o late as in the fifteenth century the wise statesman Isaac Abrabanel
was minister to Alfonso V., of Portugal, and, wonderful to relate, for
eight years to Ferdinand and Isabella, of Spain. At this time Jewish
literature was blessed with a patron in the person of Joseph Nasi, duke
of Naxos, whom, it is said, Sultan Selim II. wished to crown king of
Cyprus. His rival was Solomon Ashkenazi, Turkish ambassador to the
Venetian republic, who exercised decisive influence upon the election of
a Polish king. And this is not the end of the roll of Jewish diplomats
and ministers.

Unfortunately, the Kabbala, whose spell was cast about even the most
vigorous of Jewish minds, was the leading intellectual current of those
sad days, the prevailing misery but serving to render her allurements
more fascinating. But in the hands of such men as Abraham Herrera, who
influenced Benedict Spinoza, even Kabbalistic studies were informed with
a scientific spirit, and brought into connection with Neoplatonic
philosophy.

Mention of Spinoza suggests Holland where Jews were kindly received, and
shortly after their arrival they interested themselves in the
philosophical pursuits in vogue. The best index to their position in
Holland is furnished by Manasseh ben Israel's prominent role in the
politics and the literary ventures of Amsterdam, and by his negotiations
with Oliver Cromwell. We may pardon the pride which made him say, "I
have enjoyed the friendship of the wisest and the best of Europe." Uriel
Acosta and Baruch Spinoza, though children of the Amsterdam
_Judengasse_, were ardent patriots.

The last great Spanish poet was Antonio Enrique de Gomez, the Jewish
Calderon, burnt in effigy at Seville; while the last Portuguese poet of
note was Antonio Jose de Silva, who perished at the stake for his faith,
leaving his dramas as a precious possession to Portuguese literature.

Even in the dreariest days of decadence, when the study of the Talmud
seemed to engross their attention, Jews prosecuted scientific inquiries,
as witness Moses Isserles's translation of _Theorica_, an astronomical
treatise by Peurbach, the Vienna humanist.

With the migration of Jews eastward, _Judendeutsch_, a Jewish-German
dialect, with its literature, was introduced into Slavic countries. It
is a fact not generally known that this jargon is the depository of
certain Middle High German expressions and elements no longer used in
the modern German, and that philologists