Arguments Against the Christian Religion in Amsterdam by Saul Levi Morteira, Spinoza's Rabbi 9789048529261

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Arguments against the Christian Religion in Amsterdam

Amsterdam Studies in the Dutch Golden Age Founded in 2000 as part of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the Amsterdam Centre for the Study of the Golden Age (Amsterdams Centrum voor de Studie van de Gouden Eeuw) aims to promote the history and culture of the Dutch Republic during the ‘long’ seventeenth century (c. 1560-1720). The Centre’s publications provide insight into the lively diversity and continuing relevance of the Dutch Golden Age. They offer original studies on a wide variety of topics, ranging from Rembrandt to Vondel, from Beeldenstorm (iconoclastic fury) to Ware Vrijheid (True Freedom) and from Batavia to New Amsterdam. Politics, religion, culture, economics, expansion and warfare all come together in the Centre’s interdisciplinary setting. Editorial control is in the hands of international scholars specialised in seventeenth-century history, art and literature. For more information see http://en.aup.nl/series/amsterdam-studies-in-the-dutch-golden-age or http://acsga.uva.nl/ Editorial Board Frans Blom, University of Amsterdam Michiel van Groesen, Leiden University Geert H. Janssen, University of Amsterdam Elmer E.P. Kolfin, University of Amsterdam Nelleke Moser, VU University Amsterdam Henk van Nierop, University of Amsterdam Claartje Rasterhoff, University of Amsterdam Emile Schrijver, University of Amsterdam Thijs Weststeijn, Utrecht University Advisory Board H. Perry Chapman, University of Delaware Harold J. Cook, Brown University Benjamin J. Kaplan, University College London Orsolya Réthelyi, Eötvös Loránd University Budapest Claudia Swan, Northwestern University

Arguments against the Christian Religion in Amsterdam

by Saul Levi Morteira, Spinoza’s Rabbi Ed., intro., trans., and notes by Gregory B. Kaplan

Amsterdam University Press

Cover illustration: Rembrandt van Rijn, Old Man in an Armchair, 1665. Uffizi Gallery, Florence. Cover design: Kok Korpershoek bno, Amsterdam Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout 978 94 6298 010 5 isbn e-isbn 978 90 4852 926 1 doi 10.5117/9789462980105 nur 695 © G.B. Kaplan / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam, 2017 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of this book.

For Nuria and Andrew, my two favorite people

Content Acknowledgements

9

List of abbreviations

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Introduction Ets Haim Library ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206]: A ‘Monuments Men’ manuscript Morteira’s youth in the Venetian Ghetto The converso heritage of Morteira’s congregants in Amsterdam Crypto-Judaism Rejudaization Morteira’s role in rejudaization The Portuguese Nation Plot summary of Arguments against the Christian Religion in Amsterdam (ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206]) The Portuguese Nation in Arguments against the Christian Religion in Amsterdam Crypto-Judaism and rejudaization in Arguments Converso protagonists in Arguments: Historical precedents The influence of Lazarillo de Tormes on Arguments The influence of Spanish Golden Age theater on Arguments Arguments: Biblical sources Arguments: Eschatology, rejudaization and Baruch Spinoza Biographical notes on Miguel López and notes on his messianic images Translator’s notes on ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206]

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36 40 41 43 45 51 63 74 76

Notes to introduction

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Arguments against the Christian Religion in Amsterdam

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13 17 22 25 29 31 33 35

Notes to Arguments

159

Works Cited

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Index of direct and indirect biblical quotations in Arguments

199

Index to Introduction

205

Acknowledgements The sabbatical time that was essential to the completion of this project, graciously granted to me by my institution, the University of Tennessee, was funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship and a University of Tennessee Humanities Center Fellowship. I wish to thank Dr. Alan Rutenberg, of the Office of Research at the University of Tennessee, for his time and dedication in working with me as I crafted two successful fellowship proposals. I am grateful for the generous assistance of several individuals in Amsterdam, including Dr. Emile Schrijver, professor of Jewish Book History at the University of Amsterdam and curator of the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana, Ruth Peeters and Heidi Warncke, curators of the Ets Haim Library, and Inge van der Bijl at Amsterdam University Press. The images from ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] that appear in this volume (Plates 1 and 2) are included with the permission of the Ets Haim Library of the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam. I would also like to thank Anna Bottinelli Edsel and Casey Shelton, researchers at the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art (Dallas, TX, USA). I express my sincere gratitude to Karin Bleeker for her hospitality during the years when I conducted research for this project and for providing the beautiful space on Prinsengracht where much of this book was composed.

b. BR c. cf. Cod. d. Dan. Deut.

List of abbreviations

born Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana circa compare Codex died Daniel Deuteronomy Edited by Ed. ed./eds. edition/editor/editors Eccles. Ecclesiastes EH Ets Haim Exod. Exodus Ezek. Ezekiel fl. flourished Fol./fol. folio Fols./fols. folios Gen. Genesis Hab. Habakkuk Hag. Haggai Heb. Hebrews H.H. Hakham (Wise Man) Hos. Hosea intro. introduction Isa. Isaiah Jer. Jeremiah

Josh.

Joshua Jewish Theological Seminary of America Lamentations Lam. Lev. Leviticus LM Livraria Montezinos Mal. Malachi Matt. Matthew Mic. Micah MS./ms. manuscript Neh. Nehemiah Num. Numbers Obad. Obadiah 1 Sam. 1 Samuel Prov. Proverbs Psalms Ps. r. reigned Rev. Revelation 2 Chron. 2 Chronicles 2 Sam. 2 Samuel trans. translated Universiteitsbibliotheek UBA Amsterdam Vol./Vols. volume/volumes Zech. Zechariah Zeph. Zephaniah JTSA

Introduction Ets Haim Library ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206]: A ‘Monuments Men’ manuscript The only textual witness to Obstaculos y opoçiçiones contra la religion xptiana en Amsterdam is a copy made in 1712 that comprises the first 85 numbered folios of ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206], which I have translated in the present volume from Spanish into English as Arguments against the Christian Religion in Amsterdam. MS. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] is stored at the Ets Haim Library of the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam. For those who wish to consult the Spanish text of Arguments, a digital version of ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] is available on the Ets Haim Bibliotheek (Ets Haim Library) website. The remaining 95 numbered folios in the manuscript include a copy of another work by the same author, Preguntas que hizo un clerigo de Ruan de Francia alas quales respondio el exelente, y eminentissimo señor H.H. Saul Levy Mortera, doctor çelebre y prophesor, de la divina theologia, y predicador de la naçion judaica en la ynsigne, y opulenta çiudad de Amsterdam (Questions posed by a French cleric that are answered by the excellent and very eminent Mr. Hacham [Wise Man] Saul Levy Mortera, celebrated doctor and teacher of divine theology and a preacher of the Jewish nation in the magnificent and opulent city of Amsterdam). The two works included in ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] were written by Rabbi Saul Levi Morteira (b. c. 1590-d. 1660), a native Venetian whose surname is sometimes spelled ‘Mortera’ as on the title page of ms. EH/ LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] (see Plate 1). Morteira wrote Arguments around 1650, toward the end of a four-decade-long career as chief rabbi in Amsterdam, during which time he presided over a congregation that included Baruch Spinoza (b. 1632-d. 1677), whose excommunication in 1656 was imposed by a rabbinic tribunal led by Morteira. MS. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] measures 19.4 x 15.6 centimeters and is copied in a clear and skilled italic style, with seventeen lines per folio side (or page). It contains 181 folios (made of paper), with the first and last three folios being blank. The illustration on the title page of ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] will be discussed in conjunction with further comments below concerning the copyist, Michael López. MS. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] is bound in an ornate leather cover whose marbled book board indicates that the process of binding occurred well after the copy by López was made. In light of Richard Wolfe’s assertion that ‘extant Dutch bookbindings indicate

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that the real beginnings of marbling in the Netherlands occurred […] just after the turn of the nineteenth century’ (55), it is logical to consider the year 1800 as a terminus a quo for the binding of ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206]. If the binding is indeed from the nineteenth century, then this task may have been accomplished around the time it passed into the sizeable collection of David Montezinos (b. 1828-d. 1916), who served as librarian of the Ets Haim Library (which is also known as Livraria Montezinos) before donating his collection, including ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206], to the library in 1889. Montezinos was succeeded as librarian by Jacob da Silva Rosa (b. 1886d. 1943). Silva Rosa’s death at the Nazi extermination camp of Sobibor, on 4 June 1943, marked a tragic moment in the history of ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206]. This history has been recounted on two occasions, the first of which was by Lajb Fuks (b. 1908-d. 1990), who worked as a librarian in Amsterdam after the Second World War: In May 1940 […] the Germans invaded the Netherlands. In the summer of that year the library was closed and sealed up, together with all the other Jewish public libraries in the Netherlands. These libraries were destined to be incorporated in the library of the Institute for Research on the Jewish Question which Nazi-leader Alfred Rosenberg [b. 1893-d. 1946] planned to create in Frankfort-on-the-Main. An attempt to hide the most valuable items in the safe of a bank unfortunately failed. A German scholar who visited the library with some of Rosenberg’s assistants found the receipt in one of the drawers. The contents of the safe were transported to Germany and were never retrieved. After this incident the library was packed in cases and after many tergiversations shipped to Germany in 1944, together with the other Dutch-Jewish libraries. The cases were stacked temporarily in a monastery in Offenbach, but the course of the war made unpacking impossible. After the war the cases were found by the American Occupational Forces in Germany and after identification shipped back to the Netherlands. In April 1946 the Sephardic congregation regained its library, but the librarian Jacob da Silva Rosa and his family were not there to rejoice. They had been deported to a German concentration-camp in 1943. The library had not only lost the contents of the safe, which consisted […] of all its Hebrew incunabula and many very rare books, but also its unique collection of etchings and engravings. The loss of manuscripts is more difficult to ascertain, because they had never been considered to be an important part of the library and were not separately catalogued by Silva Rosa. Most of the manuscripts were placed unlisted among the books on the shelves. (vii-ix)

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A more complete version of the story, which complements Fuks’ depiction, is provided by Frits Hoogewoud (b. 1941) who, like Fuks, served as a librarian at the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana, which is held by the University of Amsterdam: In 1935 the first preparations had been started for a Hohe Schule of the National Socialist Workers Party. Including a library. Located for the time being at different places. One of these institutes was the Institut zur Erforschung der Judenfrage [Institute for Research on the Jewish Question] established in Frankfurt am Main under the supervision of the Nazi-ideologist Alfred Rosenberg, to document the ‘wickedness of the Jewish race’. In March 1941 it was officially opened, with three days of festivities. […] During the previous month, on 18 February 1941, the Portuguese-Israelite Community had taken precautionary measures. […] So a number of objets d’art of exceptional value were chosen to be put in the Rijksmuseum (to be stored in an air raid shelter) and in the safe of the Kas-associatie, a bank in Amsterdam’s Spuistraat. They put five sealed cases with their most valuable items in the bank’s safe. Two cases contained more than 200 volumes and two portfolios (with loose items) from the Ets Haim library. They included eight Hebrew incunabula, the 13th-century manuscript of Maimonides’ Yad Hahazakah, about 60 manuscripts documenting the intellectual and spiritual life of the Portuguese Jewish community during the 17th and 18th century and more than 150 special prints. The selection (mainly from the former bookcases numbered 2 and 20) and the packing was most probably done by the librarian Jacob da Silva Rosa. […] This took place as the tension in Amsterdam rose, culminating in a general strike, later known as the February-strike. (‘The Looting’ 381-82)

It must be pointed out here that, according to Silva Rosa’s handwritten catalog (which was also looted by the Nazis), the manuscript I have translated in the present volume, ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206], was located on shelf 20, where it possessed the catalog number of 20 D 50. This older catalog number can still be seen, written in pencil, on the folio immediately before the title page of ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206]. The source for Hoogewoud’s inventory of the contents of the safe, an appendix to Ets Haim’s fire insurance policy dated 10 April 1941, confirms that ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206], the only surviving textual witness to Morteira’s Arguments, was considered to be among Ets Haim’s ‘most valuable items’ and that, unlike Silva Rosa believed, at least some of the contents hidden in the safe were recovered by the library.

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Hoogewoud also offers a fascinating explanation as to why the Nazis were interested in the contents of the safe, which involves the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Oliver Cromwell (b. 1599-d. 1658): The reason for collecting just these four collections of Judaica and Hebraica was given as follows [in a German report from 1941]: ‘It is probable that previously unknown sources will be uncovered regarding the age of Cromwell, as well as for the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the personal union between England and the Netherlands. In particular, new conclusions may be found about Cromwell’s relationship with the Jews—perhaps even the Jewish influence on the development of the Secret Service’. (‘The Looting’ 382)

It is intriguing to speculate that what the Nazis thought they might learn about the origins of the British Secret Service from reading works such as Arguments was tied to one of the topics I will discuss at length in the present study, namely, the centuries-old ability of Iberian conversos to act publicly as Christians but privately as Jews. Perhaps this ability to maintain public and private spiritual identities, at great risk of persecution by the Inquisition, was perceived by the Germans as the ideal foundation for the alter ego of a secret agent. Due to allied bombing of Frankfurt, ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] never arrived at the Institut zur Erforschung der Judenfrage established by the ‘Nazi-ideologist’ Rosenberg, who was executed in 1946 at Nuremberg for crimes against humanity. While it was being transferred to the Institut, ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] was one of many manuscripts rescued and returned to the Ets Haim Library by a multinational unit commissioned by U.S. president Franklin Roosevelt (b. 1882-d. 1945) in 1943 as the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section, a unit better known as the Monuments Men. The unit was comprised of some 350 men and women from fourteen countries and was largely populated by experts (museum curators, art historians, etc.) who were conscripted (some from civilian life and some from the military) in order to protect, retrieve, and return cultural artifacts stolen by the Nazis during World War II, a mission that lasted for some until the early 1950s. The report describing the recovery of the Ets Haim collection alluded to above (‘After the war the cases were found by the American Occupational Forces in Germany and after identification shipped back to the Netherlands’) was declassified in 1975 (NND 775057). This report, or ‘Receipt for Cultural Objects’, was composed in German city of Offenbach am Main on

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11 April 1946 and documents a transfer of ten library collections involving two Monuments Men, a Dutch archivist, Major (later Colonel) Dirk P.M. Graswinckel (b. 1888-d. 1960), and an American archivist, Captain (later Colonel) Seymour J. Pomrenze (b. 1916-d. 2011). On Schedule A of the report, which contains an inventory of rescued items being held at the Offenbach Archival Depot (OAD), the Ets Haim collection is listed in the following terms: ‘10 boxes JPIS: containing library and archival material from Ets Haim, Amsterdam. Contents in fair condition, boxes in fair condition, re-enforced by iron straps’.1 Another document from 30 April 1946 (and declassified in 1975 as project number NND 750168) includes a ‘Corrected Tentative List of Library Archival Collections at the OAD. 25 Apr[il] [19]46’, and lists the Ets Haim collection (under the rubric Jewish Portuguese Israel Seminarium [JPIS]) among eighteen ‘Institutional Library Collections’ from the Netherlands yet to be returned. These collections, in addition to fourteen others, were returned prior to 31 August 1946, as revealed by a ‘Monthly Report’ from that day declassified in 1977 (under the project number NND 775057), which provides, beginning on page 13, a ‘Complete list of Libraries and Book Collections restituted up to date’. On page 15, can be found the Ets Haim lot with an ‘x’ to indicate that it was a ‘large collection’. The return of these collections to the Netherlands occurred during months when many other collections were returned to European libraries as listed on report NND 775057, and the text I have translated as Arguments is one of many that would have been lost to history were it not for the heroic efforts of the men and women who served in the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives section. Today, ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] forms part of a UNESCO World Heritage Collection of Judaic texts that are again housed at Ets Haim Library in Amsterdam.

Morteira’s youth in the Venetian Ghetto For the parents of Baruch Spinoza, Rabbi Saul Levi Morteira was a young intellectual prodigy whose exegetical revelations permanently changed the spiritual landscape of Amsterdam’s Jewish community. The enduring impact of Morteira is immortalized by a contemporary poet, Miguel de Barrios (b. c. 1635-d. 1701), who depicts the success of the Keter Torah (Crown of the Law) yeshiva established and run by Morteira: [E]ver since the year of its joyous foundation, [Keter Torah] never ceased burning in the academic bush, thanks to the doctrinal leaves written by

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the most wise Saul Levi Morteira, leading his intellect to the counsel of Wisdom and his pen to the hand of Speculation, in the defense of religion and against atheism. Thorns are they that, in the Fields of impiety, aim to shine with the fire that consumes them, and the zeal of Morteira is a flame that burns in the bush of Religion, never to be extinguished. (Qtd. in Nadler, Spinoza 145-46)

As Steven Nadler explains (Spinoza 146), the terms ‘thorns’ (in the original espinos) and ‘fields’ (in the original prados) refer, respectively, to Spinoza and Juan de Prado (b. c. 1614), who was also excommunicated (in 1658) by Morteira, with the decision made in both cases reflecting Morteira’s ardent dedication to teaching and enforcing the practice of halachic (biblical/ rabbinic/Talmudic) law. In appreciation of this dedication, Barrios situates Spinoza and Morteira on distinct intellectual levels. Whereas the radical philosophical thought of Spinoza symbolizes a dangerous ‘impiety’, Morteira’s ‘zeal’ for encouraging the practice of Judaism will forever endure ‘in the defense of religion and against atheism’. Morteira was born in Venice, during the early 1590s, on an Italian peninsula policed by the Roman Inquisition but within an urban enclave where toleration of Jews was linked to efforts to bring economic prosperity through control of international trade.2 Morteira’s rise less than three decades later to the position chief rabbi in Amsterdam, initiating a career that paralleled Venice’s emergence as a global economic power, began in a center of Jewish culture settled by Jews of various ethnic backgrounds. Although anecdotal evidence suggests that there were Jews living in Venice as early as the tenth century, the Venetian Jewish community traces its origins to the arrival of Ashkenazic (German) Jews during the 1300s. The community grew after the legalization of money lending in 1382, and most of the early immigrants continued to be Ashkenazic. Tolerant policies toward Jews, such as the granting of land for a Jewish cemetery in 1386, encouraged continued expansion of the community, though there were times when toleration would wane, and during the 1400s the amount of time Jews were permitted to reside in Venice was limited and Jews were forced to wear distinguishing badges on their garments. Notwithstanding periodic waves of anti-Judaism accompanied by restrictive legislation (and, at times, the burning of Jewish books on St. Mark’s Square), by the beginning of the sixteenth century about 500 Jews could be found throughout Venice. While Jewish money lenders and pawnshop owners contributed to the Venetian economy, which in turn helped to finance military conflicts, an outbreak of anti-Judaism led in 1516 to the restriction by the Senate of the

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city’s Jews to a vacant copper foundry, which became the Venetian Ghetto (or Ghetto Nuovo): The Jews must all live together in the Corte de Case, which is in the Ghetto near San Girolamo; and in order to prevent their roaming around at night: Let there be built two Gates on the side of the Old Ghetto where there is a little Bridge, and likewise on the other side of the Bridge, that is one for each of said two places, which Gates shall be opened in the morning at the sound of the Marrangona, and shall be closed at midnight by four Christian guards appointed and paid by the Jews at the rate deemed suitable by Our Cabinet. (Qtd. in Calimani 32-33)3

In the Senate’s decree no distinction is made between Jewish communities, which reflected the fact that most Jews were Ashkenazic, a situation that would change in 1541 when the Ghetto was expanded to include the Ghetto Vecchio in order to accommodate Levantine Jews from the Ottoman Empire. The foundation of synagogues reflected the diversification of the Jewish population in the Venetian Ghetto. The first two to be established (in 1528 and 1531) were Ashkenazic synagogues, and during the following decades Levantine (1538) and Italian (1575) synagogues were founded, with a Sephardic (Spanish) synagogue being added in 1584. It is instructive to point out that, while the Venetian Jewish communities all adhered to the same fundamental tenets of Judaism, the two ethnic groups of import to the present study, Ashkenazic and Sephardic, have traditionally differed with respect to a number of halachic norms (such as dietary customs observed during the holiday of Passover). Morteira traced his maternal lineage to German Jews, a detail discovered by Marc Saperstein in one of Morteira’s sermons. In the exordium to a sermon delivered around 1623, Morteira supports his own interpretation of Deut. 33.26 by proclaiming that it ‘is consistent with what my grandfather, the esteemed Rabbi Judah Katzenellenbogen, wrote on [Isa. 51.13]’ (Qtd. in Saperstein 381). Although he was himself from Padua, Katzenellenbogen (b. 1521-d. 1597), was linked to ‘the most important groups in the newly constituted ghetto [of 1516] […] comprised [of] Jews who had lived in Italy and Venice for hundreds of years, as well as recent immigrants of German and, more generally, Ashkenazic origin’ (Calimani 39). Ashkenazic Jews became known in the Venetian Ghetto as rabbinic authorities whose opinions were sought by other Jewish communities such as the one in Amsterdam. Rabbi Judah Katzenellenbogen, the son of German-born Rabbi Meir ben Isaac Katzenellenbogen (b. c. 1482-d. 1565), served as the chief rabbi of the

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Venetian Ghetto and became an ardent opponent of mysticism in a dispute that waged between Kabbalists and Talmudists during the 1570s concerning the study of The Zohar, a foundational mystic text from thirteenth-century Spain. The debate ended when several rabbis, including Katzenellenbogen, succeeded in censoring a work by the Kabbalist Azaria De Rossi, an ‘episode [that] marked the culmination of Ashkenazic influence on the religious life of the ghetto’ (Calimani 140). It was Morteira’s undoubtedly thorough Ashkenazic formation acquired through his association with prominent rabbinic scholars, rather than his birthplace, that inspired metaphorical references to him as ‘De Alemania natural’ (‘From Germany’) and ‘De Alemania nació’ (‘He was born in Germany’) in two laudatory poems composed by Barrios during the late seventeenth century. 4 In his two poems Barrios praises Morteira’s vast knowledge, which, as evidenced by his sermons and writings, included an education in the Old and New Testaments, medieval Tosafot and commentaries, as well as Jewish mysticism.5 One school of thought advances the theory that Morteira received his education in Venice from Leon Modena (b. 1571-d. 1648), a renowned Ashkenazic theologian, polemicist, and preacher. The theory is based on an allusion made by Modena in a letter he composed to Morteira in 1618 in response to Morteira’s participation in spiritual dispute that will be discussed in greater detail below. In his letter, Modena reacts to news of the dispute ‘as [would] a father to his son’: I heard people complaining about you and your allies, alleging that you speak improperly against the words of the sages and against the Kabbalah. Although I write in your defense to Rabbi Isaac Uziel, in our private communication, as a father to his son, I must remind you that it is not right even for an elder and a prince, let alone for a young man who teaches Torah, to show a lack of respect for the glorious writings of our predecessors, and also to take a position in the conflict of the congregation there. (Qtd. in Saperstein 166-67, n. 74)

A similar reference to Morteira as Modena’s ‘son’ occurs in a responsum by Modena composed around 1632.6 H.P. Salomon rightly underscores the fact that these references could have been Modena’s way of referring to Morteira as his student, although Morteira’s name is not officially documented as such (Morteira, Tratado xl). There is reason to speculate, however, that Morteira may have been Modena’s ‘undocumented’ student. Morteira may have come to know Modena through the latter’s association with Morteira’s grandfather, Rabbi

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Judah Katzenellenbogen. The relationship between Modena and Katzenellenbogen began in the early 1590s, when Modena served in Venice as an apprentice rabbi during his ordination.7 This relationship may have been the conduit by which Morteira became Modena’s undocumented student in Venice, where Modena worked periodically as a teacher of Torah from 1589 until 1612, as Modena reveals in his autobiography (The Autobiography 90). It is interesting to speculate that the only two students of the period named by Modena, Manasseh Levi and Zerah Halevi, may have pertained to Saul Levi Morteira’s extended family. Based on the supposition that Morteira was born in the early 1590s, he could have began to study with Modena in 1601 when, as Modena reports, he ‘begun to board […] a few students’ (The Autobiography 101) in his home, although this situation was interrupted after Modena (on one of several occasions) gambled away his money and lost his students. Morteira may have returned to Modena’s classroom in 1603-4, when Modena ‘settled down with a few students’ (102). From 1604-7 Modena taught in Ferrara, but Morteira may have resumed his studies with Modena upon Modena’s return to Venice in 1607, when he ‘set up an apartment and a school on the top floor of the house belonging to the family dal Osto, the Levites’ (The Autobiography 104). Modena reports that his school attracted ‘many pupils throughout the winter’ (The Autobiography 105) of 1608. After spending a year in Montagnana, Ferrara, and Florence, Modena returned to Venice in 1610, where he ‘negotiated with the members of the Ashkenazic Torah Study Society […] to teach their students and to preach’ (The Autobiography 106). Modena reveals that, in 1611, ‘full responsibility for the students’ (The Autobiography 107) of the Torah Study Society was transferred to his son so that he could dedicate himself completely to preaching, which reveals another path though which Modena reached Morteira as posited by Saperstein: ‘We don’t have any of the ordinary Sabbath sermons that Modena preached week after week for many years, sermons that Morteira probably heard while growing up and may indeed have remembered’ (6). Such an influence would have been reinforced through the direct contact between Morteira and Modena that undoubtedly occurred in light of the relationship between Modena and the Katzenellenbogen branch of Morteira’s family. One subject that Modena did not teach Morteira was Spanish, a language that Morteira learned along with Portuguese and Hebrew. Morteira’s knowledge of these three languages is revealed in his sermons and polemical works. While he composed nearly all of his sermons in Hebrew, he delivered them in Portuguese (and composed a few of them in Portuguese), the ancestral

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language of his congregants. Morteira wrote in Portuguese as well as in Spanish, the language in which he composed Arguments and other texts. Although Morteira was an Ashkenazic Jew, Spanish was learned by many Jews, Christians and Muslims out of necessity since it was a language of Mediterranean commerce during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Morteira may have heard regularly Spanish—more accurately, Ladino, medieval Spanish infused with Hebrew vocabulary—being spoken by residents of the Venetian Ghetto from the Iberian Peninsula. The use of Spanish in the Venetian Ghetto, which is attested by inscriptions on tombstones, reflects what Pullan has described as ‘a deep-seated loyalty to Spain, or a nostalgia for it, which survived expulsion or emigration’ (205). Spanish also enjoyed prestige as a language of high culture, and was a language being taken to new heights of expression during a Renaissance and Baroque Golden Age defined by writers such as Miguel de Cervantes (b. 1547-d. 1616), Lope de Vega (b. 1562-d. 1635), and Francisco de Quevedo (b. 1580-d. 1645). As a reflection of the international renown of Spanish literature, books in Spanish were printed in places such as Antwerp, Brussels, Milan, Paris, and Venice and became widely available.

The converso heritage of Morteira’s congregants in Amsterdam The first Spanish synagogue in the Venetian Ghetto opened after the arrival of Iberian (Spanish/Portuguese) conversos, or New Christians, descendants of Jews who were forcibly baptized during a period lasting from the outbreak of violent pogroms in Spain in 1391 through the 1492, when Jews who refused to adopt Catholicism were expelled from Spain. Many Jews fled from Spain to Portugal, where they were forced to convert or be expelled in 1497. The precise number of Jews who underwent conversion is unknown, but scholarly estimates range from 225,000 to 700,000.The major factors leading to the conversions are clear, and include incendiary anti-Jewish sermons that stirred long-standing latent anti-Jewish sentiment and the repeated economic misfortunes that plagued Spain throughout this period, which left conversos vulnerable to violent mobs incited by fanatical preachers.8 Mass conversions initially took place after public sermons by the archdeacon of Écija, Ferrand Martínez (fl. fourteenth century), incited a wave of violence in Andalucía in 1391. Mass conversions again occurred from 1412-16 in the wake of the proselytizing of St. Vicente Ferrer (b. 1350-d. 1419), a Dominican friar who was canonized in the mid-fifteenth century, and two conversos, Joshua ben Joseph ibn Vives ha-Lorqui (fl. early fifteenth

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century), who took the Christian name Jerónimo de Santa Fe, and Rabbi Solomon Halevi (b. 1351-d. 1435), the chief rabbi of Burgos who adopted the name Pablo de Santa María upon conversion in 1391 and became the bishop of Burgos. The most distinguishing feature of converso history is that conversion did not produce harmony among neophytes and those whose ancestors had been Christians for centuries (Old Christians). Instead, during the fifteenth century a discriminatory socioreligious hierarchy developed between New Christians and an Old Christian population of some seven to nine million individuals, who acquired a sense of spiritual superiority because they were free of Jewish stock. The impossibility of assimilation was recognized early on by conversos such as the poet Antón de Montoro (b. c. 1404-d. c. 1477). In the mid-1470s, in response to a decade of anti-converso violence, Montoro made an appeal to a recently enthroned Queen Isabel I of Castile (r. 1474-1504): I uttered the Creed and devoured pots of thick bacon, and undercooked slices of bacon, I heard masses and prayed, blessed myself and made the sign of the cross, but I’ve never been able to rid myself of this converso stigma.9

In spite of the fact that he utters Christian prayers and consumes bacon, a food prohibited by Jewish dietary laws, Montoro cannot extricate the indelible stigma of his Jewish lineage as he reminds the queen in subsequent lines: ‘I have not been able to escape being called / old, dirty Jew’.10 The intra-Christian hierarchy described by Montoro was completely foreign to official Church doctrine, according to which converts were to be accepted as equal to nonconverted Christians. In addition, what occurred in Spain (and later in Portugal) was different than late-medieval anti-Jewish persecution in other parts of Europe that did not involve many conversions, such as the persecution that led to the expulsions of Jews from England (in 1290) and France (in 1306). During the Middle Ages, Spain was home to the largest and most prominent Jewish community, and the rapid introduction of a historically unprecedented number of converts agitated popular anti-Judaism and redirected this animus toward conversos. The ethnic concept of purity of blood ultimately gained a political dimension and became an integral component of the emerging national identities of

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Spain and Portugal. In both places, the notion of unified nationhood became inexorably tied to religious purity, which excluded anyone descended form Jews (or Muslims). The conditions under which the conversions of Iberian Jews took place laid the foundation for Old Christian assertions of religious superiority and purity. The fact that the conversions were coerced, and therefore spiritually insincere, is revealed by the fact that Jews referred to conversos as anusím (the forced ones), was also unprecedented. Illustrative of the violence and lack of religious instruction that accompanied forced conversions is a Hebrew narration of the mass conversion in Portugal in 1496-97 of some 40,000 Jews expelled from Spain in 1492, which was composed around 1510 by an eyewitness: An expulsion was proclaimed in Portugal in [5]258 (1498), to take place at the end of a year. During this year King Manuel did not want any Jew to leave his kingdom, and children of thirteen years were taken away from their parents and baptized, amid tears, and against their will, and separated from their parents, whose fortunes were taken away from them and given to these same children. In spite of all this they did not allow the parents to leave the country, even without their money, unless they were baptized. When the time had passed, and the Jews did not want to change their faith of their own free will, they were taken by force in all the king’s provinces, and were beaten with sticks and straps, and carried to the churches. There they sprinkled water on them, and gave them Christian names, men and women alike. (Marx 268; translation by Marx)

Of course, the conversion of the Jews had been sought throughout the Middle Ages, at times through coercive measures. Indeed, during previous historical moments in Spanish history, the conversion of the Jews was a central issue. At the Fourth Council of Toledo, in seventh-century Visigothic Spain, canons were issued to encourage the Jews to adopt Christianity voluntarily. During the thirteenth century, King Alfonso X of Castile (r. 1252-84) mandated the conversion of his Jewish subjects not by force but through ‘good deeds, the words of Scripture, and gentle persuasion’.11 Neither of these efforts met with much success, and it merits pointing out that the realization of a multitude of conversions in Spain and Portugal was ultimately a failure in a spiritual sense. The process of coercing large groups of Jews to convert without instruction in Christian practices or doctrines produced insincere neophytes who transmitted a Jewish identity to their offspring by performing the only rituals they knew well.

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Crypto-Judaism Conversos were perceived by Old Christians as inferior based on the perception that many performed Jewish rituals in private, a phenomenon known as crypto-Judaism. Although the number of conversos who were crypto-Jews is impossible to ascertain, crypto-Judaism was widespread and enduring as illustrated by the emergence in places such as Amsterdam of communities of ex-conversos wishing to return to Judaism. The unsurprising tendency for conversos to revert to Judaism is at the core of what scholars since Yitzhak Baer have called the ‘converso problem’: As is known, the Jewish historians of the [late-medieval] period did not write history in our modern sense, and they were not inclined to touch upon the converso problem, which was dangerous for a variety of reasons. The modern Jewish historian, however, has the duty of dealing with the problem in all its aspects. The story of the conversos is not one of racial ‘remnants’ which had lost their Jewish characteristics, but of a large population-group, the majority of whose members adhered, consciously and by conviction, to the living Jewish tradition. The old Christians who fought the conversos were impelled by religious fanaticism, for they considered the latter to be aliens whom circumstances labelled Christians, but who, in the main, […] were attached to Jewry by personal and spiritual ties even if they did not believe in any positive religion. (278-79)

From the perspective of Old Christians, the ‘problem’ was that most if not all conversos were nominal Christians had converted in name only. The existence of crypto-Judaism caused suspicion to be cast on all conversos, a stigma that would plague descendants of conversos, even sincere Christian conversos, for centuries. Popular suspicion of widespread crypto-Judaism gained a legal dimension in the form of purity-of-blood statutes enacted during the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, which obligated individuals to document Old Christian ancestry as a means of social ascension and acquiring honor as well as entrance into a variety of Spanish organizations, including municipal government, universities, and military and religious orders. While they were not always enforced and could at times be circumvented through bribery or falsification of documents, the promulgation of purity-of-blood statutes during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries reflected the extent to which the mistrust of conversos permeated Spanish society The first purity-of-blood statute was, in fact, the product of a popular uprising in 1449 in Toledo

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and intended to prohibit conversos from occupying municipal posts on the grounds that they were crypto-Jews. Subsequent statutes issued by organizations involving the nobility reveal the national scope of the preoccupation with purity of blood, which, as I have explained elsewhere, enlisted any form of Jewish or Muslim heresy as a ‘a threat to the integrity of the Catholic faith that defined the national identity of Spain’ (Kaplan, ‘The Inception’ 34). In Spain and Portugal, to an extent that differed from other parts of Europe, religious unity stood at the core of a social strata, that of the Old Christian, whose preservation was controlled by the Inquisition, which was instituted in 1480 in Spain, and in 1536 in Portugal, to seek out and eradicate crypto-Judaism and other heresies. Much scholarly work has been conducted on inquisitorial procedures, and there is general consensus that the Inquisition was an effective tool for maintaining a dichotomy between Old and New Christians in Spain and Portugal through the fear that it produced among the general population. This fear was not only based on the real possibility of undergoing torture, but on the process of accusation and conviction itself, which could occur based on conjecture regarding any number of practices followed out of personal habit rather than sincere religious beliefs and which deprived individuals of the basic right to innocence unless proven guilty.12 The intensity of what Stephen Gilman called an ‘atmosphere of shared consternation and mutual suspicion’ (44) fomented distrust and fear among friends, neighbors, and even among family members, including spouses who were driven to testify against each other in order to save themselves. Henry Charles Lea illustrates this ‘agonizing struggle […] between natural affection and self-preservation’ (537) with the case of María López, who was brought before the Inquisition in Valladolid in 1646, around the time Arguments was composed by Morteira in Amsterdam: For nearly four months she resolutely denied everything, but her endurance was at last exhausted and, on April 25th and 27th, she confessed as to herself and others and ratified it on May 7th. In her cell she brooded over this until June 25th, when the alcaide reported that she had attempted to strangle herself with a piece of her chemise. The inquisitor hastened to her cell and found the poor creature hiding under the bead. Interrogated as to her motives, she said that a woman who had falsely accused her husband and only daughter, as also her mother and an aunt, did not deserve to live, whereupon she revoked her whole confession, both as to herself and others. As a revocante, the pitiless rules of the Inquisition doomed her to the stake; her fears triumphed and, on July 28th, she confirmed her

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confession of April, except as regards her husband. On November 29th she was condemned to reconciliation, confiscation and prison with the sanbenito, and she appeared in the auto[-de-fe] of June 23, 1647. (537-38)

The risk of being associated with expressions of insincere Christianity, including blasphemous comments made in any context, compelled cryptoJews to develop a minimalized clandestine spirituality with no public form of expression. The interiorization of a Jewish religion replete with outward displays of devotion consisted of a handful of observances: 1. a belief in the Jewish concept of a unitary God; 2. messianic views that opposed Church doctrines; 3. a belief that personal salvation could be achieved through adherence to the law of Moses; 4. a conviction that adherence to Judaism would bring good fortune; 5. devotion among many to ‘Jewish’ saints (most notably Moses and Esther); and 6. a belief in the superiority of Judaism over Christianity.13 Because crypto-Jews were compelled to be Catholics in public, an inevitable fusion resulted in the adoption of Catholic beliefs, including a reverence for personal salvation whose spiritual importance is underscored by Gitlitz: ‘[T]his conflation of the Jewish idea of righteousness through obedience to the Law and the Christian idea of salvation through belief is the single most powerful example of syncretism in the cryptoJewish religion’ (Secrecy 111). Morteira’s knowledge of crypto-Judaism undeniably dated from his youth, when he would have first interacted with conversos who had emigrated to the Venetian Ghetto. Morteira’s passion during his adult life for transforming crypto-Jewish conversos into halachic Jews may have evolved out of a general mistrust toward conversos, who were considered, as Brian Pullan asserts, to be ‘dangerous because they had no firm faith […] and were godless not as the result of any intellectual process or theological argument, but simply out of a desire to preserve their goods’ (170-71). Even when conversos were beyond the reach of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, in Venice the risk of being known as an ex-Christian left them vulnerable to the Roman Inquisition, which was instituted in the 1540s in part as a means of stemming Venetian economic growth. The mistrust of converso spirituality often motivated refugees to erase their Christian identities by moving further east before permanently settling in Venice. For conversos, erasing the fact that they had been Christians could be achieved by spending time in the Levantine Jewish communities that existed in the Ottoman Empire. Being considered a Levantine Jew with no converso past greatly reduced the threat of persecution insofar as all Inquisitions possessed jurisdiction only over Christian Judaizers and not over Jews who had never converted.

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In the mid-1570s, after Venice was defeated in the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1570-73, economic needs contributed to a relaxation of policies and the Venetian Senate invited Jewish merchants to live in Venice for two years, whether or not they had been conversos. During the following three decades, as Benjamin Ravid explains (17-19), an ex-Portuguese converso, Daniel Rodriga, continually lobbied the Senate to eliminate the distinction between Jews and conversos so as to stimulate commerce. This sustained effort bore fruit when charters were issued (in 1589 and 1598) that allowed the practice of Judaism by Jews of any provenance (as well as their families) and also guaranteed immunity from religious persecution. By the time Morteira was born, decades of the coexistence of various ethnicities fomented, as Miriam Bodian declares, ‘mediation rather than segregation’ (150). The spiritual amalgamation described by Bodian also worked to enhance the cultural profile of the Venetian Ghetto as a center for printing Hebrew texts and as a rabbinic center that served as an authoritative umbrella over nascent Jewish communities such as the one in Amsterdam. Because of the small size of the Venetian Ghetto, Jews of different ethnicities lived in close proximity to each other, and contact between groups was inevitable. Morteira’s Iberian surname, and the fact that he wrote in Portuguese and Spanish, suggests the Iberian provenance of his father. Morteira’s paternal ancestors may have resided in the central Portuguese village of Murteira until sometime after the Inquisition was established in Portugal, whereupon they may have emigrated to Italy in order to escape persecution. At the same time, due to the fact that the rabbi’s surname appears in its Spanish form ‘Mortera’ (as it does on the title page of ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206]), his family may trace its roots to the northern Spanish village of Mortera, from which they may have been forced to leave when the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492.14 ‘Murteira’ may have been founded by refugees from ‘Mortera’ who were among the many Jews who fled to Portugal underwent forced conversion in Portugal, in 1497, and who remained in the country as crypto-Jewish conversos during the following 40 years before fleeing to escape the Portuguese Inquisition. In light of the risks involved for a converso desiring to return to Judaism and the general mistrust of converso spirituality, it is possible that Morteira’s father disguised his past from his son. Morteira’s father may have been able to accomplish this after having resided for some time in the Ottoman Empire, and Morteira may have thus known him as a Levantine Jew. Morteira did not raise any objections to his classification as a ‘nonIberian’ in a document from 1640 that authorizes his entrance into the Santa Companhia de Dotar Orphas e Donzellas (Holy Company of Orphan

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and Young Daughters’ Dowries), or Dotar.15 As this document explains, only Jews ‘de nação portugueza ou hespanhola’ (of Portuguese or Spanish nationality) were eligible for membership in the Dotar, which was instituted in 1615 in order to provide dowries to descendants of conversos. Entrance into the Dotar was granted to Morteira because he was ‘casado com mulher portugeza nesta terra ha 24 anos’ (married to a Portuguese woman in this land for 24 years) and because he was considered to be a ‘pessoa tão benemerita’ (such a laudable person). However, because Morteira is not thought of as a full member of the Iberian ex-converso community, the document decrees that only his direct descendants (rather than his extended family) would receive this prestigious benefit.

Rejudaization Venice attracted many converso émigrés from Portugal during the seventeenth century, including Morteira’s future patron, Dr. Elijah Montalto (b. 1567-d. 1616), a physician who fled his practice in Lisbon around 1600 in order to revert to Judaism in exile. The path by which Montalto became a practicing Jew exemplifies the dedication to educating himself in halachic norms and strictly adhering to them, or ‘rejudaization’, that Morteira would seek from conversos during his rabbinic career. Soon after leaving Portugal, Montalto spent some time in Leghorn, where he revealed his ardent desire to rejudaize fellow conversos in an episode occurring in 1599 that will be discussed in greater detail below. Montalto then passed through France, and while in Paris he was called upon to treat and cure a member of the retinue of the woman who would become queen of France in 1610, Marie de Médicis (b. 1575-d. 1642). Montalto’s reputation as a physician soon spread and he was contracted in 1606 to teach at the University of Pisa, although, as Bernard Cooperman observes, ‘if he was well set professionally, Montalto did not yet have the religious freedom that he craved. Hence, by early 1610 Montalto had decided to abandon his position and move to Venice where he would be allowed to practice Judaism openly’ (473). During the next two years, Montalto worked as a physician in Venice and developed a lasting relationship with Morteira. Testimony of Montalto’s ardent desire to persuade conversos to become sincere Jews is evident in four letters he composed in 1611-12 in the hope that two relatives, Dr. Pero Rodrigues and his wife, Izabel da Fonseca, achieve this goal.16 Montalto enhanced his international renown in Venice and in 1612 he was called to Paris as court physician to Queen Marie, although he first

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needed to secure papal permission to practice Judaism in a nation experiencing a rise in anti-Jewish sentiment.17 While there is no direct testimony revealing why Montalto decided to enlist Morteira as a spiritual advisor when he departed for Paris, there is good reason to speculate that it was due to their shared passion for rabbinic study and rejudaization, as well as to the fact that Morteira could express his passion in Montalto’s native language of Portuguese. During the following four years at the Parisian court, Montalto continued his career as a physician and medical researcher, and also produced a polemical work in Hebrew that Salomon attributes to Morteira (Morteira, Tratado xli-xlii). Such activity is somewhat remarkable considering that it occurred at a time when anti-Jewish sentiment would culminate in a decree, issued in 1615 by King Louis XIII (r. 1610-43), whichexpelled all Jews from France. It was fortune, namely, the lack of a Jewish cemetery in France to bury Montalto upon his death in 1616, which brought Morteira to Amsterdam from Paris as part of the retinue of the deceased physician, who was buried at the cemetery that had been established in 1614 in nearby Ouderkerk by the Portuguese conversos who would eventually become Morteira’s congregants. Although he could not have been more than in his mid-twenties at the time, Morteira had already established his reputation as a sage by the time he arrived in Amsterdam. This is clearly revealed in a French decree from 1617, in which Morteira, identified as a Jew who is ‘cognoist pour en sçavoir’ (known for his wisdom), and Montalto are implicated as Kabbalists during the trial of a confidante of the queen for sorcery.18 Testimony from the trial indicates that the accusations against Montalto and Morteira were leveled because they possessed books that were thought to deal with the Kabbalah. Although Harry Friedenwald points out that the most incriminating accusation involved non-Kabbalistic books and asserts that Montalto ‘was not versed in the Cabala’ (142), the testimony illustrates the harm that could come to individuals in France who, like Montalto and Morteira, possessed collections of Jewish books. Morteira’s fulfillment of the religious duty of providing a Jewish burial for his patron soon became a stepping stone to a life-long career. In 1619, though less than 30 years old, he was named rabbi of the fledgling congregation Beth Jacob, which was comprised of some 200 families. Beth Jacob had been founded in 1603 by Portuguese converso refugees who made their way to Emden, where they found an Ashkenazic rabbi, Moses Uri ha-Levi (b. 1544-d. c. 1622), who led them to Amsterdam to complete their rejudaization. Morteira arrived in Amsterdam amid mounting tensions within the Beth Jacob congregation that would motivate Modena’s aforementioned letter to him in

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1618 (in which he speaks to Morteira ‘as a father to his son’) and that would propel Morteira’s own career as a spiritual leader. The situation centered on a dispute between Joseph Pardo (b. c. 1565-d. 1619), a rabbi from Salonika who had become a leading member of Beth Jacob, and Dr. David Farrar (b. 1573d. 1624), a Portuguese converso physician whose preaching offended Pardo because of Farrar’s ‘rationalist approach to Judaism’ (Saperstein 166). In his letter to Morteira, Modena reveals that Morteira had entered into the dispute (‘I heard people complaining about you and your allies’) and that Morteira was already asserting his rabbinic authority (‘I must remind you that it is not right even for an elder and a prince, let alone for a young man who teaches Torah, to show a lack of respect for the glorious writings of our predecessors, and also to take a position in the conflict of the congregation there’). Morteira was sent to Venice as one of four emissaries to seek a resolution of the dispute from Modena.19 In the end, Morteira and the others who supported Farrar could not reach an agreement with the supporters of Pardo, who left Beth Jacob in 1618 to found a new synagogue, Ets Chaim. Until his death in 1660, Morteira continued to work as a rabbi and teacher in Amsterdam, where he lived across the street from Rembrandt (b. 1606d. 1669), who may have painted his portrait.20 It was in Amsterdam that Morteira married in 1616 a Portuguese woman, Ester Soares, with whom he would have five children.21 From 1619 to 1639, Morteira was rabbi of Beth Jacob, where he also taught Gemara and Talmud, for which he received a salary of 300 florins a year.22 In 1639, Beth Jacob united with Ets Chaim and another synagogue that had been founded in 1612, Neve Shalom, to form Talmud Torah synagogue. The unified congregation named Morteira as head of its rabbinic college that same year, and for the following two decades Morteira taught Talmud to students in the seventh grade at the Keter Torah yeshiva and served over subordinate colleagues such as Isaac Aboab da Fonseca (b. 1605-d. 1693) and Menasseh ben Israel (b. 1604-d. 1657).

Morteira’s role in rejudaization One of Morteira’s responsibilities as chief rabbi was to deliver weekly sermons, a facet of his career that has been studied in depth by Saperstein in Exile in Amsterdam. Morteira regularly expressed in his sermons his zeal for the rejudaization of his congregation. Saperstein observes that ‘some of the most powerful passages of Morteira’s preaching’ (289) involved attempts to convince conversos, those in his congregation and their extended family members still in Iberia, of the importance of abandoning Christianity and

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completely immersing themselves in Judaism. Morteira’s views concerning rejudaization could be extreme, as illustrated by his participation during the 1630s in a polemic concerning whether conversos who had not returned to Judaism would endure eternal damnation, which was Morteira’s opinion.23 Morteira shared his zeal with his patron, Dr. Montalto, whose own dedication to rejudaization while living in Venice is evident in the abovementioned four letters he wrote to Pero Rodrigues and Izabel da Fonseca. With respect to the manner by which Montalto grows more insistent in each letter, Bodian asserts, ‘[f]or those like Montalto who were deeply committed to […] rejudaization […] such lack of cooperation could only be explained as weakness of character, opportunism, or obtuseness in religious matters’ (139). Morteira was forced to combat this type of reluctance in Amsterdam, where his congregation included ex-conversos with a vision of a prosperous Iberia that was confirmed by the fact that many conversos chose to remain in Spain and Portugal and endure the threat of inquisitorial persecution rather than loose their possessions. Rejudaization is a primary topic in the debate that occurs in Arguments, and Morteira’s treatment of the topic in this work was undoubtedly shaped by his personal experiences. Morteira’s most important task as chief rabbi was to persuade conversos to be Jews. In this role Morteira participated in a campaign supported by the lay leaders of his congregation, or parnasim, and the lay council of elders who formed the mahamad that oversaw the whole community. For everyone involved, the rejudaization of current congregants and conversos who continued to arrive throughout the 1600s could produce economic and spiritual benefits. In an economic context, the importance paid to rejudaization reflected a desire for communal legitimacy and integration within the network of established European and Mediterranean Jewish communities, which would in turn afford greater access to markets abroad. General economic prosperity in the Netherlands indicates the early success of rejudaization, when participation by Amsterdam’s synagogues in the larger European Jewish community contributed to the fact that, by the early 1620s, as Jonathan Israel observes, ‘London and Hamburg were unable to compete effectively with Amsterdam and Rotterdam making Holland the major entrepôt for peninsula and Italian commerce’ (357).24 That Amsterdam’s ex-conversos ultimately forged an important Jewish spiritual center is well-known, and is demonstrated in the cases of rabbinic scholars who became authorities abroad, such as Morteira’s student Moses ben Mordecai Zacuto (b. 1625d. 1697), who left the city and became a renowned Kabbalist in Venice. Morteira’s role as a rejudaizer is clearly depicted in an inquisitorial document from 1635, which offers the report of a deposition given before

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the Inquisition in Madrid by a converso named Esteban de Ares de Fonseca.25 Ares de Fonseca reveals his involvement with ex-conversos who attempt to persuade him to forsake Catholicism and embrace Judaism on several occasions. According to his deposition, Ares de Fonseca left Coimbra at around fifteen years old after having studied Latin with the Jesuits in Coimbra. A couple years later, while in Lisbon, he was taken prisoner by the Inquisition for an unidentified reason, and after three years he was reconciled and released, whereupon he spent the next five or six years as a wine carrier in Seville and other places in Spain. At this juncture, some nine or ten years before the deposition, Ares de Fonseca traveled to the French city of Bayonne, where ex-conversos attempted to convince him to follow Judaism. Ares de Fonseca resisted and his ex-converso acquaintances placed him on a boat to Amsterdam, where he was sent to Morteira in 1625 or 1626 for rejudaization.26 After six months, Morteira failed to persuade Ares de Fonseca and he was excommunicated by a rabbinic tribunal overseen by Morteira.27 The extent to which such failures might have personally affected Morteira is open to speculation, although in this case the reason Ares de Fonseca had been sent to Morteira was probably of a personal nature, namely, because he was a member of a converso family Morteira knew well. Morteira’s patron, Dr. Montalto, had been married to Jerónima da Fonseca, whose extended family in Amsterdam were probably the ‘parientes’ (relatives) named by Ares de Fonseca.

The Portuguese Nation The major obstacles faced by Morteira were crypto-Jewish spirituality and a communal bond that galvanized his congregants, but that excluded Morteira. An ingrained idea that Morteira needed to combat during rejudaization was the perception among ex-conversos that their Iberian heritage was an essential component of their spiritual identity, which distinguished them and their descendants from Morteira. Due to their common heritage, Morteira’s congregants considered themselves to be members of the Portuguese Nation, which may be understood as a conception of socioreligious superiority that united Amsterdam’s Iberian Jews as survivors of inquisitorial Spain and Portugal. This distinction is evident in the aforementioned document from 1640 granting Morteira admittance into the Dotar in spite of the fact that he was not from the ‘naçao portugueza ou hespanhola’ (Portuguese or Spanish Nation) While Morteira would have undoubtedly seen his admission to the Dotar as a high honor, it is interesting to wonder how a spiritual leader and halachic authority would have reacted

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to being treated as a second class Jew by a community that, in spite of facing discrimination, nevertheless considered their Iberian heritage as a trait that enlisted them as superior to other Jewish communities. Iberian Jews had traditionally claimed aristocratic lineage on the basis of their claim to be descendants of the biblical Jewish community exiled in Obadiah 1.20 from Jerusalem to Sepharad, which became the Hebrew word for Spain (‫)ס ָפ ַרד‬. ְ While this Iberian Jewish pride contributed to the Portuguese Nation’s air of superiority, it is significant that this pride evolved directly out of the restrictive legislation and punitive measures endured by conversos during many generations. A remarkable feature of the way in which conversos could perceive their inferiority is exhibited by the fact that, once outside Iberia, many conversos considered themselves to be superior for the same reason that they were treated as inferior in Spain. As documented during the seventeenth century in texts by renowned individuals such as Menasseh ben Israel and the physician and philosopher Isaac Cardoso (b. c. 1603-d. 1683), a Portuguese converso who fled from Spain to Venice, members of the Portuguese Nation developed what Yosef Kaplan calls ‘a social and cultural phenomenon typical of the victims of the laws of limpieza de sangre after they reached a safe haven: when they returned to the faith of their fathers, the former secret Jews borrowed the infamous concept from their persecutors, for it now helped them define their own spiritual identity’ (‘Political Concepts’ 53). Bodian detects a similar tendency: So internalized had Hispanic values become that even outside the Peninsula ‘purity of blood’ served a role among the emigres. The intellectual elite of the diaspora communities—either because they had come to hold and value ideas of ethnic purity or because they intuitively grasped their polemical value—enunciated notions of Jewish ‘purity of blood’ that were, however unconventional from a rabbinic point of view, a means of mobilizing Iberian preconceptions to bolster Jewish pride and the notion of Jewish chosenness. (88)

That many conversos adhered completely to neither Judaism nor Christianity lies, for Yirmiyahu Yovel, at the foundation of their sense of the superiority and exclusivity as a community that possessed ‘the traits of a secret religious fraternity, neither Christian nor actually Jewish, and bound by a road to salvation that defied that of the established tradition around them’ (153). Yovel is alluding to the communal pride that bonded the Portuguese Nation and to their crypto-Jewish spirituality. Morteira’s congregants arrived in Amsterdam many decades removed from Jewish

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educational traditions (such as learning Hebrew) and open expressions of faith (such as prayers and festival rituals). Their minimal Judaism was far removed from the rabbinic Judaism in which Morteira was trained. The differences between Iberian crypto-Judaism and rabbinic Judaism were qualitative and quantitative. While early modern Jewish communities outside of Iberia operated according to norms that regulated every aspect of daily life—such as the 613 biblical commandments, Talmudic laws, and the Shulchan Aruch, a sixteenth-century codification of Jewish law compiled by Joseph Caro (b. 1488-d. 1575) and adopted by both Sephardic and Ashkenazic communities—within Spain and Portugal crypto-Judaism consisted of a skeletal set of religious practices. The conflict between crypto-Jewish and rabbinic traditions, and the importance lent to religious conformity, under pain of cherem (excommunication), produced a psychological anxiety among converso émigrés to Amsterdam during their period of rejudaization, which lasted through the first half of the seventeenth century. According to Henry Méchoulan, ‘upon arriving in Amsterdam, however, the former crypto-Jews were soon disillusioned. They discovered that Judaism was more than a simple and stark biblicism; it was a difficult and demanding religion whose everyday rhythms were marked by specific acts and prayers. A rebellious wind began to blow already in the first years of the Amsterdam Jewish community, a rebellion which would present a constant challenge to the community’s orthodoxy’ (‘The Importance of Hispanicity’ 358). The establishment of orthodoxy involved the imposition of a complex code regulating numerous aspects of life including behaviors of which individuals may have barely been aware (such as the need to refrain from carrying objects on the Sabbath), and Arguments provides not only a unique glimpse into the conflicts experienced by individuals undergoing rejudaization but also into the manners by which these conflicts might be resolved.

Plot summary of Arguments against the Christian Religion in Amsterdam (ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206]) In Arguments, Morteira encourages his readers to adopt halachic Judaism through a fictional prose narrative (of some 40,000 words in length in the Spanish manuscript), which is informed by a lively dialogue, realistic depictions of contemporary social life, as well as major philosophical and theological issues. Writing during the middle of the seventeenth century, Morteira depicts an encounter between two conversos in 1616, which is

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the same year Morteira had first arrived in Amsterdam. The narrative commences with a fortuitous meeting between two conversos at a posada (inn) in the western French city of Orléans. One converso, called el peregrino, or ‘the pilgrim’, is an aspiring Jesuit who was born in the Portuguese city of Montemor-o-Novo (in Spanish Montemayor el Nuevo), which is located some 30 kilometers to the northwest of the city of Évora. The pilgrim happens upon the inn during a four-month long return trip to Portugal from Rome where, as in his native land, his efforts at entering the Society of Jesus and becoming a priest have met with failure. The other converso, called el amigo, or ‘the friend’, was born in either Portugal or Spain before fleeing to Amsterdam, where he lives openly as a Jew. An unidentified business or personal matter has drawn the friend to the inn, where he is spending several days before returning to Amsterdam via boat on the Loire River from Orléans to the port city of Nantes. The friend invites the pilgrim to sleep on an extra bed in his room at the inn and, as the two lay awake in their room, the pilgrim relates his experiences in inquisitorial Portugal and the story of his frustrated attempt to become a Jesuit priest. The friend then extends the invitation to the pilgrim to include the boat trip. As they travel along the Loire River, a trip from Orléans to Nantes that took eight days during Morteira’s time, an extended debate evolves in which the friend, who speaks the majority of the time, promotes the merits of Judaism over Christianity in order to encourage the pilgrim to embrace Judaism. The friend refers to numerous Jewish doctrines and quotes often from a Bible he intends to deliver to a friend in Bordeaux, with the nature of his discourse revealing Morteira’s rabbinic training. Morteira’s skills as a writer of fictional narrative are also evident in several fascinating vignettes included in Arguments, and his lifelong dedication to encouraging the practice of Judaism among his congregants is symbolized by the polemic between the pilgrim’s Christianized converso perspective and the Jewish theological and philosophical arguments employed by the friend to convince the pilgrim, a task that is accomplished as the narrative draws to a close.

The Portuguese Nation in Arguments against the Christian Religion in Amsterdam The communal bond of the Portuguese Nation is evoked early on in Arguments. The friend recognizes this bond in the opening lines and asks the pilgrim if he is ‘portugués’ (fol. 1r, see Plate 2), which should be understood to mean Portuguese Jew and which seems to imply that the pilgrim thinks the

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friend ‘looks’ like a Portuguese Jew. The pilgrim’s reply indicates that he too is aware, and both proceed to laud their communal superiority. The pilgrim declares: ‘Our national heritage is so strong […] that I thought you were as soon as I saw you’ (fol. 1r), and the friend exclaims: ‘Our Portuguese Nation is the greatest in the world’ (fol. 1r). The debate involving the friend’s attempt to convince the pilgrim to embrace Judaism is preceded by the pilgrim’s biography—recounted as he and the friend lay awake in their room—which depicts a frequent manner by which conversos were victimized. The pilgrim presents his story as a ‘secret that I never thought I’d reveal’ (fol. 2v): My parents owned a store and, one day, or better yet, one sad night, they came to our homes and seized my parents along with others of the Nation, thirty-two in all. I was left in the street at nine years old, when an Old Christian neighbor of ours felt pity toward me and took me in. After around three years there, I went to an auto to wait for my parents, but I didn’t have any luck because my mother died a few days after being sent to jail and my father was condemned to death. (Fol. 2v)

The pilgrim reveals that his parents were the victims of an auto-da-fé (the Portuguese term, which in Spanish is auto-de-fe and in English ‘act of faith’). An auto-da-fé was a ceremony of penance conducted by the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal at which sentences were pronounced on conversos convicted of heresy against the Catholic Faith. The first Spanish auto-de-fe was held in 1481 in the city of Seville, and in 1540 the first Portuguese autoda-fé took place in Lisbon. The first American auto-de-fe occurred in Mexico City in 1528. Some 2,000 of these ceremonies took place on the Peninsula and in the Spanish and Portuguese American colonies through the middle of the nineteenth century. During an auto-da-ƒé, convicted conversos endured a public procession before facing punishment, and in the passage quoted above the pilgrim describes his futile search for his parents during one such procession. The most severe sentence, execution by burning at the stake, was carried out at a ceremony held after an auto-da-fé took place, which is the fate that befalls the pilgrim’s father. The auto-da-fé depicted by the pilgrim was one of many that took place in Évora from 1542 until 1710, during which time hundreds of executions of Judaizers occurred on the ‘Praça Grande or Rossio (now called Praça do Geraldo)’, as António José Saraiva relates: ‘The Évora public autos-da-fé were held alternately in front of the Church of the Lóios (next to the monastery, now the pousada); on the patio of the Inquisitorial palace, in front of the Cathedral; in front of the Church of Santo Antão’ (110, n. 21). One particular auto-da-fé that

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Morteira might have had in mind when he composed Arguments around 1650 was an especially lavish one that took place in Évora in 1646. This auto-da-fé, which was held after two weeks of feasting by the inquisitors, concluded with the symbolic ‘execution’ of many conversos who, like the pilgrim’s mother in Arguments, perished while in prison awaiting their fate. Although the pilgrim is not implicated by the Inquisition with his parents, the stigma of a converso lineage haunts him just as Montoro had described in his above-mentioned poem centuries earlier (‘but I’ve never been able to rid myself / of this converso stigma’). The pilgrim reveals his ignorance of this stigma while narrating his unsuccessful attempt to become a Jesuit priest in Portugal: I learned Latin, which endeared me to the Jesuits, with whom I spent my time studying the arts and theology with great zeal. The teachers would watch me and were kind to me because I showed ability. They urged me to continue, so much so that I became very hopeful of being admitted into their College, which I truly desired and, inspired by this idea, I kept on studying and learned science. Since I was at the right age to try for admission, I began to express my wish to those I trusted most. Although I felt I was more than prepared, I found my impression of their vision of me to be completely wrong, which is something I still can’t understand. I quickly realized they were treating me very badly. Then, all of a sudden, they blocked the path I was on, clearly revealing that they detested me, and they rejected me at every turn. (Fol. 3r)

Although he possesses the appropriate skills, the pilgrim is denied entrance into ‘their College’, which alludes to the University of Évora, an institution that was controlled by the Jesuits from 1559 to 1759. The pilgrim is advised to travel to Rome, where he also fails to realize his goal, the reason for which continues to bewilder him: I’ve told the sad story of my life to you, sir, in the quickest way possible so that you’ll understand my troubles, which are many. I’m not telling you this story so you will feel pity toward me but to ask if you think I’m a fool since I’ve reached this wretched state for a reason that I don’t comprehend. (Fol. 4r)

As a means of remedying the pilgrim’s dejection, the friend explains to him the reason for his failure to gain admission to the Jesuit Order, namely, his inferior converso status. Since he was orphaned at a very young age, the pilgrim is barely aware of his affiliation to the Portuguese Nation, although

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the fact that he has encountered conversos during his travels appears to have inspired some curiosity over his lineage, and he beseeches the friend to explain: ‘how we survive so scattered and isolated in far off and difficult to reach lands where there are no people scattered like our nation, and I want to know why this occurs’ (fol. 2r). The friend responds by telling him that: the reason we find ourselves here is that in Spain and Portugal there is a fury that is so cruel, tyrannical, impious, and unjust that it makes our motherland into a stepmother for us, so that far off lands become our motherlands. This harsh, bloodthirsty, and corrupt fury is the Inquisition, which is the cause of all the wrongs you’ve seen and heard. It is forever robbing some and condemning others to death. It claims estates, lives, honors and one’s human condition, and it forces people to find new places to live in freedom. (Fol. 2r)

The friend exposes the indelible inferiority cast upon conversos by Old Christians by enlisting this stigma as the reason for the rejection of the pilgrim by the Jesuits: ‘[S]ee now for yourself what’s happened, how you were perceived by their hateful eyes. Wasn’t it enough that you were raised by them, and that you learned, observed, and practiced their customs so that they’d admit you? But everything was not enough and soon they threw you out and rejected and scorned you’ (fol. 46v). The historical context described by the friend is the contemporary polemic regarding the admission of conversos to the Society of Jesus, a religious order established in 1534 that had a long tradition of admitting conversos as Jesuit priests. Efforts in Spain to exclude conversos from the order during the middle of the sixteenth century were led by the Archbishop of Toledo, Juan Martínez Silíceo (b. 1486-d. 1557), who began to acquire papal support in the 1550s for using purity of blood as a requirement for entrance. As conversos continued to become Jesuits, the opposition to their inclusion grew more vocal in Spain and Portugal, whose monarchs both lobbied Rome to name a non-converso Christian leader of the order following the death of the superior general, Francis Borgia (b. 1510-d. 1572). In his discussion of this campaign, Albert A. Sicroff (326-27) underscores the intensity of the anti-converso animus among Portuguese Jesuits, whose advocacy for the official proscription of conversos contributed to the enactment by the Society of Jesus in 1593 of a purity-of-blood statute. This ban, which as Sicroff observes (327) was not able to be circumnavigated, even by the superior general, is the obstacle faced by the pilgrim in Arguments, in which he comes to understand the tragic legacy of his converso heritage.

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Crypto-Judaism and rejudaization in Arguments Although the pilgrim in Arguments does not reveal that he is a crypto-Jew, he is by lineage a member of the Portuguese Nation and his ignorance of halachic Judaism recalls the spirituality of Morteira’s crypto-Jewish congregants. In this light, the friend’s suggestion that the pilgrim turn to Judaism in order to achieve personal salvation reflects Morteira’s awareness of the spiritual importance to conversos of a Christianized component of crypto-Judaism. The friend’s suggestion first occurs in the narrative after the pilgrim condemns conversos for practicing Judaism once outside Iberia. The friend responds by focusing the debate on the crypto-Jewish reverence for personal salvation, which becomes a goal that can be reached through the decision to practice of Judaism: ‘because man is free, and he should act freely, carefully, and attentively in important cases like salvation should be. He should speculate and be knowledgeable, especially when in free lands, on the chance that he might follow good and comply with it. And if he were to find something that better leads him there, he should embrace it’ (fol. 5v). A little further on, the friend reveals that what ‘better leads’ the pilgrim to personal salvation is adherence to the holy (Mosaic) Law: ‘[T] he Holy Law was neither tarnished nor changed. Everyone who adheres to it will seek and find his Creator and will return to His grace, and only through this is it received and possessed. You see here the purity of truth and the Law in which each individual should save himself’ (fol. 8v). At another juncture in the narrative, Jewish personal salvation is depicted as deriving from the ‘correct path’ (fol. 15r), as opposed to ‘everything taught by the Roman Church’ (fol. 15r) that lies at the foundation of the pilgrim’s convictions. Insofar as crypto-Judaism involved Jewish traditions that became Catholicized through the filter of their clandestine performance within an outwardly orthodox society strictly monitored by the Inquisition, the pilgrim’s reverence for Catholic personal salvation should be understood to symbolize the reluctance among Morteira’s congregants to supplant such ideas with Jewish ones that had been demonized for centuries. In an attempt to combat this reluctance, the friend returns to the topic of personal salvation, which he ties directly to the Old Testament through what may be a reference to Ezek. 18.20 (‘The person who sins, he alone shall die. A child shall not share the burden of a parent’s guilt’) or Ezek. 18.17 (‘[H]e shall not die for the iniquity of his father’): ‘As I’ve said, that’s part of God, and a son doesn’t have in his organism more than the corporal part of his father. The Creator instills him with a soul whose salvation depends on its deeds as the

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Law clearly shows to us: “the son will not die for his father, each one will die for his own sins”’ (fol. 27r). The friend reinforces his point by further relating Jewish doctrines to personal salvation: ‘Each person’, said the friend, ‘is judged by his deeds, which is true as I can show in Holy Scripture. With respect to punishments to the soul, which have nothing to do with Adam and pertain to God, those who follow and keep His divine will have their reward and salvation in Him’ (fols. 29r-29v). Personal salvation is understood in Arguments as a goal achieved by being Jewish, a doctrine expressed by the friend that does not contradict halachic Judaism but that shifts the spiritual focus from actions performed on earth to the potential reward achieved after death: ‘[S]ee the light and open your eyes to understanding, recognize and know that only our Lord’s Law, which He gave to his people on Mount Sinai, is the one that offers salvation, and only the Lord gives it on earth and in the heavens’ (fol. 54v). Judaism is thus ultimately portrayed by the friend as the ‘true path of salvation’ (fol. 83r), and the pilgrim’s willingness to embrace Judaism as a religion that ‘bestows salvation’ (fol. 83v) speaks to what Morteira hoped he might be able to accomplish when he came into contact with Catholicized crypto-Jewish spirituality.

Converso protagonists in Arguments: Historical precedents In the only previous discussion of Arguments, Yosef Kaplan posits that Morteira conceived the narrative through his ‘conversations with Elijah Montalto’ (‘Rabbi Saul Levi’ 100). While no historical encounter between two conversos may be identified as Morteira’s source, it seems likely that he took into account historical narratives while crafting his fictional one. Montalto’s own biography may have influenced the composition of Arguments, in particular his flight to Venice in order to practice Judaism and his efforts there to encourage the practice of Judaism among conversos. Moreover, there are references in Arguments that suggest that the encounter depicted by Morteira is similar in nature to those that occurred between conversos traveling through Europe and zealous rejudaizers like Montalto. Morteira would have known of one such encounter that occurred in Leghorn in 1599 between Montalto and a converso cousin named Paulo de Pina (d. 1635), an episode that finds several parallels in Arguments. Barrios refers to this encounter in an unedited work, Triumpho del govierno popular (Triumph of the popular government), in which he relates that Pina, while traveling to Rome to join a monastic order, came into contact with Montalto bearing

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a letter that asked the physician to turn Pina toward Judaism. Montalto succeeded and Pina ultimately changed his name to Rehuel Jessurun and emigrated to Amsterdam in 1604, where he came to know Morteira while working as gabay (a synagogue official with managerial duties) during the first decades that Morteira served as rabbi of Beth Jacob. It would be logical to speculate that Morteira knew Jessurun’s life story well, in particular because of their collaboration on the composition of a dramatic work, Dialogo dos montes, which will be discussed below. Other cases that evoke the plot of Arguments involve the aforementioned Juan de Prado, a converso physician who fled from mounting inquisitorial pressure in Spain to Amsterdam, where his liberal views resulted in his excommunication. Yovel identifies two episodes in Prado’s life that might have inspired Morteira’s depiction of the pilgrim. The first occurred during Prado’s flight from the Spanish Inquisition, which would later find him guilty of crypto-Judaism in absentia after his name was mentioned during inquisitorial torture by his friend, Isaac Orobio de Castro (b. c. 1617-d. 1687), a contemporary converso physician who returned to Judaism in Amsterdam in the 1660s. According to Yovel, in order to flee Spain, Prado ‘seems to have seized the opportunity to accompany a Spanish cardinal traveling to Rome’ (64). This recalls a declaration made in Arguments by the pilgrim, who tells the friend that he received assistance in Rome from a Spaniard ‘who served in the retinue of a cardinal’ (fol. 3v). The second episode described by Yovel reveals the intensity of inquisitorial scrutiny faced by Prado, who was also implicated by the testimony of a relative ‘that in 1639 (a year after Prado had finished his studies) the two men had met in the [Spanish] city of Lopera, and for a long while Prado had tried to persuade his kinsman to abandon the Christian faith and secretly return to Judaism’ (58). These episodes, like Ares de Fonseca’s above-mentioned confession, depict encounters involving rejudaization of which Morteira was undoubtedly aware. While Arguments is a fictional narrative, the actual experience of rejudaization motivated Morteira to some extent to present his narrative as a plausible situation to his converso readership. As the spiritual leader of an increasingly prosperous Amsterdam community, the persistence of Iberian crypto-Jewish tendencies and the need to replace them with rabbinic Judaism concerned Morteira greatly throughout his lifetime. Arguments concludes with the pilgrim declaring the superiority of Jewish doctrines and accepting an invitation to one day visit the friend in Amsterdam. The work may thus be understood as a ‘best case scenario’, in which both the pilgrim, the converso who is ignorant of Judaism, and the friend, the former crypto-Jew, embrace rabbinic Judaism.

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The influence of Lazarillo de Tormes on Arguments Morteira demonstrates on a number of occasions in Arguments that he was familiar with contemporary Spanish literature, which as mentioned above was undergoing its Golden Age and which was widely read outside of Spain. Morteira had ready access to Golden Age works because Venice was a center for printing, where over 900 editions of Spanish texts were produced during the 1500s by over 100 Venetian presses.28 The existence of a large Spanish readership throughout Europe was due not only to the exile of conversos but also to the presence of other Spaniards—including theologians as well as administrators and their retinues—throughout the empire of King Charles I (or the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, r. 1516-56), which extended from Spain eastward to include the Low Countries, territories in Germany and the Italian kingdoms of Naples, Sicily, and Sardinia. Due to the fact that Venetian trade extended to many parts of Europe, Spanish books were imported to Venice, and it is through this conduit by which Morteira might have come to know the first Spanish picaresque novel, La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades (which has been translated into English as Lazarillo de Tormes), an anonymous work that was widely available during Morteira’s time. Lazarillo was published in Spanish in Antwerp in 1554 and 1595, after which it was reprinted ten times during the early 1600s, including another edition in Antwerp in 1602. Lazarillo contains the fictional autobiography, from boyhood to manhood, of Lázaro de Tormes, who recounts to a narratee (an individual referred to as ‘Your Honour’) his experiences while serving under the tutelage of seven masters. This episodic narrative structure would continue to characterize Spanish picaresque novels such as Guzmán de Alfarache (1599) by Mateo Alemán (b. 1547-d. 1615) and El buscón (1604) by Francisco de Quevedo (b. 1580-d. 1645), works that were widely read in Europe and that influenced the development of picaresque literary traditions in France, Germany, Italy and Great Britain. Lázaro’s existence on the margin of society and his anticlericalism are themes that would be repeated in subsequent picaresque novels. In Lazarillo, after Lázaro’s father dies and his mother is forced to abandon him, five of the seven masters he later serves are associated with the Catholic Church, and the harsh treatment Lázaro receives from these churchmen prevents him from achieving his objective of ascending in society by acquiring honor, which is his motive for seeking an audience with ‘Your Honour’. One priest keeps Lázaro in the verge of starvation, others exploit him as a laborer and reveal to him the corrupt practices of concubinage and selling indulgences. Lázaro concludes his narration by revealing that his appeal to ‘Your Honour’

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is futile in light of his dishonorable profession and his dishonorable existence. Lázaro ultimately becomes a town crier in Toledo who accompanies prisoners to their punishments and whose wife appears to be having an affair with his supposed protector, the archpriest of St. Salvador, which is another example of the anticlericalism that probably motivated the author to remain anonymous. Indeed, in 1559 the Spanish Inquisition placed Lazarillo on its first Index of prohibited books, and when a censored edition was permitted in Spain in 1573 a number of the anticlerical passages were expurgated. Through his contact with conversos or from his own reading of a work that was readily available in its uncensored version in northern Europe, Morteira may well have been familiar with Lazarillo. His knowledge of this popular work may have influenced Arguments, in which the pilgrim, who loses his parents at a young age like Lázaro, also reveals to a narratee (the friend) significant events in his life while associated with various masters since childhood. The marginal existence of the pilgrim, depicted in his service to several priests before ultimately failing to gain entrance into the Jesuit Order, finds a parallel in Lazarillo. Whereas Lázaro’s service under priests leads him to a dishonorable existence, the pilgrim’s time under the tutelage of Jesuit priests in Portugal ultimately leaves him on the margin of society as an unsuccessful aspirant to the priesthood, and both cases of social exclusion may be understood to be grounded in the treatment of conversos by Old Christians. Similarities between the historical alienation of conversos and the discourse of Lazarillo have been recognized by modern scholars since Américo Castro, who link the inception of the picaresque novel to the social impact of anti-converso persecution and discrimination. More recently, Gitlitz asserts that fear of the Inquisition motivated conversos to fabricate confessions containing elements that would inform Lazarillo and ‘the development of the autobiographical genre in sixteenth-century Spain’ (‘Inquisition Confessions’ 54) and José Faur understands Lázaro’s lifelong desire for social ascension and honor to incarnate the impossibility of converso assimilation into Old Christian society.29 For Lázaro, who goes from master to master in order to find a place in society, the favorable resolution of his case would bring him honor. Within the context of Lázaro’s supplication to ‘Your Honour,’ his biography evokes the futility for conversos of attempting to assimilate. While serving his second master, a miserly priest who keeps Lázaro on the verge of starvation, Lázaro is offered some bread, supposedly nibbled on by mice, because it is clean enough for Lázaro to eat. The inference here is that Lázaro is as clean, or unclean, as the mice, with the religious connotation of Lázaro’s

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uncleanliness being further clarified in the third chapter of Lazarillo, in which Lázaro narrates his sojourn with a squire in Toledo. For the squire, honor is a superficial attribute as he expresses through his preoccupation with his physical appearance and his cleanliness, which should be understood to symbolize Old Christian spiritual cleanliness or purity of blood. Insofar as the squire is impoverished and famished because he refuses to work for fear of staining his honor, his concern over whether Lázaro’s hands are clean enough to touch his cloak, and whether bread that Lázaro has acquired from begging has been made with clean hands (which would make it appropriate for the squire to consume) reveals an ironic preoccupation with aristocratic pretensions.30 Whereas the squire avoids work, a sign of his pure blood but also the reason for his poverty, Lázaro tries to work his way up the ladder, although this sincere effort is unable to impede his social alienation at the end of the book. A parallel may be established between Lázaro’s alienation and the impetus for the exclusion of the pilgrim from the Jesuit Order in Arguments. Lázaro’s lack of cleanliness, or religious purity, is the reason advanced by the squire for an inferiority to which Lázaro is oblivious just as the pilgrim’s impure lineage is the impediment, unbeknownst to him, that prevents from becoming a Jesuit. Unlike the author of Lazarillo, who probably remained anonymous out of fear of the Inquisition, Morteira was able to depict converso inferiority and attack the Church in more explicit terms. While both Lázaro and the pilgrim appear at first to be unaware that children of conversos could be persecuted for crimes committed by their parents, what remains a mystery to Lázaro is explained by the friend to the pilgrim during the dialogue that begins at the inn. The friend’s description of why the pilgrim is treated as inferior explicitly communicates a concept that the author of Lazarillo does not reveal, namely, that the Inquisition ‘claims estates, lives, honors and one’s human condition’ (fol. 2r).

The influence of Spanish Golden Age theater on Arguments As exemplified by internationally renowned figures such as Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina (b. 1579-d. 1648), and Pedro Calderón de la Barca (b. 1600d. 1681), Golden Age theater was at its zenith in Spain during Morteira’s lifetime. In Morteira’s native land, performances of classical works at the residences of the Italian nobility and high-ranking church officials began to take place in the late 1400s, and a century later Morteira was born into a cultural milieu in which representations of Spanish plays, with religious

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and secular themes, also had a long-standing tradition. Some of the most important early Spanish dramatists, including Juan del Encina (b. c. 1468-d. c. 1530) and Bartolomé de Torres Naharro (b. c. 1485-d. c. 1530), were staged in the Vatican, and over time other publics witnessed performances by traveling companies by the leading Golden Age figures.31 While there is no direct evidence to indicate that Morteira attended a performance, details included in Arguments suggest that he possessed at least an indirect familiarity with Spanish Golden Age theatrical discourse and the staging of performances. Whether through experiences during his youth in Italy or through conversations with congregants arriving from the Iberian Peninsula, Morteira reveals his knowledge that attending religious and secular theatrical performances was a popular activity in Spain during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. From the early 1500s onward, liturgical dramas involving the Passion of Christ and the Resurrection were performed on Easter and Christmas in Spanish churches, and open-air representations of secular works in public spaces became a common occurrence in theaters known as corrales (courtyards). After originating during the late 1500s as stages placed in rented spaces between buildings in Madrid, where canvas shades could be extended in order to protect spectators from the sun, corrales opened in a number of other Spanish cities and became more elaborate structures with the addition of walls, doors and added seating for a constantly increasing public from all levels of society.32 An episode described by the friend in Arguments suggests that Morteira was aware of a religious theatrical tradition that began to evolve during the early sixteenth century. The friend includes this episode as he attempts to influence the pilgrim’s spiritual views, on this occasion by evoking the Ecce Homo theme: According to you and your doctors, the man in question wasn’t fair or just but a prisoner condemned to a vile and shameful death. This reminds me of when I was in Burgos and some friends took me to see a play, which are often put on there and in which they revealed some true things in an amusing way. While that man was in between the two thieves, one of them said to the other: ‘Tell him to save you’. The other responded: ‘How can he save me if he can’t save himself?’ The other one countered: ‘Then rob him here on the gallows’; ‘What can I rob from Him if He is naked?’ That one spoke the truth because the other one was certainly not wearing much. Here you’ll see that they themselves treat these things lightly and make a joke out of it, which it is. (Fols. 34v-35r)

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Similarities may be found between the friend’s narration and anonymous liturgical dramas performed in Burgos during the 1500s. The earliest textual witness to these performances was printed in Burgos in 1520.33 This brief work opens with a dialogue initiated by the Virgin, who appears before four figures from the Old Testament—David, Solomon, Isaiah and Jeremiah. The Virgin, anguished over the loss of her son, is unaware of the identity of these figures, who are ‘sentados como a manera de juizio’ (Gillet 954; seated in judgment),34 and asks: ‘dezid me quienes soys vos?’ (Gillet 954; tell me, who are you?). In the following lines the figures reveal their names and that they have appeared in order to pass judgment on Christ, which causes her to make a further inquiry in light of the fact that none of them is a Christian: ‘que hazeys todos juntos?’ (Gillet 955; why are you the ones who came?). David responds that they have appeared in order to cause the Resurrection (‘porque viuan los defunctos’ [Gillet 955; so that the dead will rise]) by ‘sentenciar de muerte a cristo’ (Gillet 955; condemning Christ to death). The Old Testament figures then pronounce their death sentence, whose gruesomeness is underscored by Solomon: ‘Yo salomon tal sentencia / pronuncie mas cruel que larga / venid y con nuestra sciencia / a vil muerte y mas que amarga / condenemos su inocencia’ (Gillet 956; The judgment by me, Solomon, / is more cruel than it is long. / Come and with our wisdom / it is to a vile very cruel death / that we will condemn his spirit). After the sentenced is repeated, Christ arrives in order to ‘despidese para yrse a morir’ (Gillet 958; say goodbye and go to his death), which he does before reappearing in an Ecce Homo scene described in the stage directions: ‘Enesta breue contemplacion del Ecce homo vn hombre honrrado trahe por vna sala a christo con vna soga ala garganta con su corona de espinas mas que harto de tormentos, y / nuestra señora vieñdo le tan desfigurado pregunta a sant Juan quien es aquel hombre. Y sant Juan le responde como es su hijo. Y nuestra señora haze alli cierta esclamacion alas gentes’ (Gillet 958-59; In this brief contemplation of the Ecce Homo, a gentlemen leads Christ into the room with his crown of thorns and a rope around his neck, looking wretched from his anguish, and upon seeing him look so disfigured the Virgin asks Saint John who he is. Saint John responds that it is her son. And Our Lady makes a certain gesture to everyone).The emphasis on the disfigurement of a crucified Christ and the incredulity of the Virgin create an ironic tone in the piece from 1520 that Morteira may have imitated in Arguments in the friend’s description of the play he saw in Burgos. The fact that the friend points specifically to the performance of a play in Burgos as an example of the ‘a vile and shameful death’ of Christ might recall the enduring memory of a one-time performance in 1520 that have caused a public stir because of its graphic nature and ironic treatment of the Virgin.35

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A staging of a liturgical drama in Burgos several decades later also involved explicit content.On this occasion, in 1552, several New Testament figures (the Virgin, Joseph of Arimathea, Saint John, the Three Marys, Nicodemus, Pilate, and a centurion and a page) portray the story of Christ’s removal from the cross.36 The atmosphere of this work is consistently somber, without the confused identities of the piece from 1520, and includes gruesome elements. For example, in one scene the dialogue among John, Joseph and Nicodemus acquires a morbid tone when, upon seeing the wound left by a particularly large and difficult to extract nail from Christ’s foot, Nicodemus exclaims: ‘Esta abertura tan fiera / causó ser cabe el huesso’ (Wickersham Crawford 290; This opening has gone right through to the bone).37 While the stage directions in this play are not as detailed as those in the piece from 1520, as N. D. Shergold observes: [The] scene of the descent from the cross suggests that a figure was used to represent the crucified Christ, either a human being who played the part, or a life-size doll, perhaps an articulated one; indeed the fact that this play was printed in Burgos prompts the suggestion that it may have been written for performance in Burgos Cathedral, and the famous articulated Cristo de Burgos may have been used for this scene. (32-33)

While the play from 1552 portrays a scene that would be repeated in plays written and performed in many Spanish cities, Shergold suggests that the Spanish tradition of ‘Easter plays requiring the use of an articulated figure of Christ’ (545) originated in Burgos. Of course, the setting and nature of the theatrical scene in Arguments, which is blatantly sacrilegious, could not have formed part of a liturgical drama, although it is possible that the friend’s recollection of his experience alludes to a theatrical tradition of the late 1500s that caused resentment among the Spanish clergy. In his seminal study on Golden Age Spanish theater, Hugo Rennert identifies a popular tendency toward satirical representations of Catholic themes, of which the Church was aware but that was apparently beyond its control. The existence of this tendency is revealed in contemporary observations concerning the performances of actors and actresses. For example, the dramatist Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola complained about the blasphemous representation of a religious work by Lope de Vega near the end of the 1500s in Madrid38: in presenting a comedia of the life of Our Lady in this capital, the actor who played the part of St. Joseph was living in concubinage with the

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woman who represented Our Lady, and this was so notorious that many were scandalized and laughed when they heard the words which the most pure Virgin replied to the angel’s question: Quomodo fiet istud, etc. And in this same comedia, arriving at the mystery of the birth of Our Saviour, this same actor who played the part of Joseph reproved the woman in a low voice because she was looking, as he thought, at a man of whom he was jealous, calling her by a most vile name which is wont to be applied to evil women. (Rennert 261-62; translation by Rennert)

On another occasion, the Jesuit priest and historian Juan de Mariana (b. 1536-d. 1624) complains about performances of entremeses in churches that depict ‘adulterous and foolish love affairs and other indecencies’.39 Rennert also records a similar observation made anonymously in 1620: ‘An actress appears upon the stage to represent a Magdalen or the Mother of God, and an actor to represent the Saviour, and the first thing you see is that the greater part of the audience recognizes this woman as a prostitute (ramera) and the man as a bully’ (263). The theatrical representation alluded to in Arguments by the friend, which involves Christ and the two thieves with whom He was crucified, could never have been published, although as the comments above illustrate, the satirical treatment of Catholic themes could occur during performances. In light of the detail provided by the friend in his summary of the representation in Burgos, which includes dialogue, stage directions and wardrobe details, it is interesting to speculate that Morteira alluding to an actual performance. The possibility is intriguing because the scandalous behavior in question is not documented aside from in comments such as those above, and the rendition provided by the friend in Arguments may well approximate the discourse employed in one such performance. Morteira’s familiarity with Spanish theater may have inspired him to write a play, which he did by coauthoring Dialogo dos montes several years after his arrival to Amsterdam. The play, written in Portuguese and translated into English by Philip Polack as The Controversy of the Mountains, is comprised of 908 verses composed by the aforementioned Rehuel Jessurun and seven prose sermons (each around a thousand words long) by Morteira, who might have also composed the twelve-verse poems that follow each sermon. As Polack has established, The Controversy shares much in common with a popular form of religious drama in Golden Age Spain known as the auto, a one-act religious morality play performed on Christian festivals, in particular on Corpus Christi (which is known as an auto sacramental). Autos were performed frequently in Spanish and Portuguese churches during

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the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and Polack speculates that The Controversy was ‘an attempt by Rehuel Jessurun to adapt for Jewish purposes the plays he may well have seen performed in Portuguese churches in his youth’ (xxi). Indirect knowledge of autos acquired from Jessurun would have certainly been a manner by which Morteira stayed informed. The Controversy was performed in Beth Jacob in May of 1624 in commemoration of the Jewish festival of Shavuot. Although a direct reference is only available in the case of this performance, which was memorialized by Barrios in a sonnet that he dedicated to the event, subsequent performances of The Controversy may have taken place until 1632, when leaders of the three congregations prohibited theatrical representations in synagogues because they were considered to be a disturbance. 40 The Controversy begins with a prologue spoken by Earth, who appears ‘to question what the cause may be / Of this new uproar, this new age’s shift’ (Jessurun 7). The allusion to change may be understood in the political context discussed below and as a manifestation of the growing messianic fervor among Amsterdam’s Jewry, a theme announced early in the play: ‘upon that day / The mountains will be leveled on your way, / upon that day they’ll melt, sweetness distil, / Those whom you’ll see today and every hill / Will break forth into song, with joyful voice / Bid Jacob’s long-afflicted sons rejoice, / Proclaiming that the Lord brings consolation, / To all his people their desired salvation. / O may you see the Redeemer in your days, / For which this House of Jacob daily prays’ (13-15). The seven mountains then engage in a dialogue concerning the final judgment pronounced by Jehosaphat, and the remainder of the play consists of seven prose sermons composed by Morteira, in which the mountains present their cases. Morteira grounds his sermons in the Midrash and, as he does in Arguments, intercalates biblical verses in support of the assertions of superiority by the seven mountains. The Controversy is based in a Midrashic tradition concerning a dispute among mountains in ancient Israel for the privilege of being the place where God would reveal the Torah (which was ultimately Mount Sinai). 41 This Midrashic tradition is linked to Jewish eschatology, and the resolution of the dispute among the mountains concerns the Apocalypse, which according to the Midrashic tradition includes the reunification of two mountains, Mount Moriah (where Isaac is brought by Abraham to be sacrificed in Gen. 22) and Mount Sinai: ‘In the future world, Sinai will return to its original place, Mount Moriah’ (Ginzberg 3: 84). Morteira’s decision to present cases for particular mountains, Zion, Sinai, Hor Hahar, Nebo, Gerizim, Carmel and Zetim, including five not mentioned in the Midrashic tradition in

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question (Zion, Hor Hahar, Nebo, Gerizim and Zetim), involved another decision to omit six others discussed in the Midrash (Carmel, Hermon, Lebanon, Moriah, Sinai and Tabor). The omission of Mount Moriah, which is mentioned in the Midrash in conjunction with an apocalyptic vision, may have been grounded in Morteira’s desire to communicate the need to achieve a spiritual goal that had not been reached by converso émigrés to Amsterdam. According to Polack, The Controversy: was above all a fervent affirmation of renewed faith—a product of its time and a tract for its time: a mixture of relief at having escaped from oppression, joy at being able to practice in freedom, and Messianic hope for the future. […] The choice of Sinai and Zion may have been intended too as a reminder to those marranos who had not yet embraced Judaism as wholeheartedly as the author. It showed that Torah and Temple were more important than, among other things, the celebration of a death or triumph over the heathen. (Polack xxv)

Morteira’s participation in the composition of The Controversy, and his efforts during the early 1620s to enlist a performative tradition as a component of rejudaization by organizing a staging of the play in his synagogue, further demonstrate his commitment to advocating the practice of Judaism among his converso congregants.

Arguments: Biblical sources During the course of their dialogue in Arguments, the friend and pilgrim refer to the Bible, either directly or indirectly, on over 400 occasions. The vast majority of these references are to the Old Testament, although there also are a dozen allusions to the New Testament. Moreover, the fact that many of these quotations vary from their sources, at times to a significant degree, suggests that Morteira incorporated them from memory. It is thought that Morteira delivered his sermons by memory, and he would have thus been accustomed to rendering biblical verses without consulting the textual source. 42 The application of this technique during the composition of Arguments might explain the numerous variations from the Old Testament, which stand out in light of the fact that, within the narrative, the biblical text is being consulted directly in a Bible the friend is taking to a ‘friend in Bordeaux’ (fol. 23r). The possibility that Morteira incorporated the biblical quotes into Arguments from memory is reinforced by the

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appearance of some 20 quotations that derive from multiple Bibles, as will be discussed below. As Harm den Boer underscores, Morteira’s technique for quoting the Old Testament may be said to reflect a common tendency among Amsterdam’s rabbis toward inexact quotations in polemical works and sermons. 43 Analysis of the corpus of references to the Old Testament in Arguments reveals that the 247 references for which sources can be identified (with the other Old Testament references constituting indirect mentions as in the cases of allusions to the New Testament) derived from two (and perhaps three) Spanish translations of the Old Testament, all of which are actually grounded in the same textual tradition. While Morteira did not have access to a Portuguese Bible, which was not available in a reliable edition until the middle of the eighteenth century, his profound knowledge of extant Spanish Bibles suggests that he was familiar with the legacy of a tradition that had flourished during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when commissioning Jewish translators to produce Spanish versions of the Hebrew Bible (including the Pentateuch and Apocrypha)—based on the Hebrew biblical text as Castro demonstrated—became a frequent practice as the survival of a good number of manuscripts attests. 44 These biblias romanceadas (translated Bibles) include the Biblia de Alba, produced in 1433 for the Grand Master of Calatrava, and f ive manuscripts housed at El Escorial library, whose textual parallels have been studied by Castro, Oliver H. Hauptmann, and Mark G. Littlefield. Hauptmann’s notion of ‘a family of translations, flowing out of a common rabbinical tradition’ (50) as the source for biblias romanceadas is confirmed and amplified by Littlefield, who also posits that the biblias romanceadas tradition dates to the thirteenth century (xxiv). The emigration of conversos from Iberia and the formation of communities in exile during the sixteenth century, including the one in the Venetian Ghetto with which Morteira would have had much contact during his youth, created a need for a printed Spanish edition of the Bible. This lacuna was filled by the Biblia de Ferrara (Ferrara Bible), which was published in 1992 as The Ladino Bible of Ferrara. The Ferrara Bible was first published in 1553 and which became the standard biblical text for the following two centuries for ex-conversos and descendants of expelled Iberian Jews, who continued to speak and read Spanish in exile. The Ferrara text is essentially the same as that found in the El Escorial manuscripts, and it would not be inaccurate to term the Ferrara Bible a sixteenth-century biblia romanceada. The Ferrara Bible was the biblical text upon which Morteira most relied

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throughout his career when composing works in Spanish, as well as when he wrote in Portuguese, a language into which he translated Spanish biblical quotes. 45 The Ferrara Bible was available in one edition until 1611, when it was reprinted in Amsterdam, with subsequent editions being published in Amsterdam, at times with modifications, on eight occasions prior to Morteira’s death in 1660. Saperstein (80) believes that Morteira owned a copy of the 1611 reprint, which he might have acquired in Venice while initially forming a friendship with Montalto. At the same time, Morteira’s thorough familiarity with the Ferrara Bible invites speculation as to whether he was exposed to it during his youth in Venice, which in turn might be another indication of his immersion at an early age in a (converso?) culture literate in Spanish. Although it is not the only biblical source for Arguments, the Ferrara Bible is the most prominent one and, as the only ‘converso Bible’ in question as will be explained further below, likely the Bible carried by the friend, who perhaps posseses a 1611 edition like the one Morteira may have owned. Of the 247 biblical quotes in Arguments that can be attributed to a particular Bible, around 80 derive from the Ferrara text. This provenance is evident in examples such as the following quotation from Isa. 8.18 (‘the children the Lord has given me as signs and portents in Israel’): Los niños que dio ami el Señor fueron por maravillas en Israel (ms. EH/ LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] [fol. 34r]) los niños que dio a mi Adonay, por señales y por marauillas en Ysrael (Ferrara Bible) los hijos que me dió Iehova por señales y prodigios en Israel. (Reina-Valera Bible)

In the rendition of Isa. 8.18 from ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206], the expression of ‘children’ by using ‘niños’ rather than ‘hijos’ and the use of ‘maravillas’ rather than ‘prodigios’ to express ‘portents’ parallels the Ferrara text rather than the Biblia Reina-Valera (Reina-Valera Bible), which was also a source for Arguments as will be discussed below. At the same time, the omission in Arguments of the term ‘señales’ (signs) reveals that the quotation did not come directly from the Ferrara text itself, and that it was instead incorporated from memory. Six of the quotations in Arguments that derive from the Ferrara Bible focus on a repeated deficiency of the Ferrara text that was, in fact, one of

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several deficiencies pointed out by Abraham Usque (fl. sixteenth century), an ex-converso from Portugal who established a press in Ferrara and led the team of translators that produced the Ferrara Bible. Usque explains that the ‘rough’ (barbaro) Spanish is a result of the technique employed in the translation: And although to some the language might seem rough and strange, and very different from the refined type used in our times, another type could not have been used, since in wanting to follow verb by verb and not render a word in two ways, which is very difficult, or mistakenly place one in front of or behind another, it was necessary to follow the language that the ancient Spanish Hebrews used; which, while somewhat strange, will reveal upon close inspection the character of the Hebrew vocabulary, and thus convey the gravity that antiquity typically possesses. For the well-known truth of the matter is that, inasmuch as all languages have their style and syntax, it cannot be denied that the Hebrew has its own, which is the one seen here in this translation, which was used instead of another one to keep its integrity. 46

The phrase ‘character of the Hebrew vocabulary’ is an indirect allusion to the fact that Hebrew is traditionally written without vowels (diacritical marks inserted above, below, or inside the consonants), and Usque’s declaration that the team of translators attempted ‘to follow verb by verb and not render a word in two ways, which is very difficult’ by reproducing ‘the language that the ancient Spanish Hebrews used’, or the biblias romanceadas tradition, assured that his ‘rough’ and ‘strange’ text would be open to interpretation. One of the tendencies employed by ‘the ancient Spanish Hebrews’ in biblias romanceadas and perpetuated in the Ferrara Bible involves the manner of rendering a uniquely Hebrew verbal noun form called the ‘infinitive absolute’, which appears with frequency in the Hebrew biblical text immediately before verbs possessing the same three-letter root, as the infinitive absolutes ‘‫ ’אכל‬and ‘‫ ’מות‬do in the phrases ‘‫ ’אכל תאכל‬and ‘‫’מות תמות‬ in Gen. 2.16-17. In Arguments, as an apparent response to passages from Genesis (18.1-3, 28.11 and 28.18) mentioned earlier (fol. 20v) by the pilgrim, the friend introduces a reference to Gen. 2.16-17: There we see the passage in Genesis that you pointed out. Look at what I’m showing you; you can read and check against the chapter being considered. First, we see the precept that our Lord gave to him, and based on that we’ll see the punishments given to him for not following it. Thus it

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says: ‘And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you are free to eat; but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die”’. (Fol. 24v)

The infinitive absolutes in question, ‘‫ ’אכל תאכל‬and ‘‫’מות תמות‬, form part of phrases that posed an obstacle to the Ferrara translators, which is underscored by Littlefield: ‘In fact the only possible way to translate this construction in a language such as English or Spanish is to use a strengthening adverb’ (xxix). In fact, this is the modern practice, as in the English translation of Gen. 2.16-17 from The Jewish Study Bible which treats the infinitive absolutes as verbal modifiers. In this case, modifiers, ‘‫ ’אכל‬and ‘‫ ’מות‬convey the meanings, respectively, of ‘free to’ and ‘shall’ in order to place emphasis on the actions (‘eat’ and ‘die’) communicated by the verbs (‘‫ ’תלכא‬and ‘‫)’תמות‬. The Ferrara text is a source for the friend’s rendition of Gen. 2.16-17 and the ensuing biblical quotations for a particular reason, namely, because it provides Morteira with a platform for expressing what may well have been his personal opinion of Usque’s translation: Dixo el Señor Dios al hombre de todo arbol del guerto comiendo comeras, pero del arbol de la cençia del bien ni del mal, no comeras, porque el dia que comieres moriendo moriras (ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] [fol. 24v]) Y encomendo Adonay Dio sobre el hombre por dezir: de todo arbol del huerto comer comeras; Y de arbol del saber bien y mal no comeras del, que en dia de tu comer del morir moriras (Ferrara Bible)

In the preparation of the Ferrara text, the team of translators followed the previous convention employed in biblias romanceadas of rendering infinitive absolutes as variations of the same verb, with the result in the case of ‘‫ ’אכל תאכל‬at the end of Gen. 2.16 being the problematic phrase ‘comer comeras’ (to eat, you will eat). While ‘comer comeras’ is employed in the Ferrara text as it had been in Escorial Bible I.j.4 and Escorial Bible I.ii.19, in Arguments Morteira provides his own resolution with a phrase, ‘comiendo comeras’ (fol. 24v), in which the replacement of the infinitive verb form ‘comer’ with a gerund ‘comiendo’ communicates the meaning of ‘eating, you will eat’ and comes closer than the biblia romanceada text to communicating the notion of ‘being free to eat from’ almost all the trees in the Garden of Eden. Similarly, the friend’s rendition of the final words of Gen. 2.17 as ‘moriendo moriras’ (fol. 24v) alters the Ferrara text with the substitution

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of a gerund ‘moriendo’ (dying) for an infinitive verb ‘morir’ (to die). In this instance, the confusion involves Hebrew terms, ‘‫ ’מות‬and ‘‫’תמות‬, which share the same sequence of letters that form the root for the Hebrew verb that means ‘to die’ (‫)לָ מּות‬, and as such are incomprehensibly rendered in the Ferrara text as variations of the Spanish verb ‘to die’ (morir): ‘morir moriras’ (to die, you will die). It is interesting to note that the Ferrara translators themselves had modified a convention with the phrase ‘morir moriras’, which appears as ‘muerte morras’ (death, you will die) in Escorial Bible I.j.4 and Escorial Bible I.ii.19. For Morteira, the solution is again a Castilian gerund, ‘moriendo’, to create a meaning of ‘dying, you will die’ (‘moriendo moriras’ [fol. 24v]). Undoubtedly as a by-product of Morteira’s rabbinic training, as Arguments continues the friend exploits a Midrashic tradition for interpreting infinitive absolutes. A commentary on Gen. 2.17 found in Midrash Rabbah 16.6 explains that the verse signified ‘death for Adam, death for Eve, and death for his descendents’ (The Midrash 1.131), a punishment involving more than those who actually sinned that ‘is deduced from the doubling of the verb, that is, by interpreting the terms as they appear in the biblical text without vowels, ‘‫’מות תמות‬, as manifestations of the same verb (‫)לָ מּות‬, which as usual is understood as an extension’ (The Midrash 1.131, n. 4). Through the discourse of the friend, Morteira engages in a Midrashic process of understanding the terms as repetitions of the same verb (albeit in a language different than that in which the terms were originally perceived as such), which is designed to reinforce the significance of the biblical punishment (and thus the significance of the sin). This reinforcement forms the core of the message the friend attempts to impart based on Gen. 2.16-17: You have before you the words of the Sacred text, in which can be seen no punishment other than that of the body, and not of the soul, because they were all made of earth. And through that, since it was the part He had nurtured, the Lord began to inflict them on man and, accordingly, He said that his punishment would last until returning to the earth from which he was formed. This is the body, because we already know that the soul was instilled afterwards with that breath He blew into his nose. (Fol. 25r)

However, the pilgrim is not convinced, and begins to question the friend’s (Spanish) rendition of the infinitive absolutes: ‘Very well’, said the pilgrim, ‘but you don’t know that behind those words there are profound mysteries’.

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‘I believe that’, said the friend, ‘but the literalness can’t be overlooked nor can the Ladino be changed’. ‘Well’, said the pilgrim, ‘you don’t understand the literal Ladino. It’s clear in the duplication of the words of God, ‘dying, you will die’, that two deaths should be understood, corporal and spiritual. About that there can be no doubt because all Church doctors adhere to this’. ‘After conceding to you’, said the friend, ‘that two deaths are to be understood, I’ll clearly show you that neither refers to the soul but to corporality’. ‘For me’, said the pilgrim, ‘it’d be a new thing that two mortal punishments were inflicted on the body’. (Fols. 25 r-v)

The pilgrim and the friend each provide interpretations of the meaning of the ‘literal Ladino’, that is, the Ferrara text. According to the pilgrim, both corporal and spiritual deaths are communicated by the phrase ‘dying, you will die’ (which is translated in The Jewish Study Bible as ‘you shall die’), a concept with which the friend concurs only in part. In the spirit of his attempt to distance the pilgrim from the conflation of corporality and spirituality that informs the Christian Trinity, the friend distinguishes the two notions in his response: Adam was covered by grace, endowed with divine knowledge and full of light among the angels. In that bliss, in that kingly dwelling, like the angelic spirits he enjoyed the gaze of the Creator. In that state, there could be neither any ending nor death, so he used to eat from the tree of life. All of those distinctions made him immortal. Adam sinned and disobeyed his creator by eating the forbidden fruit and, afterwards, he was immediately deprived and stripped of all those gifts. He was unclothed and removed from that grace. With that he lost a glorious life, that sweet and blessed repose, which he’d been enjoying in the company of the saints. Proof of this is that he found himself naked afterwards, and he confessed in shame that he could no longer look with his eyes at the Supreme Divinity, and thus he hid himself. In the end he was banished and cast from the holy place of life. You see here how he lost that life, for it was the only life that his body and soul possessed. From this great loss came the second one, the corporal death to which He subjected his descendants. And because we possess the corporal part of him, we’re called children of Adam. (Fols. 25v-26r)

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The friend then pauses to ask for a Christian perspective on rendering infinitive absolutes: ‘Before proceeding I’d like to ask you how your wise doctors understand the aforementioned verses, which contain the same duplication when God says, about the fruit of the garden: “eating, you will eat”’ (fol. 26r). The pilgrim’s reply—‘That’, said the pilgrim, ‘seems to say that it’s not enough to eat one time, but that you keep nourishing and sustaining yourself through Him’ (fol. 26r)—again provides an alternate perspective, which in turn leads to further discussion based on the ambiguity of infinitive absolutes as rendered according to the biblias romanceadas tradition. The friend continues by suggesting that infinitive absolutes might be interpreted as verbal modifiers, as they are in The Jewish Study Bible: ‘My good friend, here you see that your view is severely weakened and undermined. Furthermore, I say to you that it’s not obligatory to understand that case of duplication in Scripture as two deaths. It’s very normal to speak in that fashion as a means of affirmation, as if to say that one, without fail, will die’ (fol. 26v). The friend then supports his position with a series of biblical quotations containing infinitive absolutes, from Genesis, 1 Kings, Deuteronomy, and Ezekiel (fols. 26v-27v), and even adds infinitive absolutes to Ezekiel 18.4-5 and 18.10 (fol. 27r). The friend concludes by returning to the message imparted on fol. 25r (‘You have before you…’): You see clearly the clarity of the divine doctrine, in which the author of the divine truth teaches and advises us about the virtue of contrition by saying to us that the one who truly sins and repents will have his sins forgotten, and his soul will escape death. From this we see and understand that Adam’s sin doesn’t affect his descendants in a spiritual sense, which is why there’s always a place for penitence. And neither you nor your doctors can deny to me that the virtuous work that man does for the love of and service to God is of more merit because it’s done with the express intent of obeying his Creator. (Fols. 27v-28v)

In perpetuating the aforementioned Midrashic tradition of understanding the infinitive absolute to communicate an ‘extension’, or enhancement, of an action in question, Morteira provides the friend with a tool for combating the influence of Christian doctrine on the pilgrim while at the same time couching his narrative in terms that evoke a significant deficiency in the canonical Spanish biblical text used by conversos.

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The Ferrara Bible was not Morteira’s only source for the biblical quotations in Arguments. Around 35 of them, and 64 additional quotations that may or may not come from the Ferrara Bible, derive from a Christian Bible that employed the biblia romanceada textual tradition and expanded it by including Spanish translations of the New Testament and Apocrypha. The initial volume was published in 1569, in Basel, in order to avoid the Inquisition, by a team led by Casiodoro de Reina. Reina’s edition is commonly known as the Biblia del Oso (Oso Bible) because of the bear (in Spanish oso) included on the title page. As Reina announces in his introductory remarks to the reader, his Spanish translation is based on the Latin Vulgate, although errors in the Vulgate are corrected by taking the Hebrew source into consideration. Reina also reveals that the Ferrara Bible was consulted more than any other Spanish rendition of the Old Testament, and the similarities between the two Bibles are readily evident. Modifications were made by Reina’s team to terms and phrases deemed difficult to understand, and the fact that a number of these modifications involve the presentation of infinitive absolutes as single verbs so as to achieve more clarity. The employment of this technique in the Oso Bible indicates that the discussion in Arguments concerning the treatment of infinitive absolutes involves the Ferrara text, which would be another indication that the friend is carrying an edition of the Ferrara Bible. 47 Fewer than 3,000 copies of the Oso Bible were printed in 1569, and it quickly became diff icult to acquire. While it was a Christian Bible, it would be logical to speculate that copies were available in important Jewish intellectual centers such as Venice, and Morteira may have gained his knowledge of the New Testament, demonstrated in Arguments and other works, by reading the Oso Bible as a component of his rabbinical education. Evidence that Morteira knew the Oso Bible surfaces on several occasions in Arguments. For example, a reference to a passage from Prov. 21.4 (‘Haughty looks, a proud heart— / The tillage of the wicked is sinful’) in a declaration made by the friend—‘By the way, I’d truly like to avail ourselves now of the holy company of the Sacred Scripture, because it’ll provide us with an example of the many disillusions. Wise men call it ‘teacher’ King Solomon calls it ‘light’ (fol. 24v)—based on the rendition of ‘The tillage of the wicked is sinful’ in the Oso Bible: pensamiento de malos, pecado (Ferrara Bible) el brillo de los impíos, son pecado (Oso Bible)

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In Arguments, the use of the term ‘light’ (in the Spanish text ‘luz’) parallels the term used in the Oso Bible (‘brillo’, which in Spanish can mean ‘brightness’, ‘shine’ or ‘glow’), while an equivalent term is lacking in the Ferrara text, in which ‘pensamiento’ (pondering) appears. Both ‘light’ and ‘pondering’, which in the phrase ‘pensamiento de malos’ (pondering of the wicked) recalls the metaphorical phrase ‘tillage of the wicked’, are possible Spanish translations of the Hebrew term, ‫נר‬. This term, which, as mentioned above, is traditionally written without vowels in editions of the Old Testament, has the same sequence of root consonants as the Hebrew terms for ‘light’ (‫ )נֵ ר‬and ‘tillage’ (‫נִ יר‬, in the literal sense of ‘tilling a field’), and may therefore be interpreted in either fashion by modern editors. The possibility that Morteira knew the Oso Bible is further suggested by his awareness of another source used in Arguments, which is revealed on fol. 42v, within the friend’s depiction of the holiness of biblical Israel: ‘Consider now that the Lord gave them divine and spiritual bread as sustenance for their bodies. Those who say that they were a terrestrial and carnal people thus do possess knowledge and understanding. The blind ones don’t know that neither their clothing nor their shoes became worn during all the time in the dessert. Moreover, as Pineda says in his Monarchía, they didn’t get older and their hair didn’t grow’. Morteira’s source here is Monarchía Ecclesiástica, a multivolume history of the world (which is not available in a modern edition) by the cleric, preacher, and historian Juan de Pineda (b. c. 1500-d. 1566), who may have been royal ambassador in Rome during the 1520s. Although Monarchía was published in Salamanca (in 1588), it was reprinted on two occasions (in 1594 and in 1606) in Barcelona during Morteira’s youth in Venice, and it is logical to speculate that Morteira may have come to know at least parts of Pineda’s 30-volume work prior to arriving in Amsterdam. In light of the fact that the majority of the books published in Venice dealt with religious and theological themes, including ‘texts concerned with canon law, histories of monastic orders, collections of sermons, lives of saints and laymen’ (Pallotta 38), Morteira may have acquired knowledge of topics covered by Pineda indirectly, perhaps through interaction with individuals who had recently arrived from Spain or who were involved in the publication and trade of theological books. At the same time, another fact, namely, that on a good number of occasions in his last work, Tratado da verdade da lei de moisés (Treatise on the Truth of the Law of Moses), a polemical treatise containing over 400 folios completed in 1660, Morteira quotes passages from Monarchía (by referring to chapter and section numbers

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from Pineda) and discusses them at length, is strongly indicative that he consulted Pineda’s work throughout his lifetime. While a thorough analysis of Morteira’s knowledge of Monarchía is beyond the scope of the present book—indeed, Pineda is an important f igure who is in grave need of further study, and there is evidence in Tratado that Morteira criticized some of Pineda’s ideas—it merits underscoring that Morteira’s interest in Pineda was more likely because he was a Protestant rather than because he was a Spaniard. During the 1540s, Pineda occupied the post of rector at the Colegio de la Doctrina de los Niños in Seville, where he was influenced by Erasmians and Lutherans before the persecution of Sevillian heterodoxy by the Inquisition forced him to flee to Paris and then, like Reina and Valera, to Geneva. Pineda became a Calvinist minister and produced a number of religious works, including a Spanish translation of the New Testament and biblical commentaries that reveal ‘his profound knowledge of Scripture’ (Kinder, ‘Juan Pérez’ 291). In addition to looking to Pineda as a biblical authority, Morteira may have also read his works because of Pineda’s anti-Spanish posture. Pineda composed one letter that ‘attempts to show both religiously and politically that the papacy does not deserve the support of the King of Spain’ (Kinder, ‘Juan Pérez’ 289) and another polemical text in which he attacks the cruelty of the Inquisition. Moreover, A. Gordon Kinder sheds light on Pineda’s efforts to introduce his works ‘into Spain as a means of spreading the Protestant message’ (‘Two Previously’ 113), which may have also inspired Morteira to privilege Pineda as a Christian source. Pineda worked in Geneva among a group of Protestant sympathizers that included Casiodoro de Reina, which makes it logical to speculate that Morteira was familiar with the Oso Bible. Whether or not he knew the Oso Bible before coming to Amsterdam, Morteira did develop a preference for the Spanish translation that replaced it, the Reina-Valera Bible, which was published in Amsterdam, in 1602, by Cipriano de Valera. Valera, like Reina, was a member of the Order of Observantine Jeronomites who was forced to flee from Seville to Geneva during the 1550s because of inquisitorial scrutiny cast on their Calvinist leanings. For Fisher, Morteira’s praise of the Reina-Valera Bible in his Tratado reveals his sympathy toward Calvinists and his appreciation for an edition that was appealing on a religious level: ‘Translating the Bible in a way that segregated apocryphal works and references to them from the Old Testament text, and filtering out residual influences of the Septuagint and Vulgate, Cipriano de Valera’s Bible was closer to the Jewish version of Scripture than any other Christian Bible written in Spanish’ (Fisher 128).

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Morteira’s affinity for the Reina-Valera Bible is evident in over 30 quotations in Arguments, such as the following verse from Isa. 43.21 (‘The people I formed for Myself / That they might declare my praise’): Este pueblo, que crie para mi, mi alabança cantaran (ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] [fol. 41r]) El pueblo que formee para mi, mi loor recontaran (Ferrara Bible) Este pueblo crié para mi, mis alabanças contara (Reina-Valera Bible)

As evident in the use of the verbs ‘crie’ (‘I formed’) and ‘cantaran’ (‘That they might declare’), Morteira’s rendition of Isa. 43.21 derived from the Reina-Valera Bible rather than the Ferrara Bible, in which ‘formee’ and ‘recontaran’, respectively, are the verbs used to express the same actions. The influence of the Reina-Valera Bible is also evident in Arguments in some 20 quotations that fuse passages from that Bible with passages from the Ferrara Bible, as in the following abridged quotation from Ps. 94.20-21 (‘“Shall the seat of injustice be Your partner […?] / They band together to do away with the righteous; they condemn the innocent to death”’): ajuntanse en asiento de maldades, […?] forman exerçito contra la vida del justo, la sangre ynoçente condenan (ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] [fol. 51r]) Si sera ayuntada a ti silla de quebrantos, […?] / Afonsadeanse contra alma de justo, y sangre ynoçente condenan (Ferrara Bible) Iuntarseha contigo el throno de iniquidades, […?] / Ponense en exercito contra la vida del justo: condenan la sangre innocente (Reina-Valera Bible)

In this quotation, the phrase ‘sangre ynoçente condenan’ (‘they condemn the innocent to death’) parallels the Ferrara text while the phrase ‘exerçito contra la vida del justo’ (‘band together to do away with the righteous’) parallels the Reina-Valera text. As I have pointed out above, the abridged nature and imprecise wording of the biblical quotations in Arguments reveals their inclusion from memory, which in turn speaks to the scope of Morteira’s knowledge of two, and possibly three, Spanish Bibles. Morteira not only knew how to quote from

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these Bibles, he was also aware of the linguistic difficulties faced by converso readers of the Ferrara Bible, and there is a strong possibility that he began to study the biblia romanceada text at an early age. The ability to quote from and interpret the Ferrara Bible by Morteira upon his arrival in Amsterdam would have certainly contributed to his rapid ascension to the position of chief rabbi. Moreover, Morteira’s familiarity with the Bibles used by Spanish Protestants may have also enhanced his appeal as a leader of a community situated in one of the centers of Protestant thought.

Arguments: Eschatology, rejudaization and Baruch Spinoza Fisher’s theory regarding Morteira’s reverence for Valera and other Jeronymites who converted to Calvinism in Geneva is further suggested by Morteira’s knowledge of the work of Juan de Pineda. Both Fisher and Saperstein see this reverence as being based in Morteira’s conviction that the spread of the Protestant Reformation moved Christianity toward Judaism with respect to the doctrine of the Trinity, and thus closer toward an Apocalypse whose imminence was widely discussed by Jewish and Christian intellectuals during the seventeenth century. Of course, messianism had always been apart of the medieval European political landscape. In Iberia, during the seven-century-long Reconquest of Islamic Spain, as in Europe of the Crusades from the late tenth through the late thirteenth centuries, each Christian king became a potential messianic figure. Messianic movements also evolved in Islamic lands. In the Iggeret Teman (which has been translated into English as Epistle to Yemen), composed by the Cordovan Moses Maimonides (b. 1138-d. 1204) around 1172 in order to discredit a messianic figure of obscure origins in twelfth-century Yemen, Maimonides also mentions three other cases of messiahs in Islamic-controlled territories in Spain and modern-day Iran, as well as another one in France. During Morteira’s time, apocalyptic messianism attracted an organized segment of the population among Christians as evidenced by the support of the Anabaptist John of Leiden (b. 1509-d. 1536) and his followers for the Münster Rebellion of 1534-35, during which John proclaimed himself king of a new Zion. Another Anabaptist reformer who was active in the Netherlands, David Joris (b. 1501-d. 1556), proclaimed himself the messiah as a descendant of King David and inspired a Davidjorist following that persisted until the end of the sixteenth century. Morteira participates in this trend in the second half of Arguments by linking the rejudaization of the pilgrim to the advent of the Apocalypse, a

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topic he introduces when the friend points out that the Jews lack a polity as well as a spiritual center: They don’t have a republic, or a land, or a government like other peoples, after having once been fortunate enough to enjoy continuous prosperity in their land. They used to revel in the true good, protection by the divine Lord of the Law, and a government that was well respected and valued because it was widely considered to be a treasure, the son of God Himself. (Fol. 45v) Because we see today that He doesn’t have a house, or any place at all in the land of His repose, it’s a clear fact to us that God wanders here and there with His people. (Fol. 47r)48

The ‘house’ to which the friend refers, an allusion to the Second Temple of the biblical Jews, is depicted in further detail as Arguments reaches its climax: First, you should know the holy house in which the Lord placed his name, including the one established by King Solomon, the one we’re talking about—which was established after arriving from Babylonia—and the third that has yet to be founded, are all the same thing in the same place. While keeping this principle in mind, consider that during the founding of the second house there were present some elderly men who, remembering that the first had been much more sumptuous, felt that the second one was lacking; the people then grew lax in their practices and in keeping it up. (Fol. 63r)

The destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD is linked to rejudaization in Arguments insofar as it is the result of an abandonment of Judaism, and further on the narrative the friend underscores that a new spiritual center can be built after the arrival of the Messiah: ‘I’ll show you the consequences of his arrival and how he’ll reign on the earth over Israel as its steward and shepherd, under the protection of the Almighty’ (fol. 69r). According to the friend, both he and the pilgrim are active participants in the development of eschatological events: The Messiah promised by God to His people will come when Israel is scattered and spread throughout the world. […] According to this ineffable truth, we know that the time hasn’t come, since in the days of our forefathers, and in our own, new worlds have been discovered about which nothing was understood or known before, and thus our people has never been scattered as it is today. Item; the Messiah promised in the Law will

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be the completion and fulfillment of all the prophesies that are written in the sacred books, which obviously shows that they weren’t fulfilled back then. […] Today we see very clearly, with our own eyes, that this prophesy hasn’t been fulfilled by anyone but us since we’re the ones who’ve arrived at the ends of the earth. We’re there at a bad time because so many of us are worshiping their gods made of sticks and stones. (Fols. 69r-70r)

In declaring that ‘so many of us are worshiping their gods made of sticks and stones’, the friend alludes to the fact that conversos in Amsterdam and in Iberia remained practicing Christians. This situation could change through genuine adherence to a doctrine the friend emphasizes in the narrative from the time he first reveals his copy of the Bible to the pilgrim, namely, education in halachic law, which is at the root of the ‘great sin’ committed by the Church fathers upon concealing what Scripture reveals about the Apocalypse (in this case Jer. 23.3-4, in which Jeremiah foretells God’s ingathering of all Jews): It was necessary, in order to comply with the divine word, that the Messiah reveal himself to the ten tribes, who formed the majority of the people, and that other one didn’t do it. I ask: what fault did they have? Although they’d lost the right to what God had promised to them, they weren’t in any way at the end of their rope. Truly, your doctors are so blind that they don’t see something as clear as this. I don’t consider this to be any excuse for playing down or covering up that type of great sin; things like this blind [fol. 71r] the people, leading them away from reading the sacred books and defending them with a wall of fire.

After establishing that the Messiah will come from the Davidic line, which he grounds in Jer. 23.5-8 (fols. 71r-71v), the friend depicts the restoration of his kingdom: So you must know that our Lord, after He created the world, then created at once all the souls that would occupy it. The blessed soul of the Messiah was later predestined to save Israel and rule over it, and this is what your prophesy says, that one will come who, ‘From ancient times’, God raised in order to give him the scepter in Israel. In that place the Lord of the world revealed through David from whom and from where he’ll come. I understand it; he’s a son, the one who, being the youngest in his father’s house, cast aside by his brothers, was chosen by Him in order to restore the kingdom […] the Messiah will be from the tribe of Judah and the

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house of David, that he’ll be king and lord over Israel and all the people will join with him, and thus the kingdom of the Lord of the world will be magnified until the ends of the earth. (Fols. 76r-76v)

In the spirit of a sermon delivered by Morteira in which he claimed the Davidic Messiah would actually be King David, the friend’s resolve to convince the friend of the imminence of the Davidic Messiah is contextualized by directly linking King David to the Inquisition and the ceremony which sentences were pronounced, the auto-da-fé49: To all must come a day when vengeance is taken upon them for the evils they inflict on the people of God. Hear how King David prophesizes it clearly, asking the Lord for this revenge, as he depicts these evils when clearly speaking of the rigorous judges who are ministers of the Inquisition: ‘Rise up, judge of the earth, give the arrogant their deserts! / How long shall the wicked, O Lord, how long shall the wicked exult, / shall they utter insolent speech, / shall all evildoers vaunt themselves? / They crush your people, O Lord, / they afflict Your very own; / they kill the widow and the stranger; / they murder the fatherless’50; ‘Shall the seat of injustice be Your partner […?] / They band together to do away with the righteous; they condemn the innocent to death’51: Psalm 94. Listen further, as the same king alludes to the auto that we endure, which they call ‘de fe’52; Psalm 14 says: ‘Are they so witless, all those evildoers, / who devour my people as they devour food[?]’53; ‘You may set at naught the counsel of the lowly, but the Lord is his refuge’.54 Behold the clarity of this truth, how they force our people to endure public shame before the large crowds that amass. They preach in public, on a raised stage, so that all can see and hear everything. They do that to them while they wait for what our Lord has promised, and they believe in His Holy Law and praise the divine word. (Fols. 50v-51v)

This series of references to the Psalms anchors the contemporary context of the friend’s eschatological vision, which culminates in the destruction of inquisitorial Spain toward the end of Arguments in the friend’s interpretation of Isa. 59.19-20: ‘Let’s take a look at that passage’, said the friend, ‘and we’ll grasp the thread of the truth. Do you see here the verse and chapter? It says: ‘For He shall come like a hemmed-in stream / Which the wind of the Lord drives on; / He shall come as redeemer to Zion, / To those in Jacob who turn back from

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sin—declares the Lord’.55 These two verses go together and are bound to the truth. I can affirm to you that I’ve never heard any discussion about them. They’re very clear and it seems to me that the Lord of the world wants to give us a true sign in them about when He’ll send the Messiah, which is the following: when you see a tormentor running toward you like a river, know that the time for Me to send the redeemer to Zion has arrived. However, the people of Israel have had so many oppressors throughout the ages, and have felt the pain of so many deaths in so many parts of the world so that there’s hardly a piece of earth that hasn’t been bathed in their blood. The Lord of the world speaks in this passage of only one oppressor, and compares it to a river, which is the truth. […] Therefore, the prophesy teaches us clearly by declaring that this oppressor, who, like a flowing river continually oppresses and massacres the people of God, is the Roman Empire, whose leader and champion is Spain, which has for so many years, with the drive and the rage of a tempestuous river, moved with the current of its putrid waters, plunging the people of God into mourning, and always casting it into a sea of oppression. (Fols. 79r-79v)

Spain, presented here as the new Rome, can be defeated if the friend’s objective is met, ‘which is that the Lord of the world shapes us and teaches that the kingdom of the Messiah will be in the Holy Land with the twelve tribes of Israel all living subservient to their Creator, which is why they were created’ (fol. 82r). According to Morteira’s eschatological vision in Arguments, the rejudaization of conversos brings about a restored Jewish polity in the Holy Land. Insofar as the narrative is directed toward the pilgrim, he too shares in the responsibility of contributing to the advent of the Apocalypse through sincere rejudaization, which is a responsibility that he accepts as Arguments draws to a close: I truly understand and know well the Holy Scripture, for only the Law of our Lord is the true one. It contains and bestows salvation through knowing the truth: that the people from whom God made me follows and goes along the right path. May God be given thanks. I promise you, and I take the Lord as a witness, that I carry Him rooted in my heart, and that He has cleansed me of all the lies that I’ve followed until now. It was reserved for you to do such a great thing for me, because you’re good and deserve more from the Lord of the world. May he give you a reward and may He give me the will to never forget the debt that I owe to you for so much kindness. (Fols. 83v-84r)

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Morteira’s eschatological vision in Arguments should be considered against the backdrop of the messianic fervor of the mid-seventeenth century that reached its zenith in the figure of Sabbatai Zevi (b. 1626-d. 1676), whose presence was first noticed in Amsterdam in 1665. Zevi began to reveal himself as the Messiah in the late 1640s in his native city of Smyrna and then continued making the announcement in major Jewish communities during the 1650s, where he attained thousands of followers who sold their possessions and prepared for the Apocalypse—in particular, among conversos—before ultimately converting to Islam (under pain of death) in Constantinople in 1666.56 The messianic pretentions of Sabbatai Zevi constituted the most provocative call for the establishment of a Jewish homeland and, although Morteira died five years before Zevi arrived in Amsterdam, he may have come to know these pretentions via his well-informed former student in Venice, Mordecai Zacuto. Morteira’s depiction of a revival of a biblical polity was thus far from the only contemporary expression of Jewish eschatology and, of course, the goal of restoring Zion had a long-standing tie to intensified anti-Judaism and the emergence of messianic figures.57 At the same time, Morteira wrote at a unique historical moment. During the 1650s, the intensification of Jewish eschatology responded to two catastrophic events, with the initial one being the decimation of Iberian Jewry and subsequent persecution of conversos by the Inquisition. The second episode to spark an intensification in messianic fervor was the Khmelnytsky Pogroms, a wave of violence in 1648-49 during an uprising led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky (b. c. 1595-d. 1657) for Ukrainian liberation from Poland, which resulted in the slaughter of tens of thousands of Jews. Morteira’s messianism was less fanatical than that of Zevi and developed in conjunction with his lifelong participation in non-Jewish intellectual circles. The roots of the aforementioned Anabaptism among millenarist Dutch Protestants are found in exegesis from late Antiquity, when eschatology acquired a chronology among early Christian theologians such as Tertullian (b. c. 155-d. c. 240), who foretold the advent of a thousand-year messianic kingdom after the Second Coming of Christ.58 Chiliasm, as this premillenarist eschatology is known, evolved for a thousand years parallel to a Jewish Midrashic tradition that also foretold a thousand-year messianic reign proclaimed in the Hebrew Bible. Gershom Scholem underscores that interaction between Chiliasts and Jews upon declaring that ‘[o]nly a small minority of the Jewish people lived at the time in Protestant countries where chiliasm can be said to have been a significant factor in public affairs. In fact, only the Jews of northern Germany and Holland could possibly have felt

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such an influence’ (101). As Scholem explains, interaction between Chiliasts and Jews, which occurred primarily in Holland, worked to complement Jewish thought: ‘Chiliast sectarians were among the first to defend in public the rights of the Jews and to proclaim the restoration of the kingdom of Israel an essential part of millenarian fulfillment. Some, such as Johann Amos Comenius, the revered leader of a group of Bohemian Brethren living in Holland, and Peter Serrarius succeeded in establishing contact with local Jewish scholars’ (101). It would be logical to include Morteira among these ‘local Jewish scholars’, and it is certain from correspondence that Serrarius (b.1600-d. 1669), who lived in Amsterdam, was also on close personal terms with Spinoza, then a member of Morteira’s congregation, during the middle of the seventeenth century.59 A letter sent to Spinoza from London in December, 1665, a month after the first news of Sabbatai Zevi had arrived in Amsterdam, by his longtime friend, the German theologian Henry Oldenburg (b. c. 1619-d. 1677), demonstrates that Spinoza was aware of contemporary messianic fervor: But I turn to politics. Here there is a wide-spread rumour that the Israelites, who have been dispersed for more than two thousand years, are to return to their homeland. Few hereabouts believe it, but many wish it. Do let your friend know what you hear about this matter, and what you think. For my part, I cannot put any faith in this news as long as it is not reported by trustworthy men from the city of Constantinople, which is most of all concerned in this matter. I am anxious to know what the Jews of Amsterdam have heard about it, and how they are affected by so momentous an announcement, which, if true, is likely to bring about a world crisis. (Spinoza, Complete Works 853)

Although Spinoza’s response to this letter has been lost, he was undoubtedly cognizant of Zevi’s presence, which the Jewish community proclaimed openly as documented by Rabbi Jacob ben Aaron Sasportas (b. 1610-d. 1698) in a letter translated into English by Scholem: ‘And there was a great commotion in the city of Amsterdam, so that it was a very great trembling. They rejoiced exceedingly, with timbrels and with dances, in all the streets. The scrolls of the Law were taken out of the Ark [for ceremonial processional] with their beautiful ornaments, without considering the possible danger from jealousy and hatred of the gentiles. On the contrary, they publicly proclaimed [the news] and informed the gentiles of all the reports’ (521). An intriguing parallel between Spinoza’s posture and that of Zevi comes to the fore in light of an indirect comment made by Zevi well after his

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apostasy to explain his most important concept, that is, the mystical doctrine of the Godhead. Zevi’s clarification of this concept was recorded by an acquaintance: ‘Know that the Cause of all Causes exercises neither influence nor providence in the lower worlds. He brought into being the Supreme Crown to be God’ (qtd. in Scholem 912). Scholem explains that Zevi’s most threatening doctrine ‘is based on the “heretical” assumption that the “Cause of All Causes” has no religious significance. As the beginning of the chain of causes, it is a matter of logic or ontology, but not of religious contemplation or worship’ (913). The primacy given by Zevi to logic over spirituality is one with which Spinoza would have concurred, and both the mystic and the philosopher advocate this primacy through the abrogation of rabbinic law.60 In the case of Zevi, this attitude was typical. Messianic figures inevitably came to challenge and oppose rabbinic authority, especially on a doctrinal level insofar as they bypassed the signs held by rabbinic exegetical tradition to foretell the Apocalypse. While Spinoza also equates logic (or reason) with the highest level of knowledge, he also indirectly finds a role for spirituality.61 In his TheologicalPolitical Treatise, Spinoza displays tepid support toward the notion that the ability of the Jewish people to endure, symbolized by the ritual of circumcision, will contribute to the future restoration of a Jewish homeland: I think that the sign of circumcision has such great importance as almost to persuade me that this thing alone will preserve their nation for ever, and in fact, were it not that the principles of their religion weaken their courage, I would believe unreservedly that at some time, given an opportunity, since all things are changeable, they might reestablish their state, and God will choose them again. (55)

Spinoza’s view that Jews were capable of restoring their homeland was shared by followers of Zevi, including Zevi’s prophet, Nathan of Gaza (b. 1643-d. 1680), and renowned intellectuals such as the Italian scholar Jonas Salvador (fl. seventeenth century).62 These manifestations of Zionistic thought articulate visions of a restored Jewish homeland after the ingathering of Jews in the Holy Land, which had long been a characteristic component of the missions of false messiahs. At the same time, aside from the ingathering itself, depictions of messianic doctrines or texts composed by messianic figures throughout history provide little information on how these individuals planned for the political reestablishment of a Jewish state. A facet of Spinoza’s attitude toward a Jewish homeland in his TheologicalPolitical Treatise that he shares Morteira’s eschatological vision in Arguments

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involves a formula for this political reestablishment, namely, that it might be achieved through the practice of Judaism, whether by performing the act of circumcision of by embracing halachic Judaism. As chief rabbi, Morteira oversaw the process of rejudaization in meetings with conversos, by composing anti-Christian polemical works, and through his weekly sermons from the pulpit, which, as Saperstein rightly points out, Spinoza heard ‘beyond any reasonable doubt’ (16). That Morteira exerted some influence on Spinoza in this role is generally accepted by scholars. Morteira’s influence on Spinoza, whether through weekly sermons or during what Margaret Gullan-Whur calls ‘leisure-time’ (42) learning sessions involving biblical study, occurred in spite of the fact that Morteira could be hostile toward philosophy. In one sermon, Morteira enlists philosophers as one of ‘three kinds of heretics who diverge from God’s Torah. […] The first are the philosophers, who follow the path of logical deduction, deriving from it what they apprehend and nothing else’ (qtd. in Saperstein 211). In another sermon, Morteira repeats this attack: ‘Now there are three categories of those who rise against the divine Torah at various times. The first are those who deny the divinity of the Torah. […] The first are the philosophers’ (qtd. in Saperstein 213). Morteira appears to be directing his criticism toward contemporary rational philosophy since, as Saperstein observes, ‘he cites Jewish philosophers (Maimonides, Gersonides, Albo, Abraham Shalom) approvingly in his sermons’ (212). The philosophers revered by Morteira all worked during the Middle Ages (Maimonides, Gersonides (Levi ben Gershon [,[b. 1288-d. 1344], Joseph Albo [b. c. 1380-d. c. 1444] and Abraham Shalom [d. c. 1492]), which further suggests that he was at odds with aspects of contemporary philosophical thought. Although he may have been opposed to some of its ideas, Morteira reveals in Arguments that his knowledge of contemporary philosophy was current. For example, in order to support his assertion of God’s ‘universal power He has over all creatures’ (fol. 19r), the friend declares: ‘He took it from them in His own way, thus relegating them to the second causes’ (fol. 19r). The friend returns to this line of reasoning further on in the narrative: But since Adam didn’t keep the commandment and he overstepped his limit, he lost his earthly share in this world, which had been given to him conditionally. He lost it because of his sin and thus he was later banished from the holy place, condemned to wander in exile for having lost what pertained to the Lord. He was divested of his possession of it and cut off by our Lord from His divinity, without which he and his descendants remained under the second causes of the heavens. (Fol. 57r)

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These statements reveal Morteira’s engagement in philosophical and theological discussions centering on cause and effect involving a cause (an action, occurrence, volition, etc.) that is ultimately brought about through a first cause, God, notions that Spinoza would develop in a different direction in his Ethics. For Morteira, there is no doubt that God is the universal first cause, a view that Spinoza, albeit by identifying God with Nature, appears to express in an Appendix to Part 1 of his Ethics: I have now explained the nature and properties of God: that he necessarily exists, that he is one alone, that he is and acts solely from the necessity of his own nature, that he is the free cause of all things and how so, that all things are in God and are so dependent on him that they can neither be nor be conceived without him, and lastly, that all things have been predetermined by God, not from his free will or absolute pleasure, but from the absolute nature of God, his infinite power. (Complete Works 238)

As he continues in this Appendix, Spinoza undermines this position by disempowering this ‘inf inite power’ and, by extension, the concept of worshiping God (or religion): Now all the prejudices which I intend to mention here turn on this one point, the widespread belief among men that all things in Nature are like themselves in acting with an end in view. Indeed, they hold it as certain that God himself directs everything to a fixed end; for they say that God has made everything for man’s sake and has made man so that he should worship God. So this is the first point I shall consider, seeking the reason why most people are victims of this prejudice and why all are so naturally disposed to accept it. Secondly, I shall demonstrate its falsity; and lastly I shall show how it has been the source of misconceptions about good and bad, right and wrong, praise and blame, order and confusion, beauty and ugliness, and the like. (Complete Works 239)

Spinoza’s disdainful attitude toward worship of God, which invalidates Morteira’s concept of God as a universal first cause that is appreciated through worship (and lost, as in Adam’s case, through sin), may have been influenced by contact with Morteira, and it is interesting to speculate that, in developing this attitude, Spinoza was reacting to Morteira’s disdain for philosophers, which is the type of intellectual impact Saperstein sees on Spinoza in concepts that are ‘transformed and secularized’ (16) in his writings.

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Perhaps as a manifestation of this tendency, Spinoza’s view of converso spirituality contradicts the spiritual history described by Morteira in Arguments. Spinoza ties the dilapidated state of Iberian Jewry to their abandonment of Judaism: But experience has shown that it is the resentment of the gentiles to a large extent that preserves them. When the king of Spain at one time compelled the Jews to accept the religion of his kingdom or go into exile, a large number of Jews converted to the Catholic faith. All those who accepted it were granted the privileges of native Spaniards and were considered worthy of all positions of dignity. Hence they immediately integrated with the Spanish, so that in a short time there were no remnants of them left and no memory of them. But quite the opposite happened to those whom the king of Portugal compelled to convert to the religion of his kingdom. For though they submitted to this faith, they continued to live apart from all men, doubtless because he declared them unworthy of all higher positions. (Theological-Political Treatise 55)

Spinoza’s failure to recognize the significance and popularity of cryptoJudaism is noteworthy because it was crypto-Judaism that maintained his forebears as Jews and that, ironically, was the reason the Portuguese Nation felt superior because of their Iberian heritage to all other Jews. However, with respect to the actual process of restoring a Jewish homeland, rather than dismiss the possibility as a relic of a religion that he finds outdated, Spinoza finds common ground with the evolving contemporary ideas of his rabbi.Spinoza sees little sense in practicing a religion that became invalid upon the destruction of the Second Temple: ‘[N]ow that their state is dissolved, there is no doubt that the Jews are no more bound by the Law of Moses than they were before the commencement of their community and state’ (Theological-Political Treatise 71). At the same time, the fact that he implicitly links the practice of Judaism to Jewish statehood as noted above (‘circumcision […] will preserve their nation for ever, and […] they might reestablish their state’) echoes the tone of the discourse in Arguments. Even though he may not have supported its spiritual foundation, Spinoza, like Morteira, envisioned the possibility of a restored Zion. While not an official student in the Keter Torah yeshiva founded by Morteira, where the climate was ‘fervently Messianistic [and] supportive of Menasseh [ben Israel’s] claim [in The Hope of Israel] that the redemption of Israel through a marrano Messiah was fast approaching’ (Gullan-Whur 41), Spinoza undoubtedly knew that his community leaders

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were actively working to trigger an apocalyptic event in the hope creating a Jewish state, and that this matter was not only complicated by the appearance of messianic figures but by the popularization of Lurianic Kabbalah, according to which there existed ‘the possibility of bringing about the end and redemption with one stroke, that is, by one powerful and concentrated act of meditation’ (Scholem 75). Morteira composed Arguments at a pivotal moment in Jewish history, when a recovery from the obliteration of Iberian Jewry and the Khmelnytsky Pogroms was uncertain and beginning to be linked to the need for a homeland. Menasseh ben Israel took the extreme step in 1655 of traveling to meet Cromwell, who had defeated his royalist foes and risen to the post of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England less than two years earlier. Menasseh aim was to convince Cromwell to participate in the apocalyptic process of reestablishing a Jewish state through a physical act, namely, the unification of the Jews in England. Morteira, unlike his colleague but just like his congregant, Spinoza, focuses the issue of restoring Zion on a spiritual act, namely, the practice of Judaism. The limited appreciation expressed by Spinoza for observing rituals that he considers to be obsolete is centered on a connection between a restored state and those rituals. In Arguments, Morteira expresses this connection in clear terms by communicating the notion of the restoration of Zion brought about by the rejudaization of conversos, an early Zionism whose roots were firmly planted within the Amsterdam community that he spiritually fathered at the dawn of modernity.

Biographical notes on Miguel López and notes on his messianic images The individual who copied the two polemical works that comprise ms. EH/ LM 48D38 [Fuks 206], who is called either Miguel (or Michael) López or Michael López Pinto, copied at least ten manuscripts containing works by Morteira over the course of several decades.63 As he reveals in a manuscript that he copied in Dutch in 1735 or 1736, López was born in 1662 or 1663, and it would be logical to speculate that he died soon after copying an anonymous Spanish text (Question de la unidad de Dios [The matter of the unity of God]), in 1739, in which he declares on the title page that he is 77 years old.64 López copied four different works by Morteira during his career as a scribe, including Obstaculos, Preguntas que hizo un clerigo de Ruan de Francia a las quales respondio [...] Saul Levy Mortera, Argumentos contra los

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Evangelios, Actos y Epistolas, and Providencia de Dios con Ysrael (the Spanish translation of Tratado da verdade da lei de Moisés, which López copied on four different occasions). The fact that López copied these works between 1703 and 1734 indicates Morteira’s popularity well after his death as well as the continued existence of a Jewish public in Amsterdam that read in Spanish. Moreover, the illustrations on several manuscripts, including the one that contains Arguments, testify to a lingering messianism in post-Sabbatean Amsterdam. These illustrations were presumably made by López himself insofar as similarly drawn images appear on three manuscripts copied by López within a span of thirteen years: Providencia (1706) Cod. UBA/BR 21 [Fuks 280]; Obstaculos (1712) Ms.. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206]; Providencia (1719) Cod. EH/LM 48B16 [Fuks 208]). The title pages on all three of these manuscripts are adorned with classical columns, which is a reflection of contemporary neoclassical tastes. Although the columns possess different types of capitals (UBA/BR 21 [Fuks 280] includes Roman Doric capitals and the other two manuscripts display Roman Corinthian capitals), all three pairs of columns possess the same base consisting of four horizontal sections stacked on top of each other. In addition, all three title pages portray a scene in which a woman is shown standing on top of a figure that appears to be male, and which may be a representation of the Devil. At the same time, in each drawing the woman appears in a slightly different position with respect to the other f igure. In the earliest manuscript, UBA/BR 21 [Fuks 280], from 1706, the woman appears bare breasted holding a lamp in her right hand as she triumphantly stands on top of a male figure—one foot on his shoulder and the other on his leg—whose demonic nature is suggested by his raised triangular ears and the fact that a serpent lies coiled behind him. In the manuscript containing Arguments (EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206]), which was produced in 1712, the woman, lamp in hand, wears a bodylength tunic as she stands on top of the stomach and the leg of a devil like figure who exhales a smoky substance (his last breath?). In the third manuscript, EH/LM 48B16 [Fuks 208], produced in 1719 (and unlike the other two polychromatic), the female figure (clothed in a more elegant tunic) appears in the center of the title page (rather than near the top as in the other two cases), again holding a lamp and again standing on top of a male demonic figure (as suggested again by his raised ears), who on this occasion rests on his stomach. The notion of triumph is what relates this repeated scene to another scene that is depicted on the title pages of two of the manuscripts in

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question. The depiction of this second scene by López indicates that he wished to underscore one of the major themes in both Arguments and Tratado, namely, a vision of an impending Apocalypse leading to the arrival of the Messiah from the Davidic line. López includes the scene in three illustrations at the bottom of the title page of UBA/BR 21 [Fuks 280], his copy from 1706 of Providencia de Dios con Israel. The scene commences at the far left, with a depiction of an earthly king sitting on his throne, speaking to his queen as he points his scepter toward her. In the middle illustration, an individual who appears to be same (bearded) earthly king is anointed by the high priest of the ancient Israelites (whose identity is revealed by his priestly breastplate). In the third image, to the far right, the Davidic Messiah, presumably the same individual just anointed as revealed by the spotted collar of his tunic (as in the f irst illustration while speaking with his queen), is mounted on a horse being led by an individual who must be the prophet Elijah, who ushers in the messianic age according to Jewish eschatology. As can be seen in Plate 1, in ms. EH/ LM 48D38 [Fuks 206], the arrival of the Messiah, mounted on his horse and being led by Elijah, is centrally presented at the bottom of the title page in one illustration.

Translator’s notes on ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] In copying ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206], Miguel López used little punctuation other than commas to separate clauses within sentences. López also employed commas at the end of many sentences rather than a period. In translating the manuscript into English, I have modernized the punctuation. In my translation I have also attempted to reproduce the manuscript by respecting, to the extent possible, divisions between paragraphs. The language employed by Morteira in ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] is a mixture of contemporary Castilian Spanish and Ladino. With respect to the former, the dialogue between the friend and the pilgrim—that is, everything except for the biblical quotations—exhibits linguistic features of seventeenth-century Castilian. For example, the typical confusion of two sibilants orthographically represented as ç and z (due to a similar articulation) appears in several terms including various conjugated forms of the verb hacer (conveying the meaning of ‘to cause’, as in ‘to cause a renewal’), whose modern form, hacer, was not standardized until the eighteenth century.65 Examples in Arguments include: ‘haze’ (fol. 9r), ‘hazen’ (fol. 13v),

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etc. These forms stand in contrast to those used in the Ferrara Bible, which are archaic forms of the medieval Ladino variant of Castilian. For example, the appearance of ‘haze’ on fol. 9r occurs in Morteira’s rendition of Ps. 19.8 (‘perfect, renewing life’), in which his verb of choice modernizes the biblical quotation: perfecta, y haze tornar el alma (ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206]) perfeta, fazién tornar alma (Ferrara Bible)

The verb ending -ién employed in ‘fazién’ is an imperfect tense form that dates to the late Middle Ages, and its appearance in the Ferrara text is a typically anachronistic feature of Ladino that was eliminated from Castilian in favor of -ían by the end of the fifteenth century.66 That this brief reference to Ps. 19.8 represents Morteira’s modification of the Ferrara text to what was presumably the Castilian he had learned during his youth is revealed further on in Arguments when Ps. 19.8 is quoted at greater length on fol. 55r (‘King David says it—“The teaching of the Lord is perfect, renewing life’”): Ley del Señor perfecta hazien tornar alma (ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206]) Ley de Adonay perfeta, fazién tornar alma (Ferrara)

The archaic verbal ending -ién of Ferrara text is preserved in this rendition by Morteira, which suggests that he recalled his source more precisely when using a longer quotation. However, the initial h- that Morteira employed in ‘hazien’ once again speaks to the difference between contemporary Castilian Spanish and archaic forms ‘frozen’ in Ladino, a difference that is revealed on many occasions in Arguments, including on fol. 13v, in Morteira’s rendition of Isa. 44.14-15 (‘He also makes a god of it and worships it’): del resto hazen vn Dios (ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206]) fazerloha doladizo (Ferrara Bible)

Whereas the Ferrara text again preserves the form ‘fazer’, whose initial f- was spelled as h- by the early 1500s to indicate that it was not being articulated as in the case of the modern Castilian h-, which in turn reveals that Morteira learned sixteenth-century Castilian as a youth rather than

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Ladino.67 Social prestige may explain why Morteira may have been less familiar with Ladino than Castilian Spanish. The mixture of dialects in Arguments may be explained by a daily reality described by Gullan-Whur (37), namely, that contemporary Castilian was spoken in converso homes in Amsterdam rather than Ladino, which was considered of the ‘lower class and [of] regional usage’ as Lloyd asserts (362). The narrative of Arguments indicates that Morteira experienced this reality and enlists him, whether or not he had any converso ancestors, on equal terms with his converso congregants with respect to comprehending the difficulties discussed above faced by readers of the Ferrara Bible.

NOTES TO PP. 17-22

1.

2.

3.

4. 5.

6. 7. 8.

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Notes to introduction The OAD processed the return of numerous library collections, returning some two million looted books in addition to more than a million other stolen objects. For a thorough review of the organization and operation of the OAD, see Robert Waite. Photographs of boxes stored at the OAD, including one showing a box from Ets Haim, are found in the final pages of the studies by Hoodgewood (‘The Looting’, ‘The Nazi Looting’). Confirmation of Morteira’s Venetian provenance is found in the introduction to the only one of his works published during his lifetime, Giv‘at Sha’ul (1645), which contains fifty of his Hebrew sermons published by two of his students. According to H.P. Salomon, Morteira reveals his provenance with his signature, ‘Yo, Saul Levi Mortera, natural de Venecia’, on a document from 1616 that has been lost (Morteira, Tratado xlv, xlviii). Roberto Calimani summarizes the critical view that the intensification of Venetian anti-Judaism that led to the establishment of the ghetto was tied to the contemporary political situation: In 1515, a certain optimism still reigned in the city: in particular, the Republic was convinced that with the aid of the French troops it would soon succeed in reconquering Verona and part of the Venetian mainland. In the spring of the following year, however, the outlook had grown bleaker. Emperor Maximilian had come down from the Alps at the head of an Austrian army and the French had barricaded themselves in Milan without giving battle. […] On the eastern front, troubling news was arriving from Friuli, and many feared a new Turkish invasion. This unfavorable train of events left its mark on the minds of the populace and nobility alike. The general mood was one of gloom and pessimism. For months the Minorite preachers had been insisting that Venice, to survive, would have to regain God’s grace and atone for all her sins—and one of the most grievous of these sins was letting the Jews live freely in the town. The ghetto was seen as an act of expiation, a request for indulgence. (33-34).

For the texts of these poems, see Morteira, Tratado cxxxv. In one of these poems, Barrios declares ‘Venecia, su doctrinal / criacion’ (Venice, where his ideas were formed) and in the other Barrios proclaims that ‘el kaal veneto admira su sapiencia’ (the kahal of Veneto [region] admires his wisdom) (Morteira, Tratado cxxxv; the English translations are my own). Cf. Modena’s collection of responsa, Zikne Yehuda (75-76). On Modena’s association with Katzenellenbogen during these years, see the details provided by Howard E. Adelman (23). Estimates of the number of conversos in Spain around the time of the Expulsion of 1492 range from 225,000 (Domínguez Ortiz 43) to some 700,000750,000 (Netanyahu, The Marranos 235-45; Roth 332), although modern scholars tend to accept the former. On the economic crises preceding the

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9. 10. 11. 12.

13.

waves of conversions, see Angus MacKay, and for the most thorough treatment of latent medieval European anti-Judaism see Joshua Trachtenberg. ‘Hize el Credo y adorar / ollas de toçino grueso, / torreznos a medio asar, / oyr misas y rezar, / santiguar y persignar / y nunca pude matar / este rastro de confeso’ (Montoro 75; the English translation is my own). ‘no pude perder el nombre / de viejo, puto y judío’ (Montoro 75; the English translation is my own). ‘buenos exiemplos e con los dichos de las Santas Escripturas e con falagos’ (Alfonso X el Sabio 3: 33; the English translation is by Dwayne E. Carpenter). Henry Kamen provides a concise assessment of this milieu: The atmosphere of denunciation and mutual recrimination created […] would almost certainly have been ‘equal to death’ for those unhappy people for whom popular suspicion led inevitably to condemnation. Petty denunciations were the rule rather than the exception. For a neighbor to change sheets at the end of the week was sufficient proof to warrant denunciation. […] Denunciations based on suspicion therefore led to accusations based on conjecture. Some delations, of course, had nothing to do with heresy. (164)

These observances are identified and discussed by David Gitlitz (Secrecy 99-125). 14. There is little if any left today of medieval Mortera, with the modern village of Mortera constituting an urbanized zone on the outskirts of Santander. 15. The document is transcribed by Salomon (Morteira, Tratado cxxxvii). 16. For the texts of the four letters, see Cecil Roth (‘Quatre lettres’ 148-65). 17. As Henry Friedenwald observes (134), this permission was granted after the deaths of several court physicians. 18. The decree is partially transcribed by Salomon (Morteira, Tratado xliii). 19. On Morteira’s return to Venice in this role, see H.P. Salomon. 20. Morteira may be the subject in the painting by Rembrandt, Old Man in an Armchair, on the cover of the present volume. This painting is housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. 21. On Morteira’s residence, see Steven Nadler (Rembrandt’s Jews 15). 22. A document from 1621 partially transcribed by Salomon (Morteira, Tratado l-li) describes Morteira’s daily duties as a teacher. 23. This polemic is discussed at length by Alexander Altmann. 24. See Jonathan I. Israel (356) for more on the Spanish reaction to the success of ex-converso merchants in the Netherlands. 25. This document, titled ‘Vida y aventuras de un malsín’ (The Life and Adventures of an Informer) is transcribed by Julio Caro Baroja (3: 332-36). 26. ‘they placed him in the company of one of their rabbis named Morteira, preacher of the aforesaid Law of Moses, so that he would persuade him to follow it’ (‘le pusieron en compañia de un Rabino suyo llamado Mortera predicante de dicha ley de Moysen para que le persuadiese la siguiese’ [Caro Baroja 3: 333; the English translation is my own]).

NOTES TO PP. 33-53

27. 28. 29. 30.

31.

32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42.

43. 44. 45.

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‘pusieron excomunion en las Sinagogas para que ningun Judio le hablase ni conversase’ (Caro Baroja 334, the English translation is my own). On the number of editions of Spanish texts, see Franco Meregalli, and on the number of sixteenth century Venetian presses, see Frederic C. Lane and Oliver Logan. Cf. José Faur (53-70). For other discussions of Lazarillo in a converso context, see Susanne Zepp (73-92) and my coauthored study with Nuria Cruz-Cámara (‘Una revisitación’). In The Structure of Spanish History, Américo Castro writes: ‘It was the Hispano-Hebrew spirit that first gave expression to the sense of la negra honra (black, that is, cursed honor) and the violent social criticism that are fused in the eternal figure of the Squire in Lazarillo de Tormes’ (557-58). Cf. N.D. Shergold (143-49). Augustus Pallotta observes that, during the sixteenth century, ‘the Teatro di San Giovanni dei Fiorentini became a Spanish theater where comedias by Lope, Tirso, and Calderón were performed by professional companies from Spain’ (25). For a thorough study on theaters in Spain during the period, see Shergold (177-208, 383-414). For a transcription of the only witness, found within a collection of sixteenth-century religious pieces, see Joseph Gillet (952-60). The English translations in parenthesis from the play printed in Burgos in 1520 are my own. Shergold asserts that the work was probably performed on one occasion (49). For a transcription of the only textual witness, which was printed in Burgos in 1552, see J.P. Wickersham Crawford (281-300). The English translation is my own. For examples of the type of play whose performance is being criticized, see the compilation of such religious works by Lope de Vega (Los cinco misterios dolorosos de la pasión y muerte). ‘adulterios, amores torpes y otras deshonestidades’ (Rennert 263, n. 2; the English translation is my own). For Barrios’ sonnet, ‘Al dialogo de los siete montes que compuso Rohel Yesurun’, see Barrios (785). The prohibition of 1632 is transcribed by Wilhelmina Pieterse (155). For a review of the dispute, see Louis Ginzberg (3: 82-85). According to Marc Saperstein: ‘The most plausible conclusion about Morteira’s sermons, then, is that after having written one, he mastered his material to the point where he could transmit it in Portuguese, either entirely by memory, or possibly from an outline or brief notes’ (51). Harm den Boer identifies this tendency in Morteira’s Tratado and a sermon he delivered in 1652 (265-66). Cf. Castro et al., eds., Biblia medieval romanceada (xviii-xxi). Like others who wrote in Portuguese (such as Samuel Jachia in Hamburg and Isaac Aboab de Fonseca in Amsterdam), Morteira translated from the

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46.

47.

48. 49.

50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56.

57.

Spanish Ferrara text (Boer 265-66). According to Saperstein, who bases his conclusion on an analysis of biblical quotations in several texts by Morteira (including sermons and his last work, written in Portuguese, Tratado da verdade da lei de Moisés), ‘the Portuguese verses in Morteira’s writings indicate a close dependence on the 1553 Ferrara Spanish translation’ (74). ‘Y aun que a algunos paresca el lenguaje della barbaro y estraño, y muy differente del polido que en nuestros tiempos se vsa, no se pudo hazer otro, por que queriendo seguir verbo a verbo y no declarar vn vocablo por dos, lo que es muy dificultoso, ni anteponer ni posponer vno a otro, fue forçado seguir el lenguaje que los antiguos Hebreos Españoles vsaron; que aun que en algo estraña, bien considerando, hallaran tener la propriedad del vocablo Hebrayco, y alla tiene su grauedad que la antiguedad suele tener. Quanto mas que a dezir la realidad de la verdad, como todas las lenguas tengan su estilo y phrasis, no se puede negar que la Hebrayca tenga la suya, que es la que aqui en esta trasladacion se vera, la qual no se dexo por otra por no quitar a cada vno lo suyo’ (The Ladino Bible 5, the English translation is my own). For example, in the Oso Bible the infinitive absolutes are presented as single verbs in Gen. 2.16-17: ‘Y mandó Jehová Dios al hombre, diciendo: De todo árbol del huerto comerás; Mas del árbol de ciencia del bien y del mal no comerás de él; porque el día que de él comieres, morirás’. An in-depth analysis of the Jewish polity whose revival is advocated by the friend in Arguments is beyond the scope of the present study, and will be addressed in my forthcoming monograph, Spinoza’s Rabbi. On Morteira’s sermon, see Saperstein (367-69), who observes that ‘if this sermon had been delivered during the frenzy of the Sabbatian movement, it would be viewed as undermining the claims of a would-be messianic figure who was manifestly not King David’ (369). Ps. 94.2-6. Ps. 94.20-21. Here the friend uses the Spanish form ‘de fe’. Ps. 14.4. Ps. 14.6. Isa. 59.19-20. Gershom Scholem sees a link between the persecution of conversos and the popularization of Zevi’s claim to be the Messiah: ‘[I]n the great centers of former marranos (Salonika, Leghorn, Amsterdam, Hamburg, to name only the most important), the Sabbatian gospel was eagerly received; it evidently struck a chord in the hearts of those who had themselves, or whose parents had, been through the misery of a life of forced hypocrisy and dissimulation in Spain and Portugal’ (485). For a discussion of Zacuto’s opinion of Sabbatianism, see Scholem (501-3), who concludes: ‘His faith was essentially that of a doubter, and it is not surprising that he forsook it immediately after Sabbatai’s apostacy’ (503).

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58. ‘But we do confess that a kingdom is promised to us upon the earth, although before heaven, only in another state of existence; inasmuch as it will be after the resurrection for a thousand years in the divinely-built city of Jerusalem’ (Tertullian book 3, chapter 25). 59. For the correspondence in question, see Spinoza (Complete Works 802, 83738, 846). 60. For Zevi, this was accomplished through acts such as exempting Jews from prayers (Scholem 397). Spinoza’s opposition to rabbinic law is evident on a number of occasions in his Theological-Political Treatise, as in his assertion that ‘anyone who makes reason and philosophy the servant of theology will be obliged to accept as divinely inspired the prejudices of the common people of antiquity and let his mind be taken over and clouded by them. Thus both will proceed senselessly, albeit the latter without reason and the former with it’ (186). 61. Spinoza’s attitude is evident on many occasions in his writings, and is expressed in the following terms in his Ethics: ‘[W]hatever we endeavor according to reason is nothing else but to understand […] to understand is therefore the primary and only basis of virtue’ (Complete Works 334). 62. About Nathan of Gaza, Scholem writes: ‘[H]e probably believed that Israel, by the intensity of its devotion and penitence, could advance the messianic hour’ (353). With regard to Salvador, Scholem asserts: ‘He was much preoccupied with the idea of a return to Palestine and the restoration of political dominion to the Jews’ (827). 63. In chronological order, these manuscripts include: (1703) OBL Mich. 415 ol. 216 [Neubauer 2476]; (1705) Cod. CCP; (1706) Cod. UBA/BR 21 [Fuks 280]); (1712) Cod. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206]; (1719) Cod. EH/LM 48B16 [Fuks 208]); (1734) Cod. JTSA 2526. 64. The Dutch manuscript of 1735 or 1736 is housed at the Ets Haim library with the following rubric: Van het Joodse Gebeth Overgeset uyt den Hebreusche in Neder Duysche Geschreven in Amsterdam, door Michaël Lopez Pinto Año 5496. The year 5496 corresponds to September 1735-September 1736 according to the Christian calendar. On the title page, López’s birth year of 1662 or 1663 (corresponding to the year 5423 on the Jewish calendar) is revealed as ‘AE 73’ (AE=the abbreviated form of the Latin term ‘aetatis’, or ‘aged’). The Spanish manuscript containing Question de la unidad de Dios states López’s age as ‘77 Años’ on the title page. 65. On the confusion of ç and z, which would ultimately merge in Castilian into the modern interdental fricative (spelled in Castilian as c or z), see Rafael Lapesa (371) and Paul M. Lloyd (335-36). 66. As Lloyd explains, ‘in the fourteenth century the -ié endings begin to give way to the older -ía so that by the fifteenth century, the -ía endings had once again become the most frequent and -ié was in full retreat’ (362). 67. On the preservation of initial f- in Ladino, see Ralph Penny (22), and on the orthographic change to h- in the sixteenth century, see Penny (81).

Title page of ms. EH/ LM 48D38 [Fuks 206]

Ms. EH/ LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] Fol. 1r

Arguments against the Christian Religion in Amsterdam

Composed by the eminent wise man Mr. Saul Levy Mortera, professor and celebrated preacher of the Hebrew Nation.

Year 54721 Copied2 by M. López In praise of blessed God

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[fol. 1r] In the year 5377 after the creation of the world,3 on the seventh day of the month of August, in the kingdom of France, in a place called Orleans. One evening, a Portuguese from the States of Holland was standing in the doorway of an inn, when a pilgrim greeted him and then asked, ‘By chance are you Portuguese?’4 ‘Yes, I am’, said the friend (which is what we will call him). ‘Our national heritage is so strong’, said the pilgrim, ‘that I thought you were as soon as I saw you, and I felt great joy that one’s love for his homeland causes this’. To which the friend replied, ‘Our Portuguese Nation is the greatest in the world! I’m happy to see you and, if you’re looking for a place to stay, you’ll find it here. In my room there’s an empty bed where you can rest’. ‘I gratefully accept’, said the pilgrim. ‘And not a moment too soon’, said the friend, ‘we should go inside because it’s a cold night’. After dining they went to the room. Late that night, while it seemed like the pilgrim was sleeping, the friend said, ‘Are you asleep, my friend?’ ‘No, because the need to be careful on the journey doesn’t allow for it. And the nights are long’. ‘By your clothes’, said the friend, [fol. 1v] ‘I can see that you’ve had a long trip. I’d like to know if you’re coming from our homeland’. ‘I’m coming from Rome’, the pilgrim said, ‘and traveling to Portugal’. ‘You’re coming from a good place’, the friend said. ‘Did you happen to be there a long time?’ ‘Four years’, said the pilgrim. ‘You’ve been there so long that you surely have much to tell’. ‘There are many wonderful things there’, the pilgrim responded, ‘but since I didn’t get what I wanted I can promise you, sir, that during the whole time I was there I didn’t enjoy one moment’. ‘I’m very surprised’, the friend replied, ‘because I’ve always heard that the pope was a liberal man, and that he does a lot for people, even more so if, like yourself, one is trying to obtain his favor’. ‘That’s how it is’, said the pilgrim, ‘but the bad luck I was born with was the reason I didn’t find what others find there, and it grieves me to talk about it’. ‘I don’t want to cause you any grief’, said the friend. ‘And you, sir’, said the pilgrim, ‘are you from this land?’ He replied to him, ‘I lived here for eight years, and for the last seven I’ve been living in Holland’. ‘Are there also Portuguese there?’, asked the pilgrim. ‘There are some’, said the friend. Fols. 1r-1v

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‘I’m impressed’, replied the pilgrim, ‘by the fact that there are so many in these lands. When I was in Rome I saw many go to Venice and Turkey with their [fol. 2r] families, and others went to the lands of the Great Duke.5 All of these places are crowded with them. I don’t know how they wander in strange and difficult-to-reach lands where there are no people like our Nation, and I want to know why this occurs’. ‘You don’t know the cause?’, responded the friend. ‘I’ve always wanted to know it’, he replied. ‘Well, that question seems to be an easy one to answer’, said the friend, ‘for it’s by the grace of God that we’re in a free land. You should know that the reason we find ourselves here is that in Spain and Portugal there is a fury that is so cruel, tyrannical, impious, and unjust that it makes our motherland into a stepmother for us, so that far-off lands become our motherlands. This harsh, bloodthirsty, and corrupt fury is the Inquisition, which is the cause of all the wrongs you’ve seen and heard. It is forever robbing some and condemning others to death. It claims estates, lives, honors and one’s human condition, and it forces people to find new places to live in freedom. I beg your pardon if I’ve offended you in saying this. It was hard for me [fol. 2v] to answer your question with the truth, which is the reason for our continuous and difficult journeys’. ‘I need to tell you’, said the pilgrim, ‘that your frankness makes me want to tell you a secret I never thought I’d reveal. May you know, sir, that I was born an only child in a place called Montemayor el Nuevo.6 My parents owned a store and, one day, or better yet, one sad night, they came to our homes and seized my parents along with others of the Nation, 32 in all. I was left in the street at the age of nine, when an Old Christian neighbor of ours felt pity toward me and took me in. After around three years there, I went to an auto to wait for my parents, but I didn’t have any luck because my mother died a few days after being sent to jail and my father was condemned to death.7 You might think: What was going to become of me without parents and without means? But since such things don’t cause a lasting impression in young children, I didn’t give up and kept on going. I didn’t want to [fol. 3r] return to my hometown so I dedicated myself to my studies, which I was able to do since I already possessed some of the basics. I learned Latin, which endeared me to the Jesuits, with whom I spent my time studying the arts and theology with great zeal. The teachers would watch me and were kind to me because I showed ability. They urged me to continue, so much so that I became very hopeful of being admitted into their College, which I truly desired and, inspired by this idea, I kept on studying and learned science.8 Since I was at the right age to try for admission, I began to express Fols. 1v-3r

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my wish to those I trusted most. Although I felt I was more than prepared, I found my impression of their vision of me to be completely wrong, which is something I still can’t understand. I quickly realized they were treating me very badly. Then, all of a sudden, they blocked the path I was on, clearly revealing that they detested me, and they rejected me at every turn. [fol. 3v] This was worse than death for me, because I really wanted to join them, and I begged God for this incessantly. In the end, I found myself hated, in despair, and scorned by those clerics. I stopped going to class and abandoned my studies, and I wandered about full of melancholy. I found lodging with some canons and, in order to alleviate my suffering, I told my misfortunes to two I trusted most. They felt sorry for me and told me to check back with them because they were going to share my case with some of their colleagues, which they did. They returned after a few days and told me that they’d made inquiries, and that nobody thought I had any chance of becoming a priest there. However, if I wanted to go to Rome my friends would give me letters of reference and the names of contacts, and everyone there would help me. I gratefully took their advice and went on my way, and four months later I arrived in Rome. I presented my letters of reference but only one Spaniard, who served in the retinue of a cardinal, [fol. 4r] looked favorably on me. Not only did he offer to do whatever he could, he also told me I could stay with him while in Rome. I moved in a few days later and I was there for two years, during which time I tried every path but without any success. Then, full of mistrust, I went to speak with my friend, who agreed with me that I’d done my part and who encouraged me to keep on trying. He knew my story well from the letters. I spent another two years there but couldn’t achieve my goal and, left with no options, became completely dejected like one who feels like throwing himself into the sea, which is how I still feel today. I’ve told the sad story of my life to you, sir, in the quickest way possible so that you’ll understand my troubles, which are many. I’m not telling you this story so you will feel pity toward me but to ask if you think I’m a fool since I’ve reached this wretched state for a reason that I don’t comprehend’. [fol. 4v] ‘Now then, don’t despair’, said the friend, ‘everything will improve, perhaps a great deal since nothing lasts forever, and man can’t control that. God governs all of us and better times may lie ahead. If before you were unfortunate and unsuccessful in achieving your goal in Rome, now it’s time for me to let you know why you failed so you can move on’. The pilgrim said, ‘I didn’t fail and I didn’t succeed. It’s been five months since I left Rome, but I could’ve made it in two’. ‘Well, that’s the way it is’, said the friend, ‘We’re brothers now. I’m obligated to spend two more days here but then we can board a riverboat to Fols. 3r-4v

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Nantes, so you won’t have to walk the 70 leagues by land, and there you can get a boat for the motherland. The trip won’t cost you anything and we’ll live on what I’m carrying with me, if you’re willing to accept my hospitality’. ‘So agreed’, he responded. The time came and they got on the boat to head down the freshwater Nantes River.9 During the voyage, the pilgrim said, ‘Friend, [fol. 5r] I need to ask you if you’re content’. ‘In every way’, said the friend, ‘and I’ll answer whatever you ask me’. The pilgrim said, ‘My Spanish friend in Rome told me to stay away from the Portuguese living there because he didn’t think very highly of them, which made me cautious. I looked into the matter and found out that the ones who went there changed their religion, which is something that I both admire and consider to be scandalous to all who witness it. After a few days in Venice in the lands of the Great Duke, I left those people because of the pain that I felt in my soul after seeing how those of our Nation do this thing, and I don’t know if those who live in these parts are just as mistaken’. ‘You’re right’, said the friend, ‘to call what they’re doing a mistake’. ‘It is’, said the pilgrim, ‘if they leave the Christian faith in which they were raised’. ‘Listen’, said the friend, ‘in order for you to be able to judge this you must first understand it well and know that you’re in free lands, so you can approach them and see what they follow and believe, and how they’re governed. [fol. 5v] Once you’ve examined this thoroughly, you’ll be able to judge it. But since you don’t know anything about it, how can you condemn them?’ ‘It’s not enough’, said the pilgrim, ‘that we’re duty-bound as baptized Christians; we must be persecuted without end’.10 ‘That’s all, no more of that’, said the friend, ‘because man is free, and he should act freely, carefully, and attentively in important cases like salvation should be.11 He should speculate and be knowledgeable, especially when in free lands, on the chance that he might follow good and comply with it. And if he were to find something that better leads him there, he should embrace it. So I’m thinking that, if they were to ask you why you’re a Christian, you’d probably answer, ‘because I was brought up among them, and I didn’t see or know of any other religion, so I think this one is good’. One could argue that that’s the same as saying you’d be a Moor, Turk, Gentile, or Barbarian had you been born among any of them. From this it can be inferred by a man who understands things of such importance that he must be vigilant, and he shouldn’t be content with what others say, [fol. 6r] as the Ruler of the World asserts through His prophet Isaiah, Chapter 42, when proclaiming: Fols. 4v-6r

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“Listen, you who are deaf; / You blind ones, look up and see!”12 This teaches us how each one should look for and find a way to better himself’. ‘The way you say it’, said the pilgrim, ‘it’s certain that those who leave Christianity are the ones who follow the right path’. ‘When you understand’, said the friend, ‘the source of what they follow, you’ll know how to judge’. The pilgrim replied, ‘but you don’t understand that it would be a reckless act and a lack of faith to stop following the Law by which I was raised, and which has been and continues to be followed by so many kings, emperors, popes, learned men and doctors of the Church, as well as by so many people in the world, in order to suddenly embrace what four uneducated idiots believe’. ‘That type of reasoning’, said the friend, ‘is good for fools’. ‘What do you mean for fools?’, asked the pilgrim. ‘Because’, said the friend, ‘a wise person who understood would first take into consideration that many more [fol. 6v] Roman emperors, monarchs, philosophers, and wise men, on many occasions in the past, followed their whims and lacked a true knowledge of their Creator. And today, in our times, there are many more Turks, Moors, Barbarians, and Gentiles in the world, and each of these peoples follow their own rites and everyone thinks what you think. And our Lord God is the supreme truth as Holy Scripture teaches us, and we were chosen from among many as He revealed through his prophet, Moses, speaking to Israel: “Your Lord God did not choose you because you are numerous, for you are the smallest of all peoples”.13 There is much more iron in the world than gold, but a pound of gold is worth more than three thousand of iron, and therein lies the argument’s weakness’. The pilgrim said: ‘If everyone thought that way we’d all change religions each day without believing strongly in any one of them’. ‘That’s not what I’m saying’, said the friend, ‘what I want to say to you is that there are many erroneous paths and only one correct one. [fol. 7r] And according to that truth man must seek out the right one, embrace it, and follow it’. ‘That right path’, said the pilgrim, ‘how can’t it be evident? For the Christians consider theirs to be as such, and thus each man can choose his own, as you said earlier’. ‘Well, I’ll show you a good and easy path toward the true one, and here it is: which do you think is better and true, the one that all rational people think to be good or the one that some thought was good and others condemned for being bad?’ ‘It’s clear’, said the pilgrim, ‘that the one accepted by all is better’. Fols. 6r-7r

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‘Well’, said the friend, ‘the same reasoning explains why, if you were to ask the people who follow Scripture if the Law kept by the Jews is good, and if it was given by the true God of the Heavens to his people, the sons of Israel, each and every one of them would confess that it is so. If you were then to ask those Christians if the same applies to the one Moors follow, they would respond with a thousand blasphemies. [fol. 7v] The Moors would say the same about the Christians, and all the peoples of the world would act the same. If you take a closer look at the Christians, there are a thousand different kinds of them because they are in 72 religious sects, which are all called Christian.14 Each one thus follows a different path: some are Roman, others Calvinists, others Lutherans, others Anabaptists, others Arians, Hermilians, and Martinists.15 Some desire idols, others reject them; mass for some, others no, and they all go in different directions. Now, according to this truth, you judge, if one is the correct path, how can that be it with so much blindness and confusion, with each sect hating and condemning the others and considering them to be on the road to perdition? This makes me think about what I saw at the Fair of La Rochelle, where I went with some Portuguese. At our inn, there were some French merchants who were selling us their wares, and as soon as everyone got together they started up about religion with one of us. He asked them who would represent their side. They began to [fol. 8r] confer among themselves and we realized that it was a spiritually diverse group. The Portuguese asked them if they were all Romans, and they replied that there were Calvinists, Lutherans and Papists. ‘Monsieurs’, the Portuguese responded in a very humorous way, ‘first come to an agreement among yourselves and then we’ll dispute’. This confused them and they quieted down one by one as they differed on each point. Insofar as it is impossible to arrive at the correct answer by going down so many paths, they unanimously confessed that the divine Law of the Jews is holy and true, as I’ve explained. Now you see why it’s the truth and the right way to salvation. That’s the one revered by those you call idiots, the Law that everyone thinks to be good’. ‘Christians’, said the pilgrim, ‘don’t deny that the Mosaic Law was the first one, and given by God, but it’s said that they broke it and that the grace we possess today was given in its place’. ‘Well, that’s some kind of grace’, said the friend, ‘it might be grace [fol. 8v] but it’s ill-founded, my good companion. Once God declares something to be good, it always remains that way, because God never changes. With men, things can change and their deeds are short lived. If they don’t get today what they think is good, they turn to something else the next day. But the God of the World, when He created it, before He created it, and Fols.7r-8v

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until it comes to an end, with everything large and small standing before Him, doesn’t think of anything new to make Him change His way. If God’s people transgressed His Law, and didn’t keep it as God had commanded, then they’d be punished, which they continue to be now as they wander throughout the world. However, because of this the Holy Law was neither tarnished nor changed. Everyone who adheres to it will seek and find his Creator and will return to His grace, and only through this is it received and possessed. You see here the purity of truth and the Law in which each individual should save himself’.16 ‘Good God!’ said the pilgrim, ‘how can it be possible for you to condemn so easily a Christian faith that has been tested and accepted by so many? Aren’t you aware of the doctors and wise men who say that the Old Law, [fol. 9r] because it was too harsh and tedious, was made easier by God’s grace, thus lessening the burden and weight of it so that man might comply with it more easily’. ‘What you call harsh and tedious’, said the friend, ‘is not described as such in Psalm 19 by holy King David, who instead says that it’s “sweeter than honey” and smoother than “drippings of the comb”,17 that it’s “perfect, renewing life”,18 and that His “precepts” are “lucid, making the eyes light up”.19 And wise King Solomon says that “Her ways are pleasant ways, / And all her paths, peaceful”.20 Behold the great authority of this evidence, the standing that His divine words possess among all people, and the contrary with respect to the Christian faith, and to its groundless and false foundation. In spite of that, it acquired the name of a sacred faith and was defended in the name of faith, which it doesn’t deserve in any sense. They explain everything by preaching belief in faith, and whoever doesn’t believe blindly must face the Inquisition, which uses fire to force people to believe what never happened without proof.21 Behold the tyranny of [fol. 9v] Spain, the maliciousness with which they advance their deception. There they don’t want people to read the Holy Scripture, or even to see it, but that everything be covered and sealed, because they know that, by reading and seeing it, their tricks will be discovered and their faith will be brought down’.22 ‘That’s the same’, said the pilgrim, ‘as saying that sacred matters shouldn’t be discussed by common idiots’. ‘On the contrary’, said the friend, ‘because how can the word of God ever cause one to err? The one who best knows that God’s word is essential will understand how essential it is, and will best understand the nature of men established by He who raised them and who commands them. It’s a precept for men to read it every day and night and it was commanded that during each year all five books should be read in front of and within earshot of Fols. 8v-9v

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everyone, including important people as well as commoners, slaves, and everyone else.23 And on Passover, everyone would come to Jerusalem, where they’d be read so that all could hear, and know, and see how they should serve God, for it’s very well known that an [fol. 10r] ignorant person isn’t afraid to sin.24 It can’t be a good thing to forbid anyone from seeing and reading the word of God. It’s against His will and against His commandments, which He says to us through his prophet David, in Psalm 119, where His word is the “light” that teaches.25 “If they take this away from me, what will illuminate me and give light so that I will not err in my ways?”—as King Solomon says.26 This is what they do in Spain. But if what I’ve said has offended you, good sir, my intention is not to cause you problems, so we’ll leave the matter aside’. ‘Friend’, said the pilgrim, ‘I’m not at all annoyed since I’ve spent most of my life in the faith into which I was born, with which I was raised, and by which I must live. I don’t think about changing to another one that I consider to be better and in which I hope to find salvation. So speak freely in order that we may enjoy our voyage, because I understand now your desire and I see your zeal, and I’d like to listen to you.27 That those of our Nation who live in Portugal do follow the same beliefs as the ones who live here is undoubtedly true because, if it weren’t, and they really were Christians, they [fol. 10v] wouldn’t leave that faith so easily.28 ‘I can’t speak about those who live there’, said the friend, ‘because the yoke of the Inquisition is so harsh that those who have faith keep it to themselves, and you’d be wrong to think that wouldn’t be easy; for the truth is very different than a lie, which is easy to recognize when the two are together. It also helps to be descendants of Abraham, and sons of Jacob, to whom the Law was given. The divine word was entrusted to them, as the Prophet Isaiah says, chapter 59: “And this shall be My Covenant with them, said the Lord: My spirit which is upon you, and the words which I have placed in your mouth, shall not be absent from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your children, nor from the mouth of your children’s children—said the Lord—from now on, for all time”.29 And don’t you behave like those you mentioned earlier, because only fools observe the law of God without learning and understanding it, which is nothing more than a great fraud.30 Think about this: today, as always, the world is full of people who observe the Law and live and act according to it, and there are many [fol. 11r] great men of wisdom who teach it. They can be found in Rome, as you’ve seen, as well as in Venice, all of Italy, and throughout the world as well. And only the sinful land of Spain lacks this good thing, which is why it should be destroyed and made to compensate the Lord for the innocent blood it has shed. Consider Fols. 9v-11r

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how, in other kingdoms, and in parts of the north, they read our sacred books because these are free lands.31 Although they call themselves Christians who’ve reformed many things, there are also differences among their rites. However, they are all united in seeking the truth in sacred scripture and in distancing themselves from the abuses of the Romans; they noticed, through the truth of the Holy Scripture, the great evil and falsehood that had been made of the Ten Commandments, according to which the creation of images is forbidden. They’ve eliminated the second, which proscribes the making or adoration of images that represent anything in the heavens, on land, or in the sea.32 They eliminated that one and made two out of the ninth one in order to conceal their wickedness.33 Thus they have idols that they fashion and pray to, [fol. 11v] which is a stupid and very abominable thing and completely against the will of God. Such people don’t possess a religion but believe only in worldly things, which is a stupid and abominable custom that began among the Roman gentiles, and that stands in contrast to the first precept given to man by God, saying upon his creation: “Be fruitful and multiply and populate the land”.34 And for this reason those who are newly reformed would rather be married priests than to live in sin. They also eliminated confession. One man saw the obvious deception of those who follow in this way and they eliminated the Mass, recognizing the error of thinking and believing in a wafer in the hands of a sinner.35 It’s low and vile idolatry to include the one who created the world with one word, who sustains it by His will, and who filled all the lands with His omnipotence. That He’s included there when they eat it and are purged by it is such a disgusting and abominable thing, just like similar acts that I prefer not to mention’. ‘Well, then’, said the pilgrim, ‘how easily you [fol. 12r] unravel and ruin the mysteries sanctioned by a Roman church governed and ruled by the Holy Spirit for so many years. You condemn them as false and prefer that which is believed by heretics who’re known by the entire apostolic faith to have voluntarily left in order to pursue their depraved vices’. ‘When you speak about that matter’, replied the friend, ‘you sound like someone who has no knowledge of how these things are managed in general. They are just and charitable to the poor, and I swear to you that this is of great benefit to Spain and its tyrannies.36 Furthermore, I don’t make this comparison in order to praise their ways but to show you how they twist things so that they can separate themselves from the great errors and deception that the Romans follow, separating themselves from Holy Scripture, which is God’s true guide for His governance.37 Their claim that they are governed by the Holy Spirit contradicts the same immutable and trustworthy truth. While His realm is constant, we see that each day the Fols. 11r-12r

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Romans change their [fol. 12v] ways at their councils by removing some things and by concocting and adding others so as to contradict the divine intervention you’ve described. And if you want to see proof of this, during the Council of Trent they agreed to eliminate all sacred images after having seen the clear prohibition against them in divine Scripture. However, one of them said that if they were to do such a thing it would cause people to say that, since the Church had erred for such a long time in that it must be wrong about other things, and so it wouldn’t happen this was enough for the deception to continue.38 With regard to the Mass, all those who have Christian names dislike it, and in fact hate it, and only the Romans preserve it. Even if these things don’t mean anything to us, what is it to remove the Second Commandment of the Decalogue, given by God Himself? How could this have been done in an inoffensive way?’ The pilgrim said, ‘I’m not currently informed about that matter, but I know, and I believe, that they did it for some good reason’. [fol. 13r] ‘That reason does not and cannot exist’, said the friend. ‘Among all the Christians, only the Romans, by foolishly kneeling and stooping before wood and stone, go against such a clear commandment in which the ruler of the world reveals His will’. ‘They do that as a remembrance’, said the pilgrim, ‘because it’s well known that one can’t ask for, and they can’t give, what they don’t have’. ‘That’s quite a remembrance’, said the friend, ‘because the good images are the works of God, which we see constantly. They give clear manifestations of His immense power. As the holy King says: “The heavens declare the glory of God, / the sky proclaims His handiwork”.39 God Himself tells us this through the prophet Isaiah, chapter 40, saying: “Lift high your eyes and see: / Who created these? / He who sends out their host by count, / Who calls them each by name”.40 This reveals the clear and manifest works of [fol. 13v] the Almighty, which are continually being proclaimed by the marvels of the Almighty and His holy hand. They don’t have to commit blunders or deceptions so damned as idolatry! The truth is that those who make them and place their hope in them are similar to them, as the holy King clearly says in Psalm 115: “Their idols are silver and gold, / the work of men’s hands. / They have mouths, but cannot speak, / eyes, but cannot see; [/…/] hands, but cannot touch, / feet, but cannot walk”.41 Since they do make them, according to all who trust in them the entire Holy Scripture and the Prophets uphold this terrible evil, so I must invoke that wonderful chapter 44 of Isaiah, which depicts the stupidity of those who do such a thing: “They cut pine trees in the forest: some they burn to keep warm, some to make bread and roast meat, and from the rest they make a god, and they bow down to it”42; Fols. 12r-13v

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“They do not give thought, / They lack the wit and judgment to say: / ‘Part of it I burned in a fire; I also baked bread on the coals, / I roasted meat and ate it— / Should I make the rest an abhorrence?’”43; “They have no wit [fol. 14r] or judgment: / Their eyes are besmeared, and they see not; / Their minds, and they cannot think”44; “Remember these things, O Jacob / For you, O Israel, are My servant”. 45 See how the Lord is advising His people as to what other peoples will do. With respect to this clear prophecy, I want to ask you, as a friend who is learned, who has a clear understanding and who descends from the line and holy seed of Israel, whether it seems to you that there are enough sacred places, where the truth may be seen and known and where one can flee from the deceptions and abuses of the people who are so mistaken and who follow such twisted paths. Don’t you see the cruel injustice of the Inquisition, which kills people after convicting them only because they believe in the God of the heavens and follow His Law, and that this is the basis for that infernal justice? I see you’re very bewildered. What do you think about all this?’ ‘I’, said the pilgrim, ‘neither concern myself with whether the Inquisition is just or unjust nor do I approve of all the wrongs those involved have committed. God is capable of dealing with them. They base themselves [fol. 14v] in condemning others for having left the faith. In the end, it’s God’s responsibility to judge the judges. What I and everyone else see is that they’ve remained steadfast for many years to the policy you call unjust, and we suffer under this yoke’. ‘You speak the truth’, said the friend, ‘because of our sins, and having offended God and distanced ourselves from His Holy Law, He delivered us into their hands, and they are His executioners and the whip with which He punishes us, just as He’s done with other peoples who destroyed our lands and exiled us into captivity. But after our punishment was over, God took pity on His people and returned to it, and completely destroyed its enemies, as we know about the Egyptians, Chaldeans and anyone else who treated it poorly.46 As we know, everything about them was completely destroyed and erased from memory, except for the manner by which they were finished off and destroyed. Israel has always been punished by them and the same thing must happen under this Fourth Monarchy, which persecutes us today. 47 When will their wickedness stop growing?’ [fol. 15r] The pilgrim replied, ‘I also believe that they must be brought to justice, which God will dispense to each one of them according to their deeds, and let’s agree on that. But it’s virtuous to follow the law in which I was raised and which I consider good, and to leave that faith would be very reprehensible’. Fols. 13v-15r

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‘But if that weren’t so’, said the friend, ‘wouldn’t it be virtuous, prudent and seen as a good decision while going down an erroneous path leading me off a cliff, after being shown the correct path toward salvation, to turn to that one and follow it?48 Not to do this would reflect a lack of understanding. To err is human but to keep on doing so is for savages’. ‘In any case’, said the pilgrim, ‘I think that in my situation I’m doing a good job following the faith I profess. I subscribe to everything taught by the Roman Church, and to its mysteries, and I believe in them, and that’s my salvation’. ‘By the way’, said the friend, ‘with regard to those mysteries, I’ve already told you about some of the disillusionment that derives from them, enough to see and understand that they mean little and that they can’t reveal very much’. [fol. 15v] ‘I’m not swayed so easily’, he replied, ‘faith is also based on other things’. ‘Very well’, said the friend, ‘now we’re talking sense. God has given you intelligence, as you could easily show me, why not take advantage of it, at least by comprehending? From what I’ve heard, you follow reason and not conjecture, which is what I think you’re following now’. ‘Well, you’re mistaken’, said the pilgrim, ‘because I don’t think this subject has anything to do with conjecture, but if you want to provoke me, I’m surprised that you haven’t mentioned the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and the fact that believing in it is the foundation upon which the Church rests’. ‘The Trinity’, said the friend, ‘what you mean by the mystery of the Trinity? Please tell me about it’. ‘It seems like you want to put me to the test by what you say’, said the pilgrim. ‘What I want’, said the friend, ‘is to know what you mean by the Trinity, because I haven’t seen any mention of it in the sacred books’. [fol. 16r] ‘It’s possible’, the pilgrim said, ‘since first you must know that this mystery was revealed to the Roman Church alone, and thus only the Church knows and understands that there are Father, Son and Holy Spirit: three people and only one true God’. ‘By the way’, said the friend, ‘that mystery is, like the others, easy to unravel, and if you ask for proof you’ll be told that one cloth, if folded three times, will still be one when it’s unfolded. And if you ask for more proof, you’ll be told to rely on faith, and if you don’t have that then it’s the Inquisition. Now I implore you to tell me, since God is one and all powerful aren’t the other two superfluous? And if that’s not so, and He needs help, then He doesn’t deserve to be called God. That, my good man, is nonsense. The God Fols. 15r-16r

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of the world is only one, with one name, and is all-powerful. God created the world with His divine word, and He governs it by His divine word and His divine will, as stated in all the sacred books. Take a look at what He says in the Law, Deuteronomy, chapter 32: “See, then, that I, I am He; There is no god beside Me. I deal death and give life; I wounded and I will heal”.49 [fol. 16v] Doesn’t it seem to you to be a great evil to say that the Almighty has assistants? Which do you think is the best way to govern a kingdom, with one all-powerful king, or with two of equal power? Of course, you will say that one is better because, if there are more, there will surely be disagreements, and sufficient proof of this is that people throughout the world are all the same in that each has only one head. Since we can agree about this, we have a clear demonstration of the unity of the ruler of the world and of the only government about whose unity everyone learned. As He says through His prophet Isaiah, chapter 44: “I am the first and I am the last, / And there is no god but Me”.50 For these reasons, everything else is a pipe dream and confusing nonsense, because there’s no such thing as one head with three bodies or one body with three heads, except in the case of the birth of some unnatural monster. So it looks like your doctors of theology relied on the poetic image of the can severo, the guardian of the gates of hell, who is said to have three heads’.51 ‘Well, then’, said the pilgrim, ‘if everything were the way [fol. 17r] you see it, how could you explain the many places in the holy scripture which clearly talk about the Holy Trinity?’ ‘I don’t know about that’, said the friend, ‘because I’ve read it a few times and I haven’t seen it mentioned. I would appreciate if you could tell me what is said that reveals the hidden secret’. ‘It’s not hidden’, said the pilgrim, ‘for whoever wants to know it—and, by the way, I’m not one of them now—there are many. Let’s look at that first one about the creation of the world, in which there’s an unmistakable mention of the Holy Trinity when it says: ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’.52 There’s no refuting this since on all occasions until this point God speaks in the first person, but on this important occasion he spoke with and consulted with the Trinity’. ‘I’m not as learned as you are’, said the friend, ‘nor do I know enough to explain enigmas found in Sacred Scripture, which are too high and lofty for my level of understanding. But if you can’t think of a more convincing passage than the one you’ve mentioned, even with my limited [fol. 17v] knowledge I’ll try to give you a satisfactory reply so that if you want to see it with your own eyes you’ll judge it to be very true. You must rid yourself of your false impressions because the reasoning you’ve given means nothing Fols. 16r-17v

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and is similar to what I said earlier about folding a cloth three times. That can explain and unravel it. The same would be true if the cloth were folded ten times, or more. With respect to your example, how can you prove that, because He spoke in the plural, there were three of them? I say that, if it was in order to seek council as you say, then this is best done when many are consulted; I myself would speak with 30 or more’. The pilgrim said, ‘The Roman Church accepts it as the truth and it’s considered as such by all Catholics’. ‘Well, I’ll show you that it’s false and groundless’, said the friend, ‘and without any shred of truth. First you must know that the Holy Scripture, ordained and given by our Lord God with all His supreme wisdom, is completely dedicated to teaching and indoctrinating the peoples as to how they should rule and govern themselves.53 When He desired to create the world through His will and absolute [fol. 18r] power, He ordered light to exist, and light existed; He brought about His other creations in the same way.54 But when He desired to create man, He used the third person plural because He had to concur and involve the Elements during the making of man.55 And for this reason the Lord instructed them in order to show and teach us about the gentleness of His divine government. He didn’t want to use His immense and absolute power in that case, as He had with His other creations. He thus spoke with the Elements, saying: “Let us join together in accordance, and each one will have a role in the same task in which we all must form part. You, earth, give of yourself, and you, fire, and you, water, and you, air, each one of you put in what corresponds to you, and I will put in the soul, which is the essence of life, and we will make man in our image”, Genesis two.56 It’s as if He were saying that he’d be part of all things, and as such have domain over all creation. Now you see the literal and true meaning of that passage; God wasn’t any less powerful or wise when He created man than when He made the heavens, the earth, and His other creations by His word. God is thus unique and without a beginning, [fol. 18v] which He gave to everything and there’s no end to His reign or anything greater. There are many places in the Holy Scripture where He speaks in a similar way. When He wished to drown the world with the Great Flood as a reflection of His omnipotence, He said to Noah, in Genesis, chapter six: “an end to all creatures who have come before me, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth”.57 And when He saw that men were making a tower, in order to punish them He spoke in another manner, by saying: “Let us, then, go down and confound their speech there, so that they shall not understand one another’s speech”, Genesis, chapter eleven.58 You see here the same argument that your people make when they say that He spoke in Fols. 17v-18v

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the plural, but they don’t understand the meaning of the Holy Scripture, which wasn’t written down so that they could run around like blind men who lack understanding. But the wise men of Israel, who received the waters of divine wisdom, are the sons of prophets and nurtured by them, and they know that blessed God spoke there with the sacred things in the heavens and gave them, as His ministers, dominion and governance over [fol. 19r] those peoples so that they might be punished for their pride. He kept for himself the supreme and universal power He has over all creatures. He took it from them in His own way, thus relegating them to the second causes,59 as the prophet Moses clearly teaches us in Deuteronomy, chapter 4, when teaching Israel by saying: “And when you look up to the sky and behold the sun and the moon and the stars, the whole heavenly host, you must not be lured into bowing down to them or serving them. These the Lord your God allotted to other peoples everywhere under heaven; but you the Lord took…to be His very own people”.60 You see here the clear truth about how our God teaches His form of governance to the peoples; consequently, kings shall withdraw from the peoples when God reaches out and sends viceroys to govern in their lands.61 In order that you see how He spoke this truth I’ve been telling you about, listen to chapter 6 of Isaiah. Wanting to send the prophet to indoctrinate his people, He asks: ‘‘Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” And I said, “Here I am; send me’’.62 In the Book of Kings, when He desires to inflict a punishment by leading King Ahab to be admonished, [fol. 19v] it says that when the king asked the prophet Micaiah if he would go to war, the response was: “I saw the Lord seated upon His throne, with all the host of heaven standing in attendance to the right and to the left of Him. The Lord asked, ‘Who will entice Ahab so that he will march and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’”63 We take from the sacred examples in these passages sufficient proof that our Lord God adapts himself to our level of understanding, and that He teaches kings and governors that they need only to consult His advice when undertaking important matters. In this way He teaches us through His divine governance how we should behave. This shouldn’t be interpreted as nonsense, like when they speak of a bunch of gods. Blessed God is one; His supreme presence in all of His creations is evident and His unity is revealed. When He wanted to send His prophet Moses to Egypt to free His people, the prophet asked Him: ‘‘What is His name? what shall I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “I am that I am; I will be what I will be’’.64 He did not say: “We are”. When He gave the Law to Israel, He began: “I the Lord am your God […] You shall have no other gods beside me”.65 The prophet Moses, [fol. 20r] while teaching His instructions to His people, tells them: “Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is One”66; “And you will place Fols. 18v-20r

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my words over your hearts, and teach them to your children and to your children’s children”.67 Don’t you see how it would be very wrong to say that our Lord rebukes the declaring, teaching and forever rooting in the heart of His people that He is one? Although an infinite amount of things could be said on this subject, I only want to inform you about this ultimate truth and remove your blind doubt concerning what the God of the world says, which, as you’ve seen here and on other similar occasions, counters and dismantles it. As He says through His prophet Isaiah, chapter 45: “It was I who made the earth / And created man upon it; / My own hands stretched out the heavens, / And I marshaled all their host”.68 And He repeats this by saying through holy Jeremiah, chapter 27: “It is I who made the earth, and the men and beasts who are on the earth, by My great might and My outstretched arm”.69 Indeed, in this example we see faithful proof, which is the true meaning, of a component of the creation of man. Thus when man dies the Lord returns [fol. 20v] to take away His part, which is the soul, and each of the Elements takes its part. And the reason that your doctors don’t realize these things is because they aren’t aware of them. As the royal prophet says when speaking with our Lord: “He issued His commands to Jacob, / His statutes and rules to Israel. / He did not do so for any other nation; / of such rules they know nothing”.70 According to this truth of the prophet, they can neither realize nor know that which God did not want to tell them. In light of this, it’s up to you to decide how you feel about the matter’. ‘What I feel’, said the pilgrim, ‘is that the matter isn’t understood as you explain it and that there are other passages aside from that one in which this mystery is clearly shown, and which can’t be interpreted in any other way.71 Don’t you see how it was shown to the Patriarch Abraham who, upon seeing three, bowed down before one?72 And the Patriarch Jacob took three stones to use as a pillow and found one in the morning.73 What is this but the Trinity? And there are many more passages. I don’t know how you’ll respond to this; you make things look too easy’. ‘I say to you’, said the friend, ‘that I’ll respond with the [fol. 21r] same Scripture by which I show the truth, and you can’t give evidence of that because everything you can say has been pronounced by men without any sacred foundation, like their poorly grounded pipe dreams; and those two passages you’ve just mentioned, well, they are of little use for explaining what you understand to be the Trinity’. The pilgrim replied, ‘that’s how I understand it and the way the Church proclaims it’. ‘Whatever it proclaims’, said the friend, ‘all of its proclamations are like that one, and you should know, friend, that those passages are very clear Fols. 20r-21r

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and far from those meanings. You say one thing about Abraham and the text clearly says that he raised his eyes and saw three men. What does this have to do with the mystery that you want to prove, according to which three are one and one is three? Those were three angels, as is revealed further on, each with its own purpose: one to announce that Sarah would give birth to a child74; one to free Lot; one to destroy Sodom.75 I’m not sure what this has to do with how you want to make three out of one’. ‘You’, said the pilgrim, ‘overlook the most important thing. [fol. 21v] While the passage says that three came, Abraham only venerated one, and it was to him that he spoke, which is the key to the mystery’. ‘That’s very good’, said the friend, ‘I’ll tell you what that means. You already know that the Lord of the world valued Abraham, so much so that on Earth he was known as and called God’s steward.76 The angel that the Lord of the world sent to him was superior to the others, and as such it stood in the middle. Abraham saw this, got up, and went to them. And he went forward to greet the one who came toward him because he knew the place of that one with blessed God.77 Since it wasn’t a sign of a good upbringing to look away, he spoke to him, considering him to be the most important, which he was, and that the others would follow whatever he did, which is what happened. That one stayed there and the other two went to Sodom, as is clearly seen in the sacred text. Here you see your Trinity fall apart and come unglued. With respect to Jacob’s stones, the verse doesn’t say that he took three, which is of little importance, because anyone who makes three gods out of that [fol. 22r] will find 30. That passage is really a great demonstration of the unity of the Lord of the world. Because He is one, He took from all the peoples one for Himself. He gave one Law. He chose one city, one temple, and one priest. With regard to what Jacob wanted to show in all of that, I’ll tell you that he took two rocks from that place. It says that in the morning he took a rock, anointed it, and called it the house of God.78 What does that have to do with three gods in one stone? It seems that they only understood this to mean that those things should be made out of stone. You should know what our Lord showed with that: He wanted His flock to come out from His house. And it was thus proclaimed because Ishmael was in the house of Abraham and in the house of Isaac there was Esau, which is one way. But in that of Jacob, the bed was completely unique and perfect; his children, in perfect public harmony, pray to only one Lord, for there are no more.79 And Jacob wanted to say there that the house of the Lord of the world had been chosen for His divine service, and it would always be called the house of Jacob, the house of Israel, as confirmed by the prophets Isaiah and Micah, who both say that at the end of days all people Fols. 21r-22r

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[fol. 22v] will go “to the House of the God of Jacob; That He may instruct us in ways, and that we may walk in His paths”.80 And the same thing is meant when it says that each should enter with only one God, because if this weren’t the truth being taught it would say that all should enter with a stick, but it says with only one God’.81 ‘Hold on’, said the pilgrim, ‘we aren’t the ones who must resolve this issue. It’s already well understood by others. By the way, what would it mean to want to bring down now a house that already has a very solid foundation, upon which many other causes depend? Whoever denies that would deny the arrival to Earth of the son of God to die for sinners’. ‘Friend, you speak the truth, because for us it makes no difference. I’m surprised you remain so firm and stubborn, and so far from things that are true. What I’ve said shouldn’t be difficult to understand by a son of Israel like you since it’s well grounded in the highest truth. But you still cling to nonsense like those things. Tell me: God looks after you because the one you call the son of God came to Earth? And if he really did come, [fol. 23r] did his arrival and death benefit the world? The pilgrim replied, ‘He came to the world to redeem Adam’s sin and to rectify that which had condemned all mankind to a spiritual death in Hell forever’. ‘Incidentally’, said the friend, ‘that’s some kind of forgiveness since, in the first place, the Sacred Scripture doesn’t state that our Lord gave Adam a punishment that had anything to do with his soul. He and his descendants were indeed condemned to a corporal death but not to a spiritual death like the one you’ve described’. ‘A spiritual death’, said the pilgrim, ‘is what I say: his soul was condemned to the fires of Hell as is clearly seen in the sacred passage’. ‘Why don’t we continue on more solid ground’, said the friend, ‘I’m carrying in my valise a Bible for a friend in Bordeaux.82 After eating we’ll take a look at it and, having seen the truth, I hope you’ll rid yourself of those false ideas. Once you’re beyond the fog of the Trinity, you’ll be clearly shown the truth of the Lord of the world so that you proceed confidently [fol. 23v] while following the one that I accept as my guide. You should know that God doesn’t have a son, nor can He have an equal for He is unique, pure and distinct, and it’s not necessary that anyone succeed him. He is forever unique and the greatest kindness. He already declared through his divine mouth that He has a son when he sent the prophet Moses to Egypt. He said: “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: Israel is My First-born son’’’.83 Moving further along, since it’s our Lord’s way and the greatest act of kindness to turn bad into good, all the sacred books preach this. But turning Fols. 22v-23v

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bad into worse has no place there, nor is there a passage that says such a thing because this rule is foolproof. Doesn’t it seem to you to be very absurd and an infernal blasphemy of those misguided people who conceived, profess and believe—and who want to make others believe—that the one who redressed the sin committed by Adam, who’d been tricked and induced into eating an apple by his wife, wasn’t the omnipotent and powerful Lord? Or that there was no other way to redress that wrong than making Himself into an immortal man, something that’s in complete opposition to divineness? And what about coming to Earth and having that man who’d sinned with the apple, [fol. 24r] tricked by mistake without intending to sin, voluntarily lay his hands on his Creator and string him up, so that in this way and through this act a pardon would be attained for the wrongly eaten apple? Perhaps it was less criminal to hang his god than that thing about the apple? Does it seem like an equal trade to you? If a vassal, I ask, surrendered a city whose defense had been entrusted to him by his king, and he were seeking a pardon for his failure, would it be a good idea for him to kill his son, the heir to the kingdom? Was that a good manner of returning to his grace? Friend, you should know that this is the same thing our wise men say, that from one sin comes another sin, and thus they accumulate until those sins lead to total destruction. Those people, since they were from the womb, ‘set their mouths against heaven,’ as the prophet says.84 In doing so they affronted the royal crown of the Almighty, and that great sin lead to similar wrongs, and thus they continue uncontrollably in that way, misled by pride and worldly prosperity, not aware that the prophet says: “A brutish man cannot know, / a fool cannot understand this: / though the wicked sprout like grass, / though all evildoers blossom, / [fol. 24v] it is only that they may be destroyed forever”.85 By the way, I’d truly like to avail ourselves now of the holy company of the Sacred Scripture, because it’ll provide us with an example of the many disillusions. Wise men call it “teacher”86 and King Solomon calls it “light”.87 There we see the passage in Genesis that you pointed out.88 Look at what I’m showing you; you can read and check against the chapter being considered. First, we see the precept that our Lord gave to him, and based on that we’ll see the punishments given to him for not following it. Thus it says: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you are free to eat; but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die’’’.89 And when our Lord saw that he had broken His commandment, He pronounced the punishments as follows: “And to the woman He said, ‘I will make most severe your pangs in childbearing; In pain shall you bear children’”90; “To Adam he said, ‘Because you did as your Fols. 23v-24v

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wife said and ate of the tree about which I commanded you, “You shall not eat of it’’, / Cursed be the ground because of you; [/…/] By toil shall you eat of it all the days of your life: Thorns and thistles shall it sprout for you. […] By the sweat of your brow shall you get bread to eat, until you return to the ground—For from it [fol. 25r] you were taken’”.91 You have before you the words of the Sacred text, in which can be seen no punishment other than that of the body, and not of the soul, because they were all made of earth. And through that, since it was the part He had nurtured, the Lord began to castigate man and, accordingly, He said that his punishment would last until returning to the earth from which he was formed. This is the body, because we already know that the soul was instilled afterwards with that breath He blew into his nose’.92 ‘Very well’, said the pilgrim, ‘but you don’t know that behind those words there are profound mysteries’. ‘I believe that’, said the friend, ‘but the literalness can’t be overlooked nor can the Ladino be changed’.93 ‘Well’, said the pilgrim, ‘you don’t understand the literal Ladino. It’s clear in the duplication of the words of God, ‘dying, you will die,’ that two deaths should be understood, corporal and spiritual.94 About that there can be no doubt because all Church doctors adhere to this’. ‘After conceding to you’, said the friend, ‘that two deaths are to be understood, I’ll clearly show you that neither refers to the soul [fol. 25v] but to corporality’. ‘For me’, said the pilgrim, ‘it’d be a new thing that two mortal punishments were inflicted on the body’. ‘Well’, replied the friend, ‘here we are. I’ll show you very clearly so that you see how He said it, which shouldn’t surprise you at all. You know, since you are learned, that Adam was raised with great excellence and the greatest care because he was fashioned by the hands of the Lord, who made him completely perfect. And that is the way it would have remained if he hadn’t sinned. About him says the holy king, while speaking with the Creator: ‘You have made him little less than divine, and adorned him with glory and majesty’.95 Adam was covered by grace, endowed with divine knowledge and full of light among the angels. In that bliss, in that kingly dwelling, like the angelic spirits he enjoyed the gaze of the Creator. In that state, there could be neither any ending nor death, so he used to eat from the tree of life. All of those distinctions made him immortal. Adam sinned and disobeyed his creator by eating the forbidden fruit [fol. 26r] and, afterwards, he was immediately deprived and stripped of all those gifts.96 He was unclothed and removed from that grace. With that he lost a glorious life, that sweet and Fols. 24v-26r

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blessed repose, which he’d been enjoying in the company of the saints. Proof of this is that he found himself naked afterwards, and he confessed in shame that he could no longer look with his eyes at the Supreme Divinity, and thus he hid himself.97 In the end he was banished and cast from the holy place of life. You see here how he lost that life, for it was the only life that his body and soul possessed. From this great loss came the second one, the corporal death to which He subjected his descendants. And because we possess the corporal part of him, we’re called children of Adam. Before proceeding, I’d like to ask you how your wise doctors understand the aforementioned verses, which contain the same duplication when God says, about the fruit of the garden: “eating, you will eat”’.98 ‘That’, said the pilgrim, ‘seems to say that it’s not enough to eat one time, but that you keep nourishing and sustaining yourself through Him’. [Fol. 26v] ‘Later on’, said the friend, ‘I could respond to you with the same answer that the Lord wanted to tell him: ‘If you eat of the forbidden fruit, you will not only die, thus extinguishing your life, but the life you live will be a prolonged death afflicted by miseries and misfortunes. You will be subject to continuous bad luck and all the things I created to be subservient to you will rise up against you and will endeavor to kill you. In everything you will feel, even in the elements inside your body of which you are formed, that they will make war on you until they kill you’.99 My good friend, here you see that your view is severely weakened and undermined. Furthermore, I say to you that it’s not obligatory to understand that case of duplication in Scripture as two deaths. It’s very normal to speak in that fashion as a means of affirmation, as if to say that one, without fail, will die. You’ll find proof of this in the same book, which tells that King Abimelech ordered that it be proclaimed, about our father Isaac, that “Anyone who molests this man or his wife [dying, he will die]”.100 King Solomon, in the punishment that he gave to Shimei, [fol. 27r] says to him: “On the very day that you go out and cross the Wadi Kidron [dying, you will die]”.101 It’s clear that these kings could not condemn to death anything but the body. In the same Law you’ll find many passages that speak in such a way. The Lord, the one who gave it, says there: “[remembering, you will remember] what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and all the Egyptians”.102 It says “opening, you will open” and “giving, you will give to the poor”.103 Thus it is that you can consider the passage in any way and you won’t find that the punishments given to Adam have anything to do with the soul. As I’ve said, that’s part of God, and a son doesn’t have in his organism more than the corporal part of his father. The Creator instills him with a soul whose salvation depends on its deeds as the Law clearly shows to us: “the son will not die for his father, each one Fols. 26r-27r

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will die for his own sins”.104 As the prophet Ezekiel says more elegantly in chapter 18: “Consider, all lives are Mine, the life of the parent and the life of the child are both Mine. The person who sins, only he shall die. Thus, if a man is righteous and does what is just and right: [living, he will live, as the Lord says]”105; “Suppose, now, that he has begotten a son who is a ruffian, a shedder of blood, [and who does not keep my commandments, dying, he will die]”106; “Now suppose that he, in turn, [fol. 27v] has begotten a son who has seen all the sins that his father committed, but has taken heed and has not imitated them […] he has obeyed My rules and followed My laws—he shall not die for the iniquity of his father [living, he will live] […] the righteousness of the righteous shall be accounted to him alone, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be accounted to him alone. Moreover, if the wicked one repents of all the sins that he committed and keeps all My laws […] [living, he will live] […] None of the transgressions he committed shall be remembered against him […] Is it my desire that a wicked person shall die?—says the Lord God. It is rather that he shall turn back from his ways and live”.107 You see clearly the clarity of the divine doctrine, in which the author of the divine truth teaches and advises us about the virtue of contrition by saying to us that the one who truly sins and repents will have his sins forgotten, and his soul will escape death. From this we see and understand that Adam’s sin doesn’t affect his descendants in a spiritual sense, which is why there’s always a place for penitence. And neither you nor your doctors can deny to me that the virtuous work man does for the love of and service to God is of more merit because it’s done with the express intent of obeying [fol. 28r] his Creator. There are easier ways to reach His grace than in the condemned error of Adam’s sin. If your doctors want man to be represented by his condemnation before divine justice, insofar as that sin was committed against infinite God they can’t deny that the pain and repentance for having offended Him is alleviated through asking for forgiveness. By disobeying and leaving Him, that man looked for constancy and perseverance in his obedience, so punishing himself submissively would be enough for him to be pardoned and to return divine grace. Don’t you see what the Holy Scripture popularizes and preaches? Works of His mercy are more frequent and are greater then those of divine justice, as if the world could go on if this weren’t so. Without using your emotions, and thinking about this as friends, tell me, like a friend, if with that death the sin of Adam was rectified and pardoned.108 Don’t you see that what was needed was to end the punishment that had been given to him by God? Let’s set aside the invented things we don’t see and see the evident things we feel and suffer, such as a corporal death, [fol. 28v] the arduous life we live, the Fols. 27r-28v

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tendency toward evil and the appetite for bad things that we inherited from him, working yourself to exhaustion in order to earn your daily bread, the unfruitfulness of the barren land, the pain women suffer upon giving birth, and so many other burdens in the world. And all the people who’ve been corrupted by it commit greater sins with more zeal as time goes on. They are divided into a thousand types of sects and false religions, as we all know and see with our own eyes and which can’t be denied. Your theologians and doctors leave aside the causes that are so clear and palpable and, wandering from here to there, inventing other things that show well the feebleness of their superficial and groundless reasons, which thus degrade and disturb those who allow themselves to be guided by their deceptions. They don’t deal with all of them, but they say that he came to redeem the punishments of the soul, which are hidden to us. Until now not one of them has come forward and revealed anything new about what goes on in the other world. That they fabricate their fantastic lies is easily seen and known by those who [fol. 29r] look at and scrutinize the Holy Scripture. If he did come to do penance for souls everywhere so as to take their punishments on himself, and with this save himself from coming to the world and having so many tortures inflicted on his body as they deceitfully claim, well, that was of no corporal benefit to anyone, nor did his arrival have any impact. And everything is like that for your people. If you want to be specific about these things, why, as we’ve seen, wasn’t it necessary for them to invent a foolish explanation about the soul? Since each individual is judged by his deeds, bodies are still in the same state in which Adam left them. And it becomes more dreadful and tedious because the world is growing weaker all the time’. ‘Nevertheless’, said the pilgrim, ‘if you want to take the path whereby every man is judged by his deeds, and are rewarded or punished as you say, but at the same time you claim that they are obligated to pay for Adam’s sin, which they are now enduring, what meaning do you find in that? Or maybe I don’t understand what you just said?’ ‘Each person’, said the friend, ‘is judged by his deeds, which is [fol. 29v] true as I can show in Holy Scripture. With respect to punishments to the soul, which have nothing to do with Adam and pertain to God, those who follow and keep His divine will have their reward and salvation in Him. What I say is that we inherit from Adam the punishments that he was given for his sin. They were corporal ones and thus from the part of him that we possess, and so that this is evident I want to give you an example from the same Scripture that will clarify our understanding. This one’s about the patriarch Abraham, with whom our Lord made a contractual agreement on the condition that he circumcise himself and his descendants Fols. 28v-29v

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as a sign.109 Later on came the covenant, according to which He gave the Holy Land to him and his children forever. Abraham accepted the covenant and consented in his name and for his descendants as a sign. Afterwards, he made the covenant himself, as such making his promise to God and becoming a follower.110 Those who decide from this to take on that covenant have a rightful place on earth and come to a just end with God. Let us return [fol. 30r] now to Adam, who was the forefather of all people. Our God gave the earth to him and made him sovereign over it on the condition that he obey and not eat of that fruit.111 After consenting, he didn’t keep the contract. He disobeyed and, since his succession was inside of him, the thread was cut and everyone ended up losing for being accomplices in his sin. They never reached or possessed what God had offered; the good things and believing were abandoned. Enough about that matter! There’s no reason for me to detain myself on such lofty and exalted things, and I’m dragging on, carried by the desire I have to tell you the truth and to bring you closer to me. Don’t think this is a bad thing, because what I hold as good and want for myself is the same that I’d like for you’. ‘I know well’, said the pilgrim, ‘your sincere zeal. May God reward you. But these aren’t the kind of things one jumps into. They are weighty and of great importance. I know we have as an article of faith that it was necessary for the son of God to come and die for sinners. He came so that the souls left in limbo could attain glory and happiness’. [fol. 30v] ‘That thing!” replied the friend, ‘we’ve already thoroughly determined that death made no impact because souls weren’t tainted by Adam. You’ve again been tripped up by this confusion. Tell me, which souls were waiting and depending on that rescue?’ ‘The souls’, said the pilgrim, ‘of the Patriarchs, the Prophets and the righteous who died in this world prior to his arrival’. ‘Good God!” said the friend, ‘does it stand to reason that those holy fathers of Israel, with whom the Almighty communicated so intimately, whom He honored and raised to such a sublime state that they took His divine name for their coat of arms and title of nobility, were made to see the Patriarch whom he called a friend and son through such a divine mystery? Jacob, who was given the name of Israel in the company of angels who welcomed him, and who subjugated angels112; those divine prophets, secretaries of the Almighty, through whom He revealed His divine secrets, through whom His divine and supreme wisdom about future events was spoken, to whom He give the power to return souls to dead bodies—His kingdom and [fol. 31r] rule is alone in the universe—and whom the sun and the heavens obeyed by going backwards.113 Does it seem to you that such saintly souls, while still Fols. 29v-31r

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bound to corporal things, enjoyed those supreme favors but, after dying, and being separated from the flesh, felt the need for an intermediary so as to enjoy divine splendor? Don’t you see those priests called angels of the Lord of Hosts, whom I won’t name in order not to offend anyone?114 I’m only telling you to look toward Moses, the prince of prophets. See him now, glorified in our lives, covered in glorious rays. See how many times God has pardoned His people at his request, telling him ‘“I pardon, as you have asked”’.115 Does it seem to you that, since he was such a confidant of his Divine Majesty, he’d be condemned and deprived of the Divine presence because of a sin that he didn’t commit or perform? Does it mean more since God says by His divine mouth that he didn’t rise up, like that one, in Israel?116 And isn’t it enough to know that the same Creator buried his body?117 Does it seem to you that someone whom God loved so much in this life was, once it was taken away, waiting for an intermediary to expiate [fol. 31v] the sin he didn’tt commit in order to find satisfaction with a man who spent this life wallowing in the mud? By the way, it seems to me that you still want to close your eyes and not understand. These are such clear things and such well grounded truths that it would be impossible not to see and know them’. ‘I see well’, said the pilgrim, ‘that you don’t want to accept the doctrine that has been received and proven by the Roman Church. In order that we don’t say things in our conversation to offend God, and since these seas are so profound, if you’d permit me I’d like to ask you about some doubts I have, not as a way of arguing but as friendly conversation’. ‘I’m not” said the friend, ‘looking to argue, at which I’m not any good. I follow the Holy Scripture, in which, if you think about it, all I’ve said is grounded, because our matters have a firm foundation, which is the true foundation. And God is the same everywhere, and He gave and ordained it. It’s not made up and established by man. Those made in that way are false. But that’s what they have. They are mutable, and so [fol. 32r] are those who lack strength, which isn’t in them. Listen to what the holy king said in order to separate us from such beliefs, which we’ll recognize from what’s said in Psalm 116: “All men are false”.118 Behold how in a few words this faithful truth is revealed through disillusion: since men lie in all they do there can be no truth. We’re having a friendly conversation just like you wished, because I want you to be completely satisfied. First, let’s go by Holy Scripture and talk about some things, which will make you see how of all the peoples our Lord and Creator separated Israel and chose it for Himself, taking it as His special vine, his inheritance, his son, and treasure.119 And they’re honored because He’s called their God, their king, pastor and keeper, in addition to an infinite number of great and wonderful things.120 Taking them out of Egypt Fols. 31r-32r

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with those powers and wonders, giving them the Holy Law and through this showing them His truth and unity, how they appreciated the service! And it says that man was raised in His honor, which He would give to no other. From the beginning, He revealed to him His, like what He said to Abraham when He wanted to destroy the [fol. 32v] cities.121 And He says through his prophet Amos, chapter three: “Indeed, my Lord God does nothing without having revealed His purpose to His servants the prophets”.122 Since this is the way it is, what reason or course would there be for Him to change or revoke anything, or have a son, or grandson? Nowhere in His Holy Books does it say, “My people, know that I make a reckoning by sending my son there, go and give him a royal welcome”. Because He’s a true and faithful Lord, He had an obligation to a people that was so loved to not conceal something that important. And the Lord never said such a thing, but in the Holy Law He advises one to guard against that deception in these words: “If there appears among you a sign or a portent, saying, ‘Let us follow and worship another god’—whom you have not experienced—even if the sign or portent that he named to you comes true, do not heed the words of that prophet or that dream-diviner [….] Follow none but the Lord your God, and revere none but Him; observe His commandments alone [….] As for that prophet or dream-diviner, he shall be put to death; for he urged disloyalty to the Lord your God”.123 Furthermore, in another place, in order to close the doors to similar wrongs it says not to add or leave out a word.124 You see here what our Lord says and, in accordance with this infallible truth, no prophet among those who spoke with the divine spirit [fol. 33r] could say anything false against it or else be condemned to death’. ‘You don’t see’, said the pilgrim, ‘how that other thing is clearly proven by what you say, since the prophet Isaiah, whom you can’t deny and whom you’ve quoted on many occasions, speaks very clearly about him and his birth, and says that a virgin will give birth.125 And the prophet Zechariah says upon speaking about him: “your king is coming to you. He is victorious, triumphant, yet humble, riding on an ass”.126 If you want these prophets to be false, and in order for them not to be so, you must confess that they spoke of him and consent to what all the doctors agree upon’. ‘I truly believe’, said the friend, ‘that you point out those passages so that all those whom you’ve already quoted agree with you completely and show the pure truth, free of all deceit, as you see it clearly. In order that we go in a better direction, let’s take a look at the chapters from the Holy Book that you’ve pointed out, which will leave you disillusioned. In the first, from the prophet Isaiah, you will see how different his intention is from what you imagine. It seems that, according to that chapter, [fol. 33v] two kings, one Fols. 32r-33v

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from Damascus and one from Israel, joined together against Ahaz, king of Judah, who was very fearful of being among powerful kings.127 The Lord of the world, who didn’t permit this, and wanting to assure him so that he wouldn’t be afraid of them, sent the prophet Isaiah to him so that he would quickly destroy those kings.128 And in order to confirm this, the prophet told him to ask for signs either in the heavens or on earth.129 And this king, who didn’t have much faith in God, said that he wouldn’t ask for a sign,130 whereupon the prophet saw that his intention wasn’t well founded, and so he said: “‘my Lord will give you a sign of His own accord! Look, the young woman is with child and about to give birth to a son’”,131 and “‘before the lad knows to reject the bad and choose the good, the ground whose two kings you dread shall be abandoned’”.132 And it goes on to say in the following chapter: “call reliable witnesses […] I was intimate with the prophetess, and she conceived and bore a son; and the Lord said to me […] For before the boy learns to call ‘Father’ and ‘Mother’, the wealth of Damascus and the spoils of Samaria shall be carried off before the king of Assyria”.133 This occurred the following year, as confirmed by the second Book of Kings, when a king from Assiria came and destroyed those two [fol. 34r] kings.134 You’ve seen how this case was resolved quickly and, so that you’re more satisfied, you should know that the passage doesn’t say virgin but maiden— who was the wife of that prophet—as it says in the same chapter: “the children the Lord has given me as signs and portents in Israel”.135 Consider how our Lord, in the annunciation of the son,136 thus says, “For before the lad knows to reject the bad and choose the good, the ground whose two kings you dread shall be abandoned”.137 Does it seem to you that, in order to convince the king who was so fearful of his enemies that he should not fear them, he’d be given a sign that a child would be born more than six hundred years later, and with that the king would be satisfied, although he didn’t rule more than 29 years, as we know?138 Your doctors aren’t good interpreters of my Lord. They don’t see the true path. When God gives signs they are later fulfilled. He did this during the illness of the son of this king, the holy Hezekiah, who then moved the sun backwards.139 When he wanted to deliver the countless armies of the Midianites to Gideon, He gave a sign with fleece of wool, this prophecy being similar to what we’ve seen happen [fol. 34v] to that king. That one saw soon afterwards the destruction of the enemy as the prophet had announced on the command of God, and your virgin doesn’t enter into any of this.140 In the prophecy of the prophet Zechariah to which you refer, it certainly does speak of the arrival of the Messiah, and of his kingdom, but so that you can comprehend it and understand its true meaning I’ll read the chapter that says the following: Fols. 33v-34v

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“Rejoice greatly, Fair Zion; / Raise a shout, Fair Jerusalem! / Lo, your king is coming to you. / He is victorious, triumphant, / Yet humble, riding on an ass, / On a donkey foaled by a she-ass. / He shall banish chariots […] and horses […]; / The warrior’s bow shall be banished. / He shall call on the nations to surrender, / And his rule shall extend from sea to sea / And from ocean to land’s end”.141 Look now and consider whether this prophecy can coexist with your messiah since, as you see, the prophet orders the people of Zion in Jerusalem to sing, raise a shout and rejoice, and tells them that their king will come to eliminate wars from the world and make peace in it, and to extend His dominion through all lands on earth. According to you and your doctors, the man in question wasn’t fair or just but a prisoner condemned to a vile and shameful death. [fol. 35r] This reminds me of when I was in Burgos and some friends took me to see a play, which are often put on there and in which they revealed some true things in an amusing way. While that man was in between the two thieves, one of them said to the other: “Tell him to save you”. The other responded: “How can he save me if he can’t save himself?” The other one countered: “Then rob him here on the gallows”; “What can I rob from Him if He is naked?” That one spoke the truth because the other one was certainly not wearing much.142 Here you’ll see that they themselves treat these things lightly and make a joke out of it, which it is. And returning to our topic, you should know well that it says in the prophecies that the Lord of the world does things for His People so that it can rest and have peace, which it has yet to have. Instead it has always wandered. It wanders, laboring in continuous captivity among the peoples until the arrival of the one whom the Lord promised to send in that passage.143 When he comes, he’ll begin to do good things. If this confounds you and casts doubt on saying that the prophet must come to us poor, timid and mounted on an ass, I don’t want to follow that with what our wise men say so as not to make you doubt, unless it’s with a tangible example. Take a look at when the Lord sent his Prophet [fol. 35v] Moses to free His people from arrogant Pharaoh, king of Egypt. The Sacred Scripture says that he was the most timid and humble man in the entire world144: he came with staff in hand, bringing his wife and children, mounted on an ass.145 My good friend, in order to make wars and destroy monarchies, the King of the Heavens doesn’t use an earthly king. In Egypt, He doesn’t use big machines. With flies, frogs and lice He destroyed their power through the hand of that humble man.146 This is the way His envoy—the one were talking about—will come and arrive on Earth, and with him He’ll destroy the power and might of the tyrants in the world, and thus it’ll be as it says in Daniel, chapter two: “that stone, not hewn out by hands, presiding over its empire, and ruling Fols. 34v-35v

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the universe”.147 You see here the two passages that you mentioned in this true and firm declaration; the prophets are consistently accurate in their prophecies. I truly understand these things to be clear and proven, although they don’t delight you and satisfy your soul as I wish. I believe in reason. You don’t appreciate what comes out of my mouth since it sounds unlearned and you are learned. [Fol. 36r] In order to prove it—and maybe this’ll convince you—it’s not right to think all this is only what I say. It’s all in the sacred texts, and thus you should respect it. I also see that you possess a clear understanding and that you have accomplished so much at such a young age. I admire having learned how your parents, who are with God, were without a doubt Christians who didn’t teach you anything else since you were their only son, and even with that it was not enough for them not to be finished off based solely on the presumption that they believed in the God of the Heavens and kept His Law. These are the reasons why in that unjust tribunal they kill such people. That company of clerics, whom you undoubtedly consider to be saints, also saw that you soon started to treat their hypocrisy like filthy vessels, washed on the outside with treacherous water. You saw the Roman court that preaches holiness, which has its arms open in order to receive everyone. When they saw how contritely you followed their religion, instead of admitting you they kicked you out. It may be true that they manipulate things with you and others like you, although they hide it easily. In spite of everything, our Lord permits this [fol. 36v] and orders that it be this way and that’s His Providence. He wants for them to lose you, not us. They close the doors of perdition so that we aren’t lost, because if it weren’t this way many of our Nation would already be completely lost and engulfed by the seas and abysses of their idolatry. And don’t think that these are my words; they are from the same author of the truth who works for our good and who has already said this through his prophets. Make amends, as He clearly says through his prophet Hosea—chapter 2— who says, while complaining about us: “‘[Since I loved strangers and with them I wounded myself,] I will go after my lovers [….]’ / Assuredly, I will hedge up her roads with thorns / And raise walls against her, / And she shall not find her paths. / Pursue her lovers as she will, / She shall not overtake them; / And seek them as she may, / She shall never find them. / Then she will say, / ‘I will go and return / To my first husband, / For then I fared better than now’”.148 May God now be enough for you and may you know that the word of God is the highest wisdom, as I’ve said many times. They say our parents obeyed idols and strange Gods. Well, He wouldn’t let them be lost among those peoples and He blocked the paths with their enemies, who were [fol. 37r] well hardened thorns from those deeds and wickedness. Such Fols. 35v-37r

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a thing would cause them to return to the Lord, their first and true father. Your divine Majesty recently did this with great fervor when, as a good pastor who loves His flock greatly, He didn’t permit you to remain trapped as a prisoner. I trust in His divine grace that you’ll find yourself very happy that they didn’t admit you, and that you’ll come to knowledge of the truth, the one that says: “[I am the first]: Before Me no god was formed, / And after Me none shall exist”.149 We are now proceeding nicely in our friendly conversation in the manner that pleases you most. I’ve already declared my desire to you and everything is going according to your liking’. ‘I’, said the pilgrim, ‘swear to you that my intention is only to stop us from saying anything scandalous. I can assure you very truthfully that I’ve never had, nor did I ever imagine, such a great fondness for all of this. It’s true that I’m ignorant in these matters. I only possess the great gift of God to have [fol. 37v] been afforded such honored company, and you’ve been a great relief to me. May He do many good things for you and may He return you home and permit that my will, and the knowledge I still have of those things, be shown by deeds. Leaving aside that each person should be free to use that which seems to him to be the best, which is what is required in these matters, and returning to our agreement, I’d like to know from you the reason that Israel, chosen by God, and having been so superior and having undeniably received so many advantages and such pre-eminence, was punished by God with such rigor and with such a horrendous punishment, cast away from Him for so many centuries, delivered into the hands of those in power over their peoples, and because of all this knocked down, punished and scorned. If God is the greatest kindness, and treats all of His creations equally and justly, then this shouldn’t happen, so there must be a really good explanation’. ‘Well’, said the friend, ‘that’s a good question, and I don’t think that in the Holy See there is anyone who could give you a satisfactory answer. They might respond to you without showing [fol. 38r] the passage in all of those Sacred books that they all preach about. But I’d like to point out one: the prophet Isaiah, who seems to respond to us at the end of chapter 42, saying: “If only you would listen to this [I will listen] [/…/] Who was it gave Jacob over to despoilment / And Israel to plunderers? Surely, the Lord against whom they sinned, / In whose ways they would not walk / And whose Teaching [or in His commandments] they would not obey”.150 The Lord warned him about this time and time again, saying: “Take care, then, don’t lower your heart, and leave to follow other gods. And if you bow down before them, the anger of the Lord will grow against you and you shall soon perish from the land the Lord has given to you”151; “The Lord said to Moses: You are soon to lie Fols. 37r-38r

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with your fathers”.152 And then the Lord said: “The people will thereupon go astray after the alien gods […] they will forsake Me and break My covenant […] Then My anger will flare up against them […] many evils and troubles shall befall them”.153 And it says that it’ll be as if: “you [do not hear the voice of the Lord and] fail to observe faithfully all the terms of thisTeaching that are written in this book, to reverence this honored and awesome Name, the Lord your God”154; “you shall be torn from the land that you are about to enter [fol. 38v] and possess. The Lord will scatter you among all the peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, whom neither you nor your ancestors have experienced”.155 And because of you, the Lord your God will devastate your land, “all its soil devastated by sulfur and salt, beyond sewing […] no grass growing in it […] all nations will ask, “‘Why did the Lord do thus to this land?” […] They will be told, “Because they forsook the covenant that the Lord, God of their fathers, made with them when He freed them from the land of Egypt; they turned to the service of other gods and worshipped them […] So the Lord was incensed at that land and […] uprooted them from their soil”’.156 When King Solomon had finished constructing the Holy Temple, it says that the Lord appeared there to Solomon a second time, and said to him, “‘I heard your prayer’”,157 the rogation that you uttered before me158; “‘if you walk before Me as your father David walked before Me, […] [no man will be taken from you] I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, in accordance with the Covenant I made with your father David, saying, “You shall vever lack a descendant ruling over Israel”. But if you turn away from Me and forsake My laws and commandments that I set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot them from [fol. 39r] My land that I gave them, and this House that I consecrated to My name I shall cast out of my sight, and make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And as for this House, once so exalted, everyone passing by it shall be appalled and say, “Why did the Lord do thus to this land and to this House?” And the reply will be, “It is because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers who freed them from the land of Egypt, and adopted other gods and worshipped them and served them”’”.159 God sends the prophet Jeremiah to tell Israel: “you shall answer them, ‘Because you forsook Me and served alien gods on your own land, you will have to serve foreigners in a land not your own’”.160 And it says that whoever is wise will understand this well because it came from the mouth of the Lord, and that he must tell why this land was lost and devastated like the dessert: 161 “Because they forsook the Teaching I had set before them”.162 They had no objective, which is what should be pointed out about this. I’ll stop talking about what the Sacred Books say Fols. 38r-39r

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concerning the Law and the prophets since you’re educated, and you’ve read the Holy Scripture. I only want to point out, so that you get your head out of the clouds, that incorrect explanations will lead to a truth that is very disappointing. [fol. 39v] The Lord says, so clearly and so many times, that it’s all because we left his Law to seek strange Gods, and did not keep the covenant that He made with our forefathers when he took them from the land of Egypt. That is the reason for the punishment we suffer and continue to experience until we become aware of our errors and return to our Lord and ask for forgiveness, which is in His hands. Truly consider our state, which is easy to see, and know the immense power of God, who made the manner by which we offended Him and left Him for strange gods into the path that delivered us to those peoples and placed us under their thumb. They are the ones who force us to believe and worship them, and because we don’t do this they burn and kill us. And when some of us do worship them, which they do, it’s not enough to stop the mistreatment. It seems to me that your doubt should be resolved by what I’ve said’. ‘I’, said the pilgrim, ‘don’t have any doubt, but the Christians say what you say, that Israel was the beloved, the friend [fol. 40r] and the son of God. They cast Him away and out of their land because they didn’t want to receive and know the messiah that had been promised to them. He was being sent, I think, in order to see more of our misery and our punishment after we lost our land, kingdom and priesthood. The prophesy: getting thrown out and expelled from His service! Our only option is to wander around the world, shamed, dishonored and scorned, lacking in everything that people have and possess. And because they see this they say that Israel was a carnal son,163 and as such they cast God away, and He took those who are his spiritual children. If He did take them, He gave them dominion over the world, which they possess. And since these things are visible to the eye, we can’t deny them, because our harsh punishment has lasted so many centuries and still continues today, as we see. I don’t know or sense any way to remedy that’. ‘Well, you should know’, replied the friend, ‘that there’s a very clear and far-reaching way. We have this Sacred Book right here, and I trust in its author that you’ll hear everything, so that your doubts will be resolved. Beginning with what they say about Israel being abandoned [fol. 40v] for being the carnal son while Christians are the spiritual ones, the falseness of that proposition is very clear. As proof of it, as I’ve told and shown you, it’s well known that under the rubric of Christian there are 72 different religions with different rites, some of which contradict others.164 Their ways are varied, and this can’t be denied. And since it’s this way, all of them can’t Fols. 39r-40v

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be right since they go in different directions. Only one is the straight one, and it thus follows that none of them takes it and that everyone lives in err. And we know that those privileges that Israel enjoys on account of the Lord, which are so many and so frequent, are not enjoyed or possessed by any other people in the world. Tell me about any other people in the world with whom the Lord of the world communicates His secrets and future events as he communicated to Israel through his prophets. Which one has today the priesthood of Aaron, chosen and sanctified by the same God with the miracle of the staff?165 Which one has a king anointed with sacred oil, who sits on the throne of David as is promised?166 Which king, or which people, is there in the world today that asks God if it will, upon going to war, [fol. 41r] be delivered to its enemies, and then receives an answer?167 For which people, upon the request of its king, does He kill its enemies with angels?168 And everything else that Israel had and possessed, and that our Lord hasn’t given to another people, is clearly kept and guarded by Him so that Israel will have access to it. The Lord will admit Israel to His grace and is going to give it many more advantages, as is promised by the prophet Isaiah, 37: “The people I formed for Myself / That they might declare my praise”.169 Behold the fools, with such little understanding, who say that they are spiritual and that Israel is carnal. Now we won’t judge this according to what you and I say but by what is revealed by this Sacred Book, in which we’ll see inscribed the divine spiritual favors that Israel received from its Creator. After seeing these, you’ll be shown other similar ones because we’re getting to the heart of the matter. Let’s commence at the beginning. The first of the stock of the people of Israel, the patriarch Abraham, understands that God chose him and his seed for Himself. [fol. 41v] He gave them the Promised Land, as it says: “‘to be God to you and your offspring to come [forever]’”.170 Does it seem to you that this chapter is carnal or spiritual? Behold how many times our Lord blesses him, and that through him and his seed all the peoples of the Earth will be blessed, with the holy ones being blessed and the malcontents being cursed.171 Behold the promises that He made to his son Isaac, confirming to him the blessings of his father.172 Behold the patriarch Jacob, speaking with He of the heavens, God Himself, with so many promises that are so clear 173; his twelve sons, whose names were so pleasant to His divine eyes that He commanded that the highest priest wear them written over his shoulders and over his heart when he entered before God.174 See the abundant spirit of the holy prophet Moses, who was sent by God so that he would share it with others. Behold how, through his hand, the Holy One took out His people, overwhelming the great Pharaoh and all his might.175 Behold how Fols. 40v-41v

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He accompanied them, doing it during the day with covering that sheltered them from the rays of the sun and by night with a column of fire [fol. 42r] that lit their way.176 Consider the fortune of the people, of the people who arrived to the holy place and saw and heard the voice of God Himself speak from the midst of the fire.177 Observe the words that, at the foot of the mountain, He commanded that they be told: “‘Thus shall you say to the house of Jacob and declare to the children of Israel: “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Me. Now then, if you will obey Me faithfully and keep My covenant, you shall be My treasured possession among all the peoples. Indeed, all the earth is Mine, but you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”’”.178 Does it seem to you that these are carnal titles? Hear what the prophet says most. Ask now, whether, since the beginning of time, since the day when God placed man over the land, from the beginning to the end of the heavens, if anything similar has been seen, if a people has listened to the voice of God—as you’ve heard—or if God has taken for Himself another people from all the peoples, with might and a strong arm and great fear, like our Lord did in Egypt. You’ve been shown that the Lord is God so that you know that there are no more but Him. You should pay more attention to the continuous help that the Lord of the world [fol. 42v] gave to them and how he sustained them with angelic delicacies, and not for one year but for 40 years by sending them each day from the heavens to the Earth that which was necessary.179 Consider now that the Lord gave them divine and spiritual bread as sustenance for their bodies. Those who say that they were a terrestrial and carnal people thus do possess knowledge and understanding. The blind ones don’t know that neither their clothing nor their shoes became worn during all the time in the dessert.180 Moreover, as Pineda says in his Monarchía, they didn’t get older and their hair didn’t grow.181 They can’t see how many times the Lord calls it His holy people; sons of God. They don’t see that the Lord of the heavens placed His court in their midst. From the beginning God Himself was the chronicler of this people, inscribing in His eternal scripture everything they said and all the events in their lives, which He is said to have esteemed more than all of His works. And if you want to go into detail, take a look at holy Aaron, who took a census of the people,182 the great Joshua, who with his word stopped the heavens and all celestial movement,183 and the zealous Elija, by whose hand the Almighty punished the world by [fol. 43r] making it rain with His word,184 which made them return to their devotion. Behold his disciple, and you will see him surrounded by charriots and horses of fire,185 Jeremiah, who was sanctified in his mother’s womb and,186 lastly, the many righteous Fols. 41v-43r

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saints and prophets that adorn the Holy Law, who are like very bright stars whose light illuminates the world and makes it shine. They are telling future events that had been revealed to them from the greatest wisdom. See for yourself if these were all spiritual men full of the divine spirit. Look at the ones who made the Holy Tabernacle, Bezalel 187 and Oholiab,188 who was entrusted with that task despite it being of divine essence.189 As the maker of everything says, He filled them with divine knowledge and spirit, even those women who were sewing to get this done.190 Now, my good man and friend, tell me in your way why the grace of a gang of doctors is similar to that of one who possesses the spirit of God and speaks on His behalf. You can only give me carpenters, fishermen, boatmen and republicans, and even these [fol. 43v] are imposters who don’t even look genuine, the greatest imbeciles with a doctrine that’s so absurd, full of impossibilities, in opposition to reason and understanding, and very contradictory.191 Well, they want to say that the giver of life, the one who forms to all things, from whom all beings come and on whom they depend, who is all of everything, who created the worlds with one word, who sustains and keeps them with His omnipotence, the caretaker of lives and the one who gives life to everything, came to die. Don’t you consider your Gospels to be very confusing since there’s no proof in them and since they don’t say much about future things, which is necessary in order to show that they speak for the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see their incantations? Don’t you see that their ways are without merit? They confess that the beginning of their foolish and confusing history was told without anyone seeing it.192 One specific thing that astonishes me is that these people are so wicked so as to cease loving in any way those Jews who are living, but they are happy with their selection of a dead Jew as their God, and not one who died any type of death but a death that was given to someone who remains damned by the word [fol. 44r] of the Almighty.193 It was by His commandment that they took him down from the gallows before the sunset, because it was an abomination if anyone died by hanging.194 That holy King David, who jealously guarded the honor of God, was asked to bring to justice those who attempted that evil, and listen to what it says: “If you, Lord, kill the evil ones, the noble ones, the ones who spoke abominations against you and praise vanity”.195 Does it seem to you that the holy king could’ve spoken with clearer words against those who spill our blood, who want to treat the Lord of the world like that, and who worship, praise and have as a God what the prophet Daniel calls an “appalling abomination”?196 And what a really “appalling abomination” since, as I’ve said, it was a divine precept that they remove him from the gallows that same day so that he wouldn’t pollute Fols. 43r-44r

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the earth. And they place him on many gallows, more than 1700—which is an awkward thing that is so stupid and an abomination—as a terrifying disfigured figure who inspires fear in those who see him.197 Don’t you see that our God commanded that the priest who served Him [fol. 44v] not be allowed to touch a dead body?198 Don’t you see what the prophet Isaiah says when speaking with His people in order to praise how much they loved Him?: “I, I am He who comforts you! / What ails you that you fear / Man who must die […?] You have forgotten the Lord your Maker, / Who stretched out the skies and made firm the earth!”199 Does it seem to you that it’s a great disillusion to know the deception of those who follow and put their faith and confidence in the figure of a hanged man? And the more he’s disfigured the greater their devotion is to him; they say this is devout! I don’t know how you believe in these things. You should return to the truth, which is what all of this is, and you can’t deny it’. ‘Well’, said the pilgrim, ‘the prophet Isaiah didn’t prophesize anywhere in chapter 53, where he’s often talking about his death, and it says in verse 2: “He had no form or beauty […] He was despised, we held him of no account”.200 You see here what the prophet clearly says, and you seem too eager to speak of this thing in that other way’. ‘I’, said the friend, ‘don’t harbor bitterness or eagerness, but I do have [fol. 45r] my eyes open by the mercy of God, and I see the evils of those who want to falsify the Sacred texts and add to them fictional things that are invented in their heads. It’d be nice to be able to tell you at length the true meaning of this entire chapter.201 You’ve noted down what I have to say about that; the rest is for you to judge. When they write about the life of your man, they say that he was of a fair complexion,202 and we know that his life was so short that he didn’t reach half of 70 years, which is what’s allotted to man.203 Of the 33 that he lived, according to your doctors, only three count, while the rest do not.204 As I say, he wasn’t allowed to be touched by old age and have his good looks taken away, and according to this truth, you see now that what the prophet says doesn’t make sense in terms of a lifespan. Well, imagine that he said it because he died, although this is very foolish nonsense since we know that all those who experience the transition to death in their homes, while in their deathbeds, are unattractive and without beauty, even more so those who die violently, in the hands [fol. 45v] of justice and on the gallows.205 Now I leave it in your hands to judge if the holy prophet would say the same thing since that man didn’t even look good and was scorned by them and held in low esteem. This was something about which the prophet needed to talk, so he spent time saying that a hanged man wouldn’t be beautiful on the gallows, nor would he be Fols. 44r-45v

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esteemed, since he wouldn’t have a nice appearance. In any case, this is so unnecessary, although you may not judge it to be that way. And so you won’t be disillusioned, I want to explain to you the prophecy and how that chapter is all about the people of Israel.206 The prophet speaks about it, the one who says that it doesn’t seem like a people, or act like a people.207 This is true because it wanders and is scattered among all the peoples, a little here and a little there. They don’t have a republic, or a land, or a government like other peoples, after having once been fortunate enough to enjoy continuous prosperity in their land. They used to revel in the true good, protection by the divine Lord of the Law, and a government that was well respected and valued because it was widely considered to be a treasure, the son of God Himself.208 And then, because of its sins, [fol. 46r] the time would come when all of what you’ve seen would happen to it, and it lost everything that it had, as you’ve mentioned. You don’t understand that only one prophet describes it in those other terms.209 Well, everyone tells it their own particular way. The prophet Jeremiah, speaking to the Lord, says that He “cast down from heaven to earth / The majesty of Israel”210; the children of Zion, valued like sapphires, bright as the sun, but turned blacker than black.211 The prophet Isaiah says the people of Israel will be among the peoples like an earthen jug in which there is no happiness212; the royal prophet David, praying to the Lord, says to Him: “Show us favor, O Lord, / […] / We have had more than enough of contempt […] the scorn of the complacent, the contempt of the haughty”.213 If you read the Books of the Law, in Leviticus, chapter 26, and Deuteronomy, chapter 28, you’ll find this in great detail, and I don’t want to spend any more time on this material; I’m wary of hiding the truth with very absurd things that oppose it. As the prophet Jeremiah says, “How can straw be compared [fol. 46v] to grain?—says the Lord”.214 In addition to this, see now for yourself what’s happened, how you were perceived by their hateful eyes.215 Wasn’t it enough that you were raised by them, and that you learned, observed, and practiced their customs so that they’d admit you? But everything was not enough and soon they threw you out and rejected and scorned you. And returning to what you say about God ridding Himself of his people, that is against the divine word, which is more steadfast and faithful then the heavens and the Earth, because these things will disappear and that thing can’t disappear. As the prophet says: “there, in the land of their enemies, I did not hate them and I did not abandon them forever and finish them off. I am the Lord their God”.216 And it says: “Can a woman forget her baby, / Or disown the child of her womb? […] I never could forget you,” 217 house of Jacob; and “‘Whoever touches you touches the pupil of his own eye’”.218 And Jeremiah says: “Thus said the Lord, / Who established the sun Fols. 45v-46v

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for light by day, / The laws of moon and stars for light by night, / Who stirs up the sea into roaring waves, / Whose name is Lord of Hosts: / If these laws should ever be annulled [fol. 47r] by Me—declares the Lord— / Only then would the offspring of Israel cease / To be a nation before Me for all time”.219 Don’t you see here how the Lord can’t leave His people? According to an infinite number of passages such as these, we see that there’s no other people on Earth that enjoys His favor, or a people that keeps His Law, or who serves and knows the Lord’s unity, except for Israel, which proclaims and reveals it. Take heed of what the prophet says: “Who is like you, / A people delivered by the Lord”.220 A clear and evident demonstration of this is that we see the holy blessing in His name placed on holy Jerusalem and Mount Zion. Hosea thus promises that He wouldn’t enter into another city.221 Because we see today that He doesn’t have a house, or anyplace at all in the land of His repose, it’s a clear fact to us that God wanders here and there with His people.222 And you shouldn’t be shocked by this way of speaking, because it’s not my way and I know well that my words carry little weight for you. So I’m not going to tell you anything less than what is grounded in Sacred Scripture, and we’ll see if this makes you understand. Jeremiah speaks with the Lord about this matter: “Why [fol. 47v] are You like a stranger in the land, / Like a traveler who stops only for the night?”223 By telling Him this in chapter 14, it’s as if he said: “Lord of the world, where is that place which you chose for your leisure and rest?” For we don’t have it today on earth. Truly, if God didn’t look after and protect His people, how could He endure among so many peoples who have different laws and customs? They only agree on detesting and persecuting this people, on loathing it and knocking it down, and all of them come together to destroy it. But the Lord, against everyone’s will, conserves, sustains and protects it. This is promised by the prophet Ezekiel: “[I] have scattered them among the countries, and I have become to them a diminished sanctity”.224 With a strong hand He shelters, defends, and protects them from the tempestuous seas in which they always find themselves. That holy king, who speaks at such length about these times, speaks specifically about this,225 and about those who say that we killed their god.226 They persecute us because of that; listen to how it says this. If the Lord weren’t on our side, when rising above us they would swallow us alive [fol. 48r] and arouse His fury against us. See for yourself. Which man has risen against us and persecuted us for so long like the one who’s their god, who’s pursued us during so many ages? Those who accept that he was coming to die say that if there’d been no one to kill him then his own mother would’ve done it; if that would’ve happened, then his death wouldn’t have contributed to anyone’s life. The fruit of what he brought to the world is Fols. 46v-48r

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death and more death, evil and more evil, destruction, discord, and newly invented sects that’ll last until the Lord throws off the yoke of the evil that sustains all of this, as He’s promised to do. Therefore, we’ll proceed from here, if you agree’. ‘Well’, said the pilgrim, ‘since the Lord, during Israel’s past captivities, revealed the amount of time they would last, why didn’t He do it the same way in this very prolonged one? It seems clear that we’re completely forgotten’. ‘I want to tell you’, said the friend, ‘why the Lord wanted it to last so long. Because of His great compassion, He wished to leave things hidden that way, [fol. 48v] without revealing the amount of time, which He did for many reasons. The first one is that the revelation of its duration would make many distrustful. With the greatest wisdom, He didn’t want it to be known by anyone but Him, so that we’d live each hour with the perpetual hope of waiting for freedom. And, if we return to Him out of true spirit and mutual consent, then He’ll come to our aid. But if He doesn’t do it because we aren’t worthy, then He can’t be blamed. As the prophet says: “there is nothing more certain for man than death and nothing more uncertain than knowing its hour”.227 The Lord kept this secret for Himself while giving us infinite signs of our freedom. Another reason is the prolonged duration of our captivity. Because the Lord of the world wants to put an end to our labors on this occasion, He extends the time of our captivity so that the suffering we endure in it completely purges the sin. And when we’re cleansed of it by means of all the suffering we continually [fol. 49r] endure, the Lord will send a full jubilee and a pardon so that His people lives before Him in His grace forever. Listen how the Christians say, without understanding what they are saying, that the son of God came. You know, since I’ve already proven it to you, that our people are called His son, and thus it’s been and continues to be throughout the ages. So many types of martyrs that they are impossible to count! And what is understood about your man from them? As I’ve already told you about those who’ve written about him, with the exception of the one time when he spoke with the learned men about the Law when he was eight years old, from that point on until 30 no more mention is made of him.228 The three remaining ones that he lived were not sorrowful and his death was actually unexpected. Therefore, it’s clear that it’s not said about him, nor would it make sense to say such a thing, which pertains to the people of God, who endure a thousand types of unjust punishments as a result of lies and false testimony raised against them.229 This is known and proven by what’s happened in the past, and much is revealed in books. In particular, these things are found in one they call the compilation [fol. 49v] of Israel.230 Fols. 48r-49v

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Speaking of what we’ve learned in our times about our forefathers, we see now, just as they’ve seen, the numerous injustices and deaths to which many are continually subject in Spain and its conquests.231 The reason they are targeted, as I’ve already said, is because they believe in the God of the Heavens and keep His Law. As holy King David prophesized when speaking with the Lord: “It is for Your sake that we are slain all day long”.232 This has been ordained by the highest kindness and immense wisdom of our pious God. Since His will is that our punishment serves to purge us of sins and, in order to pay for past sins and for our benefit, He blinds the peoples among whom we walk and takes their understanding away. Thus they kill us without suffering any consequences, although this type of death is service to the Lord since they inflict it upon us for Him and His Holy Law. We already know that he who dies in the name of justice, for a crime that he’s committed, is punished for his sin by such a death. But if one is killed under false pretenses, since our Lord is just and [fol. 50r] impartial He works to expiate sins and punish those magistrates who make unjust decisions. When an innocent person dies, his death cancels his sins. So why did your man deliver himself to death? And if God did send His people into exile and captivity it was to punish it for the mistakes it had committed, as is justified. However, He doesn’t want that it be punished with unjust cruelties, and He clearly says this through the prophet Isaiah, who protests to the king of Babylonia by assuring him of the complete destruction of his state, and who provides God’s explanation for this by declaring: “I was angry at My people, / I defiled My heritage; I put them into your hands, / But you showed them no mercy. / Even upon the aged you made / Your yoke exceedingly heavy”.233 In this vein so many people join together in unjustly offending us. The prophets are infallible, and in the Law the Lord promises revenge by saying: “O nations, acclaim His people! / For He’ll avenge the blood of His servants, / Wreak vengeance on His foes, / And cleanse the land of His people”.234 And the prophet Joel says: “Egypt shall be [fol. 50v] a desolation, / And Edom a desolate waste, / Because of the outrage to the people of Judah, / In whose land they shed the blood of the innocent. / But Judah shall be inhabited forever, / And Jerusalem throughout the ages. / Thus I will treat as innocent their blood / Which I have not treated as innocent; / And the Lord shall dwell in Zion”.235 And the prophet Jeremiah: “But you, / Have no fear, My servant Jacob, / Be not dismayed, O Israel! / I will deliver you from far away, / Your folk from their land of captivity; / And Jacob again shall have calm / And quiet, with none to trouble him. / But you, have no fear, / My servant Jacob —declares the Lord— / For I am with you. / I will make an end of all the nations / Among which I have banished you, / Fols. 49v-50v

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But I will not make an end of you”!236; “I did these things to you / Because your iniquity was so great / And your sins so many. / Assuredly, / All who wanted to devour you shall be devoured, / And every one of your foes shall go into captivity; / Those who despoiled you shall be despoiled, / And all who pillaged you I will give up to pillage. / But I will bring healing to you / And cure you of your wounds—declares the Lord”.237 To all must come a day when vengeance is taken upon them for the evils they inflict on the people of God. Hear how King David prophesizes it clearly, asking the Lord for this revenge, as he [fol. 51r] depicts these evils when clearly speaking of the rigorous judges who are ministers of the Inquisition: “Rise up, judge of the earth, give the arrogant their deserts! / How long shall the wicked, O Lord, how long shall the wicked exult, / shall they utter insolent speech, / shall all evildoers vaunt themselves? / They crush your people, O Lord, / they afflict Your very own; / they kill the widow and the stranger; / they murder the fatherless”238; “Shall the seat of injustice be Your partner […?] / They band together to do away with the righteous; they condemn the innocent to death”239: Psalm 94. Listen further, as the same king alludes to the auto that we endure, which they call “de fe”240; Psalm 14 says: “Are they so witless, all those evildoers, / who devour my people as they devour food[?]”241; “You may set at naught the counsel of the lowly, but the Lord is his refuge”.242 Behold the clarity of this truth, how they force our people to endure public shame before the large crowds that amass. They preach in public, on a raised stage, so that all can see and hear everything. They do that to them while they wait for what our Lord has [fol. 51v] promised, and they believe in His Holy Law and praise the divine word. I want to show you here that the same thing happened to our forefathers, as the prophet Jeremiah says: “Pour it on the infant in the street, [/…/] Yes, men and women alike shall be captured, [/…/] Their houses shall pass to others, / Fields and wives as well”.243 Pay more attention to what happened to me so that you praise the God who brought you to see and know his unity; I have faith in Him that it must be this way. I was living in a place near Lisbon, on the banks of the Tagus, and there those infernal ministers arrested me, along with others of the Nation, so that there were no more in that place. Then they carried us off in a boat, with our feet in shackles. See how the prophet Amos talks about this sort of thing: “My Lord God swears by His holiness: / Behold, days are coming upon you / When you will be carried off in baskets, / And, to the last one, in fish baskets”.244 Now consider what’s happened to us and understand that in both cases it’s been ordained by God, and that He permits this for our own good, so that our sins are purged. And, [fol. 52r] returning to our Fols. 50v-52r

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captivity and its long duration, the same Lord, as usual, also speaks about it, and controls it and our frailty, so that this long time doesn’t cause us to mistrust or to think that He’s forgotten us, as your doctors say. In order to assure us of the freedom that we’ll receive from Him, the prophet Zephaniah says: “Those long disconsolate”.245 And, through Isaiah it’s called for in the name of the people: “my bones have dried up, my throat is dry [/…/] while I wait for God”.246 According to the prophet Jeremiah, Israel is a slave and servant who has been imprisoned.247 Through Zechariah, the Lord says, “‘Return to Bizzaron, / You prisoners of hope’”.248 You see well that our Lord’s said it on many occasions, even through the one I just mentioned, who says that we don’t have to do anything but wait for His word. That hope is sustenance, and thus our prolonged exile is well explained because we’ve sinned against the Almighty, whose reward, as He tells us, will provide complete consolation in the great and wonderful [fol. 52v] things He has for us. These are understood through a comparison I’m going to make right now: they can be compared to His infinite greatness. Do you know that in His eyes a thousand years is like yesterday turning into today? He speaks in this vein when He says to the people through Isaiah: “For a little while I forsook you, / But with vast love I will bring you back”.249 And, as He says through the same prophet: “Go, my people, enter your chambers, [/…/] Hide but a little moment, / Until the indignation passes”.250 The royal prophet David compares it to a dream and says, on discussing the captivity of Zion with the Lord: “we see it as in a dream / our mouths shall be filled with laughter”.251 Our past struggles may seem like a dream to us, in which our merciful God shows us His compassion and great concern for our struggles and forgives us for them. Our own are grave, and the duration of our captivity increases so that His labor equals the reward that He’s amassed to give to His people, which must be, without a doubt, greater than the struggles themselves, like holy King David says when speaking [fol. 53r] of Him; as holy King David says: “abundant is the good / that You have in store for those who fear You”.252 If we consider this thoroughly we’ll find that, if our captivities are indeed long and the countless struggles we have endured in the past continue to endure, the only one who understands is the one who knows this, and who knows all the stars in the sky and all the grains of sand in the sea. Everything doesn’t happen to everyone, nor do we all suffer from everything; each one experiences his own ruin, his own short voyage and his own short life, which at most, as the prophet says, is 70 years, which pass like the shadow of a dream.253 But this is different in the case of earthly things, which everyone will enjoy without fear or misgiving over whether they’ll last, according to the promise God made to our forefathers. Fols. 52r-53r

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As the verse says: “to the end that you and your children may endure, in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to assign to them, as long as there is a heaven over the earth”.254 Therefore, everything the blessed Lord does is in our favor; as He says through Jeremiah: “He does not punish with His heart”.255 And he says through Isaiah: “Assuredly, by this alone / Shall [fol. 53v] Jacob’s sin be purged away; / This is the only price / For removing his guilt”.256 And through this one He says more: “‘I give thanks to You, O lord! / Although You were wroth with me, / Your wrath has turned back and You comfort me’”.257 And he says through Malachi: “For I am the Lord—I have not changed; and you are the children of Jacob—you have not ceased to be. […] Turn back to Me, and I will turn back to you—said the Lord of Hosts”.258 It seems to me that the little we’ve seen confirms what could be said about this matter; are you happy? I understand that if the Lord is punishing us he hasn’t forgotten us, but rather by that same punishment he wants us to return to his service. He tells us this through the royal prophet David in these words—“Happy is the man whom You discipline, O Lord, / the man You instruct in Your teaching, / to give him tranquility in times of misfortune, / until a pit be dug for the wicked”.259 And thus He’ll join us together and separate us from the peoples, and with this magnify His name, restoring His city of Jerusalem and renovating it to a much greater extent then what it was, as is promised at length by his prophet, as you’ve seen’. [fol. 54r] To which the pilgrim responded: ‘the only things He promises, as the doctors of the Church say, are understood to be spiritual things in the heavens, and not on earth. The truth is that, if you were to look throughout the Holy Scripture at the promises in the Old Law, God always speaks of temporal things and not of glory. Since the people didn’t keep it, which was the condition with which God had given it to them, it was taken from them and in its place came the New Law with His grace and His promise of eternal bliss and glory’. ‘By the way’, said the friend, ‘once again you change that which I thought you’d understood, because when we talked about the sin of Adam we clearly proved that your doctors aren’t guided by truth and that they didn’t have proof of their lies. Leaving aside the evils that they brought to the world, which are alive in our eyes and from which we’re suffering, as we’ve said, they took refuge in saying that he’d come to redeem souls, and we took apart that lie. You again [fol. 54v] say that the Holy Law doesn’t provide spriritual benefits through the Old Law. You don’t know that the Lord of the world doesn’t spend time on this matter, and that’s the way of His Law, in which He teaches us by saying, “Therefore impress these My words upon your very heart”.260 Thus it is taught to us every day so that we respect it. We comply Fols. 53r-54v

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as He’s commanded and as He comands each hour. Don’t you be like those about whom King Solomon speaks in his proverbs: “Do not disdain your mother when she is old”.261 My friend, see the light and open your eyes to understanding, recognize and know that only our Lord’s Law, which He gave to his people on Mount Sinai, is the one that offers salvation, and only the Lord gives it on earth and in the heavens. Those created by men are nothing and can’t offer anything more than empty and imaginary illusions. Hear what God says in His Law: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might”.262 You see here the three types of things that man has [fol. 55r] to know—life, soul, and property—from which it follows that, by serving God as He commands, He’ll reward them to everyone. In earthly spheres, He’ll give what’s earthly, and in heavenly ones, He’ll give what’s heavenly, that is, the soul. Listen to how King David says it—“The teaching of the Lord is perfect, renewing life”263—which makes people turn to their Creator, just as his son, King Solomon, declares it afterwards, when he says: “And the dust returns to the ground / As it was, / And the lifebreath returns to God / Who bestowed it”.264 See how Isaiah says: “Give heed to Me, / And you shall eat choice food / And enjoy the richest viands”.265 The prophet Jeremiah: “Inquire about ancient paths: Which is the road to happiness? Travel it, and find tranquility for yourselves”.266 Hear what the angel says to Joshua, the great priest, in Zechariah. The Lord, on showing to him the seats of the angels, says: “And the angel of the Lord charged Joshua as follows: ‘Thus says the Lord of Hosts: If you walk in My paths and keep My charge, […] I will permit you to move about among these attendants’”.267 Through Isaiah, the Lord of the world says that for all of Israel there’s a part in the world to come.268 This alone seems to be enough to confound their unclear understandings and lack of divine clarity. [fol. 55v] For they say that the Holy Law, because it’s entirely spiritual, celestial and divine, isn’t used by the Lord to impart spirituality. Well, as we’ve already seen and learned, there are many just ones and saints created through the Law, and He instills them with the divine spirit while they are still firmly tied to their bodies. Now that I’ve shown you well the deception, I want to satisfy you and give you the reason why the Lord of the world, throughout His Law, promises terrestrial things from this world in such detail. You know well that all those of understanding who follow reason know that there’s a reward, and glory, for the souls who leave this world. There’s no doubt that because of their works they’ll reach the reward, even more so upon reaching their Creator, who is the core from which they were cut. There are infinite proofs of this in the Holy Scripture. The prophets told Fols. 54v-55v

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us the easiest in their ways, but since they’re so great and lofty, we, being buried in this matter, aren’t capable of comprehending them. Therefore, they foretold things [fol. 56r] in a concealed way, as the prophet Isaiah clearly does, when he tells us, “Such things had never been heard or noted. No eye has seen”.269 The earthly things that the Lord of the world has to give to his people were seen by all the prophets; they were revealed to all of them and were seen for a long time. It is said in His sacred books that even if the Law of the Lord revealed spiritual things—those things being so lofty as it says—and not things of this world, well, since we don’t understand them and we can’t grasp them, they wouldn’t be seen by us, and they could cause mistrust in those hearts of little faith.270 Then doubt about fulfilling the Law would be caused, which can’t exist in any way when we take seriously the fulfillment of oaths taken in this world. On the contrary, this trully makes us believe in the meaning of what the Lord of the world tells us on earth. You’ll know how to make return to your heart that the Lord is God in the heavens and on earth, and that there’s no other. He teaches us this in the Holy Law, through which we see the immense power of the highest Creator, which is the same in all places. He governs all; from Him come and originate all [fol. 56v] things, and divine intervention. He didn’t have a beginning, which He gave to everything. And, now, based on this strong conviction, I want to give you the reason why our Lord promises worldly things in so many ways. When our Lord created the world, He divided up His tasks: He gave the land to the animals, and He filled the waters with fish and the heavens with birds. After having given these things to them, He created man for Himself, so that he’d serve and obey Him. Man was a viceroy, and His lieutenant over the land and over all the things He’d created. In order that he rule over the land, He ordered that he obey Him according to the commandments He’d given to him. Thus holy King David teaches it, saying: “The heavens belong to the Lord, / but the earth He gave over to man”.271 If Adam hadn’t sinned and had obeyed the Lord, he would’ve kept himself in the state of grace in which he was created, and he would’ve enjoyed eternal bliss in body and soul. He and all his descendants, and everyone who obeyed Him, would’ve remained on earth enjoying glory forever as immortals, living under the protection and shadow of their [fol. 57r] Creator. But since Adam didn’t keep the commandment and he overstepped his limit, he lost his earthly share in this world, which had been given to him conditionally. He lost it because of his sin and thus he was later banished from the holy place, condemned to wander in exile for having lost what pertained to the Lord. He was divested of his possession of it and cut off by our Lord from His divinity, without which he and his descendants remained Fols. 55v-57r

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under the second causes of the heavens.272 Since our Lord chose Abraham for Himself, as I’ve explained, the promises that He made to him and his seed comprised the restitution of the land that Adam had lost. Ordering him to obey, saying to him, “‘Walk in My ways and be blameless’”,273 He gave him the Law as a guide so that he’d return and be restituted to His grace. In order to show him His holiness, He ordered him: “Do not swerve to the right or the left”274 ; “By heeding and observing this […] you’ll return to the real and true land”,275 “where I have my abode and dwelling and which I have elected and chosen in order to place in it my name”.276 According to the Law, [fol. 57v] the disobedience that Adam displayed is incorporated in that commandment, as it says: “if you desire and hear, you’ll eat the fruit of the earth”.277 He thus comes to restore to man that which he’d lost. You’ll find proof of this truth in the same place in Genesis when God, exiling Adam from the world so that he wouldn’t return to eat from the Tree of Life, tells him that He placed a guard at the door to defend it.278 This’ll help you break free from the abuse and deception of your doctors, which you’ve already described. Because of his sin, the doors of the heavens were closed to him so that souls wouldn’t be able to get in.279 Adam didn’t dwell in the heavens; he was raised on the earth, on which he had to live. He was shut out from that place and shielded by the door. Our Lord’s Law is the one that must return to open it and enter by it, since it’s the true tree of life, as King Solomon calls it.280 In order to begin to know His works and keep His divine commandments, all will ascend by it to the highest degree and enjoy the true good. Pay attention to how to follow it. It shows us this truth [fol. 58r] when our Lord wants to make His people enter into the Promised Land, which is called the land of life because the divine dwelling is situated in it. He ordered the angel to guide them with his sword and to leave them in that place, as is seen in the Book of Joshua.281 If Israel hadn’t committed that great sin in the face of the Law, as it did there, it wouldn’t have needed to be restored to its former state.282 But since one of them sined, and couldn’t climb the mountain without sin, he didn’t reach it.283 The Lord of the world then allowed it to make sacrifices as a means of making amends, which they did continually so that their sin would be pardoned. God communicated in this way, although they also lost this because of their sins. They strayed from the Law, following and serving strange gods, so that instead of sacrifices they were left with the tribulation and hard labor that they endure in their captivities.284 As King David says: ‘True sacrifice to God is a contrite spirit; [/…/] a […] crushed heart’.285 Because of this they’ll be pardoned, and the sin that they inherited from Adam will be completely extinguished and Fols. 57r-58r

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annihilated. As soon as all this is finished, the Lord will send the one He’s promised, who’ll redeem them from their captivities and [fol. 58v] return them to the true land of rest where they’ll return to the true service of their Creator, keeping His Law, as He’s clearly promised. See how He says it through his prophet: “‘I will send an angel before you’”.286 Soon the Lord you search for will come to His palace. Then the gifts of Judah and Jerusalem will please the Lord, as it was during the first days in ancient times. See here how they must return to the true sacrifices of the Law to bring back the Lord of the world to rebuild and consecrate the holy house, the dwelling of His honor in the midst of His people, which is the blissful state in which Adam was raised. The world will be left with all of this good, placed in a peaceful union and with universal peace for all creatures. Man will be free of sin from evil desire, will obey and perform the will of his Creator, and will then be obeyed and will remain superior to all creation. And thus the sin caused the Lord of the world to remove His dwelling from Earth, and without it all of her filled with idols and false gods as it is today, when each people has its own god because [fol. 59r] it lacks knowledge of the true Lord, who isn’t known by anyone today aside from His people, who all wander in exile. When the Lord returns to it, and returns them to their true home and land that He gave to their forefathers as He’s promised, His marvelous union will be so miraculous in the eyes of all the peoples wherever it spreads. Everyone will open their eyes to understanding and will know that He alone is the true God and that there’s no other. About this truth there are one hundred thousand proofs in this sacred book; King David: “The Lord has manifested His victory, / […] in the sight of the nations. He was mindful of His steadfast love and / faithfulness toward the house of Israel; / all the ends of the earth beheld the victory of / our God”.287 And the prophet Isaiah: “Awake, awake, O Zion! / Clothe yourself in splendor; / Put on your robes of majesty, Jerusalem, holy city! / For the uncircumcised and the unclean / Shall never enter you again. Arise, shake off the dust, / Sit [on your throne], Jerusalem! / Loose the bonds from your neck, / O captive one, Fair Zion! / For thus said the Lord: / You were sold for no price, / And shall be redeemed without money”288; “How welcome on the mountain / Are the footsteps of the herald / Announcing happiness, [fol. 59v] / Heralding good fortune, / Announcing victory, / Telling Zion, ‘Your God is King!’ / Hark! / Your watchmen raise their voices, / As one they shout for joy; / For every eye shall behold / The Lord’s return to Zion. / Raise a shout together, / O ruins of Jerusalem! / For the Lord will comfort His people, / Will redeem Jerusalem. / The Lord will bare His holy arm / Fols. 58r-59v

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In the sight of all the nations, / And the very ends of earth shall see / The victory of our God”.289 The prophet Jeremiah, saying: “Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, / And tell it in the isles afar. / Say: / He who scattered Israel will gather them”290; “They shall come and shout on the heights of / Zion, / Radiant over the bounty of the Lord— / Over new grain and wine and oil, / And over sheep and cattle. / They shall fare like a watered garden, / They shall never languish again. / Then shall maidens dance gaily, / Young men and old alike. / I will turn their mourning to joy, / I will comfort them and cheer them in their grief. [/…/] And My people shall enjoy My full bounty / —declares the Lord”.291 And Isaiah says more: “So let the ransomed of the Lord return, / And come with shouting to Zion, / Crowned with joy everlasting. / Let them attain joy and gladness, / While sorrow and sighing flee”.292 Moreover, he says: “My [fol. 60r] servants shall dwell thereon”293; “They shall not toil to no purpose; / They shall not bear children for terror, / But they shall be a people blessed by the Lord”294; “The wolf and the lamb shall graze together, / And the lion shall eat straw like the ox, / […] In all My sacred mount / Nothing evil or vile shall be done”295; “For the earth shall be filled / With awe for the glory of the Lord / As water covers the sea”296; “Shout for joy, Fair Zion! For lo, I come; and I will dwell in your midst—declares the Lord”297; “Shout for joy, daughter of Jacob, and I will dwell in your midst—declares the Lord”.298 The prophet Zephaniah: “Shout for joy, Fair Zion, / cry aloud, O Israel! / Rejoice and be glad with all your heart, / Fair Jerusalem!”299; “In that day of the Lord, do not fear the Lord in your midst”.300 Anyway, I don’t want to point out more than this, according to which you’ll see and understand clearly that the things the Lord will give to Israel, and which He’s promised with the arrival of the Messiah, will be on Earth, and there the Lord will return to place His divinity. Listen to that chapter where He shows us the resurrection of the dead, which reads as follows: “‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, O mortal! Say to the breath: Thus said the Lord God: Come, O breath, from the four winds, and [fol. 60v] breathe into these slain, that they may live again’. I prophesied as He commanded me. The breath entered them, and they came to life […] And He said to me, ‘O mortal, these bones are the whole House of Israel.’ They say ‘Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone; […] Prophesy, therefore, and say to them: Thus said the Lord God: I am going to open your graves and lift you out of the graves, O My people, and bring you to the land of Israel. You shall know, O My people, that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves […] I will put My breath into you and you shall live again, and I will set you upon Fols. 59v-60v

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your own soil. Then you shall know that I the Lord have spoken and have acted’—declares the Lord”.301 The prophet Isaiah, at the end of his sacred book: “For as the new heaven and the new earth / Which I will make / Shall endure by My will / —declares the Lord— / So shall your seed and your name endure. / And new moon after new moon, / And sabbath after sabbath, / All flesh shall come to worship Me / —said the Lord”.302 You see here, in the trustworthy holy passages we’ve looked at, how the Lord will return and bring divine intervention to [fol. 61r] Earth, and by this fill it with glory. There He’ll renew and reward His people, who’ll live there after He raises them from their tombs and renews the heavens and the world. Israel will remain there in His grace and perpetual love, recognized by all, esteemed as the first-born son of the Almighty and His treasure, fulfilling the verse of the prophet Zechariah, which says: “And just as you were a curse among the nations, […] when I vindicate you, you shall become a blessing”’.303 ‘Indeed, my good sir’, said the pilgrim, ‘you’ve said so many things about this matter because you want to persuade me that the favors promised in the Holy Scripture are earthly, and in a way I’m surprised. Would you and your learned men like for that Jerusalem not to be celestial? You support this with so many passages, and if that’s how you understand them literally, there doesn’t seem to be any way to reply. But you must know that the doctors of the Church ground themselves in holding to the belief that they are heavenly and glorious things, and in this way should be understood [fol. 61v] those passages that you’ve pointed out, as well as other similar ones. However, I already agreed not to oppose you in anything and only to go on listening to you concerning whatever I asked. Nevertheless, I’d like to show you, only in the passages involving the prophet Haggai, the problem with all you’ve said, because it’s very clear. Through him you’ll clearly see two very obvious things, each of which thoroughly reveals that there won’t be another house of God on Earth, and that the one that He made in the time of this prophet, which was when his people returned from captivity in Babylonia, was the last one. He shows in his prophecy how the Messiah promised in the Law came to this house. He was there, and this evident truth contradicts what you’ve pointed out about understanding it as being on the earth. As you wish, and since we have the book with us, you can see the passage that I mention, which carries the same weight as the other prophets since that one isn’t of less quality.304 Once you see this, you’ll understand that everything should be understood in the manner proclaimed by the doctors, and to me it seems [fol. 62r] that there’s no other meaning. If it won’t annoy you, I’ll Fols. 60v-62r

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show you how to see this book correctly, and instead of disillusion you’ll see everything down to the last detail’. ‘By the way’, said the friend, ‘you’re very right to say that the prophets must agree in every matter, and with respect to what you allege, they and their holy words are all of the same truth and merit since they were all holy and spoke with the same spirit. It’s fair that all of their words should be of equal value, but I want to tell you that, quite often—indeed, most of the time—it’s up to us to find the common ground in what they say. It’s our responsibility to do this because there’s no doubt that they all agree about the truth, which never changes. But let’s get to the point already! I’m not getting annoyed; on the contrary, I take pleasure in the fact that we’ll cover whatever causes you to doubt very slowly, since there’s plenty of time. The prophet Haggai that you mention, chapter two, who is the one in question, says as follows: “For thus said the Lord of Hosts: In just a little while longer I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land; I will [fol. 62v] shake all the nations. And the precious things of all the nations shall come [here], and I will fill this House with glory, said the Lord of Hosts. Silver is Mine and gold is Mine—says the Lord of Hosts. The glory of this latter House shall be greater than that of the former one, said the Lord of Hosts; and in this place I will grant prosperity—declares the Lord of Hosts”.305 You see here the exact words of the prophet. Now you can tell me how you feel about them, since he speaks of a celestial Jerusalem, and how he diverges from the other prophets that I’ve mentioned to you, because I certainly see things as in complete agreement’. ‘Don’t you see’, said the pilgrim, ‘that it says that house is the latter one, which will be on earth, and that we hold that it will be filled with greater honor than the first one? We know that in that house the wisdom of Urim and Thummin was missing, as were other great things that’d been in the first one.306 Later on, being that it’s a true prophesy, the honor that God cast out is passed to the other one. It wasn’t until the son of God went there in person that He filled it with honor by His presence. [fol. 63r] In the first one His presence was felt, but He wasn’t actually there as He was in the other one’. ‘I tell you’, said the friend, ‘that I take you to be very well informed, and I’ll respond to you with your own answer, which is the true one. You’ll understand both sides, which makes us stronger, and all that I’ve said will be substantiated, thus affirming that it will be on the earth as I’ve shown. First, you should know the holy house in which the Lord placed his name, including the one established by King Solomon, the one we’re talking about—which was established after arriving from Babylonia—and the Fols. 62r-63r

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third that has yet to be founded, are all the same thing in the same place. While keeping this principle in mind, consider that during the founding of the second house there were present some elderly men who, remembering that the first had been much more sumptuous, felt that the second one was lacking; the people then grew lax in their practices and in keeping it up. On seeing this, the prophet encouraged them to get to work, saying in the verses already mentioned: “be strong, O Zerubabel [Fol. 63v]—says the Lord—be strong, O […] Joshua […] be strong, all you people of the land […] For I am with you—says the Lord of Hosts”.307 The prophet Haggai knew well that there was going to be a third house. But it was necessary to establish the second one, and he was thus sent by the Lord. For that reason, he dedicated himself to building it. And so that we understand well, although we may stray a little, we’ll take a close look at everything. You must know that the three houses represent the first three Patriarchs. The first, the Patriarch Abraham, saw that it was going to be destroyed, as it was, which is why he calls it “mount”, as it says: “‘On the mount of the Lord there is vision’”.308 Jeremiah confirmed this prophesy by saying: “on the mount of the Lord, foxes walked on it”.309 The second represents Isaac. He gave it the name of “field,” as the verse thus says: “And Isaac went out walking in the field”.310 And he saw that it was going to be destroyed, which was confirmed by the prophet Micah upon saying: “Zion shall be plowed as a field”.311 The third represents our father Jacob. And since he saw that this one would [fol. 64r] endure and be everlasting, he gave it the name of House of God, as we touched on above. From this comes our prophecy of the prophet Haggai. Listen, and hear, how he says the same words that Jacob said there, which was the place where he had the vision. It says: “‘This is none other than the abode of God, and that is the gateway to heaven’”.312 This prophesy reveals the following: the honor of this house is great, in particular, the last of those shown to our forefathers, more than the first. In support of this truth is the fact that neither the prophets nor the sacred words say anything more than what’s necessary. If the prophet were speaking about one being built, he’d say: “the honor of this house will be greater than the first”. But he doesn’t say it this way, rather, “The glory of this latter House shall be greater,”313 which shows well that’s he’s speaking of another one. Therefore, the truth is now more clear with respect to what he said earlier about the greed of the people coming to it for “silver” and “gold”, things that everyone covets.314 That’s why we’ve said that that house was very modest, and less opulent. But the last one about which the prophet speaks will be perfect Fols. 63r-64r

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and will attract kings and the peoples of the world [fol. 64v] and its riches, which were not in the other one. Item; the Lord, however, says more about it there: “and in this place I will grant prosperity”.315 See now that, after the establishment of that one, there was peace. You’ll find the beginnings of Ezra, and of the standard bearers.316 For that house was founded with arms in hand, during difficult times, and there were always wars in it until it was destroyed. Why did you mention that things were missing in the second house if they’d actually been in the first one? Listen to a passage from the book of Nehemiah, chapter seven. It talks about the Levites going there to register their genealogy.317 The sons of Barzillai went and, since they didn’t have sufficient proof that they were from among them, were told “not to eat of the most holy things until a priest with Urim and Thummim should appear”. 318 Thus it was declared; do you see now that they were missing from that house? It must follow that there will be a house with a priest who has them and who uses them. This can’t be disputed since the book is sacred. Item; the prophet Haggai knew, as did many prophets, that there’d be a third house, and that it’d be destroyed, as old Joseph clearly said upon the time of his [fol. 65r] death.319 He prophesized that his brothers would return from that captivity and found a house of less magnificence, which would again be destroyed, and that his people would be spread throughout the world, whereupon they’d again be assembled before establishing a magnificent house, which would last for all time. I don’t want to bring up in this instance the early prophets, who say it very clearly, but those who lived during that same time, such as the prophet Zechariah, who was at the foundation of the first house and the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Through him you’ll clearly see the truth, which reads as follows: “But the angel who talked with me came forward, and another angel came forward to meet him. The former said to him, ‘Run to that young man and tell him: Jerusalem shall be peopled as a city without walls, so many shall be the men and cattle it contains. And I Myself—declares the Lord—will be a wall of fire all around it, and I will be a glory inside it’”.320And it says more: “The word of the Lord of Hosts came [to me]: Thus said the Lord of Hosts: I am very jealous for Zion, I am fiercely jealous for her. Thus said the Lord: I have returned to Zion, and I will dwell in Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be called the City of Faithfulness, and the mount of the Lord of Hosts the Holy Mount”321; “Thus said [fol. 65v] the Lord of Hosts: Peoples and the inhabitants of many cities shall yet come—the inhabitants of one shall go to the other and say, ‘Let us go and entreat the favor of the Lord, […]’ The many peoples and the multitude of nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in Jerusalem […] Thus said the Lord of Hosts: In those days, ten men from Fols. 64r-65v

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nations of every tongue will take hold—they will take hold of every Jew by a corner of his cloak and say, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you’”322; “In that day a fountain shall be open to the House of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem for […] cleansing. In that day, too—declares the Lord of Hosts—I will erase the very names of the idols from the land; they shall not be uttered any more”323; “In that day, fresh water shall flow from Jerusalem, part of it to the Eastern Sea […] throughout the summer and the winter. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth; in that day there shall be one Lord with one name. […] Jerusalem […] shall perch high up where it is, and shall be inhabited […] Never again shall destruction be decreed, and Jerusalem shall dwell secure”.324 There are endless occasions throughout the book on which this prophet teaches us of the of strength of Jerusalem for eternity, and how the Lord will live in it perpetually, as it says: “Shout for joy, Fair Zion! [fol. 66r] For lo, I come; and I will dwell in your midst—declares the Lord. In that day many nations will attach themselves to the Lord and become His people, and He will dwell in your midst. […] The Lord will take Judah to Himself as His portion in the Holy Land, and He will choose Jerusalem once more. Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord! For He is roused from His holy habitation”.325 The prophet Ezekiel wants to prophesize in Babylonia. Take a look at his sacred book, which through some 40 chapters of prophesies leading to the end of everything talks about and reveals the greatness, magnificence and splendor with which the Lord of the world will instill the sacred temple.326 And it says in chapter 43: “A spirit carried me into the inner court, and lo, the Presence of the Lord filled the Temple”327; “It said to me: O mortal, this is the place of My throne and the place for the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people Israel forever”.328 In the last chapter the strength of the city is shown, and how it’ll have twelve gates named after the twelve tribes of Israel.329 And in the last verse it says: “the name of the city from that day on shall be ‘The Lord is There’”.330 Don’t you see here how everything will be on earth according to all [fol. 66v] these passages, and an infinite number of others? So that you find everything to your complete satisfaction, let’s consider the words of the of the prophet Haggai, which you’ve quoted, and we’ll see that, according to his prophesy, nothing that would be in the last house was also in the one being made. He said that the ‘precious things’ of the people would come to it and fill it up with “silver” and “gold”, as He declares.331 Nothing of this sort happened, rather it was robbed many times and sacked by the Greeks. He said that he’d bring peace to that place, which, as I’ve told you, was established with arms in hand. There were always wars there as can be seen in the books of the Maccabees. Fols. 65v-66v

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That it would be of greater honor than the first didn’t occur; rather, as I’ve said, many times it was the opposite. Through its ultimate destruction it can be clearly seen that the aforementioned prophesy is not fulfilled, as it’ll be in the last house, which will be established by the God of the world Himself. It’ll be strong forever and will have all the perfection, requirements and honors that are revealed through the prophet. With respect to what you’ve said about it being full of those things since that man had been in it, in truth that seems like a [fol. 67r] shameful way to speak about the matter. According to your doctors, when he came to it he was being held captive by the Romans; therefore, the virtue brought by his arrival was short lived. Those who’ve placed their hope in that become very distressed and completely devastated. With this I want to show you the fulfillment of the prophesy of the prophet Haggai, which will be perfectly fulfilled, and other places that say the same about how the ‘precious things’ of the people will appear. Take a look at what the prophet Isaiah says for the same reason: “Arise, shine, for your light has dawned: / The Presence of the Lord has shone upon you!”332; “As you behold, you will glow; / Your heart will throb and thrill— / For the wealth of the sea shall pass on to you, / The riches of nations shall flow to you. [/…/] They shall bear gold and frankincense, / And shall herald the glories of the Lord”333; “Behold, the coastlands await me, / With ships of Tarshish [/…/] To bring your sons from afar, / And their silver and gold as well— / For the name of the Lord your God, / For the Holy One of Israel, who has glorified you”334; “Your gates shall always stay open— / Day and night they shall never be shut— / To let in the wealth of the nations, / With their kings in procession. / For the nation or the kingdom / That does not serve you shall perish; [/…/] The majesty of Lebanon [fol. 67v] shall come to you— / Cypress and pine and box— / To adorn the site of My Sanctuary, / To glorify the place where My feet rest”335; “I will make you a pride everlasting, / A joy for age after age. / you shall suck the milk of the nations, / Suckle at royal breasts. / And you shall know / That I the Lord am your Savior, / I, The Mighty One of Jacob, am your Redeemer. / Instead of copper I will bring gold, / Instead of iron I will bring silver; / Instead of wood, copper; / And instead of stone, iron. / And I will appoint Well-being as your government, [/…/] Within your borders. And you shall name your walls ‘Victory’ / And your gates ‘Renown’. / No longer shall you need the sun / For light by day, / Nor the shining of the moon / For radiance [by night]; / For the Lord shall be your light everlasting, / Your God shall be your glory”336; “For the sake of Zion I will not be silent, / For the sake of Jerusalem I will not be still, / Till her victory emerge resplendent / And her triumph like a flaming torch. [/…/] And you shall be called by a new name / Which the Lord Fols. 66v-67v

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Himself shall bestow. / You shall be a glorious crown / In the hand of the Lord, [/… Nevermore …/] shall your land be called ‘Desolate’; But you shall be called ‘I delight in her’, [/…/] As a youth espouses a maiden, / Your sons shall espouse you; / And as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, / So will your God rejoice over you”.337 In order to get the peace of which Haggai speaks, observe how this other prophet says: “Rejoice with [fol. 68r] Jerusalem [/…/] All of you who mourned over her— / That you may suck from her breast / Consolation to the full, / That you [/…/] Glory to your delight. / For thus says the Lord: I will extend to her / Prosperity like a stream, / The wealth of nations [/…/] As a mother comforts her son / So I will comfort you; You shall find comfort in Jerusalem”.338 Do you see the prophesy you mentioned fulfilled in itself, that the things the people will bring to Jerusalem, their honor for the Lord of the world, will be honored and made beautiful by His presence, surrounded and besieged by peace, in accordance with the prophesy of Haggai?339 You should also know that the two holy houses, as much the one that Solomon founded as the one we’re talking about, fell under the control of the enemy since they were founded by men. But the last one will be established by God Himself, and because of that in addition to possessing everything one needs it’ll be perfect. Hear how King David says: “For the Lord has built Zion; He has appeared in all His glory”.340 Listen more and you will see how holy Moses had said it in that glorious song of the sea,341 speaking and prophesying of this house of freedom that the Lord will make for His [fol. 68v] people. And it says in the last verses: “The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands established. / The Lord will reign for ever and ever!”342 For confirmation of this consider what is attested by two prophets, who both confirm this prophesy of the blessed last house. Look to Isaiah, in chapter two, and Micah, in the fourth. In the same spirit, both say the following: “In the days to come, / The Mount of the Lord’s House / Shall stand firm above the mountains / And tower above the hills; / And all the nations / Shall gaze on it with joy. / And the many peoples shall go and say: / ‘Come, / Let us go up to the Mount of the Lord, / To the House of the God of Jacob; / That He may instruct us in His ways, / And that we may walk in His Paths’. / For instruction shall come forth from Zion, / The word of the Lord from Jerusalem. / Thus He will judge among the nations / And arbitrate for the many peoples, / And they shall beat their swords into plowshares / And their spears into pruning hooks: / Nation shall not take up / Sword against nation; / They shall never again know war”343; “But every man shall sit / Under his grapevine or fig tree / With no one to disturb him. / For it was the Lord of Hosts who spoke”.344 Friend, don’t you see now the last house—about which Fols. 67v-68v

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your prophesy speaks—which everyone will seek and go to [fol. 69r] in order to know His glory, and in which there will be peace as He says? You claimed before that we’re undergoing our punishment right now—although that’s my fault due to what I said—and that according to your detailed sacred arguments, which come from what your doctors preach, it’s because we’ve not yet recognized the Messiah; I’d like to take you out of the trap into which you’ve fallen. First, you’ll be shown that, since it wasn’t time for the arrival of the Messiah promised according to the Law, the other one came on his own. Second, I’ll reveal to you the signs that the Lord of the world has given, by which he’ll be easily recognized. Finally, I’ll show you the consequences of his arrival and how he’ll reign on the earth over Israel as its steward and shepherd, under the protection of the Almighty. The Messiah promised by God to His people will come when Israel is scattered and spread throughout the world, as the Lord of the world says to our father Jacob in the dream about the ladder: “Your descendants […] shall spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south”.345 And He says through the prophet Amos: [fol. 69v] “For I will [/…/] shake the House of Israel [/…/] As one shakes [sand] in a sieve”.346 And, on asking the prophet Daniel of the angel, “‘How long until the end of these awful things?’”347, he says: “I heard the man […] swear by the Ever-Living One as he lifted his right hand and his left hand to heaven: […] ‘when the breaking of the power of the holy people comes to an end, then shall all these things be fulfilled’”.348 According to this ineffable truth, we know that the time hasn’t come, since in the days of our forefathers, and in our own, new worlds have been discovered about which nothing was understood or known before, and thus our people has never been scattered as it is today. Item; the Messiah promised in the Law will be the completion and fulfillment of all the prophesies that are written in the sacred books, which obviously shows that they weren’t fulfilled back then. And leaving aside the extended proofs, let’s just say what has been said earlier of the Law, where the prophet Moses says, by the command of the Lord of the world, that “[He will cast us from one end of the heavens to the other, and to the ends of the earth, among those who were not feared or known by our (fathers)]” “where you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone”.349 [fol. 70r] Today we see very clearly, with our own eyes, that this prophesy hasn’t been fulfilled by anyone but us since we’re the ones who’ve arrived at the ends of the earth. We’re there at a bad time because so many of us are worshiping their gods made of sticks and stones, and that are so new that the oldest one they have was born and died many centuries after our forefathers left this life. And none of them ever knew Fols. 68v-70r

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God. After that man, since his time until today, take a look at how many they’ve invented and added, and they go on each day inventing.350 They’re countless and there’s not a tale or a saint’s life in which they fit. And they hold them in such low regard. They know so much about what each one can do that, rather than everyone praying to one of them, there’s a different one for each task: one is for success and others are for throat aches. Item; it’s known that it wasn’t time for the arrival of the Messiah from the prophesy of Hosea, and from the prophet Isaiah, in chapter fifteen of 2 Chronicles, which both say that for many days the children of Israel would be without a king, without true judgment, without sacrifices, without a priest and without a temple.351 It wasn’t like this when the messiah came [fol. 70v] to the Christians. Because even if they were under Roman rule, they still had a king, a temple and sacrifices, which all goes against the holy prophesy. Item: the Messiah that the Lord of the world has promised will come to all of the twelve tribes, as is seen in the sacred passages, whereupon they’ll join Him. When the Christian messiah came it had been around 500 years since the ten tribes had been carried away by the king of Assyria, since they were taken 138 years before the Babylonian captivity that lasted 70 years, which makes 208. They founded a second, Babylonian house, which lasted until it was destroyed by the Romans in 420, and that makes the number 628.352 It was necessary, in order to comply with the divine word, that the Messiah reveal himself to the ten tribes, which formed the majority of the people, and that other one didn’t do it.353 I ask: what fault did they have? Although they’d lost the right to what God had promised to them, they weren’t in any way at the end of their rope. Truly, your doctors are so blind that they can’t see something as clear as this. I don’t consider this to be any excuse for playing down or covering up that type of great sin; things like this blind [fol. 71r] the people, leading them away from reading the sacred books and defending them with a wall of fire, because if it weren’t like that their resources wouldn’t be so depleted. I’ll tell you in the briefest way possible the signs that’ll bring the Messiah and the aftereffects. First, he’ll be a man from the house of David; he won’t be a God. Listen how in the Law the prophet Moses declares it, promising his people on behalf of the Lord of the world: “I will raise up a prophet for them from among their own people, like yourself: I will put words in his mouth”.354 The prophet Jeremiah says as follows: “His ruler shall come from his midst”.355 The prophet Joel says: “O children of Zion, be glad, / Rejoice in the Lord your God. / For He has given you the early rain in [His] kindness”.356 And Jeremiah says: “See, a time is coming—declares the Lord—when I will raise up a true branch of David’s line. He shall reign as king and shall prosper, and he shall do what is just Fols. 70r-71r

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and right in the land. In his days Judah shall be delivered and Israel shall dwell secure. And this is the name by which he shall be called: ‘The Lord is our Vindicator’. Assuredly, a time is coming—declares the Lord—when it shall no more be said, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites out of the land of Egypt’, but rather, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought out and led the offspring of the House of Israel [fol. 71v] from the northland and from all the lands to which I have banished them’. And they shall dwell upon their own soil”.357 Judge for yourself if this prophesy is in accordance with the Christian messiah. We see that it says that in his days Israel and Judah will be safe and he’ll rein over them. His kingdom will be on the earth, to which he’ll bring wisdom and justice, and the union that the Lord will make with His people will be so miraculous that it’ll overshadow the wonders that He performed for freedom when He took them out of Egypt’. ‘Well, with regard to the same prophesy, the doctors of the Church have proven’, said the pilgrim, ‘that the Messiah will be God, and it clearly says it there since the prophet says that the Lord will be His, “our Vindicator”.358 It’s well known that such a name is not given to a man, nor does it fit him’. ‘Truly’, said the friend, ‘I appreciate very much that you’ve singled out these points because you’ll be able to immerse yourself in the truth, at least the part that I can explain. With respect to what your wise men say, know well that they cut out half of the very clear prophesy in order to cast away and embarrass anyone who doesn’t [fol. 72r] understand the aforementioned meaning, and with this they deceive. But, by the kindness of God, prophesies that disillusion us have no place here and now, and I’d like you to see things as they really are. You should know that these things are expressed in different ways. The prophet wants to say that, in the time of the king in question, the Lord will judge us and we’ll be just and perfect in His service.359 But I only want to take into account that the name pertains to the Messiah, as the prophet calls him. You should know that the Lord of the world values the just ones as much as the good ones who perform His divine will, and He honors them and calls them by His name. As He says through the prophet Isaiah: “All who are linked to My name, / Whom I have created, / Formed, and made for My glory”.360 Our Lord gives His name to the messengers that He sends, as the angel said to the patriarch Abraham: “‘By Myself I swear, the Lord declares’”.361 And when the people of Israel were in the dessert, the Lord of the world says: “I am sending an angel before you to guard you on the way […] Pay heed to him and obey him. Do not defy him, for he will not pardon your offenses, since My Name is in him”.362 You know that altar made by the prophet Moses when [fol. 72v] Amalek came? The verse says that God called Fols. 71r-72v

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it “Adonai-nissi”.363 Thus it is for this divine messenger, the Messiah ben David,364 who’s promised to us. And we wait, since he comes to establish His dominion. He brings it and proclaims the glorious name of the blessed and sovereign Lord, so that through his strength and virtue His people is saved. Hear how he clearly says it, speaking of him the holy King David in Psalm 118: “May he who enters be blessed in the name of the Lord”.365 This man will be an uncorrupted executor of divine justice. He’ll use His authority and power against the haughty ones of the world. He’ll exact justice on them and revenge for the injustices they committed against His people. In the same way, the Lord of the world sent the prophet Moses to Egypt to free Israel by His hand. He says: “‘I place you in the role of God to Pharaoh’”.366 Thus will it be for this man, His steward, and he’ll be given power against the tyrants of the world as is seen in numerous passages. The Psalm says: “O Lord, the king rejoices in Your strength”367; “[You] have set upon his head a crown of fine gold”368; “Great is his glory through Your victory”369; “Your hand is equal to all Your enemies”370; “You set them [fol. 73r] ablaze like a furnace [/…/] The Lord in anger destroys them; […] You wipe their offspring from the earth, their issue from among men”.371 In addition, it says: “All nations have beset me; / by the name of the Lord I will surely cut them down”372; “They have beset me like bees; / they shall be extinguished like burning thorns; / by the name of the Lord I will surely cut them down. / You pressed me hard, / I nearly fell; / but the Lord helped me”.373 And, upon speaking about this faithful messenger, the prophet Isaiah says: “He shall strike down a land with the rod of his mouth / And slay the wicked with the breath of his lips”.374 Therefore, the bestowing of power upon him by the Lord of the world is not the same as honoring Him with His divine name. Not even your doctors are on the right path in this, as I’ve shown you well. The prophet continues: “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, / The leopard lie down with the kid; / The calf, the beast of prey, and the fatling together, / With a little boy to herd them. / The cow and the bear shall graze, / Their young shall lie down together; / And the lion, like the ox, shall eat straw. / A babe shall play / Over a viper’s hole, / And an infant pass his hand / Over an adder’s den. / In all of My sacred mount / Nothing evil or vile shall be done; / For the land shall be filled with devotion to the Lord / As water covers the sea. / In that day, / The stock of Jesse [fol. 73v] that has remained standing / Shall become a standard to peoples— / Nations shall seek his counsel / And his abode shall be honored”.375 In light of this, ask yourself whether this harmony has ever existed among animals, and whether children have ever been certain that vipers and adders wouldn’t bother them when sticking their hands in their holes. Well, all of this will occur when, as the chapter Fols. 72v-73v

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I just mentioned says, “In that day, / The stock of Jesse that has remained standing / Shall become a standard to peoples”,376 which clearly identifies that it is the Messiah. And that he hasn’t come is because all the signs are lacking. And the prophesy continues: “In that day, my Lord will apply His hand again to redeeming the other part of His people from Assyria—as also from Egypt, Pathros, Nubia, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the coastlands. / He will hold up a signal to the nations / And assemble the banished of Israel, / And gather the dispersed of Judah / From the four corners of the earth. / Then Ephraim’s envy shall cease / And Judah’s harassment shall end”.377 Do you see what clear and evident proof can be offered that the Messiah has not come, and that yours is not the one? The people of Israel hasn’t ever been divided up among those kingdoms or over all the corners of the earth. Indeed, its captivities [fol. 74r] of greatest memory were the one in Egypt and the one in Chaldea, to which it was driven, and not in other places. It was certainly never divided up and exiled to all the four corners of the earth. As further proof, you know well that in the Castilian Indies, which is America, and in most of the lands that the Spanish conquered during the past 160 years you won’t find children of Israel or any other undiscovered nation.378 If you recall another passage that deals with this matter, I’d like you to tell it to me’. ‘There are many’, said the pilgrim, ‘from which they understand this. What doubt is there in the first verse of Psalm 110: “The Lord said to my lord, / ‘Sit at My right hand’”?379 Who can be equal to God, or sit down to His right, if not His son, the Messiah—since we have as an article of faith that He’s there—who arrived in order to judge the world?’380 ‘I want to tell you’, said the friend, ‘first, that God does not have a right or a left, nor does He have a body or a place in the world. He is in it, and everything is in Him, and He fills everything. And if the Holy Scripture speaks like this it’s not for us to understand it that way because it also says, “eyes of the Lord, hands of the Lord”,381 [fol. 74v] and this isn’t as it sounds. About the right to which it refers there—and His Law must be understood to be the truth since it was bestowed by the Lord of the world—it says: “And [He] approached from Ribeboth-kodesh, / Lightning flashing at them from His right”.382 Hear the verse from the Psalm that you’ve point out, which I’ll state to you: “The Lord said to my lord, / ‘Sit at My right hand / while I make your enemies your footstool’”.383 Later on, your Jerome, in order to achieve his deceitful purpose, falsifies the words, making both of the names the same, when the text in fact doesn’t say that.384 That Psalm was directed to God because of the bullocks of Abraham the Patriarch, and it corresponds to what our Lord promised to him on the mountain of the sacrifices, where Fols. 73v-74v

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He swore to him and his seed that He’d give the land of his enemies to him. That’s what the Psalm says there: “The Lord said to my lord”.385 As I say, it’s the Patriarch, the father and root of the people of God, to whom that title of “lord” is given. The prophet David, wants to say “trust in my promise, in my Law be steadfast, certain and with firm expectation, until He places your enemies below your feet and your seed at the head of the world”.386 Listen how the holy king clearly says it in another place, while speaking in the same fashion: “He subjects [fol. 75r] peoples to us, / sets nations at our feet”387; “The great of the peoples are gathered together, the retinue of Abraham’s God; for the guardians of the earth belong to God”.388 This is the true meaning of the Psalm, in which you could see many more examples, if there were time, of the true meaning, which is very distant from the false opinions’. ‘Truly’, said the pilgrim, ‘do I admire how you make all these things out to be easy, without even considering that through many ages great doctors and wise men have burned their eyelashes studying, going into depth and putting everything in its place’. The friend responded, ‘I’ve already told you that the secrets of the Holy Scripture were only shown to Israel by the Lord of the world, and for the other peoples they are, as the prophet says: “Like the words of a sealed document. If it is handed to one who can read and he is asked to read it, he will say, ‘I can’t, because it is sealed’”; and if the document is handed to one who cannot read and he is asked to read it, he will say, ‘I can’t read’”.389 Here you see your doctors perfectly depicted’. ‘Well then’, said the pilgrim, ‘let’s go on for I want to see how you reconcile with that the very clear prophesy of the prophet Mica [fol. 75v], in which, speaking clearly of the Messiah, he says: “And you, O Bethlehem of Ephrath, / Least among the clans of Judah, / From you one shall come forth / To rule Israel for Me— / One whose origin is from of old, / From ancient times”.390 Do you see how it clearly says that the Messiah will arrive in Israel during “ancient times” which doesn’t make sense or can even be understood about your messiah since he hasn’t yet arrived? You don’t even know when he’ll come; thus there isn’t any appropriate time for him. Let’s see what explanation you give for this dominion of the Messiah, who is spoken of here clearly’. The friend responded, ‘Before we get to that passage, I want to glorify the name of the Almighty over and over again and praise His divine word, more clear than the sun itself. About this I’ve said, “I will make the wise vanish from Edom,”391 which is certainly nullified by the prophesy that you put forward with such confidence. Tell me, is this what God means to you? Don’t you understand that it’s blasphemy and a great heresy of those who, in order to make that prophesy satisfy their whim, say that through Fols. 74v-75v

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it the Messiah is understood to be God, because the prophet says that his dominion is “From ancient times”? Don’t lose sight of the great offense they commit because of this against the one [fol. 76r] for whom there is no beginning, the one who always was and will be the absolute and universal Lord of the heavens and of all creation. The prophet had to say of him that his dominion was “From ancient times”. Tell me, since he certainly wasn’t the Lord before that, why do you still hang on to false doctrines? You don’t stop seeing something so incoherent and silly as this. However, in that verse and in others that follow in the same chapter I’ll show you the truth. The prophet, on the command of God, showing the country of David, which is Euphrates, says that, though it was a small place in the midst of Judah, from there would come the one who’d be Lord in Israel, and that his dominion had been established “From ancient times”. So you must know that our Lord, after He created the world, then created at once all the souls that would occupy it. The blessed soul of the Messiah was later predestined to save Israel and rule over it, and this is what your prophesy says, that one will come who, “From ancient times,” God raised in order to give him the scepter in Israel. In that place the Lord of the world revealed through David from whom and from where he’ll come. I understand it; he’s a son, the one who, being the youngest in his father’s house, cast aside by his brothers, was chosen by Him in order to restore [fol. 76v] the kingdom. So that you understand this truth, the prophet continues: “He shall stand and shepherd / By the might of the Lord, / By the power of the name / Of the Lord his God, / And they shall dwell [secure]. / For lo, he shall wax great / To the ends of the earth”.392 Do you think that it would make sense here for God to say that now He will be exalted? Don’t you see that He has always, through eternity, been exalted? Because of this the prophet says here that the one who will arrive is the Messiah. Doesn’t this prophesy seem clear to you? It says here that the Messiah will govern with the “might” of the Lord, his God; so isn’t God above him? This prophesy is very clear and, if this doesn’t open your eyes, I’m going to lament my misfortune! What this prophet tells you is the same as the others have told you; they say that the Messiah will be from the tribe of Judah and the house of David, that he’ll be king and lord over Israel and all the people will join with him, and thus the kingdom of the Lord of the world will be magnified until the ends of the earth. The same merciful promise had been made and confirmed prior to King David by our father, the patriarch Jacob, at the time of his death, in the blessing that he gave to his sons. On speaking to Judah, he saw that from him would be born the one who’d remove the yoke and the captivity of Israel, [fol. 77r] and that he’d join it together in peace.393 Then he said to Fols. 75v-77r

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him: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, [/…/] So that tribute shall come to him / And the homage of peoples be his”.394 Don’t you see how he shows us here the torment and the physical punishment that his offspring would endure, as well as the bloodshed, until the arrival of this prince of peace? The tribes that wander and shed their blood throughout the world are going to go to him? The pilgrim said, ‘The Catholic doctors explain that passage very differently. They say that Jacob said “scepter”, or “he ruled”, in order to imply that the kingdom would always be in Judah. And he’d have the scepter until the arrival of the Messiah, and thus it was fulfilled, because upon his arrival it ceased to exist and since then there hasn’t been another one’.395 The friend responded, ‘That meaning would be very good if they had proof from the Holy Scripture. But they can’t have that because the interpretation is incorrect, and I’ll show you a thousand ways to refute it. Let the first be that, when the messiah of the Christians came, more than four hundred years had passed since there’d been a scepter, a king of Judah, or a house of David, because the last king of it was Zedekiah, who was carried off to [fol. 77v] Babylonia.396 Further on the Lord of the world says through his prophet Ezekiel: “Remove the turban and lift off the crown! [...] It shall be no more until he comes to whom it rightfully belongs; and I will give it to him”.397 It doesn’t state that after the people returned from that captivity any king from the tribe of Judah or son of David appeared, even though they did have a king until the Romans ultimately destoyed them, as is seen in the Books of the Maccabees and in others written during that time by Josephus about antiquity.398 Item; the one that you call messiah wasn’t joined by the peoples gathered together in accordance with the prophesy of Jacob, which isn’t consistent with anything that’s already been said and shown. Through the Messiah promised in the Law of Israel, and through all the holy prophets, the Lord of the world will raise the kingdom and the throne of David. There he’ll look after and reign over the twelve tribes, which will be joined to Him. Listen to how the prophet Isaiah says it: “In token of abundant authority / And of peace without limit / Upon David’s throne and kingdom, / That it may be firmly established / In justice and in equity / Now and evermore. / The zeal of the Lord of Hosts / Shall bring this to pass. / My Lord / Let loose a word against Jacob / And it fell upon [fol. 78r] Israel”.399 Behold how this prophesy confirms the one of our father, Jacob, since it says that “it fell upon” it. And Israel was thus sanctioned, with all the tribes joining as one. Hear further how the Lord says it through the prophet Amos: “In that day, / I will set up again the fallen booth of David: I will mend its breaches Fols. 77r-78r

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and set up its ruins anew. / I will build it firm as in the days of old”400; “I will restore My people Israel. / They shall rebuild ruined cities and inhabit them; / They shall plant vineyards and drink their wine; / They shall till gardens and eat their fruits. / And I will plant them upon their soil, / Nevermore to be uprooted / From the soil I have given them—said the Lord your God”’. 401 Take note of all of these as well as additional prophesies by many other wise men after the end of David’s kingdom and we shall see and know that nothing is fulfilled yet, which lets you know how far your doctors are from the truth and that their views are groundless. Returning to the prophesy of Jacob, which says “staff”, we took it to mean a punishment and a whipping, as in truth it is. 402 The holy language, and everything there, could easily be made to say that He ruled and was in command. The well-versed wise men who know its truth and its spirit see in that passage a whipping and a punishment, realizing and understanding [fol. 78v] that the Patriarch made the decision not to place himself or anything at risk there, since it was there where they’d take his sons’ possesions. At that time, he was already outside of his land, and he saw through the divine spirit that would be held captive and oppressed there, as had been told to Abraham. 403 They had to be exiled and scattered, as the Lord said to him. However, after revealing that from Judah the Messiah would be born and that he’d bring eternal freedom and an end to their punishment, He speaks to console them and give relief to his children: “your labors and your exile will end upon the arrival of that one, your son, who will redeem you and join the peoples together”. 404 By “staff”, punishment and dominion is understood in a thousand holy places. 405 The Lord of the world says it to David: “If his sons forsake My Teaching [/.../] do not observe My commands, / I will punish their transgressions with the rod”. 406 To Jeremiah, when He wanted to reveal the punishment that He’d afflict upon the people, he showed a staff. 407 The king of Assiria was called by the Lord the “rod of My anger”, 408 because he came to punish the people. Thus it’s clear that the prophesy of Jacob speaks of punishment, which as we see endures and will continue to endure, and with the arrival of the promised one [fol. 79r] will end and His very blissful kingdom will be exalted’. The pilgrim said, ‘tell me how your wise men understand that passage from the prophet Isaiah, which if I’m not mistaken comes at the end of chapter 59, where it says, “For He shall come like a hemmed-in stream / Which the wind of the Lord drives on”, 409 which our doctors understand to speak of the Messiah. Being this way, and since it says that it will be the “wind of the Lord”, it’s clear that it will not be a man. Their interpretations explain it this way’. Fols. 78r-79r

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‘Let’s take a look at that passage’, said the friend, ‘and we’ll grasp the thread of the truth. Do you see here the verse and chapter? It says: “For He shall come like a hemmed-in stream / Which the wind of the Lord drives on; / He shall come as redeemer to Zion, / To those in Jacob who turn back from sin—declares the Lord”.410 These two verses go together and are bound to the truth. I can affirm to you that I’ve never heard any discussion about them. They’re very clear and it seems to me that the Lord of the world wants to give us a true sign in them about when He’ll send the Messiah, which is the following: when you see a tormentor running toward you like a river, know that the time for Me to send the redeemer to Zion has arrived. However, the people of Israel have had [fol. 79v] so many oppressors throughout the ages, and have felt the pain of so many deaths in so many parts of the world, so that there’s hardly a piece of earth that hasn’t been bathed in their blood. The Lord of the world speaks in this passage of only one oppressor, and compares it to a river, which is the truth. Our people have had many oppressors that massacred and tormented it. It endured, they left and moved on, and finally they stopped. But if an oppressor runs his course like a river that never stops, killing and oppressing, then “I will send my spirit against him, which will redeem Zion”.411 Therefore, the prophesy teaches us clearly by declaring that this oppressor, who, like a flowing river continually oppresses and massacres the people of God, is the Roman Empire, whose leader and champion is Spain, which has for so many years, with the drive and the rage of a tempestuous river, moved with the current of its putrid waters, plunging the people of God into mourning, and always casting it into a sea of oppression. The one who “will think of changing times and laws”,412 as Daniel says about the one who rises up against the “holy ones”, 413 will consume them, squash them, and finish them off.414 [fol. 80r] Those who’ve risen against God Himself, who speak of greatness and employ treachery so that we’re so bogged down and flustered, don’t want us to live in their lands and don’t permit us to go to foreign ones by blocking our access to all ports. If someone escapes, it’s like the holy king says: “We are like a bird escaped from the fowler’s trap”. 415 The Lord says that to counter this enemy He’ll send the Messiah, His Anointed one, full of spirit with which he’ll redeem His people and shatter and topple their dominion. In the Law, the Lord says and promises this and places his name at the head of the monarchy: “And say: As I love forever, / When I whet My flashing blade / And My hand lays hold on judgment, / Vengeance will I wreak on My foes, / Will I deal to those who reject Me. / I will make My arrows drunk with blood— / As My sword devours flesh— / Blood of the slain and the captive / From the long-haired enemy chiefs. / O nations, acclaim His people! / For He’ll avenge the blood Fols. 79r-80r

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of His servants”.416 Holy King David knows this vengeance well, giving it the name of “head”, which refers to this monarchy; he says it this way: “God will smash the heads of His enemies, / the hairy crown [fol. 80v] of him who walks about in his guilt”. 417 And the prophet Joel says: “Edom [shall be] a desolate waste, / Because of the outrage to the people of Judah, / In whose land they shed the blood of the innocent. / But Judah shall be inhabited forever”. 418 So the Lord Himself will take revenge, compensating himself through the evil ones who killed His people. As He says through Isaiah: “I had planned a day of vengeance, / And My year of redemption arrived”.419 And he says: “The Lord goes forth like a warrior, / Like a fighter He whips up His rage. / He yells, He roars aloud, / He charges upon his enemies. ‘I have kept silent [/…/] Now I will scream like a woman in labor, / I will pant and I will gasp. / Hills and heights will I scorch, [/…/] And dry the marshes up”420; “‘Driven back and utterly shamed / Shall be those who trust in an image, / Those who say to idols, / ‘You are our gods!’”421 So God Himself, with His powerful hand, will take revenge on the arrogant ones in the world insofar as His title is the “God of retribution”, the “Lord of battles”. 422 And it’s a fact that His scepter will pronounce judgments and dispense justice to the tyrants. He sent His Anointed One, as the prophet Solomon says: “The foes of the Lord shall be shattered; / He will thunder against them in the [fol. 81r] heavens. / The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. / He will give power to His king, / And triumph to His anointed one”. 423 And, returning to your request, you say that inasmuch as the Messiah is called there the “wind of the Lord”, it must be God.424 It amazes me about you that, although learned, you let yourself be carried away by such deception. Don’t you see that could hardly be what the prophet means since it doesn’t say the “spirit of the Lord spoke within me” but “the spirit of the Lord was upon me?”425 Since it’s so long, listen to the same thing in subsequent chapters: “The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, / Because the Lord has anointed me; [/…/] To proclaim release to the captives, / Liberation to the imprisoned”.426 In order to carry out that task—and so that you are completely satisfied with all of this—listen to the titles that the Lord gives to the Messiah and the impact that his arrival will have on the people of Israel. The prophet Isaiah says: “a shoot shall grow out of the stump of Jesse, / A twig shall sprout from his stock. / The spirit of the Lord shall alight upon him: / A spirit of wisdom and insight, / A spirit of counsel and valor; / A spirit of devotion and reverence for the Lord”427; “Justice shall be the girdle of his loins”428; “In that day, / The stock of Jesse that has remained standing / Shall become a standard to peoples— / [/…/] And his abode shall be honored. / In that day, my Lord will apply [fol. 81v] His hand again to redeeming the other Fols. 80r-81v

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part of His people from Assyria—as also from Egypt, Pathros, Nubia, […] and the coastlands. / He will hold up a signal to the nations / And assemble the banished of Israel, / And gather the dispersed of Judah”. 429 And this prophet says these words about the Messiah: “Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, [/…/] Every one of them shall be / Like a refuge from gales, / A shelter from rainstorms; Like brooks of water in a desert, / Like the shade of a massive rock / In a languishing land”430; “justice shall abide in the wilderness / And righteousness [/…/] calm and confidence forever. / Then my people shall dwell in peaceful homes, / In secure dwellings, / In untroubled places of rest”. 431 The holy king, while hoping for that time, asks the Lord in this way: “God, endow the king with Your judgments, / the king’s son with Your righteousness”432; “that the righteous may flourish in his time, / and well-being abound [/…/] Let him rule from sea to sea, / from the river to the ends of the earth. Let [/…/] his enemies lick the dust. [/…/] Let kings of Tarshish and the […] kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts. / Let all kings bow to him, / and all nations serve him”. 433 Speaking of him and of his kingdom, the prophet Daniel says: “The kingship and dominion and grandeur belonging to all the kingdoms under Heaven will be given to [fol. 82r] the people of the holy ones of the Most High. Their kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey them”. 434 And so that you are completely satisfied, I’d like to top everything off by showing you the meaning of that passage, which is that the Lord of the world shapes us and teaches that the kingdom of the Messiah will be in the Holy Land with the twelve tribes of Israel all living subservient to their Creator, which is why they were created. Listen closely: “The word of the Lord came to me: And you, O mortal, take a stick and write on it, ‘Of Judah and the Israelites associated with him’; and take another stick and write on it, ‘Of Joseph—the stick of Ephraim—and all house of Israel associated with him’. Bring them close to each other, so that they become one stick, joined together in your hand. And when any of your people ask you, ‘Won’t you tell us what these actions of yours mean?’ answer them, ‘Thus said the Lord God: I am going to take the stick of Joseph—which is in the hand of Ephraim—and of the tribes of Israel associated with him, and I will place the stick of Judah upon it and make them into one stick; they shall be joined in My hand’”435; “and you shall declare to them: Thus said the Lord God: I am going to take the Israelite people from among the nations they have gone to, and gather them from every quarter, [fol. 82v] and bring them to their own land. I will make them a single nation in the land, on the hills of Israel, and one king shall be king of them all. Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two Fols. 81v-82v

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kingdoms. Nor shall they ever again defile themselves by their fetishes […] I will save them in all their settlements […] and I will cleanse them. Then they shall be My people, and I will be their God. My servant David shall be king over them; there shall be one shepherd for all of them. They shall follow My rules and faithfully obey My laws. Thus they shall remain in the land which I gave to My servant Jacob and in which your fathers dwelt; they and their children and their children’s children shall dwell there forever, with My servant David as their prince for all time. I will make a covenant of friendship with them—it shall be an everlasting covenant with them—I will establish them and multiply them, and I will place My Sanctuary among them forever. My Presence shall rest over them; I will be their God and they shall be My people. And when My Sanctuary abides among them forever, the nations shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel”. 436 As you see here sir, and friend, I’ve stated to you just some of the many things one can say about these matters. In my soul I’ll hope that the passion with which I’ve told you all this makes you understand so that, having removed the [fol. 83r] cataracts that cover your eyes, you know the truth. 437 And if I’ve lost this passion at any point I’m sorry because of who you are and because of what happened to your parents, may they be with God. I’d like very much for you to take advantage of all of this, and I’m unable to offer anything else. Everything can be provided through guidance, kindness and assistance that reveals that He is the only one; and there is no other one. For He only loved, chose and gave His Law to His people, and through it the true path of salvation. May He be served for His infinite mercy. We sustain ourselves in it and we observe it so that we come to reach his grace and love’. ‘By the way, sir’, said the pilgrim, ‘I’d certainly be very ungrateful to God, and for your well-intentioned zeal and kindness, if I didn’t understand your honorable objective. For in addition to the kindness and company I’ve received from you, I know the reward through your willful desire that I benefit. I don’t want you to take me for someone who has such a lack of understanding about what you’ve said to me that thinking about these things hasn’t kept me up many nights, mulling them over, and taking everything into consideration. Since [fol. 83v] gaining the use of reason, I haven’t had any relief until today; I feel it very much because of what I’ve heard from you during this trip, which for me has been as happy as it’s been short. Your company has been fortunate, and because of what I’ve understood I’m certain that God hasn’t forgotten me. For after leaving Rome I found a friend who offered to pay my way to Spain, but because only solitude was agreeable to me, I didn’t accept it. I see now that it was God’s command that I be so well protected on this journey, which I am because of your company. Fols. 82v-83v

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I know that you are my true father and that I’ve received from you a greater benefit then any that the other one begot me. You’ve shown me the path of truth and I’m very informed about it. I would’ve told you this but, since I must go to Portugal, I didn’t think about saying it so clearly, and now I’m sorry that I didn’t give you that pleasure. Now that you know this, I’m sure you are very satisfied with what you’ve said to me. I truly understand and know well the Holy Scripture, for only the Law of our Lord is the true one. It contains and bestows salvation through knowing the [fol. 84r] truth: that the people from whom God made me follows and goes along the right path. May God be given thanks. I promise you, and I take the Lord as a witness, that I carry Him rooted in my heart, and that He has cleansed me of all the lies that I’ve followed until now. It was reserved for you to do such a great thing for me, because you are good and deserve more from the Lord of the world. May he give you a reward and may He give me the will to never forget the debt that I owe to you for so much kindness. During the days that God keeps me on this earth, I’ll always pray to God that your good fortune should increase. I’m sorry that the captain said we arrive in Nantes tomorrow, for it’ll be difficult for us to part ways. My soul will never be as filled with good and I promise, on our friendship, that my heart will not be happy until the holy covenant takes hold of me. May there be good things for you; and for me, your creation, pray to God that He grants me his favor’. ‘God, our Lord, makes you rejoice’, said the friend, ‘give me a big hug. Make yourself a servant of the Lord, for certainly I’ve had much good fortune in meeting you, and I’m very sorry that you weren’t able to accomplish what [fol. 84v] you prepared to do. But if you go to Flanders or to Amsterdam, during my days and in my house my sons and I will serve you as is just. And since you’re filled with God, fulfill what you’ve promised, asking Him for His help, for with it everything is understood’. Written in praise and glory of the Almighty Lord and His Divine and very holy Law.

Fols. 83v-84r

NOTES TO PP. 87-92

1. 2.

3. 4.

5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

11.

159

Notes to Arguments The year 5472 on the Jewish calendar corresponds to the year 1712 on the Christian calendar. The term used in the ms. is ‘escripto” (modern Spanish ‘escrito’), is used by the scribe, Michael (or Miguel) López, on the title pages of other manuscripts to indicate that he ‘copied” Moteira’s works (cf. CCP, UBA/BR 21 [Fuks 280], EH/LM 48B16 [Fuks 208]). The year 5377 on the Jewish calendar corresponds to the year 1616 on the Christian calendar, which is the same year of Morteira’s arrival in Amsterdam. The inference here appears to be that, from the pilgrim’s perspective, the individual standing in the doorway possesses a distinctive appearance. As will soon become clear, the term ‘Portuguese’ is synonymous with ‘Portuguese Nation’, which, as I discuss in my introduction, is a term used since Morteira’s time to refer to descendants of Spanish and Portuguese conversos who were crypto-Jews in Spain and who returned to Judaism in communities such as the one that formed in Amsterdam. From its inception, the relationship between the pilgrim and the individual standing in the doorway, who will soon be identified as the ‘friend’, is based on a mutual recognition of their common heritage. In plain terms, the phrase ‘By chance are you Portuguese?’ should thus be understood to indicate that, according to the pilgrim, the friend looks Jewish. The pilgrim is referring to Cesare d’Este, the Duke of Modena and Reggio (1597-1628). Montemayor el Nuevo is the Spanish term for Montemor-o-Novo, a city in the Portuguese District of Évora. The pilgrim is describing a Portuguese auto-da-fé (in Spanish auto-de-fe), an inquisitorial ceremony of penance at which sentences were pronounced on convicted judaizers. The pilgrim is referring to the University of Évora, which was founded in 1559 and overseen by the Society of Jesus until 1759. The friend and the pilgrim are actually traveling along the Loire River. The inference here is that, in spite of being born as Christians, conversos are unable to escape persecution. The pilgrim’s declaration recalls the character of anti-converso persecution, which was grounded in the perception among Old Christians that all conversos were crypto-Jews, and thus by nature heretical Christians. This is the first occasion on which the friend mentions personal salvation, a topic he will continue to discuss in connection with his efforts to encourage the pilgrim to embrace halachic (biblical/rabbinic/Talmudic) Judaism. As I discuss in my introduction, the importance lent by conversos to personal salvation was a Catholicized component of crypto- Judaism. Although it

160 NOTES TO PP. 93-96

does not appear that the pilgrim has practiced crypto-Judaism, its elimination was at the core of Morteira’s program of rejudaization. 12. Isa. 42.18. All biblical quotations in English from the Old Testament are from the Jewish Study Bible, and all biblical quotations in English from the New Testament are from The Scofield Study Bible. 13. Deut. 7.7. 14. The friend is alluding to an interpretation of an Islamic hadith, according to which Christians are divided into 72 sects, 71 of which are condemned to the fires of Hell while one enters Paradise. 15. The identity of the last two groups, Hermilians and Martinists (in the Spanish text ‘Hermilianos’ and ‘Martinos’), is unclear. The terms may refer to contemporary sects dedicated to saints (perhaps St. Hermes and St. Martin). It is tempting to speculate that the term Martinists refers to a very early manifestation of the mystical Martinist movement that formed in eighteenth-century France. 16. The friend again brings up the Catholicized crypto-Jewish belief in personal salvation in order to motivate the pilgrim to follow halachic norms. 17. The phrases ‘sweeter than honey’ and ‘drippings of the comb’ come from Ps. 19.11: ‘more desirable than gold, / than much fine gold; / sweeter than honey, / than drippings of the comb’. 18. The phrase ‘perfect, renewing life’ comes from Ps. 19.8: ‘The teaching of the Lord is perfect, / renewing life; / the decrees of the Lord are enduring, / making the simple wise’. 19. By using the term ‘mandamientos’ (precepts) it appears as if Morteira is condensing Psalm 19.9: ‘The precepts of the Lord are just, / rejoicing the heart; / the instruction of the Lord is Lucid, / making the eyes light up’. 20. Prov. 3:17. 21. As I discuss elsewhere (The Evolution 103-04, 109-10), the use of the term ‘fuego’ (fire) is employed as a metaphor for the Inquisition in converso literature. 22. The prohibition against reading vernacular translations of the Bible appears in the first inquisitorial Index of forbidden books, which was published in 1551. 23. The phrase ‘It is a precept for men to read it every day and night’ evokes Josh. 1.8: ‘Let not this Book of the Teaching cease from your lips, but recite it day and night, so that you may observe faithfully all that is written in it’. The phrase ‘it was commanded that during each year all five books should be read in front of and within earshot of everyone’ is based on Deut. 31.10-11, which involves instructions for hearing the Torah every seventh, or sabbatical, year: ‘And Moses instructed them as follows: Every seventh year, the year set for remission, at the Feast of Booths, when all Israel comes to appear before the Lord your God in the place that He will choose, you shall read this Teaching aloud in the presence of all Israel’. 24. Cf. 2 Chron. 30.4-5: ‘The king and the whole congregation thought it proper to issue a decree and proclaim throughout all Israel from Beer-sheba to Dan that they come and keep the Passover for the Lord God of Israel in Jerusalem’.

NOTES TO PP. 96-97

25. 26.

27.

28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33.

34. 35. 36.

161

The friend is alluding to passages from Ps. 119.105 and 119.130. Ps. 119.105: ‘Your word is a lamp to my feet, / a light for my path’; Ps. 119.130 ‘The words You inscribed give light’. This fabricated quotation may be ideologically grounded in passages such as Prov. 2.11-13 (‘Foresight will protect you, / And discernment will guard you. / It will save you from the way of evil men, / From men who speak duplicity, / Who leave the paths of rectitude / To follow the ways of darkness’) and Prov. 12.26 (‘A righteous man gives his friend direction, / But the way of the wicked leads astray’). Morteira’s use of the term ‘zeal’ initiates a hermeneutic circle that is closed near the end of Arguments. On fol. 10r, the pilgrim is enticed because of the friend’s ‘zeal’. On fols. 82v-83r, the term is employed first by the friend, who hopes that his zeal has been able to convince the pilgrim, and then by the pilgrim upon embracing Judaism. The implication here is that the majority of Portuguese conversos were crypto-Jews. Isa. 59.21. The ‘fools’ to whom the friend refers is an allusion to the ‘four uneducated idiots’ (fol. 6r) mentioned earlier by the pilgrim. The inference is that the pilgrim does not appreciate the dedication of conversos to retaining the Jewish faith. The friend is referring here to Protestant Europe. Cf. Deut. 5.8 ‘You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters below the earth’. The friend is referring here to the fact that, according to the Catholic tradition, the ninth commandment (prohibiting the coveting of a neighbor’s wife) and the tenth commandment (prohibiting the coveting of a neighbor’s property) derive from Deut. 5.18 (which is the tenth commandment according to the Jewish tradition): ‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not crave your neighbor’s house, or his field, or his male or female slave, or his ox, or his ass, or anything that is your neighbor’s’. Gen. 1.28. The friend appears to allude here to Martin Luther. This is an ironic assertion in light of the Spanish attitude toward panhandling, which was prohibited in municipal ordinances such as the one that banned beggars from Toledo in 1543. With respect to this attitude in Spain near the end of the sixteenth century (as depicted in Mateo Alemán’s piracresque novel Guzmán de Alfarache), Ana Inés Rodríguez Giles concludes: ‘Beggars were stigmatized during the early Modern Age, becoming suspected men who were frequently accused…. [Guzmán reveals] the configuration of an internal enemy that should be persecuted and from which it was necessary to produce, through generalized aversion and fear, public rejection’ (191). This assessment describes beggars is terms of a program of social alienation that recalls the manner by which conversos were spiritually and socially ostracized.

162 NOTES TO PP. 97-99

37. 38.

39. 40. 41. 42.

43. 44. 45. 46. 47.

This is the friend’s first reference to the topic of governance, to which he will return on several occasions in the narrative. The friend is alluding to the process that ultimately lead to the promulgation at Trent, in 1563, of the ‘Decree concerning Invocation, Veneration, and Relics of the Saints, and also concerning Sacred Images’ (cf. Brownlee 92-96). While the episode to which the friend refers (‘one of them said that if they were to do such a thing [….]’) may be based more in contemporary attitudes toward Trent than in historical fact, the decree concerning graven images issued at the final Tridentine session did evolve out of a recognition of abuses associated with the practice (cf. John O’Malley 241-44). In this light, the friend’s assertion that ‘during the Council of Trent they agreed to eliminate all sacred images after having seen the clear prohibition against them in divine Scripture’ recalls the attempt in the aforementioned ‘Decree’ to distance the Catholic Church from lingering idolatrous tendencies: ‘Not that it is believed that any divinity or power resides in them, on account of which they are to be worshipped, or that any benefit is to be sought from them, or any confidence placed in images, as was formerly by the Gentiles, who fixed their hope in idols’ (Brownlee 94). Ps. 19.2. Isa. 40.26. Ps. 115.4-7. In the first sentence of this quotation from Isa. 44, which I have translated literally as it appears in the ms. the friend condenses Isa. 44.14-15: ‘For his use he cuts down cedars; / He chooses plane trees and oaks. / He sets aside trees of the forest; / Or plants firs, and the rain makes them grow. / All this serves man for fuel: / He takes some to warm himself, / And he builds a fire and bakes bread. / He also makes a god of it and worships it, / Fashions an idol and bows down to it’! Isa. 44.19. Isa. 44.18. Isa. 44.21. The term ‘Chaldeans’ is synonymous with ‘Babylonians’. The ‘Fourth Monarchy’ is an allusion to one of the four kingdoms depicted in several chapters in Daniel. The term ‘four kingdoms’ is found within the apocalyptic vision offered by Daniel (8.20): ‘One was broken and four came in its stead—that [means]: four kingdoms will arise out of a nation, but without its power’. The fourth kingdom is described in Dan. 7.23: ‘This is what he said: “The fourth beast [means]—there will be a fourth kingdom upon the earth which will be different from all the kingdoms; it will devour the whole earth, tread it down, and crush it”’. The four kingdoms have been traditionally identified as Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. As a reflection of the tendency among those resisting Spanish tyranny to identify Imperial Spain with Imperial Rome, here the friend equates the Fourth Monarchy with the Spanish Habsburg crown that controlled the Inquisi-

NOTES TO PP. 100 -102

48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53.

54. 55. 56.

163

tion. It should be noted that the imminence of a ‘Fifth Monarchy’, which refers to a messianic kingdom, was a much debated topic among European thinkers around the time Morteira composed Arguments. The emphasis is again placed on personal salvation, on this occasion as the friend’s motive for following the ‘correct path’, that is, Judaism. Deut. 32.39. Isa. 44.6. The term can severo alludes to Cerberus, the three-headed dog who, according to Greek and Roman mythology, guarded the entrance to the underworld. Gen. 1.26. Here the friend describes the Old Testament as a political document, which is a central idea in the contemporary philosophical discussion of the biblical Hebrew Republic, which will be a topic I explore in depth in an upcoming monograph. Cf. Gen. 1.3: ‘God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light’. Cf. Gen. 1.26: ‘And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’”. ‘Genesis two’ refers to the depiction of the creation of man in Gen. 2.7-8: ‘the Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth. He blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being’. The friend relates an episode that may be based on the Midrashic tradition or that may represent an original interpretation of the biblical Creation narrative. According to the thirteenth century rabbinic compilation of ancient Talmudic homilies known as Midrash ha-Gadol (The Great Midrash), which is summarized by Louis Ginzberg: ‘When God was about to put a soul into Adam’s clod-like body, He said: “At which point shall I breath the soul into him? Into the mouth? Nay, for he will use it to speak ill of his fellow-man. Into the eyes? With them he will wink lustfully. Into the ears? They will hearken to slander and blasphemy. I will breathe her into his nostrils; as they discern the unclean and reject it, and take in the fragrant, so the pious will shun sin, and will cleave to the words of the Torah”’ (1: 60). An additional detail included in Midrash Koheleth 2.12, ‘God took counsel with His court concerning every single limb of man’ (Ginzberg 5: 81, n.26), is noteworthy with respect to the allusions in Arguments made by the friend to divine counsel. In this context, Morteira may have also had in mind a a passage from chapter three of Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, which is attributed to Eliezer ben Hurcanus of the late first and early second centuries AD: Forthwith the Holy One, blessed be He, took counsel with the Torah whose name is Tushijah (Stability or Wisdom) with reference to the creation of the world. (The Torah) replied and said to Him: Sovereign of the worlds! if there be no host for the king and if there be no camp for the king, over whom does he rule? If there be no people to praise the king, where is the honour of the king? The Holy One, blessed be He, heard this and it pleased Him. The Torah spake: The Holy One, blessed be He, took counsel with me concerning the

164 NOTES TO PP. 102-104 creation of the world, as it is said, ‘Mine are counsel and resourcefulness; I am understanding; courage is mine’ (Prov. 8.14). Hence they say, every government which has no counselors is not a proper government. Whence do we know this? From the government of the House of David which employed counsellors, as it is said, ‘Jonathan, David’s uncle, was a counselor, a master, and a scribe’ (1 Chron. 27.32). If the government of the House of David had counselors, how much more so should other people act likewise. This is of benefit to them, as it is said, ‘But the wise man accepts advice’ (Prov. 12.15), and (Scripture) says, ‘But victory comes with much planning’ (Prov. 11.14) (12-13).

57.

58. 59. 60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67.

68. 69. 70. 71. 72.

In perpetuating a Midrashic tradition (possessing variants in addition to those mentioned here [cf. Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer, 13, n. 2]) that associates the premundane council sought by God with wisdom, Morteira amplifies the conciliar body to include the Elements. I have provided a literal translation of this biblical quotation as it appears in the ms., which is an abridged version of Genesis 6.17: ‘For My part, I am about to bring the Flood—waters upon the earth—to destroy all flesh under the sky in which there is a breath of life; everything on earth shall perish’. Gen. 11.7-8. By ‘second causes’ the friend is referring, in a theological sense, to a cause (an action, occurrence, volition, etc.) that is brought about through a first cause, or God. Deut. 4.19-20. Cf. fol. 56v: ‘And man was a viceroy, and His lieutenant over the land and over all the things He had created’. Isa. 6.8. 1 Kings 22.19-20. Exod. 3.13-14. Deut. 5.6-7. Deut. 6.4. This sentence, which I have translated literally at it appears in the ms., paraphrases Deut. 6.5-7: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. Impress them upon your children’. Isa. 45.12. Jer. 27.5. Ps. 147.19-20. The phrase ‘that one’ refers to Ps. 147. The pilgrim is referring to Gen. 18.1-3: ‘The Lord appeared to him by the terebinths of Mamre; he was sitting at the entrance of the tent as the day grew hot. Looking up, he saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them, he ran from the entrance of the tent to greet them and, bowing to the ground, he said, “My lords, if it please you, do not go on past your servant’”.

NOTES TO PP. 104-105

73.

74. 75.

165

As is observed in The Jewish Study Bible (39, n. a), ‘My Lord’ is an alternate reading for ‘My lords’. The pilgrim is making an interpretation based on the reference to multiple stones before Jacob’s dream in Gen. 28.11 (‘Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place’) and the one stone mentioned in Gen. 28.18 (‘Early in the morning, Jacob took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on the top of it’). Cf. Gen. 18.10: ‘Then one said, ‘I will return to you next year, and your wife Sarah shall have a son’! The references to freeing Lot and destroying Sodom allude to events in Gen. 19.1-25. The friend’s description of the duties assigned to the three angels is derives from rabinnic commentary on Gen. 19.1 and 19.25 in Bava Mezia, the first component in the three-part Talmudic tractate Nezikin, which deals with civil law: The Gemara asks: Who were the three men who visited Abraham? And it answers: They were the three angels, Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, each of whom had his own special task to accomplish. Micahel came to bring Sarah the good news that she was to give birth to a son; Raphael came to heal Abraham after his circumcision; and Gabriel went to overthrow the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah…. Gabriel went to overthrow the cities and Michael went with him to rescue Lot. (The Talmud 5: 160)

In Arguments, the friend omits the duty assigned to Raphael in the passage from Bava Mezia. Raphael is, in fact, the only one of the three angels who is not mentioned in Gen. (or anywhere else in the Old Testament. The friend’s presentation of the opinions from Bava Mezia may be understood as an alteration of the Talmudic source designed to encourage the practice of Judaism through reading Scripture. 76. By employing the phrase ‘God’s steward’ Morteira inserts his own exegetical interpretation, which may be based on 2 Chron. 20.7: ‘O our God, you dispossessed the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and You gave it to the descendants of Your friend Abraham forever’. By elevating the status of Abraham from ‘friend’ to ‘steward’, Morteira prefigures his democratic designation of every Jew as God’s ‘viceroy’ or ‘lieutenant’ (fol. 56v). Another possibility is that Morteira sought inspiration in the Talmud, in particular in a passage from the Yalkut Shimoni that expands on Isaiah 51.1 (‘Listen to Me, you who pursue justice, you who seek the Lord: Look to the rock you were hewn from, to the quarry you were dug from. Look back to Abraham your father and to Sarah who brought you forth. For he was only one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many’): A king planned to erect a palace. He dug in several places seeking firm ground for a foundation. At last he struck rock beneath the surface and said: ‘Here

166 NOTES TO PP. 105-106 I will build’. In the same fashion when God sought to create the world, he examined the generation of Enosh and the generation of the Flood, saying: ‘How can I create the world when these wicked men will rise up and provoke me to anger?’ When he beheld that Abraham was destined to arise, he said: ‘Now have I found a rock on which to establish and erect the world’. For this reason God calls Abraham a Rock. (The Talmudic Anthology 38-39)

77.

78.

The role of God’s steward assigned to Abraham by Morteira may have been grounded in this aggadic depiction of his role as a seminal figure in Creation. The declarations that the angel in the middle was the most important and that Abraham was aware of this, as well as the mention of ‘buena criança’ (good upbringing), are based on passages from Midrash Rabbah 48.9-10 that elaborate on Gen. 18.2-3: He [Abraham] complained: ‘Before I was circumcised travellers used to visit me; now that I am circumcised perhaps they will no longer visit me?’ Said the Holy One, blessed be He, to him: ‘Hitherto uncircumcised mortals visited thee; but now I and my retinue will appear to thee’. Thus it is written, ‘Looking up, he saw three men standing near him” (Gen. 18.2)—he saw the Shechina and saw the angels…. Said he [Abraham]: ‘If I see that the Shechinah waits for them, I will know that they are worthy; and if I see that they pay respect to each other, I will know that they are distinguished’. And when he did see them pay respect to each other, he knew that they were distinguished. R. Abbahu said: The tent of the Patriarch Abraham opened at both sides. R. Judan said: It was like a double-gated passage. Said he: ‘If I see them turn aside, I will know that they are coming to me. When he saw them turn aside, immediately ‘he ran … to greet them’ (Gen. 18.2). And said: ‘My lord, it it please you’ (Gen. 18.3). R. Hiyya taught: He said this to the greatest of them, viz. Michael. (The Midrash 1: 410-11)

With this reference to Jacob’s sanctuary at Bethel, Morteira introduces the theme of God’s house, or houses, which will be a central component of the eschatological discourse of the friend. It is interesting to note that the friend’s assertion that Jacob ‘took two rocks from that place’ contradicts Gen. 28.11 and Gen. 28.18, which clearly refers to ‘one of the stones of that place’ (28.11) used under Jacob’s head to sleep and ‘the stone that he had put under his head’ (28.18) to build Bethel. Perhaps Morteira, on this occasion again adding his interpretation, informed the friend’s words with his variation on a rich rabbinic tradition involving the stone of Jacob and the Bethel sanctuary. 79. These sentences (‘But in that of Jacob…. no more’) may summarize Gen. 49, in which Jacob gathers his sons around his death bead, although the source of a quotation by Jacob to which the friend appears to be referring in the following sentence (‘And Jacob wanted to say there’) is unclear. 80. Isa. 2.3; these lines are repeated in Mic. 4.2.

NOTES TO PP. 106-108

81. 82. 83. 84. 85. 86.

87.

88. 89. 90. 91. 92. 93. 94.

167

This sentence may allude to Mic. 4.5: ‘Though all the peoples walk each in the names of its gods, we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever’. As I explain in my introduction, the friend is probably carrying a reprint from 1611 of the Ferrara Bible, which was first published in 1553. Exod. 4.22. The phrase ‘These peoples, since they were from the womb’, may refer to the Church Fathers or to the first generations of Christians, and the biblical quotation is from Ps. 73.9. Ps. 92.7-8. Cf. Joel 2.23: ‘For He has given you the early rain in [His] kindness’. My rendition of the term as ‘teacher’ is based on alternate readings of Joel 2.23 that fits the context of the narrative: ‘Other possibilities for the meaning of this sentence include “For He has given you a teacher for righteousness”; “For He has given you a righteous teacher”. The word translated “rain” (“moreh,” the same as in Ps. 84.7) is usually “yoreh,” and “moreh” can mean “teacher”. If the word is understood as “teacher”, then who is the teacher?’ (The Jewish Study Bible 1172, n. 23). The term in question in the ms. ‘amostradora’, which derives from the Spanish noun ‘mostrador’ (‘indicator’), conveys the sense of ‘teacher’, and for the friend in Arguments, the ‘teacher’ is the ‘Sacred Scripture’. As I discuss in my introduction, the reference to the term ‘light’ (in the ms. ‘luz’) communicates a particular reading of the Hebrew term ‫ נִ ר‬in Prov. 21.4 (‘The tillage of the wicked is sinful’), which is translated in The Jewish Study Bible as ‘tillage’ but which possesses a Hebrew root (‫ )נר‬that involves the same consonants that form the root of the Hebrew word for candle (‫)נֵ ר‬. It is interesting to speculate as to the symbolism Morteira intends to create with the friend’s declaration. In Prov. 21.4, the term in question appears with a negative connotation (‘Haughty looks, a proud heart—The tillage of the wicked is sinful’) while in Arguments the term ‘light’ follows the use of ‘teacher’, which alludes to ‘Sacred Scripture’ as I explain in the previous note. It is also interesting to point out that a positive association between ‘light’ and the divine word occurs in Ps. 119.105 (‘Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light for my path’). The friend appears to refer here to the passages from Genesis (18.1-3, 28.11 and 28.18) mentioned earlier by the pilgrim (fol. 20v). Gen. 2.16-17. Gen. 3.16. Gen. 3.17-19. See the discussion above concerning the divine breath into Adam’s nostrils. The term ‘Ladino’, the Castilian dialect spoken by conversos and Sephardic Jews, refers here to the Spanish of the Ferrara Bible, which was published in 1553 by conversos who fled to Italy and which was widely used by conversos. As I discusss in my introduction, the phrase ‘dying, you will die’ (which is translated in The Jewish Study Bible as ‘you shall die”) is a literal transla-

168 NOTES TO PP. 108-110

95. 96.

97. 98.

99.

100.

101. 102. 103.

104.

105. 106. 107.

tion of the final words of Gen. 2.17 as they appear in Obstáculos (‘moriendo moriras’) and the Ferrara text (‘morir moriras’). Ps. 8.6. The friend’s depiction of the dispossession of Adam’s gifts may be based in a midrashic tale such as the one summarized by Ginzberg: ‘the punishment of Adam was tenfold: he lost his celestial clothing—God stripped it off him [...]’. (1: 79; cf. 5: 102, n. 87). The friend is alluding to Gen. 3.10: ‘He replied, I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid’. The phrase ‘eating, you will eat’ (which is translated in The Jewish Study Bible as ‘you are free to eat’), as in the case of ‘dying, you will die’, is a literal translation of the final words of Gen. 2.16 as they appear in Spanish in ms. EH/LM 48D38 [Fuks 206] (‘comiendo comeras’) and the Ferrara text (‘comer comeras’). This passage (‘If you eat [...] they kill you’) appears to contain Morteira’s original interpretation, although the phrase ‘all the things I created to be subservient to you will rise up against you and will endeavor to kill you” may have been inspired in the aformentioned midrashic tale summarized by Ginzberg: ‘in death his body was to be a prey of the worms; animals were to have power over him, in that they could slay him’ (1: 79). Gen. 26.11: ‘shall be put to death’. In order to fit the context of the narrative, this and the following literal translations of biblical phrases containing infinitive absolutes (which I discuss in my introduction) as they appear in ms. 48D38 are placed in the text in brackets, with the equivalent translation from The Jewish Study Bible included in the corresponding note. 1 Kings 2.37: ‘you can be sure that you will die’. Deut. 7.18: ‘You have but to bear in mind’. The phrases ‘opening, you will open’ and ‘giving, you will give’ derive from Deut. 15.11 and 15.10, respectively, and are translated as ‘open [your hand]’ (15.11) and ‘Give [to him readily]’ in The Jewish Study Bible (‘Give to him readily and have no regrets when you do so, for in return the Lord your God will bless you in all your efforts and in all your undertakings’ [15.10]; ‘For there will never cease to be needy ones in your land, which is why I command you: open your hand to the poor and needy kinsman in your land’ [15.11]). I have translated this quotation literally as it appears in ms. 48D38. It may paraphrase Ezek. 18.20: ‘The person who sins, he alone shall die. A child shall not share the burden of a parent’s guilt’. Morteira may also have had in mind Ezek. 18.17: ‘he shall not die for the iniquity of his father’. Ezek. 18.4-5. Morteira adds the phrase in brackets to the biblical quotation. Ezek. 18.10. Morteira again adds the phrase in brackets to the biblical quotation. Here the friend fuses Ezek. 18.14 (‘Now suppose that he, in turn, has begotten a son who has seen all the sins that his father committed, but has taken heed and has not imitated them’) with Ezek. 18.17 (‘he has obeyed My rules

NOTES TO PP. 110 -112

108. 109.

110.

111.

112.

169

and followed My laws—he shall not die for the iniquity of his father [living, he will live]’) and Ezek. 18.20-23: (‘the righteousness of the righteous shall be accounted to him alone, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be accounted to him alone. Moreover, if the wicked one repents of all the sins that he committed and keeps all My laws [...] [living, he will live] [...]. None of the transgressions he committed shall be remembered against him…. Is it my desire that a wicked person shall die?—says the Lord God. It is rather that he shall turn back from his ways and live’). The phrases in brackets containing infinitive absolutes are translated in The Jewish Study Bible as ‘but shall live’ (Ezek. 18.17) and ‘he shall live’ (Ezek. 18.21). The friend is referring to the death of Jesus Christ. Cf. Gen. 17.7-14: ‘“I will maintain My covenant between Me and you, and your offspring to come, as an everlasting covenant throughout the ages, to be God to you and to your offspring to come. I assign the land you sojourn in to you and your offspring to come, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting holding. I will be their God”. God further said to Abraham, “As for you, you and your offspring to come throughout the ages shall keep My covenant. Such shall be the covenant between Me and you and your offspring to follow which you shall keep: every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and that shall be the sign of the covenant between Me and you. And throughout the generations, every male among you shall be circumcised at the age of eight days. As for the home-born slave and the one bought from an outsider who is not of your offspring, they must be circumcised, home born, and purchased alike. Thus shall My covenant be marked in your flesh as an everlasting pact. And if any male who is uncircumcised fails to circumcise the flesh of his foreskin, that person shall be cut off from his kin; he has broken My covenant”’. In these sentences (‘Abraham accepted [...] promise to God’) the friend appears to be alluding to the depiction of the circumcisions in Gen. 17.23-27: ‘Then Abraham took his son Ishmael, and all his homeborn slaves and all those he had bought, every male in Abraham’s household, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins on that very day, as God had spoken to him. Abraham was 99 years old when he circumcised the flesh of his foreskin, and his son Ishmael was thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. Thus Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised on that very day; and all his house-hold, his homeborn slaves and those that had been bought from outsiders, were circumcised with him’. Cf. Gen. 2.15-17: ‘The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden, to till it and tend it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘Of every tree of the garden you are free to eat; but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it; for as soon as you eat of it, you shall die’. Cf. Gen. 32. 25-29: ‘Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the break of dawn. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he wrenched Jacob’s hip at its socket, so that the socket of his hip was strained

170 NOTES TO PP. 112-114

113. 114.

115. 116.

117. 118. 119.

120.

121.

122. 123.

as he wrestled with him. Then he said, “Let me go, for dawn is breaking”. But he answered, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me”. Said the other, “What is your name?” He replied, “Jacob”. Said he, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with beings divine and human, and have prevailed”’. Cf. 2 Kings 20.11: ‘So the prophet Isaiah called to the Lord, and He made the shadow which had descended on the dial of Ahaz recede ten steps’. This is the first of a number of allusions by the friend to the Lord of Hosts (or Lord of Armies). This epithet for God first appears during an allusion to the father of the prophet Samuel in 1 Sam. 3 (‘This man used to go up from his town every year to worship and to offer sacrifice to the Lord of Hosts at Shiloh’). Num. 14.20. This appears to be an allusion to Deut. 34.6 (‘He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, near Beth-peor; and no one knows his burial place to this day’), to which the following sentence also refers. Here the friend may be invoking the anonymity of Moses’ tomb, ‘thus precluding pilgrimages to the site as a shrine’ (The Jewish Study Bible 449, n.6), and in turn distinguishing the death of Moses from the death of Jesus Christ. Here the friend alludes to the traditional interpretation of Deut. 34.6 (‘The clear indication is that God Himself buried Moses’ [The Jewish Study Bible 449, n.6]). Ps. 116.11. The reference to ‘taking it as His special vine’ alludes to Isa. 5 (‘Let me sing for my beloved a song of my lover about his vineyard [….]’.) or to Ps. 80.9-20 (‘You plucked up a vine from Egypt [….]’). The reference to ‘his inheritance’ alludes to Ps. 28.9 (‘Deliver and bless Your very own people’) or Ps. 94.14 (‘He will not abandon His very own’). The reference to ‘He is called their God” may allude to Ezek. 28.28 (‘And they shall know that I the Lord am their God”), to Ezek. 34.30 (‘They shall know that I the Lord their God am with them and they, the House of Israel, are My people”), or to Ezek. 39.28 (‘They shall know that I the Lord am their God when, having exiled them among the nations, I gather them back into their land and leave none of them behind’). God is called ‘king” in Ps. 44.5 (‘You are my king, O God; decree victories for Jacob!’), ‘pastor” (or ‘shepherd’) in Ps. 23.1 (‘The Lord is my shepherd’), and ‘keeper” (or ‘guardian’) in Ps. 121.5 (‘The Lord is your guardian’). This phrase may refer to Gen. 18.17-18, when God deliberates over whether to inform Abraham about the imminent destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah: ‘Now the Lord had said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, since Abraham is to become a great and populous nation and all the nations of the earth are to bless themselves by him?”’ Amos 3.7. This quotation is a condensed version of Deut. 13.2-6.

NOTES TO PP. 114-115

171

124. By ‘other’ place, the friend is alluding to passages such as Deut. 4.2 (‘You shall not add anything to what I command you or take anything away from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I enjoin upon you’), and Deut. 13.1 (‘Be careful to observe only that which I enjoin upon you: neither add to it nor take away from it’). 125. The pilgrim is alluding here to Isa. 7.14, which the friend quotes below. 126. Zech. 9.9. 127. Cf. Isa. 7.1-2: ‘In the reign of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel marched upon Jerusalem to attack it; but they were not able to attack it. Now, when it was reported to the House of David that Aram had allied itself with Ephraim, their hearts and the hearts of their people trembled as trees of the forest sway before a wind’. 128. Cf. Isa. 7.3-4: ‘But the Lord said to Isaiah, ‘Go out with your son Shear-jashub to meet Ahaz at the end of the conduit of the Upper Pool, by the road of the Fuller’s Field. And say to him: Be firm and calm. Do not be afraid and do not lose heart on account of those two smoking stubs of firebrands, on account of the raging of Rezin and his Arameans and the son of Remaliah’. 129. Cf. Isa. 7.10-11: ‘The Lord spoke further to Ahaz: “Ask for a sign from the Lord your God, anywhere down to Sheol or up to the sky”’. 130. Cf. Isa. 7.12: ‘But Ahaz replied, “I will not ask, and I will not test the Lord”’. 131. Isa. 7.14. 132. Isa. 7.16. 133. This quotation is a condensed version of Isa. 8.2-4. 134. Cf. 2 Kings 17.5-6: ‘Then the king of Assyria marched against the whole land; he came to Samaria and besieged it for three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria. He deported the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah, at the [River] Habor, at the River Gozan, and in the towns of Media’. There is no specific reference to Damascus in 2 Kings. 135. Isa. 8.18. 136. The phrase ‘annunciation of the son’ alludes to Isa. 7.14: ‘Assuredly, my Lord will give you a sign of His own accord! Look, the young woman is with child and about to give birth to a son. Let her name him Immanuel’. 137. Isa. 7.16. 138. The friend is alluding to King Hezekiah. Cf. 2 Chron. 29.1: ‘Hezekiah became king at the age of twenty-five, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem’. 139. Cf. 2 Kings 20.10-11: ‘Hezekiah said, “It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps, but not for the shadow to recede ten steps”. So the prophet Isaiah called to the Lord, and He made the shadow which had descended on the dial of Ahaz recede ten steps’. 140. ‘That one’ alludes to King Hezekiah, whose enemy, the King Sennacherib of Assyria, is destroyed in 2 Chron. 32.21-22. The phrase ‘your virgin doesn’t enter into any of this’ implies that there is no mention of a virgen in Isa. 7.1425, in which the prophecy in question is revealed (Isa. 7.16: ‘For before the

172 NOTES TO PP. 115-118

141. 142. 143. 144. 145. 146. 147.

148.

149. 150. 151.

lad knows to reject the bad and choose the good, the ground whos two kings you dread shall be abandoned’). Zech. 9.9-10. As I explain in my introduction, the friend recounts what has the appearance of an auto, a one-act religious morality play commonly performed in Spain and Portugal during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The friend is alluding to his quotation from Zech. 9.9-10 above. The friend may be alluding here to Moses’ humility as displayed in Exod. 3.11: ‘But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and free the Israelites from Egypt?”’ Cf. Exod. 4.20: ‘So Moses took his wife and sons, mounted them on an ass, and went back to the land of Egypt; and Moses took the rod of God with him’. The friend is alluding to Exod. 8.17-27 (flies, or insects, the fourth plague), Exod. 7.27-8.10 (frogs, the second plague) and Exod. 8.12-15 (lice, or vermin, the third plague). This quotation, which I have translated literally as it appears in the ms., seems to be an abbridged version of Dan. 2.34-35: ‘As you looked on, a stone was hewn out, not by hands, and struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them. All at one, the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold were crushed, and became like chaff of the threshing floors of summer; a wind carried them off until no trace of them was left. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth’ (Jewish Study Bible). This quotation appears to paraphrase Hos. 2.7-9, although with a phrase added by Morteira (indicated with brackets) that appears to substitute for the first two lines of Hos. 2.7 (‘In that their mother has played the harlot, / She that conceived them has acted shamelessly’), and an omission of lines (‘Who supply my bread and my water, / My wool and my linen, / My oil and my drink’) indicated by […] in my English translation. Isa. 43.10. In his rendition of Isa. 43.10, the friend substitutes the initial phrase from the biblical passage, ‘I am He’, with a phrase, ‘I am the first’ (included in brackets), from Isa. 44.6. Isa. 42.23-24. Morteira adds two phrases to the friend’s rendition of Isa. 42.2324, ‘I will listen” and ‘or in His commandments’, which are included in brackets. This quotation, which I have translated into English literally as it appears in the ms., appears to be loosely based on Deut. 4.23-26: ‘Take care, then, not to forget the covenant that the Lord your God concluded with you, and not to make for yourselves a sculptured image in any likeness, against which the Lord your God has enjoined you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, an impassioned God. When you have begotten children and children’s children and are long established in the land, should you act wickedly and make for yourselves a sculptured image in any likeness, causing the Lord your God displeasure and vexation, I call heaven and earth this day to witness against you that you shall soon perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess; you shall not long endure in it, but shall be utterly wiped out’.

NOTES TO PP. 119-120

173

152. Deut. 31.16. 153. This quotation is an abridged version of Deut. 31.16-17 and the passages omitted by the friend are indicated in brackets in the English translation. 154. Deut. 28.58. The friend adds the phrase ‘do not hear the voice of the Lord’, which is indicated in brackets. 155. Deut. 28.63-64. 156. The phrase ‘And because of you’ is an allusion to the theme of general culpability that informs this section of Deut. 29 and the following quotation is an abridged version of Deut. 29.22-27, with the missing passages indicated by brackets. The phrase ‘the Lord your God will devastate your land, and will cast upon it’ condenses Deut. 29.21: ‘And later generations will ask—the children who succeed you, and foreigners who come from distant lands and see the plagues and diseases that the Lord has inflicted upon that land’. 157. 2 Chron. 7.12. 158. The phrase ‘the rogation that you uttered before me’ appears to have been added by Morteira in order to embellish the previous quotation from 2 Chron. 7.12. 159. 2 Chron. 7.17-22. 160. Jer. 5.19. 161. The friend introduces his quotation from Jer. 9.12 by summarizing Jer. 9.11: ‘What man is so wise / That he understands this? / To whom has the Lord’s mouth spoken, / So that he can explain it: / Why is the land in ruins, / Laid waste like a wilderness, / With none passing through?’ 162. Jer. 9.12. 163. The pilgrim is alluding here to a fundamental component of medieval antiJudaism that enlisted it as spiritually inferior, as David Sandmel explains: As Christianity began to develop an identity independent of Judaism, it [...] [came] to view itself as the ‘new Israel,’ partners with God in a ‘new’ covenant through Jesus Christ [...]. The church fathers taught that the Jews had abrogated God’s covenant and had been spurned by God. This was a result of the Jews’ unfaithfulness to God, as recorded in the Tanach/Old Testament itself, but culminating in their rejection of Jesus as Christ. This teaching has come to be known as ‘replacement theology” or ‘supersessionisim’. In its most extreme and most dangerous form, the Church considered itself to be the ‘spiritual Israel” diametrically opposed to the Jews as the ‘carnal Israel” or ‘Israel of the flesh’. The Church is the ‘true Israel” and represents God and good; the Jews are the ‘false Israel” and represent Satan and evil [...]. The consequence of this theology was a growing antipathy to Jews and Judaism that found expression in the Christian oppression and persecution of Jews. (132-33)

The tendency to depict Jews as enemies of Christ, and in particular in close league with Satan, was disseminated throughout medieval Europe in homi-

174 NOTES TO PP. 120 -121

164.

165.

166. 167.

168.

169. 170. 171.

172.

173.

letic discourse by Church figures in popular tales, such as the Faust and Theophilus legends, as well as in the graphic arts (cf. Trachtenberg 11-31). The friend’s declaration that ‘it is well known that under the rubric of Christian there are 72 different religions’ alludes to an apocalyptic Mohammedan prophesy, or hadith, recorded by the ninth century Babylonian Islamic theologian Abu Da’ud in his Sunan Abu Dawud, according to which Christianity splinters into 72 sects: ‘The Prophet said: The Jews were split up into 71 or 72 sects; and the Christians were split up into 71 or 72 sects; and my community will be split up into 73 sects’ (Sunan Abu Dawud, Book 41, Hadith 4579). Cf. Exod. 7.9-10: ‘“When Pharaoh speaks to you and says, ‘Produce your marvel’, you shall say to Aaron, ‘Take your rod and cast it down before Pharaoh’. It shall turn into a serpent”. So Moses and Aaron came before Pharaoh and did just as the Lord had commanded: Aaron cast down his rod in the presence of Pharaoh and his courtiers, and it turned into a serpent’. Cf. Ps. 132.11: ‘The Lord swore to David / a firm oath that He will not renounce, “One of your own issue I will set upon your throne”’. Cf. 1 Kings 22:6: ‘So the king of Israel gathered the prophets, about four hundred men, and asked them, “Shall I march upon Ramoth-gilead for battle, or shall I not?” “March”, they said, “and the Lord will deliver [it] into Your Magesty’s hands”’. Cf. 2 Kings 19.35: ‘That night an angel of the Lord went out and struck down one hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp, and the following morning they were all dead corpses’. These verses are repeated in Isa. 37.36. Rather than Isa. 37, the quotation is Isa. 43.21. Gen. 17.7. Morteira added the phrase ‘para siempre’ to the end of the friend’s rendition of Gen. 17.7. Cf. Gen. 12.1-3: ‘The Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, / And I will bless you; / I will make your name great, / And you shall be a blessing. / I will bless those who bless you / And curse him that curses you; / And all the families of the earth / Shall bless themselves by you”’. Cf. Gen. 26.2-4: ‘The Lord had appeared to him [Isaac] and said: ‘Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land which I point out to you. Reside in this land, and I will be with you and bless you; I will assign all these lands to you and to your heirs, fulfilling the oath that I swore to your father Abraham. I will make your heirs as numerous as the stars of heaven, and assign to your heirs all these lands, so that all the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your heirs’. Cf. Gen. 46.2-5: ‘God called to Israel in a vision by night: “Jacob! Jacob!” He answered, “Here”. And He said, “I am god, the God of your father. Fear not to go down to Egypt, for I will make you there into a great nation. I Myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I Myself will also bring you back; and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes”’.

NOTES TO PP. 121-122

175

174. Cf. Exod. 28.9-12: ‘Then take two lazuli stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel: six of their names on the one stone, and the names of the remaining six on the other stone, in the order of their birth. On the two stones you shall make seal engravings—the work of a lapidary—of the names of the sons of Israel. Having bordered them with frames of gold, attach the two stones to the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, as stones for remembrance of the Israelite people, whose names Aaron shall carry upon his two shoulder-pieces for remembrance before the Lord’. 175. Cf. Exod. 3-12, which depicts God’s call to Moses, the plagues inflicted on the Egyptians, and the freedom of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. 176. Cf. Exod. 13.21: ‘The Lord went before them in a pillar of cloud by day, to guide them along the way, and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light, that they might travel day and night’. 177. Cf. Deut. 5.19: ‘The Lord spoke those words—those and no more—to your whole congregation at the mountain, with a mighty voice out of the fire and the dense clouds’. 178. Exod. 19.3-6. 179. Cf. Exod. 16.35: ‘And the Israelites ate manna forty years, until they came to a settled land; they ate the manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan’. 180. Cf. Deut. 29.4: ‘I led you through the wilderness forty years; the clothes on your back did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet’. 181. As I discuss in my introduction, Morteira’s source here is Monarchía Ecclesiástica (1576), a multi-volume history of the world by the cleric, preacher and historian Juan de Pineda (b.c. 1500-d. 1566). 182. Cf. Num. 1.1-46, in which Moses and Aaron oversee the first census of the Israelites. 183. Cf. Josh. 10.12-14: ‘On that occasion, when the Lord routed the Amorites before the Israelites, Joshua addressed the Lord; he said in the presence of the Israelites: “Stand still, O sun, at Gibeon, / O moon, in the Valley of Aijalon!” / And the sun stood still / And the moon halted, / While a nation wreaked judgment on its foes—as is written in the Book of Jashar. Thus the sun halted in midheaven, and did not press on to set, for a whole day; for the Lord fought for Israel. Neither before nor since has there ever been such a day, when the Lord acted on words spoken by a man’. 184. Cf. 1 Kings 18.41-46: ‘Elijah said to Ahab, ‘Go up, eat and drink, for there is a rumbling of [approaching] rain,’ and Ahab went up to eat and drink. Elijah meanwhile climbed to the top of Mount Carmel, crouched on the ground, and put his face between his knees. And he said to his servant, ‘Go up and look toward the Sea’. He went up and looked and reported, ‘There is nothing’. Seven times [Elijah] said, ‘Go back,’ and the seventh time, [the servant] reported, ‘A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising in the west’. Then [Elijah] said, ‘Go say to Ahab, ‘Hitch up [your chariot] and go down before the rain stops you’’. Meanwhile the sky grew black with clouds; there was

176 NOTES TO PP. 122-123

185. 186. 187. 188. 189.

190.

191.

192.

wind, and a heavy downpour fell; Ahab mounted his chariot and drove off to Jezreel. The hand of the Lord had come upon Elijah. He tied up his skirts and ran in front of Ahab all the way to Jezreel’. Cf. 2 Kings 6.17: ‘Then Elisha prayed: ‘Lord, open his eyes and let him see’. And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he saw the hills all around Elisha covered with horses and chariots of fire’. Cf. Jer. 1.5: ‘Before I created you in the womb, I selected you; / Before you were born, I consecrated you; / I appointed you a prophet concerning the nations’. Cf. Exod. 31.1: ‘The Lord spoke to Moses: See, I have singled out by name Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah’. Cf. Exod. 31.6: ‘Moreover, I have assigned to him Oholiab son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan’. With this allusion to whether Oholiab was appropriate for this task Morteria draws on Midrash that is condensed by Ginzberg: ‘At the side of Bezalel, the noble Judean, worked Oholiab, of the insignificant tribe of Dan, to show that ‘before God, the great and the lowly are equal’. And as the Tabernacle rose, thanks to the combined efforts of a Judean and a Danite, so too did the Temple of Jerusalem, which was built at the command of the Judean Solomon by the Danite Hiram” (3: 156). Cf. Exod. 31.6: ‘and I have also granted skill to all who are skillful, that they make everything that I have commanded you’. With the friend’s declaration that ‘even those women who were sewing” were ‘filled [with] divine knowledge and spirit’, Morteira may be alluding to a rabbinic interpretation found in the Targum Yerushalmi, which Ginzberg condenses: ‘The women, however, were no less eager to contribute their mite, and were especially active in producing the woolen hangings [for the Tabernacle]. They did this in so miraculous a way, that they spun the wool while it was still upon the goats” (3: 174). The friend refers here to three figures from the New Testament, ‘carpenters’ (cf. Matt. 13.55: ‘Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?’; Mark 6.3: ‘Isn’t this the carpenter?’), and ‘fishermen’ (cf. Matt. 4.19: ‘“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men”’), and ‘boatmen’ (cf. John 21.3: ‘“I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you”’.). These figures may represent the Catholic faith, while the other figure mentioned, republicans (‘publicanos’) may represent Protestants, in particular supporters of the pluralistic Dutch republic created upon the unification of the Seven United Provinces in 1581 including Dutch republicans such as Peter Cunaeus (b. 1586-d. 1638) and Hugo Grotius (b. 1583-d. 1645). The friend may be alluding here to the nativity story as related in Luke 2.12 (‘This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger’) and Luke 2.15-16 (‘When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about”. So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the

NOTES TO PP. 123-124

193.

194.

195. 196.

197. 198.

199. 200. 201. 202. 203. 204. 205.

177

manger’), which does not indicate that there was any witness (aside from the Virgin Mary, of course) to the birth of Jesus. The friend may be alluding here to a Protestant interpretation of Matt. 27.46 (‘About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice … ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’”), according to which Jesus was damned by God to attone for sins committed by humans. For a discussion of an early expression of this view from the ‘Sermon on Preparing to Die” (1519) by Martin Luther (b. 1483-d. 1546), see Dennis Ngien. The terms ‘gallows” (which is repeated several lines below) and ‘died by hanging” allude, respectively, to the cross upon which Jesus was crucified and death by crucifixion. The assertion that ‘it was by His commandment that they take him down from the gallows before the sunset because it was an abomination if anyone died by hanging” refers to Deut. 21.22-23: ‘If a man is guilty of a capital offense and is put to death, and you impale him on a stake, you must not let his corpse remain on the stake overnight, but must bury him the same day. For an impaled body is an affront to God: you shall not defile the land that the Lord your God is giving you to possess’. This quotation, which I have translated into English literally as it appears in the ms., may be based on Psalms 7.7: ‘Rise, O lord, in Your anger; assert Yourself against the fury of my foes’. Cf. Dan. 9.27: ‘During one week he will make a firm covenant with many. For half a week he will put a stop to the sacrifice and the meal offering. At the corner [of the altar] will be an appalling abomination until the decreed destruction will be poured down upon the appalling thing’. The number ‘1700’ may symbolize the seventeenth century, that is, in order to convey the notion that Christians continue to practice during the 1600s what the friend calls an ‘abomination’ (commemorating the crucifixion of Christ). Cf. Lev. 21.10-11: ‘The priest who is exalted above his fellows, on whose head the annointing oil has been poured and who has been ordained to wear the vestments, shall not bear his head or rend his vestments. He shall not go in where there is any dead body; he shall not defile himself even for his father or mother’. This is an abridged quotation from Isa. 51.12-13. Isa. 53.2-3. Although the ms. reads ‘verço 20’ (‘verse 20’), this is an obvious (scribal? authorial?) error that should read ‘verse 2’. The friend is referring to Isa. 53. Cf. Rev. 1.14: ‘His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow’. Cf. Ps. 90.10: ‘The span of our life is 70 years’. Cf. Luke 3.23: ‘Now Jesus himself was about 30 years old when he began his ministry’. Cf. Gen. 40.19, which depicts Joseph’s interpretation of the chief baker’s dream: ‘In three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and impale you upon a pole; and the birds will pick off your flesh’.

178 NOTES TO PP. 125-126

206. The friend is alluding to Gen. 40, which narrates Joseph’s interpretation of dreams while in prison. 207. The friend may be alluding to Isa. 1.3-4 (‘‘Israel does not know, / My people takes no thought’. / Ah, sinful nation! / People laden with iniquity! / Brood of evildoers! / Depraved children!”) or Jer. 4.22 (‘For My people are stupid, / They give Me no heed; / They are foolish children, / They are not intelligent”). 208. Cf. Exod. 4.22: ‘Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: Israel is My first-born son”; and Hos. 11.1: ‘I fell in love with Israel / When he was still a child; / And I have called [him] My son / Ever since Egypt’. 209. The friend is referring to Jesus Christ. 210. Lam. 2.1. 211. The phrase ‘The children of Zion, valued like sapphires’ may be an expansion by Morteira of a rabbinic interpretation of Exod. 34.1-4: ‘The Lord said to Moses: ‘Carve two tablets of stone like the first, and I will inscribe upon the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you shattered. Be ready by morning, and in the morning come up to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to Me, on the top of the mountain. No one else shall come up with you, and no one else shall be seen anywhere on the mountain; neither shall the flocks and the herds graze at the foot of this mountain. So Moses carved two tablets of stone, like the first, and early in the morning he went up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, taking the two stone tablets with him’. According to Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer (361), the stone tablets cut by Moses were made out of sapphire. 212. The friend’s use of ‘earthen jug’ (my translation of the term ‘vazo’ in the ms.) as a metaphor for disobeying God and, in the context of Arguments, disobeying rabbinic Judaism, may allude to a punishment for such disobedience described in Isa. 30.14: ‘It is smashed as one smashes an earthen jug, / Ruthlessly shattered / So that no shard is left in its breakage / To scoop coals from a brazier, / Or ladle water from a puddle’. 213. Ps. 123.3-4. 214. Jer. 23.28. 215. The friend is referring to the rejection of the pilgrim by the Jesuit Order. 216. This apparent biblical quotation, which I have translated literally as it appears in the ms., may be based on Neh. 9.31: ‘Still, in Your great compassion You did not make an end of them or abandon them, for You are are a gracious and compassionate God’. 217. Isa. 49.15. 218. Zech. 2.12. 219. Jer. 31.35-36. 220. Deut. 33.29. 221. This sentence, which I have translated literally as it appears in the ms., may allude to Hos. 11.9: ‘I will not act on My wrath, / Will not turn to destroy Ephraim. / For I am God, not man, / The Holy One in your midst: / I will not come in fury’.

NOTES TO PP. 126-127

179

222. The reference to the absence of a ‘house’ (‘caza’) alludes to the absence of a Jewish temple in Jerusalem since its destruction in 70 AD. 223. Jer. 14.8. 224. Ezek. 11.16. As the editors of The Jewish Study Bible explain with respect to the term ‘diminished sanctity’, ‘God claims to be a diminished sanctity: God’s presence in the world, rather than the Temple’s presence in Jerusalem, insures their future. Jewish tradition reads into “mikdash me’at,” “a little sanctuary,” a reference to the origins of synagogues’ (1061, n. 16). 225. Cf. for example, Ps. 110: ‘The Lord will stretch forth from Zion your mighty scepter; / hold sway over your enemies! / [/…/] He crushes kings in the day of His anger. / He works judgment upon the nations’. 226. Morteira is referring here to the Christian typological interpretation of Ps. 22 as a portent of the crucifixion of Christ. 227. Although the friend attributes this quotation to a prophet, it is more accurately classified as a popular saying based on a prophetic statement in Eccles. 11.5: ‘Just as you do not know how the lifebreath passes into the limbs within the womb of the pregnant woman, so you cannot forsee the actions of God, who causes all things to happen’. Versions of the saying similar to the friend’s rendition in Arguments (‘assy como no ay para el hombre coza mas çierta que la muerte ni mas inçierta que saber su hora’) appear in several contemporary Spanish works. In La guia de pecadores (The Sinner’s Guide), a widely read work first published in 1555, the Dominican friar and theologian Luis de Granada (b. 1505-d. 1588) expresses the same concept: ‘la memoria de la muerte, por un cabo tan cierta, y por otro tan incierta’ (63 [the image of death, on one hand so certain, and on the other so incertain; the English translation is my own]). In his Destierro de ignorancias, y aviso de penitentes (of Ignorance, and Advice for Penitents, originally published in 1620), the Franciscan friar Alonso de Vascones includes a rendition that closely parallels the one in Arguments: ‘Asi como no hay cosa mas cierta que la muerte, ni mas incierta que el dia’ (238; there is nothing more certain than death and nothing more uncertain then knowing its day; the English translation is my own). Another parallel rendition (which also reveals the saying’s popularity) was penned by one of the most renowned writers of the Golden Age of Spanish literature, Francisco de Quevedo (b. 1580-d. 1645), in La cuna y la sepultura (The Cradle and the Grave), which was published in 1634: ‘Oído habrás decir muchas veces que no hay cosa más cierta que la muerte ni más incierta que el cuando’ (99; You will have heard many times that there is nothing more certain than death and nothing more uncertain than its time; the English translation is my own). 228. Although he incorrectly states Jesus’ age, the friend appears to be alluding to Luke 2.42-47: ‘When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom. After the Feast was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When

180 NOTES TO PP. 127-130

229.

230.

231. 232. 233. 234. 235. 236. 237. 238. 239. 240.

241. 242. 243. 244. 245. 246.

they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers’. The friend is implying here that, rather than Jesus Christ, the people of Israel are the true son of God for the suffering they continue to endure, in particular the incriminating though often-dubious inquisitorial testimony alluded to by the phrase ‘false testimony’. By ‘compilation of Israel’, the friend may be alluding to two sixteenth-century works that reveal that most of the Spanish nobility could trace part of its ancestry to Jewish families: Libro verde de Aragón (The Green Book of Aragon), published by the inquisitorial secretary Juan de Anchías (b. late fifteenth century-d. early sixteenth century), and El tizón de la nobleza de España (The Blemish of the Spanish nobility), published by Francisco Mendoza de Bobadilla (b. 1508-d. 1566), a bishop of Burgos who served at the royal court. The term ‘conquests” (‘conquistas”) aludes to Spain’s overseas colonies, in particular those in America where the Inquisition operated until the early nineteenth century. Ps. 44.23. Isa. 47.6. Deut. 32.43. Joel 4.19-21. Jer. 46.27-28. Jer. 30.15-17. Ps. 94.2-6. Ps. 94.20-21. The friend, who here uses the Spanish form ‘de fe’, is again alluding to the inquisitorial ceremony of penance and sentence pronouncement known as an auto-de-fe (in Portuguese auto-da-fé), or ‘act of faith’. Morteira, as a manifestation of his penchant for original exegesis, declares that King David describes an auto-de-fe in Ps. 14.4 and Ps. 14.6. Ps. 14.4. Ps. 14.6. Jer. 6.11-12. Amos 4.2. Zeph. 3.18. The friend mistakenly attributes this quotation to Isaiah, when in fact it derives from Ps. 69.4 (thus David, rather than Isiah, is the speaker). In his rendition of Ps. 69.4, the friend substitutes the phrase ‘secaronse mis huessos” (‘my bones have dried up’, as I have translated the phrase) for ‘atemaronse mis ojos’ (Ferrara Bible) or ‘han desfallecido mis ojos’ (Oso and Reina-Valera Bibles), which is rendered as ‘my eyes fail” in The Jewish Study Bible and omitted in my translation.

NOTES TO PP. 130 -131

181

247. Cf. Jer. 2.14: ‘Is Israel a bondman? / Is he a home-born slave? / Then why is he given over to plunder?’ 248. Zech. 9.12. 249. Isa. 54.7. 250. Isa. 26.20. 251. Ps. 126.1-2. 252. Ps. 31.20. 253. Cf. Ps. 90.10: ‘The span of our life is 70 years’. The friend may also be alluding to a 70-year timespan linked to Jewish exile that appears on several occasions in the Old Testament, including Jer. 29.10 (‘For thus said the Lord: When Babylon’s seventy years are over, I will take note of you, and I will fulfill to you My promise of favor—to bring you back to this place’), Zech. 1.12 (‘Thereupon the angel of the Lord explained, “O Lord of Hosts! How long will You withhold pardon from Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, which You placed under a curse seventy years ago?”’), and Dan. 9.2 (‘in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, consulted the books concerning the number of years that, according to the word of the Lord that had come to Jeremiah the prophet, were to be the term of Jerusalem’s desolation—seventy years’). 254. Deut. 11.21: In the context of the friend’s attempt to persuade the pilgrim to practice Judaism, it is instructive to underscore that the verses that follow this quotation express the reward to be gained by a Jew who keeps the Mosaic Law, namely, his arrival to a utopic Jewish homeland in Israel: ‘If, then, you faithfully keep all this Instruction that I command you, loving the Lord your God, walking in all His ways, and holding fast to Him, the Lord will dislodge before you all these nations: you will dispossess nations greater and more numerous than you. Every spot on which your foot treads shall be yours; your territory shall extend from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River—the Euphrates—to the Western Sea. No man shall stand up to you: the Lord your God will put the dread and the fear of you over the whole land in which you set foot, as He promised you” (Deut. 11.22-25). 255. This quotation, which I have translated literally as it appears in the ms., is based on Lam. 3.33: ‘For He does not willingly bring grief”). The friend’s attribution of Lam. 3.33 to Jeremiah reflects a rabbinic tradition that contradicts the modern view: ‘Ancient tradition, reflected in the Talmud, the Septuagint, and the Vulgate, ascribes authorship of the book to Jeremiah, the leading prophet at the time of the destruction [of the First Temple in 586 BC], whose book bears a resemblance to the language of Lamentations. Modern scholars do not accept the notion of Jeremian authorship [...]. They ascribe each chapter to a different, anonymous author, whose identity is impossible to ascertain” (The Jewish Study Bible 1589). 256. Isa. 27.9. 257. Isa. 12.1. 258. Mal. 3.6-7. 259. Ps. 94.12-13.

182 NOTES TO PP. 131-134

260. 261. 262. 263. 264. 265. 266. 267. 268.

269. 270. 271. 272. 273. 274. 275.

276.

277.

278. 279.

Deut. 11.18. Prov. 23.22. Deut. 6.5. Ps. 19.8. Eccles. 12.7. Isa. 55.2. Jer. 6.16. Zech. 3.6-7. This appears to be an allusion to Isa. 11.12, which foretells the messianic return of the Jews to their biblical homeland (‘He will hold up a signal to the nations / And assemble the banished of Israel, / And gather the dispersed of Judah / From the four corners of the earth’). Isa. 64.3. The friend’s assertion may be based on a passage such as Deut. 29.28 (‘Concealed acts concern the Lord our God; but with overt acts, it is for us and our children ever to apply all the provisions of this Teaching’). Ps. 115.16. As on fol. 19r, the Morteira demonstrates with the phrase ‘second causes’ a familiarity with contemporary philosophical and theological causality. Gen. 17.1. Prov. 4.27. It is also possible that this quotation is from Josh. 1.7: “‘Do not deviate from it to the right or to the left’”. This phrase, which I have translated literally as it appears in the ms., may be based on 1 Kings 11.38: ‘If you heed all that I command you, and walk in My ways, and do what is right in My sight, keeping My laws and commandments as My servant David did, then I will be with you and I will build for you a lasting dynasty as I did for David. I hereby give Israel to you’. This phrase, which I have translated literally as it appears in the ms., is based on 1 Kings 11.36, which depicts God’s promise to allow Solomon to rule over Jerusalem: ‘To his son I will give one tribe, so that there may be a lamp for My servant David forever before me in Jerusalem—the city where I have chosen to establish My name’. This quotation, which I have translated literally as it appears in the ms., may be based on Ps. 128.1-2: ‘Happy are all who fear the Lord, / who follow His ways. / You shall enjoy the fruit of your labors; you shall be happy and you shall prosper’. Cf. Gen. 3.24: ‘He drove the man out, and stationed east of the garden of Eden the cherubim and the fiery ever-turning sword, to guard the way to the tree of life’. The friend is referring here to the sin committed by Adam’s in Gen. 3.6: ‘When the woman saw that the tree was good for eating and a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desireable as a source of wisdom, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave some to her husband, and he ate’.

NOTES TO PP. 134

183

280. The phrase ‘tree of life’ alludes to Prov. 3.18 (‘She is a tree of life to those who grasp her, / And whoever holds on to her is happy’), which is contextualized in The Jewish Study Bible: ‘The tree of life was a widespread ancient Near Eastern mythological symbol, which is especially popular in Mesopotamian palace reliefs. It represented a divine source of well-being and life. In Proverbs, the symbol has lost its mythological connections and is simply a metaphor for a source of life and health. Based on the present verse, the Rabbis identified the tree of life with Torah’ (1453, n. 18). 281. Cf. Josh. 5.13-14: ‘Once, when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing before him, drawn sword in hand. Joshua went up to him and asked him, “Are you one of us or of our enemies?’ He replied, ‘No, I am captain of the Lord’s host. Now I have come”’! 282. The friend is referring here to the violation (in Josh. 7.1: ‘The Israelites, however, violated the proscription: Achan son of Carmi son of Zabdi son of Zera, of the tribe of Judah, took of that which was proscribed, and the Lord was incensed with the Israelites’) of a prohibition against looting the city of Jericho made earlier (in Josh. 6. 17-19: ‘The city and everything in it are to be proscribed for the Lord; only Rahab the harlot is to be spared, and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers we sent. But you must beware of that which is proscribed, or else you will be proscribed: if you take anything from that which is proscribed, you will cause the camp of Israel to be proscribed; you will bring calamity upon it. All the silver and gold and objects of copper and iron are consecrated to the Lord; they must go into the treasury of the Lord’). 283. The phrase ‘and didn’t climb the mountain without sin’ may allude to God’s admonition in Josh. 7.13 (‘For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Something proscribed is in your midst, O Israel, and you will not be able to stand up to your enemies until you have purged the proscribed from among you’) and the subsequent the killing of Achan as restitution in Josh. 7.25 (‘And all Israel pelted him with stones’). Another possibility is that the phrase ‘and didn’t climb the mountain without sin’ alludes to a passage found in the foretelling of the restoration of Israel by the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek. 20.40: ‘For only on My holy mountain, on the lofty mount of Israel—declares the Lord God— there, in the land, the entire House of Israel, all of it, must worship Me’). 284. The friend is alluding to the fact that animal sacrifices stopped occuring upon the destruction in 70 AD of the Second Temple, which was the only place where sacrifices were permitted (cf. Deut. 12.13-14: ‘Take care not to sacrifice your burnt offerings in any place you like, but only in the place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribal territories. There you shall sacrifice your burnt offerings and there you shall observe all that I enjoin upon you”). According to rabbinic tradition, the loss of the Second Temple and subsequent exile to Babylonia is considered a punishment for Israel’s transgressions. Cf., for example, Misnha Abot 5.9.7: ‘Exile comes into the world because of those who worship idols, because of fornication, and because of bloodshed” (687).

184 NOTES TO PP. 134-139

285. Ps. 51.19. 286. Exod. 33.2: In light of the friend’s association of Exod. 33.2 with apocalyptic redemption (in the following sentence ‘Soon the Lord [...]’.), it is interesting to speculate that Morteira had in mind a verse from the New Testament that enlists angels as servants to those who achieve salvation: ‘Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation’ (Heb. 1.14). 287. Ps. 98.2-3. 288. Isa. 52.1-3. 289. Isa. 52.7-10. 290. Jer. 31.10. 291. Jer 31.12-14. 292. Isa. 51.11. 293. Isa. 65.9. 294. Isa. 65.23. 295. Isa. 65.25. 296. Hab. 2.14. 297. Zech. 2.14. 298. This quotation, which I have translated literally as it appears in the ms., may be based on Zech. 8.3: ‘Thus said the Lord: I have returned to Zion, and I will dwell in Jerusalem’. 299. Zeph. 3.14. 300. This quotation, which I have translated literally as it appears in the ms., may be based on Zeph. 3.16: ‘In that day, / This shall be said to Jerusalem: / Have no fear, O Zion; / Let not your hands droop!’ 301. Ezek. 37.9-14. 302. Isa. 66.22-23. 303. Zech. 8.13. 304. The importance of exegesis, even in cases where opposing sides of an argument are presented, is again underscored here. The pilgrim is alluding to the fact that Haggai is one of the twelve ‘minor’ prophets of the Hebrew Bible. 305. Hag. 2.6-9. 306. The terms Urim and Thummin name oracular tools first mentioned in Exod. 28.30: ‘Inside the breastpiece of decision you shall place the Urim and Thummim, so that they are over Aaron’s heart when he comes before the Lord. Thus Aaron shall carry the instrument of decision for the Israelites over his heart before the Lord at all times’. 307. Hag. 2.4. 308. Gen. 22.14. 309. This quotation, which I have translated literally as it appears in the ms., may be based on a verse from Jer. 31.2. If Morteira did have Jer. 31.2 in mind, the phrase ‘foxes walked on it” (in the ms. ‘rapozos andaron en el”) may be a poorly recalled version of ‘para fazer reposar” (‘marching homeward”) from the rendition of the verse (as Jer. 31.1) in the Ferrara Bible. 310. Gen. 24.63.

NOTES TO PP. 139-140

185

311. Mic. 3.12. 312. Gen. 28.17. It appears as if the friend is associating Gen. 28.17 with the aforementioned verses (Hag. 2.6-9) in which the prophet Haggai describes the holy nature of the new Temple. 313. Hag. 2.9. 314. The friend is alluding to the previosly quoted verses from Hag. 2.6-9. 315. Hag. 2.9. 316. The inclusion of this reference to the prophet Ezra expresses a particularly rabbinic perspective. The book of Ezra depicts the triumphant return of the Jews to the Holy Land (symbolized by the ‘standard bearers” mentioned by the friend) and the dedication of the Second Temple, and a subsequent effort to reestablish the authority of the Torah led by Ezra. Since the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD, the legitimacy of rabbinic Judaism has been grounded its claim to be a direct descendent of the Great Assembly, a synod that is traditionally thought to have taken place from the fifth century BC until the third century AD. At this synod, which was comprised of 120 individuals, including the prophet Ezra, who organized the Great Assembly and served as its first high priest, and later sages such as Simeon the Righteous, many Jewish conventions and doctrines were established and the Jewish biblical canon was fixed. The importance of Ezra as a biblical figure who directly links ancient Judaism to later Judaism has been underscored by theologians since the Middle Ages including Moses Maimonides (b. 1138-d. 1204) and Abraham ibn Daud (b.c. 1110-d.c. 1180). Maimonides presents this concept as historical fact in his Mishneh Torah: Ezra and his court received it [the Oral Law] from Baruch and his court. The members of Ezra’s court are called ‘The Men of the Great Synagogue’. They were Haggai, Zechariah, Malachai, Daniel, Hanniah, Mishael and Azaria, Nehemiah, the son of Hachaliah, Modechai, Zerubel and many other sages, numbering altogether one hundred and twenty elders. The last of them was Simon the Just, who is included among the hundred and twenty. He received the Oral Law from all of them and was a high priest after Ezra. (1b-2a)

Ezra’s importance as a patriarch of Rabbanism is a concept that Maimonides and Ibn Daud (17-18) underscore in the face of late-medieval Karaite sectarianism. For Morteira, who undoubtedly knew the work of these theologians, Ezra becomes a symbol of contemporary resistence to rabbinic Judaism among conversos during their period of rejudaization. 317. The phrase ‘register their genealogy” refers to the genealogical register described chapter seven of Nehemiah (cf. Neh. 7.5: ‘My God put it into my mind to assemble the nobles, the prefects, and the people, in order to register them by families. I found the genealogical register of those who were the first to come up, and there I found written’).

186 NOTES TO PP. 140 -143

318. Neh. 7.65. The episode of Barzillai, to which the friend alludes here, occurs in Neh. 7.63-65 (‘Of the priests: the sons of Habaiah, the sons of Hakkoz, the sons of Barzillai who had married a daughter of Barzillai the Gileadite and had taken his name—these searched for their genealogical records, but they could not be found, so they were disqualified for the priesthood. The Tirshatha ordered them not to eat of the most holy things until a priest with Urim and Thummim should appear’). 319. Although the ms. reads ‘Jonias’, the prophecy depicted by the friend does not correspond to the Book of Jonah. I believe that this is a scribal error (albeit one that is difficult to explain), and that the correct name should be ‘Joseph’, with the following prophesy depicted by the friend containing Morteira’s interpretion of Gen. 50.24 (‘At length, Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. God will surely take notice of you and bring you up from this land to the land that He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob”’). 320. Zech. 2.7-9. 321. Zech. 8.1-3. 322. Zech. 8.20-23. 323. Zech. 13.1-2. 324. Zech. 14.8-11. 325. Zech. 2.14-17. These passages from the book of Zechariah provide a transition between the theme of the ‘three houses of God’ and the friend’s depiction of the apocalypse. 326. The Book of Ezekiel actually contains 48 chapters. 327. Ezek. 43.5. 328. Ezek. 43.7. 329. Cf. Ezek. 48.30-34: ‘And these are the exits from the city: On its northern side, measuring 4,500 cubits, the gates of the city shall be—three gates on the north—named for the tribes of Israel: the Reuben Gate: one; the Judah Gate: one; the Levi Gate: one. On the eastern side, [measuring] 4,500 cubits—there shall be three gates: the Joseph Gate: one; the Benjamin Gate: one; and the Dan Gate: one. One the southern side, measuring 4,500 cubits, there shall be three gates: the Simeon Gate: one; the Issachar Gate: one; and the Zebulun Gate: one. And on the western side, [measuring] 4,500 cubits— there shall be three gates: the Gad Gate: one; the Asher Gate: one; and the Naphtali Gate: one’. 330. Ezek. 48.35. 331. Cf. Hag. 2.6-9 (quoted above). 332. Isa. 60.1. 333. Isa. 60.5-6. 334. Isa. 60.9. 335. Isa. 60.11-13. 336. Isa. 60.15-19. 337. Isa. 62.1-5. 338. Isa. 66.10-13.

NOTES TO PP. 143-145

187

339. The friend evokes here a sixteenth-century ideology by alluding to the spiritual need for the edification of the Second Temple during the sixth century BC identified by the prophet Haggai: ‘Thus said the Lord of Hosts: These people say, “The time has not yet come for rebuilding the House of the Lord”. And the word of the Lord through the prophet Haggai continued: Is it a time for you to dwell in your paneled houses, while this House is lying in ruins? Now thus said the Lord of Hosts: Consider how you have been faring! You have sowed much and brought in little; you eat without being satisfied; you drink without getting your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one gets warm; and he who earns anything earns it for a leaky purse. Thus said the Lord of Hosts: Consider how you have fared: Go up to the hills and get timber, and rebuild the House; then I will look on it with favor and I will be glorified—said the Lord’ (Hag. 1.2-8). The implication of the friend’s allusion is that the pilgrim and other conversos (‘all of you who join together’) who have not embraced rabbinic Judaism should do so as a step toward the reconstruction of the Temple in a restored Jewish homeland, which is symbolized by the ‘third house’ described by the friend. 340. Ps. 102.17. 341. The friend is alluding to Exod. 15, in which the Israelites praise God in song after He had partitioned the sea in order to free them from the Egyptians. 342. Exod. 15.17-18. 343. Isa. 2.2-4, which is repeated (almost identically) in Mic. 4.1-3. 344. Mic. 4.4. 345. Gen. 28.14. 346. Amos 9.9. 347. Dan. 12.6. 348. Dan. 12.7. 349. There are two sections of this quotation in the ms. (‘que nos echara de vn cabo de los Çielos al otro cabo de los Çielos, y vendremos hasta los fines de la tierra’ [He will cast us from one end of the heavens to the other, and to the ends of the earth] and ‘a los quales nuestros no temieron ni los vieron’ [among those who were unknown to our (fathers)] that I have translated literally and placed in brackets and that appear to constitute a rendition of the initial part of Deut. 28.36 (‘The Lord will drive you, and the king you have set over you, to a nation unknown to you or your fathers’). Deut. 28.36 continues in the rest of the quotation. 350. The term ‘that man’ refers to Jesus Christ. 351. Cf. Hos. 3.4: ‘For the Israelites shall go a long time without king and without officials, without sacrifice and without cult pillars, and without ephod and teraphim’; 2 Chron. 15.3: ‘Israel has gone many days without the true God, without a priest to give instruction and without Teaching’. 352. According to rabbinic tradition (which is codified in in Seder Olam Rabbah), the Second Temple stood for 420 years before being destroyed in the year 70 AD.

188 NOTES TO PP. 145-148

353. The friend is alluding to Jeremiah’s vision in Jer. 23.3-4, in which the prophet foretells the ingathering of all Jews by God: ‘And I Myself will gather the remnat of My flock from all the lands to which I have banished them, and I will bring them back to their pasture, where they shall be fertile and increase. And I will appoint over them shepherds who will tend them; they shall no longer fear or be dismayed, and none of them shall be missing—declares the Lord’. 354. Deut. 18.18. 355. Jer. 30.21. 356. Joel 2.23. 357. Jer. 23.5-8. 358. The pilgrim is referring to the passage from Jer. 23.6, which is quoted above (‘And this is the name by which he shall be called: “The Lord is our Vindicator”’.) 359. To friend is alluding to the prophet Jeremiah. 360. Isa. 43.7. 361. Gen. 22.16. 362. Exod. 23.20-21. 363. Cf. Exod. 17.15: ‘And Moses built an altar and named it Adonai-nissi’. As explained in The Jewish Study Bible, ‘Adonai-nissi’ may be translated as ‘The Lord is my banner’ (143, n. b). 364. The term ‘ben’ (in ‘ben David’) is a Spanish transliteration of the Hebrew term for ‘son [of]’ (‫)ּבן‬. ֵ 365. Ps. 118.26. 366. Exod. 7.1. 367. Ps. 21.2. 368. Ps. 21.4. 369. Ps. 21.6. 370. Ps. 21.9. 371. Ps. 21.10-11. 372. Ps. 118.10. 373. Ps. 118.12-13. 374. Isa. 11.4. 375. Isa. 11.6-10. 376. Isa. 11.10. 377. Isa. 11.11-13. 378. Although the narrative takes place in 1616, the phrase ‘during the past 160 years’ situates the composition of Arguments around 1650. The friend’s assertion ‘in the Castilian Indies, which is America, and in most of the lands that the Spanish conquered during the past 160 years you won’t find children of Israel or any other undiscovered nation’ indicates that Morteira rejected the possibility that descendants of the ten tribes of acient Israel could be found in Pre-Colombian America. 379. Ps. 110.1.

NOTES TO PP. 148-149

189

380. Here the pilgrim provides the Christian interpretation of Ps. 110.1 (‘The Lord said to my lord, / ‘Sit at My right hand / while I make your enemies your footstool’”.), which is based on Acts 2.34-36 (‘For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, / “The Lord said to my Lord: / ‘Sit at my right hand / until I make your enemies / a footstool for your feet’”’). According to this messianic interpretation, ‘my Lord’ is Jesus Christ, whose divine stature is indicated by the fact that he is asked to ‘sit” at God’s ‘right hand’. 381. Cf. Ps. 34.16: ‘The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous’; cf. Ps. 10.12: ‘Rise, O lord! / Strike at him, O God!’ 382. Deut 33.2. 383. Ps. 110.1. 384. For Jerome’s homily on Ps. 110, see Jerome 270-79. The friend is objecting to Jerome’s argument that the notion that ‘Christ is the Son of David’ (270) is understood in Ps. 110.1 (‘The Lord said to my lord, / “Sit at My right hand / while I make your enemies your footstool”’.): ‘“The Lord is at your right hand”. I see something new here. In the beginning of the psalm, we find: “The Lord said to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand’”; now the psalmist says: “The Lord is at your right hand”. If He is sitting at the right hand of the Father, how, on the contrary, is the Father sitting at the right hand of the Son? “The Lord said to my Lord: ‘Sit at my right hand’”, obviously means that the Son sits at the right hand of the Father; “The Lord is at your right hand”, means that the Father is sitting at the right hand of the Son. I am saying all this to make clear that the Son is equal to the Father’ (275). 385. In response to the pilgrim’s Christian messianic interpretation of Ps. 110.1, The friend offers here a Jewish typological perspective on Ps. 110 that is evoked by the phrase ‘the bullocks of the patriarch Abraham’, by which I have rendered in English the phrase from the ms. ‘novillos del Patriarcha Abraham’. With this phrase the friend is alluding to a passage from Gen. 15 (Gen. 15.9: ‘He answered: ‘Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young bird’”), in which God asks Abraham to perform a sacrifice before promising him that his offspring will ultimately possess dominion over the Holy Land after being enslaved (in Egypt) for four hundred years and returning to defeat their enemies. The friend’s interpretation involves the eschatological restoration of Israel through conquest, a theme expressed in Gen. 15 (cf. Gen. 15.16: ‘And they shall return here in the fourth generation, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete’) and throughout Ps. 110: ‘Of David. A psalm. / The Lord said to my lord, / ‘Sit at My right hand / while I make your enemies your footstool’. / The Lord will stretch forth from Zion your mighty scepter; / hold sway over your enemies! / Your people come forward willingly on your day of battle. / In majestic holiness, from the womb, / from the dawn, yours was the dew of youth. / The Lord has sworn and will not relent, ‘You are a priest forever, a rightful king by My decree’. / The Lord is at your right hand. / He crushes kings in the day of His anger. / He works judgment upon

190 NOTES TO PP. 149-152

386. 387. 388. 389. 390. 391. 392. 393.

394. 395.

396.

397. 398.

399. 400. 401. 402.

the nations, / heaping up bodies, / crushing heads far and wide. / He drinks from the stream on his way; / therefore he holds his head high’. This passage, which I have translated literally as it appears in the ms., may be based on Ps. 119.116: ‘Support me as You promised, so that I may live; / do not thwart my expectation’. Ps. 47.4. Ps. 47.10. Isa. 29.11-12. Mic. 5.1. Obad. 1.8. Mic. 5.3. Cf. Gen. 49.8-9: ‘You, O Judah, your brothers shall praise; / Your hand shall be on the nape of your foes; / Your father’s sons shall bow low to you. / Judah is a lion’s whelp; / On prey, my son, have you grown. / He crouches, lies down like a lion, / Like the king of beasts—who dare rouse him?’ Gen. 49.10. The phrase ‘it ceased to exist’ refers to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD. In order to refute the friend’s interpretation of Gen. 49.10, the pilgrim offers a messianic interpretation based on the Christian tradition, according to which this biblical passage foretells the arrival of Jesus Christ (as revealed through New Testament passages such as Heb. 7.14: ‘For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests’). The friend is referring to Zedekiah, who was proclaimed king of Judah by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar after his conquest of Jerusalem in 597 BCE. After an unsuccessful revolt, Zedekiah was taken captive and exiled to Babylonia, wherepon Nebuchadnezzar recaptured the city and oversaw the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BC. Ezek. 21.31-32. The friend is referring to the four Books of the Maccabees, in particular to the fourth Book, which was probably completed shortly bedore the Roman conquest of Jerusalem in 63 BC, and to The Jewish War and The Antiquities of the Jews by the Romano-Jewish historian Titus Flavius Josephus (b. 37 ADd. c. 100 AD). Isa. 9.6-7. Amos 9.11. Amos 9.14-15. Cf. Gen. 32.10-13: ‘Then Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who said to me, ‘Return to your native land and I will deal bountifully with you!’ I am unworthy of all the kindness that You have so steadfastly shown Your servant: with my staff alone I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; else, I fear, he may come and strike me down, mothers and children alike. Yet You have said, ‘I will deal bountifully with

NOTES TO PP. 152-153

403. 404.

405.

406. 407. 408. 409. 410.

411. 412.

413.

191

you and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which are too numerous to count’”. The prophesy to which Jacob refers in Gen. 32.10-13 is expressed in Gen. 28.14: ‘Your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you and your descendants’. Cf. Gen. 15.13 (‘And He said to Abram, “Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs, and they shall be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years”’). This quotation, which I have translated literally as it appears in the ms., may be based on one of several passages that refer to the redemption of Israel by a descendant of the line of Judah and King David (as announced in Gen. 49.10: ‘The scepter shall not depart from Judah, / Nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet’). For example, cf. 2 Sam. 7.12-13: ‘When your days are done and you lie with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own issue, and I will establish his kingship. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish his royal throne forever’. Cf. Gen. 49.10 above. The Spanish term used by the friend, ‘vara’, can mean ‘staff’, ‘rod” or ‘[royal] scepter’. If the previous quotation is based on 2 Sam. 7.12-13, it is instructive to speculate that, in light of the friend’s subsequent discussion of punishment, Morteira was also considering the following verse (2 Sam. 7. 14), which depicts the nature divine punishment in the Davidic dynasty: ‘I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to Me. When he does wrong, I will chastise him with the rod of men and the affliction of mortals’. Ps. 89.31-33. Cf. Jer. 1.11-12: ‘The word of the Lord came to me: What do you see, Jeremiah? I replied: I see a branch of an almond tree. / The Lord said to me: / You have seen right, / For I am watchful to bring My word to pass’. Isa. 10.5. Isa. 59.19. Isa. 59.19-20. It is instructive to underscore the broad context of these verses in light of the friend’s subsequent comments involving foreign oppressors of Israel: ‘God brings justice, which is good news for the faithful and dreadful news for everyone else. The phrasing here is often used of foreign nations in the Bible; here the guilty among Israel bear the brunt of divine wrath along with evildoers from other nations’ (The Jewish Study Bible 902, n. 15b-20). This quotation, which I have translated literally as it appears in the ms., is based on the previously cited verse from Isa. 59.20: ‘He shall come as redeemer to Zion’. Dan. 7.25: The friend is alluding here to the fourth beast in the apocalyptic vision of the prophet Daniel (Dan. 7.1-27: ‘Daniel related the following: “In my vision at night, I saw the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea. Four mighty beasts different from each other emerged from the sea […]”’). Cf. Dan. 7.25: ‘He will speak words against the Most High, and will harass the holy ones of the Most High’.

192 NOTES TO PP. 153-156

414. Cf. Dan. 7.23: ‘This is what he said: ‘The fourth beast [means]—there will be a fourth kingdom upon the earth which will be different from all the kingdoms; it will devour the whole earth, tread it down, and crush it’. The friend is creating a parallel here between Spain and the fourth beast, whose rise to power and ultimate destruction precedes the apocalypse. 415. Ps. 124.7. 416. Deut. 32.40-43. 417. Ps. 68.22. 418. Joel 4.19-20. 419. Isa. 63.4. 420. Isa. 42.13-15. 421. Isa. 42.17. 422. Cf. Ps. 94.1: ‘God of retribution, Lord, / God of retribution, appear!’ The epithet ‘Lord of battles’ may be based on Ps. 24.8 (‘the Lord, valiant in battle’), Isa. 42.13 (‘The Lord goes forth like a warrior, / Like a fighter He whips up His rage’), or Deut. 3.22 (‘Do not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who will battle for you’). 423. 1 Sam. 2.10. 424. The friend is referring to Isa. 59.19 quoted above. It is instructive to underscore that the word used in the Spanish text by the friend to mean ‘wind’, ‘espirito’ (in modern Spanish espíritu)—variations of which are used in the Ferrara, Oso, and Reina-Valera texts—is the same as the term (‘Espirito’) used to mean ‘spirit’ in the following quotation (‘spirit of the Lord […]’). 425. The phrase ‘the spirit of the Lord was upon me” may allude to Isa. 61.1: ‘The spirit of the Lord God is upon me’. 426. Isa. 61.1. 427. Isa. 11.1-2. 428. Isa. 11.5. 429. Isa. 11.10-12. 430. Isa. 32.1-2. 431. Isa. 32.16-18. 432. Ps. 72.1-2. 433. Ps. 72.7-11. 434. Dan. 7.27. 435. Ezek. 37.15-19. 436. Ezek. 37.21-28. 437. In the ms. the friend employs the term ‘cataratas’ (‘cataracts’) as a metaphor for not seeing the truth.



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The Mishnah. Trans. Jacob Neusner. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988. Modena, Leon. The Autobiography of a Seventeenth-Century Venetian Rabbi: Leon Modena’s Life of Judah. Trans. and ed. Mark R. Cohen. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1988. —. Zikne Yehudah. Jerusalem: S. Simonsohn, 1956. Montoro, Antón de. Cancionero. Ed. Marcella Ciceri y Julio Rodríguez Puértolas. Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca, 1991. Morteira [Mortera], Saul Levi. Obstaculos y opoçiçiones contra la religion xptiana en Amsterdam. Compuesto por el Eminentissimo Señor H.H. Saul Levy Mortera Prophesor y celebre Predicador de la naçion Hebrea. Amsterdam, 1712. Ets Haim ms. 48D38 [Fuks 206]. —. Preguntas que hizo un clerigo de Ruan de Francia alas quales respondio el exelente, y eminentissimo señor H.H. Saul Levy Mortera, doctor çelebre y prophesor, de la divina theologia, y predicador de la naçion judaica en la ynsigne, y opulenta çiudad de Amsterdam. Amsterdam, 1712. Ets Haim ms. 48D38 [Fuks 206]. —. Providencia de Dios con Ysrael, Eternidad de la Ley de Mosse y Nullidad de las demas leyes. Compuesto por el muy Sapientissimo Señor H.H. Saul Levi Mortera. Amsterdam, 1706. Cod. UBA/BR 21 [Fuks 280]. —. Tratado da verdade da lei de Moisés. Ed. H.P. Salomon. Coimbra: Universidade de Coimbra, 1988. Nadler, Steven. Rembrandt’s Jews. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. —. Spinoza: A Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Nelson, Eric. The Hebrew Republic. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010. Netanyahu, Benzion. ‘Américo Castro and His View of the Origins of the Pureza de Sangre’. American Academy for Jewish Research, Jubilee Volume. Ed. Salo W. Baron and Isaac C. Barzilay. Vol. 2. Jerusalem: American Academy for Jewish Research, 1980. 397-457. —. The Marranos of Spain. New York: American Academy for Jewish Research, 1966. Neuman, Abraham A. The Jews in Spain. Vol. 2. New York: Octagon, 1969. Ngien, Dennis. ‘The Art of Dying: In Luther’s Sermon on Preparing to Die’. The Heythrop Journal 49 (2008): 1-19. O’Malley, John W. Trent: What Happened at the Council. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013. Pallotta, Augustus. ‘Venetian Printers and Spanish Literature in Sixteenth-Century Italy’. Comparative Literature 43.1 (1991): 20-42. Penny, Ralph. A History of the Spanish Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Pieterse, Wilhelmina C. Daniel Levi de Barrios als Geschiedschrijver van de Portugees-Israelietische Gemeente te Amsterdam in zijn ‘Triumpho del govierno popular’. Amsterdam: Scheltema & Holkema, 1968. Pineda, Juan de. Monarchía Ecclesiástica. Salamanca: Juan Fernández, 1588 (rpt. in 1594 and 1606, Barcelona: Jaime Cendrat). Pirke de Rabbi Eliezer. Trans. Gerald Friedlander. New York: Blom, 1971. Polack, Philip. ‘Introduction’. Rehuel Jessurun. Dialogo dos montes. Ed. and trans. Philip Polack. London: Tamesis, 1975. xiii-xxv. Preus, J. Samuel. Spinoza and the Irrelevance of Biblical Authority. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Prokhovnik, Raia. Spinoza and Republicanism. New York: Palgrave, 2004. Pullan, Brian. The Jews of Europe and the Inquisition of Venice, 1550-1670. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1983. Question de la unidad de Dios. Amsterdam, 1739. Ets Haim ms. 48E53. Quevedo, Francisco de. El buscón. Ed. Domingo Ynduráin. 13th ed. Madrid: Cátedra, 2005. —. La cuna y la sepultura: Doctrina moral. Ed. Celsa Carmen García Valdés. Madrid: Cátdera, 2008.

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Ravid, Benjamin. ‘The Venetian Government and the Jews’. The Jews of Early Modern Venice. Ed. Robert C. Davis and Benjamin Ravid. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001. 3-30. Rennert, Hugo Albert. The Spanish Stage in the Time of Lope de Vega. New York: Hispanic Society of America, 1909. Roth, Cecil. A History of the Marranos. 4th ed. New York: Hermon, 1974. —. ‘Quatre lettres d’Elie de Montalte’. Revue des Études Juives 87 (1929): 137-65. Roth, Norman. Conversos, Inquisition, and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. Salomon, H.P. ‘Le vrai excommunication de Spinoza’. In Forum litterarum. Ed. H. Bots and M. Kerkhof. Amsterdam: Maarsen, 1984. 181-99. Sánchez-Albornoz, Claudio. Spain, a Historical Enigma. Trans. Colette Joly Dees and David Sven Reher. 2 vols. Madrid: Fundación Universitaria Española, 1975. Sandmel, David. ‘Jewish and Christian Understandings of Israel’. Judaism: A Quarterly Journal of Jewish Life and Thought 52.3-4 (2003): 131-39. Saperstein, Marc. Exile in Amsterdam. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, 2005. Saraiva, António José. The Marrano Factory: The Portuguese Inquisition and Its New Christians 1536-1765. Trans. H.P. Salomon and I.S.D. Sassoon. Leiden: Brill, 2001. Scholem, Gershom. Sabbatai Sevi: The Mystical Messiah (1626-1676). Bollingen Series, vol. 93. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973. The Scofield Study Bible, New International Version. Ed. C.I. Scofield. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. The Scofield Study Bible: New International Version. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. Seligsohn, Max. ‘Serene’. The Jewish Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Ktav, 1906. 202. Shergold, N.D. A History of the Spanish Stage. Oxford: Clarendon P, 1967. Sicroff, Albert A. Los estatutos de limpieza de sangre: Controversias entre los siglos XV y XVII. Trans. Mauro Armiño. Madrid: Taurus, 1985. Spinoza, Benedict de. Complete Works. Trans. Samuel Shirley. Ed. Michael L. Morgan. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2002. —. Theological-Political Treatise. Ed. Jonathan Israel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Sunan Abu Dawud, Book 41, Hadith 4579. Web. March 2015. The Talmud. The Steinsaltz Edition. 20 vols. New York: Random House, 1989. The Talmudic Anthology. Ed. Louis J. Newman. New York: Behrman, 1945. Tertullian. Against Marcion, Book 3. Web. September 2015. Trachtenberg, Joshua. The Devil and the Jews: The Medieval Conception of the Jew and Its Relation to Modern Anti-Semitism. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1983. Tudela, Benjamin of. The Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela. Trans. Nathan Adler. Malibu, CA: Joseph Simon/Pangloss Press, 1987. Van het Joodse Gebeth Overgeset uyt den Hebreusche in Neder Duysche Geschreven in Amsterdam, door Michaël Lopez Pinto Año 5496. Amsterdam, 1735-36. Ets Haim ms. 48D35. Vascones, Alonso de. Destierro de ignorancias, y aviso de penitentes. Madrid: Joseph Doblado, 1788. Waite, Robert. G. ‘Returning Jewish Cultural Property: The Handling of Books Looted by the Nazis in the American Zone of Occupation, 1945 to 1952’. Libraries & Culture 37.3 (2002): 213-28. Wall, Ernestine G.E. van der. ‘Petrus Serrarius and Menasseh Ben Israel: Christian Millenarianism and Jewish Messianism in Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam’. Menasseh ben Israel and His World. Ed. Yosef Kaplan et al. Leiden: Brill, 1989. 164-90. Wickersham Crawford, J.P. ‘Auto de la quinta angustia que Nuestra Señora passo al pie de la Cruz’. Romanic Review 3 (1912): 280-300. Wilbur, Earl Morse. Our Unitarian Heritage. Boston: Beacon, 1925.

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Index of direct and indirect biblical quotations in Arguments

New Testament Acts 2.34-36

189 n370

Hebrews 1.14 7.14

184 n286 190 n395

John  21.3

176 n191

Luke 2.12 2.15-16

176 n192 176 n192

2.42-47 3.23

179 n228 177 n204

Mark 6.3

176 n191

Matthew 4.19 13.55 27.46

176 n191 176 n191 177 n193

Revelations 1.14

177 n202

Old Testament In cases for which Morteira’s source text can be identified, the sources are indicated in parenthesis by (F), referring to the Ferrara Bible, (RV), referring to the Reina-Valera Bible, or (F/RV), referring to instances when Morteira incorporated a quotation deriving in part from the Ferrara text and in part from the Reina-Valera text. Amos 3.7 4.2 (RV) 9.9 (RV) 9.11 (F) 9.14-15

170 n122 180 n244 187 n346 190 n400 190 n401

2 Chronicles 7.12 (F) 15.3 17-22 20.7 29.1 32.21-22 30.4-5

173 n157, 173,n158 187 n351 173 n159 165 n76 171 n138 171 n140 160 n24

Daniel 2.34-35 7.1-28 7.23 7.25 7.27 (F) 8.20

172 n147 191 n412 162 n47, 192 n414 191 n412, n413 192 n434 162 n47

9.2 9.27 (RV) 12.6 (RV) 12.7

181 n253 177 n196 187 n347 187 n348

Deuteronomy 3.22 4.2 4.19-20 4.23-26 5.6-7 5.8  5.18 5.19 6.4 6.5 (F) 6.5-7 7.7 7.18 (F) 11.18 11.21 (F) 12.13-14 13.1

192 n422 171 n124 164 n60 172 n151 164 n65 161 n32 161 n33 175 n177 164 n66 182 n262 164 n67 160 n13 168 n102 182 n260 181 n254 183 n284 171 n124

200  13.2-6 15.10 (F) 15.11 (F) 18.18 21.22-23 28.36 28.58 28.63-64 29.4 29.22-27 (F) 29.28 31.10-11 31.16 (RV) 31.16-17 32.40-43 32.39 (RV) 32.43 (F/RV) 33.2 (RV) 33.29 34.6 Ecclesiastes 11.5 12.7 Exodus  3-12 3.11 3.13-14 4.20 4.22 (RV) 7.1 (F/RV) 7.9-10 7.27-8.10 8.12-15 8.17-27 13.21 (RV) 15 15.17-18 (F) 16.35 17.15 19.3-6 (F) 23.20-21 28.9-12 28.30 31.1 31.6 33.2 34.1-4 Ezekiel 11.16 18.4-5 18.10 18.14 18.17 18.20 18.20-23 18.21

Arguments against the Christian Religion in Amsterdam

170 n123 168 n103 168 n103 188 n354 177 n194 187 n349 173 n154 173 n155 180 n175 173 n156 182 n270 160 n23 173 n152 173 n153 192 n416 163 n49 180 n234 189 n382 178 n220 170 n116, 117 179 n227 182 n264 175 n175 172 n144 164 n64 172 n145 167 n83, 178 n208 188 n366 174 n165 172 n146 172 n146 172 n146 175 n176 187 n341 187 n342 175 n179 188 n363 175 n178 188 n362 175 n174 184 n306 176 n187 176 n188 n190 184 n286 178 n211 179 n224 58, 168 n105 168 n106 168 n107 40, 168 n104, 168-169 n107 40, 168 n104 168-169 n107 169 n107

20.40 21.31-32 (F) 28.28 34.30 37.9-14 (F/RV) 37.15-19 (F) 37.21-28 (F) 39.28 43.5 (F) 43.7 (F) 48.30-34 48.35

183 n283 190 n397 170 n120 170 n120 184 n301 192 n435 192 n436 170 n120 186 n327 186 n328 186 n329 186 n330

Genesis 163 n54 1.3 163 n52, n55 1.26 161 n34 1.28 163 n56 2.7-8 169 n111 2.15-17 54-56, 82 n47, 167 n89 2.16-17 (F) 55, 56, 167-68 n94 2.17 (F) 182 n279 3.6 168 n97 3.10 167 n90 3.16 (RV) 167 n91 3.17-19 182 n278 3.24 164 n57 6.17 164 n58 11.7-8 (F) 174 n171 12.1-3 189 n385 15.9 191 n403 15.13 174 n170 17.7 (RV) 169 n109 17.7-14 (F) 169 n110 17.23-27 54, 164 n72 18.1-3 166 n77 18.2-3 165 n74 18.10 170 n121 18.17-18 165 n75 19.1-25 184 n308 22.14 (F) 188 n361 22.16 184 n310 24.63 174 n172 26.2-4 168 n100 26.11 165 n73 28.11 187 n345, 190-1 n402 28.14 185 n312 28.17 165 n73, 166 n78 28.18 190-1 n402 32.10-13 178 n206 40 177 n205 40.19 174 n173 46.2-5 166 n79 49 190 n393 49.8-9 49.10 (F/RV) 190 n394, n395, 191 n404, n405 186 n319 50.24 Habakkuk 2.14

184 n296

Index of direc t and indirec t biblical quotations in Arguments

Haggai 1.2-8 2.4 (F) 2.6-9 (F/RV)  2.9 (F/RV) Hosea 2.7-9 3.4 11.1 11.9 Isaiah 1.3-4 2.2-4 (F/RV) 2.3 5 6.8 7.1-2 7.3-4 7.10-11 7.12 7.14 7.16 8.2-4 9.6-7 (F) 10.5 11.12 11.1-2 (F) 11.4 (F) 11.5 (F) 11.6-10 (F) 11.10 (F) 11.10-12 11.11-13 (F) 12.1 26.20 27.9 (F) 29.11-12 30.14 32.16-18 (F/RV) 37.36 40.26 42.13 42.13-15 42.17 42.18 42.23-24 (RV) 43.7 (RV) 43.10 43.21 (RV) 44.6 44.14-15 44.18 (F) 44.19 44.21 (RV) 45.12 (RV) 47.6 (F)

187 n339 184 n307 184 n305, 185 n312, n314, 186 n331 185 n313, n315 172 n.148 187 n351 178 n208 178 n221 178 n207 187 n343 166 n80 170 n119 164 n.62 171 n127 171 n128 171 n129 171 n130 171 n125, n131, n136, n140 171 n132, n137 , n140 171 n133 190 n399 191 n408 182 n268 192 n427 188 n374 192 n428 188 n375 188 n376 192 n429 188 n377 181 n257 181 n250 181 n256 190 n389 178 n212 192 n431 174 n168 162 n40 192 n422 192 n420 192 n421 160 n12 172 n150 188 n360 172 n149 62, 174 n169 163 n50, 172 n149 77, 162 n42 162 n44 162 n43 162 n45 164 n68 180 n233

49.15 (F/RV) 51.1 51.11 (F) 51.12-13 (F) 52.1-3 (F/RV) 52.7-10 53.2-3 (F/RV) 54.7 (F) 55.2 (F) 59.19 (F) 59.19-20 (F) 59.21 (F) 60.1 60.5-6 60.9 60.11-13 (F) 60.15-19 (F) 61.1 62.1-5 (F) 63.4 (RV) 64.3 65.9 (F) 65.23 (F) 65.25 (F/RV) 66.10-13 (F/RV) 66.22-23 (F/RV) Jeremiah 1.5 1.11-12 2.14 4.22 5.19 6.11-12 6.16 (F/RV) 9.11 9.12 (RV) 14.8 (F) 23.3-4 23.5-8 (F) 23.28 (RV) 27.5 29.10 30.15-17 30.21 (RV) 31.2 31.10 (F/RV) 31.35-36 (F) 46.27-28 (F)

201 178 n217 165 n76 184 n292 177 n199 288 n184 184 n289 177 n200 181 n249 182 n265 192 n424 66, 82 n55, 191 n410 161 n29 186 n332 186 n333 186 n334 186 n335 186 n336 192 n425 192 n426 192 n419 182 n269 184 n293 184 n294 184 n295 186 n338 184 n302 176 n186 191 n407 181 n247 178 n207 173 n160 180 n243 182 n266 173 n161 173 n161 n162 179 n223 65, 188 n353 65, 188 n357 178 n214 164 n69 181 n253 180 n237 188 n355 184 n309 184 n290 178 n219 180 n236

Joel 2.23 (RV) 4.19-21 (F) 4.19-20 (F)

167 n86 180 n235 192 n418

Joshua 1.8  5.13-14 7.1

160 n23 183 n281 183 n282

202 

Arguments against the Christian Religion in Amsterdam

7.13 7.25 10.12-14

183 n283 183 n283 175 n183

1 Kings 11.36 11.38 2.37 (F) 18.41-46 22.19-20

182 n276 182 n275 168 n101 175 n184 164 n63

2 Kings  6.17 (F) 17.5-6 19.35 20.10-11 20.11

176 n185 171 n134 174 n168 171 n139 170 n113

Lamentations 2.1 (RV) 3.33

178 n210 181 n255

Leviticus 21.10-11

177 n198

Malachi 3.6-7 (F/RV)

181 n258

Micah 3.12 4.2 4.4 (F) 4.5 5.1 (RV) 5.3

185 n311 166 n80 187 n344 167 n81 190 n390 190 n392

Nehemiah 7.5 7.65 9.31

185 n317 186 n318 178 n216

Numbers  1.1-46 14.20 (F)

175 n182 170 n115

Obadiah 1.8

190 n391

Proverbs 2.11-13 3.18 4.27 12.26 21.4 23.22 Psalms 7.7 8.6 (RV)

161 n26 183 n280 182 n274 161 n26 59, 87 n167 182 n261 177, n195 168 n95

10.12 189 n381 14.4 82 n53 14.6 (RV) 82 n54, 180 n240 n242 19.2 (F) 162 n39 19.8 (F) 77, 160 n18, 182 n263 19.9 (F) 160 n19 19.11 (F) 160 n17 21.2 188 n367 21.4 188 n368 188 n369 21.6 188 n370 21.9 188 n371 21.10-11 170, n120 23.1 192 n422 24.8 170 n119 28.9 181 n252 31.20 (F) 189 n381 34.16 170 n120 44.5 180 n232 44.23 190 n387 47.4 190 n388 47.10 184 n285 51.19 192 n417 68.22 (F) 180 n246 69.4 192 n432 72.1-2 192 n433 72.7-11 (F) 167 n84 73.9 (F) 170 n119 80.9-20 191 n406 89.31-33 177 n203, 181 n253 90.10 167 n85 92.7-8 (F) 82 n50, 180 n238 94.2-6 181 n259 94.12-13 (F) 170 n119 94.14 62, 82 n51, 180 n239 94.20-21 (F/RV) 184 n287 98.2-3 (F) 187 n340 102.17 (RV) 179 n225, 189 n384 n385 110 110.1 (RV) 188 n379, 189 n380 n383 n384 n385 162 n41 115.4-7 (F) 182 n271 115.16 170 n118 116.11 (RV) 188 n372 118.10 (F) 188 n373 118.12-13 (F/RV) 188 n365 118.26 161 n25, 167 n87 119.105 190 n386 119.116 161 n25 119.130 170 n120 121.5 178 n213 123.3-4 (F) 192 n415 124.7 (RV) 181 n251 126.1-2 182 n277 128.1-2 174 n166 132.11 164 n70 147.19-20 1 Samuel  2.10 (F) 3

192 n423 170 n114

Index of direc t and indirec t biblical quotations in Arguments

2 Samuel 7.12-13 7.14

191 n404 191 n405

Zechariah 1.12 2.7-9 (F) 2.12 2.14 (RV) 2.14-17 (F/RV) 3.6-7 (F) 8.1-3 (F)

181 n253 186 n320 178 n218 184 n297 186 n325 182 n267 186 n321

8.3 8.13 8.20-23 (F) 9.9-10 (F) 9.12 (RV) 13.1-2 (F) 14.8-11 (F) Zephaniah 3.14 3.16 3.18 (RV)

203 184 n298 184 n303 186 n322 172 n141 181 n248 186 n323 186 n324 184 n299 300 n184 180 n245



Index to Introduction

Albo, Joseph 71 Alfonso X of Castile 24 Amsterdam 13-78 passim, 157 auto-da-fé (auto-de-fe) 37-38, 66, 180 n240 Barrios, Miguel de 17-18, 20, 41, 50 Biblia de Alba 52 Borgia, Francis 39 Burgos 23, 46-49, 116, 180 n230 Caro, Joseph 35 Calderón de la Barca, Pedro 45 Cervantes, Miguel de 22 Charles I of Spain 43 Chiliasm 68 converso 22-78 passim mass conversions from Judaism to Christianity 22 purity of blood 23, 25-26, 34, 39, 45, crypto-Judaism 25-27, 35, 40, 42, 73, 159-160 n11 general suspicion of heresy 25  crypto-Jews 25-27, 35, 159 n4 n10, 161 n28 Davidic Messiah 66, 76 Dialogo dos montes (The Controversy of the Mountains) 42, 49 Encina, Juan del 46 Farrar, David 31 Ferrara Bible (Biblia de Ferrara) 52-55, 59, 62-63, 77-78, 167 n82 n93, 180 n246, 184 n309 Ferrer, Vicente 22 Fonseca, Aboab da 31, 81 n45 Gaza, Nathan of 70, 83 n62 Gershon, Levi ben (Gersonides) 71  Halevi, Solomon (Pablo de Santa María) 23 Inquisition 16, 18, 26-28, 33, 37-40, 42, 44-45, 59, 61, 66, 68, 90, 95-96, 99-100, 129, 160 n21, 180 n231 Isabel I of Castile 23 Israel, Menasseh ben 31, 34, 73-74 Jessurun, Rehuel 42, 49-50 Joris, David 63 Katzenellenbogen, Meir ben Isaac 19 Katzenellenbogen, Judah 19, 21 Khmelnytsky, Bohdan 68 La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades (Lazarillo) 43-45, 81 n29 n30 Leiden, John of 63 López, María 26 López, Miguel (Michael) 13, 74-76, 83 n64, 87, 159 n2 Louis XIII of France 30 Maimonides, Moses 63, 71, 185 n316 Mariana, Juan de 49 Martínez, Ferrand 22 Martínez Silíceo, Juan 39 Médicis, Marie de 29

Modena, Leon 20 Molina, Tirso de 45 Monarchía Ecclesiástica 60-61, 122, 175 n181 Montalto, Elijah 29-30, 32-33, 41-42, 53 Montoro, Antón de 23, 38 Monuments Men 9, 13, 16-17 Morteira, Saul Levi youth in Venice 53, 60 entrance into the Santa Companhia de Dotar Orphas e Donzellas (the Holy Company of Orphan and Young Daughters’ Dowries) 28-29 named rabbi of congregation Beth Jacob 30 possible Iberian ancestry 28-29, 33 role in rejudaization 31-33 time with Elijah Montalto 29, 41 Mount Moriah 50-51 Münster Rebellion 63 Oldenburg, Henry 69 Orobio de Castro, Isaac 42 Oso Bible (Biblia del Oso) 59-61, 82 n47 Ouderkerk 30 Pardo, Joseph 31 Pina, Paulo de 41-42 Pineda, Juan de 60-61, 63, 122, 175 n181 Portuguese Nation 33-38, 40, 73, 89, 159 n4 Prado, Juan de 18, 42 Providencia de Dios con Ysrael 75-76  purity-of-blood statutes 25, 39 Quevedo, Francisco de 22, 43, 179 n227 Reina, Casiodoro de 59, 61 Reina-Valera Bible (Biblia Reina-Valera) 53, 61, 62. 180 n246, 192 n424 Rejudaization 29-33, 35, 40, 42, 51, 63-64, 67, 71, 74, 160 n11, 185 n316 Rembrandt 31, 80 n20 Rossi, Azaria de 20 Sasportas, Jacob ben Aaron 69 Serrarius, Peter 69 Shalom, Abraham 71 Soares, Ester 31 Spinoza, Baruch 17-18, 63, 69-74, 83 n60 n61 Tertullian 68 Torres Naharro, Bartolomé de 46 Tratado da verdade da lei de Moisés 60, 75, 82 n45 Uri ha-Levi, Moses 30 Usque, Abraham 54-55 Valera, Cipriano de 61 Vega, Lope de 22, 45, 48, 81 n38 Venice 18-22, 27-29, 31-32, 34, 41, 43, 53, 59-60, 68, 79 n3, 80 n19, 90, 92, 96 Venetian Ghetto 17, 19-20, 22, 27-28, 52, 79 n3 Vives ha-Lorqui, Joseph ibn (Jerónimo de Santa Fe) 22 Zevi, Sabbatai 68-70, 82 n56, 83 n60

Amsterdam Studies in the Dutch Golden Age Eric Jan Sluijter Rembrandt and the Female Nude, 2006 isbn 978 90 5356 837 8 Erik Swart Krijgsvolk. Militaire professionalisering en het ontstaan van het Staatse leger, 1568-1590, 2006 isbn 978 90 5356 876 7 Griet Vermeesch Oorlog, steden en staatsvorming. De grenssteden Gorinchem en Doesburg tijdens de geboorte-eeuw van de Republiek (1570-1680), 2006 isbn 978 90 5356 882 8 Jonathan Israel, Stuart Schwartz, Inleiding Michiel van Groesen The Expansion of Tolerance. Religion in Dutch Brazil (1624-1654), 2007 isbn 978 90 5356 902 3 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4850 155 7 Peter de Cauwer Tranen van bloed. Het beleg van ’s-Hertogenbosch en de oorlog in de Nederlanden, 1629, 2008 isbn 978 90 8964 016 1 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4850 229 5 Liesbeth Geevers Gevallen vazallen. De integratie van Oranje, Egmont en Horn in de SpaansHabsburgse monarchie (1559-1567), 2008 isbn 978 90 8964 069 7 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4852 076 3 Anna Tummers, Koenraad Jonckheere (eds.) Art Market and Connoisseurship. A Closer Look at Paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens and Their Contemporaries, 2008 isbn 978 90 8964 032 1 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4852 067 1 Thijs Weststeijn Margaret Cavendish in de Nederlanden. Filosofie en schilderkunst in de Gouden Eeuw, 2008 isbn 978 90 8964 029 1 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4850 236 3

Thijs Weststeijn The Visible World. Samuel van Hoogstraten’s Art Theory and the Legitimation of Painting in the Dutch Golden Age, 2008 isbn 978 90 8964 027 7 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4850 789 4 Natascha Veldhorst Zingend door het leven. Het Nederlandse liedboek in de Gouden Eeuw, 2009 isbn 978 90 8964 146 5 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4851 078 8 Robert Parthesius Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters. The Development of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) Shipping Network in Asia 1595-1660, 2010 isbn 978 90 5356 517 9 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4850 123 6 Jochai Rosen Soldiers at Leisure. The Guardroom Scene in Dutch Genre Painting of the Golden Age, 2010 isbn 978 90 8964 204 2 Roeland Harms Pamfletten en publieke opinie. Massamedia in de zeventiende eeuw, 2011 isbn 978 90 8964 368 1 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4851 514 1 Jürgen Pieters Historische letterkunde vandaag en morgen, 2011 isbn 978 90 8964 296 7 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4851 392 5 Anna Tummers The Eye of the Connoisseur. Authenticating Paintings by Rembrandt and His Contemporaries, 2011 isbn 978 90 8964 321 6 Christopher D.M. Atkins The Signature Style of Frans Hals. Painting, Subjectivity, and the Market in Early Modernity, 2012 isbn 978 90 8964 335 3 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4851 459 5 Margriet van Eikema Hommes Art and Allegiance in the Dutch Golden Age, 2012 isbn 978 90 8964 326 1

Benjamin B. Roberts Sex and Drugs before Rock ’n’ Roll. Youth Culture and Masculinity during Holland’s Golden Age, 2012 isbn 978 90 8964 402 2 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4851 570 7 Violet Soen Vredehandel. Adellijke en Habsburgse verzoeningspogingen tijdens de Nederlandse Opstand (1564-1581), 2012 isbn 978 90 8964 377 3 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4851 524 0 Monica Stensland Habsburg Communication in the Dutch Revolt, 2012 isbn 978 90 8964 413 8 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4851 377 2 Jan W.J. Burgers The Lute in the Dutch Golden Age. Musical Culture in the Netherlands ca. 1580-1670, 2013 isbn 978 90 8964 552 4 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4851 939 2 Thijs Weststeijn (ed.) The Universal Art of Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627-1678). Painter, Writer, and Courtier, 2013 isbn 978 90 8964 523 4 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4851 859 3 Thomas DaCosta Kaufman and Michael North (eds.) Mediating Netherlandish Art and Material Culture in Asia, 2014 isbn 978 90 8964 569 2 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4851 986 6 Femke Deen Publiek debat en propaganda in Amsterdam tijdens de Nederlandse Opstand. Amsterdam ‘Moorddam’ 1566-1578, 2014 isbn 978 90 8964 705 4 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4852 417 4 Christopher Joby The Multilingualism of Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687), 2014 isbn 978 90 8964 703 0 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4852 409 9

A Selection of the Poems of Sir Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687), 2015 A parallel text translated, with an introduction and appendices by Peter Davidson and Adriaan van der Weel isbn 978 90 8964 879 2 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4852 743 4 Junko Aono Confronting the Golden Age. Immitation and Innovation in Dutch Genre Painting 1680-1750, 2015 isbn 978 90 8964 568 5 Coen Wilders Patronage in de Provincie. Het Utrechtse netwerk van stadhouder Willem III, 2015 isbn 978 90 8964 738 2 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4852 495 2 Daniëlle Teeuwen Financing Poor Relief through Charitable Collections in Dutch Towns, c. 1600-1800, 2016 isbn 978 90 8964 793 1 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4852 611 6 Claartje Rasterhoff Painting and Publishing as Cultural Industries. The Fabric of Creativity in the Dutch Republic, 1580-1800, 2017 isbn 978 90 8964 702 3 ǀ e-isbn 978 90 4852 411 2