THE AGE OF THE ASHERIDES AND OF GERSONIDES.
Condition of Palestine--Pilgrims and Immigrants--Shem Tob
Ibn-Gaon--Favorable Position of the Jews in Castile under
Alfonso XI--Persecution in Navarre--Joseph de Ecija and Samuel
Ibn-Wakar--Increase of Anti-Jewish Feelings--Abner--Alfonso
of Burgos, Convert to Christianity, and Persecutor of the
Jews--Gonzalo Martinez--Fall of Martinez and Deliverance of the
Jews--Decline of the Study of Science--The Study of the Talmud
prosecuted with Renewed Vigor--Jacob and Judah Asheri--Isaac
Pulgar, David Ibn-Albilla--The Provençal Philosophers
Ibn-Kaspi, Leon de Bagnols, and Vidal Narboni--Decline of the
Study of the Talmud in Germany--Emperor Louis of Bavaria and
the Jews--Persecution by the "Leather-Arms."
1328-1350 C.E.
The Holy Land was once more accessible to its children. The Egyptian
sultans, into whose power it passed after the fall of Accho and the
expulsion of the Christians, were more tolerant than the Christian
Byzantine emperors and the Frankish crusading kings. They did not
hinder the coming of Jewish pilgrims who desired to lighten their
over-burdened hearts by praying and weeping over the ruins of the past,
so rich in recollections, or at the graves of their great men there
interred; nor did they oppose the settlement of European exiles, who
again cultivated the soil of the land of their fathers. The long, firm,
yet mild, reign of the Mameluke sultan, Nassir Mahomet (1299-1341),
was a happy time for the Jews who visited Palestine. Whilst under the
rule of the Christian governors of the country no Jew was permitted to
approach the former capital, at this time Jewish pilgrims from Egypt
and Syria regularly came to Jerusalem, to celebrate the festivals, as
in the time when the Temple shone in all its splendor. The Karaites
established special forms of prayer for those who went on pilgrimages
to Jerusalem: at their departure, the whole congregation assembled to
give utterance in prayer to the bitter-sweet emotions connected with
Zion. The immigrants who settled in Palestine engaged in agriculture.
They came to feel so thoroughly at home there that the question was
mooted whether the laws of tithes, of the year of release, and others
ought not to be again carried into effect. In consequence of the
freedom and tolerance which the Jews were enjoying, many enthusiastic
spirits were again seized by the ardent desire to kiss the dust of the
Holy Land. Emigration to Palestine, especially from the extreme west,
became very common at this time.
A pupil of Meïr of Rothenburg, named Abraham, a painstaking copyist
of holy writings, considered his dwelling in the Holy Land a mark of
divine grace. Two young Kabbalists, Chananel Ibn-Askara and Shem Tob
Ibn-Gaon from Spain, also traveled thither, probably to be nearer
the source of the mystic doctrines, which fancy assigned to this
country, and took up their residence in Safet. But instead of obtaining
fresh information upon the doctrines of the Kabbala, one of them--
Ibn-Askara died in his youth--introduced new features of the science.
Shem Tob ben Abraham Ibn-Gaon, from Segovia (born 1283, died after
1330), whose teacher in the Talmud had been Ben Adret, and in the
Kabbala Isaac ben Todros, was a zealous adherent of the secret science,
and described even Maimuni as a Kabbalist.
The congregation of Jerusalem was at this time very numerous. A
large portion of the Rabbanite community led a contemplative life,
studied the Talmud day and night, and became engrossed with the secret
lore of the Kabbala. There were also handicraftsmen, merchants, and
several acquainted with the science of medicine, with mathematics and
astronomy. The artistic work of the famous calligraphers of Jerusalem
was in great demand, far and near. Hebron, too, possessed a vigorous
community, whose members engaged chiefly in the weaving and dyeing of
cotton-stuffs, and in the manufacture of glass wares, exported in large
quantities. In the south of Palestine, in company with Mahometans,
Jewish shepherds again pastured their flocks after the manner of the
patriarchs. Their rabbi was also a shepherd, and delivered discourses
upon the Talmud in the pasture fields for such as desired to obtain
instruction.
Although the Holy Land was the goal of ardent, longing hearts, yet
it was no more a center for the dispersed of the Jewish race than it
had been for a long time previous. It could not produce an original
leader of any sort, and lived upon the crumbs of culture dropped by
the Jews in Europe. The Kabbala, studied in Palestine since the time
of Nachmani, was an exotic plant which could never flourish very well
there, and degenerated into rankest superstition. The Holy Land did
not even produce a Talmudical authority of widespread renown; also
for earnest rabbinical studies it had become dependent upon Europe.
The leadership of Judaism in the days after the death of Ben Adret
and Asheri remained with Spain, not as formerly Aragon, but Castile,
where the family of Asheri and their views prevailed. Here lived
Talmudical authorities whose decisions were considered final. Here was
still to be found, if not a flourishing state of science, at least
appreciation of scientific research. In Castile, under the rule of the
powerful and intelligent Alfonso XI, the Jews were in so prosperous a
condition that, compared with other countries in Europe, this period
may be called a Golden Age. Several clever Jews in succession, under
the modest title of ministers of finance (Almoxarif), exercised an
influence upon the course of politics. Not only the court, but also
the great nobles, surrounded themselves with Jewish counselors and
officers. In place of the humble, servile bearing, and the degrading
badge which the church decreed for the Jews, the Jewish Spaniards
still bore their heads erect, and clothed themselves in gold and
silk. Dazzled by the glitter of this favorable state of affairs, some
recognized the fulfillment of the old prophecy, "the scepter shall not
depart from Judah," which Christians had so often employed in their
attacks on Judaism.
It is scarcely to be wondered at, if the Spanish Jews were unduly
elated because of the promotion of a few from their midst to state
offices. Such prominent public men were for the most part a protecting
shield for the communities against the avaricious and turbulent lower
orders of the nobility, against the stupid credulity and envy of the
mob, and the serpent-like cunning of the clergy, lying concealed but
ready to attack the Jews. Jewish ministers and counselors in the
service and the retinue of the king, clothed in the costume of the
court, and wearing at their sides the knightly sword, by these very
circumstances, without special intercession, disarmed the enemies
of their brethren in faith and race. The impoverished nobles, who
possessed nothing more than their swords, were filled with envy of
the rich and wise court Jews; but they were compelled to stifle their
feelings. The masses, guided by appearances, did not venture, as was
done in Germany, to ill-treat or slay any Jew they chanced across, as
an outlaw and a pariah, because they knew that the Jews were held in
high favor at court. They often overrated their influence, believing
that the Jews at court could obtain a hearing with the king at any
time. Even the haughty clergy were obliged to restrain themselves
so long as Joseph of Ecija, Samuel Ibn-Wakar, and others, were in a
position to counteract their influence.
If the Castilian Jews compared the condition of their brethren in
neighboring countries with their own, they must certainly have felt
exalted, and entitled to be proud of their lot. In Aragon, at this
time united into one kingdom with the islands of Majorca and Sicily,
the persecuting spirit of the church, which Raymond de Penyaforte had
stirred up, and Jayme I had perpetuated by means of oppressive laws,
was rampant. In Navarre, which for half a century had belonged to the
crown of France, the hatred against the Jews burned with a frenzy
hitherto to be met with only in Germany. The last of the Capets,
Charles IV, was dead, and with the accession of Philip VI to the French
throne the House of Valois began. It is noteworthy that even Christians
believed that the extinction of the lineal successors of Philip le Bel
was retribution for his merciless expulsion of the Jews from France.
The people of Navarre strove to separate themselves from the rule of
France, and form an independent state. It is not known in how far the
Jews stood in the way of their project. Anyhow it is certain that
suddenly, throughout the whole country, a bloodthirsty enmity arose
against the Jews, prompted by envy of their riches, and fostered by the
monks. A Franciscan, named Pedro Olligoyen, made himself most prominent
in goading on the deluded mob against the innocent Jews. In the large
congregation of Estella a most horrible massacre began on a Sabbath
(23d Adar-5th March, 1328). The infuriated mob raised the cry, "Death
to the Jews, or their conversion."
In vain did the Jews attempt to defend themselves in their streets;
the inhabitants of the city, strengthened by troops from other places,
besieged them, and took by storm the walls which surrounded the Jewish
quarter, breaking them down and slaying almost all the Jews of the
city. They also set fire to the Jewish houses, and reduced them to
ashes. The description by an eye-witness of his own sufferings gives
only a feeble idea of the horrors of this savage massacre in Estella.
The murderers had slain the parents and the four younger brothers of
Menachem ben Zerach, then barely twenty years old, afterwards a scholar
of commanding influence. He himself was wounded by the murderers and
knocked down, lying on the ground unconscious, from evening till
midnight, beneath a number of corpses. A compassionate knight, a friend
of Menachem's father, searched for him beneath the pile of corpses,
took him to his house, and had him carefully tended till he recovered
from his wounds. Similar scenes of barbarity were enacted in other
parts of the country, especially in Tudela, the largest community in
Navarre, and in the smaller ones of Falcos, Funes, Moncilla, Viana
and others, but nowhere to so frightful an extent as in Estella. Over
six thousand Jews perished in these massacres. Only the Jews of the
capital, Pampeluna, appear to have escaped these savage attacks. The
people of Navarre at length succeeded in their desire; their country
was separated from France, and obtained a king of its own, Philip
III, Count of Evreux and Angoulême. As soon as he was crowned, the
relatives of the murdered entreated him to mete out justice. At first,
Philip prosecuted the guilty persons in real earnest; he ordered the
ringleaders, the Franciscan Pedro Olligoyen and others to be cast into
prison, and laid a fine upon the cities in which these crimes had been
committed. But, in course of time, he liberated all the imprisoned, and
remitted the fine as an act of grace. He took good care, too, not to
let the stolen property and the possessions of persons without heirs
escape him; they had to be surrendered to him, just as in Germany.
There was no objection to the Jews' being slaughtered, but the royal
treasury was not to suffer loss on that account. This king and his
successors imposed new burdens upon the wretched people. The Jews of
Navarre now began to sink into degradation like those of Germany.
The sun that was shining upon them in Castile at this time was,
strictly speaking, only a false sun, but its glimmer, compared with the
gloom wherein the congregations of other countries were steeped, gives
at least momentary pleasure. Alfonso XI, as soon as he came of age,
and obtained the sovereignty (1325-1380), had two Jewish favorites,
Don Joseph of Ecija and Samuel Ibn-Wakar. The former, whose full name
was Joseph ben Ephraim Ibn-Benveniste Halevi, had a pleasing exterior,
understood music, and knew how to ingratiate himself with those in
power. At the recommendation of his uncle, the king had made him
not only minister of finance (Almoxarif), but also his confidential
counselor (privado), whose opinion he highly valued. Joseph of Ecija
possessed a state carriage, knights accompanied him as an escort on
his journeys, and hidalgos dined at his table. On one occasion the
king dispatched him on a very important and honorable mission which
almost cost him his life. He was besieged by the citizens of Valladolid
in the palace of the Infanta, and they demanded his surrender with
tumultuous clamor. Some of Joseph's retinue succeeded in escaping from
the city, and they hastened at full speed to the king, to whom they
related what had taken place. Alfonso rightly considered this a revolt
against his sovereignty. He marched rapidly against Valladolid, and
summoned the knights of Old Castile to join him. For the sake of his
Jewish favorite, he besieged the former capital of his kingdom, burnt
many houses, and would have destroyed the place entirely, had not more
moderate persons intervened, and explained to the king that the people
were not so much embittered against Don Joseph as against Don Alvar
Nuñez, whose influence was most hateful to them. Don Alfonso thereupon
condescended to remove Alvar from his public offices, whilst Don Joseph
continued in favor with the king.
The other favorite of King Alfonso was his physician, Don Samuel
Ibn-Wakar (Abenhuacar). This man had a scientific education, was an
astronomer, and perhaps the astrologer of his master. Although he
occupied no public office, and took no part in state affairs, yet,
through the favor of the king, he possessed very great influence. There
existed between Don Joseph of Ecija and Ibn-Wakar the jealousy which is
common among courtiers who bask in the rays of the same sun. On account
of their rivalry, these two favorites sought to injure each other, and
thus they and their co-religionists incurred the hatred of the people.
Some wealthy Jews, probably relying upon the favorable position
of their friends at court, carried on money transactions in an
unscrupulous manner. They extorted a high rate of interest, and
mercilessly persecuted their dilatory Christian debtors. The king
himself encouraged the usury of the Jews and Moors, because he gained
advantage therefrom. The complaints of the people against the Jewish
and Mahometan usurers grew very numerous. The cortes of Madrid,
Valladolid and other cities made this point the subject of petitions
presented to the king, demanding the abolition of these abuses, and the
king was compelled to yield to their entreaty.
The minds of the people, however, remained embittered against the Jews.
The cortes of Madrid thereupon called for several restrictive laws
against the Jews, such as, that they should not be allowed to acquire
landed property, and that Jewish ministers of finance and farmers
of taxes should not be appointed (1329). Alfonso replied, that, in
the main, things should continue as they had been before. Don Samuel
Ibn-Wakar rose even higher in the royal favor. Don Alfonso intrusted
him with the farming of the revenues derived from the importation
of goods from the kingdom of Granada. He, moreover, obtained the
privilege empowering him to issue the coinage of the realm at a lower
standard. Joseph of Ecija now became jealous and offered a higher
sum for the right of farming the import-taxes from Granada. When he
thought he had supplanted his rival, the latter dealt him a severe
blow. Ibn-Wakar succeeded in persuading the king that it would be more
advantageous to the people of Castile to carry the protective system
to its uttermost limits, and prohibit all imports from the neighboring
Moorish kingdom (1330-1331).
Whilst the two Jewish courtiers were striving to injure each other, the
enemies of the Jews were busily at work to imperil their reputation
and the existence of all the Castilian congregations. They inflamed
the minds of the people by representing to them that, owing to the
depreciation in the value of money, brought about by the farmer of the
coinage, Ibn-Wakar, the price of the necessaries of life had risen,
these articles being exported to the neighboring countries, where they
were bartered for silver, which had a higher value in their own land.
The enemies of the Jews also brought the influence of the church to
bear to arouse the prejudices of the king against all the Jews. Their
champion was a Jew, who no sooner had embraced Christianity, than he
became a fanatical persecutor of his brethren. This was the infamous
Abner, the forerunner of the baptized and unbaptized Jew-haters, who
prepared, and at length accomplished, the humiliation and banishment of
the Spanish Jews.
Abner of Burgos, or as he was afterwards called, Alfonso Burgensis de
Valladolid (born about 1270, died about 1346), was well acquainted
with biblical and Talmudical writings, occupied himself with science,
and practiced medicine. His knowledge had destroyed his religious
belief, and turned him not only against Judaism, but against all
faiths. Troubled by cares for his subsistence, Abner did not obtain
the desired support from his kinsmen in race. He was too little of a
philosopher to accept his modest lot. His desires were extravagant,
and he was unable to find the means to satisfy them. In order to be
able to live in ease and splendor, Abner determined, when nearly sixty
years of age, to adopt Christianity, although this religion was as
little able to give him inward contentment as that which he forsook.
As a Christian, he assumed the name of Alfonso. The infidel disciple
of Aristotle and Averroes accepted an ecclesiastical office; he became
sacristan at a large church in Valladolid, to which a rich benefice was
attached, enabling him to gratify his worldly desires. He attempted
to excuse his hypocritical behavior and his apostasy by means of
sophistical arguments.
Alfonso carried his want of conscientiousness so far that not long
after his conversion to Christianity he attacked his former brethren
in faith and race with bitter hate, and showed the intention of
persecuting them. Owing to his knowledge of Jewish literature, it
was easy for him to discover its weak points, employ them as charges
against Judaism, and draw the most hateful inferences. Alfonso was
indefatigable in his accusations against the Jews and Judaism, and
composed a long series of works, in which he introduced arguments
partly aggressive, partly defensive of his new faith against the
attacks upon it by the Jews. In his abuse of Judaism, the Hebrew
language, in which he composed with much greater ease than in Spanish,
was made to do service.
Alfonso had the brazen impudence to send one of his hateful writings
to his former friend, Isaac Pulgar. The latter replied in a sharply
satirical poem, and pressed him close in his polemical writings. The
Jews of Spain had not yet become so disheartened as to suffer such
insolent attacks in silence. Another less renowned writer also answered
Alfonso, and thus a violent literary warfare broke out.
Alfonso of Valladolid, however, did not content himself with polemical
writings; he boldly presented himself before King Alfonso XI, and
laid his accusations against the Jews before him. He raked up anew
the remark of the Church Father Jerome and others, that the Jews had
introduced into their book of prayer a formula of imprecation against
the God of the Christians and his adherents. The representatives of
the Jewish community in Valladolid, probably summoned by the king to
justify themselves, emphatically denied that the imprecation originally
leveled against the Minim (Nazarenes) referred to Jesus and his
present followers. Alfonso, however, would not admit the validity of
this exculpation, and pledged himself to prove his charges against
the Jews in a disputation. The king of Castile thereupon commanded
the representatives of the Valladolid community to enter upon a
religious discussion with the sacristan. It took place in the presence
of public officials and Dominicans. Here Alfonso Burgensis repeated
his accusations, and was victorious, inasmuch as, in consequence of
this disputation, King Alfonso issued an edict (25th February, 1336)
forbidding the Castilian communities, under penalty of a fine, to use
the condemned prayer or formula of imprecation. Thus the enemies of the
Jews succeeded in winning over the king, who was really well-disposed
towards the Jews. More ominous events were to happen.
King Alfonso was not very constant; he transferred his favor from one
person to another. He took into his confidence a man unworthy of the
distinction, named Gonzalo Martinez (Nuñez) de Oviedo, originally
a poor knight, who had been promoted through the patronage of the
Jewish favorite, Don Joseph of Ecija. Far from being grateful to his
benefactor, he bore deep hatred against him who had thus raised him,
and his hostile feeling extended to all Jews. When he had risen to
the post of minister of the royal palace, and later to that of Grand
Master of the Order of Alcantara (1337), he revealed his plan of
annihilating the Jews. He lodged a formal charge against Don Joseph and
Don Samuel Ibn-Wakar, to the effect that they had enriched themselves
in the service of the king. He obtained the permission of the king to
deal with them as he chose, so as to extort money from them. Thereupon
Gonzalo ordered both of them, together with two brothers of Ibn-Wakar,
and eight relatives with their families, to be thrown into prison, and
confiscated their property. Don Joseph of Ecija died in prison, and
Don Samuel died under the torture to which he was subjected. This did
not satisfy the enemy of the Jews. He now sought to destroy two other
Jews, who held high positions at court--Moses Abudiel and (Sulaiman?)
Ibn-Yaish. He implicated them in a charge, pretending all the while
to be friendly towards them. Through their downfall Gonzalo Martinez
thought to carry into effect his wicked plan against the Castilian Jews
without difficulty.
The Moorish king of Morocco, Abulhassan (Alboacin), whose help was
implored by his oppressed co-religionists in Granada, had sent a very
large army under the command of his son, Abumelik, over the straits
to undertake a vigorous campaign against Castile. On the reception
of this news, terror spread throughout Christian Spain. King Alfonso
forthwith appointed Gonzalo Martinez, Master of the Order of Alcantara,
as general in charge of this war, and invested him with plenary power.
But funds were wanting; at the deliberation on ways and means of
procuring them, Gonzalo propounded his plan for depriving the Jews of
their wealth, and then expelling them from Castile. By this means,
large supplies of money would flow into the royal treasury; for all
the Christians who were dunned by the Jews would willingly pay large
sums of money to rid themselves of their enemies. Fortunately this
proposal met with opposition in the royal council, and even from the
most prominent clergyman in Castile, the archbishop of Toledo. The
latter urged that the Jews were an inexhaustible treasure for the king,
of which the state should not deprive itself, and that the rulers
of Castile had guaranteed them protection and toleration. Don Moses
Abudiel, who obtained information concerning the council held to decide
on the weal or woe of the Jews, advised the congregations to institute
public fasts, and to supplicate the God of their fathers to frustrate
the wickedness of Gonzalo. The latter marched to the frontier against
the Moorish army, and secured an easy victory. It happened, fortunately
for the Spaniard, that the Moorish general, Abumelik, fell pierced by
an arrow, and his army, filled with dismay at this event, was defeated
and put to rout. The vainglory of the Grand Master of Alcantara now
attained a high pitch. He thought to obtain such great importance in
Spanish affairs that the king would be compelled to approve of all
measures proposed by him. He was, indeed, filled with that pride which
precedes a fall.
The feeble hand of a woman was the cause of his downfall. The beautiful
and sprightly Leonora de Guzman, who had so enthralled the king with
her charms that he was more faithful to her than to his wife, hated the
favorite Gonzalo Martinez, and succeeded in making the king believe
that he spoke ill of him. Alfonso desiring to learn the real truth of
the matter sent a command to Gonzalo to present himself before him
in Madrid; he, however, disobeyed the royal command. To be able to
defy the anger of the king, he stirred up the knights of the Order of
Alcantara and the citizens of the towns assigned to his government,
to rebel against his sovereign, entered into traitorous negotiations
with the king of Portugal and with the enemy of the Christians, the
king of Granada. Alfonso was forced to lead his nobles against him, and
besiege him in Valencia de Alcantara. In mad defiance, Gonzalo directed
arrows and missiles to be aimed at the king, which mortally wounded a
man in the vicinity of Alfonso. But some of the knights of the Order of
Alcantara forsook their Grand Master, and surrendered the stronghold to
the king. There remained nothing for Gonzalo except to yield. He was
condemned to death as a traitor, and was burnt at the stake (1336), and
thus ended the man who had sworn to annihilate the Jews. The Castilian
congregations thereupon celebrated a new festival of deliverance, in
the same month in which the evil plans of Haman against the Jews had
recoiled on his own head. Alfonso again received the Jews into his
favor, and raised Moses Abudiel to a high position at his court. From
this time till the day of his death, Alfonso XI acted justly towards
his Jewish subjects.
It may be thought that, under these on the whole favorable
circumstances, the Jews occupied themselves with their intellectual
culture, which had already developed its full blossom; but it was not
so. Castile in particular, and all Spain, at this epoch, were very
deficient in men who cultivated Jewish science. The Talmud constituted
the only branch of study which intellectual men attended to, and even
here there was no particular fertility. Decrease in strength manifested
itself even in the study of the Talmud. The most famous rabbis of
this period had so great a mistrust of their own powers that they no
longer dared take an independent view of anything, and relied more
and more upon the conclusions of older authorities. They made it very
convenient for themselves by slavishly following Maimuni's Code in
practical decisions, deviating from it only in such particulars as
Asheri had objected to. The latter had pretty well succeeded, if not
in altogether destroying the inclination of the Spanish Jews to engage
in scientific inquiry, at least in bringing science into disrepute, and
thus weakening its study. The distinguished supporters of philosophy
henceforth no more came from Spain; the few that came into prominence
were from southern France. These were Ibn-Kaspi, Gersonides and
Narboni. Asheri and his sons, who inherited his hostility to science,
in causing the view to become general throughout Spain, that a man
should not engage in higher questions concerning Judaism and its
connection with philosophy, did not consider that by this means the
spirit of the Spanish Jews would become enfeebled and incapacitated
for Talmudical investigations, too. The Jewish sons of Spain were
not so well suited for the study of narrow Talmudism as the German
Jews. Prevented from occupying themselves with science, they lost
their buoyancy of spirit, and became unfit for the studies permitted.
Even their pleasure in song and their poetical talents died away.
Occasionally a poem was still produced, but it consisted merely of
rude and unimaginative rhymes. In time they were no better than the
German Jews, whom they had before so greatly despised. Even their prose
style, on which the Spanish Jews had formerly bestowed so much care,
degenerated for the most part into spiritless verbosity. The charming
writer, Santob de Carrion, who as early as the time of Alfonso XI had
clothed his thoughts in beautiful Spanish verse, was a solitary poet,
whose song awoke no echo.
The eight sons of Asheri, his relatives, who had emigrated with
him from Germany to Toledo, together with his numerous grandsons,
dominated Spanish Judaism from this time onwards. They introduced
a one-sided Talmudical method of instruction deeply tinged with a
gloomy, ascetic view of religion. The most famous of the sons of Asheri
were Jacob (Baal ha-Turim) and Jehuda, both intensely religious,
and of unselfish, self-sacrificing dispositions; they were, however,
limited to a very narrow range of ideas. Both were as learned in the
Talmud as they were ignorant in other subjects, and possessed every
quality calculated to bring the decay of religion into accord with the
increasing sufferings of the Jews in this third home of their race.
Jacob ben Asheri (born about 1280, died 1340) was visited by bitter
misfortunes. His life was one chain of sufferings and privations; but
he bore all with patience, without murmur or complaint. Although his
father, Asheri, had brought much wealth with him to Spain, and had
always been in good circumstances, yet his son, Jacob, had to suffer
the bitterest pangs of poverty. Nevertheless, he received no salary as
a rabbi: in fact, he does not appear to have filled that post at any
time. As with all the family of Asheri, both sons and grandsons, the
Talmud constituted his exclusive interest in life; but he displayed
more erudition than originality. His sole merit consists in the fact
that he brought the chaos of Talmudical learning into definite order,
and satisfied the need of the time for a complete code of laws for
religious practice.
Owing to his German origin and to his residence in Spain, Jacob Asheri
became familiar with the productions of the different schools and
authorities in their minutest details. He was thus well suited to
control this chaotic mass and reduce it to order. On the basis of the
labors of all his predecessors in this field, especially of Maimuni,
Jacob compiled a second religious code (in four parts, Turim, shortened
to Tur, about 1340). This work treated solely of religious practice,
that is, of the ritual, moral, marriage and civil laws. He omitted all
such things as had fallen into disuse since the destruction of the
Temple and because of altered circumstances. With the composition of
this work, a new phase in the inner development of Judaism may be said
to begin.
Jacob's code forms part of a graduated scale, by means of which it
can be ascertained to how low a level official Judaism had sunk since
the time of Maimuni. In Maimuni's compilation thought is paramount;
every ritual practice, of whatever kind, whether good or bad, is
brought into connection with the essence of religion. In Jacob's
code, on the other hand, thought or reasoning is renounced. Religious
scrupulousness, which had taken so firm a hold of the German Jewish
congregations, inspires the laws, and imposes the utmost stringency
and mortifications. Maimuni, in accepting religious precepts as
obligatory, was guided entirely by the Talmud, and but seldom included
the decisions of the Geonim as invested with authority. Asheri's
son, on the contrary, admitted into his digest of religious laws
everything that any pious or ultra-pious man had decided upon either
out of scrupulosity or as a result of learned exposition. In his
code, the precepts declared to be binding by rabbinical authorities
far outnumbered those of Talmudic origin. One might almost say that
in Jacob Asheri's hands, Talmudical Judaism was transformed into
Rabbinism. He even included some of the follies of the Kabbala in his
religious digest.
Jacob's code is essentially different from that of Maimuni, not only in
contents, but also in form. The style and the language do not manifest
the conciseness and lucidity of Maimuni's. Notwithstanding this, his
code soon met with universal acceptance, because it corresponded to
a want of the times, and presented, in a synoptical form, all the
ordinances relating to the ritual, to marriage, and civil laws binding
on the adherents of Judaism in exile under the rule of various nations.
Rabbis and judges accepted it as the criterion for practical decisions,
and even preferred it to Maimuni's work. A few of the rabbis of that
age refused to forego their independence, and continued to pronounce
decisions arrived at by original inquiry, and therefore paid little
heed to the new religious code. The great majority of them, on the
other hand, not only in Spain, but also in Germany, were delighted to
possess a handy book of laws systematically presenting everything worth
knowing, making deep, penetrative research superfluous, and taxing
the memory more than the understanding. Thus Jacob's Tur became the
indispensable manual for the knowledge of Judaism, as understood by the
rabbis, for a period of four centuries, till a new one was accepted
which far surpassed the old.
His brother, Jehuda Asheri, was on a par with Jacob in erudition and
virtue, but did not possess similar power of reducing chaos to order.
He was born about 1284, and died in 1349. After the death of his
father, the community of Toledo elected him as Asheri's successor in
the rabbinate of the Spanish capital. He performed the functions of his
office with extraordinary scrupulousness, without respect of persons,
and was able to call the whole community to witness that he had never
been guilty of the slightest trespass. When Jehuda Asheri, on account
of some small quarrel with his congregation, resolved to take up his
abode in Seville, the entire community unanimously begged of him to
remain in their midst, and doubled his salary. In spite of this show of
affection, he did not feel comfortable in Spain, and in his will he is
said to have advised his five sons to emigrate to Germany, the original
home of his family. The persecution of the German Jews, during the year
of the epidemic pestilence, probably taught them that it was preferable
to dwell in Spain. By reason of his position in the most important
of the congregations and of his comprehensive rabbinical learning,
Jehuda Asheri was regarded as the highest authority of his age, and was
preferred even to his brother Jacob.
Seeing that even the study of the Talmud, so zealously pursued
in Spain, had fallen into this state of stagnation and lassitude,
the other branches of science could not complain that they made no
progress, or were not attentively cultivated. The study of the Bible,
Hebrew grammar, and exegesis were entirely neglected; we can recall
hardly a single writer who earnestly occupied himself with these
subjects. Owing to the energetic zeal of Abba-Mari, the interdict
of Ben Adret, and the pronounced aversion of Asheri, reasoning had
fallen into disrepute and decay. The truly orthodox shunned contact
with philosophy as the direct route to heresy and infidelity, and
pseudo-pious people behaved in a yet more prudish fashion towards
it. It required courage to engage in a study inviting contempt and
accusations of heresy. The Kabbala, too, had done its work, in dimming
the eyes of men by its illusions. There were but few representatives of
a philosophical conception of Judaism in those days; these were Isaac
Pulgar, of Avila, David Ibn-Albilla of Portugal, and Joseph Kaspi of
Argentière, in southern France.
Levi ben Gerson, or Leon de Bagnols, was more renowned and more
talented than any of these. He was also called Leo the Hebrew, but
more usually by his literary name Gersonides (born 1288, died about
1345). He belonged to a family of scholars, and among his ancestors
he reckoned that Levi of Villefranche who had indirectly caused the
prohibition of scientific study. In spite of the interdict of Ben
Adret forbidding the instruction of youths in science, Gersonides was
initiated into it at a very early age, and before he had reached his
thirtieth year he was at work at a comprehensive and profound work
upon philosophy. Gersonides was gifted with a versatile and profound
intellect, and averse to all superficiality and incompleteness. In
astronomy he corrected his predecessors, and made such accurate
observations that specialists based their calculations upon them. He
invented an instrument by means of which observations of the heavens
could be made more certain. This discovery filled him with such ecstasy
that he composed a Hebrew poem, a kind of riddle, upon it, though he
was an unpoetical man, and had his head filled with dry calculations
and logical conclusions. He also wrote works upon the science of
medicine, and discovered new remedies. At the same time he was held in
very high repute by his contemporaries as a profound Talmudist, and
inspired by his love for systematic arrangement, wrote a methodology of
the Mishna.
Maestro Leon de Bagnols, as he was called as a physician, fortunately
did not belong to the Jews of France proper: he successively lived
in Orange, Perpignan, and in Avignon, at this time the home of
popedom. Therefore, he had not been a sufferer in the expulsion of his
co-religionists from this land; but his heart bled at the sight of the
sufferings which the exiles were made to undergo. He moreover escaped
from the effects of the rising of the Shepherds, and the subsequent
bitter calamities. At about the same time, his fertile powers of
production began to put forth fruit, and he began the series of
writings which continued for more than twenty years (1321-1343). None
of his writings created such a sensation as his work on the philosophy
of religion (Milchamoth Adonaï). In this he set forth the boldest
metaphysical thoughts with philosophical calmness and independence, as
if paying no heed to the fact that by his departure from the hitherto
received notions upon these questions, he was laying himself open to
the charges of heresy and heterodoxy. "If my observations are correct,"
he remarked, "then all blame leveled against me, I regard as praise."
Leon de Bagnols belonged to a class of thinkers seldom met with, who,
with majestic brow, seek truth for its own intrinsic value, without
reference to other ends and results which might cause conflict. Levi
ben Gerson thus expressed his opinion upon this subject: Truth must be
brought out and placed beneath the glare of open daylight, even if it
should contradict the Torah in the strongest possible manner. The Torah
is no tyrannical law, which desires to force one to accept untruth as
truth, on the contrary, it seeks to lead man to a true understanding of
things. If the truth arrived at by investigation is in harmony with the
utterances of the Bible, then so much the better. In his independence
of thought, the only parallel to Gersonides among Jewish inquirers
is Spinoza. Unlike many of his predecessors, he would not look upon
science as a body of occult doctrines designed for an inner circle of
the initiated. He moreover refused to follow slavishly the authorities
in philosophy regarded as infallible. He propounded independent views
in opposition not only to Maimuni and Averroes, but also to Aristotle.
Leon de Bagnols did not establish a perfect and thoroughly organized
system of the philosophy of religion, but treated of the difficulties
which interested the thinkers of the age more incisively than any of
his predecessors.
In spite of his great ability, Gersonides exercised very little
influence upon Judaism. By the pious, he was denounced as a heretic,
because of his independent research, and his ambiguous attitude towards
the doctrine of the creation. They took the title of his chief work,
"The Battles of the Lord," to mean "Battles against the Lord." So much
the warmer was his reception by Christian inquirers after truth. Pope
Clement VI, during the lifetime of the author, commanded his treatise
upon astronomy and the newly-invented instrument to be translated into
Latin (1342).
Of a similar nature was another representative of philosophical Judaism
of this age, Moses ben Joshua Narboni, also called Maestro Vidal (born
about 1300, died 1362). His father Joshua, who belonged to a family
in Narbonne, but resided in Perpignan, was so warmly interested in
Jewish, that is to say Maimunistic, philosophy, that in spite of the
interdict hurled against all who studied the subject, he instructed
his son therein when he was thirteen years old. Vidal Narboni became
an enthusiastic student. He divided his admiration between Maimuni
and Averroes, his writings consisting chiefly of commentaries upon
their works. His travels from the foot of the Pyrenees to Toledo and
back again to Soria (1345-1362) enriched and amended his knowledge. He
was interested in anything worth knowing, and made observations with
great accuracy. No calamities or troubles succeeded in damping his
zeal in the inquiry after truth. In consequence of the Black Death,
an infuriated mob fell upon the community at Cervera. Vidal Narboni
was compelled to take to flight with the rest of the congregation; he
lost his possessions, and, what was more painful to him, his precious
books. These misfortunes did not disturb him; he took up the thread of
his work where it had been interrupted. He accomplished no entirely
independent or original work; he was a true Aristotelian of Averroist
complexion. Narboni conceived Judaism as a guide to the highest degree
of theoretical and moral truth: the Torah has a double meaning--
the one simple, direct, for the thoughtless mob, and the other of a
deeper, metaphysical nature for the class of thinkers--a common
opinion in those times, Gersonides alone demurring. Narboni, too, gave
expression to heretical views, that is, such as are contrary to the
ordinarily accepted understanding of Judaism, but not with the freedom
and openness of Levi ben Gerson. He rejected the belief in miracles,
and attempted to explain them away altogether, but defended man's
freedom of will by philosophical arguments. Death overtook him in the
very midst of his labors when, advanced in years, he was on the point
of returning to his native land from Soria, on the other side of the
Pyrenees, where he had spent several years.
Though the Karaite, Aaron ben Elia Nicomedi, may be reckoned among the
philosophers of this time, he can scarcely be admitted into the company
of Levi ben Gerson and the other Provençal thinkers. His small stock of
philosophical knowledge was a matter of erudition, not the result of
independent thought. Aaron II, of Nicomedia (in Asia Minor, born about
1300, died 1369), who probably lived in Cairo, was indeed superior
to his ignorant brother Karaites, but several centuries behind the
Rabbanite philosophers. His thoughts sound like a voice from the grave,
or as of one who has slumbered for many years, and speaks the language
of antiquity, not understood by the men of his own day.
Aaron ben Elia was not even able to indicate the end aimed at by his
work, "The Tree of Life." Without being himself fully conscious of his
motives, he was guided in its composition by jealous rivalry of Maimuni
and the Rabbanites. It vexed him sorely that Maimuni's religious
philosophical work, "The Guide," was perused and admired not only by
Jews, but also by Christians and Mahometans, whilst the Karaites had
nothing like it. Aaron desired to save the honor of the Karaites by his
"Tree of Life." He sought to detract from the merits of the work of
Maimuni, and remarked that some of the statements to be found in the
book had been made by Karaite philosophers of religion. Notwithstanding
this, he followed Maimuni most minutely, and treated only of those
questions which the latter had raised; but he sought to solve them not
by the aid of philosophy, but by the authority of the Bible.
The history of this period, when dealing with events in Germany, has
nothing but calamities to record: bloody assaults, massacres, and
the consequent intellectual poverty. Asheri and his sons were either
deluded or unjust when they preferred bigoted Germany to Spain, at that
time still tolerable, and cast longing looks thitherwards from Toledo.
From the time of Asheri's departure till the middle of the century,
misfortune followed upon misfortune, till nearly all the congregations
were exterminated. On account of this state of affairs, even the study
of the Talmud, the only branch of learning pursued in Germany with
ardor and thoroughness, fell into decay. How could the Germans gather
intellectual strength, when they were not certain about one moment
of their lives, or their means of sustenance? Their state in a most
literal way realized the prophetical threat of punishment: "Thy life
shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night.
In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even
thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart
wherewith thou shalt fear." Emperor Louis, the Bavarian, is reported to
have been favorably inclined towards the Jews, which is said to have
made them proud. But this is idle calumny both against the emperor and
the Jews. No German ruler before him had treated his "servi cameræ"
so badly, pawned them and sold them, as Louis the Bavarian. He also
imposed a new tax upon the Jews, the so-called golden gift-pence. As
the emperors had gradually pawned all the revenues derived from their
"servi cameræ" to enable them to satisfy their immediate necessity for
money, Louis the Bavarian was driven to cogitate upon some new means
of obtaining supplies from them. He promulgated a decree (about 1342),
which commanded that every Jew and Jewess in the German Empire above
the age of twelve, and possessed of at least more than twenty florins,
should pay annually to the king or the emperor a poll-tax of a florin.
He probably derived his right, if, indeed, the question of right was
considered in reference to the treatment of Jews, from the fact that
the German emperors were in possession of all the prerogatives once
claimed by those of Rome. As the Jews, since the days of Vespasian and
Titus, had been compelled to pay a yearly tax to the Roman emperors,
the German rulers declared themselves the direct heirs to this golden
gift-pence.
Hitherto the massacres of Jews in Germany had taken place only at
intervals, and in a few places; but now, under the reign of Louis,
owing to riots and civil wars, they became much more frequent.
During two consecutive years (1336-1337), a regularly organized
band of peasants and rabble, who called themselves "the beaters of
the Jews," made fierce attacks upon them with unbridled fury and
heartless cruelty. Two dissolute noblemen were at the head of this
troop; they gave themselves the name of Kings Leather-arm (Armleder)
from a piece of leather which they wore wound round the arm. In this
persecution, as in that of Rindfleisch, the fanaticism and blind
superstition inculcated by the church played an important part. One of
the Leather-arms announced that he had received a divine revelation
which directed him to visit upon the Jews the martyrdom and the wounds
which Jesus had suffered, and to avenge his crucifixion by their
blood. Such a summons to arms seldom remained unanswered in Germany.
Five thousand peasants, armed with pitchforks, axes, flails, pikes,
and whatever other weapons they could lay hands upon, gathered around
the Leather-arms, and inflicted a bloody slaughter upon the Jewish
inhabitants of Alsace and the Rhineland as far as Suabia. As frequently
happened during such barbarous persecutions, numbers of Jews, on this
occasion also, put an end to their own lives, after having slain
their children to prevent their falling into the hands of the Church.
Emperor Louis the Bavarian did indeed issue commands to protect the
heretic Jews (April, 1337), but his help came too late, or was of
little effect. At length the emperor succeeded in capturing one of the
Leather-arms, whom he ordered to be executed.
At about the same time a bloody persecution, prompted by the frenzy
of avarice, was set on foot in Bavaria. The councilors of the city
of Deckendorf (or Deggendorf) desired to free themselves and all the
citizens from their debts to the Jews, and enrich themselves besides.
To carry out this plan, the fable of the desecration of the host by the
Jews, with the accompaniment of the usual miracles, was spread abroad.
When the populace had been incited to a state of fanatical frenzy, the
council proceeded to execute the project which it had secretly matured
outside the town, so as not to arouse any suspicion among the Jews. On
the appointed day (30th September, 1337), at a signal from the church
bell, the knight Hartmann von Deggenburg, who had been initiated in
the conspiracy, rode with his band of horsemen through the open gates
into Deckendorf, and was received with loud rejoicing. The knight and
the citizens thereupon fell upon the defenseless Jews, put them to
death by sword and fire, and possessed themselves of their property. In
honor of the miracles performed by the host that had been pierced by
the knives of the Jews, a church of the Holy Sepulcher was erected, and
appointed as a shrine for pilgrims; and the puncheons which the Jews
had used, together with the insulted host, were placed beneath a glass
case, and guarded as relics. For many centuries they were displayed for
the edification of the faithful,--perhaps are still displayed. The
lust for slaughter spread abroad into Bavaria, Bohemia, Moravia, and
Austria. Thousands of Jews perished by different forms of torture and
death. Only the citizens of Vienna and Ratisbon protected their Jewish
inhabitants against the infuriated mob. The friendly efforts of Pope
Benedictus XII were of little avail against the brutal spirit of the
then Christian world.