Description:

Seventeenth-Century British Bishop Recommends Tolerance of Jews, Superb 1692 Book

[JUDAICA.] Thomas Barlow, Several Miscellaneous and Weighty Cases of Conscience, Learnedly and Judiciously Resolved By the Right Reverend Father in God, Dr. Thomas Barlow, Late Lord-Bishop of Lincoln. London: Mrs. Davis, 1692. 422 pp., 4.5" x 7". Rebound; contents tight; very good. Few exist but a much lesser copy sold at Kestenbaum auction in 2006 for over $2000

In this volume of letters and essays published after his death, Bishop of Lincoln Thomas Barlow makes a case for the tolerance not only of Protestant dissenters but of Jews as well. Other chapters deal with the King's power to pardon murder; divorce; and images in churches, among other subjects.

Excerpts
"Now whether it be for the Benefit and Secular Advantage of the Common-wealth to admit the Jews, I shall not Dispute, but leave it to the Prudence of the State, only I shall observe here Two Things. 1. That whilst the Jews lived in England it was a vast Benefit to the Crown.... 2. It appears by our Story that the Jews (at their Expulsion, and many times before) were not only (a) Unchristianly, but Inhumanely and Barbarously used; and then seeing Commonwealths and Societies never die (though particular Persons do) it may be a Query whether the Common-wealth of England now are not bound in Conscience and Equity to make some Satisfaction by real Kindness and Civility to the present Jews for the (b) Injuries the same Common-wealth did to their Progenitors then?" (p7-8 of "The Case of the Jews")

"It hath been the constant and continued Practice of Christendom, ever since to this Day, to admit Jews to live amongst Christians, and why we should pretend more Danger (in this particular) than either the Apostles or the Christian World ever since, I understand not." (p15 of "The Case of the Jews")

"By what hath been said, I believe it may appear in part that the Toleration of the Jews in this, or any Christian Common-weal, is not in itself unlawful, either in ratione inhonesti incommode or Scandali; but that as de facto, they have been ever tolerated in Christian States, so de jure they may still." (p61-62 of "The Case of the Jews")

"The Jews being the greatest Usurers in the World, and believing they may justly take the highest Use they can get...of us Gentiles, it is all the Reason in the World, they should be limited in this particular, and not permitted to take more of us, than the Law permits us to take one of another." (p72 of "The Case of the Jews")

Historical Background
In July 1290, King Edward I of England issued a royal decree expelling all Jews from the Kingdom of England. The edict resulted in the expulsion of approximately 3,000 Jews from England. It was not overturned until 350 years later, during the Protectorate, when Oliver Cromwell permitted Jews to return to England in 1657.

Although an exiled Royalist cleric during the Protectorate, Thomas Barlow also favored the readmission of the Jews, in part like many Puritans who wanted Jews readmitted to encourage their conversion to Christianity. When Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660, he refused to revoke Cromwell's action, despite later attempts in 1664 and 1673 to re-expel Jews from England.

Thomas Barlow (ca. 1608-1691) was an English academic and clergyman, who became Provost of the Queen's College, Oxford (1657), and Bishop of Lincoln (1675). He graduated from Queen's College, Oxford, with a bachelor's degree in 1630 and a master's degree in 1633. He served as librarian of the Bodleian Library from 1652 to 1660, when he became a professor. A Calvinist and strongly anti-Catholic, Barlow wrote a treatise on "Toleration in Matters of Religion" in the 1660s, but it was not published until after his death. He also wrote a tract on "Toleration of the Jews in a Christian State," also published after his death.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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