_H. H. R._ MANASSEH BEN-ISRAEL _Haham_ J. J. A. _de_ LEON _H. H. R._ ISAAC ABOAB [_Templo_]  _da_ FONSECA _From rare engravings lent by Israel Solomons_ In 1603 Joseph Ben-Israel, the father of Manasseh, and his wife Rachel Soeiro, secretly left Lisbon. He had been a victim of the Inquisition, which deprived him of his wealth, and on three distinct occasions had been subjected to excruciating tortures, which undermined his health. They apparently fled to La Rochelle, France, for it was here that Manasseh was shortly afterwards born, in 1604, as is attested by his marriage certificate, deposited in the Archives of the City of Amsterdam (Puiboek, No. 669, _fo._ 95 _verso_, 15 Aug. 1623). Here he was also baptized, as it was not until his parents arrived at Amsterdam that they dared avow their faith in the God of _Israel_. In a holograph letter¹ of Manasseh to an unknown correspondent (suggested by Mr. E. N. Adler, the owner, to be Gerard John Vossius) he writes: “... and the _Thesoro delos Dinim_ (Appendix xxiii) of our rites and ceremonies, the last in my Portuguese mother tongue, for I am a Lisbonian by patrimony....” He did not claim Lisbon as his own birthplace, but as that of his father. Most of his connections were with Spanish and Portuguese Jews, though he was opposed to any sort of separation, condemning it in his writings, and emphasizing the necessity of Jewish unity and brotherhood. It is noteworthy that a hundred and twenty-six years later, when the father of Jewish Rationalism, Moses Mendelssohn (1729‒1786), had to defend Judaism and the Jewish people, he found no better apology than Manasseh’s _Vindiciae Judæorum_ (1656), which was translated into German, and for which he wrote the admirable _Vorrede_ (Appendix xxiv). ¹ AMSTERDAM, ultimo de Janʳᵒ, 1648. Magᵉᵒ y muy docto Sʳ _... y el Thesoro de los dinim de nuestros ritos y ceremonias, este en mi lengua materna lusitana_, porq’ yo _soy por patria Lixbonense_.... Con esto _me despide, hora vale amantissimo_ S. EL HAHAM MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL. _Jewish Quarterly Review_, No. 63, _p._ 569, vol. xvi., April, 1904.――_About Hebrew Manuscripts_, by Elkan Nathan Adler ... London ... 1905, _pp._ 65‒77――_The Jewish Historical Society of England Transactions_ ... Edinburgh and London. 1908 ... _pp._ 177‒183. CHAPTER VIII. PURITAN FRIENDS OF THE JEWS Newes from Rome――Rev. Dr. William Gouge――Sir Henry Finch, Sergeant-at-law――King James I.――Archbishop Laud――Archbishop Abbot――Roger Williams――Johanna Cartwright and her son Ebenezer ――John Harrison――Rev. John Dury――Rev. Henry Jessey――Rev. Thomas Fuller――Re-admission and Restoration――Manasseh and the Puritans. THE publication of a tract in 1607, entitled:――