Seder Olam Revisited: C44- Inquisition

CHRONOLOGY OF JEWISH HISTORY

Generation 44: Hebrew years 5160-5280 (1400-1520 CE)

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To return to the list of chronological generations from Seder Olam Revisited, click here.

Introduction

This chronological generation witnesses the continuation of persecutions against the Jews, or their expulsions, but also internal upheavals in Christian and Muslim dominions, and in the conflicts between them. It is a generation of changes that will affect the next generations.

Hebrew Year	CE	Event	Source
5173	1413	Disputation of Tortosa
5175	1415	Solomon Alami	Iggeret Musar
5192	1432	French Jews in Hungary	Thomas Wright, "Early Travels in Palestine"
5213	1453	Fall of Constantinople ; end of the Eastern Roman Empire
5229	1469	The Catholic monarchs in unified Spain
5238	1478	The Spanish Inquisition	Joseph Ha-Cohen, the Vale of the Tears
5238	1478	Abraham Zacuto, Perpetual Almanac
5248	1488	Obadiah of Bertinoro in Jerusalem
5252	1492	Fall of Granada, end of Muslim presence in Spain
5252	1492	Expulsion of the Jews from Spain	Theophile Malvezin, Histoire des Juifs de Bordeaux
5252	1492	Columbus discovers America
5257	1497	Expulsion of the Jews from Portugal	Montaigne, Essais
5258	1498	Expulsion of the Jews from Provence
5266	1506	Massacre of Jews in Lisbon
5277	1517	The Ottomans conquer Jerusalem
5277	1517	Martin Luther	Luther, Correspondence and other contemporary letters

Year 5173 – 1413 CE – The Disputation of Tortosa

In Tortosa, Spain, Jewish sages were asked to represent the Jews in a new disputation. As it happened before, in Paris and in Barcelona, it was initiated by a converted Jewish physician, Geronimo de Santa Fe (meaning "Holy Faith") previously called Joshua ben Joseph ibn Vives (also Joshua ha-Lorki in other sources, otherwise nicknamed as the Blasphemer by his fellow Jews), who convinced his patient Antipope Benedict XIII to convey such contest. But this time, there were of reprisals from the Inquisition against the Jewish debaters.

The disputation started on 7 February 1413. The main tool used by Geronimo de Santa Fe was a midrash published in Spain by Christians, which the Jewish sages rejected it as forgery. Yet the debate continued for two weeks, after which time the Dominican inquisitors declared the Christian side as clear winner. When the Jewish debaters had asked for free debate, they were told that this venue was not a debate but an opportunity for the Jewish community to learn that Christianity was rooted in Jewish Scriptures and that Jesus was their expected Messiah. This set the tone for this disputation and its real goal.

The debate was however called again from May to August 1413, this time to discuss the forthcoming redemption. When the Jews stated that Jesus did not bring the people of Israel out from their places scattered in the world, and that their situation of exile was still in vigor, they were told that the redemption from Jesus was spiritual rather than physical. Further they were told that their refusal to accept Jesus as the Messiah was the only cause for their continuous state of exile.

In a last phase opened in January 1414, the discussion continued about the Messiah. For the Jewish debaters, his existence was a matter of faith because he was not explicitly mentioned in the Torah. Thus, the use of midrashim to "prove" his existence, while midrashim were only Haggadic interpretations of the Scriptures, was a devious approach.

The debate continued until May 1414 at which time Geronimo provided his own conclusions and formally closed the disputation in December 1414. By fear of reprisals, 12 Jewish personalities, mostly rabbis, out of 14 who participated to the disputation, had converted! Only Rabbi Ferrer and Joseph Albo remained in their faith.

The result of the disputation was foreseen: the Christians claimed victory and an order was passed, as in Paris, to burn the Jewish books, Talmud and other works. The Jews felt threatened of further ordeal and many influential Jewish families felt the need to convert, as did their debating leaders, and avoid persecutions.

But, in April 1416, a new king ruled Aragon, Alfonso V. He cancelled every legislation passed against the Jewish community and even allowed those who were compelled to convert to Christianity to return to their faith should they feel the desire to do so.

Following this disputation, a book was written in Hebrew by one of the Jewish debaters, Joseph Albo, the Sefer ha-Ikkarim (the "Book of Principles") to clarify for the endangered Jewish community the mainstream ideas of Judaism, which are not focused solely on the expectation of the Messiah. The main principles being explained are: 1- belief in the existence of One God, 2- belief in His revelation, 3- belief in His justice with reward and punishment.

As for Geronimo de Santa Fe, he had several sons. Some of them eventually returned to Judaism or hid their Jewish belief as Marranos. Most of Geronimo descendants were ether expelled from Spain in 1492 or burned at the stake as Marranos between 1497 and 1499 after trials by the Inquisition.

Year 5175 – 1415 CE – Solomon Alami

Alami witnessed the persecutions of 1391 in Spain (see document C43, year 1391) and found refuge in Portugal. In a book he wrote, Iggeret Musar (meaning "Letter of Advice"), he exposed the reasons for which the terrible catastrophes fell upon the Jewish communities of Spain in his times after centuries of golden age:

If we ask ourselves why all this happened to us, then we have to accept the truth: we ourselves are at fault [...] Our scholars were jealous of each other and disrespectful [...]  There are those of our brethren who expend all their energies in solving Talmudic problems and in writing numberless commentaries and novellæ dealing in minute distinctions and interpretations, full of useless subtleties as thin as cobwebs. They diffuse darkness instead of light, and lower respect for the Law. There were scholars who attempted to interpret the Torah in the Greek manner and clothe it in Greek dress. They believe that Plato and Aristotle had brought to us more light than Moses our master [...] It serves no good to quote Scriptures as support for philosophical opinions: the way of reason and the way of faith are too far apart and will never meet [...]

The next in line of decadence were the leaders of the communities and those favored and trusted by the kings. Their riches and their high position made them forsake humility [...] They acquired costly carriages and horses, dressed in precious garments [...] They gave up study and industry, and cultivated idleness, vainglory and inordinate ambition [...] Everyone chased after these coveted positions; envy estranged a man from his fellow and they didn't mind denouncing one another before the court [...] The burden of taxation they shifted to the poorer classes. In the end the court itself found them despicable and removed them from power [...] There is no communal spirit among us; people quarrel over trifles. [...] Therefore the great punishment came: it was inevitable. (Solomon Alami, Iggeret Musar, 1415)

And Alami was right in his analysis. The catastrophes come upon Jews when assimilation threatens the core of their existence and when divisions thrived in their communities. This is the lesson that has repeated since the time of the Hebrews in Egypt, since the Israelites in Persia during the time of Esther and Mordechai, and in the time of the Hasmonean dynasty followed by the collapse of the Jewish nation at the time of the Romans. And there will be more of such divisions to come.

Year 5192 – 1432 CE – French Jews in Hungary

In February 1432, Bertrandon de la Brocquière, a nobleman from Ghent in Belgium, started a travel to the Holy Land. On his return, he crossed Europe after a stop in Constantinople which was still Christian at the time in 1433. When he arrived at Buda, one part of the city that later became Budapest, he wrote:

The town is governed by Germans, as well in respect to police as commerce, and what regards the different professions. Many Jews live there who speak French well, several of them being descendants of those driven formerly from France. (The Travels of Bertrandon de la Brocquiere, to read it online, click here)

This testimonial is interesting because if shows that, at that time in 1432-1433, many Jews in that part of Central Europe had immigrated eastward from France after the expulsion of 1306, over 100 years before.

Year 5213 – 1453 CE – The fall of Constantinople

Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine empire, finally fell to the Muslims after a siege of about two months in April and May 1453. This meant the end of the Eastern Roman Empire which started in 395 CE. The fall of Constantinople was a matter of time, as most of the Eastern Roman Empire had already fallen to the Ottoman Empire by 1450. Only remained the area of Constantinople and part of Greece.

The region of Constantinople in 1450 (source: Wikipedia)

This capture is iconic for Historians who use it as the end of the Middle Ages, and the start of the Renaissance. Iconically, the year 1453 also marked the end of the Hundred Years' War between France and England, with all the English possessions absorbed into the French kingdom except for Calais in the north.

As for the Jews, the capture of Constantinople proved providential to them because the Ottoman Empire started to prosper and opened its doors to the Jews who were about to be expelled from Spain and Portugal in the years that followed.

Year 5229 – 1469 CE – The Catholic Monarchs

The two second cousins, Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, married in October 1469 in their late teens. Their union put an end to succession disputes in the Spanish kingdoms as they started to build a stronger unified kingdom. Isabelle received inheritance of Castile from 1474, and Ferdinand of Aragon in 1479. They were called the Catholic Monarchs by Pope Alexander VI in 1496.

Year 5234 – 1474 CE – Census of the Jews of Castile

In 1474, Henry IV, king of Castile and father of Isabella, commissioned his Jewish physician, Jacob ibn Nunes, who was also his chief judge, to arrange a census of the Jews of Castile to check the tax they had to pay to the crown annually. The document is interesting because it gives the number of almajas (Jewish quarters or ghettos) in the cities of Castile in these times (Jose Amador de los Rios, Historia de los Judios de Espana y de Portugal, 1875, Vol. iii. 590-602, published from a manuscript held at the National Library in Madrid). This number was of 217 and the tax calculated was of 453,600 maravedis which, at 3 maravedis per head of people aged 16 years and above, shows a population of 150,000 Jews in Castile, not counting infants and children. With a shorter life expectancy in these times, and a high number of children, we could assume that the number of children and infants added a further third of the Jewish population thus totaling 500,000 people, of all ages, in Castile alone.  

Year 5238 – 1478 CE – Abraham Zacuto

Abraham Zacuto (or Zacut) was a Jew from Salamanca, Castile, who became a renowned mathematician and astronomer. In 1478, he wrote a book in Hebrew, ha-Hibur ha-Gadol (the Great Compilation), which proved to be invaluable for maritime explorers in the years that followed. Because, until then, no explorer could pass the Line of the Equator without getting lost and shipwrecked, simply because the North Star was no longer in sight for them. Zacuto's book provided the necessary tool to conduct maritime travel based on the Sun, which was usable in any part of the globe. The book was so important that it was translated in Spanish as early as 1481 as Perpetual Almanac of the Heavenly Bodies (otherwise known as the Book of Tables on Celestial Motions). They were widely known as Zacuto's Tables.

Christopher Columbus met Zacuto in Spain before 1492, and the explorer's own copy of the tables, along with his hand-written side notes, is held in the National Library of Portugal. During his last voyage in 1504, one of his ships was wrecked in Jamaica and the fleet had to remain there for some time. They needed fresh supplies, but the natives were hostile and did not want to supply anything. Columbus consulted Zacuto’s Tables and found out that a lunar eclipse was scheduled for 1 March 1504. So, he threatened the Indians to deprive them from moonlight. What happened next was narrated by Ferdinand, the son of Columbus and his biographer:

The Indians observed this [the eclipse] and were so astonished and frightened that, with great cries and lamentations, they came running from all directions to the ships, carrying provisions and begging (...) and promising they would diligently supply all their needs in the future. (Ferdinand Columbus, The Life of Admiral Christopher Columbus by his son Ferdinand, 1959)

Extract from Zacuto's Perpetual Almanac

But, in 1492, Zacuto had to flee from Spain due to the edict of expulsion (see below) and was welcomed to Portugal. The Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama met several times with him in 1497, before he organized his travel around the world. Thanks to Zacuto, de Gama became the first navigator to achieve maritime travel across the Southern Hemisphere.

Abraham Zacuto left his name in the Hall of Fame of astronomers because one of the lunar craters has been named after him: the Zagut Crater.

Zacuto is also known to Jewish literature as the author of the Sefer Yuhasin (meaning the Book of Lineage), completed in 1498 after years of research, which offers an historical genealogy of the Jewish people. 

Year 5238 – 1478 CE – The Spanish Inquisition 

The Catholic Monarchs established the Spanish Inquisition in 1478, replacing the previous medieval Inquisition ordered by the Pope. This time, the Inquisition was conducted under the rule of the monarchs themselves and acted as a police force to purge Spanish society from heretics. This was particularly aimed at the Jews who had converted to Christianity in the past, under threat, and who continued to practice Judaism in secret. These Conversos (Converted), also called the Marranos (which means pigs), were often denounced to the new Spanish Inquisition which was increasing its presence, with tribunals, tortures and public executions at the stake called auto-da-fé (meaning act of faith). These executions were generally carried out during Christian festivals so that a larger crowd would be able to attend and were used as a deterrent for those who would be considered enemies of the Church.

Marranos celebrating Passover in secret (Moshe Maimon, 1893)

The Church has attempted over the years to minimize the impact of the Inquisition, stating that it was not as bad as generally thought, and revised the number of victims from over 30,000 to less than 3,000. It is hard to believe though that words or names such as "Inquisition", "auto-da-fé" or "Torquemada", would have had such an impact for centuries if the number of victims had been so low.

The Spanish Inquisition was established in 10 main cities of Spain and principally against the converted Jews from. It operated from about 1480 to 1530. So, 50 years of tribunals over 10 cities makes 500 tribunals. If we consider 3000 victims stated by the Church, it will mean 6 victims per year per city: this number is lower than the condemnations of any normal criminal tribunal and would barely justify the infamous reputation of the Spanish Inquisition !

The process to abolish the Inquisition was started by Napoleon after he invaded Spain in 1808, and it was approved by the Cortes parliament in 1813.

Year 5241 – 1481 CE – Auto-da-fé 

The first auto-da-fé took place in Seville:

On the 6th of January [1481], four days after the tribunal of Inquisition started to office, six Marranos, tortured, are condemned to death and burnt at the stake. This first auto-da-fé is celebrated with a pompous procession. The priests dressed in sumptuous costumes and covered with gold and the dignitaries dressed in black with their banners bring to the stake the misfortunate victims covered with Sanbenito [garment worn by heretics]. Seventeen others suffer the same fate some days later. In less than six months, two hundred ninety-eight new Christians suffered the punishment of the fire, and seventy-nine others were condemned to life imprisonment. All this only in Seville. during the same time, more than two thousand Marranos, all rich, are taken up to the stake in the other parts of Spain, where secondary tribunals of the Inquisition have been formed. Seventeen thousand suffer various canonical penalties. (Joseph Ha-Cohen, The Vale of the Tears, 1575, from the introduction by Julien See translated by Albert Benhamou)

Two years later, in 1483, Jews were expelled from Andalusia, where most of them had settled there since the arrival of the Muslim invasion, and some even before for some 1000 years. 

Year 5243 – 1483 CE – Torquemada

In October 1483, the Dominican Tomas de Torquemada was named Inquisitor General of Aragon, Valencia and Catalonia. Torquemada was himself a descendant of Conversos and a fierce Jew hater. He became Queen Isabella's personal confessor.

In Aragon, the news of the Inquisition was badly received. The Conversos were influential families in that region. The local inquisitor, Pedro Arbues, was murdered in Zaragoza cathedral on 14 September 1485, a few days before the Jewish New Year. This caused an outcry against the Jews and led to public revenge.

Inquisition torture chamber (Bernard Picard, "Mémoires historiques pour servir à l'histoire des Inquisitions", 1716)

Year 5248 – 1488 CE – Obadiah of Bertinoro in Jerusalem

Obadiah ben Abraham, born in Bertinoro in 1445, left his native town in Italy in 1486 to settle in Jerusalem. He arrived there in 1488 and was immediately given the role of head of the local community which was in dire situation at the time. His scholarship and sermons enabled him to restart the process of studying the Torah with the young generation in Jerusalem. His venue in fact signaled the start of a new era for the Jews of Jerusalem who desperately needed some leader in these times. About Jerusalem, he wrote in letters to his son:

Jerusalem is for the most part desolate and in ruins. I need not repeat that it is not surrounded by walls (1). Its inhabitants, I am told, number about 4000 families. As of Jews, about seventy families of the poorest class have remained. There is scarcely a family that is not in want of the commonest necessaries. One who has bread for a year is called rich. Among the Jewish population, there are many aged, forsaken widows [mostly Ashkenazi] from Germany, Spain, Portugal and other countries, so that there are seven women to one man. The land is quieter and happier than before [2]. [...]

The synagogue here is built on columns. It is long, narrow, and dark, the light entering only by the door. There is a fountain in the middle of it [3]. In the court of the synagogue, quite close to it, stands a mosque [4]. [...]

At one time, they [Jews] had more houses, but they are now heaps of rubbish and cannot be rebuilt, for the [Muslim] law of the land is that a Jew may not rebuild his ruined house without permission, and the permission often costs more than the whole house is worth. The houses in Jerusalem are of stone, none of wood or plaster. [...] Jerusalem, notwithstanding its destruction, still contains four very beautiful, long bazaars, such as I have never before seen, at the foot of Zion [5]. [...]

When I came to Jerusalem, there was a dreadful famine in the land. [...] Many Jews died of hunger, they had been seen a day or two before asking for bread, which nobody could give them, and the next day they were found dead in their houses. [...] Now the wheat harvest being over, the famine is at an end, and there is once more plenty, praise be God. [...]

The temple enclosure [the Temple Mount] has still twelve gates. Those which are called the gates of Mercy are of iron and are two in number. They look towards the east of the temple and are always closed [these composed the Golden Gate that Soliman later sealed]. [...]

The Western Wall, part of which is still standing, is composed of large, thick stones such as I have never before seen in an old building, either in Rome or in any other country. (Elkan Nathan Adler, Jewish travelers of the Middle Ages, 1927, Obadiah da Bertinoro; for a version only in Hebrew, click here)

Notes from the above:

1. The walls of the city will be rebuilt under Soliman the Magnificent around 1540.

2. There had been peaceful stability for over 200 years under Mamluk rule.

3. This synagogue was established by Nahmanides (see document C42b, year 1263). The fountain still exists today inside the synagogue.

4. This mosque still exists today in the Jewish Quarter or Jerusalem.

5. These bazaars still exist today in the Jewish Quarter and were built by the Crusaders.

Obadiah was followed by other Jews from Spain and Portugal who fled the Inquisition. They progressively came either directly to the Holy Land after the expulsions, or one or two generations later after having settled in other parts of Europe, such as Provence, Italy, Greece or in Muslim lands.

Obadiah was also the author of an authoritative commentary of the Mishnah, considered as one of the best and commonly called in the subsequent publications of the Talmud as The Bartenura. Obadiah died in Jerusalem in 1515.

Year 5252 – 1492 CE – The Fall of Granada

From 1482, the Catholic Monarchs also engaged in the Reconquista of Granada which was still Muslim under the rule of the Nasrid dynasty (see document C42b, year 1212), and the only Muslim state remaining in the Iberic Peninsula.

The war against of the Emirate of Granada took 10 years with intermittent progress, siege after siege of its Muslim cities. The ruler of Granada, Boabdil, asked from support from fellow Muslim dominions but received none, due to politics and conflicts between them.

In April 1491, the Catholic monarchs started a siege of the last city, Granada, which lasted 8 months until its surrender in early January 1492.

The surrender of Granada (Francisco Ortiz, 1882)

Boabdil and his family were allowed to leave under the surrender agreement, and he established himself in the city of Tlemcen, Algeria, where he died a few years later.

Year 5252 – 1492 CE – Expulsion of the Jews from Spain

On 31 March 1492, the Catholic monarchs issued the Alhambra Decree forcing the Jews to either convert to Christianity or to leave Spain within four months. Many of these Jews had found refuge in the tolerant Emirate of Granada and now had to leave. The deadline was set to the end of July 1492, which corresponded to the Hebrew month of Av year 5252. About one hundred years earlier, in the month of Av 5151 (August 1391), the first massacres of Jews had taken place in Christian Spain. The Hebrew year 5252 is written with the letters רבים and interpreted as the passage of Isaiah 54:1 כִּי-רַבִּים בְּנֵי-שׁוֹמֵמָה מִבְּנֵי בְעוּלָה אָמַר יְהוָה which means: 

for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, says the Lord. 

The Alhambra Decree of 1492

Many Jews who had business and wealth opted to convert rather than lose everything. Recent DNA research found that 20% of the current population of Spain and Portugal is of Jewish origin, while the Muslim/Moor descent only represents 11% (to read about it, click here).

But most Jews, who lived just ordinary lives, decided to leave. The expulsion decree threw on hazardous roads about 800,000 Jews from Spain. The departures were heart breaking for them who had lived in Spain for about 2000 years and had their ancestors buried in this land. They had to sell their property and belongings for little money because there was so much being put on sale and little number of buyers:

In Segovia, said Don Diego de Colmenares [a Spanish historian who authored a history of Segovia], the Jews spent three days in tears in the cemetery on the tombs of their ancestors. Some parents were so desperate that they sold their children to pay for their passage. Others, who managed to save some remains of their former wealth to take with them were thrown into the sea by seamen who coveted their spoil. The luckiest ones managed to escape. (Theophile Malvezin, "Histoire des Juifs de Bordeaux", 1875, page 70, translation: Albert Benhamou)

The Jews from the conquered Emirate of Granada naturally opted to go to Muslim countries, in particular in Northern Africa where many were killed on arrival by Moorish tribes, but also further east to the Ottoman Empire who was welcoming them because its ruler, Bayesid II, sent a fleet to Spanish harbors to transport Muslims and Jews alike away from Spain. In his court, the Sultan ridiculed the Catholic Monarchs for expelling so useful subjects as the Jews: 

You venture to call Ferdinand a wise ruler, he who has impoverished his own country and enriched mine! (Funk and Wagnalls, The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1912, Volume 2, p.460)

The future proved him right. As a start, in 1493, the exiled Spanish Jews introduced in Constantinople the first printing press.

The Jews who lived in cities of Northern Spain naturally headed further north towards Languedoc, Aquitaine and Provence. Some of them went to Italy. Other Jews from Western Spain went to nearby Portugal because its king granted them asylum in return for payment. And over 50,000 of the Jews, mostly the wealthy ones, opted for conversion but came under the scrutiny of the Inquisition in the years that followed and many were condemned to be burned at the stake for suspicion of secret practice of Judaism.

The Jews who succeeded to make a safe passage to North Africa mainly settled in cities of the plains and coasts of what became Algeria and Morocco. They encountered the Jews who had lived in that region for centuries before them, but mostly in the mountains, as did the Berbers initially, to keep away from the Muslim world. The local Jews were called the metushavim (meaning the settled), while the newcomers from Spain were called the megurashim (meaning the expelled). Over the next centuries, both populations would combine in a mixture referred as the Sephardim, although strictly speaking the metushavim Jews were more Oriental Jews (Mizrahim) than Hispanic Jews (Sephardim). The megurashim adopted new names, sometimes reflecting the Spanish city they originated from such as Toledano for Toledo, Marciano for Murcia, and so on.

Year 5252 – 1492 CE – Columbus discovers America

The year 1492 is also the year when Christopher Columbus departed from Spain to the Indies and found the American continent instead. His plan had previously been rejected by Portugal, Genoa, Venice and England. So, he presented it to the Catholic monarchs in 1486 thanks to Abraham Zacuto who introduced Columbus to Don Isaac Abrabanel who had his entries to the royal court. After six years of financial support from the monarchs, and just after they conquered the Emirate of Granada, they finally granted Colombus what he needed for the expedition despite negative advice from their entourage.

Columbus before the Catholic monarchs in Cordoba (Emmanuel Leutze, 1843, Brooklyn Museum)

After four voyages to America, Columbus died in Spain in 1506, two years after Queen Isabella. Shortly before his death, he wrote a Book of Prophecies in which he showed his passion about liberating the Holy Land from Muslim hands to allow Jesus to return. He also wrote that the Garden of Eden ought to be found.

Was Columbus Jewish?

In recent years, several scholars have demonstrated that Columbus descended from a Jewish family who escaped persecution in Spain and found refuge in Genoa. The facts were explained in an article that stated (report from CNN, Charles Garcia, 20 May 2012; to read it, click here): 

• Columbus' will contained provisions derived from Jewish tradition, such as giving 10% of his assets to tithes.

• Twelve letters (out of thirteen known letters) addressed to his son contained a cryptic symbol on the left (top) side of the letter; it was suggested that these were Beth and Hei letters in Hebrew, as Jews would normally write, which are initials of Be-ezrat Hashem meaning "with God's help".

Columbus' letter to his son

• His signature, that he asked his heirs to use, contains dots and letters in a cryptic format that is similar to those found in Jewish tombs of Spain; they are the initials of a Hebrew prayer in Latin and Hebrew: Sanctus. Sanctus, Adonai, Sanctus. Chesed Moleh Yehovah meaning "God. God, Lord, God. Lord grant mercy" (read it from right to left, as in Hebrew).

Columbus' signature

For many Jews of 1492, the fall of the last Muslim dominion in Spain followed by the decree of expulsion that put hundreds of thousands of them on the roads to exile, was seen as a Messianic sign. In addition, 1492 is 5252 in Hebrew calendar, which is twice 2626, 26 being the number of God's four letters name (for Jewish symbolism of numbers, click here). There is a theory that Columbus was a Messianic Jew. Also, it is worth noting that the expedition of Columbus, although finally approved by the Catholic monarchs, was mostly financed by Jewish Conversos, mainly by Luis de Santangel, the finance minister to Ferdinand, and also Gabriel Sanchez, the treasurer of the kingdom of Aragon. It is assumed that some passengers of his expedition were Conversos who had to flee from the claws of Inquisition.

Year 5257 – 1497 CE – Expulsion of the Jews from Portugal

Many Jews initially found refuge in nearby Portugal after their expulsion from Spain in 1492, because King Joao II granted them asylum. This king disliked the Catholic monarchs and conflicted with Castile after the return of Columbus from his expedition. The tension had been aggravated by the fact that the Catholic monarchs had no male heir, only daughters, and the eldest of them had been married to Joao's son and heir, Alfonso. The latter would become king of both Portugal and Spain after the Catholic monarchs would die. But Alfonso died from a horse-riding accident and there was suspicion that Spain had orchestrated it to. remove the threat of the crown of Spain going to Portugal. Since Joao showed bitterness towards the Spanish monarchy, this had led him to welcome the Spanish Jews to Portugal, in return for payment from them. But many more Jews entered Portugal "illegally" and Joao jailed those he could catch and enslaved many of them some months later.

However, Joao died of poisoning in 1495, at the young age of 40, with no heir. History books do not mention this but a Jewish chronicle of these times, The Vale of the Tears, stated that this assassination was arranged by Portuguese lords who disliked the total power that Joao exerted in his reign, and wanted to Favour an alliance rather than a war with Spain.

Joao's cousin Manuel succeeded him. Manuel was not particularly against the Jews and even freed all those who were imprisoned. But he desired to marry the heiress of Castile, widow of Alfonso, and the Pope intervened in the transaction. One condition for this marriage was that Portugal had to apply the same policy towards the Jews. So, in December 1496, Manuel passed a decree to expel the Jews from Portugal, without their children, or must convert:

He [Bishop Osorius] says that this [decree] produced a most horrid spectacle the natural affection between the parents and their children, and moreover their zeal to their ancient belief, contending against this violent decree, fathers and mothers were commonly seen making themselves away, and by a yet much more rigorous example, precipitating out of love and compassion their young children into wells and pits, to avoid the severity of this law. As to the remainder of them, when the time that had been fixed expired, for want of means to transport them, they were again returned to slavery. Some also turned Christians, upon whose faith, as also that of their posterity, even to this day, which is a hundred years since, few Portuguese can yet rely, though custom and length of time are much more powerful counsellors in such changes than all other constraints whatever. (Michel de Montaigne, Essays, first published 1580, book I, chapter XL)

The author of these lines, Michel de Montaigne, was a wealthy Jew, Pedro Lopes, who fled from Zaragoza and settled in the city of Bordeaux in Aquitaine, France. Montaigne's mother was Antoinette de Louppes, meaning Lopes (Theophile Mazerin,"Michel de Montaigne; son origine, sa famille", 1875).

So, in essence, many Jews with families opted for the conversion rather than leaving their children behind. This was made possible because Manuel would not admit the Inquisition to question the faith of these "New Christians" and he even granted them 30 years of freedom without being investigated. For example, the Zacuto family converted under such condition and took names such as Rodriguez and Nunez, and they were able to continue practice Judaism in secret for 30 years. Yet, as Montaigne wrote it, length of time is a powerful counsellor. This situation led to assimilation of their children over the years, except those who decided to finally leave Portugal for other countries, such as Holland, where they returned to the Jewish faith and retook their family name Zacuto. One of them, Rabbi Moses ben Mordechai Zacuto (1625-1697), became a famous kabbalist under the acronym name Ramaz. As of Abraham Zacuto himself, he did not convert and fled with his son to Tunis, where the latter married, and from there Zacuto travelled alone to Jerusalem where he spent his last years of life before his death in 1514, the year he had predicted for the venue of the Messiah !

As of those Jews who were without children, many of them left Portugal in 1497 and mostly went north to Holland, a more welcoming region, leading to the establishment of a strong Spanish and Portuguese community in Amsterdam. Some of them even went to London, where Jews were not allowed since the expulsion of 1290. The Spanish and Portuguese Jews who arrived there before and after 1492 where Marranos who continued to practice Judaism in secret, without the scrutiny of the Spanish Inquisition.

Fate of the monarchs of the expulsions

What happened to the dynasties of Spain and Portugal? The only son of Ferdinand and Isabella was of feeble health and died in that fateful year of 1497, thus putting at risk the dynasty of Spain. As of the wife of Manuel of Portugal, she died in childbirth in 1498. Manuel remarried in 1500 with one of his wife's sisters who gave birth to a son and heir in 1502. 

In Spain, Joanna, the eldest daughter of the Catholic monarchs, started to reign in Castile from 1504, after the death of her mother Isabella, while her father Ferdinand continued to reign over Aragon. But Joanna was named "the Mad". Her marriage led to the dynasty of Habsburg to rule over Spain in the years that followed. 

So, in conclusion, all four royal dynasties in England, France, Spain and Portugal experienced succession crisis within a short number of years after they decreed the expulsion of Jews from their dominions. All the heirs of the monarchs who made such decrees in France, Spain and Portugal died, and the heir of England, Edouard II, was assassinated by his own wife who ruled over England with her lover and partner in crime.

Year 5258 – 1498 CE – Expulsion of the Jews from Provence

Provence had been a shelter for Jews since Roman times and especially in the Middle Ages where Jews were expelled from France in 1306, a decree that was renewed in 1394. But, with the death of the last independent ruler of Provence, Rene, in 1480, the dominion passed under the crown of France. Anti-Jewish disorders started in 1484 with calls for their expulsion, despite the initial protection from the king of France, Charles VIII. Monks and priests incited the population of Provence against the Jews again in 1489, 1493 and 1495, and repeated their request to expel them. The next French monarch, Louis XII, finally ceded to these Christian pressures and issued a decree of expulsion of the Jews in 1498. Some 150 Jewish families preferred to stay and converted to Christianity, but they were heavily taxed from 1512 as "neophytes". As for those who left Provence, many of them embarked for the Ottoman Empire and settled in Constantinople.

Year 5266 – 1506 CE – The massacre of Lisbon

After the decree of expulsion from Portugal, many Jews had remained in Lisbon, faking conversion to Christianity rather than leave their children behind. They were soon caught up by the resentment of the Christian population, fed by Dominican friars, who massacred or burned at the stake 2000 of them on 19 April 1506 (Pesach day, 15 Nisan 5266).

The massacre of Lisbon (German engraving depicting Christian friars leading the populace)

The Portuguese crown also established their Inquisition in 1536, which lasted until 1821 when Napoleon abolished it.

Year 5277 – 1517 CE – The Ottomans conquer Jerusalem

The Ottomans had been in conflict against the Mameluks of Egypt since 1485. This was one of the causes of the fall of the Emirate of Granada as no Muslim nation, allied to one party or another, could commit to support the Muslims in their war against the Christian Reconquista. The Ottoman Sultan Selim I, the son of Bayesid II who had welcomed the Jews from Spain in 1492, had probably gained divine merit as he first won against the Persians in 1514. This enabled him to take over a part of their empire. He then turned against the Mameluks who ruled over Syria and Palestine.

How did the Ottomans win against these fierce Mamluks warriors, especially good on horseback? The Ottomans had a more disciplined infantry and more advanced artillery firepower than the Mamluks who heavily relied on their cavalry. Often battles are won with technological advantage and discipline on the battlefield. The Ottomans also had a larger force with fresher experience of war.

In 1516, Selim conquered the Land of Israel and took Jerusalem in 1517. The region thus passed under the Ottoman control and will remain so for 400 years until 1917 when General Allenby of the British Forces liberated the region during WW-I.

This conquest of Jerusalem by the Ottomans and the subsequent period of 400 years had been predicted by Rabbi Judah of Regensburg back in 1217, although this claim is controversial (see document C42b, year 1217).

Year 5277 – 1517 CE – Luther exposes his theory

Martin Luther, a German monk, disputed the idea that money could cancel God's punishment against sinners who thought they could avoid the fires of Hell. The Roman Catholics authorities in Rome had launched a fund-rising system of so-called indulgences whereas the buyer of them would have his sins canceled. The issue was that this system led to abuse and corruption by local clerics to extort money from people. Luther denounced this system by publishing his theory: Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, in 1517. He nailed this document on the door of All Saints' Church of Wittenberg on 31 October 1517 (this day is celebrated by Protestants as Reformation Day).

Initially, Luther was looking at the Jews as having a role in the destiny of Christianity. He criticized the Jew-hatred that existed since the time of Emperor Justinian in a letter he wrote in January 1514 to Revd. George Spalatin:

I have come to the conclusion that the Jews will always curse and blaspheme God and his King Christ, as all the prophets have predicted. He who neither reads nor under understands this, as yet knows no theology in my opinion. And so, I presume that the men of Cologne cannot understand the Scripture because it is necessary that such things take place to fulfil prophecy. If they are trying to stop the Jews blaspheming, they are working to prove the Bible and God liars. But trust God to be true, even if a million men of Cologne sweat to make him false. Conversion of the Jews will be the work of God alone operating from within, and not of man working — or rather playing — from without. (Luther's Correspondence and other Contemporary Letters, edited by Preserved Smith, Philadelphia, 1913, volume 1, page 29)

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Albert Benhamou

Private Tour Guide in Israel

Tishri 5786 - October 2025