THE AGE OF SOLOMON BEN ADRET AND ASHERI.
Martyrs in Germany--The Jews of Hungary and Poland--The
Council at Buda--The Jews of Spain and Portugal--Solomon
ben Adret, his character and writings--Raymund Martin's
anti-Jewish Works--New antagonism to the Maimunist Philosophy
--David Maimuni--Moses Taku--Meïr of Rothenburg--The
Jews of Italy--Solomon Petit--Rudolph of Habsburg--
Emigration of Jews from the Rhine Provinces--Sufferings of
the English Jews--Expulsion of the Jews from England and
Gascony--Saad-Addaula--Isaac of Accho.
1270-1306 C. E.
If Jewish history were to follow chronicles, memorial books and
martyrologies, its pages would be filled with descriptions of
bloodshed, it would consist of horrible exhibitions of corpses, and
it would stand forth to make accusation against a doctrine which
taught princes and nations to become common executioners and hangmen.
For, from the thirteenth till the sixteenth century, the persecutions
and massacres of the Jews increased with frightful rapidity and in
intensity, and only alternated with inhuman decrees issued both by
the Church and the state, the aim and purport of all of which were to
humiliate the Jews, to brand them with calumny and to drive them to
suicide. The prophet's description of the martyrdom of the servant of
God, of the Messianic people, was fulfilled, or repeated with terrible
literalness: "He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened
not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a
sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was
taken from prison and from judgment ... for the transgression of my
people was he stricken." The nations of Europe emulated one another in
exercising their cruelty upon the Jews; and it was always the clergy
who, in the name of a religion of love, stirred up this undying hatred.
It mattered little to the Jews whether they lived under a strict
government or under anarchy, for they suffered under the one no less
than under the other.
In Germany they were slain by thousands during the troubles which,
after the death of the emperor Frederick II, and till the crowning
of Rudolph of Habsburg as emperor, arose from the strife between
the Guelphs and the Ghibellines. Every year martyrs fell, now in
Weissenburg, Magdeburg, Arnstadt, now in Coblenz, Sinzig, Erfurt, and
other places. In Sinzig all the members of the congregation were burnt
alive on a Sabbath in their synagogue. There were German Christian
families who boasted that they had burnt Jews, and in their pride
assumed the name of "Jew-roaster" (Judenbreter). The Church took good
care that her flock should not, by intimate intercourse with Jews,
discover that they were like other human beings, and so be made to
feel sympathy for them. In Vienna, during the contest for the imperial
throne of Germany, a large assembly of churchmen met (12th May, 1267)
under the leadership of the papal legate Gudeo. Most of the German
prelates took part in it, and gave much attention to the question of
the Jews. They solemnly confirmed every canonical law that Innocent III
and his successors had passed for the branding of the Jews. Jews were
not allowed to have any Christian servants, were not admissible to any
office of trust, were not to associate with Christians in ale-houses
and baths, and Christians were not permitted to accept any invitation
of the Jews, nor to enter into discussion with them. As if the German
people desired to show that it could surpass all nations in scorn of
the Jews, the members of the council at Vienna did not rest content
with the command that the German Jews should wear a mark on their
dress, but they compelled them to assume a disfiguring head-dress,
a pointed, horned hat or cap (pileum cornutum), which provoked the
mockery of the gamins. Bloody persecutions were the natural outcome of
such distinguishing marks.
In France the clergy did not find it necessary to urge upon their
princes, by threats, the degradation of the Jews. The saintly Louis,
on his own account, busied himself with this matter. A year before his
adventurous journey to Tunis, where he met his death, he emphasized,
at the instigation of his much-beloved Pablo Christiani, the Jewish
Dominican, the canonical edict which ordained the wearing of the
badges. He ordered that this badge should be made of red felt or
saffron-yellow cloth in the form of a wheel, and should be worn on
the upper garment both on the breast and the back, "so that those who
were thus marked might be recognized from all sides." Every Jew found
without this badge was to be punished, for the first offense, with the
loss of his garment, and for the second, with a fine of ten livres of
silver to be paid into the treasury (March, 1269). The Jews of northern
France, accustomed to ill-usage, and, as it were, dulled by it, easily
yielded; but not so the Jews of Provence, who, being educated and in
friendly intercourse with cultured Christians, would not submit to
this ignominy. Hitherto they had contrived to escape from wearing the
badge, and thought that they would be able to do so on this occasion
also. The congregations of the south of France thereupon sent deputies
to take counsel for the general welfare; and they in turn selected two
distinguished men, Mordecai ben Joseph, of Avignon, and Solomon, of
Tarascon, who were to go to court, and try to effect the abrogation of
this law. The Jewish delegates met with success, and they returned home
with the joyful news that the edict which commanded the wearing of
the badge had been rescinded. But Philip III, the successor of Louis,
and equally bigoted and narrow-minded, re-introduced the law a year
after his accession to the throne (1271). The Dominicans took great
care to see that it was not transgressed. Several distinguished Jews,
such as Mordecai, of Avignon, and others, who would not submit to this
disgrace, were imprisoned. This wearing of a badge by the Jews remained
in force in France till the time of their expulsion from the country.
The Church pursued the sons of Jacob with its implacable hate to the
very border-line between Europe and Asia. The people of Hungary and
Poland, who had not yet laid aside their primitive state of barbarity
and their warlike ferocity, were in greater need of the services of
the Jews than the nations and states of Central and Western Europe.
The Jews, with their commercial habits and their practical skill, had
perceived the abundance of produce in the districts lying on the Lower
Danube, the Vistula, and on both sides of the Carpathian mountains, had
utilized, and thus first conferred value on, this source of wealth.
Despite the zeal with which the papacy strove to deprive Jews of public
offices, despite its efforts to restrain them from obtaining leases
for working the salt mines and from farming the coinage and the taxes
in Hungary, it could not expel them from positions in which they were
indispensable in preventing the wealth of the country from running to
waste. The Hungarian king, Bela IV, the successor of Andrew II, driven
by stern necessity, the ravages of the Mongols having impoverished the
country, invited Jewish agents. For the benefit of the Jews under his
dominion, Bela introduced the law of Frederick the Valiant, of Austria,
which protected them from the violence of the mob and the clergy,
conceded to them their own jurisdiction, and allowed them the control
over their domestic affairs. The papacy, however, turned its attention
to the Carpathian districts, partly for the purpose of kindling a new
crusade against the Mongols, and partly in order to bring back to the
Roman see, by means of trickery and force, the schismatic adherents of
the Greek Church. Its spiritual armies, the Dominicans and Franciscans,
were despatched thither, and they instilled into the hitherto tolerant
Magyars their own spirit of fanatical intolerance. A large church
assembly, consisting of prelates from Hungary and the south of
Poland, met at Buda (September, 1279). This convocation was under the
presidency of Philip, who was the papal legate for Hungary, Poland,
Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Lodomeria, and Galicia, and decreed a
proscription of the Jews of these countries, which the Church executed
with logical severity. Jews and other inhabitants of the country not
belonging to the Roman Catholic Church were to be debarred from the
right of farming the taxes, or from holding any public post. Bishops
and other ecclesiastics of higher or lower degree who had entrusted the
farming of the revenues of their sees to the hands of Jews were to be
suspended from their holy offices. Laymen, of whatsoever rank, were to
be placed under a ban of excommunication till they dismissed the Jewish
contractors and employés, and had given security that henceforward they
would not accept or retain such men, "because it is very dangerous to
permit Jews to dwell together with Christian families, and to have
intimacy with them at courts and in private houses." The synod at
Buda also enacted that the Jews of both sexes dwelling in Hungarian
territory (which included Hungary and the provinces of southern Poland)
should wear the figure of a wheel made of red cloth on the upper
garment on the left side of the breast, and that they should never be
seen without this badge. For the time, the exclusion of the Jews of
Hungary and Poland from Christian society had little practical effect,
for the Mahometans and the schismatic Greek Catholics shared their
proscription. These latter were also withheld from public offices.
The Mahometans, too, were ordered to wear a badge of a yellow color.
The Magyars and Poles had not yet been made so intolerant by church
influence as to adopt the refined, cruel practices of both the secular
and the regular clergy, who would have denied fire and water to men not
wearing a red or yellow sign. The first crop of this poisonous fruit
was gathered about half a century later. The last king of the family of
Arpad, Ladislaus IV, ratified and confirmed the statutes of the synod
in Hungary.
A similar state of affairs was to be met with in the extreme west of
Europe, in the Pyrenean peninsula. As Mahometans here also dwelt in
proximity to Christians and Jews, the Church was not able easily to
carry out its purpose, prompted by intolerance, of crushing the Jews.
To this it must be added, that the higher culture of the Jews and their
participation in all internal and foreign affairs, were circumstances
in their favor here, and they forced respect from their enemies.
Although Alfonso the Wise, king of Castile, had promulgated a law
precluding Jews from filling state offices, yet he himself continued
to appoint Jews to important posts. Amongst others, he promoted Don
Zag (Isaac) de Malea, the son of Don Meïr, to be the royal treasurer.
He was severely rebuked for doing so by Pope Nicholas III (1279), but
still he did not remove the Jews from their offices. On one occasion,
indeed, he became very angry with Don Zag, and caused his displeasure
to be felt by the Jews generally in an ebullition of rage; this,
however, was not out of respect for the Church, but emanated from
discordant family relations. Don Zag had large sums of money belonging
to the state under his custody, which the king had destined for the
carrying on of a campaign. The Infante Don Sancho, who cherished
hostile intentions against his father, compelled the Jewish treasurer
to surrender the public money to him. King Alfonso was extremely
enraged at this action, and, in order to teach his son a lesson, he had
Don Zag arrested, put in chains, and thus fettered conducted through
the city where the Infante was staying at the time. Don Sancho in vain
exerted himself to procure the freedom of the Jewish Almoxarif, who
was suffering for no guilt of his own; but Alfonso at once ordered
his execution (1280). His displeasure was also visited upon all the
Jews of Castile, who were forced to expiate their kinsman's act, which
assuredly cannot be termed an oversight. The "wise" King Alfonso issued
an injunction that all the Jews be imprisoned on a certain Sabbath,
and exacted heavy fines from them, 12,000 maravedis every day for a
stated period. The congregations were thus made to replenish the empty
treasury. However, in a short time the king had to suffer severely
for the violent injustice he had done to Don Zag. His son, who was
embittered against him on this account, and took the ill-treatment and
execution of Don Zag as a personal affront, openly rebelled against
Alfonso, and drew to his side the greater portion of the nobility,
the people, and the clergy. The unhappy king, who had indulged in
extravagant ideals at his accession, and had hoped, as the emperor of
Germany, to found a world monarchy, felt himself so deserted in his old
age that in despair he appealed to a Mahometan prince to come to his
help, seeing that he was "unable to find any protection or defender in
his own land."
The condition of the Jews under Don Sancho, who ascended the throne
when his father died grief-stricken, was tolerable, but was dependent
upon caprice. This king was the first to regulate the payment of the
Jew-tax (Juderia) by the congregations of New Castile, Leon, Murcia,
and the newly-acquired provinces in Andalusia (la Frontera). Hitherto,
every Jew had paid a capitation-tax of three maravedis (thirty dineros,
about thirty-seven cents), in memory of the thirty pieces of silver
guiltily paid for the death of Jesus. Don Sancho assembled deputies
of the congregations at Huete, and named the total amount which every
district was required to pay into the royal coffers, leaving it to the
deputies to apportion this sum among the congregations and families
(Sept., 1290). The commission for the newly-acquired territory in
Andalusia was composed of four men. If these men found themselves
unable to come to an agreement, they were to call to their aid the
committee of the congregation (Aljama) of Toledo, and especially the
aged David Abudarham, probably a highly respected personage. The
Jews of the kingdom of Castile, whose population numbered nearly
850,000 souls, contributed 2,780,000 maravedis, part of which was the
poll-tax and part the service-tax. In these provinces there were over
eighty Jewish congregations, the most famous being in the capital
Toledo, which, together with the adjacent smaller cities, numbered
72,000 Jews. There were also very large communities in Burgos (nearly
29,000), Carrion (24,000), Cuenca, Valladolid, and Avila. Over 3000
Jews dwelt in Madrid, which at this time had not yet attained any
degree of importance. The king granted certain Jews who were his
especial favorites immunity from taxation. This was the cause of much
dissension, seeing that the freedom enjoyed by these usually wealthy
persons fell as a heavy burden upon the body of the community, and on
those less endowed with worldly goods.
At this period the Jews in the new kingdom of Portugal were very
favorably placed, both under King Alfonso III (1248-1279) and King
Diniz (1279-1325). Not only were they exempt from the canonical decrees
which compelled the wearing of a distinctive sign and the payment of
tithes to the Church, but prominent persons among them were appointed
to fill very important positions. King Diniz had a Jewish minister of
finance, named Judah, the chief rabbi of Portugal (Arraby Moor), who
was so wealthy that he was able to advance large sums of money for the
purchase of a city. Jews and Mahometans were commissioned to mete out
punishment to the rebellious clergy, who, at the constant instigation
of the papacy, strove to alter the national laws in accordance with
canonical decisions, thus kindling fierce strife between the monarchy
and the Church. In order to be at peace with the quarrelsome Church,
King Diniz at length yielded, and introduced the canonical laws into
his country, but made no serious attempt to carry them into effect.
Thus the Jews in the Pyrenean peninsula, in spite of the growing
encroachments of the Church, in spite of its wicked desire to humiliate
them, and the fanatical preaching and disputations of the mendicant
friars, maintained a position superior to that held by Jews in the
remaining countries of Europe. Here the pulse of spiritual life was
strongest, here the character of Judaism was moulded, here questions
of vital importance sprang up, were discussed, debated with passionate
energy, and finally decided. Here the doctrines of Judaism were made
the subject of warm debate, and the results of the scholarship and
erudition of the Spanish Jews only gradually passed into the possession
of the inhabitants of other countries and continents. Spain was once
again, as in the ante-Maimunic epoch, elevated to the dignity of
representing Judaism for the space of two centuries, and this was
effected by a rabbi of remarkable genius. This rabbi was Solomon ben
Abraham Ben Adret, of Barcelona (abbreviated into Rashba, born about
1245, died 1310). He was a man of penetrating and clear understanding,
full of moral earnestness, of pure and unwavering belief, of mild
temperament, combined with an energetic character, which prompted him
to pursue with perseverance anything that he had discovered to be
right. The Talmud, with its labyrinthine tracks and its hidden corners,
with all the explanations and supplements of the Spanish and the French
Tossafist schools, presented no more difficulty to Ben Adret than a
child's primer, and he handled this enormous mass of material with
such ease that he aroused the astonishment of his contemporaries. His
probity at the same time guarded him from that subtle sophistry which
had even then begun to be adopted in the treatment of the Talmud.
Ben Adret, in Talmudical discussions, went straight to the core of
a question, and did not stoop to employ stratagems or subterfuge. A
Spaniard by birth, he did not altogether lack a knowledge of general
science, nor disdain to pay some regard to philosophy, as long as it
kept within its own province, acknowledged the doctrines of religion,
and did not intrude with the desire of becoming a ruling power. He
felt the necessity of interpreting those Agadic stories which gave
offense by their simple literalness, and to explain them in a rational
manner. While on the one side, then, he did no more than display a
spirit of tolerance towards philosophy, he, on the other, had profound
respect for the Kabbala, perhaps because his master Nachmani had paid
such great homage to it. He confessed that he had not dived very deep
into the subject, and maintained that his contemporaries who occupied
themselves with the study were likewise not very profoundly initiated,
and that their pretended secret traditions were idle boasts. He desired
that the Kabbala be taught only in secret (esoterically), and be not
expounded in public. Ben Adret's greatest power, however, lay in his
acquaintance with the Talmud, because this represented to him, as it
had to his teachers, the alpha and omega of all wisdom. In this he
lived with his whole soul. Every Talmudical expression appeared to
him to be an unfathomable well of the profoundest knowledge, and he
believed that a mind completely absorbed in the study was necessary in
order to reach its depths.
Such was the nature of the man to whom was allotted the task of bearing
aloft the standard of Judaism in these greatly disturbed times, and of
combating the extravagant stories that arose on two sides--from the
philosophers and from the Kabbalists. For forty years the authority of
the Rabbi of Barcelona was paramount in the religious affairs of the
Jews, not alone in Spain, but also in other parts of Europe, as well as
in Asia and Africa. Questions for his decision were sent to him from
France, Germany, Bohemia, Italy, and even from St. Jean d'Acre (Accho)
in Palestine and from northern Africa. Students from Germany sat at his
feet to hear him expound the Talmud. This is the more noteworthy, as
the German rabbis were proud of the learning of their own country, and
would not admit the superiority of the academies of any country over
their own. When David, the grandson of Maimuni, was in great need, he
turned to Ben Adret to obtain assistance. David Maimuni (born 1233,
died 1300), who, like his father and his grandfather, was the prince
(Nagid) over all the congregations in Egypt, had been calumniated by
some evil-minded enemies before the Sultan Kilavun, and accused of
some crime. He put his detractors under a ban of excommunication, but
it appears without effect. At all events, David hoped to be placed on
a safer footing, if he succeeded in appeasing the Sultan by gifts of
money. He applied to Ben Adret, and laid the story of his sufferings
before him; his request met with a ready response. Ben Adret sent an
envoy with a letter to the Spanish congregations to collect funds,
and all the communities joyfully contributed large sums of money to
aid the grandson of the highly revered Maimuni. Whenever any event of
importance took place within Jewish circles, Ben Adret was appealed to
for advice or assistance.
The unique distinction enjoyed by the Rabbi of Barcelona can certainly
not be attributed entirely to his comprehensive knowledge, for at that
time there lived many learned rabbis, and even in Spain there was one
equal to him. His fellow-student and countryman, Aaron Halevi (born
about 1235, died after 1300), was equally well grounded in the Talmud,
also composed works on the subject, and was not his inferior even in
secular knowledge.
Ben Adret, nevertheless, exercised supreme authority over all the
congregations, both far and near. This superiority was conceded to him
on account of his energetic, ever ready defense of Judaism against
attacks from within and without.
The clouds, pregnant with destruction, which burst upon the Jews of the
Pyrenean peninsula two centuries later, began to collect in the time
of Ben Adret. The means which the fanatical General of the Dominicans,
Raymond de Penyaforte, had devised for the conversion of the Jews,
were beginning to be used. The attempts made in Spain during the
period of the Visigoths, on the one hand, to work upon the feelings
of the princes and legislators by means of anti-Jewish writings, and,
on the other, to prevail upon the Jews to desert their faith, were
renewed on a larger scale. There now came forth from the institution
which had been established by Raymond de Penyaforte for the purpose
of instructing the Dominican monks in the literature of the Jews and
Arabs to be used as a means of conversion, a monk, who was the first
man in Europe to sharpen weapons of learning for the contest against
the Jews. Raymund Martin wrote two books full of malevolent hostility
against Judaism, whose very titles announce that the prison cell and
the sword were to be employed against its adherents. They are called
"Bridle for the Jews," and "Dagger of Faith" (Capistrum Judæorum, and
Pugio Fidei). Martin possessed a thorough knowledge of Biblical and
rabbinical literature, and was the first Christian who was better
acquainted with Hebrew than the Church Father Jerome. He read with ease
the Agadic works, the writings of Rashi, Ibn-Ezra, Maimuni and Kimchi,
and used them to show that, not alone in the Bible, but also in the
rabbinical writings, Jesus was recognized as the Messiah and the Son of
God. As might be expected, Raymund Martin laid especial stress upon the
argument that the Jewish laws, although a revelation from God, were not
intended to have force for ever, and they would lose their validity,
particularly at the time of the Messiah. To demonstrate this point, he
adduced apparent proofs from the Agadic literature of the Talmud. He
also urged that the Talmudists had tampered with the text of the Bible.
Although Raymund Martin's "Dagger of Faith" was neither sharp nor
pointed, and although the book is so devoid of spirit that no person
could be seduced by it, yet it made a great impression because of the
amount of learning displayed therein. By means of the subjoined Latin
translation of the Hebrew texts, Christians for the first time were
able to peer into the recesses of the Jewish world of thought, which
had hitherto been an impenetrable secret to them. Dominicans, eager for
the fray, were provided with weapons from this well-stocked arsenal,
and aimed blows with them which, to the superficial observer, appeared
to strike the air only, but which were regarded by Solomon ben Adret as
fraught with danger. He very frequently had interviews with Christian
theologians, and, it appears, with Raymund Martin himself. He heard
from them various statements, and all sorts of arguments to prove the
divine character of Christianity, and was afraid that the weak-minded
and the immature might be induced thereby to abandon the Jewish belief.
In order to counteract this, he wrote a small pamphlet, in which he
briefly refuted all those arguments which were employed at the time by
Christians against Judaism. In this refutation and justification, Ben
Adret manifested a remarkable spirit of moderation and calmness: no
bitter or passionate utterance escaped him.
His polemical writings against a Mahometan writer are much more severe.
This author, with scathing criticism, attacked the three revealed
religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and directed his arrows
very cleverly against their weak points. But Ben Adret's defense is
feeble: it proves the correctness of the Bible from the Bible itself,
and combats his critical opponent with Talmudical weapons. He thus
continually reasons in a circle, and by no means did he achieve a
glorious victory. Ben Adret's activity was productive of better results
within the ranks of Judaism than beyond them. His time was one of great
agitation, in which science and religion were diverging more steadily
and noticeably than before: piety daily widened the gulf between it and
thought; and thought continually separated itself more and more from
the sphere of religion. The Kabbala, growing ever bolder, interfered
in the fierce battle of opinions and religious beliefs, and cast its
dark shadows over the dimly illuminated basis of Judaism. The old
questions, whether Maimuni was to be termed a heretic or not, whether
his philosophical writings were to be shunned or indeed consigned
to the flames, or whether they were to be considered a satisfactory
exposition of Jewish principles,--these questions now burst into new
life, and again caused divisions. In Spain and in southern France,
the strife had been extinguished by the solemn repentance of the
former anti-Maimunist, Jonah I. Since his time, the rabbis of these
congregations held Maimuni in great reverence, and considering his
ideas as indisputably conducive to the strengthening of religion, they
made use of them with more or less skill and lucidity of thought. Even
the most orthodox Talmudists in Spain and Provence quoted sayings of
Maimuni in their expositions of religious questions. But the battle
for and against Maimuni was waged on another scene of action. In the
German and Italian communities, it inflamed the minds of men anew,
penetrated as far as Palestine, and, as it were, enfolded all Judaism
in its embrace. The German Jews, who hitherto had not shown any liking
for science, and who had limited their thoughts to the narrow circle of
the Talmud, were unacquainted with the work of the active spirits of
Montpellier, Saragossa, and Toledo. They did not suspect that Maimuni,
in addition to his code of religious laws, which they accepted, had
left writings of a more questionable nature. They were now rudely
awakened from their happy religious slumber, and their minds agitated
with speculations upon the consequences involved in the Maimunist
philosophy of religion.
The man who rekindled this bitter strife was a learned Talmudist,
named Moses ben Chasdaï Taku (Tachau?), who flourished from about
1250 to 1290. An eccentric, orthodox literalist, he considered all
philosophical and rational views concerning Judaism equal to a
disavowal of the truths of the Torah and the Talmud. Taku was quite
logical in his opposition. He denounced as heretics not only Maimuni
and Ibn-Ezra, but also the Gaon Saadiah, because the latter, in his
writings on philosophy, had been the pioneer in this path. The new
study had thus originated with him; before his time it had been
unheard of in Jewish circles. Led by an unerring instinct, Taku
justly affirmed that these men had paved the way for the Karaites.
He maintained that it was the bounden duty of every pious Jew, who
believed in the written and oral Law, to keep himself aloof from their
folly. Moses Taku, with his curious notions, certainly did not occupy
an isolated position among the German rabbis. Other men, who had been
nurtured in the same school, undoubtedly were in entire agreement
with him: but they did not all possess the courage or versatility to
take part in a contest against the well-armed representatives of the
philosophical school. The most distinguished among them was Meïr ben
Baruch of Rothenburg on the Tauber (born 1220, died 1293), on whom the
last rays of the dying school of the Tossafists continued to linger.
He probably was the first official chief rabbi in the German kingdom,
having perhaps received this title from Emperor Rudolph, the first of
the house of Habsburg. Although he is sometimes reckoned among the
Tossafists, yet his Talmudical writings reveal comprehensive erudition
rather than originality or acuteness. He can in no way be compared
with Ben Adret; however, he was an authority in Germany and northern
France. His piety was of an exaggerated kind. It had been agreed by
the French rabbis that in winter rooms might be warmed on the Sabbath
by Christians. Meïr of Rothenburg would not allow the Sabbath to be
desecrated in this indirect way. He therefore tightly fastened up the
doors of the stoves in his house, because the servant-maid had several
times made a fire unbidden. In general, the German Jews were more
scrupulous than those of other countries; they, for instance, still
observed the fast of the Day of Atonement for two consecutive days.
What position the German rabbis took in reference to the denunciation
of philosophy and of Maimuni, revived by Moses Taku, is not
authentically known, but may be inferred from an event which was the
cause of much scandal elsewhere.
A French or Rhenish Kabbalist, who had emigrated to Jean d'Acre
(Accho), was stirred up by even more intense zeal than Moses Taku.
This man, whose name was Solomon Petit, made it the aim of his life
to kindle again the pyre for the wholesale burning of the writings of
Maimuni, and to plant the standard of the Kabbala upon the grave of
philosophy. At Accho he gathered a circle of pupils around him, whom he
initiated into the knowledge of the secret art, and to whom he related
marvelous stories in order to cast disrepute upon philosophy. Accho was
at this time a very nest of Kabbalists and mystics, of whom the greater
number were pupils of Nachmani. Although the days of this town, the
last stronghold of the much reduced Christian kingdom of Jerusalem,
were numbered, these dabblers in the mystic art conducted themselves as
if they were destined to remain there for ever. Solomon Petit thought
that he could command sufficient support to venture upon carrying into
execution his plan of publishing once more a sentence of condemnation
upon Maimunist writings, of forbidding under penalties all scientific
study, and excommunicating men engaged in independent research. His
fanaticism was especially directed against Maimuni's "Guide" (Moré); in
his opinion it deserved to be proscribed, like other heretical works.
He enlisted many followers in Palestine to aid him in this attack on
heresy. Who would not obey, when the voice of the Holy Land had caused
itself to be heard? Who would attempt to justify what it had condemned?
But the zealot Solomon Petit met with unexpected opposition.
At the head of the Eastern congregations at this time, there stood
an energetic man, Yishaï ben Chiskiya, who had obtained the title of
Prince and Exilarch (Resh-Galuta) from the temporal authorities. Those
communities of Palestine which were under the rule of the Mahometans
and of the Egyptian Sultan Kilavun, naturally belonged to his diocese,
and he also claimed obedience from the community at Accho, although
it was in the hands of the crusaders. The Exilarch Yishaï held
Maimuni in the highest respect, and was on friendly terms with his
grandson, David, the Nagid of Egypt. As soon as he received information
concerning the doings of Solomon Petit, the mystic of Accho, he
dispatched a sharp letter to him, and threatened to excommunicate him
if he persisted in his attacks on Maimuni and his writings. Several
rabbis, whom Yishaï had called in, to add the weight of their authority
to his, expressed themselves to the same effect. But Solomon Petit
was not a man to permit himself to be overpowered by obstacles. He
undertook a journey to Europe, visited the large congregations, and
described the danger of the Maimunistic writings to the rabbis and
other distinguished persons. He overawed them by his knowledge of the
Kabbala, succeeded in persuading many to join him, and announce, in
documents bearing their signatures, that the philosophical writings of
Maimuni contained heresies, that they deserved to be put aside or even
burnt, and that no Jew ought to read them. Nowhere did Solomon Petit
meet with such hearty support as with the German rabbis. They showed
their approval of his action in letters, even some of those who had
recently been in agreement with the Exilarch Yishaï.
Being assured of the assistance of the German and of some of the French
rabbis, Solomon Petit started on his return journey through Italy,
and sought to obtain partisans in that country also; but there he
met with the least response, for just as Maimuni was finding fresh
antagonists in Germany, so his admirers were increasing in Italy.
The Italian communities, which hitherto had rivaled the Germans in
ignorance of every kind, were just awakening from their torpidity, and
their recently opened eyes turned to the light which emanated from
Maimuni. Their political condition was not unfavorable; in fact, within
the precincts of St. Peter, they were at that time in more propitious
circumstances than any of the Jews of central Europe. The canonical
laws against the Jews were nowhere more disregarded than in Italy. The
small states and municipalities, into which the country was split up at
this time, were too jealous of their liberty to permit the clergy to
exert any influence over their domestic concerns. The city of Ferrara
passed a statute in favor of the Jews, granting many liberties to them,
and containing a clause stating, that a magistrate (podestà) could be
empowered neither by the pope nor by any one else to deprive them of
these privileges. Not only had the king of Sicily, Charles of Anjou, a
Jewish physician, Farraj Ibn-Solomon, who, under the name of Farragut,
was held in high repute as a scholar in Christian circles, but even the
pope himself transgressed the canonical decree which forbade any one's
taking medical assistance from a Jew. One of the four popes who reigned
during the short period of thirteen years (1279 to 1291) entrusted his
holy person to the care of a Jewish physician, Isaac ben Mordecai, who
bore the title of Maestro Gajo.
The prosperity enjoyed by Italy in consequence of the wide extension
of its flourishing commerce, and the fondness for art and poetry which
sprang up at this time, during the youth of the poet Dante, affected
also the Italian Jews, and aroused them from their hitherto dormant
condition.
The philosophical writings of Maimuni made their influence in favor
of the higher culture felt upon the minds of the Italian Jews. About
this time, they began to occupy themselves earnestly with the "Guide,"
and intellectual men delivered discourses upon this profound work. The
origin of this revival may be traced back to Anatoli, but Hillel of
Verona must be considered the founder and promulgator of the scientific
method among the Italian Jews. Maimuni had no warmer admirer than
this true-hearted and energetic man, who, though somewhat limited in
range of ideas, was exceedingly lovable. Hillel ben Samuel of Verona
(born about 1220, died about 1295), a zealous Talmud disciple of Jonah
Gerundi, in no way partook of the intolerant and heresy-hunting spirit
which characterized his teacher. He had been a witness of the latter's
genuine atonement for calling in the aid of the Dominicans in his
fanatical onslaught on the writings of Maimuni, and since that time
Hillel almost worshiped Maimuni. He avoided Talmudic one-sidedness, and
turned his mind also to general studies. He made himself so thoroughly
acquainted with the Latin language--a rare accomplishment among the
Jews of his day--that he was able to compose in Latin with great ease;
he translated a work upon surgery from this language into Hebrew.
Indeed, Hillel's Hebrew style was influenced by the peculiarities of
Latin syntax. He wrote beautiful, clear, terse Hebrew prose, entirely
free from the verbose phraseology and ornate flourishes of the style
then in vogue. At first he practised the profession of medicine in
Rome, afterwards in Capua and Ferrara, and in his old age in Forli.
With all his intellectual powers Hillel became absorbed in Maimuni's
writings on the philosophy of religion, notwithstanding which he
remained true to his religious belief, clinging to it with great
tenacity. The miracles in the Bible and the Talmud were not regarded
by him as fanciful allegories, but on the contrary retained their
character as real events. About this time there lived in Italy two
logical thinkers, one a native born Italian, Sabbataï ben Solomon,
of Rome--in his time a very distinguished personage--and the other,
a Spaniard, who had emigrated to Rome, Serachya ben Isaac, a member
of the renowned family of Ben Shaltiel-Chen (Gracian?), whose home
was in Barcelona. The latter, famous as a physician and an adept in
the Aristotelian philosophy, was a passionate opponent of the belief
in miracles. The desire of the Italian Jews for knowledge is well
illustrated by an anecdote wittily told by an Italian Jewish poet.
A Jewish scholar from Toledo arrived at Perugia with eighty books
upon science--a considerable library in those days--and, in order to
continue his journey more comfortably, he tied them up, sealed them,
and left them in Perugia. He had scarcely left the place, when those
eager seekers after knowledge, unable to repress their curiosity, broke
open the parcel, and possessed themselves of the mental treasures that
it contained. The young poet, Immanuel Romi, who perhaps was concerned
in this affair, drank in with all the vigor of his ardent mind, the
spirit which Hillel of Verona and Serachya-Chen had distilled for the
Italian Jews from the writings of Maimuni.
It is quite obvious that in the presence of this revival of culture
among the congregations of Italy, the Kabbalist Solomon Petit could not
possibly meet with support in his effort to enlist adherents for his
denunciation of Maimuni. The fanatic was clever enough not to drop a
word of his intentions there. When he arrived at Jean d'Acre (Accho)
with the letters against Maimuni written by the German rabbis, he set
to work to encourage his confederates, who had been intimidated by
the threats of the prince-rabbi of Damascus, to arouse fresh strife,
and to induce them to pronounce sentence of excommunication against
Maimuni's philosophical writings. The Kabbalists of this community
readily assented to his plan, condemned the "Guide" of Maimuni to be
burnt, and threatened with excommunication all who might henceforth
study it. The Kabbala despite its youth felt itself so powerful,
that it imagined itself able to extirpate the firmly-rooted spirit
of inquiry from the midst of Judaism. It appears that the tomb of
Maimuni at Tiberias was desecrated by these Kabbalists. Instead of
the laudatory inscription written on the stone, they substituted,
"Moses Maimuni, the excommunicated heretic." However, the community
at Accho did not, as a whole, agree with this disgraceful charge of
heresy: there were in it warm admirers of Maimuni, and strenuous
opponents of his condemnation by self-constituted authorities. Thus
there broke out fierce strife in the very heart of the community,
which actually led to blows. The news of this contention rapidly
spread through the countries in communication with Palestine, and
called forth universal indignation. Hillel of Verona, who had been a
witness of the destructive consequences of the contest about Maimuni
in France, displayed great energy to prevent a repetition. He sent
letters to David Maimuni and the congregations in Egypt and Babylonia
(Irak), and proposed the following plan for extinguishing once for
all the destructive flame of dissension kindled by the writings of
Maimuni, which so often blazed up afresh. He suggested that the most
distinguished rabbis of the Jews in the East should assemble at a
synod at Alexandria, and summon the German rabbis who had supported
Solomon Petit to justify their conduct. If they could prove that
the philosophical writings of Maimuni contained actual heresies and
notions opposed to the Bible and the Talmud, which Hillel himself
believed impossible, then it was only just that Maimuni's writings
should be condemned, and removed from the hands of the public. If,
however, the German rabbis were unable to defend and justify their
accusations of heresy, then they should be compelled, under penalty of
excommunication, to submit to the universal verdict of the excellence
of the "Guide" of Maimuni, and to abstain in future from stirring up
discord and division by their opposition to Maimuni's philosophy. The
rabbis of Babylonia, who had possessed authority from time immemorial,
were to pronounce judgment.
This energetic action in Europe, and the strenuous exertions of
Hillel, were not really necessary in order to disturb the work of
the mystics in Accho. Solomon Petit and his Kabbalistic faction were
isolated in the East. As soon as David Maimuni received information of
the condemnation passed upon his grandfather, he journeyed to Accho,
where he met with support from the section of the community opposed to
fanaticism. He addressed letters to all congregations, calling upon
them to take up the defense of the honor of his grandfather against the
Jewish Dominicans, the heresy-hunting and narrow-minded Kabbalists.
Everywhere he met with approval. The Prince of the Captivity at
Mosul, named David ben Daniel, who traced his origin back to King
David, and who was the head of the communities on this side of the
Tigris, declared that he would place Petit under the severest ban of
excommunication till he ceased his attempts to create a disturbance
(Iyar, 1289). Eleven rabbis of his college signed this threat against
the heresy-hunter of Accho. The Exilarch of Damascus, Yishaï ben
Chiskiya, who had already issued a warning against these attacks on
Maimuni, again took energetic action in the matter. Together with his
college of twelve associates, he pronounced a ban of excommunication
(Tammuz--June, 1289), not merely against Solomon Petit and his
partisans, but also against any person who dared speak in terms of
contempt and disrespect of Maimuni, or who accused his writings of
heresy. All persons who possessed any books hostile to Maimuni were
commanded to yield them up to David Maimuni or his sons, as quickly
as possible, so that no improper use might be made of them. If any
persons who at the time dwelt in Accho, or who would immigrate thither
at some later time, refused to obey the decisions of the Prince of the
Captivity and his colleagues, it was incumbent upon every Jew to employ
all possible means to render these men incapable of doing any harm, and
even to call in the aid of the secular authorities.
The important congregation of Safet also gave assent to the edict
in favor of Maimuni. The rabbi of the town, Moses ben Jehuda Cohen,
together with his colleagues, and a portion of the community of
Accho, repeated at the grave of Maimuni in Tiberias the formula of
excommunication against all who continued their obstinate enmity
against him, against those who refused to surrender writings accusing
him of heterodoxy, and especially against all who disobeyed the
decisions of the Prince of the Captivity, "seeing that they who incite
discord in the communities deny the Torah, which preaches peace, and
they mock at God, who is peace itself." All the congregations and
rabbis in Palestine took up the cause of Maimuni. The members of the
community of Bagdad, who at this time basked in the sunshine of the
favor of a prominent Jewish statesman, and at whose head as the chief
of the academy was Samuel Cohen ben Daniel, also expressed themselves
to the same effect (Tishri--September, 1289). The Kabbalists of Accho
were condemned by public opinion, and the Exilarch of Damascus took
care to acquaint the European communities with what had occurred. The
testimonials in favor of Maimuni were forwarded to Barcelona, probably
to Solomon ben Adret. The philosopher and poet, Shem-Tob Falaquera,
a prolific writer, took advantage of the favorable opportunity to
publish a vindication of the "Guide" of Maimuni, saying that in his
opinion only very few, perhaps only one person--who was able to read
this work on the philosophy of religion in the original--could render
it sufficient justice. But in Spain, Maimuni required no advocates;
for it was seldom that any one ventured to speak in derogatory terms
of his opinions. Though pious Spaniards might here and there have
found something to cavil at, they, nevertheless, paid great honor to
Maimuni's name.
The German rabbis, by whom Solomon Petit had been supported, had no
leisure to note the issue of the strife concerning Maimuni. They
were too much occupied with their own affairs. During the reign of
Emperor Rudolph of Habsburg, such severe troubles befell the German
communities that they determined on emigrating _en masse_. Rudolph,
who from a poor knight had become the ruler over the German empire,
did not, indeed, threaten their lives, but had designs upon their
money. His coffers were empty, and he was in need of means to enable
him to subdue the proud nobles, and to lay the foundation of the power
of the house of Habsburg. Jews indeed advanced large sums of money to
the poor duke, to whom the crown of an empire had unexpectedly fallen,
one of his creditors being Amshel Oppenheimer. But these voluntary
advances did not satisfy him, and did not prevent him from extorting
larger sums from them. Every favor which he conceded them, and every
protection which he extended to them, was preceded by the payment of a
considerable present in money. As Rudolph always kept his own advantage
in view, a mark of favor displayed towards the Jews was regularly
followed by some restriction, so that he might always have them under
his control.
He confirmed the privileges of the old congregation at Ratisbon, which
it had possessed from ancient days, acknowledging among other things,
that it might exercise its own jurisdiction in civil affairs, and
that none of its members could be convicted of any crime without the
corroborative evidence of a Jewish witness. At the instigation of the
bishop, however, he promulgated a decree that the Jews of Ratisbon
should remain at home during Eastertide, not show themselves on roads
and streets to the "ignominy of the Christian faith," and were to
fasten their doors and windows. For the congregations in Austria,
Emperor Rudolph confirmed the statute in favor of the Jews passed by
Archduke Frederick the Valiant, which afforded protection against
persecution and murder. On the other hand, a year later, he issued
a special decree to the citizens of Vienna, which solemnly declared
the ineligibility of the Jews for public offices. Pope Innocent IV
had exonerated them from the charge of child-murder at Passover. Pope
Gregory X (1271-1278), at the request of the Jews, had issued a bull,
which ordained that they were not to be made by brute force to undergo
baptism, and that no injury was to be inflicted upon their persons or
their property. Emperor Rudolph ratified these bulls, adding that "it
is not true that the Jews feed upon the heart of a slain child on the
days of the Passover festival." In order that they might be able to
live under his protection, assured of the imperial grace, he confirmed
and repeated all the edicts which had been issued by the popes in their
favor, especially the one which declared that Jews could be condemned
only on the valid evidence of Jews and Christians. He also afforded
them many other means of protection, and inflicted punishment upon some
murderers of innocent Jews in Lorch. But as the Germans had of old been
accustomed to anarchy, there arose, during his reign, a large number
of blood-accusations, and massacres of Jews, which the emperor partly
left unpunished, partly encouraged.
About Easter time a dead Christian child was discovered at Mayence, and
now again arose the lying rumor that the Jews of Mayence had murdered
it. In vain did Archbishop Werner, of Mayence, the Lord Chancellor of
the kingdom, exert himself with great energy to appease the excited
mob, to institute a regular trial against the accused, and to discover
the guilty persons. The Christians, whom the sight of the corpse filled
with intense fury, attacked their Jewish neighbors on the second day of
Easter (or the last day but one of Passover, 19th April, 1283), slew
ten persons, and pillaged the Jewish houses. The persecution would
have been much more bloody, had not Archbishop Werner energetically
intervened for the defense of "his" Jews. Emperor Rudolph is reported
to have commanded an inquiry to be made into the matter later on, and
to have confirmed the judgment passed upon the Jews, and acquitted the
citizens of Mayence from all blame. The possessions of which they had
been plundered he is said to have confiscated, not, however, for the
benefit of his own treasury, but to be distributed among the poor; for
he would not make use of any property acquired by usury, nor would
he permit the Church to use it. In other respects, Emperor Rudolph
was by no means conscientious. On the day of the attack in Mayence,
twenty-six Jews were put to death in Bacharach. Two years later (11th
October, 1285) heartrending sufferings befell the congregation of
Munich. At this place also the false charge was circulated that the
Jews had purchased a Christian child from an old woman, and had killed
it. Without waiting for any judicial investigation of these charges,
the infuriated populace fell upon the Jews, and put to death all who
fell into their hands. The remaining Jews had fled for refuge to the
synagogue. Thereupon the adherents of the religion of love procured
some inflammable material, placed it around the building, and set fire
to the house of prayer. One hundred and eighty persons, old and young,
were thus burnt to death. Not long after this, more than forty Jews
of Oberwesel, near Bacharach, and others in Boppard, were innocently
murdered (1286). The charge against them was that they had secretly
drawn out the blood of a pious man, called by the people "the good
Werner." The credulous asserted that light had issued from his corpse,
on which account this so-called saint became the object of pilgrimages.
Emperor Rudolph, however, some time later stripped the man of sanctity,
and absolved the Jews from the guilt of his death.
There can be no doubt that it was owing to the annually repeated
persecutions, the insecurity of their existence and their wretched
state, that the Jews of several congregations resolved to shake the
dust of Germany from their feet, and, together with their wives and
children, to wander forth and seek a new home. Many families from
the cities of Mayence, Worms, Speyer, Oppenheim, and others, in the
Wetterau, left their rich possessions in order to go across the sea.
At the head of these emigrants was the most famous rabbi of Germany,
Meïr of Rothenburg, who was revered as a saint. He also wandered forth,
together with his whole family, to make his way to Syria (spring,
1286). A rumor was current that in this land the Messiah had made his
appearance, and would redeem unhappy Israel from its troubles.
At this time all eyes in the East beheld with astonishment a Jewish
statesman as the most distinguished personage at the court of a Mongol
Grand Khan, whose dominion extended from the lower Euphrates and the
borders of Syria to the Caspian Sea. The Mongols, or Tartars, had
founded a large kingdom in Persia, which was only nominally subject to
the khanate of Mongolia and China. After Hulagu, the founder of this
kingdom, and his son Abaka (Abagha), his second son had succeeded to
the throne, and he embraced Islam, and assumed the name of Ahmed. The
Mongols of Persia were, however, dissatisfied with this proceeding:
Ahmed was dethroned, and put to death. His successor, in the
Perso-Mongolian kingdom, was Argun, the son of Abaka (1284-91). Argun
displayed marked aversion to Islam, and a special liking for Jews and
Christians. This Grand Khan had a Jewish physician, named Saad-Addaula
(perhaps the same as Mordecai Ibn-Alcharbiya), a man possessed of
wide learning, acute intellect, political insight, and disinterested
character. As he had frequent dealings with Mongols, he was acquainted
with their language as well as with Arabic. He had a handsome
appearance, charming manners, and the suppleness of a diplomat. He also
had a taste for poetry and science, and in later years became their
patron. Saad-Addaula practised in Bagdad, where Argun very often held
his court. The Grand Khan once fell ill, and was restored to health by
Saad. He conversed with the physician to whom he owed his recovery,
upon state matters, and learnt from him particulars of the condition
of the revenue, which the officials and courtiers, out of avarice, had
diligently concealed from the Grand Khan. From that time Saad-Addaula
became his favorite and counselor, and rose step by step to the
position of the highest state official.
Many wealthy Jews of the districts of the Rhine and the Maine started
on their journey; and Meïr of Rothenburg reached Lombardy, together
with his whole family. He was only waiting for the members of his
congregation in order to take ship in Italy, and, together with other
exiles, steer their course towards the East into the haven of safety.
Unfortunately, Meïr was recognized by a baptized Jew, who was passing
through the same town in the train of the bishop of Basle. At the
instigation of the bishop, the captain, Meinhard of Görz, took him
prisoner, and delivered him to the authorities. Emperor Rudolph ordered
him to be placed under arrest in the tower of Ensisheim, in Alsace (4th
Tammuz--19th June, 1286). The emperor did not intend to punish the
runaway rabbi, but to keep him safe and prevent him from emigrating. He
was afraid that, by the departure of the Jews _en masse_, the imperial
income obtained from these serfs of the chamber ("servi cameræ") would
suffer heavy loss. Meïr's imprisonment was, therefore, not a severe
one. He was permitted to receive visits, to instruct his pupils, and to
perform all the functions of a rabbi, but he was not permitted to leave
the place.
The German Jews, however, could not feel easy while their highly
respected chief remained in custody: they, therefore, sent deputies
to Emperor Rudolph, when he paid a visit to the Rhine country (in the
year 1288). Being then, as usual, in need of money, he entered into
negotiations with them. The Jews offered him 20,000 marks of silver if
he would inflict punishment upon the murderers of the Jews of Oberwesel
and Boppard, release Meïr from custody, and guarantee to them security
against murderous outrages at the hands of the populace. The emperor
acceded to their terms, and laid a heavy fine upon the citizens of
Oberwesel and Boppard. Meïr was not, however, released from prison,
either because the emperor hoped to make capital of the respect of the
Jews for their rabbi, and to extract large sums of money from them, or,
as is related, because Meïr himself refused to be liberated on these
terms. He feared that the precedent of imprisoning the rabbis to extort
ransoms from the Jews, would be frequently resorted to in after times,
and therefore continued for five years longer under arrest. From prison
he sent replies to inquiries addressed to him, and composed several
works there. He died in prison, and the successors of Rudolph kept his
corpse unburied for fourteen years, in order to extort money from the
congregations. At length a childless man from Frankfort, named Süsskind
Alexander Wimpfen, ransomed the body for a large sum, and interred it
in Worms. The only reward which the noble Wimpfen demanded was that his
bones might be laid by the side of the pious rabbi.
At about this time the Jews of England suffered the extremity of
misfortune. They were more unhappy, if that was possible, than the
German Jews. Before being expelled, they had to pass through every
degree of misery. At the accession of the new king, Edward I, they had
prospects of a secure existence, seeing that this monarch, the very
opposite of his father, was severe but just; he showed them no favors,
but, on the other hand, he extorted nothing from them, and at all
events was able to protect them from the attacks of the deluded mob.
Edward took very great care that the Jews of his land be not made to
suffer nor be subjected to caprice, and that no injury be done either
to their persons or their property. They might have lived on in this
lowly state, bowed down beneath the burden of the imposts, and wearying
themselves to satisfy, through usury, the insatiable demands of the
royal treasury, had not a slight occurrence made them the object of the
bitter hatred of the monks.
In London there lived a Dominican, named Robert de Redingge, who
inflamed the minds of the people by his eloquence in the pulpit. He
had studied the Hebrew language, on the cultivation of which so much
stress had been laid by the third general of the order, Raymond de
Penyaforte, to enable the monks to convert the Jews by means of their
own writings. But instead of converting them, the preaching friar,
Robert de Reddinge, became himself converted. He was inspired by so
deep a love for Judaism that he underwent circumcision, assumed the
name of Haggaï, and married a beautiful Jewess (summer of 1275). When
he was summoned to answer for his apostasy, he defended his new faith
with great warmth. King Edward handed him over for punishment to the
archbishop of Canterbury. What was done to him is not known; but it
appears that he, together with his wife, escaped unhurt. The Dominicans
were, however, enraged at his conversion, for they considered the
apostasy of one of their members as a disgraceful blot upon their
order. Touched to the quick by the mockery of the people and their
rivals the Franciscans, who deeply hated them, the preaching friars
sought to wreak their vengeance upon the Jews. As the king could not
be approached except by some intermediate agent, they brought their
influence to bear upon the bigoted, avaricious queen-mother Eleanor,
and they succeeded. She identified herself with the cause of the
Dominicans against the Jews, and did not desist till the English Jews
had drained the cup of tribulation to the dregs. She first expelled the
Jews from the town of Cambridge which belonged to her, and personally
fostered the hostile feeling against them throughout the whole country,
especially among Christian merchants.
There now commenced, almost against the will of the king, a series
of burdensome oppressions, which would appear incredible, were they
not authenticated by the testimony of trustworthy sources. Hitherto
Parliament had had nothing to do with the Jews; they were considered
the king's people, over whom neither the commons nor the nobility had
any authority. Just at this time, however, incited by the Dominicans
and the queen-mother, the House of Commons passed a statute (called the
Statute of Judaism), which breathes the inimical spirit of the Church.
It positively prohibited the Jews from taking usury. They were allowed
to reside only in royal cities and boroughs. If they had to enforce
payment of debts by law, they could not distress beyond the moiety of
the debtor's property. Every Jew above the age of twelve was to pay
the sum of three pence to the king at Easter. The House of Commons
strictly enforced the wearing of the Jew-badge, determined its size
and color (substituting yellow for white), and forbade all intercourse
with Christians. As an English writer, Tovey, remarks, the Jews in
England were treated like their ancestors in Egypt, except that instead
of bricks they had to furnish gold. This comparison is good at every
point, nothing was granted to them, and yet they were obliged to render
a complete tale of services. Even for the privilege of trading they had
to rely upon the favor of the king, and to pay a price for it.
A favorable opportunity soon presented itself to the enemies of the
Jews to prefer grave charges against them. Counterfeit coins, imported
from abroad, were in circulation in England; the coin of the country
also was often clipped. The charge was directed against the Jews, that
they were the sole originators and circulators of the counterfeit
coins. In consequence of this, on Friday, 17th November, 1278, all the
Jews of England, together with their wives and children, were thrown
into prison, and their houses searched. It was afterwards proved that
many Christians, and even some noblemen of London, had been guilty of
counterfeiting the coin of the realm, and that throughout the whole
kingdom only 293 Jews had been convicted of the crime of which they
were accused. Nevertheless, over 10,000 Jews were made to suffer for
this act, and whilst the Christians who were implicated, with the
exception of three, were liberated on payment of a fine, the 293 Jews
were hanged, others sentenced to imprisonment for life, and still
others expelled from the country and their possessions confiscated.
But the hatred against them was not spent. The Jews continued to be
accused of passing counterfeit coins, and their enemies tried to
smuggle them into their possession, and then by threatening to denounce
them, extorted money from them. Edward, who became acquainted with
these intrigues, issued a law (May, 1279), which enacted that charges
of tampering with the coin of the realm could only be brought forward
till the May of the following year, and thus put a stop to all these
denunciations.
The enemies of the Jews, however, did not tire of forging new charges
against them. It was soon reported that the Jews of Northampton had
crucified a Christian child. For this alleged crime many Jews in London
were torn asunder by horses, and their corpses hung on the gallows
(2nd April, 1279). Next, the Jews were charged with acts of disrespect
to Christian emblems. The king thereupon issued a decree that the
blasphemers were to be punished with death. As, however, Edward knew
his people, he added that the accused were to receive punishment
only if convicted by the evidence of honest, impartial witnesses of
the transgression. In order to lead the Jews on to blasphemous acts,
the Dominicans devised an infamous trick. They besought the king to
permit them to preach to the Jews for the purpose of converting them.
They knew that one or other of them would be transported by zeal for
his religion, and would make use of an offensive expression. Edward
granted them this permission at the request of the prior (1280), and
warned the Jews to listen to the sermons of the Dominicans patiently,
without turbulence, contradiction, or blasphemy. To promote their
conversion, the king even sacrificed money. The extraordinary law,
that the Jews who went over to Christianity were to forfeit their
property to the treasury, Edward partly abrogated, and decreed that
they might retain a half. He moreover ordered the erection of a house
for converts of the Jewish race, and endowed it with a revenue, which,
however, flowed mainly into the pockets of the overseer. A scholastic
philosopher of that time suggested another means for the conversion of
the Jews. The celebrated Franciscan monk, Duns Scotus (professor at
Oxford, afterwards in Paris and Cologne), who had nurtured his mind
with the thoughts of the Jewish philosopher Gebirol, held that it was
the duty of the king, if he wished to show Christian zeal, to tear
Jewish children away from their parents, and cause them to be educated
in the Christian faith. Still more, it was perfectly justifiable to
force the parents themselves, by all sorts of threats, to submit to
baptism. How much respect the Jews entertained for the Christianity of
the worldly-minded and rapacious popes, ferocious princes, and sensual
monks, is shown by a peculiar incident. A Jewess complained to the
king that her own and her husband's enemies had defamed her by calling
her a convert, and she entreated him to secure her redress for this
insult. Whilst the queen-mother, Eleanor, was exerting herself at the
instance of the Dominicans to inflame the king and the people against
the Jews, the queen, also named Eleanor, bestowed her favor on them.
She prayed the king to confer the vacant chief rabbinate of the English
congregation on her favorite Hagin (Chayim) Denlacres. The king granted
her prayer, and installed Hagin as chief rabbi, with all the powers and
privileges which his predecessors had enjoyed (15th May, 1281).
When the king settled the chief rabbinate of England on Hagin and his
heirs, he had no thought of expelling the Jews from his kingdom.
Gradually, however, the fanatical party and his mother gained more
influence over him, and disturbed his clear perceptions. This party in
England, probably the Dominicans, appeared before the newly-elected
pope, Honorius IV, lodging the serious accusations against the Jews,
that they not only held friendly intercourse with Christians, but
that they encouraged the return of baptized Jews to Judaism, invited
Christians on Sabbaths and festivals to the synagogue, made them bend
the knee before the Torah, and enticed them to adopt Jewish customs.
The pope accordingly sent a missive to the archbishop of York and his
legate, bidding them employ every means to put a stop to this improper
conduct. On the 16th of April, 1287, a Church assembly was held in
Exeter, which renewed all the hateful canonical resolutions against the
Jews. A fortnight later (2nd May) the king for the second time ordered
the arrest of all English Jews with their wives and children, an act
for which no cause can be assigned. Nor did he release them until he
received a large ransom. Three years later, in 1290, Edward, instigated
by his mother, issued an edict on his own authority, without the
consent of Parliament, that all the Jews of England were to be banished
from the country. They were given till the first of November to change
their goods into money. Any Jew found on English soil after that date
was to be hanged. But they had to restore all pledges of Christian
debtors to their owners before that time. Edward was mild enough
strongly to impress upon his officials not to molest the Jews on their
departure, and he warned the sailing-masters at the five ports not to
insult them. Although their respite lasted till the 1st of November,
the 16,511 Jews of England left the country by the 9th of October. The
real estate which they had not succeeded in selling, escheated to the
king. In spite of the king's orders, the expelled Jews were exposed
to all sorts of ill-treatment. One captain, who was employed to convey
several families down the Thames to the sea, ran the ship against a
sandbank, and made them disembark until the rising of the tide. When
the tide began to return, he re-embarked, and his sailors went aboard,
sailed away, and called out scornfully to the despairing Jews, "Cry
unto Moses, who led your ancestors safely through the Red Sea, to bring
you to dry land." The unhappy people perished in the waves. This affair
came to the ears of the judges, and the ringleaders were hanged as
murderers. How many similar incidents may have occurred and remained
unpunished! The Jews of Gascony, which at that time belonged to
England, were also expelled. The banished Jews directed their steps to
France, the nearest refuge. There they were at first received by Philip
IV, le Bel. But soon after the king and the Parliament together decreed
that the Jews who had been driven out of England and Gascony were to
leave French territory by the middle of Lent. Once more were they
compelled to set out on their pilgrimage; some of them went to Germany,
the others probably to northern Spain.
As if an evil destiny were pursuing the sons of Jacob, like a shadow,
never leaving them for a moment, the short spell of fortune enjoyed
through Saad-Addaula by the Jews of Asia soon turned to destruction.
The physician of the Grand Khan of Persia had drawn attention to the
fraudulent conduct of the finance officials; for which service he
had been appointed commissary, and sent to Bagdad to investigate the
condition of the revenue, and to bring the fraudulent administrators
to account (end of 1288). Saad-Addaula succeeded in restoring the
revenues to such order, that he was able to remit to the Grand Khan
Argun considerable sums, which he had not expected. Argun, who loved
gold, was delighted with his Jewish commissary, and distinguished him
by all possible marks of honor. As Saad-Addaula acted disinterestedly,
and was concerned only for the good of his master, he was able
continually to put larger sums of money into the treasury, and thus
won for himself ever more favor from this great khan. Ultimately Argun
appointed him minister of finance for the whole Iranian (Persian)
empire, and conferred on him the honorable title of Saad-Addaula,
"Support of the Empire" (summer, 1288). He was ordered to employ only
Jews and Christians in offices, as the khan disliked Mahometans on
account of their rebellious attitude. It was natural that Saad-Addaula
should employ his relatives, for he could best depend upon their zeal
to assist him in his difficult office. Through the fidelity with which
Saad-Addaula served his master, he won so much confidence, that nearly
all state affairs went through his hands, and he had the authority to
make decisions without referring the points to the great khan. Probably
through his instrumentality and advice Argun established diplomatic
connections with Europe, and even with the pope. Through the help of
the Europeans, the Mahometans were to be driven out of Asia Minor,
particularly out of Palestine. The pope, however, flattered himself
that Argun would become a member of the Catholic Church.
The Jewish minister, indeed, deserved the high favor with which Argun
honored him. Where hitherto there had prevailed license and abuse
of power in the empire, he introduced law and order. The military
captains were forbidden to interfere with the administration of
justice, the legal tribunals were admonished to protect the weak and
the innocent. As the Mongols had no judicial code, Saad-Addaula put
the Mahometan laws into force, as far as they bore upon the civil and
penal administration of justice. The peaceful population blessed him
for the security of life and property for which they were indebted to
him. Saad-Addaula also patronized learning, settled handsome annuities
upon learned men and poets, and encouraged them in their literary
undertakings. In consequence he was extolled and praised by men of
letters in prose and verse.
The Eastern Jews felt themselves happy and exalted through the
elevation of their co-religionist to the highest post of the empire.
From the most remote countries there flowed a stream of Jews to the
Persian Khanate, to bask in the favor of the Jewish minister. They
unanimously said, "God has elevated this man in the latter days as a
Lord of Redemption and to sustain our hope." Neo-Hebraic poetry, which
had arisen in the East, but had sunk into jarring discord, or become
altogether silent, appears to have recovered in order to proclaim his
glory.
Saad-Addaula, however, had aroused many powerful enemies through
his resolute administration and his love of justice and order. The
Mahometans, who were shut out of every office, beheld, with deep
vexation, that Jews and Christians, whom they were accustomed to
despise as infidel dogs, were in possession of the government. They
were, moreover, urged on by their priests and learned men to a most
violent hatred of the Jewish statesman, to whom they imputed their
humiliation. They accordingly spread the report that Saad-Addaula was
contemplating the establishment of a new religion, and the proclamation
of the great khan as the religious lawgiver and prophet. To excite
their bigotry still more, they reported that Saad-Addaula had completed
preparations for an expedition to Mecca, to transform the hallowed
abode of the Kaaba into an idolatrous temple and to compel the
Mahometans once more to become heathens. The order of the Ishmaelite
murderers, the Assassins, which was organized for the purpose of
putting to death actual or supposed enemies of Islam, immediately made
arrangements clandestinely to remove Saad-Addaula and his relatives.
But their plot was betrayed, and it was frustrated by him.
The Jewish minister had many opponents even among the Mongols. The
military captains were incensed against him, because he had laid
a restraint upon their license. A conspiracy was hatched also in
Mongol circles. It was given out that he had commissioned a Jew,
Neglib-Eddin, to proceed to Khorasan and put to death two hundred of
the most distinguished Mongols; and that his relative, Shem-Addaula,
had received instructions to remove many priests and chiefs of the
city. Unfortunately, Argun fell seriously ill (November, 1290), and
his sickness was a signal for the discontented to make a conspiracy
against Saad-Addaula and his adherents. The minister, in vain,
exerted himself to secure the recovery of the Khan, for he saw that
the latter's death meant his own. He even sent a messenger secretly
to Argun's son to ensure his speedy return to the court, in order
that he might seize the crown immediately after his father's death.
When they received intimation of these precautionary measures, the
Mongol magnates, who observed that Argun's end was near, pushed the
accomplishment of their conspiracy. They executed Saad-Addaula (March,
1291), and slew all Argun's favorites. Argun died seven days later. The
conspirators thereupon despatched messengers to all provinces, ordered
Saad-Addaula's relatives to be thrown into chains, their property to
be confiscated, and their wives and children to be sold as slaves.
The Mahometan population also fell upon the Jews in every city of the
empire, to wreak their vengeance upon them for the degradation which
they had suffered from the Mongols. In Bagdad there were numerous
encounters between armed bodies of Mahometans and Jews, and on both
sides many were killed and wounded.
Two months later the great Jewish community of St. Jean d'Acre (Accho),
which shortly before had been put into a state of tumult by Solomon
Petit, was completely blotted out. The Egyptian sultan, Almalek
Alashraf, undertook a campaign to drive the last of the crusaders out
of Palestine and Syria. He besieged the fortified city of Accho for
more than a month, and then took it by storm (18th May, 1291). Not
only all the Christians, but many Jews who happened to be in the city
were executed. Others were cast into prison, and among them Isaac of
Accho, a zealous but unintellectual Kabbalist, whose candor forced him,
much against his will, to expose the halo of divinity, with which the
Kabbala had surrounded itself, as mere mummery.
END OF VOL. III.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Translation by Solomon Solis Cohen, to whom thanks are due for the
translation of most of the poetic passages in this volume.--[ED.]
[2] Translation by Emma Lazarus.--[ED.]
[3] Translation by Emma Lazarus.--[ED.]
[4] Meïr means light-bearer or luminary.--[ED.]
INDEX.
Aaron of York, chief rabbi of England, 588.
Aaron ben Joseph the Elder, Karaite, 607.
Aaron ben Meshullam, adherent of Maimonides, 524.
Aaron Halevi, 621.
Abassid caliphs, civil war of, 145 f.
persecute the Jews, 145.
Abdallah Ibn-Sabâ, Jewish partisan of Ali, 90.
Abdallah Ibn-Salâm, relation of, to Mahomet, 73.
Abdallah Ibn-Ubey, ally of the Jews in Arabia, 77.
Abdel-latif, opinion of, on Maimonides, 488.
Abdul Malik, 110.
Abdulmumen, bigotry of, 451.
persecutes the Jews in Africa, 358.
Abdul-Rahman III, inaugurates the classical period of Moslem culture
in Spain, 214.
and Chasdaï, 216 ff.
Abelé Zion. See Mourners of Zion.
Abodah (liturgy of the Day of Atonement), of José bar José, 114 f.
of Simon ben Caipha, 115.
connected with the Apostle Peter, 115.
Abrabanels, descent of, 43.
Abraham of Aragon, oculist, 583.
Abraham ben Chasdaï of Barcelona, champion of Maimonides, 544.
poet, 560.
Abraham ben David of Posquières (Rabed II), 399.
death of, 490.
opposition of, to Maimonides, 490.
Abraham, son of Maimonides, 493, 495.
attitude of, in the Maimunist controversy, 525 f.
"War for God" (Milchamoth), 545.
Abraham Ibn-Ezra. See Ibn-Ezra.
Abu-Amran Moses, founder of a Karaite sect, 157 f.
Abu-Ayub, poet and court physician, 312.
Abu-Bekr, repelled by the Jews, 82.
Abu-Fadhl Chasdaï, Jewish vizir and poet in Saragossa, 280.
Abu-Isa, opposition of, to the Talmud, 128.
Abu-Jafar Almansur, 129 f.
Abu-Jafar Ibn-Aljezzar, Mahometan physician, 181.
Abu-Kariba, Arabian king converted to Judaism, 62 f.
Abulafia, Meïr, opponent of Maimonides, 524 f., 537 f.
Abulmeni. See Abraham, son of Maimonides.
Abu-Mansur, head of the Jewish community in Egypt, 340 f.
Abu-Sahal Ali, Jewish scholar, 146.
Abu-Yussuf Almansur, imposes the Jew-badge, 511.
Abuzurj-Mihir, counselor of Hormisdas IV, 7.
Accho, Jewish community of, blotted out, 650.
nest of the Kabbalists, 626.
Achunaï. See Chananya.
Acrostichs, 115.
Aden, warlike Jews of, 436.
Adher-Baijan, low condition of the Jews of, 430.
Adonim. See Dunash ben Labrat.
Africa, northern, Jews of:
great men of, 248.
oppressed and persecuted, 357 ff., 451 f.
Agada, interpretation of, 495, 523, 527, 533, 535, 549, 552, 599, 619,
622.
used by Christians against the Jews, 598, 622.
Agadic discourses in the service, 116.
Agadic method of interpretation of the Bible, 152, 408, 529, 561,
608 f.
Agobard, bishop of Lyons, contest of, with the Jews, 164-8.
Ahunai, 4.
Akbara, Jewish congregation of, 429.
Akbarites, Karaite sect, 157 f.
Albalia, Isaac ben Baruch, 282 ff.
descent of, 282.
head of the Jews in Seville, 283 f.
Albergeloni, Isaac ben Reuben, Talmudist and poet, 284.
Albigenses, 390, 394.
crusade against, 501 f.
relation of, to the Jews, 501.
Aleppo, captured by the Mongols, 606.
Alexander III, pope, friendly to the Jews, 421.
Alexandria, Jewish congregation of, 444.
Alfadhel, vizir of Saladin, relation of, to Maimonides, 472 ff.
Alfassi, Isaac ben Jacob, 285 f., 315 ff.
character of, 315.
death of, 309.
disciples, 314.
education of, 285.
"Halachoth," 286.
Alfonso II of Aragon, 387.
Alfonso II (the Noble) of Castile, censured by Innocent III for
protecting the Jews, 499.
persecutes the Jews, 507.
Alfonso III of Portugal, favors the Jews, 618.
Alfonso VI, conquers Toledo, 294 f.
diplomacy of, 291.
employs Jews on diplomatic missions, 291.
tolerance of, 292.
Alfonso VIII, admits Jews to high positions, 384.
Alfonso X (the Wise), admits Jews to official positions, 592 f.
code of, 595.
imposes degrading restrictions upon the Jews, 594-6.
imprisons the Jews of Castile, 616.
rebellion of his son against, 616.
Alfonso Raimundez, emperor of Castile, favorable to the Jews, 361.
Alghazali, mystic philosopher, 357.
Alhakem, caliph of Spain, death of, 239.
library of, 237.
Ali, cousin of Mahomet, 82.
supported by the Jews, 90.
Ali Halevi, principal of the Talmudic school of Bagdad, 429.
Alice of Montmorency, persecutes the Jews of Toulouse, 514.
Alides, contest of, with Ommiyyades, 92.
Alkuti, Jewish philosopher, 267.
Allegorical interpretation, adopted by Mahometans, 147.
Almalek Alashraf, captures Accho, 650.
Almamun, caliph, 147.
appealed to in internal disputes by Jews and Christians, 155.
flourishing condition of his caliphate, 146.
Almansur, regent of Andalusia, 239 ff.
Almohades, 358.
conquer Andalusia, 360.
fanaticism of, 359.
ravage Castile, 361.
Almoravides, exterminated, 357.
invade Spain, 296, 311 ff.
Almovachides. See Almohades.
Al-Mutadhil, caliph, favorable to the Jews, 183.
Al-Mutavakkil, renews Omar's laws, 176 f.
Amadia, scene of a false Messiah, 431.
Amolo, bishop of Lyons, hostility of, to the Jews, 170 f.
Amshel Oppenheimer, creditor of Rudolph of Habsburg, 634.
Amulets, 153.
Anan ben David, founder of Karaism, 128-35. See also Karaism.
contest of, for the exilarchate, 129 f.
death of, 135.
emigrates to Palestine, 130.
excommunicated, 134.
hostility of, to the Talmud, 129 f.
imprisoned, 129.
interpretation, his, of the Bible, 131, 133.
memorial prayers for, 135.
mental capacity of, 135.
recognizes Mahomet as prophet, 134.
view of, on Jesus, 133.
want of poetical and historical sense in, 133.
works of, 131.
Ananites. See Karaites.
Anatoli, Jacob, Maimunist, 629.
in favor with Frederick II, 566.
Andalusia, culture of, 234 ff.
fall of the princes of, 296.
flourishing condition of the Jews of, 234 ff.
persecution of the Jews of, by the Almohades, 361.
Andreas, king of Hungary, excommunicated for his indulgence to
non-Christians, 521.
Anthropomorphism and anthropomorphists, among Jews, 152, 528, 552.
among Mahometans, 148 f.
Antioch, Jews of, murdered, 10 f.
uprise of the Jews against the Christians, 18.
Apostates, 122, 441 f., 572.
Aquitania, sufferings of the Jews of, from the crusaders, 570.
Arab conquest of Persia, 10.
Arabia, Jews of, 53-85.
attitude of, to the Talmud, 58, 119 f.
become thoroughly Arabic, 56 f.
condition of, 53, 56.
congregations of, 436.
conquered by the Arabians, 67 f.
customs of, 57.
difference between those of the north and those of the south, 56 f.
divisions among, 57, 77, 80.
empire of, 51.
intercourse of, with Palestine, 59.
inspire Mahomet, 71.
king of, 12.
language of, 111.
leaders of Arabian tribes, 53.
recover their importance, 71.
relations to the Arabians, 57, 67 f.
teachers of the Arabic nation, 54, 58 f.
traditions as to their original settlements, 54.
tribes of, 55.
Arabian king converted to Judaism, 62 f.
Arabic calligraphy, 255.
Arabic language, 111.
adopted by the Jews of Spain, 110 f.
Arabic tribe converted to Christianity, 56.
Arabs, acquire the art of writing from the Jews, 58.
converted to Judaism, 56, 61 f.
descent of, 60.
teachers of the Jews, 224.
Aragon, Jews of, 497 f.
compelled to support a Christian missionary, 602.
exempted from wearing the badge, 515.
favorable condition of, 387.
miserable condition of, 596-605.
Areobindus, minister of Justinian, 15.
Argun, Grand Khan of the Mongols, 646 f.
death of, 649.
favorable to the Jews, 638.
Arianists, toleration of, 26, 44 f.
Aristotle, influence of, 448.
works of, translated, 566 f.
Arnold, bishop of Cologne, protects the Jews, 352.
Arnold of Brescia, 370.
Arnold of Citeaux, fanatical monk, 502, 507.
"Aruch," 290, 421.
Ashkaba (prayer for the dead), 101.
Asia, degeneration of the Jews of, 440 ff.
under the Abbassides, 437.
Asia Minor, Jewish communities of, 123 f.
Asma, Arabian poetess, 76.
Assassins, 648.
Atel. See Itil.
Atonement Day, liturgy of, 113 ff.
Atzbaha. See Elesbaa.
Aus, Arabic tribe partly converted to Judaism, 61.
Austrasia, Jews of, 40.
Austria, favorable condition of the Jews of, 516 f., 567 f.
Averroës, 566.
Avignon, council of, prohibits the Jews from working on Sunday, 504.
Avitus, bishop of Arverna, inaugurates a persecution of the Jews in
the Frankish empire, 38 f.
Azriel, Kabbalist, 548.
Baalbek, captured by the Mongols, 606.
Babylonia, supplanted by Spain as center of Judaism, 210, 228.
Babylonia, Jews of:
independent tribe of, 433 f.
organization and officials of, 96-100.
prosperous condition of, 428.
side with Ali, 90.
support the Arab conquerors, 89.
Bacharach (Germany), massacre of the Jews of, 636.
Bachiel Ibn-Alkonstantini, physician to King Jayme of Portugal and
Maimunist, 536 f.
Bachya Ibn-Pakuda, moral philosopher, 271-3.
Baden (Germany), Jews of, blood-accusation against, and massacre of,
564.
Badis, king of the Berbers, bloody design of, 276 f.
Bagdad, Jews of, 156, 428.
center of science, 146.
congregation of, on the side of Maimonides, 633.
Talmudic school of, 429, 438 f.
Bahram Tshubin, Persian general, 8 f.
dethrones Hormisdas IV, 8.
Balanyiar, capital of the Chazars, 139.
Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, fanaticism of, against the Jews,
410.
Barcelona, center of northern Spain, 387.
prominent Jews of, 387 f.
Basilius, emperor, arranges disputations between Jews and Christians,
175 f.
Beaucaire (Belcaire), Jewish congregation of, 400.
Bedaresi, Abraham, 579.
Bedr, battle of, 76.
Bela IV of Hungary, favorable to the Jews, 613.
Belisarius, 4.
conquers the Vandals, 26.
subjects Italy, 31 f.
Ben-Asher, Massoret, 207.
poet, 223.
Benedict of York, maltreated, 411, 413.
Bene Mikra. See Karaism.
Benjamin of Canterbury, 409.
Benjamin of Tiberias, leader of a Jewish uprise in Palestine, 19, 22.
Benjamin of Tudela, traveler and historian, 388 f.
Benjamin Nahavendi, Karaite and founder of the Makariyites, 149 f.
Ben-Naphtali, 207.
Benu-Bachdal, 55.
Benu-Kainukaa, 55.
Benu-Kinanah, Arabic tribe converted to Judaism, 61.
Benu-Kuraiza, 55.
massacred by Mahomet, 80 f.
Benu-Nadhir, 55.
driven out by Mahomet, 78 f.
Benveniste, Don Isaac, physician to the king of Aragon, 508.
work of, in behalf of the Jews, 513.
Benveniste, Sheshet, diplomatist and poet, 388, 524 f.
Berachya ben Natronaï Nakdan (Crispia), writer of fables, 560.
Berbers, kingdom of, 256 ff.
Bernard of Clairvaux and the second crusade, 349.
intercedes in behalf of the Jews, 353.
Béziers, council of, prohibits the Jews from practising medicine among
Christians, 582.
inhabitants of, massacred by the crusaders, 502.
Jews of, hold offices, 394 f.
Palm Sunday riots in, against the Jews, 394 f.
Bible, attacks against, 199.
Christian exposition of, 288.
Massoretic text of, 207.
oldest copy of, in Spain, 387.
study of, among Jews, 111 f., 118.
Black Jews in India, 436.
Blois, persecution of the Jews of, 378-81.
Blood-accusation, 402, 418, 499, 564, 595.
causes frequent massacres of the Jews in France and Germany, 583.
first appearance of, 378-81.
in England, 591, 643.
officially contradicted by Innocent IV, 584, 635.
Bodo (Puoto), bishop, converted to Judaism, 168 f.
Bohemia, Jews of, 305.
during the crusades, 305, 356.
plundered, 307.
Talmudic center, 420 f.
Bologna, Jews of, expelled, 421.
Bonastruc de Porta. See Nachmani.
"Book of the Pious," 408.
Boppard (Germany), massacre of the Jews of, 637, 639.
Boso, king of Burgundy, presents the Jews as a gift to the church, 175.
Bostanaï, exilarch, 10.
descendants of, 91.
marries a daughter of Chosru, 89.
recognized by the Mahometans, 89.
Bray, massacre of the Jews of, 404.
Bribery in the Church, 578, 584, 591.
Buda, synod of, excludes the Jews from Christian society, 614.
Bulan, king of the Chazars, 139.
Burgundy, Jews of, oppressed, 37.
Byzantine empire, Jews of, 10-23.
communities of, 424-7.
culture of, 425 f.
occupations of, 175.
oppression of, 122, 425.
Cabades. See Kobad.
Cæsarea, betrayed to the Arabs, 87.
riot of Jews and Samaritans against the Christians, 17.
Cairo, Jewish congregation of, 444.
Caliphate, condition of Jews under, 176 f., 183.
Cambridge, Jews expelled from, 641.
Cameos among Jews, 153.
Carenton, massacre of Jews of, 355.
Carlovingians, feeble rule of, 241.
Cassiodorus, minister of Theodoric, 30.
invectives of, against the Jews, 31.
Castile, civil war of, 363.
Castile, Jews of, 361 ff., 592-6, 615-17.
admitted to honors, 293, 384, 593.
congregations of, 617.
oppressed by Alfonso X, 616.
favorable condition of, 361 ff.
fight of, against the Almohades, 386 f.
first persecution of, 507.
Catalonia, Jews of, 389.
Censorship of the Talmud, 602 f.
Ceremonial laws explained, 484 f., 523, 553.
Ceylon, Jews of, enjoy liberty, 436.
Chagan, title of the king of the Chazars, 138.
Chaibar (Arabia), 55.
Jews of, defeated by Mahomet, 81-3.
Jews of, driven out by Omar, 85.
Jews of, warlike, 437.
Chaldean Christians support the Arabs, 89.
Chanan of Iskia, principal of Pumbeditha, 9.
Chananel of Kairuan, 248 ff.
Chananya (Achunaï), exilarch, 129, 137.
Chananya, principal of Sora, 10.
Chaninaï, exilarch, 10.
Chaninaï, principal of Pumbeditha, 10.
Chaninaï Kahana ben Huna, Gaon of Sora, 137.
Chanoch, head of the Jews of Andalusia, 229 f., 236.
contest of, with Ibn-Abitur, 229, 238.
death of, 241.
Chariot-races occasions of bloodshed, 11, 17.
Charlemagne, elevates the position of the Jews in Europe, 141 f.
embassy of, to Haroun Alrashid, 143.
imposes an oath on the Jews, 144.
regenerator of Europe, 141 f.
Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily, 628.
Charles the Bald protects the Jews against the clergy, 172.
Charles the Simple grants Jewish property to the church, 175.
Chasdaï, exilarch, 92.
Chasdaï, Ibn-Shaprut, 215-30.
ambassador, 218 f.
character of, 215.
correspondence of, with the Jewish king of the Chazars, 219 ff.
death of, 230.
deliverer of his people, 217.
descent of, 215.
gives Jewish history a European character, 216.
in the service of Abdul-Rahman III, 216.
patron of learning, 223, 234.
promotes the study of the Talmud, 227.
representative of a Judæo-European culture, 188.
statesman, 187.
Chayuj, father of Hebrew philology, 237, 255.
Chazanuth, 118.
Chazaria, 138.
Chazars, 123 ff., 327 f.
army of, 221.
embrace Judaism, 138-41.
hospitality of, to Jews, 123 f.
Jewish kingdom of, 219 ff.
motive of conversion of, 139 f.
origin of, 138.
original religion of, 139.
tolerance of, 141.
wars of, 138.
Chazraj, Arabic tribe partly converted to Judaism, 61.
Cherem. See Excommunication.
Chess, invention of, 7.
Childebert I of Paris, intolerance of, 37.
Children, introduction of, to the Law, 572.
Chilperic, forces Jews to baptism, 39.
Chindaswinth, king of the Visigoths, tolerance of, 101 f.
Chintila, king of the Visigoths, forces the Jews to emigrate, 51 f.
Chiskiya, last Gaon of Pumbeditha, executed, 254.
Chivi Albalchi, first rationalist and critic, 199.
"Chobath Halebaboth," 271.
Chosroes Nushirvan imposes a poll-tax upon Jews and Christians, 5.
Chosru II, attacks the Roman possessions, 19.
favorable to the Jews, 9.
"Chozari," origin of, 327 f.
Christian emperors curtail the political rights of the Jews, 27.
Christian slaves, possession of, forbidden to Jews, 28, 33, 46, 48.
Christians and Mahometans, treatment of Jews compared, 347, 426, 506.
Christianity, hostility of, to Judaism, 34.
in western Europe at first tolerant against the Jews, 24, 34.
of the 11th century, 301.
Christianity, Islam and Judaism compared, 328, 332 ff.
Chumrata, 97.
"Church of the Mother of God" in Constantinople originally a
synagogue, 26.
Church, rigor of, against Jews and heretics, 496 ff., 503 f.
Church and synagogue, attitude of, to science compared, 187 f.
Chushiel, Rosh of Kairuan, 208 ff.
Cidellus, Jewish diplomatist in the service of Alfonso VI, 292.
Clement III, 306.
Clement IV, hostile to the Jews, 605.
orders confiscation of the Talmud, 602.
Clergy, hatred of, against the Jews, 24-6, 172, 241 f., 349 f., 611.
ignorance of, 26.
Clotaire II, bigotry of, 40.
Clovis, 36 f.
Cologne, Jews of:
during the crusades, 303 f.
privileges of, 41.
when settled in, 41.
Commons massacre the Jews of London, 591.
Communism in Persia, 2 f.
Confession of faith, Jewish (Shema), forbidden, 15.
Conrad III, German emperor, protects the Jews, 351 f., 416.
Constantine VIII sends an embassy to Spain, 218.
Constantinople, Jews of, 26.
"Constitutio Judæorum," 497.
Controversies, between Jews and Christians, 105, 576, 598, 622.
between Jews and Mahometans, 111, 119.
Conversions, forced, of Jews to Christianity, 38 f., 48 f., 123, 176,
246, 300, 570.
prohibited by Gregory X, 635.
Conversions, forced, to Islam, 359 f., 451, 461.
Conversions to Judaism, 21, 61, 409, 440, 445, 516, 640 f.
Converts, Jewish, to Christianity, treatment of, 49 ff., 308 f.
Cordova, center of Judaism, 228 f.
contention in, for the rabbinate, 229 f., 238 ff.
seat of a Talmudic school, 210.
"Covenant of Omar," 87, 120, 145, 176 f.
Council (of the Church. See also under the individual cities):
Lateran, 400, 421, 498.
Lateran, the Fourth, 509-12.
of Avignon, 504.
of Béziers, 582.
of Buda, 614.
of Exeter, 645.
of Illiberis, 43.
of Mâcon, 39.
of Meaux, 171.
of Nice, 25.
of Orleans, 37.
of Oxford, 516.
of Paris, 40.
of Toledo, 49, 102.
of Vannes, 36.
of Vienna, 611 f.
Crimea, emigration of Chazars to, 222.
emigration of Karaites to, 435.
Crispia, 560.
Crusade, the first, 297.
effect of, on the intellectual condition of the Jews in Germany, 309.
in Jerusalem, 308.
Crusade, the second, 349-57.
in France, 349-51, 355.
in Germany, 351 f.
Crusade, the third, 405 ff.
Crusade against the Albigenses, 501 f.
Crusaders, brutalities of, 412-15, 497, 507, 570.
Crusades in France, 299.
in Germany, 300 ff.
voluntary death of Jews during, 300, 302 f., 305.
Cyril expels the Jews from Alexandria, 23.
"Dagger of Faith," 622.
Dagobert, decree of, against the Jews, 40.
Damascus, captured by the Mongols, 606.
Daniel, the prophet, superstition about the grave of, 435.
Daniel, the exilarch, 438.
Daniel ben Saadiah, opponent of Maimonides, 525 f.
Dante, 628.
David, grandson of Maimonides, 627.
and Solomon ben Adret, 620 f.
defends his grandfather, 632.
David ben Daniel, exilarch and defender of Maimonides, 632.
David ben Judah, exilarch, 155 f.
David ben Saul, opponent of Maimonides, 529.
David ben Zaccaï, exilarch, 186.
conflict of, with Saadiah Gaon, 195 f.
David Abudarham, 617.
David Alrui, false Messiah, 430-33.
Dayan (judge), functions of, 98.
Dei Mansi, family of, 421.
Demons, belief in, 525, 528, 534.
Dhu-Nowas. See Zorah Yussuf.
Diniz, king of Portugal, favorable to the Jews, 618.
Disputations between Jews and Christians, 576, 601 ff.
See also under Controversies.
Divorce, law of, changed, 92.
reform of, by Gershom, 244.
synodical decisions concerning, 378.
Dominicans, fanaticism of, 519, 591, 613, 641.
entrusted with the Inquisition, 542.
part taken by, in the disputation of Barcelona, 600 ff.
preachers, 545.
rivalry of, with the Franciscans, 641.
Don Judah ben Moses Cohen, physician to Alfonso X, 593.
Don Meïr de Malea, treasurer of Alfonso X, 593.
Don Pedro II, king of Aragon, 497 f.
Don Sancho, son of Alfonso X, king of Castile, 616.
and Don Zag, 616.
rebellion of, against his father, 616.
regulates the Jew-tax, 617.
Don Zag, Isaac, treasurer of Alfonso X, 593.
and the "Tables of Alfonso," 594.
executed, 615.
Donnolo, Sabbataï, head of Jewish science in Italy, 212-14.
relation of, to Nilus the younger, 213 f.
Dossa, son of Saadiah Gaon, 202.
and Chasdaï, 217.
Dudaï, Gaon of Pumbeditha, 129.
Dunash ben Labrat, creator of the artistic form of Jewish poetry, and
one of the founders of Judæo-Spanish culture, 215.
career and character, 226.
first employs meter in Hebrew poetry, 223.
polemic of, against Menachem and Saadiah, 226.
Dunash ben Tamim, physician, 181, 211.
correspondence of, with Chasdaï, 211, 217.
Duns Scotus, recommends forced conversion of the Jews, 644.
East, the, loses the leadership of Judaism, 207 f.
scepticism in, 199.
Easter, Jewish, celebration of, forbidden before the Christian, 13.
Eastertide, during, Jews forbidden to appear in the streets, 37, 39,
171, 510, 518, 582, 595, 635.
Eberard, Magister Judæorum, 161, 164.
Edward I, Jews treated by, 640-6.
Jews expelled by, 645.
justice of, to Jews, 640, 643.
proselytizing zeal of, 644.
Egica, king of the Visigoths, imposes restrictions on the Jews, 107 f.
Egilbert, bishop of Treves, inhumanity of, against the Jews, 300.
Egypt, becomes a center of Judaism, 445.
Talmudic schools of, 210.
Egypt, Jews of, 23, 443-5.
low state of culture of, 444 f.
prosperous condition of, under Saladin, 461.
Elchanan, Tossafist and martyr, 404.
Eldad, traveler, 182.
Eleanor, mother of Edward I, enmity of, against the Jews, 641, 645.
Eleazar ben Kalir, poetan, 116.
characteristics of his style, 117, 245.
Elesbaa, king of Ethiopia, destroys the Jewish kingdom of Arabia, 66 f.
Elias of London, chief rabbi of England, 588.
deposed, 591.
"Emunoth we-Deoth," 197 f.
England, Jews of, 409-16, 587-92, 640-6.
accusations against, 642 f.
act of parliament concerning, 642.
authority and functions of the chief rabbi of, 588.
blood-accusation against, 591.
converts to Judaism in, 409.
degradation of, 516.
enemies of, 504 f.
expelled, 643, 645.
impoverished, 592.
imprisoned, 645.
parliament of, 589.
occasion of the first persecution of, 410.
oppressions of, 641.
statute of Judaism for, 642.
"En-Sof," 550.
Ephraim ben Jacob of Bonn, Talmudist and poet, 419.
Erwig, king of the Visigoths, edict of, against the Jews and Jewish
converts, 106 f.
Eugenius III, repudiates the debts to the Jews in the second crusade,
349.
Europe, becomes the chief seat of Judaism, 383.
Judaism of, compared with that of the East, 160.
Excommunication, as inflicted by Church and Synagogue, 99, 151, 177,
528.
degrees of, 99.
employment of, in the Middle Ages, 528.
Exeter, council of, 645.
Exilarch (Prince of the Captivity), authority of, lessened by the
Karaite disturbances, 137.
ceremonies of installation of, 94 f.
functions of, 89 f., 428 f.
last, 201.
under Mahometan rule, 89 f.
Exilarchate, contest for, 155, 439.
corruption of, 194.
decline of, 177, 183 ff.
dependent on the Gaonate, 137.
disputes of, with the Gaonate, 184-6.
divested of its official character, 177.
elective, 137.
extinction of, 202.
in the 12th century, 439.
revival of, 428.
Ezekiel, the prophet, grave of, resort of pilgrims, 440 f.
Ezra, the scribe, grave of, resort of pilgrims, 441.
Ezra, Kabbalist, 548.
Fables in Neo-Hebraic, 560 f.
Farraj Ibn-Solomon, physician to Charles of Anjou, 628.
Fathers of the Church put a chasm between Christianity and Judaism,
144.