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, 1649-1656Manasseh ben Israel
History
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
Manasseh ben Israel
Jews -- Great Britain
The Jewish battle was won, and nothing now remained but to secure the
fruits of victory in an inexpugnable form. What followed is, in detail,
a matter of conjecture, but the broad lines of the settlement we know
from the petition of the Corporation of the City of London, already
quoted. Rights of “cohabitation and trade in these dominions” were
formally accorded to the Jews in writing.[150] That this happened before
the end of 1656 we may gather from a statement of Cromwell’s intimate
friend, Samuel Richardson, who, in his “Plain Dealing,” published in
that year, says of the Protector, “He hath owned the poor despised
people of God, and advanced many of them to a better way and means of
living.”[151] The first steps were probably taken on the 26th June, when
the longdeferred petition of the Marranos for a license to acquire a
burial-ground and for a confirmation in writing of their rights of
residence and worship came up for consideration.[152] The Council, still
reluctant to engage their responsibility, made no entry of the
discussion in their Order Book, and it was probably arranged that
Cromwell should personally confirm the Jewish right of residence,
subject to an understanding that the spirit of the recommendations
presented to the Council after the Whitehall Conferences should be
observed. The right to acquire a cemetery was certainly granted.
Cromwell probably further engaged himself to instruct the London city
authorities to place no impediments in the way of the Jews trading on an
equality with other citizens.[153] On their side, the Marranos must have
agreed not to assist in an indiscriminate immigration of their
co-religionists, not to obtrude their worship and ceremonies on the
public, not to engage in religious controversy, and not to make
converts.[154] The restriction with regard to worshipping in private
houses was also probably revised, and the maintenance of a synagogue,
subject to the other conditions, sanctioned.[155] In February 1657
Antonio de Carvajal and another leading Marrano, Simon de Caceres,
signed the lease for a Jewish cemetery in Mile End.[156] Shortly
afterwards another result of the settlement was made public. Solomon
Dormido, a son of David Abarbanel Dormido and nephew of Menasseh ben
Israel, was admitted to the Royal Exchange as a duly licensed broker of
the City of London, the authorities waiving in his favour the
Christological oath essential to the induction of all brokers.[157] As
wholesale trading in the City was transacted exclusively through
brokers, the admission of a Jew to that limited fraternity is a
substantial proof of the acquisition of untrammelled trading rights by
the new community.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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