A.D. 1500-1600.
THE JEWS IN GERMANY AND CENTRAL EUROPE.
The condition of the Jews during the sixteenth century in those
parts of Germany and Central Europe where their presence was still
tolerated, does not materially differ from what it had been for many
previous generations. We hear of fewer outbreaks of lawless violence,
and the atrocities committed on them seem a shade less barbarous.
But the history is in the main such as the Christian chronicler must
record, and the Christian reader peruse, with feelings of shame and
sorrow. At Mecklenberg, just at the end of the previous century,
the oft-repeated, though never proved, accusation had been revived
of bribing a Christian priest to sell the consecrated Host; which
the Jews who purchased it immediately proceeded to stab, drawing
forth (it was alleged) the very blood of the Lord Jesus, whose body
it was. A grave and minute inquiry was set on foot. Thirty Jews,
together with the priest, were condemned to be burned at the stake
for the offence. Some Jewish women and children were implicated in
the charge. One of the former is related to have put two of her
daughters to death, in order to save them from the horrors that
awaited them, and to have been on the point of killing a third,
when she was snatched from her. Two years afterwards, another
charge was brought against some Hungarian Jews, or rather another
form of the same charge: this time the offence being murdering a
Christian in order to drink his blood.[172] The accused were put
to the torture—not so much, we learn, to elicit the fact whether
_they_ were guilty, as whether the whole Jewish people of Hungary
were not implicated in the crime. Monstrous as this may seem, it
was not the first time, by any means, that such a belief had been
entertained.[173] Possibly, indeed, it was hoped that under the
pressure of their agony the sufferers would confess that, or anything
else that they were required to admit, and so give a pretext for a
general massacre. If so, the attempt failed, for we find that only
those who had been accused of the crime suffered for it.
A few years afterwards, at Nuremberg, and again at Cologne,
expulsions of the Jews took place. In both cities, though a number
of charges were alleged against them, the real offence seems to have
been their commercial success, and the heavy load of debt contracted
to them by the citizens of the two towns. The shortest mode of paying
off the liabilities, it was found, lay in finding their creditors
guilty of some offence for which they were punishable by the
confiscation of their property, including, of course, all debts owing
to them. But these expulsions, however unjust, do not appear to have
been stained by the additional guilt of bloodshed.
In 1509, a Jew who had been converted to Christianity, Pfeffercorn
by name, filled with the zeal for which proselytes are always
remarkable, suggested to the Emperor Maximilian that all books
which upheld or set forth Jewish doctrine, and especially the
Talmud, the great repository of Jewish fable, should be everywhere
destroyed. He had already written more than one book, in which he
charged his countrymen not only with denying the truth of the New
Testament, but with departing from the commandments of the Old. He
accused them also of using imprecations against Christians, both in
public and private. These had so much effect upon Maximilian, that
he is reported to have been half inclined to grant his request.
He resolved, however, to appoint a commission of learned men to
examine and report on the matter. At the head of this was placed
Reuchlin[174] (otherwise Capnio), the most famous Hebrew scholar of
his day, and a man of large and liberal views. He advised the Emperor
that such of the Jewish books as contained blasphemies against our
Lord (as undoubtedly some of them did) had better be destroyed; but
those which simply treated of the tenets and ritual of the Jews ought
to be retained. He pointed out how impossible it was to suppress
books which a certain number of readers were resolved to preserve.
This would have been at any time difficult, but since the invention
of printing it had become morally impossible, as the Jews had now
begun to make free use of the printing-press.[175] We cannot wonder
much that a man of Pfeffercorn’s temper would not acquiesce in
a decision like this. He attacked Reuchlin in an angry pamphlet,
to which Reuchlin replied. The dispute was referred to the Pope,
and Hochstraten, a Dutch Inquisitor who had espoused Pfeffercorn’s
quarrel, repaired to Rome to advocate it; but the papal decision was
in favour of Reuchlin. The Jewish books were spared. Nevertheless, it
may be doubted whether the affair was favourable to them. The result
was to attract the attention of Christian scholars to these Jewish
attacks on Christianity, and replies were in consequence written,
which were probably more damaging to Judaism than any burning of
their books could have been.
Out of this controversy a number of sects seem to have arisen—at
least, they are first noticed by writers about this time, and they
disappear from history soon afterwards. Among these Seidelius
of Silesia, George de Novara, and Francis David are the most
remarkable.[176] They held opinions culled, some from Judaism, some
from Christianity, and differed widely from one another. They had the
usual fate of eclectics, being rejected and despised by both parties.
In 1516 the Jews had a narrow escape of being expelled from
Frankfort. An assembly, consisting of deputies from various
sovereigns and free towns, was held in that city, for the purpose of
organizing measures for their banishment. Fortunately for them, the
deputies could not agree among themselves. The Jews were, however,
driven out of Brandenburg. Lippold, physician to the elector of that
country, was charged with having poisoned his employer. He made a
confession under torture, and was executed; after which all his
countrymen were driven into exile.
Towards the middle of this century the Jews were for the first time
expelled from Prague. They had dwelt unmolested in that city from
time immemorial. No one knew when they had first settled there; but
tradition said it was in times when Bohemia was yet heathen; and
inscriptions on some of the older graves in their moss-grown cemetery
are quoted in proof of the fact. The very latest date assigned for
their arrival is the tenth century of Christianity. They had built
a noble synagogue, and had opened an academy, over which a renowned
Jewish doctor presided. But in the troubled times which followed the
burning of Huss and Jerome of Prague they continually fell under
the suspicion of one, or, it might be said, both parties, the Jews
being too cautious to ally themselves with either. This feeling grew
stronger when the Reformation itself had fairly engaged men’s minds.
Among the mutual jealousies and suspicions which had taken possession
of men’s minds, that of the secret plottings of the Jews in favour of
their antagonists, was one of constant occurrence. It chanced that
terrible conflagrations broke out in some of the larger cities, and
among others, in Prague. The Jews were instantly suspected of having
caused it. Being suspected was in those times very nearly the same
thing as being convicted of it. All those that escaped the flames
were banished from the city, with the exception of ten families, who
obtained permission to remain. The Emperor was not convinced of their
guilt, but the feeling that had been provoked was too strong for
him to cope with. He saw plainly that nothing but the death or the
banishment of Jews would satisfy the people, and he chose the more
merciful of the alternatives offered him. Towards the latter end of
the year the real incendiaries were discovered, and the Jews were
then permitted to return.
About eight years afterwards another outcry was raised, this time it
being affirmed that the Jews had been praying that disaster and ruin
might befall the Christians. Their books were seized as a punishment,
and carried off to Vienna, so that the Rabbins had to officiate in
the synagogues as well as they were able, reciting everything from
memory. We must suppose that this charge was disproved, as the other
had been, for the books were soon afterwards restored. Even this was
not the end of their troubles. Before the year was out, there came
another peremptory order for all the Jews, except the ten privileged
families, once more to leave the city and settle elsewhere in
Bohemia; and this time it does not appear that they were allowed to
return.
Merseburg again—the capital now of one of the regencies of the
Prussian States, which consists almost entirely of cessions made by
Saxony in 1815—was another of the cities in which the Jews claimed
to have resided without interruption for nearly fourteen centuries.
Yet, so widespread had the feeling against them become, that they
were forced, in 1559, to quit this city also, notwithstanding that
the Emperor Ferdinand was willing to help them to the utmost of his
ability. He not only protected them, indeed, but granted them a
privilege which had been accorded to their ancestors in the East,
many centuries before—that of having their own special ruler, who was
known by the same title as that borne in the earliest Christian times
by the Patriarch of the East, viz., the ‘Prince of the Captivity.’
In Moravia, in 1574, a similar flame of persecution broke out. We
are not informed what were the precise charges, but no doubt they
were much the same that were alleged against almost all Jewish
congregations in Central Europe about this time. Many Jews, we
learn, were burnt at the stake, and many more put to death in other
ways. They appealed to the Emperor Ferdinand, who appears always to
have been willing to assist his Jewish subjects to the best of his
ability. He did interfere, and stopped the executions, but not before
many victims had been sacrificed.
In Franconia, six years afterwards, there was something of a similar
outbreak. In this instance the Jews were accused, as they were in
many other places, of having set on fire the town of Bamberg. But
here they escaped without undergoing any further severity than having
to make good the loss which those had suffered whose property had
been destroyed.
In Poland and the Ukraine a more merciful state of things prevailed.
In both these the Jews enjoyed entire freedom alike from pillage and
persecution. In the first-named country they were chiefly engaged
in trade, which they almost monopolized; in the latter, almost
exclusively in agriculture.
But in Russia proper the race of Israel continued to be, as tradition
declares it always to have been, harshly treated—such Israelites,
that is to say, as were still permitted to dwell in the country,
the Jews generally having been expelled from it, as the reader has
learned (A.D. 1113). Late, however, in the previous, and early in
the present century, during the last years of the long reign of Ivan
III., a most singular apostasy to Judaism is recorded to have taken
place, the truth of which we should certainly be inclined to doubt,
if it had not been so respectably attested. A Jew named Zacharias,
about A.D. 1490, began to attempt the conversion of certain Russian
priests to Judaism, and succeeded to an extraordinary extent in
the design. The converts adopted all the Jewish rites, except that
of circumcision; which they dispensed with, because, in event of
discovery, it would be a certain proof against them. The apostasy
spread rapidly and widely. Ecclesiastics occupying the highest
positions in the Church, even the Patriarch Zosimus himself, became
perverts. The conspiracy, if it may be so called, was at last
discovered, and a great number of these ‘secret Jews’ summoned before
the council and convicted. They were punished after a more merciful
manner than that adopted towards their brethren in Spain. They were
set on horseback, with their faces towards the tails of their steeds,
dressed after a bizarre fashion to resemble devils, and paraded
through the streets amid the jeers of the rabble. Zosimus was sent
back to the monastery of which he had been archimandrite. But, though
the evil was detected, it is doubtful whether it was extirpated. It
is said to have lingered in the Russian Church long afterwards.
Rabbi Joseph ben Meir is the great Jewish historian of this period.
He was born at Avignon in 1496, and wrote a _Universal History_, and
a _History of his own Times_. The latter, though its statements must
be taken with reserve, is regarded generally as a valuable book.
David Gans also, born 1541, was a renowned scholar and author. He
died in Prague, A.D. 1613.
FOOTNOTES:
[172] See Appendix V.
[173] In the reign of Henry III. in England, at the inquest held on
Hugh of Lincoln, A.D. 1255, it was declared that the whole of the
Jews in England were privy to, and guilty of, the crime.
[174] Johann Reuchlin was born at Pforzheim, December 28, 1455, of
poor parents. The sweetness of his voice attracted attention to
him, and he was sent to be educated at Paris. He began his career
as a teacher of classics at Basle, but soon abandoned this for the
profession of the law. In 1482 he had become known as a Hebrew
scholar, and he was noticed by the Emperor Frederick III. In 1498
he returned to Stuttgard, where his fame continued to increase; in
consequence of which Pfeffercorn’s proposals were submitted to him
by Maximilian. The most celebrated satire of the day, the _Epistola
Obscurorum Virorum_, was written to uphold his views, and had the
effect of completely crushing his adversaries. Reuchlin died at
Stuttgard, December, 1521.
[175] Some of the Jewish books were no doubt extremely offensive
to Christians, as, for example, the _Chisuk Emunah_ of Isaac ben
Abraham, a Polish Jew. The Portuguese Jews translated it into their
own language, and diffused it widely. The _Nitzachon_ again, ascribed
to Rabbi Lipman, of Mulhouse, was equally, if not more virulent. It
could hardly be expected that even the wisest and most far-seeing men
of the sixteenth century would tolerate these.
[176] Seidelius taught that Messiah, when He came, would come to the
Jews only, the Gentiles having neither part nor lot in Him. Francis
David acknowledged Jesus Christ, but held that it was sinful to pray
to Him. George de Novara claimed to believe Christian doctrine, but
denied that Messiah had come. He was burnt at the stake.