MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL’S MISSION TO _OLIVER CROMWELL_ [Illustration: Menasseh ben Israel from an Etching by Rembrandt ] MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL’S MISSION TO _OLIVER CROMWELL_ Being a reprint of the Pamphlets published by _MENASSEH BEN ISRAEL_ to promote the _Re-admission of the Jews to England_ 1649–1656 _Edited with an Introduction and Notes_ _By_ LUCIEN WOLF _Past-President and Vice-President of the Jewish Historical Society of England Co-Editor of the “Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica,” &c. &c._ [Illustration: PEREGRINANDO QUAERIMUS] Published for the _Jewish Historical Society of England_ _By_ MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED, LONDON 1901 TO MY WIFE ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PREFACE The Jewish Historical Society of England, soon after its establishment, resolved on the publication of the present volume as a memorial of Menasseh ben Israel, whose name must always hold the chief place on the first page of the history of the present Anglo-Jewish community. The Society did me the honour of entrusting me with the preparation of the work. Menasseh’s tracts have been printed in facsimile. They have not been reproduced by any photographic process, but have been entirely reset in types similar to those employed in the original. Thanks to the resources of the printing establishment of Messrs. Ballantyne, Hanson & Co. of Edinburgh, and the taste and care they have devoted to the work, a much finer effect has been produced than would have been possible had photography been employed, while exact fidelity to the originals has not been sacrificed. To me the preparation of this volume has been a labour of love. Nothing in the whole course of a very varied literary career, extending over nearly thirty years, has fascinated me so much as the story of the Return of the Jews to England. Its mysteries belong to the highest regions of historical romance, and it forms a page of history which is a real acquisition both to the annals of the British Empire and to that wider and more thrilling panorama of human activities which depicts the fortunes of my own co-religionists. I have not, however, spoken the last word on this subject in the present volume, which is chiefly concerned with the transaction with Oliver Cromwell in 1655–56 and its proximate causes. I hope to tell the whole story in detail in another volume, which I have long had in preparation for the “Jewish Library.”