Balthazar (Isaac) Orobio de Castro
Encyclopedia
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
and apologist, born at Bragança, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
.
Life
While still a child, he was taken to SevilleSeville
Seville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
by his parents, who were Marranos. He studied philosophy at Alcalá de Henares
Alcalá de Henares
Alcalá de Henares , meaning Citadel on the river Henares, is a Spanish city, whose historical centre is one of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites, and one of the first bishoprics founded in Spain...
and became teacher of metaphysics
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
at the University of Salamanca
University of Salamanca
The University of Salamanca is a Spanish higher education institution, located in the town of Salamanca, west of Madrid. It was founded in 1134 and given the Royal charter of foundation by King Alfonso IX in 1218. It is the oldest founded university in Spain and the third oldest European...
. Later he devoted himself to the study of medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, and became a popular practitioner in Seville, and physician in ordinary to the duke of Medina-Celi and to a family nearly related to the king.
When married and father of a family, De Castro was, at the instigation of a servant whom he had punished for theft, denounced to the Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
as an adherent of Judaism
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
, and thrown into a dark and narrow dungeon, where he remained for three years, subjected to the most frightful torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
s. As he persistently denied the charge, he was finally released, but compelled to leave Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and to wear the sambenito, or penitential garment, for two years. He thereupon went to Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
, where he became professor of medicine at the university, at the same time receiving from Louis XIV
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
the title of councilor; but, weary at last of hypocrisy and dissimulation, he went to Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
about 1666, and there made a public confession of Judaism, adopting the name "Isaac." In that city De Castro continued the practice of medicine, and soon became a celebrity, being elected to membership in the directory of the Spanish-Portuguese congregation and of several academies of poetry. He died at Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
. Esther, his wife, died on July 5, 1712.
Works
Orobio de Castro was a very prolific writer. His work entitled Certamen Philosophicum Propugnatæ Veritatis Divinæ ac Naturalis Adversus J. Bredenburgi Principia was published at Amsterdam, 1684 (reprinted 1703 and 1731). This work, in which De Castro attacks the ethics of Spinoza, with whom he maintained a friendly correspondence, was translated into Spanish under the title Certamen Philosophico, Defiende la Verdad Divina y Natural Contra los Principios de Juan Bredenburg, by G. de la Torre, (The Hague, 1741).All the other writings of De Castro, like the foregoing translation, are still extant in manuscript. They are:
- Prevenciones Divinas Contra la Vana Ydolatria de las Gentes (Libro ii, Contra los Falsos Misterios de las Gentes Advertidas a Ysrael en los Escritos Propheticos);
- Explicação Paraphrastica sobre o Capitulo 53 do Propheta Isahias. Feito por hum Curiozo da Nação Hebrea em Amsterdam, em o mez de Tisry anno 5433 (compare Adolf NeubauerAdolf NeubauerAdolf Neubauer was sublibrarian at the Bodleian Library and reader in Rabbinic Hebrew at Oxford University....
, The Fifty-third Chapter of Isaiah, pp. 21-118, London, 1876); - Tratado em que se Explica la Prophesia de las 70 Semanas de Daniel. Em Amsterdam à 6 Febrero anno 1675, a paraphrasticParaphraseParaphrase is restatement of a text or passages, using other words. The term "paraphrase" derives via the Latin "paraphrasis" from the Greek , meaning "additional manner of expression". The act of paraphrasing is also called "paraphrasis."...
explanation of the seventy weeks of DanielDanielDaniel is the protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. In the narrative, when Daniel was a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity where he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways...
; - Epistola Invectiva Contra un Judio Philosopho Médico, que Negava la Ley de Mosse, y Siendo Atheista Affectava la Ley de Naturaleza. This is identical with Epistola Invectiva Contra Prado, un Philosopho Medico, que Dubitava, o no Creya la Verdad de la Divina Escritura, y Pretendió Encubrir su Malicia con la Affecta Confacion de Dios, y Ley de Natureza, a work directed against Juan de Prado, a physician and author of PicardyPicardyThis article is about the historical French province. For other uses, see Picardy .Picardy is a historical province of France, in the north of France...
who resided in Amsterdam.
Long after De Castro's death a Jew by the name of Henriquez
Henriquez
Henriquez or Henríquez may refer to:*Alexis Henriquez , Colombian footballer*Amilcar Henríquez , Panamanian footballer*Astor Henríquez , Honduran footballer...
published an alleged work of his in French under the title Israel Vengé, claiming it to have been originally written in Spanish (London, 1770). It has been translated into English by Grace Aguilar
Grace Aguilar
Grace Aguilar was an English novelist and writer on Jewish history and religion. She was delicate from childhood, and early showed great interest in history, especially Jewish history...
(London, 1839).
De Castro's discussions on Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
with the Dutch preacher Philipp van Limborch
Philipp van Limborch
Philipp van Limborch , Dutch Remonstrant theologian, was born at Amsterdam, where his father was a lawyer.He received his education at Utrecht, at Leiden, in his native city, and finally at Utrecht University, which he entered in 1652...
were published by the latter in the work entitled De Veritate Religionis Christianæ Amica Collatio cum Erudito Judæo, Amsterdam, 1687.
The de Castro family
The various branches of this family are all of Spanish and Portuguese origin. Some have continued to bear the simple name of "De CastroCastro (surname)
Castro is a Romance surname coming from Latin castrum, a fortification...
", others are known as De Castro-Osorio; De Castro Sarmento; De Castro-Castello-Osorio; Pereira de Castro; De Castro Vieira de Pinto; Rodriguez de Castro; Orobio de Castro; De Castro de Paz; Henriquez de Castro, etc.
A separate article gives details of many more members of the family.
See also
- de Castro familyDe Castro familyThe de Castro surname is used by a Sephardic Jewish family of Portuguese origin. Soon after the establishment of the Portuguese Inquisition, members of the family emigrated to Bordeaux, Bayonne, Hamburg, and various cities in the Netherlands...
- MarranoMarranoMarranos were Jews living in the Iberian peninsula who converted to Christianity rather than be expelled but continued to observe rabbinic Judaism in secret...
s - Crypto-Jews
- History of the Jews in the NetherlandsHistory of the Jews in the NetherlandsMost history of the Jews in the Netherlands was generated between the end of the 16th century and World War II.The area now known as the Netherlands was once part of the Spanish Empire but in 1581, the northern Dutch provinces declared independence...