THE FIRST CRUSADE.
The position of the Jews in Germany previous to the Crusades--
The community of Speyer and Henry IV--The Martyrs of Treves
and Speyer--Emmerich of Leiningen and the Martyrs of Mayence
--Cruel persecutions at Cologne--Suffering of the Jews in
Bohemia--Pitiful death of the Jews of Jerusalem--Emperor
Henry's justice towards the Jews--Return of Converts to
Judaism--Death of Alfassi and Rashi.
1096-1105 C. E.
Towards the end of the eleventh century there arose the first contest
between Christianity and Islam on other ground than that of Spain. This
contest turned the history of the world into new paths, and inserted
in the history of the Jews pages dripping with blood. Peter of Amiens'
lament about the ill-treatment of pilgrims in Jerusalem, which found
a thousandfold echo at the Church congress in Clermont, had aroused
piety, chivalry, ambition, and a number of other noble and ignoble
passions, expressing themselves in a crusade. A terrible time ensued;
but the greatest suffering fell on the German Jews, who had to seal
their confession of faith with blood. Before the crusades, the Jews of
Germany had dwelt in peace; they were not excluded from the possession
of land, nor were they despised and humiliated. When Bishop Rüdiger
Huozmann, of Speyer, extended the limits of the town by including the
village Old Speyer, he knew no better way of improving the new portion
than by allowing the Jews to have privileges and dwellings therein.
He allowed the Jews to live under their own laws, and their secular
head or their rabbin (Archisynagogus), like the burgomasters, decided
lawsuits. The Jews could buy slaves, and hire male and female servants
from Christians, in opposition to the canonical laws and against the
will of Pope Gregory VII. In order to protect them from the mob,
Rüdiger gave them a special quarter surrounded by a wall, which they
might fortify and defend. These privileges, for which they annually
paid 3-1/2 lbs. of gold, were guaranteed to them for all time. Rüdiger
adds in the charter that he was granting to the Jews the same favorable
conditions that they enjoyed in other German towns. Emperor Henry IV
confirmed these privileges, and added other more favorable clauses.
This emperor, who, in spite of his thoughtlessness and fickleness, was
never unjust, issued a decree (6th February, 1095) in favor of the
Jews. No one was permitted to compel either the Jews or their slaves to
be baptized. In a lawsuit between Jews and Christians, the process was
to be conducted and the oaths administered according to Jewish law, and
Jews could not be compelled to undergo ordeals by fire and water. Yet,
not long after this, they were mocked at by the holy combatants in the
sacred war. The German Jews and those of northern France were just then
full of the hope of the coming of the Messiah. A mystic had calculated
that the son of David would appear towards the end of the 250th cycle
of the moon, between the years 1096 and 1104, and would lead back the
sons of Judah to the Holy Land. But instead of the trumpet-blast of the
Messianic redemption they heard only the wild cries of the crusaders:
"The Jews have crucified our Saviour, therefore they must acknowledge
him or die."
The first armies of the crusaders, one led by the pious Peter of
Amiens and his eight knights, the other by Gottschalk, did no special
harm to the Jews; they plundered Christians and Jews alike. But the
hordes that followed, the scum of the French, English, and Flemish,
in the absence of Mahometans, began the holy work of plundering and
murdering with the Jews. It was a shameless mob of men and women, who
indulged in every sort of excess. But these blasphemous crusaders were
sanctified warriors; their sins, past and future, had been absolved.
A monk threw out the inflammatory suggestion that the Jews should be
brought to Christianity by force, an inscription, found on the grave
of Jesus, having made their conversion the duty of all believers. This
plan seemed to the wild crusaders alike profitable, easy to fulfil, and
pleasing to God. They reasoned that the Jews were infidels like the
Saracens, both deadly enemies of Christianity, and that the crusade
could begin on the spot, if the beginning were made with the Jews. When
the troops assembled in France and Germany, they were marked by the
cross on their garments and by the blood of the Jews. The massacres in
France, however, were few in number, although the first gathering of
crusaders occurred there. In Germany security reigned at that time, and
the Jews of the Rhine district had no suspicion of the sad fate which
was about to befall them. However, at the bidding of the head of their
congregation, they assembled to pray for their imperiled brethren in
France. But these fortunately escaped with but little damage, because
the princes and priests energetically took the part of the Jews. Only
in Rouen, which belonged to England, the crusaders drove the Jews into
a church, and, placing their swords at their breasts, gave them the
choice between death and baptism. The persecutions first received a
tragic character on German ground.
The hordes which moved through France and Flanders into German
territory were led by a French knight, named William the Carpenter,
who had begun by plundering his peasants in order to fit out his
soldiers. The spirit animating William's troops is shown by one
instance. They placed a goose and a herd of goats in the van, firmly
believing that they would show them the way to Jerusalem. To such
the Jewish communities of the Moselle and the Rhine were given over.
The emperor Henry was at that time occupied in war with Italy, and
the wildest anarchy prevailed in Germany. At the first news of the
approach of William, the congregation of Treves was seized with such
terror that some of its members killed their own children. Women and
girls loaded themselves with stones, and threw themselves into the
Moselle in order to escape baptism or disgrace at the hands of the holy
murderers. The rest of the community entreated the bishop, Egilbert,
for his protection. But this hard-hearted prince of the Church, who
perhaps sought to cancel by zeal the imputation of heresy resting
upon him, replied: "If you apostatize, I will give you peace and the
enjoyment of your property. If you remain hardened, your soul and
body shall be destroyed together." The Jews thereupon assembled in
council, and determined, on the advice of Micah, one of the learned
members of the congregation, to conform outwardly to Christianity. He
said to the bishop: "Tell us quickly what to believe, and deliver us
from the men that watch at the gate, ready to kill us." The priest
recited the Catholic confession of faith, which the Jews repeated, and
then baptized them. It was a disgraceful victory which Christianity
celebrated over the congregation of Treves, but it did not last long.
Thereupon the crusaders went to Speyer, where the congregation had
lately had documentary promises of liberty and security. Here some Jews
were dragged to the church, and commanded to undergo baptism. They
resolutely refused, and were murdered (8th Iyar--3d May, 1096). The
remaining Jews fled to the palace of the bishop Johannsen and to the
emperor's castle. The bishop, more humane and pious than Egilbert,
would not countenance such baptism by main force, and opposed the
furious mob. The Jews also defended themselves vigorously, and no
more of them fell victims to fanaticism. Johannsen caused some of the
crusaders to be executed, an act strongly reproved by the monkish
chroniclers. They asserted that he was bribed by the Jews. It is
not to be wondered at that the Jews shuddered at baptism, and held
themselves disgraced if they were borne off unconscious to the font.
The Christianity of the eleventh century they could regard only as a
terrible form of paganism. The worship of relics and pictures; the
conduct of the head of the Church, who absolved nations from a sacred
oath, and incited them to regicide; the immoral, dissipated life of
the priesthood; the horrible practices of the crusaders--all these
things reminded them much more of the practices of idolaters than of
the followers of a holy God. As in the days of the Maccabees their
ancestors had revolted against the enforced worship of Zeus and its
attendant practices, so the German Jews felt towards the Christianity
of the times.
The mob which undertook the attack on the congregation of Speyer
does not appear to have been very powerful, and could therefore be
repulsed. It now awaited re-inforcements, and two weeks later a large
body of crusaders--"wolves of the forest," as the Jewish chronicler
calls them--entered Worms. The Bishop Allebrandus could not, or would
not, give the Jews sufficient protection. It seems, however, that he
disapproved of the massacre of the Jews, for he sheltered a part of
the community, probably its richest and most respected members, in
the palace. The others, left to themselves, at first attempted to
resist, but, overcome by numbers, they fell under the blows of their
murderers, crying, "The Lord our God is one." Only a few submitted to
baptism, but the greater number committed suicide. Women killed their
tender babes. The fanatics destroyed the houses of the Jews, plundered
their goods, and burnt the Scriptures found in the synagogues and
houses (on Sunday, 23d Iyar--18th May). Seven days later those that
had found protection in the bishop's palace were also attacked. The
fanatics either made a raid on the palace, and demanded the surrender
of their victims, or Allebrandus himself had offered to the Jews an
asylum only in order to convert them through kindness. At any rate, the
bishop informed the Jews that he would not shelter them any longer,
unless they consented to be baptized. The chief amongst them begged
for a short interval for consideration. The fanatics remained outside
the palace, ready to lead the Jews to the font or to death. After the
appointed time the bishop caused the door to be opened, and found the
Jews in their own blood; they had preferred death at the hands of their
brethren. On hearing this, the furious mob fell on the survivors, and
murdered them, dragging the corpses through the streets. Only a few
saved themselves by ostensible conversion to Christianity (Sunday,
1st Sivan--25th May). A youth, Simcha Cohen, whose father and seven
brothers had been murdered, desired to avenge himself. He was taken
to the church, and when about to receive the sacrament he drew forth
a knife, and stabbed the nephew of the bishop. As he had expected, he
was murdered in the church. It was only when the crusaders had left the
town that the Jewish martyrs, who numbered nearly 800, were buried by
Jewish hands. The congregation, which was formed later on, cherished
their memory as of martyrs, or saints (Kedoshim), to be venerated and
held up as patterns of steadfast faith.
The day after the massacre of the remnant in Worms, the crusaders
arrived in Mayence. Here their leader was a Count Emmerich, or Emicho,
of Leiningen, a close relation of Archbishop Ruthard, an unprincipled,
bloodthirsty man. He desired the riches of the Jews of Mayence as much
as their blood, and together with the archbishop, an opponent of Henry
IV, devised a fiendish plan of extermination. The archbishop invited
all the Jews to take shelter in his palace, until the danger had
passed. Over 1300 Jews took refuge in the cellars of the building, with
anxious hearts and prayers on their lips. But at break of day (Tuesday,
Sivan 3d--27th May), Emmerich of Leiningen led the crusaders to the
bishop's palace, and demanded the surrender of the Jews. The archbishop
had indeed appointed a guard, but the soldiers refused to bear arms
against the fanatical pilgrims, who easily penetrated into the palace,
and the terrible scene of Worms was repeated. Men, young and old, women
and children, fell by the sword of their brethren or their foes. The
corpses of thirteen hundred martyrs were eventually conveyed from the
palace. The treasures of the Jews were divided between the archbishop
and Emmerich. Ruthard had kept sixty Jews hidden in the church, and
they were conveyed to the Rhine district; but on the way they also
were seized and murdered. Only a few were baptized; two men and two
girls--Uriah and Isaac, with his two daughters--were induced by fear to
accept baptism, but their repentance drove them to a terrible act of
heroism. Isaac killed his two daughters on the eve of Pentecost, in his
own house, and then set fire to the dwelling; then he and his friend
Uriah went to the synagogue, set fire to it, and died in the flames. A
great part of Mayence was destroyed by this fire.
Meanwhile, crusaders, under Hermann the Carpenter, assembled at Cologne
on the eve of Pentecost. The members of this oldest congregation of
Germany prepared for the worst; but they entreated the protection
of the citizens and the bishop. Touched with pity for their Jewish
fellow-citizens, humane burghers of Cologne received the Jews into
their houses. When the furious mob, at break of day on Pentecost
(Friday, May 30th), entered the houses of the Jews, they found them
empty, and had to spend their fury on stones and wood. They destroyed
the dwellings, pillaging the contents and crushing the scrolls of the
Law on the very day when the giving of the Law was celebrated. An
earthquake which occurred on the day incited the madmen to fresh fury;
they considered it as a sign of heaven's approval. One man and his
wife fell victims to their rage on this day. The pious man, Mar-Isaac,
willingly accepted a martyr's death. He did not desire to escape, and
remained in his house, engaged in prayer. He was dragged to the church,
and spitting on the crucifix that was held up before him, was killed.
The rest of the Jews of Cologne remained unhurt in the houses of the
citizens and in the bishop's palace. The noble bishop, Hermann III,
whose name deserves to be immortalized, assisted the Jews to depart
secretly from the city, and to be safely housed in seven neighboring
towns and villages belonging to his diocese. Here they passed three
weeks in anxiety, praying and fasting day after day, and when they
heard that the pilgrims had come to Neus, one of their cities of
refuge, for the feast of St. John (1st Tamuz, 24th June), they fasted
on two days in succession. The pilgrims had prepared themselves for
renewed massacres by a mass on the day of St. John, and killed all the
Jews who had taken refuge in Neus, according to one authority, not
indeed very reliable, two hundred in number. One Samuel ben Asher,
who had exhorted his brethren to remain firm, and his two sons, were
brutally murdered, and their bodies hung to the door of their house.
The pilgrims had at last discovered the refuge of the Jews of Cologne,
and now hunted them out of their hiding-places. Many ended their lives
in the lakes and bogs, following the example of Samuel ben Yechiel,
a learned and pious man. Standing in the water, and pronouncing a
blessing, he killed his son, a handsome and strong youth, and as
the victim said "Amen," all those looking on intoned their "Hear, O
Israel," and threw themselves into the water.
The pilgrims continued their work of destruction, and in two months
(May-July) twelve thousand Jews are said to have been killed in the
Rhenish towns. The rest outwardly accepted Christianity, in the
expectation that the just emperor, on his return from Italy, would
listen to their complaints. Wherever the savage pilgrims met with
Jews the tragic scenes were repeated. The large community of the town
of Ratisbon suffered greatly. In connection with the crusades the
Jews of Bohemia enter into history; until then they had not felt the
pressure of the yoke, Christianity not having as yet attained to power
in Slavonic countries. Many amongst them were wealthy, and occupied
themselves in the slave-trade, chiefly dealing in Slavs, who were
exported to the west of Europe and to Spain. In this way the Jews
came into conflict with the priesthood, and Bishop Adalbert of Prague
strove against this practice, and collected large sums of money in
order to buy the slaves from the Jews. Then the crusades commenced,
and transplanted into Bohemian soil the poisonous seed of fanaticism.
When the crusaders traversed Bohemia, its powerful duke, Wratislaw II,
was occupied in a foreign war, and could do nothing to stem the evil.
The miscreant crusaders were, therefore, at liberty to gratify their
fanaticism, and drag off the Jews of Prague to baptism or death. Bishop
Cosmas preached in vain against such excesses; the crusaders understood
Christianity better than the prince of the Church.
Fortunately for the Jews of western Europe, and especially of Germany,
those filled with this bloodthirsty fanaticism were the mere scum of
the people. The princes and citizens were horrified at such deeds of
crime, and the higher priesthood, with the exception of Archbishops
Ruthard of Mayence and Egilbert of Treves, were on the side of the
Jews. The time had not yet arrived when the three powers--the nobility,
priesthood, and people--were united in their hatred and persecution of
the Jews. When the news came that 200,000 crusaders, under Emmerich
and Hermann, had met with a disgraceful end--most of them having been
killed in Hungary, whilst a miserable remnant only had returned to
Germany--both Jews and Christians felt it to be a judgment of God.
Meanwhile Emperor Henry IV had returned from Italy, and at the news
of the atrocities perpetrated against the Jews by the crusaders, he
gave public expression to his horror, and at the request of the head
of the congregation of Speyer, Moses ben Guthiel, he permitted those
that had been forcibly baptized to return to Judaism. This was a gleam
of joy for the Jews of Germany. The converts did not fail to make use
of their liberty to throw off the mask of Christianity (1097). The
representatives of the Church, however, were by no means pleased at
this proceeding. Even Pope Clement III, who was upheld by the emperor,
declaimed against his humanity, which was contrary to the teachings of
the Church. "We have heard," he wrote to Henry IV, "that the baptized
Jews have been permitted to leave the Church. This is unexampled and
sinful; and we demand of all our brethren that they take care that the
sacrament of the Church be not desecrated by the Jews." The emperor
cared but little about the unholy zeal of the priesthood. Far from
forbidding the Jews to return to their religion, he even permitted
proceedings to be instituted against the kinsmen of Archbishop
Ruthard, of Mayence, on account of the theft of the property of the
Jewish congregation. The Jews of Mayence in a petition had informed
the emperor that Emmerich of Leiningen and his kinsmen, together with
the archbishop, had appropriated the treasures deposited by the Jews
in the archbishop's palace. None of the accused appeared in answer to
this citation to defend himself. Ruthard, whose conscience was not
clear, feared the disgrace of exposure, and, as he was in disfavor
with the emperor, he fled to Erfurt. Thereupon the emperor confiscated
the revenues of the archbishopric (1098). Ruthard revenged himself by
joining the enemies of the emperor, who plotted to humiliate him.
The Jews of Bohemia were very unfortunate in this year. Hearing that
the emperor had permitted return to Judaism, they abandoned their
pretended faith, but feared to remain in a country where they could not
obtain justice. They gathered together their property and possessions
in order to send them on to a place of safety, and determined to
emigrate to Poland or to Pannonia (Austria and Hungary). Wratislaw,
the ruler of Bohemia, now returned from his campaign, and heard that
the Jews intended sending their riches out of the country. Thereupon
he placed them under military surveillance. The elders were called
together, and the duke's treasurer announced to them in his lord's
name that everything they possessed belonged to him, and that they
were endeavoring to rob him: "Ye brought none of Jerusalem's treasures
to Bohemia. Conquered by Vespasian, and sold for a mere nothing, ye
have been scattered over the globe. Naked ye have entered the land,
and naked ye can depart. For your secession from the Church, Bishop
Cosmas may judge you." There was nothing to be said against this logic;
it was the argument of brutality. The Bohemian Jews were plundered,
only enough being left to them to stay for the moment the cravings of
hunger. With malicious pleasure a contemporary chronicler relates that
the Jews were despoiled of more gold than the Greeks had taken from
Troy. Still more dreadful was the fate of the Jews of Jerusalem. When
the crusading army, under Godfrey of Bouillon, after many attempts had
taken the city by storm, and massacred the Mahometans, they drove the
Jews, Rabbanites and Karaites, into a synagogue, set fire to it, and
burnt all within its walls (July 15, 1099).
Emperor Henry, however, seriously desired to protect the Jews of his
empire. Having heard of the horrible scenes of murder in Mayence which
had occurred during his absence, he caused his princes and citizens to
swear an oath that they would keep the peace with the Jews, and that
they would not ill-treat them (1103). The protection thus granted by
the emperor to the Jews was of temporary benefit to them, but brought
evil results after awhile. They thus became dependent upon the ruler of
the land, almost his slaves.
This circumstance was not the only evil result of the first crusade
for the German Jews. On the one hand Pope Clement III claimed the
converts who had joined the Church to save themselves from death,
forgetting that their whole being turned against the Church, and that
they regarded their enforced Christianity with contempt and hate.
On the other hand, those that had remained Jews kept aloof from the
renegades, and would not intermarry nor associate with them, although
they had shown their attachment to Judaism by a prompt return to it.
These unhappy people were thus regarded as renegades by both sides.
When, however, Rashi heard of this narrowness, his true piety protested
against it. "Far be it from us," he said, "to reject those that have
returned. They acted through fear of the sword, and lost no time in
returning to Judaism."
Other results of the first crusade were still worse. The German
Jews, already inclined to extravagant piety, became yet more bigoted
in consequence of their unexampled sufferings. All merriment died
out amongst them, and they clothed themselves only in sackcloth and
ashes. Though they hated the Catholic Church, they adopted its custom
of visiting the graves of martyrs, whom they also called saints
(Kedoshim), offered up prayers for the dead, and entreated their
intercession with heaven. The Judaism of Germany from that time on
assumed a gloomy aspect. The so-called poets, in their penitential
prayers and lamentations, rang the changes on only one theme, the
fearful troubles and the desolation of Israel. The study of the Talmud
formed a counterpoise to the growing tendency of the German Jews to
give a penitential character to their religion. This study, as pursued
by Rashi, was a protection against unthinking, brooding monasticism.
He who desired to find his way through the intricate mazes of the
Talmud had to keep his eyes open to facts, and could not permit his
mind to grow rusty. The study of the Talmud became balm for the
wounds inflicted by the crusading mob on the communities of the Rhine
district. The pleasure resulting from creative thought ruled in the
schools, and subdued sorrow and despair; and the House of Learning
became the refuge of the unfortunate oppressed. The two men who gave
the great impulse to Talmudical studies died at the commencement of the
twelfth century. They were Isaac Alfassi (died 1103), and Rashi, who
died two years later (1105, 29th Tamuz--13th July). Both left a large
number of disciples, who spread the study of the Talmud, and both were
highly honored by their contemporaries and by posterity. The admiration
of the Spaniards for Alfassi was expressed, as befitted their high
culture, in verses, whilst the German Jews and those of northern
France, who occupied a lower stage of culture, commemorated Rashi by
extravagant legends. Two young poets, Moses Ibn-Ezra and Jehuda Halevi,
composed touching elegies on the death of Alfassi.