ating these, could draw down
spirits from Heaven, passed as the Messiah of the Race of Joseph,
precursor of the true Messiah of the Race of David. The times were
ripe. "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," cried the Cabalists with one
voice. The Jews had suffered so much and so long. Decimated for not
dying of the Black Death, pillaged and murdered by the Crusaders,
hounded remorselessly from Spain and Portugal, roasted by thousands
at the _autos-da-fe_ of the Inquisition, everywhere branded and
degraded, what wonder if they felt that their cup was full, that
redemption was at hand, that the Lord would save Israel and set His
people in triumph over the heathen! "I believe with a perfect faith
that the Messiah will come, and though His coming be delayed,
nevertheless will I daily expect Him."

So ran their daily creed.

In Turkey what time the Jews bore themselves proudly, rivalling the
Venetians in the shipping trade, and the Grand Viziers in the beauty
of their houses, gardens, and kiosks; when Joseph was Duke of Naxos,
and Solomon Ashkenazi Envoy Extraordinary to Venice; when Tiberias was
turned into a new Jerusalem and planted with mulberry-trees; when
prosperous physicians wrote elegant Latin verses; in those days the
hope of the Messiah was faint and dim. But it flamed up fiercely
enough when their strength and prestige died down with that of the
Empire, and the harem and the Janissaries divided power with the
Praetorians of the Spahis, and the Jews were the first objects of
oppression ready to the hand of the unloosed pashas, and the black
turban marked them off from the Moslem. It was a Rabbi of the Ottoman
Empire who wrote the religious code of "The Ordered Table" to unify
Israel and hasten the coming of the Messiah, and his dicta were
accepted far and wide.

And not only did Israel dream of the near Messiah, the rumor of Him
was abroad among the nations. Men looked again to the mysterious
Orient, the cradle of the Divine. In the far isle of England sober
Puritans were awaiting the Millennium and the Fifth Monarchy of the
Apocalypse--the four "beasts" of the Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and
Roman monarchies having already passed away--and when Manasseh ben
Israel of Amsterdam petitioned Cromwell to readmit the Jews, his plea
was that thereby they might be dispersed through all nations, and the
Biblical prophecies as to the eve of the Messianic age be thus
fulfilled. Verily, the times were ripe for the birth of