes, and barons. A raid against the Jews was a favourite pastime of a bankrupt noble in those days. The Crusades kindled a spirit not in Germany only, however, but through all Christendom, hostile to the 'enemies of Christ.' Trèves, Metz, Cologne, Mainz, Worms, Spires, Strasburg, and other cities were deluged with the blood of the 'unbelievers.' At such epochs the passions of the populace and of the lower clergy could not be restrained. The word Hep (said to be the initials of Hierosolyma est perdita, 'Jerusalem is fallen') throughout all the cities of the empire became the signal for massacre, and if an insensate monk sounded it along the streets it threw the rabble into paroxysms of murderous rage. The Jews were expelled from Vienna (1196), Mecklenburg (1225), Frankfort (1241), Brandenburg (1243), Nuremberg (1390), Prague (1391), and Ratisbon (1476). The 'Black Death' occasioned a great and widespread persecution (1348-50). They were murdered and burned by thousands, and the race almost disappeared from Germany; only, however, to return, for their services were indispensable. Here and there they possessed the rights of citizens, or were allowed to hold real estate; in general they were permitted to prosecute only commerce and usury, and the law turned on them its harshest aspect. Repeatedly, too, the emperors gratified at once their piety and their greed by cancelling their pecuniary claims. In many places they were compelled to live in certain parts of the town, known as the Judenstrasse ('Jews' Street').

Switzerland commenced to persecute them about the middle of the 14th century; in the 15th century, they were expelled from various places. Their treatment was more humane in Poland and Lithuania; and after 1348 their numbers there were swelled by fugitives from Germany and Switzerland. Russia and Hungary received, persecuted, and banished them.

In Spain the condition of the Jews was long highly favourable; but the horrible persecutions by the Gothic princes in the 6th and 7th centuries made it inevitable that the first gleam of a Moorish scimitar on the coast would turn them into allies of the invaders. During the whole of the brilliant period of Moorish rule in the peninsula they enjoyed, indeed, what must have seemed to them, in comparison with their fate elsewhere, a sort of Elysian life. They were almost on terms of equality with their Mohammedan masters, rivalled them in civilisation and letters, and probably surpassed them in wealth. The Spanish Jews were consequently of a much higher type than their brethren in other parts of Europe. They were not reduced to the one degrading occupation of usury, though they followed that too; on the contrary, they were husbandmen, landed proprietors, physicians, financial administrators, and they had courts of justice for themselves. The Christian monarchs of the north and centre also came to appreciate the value of their services, and we find them for a time protected and encouraged by the rulers of Aragon and Castile. But the extravagance of the nobles and the increasing power of the priesthood ultimately brought about a disastrous change. The estates of the nobles were in many cases mortgaged to the Jews; hence it was not difficult for 'conscience' to get up a persecution. Gradually the Jews were deprived of the privilege of living where they pleased; their rights were diminished and their taxes augmented. In Seville, Cordova, Toledo, Valencia, Catalonia, and the island of Majorca outbreaks of priestly and popular violence took place (1391-92); immense numbers were murdered, and wholesale theft was perpetrated by the religious rabble. Escape was possible only by flight to Africa, or by accepting baptism at the point of the sword. The number of these enforced converts to Christianity is reckoned at 200,000. The fate of the Jews in Spain during the 15th century, however, beggars description; we read of nothing but persecution, violent conversion, massacre, the tortures of the Inquisition. Thousands were burned alive; and in one year 280 were burned in Seville alone. Sometimes the popes, and even the nobles, shuddered at the fiendish zeal of the inquisitors, and tried to mitigate it, but in vain. At length the hour of final horror came. In 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella issued an edict for the expulsion within four months of all who refused to become Christians, with the strict prohibition to take neither gold nor silver out of the country. The Jews offered an enormous sum for its revocation, and for a moment the sovereigns hesitated; but when Torquemada, the Dominican inquisitor-general, compared them to Judas, they shrank from the awful accusation; and the ruin of the most industrious, the most thriving, the most peaceable, and the most learned of their subjects—and consequently of Spain herself—became irremediable. Not less than 300,000 resolved to abandon the country, which a residence of seven centuries had made almost a second Judea to them. The incidents that marked their departure are heartrending. Almost every land was shut against them. Some, however, ventured into France; others into Italy, Turkey, and Morocco, in the last of which countries they suffered the most frightful privations. Of the 80,000 who obtained an entrance into Portugal for eight months on payment of eight gold pennies a head, many lingered after the expiry of the appointed time, and the poorer were sold as slaves. In 1495 King Emanuel commanded them to quit his territories, but at the same time issued a secret order that all Jewish children under fourteen years of age should be torn from their mothers, retained in Portugal, and brought up as Christians. Agony drove the Jewish mothers into madness: they destroyed their children with their own hands, and threw them into wells and rivers to prevent them from falling into the hands of their persecutors. The miseries of those who embraced Christianity, but who, for the most part, secretly adhered to their old faith (Onssim, Anussim, 'yielding to violence, forced ones'), were hardly less dreadful, and it was far on in the 17th century before persecution ceased. Autos da Fé of suspected converts happened as late as 1655.

The wanderers appear to have met with much better treatment in Italy and Turkey than anywhere else. During the 15th and 16th centuries they are to be found in almost every city of Italy, pursuing various kinds of traffic (nearly the whole trade of the Levant, for instance, was in their hands); but chiefly engaged in money-lending, in which they rivalled the great Lombard bankers. Abarbanel (q.v.), perhaps the most eminent Jewish scholar and divine of his day, rose to be confidential adviser to the king of Naples. In Turkey they were held in higher estimation than the conquered Greeks; they were allowed to reopen their schools, to establish synagogues, and to settle in all the commercial towns of the Levant.

The invention of printing, the revival of learning, and the Reformation are generally asserted to have been beneficial to the Jews, but this is only partially true. When the Jews began to use the presses at their earliest stage for their own literature, sacred and otherwise, the Emperor Maximilian was urged—chiefly by converts—to order all Hebrew writings to be committed to the flames; and, but for the strenuous exertions of Reuchlin (q.v.), ignorance, treachery, and bigotry might have secured a despicable triumph. Luther, in the earlier part of his career, looked with no unfavourable eye on the adoption of violent means for their conversion; on the other hand, Pope Sixtus V. was animated by a far more wise and kindly spirit towards them than any Protestant prince of his time. In 1588 he abolished all the persecuting statutes of his predecessors, allowed them to settle and trade in every city of his dominions, to enjoy the free exercise of their religion, and, in respect to the administration of justice and taxation, placed them on a footing of equality with the rest of his subjects. That the Reformation itself had nothing to do with subsequent ameliorations in the condition of the Jews is only too plain from the fact that in many parts of Germany, Protestant as well as Catholic, their lot became actually harder than before. They were driven out of Bavaria (1553), out of Brandenburg (1573); and during the whole of the 17th and the first part of the 18th century the hardships inflicted on them by the German governments positively became more and more grievous. What really caused the change in their favour was the great uprising of human reason that marked the middle of the 18th century. Among the writers who distinguished themselves in Germany by pleading the cause of the Jews we may specially mention Lessing and Mendelssohn. In Holland the Jews were permitted as early as 1603 to settle and trade, though they did not acquire the rights of citizenship till 1796.

In England the edict of Edward I. remained in force for more than 300 years; and the first attempt made by the Jews to obtain a legal recognition in that country was during the Protectorate of Cromwell in 1655. Cromwell himself was favourable to their admission; so were the lawyers; but the nation generally, and particularly the religious portion of it, were strongly hostile to such a proceeding; and the wearisome controversial jangling of the divines appointed to consider the question prevented anything from being done till the reign of Charles II., who, standing much and frequently in need of their services, permitted them quietly to settle in the island. The English legislature first commenced to take special notice of the existence of Jews in the first half of the 18th century. In 1723 they were distinctly recognised as British subjects in an act which permitted them, when giving evidence in a court of justice, to omit from their oath the words 'On the true faith of a Christian.' In 1753 they obtained the right of naturalisation, but in deference to public clamour it had speedily to be revoked. Most of the civil and political rights of the Jews have been accorded them during the present century. Until 1828 the number of Jewish brokers in the City of London—all of whom were heavily taxed—was limited to twelve. A Jew could not be admitted to the freedom of the City, or exercise any retail trade, till 1832. Since 1833 the profession of barrister, since 1835 the shrievalty, and since 1845 the office of alderman and of lord-mayor have been opened to them. During the reign of Queen Victoria almost every Jewish disability has been removed, so that, in point of law, Jews are now, if natural-born subjects, on practically the same footing as English subjects. By an act of 1845 they were allowed to hold offices in municipal corporations, on condition of signing a declaration (in place of the usual oath) not to exercise their influence so as to injure or weaken the Protestant Church. The privileges of this act were extended by one of 1858, whereby Jews are entitled to be admitted to municipal and other offices on taking the oath, omitting from it the objectionable formula. In 1846 they were placed, as regards their schools and places of worship, of education, and charities, on the same footing as Protestant dissenters. In 1871 the Universities Tests Act was passed, which enabled Jews to graduate at the ancient universities without detriment to their religious principles. Before 1845 doubts had prevailed whether the marriages previously celebrated in England among the Jews, according to their own usages, were valid, and the statute of 1847 put an end to such doubts by declaring all such marriages valid, provided both the parties married had been persons professing the Jewish religion. But now, as then, though it is competent for Jews, like other dissenters, to superadd any religious ceremony they please to their marriages, there must in all cases be notice given to the registrar of the district of such marriage being about to take place, the only exemption being that the marriage may be celebrated in the synagogue or any ordinary dwelling, and not, as with other denominations, in the superintendent registrar's office, or a registered building. A license may also be procured from the superintendent registrar, and the secretaries of the respective synagogues are recognised as the persons to keep the register books of Jewish marriages. In Scotland there is no peculiar legislation affecting Jewish marriages. It was not until 1858 that Jews were admitted to parliament, a statute of that year empowering the House to modify the oath required of members, by omitting in the case of Jews the concluding words of the oath. Baron Rothschild was the first who took his seat in the House of Commons on the passing of this act. But even this statute was only permissive, it being still left in the power of parliament to refuse to modify the oath if it so determined. It was accordingly superseded by an act of 1866, which prescribed a uniform oath to be taken by members of all religious denominations, except Quakers and other Separatists, who might claim to be admitted by affirmation. Jews were first admitted to the Upper House in 1885, when Sir N. M. de Rothschild was elevated to the peerage as Lord Rothschild, taking the oath, more Judaico, with his head covered. The very highest offices of the state are now, with scarcely an exception, within the reach of Jews. Unlike Roman Catholics, Jews may present to livings in the Church of England. But whenever a Jew holds any office in the gift of Her Majesty, to which office shall belong the right of presentation to any ecclesiastical benefice, such right of presentation devolves upon the Archbishop of Canterbury for the time being.

Some of the relics of that mighty host of exiles that left Spain and Portugal found their way into France, where they long lingered in a miserable condition. In 1550 they were received into Bayonne and Bordeaux; they were also to be found in considerable numbers in Avignon, Lorraine, and Alsace. In 1784 the capitation tax was abolished. In 1790, while the French Revolution was still animated by a sincere humanitarianism, the Jews presented a successful petition to the national representatives, Mirabeau being among their advocates. From this time their technical designation in France has been Israelites. In 1806 the Emperor Napoleon summoned a 'Sanhedrin' of Jews to meet at Paris, to whom a variety of questions were put, mainly with a view to test their fitness for being French citizens. Since then they have been found not only in the highest offices of the civil administration—very frequently in the ministry (e.g. Crémieux, Goudchaux, Fould)—but they have also filled some of the chief places in the army and navy. We may add here that their bravery in the field has been the subject of frequent remark—although among the vices with which a brutal prejudice loved to brand them, in spite of all historical evidence, was also that of cowardice.

In Denmark since 1814 they have been on a footing of equality as citizens with native Danes. To Sweden they were first invited—the invitation only extending to the rich—in 1746. Norway forbade them to touch its soil till 1860. Admitted into Russia by Peter the Great, they were expelled by the Empress Elizabeth in 1743. Readmitted by the Empress Catharine II., they were further protected by the Emperor Alexander I., who in 1805 and 1809 issued decrees insuring them full liberty of trade and commerce; Nicholas withdrew these privileges. In 1881 a violent agitation against the Jews, accompanied by much outrage and bloodshed, took place in the south and west of Russia, and also in Warsaw. Their residence is strictly confined to certain parts of the empire. Some 225,000 were driven out by further restrictions in 1892, and many were then and later settled in Argentina and elsewhere by Baron Hirsch. In Poland they are more numerous than in any other part of the world. They owed their first humane reception in the 14th century to the love which King Casimir the Great bore for a Jewish mistress. For many years the whole trade of the country was in their hands. During the 17th and the greater part of the 18th century, however, they were much persecuted, and sank into a state of great ignorance, and even poverty; but education—in spite of the severity and barbarism of Russian intolerance—has, since the French Revolution, made progress among them. Frederick the Great, king of Prussia, showed himself singularly harsh towards the Jews; his legislation almost throws us back into the middle ages. All manner of iniquitous and ridiculous taxes were laid upon them; only a certain number were allowed to reside in the country, and these were prohibited from both the most honourable and the most lucrative employments. This shameful state of matters was ended by the Prussian edict of toleration (1812), by which Jews were placed almost in an equal position as citizens with other Prussians. Since then the tendency, on the whole, had been to enlarge their 'liberties'—until the revolution of 1848 gained them their full emancipation, although it was slowly carried out. In the smaller German states their full rights were grudgingly conceded. The Reichstag of the empire, like the National Assembly in 1848, now contains many prominent Jewish members. However, the progress of Jewish emancipation in Germany has not, of late years, been continuous. Strange to say, the year 1880 was marked by a remarkable revival of hostility against the Jews, especially in Berlin, which, known as the Judenhetze, was encouraged by many persons of standing in society. In Austria the Emperor Joseph II. distinguished himself by passing an act of toleration (1782) extraordinarily liberal in its provisions for the Jews. Not till 1860, however (and even then under certain restrictions), did they acquire the right to possess land. But in 1868 they were accorded the complete liberty which they now enjoy, and which is only overclouded occasionally by outbreaks of Anti-Semitism. In Hungary and Transylvania they have long enjoyed important privileges, and have been protected by the nobility. In Roumania they still suffer much ill-usage, being only nominally protected by the treaty of Berlin. Spain began to tolerate them again in 1837, and they can follow trade or agriculture like other Spaniards. Of late years they have even been allowed to assemble for religious worship. Portugal, where they enjoy no civic rights, has only a few German Jews. Switzerland long treated them harshly, and only of late have steps in the right direction been taken.

In Turkey they are very numerous, and have thriven in spite of the exactions of pashas, the insolence of Janizaries, and the miseries of war. Their communities in Constantinople, Adrianople, Salonica, Smyrna, Aleppo, and Damascus are considerable; in Palestine, their ancient home, they are rapidly increasing, but they are still, in spite of the many efforts on the part of their European brothers to ameliorate their condition, very poor. Their numbers in Arabia are not very large, yet they enjoy some independence. Those in Persia have sunk into ignorance. They are found in Afghanistan, and carry on a trade between Kabul and China; in India and Cochin-China, where they are both agriculturists and artisans; in Surinam, where there is a flourishing colony; in Bokhara, where they possess equal rights with the other inhabitants, and are skilled in the manufacture of silks and metals; and in China, where, however, they are very insignificant both in numbers and position. They are also found all along the North African coast, where, indeed, they have had communities for perhaps more than a thousand years, which were largely reinforced in consequence of the great Spanish persecutions. They are numerous in Morocco, though not always secure from the perils of Mohammedan fanaticism. In Egypt and Nubia they are few; in Abyssinia, where they are known as Falashas, more numerous; they exist in the Soudan, and are also found farther south in considerable numbers, the mining industries of the Cape and Transvaal being largely in their hands. America, too, has invited their spirit of enterprise. In the United States, as in Great Britain, they enjoy absolute liberty, and have established some 500 congregations. They have been in Brazil since 1625, and are also settled in some parts of the West Indies.

The present distribution of Jews throughout the world, as calculated in 1888, is as follows: Russia, 3,500,000; Austro-Hungary, 1,800,000; Germany, 600,000; Roumania, 325,000; Turkey in Europe, 160,000; Holland, 90,000; Belgium, 6000; France, 75,000; Great Britain, 100,000; Italy, 40,000; Switzerland, 8000; Scandinavia, 8000; Servia and Bulgaria, 40,000; Greece, 5000; Iberian Peninsula, 2000—making in all Europe above 6½ millions. To this may be added about 500,000 in Asia, 350,000 in Africa, 500,000 in America, and 20,000 in Australasia. This would bring the total number of Jews in the world up to a little over 8 millions. It should be mentioned, however, that some authorities calculate their number as considerably less than this. They assume about 5½ millions for Europe, and 1¼ million for the rest of the world.

Religion.—Generally speaking, Jews believe in the inspiration of the Old Testament, the authority of the Law of Moses, the absolute unity and incorporeality of the Godhead, the immortality of the soul, the ability of mankind to work out their own salvation without the help of priest, mediator, or sacrifice, and the ultimate conversion of mankind to Theism. Such are the main points of agreement between almost all Jews, but on many questions they are sharply divided. For some two thousand years there have been at least two religious sections. In the time of Christ they were known as Pharisees (Rabbinical Jews) and Sadducees (Biblical Jews); in the middle ages as Rabbanites and Karaites, the Rabbanites being adherents of traditional Judaism, and the Karaites insisting on the literal interpretation of Scripture. Since the early part of the 19th century these differences have to some extent been reproduced in the division of Jews into Orthodox and Reformed. The latter (who may also be styled Progressive or Modern Jews) believe in the divine authority of the Old Testament or 'Written Law' only, while Orthodox (otherwise known as Conservative or Rabbinical) Jews ascribe co-ordinate authority to the 'Oral Law' of the Rabbins, which they regard as the key to the explanation of Holy Writ. The Oral Law is embodied in the Talmud and its commentaries, and is believed by them to have been orally transmitted from Moses to his successors down to the time of Jehuda the Holy or the Prince (see ante), when it was first committed to writing. To this main distinction most of the divergencies between Orthodoxy and Reform can be traced. Thus the difference of opinion on such questions as sacrifice, the Messiah, the return to Jerusalem, and the restoration of the national life follows as a corollary from the maintenance or repudiation of the Rabbinical standpoint. A Rabbinical Jew believes in the political reconstitution of his nation, the restoration to Palestine, the rebuilding of Jerusalem and of the temple on Mount Zion, and the rehabilitation of the sacrificial ritual. He also looks forward to the coming of a personal Messiah, a descendant of David, who will assert the independence of his race and accomplish the restoration. Such are the hopes which inspire a great portion of the orthodox liturgy. The Reformed Jew, interpreting Scripture in a free and rationalistic spirit, subscribes to none of these beliefs. The sacrifices ordained in the Pentateuch he regards in the light of a temporary concession of Moses to the barbarous customs of his age, and an institution which, having once fallen into desuetude, will never again be revived; and, in support of this view, he points, not merely to the teaching of Maimonides, but to the frequent denunciation of sacrificial rites by the prophets and psalmists of Israel. Nor does he believe in the restoration of the national life or the return to Jerusalem. Most commonly, indeed, he is even unwilling to admit that Jews can any longer be considered a nation. Nor does he find any difficulty in explaining away those utterances of the prophets which would seem to point to such a return. Such utterances must either be referred to events in the proximate future, such as the return of the Jews to Palestine under the edict of Cyrus, or they are to be regarded as mere rhetorical declamations or poetical pictures without any definite significance. Similarly with the belief in a personal Messiah. Although this is one of the Thirteen Articles of Faith, as laid down by Maimonides, it is gradually being abandoned by modern Jews, who are inclined to substitute for it the belief in a Messianic age in which, as foretold by the prophets, all mankind will be brought to the knowledge and worship of one God, and war and dissension will cease from the face of the earth. From all this it will be seen that Reformed Judaism not merely interprets Scripture in the light of common sense, but also exhibits a more or less decided leaning to the teachings of Rationalism, some of the more advanced Reformers, indeed (for there are various degrees of reform), being pure Rationalists. Such theories as that of two Isaiahs, or the late date of Daniel and Ecclesiastes, are subscribed to by most educated Jews, but the Wellhausen theory of the Hexateuch is held only by the more advanced section of Reformers. Sometimes it is stated that Orthodox Jews believe in the physical resurrection of the body after death. But this is not correct. It was the view of Jews in the time of Christ, and has long since been superseded by the belief in the immortality of the soul.

The distinction between Orthodoxy and Reform further exhibits itself in ceremonial practices and the ritual of the synagogue. Reformed Jews restrict themselves to the practice of the ceremonial laws laid down in the Pentateuch, with the exception of those which, like the institution of sacrifice, have no application at the present day. Orthodox Jews are expected to obey, besides the legislation of the Pentateuch, the entire body of the Oral Law with its many thousands of minutiae, and the several customs which have become sanctified by age and tradition. These are principally set forth in a digest known as the Shulchan-Aruch—the text-book of Orthodox Judaism. As in private practice, so in the public worship of the synagogue, Reformed Jews have simplified the ritual and adapted it to modern needs. They have introduced instrumental music and mixed choirs. In the more advanced synagogues, particularly in America, the service is made to approximate to church practices in three particulars: (1) the sexes sit together in family pews; (2) the heads of male worshippers are uncovered; (3) the service is in the vernacular. In some synagogues (Berlin, Philadelphia, and Chicago) innovation has been carried to the extent of substituting Sunday for the seventh-day Sabbath, while several synagogues in America have Sunday services in addition to those held on the Sabbath.

The programme of Judaism put forth by Dr Krauskopf of Philadelphia in 1888 is of so very radical a character as hardly to deserve the title of Judaism. But as the congregation which have adopted it not only call themselves Jews, but are regarded as such by the rest of the community, it must be set down as the ultimate phase of Judaism, marking the limits beyond which it would not be possible for Judaism to travel without merging its identity in Theism or Agnosticism. 'We discard,' says Dr Krauskopf, 'the belief in a

God who is a man magnified, who has his abode somewhere in the interstellar spaces. We discard the belief that the Bible was written by God, or by man under the immediate dictation of God, and that its teachings are therefore infallible. . . . We discard the belief in the coming of a human Messiah, who will lead us back to Palestine, establish us as the rulers of the world, and make all nations tributaries to us. We discard the belief in bodily resurrection, hell-torments, Paradisian rewards, prophecy, superstitions, all Biblical and Rabbinical beliefs, rites and ceremonies and institutions, which neither elevate nor sanctify our lives.'

Literature.—For the Hebrew language, see under that head. The extraordinary influence which the religion of the Hebrews has exercised on Christian and Mohammedan nations has given a universal significance to their ancient literature; but of this we possess nothing which, in its original shape, reaches further back than the period of David. The composition of the extant works in Hebrew Literature proper would, on this view, extend over a period of nearly 900 years—viz. from the times of David to those of the Maccabees. This period was preceded by a preparatory one of sagas, songs, fragmentary historical notices, inscriptions, laws, and probably also priestly registers. The extant literature may be arranged under the five heads—law, prophecy, history, lyric poetry, and speculation (see BIBLE, and the articles on the separate books of the Old Testament). The same epoch in which took place the transition from Hebraism to Judaism—the epoch of the captivity—was also that which marked the commencement of Jewish literature, properly so called. Founded on the earlier and more creative Hebrew, and for the most part written in the same language, it is yet qualified by the presence of religious conceptions borrowed from the Persians, of Greek wisdom, Roman law, and, at a later period, of Arabic poetry and philosophy, and of European science; though everything is strictly subordinated to the great ideas of the ancient faith. Since the return from exile, the Jewish—also, but erroneously, called the Rabbinical—literature has, without the slightest external encouragement, actively taken part in the cultivation of the human mind; and in the results of this activity, which are still far from being duly appreciated, there lie concealed the richest treasures of centuries.

Jewish literature has been divided chronologically into nine periods. The first period extends to 143 B.C. After the return from exile the Jewish people naturally enough became animated by an intense nationality of feeling. Expositions and additions to the earlier history (Midrashim), as well as Greek translations, were executed, and several of the Hagiographa—such as particular psalms, the so-called Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, the Books of Chronicles, portions of Ezra and Nehemiah—were written. To this period also, if to any, must belong the uncertain performances of the Great Synagogue (q.v.), to whom the work of completing the canon of the Old Testament is chiefly ascribed. Towards its close (190–170 B.C.) several writers appear in propriâ personâ, as, for instance, Sirach and Aristobulus. The doctors of whom the Great Synagogue chiefly consisted were called Soferim ('Scribes'). At this time Aramaic finally became the popular dialect of Palestine.

The second period extends from 143 B.C. to 135 A.D. The Midrash (see EXEGESIS), or the inquiry into the meaning of the sacred writings, was divided into Halacha and Hagada; the former considered the improvement of the law, with a view to practical results; the latter, the essence of the religious and historical interpretations. At first both were the oral deliverances of the Soferim, but gradually written memorials made their appearance. The public interpretation of the Scripture in schools and synagogues, the independence of the Sanhedrin, the strife of sects, and the influences of Alexandrian culture furthered this development. To this period also belong various Greek, but not, as is still erroneously supposed by some, the written Targums or Aramaic versions of the Bible (see TARGUMS), which sprang at a much later period from oral translations of the Pentateuch in the synagogues instituted after the return from the exile; further, the whole of the Apocrypha (q.v.), and the earliest Christian writings, which are at least the productions of men nurtured in the principles of Judaism, and which contain many traces of Judaistic culture, feeling, and faith. It was also characterised by the drawing up of prayers, scriptural expositions, songs, and collections of proverbs. The author of the first book of the Maccabees, Jason, Josephus, Philo, Johannes are names specially worthy of mention; so also are the doctors of the oral law—Hillel (q.v.), Shammai, Jochanan-ben-Zaccai, Gamaliel, Eleazar-ben-Hyrkanus, Joshua-ben-Chananja, Ishmael, Akiba, and others of like eminence. Rabbi ('Master') Talmid Chacham ('Disciple of Wisdom') were titles of honour given to those expert in a knowledge of the law. Besides the Maccabean coins, Greek and Latin inscriptions belonging to this period are extant.

The third period reaches from 135 to 475 A.D. Instruction in the Halacha and Hagada now became the principal employment of the flourishing schools in Galilee, Syria, Rome, and after 219 A.D. in Babylonia; the most distinguished men were the masters of the Mishna (q.v.) and the Talmud (q.v.)—viz. Eleazar-ben-Jacob, Jehuda, Jose, Meir, Simeon-ben-Jochai, Jehuda the Holy, Nathan, Chija, Rab, Samuel, Jochanan, Hunna, Rabba, Rava, Papa, Ashe, and Abina. Besides expositions, additions to Sirach, ethical treatises, stories, fables, and history were also composed; the prayers were enriched, the Targum to the Pentateuch and the Prophets completed, and the calendar fixed by Hillel the second (340 A.D.). After the suppression of the academies in Palestine, those of Persia—viz. at Sura, Pumbeditha, and Nehardea—became the centre of Jewish literary activity. On Sabbaths and festal days the people heard, in the schools and places for prayer, instructive and edifying discourses. Of the biblical literature of the Greek Jews we have only fragments, such as those of the versions of Aquila and Symmachus. With this period terminates the age of direct tradition.

The fourth period (from 475 to 740 A.D.). By this time the Jews had long abandoned the use of Hebrew, and instead had adopted the language of whatever country they happened to dwell in. During the 6th century the Babylonian Talmud was concluded, the Palestinian Talmud having been redacted about a hundred years before. Little remains of the labours of the Jewish literati of the 7th century, or of the earliest Geonim or presidents of the Babylonian schools, who first appear in 589 A.D. On the other hand, from the 6th to the 8th century the Masora (q.v.) was developed in Palestine (at Tiberias); and, besides a collection of the earlier Hagadas, independent commentaries were likewise executed, as the Pesikta, the Pirke of Eliezer (700 A.D.), &c.

In the fifth period (740–1040) the Arabs, energetic, brilliant, and victorious in literature as in war, had appropriated to themselves the learning of Hindus, Persians, and Greeks, and thus excited the emulation of the oriental Jews, among whom now sprung up physicians, astronomers, grammarians, commentators, and chroniclers. Religious and historical Hagadas, books of morality, and expositions of the Talmud were likewise composed. The oldest Talmudic compends belong to the age of Anan (circa 750 A.D.), the earliest writer of the Karaite Jews. The oldest prayer-book was drawn up about 880; and the first Talmudic Dictionary about 900. The most illustrious Geonim of a later time were Saadia (died 941), equally famous as a commentator and translator of Scripture into Arabic, a doctor of law, a grammarian, theologian, and poet; Scherira (died 998); and his son Hai (died 1038), who was the author, among other things, of a dictionary. From Palestine came the completion of the Masora and of the vowel-system; numerous Midrashim, the Hagiographical Targums, and the first writings on theological cosmogony were also executed there. From the 9th to the 11th century Kairwan and Fez, in Africa, produced several celebrated Jewish doctors and authors. Learned rabbins are likewise found in Italy after the 8th century, as Julins in Pavia. Bari and Otranto were at this time the great seats of Jewish learning in Italy. After the suppression of the Babylonian academies (1040) Spain became the central seat of Jewish literature. To this period belong the oldest Hebrew codices, which go back to the 9th century. Hebrew rhyme is a product of the 8th, and modern Hebrew prosody of the 10th century.

The sixth period (1040-1204) is the most splendid era of Jewish medieval literature. The Spanish Jews busied themselves about theology, exegetics, grammar, poetry, the science of law, astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, rhetoric, and medicine. They wrote sermons and ethical and historical works. The languages employed were Arabic, Rabbinical Hebrew, and ancient or classical Hebrew. We can only mention here the great doctor, Samuel Halevi (died 1055), and the renowned Maimonides (q.v.), whose death closes this epoch. The literature of the French rabbins was more national in its character, and kept more strictly within the limits of the Halacha and Hagada. The great Rashi (q.v.), the prince of commentators, whose real name was Solomon-ben-Isaac of Troyes (1040-1105), is one of the greatest names in Jewish literature. In Provence, which combined the literary characteristics of France and Spain, there were celebrated Jewish academies at Lunel, Narbonne, and Nîmes. The fame of the Talmudists of Germany, especially those of Mainz and Ratisbon, was very great. Only a few names belong to Greece and Asia; still the Karaite Jews had a very able writer in Jehuda Hadassi (1148). The greater portion of the prayer-book was completed before Maimonides. Many of the works, however, produced between 740 and the close of this period are lost.

The seventh period (1204-1492) bears manifest traces of the influence exercised by Maimonides. Literary activity showed itself partly in the sphere of theologico-exegetical philosophy, partly in the elaboration of the national law. With the growth of a religious mysticism there also sprung up a war of opinions between Talmudists, Philosophers, and Cabbalists. The most celebrated Jews of this period lived in Spain; later, in Portugal, Provence, and Italy. To Spain belongs (in the 13th century) the poet Jehuda Charisi. In the 15th century a decline is noticeable. Books written in Hebrew were first printed in Spain at Ixar in Aragon (1485), at Zamora (1487), and at Lisbon (1489). During this epoch the chief ornaments of Jewish literature in Provence were Moses-ben-Nachman, David Kimchi, Jernham, Farissol, Isaac Nathan, the author of the Hebrew Concordance. In Italy Jewish scholars employed themselves with the translation of Arabic and Latin works. While

France could show only a few notable authors, such as the collectors of the Tosafot, Moses de Coucy, and Jehiel-ben-Joseph, the poet and exegete Berachja, Germany produced a multitude of writers on the law, such as Eleazar Halevi, Meyer of Rothenburg, Asher Ben Jechiel, Jacob ben Asher, Eleazar ben Jehudah of Worms. Most of the extant Hebrew MSS. belong to this period; but a great part of medieval Jewish literature lies unprinted in Rome, Florence, Parma, Turin, Paris, Oxford, Leyden, Vienna, and Munich.

The eighth period (1492-1755) is not marked by much creative or spiritual force among the Jews. In Italy and the East (1492), in Germany and Poland (1550), in Holland (1620), Jewish scholars worked printing-presses, while numerous authors wrote in Hebrew, Latin, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Judeo-German. Some of the most eminent theologians, philosophers, jurists, historians, mathematicians, poets, commentators, lexicographers, grammarians, &c. of this period were, besides Spinoza, Isaac Abravanel, Elias Levita, Seforno, Bertinoro, Karo, Norzi, Rossi, Moses Isserles, Manasseh ben Israel, Lipman Heller, B. Musaphia.

The ninth period extends from 1755 to the present time. Encouraged by the spirit of the 18th century, Moses Mendelssohn (q.v.) opened to his co-religionists a new era, which, as in the middle ages, first manifested itself in the national literature. Its character, contents, expression, and even its phraseology, were changed. Poetry, language, philology, criticism, education, history, and literature have been earnestly cultivated. The sacred books have been translated by them into the languages of modern Europe, and foreign works into Hebrew; and many of this once proscribed and detested race have taken an important part in the public and scientific life of Europe. Among the many illustrious names of this last period we can select only a few like Mendelssohn, Maimon, Ben Zeeb, Heidenheim, Rapoport, Krochmal, Zunn, Jost, Geiger, Fürst, Sachs, Z. Frankel, Steinschneider, Graetz, Jellinek, Philippson, Munk, Salvador, Reggio, S. D. Luzzatto—chiefly cultivators of literature with reference to their own creed and nationality.

To enumerate names of those who were and are illustrious in general literature, in law, philosophy, medicine, philology, mathematics, belles-lettres, &c. we cannot even attempt, since there is not one country in Europe which does not count Jews among the foremost and most brilliant representatives of its intellectual progress. Of Germany—considered to be in the vanguard of European learning—Bunsen said that the greater part of the professors at its universities and academies were Jews or of Jewish origin (Neander, Gans, Benary, Weil, Benfey, Stahl, Dernberg, Valentin, Lazarus, Herz, Steinthal)—certainly a most startling fact. Oppert, Darmesteter, Bernays, Sanders, Karl Marx, Lassalle, Emil Franzos, Crémieux (q.v.), Jessel, Sylvester, Meldola, Emma Lazarus are likewise eminent names in literature, law, and science; while in finance, statesmanship, and philanthropy the names of Rothschild (q.v.), D'Israeli, Montefiore (q.v.) are universally familiar. Another extraordinary and well-authenticated fact is that the European press, no less than European finance, is to a great extent under their control; while, on the other hand, names like Heine, B. Börne, Berthold Auerbach, Henriette Herz, Jules Janin, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Halévy, Meyerbeer, Moscheles, Joachim, Ernst, Rubinstein, Wieniawski, Grisi, Braham, Giuglini, Da Costa, Rachel, Davison, Bendemann, besides hosts of others less familiar to English ears, who shine in all branches of art—music, sculpture, painting, the drama, &c.—show plainly how unjust is the reproach of their being an 'abstract' people, without sense for the bright side of life and the arts that embellish it. Briefly—they are, by the unanimous verdict of the historians and philosophers of our times, reckoned among the chief promoters of the development of humanity and civilisation. What has been their reward we have seen. Happily the growth of religious toleration, which is the distinctive feature of the present age, has changed all this. In every country to which modern civilisation has penetrated Jews now enjoy, if not the full social recognition which is accorded them in England and France, all ordinary civil and political rights. Russia and Roumania alone, among western peoples, still maintain towards them an attitude of medieval barbarism. But so anomalous a condition of affairs cannot long continue, and the time is surely not far distant when even in these countries they will be accorded a fair measure of the rights of humanity.

For the history of the Jews during the BIBLICAL PERIOD, consult the histories of Ewald, Stanley, Kuenen, Wellhausen, Renan, Herzfeld, Schürer, Stade, Kittel, and works by Edersheim. GENERAL JEWISH HISTORY: Graetz, Jost, Milman, and the smaller works by Palmer, Hosmer, Adams, Morison, Cassel, Magnus. JEWS IN ENGLAND: Picciotto, Margoliouth, Jacobs. Schaible's Die Juden in England (1890), and the publications of the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition. HISTORY OF RELIGION: (1) Biblical: Kuenen's Religion of Israel, the books on the Prophets by Kuenen, W. R. Smith, and Duhm; on Old Testament theology generally by Oehler, Schultz, and Riehm; W. R. Smith's Old Testament in the Jewish Church, and Lectures on the Religion of the Semites; and Baudissin's Studien zur Semitischen Religionsgeschichte. (2) General: Jost, Geschichte des Judenthums u. s. Sekten; Geiger, Judenthum u. seine Geschichte; Weiss's History of Jewish Tradition (in Hebrew). (3) Modern: Ritter, Geschichte der Jüdischen Reformation; Friedlander's Text-book of the Jewish Religion (1891). JEWISH LITERATURE: Karpeles, Steinschneider, Etheridge, and Stern. ART: Perrot and Chipiez; Madden's Coins of the Jews. JEWISH LIFE: 'The Jewish Library,' edited by Joseph Jacobs, the first vol.—by Israel Abrahams, editor of the Jewish Quarterly—being Jewish Life in the Middle Ages (1897, based on Gudemann and others); Jewish Ideals, by Joseph Jacobs (1896); the works of Emil Franzos (The Jews of Barnow, &c., trans.); Children of the Ghetto (1892), Dreamers of the Ghetto (1898); and other works by Zangwill. The movement called 'Zionism,' founded in 1897 for the purpose of securing the settlement of Jews in the Holy Land, has annual congresses; the Dreyfus case in France revealed an unsuspected amount of anti-Semitic bitterness.

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