APPENDIX TO LECTURE II. 113 C. 22. De Judæis.-" Sciendum quoque quod omnes Judæi ubicunque in regno sunt sub tutela et defensione Regis ligea debent esse, nec quilibet eorum alicui diviti se potest subdere sine Regis licentia. Judæi enim et omnia sua Regis sunt. Quod si quispiam detinuerit eos vel pecuniam eorum, perquirat Rex si vult tanquam suum proprium."-Spelman's Concilia Decreta, &c. vol. i. p. 623. D. "Sciendum est quoque, quod omnes Judæi, ubicunque in regno sunt, sub tutela et defensione Domini regis sunt; nec quilibet eorum alicui diviti se potest subdere, sine Regis licentia. Judæi, et omnia sua Regis sunt. Quod si quispiam detinuerit eis pecuniam suam, perquirat Rex tanquam suum proprium." E. Dr. M'Caul goes on to say-"Wagenseil gravely undertakes to disprove most of these charges; but it is to be hoped that the mere mention of them together is sufficient to show their falsehood. It is rather too bad to reproach the Jews, on the one hand, with unbelief, hatred, and contempt for Christians, and then to charge them with such faith in the wonder 114 APPENDIX TO LECTURE II. working and soul-saving power of Christian blood, that to obtain it they expose themselves to the fury of their enemies. The enormous lying, profound ignorance of Judaism and the Jews, as well as the degrading superstition involved in some of these charges, throws discredit upon all. The mere recital of these follies shows that they are the offspring of an unbelieving imagination, if not the invention of a malignant heart."-Reason, &c. pp. 23, 24. F. ויהי בשנת ארבעת אלפים ותשע מאות ותשע עשרה שנה בחצי הלילה בליל השבת בארבעה עשר לחדש טבת ואני אברהם ספרדי אבן עזרא הייתי בעיר אחת מערי האי הנקרא קצה הארץ. : Kerem This work has been published in Prague in 1839, in a learned Hebrew periodical, called Chemed. In the thirty-fifth volume of the "Quarterly Review," in an article headed "Hurwitz's Hebrew Tales," p. 113, the following passage is to be met with "It may astonish the inquirer into the literary productions of our country, to be informed that one of the earliest books written here after the Conquest, was by one of the most eminent of the rabbies, Aben Ezra. In 1159, the sixth year of Henry II., he wrote from London a letter on the proper time of keeping the Sabbath, in verse; and in the same year his Jesod Mora (the Foundation of Fear), a treatise in twelve sections, on the various requisites for the study of Scripture and science, &c. APPENDIX TO LECTURE II. 115 We are afraid that there is not a copy of it in the British Museum, and yet it ought to be there as a national curiosity. It would be amusing to speculate on what were the opinions of the critical and scientific Jew on the state of civilization and literature which he saw about him." G. "Die Gelehrten unter ihnen trieben die Arzeneiwissenschaft, doch mehr als Kunst, und sie sind durch Bekanntschaft mit geheimen Heilmitteln so berühmt gewesen, dass die Geistlichkeit in ihrem WunderKuren gestört ward, und nur dadurch einen Ausweg suchte, dass sie die Juden für Zauberer verschrie. Daher hat das gemeine Volk sich geängstigt Juden ans Krankenbette zu rufen."-Jost's Geschichte der Israeliten, vol. vii. pp. 113, 114. Dr. M'Caul, after dilating on the Jewish knowledge of astronomy, writes thus: :- "Their attention to medicine is a matter of equal notoriety. Their medical literature is considerable, and would, no doubt, throw much light on the history of that science. . . . For a long list of Jewish medical writers, see Barlolocii, part iv.; Repertorium libr. per Materias, p. li. ; and the Catalogue of the Oppenheim Library, pp. 171, 497, 645."—An Apology for the Study of Hebrew and Rabbinical Literature, p. 6. |