CHAPTER V.
THE CARDINAL AND THE JEW.
"I should like," said Ippolito, "to speak with that Jew before I leaveyou. He may help me to some curious manuscripts."
The Medici were very clever in hunting up curiosities of literature;for their encouragement of the arts sprang less from the love of thatrenown which rewards liberal patronage, than from real, genuine interestin arts and letters _for their own sake_. Hence the worship of theirvery names among poor _literati_, to whom sympathy and appreciationare dearer than gold, though they like that too. Pity that they lovedPlato better than Christ! The spirit of poetical and philosophicalemulation which they kindled was accompanied by utter obtuseness tospiritual things. A keen sense of purity of language fostered no loveof purity of life; there was, in fact, complete antagonism between theelegant disciples of Lorenzo and the severe followers of Savonarola andBernardino Ochino; and if the very light that was in them was darkness,how great was that darkness! The Medici retarded rather than advancedthe spirituality of their age; and in like manner, though in differentproportion, their elegant biographer has thrown a false shadow on good,and a false light on evil. Of course I shall be covered with obloquy forsaying this.
Cardinal Ippolito received Bar Hhasdai in a cabinet adjoining the _saladi compagnia_, in which music and society-games were beguiling thetedium of the other guests. The Jew was a grand specimen of theSephardim--he was a great deal older than he looked, his hairunbleached, and his head unbent by age.
"Your name is that of a great man," said the Cardinal to him.
"My descent is from him likewise," said the physician. "I am son, or, asyour people would say, descendant of that Hhasdai ben Isaac who wasHagib to the second Abderrahman, and wrote the famous epistle--of whichyou doubtless have heard--to Joseph, King of Cozar."
"No, I never heard anything about it," said Ippolito with interest. "Whowas the king of Cozar?"
"The Cozarim," replied Bar Hhasdai, "were Jews dwelling on the CaspianSea. My ancestor had long heard of them without being able tocommunicate with them, till, from the Spanish embassy at Constantinople,he learned that some of them frequently brought furs for sale to thebazaars there. On this, he addressed an epistle to them, beginning: 'I,Bar Hhasdai ben Isaac, ben Ezra, one of the dispersed of Jerusalem,dwelling in Spain,' and so on--'Be it known to the king that the name ofthe land we inhabit is, in the holy language, Sepharad, but in that ofthe Ishmaelites, el Andalus,' &c. Bar Hhasdai despatched this epistle tothe East by an envoy, who returned six months afterwards, saying he hadhunted high and low for the Cozarim, without being able to find them.Their kingdom undoubtedly existed, but was quite inaccessible. BarHhasdai transmitted his letter afterwards, however, through twoambassadors of the Asiatic people called Gablim, who visited Cordova."
"And were these Cozarim the lost tribes?"
"I know not."
"Where are they now?"
"They are not found."
"How came you Jews to settle in Spain?"
"I believe in Abarbanel. He tells us that two families of the house ofDavid settled in Spain during the first captivity. One of them settledat Lucena; the other, the Abarbanels, took root at Seville. Hence alltheir descendants were of the royal stock--of the tribe of Judah."
"You yourself, then, are of the royal stock?"
"I trace up to David."
Ippolito did not know whether to believe him; but he evidently believedin himself.
"I thought," said De' Medici, "your genealogies were lost?"
"Not when we came to Spain. But it is believed that many Jews were inSpain even _prior_ to the first captivity--Jews who came over with themerchant ships of Hiram in the days of David and Solomon, and whoremitted large sums of money towards the erection of the Temple. You maysee a tombstone that confirms this, without the walls of Saguntum, tothis day. It bears the following inscription in Hebrew--'The sepulchreof Adoniram, the servant of King Solomon, who came hither to collecttribute.' The tomb was opened about fifty years ago, and found tocontain an embalmed corpse of unusual stature."
"This is curious," said the Cardinal, reflectively,--"and merely amatter of curiosity."
"It ought not to be so in your eyes--nor in the eyes of any thoughtfulChristian," said Bar Hhasdai.
"Why not?"
"Because we Sephardim were not consenting unto the death of him whom youterm the Christ."
"Ha!--But you would have done so, most probably, if you had been on thespot."
"That is a gratuitous supposition. On the contrary, we wrote an epistleto Caiaphas the High Priest, pleading for the life of Jesus, whose goodreport had been brought us."
"Can this be so?"
"Prince Cardinal! when I and my brethren were banished from Spain fortyyears ago, we appealed to an ancient monument in the open square ofToledo, bearing the inscription of some very early bishop, to the effectthat we Sephardim had not quitted Spain during the whole time of thesecond Temple; and, therefore, could not have shared in the guilt ofcrucifying Jesus!"
"Singular!"
"When Taric the Moor took Toledo, in the year 710 of your era, he found,at Segoncia, among other treasures, the actual table of shew-bread whichhad belonged to Solomon's Temple! and which our nation had secretlybrought to Spain. It was composed of one huge emerald, surrounded bythree rows of the choicest pearls, and it stood upon three hundred andsixty feet of pure gold."
"Are you fabling?" exclaimed the Cardinal, whom this traditioninterested more than all the rest.
"Nay," said Bar Hhasdai, "the fable is not mine, at any rate. That sucha relic was really found there, is proved by their changing the name ofthe place from Segoncia to Medinat al Meida, _the place of the table_."
"Why, man, such a relic as that would redeem your whole race! Hist, theDuchess is singing----"
A lute, rarely touched, preluded a sweet, plaintive air, sung by a balmyvoice in the saloon. The Cardinal listened with pleasure and a littleprovocation; for the Duchess had twice refused to sing to him, and itwas very bad of her to do so at the request of some one else. The littlesnatch of song ended abruptly in the minor.
"Could not you enter into that?" said Ippolito, noticing a strangemixture of sadness and sarcasm on the physician's face. He replied witha distich--
"What saith the art of music among the Christians?-- 'I was assuredly stolen from the land of the Hebrews!'"
"Do you mean that that is a Hebrew melody?"
"O, yes!"
"Jew! _why_ will you not convert, and be healed?"
"It cannot be. I have seen whole families of slain Jews with gapinggashes in their bodies, heaped at their own thresholds--and those gasheswere made by the swords of Christians!"
"But that was in Spain."
"Bear with me, Cardinal, while I repeat a parable to you. Pedro theGreat of Arragon inquired of a learned Jew which was the best religion.He replied: 'Ours is best for us, and yours for you,' The king was notsatisfied with this answer, and the Jew, after three days, returned tohim seemingly in great perturbation, and said: 'A neighbour of minejourneyed to a far country lately, and gave each of his two sons a richjewel to console them for his absence. The young men came to me toinquire which jewel was the most valuable. I assured them I was unableto decide, and said their father must be the best judge, on which theyoverwhelmed me with reproaches.' 'That was ill done of them,' said theking. 'O, king!' rejoined the Jew, 'beware how thou condemnest thyself.A jewel has been given unto the Hebrew and likewise to the Christian,and thou hast demanded that I should decide which is the most precious.I refer thee to our great Father, the Giver of all good gifts, who alonecan exactly determine their comparative and absolute values.'"
This apologue pleased the Cardinal, though, in fact, it was verysuperficial. He inquired whether Bar Hhasdai could help him to any raremanuscripts.
"The few which I possess," said the physician, after a pause, "are notsuch as would be of any value in your eyes: being either on our own law,or on the science of medicine-
-"
"Nay, but," said the Cardinal, "the latter are such as I should greatlyprize."
"They are altogether obsolete and unworthy of your notice," said BarHhasdai, "but I have a little treatise on Chess, which really is acuriosity in its way; and also a treatise on Aristotle's Ethics, byRabbi Joseph ben Caspi, of Barcelona, which is at your service."
"Let me have them both," said the Cardinal, "and in return I beg you toaccept this ruby of small value."
"This is a rare gem!" said the physician, with delight, "and cut withHebrew characters. May I really have it?"
"Certainly. And pray tell me before you go, do you think the Moorishgirl will recover?"
"I have some hope of it."
"Could not you, as you have a key to her confidence, which we have not,ascertain whether she is really faithful to the Duchess?"
"There can be no question of her fidelity. She has spoken of hermistress with gratitude."
"That is well. Farewell, then."