Page 6 - TORCH Magazine - Issue #19

of Marrano Jews who had been forcefully converted to Roman Catholicism under pain of banishment. While publicly Catholic, he was secretly raised as a
Jew. He trained in medicine and had a lucrative practice in Lisbon as one of the most successful doctors in Portugal at an unusually young age. He was physician to the King of Portugal and other nobility, including the Grand Inquisitor of Portugal and members of the Dominican Order. While conforming to Catholicism in pubic, he and his wife practiced Judaism in private. He also secretly converted several back to the Jewish faith from Catholicism. Then one day a secret agent, posing as
a servant, reported that the family were visiting an underground synagogue and they were arrested during a Passover service. They were tortured whilst in prison but saved by intervention by the Grand Inquisitor so that he could be medically treated by Dr Nunez.
As part of the agreement, Nunez was under full-time surveillance with two inquisition officials present at all times. But in 1726 the pressure became too great. A daring escape plot involved Nunez hiring an English captain to bring a ship to the port and inviting the doctor and his entire family as guests on board, something quite normal in Lisbon’s high society. An hour later the ship started to sail to England with the two unknowing inquisition officials on board!
In England, Nunez was circumcised,
and the family changed their first names. Then he and his wife held a Jewish wedding ceremony.
This was the aging Dr Nunez who John Wesley met and became good friends
with in this complex colonial town.
The Christian preacher from England would spend many evenings sitting in
the company of this trialled Portuguese Jew. How gracious it was for this Jewish doctor, having been tortured and banished – and his ancestors likewise – in the
name of so-called Christianity by fanatics failing to represent anything like the character of Christ, to willingly befriend and accommodate this young roaming missionary who had landed in a world
much different to the one he had left behind.
We understand from Wesley’s diaries that he frequently visited Dr Nunez, enjoying the conversation and opportunity to relax. One commentator says Nunez
had “kept his door open” for Wesley and provided a “haven to which Wesley could retire, at least temporarily.” Initially helping Wesley with Spanish, the language lessons soon made way for deep, lively discussion on an array of topics. Wesley was fascinated with Nunez’s medical knowledge and particularly the care he gave all his
patients. Their topics briefly touched on theology, but ultimately their relationship transcended the religious differences between them.
Little did either know that Dr Nunez and the Jews of Savannah would soon be displaced yet again to escape the threat of Spanish take-over.
Wesley left Savannah abruptly due to a disagreement with a colonial leader, but his first – and probably only – encounter with a Jewish community made a lasting impact. Writing in his diary in Savannah, Wesley went so far as to note that “Jews in his parish, ‘seemed nearer to the mind that was in Christ than many who call him Lord.’”
All or nothing
John Wesley returned to England two years later, in 1737, different to the man that had left. Not only had John become a staunch abolitionist, but he also returned with an “all or nothing” kind of Christianity. He taught that one either believed entirely, without a shadow of reservation or doubt, in salvation through absolute faith alone, made possible by God’s grace, or one
was simply not a Christian at all. Whilst in the American colonies, he had also been impressed by the pious practices of the Moravian movement that resonated with his existing “methodical” ideas of devotion and study.
Unapologetically holding the belief that the Anglican church needed reform from within, Wesley had to resort to preaching open-air or in barns and other temporary locations.
6
CUFI.ORG.UK