Page 61 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

blames Jews for attempting "to subvert and to have been frequently exaggerated, particularly the agreements of April 1492 that stated the
reduce Our Holy Catholic Faith" by instructing among scholars who tend to regard the Jews as terms and conditions under which Columbus
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converses in Jewish rites and laws. The edict the nucleus of Castile's incipient bourgeoisie. was to set sail. Columbus had attempted to
stipulated that Jews had four months (or until Only a few Jews had actually been involved in secure royal backing for his voyage as early as
31 July 1492) to leave the kingdom. In the large-scale economic enterprise. As in the case January 1486 but had been rebuffed, partly
meantime they were guaranteed full legal rights of Abraham Seneor, moreover, some of the because of the royal preoccupation with the
and entitled to sell or otherwise dispose of their kingdom's most prominent Jews opted for con- Granada campaign then approaching its final
property. The Jews were further entitled to take version rather than exile. The edict did not stages. Meanwhile Ferdinand and Isabella
with them all their possessions except gold, result in an economic windfall for the crown nor demonstrated their interest in Columbus with
silver, and other items prohibited by royal law. 12 did it substantially diminish Castile's entrepre- subsidies and grants of cash. After the fall of
Such an edict was by no means unprece- neurial skills, thus assuring, as often alleged, Granada Columbus renewed his request,
dented; French monarchs and several Italian the kingdom's economic backwardness in subse- appealing directly to the monarchs' messianic
states had previously ordered the expulsion of quent decades. It is also a commonplace to aspirations and particularly to Ferdinand's
their Jewish subjects on similar grounds. In the attribute the expulsion to antisemitism, but the vision of himself as a great Christian champion.
Spanish case, however, the edict, a product of edict probably represents less an attack on Jews It is now known that Columbus was a pro-
euphoria created by the conquest of Granada in as an ethnic minority than a desperate attempt foundly religious man much influenced by the
January 1492, represented the continuation of to defend Christianity against Judaism. As Spiritual Franciscans, the order to which Cis-
the monarchs' determination to unite their reprehensible as this decision now appears, it is neros, Isabella's influential confessor, also
kingdom under one religion or law. Isabella best understood within the context of Ferdinand belonged. In the late Middle Ages, Franciscan
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may have hoped that the edict would spark a and Isabella's efforts to create a monarchy dedi- prophetic tradition envisioned the spiritual con-
general conversion among "her" Jews, and by cated to the "servicio de Dios." quest of Islam, the liberation of Jerusalem, and
publicly celebrating Abraham Seneor's conver- the conversion of the Jews as preludes to the
sion on 15 June 1492 as a great victory it was millennium and the second coming of Christ.
probably hoped that others would follow the Columbus, God, and the Millennium Columbus' fascination with these subjects is
example of this prominent Jew. In the end, Is there a connection between these events and demonstrated in his Book of Prophecy, written
however, the edict had the opposite effect, serv- the monarchs' decision in April 1492 to sponsor around 1498, a treatise in which he calculated
ing to unite a Jewish community previously Columbus' "enterprise of the Indies"? the millennium as imminent, only several dec-
divided by sharp differences in religious out- At the beginning of Columbus' journal of his ades away. For Columbus, therefore, it appears
look. Rabbis described the forced exile as a new voyage to the New World appears the following that the fall of Granada and the expulsion of the
Exodus comparable to the Jews' departure from entry: Jews from Castile and Aragon appear to have
Egypt, and one Christian chronicler left behind This present year of 1492, after Your High- marked the beginning of the millennial scenario
the following emotional description of the nesses had brought to an end the war with that the prophecies outlined. His enterprise also
actual event. belongs to this scenario, and should be inter-
the Moors who ruled in Europe and con- preted, at least in part, as a spiritual quest
The Jews left their birthplaces, children and cluded the war in the very great city of Gra- pointing toward the millennium.
parents, young and the old, on foot, riding on nada ... [on] the second day of the month What is certain is that Columbus harbored
burros and other beasts, as well as in carts. of January I saw the royal standards of Your messianic ambitions of his own. After 1493, for
They travelled to the ports of embarkation to Highnesses placed by force of arms on the example, he regularly signed his letters "Chris-
which they were assigned, by way of the des- towers of the Alhambra, which is the citadel topher Columbus, Christ Bearer." In 1498 he
ignated roads and places. They journeyed of the city, and I saw the Moorish king come even referred to himself as a messiah: "God
with great suffering and misfortune; some out of the gates of the city and kiss the royal made me the messenger of the new heaven and
falling, some getting up, some dying, some hands of Your Highnesses and the Prince, the new earth of which he spoke in the Apoca-
being born, and some getting sick. There was My Lord. 14 lypse of St. John after having spoken of it
hardly a Christian who did not feel sorry for Later in January Columbus claimed to have through the mouth of Isaiah; and he showed me
them and wherever they went the Jews were given the Catholic Monarchs information about the spot where to find it." To be sure, Colum-
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invited to be baptized. Some converted and India together with the "Great Khan's" interest bus had other, more worldly desires including
stayed behind, but very few. Instead, the in learning about Catholicism. He then wrote aspirations to nobility as well as to high office
rabbis went among them, urging them on and that the monarchs decided to send him to India and honor. His letters also demonstrate his fas-
making the women and boys sing and play to report on those lands and to see how "their cination with gold, a metal he clearly invested
drums and tambourines to raise their spirits. conversion to the Holy Faith might be under- with spiritual meaning. "Gold is most excel-
Thus they left Castile. 13 taken." The journal states: "So, after having lent," he wrote. Yet Columbus also stated:
How many left? No precise figures exist, but a expelled all the Jews from all of your kingdoms "Gold constitutes treasure, and he who
minimum of forty to fifty thousand Jews and dominions, in the same month of January possesses it may do what he will in the world,
departed, primarily for destinations in Portugal Your Highnesses commanded me to go, with a and may so attain as to bring souls to Paradise." 19
(from which they would be expelled in 1496), suitable fleet, to the said regions of India." 15 According to Columbus, Ferdinand and
North Africa, Italy, and Turkey. Some of the Columbus' chronology is confusing, but he Isabella's view of this precious commodity was
exiles converted and returned to reclaim their clearly linked the expulsion of the Jews to the strikingly close to his own. On 26 December
property, but most of these Sephardim aban- monarchs' decision to support his enterprise. 1492, still aboard ship in the Caribbean, Colum-
doned their Iberian homeland for good. As it turns out, little is known about the nego- bus recalled in his journal having instructed
The economic consequences of this exodus tiations leading to the Capitulations of Santa Fe, Ferdinand and Isabella that they should spend

60 CIRCA 1492