CHAPTER XIV.

REUCHLIN AND THE TALMUD.

Antecedents of the Convert John Pfefferkorn--Pfefferkorn and

the Dominicans of Cologne--Hoogstraten, Ortuinus Gratius

and Arnold of Tongern--Victor von Karben--Attacks on the

Talmud and Confiscation of Copies in Frankfort--Reuchlin's

Hebrew and Kabbalistic Studies--The Controversy concerning

the Talmud--Activity on both Sides--Public Excitement--

Complete Victory of Reuchlin's Efforts in Defense of Jewish

Literature--Ulrich von Hutten--Luther--Revival of Hebrew

Studies.

1500-1520 C.E.

Who could have anticipated that from the German nation, everywhere

considered heavy and stupid, from the land of lawless knights, of daily

feuds about trifles, of confused political conditions, where everyone

was both despot and slave, mercilessly oppressing his inferiors, and

pitifully cringing to his superiors--who could have anticipated that

from this people and this country would proceed a movement destined

to shake European affairs to their center, create new political

conditions, give the Middle Ages their death-blow, and set its seal

on the dawn of a new historical era? A reformation of church and

politics, such as enlightened minds then dreamt of, was least expected

from Germany. Yet there slumbered latent powers in that country, which

only needed awaking to develop into regenerating forces. The Germans

still adhered to ancient simplicity of life and severity of morals,

pedantic, it is true, and ludicrous in manifestation; whilst the

leading Romance countries, Italy, France and Spain, were suffering from

over-refinement, surfeit and moral corruption. Because the Germans

had retained their original Teutonic dullness, the clergy could not

altogether succeed in infecting them with the poison of their vicious

teaching. Their lower clergy, compared with that of other European

countries, was more chaste and modest. The innate love of family life

and genial association, which the Germans have in common with Jews,

preserved them from that moral depravity to which the Romance nations

had already succumbed. In the educated circles of Italy, especially

at the papal court, Christianity and its doctrines were sneered at;

the political power they conferred alone being valued. But in Germany,

where there was little laughter, except in taverns, Christianity was

treated as a more serious matter; it was looked upon as an ideal, which

had once been alive, and would live again.

But these moral germs in the German race were so deeply buried that

it needed favorable circumstances to bring them to light, and cause

them to stand forth as historical potencies. However much the Germans

themselves may ignore it, the Talmud had a great share in the awakening

of these slumbering forces. We can boldly assert that the war for and

against the Talmud aroused German consciousness, and created a public

opinion, without which the Reformation, like many other efforts, would

have died in the hour of birth, or, perhaps, would never have been

born at all. A paltry grain of sand caused the fall of an avalanche,

which shook the earth around. The instrument of this mighty change

was an ignorant, thoroughly vile creature, the scum of the Jewish

people, who does not deserve to be mentioned in history or literature,

but whom Providence seems to have appointed like some noisome insect

involuntarily to accomplish a useful work.

Joseph Pfefferkorn, a native of Moravia, was by trade a butcher, and,

as may easily be surmised, illiterate. His moral turpitude was even

greater than his ignorance. He committed a burglary, was caught,

condemned to imprisonment by Count de Guttenstein, and released only

at the urgent prayers of his relatives, and on payment of a fine. It

appears that he hoped to wash away this disgrace with baptismal water;

the church was not scrupulous, and received even this despicable

wretch, when at the age of thirty-six he presented himself with wife

and children, to be received into Christianity (about 1505?). He

seems to have been baptized at Cologne; at any rate, he was kept and

made much of by the ignorant, proud and fanatical Dominicans of that

city. Cologne was an owls' nest of light-shunning swaggerers, who

endeavored to obscure the dawn of a bright day with the dark clouds

of superstition, hostile to knowledge. At their head was Hochstraten

(Hoogstraten), an inquisitor or heretic-hunter, a violent, reckless

man, who literally longed for the smell of burning heretics, and in

Spain would have been a useful Torquemada. His counterpart was Arnold

of Tongern (Tungern), a Dominican professor of theology. The third

in the coalition was Ortuin de Graes, of Deventer (who Latinized his

name to Ortuinus Gratius), the son of a clergyman. Ortuin de Graes

entertained so violent a hatred against Jews that it could not have

been due solely to religious zeal. He made it his special business

to stir up the wrath of the Christians by anti-Jewish writings. But

as he was too ignorant to concoct a book or even a pamphlet, he

surrounded himself with baptized Jews, who had to supply him with

materials. A Jew, who, during a persecution or for some reason, had

become a convert to Christianity in his fiftieth year, and assumed

the name of Victor von Karben, though he had but little Hebrew and

rabbinical learning, was dubbed rabbi, in order to give more weight to

his attacks on Judaism and to his confession of Christianity. It is

not precisely known whether Victor von Karben, who sorrowfully stated

that on his conversion he left his wife, three children, brothers and

dear friends, voluntarily or by compulsion reproached the Jews with

hating Christians and reviling Christianity. He supplied Ortuinus

Gratius with materials for accusations against them, their Talmud,

their errors and abominations, which Ortuinus worked up into a book.

But Victor von Karben appears, after all, not to have been of much

service, or he was too old (born 1442, died 1515) to assist in the

execution of a deep scheme, destined to bring profitable business to

the Dominicans, the heresy-judges of men and writings. But they needed

a Jew for this purpose; their own order had not long before got into

rather bad odor. Pfefferkorn was the very man for them. He lent his

name to a new anti-Jewish publication, written in Latin by Ortuinus

Gratius. It was entitled "A Mirror for Admonition," inviting the Jews

to be converted to Christianity. This first anti-Jewish book with

Pfefferkorn's name dealt gently with the Jews, even sought to show the

groundlessness of the frequent accusations with regard to stealing and

murdering Christian children. It entreats Christians not to banish the

Jews, nor to oppress them too heavily, since to a certain extent they

are human beings. But this friendliness was only a mask, a feeler put

forth to gain firm ground. For the Cologne Dominicans aimed at the

confiscation of the Talmudic writings, as in the days of Saint Louis of

France. This was distantly pointed to in Pfefferkorn's first pamphlet,

which endeavored to throw suspicion on the Talmud, and adduced three

reasons to explain the stiff-necked unbelief of Jews: their practice

of usury, the fact that they were not compelled to go to church, and

their attachment to the Talmud. These obstacles once removed, Jews

would throng to church in crowds. The pamphlet, therefore, admonished

princes and people to check the usury of the Jews, to compel them

to attend church and listen to sermons, and to burn the Talmud. It

admitted that it is not just to infringe upon the Jews' claim to

their writings, but Christians did not hesitate, in certain cases, to

do violence to Jews, and compared with that the confiscation of the

Talmudic books was a venial offense. This was the sole object of the

pamphlet under Pfefferkorn's name. It was generally believed in Germany

that the Cologne owls expected to do a good stroke of business; if

they could induce the ruling powers to sequestrate all copies of the

Talmud, Dominicans, as inquisitors, would have the disposal of them,

and the Jews, who could not do without the Talmud, would pour their

wealth into Dominican coffers to have the confiscation annulled. Hence,

in the succeeding two years, still putting Pfefferkorn forward as the

author, they published several pamphlets, wherein it was asserted to

be a Christian duty to expel all Jews, like so many mangy dogs. If the

princes would not do so, the people were to take the matter into their

own hands, solicit their rulers to deprive the Jews of all their books

except the Bible, forcibly take from them all pledges, above all, see

that their children be brought up as Christians, and expel the adults

as incorrigible rogues. It was no sin to do the worst to Jews, as they

were not freemen, but body and soul the property of the princes. If

they refused to listen to the prayer of their subjects, the people were

to assemble in masses, even create a riot, and impetuously demand the

fulfillment of the Christian duty of degrading the Jews. The masses

were to declare themselves champions of Christ, and carry out his will.

Whoso did an injury to Jews was a follower of Christ; whoso favored

them was worse than they, and would hereafter be punished with eternal

suffering and hell fire.

But Pfefferkorn, Ortuinus Gratius and the Cologne Dominicans had come

too late in the day. Riots for the killing of Jews, though they were no

less hated and despised than in the times of the crusades and of the

Black Death, were no longer the fashion. Princes were little disposed

to expel the Jews, since with them a regular revenue would disappear.

Zeal for the conversion of Jews had considerably cooled down; in fact,

many Christians pointed scornfully at baptized Jews, saying that they

resembled clean linen: as long as it is fresh the eye delights in it,

after a few days' wear it is cast aside as soiled. Thus a converted

Jew, immediately after his baptism, is cherished by the Christians;

when some days have passed he is neglected, avoided, and finally made

sport of.

The German Jews, dreading new dangers from Pfefferkorn's zeal,

endeavored to thwart him. Jewish physicians, usually held in high

favor at the courts of princes, appear to have exerted their influence

with their patrons to show the falsity of Pfefferkorn's accusations,

and to render them ineffectual. Even Christians manifested their

dissatisfaction with the machinations of the baptized Jew, and loudly

proclaimed Pfefferkorn to be a worthless fellow and a hypocrite, who

was not to be believed, his object being simply to delude the foolish,

and fill his own purse. He, therefore, published a new pamphlet

(March, 1509), which he impudently entitled "The Enemy of the Jews."

This venomous libel reiterated all his former accusations, and showed

how the Jews, by charging interest on interest, impoverished the

Christians. He blackened the character of Jewish physicians, saying

that they were quacks, who endangered the lives of their Christian

patients. It was, therefore, necessary to expel the Jews from

Germany, as Emperor Maximilian had driven them from Austria, Styria

and Carinthia; or if allowed to remain, they were to be employed in

cleansing the streets, sweeping chimneys, removing filth and carrion,

and in similar occupations. But, above all, every copy of the Talmud,

and all books relating to their religion, the Bible excepted, were to

be taken from them. In order effectually to carry out this step, house

to house visitation was to be made, and the Jews were to be compelled,

if necessary by torture, to surrender their books. Ortuinus Gratius had

a hand in the drawing up of this pamphlet, too.

These venomous writings in German and Latin were but means and

preliminaries to a plan which was to realize the hopes of the

Dominicans of Cologne, the public burning of the theological books

of the Jews, or their conversion into a source of profit. They urged

Emperor Maximilian, who did not easily lend himself to the commission

of a deed of violence, to deliver the Jews, together with their books

and purses, to their tender mercies. For this purpose they called in

the aid of the bigotry of an unfortunate princess.

Kunigunde, the beautiful sister of Maximilian and favorite daughter of

Emperor Frederick, in her youth had been the cause of much affliction

to her aged sire. Without her father's knowledge she had married his

declared enemy, the Bavarian duke, Albert of Munich. For a long time

her deeply offended father would not allow her name to be mentioned.

When her husband died in the prime of manhood (1508), his widow,

perhaps repenting her youthful error, entered a Franciscan convent at

Munich. She became abbess of the nuns of Sancta Clara, and castigated

her body. The Dominicans hoped to turn to good purpose the gloomy

character of this princess. They furnished Pfefferkorn with letters

of introduction to her. With poisoned words he was to detail to her

the shameful doings of the Jews, their blasphemies against Jesus,

Mary, the apostles and the church in general, and to demonstrate to

her that the Jewish books which contained all these abominations

deserved to be destroyed. A woman, moreover a superstitious one, whose

mind has been dulled in convent walls, is easily persuaded. Kunigunde

readily believed the calumnies against the Jews and their religious

literature, especially as they were uttered by a former Jew, who could

not but be acquainted with their habits and wickedness, and who assured

her that after the destruction of the Jewish books all Hebrews would

gradually be converted to Christianity. Pfefferkorn easily obtained

from the bigoted nun what he wanted. She gave him a pressing letter to

her imperial brother, conjuring him to put a stop to Jewish blasphemies

against Christianity, and to issue a decree that all their writings,

except the Bible, be taken from the Jews and burnt, lest the sins of

blasphemy daily committed by them fall on his crowned head. Furnished

with this missive, Pfefferkorn straightway went to Italy, to the camp

of the emperor.

The fanatical letter of Kunigunde and the calumnies of Pfefferkorn

succeeded in extorting from Maximilian a mandate, dated August 19th,

1509, giving the baptized miscreant full power over Jews. He was

authorized to examine Hebrew writings anywhere in the German empire,

and to destroy all whose contents were hostile to the Bible and the

Christian faith. The Jews were enjoined, under heavy penalties to

person and property, to offer no resistance, but to submit their

books to Pfefferkorn's examination. Pfefferkorn, with the emperor's

authority, returned triumphantly to Germany, to open his campaign

against Jewish books or Jewish purses. He began his business, which

promised profit, with the community at Frankfort, then the most

important of Germany, where many Talmud scholars, consequently many

copies of that work, besides many rich Jews, were to be found. On

Pfefferkorn's demand, the senate assembled all the Jews in the

synagogue, and communicated to them the emperor's order to surrender

their books.

In the presence of clergymen and members of the senate, all

prayer-books found in the synagogue were confiscated. It happened to

be the eve of the Feast of Tabernacles (Friday, September 28th).

By his own authority, or pretending to hold it from the emperor,

Pfefferkorn forbade the Jews to attend the synagogue on the day of

the feast; he intended to hold a house to house visitation on that

day, for he was very anxious to get hold of copies of the Talmud. The

clergymen present, however, were not so inconsiderate as to turn the

feast of the Jews into mourning, but deferred the search for books

till the following Monday. How did the Jews act? That they dared

protest against this arbitrary proceeding proves that a new order of

things had arisen. No longer as formerly in Germany did they submit,

with the dumb submission of lambs, to spoliation and death. They

appealed to the charters of various popes and emperors, granting them

religious liberty, which included possession of their prayer-books

and text-books. They demanded a delay of the confiscation in order

to appeal to the emperor and the supreme court of judicature. The

directors of the community of Frankfort immediately sent a deputy to

the elector and archbishop of Mayence, Uriel von Gemmingen, in whose

diocese Frankfort was situate, to induce him to forbid the clergy to

co-operate in this injustice. When Pfefferkorn began his house to

house visitation, the Jews protested so energetically that it had to

be deferred until the senate decided whether or not their objection

was to be allowed. The decision of the sapient senate was unfavorable;

but when the confiscation was about to be commenced, a letter from the

archbishop arrived, prohibiting the clergy from lending Pfefferkorn

any assistance. This frustrated the scheme; for the senators also

withdrew from the transaction as soon as they knew that the highest

ecclesiastical dignitary in Germany sided with the Jews. The latter

were not idle. For, though they did not know that the powerful

Dominicans stood behind Pfefferkorn, they suspected that persons,

hostile to the Jews, used this spiteful wretch to stir up persecution

against them. They at once dispatched a defender of their cause to

the emperor, and another to the German communities, far and near, to

appoint a general synod, to be summoned for the succeeding month, to

consider what steps should be taken, and to raise funds.

Temporarily this unpleasant business seemed to take a turn favorable to

the Jews. The senate of Frankfort remained passive, except in laying

an embargo on the packets of books belonging to Jewish booksellers,

and forbidding their sale. The conduct of the archbishop was what

benefited them most. Either from a sense of justice--he was generally

fair in his dealings--from a kindly feeling for the Jews, from a

dislike of Dominican heretic-hunting, or, finally, from jealousy of

the emperor's interference with his functions, in giving so miserable

a wretch as Pfefferkorn spiritual jurisdiction in his diocese, Uriel

von Gemmingen took the part of the Jews. He addressed a letter to the

emperor (October 5th), wherein he gently insinuated that he was to

blame for having given full powers to so ignorant a man as Pfefferkorn,

and asserted that to his knowledge no blasphemous or anti-Christian

writings were in the possession of the Jews of his diocese, and

hinted that if the emperor absolutely insisted on the examination and

confiscation of Hebrew literature, he must employ an expert. He was so

zealous on behalf of the Jews as to write to Von Hutten, his agent at

the imperial court, to assist the Jews in laying their case before the

emperor. In the meantime, not to betray his partisanship, he invited

Pfefferkorn to Aschaffenburg, and informed him that his mandate from

the emperor was faulty in form, whereby it became ineffectual, for the

Jews would dispute its validity.

At this interview the name of Reuchlin was mentioned for the first

time, whether by the archbishop or by Pfefferkorn is uncertain. It was

suggested to request the emperor to appoint Reuchlin and Victor von

Karben Pfefferkorn's coadjutors in the examination of Jewish books.

Pfefferkorn, or the Dominican friars themselves, thought it necessary

to secure the co-operation of a man whose learning, character and high

position would render their proceedings more effective. Reuchlin, the

pride of Germany, was to be made their associate, so as to disarm

possible opponents. It was part of their scheme, too, to throw

discredit, in one way or another, on the man whom obscurantists looked

upon with disfavor, and who, to their vexation, first stimulated German

and then European Christians in general to study the Hebrew language.

But by these very artifices Pfefferkorn and his patrons not only spoilt

their game, but raised a storm, which in less than a decade shook the

whole edifice of the Catholic Church. It was justly said afterwards

that the semi-Jewish Christian had done more injury to Christianity

than all the blasphemous writings of the Jews could have done. John

Reuchlin assisted in making the transition from the Middle Ages to

modern times, and, therefore, his name is famous in the annals of the

sixteenth century; but in Jewish history also he deserves honorable

mention.

John Reuchlin, of Pforzheim (born 1455, died 1522), or Capnion, as

his admirers, the students of the _humaniora_, called him, with his

younger contemporary, Erasmus of Rotterdam, delivered Germany from

the reproach of barbarism. By their example and incitement they

proved that, with regard to knowledge of ancient Greek and Latin, a

pure style and humanistic culture in general, Germans could not only

rival, but surpass Italians. Besides his astonishing learning in

classical literature and his elegant diction, Reuchlin had a pure,

upright character, nobility of mind, integrity which was proof against

temptation, admirable love of truth, and a soft heart. More versatile

than Erasmus, his younger colleague, in preparing for and spreading

humanistic and esthetic culture in Germany, Reuchlin also devoted

himself to the study of Hebrew to acquire mastery of the language

blessed by God, and thus emulate his pattern, the Church Father Jerome.

His love for Hebrew grew into enthusiasm, when on his second journey to

Rome he became acquainted at Florence with the learned youth, Pico di

Mirandola, Italy's prodigy, and learned from him what deep, marvelous

secrets lay hidden in the Hebrew sources of the Kabbala. After that

Reuchlin thirsted for Hebrew literature, but could not quench his

thirst. He could not even obtain a printed copy of the Hebrew Bible.

Only in his mature age he found opportunities of acquiring a more

profound knowledge of Hebrew. During his stay at Linz, at the court

of the aged emperor, Frederick III, he made the acquaintance of the

imperial physician and Jewish knight, Jacob Loans; and this Jewish

scholar became his teacher of Hebrew language and literature.

Reuchlin devoted every hour that he could snatch from his avocations

at court to this study, and mastered it so thoroughly that he was soon

able to do without a teacher. His genius for languages stood him in

good stead, and enabled him to overcome difficulties. He endeavored to

turn to speedy account the Hebrew learning acquired with such zeal.

He wrote a small work, "The Wonderful Word," a spirited panegyric

of the Hebrew language, its simplicity, depth and divine character.

"The language of the Hebrews is simple, uncorrupted, holy, terse and

vigorous; God confers in it direct with men, and men with angels,

without interpreters, face to face, ... as one friend converses with

another." A Jew devoted to the antiquities of his race could not

have spoken more enthusiastically. The work consists of a series

of discussions between an Epicurean philosopher, a Jewish sage

(Baruchias), and a Christian (Capnion), and its object is to prove that

the wisdom of all nations, the symbols of pagan religions and the forms

of their worship are but misconceptions and travesties of Hebrew truth,

mysteriously concealed in the words, in the very shapes of the letters

of the Hebrew tongue.

Reuchlin may have felt that his knowledge of Hebrew still left much

to be desired; he, therefore, as ambassador of the elector palatine,

whom he represented at the court of Pope Alexander VI (1498-1500),

continued his study of Hebrew literature. Obadiah Sforno, of Cesena,

then residing at Rome, became Reuchlin's second teacher of Hebrew. Thus

the German humanist, already a famous man, whose Latin discourses were

the admiration of Italians, sat at the feet of a Jew to perfect himself

in Hebrew, nor did he disdain to accept instruction from a Jew whenever

the opportunity offered, so highly did he esteem the Hebrew language.

Being the only Christian in Germany, or we may say in all Europe,

sufficiently familiar with the sacred language, Reuchlin's numerous

friends urged him to compile a Hebrew grammar, to enable the studiously

inclined to instruct themselves. The first Hebrew grammar by a

Christian, which Reuchlin designated as "a memorial more lasting than

brass" (finished in March, 1506), was a somewhat poor affair. It gave

only the essentials of pronunciation and etymology, together with a

vocabulary, the imperfections of which need not surprise us, as it is

the work of a beginner. But the grammar produced important results:

it aroused a taste for Hebrew studies in a large circle of scholars,

who thenceforth zealously devoted themselves to it; and these studies

supplied a new factor towards the Lutheran Reformation. A number of

disciples of Reuchlin, such as Sebastian Münster and Widmannstadt,

followed in his footsteps, and raised the Hebrew language to the level

of Greek.

But though Reuchlin went down into the Jews' lane to carry off a hidden

treasure, he was at first no less intensely prejudiced against the

Jewish race than his contemporaries. Forgetful of its former glory,

and blind to the solid kernel, because enveloped in a repulsive shell,

Reuchlin looked on the Jewish people as utterly barbarous, devoid of

all artistic taste, superstitious, mean and depraved. He solemnly

declared that he was far from favoring the Jews. Like his pattern,

Jerome, he testified to his thorough-going hatred of them. At the same

time as his Hebrew grammar he wrote an epistle, in which he traced all

the misery of the Jews to their blind unbelief, instead of looking for

its source in Christians' want of charity towards them. Reuchlin, no

less than Pfefferkorn, charged the Jews with blasphemy against Jesus,

Mary, the apostles and Christians in general; but a time came when he

regretted this indiscreet lucubration of his youth. For his heart did

not share the prejudices of his head. Whenever he met individual Jews,

he gave them his affection, or at least his esteem; he probably found

that they were better than Christians represented them to be. His sense

of justice did not allow him to let wrong be done to them, much less to

help in doing it.

When Pfefferkorn and the Cologne Dominicans approached Reuchlin, he

was at the zenith of his life and fame. High and low honored him for

his rectitude; Emperor Frederick had ennobled him; Emperor Maximilian

appointed him counselor and judge of the Suabian League; the circle

of humanists, the order of free spirits within and without Germany,

loved, worshiped, almost deified him. Though hitherto no shadow of

heresy had fallen on Reuchlin, who was on the best of terms with the

Dominicans, yet the friends of darkness instinctively saw in him their

secret enemy. His cultivation of science and classical literature, his

anxiety for an elegant Latin style, his enthusiasm for Greek, by which

all Germany had been infected, and worse than all, his introduction of

Hebrew, his preference for "Hebrew truth," for the Hebrew text over

the corrupt Latin Vulgate, which the church held as canonical and

unassailable, were considered by the obscurantists as crimes, for which

the Inquisition could not, indeed, directly prosecute him, but which

secured him a place in their black book.

The order given to Pfefferkorn, the secret agent of the Dominicans

of Cologne, to implicate Reuchlin in the examination of blasphemous

Jewish writings, as said above, was a cunningly devised trap. On his

second journey to the imperial camp, Pfefferkorn waited on Reuchlin at

his own house, endeavored to make him a confederate in his venomous

schemes against the Jews, and showed him the imperial mandate. Reuchlin

declined the proposal somewhat hesitatingly, though he approved of

destroying Jewish libels on Christianity; but he pointed out that

the emperor's mandate was faulty in form, and that, therefore, the

authorities would not willingly enforce it. Reuchlin is said to have

hinted that, if invited to do so, he would interest himself in the

matter. Pfefferkorn, in consequence, applied to the emperor for a

second mandate, correct in form and unassailable. But the Jews had not

been idle in endeavors to induce the emperor to revoke the mandate and

restore their books.

The community of Frankfort had appointed Jonathan Levi Zion, a zealous

member, to advocate their case with the emperor. The community of

Ratisbon also had sent an agent to the imperial court. Isaac Triest,

a man greatly beloved by the persons surrounding the emperor, took

great pains to frustrate Pfefferkorn's plans. The Jewish advocates

were supported by influential Christians, including the representative

of the archbishop and the Margrave of Baden. They first adduced the

charters guaranteeing religious liberty, granted to the Jews by

emperors and popes, in accordance with which even the emperor had no

right to interfere with the management of their private affairs, or to

attack their property in the shape of religious books. They did not

fail to inform the emperor that their accuser was a worthless person, a

thief and burglar. The Jewish advocates thought that they had attained

their end. The emperor had listened to their petition in an audience,

and promised them a speedy reply. Their friendly reception led them

to look for an immediate settlement of this painful affair; moreover,

it was a good omen that Uriel von Gemmingen, their protector, was

appointed commissary.

But they did not understand Maximilian's vacillating character. As soon

as Pfefferkorn appeared before him, armed with another autograph letter

from his sister, wherein the ultra-pious nun conjured him not to injure

Christianity by the revocation of his mandate, the scales were turned

against the Jews. The emperor was in reality secretly piqued that the

despised Jews of Frankfort, in contempt of his mandate, had refused to

give up the books found in their houses.

He thereupon issued a second mandate (November 10th, 1509), wherein he

reproached the Jews with having offered resistance, and ordered the

confiscation to be continued. But he appointed Archbishop Uriel as

commissioner, and advised him to obtain counsel from the universities

of Cologne, Mayence, Erfurt and Heidelberg, and to associate with

himself learned men, such as Reuchlin, Victor von Karben, and the

inquisitor, Hoogstraten, who was wholly ignorant of Hebrew. With this

mandate in his pocket, Pfefferkorn hastened back to the scene of his

activity, the Rhenish provinces. Archbishop Uriel appointed Hermann

Hess, chancellor of the University of Mayence, his delegate, to direct

the confiscation of Jewish books. Accompanied by him, Pfefferkorn

again repaired to Frankfort, and the book-hunt began afresh. Fifteen

hundred manuscripts, including those already seized, were taken from

the Frankfort Jews, and deposited in the town hall.

Worse than the emperor's vacillating conduct was the apathy shown by

the large communities of Germany in the appointment of delegates to a

conference to discuss and frustrate the malicious plans of Pfefferkorn,

or rather, of the Dominicans. Smaller communities had contributed

their share towards the expenses occasioned by this serious matter,

but the larger and richer communities of Rothenburg on the Tauber,

Weissenburg and Fürth, on which the Jews of Frankfort had counted most,

displayed deplorable indifference. But when, in consequence of the

second mandate, Jewish books were confiscated not only at Frankfort

but also in other communities, more active interest was manifested.

First the Frankfort senate was influenced in their favor. The Jewish

booksellers were accustomed to bring their bales of books for sale to

the spring Fair at Frankfort. Pfefferkorn threatened to confiscate

these also, but the senate of Frankfort refused to assist in the

measure, being unwilling to break the laws regulating the Fair. The

Jewish booksellers, moreover, had safe-conducts each from the prince

of his own country, protecting not only their persons, but also their

property. The archbishop maintained sullen silence, but was inclined

to favor the Jews. He did not call together the learned men whom the

emperor had mentioned to examine the Jewish books, and did no more

than he could help. Many princes, also, whose eyes had been opened

to the ultimate results of this strange confiscation, seem to have

made representations to the emperor. Public opinion was particularly

severe on Pfefferkorn. But he and the Dominicans were not idle; they

endeavored to win over the emperor and public opinion, and it is

remarkable that the enemies of publicity should have opened the mouth

of that hitherto silent arbitress, and rendered her powerful.

For this purpose there appeared another anti-Jewish pamphlet, with

Pfefferkorn's name on the title-page, entitled, "In Praise and Honor of

Emperor Maximilian." It blew clouds of incense into the emperor's face,

and regretted that the charges against the Jews, from indifference and

ignorance, were so little noticed in Christian circles. It reasserted

that the Talmud, the usury of the Jews, and their facilities for

making money, were the causes of their obstinately refusing to become

Christians. Thus the Cologne Dominicans--always standing behind

Pfefferkorn--by means of public opinion again attempted to put moral

pressure on Maximilian.

But this public opinion must have spoken so strongly in favor of

the Jews, that Maximilian was induced to take a step unusual for an

emperor, namely, in a measure revoke his former commands, by directing

the senate of Frankfort to restore to the Jews their books (May 23d,

1510), "till the completion of our purpose and the inspection of

the books." Great was the joy of the Jews. They had escaped a great

danger: not their religious books only, so dear to their hearts, but

their position in the Holy Roman Empire had been at stake, since

the Dominicans, in case of success, would not have stopped at the

confiscation of books, but would have inflicted new humiliations and

persecutions.

But the Jews triumphed too soon; the Dominicans and their confederate

and tool, Pfefferkorn, would not so readily surrender the advantages

already secured. A regrettable occurrence in the Mark of Brandenburg

supplied fresh energy to their machinations, and a pretext for

formulating an accusation. A thief had stolen some sacred emblems from

a church, and when questioned as to the holy wafer, he confessed having

sold it to Jews in the Brandenburg district. Of course, the thief

was believed, and the bishop of Brandenburg entered on the persecution

of the Jews with fiery fanaticism. The elector of Brandenburg, Joachim

I, an ardent heretic-hunter, had the accused brought to Berlin. The

accusation of reviling the host was soon supplemented by the charge of

infanticide. Joachim had the Jews tortured, and then ordered thirty to

be burnt. With firmness, songs of praise on their lips, these martyrs

of Brandenburg met their fiery deaths (July 19th, 1510), except two,

who, with the fear of the stake upon them, submitted to baptism, and

suffered the seemingly more honorable fate of being beheaded. This is

the first mention of Jews in Berlin and Brandenburg. The occurrence

made a great stir in Germany, and the Cologne Dominicans employed it

to induce the emperor to issue a new mandate for the confiscation of

Jewish books, seeing that to the Talmud alone could be attributed

the alleged hostility of the Jews to Christianity. They sheltered

themselves behind the same go-between; the bigoted nun, the ducal

abbess Kunigunde, to whom the diabolical wickedness of the Jews, as

revealed by the above occurrence, was presented in most glaring colors,

was again to influence the emperor. The Dominicans suggested to her how

detrimental to Christianity must be the fact that the host-reviling and

child-murdering Jews could boast of having had their books restored

to them by order of the emperor, who thus, to a certain extent,

approved of the abuse of Christianity which they contained. The abbess

thereupon fairly assailed her brother, and at their interview at Munich

besought him on her knees to reconsider the matter of the Jewish books.

Maximilian was perplexed. He was loath to refuse his dearly beloved

sister what she had so much at heart; on the other hand, he was not

highly edified by Pfefferkorn's tissue of lies about the Jews. He found

an expedient to appear just to both parties. He issued a new mandate,

the fourth in this affair (July 6th, 1510), addressed to Archbishop

Uriel, directing him to resume the inquiry, but in another form. The

indictment was not to be considered as proved, but was to be thoroughly

investigated. The archbishop of Mayence was to take the opinions of the

German universities named, and also of Reuchlin, Victor von Karben and

Hoogstraten, to whom the emperor sent a special summons in official

form. The final decision as to the character of the Jewish writings

was to be communicated to him by Pfefferkorn, the originator of the

inquiry. The Jews had reason to look forward with anxiety to the issue;

their weal and woe depended on it.

It was fortunate for the Jews that the honest, truthful Reuchlin, so

enthusiastically prepossessed for Hebrew and Kabbalistic literature,

was asked to give his opinion of Jewish literature. The Cologne

Dominicans, who had proposed him, thereby frustrated their own design,

and as a further effect made him the enemy of their hostile endeavors.

As soon as Reuchlin received the emperor's command, he set to work to

answer the question, "Whether it was godly, laudable, and advantageous

to Christianity to burn the Jewish writings," whereby the Talmud

especially was meant. His judgment was extremely favorable to the

writings in question, nor did he miss the chance of bestowing sundry

side blows on the vile instigator Pfefferkorn. Jewish literature, the

mistress of his heart, was to be charged as a culprit, and should he

fail to defend her with all the powers of his mind? Reuchlin's opinion

is conceived in the pedantic, heavy, juridical style then prevailing,

but does not lack ability. He started from the correct point of

view, that, in answering the question, the Jewish writings were not

to be treated in the aggregate as a homogeneous literature, but

that, excluding the Bible, they were to be divided into six classes.

The class of exegetic works, such as those by R. Solomon (Rashi),

Ibn-Ezra, the Kimchis, Moses Gerundensis and Levi ben Gershon, far from

being detrimental to Christianity, he declared to be indispensable to

Christian theology, the most learned Christian commentators of the Old

Testament having taken the best of their work from the Jews, as from

fountains whence flow the real truth and understanding of the Holy

Scriptures. If from the voluminous writings of Nicholas de Lyra, the

best Christian exegetist, all borrowed from Rashi were to be excised,

the part left, which he himself had composed, might be comprised in

a few pages. He, indeed, considered it a disgrace that many doctors

of divinity, from ignorance of Hebrew and Greek, interpreted the

Scriptures wrongly. The class of Hebrew writings on philosophy, natural

sciences and the liberal arts were in no way distinguished from what

might be found in Greek, Latin, or German works. With regard to the

Talmud, against which the chief accusation was laid, Reuchlin confessed

his inability to understand it; but other learned Christians understood

no more of it than they might learn from its accusers, including

Pfefferkorn. He was acquainted with many who condemned the Talmud

without understanding it. But could one write against mathematics

without having knowledge thereof? He was, therefore, of opinion that

the Talmud was not to be burnt, even if it were true that it contained

libels on the founders of Christianity. "If the Talmud were deserving

of such condemnation, our ancestors of many hundred years ago, whose

zeal for Christianity was much greater than ours, would have burnt it.

The baptized Jews, Peter Schwarz and Pfefferkorn, the only persons who

insist on its being burnt, probably wish it for private reasons."

To defend Kabbalistic writings, and save them from being burnt, was

easy enough. Reuchlin had but to point to occurrences at the papal

court, scarcely two decades ago. The learned and eccentric Count Pico

di Mirandola had aroused enthusiastic admiration for the Kabbala,

maintaining that it contained the most solid foundation of the chief

doctrines of Christianity. Sixtus IV had caused some of the Kabbalistic

writings to be translated into Latin. Reuchlin concluded his opinion

by advising that their books should not be taken from the Jews, nor

burnt, but that at every German university two professors of Hebrew be

appointed for ten years, who might also be asked to teach modern, or

rabbinical Hebrew; and thus the Jews might be led by gentle means and

by conviction to embrace Christianity.

Unquestionably, since Jews had been ill-used and persecuted by

Christians, they had not found so friendly an advocate as Reuchlin,

who declared himself in their favor in an official document, intended

for the chancellor of the empire, and the emperor himself. Two points

on which Reuchlin laid stress were especially important to Jews. The

first was, that the Jews were citizens of the Holy Roman Empire, and

were entitled to its full privileges and protection. This was the first

stammering utterance of that liberating word of perfect equality,

which required more than three centuries for its perfect enunciation

and acknowledgment. The mediæval delusion, that the Jews, by Vespasian

and Titus' conquest of Jerusalem, had become the bondmen of their

successors, the Roman and German emperors, was hereby partly dispelled.

The recognition that Jews also had rights, which the emperor and the

state, the clergy and the laity must respect, was the first faint,

trembling ray of light after a long, dark night. The second point,

which Reuchlin emphasized more positively, was of equal importance:

that the Jews must not be considered or treated as heretics. Since they

stood without the church, and were not bound to hold the Christian

faith, the ideas of heresy and unbelief--those terrifying and lethal

anathemas of the Middle Ages--did not apply to them.

Of what use this judgment of Reuchlin was to the Jews, we discover

by the decision of the faculties consulted--faculties to whom the

Talmud, of course, was a book with seven seals. The Cologne Dominicans

in a body, the theological faculty, the inquisitor Hoogstraten, and

the gray-haired convert Victor von Karben, all mouthpieces of one

mind, did not trouble themselves to prove that the Talmud was hostile

to Christianity; they assumed it, and, therefore, quickly arrived at

their decision, that the Talmudic writings, and all others, probably

of the same stamp, were to be seized and burnt. But they went further;

Hoogstraten, in particular, had the assurance to say that the Jews

should be indicted. Experts were to extract and arrange heretical

passages from the Talmud and other Jewish books; then the Jews were to

be questioned whether or not they admitted the perniciousness of books

containing such doctrines. If they admitted it, they could raise no

objection to have them committed to the flames. If they obstinately

persevered in treating such passages as portions of their creed, the

emperor was to surrender them as convicted heretics for punishment to

the Inquisition.

The faculty of the university of Mayence delivered a similar sentence,

but went much further. They pronounced not only all Talmudic and

rabbinical writings to be full of errors and heresy, but that even

the Scriptures must have been contaminated and corrupted by them,

especially in articles of faith, wherefore these were to be taken

from the Jews, examined, and if their expectation was realized, the

Jewish Bibles were to be thrown into the flames. This was a cunning

device, because the Hebrew text of the Bible does not agree with the

Latin Vulgate, the work of bunglers, used by the church. It was like

arraigning an immaculate mother before her degenerate daughter, and

telling her that if she did not adopt the vices of the latter, she did

not deserve to exist. And it was a clever trick on the part of the

Dominicans to get rid of the inconvenient Hebrew text, the "Hebrew

truth," majestically shaking its head at the childish trifling of

clerical interpretations. Had the theologians of Mayence and Cologne

succeeded in enforcing their views, the Book received on Sinai, the

words of the Prophets, the Psalms, monuments of a time of grace, would

have been cast upon a blazing pyre, and a bastard, the corrupt Latin

Vulgate, substituted for it. The Dominicans appear to have suspected

that the plain sense of the words of the Bible would bring ruin upon

them. Fortunately, the Cologne Dominicans themselves defeated their

cunningly laid plan by an act of villainy.

Reuchlin had sent his opinion on Jewish literature in a sealed packet,

and by a sworn messenger, to Archbishop Uriel, assuming that, being an

official secret, it would be opened and read only by the archbishop and

the emperor. But Pfefferkorn, who believed himself to be on the eve

of avenging himself on the Jews, had it open in his hand even before

the emperor had read it. How this occurred has never been cleared up.

Reuchlin in plain words denounced the Cologne priests as unscrupulous

seal-breakers. We ought almost to be grateful to them for having

dragged an affair, originally enveloped in official secrecy, into

publicity, thereby calling in another tribunal, and turning the peril

of the Jews into a peril to the church. They had grown desperate over

Reuchlin's opinion, because his voice had great weight with the emperor

and his advisers. Therefore, the Dominicans, armed at all points, set

to work to publish a refutation of Reuchlin's defense of the Jews and

their books. It was written in German to render the cause popular, and

incense the multitude so as to render it impossible for the emperor to

listen to Reuchlin.

This libel, entitled "Handspiegel," spread abroad in thousands of

copies, on a man so highly placed and honored, a judge of the Suabian

League, a scholar of eminence, naturally caused a great sensation.

Since the invention of printing it was the first furious attack on a

dignitary, and being written in German, every one could understand

it. Reuchlin's numerous friends were indignant at the insolence of

a baptized Jew, who pretended to be more sound in faith than a born

Christian in good standing. The Cologne Dominicans had permitted

themselves to be guided by their envenomed hatred rather than by

prudence. Reuchlin was compelled to take steps against such attacks,

by which his honor was too deeply wounded for silence. He hastened to

the emperor, and complained of Pfefferkorn, the rancorous calumniator,

the ostensible author of the "Handspiegel." The emperor, by words and

gestures, betrayed his indignation, and quieted the excited Reuchlin

by the promise that the matter should be inquired into by the bishop

of Augsburg. But amidst the press of business, in the confusion of

Italian quarrels, the emperor forgot Reuchlin, the mortification he

had suffered, and the redress promised him. The Frankfort autumn Fair

was approaching, at which Pfefferkorn intended to offer for sale the

remainder of the copies, and nothing had been done for or by Reuchlin.

Thus Reuchlin was compelled to make the Talmud a personal question, to

appeal to public opinion, and thereby render the matter one of almost

universal interest. He prepared a defensive and offensive reply to

the "Handspiegel" for the Frankfort Fair. At the end of August, or

beginning of September, 1511, his controversial pamphlet, entitled

"Augenspiegel" (or Spectacles, a pair of spectacles being represented

on the title-page), which has acquired historical celebrity, made its

appearance. He designed to reveal to the German public the villainy

of Pfefferkorn and his coadjutors, but unconsciously he revealed the

defects of the Christianity of his time. It was a pamphlet which, we

may say without exaggeration, was equivalent to a great action. It was

directed against Pfefferkorn, and by implication against the Cologne

Dominicans, the patrons and instigators of his calumnies. It relates

in plain, honest language the progress of the whole affair: how the

baptized "Jew" had made every effort to prove the Talmud dangerous,

desiring to have it burnt, and had meant to turn Reuchlin to account

in the matter. He publishes the missives of the emperor and of the

archbishop addressed to him, and also his "Opinion." He reports how

Pfefferkorn by dishonest means obtained possession of the "Opinion,"

and misused it to concoct a libel, containing no less than thirty-four

untruths about him (Reuchlin). The tone of the "Augenspiegel" expresses

the just indignation of a man of honor against a villain who has set a

trap for him.

What roused the indignation of Reuchlin most was the charge that he had

been bribed to write his defense of the Talmud. With honest anger he

protested that at no time during his whole existence had he received

from Jews, or on their behalf, a single penny, or any other reward.

No less hurt was Reuchlin at the contempt expressed for his Hebrew

scholarship, especially at the accusation that he had not himself

composed his Hebrew grammar. His defense of the Jews is dignified. The

scoundrel Pfefferkorn had reproached him with having learnt Hebrew from

Jews, with whom, then, he must have had intercourse in defiance of

the canon law. Thereupon Reuchlin says: "The baptized Jew writes that

Divine law forbids our holding communion with Jews; this is not true.

Every Christian may go to law with them, buy of or make presents to

them. Cases may occur where Christians inherit legacies together with

Jews. It is allowed to converse with and learn from them, as Saint

Jerome and Nicholas de Lyra did. And lastly, a Christian should love a

Jew as his neighbor; all this is founded on the law."

It may be imagined what excitement was created by Reuchlin's

"Augenspiegel," written in German, when it appeared at the Frankfort

Fair, the meeting-place of hundreds of thousands, at a time when

there was no public press, and everyone readily lent his ear to a

scandalous tale. To find that so distinguished a man as Reuchlin would

set an accuser of the Jews in the pillory as a calumniator and liar,

was something so new and surprising as to make readers rub their

eyes, and ask themselves whether they had not hitherto been dozing.

The Jews greedily bought a book in which for the first time a man

of honor entered the lists on their behalf, and with powerful voice

stigmatized the charges against them as calumnies. They rejoiced at

having found a champion, and thanked God that He had not forsaken them

in their tribulation. Who would find fault with them for laboring in

the promulgation of Reuchlin's pamphlet? But by preaching against it

in their pulpits, and by prohibiting its sale as far as they could,

bigoted priests of the stamp of the Cologne Dominicans did most to

disseminate it. From all directions, in learned and unlearned circles,

congratulations were sent to Reuchlin, with expressions of satisfaction

that he had so boldly and firmly settled the impudent Pfefferkorn and

his abettors.

With the publication and circulation of Reuchlin's treatise, and his

defense of the Talmud, commenced a struggle which every day became more

serious, and at last assumed far greater proportions than the subject

justified. For the bigots, still in the full power of their terrorizing

might, did not hesitate to take up the challenge. Pfefferkorn's cause

was also theirs. Yet a man had dared step forward boldly, not only to

disapprove of the condemnation of the Talmud, but also to declare that

the persecution of the Jews was unchristianlike; and that they ought,

on the contrary, to be treated with sympathy and love. What audacity!

It aroused in them such virtuous indignation that they shot beyond

the mark, and committed such blunders that they damaged their cause

irreparably.

Pastor Peter Meyer, of Frankfort-on-the-Main, who had not been able

to obtain the prohibition of the sale of the "Augenspiegel," made

the second mistake. He announced from the pulpit during service that

Pfefferkorn would preach on the eve of the next "Feast of our Lady"

against Reuchlin's Jewish writings, and he exhorted the faithful

to attend in great numbers. Nothing could be more fatal than this

error. Pfefferkorn with his disagreeable, repulsive face, distinctly

Jewish features and coarse, vulgar look, preach before a Christian

congregation in his Jewish-German jargon! Each word and each movement

would provoke his hearers to laughter, and drive away even sincere

devotion. Moreover, was it in accordance with Catholic law that a

layman, above all a married layman, should officiate in the church?

Not long before this a simple shepherd had been sentenced to be burned

on account of unsanctioned preaching. To keep the letter of the law

Pfefferkorn preached on the appointed day (September 7th, 1511), not

in the church, but before the entrance, to a great crowd of people.

It must have been very droll to see how this ill-favored Jew made the

sign of the cross over believers, and spoke of the Christian faith in

the Jewish jargon. Pfefferkorn's chief desire was to make the Jews and

their well-wishers detestable, and to excite the hatred of his hearers

against them.

Until now the chief mover of the whole scandal, the venomous and

malicious master heretic-hunter, Jacob Hoogstraten, had kept behind

the scenes, but had sent his followers to the front one by one: first

Pfefferkorn, then Ortuinus Gratius and Arnold von Tongern. Henceforth

he stood in the foreground himself, his insolent demeanor seeming to

assume that priests and laymen must all bow before him, and sink under

his frown in the dust, and that he had the right to tread statutes and

customs under his feet. To save, by violent measures, the weakened

authority of the order, all Dominicans had to make common cause, and

apply their energy to carry through the condemnation of Reuchlin and

the Talmud. The conflict spread over a wider area, and became an affair

of the whole order.

Authorized by the provincial of his order, Hoogstraten, in his capacity

as inquisitor, suddenly issued (September 15th, 1513) a summons to

Reuchlin to appear at Mayence within six days, at eight o'clock in the

morning, to be examined on the charge of heresy and of favoring the

Jews. On the appointed day Hoogstraten, with a host of Dominicans,

appeared in Mayence; they were confederates, chosen to sit as judges in

the commission. Hoogstraten opened the session, acting at once as judge

and accuser. He had prepared an unassailable bill of indictment against

Reuchlin and the Talmud, and taken the precaution to seek allies, so

that he might not stand alone in this weighty contest. Shortly before,

he had addressed letters to four universities, begging them to express

their opinion on Reuchlin's book, "Augenspiegel," in accordance with

his own views, and all had fulfilled his expectations.

The accusation which he brought forward was, of course, that which

Pfefferkorn and Arnold von Tongern had already made. It had for its

basis: Reuchlin favors the Jews too much, treats "the insolent people"

almost as members of the church, and as men on an equality with

others, while his writings savor too much of heresy. Hoogstraten,

therefore, instructed the court to pronounce sentence upon Reuchlin's

"Augenspiegel": that it was full of heresy and error, too favorable

to the unbelieving Jews, and insulting to the church, and therefore

ought to be condemned, suppressed, and destroyed by fire. One must

not overlook the great difference between a German and a Spanish

inquisition court. Torquemada or Ximenes would have made short work

of it, and condemned the book together with the author to the stake.

Hoogstraten was not too kind-hearted for such a sentence; but he

dared not venture so far, because he would have had all Germany, the

ecclesiastical as well as the temporal rulers against him.

General indignation was aroused at the injustice of a trial carried

on in violation of all rules. The students of the Mayence University,

not yet tainted by the corruption of theology, their judgment not

warped by casuistry, and not influenced by foreign considerations,

loudly proclaimed their displeasure at this shameless proceeding of the

Inquisition. They carried the doctors of jurisprudence with them, and

this induced other earnest men to interfere.

To the surprise of the Dominicans, the aged, venerable Reuchlin

appeared in Mayence, accompanied by two respected counselors of the

Duke of Wurtemberg. The chapter now took great trouble to effect a

reconciliation. But Hoogstraten, who wished to see smoke rise from

the fagots, would agree to nothing, and delayed the negotiations

till the 12th of October, the time when the final sentence would be

pronounced. The inquisitor commanded all the ecclesiastics in Mayence

to announce from the pulpit that everyone, Christian or Jew, if he

would escape punishment, must give up all copies of the "Augenspiegel"

to the flames. The people were promised thirty days' indulgence, if

they assembled on the appointed day at the church square to celebrate

the auto-da-fé and increase its splendor. On the 12th of October

the place before the church in Mayence was thronged with spectators

--the curious, the sympathetic, and the seekers after indulgence!

Decked out like peacocks, the Fathers and Brothers of the Dominican

order, and the theologians of the universities of Cologne, Louvain,

and Erfurt, strutted along to the tribunal erected for them, and "the

earth trembled under their feet." Hoogstraten, till now the accuser,

again took his place among the judges. They were about to pronounce

the formula of the curse, and have the fire kindled, when a messenger

hastily arrived, bringing a letter from Archbishop Uriel, which turned

them speechless.

Uriel von Gemmingen, like most bishops of his time, was more

worldly-minded than spiritual, and had no canonical fanaticism against

Jews. The presumptuousness of the Dominicans of Cologne and their

unjust proceedings against Reuchlin angered him, too. Therefore, he

issued a proclamation to the commissioners selected from his chapter,

ordering that judgment be delayed for one month until a new agreement

might be arrived at. If they did not consent, this letter deprived

them of their privileges as judges of the inquisitorial court, and

every thing hitherto decreed was null and void. Utterly dumbfounded,

the Dominicans listened to the notary's reading of the document, which

entirely frustrated their schemes and machinations. Hoogstraten alone

boldly dared express his anger at the denial of their rights. The other

confederates slunk away ashamed, followed by the jeers of the street

boys, and the cry of the men, "O that these Brothers, who wished to

outrage a just man, might be burnt at the stake."

If it is true, as the Dominicans relate, that the rabbis of Germany

met in a synod in Worms, and found in the defeat of the Dominicans who

raged against Reuchlin a sign of the downfall of the Roman (papist)

hierarchy, they were certainly endowed with prophetic vision. It was

also said that Reuchlin had secret intercourse with rabbis.

Reuchlin was by no means so situated as to be able to triumph over his

enemies and those of the Jews. Though subdued for the moment, they were

certainly not vanquished. He knew their cunning and malignity too well

to give himself up to inactive enjoyment of his victory. He knew that

their persecutions would only be redoubled in the future. Therefore,

he hastened to announce his appeal to the pope, so that silence might

be imposed from that quarter on his embittered enemies. But Reuchlin

justly feared that with the vacillation and venality of the Vatican his

cause would go badly, if the investigation were conducted beyond the

jurisdiction of the pope by the Dominicans of Cologne. Therefore, he

sent a Hebrew letter to Bonet de Lates, the Jewish physician of Pope

Leo X, begging him to plead for the pope's favor in his cause.

Leo, of the celebrated family of the Medici, about whom his father

had said that he was the wisest of his sons, had succeeded to the

papal chair only a few months before. He was an aristocrat, more

interested in politics than in religion, a Roman pagan rather than a

Catholic priest, looking down with contempt from his Olympian heights

on theological controversy as child's play. He only considered how

best to steer between the two warring states or houses of Hapsburg and

Valois, without endangering the temporal interest of the Roman Catholic

hierarchy. With candor that would surprise us today, the pope ventured

to say, "It is well known how useful this fable of Christ has been to

us and ours!" With him now rested the decision, whether Reuchlin's

"Augenspiegel" savored of heresy, and whether he duly or unduly favored

the Jews. Leo, whose pontificate fell in a time when theological

questions threatened to embroil all Europe, perhaps knew less of

them than his cook. Much, therefore, depended on the light in which

the conflict between Reuchlin and the Dominicans was placed before

him. For this reason Reuchlin begged the physician Bonet de Lates,

who had access to the pope and care of "the person of his Holiness,"

to win over Leo X, so that the trial might not take place in Cologne

or its vicinity, where his cause would be lost. Reuchlin laid all the

circumstances before him: how Pfefferkorn and the Cologne Dominicans

had conspired against the Jews and the Talmud, and how only his

extraordinary efforts had saved the Talmud from destruction. Had the

Dominicans been able to get hold of and read this letter, they could

have brought forward incontestable proof of Reuchlin's friendliness

towards the Jews, for in it he wrote much that he had publicly denied.

It is natural that Bonet de Lates brought all his influence to bear in

favor of Reuchlin. And it was probably owing to his zeal that Leo so

soon (November 21st, 1513) issued instructions to the bishops of Speyer

and Worms on the controversy between Reuchlin and Hoogstraten. Leo

ordered that they be examined separately or together, by the bishops or

by judges appointed by them, who, without the intervention of any other

tribunal, were to pronounce judgment, to be accepted without appeal.

The bishop of Worms, a Dalburg, with whom Reuchlin was on friendly

terms, did not care to accept the commission. So the young bishop of

Speyer, George, elector palatine and duke of Bavaria, appointed two

judges, who summoned both parties to appear within a month before

the tribunal in Speyer. Reuchlin came punctually, accompanied by a

procurator and friends. Hoogstraten, on the other hand, trusting to the

power of the Dominicans, did not present himself, nor send a competent

representative. The judges commenced the suit, not with becoming

energy, but with a certain half-heartedness, perhaps from fear of the

revenge of the Dominicans. The trial was spun out over three months

(January to April, 1514).

Only after Reuchlin had written two German papers on the matter in

dispute and the progress of the proceedings, did the bishop deign to

notice the evidence and pass judgment, which was wholly in favor of

Reuchlin. He stated that the "Augenspiegel" contained not an iota

of heresy or error, that it did not unduly favor the Jews, that,

therefore, Hoogstraten had slandered the author, and silence should

be imposed on him in this matter; that the writings might be read and

printed by everyone, and that Hoogstraten be charged with the costs

(111 Rhenish gold florins).

The Dominicans of Cologne gnashed their teeth, stormed and raged at

the issue of the suit, and used every effort to overthrow the judgment

of the apostolic court. At that time, on account of the disunion in

Germany, it was very difficult to put into execution a judicial decree,

and the Dominicans were not inclined to lessen the difficulty when

the sentence was given against themselves. They laughed at the bishop

of Speyer, calling him a stupid fellow. The notice of the verdict

in Cologne was torn down by the bold Pfefferkorn. Hoogstraten had

unofficially--that is to say, without giving notice to the bishop

of Speyer, then acting as apostolic judge--appealed to the pope,

although he had scouted the idea of such an appeal before. His hope of

winning the suit against Reuchlin and securing the condemnation of the

"Augenspiegel" was founded on the venality of the Vatican. "Rome will

do anything for money," he frankly said; "Reuchlin is poor, and the

Dominicans are rich; justice can be suppressed by money." Hoogstraten

could also count on the good will of the cardinals, who inveighed

against free inquiry. At all events, they could be depended upon to

drag out the suit so long that Reuchlin's means would not suffice

to meet the costs. Besides this, the Dominicans relied on obtaining

from the universities, in particular the leading one of Paris, the

condemnation of the "Augenspiegel," and using it to exert pressure

upon the pope. All Dominicans, Thomists and obscurantists, both in and

outside Germany, made common cause to work the downfall of Reuchlin.

This union of the Dominican party had the effect of binding together

the friends of learning, the enemies of scholasticism, bigotry and

church doctrine--in one word, the Humanists--and inducing them to

take concerted action. Virtually a society of Humanists, a Reuchlinist

party, was formed in western Europe, the members of which silently

worked for one another and for Reuchlin: "One supported the other, and

said to his comrade, Be brave." "All we who belong to the ranks of

learning are devoted to Reuchlin no less than soldiers to the emperor."

It was a formal alliance, which the supporters of Reuchlin loyally

adhered to. So, in consequence of Pfefferkorn's bitter hostility to

the Jews and the Talmud, two parties were formed in Christendom, the

Reuchlinists and the Arnoldists, who waged fierce conflict with each

other. It was a struggle of the dark Middle Ages with the dawn of a

better time.

Young Germany was working with all its might on behalf of Reuchlin

and against the bigots: besides Hermann von Busche, and Crotus

Rubianus (Johann Jäger), there was the fiery Ulrich von Hutten, the

most energetic and virile character of the time. In fact, Hutten's

energy first found a worthy aim in the passionate feud between

Reuchlin and the Dominicans. Formerly his fencing had consisted of

passes in the empty air; his knightly courage and fiery genius had

met only phantom adversaries. Now, for the first time, the youth of

six-and-twenty had a clear perception of the relation of things; he

saw a real enemy, to meet whom with his knight's sword and the sharper

weapon of his intellect, in a life and death struggle, would be a

praiseworthy, glorious undertaking. To destroy the Dominicans, priests

and bigots, and establish the kingdom of intellect and free thought,

to deliver Germany from the nightmare of ecclesiastical superstition

and barbarism, raise it from its abjectness, and make it the arbiter

of Europe, seemed to him the aim to toil for. As soon as Hutten was

clearly conscious of this, he worked ceaselessly for his object, the

first step towards its realization being to help Reuchlin, the leader

in the struggle for humanism, to gain the victory over his mortal foes.

A cardinal, Egidio de Viterbo, who delighted in the Hebrew language and

in the Kabbala, openly sided with Reuchlin. He wrote to him, "The Law

(Torah) revealed to man in fire was first saved from fire when Abraham

escaped the burning furnace, and now a second time, when Reuchlin

saved, from the fire, the writings from which the Law received light,

for had they been destroyed eternal darkness would again have set

in. So, exerting ourselves for your cause, we are not defending you,

but the Law, not the Talmud, but the church." It is remarkable that

the whole Franciscan order, from hatred of the Dominicans, took up

Reuchlin's cause.

In almost every town there were Reuchlinists and anti-Reuchlinists,

whose mutual hatred brought them at times to blows. The motto of one

was, "Rescue of the 'Augenspiegel' and preservation of the Talmud," and

of the other, "Damnation and destruction to both." Involuntarily the

Reuchlinists became friends of the Jews, and sought grounds on which to

defend them. The adherents of the Dominicans became fiercer enemies to

the Jews, and sought out obscure books to prove their wickedness.

The report of this contest spread through Europe. At first limited to

Germany, the controversy soon reached both Rome and Paris. Hoogstraten

and the Dominicans worked with energy to have the judgment of Speyer

overthrown, in the latter place by the greatest university, in the

former by the papal see, and to have Reuchlin's writings sentenced to

the flames. In both places they had powerful and influential allies,

who devotedly and zealously worked for their party.

Reuchlin, although his suit had been lawfully won in the apostolic

court in Speyer, was forced to take steps to counteract the appeal

instituted by the intrigues of his enemies. And his friends succeeded

in influencing the pope. Leo X appointed the cardinal and patriarch

Dominico Grimani as judge of the inquiry. It was well known that this

ecclesiastical prince cultivated rabbinical literature, and, as patron

of the Franciscan order, hated the Dominicans, and took Reuchlin's

side. Without doubt prominent Jews were working in Rome for Reuchlin,

but, like the German Jews, they had the good sense to keep in the

background, so as not to imperil the cause by stamping it as Jewish.

Cardinal Grimani issued (June, 1514) a summons to both parties, but

in consideration of Reuchlin's advanced years permitted him to send a

representative, while Hoogstraten had to appear in person. Furnished

with recommendations and a well-filled purse, the inquisitor appeared

in Rome with undiminished confidence of obtaining a victory. What could

not be obtained in Rome for money?

Reuchlin had nothing of the kind to offer; he was poor. He had not the

magic wand which commands the gold of bigoted women, nor the conjurer's

formula over father-confessors, who are apt treasure-diggers. But there

was no lack of recommendations from his friends and well-wishers.

Emperor Maximilian, who, much to his own regret, had originated all

this disturbance, by lending ear to Pfefferkorn's stupidities and his

sister's hysterical piety, often interceded with the pope for Reuchlin.

The emperor wrote that he believed that the Cologne people wished

to prolong the controversy illegally and through intrigue, in order

to crush the excellent, inoffensive, learned and orthodox Reuchlin;

that what he had written (in favor of the Hebrew Scriptures) had been

written at the emperor's command, with a good object, and for the

benefit of Christendom.

But the Dominicans defied public opinion, the commission appointed by

the pope, and the pope. They spoke of the pope as of a schoolboy under

their authority. If he did not give a decision in their favor, they

threatened to withdraw their allegiance, and desert him, even risking

a rupture with the church. They went so far as to threaten that in

case Reuchlin proved victorious, they would ally themselves with the

Hussites in Bohemia against the pope. So blinded was this faction by

revengeful feelings, that from sheer obstinacy they would undermine

Catholicism. Nor did they spare the majesty of the emperor; when they

learned that Maximilian had interceded for Reuchlin with the pope, they

heaped abuse on him.

The Dominicans built their hopes on the verdict of Paris, the head

of all European universities. If this important school of divinity

condemned Reuchlin's writings and the Talmud, then even the pope

would have to submit. Every influence was, therefore, brought to

bear to obtain a favorable opinion from Paris. In particular, the

king of France, Louis XII, was worked on by his confessor, Guillaume

Haquinet Petit, to influence the school of divinity in favor of the

Dominicans. The political events which had set the German emperor

and the French king at variance were also brought into play. Because

the emperor of Germany was for Reuchlin, the king of France decided

for the Dominicans and against the Talmud. But this decision was not

easily obtained, for Reuchlin numbered many warm friends in Paris. The

consultation was prolonged from May to the beginning of August, 1514.

Many of the voters spoke in favor of Reuchlin and at the same time

expressed their indignation at the unlawful proceedings; but they

were cried down by the fanatics. Many French divines were guided by

the example of Saint Louis, who, at the instigation of the baptized

Jew, Nicholas Donin, and by command of Pope Gregory IX, had ordered

the Talmud to be burnt three centuries before. The Parisian doctors,

therefore, gave sentence that Reuchlin's "Augenspiegel," containing

heresy, and defending with great zeal the Talmudic writings, deserved

to be condemned to the flames, and the author to be forced to recant.

Great was the joy of the Dominicans, particularly those of Cologne,

over this judgment. They believed their game to be won, and that the

pope himself would be forced to submit. They did not delay in making

known to the public this concession, so hardly won, by means of another

libelous pamphlet.

The lawsuit, allowed to lag in Rome, was wilfully delayed still more

by the Dominicans. The commission appointed had a close translation of

the "Augenspiegel" prepared by a German in Rome, Martin von Grönigen;

but the opposition found fault with it. Numerous hindrances blocked the

progress of the suit, and at this stage cost Reuchlin 400 gold florins.

The Dominicans had hoped so to impoverish their adversary, the friend

of the Jews, that he would be incapacitated from obtaining justice.

The prospect of seeing Reuchlin's cause triumphant at Rome diminished.

Reuchlin's friends were, therefore, anxious to create another tribunal,

and appeal from the badly advised or intimidated pope to public

opinion.

During this tension of minds in small and great circles, whilst high

and low ecclesiastics, princes and citizens, anxiously awaited news as

to how the Reuchlin lawsuit had ended, or would end in Rome, a young

Humanist (most likely Crotus Rubianus, in Leipsic), wrote a series of

letters, which, for wit, humor and biting satire, had not been equaled

in all literature. The "Letters of Obscurantists" (_Epistolæ Obscurorum

Virorum_), published in 1515, in a great measure directed against

the rascally Ortuinus Gratius, laid bare, in the language of the

unpolished monks, their own baseness and insolence, their astonishing

ignorance, their lust, their animosity and vileness, their despicable

Latin, and still more contemptible morality, the absurdity of their

logic, their foolish chatter--in short, all their intolerable

vices were made so evident, and described so clearly, that even the

half-educated could comprehend. All Reuchlin's enemies, Hoogstraten,

Arnold von Tongern, Ortuinus Gratius, Pfefferkorn, their accomplices,

and the Paris University, were lashed with whips and scorpions, so

that no spot on them remained sound. This clever satire, containing

more than Aristophanian scorn, made the stronger an impression as the

Dominicans, the Thomists, the Doctors of Divinity, revealed themselves

in their own persons, in their miserable meanness, placing themselves,

metaphorically speaking, in the pillory. But it was inevitable that, in

deriding the bigots and the papacy, the whole tyranny of the hierarchy

and the church should be laid bare. For, were not the Dominicans, with

their insolent ignorance and shameless vices, the product and natural

effect of the Catholic order and institution? So the satire worked like

a corroding acid, entirely destroying the already rotting body of the

Catholic Church.

The Jews and the Talmud were the first cause of the Reuchlinist

quarrel; naturally, they could not be left out of account in the

letters of the Obscurantists. So it happened that the much despised

Jews became one of the topics of the day.

A roar of laughter resounded through western Europe at the reading of

these satirical letters. Everyone in Germany, Italy, France and England

who understood Latin, was struck with the form and tenor of these

confessions of Dominicans and scholastics. Their awkward vulgarity,

dense stupidity, egregious folly, impurity of word and deed, stood so

glaringly in contrast with their presumed learning and propriety, that

the most serious men were moved to mirth. It is related that Erasmus,

who, at the time of reading the letters, suffered from an abscess in

the throat, laughed so heartily that it broke, and he was cured. The

merry Comedy of the Fools put Reuchlin entirely in the right, and the

Dominicans were judged by public opinion, no matter how the pope might

deal with them. All were curious to know who could be the author. Some

thought it was Reuchlin himself, others Erasmus, Hutten, or one of

the Humanist party. Hutten gave the right answer to the question as

to the author: "God himself." It appeared more and more clearly that

so slight a cause as the burning of the Talmud had taken a world-wide

significance, the will of the individual serving only to further

the interests of all. In Rome and Cologne, far-seeing Reuchlinists

discerned in it the work of Providence.

Only the German Jews could not indulge in merriment. The Dominicans

had meantime worked in another way to obtain their object, or at

least to have revenge on the Jews. Of what avail was it to the Jews

that some enlightened Christians, having had their attention drawn to

Judaism, were seized with so great a predilection for it that they

gave expression to their new convictions in writing? Christendom as a

whole was irrevocably prejudiced against Jewish teachings and their

adherents. Erasmus rightly said, "If it is Christian to hate the Jews,

then we are true Christians." Therefore, it was easy for their enemies

to injure them. Pfefferkorn had often pointed out that there were in

Germany only three great Jewish communities, at Ratisbon, Frankfort and

Worms, and that with their extermination, Judaism in the German kingdom

would come to an end.

To bring about the expulsion of the Jews from Frankfort and Worms,

their enemies had discovered effective means. The young Margrave,

Albert von Brandenburg, hitherto bishop of Magdeburg, who later

attained melancholy renown in the history of the Reformation, had been

elected to the archbishopric of Mayence. The enemies of the Jews,

acting probably on a suggestion from Cologne, induced Archbishop Albert

to issue an invitation to religious and secular authorities and to

towns, principally Frankfort and Worms, to attend a diet in Frankfort,

to discuss how the Jews might be banished and never be permitted to

return. Obeying the invitation (January 7th, 1516), many deputies

appeared. The program was to this purport: All the estates were to

unite and take an oath to relinquish the privileges and advantages

derived from the Jews, to banish all Jewish subjects and never, under

any pretext, or for any term, permit them to return. This resolution

was to be laid before the emperor for his confirmation.

The Jews of these places saw certain danger hanging over their heads.

If at other times the German princes and rulers were disunited and

indolent, in the persecution of Jews they were always united and

energetic. Nothing remained for the Jews but to send a deputation to

Emperor Maximilian, and implore him to grant them his favor and support

them against so malevolent a measure. The emperor happily remembered

that the Jews, even when ruled by various great or petty rulers, were

in reality the servants of himself and the empire, and that their

banishment would be an encroachment on his suzerainty. Maximilian

hastened, therefore, to send a very forcible dispatch to Elector Albert

and the chapter of Mayence, to the religious and secular authorities,

and to the towns (January, 1516), expressing his displeasure at their

conference, and forbidding them to meet again at the appointed time. So

the Jews were for the moment saved. But the archbishop of Mayence, or

in his absence the chapter, did not give up the pursuit of the desired

object. The enemies of the Jews, the friends of the Cologne Dominicans,

still hoped to turn the emperor against them. But the hope was vain;

the Jews were not banished for the present.

Reuchlin's lawsuit, although delayed by the struggles of the two

parties, whose time was taken up in plotting against each other's

intrigues, made slow but perceptible progress. Hoogstraten, seeing that

the commission would decide in favor of Reuchlin, vehemently demanded

a decision by council, inasmuch as it was a question, not of law, but

of faith. Pope Leo, who did not care to be on bad terms with either

party, in opposition to his own repeated command had to yield to a

certain extent. On the one side Emperor Maximilian and many German

princes insisted upon having Reuchlin declared blameless and silencing

the Dominicans; on the other side the king of France and young Charles

(at that time duke of Burgundy), the future emperor of Germany, king

of Spain and America, used threatening language towards the pope,

demanding that the matter be taken up seriously, and that Reuchlin's

book be condemned. Leo, therefore, considered it advisable to escape

from this critical position. He submitted the matter for final decision

to a court of inquiry, formed of members of the Lateran Council, then

in session. Thus the dispute about the Talmud became the concern of a

general council, and was raised to the dignity of a European question.

The council committee finally declared in favor of Reuchlin. Before Leo

X could confirm or reject its decision, Hoogstraten and his friends

influenced him to issue a mandate suspending the suit. This temporizing

exactly suited Leo's character and his position between the excited

rival parties. He hated excitement, which he would have brought on

himself, if he had decided in favor of either party. He did not wish to

offend the Humanists, nor yet the bigots, nor the German emperor, nor

the king of France, nor the ruler of Spain. So the suit was suspended,

and at any favorable opportunity could be taken up again by the

Dominicans. Hoogstraten had to leave Rome in disgrace and dishonor, but

he did not give up the hope of winning his cause in the end. He was a

strong-willed man, who could not be discouraged by humiliations, and so

unprincipled that falsehood and misrepresentations came easy to him.

If Pope Leo believed that at his dictation the conflict would cease,

he overestimated the authority of the papacy, and mistook the parties

as well as the real issue involved. Feeling ran too high to be quieted

by a word from those in power. Neither party wished for peace, but for

war, war to the knife. When Hoogstraten returned from Rome, his life

was in danger. Furious Reuchlinists often conspired against him, and

sought by polemical leaflets to exasperate public opinion still more

against the Dominicans. Hutten, since his mature judgment had taken in

the situation at Rome, was most eager to bring about the downfall of

ecclesiastical domination in Germany.

The secret could be no longer kept, it was given out from the

house-tops that there was dissension in the church. Not their foes,

but the provincial of the Dominican order, Eberhard von Cleve, and

the whole chapter, represented in an official letter to the pope that

the controversy had brought them, the Dominicans, into hatred and

contempt; that they were held up to the mockery of all, and that they

--so very undeservedly!--were decried, both in speech and writing,

as the enemies of brotherly love, peace and harmony; that their

preaching was despised, their confessional avoided, and that everything

they undertook was derided, and declared to be only the result of pride

and meanness.

Meanwhile the contention between Reuchlin and the Dominicans,

especially Hoogstraten, developed in another direction, and affected

Judaism at another point. The Kabbala formed the background of this

movement. Out of love for this secret doctrine, supposed to offer the

key to the deepest knowledge of philosophy and Christianity, Reuchlin

had wished to spare the Talmud, because in his opinion it contained

mystical elements. The youthful Kabbala became the patroness of the

old Talmud. Reuchlin understood but little of Kabbalistic doctrines,

but his eagerness for knowledge and his zeal spurred him on to study.

Moreover, the attack by his adversaries upon his orthodoxy, honesty and

erudition, had made it an affair of honor for him to prove convincingly

that the Kabbala agreed with Christianity. But he was unfortunate in

the choice of his Hebrew models. For a long time he sought a guide,

until chance brought him to the most confused source of information:

the foolish writings of the Kabbalist, Joseph Jikatilla, of Castile,

which the convert Paul Riccio had lately translated into Latin. As soon

as Reuchlin heard of this literary treasure of Joseph Jikatilla, he did

not rest till he had obtained it, and again set about proving that the

Kabbala was in agreement with Christianity.

Believing that the Kabbala reveals and confirms the highest truths,

the mysteries of Christianity, Reuchlin composed a work on Kabbalist

science, and dedicated it to Pope Leo X, giving new emphasis to his

contention that the Jewish writings, instead of being burnt, should be

cherished.

Reuchlin must have counted on the approval of the pope, to whom he

dedicated the work, for having found new support for the tottering

faith. He hoped that Leo X would at length grant him peace and rest by

pronouncing judgment in the suit between himself and the Dominicans,

which, though suppressed, was persistently urged by the latter. The

Christianlike Kabbala was to be his intercessor at the Vatican. He

did not stand alone in his foolish fondness for the secret doctrine.

Not only the cardinals but the pope himself expected to gain much for

Christianity by proper research into the Kabbala.

As the interest in the Reuchlin controversy began to flag, another

movement started in Germany, continuing, as the other had begun, to

shake the firm pillars of the papacy and the Catholic Church, and

prepare the regeneration of Europe. The discussion aroused by the

Talmud created an intellectual medium favorable to the germination and

growth of Luther's reform movement. Destined soon to become a force in

the world's history, even the Reformation arose from small beginnings,

and needed most powerful protection not to be nipped in the bud. Martin

Luther was a strong, straightforward, obstinate and passionately

excitable character, holding with tenacity to his convictions and

errors. By the opposition which he met, Luther finally came to the

conclusion that each individual pope, consequently the papacy, was not

infallible, and that the basis of faith was not the pope's will, but

the Scriptural word.

The death of the old emperor, Maximilian, who had been unequal to

the task of grappling with the theological perplexities called forth

by himself, and the election of a new emperor, spun out for half a

year, drew politics into the arena, and gave rise to a confusion in

which the friends and foes of free religious thought and of gloomy

orthodox faith were not distinguishable. Hutten and the Humanists

favored Charles V, in whose own country, Spain, the Dominicans still

had the upper hand, and where the flames from the stake were still

unextinguished; but he was opposed by the pope. The Reuchlinist and the

Lutheran cause, as it were, the Talmud and the Reformation, were merged

into each other. So great a change had taken place that the electors

assembled to elect an emperor declared against the obscurantists of

Cologne and in favor of Reuchlin.

Instead of condemning the Talmud, Pope Leo X encouraged the printing

of the work. Thus, through a movement incomprehensible to all its

contemporaries, the unexpected took place: Reuchlin was justified, and

the Talmud was justified, and in a measure favored by the pope. Indeed,

Daniel Bomberg, a rich Christian publisher in Antwerp, in the same year

brought out a complete edition of the Babylonian Talmud in twelve folio

volumes, the model of all later editions.

A clever pantomime, which first appeared in Latin or French, and was

soon translated into German, portrays Reuchlin as the originator of the

great and growing movement. It represents a doctor, on whose back may

be read the name of Capnion (Reuchlin), throwing a bundle of straight

and crooked sticks on the stage, and then going away. Another figure

(Erasmus), having in vain endeavored to put the bundle in order, shakes

his head over the chaos, and disappears. Hutten also comes in. Luther

appears in monk's dress, and with a firebrand kindles the crooked

twigs. Another figure, in imperial robes, strikes with its sword the

spreading fire, only giving it wider play. At length comes the pope,

who, wishing to extinguish the fire, seizes a vessel, and pours the oil

in it upon the flames, then clasps his hands on his head, while the

bright flames shoot up never again to be stifled. Pfefferkorn and the

Talmud should not have been missing in this dumb show, for they were

the fuse that started the conflagration.

The situation was such that the slightest breath made the flames

leap up. Luther had gained firmness and courage at the imperial diet

of Worms, and by his speech, revealing fearlessness, completed the

rupture with the papacy. Although urged by his own bigotry, besieged

by obscurantists and exhorted by princes, Emperor Charles was disposed

to condemn the reformer to the stake as a heretic, yet partly from

consideration for Frederick, elector of Saxony, partly from policy,

hoping thereby to hold the pope in check, he only declared him an

exile a month later. Meanwhile Luther was already on his Patmos, the

Wartburg, hidden and protected. Whilst in solitude he worked at a

German translation of the Bible, ultra-reformers overthrew church

regulations, altered the church services, did away with masses and

priestly decoration, abolished the vows of monks, and introduced

the marriage of priests--that is to say, the priests publicly

acknowledged their former secret mistresses as their wives. The time

was ripe for the Reformation, and it took firm hold of North Germany,

Denmark and Sweden, extending to Prussia, Poland, and, on the other

hand, to France and even Spain, the country of darkest and most bigoted

ecclesiasticism and the home of persecution. Zwingli, the reformer of

Switzerland, after much wavering, declared himself against the papacy;

so, in that country, too, where there was more freedom of action than

in submissive Germany, the new church service was introduced, the

marriage of priests permitted, pictures and crucifixes destroyed,

and monasteries done away with. A new order of things had set in;

all-powerful Rome stood impotent before the new spirit. The enthusiasm

of the Anabaptists began to arouse public feeling and transform all

relations of life.

At first, Luther's Reformation affected the Jews but slightly.

Catholics and innovators in every town, especially in Germany, were so

occupied with fighting each other, that they had no leisure for the

persecution of Jews; so there came a pause. Luther, whose voice even

then was more powerful than that of the princes, at first defended them

from numerous accusations. In his plain-spoken and fervent way, he said:

"This rage (against the Jews) is still defended by some silly

theologians, and advocated by them; they declare insolently

that the Jews are the servants of the Christians, and subject

to the emperor. I beg you to tell me who will join our

religion, be he the most amiable and patient of men, when he

sees that they are treated so cruelly and inimically, and not

only in an unchristian way, but even brutally. Most of the

Passion preachers (in Holy Week) do nothing but make the sin

committed by Jews against Christ heavier and greater, and

embitter the hearts of believers against them."

In one of his works, the title of which, calculated to startle their

antagonists, ran, "Jesus was born a Jew," Luther expressed himself

against the indelible hatred of the Jews still more sharply:

"Those fools, the papists, bishops, sophists and monks, have

hitherto so dealt with Jews, that every good Christian would

rather have been a Jew. And if I had been a Jew, and seen such

stupidity and such blockheads reign in the Christian Church,

I would rather have been a pig than a Christian. They have

treated the Jews as if they were dogs, not men; they have done

nothing but revile them. They are blood-relations of our Lord;

therefore, if it were proper to boast of flesh and blood, the

Jews belong to Christ more than we. I beg, therefore, my dear

papists, if you become tired of abusing me as a heretic, that

you begin to revile me as a Jew."

"Therefore, it is my advice," continued Luther, "that we treat

them kindly. Now that we drive them by force, treating them

deceitfully and ignominiously, saying that they must have

Christian blood to wash away the Jewish stain, and I know not

what more nonsense,--prohibiting them from working amongst

us, from living and having social intercourse with us, forcing

them to be usurers, how can we expect them to come to us? If we

would help them, so must we exercise, not the law of the pope,

but that of Christian love--show them a friendly spirit,

permit them to live and to work, so that they may have cause

and means to be with us and amongst us."

These were words which the Jews had not heard for a thousand years.

They show unmistakable traces of Reuchlin's mild intercession in their

favor. Many hot-headed Jews saw in Luther's opposition to the papacy

the extinction of Christianity and the triumph of Judaism. Three

learned Jews went to Luther, and tried to convert him. Enthusiastic

feelings were aroused among the Jews at this unexpected revulsion,

especially at the blow dealt the papacy and the idolatrous worship of

images and relics; the boldest hopes were entertained of the speedy

downfall of Rome, and the approaching redemption by the Messiah.

But the Jewish religion gained much more by the Reformation than the

Jewish race. Despised before, it became fashionable, so to say, in the

early days of the Reformation. Reuchlin had expressed the modest wish

that at the few German universities a professor of the Hebrew language

might be appointed. Through his zeal for Hebrew (he had published,

shortly before his death, a work on Hebrew accents and prosody), and

through the increasing conviction that without this knowledge the Bible

must remain a sealed book, princes and universities sought teachers,

and instituted Hebrew professorships not only in Germany and Italy, but

also in France and Poland. The light, graceful, classic muse, which had

withdrawn many hearts from the church, was more and more neglected, and

the serious Hebrew mother was sought out instead. Young and old did not

hesitate to seek Jews from whom to learn Hebrew. A friendly connection

was formed between Jewish masters and Christian pupils, to the intense

vexation of bigots on both sides; and many prejudices died out by these

means. The principal teacher of the Christians was a grammarian of

German descent, Elias Levita (born 1468, died 1549). This poor man,

who had to struggle for his daily bread, laid the foundation of the

knowledge of the Hebrew language. The plundering of Padua--where,

perhaps, he was born--brought him, by way of Venice, to Rome, where

Cardinal Egidio de Viterbo, wishing to advance in his grammatical and

Kabbalistic studies, took him into his house, supporting him and his

family for more than ten years. Not only this church dignitary, but

many other Christians of high position sat at Levita's feet. One was

George de Selve, bishop of Lavour, the French ambassador, as learned

as he was statesmanlike. Against the reproach of some bigoted rabbis,

Levita defended himself by the remark that his Christian pupils all

were friends of the Jews, and tried to promote their welfare. On the

inducement of his patron, Egidio, he worked at a Hebrew grammar in the

Hebrew language, the greater part of which was translated into Latin

by Reuchlin's pupil, Sebastian Münster. Elias Levita had not a mind of

great depth, nor did he propound a new theory on the structure of the

Hebrew language. He rigorously adhered to the grammatical system of the

Kimchis, because he did not know their predecessors. His usefulness

consisted in his command over the whole Scriptural vocabulary, his

pedagogic skill, and his gift of vivid presentation. Beyond the

elements he did not go, but they perfectly satisfied the wants of

the time. Only one deviation did Levita make from the beaten track.

Against the firm belief of the time that the accents and the vowel

signs in the Hebrew Bible were of ancient origin, having been revealed

on Mount Sinai, or, at all events, introduced by Ezra, he maintained

that they had not been known even at the time of the Talmud, because

they had been superfluous when Hebrew was a living language. It can

easily be imagined what a storm this opinion raised. It at once upset

all preconceived notions. The bigots raised a cry against him as though

he had by his assertion disowned Judaism. Elias Levita was, therefore,

little liked by his brother Jews, and associated more with learned

Christians, which brought much blame from the over-pious, and produced

evil consequences for his descendants.

He was not the only teacher of the Hebrew language and literature

to Christians. As before him, Obadiah Sforno had given Reuchlin

instruction in Hebrew, so at the same time as Levita, Jacob Mantino and

Abraham de Balmes were engaged in instructing Christians.

Throughout Christendom there was a desire to know the Hebrew language.

The printers reckoned on such good sales that in several places in

Italy and Germany, even where there were no Jews, new and old Hebrew

grammatical writings were published. Everyone wished to know Hebrew and

to understand the Hebrew language and literature. Some years before the

representatives of the church had considered the knowledge of Hebrew

superfluous, or even a pernicious evil touching on heresy; but through

the Reformation it became a necessary branch of divinity. Luther

himself learnt Hebrew to be able to penetrate the meaning of the Bible.

The change of mind was most evident in France. The Paris university,

the leader of thought, had by a majority condemned Reuchlin's

"Augenspiegel" in favor of the Talmud and Hebrew studies; scarcely six

years later there was a professorship and a printing press for Hebrew,

and the confessor of King Louis, William Haquinet Petit, though a

Dominican, the one whose slander had brought about the condemnation of

Reuchlin's work, appeared as a patron of Hebrew literature.

At his advice King Francis I invited the bishop of Corsica, Augustin

Justiniani, a man well read in Hebrew literature, to come to France.

This young king felt, or at least showed, interest in learning and also

in the study of Hebrew. He invited Elias Levita to come to France, and

fill the professorship of Hebrew there, probably at the instigation

of his admirer, De Selve. One must take into consideration what this

signified at that time. In France proper, for more than a century,

no Jew had been permitted to dwell, nor even to make a passing stay,

and now a Jew was invited, not merely to reside there, but to accept

an honorable post and instruct Christians. What heresy! Elias Levita,

however, declined this flattering proposal; he would not have felt at

ease there as the only Jew, and to urge the admission of Jews into

France was not in conformity with his character. Justiniani undertook

the task of introducing the study of Hebrew into France.

At the University of Rheims the French students made attempts to

speak Hebrew. As there were not sufficient grammars, Justiniani

had the wretched Hebrew grammar of Moses Kimchi printed. Yet more

remarkable is it that in Paris, where three hundred years previously

the Jewish orthodox party, with the help of the Dominicans, had burnt

Maimuni's religious philosophical work, "Guide of the Perplexed," the

Dominican Justiniani now caused a Latin translation of the same to

be published (1520). Naturally, the Christian teachers of the Hebrew

language remained dependent on their Jewish masters; they could not

take a single step without them. Paulus Fagius, a reforming priest

and disciple of Reuchlin, wishing to establish a Hebrew press in

Isny, called upon Elias Levita to go there. This offer was accepted,

for Levita was in difficulties, and could find no publisher for his

Chaldean and Rabbinical dictionaries. Paulus Fagius was particularly

pleased with these works, because they appeared to him to offer the key

to the Kabbala, so much sought for by Christian scholars.

Through the agitation by Reuchlin and Luther the neglected science of

the Bible was to a certain extent cultivated. Judaism and Christianity

are both founded on the Sacred Writings, yet they were quite strange

to the followers of both religions. The glorious memorial of a

much favored time was so shrouded and surrounded with a network of

senseless explanations, so disfigured by these accessories, that its

full value was completely unknown. Because everything was looked for

in, and imported into, the Holy Scriptures, the true meaning was not

discovered. To the Christian laity the Bible had been inaccessible for

a long time, because the papacy, with instinctive fear, had forbidden

its translation into the vernacular. So the faithful knew only

fragments or isolated texts, and, owing to distorted interpretations,

these not always correctly. Even the clergy were not familiar

therewith, for they were acquainted only with the Roman Catholic

Latin version, and in this the fundamental truths of the Bible were

confused by perversions and errors. It was, therefore, a work of great

importance that occupied Luther in his solitude on the Wartburg--the

translation of the Bible, the Old and New Testaments, into German.

For this purpose Luther had to learn Hebrew, and seek information

from Jews. To his contemporaries it seemed as if God's Word had for

the first time been revealed; this clear voice they had never before

heard. A breath of fresh air was wafted on men, when the ramparts were

broken down that had so long held its spirit imprisoned. Classical

antiquity had improved the taste of a small circle. Hebrew antiquity

rejuvenated the whole generation, once more infusing love of simplicity

and naturalness. The Bible was soon translated into all European

languages; the Catholics themselves were obliged to disregard the papal

command, and render it into intelligible language for the people's use.

The Jews also felt the want of the Holy Scripture in the vernacular. A

translation into Spanish was made in Ferrara, by a Marrano, Duarte de

Pinel, who had escaped from Portugal, and called himself Abraham Usque

as a Jew.

The demand for Hebrew Bibles was so great that Daniel Bomberg

undertook the great work of publishing the Old Testament, with the

commentaries of Rashi, Ibn-Ezra, Kimchi, Gersonides, and others. The

sale of this rabbinical Bible was so rapid that new editions were

continually appearing.