Antonio,
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
669
bank, which he liiui islablished at Antwerp, was a AVlicn the InquijounfTcr bnitlicr, Diejr" Mciidcs. sition wiis inlriKluccil into I'DiInirul llir cliiof l)iisinessof the tirni was relcfriitcd to Antwerp, anil many fif the Miiranos of Portwijal, fearing the Holy Ollice, fame and settled in this city. It was at Antwerp that Graeia Meiidesia, wife of Francisco Jlendes, lived for many years, havini; lied there some time before the year 1");{5. Graeia Her nephew. .IiiAo .Mi^n<'/. (afterward
Hendesia.
Don
.losej)!!
Nasi), is .said to
cupied a ]ironiinent citizens of
by Maria,
Antwerp and
to have sister of Charles V..
have
oc-
jjlaee ainnni; the
been well received
who was
at
that
Antwerp
Dom
Antwerp to engage in useful occupations, they were molested by the government officials, who accused them of being .lews, Maranos. heretics, and aijostates. If they had in any way unwittingly transgressed any of the emperor's ordinances, they begged to be judged on these counts by the burgomasters and judges of Antwerp. No answer seems to have been given by the emto
The olllcials of the city took up the cause of the converted Jews, and in 154.') refused to publish an imperial decree onlering all merchants that had come from Pcjrtugal to leave the country within a mouth. When, in 154i), this edict was reissued, the burgomasters at first refused to sign the document. peror.
When Joseph time regent of the Low Countries. moved to Italy, he tried to interest the Protestants in Antwerp, as well as Sultan Selim II., in his scheme for acipiiring an island in the Grecian Archipelago. in which to settle thi' unfortunate Jews that were driven out of Spain. But the people of Antwerp did not .seem to have lhou;;ht much of the iirojcci, and lent him no heljiing hand. It was at Antwerp that large stims of money were collected and .sent to Portugal and to Italy in the hope of intluencing the Inquisition to relax its vigilance in the case of the Graeia .Mendesia, after a few years, secret Jews. found the burden too great of trying to live up to a religion with which she did not sympathize: and with nuich trouble she escaped to Italy, where she could openly pnifcss Judaism, and there continued her noble work in behalf of her oppre.s.sed brethren
"Gesch. dcr Juden," i.. 80(>). There are accounts of other notable e.iles from the Spanish |)eninsula living in this, perhaps the Most oldest, Klemish selllement of the Maranos. prominent among them were the renowned i)liysi(Griltz,
Amatus Lusitamis
(l.")l 1). and. in the n<'.t centhe traveler Pedro Tci.cira, who, after having completed his journey, settled liere, returned to the Jewish faith, and wrote an account of his travels (Kay.serling, " Gesch. dcr Juden in Portugal." ji. :{(ll
cian
tiu'y.
introdiution to J. J. lienjandn, "Eight Years Asia and Africa." pj). 1 <7«<y/., Hanover, 18.")!)). There arc only a few data relating to the fate of
tdeiii,
in
the Jewish iidiabitanis of Antwerp in the secon<l It is (piite prob half of the si.xteenth century. able that the introduction of the Inquisition into the Netherlands by Philii) II. and his agent, the duke of Alva, was sorely felt by them. The In- though the city authorities did all in quisition in their power to keep these secret Jews the Neth- among them. It is known that the city councils of Arnheim and Zlllplun erlands. answered Alva that lher<' were no Jews in their towns; and this was in a measure true This treatment of the Jews, esalso of Antwerp. pecially at Antwerp, was of great assistance to its particular commercial rival, Amsterdam, which so greatly ben<lited by the large influx of Spanish-
Portuguese Jews. .Many Maninos could not come to Antwerp, for the path to this havin was not always free; and at YlissinL'en, where they had to pass the customs olllcials. many iundninccs were put in their way.
Such
dilUcullies. for instance, arose (February. 1541) the rase of a certain Don Andre de Carvajal, although he cnergelicidly di'iiied being even a NewHe said that he was of noble birth, a Chrislian. native of Toledo, a goinl Catholic, a doctor of Iheol ogy of the rniversityof Salaman<-a. and thai In- had No won never entered the Abrahamic covcnanl. der, then, that the converted Jews adilres.sed a nn' niorial to the emperor in that sunn- year, in which in
they explained that, although they wished to
eonii'
Auiweri' SyiiuKoirae. (From
ft
<lrftwlnit lo
|xNM«l<>n cf Prof. RIchftrd Gcrttbrll.)
heail. Nicolas Van ihr Meemn. even wi'ut so far as lo iliinand an interview with the regent Maria (who hiippelieil lo be at UupelmomleX in order lo plead the cause of the Maranosaml lo exculpate the city for having disobeyed such luijusl commands.
Their
He was
unsuccessful, however, and the margrave of
.iitwerp. Van der Werve. re<'eived an order to arrest (iabricl ile Neigro. Emmanuel Manrii|uez. anil
Kmniannel Sanino, three of the most pronnnent of Vandir Meenin received small thanks the Manuios. for his piuns. the i|uei-n ordering Du Fief, the procunitor general of Hndianl. to citi' him before a Iribunal. Thouirh the chart'e fell through for want of the uices.s;MV proof, its elTecl wasseiii ill till' removal of most of ilie Maranos from .iiUverp; only those being allowed lo remain who hail resided there for si.x years, and who promis«'d Ihereafler to follow all
