World Union of Jewish Studies / האיגוד העולמי למדעי היהדות

/ יהודים, מתייהדים ושומרי שבת באנגליה במאה הי"ז JEWS, JUDAISERS, AND THE SATURDAY-SABBATH IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLANDAuthor(s): DAVID S. KATZ and דוד כ"ץSource: Proceedings of the World Congress of Jewish Studies / דברי הקונגרס העולמי למדעיחטיבה ב: תולדות עם / DIVISION B: THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH PEOPLE ,היהדות, כרך חישראלpp. 69-72 תשמ"א / 1981Published by: World Union of Jewish Studies / האיגוד העולמי למדעי היהדותStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23528333 .

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JEWS, JUDAISERS, AND THE SATURDAY-SABBATH IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY ENGLAND

DAVID S. KATZ

Not ,all the commandments of the Decalogue,' complained an English clergyman in the seventeenth century, ,besides that of the Sabbath (which for number have the odds of nine to one) have suffered more or worse, under the strife of

tongues, or conflict of pens, then it hath done1• The chief reason why the Sabbath became ,as a ball, betwixt two rackets• was that some English Christians, called Sabbatarians, ob served more strictly the commandment to rest one day each week. This was the logical outcome of the puritan emphasis on a direct understanding of the word of God as it appears in the Bible, without priestly intermediaries. For it was

during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that the Old Testament regained a place of honour beside the newer partner which was thought to have superseded it. The central text in the Hebrew Bible is the ten commandments, to which was ac corded special respect even by those who argued that the Mosaic law had been fulfilled and abrogated by the coming of Christ. Nine of the commandments could be incorporated into existing codes of behaviour quite easily: murder, theft, and

adultery were sins in any man's law. But the fourth command ment proved more difficult to assimilate. The first problem was that the believer was told that on the Sabbath ,thou shalt not do any work'. Yet both Church and State positively encouraged recreation and sports after Sabbath prayers. The second difficulty was the divine definition that ,the seventh

day is the sabbath of the Lord'. The commandment clearly stated that Saturday was the Sabbath, not Sunday; the argu ment for altering the day of rest rested itself on very weak

scriptural ground. This is one reason that from at least the

second century the expression ,Lord's Day' appears as an

exclusively Christian designation for Sunday.

The Christian Church in both its Catholic and Protestant varieties explicitly denied both of these aspects of the

fourth commandment, and thus set itself against the revealed word of God. So the Sabbatarian question in early modern

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DAVID S. KATZ

England was at its base a dispute between those who promoted the absolute authority of the Bible and those who were wil

ling to accept the institutionalized Church as a full partner in setting religious fundamentals such as the nature and time of the holy Sabbath. The Sabbatarian question therefore high lights one of the most essential conflicts between the puritan and Anglican attitudes towards religion during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

As such, the Sabbatarian question in seventeenth-century England is of interest to Jewish and English historians alike, as it reveals the Old Testament trap in which the Bible-wor

shipping puritans found themselves. Most puritans solved the

problem by abstaining from all work on Sunday; they argued that their Lord's Day commemorated the second creation in the

Resurrection, and therefore its observance derived from divine order rather than mere ecclesiastical custom. But more extreme and less subtle-minded puritans were driven to the strict observance of Saturday as the Christian day of

rest, and thus remained faithful to the letter and the spirit of all the ten commandments. King James I was convinced that •all such kind of people...encline to a kind of Judaism'. It was then that men •began to Judaise a little, in the im

posing of so strict a rest upon this day'.

Most religious radicals in seventeenth-century England

were content to wrestle with the thorny theological quandary of the fourth commandment, but John Traske and his followers were the first to bow to the dictates of the puritan biblical

logic and to accept Saturday as the Christian Sabbath with all of its Jewish rigour. John Traske was born in Somerset about 1585» arrived in London about the beginning of 1617» and soon gained a reputation for powerful preaching. At this point, Traske was not yet a Saturday-Sabbatarian, only another popular preacher. It was not until he enlisted a certain tailor named Hamlet Jackson among his disciples that Traske was pushed towards Judaising practices. Jackson had studied the plain text of Scripture on his own, and came to believe that the portions of the New Testament that dealt with the Mosaic law did not entirely abrogate their pro visions. He discussed his views with Traske, who at first tried to dissuade him, but eventually became convinced by Jackson's argument.

At first, Traske, Jackson and their followers were con tent to mix Jewish and Christian traditions, and continued to observe the Lord's Day, although they refrained from

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JEWS AND JUDAISERS IN ENGLAND

kindling fires or dressing meat on Sunday. Jackson soon came to see the necessity of keeping the Saturday Sabbath

according to the full Mosaic law, and once again persuaded his ma6ter Traske, who reconverted his disciples to this

Judaising doctrine. Despite their views on the Sabbath, the Traskites were decidely a Christian sect; Traske's argument was that many of the Old Testament laws applied to Christians as well as Jews.

By the beginning of 1618, the Judaising sect could no

longer be ignored. Traske and some of his followers were soon in prison. King James himself followed the case: 1Their opinions made his Majesty exceedingly merry on Sunday at dinner,1 it was reported, ,and were almost the sole sub

ject of his discourse.' Traske was sentenced on 19 June 1618 to torture and perpetual imprisonment. Lord Chancellor Francis Bacon approved of this punishment, noting that Traske was ,a dangerous person1. Traske and his followers

attempted to follow Jewish rituals in prison, and amused fellow prisoners by conducting a Passover seder complete with unleavened bread. After nearly a year in prison, how

ever, Traske recanted sind was released, promising that ,as I have been stout for Moses and Christ together, so I may be as resolute for Christ alone'.

Traske ended his life as a Baptist, a member of the so called Jacob Church, the parent congregation of the entire

English Baptist movement, founded in 1616 and led by Henry Jessey from the summer of 1637. The entry of the early Baptists into the life story of the most important Judaiser is of immense significance. Jessey himself was the author of the most reliable eyewitness narrative of the Whitehall Conference in which the formal resettlement of the Jews in

England was debated. He was also a secret Saturday-Sab batarian. Traske died in 1636, and was buried in Lambeth

church-yard clandestinely, 'with the heels that way that the

heads of other men lie'. Jessey and Traske stand together

among the founding fathers of English nonconformity.

The Sabbatarian question in early modern England was

thus a dispute over whether the Bible or the Church would

determine religious matters of the most fundamental im

portance; whether the king and his bishops could arbitrarily

repeal one of the ten commandments. Yet when John Traske and his followers reminded puritans of their committment to

the revealed word of God in the Old Testament, he was decried

as a Judaiser, tortured, and imprisoned until he accepted the

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DAVID S. KATZ

English Sunday as the Christian Sabbath. Nevertheless, the debate over Saturday-Sabbatarianism which Traske and his followers sparked incidentally provided the first public forum in over three centuries for a discussion of the literal

interpretation of the Mosaic law sind the nature of contem

porary Christian-Jewish theological relations. The arguments used in this dispute would appear again forty years later when Menasseh ben Israel was invited to England as the ambassador of the Jewish nation seeking readmission to that

country.

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