History of the Jews, Vol. 5 (of 6)Graetz, Heinrich
History
History of the Jews, Vol. 5 (of 6)
Graetz, Heinrich
Jews -- History
Like mother, like daughter. At about this time the banishment of
Jews from Vienna and the arch-duchy of Austria was decreed at the
instigation of the daughter of the Spanish regent, the empress
Margaret, an ally of the Jesuits. The emperor did not easily allow
himself to be prejudiced against Jews, from whom he derived a certain
revenue. The community of Vienna alone, grown to nearly two thousand
souls, paid a yearly tax of 10,000, and the country community of 4,000,
florins. Including the income from Jews in other places, the emperor
received from them 50,000 florins annually. But an empress need not
trouble herself about finance; she can follow the inclinations of
her heart, and Margaret's heart, filled with Jesuitism, hated Jews
profoundly, and her father-confessor strengthened the feeling. Having
met with an accident at a ball, she wished to testify her gratitude to
heaven which had wonderfully preserved her, and could find no means
more acceptable to God than the misery of Jews. More urgently than
before she entreated her imperial consort to banish from the capital
and the country the Jews, described by her father-confessor as outcasts
of hell, and she received his promise. With trumpet-sound it was made
known in Vienna (February 14, 1670) that by the emperor's command the
Jews were to quit the city within a few months on pain of death. They
left no measure untried to avert the stroke. Often before had similar
resolutions been recalled by Austrian emperors. The Jews cited the
privileges accorded them in writing, and the services which they had
rendered the imperial house. They offered large sums of money (there
were very rich court Jews at Vienna), used the influence of persons
connected with the court, and, after a solemn service in honor of the
recovery of the emperor from sickness, presented him as he left the
church with a large gold cup, and the empress with a handsome silver
basin and jug. The presents were accepted, but the command was not
recalled.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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