to lead the Jewish life. It was not till about the eighteenth century
that the Government began to resort to the usual methods of eradicating
heresy. Katharina Weigel, a lady famous for her beauty, who embraced
Judaism, was decapitated in Cracow at the instigation of Bishop Peter
Gamrat. On the deposition of his wife, Captain Vosnitzin of the Polish
navy was put to death by auto-da-fé (July 15, 1738). The eminent "Ger
Zedek," Count Valentine Pototzki, less fortunate than his comrade and
fellow-convert Zaremba, was burnt at the stake in Vilna (May 24, 1749),
and his teacher in the Jewish doctrines, Menahem Mann, was tortured and
executed a few months later, at the age of seventy. But these measures
proved of little avail. According to Martin Bielski, the noted
historian, Jews saved their proselytes from the impending doom by
transporting them to Turkey. Many of them sought refuge in Amsterdam.
For those who remained behind their new coreligionists provided through
collections made for that purpose in Russia and in Germany. To this day
these Russian and Polish proselytes adhere steadfastly to their faith,
and whether they migrate to America or Palestine to escape the
persecution of their countrymen, they seldom, if ever, indulge in the
latitudinarianism into which many of longer Jewish lineage fall so
readily when removed from old moorings.[17]

That the Russian Jews of the day were not altogether unenlightened, that
they not only practiced the Law devoutly, but also studied it
diligently, and cultivated the learning of the time as well, we may
safely infer from researches recently made. Cyril, or Constantine, "the
philosopher," the apostle to the Slavonians, acquired a knowledge of
Hebrew while at Kherson, and was probably aided by Jews in his
translation of the Bible into Slavonic. Manuscripts of Russo-Jewish
commentaries to the Scriptures, written as early as 1094 and 1124, are
still preserved in the Vatican and Bodleian libraries, and copyists were