THE JEWS IN EUROPE.
Growth of the Jews in Europe--The Communities in
Constantinople and Italy--Theodoric--Isidore of Seville--
Pope Gregory I.--The Jews of France--Chilperic and Dagobert
--Avitus--The Jews in Spain--Controversies between Jews
and Christians.
510-640 C. E.
The Jews of Europe had no history, in the proper sense of the word,
until a conjunction of fortunate circumstances enabled them to develop
their powers, and to produce certain works whereby they wrested the
pre-eminence from their brethren in the East. Until then there are
only chronicles of martyrdom at the hands of the victorious Church,
monotonously repeated with but little variation in all countries.
"Dispersed and scattered throughout the world," says a celebrated
author of this period, "the Jews, though subject to the Roman yoke,
nevertheless live in accordance with their own laws." The only
point of interest is the manner in which the Jews settled in the
European states, and lived unmolested, in friendly intercourse with
their neighbors, until Christianity gradually encompassed them, and
deprived them of the very breath of life. In the Byzantine empire,
in Ostrogothic Italy, in Frankish and Burgundian Gaul, in Visigothic
Spain, everywhere we are confronted with the same phenomena. The
people, even the barons and the princes, were entirely free from
intolerance, felt no antipathy against the Jews, and associated with
them without prejudice; to the higher clergy, however, the prosperity
and comfort of the Jews appeared as a humiliation of Christianity. They
desired the fulfillment of the curse which the founder of Christianity
is said to have pronounced on the Jewish nation, and every anti-Jewish,
narrow-minded thought which the fathers of the Church had uttered
against them was to be literally fulfilled by embittering their life.
At the councils and synods, the Jewish question occupied the clerical
delegates quite as fully as dogmatic controversies and the prevailing
immorality, which was continually gaining ground among the clergy and
the laity, in spite, or perhaps in consequence of, ecclesiastical
severity and increased austerity in observances.
It is remarkable, however, that the Roman bishops, the recognized
champions of Christianity, treated the Jews with the utmost toleration
and liberality. The occupants of the Papal throne shielded the Jews,
and exhorted the clergy and the princes against the use of force in
converting them to Christianity. This liberality was in truth an
inconsistency, for the Church, following the lines of development
prescribed by the Council of Nice, had to be exclusive, and therefore
hard-hearted and given to persecution. It could only say to Jew,
Samaritan, and heretic: "Believe as I believe, or die," the sword
supplying the lack of argument. But who would not prefer the benevolent
inconsistency of Gregory the Holy to the terrible consistency of
the bloodthirsty kings Sisebut and Dagobert, who, ecclesiastically
speaking, were more Catholic than the Pope? But the toleration of even
the most liberal of the bishops was not of much consequence. They
merely refrained from proselytizing by means of threats of banishment
or death, because they were convinced that in this manner the Church
would be peopled with false Christians, who would curse it in their
inmost hearts. But they did not hesitate to fetter and harass the
Jews, and to place them next to the serfs in the scale of society.
This course appeared absolutely just and pious to almost all the
representatives of Christianity during the centuries of barbarism.
Those nations, however, which were baptized in the Arian creed showed
less intolerance of the Jews. The more Arianism was driven out of
Europe, and the more it gave way before the Catholic religion, the more
the Jews were harassed by proselytizing zeal. Their valiant resistance
continually incited fresh attacks. Their heroic constancy in the face
of permanent degradation is, therefore, a noble trait which history
ought not to conceal. Nor were the Jews devoid of all knowledge in
those illiterate times. They were certainly better acquainted with the
records of their religion than the inferior clergy, for the latter were
not capable of reading their missal.
Our survey of the settlement of the Jews in Europe begins, on our way
from Asia, with the Byzantine empire. They lived in its cities before
Christianity had begun its world-conquest. In Constantinople the Jewish
community inhabited a separate quarter, called the brass-market, where
there was also a large synagogue, from which they were, however,
expelled by one of the emperors, Theodosius II or Justinus II, and the
synagogue was converted into the "Church of the Mother of God."
The holy vessels of the ruined Temple, after having been transported
from place to place, had at last been deposited at Carthage, where
they remained for nearly a century. It was with pain that the Jews of
the Byzantine capital witnessed their removal to Constantinople by
Belisarius, the conqueror of the empire of the Vandals. The Jewish
trophies were displayed in triumph along with Gelimer, the Prince
of the Vandals and grandson of Genseric, and the treasures of that
unfortunate monarch. A certain Jew, filled with profound grief on
seeing the living memorials of Judæa's former greatness in the hands
of her enemies, remarked to a courtier that it was not advisable to
deposit them in the imperial palace, for they might bring misfortune
in their train. They had brought misfortune to Rome, which had been
pillaged by Genseric, and they had brought down adversity upon his
successor, Gelimer, and his capital. It would therefore be better to
remove these holy relics to Jerusalem, where they had been wrought by
King Solomon. No sooner had the Emperor Justinian been informed of this
observation than his superstitious mind began to be fearful of the
consequences, and he accordingly removed the Temple vessels in haste to
Jerusalem, where they were deposited in a church.
In Greece, Macedonia, and Illyria the Jews had been settled a long
time, and although the Christian emperors persecuted them, and laid
them under considerable restraint, they nevertheless allowed them
autonomy in communal affairs, and the application of their own
system of jurisprudence in civil suits. Every community had a Jewish
overseer (ephoros), who had the control of the market prices, weights
and measures. In Italy the Jews are known to have been domiciled as
early as the time of the Republic, and to have been in enjoyment of
full political rights until these were curtailed by the Christian
emperors. They probably looked with excusable pleasure on the fall of
Rome, and exulted to see the ruling city of the world become the prey
of the barbarians and the mockery of the whole world, and felt that
the lamentation over Jerusalem could be literally applied to Rome as
well: "She that was great among the nations, and princess among the
provinces, how is she become tributary?" After the Gepidæ and the
Heruli, by whom Rome had been temporarily enslaved, came the Goths, who
threw the name of Rome into oblivion by founding the Ostrogothic empire
under Theodoric (Dioterich) of the house of the Amali.
The Jews also had to bear a share of the calamities which the savage
swarms of barbarian tribes brought upon the Roman world. With the
adoption of Christianity the Germanic and Sclavonic hordes learnt also
intolerance from the Romans, their teachers, and in their rude minds
it assumed even more hateful forms. The Jewish preachers of this time
had to complain of new foes. "See, O Lord, how many are mine enemies!
If Esau (Rome) hateth Jacob," thus the Agadists expressed themselves,
"he hath at least some specious ground, for he was robbed of his
birthright; but what hath Israel done to the barbarians and the Goths?"
But of what could the barbarians rob the Jews? They had long since
forfeited their political independence, and their spiritual fortune was
secure against destruction. Rome, however, was robbed by the barbarians
of its crown, and clothed with the dress of the slave.
Rome did not remain the political center of Italy, Ravenna, in
alternation with Verona, being the residence of the Ostrogothic
emperors. In these cities, as also in Rome, Milan, and Genoa, Jewish
communities existed at this period. The Jews were also well represented
in Lower Italy, especially in the beautiful town of Naples, in Palermo,
Messina, and Agrigentum, on the island of Sicily, and in Sardinia. In
Palermo there lived Jewish families of ancient nobility, who bore the
name of Nasas (Nassi). The laws governing the Italian Jews were the
decrees of Theodosius, which gave them autonomy in the management of
the internal affairs of their communities, but forbade the building of
new synagogues, the assumption of judicial offices and military rank,
and the possession of Christian slaves. The last point frequently led
to friction between the clergy and the Jews. The repeated invasions of
the barbarian tribes and the numerous wars had increased the number of
prisoners, and the Jews carried on a brisk trade in slaves, although
they were not the only slave merchants. The depopulated cities and
the desolate fields rendered the slave-market a necessity. Laborers
were thus obtained for agriculture and the business of daily life.
The Jewish slave-owners made a practice of converting their slaves to
Judaism, partly because there was a Talmudical ordinance which directed
that they should either be circumcised, or, if they resisted, be sold
again, and partly in order not to be hindered in the exercise of
religious duties by the presence of foreign elements in the house. The
slaves themselves preferred to remain with their Jewish masters, who,
with few exceptions, treated them humanely, regarded them as members of
the family, and shared their joys and sorrows.
Although the restrictions of the Theodosian code had the force of law,
it may be questioned whether they were really carried into effect.
The bishops of the apostolic see, who had learnt political shrewdness
from the Roman statesmen, were too prudent to be fanatic. The Pope
Gelasius had a friend, a Jew of Telesina, who bore the title of "the
most illustrious" (clarissimus), and at his intercession his relative
Antoninus was warmly recommended by the Pope to the bishop Secundinus.
A charge having been brought against a Jew named Basilius, of selling
Christian slaves from Gaul, he pleaded that he only sold heathen
slaves, and that it was impossible to prevent a few Christians from
being included among a number of other slaves; this excuse was accepted
by Pope Gelasius.
When Italy became Ostrogothic under Theodoric, the Jews of that
country were placed in a peculiar position. Hostile outbreaks were not
infrequent during this reign, but at bottom they were not directed
against the Jews, but against this hated Arian monarch. Theodoric,
although an Arian, was by no means favorably disposed towards the
Jews, whose conversion he desired. On a certain occasion, he had his
counselor and minister Cassiodorus write the following to the community
of Milan: "Why dost thou seek temporal peace, O Judah, when because
of thine obduracy thou art unable to find eternal peace?" The Jews of
Genoa having requested permission to put their synagogue into better
repair, Theodoric sent them the following reply: "Why do you desire
that which you should avoid? We accord you, indeed, the permission you
request, but we blame the wish, which is tainted with error. We cannot
command religion, however, nor compel any one to believe contrary to
his conscience." He permitted the Jews neither to erect new synagogues,
nor to decorate old ones, but simply allowed them to repair such as
were falling into decay.
The Ostrogothic ruler was zealous in preserving internal peace and
in upholding the laws, and accordingly he was just to the Jews
whenever any undeserved injury was inflicted upon them. The Catholics
entertained a secret hate of the Arians, and with the deepest
resentment saw Arianism on the throne, while the Catholic Church was
merely magnanimously tolerated: they seized upon every opportunity
of thwarting Theodoric, when it could be done with impunity. On one
occasion, when a few slaves rose against their Jewish masters in
Rome, the mob gathered, burnt the synagogue, ill-treated the Jews,
and plundered their property, in order to laugh Theodoric's edicts to
scorn. Theodoric, having been informed of this, bitterly reproached
the Roman Senate, which was now but the shadow of its former self, for
permitting such misconduct, and imperiously charged it to discover
the culprits and oblige them to make compensation for the damage they
had done. As the leaders of the riot were not discovered, Theodoric
condemned the Roman commune to make compensation. This severity roused
the entire Catholic Church against him.
It is creditable to the Italian Jews of this period that, in spite
of the general deterioration and demoralization, the political and
ecclesiastical literature of the times imputes no other crimes to
them than obduracy and unbelief. Their religion shielded them from
the prevailing wickedness. Cassiodorus, who became a monk after
resigning all his dignities, composed among other works a homiletic
exposition of the Psalms, in which he makes frequent reference to the
Jews, apostrophizing them, and endeavoring to convert them. It is
characteristic of this period that Cassiodorus,--who, besides Boëthius,
was the only notability of the sixth century possessing a certain
philosophic culture--designated the Jews by the most opprobrious names.
It would be easy to compile a dictionary of abusive words from his
writings; he called them "scorpions and lions," "wild asses," "dogs and
unicorns."
In spite of the antipathy of the leaders of opinion, the Jews of
Italy were happy in comparison with their brethren of the Byzantine
empire. Theodoric's successors, his beautiful and accomplished daughter
Amalasuntha, and her husband and murderer Theodatus, a weakling with
philosophical pretensions, followed his principles. The Jews supported
King Theodatus with tenacious fidelity, even when he himself had given
up all hope. The Jews of Naples risked their lives rather than come
under Justinian's scourge. Belisarius, the conqueror of the Vandal
empire, the laurel-crowned hero, trembled at Justinian's wrath, and
allowed himself to be used as the blind tool of the latter's tyranny;
he had already subjugated the whole of Sicily and the southern
extremity of the Italian peninsula, and now was swiftly approaching
Naples, the largest and most beautiful city of Lower Italy. On his
summons to the inhabitants to surrender, the Neapolitans divided into
two factions. But even the war party was not disposed to sacrifice
itself for the Ostrogoths, who were hated in Italy. The Jews alone,
and two lawyers, Pastor and Asclepiadotus, who had been raised to fame
through the influence of the Ostrogothic kings, opposed the surrender
of the city to the Byzantine general. The Jews, who were wealthy and
patriotic, offered their lives and their fortunes for the defense of
the city. In order to allay the fear of scarcity of provisions, they
promised to supply Naples with all necessaries during the siege. The
Jews, unaided, defended that part of the city which was nearest the
sea, and fought with such bravery, that the enemy did not venture to
direct their attacks against that quarter. A contemporary historian
(Procopius) has raised a glorious monument to the heroic bravery of the
Jews of Naples.
Having one night, by means of treachery, penetrated into the city,
the enemy almost made themselves masters of it (536), but the Jews,
with the courage of lions, still continued the struggle. It was only
at break of day, when the enemy had overwhelmed them with numbers,
and many of their own side had been killed, that the Jews quitted
their posts. It is not related how the surviving Jewish combatants
fared--certainly no better than their confederates Asclepiadotus and
Pastor, who fell victims to the fury of the people. Now occurred that
which the Italian Jews had anticipated with horror; they came under the
rule of the Emperor Justinian, whose anti-Jewish ideas place him in a
class with Hadrian, Constantine, and Firuz. Italy, ruler of the world,
sank to the rank of a province (Exarchate) of the Byzantine empire, and
the Jews of Italy trembled before the exarch of Ravenna.
This situation, however, did not continue long. Justinian's successors
were obliged to abandon a great part of Italy forever to the powerful
and uncouth Lombards (589), who, half heathen, half Arian, troubled
themselves but little about the Jews. At all events there are no
exceptional laws for the Jews to be met with in the Longobard code.
Even when the Lombards embraced the Catholic faith, the position of
the Jews in Italy remained bearable. The heads of the Catholic Church,
the Popes, were free from extreme intolerance. Gregory I (590-604),
called the Great and the Holy, who laid the foundation of the power of
Catholicism, gave utterance to the principle that the Jews should be
converted only by means of gentle persuasion and not by violence. He
conscientiously maintained their rights of Roman citizenship, which
had been recognized by various emperors. In the territory which was
subject to the papal sway in Rome, Lower Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia,
he steadfastly persisted in this course, in the face of the fanatical
bishops, who regarded the oppression of the Jews as a pious work.
His pastoral letters are full of earnest exhortations, such as the
following: "We forbid you to molest the Jews or to lay upon them
restrictions not imposed by the established laws; we further permit
them to live as Romans and to dispose of their property as they will;
we only prohibit them from owning Christian slaves."
But greatly as Gregory abhorred the forcible conversion of the Jews,
he exerted himself to win them for the Church by other means. He did
not hesitate to make an appeal to cupidity, and remitted a portion of
the land-tax to such of the Jewish farmers and peasants as embraced
Christianity. He did not, indeed, deceive himself with the belief that
the converts who were obtained in this manner were loyal Christians;
he counted, however, upon their descendants. "If we do not gain them
over," he wrote, "we at least gain their children." Having heard that a
Jew named Nasas had erected an altar to Elijah (probably a synagogue
known by this name) in the island of Sicily, and that Christians met
there to celebrate divine service, Gregory commanded the prefect
Libertinus to raze the building, and to inflict corporal punishment
on Nasas for his offense. Gregory vigorously persecuted such of the
Jews as purchased or possessed Christian slaves. In the Frankish
empire, where fanaticism had not yet made its way, the Jews were not
forbidden to carry on the slave trade. Gregory was indignant at this,
and wrote to King Theodoric (Dieterich) of Burgundy, Theodebert, king
of Austrasia, and also to Queen Brunhilde, expressing his astonishment
that they allowed the Jews to possess Christian slaves. He exhorted
them with great warmth to remove this evil, and to free the true
believers from the power of their enemy. Reccared, the king of the
Visigoths, who submitted to the papal see, was flattered beyond measure
by Gregory for promulgating an edict of intolerance.
In the Byzantine empire and in Italy, Christianity had from the very
first shown more or less hostility to Judaism, but in the west of
Europe, in France and Spain, where the Church established itself
with difficulty, the situation of the Jews assumed a different and
much more favorable aspect. The invasions of the barbarians had
completely changed the social order existing in these countries.
Roman institutions, both political and ecclesiastical, were nearly
effaced, and the polity of the empires established by heathen or half
Christianized nations was not built up on the basis of Church law. It
was a long while before Catholicism gained a firm footing in the west
of Europe, and the Jews who had settled there enjoyed undisturbed peace
until the victorious Church gained the upper hand.
The immigration of the Jews into these important and wealthy provinces
took place probably as early as the time of the Republic or of
Cæsar. The Jewish merchants whose business pursuits brought them
from Alexandria or Asia Minor to Rome and Italy, the Jewish warriors
whom the emperors Vespasian and Titus, the conquerors of Judæa, had
dispersed as prisoners throughout the Roman provinces, found their way
voluntarily or involuntarily into Gaul and Iberia. The presence of the
Jews in the west of Europe is a certain fact only since the second
century.
The Gallic Jews, whose first settlement was in the district of Arles,
enjoyed the full rights of Roman citizenship, whether they arrived in
Gaul as merchants or as fugitives, with the peddler's pack or in the
garb of slaves; they were treated as Romans also by the Frankish and
Burgundian conquerors. The most ancient legislation of the Franks and
Burgundians did not consider the Jews as a distinct race, subject to
peculiar laws. In the Frankish kingdom founded by Clovis, the Jews
dwelt in Auvergne (Arverna), in Carcassonne, Arles, Orleans, and as far
north as Paris and Belgium. Numbers of them resided in the old Greek
port of Marseilles, and in Béziers (Biterræ), and so many dwelt in the
province of Narbonne that a mountain near the city of that name was
called _Mons Judaicus_. The territory of Narbonne belonged for a long
time to Visigothic Spain, and for this reason the Jewish history of
this district reflects all the vicissitudes of the Jews on the further
side of the Pyrenees.
The Jews of the Frankish and Burgundian kingdoms carried on
agriculture, trade, and commerce without restraint; they navigated the
seas and rivers in their own ships. They also practised medicine, and
the advice of the Jewish physicians was sought even by the clergy, who
probably did not care to rely entirely on the miraculous healing powers
of the saints and of relics. They were also skilled in the use of the
weapons of war, and took an active part in the battles between Clovis
and Theodoric's generals before Arles (508).
Besides their Biblical names, the Jews of Gaul bore the appellations
which were common in the country, such as Armentarius, Gozolas,
Priscus, or Siderius. They lived on the best of terms with the people
of the country, and intermarriages even occurred between Jews and
Christians. The Christian clergy did not scruple to eat at Jewish
tables, and in turn often entertained the Jews.
The higher ecclesiastics, however, took umbrage, because the Jews
refused, at Christian banquets, to eat of certain dishes, which the
precepts of their religion forbade them to enjoy. For this reason
the council of Vannes (465) prohibited the clergy from taking part
in Jewish banquets, "because they considered it undignified that
Christians should eat the viands of the Jews, while the latter refused
to eat of Christian dishes, thus making it appear as though the clergy
were inferior to the Jews." But this decision of the council was of
no avail; canonical severity was powerless to check this friendly
intercourse. It became necessary to re-enact this ecclesiastical
prohibition several times. Thus, in spite of their separation from
Judæa and Babylonia, the centers of Judaism, the Jews of Gaul lived in
strict accordance with the precepts of their religion. Wherever they
settled they built their synagogues, and constituted their communities
in exact agreement with the directions of the Talmud.
The friendly relations existing between the Jews and the inhabitants of
Gaul underwent no change even when the country, by reason of Clovis'
conversion, came under the rule of the Catholic Church. Clovis was,
indeed, a bloodthirsty butcher, but not a fanatic. The clergy were
under obligations to him, because he had abandoned heathenism for
Christianity, and he did not need to yield to them in any way. As he
left an hereditary kingdom to his successors, they were not placed in
painful situations and dilemmas, as were the elective kings of the
Visigoths, and were not obliged to make concessions or sacrifices to
the Church. Among the Franks, therefore, heathen customs remained
long in vogue, and the Jews were permitted to live according to their
religion without molestation. It is true that many ecclesiastical
fanatics exerted themselves to convert the Jews by every means in their
power, even using ill-treatment, and many severe resolutions were
passed at their councils. But these persecutions remained isolated,
even when they were countenanced by one or another of the zealous
kings. Burgundy, however, ever since King Sigismund had embraced the
Catholic faith (516), and felt bound to elevate oppression of the
Arians and the Jews into the policy of the state, was more hostile to
the Jews than the rest of France. It was this king who first raised the
barrier between Jews and Christians. He confirmed the decision of the
council of Epaone, held under the presidency of the bloodthirsty bishop
Avitus, forbidding even laymen to take part in Jewish banquets (517).
A spirit of hostility to the Jews gradually spread from Burgundy over
the Frankish countries. As early as the third and fourth councils
at Orleans (538 and 545), severe enactments were passed against
them. Not only were the Christians commanded not to take part in
Jewish banquets, and the Jews forbidden to make proselytes, but the
latter were even prohibited from appearing in the streets and public
squares during Easter, because "their appearance was an insult to
Christianity." Childebert I of Paris embodied this last point in his
constitution (554), and thus exalted the intolerance of the clergy
into a law of the state. This feeling of hostility, however, was not
prevalent among Childebert's contemporaries. The Frankish empire was
divided among several monarchs, who, although related, mortally hated
one another; this division had the effect of confining intolerant
practices to single provinces. Even ecclesiastical dignitaries of
high rank continued to maintain friendly intercourse with the Jews,
without fearing any danger to the Church. But fanaticism is naturally
contagious; when it has once gained a firm footing in a country, it
soon obtains ascendancy over all minds, and overcomes all scruples. In
the Frankish empire the persecution of the Jews proceeded from a man
who may be regarded as the very incarnation of Jew-hatred. This was
Avitus, Bishop of Arverna, whose see was at Clermont; what Cyril had
been to the Jews of Alexandria, Avitus was to the Jews of Gaul.
The Jewish population of his bishopric was a thorn in his side, and he
accordingly roused the members of his flock against it. Again and again
he exhorted the Jews of Clermont to become converts, but his sermons
meeting with no response, he incited the mob to attack the synagogues,
and raze them to the ground. But even this did not content the fanatic;
he offered the Jews the choice between presenting themselves for
baptism and quitting the city. Only one Jew received baptism, thus
making himself an object of abhorrence to the whole community. As he
was going through the streets at Pentecost in his white baptismal robe,
he was sprinkled with rancid oil by a Jew. This seemed a challenge to
the fanatic mob, and they fell upon the Jews. The latter retreated to
their houses, where they were attacked, and many of them killed. The
sight of blood caused the faint hearts to waver, and five hundred of
the Jews besought Bishop Avitus to accord them the favor of baptism,
and implored him to put an end to the massacre at once. Such of them
as remained true to their religion fled to Marseilles (576). The
Christian population celebrated the day of the baptism of the five
hundred with wild rejoicing, as though the cross might pride itself on
a victory which had been won by the sword. The news of the occurrence
in Clermont caused great joy among the fanatics. Bishop Gregory of
Tours invited the pious poet Venantius Fortunatus to celebrate in
song the achievement of Avitus. But the Latin verses of this poet,
who had emigrated to France from Italy, instead of glorifying Avitus,
raised a monument of shame to his memory. They indicate quite clearly
that the Jews of Clermont suffered innocently, and became converts
to Christianity out of sheer desperation. Thus the effects of the
ever-growing fanaticism made themselves felt in many parts of France.
The Council of Mâcon (581) adopted several resolutions which aimed
at assigning an inferior position in society to the Jews. They were
neither to officiate as judges nor to be allowed to become tax-farmers,
"lest the Christian population appear to be subjected to them." The
Jews were further obliged to show profound reverence to the Christian
priests, and were to seat themselves in their presence only by express
permission. All who transgressed this law were to be severely punished.
The edict forbidding the Jews to appear in public during Easter was
re-enacted by this council. Even King Chilperic, although he bore no
particular good-will to the Catholic clergy, emulated the example set
by Avitus. He also compelled the Jews of his empire to receive baptism,
and himself stood sponsor to the Jewish neophytes at the baptismal
font. But he was content with the mere appearance of conversion, and
offered no opposition to the Jews, although they continued to celebrate
the Sabbath and to observe the laws of Judaism.
The later Merovingian kings became more and more bigoted, and their
hatred of the Jews consequently increased. Clotaire II, on whom
had devolved the rule of the entire Frankish empire (613), was a
matricide, but was nevertheless considered a model of religious piety.
He sanctioned the decisions of the Council of Paris, which forbade the
Jews to hold magisterial power or to take military service (615). His
son Dagobert must be counted among the most anti-Jewish monarchs in the
whole history of the world. Many thousands of Jewish fugitives who had
fled to the Frankish empire to escape from the fanaticism of Sisebut,
king of the Visigoths, roused the jealousy of this sensual monarch, who
was ashamed of being considered inferior to his Visigothic contemporary
and of manifesting less religious zeal. He therefore issued a decree,
wherein he declared that the entire Jewish population of the Frankish
empire must either embrace Christianity before a certain day, or be
treated as enemies and be put to death (about 629).
The more the authority of the Merovingian _fainéants_, as they have
been called, declined, and the more the power of the politic and
cautious stewards, Pepin's descendants, rose, the greater was the
exemption from persecution and torture enjoyed by the Jews. The
predecessors of Charlemagne seem to have felt that the Jews were a
useful class of men, whose activity and intellectual capabilities could
not but be advantageous to the state. The slave trade alone remained a
standing subject of legislation in the Councils; but in spite of their
zeal they were unable to abolish the traffic in human beings, because
their condemnation applied to only one phase of the trade.
The Jews of Germany are to be regarded merely as colonies of the
Frankish Jews, and such of them as lived in Austrasia, a province
subject to the Merovingian kings, shared the same fate as their
brethren in France. According to a chronicle, the most ancient Jews
in the Rhine district are said to have been the descendants of the
legionaries who took part in the destruction of the Temple. From the
vast horde of Jewish prisoners, the Vangioni had chosen the most
beautiful women, had brought them back to their stations on the shores
of the Rhine and the Main, and had compelled them to minister to the
satisfaction of their desires. The children thus begotten of Jewish and
Germanic parents were brought up by their mothers in the Jewish faith,
their fathers not troubling themselves about them. It is these children
who are said to have been the founders of the first Jewish communities
between Worms and Mayence. It is certain that a Jewish congregation
existed in the Roman colony, the city of Cologne, long before
Christianity had been raised to power by Constantine. The heads of the
community and its most respected members had obtained from the heathen
emperors the privilege of exemption from the onerous municipal offices.
The first Christian emperor, however, narrowed the limits of this
immunity, exempting only two or three families. The Jews of Cologne
enjoyed also the privilege of exercising their own jurisdiction,
which they were allowed to retain until the Middle Ages. A non-Jewish
plaintiff, even though he were a priest, was obliged to bring his suit
against a Jew before the Jewish judge (bishop of the Jews).
While the history of the Jews in Byzantium, Italy, and France
possesses interest for special students, that of their brethren in
the Pyrenean peninsula rises to the height of universal importance.
The Jewish inhabitants of this happy peninsula contributed by their
hearty interest to the greatness of the country, which they loved as
only a fatherland can be loved, and in so doing achieved world-wide
reputation. Jewish Spain contributed almost as much to the development
of Judaism as Judæa and Babylonia, and as in these countries, so
every spot in this new home has become classic for the Jewish race.
Cordova, Granada, and Toledo are as familiar to the Jews as Jerusalem
and Tiberias, and almost more so than Nahardea and Sora. When Judaism
had come to a standstill in the East, and had grown weak with age, it
acquired new vigor in Spain, and extended its fruitful influence over a
wide sphere. Spain seemed to be destined by Providence to become a new
center for the members of the dispersed race, where their spirit could
revive, and to which they could point with pride.
The first settlement of the Jews in beautiful Hesperia is buried in
dim obscurity. It is certain that they went thither as early as the
time of the Roman Republic, as free men, to take advantage of the rich
resources of this country.
The victims of the unhappy insurrections under Vespasian, Titus, and
Hadrian were also dispersed to the extreme west, and an exaggerated
account relates that 80,000 of them were carried off to Spain as
prisoners. They probably did not remain long in slavery; the sympathy
of their free brethren undoubtedly hastened to ransom them, and thus
fulfil the most important of the duties prescribed by Talmudical
Judaism to its adherents. How numerously the Jews had settled in some
parts of Spain is shown by the names which they conferred upon these
localities. The city of Granada was called the city of the Jews in
former times, on account of its being entirely inhabited by them: the
same name was also borne by the ancient town of Tarragona (Tarracona),
before its conquest by the Arabs. In Cordova there existed a Jewish
gateway of ancient date, and near Saragossa there was a fortress which
at the time of the Arabs was called Ruta al Jahud. In the neighborhood
of Tortosa a gravestone was found with both a Hebrew and a national
name. This memorial was inscribed in three languages--Hebrew, Greek,
and Latin; the Jews must, therefore, have emigrated at an early period
from a Greek district to the north of Spain, and acquired the Latin
language, without forgetting that of the Holy Writings.
Pride of ancestry, which was a characteristic of the Jews of this
country as of the other Spaniards, was not content with the fact that
the Jewish colony in Spain had possessed the right of citizenship
long before the Visigoths and other Germanic tribes had set their
tyrannous iron foot in the land, but desired to lay claim to even
higher antiquity for it. The Spanish Jews maintained that they had
been transported hither after the destruction of the Temple by the
Babylonian conqueror, Nebuchadnezzar. Certain Jewish families, the
Ibn-Dauds and the Abrabanels, boasted descent from the royal house of
David, and maintained that their ancestors had been settled since time
immemorial partly in the district of Lucena, and partly in the environs
of Toledo and Seville. The numerous Spanish-Jewish family of Nasi also
traced back its pedigree to King David, and proved it by means of a
genealogical table and seals. The family of the Ibn-Albalias was more
modest, and dated its immigration only from the destruction of the
Second Temple. A family tradition runs to the effect that the Roman
governor of Spain begged the conqueror of Jerusalem to send him some
noble families from the capital of Judæa, and that Titus complied with
his request. Among those thus transported was a man named Baruch, who
excelled in the art of weaving curtains for the Temple. This Baruch,
who settled in Merida, was the ancestor of the Ibn-Albalias.
Christianity had early taken root in Spain. In fact a council of
bishops, priests, and the subordinate clergy met at Illiberis (Elvira,
near Granada) some time before Constantine's conversion. The Jews were
nevertheless held in high esteem by the Christian population as well
as by the heathens. The Iberians and Romans who had been converted
to Christianity had not yet discovered in the Jews a race repudiated
by God, a people whose presence was to be shunned. They associated
with their Jewish neighbors in perfect freedom. The newly-converted
inhabitants of the country, who often heard their apostle preach about
Jews and Judaism, had no conception of the wide gulf dividing Judaism
from Christianity, and as often had the produce of their fields blessed
by pious Jews as by their own clergy. Intermarriages between Jews and
Christians occurred quite as frequently in Spain as in Gaul.
The higher Catholic clergy, however, could not suffer this friendly
intercourse between Jews and Christians to continue; they perceived it
to be dangerous to the newly-established Church. To the representatives
of the Church in Spain is due the honor--if honor it be--of first
having raised a barrier between Jew and Christian. The Council of
Illiberis (about 320), at whose head was Osius, Bishop of Cordova,
forbade the Christians, under pain of excommunication, to hold
friendly intercourse with the Jews, to contract marriages with them,
or to allow them to bless the produce of their fields. The seed of
malignant hatred of the Jews, which was thus first sown by the Synod
of Illiberis, did not, however, produce its poisonous fruit until much
later. When the migrating Germanic hordes of the Suevi, Vandals, and
Visigoths first laid waste this beautiful country, and then chose it
for their home, the Catholics of the land were obliged to bear the
yoke of political and religious dependence, for the Visigoths, who
had taken lasting possession of the peninsula, happened to have been
converted to the Arian faith. On the whole, the Visigothic Arians
were tolerably indifferent to the controversy of the creeds, as to
whether the Son of God was the same as, or similar to, the Father, and
whether Bishop Arius ought to be regarded as orthodox or heretical.
But they thoroughly hated the Catholic inhabitants of the country,
because in every Catholic they saw a Roman, and consequently an enemy.
The Jews, on the other hand, were unmolested under the Arian kings,
and besides enjoying civil and political equality, were admitted to
the public offices. Their skill and knowledge, which gave them the
advantage over the uncivilized Visigoths, specially fitted them for
these posts. The favorable condition of the Jews in Spain continued for
more than a century, beginning with the time when this country first
became a province of the Toletanic-Visigothic empire, and extending
over the later period, when, under Theudes (531), it became the center
of the same. The Jews who dwelt in the province of Narbonne, and in
that district of Africa which formed part of the Visigothic empire,
also enjoyed civil and political equality; some of them rendered
material service to the Visigothic kings. The Jews that lived at the
foot of the Pyrenees defended the passes leading from Gaul into Spain
against the invasions of the Franks and Burgundians, who longed to
possess the country. They were regarded as the most trusty guardians
of the frontier, and their martial courage gained for them special
distinction. The Visigothic Jews must have remained in communication,
either through Italy or through Africa, with Judæa or Babylonia, from
which countries they probably received their religious teachers. They
adhered strictly to the precepts of the Talmud, abstained from wine
made by non-Jews, and admitted their heathen and Christian slaves
into the covenant of Abraham, as ordained by the Talmud. While their
brethren on the other side of the Pyrenees were greatly oppressed, and
forcibly converted to Christianity, or compelled to emigrate, they
enjoyed complete liberty of religion, and were further granted the
privilege, which was denied the Jews in all the other countries of
Europe, of initiating their slaves into their religion.
But as soon as the Catholic Church obtained the supremacy in Spain,
and Arianism began to be persecuted, the affairs of the Jews of this
country assumed an unfavorable aspect. King Reccared, who had abjured
the Arian creed at the Council of Toledo, was the first to unite with
the Synod in imposing restrictions on the Jews. They were prohibited
from contracting marriages with the Christians, from acquiring
Christian slaves, and from holding public offices; such of their
children as were born of intermarriages were to be forcibly baptized
(589). They were thus made to assume an isolated position, which pained
them all the more as they were animated by a sense of honor, and until
now had lived upon equal terms with their fellow-citizens, having,
in fact, been privileged more than the Catholics. Most oppressive of
all was the restraint touching the possession of slaves. Henceforward
the Jews were neither to purchase Christian slaves nor to accept them
as presents, and if they transgressed the order and initiated the
slaves into Judaism, they were to lose all rights in them. The whole
fortune of him that circumcised a slave was forfeited to the state.
All well-to-do people in the country possessed slaves and serfs, who
cultivated their land and provided for the wants of the house; the Jews
alone were to be deprived of this advantage. It is conceivable that the
wealthy Jews who owned slaves exerted themselves to obtain the repeal
of Reccared's law, and to this end they proffered a considerable sum
of money to the king. Reccared, however, refused their offer, and for
this deed was commended beyond measure by Pope Gregory, whose heart's
desire was fulfilled by this law (599). Gregory compared the Visigothic
monarch to David, king of Israel, "who refused to accept the water
which his warriors had brought him at the risk of their lives, and
poured it out before the Lord." In the same manner, he contended,
Reccared had sacrificed to God the gold which had been offered to
him. At the same time Reccared confirmed a decision of the Council
of Narbonne, forbidding the Jews to sing Psalms at their funeral
services,--a custom which they had probably adopted from the Church.
Although Reccared desired to enforce these restrictive laws against the
Jews, it was nevertheless not very difficult for the latter to evade
them. The peculiar constitution of Visigothic Spain afforded them the
means of escaping their pressure. According to this constitution the
king was not an all-powerful ruler, for the Visigothic nobles, who
possessed the right of electing him, were absolutely independent in
their own provinces. Neither they nor the people at large shared the
fanaticism of the Church against the Jews. They accorded them, as in
the past, the right of purchasing slaves, and probably also bestowed
offices upon them. In twenty years Reccared's laws against the Jews had
fallen into complete disuse. His successors paid but little attention
to the matter, and were on the whole not unfavorably disposed towards
the Jews.
At this period, however, a king of the Visigoths was elected, who,
liberal in other respects, and not uncultured, was a scourge for the
Jews of his dominions, and, in consequence, prepared a grievous destiny
for his empire. Sisebut, a contemporary of the Emperor Heraclius, was,
like the latter, a fanatical persecutor of the Jews. But while some
excuse may be found for Heraclius's conduct in the revolt of the Jews
of Palestine, and in the fact that he was compelled to adopt this
course by the blind fury of the monks, Sisebut acted thus without any
provocation, of his own free will, and almost contrary to the wish of
the Catholic clergy. At the very commencement of his reign (612),
the Jews engaged his attention. His conscience was troubled by the
fact, that in spite of Reccared's laws, Christian slaves still served
Jewish masters, and were initiated into Judaism, to which faith they
willingly adhered. He therefore renewed these laws, and commanded the
ecclesiastics and the judges, as well as the entire population of the
country, to see that in future no Christians stood in servile relations
to the Jews, but he went further in this direction than Reccared; the
Jews were not only prohibited from acquiring any slaves, but were
forbidden to retain those whom they possessed. Only those Jews who
embraced Christianity were permitted to own slaves, and they alone
were allowed to advance a claim to the slaves left by their Jewish
relatives. Sisebut solemnly exhorted his successors to maintain this
law. "May the king who dares abolish this law"--thus ran the formula of
Sisebut's curse--"incur the deepest disgrace in this world, and eternal
torments in the flames of hell." In spite of this severity and of
Sisebut's earnest exhortations, this law appears to have been as little
enforced at that period as under Reccared. The independent nobles of
the country extended their protection to the Jews, either for their
own interest or out of defiance to the king. Even many of the priests
and bishops seem to have supported the Jews, and to have concerned
themselves but little about the king's command. Sisebut therefore
enacted a still severer decree. Within a certain period all the Jews
of the land were either to receive baptism or to quit the territory
of the Visigothic empire. This order was strictly executed. The weak,
who clung to their property or loved the land which their fathers had
inhabited time out of mind, allowed themselves to be baptized. The
stronger-minded, on the other hand, whose conscience could approve of
no compromise, emigrated to France or to the neighboring continent
of Africa (612-613). The clergy, however, were by no means satisfied
with this forced conversion, and one of their principal representatives
reproached the king with having indeed "exhibited zeal for the faith,
but not conscientious zeal." With this fanatical persecution Sisebut
paved the way for the dissolution of the Visigothic empire.
Sisebut's rigorous laws against the Jews lasted no longer than his
reign. They were repealed by his successor, Swintila, a just and
liberal monarch, whom the oppressed named the "father of his country."
The exiled Jews returned to their native land, and the proselytes
reverted to Judaism (621-631). In spite of their baptism the Jewish
converts had not abandoned their religion. The act of baptism was
deemed sufficient at this period, and no one inquired whether the
converts still retained their former customs and usages. The noble king
Swintila was, however, dethroned by a conspiracy of nobles and the
clergy, and a docile tool, Sisenand by name, raised to his place. Under
this monarch the clergy again acquired the ascendancy. Once again, at
the Council of Toledo (633), the Jews became the object of synodal
attention. At the head of this council stood Isidore, archbishop
of Hispalis (Seville), a well-informed and equitable prelate, but
infected with the prejudices of his time. The synod proclaimed the
principle that the Jews ought not to be made to embrace Christianity
by violence and threats of punishment; nevertheless Reccared's laws
against them were re-enacted. The full severity of the ecclesiastical
legislation was, however, directed against the Jews who had been
forcibly converted under Sisebut, and had reverted to their religion.
Although the clergy themselves had criticized the method of their
conversion, they nevertheless considered it a duty to keep within
the pale of Christianity the Jews that had once received the holy
sacrament, "in order that the faith may not be dishonored." Religion
was regarded at this period merely as a lip-confession. The synod which
sat under Sisenand decided, therefore, that the Jews who had been
baptized should be forcibly restrained from the observance of their
religion, and withdrawn from the society of their co-religionists, and
that the children of both sexes should be torn from their parents and
thrust into monasteries. Those discovered observing the Sabbath and
the Jewish festivals, contracting marriages according to the Jewish
rites, practising circumcision, or abstaining from certain foods, in
obedience to the precepts of Judaism, were to expiate their offenses
by forfeiting their freedom. They were to be reduced to slavery, and
presented to orthodox Christians chosen by the king. According to
this canonical legislation, the forcibly converted Jews and their
descendants were not to be admitted as witnesses, because "those
that have been untrue to God cannot be sincere to man"; this was the
conclusion reached by ignorance in session. In comparison with this
severity, the treatment of the Jews that had remained steadfast to
their faith appears quite merciful.
Even these, however, the clergy exerted themselves to alienate from
Judaism. Isidore of Seville wrote two books against the Jews, wherein
he attempted to prove the doctrines of Christianity by means of
passages from the Old Testament, naturally in that tasteless, senseless
manner which had been employed since the commencement of the polemic
warfare against Judaism by the Fathers. The Spanish Jews, in order to
confirm themselves in their ancestral faith, were induced to take up
the controversy, and to refute this specious proof. The learned men
among them replied with counter treatises, written probably in Latin.
Their superior knowledge of the Biblical records made their victory
easy. In answer to the principal rejoinder, that the scepter had
departed from Judah, and that the Christians, who possessed kings, thus
formed the true people of Israel, the Jews pointed to a Jewish kingdom
in the extreme East, which they asserted was ruled over by a descendant
of David. They alluded to the Jewish-Himyarite empire in southern
Arabia, but this was governed by a dynasty which had been converted to
Judaism.
These resolutions of the fourth Council of Toledo and Sisenand's
persecution of the Jewish converts do not appear to have been carried
out with all the proposed severity. The Visigothic-Spanish nobles
took the Jews more and more under their patronage, and against them
the royal authority was powerless. At this period, however, a king
resembling Sisebut ascended the Visigothic throne. Chintila assembled
a general council, and not only did he obtain from them a confirmation
of all anti-Jewish clauses contained in the existing laws, but enacted
that no one should be allowed to remain in the Visigothic empire who
did not embrace the Catholic religion. The ecclesiastical assembly
adopted these propositions with joy, and exulted over the fact that
"by the piety of the king, the unyielding infidelity of the Jews would
at last be destroyed." They appended the canonical law, that in future
every king, before his accession, should be compelled to take a solemn
oath not to allow the converted Jews to violate the Catholic faith, nor
to favor their unbelief, but strictly to enforce the ecclesiastical
decisions against them (638).
A second time the Jews were obliged to emigrate, and the converts, who
still clung to Judaism in their secret hearts, were compelled to sign a
confession to the effect that they would observe and obey the Catholic
religion without reserve. But the confession thus signed by men whose
sacred convictions were outraged, was not and could not be sincere.
They hoped steadfastly for better times, when they might be able to
throw off the mask, and the elective constitution of the Visigothic
empire soon made this possible. The present situation lasted only
during the four years of Chintila's reign (638-642).