Resettlement of the Jews in England

{{History of the Jews in England}}

{{History of the Jews in England}}

The '''resettlement of the Jews in England''' was an informal arrangement during the [[Commonwealth of England]] in the mid-1650s that allowed [[Jews]] to practice their faith openly. It forms a prominent part of the [[history of the Jews in England]]. It happened directly after two events. First, a prominent rabbi, [[Menasseh ben Israel]], came to the country from the [[Dutch Republic|Netherlands]] to make the case for Jewish resettlement, and second, a Spanish ''[[marrano]]'' (a Jew forcibly conververted to Christianity who still practiced Judaism in secret) merchant, Antonio Robles, requested that he be classified as a Jew rather than Spaniard during [[Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660)|the war]] between England and [[Habsburg Spain|Spain]].

The '''resettlement of the Jews in England''' was an informal arrangement during the [[Commonwealth of England]] in the mid-1650s that allowed [[Jews]] to practice their faith openly. It forms a prominent part of the [[history of the Jews in England]]. It happened directly after two events. First, a prominent rabbi, [[Menasseh ben Israel]], came to the country from the [[Dutch Republic|Netherlands]] to make the case for Jewish resettlement, and second, a Spanish ''[[marrano]]'' (a Jew forcibly converted to Christianity who still practiced Judaism in secret) merchant, Antonio Robles, requested that he be classified as a Jew rather than Spaniard during [[Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660)|the war]] between England and [[Habsburg Spain|Spain]].

Historians have disagreed about the reasons behind the resettlement, particularly regarding [[Oliver Cromwell]]'s motives, but the move is generally seen as a part of a current of religious and intellectual thought moving towards [[Freedom of thought|liberty of conscience]], encompassing [[philosemitic]] [[millenarianism]] and [[Hebraic]]ism, as well as political and trade interests favouring Jewish presence in England. The schools of thought that led to the resettlement of the Jews in England are the most heavily studied subject of Anglo-Jewish history in the period before the eighteenth century.<ref>Gow, Andrew Colin and Fradkin, Jeremy (2016). [https://books.google.com/books?id=7QiTDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA296 Protestantism and Non-Christian Religions] in ed. Rublack, Ulinka (2017). The Oxford Handbook of the Protestant Reformations. OUP {{ISBN|9780199646920}}</ref>

Historians have disagreed about the reasons behind the resettlement, particularly regarding [[Oliver Cromwell]]'s motives, but the move is generally seen as a part of a current of religious and intellectual thought moving towards [[Freedom of thought|liberty of conscience]], encompassing [[philosemitic]] [[millenarianism]] and [[Hebraic]]ism, as well as political and trade interests favouring Jewish presence in England. The schools of thought that led to the resettlement of the Jews in England are the most heavily studied subject of Anglo-Jewish history in the period before the eighteenth century.<ref>Gow, Andrew Colin and Fradkin, Jeremy (2016). [https://books.google.com/books?id=7QiTDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA296 Protestantism and Non-Christian Religions] in ed. Rublack, Ulinka (2017). The Oxford Handbook of the Protestant Reformations. OUP {{ISBN|9780199646920}}</ref>

{{Main|History of the Marranos in England}}

{{Main|History of the Marranos in England}}

After both the [[Alhambra Decree]] of 1492, which expelled Jews from Spain in 1492, and [[Persecution of Jews and Muslims by Manuel I of Portugal|similar measures in Portugal]] in 1496, some [[converso]] traders (Jewish converts to Christianity, who often practised Judaism in secret, sometimes also known as [[New Christians]] or derogatively as [[Marrano]]s) settled in London and Bristol.{{refn|In addition to these small communities of ‘[[port Jew]]s’, Henry VIII consulted rabbis on the biblical legitimacy of his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and during the reign of Edward VI the Regius professor of Hebrew at Cambridge was the converso Hebraist [[Immanuel Tremellius]]. Elizabeth had a Jewish physician, [[Roderigo Lopez|Roderigo Lopes]], and her spymaster [[Francis Walsingham]]’s network of intelligencers included the Portuguese Marrano traders, Hector Nuñes and Dunstan Añez, as well as Lopes. Further, [[Sir Walter Raleigh]] travelled to the New World with Jewish mining expert [[Joachim Gans]] in 1584. It is estimated that there were roughly 80 to 90 Portuguese converses in Elizabethan London.<ref>Henderson, John P (2012). [https://books.google.com/books?id=o6TaBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA71 ''The Life and Economics of David Ricardo''] Springer Science & Business Media. {{ISBN| 9781461561293}} pp. 71–73.</ref><ref>[http://www.ourmigrationstory.org.uk/oms/african-freedom-in-tudor-england-dr-hector-nuness-request ''African freedom in Tudor England: Dr Hector Nunes’ petition''] ourmigrationstory.org.uk</ref>|group=note}} The small community was largely linked by trade to Antwerp, and was expelled altogether in 1609. It was with London’s growing importance as a trading city that Jews from the Netherlands began to settle in the country once more from the 1630s. It is from this first that the current Jewish population of the UK has grown.<ref>Edelman, Todd M. (2002). [https://books.google.com/books?id=RNyvgPAuvhAC&pg=PA17 ''The Jews of Britain, 1656 to 2000'']. University of California Press. {{ISBN|9780520935662}} pp. 17–18</ref>

After both the [[Alhambra Decree]] of 1492, which expelled Jews from Spain in 1492, and [[Persecution of Jews and Muslims by Manuel I of Portugal|similar measures in Portugal]] in 1496, some [[converso]] traders (Jewish converts to Christianity, who often [[Crypto-Judaism|practised Judaism in secret]], sometimes also known as [[New Christians]] or derogatively as [[Marrano]]s) settled in London and Bristol.{{refn|In addition to these small communities of ‘[[port Jew]]s’, Henry VIII consulted rabbis on the biblical legitimacy of his divorce from Catherine of Aragon, and during the reign of Edward VI the Regius professor of Hebrew at Cambridge was the converso Hebraist [[Immanuel Tremellius]]. Elizabeth had a Jewish physician, [[Roderigo Lopez|Roderigo Lopes]], and her spymaster [[Francis Walsingham]]’s network of intelligencers included the Portuguese Marrano traders, Hector Nuñes and Dunstan Añez, as well as Lopes. Further, [[Sir Walter Raleigh]] travelled to the New World with Jewish mining expert [[Joachim Gans]] in 1584. It is estimated that there were roughly 80 to 90 Portuguese converses in Elizabethan London.<ref>Henderson, John P (2012). [https://books.google.com/books?id=o6TaBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA71 ''The Life and Economics of David Ricardo''] Springer Science & Business Media. {{ISBN| 9781461561293}} pp. 71–73.</ref><ref>[http://www.ourmigrationstory.org.uk/oms/african-freedom-in-tudor-england-dr-hector-nuness-request ''African freedom in Tudor England: Dr Hector Nunes’ petition''] ourmigrationstory.org.uk</ref>|group=note}} The small community was largely linked by trade to Antwerp, and was expelled altogether in 1609. It was with London’s growing importance as a trading city that Jews from the Netherlands began to settle in the country once more from the 1630s. It is from this first that the current Jewish population of the UK has grown.<ref>Edelman, Todd M. (2002). [https://books.google.com/books?id=RNyvgPAuvhAC&pg=PA17 ''The Jews of Britain, 1656 to 2000'']. University of California Press. {{ISBN|9780520935662}} pp. 17–18</ref>

=== Religious toleration and liberty of conscience ===

=== Religious toleration and liberty of conscience ===

The 1640s and 1650s in England were marked by intense debates about religious tolerance, marked by speeches and tracts by radical puritans and dissenters who called for liberty of conscience. This extreme diversity of opinion about religious toleration was sorted into 12 schools of thought in the study of the period by [[Wilbur Kitchener Jordan|W.K. Jordan]].{{refn|These categories were: orthodox Presbyterians, moderate Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Latitudinarians, Cambridge Platonists, rationalists and sceptics, Erastians, the rank and file, Anglican extremists, moderate Anglicans, and Roman Catholics.<ref>Jordan, Wilbur Kitchener (1938 and 1940). ''The Development of Religious Toleration in England. Vols. III and IV''. in Coffey (2006)</ref>|group=note|text.}} John Coffey uses a simpler three-point schema: anti-tolerationists, conservative tolerationists, and radical tolerationists, pointing out that although the latter were in a minority, they formed an important part of the debate.<ref name=Coffey2006>Coffey, John (2006). [https://www.academia.edu/30764101/_The_toleration_controversy_during_the_English_Revolution_in_C._Durston_and_J._Maltby_eds_Religion_in_Revolutionary_England_Manchester_University_Press_2006_ The Toleration Controversy during the English Revolution]. in C. Durston and J. Maltby, eds, Religion in Revolutionary England. Manchester University Press, 2006. pp. 42–68.</ref> Nonetheless it is important to remember that although figures such as [[William Walwyn]], [[Sir Henry Vane the Younger|Henry Vane]], [[John Milton]], and others made powerful apologia for religious toleration, their frame of reference was theological, rather than secular in nature and they were not calling for religious pluralism as is understood today.<ref>Walsham, Alexandra (2006).[https://books.google.com/books?id=MwNlIIGnckYC&pg=PA233 Charitable Hatred: Tolerance and Intolerance in England, 1500–1700]. Manchester University Press. pp. 232–233. {{ISBN|9780719052392}}</ref><ref>Zagorin, Peter (2003). [https://books.google.com/books?id=iVHyAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA195 How the Idea of Religious Toleration Came to the West]. Princeton University Press. pp. 195–196. {{ISBN|9781400850716}}.</ref> The early and mid Seventeenth century was also marked by a rise in Hebraism, the study of Jewish scriptures, which were often used to discuss political issues such as the existence of a monarchy or republic, and religious toleration. This debate used Jewish sources to justify its conclusions.<ref>Parker, Kim Ian (2015). [https://books.google.com/books?id=TraYCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT654 ‘A King Like Other Nations’: Political Theory and The Hebrew Republic in the Early Modern Age] in Kileen, Kevin, Smith, Helen, Willie, Rachel Judith (2015). The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Early Modern England, c. 1530–1700. OUP Oxford. {{ISBN|9780191510595}}.</ref> The most prominent scholar in the field was the MP and jurist [[John Selden]], whose thought was influenced by [[Thomas Erastus]] and [[Grotius]]. Selden proposed minimal government intervention on matters of religion, a view he modelled on the [[Hebrew republic|Hebrew Commonwealth]]. He in turn influenced similar approaches in [[John Milton]] (whose plea for freedom of the press, the [[Areopagitica]] (1644), directly named him), [[Thomas Hobbes]] and [[James Harrington (author)|James Harrington]] (the latter of whom proposed settling Jews in Ireland in his book ''[[The Commonwealth of Oceana]]'').<ref>[[Gertrude Himmelfarb|Himmelfarb, Gertrude]] (2011). [https://books.google.com/books?id=SwPnCjeHMj4C&pg=PT114 ''The People of the Book: Philosemitism in England, From Cromwell to Churchill'']. Encounter Books. {{ISBN|9781594035715}}. pp. 144–146</ref><ref>[[Eric M. Nelson|Nelson, Eric]] (2011). [https://www.fpri.org/docs/media/201105.nelson.religiousoriginsofreligioustolerance.pdf ''The Religious Origins of Religious Tolerance'']. [[Foreign Policy Research Institute]].</ref>

The 1640s and 1650s in England were marked by intense debates about religious tolerance, marked by speeches and tracts by radical puritans and dissenters who called for liberty of conscience. This extreme diversity of opinion about religious toleration was sorted into 12 schools of thought in the study of the period by [[Wilbur Kitchener Jordan|W.K. Jordan]].{{refn|These categories were: orthodox Presbyterians, moderate Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, Latitudinarians, Cambridge Platonists, rationalists and sceptics, Erastians, the rank and file, Anglican extremists, moderate Anglicans, and Roman Catholics.<ref>Jordan, Wilbur Kitchener (1938 and 1940). ''The Development of Religious Toleration in England. Vols. III and IV''. in Coffey (2006)</ref>|group=note|text.}} John Coffey uses a simpler three-point schema: anti-tolerationists, conservative tolerationists, and radical tolerationists, pointing out that although the latter were in a minority, they formed an important part of the debate.<ref name=Coffey2006>Coffey, John (2006). [https://www.academia.edu/30764101/_The_toleration_controversy_during_the_English_Revolution_in_C._Durston_and_J._Maltby_eds_Religion_in_Revolutionary_England_Manchester_University_Press_2006_ The Toleration Controversy during the English Revolution]. in C. Durston and J. Maltby, eds, Religion in Revolutionary England. Manchester University Press, 2006. pp. 42–68.</ref> Nonetheless it is important to remember that although figures such as [[William Walwyn]], [[Sir Henry Vane the Younger|Henry Vane]], [[John Milton]], and others made powerful apologia for religious toleration, their frame of reference was theological, rather than secular in nature and they were not calling for religious pluralism as is understood today.<ref>Walsham, Alexandra (2006).[https://books.google.com/books?id=MwNlIIGnckYC&pg=PA233 Charitable Hatred: Tolerance and Intolerance in England, 1500–1700]. Manchester University Press. pp. 232–233. {{ISBN|9780719052392}}</ref><ref>Zagorin, Peter (2003). [https://books.google.com/books?id=iVHyAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA195 How the Idea of Religious Toleration Came to the West]. Princeton University Press. pp. 195–196. {{ISBN|9781400850716}}.</ref> The early and mid Seventeenth century was also marked by a rise in Hebraism, the study of Jewish scriptures, which were often used to discuss political issues such as the existence of a monarchy or republic, and religious toleration. This debate used Jewish sources to justify its conclusions.<ref>Parker, Kim Ian (2015). [https://books.google.com/books?id=TraYCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT654 ‘A King Like Other Nations’: Political Theory and The Hebrew Republic in the Early Modern Age] in Kileen, Kevin, Smith, Helen, Willie, Rachel Judith (2015). The Oxford Handbook of the Bible in Early Modern England, c. 1530–1700. OUP Oxford. {{ISBN|9780191510595}}.</ref> The most prominent scholar in the field was the MP and jurist [[John Selden]], whose thought was influenced by [[Thomas Erastus]] and [[Grotius]]. Selden proposed minimal government intervention on matters of religion, a view he modelled on the [[Hebrew republic|Hebrew Commonwealth]]. He in turn influenced similar approaches in [[John Milton]] (whose plea for freedom of the press, the [[Areopagitica]] (1644), directly named him), [[Thomas Hobbes]] and [[James Harrington (author)|James Harrington]] (the latter of whom proposed settling Jews in Ireland in his book ''[[The Commonwealth of Oceana]]'').<ref>[[Gertrude Himmelfarb|Himmelfarb, Gertrude]] (2011). [https://books.google.com/books?id=SwPnCjeHMj4C&pg=PT114 ''The People of the Book: Philosemitism in England, From Cromwell to Churchill'']. Encounter Books. {{ISBN|9781594035715}}. pp. 144–146</ref><ref>[[Eric M. Nelson|Nelson, Eric]] (2011). [https://www.fpri.org/docs/media/201105.nelson.religiousoriginsofreligioustolerance.pdf ''The Religious Origins of Religious Tolerance'']. [[Foreign Policy Research Institute]].</ref>

Overall the strongest political group of the 1640s and 50s, the English Puritans, had a negative view of toleration, seeing it as a concession to evil and heresy. It was often associated with tolerating the heresies of [[Arminianism]], the philosophy of free will and free thought, and [[Socinianism]], a doctrine of [[Anti-trinitarianism]]. But despite this Puritan hostility to toleration, England did see a certain religious laissez-faire emerge (for instance, the [[Rump Parliament]] repealed the [[recusancy]] laws in 1650). This was partly due to the impossibility of stopping religious free expression, but it also became a part of the cause of the [[New Model Army|new model army]].<ref>Worden, Blair (2012). [https://books.google.com/books?id=evIKK1WdYdcC&pg=PA68 ''God's Instruments: Political Conduct in the England of Oliver Cromwell'']. OUP. p. 68. {{ISBN|9780199570492}}</ref> The doctrinal policies of the protectorate were largely conservative. However, this Puritan train of thought could also point towards liberty of conscience. For [[Congregationalists]], truth lay in the spirit rather than institutions. Like the [[Cambridge Platonists|Platonists]], they searched for internal unity amidst external diversity.<ref>Worden (2012). pp. 69–70.</ref> Further, Puritans valued conscience, which could be neither forced nor tested, over ritual and ceremony. So rather than toleration, the key debate among key figures in the Protectorate revolved around [[liberty of conscience]]. For [[Blair Worden]], Cromwell’s religious policy was rooted in a search for union of believers, rather than toleration of differing beliefs, and religious persecution was the largest obstacle to this union. However, liberty of conscience extended only to "God's peculiar" and not heretics (such as [[Quakers]], [[Socinians]], and [[Ranters]]).<ref>Worden (2012). pp. 71–73.</ref>

Overall the strongest political group of the 1640s and 50s, the English Puritans, had a negative view of toleration, seeing it as a concession to evil and heresy. It was often associated with tolerating the heresies of [[Arminianism]], the philosophy of free will and free thought, and [[Socinianism]], a doctrine of [[Anti-trinitarianism]]. But despite this Puritan hostility to toleration, England did see a certain religious laissez-faire emerge (for instance, the [[Rump Parliament]] repealed the [[recusancy]] laws in 1650). This was partly due to the impossibility of stopping religious free expression, but it also became a part of the cause of the [[New Model Army|new model army]].<ref>Worden, Blair (2012). [https://books.google.com/books?id=evIKK1WdYdcC&pg=PA68 ''God's Instruments: Political Conduct in the England of Oliver Cromwell'']. OUP. p. 68. {{ISBN|9780199570492}}</ref> The doctrinal policies of the protectorate were largely conservative. However, this Puritan train of thought could also point towards liberty of conscience. For [[Congregationalists]], truth lay in the spirit rather than institutions. Like the [[Cambridge Platonists|Platonists]], they searched for internal unity amidst external diversity.<ref>Worden (2012). pp. 69–70.</ref> Further, Puritans valued conscience, which could be neither forced nor tested, over ritual and ceremony. So rather than toleration, the key debate among key figures in the Protectorate revolved around [[liberty of conscience]]. For [[Blair Worden]], Cromwell’s religious policy was rooted in a search for union of believers, rather than toleration of differing beliefs, and religious persecution was the largest obstacle to this union. However, liberty of conscience extended only to "God's peculiar" and not heretics (such as [[Quakers]], [[Socinians]], and [[Ranters]]).<ref>Worden (2012). pp. 71–73.</ref>