Costa, Uriel da

(1585–1640)

   Heretical scholar. Da Costa was of Marrano stock, and was born in Oporto, Portugal. He was devoutly Catholic and began his career as an official of the Church. Through his studies he became convinced of the truth of Judaism and, in order to escape the attention of the Inquisition, took refuge in Amsterdam. Soon, however, he found that his self-discovered Judaism was not acceptable to the Jewish community. After publishing an attack on the ‘Pharisees of Amsterdam’ in 1624, he was arrested and fined, his book was burned and he was excommunicated from the synagogue. He seems then to have lived in Hamburg for a time but in 1633 he was once more in Amsterdam. Unable to come to terms with Jewish practice, he adopted a kind of deism and was once more excommunicated. When he sought to return to the community in 1640 he submitted to public humiliation and flogging. Shortly after that he shot himself.

   All that is known of Da Costa’s life is recounted in his brief work, Examplar Humanae Vitae (‘The Ideal of Human Life’, 1687) - the story of a Jew who failed to find a place among his own people. Little is known of his doctrines but he is believed to have influenced SPINOZA. In the 19 and early 20 century his life was the theme of several works in which he was depicted as the victim of Orthodox bigotry and intolerance.