PRYNNE, WILLIAM. A Short Demurrer to the Jewes Long Discontinued Remitter into England.

(ANGLO-JUDAICA).

Edward Thomas

London

1656

FIRST EDITION. Part One. (According to Roth, Part Two was issued only in the second edition that same year of 1656).

Roth, Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica, pp. 39 (no. 80), 209 (no. 28).

William Prynne (1600-69), was a Puritan leader whose outspoken criticism of the theater landed him in the Tower of London for one year. In 1654 Prynne published an essay which argued for the observance of the Sabbath (albeit the Christian Sabbath, Sunday) from sundown to sundown in conformity to Biblical law. This positive predisposition to Mosaic tradition did not prevent Prynne from publishing the present tract which, after surveying the annals of Anglo-Jewish history, launches into a tirade against the official Readmission of the Jews to England. Thankfully, another Puritan, one Oliver Cromwell, who arrogated to himself the role of “Lord Protector of England” from 1653 to 1658, had other thoughts and at the behest of the Amsterdam Rabbi Menasseh ben Israel, brought about the Readmission of the Jews to England in 1656. See EJ, Vol. XIII, cols. 1295-6.