pervading religious ecumenism, culminating with the Puritan revolution in
- As in the Netherlands, this religious atmosphere was complemented
by an overarching sense of economic realism, aptly described by the French
philosopher Voltaire in his Letters on England:
Go into the Royal Exchange in London, a place more venerable than
many courts of justice, where the representatives of all nations meet for
the benefit of mankind. There the Jew, the Mahometan, and the
Christian transact together, as though they all professed the same reli-
gion, where the only infidel is one who goes bankrupt. There the
Presbyterian confides in the Anabaptist, and the Churchman depends on
the Quaker’s word. If one religion only were allowed in England, the
Government would very possibly become arbitrary; if there were but two,
the people would cut one another’s throats; but as there are such a multi-
tude, they all live happily and in peace.Currents within English Protestantism and Lockean philosophy (see below)
complemented religious ecumenism and economic realism in creating a
favorable attitude toward Jews. The break with Rome entailed a break with
Catholic dogma, including its harsh view of Jews. There was also a strong
interest in the Hebrew language and the Hebrew Bible among Anglicans and
other English Christians. Finally, there was the impact of millenarianism
among English Christians, sparked by the discovery of the New World. This
belief maintained that one of the preconditions of the Second Coming of
Christ was Jews inhabiting the four corners of the world, before being con-
verted en masse to Christianity. Along with the break with Rome and the
renewed interest in Hebrew, this bred a philo-Semitic view that Jews needed
to be admitted to England, although the ultimate aim of this philo-Semitic
outlook, ironically, was the disappearance of the Jews through conversion.
The philo-Semitism born of religious currents was complemented by the
influence of the philosopher John Locke. Locke’s notion of the human mind as
a tabula rasaset aside the notion that Jews were inherently immoral because
of their lack of belief in Christ. In addition, Locke’s notion of minimal gov-
ernment interference in the lives of individuals precluded restrictions on
Jewish life.
All of these developments provide the context in which the Amsterdam
rabbi Menasseh ben Israel lobbied for Oliver Cromwell to readmit the Jews
to England. Menasseh ben Israel (1604–57) was born into a crypto-Jewish
family in Madeira, and baptized Manoel Dias Soeiro. His father escaped
from the Inquisition in Lisbon, resettled the family in Amsterdam,
changed his name to Joseph, and renamed his sons Menasseh and Ephraim.
Menasseh was a gifted scholar and apologist, and was a friend of Hugo
Grotius and the painter Rembrandt. In 1650, after the Puritan revolution,
he began to negotiate with English statesmen to readmit Jews to England,
142 The age of enlightenment and emancipation, 1750–1880