THE HISTORY OF ANTI-SEMITISM

By the Same Author (in preparation)

THE HISTORY OF ANTI-SEMITISM

Volume II: From Mahomet t o the Marranos
Volume III: I n the Shadow o f the Cross
Volume IV: The N e w Gods

Volume One:
From the Time of Christ to
the Court Jews
 LEON POLIAKOV

THE HISTORY OF
ANTI-SEMITISM

translated from the French by Richard Howard

cb ELEK BOOKS
All Saints Street, London
 This translation © Copyright Vanguard Press, 1965
Published in England by Elek Books Limited
2 All Saints Street, London, N.1. 1966
Published in America by Vanguard Press, Inc, New York
Published in France under the title: Histoire de l’Antisémitisme
© Calmann-Lévy, Paris, 1955.
No portion o f this book m a y b e reproduced i n any form
without the written permission o f the publisher.
Printed in the United States of America b y H . Wolff, N.Y.
 Foreword

A very simple fact provides a point o f departure for the pres-

ent book—the first i n a series o f four devoted to the problem
of anti-Semitism. A look at the globe shows that Israel, the
center from which the Jewish Dispersion took place, is ap-
proximately equidistant from Greece a n d Mesopotamia,
from western Europe and India, from New York and Tokyo.
Thus, this Dispersion, which continued to the four points
of the compass, resulted in the creation of Jewish colonies
in Mesopotamia, India, and China at the same remote times
that the first Jews established themselves in North Africa,
Gaul, a n d Germany. These settlements exist today, a n d
through the centuries contact between them a n d the Jewish
communities of the Mediterranean and northern Europe
has never been broken. But in contrast to what happened in
the West, the Jews i n the E a s t have never been—to use the
image o f Judah Halevi—“the aching heart o f nations”; that
is, they have not been a disturbed and disturbing ferment,
they have not shocked the world b y a history o f torment and
massacre nor expiated its imperfections, they have never
played a role disproportionate to their numbers or dis-
tinguished themselves in intellectual or economic activi-
ties, nor have they assumed any role other than their own.
I n short, not having caused streams of ink or rivers of blood
to flow, they have lived the lives of happy men and have had
n o history. Those in China disappeared a generation or two
ago; those in India, an inconspicuous sect among thousands
of others, lead humble lives as farmers or artisans.
 Foreword v i

To explain this continuing disparity, there are two kinds of

hypotheses:
1 ) The supernatural explanation. B y virtue o f the mys-
terious designs o f Providence, the Jews, having been as-
signed a special role among nations, play it first among
the so-called Noachian peoples—those practicing a religion
that derives from the Old Testament. It will be noted, as a
matter of fact, that Judaism's area of diffusion in its “in-
tense” form coincides exactly with the area of diffusion of its
daughter religions, Islam and Christianity. I see n o particu-
lar reason for rejecting such an hypothesis a priori, provided
w e have first exhausted, i n accordance with what I judge t o
b e the duty o f a n investigatory and comparative method, all
the natural explanations—that is, those based o n what w e
know from other sources about the behavior of human so-
cieties and groups.
2 ) Natural explanations. These m a y b e o f two kinds:
a) An explanation derived from human environment,
ignoring the relationship between Judaism and its daughter
religions.
b ) Explanations derived from collective psychology, es-
pecially religious psychology, essentially based o n this re-
lationship.
The present work is a n attempt to interpret both the Jew-
ish phenomenon and the anti-Semitic phenomenon in the
light of this latter explanation, without ignoring the differ-
ence between Christianity, which regards the Jews as the
deicidal race, and Islam, for which the Crucifixion was not
relevant. Hence the general plan of the work:
1 ) A first part, the present volume, is concerned with
the Jews known as Ashkenazim, whose history has been
confined to Christian territories, down to their emancipa-
tion.
2 ) A second part will deal with the Jews w h o have lived
b y turns in Christian and in Moslem territories (Sephardic
Jews), or exclusively in Moslem territories.
3) A third part will be devoted to the phenomenon of
 Foreword vii

Jewish “assimilation,” characteristic chiefly o f the last cen-

tury, as well as to the recrudescence of anti-Semitism, char-
acteristic chiefly o f our epoch.
4 ) Lastly, appendices will present additional data o n our
subject by such auxiliary human disciplines as anthropology,
genetics, and social psychology. These appendices are brief,
but in the elaboration of our hypothesis, their role has been
an essential one.
I should add that the proposed analysis is not entirely new.
Its schema m a y b e found more o r less clearly formulated b y
various authors of the past. The first of these was Immanuel
Kant, who in a little-known passage of Religion Within the
Limits of Mere Reason examined the case of the Jews in
India and China and drew the following conclusions: “Hence
we find no Jews outside the countries referred to [that is, the
Christian and Islamic regions] if we except the few o n the
coast of Malabar and possibly a community in China (and
the former could have been in continual commercial rela-
tionship with their coreligionists in Arabia). Although there
is n o doubt that they spread throughout those rich lands, yet,
because of the lack of kinship between their faith and the
types o f belief found there, they completely forgot their own.
T o base edifying remarks upon this preservation o f the
Jewish people is very hazardous, for both sides [that is,
Christians and Jews] believe they find therein confirma-
tion of their o w n opinions.”
There is a story, for example, that when Frederick I I of
Prussia asked his physician to give him a proof of the exist-
ence o f God, the latter replied: “The Jews, Your Majesty!”
While the argument has not always been so over-simplified,
the uniqueness of the Jews’ destiny has tenaciously been re-
garded, down through the ages, as the direct and explicit ex-
pression of the divine will, and this as much b y the world at
large as b y the Jews themselves. Many people in our own
times have not abandoned this point of view. Faith in the
divine destiny o f the Jews has been a n important influence
o n their truly strange fate.
 Foreword viii

With the advent of the rationalist spirit, other views found

expression. Their authorship was extremely diverse: among
others, the name of Baruch Spinoza stands out. Spinoza’s
violent attacks o n Judaism contributed not a little to the
spread o f the notion, among the thinkers o f the Enlighten-
ment, that the Jewish religion was nothing but crude su-
perstition and that the old Jehovah was merely a G o d o f
hatred.! From this it followed quite naturally that the Jew-
ish people were ignorant and fundamentally perverse not
only since the Crucifixion but throughout all time. (Vol-
taire was a clever propagandist of “anti-Semitism” in this
form.) A t a period when the nascent sciences o f biology and
anthropology classified living beings i n fixed and immutable
genera and species, such views contained the germ of a rac-
ism avant la lettre. Thus the grandiose edifice of the Church
was breached, and a historian o f ideas could readily recon-
struct the thread that leads from Spinoza to Herder, Fichte,
and Hegel, and also to Schleiermacher and Harnack. It is
in this context that the “divine” interpretation was re-
placed by the “racial” o n e : the prerogative o f a n elite i n
the eighteenth century, the property of the masses in the
nineteenth, and in the twentieth affording an ideological jus-
tification for the crematory ovens. Such m a y b e the fatal con-
sequences o f a n insufficiently informed opinion, and the enor-
mous responsibilities o f philosophers. B u t Spinoza and his
philosophical descendants did not have access t o the enor-
mous body of information, borrowed from the various social
sciences, that we possess today and that permits us to ac-

1 I n the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus w e find, among passages charac-

terized b y the greatest serenity, paragraphs such as the following: “Thus the
love o f the Hebrews for their country w a s not only patriotism but also piety,
and was cherished and nurtured b y daily rites until, like their hatred of
other nations, i t was absolutely perverse ( a s it very well might b e , consider-
ing that they were a peculiar people and entirely apart from the rest).
Such daily reprobation naturally gave rise t o a lasting hatred, deeply im-
planted i n the heart: for o f all hatred, none is more deep a n d tenacious than
that which springs from extreme devoutness o r piety, and is itself cherished
as pious” (Chap. 17).
 Forewor d ix

count for the uniqueness o f the Jewish destiny not b y means

of a “rigid” hypothesis, but b y employing an “evolutionist”
hypothesis o f the kind that has long since prevailed i n sci-
ence. Thus the present work is an attempt to co-ordinate
these many elements as they relate t o anti-Semitism.
T h e undertaking has been completed under the aegis and
thanks to the co-operation of the History Department of the
Centre National de l a Recherche Scientifique. Such sponsor-
ship increases my own responsibility and makes it even
more essential for m e to consider a possible criticism that I
have not explored m y subject sufficiently, and that although
I have expressed m y personal views, I have attempted to
treat the history of two thousand years in three hundred
pages without producing enough documents a n d facts t o
support m y theses. T o this I can only reply that a n author’s
capacity for work has limits, as does a publisher’s dedica-
tion, and that I have been concerned not with producing a
definitive work but a useful one, likely to provoke contro-
versy but also thought. May I hope that my errors, if they
exist, will be fruitful ones. Some of my interpretations may be
disputed, and certain details revised and corrected: but with
regard to the essential point—that is, the relationship be-
tween anti-Semitism and the Jews, viewed sometimes in a
reciprocal relationship, sometimes in isolation from each
other—I believe I have followed a valid method and have
unearthed a number of unknown or forgotten facts.
It remains for me to thank the teachers, colleagues, and
friends whose counsel I have sought during these years o n
questions of detail as well as o n the structure of the entire
work; o n points of history as well as o n the countless socio-
logical, psychological, or literary problems that arose in the
course of this study. The list of names is long, and it would
be arduous for me to make it a complete one, so numerous
were my benefactors; may they all be assured of my sincere
gratitude.
L . P.
Paris
W h o is h e that hideth counsel without knowledge?
Job 4 2 : 3
 CONTENTS

Foreword ov

PART ONE | FROM GOLGOTHA TO THE CRUSADES

1 Anti-Semitism in Pagan Antiquity 3

Anti-Semitism and Early Christianity 17

38 The Western Jews in the Late Middle Ages 26

PART TWO | THE AGE OF THE CRUSADES

4 The Fateful Summer of 1096 4 1

The first great persecutions and public opinion—Ritual murder
—The “rouelle” and the trial of the Talmud
5 The Jewish Reactions 73
From trade to usury—Birth of a Jewish mentality—Conclusion

PART THREE | THE AGE OF THE DEVIL

6 Background: The Fourteenth Century 1 0 1

The Black Plague—The condition of the Jews in Europe after
the Black Plague
7 The Image of the Jew 123
Devils, witches, a n d Jews—The final crystallization: the ghetto
 PART FOUR | THE AGE OF THE GHETTO

8 Anti-Semitism in the Pure State: France 173

9 Anti-Semitism i n the Pure State: England 203

10 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany 210
Luther—Germany after Luther
11 Poland: the Autonomous Center 246
The Deluge
12 The Case of Russia 275

Appendices
A: The Origin of the Jews in the Light of Group Serol-
ogy 283
Note for the American Edition (1965) 287
B: The Formation and Transmission of Jewish “Differen-
tial” Characteristics from the Viewpoint of Con-
temporary Biology 2 9 3

Notes 309
Index 329
 PART ONE
FROM GOLGOTHA T O
THE CRUSADES
 one
Anti-Semitism
in Pagan Antiquity
Rivalries among clans, tribes, and peoples have occurred at
all periods and i n all regions. With respect to ancient Israel,
it would be utterly futile to attempt to ascertain, b y means of
the traditional documents at our disposal, whether the hos-
tility expressed toward Israel b y neighboring peoples al-
ready assumed some special significance i n Biblical times,
whether some particular virulence entered into it. Whatever
the merits of the Old Testament as an historical source book,
its involvement in the very notion of a covenant, of a
unique role providentially devolving upon the people of
Israel, the grandiose inspiration of the lekh lekha, of the “Get
thee out o f thy country, a n d from thy kindred, and from thy
father’s house,” makes this point necessarily ambiguous and
keeps u s from seeing t o what degree the destiny o f Israel,
eschatologically claimed to be special, was actually so from
the beginning. Egyptian and Babylonian inscriptions are o f
n o help here; and as for the Greeks, who were the first to
study history i n the sense i n which w e understand it, their
authors make n o mention o f the Jews until the century o f
Alexander the Great, although, as archaeological discoveries
prove, Greek influence was already powerful i n Palestine
at a much earlier period. From this silence we can only
conclude that Greek travelers, for all their curiosity, found
nothing special to say about the people of Judea, who in n o
w a y struck them as noteworthy o r roused their imaginations.
O f course, the Maccabees’ stubborn resistance to Helleni-
zation attracted the attention o f their contemporaries. A n d
 From Golgotha t o the Crusades 4

in the second century A.p., the Stoic Posidonius of Apamea,

recounting the siege o f Jerusalem by Antiochus VII, imputes
t o h i m the intention t o annihilate the Jewish race completely,
“. . for, alone among all nations, this one refused to have
any intercourse with the other peoples, and regarded them
all as enemies” (1).* However, such remarks have always
served to illustrate long and pitiless conflicts, and the de-
lenda est Carthago, which dates from these same years, m a y
stand here as a counterpart.
Indeed, the outlines become clear only when the major-
ity of Jews, having willy-nilly left the territory of Judea
after the wars that periodically laid waste to the region,
were living in the Dispersion alongside and among other
peoples, and when documentation of some validity is made
available. T o realize this more clearly, let us turn t o a period
closer to us and more familiar, when, under Caesar and
Augustus, Rome established her domination over the Medi-
terranean world. I n this period the Jews, who still retained
their territorial and spiritual center in Palestine, were al-
ready swarming throughout the Roman Empire and even
beyond its borders. As the only people to profess the belief
in one God, they were singularly distinguished from all the
other subjects of the empire. M a y we, then, infer the exist-
ence of a generalized “anti-Semitism,” that is, of an effective
sui generis attitude of the gentiles regarding the Jews, an
endemic hatred pregnant with explosive outbursts, reducing
the children of Israel to pariah status and exposing them, as
traditional scapegoats, to numberless and endless massa-
cres?
T h e question has been widely debated, but though it has
been the object of much research, particularly in recent
years, the ancient texts on which this research is based are
not very numerous. The “Jewish question” does not seem to
have had more than secondary importance for the m e n of
those times. It is equally difficult to reach a valid conclusion
o n the basis o f the f e w writings that have come down t o
* F o r numbers i n parentheses, see Notes.
 Anti-Semitism in Pagan Antiquity 5

us, just as it would be for an historian of the future to judge

contemporary anti-Semitism from only Mein Kampf, the
writings o f Édouard Drumont, a n d a few works o f general
history. W e shall return later to the relevant Greek and Latin
texts; let us try n o w to establish our investigation o n more
positive bases.
What, then, was the importance of the Jews in the Roman
Empire? Numerically, the most reliable estimates speak of
one million Jews inhabiting Palestine proper, and from three
to four million Jews in the Dispersion, from Asia Minor to
Spain: seven to eight percent of the empire’s total popula-
tion.” Racially, the matter concerned the ancients very little,
a n d the retrospective hypotheses o f today’s anthropologists
bring n o clarity t o this point. T h e problem is rendered still
more complex as the result of an extremely active prosely-
tism, converting Egyptians, Greeks, and even Romans to
Judaism. W e shall return t o this subject later. As t o the
Jews’ trades and occupations, these were extremely varied,
but in the Dispersion, as in Palestine, they gained their live-
lihood chiefly by the sweat of their brow. As Marcel Simon
notes: “ . . considering the whole o f the empire, the Jew-
ish population included a large majority o f poor people.
What the Jews are most frequently criticized for is
not being covered with gold but rather with filthy rags
. (2). I n Egypt and A s i a Minor they were generally agri-
cultural colonists; elsewhere, they were widely represented
in all the trades of the period, particularly weaving and dye-
ing, which they virtually monopolized in certain regions.
They were also goldsmiths, glass blowers, and workers in
bronze and iron. As the monk Cosmas Indicopleustes was t o
write later, in the sixth century, “God gave them knowl-
1 This is the figure adopted b y Arthur Ruppin (cf. his study, “The Jew-
ish Population of the World,” in The Jewish People, Past and Present, New
York, 1946, Vol. 1 , p . 348). It is also the average of the sometimes divergent
estimates of such specialists as R. Beloch, A . Harnack, J. Juster, J. Klausner,
C h . Guignebert, etc. See also the extremely detailed note b y Salo W . Baron
in A Social and Religious History of the Jews, 2nd ed., New York, 1952,
Vol. 1 , pp. 370-72.
 From Golgotha to the Crusades 6

edge and filled them with the divine spirit, and instructed
them that they might conceive and perform all kinds of un-
dertakings, working gold, silver, and bronze, and the dye of
hyacinth, and the purple, and the application of crimson to
stuffs, fine linen, stones and wood . . and it is found that
even to this day such trades are practiced the most by
Jews” ( 3 ) . Others were simple laborers, still others engaged
i n commerce a n d the professions, but as the historian J. Jus-
ter astutely observes, “No pagan author has ever character-
ized them as merchants; nowhere do w e come upon that
identification of Judaism with business that, a few centuries
later, will seem so natural” (4). Still others were profes-
sional—and highly esteemed—soldiers, fighting or mount-
ing guard along all the marches of the empire.? There were
also Jewish officials, sometimes of high rank; in the imperial
hierarchy, we find Jewish knights and senators, Jewish leg-
ates, and even Jewish praetors.? If we add that the Jews of the
Dispersion regularly adopted the language as well as the
costume of the province they inhabited, that they were rap-
idly “assimilated” from every point o f view, even Helleniz-
ing or Latinizing their names, we seem justified in drawing
this first conclusion: that they did not seem to suffer any spe-
cial animosity, and that nothing, except their worship, sin-
gled them out from the mosaic o f peoples that comprised the
population of the empire.
Nothing except their worship. B u t it was just this worship,
unlike all others, that imperiously prescribed certain duties
strikingly different from practices universally required o f all
2 See in this connection the abundant documentation collected b y J. Jus-
ter i n Les Juifs dans l'Empire romain, Paris, 1914, Vol. 2, p p . 265-78. The
exemptions from military service granted the Asian Jews b y Julius Caesar
a n d Dolabella, mentioned b y Josephus, must have been o f a purely local
character.
8 Herod Agrippa I h a d obtained the praetorian insignia from Caligula,
a n d Claudius granted them t o Herod Agrippa I I . Josephus mentions the ex-
istence, in Palestine itself, of several Jews who were Roman knights. See in
this connection the considerable epigraphic material collected by J. Juster,
op. cit., Vol. 2 , pp. 246-50.
 Anti-Semitism in Pagan Antiquity 7

other Roman subjects. “Thou shalt have n o other gods be-

fore me,” the first commandment, forbade the Jews any re-
ligious act toward the gods of the empire and of the city, and
toward the living gods—the deified monarchs. The fourth
commandment sometimes had consequences just as weighty:
“The seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy G o d : in it
thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy
daughter. ~~.”Faced with Jewish intransigence i n this mat-
ter, the Romans, skillful administrators that they were, rap-
idly settled on certain compromises, especially one exempt-
ing the Jews from offering sacrifices to the emperors. Such
privileges i n fact constituted a source o f jealousy a n d
possible conflict, especially in the great cities of the East,
where the population was extremely mixed. This is easy t o
understand; furthermore, we have a valuable description of
the situation in the Book of Esther (written in the second or
first century B.c.) ( 5 ) . T h e text describes the jealousy o f the
minister Haman when confronted with the spirit of independ-
ence shown b y Mordecai, who “ . . . bowed not, nor did him
reverence. . . A n d Haman said unto king Ahasuerus,
There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed
among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and
their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the
king's laws (Esther 3: 5, 8).
B u t there were not only jealous courtiers. Another text re-
veals the scornful and exasperated attitude of a noble Roman
faced with Jewish stubbornness. This is a speech attributed
t o Flaccus, prefect o f Egypt, when h e tried i n the year 3 8 to
forbid the Alexandrian Jews to celebrate the Sabbath, o n
explicit orders from the capital:
“If a sudden enemy invasion, an overflow of the Nile, a
conflagration, a thunderbolt, a famine, a plague, an earth-
quake or any other disaster occurred on Saturday, would you
still remain calmly i n your homes? Or, according t o your cus-
tom, would you stroll through the streets, your hands hidden
in your clothing so as not t o be tempted to give aid to those
 From Golgotha to the Crusades 8

w h o are doing the rescuing? O r would y o u remain i n your

synagogues i n solemn session, reading your sacred books, ex-
plaining obscure passages and making long-winded lec-
tures about your philosophy? No! Without wasting a mo-
ment, you would seek to shelter your parents, your children,
your fortune, and all that is dear to you. Now, even thus am
I all these together: tempest, war, flood, thunderbolt, fam-
ine, earthquake, and disaster, and this not in the abstract
but as a present and potent force” (6).
Furthermore, the sign of a special covenant with God—the
practice of circumcision—doubtless raised disturbing echoes:
curtis judaeis, wrote Horace; recutitus, Martial quipped; and
Catullus speaks of verpus priapus ille. There were also other
regulations that expressed Jewish separateness, the isolat-
ing force of the L a w : “Neither shalt thou make marriages
with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son,
nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son” (Deuteron-
omy, 7:3). Hence Jewish monotheism involved conse-
quences o f a purely sociological order, varying with times
and places.
I n the period o f antiquity—and apart from the situation
in Alexandria—there are scarcely any examples of popular
outbursts against the Jews. The masses were not concerned
with them and harbored n o special prejudice against them.
A s for professional writers, they were already noting the
close solidarity o f the Jews (which gained them the reputa-
tion of misanthropy: they were said to be united among
themselves and hostile to the pagans), as well as a combat-
ive spirit that we find described b y many pagan authors. Let
us n o w consider the texts these authors have left us.
I t should be noted that the most violent anti-Jewish texts
have n o t reached u s d i r e c t l y : w e k n o w t h e m only through
the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who collected them
in his polemical work, Against Apion. Most of their authors
were natives o f Alexandria, the city where a very important
Jewish colony h a d been established a n d where conflicts b e -
tween Jews and the Greek population were frequent and bit-
 Anti-Semitism in Pagan Antiquity q

ter. What, then, do the grammarian Apion and the other au-
thors quoted b y Josephus hold against the Jews?
I n the first place, they refer t o a certain number o f legends
about the Jews’ origin, depicting them as corrupt beings,
lepers whom the Egyptians, at some indeterminate period,
had driven from their country. Manetho, an Egyptian his-
torian and priest of the second century B . C . , was the first
t o popularize this idea, which is merely a malicious parody o f
Exodus. “The king caused all the sick to b e gathered together,
in number, it is said, eighty thousand, and imprisoned them
i n quarries o n the east bank o f the Nile i n order that they
might labor there along with other Egyptian captives:
there were among them illustrious priests also tainted with
leprosy.” A n d subsequently, having recounted the free-
ing of the prisoners and their flight into the land of Canaan:
“Their lawgiver, a priest from Heliopolis named Osarsiph,
after the god Osiris worshiped in that city, having changed
his nationality, took the name of Moses.” With variations in
detail, Lysimachus of Alexandria, Posidonius of Apamea,
and others repeated this legend. This is interesting insofar as
the accusation of spreading leprosy, that is, of being untouch-
able, is linked to another accusation: that of being unsocia-
ble. There are numerous texts o n this subject. Among those
Josephus quotes, here is a characteristic passage by Lysi-
machus: “Moses exhorted them [the Jews] to show
kindness to n o one, to follow only the worst counsels and to
overthrow all the sanctuaries and altars o f the gods they
might come upon.” Even a n author w h o speaks well o f the
Jews and their institutions—Hecataeus of Abdera—makes
this observation: “He [Moses] instituted a kind of life op-
posed t o humanity and t o hospitality.” Other Greek authors
(Diodorus of Sicily, Philostratus), as well as certain Latin
writers (Trogus, Juvenal) repeat the same accusation, which
we find again, concisely summarized, in this celebrated pas-
sage of Tacitus: “. . the Jews reveal a stubborn at-
tachment to one another, an active commiseration, which
contrasts with their implacable hatred for the rest of man-
 From Golgotha to the Crusades 10

kind. They sit apart at meals, they sleep apart, and though,
as a nation, they are singularly prone to debauchery, they
abstain from intercourse with foreign women. . . .”
A completely logical conclusion that several ancient au-
thors drew from this—though one that surprises us—was
that the Jews were an atheistic people. Their outspoken hor-
ror of other divinities, their eternal contemnere deos, their
refusal to sacrifice to the emperors, already sufficed to char-
acterize them as an impious race; furthermore, what was
their God? Had not Pompey remarked, when he had boldly
entered their temple in 63 B.c., that “inside there was no
image o f the gods, the place was empty and the secrets o f
the sanctuary were nought”? *
The other accusations against the Jews, which were some-
times contradictory—an obstinate, rebellious, audacious
people; or a cowardly and contemptible people, a nation
born for slavery—all proceed more or less from those we
have quoted. However, special consideration must b e given
t o the indignation o f certain ancient authors with regard t o
the Jews’ extremely active proselytism. Horace and Juvenal
i n their satires ridicule the Jewish neophytes; Valerius Maxi-
m u s accused the Jews o f “corrupting Roman morals b y the
worship o f Jupiter Sabazios”; and Seneca states that the
“practices of this villainous nation have so greatly prevailed
that they are accepted throughout the universe; the van-
quished have given laws unto the victors.” I t is important to
note that such proselytism had already been practiced for a
long time in the ancient world; one finds premonitorv signs
ever since the times of the prophets. H a d not Jonah been or-
dered b y the Lord to go to preach repentence in the city
of Nineveh? The perfect proselytes—those who submitted to
the baths of purification and to circumcision—were ac-
cepted b y the Jewish congregations o n a basis of complete
equality and were regarded as “sons of Abraham.” This was
not true of the “semiproselytes,” the metuentes or “God-
4 Nulla intus deum effigie, vacuam sedem et inania arcana. Tacitus,
Historiae, V , 9.
 Anti-Semitism in Pagan Antiquity 1 1

fearers,” also called “proselytes of the porch,” who, not dar-

ing to take the definitive step, observed one or another Jew-
ish custom, such as the Sabbath. Yet their sons often became
perfect proselytes. One of Juvenal’s satires, ridiculing the
“parents whose examples corrupt their childen,” suggests
that conversions were quite common.” Anticipating the tri-
umphant success of Christian propaganda, the Jewish variety
won many adherents at this period. This may lead us to
think twice about the exact origins a n d ancestry o f what
came to be called “the Jewish race.”
I n short, apart from legends, we see that the ancient au-
thors reproached the Jews for certain peculiarities of morals
and behavior expressly imposed b y the Old Testament—
as h a d already been observed b y the unknown author o f the
Sibylline Oracles (“And you shall fill all the lands and all the
seas; and each shall be enraged by your customs”: III, 271).
On the other hand, these authors invariably allude to the
Jews” martial valor and their family spirit: “This nation is
terrible in its wrath,” writes Dio Cassius, and even the hos-
tile Tacitus observes: “It is a crime among them to kill any
newborn infant. They hold that the souls of all who perish
in battle or b y the hands of the executioner are immortal.
Hence a passion for propagating their race and a contempt
for death.”
Thus from this rapid scrutiny we m a y draw certain con-
clusions. O n the one hand, w e observe i n pagan antiquity
none of those collective emotional reactions that would sub-
sequently render the lot o f the Jews so hard and so precari-
ous. W e m a y add that, i n general, the Roman Empire i n

5 Satire 14. Juvenal continues: “ H e w h o happens t o have h a d a father

w h o observed the Sabbath will adore only the clouds a n d the spirit o f the
sky; he will as soon eat human flesh as that of swine, from which his father
abstained; soon he will even b e circumcised. Raised in scorn of the Romans,
he learns, observes, reveres only the Judaic law, all of which Moses trans-
mitted t o his followers i n a mysterious b o o k : [ h e i s taught] not t o show the
w a y t o the traveler w h o does not practice the same rites, a n d t o lead only
the circumcised t o the fountain. A n d all this because his father passed every
seventh d a y i n sloth, without taking any part i n the duties o f life!”
 From Golgotha to the Crusades 12

pagan times knew n o “state anti-Semitism,” despite the fre-

quency and violence of Jewish insurrections (the sole ex-
ception being the anti-Jewish edicts of Hadrian in 135,
after the Bar Kokheba rebellion; these edicts were repealed
three years later by Hadrian's successor, A n t o n i n u s ) . O n
the other hand, the attention of contemporaries, especially
of the “intellectuals” of the period, was attracted b y what
was singular about Judaism. This inquiring attention oscil-
lates between two poles: aversion to Jewish “exclusiveness,”
and an attraction to the monotheistic religion, that “strange
charm,” as Renan calls it, whose proof is furnished b y the
successes of Jewish proselytism.
Hence, as Josephus proudly asserted in the History of the
Jewish War, “For many years the people have shown an ar-
dent desire to adopt our religious practices: there is n o
Greek city, no barbarian people, no nation to which our cus-
tom of abstaining from work upon the seventh day has not
spread, and where the fasts, the lighting of the lamps, and
many of our dietary prohibitions are not observed.”
I t is commonplace today to contrast the jealous exclusiv-
ism of Jehovah with the tolerance of the pagan gods. When
we consider the matter more closely, things are not so sim-
ple. T h e tutelary gods o f the ancient city-state heeded
only their own worshipers; a foreigner could not count on
their protection, but remained bound to the gods of his an-
cestors. Thus, while acknowledging alien gods, local or re-
gional worship remained exclusive and intolerant within its
own bounds. O n the other hand, though the universal God
o f the Jews tolerated n o rivals, the congregation o f the
chosen people was open to all, and its protection was ex-
tended to all men. As the prophet expressed i t : “Also the
sons of the stranger . even them will I bring to my holy
mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer
for mine house shall b e called an house of prayer for all peo-
ple” (Isaiah 56: 6-7).
W e may observe, in this connection, that under the pow-
erful influence of Hellenic culture, Judaism developed in its
 Anti-Semitism in Pagan Antiquity 13

o w n fashion, gradually reducing its ritualism and absorb-

ing ideas borrowed from Greek thought and philosophy. In
the Talmudic tradition, in the school of Gamaliel, five hun-
dred young m e n studied the Torah and another five hun-
dred the wisdom of the Greeks. As a result, we find Hel-
lenized Jewish thinkers, like Philo o f Alexandria, seeking
to harmonize the doctrine of the Stoics with the precepts of
the Torah. These developments obviously facilitated the as-
cendancy of Jewish proselytism and at the same time pre-
pared the ground over which Christian propaganda was t o
extend its influence. The latter, in turn, affected the Jews’
status. But before examining the situation thus created, we
must look briefly at the fate of certain Jewish communities
scattered among peoples destined to remain outside the or-
bit of the daughter religions of Judaism. West of Judea, the
God of Abraham had ultimately compelled recognition and
h a d triumphed; yet what is the course o f events when H e
remains a minor o r a local divinity?

I n the first centuries o f the Jewish Dispersion, the Jews h a d

settled far beyond the geographical limits o f the Mediter-
ranean world. Thus, while the main threads of Jewish history,
especially after the rise o f the great monotheistic religions
that were the heirs of Judaism, were woven upon the warp of
Christianity and Islam, certain communities did persist
among polytheistic peoples in India, in China, and perhaps
even i n Japan. Let u s consider whether their development
under such conditions can be related and compared with
what they experienced in the Roman Empire.
W e mention the existence of the Jews in Japan only inci-
dentally, for there is n o way of ascertaining the facts about
this subject, though certain etymological assumptions are
of interest.’ The case of the Jews in China, o n the other hand,
deserves closer consideration.
8 There exist, as a matter of fact, near Yamako, two villages, Goshen
a n d Manasseh, whose names have nothing i n common with current Japa-
nese etymology; a n abandoned temple located nearby bears the name
 From Golgotha to the Crusades 14

Some years ago there still existed i n Honan Province, at

Kai-feng-fu, a handful of Chinese who refrained from eat-
ing pork and w h o remembered that their fathers h a d been
circumcised. The ruins of a synagogue were also found in
the vicinity. These were the last vestiges of several once-
prosperous and important communities. The best informa-
tion as to their history comes from the Jesuit missionaries
who visited them in the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-
turies and who inquired about their sacred books and the de-
tails of their worship. It appears from their accounts that
toward the middle of the eighteenth century, the Kai-feng-
f u community, although already declining, still numbered
about a thousand members. The Jews of China had seen bet-
ter days: As Père Domenge puts it, “ . . for a long time,
they played a great role in China. Several were governors
of provinces, ministers of state, bachelors and doctors. There
were some w h o possessed great landed wealth. But today
nothing of this former glory remains to them. Their settle-
ments in H a m Chow, Himpo, Peking, Ning-hyo have disap-
peared . . .” (7). Some inscriptions discovered on commem-
orative steles” confirm these remarks, as does a sentence from
Marco Polo, who mentions the prosperity and the influence

“David”; i n the neighboring city o f Usumasa, the word “Israel” i s carved

o n a well several centuries old. There has also been a n attempt t o relate the
word “samurai” (according to tradition, the samurai were descendants of a
tribe that h a d come from deep i n the Asian continent several centuries be-
fore Christ) t o “Samaria,” a n d this has been m a d e the point o f departure
for speculations on the Japanese as descendants of the ten lost tribes. (Cf.
The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, London, 1 9 0 4 , Vol. 6, article “Japan,”
a n d D r . S. Oyabe, Origin of Japan and o f the Japanese, Yale University
Press, 1926.) During the last century, such speculations were sufficiently at-
tractive for Ranke to write: “The Jewish type is frequently encountered
among the Japanese nobility, including the imperial family. T h e crown
prince has a Jewish physiognomy . ” etc. E v e n early i n this century, Wer-
n e r Sombart, speaking o f the “extraordinary resemblance between the Japa-
nese nature and the Jewish nature,” returned to this naive hypothesis.
7 These steles were unearthed i n 1 8 2 4 near the city o f L o Yang. O n e o f
the inscriptions, written i n 1 5 1 2 b y a Chinese mandarin, states that “the
Jews excel i n agriculture, commerce, law, a n d the military arts; they are
greatly esteemed for their integrity, their loyalty, a n d their piety.”
 Anti-Semitism in Pagan Antiquity 15

of the Jewish settlements in China (1286), and accounts of

Arab travelers dating from the ninth century. This last
source asserts that “the Jews have been settled in China since
time immemorial” ( 8 ) ; thus, without going back as far as
King Solomon, as some have attempted to do, it seems reason-
able to grant, with the Jewish historian Graetz, that the first
Jewish settlements i n China date from the first centuries o f
the Christian era.
The significant fact in all this is that for at least ten cen-
turies the Jews o f China—their customs and ethnic group
purely Chinese—led a peaceful and uneventful existence,
harmoniously combining the practices of Jewish ritual with
the respect due to Confucius, “ . . convinced that the lat-
ter were purely civil and political ceremonies,” as Pere Do-
menge informs us ( 9 ) . T h e Jews were not the object o f per-
secutions and in n o way intruded upon the attention of the
people o r the government. C u t off entirely from their co-
religionists for an extraordinarily long period, their loyalty
to their faith apparently must be attributed, in the absence
o f other ethnic or social or economic explanations, to the
peculiar isolating power of Jewish monotheism. Yet even
this was not an indestructible mortar, and ultimately it
yielded to the erosion of time. Other conditions, it appears,
are essential in order to assure the persistence and multipli-
cation of the Jewish people among the nations.
Closer to the traditional centers of Judaism, the Jews of
India, where immigration occurred in several successive
waves, have maintained themselves in considerable num-
bers t o our o w n day. There are still some tens o f thousands
of them, the olive-skinned “Beni Israel,” in the vicinity of
Bombay and, farther south, Jews of Cochin or Malabar,
called “black Jews”; ethnically, neither group shows any
distinction from the surrounding population. Their first set-
tlement dates from about the first centuries of the Christian
era. I n the course o f the Middle Ages, other Jews settled i n
India, coming either overland from Mesopotamia or b y sea
from Europe; the latter kept rigidly apart from the native
 From Golgotha to the Crusades 16

Jews. Though commerce was the usual occupation o f these

latest arrivals, the Beni Israel and the Jews of Cochin were
generally farmers and artisans. The history of the Beni
Israel, also called “Shauvar Telis” (pressers o f Saturday
oil), is very obscure, and we may conclude from this that
they were happy, since happy peoples, it is said, have n o his-
tory. I n any case, in modern times these humble people have
provoked n o hatred and experienced n o persecution. Curi-
ously enough, in India there is a religious group that for cen-
turies has assumed the economic role inherited b y the Jews
in Europe. These are the Parsis, the last modern representa-
tives of ancient Persian Zoroastrianism. Numbering ap-
proximately a hundred thousand, they live in the city and
region o f Bombay, a n d commerce is their chief if not exclu-
sive occupation. Living in comfort, they are known for the
purity o f their family habits, as well as for their remarkable
group solidarity. If one adds that Zoroastrianism is, i n the
opinion of historians of religion, the sole monotheistic creed
to appear independently o f Judaism, one m a y make a n in-
teresting comparison, without, of course, being able to ven-
ture the slightest hypothesis for the historical reasons that
have led the Parsis (and not the Jews) to assume the role
o f “the Jews o f India.”
 two

Anti-Semitism
and Early Christianity
Deriving from Judaism and calling upon the God of Abra-
h a m for its authority, a n e w teaching appeared and after
three centuries of struggle triumphantly imposed itself upon
the whole of the Roman world. It is quite inconceivable that
such an event should not have influenced the position of
the Jews who had remained faithful to the old Law: its reper-
cussions were as swift as they were substantial, and we must
consider in some detail a development that from its incep-
tion is extremely complex and sometimes contradictory.
W e shall not discuss here the question of the exact de-
gree o f “historicity” attributable to the Gospels nor express
any opinion concerning related controversial questions: the
biography o f Jesus, the authenticity o f the sayings attrib-
uted to him, the precise nature of his teachings, and so
forth. I t seems, indeed, as if the word “objectivity” loses its
meaning as soon as w e approach these questions, each au-
thor treating them with some preconceived i d e a : the agnos-
tic unable t o refrain from doubt, the believer unable t o deny
belief. But let us remark, for the point is an important one,
that the Gospel accounts of the trial of Jesus afford enough
contradictions and improbabilities for even Christian Bibli-
cal criticism to have called several points into question.
Thus the Protestant historian Hans Lietzmann writes:
“ It is highly unlikely that Mark’s account of the delib-
eration of the Sanhedrin during the night is based o n Peter's
testimony; from all appearances, this is a subsequent
Christian conjecture. W e may wonder whether in this
 From Golgotha t o the Crusades 18

account distant recollections of a real past are preserved

” (10). As for freethinking historians, they have a
marked tendency ( i f they do not completely deny the exist-
ence o f Jesus) t o write bluntly, as does Charles Guignebert:
“ . . . this trial appears to be merely an artifice, clumsily in-
troduced in order t o shift the principal responsibility for
Jesus’ execution onto the Jews. . ~~ W h a t remains likely is
that the Nazarene was arrested b y the Roman police, tried
and condemned b y the Roman procurator, Pilate or some
other” (11).
As a matter of fact, nothing in the Nazarene’s teachings
( e v e n though they m a y have shocked many a doctor o f the
Law) constituted formal heresy from the Jewish point of
view: even at the end of the first century, a doctor of the
Law, Rabbi Eliezer, considered that Jesus, too, would have
a place in the world to come (12). Furthermore, the mem-
bers of the first Christian community, that of Jerusalem,
were Jews who observed the L a w strictly and who desired
to continue to d o so. They seem to have suffered n o re-
buffs or systematic persecutions,’ and went into exile from Je-
rusalem only after the fall o f the Temple i n the year 70.
Traces of these “Judeo-Christians,” as they were subse-
quently called, occur as late as the following century. These
first Christians obeyed the commandments o f the L a w t o the
last detail and chose to recruit adherents only among the
Jews. It was not until Christian propaganda spread beyond
the borders o f Palestine, extending t o the Dispersion and
affecting the Jewish colonies in Syria, Asia Minor, and
Greece, that true Christianity, as we know it, was born. W e
have seen that these Hellenized colonies were surrounded
by a kind of fringe of “semiproselytes”—“sympathizers” we
would call them today—considered t o b e Jews o f a very in-

1 Indeed, the famous episode o f Stephen’s being stoned, as related i n

Acts, seems t o have been merely the consequence of a n internal conflict be-
tween the “Hebrews” a n d the “Hellenists” o f the young community. Cf. Acts
6: 1-6, and Lietzmann’s interpretation in his Histoire de l'Eglise ancienne,
Vol. 1 , pp. 70-71.
 Anti-Semitism and Early Christianity 19

ferior class because they were unwilling t o conform t o all ob-

servances. When Christians began preaching in this at-
mosphere, so different from that of Palestine, Saint Paul, as
the N e w Testament informs us, made the crucial decision to
exempt Christian proselytes from the commandments o f
the Law and from circumcision—and thereby changed the
course of the world’s history.
This decision was imposed upon the first Christian com-
munities only after prolonged struggle, and the conflicts be-
tween the orthodox partisans of the Christian Church of
Jerusalem a n d the innovators o f the Dispersion are reflected
i n Acts a n d i n the Pauline epistles.? T h e decision suddenly
transformed the Christians from harmless followers o f Juda-
ism into grave heretics against w h o m w e m a y see a re-
action in the solemn malediction of apostates, apparently
inserted in the Eighteen Benedictions about the year 80.”
This decision, finally, b y exempting the n e w converts from
the arduous duties imposed by the Law and abolishing all dis-
tinction between the “sons o f Abraham” proselytes and the
semiproselytes, tremendously enlarged the range o f Chris-
tian propaganda. Saint Paul expresses the matter as follows:
“And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the
Jews; t o them that are under the law, as under the law, that I
might gain them that are under the law; T o them that are
without law, as without law . . that I might gain them
that are without law; T o the weak became I as weak, that I
might gain the weak. . ” * Henceforth the new teaching
gained ground with increased rapidity.
The original source and center of the Church remained
2 Acts 13: 44-47; 1 5 : 1-29; Galatians 2 : 1-14, etc.
3 Twelfth Benediction: “ A n d m a y there b e n o hope for the apostates,
a n d m a y all those w h o d o evil b e destroyed i n a n instant, a n d m a y they all
b e uprooted a n d torn, and the arrogant b e humbled speedily. Cast them
d o w n a n d humble them speedily i n o u r days. Blessed art thou, O Lord, w h o
breakest the enemies a n d humbles the arrogant.” C f . Marcel Simon, Verus
Israél, Paris, 1948, “The Christians in the Talmud,” pp. 214-38. W e may
note i n this connection that since the late Middle Ages, the word “apostates”
( m i n i m ) has been replaced b y the word “informers” (malshinim).
4 1 Corinthians 9 : 2 0 - 2 2 .
 From Golgotha t o the Crusades 20

the Jewish colonies o f the Dispersion, but converts were in-

creasingly sought among the gentiles. Yet Jew and Chris-
tian both claimed the G o d o f Abraham as authority; both
claimed to be the sole faithful interpreters of that God’s will;
both revered the same sacred book, though each interpreted
the text in his own light. We may add that the Roman au-
thorities appear to have made little distinction between them
initially (the oldest Roman texts we know simply identify
them ).® Rarely has there been, it would seem, a situation so
propitious to the creation of implacable hostility.
I t is quite probable that the Jews o f the Dispersion, i n the
pride o f their ancient privileges, attempted to stand apart
from their rivals, that on occasion they even denounced to
the authorities those w h o m they regarded as dangerous
heretics. As for the Christians, these dissidents from Juda-
ism discovered with irritation that their propaganda among
the chosen people was not bearing much fruit. Henceforth,
it would be their concern to prove to the world that God had
withdrawn from this people the privilege of His favor, shift-
ing it t o a n e w Israel. T h e Jewish war a n d the destruction o f
the Temple afforded them, from this point of view, a perfect
argument. D i d not such a dreadful catastrophe, which could
only be a divine punishment, prove that God had turned
away from His people forever? (Certain Jewish texts of the
period express the same notion, but interpret quite differ-
ently the reasons for the punishment. According t o Rabbi
Ben Azzai, Israel was dispersed for having denied the one
God, circumcision, the commandments, and the Torah.®)
Furthermore, the N e w Church, while addressing itself in-
creasingly to the gentiles and gradually absorbing pagan in-
fluences, lost n o time in attributing to Jesus a divine nature.
Consequently his death inevitably became a deicide, the
crime of crimes; and this abominable sin, just as inevita-

5 For instance, Suetonius, in The Twelve Caesars: “Because the Jews at

R o m e caused continuous disturbances a t the instigation o f Chrestus [i.e.,
Christ], Claudius expelled them from the city” (Claudius, 25).
6 Midrash on Lamentations, I, 1 .
 Anti-Semitism and Early Christianity 21

bly, was upon the heads o f the Jews w h o h a d denied him.

The demonstration of their loss of grace was thus complete.
(Perhaps it was also politic to exonerate the Romans, who
were i n power, from all responsibility.) Thus everything
was accounted for and made clear: crime and punishment,
rejection and n e w election. For the organization o f Chris-
tianity, it was essential that the Jews b e a criminally guilty
people.
Thus, from the first centuries, the various motifs of the
original antagonism between Jews a n d Christians become
interwoven, n o w i n rivalries for proselytes, n o w i n the effort
to conciliate officialdom for its own advantage, or in the
exigencies o f theological thought; they are the nucleus o f a
strictly Christian anti-Semitism. We shall review them briefly
here.

T h e attitude o f the Roman authorities toward the Jews

o n the one hand, and toward the Christians on the other,
varied many times in the course of the first three centuries.
Letters of Tacitus and of Pliny the Younger (13) inform us
that b y the beginning of the second century Rome already
made a distinction between them. A t the time of Hadrian’s
prohibition o f circumcision and o f the bloody Bar Kokheba
rebellion in 1 3 5 , the first Christian apologists were attempt-
ing to prove that the Christians, having n o link with Israel
and the land of Judea, were irreproachable subjects of the
empire (14). Antoninus, Hadrian's successor, re-established
freedom of worship for the Jews, and i n the third century,
confronted with the growing successes of Christian teaching
(numerous active communities already existed in all the
provinces of the empire), initiated the age of the great per-
secutions of the Christians, supported b y the popular hatred
provoked b y Christian exclusivism. I n the eyes of the pagans,
the worshipers of Jesus did not even have the excuse of be-
longing t o a religion. Judaism was obviously absurd and
exasperating, yet it at least possessed claims to nobility based
upon a national tradition going back to the dawn of time.
 From Golgotha to the Crusades 2 2

Christians were disturbing newcomers, the genus tertium:

“Usque quo genus tertium!” shouted the m o b at the circus.
Hence they were the victims of a real “transfer of hostility”:
the legends o f a Manetho o r a n Apion about the ignominy o f
Jewish worship were now applied to Christian practices. As
Lietzmann writes: “ . . . each time a public disaster oc-
curred, a plague or a famine, the furious mob screamed for
the death of the Christians: ‘Throw them to the lions! ”
( 1 5 ) . ( F o r a Jewish author, these lines echo with a strangely
familiar ring.) I t was scarcely surprising if, under these cir-
cumstances, the Jews sought what advantage they could a n d
sided with the pagan camp—though there are records of
many cases of Christian martyrs being buried in Jewish
cemeteries, and as Tertullian says, the Jews sometimes offered
the threatened Christians the asylum o f their synagogues
( 1 6 ) . A new reversal occurred, of course, once Christianity
became an officially recognized religion. W e shall return to
this subject later.
T h e rivalry for proselytes also set Jews and Christians
against each other. Though Christian preaching rapidly
appeared to be more effective than Jewish, it did not follow
that Judaism lost its attraction, and its propagandists did not
give u p quickly. O n the contrary, some texts suggest that
in the second and third centuries they were quite as active as
before, if not more so. I n about 1 3 0 , Juvenal ridiculed “par-
ents whose examples corrupt their children.” When, a few
years later, Antoninus re-established the freedom of the Jews
to worship, he took the precaution of maintaining the pro-
hibition against circumcising non-Jews, under pain of death
or banishment, in order to oppose the spread of Judaism.
Some Jewish sources state that rabbinical tradition regarded
some of the most prominent doctors of Israel of this period as
proselytes.” They also mention solemn reception ceremonies
for proselytes in the third century, and public lectures in
which the Torah was eulogized (17). To whom was such
7 In particular Rabbi Shemaiah, Rabbi Abtalyon, Rabbi Meir, as well as
the famous Rabbi Akiba himself.
 Anti-Semitism and Early Christianity 23

proselytism addressed? I t is logical to assume that it was di-

rected equally toward converts to Christianity and toward
pagans. And, i n fact, were not the Jews the people o f the Old
Testament? Were not their doctors its most qualified inter-
preters? D o w e not find the first Christian exegetes, even
Saint Jerome, seeking instruction from the rabbis? Did not
the Christians follow the Jewish calendar for more than two
centuries? Thus certain contacts were established that some-
times proved dangerous for the stability of the new faith.
W e must recall that for the first two or three centuries the
Christian Church was not yet hierarchized and recognized
n o universally supreme institution: each community could
interpret the sacred texts i n its o w n way. Countless sects a n d
heresies appeared, often conforming more or less to Judaism,
and thus the prestige and influence of the people of the Book
prevailed on many occasions. The social status of the Jews
was still far from being such that they could b e used as a
contrast. A n d the dilemma still remained: t o interpret the
Old Testament correctly, who was better qualified than the
people to whom it had been given and who had preserved it
down through the centuries? Consequently, whereas Chris-
tians and Jews continued to compete among the gentiles, Ju-
daism was also able t o confuse and t o attract m a n y a fol-
lower of nascent Christianity. A n d this brings us to the
strictly doctrinal rivalry that finds its ultimate expression in
what has been called “theological anti-Semitism.”
From the beginning o f the third century, the thesis o f the
divine punishment of the Jews was explicitly formulated b y
Origen: “ W e may thus assert in utter confidence that the
Jews will not return t o their earlier situation, for they
have committed the most abominable of crimes, in forming
this conspiracy against the Saviour of the human race.
Hence the city where Jesus suffered was necessarily de-
stroyed, the Jewish nation was driven from its country,
and another people was called b y God to the blessed elec-
tion” ( 1 8 ) . O n the occasion of anti-Christian persecutions,
the Jews were to reverse the argument ironically: “Is there
 From Golgotha to the Crusades 24

not, then, among you even one m a n whose prayers are ac-
cepted by God, so that your miseries may cease?” (19)
If w e wish t o examine more closely the gradual rise o f a
“theological anti-Semitism,” the slow development of the pas-
chal liturgy offers a striking example. According t o the Didas-
calia Apostolorum, one of the oldest ecclesiastical documents
that has come down to us, the chief reason for the celebra-
tion of Easter was not only to commemorate the Passion of
Christ, but to obtain forgiveness for the guilty and unfaith-
ful Jews: “Know, then, m y brothers, in the case of the fast
that we practice for Easter, that you will fast for our brothers
who have not obeyed, even when they shall hate you.
W e must fast and mourn over them and over the judgment
and destruction of the nation . because when our Lord
came among the Jewish nation, they did not believe him
when he did teach them . . ” (V, 14, 23). But the ma-
jority of Christians rapidly rejected such a point of view. A t
the same time that the new reasons for the festival (the Pas-
sion and Resurrection of the Lord) were clarified, many com-
munities, and especially that of Rome, advocated changing
the date and calculating it independently, so as not to suffer
a humiliating subordination to the Jews. On Good Friday
prayers were offered for gentiles as well as for Jews; and ulti-
mately, from the ninth century on, certain sacramentaries
o f the Roman liturgy expressly directed: Pro Judaeis n o n
flectant (“Do not genuflect t o the Jews”).
I n the Gospels one already sees the beginning of such a de-
velopment. The Gospel According to Saint John, the last to
be written, is also the one most hostile to the Jews. Another
example from the Gospels: the fact that the name o f the
apostle to betray his Lord appears to b e derived philologi-
cally from Judea, the fatherland of the Jews, might of course
b e merely a coincidence. But the coincidence is too remark-
able not to suggest a deliberate desire to symbolize the op-
probrium henceforth heaped upon the chosen people.
I t is not at all surprising, in this situation, that beginning
8 Cf. p. 32.
 Anti-Semitism and Early Christianity 25

with the fourth century, and especially in the East, where the
Jews were more numerous, many preachers attacked them
with the utmost violence: “Murderers of the Lord, assassins
o f the prophets, rebels and detesters o f God, they outrage the
Law, resist grace, repudiate the faith o f their fathers. Com-
panions of the devil, race of vipers, informers, calumniators,
darkeners of the mind, pharisaic leaven, Sanhedrin of de-
mons, accursed, detested, lapidators, enemies of all that is
beautiful .” (Gregory of Nyssa) (20). “Brothel and the-
ater, the synagogue is also a cave o f pirates and the lair o f
wild beasts. . . . Living for their belly, mouth forever gap-
ing, the Jews behave n o better than hogs and goats i n their
lewd grossness a n d the excesses o f their gluttony. They can
d o one thing only: gorge themselves with food a n d drink
. . . (Saint John Chrysostom) (21).
Thus a Byzantine tradition of anti-Semitism was estab-
lished. From it, in particular, was to emerge the super-
stitious fear of the Jews so characteristic of the Muscovite
Empire a thousand years later. I n Western Europe, o n the
other hand, the development was to be more complex and
more bizarre. And it is the Christian West that we shall
now consider.
 three
The Western Jews
in the Late Middle Ages
Apart from a few more or less legendary episodes, not much
is known about the way in which Christianity spread to
Roman Gaul; nor is anything known of the circumstances
under which the first centers of Judaism appeared there. In-
stinctively, there is a tendency to take quite divergent
views toward these movements: whereas the fiery words of
some of the apostles supposedly brought about conversions
to a gradually spreading Christianity, Judaism was mani-
fested only b y the immigration of Jews and the handing
down of Jewish beliefs from father to son. But the historian
must sometimes mistrust instinctive reactions, so often sub-
ject t o the common error o f viewing past ages through the
lens o f the present. O n e might equally well advance a n op-
posing hypothesis: that Christianity a n d Judaism took root
in the West in an identical fashion, essentially through con-
versions; Judaism, moreover, preceding Christianity and
providing it—as in the East—with an essential vehicle. W e
shall discuss later the considerations that lead us, in the ab-
sence of any valid documentation, to decide in favor of this
second hypothesis. First, though, let us consider what is
known of the first Jewish settlements in Gaul.
Nothing certain is known concerning the Roman period,
except for a few comments about Jewish merchants in Mar-
seilles, Arles, or Narbonne. I n the Frankish period, however,
when the clergy took over the writing of history, the outlines
become clearer. Many Church council decisions of the fifth
 The Western Jews i n the Late Middle Ages 27

and sixth centuries have reference to the Jews and their in-
fluence. They forbid Christians, both clerics and laymen, t o
eat with Jews; they oppose mixed marriages; give warnings
about the observation o n Sundays o f the countless Sabbath
prohibitions; and forbid the Jews to mingle with Christian
crowds during the Easter festival.! Such resolutions, b y their
very nature, were intended primarily t o prevent the believ-
ers from accepting the Jewish faith and rituals, and to
counter the dangerous Judaizing heresies that one sees so
often among populations recently evangelized and still un-
certain i n their faith. Similarly, the only text o f a n anti-
Jewish polemic o f the period that has come down t o us, that
o f the Gaul Evagrius ( 2 2 ) , constitutes more o f a warning
to Christians than an attempt to evangelize Jews. All of this
suggests that at this time the Jews o f Gaul were numerous,
influential, and, since they lived o n good terms with the
Christians and mixed freely with them, of concern to Church
leaders b y very reason of this association with their flock.
More detailed information is afforded, at the end of the sixth
century, b y Gregory o f Tours. His various writings give us a
detailed picture of the Jews of his time. W e learn, for in-
stance, that they were merchants, landowners, officials,
physicians, or artisans, and that, mingling with the “Syrians”
(whom the author mentions in the same context), they were
numerous in the cities, where, as cosmopolites, both sects
must have lorded it over the local barbarians. The Syrians,
however, were Christians; the Jews represented for the
Church the enemy par excellence, as evidenced b y certain
turns of phrase used b y the good bishop: “Liars to God”;
“close-minded, ever-incredulous race”; “wicked and per-
fidious nation.”
Nonetheless, the highest ecclesiastical dignitaries occa-
sionally requested their services and even maintained
1 Councils of Vannes (465), of Agde (506), of Epone (517), of Or-
léans ( 5 3 3 ) , of Clermont (535), of Micon ( 5 8 3 ) , etc. Cf. on this question:
R . Anchel, Les Juifs de France, pp. 2 7 - 2 9 .
 From Golgotha to the Crusades 28

friendly relations with them. Gregory of Tours relates at

length” the frank theological discussion that he himself had
occasion to enter upon in 581 with the Jew Priscus, a favor-
ite of King Chilperic. From the conclusion of the story, it
appears that a year later Priscus was killed, as he was pass-
ing unarmed * into the synagogue, b y Phatir, a converted
Jew. Shortly afterward, Phatir was murdered b y Priscus’ fam-
ily. Thus the Jews of this period carried arms and knew h o w
to use them. Other episodes mentioned b y Gregory con-
firm that the Jews constituted, i n the open society o f the
period, a portion of the population quite self-confident,
prosperous, and not the object of any special unfavorable
prejudice. The names they bore—Armentarius, Gaudiocus,
Priscus, Julius—are for the most part Gallo-Roman, and it
seems that they conducted their rites to some extent in the
vernacular (23). At times the Church, which constantly
warned against their pernicious influence, tried to convert
them b y force, seeking help in so doing from the kings, while
the excited crowds would occasionally turn against them. It
is significant that the best-known of these forced conver-
sions was provoked b y the aggression of a Clermont Jew at
Eastertime against an apostate (24). I n short, the incidents
related by Gregory of Tours, as well as certain others (forced
conversions in Arles and Marseilles), can be regarded as
part of an interdenominational rivalry in which Judaism still
confronted Christianity o n equal terms.
Other than the priceless information o f Gregory o f Tours,
w e have no further concrete details about the status of the
Jews in Gaul. Such silence, if it means anything at all, sug-
gests that their status was little changed. A few rare Hebrew
inscriptions on stone (25) only reinforce this supposition:
they imply that the expulsion of the Jews under King Dago-
bert, mentioned by one chronicler (26), was either legen-
dary o r was never carried out. Later, a t the beginning o f the

2I n Book V I ( 5 , 1 0 ) of the Historia Francorum.

3 . . nullum in manu ferens ferramentum . . . , which we can trans-
late as “weapons.”
 The Western Jews in the Late Middle Ages 29

ninth century, the field o f our study is suddenly illuminated

by numerous, precise, and extremely revealing documents.
Starting in the reign of Pepin the Short in the eighth cen-
tury, ecclesiastical letters, legislative directives, and even the
accounts of Arab travelers note the presence, within the Caro-
lingian Empire, of a number of prosperous Jews: great mer-
chants (the Carolingian ordinances mention negotiatores
judeai et alii: Jewish merchants and others), great travel-
ers (“they speak Persian, Arabic, Greek, as well as the lan-
guages of the Franks, the Spanish, and the Slavs. They travel
from west to east and from east to west, both by land and
by sea ” ) (27), and landowners and farmers (28). Un-
der Louis the Pious ( H o l y Roman Emperor Louis I ) they
were granted “letters o f protection,” authorizing them t o live
according t o their o w n laws a n d especially prohibiting the
baptism o f their slaves. I n favor at court, they managed o n
occasion to recruit proselytes among the Christians, which
provoked the clergy to increasingly violent polemics against
them. Archbishops Agobard and Amolon of Lyons were
ready to resort to open combat. It may be an exaggeration to
claim, with the Protestant historian Wiegand, that “all the
anti-Semitism of the Middle Ages has its source in Agobard.”
A t any rate, his campaigns may be regarded as a point of de-
parture during a period when evangelization, functioning in
depth, called for the “recrudescence of religious feeling in
men’s souls.” The numerous anti-Jewish texts of Agobard
and Amolon, almost all preserved intact, enable us to dis-
cover the status of the Jews in the Carolingian Empire and
the attitude of the Christians toward them, as well as the
specific reasons for the renewal o f ecclesiastical hostility.
Hence we shall examine them in some detail. But first let us
consider the background of the conflict that centered in
Lyons.
Archbishop Agobard (779-840), “the most enlightened
m a n of his age,” according to Henri Martin, belonged to the
host of learned and active reformers of what has been called
the “Carolingian renaissance.” Greatly disturbed b y the in-
 From Golgotha to the Crusades 3 0

fluence over his flock acquired b y the Jewish colony o f Lyons,

h e appealed to Emperor Louis the Pious, reminding him of
the traditional council decisions and begging him for au-
thorization to baptize the slaves of the Jews. Far from grant-
ing this request, the emperor expressly confirmed the privi-
leges o f the Jews and sent the magister judaeorum* Everard
t o Lyons to ensure their being upheld. T h e quarrel soon grew
bitter. Puffed u p with his o w n importance, exiled to Nantua,
the fiery prelate Agobard ( w h o , i n the conflict between
Louis the Pious and his sons, had sided with the latter) did
not consider himself beaten and, year after year, continued
to return to the attack. I t was under such conditions that he
wrote the five anti-Jewish epistles we possess (29), and thus
we know that the Jews lived freely among the people of Ly-
ons, kept open house, had Christian servants, and, far from
permitting themselves t o b e w o n over by the archbishop’s
preaching or permitting their pagan slaves to be baptized,
they managed t o w i n followers even among the Christians.
But let us hear Agobard himself:
“No matter h o w kindly we treat them, we do not succeed
i n drawing them to the purity of our spiritual faith. O n the
contrary, several among us, willingly sharing with them the
food o f the body, have also allowed themselves t o b e seduced
b y their spiritual nourishment.” I n effect, “ . matters have
reached the point where the ignorant Christians claim that
the Jews preach better than our own priests. Some
Christians even celebrate the Sabbath with the Jews and vio-
late the blessed day of rest. Many women live as domestics
or as paid laborers of the Jews, who lure some from their
faith. Laborers and peasants are inveigled into such a sea of
errors that they regard the Jews as the only people of God,
so that only among them is to b e found the observance of a
pure religion and of a faith far more certain than our own.
. .” A n d Agobard goes o n t o complain bitterly o f the sac-
rilegious fables that the Jews spread abroad concerning
4 Apparently this title referred t o the official i n charge o f relations with
the Jewish communities a n d the protection o f their rights.
 T h e Western Jews i n the Late Middle Ages 31

Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and the apostles. H e confronts the

emperor with his responsibilities: “The Jews, abusing the
naïveté of the Christians, deceitfully pride themselves o n be-
ing dear to your heart, because of the patriarchs from whom
they are descended. . . They exhibit orders and warrants
bearing your gold seal and containing words that I cannot
believe to be true. They display the dresses that their wives,
they claim, have received from your family and from the la-
dies of the palace; they boast of having received from you,
contrary to the law, the right t o build n e w synagogues.”
Corresponding t o this ascendancy over souls is the Jewish
influence upon manners and customs. “So that the Jews
might celebrate freely their Sabbath, the ‘missi’ [regional
administrators] have ordered the market to be transferred
from Saturday t o another day, leaving to the Jews even the
choice of the day of the week. 7

Yet for all Agobard’s impassioned indignation, nowhere

does h e accuse the Jews o f those diabolical practices—pro-
fanation of the Host, ritual murder, poisoning of wells—that
i n later times will constitute the leitmotiv o f the anti-Jewish
campaigns. Agobard’s argument is entirely o n the level o f a
theological polemic; it is “Jewish superstitions” that h e at-
tacks. The remedies he advocates, intended to protect the
souls of his flock from the contagion of Judaism, are limited
to assuring a better separation between Christians and Jews,
aided by a strict observance o f the old decisions o f the coun-
cil. H e deals with putting an end to meals taken in common,
o f forbidding the Jews t o o w n Christian slaves o r servants,
and so on. Twenty years later his successor, Amolon, was to
reiterate and stress these exhortations: “. cursing the in-
fidelity of the Jews and seeking to protect the Christian
people from contagion, I have thrice publicly asked that our
faithful draw aside from them, that n o Christian serve them
either in the cities or in the villages, letting them perform
their labor with the help of their pagan slaves; I have also for-
bidden the eating of their food and the drinking of their
liquors. A n d I have published several other severe injunc-
 From Golgotha to the Crusades 32

tions, i n order to tear out the evil b y the root and to imitate
the example of our pious master, shepherd, and predecessor
Agobard .” (30). The bishops Hincmar of Rheims, Van-
ilo of Sens, and Rodolphe of Bourges lent their support to
Amolon, and in 848 the Council of Meaux demanded the
enforcement of the ancient canonical decisions and of the
edicts of Theodore I I .
It will be noted that such decisions, if enforced, would in-
evitably have brought about a deterioration in the Jews’
economic status. W e have not yet reached this point, and
the directives issued b y Agobard, Amolon, or Hincmar to the
temporal powers d o not seem to have been very effective.
Furthermore, the time was not yet ripe for vigorous action.
This is the period of the Treaty of Verdun (843) and the
chaotic feudal parceling out of land that followed. This is
also the time of an innovation that was to have grave conse-
quences. I t was i n the course o f the ninth century ( i t is not
possible t o specify the exact d a t e ) that w e note a significant
modification of the Roman Catholic liturgy, in the section re-
terring to the Jews. Hitherto, in the Good Friday prayers,
the custom was t o pray successively, and i n the same
terms, for the catechumens, the Jews, and the pagans, kneel-
ing after each prayer. T h e missal was n o w changed to r e a d :
Pro Judaeis non flectant (“Do not genuflect to the Jews”).
Thus it was emphasized that the Jew belonged t o a category
apart, that h e was different from, a n d more than a simple
infidel, thereby introducing a concept whose full effects were
to b e felt several centuries later.”
5 According t o M . Louis Canet ( “ T h e Pro Judaeis Prayer i n the Roman
Catholic Liturgy,” Revue d'Études Juives [cited hereafter as R.E.J.], Vol.
4 1 , 1906, p . 213), the modification appears for the first time in the
sacramentary of Rethel ( o r of Saint-Vaast-en-Corbie), where a marginal
note reads: H i c nostrum nullus debet m o d o flectere corpus o b populi noxam
a c pariter rabiem. Hence it was the people w h o h a d insisted o n the aboli-
tion o f the genuflection. A s M . Canet writes: “ A s far as c a n b e judged, the
practice h a d arisen b y itself, a n d w e must regard it as a manifestation o f
popular anti-Semitism.” Even i f this is the case, it is interesting t o note that
the effects o f his kind o f anti-Semitism make themselves felt for the first
time i n the century o f Agobard a n d Amolon.
 The Western Jews in the Late Middle Ages 33

This concept begins to open u p an entirely new field. This

was the period i n which the dramatic art o f the Middle Ages,
issuing, as w e know, from the liturgy, took its first tenta-
tive steps. For centuries, ecclesiastical authorities had for-
bidden the transformation of the great religious festivals
into spectacles and had prohibited singing and dancing in
front o f the churches. Now these prohibitions were dropped.
The church service was extended into the courtyards of the
cathedrals, a stage setting was roughly suggested, and thus
was born the religious theater, whose favorite subjects at
Easter were to b e the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, as
well as the Church’s victory over the Synagogue. Was the
license thus granted to humor the masses an indication of
the impotence o f the clergy t o eradicate the vestiges o f pa-
ganism? Was this the celebration of the eternal myth of
spring’s victory over winter, to which the Church had to
adapt itself and which it proceeded to symbolize? I t matters
little. The fact is that henceforth the anti-Semitic theme took
hold. I t will also be found in the art of many sacramentary
and ritual objects where the Church and the Synagogue are
personified, the former with the features of a resplendent
young woman, the latter as a widow with bandaged eyes.
This had been a theme familiar to the Doctors of the Church
since the time of Augustine, but one that had not penetrated
to the masses. B u t n o w they were being indoctrinated as
vigorously as possible with the idea of a unique and special
role o f the Jews. However, w e must also note that it was only
Jewish unbelief and arrogance that were being attacked:
not a single text of this period mentions the wickedness and
perfidy of the deicidal race.
Thus, we may draw the following conclusions:
The very terms of anti-Jewish propaganda in the ninth
century show that at this time there was n o trace of a spe-
cific, popular anti-Semitism. On the contrary, it seems that
Judaism still exerted a definite attraction for the Christian
population. I n general, one m a y say that so long as a solidly
dogmatized Christianity h a d not established its complete
 From Golgotha to the Crusades 34

ascendancy over men’s souls, these remained receptive t o

Jewish propaganda. Indeed, we find the same state of affairs
in the East in the third and fourth centuries, in the West in
the late Middle Ages, and, as we shall see, in Russia during
the fifteenth century.’ Once the rudiments o f Jewish history
are impressed upon newly converted populations, many per-
sons “regard the Jews as the only people o f G o d cher-
ished because o f the patriarchs from w h o m they are de-
scended” (Agobard). This point of view, which, granted, is
not without a naive logic, leads converts to lend an attentive
ear to the arguments of the Jews. I n Carolingian France,
conversions to Judaism must have been even more frequent,
since the Jews’ privileged economic status enabled them to
exert pressure upon their slaves and servants. There are n o
statistics, of course, but even some high dignitaries of the
Church were won over b y the Jewish “seduction,” as is shown
b y the famous example o f Deacon Bodon, confessor t o Louis
the Pious, who was converted to Judaism and fled to Spain,
where, adopting the name Eleazar, he married a Jewess
( 8 2 9 ) . It is i n this light that w e must consider the campaigns
of his contemporaries Agobard and Amolon.
Furthermore, the close juxtaposition of Jews and Christians
gave rise to frequent intermarriages, as w e already noted in
imperial Rome. Actually, w e are dealing with a true amalga-
mation; extending over some ten centuries, it led a Renan or
a Leroy-Beaulieu i n the last century t o assume that the Jews
were at least partially of European ancestry. I n the absence
o f any precise statistical data, w e can advance merely a
hypothesis. I n our times (see Appendix A ) , research in ge-
netics permits one to conclude that this was a complete
amalgamation, a total “panmixia” (which amounts t o saying
jokingly that M . Israel Levy is as likely as his concierge to
be a direct descendant of Vercingetorix). This observation
has a certain piquancy about it, if w e think o f the stubborn
persistence o f “racial” interpretations o f the Jewish ques-
6 Cf. Chap. 1 2 .
 The Western Jews in the Late Middle Ages 35

tion by authors who are sometimes far from being anti-

Semites!

The favorable status o f the Jews i n Carolingian Europe

led t o a rapid multiplication o f Jewish settlements. Prosper-
ous communities appeared i n Champagne, i n Lorraine, i n
the Rhenish villages, and as far away as Prague. Coloniza-
tion proceeded eastward, and until the twelfth century
French was the usual language of the Jewish communities
in Germany, as well as in France.” Kings, nobles, and bish-
ops granted the Jews a broad autonomy: thus they admin-
istered their o w n communities and lived according t o their
o w n laws. Talmudic scholarship flowered again o n the banks
o f the Rhine and the Seine at the very period when it was
falling into decay in Babylonia. I n Troyes, the celebrated
Rashi wrote commentaries o n the Bible and the Talmud that
even today form a n integral part o f traditional Jewish educa-
tion. A s i n the preceding centuries, the Jews constituted a
commercial guild par excellence, with vast international con-
nections, and while they preferred to establish them-
selves in neighborhoods of their own, they continued to mix
freely with the Christian populations and to live o n excel-
lent terms with them. It is true that, increasingly, the chron-
iclers o f the period tend t o couple with the word “Jew” some
pejorative epithet, and the accusation of witchcraft becomes

7 This is particularly evident from the Biblical and Talmudic commen-

taries written in eastern France in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, in
which we find many French words (glosses) transcribed in Hebrew char-
acters. Such texts constitute a valuable source o f information as t o the
pronunciation o f the vulgar French o f the period. It was only very gradually
that German replaced French as t h e normal speech o f the German Jews, a n d
certain French locutions have lasted d o w n t o our o w n day; traces o f them
are to be found in the Yiddish of the Polish Jews. W e might cite, for exam-
ple, tcholnt (hot dish), which comes from the old French verb chaloir, as
well as the given name Yenta (Jeannette). Similarly, the characteristic ex-
pression bobbe-mayseh ( t a l l story) takes its origin from the adventures o f
the Sire de Beauvais; under the name Bova-Buch, these were very popular
among the German Jews of the Middle Ages.
 From Golgotha to the Crusades 36

a commonplace. Yet these molders of public opinion were

all churchmen, writing with a definite purpose: all the more
significant, then, that until the eleventh century, n o chroni-
cles mention outbursts of popular hatred of the Jews (31).
But shortly after the year 1 0 0 0 , vague rumors began to
agitate Christendom. A t the instigation o f the Jews, the
“prince of Babylon” had caused the destruction of the Holy
Sepulcher; he had also launched countless persecutions
against the Christians of the Holy Land and had caused the
patriarch of Jerusalem to be beheaded. Whatever the truth
of the Eastern accounts® ( i n reality, the intolerant Emir Al-
Hakim oppressed the Jews as m u c h as the Christians), i n
the West, princes, bishops, and villagers immediately began
to seek revenge against the Jews. In Rouen (32), in Orléans
(33), in Limoges (1010) (34), in Mainz (1012) and doubt-
less other Rhenish villages (35), and apparently in Rome as
well ( 3 6 ) , Jews were converted b y force, massacred, or ex-
pelled, and the imaginative monk Raoul Glaber even assures
us that “throughout the world, Christians were unanimous in
deciding that they would drive all the Jews from their lands
and their cities.” This was an obvious exaggeration, for the
wave subsided as quickly as it had arisen; this was merely
the premonitory sign of that tide of religious enthusiasm
that, though it was to serve as indispensable mortar to the
structure of medieval Christianity, would also give the sig-
nal for the great persecutions. The status of the Jews re-
mained sufficiently enviable for noteworthy conversions to
Judaism still to be made,’ and when, in 1 0 8 4 , Riidiger,
bishop of Speyer, granted the Jews a charter, it stated that
their presence “greatly increases the renown of the city,”

8 Perhaps the legend has its source i n a n historical fact, mentioned b y

several Arabic chroniclers, that had occurred four centuries before: I n 614
the Jews of Jerusalem, persecuted b y the Christians, surrendered the city to
the Persians. ( Cf. J. Juster, op. cit., Vol. 2 , p . 213.)
9 For example, that of Vécelin, chaplain of Duke Konrad, a relative of
the Holy Roman Emperor Henri I I ( 1 0 0 5 ) (Pertz, Monumenta, Vol. 2,
p . 9 3 ) ; or that of Renant, Duke of Sens (1015) (Glaber, Les Histoires,
IIL, 6).
 The Western Jews in the Late Middle Ages 37

and authorized them, in defiance of traditional prohibitions,

to keep Christian servants and serfs, to o w n fields and vine-
yards, and to carry arms (37).
Riidiger’s charter is dated 1 0 8 4 . It would certainly have
been inconceivable a few decades later. W e have reached
the eve of that crisis in the development of Christianity, the
Crusades.
 PART T W O
THE AGE OF
THE CRUSADES
 four
The Fateful Summer
o f 1096

Few dates are as important in Western history as that No-

vember 2 7 , 1 0 9 5 , when, at the Council of Clermont-Ferrand,
Pope Urban I I undertook t o preach the First Crusade—with-
out suspecting, w e m a y well believe, the enormous chain o f
events his appeal would set off throughout Christendom. The
great role the Crusades were to play in the development of
medieval civilization is well known: a general awakening of
commercial and intellectual activities, followed b y the rise
of the urban bourgeoisie and, above all, that growing self-
awareness of Christian Europe already reflected in the chron-
icles of the first Crusades (38). But less attention is usually
paid to the consequences of these great enterprises on the
destiny of the Jews, which was henceforth to be singular
and unique in Europe.
A n d yet here the historian finds himself in a privileged
position, so numerous and eloquent are the texts. Let us try,
then, t o imagine ourselves i n this heroic, chaotic age, i n
which, with the battle cry Dieu le veult, knights, monks,
and commoners, having abandoned their families and their
homes, pursued their course toward a legendary destina-
tion. O n their clothing they sewed the sign of the Cross.
Whatever they did, eternal felicity had been promised
them; they were God’s avengers, appointed to punish all in-
fidels, whoever they might be. The chroniclers state this ex-
plicitly: Omnes siquidem illi viatores, Judaeos, haeretios,
Sarracenos acqualiter habeant exosos, quos omnes Dei ap-
pelant inimicos (39). Therefore, what could be more nat-
 The Age of the Crusades 42

ural than to take revenge, along the way, upon the various
infidels living i n Christian territories? Would not anything
else be “to start the whole affair backward” (as the Crusad-
ers were t o say i n R o u e n ) ? * This reasoning was not without
its cruel logic, and w e shall hear it again i n other times and
other places.” Especially for the scum that always rises t o the
surface during great revolutionary movements, it served
as a pretext for easy and lucrative pillaging. Thus the per-
petrators of the chief massacres of Jews were not the orga-
nized armies o f the barons but the formless mobs that pre-
ceded them.
O f course, not all the details have come down to us. As for
France in particular, only one massacre in Rouen is known
with certainty. B u t some chronicles allude t o other brutali-
ties—for example, Richard o f Poitiers ( “ . . before journey-
ing t o these places, they [the Crusaders] exterminated b y
many massacres the Jews of almost all Gaul, with the excep-
tion of those who accepted conversion. They said in effect
that it was unjust t o permit enemies o f Christ to remain alive
in their own country, when they had taken u p arms to drive
out the infidels abroad”) (40)—and this is confirmed by
Jewish sources. I n a n urgent letter, the French Jewish com-
munities warned their coreligionists i n Germany o f the
danger that threatened them. W e also k n o w the latters’ an-
swer. Though the German Jews prayed for their brothers i n
distress, they were confidently assured that for their own part
they had nothing to fear (41). An unwarranted optimism,
if ever there was one. It was in Germany, in this very Rhine
Valley whose Jewish communities were probably the most
1 As reported b y the chronicler Guibert d e Nogent, the Rouen Cru-
saders said: “ W e desire to go and fight God’s enemies in the East; but w e
have before our eyes certain Jews, a race more inimical t o G o d than a n y
other: this is to start the whole affair backward” (Guibert de Nogent, in
Migne’s Patrologiae [Latin], Vol. 156).
2 As among the French revolutionaries of 1 7 9 2 , eager to press on to the
borders: “Each exclaimed: ‘On to the enemy! But our enemies are here; they
are i n Paris as i n Verdun; they are i n the prisons. Shall w e leave our wives,
our children, our old parents at the mercy o f these criminals? T o the prisons,
exterminate all the monsters! . . . ” ” ( F r o m a newspaper o f the period).
 The Fateful Summer of 1096 43

numerous i n Europe at the period, that the most systematic

and bloody massacres were perpetrated.
As for Peter the Hermit, that fiery preacher of the People’s
Crusade—the First Crusade—he seems to have operated
quite realistically, abstaining from futile excesses and limit-
ing himself to levying contributions on the Jews in order to
assure money and supplies for his troops (42). Quite differ-
ent was the case of the various bands led b y French as well
as German lords—Guillaume le Charpentier, Thomas de
Feria, and especially Emicho v o n Leiringen ( “ a most noble
and powerful man,” according to Albert of Aix) (43)—who,
traveling down the Rhine Valley, massacred in a systematic
and regular manner.?
The spirit of pillage that characterized the undertaking re-
sulted from Emicho’s methods; occasionally, before putting
Jews t o death, Emicho ransomed them i n order t o “protect”
them. The religious aspect is emphasized b y the alternative
with which the Jews were inevitably confronted: baptism—
or death. A first attempt at a massacre occurred at Speyer
o n M a y 3, 1096, but thanks to the swift intervention of Bishop
Jean of that city, who forced Emicho’s men to disperse, only
eleven Jews were killed. Matters turned out differently at
Worms, two weeks later.
When the news of the events at Speyer reached Worms,
one part of the Jewish community sought refuge in the palace
of Bishop Adalbert; other Jews remained in their homes, the
burghers of the city having promised to help them. All met
the same fate. Those who had remained at home were mas-
sacred first, o n M a y 18; subsequently, Adalbert’s protégés,
refusing t o accept Christianity, were killed by the bishop
8 Various historians (especially H . Graetz, i n h i s monumental History
of the Jews, as well as F. Chalandon in his Histoire de la Premiére Croisade,
Paris, 1925) have tried to reconstruct Emicho’s itinerary. Taking the chro-
nology o f the massacres into account, it appears that Emicho’s troops de-
scended the Rhine Valley from Speyer t o Mainz, where a t least part o f the
band, instead of following the valley of the Main River (toward Hungary),
continued u p the Moselle (Trier and Metz massacres). But, for example,
nothing is known o f the perpetrators o f the Cologne massacres.
 The Age of the Crusades 44

himself o n M a y 25. But let u s hear the story from the Jewish
chronicler Solomon bar Simeon:
“ O n the twenty-fifth day of the month Iyar, the terror fell
upon those who were living in the episcopal palace. The foe
killed them even as the others, putting them to the sword.
They sustained themselves b y the example of their brothers,
let themselves be massacred and hallowed the Name.
They fulfilled the words o f the prophet: “The mothers are
laid upon their children, the father fell upon his sons.” This
one killed his brother, that one his parents, his wife, and his
children; the betrothed killed each other, even as the moth-
ers killed their children. All accepted with a full heart the
divine verdict. Recommending their souls to the Eternal,
they cried: “Hear, O Israel, the Eternal is our God, the Eter-
nal is the One God.” The enemies stripped them naked and
dragged them off, granting quarter to none, save those f e w
who accepted baptism. The number of the slain was eight
hundred in these two days. 7

T w o days later came the turn of the Jews of Mainz, who

briefly attempted to defend themselves, according to Albert
of Aix. (The striking parallel between the two accounts
should be noted: the indignation of the Christian chronicler
is scarcely less than that of the Jewish narrator):
“Emicho and all his men, having taken counsel, pro-
ceeded at sunrise to attack the Jews with lances and axes.
Having broken the locks and knocked in the doors,
they seized and killed seven hundred w h o vainly sought t o
defend themselves against forces far superior to their own;
the women were also massacred, and the young children,
whatever their sex, were put to the sword. The Jews, seeing
the Christians rise as enemies against them and their chil-
dren, with no respect for the weakness of age, took arms in
turn against their coreligionists, against their wives, their
children, their mothers, and their sisters, and massacred
their own. A horrible thing to tell of—the mothers seized
the sword, cut the throats of the children at their breast,
choosing to destroy themselves with their own hands rather
 The Fateful Summer of 1096 45

than t o succumb t o the blows o f the uncircumcised! Only a

small number of Jews escaped this cruel massacre, and a few
accepted baptism, much more out of the fear of death than
from love of the Christian faith.”
The Jews of Cologne had a month's respite, having been
able to take shelter for some days with their Christian neigh-
bors and friends. With the help of the archbishop, they then
sought refuge i n nearby localities,* where they were sur-
prised b y the Crusaders at the end o f June. Faced with the
obligatory choice, most of them resorted to the supreme de-
fiance of suicide. Those of Trier for the most part sought sal-
vation in baptism, in this following the example of Rabbi
Micah, who declared that “it was better to be a Christian
than to tremble for one’s life day and night” (44). Those of
Regensburg, baptized forcibly i n the Danube, immediately
recanted after the departure of the Crusaders. Massacres oc-
curred at Metz and Bamberg, as well as in other German
cities impossible to identify.”
I t is important to note that almost everywhere, counts and
bishops (Adalbert in Worms, Archbishop Ruthard in Mainz,
Archbishop Hermann I I I in Cologne, the Count of Mors,
etc.) attempted, sometimes even at the peril of their lives, to
protect the Jews, yielding to the Crusaders only under con-
straint and the show of force. As for the people, sympathy
and horror seem to have been their first reactions, and we
see from the example o f Cologne that they occasionally af-
forded the Jews effective support. Only the dregs o f the pop-
ulation everywhere joined the slaughterers.
A final massacre occurred in Prague, despite the efforts
of Bishop Cosmas. The total number of victims, variously es-
timated according to the sources used, amounted to several
thousand at least.
4 Neuss, Altenahr, Wevelinghofen, Kerpen, Hanten, Mors (Aronius,
Regesten, Nos. 190-96).
5 T o reconstruct the m a p o f the massacres o f the First Crusade, the his-
torians proceed b y checking Jewish against Christian sources. Since the
Jewish chronicles were written in Hebrew, the names of certain localities,
transcribed i n Hebrew characters, have remained indecipherable.
 The Age of the Crusades 46

But numbers are irrelevant, for here we confront a decisive

moment o f our history. Obstinate, heroic (some will say fa-
natical), the Jews of the Rhine Valley, unlike those of Spain
o r the Oriental countries, preferred t o die rather than yield t o
even the semblance of a conversion. H o w explain this differ-
ence i n attitude? I s i t because they despised the boors a n d
bandits who tried to preach an abhorred gospel to them?
O r more simply because, faced with a brutal alternative,
they simply h a d n o time for those gradual concessions, those
secret compromises characteristic o f the anusim o f North
Africa o r the marranos o f Spain? I n any case, just as a glow-
ing steel blade suddenly thrust into icy water acquires
great toughness and strength, similarly the sudden ordeal of
the summer o f 1096, a thunderbolt out o f a blue sky, h a d
the effect of forging the power to resist, characteristic hence-
forth of the European Jews. It matters little that o n certain
points our sources remain vague, that we may dispute end-
lessly the exact number of victims, which, in any case, com-
pared t o the holocausts o f the centuries t o come, seems in-
significant. W h a t does matter is that during these months
a tradition took root: that of a heroic and complete refusal
b y a tiny minority i n opposition to the majority; that o f the
sacrifice of life “to hallow the Name”—a tradition that was
to serve as inspiration and example for future generations.

T h e squall once past, and the figures o f the Crusaders

blurring i n the distance, our information once again becomes
scanty. All w e k n o w is that o n his w a y back from Italy, E m -
peror Henry I V expressly authorized the Jews who had been
baptized by force to return to their former faith (and thus
began a special relationship between the Holy Roman em-
peror, the designated protector, and the Jews under obliga-
tion to him, which was subsequently to lead to the theory of
the “bondage” of the German Jews). We also know that in
a letter t o the bishop o f Bamberg, Pope Clement I I I strongly
opposed the position of Henry I V (thereby expressing a fun-
 The Fateful Summer of 1096 47

damental tenent of the Catholic Church that has remained

immutable down to our own day).® We know, lastly, that
two years after the massacres, the Jews of Prague attempted
to flee to Poland and to Hungary—an attempt that failed and
that served as an excuse for Duke Bratislas to authorize new
pillaging. I t is not known if other attempts of the same nature
were made elsewhere. A t Mainz, several chroniclers report
long disputes o n the subject o f the stolen goods o f massacred
Jews, which Henry I V accused Archbishop Ruthard of
having appropriated—while h e regarded himself as the le-
gitimate heir. Elsewhere, apparently, the status o f the Jews
returned, a t least outwardly, t o what it h a d been. Protected
by the emperors, they resumed their habitual occupations,
chiefly as merchants. For several decades there is virtually
no mention of persecutions against them in either Germany
o r France, or in England, where they had meanwhile estab-
6 T h e canonical theory o f “forced baptism” i s one o f great subtlety.
Even i n t h e twelfth century, it was commonly thought that for baptism t o
b e i n v a l i d , it w a s n o t enough t o have b e e n secured by force o r threat, but
that a n express declaration o f protest o r unwillingness h a d t o b e m a d e a t the
precise moment o f that baptism.
This is expressed i n t h e bull o f Innocent I I I i n September, 1 2 0 1 :
“Assuredly, it is contrary t o the Christian faith that one w h o i s unwilling
a n d totally opposed t o it b e constrained t o adopt a n d observe Christianity.
For this reason, some make a distinction, which is valid, between those who
are unwilling a n d those w h o are constrained. I t is thus that h e w h o is led t o
Christianity b y violence, b y fear, and b y torture, and who receives the sacra-
ment o f baptism t o avoid harm ( e v e n as h e w h o comes falsely t o baptism),
receives indeed the stamp o f Christianity a n d can b e obliged t o observe the
Christian faith, even as h e w h o expresses a conditional will, although i n ab-
solute terms h e is unwilling. It is i n this fashion that the decree o f t h e Coun-
cil o f Toledo must b e understood, which stated that those w h o previously
had been forced to become Christians, as was done in the time of the most
pious Prince Sisebut, a n d their association with the divine sacraments having
been established, b y the grace o f the baptism received, they themselves
having been anointed with the holy oil a n d having participated i n the body
o f the Lord, must b e duly constrained t o abide b y the faith they h a d ac-
cepted by force. However, h e w h o h a s never consented, but h a s altogether
opposed it, h a s received neither the stamp nor the purpose, for i t is better t o
object expressly than t o manifest the slightest consent . . . ” ( A . Potthast,
Regesta Pontificum Romanorum, Berlin, 1875, No. 1479).
Since those w h o “objected expressly” t o a forced baptism were generally
executed o n the spot, all cases o f baptism became valid i n practical terms.
 The Age of the Crusades 48

lished a compact and prosperous community. They seem to

have associated with clerics on a friendly basis. We even
find a bishop of Prague reproaching himself on his deathbed
for having been too intimate with them.” W e also find an abbé
of Cologne receiving Jewish men and women o n friendly
visits ( 4 5 ) . The same impression of an excellent relation-
ship is communicated by a curious little work i n which the
monk Hermann, a converted Jew, writes his autobiography
and examines his conscience (46).
Such was the case until the gradual weakening of the free
states of the Levant and the fall of Urfa (Edessa) impelled
Pope Eugenius I I I and Saint Bernard of Clairvaux to preach
a new Crusade in 1 1 4 6 . We know that this second expedi-
tion, though better prepared and more disciplined than the
first, led by the king o f France a n d the emperor o f Germany
in person, provoked no great popular movement comparable
t o that o f 1096. Still, its preaching was accompanied by ex-
cesses against the Jews, perpetrated in many places o n a vast
scale. And what had been only a popular and spontaneous
outbreak fifty years before was this time doctrinally exploited
b y fiery monk-preachers. Thus Abbé Pierre o f Cluny i n
France: “What is the good of going to the end of the world,
at great loss o f m e n and money, to fight the Saracens, when
we permit among us other infidels who are a thousand times
more guilty toward Christ than the Mohammedans?” (47).
Thus the monk Rudolf in Germany: “. First avenge the
Crucified upon His enemies living here among us, and then
go off to fight against the Turks!” (48). Such propaganda
had less immediate consequence than the popular excesses
of 1096. The times were already more orderly, so that princes
and bishops generally managed to protect the Jews from the
rage of crowds, while Bernard of Clairvaux personally called
7 V a e mihi quia silu, quia apostatricem genetem n o n revocavi, nec i n
gladio anathematis pro Christo dimicavi; sed m e ipsum e t populum christi-
a n u m passus s u m per tactum manus c u m gente n o n sancta pollui .
(Cosm. Chron. Boem, 4, Cap. 49, Monumenta Germaniae Historia [here-
after referred to as M.G.H.], Scripta Sanctorum [hereafter, SS], Vol. 9, p.
125).
 The Fateful Summer of 1096 49

the popular agitators to task, showing them the theological

danger o f the undertaking. ( D i d they not risk, b y provoking
the extermination of the Jews, eliminating the Church’s
great hope of their conversion?) (49). The chronicle re-
fers to incidents and massacres only in Cologne, Speyer,
Mainz, and Würzburg in Germany, and in Carentan, Ram-
erupt, and Sully in France; the number of victims this time
reached only several hundred at most. But the chronicles
also relate something else: It was precisely at this period
that there appeared for the first time, in two different places
—in an obscurely defined form in Germany, more clearly in
England—the accusation o f ritual murder, followed by the
accusation of the profanation of the Host. (These two im-
putations constitute only one in reality, since the murder of
a Christian child and the offense against Christ substan-
tialized are both dominated by the same concept of sacrilege.)
From this point o f view, too, 1146 marks a n e w age.
Thus, each time medieval Europe was swept b y a great
movement of faith, each time the Christians set out to face
the unknown in the name of the love of God, hatred of the
Jews was fanned into flame virtually everywhere. A n d the
more the pious impulses of the heart sought satisfaction in
action, the worse became the Jews’ lot.
Virtually every time a Crusade was preached, the same
consequences could b e anticipated. I n 1183 ( t h e Third Cru-
sade), there were great massacres in England—in London,
York, Norwich, Stamford, and Lynn; twenty years later, at
the time of the Albigensian Crusade, there were persecutions
in the Midi. When a Crusade was ineffectually preached in
1236, massacres also occurred in western France, in England,
and in Spain, which the good Benedictine D o m Lobineau
describes thus:
“There were few lords who in the first fervor of the preach-
ing did not find the Cross light to bear; but to many it be-
came a burden thereafter. To remedy this discomfort, they
were permitted to renounce the vow they had made to
serve against the Infidel. The greatest and the first ex-
 The Age of the Crusades 5 0

pedition o f these crusaders was t o massacre the Jews, w h o

were not the cause of the evils which the Saracens were in-
flicting upon the Christians in the East. The Bretons, An-
gevins, Poitevins, Spaniards, and English were conspicuous
in this cruel expedition of the year 1 2 3 6 . . ” (50).
Once the era of Crusades organized b y nobles and lords
was past, there followed the massacres perpetrated amid the
final outbreaks o f popular fanaticism, i n the general context
o f the social crisis o f the early fourteenth century: mass up-
risings in Germany at the time of the abortive Crusade of
1309, a n d massacres i n Cologne, the L o w Countries, a n d
Brabant; the “Shepherd's Crusade” in the Midi in 1320,
and massacres in Bordeaux, Toulouse, Albi, and even Spain
(the striking description is given on pp. 102 ff). The broad
outlines o f the story always remain the same: looting; des-
perate flight; inability of the princes to protect the Jews when
“multitudes inconsolable for the offense to the living God
rushed to slaughter them” (51); asylums or fortresses taken
b y assault; mass suicides. This permanent Calvary was un-
likely to inspire, in the hearts of those Jews whom, theologi-
cally, it was so important to convert, the love of Our Lord
Jesus Christ. While the reaction of the Jews was undergoing
gradual crystallization, these events also brought great
changes in the attitude of the Christians toward the Jews.

The first great persecutions and public opinion

As we have said, mention of the Jews, so rare in the centuries

preceding the First Crusade, becomes much more frequent
with it. W e possess nearly a dozen narratives b y various
chroniclers referring only to the massacres of 1 0 9 6 . It is true
that these are the accounts of clerics, the intellectuals of the
period; what the barons or the masses may have thought w e
can only guess, but let us recall that our informants are the
very men who helped form the public opinion of their times.
 The Fateful Summer of 1096 51

Let u s try, then, t o discover the impression these events left

upon them.
One anonymous chronicler, writing a kind of journal in
his Prague monastery, condenses into a f e w words what
seemed to him the most salient event of each year. I n 1094
this event was a dynastic change: his king, Wratislas, died
and was succeeded by Bratislas. In 1 0 9 5 it was the ordination
of his bishop, Cosmas. And in 1 0 9 6 it was the massacre of
the Jews: “There has been a massacre and Jews were bap-
tized,” he notes laconically (52). (As for the Crusade as such,
it is not even mentioned.) I n other words, the event in ques-
tion is one that vividly appealed t o the imagination o f certain
of his contemporaries.
As for what they themselves thought of the massacre, some
chroniclers mention it in a placid and disinterested tone,
discussing the facts “objectively,” as w e would say today,
like the Prague chronicler or this annalist of Wiirzburg in
Bavaria: “An enormous host, coming from all regions and
all nations, went in arms unto Jerusalem and obliged the
Jews t o b e baptized, massacring by thousands those w h o
refused. Near Mainz, 1014 Jews, men, women, and children,
were slaughtered, a n d the greatest part o f the city burned
” (53).
Others do not conceal their satisfaction. Thus the monk
Bernhold, speaking of the Jews of Worms:
“While the crusaders awaited their reply without, the
Jews, tempted b y the Devil and under the rule of their own
obduracy, killed themselves i n the apartments o f the bishop”
(54).
Or the chronicler Fruitolf:
“In the villages they traversed, the latter [the Crusaders]
killed or forced baptism upon what remained of those im-
pious Jews, who are truly enemies which the Church toler-
ates in its bosom. O f these there was a certain number that
returned to Judaism, even as dogs to their o w n vomit . .”

(55).
 The Age of the Crusades 52

Still others condemn the massacres with more or less vio-

lence. “It may, forsooth, appear wonderful that in a single
d a y but one massacre animated by the same mystical fervor
can have taken place in various and numerous places,” com-
ments the monk Hugon. “This occurred despite the fact
that the clergy was hostile t o it and despite the sentences o f
excommunication by m a n y ecclesiastics a n d the threats of
numerous princes” (56). The criticism is much more violent
in an anonymous Saxon chronicle:
“ the enemy of mankind lost n o time sowing tares
among the wheat, raising u p false prophets, mingling untrue
brothers and licentious women with the army of Christ. By
their hypocrisy, b y their lies, b y their impious corruptions,
they caused dissension in the army of the Lord. . They
decided to avenge Christ upon the pagans and the Jews.
This is why they killed goo Jews in the city of Mainz without
sparing the women and children. . . Indeed, it was piti-
ful to see the great and many heaps of bodies that were car-
ried out of the city of Mainz on carts ” (57).
Stronger still, as we have seen above (pp. 44 Î. ) , was the in-
dignation of Albert of Aix, who attributed the defeat of the
“People’s Crusade” to divine punishment, seeing in it a just
retribution for excesses committed o n the way. I n general, it
might be said that the Crusaders were far from being univer-
sally approved b y the authors of our chronicles. Their vio-
lence and plundering generally disturbed these peaceful
clerics. Emicho von Leiringen, the German baron who was
the architect of the principal massacres, had a particularly
bad press. (Furthermore, two of our sources® suggest that
this “beast” was a converted Jew, but there is n o convincing
support for this hypothesis, such rumors appearing regularly
concerning the great persecutors of the Jews. However, this

8 Ekkehardt a n d the anonymous Saxon.

9 A m o n g others, Adolf Hitler. It has been claimed that the Fiihrer w a s
the illegitimate s o n o f a n Austrian J e w ; that his minister o f justice, H a n s
Frank, was assigned, even before the Nazis came to power, to deal with the
blackmailers w h o possessed proofs o f this descent, etc.
 The Fateful Summer of 1096 53

presents a n interesting clue: it was not unthinkable, i n 1096,

that a converted Jew should become a plundering baron, a
great captain!)
W e m a y say, then, that a t the start public opinion appears
disturbed and divided. But primarily, the events just de-
scribed h a d as their principal effect a recrudescence o f hos-
tility toward the Jews. This is a phenomenon we shall en-
counter many times i n the course of our study, one that is
readily explained. The killers, in general, only hate their vic-
tims more; the simple witnesses decide that there must be a
reason for the killing; finally, the profiteers, the pillagers and
looters great and small, fear the return of those who have
escaped. I n this context, the massacres of 1 0 9 6 mark the
beginning of the gradual deterioration of the status of the
Jews. Furthermore, another causal link, also connected with
the Crusades, had the same result. Once the eastern routes
were open to Europeans, Italian merchants increasingly sup-
planted the Jews as businessmen, a n d the rise o f the urban
bourgeoisie i n the rapidly growing cities was t o effect a
similar displacement.
W e shall deal further with this fundamental aspect of the
question; let us here confine ourselves to observing how this
development began to be reflected in contemporary public
opinion.
National literatures first appear in France and Germany
during the twelfth century, written i n the vernacular a n d
addressing an audience much larger than the limited public
of the clerics. I n religious inspirational works, Jews appear
quite frequently, but the way in which they are represented
is still ambivalent. Thus many of the “miracles” are con-
cerned with the conversion of Jews: the obdurate, those who
do not accept baptism, are described with great loathing.
For example, in Gautier de Coincy:

Plus bestial que bestes nues More bestial than naked beasts
Sont tuit Juif, ce n'est pas Are all Jews, without a
doute doubt .
 The Age o f the Crusades 54

Moult les hair, et je les haiz, Many hate them, as do I,

E t Dieu les het, e t je si faiz A n d G o d hates them, as well I
wist,
E t touz li mons les doit haïr And everyone must hate them
(58). indeed.

O n the other hand, the Jewish child touched b y grace is

depicted b y the same author as:

Mieus antendant et moult Wiser still and much lovelier

plus bel
D e tous les autres Juiti- Than all the other Jews . . .
aus . . .
Aus enfants chrestiens faisoit To Christian children he looked
moult bele chiere full fair
Avec eulz se jouoit et avant And played with them ‘both
et arriere before and behind’
Sans le Juitel ne savoient Without the Jew, they knew not
riens fere . . . (59). what to do

The little Jew plays, then, with Christian children, despite

his father’s disapproval. This father is a glassmaker, a resi-
dent of Bourges—clues that cast some light o n the social
condition of the Jews at the end of the twelfth century and
o n their relations with Christians.
Similarly, the wife of a rich Jew, who subsequently is con-
verted, is described as moult vaillante et charitable femme
e n sa loy ( “ a most brave and charitable woman under her
law”) (60).
W e find the same elements in the Dialogus Miraculorum,
written by the German author Caesarius of Heisterbach in
1 2 1 9 . À little Jewish girl of Louvain is baptized and enters a
convent. Through intrigue and corruption, her father extorts
an order from the bishop of Liége obliging the mother su-
perior to return his daughter because she is a minor. The duke
also becomes involved, and papal intervention is required
for the triumph of good principles. Certain points of the story
are perhaps authentic. The reader cannot help being struck
b y a curious reflection that the author puts in the girl’s
 The Fateful Summer of 1096 55

mouth, when she is scarcely five years old. The child, in fact,
is astonished: h o w is it that Jews and Christians have a differ-
ent name, since they speak the same language and are dressed
i n the same way?!’ Here w e have a further suggestion o f the
state of Jewish “assimilation” still persisting from the twelfth
to the fourteenth centuries.
A n d so long as this is the case, the J e w seems readily “re-
deemable,” which perhaps explains the popularity at this
time of the “disputations” in dialogue, at the end of which the
J e w is finally w o n over and converts to Christianity. Some o f
these verses are in the vernacular, and we hear the Jew pro-
claim:

N o s somes decéu par trop Our foolish hope was i n vain,

fole atendance
Fole atente nos a empechiez, A n d expectation has deceived
decéuz, us,
Celui atendions q u i pieca est Waiting for one w h o has n o t
venuz come,
Messias est venus; je m e vos B u t Messiah has come: I shall
baptizier b e baptized
E t ma mauvaise secte guerpir And renounce m y wicked sect.
et renvier (61).

Others, in Latin, reach the same denouement:

Nos erroris paenitet, ad fnem convertimur:

Quidquid nobis inferet persecutor, partimur (62).

A n d in a twelfth-century Latin drama there is a Christian

saint to whom a Jew has recourse in order to protect his
wealth. H e appoints the image of Saint Nicholas to guard it.
The money is stolen, but Saint Nicholas appears and re-
stores the treasure, and the Jew is converted (63). In another
Latin drama of the same period, apparently of Austrian
origin, the advent of Antichrist is represented o n the stage
10 C u r distinctio nominum fieret Judaeorum pariter e t christianorum
c u m unius vultus atque loquelae homines essent utriusque gentis (Caesar.
Heisterbac. Dial. Mirac., 2 , 25; Aronius, Reg., No. 414).
 The Age of the Crusades 56

(64). When Antichrist has gained dominion over the whole

world, only the Synagogue remains in opposition. But this
kind of homage is unique.
All this literature was accessible to only a part of Chris-
tendom, a part that was still quite limited. Nonetheless,
the great cathedrals were n o w being built, those works of
faith and love that were simultaneously religious and social
encyclopedias, intelligible t o the mass o f the faithful. O n
their pediments the story of the Crucifixion was represented,
in increasingly realistic detail. Also shown was the opposi-
tion between the Synagogue, a ruined widow with veiled
eyes, and the Church, a shining warrior maiden.
Such is the canvas upon which will appear, a half-century
after the First Crusade, the first specific and concrete griev-
ances against the Jews. W e have seen h o w they were mas-
sacred; now we shall see h o w they were accused of murder.

Ritual murder

T h e accusation o f murder committed for magical o r evil

ends occurs in all countries and latitudes. Doubtless this is a
consequence of the once universal practice of human sacri-
fice: abandoned a n d regarded with horror, the bloody ritual
is imputed to the heretic, the enemy. Perhaps even the leg-
ends of children with their hands cut off or poisoned by
candy, periodically recurrent i n the course o f present-day
wars, are merely a modern disguise of this age-old myth.
Thus in nineteenth-century China, Christian missionaries
were accused of kidnaping children and tearing out their
hearts or eyes to use in charms and remedies (65). In Indo-
china, it was t o the Chettys sect that the population attributed
this heinous crime (66). I n Madagascar, in the time of Gal-
lieni, the same accusation was lodged against agents o f the
French government. I n ancient times, this complaint was
1 1 Which led the Madagascar government t o publish the following edict
i n 1891:
 The Fateful Summer of 1096 57

addressed b y the Greeks t o the Jews; b y the Romans t o the

early Christians; b y the Christians t o the Gnostics, the Mon-
tanists, or to other adherents of heretical sects. Thus we are
dealing with a virtually universal theme, a veritable arche-
type that reappears at the surface wherever a society is con-
fronted with disturbing and detested foreigners.
I t appears that Christian society initially cherished n o such
animus toward the Jews, since we find n o trace of this
charge before the twelfth century. It also seems that this
animosity arose as a consequence of the passions unleashed
b y the Crusades. For, spontaneously, between 1 1 4 1 and
1150, the accusation appears in three different places and in
three different forms; these, combined and giving rise to in-
finite variations, henceforth characterize the history of anti-
Jewish persecutions down to our own day.
The theme achieved its final form—that of the murder of
a Christian child in order to incorporate its blood in the un-
leavened bread—only after a long evolution. Initially, it was
related to a Christian ceremony—the Passion—and not the
Jewish Passover, the blood thus obtained (or else the heart
or the liver) being intended for magical ends as atrocious
as they were varied. A notion o f vengeance prevails here,
mingled with visions o f a satanic pharmacopoeia. Essentially
it is a repetition of the murder of Christ ( i n the flesh or in
effigy), and Canon Thomas of Cantimpré even expresses
astonishment at the ignorance of the Jews: to end their tor-
ments, only the blood of the true Christ could be of any help,
and thus it was futile for them to attack an unfortunate
Christian every year (67). Elsewhere, this theme was rapidly

“ 1 ) N o alien, whether French, English, or of any other nation, seeks to

b u y h u m a n hearts. If evil-minded persons spread this rumor a n d say that
foreigners are buying human hearts, seize, bind, and bring them to Tanana-
rive to be tried.
“ 2 ) If rumors are spread, whatever their nature, it is your duty, as
members o f the government, t o gather the people together, t o w a r n t h e m
a n d t o prove the falsity o f these rumors, which are solemnly forbidden i n
the realm; it is a crime to circulate them.” ( C f . L e Temps for February 25
and March 1 , 1892.)
 The Age of the Crusades 58

combined with the belief in a secret and mysterious Jewish

society, a conclave of sages holding its sessions somewhere
in a remote country and choosing b y lot the place where the
sacrifice was to be performed, as well as its performer. Thus
the myth of the Elders of Zion was foreshadowed as early as
the twelfth century.
As we have seen, the first case of ritual murder is reported
in 1 1 4 4 , in England. The body of a young apprentice having
been discovered o n Good Friday eve in a woods near Nor-
wich, the rumor spread that the b o y h a d been murdered by
the Jews, i n mockery o f the Passion o f the Saviour. T h e ac-
cusers specified that the murder had been planned far in ad-
vance: a meeting of rabbis, convening at Narbonne, sup-
posedly had designated Norwich as the place for the annual
sacrifice. The authorities put n o faith in the accusation, and
the sheriff of the city attempted to protect the Jews. There
were riots, however, and one of the prominent Jews of the
district was murdered b y an impecunious knight who hap-
pened to be his debtor. The case gave rise to a local cult; for
several centuries, the relics of this Saint William, the young
apprentice, were a goal of pilgrimages (68).
Thus from the start there are certain essential elements
that, down through the centuries, will be characteristic of
ritual murder. T o them may b e added another that also con-
stantly recurs: a renegade Jew, recently baptized, allegedly
furnishes the fantastic information about the motives of the
crime and its mode of execution. I n the Norwich case one of
the chief accusers was the newly baptized monk, Theobald
of Cambridge.
The next case seems to have been much more elementary.
In 1147, in Wiirzburg, during the preaching of the Second
Crusade, the body of a Christian was found in the Main.
Immediately the Jews of the city were accused of the mur-
der, and several of them were hunted down and massacred
(69).
But the charge that arose three years later was infinitely
more subtle and involved the theme of the profanation of
 The Fateful Summer of 1096 59

the Host. This was already an old theme—it is to be found in

Gregory of Tours—but previously it had been treated as a
legend set in some remote Oriental place: Beirut or Antioch.
For the first time, the facts are now related as though taking
place quite nearby, before the narrator’s eyes, a kind of “news
bulletin”; most important, the profaned Host is transformed
into the corpse of a little child. But let us turn to the
chronicler of Liége, Jean d’Outremeuse, who assures us that
in 1 1 5 0 the following miracle occurred.
“In this year, it happened at Cologne that the son of a con-
verted Jew went o n Easter day to church, in order to receive
the body of God, along with the others; he took it into his
mouth and quickly bore it to his house; but when h e re-
turned from the church, he grew afraid and in his distress
made a hole in the earth and buried the Host within it; but a
priest came along, opened the hole, and i n it found the shape
of a child, which he intended to bear to the church; but there
came from the sky a great light, the child was raised out of
the priest's hands and borne up to heaven” (70).
The chronicler does not tell us if the affair led to a trial or
what the fate of the profaner was.” Here, too, the essential
elements are found together: the sacrilegious act of the Jew
(who is a double renegade!), the transformation of the Host

12 Let us note that an analogous case, described b y the Jewish historian

Joseph Ha-Cohen i n his famous chronicle Vale o f Tears (sixteenth century)
seems t o refer t o the First Crusade. This i s h o w h e relates the episode, after
having described a t length the massacres of 1 0 9 6 :
“In the days o f the Emperor Henry [Henry I V o f Germany, reigned
1056-1106], ten wicked m e n accused a J e w o f France, saying, ‘ H e has boiled
the Host with oil and water in a cauldron, we have watched, and behold,
w e have seen a child appear out o f it.” W h e n they sought t o kill h i m , h e es-
caped from their hands, b u t they rose as though t o devour h i m alive, a n d the
judges caused h i m t o b e seized a n d tortured, without h i s making any con-
fession. B u t w h e n they tortured h i s wife a n d his children, these latter ad-
mitted that which h e h a d not intended o r conceived, a n d they put h i m t o
the fire, holding the Talmud in his hand. And his sons and his wife they
estranged from the L o r d G o d o f Israel. T h e rumor o f this event having spread,
all the inhabitants o f the country rose against the Jews i n the cities far from
the court of the king, put many of them to the sword, and laid hands o n the
spoils.” (Vallée des Pleurs, Julien Sée ed., Paris, 1881, p . 28.)
 The Age of the Crusades 60

into living flesh, and one of those miracles that suited the
clergy so perfectly. Can we discover why the accusation, in
its two chief variants, appears at this precise period? H a d the
ancient fable been brought back to Europe b y Crusaders re-
turning from the Orient? H a d it risen to the surface as a con-
venient religious justification for a debtor’s attack o n his
creditor? Was it born spontaneously in the minds of the low
clergy or of the preaching monks whose impassioned ser-
mons, describing with a bloody and refined precision the
sufferings of Christ and the martyrology of the saints, sowed
an agitation and a remorse that were “projected” b y troubled
consciences onto the Jews? Was there an inexpressible rela-
tionship between the paschal lamb and the scapegoat? A
shadowy complex of sin, guilt, and redemption is involved
here; but nothing is more obscure than the way in which
myths are born.
A t least the circulation of this myth, as well as its effects,
are well known. Accusations of ritual murder seem to have
been rare at first—doubtless a legend of this kind spreads
only after a certain incubation period. Chronicles indicate
several cases in England at the end of the twelfth century
(71), and at the same time the fable spreads to the Conti-
nent. I n 1171, at Blois, after due trial, thirty-eight Jews were
burned at the stake; in 1191, at Bray-sur-Seine, the number
o f victims reached one hundred ( 7 2 ) . B u t it was notably i n
the next century that the calumny spread, this time through-
out Germany in particular, where the year 1 2 3 6 alone was
made infamous b y several bloody executions for this alleged
crime (73). The disorder reached such proportions that
Emperor Frederick I I became alarmed and charged a com-
mission of high dignitaries to establish once and for all
whether the terrible accusation of using human blood rested
o n any basis of truth. Princes and prelates found the question
so difficult that they could not reach an agreement. As an
enlightened man, the emperor then turned to superior spe-
13 Similarly, the fable o f the Elders o f Zion, launched about 1900, be-
gan t o circulate widely only after 1920.
 The Fateful Summer of 1096 61

cialists, that is, to converted Jews who, “having been Jews

and having then been baptized into the Christian faith,
could conceal nothing, as enemies of the other Jews, of what
they might have learned against them i n the Mosaic
books . . . ” (74). He summoned these converts from all the
cities of the empire and even asked “all the kings of the West”
to send him such men. H e retained these experts at his
court “for some considerable time” in order to permit them
“to seek out the truth most diligently” (75).
T h e findings o f this learned committee were quite ex-
plicit: there was nothing in either the Old Testament or in
the “Jewish statutes called the Talmud” from which it might
be concluded that the Jews “thirsted for human blood” (76).
O n the contrary, their laws expressly forbade such usages.
A n d b y his Golden Bull, promulgated in July, 1236, the em-
peror attempted to acquit the Jews once and for all of the
dreadful accusation.
H e h a d n o success; the fable h a d taken root too deeply. T e n
years later, the Holy See itself took u p the matter. I n 1247,
Innocent I V promulaged a first bull relative to the question,
which was to be followed b y many others down through the
centuries. Here is an eloquent extract from the bull of
1247:
“Although the Holy Scriptures enjoin the Jews: “Thou
shalt n o t kill’ a n d forbid them t o touch any dead body a t
Passover, they are wrongly accused of partaking of the heart
of a murdered child at the Passover, with the charge that
this is prescribed by their laws, since the truth is completely
the opposite. Whenever a corpse is found somewhere, it is to
the Jews that the murder is wickedly imputed. They are per-
secuted o n the pretext of such fables or of others quite sim-
ilar; and contrary to the privileges that have been granted
them b y the apostolic Holy See, they are deprived of trial
and of regular judgment; in mockery of all justice, they are
stripped of their belongings, starved, imprisoned and tor-
tured, so that their fate is perhaps worse than that of their
fathers inEgypt . . .” (77).
 The Age of the Crusades 62

All these efforts were fruitless, and henceforth accusations

of ritual murder or of profanation of the Host gradually re-
placed the Crusades as a pretext for mass exterminations. A
case i n point is that o f the bleeding Host o f Rottingen,
discussed on page 99. From another papal bull, dated 1273,
it appears that a n abominable practice originated a t this
period: blackmailers hid their children and accused the
Jews of having kidnaped them. Thus they were able t o
enter Jewish houses and to pillage them by main force, or to
employ other n o less lucrative forms of extortion.'* Events
such as these sometimes had far-reaching repercussions.
Certain of these incidents, deeply engraved in the popular
imagination, gave rise to veritable cults, and thus propa-
gated the bloody theme down through the ages. I n the place
where the heinous deed was supposed t o have been com-
mitted, miracles were described. Canonizations took place,
pilgrimages continued for centuries, giving ample cause to
provoke the naiveté and credulity of the people. Thus, an ac-
cusation of profanation of the Host was made in Brussels in
1370, and some twenty Jews perished a t the stake, while the
rest were banished. T w o commemorative chapels were built
during the following century, and the celebration finally
gave rise to the chief religious festival o f the capital—still
observed today with great pomp o n the third Sunday of
July—as well as t o a n abundant literature.'® Similarly, a case
of ritual murder was reported in 1473 at Trent in the Tyrol,

14 “It happens sometimes that Christians lose their children a n d that the
enemies o f the Jews accuse them o f having kidnaped a n d killed these chil-
dren i n order t o offer sacrifices with their heart a n d blood, a n d it also hap-
pens that t h e parents themselves, o r other Christians w h o are enemies t o the
Jews, hide the children and attack the Jews, demanding of them, as ransom,
a certain s u m o f money, o n the entirely false pretext that these children had
been kidnaped a n d killed b y the Jews . . . whereas their l a w clearly a n d
expressly forbids them to sacrifice, eat, or drink blood. . . . ” (Bull of Greg-
ory X , October 7, 1 2 7 2 ; cf. Stern, Urkundliche Beiträge über die Stellung
der Papste zu den Juden, Kiel, 1893, p . 5.)
15 C f . J. Stengers, Les Juifs dans les Pays-Bas a u Moyen Age, Brussels,
1950, pp. 24-27. The author’s bibliography ( p p . 134-37) includes over
twenty works o n the 1 3 7 0 case.
 The Fateful Summer of 1096 63

a n d nine Jews were arrested, questioned, and after lengthy

torture finally confessed to everything that was asked of
them, in particular to the murder of a little boy named
Simon. Papal intervention had n o effect: the Jews were ex-
ecuted. Supported b y the “spontaneous confessions” of the
victims, the calumny spread like a trail o f powder. Several
similar cases appeared in Austria and in Italy during the
same period, all followed by expulsions or autos-da-fé (78).
The scene of the original deed became a pilgrimage site. A
commemorative chapel was erected there, and the miracles
and cures that were effected on the tomb of little Simon led
to his beatification in 1 5 8 2 , although the Holy See still did
not consent to attribute his murder to the Jews.
Sometimes cases of ritual murder gave rise to monuments
of another kind. Thus the Endingen affair, in Bavaria—where,
we must note, the murder occurred in 1 4 6 2 and the accusa-
tion was not made until 1470—served as a basis for the End-
inger Judenspiel, one of the most famous plays of the Ren-
aissance popular theater in Germany (79). Still more tan-
gible is the commemoration of a case in Bern. O n the pretext
of the disappearance of a little boy, the Jews were expelled
from the city in 1 2 9 4 . The incident gave rise to a legend
sufficiently tenacious for a monument to be erected in the
center of the town two hundred years later, the Kinderfres-
senbrunnen (well of the child-eater), a local curiosity that
today’s tourist can still visit (80). Similar examples are le-
gion. Diligent chroniclers have estimated more than one
hundred cases of profanation of the Host (81), more than
one hundred and fifty trials for “ritual murder” (82), and
the number of cases we do not know about must be infinitely
greater.
Hence, misdeeds attributed t o the Jews are periodically
evoked in an atmosphere of great religious fervor, and this
very repetition roots the legend still deeper, nourished on
these pathetic reminders. This alone suffices to explain the
fact that a number of cases of ritual murder were to appear
in the nineteenth century, and that even in our o w n day
 The Age of the Crusades 64

there are still serious Christian investigators w h o believe

them."

The “rouelle” and the trial of the Talmud

Whereas the grim legends just described emerged from the

depths o f popular imagination and were opposed b y eccle-
siastical authorities, those very authorities in the thirteenth
century issued two directives that in turn gave rise to new
legends, all quite as tenacious. These directives were the im-
position of a distinctive sign to be worn b y all Jews, and the
express condemnation of their sacred books.
The first measure was decided b y the Fourth Lateran
Council that, in 1 2 1 5 , marked the pinnacle of pontifical power.
For three weeks, nearly fifteen hundred prelates from all
points of the Christian horizon met and endorsed the sover-
eign decisions taken b y Innocent I I I . Some o f these, adopted
at the Council’s final session, concern the Jews. Here is an
extract:
“In the countries where Christians d o not distinguish
themselves from Jews and Saracens b y their garments, rela-
tions are maintained between Christians and Jews or Sara-
cens, or vice versa. I n order that such wickedness in the future
be not excused b y error, it is decreed that henceforth Jews
of both sexes will be distinguished from other peoples by
their garments, as moreover has been prescribed unto them
b y Moses. They will not show themselves i n public during
Holy Week, for some among them o n these days wear their
finest garments and mock the Christians clad in mourning.
Trespassers will be duly punished b y the secular powers, in
order that they n o longer dare flout Christ in the presence of
Christians” (83).
Thus w e m a y observe that the decision was made neces-
sary by the equality i n which Jews a n d Christians still lived
in the thirteenth century, “speaking the same language and
16 Cf. p . 2 7 4 , note 2 0 .
 The Fateful Summer of 1096 65

wearing the same garments,” as Caesarius o f Heisterbach

has already told us.'” W e m a y also note that the Lateran
Council confined itself to posing the general principle of
discrimination in clothing, leaving the details to the secular
authorities, who were to decide h o w the difference was to b e
marked. A n d the decision did n o t aim a t Jews alone; the
text also mentions Saracens. T o these were subsequently
added heretics, followed b y lepers, prostitutes, and other
outcasts.
The enforcement of the measures varied considerably in
method and degree, depending o n the country. France, as
the Church’s eldest daughter, conformed most rapidly, es-
pecially since a t this period the Albigensian Crusade strength-
ened vigilance over evildoers o f every kind. I t was i n France,
in particular, that the idea seems to have appeared of adopt-
ing a n ancient Moslem rule'® and o f indicating differences
by special insignia to be worn on the clothing. From the
start, the circular form (whence the French term rouelle)
and the color yellow were designated. We can only speculate
about this form, which was that of a coin: a symbol of the
Jews’ eagerness for profit, or of Judas’ thirty pieces o f silver?
As for the color yellow, which is even today pre-eminently
the color of the wicked and the jealous, it was even more
closely linked with these attributes in the Middle Ages.
The color may also have been derived from the alliteration
between Jew, Judas, Jonathan,” and jaune (“yellow” in
French). In any case, we see from the outset the intention
o f making the discrimination afflictive a n d humiliating. I t is
quite understandable that the Jews made considerable ef-

17 Cf. pp. 54 À.
18 In A.D.850, the Caliph of Baghdad Muttawakkil, had ordered all in-
fidels—Christians, Jews, or others—to wear distinctive insignia on the sleeve
a n d a yellow h a t ; but this order w a s soon ignored.
1 9 A s M . Bulard points out, a certain kind o f lady apple with yellow
skin w a s called “apple o f Jonathan” i n the Middle A g e s ; furthermore, Jona-
than is the name that occurs most frequently i n stories o f Jewish profanations
o f the Host. ( M . Bulard, L e Scorpion, symbole d u peuple juif dans l’art re-
ligieux des XIVe, XVe, et XVIe siècles, Paris, 1935, p . 37, note 1 . )
 The Age of the Crusades 66

fort t o avoid a measure that so marked them for the mockery

and vindictiveness of the mob. Hence, between 1215 and
1370, in France alone, twelve councils and nine royal de-
crees® prescribed the strict observance of this law, o n pain
of heavy fines or corporal punishment. The industrious
Philip the Fair even made the insignia a source of revenue:
rouelles were sold and the franchise leased. I n 1207 the
proceeds were fifty livres tournois from the Jews of Paris,
and a hundred from those of Champagne. When, in 1361,
King John the Good recalled the Jews t o France, h e ordered
that the color of the insignia should henceforth be half red,
half white. Doubtless the Jews insisted on this change of
color i n stipulating the conditions o f their return. Moreover,
they were not obliged t o wear the rouelle when they were
traveling,”* which indicates that the authorities were fully
aware of the risks to which the wearers of the insignia were
exposed.
I n Germany, where a particular kind o f hat rather than a n
insignia was first prescribed, the measure was adopted more
slowly. The proceedings of the Council of Vienna in 1267
(84) deplore that the order enjoining the wearing o f conical
hats was not being obeyed b y the Jews. A n d it is again a hat,
this time red and yellow, that is mentioned in many texts of
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; it was only in the fol-
lowing centuries that a rouelle was substituted for it.
Other regions had other requirements. The Jews of Poland
h a d t o wear a pointed green hat. Strips o f cloth sewed across
the chest, sometimes in the shape of the tables of the L a w
(Tabula) (85) were the rule for England; but again a rouelle
2 0 Councils of Narbonne (1227), Arles (1234), Béziers (1246), Albi
(1254), Arles (1260), Nimes (1284), Vienne (1289), Avignon (1326 and
1337), Vabres (1368), and synodal statutes of Rodez (1336) and Nimes
(1365); decrees of Saint Louis (1269), Philip the Bold (1271, 1 2 7 2 , 1283),
Philip the Fair (1288), Louis X (1315), Philip V (1317), John the Good
(1363), Charles V (1372). ( C f . V . Robert, Les Signes d'infamie a u Moyen
Age, Paris, 1889, p . 7ff. It is also from this work that we have taken the
other details about the rouelle.)
2 1 B y the Councils of Arles (1234), Avignon (1326), and b y the decree
of Charles V (1372). ( I b i d , p . 2 2 . )
 The Fateful Summer of 1096 67

for the Jews of Italy and Spain, where, however, the meas-
ure was usually not enforced. O n the other hand, it is curious
to note that by an edict of 1435, King Alfonso ordered the
Jews of Sicily to attach a rouelle not only to their clothing
but also over their shops.
The importance of these defamatory insignia to the Chris-
tians is clearly apparent from the example of Christian here-
tics. Instead of the rouelle, the latter were obliged to wear
t w o crosses sewed o n their clothing, and this penalty was
regarded b y the inquisitors, as well as b y the people, as the
most humiliating punishment that could be inflicted. To-
gether with flagellation, it was the third degree in the canon-
ical scale of punishments, coming after pious works and
fines, a n d exceeded only by peines majeures: prison o r the
stake. The delinquent, when reconciled with the Church,
could take off the insignia, whereas the Jew could escape
from them only b y conversion. The stigma, rouelle or hat,
became the accepted attribute of the unconverted Jew. I n
the fourteenth century, artists and illuminators rarely rep-
resented them otherwise, even when portraying Biblical
Jews, patriarchs of the Old Testament. B y a remarkable os-
mosis, these views took root even among the Jews themselves,
certain of whose manuscripts of the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries represent Abraham, Jacob, and Moses in the same
costume (86). This visible sign, which henceforth indi-
cated the circumcised, impressed on men’s minds the notion
that the Jew was a man of another physical aspect, radi-
cally different from other m e n . This concept has certainly
contributed to the birth of various legends that we shall
discuss later, and from which the notion followed that the
Jew was a being corporeally different from other men, that
he belonged to some other species than that of the human
race.

A s w e have seen, debates between Jews and Christians

concerning the comparative merits of their religions enjoyed
a great vogue during the first centuries o f Christianity, a n d
 The Age of the Crusades G8

a copious patristic literature was devoted t o them. They

were revived in medieval Europe, often taking place in a
climate of remarkable frankness and cordiality (87). But the
propagation of a n e w kind of myth—that of a loathsome and
criminal doctrine secretly taught b y Jewish texts—put an
end to them.
The struggle against the Albigenses and the Waldenses
had brought about the creation of special institutions—the
Inquisition, the Dominican order—expressly charged with
eradicating all heresies. But if the function creates the or-
gan, the organ i n turn creates a n d perpetuates the function:
a n inquisitors duty is t o discover sacrilege everywhere.
These Dominicans could not help showing interest in infidels
in general, and in Jews and their doctrines in particular.
Furthermore, the immediate occasion seems to have been
furnished them b y certain Jews themselves.
At the beginning of the thirteenth century, the guardians
of Christian orthodoxy were greatly troubled b y the influence
of Aristotelian ideas that, through Arab and Jewish trans-
lators, were beginning to infiltrate Europe. I n 1 2 1 0 and in
1215 the Holy See forbade the teachings o f Aristotle’s Phys-
ics and Metaphysics; i n 1228 Gregory I X expressly forbade
“corrupting the divine W o r d by the contact o f the fictions
of the philosophers.” The alarm of certain Jewish theologians
over the new rationalist tendency (whose principal Jewish
expositor was Maimonides) was still greater, and they cov-
ered the “Maimonists” with abuse. Possessing n o central
coercive authority, but maintaining excellent relations with
the doctors of the Inquisition, it was to the latter that some
French rabbis turned, asking them to become guardians of
the purity of the Jewish faith. W e are told that two of these
rabbis, Solomon ben Abraham and Jonah Gerondi, made the
following remarks to the Dominicans of Montpellier: “Why
d o you pay n o attention to our heretics and our atheists,
corrupted b y the doctrine o f Moses o f Egypt [Moses Mai-
monides], author of impious works? Since you are uprooting
your heresies, uproot ours as well, and order the burning of
 The Fateful Summer of 1096 6 9

the wicked books.” T h e inquisitors did not wait t o b e asked

a second time. Searches were made and in 1 2 3 4 Maimon-
ides’ works were burned with great solemnity in Montpellier
as well as in Paris.
I n this manner, apparently, the interest of the Inquisition
was awakened to the content of the Talmud. This enormous
and almost inaccessible treatise, written from the fourth to
the sixth centuries in Babylonia, contains a little of every-
thing. Paradoxically, while the orthodox studied each word
and each comma of the sacred text with equal reverence, it
was the disciples of Maimonides who recommended making
a distinction between its two parts: the halakah, or the law
proper, of dogmatic value; and the haggada, a miscellany
of tales and parables, moral precepts, superstitions, and med-
ical formulas. Some years later, at the very period when
converted Jewish experts convened b y Frederick I I were
clearing Judaism of the accusation of ritual murder, another
converted Jew undertook an action in the opposite direc-
tion. A Dominican brother of la Rochelle, the apostate Nich-
olas Donin,?” went t o Rome and told Gregory I X that the
Talmud was an immoral book offensive to Christians. The
Pope addressed himself to the kings of France, England,
Castile, and Aragon, as well as to various bishops, urging
them to open an investigation to verify the truth of the ac-
cusation. Saint Louis (Louis I X ) was the only one to act.
Throughout France, copies of the Talmud were seized, and in

2 2 Not much is known about Nicholas Donin; toward the end of his life
h e was reproved b y Pope Nicholas I I I for having attacked the Franciscans.
A letter from his contemporary, Jacob b e n Elias, suggests that h e w a s mur-
dered: “ . . misfortune assailed h i m because h e h a d spoken against certain
w i s e a n d prudent m e n . H e w a s struck d o w n a n d died without anyone t o
avenge him. . . . ” (Quoted i n S. Grayzel, T h e Church and the Jews i n the
Thirteenth Century, Philadelphia, 1933, p . 339.)
T h e same letter also asserts that Donin took a n active part i n propa-
gating the legend o f ritual murder, together with that o f the evil influence
o f the Talmud—which is not surprising. T h e role o f renegade Jews, m e n up-
rooted and readily thrown off balance, men with “complexes,” as we would
say today, has always been o f prime importance during the persecutions o f
the Jews. W e shall have more than one occasion t o return t o this subject.
 The Age of the Crusades 7 0

1240 a great public debate began i n Paris, i n which the most

important participants were Eudes de Châteauroux, Chan-
cellor of the Sorbonne, and Nicholas Donin o n the Christian
side; and Yehiel o f Paris and Moses o f Coucy o n the Jewish
side. W e have the full account of the debate, in Latin as
well as Hebrew (88). The themes treated were grouped into
thirty-five articles, among them the following:
W a s it true that i n the first century, after the fall o f Je-
rusalem, the Rabbi Simon ben Yohai proclaimed: “Seize the
best of the goyim and kill them”? And precisely what did
goy mean? W a s i t true that a goy w h o rests o n Saturday
or who concerns himself with the study of the L a w deserves
death, according to the Talmud? That Jesus was an illegiti-
mate child? That h e would be condemned in hell to the
torment of boiling mud? That since the destruction of the
Temple, God possesses no more than a space of four square
cubits in the world? That in Paradise, Leviathan would be
served at the table o f the just? These were some o f the ques-
tions o n which the discussion turned. Stoical and honest,
the rabbis faced them with great courage. T o the quotations
of their adversaries, they replied with other quotations (for,
just as in every compilation that is a repository for the wis-
dom of nations, for any maxim of the haggada, one can be
found that states precisely the contrary ) ; * they set forth the
many commandments prescribing an equal charity toward
Jews and non-Jews, commandments to b e scrupulously hon-
est toward aliens—commandments much more characteristic
of the spirit of the Talmud. But the result of the debate, in

23 Furthermore, the style peculiar t o the haggada must always b e taken

into account. A t virtually the same period w h e n S i m o n b e n Yohai exclaimed:
“Seize the best of the goyim and kill them!”, Rabbi Eleazar, another doctor
o f the L a w , raged against the ignorant Jews ( a m h a r e t z ) i n terms that the
haggada reports as follows:
“Rabbi Eleazar has s a i d : ‘One has the right t o strike a n a m haretz even
o n the D a y o f Atonement, even if this d a y falls o n a S a t u r d a y ’ ; h i s pupils
said to h i m : ‘Master, say “kill” rather than “strike.” ” But he replied: “To
kill requires a blessing; t o strike requires none’ ” (Pesahim, 49b).
 The Fateful Summer of 1096 71

which the accusers, like the judges, were champions of

Christ victorious, was obviously determined in advance. The
Talmud was condemned and all copies of it were solemnly
burned—the same fate that the works of Maimonides had
m e t eight years before. O n e o f Maimonides’ detractors, the
Jonah Gerondi referred to, imposing cruel penances o n him-
self, wandered from one community to the next and pro-
claimed i n the synagogues: “Maimonides is right a n d his
teaching is true. W e lied!”
The Jews tried in vain to rehabilitate their sacred texts. A
few years later, Innocent I V consented to a re-examination
of the verdict, but in 1248 a second commission, presided
over b y the famous Dominican Albert the Great, merely re-
confirmed the verdict of the first. The following year, Albert
went to teach in Cologne, where he seems to have stirred u p
new and resounding judgments. This upheaval, going be-
yond the narrow limits o f specialized theologians, roused
public opinion against the Jews. W e find its echo i n various
minnesingers of the period: for example, Konrad von Wiirz-
burg (1268):
We der veizen, touben Woe to the cowardly Jews, deaf
argen Jüden kint, die nicht and wicked, w h o have n o care
ruechen walten
des, das sie behalten to save themselves
mächte w o l vor arger helle from the sufferings o f hell.
pine
Talamut hat si vil gar be- The Talmud has corrupted
toubet them
und ir ere beroubet (8g). and made them lose their honor.
I n Seifried Helbling:
E z war wol der in verbut It would b e well to forbid
ir ketzerlichez Talamut their heretical Talmud,
ein buch valsch une unge- a false and ignoble book.
naem (Qo).
I n an anonymous poet of the same period:
 The Age of the Crusades 72

Der da ist in abgriinde They have fallen so low

Gamaliel in kiinde For Gamaliel has taught them
A n Talamut de Viinde The heretical Talmud
D i e valschen viinde rouben =~ Whose false sayings
I n sinne rehtes gelouben (91). Conceal from them the true
faith.
I n France, the popular Desputaison d e la Sainte Eglise e t
d e la Synagogue b y the jongleur Clopin, which dates from
the same period, is apparently also a direct echo of the
great controversy of 1240. Addressing a large public, Clopin
created a particularly long-lived myth—which anti-Semitic
agitators were to make abundant use of in the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries. I n it the Jews were represented not only
as poisoners o f the body, but as poisoners o f the mind. More-
over, there is n o distinct cleavage between these two con-
cepts, just as, in the spirit of the age, there was no clear di-
vision between the salvation of bodies and the salvation of
souls. The two themes are merged in the strange and consid-
erable role played throughout the Middle Ages b y Jewish
physicians, revered and feared after the fashion of powerful
magicians to whom the most atrocious crimes were imputed,
yet whose services were solicited with great insistence. W e
shall return to them later.
W e n o w come to the changes the period of the Crusades
brought about in the structure and internal life of Jewish
communities. These communities naturally reacted to the
impact of both the persecutions of the Jews and of the
strange ideas that were beginning to develop about them.
They accommodated themselves b y a kind of adaptive evolu-
tion which, in turn, through an inevitable reaction, gave rise
to still more fantastic concepts to impress Christendom in
the centuries to follow.
 five
The Jewish Reactions

It is easy to imagine how shocked the Jews themselves were

at the massacres of 1096. It is only natural that under such
circumstances the victims should have sharper memories
than the persecutors. I n fact, the imprint left b y the perse-
cutions was henceforth to singularize Jewish destiny, leaving
an indelible stamp upon the Jewish mentality. As the Jews
segregation grew more marked, they became confined t o a
special economic role. This role developed in the context of
the great social transformations that characterize the age o f
the Crusades; and it is these social changes that we shall first
describe.

From trade to usury

W e have seen that the Jews were the tradesmen par excel-
lence of Carolingian Europe and that they were noteworthy
in being the only merchants to maintain contact with the
Orient. Not all Jews were merchants; and if, in the rare texts
o f the period that have come down t o us, they are repre-
sented chiefly as tradesmen, it is because the lower classes,
the artisans and clerks, h a d n o occasion t o leave many traces
in documents. But the Jews did not maintain their monop-
oly over international commerce for long, a n d from the tenth
century, Venetians and Byzantines, followed b y the Lom-
bards, appeared i n the market fairs o f Champagne o r Flan-
ders. Furthermore, i n the rudimentary economy o f the
 The Age of the Crusades 74

period, which dealt almost entirely with goods, commercial

exchange—and money—played only an insignificant role.
(On the other hand, the role o f the usurer was m u c h greater
than it is today, just because money was scarce and could b e
obtained, when needed, only from a professional.)
But b y the twelfth century, trade routes t o Asia were open
to Europeans, and spices, rare foodstuffs, and luxury prod-
ucts were carried b y Italian ships rather than over perilous
land routes; thus these products became more accessible to
both major and minor lords, and commerce received a
great impetus. A t the same time, after several centuries of
stagnation, cities began to develop rapidly and an exchange
economy to replace the economy of barter. A class of Chris-
tian merchants appeared, a n urban elite that gradually
ousted the Jewish tradesmen. O f course, this change was
less a question o f interdenominational rivalry, the deliber-
ate eviction o f one clan by another, than o f a n organic, long-
term process linked to the general transformations of medi-
eval society. A number o f factors were t o contribute t o this
process, which was to make the relegation of the Jews to
usury almost inevitable.
The first medieval merchants were constant travelers; ob-
liged t o provision themselves, they were their o w n bankers
and, o n occasion, their own moneylenders. The develop-
ments that began with the First Crusade led many Jews to
convert their property into possessions that could be con-
cealed easily i n case o f danger—that is, into gold o r silver.
Since legal tender was extraordinarily scarce at the time, its
possessor naturally turned into a moneylender: this was as
true of the monasteries and other ecclesiastical establish-
ments and of the first Christian merchants as it was of the
Jews. At the same time, religious agitation made travel and
commerce increasingly difficult for the Jews. Many texts dat-
ing from the years 1146-1148 show that during the Crusades
the Jews might a t any time b e attacked o n the highroads (92).
Above all, their new rivals, the Italian and Hanseatic mer-
chants, could count o n the protection of their native cities
 The Jewish Reactions 75

a n d lobby for protective legislation i n their favor. For

example, access t o ships sailing t o the Orient was forbidden
to Jewish merchants b y an edict, the first of its kind, passed
in Venice in 945 (93). Nonetheless, with regard to domestic
trade b y land routes, there are many examples o f Jewish
commercial activity until the beginning of the thirteenth
century. B u t the tendency toward moneylending—that is,
usury—as the Jews sole occupation, where the financier
waited for his client at home and had n o need to venture
forth into the world, was even more accentuated, since the
Jew, at a disadvantage i n all other domains, here possessed
a n advantage all his own. H e was not exposed t o the thun-
ders of ecclesiastical censure, which, though it had never
been able to halt Christian usury altogether, nonetheless
trammeled it severely—a Christian usurer could be excom-
municated and, from the fourteenth century, was answer-
able to the Inquisition." I t is true, though little known, that
the Talmudic tradition, too, initially opposed usury. Even
o n the eve of the First Crusade the great Rashi proclaimed:
“He who loans money at interest to a foreigner will be de-
stroyed” (94). But a century later, the rabbis had already
agreed that the community must adapt itself to circum-
stances: of course, “no loans at interest must be made to the
gentiles, if a livelihood can b e earned i n another manner,”
but “at the present time, when a Jew may possess neither
fields nor vines permitting him to live, the lending of money
at interest to non-Jews is necessary and consequently au-
thorized.”
The authorities were quick t o exploit this advantage for
their o w n ends. I n fact, the increasingly precarious situa-
tion of the Jews drove them to seek the protection of the
princes, petitioning “charters” that, while affording a tem-

1 From the thirteenth century, authors such as Mathieu Paris identified

usury with heresy. This identification became official after the Council of
Vienne i n 1311, which authorized the courts o f the Inquisition t o prosecute
Christians practicing usury. (Cf. Parkes, The Jew in the Medieval Commu-
nity, London, 1938, pp. 288-99.)
 The Age of the Crusades 76

porary security, made the Jews dependent o n their protec-

tors. Originally free men, the Jews became, within an in-
creasingly stratified society, the serfs o f their lords. Servi
camerae nostrae, the German emperors were to call them,
while in France it was said they “belonged to the barons”
(95). They were the lords” men, or rather the lords’ chat-
tels: possessions all the more useful since money could be ex-
tracted from them under pressure, and they could be ignored
otherwise. This was expressed b y the celebrated British
jurist Henry d e Bracton i n the following terms: “The Jew
can have nothing o f his own; all that h e acquires becomes the
property of the king and not his own; the Jews live not for
themselves but for others: thus it is for others that they ac-
quire, and not for themselves.” ? Ultimately, the Jew could
live only b y means of money—not in the sense in which this
is understood i n our modern capitalist society, but i n a m u c h
more significant sense: the right to life, which Christian so-
ciety granted the merest yokel, h a d t o b e bought b y the Jew
a t regular intervals. Otherwise, regarded as useless, h e would
be driven out or implicated in some grim case of poisoning or
ritual murder. Money became much more important to him
than his daily bread—as necessary to him as the air he
breathed. Under these circumstances, money finally ac-
quired for the Jew a quasi-sacred significance.
However, the Jews were far from constituting the chief
source of the princes’ revenue; even in their new field of
activity they constantly h a d t o counter strong Christian com-
petition. Despite all the efforts of the Church, Christian usu-
rers did excellent business throughout the Middle Ages. I n
particular, the Italian brotherhoods of the Caorsins and
the Lombards, often subject to a control analogous t o that
imposed on the Jews, and holders of the same kind of privi-
leges, devoted themselves to even larger operations through-

2 D u c a n g e quotes this pertinent definition i n his famous Glossaire (ar-

ticle “ J u d a e i ” ) ; Judaeus vero nihil proprium habere potest, quia quicquid
acquirit, n o n sibi acquirit, sed regi: quia n o n vivunt sibi ipsis, sed aliis, e t sic
aliis acquirunt, et non sibi ipsis.
 The Jewish Reactions 77

out Europe and played a much more important role than the
Jews in the development of capitalist techniques. But the
Caorsins and Lombards were eventually assimilated into the
general culture and disappeared: only a few place names or
linguistic vestiges perpetuate their memory.” The Jewish
usurer has survived. H e has been promoted to the dignity
of an archetype because behind him stood the silhouette of
another archetype: that of Judas Iscariot, the man with the
thirty pieces of silver. Ultimately the specter thus evoked,
creating an unbearable tension between Christian society
a n d the Jews, contributed significantly t o the stereotype.
Even in our own day we tend to attribute a virtual financial
monopoly to the medieval Jewish usurer, whereas the few
known statistics suggest how minor his role was in the move-
ment of money. Thus, while the total taxes collected in 1241
by the imperial treasury o f the Holy Roman Empire
amounted to 7 , 1 2 7 % marks, the Jews’ share in this figure was
only 857 marks (96). Similarly, according to the Livre de
taille for the year 1 2 9 2 — a record of taxes to which the popu-
lation of Paris was subject—out of a total of more than 12,000
livres, the share of the 125 taxpaying Jews in the city was
only 126 livres, whereas that o f the Lombards was 1,511
livres ( 9 7 ) . This is obviously an extreme example, for at the
same time the royal treasury collected a much greater
amount in taxes from all the Jews in France (98). The
role o f Jewish finance a n d usury varied according t o time
and place, but with the exception of England in the twelfth
century, it was nowhere predominant.
We shall now briefly examine this role in the three princi-
pal nations we are considering.
England constitutes a special case. The Jews appeared
here only after the Norman Conquest, and in the absence of
any local rivalry they rapidly became a tightly knit class

3 Thus the “Rue des Lombards” i n Paris a n d i n certain provincial cities.

I n Russian, “Lombard” designates a pawnshop even today; the same was
true i n England a n d Germany until the beginning o f the nineteenth century.
T h e word still has this meaning—remarkably enough—in Yiddish.
 The Age of the Crusades 78

o f financiers. F r o m the start they managed t o associate

closely with the kings in their operations, turning over to the
royalty the notes of defaulting debtors in return for a share
of the sums due. They were the “king’s men,” vassals of a
special kind, since they were the chief source of their suze-
rains’ revenues. During a period of rapid national expansion
in the twelfth century the Jews became rich b y advancing
money to the barons and to the clergy, whose needs for legal
tender and appetites for luxury were considerable: the
chroniclers enviously describe their splendid stone houses.
They were subject not to regular taxes but to special con-
tributions that the kings demanded in case of need—espe-
cially for the Crusades. A t the end of the twelfth century the
Jews” monopoly was strictly controlled by the creation o f a
central office, the Exchequer o f the Jews. Here, i n the pres-
ence of royal officials, was to be transacted every loan and
financial operation.
The Jews’ rapid rise during the twelfth century was fol-
lowed in the thirteenth b y an equally rapid decline. This de-
cline was foreshadowed b y the extortions of King John dur-
ing his conflict with foreign enemies and rebellious barons at
home. I n 1 2 1 0 he demanded so exorbitant a contribution
from the Jews that the latter were unable to comply. He
then arrested a great number of them, and one of the wealth-
iest, Abraham of Bristol, was jailed in a dungeon where one
o f his teeth was torn out every d a y : o n the eighth day the
unfortunate usurer committed suicide (gg). Thereafter, ex-
pulsions o f Jews were followed b y readmissions; but i n
competition with the Lombards, their role rapidly became
negligible. I n this atmosphere, religious considerations be-
came paramount, and i n 1290 the Jews were officially ex-
pelled from England. The exact fate of the lost tribe of Eng-
lish Jews is unknown: doubtless the majority of the survivors
merged with French and German Jews. But their memory
remained sufficiently vivid to nourish many literary themes
throughout the Middle Ages and to induce Shakespeare,
three centuries later, to create the unforgettable prototype of
 The Jewish Reactions 79

the usurer, Shylock, whose origins have so often been de-

bated. Perhaps in the tragic theme of the “pound of flesh”
there is a transposition, with diametrically reversed roles,
of the Abraham of Bristol episode. And, some twenty gen-
erations later, we find that the name of Fagin, the repulsive
usurer in Oliver Twist, seemingly derived from Cok Hagin,
last of the Arch Presbyters of the Jews o n the eve of their ex-
pulsion.
The unusual case of the English Jews is in strong contrast
to the history of those of France and Germany. In these coun-
tries the Jews never had a monopoly on finance.
I n France, against a background of rapid economic de-
velopment during the twelfth century, the Jews transacted
their usual commercial and financial operations and grew
rich. But the accession of Philip I I was the first blow to their
prosperity. Philip’s biographers state that from childhood
the young prince had been nurtured on anti-Jewish legends;
in any case, upon his accession, he had all the Jews of the
realm arrested, and released them only after they had paid a
ransom of fifteen thousand silver marks (1180). H e then an-
nulled all their credits except for a fifth share, which he
himself took over (1181). Lastly, he ordered their general ex-
pulsion (1182) (100). It is true that under the feudal parcel-
ing out of the territory the effect of these measures was lim-
ited to the possessions of the crown; therefore, when in 1198
Philip decided to recall the Jews, he concluded an agree-
ment with Count Theobald o f Champagne, demanding the
return of “his” Jews, who belonged t o him by rights (101).
Subsequently, b y a n act that the scholar Petit-Dutaillis has
regarded as the first serious attempt m a d e b y royalty t o as-
sert its legislative power over all the baronies o f the kingdom
(102), Louis VIII extended this concept of personal au-
thority over the Jews t o the entire country (1223). Conse-
quently, the existence of Jewish communities, which could
be expelled and recalled according to a prince’s whim or
the state o f his treasury, became extremely precarious a n d
unstable.
 The Age of the Crusades 8o

Expulsions and confiscations impoverished the Jews, who

were increasingly in competition with Christian usurers, and
led to a noticeable lessening of their economic role. This
trend finds expression in the decree of Melun in 1 2 3 0 (103),
which, denying the validity of any debts owed to Jews, vir-
tually relegated them t o the lowest form o f usury—hence-
forth they could lend only o n pledges, that is, to peasants,
artisans, or the poor. Big business and high finance became
the province of the Caorsins and Lombards. However, hum-
ble as they were, the Jews continued to be essential for cer-
tain transactions, and Saint Louis (Louis I X ) , despite all his
efforts, was unable to suppress Jewish usury. When, early in
the thirteenth century, Philip I V ordered the mass expulsion
o f the Jews, they were sufficiently missed b y the common
people for a Geffroi de Paris to write:

Toute pauvre gent se plaint All the poor complain

Car Juifs furent débonnaires For the Jews were much milder
Beaucoup plus en faisant I n the conduct of their business
leurs affaires
Que ne sont maintenant les Than the Christians are now.
chrétiens.
Garanties ils demandent et These demand guarantees and
liens, mortgages,
Gages demandent et tout ex- Pledges, too, and take every-
torquent thing
Q u e les gens plument et Until they have stripped m e n
écorchent . . . quite bare . .
Mais si les Juifs demeurés But had the Jews remained
Fussent au royame de I n the kingdom of France,
France,
Chrétiens moult grande aid- Christians would have had
ance
Eussent eu, qu’ils n'ont plus Much succor that is theirs n o
(104). longer.

It is hardly surprising that under these circumstances the

decree of July 28, 1315, calling back the Jews, refers to the
 The Jewish Reactions 81

“common outcry of the people” (105) demanding their re-

turn.
W e find similar developments o n the other side of the
Rhine, with this difference: that they took place more slowly,
especially in the eastern districts, so that the Jews’ state there
remained better for a long time. This is attributable to a real
culture lag. What applies to France in the twelfth century
applies to the Rhine Valley in the thirteenth and to the east-
ern marches of the Holy Roman Empire in the centuries to
follow. Thus there are unquestionable evidences of a lively
commercial activity o n the part of the Jews along the Rhine,
continuing up to the fourteenth century (106); and impe-
rial decrees of the fifteenth century attest to the presence in
Austria of Jewish merchants trafficking in textiles, wine, and
porcelain, as well as of Jewish artisans (107). Apparently
the sumptuary laws were initially applied only in a very lax
fashion within the Holy Roman Empire, and the very edicts
designed to enforce them suggest the persistence of a Jew-
ish proselytism that remained quite active (108), as is con-
firmed by various Jewish sources (109). The distinctive
feature of the status of the German Jews was the general pro-
tection accorded them b y the emperor. This relationship,
beginning, as w e have seen, during the period o f the First
Crusade, gradually found legal expression in the concept of
“serfs of the imperial chamber,” which one finds for the first
time, applied to all Jews, in the Golden Bull promulgated in
1236 by Frederick II, clearing the Jews of the accusation of
ritual murder. Imperial jurists attempted to assign the ori-
gin of this tradition of protector of the Jews to the Roman
emperors, and more precisely to Vespasian and the destruc-
tion of the Temple.” The effectiveness of this protection, con-
4 Cf. pp. 60 f.
5 This is the interpretation given b y t w o German codices o f the thir-
teenth century, the Sachsenspiegel a n d the Schwabenspiegel. According t o
the Sachsenspiegel, imperial protection was first granted b y Vespasian t o
Flavius Josephus, w h o h a d cured his son Titus o f g o u t ; more realistic, the
Schwabenspiegel s a w i n it the counterpart o f the “Temple tax” Vespasian
h a d begun t o collect after the destruction o f the Temple.
 The Age of the Crusades 82

firmed a t frequent intervals, evidently varied with time and

place, but on occasion the emperor took his role seriously
enough to intervene on behalf of the Jews of another coun-
try: for example, at the time of their expulsion from France
by Philip I V (110).
Moreover, in contrast with the French and English cus-
toms, the German emperors levied taxes, the price of their
protection, not o n individual Jews but o n their communities,
thereby strengthening the communal organization of the
German Jews and their sense of collective responsibility. This
is important, since these German Jewish communities proved
to be the only ones able to perpetuate themselves during
the succeeding centuries.
Another custom, i n force throughout Europe and over
which Voltaire (in his Dictionnaire philosophique) later
gloated ( 1 1 1 ) , points u p the relative importance o f eco-
nomic and religious factors in the functions allowed the Jews.
The Talmudic tradition prescribed disinheriting children if
they renounced the Jewish religion. T h e Christian princes
not only authorized their Jewish serfs to observe this tenet of
their o w n laws (as they were authorized to observe all the
rest), but on their own initiative extended it to the converts
themselves, forcing them, at the time of conversion, to hand
over their property to the royal or imperial exchequer. This
was a logical arrangement i n a period when the Jewish usu-
rer constituted a precious possession, whereas his conver-
sion was costly to the prince. I n effect, the arrangement was a
kind o f sinking fund. It also represents, o n another level, a
kind of homage paid to the faithful of a sect that still per-
formed useful and sometimes eminent functions in the so-
ciety of the time. Soon clerics were to be found who jus-
tified the practice canonically. The Holy See vainly opposed
a practice that made the fate o f the apostates, repudiated by
the Jews and robbed b y the Christians, impossibly wretched
and that was obviously not likely to encourage conversions.
It was only after the Jews’ economic role h a d narrowed
 The Jewish Reactions 83

considerably that the Church was able to win this point, so

that the baptism of a Jew did not spell his ruin. This oc-
curred, as we shall see, much later, at a period when the deg-
radation of the Jews, having reached its nadir, appeared
complete i n the eyes o f Christian society a n d provoked a n
almost demonological concept of the detestable and dis-
graced Jew. From this example we see the complexity and
multiplicity o f the factors that controlled Jewish destinies,
and which two centuries ago Montesquieu expressed in
these chilling terms: “Their property was confiscated be-
cause they wished t o b e Christians, and they were burned
when they had no such wish” (112).

Birth of a Jewish mentality

The massacres of the First Crusade were to leave an indeli-

ble imprint on Jewish memory, a kind of collective trauma.
Contemporaries are usually not in a position to grasp the
full significance o f a n event, a n d the Jewish authors o f the
twelfth century, when they expressed their anguish and their
rage, did not suspect the use t o which their writings would
be put. Certain parts of their chronicles have been incorpo-
rated into the Jewish liturgy and are still today recited an-
nually at the time of the commemoration of the destruction
of the Temple.’ Other elements, transposed, have furnished
the fabric of countless religious chants, the selihot and the
kinot. I n the Memorbiicher in which it became customary
to record the names of the victims of persecutions, many lists
are preceded b y the evocation o f the “cities of blood,” Speyer,
Worms, and Mainz (113). Thus the memory of the first
6 The day of g Ab, which generally falls within the month of Au-
gust. This obviously concerns only the liturgy of the Ashkenazim; Sephardic
liturgy contains nothing equivalent.
7 These form chants that are also recited, b y choice, the d a y o f
9 Ab. T h e selihot generally end o n a note o f hope, while the kinot are pure
lamentations.
 The Age of the Crusades 84

martyrs was perpetuated a n d a tradition was created and

strengthened, inspiring succeeding generations to follow the
example of their ancestors.
Chronicles such as those of Solomon bar Simeon or Eliezer
ben Nathan are of great importance to the historian (114).
They indicate first of all the fury that seized the survivors.
Terrible were their denunciations, i n which they used a
highly special semantic: the word “church” is regularly re-
placed by “place of impurity,” the word “cross” b y “evil
sign,” the word “baptize” by “pollute,” and so on (115). “The
pope o f sinful Rome rose u p and urged all the peoples o f
Edom to believe in the Christ crucified: to unite in order to
g o t o Jerusalem a n d conquer the city so that the strayed
might return to the site of their shame, to the tomb of him
w h o m they have chosen as their G o d . . . ” ; thus begins Sol-
omon bar Simeon. “Let the bones of Emicho, persecutor of
the Jews, be ground in a mill of fire!” he continues. And sub-
sequently: “ O G o d o f vengeance, O Lord G o d o f vengeance,
appear! I t is for thee that w e have let ourselves b e slaugh-
tered every day. Return sevenfold the wrongs of our neigh-
bors, so that they m a y curse you! Before our very eyes let the
nations b e punished for the blood o f thy servants that they
have shed then they shall know that it is in the name
of a dead man, of the void, that they have shed the blood of
virgins, of children, and infants, that their faith is meaning-
less and that they have taken an accursed path. . .” Nor is
Eliezer b e n Nathan less violent: “Strike our wretched neigh-
bors sevenfold, punish them, O Lord, as they have deserved!
Cause them distress and suffering, send them thy curse, de-
stroy them!”
B u t this fury remains impotent. It is not possible to take
vengeance o n the persecutors; the disproportion of strength
is so obvious that the calamities that overwhelm the Jews
represent to its spokesmen an upheaval of nature rather than
a struggle between two camps. A n d since all the exhorta-
tions addressed t o G o d remain without effect (though our
 The Jewish Reactions 85

chroniclers d o not fail t o perceive a divine punishment i n

the woes that befall the vanguard of the Crusaders), since it
must b e acknowledged that “sinful Rome” celebrates vic-
tory while the fate of the Jews merely grows worse, it must
be concluded that this is a just retribution, that the sins of
the chosen people have not yet been sufficiently expiated.
“No prophet, no sage or wise man can conceive why the
sins of the community were found so grave that death alone
could expiate them, as if the community itself h a d shed
blood. But i n truth, H e is a n equitable judge, and the
fault is ours!” “Our sins permitted the enemy to triumph; the
hand of the Lord weighed heavily upon his people. 7

Thus, far from shaking the Jews” faith in divine justice,

their ordeals inspired in them a sense of guilt that, cast in
the ancient mold o f the commandments a n d the Law, only
strengthened their devotion to the Lord. And they continue
t o slake their thirst a t the sources o f a n invincible h o p e : “ M a y
the blood of the reverent be our merit and our expiation for
us, our children, and our grandchildren, for all eternity, even
as the sacrifice of Abraham, who bound his son Isaac o n the
altar in order to sacrifice him. Let these just, these pure,
these perfect m e n become our advocates before the Lord,
a n d m a y H e soon deliver u s from our exile. Amen!”
W e find the same accents of resignation, hope, and an un-
failing faith on the occasion of many another calamity, as in
the moving plaint that relates the martyrdom o f Isaac,
chatelain o f Troyes, and his family, victims i n 1288 o f a trial
for ritual murder. This little masterpiece o f medieval poetry
is written in the French of the period:
Prechor vinrent Içak le Co- Sinners have come for Isaac
henS requerir. Cohen.
Tornast vers lor créance o H e must abjure, or perish.
l'kevanroit perir.
Il dit: “Que avez tant? Je vol H e says: “What d o y o u want of
por Gé morir. me? For God I will die.
8 Priest, in Hebrew.
 The Age of the Crusades 86

Je suis Cohen: ofrande de A s priest, I will offer him the

mon cors voil ofrir.” sacrifice of my body.”
“A peine eschaperas, puis que “You cannot escape, w e hold
nos t e tenons. you fast.
Deviens chrestiens.” E t il re- Become a Christian,” but h e
pondit tantost: “Non! swift replies: “No.
Por les chiens ne lerrai le Gé For the dogs, I would not leave
vil n e son nom.” G o d nor his name!”
A n l'apeloit Haim, le mestre Then Haim was called, the mas-
d e Brinon. ter of Brinon,
Encore u n kadosch?® fut ame- A n d another kadosh was led
nez avant; forth;
A n li fist perit feu e l'aloit an Then they thrust him into a
grevant; slow fire
Huchoit Gé de bon cor e And with good heart he prayed
m e n u e sovant to G o d often and low,
Docement sofrit poine por Gently suffering his pain i n the
servir G é vivant. name of the living God.
G é vanchere, emprinére, van- G o d of vengeance, jealous God,
che nos des felons! avenge us o n our foes!
D’atandre ta vanchance nos From awaiting your vengeance,
semble li jors long! ( 1 1 6 ) the day seems long to us.

Henceforth martyrdom becomes a kind o f institution. Each

new victim of Christian fury is a warrior fallen to hallow the
Name; often he receives the title of kadosh (saint), a kind
of canonization. ( I f the Christians, too, canonize their mar-
tyrs, we must note that what is for them a generally legend-
ary event, a reminder of Roman persecutions, acquires for
the Jews a tragic and virtually everyday reality.) I n particu-
lar, the sacrifice o f the children, massacred b y their o w n
parents, is identified with the sacrifice offered b y Abraham,
and the story o f the patriarch a n d his son becomes, under the
title of Akeda (the sacrifice of Isaac), the very symbol of
Jewish martyrology. O n e o f the most tragic passages i n the
chronicle of Solomon bar Simeon relates h o w Isaac the Pious,
Jew of Worms, baptized by force, leads his two children
b y night to the synagogue, slaughters them upon the altar,
9 Saint, in Hebrew.
 The Jewish Reactions 87

returns to his house and sets it on fire, and finally ignites

the synagogue and perishes in the flames (117).
While each Jewish victim was regarded as a warrior fallen
on the field of honor, the battle waged by the Jews was not
like other battles. Making a virtue out of necessity, the Jews
o f Europe resolutely took the path o f a purely passive re-
sistance to evil (evil is equated with Christian society) and
revealed a tenacity of which history offers no other examples
—a passive resistance coming all the more easily in view of
their nonparticipation in professions requiring physical effort
and the direct struggle against nature.
T h e Jews replied t o Christian animosity b y a hatred just as
intense but necessarily restrained or repressed. Whereas
the aggressive potential o f the Christians could b e expressed
at will and discharged directly, Jewish aggression was
obliged to seek other channels and to become in some way
transmuted. The psychic energies thus accumulated had
ample opportunity t o function i n the realm o f the struggle
for existence—in the pursuit of negotiable currency. But
this precious substance, without which i t was impossible for
the Jews to assert themselves in a hostile and detestable
world, remained indissolubly linked to that world. I n a sense,
money was its permanent symbol.
T o escape this outer world, the inner world o f study con-
stituted an indispensable complement. A t all times the rabbis
had placed the study of the L a w above earthly possessions,
above all other things, but never had these precepts been fol-
lowed so fervently. I t was with real frenzy that the Jews of
Germany and northern France plunged into the Talmud and
pored over it d a y a n d night i n the synagogues; i t is good,
one text reminds us, to ruin one’s life in study. Thus appears
that famous Jewish ambivalence: money is overvalued be-
cause without it death or expulsion threatens; and precisely
because it is overvalued, it becomes the object of contempt,
while other facets of life become more highly regarded.
But learning was pursued in circumstances hardly favor-
able for its free development. Everything—the growing
 The Age of the Crusades 88

weight o f the persecutions as well as the very spirit with

which the persecutors were imbued—combined to make the
mentality o f the Jews timorous and narrow, for a t this pe-
riod the Jewish community was still remarkably open to ex-
ternal influences. Thus the belief in evil spirits sent down
ever deeper roots in northern Europe; Jewish folklore was
infiltrated with Christian superstitions, fairy tales, legends of
devils or elves. Similarly, tales and fables, the moralities so
popular at the time, were translated into Hebrew b y the rab-
bis for the edification of their flocks. But among the moral
precepts, it is chiefly those that praise modesty and humil-
ity that take precedence (here, too, we glimpse a reflection of
the Jews’ specialized profession: it is improper for a usurer to
be arrogant). “God has given the human soul a bestial enve-
lope, i n order that m a n m a y not become proud!” exclaimed
Rabbi Moses of Coucy (118). “God alone may be proud, man
must be humble. Be respectful of your kind, keep your head
bowed, your eyes lowered, raise only your heart toward the
heavens ” instructed Rabbi Moses of Evreux (119).
Still more importance is attributed to the scrupulous ob-
servance of the Law, and the greater part of Jewish wisdom
henceforth consists in the elaboration of increasingly strict
rules. Gone are the days of a Rashi’s bold sallies; the rabbis
confine themselves to a timorous acceptance of the tradi-
tional learning, without fundamentally changing anything,
and complain o f the inadequacy of their o w n insight. Prohi-
bitions are added to prohibitions, which Rabbi Isaac of Vienne
explains thus: © there was a time when there were great
doctors, wise and enlightened, in whom the faithful could
trust, but in our time the knowledge of the Torah has fallen
away and wisdom has vanished. Let us then praise the
timid who doubt their own knowledge and abstain from mak-
ing the observance of the Law easier: they will be better re-
warded for their circumspection than those w h o pride them-
selves on their innovations in their studies ” (120).
This humility, this lack of intellectual assurance, is charac-
teristic of a school edict of the thirteenth century, and we
 The Jewish Reactions 89

note, in reading it, that its author was quite aware of the rea-
sons for this sterility.
“Let a master not instruct more than ten students at a
time. For although our sages had fixed the number of stu-
dents at twenty-five to a master, this was valid only for Pales-
tine, whose climate is favorable to the flowering of minds,
and at a time when the Jewish people were independent—
for the free m a n is strong, lucid, and bold, and learns more
easily than the oppressed man. The latter's mind is weak
and barren, subject to cruel and insolent princes; ceaselessly
at strife, he is fearful and timid, and his rancor limits his
energy. This is the reason w h y w e must advise masters not
to accept more than ten students at a time . . .” (121)
Jewish hostility toward the outside world is also character-
istic of certain maxims o f the Book of the Pious (Sepher
Hasidim), a famous anthology o f precepts collected b y
Rabbi Judah the Hasid at the end of the thirteenth century.
“Deliver m e from the hand of strange children, whose
mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand
of falsehood”—these words from the One Hundred and
Forty-fourth Psalm found abundant commentaries. The
Book o f the Pious counsels: “The sages have said: a Jew
must not be found alone with a non-Jew. . . The songs of
the churches must not be translated into Hebrew or sung in
the synagogues. . . Young children must not b e sung t o
sleep to the sound of Christian melodies. . . The walls of
a house that have been covered with the blood of martyrs
must never be covered over or painted, in order that the
blood may cry to heaven.” Some of the adages in the Book of
the Pious deserve t o be read and remembered even today:
“You may regret your speech, you can never regret your si-
lence: before speaking, y o u are the master o f your words, but
thereafter your words become your master.” “If you fear
you may regret a promise, say no rather than yes, for noth-
ing is so base as a yes followed b y a no.” Others, directly con-
cerned with relationships between Jews and Christians, are
no less instructive: “The conduct of the Jews corresponds in
 The Age of the Crusades go

most places to that of the Christians; when the Christians of

a city are depraved, the Jews are depraved as well.” “Ex-
communication must not be cast upon a city whose lord has
persecuted the Jews o r constrained them t o baptism, for the
excommunication will remain in force even if the city
changes its lord.” “Poor as he is, a Jew must beg rather than
steal Christian money and run away, for thereby he pro-
fanes the name o f God, and the Christians will say that all
Jews are thieves and liars.” The practical wisdom of such
precepts is evident.
What Jewish studies and culture lost in depth at this
period, they gained in breadth. Previously the rabbis had
elaborated learned treatises; what they n o w wrote was within
the reach o f every believer. I n order t o warn against weak-
ness, they composed for these troubled times simple manuals
(such as the Little Book of Commandments by Rabbi Isaac
of Corbeil), so that each Jew could instruct himself concern-
ing his obligations and rights. Study, that supreme value,
was put within the reach of all, and the popularization of
Jewish culture was from now on to be one of its distinctive
features.
Thus, i n reaction t o persecutions, the very special Jewish
mentality emerged; this, together with the nature of the
Jews’ professions, was to invite even greater Christian ani-
mosity. À really vicious circle—merely suggested a t the
period w e are concerned with—was t o develop amid the com-
plex interplay between the passions of the men of the Mid-
dle Ages and their real interests. For the moment, the
practical interests still predominate: the Jews play a useful
and even indispensable economic role, and consequently
they are neither sufficiently segregated nor sufficiently de-
graded t o b e universally detested.

Conclusion

Our history is approaching a disturbed and decisive period

during which, while the Jews were disappearing, or nearly
 The Jewish Reactions 91

so, from the medieval scene, their image increasingly ob-

sessed Christian souls. (Without doubt we shall find some
correlation between these t w o series o f apparently contra-
dictory events.) Let us survey briefly their status in the thir-
teenth century, which i n so many respects marks the peak
of medieval civilization.
W e have frequently noted the degree t o which the Jews
were integrated into the surrounding society. W e have seen
that apart from the liturgy and sacred texts, they spoke the
same language as the Christians and that beneath the rouelle
they wore the same clothing. Furthermore, it appears from
various legislative documents that they still possessed the
right to bear arms (122) and that, like able-bodied and free
Christians, they were subject to trial by ordeal (123); it was
only later that ( b y a privilege they shared with children and
the a g e d ) they were exempted from these rights. Thus they
were considered to be men like other men, though miscre-
ants o r even (as the historian Cecil Roth has subtly observed
)
hardened sinners who, while quite aware of the truth of Chris-
tianity, pretended not to believe i n it, out o f pure malice
(124); far from being hermetically isolated from the world
around them, they continued to participate i n its activities.
As we have seen, even in the world of thought, certain Jew-
ish thinkers were affected b y Christian influences. As a coun-
terpart to the German mysticism of the thirteenth century, a
Jewish mysticism appeared i n the Rhineland, finding its ex-
pression in the writings of Judah the Hasid. His students,
and pre-eminently Eleazar of Worms, developed the method
of attributing esoteric meaning to the numbering of the
sacred texts (practical c a b a l a ) . This was the period w h e n
Jews and Christians devoted equal zeal ( b u t with quite di-
vergent results) t o symbolic a n d allegorical interpretations
o f the Old Testament. Reciprocally, Jewish learning strongly
influenced Christian thought. While the first Aristotelians
fed on Maimonides, Nicholas of Lyra studied Rashi. Yet,
si Lyranus non lyrasset, Lutherus non saltasset, and these
contacts between Christians and Jews in the twelfth and
 The Age of the Crusades 02

thirteenth centuries made an essential contribution to the

movement of ideas that, three centuries later, culminated
i n the Reformation. I n fact, one might say that despite the
tension that prevailed between them and which was t o in-
crease, Jews and Christians were still members of one and
the same society, one and the same civilization.
This state o f affairs is reflected i n many revealing texts.
Thus the good trouvére Rutebeuf, who in his major works
( s u c h as the Miracle d e Théophile) already portrays the
conventional type of wicked Jew—a willing instrument of the
Devil—offers in his minor plays his friend Charlot the Jew, a
jongleur a n d Bohemian like himself. Of course, i n Rutebeuf's
eyes, being a J e w constitutes a grave defect, even worse
than being syphilitic, and “Charlot has neither belief nor
faith, any more than a dog that gnaws at carrion” (125);
but defective as he is, this Charlot is accepted by our poet
as an equal. Although he differs from Christians by his vice
(which is that of being a Jew), he does not differ from them
in essence. Of this Charlot, who certainly existed, we know
only what Rutebeuf has told us; but at the same period there
was in Flanders a Jewish trouvère, Mahieu of Ghent (called
the J e w ) , w h o h a d embraced the Christian religion for the
same reason that the majority o f conversions take place i n
our own day: he was eager to please a lady with whom he
was passionately i n love. H e explains his case quite frankly
in his verses:
D e sa biaute et delis Yea, her beauty and delight
E t del mont est la meillor I s i n all the world greatest
Or n'en aist Jesu Cris More than that of Jesus Christ
Dont j'ai fait novel seynor Whom I have made my new
(126). Lord.

A Jewish minnesinger, Süsskind von Trimberg, flourished

at the same period in Germany. Together with Walther von
der Vogelweide and Hartmann von Aue, he sang at the courts
o f barons and princes. Doubtless h e was less favored b y
 The Jewish Reactions 93

the nobles than his Christian confreres, and probably h e

suffered from this discrimination—a parallel between the
thirteenth a n d nineteenth centuries would perhaps b e appro-
priate here. Like Heine six hundred years later, he com-
plains of the harshness of the great and proposes to “turn back
into a Jew,” to let his beard grow and wear the long cloak
and hat of the Jews (127). Indeed, an illuminated text of
the period (128) shows the poet in this garb at a bishop’s
court; but though h e wears the conical hat and a beard, the
features of his face are in no way different from those of the
others persons. I n general, pictures of Jews in the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries afford another revealing clue: apart
from some English documents (129) (and England, as we
have seen, constituted a special case), the Jews, while they
sometimes differed from the Christians by their clothing,
were distinguishable from them neither by their features nor
by their actions or gestures. We see them on horseback; we
find them swearing oaths in the company of Christians. The
majority o f the charters delivered t o them b y the German
cities o f the thirteenth century expressly grant them the
status of citizens ( Biirger'®). The splendid illuminations em-
bellishing the famous manuscript of the Dresden Sachsen-
spiegel confirm the tenor o f this codex: the Jew is still a free
man, authorized to bear arms, which gives him the right to
defend himself if attacked and also the duty to defend his
city, if need be, together with his Christian fellow citizens.
10 Here is a n especially characteristic passage from one charter: “ A
J e w will b e accepted as a citizen i n the following m a n n e r : h e will first ap-
p e a r before the bishop o f the Jews a n d the Jewish elders, and they will ac-
cept him according to their custom; this done, the bishop of the Jews,
accompanied by the elders and the other Jews, will lead the man they have
accepted before our lord the bishop o f Worms a n d the magistrates, a n d
will say that for their part they have accepted h i m as a citizen, then they t o o
will accept h i m as a citizen, a n d h e will swear loyalty t o the bishop, t o the
magistrates, a n d t o the city. H e is then accepted as citizen, a n d h e will give
a cask o f wine t o the bishop a n d a half a cask t o each judge and t o the
clerk o f the city, a n d gratuities t o the servitors.” W o r m s charter ( e x a c t date
unknown). ( C f . W . Roscher, Volkswirtschaft, Vol. 2, 3rd ed., p . 336.)
 The Age of the Crusades 094

The Sachsenspiegel dates from about 1 2 2 5 . The Schwaben-

spiegel, written nearly fifty years later, already reveals the
strong influence o f the canonical legislation, with its theory
of the “perpetual serfdom” of the Jews, which this codex
mentions expressly. Apparently canonical ideas were gradu-
ally penetrating secular legislation; it was at the same period,
furthermore, that they found official expression in the De-
cretales of Gregory I X (1234) and above all in the writings of
Saint Thomas Aquinas. I n this period we are concerned with
a still quite moderate doctrine that, while positing the princi-
ple that the Jews’ property belongs t o the princes, specifies
“not depriving them o f those things necessary t o life” o r de-
manding of them “unaccustomed things.” Here is how Saint
Thomas puts it:
“It would be licit, according to law, to hold the Jews, o n
account of their crime, in perpetual servitude, and thereby
the princes might regard the possessions of the Jews as be-
longing t o the state; nonetheless, they should use them with
a certain moderation and not deprive the Jews of those things
necessary t o life . let n o service b e demanded o f them b y
force that they were not accustomed to performing previ-
ously, for unaccustomed things ordinarily cause more dis-
turbance in men’s minds.”
However:
“I consider that the punishment must be greater for a Jew
and for any usurer than for another culprit, particularly since
it is known that the money taken from him does not belong
t o him. O n e can also add t o the fine another penalty, lest it
not appear t o suffice for his punishment that h e b e deprived
o f the money owed b y h i m t o another.
“It would be best to force the Jews to labor in order to
gain their livelihood, as is done i n certain parts o f Italy, in-
stead of letting them live i n idleness, enriching themselves
by usury alone . . .” (130).
I t is on the whole the problem of the usurer, that night-
mare of the Church, rather than the problem of the Jew, that
 The Jewish Reactions 95

is settled i n this way. The penalties imposed upon the Jew

are merely those o f the usurer. Even for the “angelic doctor,”
the Jew is more important for his economic role than for his
symbolic significance, which, for the moment, is barely per-
ceived.
 PART THREE
THE AGE OF THE DEVIL
T h e second half o f the thirteenth century i n Germany was a
period o f political chaos. While the pretenders to the imperial
crown waged endless a n d senseless wars, the great and petty
lords gained increasing freedom, and the cities constituted
leagues or made themselves into principalities. There were
m a n y small private wars; there were urban and feudal insur-
rections. There was also the following incident, which, o n
the threshold o f the century t o come, was a kind o f foreshad-
owing o f the grave events that would mark it.
I n the town o f Rôttingen, i n Franconia, i n the spring o f
1298, the Jews were charged with profanation of the Host.
A n inhabitant of the town named Rindfleisch, a gentleman,
according t o some, though others called h i m a butcher ( f o r
Rindfleisch means “beef flesh”), aroused the populace, ex-
horting them t o vengeance. Under his leadership, a n armed
band fell upon the Jews of Rôttingen, who were massacred
a n d burned down t o the last one. There was nothing n e w
about this—we have already seen that there h a d previously
been a great number o f such cases, but what followed is
more unusual. Rindfleisch’s band did not stop there: far from
dispersing, his Judenschächter (Jew killers) wandered from
city t o city, looting and burning Jewish neighborhoods and
slaughtering the inhabitants, except for those w h o accepted
baptism. Invading most o f the cities o f Franconia and Ba-
varia, except for Regensburg and Augsburg, Rindfleish’s
campaigns lasted several months (April-September, 1298).
One contemporary Christian chronicler declares that nearly
 The Age of the Devil 100

one hundred thousand Jews were massacred at this time;

such a figure cannot be greatly exaggerated, for we have lists
of several thousand victims (131).
What is new about the incident is that for the first time all
the Jews of the country were held responsible for a crime im-
puted to one or at most several Jews. It is quite likely that as
usual the accusation was a pretext for large-scale pillaging.
But heretofore incidents of this nature, numerous as they
were, had remained in a sense localized. This one spread, and
w e m a y say i n modern terms that apart from the excesses of
the Crusaders it was the first case of Jewish “genocide” in
Christian Europe. Henceforth, the fourteenth century was to
be studded with countless tragedies of this kind. Ultimately
only a few handfuls of impecunious and vagabond Jews re-
mained in northern Europe, while, at the same time, anti-
Semitism in the strict sense of the term was established
among the gentile populations. But first let us look a t the
broad outlines of this tormented century.
 SIX

Background:
The Fourteenth Century
W e have reached that very important period when the impos-
ing and monolithic structure of medieval Christendom slowly
begins to crumble and when new groupings, ultimately to
become the modern nations and already displaying na-
tional characteristics, first suggest themselves, when the old
social framework weakens and there is felt the rumbling force
of the people—urban artisans and humble agricultural labor-
ers—seeking to assert their rights. Such gigantic transfor-
mations do not take place without great upheaval, and it was
at the cost of countless ordeals and suffering that the birth of
a new society was begun. For Europeans, the fourteenth cen-
tury was undoubtedly the century most teeming with crises
and catastrophes of all kinds. Perhaps some day it will b e
compared to our own.
Politically, the Hundred Years’ W a r had exhausted France
and England, while Germany remained in a state of perma-
nent anarchy. Socially, there were the Jacqueries of France,
the peasant revolts o f the L o w Countries and England, and
above all that bloody urban agitation, those “democratic rev-
olutions” which in most German cities, in Italy, and in Flan-
ders set the ambitious professional guilds against the patri-
cians, exhausted b y power. I n these uprisings, as we shall
see, many massacres and expulsions of Jews occurred. Even
the natural calamities of this century were worse than previ-
ous ones: there was the great famine of 1 3 1 5 - 1 3 1 7 and, most
important, the plague of the Black Death of 1347-1349. And
lastly, another epidemic, n o less formidable—the witch hunt
 The Age of the Devil 1 0 2

—broke out i n the second half o f this accursed century; but

this will be discussed in another part of this section.
The countless anti-Jewish excesses of the preceding centu-
ries, even though sporadic, h a d already prepared the ground
sufficiently so that in a grave crisis, a collective disaster, the
Jews were immediately designated as responsible. To see in
detail how this functioned and with what speed it led both
t o the aggravation o f the Jews’ fate and t o a redoubling o f
hatred and fear o f them, w e shall examine more closely a
singularly instructive example. The scene is France, and the
drama, in two acts, lasts from 1 3 1 5 to 1322.
I n 1 3 1 5 a terrible famine, perhaps the worst in its history,
swept Europe. The summer of 1314 had been rainy and that
of 1 3 1 5 saw a veritable deluge: the harvest was a catastrophe,
and where, as in Flanders, vast regions were flooded, it was
virtually nonexistent. It was in vain, Geffroi de Paris tells us,
that prayers were addressed t o Heaven: “Canons a n d collegi-
ans . all prayed to God, that he might send good
weather unto earth—but for a long while all that was i n store
was great famine and great hunger. A n d dearth o f
bread and wine (132). The famine was so great that in
Paris and Antwerp people died b y the hundreds in the streets,
a n d the desolation must have been equally great i n the vil-
lages. Cases o f cannibalism were frequent. Lacking flour,
bakers made their bread “with the dregs of wine and the
droppings of pigs,” and the price of wheat rose from twelve
sous per septier to sixty. The harvests of 1 3 1 6 and 1 3 1 7 were
also bad, and though there was some improvement in 1318,
in certain regions the consequences of the famine—epidem-
ics and social upheavals—made themselves felt for a long
time to come (133).
Thus it was that i n 1320 the peasants o f northern France,
exhausted b y poverty, left their isolated homes and set off
together, in the hope of improving their lot. Set off for where?
They were not certain themselves; ultimately they headed
south, milder in every season, and their numbers swelled as
they proceeded. Preaching friars, as starved as the peasants,
 Background: The Fourteenth Century 103

added certain mystical touches, a n ideological significance.

O n e young shepherd h a d visions: a miraculous bird perched
o n his shoulder and exhorted h i m t o fight the infidels. It
was to be a Crusade, then, and thus was born the “Shep-
herds’ Crusade.” O n their way, the hordes lived off the land,
pillaging as they went, and since it was a Crusade, they
chose Jews b y preference as victims. Without our knowing
just how, the “shepherds” reached Aquitaine, where the
story o f their undertaking becomes clearer: the chroniclers
have left us circumstantial accounts of their crimes in this
province. T h e blood o f Jews flowed at Auch, a t Gimont, at
Castelsarrasin, Rabastens, Gaillac, Albi, Verdun-sur-Garonne,
Toulouse, and other places, unopposed b y royal officials and
apparently with the silent approval of the people. (There is
still today near Moissac a place called “Trou-aux-Juifs”—Jew
hole.!) Here is the vivid account of one Christian chronicler:
“The shepherds laid siege to all the Jews who had come
from all sides to take refuge in whatever strongholds the
kingdom o f France afforded, fearful at seeing the approach
of the mob. At Verdun-sur-Garonne, the Jews defended
themselves heroically and in a superhuman manner against
their besiegers b y hurling m a n y stones, beams, and even their
own children from the top of a tower. But their resistance
served t o n o purpose, for the shepherds slaughtered a great
number o f the besieged Jews by smoke a n d by fire, burning
the doors of the stronghold. The Jews, realizing that they
would not escape alive, preferred to kill themselves rather
than b e massacred b y the uncircumcised. They then chose
one o f their number, w h o seemed the strongest, so that h e
might kill them. This m a n put some five hundred o f them t o
death, with their consent. H e then descended from the castle
tower with the few Jewish children who still remained alive.
He sought a parley with the shepherds and told them what
h e had done, asking to b e baptized with the children who re-

1 Compare m a n y German o r Alsatian suburbs called “Judenloch” o r

“Judenbühl” (Jew hill) designating places where the Jews were massacred
during the Black Death epidemic of 1347-1349.
 The Age of the Devil 104

mained. T h e shepherds answered him: ‘Have you then com-

mitted such a crime upon your o w n race, and thereby seek t o
escape among us the death you deserve?” They killed him b y
quartering. They spared the children, w h o m they made
Catholics by baptism. They continued even unto Carcassonne
in the same wise, and upon the way multiplied their
crimes (134).
W e recognize, i n this account, the accents o f the age o f
the Crusades. According to one Jewish source, one hundred
a n d forty Jewish communities were exterminated by the
shepherds (135). (Of course, the statistics provided b y me-
dieval authors are subject t o question; nonetheless, they give
a suggestion of numbers as well as a glimpse of the impres-
sion these events made upon contemporaries.) Finally, the
authorities decided to act against the shepherds, who, after
having attacked the Jews, began to turn against the clerics.
At Avignon, Pope John XXII preached against them; in
Paris, King Philip V sent troops against the horde and easily
dispersed their unorganized ranks. By the end o f 1320, n o
more was heard of the shepherds; all we know is that several
groups, crossing the Pyrenees, reached Spain, where for some
time they indulged themselves in further massacres.
This was the first act. It appears that such massacres pro-
voked among the people w h o witnessed them, even if they
did not participate in them, a certain alarm, some supersti-
tious feeling, a sense of malediction, and the fear that the
Jews would seek revenge. These very apprehensions gave rise
t o a n e w legend, one that was t o justify retroactively the
crimes committed. The coincidence in the dates is in fact so
striking that it is impossible not t o infer a relationship be-
tween the massacres o f 1320 and the n e w accusation lodged
against the Jews some months later, on the very sites of their
martyrdom. In the course of the summer of 1321 a rumor
arose i n Aquitaine alleging that a dreadful conspiracy h a d
been plotted by the lepers and the Jews—the former as
executors, the latter as conceivers of the plan—to put all
Christians to death by poisoning their wells and springs.
 Background: The Fourteenth Century 105

There was no dearth of horrible details: a drug consisting

of human blood, urine, and three secret herbs, to which the
powder o f the consecrated H o s t was added, was tied i n small
bags and thrown into the wells of the region. Who could
doubt this, since a huge leper, captured o n the lands of the
Lord of Parthenai, had confessed everything” H e had
stated that the poison had been given him by a rich Jew who
had offered him ten livres for his trouble, and that a much
larger s u m h a d been promised h i m should h e manage t o
recruit other lepers for this sinister task. According to an-
other version, the powder consisted of a mixture of frogs’
legs, snakes’ heads, a n d women’s hair, the mixture impreg-
nated with a “very black and stinking” liquid, horrible
not only to smell but to see. Here, too, there could be no
doubt as to the magic virtues of the concoction, since it did
not burn when put into a roaring fire. Moreover, the Jews
were not the only instigators of the plot: seeking further, it
was possible for the investigators to establish, thanks t o cer-
tain “Arab letters” intercepted a n d duly translated by the
learned “physician,” Pierre of Acre, that in fact it was the
kings of Granada and of Tunis who were at its source. In
still another version, it was n o longer a question o f Moham-
medan princes but purely and simply of the Devil.
Thus for the first time we are dealing with concrete charges
that Jewry is plotting the destruction of all Christendom, with
the help o f a very learned and very precise method. This, w e
repeat, followed upon a n extermination o f Jews that was not
at all legendary, but quite real. W e can, with some authors,
consider that certain council decisions of the previous cen-
tury—such as those of Breslau and Vienna (1267), forbidding
Christians t o b u y victuals from the Jews for fear that the lat-
ter, “who regard the Christians as their enemies, might per-
2 “ A n d w h e n they asked him as t o the composition o f these poisons, h e
said that they were of men’s blood and urine and of three manners of herbs,
the which h e could not o r would not name, a n d that with them was put o f
the body of Jesu Christ, the whole of which was dried and made into a
powder.” ( C h r o n i q u e d e Saint-Denis, i n Bouquet, Recueil des historiens des
Gaules et de la France, Vol. 2 0 , p. 704.)
 The Age of the Devil 106

fidiously poison them”—formed the basis for this n e w myth

(136). We can even seek other precedents for it (137); but
what was in earlier instances only a rhetorical exhortation,
spoken from the pulpit, here shows a n altogether different
aspect. T h e conspiracy formed by Jews a n d lepers, those
pariahs par excellence, is in itself sufficiently significant.
Although the legend o f the Jews as professional poisoners
was to enjoy a considerable vogue several decades later, it
had, for the moment, only a limited impact. Public terror and
anger were expressed in several lynchings: “The common
people wrought this justice without calling upon either bailiff
or provost,” says one chronicle (138). Royal power (without
our being able t o ascertain whether King Philip V himself
believed in the legend) skillfully made use of these events as
a pretext for satisfying the people and at the same time en-
riching the royal treasury. T o satisfy the people, detailed in-
structions were sent to all seneschals and bailiffs, informing
them of the criminal enterprises of the lepers and Jews, “so
notorious that in no manner can they be hidden,” and enjoin-
ing them t o investigate the Jews within their provinces. M a n y
arrests and trials occurred throughout France, in Aquitaine
as in Champagne, where forty Jews, we are told, committed
suicide in the prison of Vitry-le-François, and in Touraine,
where one hundred and sixty were burned in Chinon. The
confiscations that followed—to enrich the royal treasury—
apparently constituted the main purpose. They were ex-
tended, in fact, even to those Jews acknowledged to be inno-
cent: those of Paris had to pay a fine of 5,300 livres, while
the total fine for the entire country was 1 5 0 , 0 0 0 livres (139).
As a fiscal maneuver, the incident assumes its place in the
context o f the policy followed i n the fourteenth century i n
France by the royal power regarding the Jews, true eponges
à phynances (financial sponges): expelled, recalled, and
subject to mass arrest many times over. But seen in the harsh
light cast on the growth of popular superstitions, the policy
goes infinitely beyond this context. T o massacre first, and
then, from fear of revenge, to accuse afterward; to attribute
 Background: The Fourteenth Century 107

to the victims one’s own aggressive intentions; to impute to

them one’s o w n cruelty: from country t o country and from
century to century, under various disguises, this is the de-
vice w e find. ( T h u s the Nazi killers, t o justify themselves for
having massacred Jewish children, were known to speak of
“potential avengers”; thus a municipal council o f Bonn, Ger-
many, dismissed a Jewish doctor for fear that h e might take
revenge on his German patients. )
W e find the same sequence o f events i n Germany fifteen
years later. Against the background of permanent anarchy
then prevalent there, two gentlemen, the Armleders, have
visions and repeat Rindfleisch’s exploits in an effort to avenge
Christ. I n 1336, Jews are massacred in Alsace and Swabia
(140), and it is only after these first massacres that the ac-
cusations are made. Cases of profanation are reported in
Deggendorf, Bavaria (141), and in Pulka, Austria (142),
serving as a pretext for new massacres. The emperors and
princes, even had they been moved to protect the Jews, did
not have the necessary authority t o oppose these riots; o n
the contrary, in 1345, inaugurating a new custom, King John
authorized his subjects i n Liegnitz and Breslau t o destroy
the Jewish cemeteries i n order to use the tombstones t o repair
the city walls: sepulchra hostium religiosa nobis n o n sunt,
it would be said later on (143). But we are now on the eve
of crucial events that were no less important for the Jews than
those of 1096, and which were to weigh heavily upon the
destiny of all Europe.

The Black Plague

Let us recall the description that Boccaccio has left us of the

plague:
“In the cities, m e n fell sick b y thousands, and lacking care
a n d aid, almost all died. I n the morning, their bodies were
found a t the doors o f the houses where they h a d expired dur-
ing the night. It reached the point where n o further ac-
 The Age of the Devil 108

count was taken of a dying man than is today taken of the

merest cattle.
“Nor were the villages spared. Lacking the succor of a
physician, without the aid o f any servant, the poor and
wretched farmers perished with their families b y day, b y
night, o n their farms, in their isolated houses, on the roads,
and even in their fields.
“Then they abandoned their customs, even as the city
dwellers: they n o longer took any concern for their affairs
nor for themselves; all, expecting t o die from one day to the
next, thought neither o f working nor o f putting b y the fruits
of their past labors, but sought rather to consume what they
had before them. The cattle, the flocks, the beasts of burden
and of the barnyard, the very dogs, those faithful companions
of man, wandered unheeded about the countryside, i n the
fields where the harvests had been abandoned, without be-
ing gathered o r even cut. T o return to the city,’ here the
cruelty o f the scourge was such that i n the course o f four o r
five months, more than one hundred thousand persons per-
ished, a number greater than that estimated to b e its popula-
tion before this dreadful malady.”
Such was the Black Plague, a catastrophe that i n the space
of three years, from 1347 to 1350, annihilated a third and
perhaps more* o f the population o f Europe, a n d beside
which our century’s wars and threats of “atomic extinction”
may seem to be child’s play. Many authors have claimed that
it was at this very period that the knell of medieval civiliza-
tion sounded, or even that the plague constituted “the most
marked schism i n the continuity o f history that humanity has

3 T h e city: Florence, where Boccaccio was living at the time o f the

Black Plague.
4 A s w e have said, all statistics relating t o the Middle Ages are subject
t o question. B u t i n this case, certain authors have managed t o achieve par-
tial results that are quite precise, based for instance o n the mortality o f
priests i n a given diocese o r o n the replacement o f professors i n a univer-
sity. T h e figures thus obtained ( c f . A . Campbell, T h e Black Death and M e n
of Learning, New York, 1931) indicate a mortality of from one-third to one-
half of the population.
 Background: The Fourteenth Century 109

ever known” ( 1 4 4 ) . T h e question m a y b e evaluated differ-

ently, depending on the point of view from which it is ex-
amined and o n one’s concept o f history. I n the problem that
concerns us, which is primarily one of a collective obliteration
a n d its social repercussions, the consequences o f the great
panic of the years 1 3 4 7 - 1 3 5 0 were tremendous. We must
also note that the epidemic, attacking elite groups and clerics
as well as the masses, had in consequence a marked lowering
of the intellectual level ® and a general corruption of man-
ners; that it unhinged men’s minds, aroused the expectation of
the Apocalypse, and spread popular obsession with the Devil.
Moreover, even as late as the end of the century, there were
constant new outbreaks of the terrible scourge.
It is not at all surprising, under these conditions, that the
Black Plague, climaxing the chain of events w e have dis-
cussed in the foregoing pages, should have sealed the fate of
the Jews of Europe: their image, in the eyes of Christians, was
henceforth to be seen through a cloud of sulfur and ashes.
I n a sense, the year 1347 can be compared to the year 1096,
for the repercussions of the epidemic were of two kinds: the
immediate effect—the destruction of the Jews throughout
Europe; and the remote effect—the coming-of-age o f the
specific phenomenon which is Christian anti-Semitism.

Throughout Europe, m e n wondered anxiously: W h y this

scourge? What was the reason for it? Cultivated people, par-
ticularly doctors, composed learned treatises, from which it
appeared, according to the best rules o f scholastic philoso-
phy, that there were two kinds of causes for the epidemic:
primary causes, o f cosmic origin (unfavorable conjunction
of the planets; earthquakes) and secondary or terrestrial
causes (pollution of the air, poisoning of the waters). Even
the hypothesis o f contagion was mentioned by some enlight-
ened thinkers. Simpler minds did not bother with such subtle-

5 Thus, following the dearth o f teachers, “popular” English was substi-

tuted for French i n the schools o f England. Such is the origin o f m o d e m
English.
 The Age of the Devil 110

ties: for them the plague was either a divine punishment or

the evil-doing of Satan or both at once, God having given free
rein to His antagonist to chastise Christendom. Satan, in these
circumstances, operated as usual with the help of agents
who polluted the waters and poisoned the air. And where
could he recruit them if not from among the dregs of human-
ity, among the outcasts o f all types, the lepers—and above
all from among the Jews, the people of both God and the
Devil? Thus the Jews were promoted on a grand scale to their
role of scapegoat.
These rumors appeared first, it would seem, in Savoy,
sometimes preceding the scourge, sometimes following it. A
man with the suggestive name of “Jacob Pascal” (Jacob a
Pasche or Jacob a Pascate: the link with the legend of ritual
murder is evident), of Toledo,® allegedly distributed doses of
deadly drugs t o his coreligionists i n Chambéry. It is note-
worthy that the technique attributed t o the poisoners, as
well as the composition of the poison, was in every respect
identical to that described thirty years before, during the
“shepherds” incident. O n the orders of Duke Amadeus of
Savoy, the Jews were arrested at Thonon, Chillon, L e Chate-
lard, and, after being tortured, confessed. One of them,
Aquet of Ville-Neuve, acknowledged that he had operated
all over Europe: in Venice, Calabria, Apulia, and Toulouse
(145). From Savoy, the legend spread to Switzerland,
where trials followed b y executions took place in Bern, Zu-
rich, and around Lake Constance. The consuls of the good
city of Bern were even moved to write to German cities—
Basel, Strasbourg, and Cologne—in order t o warn them of
the dreadful Jewish conspiracy. I n Germany, events rapidly
took a different turn. I n m a n y cities the princes a n d magis-
trates attempted to protect the Jews. In September, 1348,
Pope Clement V I published a bull i n which h e pointed out

6 W h y Toledo? Perhaps t h i s is a confusion between Toledo a n d the

Toldoth Yeshu, a sacrilegious biography o f Jesus written i n the E a s t during
the first millennium o f the Christian era, a n d which Agobard o f Lyons al-
ready knew.
 Background: The Fourteenth Century 111

explicitly that Jews died o f the plague just as frequently as

Christians, that the epidemic also broke out in regions where
there were no Jews, and that there was thus no reason to
incriminate them (146). But such efforts were usually ineffec-
tual, for in the German cities it was the people who took the
initiative in these massacres, followed b y looting, which also
represented for them a rebellion against the established
order. Thus i n Strasbourg, where the memory o f the Armleder
brothers’ exploits was still vivid, these internal struggles
lasted nearly three months. The municipality proceeded to
hold an investigation and concluded that the Jews were not
guilty. It was thereupon overthrown and the new munici-
pality found nothing more pressing t o d o than t o imprison
all the Jews, numbering some two thousand, and to burn
them the next d a y i n their o w n cemetery (February 14,
1349), while their property was distributed among the city
residents. “Such was the poison that caused the Jews to per-
ish,” one chronicler wrote as their epilogue (147). These
massacres and lootings took place in the great majority of
German cities: in Colmar, where a “Jew hole” (Judenloch)
still perpetuates its memory; i n Worms and Oppenheim,
where the Jews themselves set fire to their district and per-
ished in the flames; in Frankfurt and Erfurt, where they were
put to the sword; i n Cologne a n d Hanover, where some were
massacred and the rest exiled.
Other fanatics persecuted the Jews solely from religious mo-
tives. As a result of an outburst of fanaticism aroused by
the scourge, bands of penitents, the “flagellants,” wandered
from city to city, mortifying themselves i n order t o appease
and avert divine wrath; thirty-four days of flagellation suf-
ficed, apparently, to obtain from Jesus the remission of all
sins. Leading a n austere life a n d singing hymns, the “flagel-
lants” traveled throughout Germany and even into France,
and their public exhibitions, acclaimed b y the populace, gen-
erally terminated in a massacre of the Jews. The pope under-
took an investigation of the “flagellants” and received from
his legate, Jean de Feyt, a very unfavorable report (148). I n
 The Age of the Devil 112

France, royal justice quickly put a n end to their activities, but

in Germany and the L o w Countries, the results of their wan-
derings were much more serious. Here is a vivid description
of them as recorded by the chronicler Jean d’Outremeuse:
“The good cities were full o f these ‘Flagellants,” and the
streets as well; and they all called each other ‘brother’ as a
token of alliance . . and they began to forget the service
and the ritual of the Holy Church, and maintained in their
folly and their presumption that their rites and their songs
were finer and more worthy than the ceremonies of the
priests and clerics, and thereby it was feared that even as
they multiplied, these people, in their heresy, would end b y
destroying the Holy Church and by killing priests, canons,
and clerics, lusting to have their wealth and power. I n the
time when these ‘Flagellants’ went among the countries, there
came to pass a great wonder that must not be forgotten, for
when it was seen that this mortality and this pestilence did
n o t cease after the penitences which these beaters [the ‘Flag-
ellants’] caused, a general rumor spread; and it was com-
monly said and certainly believed that this epidemic came
from the Jews, and that the Jews had cast great poisons in
the wells and springs throughout the world, in order to sow
the plague and to poison Christendom; which was why great
and small alike had great choler against the Jews, who were
everywhere taken where they could b e held, and put to death
and burned in all the regions where the ‘Flagellants’ came
and went, by the lords and by the magistrates (149).
I n Germany, the extermination of the Jews, whether in-
spired b y greed or piety, reached such a point that in the
regions where there were few or no Jews (as in the territories
o f the Teutonic O r d e r) , Christians allegedly of Jewish origin
were apparently massacred in their stead (150). Certain of
the accusers, in order to establish the Jews’ responsibilities
more definitely, declared that the Jews were immune to the
plague—they did not die of it or died in smaller numbers—
and this legend took root so deeply that it was still believed
b y certain nineteenth-century historians, w h o tried t o explain
 Background: The Fourteenth Century 113

it as the result o f better hygienic conditions i n Jewish homes.”

However, even at the time, the chronicler Conrad von Me-
genberg noted:
“In many wells, bags filled with poison were found, and a
countless number of Jews were massacred in the Rhineland,
i n Franconia, and in all the German countries. I n truth, I do
not know whether certain Jews had done this. Had it been
thus, assuredly the evil would have been worse. But I know,
on the other hand, that no German city had so many Jews
as Vienna, and so many of them there succumbed to the
plague that they were obliged to enlarge their cemetery
greatly and to buy two more buildings. They would have
been very stupid to poison themselves ” (151).
N o major Jewish community i n Germany, with perhaps the
exception of those o f Vienna and Regensburg, was exempted
from massacres during the fateful year 1348. These became so
prevalent that Emperor Charles I V took the precaution of
ceding in advance to certain municipalities, against a speci-
fied sum, the property of “his” Jews, in anticipation of their
ultimate extermination. “May God forbid!” added the prince
(152): merely a stylistic flourish, for the massacre followed
at once. This is what happened, especially in Frankfurt,
Niirnberg, and Augsburg.
Though there are n o reliable statistics about the number
of victims, we can gain some idea of the extent of the de-
struction from the fact that during the years following the
plague, the Jews became for some time a rare and valued
commodity. Thus the city of Speyer, in 1 3 5 2 , invited the Jews
to return, with strong promises of protection and total secu-
rity (153); the archbishop of Mainz did the same (154); and
a codex published at this period, the Meissener Rechtsbuch,
contains stipulations exceptionally favorably to the Jews:
their synagogues and cemeteries are to be well protected,
the Christians must aid them i n case of attack, and so on
(155). Similarly, in France, where expulsions and recalls had
7 This i s the express opinion o f Jewish historians such as Graetz, Dub-
now, etc.
 The Age of the Devil 114

alternated from the beginning o f the century, the Jews were

recalled by John the Good (John I I ) in 1361, under much
more favorable conditions then they h a d enjoyed previously.
Slowly, several Jewish communities were reconstituted; again
they took u p usury, generally o n a small scale, and added an-
other specialty: trade in old clothes. But soon the expulsions
began again, and the status of the Jews no longer resembled
in any respect what it had been in the preceding century. Let
us consider this briefly.

The condition of the Jews in Europe after the

Black Plague

T h e tragedy o f the Black Plague dizzily hastened the process

that had been in operation for more than two centuries: here-
after, the history of the Jews was to follow a fantastic and
capricious course. As we survey their social position during
the second half of the fourteenth century, the most important
thing to note is that the economic “foundation” becomes in-
significant in their history. I n modern terminology, it is the
“superstructure” that swells in importance (which is indeed
what constitutes, from this angle, its considerable interest,
since the exceptions help us to understand the rule).
According t o the terms o f one charter, a legal document
designed to bring about the return o f the Jews t o France i n
1361, “They have neither nation nor territory of their own in
all of Christendom where they may remain, frequent, or re-
side. 8 The text is explicit: Whereas in the preceding
centuries the Jews usually had a specific legal status and
legal guarantees, and massacres or expulsions were the ex-
ception, henceforth a n outlaw life becomes, so t o speak, their

8 “They have neither nation nor territory o f their o w n i n all o f Christen-

dom, where they may remain, frequent, or reside, if it be not b y the strict
a n d pure will a n d permission o f the lord o r lords under w h o m they agree t o
remain as their subjects a n d w h o consent t o receive a n d accept them.” ( L a u -
rière, Ordonnances des rois de France, Vol. 3 , p. 471.)
 Background: The Fourteenth Century 115

normal condition, and if they manage to live somewhere i n

security for a time, it is because the local potentate tolerates
them; because this is his interest—or his whim.
Take the case of France. We have seen that neither Philip
IT nor Saint Louis (Louis I X ) had managed to expel the Jews
(though the former tried, and the latter often thought of do-
ing so), nor had they even brought about important changes
in their status. I n 1 3 0 6 , Philip the Fair (Philip I V ) was more
successful. H e expelled almost all of them, though he re-
tained the richest for several months, in order to collect the
sums that were owed them down to the last sou, for in the
mind of this eminently practical prince, the chief considera-
tion was to benefit the royal treasury. I n response to the
“common outcry of the people,” as we have seen, the Jews
were recalled by Louis X in 1 3 1 5 , but six years later, after the
“shepherds” incident, they were expelled again, and it would
seem that for some forty years there were no Jews in France:
at least, there is no mention of them in any reference or chron-
icle. But in 1 3 6 1 the financial plight of the kingdom had be-
come so acute that the treasury was unable to raise the money
to ransom John II, taken prisoner b y the English. The Dau-
phin Charles decided to appeal to the Jews, among other
measures. They were readmitted to France under entirely
new conditions. They were subjected to a heavy individual
tax of seven Florentine florins per year per adult, plus one
florin per child; but o n the other hand, they were permitted
t o acquire houses and land, and a special “guardian o f the
Jews” (Louis d'Étampes, a distant cousin of the king) was
appointed to safeguard their interests. Above all, they were
authorized to charge the exorbitant interest of 87 percent;
and finally—a significant detail—the Jewish community was
authorized to expel a member without seeking the authori-
zation of the “guardian of the Jews,” but, in this event, must
pay the treasury the enormous sum of one hundred florins in
compensation for the taxpaying citizen who thus disap-
peared . . (156). I n such ways everything was set u p t o
extract, via the Jews, as much money as possible.
 The Age of the Devil 116

For twenty years they enjoyed relative tranquillity, but

they were n o longer the convenient a n d familiar moneylend-
ers whose return the people had once demanded. They had
become hated and despicable financial agents. Disturb-
ances in their own organization and internal cohesion also
increased at this time, and apostasies seem to have been fre-
quent. As usual, the renegade Jews immediately became the
principal enemies of their former coreligionists, as one de-
cree of 1378 indicates:
“Several o f their law, w h o have recently become Chris-
tians, envious and spiteful because they n o longer derive any
advantage from having done so,’ have sought and d o seek
from day to day to accuse the Jews, making many denuncia-
tions . . o n account of which accusations and denuncia-
tions they have been and are oftentimes seized, molested, be-
labored, and injured (057).
Under these circumstances, when, upon the accession of
Charles V I in 1 3 8 0 , upheavals and riots broke out, popular
resentment turned against the Jews, who were murdered
and pillaged throughout France. This “notorious and enor-
mous commotion made against them in the said city of Paris
as well as in several other places” (158) continued without
any pretext o f avenging religious offenses; and n o w the
clergy added its o w n weight, a n d the archbishop o f Paris
himself sided with the rioters. Royal power managed t o pro-
tect the Jews, but this state of affairs could not last; be-
cause the contributions demanded of the Jews grew in-
creasingly heavy, the privileges granted to them so that they
could meet these contributions often grew i n proportion.
(Thus one decree of February, 1389, orders that all disputes
between Christians and Jews be settled b y the “guardians of
the Jews,” that is, by officials appointed t o protect them,
a n d paid by them. Furthermore, Jews are authorized t o have
their defaulting debtors imprisoned) (159). Such advan-
tages raised popular resentment to the bursting point, while
9 That is, because they can no longer enjoy the profits they made when
they were Jews.
 Background: T h e Fourteenth Century 117

inciting the government to put increasing pressure on the

Jewish financiers, w h o were rapidly becoming paupers. For
a few more years, against the background of the desper-
ate struggle of Burgundians against Armagnacs, various re-
versals took place, and finally the anti-Jewish faction tri-
umphed. In 1 3 9 2 a decree abrogated the old custom by
which Jews who accepted baptism forfeited their property
(160). This indicates that the Jews had already become a
negligible factor as a source of revenue; henceforth, their
fate was sealed. I n September, 1394, “moved by piety and
fearing the evil influence of the Jews upon the Christians”
(161), the king ordered the Jews’ expulsion, this time put-
ting a definite e n d t o the age-old history o f French Judaism."°
The edict was promulgated on the Jewish Day of Atonement;
this is one o f the first manifestations o f the contemptuous
concern for the Jewish calendar that w e shall find repeated
many times down through the centuries.
But France, which even in the fourteenth century was a
nation ruled b y a central authority, is much less suitable for
our inquiry than Germany, particularly since it was the Jews
within the area of the Holy Roman Empire who were hence-
forth to constitute Judaism’s chief branch. The course of
their debasement was to be, in broad outline, much the same
as it was in France, and their expulsion soon followed. Yet
there was this difference: that in a minutely partitioned ter-
ritory, the process crumbled into a dust of individual desti-
nies. This very breakdown was ultimately t o permit the Jews
in Germany to exist there, for it made a general and simulta-
neous expulsion of the Jews from Germany impossible.
The definitive loss of the German Jews’ rights of citizenship
dates from 1343. In that year, Emperor Louis IV, carrying
the theory of the Jews’ “serfdom” to its logical conclusion,

10 T h e historian Robert Anchel has formulated the hypothesis accord-

ing t o which a certain number o f Jews, concealing their identity, continued
to live in France after the expulsion of 1394. H i s arguments, though not en-
tirely convincing, are often extremely provocative. They are t o b e found i n
his book Les Juifs de France, Paris, 1946, p. 125.
 The Age of the Devil 118

instituted a poll tax of one florin, to b e paid to the imperial

treasury b y every Jew over twelve years of age. And, accord-
ing to medieval concepts, a m a n who pays tribute o n his
body can n o longer b e considered a citizen.
W e have already noted that the general economic disinte-
gration following the Black Plague caused certain German
cities and principalities to locate and recall the Jews and to
treat them for a decade or two as a kind of precious item. But
the stipulations o n their residence were quite different from
what they had been. The protection of the “imperial cham-
ber,” whose serfs they continued to be in theory, n o longer
existed except o n paper, like the power of the emperors them-
selves. The latter, impelled b y their need for money, ceded
to the cities “their” Jews or the credits of their Jews. Thus
Louis I V stated in 1343 to the Jews of Niirnberg: “You be-
long to us, body and belongings, and we can dispose of them
and do with you as we please” (162). After the Black Plague,
it was usually the cities or the local princes who granted new
charters of residence. These were n o w distinctive in being
granted only on uncertain terms and for a limited time. The
expulsion of the Jews upon the expiration of this time limit
therefore does not constitute a persecution—it is a normal
and legitimate operation. Thus it was quite legally, in a sense,
that the Jews became eternal wanderers. There were also
“irregular” expulsions, in violation of provisions of the char-
ter; and some occurred under circumstances so chaotic that
we cannot say whether or not they were legal. Certain char-
ters even expressly provided that the Jews be expelled before
the end of their term in the event of disorder occasioned b y
their presence: as, for example, the charter granted b y the
city of Trier in 1 3 6 2 (163).
As in France, the Jews at first enjoyed, for a generation or
two, a period of relative peace. But in 1384 a new develop-
ment occurred in southern Germany: in Augsburg, i n Nürn-
berg, and in neighboring small towns, Jews were rounded u p
and released only after payment of a sizable ransom. The fol-
lowing year, the delegates of thirty-eight cities, meeting in
 Background: The Fourteenth Century 119

Ulm, proclaimed a general cancellation of debts owed to

Jews. T w o years later, in 1388, the first general expulsion
from Strasbourg was ordered, followed b y expulsions from
the Palatinate in 1394. Throughout the fifteenth century,
expulsions continued. Here are some of the most important:
in 1420, from Austria; in 1424, from Fribourg and Zurich,
“because of their usuries” (164); in 1 4 2 6 , from Cologne, “in
honor of God and the Holy Virgin” (165); in 1 4 3 2 , from Sax-
ony; in 1439, from Augsburg; in 1453, from Wiirzburg; in
1454, from Breslau. The list, which snowballs at the end of
the century, could be extended indefinitely. Some of these
expulsions became permanent, while others were followed
by readmissions, which explains how it was possible for the
Jews of Mainz to be expelled on four different occasions
within fifty years: in 1420, b y the archbishop; in 1438, b y
the town councilors; in 1462, following a conflict between
two candidates for the archepiscopal seat; and in 1471, again
by the archbishop.
The reasons given for expulsion were sometimes of a tem-
poral nature, such as to protect the people from Jewish usu-
ries; sometimes religious, such as to procure divine forgive-
ness. Sometimes the reasons were stated with precision a n d
in detail. Thus, in demanding Duke Leopold’s authorization
city o f Fri-
t o expel the Jews i n 1401, the magistrates o f the
bourg invoked the well-known fact that “all Jews thirst for
the Christian blood that permits them t o prolong their exist-
ence” (166). More simply, the cities of Alsace complained
in 1477 of disturbances resulting from the presence of Jews:
Swiss confederates going into France pillaged the Jews regu-
larly, and this caused disorder; thus the Jews must b e ex-
pelled (167). I n reality, disputes over the Jews generally
pitted their “owners”—princes or municipalities who de-
rived a certain profit from their presence—against the mass
of citizens, who derived n o profit and who hoped to benefit
from the Jews’ disappearance. Most often, the citizens finally
succeeded in forcing the hand of the authorities—or re-
sorted to force without seeking permission to do so. Thus the
 The Age of the Devil 120

townspeople of Riquevihr, in Alsace, without even bother-

ing to ask their seigneur, decided one fine day in 1 4 2 0 to ex-
pel the Jews, tracking them down in the streets and killing
those who in their opinion were not fleeing quickly enough
(168). O n the other hand, when the municipality of Regens-
burg, supported b y its bishop, attempted i n 1476 t o expel the
Jews, on the classic pretext of ritual murder, it met with fail-
ure. T h e Jewish community o f the city was supposed t o en-
joy the favor o f Emperor Frederick I I I . I t s emissaries pre-
sented themselves at his court with the plea that since the
Jews of Regensburg had been living in the ancient city even
before the birth o f Jesus Christ, they could i n n o w a y b e held
responsible for his crucifixion; doubtless, too, they used argu-
ments of a more practical nature, so that Frederick III, by a
judgment worthy o f Solomon, settled the conflict b y im-
posing a fine of 8 , 0 0 0 guilders on the municipality, another
of 1 0 , 0 0 0 guilders on the Jews, and ordered the maintenance
of the status quo. The citizens who, let us recall, had pro-
tected the Jews during the period of Rindfleisch’s excesses in
1298, as well as during the Black Plague, then resorted to
other measures: bakers no longer sold bread to the Jews,
millers refused to grind their flour, the markets were open
to them only after four in the afternoon, when the Christians
had finished making their purchases. . . . Finally, the Re-
gensburg Jews were expelled in 1 5 1 9 (169).
Vale o f Tears it was called i n the next century b y a famous
Jewish chronicler,’ and with the aid of such records written
against a background o f local slanders, cases o f profanation
of the Host or ritual murder, or merely spontaneous pogroms,
o f which w e have seen many examples, Jewish history was to
be written in later ages. To quote a German historian of the
nineteenth century: “Thus it happened that they [the Jews]
n o longer h a d any place o f fixed abode i n the major part o f

1 1 T h e work that the learned doctor Joseph Ha-Cohen wrote under this
title i n Italy around 1 5 7 5 m a y b e considered as the first attempt t o produce
a history of the Jews. The author was the first to utilize Jewish and Chris-
tian sources simultaneously.
 Background: The Fourteenth Century 121

Germany, being authorized only t o stop for a f e w days, i n re-

turn for payment o f a toll charge. Whereas, following the
Crusades, their status in the German countries had become
precarious, b y the end o f the Middle Ages they were verita-
ble wandering Jews, traveling from city to city without hav-
ing any settled home in any land” (170).
Indeed, one can count on the fingers of one hand the Ger-
m a n cities that, at the end of the fifteenth century, granted
the Jews an assured right of residence. I n a continuous tide,
sometimes b y whole communities, the German Jews emi-
grated to the more hospitable regions o f Poland and Lithua-
nia. Others camped near the city gates, settling in some
outlying suburb: the Jews of Nürnberg in Furth, those of
Augsburg in Pfersee, and so on.
I t would seem that the less numerous they became, the
more attention was paid to them. Where they were not ex-
pelled, they were the object o f countless n e w persecutions.
And where the legal documents of the preceding centuries
reflect a generally satisfactory condition, those o f the end o f
the Middle Ages are filled with degrading decrees.
I n cases of capital punishment, it was an established cus-
tom by the end of the fourteenth century to hang a Jew by
the feet and sometimes to hang beside him a fierce wolf-dog
as well (171). I n questions of civil litigation, the oath of a
Jew was often no longer acceptable (172); even when it
was, the ceremony, which b y the end o f the thirteenth cen-
tury often assumed a humiliating aspect (according t o the
Schwabenspiegel, a Jew h a d t o take his oath standing o n a
pigskin), now turned into farce or sacrilege. According to
a Silesian law of 1 4 2 2 , a Jew had to stand on a three-legged
stool and stare at the sun, speaking the traditional formula;
if he fell, he paid a fine (173). In 1455 the municipality of
Breslau decreed that a Jew must swear bareheaded, spelling
aloud the sacred Tetragram . (174). As for the ecclesias-
tical authorities, they decreed at the Council of Basel, in
1434, that Jews would not be admitted to university studies;
o n the other hand, it was important that they b e obliged t o
 The Age of the Devil 1 2 2

attend Christian sermons for their edification (175). The

ceremonial procedure, as it was to b e practiced in Prague,
Vienna, or Rome during the following centuries, shows how-
ever that this was much more a matter of persecution than of
true missionary zeal. Old charges o f a religious nature were
revived or reinvented. Jews were accused of vilifying Jesus
daily in their prayers, and a pogrom took place in Prague in
1399 (176). I n Spain, early in the fifteenth century, a mali-
cious report was circulated that o n the D a y o f Atonement
Jews are released from all their solemn oaths (177); this
slander spread throughout all Europe. With secular and ec-
clesiastical authorities rivaling one another in fervor, a Jew’s
every act, every step i n his relationships with Christians, was
marked b y degradation.
 seven
The Image of the Jew

What feelings were inspired in the mass of Christians—cler-

ics, bourgeois, or simple laborers—as witnesses of the
Jews’ tribulations and degradation? A s w e have already dis-
covered, animosity toward the Jews fed o n the very massa-
cres it provoked: one killed Jews first and hated them
afterward. This sequence (whatever its psychological expla-
nation) is quite regularly verified by experience. During the
second half of the fourteenth century, anti-Jewish hatred
reached such a peak that we can confidently date from this
period the crystallization of anti-Semitism in its classic form,
the form that later led Erasmus to observe: “If it is the part
o f a good Christian t o detest the Jews, then w e are all good
Christians.” *
What is most important to note is that henceforth this an-
tagonism seems to feed o n itself, irrespective of whether or
not Jews inhabited a given territory. If the J e w n o longer
dwelt there, he was invented; and if the Christian population
came into less and less conflict with Jews in daily life, it was
increasingly obsessed b y their image, which it found in
reading, saw on monuments, and contemplated at plays and
spectacles. These fictitious Jews were obviously and spe-
cifically those who were supposed to have put Jesus to death,
but the men of the Middle Ages ultimately failed to distin-
guish between the mythical Jew and the contemporary Jew,
and anti-Jewish feeling derived additional nourishment
from this confusion. The Jews came to be detested in France
1 Si christianum est odisse judaeos, hic abunde omnes christiani sumus.
 The Age of the Devil 124

and England, just as they were i n Germany and I t a l y ; and

the intensity of feeling toward them, if we try to grade it
according to country, seems to depend more on the substra-
tum on which the national culture rested and to be more ac-
centuated in the Germanic than in the Latin countries.
Hence, everything contributes to make Germany pre-emi-
nently the country for anti-Semitism.
Countless literary and artistic documents attest to this
state of affairs. One might almost say that anti-Semitism in-
creases in proportion to the development of art and litera-
ture and of their diffusion among the masses. There is virtu-
ally no genre—fabliau, satire, legend, or ballad—in which
Jews are not present o r are not described with ridicule o r
hatred, often with the help of that scatological touch so
popular at the period. These themes mingle and develop
from country to country. Here is an early sample, which calls
in Saint Louis (Louis I X ) , that model of all Christian vir-
tues, for enlightenment on how to handle Jews.
A French satire of the fourteenth century, written in the
vernacular, presents a Parisian Jew, famous among his co-
religionists, who fell into the public latrine. The other Jews
came to his aid. “I beg you,” he cried, “not to pull me out
now, for today is the Sabbath. Wait till tomorrow, so as not
to violate our law.” They agreed and left. Some Christians
w h o were present hastened to report the incident t o King
Louis. The king then ordered his men to keep the Jews from
removing their coreligionist from the latrine on the Lord's
Day. “He has observed the Sabbath,” he said; “he will ob-
serve our Lord’s day as well.” So it came to pass, and when
they came on Monday to rescue the unfortunate creature
from his miserable predicament, he was dead (178).
This same narrative exists i n a German version, i n a form
perhaps still more characteristic, since the pope, the spiritual
guide o f Christendom, is substituted for Saint Louis. W e
d o not have the exact text of this second version, but it is
mentioned in the Jewish chronicle Vale of Tears, which al-
ludes to “a German book written in the Latin tongue” and
 The Image of the Jew 125

states i n conclusion that “the Jews a t this period h a d great

distaste for life” (179).
There were virtually no Jews left in the Low Countries
after the Black Plague (180), but many literary works were
devoted to them. Certain poems referred to the famous case
of the profaned Hosts of Sainte-Gudule in 1 3 7 0 ; others de-
scribed ritual murders:

Les juifs The Jews . . .

Mauvais et cruels comme des Wicked and cruel as dogs
chiens
Saisirent brutalement l'enfant Brutally seized the child
L e jetèrent par terre e t le Threw h i m d o w n and trampled
piétinerent him .
L e deshabillerent rapidement Swiftly stripped him bare
E t lorsqu’ils l'eurent mis n u And once he was naked
Les sales Juifs, les chiens pu- The filthy Jews, stinking dogs,
ants
Ils lui firent plusieurs bles- Inflicted several wounds
sures
Avec des poignards et des With daggers and knives . . .
couteaux (181).

There were n o Jews left i n England after they were ex-

pelled in 1 2 9 0 ; but here, too, the anti-Semitic theme was to
enjoy great favor. A story o f ritual murder appeared about
1255. During the following century it gave rise to some
twenty-one different versions o f a ballad entitled “Sir H u g h
or the Jew's Daughter” (182), and Geoffrey Chaucer, in his
“Prioress’ Tale,” written about 1386, was clearly inspired
by it:

Ther was in Asye, i n a greet citee,

Amonges Christene folk, a Jewerye
A n d as the child gan borby for t o pace,
This cursed Jew hym hente, and heeld hym faste,
A n d kitte his throte, and in a pit h y m caste.
I seye that in a wardrobe they h y m threwe
Where as thise Jewes purgen hire entraille.
 The Age of the Devil 126

O cursed folk of Herodes al newe! . . .

O yonge Hugh of Lyncoln, slayn also
With cursed Jewes, as it is notable,
For it is but a litel while ago,
Praye eke for us (183).
A t this period, Italy was the only European country where
the theme o f the J e w occasionally enjoyed favorable liter-
ary treatment. Even in religious drama, types of honest
and good Jews were occasionally included (184). And yet
it was in Italy, shortly after the Black Plague, that there re-
appeared one of the legends whose origin is lost in the night
of time. Whether borrowed from the East or inspired by the
cruel Roman laws of the twelve tables, the theme of the
“pound of flesh” had hitherto presented, in its various forms,
a pitiless creditor who was either a resentful slave or the ob-
vious incarnation of the Devil (Diabolus). Then, about
1378, the Florentine author Ser Giovanni Fiorentino, in his
tale Il Pecorone, decided to transform the character into a
Jew (185). We know the singular fortune of this adapta-
t i o n : after m a n y other metamorphoses, it was t o inspire
Shakespeare two centuries later to write the immortal Mer-
chant o f Venice.
But it is in religious drama, the incomparable vehicle for
propaganda i n that period, that anti-Jewish sentiment is
cultivated most assiduously. Incidents taken from the N e w
Testament, presented in the vernacular, still constituted
the chief repertory of the theater of the Middle Ages. But the
theater, as it emancipated itself from the tutelage of the
Church, took ever greater license with religious history. I n
order to indulge the spectator’s primitive and violent taste,
while at the same time edifying him (for moralizing was still
the purpose of this theater), the incidents and stage business
that were meant to emphasize the greatness and sanctity of
the Saviour a n d o f the Holy Virgin were set off against the
background o f the fathomless perfidy o f the Jews. T h e choice
o f epithets coupled with each mention o f the latter readily
gives a notion of this tendency: “false Jews,” “false thieves,”
 The Image of the Jew 127

“false miscreants,” “wicked and felonious Jews,” “perverse

Jews,” “disloyal Jews,” “traitorous Jews,” “false a n d per-
verse nation,” “false swine,” “false and cursed race” (186);
thus the very word “Jew” was charged with that pejorative
sense which the dictionaries o f the various European na-
tions still reveal.” W e need hardly a d d that only the adver-
saries o f Jesus are Jews, his apostles and believers being ob-
viously Christians.
I n a general sense, the theater o f the Middle Ages was ex-
tremely violent. O n e o f its chief resources was a n appeal t o
the most obvious forms o f sadism. It swarmed with “play” o f
a brutal crudity, acts o f torture, crucifixions, and rapes. Cer-
tain scenes are difficult to describe in decent terms in our
own day. As the director of one of these performances moral-
izes a t the close:

“You have seen virgins deflowered

A n d married w o m e n violated.”

I n fact, this was well within the limits o f the truth.” Super-
imposed on the manners of the Middle Ages, the theater
added certain recurrent features. I n particular, where the
argument did not include scenes o f anti-Jewish violence,
every effort was made to introduce them artificially (as
the action of a popular “Western” today is defined in terms
of the tremendous fight at the end in which the good are re-
warded, the wicked are punished, and the spectator is left
with a clear conscience). The realism was intensified by the
fact that in its naiveté, the medieval theater, unconcerned
with anachronisms, represented the Jews (and the other
characters) in the accoutrements, names, etc., by which they
were known at the time.
Thus certain German miracles concerning the Assumption

2 See, for example, pp. 179, 2 0 4 , 239 f.

3 I n fact, the action o f the play involved a scabrous surgical operation
that Nero performed upon his mother “in order t o learn h o w h e h a d been
bom.” (Cf. G. Cohen, L’Histoire de la mise en scéne, Paris, 1926.)
 The Age of the Devil 128

o f the Virgin included a final scene added later, called

“Entertainment on the Destruction of Jerusalem,” which had
no organic link with the action and in which Titus, having
become a Christian knight, put the city of the Jews to fire
and sword in order to avenge the Divine Mother (187). In
other plays the action was contemporary. Thus, i n the Mis-
tere de la saincte hostie (188), a Jewish usurer suborns his
Christian debtor and forces her to give him a piece of the
consecrated Host. He immediately turns against the Host
— “Desire seized m e to crucify it, cast it into the Fire and
persecute it, and against the ground to trample, boil, beat,
and stone it’—and whatever he does, the Host bleeds but
remains intact. Witnesses of this miracle, the Jew’s wife and
children, are touched b y grace and denounce him. They re-
quest baptism at once. When the provost comes for him, the
Jew immediately offers to accept baptism:

Volontiers me baptiserai I shall be baptized gladly

Parce que sentence aurai Since thus I shall have pardon
Qui point ne me fera mourir. To keep me from dying.

T h e provost is not taken i n : C e n'est qu’une échappatoire

( “ I t is merely an excuse”), and the Jew is condemned to be
burned. He dies calling for “his book” (the Talmud, doubt-
less), and uttering horrible imprecations:

O diable, il me semble que O Devil, I feel I am burning

iarde
Diables, diables brusle et ars Devils, devils burn and flame
I e ars je brusle d e toute pars 1 flare and flame i n every limb
Je depars e n feu et e n flamme I perish n o w i n fire and flame
M o n corps mon esprit et mon M y body, mind and soul
ame
Bruslent et ardent trop e n ar- Burn n o w and fiercely consume
damment
Dyables venez hastivement Devils come speedily
E t m'emportez à ce besoing. And carry me off from this or-
deal.
 The Image of the Jew 129

As for his accomplice, the Christian debtor, she is burned too,

but she dies in sanctity, after repenting.
M a n y miracles o f the Holy Virgin are preserved that
evoke the theme of the profaning Jew; it is not known
whether they were staged o r not. Some date from a n earlier
period, going back to Gautier de Coincy: for example,
those collected around 1 4 5 0 by Jehan Miélot, and in which
we see the Virgin haranguing the people against “that
damned folk the Jews, who prosper now a second time and
seek to make m y only son, w h o is the light and salvation o f
all loyal Christians, die by the torment of the Cross a second
time ” (189). This is evidently a reference to the theme
o f the profanation o f the Host; i n i t the distinction between
the age of Christ and the present time is entirely erased. But
what matters here is the popularization of the stereotype of
the Jew by means of theatrical performance.
This was primarily accomplished by the mystery plays o f
the Passion, which, appearing in the fourteenth century, were
to enjoy an enormous vogue in the next century. Quite
characteristically for the grim atmosphere of the late Middle
Ages, they emphasize the most painful and bloody incidents
i n the life o f Jesus, more o r less ignoring the story o f his birth,
teaching, and Resurrection. Taking place in a climate of
complete faith and communion, the performance of a mys-
tery had nothing in common with the production of a play
i n our o w n time. T o give a n idea o f the astonishing vigor o f
the feelings it provoked, a very remote comparison might b e
drawn with contemporary boxing matches, or better still
with the political celebrations favored by the monolithic
parties. The life of the city stopped; shops and workshops
were closed; convents, monasteries, and courts were de-
serted. For several days at a time, the entire population left
its homes a n d gathered “for the shows,” so that guards h a d
to be assigned to watch the deserted streets and houses—
and sometimes, too (as we know in the case of Frankfurt,
Freiburg, and Rome), to protect the local ghetto.*
4 In 1338, the councilors of Freiburg forbade the performance of anti-
 The Age of the Devil 130

Let us try, then, t o imagine ourselves i n the main square

o f a Bavarian city where one o f the most popular German
mysteries, the Alsfelder Passionspiel, is being performed be-
fore the populace massed in front of the stage o n trestles
( 1 9 0 ) . T h e first day, immediately following a brief prologue,
the devils come on stage, plotting the betrayal of Jesus. They
are twenty in number, and except for Lucifer and Satan, bear
Germanic names of a typically medieval truculence: Natyr,
Hellekrugk, Bone, Spiegelglantz, Rosenkranz, Raffenzann,
Binckenbangk. The devils decide to assign the carrying
out of the unnameable crime to the Jews. After some di-
versions, the latter, fourteen in number, gather in turn (at
the end of the first day of the performance), and their
names, except for Caiaphas and Ananias, also have the same
grotesque resonance: Natey, Holderlin, Borey, Snoppenkeile,
Lendekile, Effikax, Gugulus.
Their plans are laid and, the following day, the spectacle
continues with the scene of the revolting dealings between
the Jews and Judas. T h e payment o f the thirty pieces o f silver
will be stipulated, each party t o the bargain seeking to cheat
the other, thus parodying, in general, the usurers of the
period. T h e culminating action, the Crucifixion o f Jesus,
reads as follows:

CAIAPHAS
Jesus, take off your clothes.
They shall go to the soldiers.
Lie down on the Cross
And stretch out your feet and arms!
( H e is stretched on the Cross and the second executioner
says: )

Jewish scenes; in 1469, those of Frankfurt ordered special measures for the
protection of the ghetto during the performance; i n 1539, the show was
stopped i n Rome, for it h a d b e e n regularly followed b y the sacking o f the
ghetto. ( C f . H . Pflaum, “Les Scènes de Juifs dans la Littérature Drama-
tique,” R.E.J., Vol. 89, 1 9 3 0 , p p . 111-34; and M . Vatasso, Per la Storia della
Dramma sacro in Italia, Rome, 1903.)
 The Image of the Jew 131

SECOND EXECUTIONER
Give me three heavy nails
And a hammer and tongs!

Bind his hands and feet fast

A n d lay h i m out along the Cross
T o the notch that is marked.
Let his legs and feet go so far,
A n d let the nails pass through.
Thus h e cannot escape.
This nail I shall drive through your right hand.
Y o u shall suffer pain and grief!

FIRST EXECUTIONER
Helper, the hands and the feet
D o not reach to the notches!
T H I R D EXECUTIONER
I shall give good counsel:
Bring a rope;
W e shall stretch his arms;
W e shall draw out his body
So as to pull it to pieces!

Let us stop there. The scene of the Crucifixion continues

for over seven hundred lines: the executioners, anonymous
flagellators, invent ever-new sufferings (performed i n in-
credibly realistic fashion, a red liquid representing blood,
and the binding so convincingly done that the actor playing
Christ would often succumb, apparently, during the per-
formance), while the Jews present rejoice and mock Jesus
in every conceivable fashion.
I n the Alsfelder Passionspiel, the Jews are merely provo-
cateurs; in the famous French mystery attributed to Jehan
Michel (191), they take over the tortures as well. This be-
gins in Pilate’s palace (Pilate, of course, is given a noble
role),and the manuscript reads:

Here they strike him upon the shoulders and head with
reeds.
 The Age of the Devil 132

ROULLART ROULLART
Regardez le sang ruisseler See the blood streaming
Qui le museau loy ensen- A n d h o w his whole face is
glante. covered.
MALCHUS MALCHUS
H e faulce personne et sen- Here, false and bloody man,
glante
Je nay pitié de ta douleur I pity not your pain
Non plus que d'un vil frivo- More than that of a vile trick-
leur ster
Qui rien ne peut et si rebarbe. That nothing avails, h e is so
low.
BRUYANT BRUYANT
Juons-nous à plumer sa barbe Let us play at pulling out his
beard
Elle est par trop saillant. That is too long anyway.
DENTART DENTART
Celue sera le plus vaillant H e will b e the bravest
Qui en aura plus grant poig- Who gets the biggest handful.
née.

Here they tear out his beard.

GRIFFON GRIFFON
Je lui ay si roide empoignée I have torn at h i m so hard
Que la chair est venue après. That the flesh has come away
too.
DILLART DILLART
Je m'en vueil doncques tirer I would take m y turn at tearing
près
Pour en avoir ma part aussy. So as to have m y share as well.
DRAGON DRAGON
Regardez quel lopin cecy See what a clump this is
Jen tire gros comme de That I pull away as if it were
bourre. lard.
BRUYANT BRUYANT
Mais voyez comme je my But see h o w I go about it now.
fourre
Tenez il n'en a pas ung peu. Behold h e has not one left.
 The Image of the Jew 133

Here Pilate’s indignant intervention puts an end to the

bloody scene.

PILATE PILATE
Son martire tant m e desplait His martyrdom so displeases m e
Q u e a peine regarder le puis That I can scarcely endure t o
see it.
Or regardes seigneurs juifz ~~ Yet regard these Jewish lords
Regardes que cest homme en- Watching what this m a n en-
dure; dures;
Voyez la douleur qui l'as- See the pain that overcomes
somme him
Il porte de tous les maulx la H e bears the worst of all evils
somme
Eccehomo vecy l'homme. . . . Ecce homo, thisis theman.. . .

The scene of the Crucifixion is even more intense. The Jews

draw lots for the parts of Christ's body that each will torment.
They spit upon him, and one of them exclaims:

Il est tout gasté H e is all covered

D e crachas amont et aval. With spittle high and low.

The violence of these remarks (and we must remember

that they are being spoken o n a stage!) remains painful and
difficult t o accept i n our o w n day. Imagine the effect they
must have h a d o n the childlike and unsophisticated mental-
ity o f the m e n o f the medieval period! I n a total identifica-
tion, the crowds lived Christ’s agony intensely, transferring
all their rage to his tormentors, with a real massacre often
following the depicted one. This may have been a necessary
compromise, a release for the sufferings with which these
crowds identified themselves; o r a camouflage, masking the
unspeakable pleasure of having dared crucify one’s o w n G o d
a n d Saviour!

The interdependence between the scenic and the plastic

arts during the Middle Ages is one o f the most interesting o f
 The Age of the Devil 134

historical studies. I t is generally supposed that iconography

was the dutiful daughter of religious drama and gradually
incarnated its chief motifs. However it came about, it is
certain that with regard t o our subject iconography de-
veloped in the same direction as literature and the theater.
As w e have shown, in the high Middle Ages Christians
were presented with the edifying contrast of the Church as a
resplendent virgin and the Synagogue as a fallen widow.
These motifs were depicted on the tympanums and stained-
glass windows o f the cathedrals, sometimes framing Christ
o n the Cross. I n early versions these symbolic personifi-
cations, so charged with meaning, obeyed the rules of a
certain symmetry. The two rivals remained closely balanced;
they assumed the same postures; they were dressed i n the
same costumes; they bore the same equipment. A s a re-
sult, certain figures o f the Synagogue are characterized by
elegance and an incomparable charm (for instance, the
admirable head with bandaged eyes o n the tympanum o f
the Cathedral of Strasbourg, which dates from the end of
the thirteenth century) (192)—just as most of the heads of
the prophets have great nobility. But later artists increas-
ingly resorted t o another symbolic contrast from which this
inner symmetry is absent. On one side the Saviour is
flanked b y a Roman centurion, Longinus, who, at the foot of
the Cross, was blinded by the true faith (sometimes the
blind centurion has regained his sight); on the other side is
a “sponge bearer,” the Synagogue—her sponge is soaked i n
vinegar and she is trying t o poison Christ's wounds. This fig-
uration was in line with the increasing trend of embroider-
ing the sober narrative of the Gospels in order to remove
from the gentiles any particle of responsibility for the dei-
cide and to transfer the entire opprobrium to the Jews.
( W e have seen the virtuous indignation attributed to Pilate
in Jehan Michel's mystery). I n a more general way—just as
in mysteries, treatises, and sermons—the representation of
the Crucifixion, depicted i n bloody a n d often overpowering
detail, becomes i n the fourteenth century the chief subject
 The Image of the Jew 135

of artists. Obsession with human suffering; obsession, too,

with its various sequels—death, the kingdom of the Devil,
hell and its thousand torments (themes that before this pe-
riod were virtually unknown or were at most suggested with
great discretion )—these are the dominant motifs in the art
of the period, and the fervent imagination of painters and
sculptors is given free rein.’
There is also a link between these grim obsessions and
the ravages of the Black Plague. After 1400, there appears in
Europe the theme o f the “dance o f death,” o r “dance maca-
bre.” There is a close relationship between these hellish en-
tertainments and the theme of the “banquet during the
plague,” wild feasts during which the guests seek to drown
their anguish as the death carts in the street roll the corpses
to a communal grave.
Against this apocalyptic background the portrayal o f the
Jews is enriched with ever-new inventions.
I n Italy, at the end of the fourteenth century, artists ven-
ture to identify Jews with scorpions. I n paintings and fres-
coes, this odious creature often appears o n the standards,
shields, and tunics of the Jews: a figuration found again in
the next century in Savoy, in Germany, and even in Flan-
ders (193). As a corollary to this subtle allegory, the product
of Mediterranean genius, a cruder image, broader and in fact
more scurrilous, appears in Germany: that of the sow in as-
sociation with Jews, giving them suck and fornicating with
them, o n countless stone monuments in Magdeburg, Frei-
sing, Regensburg, Kehlheim, Salzburg, Frankfurt, and o n
churches in the Low Countries (194). One of these reliefs—
most of which have disappeared—is described b y Martin
Luther in his famous pamphlet Vom Schem Hamephoras:
“Here in Wittenberg, o n our church, a sow is carved in
stone. Some young piglets and some Jews are suckling her;
behind the sow is a rabbi. H e raises the sow’s right leg,
with his left hand he pulls out his member, leans over and
diligently contemplates, behind the member, the Talmud, as
5 W e recommend the splendid studies b y Emile Male o n this subject.
 The Age of the Devil 136

if h e desired to learn something very subtle and special

fromit. . ” °
I t is in Germany, too, that in the second half of the fif-
teenth century there appeared the caricature o f the Jew
with a long nose and misshapen figure, which was to consti-
tute the delight of anti-Semites for centuries to come.” I n
this case, the contrast between the pink-and-blond coloring
of the Germans and the darker complexion and shorter body
o f the Jews must have played a decisive part. Apparently
Germany is also responsible for another attribute attached
t o the Jews, one that was also t o enjoy unique success: the
horns. Actually, their origin seems to have been a double
one. From the most remote times, Moses, and Moses alone,
was represented with horns, apparently the result of an er-
roneous interpretation of a passage in the Old Testament,’
and without any pejorative connotation. Until the thir-
teenth century, these horns are not seen o n the forehead of
other patriarchs, nor even o n that of an Ananias or a Caia-
phas. The pointed hat of the Jews, the pileum cornutum, as
worn i n Germany from the e n d o f the thirteenth century,
seems to have been a second source of inspiration. Hence,
o n the monuments and in the paintings of later centuries,
we frequently find Jews with horned heads: for example, o n
the stained-glass windows o f the Cathedral of Auch and i n
Veronese's “Calvary,” n o w in the Louvre.
Horns: the most significant attribute of the Devil. W e
have already been much concerned with the Devil in pre-
ceding pages, just as w e have involuntarily been led t o ob-
serve the linking of the obscene with the sacred. Perhaps this
will help us understand the image of the Jews during the
waning Middle Ages and to explore its nethermost depths.
6 See p. 2 1 9 .
7 The oldest known caricature of this kind is found in Schedel’s Welt-
chronik (1493); it represents the murder of little Simon of Trent.
8 Exodus 34: 29: “ . . the skin of his face shone while he talked with
him”; the Vulgate gives the erroneous translation: “. the skin of his face
had horns . . .”
 The Image of the Jew 137

But for this we must halt our inquiry for a moment, abandon-
ing the Jews and turning instead to the Devil. For this is the
period when the Christian imagination pictured the Prince
of Darkness residing on earth, engaging i n varied and sus-
tained activities, and likely t o appear anywhere.

Devils, witches, and Jews

Was the Prince of Darkness created wicked, or was he a

fallen angel who became wicked by his own will? And if he
was a fallen angel, from what rank had he fallen: the su-
preme order, high rank, o r low? W h a t was his chief sin, the
one that had caused his eternal damnation: pride? envy?
As for the legion o f other devils h e commanded, were some
of them born as men? Did they have bodies? Such questions
h a d preoccupied the Fathers o f the Church since the first
centuries o f Christianity. But while teachings relating t o the
devils were being woven into a body of doctrine, the eccle-
siastical authorities of the high Middle Ages showed a re-
markable skepticism about their manifestations o n earth.
At this time the accounts of their misdeeds generally cor-
responded to n o more than pagan superstitions, still easily
recognizable as such. Thus, in 466, the Council of Ireland
anathematized those who claimed to be wizards. I n 563 the
Council of Braza spoke in the same terms. Three centuries
later, Bishop Agobard, that great oppressor o f the Jews,
thundered with great good sense against the superstitions o f
his age, against belief i n invisible demons that throw stones
a n d inflict blows, o r i n tempestari that can cause storms.
I n short, the Devil, i n the eyes o f the Church at this period,
constituted a problem chiefly o f a moral order because his
presence was seldom manifested o n earth. Exception was
taken to magicians, whose evil spells were not doubted.
Some were even condemned to death, but stories of
witches’ sabbaths, of werewolves, of sexual relations with
 The Age of the Devil 138

the Devil, were rejected as idle tales. This was without doubt
the best way of thwarting the propagation of such absurdi-
ties.
The same was true in the next centuries, when the struggle
against heresies mobilized most of the energies of the clergy.
I n 1 3 1 0 the Council of Trier proclaimed that “no woman
may claim to have ridden during the night with Diana or
Herodias, for that is an illusion of the demon.” I n short, if
a woman who called herself a witch was punished (the pun-
ishment being excommunication, at worst), it was not for
having consorted with the Devil but for having committed
—under his moral control—the sin of an odious lie.
The people, however, were not of this belief. They were
in the grip of ancestral supersititions, and they often exe-
cuted a summary and brutal justice against alleged wizards,
witches, and casters of evil spells. There were lynchings
without any form of trial. But these incidents were sporadic
and isolated, as were the anti-Jewish excesses of this period.
Meanwhile, the scholastics were constructing their impos-
ing edifice of interpretation of the terrestrial and celestial
worlds. The Devil occupied a considerable place within them.
Starting from fundamental dogmatic axioms, his attributes
a n d powers were defined b y means o f a subtle dialectic,
some o f which methods are curiously analogous t o the most
acrobatic reasonings of the Talmud. Thus Saint Thomas
Aquinas argued that demons could assume carnal form,
could eat—that is, seem to eat—but could not indulge in the
reality of digestion or that of procreation. Nonetheless, suc-
cessively assuming the form of a succubus (female) and an
incubus (male), they could, thanks to their astonishing
speed, introduce into a woman the seed of man which they
had just received. Even so, the children thus procreated
were not the seed of the Devil, since his role had been lim-
ited to that of a simple intermediary.’ Yet, going further,
Saint Thomas declared that the Huns were truly the spawn
9 Summa theologica, 1 , Quaest. 51, art, 3 , 6.
 The Image of the Jew 139

o f demons. Thereby h e took a great step forward toward be-

lief in the corporeality of the Devil.
All this makes it easier to grasp how, in the next century,
i n the short space o f fifty years, a complete reversal o f the
prevailing attitude took place. The chief authors of the
scholastic doctrines were Dominicans—those same Domini-
cans who, since the beginning of the fourteenth century,
had been charged with uprooting heresies and who had cre-
ated the fearful and effective apparatus o f the Inquisition,
one of those organizations functionally intended to uncover
crime everywhere. N o w the chief heresy of the period was
Catharism, a doctrine that taught that Satan, and not the
God of mercy, rules the earth: consequently, the crime par
excellence that the inquisitors had to ferret out was com-
merce with the Devil. N o w confusion was sowed in men’s
minds. The number of pathological cases continued to rise.
O n the one hand, an increasing number of believers, weary
of beseeching God, despaired of H i m and invoked the Devil;
o n the other, the Church granted its official imprimatur t o
the very phantasms it h a d opposed down through the ages.
The reversal began around 1 3 2 0 , when the new demonolog-
ical doctrines received the first official consecration of the
Holy See. Pope John XXII, suffering apparently from a delu-
sion o f persecution—he saw enemies a n d poisoners every-
where—published the bull Super illius specula against false
Christians who “sacrifice to demons and worship them, pro-
duce or procure images, rings, flasks, mirrors, and still
other things t o which they attach the demons b y their magic
arts, gaining answers from them, seeking their aid i n order
to carry out their wicked designs, submitting to the most
shameful servitude for the most shameful things. 7

The popes lived in Avignon during this period, and it is

possible that the rumors circulating in France concerning
the poisoning o f wells b y lepers and Jews added t o the anxi-
eties o f John XXII. His successor, Benedict XII, confirmed his
directives. The first known trial for witchcraft occurred in
 The Age of the Devil 140

1335 in Toulouse. In 1337 the inquisitor Nidder published

the first detailed description we have of wizards, their mis-
deeds, and the means of recognizing them. After the great
plague, the search for the Devil's auxiliaries proceeded with
great speed. Each highly spectacular witch-burning pro-
duced a covey o f n e w witches; each auto-da-fé ( a c t o f
faith!) spread the belief in sorcery and its supernatural
powers. Some gave themselves u p to the black arts, others
smelled witches everywhere. Thus the inquisitors who re-
ceived the charge to stamp out witchcraft became its most
active missionaries. Inquisitorial procedure insisted o n the
victims confession. Torture,’ euphemistically called “the
question,”—continued sometimes for weeks and months,
sometimes for several days in a row, sometimes with long
interruptions—infallibly obtained these confessions, as
precise and detailed as the inquisitor insisted they be, and
afforded a complete description of the Devil's appearance,
habits, and behavior. Thus the Devil became a living reality.
While the ashes of burned witches served to sow new
witchcraft, the repeated triumphs of the professional Devil-
hunters could only reinforce their own faith in the impor-
tance a n d salubrity o f their practices. A s one o f them, Par-
amo, observed proudly in 1 4 0 4 , the Holy Office had already
burned over thirty thousand witches, who, had they en-
joyed impunity, would have led the entire world t o its utter
ruin (195).
The witch-hunting mania increased in the fifteenth cen
tury. I t flourished i n the mountainous regions o f Savoy a n d
Switzerland, but above all in Germany, where, n o doubt,
vestiges o f paganism were especially tenacious. I n 1484,
Pope Innocent VIII observed regretfully, in his bull Summis
Desiderantes, that the Teutonic territories were filled with
agents of the Devil (196). The German inquisitors Sprenger

10 According t o the inquisitorial doctrine, “the question” could b e ap-

plied only once. Practice found an easy loophole: in case of reluctance on
the part o f the presumed witch, “the question” w a s not “repeated” but was
“continued” as l o n g as necessary t o elicit confession.
 The Image of the Jew 141

and Institoris, theoreticians and men of action, wrote in this

year the Malleus Maleficarum (Mallet o f Sorcerers), a trea-
tise that retained a position of authority until the dawn
o f modern times. Strengthened b y pontifical support, the
inquisitors held assizes from city to city, leaving behind a
wake o f fire and blood. T h e pyres grew more numerous as
every misdeed, every accident, was imputed to witches. Ter-
rified Christians suspected one another of being Satan’s
slaves. His hand was seen everywhere. N o one can say h o w
many witches were burned in Europe between the four-
teenth and seventeenth centuries, but the number must be
extremely high. During this period the Devil evolved from a
moral principle of Evil into a strongly individualized per-
sonality, horned and hairy, who infested the earth. This
transformation took place precisely at the time the powerful
concept of the evil-doing Jew was being crystallized and
spread throughout Christendom.
What were the Devil's chief attributes? H e had horns, tal-
ons, a tail, wore a goat’s beard, and he was black. H e gave off
a strong odor. All these were symbols of lewdness and ex-
treme virility. Such is the description of him given b y the
witches, such is the portrait that the inquisitors record in
their investigations and circulate in their manuals: a portrait
created i n fact chiefly by them, for during the “questioning”
the victims merely yielded to the demands of their perse-
cutors’ imaginations. “These severe, harsh, and chaste men
did n o t shrink from the description o f any infamy and o f
any lust. They created the horrible in order the more to wor-
ship the holy, and it was b y the pyres that they illumi-
nated their symbols in suffering and in death.” ** Thus the
Devil, God’s double and antagonist, assumes opposition to
H i m in all things. “Baptism erases original sin, the Devil
erases baptism; the man of G o d works good deeds and char-
ity, the demoniac works evil and sows hatred. God sheds
grace o n His subjects, the Devil affords them evil spells; the
1 1 Maurice Garçon and Jean Vinchon, L e Diable, étude historique,
critique et médicale, Paris, 1926.
 The Age of the Devil 142

great mystic knows ecstasy, the Devil possesses men; the

good Christian makes a n alliance with God, the wizard
a pact with the Devil; the Mass is the sacrifice agreeable
to the Divinity, the Demon demands a n identical and
mocking sacrifice i n which everything is done i n hatred o f
the Divinity; and whereas G o d effects miracles, Lucifer
works magic” (197).
The Devil's chief agent on earth is the witch (and not the
wizard, who is only burned in exceptional circumstances),
that is, a woman, symbol of impurity, weakness, temptation.
O f course, some wretched women may have imagined a car-
nal union with the Prince of Evil; but here, too, the assign-
ment o f roles remains consistent with the spirit of the age.
The contempt for woman, the fear and horror of temptation
and the blandishments of the sex, contrast with the adora-
tion of the Virgin and the cult of chastity.
I f we examine the legends that circulate about the Jews
in the same period, legends that cropped u p sporadically
during the preceding centuries but which n o w are accepted
throughout Europe, we observe that the Jews are believed
t o unite i n their persons the n e w attributes of the Devil and
those o f the witch. T h e Jews are horned. They are tricked
out with a tail and the beard of a goat (that disturbing
quadruped which serves as the perfect transmitting agent
for all sins); the mephitic odors attributed to them are so
violent that they have persisted down through the ages and
even in our own time incited German scholars to investigate
the nature and origins of the foetor judaïcus.‘” From this
point of view, the Jews are hypervirile. They are veritable
supermen, magicians secretly feared a n d revered. B u t at
the same time they are weak and sickly, suffering from a
thousand malignant afflictions that only Christian blood
can cure (here we return to the theme of ritual murder).

12 Thus the famous anthropologist H a n s F . K . Giinther believed i n the

existence o f a n hereditary o d o r judaeus, which h e proposed t o s t u d y with
the help o f chemical analyses. ( H a n s Giinther, Rassenkunde des judischen
Volkes, Munich, 1 9 3 0 , pp. 260-68, Chap. “Geruchliche Eigenart.”)
 The Image of the Jew 143

They are born misshapen, they are hemorrhoidal and, m e n as

well as women, afflicted with menses.'® From this point o f
view, they are women, that is, inframen, scorned, loathed,
and mocked. Sometimes the description is even more cir-
cumstantial, and the ills the Jews suffer are differentiated
according to their tribes. The descendants of Simeon bleed
four days every year, those of Zebulun spit blood yearly,
those of Asher have their right arm shorter than their left,
those of Benjamin have worms in their mouths, and so on.™
Elsewhere, the laws against witchcraft constitute part of
the statutes regulating the condition of the Jews, so obvious
does it appear that the latter are also magicians (198). “To
the masses, the Jew was a master of the occult sciences”

13 A characteristic example o f the combination o f these various themes

is afforded b y the accusations made against the Jews on the occasion of the
case of ritual murder in Trnava ( T y m a u ) (1494):
“Firstly, the traditions of their ancestors tell them that the blood of a
Christian is an excellent means to cure the wound produced b y circumcision.
“Secondly, they see that this blood permits them t o prepare a dish that
wakens mutual love.
“Thirdly, suffering from menstruation, both m e n a n d w o m e n alike, they
have n o t e d that the blood o f a Christian constitutes a n excellent remedy.
“Fourthly, they are obliged, b y virtue of an ancient and secret com-
mandment, to offer yearly sacrifice with Christian blood. .” (Anton Bon-
fin, Rerum Hungaricum Decades, Dec. 5, Book 4.)
14 T h e first known detailed description o f the “Jewish m a l a d i e s ” occurs
i n a small work published in 1630 b y the coverted Jew, Franco da Piacenza.
Once again w e find the n a m e of a renegade J e w a t its o r i g i n . This descrip-
tion enjoyed great success; it was reprinted in Germany i n 1634 ( Griindliche
und wahrhafte Relation von einem Juden, Namens Ahasveros, mit einem
Berichte v o n d e n 1 2 Stämmen, w a s ein jedweder Stamm d e m Herrn Christo
zur Schmach gethan, u n d was sie bis auf heutigen T a g dafiir leyden miissen,
b y Chrysostomus Dudulaeus, Reval, 1634) and in Spain at the beginning of
the eighteenth century (Centinela contra Judios, a work attributable t o the
knowledge a n d vigilance o f the Franciscan father Francisco d e Torrejoncillo,
1728). The pamphleteer J. G . Schudt (Jiidische Merckwiirdigkeiten, Frank-
furt and Leipzig, 1714-1718) adopts the theme, though seasoning it with a
grain o f skepticism; thus, better informed than h i s future N a z i emulators, h e
admits that the foetor judaïcus might well derive from the Jews’ immoder-
ate use o f garlic, as well as from their uncleanliness. Let us note further that
there must have been, at the origin o f this belief, a kind of association be-
tween Jewish impiety and infidelity a n d stench, t o which were opposed the
celestial aromas o f the true piety ( w e still say today “the odor o f s a n c t i t y ” ) .
 The Age of the Devil 144

(199). Furthermore, did the Jews not celebrate the Sab-

bath, even as the witches and devils?
I n short, combining i n their persons the entire gamut o f
the attributes o f evil, the Jews lose their humanity i n the eyes
of Christians and are relegated to the realm of the occult.
Even when they are not assigned strictly diabolical attri-
butes, they are associated with the devils that are often
pictured i n the background o f engravings a n d paintings
representing Jews (thus the devils appear t o b e o f Jewish
essence). Elsewhere, Jews are given pigs’ ears in place of
horns (200). Popular superstitions abound in the same as-
sociations. T h e Jewish school is a “black” school; the Jew is
the intermediary between the Devil and those who want to
sell their souls to him; the cursed pact is sealed with his
blood, and if a sick man wants to die, he need only ask a Jew
t o pray for h i m (201). I n countless ghost stories, a Jew ap-
pears either in human form or as a will-o”-the-wisp (202).
Many of these beliefs and others like them have persisted
in the popular imagination down to our own day.

W e m a y illuminate this identification between the Jew

and the Devil in still another manner. I t is indeed remark-
able to note that certain illustrious theologians and preach-
ers, certain duly canonized saints of the late Middle Ages
who reveal an immoderate and persistent interest in the
Devil, specialized in the persecution of the Jews. I f w e con-
sider their actions and their writings, w e find they have in
common a prophetic and reforming zeal, characteristic of
this period, the most complete model of which is Martin
Luther himself.
A typical example is Saint Vincent Ferrer, the most fa-
mous of the preaching friars. H e traveled through Spain and
France, and his preaching “inspired enthusiasm and effected
such considerable changes in the moral life of individuals
and of groups that his oratory was regarded as practically
a new gospel of Christianity” (Dictionnaire de Theologie
catholique) (203). This powerful rabble-rouser, whom Cath-
 The Image of the Jew 145

olics in our own day revere as an authentic miracle worker,

remains in the popular imagination as the “preacher of the
end of the world” (total Hiroshima—what work can be more
agreeable to the D e v i l ? ) . H e preached so vehemently o n
this burning subject that “his countless listeners, supposing
from the saint’s thundering voice that the end had come,
either cast themselves down groaning or struggled up again
resuscitated. Such events were not to disappear from the
memory of the people ( 2 0 4 ) . Ferrer was obviously a
saint of somewhat gloomy disposition, and, believing that
the Last Judgment was at hand, he dedicated himself espe-
cially to the conversion o f the Jews. A t the head o f a band
o f “flagellants,” h e would burst into synagogues a n d de-
m a n d o f the worshipers that they immediately reject the
Torah and accept the Cross. It is not surprising that the
Jews have remembered h i m with loathing. “ H e caused the
Jews such sufferings that the years 1 4 1 2 and 1413 may be
counted as among the most grievous in all Jewish history”
(Graetz) (205). “The Jews fell victim to the terror. . In
Toledo, Ferrer entered the synagogue, drove out the wor-
shipers, and renamed the place the Church of the Immacu-
late Virgin (Santa Maria Blanca). By the same terrorist
methods, he persecuted the Jews of Saragossa, Valencia,
Tortosa, and other p l a c e s . . . ” (Dubnow) (206). Thus
Saint Vincent Ferrer is described in Jewish chronicles as the
“scourge of the Jews.” Yet this saint denounced the murder
of Jews: “Christians must not kill Jews with knives, but with
words.” He even uttered rather flattering remarks about
them,'® providing they accepted conversion. W h e n they did

15 “ D o y o u feel a consolation w h e n a J e w converts? There are m a n y

Christians m a d enough not t o d o so. They should embrace, honor, a n d love
them; instead, they scom them because they once were Jews. B u t they must
not do so, for Jesus Christ was a Jew, and the Virgin Mary a Jewess, before
becoming a Christian. It is a great sin t o revile them. This circumcised G o d
is our God, a n d y o u shall b e damned even as h e w h o dies a Jew. F o r they
must b e taught Doctrine so that they m a y b e i n the service o f God.
(S. Mitrani-Samarian, “ A Valencian Sermon of Saint Vincent Ferrer,’' R .E.I .
Vol. 54, p . 241.)
 The Age of the Devil 146

not, h e prescribed hermetic isolation. It was upon his instiga-

tion that the first Spanish ghettos, the juderias, were created
in 1412 and that a series of anti-Jewish laws were promul-
gated.
Another “scourge of the Jews” was the energetic inquisi-
tor Saint John of Capistrano. A fiery and grim prophet, he
is regarded by his biographer as “that one among our saints
who exerted the most marked and most decisive influence
upon the men and affairs of his time” (207). He carried out
his apostolate in Italy and Germany, where whole cities
came to hear him. H e chose death, judgment, and hell as
favorite themes for his sermons. His chief writings are con-
cerned with Antichrist, the Last Judgment, and the Apoca-
lypse (208). It is reported that while preaching in the city
of Aquila before one hundred thousand people, he evoked
a legion o f horrible demons w h o m h e forced t o fall pros-
trate, shrieking and roaring, before his banner (20g). This
ardent ascetic rarely lost a n opportunity t o attack Judaism.
Princes who protected Jews were threatened with the wrath
of God, and he boasted of abolishing “the diabolic privi-
leges” of many Jewish communities. I n Silesia, in 1453-1454,
h e brought about a series of trials for ritual murder, with
subsequent autos-da-fé, and managed to abrogate the priv-
ileges of the Jews of Poland for some time (210).
The tormented souls of these great men of action were ap-
parently obsessed with the world’s end, punishment, and
anti-Jewish passion. The story of the famous demagogue
Savonarola, for several years the uncontested master of Flor-
ence, suggests that the revolutionary aspect o f this agitation
was an echo of the social aspirations of the discontented
masses. Savonarola had visions and heard devils whispering
in his ear: Fratelo Girolamo, fratelo girellaio, padre con-
fessione, padre confusione (“Brother Jerome, brother weath-
ercock, father confessor, father confusion”). It must be said
in all fairness that far from keeping him in the odor of
sanctity, he was excommunicated and burned at the stake.
A t the peak o f his power, however, after driving the Medicis
 The Image of the Jew 147

from Florence, he established a form of theocratic democ-

racy in which the private life of the people was subject to a
quasi-totalitarian scrutiny, with children prodded to spy on
their parents. Savonarola expelled the Jews from the city and
established a municipal pawn office. I n addition, he re-
formed the courts, revised taxes, and enacted a n e w consti-
tution.
Other famous holy men of the period were of gentler dispo-
sition. B u t this did not prevent them from hating the Jews
with equal virulence. I t was as if they expended upon the
Jews all the aggression their souls contained. The founder of
the sect of the Holy Name of Jesus, Saint Bernardino of Siena,
argued that the Jews were conspiring against Christians in
two ways: Jewish usurers “extort from the Christians their
worldly goods by public usuries,” while Jewish physicians
“seek to deprive them of health and life.” H e quoted the con-
fession of one Jewish doctor of Avignon who “at his last hour
declared he died a happy m a n because he had had the pleas-
ure, throughout his life, of killing thousands of Christians
with so-called remedies that were actually poisons” (211).
The successor and pupil of Saint Bernardino of Siena, the
Blessed Bernardino of Feltre, seems to have been one of those
great mystics whose powerful religious temperament was
matched b y remarkable organizational gifts. The poetic
and delicate charity of this Franciscan recalls the great
founder of his order. But in other aspects—the mortifica-
tions, fasts, and flagellations that he practiced as well as
preached—he was indeed the child of his times. T o him is
attributed the charming apologia that follows, which he re-
cited to the patients and attendants of a hospital:
“In the book of sufferers should b e written: patience, pa-
tience, patience; and in the book of those who minister to
t h e m : charity, charity, charity. B u t each must b e content
to read his own book and not seek to see what the other's
contains, for among a thousand small accidents caused b y
human weakness, if one asks of the other: “Where is your
charity? h e compromises his patience, and if the other re-
 The Age of the Devil 148

plies: “Where is your patience? he compromises his charity.

Let us not be like the schoolboy who, instead of learning his
own lesson, peeks into the book of his neighbor; this school-
boy cannot answer the master’s question, and will be pun-
ished” (212).
B u t all charity departed from Blessed Bernardino of Feltre
when he dealt with the Jews. Then, according to his o w n ex-
pression, he changed into “a barking dog”; “Jewish usurers
bleed the poor to death and grow fat o n their substance, and
I who live on alms, who feed o n the bread of the poor, shall
I then b e mute as a d o g before outraged charity? Dogs bark
t o protect those w h o feed them, and I , w h o a m fed b y the
poor, shall I see them robbed of what belongs to them and
keep silent? Dogs bark for their masters; shall I not bark
for Christ?” (213).
His biographers praise him for not having fallen into the
characteristic failings o f the preachers o f his day a n d for
not having given himself u p to apocalyptic prophecies of
wars, scourges, and other bloody calamities. H e abstained, it
is true, from prophesying, save with regard to the Jews.
Preaching at Trent, in the Tyrol, he warned the faithful of
the Jewish peril and specified that “the feast o f Easter will
not pass without your knowing something of this” (214).
Some days later the famous ritual murder of little Simon of
Trent was committed.'® ( I t is, o f course, impossible t o say
whether it occurred impulsively, following the Blessed Ber-
nardino’s preaching, or if the latter was directly involved in
some w a y . ) A t the same time that h e was propagating the
legend of ritual murder, Blessed Bernardino of Feltre effec-
tively opposed usury. Under his energetic leadership, the
Franciscan order opened pawn offices in the chief cities of
Italy, thus permitting the poor t o avoid resorting t o Jewish o r
Christian usurers. Later, his example was imitated in Ger-
many and France.
W e see, then, that the problem is not a simple one. The
exorciser of the Devil often corrected real evils at the same
16 Cf. pp. 62 f.
 The Image of the Jew 149

time and was in part a genuine social reformer. Similarly,

the imaginary J e w w h o m h e persecuted and w h o tormented
him was sometimes paralleled b y a real usurer, whether Jew
or Christian. This is only to be expected. I n an age when the
distinction between sacred and profane was never very clear,
when every social activity was simultaneously a charitable
deed and one pleasing to God, the two images were super-
imposed: the Devil's hand was seen behind all evil, which is
why it is impossible to distinguish between the Jew-Devil
(who haunted all Europe) and the Jewish usurer (present
at this period in only certain regions). But on the whole the
illusion does not merely mask certain social realities: it de-
flects and dominates them.
Another illustration of the disquieting role that the Jews
assumed in the Christian imagination—particularly elo-
quent because in direct contradiction to the social reality—is
afforded b y the Jewish physicians, who so deeply concerned
Saint Bernardino of Siena and who played such a prominent
part throughout the Middle Ages. What, then, is a physician?
H e was once a sorcerer, and even in our own day and age, in
the special relationship between patient and doctor, he is
still a character possessing an august and essential power. A
physician remains more or less a magician. Thus the ques-
tion for the Middle Ages was t o k n o w if his mysterious art
of curing was granted him b y G o d or b y the Devil. B y the
Devil, answered many canonical texts, apropos of Jewish
physicians. First apparently in date, the Council of Béziers
in 1246 forbade Christians, on pain of excommunication, to
resort to the care of Jews, “for it is better to die than to
owe one’s life to a Jew.” This prohibition was reiterated
by the councils of Albi (1254), Vienne (1267), by a de-
cree of the University of Paris (1301), and by numerous
councils of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Thus,
even at the risk of one’s life, one must not have recourse
to Jewish medicine. Furthermore, according to another ver-
sion, such abstinence was not only an act of piety but also
one of salutary prudence, since the Jewish physician, far
 The Age of the Devil 150

from curing his Christian patient, sought only to worsen his

condition. H e deliberately poisoned him, in fact, for, ac-
cording to obscure and very old legends, Charles the Bald
(Charles I I ) , Hugh Capet, and even the Emperor Char-
lemagne were among the victims of Jewish doctors (215).
I n time there were more precise accusations; statistics were
quoted. Doubtless professional jealousy was involved to some
extent, but we also find instances here of the themes of ritual
murder and large-scale poisoning. T h e Vienna Faculty o f
Medicine reported that the private code of Jewish physicians
required them t o murder one patient i n ten ( 2 1 6 ) . Accord-
ing to a version common in Spain, the figure was one in five
(217). This entire matter is necessarily obscure. I t seems that
n o one really knew what the Devil wanted and h o w he
operated. Did h e seek to destroy the Christian's soul when,
b y means of the Jewish physician, he assured the cure of his
body; or, since the salvation of the body is inseparable from
that of the soul, was he seeking to destroy both at the same
time?
Each version had its supporters. Despite this, or perhaps
because of it, Jewish practitioners enjoyed extreme popular-
ity among the princes, as among the common people. T h e
popes of Christendom, especially, from Alexander III in the
twelfth century to Paul I I I in the sixteenth, were tradition-
ally cared for b y Jewish doctors and granted them excep-
tional privileges. Physicians were exempted from wearing
the rouelle or the Jewish hat, and sometimes exerted con-
siderable political influence behind the scenes.
W e may grant that the sovereign pontiffs, more enlight-
ened than the mass of Christendom, did not share the com-
m o n superstitions and simply preferred to entrust their lives
to obliging, skillful, and dependable practitioners. But
what of the inconsistent attitude of Count Alfonse of Poitiers,
brother of Saint Louis and equally hostile to the Jews, who,
after having been the protector of the Council of Béziers in
1254, summoned a Jewish physician from Spain to cure his
failing eyesight (218)? Or of the rule established by the
 The Image o f the Jew 151

kings of Castile early in the fifteenth century, according to

which “there will b e n o physicians among the Jews, with the
exception of the physician to the king” (219)? Of course,
humans are weak w h e n faced with sickness; royalty con-
sulted Jewish doctors even though their power might b e
that of the Devil, but the common people were forbidden to
engage Jewish doctors: this was a weakness permitted only
to the great. Even when one succumbed to sin oneself, one
repressed it severely among one’s subjects. Thus interpreted,
the problem here is ethical, not medical. Practically speak-
ing, one would say that medical science is either good for all
or bad for all; it is only with medicine as an effect of the
Tempter’s blandishments that a n attitude so powerfully am-
bivalent is possible.
All these prohibitions had little effect. The bourgeois, in
the wake o f the princes, preferred t o b e cared for by Jewish
physicians. Medieval chronicles swarm with examples o f
privileges, favors, and subsidies provided for them. I n 1369,
a Dr. Isaac, who lived in Mainz, was authorized to reside in
the palace of the prince-elector (220). I n 1394, Solomon
Pletsch was appointed municipal physician of Frankfurt,
with a n annual salary o f thirty-six guilders and six cubits o f
cloth (221). Still more highly remunerated was Baruch, phy-
sician to the prince-elector of Saxony, who received in 1464
thirty bushels o f wheat, one cask o f wine, six quarts o f beer,
twenty ewes, and one ox every year, along with free lodgings
(222). When, in 1519, the Jews were expelled from Rothen-
burg, Dr. Isaac Oeringer was invited to remain (which he
refused to do) (223). It is also recorded that Jacob Loans,
personal physician to Emperor Frederick I I I , was the vener-
ated master of the humanist Reuchlin, and that Elijah Mon-
talto, physician to Marie de Médicis, followed her to Paris
and became the personal physician of Louis XIII at a time
when France was strictly closed t o the Jews. Similarly, ac-
cording t o the sharp-tongued Sauval, Francis I would en-
trust himself only to a Jewish physician, insisting further
that he be a pure Jew—that is, not adulterated by the waters
 The Age of the Devil 152

o f baptism.'” Other examples, collected b y meticulous schol-

ars, can be cited in great numbers. There were even highly
reputed Jewish women doctors, such as Sarah of Wiirz-
burg and Zerlin of Frankfurt. All these practitioners were
usually exempt from a poll tax and were often remuner-
ated b y the municipality. Meanwhile, the diligent enemies
of the Devil tirelessly continued their work. “Rather be sick,
if such is the will of God, than be cured with the Devil's help,
b y forbidden means. T o appeal t o Jewish physicians is t o
hatch serpents among us, to raise wolves in our house!” ex-
claimed a Frankfurt clergyman in 1 6 5 2 (224). Similarly, the
clergymen of Hall in Swabia (1657): “Rather die in Christ
than b e cured b y a Jewish doctor and Satan!” ( 2 2 5 ) . None o f
the great persecutors of the Jews, from Luther and Pfefferkorn
i n the sixteenth century t o Eisenmenger and Schudt i n the
eighteenth, has failed t o refer t o this theme. T o strengthen
the argument, the Jewish physician is paired with the usurer,
a n d together they are accused o f waging w a r o n t w o fronts:
the fortune and the health of Christians. This notion, already
fostered b y Saint Bernardino o f Siena, was developed b y
D u Cange in his famous Glossarium and summarized as
follows b y a nineteenth-century author: “Every m a n is weak
i n the face o f disease and poverty: the Jews became physi-
cians and usurers” (226).
T h e extraordinary persistence o f the myth that Jewish phy-
sicians were poisoners is clearly indicated by the famous ru-
mor that, early in 1953, startled the world when the rulers of
a powerful empire announced that Jewish doctors, a t the in-
stigation o f a Jewish organization, h a d made a n attempt o n

» «ec
17 According t o this ancestor of “subhistory,” “Francis sent t o Spain to
ask of Charles V a Jewish physician, for a malady of which the court physi-
cians could not cure him; but [Charles V ] finding none, and having sent him
a newly converted Jewish physician, h e n o sooner learned that h e was a
Christian than h e dismissed h i m without even allowing the m a n t o take his
pulse, nor even speaking t o h i m o f his sickness, a n d sent for another from
Constantinople w h o restored him t o health with the milk o f she-asses. . . .”
( H . Sauval, Histoire et recherche des antiquités de la ville de Paris, Paris,
1724, Vol. 2 , p. 526.)
 The Image of the Jew 153

the precious lives of the supreme leaders of this empire

and its army. A few months later, the case was reconsidered
and dismissed; but its symbolic significance persists.
I t would be interesting to know if the skill of the medieval
Jewish physicians, w h o were nourished o n Talmudic tradi-
tions and were familiar with the accomplishments of Arabic
medicine, was superior to that of their Christian colleagues.
This question is obviously beyond the scope o f our inquiry.
Nonetheless, it seems relevant t o point out that many illustri-
ous Jewish physicians were concerned with ministering to
both body and soul, beginning with Maimonides, that great
philosopher who was also a great doctor, and ending with
Freud, that great physician w h o has so powerfully influenced
the philosophy of our time.

A s w e have indicated, the shadow o f the Jews continued t o

cause many a Christian heart to tremble, even long after the
Jews” expulsion. Pierre de Lancre, who early in the seven-
teenth century diligently burned a great number o f witches
in the south of France, and who in his old age drew u p a
manual of witchcraft, devoted a section to the Jews, “more
perfidious and faithless than demons.” I n a long chapter, he
explains h o w they seek advice from the Devil, in order to
protect their pernicious books and doctrines. H e enumerates
in detail the “stinking maladies” b y which they are afflicted
and then concludes: “The Jews deserve every execration,
and as destroyers o f all divine and human majesty, they
merit punishment and indeed the greatest tortures. Slow
fire, melted lead, boiling oil, pitch, wax, and sulfur fused to-
gether would not make torments fitting, sharp, and cruel
enough for the punishment of such great and horrible crimes
as these people commonly commit . .” (227).
Witch-hunters were Jew-hunters; Jews were regarded as
part of a kind of impious family: Devil, Jew, witch. More
precisely, the role of the Jews in this scabrous mythology
might be called a demonic counterpart of that of the saints,
intercessors with God, but more accessible, more familiar,
 The Age of the Devil 154

more human than the Almighty. Adopting what one o f the

most subtle medievalists has written of the cult of the saints,
w e might say that the hatred o f the Jews, “by draining off
the overflow o f religious effusion and o f holy fear, acted
o n the exuberant religiosity o f the Middle Ages as a salutary
sedative” (228). Or, again, if the Jew had not existed, it
would have been necessary t o invent him.

The final crystallization: the ghetto

Let us return t o solid ground—to the real Jews, expelled

from England and France and after the end o f the four-
teenth century tolerated nowhere in Europe except o n the
territory o f what h a d been the Holy Roman Empire. T h e
reason for this, as w e have seen, was entirely political: only
i n a country subject t o a single central authority could their
simultaneous and total expulsion be brought about.
Where they persisted, the Jews were described in most of
the chronicles of the time as predators who stripped great
and small of their wealth and whose wicked activities
marred the whole social life of the period. W e have seen
what Bernardino of Feltre thought of them in Italy. I n Ger-
many, according t o Erasmus o f Erbach, i t was even worse:
“The Jews rob and flay the poor man. The situation is be-
coming truly unbearable; may God have mercy on us! The
Jews are now established permanently in the smallest vil-
lages. They lend five florins o n pledges that represent six
times the value of the money loaned; then they demand in-
terest o n interest, and still more interest on that, so that
the poor man eventually finds himself stripped of all he pos-
sessed” (229).
Various nineteenth-century German historians, especially
Werner Sombart, have sought to prove b y such quotations
that the Jews played a primary role in the gestation of the
capitalist system, and have thus contributed to an interpreta-
tion of history that has played its part in the genesis of the
 The Image of the Jew 155

Nazi Weltanschauung. Today, the best economic histori-

ans'® doubt that the Jews did have any special influence o n
the great economic upheavals of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries. I n truth, the subject has not yet been adequately
studied. I t would b e very difficult t o assemble authentic
documents, though the effort would surely be worth while.
Lacking such documentation, a simple line o f reasoning sug-
gests that the Jews role could scarcely have been a de-
termining factor.
It is impossible to claim, in fact, that the economic struc-
tures of France and England at this period differed from,
or were more backward than, those of Germany or Italy.
Thus the presence or absence of Jews had no influence on
the processes b y which, throughout Europe, cities were de-
veloping, trade was becoming increasingly important, and
wealth was beginning to take precedence over birth. It is ap-
parent that i n the chronicles i n question the term “Jews”
must be taken in its broader or imaginary sense, so as to in-
clude what some of these texts naively call “Christian Jews,”
referring to Christian usurers or to the founders of great
commercial companies that were the forerunners of modern
corporations. As for the German Jews in particular, the Ash-
kenazim, they were excluded not only from the social world
but also from that of finance. We have seen that in the four-
teenth century, the annual community tax they once paid
the emperor or the prince was replaced by an individual
“capitation”; the latter, in turn, gave rise to a corporal levy
that classified Jews with domestic animals: “ O n each o x a n d
h o g and o n each Jew, one sou,” reads one contemporary text
(230). Occasionally some individuals became noteworthy.
At the end of the fourteenth century there were still a few
Jews, such as Moses Nurnberg in Heidelberg and Joseph
Walch in Vienna, who were official tax collectors. A t the be-
ginning o f the sixteenth century, the German Jews found a

1 8 Cf. H . Pirenne, Histoire économique de l'Occident mediéval;

H . Heaton, Economic History of Europe; H . Tawney, Religion and the
Rise of Capitalism, etc.
 The Age of the Devil 156

skillful and energetic protector in the person of Yosel of

Rosheim, appointed b y Charles V “supreme leader and regent
o f the Jews.” B u t the great majority, small moneylenders o r
old-clothes dealers, earned their livelihood as and when they
could, living in perpetual poverty and insecurity. Given the
instability of their kind of life, their frequent changes of resi-
dence and the necessity for concealment, it is not improba-
ble, as Sombart asserts, that they played a part in the elab-
oration of that convenient instrument of “mobilization and
dissimulation of property,” the letter of exchange. Here, too,
lacking adequate documentation, w e must confine ourselves
t o suppositions.
All of which is of secondary importance compared with the
final withdrawal of the Jews into themselves, leading to
the formation o f a hermetically closed society within which
the complex of manners and customs that we have consid-
ered in earlier chapters finds its definitive expression. O f
prime importance is the reverence for money, source of all
lite. Increasingly, each action i n the Jew’s daily life was sub-
jected t o the payment of a tax. H e must pay to come and go,
to buy and sell, pay for the right to pray with his coreli-
gionists, pay to marry, pay for the birth of his child, even pay
for taking a corpse to the cemetery. Without money, Jewry
was inevitably doomed to extinction. Thus, the rabbis hence-
forth view financial oppressions (for example, the morato-
rium o n repayment o f debts t o Jews, ordered by one prince)
as o n a par with massacres and expulsions, seeing in them a
divine curse, a merited punishment from on high (231).
I n this sense, a n d this sense only, it might appear t o a
superficial observer that the Jews were the prime agents o f
the “capitalist mentality.” B u t this money, so coveted and so
precious, was given u p without reluctance w h e n moral duty
called: a duty of solidarity, of ransoming prisoners or com-
ing to the aid of coreligionists accused of ritual murder, I n
fact, one famous Talmudist even orders the communities
o f neighboring cities t o p a y their quotas i n order t o avoid a
danger that he compares, be it noted, to a flood, a natural
 The Image of the Jew 157

calamity; and his advice constitutes a precedent. ( T h e text,

given in the footnote, is an excellent example of the juridical
finesse of reasoning based on the Talmud. )*®

19 This was the advice (responsum) given b y the rabbi o f Pavia, Joseph
Kolon (Maharik), to the Jewish communities of Germany during the case
of ritual murder of Regensburg (1476): “From all sides has come the news
o f the d a n g e r that h a n g s over the heads o f our brothers imprisoned i n
Regensburg—may the Lord protect them!—and which also threatens the
neighboring communities. T h e most celebrated rabbis have b e e n summoned
b y the holy community o f Niirnberg i n order t o discuss the ways a n d means
of saving the accused, innocent of any crime, who are nonetheless con-
demned to death. But it is to be feared that certain coreligionists, certain
whole communities o r even relatives, deluding themselves with their im-
agined security a n d supposing they are exempt from all danger, will refuse
their co-operation i n the work o f salvation, though i n truth—may the Lord
preserve usl—the wicked clouds m a y break over their heads if our unfortu-
nate brothers o f Regensburg are not saved. This is w h y I willingly supply a n
answer t o m y masters, w h o ask m e t o show them the w a y o f light, so that
the disaster not fall upon them.
“First o f all, it is entirely justifiable that the neighboring communities
should contribute t o the expenses, for they too will drink from the c u p o f
distress i f the evil t o which our brothers o f Regensburg are exposed i s not
averted. T h e safety o f these latter also concerns them; the catastrophe, if it
occurs, will strike them as well. This is why, whatever their present situation,
o u r decision must b e taken i n relation t o what w e m a y consider as certain
for the future, a n d w e must impose upon them the obligation t o participate
in the expenses m a d e necessary by the work o f salvation. W e find a n analogy
for this case in the Baba Mezia. Rabbi Judah says: ‘If a stream descending
from the heights is lost i n the sands o r is deflected b y stones, the farmers
o f the valley must contribute t o its restoration, for they have need o f it for
their fields. But if the loss or the damming-up occurs in the valley, the
farmers o n the heights need not contribute t o its restoration, for the latter
will cause them more damage than advantage: the stream will flow faster
a n d yield less moisture t o the fields situated o n the heights. It is quite differ-
ent with respect t o the contribution t o the ditch which serves t o evacuate
the rain water that has accumulated i n the city. I n this case, the house
owners o f the upper parts o f the city must contribute t o the drainage labor
w h e n the lower parts are flooded. F o r even if these lower parts are the only
ones threatened for the moment, the flooding o f the upper parts is inevitable
as well, if the struggle against the danger i s not undertaken i n time.” Simi-
larly, i n our case, the danger is inevitable for the neighboring communities
if Regensburg i s n o t saved, and they must contribute t o that very rescue,
even if they seem i n security for the moment. Yes, the danger is inevitable,
for o u r enemies labor ceaselessly for our perdition—may G o d protect u s from
them!—and these communities must keep i n m i n d the verses: ‘Happy is the
m a n that feareth alway!’ (Proverbs 2 8 : 14.) A n d even i f they object that
 The Age of the Devil 158

Skill, adaptability, cunning, solidarity i n every circum-

stance, have always been characteristics o f every minority
group within a hostile society. I n general, these groups sooner
or later abandon their own values, the particular features,
customs, and manners that constitute their ancestral heritage,
a n d dissolve into the surrounding society. That the Jews have
been an exception to the rule is doubtless due to the extraor-
dinarily complex attitude of the Christians toward them,
putting them i n a situation that was virtually unique.
W e have seen, i n the preceding chapter, t o what degree
Jews were detested. But at the same time the Christians, far
from ignoring o r disdaining the Jews heritage, fiercely
claimed it for themselves. A whole system o f interpretation,
based o n certain passages o f the N e w Testament and still

the lying rumors that have done so m u c h harm t o the Jews o f Regensburg
have not reached their cities a n d that there can b e n o question o f a certain
danger, but o f the fear o f danger, I declare that even i n this case they must
contribute their quota. F o r our sages explain that w h e n it is a question o f a
struggle against a danger not yet present, there is reason for contribution
(Baba Bathra, 8 a ) : when it is a question of reinforcing the city walls,
defending the arsenal, o r sending horsemen t o see if enemy troops are ap-
proaching. A n d the fear o f danger certainly exists i n our case. Similarly, all
the inhabitants o f a city m a y b e constrained t o work upon its fortifications,
and the owner of a house, even if he does not live in it, may be obliged to
repair its door a n d supply it with a lock, i n order t o avoid all danger. H o w
m u c h more the neighboring communities o f Regensburg need protection, not
only for their bodies but also for their souls! A n d h o w m u c h more, then,
have they the duty t o contribute t o this protection, even if their members
must sell the clothes that cover their bodies a n d the hair that grows o n their
heads! It is for the purposes o f this protection that the pious rabbis have m e t
i n Nürnberg—may our Father i n Heaven bring success t o their endeavor!
Each member a n d each community must meet the assessment and p a y the
tax, even if one is taxed more heavily than the other. Since they dare not,
for fear o f t h e princes a n d potentates, ask the communities for the payment
of their contributions, I ask all the Jews of Germany, under threat of ex-
communication, not t o oppose the decision o f the rabbis a n d t o p a y their
respective quotas, in order that our accused and wrongly persecuted broth-
ers b e freed. A s for h i m w h o gives proof o f ill will a n d chooses not t o obey,
let him b e excluded from his community, let him be accursed, let water
penetrate his body and oil, his bones, and let his name b e anathema. As for
h i m w h o obeys, a sure blessing awaits h i m . . . . Thus speaks a m a n incapa-
ble o f ruling a n d w h o writes i n humility, the insignificant Joseph K o l o n . ”
( Responsa, N o . 4 . )
 The Image of the Jew 159

honored today, was elaborated t o show that the Church was

the true chosen Israel.” The patriarchs were called to witness
and were quoted as evidence. The Jews, it was specified in
one interpretation, were indeed of the race of Abraham,
but “elder sons,” children of the servant Hagar, whence their
“perpetual servitude.” The Christians, however, descended
(spiritually, of course) from Sarah in a direct line.”* I n an-
other interpretation, two generations later, the Jews are the
sons o f Esau, the Christians those o f Jacob;** two generations
later, the Jews represent Manasseh, the elder brother, and
the Christians Ephraim, the younger, who nonetheless re-
ceived the patriarchal blessing.?® This interplay o f symbols,
which derives principally from the Epistles of Saint Paul,
assuredly constitutes a rich source for the psychoanalyst,
w h o has a splendid opportunity t o show the archetypal qua-
drille in which the younger brother, preferably aided b y the
mother, supplants the elder brother i n the father’s affection,
o r rather seizes his power. T h e psychoanalyst will add that
20 Cf. the Dictionnaire de théologie catholique: “The theologian . . .
knows that the Church has succeeded the Synagogue, that it is the heir t o
all its books; that the Jewish people, rejected b y its infidelity, has been re-
placed b y the Christian people, which has become the people o f G o d . T h e
Church ceaselessly repeats this i n its prayers: plebs tua, populus tuus,
familia tua, gens tua; these terms, part o f the oldest liturgical terminology,
are intended t o insist upon this fact o f the substitution o f the Christian race
for the Jewish one” (article “Liturgy,” Paris, 1 9 3 2 , Vol. 91, p . 790).
21 Galatians 4: 22-31: “For it is written, that Abraham had t w o sons, the
one b y a bondmaid, the other b y a freewoman. . Which things are a n
allegory: . . for [the one which gendereth to bondage is Hagar] . . and
answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. . . . So
then, brethren, w e are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.”
2 2 Romans 9 : 6-13: “For they are not all Israel, which are o f Israel:
Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children.
. . . T h e elder shall serve the younger. A s it i s written, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated.”
23 Hebrews 1 1 : 2 1 : “ B y faith Jacob w h e n h e was dying, blessed both
the sons o f Joseph; a n d worshipped, leaning upon the t o p o f his staff.” This
verse refers t o Genesis 4 8 : Joseph takes his t w o sons Manasseh a n d Ephraim
to Jacob’s deathbed to receive his blessing. Jacob, against Joseph’s will,
blesses Ephraim, the younger, with his right hand, and Manasseh, the elder,
with his left.
 The Age of the Devil 160

the elder brother is present only t o screen the father and

that in reality we are concerned with a direct and successful
aggression against the father. Thus Judaism would b e the
supplanted father, inspiring extraordinarily violent and
mixed feelings: hatred, fear, remorse. There is doubtless
much that is true in this analysis, but we need not go to
such lengths t o understand not only the astonishing overe-
valuation of the Jewish heritage o n the part of the Christians,
and consequently o f the Jews themselves, but also the w a y
in which the value of so coveted a heritage was thereby en-
hanced and heightened for the Jews.
Similarly, the persistent efforts t o convert the Jews served
only to reinforce their notion of their own importance.
I n 1236, h a d not the Holy See announced that if the con-
version o f any pagan was a salutary work, the conversion of
a Jew was especially precious? ** Eschatological considera-
tions were involved here. If, as we read in Saint Paul and in
Saint Augustine, the general conversion of the Jews was to
signify the end of time,” the Jews acquiescence had the
power to accelerate or retard Christ’s final judgment and the
renewal o f the world. “The salvation o f all peoples was, b y

24 “Though w e open the heart o f our paternal compassion t o all those

w h o come t o the Christian faith, since the salvation o f each i s precious t o
us, nonetheless we bear to the converts from Judaism a still greater affection,
hoping that i f a branch o f wild olive, grafted u p o n a good olive tree, gives
delicious fruits, branches torn from a sacred root will afford even better,
for they are naturally finer. . . .” (Bull of Gregory IX, May 5, 1236; L .
Auvray, Les Registres de Grégoire IX, Paris, 1899, No. 3144.)
25 Romans 11: 25-26: “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be
ignorant o f this mystery, lest y e should b e wise i n your o w n conceits; that
blindness i n part is happened t o Israel, until the fulness o f the Gentiles b e
come i n . A n d so all Israel shall b e saved. . . . ” Saint Augustine is m u c h more
explicit: “ A n d at o r i n connection with that judgment the following events
shall come to pass, as we have learned: Elias the Tishbite shall come; the
Jews shall believe; Antichrist shall persecute; Christ shall judge; the dead
shall rise; the good a n d the wicked shall b e separated; the world shall b e
burned and renewed. All these things, we believe, shall come to pass, but
how or in what order, human understanding cannot directly teach us, but
only the experience o f the events themselves. M y opinion, however, is that
they will happen in the order in which I have related them. . . .” (The
City of God, Book 20, Chapter 30.)
 The Image of the Jew 161

their malice, diabolically suspended” (Leon Bloy) (232).

W h a t a terrible power they held! ( W e have seen the conclu-
sion that Saint Vincent Ferrer drew from this situation. It
could b e just as easy t o conclude that the Jew is omnipotent!)
I n this sense, one might say, the Church did everything to
propagate among the Jews the concept of their uniqueness
and their being the chosen people.
This was especially true o f the period i n which Jews a n d
Christians had a common language and broadly partici-
pated in the same culture. They confronted one another in
“disputations” that were sometimes amicable. They dis-
cerned and acknowledged human qualities in one another.
When the abyss separating them became uncrossable, the at-
tempts at forced conversion continued but the dialogue was
broken off. The attitude of the Jews in the face of Christian
attacks became like that adopted toward wild animals or
the calamities of nature; the attitude of Christians toward
them no longer mattered. To invectives and insults, the Jews
replied with icy silence. The tradition of apologetical writ-
ings, characteristic of the life in the Dispersion and going
back t o Flavius Josephus’ Against Apion, breaks off with the
German Jews (233). Once an adversary is no longer consid-
ered properly human, no effort is made to persuade or con-
found him. T h e limitless scorn i n which that adversary is held
affords a better understanding of h o w the Jews, without
abandoning one iota of their inner pride, could endure the
affronts a n d humiliations that h a d become the prevailing tex-
ture of their everyday existence.
They could endure every harassment except forced con-
version. They invested all their dignity as men, all their viril-
ity, in their fidelity to the Law, in their total readiness for
martyrdom. T o give in to apostasy, the renunciation of their
faith, would be for the Jews an acknowledgment of inferi-
ority and impotence. They faced the ordeal, when obliged to,
with a kind of enthusiasm, as a veritable consecration. A t
the period of the Black Plague, in 1348, they “. went to
die dancing and singing, as gaily as if they were o n their
 The Age of the Devil 162

w a y t o a wedding: and would not convert, neither father

nor mother for their children . a n d w h e n they s a w the
burning fire, women and children leapt into it singing the
while ” (234). There were cases of collective suicide
acts: . . and they decided they might die the more
swiftly, if they planned among themselves i n such wise that
one among them would kill all the rest, so that they would
not b e put to death b y the hand o f the uncircumcised. Then
all would consent to this, that one w h o was old and o f good
life according to their law would put them all to death . .”

(235).
Thus the teaching of the famous Rabbi Meir of Rothen-
burg: “Whosoever has taken the firm decision to remain loyal
to his faith and to die, if he must, a martyr, does not feel the
sufferings of torture. Whether he b e stoned or burnt, buried
alive or hanged, he remains without feeling, n o moan escapes
from his lips” (236). The cult of the martyrs, the Akeda,
was sustained in every way. It is one of the principal themes
of Jewish literature; the first, a n d for a long time the only,
subject of Jewish religious drama (yes, the Jews, too, had
their Mystery o f the Passion!), and its influence is noted i n
the details of their customs. According to certain rabbis,
the widow of a martyr must not remarry (237); according
to others, the blood he had shed must not b e removed from
the walls of the house, and he was to be buried in the clothes
in which he had been killed (238). The cult of suffering, its
systematic and reasoned promotion to the highest status, and
its classification as divine punishment, but also as the expres-
sion o f the love o f God, gave it a profound meaning and thus
made suffering endurable. O f course, such concepts were al-
ready implicit i n the Talmud: “Precious are sufferings!” ex-
claimed Rabbi Akiba; but these ideals were characteristic of
isolated thinkers until such time as Jewish suffering became
an intensely and collectively experienced reality. Henceforth
each individual Jew lived and participated in the drama. I n
this sense, we can say that the Ashkenazim of the end of
the Middle Ages were the first authentic Jews. Not that they
 The Image of the Jew 163

accepted their fate lightheartedly but they regarded it as

enviable. They consciously applied t o themselves the fa-
mous Talmudic maxim: “The Jewish people is not in a posi-
tion to rejoice like other peoples.” Consulted around 1 4 5 0 as
t o whether severe penalties should b e imposed upon a n apos-
tate seeking to return to Judaism, Israel Isserlein, the greatest
Talmudist of the fifteenth century, replied: “We must re-
member that h e w h o returns t o Judaism imposes upon him-
self a continual penitence, for he turns his back upon the
advantages and felicities from which h e benefited as a Chris-
tian, and assumes the sufferings and persecutions which the
J e w needs must endure. H e did not have t o bear this burden
while he was a Christian, and in truth his fault is expiated
when h e assumes it o f his o w n free will, with the sole purpose
o f again becoming a member o f the Jewish community”
(239).
Every aspect o f Jewish community life reflects this climate
o f penitence a n d austerity. Only once a year, a t Purim, was it
permitted and even recommended t o give oneself u p t o a n
open carnival gaiety, t o wear costumes and get drunk and a t ’
last take revenge o n one’s persecutors b y burning i n the pub-
lic square a wooden effigy o f Haman, that prototype o f all
anti-Semites. But even this sole annual respite was later for-'
bidden b y the Christian authorities, a n d the ceremony
was limited t o a symbolic stamping accompanied b y various
noises during the reading o f the Book o f Esther i n the syna-
gogue. O n other days, amusements were infrequent and
were regulated severely. T h e secular theater, identified with
debauchery, was strictly forbidden, as was dancing o f boys
with girls, even o n the occasion of a wedding. Card games
were authorized only o n exception. Ultimately chess a n d so-
cial games such as charades o n Biblical themes were the only
diversions that did not provoke the censure o f the rabbis.
All ornamentation, all attempt a t gaiety i n clothing, was
proscribed: m e n a n d w o m e n wore black o r gray garments
a t a period when color a n d sumptuary extravagance pre-
vailed. Here, as in many other ways, a “Jewish” costume,
 The Age of the Devil 164

chosen b y the Jews, corresponded t o what the world at

large, after having imposed the wearing o f the rouelle,
seemed t o expect. Christians came t o believe that a religious
proscription forbade the Jews to wear bright colors, which
was not at all the case. This inverse mimicry went so far
that in the miniatures embellishing certain Jewish manu-
scripts, the characters of the Old Testament, dressed in dark
robes and wearing the pileum cornutum, seem to be copied
from contemporary German caricatures.
There was virtually n o difference between rich a n d poor
—all dressed in the same fashion, all were exposed to the
same dangers and persecutions, all were distinguished by
their very speech from the Christian population.?® The close
community of misfortune, the intensive practice of charity,
blunted all class distinctions, as did the primacy accorded
to study and erudition. But the intellectual life of the German
Jews was limited to critical interpretation of the sacred texts.
Though they sought t o maintain the heritage o f their ances-
tors, they did not venture into n e w fields. There was n o au-
tonomous research, and as for philosophy and science, these
studies, except for medicine, were strictly forbidden. This
prohibition is sometimes attributed to certain secret instruc-
tions given to the German Jews at the time of the de-
struction of the Temple, and not communicated to the
Jews of other nations (240). Certain Ashkenazim regarded
themselves then as the only possessors of the true Jewish tra-
dition. This arrogant exclusivism is illustrated by the atti-
tude of Rabbi Asher ben Yehiel, a student of Rabbi Meir of
Rothenburg, who fled Germany after the Rindfleisch mas-
sacres and proceeded to Spain, where he became the rabbi
o f the Toledo community a n d undertook t o take his n e w
flock in hand. H e mocked the Talmudic learning of the Span-
26 About the e n d o f the thirteenth century, the habitual language of
the German Jews began to be differentiated from medieval German. This
tendency was to increase until in the sixteenth century “Yiddish” was con-
stituted as a separate dialect. (Cf. M . Waxman, “The Rise o f Judaeo-German
Literature,” in A History of Jewish Literature, N e w York, 1953, Vol. 2 , p .
613.)
 The Image of the Jew 165

ish Jews and thanked the Lord for having “preserved h i m

from the poison of philosophy and the profane sciences.”
A severe censor of manners, he observed with horror that
sexual relations between Jews and Christians were still
frequent and insisted that the Jewish offenders’ noses be cut
off. Such was the communicative power of fanaticism that
Asher was able to impose his will upon his new community
for a time. Doubtless the wind of intolerance that had al-
ready risen in Christian Spain was of some support to him.
The end of the Middle Ages is the period when the old
Jewish quarter was transformed into a ghetto, its gates locked
at night and its inhabitants permitted to use Christian streets
only by day. Behind the ghetto wall, the Jewish community
withdrew into itself for good. Its members l e d frugal and pi-
ous lives, scrupulously regulated i n the smallest details. This
ordered monotony formed a striking contrast t o the blows
of fate the Jews risked daily in their dealings with Christians.
Constant watchfulness o n the one hand was contrasted with
a way of life completely circumscribed from the cradle on-
wards.
A s soon as h e was four years old, o n the last day o f Sha-
buoth (anniversary of the Sinaitic revelation), the little Jew
was taken to school, where he was taught the rudiments of
the alphabet. So that study would always be sweet to him, the
first Hebrew characters, which were in relief, were covered
with honey. T h e first phrases h e was given t o read were
molded out of cookies or written o n eggs, which the chil-
dren shared after their lessons. The rabbis taught that noth-
ing was more admirable than study, that to provide instruc-
tion for the children of the poor was the most pious of works,
even superior t o the building o f a synagogue. All little boys
had to learn the Torah and the Prophets, Hebrew and Ara-
maic, and they were taught the rudiments of the Talmud
(Mishnah). Then, as they progressed into the domain of
the higher intellectual acrobatics of the Gemara, a winnow-
ing took place. Only the most gifted students were sent o n to
the “high school” (midrash gadol): these, even if they did
 The Age of the Devil 166

not become rabbis, would continue their studies throughout

their lives.
A t thirteen occurred the bar mitzvah, the ceremony o f re-
ligious and civil coming of age. From this moment, the
young Jew was considered marriageable, but the arrange-
ments were carefully expurgated of any element likely to
give rise to a romantic attraction between the sexes. Boys and
girls lived separately and were not allowed t o play o r dance
together. The betrothal was concluded through the inter-
mediation of a professional matchmaker (often a rabbi),
w h o was greatly respected, a n d usually the fiancés m e t only
o n the day the wedding contract was signed. T h e girl was
rated primarily o n the extent o f her dowry; the boy, o n his
erudition. These businesslike marriages were also very fruit-
ful ones, since nothing hindered the natural tendency t o
reproduce: the sexual act was also a commandment, conju-
gal fidelity the rule, and adultery an extremely rare excep-
tion that was punished severely. ( W e shall see later how cer-
tain Christian princes were to try to impose on the Jews the
first “birth control” in European history.) Once married
and a father, the life of a Jew, whether he was a talmid
hakham, a sage in Israel, or a simple usurer, followed a set
pattern. H e was occupied with satisfying the needs o f his fam-
ily a n d with serving G o d through the three daily prayers, the
various benedictions, and the six hundred and thirteen com-
mandments to be followed throughout life and which could
b e transgressed only if his life was i n danger. Usury and
study were not regarded as incompatible—quite the con-
trary. O n e text even specifies that usury offers the advantage
of affording plenty of leisure for study.
The little girl was compelled to learn to read and write but
was rarely instructed in the Talmud. Her knowledge of He-
brew was quite limited. This is the reason that the first
writings in Yiddish were books for women, giving rise to a lit-
erature in the vernacular that was not exclusively sacred lit-
erature. Thus it was chiefly through women that “profane”
 The Image of the Jew 167

interests and amusements were introduced into the Jewish

community.
I n many respects, ghetto life a t the end o f the Middle
Ages resembled the monastic life o f religious orders. I t was a
closed community, separated from the surrounding world. It
was a life consecrated to the service of God, one steeped in
piety and sacrifice, filled with intellectual and spiritual ex-
ercises, and the renunciation o f physical effort—its pleas-
ures as well as its pains. Similarities o f every type were ap-
parent, and it is significant that i n many German codices
Jews and clerics were classified under the same heading
(241). One might say that Christendom saw a mirror
image between the clerics, w h o chose service to God, and
the Jews, who had Lucifer for their master. However, clerics
chose the sacerdotal life a n d made their vows b y free choice
and at adulthood, whereas the Jew’s vocation had become
almost uniquely hereditary. B u t a t any moment the former
( b y being defrocked) and the latter ( b y conversion) were
free t o leave their condition. W e have seen, with respect t o
the Jews, that this was uncommon.
All the more striking are the imprints left b y apostates o n
Jewish history. Though Jews preoccupied men’s imagina-
tions at all periods and played a n historical role dispropor-
tionate to their numbers, this disproportion is even more
disconcerting in the case of that tiny minority of Jewish rene-
gades, so many o f w h o m are illustrious. It has been remarked
that, from Saint Paul t o Karl Marx, these renegades were the
chief artisans o f Western history. But most often, b y making
the conversion of Jews and the denunciation of Jews their
chief vocation, they constituted a true scourge for the Jewish
communities. From Theobald of Cambridge to Nicholas
Donin, w e have already encountered several names; from
Johannes Pfefferkorn to Michael the Neophyte, we shall
meet many more. More than the calamities that likely gave
rise to the desertions, it was the simple fact of defection, sap-
ping the foundation o f the most holy tradition, that struck
 The Age of the Devil 168

the Jews to the very heart. It is not surprising, therefore, that

the apostates should have been the object o f unparalleled
revulsion and hatred, some traces of which we still find today
in the most “assimilated” Jews, those most detached from
religious matters. Nor is it surprising that honest conversions
were impossible at a period when, in practical as well as
emotional terms, privately as well as publicly, the line be-
tween Jews and Christians could n o longer be crossed.
Where, when, how, could human contact between catechist
and catechumen be established? And if by chance this was
possible, reason—that simple, commonplace reason of the
Jews, which makes all discussion o f the Christian mystery
of the Revelation so difficult for minds not taught from earli-
est childhood—served as a final impediment. This is per-
fectly illustrated by the following Jewish apologia:
“ A prince friendly to arts and letters had in his service a
Jewish physician with whom he delighted to engage in the-
ological discussions. One day, taking him b y the arm, he led
him into his library and said: ‘Behold! All these learned
volumes have been written to demonstrate the truth of the
Christian dogmas. What do you possess that sustains your
own? ‘Assuredly, the thirteen dogmas of Maimonides may
be written on a single sheet of paper,” replied the Jew, ‘but
whatever the number and value of the volumes you show
me, Sire, I shall never understand why God, in order to com-
fort humanity, should have found nothing better than to pass
into the body of a virgin, to become a man, to suffer a thou-
sand tortures a n d death—and all without any apprecia-
ble result!” ”
( F o r the reader w h o m a y b e shocked o r offended b y the
foregoing lines, I suggest the recent work of Father P. Browe,
Die Judenmission i n Mittelalter und die Päpste, Rome,
1942, in which the author with scrupulous honesty sum-
marizes various Jewish arguments of this kind.”” That in so
27 H e r e i s t h e m o s t characteristic passage of the work: “The great
majority o f the Jews remained faithful t o their ancient faith a n d believed
i n a personal Messiah. They awaited h i m as a prophet a n d a prince o f peace,
 The Image of the Jew 169

doing he should be amazed by the incredible blindness

shown by the Jews down through the centuries merely em-
phasizes the difficulty o f dialogue i n these matters.)

not as God. Since they h a d separated from the Christians, they violently
denied that G o d could become a m a n . That G o d could enter into the body
o f a w o m a n , grow there, live afterward as a m a n a m o n g m e n , a n d finally
die a n outrageous death, signified for them the abandonment o f their
monotheism; as Saint Paul had already said, this was an incomprehensible
stumbling block. ‘Why, then™—thus Gislebert Crispin makes his Jewish ad-
versary say o n behalf o f all—‘does G o d , w h o suffices unto himself, w h o i s
greater than anything one c a n imagine, accept the misery o f h u m a n nature
a n d participate i n its evils? W h a t necessity incites h i m t o act thus? . .
“The Jews drew one of their most valued proofs from Isaiah ( 2 : 4 ) ,
where the kingdom o f the Messiah i s described as a kingdom o f peace, i n
which ‘they shall beat their swords into plowshares, a n d their spears into
pruninghooks: nation shall not lift u p sword against nation, neither shall they
learn w a r any more.” ‘From Jesus t o our o w n day,” said Moses b e n Nachman
a t the disputation o f Barcelona, ‘the whole world has been filled with vio-
lence a n d pillage, a n d t h e Christians s h e d more b l o o d than all the other
peoples taken together. Wherever one looks, w a r reigns supreme; there are
scarcely enough smiths t o furnish weapons t o the warriors. Neighbors fight
each other, oppress a n d slay each other, one nation wars against the next,
all strive from childhood to wage war.” ‘So, then,” says the Jew in the
dialogue o f Gislebert Crispin, ‘you are i n the wrong, y o u Christians, w h e n
y o u believe that the Messiah has already come. J
“Since Saint Paul, Christians have always reproached the Jews, as men
o f flesh, for abiding b y the letter a n d not raising themselves t o the higher,
spiritual meaning, not perceiving the mine o f gold hidden beneath the enve-
lope o f words. They stand before the Scriptures as the blind before a mirror,
holding it i n their hand a n d unable t o recognize themselves i n it. According
t o the words o f Saint Augustine, ‘they are deep i n sleep a n d d o not under-
stand the spirit o f the Scriptures.” “They read them,” says Bishop Isidore o f
Seville, ‘and in them find all that Christianity teaches; but they do not see,
it being for them the sealed book o f which Isaiah has spoken ( 2 9 : 1 1 ) .
‘They read them literally,” says Martin Leon, ‘but without entering into the
spirit; the face of Moses is hidden from them, and they cannot see the
radiant glory of the Law.” ”
 PART FOUR
THE AGE OF
THE GHETTO
W e are now entering the period when, following the Renais-
sance, the Western world resolutely takes new paths and im-
portant changes appear everywhere. Nevertheless, though
science and technology were advancing and the capitalist
system was developing, there was no change in the living
conditions or the attitude of the great mass of people. Anti-
Semitism, as it had crystallized during the preceding cen-
this
turies, seemed t o b e a n inevitable and integral part o f
attitude. Until the approach of the French Revolution, the
Jews, too, lived without changing the customs and mores of
their ancestors. They were in a state of stagnation or “fossili-
zation.” Their special way of existing within a hostile society
found its most obvious and complete form in the ghettos of
Poland. On the other hand, until the beginning of the
eighteenth century, nations like France or England contin-
u e d t o prohibit Jews within their borders. This fact deter-
mines the next part of our inquiry.
W e shall first consider anti-Semitism and its manifestations
in the absence of Jews—that is, in what we may call the
pure state. The situation in Germany will permit us later to
study the interdependence of anti-Semitism and the reac-
tions provoked b y the presence o f the Jews; this w e shall call
activated anti-Semitism. Lastly, the special circumstances of
Polish Judaism will interest us from another point of view:
i n effect, w e shall see European Jews, for the first time since
the beginning of the Dispersion, constituting a nation.
 eight
Anti-Semitism i n
the Pure State: France

First, is it certain that there were n o Jews left in France

after their expulsion in 1394? Some historians, in particu-
lar Robert Anchel, have formulated the hypothesis that some
of them continued to live there, either in hiding or as osten-
sibly converted “marranos” (242). Ingenious arguments have
been advanced in support of this idea. We shall see later how
public opinion i n 1650 still accused the honorable body o f
Parisian fripiers (rag pickers) of “Judaizing” in secret. Yet it
is certain that these fripiers, whatever they had been in the
fifteenth century (there is no information on this subject),
were good and loyal Catholics in the seventeenth. We shall
thus be dealing with one of those collective fixations in
vacuo, so persistent and so characteristic of anti-Semitism.
T h e strange case o f the Chuetas o f the Balearic Islands af-
fords a striking example of this in our own day.’ But let us
not anticipate.
I t is certain that after the Renaissance there n o longer re-
mained in France any trace of indigenous Jews, save for the
survival of a few words and place names. However, colonies
o f marranos, called “Portuguese,” were established at the be-
ginning of the sixteenth century in several ports—Bayonne,
Rouen, Nantes, and especially Bordeaux. These Jews osten-
sibly professed Christianity, which was assuredly less shock-
ing for the sensibilities o f the period. They were often per-

1 The “Chuetas” of Majorca, fervent Catholics, are presumably descend-

ants of the marranos, and for this reason are rigorously ostracized b y the
islanders. This will be discussed further in the next volume.
 The Age of the Ghetto 174

sons of considerable standing: international merchants for

the most part, and as such were protected b y the authorities
—primarily solicitous for fiscal reasons. It is very probable
that some of them went to live inland, in Paris or elsewhere,
and that most educated Frenchmen were aware of their ex-
istence. The expression “Spanish marrano” (that is, a Spanish
Jew who conceals his religion) often occurs in the writings of
D u Bellay (243), and Clément Marot writes of “the son of
the marrano” (244). But this same Marot is amazed at seeing
in Venice

Des Juifz, des Turcs, des Arabes et Mores

Qu'on veoit icy par trouppes chacun jour (245).
(Jews, Turks, Arabs, and Moors
That one sees here in numbers each day.)

I n other words, the sight o f acknowledged Jews was ap-

parently quite unusual for a Frenchman o f the sixteenth cen-
tury. Montaigne, too—himself the son o f a marrano mother—
when h e m e t Jews i n Rome and even visited a synagogue,
speaks as though this were a curious and exotic spectacle
(246). A n d the p o e t Sagon (who must have known what h e
was talking about, since h e was the “son of the marrano”
Marot referred to) tells us that

France est entière en sa religion,

France n’a Juifz dedans sa région
Ce qu'ont plusieurs nations prochaines (247).
(France is all of one religion,
France has no Jews within her region
As several neighboring nations have.)

I n fact, before the reign of Louis X I V and the annexation of

Metz and Alsace, there were only two or three instances of
Jews in France openly professing their religion. One was
Simon Molcho, to whom Francis I offered the chair of He-
brew at the College de France (248). I n the following cen-
 Anti-Semitism in the Pure State: France 175

tury, there was Elijah Montalto, w h o became the physician of

Marie de Médicis. Montalto collected around him a small
circle of Jews, converted or not—cabalists, physicians, or
merely charlatans “professing t o b e diviners by the
cabala”—at a period when the cabala was fashionable and
when many famous persons pursued the philosopher’s stone
or the elixir of life. Masaides, the disquieting cabalist from
Lisbon, the product o f Anatole France's artistic imagina-
tion i n L a Rotisserie d e la Reine Pédauque, might have
been inspired b y one o f the members o f this circle, since they
were m u c h talked about. Their fate was a n unhappy one and
deserves to be studied in some detail (249).
At this time (1611-1617), the Italian adventurer Concino
Concini and his wife, la Galigai, favorites o f the regent
Marie de Médicis, virtually ruled France. La Galigai, the
demonic member o f the couple, was what w e call today a psy-
choneurotic. She suffered from a thousand strange and se-
cret pains and h a d been treated b y the most famous physi-
cians and exorcisers of France and Navarre, without benefit.
Montalto, a physician famous in Italy, was living in Ven-
ice. Marie sent for him, but this Grand Hébrieu et vray Juif,
who “had no intention of dissimulating and counterfeiting
his profession,” stipulated, as a condition o f his coming, the
right to practice Judaism freely. He added that “through a
single act—his refusal to accept money on the day of the Sab-
bath—one could recognize his piety.” 2 This was granted him.
H e then arrived, and it appears that his services were more
than satisfactory, since he also cared for the regent and re-
mained i n France until the end o f his days. After his death,
his body was embalmed and sent to the Jewish cemetery in
Amsterdam. Doubtless Montalto had Jews in his retinue. It
is also likely that he summoned others from Holland, as h e
was accused posthumously of doing.
Meanwhile, in 1615, some scandalous incidents occurred
in Paris. Another protégé of the unpopular Concini, the Ital-
2 B . Legrain, Décade commençant l'histoire d u roi Louis XIII . . .
(Paris, 1619), from which the quotations that follow are also taken.
 The Age of the Ghetto 176

ian Cosme Ruger, abbé o f Saint-Mahé i n Brittany, refused

the sacraments o n his deathbed, preferring to die an atheist.
His body was therefore “thrown into the fields i n unconse-
crated ground.” “This year seemed t o b e completely given
over t o impiety and corrupt ways,” concludes the chronicler
from w h o m w e quote. “ W e see at the beginning o f the
year a great number o f sorcerers, Jews a n d magicians pro-
fessing their Sabbath and maintaining synagogues with im-
punity, and insinuating themselves even into the court.” ( A c -
cording to Sauval, some had even been caught “preparing a
lamb for the Passover of 1 6 1 5 ” (250). Energetic measures
were immediately taken to put a n end to the scandal, espe-
cially by the Parliament of Paris.” The 1394 edict of expul-
sion was formally reinstated by letters patent recorded on
May 1 2 , 1 6 1 5 . “Considering that the most Christian kings
have held in horror all the enemy nations of this name, and
especially that of the Jews, whom they have never consented
to suffer in their kingdom . . and particularly since w e
have been advised that in violation of the edicts and decrees
o f our said predecessors, said Jews have for some years ap-
peared, disguised, in several places of this our kingdom.
W e have said, ordered, desired, and declared:
“That all said Jews who are to be found in this our king-
dom will be required, on pain of death and the confiscation
of all their property, to depart and to withdraw from the
same, at once and within the time and term of a month . ”
(251).
T h e edict o f expulsion was not applied t o the marranos
of Bordeaux and Bayonne, who were too profitable for the
royal treasury and who, moreover, superficially satisfied the

3 “That H e r Majesty will b e very humbly implored t o order that the

edicts of pacification be maintained, but that the Jews, atheists, anabaptists,
a n d others professing religions not tolerated b y the said edicts will b e pun-
ished b y death and confiscation of all property, the half of which will b e
accorded to the informer. . . ” (22nd session of the Commission of Sep-
tember 1 , 1614; cf. the Registres des déliberations du bureau de la ville de
Paris, Paris, 1 9 2 7 , Vol. 16, p . 67.)
 Anti-Semitism in the Pure State: France 177

requirements o f conforming t o Christianity. T h e edict ap-

plied only to the “sorcerers, Jews, and magicians” of Paris.
T w o years later, the joint terms o f “sorcery” a n d “Judaism”
were very significant i n the notorious public trial o f l a
Galigai, after the murder of her husband.
The identification of sorcery and politics in such cases
was nothing new, and the Concinis were accused of the crime
of lese-majesté divine, as well as of corresponding with for-
eign powers a n d espionage. H a d there n o t been “found i n
their house a book entitled Cheinuc, that is, a manual for
learning Hebrew . and another book entitled Mahazor,
that is, the Jews’ liturgical cycle for the year”? Had not one
of her servants “sworn that la Galigai was in the habit of
making sacrifices of a cock”? Now, “it appears from two
books exhibited b y Monsieur le Procureur d u R o y
that this sacrifice of a cock is Judaic.” Finally, had not an-
other witness, Philippe Dacquin, “formerly a Jew and at
present a Christian,” declared that the accused indulged in
even more serious magical practices? * A n d so she was con-
demned to death and executed o n the very same day—to the
intense jubilation of the people of Paris. Countless broad-
sides, pamphlets, and plays commemorated this event, and
there was a rumor that she was a Jewess herself, her real
name being Sophar (though this was certainly not the case,
and this unfortunate practitioner of the black arts died a
good Christian
) . Was the circle of Jewish marranos that sur-
rounded her so powerful and so large? Comparing the
available documents, we find several other names, Al-
barez, Garcia, Veronne, but after 1 6 1 5 we hear no more about
them (except for the erstwhile Jew Dacquin, formerly a
4 “ , . . it being noted, according t o the testimony o f Dacquin, that
Conchine [Concini], in the presence of his wife, had taken from the cham-
ber a urinal, and taken from the said chamber the image of the crucifix, for
fear o f hindering the effect that Conchine a n d h i s wife claimed t o derive
from t h e reading o f several verses o f Psalm 5 1 i n Hebrew, which reading
they sought t o have m a d e t o them b y Dacquin i n the form that it h a d previ-
ously been m a d e t o them b y Montalto.” ( Legrain’s narrative, op. cit.)
 The Age of the Ghetto 178

rabbi, who sired a line of physicians. His grandson, Antoine,

attended the Sun King, Louis X I V ) (252). Nonetheless, for
a long time to come, some people suspected there were Jews
everywhere. I n 1627, Malherbe, deeply grieved a t being un-
able to conclude a lawsuit h e had begun against his son’s
murderers, attributed his failure to the Jews and wrote to one
of his friends:
“Judaism has spread as far as the Seine. It would be better
if it had remained beside the Jordan and if this rabble
had not mingled, as it has done, with respectable people.
There is no help for it. M y cause is a just one. I shall fight
everywhere with God’s help, even i n Jerusalem a n d with
the twelve tribes of Israel” (253).
( I t is as if one were reading Drumont!)
T w o centuries later, Alfred de Vigny wrote L a Maréchale
d'Ancre, a romantic drama in five acts, in which the Jew
Montalto is an important character. According to the con-
ventions then observed, de Vigny strongly accentuated the
character’s “Jewish” traits, transforming his given name to
Samuel and his profession to that of a usurer. Anatole France,
as w e have remarked, wrote more accurately.
The case of Montalto is typical; thus w e have examined it
in some detail. The Jewish doctor, who seems to have been a
m a n of rectitude, performed his professional duties for sev-
eral years a t the royal court. H e brought his retinue, as well
as several friends, t o Paris. This was enough to provoke the
formal reissuance in 1 6 1 5 of an edict dating from 1394, to
set off a spectacular trial for witchcraft, to make Malherbe
burst into vituperation twelve years later, and, two cen-
turies afterward, to nourish the imaginations of a de Vigny
and an Anatole France. The reaction t o Montalto, more-
over, reflects the horror of disbelief or simply of unbelief,
which henceforth begins to pose a serious threat to the solid-
ity of the Christian faith.
Thus we see how a “Jewish problem” preyed on men’s
imaginations, at a period when almost n o Frenchman had
 Anti-Semitism in the Pure State: France 179

ever seen a Jew in his life. This was also the period when the
words of the national vocabulary acquired their definitive
meanings, as Littré, for example, makes clear:
“Juif,-ive, s.m. and f
“3) Fig. and familiarly. One who lends at usury or who
sells at exorbitantly high prices, and, in general, anyone seek-
ing t o gain money b y sharp dealings. ‘It has been a long
time since I have seen young Sancho: h e is a young m a n
eager for gain and quite a Jew, i n m y opinion.” G u y Patin,
Lettres, Vol. 2 , p . 186. ‘What the devil! What Jew, what
Arab is this? That's more than twenty-five per cent.” Molière,
L’Avare, 2 , 1 . ‘Farewell, Jew, more Jew than any in all Paris.’
Regnard, L e Joeur,2,14 . 7

A definition that its theological counterpart, Judas, con-

veniently completes:
“Judas, s.m.
“ 2 ) Fig. A traitor. A betrayer. ‘He is a Judas. Monsieur
Judas is an odd fellow/ Who hotly maintains/ That he has
played only one r o l e / A n d painted himself only one color.’
Béranger, M . Judas. Adj. ‘Now that is criminal! N o w that is
Judas!” Molière, L e Bourgeois Gentilhomme, 3, 1 0 . Kiss of
Judas, a caress given to someone in order to betray him.”
H o w were these stereotypes sustained and strengthened
through succeeding centuries? This problem grows increas-
ingly complex and disconcerting as w e approach the modern
age. As t o past centuries, when all education was uniformly
religious, the answer is clear. I n effect, the family circle,
where the child learned to speak and was initiated into moral
concepts, played a determining role. As the little Christian
grew up and was taught to discriminate between good and
evil, h e was told o f the existence o f a strange, impenitent peo-
ple, guilty of the greatest crime of all time, and hence de-
testable. Later, when he attended a parish school and learned
his catechism, his teachers continued the same lessons, as w e
can discover b y examining the manuals of religious instruc-
tion. These assumed their definitive form in the seventeenth
 The Age of the Ghetto 180

century. Their contents assuredly h a d more influence o n pub-

lic opinion than the reflections of a few scholars or the lofty
speculations of a Pascal.
It would be a mistake to assume that these works showed a
special emphasis, that they were devoted to long discourses
to demonstrate the wickedness of the Jews. This wicked-
ness was taken for granted from the start. It served as a
kind of criterion, the absolute zero of evil, in order to set off
by contrast the true Christian virtues and to warn the sinner
or the libertine that if he did not mend his ways, the fate of
the Jews might one day be his own.
Questions and answers: the method was incisive and sure.
Rare are the catechisms, among the popular manuals of the
time, that do not touch on the subject. This is from Bossuet:
“Why did God cause all these miracles upon the death of His
SonP—As a testimony against the Jews.—Was this not also
a testimony against us’—Yes, if w e d o not profit b y this
death” (254).
The celebrated catechism of Abbé Fleury, which in two
centuries went through one hundred and seventy-two edi-
tions, is more explicit: “Did Jesus have enemiesP—Yes, the
carnal Jews.—To what point did the hatred of Jesus’ enemies
go?—To the point o f causing his death.—Who was it w h o
promised to hand him over?—Judas Iscariot.—Why was this
city [Jerusalem] treated i n this wayP—For having caused
the death of Jesus.—What became of the JewsP—They were
reduced to servitude and scattered throughout the world.—
What has become of them sinceP—They are still in the same
state.—For how longP—For seventeen hundred years” (255).
Let us imagine, in space and time, the millions of young
voices gaily and faithfully repeating their well-learned lesson.
Imagine, too, the commentaries that the teacher or curé may
have made, according to his o w n views and fancy.
More laconic, but still more devastating, is the catechism
of Adrien Gambart, which, its author expressly tells us,
was intended “for the simple-minded,” for those who “are
not capable of understanding long speeches or reasoning.”
 Anti-Semitism i n the Pure State: France 181

“Is it a great sin to take communion unworthily?

“It is the greatest of all sins, because one makes oneself
guilty o f the body a n d blood o f Jesus Christ, as Judas and the
Jews were; and one becomes the object of His judgment and
condemnation” (256).
Judas and the Jews, cupidity and betrayal: the identifica-
tion is always the same. These writers do not strain their
imaginations or bother to indulge in an “anti-Jewish propa-
ganda” a t this period, when it was implicitly acknowledged
b y all believers that Judas and the Jews, past and present, are
the sworn enemies of the Lord through the unfathomable
will o f Providence. They have become the permanent tools
of the Evil One through supernatural predestination; thus
they are distinguished from heretics and sorcerers, who have
joined his camp individually and voluntarily.
This same stereotype, enriched b y m a n y more suggestive
details, may be observed in the lives of Jesus or the saints, as
well as in accounts of pilgrimages, which were addressed
to a more educated audience.
Here, for example, is a passage froma life of Jesus:
“Some insulted him; others, with the backs of their hands,
struck his noble and gentle mouth; others spit into his face
(for it was the custom of the Jews to spit into the faces of
those whom they cast out from among themselves); others
tore out his beard or pulled at his hair, and thus trampled un-
der their accursed feet the Lord of the angels. . And
still spitting into his noble countenance, they struck his
head with a stick, so that the thorns of his crown sank into
his head and made the blood flow down his cheeks and over
his forehead. Pilate commanded that in this shame-
ful and inhuman state he be led before all the Jewish peo-
ple, who had remained outside in order not to sully them-
selves on the day of the Sabbath. But these accursed sons
of the Devil all cried out with one voice: Take him away,
take him away, crucify him. . . ”
B u t divine retribution could not b e long delayed and was
announced b y a chapter heading: “Of the vengeance for
 The Age of the Ghetto 182

the death of Our Lord Jesus Christ upon Judas, upon Pilate,
and upon the Jews in general.”
“Thirty Jews were given for one piece o f silver. Ninety-two
thousand Jews were sold and scattered into various parts o f
the world and put into perpetual bondage, in which their
race still languishes, and will until the end of the world J
(257).
Other works went into greater detail as to the manner in
which divine vengeance continued to work upon the Jews. “ A
race once blessed, today accursed; once holy, today profane;
once honored b y all men, today detested b y m e n and an-
gels; once heirs to the Holy Land, and n o w wretched wan-
derers over the world. . . .” Thus begins the chapter de-
voted to the Jews b y Father Boucher, an Observant friar
who had seen a few of them in the Orient. (We shall find
later, under Bossuet’s name, the same idea, written with re-
markable similarity, but there is n o n e e d t o assume that the
Eagle of Meaux plagiarized Father Boucher, since we are
dealing with a commonplace of the period.)
Father Boucher then turns to the Talmud and concludes
his account—which went into several dozen editions be-
tween 1 6 2 0 and 1735—as follows:
“In conclusion of this discourse, I would say n o more about
them than that they are odious and loathsome to all the
world. The Turks so hate them that they permit all Chris-
tians who find them in the square of the Church of Calvary
to kill them without being arrested for doing so. The Levan-
tine Christians have such a horror of them that they con-
sider it a mortal sin t o eat anything handled b y a Jew. W e
k n o w h o w they were driven out o f England i n disgrace i n
the year 1291, a n d out o f France, first under Philip Auguste
[Philip I I ] , then later under Philip the Fair [Philip IV],
and finally under Philip the Tall [Philip V ] .
“They were also banished from Spain under Ferdinand,
always in punishment for their impiety and the rage they
bear toward all Christians ” (258).
More startling statements were made b y other pilgrims,
 Anti-Semitism i n the Pure State: France 183

for charlatanism contributed t o the perpetuation o f age-

old legends. The naive Franciscan Dominique Auberton re-
ported seeing i n 1623, i n Jerusalem, i n the “house o f Pilate,”
Malchus, a Jew who had beaten Jesus Christ with his own
hand: “This man, of an age, so it seems, between thirty-five
and forty years . . . is buried i n the earth to his navel, a n d
speaks only to Christians. . . H e asked us when the D a y
of Judgment would come. We told him that the Lord alone
knew. This Malchus beats and strikes at his breast constantly
and never looks at those who speak to him. A n d I,
Brother Dominque Auberton, certify that this is true, upon
my faith, my word, and my share of paradise” (259).
This eternal Jew was not yet a wandering one! °
Stories of miraculous Hosts or of ritual murders—both
famous legends of nationwide currency—were also often
adapted to the taste of the time. Examples are the incident
of the Rue des Billettes in 1 2 9 0 and minor incidents of local
importance, such as the case of ritual murder in Le Puy in
1 3 2 0 , narrated in various works of 1 6 2 0 , 1 6 3 0 , 1653, and
1693.
Works of this type were accessible only t o a literate and
inquisitive minority, but the sermons that priests a n d friars
delivered from their pulpits affected the entire population.
All trace has been lost of what the humble curés may have
said, but the discourses of the high dignitaries and famous
preachers who served as models are available to us. Turn-
ing to these, we can see that two themes—direct vilification
o f the Jews, and warnings o f the threat they symbolized
for Christians—alternate regularly. This is apparent from a
glance at a few texts not usually found in anthologies (260).

8 T h e “wandering Jew” legend, whose spread throughout Europe dates

from the first years of the seventeenth century (see p . 242), was known in
several variants in the Orient from the first centuries of Christianity. W e see
how industrious charlatans helped to maintain it.
 The Age of the Ghetto 184

VILIFICATION

“ A monstrous people, having neither hearth nor home, with-

out a country and o f all countries; once the most fortunate i n
the world, now the evil spirit and the detestation of the
world: wretched, scorned b y all, having become, in their
wretchedness, b y a curse, the mockery o f even the most mod-
erate ” (Bossuet).®
“The greatest crime of the Jews is not that they caused
the death o f the Saviour. Does this surprise you? I thought
it might. . . A n d h o w could this be? Because God, upon
the death of His Son, left them still forty years without pun-
ishing them. W h e n H e used so sudden a punishment,
there was some other crime which H e could n o longer en-
dure, which to H i m was more unendurable than the death of
His o w n Son. What was this crime, so black and so abomi-
nable? It is the hardness o f heart, it is impenitence 7

( Bossuet).
“What did the Jews d o when they stoned Stephen? Listen
t o the thoughts o f Saint Fulgentius, which will appear t o
y o u as solid as they are ingenious: ‘Stephen, says this
Father, ‘as the first martyr o f Christianity, is one o f the
living stones with which Jesus Christ began to build his
Church; and the Jews, who themselves are hearts of stone,
striking this mysterious stone, brought forth the sparks of
charity and divine love . .” (Bourdaloue).
“But let us turn from these unbelievers. As they were
scandalized b y Jesus Christ, they have become, b y a just
judgment o f God, the scandal o f all peoples, and they shall
be such until God, at the end of time, gathers together the
debris of Israel . . .” (Fléchier).
“ H o w far will this foolish people not carry the excesses o f
its frivolity and its blindness? A n d h o w many crimes does
it not compound within a single one? First of all, monstrous
injustice. Secondly, blind rage. This furious peo-
6 Compare with the quotation from Father Boucher o n p . 182.
 Anti-Semitism in the Pure State: France 185

ple asks that his blood b e upon it and upon all its poster-
ity: it consents, it desires, that this anathema remain eternally
upon the heads o f its descendants . and the outcome
corresponds to its desire: even today, having become the
opprobrium of the universe, wandering, fugitive, scorned,
without altar, without land, without sacrifices, they bear
everywhere upon their heads the crime o f this blood they
have shed . .” (Massillon).

THREAT

“Yet here, O sinner, I must enter with you into a more de-
tailed discussion: I must examine if you are m u c h less guilty
than are the Jews. . . But, you will say, the Jews have
crucified the Saviour. A n d d o you not know, O sinners, that
y o u trample underfoot the blood o f his testament? . .
(Bossuet
).
“Death i n sin, death with sin, death even, as it often hap-
pens, b y sin—that, m y dear listeners, is what frightens m e
and what must frighten you even as it does me. That is God’s
most terrible weapon in the arsenal of His wrath; that is what
the Son of God threatens the Jews with today, and what
we as well as the Jews must preserve ourselves from
(Bourdaloue).
“ A crown of thorns is prepared for him, and it is pressed
violently d o w n upon his head. H i s blood flows o n all sides,
as all the points that pierce him make so many wounds. That
is h o w the Synagogue has treated its King! That is h o w it
treated your King and mine! That is h o w it treated the Mas-
ter and the King of all nature. We detest this indignity! But
even as we detest it in others, do we not detest it in ourselves?
For is it not ourselves, Christians, who have a hundred times
behaved in this wise toward Jesus Christ? . . .” (Bourda-
loue).
“What kind of terrible beatitude is Jesus Christ announcing
to men today, or rather, what judgment is he pronouncing
upon them today? They have heard without heeding
 The Age of the Ghetto 186

the words from his sacred lips; they have seen without won-
der the brilliant luster of his virtues. . Such were once
the Jews; such today are the Christians (Fléchier).
“But such is your work and the consummation of your in-
iquity and your ingratitude if you are sinners; such is the
barbarous act which you repeat every time you consent to
the crime; such is the body you dishonor when you cor-
rupt your own; such is the august head you recrown with
thorns, when acts of lust, complacently repeated, make dan-
gerous impressions upon your mind; such is Man, ecce
Homo. Can this spectacle leave you unmoved? Must h e as-
cend Calvary again? Would y o u mingle your voices with
those of the perfidious Jews, and ask again that he be cruci-
fied? .” (Massillon).

Penitence! Penitence! “Would you mingle your voices

with those of the perfidious Jews, and ask again that he be
crucified?” But the edifying words of the preachers were
applied only t o their flocks o f perennial scapegoats. Let us
recall Pascal's heart-rending cry upon his conversion: “Jesus
Christ, Jesus Christ! I have turned from him, fled from him,
renounced and crucified him!” That was Pascal. For souls
less sublime and less suffering, the only solution psychologi-
cally possible was t o load again upon the Jews the intolerable
guilt o f a n obsessive and imaginary crime.
O f course, quotations can be deceptive, and it should not
b e assumed that the preachers o f the time h a d only the Jews
in mind. O n the contrary, they mentioned them rather
rarely; but when they did, it was always i n this light. I t was,
one might say, a “propaganda o f reminding” ( a n d not a
“propaganda o f u r g i n g ” ) . T h e associations are always the
same: Crucifixion—indignity; Christian imperfections—Jew-
ish guilt. Here is a final example, quoted from the most pow-
erful popular preacher i n France between the Reformation
and the Revolution.
The Blessed Grignon de Montfort (1673-1716) exercised
his ministry in Brittany, in the Vendée, and in Anjou ( a n d if
 Anti-Semitism i n the Pure State: France 187

the Catholic faith is strongest i n these regions today, this is

attributable to his influence, according to his biographer)
(261). Among other gifts, he had that of striking and facile
rhyming. H e composed a great number of canticles that h e
set to music, using the popular tunes of the time. This scanda-
lized his contemporaries, but even today we hear children
and young people singing these chants in the countryside.
Here is one that m a y b e said to b e merely the transposition
of a mystery of the Passion of the Middle Ages, with its evoc-
ative and bloody images. Though they are n o longer per-
formed o n a stage, they are still sung.
Here are the chief strophes:

Jesus flagellated
Jésus voit la mort affreuse Jesus sees a dreadful death
Qui vient d’un air menaçant Coming upon him threaten-
ingly;
Pour être victorieuse To be victorious
Ainsi qu'il soit le Tout-Puis- H e must as well be omnipotent.
sant.

(Refrain)

C’est moi qui suis le cou- I am the guilty one

pable,
Mais Jésus est innocent. But Jesus is innocent.
A h ! que je suis misérable! A h ! Wretched a m I!
Je le dis en gémissant. I say it, moaning.

Les bourreaux pleins de rage, The furious executioners

C o m m e des loups ravissants, Like ravening wolves
Lui meurtrissent le visage, Bruise his face
Arrachent ses vétements. Tear his garments.

(Refrain)

Il est couvert de blessures, H e is covered with wounds,

Son sang coule par ruisseaux. His blood flows in rivulets.
Accablé de meurtrissures, Overwhelmed with bruises,
Sa chair tombe par lambeaux. His flesh falls in strips.
 The Age of the Ghetto 188

(Refrain)
Jesus Crowned with Thorns

On met dans ses mains sacrées Into his sacred hands are put
Pour sceptre, u n fréle roseau. For scepter, a frail reed.
Chacun en fait des risées Everyone mocks him,
E n disant: Ha! Qu'il est beau! Saying: H a ! H o w fine!

C’est pour nous, 0 pécheurs, It is for us, O sinners,

Qu'il endure ces douleurs. That h e endures these pains.

One le couronne d'épines. H e is crowned with thorns.

Avec des coups de bâton; With blows of a stick;
U n chacun lui fait des mines Everyone makes faces at him
E n hurlant comme u n démon. Shrieking like a demon.

(Refrain)
Cette couronne cruelle This cruel crown
Lui transperce le cerveau. Pierces his skull.
O n voit couler sa cervelle T h e brain oozes out
Avec d u sant et de l’eau. With blood and sweat.

(Refrain)
Jesus Crucified
Cette canaille insolente This insolent rabble
Lui tire tout d e nouveau Again tears everything from
him:
Sa pauvre robe sanglante His poor bloody robe
Toute collée a sa peau. Sticks everywhere to his skin.
C’est pur nous, 6 pécheurs, It is for us, O sinners,
Qu'il endure ces douleurs. That h e endures these pains.

Tandis que les plus barbares While the fiercest

Préparent tout pour sa mort Prepare everything for his death
Quelques-uns des plus avares Some of the greediest
Tirent ses habits au sort. Draw lots for his clothes.

(Refrain)
O cruelle barbarie! O cruel savagery!
Ses membres sont disloqués, His limbs are broken,
 Anti-Semitism i n the Pure State: France 189

Sa chair est toute meurtrie, His flesh is all bruised,

L'on voit ses nerfs tout ban- His nerves laid bare.
dés.
(Refrain)
Jesus Dead and Buried
O pécheurs abominables, O abominable sinners,
C’en est fait, Jésus est mort. It is done, Jesus is dead.
Nous sommes tous les coupa- We are all guilty.
bles.
Que deviendra notre sort? What is our fate to be?
C’est pour nous, 6 pécheurs It is for us, O sinners,
Qu'il est mort dans les dou- That h e died i n such pain.
leurs (262).

The evocative power of these images is obvious. I t is not sur-

prising that Grignon de Montfort was a remarkable rab-
ble-rouser. With other great evangelizers, he felt tempted b y
the Evil One all his life. O n his deathbed, he was still strug-
gling against him; he expired, his biographer reports, ex-
claiming: “In vain you attack m e . I a m between Joseph and
Mary. I have run m y course. It is over, I shall sin n o more”
(263).

T o what extent was this propaganda effective? Could it,

i n the virtual absence of Jews, provoke great popular move-
ments that are the instinctive and final aspects of anti-
Semitism? O u r answer must vary with the period. I n the
sixteenth century, we find no public reaction, n o anti-Jewish
upheaval. There was an obvious and simple reason for this:
i n the century of the Reformation, the French Protestants
assumed a specifically “Jewish” role, and the traditional
“marvelous hatreds” were directed toward them. À perse-
cuted minority, worshiping in secret, devoted to the Old
Testament—the analogies are many, and the following pas-
sage by a contemporary historian, which carries singularly
familiar overtones for a Jewish reader, is characteristic:
 The Age of the Ghetto 100

“The Protestants lived, individually as well as collectively,

in an atmosphere of permanent insecurity. . The popu-
lace, Catholic or ‘atheist, turned against these men who
held secret assemblies. I t collected and spread the most dam-
aging stories, which were circulated particularly in the
neighborhoods where the secret meetings were held. W e
can imagine the suspicion aroused by the nocturnal com-
ings and goings of strangers or of persons of high rank through
these out-of-the-way districts and o n roads through the flat
countryside. The people responded with jeers, stones, riots,
even fires . .” (264).
A t the end of the nineteenth century, did not Edouard
Drumont call the French Protestants “half-Jews”?
Thus, in general, anti-Jewish hatred decreased greatly
when other violent passions aroused the social body. Heretics,
Turks or other infidels, or simply an “hereditary enemy” i n
a period of conflict: the substitutes, down through the cen-
turies, were many and varied.
Accordingly, there was a change in the seventeenth cen-
tury, after the Edict of Nantes put an end to religious wars.
W e have discussed the eddies stirred u p b y the Concini
case; and though, in the absence of the Jews—the most reli-
able chroniclers of their own misfortunes—many other cases
are unknown to us, in the course of this strange and obstinate
shadow war there were some skirmishes of which records
survive. The Jean Bourgeois case, which dates from 1652, is
an example.
Paris was then in the midst of the Fronde—the “court
party.” Anne of Austria and Mazarin were on one side, while
the city people and Parliament were o n the other. There were
skirmishes and battles; the armed bourgeois temporarily
seized de facto power, while the guilds assumed police re-
sponsibilities in the capital.
On August 1 5 , 1 6 5 2 , the Guild of Fripiers (old-clothes
dealers) of the Tonnelleris was taking its turn on guard
duty. Banners flying, they passed near the church o f Saint-
Eustache. At this moment, a young bystander named Jean
 Anti-Semitism in the Pure State: France 191

Bourgeois cried out mockingly, “There go the gentlemen

from the synagogue!”
Enraged, the fripiers flung themselves on him, beat him
with their halberds and the butts of their muskets, and
forced him to make honorable amends. Then he was re-
leased. This minor incident had a long train of consequences.
Jean Bourgeois, the son of an honorable merchant, did
not leave matters there but lodged a complaint with the
magistrate against his attackers. O n e o f them was arrested.
Furious, the fripiers swore vengeance. They lured the young
man into an ambush, tortured him cruelly and at great
length, and finally blew out his brains with a musket.
A mere incident set against the background o f a troubled
period? A feud between two guilds? This was not how the
public interpreted the matter—and public opinion in this
period was remarkably sensitive and active. For four years,
as long as the Fronde had lasted, public opinion had ex-
pressed itself through political pamphlets called mazarinades,
since they were directly chiefly against Mazarin. Sometimes
several appeared i n one day, i n prose o r verse, six o r eight
pages long; but n o w Mazarin was forgotten for several weeks,
and the world seemed to live under the sign of the “Jewish
problem.”
First came prose tracts ( 2 6 5 ) . A Monitory letter published
b y all the parishes of the City of Paris against the Jews of the
Synagogue ( 2 6 6 ) ; a Simple and true account of the
cruel murder and horrible massacre committed o n August
26, 1 6 5 2 . . (267); and a Scrutiny of the life of the Jews,
of their religion, trade, and associations . (268). “There
is no one who does not know that the Jews are the oppro-
brium of all nations and have been so for sixteen hundred
years and more,” we read in this last. “Their customs show
their malediction no less than their bondage. There is no one
who does not know that they have no other profession in life
than usury, and that their false witnesses and their infa-
mous practices have sown corruption the world over. >

A n d so on. Then comes: The true story of what occurred i n

 The Age of the Ghetto 102

the murder of a young boy, son of a merchant . . . (269);

The reply of the officers of the Synagogue . (270), which
defends the fripiers; and finally, The assembly of fripiers
t o advise h o w to remedy the cruelty of their great crime
(271), a subtle item whose author puts the following
reasoning in the “Jews” ” mouths:
“Of what are w e guilty? Moses i n his day sacrificed ani-
mals, and w e have sacrificed a man. Is it not said in the same
book that our predecessors had the power to sacrifice Jesus
Christ, their King and ours? W h y d o w e not have the power
t o put a m a n to death? . .”

Generally, i n line with the fashion o f the time, these tracts

were i n verse, i n which the authors gave their imaginations
free rein. They are equally characteristic. Some bordered on
a furious indignation:

Infâmes assassins, Infamous murderers,

Nation detestable Detestable nation
Abhorrée des humains, Abhorred b y men,
Chassée d e toutes places, Everywhere rejected,
Fallait-il aujourdhui Must y o u today
Renouveler Ueffort Renew the effort
D e vos cruautés inouies Of your horrid cruelties
Lesquelles donnérent la mort Which put to death
Au Dieu de qui nous tirons The G o d b y whom w e live?
vie?

(True account o f the horrible murder committed b y the

fripiers of the Jewish nation J) (272).

Démons échappés de l'enfer, Demons escaped from hell,

Race des Juifs, gens détesta- Race of the Jews, detestable
bles, men,
Plus maudits que n'est Lu- More accursed than Lucifer
cifer
E t plus méchants que tous les A n d more wicked than all the
Diables, devils,
Tigres cruels, retirez-vous, Cruel tigers, begone,
 Anti-Semitism in the Pure State: France 193

Indignes de vivre parmi nous. Unworthy as you are t o live

among us.

Quand vous serez de sang When you thirst so for blood,

avides,
Craignez donc la punition You must fear the punishment
Dont la Sainte Inquisition With which the Holy Inquisi-
tion
Doit châtier vos parricides. Will chastise your parricides.

Déliez les pieds et les mains Untie the hands and feet
D'un bourgeois mis a la tor- Of a citizen put to the torture.
ture.
Voulez-vous qu'il soit en effet Would you make of him
D'un Ecce homo le portrait The image of an Ecce Homo
Sujet à l’outrage et l'injure? Subject t o insult and outrage?

( T h e Synagogue shown i n its true colors . . ) (273).

Here w e see the direct identification that our pamphleteers

make between the Crucifixion, its temporal extension in the
form of ritual murder, and the crime of the fripiers.
Having presented the problem i n this way, other verses
suggest specific remedies. O f course, these are only songs
—but it is noteworthy that they advocate the very remedies
that were used i n Europe during the recent past—for in-
evitably in such matters, the human imagination is limited.
O n e piece o f doggerel suggests expelling the Jews o r making
them wear special insignia:

Faites sortir de nos murs Cast out from our walls

D e s gens d e si mauvaises People of such evil ways.
moeurs.
O u bien, par l'ordre d u mon- Or, b y the king’s command,
arque,
Faites-leur porter une marque Make them wear a sign
Qui les distingue des chré- That distinguishes them from
tiens Christians
Et les mette parmi les A n d sets them among the
chiens . . . dogs . . .
 The Age of the Ghetto 104

(The rage of the Jews, dedicated to the Gentlemen of the

Synagogu e .)(274).
Another simply proposes hanging them:

Faites que l'on voie, pieds et Let there be seen, hands and
mains feet
Liés, ceux de leur troupe Bound, those of their horde
Suivre les traces à grands pas Following the footsteps closely
D e celui qu'ils ont mis à bas O f h i m whom they laid low
Par une mort trop cruelle. By a death all too cruel.
Faites que l'on voie sur l’éch- Let there be seen on the scaf-
elle, fold,
Sans faveur, grâce ni pardon, With no favor, grace or pardon,
L a Synagogue à Montfau- T h e Synagogue a t Montfau-
con . con . . .

(The cruelty of the Synagogue . . +) (275).

Still another suggests castrating them all “so that their race
2”
m a y b e extinguished forever.

Je crois qu'il est plus juste I believe it is more fitting

Qu'autrement le fer les ajuste. That the steel arrange matters
differently.
E t qu'on leur ôte tout à fait A n d that there b e removed
from them entirely
L e membre qu'ils ont impar- That member which i n them is
fait. already imperfect.
Afin que pour punir leur vice I n order that i n punishment of
their vice
Ils survivent à leur supplice They m a y survive their torment
Et qu'au gré de nos justes A n d that according t o our just
voeux desires
Leur n o m ici meure avec Their name here o n earth per-
eux . ish with them . . .

(The criminal verdict reached against the Synagogue

. ) (276).
 Anti-Semitism in the Pure State: France 195

(The last author, more cautious than his colleagues, none-

theless makes one reservation: “We must see beforehand if
they are all whole men, where m e n m a y b e whole. O r if there
has been made some sort of cut whose mark remains within
their skin.” A n d then h e slips into coarse joking: “Lovely
ladies, surmount all obstacles. / I invite you to this spectacle
/ Where y o u will have enough choice / T o content your
every desire. / Consider the perfect model of natural power
/ Finding long ones, short ones etc.)
T h e reader, confronted with so many texts, m a y well ask
whether the fripiers of Paris were not, after all, clandestine
Jews, marranos professing their religion in the utmost se-
crecy? What other meaning can we give this campaign?
Yet this was not so. All the protagonists, without exception,
were good and loyal Catholics. This is proved incontestably
by the evidence submitted later at the trial held (for there
was a trial), as well as b y a number o f other texts.” T h e key

7 T h e father o f Jean Bourgeois brought the case before Parliament: the

dossier is in the Archives Nationales ( Registres Parlement criminel, arrêts
transcrits X2 233-34). The reporter, M . de Boivin-Vaurony, was severe to-
ward t h e fripiers: “Christendom has been outraged b y the outrages com-
mitted upon the lamented victim, which . . . only barbarians without the
knowledge o f G o d would b e capable o f inventing a n d using upon a m a n o f
another nation. But that, in the first and foremost city of His Christian
Majesty, this barbarism should have been perpetrated b y several individuals
upon another, all professing the same religion, is a n occasion i n which the
offense t o G o d must b e a consideration i n the deliberation a n d the judgment
of the trial. J
Subsequently, letters o f annulment were granted t o the accused b y the
king. “ W e have received the humble supplication o f , professing the
Catholic, apostolic, a n d Roman Religion. . . .
Thus neither i n Parliament n o r o n the Royal Council did anyone suspect
the fripiers o f Judaizing. There i s n o q u e s t i o n about their names: Philip
Sayde, Jean Forget, Simon Gaultier, Noël Debarque, Gilles Jousseanne,
Cahourst the elder, Vivanier, and so on.
Furthermore: H o w could the fripiers b e constituted into a guild and
bear arms along with the other guilds i f they were Jews?
T h e guild o f the fripiers o f Paris was a very old one. It is listed i n the
Livre des Métiers by Etienne Boileau, and consequently dates back to the
fourteenth century. Under Louis XI, the fripiers had the fourteenth banner.
 The Age of the Ghetto 196

to the enigma lies in this definition of the word “Jew,” given

some fifty years later in Savary’s Dictionnaire du Com-
merce:
“Jew. 1) This term has various meanings in commerce,
but almost invariably is pejorative. . I n Paris, the term
‘Jew’ is given to the fripiers, either because people believe
them t o b e as deceptive as the Jews were formerly, when
they were involved in the second-hand clothing business in
France; or because several families among these merchants
are suspected o f descent from former Jews; yet these sus-
picions are equally without foundation, there being i n their
community as many honest m e n and good Catholics as i n
any other section of Paris” (277).
Thus we see the issue clearly. The fripiers of Paris were
“Jews” i n the sense that they practiced a traditionally “Jew-
ish” trade; they were called “Jews,” and their guild was
nicknamed the “Synagogue.” Professionally and semanti-
cally, they were looked upon as Jews. But they were not Jews,
and rejected the imputation with horror.” For countless gen-
erations they h a d been Catholics b y religion, and nothing i n
their customs and mode of life distinguished them from other
Christians. Yet they continued to be the target of obstinate
social suspicion.
Thus they were Jews objectively without being so sub-
jectively. I n other words, they were miscast; a n d though
sensitive popular reactions could sometimes provoke short-
lived explosions such as that of 1652, the holy rage, meeting
with inadequate support, subsided of its o w n accord. I n the
absence of fuel, the fire died down.
It was rekindled, however, from time to time. Thus, eight-
een years later, i n 1670, when a great trial for ritual murder
i n Metz (where, at the time, there were some Jews) coin-

8 I n this connection, the jocular author of the Criminal verdict . . .

concludes sensibly: “If they have rejected this outrage / With such a n ex-
treme rage / It is a sure sign / That the name of whoreson / Would have
offended them less / Than this title of Jewry / From which I rightly infer /
That they have nothing of the Jew but this false name.”
 Anti-Semitism in the Pure State: France 107

cided with mysterious disappearances o f young m e n i n Paris

(where there were n o n e
), rumors circulated in the capital:
they had been kidnaped by the Jews! What Jews? From
where? The rumor did not supply details. Then, in the ab-
sense of Jews (this time the fripiers were not molested
), it
died out once again.’

Horror and contempt. Were the anti-Jewish reactions in

this period unanimous? In truth, almost. We can quickly
review the rare dissenting voices.
T h e most famous o f the few humanists o f independent
and critical spirit in France was Jean Bodin. In his dialogue
Heptaplomeres, seven interlocutors discuss the comparative
virtues of the various religions. The conclusion is reached that
all are equally good. It is t o Solomon the Jew, rather than t o
Coroni the Catholic or Octave the Mohammedan, that the
authors sympathies are given. But Bodin was a cautious
man. His Heptaplomeres was published only long after his
death. W e must add that though Bodin was a n enlightened
spirit, h e was a true product o f his time a n d apparently be-
lieved in witchcraft."° H e composed a treatise, L a Démono-
manie des sorciers, which was still regarded as authorita-
tive i n the eighteenth century. Unlike most o f his colleagues
in the field of black arts, he does not mention the Jews in his
“demonomania”; his “philo-Semitism” was evident here, too.
9 Mémoires tirées des archives de la police de Paris, by J. Peuchet,
police archivist (Paris, 1838): “. . . a terror, motivated b y extraordinary
disappearances, suddenly spread [in 1670] throughout the chief districts of
Paris. . Certain gossips claimed that a princess whose life was endan-
gered b y a disease sought a cure b y bathing every d a y i n human blood.
Others attested that the Jews sometimes crucified Christians, in their hatred
of the crucified God. This mad notion happily did not prevail” (Vol. 1 , pp.
144-45).
10 I n point o f fact, this is arguable. G u y Patin, i n the next century,
was skeptical about the matter: “Bodin’s Démonomanie des sorciers is
worthless. H e did not believe in witchcraft himself. H e wrote this book
only so that it would b e thought he did [believe in witchcraft], especially,
because, for several rather liberal opinions, and because he favored the
Huguenots, he was suspected of atheism.” (Lettres, Reveillé and Parisse
eds., Vol. 1 , p . 303.)
 The Age of the Ghetto 108

( I t has been claimed, to explain his views, that Bodin was

half Jewish, his mother having been a marrano. Apparently
this is pure speculation, without the slightest basis in fact.)
B u t the chief movement leading to a change o f feeling
was the Reformation, with all its interest in the Old Testa-
ment, Hebrew, and Biblical studies. As a result of being
steeped i n their subject, m a n y theologians a n d scholars de-
veloped sympathies for the people o f the Law, but this in-
terest was directed to them as the people of the patriarchs,
rather than as the deicidal race. Active contact with Jewish
professors, to w h o m many Hebrew scholars appealed i n or-
der t o perfect their knowledge o f the sacred language, facil-
itated this change i n attitude. I n Germany, during a famous
trial, Johann Reuchlin argued as a champion of the Talmud,
as we shall see later. We shall consider in some detail the
contradictory and characteristic case of Martin Luther. In
France, whereas Calvin seemed to remain silent on the
question, Théodore d e Bèze spoke i n a spirit that was already
very complex" (especially if w e consider the actual abase-
ment o f the Jews, a situation that could not influence theolog-
ical judgment).
11 Especially i n his commentaries o n the N e w Testament: “ . . those
w h o today call themselves Christians . . are very certainly punished a n d
will be in the future, because, solely under the guidance of wickedness and
perversity, they have mistreated i n every w a y these people, so holy i n their
forefathers, actually hardening them further [against Christianity] b y set-
ting before their eyes the example o f a n odious idolatry. A s for myself, I
gladly pray every day for the Jews i n this fashion:
“ ‘Lord Jesus, it i s true that T h o u justly punish the scorn that is directed
against Thee, a n d this ungrateful people has deserved T h y severe punish-
ment. B u t , Lord, remember T h y covenant, a n d look upon these unhappy
creatures favorably, because o f T h y Name. A s for us, w h o are the most
wretched of men, yet whom Thou nonetheless judge worthy of Thy pity,
grant that we may advance in Thy grace, so that we may not be for them
instruments o f T h y wrath, but that w e m a y rather become capable, through
the knowledge o f T h y words a n d the example o f a holy life, o f bringing
them back into the true w a y b y virtue o f T h y Holy Spirit, so that all
nations a n d all peoples together m a y glorify Thee for Eternity. Amen. ”
Nouveau Testament Grec, with Latin translation a n d commentaries b y
Théodore de Béze, 4th ed., 1589 ( i n the margin of the text of Romans
11:18). Cf. Foi et Vie, May-June 1951, No. 3 , p . 229.
 Anti-Semitism in the Pure State: France 199

But i n France the Reformation was later overthrown. A n d

apart from several picturesque figures such as the Hebraist
Gilbert Gaulmin or the “pre-Adamite” Isaac de L a Pey-
rere, w h o belong t o “subhistory,” it was not until a century
later that a n e w voice was heard. This was not yet that o f the
Encyclopedists; it was the voice o f a n astonishing forerun-
ner who, because he was too free a spirit for the Catholics
and too Catholic for the free spirits, has never been appreci-
ated at his true worth. This was the voice o f the Oratorian
Richard Simon, the true creator of modern Biblical criticism.
Enormously erudite and a remarkable Hebraist, Richard
Simon was intensely interested i n the Jews. H e even managed
t o strike u p personal acquaintance with t w o o r three: Jonas
Salvador, an adventurous Piedmontese tobacco merchant;
and a cabalist whose name h e conceals but w h o m h e
mocked with a brio that yields nothing t o the best Voltairian
sallies.'” I n 1670 he published anonymously a pamphlet in
1 2 “ , . . I have h a d i n the past several discussions with a Jew w h o
claimed t o k n o w the last details o f the cabalistic art, having been instructed
therein b y a rabbi o f Damascus. I did all within m y power t o disabuse h i m
of this vain and superstitious art. But imagining that he might alarm me,
he told me that if I would not be afraid, he would summon up his Genie.
I replied that I believed nothing o f all the astounding things that the
cabalists boasted o f doing, b y means o f the secrets o f their cabala.
“When he thereupon began to invoke his so-called Genie, I told him
that under the pretext o f invoking a n angel i n the service o f God, h e was
going t o call t o his aid a demon. ‘You are still very naive,” h e told m e ; ‘an
enlightened cabalist does not believe i n that fall o f the angels that y o u
assume i n your Church, although some o f our Directors seem t o have
acknowledged it” H e claimed that the angels were not called wicked save
i n relation t o those functions in which G o d employed them. W h e n I asked
him what opinions these enlightened cabalists had of the Devil, ‘Satan,” he
told me, ‘is himself neither white nor black: he is somewhat like the first
captain of the guards of your king, if this captain were destined by his
Prince only t o perform bloody executions. Consider,” h e added, ‘especially
what is reported of Satan at the beginning of the Book of Job, and then
from m y o w n belief. Satan is i n the presence
y o u will perhaps not b e far
of God with the other angels, and is wicked only in relation to his em-
ployment.’
“ I confess that this theology seemed quite n e w t o m e . B u t m y desire
t o see h o w this J e w would manage t o call u p his Genie caused m e t o allow
h i m t o say whatever h e pleased. I urged h i m then t o come t o the point i n
 The Age of the Ghetto 200

defense of the Jews, on the occasion of the case of ritual mur-

der in Metz (278). Later, under the name of the “Sieur de
Simonville,” he published in French the Cérémonies et cou-
tumes o f the Jews, b y the Venetian rabbi Leon o f Modena,
to which he added a long and erudite preface (279). Here
h e recalled first o f all that “those w h o composed the N e w
Testament being Jews, it is possible t o interpret it only with
a knowledge o f Judaism”: hence the usefulness o f studying
Jewish traditions and customs. Subsequently h e praises the
piety o f the Jews—“One cannot admire sufficiently the mod-
esty and the inner meditation o f the Jews when they g o t o
morning prayers —and above all, their charity.
“The Jews excel not only i n prayers but even more i n
charity. I n their compassion for the poor, we find the im-
age o f the charity o f the first Christians for their brothers.
[Christians then] followed what was practiced i n the syna-
gogues. The Jews have retained these practices and customs;
whereas a t present w e [Christians] have scarcely kept the
memory o f such things. . .”

This author also reviews the history o f the Jews o f France.

“ I m a y say here a word concerning our French Jews, w h o
once surpassed i n wealth all the other Jews, before they
were driven from France. . . . Those of France excelled in
the knowledge of the Talmud. I n those days, Paris was the
Athens o f the Jews, and they came here from all parts i n
order t o receive instruction. . .”

But such were the prejudices of the time, or such were the

question. H e turned t o the E a s t ; h e m a d e several invocations i n the Hebrew

tongue. B u t seeing that I laughed a n d made mockery o f his superstitions,
he used artifice. “This land,” he told me, ‘is a profane and accursed land.
M y angel, w h o is pure a n d holy, cannot approach it. Let u s g o t o the land
which G o d has given t o our fathers, a n d there y o u will see the angels
descend, summoned b y the power o f m y prayers.” That, Monsieur, is h o w
far the madness o f the cabalist Jews m a y go. I shall send y o u several ob-
servations o n these illusions. . . It is g o o d t o disabuse a n infinity o f m e n
w h o seriously apply themselves t o the study o f this cabala. . . . I remain,
etc.” (“Letter to a Swiss Gentleman”; R . Simon, Lettres choisies, Amster-
dam, 1720, Vol. 1 , pp. 96-98.)
 Anti-Semitism i n the Pure State: France 201

Jews h e happened t o meet, that Richard Simon subsequently

sang a different tune. “ I confess t o y o u that I did not k n o w
[the Jews] well enough,” he wrote in 1684 to a friend, “when
I gave to the public i n our language the little book b y Leon
o f Modena touching o n their ceremonies. I have spoken too
m u c h good o f that miserable nation i n m y Preface, as I real-
ized subsequently from the dealings I have h a d with several
o f them. They hate us mortally ~~ .” (280).
Richard Simon also suffered m a n y other disappointments.
His concepts o f Biblical criticism, too bold for the times,
drew down upon him the awful thunders of Bossuet. He was
obliged t o leave the Oratory and was violently attacked t o
the end o f his days.
Apart from Simon, there was only one other writer in the
Grand Siecle t o offer a somewhat original opinion o f the
Jews. No less a figure than Blaise Pascal was tormented by
the mystere juif, as h e was tormented b y the unfathomable
mystery o f God. “ M e n must b e sincere i n all religions; true
heathens, true Jews, true Christians . . . ” w e read in the
Pensées (281). And later, apropos of the falseness of other
religions: “They have n o witnesses. These [the Jews] have.
. . I believe only the stories o f those w h o were slaught-
ered,” he continues (for this celebrated remark occurs in this
c o n t e x t ) . Later, h e admires “the sincerity o f the Jews . . . ,
sincere about their honor, dying for i t ; this has n o example i n
the world, and n o root in nature.” H e marvels: “It is a won-
derful thing, and worthy of particular attention, to see this
Jewish people existing so many years, always in misery, for
it is necessary as a proof of Jesus Christ, both that they
should continue t o exist, a n d that they should b e miserable
because they crucified him; and though to be miserable and
to exist are contradictory, they nevertheless still exist in spite
of their misery. . .”

W e see h o w the great thinker was troubled b y the extraor-

dinary and decisive role assigned to the Jews b y Christian
theology, and h o w from their strange “contradictory” situa-
tion, h e attempted t o draw one more proof.
 The Age of the Ghetto 202

Then came the century of Enlightenment and the “let us

crush out the infamous one.”® Nothing is more revealing for
our subject than the confusion that then appeared i n the
minds o f the philosophers, some (with Montesquieu at their
h e a d) pleading o n behalf o f the traditional victims o f super-
stition, in the name of justice and reason; others ( a n d Vol-
taire is the prime example) turning against the mystifying
Canaanite race, in the name of that same reason. The de-
bate, a salon diversion in the eighteenth century, was to
come into the public domain i n the following century; and
the argument is far from being decided in our own day. But
this will be taken u p i n our next volume.
* Voltaire in a letter to d’Alembert, dated Nov. 20, 1762. H e said:
“Whatever you do, crush out the infamous one and only love those who
love you.” [Ed.]
 nine

Anti-Semitism in
the Pure State: England
The Jews were expelled from England i n 1290. However,
the memory of them remained vivid, and it would be easy to
undertake an investigation similar to the one made of France
and to show how their ghosts continued to trouble men’s
imaginations long after their departure. I n fact, this has
been partially done ( 2 8 2 ) . H a d flesh-and-blood Jews man-
aged to penetrate into England before the modern period?
There was a royal foundation for converts, the domus con-
versorum, created in 1234, which continued to attract mem-
bers from Germany, Spain, and even Morocco (283). Also,
isolated instances have been found of nonbaptized Jews who
entered London fraudulently in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries (284). This last matter became urgent after the
Spanish expulsion ( 1 4 9 2 ) , when galleys o f exiled Jews filled
the seaways. Six years later, o n the occasion o f his elder son’s
marriage to Catherine of Aragon, Henry VII took a solemn
oath to admit no Jews into his domains (285). This oath was
loosely observed b y his successors, and there was a marrano
colony of thirty-seven homes in London about 1 5 4 0 . It was
denounced and dispersed in 1 5 4 2 (286). It is noteworthy
that on the occasion of his historic divorce, which led to his
break with Rome, Henry VIII, unable to obtain the pope’s
approval, tried to gain the support of the Italian rabbis. I t
was a question of “levirate,” and the Old Testament seemed
t o open the w a y t o a compromise, but the majority o f rabbis
1 Henry V I I I wanted t o divorce Catherine o f Aragon, w h o h a d pre-
viously married the Prince of Wales, his elder brother. O n the basis of
 The Age o f the Ghetto 204

Henry consulted were intractable (287). A t least the epi-

sode contributed to the establishment of Hebrew studies i n
England, where, as elsewhere, the humanists at this period
were infatuated with the holy tongue. A f e w Jewish con-
verts from the Continent served them as teachers.
Such are the rare contacts that the British had with real
Jews in the sixteenth century: contacts unlikely to modify a
deep-rooted prejudice. A t the same period, English words
acquired their definitive meanings and spelling. Murray's
Oxford Dictionary defines the word “Jew” as follows: “Jew
(1) the commonest name for contemporary or modern
representatives o f the race; almost always connoting their
religion and other characteristics which distinguish them
from the people among which they live, a n d thus often op-
posed t o the Christian, and (esp. i n early use) expressing
a more or less opprobrious sense. . ( 2 ) As a name of
opprobrium o r reprobation; spec. applied t o a grasping o r
extortionate money-lender or usurer, or a trader who drives
hard bargains or deals craftily . . .” (288).
Let us skip a century. England, which had been to
Europe what Ireland was to her—a disinherited island—
had transformed herself into the queen of the seas. The rea-
sons for her sudden predominance may continue to tax the
wisdom of historians for a long time, but certainly one factor
rests in the particular aspect that the Reformation assumed
there. Directly or indirectly, Calvinism prevailed in England,
leaving its stamp upon the countless sects that proliferated
there. I t is certain, too, that contrary to the teachings of Mar-
tin Luther—who attacked the Jews with unparalleled vio-
lence, as we shall see—Calvinistic doctrine was character-
ized b y a marked benevolence toward them. Was this
because Calvinism, breaking completely with Roman tradi-
tion, embraced a more energetic morality of action than

Leviticus 1 8 : 1 6 , which prohibits coveting one’s brother's wife, Henry VIII

tried to have his marriage declared null and void. But it happens to b e
Deuteronomy 2 5 : 5 (which prescribes, on the contrary, marrying one’s
brother’s w i d o w ) that i s recognized as the authority.
 Anti-Semitism i n the Pure State: England 205

Lutheranism, and took the heroes of the Old Testament for

its masters in thought and deed? Or because it gave free rein
to sects which, faithful to the letter of Biblical teaching, con-
stituted themselves into communities of equal men and elim-
inated the interceding clergy? However many and subtle
reasons there may be (and we might add this one, too: that
there were no indigenous Jews in the countries where Cal-
vinism flourished), we are dealing with an almost general
situation that prevails even t o the present day.
A t the beginning o f the seventeenth century, certain Pu-
ritans, carrying matters to extremes, were converted to Juda-
ism and even had themselves circumcised. Others, by word
and pen, demanded the recall of the Jews (289). The nu-
merous active millenarian sects, especially, contributed great
interest to the movement, since the conversion of the Jews
was requisite for the return of Christ, and to convert them it
was necessary to recall them (290). When to the cry of “To
your tents, Israel!” the Puritan bourgeoisie overthrew the
monarchy and brought Cromwell to power in 1649, the
question o f a n official recall was brought u p i n a more con-
crete manner, especially since a small marrano colony had
again been established in London, performing many finan-
cial and even political services for the government (291). It
is characteristic that at the same period alarming rumors
circulated i n the royalist camp and spread among the popu-
lation. Was not Cromwell preparing to sell Saint Paul's Ca-
thedral to the Jews for eight hundred thousand pounds? ?
Indeed, was not this Messiah o f the Jews o f Jewish origin
himself? 3
2 “They are about demolishing and selling Cathedral Churches. I hear
Norwich is designed already: a n d that the Jews proffer 600,000 pounds
for Paul's a n d Oxford library, a n d m a y have them for 200,000 pounds
more . . . ” Sir Edward Nicholas wrote in April, 1649, to the Marquis of
Ormonde, one of the leaders of the royalist camp. ( C f . A Collection of
Original Letters . b y Th. Carte, London, 1 7 3 3 , p . 276.)
8 This rumor is reported i n the Histoire d Oliver Cromwell b y A b b é
Raguenet (Paris, 1691, p . 322), who, moreover, partially accepts it, assert-
ing that a “deputation o f Asian synagogues” h a d come t o England “to in-
quire if Cromwell was not the Liberator they were waiting for. . . . They
 The Age of the Ghetto 206

Against this background of intertwining Christian and

Jewish messianic hopes, of new concepts of religious toler-
ance heralding the modern age, and of political and economic
maneuvers, Manasseh ben Israel, an Amsterdam rabbi with
a European education, undertook a mission to Cromwell.
Eager to find a haven of refuge for his people, this scholar
introduced an eschatological argument. He had identified
in the American Indians the ten lost tribes, and thus it only
remained, to assure the end of time, to make the Dispersion
o f the Jews complete “from one end o f the earth even unto
the other” ( Deuteronomy 28:64 ).* He came to London with
this plan in September, 1655. Cromwell received him most
politely and deliberated with his Council of State. A special
commission, consisting o f ecclesiastics and representatives o f
the City o f London, was appointed t o study the proposition.
For his own part, the Protector was quite well disposed,
counting on the marranos to help defeat Spain and take her
colonies from her. H e was at the zenith of his dictatorial
power, and a favorable outcome seemed assured.
But Cromwell had not reckoned with the power of the
traditional superstitions, which, combined with the oppo-
sition of several important London merchants, thwarted his
plans. Sinister rumors were circulated with redoubled force.
A powerful lord, the Earl of Monmouth, hastened to send
the following to one of his mistresses: “. . The Jews’
mouths, though not their eyes, are to be opened; who I do
heare are to have two sinagogs allowed them in London,
whereof St. Paul's to be one. Well, m y heart, God's will
must bee done and we must submit to it” (202). As for the
good people o f London, the following lines give some no-

chose for this commission the celebrated Jacob ben Azahel who was ordered
to take with him, through Bohemia, David ben Eliezar, rabbi of their syna-
gogue i n Prague, w h o k n e w all the languages o f Europe t o perfection . . .”
etc.; many other fantastic details follow.
* Manasseh ben Israel set forth his argument in his work Spes Israelis
( T h e Hope of Israel), published in Latin in Amsterdam in 1650. It quickly
reached some twenty editions in six different languages. ( C f . A Life of
Manasseh ben Israel b y Cecil Roth, Philadelphia, 1945.)
 Anti-Semitism i n the Pure State: England 207

tion of their alarm: “As I kept o n m y way . . . in Lincolns-

Inne Fields, passing b y seven or eight maimed Soldiers o n
Stilts, who begged me; I heard them say aloud one to an-
other, We must now all turn Jews, and there will be noth-
ing left for the poor. And not far from them another com-
pany of poor people, just at Lincolns Inne back gate, cried
aloud to each other: They are all turned Devils already, and
now we must all turn Jews. Which unexpected concurrent
providences a n d Speeches, made such a n impression o n m y
Spirit, that before I could take m y rest that night, I perused
most o f the passages i n our English Histories concerning the
Jews’ carriage i n England, with some o f their misdemeanors
in other parts, to refresh my memory” (293).
The author of these words, William Prynne, was the m a n
who roused public opinion against the projected recall. This
remarkable character, a Puritan Savonarola, used his fertile
and erudite pen to bequeath us more than two hundred
books and pamphlets. Leading a life of monklike austerity,
he hunted down evil in all its forms with indomitable tenac-
ity. He thundered against women who wore their hair too
short, against men who wore theirs too long, and against the
custom of drinking toasts at table. In 1634 he attacked danc-
ing and the theater, those inventions of the Devil, in terms
so violent® that he was sued for defamation and lése-majesté
and was condemned to have both ears cut off and the let-
ters “SL” (seditious libeler) branded with a red-hot iron on
his cheeks. ( I t appears that on the scaffold itself he composed
a caustic epigram against his enemies.) I n this way, fitted
with the halo of a martyr, this formidable propagandist be-
came enormously popular. When he learned of the new and
diabolical threat that, in 1655, hung over his country and
5 “Dancing is idolatrous, heathenishe, carnal, wordly, sensuall, and
misbeseeminge Christians, a n d the devill himself, w h o d a n c e d i n Herodias”
daughter, w a s t h e first author o f the dancing. . . ” A s for the theater, the
audience (including the royal family) were “incarnate devills, monsters of
ympiety, atheisticall Judasses, perjured cutt-throates to their Religion, will-
ful bloody murderers to their own soules. . . ” (Histrio-Matix, the Play-
er’s Scourge or Actor's tragedye. . . . London, 1634.)
 The Age of the Ghetto 208

which concerned him vitally “both as a Christian and English

Freeman,” he did not rest until he had written a vitriolic
pamphlet entitled A short Demurrer t o the Jewes long discon-
tinued Remitter into England, which was prepared, printed
a n d distributed within eight days and enjoyed a n enormous
success.
Meanwhile, the deliberations of the special commission,
which had begun on December 4, 1655, dragged on. From
the start, Cromwell had met with unexpected resistance. The
representatives o f the clergy feared subversion b y Jewish
ideas; the London merchants were suspicious of competition
and hinted that the admission of the Jews would deliver a
fatal blow to British commerce. “The most did fear that if
they should come, many would b e seduced and cheated b y
them, and little good would be unto them . . ” one impar-
tial witness relates (294). It was in vain that a well-meaning
power invoked the beautiful prayer o f Théodore d e Bèze o n
behalf of the Jews.® Public opinion, roused by Prynne, be-
came increasingly ill-disposed. A t the public hearing of De-
cember 18, which was to be the last, an openly hostile crowd
pressed into the stands. Seeing that tempers were becoming
ugly, and moreover not attributing any extraordinary impor-
tance to the question, Cromwell closed the debate abruptly,
after mocking the adversaries of the project in a brilliant and
ironic speech.” N o n e w session was scheduled, and matters

6 C f . p . 198, note 11.

7 “ I never heard a m a n speak so well i n his life as Cromwell did o n
that occasion,” reported Sir Paul Rycaut. Cromwell first reminded the
ministers that the Scriptures announced the conversion o f the Jews, that
there was only one means t o this end—that i s , preaching—and that the
Jews must therefore b e permitted t o reside where the true Gospel w a s
preached. Then, turning toward the merchants, h e conceded that the Jews
were “the meanest a n d m o s t despised o f all peoples.”
“ S o b e i t . B u t i n that case, what becomes o f your fears? C a n y o u really
b e afraid that this contemptible a n d despised people should b e able t o
prevail i n trade a n d credit over the merchants o f E n g l a n d , the noblest a n d
most esteemed merchants of the whole world?” ( C f . Anecdotes, b y the Rev.
J. Spence, London, 1858, p . 59; and A Life of Manasseh ben Israel, b y
C . Roth, op. cit., p . 246.)
 Anti-Semitism in the Pure State: England 209

remained as they were. T h e Jews were not officially read-

mitted.
The war of the pamphlets, however, continued long after-
ward. Prynne reprinted his Demurrer, adding t o it n e w leg-
ends gleaned from the chronicles o f past centuries. His friend
Clement Walker published Anarchia Anglicana. The prolific
Alexander Ross published his View o n Jewish Religion,
which was merely a transposition of Prynne’s arguments.
Meanwhile, in the other camp, Manasseh wrote the cele-
brated Vindiciae Judaeorum, and his Christian friends ap-
pealed to a number of the arguments that from generation
to generation are advanced as new concepts. (Thus a certain
Thomas Collier argued that b y crucifying Jesus, the Jews
h a d merely carried out the divine will and thus h a d been
able t o give birth t o Christianity.
All this was merely a flash i n the pan. T h e significant fact
is that already English political wisdom was finding expres-
sion i n a suitable style. T h e Jews, without being officially
admitted, were henceforth tolerated semiofficially, and the
marrano colony o f London was permitted t o build a syna-
gogue and t o increase i n numbers, thus creating a situation
that contained i n embryo the future flowering o f Anglo-
Saxon Judaism.

8 “ , . . in Crucifying our Lord, the Jews did no more than was the
Counsel and Determination of God (Acts 4 : 2 7 , 28). Tho ’it was their Sin,
yet it was God’s Counsel. Yea it is b y Christ Crucify’d that w e have life.”
( C f . Anglia Judaica, b y D’Blossiers Tovey, Oxford, 1738, pp. 278-79, where
Collier’s arguments are discussed at length.)
 ten

Activated Anti-Semitism:
Germany

A t the e n d o f the fifteenth century, Germany was prosperous

and active. Her iron mines and mines of precious metals were
the richest in Europe. Her merchants and bankers, solidly
established in Antwerp, in England, and o n the Baltic, con-
trolled the trade of northern Europe and, after the discovery
of America, dominated the spice market in Lisbon and were
t o equip the Indies fleets. T h e discovery o f printing also
contributed to the prestige of Germany: German printers
spread the n e w art t o Spain and Scandinavia, to Turkey and
Scotland. Gutenberg’s contemporaries were keenly aware o f
the significance o f his invention. “There is n o invention o r
creation of which we Germans can be more proud than of
the invention of printing, which has made us the propagators
of Christian doctrine and of all human and divine knowl-
edge, a n d thus the benefactors o f humanity,” wrote the
humanist Jacob Wimpheling (295). But in other areas, too,
a t the crucial period when nationalities were being deter-
mined, the Germans were already loudly proclaiming their
sense o f their o w n supremacy. Thus Felix Fabri, burgher o f
the city o f U l m : “If one wishes t o have a masterwork made
in bronze, stone, or wood, he entrusts it to a German. Among
the Saracens, I have seen wondrous work done b y German
jewelers, goldsmiths, stonemasons, and coachbuilders. .
They surpass the Greeks and the Italians. . .” (The author
also cites other examples: the Sultan of Egypt employed a
German engineer; the Venetians bought their pastry from
German bakers, etc.) (296).
The skill of German artisans and the activity of German
 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany 2 1 1

merchants, increasing the wealth and spreading the love o f

luxury among all strata o f society, i n turn created a demand
for money. The discovery of America and of the trade route
to the Indies opened further possibilities for trade and spec-
ulation. This was the period when the great corporations, the
Fuggers, Welsers, Imhofs, and Hochstätters, monopolized
raw materials and risked bold coups, sometimes making mil-
lions overnight, sometimes going bankrupt just as quickly.
These fluctuations caused rises in the prices of goods and
artificial shortages; hence the people cordially detested these
magnates, often calling them by the unflattering term “Chris-
ten-Juden.” I n Germany the word Jude h a d come t o signify
both “Jew” and “usurer,” the word Judenpiess being used
as a synonym for Wucher (usury). Thus the resentment of
the little people against the great, henceforth turned against
the possessors o f money, encompassed i n the same hatred
“Christen-Juden” and “Juden,” a vast indefinite group, whose
irreducible core was represented for Christians, emotionally,
by Jews themselves, even though the Jews played only a
minor role in the economic life of the period. As soon as
Jews were present, the traditional hatred erupted; moreover,
this was given a new impetus as the Germans discovered
that the deicidal (i.e., homicidal) and usurious race was at
the same time a foreign people. Many texts b y clerical and
lay authors, theologians and humanists, show h o w during
this period the three motifs—religious, economic, and na-
tional—had become amalgamated.
Thus in 1477, Peter Schwartz, a burgher, explains the per-
secutions of the Jews: “The Jews have been punished severely
from time to time. But they do not suffer innocently; they
suffer because of their wickedness, because they cheat people
and ruin whole countries b y their usury and secret murders,
as everyone knows. That is w h y they are so persecuted, and
not innocently. There is n o people more wicked, more cun-
ning, more avaricious, more impudent, more troublesome,
more venomous, more wrathful, more deceptive, and more
ignominious” (297).
 The Age of the Ghetto 212

Johann Reuchlin, a scholar t o w h o m w e shall return, sees

things in a more traditional light. H e ascribes the punish-
ment of the Jews to their hard-heartedness rather than to
their crimes. “Every day, they outrage, blaspheme, a n d
sully God, in the person of His Son, the true Messiah Jesus
Christ. They call H i m a sinner, a sorcerer, a criminal. They
treat the sainted Virgin Mary as a witch and a fury. They
call the apostles and disciples heretics. They regard us
Christians as stupid pagans” (298).
Less prolix, other humanists disinterred from Tacitus the
“enemies of the human race” argument:
“No people have so hated others as the Jewish people
have; in turn, n o people have been so loathed or have so
justly provoked implacable hatred . . .” (Beatus Rhenanus)
(299).
“Relegated to perpetual exile, and scattered throughout
the entire universe, the Jews outrage and disturb the society
of the human race” (Conradus Celtes) (300).
Theologians, w h o argued against Jewish usury, sought t o
put the Jews to work, using social and patriotic arguments:
“ W e understand that the small and the great, the learned
and the naïve, the princes and the peasants, are all filled with
animosity against the usurious Jews, and I approve all legal
measures taken t o protect the people against such exploita-
tion. Should foreign people who have settled among us dom-
inate us; dominating not as a result of a greater courage and
virtue, but solely b y means of crass wealth amassed from all
parts and b y all means, and whose possession seems to them
the supreme blessing? Are these people to grow fat with
impunity, o n the labor o f the peasant a n d the artisan?”
(Johannes Tritheim) (301).
“Are the Jews then better than the Christians, that they
should be unwilling to work with their hands? Are they not
under the word of God: ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou
eat bread’? T o practice usury is not to work, but to flay
others, while wallowing in idleness ” (Geiler von Kaiser-
berg) (302).
 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany 213

A few rare authors observed that the “Christian-Jews”

were m u c h more deleterious to the social body than the Jews
proper—for instance, Jacob Wimpheling, who exclaimed:
“Dreadful is usury, as it is practiced b y the Jews and b y
many Christians even worse than the Jews!"—or the mock-
ing Sebastian Brant, in his famous Narrenschiff:

Gar lidlich war der Juden Forsooth the wound of the Jews
Gsuch was great
aber sie môgen mit nie blei- but they can no longer remain
ben among us
die Kristen-Juden sie vertrei- for the Christian-Jews have
ben driven them out
mit Judenpiess dieselbenren- and they abandon themselves
nen to Jewry.
ich kenn vil die ich nit wil 1 know many such I shall not
nennen name;
die triben doch wild Kauf- they practice unfair and bar-
manschatz barous trades
und schwig dazu all recht u n d a n d both l a w a n d right are si-
gsetz. lent.

A foreign observer, the Frenchman Pierre de Froissart,

best summarized the general opinion, noting: “Hatred of the
Jews is so common in Germany that the most peaceful men
become agitated when it is a question of the Jews and their
usury. I should not be surprised to see a sudden outbreak of
bloody persecutions against them and in all countries at the
same time. They have already been expelled forcibly from
many cities . . ” (303). If Froissart was a bad prophet,
since the simultaneous persecutions h e expected did not
break out, the “Jewish question” appeared in the foreground
of German and even European current events during the
famous dispute over Jewish books. This incident, at the be-
ginning of the sixteenth century, contains in embryo the
entire Reformation. It contrasted the innovators, the human-
ists, with the pious monks, guardians of the traditional faith.
Although both camps made it a point of honor to declare
 The Age of the Ghetto 214

their anti-Jewish sentiments, it was, contrary to common be-

lief, the innovators who were more venomous.
The altercation broke out when, in 1 5 1 6 , a converted Jew,
Johannes Pfefferkorn, who seems to have been a moderate
and sincere man, i n a pamphlet called D e r Judenspiegel
(The Mirror of the Jews) demanded the suppression of the
Talmud, it being the chief advocate of Jewish resistance to
Christianity. Pfefferkorn had the support of the Cologne
Dominicans, whose important role in witch-hunting and
demonomania has been discussed. As to the sacred people,
the Jews, the program o f this missionary and his protectors
was limited t o three p o i n t s : prohibition o f usury, obligation
t o attend Christian sermons, and suppression of Jewish books.
The Judenspiegel denied the accusation of ritual murder in
categorical terms a n d protested against the bloody persecu-
tions of which the Jews had been victims. Pfefferkorn was
received b y the Emperor Maximilian and obtained from him
a commission to seize and destroy the Talmud wherever
found. H e began immediately in the city of Frankfurt, whose
Jews appealed t o their direct suzerain, the archbishop o f
Mainz, winning from him the authorization to have the al-
legedly blasphemous character of the Talmud re-examined
by a commission of scholars. One of them, the famous Johann
Reuchlin, the first and for some time the only German He-
braist, vigorously defended the venerable and mysterious
writings. H e even asserted that in a close examination of the
Talmud and o f the cabala one could find a striking confirma-
tion of Christianity. An exchange of violent polemics be-
tween the two camps ensued (Pfefferkorn’s Hand Mirror,
Mirror of Fire, and Tocsin; Reuchlin’s Mirror of the Eyes
and Letters of Obscure Men). The matter was finally taken
to the pope, who hesitated a long time before rendering his
verdict, which was an equivocal one. Meanwhile, all Euro-
pean men of letters had sided with or against Reuchlin. H e
was approved b y Erasmus and all the humanists, but con-
demned by many universities, above all by the University
of Paris.
 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany 215

Thus began a great general debate o n the right o f free

discussion and free research that continued for ten years,
heralding, in its religious aspect, the various reform move-
ments; and in its secular aspect, the modern scientific spirit.
I n fact, this debate m a y b e said t o have established the
principle o f free inquiry, especially since Reuchlin w o n his
case, practically speaking. But there was at least one ques-
tion on which the two opposing camps were in agreement.
Both were openly hostile to the Jews, though with this
nuance: the humanists, though they had become champions
of the Jewish books, attacked the Jew Pfefferkorn a n d all his
coreligionists, baptized o r not, even more violently; whereas
the Dominican inquisitors and their allies, though consign-
ing the books t o the flames, showed greater Christian charity
toward their zealots. Reuchlin himself attacked the “bap-
tized J e w Pfefferkorn, w h o gaily abandoned himself t o a
perfidious revenge, according to the traditional manner of
his ancestors the Jews” (304). One of his greatest partisans,
Ulrich von Hutten, the principal author of Letters of Obscure
Men, took a still more violent stand, and in particular re-
joiced that Pfefferkorn was not a German. “Germany could
not have produced such a monster. His parents are Jews, and
h e remains such, even if h e has plunged his unworthy body
into the baptism of Christ” (305). As for the venerable
Erasmus, he was scarcely less “racist” (to use our current
terminology): “Pfefferkorn is revealed to be a true Jew,” he
wrote to his friends. “He appears quite typical of his race.
His ancestors attacked Christ only, whereas he has attacked
many worthy and eminent men. He could render no better
service to his coreligionists than b y betraying Christendom,
hypocritically claiming t o have become a Christian. . .
This half-Jew has done more harm to Christendom than all
the Jews together” (306).
The Dominicans and their partisans, included under the
heading “obscurantists,” seem in comparison more clement,
with their faith in total redemption by baptism.
A t this period there were few authors who openly cham-
 The Age of the Ghetto 216

pioned the Jews. Luther, i n his youth, was one of these, but
in his later years he felt a correspondingly greater hatred for
them. I t is important to consider the figure of the great re-
former in some detail in order to gain a clearer picture of the
first and most important panel of the infernal triptych:
religion, money, and race.

Luther

I n 1 5 4 2 Martin Luther published his celebrated pamphlet:

Against the Jews and Their Lies (307). In it he advised
never entering into an argument with a Jew. If it was im-
possible to avoid, one was to say: “Listen, Jew, dont you
know that Jerusalem and your kingdom, the Temple and
your ministry, were destroyed over 1460 years ago?
Give this nut to the Jews and let them break their teeth on it
and dispute as much as they like. For the cruelty of divine
wrath shows all too clearly that they are surely in error and
are o n the wrong p a t h : a child would understand this. >

Then for nearly t w o hundred pages' the reformer rails

against the Jews in his powerful, lusty style, with a torrential
outpouring of passion that makes the diatribes of his prede-
cessors seem languid, and that n o one else, perhaps, has
matched to this day. Reproach and sarcasm addressed t o the
Jews alternate with transports of love and of faith in Christ;
and between the lines w e may glimpse a kind of anguished
admiration. Sometimes Luther attacks the usurers and the
parasites from foreign countries, and we see how, in forging
the German language, he implanted at the same time a cer-
tain style of argument and thought. “In truth, the Jews, be-
ing foreigners, should possess nothing, and what they do

1 Pages 1 0 0 to 274 in the complete Erlangen edition (Vol. 3 2 ) , from

which these quotations are taken. Luther’s relations with the Jews have
been studied i n detail b y Reinhold Lewin i n his monograph Luthers Stel-
lung zu den Juden, Berlin, 1 9 1 1 .
 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany 217

possess should b e ours. For they d o not work, and w e d o not

give them presents. Nonetheless, they keep our money and
our goods and have become our masters in our own country
and in their Dispersion. When a thief steals ten guldens, he
is hanged; but when a Jew steals ten barrels o f gold through
his usury, h e is prouder than the Lord himself! H e boasts o f
it and strengthens his faith and his hatred of us, and thinks:
‘See h o w the Lord does not abandon His people in the Dis-
persion. W e d o not work, w e are idle, a n d w e pass the time
pleasantly; the cursed goyim must work for us, and we have
their money: thus w e are their lords and they our servants!’
“To this day we still do not know what devil brought
them into our country; surely w e did not go to seek them out
in Jerusalem!
“No one wants them. The countryside and the roads are
open to them; they may return to their country when they
wish; we shall gladly give them presents to get rid of them,
for they are a heavy burden o n us, a scourge, a pestilence
and misfortune for our country. This is proved b y the fact
that they have often been expelled b y force: from France
(which they call Tsarpath), where they had a downy nest;
recently from Spain (which they call Sepharad), their
chosen roost; a n d even this year from Bohemia, where, i n
Prague, they had another cherished nest; finally, in m y own
lifetime, from Ratisbon [Regensburg], Magdeburg, and from
many other places. 7

Sometimes Luther makes use o f one o f his unique a n d

imaginative comparisons: “They did not live so well in
their countries under David and Solomon as they live in our
countries, where they steal and pillage every day. Yes, we
hold them captive, just as I hold captive m y stone [calculus],
m y ulcers, or any other disease I have caught and must en-
dure: I would rather see [these miseries] in Jerusalem, with
the Jews and their following!
“Since assuredly w e do not hold them captive, h o w have
w e provoked such enmity b y such noble and saintly char-
 The Age of the Ghetto 218

acters? W e d o not call their wives whores, as they d o Mary,

the mother of Jesus; we do not call their children sons of
whores, as they do our Lord Jesus Christ.
“ W e do not curse them; w e wish them all the good in the
world, in flesh and in spirit. W e give them shelter, let them
eat and drink with us, w e d o not carry off and kill their chil-
dren, nor poison their wells, w e d o not slake our thirst o n
their blood. Have w e then deserved the fierce anger, the
envy and hatred of these great and holy children of God?”
H e then shifts to the religious level: to the defense and
glorification of Christ, the only matter that really counts for
Luther:
“Know, O adored Christ, and make n o mistake, that aside
from the Devil, you have n o enemy more venomous, more
desperate, more bitter, than a true Jew w h o truly seeks t o b e
a Jew [als einen rechten Juden, der mit Ernst ein Jude sein
will].
“Now, whoever wishes to accept venomous serpents, des-
perate enemies of the Lord, and to honor them, to let himself
b e robbed, pillaged, corrupted, and cursed b y them, need
only turn t o the Jews. If this is not enough for him, h e can d o
more: crawl u p into their and worship the sanctuary, so
as t o glorify himself afterward for having been merciful, for
having fortified the Devil and his children, in order to blas-
pheme our beloved Lord and the precious blood that has
redeemed us. H e will then b e a perfect Christian, filled with
works of mercy, for which Christ will reward him o n the
Day of Judgment with the eternal fire of hell [where he will
roast together] with the Jews. 7

O n a practical level, Luther proposes a series of measures

against the Jews: that their synagogues b e burned, their
books confiscated, that they be forbidden to pray to God in
their o w n way, a n d that they b e m a d e t o work with their
hands; or, better still, that the princes expel them from their
lands and that the authorities—magistrates as well as clergy
—unite toward these ends. As for himself, having thus
 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany 219

done his duty, Luther is “excused.” (Ich habe das meine

gethan: ich bin entschuldigt!)
A few months later another pamphlet appeared: Schem
Hamephoras, in which Luther’s curses became even more
frenzied. Here he is not concerned with the Jews” usury and
graft, but only with their captious reasoning and their witch-
craft. This is, then, a theological polemic, but in what a tone!
I n the preface, Luther specifies that he is not writing to con-
vert the Jews but merely to edify the Germans: “. so that
we Germans may know what a Jew is. . For it is as easy
to convert a Jew as to convert the Devil. A Jew, a Jewish
heart, are hard as wood, as stone, as iron, as the Devil him-
self. I n short, they are children of the Devil, condemned to
the flames of hell. Later he contrasts the apocryphal
gospels o f the Jews, which are specious and false, with the
four canonical Gospels whose truth is evident. His exegesis is
interspersed with remarks of this kind:
“Perhaps some merciful and holy soul among us Christians
will be of the opinion that I am too rough with these poor
and pitiable Jews, mocking and deriding them. O Lord, I
am much too feeble to mock such devils. I would do so, but
they are much stronger than I in raillery, and they have a
God who is a past master in this art; he is called the Devil
and the wicked spirit. 7

I n other passages Luther indulges i n obscene buffoonery:

Cursed goy that I am, I cannot understand how they
manage t o b e so skillful, unless I think that when Judas
Iscariot hanged himself, his guts burst and emptied. Perhaps
the Jews sent their servants with plates of silver and pots of
gold to gather u p Judas’ piss with the other treasures, and
then they ate a n d drank his offal, a n d thereby acquired eyes
so piercing that they discover in the Scriptures commentar-
ies that neither Matthew nor Isaiah himself found there,
not t o mention the rest o f us cursed goyim. ”
Elsewhere w e seem to hear a cry from some deeper level
of his tormented soul:
 The Age of the Ghetto 220

“ I cannot understand it except b y admitting that they have

transformed God into the Devil, or rather into a servant of
the Devil, accomplishing all the evil the Devil desires, cor-
rupting unhappy souls, and raging against himself! I n short,
e Jews are worse than the devils. O God, m y beloved
father and creator, have pity o n m e who, in self-defense,
must speak so scandalously of Thy divine and eternal Maj-
esty, against Thy wicked enemies, the devils and the Jews.
You know that I d o so i n the ardor o f m y faith, and i n T h y
Majesty's honor; for in my case, the question is one that in-
volves all m y heart and all m y life. . . ”
Such are the depths into which Luther allowed himself to
tall, wherein scatology that outraged his most faithful col-
leagues® followed closely upon authentic religious anguish.
H e concluded this work b y proclaiming:
“Here I break off, and I would have nothing further to d o
with the Jews, neither write upon them, nor against them.
They have had enough of me. If there are some among them
w h o would repent, m a y G o d take them into His mercy.
” A drunkard’s promise: many letters attest to Luther’s
efforts to have the Jews expelled or their privileges with-
drawn. (He was successful in this respect in Saxony, Brand-
enburg, and Silesia. “Truly, he has made our position very
perilous!” noted Yosel [Joseph] of Rosheim at this time in his
Memoirs) (308). Luther's last sermon at Eisleben, the city of
his birth, four days before his death (February 18, 1546), was
entirely devoted to the obdurate Jews, whom it was a matter
of great urgency to expel from all German territory.
It would be easy to explain these excesses in the light of

2 This stands out especially i n a correspondence between Bullinger and

Martin B u t z e r : “ I f the famous hero Capnio [ R e u c h l i n ] came b a c k t o life,
h e would say that the spirit o f [ t h e inquisitors] Tungern, Hochstraten,
and Pfefferkorn was incamated in Luther,” wrote the first-named. Even
the loyal Melanchthon, i n a letter t o the preacher Osiander, showed his
disapproval. A s for the Swiss congregations, they openly declared that
. even written b y a shepherd o f pigs a n d not b y a celebrated shep-
herd o f souls, the Schem Hamephoras would b e difficult t o excuse.”( T r u e
Confession of the Servants of the Churches in Zurich.) Cf. R. Lewin, op. cit.
 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany 2 2 1

what is known of the aging Luther, of his bitterness and inner

conflicts, his hallucinations that made him see the Devil
everywhere, and his incessant obsession with the end of the
world. Such comparisons, which w e have already made sev-
eral times with respect to other prophets, would nowhere b e
better justified than in Luther’s case. W e might also, apropos
of his verbal lack of restraint, cite some relevant psychopath-
ological considerations. For instance, the reformer was a
man who slipped into blasphemy, as in his stating that at
certain moments and during certain temptations, h e n o
longer knew who was God and who was the Devil, and he
actually wondered if the Devil was not G o d ! A t times h e
called God infinitely foolish (stultissimus) and described
the Christian religion as the most absurd o f any. O n one
occasion he proved that Christ must necessarily have been
an adulterer, and o n still another proclaimed the suppression
of the Ten Commandments. One might describe him as an
unbalanced genius and find i n h i m astonishing anticipations
of Freudian theory. W e know, too, that h e expressed him-
self about the pope, his archenemy, even more vehemently
and obscenely than about the Jews. Such invectives, tempta-
tions, and outbursts of aggression certainly seem to combine
quite naturally with the hatred of the chosen people. But
Luther’s character is too rich and complex, and the imprint
he left on the history of his country and of our whole civiliza-
tion is too profound, for us to be content with an over-sim-
plified, unidimensional interpretation, limited to the level of
individual psychology.
As w e have said, Luther was not always the enemy o f the
Jews. At the zenith of his activity, during the heroic period
when this rebellious monk, sustained and justified by his
faith, defied pope and emperor and for some time attained
the dizzy peaks of total freedom, he had a very different at-
titude toward the Jews. Apparently h e hoped for some time
to convert and rally to his cause the people of the Bible. This
hope moved him to publish in 1 5 2 3 a pamphlet with a signifi-
cant title: Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew (Das Jesus Christus
 The Age of the Ghetto 222

ein geborener Jude sei). This was a missionary text in-

tended to show the Jews, with the help of the exegesis of var-
ious verses from Genesis and Daniel, that Christ was indeed
the true Messiah. Commentaries o n the meaning of the Dis-
persion and the servitude of the Jews were cited in support
of this view. The author sympathizes with the Jews and
mocks their enemies: “Our imbeciles, the papists and the
bishops, the sophists and the monks, have treated the Jews
i n such a w a y that a good Christian would seek t o become a
Jew. If I had been a Jew, I should have preferred to turn pig
before I became a Christian, seeing h o w these imbeciles and
ignorant louts govern and teach the Christian faith. They
have treated the Jews as if they were dogs and not men.
They have done nothing but persecute them. T h e Jews are
the blood relatives, the cousins and brothers of Our Lord;
if His blood and flesh could b e boasted of, the Jews belong t o
Jesus Christ much more than we do. Hence I beg m y dear
papists t o call m e a Jew, when they are tired o f calling m e a
heretic. .
“That is w h y I advise being considerate o f them. So long
as we use violence and lies and accuse them of using Chris-
tian blood to eradicate their o w n stink, and I do not know
what other absurdities; so long as w e keep them from living
and working among us, in our communities, and force them
t o practice usury—how can they come t o us? If w e seek to
aid them, it is the l a w o f Christian love that w e must apply
to them, and not the papist law. W e must welcome them in
friendship, let them live and work with us, and they will be of
one heart withus. . .”

To understand Luther's complete reversal between 1 5 2 3

and 1543, we may note primarily that his propaganda met
with n o success among the Jews. Although he had some dis-
cussions with them? there were very f e w w h o “came t o him”

8 Especially during the crucial days o f the Diet o f Worms, w h e n t w o

Jews h a d come t o visit h i m i n h i s lodgings. It would seem t h a t t h e hopes
inspired b y this visit caused Luther t o write the pamphlet Jesus Christ W a s
Born a Jew ( c f . R. Lewin, op. cit.).
 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany 223

and accepted conversion, and most o f these seem to have re-

canted subsequently. “If I find a Jew to baptize, I shall lead
him to the Elbe bridge, hang a stone around his neck, and
push him into the water, baptizing him with the name of
Abraham!” he sneered one day in 1532. “These dogs mock
us and our religion!” A n d when, five years later, the indefa-
tigable Yosel of Rosheim tried to intercede with him apropos
of the expulsion of the Jews from Saxony, Luther refused to
receive him and informed him in writing of his disappoint-
ment. His heart, he told the Jew in substance, remained
kindly disposed toward the Jews, but such kindness must
serve to convert them, not to confirm them in their errors.
Shortly thereafter, troubling news reached him from Bo-
hemia. O n the instigation of the Jews, some reformed Chris-
tians were Judaizing, celebrating the Sabbath, and even hav-
ing themselves circumcised. This news seemed t o upset
Luther greatly; thereafter, in conversation, he referred more
often to the Jews: “I hope I shall never be so stupid as to be
circumcised!” h e exclaimed one day. “ I would rather cut off
the left breast of m y Catherine and of all women!” A n d he
wrote a missive, “The Letter o f D r . Martin Luther against the
Sabbatarians,” in which he polemicized against the Jewish
law. On December 31, 1539, he announced to his friends:
“I cannot convert the Jews. Our Lord Christ did not succeed
i n doing so; but I can close their mouths so that there will be
nothing for them to do but lie upon the ground.” Three
years later he put his plans into operation.
Such were the successive stages of Luther's reversal. T o
b e sure, the Jews had profoundly disappointed him. But
there was something else: during these years he himself had
changed a great deal.
Between 1 5 2 1 and 1543 lay the gap that separates dream
from reality. There had been the war of the knights, the
bloody peasant revolts, the countless sects and heresies, put
down b y fire and sword, with Luther's express approval.
His very success h a d made h i m aware o f the measure o f hu-
man imperfection and of his own political responsibilities.
 The Age of the Ghetto 224

Forced t o choose, h e had sided with the mighty of this world,

the princes, since it was upon them that the future of the
Reformation depended. Thus the splendid purity of his doc-
trine was tarnished. Blood was shed in his name, crimes were
perpetrated t o which h e must accommodate himself, for bet-
ter or worse. (“You do not acknowledge the peasants, but
they acknowledge y o u ! ” Erasmus wrote him.) Certain as-
pects o f his thought developed as a consequence: t o inner
freedom he opposed the immutable order of things estab-
lished in the world by God. The necessity of obedience was
emphasized: the Christian must remain loyal and submissive.
Hence, b y an inescapable dialectical reversal, the doctrine
of total freedom becomes one of total servitude. The archan-
gel of rebellion is transformed into an embittered and des-
potic bourgeois, excommunicated a n d banished from the
empire, confined i n the small territory where his prince pro-
tects him.
W e can readily see that his failure among the Jews tor-
mented Luther all the more since his rejection by the peo-
ple of God was symbolic of the countless failures and dis-
appointments that darkened his last years and which he
attributed to the intervention of the Devil—and of the Jews.
D i d h e not make them responsible ( e v e n if it was said jok-
i n g l y ) for the chill that, i n 1546, was t o carry h i m off i n three
weeks? T h e Devil tormented h i m only i n dreams; the Jews
were living scapegoats, within easy reach.‘
T h e consequences o f Luther’s position with regard t o the
“Jewish question” were incalculable, less from the direct ef-
4 This symbolic role of the Jews, the exceptional importance accorded
to their testimony, is also found in other religious leaders: Paul of Tarsus
a n d M o h a m m e d speak this same language a n d g o through the same re-
versal, rancor succeeding the urgent—but fruitless—entreaties o f the early
p e r i o d . A curious parallel! A n d one that w e might extend t o the collective
reactions of nations, which received the Jews favorably at the beginning
o f t h e i r colonization, a favor inevitably followed by the fatal rise o f anti-
S e m i t i s m . B o t h mirror a n d catalyst, the souls of the great leaders recapitu-
late the evolution o f the social body, just as ontogeny recapitulates phylog-
eny. W h a t fascinating speculations for those bold enough t o trace these
problems further!
 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany 225

fect of his savage texts—which during his lifetime enjoyed

only a limited circulation and which subsequently, until Hit-
ler’s advent, were practically hidden under the bushel *—
than as a result of a certain internal logic of German Luther-
anism. I n that species of polyphonic passion which is anti-
Semitism, the religious motif of justification b y faith im-
plies the rejection o f justification b y works, a n essentially
Jewish doctrine (jüdischer Glauben, wrote Luther; a n d w e
have seen that for h i m the “Jew w h o truly seeks to b e a Jew”
is the “enemy o f Christ”). T h e social motif o f unconditional
obedience to the authorities, combined with identification
with a national prophet—the reformer h a d specified m a n y
times that he was addressing himself to the Germans alone
—paved the w a y for the Hitlerian heresy four centuries
later. I n all this, Luther’s ardent spirit had roused some se-
cret yearning o f his people, provoking a gradual crystalliza-
tion of national awareness. I n essence, “the Jewish problem
was for Luther the reverse of the problem of Christ,” as one
of his German commentators has recently pointed out (309).
This is an appalling contrast; for minds not trained to the
subtleties of dialectics, but that look upon moral questions as
black or white, it inevitably comes down to contrasting
“good” and “evil,” “God” and “Devil,” with consequences
w e have discussed at length.® “If to be a good Christian is

5 Against the Jews a n d Their Lies, i n Luther’s lifetime, went through

two editions; the Schem Hamephoras (part of which was later destroyed),
three. O n the other hand, Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew was reprinted nine
times during the first year after its appearance (cf. R. L e w i n , op. cit.).
During the following centuries there were f e w reprintings o f these pam-
phlets (cf. Bibliotheca Hebraica o f J. C. Wolf). I n the nineteeth a n d twen-
tieth centuries t h e y were t o b e found only i n editions o f Luther's complete
works, until the appearance, under Hitler, of many popular editions, widely
circulated among the people.
6'This contrast is obviously not limited to Lutheran theologians; even
to the Catholic theologians of our generation, it seems essential to the under-
standing o f what they regard as the “mystery o f Israel.” Thus the brilliant
dialectician Father G. Fessard refers t o the “negative mission” o r the “nega-
tive power” o r the “negative unity” o f Israel. H e even writes: “Judaism,
t o the very extent that it rejects Christ, cannot help but b e the enemy o f
all that is specifically Christian, o f all that i s human.” ( P a x Nostra, Paris,
 The Age of the Ghetto 226

to detest the Jews, then we are all good Christians,” Erasmus

had said. Perhaps a true Christian who worshiped his God in
the manner of a Martin Luther inevitably ended b y detest-
ing the Jews with all his soul and opposing them with all his
strength.
Moreover, we must take the customs and usages of the
period into consideration. W e must consider the actual role
of the Jews and the stereotyped notions about them. W e have
seen what these were before Luther; n o w we shall see h o w
the question was to develop after him.

Germany after Luther

There is not much to say about the German Jews of the six-
teenth century. Hunted and impoverished, they led an ob-
scure life at the very period when their Spanish and Por-
tuguese coreligionists, temporarily safe behind a Christian
mask, were entrenching themselves in the financial markets
of the Low Countries and Italy and becoming the pioneers of
Levantine and transatlantic trade. ( T h e breaking-up o f a
ghetto always seems to coincide with a vigorous phase of Jew-
ish finance.) Thus, an insurmountable barrier separated the
German Jews from these glamorous marranos, whom they re-
fused to regard as Jews at all. “It is a country where there are
n o Jews,” the celebrated Yosel o f Rosheim laconically notes
at the time of his visit to Antwerp in 1531 (310), though a

1936, p . 219.) This comes very close to the Lutheran dialectic. M . Jacques
Maritain sees i n “Israel’s suprahuman relation t o the world . . . a kind o f
reversed analogy t o the Church,” but from it derives quite different con-
c l u s i o n s : “ I s r a e l , w e believe, i s assigned, i n the order o f temporal history
a n d its o w n finalities, a work o f terrestrial activation o f the world’s body
. it does not leave the world i n repose; it keeps it from sleeping; it
teaches the world t o b e discontent a n d uneasy so long as it does not have
God; it stimulates the movement of history.” (Les Juifs parmi les nations,
Paris, 1 9 3 8 , p . 2 1 . ) Obviously, the implicit moral judgment here is o f a
very different order.
F r o m Dostoevski t o Berdyaev, including Soloviev a n d Rozanov, w e
shall find the same differences among scholars o f orthodox Christianity.
 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany 227

flourishing marrano colony h a d been established there since

the beginning of the century.
It is noteworthy that Yosel o f Rosheim is the only six-
teenth-century German J e w whose name has come d o w n
t o us. Yet h e was neither a learned rabbi nor a cunning finan-
cier, but a tireless agent, a shtadlan ( i n Hebrew: interces-
sor, mediator) struggling t o safeguard the meager rights
of his coreligionists and initiating n e w tactics of relation-
ships with the government. H e began his career early; a t
scarcely twenty-five h e was the spokesman for the Jewish
communities of Alsace. After 1520 we see him intervening
with the authorities o n behalf of all the German communi-
ties. Soon afterward, Charles V authorized him to assume the
title o f “commander and regent o f all the Jewries o f the
Reich.” ” H e was remarkably skillful in manipulating the two
chief arguments that men of his kind have invariably re-
sorted to: the plea of the moral and theological order, and
the knowingly apportioned jug of wine. This latter method
permitted Yosel t o avoid the worst during the peasant revolts,
when there were many occasions when rebels or regular
troops were about t o massacre the Jews. Throughout the Diet
of Augsburg he polemicized against Pfefterkorn’s competi-
tor, the renegade Anton Margaritha. H e blocked the expul-
sion of the Jews from Hungary and Bohemia and convened
an assembly of rabbis who adopted a ten-point program of
commercial ethics for the Jews.® His reasoning showed both

7 “Befehlshaber and Regierer der gemeinen Jiidischkeit i m Reich.”

Following a curious trial that took place in 1535, Charles V forbade Yosel
o f Rosheim t o call himself “Regierer” since this title was reserved t o him-
self as emperor; thus Yosel was merely “Befehlshaber,” or “commander.”
( C f . Dubnow, History of the Jews in Europe [in Russian], Vol. 3 , p . 32.)
8 T h e Jews were t o b e obliged: not t o demand too high a n interest;
not t o camouflage interest b y artifically increasing the price o f merchandise;
not t o collect compound interest; not t o accept stolen objects as pledges;
not t o b u y household articles from children o r servants without the par-
ents’ or masters’ knowledge; not to take action against the heirs of a de-
ceased Christian debtor except after verification o f the debt b y represent-
atives o f the Jewish community; t o excommunicate Jews w h o o w e d money
to Christians and who tried to avoid payment b y changing residence; to
 The Age of the Ghetto 228

common sense and forcefulness. “I shall cause this program

to be observed,” he said in substance, “if the authorities do
what is necessary to let us live in peace, to put an end to the
expulsions, t o permit us t o move about, and to curtail their
bloody accusations. For we, too, are human beings, created
b y almighty G o d t o live beside you o n the earth.” Yosel of
Rosheim pursued his activities for almost half a century,
intervening with Protestants and Catholics alike. Charles V
showed him great favor, but he suffered a complete defeat
against Luther. This remarkable man was a precursor, and
his technique of intervening with the authorities was to be
adopted i n the centuries t o come—nor is it likely to b e relin-
quished in our own time.
B u t otherwise, until the e n d o f the eighteenth century,
the Jewish communities remained virtually frozen in their
traditional w a y o f life, while the surrounding world was ex-
periencing increasingly rapid changes. This way of life
and the Jews’ strange customs have been described in an
earlier chapter. Yet we must emphasize the curiously anach-
ronistic aspect of these communities, these conventicles
that, more successfully than the ecclesiastical establishments,
than the guilds striving to save their superannuated privi-
leges, kept intact amid the general molting that was taking
place in the manners and customs of medieval civilization.’
The old ways were maintained all the more easily because
the new order of things introduced a modicum of stability.
Expulsions and sudden changes became rarer, although they
persisted just enough to remind the Jews from time to time
of their very special status as hostages o f Christendom.
Nonetheless, time slowly did its work. Gradually, the

examine with scrupulous honesty the suits brought against Jews b y Chris-
tians; n o t t o attempt t o conceal the dishonest actions of Jews against their
debtors. ( C f . Dubnow, op. cit.)
9 This has l e d certain historians, for example Arnold Toynbee, t o speak
of Jewish civilization as a “fossilized Oriental civilization.” As a matter of
fact, it was a civilization in which the Oriental elements were mingled with
medieval ones, with the latter predominating.
 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany 229

enormous capital of skill and tenacity amassed by the Jews

down through the centuries began to bear fruit for some.
The new opportunities can be explained b y many factors:
among them, the disappearance o f the patrician trade dy-
nasties, especially after the devastations that followed the
Thirty Years War; a new social differentiation, carrying in
its wake a social differentiation within the Jewish communi-
ties; and above all a n e w mentality, that of the age of political
absolutism, in which the prince, the chief of state, released
from traditional structures and contexts, entered into open
conflict with those structures. Greedy for power and money,
the countless German potentates rapidly discovered that
the Jews were ideal auxiliaries: they were willing a n d hum-
ble, they had vast international connections, they were free
o f all connection with Christian society, a n d they shared
none of its prejudices. Thereupon, a new character ap-
peared o n the scene, leaving a strong imprint on all German
history of this period: the court Jew (Hofjude ) .
Each royal o r princely court h a d its o w n Jew: the n e w
Midas with the reputation of turning everything he touched
t o gold, a t a period when gold was sovereign, since it pro-
cured free and uninhibited power. Certain contrasts are
extremely suggestive. I n 1670, Emperor Leopold h a d piti-
lessly expelled the Jews from Vienna. The guilds had long
since demanded this expulsion, and the empress’ miscar-
riage, for which the Jews were blamed, supplied the pretext.
This decree, symbolic of the old days, was countered three
years later by a sign of the new. I n 1673 the same emperor
summoned a Heidelberg Jew, Samuel Oppenheimer, to the
court and assigned him the responsibility of provisioning
his armies. For thirty years Oppenheimer acquitted himself
of this task with singular felicity, especially during the Turks’
siege of Vienna in 1683 and in the endless wars against
France. Max von Baden wrote that without him, the Austrian
army would have been annihilated. Prince Eugene refused
to do without his services. T o estimate the extent of his ac-
tivity, it suffices to quote this passage of a letter that Op-
 The Age of the Ghetto 230

penheimer wrote i n his old age t o a dignitary of the court:

“As long as I lived in Vienna, I provisioned, almost every
year, the two armies engaged against the French and the
Turks, supplying flour, oats, horses, and money for recruits,
as well as munitions, powder, lead, cannon, artillery, wagons,
horses, and oxen, and there were never any losses
(311).
Behind the clatter of arms and the subtle interplay of dip-
lomatic intrigues, w e find the court J e w everywhere a t this
period. I t was the court Jew Leffmann Behrens who trans-
ported in hogsheads the subsidies that Louis X I V paid to the
Duke of Hanover. It was the court Jew Bernd Lehmann who
brought about the election of his prince, August, as king of
Poland, thanks to judicious distributions of wine. The court
J e w Siiss Oppenheimer, called “Jud Siiss,” the most famous
of all, the favorite of Duke Karl Alexander, reorganized the
administration a n d finances o f the duchy o f Wiirtemberg
and became the most powerful m a n i n the country, before
ending o n the gallows. It mattered little whether the court
was Protestant or Catholic, whether the prince was a bigot
o r a libertine. W e find Jewish “agents” o r “commission-
ers’ o r “factors” a t courts controlled b y the Jesuits and
at the side of bishops and cardinals. Their functions were
enormous and enormously diversified. They administered
finances, provisioned armies, raised money, furnished tex-
tiles and precious stones to the court, introduced new indus-
tries, manufactured textile or leather articles, leased out to-
bacco or salt taxes, and so on. Sometimes they entered into
genuinely friendly relationships with their employers and
masters, especially since the J e w lived o n the fringes o f so-
ciety and the prince, inaccessibly high above it, was alien t o
it, too. They understood each other all the more readily since
they both led a marginal existence. Great lords, famous cap-
tains, a n d even royalty ate a t the Jews’ table, slept a t their
homes while traveling, received them in their palaces, at-
tended their marriages. Here is the vivid description o f a
marriage o f court Jews, quoted from the memoirs o f Gliickel
 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany 231

von Hameln, that priceless document about the lives of Ger-

man Jews at the end of the seventeenth century.
“ W e were more than twenty who went to Cleves, and we
were received there with honor. W e arrived in a house that
i n truth resembled a royal palace, and that was admirably
furnished. Great preparations had been made for this mar-
riage. A t this time the prince [the future King Frederick I of
Prussia] happened to be in Cleves. Prince Maurice [of
Nassau] and other lords and important personages were also
there. They all let it be known that they wished to be pres-
ent at the wedding. Thus Elias Cleve, the father of the
groom, did all that was needful for such noble visitors. T h e
wedding day, immediately after the nuptial blessing, an
excellent collation o f delicacies and choice foreign wines was
served. One can imagine the difficulties involved, and h o w
Elias Cleve and his people did their best to lodge and care
for these noble guests. This is why they had not even time
t o put aside and count the dowry, as is customary.
“When the couple was standing under the canopy, it ap-
peared that in the confusion, someone had forgotten to write
down the ketubah [marriage contract]. What was to be
done? All the nobles and the young prince were already
there and ready to watch the ceremony. The rabbi then said
that the groom must furnish a surety and promise t o write the
ketubah immediately after the marriage. A n d he read aloud
the ketubah from a book. After the nuptial blessing, the
nobles were led into the festive hall of Elias Cleve, hung
with gilded leather. There was a great table in the center,
covered with the choicest delicacies. Thus the nobles were
treated according to their rank. M y son Mordecai was five
years old at the time; there was n o lovelier child in the world,
and we had dressed him with care and skill. The nobles
nearly devoured h i m with their eyes, and the prince espe-
cially held him b y the hand the whole time. After the no-
bles had eaten the sweetmeats and fruits and had drunk the
wines, the table was taken away. Masked actors then ap-
peared, were gracefully presented, and provided every kind
 The Age of the Ghetto 232

of amusement, i n order to divert the guests. Then the actors

executed a dance macabre, which was a very rare thing. 7

O f course, such friendships lasted only so long as the Jew

remained useful and rich. He was continually at the mercy
of a coup or a caprice of fate, and his good fortune was al-
ways precarious. No court Jew founded a dynasty; many, on
the other hand, ended their days in poverty. The sons of
Bernd Lehmann were expelled from Saxony; the grandsons
of Leffmann Behrens spent many years in debtors’ prison;
a n d the trial o f Jud Siiss, the joy his fall provoked throughout
all Germany, his last-minute return to Judaism and his tragic
end, are virtually the symbol of the fate of a court Jew. Per-
haps the following sally, attributed to Friedrich Wilhelm,
the soldier-king, appropriately depicts their situation and the
interest shown them. Passing through a Prussian town, he
was requested t o grant a n audience t o a delegation o f Jews.
“ I shall never receive those dogs who crucified our Lord!”
h e exclaimed. A chamberlain then whispered to him that the
Jews had brought him a valuable present. “In that case, let
them come in,” he added. “After all, they weren't there when
he was crucified. . .” True or false, the little story reflects
quite accurately the mixed feelings the Jews provoked in the
baroque age.
Court Jews dressed in the fashion of the time, wearing
short tunics of bright colors and powdered wigs. They built
magnificent homes, sometimes even small chateaux. Wolf
Wertheimer, court banker of Munich, gave hunting parties
o n his estate, which great lords, the British ambassador,
and Prince Eugene himself did not disdain to attend. Siiss
Oppenheimer even had a titled mistress. Despite this, these
Jews were not “emancipated,” and they usually remained
closely attached to their Jewish orthodoxy. Champions of
their less fortunate coreligionists, they did everything pos-
sible to have residence prohibitions repealed and expulsion
orders revoked. Like Yosel of Rosheim, they were all
shtadlanim. A s such, they played leading roles within the
 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany 233

Jewish communities, ruled them tyrannically, and even sent

their overbold adversaries to prison.
Thus the Jewish communities lost their egalitarian and
democratic character. A marked social differentiation was es-
tablished at their core.
A t the top of the scale, the court Jews formeda caste apart;
at the very bottom, the Jewish rabble was organized in its
own way and left its stamp o n the entire German lower social
strata.
T h e appearance o f many Jewish bandits at this period
should also be noted. Court Jew and Jewish bandit had, in
fact, this in common: that each in his own way sought to
overcome his pariah condition and braved the society that
oppressed him. The former by exercise of cunning, the latter
by cruder and more direct means. This Jewish banditry,
whose first traces appear at the beginning of the sixteenth
century, was an odd and very characteristic phenomenon,
unduplicated elsewhere in the age-old history of the Disper-
sion. Its beginnings are obscure: w e only know that in Lu-
ther’s time the German criminal-class argot was already
larded with Hebraisms.'° I n the following centuries we find
records of organized gangs, some exclusively Jewish, others
mixed Judeo-Christian, about which the police officers made
some remarkable statements. Jewish bandits, we learn
from these, were good fathers and husbands, often led a set-
tled family life, showed exemplary piety, and never robbed
o n Saturdays and holidays." Though they constituted only
10 T h e oldest known German work that deals with banditry a n d thiev-
ing, the Liber vagatorum . . . , published i n 1499, already contains a little
lexicon o f Rothwelsch. M a n y words are o f Hebrew origin. I n a preface t o
a n e w edition of the book published i n Frankfurt i n 1520, Martin Luther
wrote: “ I consider it useful that this little book b e widely read, so that it
m a y b e seen a n d understood h o w the Devil rules i n this world, so that m e n
m a y become wise a n d guard against h i m . It i s true that this Rothwelsche
Sprache comes from the Jews, for it contains m a n y Hebrew words, as those
w h o k n o w Hebrew will observe.”
11 The terms in which a German police commissioner expressed his
virtuous indignation have an undeniable flavor.
 The Age of the Ghetto 234

a tiny minority within the German criminal classes, they set

the tone. They implanted their special language, the Gaun-
ersprache, or Rothwelsch, a strange adaptation of Hebrew.
(Furthermore, as is often the case with slang, many words
made their way into common speech and at present form part
of the German linguistic heritage.) The customs and reli-
gion of the Jews seem to have exerted a lively attraction o n
many German delinquents. The Christian prisoners in a Ber-
lin jail demanded the right to attend Jewish ceremonies.
O n the scaffold, Domian Hessel, the most famous highway-
m a n of the eighteenth century and a former seminarist, re-
quested the attendance o f a rabbi. U p o n reflection, this is
scarcely surprising. I n taking a position outside the law, the
Christian bandit flouted society, its moral values, and its reli-
gion. Judaism flouted that society b y the mere fact o f its exist-
ence.
Like the court Jews, Jewish bandits were an exceptional
phenomenon. Until the era o f emancipation, the great major-
ity o f German Jews continued t o live according t o the old or-
der, perpetuating, in the eighteenth century, customs estab-
lished i n the Middle Ages. From generation t o generation,

“If it i s somewhat comforting a n d beneficial t o find i n the most perverse

characters the slightest trace, even the smallest spark, o f what w e might
call virtue, that is, in the case of the Jewish bandit, the affection he bears
his wife a n d his children, the respect h e shows his parents. . . . Skillful
investigators, moreover, will be able to use this character trait to advan-
tage in interrogations. . . .
“For six days [the Jewish bandits] d o not fear t o sin against the laws,
both human and divine, laying hands on the property of others, and they
would k n o w n o scruples o n the seventh d a y if their rabbinical dogmas did
not forbid them all dealings on the Sabbath. Yet their dealings are theft,
o n which they live, a n d it i s only because theft i s a form o f commerce, not
because it is a crime, that they abstain from stealing on Saturday. . . .
E v e n before the stars appear o n the horizon, the Jewish thief interrupts his
journey a n d eagerly makes his w a y t o a n inn where h e m a y celebrate the
Sabbath, since h e i s forbidden t o travel o n that day. . . ”
These lines are taken from D i e jüdischen Gauner i n Deutschland, b y
A . F . Thiele (Berlin, 1842), the last of a long series of studies about Jew-
ish bandits i n the eighteenth a n d early nineteenth centuries b y German
police officials o f various ranks.
 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany 235

age-old hopes enabled them t o endure every abasement,

every catastrophe. From year to year they awaited the com-
ing of the Messiah. Thus when, in the second half of the sev-
enteenth century, a false Messiah, Sabbatai Zevi, appeared
i n Turkey, h e was acclaimed not only by the rabbis b u t by
a goodly number o f the faithful—artisans, laborers, o r usu-
rers—who ceased t o attend t o their business and hurriedly
sold their property in order to embark for Constantinople.
The memoirs of Gliickel von Hameln, mentioned above,
have left us a vivid picture of this episode. This naive and
colorful narrative, written b y a warmhearted woman, carries
u s intimately into the Jewish home and enables us t o under-
stand (better than any concept o f “sublimation” o r other ab-
straction could do) how the Jews, throughout their tribula-
tions, could preserve an extraordinarily strong faith and
ethics, endure the blows of fate and endless humiliations,
without ever losing confidence in the Lord—or in men, even
Christian men.!*
12 Glückel v o n Hameln’s memoirs, discovered i n the family archives
at the end of the nineteenth century, have subsequently appeared in sev-
eral German and English editions. Here is the beginning of the work:
“In the year 5451 of the Creation [1690-1691 of the Christian era]
I began t o write this book i n m y great distress a n d grief. M a y G o d give u s
joy a n d send u s o u r liberator! . M y dear children, I have begun writ-
i n g this after the death o f your pious father, i n order t o soothe m y soul
somewhat w h e n dark thoughts came t o m e , w h e n grave anxieties oppressed
m e , because w e h a d lost our faithful shepherd. I then spent m a n y wakeful
nights, a n d often got u p from m y b e d i n order t o shorten m y hours o f
sleeplessness. M y dear children, I a m not attempting t o write a n instructive
book for you, for I am not capable of such a thing; our wise men have
written m a n y works for instruction, a n d w e have our holy Torah i n which
w e m a y see a n d understand all that is useful for us, a n d all that leads u s
from this world t o the one t o come.
“It is m y intention t o leave y o u the story o f m y life i n seven little
books, if G o d permits m e t o live. Certainly it i s best t o begin with m y
birth. It was, I believe, in the year 5407 [1646-1647] that m y pious mother
gave birth t o m e i n the community o f Hamburg.
“ I w a s not yet three years o f age w h e n the Jews were driven from
Hamburg a n d obliged t o leave for Altona, which belongs t o the king o f
Denmark, from w h o m the Jews possessed safe-conducts. This Altona is
merely a quarter o f a n hour from Hamburg. Twenty-five Jewish families
were already living there; w e h a d our synagogue there a n d our cemetery.
 The Age of the Ghetto 236

This fascinating book fails t o mention the series o f n e w

vexations and cunning abasements devised for the Jews i n
her day, perhaps because the author found such things en-
tirely natural. Though massacres and pogroms became rarer

W e lived thus for a certain time in Altona, then with difficulty succeeded
i n obtaining from Hamburg passports for the Jews o f Altona, so that they
might g o t o the city t o tend t o their affairs. E a c h passport w a s valid for
four weeks, it was received from the burgomaster, it cost one ducat, and
w h e n it h a d expired it w a s necessary t o purchase a n e w one. B u t the four
weeks often became eight w h e n one k n e w the burgomaster o r other offi-
cials. Oh, the people often had a hard lifel For they had to seek in the
city all that pertained t o their trade, yet frequently m a n y poor a n d miser-
able m e n tried t o enter the city surreptitiously a n d without passport. B u t
w h e n they were caught b y the officials, they were cast into prison. All this
cost a great deal o f money, a n d it was difficult t o obtain their release. A t
dawn, as soon as they left the temple, the m e n set off for the city, a n d
a t evening, w h e n the gates were about t o b e closed, they returned t o
Altona. Often, w h e n they set off o n the road, the poor wretches feared for
their lives o n account o f the hatred o f the Jews among the soldiers, boat-
m e n , a n d other common people, so that each wife thanked G o d w h e n her
husband h a d happily returned t o her side. I n those times, forty households
a t the most h a d come from Hamburg t o Altona. There were n o particu-
larly rich people among them, each earned his bread i n all honesty. T h e
richest of the time were: Haim Fiirst, with 1 0 , 0 0 0 thalers as his fortune;
m y late father with 8 , 0 0 0 thalers; others with 6 , 0 0 0 thalers; and some with
2 , 0 0 0 thalers as well. B u t they lived together i n friendship a n d great at-
tachment, and all in all led a life better than the richest of our time. Even
h e w h o h a d only 500 thalers could enjoy himself, a n d each h a d more joy
with his lot than the wealthy o f today, w h e n there i s n o means o f satisfying
oneself, and when it is said: ‘No one dies who has fulfilled even the half
o f h i s desires.” O f m y father, I remember that h e was a m a n full o f trust
in God, a man without equal, and if the gout had not troubled him, h e
would have m a d e h i s w a y still better. Still, even thus, h e provided well
for his children i n all honor.
“ I was about ten w h e n the Swede waged w a r against the king o f
Denmark. May God grant him great renown! I cannot say much that is
new of this, because it happened in m y childhood, when I was still going
to the heder. I n those days we suffered great hardships in Altona, for the
winter was very cold, such as h a d not been known for some fifty years.
It w a s called the Swedish winter. It froze so hard that the enemy could
move about everywhere. Suddenly, on the Sabbath, cries of grief and pain
rang o u t : “The Swede is upon us!” This happened a t dawn, w e leaped from
our beds and, all undressed, ran to the city [Hamburg], and were obliged
t o find succor with either the Portuguese o r the Hamburgers. W e thus m a d e
a brief sojourn [without authorization] until the moment w h e n a t last m y
 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany 237

a t this period, when administrative and police institutions

had evolved, these new institutions showed great ingenuity
in harassing the Jews without bloodshed. The municipality
o f Frankfurt, renewing the old ordinances—such as requir-

father managed [that is, obtained the right o f domicile] t o settle once again
in H a m b u r g . Afterwards, a n increasing number o f Jews gradually m a n -
aged t o come t o the city. A n d almost all the fathers o f Jewish families were
established in Hamburg, except for those who had lived in Altona before
the expulsion.
“At this time, few taxes were paid to the government, each man reach-
i n g a n agreement for his o w n account with the officials. B u t w e h a d n o
synagogue i n Hamburg, nor the right o f sojourn, a n d remained there only
by the grace o f the council. Still, the Jews assembled a n d held their prayer
meetings i n their rooms, as best they could. If t h e council h a d s o m e wind
o f this, they were willing t o close a n eye. B u t w h e n the priests discovered
the matter, they did not tolerate it, a n d drove u s from those lodgings.
Then, like timid lambs, we were obliged to go to the temple in Altona.
This lasted some time, after which w e returned to our ‘Schiilchen.” Thus,
sometimes w e were left i n peace, sometimes w e were pursued, a n d the
same was true until this very day, a n d I fear that this will last always, so
l o n g as Hamburg i s governed b y its burghers. M a y the merciful G o d take
pity o n u s soon a n d send u s His Messiah so that w e m a y serve H i m with
a pious heart a n d so that w e m a y once again make o u r prayers i n our
sanctuary in Jerusalem, amen!
“They remained, then, in Hamburg, and m y father trafficked i n pre-
cious stones a n d i n other things—a Jew w h o deals i n almost everything.
T h e w a r between Sweden a n d Denmark grew ever more savage, a n d the
king o f Sweden h a d great fortune, so that h e took all from the k i n g o f
Denmark, marched upon the capital, a n d laid siege t o i t . A little more,
a n d h e would have taken it, i f the k i n g o f Denmark h a d not h a d such
good advisers a n d subjects w h o aided h i m with their goods a n d their
blood, so that h e managed t o save everything. I n truth, this happened only
b y the special aid o f God, for h e was a just a n d pious k i n g , i n whose l a n d
w e h a d been happy, w e Jews. Although remaining i n Hamburg, each of u s
had only six thalers o f taxes t o p a y t o D e n m a r k , n o m o r e . Thereafter the
king w a s a i d e d by the D u t c h ; they crossed the S u n d i n their ships a n d
put a stop to the war. Yet never since have Sweden and Denmark been at
ease together; even as friends o r relatives by marriage, they never stop
pecking t h e o n e a t the other.
“ M y father was not so rich, as I have said, he had great trust in
God, never owed anything t o anyone, a n d led a hard life i n order t o feed
himself and his family honestly. Having already endured many ordeals, h e
w a s i n haste t o marry off his children. W h e n h e took m y mother, h e was
a widower, having spent sixteen years o f conjugal life with a w o m a n o f
the name o f Reitze, o f great spirit a n d distinction, a n d w h o ran, it was
 The Age of the Ghetto 238

ing distinctive insignia and forbidding Jews t o employ Chris-

tian servants—added n e w ones that were astonishingly
petty. Jews were forbidden t o linger i n the streets without a
specific purpose, to walk in pairs, to use certain streets, to ap-
pear during Christian festivals o r w h e n a prince visited the
city. They were allowed to market only after the Christians.
Detailed orders, the Kleiderordnung, prescribed the de-
meanor o f the Jews and their manner o f dress. I t was ex-
pressly stated that Jews were not “burghers” but merely
“protégés” o r “subjects” o f the city o f Frankfurt—a distinc-
tion that the Nazis were subsequently t o adopt upon Hitlers
accession to power (312). The city of Hamburg, in consulta-
tion with the leaders o f the Jewish community, passed a still
more exacting Kleiderordnung. This even limited the num-
ber of guests at a wedding banquet, as well as the kind of
presents that could b e given, a n d prohibited certain dishes
such as capons and preserved o r jellied foods, ritually irre-
proachable but regarded as too extravagant (313). Of

said, a great a n d good household. M y father h a d n o children b y her. B u t

from her first marriage she h a d a single daughter o f matchless beauty a n d
virtue. This girl k n e w French fluently, from which m y father one d a y gained
great advantage. H e h a d received, i n fact, against a loan o f fifty thalers,
a pledge from a man of quality. Some time after, this gentleman came to
m y father with t w o associates a n d sought t o release his pledge. M y late
father, without suspecting anything, went i n t o find the object. H i s step-
daughter was standing b y the clavichord a n d began t o play so that the fine
gentlemen would not find the time too long. They, standing beside her,
whispered together: ‘When the J e w returns with t h e pledge, w e shall take
it back without money [without paying] and b e off.” They spoke French,
not suspecting that the young girl understood them. W h e n m y late father
returned with the pledge, she began t o sing a t the top o f h e r l u n g s , i n
Hebrew: ‘For the love of Heaven, no pledge. Here today, gone tomorrow!’
I n her haste, the poor creature could think o f nothing else. Then m y late
father s a i d t o his distinguished visitor: ‘ S i r , where i s the m o n e y ? There-
upon the other replied: ‘Give m e back m y pledge!’ T o which m y late father
replied: ‘ N o money, n o pledge!” T h e n o n e o f the fine gentlemen said t o the
others: ‘Brothers, we are betrayed! The girl must know French.” The next
d a y the borrower returned alone, paid m y father i n exchange for h i s pledge,
the capital a n d the interest upon it, a n d declared: ‘It was a great advan-
tage a n d a wise measure t o have your daughter taught French.” So saying,
h e went o n his way.”
 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany 239

course, the Jews did not have m a n y occasions for diver-

sion, and those they did have were severely restricted. A t the
beginning of the eighteenth century the Austrian govern-
ment invented a brand-new regulation: one o n marriages in
general. In order to prevent too rapid a growth of the Jewish
population, the court o f Vienna decreed i n 1726 that only
the eldest son o f a Jewish family h a d the right t o marry
within the law; the other sons were obliged to remain bach-
elors. As a method of birth control, this tribute to the fecun-
dity and morality of the Jews was both simple and radical.
Called “reduction,” it was applied first in Bohemia and Mo-
ravia and later adopted in Prussia, the Palatinate, and Al-
sace, and resulted in the emigration of many young Jews to
Poland or Hungary.
O f course, the majority of German Jews led a humble and
laborious life. But the exceptional careers we have men-
tioned, fermenting i n the social body and accelerating the
economic changes already under way, inevitably produced
a profound impression upon contemporaries. I n this sense,
the “Jewish problem” appeared in Germany as a real prob-
lem—in contrast to the abstract anti-Semitism of the other
Western nations—one nourishing and multiplying anti-Jew-
ish hatreds.
W e have quoted earlier the French and English definitions
of the term “Jew.” Here, a faithful and impartial mirror, is
the German etymological definition, with a n even stronger
emotional charge, one more concrete a n d more suggestive.
W e take it from the famous Deutsches Worterbuch of the
Brothers Grimm ( w h o s e tales have enchanted so many
generations of children):
“Jude . 3) Among their offensive characteristics, em-
phasis has been primarily o n their slovenliness as well as
their greed for money a n d their usury. Dirty as a n old Jew;
he stinks like a Jew; whence: to taste like a Jew and, a for-
tiori, t o taste like a dead Jew: one must first grease one’s
throat, otherwise this food tastes like a dead Jew, Leh-
mann, 149; to lend money, cheat, borrow like a Jew: that is
 The Age of the Ghetto 240

worthless, neither a Jew nor a priest would lend anything

o n it, Fischart, g2b; . . Jew, a prickly beard; thus, in Thu-
ringia: I have a real Jew i n m y face, I must get shaved; i n
eastern Frisia, Jew is the name given to a meal without a
meat course, Fromm., 4, 132, 82. I n the Rhineland, Jew is the
name of a part of a pig’s spinal column; in the Tyrol, to the
spinal column in general, Kehr, 2 1 2 . ” (314).
The Brothers Grimm also tell us that a verb was derived
from the root Jude: jüdeln, whose various meanings were:
to talk like a Jew; to bargain like a Jew; finally, to smell like
a Jew, to have the odor o f a Jew. . . .
The invention of printing made it possible to popularize
countless variations a n d commentaries o n this main theme.
Every year many pamphlets and weighty treatises appeared.
J. C. Wolf, a diligent German bibilographer of the early
eighteenth century, lists i n his Bibliothecae Hebraeae over
a thousand works of Scriptores Anti-Judaici, and this enu-
meration is far from complete. We can thus appreciate the
vigor with which the “Jewish question” preoccupied men’s
minds. This was n o longer abstract rhetoric, as in France
or England; German expressions of anti-Semitism are com-
bined with urgent social problems. All genres and styles are
represented: missionary texts intended t o convert the Jews;
huge erudite works about Jewish customs, i n the “believe it
o r not” category; a n d learned treatises o n the disturbing
juridico-theological question: I s it permissible to tolerate
Jews in a Christian society? Does not the Christian con-
science demand their immediate expulsion? **
But most important are the incendiary pamphlets whose
prototype Martin Luther h a d provided, both as t o form and
content. They usually had impressive titles, such as The
13 F o r example: Geistliches Bedencken o b die Juden und ihr Wucher
i n d e m Romischen Reich z u dulden? o b nicht ihrer Gotteslästerungen wegen
sie sich aller Privilegien entsetzt? Darmstadt, 1612; Etlicher Theologen
Bedencken, wit christliche Obrigkeit Juden unter den Christen zu wohnen
gestatten konne, Giessen, 1614; Discurs über die Frage: ob wahre Christen
mit gutem Gewissen die Juden als Juden i m dusserlichen weltlichen u n d
biirgerlichen Stande erdulden? n.p., 1695.
 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany 241

Enemy of the Jews; The Scourge of the Jews; Jewish Prac-

tices, a Study of Their Impious Life; Jewish Delights; A
Brief Catalogue o f the Horrible Jewish Blasphemies; The
Sack of Jewish Serpents,'* o r even Inflamed Poison o f the
Dragons a n d Furious Bile o f the Serpents;'® o r T h e Jewish
Baths, in which is publicly shown the secret practices and
Jewish knavishness, how they drink the blood of Christians,
as well as their bitter sweat.'® (This last title emphasizes the
close connection between the imputation of ritual murder
and that of usury.) Sometimes current events gave rise to
especially large numbers of such works; thus the fall and
execution of Jew Siiss were celebrated in dozens of pam-
phlets, with titles too detailed o r too florid t o b e translated
here.”
T h e great success o f these publications and the special
kind o f imagination they show seem t o correspond t o the
quasi-erotic titillation, the compelling psychological need,
that characterize the modern anti-Semite. The general
themes, of course, remain those of the great demonological
myths of the Middle Ages, in which religious dread spon-
taneously gives rise to a libidinous imaginative outpouring.
It is always a question of the Jews’ secret vices and crimes,
1 4 Judenfeind, Giessen, 1570; Judengeissel, n . p . 1604; Kurzer Auszug
v o n den erschrecklichen jüdischen Lästerungen, Giessen, 1604; Juden-Prac-
tick oder Bericht von ihrem gottlosen Leben, Augsburg, 1 6 1 0 ; Deliciæ
Judaicæ . . . , Darmstadt, 1613; Jiidischer Schlangenbalg, n.p., 1702.
1 5 J. Schmid, Feuriger Drachen-Gift und wiitiger Ottern-Gall, Rotzen-
burg, 1634.
16 A d r i a n Warner, D e r Juden B a d - S t u b , darinnen eigentlich der Juden
heimliche Practick und Schelmestiick ôffentlich bewiesen werden, wie sie
den Christen das Blut und den sauren Schweiss, etx. aussaugen . . . , n.p.,
1611.
17 Here are three examples: D a s lamentierende J u d siissiche Frauen-
zimmer unter dem grossen eisernen Galgen v o r Stuttgardt draussen, n . p . ,
1 7 3 8 ; D e s justifizierten Juden Joseph Suess Oppenheimer Geist i n d e n
elysæischen Feldern . . . , Frankfurt, 1 7 3 8 ; Guthe Arbeit giebt herrlichen
Lohn, in einer Predigt iiber das Evengelium Math., XX, 1-16, in einer einge-
flossenen Anweisung, wie die an dem verurtheilten Juden Joseph Suess Op-
penheimer geschehene Execution anzusehen und z u gebrauchen sei, samt
einiger Nachricht von dessen kliglichen und schmachlichen Ende, gezeigt
von M . Rieger, Pfarrherrn in Stuttgart, Esslingen, 1738.
 The Age of the Ghetto 242

their shameful diseases, bizarre sexual attributes, and above

all, their special relationship with the Devil. But in this
period these themes are usually treated in a bookish and
pedantic manner, sometimes even with pretentious refer-
erences to natural history that subsequently led to so-
called “racial” anti-Semitism. I n this period of restriction,
when prohibitions and repressions of all kinds were empha-
sized, such themes acquired a vicious tinge, a corrupt flavor
utterly alien t o the naive a n d spontaneous soul o f medieval
man.
More subtle and poetic, an obscure and ancient legend
suddenly enjoyed tremendous popularity at the beginning
of the seventeenth century. The Brief Account and Descrip-
tion of a Jew Named Ahasuerus first appeared in 1 6 0 2 and
within the year went through eight editions in German.
It was quickly translated into every European language.
Thus originated the myth of the wandering Jew, witness
o f the Crucifixion and condemned b y Jesus t o wander end-
lessly until the Second Coming (i.e., the Last Judgment).
This m y t h conformed t o the traditional conceptions o f the
Church,” as well as to the unstable and vagabond lot to
which Christendom had condemned the Jews. W e know
the literary fortunes of this impressive theme, transposed
t o all keys and illuminated from all angles b y such illustri-
ous authors as Goethe, Schlegel, Shelley, Andersen, Edgar
Quinet, and Eugène Sue. It contributed powerfully, in all
nations and all milieux, to the concept of the mysterious
destiny and providential mission of the Jews.
Against this checkered background several more special-
1 8 The first known edition was published by Christoff Crutzer in Ley-
den in 1 6 0 2 .
1 9 W e may recall the bull of Innocent III of January 1 7 , 1 2 0 8 : “God
m a d e Cain into a vagabond a n d a fugitive upon the earth, but marked him,
making his head tremble, lest he be killed. Thus the Jews, against whom
the blood o f Jesus Christ calls out, although they are n o t t o b e killed, so
that the Christian people m a y n o t forget the divine law, must remain vaga-
bonds upon the earth, until their faces b e covered with shame a n d they
seek the name of Jesus Christ the Lord . . .” (Migne, Patrologiae [Latin],
Vol. 2 1 5 , p . 1 , 2 9 1 , No. 190).
 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany 243

ized works of marked influence stand out. German theolo-

gians plunged into the depths o f the Talmud, seeking in-
struction from rabbis o r consulting apostates, and eagerly
communicated their discoveries to the public. Their atti-
tude toward the Jews was usually m u c h less favorable than
that of the French Hebraists. Some, such as J. Wulfer ( The-
riaca Judaica) or J. Wagenseil (Tela ignea Satanae) (315),
sought primarily t o uncover anti-Christian blasphemies,
to that end laboriously analyzing Jewish prayers. A t the
same time, they were eager to refute the great demonologi-
cal accusations o f ritual murder o r poisoning. Others adapted
these accusations for their own purposes, such as the Orien-
talist I . A. Eisenmenger, author of Judaism Unmasked, a
True and Accurate Report.?® The history of this work is in-
teresting, since for the first time we see a court Jew interven-
ing i n one o f these polemics. T h e powerful supplier o f the
Austrian armies, Samuel Oppenheimer, actually succeeded,
for a consideration, in having the work banned. Its two thou-
sand copies were confiscated as soon as they were printed,
and the author died, apparently of grief. Shortly after his
death, however, his heirs had the work reprinted in Kônigs-
berg, with the help of King Frederick I of Prussia, and it has
subsequently served as a source of inspiration and a treasury
of arguments for generations of German anti-Semites.
The influence of the court Jews was also expressed in an-
other way. Though expulsions of Jews had decreased, they
still occasionally occurred; quite naturally, the court Jews
tried to have them annulled through the influence of their
international connections. A typical example is the expul-
sion of the Bohemian Jews, decreed in 1744 b y the Most

20 T h e complete title o f the work, printed i n Frankfurt i n 1700, is:

Entdecktes Judentum oder griindlicher und wahrhafter Bericht, welcher-
gestalt die verstockten Juden die heilige Dreieinigkeit erschrecklicherweise
verlästern u n d verunehren, die heilige Mutter Christi verschmähen, das neue
Testament, die Evangelisten u n d Apostel spôttisch durchziehen und das
ganze Christentum auf das dusserste verachten und verfluchen. Dabei noch
vieles andere. Alles aus ihren einigen Biichern erwiesen. Allen Christen zur
treuherzigen Nachricht verfertigt.
 T h e A g e o f the Ghetto 244

Catholic Empress Maria Theresa, on the pretext that they

had been engaged i n espionage for the Prussians during
the W a r of the Austrian Succession. A concerted action
was initiated immediately, its leading spirit being Wolf
Wertheimer, who had excellent Christian connections. The
Jewish communities of Frankfurt, Amsterdam, London,
and Venice were alerted. That of Rome was urged to inter-
vene with the pope. Those of Bordeaux and Bayonne were
requested t o take u p collections for the benefit o f the ex-
pelled Jews. Even the king o f England and the states gen-
eral of the L o w Countries made representations to Maria
Theresa, and a number of courtiers also intervened. Hence,
in spite of her previous insistence, the empress finally
yielded a n d authorized the Jews t o return t o their homes—
to be sure, in return for the payment of the enormous sum of
240,000 florins.
Thus ended the last great expulsion of the German Jews,
and this denouement is at the same time a fine example of
their growing international influence. As for the expulsions
spontaneously carried out b y the people themselves, the last
occurred in Frankfurt in August, 1616; it too must b e viewed
in the context of the last major rebellion against the consti-
tuted authorities. Under the leadership of a hog butcher,
Vicenz Fettmilch, the artisans o f the city laid siege t o the
ghetto. After an improvised defense that lasted several
hours, the gates yielded at nightfall and the townspeople
rushed in, pillaging and burning, furiously destroying
the acknowledgments of debts as well as the scrolls of the
Torah. The Jews, unharmed except for several beatings,
were authorized to leave the city, ruined but safe and sound,
and scattered into the countryside. A few months later the
city of Worms followed Frankfurt’s example and expelled
its Jewish community. To counter such disorders, the pro-
vincial and subsequently the imperial authorities tried to
intervene but for a long time were unsuccessful. The
troublemakers enjoyed considerable support, to such a de-
gree that the German faculties of law, when asked for their
 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany 245

views, decreed that the assault, made both in daylight

and b y the light of torches, fell into n o known legal category
and consequently was not punishable. I t was only twenty
months later that the Jews were able t o return t o the city,
under the protection of the imperial army, and their return
— t o the sound o f fifes and trumpets, i n ranks six deep, pre-
ceded by t w o carriages, one o f which was occupied by a
venerable, white-bearded rabbi, and the other blazoned
with the imperial bearings—constituted a spectacular and
symbolic ceremony for which the years following the Nazi
massacres i n Europe provided n o counterpart.
After the Frankfurt incident, whatever the popular ani-
mosity, there were n o longer any open anti-Jewish excesses
of this kind in Germany. The authorities were opposed to
them, and the German people were already giving evi-
dence of their traditional qualities of discipline and obedi-
ence. These qualities were to assure generations of Ger-
m a n Jews of peaceful existence, so long as it was the will of
the Obrigkeit, the authority, a n d were t o facilitate greatly
the Jews’ methodical extermination when, in the twentieth
century, a new authority decided upon such a course.
 eleven
Poland:
the Autonomous Center

Although it was particularly i n the East, i n the hospitable

regions of Poland and Lithuania, that the German Jews
sought refuge as their condition grew worse, we cannot con-
clude that the Polish Jews were solely of Western origin.
O n the contrary, it is quite probable that during the first mil-
lennium of our era the first Jews to penetrate into the terri-
tories between the Oder and the Dnieper came from the
southeast, from the Jewish kingdom of the Khazars, or even
from the south, from Byzantium. W e are not sure about
the relative proportions of the two groups; what is impor-
tant is that the superior culture of the German Jews per-
mitted them rapidly to impose their language and customs
as well as their extraordinarily sensitive historical con-
sciousness.
I n a country o f agrarian economy, whose population con-
sisted only o f nobles and serfs, the Jews rapidly assumed the
chief role in all activities relating to the circulation of mer-
chandise and to money. It is certain that they lived initially
o n excellent terms with the Christians. This is an observa-
tion w e have already made many times over. O n e can dis-
cern a constant link between the intellectual status of a
crude people, scarcely touched yet b y the teachings of Chris-
tianity and not having learned t o harbor special prejudices
against the deicidal race, and its poor state of economic de-
velopment; this permitted the Jews to assert themselves in a
domain where they did not have any competition. We shall
not therefore elaborate upon this subject, except to note that
 Poland: the Autonomous Center 247

the first part of our thesis is reflected b y a popular tradition,

according t o which a J e w was temporarily elevated t o the
throne o f Poland," a n d that the second part is illustrated by
the fact that many ancient Polish coins were minted with He-
brew letters o n t h e m The early history of the Polish Jews,
taken from obscure chronicles and accounts of travelers, is
vague and scanty. It is only after the thirteenth century that
we have any definite information about them. I n 1264 King
Boleslav of Kalish (Boleslav V ) granted the Jews a charter
whose broad outlines were similar t o those granted b y the
German princes i n the preceding centuries. It served as a
model for subsequent charters, some of which were even
more favorable; thus, that of Casimir the Great (1364)
equated the Jews with the nobility, in case of injury or mur-
der, and imposed identical punishment upon the guilty. Just
as in the Carolingian Empire four or five centuries earlier,
such preferential treatment provoked the resentment and ve-
hement protests o f the clergy, probably with reason. T h e se-
vere decrees of the Council of Breslau in 1 2 6 7 specifically
concerned Poland, as appears from its twelfth article: “Po-
land being a new settlement of the Christian body, it is t o
be feared that the Christian population will be all the more
easily influenced b y the superstitions and wicked customs
o f the Jews, since the Christian religion has only recently
been established i n the hearts o f the faithful i n this country”
(316). From the second half of the thirteenth century, the
Polish ecclesiastical authorities were to legislate against
the Jews just as actively as the authorities o f Western E u -
rope. I n 1279 they attempted—unsuccessfully, to be sure
1 According t o this legend, the Polish nobles, unable t o agree o n the
choice o f a king, decided t o put o n the throne the first foreigner t o visit
Poland. This was a Jew named Saul Wahl, according to one version, or
Abraham Porochovnik, according t o another. H e apparently reigned one d a y
and then abdicated.
2 Some of these coins bear, in Hebrew, the name of the king ( “Meshko
the Great”; “Meshko the Just”), others the names of Jewish founders
(“Abraham Duchs,” “Rabbi Abraham, son of Rabbi Zevi,” or even “Re-
joice, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”). They date from the eleventh and
twelfth centuries.
 The Age of the Ghetto 248

—to impose the wearing of distinctive insignia. At the end

o f the next century there appeared i n Poland the first ac-
cusations o f profanation o f the H o s t a n d o f ritual murder.
I n 1454, apparently yielding to the urging of the ubiquitous
John of Capistrano, King Casimir Jagello (Casimir I V ) ab-
rogated some of the Jewish privileges. Thirty years later the
expulsion of the Jews from Warsaw took place, followed
b y the expulsion from Cracow ( K r a k é w ) and b y a n at-
tempt t o expel them completely from Lithuania.
While history thus seemed t o repeat itself, with a gap
of several centuries corresponding to the gap in intellectual
development between Eastern and Western Europe, i t was
nonetheless t o take quite a different turn for the Polish
Jews. N o t that the hostile reactions o f the Polish o r Slavic
populations were slow to appear and to gain momentum; on
the contrary, they became, if possible, even more violent
than in other countries. But the economic and even admin-
istrative positions i n which the Jews rapidly entrenched
themselves were so deeply rooted in the social foundations
o f the country that it was impossible t o oust them until mod-
ern times. Contrary to what was to happen in the West,
where the small numbers of Jews ultimately facilitated their
economic and cultural assimilation, in the East, the existence
o f a Jewish social class culminated i n the emergence o f a na-
tion ina class b y itself.
To grasp the reasons for this strange difference, we must
first consider the constant influx of refugees from Western
Europe, which permitted many Jews to establish themselves
solidly in commercial and financial activities at a period
w h e n they h a d not yet encountered any competition ( e x -
cept from German colonists, immigrants like themselves).
This influx became even greater after the Black Plague. I t
is significant that except i n territories adjacent t o Ger-
many, the Polish Jews did not suffer greatly from this
scourge. Insofar as we have any statistical records about
this period, it would seem that in the fifteenth century the
number of Jews in Poland already approached a hundred
 Poland: the Autonomous Center 249

thousand—a somewhat questionable figure*—but the first

systematic census, taken about 1765, shows that they con-
stituted 1 0 percent of the country’s population.
Strengthened b y so solid a demographic base, they prac-
ticed all trades and monopolized several, and organized
themselves like a state within the state. This organization
acquired its definitive forms i n the sixteenth century, and
from this period onward, Poland was the chief world center
of Judaism for m a n y centuries. Without lingering over the
Polish Jews’ previous tribulations, which were not very
significant, we shall now consider their way of life in the
period of their prosperity.

“In these regions, masses o f Jews are t o b e found, w h o

are not subject t o the scorn they meet with elsewhere. They
d o not live i n abasement and are not reduced t o menial
trades thereby. They o w n land, engage i n commerce, study
medicine a n d astronomy. They possess great wealth a n d
are not only counted among respectable people but some-
times even dominate them. They wear n o distinctive insig-
nia, a n d are even permitted t o bear arms. I n short, they
have all the rights of citizens.” I n these terms the papal leg-
ate, Commendoni, described the status of the Polish Jews
about 1565 (317). Indeed, there was no possible compari-
son between the condition of the Polish Jews and that of
their less fortunate coreligionists i n the other European
nations.
They did not live i n ghettos but i n a neighborhood o r
a street o f their choice. T h e scope o f their occupations was
as broad as possible, including not only all types of com-
merce and trade, but also administrative offices (collecting
taxes and customs), industrial management (development
of salt mines and forests), and even agriculture, either as
8 This i s the figure arrived a t b y I . Schipper, the chief specialist i n
the economic history o f the Polish Jews. Until the middle o f the eighteenth
century w e have n o valid data for our estimates; the usual source—that o f
tax records—is of no help in this case, since the Polish Jews were taxed as
a group.
 The Age of the Ghetto 250

overseers or as managers o n their o w n account. I n other

words, a certain proportion—a proportion that was t o in-
crease—lived in the country. Many rich Jews, bankers to
the nobility, h a d become important landowners; they even
owned entire villages. Others were the stewards, tradesmen,
and commercial agents of the Polish lords, of the shlakhta:
“To each lord, his Jew,” says one Polish adage. I n effect,
these were “court Jews”—to b e sure, of very small courts,
given the confused division of power in Poland at the time.
Others were important merchants, importers, and above all
exporters o f wood, wheat, skins, and furs; but the majority
were small tradesmen and artisans, having to compete with
the rising Polish bourgeoisie; or, i n the country, they were
innkeepers, retail dealers, and even simple farmers. O n the
whole, then, it is accurate to say that in Poland the Jews
formed an entire social class—that urban middle class
which, in this nation, took so long to become established. I n
contrast to the great flexibility shown b y their ancestors,
who had rapidly adopted the language of the various Euro-
pean nations in which they settled, the Polish Jews continued
to speak German, which became Yiddish. I t isn’t possible to
say whether this difference was attributable t o their great
numbers, t o the cultural superiority o f their country o f ori-
gin, or even to their heightened self-awareness, their tre-
mendous attachment t o their past, which the German Jews
had acquired as a consequence of their shocking tribulations.
Doubtless it was a combination of all three of these factors.
I n any case, this special feature raised an additional barrier
between them and their Christian neighbors.*
It is not surprising, therefore, that the Polish Jews en-
joyed a high degree o f self-government o n both local and
4 As we know, the same situation is found among the Sephardic Jews,
who have continued to use “ladino” more than four centuries after their
expulsion from Spain. I n both cases, it m a y b e that the collective trauma
arising from their persecutions contributed t o a collective self-awareness
that found expression in a loyalty to the language of adoption. This lan-
guage was thus—paradoxically—that o f the nations where the Jews h a d
suffered the worst persecutions.
 Poland: the Autonomous Center 251

national levels. They practically administered themselves,

in accordance with a constitution that might be described
as customary and federative. Its basis was the community o r
“kahal” thatcorresponded t o a geographical unit including
both the Jews of any important city and those who lived
in its environs. The government of the kahal was oligar-
chic. Sworn electors, whose names were drawn by lot from
among the richest and most influential members of the
community, were named to select the administrators each
year. The latter were given very broad powers. Among their
responsibilities were the collection o f taxes and customs,
internal policing and maintenance of public order, syna-
gogue affairs (that is, the organization of worship and pub-
lic education, which were indissolubly linked), as well as
careful control of the labor market. An interesting feature
of the labor market was that only those artisans who were
fathers of families could open a n e w workshop; also,
except in unusual circumstances, this was forbidden to the
members of a foreign kahal. (The local cohesive spirit of
the kahals was also manifested b y the endless “border” dis-
putes over some village or hamlet whose administrative ju-
risdiction was contested: for example, the case of Zablou-
dovo, which from 1621 to 1668 kept the kahals of Grodno
and Tykoszin at odds) (318). The kahal also appointed the
rabbi, a personage o f great importance, since his moral au-
thority was reinforced b y his powers i n judiciary matters.
H e was b y rights president of the judiciary council, the tri-
bunal of the kahal. Elected commissions, various half-
philanthropic, half-religious guilds, counterbalanced the
“protectionist” leanings o f the kahal a n d devoted them-
selves t o numerous works o f charity a n d Jewish solidarity:
ransom of prisoners, care of the sick and aged, aid to the
needy and the homeless, to impecunious students, and above
all honor to the dead and the worship of their memory. The
pious brotherhoods (khevrot kedishah) were concerned with
assuring a dignified burial and care of the deceased’s family.
An organization so detailed and so concentrated was fa-
 The Age of the Ghetto 252

vored b y the Polish authorities, who found it convenient to

collect taxes en bloc and therefore to deal with a strong
community organization. Subsequently, these authorities re-
alized that it was even more convenient to impose a single
total annual payment upon all Jews and to charge them
with allocating this tax among the various communities
themselves. Hence the consultations and meetings of the
kahal representatives, at first sporadic and irregular, soon
became extremely important. From the second half of the
sixteenth century, these representatives gathered at semi-
annual conferences—at the Lublin fair in the spring and
the Yaroslav fair in Galicia in the fall—and determined tax
quotas, settled conflicts among kahals, published new laws
and decrees (takkanoth), and discussed other important
questions pertaining to Polish Judaism. The federal chamber
thus improvised, a veritable Jewish parliament with about
thirty members, received the name “Council of the Four
Nations,”® and there was some justification for its being
compared b y contemporaries to the Sanhedrin of Jerusalem.
As a matter o f fact, never h a d the Jews enjoyed such auton-
o m y i n Europe. I n all these matters, involving unprece-
dented situations and conflict of interests, the role of the
rabbi—as moral authority, professional mediator, and inter-
preter of the subtle and often obsolete Talmudic laws—was
of utmost importance. Rabbinical learning was thus vindi-
cated.
Under these circumstances Talmudic learning—knowl-
edge of the countless rules, judgments, and arguments dat-
ing from Parthian Babylonia or from Europe of the Crusade
era, together with skill in applying these to new conditions
—reached incomparable heights i n sixteenth-century Poland.
“Pilpul” (literally, pepper) was the name given t o the spicy
dialectic whose object was to find two Talmudic texts that

5 I n Hebrew: “Vaad Arba Artzoth.” The “four nations” were Greater

Poland (Posnan), Lesser Poland (Cracow), Red Russia or Ruthenia (Lvov),
a n d Lithuania. Subsequently Volhynia was added, while i n 1 6 2 3 the Jews
of Lithuania seceded and formed their own council.
 Poland: the Autonomous Center 253

logically contradicted each other, and after having clearly

established their incompatibility, t o reconcile them with the
aid o f some subtle sophistry, however finely the hairs h a d t o
b e split. Pilpul tournaments, held at fairs, markets, and po-
litical meetings, became the national pastime of the Polish
Jews. (How this apparently sterile mental gymnastics trained
the mind, h o w it increased the capacity for intellectual work,
is understandable only to those who have attempted it them-
selves, for t o the uninitiated, Talmudic reasoning usually
presents insurmountable difficulties.®)
Under these circumstances, erudition, even if it remained
uniformly Talmudic, was even more highly prized, if possible,
b y the Polish Jews than b y their German ancestors. Further-
more, the priority accorded to intellectual values served as a
corrective to the great social inequalities within the Jewish
community, in which the rich were the chief possessors of
municipal power. I t is true that traditional Jewish philan-
thropy broadly made u p for grave inequalities. Understand-
ably, throughout the Dispersion the lot of the Polish Jews

6 Hence it is very difficult t o give examples. F e w authors have tried

t o make Talmudic reasoning accessible t o educated Europeans. W e refer
those interested i n this question t o a n o l d but hitherto unequaled study
b y the philologist Arsène Darmesteter (“Le T a l m u d , ” i n Reliques scienti-
fiques, Paris, 1 8 9 0 , republished i n “Aspects d u génie d’Israël,” Cahiers d u
Sud, Paris, 1 9 5 0 ) . A d usum populi, the following example m a y serve t o
illustrate the thesis that Talmudic reasoning is, in the last analysis, an ex-
ercise in common sense:
A goy insisted that a Talmudist explain t o h i m what the Talmud was.
T h e sage finally consented a n d asked the goy the following question:
“Two men climb down a chimney. When they come out the bottom,
one has his face covered with soot, the other i s spotless. Which o f the t w o
will wash himself?”
“The one who's dirty,” answers the goy.
“No, for the one who's dirty sees the other’s clean face and believes
h i s is clean, t o o . T h e one who’s clean sees a dirty face a n d believes that
his is dirty, too.”
“ I understand!” the g o y exclaims. “I'm beginning t o understand what
the Talmud is . . ”
“ N o , y o u have understood nothing a t all,” the rabbi interrupts. “For
h o w could t w o m e n have come d o w n the same chimney, one dirty a n d the
other clean?”
 The Age of the Ghetto 254

was regarded at this period as so privileged that—according

t o one o f those puns so common among them—Polonia was
to be read po lan ia (“God resides here”).
It is apparent that in such a situation Polish anti-Semitism
arose quite early, and i n a very different fashion from else-
where i n Europe. Hitherto w e have been dealing with mytho-
logical anti-Semitism, that composite of hatred and religious
fervor whose effects were so strangely disproportionate to its
apparent cause, and which remained active even in the
absence o f Jews. I n the case o f Poland, even though the first
hostility m a y have h a d the same origin as elsewhere, the
Jewish group ultimately became so numerous, a n d its func-
tions so indispensable, that the nature o f the conflict was
altered. I n Poland the Jew was a permanent element of his
neighbor's daily existence, a n integral part o f the social body.
The Christian Pole, whether nobleman or laborer, peasant or
city dweller, turned to the Jew to buy or to sell, to borrow or
to pay taxes, to travel or to patronize a tavern. This Jew,
whether proud or humble, rich o r poor, hard or compliant,
was an omnipresent human reality, behind whom the ac-
cursed Satanic likeness gradually began to disappear. Thus
the original and fundamental aspect of anti-Semitism was
somehow conjured away. O n the other hand, this Jew, though
part of the Christian’s familiar background, was associated
with certain functions and operations of everyday life that
were all part of the struggle for existence. Thus with regard
to Judeo-Christian hostility, w e are n o w concerned with ten-
sions that are in n o way exceptional, are not disturbing or
unprecedented, that do not shock the sensibilities, since they
d o not differ essentially from other tensions and conflicts o f
social, national, or religious groups throughout the history of
our civilization. A t most, some specific Jewish characteristics
we have frequently mentioned, especially their absolute dis-
dain for physical exercise a n d prowess (“It’s as useful t o y o u
as a sword to a Jew,” says one Polish proverb), mark them
with a special stamp. This, combined with the Jews’ scornful
rejection o f Christ, made it even easier t o assign t o them the
 Poland: the Autonomous Center 255

traditional role o f scapegoat. It is difficult to k n o w whether

anti-Semitism gains o r loses i n violence under such condi-
tions, especially since w e are dealing with incommensurable
quantities, the same word being used for t w o rather different
phenomena. We may try to see the matter more clearly b y
considering i n turn the attitudes o f various social classes
toward the Jew.
As chief beneficiaries of Jewish enterprise, the Polish nobles
were their natural protectors. There could b e n o conflict o f
interest here, except in the case of some small, needy land-
owners, competing with the “court Jews” for the favor of a
magnate. T h e nobility treated the Jews with greater disdain
than that reserved for other classes o f society, but it did not
show much malice in doing so. It is characteristic that in the
early days of printing, when the custom of defaming the
Jews, o f describing their vices i n books a n d pamphlets, spread
throughout Poland as everywhere else, no text of this kind
came from the pen of a noble.
Usually these works were written b y members o f the Chris-
tian bourgeoisie. Big-city dwellers, especially, were i n per-
manent conflict with the Jews, in an attempt to oust them
from trade o r prevent them from becoming artisans. A
special commission from the elected magistrates o f Cracow
caused Sebastian Miczynski to write his Mirror of the Polish
Crown’ in 1618, in which the wealth of the Jews, as well as
their commercial techniques, were described at length for
the first time. Religious accusations are of minor importance
i n this work. This i s also true o f the numerous writings o f the
physician Shleszkowski, w h o had undertaken to expose the
fraudulent practices that h e ascribed t o his Jewish colleagues
and rivals.®
T h e clergy confined itself t o religious charges. A t the e n d
of the sixteenth century, its leader was the famous Jesuit
Peter Skarga, the most illustrious Polish preacher of all time,

7 Zwierciadlo Korony Polskiej.

8 Odkrycie zdrad zydowskich, 1 6 2 1 ; Jasny dowod o doktorach zydow-
skich, 1623.
 The Age of the Ghetto 256

author of the Lives of the Saints (Zywoty Swietych, 1579),

which for centuries was the bedside reading of the Polish
people. I n it the miraculous biography of Simon of Trent
figured prominently, and Skarga later officiated i n person as
prosecutor in a trial for profanation of the Host. He had many
imitators who, from generation to generation, launched at-
tacks of this kind. Scholars and students, pupils of the Jesuits,
were the chief artisans of slanders and riots that degenerated
into pogroms, so that the custom was established among the
Jews of paying an annual fee (kozubales) as protection
against systematic molestation.
The common people, the oppressed and illiterate peasants,
had no voice in the matter, nor any means to hand their
opinions down t o us, unless w e regard as such the countless
sayings and proverbs that serve as a traditional repertory o f
popular wisdom. Some o f them seem t o sound a n ambiguous
note. For instance: “We peasants are always in misery: we
must feed the noble, the priest, and the Jew” (319). Or:
“What the peasant earns, the noble spends and the Jew
profits by” (320). Or again: “The Jew, the German, and the
Devil, a fine trio and all sons of the same mother” (321).
Judging b y such adages, the people made f e w distinctions
among their exploiters.

The Deluge

I n 1648 the disturbances known i n Polish history as the

Deluge broke out. These heralded the decline of Poland and
were t o put a n end to the golden age o f the Polish Jews and
to have enormous consequences for all o f Judaism.
The Deluge began with the uprising of the Ukrainian
peasants, serfs settled o n the vast trans-Dnieper plantations
of the Polish nobility. These peasants, of Greek Orthodox
religion, hated equally their Catholic masters and the Jewish
stewards and agents. As one contemporary Jewish chronicler
noted: “The Greek people (the Cossacks) were scorned
 Poland: the Autonomous Center 257

a n d humiliated b y the Polish people and b y the Jews. .

Even the humble sons of Israel, usually in servitude them-
selves, flaunted their power over them” (322). It is note-
worthy that the chronicler should call the rebels “Greeks”
(and not “Russians” or “Ukrainians”); the conflict was re-
ligious as well as social and national. The flag of the rebel-
lion was raised b y the famous Bogdan Chmielnicki, who for
a time was able to unite the anarchic Cossack groups and
form an alliance with the Crimean Tartars. “Remember the
insults of the Poles and the Jews, their favorite stewards
and agents!” Chmielnicki exclaimed in his “appeals” to the
Ukrainian population. “Remember their oppressions, their
wickedness, their exactions!” The resentment of the serfs
must have been violent. One Ukrainian chronicle states that
certain pans (title of nobility) assigned even the churches
located on their lands to Jewish agents, so that their authoriza-
tion was required for baptisms, weddings, and funerals (323).
Chmielnicki’s troops poured over all of southeast Poland
and reached the very gates o f Lvov, massacring Poles and
Jews indiscriminately as they passed, sometimes granting
mercy to those willing to be converted. This irresistible
popular uprising was marked b y mass exterminations de-
scribed b y eyewitnesses i n that traditional and hieratic style
we have already noted so often (one of them compares the
catastrophe t o the “third destruction o f the T e m p l e ” ) ; but
their content is realistic a n d detailed. During the following

9 Together with descriptions o f scenes o f horror (“Nurslings were mur-

dered in their mothers’ arms, gutted like fish. The wombs of pregnant
w o m e n were laid open and the unborn infants replaced b y a living cat
that was sewn into the womb, while the victim’s arms were cut off so she
could not remove the creature . . ” etc.), certain passages of these chron-
icles have a n aura o f things seen a n d noted very accurately. For example:
“ . . . The leaders of the communities of Ostrog declared that no Jew
should remain i n this city o r i n Mezherich, for the enemy was only t w o
leagues away, a n d w e were n o t certain o f avoiding attack b y the local
Orthodox inhabitants. A n d the flight began again. H e w h o h a d horse a n d
cart set out by horse; h e w h o h a d none set out o n foot with h i s wife a n d
children, abandoning house a n d property. That Saturday the horse-drawn
carts advanced i n three rows along the road from Ostrog t o Dubno, extend-
 The Age of the Ghetto 258

years, riots and massacres were broken off and begun again
several times until Chmielnicki decided to seek Muscovite
protection. A Polish-Russian war followed, aggravated b y
Swedish intervention, and the conflict degenerated into a
free-for-all, with unfortunate Poland as its permanent theater.
T h e tsar’s troops invaded White Russia and Lithuania and
abused the Jews in the same fashion as their Cossack allies
farther south. The Swedish army invaded Poland proper and
occupied Warsaw and Cracow. This was a better disciplined
army, and its leaders did not kill the Jews; instead, they
forced them to provision their forces—as a result of which
the Poles, when they returned, accused the Jews of treason
and exercised a summary justice upon them i n many localities.
Thus, between 1648 and 1658 there was virtually no Jewish
community that was completely unharmed. There was n o
longer a single J e w o n the left bank o f the Dnieper (those
w h o had been spared were sold as slaves to the T u r k s ) , and
only a handful o f survivors o n the right bank. I n the interior
the losses were less serious; nonetheless, the total number of
victims amounted t o several tens of thousands, perhaps t o
one hundred thousand."° O f course, the country as a whole
suffered the full force of the Deluge, and Poland henceforth
ceased to be a great power. But the blow to the Jews was even
worse, both because they were the first victims of the mas-
ing over seven leagues. . . . O n the w a y w e were j o i n e d b y three horse-
men, t h e J e w Moses Tzoref o f Ostrog a n d t w o Polish pans w h o said t o
u s : ‘ W h y d o y o u drag along so slowly? T h e enemy i s catching u p , they are
n o w i n Mezherich, w e shall never b e able t o escape.” A n incredible panic
then spread among our brothers: each sought t o lighten his cart, a n d threw
t o t h e g r o u n d silver a n d gold objects, garments, b o o k s , mattresses, a n d
cushions, so as t o travel more rapidly a n d t o save his o w n life. M a n y m e n
and women, seeking refuge in woods and caves, lost their children in the
confusion.” ( F r o m the chronicle Yeven Metzulah b y Nathan Hannover,
Venice, 1653.)
10 F r o m 100,000 t o 500,000, according t o the testimony o f the Jewish
chroniclers of the period; these figures are certainly exaggerated. The state-
ment that nearly seven hundred communities were totally o r partially de-
stroyed is more reasonable. I n a n y case, as S. D u b n o w rightly points out,
“the number o f victims exceeded that o f all the catastrophes o f the Cru-
sades a n d o f the Black Plague i n Western Europe.”
 Poland: the Autonomous Center 259

sacres and lootings and because the economic foundations

of their life were more precarious than those of the other so-
cial classes. They were never to recover.
By the second half of the seventeenth century, the Jews
were n o longer the country’s chief bankers. This role h a d
passed to Christian capitalists, especially to religious com-
munities—churches and monasteries—whose wealth, con-
sisting chiefly of lands, had remained intact. The Jews, both
communities and individuals, contracted debts to these. The
chronic indebtedness of the kahals, in the course of their
desperate efforts t o re-establish the Jewish economy, became
a major social problem i n Poland and grew worse until the
end of the eighteenth century.'! In 1765 the Polish diet, with
a stroke of the pen, suppressed the Council of the Four Na-
tions, considering it more advantageous t o impose upon the
Jews an individual poll tax of two zlotys, instead of the
former group tax. Thus ended the Jewish semistate autonomy.
Impoverishment spread little by little. The Jewish “social
class” deteriorated and was ultimately liquidated (very
broadly, a Marxist interpretation is applicable h e r e ) . Seeking
a means o f livelihood, many Jews left the country, while
others took refuge in the countryside as innkeepers, artisans,
and laborers. The majority stagnated in extreme poverty.
New spiritual and religious currents coincided with these
social transformations, and left a characteristic stamp on the
mentality of the Polish Jews, and were to have vast repercus-
sions among all the Jews of the Dispersion. This was a re-
markable process of interaction, having the whole of Europe
as its base, and i n which the infiltration of Christian con-
cepts was to play its part. (This time these currents were to
affect not only details o f life and customs, but to leave their
imprint on the new messianic movements.) Thus the Jewish

1 1 I n 1 7 1 9 the debts of the kahal of Cracow were more than 5 0 0 , 0 0 0

zlotys. Those of the kahal of Posnan reached 4 0 0 , 0 0 0 zlotys i n 1 7 6 0 . The
“floating” debt o f the Council o f the Four Nations was some 3 million,
or about the same as the annual budget of the Polish state. ( C f . Dubnow,
History of the Jews of Europe [in Russian], Vol. 4 , p . 131.)
 The Age of the Ghetto 260

nation assumed its definitive form, solidly established o n the

banks of the Vistula and in the forests of the Carpathians.
I n 1650 the Council of the Four Nations had proclaimed
national mourning in memory of the first victims. Polish Jews
were forbidden to wear silk or velvet garments for three
years. A n annual fast was instituted o n the twentieth of
Sivan, the anniversary o f one o f the first massacres, perpe-
trated b y the Cossacks a t Nemirov. This has continued to b e
observed faithfully to the present time. N e w elegies, selihot
and kinot, were composed b y the rabbis and recited in the
synagogues following those that traditionally commemorate
the massacres o f the Crusades. Traditionally, too, the Jews
did penance, seeing i n their misfortunes the just retribution
for their sins, seeking to expiate them b y a greater piety and
austerity. “Gravely have w e sinned before our Lord . .”

proclaimed an appeal of the Council of the Four Nations i n

1676. “Troubles increase daily, life becomes ever more diffi-
cult, our people has n o importance among other peoples. It
is even surprising that, despite all the disasters, w e continue
to survive. The only thing left for us to do is to unite in a sin-
gle alliance and obey the commandments o f G o d and the
precepts o f our pious teachers a n d leaders” (324). Fugitives,
however, scattered to the four corners of Europe and spread
the sad news; everywhere the Jewish communities vied with
one another to help. Renowned rabbis went into exile
and were welcomed with open arms because of their learn-
ing. Some were itinerant sages, such as the Talmudist Zevi
Hirsch Ashkenazi—himself son of a celebrated rabbi of
Vilna—who lived and taught successively i n Budapest, Sara-
jevo, Vienna, Venice, Prague, Altona, Amsterdam, and Lon-
don, returning in his old age to Lvov. Others chose a more
stable life and for some time virtually monopolized the rab-
binical posts, especially in Germany. I n the words of the
historian Graetz, all of European Judaism “was Poloniz-
ing.” ** Common people emigrated b y thousands into Hun-
1 2 “Das Judentum . . . wurde sozusagen polonisiert.” (Graetz, Ge-
schichte der Juden, Vol. 1 0 , p . 76.)
 Poland: the Autonomous Center 261

gary and Rumania, rapidly submerging the small local Jewish

colonies. Collections were taken everywhere to feed the
immigrants, but especially t o ransom the Jews sold into
slavery, who were concentrated in great numbers in Con-
stantinople. Alms collectors combed Europe, and even the
traditional sum for the Jews of Jerusalem was neglected for
a time (325). Not since the beginning of the Dispersion had
Jewish solidarity h a d occasion t o function o n such a vast
scale. All minds were impressed by the disaster suffered in
1648 by the chief European citadel of Judaism.
B y a curious coincidence, 1648 was a date that already
had a special meaning for many Jews. The cabalists, in fact,
h a d long since declared that this year would see the coming
of the Messiah, according to the Zohar.'* A n d in the tragedy
o f Poland they saw a striking confirmation o f the prophecy.
Deliverance being a t hand, they claimed, these must b e the
unendurable labor pains of its birth. . . (One notes that
Karl Marx’s famous image about the “labor pains of history”
had its precursors.) Furthermore, a simple acrostic, consist-
ing o f the name o f Chmielnicki written i n Hebrew, read:
“The sufferings o f the Messiah’s birth will come upon the
world,” and thus confirmed that the supreme hour, so pas-
sionately awaited, was indeed approaching.
Now, there have been frequent claimants to the title of
13 Probably written i n the thirteenth century, but “predated” from the
first, the Zohar, i n m a n y passages, predicted the coming o f the Messiah a t
the beginning o f the fourteenth century. Since the Messiah h a d not ap-
peared a t this date, the cabalists fell back o n another passage ( 1 3 9 b ) that
predicted the resurrection of the dead ( b u t not the coming of the Messiah)
in the year 5408 o f the Jewish calendar, which corresponds t o the year
1648 of the Christian era. For those who are interested in the cabalistic
reasonings and calculations, we may add that the passage 139b of the Zohar
reads: “In the sixth millennium, after the expiration of 408 years, the dead
will return to life, for it has been said: “This year, each of you shall return
t o his p r o p e r t y . ” “It has been said,” refers t o Leviticus 25:13, regarding
the year o f j u b i l e e : “In the year o f this jubile y e shall return every m a n
unto his possession.” This y e a r : i n true cabalistic style, each word a n d each
comma has its meaning, and especially a numerical meaning: according
t o the Hebrew numerical alphabet, the word “this” ( h a z o t h ) can represent
5408.
 The Age of the Ghetto 262

Messiah i n Jewish history, but i n general they have m e t with

more jeers than rejoicing. For nearly a thousand years none
h a d achieved any broad recognition o r set off a lasting move-
ment within Judaism itself. For one of them to succeed, it
was necessary to have this remarkable chain of circum-
stances, and above all, a great despair. The fact that another
famous prediction—this one of purely Christian origin—fixed
the apocalyptic year as 1666 * merely facilitated Sabbatai
Zevi's career.
I n another volume w e shall discuss this remarkable person:
bigamist, though wedded to the Torah; Moslem. though king
of the Jews. His entire public life was pursued among the
Sephardic Jews. The essential facts are that this most illus-
trious of the false Messiahs revealed himself to the Jewish
crowds of Smyrna, his native city, in 1648. H e married with
great ceremony a young Polish Jewess who had escaped from
a Christian convent (predestined bride of the Messiah, ac-
cording to some; a woman of ill repute, according to others)
and i n 1666, after many adventures, demanded the sultan’s
throne a n d ended his days as Mehmet Effendi, gatekeeper
o f the Sublime Gate. His promises and his n e w theology
stirred u p hope a n d agitation among the Jews o f Hamburg
and Amsterdam. The response was just as great in Avignon,
Venice, Cairo, or Salonica, and it was even stronger, if pos-
sible, in Poland, where the Jews had suffered so cruelly. The
14 1666: According to the Revelation of Saint John (13:18), 666 was
the number o f the apocalyptic beast. ( T h e figure was obtained b y adding
the numerical value of the letters in the name of the Emperor Nero, tran-
scribed in Hebrew.) Then to 666 was added 1 0 0 0 (the year Mil), and
1 6 6 6 became the messianic year. O r again, recourse was h a d t o figurative
interpretation: “ . . . the triumph o f the Church, which m u s t follow the
persecution o f Antichrist, will b e g i n i n the fortieth hour after the Ascension
of Jesus Christ, taking twenty-four hours for 1 0 0 0 years ’ and there-
fore forty hours were figuratively equivalent to 1,666 years. ( C f . Les Re-
marques sur les principales erreurs b y M . Arnaud, 2nd ed., Paris, 1735,
p. 68.)
These calculations continued t o excite men’s imaginations for a long
time. Witness the passage i n Tolstoy’s W a r and Peace where 666 could b e
applied equally well t o the Emperor Napoleon as t o the Russian Bezukhov
(which produced 671); as a result, Pierre Bezukhov plans to kill Napoleon.
 Poland: the Autonomous Center 263

greater the misery, the more essential the need for imminent
salvation. One Christian witness assures us that in Poland in
1666 “. the Jews rejoiced and began to hope that the
Messiah would place them upona cloud i n order t o transport
them to Jerusalem. During this time they fasted several days
a week, deprived even their young children of food, washed
in cold water after breaking the ice upon it, and recited some
recently composed prayer. W h e n the skies above some town
were covered with clouds, the Jews would boast in front of
the Christians and tell them that the Messiah would bear
them off straightway t o settle them i n the country o f Israel
and in Jerusalem . . ” (326). This caused disturbances
a n d riots, so that King John I I Casimir had t o publish a
special decree, forbidding the Jews t o make demonstrations
o r t o circulate sensational propaganda, a n d forbidding the
Christians to indulge in reprisals on this pretext . (327).
This year 1666 is equally memorable in Christian religious
history. I t was the year i n which a schism split the Russian
Orthodox Church, leading to the proliferation of sects of
“old believers,” certain of which (especially the shlysty)
have so many features in common with Sabbathaianism that
it is impossible t o avoid assuming reciprocal influences and
personal contacts (328). Thus this heresy found n e w material
to feed on. I n contrast to events in the West, where the down-
fall of the false Messiah quickly put an end to the euphoria
of the Jewish masses, the Sabbathaian movement in Poland
sent down deep roots; the resurrection of Sabbatai was ex-
pected from year to year. As late as 1700, a group of zealots,
numbering over a thousand men, set out for the Promised
Land and managed t o reach Jerusalem. Braving the threat
o f anathema, the herem, other agitators tried t o spread the
good word in Poland or even in Western Europe. A statement
b y the rabbis of Amsterdam, dated 1 7 2 5 , complained: “Once
the Torah came from Poland, and now this nation is a source
of infection for the other nations” (329). At this period the
cabalistic charlatans and religious reformers, the pseudo-
Messiahs and pseudo-Zevis abounded in Poland, especially in
 The Age of the Ghetto 264

the strife-torn Ukraine. The most famous of them was Jacob

Frank, high priest of a new cult in which Jewish traditions
and the belief in the Holy Trinity were curiously fused—
an easy transition toward complete conversion. But it was
the powerful Hasidic movement that afforded the best an-
swer t o popular hopes and which imposed itself irresistibly.
Under the pressure o f social necessity, the severe rabbinical
teaching, product o f a thousand years o f urban life and a n
intensive intellecutal culture, yielded throughout most of
Poland to a gentler, simpler religion, filled with mysticism
and tinged with imperceptible Christian borrowings, better
adapted t o the needs o f the poverty-stricken and often igno-
rant masses scattered in towns and countryside.
Little is known about the creator o f Hasidism, the legend-
ary Baal Shem-Tob (BEShT). What is known about this
authentic founder of a religion is so vague and obscure that
his figure is comparable t o that o f Jesus Christ. As i n the case
of the Nazarene, the first biography of BEShT appeared two
generations after his death (330), having long circulated by
mouth, embellished with ever-new details and miracles. Like
Christ i n the Gospels, BEShT’s teachings were preceded b y
a long retreat “in the desert,” where he lived as a hermit deep
i n the wild forests of the Carpathians. Like Christ, he taught
a simple doctrine understandable by all and illustrated with
parables. Like Christ, he supported it b y direct and irrefu-
table proofs: miraculous cures and exorcisms. He preached
faith, hope, and the search for God, omnipresent i n nature in
the form o f a “sacred spark” that is the one true reality. T o
recognize this reality is to be convinced that the so-called
tangible world o f earth, with its miseries and pains, is only a
tissue o f illusory phantoms.
Crowds eager to hear such a consoling message soon gath-
ered around BEShT. From Miedzyboz, in Podolia, where he
lived, disciples went out to spread the new gospel. His doc-
trine was received even more eagerly since it corresponded
to the popular resentment against the despotism of the rich
and the rabbis. (Yet their ousting ultimately led to the in-
 Poland: the Autonomous Center 265

stitution o f a still more despotic government.) Communities

o f Hasidim sprang u p i n all Polish cities and townships,
with a “tzaddik,” a “just man,” at their head. The great
uniqueness o f Hasidism rests o n the existence o f the just
man, a m a n with direct access to the Supreme Power and
even exercising some influence over it. Obviously, ordinary
mortals could not d o this, rooted as they were i n their
earthly cares. A deep a n d solemn fundamental concept of
Judaism—that each man must confront his Creator, alone
and face to face—was thus destroyed. The new views un-
doubtedly were derived from Sabbathaianism, that is, from
the faith in a Messiah descended to earth. (Podolia, where
Hasidism was born, had been a fruitful field of Sabbathaianism
and from 1679 to 1699 had belonged to Turkey.) As one
authority observes: “Not only the doctrine o f the n e w pie-
tists, but also m a n y aspects o f their behavior—the loving
attachment to God, the enthusiasm, the victory over sorrow,
the songs and hand clappings—all these had derived from
the customs of the Sabbathaian sect. . The just man is
merely the reincarnation o f the Sabbathaian prophet as the
vital center of the community . . .” (331). In short, the just
m a n is only a Messiah struck off i n m a n y copies. But I shall
not attempt to explain so briefly an original and fruitful
doctrine with some Sabbathaian roots, others generally caba-
listic, some perhaps even Christian. (Like the Catholic priest,
the just man is an intercessor with the Divinity, a function
that Judaism had hitherto refused to admit.) What matters
to our inquiry are the social consequences of the n e w move-
ment.
One of the first was to provoke within the heart of Judaism
a veritable schism, such as it had not known for a thousand
years, since the Karaite schism. Orthodox rabbis attempted
t o nip i n the b u d a sect whose heresy was obvious t o them.
For over thirty years, from 1772 to 1804, a desperate struggle
was waged b y means of decrees, solemn anathemas, and even
denunciations to the authorities. The Hasidim were com-
pletely identified, with some justification, with the Sabbatha-
 The Age of the Ghetto 266

ians; and also, quite unjustifiably, with the Frankists. They

were censured for their disdain of the sacred rites and cus-
toms, their ignorance and their strange ways; they were even
suspected o f secret crimes. Here is a n excerpt from one o f
these pastoral letters b y the famous sage o f Vilna, the Gaon
Elijah.
“You have already learned, our brothers i n Israel, o f this
news that our fathers never dreamed of, which is that a
suspect sect has appeared, known as the Hasidim. . . . I n
praying, they utter dreadful alien cries [in Yiddish], behave
like madmen, and explain their behavior b y saying that their
spirits are wandering i n distant worlds. They use painted
prayer books and shriek so that the walls shake; heads down,
feet i n the air, they pray moving i n a circle. . They com-
pletely ignore the study o f the holy Torah, a n d are not
ashamed to say that it is useless to devote oneself t o study
and that one need not excessively deplore sins already com-
mitted. . That is w h y w e write as follows to our brothers
i n Israel . . . that they m a y prove their ardor by exterminat-
ing them, destroying them, banishing a n d anathematizing
them . . so that there will be not even two such heretics
left, for their suppression will be a benefit to the world”
(332).
Sometimes the charges were even more serious, and cer-
tain puns o n the root hesed, which can mean grace and dis-
grace, love and crime, made it possible t o accuse the Hasi-
d i m o f incest and other debaucheries. “Horror b e upon
me!” exclaimed one of the opponents, “upon me, who am
obliged t o hear what mysteries they have invented! D o they
not thereby introduce impure thoughts into the Holy o f Ho-
lies! Their prayer becomes a kind of dream, for it is only i n
dreams that m a n learns of his hidden desires (Berakhot,
54). And to repress such thoughts, the Hasidim uttter deaf-
ening cries and i n the course o f prayer scream words that
have no part in them (333).
We shall not discuss in detail the obscure and desperate
struggles during which recourse to the government, Polish
 Poland: the Autonomous Center 267

o r Russian—in other words, denunciation—played the role o f

supreme argument, leading the Russian government in 1804
t o regulate the Jews’ use o f anathema rigidly. It is enough
to say that all the efforts of orthodox rabbis were futile.
Hasidism progressed invincibly and finally won over the ma-
jority of Polish and Ukrainian Jews. The just men, usually
persons of extraordinary vitality, were organized into veri-
table dynasties and exercised complete control over their
flocks. Their counsel and intercession were sought on every
occasion: questions of conscience, health, business; and usu-
ally their good offices were liberally rewarded. Payments to
the interceding clergy assumed a kind of hieratic and insti-
tutional form. We have mentioned the religious significance
that money had acquired for the Jews down through the
centuries. I n good doctrine, “. . . the just man who serves
God in all sincerity is comparable to the honest agent who
stands between buyer and seller” (334); from this came the
just man’s absolute right to collect his agent’s fee. According
to a Hasidic parable, its author BEShT’s own grandson,
“ guardians of the gates of the gods, the just men are
comparable to the gatekeepers o f a royal palace. If one
would be received b y the king, he is first stopped b y a guard-
ian of inferior rank, and can pass the first gate only after
having given h i m a coin. T h e closer one approaches the
royal apartment, the higher the gatekeeper is i n rank and the
greater the s u m h e receives. W h e n one presents oneself be-
fore the supreme gatekeeper, who stands on the threshold of
the royal apartment, one is obliged to be lavish with one’s
money in order to gain access to the king” (335).
The meaning of this parable is clear. And another cele-
brated just man, the miracle-working rabbi of Lublin, seri-
ously explained that h e could intercede with G o d only i n
return for a remuneration: “When a just man undertakes to
invoke the Sacred Name for another man, this may be con-
sidered [by Heaven] as a n overweening presumption, a n d h e
m a y b e asked w h y the interested party does not make his
o w n invocation. If the just man is remunerated beforehand,
 The Age of the Ghetto 268

h e can ward off the celestial prosecutor’s accusation b y an-

swering: ‘I am praying for him because I have been paid by
him and am merely carrying out m y contractual duties’ ”
(336). I n a certain sense, today’s psychoanalyst proceeds in
similar fashion.
I n fact, like good psychiatrists, the just men greatly less-
ened men’s miseries. They took upon their own broad
shoulders the pains, cares, sufferings, and the fears of their
flocks. They taught the faithful t o turn from harsh realities,
which were only appearances, and to seek out the hidden
melodies of the universe, to instruct themselves in the secret
mechanisms controlling the visible and invisible worlds. This
left an impression of comfort (for man is so made that when
he believes he understands his destiny, he also believes he
can control i t ) . Above all, they instilled a sublime and opti-
mistic faith in God that they considered the basic factor in
the success of their interventions. I f you believe in God ( a n d
i n me), I shall b e able to make G o d grant your prayer, but if
you doubt divine clemency and omnipotence (and my abili-
ties), you will have only yourself to blame for your failure.
T h e essential faith was stimulated by the mechanical be-
havior—cries and contortions—that so outraged the oppo-
nents of Hasidism. The Hasid’s prayer became ecstatic: a
mystic ecstasy, a loving union with God, assumed a new
status, weakening orthodox Judaism.
Similarly, the roles of study and intellectual speculation
were relegated to the background, while simplicity, humility,
a n d gentleness were extolled as cardinal virtues b y most o f
the just men. Some even served as examples. For instance, i t
is told that Wolf of Zbarasz, presiding over a circumcision
feast, suddenly remembered that it was a very cold night and
that h e had left his coachman outdoors. H e hurried into the
courtyard and persuaded the coachman t o come indoors t o
get warm while he himself took care of the horses. When,
after an hour, his absence was noticed, he was found half-
frozen o n the coachman’s seat. It is also told that Moses
Loeb of Brody insisted on washing the heads of mangy
 Poland: the Autonomous Center 269

children with his own hands, saying: “He who does not have
the courage t o care for the abscesses o f Jewish children a n d
t o wash away their pus with his own hands has not half the
love for Israel that is needed” (337).
This suggests Saint Francis of Assisi. Naive and touching,
countless stories of this kind have thus been incorporated
into Jewish folklore.
The tales, the imaginative fables that dramatized a moral
teaching much better than a long sermon could have done,
are very characteristic of Hasidism. Some of the stories,
deeply significant, can be read in several different ways. For
example, this one, which can b e applied t o every religion:
“When the Baal Shem had a difficult task before him, he
would go to a certain place in the woods, light a fire and
meditate in prayer—and what he had set out to perform was
done. When a generation later the “Maggid” of Meseritz was
faced with the same task h e would go to the same place i n
the woods and say: W e can n o longer light the fire, but we
can still speak the prayers—and what h e wanted done be-
came reality. Again a generation later Rabbi Moshe Leib of
Sassov had to perform this task. A n d he too went into the
woods and said: W e can n o longer light a fire, nor do w e
know the secret meditations belonging to the prayer, but we
d o know the place in the woods to which it all belongs—and
that must be sufficient; and sufficient it was. B u t when an-
other generation had passed and Rabbi Israel of Rishin was
called upon t o perform the task, h e sat d o w n o n his golden
chair in his castle and said: W e cannot light the fire, we can-
not speak the prayers, we do not know the place, but we can
tell the story of h o w it was done. And, the story-teller adds,
the story which he told had the same effect as the actions
of the other three” (338).
Lingering as I have done over the customs o f the Hasidim
and the tales of their just men, perhaps I have strayed too
far from m y subject. Insofar as the customs a n d conduct o f
the Jews traditionally serve as a stimulus to the anti-Semitic
obsessions of their adversaries, the digression does not seem
 The Age o f the Ghetto 270

irrelevant. For we are concerned with the forms that Judaism

assumed at the final stage of its evolution, in the mountains
a n d plains o f Poland, tempering certain Jewish characteris-
tics, accentuating others, and raising to the maximum their
dynamism and their optimism, within a traditionally hostile
environment.

A t this same period, Polish anti-Semitism found its most

characteristic expression in frequent sporadic massacres in
the troubled confines of the East, the permanent site of
ethnic and religious discord, as well as in countless trials for
ritual murder in the very heart of Catholic Poland.
In the East, in the continuously disputed regions of the
Ukraine and White Russia, imitators of Bogdan Chmielnicki
continued to appear. One of these bold mobsters and im-
placable murderers, Basil Voshtchilo, presented a coherent
political program in a manifesto in which he stated that the
constituted authorities must b e obeyed and could b e opposed
only when they had been corrupted by the Jews. He pro-
claimed himself “Ataman Voshtchilo, grandson of Chmiel-
nicki, grand hetman of the troops, charged with the exter-
mination of Jewry and the defense of Christendom.” His
manifesto continued:
“In their petitions, the Jews claimed that I a m fomenting
disturbances and that I oppose the government with violence.
This is a base lie. I have never had such an intention. I am a
Christian. I n this region, infidel Jews have not only deprived
Christians o f their means o f existence, but they carry out
aggressions, murders, robberies, and oppress the holy sacra-
ments [the churches]. Without their sanction and their writ-
ten authorization for the priest, n o newborn child can be
baptized. They bewitch the pans, the lords of the nobility,
and thereby gain their acquiescence. They rape Christian
women and do many other things that are difficult even to
list. Impelled b y m y fervor for the holy Christian faith, I have
decided, i n company with other m e n o f honor, to exterminate
the cursed Jewish people, and with the aid of God I have al-
 Poland: the Autonomous Center 271

ready done away with the Jews i n the districts o f Krisht-

chev and Popoisk. Although the Jews have armed the govern-
ment’s troops against me, God’s goodness has protected m e
inevery case . . ” (339).
O n the eve o f the first partition o f Poland, i n a context o f
civil war, the massacres became more frequent. Under cover
of a so-called imperial decree, the “Gold Charter,” falsely
attributed to Catherine the Great, insurgents proceeded to
the systematic extermination of the Jews and the Polish lords,
in the name of the Pravoslavic faith. Russian and Polish
troops intervened, re-established order, and the authors o f
the forgery were exiled t o Siberia.’ But a bloody tradition
was perpetuated, as evidenced b y the pogroms o f the late
nineteenth century, the massacres o f 1918-1920, and the co-
operation given to the Nazis a generation later.
Reports of ritual murder and profanation of the Host in-
creased from the beginning o f the eighteenth century. T h e
more widely they were believed, the more belief found t o
feed on. Proofs and n e w demonstrations appeared i n its sup-
port. There was even a t this period a witness, Michael the
Neophyte, w h o swore that as a Jew h e himself h a d been a
murderer! This half-lunatic, a converted Jew who claimed
to have been the former grand rabbi of Lithuania, swore o n
the crucifix not only that ritual murder was an absolute com-
mandment of Judaism, but that he himself had murdered
Christian children. His writings, Revelations of the Jewish
Rites before God and the World (340), filled with sadistic
details, were the favorite catechism of the maniacs of anti-
Semitism for two centuries, and before the Nazis introduced
a new thesis and terminology, high prelates and university

15 The chief author of the forgery appears to have been Father Mel-
chizedek, prior o f a n Orthodox monastery. T h e so-called decree reads:
“Observing the scorn a n d impudence with which the Poles a n d the Jews
treat our Pravoslavic faith, we hereby order Maxim Jelesniak, colonel and
commander of our territories of the Lower Zaporozhe, to enter Poland, in
order t o put t o the sword a n d exterminate, with God’s help, all the Poles
a n d Jews, blasphemers o f our holy faith.” ( F r o m History o f the Jews i n
Europe b y S. Dubnow [in Russian], Vol. 4, p . 319.)
 The Age of the Ghetto 272

professors drew from it the essentials of their information

and convictions (341). From the very beginning, the Neo-
phyte’s confessions and the agitation o f his protectors were
given even royal approval: “The blood o f Christian children,
shed b y the infidel and perfidious Jews, cries out to Heaven!”
exclaimed August II, ordinarily so skeptical (342). As for
the dignitaries o f the Polish Church, they remained faithful
to theirtraditional role o f instigators a n d propagandists.
Under these auspices, it is not surprising that the great
majority of cases of ritual murder that appeared annually
during Easter week ended in executions. These were veritable
ritual inquisitions which, this time, were concerned only
with the Jews. The accidental or contrived disappearance of
a Christian child was of vital concern to the nearest Jewish
community. I t h a d to b e redeemed b y Jewish blood o r at the
very least b y Jewish money, which sometimes permitted the
matter to be dropped. A secret fund, the aliloth seker (fund
for bloody calumnies), set up b y the Council of the Four
Nations, served chiefly for this purpose. The Council finally
decided to appeal to the Holy See about the ritual inquisition
b y the Polish clergy. A n emissary went to Rome in 1758,
and after a great many preliminaries obtained from Cardinal
Ganganelli (the future Pope Clement X I V ) a learned judg-
ment that is amodel of detailed criticism of sources and texts.
I n his memorandum, Ganganelli reviews the historically
known cases of ritual murder, and with the exception of two
cases, he establishes the lack of basis for the accusation. It is
true that he had to proceed with some care, for the Church
had already beatified the two boys in question."
But this remarkable document had no great effect. Rumors,
16 These were the Blessed Andrew of Rinn ( f 1 4 6 2 ) and the Blessed
Simon of Trent ( t 1 4 7 5 ) ( c f . pp. 62 f . ) . I n a remarkable study ( L a Question
d u meurtre rituel chez les Juifs, Études de critique et d'histoire religieuse,
Paris, 1913), Abbé Vacandard showed the correspondence between the
Vatican’s decisions a n d Ganganelli’s historical work. À certain margin o f
appreciation was accorded it, since the t w o children h a d been merely
beatified (and not canonized).
 Poland: the Autonomous Center 273

arrests, tortures, and executions continued worse than be-

fore, which is certainly not surprising.

There are a large number o f separate considerations, any

one of which proves simply and obviously that there is not,
and cannot be, any Jewish rite prescribing the consumption
of human blood. On the contrary, no religion inculcates in
its believers such horror of blood in general.!" Some of these
considerations are based o n easily observable facts; but un-
fortunately, if these are viewed i n b a d faith, they only con-
tribute to a deeper entrenchment of the bloody superstition.
Thus, the practice o f ritual slaughter o f animals, expressly
intended to prevent the consumption of blood, the use of
special knives and professional “sacrificers” to administer a
mysteriously “ritual” death t o beasts and fowls, helped ag-
gravate suspicion. Other rites o r customs m a y have h a d the
same effect.!* On a more psychological level, the Jews’ fearful
and respectful attitude toward blood (and toward human
life in general) may have contributed its share. If they made
so much of blood, if they attributed so much value to it, then
they desired it, just as they desired money."°
17 T h e essential point is found i n Leviticus 1 7 : 11-13: “For the life
o f the flesh is i n the b l o o d : a n d I have given it t o y o u upon the altar t o
make a n atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh a n atone-
ment for the soul. Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, N o soul
of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among y o u
eat blood. And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of
the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any
beast o r fowl that m a y b e eaten; h e shall even pour out the blood thereof,
a n d cover it with dust.”
W e k n o w h o w the restrictive interpretations o f the Talmudists have
aggravated a n d infinitely complicated these prohibitions.
18 Thus the custom o f drinking red wine a t the beginning o f t h e Jewish
Passover. This is why, in the second half of the seventeenth century, the
Talmudist David b e n Samuel Halevy, author o f the critical commentary
Turey Zahav, insisted that this custom be abandoned in Poland; also the
custom o f u s i n g r e d liquid palm resin t o stop bleeding after circumcision.
T h e connection i s evident.
19 It is curious that the plural o f the Hebrew word dam, which means
blood, is the homonym of the word that means money (damim). Some
 The Age of the Ghetto 274

Furthermore, since magical virtues had always been at-

tributed in the popular imagination to human blood, who,
then, would b e better able t o take advantage o f these than
the Jews, those cunning sorcerers? Finally, in the hidden
depths o f men’s souls there functioned that terrible mecha-
nism that consists i n attributing t o the loathed people o f G o d
one’s own blasphemous desires and unconscious corruption.
Corroborated i n many ways, obvious because salutary a n d
salutary because obvious, it is thus understandable that be-
lief i n ritual crimes committed b y the Jews became so power-
fully anchored in Christian hearts.”°

authors (such as the Protestant theologian Strack) have tried to see in this
fact a n additional source o f the legend o f ritual murder. Christians with
some slight knowledge o f Hebrew h a d “confounded” the Jews’ pursuit o f
wealth with a thirst for blood. This seems t o m e a very fragile line o f rea-
soning. B u t the homonym is a striking one.
20 Need w e a d d that the belief has not entirely disappeared, some-
times spread b y authors professing t o b e historians? Here are t w o examples:
I n his History of Witchcraft and Demonology (London, 1926), Mon-
tague Summers writes that the Jews were persecuted “ . . . not so m u c h
for the observance o f Hebraic ceremonies, as i s often suggested and sup-
posed, but for the practice o f the dark a n d hideous traditions o f Hebrew
magic: . . I n m a n y cases, the evidence i s quite conclusive that the body
and especially the blood o f the victim was used for magical ends” ( p . 195).
Similarly, in his Histoire de la Magie (Paris, 1949), M. Louis Chochod
writes that from “1071 to 1670 in France, England, and Germany, there
were thirty-six ritual murders reported a n d attributed t o the Jews. A Cath-
olic prelate, Monseignor Konrad, bishop o f Padeborn, has stated that t o
repudiate these stories would b e t o erase from history thirty t o forty clearly
established facts described in detail” ( p . 247, n o t e ) . H e adds: “It is not
proved that the Jewish community as a whole w a s associated with such
practices. A n d w e have quoted passages from Leviticus clear enough t o
show that they are just as contrary t o the spirit as t o the letter o f the
Mosaic law. I t is nonetheless appropriate t o note that according t o the
Talmud, it is lawful to put heretics to death, and that Maimonides con-
siders the commandment forbidding murder as concerning only Jews. It
would therefore not apply t o those w h o are not Jews” ( p . 250).
 twelve
The Case o f Russia

We have emphasized throughout the preceding chapter the

way in which the history of the Polish Jews was constantly
determined b y the scope o f their economic functions. It is
n o t surprising that m a n y writers, indulging i n one o f those
simplifications so satisfying to the human spirit, have tried to
reduce everything t o economics and, b y extrapolating, have
sought to enclose the entire history of the Jews within an
economico-social outline, generally Marxist-inspired. But
whatever m a y b e valid with respect t o the history o f Western
society in general, Jewish history cannot be considered in this
way.
The case of Russia affords a remarkable example. I n fact,
from a simplistic point of view, Russia’s backward state of
development a n d h e r geographical location t o the east o f
Poland would be adequate and essential conditions for the
formation o f a “social class” o f Jews, after a suitable time lag.
Yet the fearful superstitions of the people and the influence
o f the ruler combined to prevent the Jews from even attempt-
ing t o enter the territory. Thus i n order t o study the problem
from the point of view that interests us, if it was helpful to
study the persistence of anti-Semitism long after the depar-
ture of the Jews, as we did in France and England, it is even
more helpful, i n the case o f the Muscovite Empire, t o study
its action and effects before the arrival o f the Jews. More pre-
cisely, at a decisive moment in Russian history some ran-
d o m Jews risked going to the Kremlin t o preach n e w ideas,
 The Age o f the Ghetto 276

and this sufficed to instill in the souls of the Orthodox a great

fear of the Jews, resulting in their civil quarantine.
The reign of Ivan I I I (1462-1505) was in fact the crucial
period when the Muscovite grand duchy definitely threw off
the Mongol yoke o f the Golden Horde. This cautious and
cunning potentate then seized Novgorod, quadrupled his ter-
ritory, and concentrated autocratic power in his hands, while
his councilors dazzled before his eyes the succession t o fallen
Byzantium and the vision of Moscow as a third Rome. It
was during his reign, too, that the first Jews ventured into
Muscovy.
One of them, Messer Leon, was a physician;' another,
Khoza Kokos, a diplomat;? a third, Skharia (Zechariah?) be-
came an active missionary of Judaism, under vague cir-
cumstances but with results that we shall discuss.
I n fact, it is not known whether there was a single Skharia
or if there were two different ones, and the circumstances
in which “the heresy of the Judaizers” appeared are little
known. Some Russian chronicles mention Skarguina, some
Skharia, some Zechariah, and give his country of origin as
Lithuania around 1 4 7 0 or as the Crimea around 1485, so that
w e begin to wonder if this is the real name o f a historical
person or a group of legends centered around some obscure
travelers. This case is all the more open to question since
there h a d been another legendary apostle o f Judaism i n the
same part of the world, the sage Isaac, who, six centuries
earlier, apparently taught the L a w o f Moses to the king o f
the Khazars. H e is sometimes nicknamed Sangari, sometimes
1 Messer Leon was a Jew from Venice. His medical career i n Moscow
ended most unfortunately. The son of Ivan III having fallen ill, the Jew
offered t o cure h i m and wagered his head upon his success. T h e young
prince d i e d soon afterward, a n d the J e w h a d t o accept the consequences
o f his presumption a n d was publicly decapitated i n 1490. Such was the
fate o f the first physician t o b e mentioned in Russian chronicles.
2 Khoza Kokos was a Crimean Jew who served as an intermediary be-
tween Ivan III a n d Mengli-Guiray, K h a n o f the Crimea. I n a curious mes-
sage, a copy o f which has been preserved i n Moscow, Ivan I I I asked h i m
t o write n o longer i n Hebrew characters, but t o use Russian o r “Basurman”
( Turkish?) characters.
 The Case of Russia 277

Zambria, sometimes Samvria; thus w e m a y wonder if these

two mythological persons do not reflect the same tradition,
and if it is not a question of some kind of archetypal name.
Whatever the case, here is all that is known for certain about
the m a n called Skharia.
He arrived in the free city of Novgorod about 1 4 7 0 . The
city, which was soon to be annexed by Moscow, was torn
between the Lithuanian camp and the Muscovite camp and
was in the grip of the heresy of the Strigolniki, enemies of the
ecclesiastical hierarchy. Skharia, a m a n of erudition, sided
with the members of the clergy and managed to convince
certain of their number of the superiority of the Jewish faith.
Pope Denis, Pope Alexius, as well as several others, were
secretly converted to Judaism. Other Jews, Joseph Chmoilo
Skariavy (sic!) and Moses Khapuche, joined Skharia. The
propaganda was successful, a n d soon a kind o f Judaism was
practiced openly; but once this was the case, w e hear n o more
of Skharia and his various coreligionists, of whom all trace is
lost, as if they had never existed (343).
T h e “Judaizers” did not recognize the divinity o f Christ,
denied the Trinity, and broke the sacred icons. Some even
had themselves circumcised. This was not Judaism strictly
speaking, since the Judaizers glorified Jesus: but “How can
God descend to earth and be born of a virgin in human form?
This cannot be the case. . H e is like Moses, he is not like
God the Father .” (344). This, transmitted in mysterious
ways, was the teaching of the Marcellians and the Pho-
tinians of fourth-century Byzantium; these were also the
ideas which, as we have seen, appeared to take root quite
naturally among newly baptized peoples; and finally, this
was a Jewish heresy.
From Novgorod, the heresy spread to Moscow and there
rapidly became extraordinarily strongly entrenched. It seeped
into the immediate entourage of Ivan I I I : his favorite, Feodor
Kuritzin, and his daughter-in-law Helena joined the sect,
and even the Muscovite Metropolitan Zossima, according to
the chronicler, “seduced the simple, plying them with Jewish
 The Age of the Ghetto 278

poison” (345). “Since the time when the Pravoslavic sun

first shone i n our country, there has never been such a heresy.
I n the home, in the streets, in the markets, clergy and laymen
debated the Faith and no longer trusted the teachings of the
Prophets, the Apostles, and the Fathers of the Church; but
o n the arguments of the heretics, renegades of Christianity,
sided in friendship with them and accepted instruction i n
Judaism .” notes the same chronicler (346). The religious
dispute was also a dynastic one, for the Princess Helena
sought the throne for her son Dmitri, while Prince Basil, son
of Ivan III's second marriage, claimed the throne for himself.
For a long time, Ivan’s favor seemed to incline toward Hel-
ena and Dmitri. W h a t direction would the destiny o f Holy
Russia then take?
Ultimately, the Pravoslavs triumphed. I n effect, Ivan III
intervened relentlessly when he realized that the heresy,
which was also the expression of the centrifugal forces within
the nascent empire, was firmly implanted i n rebellious Nov-
gorod and was becoming a state matter. A long and confused
struggle ensued, ending with the complete victory of the
autocracy. I n 1 5 0 4 , after a council held in Moscow, the prin-
ciple leaders o f the sect were burned. Princess Helena died i n
prison that same year. The heresy was still not uprooted: it
went underground, to reappear in the course of the follow-
ing centuries, influencing the various religious movements
and sects that have always proliferated on the soil of Holy
Russia; o r combining with them i n order t o accept Sab-
bathaian heresies, as w e have already seen; and, finally, man-
ifesting itself as molokanes or dukhobors in the nineteenth
century.
It was under these circumstances, and in order to protect
themselves thereafter from the Jewish contagion, that the
Muscovite authorities decided t o quarantine the Jews—a
decision they were to enforce with an astonishing constancy.
As w e know, the tsarist regime from the first was traditionally
suspicious of all foreigners, the inoviertzy (those who believe
 The Case of Russia 279

differently), considering them all as unbelievers. Until the

reforms of Peter the Great, all foreigners in Moscow or i n
Archangel lived in a special isolated region, a sloboda, quite
comparable t o a ghetto; as for the Jews, they were feared a n d
regarded as the quintessence of evil and depravity; suspicion
of them survived all reforms.
“The Jews revolt us most of all, and the very mention of
their name horrifies us. W e do not permit them to enter our
lands, for they are vile and evil-doing men. Have they not
recently taught the Turks t o cast cannons i n bronze?” de-
clared Dmitri Guerassimov, Russian envoy to the Holy See i n
1526 (347). I n 1550, Ivan the Terrible (Ivan I V ) , urged b y
his Polish ally, King Sigismund Augustus, to admit several
Jewish merchants into Moscow, took an even stronger posi-
tion.
“Apropos of what you write to persuade us to allow your
Jews to enter our lands, we have already written you several
times, telling you of the vile actions of the Jews, who have
turned our people away from Christ, introduced poisonous
drugs into our state, and caused much harm to our people.
You should be ashamed, our brother, to write us about them,
knowing their misdeeds all the while. I n other states, too,
they have done m u c h evil, a n d for this have been expelled o r
put to death. W e cannot permit the Jews to come into our
state, for we do not wish to see any evil here. W e pray that
G o d m a y permit the people o f our country to live i n peace,
without any disturbance. A n d you, our brother, should not
write us in the future concerning the Jews” (348).
The successors of Ivan the Terrible scrupulously held to
this same policy. Only the period known as the “troubled
years,” between 1605 and 1 6 1 3 , is an exception. Many Po-
lish Jews seem to have come to Moscow at this time in the
retinue of the false Dmitri. The manifesto published at the
time of the accession of the first of the Romanovs, Michael
Feodorovich, expressed indignation at the appearance in Mos-
cow of “wicked heretics, Calvinists, Lutherans, Armenians,
 The Age of the Ghetto 280

Roman Papists, and deicidal Jews, profaners of our churches.”

As for the false Dmitri, he was openly called a “bandit of
Jewish origin” (vor, rodom zhidovin) (349).
Nevertheless, a handful of converted Jews (some of whom
Judaized in secret) were able to settle in Moscow during the
seventeenth century. But when the king of Poland asked
Tsar Michael to let Aaron Markovich, the “agent” of his
court, come to the Russian capital, the Tsar replied: “The
Jews have never come to Moscow, and the Christians must
not communicate with them” (350). Similarly, the treaty be-
tween Tsar Feodor I I I and John III Sobieski signed in 1678
expressly stipulated that Catholic Polish merchants could
settle in Moscow, but that Jewish merchants could not. I n
1698, Peter the Great, during his sojourn in Amsterdam,
was solicited by the burgomaster of the city, Witsen, to admit
certain Jewish merchants or specialists. According to one
chronicler, h e replied as follows:
“You know, m y friend, the character a n d customs o f the
Jews; you also know the Russians. I , too, know them both,
a n d believe me: the time has not yet come t o unite these t w o
peoples. Tell the Jews that I thank them for their offers and I
understand the advantages I might have derived from them,
but I would have pitied them for having t o live among the
Russians” (351).
Though Peter the Great, w h o was without doubt a n en-
lightened spirit— “Whether a man is baptized or circumcised,
it is all the same to me, provided he is a m a n of honor and
knows his business,” he wrote on another occasion (352)—
preferred not t o admit Western Jews into his empire, at least
he was not concerned with those who had lived for genera-
tions i n newly annexed o r conquered territories: the Ukraine
and the Baltic countries. This was not the case under his
successors. Two years after his death, his widow, Empress
Catherine I , published the following edict:
“The Jews o f masculine sex and those o f feminine sex w h o
are found in the Ukraine and in other Russian cities are to be
expelled a t once beyond the frontiers o f Russia. Hence-
 The Case of Russia 281

forth they will not be admitted into Russia upon any pretext,
and a very close watch will b e kept upon them i n all places”
(353).
These were the Jewish businessmen and artisans whose
roots i n the local economic life I have already described. A s
soon as they began to b e expelled, serious complications
arose, and civil and military authorities were obliged to
grant numerous stays in order to avoid a more serious dis-
organization. During the following years, many conflicts
pitted the officials and offices concerned with national pros-
perity against those concerned with the salvation of souls. I n
1743 the state senate submitted to Elizabeth Petrovna,
daughter o f Peter the Great, a documented report emphasiz-
ing the profits the imperial treasury could derive from ad-
mitting Polish Jewish merchants to the markets of Kiev and
Riga. The empress’ reply was brief and peremptory. “From
the enemies of Christ I wish to derive neither interest nor
profit,” she wrote i n her o w n hand o n the margin o f the re-
port (354).
Such were, i n brief, the origins o f the famous “pale o f
settlement” and of the legislation which until the revolution
of February, 1 9 1 7 , confined to the western periphery of the
tsarist empire all Jewish subjects who had been deprived of
their hereditary residences. Their number greatly increased
after the partition of Poland.
I n the history of anti-Semitism, a certain specifically femi-
nine bigotry has played a decisive part. Like the wife and the
daughter of Peter the Great, Isabella of Castile, Margaret
Theresa of Austria, and Maria Theresa of Austria® made
themselves famous by upsetting a delicate balance a t a given
moment. I t is noteworthy that absurd decisions, weighty with
consequences, were characteristic of the female ruler. In this
instance, the consequences were especially far-reaching. An-
other policy, permitting the immense Russian Empire t o
absorb the overflow of Polish Jews, would have offered a
remedy for their indescribable concentration in a tiny region
3 Expulsions from Spain (1492), Vienna (1670), and Bohemia (1745).
 The Age of the Ghetto 282

—the quadrilateral bounded b y Warsaw, Odessa, Vienna,

and Berlin—where, from the end of the nineteenth century,
passions began to boil as in a crucible, with the conse-
quences now known to the world.
 appendix a
The Origin of the Jews in
the Light of Group Serology
It is widely known, especially since blood transfusion has
become a part of common medical practice, that there are
four different blood types, designated b y the letters O , A, B ,
and AB, transmitted from parents to children according t o
the laws of Mendelian heredity. W e find these four groups
among all the peoples o f the earth, but i n different propor-
tions. Thus for example:

Type O Type A Type B Type A B

Among 1000 Frenchmen 440 453 74 33
Among 1000 Japanese 305 382 219 94
Among 1000 Senegalese
Negroes 432 224 292 50

A great number o f studies undertaken during the last

decades have shown that these distributions correspond ap-
proximately to traditional racial classifications; that is, the
differences are m u c h greater between whites a n d Mongols,
for example, or between whites and Negroes, than between
Frenchmen a n d Englishmen o r between Chinese and Japa-
nese. This is shown quite clearly i n R . Kherumian’s graph
(see pp. 292-293), where the percentages of type O are
shown by ordinates a n d the difference A— ( B + AB) by
abscissas.
W e see from this graph that the Jews of Tel-Aviv, who are
known to b e of extremely varied origins, but mostly Euro-
pean, correspond t o the European group. As for the Jews o f
the Dispersion, the figures, country b y country, are remarka-
 Appendices 284

bly close t o those of the peoples among w h o m they live, and

the variation between Jews of different countries is approxi-
mately the same as among the non-Jewish population o f the
same countries, as shown b y the following table‘
O A B AB
German Jews 42.1 41.1 11.5 4.9
German non-Jews 39.1 43.5 12.5 4.9
Polish Jews 33.1 41.5 17.4 8
Polish non-Jews 33.7 38.4 19.4 8.5
Russian Jews 28 42.3 23.5 6.2
Russian non-Jews 32.9 35.6 23.2 8.1
Yemenite Jews 56.0 26.1 16.1 1.8
Yemenite Arabs 55.7 32.3 10.7 1.3

Tunisian Jews 41 31 15.5 12.5

Tunisian Berbers 46.4 32.4 15.8 5.4

Such data are all the more remarkable since this analysis
avoids the vagueness or ambiguity inherent in other criteria
of the classification of human beings. I n effect, as R. Kheru-
mian writes,” “ ( 1 ) These are objective criteria: tests of blood
groups admitting of no ambiguous interpretation; (2) the
blood groups are absolutely fixed for each individual and
completely independent of the milieu; (3) there is no rea-
son to believe them adaptative: they confer neither advan-
tage nor disadvantage, and their frequencies cannot undergo,
through selective adaptation, sudden and important modifi-
cations in the course of evolution; (4) they are determined
b y a simple genetic mechanism, which permits one t o pre-
dict the results o f crossing i n families and ethnic groups;
( 5 ) their rate o f mutation is practically negligible.”
Let us also note that i n the case o f populations inhabiting
the same territory for centuries but not intermingling, the
frequencies in question offer striking divergences. Thus
(still following R. Kherumian), i n the case o f Hungarian
1From R. Kherumian, Génétique et Anthropologie des groupes san-
guins, Paris, 1951, p . 7 1 .
2 Kherumian, pp. 62-63.
 Appendices 285

gypsies and o f German settlers i n Hungary, . the dis-

tribution of frequencies is much nearer the proportions char-
acteristic of their countries of origin than of the Hungarian
population, despite the duration of their settlement in Hun-
gary ( 8 6 0 years for the gypsies, 2 0 0 for the Germans ) . ”

O A B AB
Gypsies 34.2 21.1 38.4 8.5
Hindus 31.3 19 41.2 8.5
Germans in Hungary 40.8 43.5 12.6 3.1
Germans 39.1 43.5 12.5 4.9
Hungarians 31 38 18.8 12.2

T o return to the Jews, there is a remarkable correlation

between the serology data and those that can be derived
from their history. With regard to the Jews of Western Eu-
rope, we have noted that their blood groups correspond to
those of the European average. This bears out our assump-
tion of an almost total “panmixia” effected in the course of
the first thousand years of our era. As for the Jews of Eastern
Europe (Poles, Russians, etc.), it has always been assumed
that they descended from an amalgamation of Jews of Kha-
zar stock from southern Russia and German Jews (the latter
having imposed their superior culture). Group serology con-
firms this assumption, since here the percentages of blood
groups approach those o f the native population, which is it-
self the result o f a mixture o f Slavic and Mongol tribes. I n
the present case, it is natural that the divergences between
Jews and non-Jews should be more accentuated. Except for
several small Jewish “islets,” such as occur in certain oases of
southern Morocco, we obtain analogous results with respect
to the Jews of North Africa, those of the Near East, etc. (For
further details, see R. Kherumian’s work, as well as J.
Brutzkus’ study, “Blood Groups among Jewish Populations”
in Races et Racisme, No. 5, 1937, and the work b y William
Boyd, Genetics and the Races of Man, Boston, 1950.)
Let us n o w consider the reservations that might apply t o
the above.
 Appendi ces 286

( 1 ) The studies undertaken up to the present on the dif-

ferent Jewish groups are not sufficiently numerous. Thus, w e
still lack data o n the Hungarian and Italian Jews, o n the
Sephardic groups of France and the L o w Countries, etc.
Additional studies may well afford enlightenment o n certain
details.
(2) In recent years, other factors of differentiation in hu-
m a n blood have been discovered ( “ M , ” “N,” and “P” anti-
gens, Rhesus antigens, etc.) that are inherited according to
the same laws as the O , A, and B antigens, but entirely inde-
pendent of them. The data collected about them are still
m u c h too f e w for u s t o b e able t o draw any general conclu-
sions. Nevertheless, the results of research among the dif-
ferent groups o f the Canadian population® are somewhat
disconcerting, in that they seem to contradict those of the
ABO system. As a matter of fact, with respect to the Rh
factor, Canadian Jews are noticeably different from the rest
of the population, whereas according to the A B O system,
Canadian Jews are similar to Polish and Ukrainian groups
having the same geographical origin.
Doubtless we must wait for further studies to resolve this
apparent contradiction and t o reach more general and more
precise results in this interesting field.
3 Kherumian, p . 91.
 Note for the American Edition (1965)

Since the writing of this appendix some ten years ago for the
original French edition, there has been an appreciable in-
crease i n knowledge about blood serology. Although the new
findings do not clearly invalidate the earlier information,
given above, they do suggest to scholars that considerable
caution must b e used i n determining facts o f Jewish history
from biological data.
Professor L . C . D u n n o f Columbia University, w h o has
devoted himself since 1955-56 to a study of the Jewish com-
munity of Rome, believes that this population can b e identi-
fied by its blood-group gene frequencies and distinguished
not only from non-Jewish Italians but also from other Jewish
Italians.’ But in this instance the evidence suggests that the
population’s individualization is of recent date—the Roman
ghetto h a d not been severely isolated by the pontifical gov-
ernment until after the Counter Reformation in the sixteenth
century—and does not disprove the hypothesis w e have men-
tioned of “panmixia” at the beginning of the Christian era.
The same observation can be made in the other instances
where “genetic individualization” of Jewish communities has
been demonstrated.
More recently the crucial point o f the matter was raised b y

1 L . C. and S. P. Dunn, “The Roman Jewish Community,” Scientific

American, March, 1957; “The Roman Jewish Community, A Study in His-
torical Causation,” Jewish Journal of Sociology, 1959, Vol. 2 ; “Are Jews a
Race?” Issues, 1961, Vol. 15.
 Note for the American Edition 288

Professor A . E . Mourant, director of the Lister Institute of

London, a t a conference o n human population genetics held
i n Israel i n 1961. Among other things h e said, “The study o f
the blood groups and other genetic characteristics of the
Jews has thus far solved comparatively few problems.” It
seems best to quote his conclusions;* in particular it will b e
seen that Professor Mourant finds a contradiction, in the case
o f the Eastern European Jews, between Rhesus factor and
fundamental ABO system evidence.
(Ashkenazic Jews) “. . We can say that the great ma-
jority of the Jewish population of eastern Europe show a close
approach to uniformity. The average blood group gene fre-
quency o f all the Jews o f the region as a whole are similar t o
the average frequency o f all the non-Jews o f corresponding
nationalities. This finding might lead to a superficial inter-
pretation that the Jews are simply a cosmopolitan mixture o f
all the nationalities concerned. I n fact, however, the re-
semblances between the ABO frequencies of Jews as a whole
and non-Jews as a whole are deceptive and probably acci-
dental, as will b e seen when the R h blood groups are con-
sidered. There is, nevertheless, a slight and b y n o means
accidental tendency for the blood group frequencies of the
Jews in any country to diverge from the average Jewish fre-
quency i n the direction of the frequency shown b y non-Jews
i n that country, which probably is a genuine effect o f inter-
marriage of Jews with non-Jews, though it might be acci-
dental and could, indeed, in theory, be the result of the
parallel operation o f natural selection o n Jews and non-Jews
in a common environment. . . .”
(Sephardic Jews) “The only Jewish community i n western
Europe for which w e have adequate data is that o f the
Netherlands, with the lowest known B frequency of any Jew-
ish community, and with both A and B frequencies almost
identical with those of the local non-Jews; there can be
2 “Blood Groups of Jewish Communities,” Proceedings of a Conference
on Human Population Genetics Held at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem
( E d . b y E . Goldschmidt), N e w York, 1963, pp. 256-62.
 Note for the American Edition 289

hardly any doubt that the Jews here have acquired a large
number of non-Jewish genes by intermarriage.
“Data for the Sephardic Jews, apart from those tested i n
Israel, are very scanty. We can be certain that the Jews of
the Netherlands just mentioned, though probably i n part o f
Sephardic descent, differ very widely from their Spanish o r
Sephardic ancestors. The only known data for Sephardim
tested i n Europe are those o f Yugoslavia, showing 2 1 per cent
o f A genes a n d 1 5 per cent o f B genes. These figures agree
well with the 23 per cent of A and 15 per cent of B genes of
Sephardim tested in Israel. Rather similar figures are found,
as we have seen, for the Jewish communities of North Africa.
It is t o b e noted that, although the frequency o f B i n the
Ashkenazim is comparable to that found in most central and
eastern European peoples, the frequency i n the Sephardim is
higher than in any of the autochthonous peoples of western
Europe, and that B frequencies are particularly low among
Spaniards. Thus, it appears likely that the B genes in the
Sephardim are derived mainly from their east Mediterranean
ancestors. . . . ”
(Jews of Asia) “The diagram for the Jews of Asia is even
more confusing than that for Europe. A and B frequencies
are high, as are the corresponding frequencies o f the peoples
among w h o m they live o r from whose regions they take their
name. But in Asia the Jews appear to have more diversity of
frequencies than the non-Jews. One is tempted to see in this
an effect of inbreeding, each Jewish community tending to
develop somewhat extreme gene frequencies as a result of
genetic drift. The explanation, however, probably is that non-
Jewish communities of southwestern and central Asia differ
more widely from one another in blood group frequencies
than the currently available data indicate, and that the Jews
reflect these differences.
“Entirely distinct from other Jewish communities in Asia
so far examined are the Yemenite Jews and the Samaritans,
both communities having very low frequencies of both A and
B , similar to those of the Arabs of Arabia.
 | | F 6 Yuca
4 ~.
I EUROPEAN type 4
0
IL TRANSITIONAL type Pare
A
ndion
TIT ASIATIC type *
|)
IV. AFRICAN AND INSULAR types \
| À AMERICAN INDIAN type A
V I AUSTRALIAN type Eskimo

@ Burmans
Hai

Yemenite Jew
* Melanesiar
B a n t u Negroes@
°
Vor Negroes©
’ Tunisians e
4° US.A. Negroes ©
Madagascans @ (
Re agasca Jam
S u m a t r a n s e ® Congolese A
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Indochinese Brazilians:
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37

Equatorial Africans @us» ‘NV

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p if sr ® Gypsies Karait es = ArabsVof,J
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2 7p i Hindus hkirs-
Buriats ® © ] © Bashkirs Uzbeks® —Véstonians
+ Manchus® Turkomans® Hung
*= ay a on
Koreans @
6
9

Egyptians

Crimean
Littl rea ti ui
40 30 20 10 0
—
Chart by R. Kherumian: The ethnic division of the frequencies of the ABO
system. Ordinates: the frequency, in percentages, of the O group; abscissas:
the difference between the frequency of A and the sum of the frequencies B
plus AB, i.e., A — ( B + A B ) , placed to the right of zero when it is positive
 90

—
“ —
= 80
v— —
@ Half-breedndians _
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o I Indians
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HTTP} 60

va _
) Mexicans © Tso-o Loma _

:elanders® |_ © y ® Basques -—
' Touaregs Southern Australians ‘~

1 i Ounifs eo,” e ® Australian Aborigines 50

itos
D),
ge Rox
Argentine
B
| oev e v e VI Sa= _
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i
e Belgians,
®
v aa Pure
:
.
Birckett Indians X

—
Pa Italians Englishmen\ =~ § |

S.A. whites 1 va S
® G e r m a n Jews = 1
Croatians g Danes® PNF r e n c h m e n I Central Australians es |

- mm? 40
Germans | y;
Spaniards® à Portuguese —
Caochs® A 1 ° © Albanians | I —
Lithuanians Armenians
\ © Jews of Tel Aviv * Norwegians =
+ :

res Greeks @ ’ —
+“ I . ’ @ Lapps 30
S L !Finns
nians
Ps —
LF

20
| 11 [| | | | 111 I RG DA DA
20 30 40 50

and to the left of zero when it is negative.

E a c h population is represented b y one dot; thus the s u m o f t h e populations
forms a group o f dots that correspond t o the six ethnic types ( o r races) indi-
cated a t the top o f the chart.
 Note for the American Edition 2092

“The ancient community known as the ‘Black Jews’ of

Cochin shows a higher frequency of B than of A. The pre-
ponderance of B over A is typical of many Indian peoples,
though not o f those o f the Cochin region itself. Blood groups
may, however, be regarded as supporting skin color in sug-
gesting a considerable measure o f indigenous Indian an-
cestry.”
( Discussion) . The chief fact which emerges from the
present study is the remarkable uniformity of the Ashkena-
zim as a whole and similarly o f the Sephardim as a whole.
There is also a rather surprisingly close resemblance be-
tween these two major groups, but, where there are sys-
tematic differences, the Sephardim not unexpectedly show
more marked Mediterranean character than the Ashkenazim.
Thus, though the Jews o f Europe and North Africa m a y have
migrated widely and intermarried to some extent with vari-
ous peoples, they have maintained their genetic identity more
obviously than have the more heterogenous Jews o f Asia.
I n m y opinion, w e cannot a t present, except i n a f e w cases,
correlate the varying blood-group frequencies shown by local
surveys with the detailed history of the communities con-
cerned, but it would b e perhaps possible t o d o this, at least
in part, if the Blood Transfusion Services in Israel were to
record the precise birthplace o f every donor and the records
could b e analyzed at a coordinating center. . . .”
 appendix b
The Formation and Transmission of
Jewish “Differential” Characteristics from
the Viewpoint of Contemporary Biology
Considerations drawn from the history o f the European Jews
during the first thousand years after Jesus Christ, combined
with the results of group serology, lead to the conclusion that
their remote ancestry is essentially European. I n this sense,
the almost legendary formula of elementary-school textbooks
in France: “Our ancestors the Gauls,” is much less absurd,
applied t o young French Jews, than applied t o young school-
boys of equatorial Africa, for instance. But for several dozen
generations, European Jews lived in the virtually total seg-
regation of the ghetto, intermarriages with Christians having
been quite exceptional before the nineteenth century. A t the
same time, behind the ghetto walls, there emerged the cus-
toms and manners, the mentality, and the very special ap-
titudes that we have often referred to in this work. W e need
hardly add that whereas the uniqueness of manners and
customs have mostly disappeared with “assimilation,” one
can still recognize today certain Jewish aptitudes a n d men-
tality. ( W e shall discuss this point i n a forthcoming volume.)
Given these conditions, we must ask: in what way, from
generation to generation, were these characteristics trans-
mitted? Was it solely a transmission b y environment and
education, and d o the Jews constitute a purely social phe-
nomenon? Or does heredity ultimately intervene to some
degree, in the incubator of the ghetto, permitting us to speak
of an incipient differentiation, of a n e w “race” with definite
biological characteristics o f its o w n and only its own?
 Appendices 2 9 4

A t the present time, geneticists are quite categorical o n

the matter: “acquired characteristics,” whether physical or
mental, are not transmissible by heredity. Insofar as they
have been acquired by training o r exercise, neither the robust
muscles of the athlete or manual laborer, nor the agile brain
of the intellectual or tradesman will in any way influence the
make-up of their children, just as, to take an extreme ex-
ample, a one-armed man (amputation being regarded as
a n “acquired characteristic’) will father normal children.
Human characteristics and predispositions, since they are
determined by the whole o f the hereditary pattern, d o not
depend in any way on behavior, on the “individual biog-
raphy” of the direct ancestors. This is the verdict of Western
genetics specialists. W e are also aware o f the tremendous
amount o f research done by the official U.S.S.R. scientists o f
the Lysenko school to demonstrate the contrary, to establish
that living beings (of whatever realm), placed in better
living conditions, biologically transmit from generation to
generation the acquired gains and improvements. But this
research, embracing so many polemics and such high hopes,
has afforded no decisive results; even in the U.S.S.R. Lysenko
was later severely criticized.
This might appear to settle the matter. But the Jewish
“specificity” is so strong, so recognizable among the majority
of Jews of the Dispersion, even after several generations of
“assimilation,” and the findings of science are still so fal-
lible, so constantly readjusted a n d revised, that
the question
deserves further consideration. Especially since so m a n y pas-
sions are involved—is there any need t o explain why? There
are few considerations to which a man is more sensitive than
to those involving his parents and, beyond them, his ancestry
and his descendants—in a word, to what is conventionally
called his “race.” We have recently seen how this vague and
disputed concept could become the tribal divinity of a major
European nation, with the catastrophic results familiar to us
all. Consequently, the struggle against racism has shifted for
some time to the foreground of the concerns of Western so-
 Appendices 205

ciety, affording further reason t o doubt the specialist. Would

h e not tend to interpret, to accommodate his theses to his
secret or avowed political preferences?
Let u s recall, then, what is definitely known. Hereditary
traits—or at least physical traits—are transmitted from gen-
eration to generation b y means of clearly defined material
carriers, large complex molecules called genes, grouped in
chains, called chromosomes, lodged in the nucleus of the
reproductive cells ( o v u m and spermatozoon ) , each particular
characteristic (for instance, eye color or skull shape or hered-
itary defect) being transmitted b y a particular gene o r a
group of genes. There is n o difference between a charac-
teristic of “individual heredity” (variable within a given
population, such as skull shape or freckles) and one of
“racial heredity” (common, or presumably common, charac-
teristics of the given population and often serving to define
it as a race; for example, white or black skin). The character-
istics and criteria of “racial heredity” are extremely few,
corresponding at most to several dozen genes, while the total
number o f genes is i n the tens o f thousands. “What unites
m e n is much more important than what separates them.”
Furthermore, contrary to popular assumption, these charac-
teristics are never present uniformly i n the whole o f a given
population. Hence, according to Jean Rostand:
“ N o problem is more difficult than the problem o f the races
of man, for we know no human group that can be considered
as constituting a pure race, namely, one made u p exclusively
of individuals who possess certain genes that set them apart
from individuals belonging to another group. It follows that
the anthropologist with the help of the geneticist can only
show that certain human groups differ relatively to the extent
that they carry certain genes.” *

17. Rostand, Human Heredity, N e w York, 1961, p . 96. The author

continues: “William C . Boyd says that a human race can b e defined as a
population that differs significantly from other human populations with
respect t o the frequency o f one o r more genes. His definition is rather vague
a n d necessarily quite arbitrary, for i n each instance w e must decide whether
 Appendices 296

Such is the situation regarding physical characteristics,

whose mode o f transmission is unquestionable. As for men-
tal o r psychic characteristics, i.e., the strictly human ones, w e
must be much more cautious. Experimental proof is “ob-
viously impossible, guinea pigs or fruit flies being useless
here. As t o simple observation, it does not usually permit a
clear distinction between germinal or hereditary factors, and
circumstantial or educative factors. Does a Bach give birth
to a line of composers? H e was the son of a court musician
and taught his profession to his children. Are not the exam-
ple of parents, environment, and family tradition enough in
themselves to account for the musical contribution of a fam-
ily i n which, out of fifty-seven members, we find fourteen
exceptional musicians; in six generations, w e find scarcely
two or three Bachs who are not endowed with some degree
of musical talent.” 2 T o shed some light o n these problems, a
great deal o f attention has been paid t o the study o f identical
twins. I n these cases, since the hereditary factors are nec-
essarily identical, every observable difference theoretically
stems from environment alone; but even these studies have
not led to any entirely unequivocal body of knowledge.”

the difference i n frequency i s sufficiently pronounced and the differential

genes sufficiently numerous t o justify a racial distinction. B u t there is n o
other objective definition o f human races.”
2 Andrée Tétry, “Hérédité ou milieu dans le psychique,” Synthèses,
May, 1950, p . 315.
8 Andrée Tétry, i n h e r study cited above, defines “the principles o f
the twin m e t h o d . ” “The dissimilarities o f identical twins necessarily de-
rive only from the influence o f environment: hence similar characteristics
result from the influence o f hereditary factors, a n d dissimilar characteris-
tics from that o f the environment. T h e differences between identical twins
raised in unlike environments may be attributed to the environment,
whereas the resemblances will derive from their heredity.” After having
tabulated the research done in this field, the author concludes: “ . . hered-
ity thus exerts a n essential influence o n the psychic l i f e ; nevertheless, this
influence seems t o b e less than i n the case o f physical characteristics .
certain traits are hereditary; b u t social a t t i t u d e s , especially, are largely a
function of the environment; it is not always easy to discriminate between
the influence of hereditary characteristics a n d the influence o f environment
o r education.”
 Appendices 2097

I n the last analysis, the question remains a highly disputed

one.
As W . C. Boyd, one of the best specialists in this field,
writes, summing up the latest research: “Klineberg, Dobzh-
ansky a n dMontagu have stated that there is no clear evi-
dence for the inheritance of mental traits in man, or for their
being correlated with physical characteristics. With the sec-
ond part of this statement we can agree without much more
ado. T h e first part should probably b e made somewhat less
broad, for there is persuasive evidence that certain kinds of
mental defects are inherited, and one is tempted to believe
that genius, and perhaps other types o f outstanding ability,
are sometimes inherited, although this question is compli-
cated b y our ignorance o f the extent t o which environment
plays a role. A t any rate, there can b e n o doubt that great
differences i n mental ability d o exist between certain in-
dividuals, although an adequate scale of measurement has
not yet been devised, and it does not seem impossible that
they are at least partly determined b y hereditary factors.
B u t w e cannot assert that heredity does play any important
role here without better data than those n o w available. W e
really d o not know.” *
Generally, we admit—or, more precisely, we postulate—
that it is certain potentialities, certain predispositions, that
are hereditary, and that education and environment will or
will n o t permit them to b e realized i n this o r that manner. So
m u c h for the question o f individual heredity; a n d if w e d o
not k n o w m u c h about it, as Boyd concludes, w e k n o w even
less about racial heredity, where the already complex subject
of hereditary character traits, aptitudes, etc., is further com-
plicated b y the question o f h o w these are distributed among
different human groups. Some authors, we shall see, categor-
ically deny that they can b e distributed with unequal fre-
quencies, and their tests lead them t o conclude the absolute
equality of “races” from this point of view.
4 William C. Boyd, Genetics and the Races of Man, Boston, 1950, pp.
13-14.
 Appendices 208

There remains, finally, the vast fringe o f intermediate

characteristics, half mental, half physical; in this category, in
particular, belong the predisposition to “psychosomatic” ill-
nesses, which are apparently determined (and also curable)
b y physical as well as by mental factors. We are very igno-
rant about this subject, too; yet this type of illness is found to
be especially prevalent among Jews.
N o w t o return t o the Jews. With respect t o strictly physical
characteristics, it is absolutely impossible to isolate any that
occur among Jews with a specific frequency, thereby per-
mitting us to categorize them. The myth of a Jewish “type”
or “facial type” is certainly very persistent and in its way
reflects an objective reality; but this reality corresponds to
certain socially o r professionally determined psychological
attitudes, to certain forms of behavior, to a certain mimicry,
so to speak, whose “acquired” character is incontestable. As
to strictly hereditary characteristics, the confusion of Jewish
types—blond o r brunette, tall o r short, brachycephalic o r
dolichocephalic—was already the despair of old-school an-
thropologists w h o were seeking a criterion impossible t o find
—and understandably, in view of what we have just said and
what was said in Appendix A apropos of the subject of blood
groups.
I t is impossible to deny that the mental characteristics o f
the Jews offer much food for thought. Their intellectual and
critical ability, expressed, for instance, b y the percentage of
recipients o f the Nobel prize® a n d symbolized by those three
shining lights of our time: Marx, Freud, Einstein (all Ger-
m a n Jews! ) ; their commercial and political dynamism; their
extreme oversensitiveness; and the frequency o f certain dis-
eases among them. So many facts appeal to the imagination
that at first glance it seems difficult to account for them on
the basis of purely social factors. T o clarify the subject, one

5 Over 1 0 % of the prizes ( f r o m 1895 to 1 9 3 9 , 2 1 Jewish recipients out

of a total of 2 0 7 ) ; for Germany, over 30% ( 1 2 beneficiaries out of a total
of 40 Germans), whereas the percentage of Jews in the chief European
countries is less than 1%.
 Appendices 299

might pose the problem in such concrete terms as the follow-

ing.
Let us assume that a whimsical prince, wanting to perform
a n experiment i n vivo, made a large-scale exchange. Suppose
he substituted a sufficiently large number (1,000 to 10,000)
o f newborn Jews from a ghetto for a n equal number o f new-
born Christians selected from all strata o f society, and ar-
ranged for the t w o groups t o b e raised as “Christians” a n d
“Jews” respectively, in absolute ignorance of their true ori-
gins. After thirty years, would it b e possible t o distinguish
any special characteristics whatsoever? Would the children
of Christian origin, raised as Jews, furnish their quota of
learned rabbis and shrewd tradesmen? Would those of Jew-
ish origin, except for “statistically normal” exceptions, re-
main attached to their land o r their trades?
The answer of the best contemporary specialists on the
problem is that there would b e n o perceptible differences.
As O. Klineberg, for example, writes, after having said that
we must allow heredity its role in individual capacities:
“This is quite a different matter, however, from saying that
races or ethnic groups differ in their psychological inherit-
ance. For that there is no evidence. On the contrary, every
racial group contains individuals who are well endowed,
others who are inferior, and still others in between. As far as
w e can judge, the range o f capacities and the frequency of
occurrence of various levels of inherited ability are about the
same in all racial groups. The scientist knows of n o relation
between race a n d psychology.” “
Arent these observations too schematic? Speaking as a
cautious laboratory worker, Klineberg writes: “The scientist
knows o f n o relation between race a n d psychology.” Yet
might there not be some imperceptible relationship that
science at the present time is still unable to discover? This
seems t o b e the opinion o f Jean Rostand, for example, w h o
writes:
“ I d o not exclude the idea that among racial groups
6 O. Klineberg, Race and Phychology, New York, 1961.
 Appendices 3 0 0

there may be certain hereditary psychic differences that are

too subtle t o b e revealed by ordinary tests. Still, this is only
an impression, and I agree that we are not entitled to take
such a differentiation into account so long as it has not been
demonstrated b y objective methods.” 7
A n d M . Rostand adds that the particular characteristics
o f the “Jewish mentality,” if it could b e demonstrated that
they were hereditary, could only have appeared as a muta-
tion (i.e., an accidental and spontaneous modification) of
genes, then spread through the Jewish population as a result
of natural selection. Admitting the possibility of mutations
o f the genes that determine mental predilections, i t is certain
that the circumstances of Jewish history were especially fa-
vorable to such selection in the ghettos. The continuous
temptation of conversion, acting above all o n the weak o r the
hesitant and inciting them to relinquish their Jewish alle-
giance, is an excellent example of natural selection. The prac-
tice of “reduction,” an anachronistic eugenics invented in the
eighteenth century b y the Austrian government, which per-
mitted only persons of strong and determined temperament
to found a family, constitutes another, equally characteristic
example.

This, then, is the only hypothesis modern genetics admits

to explain a possible biological transmission of the “Jewish
mentality.” As for the other explanation that the uninitiated
naturally think of—the hereditary transmission of acquired
characteristics—we have seen h o w the geneticists regard it.
T o support their point of view, they cite both theoretical
arguments® and the results of countless experiments o n in-
sects o r animals.
7 J. Rostand, personal communication to the author, September 4 , 1952.
8 “ W e simply cannot conceive o f any way whereby a modification of
the skin, muscles, or brain could be inscribed or registered in the germ cell,
which contains neither skin, nor muscle, nor brain, nor even a rudiment of
any of them.
“To be sure, it might be assumed that through the subtle influence of
organic solidarity, a modification o f the skin, for example, might entail a
 Appendices 301

Nonetheless, psychologists have reached other conclu-

sions, derived from observations exclusively on the human
being. Let us mention some of the most famous of these.
“Memory-traces” is what Sigmund Freud calls the “ar-
chaic” memories transmitted by inheritance. He resolutely
passes over “biological fact, which a t present absolutely
rejects the inheritance o f acquired characteristics.
Though w e m a y admit that for the memory-traces i n our
archaic inheritance w e have so far n o stronger proof than
those remnants of memory evoked b y analytic work, which
call for a derivation from phylogenesis, yet this proof seems
to m e convincing enough to postulate such a state of affairs.
If things are different, then we are unable to advance one
step further o n our way, either in psychoanalysis or in mass
psychology. It is bold, but inevitable. . ” °
C. G. Jung, the Zurich psychiatrist who opposed so many
Freudian concepts, speaks of “primordial images” or “ar-
chetypes”; but though the term is different, the idea is
certainly the same, and Jung specifies: “It seems to me that
their origin can be explained in n o other way than b y re-
garding them as the deposits o f the oft-repeated experiences
of humanity. 19 According to him, “the unconscious
contains, as it were, two layers; first the personal, and sec-
ondly the collective. T h e personal layer does not g o further
than the earliest memories of infancy; the collective uncon-
scious, o n the other hand, all time before the actual dawn of
infancy, that is, the residue of the life of the ancestors. OH

general modification o f the body, including the blood, a n d that i n this w a y

the germ cells might b e slightly modified. B u t this does not explain h o w o r
w h y the modification would result i n the identical reproduction o f the
parental modification i n the succeeding generation.
“In short, while it m a y not seem impossible for a slight physical change
t o make its influence felt throughout the organism a n d even i n the germ cell,
it does seem impossible for the germ cell t o ‘photograph,’ as Darwin once
expressed it, the physical modification.” ( J . Rostand, o p . cit., p p . 104-105.)
9 S. Freud, Moses and Monotheism, New York, 1955.
1 0 C. G. Jung, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, N e w York, 1953.
1 1 C. G . Jung, op. cit. This author does not limit the existence of the
 Appendices 3 0 2

Is there, then, complete incompatibility between the more

“materialistic” concepts of the biologists and the more “spir-
itualistic” concepts of the psychologists? W e know h o w
greatly the former reproach the latter for their too intuitive
views and the insufficient precision of their methods.
Perhaps new discoveries in genetics will make it possible
to reconcile them. This may come about, for example, b y
taking into account the special role that the mother seems t o
have in the transmission of hereditary factors. It has been
possible to prove that in certain primitive creatures (proto-
zoa, drosophila, etc.) and even, apparently, in the smaller
mammals (mice) there is an additional method of trans-
mitting characteristics, called cytoplasmic transmission, i n
which genes are n o t involved, the hereditary traits being
transmitted b y the mother alone, b y means o f particles
lodged in the cytoplasm—the part of the ovule that sur-
rounds the nucleus.’ Even though there has not been any
definite proof as yet that this occurs in the human race, it
seems justifiable to postulate this possibility. This method of
transmission seems to function particularly with regard to
individual heredity; curiously enough, it confirms a tradi-
tional ruling found in the Talmud."*
Furthermore, an important role can be attributed to the
influences which, transmitted b y the placenta, affect the

“archetypes” t o t h e human species: “Nothing prevents u s , however, from

assuming that certain archetypes are already present i n animals; that they
are involved i n t h e peculiarities o f the living organism itself, and are, there-
fore, immediate expressions o f life whose nature cannot b e further explained.
. . . They behave empirically like agents that tend towards the repetition
o f these same experiences. F o r w h e n a n archetype appears i n a dream, i n
a fantasy, o r i n life, it always brings with it a certain influence o r power b y
virtue o f which it either exercises a luminous o r a fascinating effect, o r
impels to action.” Let us add, i n fairness, that Jung formulated his hypothe-
sis before Freud did.
1 2 O n cytoplasmic heredity, see M . Caullery, Génétique e t Hérédité,
Paris, 1951, Chap. 1 1 ; and E . Guyénot, L’Hérédité, Paris, 1 9 4 3 , Chap. 2 2 .
13 According t o the Talmud, i n a m i x e d union, the child is regarded as
Jewish if only the mother is Jewish, and is not Jewish if only the father is
Jewish.
 Appendices 3 0 3

fetus during pregnancy—influences that w e cannot call he-

reditary in the generally accepted sense of the word, and
whose mechanism is still little known. W e know, for example,
that syphilis can b e transmitted i n this w a y (“precocious
contamination”), and also an immunity acquired by the
mother (which disappears soon after the birth of the child).
One may envision that some light will eventually be shed
from this direction on the complex and disputed question of
the transmission of mental characteristics. Also, it is probably
a mistake to make a clear-cut distinction between “heredi-
tary transmission” and “transmission by environment.” Ac-
tually, between strictly genetic factors and external factors,
educational and others, there appears to b e a whole gamut
of other possible influences, prenatal or immediately post-
natal, not hereditary in the strict sense of the word, but
functioning in a virtually unknown manner and contributing
t o the course of generations. From this point of view, the dis-
continuity caused by birth is more apparent than real. I n
such perspective, a psychological shock caused b y the ritual
of circumcision (which, as is known, the Jews alone practice
several days after birth) may contribute to the formation of
a “Jewish mentality”; similarly, the hunted existence of many
a Jewish mother m a y serve as a prelude t o the countless
alerts and conscious shocks engraved o n the Jewish memory
i n the course o f centuries o f persecution. This might well
give rise to a perpetual “qui vive,” a constantly lucid, vigi-
lant alertness.
T h e most striking illustration o f this state o f constant vigi-
lance and accessibility is the Jews’ remarkable psychophysio-
logical resistance to the effects of alcohol. This resistance is
shown not only by traditional orthodox Jews—who had
coined the saying, “the drunkard is a goy ™—but b y trans-
planted American Jews in completely new territory, and for
the most part totally “assimilated” for several generations.
Neither group feels any principle, ritual o r otherwise, against
drinking, and Jews sometimes drink a great deal; but in con-
trast to the patriarch Noah, they do not “discover their naked-
 Appendices 304

ness,” that is, lose their lucidity and self-control, and for
the most part, i n comparison with non-Jews, d o not suffer the
various classic consequences of alcoholism. Heredity or en-
vironment? This is quite difficult to determine. Perhaps the
nervous sensitivity of the Jews may be the price of this privi-
lege; doubtless these t w o characteristics are closely linked. A s
has been noted, “There is n o question that a people’s relation
t o alcohol represents something very deep about it; so deep,
however, that it is not easy to find a very good explanation of
just what it is.” **
I n conclusion, let us note that a biologist as orthodox as the
English J. B . Haldane postulates, i n addition to heredity and
environment, the existence of a possible “ X factor,” contribut-
ing t o the formation o f the personality, thus allowing for the
exercise of human free will, with all the philosophical con-
sequences this implies.
“If there is such a thing as freedom of the will in the more
extreme sense, that comes under X. I regard it as unscientific
to leave out X , if only for this reason, that if there is n o such
thing as X, if all differences between human beings are
strictly determined, then it should be possible in the course of
some centuries to prove that, let us say, 99.9 per cent at least
14 N . Glazer, “Why Jews Stay Sober,” Commentary, Feb. 1952. As for
alcoholism a n d its consequences among the Jews, this author cites the fol-
lowing eloquent examples: “No matter what kind of ill effect from excessive
indulgence w e consider—alcoholic psychoses, alcoholism without psychosis,
arrest for drunkenness, broken homes o r marital unhappiness because o f
drink—we will n o t find m a n y Jews affected.
“For example: in 1 9 2 9 - 1 9 3 1 , Benjamin Maltzberg studied admissions
t o N e w York state hospitals for alcoholic psychoses, a n d calculated that the
rate o f first admissions for various foreign-born groups ( p e r 100,000 i n the
population) was as follows: for the Irish, 25.6; Scandinavians, 7.8, Italians,
4.8, English, 4 . 3 , Germans, 3.8, Jews, 0.5.
“In 1 9 5 1 , Robert Straus published a study of the religion of persons
coming t o clinics for treatment for alcoholism i n eight cities; 1 . 6 p e r cent
were Jews, though they formed about 7.5 per cent of the population of these
cities.
“In 1941, a study was made of arrests for drunkenness in San Francisco;
the rate for persons o f Irish descent was calculated at n o less than 7,876
per 100,000 i n the population; for Jews, 2 7 p e r 100,000 i n the population.
“ . . . T h e figures could b e repeated a d infinitum.”
 Appendice s 305

o f all differences o f certain kinds are determined b y dif-

ferences of nature or nurture. To my mind a proof that 99.9
per cent were so determined would b e very m u c h more
effective than an assertion o n a priori grounds that 1 0 0 per
cent were so determined. If therefore we leave X in our table
we can say that in certain cases, for example that of skin
colour, X is fairly small, and w e m a y hope according to our
philosophical views to prove either that X is negligible or
considerable as regards differences of conduct. . "°
T h e inevitable conclusion, a t the end o f this long discus-
sion, is that the role of heredity in the formation of Jewish
mental characteristics is assuredly minor and that environ-
ment is the chief determinant. More precisely, the role o f
heredity seems t o b e at most that o f a catalyst, operating
only under certain conditions, which i n this case are those o f
the Dispersion. This appears more clearly i n the light o f the
enormous social experiment of Zionism than could b e estab-
lished b y any laboratory experiments or psychological tests.
Before our very eyes, the n e w generation of Israel, formed
b y a n e w environment, already, from a typological point of
view, has little in common with its ancestors. But in many
respects the young nation is still unique; hence, only future
generations, still more detached and further removed from
the Dispersion, will conclusively confirm or invalidate the
various hypotheses that have been advanced.
15 J. B . Haldane, Heredity and Politics, London, 1938, p . 43.
NOTES
 PART ONE | From Golgotha to the Crusades

1 Anti-Semitism in Pagan Antiquity

( 1 ) This quotation, like those that follow below, is taken from Th.
Reinach’s Textes d'auteurs grecs et latins relatifs au judaisme, Paris,
1895.
( 2 ) Marcel Simon, Verus Israël, Paris, 1948, p . 241.
( 3 ) Cosmas l’Indicopleuste, “Topographia Christiana,” i n Migne, Patro-
logiae cursus completus, series Graeca, Vol. 81, p. 1 7 2 .
( 4 ) Jean Juster, Les Juifs dans I Empire romain, Paris, 1 9 1 4 , Vol. 2 , p.
313.
( 5 ) With regard to dating the Book of Esther, see especially Adolphe
Lods, Histoire d e la littérature hébraïque et juive, Paris, 1950, pp.
797-99.
( 6 ) This speech is quoted b y Philo of Alexandria. ( C f . Cohn and Wend-
land edition of the complete works, Leipzig, 1908, Vol. 3 , Sec. 1 2 3 . )
( 7 ) Lettres édifiantes et curieuses écrites des Missions étrangères, Paris,
1 7 7 3 , Vol. 2 4 , p . 62.
( 8 ) Account of the Arab traveler Ibn Khordadbeh, “Le Livre des routes
et des provinces,” Journal asiatique, 1865, Vol. 5.
( 9 ) Lettres édifiantes et curieuses, Vol. 18, p . 53.

2 Anti-Semitism and Early Christianity

(10) H . Lietzmann, Histoire de l’Église ancienne, Paris, 1950, Vol. 1 , p . 58.
(11) Ch. Guignebert, Jésus, Paris, 1947, pp. 567, 573.
(12) J. Klausner, Jésus de Nazareth, Paris, 1933, p . 41.
(13) Tacitus, Annales, XV, 44; Pliny the Younger, Epistolae, X , 96-97.
(14) Cf. Marcel Simon, op. cit., p. 128.
(15) H . Lietzmann, op. cit., Vol. 2 , p. 156.
( 1 6 ) Cf. Marcel Simon, op. cit., p . 153.
(17) Cf. Marcel Simon, op. cit., p. 325.
( 1 8 ) Contra Celsum, 4 , 2 3 ; Migne, op. cit., Vol. 1 1 , p . 1 , 0 6 0 .
( 1 9 ) Aphraate, Homelies, 2 1 , 1 . ( C f . Marcel Simon, op. cit., p . 119.)
( 2 0 ) Migne, op. cit., Vol. 46, p . 685.
 Notes 310

( 2 1 ) Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus, series prima [Latin], Vol. 25,

p. 830.

3 The Western Jews in the Late Middle Ages

(22) Cf. B . Blumenkranz, “Les Auteurs latins chrétiens d u Moyen A g e sur

les Juifs et le judaïsme,” Revue des Études Juives [cited below as
R.E.J.], Vol. 1 0 9 , 1948.
(23) C f . R . Anchel, Les Juifs de France, p . 24, as well as all of Chap. 1 .
(24) Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, V , 6.
(25) I n Narbonne a n d i n the old priory o f Saint Orens i n Auch. ( C f . E.
Salin, L a Civilisation mérovingienne . . . , Paris, 1 9 5 0 , p . 282.)
(26) F r o m the w a y i n which Pseudo-Fregedarius’ chronicle relates this
episode, it seems more symbolic than real. It was upon the urging o f
Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium—that Byzantium where, as we
have seen, Christian state anti-Semitism w a s constituted into a body
o f doctrine—that Dagobert took this measure.
(27) Account of the contemporary Arab traveler, Ibn Khordadbeh, “Le
Livre des routes e t des provinces,” Journal asiatique, 1865, Vol. 5 ,
pp. 512-15. Ibn Khordadbeh designates the Jewish tradesmen as
Radanites. (Cf. also L . Rabinowitz, Jewish Merchants . . . A Study
of the Radanites, London, 1948; and Simonsen, “Les Marchands juifs
appelés Radanites,” R.E.J., Vol. 54, p. 141.)
(28) This refers especially t o a passage o f canon 5 0 o f the Council o f Paris
of 829 ( “ S i ergo Judei . . . sabbatum carnaliter custodientes eo die,
nulla potentate terrena compellante; a b operibus ruralibus se absti-
nent”). (Mon. Germ. Hist., II, Ila, p . 643.)
(29) I n chronological order:
1 . A d proceres palati consultatio e t supplicatio d e baptismo judai-
corum mancipiorum (written about 824).
2 . A d proceres palati contra praeceptum impium d e baptismo judai-
corum mancipiorum (written about 826).
3. Ad eumdem imperatorum de insolentia judaeorum (written about
827).
4. A d eumdem imperatorum de judaicis superstitionibus (collective
memorandum of the bishops Agobard, Faova, and Bernard, an-
nexed to the foregoing).
5. Exhortatoria ad Nibridium episcopum narbonensem de cavendo
convictu et societatae judaica (written about 828). (Migne,
Patrologiae cursus completus, series prima [Latin], Vol. 104.)
(30) “Amulonis Epistola contra judaeos,” Migne, Patrologiae, Vol. 116,
p . 141.
(31) Or, more generally, persecutions, except for their expulsion from Sens
in 876 b y Archbishop Anségise (“Chronique Odoranni,” Migne,
Patrologiae [Latin], Vol. 1 4 2 , p . 771) and the annual vexations in-
flicted upon them in the Midi (Béziers, Toulouse) on the occasion of
 Notes 311

the Easter holiday. It is true that at the period in question, the refer-
ences t o Jews i n the chronicles are still quite rare; but this very
scarcity of information, in a period whose sources have become nu-
merous, confirms what w e k n o w elsewhere about peaceful cohabita-
tion.
( 3 2 ) Hebrew maunscript from Parma ( N o . 563 of the Rossi catalogue).
As is often the case for Jewish sources, the date of the expulsion is
not given, but the mention i n the manuscript o f Robert the Pious a n d
Duke Richard makes it possible to assume the historicity of the event
a n d t o place it about 1010.
( 3 3 ) Raoul Glaber, Les Histoires, Book 3 , E . Pognon ed., Paris, 1947.
( 3 4 ) Adémar de Chabannes, Chronique, Book 3, Chap. 47, Pognon ed.
( 3 5 ) Pertz, Monumenta, II, 81, as well as Hebrew sources, which allow
u s t o assume that the expulsion ordered b y Emperor Henry I I also
occurred in other German cities. ( C f . Graetz, Geschichte der Juden,
Vol. 5 , p . 495, note 2 2 . )
( 3 6 ) Adémar de Chabannes, Chronique, Book 3 , Chap. 52. The chronicler
mentions a n earthquake i n Rome, caused b y the sacrilegious prac-
tices of the Jews, but the coincidence of the event with the expul-
sions i n the other cities is striking.
( 3 7 ) Wiirdtwein, nova subsida diplom., 1, 127.

PART TWO | The Age of the Crusades

4 The Fateful Summer of 1096

( 3 8 ) Thus Foucher de Chartres: “Who has ever heard of so many nations,
o f different languages, being united into a single army: Frenchmen,
Flemings, Frisians, Gauls, Bretons, Allobrogians, Lorrainese, Germans,
Bavarians, Normans, Scots, Englishmen, Acquitains, Italians. . . .
Though divided into so m a n y tongues, w e all seemed so m a n y
brothers a n d near relations united i n one spirit b y the love o f the
Lord! . . ”
Other chroniclers (Guibert de Nogent, Raimond d’Agile, Robert
l e N o i r ) compare the Crusaders t o the twelve tribes o f Israel; they
are, then, a collectivity t o which its community has just been revealed.
( 3 9 ) Orderici Vitali, Historiae, III, 495.
(40) Bouquet, Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, Vol. 12,
p. 4 1 1 .
(41) Aronius, Regesten, No. 177. The chronicler Guillaume de Tyr also
relates that the Rhenish Jews did not expect persecutions.
 Notes 312

{ 4 2 ) This is how matters turned out in Trier, according to the account of

Solomon bar Simeon. ( Aronius, Regesten, No. 180.)
( 4 3 ) Albert d’Aix, Book 1 .
( 4 4 ) Aronius, Regesten, No. 189.
( 4 5 ) “Gest. abbat. Trudon,” X I , 6, Monumenta Germaniae Historia [here-
after referred to as M.G.H.], Scripta Sanctorum [hereafter, SS], Vol.
1 0 , P. 304.
( 4 6 ) “Hermann opusculum de sua conversione,” Migne, Patrologiae
[Latin], Vol. 1 7 0 , pp. 805 ff.
( 4 7 ) Bouquet, Vol. 1 4 , p . 642.
( 4 8 ) Account of Rabbi Ephraim bar Jacob of Bonn. (Neubauer and Stern,
Hebräische Berichte über die Judenverfolgungen während der Kreuz-
züge, Berlin, 1892, p . 188.)
{ 4 9 ) St. Bernhardi epistolae, No. 365.
( 5 0 ) D o m Gui Alexis Lobineau, Histoire de Bretagne, Paris, 1707, Vol. 1,
p . 235.
( 5 1 ) Léon Bloy, L e Salut par les Juifs, Chap. 7.
(52) “Annales Pragenses,” M.G.H., SS, Vol. 2 , p. 120.
(53) “Annales Wirziburgenses,” M.G.H., SS, Vol. 2 , p. 246.
(54) “Bernoldi chronicon,” M.G.H., SS, Vol. 5, p. 464.
( 5 5 ) “Ekkehardi chronicon universale,” M.G.H., SS, Vol. 6, p . 208.
(56) “Hugonis chronicon,” M.G.H., SS, Vol. 8, p. 474.
( 5 7 ) “Annales sax,” M.G.H., SS, Vol. 6, p . 729.
( 5 8 ) Miracle de saint Hildefonse, Langfors ed., Helsinki, 1937-
( 5 9 ) Les Miracles de Nôtre Dame, Paquet ed., Paris, 1857.
(60) Les Miracles de Nôtre Dame, Miélet ed., Paris, 1929.
(61) “Disputoison de la Sinagogue et de Sainte Église,” A. Jubinal, Mys-
tères inédits, Paris, 1837, Vol. 2 , p . 404.
( 6 2 ) Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus, series prima [Latin], Vol. 214,

957-
( 6 3 ) “Miracle de saint Nicholas et d u Juif,” Early Mysteries, Wright ed.,
London, 1 9 3 9 , pp. 1 1 ff.
( 6 4 ) “Ludus de Antechristo de Tegernsee,” W . Meyer, Gesammelte Ab-
handlungen zur mitellateinischen Rhytmik, Berlin, 1 9 0 5 , Vol. 1 , pp.
1 5 0 ff.
( 6 5 ) Cf. Hubner, Promenade autour d u monde, Paris, 1873, Vol. 2 , pp.
385-400; also Strack, Das Blut i m Glauben und Aberglauben der
Menschheit, Munich, 1900, p . 54.
( 6 6 ) Cf. Revue des Deux Mondes, April, 1 9 3 2 , pp. 519-56.
(67) “. nullo modo sanori vos posse ab illo quo punimini verecundis-
simo cruciatu, nisi solo sanguine Christiano; sanguinem intelligentes
christiani cuius libet . .” Thomas Cantipratanus, Bonnum univ,
Colvenerius ed., Chap. 2 9 , Sec. 2 3 , p p . 304 ff.
( 6 8 ) A . Jessopp and M . R . James, St. William of Norwich, Cambridge,
1896.
( 6 9 ) Aronius, Regesten, No. 245.
( 7 0 ) Jean des Preis, called d’Outremeuse, “Ly Myreur des Histors” in
Chroniques belges, A. Borgnet ed., Brussels, 1864, Vol. 4 , p . 403.
 Notes 313

T h e chronicle, which dates from the fourteenth century, i s i n all

probability a compilation o f older chronicles that have not come
down to us.
( 7 1 ) A t Gloucester (1168), at Bury Saint-Edmunds (1181), and at Bris-
tol (1183). ( C f . Cecil Roth, A History of the Jews in England,
Oxford, 1941, p . 13.)
( 7 2 ) Neubauer and Stern, op. cit.
( 7 3 ) A t Lauda, at Bischofsheim, at Wolfshagen, at Haguenau, at Fulda.
(M.G.H., “Ann. Ephord.,” Vol. 16, p. 3 1 ; “Gesta Senon Eccl.,” Vol.
17,p. 178; Vol. 2 5 , p. 324. See also the Hebrew source cited above.)
( 7 4 ) “Golden Bull” of Frederick II. (Text published in Zeitschrift fiir die
Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland, Vol. 1 , 1887, pp. 137-44.)
(75) Ibid.
( 7 6 ) Ibid.
( 7 7 ) Elie Berger, Les Registres d’I nnocent IV, Paris, 1884, p . 403.
( 7 8 ) A t Regensburg (1476), at Milan (1476), at Venice (1480); later
(1496) expulsion from Styria and from Carinthia, on the same pre-
text. (Scherer, Die Rechtsverhältnisse der Juden i n den deutsch-
oesterreichischen Lindern, Leipzig, 1 9 0 1 , pp. 614-15.)
( 7 9 ) Cf. Endinger Judenspiel, Karl von Amira ed., Halle, 1883.
( 8 0 ) Cf. article “Bern,” in The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, New York,
1948, Vol. 2 .
( 8 1 ) P . Browe, “Die Hostienschindungen der Juden i m Mittelalter,”
Romische Quartalschrift, 1926, Vol. 34, p p . 169-71.
(82) J. Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Jews, New Haven: Yale Univer-
sity Press, 1 9 4 3 , p . 125.
( 8 3 ) Lateran Council, IV, Can. 67-70, Mansi, Vol. 2 2 , pp. 1 , 0 5 4 ff. The
other measures concerning the Jews dealt with abusive rates of in-
terest collected b y certain Jewish usurers, the exclusion of the Jews
from public office, the case o f converted Jews w h o continued t o
observe certain Jewish rites, and the cancellation of interest on
Crusaders’ debts to the Jews.
( 8 4 ) Aronius, Regesten, No. 725.
(85) Cf. Cecil Roth, op. cit., p. 95.
( 8 6 ) Cf. C. Margolioth, Catalogue of Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts
in the British Museum, Vol. 4 , pp. 4 0 2 ff.; Z. Ameizenowa, Biblja
Hebraiska XIV-go Wieku w Krakowie i jej Dekoracja Malarska, Cra-
cow, 1 9 2 9 ; B . Italiener, Die Darmstädter Pessach-Haggadah, Leip-
zig, 1927.
( 8 7 ) See in this connection Bernard Blumenkranz, Disputations, Minuit
ed., Paris, 1955. (Work consulted in manuscript.)
( 8 8 ) Extractiones d e Talmud, a work composed b y order o f Eudes d e
Châteauroux; and Hebrew manuscript Vikkuah Rabbenu Yehiel mi-
Paris. ( C f . I . Loeb, “La Controverse de 1 2 4 0 sur le Talmud,” R.E.].,
Vol. 1 , 1880.)
( 8 9 ) Von der Hagen, Minnensinger, Vol. 3 , p . 342.
( g o ) Haupt, Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum, Vol. 4 , 2 , p . 1,185.
( 9 1 ) Von der Hagen, op. cit., p . 431.
 Notes 314

5 The Jewish Reactions

( 9 2 ) Aronius, Regesten, Nos. 232-50.
( 9 3 ) W . Roscher, System der Volkswirtschaft, Vol. 2 , p . 335.
( 9 4 ) For this quotation, as for those that follow, see J. Bernfeld, “Das
Zinsverbot bei den Juden nach talmudisch-rabbinischen Recht,” Das
Licht, No. 8, Berlin, 1 9 2 8 ; and J. Parkes, The Jew in the Medieval
Community, London, 1938, p . 340.
( 9 5 ) “Judaei, u t & eorum bona, olim Baronum fuere in quorum dominiis
habitabant,” Statuts de Saint Louis, 1 2 7 0 , Book 1 , Chap. 1 2 9 . (Cf.
L e Nouvel Examen de l'usage général des fiefs en France . . , b y
M . Brussel, counselor to the king, Paris, 1 7 2 7 , Vol. 1 , p . 575.)
( 9 6 ) M.G.H., “Constitutiones et acta publica,” Vol. 3 , pp. 1 ff.
(97) H . Géraud, Paris sous Philippe le Bel d’après des documents origi-
naux, e t notamment d'après u n manuscript contenant le rôle d e la
taille imposée aux habitants d e Paris e n 1 2 9 2 , Paris, 1837. It appears
from this study that a Jewish taxpayer p a i d o n the average as m u c h
as a Christian taxpayer, while a Lombard paid eight times more.
( 9 8 ) Thus, a sum of 215,000 livres was collected in 1295 from the Jews
o f France. ( C f . Robert Fawtier, L'Europe occidentale d e 1 2 7 0 à
1328, Paris, 1938, p . 2 1 1 . )
( 9 9 ) Roger of Wendover, Flores Historiarum, Foxe ed., p . 231.
(100) Bouquet, Vol. 1 3 , p. 3 1 5 ; Vol. 1 7 , pp. 5-8.
(101) Laurière, Ordonnances des rois de France, Vol. 1 , p. 44.
(102) Petit-Dutaillis, Étude sur la vie et le règne de Louis VIII, Paris,
1894, pp. 424-27.
( 1 0 3 ) Layettes, Vol. 2 , p . 1 9 2 , No. 2083.
( 1 0 4 ) Geffroi de Paris, chronique rimée, Lines 3121-27, 3162-65; Bouquet,
Vol. 2 2 , p. 119.
(105) Laurière, Ordonnances des rois de France, Vol. 1 , p. 595.
( 1 0 6 ) This i s apparent i n a rabbinical responsum that describes i n some de-
tail the commercial enterprises o f the J e w Alexander o f Andernach,
murdered o n a business trip t o Koblenz. (Responsa o f Eliezer b e n
Joel of Bonn, Book O r Zarua, I, 194; Aronius, Regesten, No. 345.)
(107) Decree of Emperor Frederick III, for November 6, 1445. The pur-
pose o f this decree was t o forbid the Jews most o f their commercial
activities. ( C f . Scherer, Die Rechtverhältnisse der Juden i n den
deutsch-osterreichischen Ländern, Leipzig, 1 9 0 1 , p . 473.)
(108) The Council of Vienna (1267), discussed on pp. 1 0 5 f., notes “the
insolence o f certain Jews w h o attract Christians t o Judaism a n d
cause them to undergo circumcision.” (Council of Vienna, Can. 15-
19;M.G.H., Vol. 9 , p . 702.)
(109) The Memorbücher (books of the victims of the persecutions) men-
tion a certain number o f proselytes. (Cf. Note 131.)
(110) Ottokar von Horneck, “Reimchronik,” M.G.H., “Scriptores rerum
Austricarum,” Vol. 3 , p p . 7 8 2 ff. This author states that Emperor
 Notes 315

Albrecht I demanded “his” Jews from Philip the Fair, and that the
latter was obliged to hand them over, first despoiling them of all
their goods. Evidently our chronicler exaggerated, since matters did
n o t turn out this way; but there must have been some intervention,
a n d it i s significant that it could have been interpreted i n this way.
(111) Voltaire, Dictionnaire philosophique, Paris ed., 1879, Vol. 3 , p . 525.
( 1 1 2 ) Montesquieu, D e L’Esprit des Lois, XXI, 2 0 .
( 1 1 3 ) Cf. A. Neubauer, “Le Memorbuch de Mayence, essai sur la litté-
rature de complaintes,” R.E.J., Vol. 4, 1882.
( 1 1 4 ) Three Hebrew chronicles relate the events of the First Crusade:
that of Solomon bar Simeon, that of Eliezer ben Nathan, and an anon-
ymous chronicle. All three appear in Neubauer and Stern, Hebraische
Berichte über die Judenverfolgungen während der Kreuzziige, Ber-
lin, 1892, whose text we follow.
( 1 1 5 ) I n this connection, see the introduction b y M . Bresslau to the work
b y Neubauer a n d Stern referred t o above:
“The connoisseurs of neo-Hebrew literature know that the medie-
val Jews avoided describing the details o f non-Jewish worship b y
their usual names. I n o u r chronicles, the following six expressions
are the ones most frequently avoided: (1) ‘Christ, (2) ‘Church,
( 3 ) ‘Holy Sepulcher,” ( 4 ) ‘Christians,’ ( 5 ) “baptize, ( 6 ) “cross.
These were not mentioned, a n d opposite concepts were substituted
for them; for instance, for ( 1 ) ‘the hanged man,’ ‘the son of the
criminal,” ‘the hanged bastard’; for (2) ‘house of corruption,” ‘hor-
ror,” ‘house of alien services’; for ( 3 ) ‘their error, ‘place of shame’;
for ( 4 ) ‘the impure uncircumcised’; for ( 5 ) ‘corrupt,’ ‘sprinkle with
dirty water’; for ( 6 ) ‘evil sign, etc. Ultimately these expressions
became typical a n d i n a sense formal.”
(116) Quoted from A. Darmesteter, “L’Autodafé de Troyes,” R.E.J., Vol.
2 , 1881.
( 1 1 7 ) Neubauer and Stern, op. cit., pp. 106-107.
(118) M . Güdemann, Geschichte des Erziehungswesens und der Cultur der
abendländischen Juden, Vienna, 1880, Vol. 1 , p . 89.
( 1 1 9 ) Ibid., p . 30.
( 1 2 0 ) O r Zarua of Rabbi Isaac ben Moses of Vienna, No. 416.
(121) Manuscript from the Oxford library, reproduced by M . Giidemann,
op. cit., Vol. 1 , pp. 92-106.
( 1 2 2 ) Sachsenspiegel Landesrecht, Homeyer ed., 1861, Vol. 3 , p . 306, 7 ,
Secs. 1 - 4 . I n this connection see the masterful study of Guido Kisch,
The Jews in Medieval Germany, Chicago, 1949.
(123) Sachsenspiegel, Vol. 1 , p . 63, Sec. 3.
( 1 2 4 ) Cecil Roth, “The Medieval Conception of the Jew,” Essays in Mem-
ory of Linda M . Miller, N e w York, 1938, pp. 171-90.
(125) “Dispute de Charlot le Juif et d u Barbier de Melun,” in Rutebeuf,
L e Miracle de Théophile, b y Gustave Cohen, Centre de Documen-
tation universitaire, Paris, 1934.
(126) Histoire littéraire de la France, Vol. 2 3 , p. 657.
( 1 2 7 ) Von der Hagen, Minnensinger, Vol. 2 , p . 259.
 Notes 316

(128) Cf. “Philo-Lexicon,” Handbuch des fiidischen Wissens, Berlin, 1938,

plate 7 .
(129) Thus the famous Aaron fil diaboli of the Forest Roll of Essex (1277).
Similarly, the oldest English illumination showing Jews, which dates
from 1 2 3 3 , shows them conspiring with devils. ( C f . J. Trachtenberg,
The Devil and the Jews, New York, 1943.)
(130) St. Thomas Aquinas, “ D e regimine Judaeaorum,” Sec. 2 , Opuscule
omnia, | . Perrier ed., Paris, Vol. 1, pp. 213-14. The text probably
dates from 1261.

PART THREE | The Age of the Devil

(131) Gottfried von Ensmingen gives the figure of 100,000 (Gesta Ru-
dolphi; Bohmer, Fontes rerum german., Vol. 2 , p p . 144 ff.). Other
details about Rindfleisch’s persecutions are given i n the Annales Alt.
(Bohmer, p . 546), as well as b y the Chron. Florianense (Rerum
Austriac. scriptores, Vol. 1 , p . 225). Furthermore, the Memorbuch
o f the Jewish community o f Niirnberg contained the nominative list
of over 5 , 0 0 0 victims who were killed in forty-one localities of Ba-
varia and Franconia between April and October, 1298. ( C f . Das Mar.
tyrologium des Niirnberger Memorbuches, S. Salfeld ed. Berlin, 1898,
Pp. 29-58.)

6 Background: T h e Fourteenth Century

(132) Rhymed chronicle attributed to Geffroi de Paris, Bouquet, Vol. 22, p.

110.

(133) Cf. H . S. Lucas, “The Great European Famine of 1315, 1316, and
1317, i n Speculum, 1930.
(134) Continuer o f Guillaume d e Nangis ( B o u q u e t , Vol. 2 0 , p . 6 2 6 ) . Con-
cerning the “Pastoureaux” see also the chronicles o f Saint Denis ( Bou-
quet, Vol. 20, p p . 704ff.), the continuer o f Giraud d e Frachet
(Bouquet, Vol. 2 1 , pp. 54ff.), fragment of an anonymous chronicle
(Bouquet, Vol. 2 1 , p . 1 5 2 ) , memoriali Iohannis to Sancta Vic-
tore (Bouquet, Vol. 21, pp. 671ff.), Bernardo Guidonis (Bouquet,
Vol. 2 1 , p. 731).
(135) Shevet Yehudah, chronicle of Ibn Verga, Wiener ed., Hanover, 1856.
(136) This, in particular, is the hypothesis of the historian Georg Caro
(Sozial-und Wirtschaftsgeschichte der Juden, Frankfurt, 1 9 2 4 , Vol. 2 ,
p. 188).
 Notes 317

(137) J. Trachtenberg ( T h e Devil and the Jews, N e w York, 1 9 4 3 , p . 101)

indicates (without giving sources) a precedent i n the canton o f
Vaud in 1308. Another seems to have occurred in Franconia in 1319.
(M.G.H., Vol. 1 2 , p. 416.)
(138) Fragment of an anonymous chronicle. (Bouquet, Vol. 2 1 , p . 152.)
(139) Cf. Robert Anchel, Les Juifs de France, Paris, 1946, pp. 87 ff.
(140) Wiener, Regesten zur Geschichte der Juden in Mittelalter, Hanover,
1862, Nos. 1 0 9 , 1 2 3 , 134.
( 1 4 1 ) Aretin, Geschichte der Juden in Baiern, Landshut, 1803, p . 21.
(142) “Chronic. Zwetl.,” M.G.H., SS, Vol. 9 , p . 683.
(143) Stobbe, Die Juden in Deutschland während des Mittelalters, Braun-
schweig, 1866, p . 169.
(144) A . L . Maycock, “ A Note on the Black Death,” in The Nineteenth
Century, March, 1925.
(145) Konigshoven, Strasburger Chronik, Schilter ed, Notes, pp. 1031-40.
(146) Baronius, Ann. eccles. a d annum 1348, No. 33.
( 1 4 7 ) Känigshoven, p . 296.
(148) A. Colville, “Les Écrits contemporains sur la peste de 1348 à 1350,”
Histoire Littéraire de la France, Paris, 1 9 3 7 , Vol. 3 7 , p. 4 0 4 .
( 1 4 9 ) Jean d e Preis, called d’Outremeuse, “ L y Myreur des Histors,” i n
Chroniques belges, Stanislas Bormans ed., Brussels, 1880, Vol. 6,
p. 387.
(150) Chronique de Simon von Griinau, Perlbach ed., Vol. 1 , p . 600.
(151) Conrad von Megenberg, Das Buch der Natur [about 1350], Hugo
Schultz ed., Gräfswald, 1897, p . 92.
( 1 5 2 ) Senkenberg, Selecta, Vol. 1 , p p . 634 ff.
(153) L . Rothschild, Die Judengemeinden z u Mainz, Speyer und Worms,
p . 9.
(154) J. Menczel, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Stadt Mainz, p . 24.
(155) Guido Kisch, The Jews in Medieval Germany, Chicago, 1949, pp.
41-44.
(156) Laurière, Ordonnances des rois de France, Vol. 3 , pp. 473 ff.
(157) Ibid, Vol. 6, p. 340.
(158) Ibid, Vol. 6, p . 562.
(159) Ibid, Vol. 7 , pp. 2 2 5 ff, 589.
( 1 6 0 ) Ibid., Vol. 7, p p . 557 and 792. (There were two successive decrees,
dated respectively April 4 , 1 3 9 2 , and April 25, 1393.)
(161) Ibid, Vol. 7, p . 675.
(162) “Ir uns und das Riche mit Leib und mit gut a n gehoert, und mugen
da mit schaffen, tun und handeln, was wir wollen und wie uns gut
dunchet,” Monumenta Zollerana, Vol. 4 , p. 110.
( 1 6 3 ) E . Hecht, “Geschichte der Juden i m Trier'schen,” Montaschrift für
die Geschichte und de Wissenschaft des Judentums, Vol. 7, p. 182.
(164) Schreiber, Urkundenbuch der Stadt Freiburg, Vol. 2, pp. 358 ff;
Ulrich, Sammlung jüdischer Geschichten in der Schweiz, pp. 18,
118.
(165) Lacomblet, Urkundenbuch fiir die Geschichte des Niederrheins, Vol.
4 , No. 177.
 Notes 318

( 1 6 6 ) Cf. J. Trachtenberg, Jewish Magic and Superstition, N e w York, 1939,

p . 7-
(167) Elie Scheid, Histoire des Juifs d Alsace, Paris, 1887, p . 74.
(168) J. Dietrich, Revue d'Alsace, 7th year, p. 408.
(169) Cf. Strauss, Die Judengemeinde Regensburg i m ausgehenden Mittel-
alter, Heidelberg, 1932.
(170) Otto Stobbe, Die Juden in Deutschland während des Mittelalters,
Braunschweig, 1886, p . 193. T h e author was a well-known specialist
in medieval German law.
(171) Cf. Guido Kisch, “The Jewish Execution in Medieval Germany,”
Historia Judaica, 1943, Vol. 5 , p p . 103-32.
(172) The Magdeburg-Breslauer systematisches Schôffenrecht, which dates
from the fourteenth century, reads as follows (Vol. 3 , p . 2 , 3 8 ) :
“ with regard to money, the oath of the Jews is not admissible
against Christians, a n d a J e w cannot cause a Christian t o b e sen-
tenced with regard to money. . . . ” ( C f . Guido Kisch, The Jews in
Medieval Germany, Chicago, 1 9 4 9 , p . 262.)
( 1 7 3 ) Cf. J. Scherer, Die Rechtsverhältnisse der Juden in den deutsch-
oesterreichischen Ländern, Leipzig, 1901, p . 297.
(174) Israel Isserlein, Responsa, No. 235.
(175) Mansi, Concilia, Vol. 2 9 , pp. 98 ff.
(176) Rabbi Lipmann Miilhausen, Nitzzahon [written about 1 4 1 0 ] . (Cf.
note 233.)
(177) Cf. H . Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, Leipzig, 1864, Vol. 8, pp.
416 ff, note 3.

7 The Image of the Jew

(178) C. Lenient, L a Satire en France, Paris, 1859, p . 193.
(179) L a Vallée des Pleurs, Julien Sée ed., Paris, 1881, p. 67.
(180) Cf. i n this connection the remarkable study by Jean Stengers, Les
Juifs dans les Pays-Bas au Moyen Age, Brussels, 1950.
(181) Ibid., p . 56.
(182) F . J. Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, Boston (n.d.).
(183) Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Prioress’ Tale,” The Canterbury Tales.
( 1 8 4 ) Thus i n the “Miracle d e l’Agnolo Ebreo” i n d’Ancone, L e Sacre Rap-
presentazione, Turin, 1872, Vol. 3 , pp. 485 ff.
(185) See the exhaustive study by H . Michelson, The Jew in Early English
Literature, Amsterdam, 1926.
( 1 8 6 ) This comprehensive catalogue w a s made b y M . Marcel Bulard i n his
masterful study L e Scorpion, symbole d u peuple juif dans l’art reli-
gieux des XIVe, XVe, XVIe siècles, Paris, 1935, p . 42. M . Bulard has
drawn mainly o n the Mystères de la Passion b y Amoul Gréban.
(187) “Maria Himmelfahrt,” in Altdeutsche Schauspiele, F . J. Mone ed.,
Leipzig, 1841.
 Notes 319

(188) Le Mistère de la saincte hostie, nouvellement imprimé à Paris, A.

Pontier, Aix, 1817.
(189) Les Miracles de Notre-Dame, compilés par Jehan Miélot, secrétaire
de Philippe le Bon, duc de Bourgogne, H . de Laborde ed., Paris,
1929, p . 9 8 .
( 1 9 0 ) “Das Drama des Mittelalters,” Deutsche Nationalliteratur, Fronig
ed., Vol. 1 4 , pp. 767 ff.
(191) Mistére de la Resurrection de Notre-Seigneur, Jésus-Crist . . . , An-
toine Vérard ed., Paris (classification Res. y f. 1 5 of the Bibliothèque
Nationale).
( 1 9 2 ) W e find the Church-Synagogue symbols o n such great cathedrals o f
the thirteenth century as Notre Dame of Paris, Notre Dame of
Rheims, a n d Saint Seurin o f Bordeaux. ( C f . P . Hildenfinger, “ L a
Figure de la Synagogue dans l’art d u Moyen Age,” R.E.J., 1903,
Vol. 47, pp. 187 ff.)
( 1 9 3 ) See in this connection M . Bulard, op. cit.
( 1 9 4 ) See E . Fuchs, Die Juden in der Karrikatur, Munich, 1921, pp. 114-21,
and illustrations 6, 7 , 8, 9 , 15, and 16.
(195) H. Ch. Lea, À History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, New
York, 1888, Vol. 3 , p. 659.
( 1 9 6 ) Ibid, p . 648.
( 1 9 7 ) Maurice Garçon et Jean Vinchon, L e Diable, Étude historique,
critique et medicale, Paris, 1926.
(198) Thus in the Judenrecht of Breslau (collection Regulae juris “Ad
Decus,” late fourteenth century), t w o successive paragraphs which
deal with sorcerers and heretics. ( C f . Guido Kisch, The Jews i n
Medieval Germany, Chicago, 1 9 4 9 , p . 360.)
(199) F. Vernet, “Juifs et chrétiens,” Dictionnaire apologétique de la Foi
catholique, Paris, 1 9 1 3 , p . 1,680.
( 2 0 0 ) See the many engravings, chiefly of German origin, reproduced in
Georg Liebe, “Das Judentum” ( Monographien aus deutschen Kultur-
geschichte, Leipzig, 1903), and in Eduard Fuchs, op. cit.
(201) See the article “Jude” i n Handwôrterbuch des deutschen Aberglau-
bens, Berlin and Leipzig, 1 9 3 1 , Vol. 4 , pp. 808-18.
(202) Ibid.
( 2 0 3 ) M . M . Gorce, “Vincent Ferrer,” article in Dictionnaire de Théologie
catholique, Paris, 1947, Vol. 1 5 2 , p. 3 , 0 4 2 .
( 2 0 4 ) Ibid., p . 3,038.
( 2 0 5 ) H . Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, Leipzig, 1864, Vol. 8, p . 118.
( 2 0 6 ) S. Dubnow, History of the Jews in Europe [in Russian], Riga, 1936,
Vol. 2 , p . 264.
( 2 0 7 ) L . de Kerval, Saint Jean de Capistran, son siécle, son influence, Paris,
1887, p . 1 0 .
(208) Ibid., p . 125.
(209) Ibid, p . 64.
( 2 1 0 ) M . Brann, Geschichte der Juden in Schlesien, Breslau, 1896-1910,
pp. 115-49.
 Notes 320

(211) Abbé de Surrel de Saint-Julien, U n grand bienfaiteur du peuple, p.

156.
(212) E . Flornoy, L e Bienheureux Bernardin de Feltre, Paris, 1897, p . 70.
(213) Ibid, p . 1 2 2 .
(214) Ibid, p . 1 2 9 .
(215) “Hincmari remensis annales,” M.G.H., SS 504; Richeri, Hist. Lib.,
Vol. 3 , M.G.H., SS Vol. 2 , p. 996.
(216) J. Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Jews, N e w York, 1943, pp. 97,
238.
(217) A. Furst, Christen und Juden (Strasbourg, 1892, p . 8 5 ) , which refers
t o Reconvenciones caritativas a los Professores d e l a L e y d e Moyses
b y Geronimo Feijoo y Montenegro ( a b o u t 1750).
( 2 1 8 ) E . Boutaric, Saint Louis et Alfonse de Poitiers, Paris, 1870, p . 87.
(219) “In the days of King Juan, son of King Henry, new sufferings ac-
cumulated. . . . A n d it was also decided that n o J e w would b e a
surgeon o r physician, except for the king’s physician. . . ” (Shevet
Yehudah, Chronik von Salomon ibn Verga, Wiener ed., Hanover,
1856, p . 180). (Cf. also F . Baer, Die Juden in christlichen Spanien,
Vol. 1 , p . 35, note 2 . )
(220) I . Munz, Die jiidischen Artzte in Mittelalter, Frankfurt, 1 9 2 2 , p . 51.
(221) Ibid, p . 54.
(222) Ibid, p . 55.
(223) Ibid., p . 49.
(224) I . Kracauer, Geschichte der Juden in Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt,
1925-1927, Vol. 3 , p . 264.
(225) S. Krauss, Geschichte der jiidischen Aertzte, Vienna, 1930, p . 56.
(226) E . Flornoy, op. cit., p . 136.
(227) L’Incrédulité et mescréance d u sortilège pleinement convaincues b y
P. de I’Ancre, Counselor to the King in his Council of State, Paris,
1 6 2 2 , Treatise 8, pp. 446 ff.
(228) J. Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages, N e w York, 1954, p.
168.
(229) Quoted in J. Janssen, Die allgemeinen Zustande des deutschen Volkes
beim Ausgang des Mittelalters, Freiburg, 1887, Vol. 1 , p . 396.
(230) Document quoted by J. Leman in L’Entrée des Israélites dans la
société chrétienne, Paris, 1886, p . 1 1 .
(231) Thus, for example, Rabbi Joslein ben Moses, in the manuscript Leket
Yosher, Munich Library, fol. 88.
(232) Léon Bloy, Le Salut par les Juifs, Chaps. 2 0 , 21, and 2 2 .
(233) The last apologetic text b y a German Jew is the Nitzzahon ( T h e
Victory) of Rabbi Lipmann Miilhausen o f Prague, w h o k n e w Latin
and h a d read the Gospels. I t was written about 1410. W e must subse-
quently wait nearly t w o centuries t o see publications o f this kind
reappear.
( 2 3 4 ) Jean de Preis, called d’Outremeuse, “Ly Myreur des Histors,” i n
Chroniques belges, Stanislas Bormans ed., Brussels, 1880, Vol. 6, p.
387.
 Notes 321

(235) Guillaume de Nangis, Soc. de UHistoire de France. Les grandes

chroniques de France, Vol. 8, p . 359.
( 2 3 6 ) Meir of Rothenburg, Responsa, Prague, 1895, No. 517.
(237) Chaim O r Zarua, Responsa, Zhitomir, 1862, No. 14.
(238) Jacob Levi, Responsa, Cremona, 1556, No. 1 0 4 .
(239) Israel Isserlein, Responsa, Venice, 1519, No. 198.
(240) Asher ben Yehiel, Responsa, XX, No. 2 0 .
( 2 4 1 ) Thus the Sachsenspiegel, the Schwabenspiegel, the Deutschenspiegel,
and the Glogauer Rechtsbuch of 1386. (Cf. Guido Kisch, op. cit., p.
120.)

PART FOUR | The Age of the Ghetto

8 Anti-Semitism i n the Pure State: France

(242) Cf. Robert Anchel, Les Juifs de France, Paris, 1946, p. 125.
(243) Les Regrets, p . 1 1 6 , line 8.
(244) Frippelipes, Marot’s valet, to Sagon, Guiffrey e d , Vol. 3 , p . 578,
line 92.
(245) Epistle sent from Venice to Mme. la Duchesse de Ferrare. See C. A .
Mayer, Bibliographie des Oeuvres de Marot, Droz ed., Geneva, 1954,
Vol. 1 , pp. 1 4 , 64.
(246) Journal de voyage de Montaigne, Lautrey ed., Paris, 1906, pp. 223,
2 2 7 , 254.
(247) L e Coup d’essay de François de Sagon, 1537, Bibl. Nat, Rothschild
bequest, No. 2,594.
(248) Bartoloccius, Vol. 4 , p . 385.
( 2 4 9 ) T h e narration that follows is for the most part based o n the chronicle
o f Baptiste Legrain, Décennie commençant [histoire d u roi Louis
XIII, Paris, 1619, pp. 182 ff. and pp. 404 ff. See also R. Anchel, op.
cit, p. 147.
(250) H . Sauval, Histoire et Recherche des antiquités de la ville de Paris,
Paris, 1 7 2 4 , Vol. 2 , p . 521.
( 2 5 1 ) Isembert, Recueil général des anciennes lois françaises, Paris, 1821,
Vol. 16, p . 76.
(252) Cf. M. Jacob, “L’Ascendance juive de Dacquin, médecin de Louis
XIV,” in L'Univers Israélite, No. 26, March 2 4 , 1933.
(253) Malherbe, Oeuvres, Hachette ed., Paris, 1862, p . xxix of the Preface.
(254) “Catéchisme d u diocèse de Meaux,” in Bossuet, Oeuvres Complètes,
Bar-le-Duc, 1863, Vol. 1 1 , p . 443.
 Notes 322

( 2 5 5 ) Catéchisme historique, b y M . Fleury, Prior of Argenteuil and Con-

fessor to the King, Paris, 1766 (Lesson 19: “Des ennemis d u Christ,”
and 27: “De la ruine de Jérusalem”).
(256) Adrien Gambart, Le Bon Partage des pauvres en la doctrine chré-
tienne et la connaissance d u salut . . , Paris, 1652, p . 72.
( 2 5 7 ) Vie de Jésus-Christ, written in the fifteenth century after Ludolphe
le Chartreux.
( 2 5 8 ) Father Boucher, Bouquet sacré composé des Roses d u Calvaire, des
Lys de Bethléhem, des Jacinthes d'Olivet et de plusieurs autres belles
Pensées de Terre Sainte, Paris, 1620, pp. 644, 655.
( 2 5 9 ) Dominique Auberton, Récit véritable et miraculeux de ci qui a esté
veu en Hiérusalem, Paris, 1623.
( 2 6 0 ) Bossuet, Oeuvres oratoires, Lebarq ed., Paris, 1 9 1 3 , pp. 158, 1 6 0 ,
1 6 1 . Bourdaloue, Oeuvres complètes, Paris, 1 8 2 2 - 1 8 2 5 , Vol. 2 , p. 5 3 3 ;
Vol. 9 , p. 3 1 3 ; Vol. 1 1 , p. 193. Fléchier, Oeuvres choisies, Brémond
ed., Paris, 1 9 1 1 , pp. 3 1 , 35. Massillon, Oeuvres complètes, Paris, 1911,
Pp. 3 1 , 35. Massillon, Oeuvres complètes, Paris, 1823, Vol. 5 (“Ser-
mons for L e n t ” ) , pp. 321, 337.
(261) Cf. L e Bienheureux Grignon de Montfort b y E . Jac, Professor at the
Faculté catholique d'Angers, Paris, 1 9 0 3 , p . 114.
( 2 6 2 ) T h e works o f the Blessed o f Montfort with a study and notes b y the
Rev. Father Fradet (typescript), Beauchesne, Paris, 1929. The quota-
tions are taken from the p o e m o f the Passion “divided according t o
the days o f the week: w e witness the entire Passion, from the agony
to the entombment” (pp. 57 ff.).
(263) E . Jac, op. cit., p . 2 2 9 .
( 2 6 4 ) Lucien Romier, L e Royaume de Catherine de Médicis, Paris, 1 9 2 2 ,
p . 263.
(265) All the items that follow may be found in the collection of “Mazari-
nades” i n the Bibliotheque d e l’Arsenal i n Paris, They are i n Vol. 8 °
H 7,667 and Vol. 8° 7728 of this collection.
( 2 6 6 ) Complete title: Monitoire publié par toutes les Paroisses d e la ville
de Paris contre les Juifs de la Synagogue, le 1 e r jour de septembre
1652, pour avoir cruellement martyrisé, assassiné, et tué u n notable
bourgeois d e ladite ville d e Paris.
(267) Récit naïf et véritable d u cruel assassinat et horrible massacre commis
le 2 6 août 1652 par la Compagnie des Fripiers d e la Tonnellerie
commandée par Claude Amant, leur Capitaine, en la personne de
Jean Bourgeois, marchand épinglier ordinaire d e la Reyne, Bourgeois
de Paris, âgé d e trente-deux ans.
( 2 6 8 ) Examen de la vie des Juifs, de leurs religion, commerce et trafic dans
leur Synagogue.
( 2 6 9 ) Relation véritable de ce que s’est passé au meurtre d'un jeune garçon
fils d'un marchand épinglier de la rue Saint-Denys, nommé Bourgeois.
( 2 7 0 ) Response des principaux d e l a Synagogue présenté par Articles aux
Notables Bourgeois de Paris, o ù il monstre leur Ordre, leur Reigle,
leur L o y e t leur Procez avec le complaignant.
(271) L'Assemblée des Fripiers en la maison d'un officier de leur compagnie,
 Notes 323

pour adviser aux moyens de remédier à la cruanté de leur grand

crime, suivant le Monitoire, qui se publie contre eux par les Paroisses
de Paris où, ne trouvant pas de remèdes assurés, u n d'entre eux,
n o m m é Jean Lalloué, s'est jetté dans u n puits par désespoir: e t aussi
avec le refus de la somme d'argent qu'ils ont offert à Son Altesse
Royale pour tascher d'estouffer cette action barbare.
( 2 7 2 ) Relation véritable de l’horrible assassinat commis par les fripiers de
la nation judaïque en la personne d’un bourgeois de cette ville de
Paris, le 26 août 1652.
(273) L a Synagogue mise en son lustre, avec l’épitaphe de Bourgeois pour
mettre sur son tombeau.
(274) Claude Veiras, La Fureur des Juifs dédiée à Messieurs de la Syna-
gogue.
(275) L a Cruauté de la Synagogue des Juifs de la dernière génération, de
plus le jugement d e Minos rendu à l'âme d u pauvre massacré aux
Champs-Elysées, le repos des âmes heureuses, P.A.R.C.C.A.M.B.D.
R.T.A.P.
(276) Le Jugement criminel rendu contre la Synagogue des Fripiers portant
q u e ceux d e leur nombre qui se trouveront circoncis ( q u i est la mar-
que de la juiverie) seront chastrez vie à vie, afin que la race e n
demeure à jamais esteinte dans Paris.
( 2 7 7 ) J. Savary des Bruslons, Dictionnaire d u Commerce, J. Étienne ed.,
Paris, 1723, Vol. 2 , p . 923.
( 2 7 8 ) Factum serving as a response t o the book entitled “Abrégé d u procès
fait aux Juifs de Metz” in Bibliothèque critique ou Recueil de diverses
pièces critiques . . . , Sainjore ed., Amsterdam, 1708, p . 1 0 9 .
( 2 7 9 ) Cérémonies et coutumes qui s’observent aujourd’hui chez les Juifs.
Translated from the Italian of Leon of Modena, Rabbi of Ven-
ice . . . , b y the Sieur de Simonville, Paris, 1681.
(280) Letter to Monsieur J.H., in R . Simon, Lettres choisies, Amsterdam,
1 7 2 0 , Vol. 1 , p . 235.
( 2 8 1 ) Pensées, Brunschvicq ed., p . 590, also p p . 592, 593, 630, and 640.

9 Anti-Semitism in the Pure State: England

( 2 8 2 ) Cf. the t w o excellent a n d complementary doctoral theses: T h e Con-
temporary J e w i n the Elizabethan Drama, b y Jacob Cardozo, Amster-
dam, 1 9 2 5 ; a n d T h e J e w i n Early English Literature, b y Hijman
Michelson, Amsterdam, 1926.
( 2 8 3 ) Cf. Michael Adler, “The History of the Domus Conversorum,” i n
Jews of Medieval England, London, 1 9 3 9 , pp. 306-79.
( 2 8 4 ) Cf. Cecil Roth, A History of the Jews in England, Oxford, 1 9 4 1 , pp.
131-32.
( 2 8 s ) Ibid., pp. 136-38.
( 2 8 6 ) Ibid.
(287) Cf. D . Kaufman, “Une consultation de Jacob Rafaël Peglione de
 Notes 324

Modène sur le divorce de Henri VIII,” R.E.J., Vol. 3 0 , p . 3 0 9 ; and

b y the same author, “Jacob Mantino,” R.E.J., Vol. 27, p . 30.
(288) Murray, À New English Dictionary, Vol. 5, p . 576.
(289) Cf. Cecil Roth, op. cit, pp. 149-54, where numerous examples are
cited.
(290) Cf. W . K . Jordan, The Development of Religious Tolerance in Eng-
land, London, 1938, Vol. 3 , p . 2 0 9 .
(291) Cf. M . Ashley, Oliver Cromwell, London, 1934, p . 268; and L . Wolf,
“Cromwell’s Jewish Intelligencers,” i n Essays i n Jewish History
( posthumous), London, 1934, p. 91.
(292) Cecil Roth, A Life of Menasseh ben Israel, Philadelphia, 1945, pp.
249, 346.
(293) William Prynne’s preface to his pamphlet, A short Demurrer to the
Jews’ long discontinued Remitter into England, 2nd ed., London,
1656.
(294) A Narrative of the Late Proceedings at Whitehall Concerning the
Jews . . . , London, 1656. ( C f . Harleian Miscellany, London, 1810,
Vol. 6, p . 445.)

10 Activated Anti-Semitism: Germany

(295) Jacob Wimpheling, D e arte impressoria, fol. 2 of the manuscript

(quoted in J. Janssen, Die allgemeinen Zustände des deutschen
Volkes beim Ausgang des Mittelalters, Freiburg, 1887, Vol. 1 , p. 9).
(296) Quoted in H . A . Mascher, Das deutsche Gewerbewesen von der
frühesten Zeit bis auf die Gegenwart, Potsdam, 1866.
(297) Quoted in J. Janssen, op. cit., p . 399.
(298) Doctro Johannes Reuchlin tiitsch Missive, warumb die Juden so lang
in Ellend sind, 1505. ( C f . L . Geiger, Johannes Reuchlin, Leipzig,
1870.)
(299) This quotation, like those that follow, is taken from the work b y J.
Janssen cited above, pp. 400-406.
(300) Ibid.
(301) Ibid.
(302) Ibid.
(303) Pierre de Froissart, Lettres ( L . 2 1 ) , Lyon, 1527.
(304) Augenspiegel, fol. 32b.
(305) Cf. L . Geiger, op. cit., p . 374.
(306) Letter from Erasmus to Pirkheimer, November 2 , 1517; letter to
Reuchlin, November 1 5 , 1517. (Cf. L . Geiger, op. cit., p . 342.)
(307) Gegen die Juden und ihre Liigen. In this connection see R. Lewin,
Luthers Stellung z u den Juden, Berlin, 1911.
( 3 0 8 ) “Les Mémoires de Josselman de Rosheim,” French translation of
S. Schwarzfuchs, F.S.J.U. (quarterly review), Paris, October, 1954,
p . 23.
(309) Heinrich Bornkamm, Luthers geistige Welt, Liineburg, 1947, p . 35.
 Notes 325

(310) “Les Mémoires de Josselman de Rosheim,” loc. cit.

(311) Cf. S. Stern, The Court Jew, Philadelphia, 1950. Apropos of the
Court Jews, see also Peter Alldag, Der Hofjude, Berlin, 1938 ( a work
o f Nazi inspiration), as well as the chief works o n Jewish history.
( 3 1 2 ) The Judenstättigkeit of the Jews of Frankfurt and their Kleiderord-
nung have been reproduced i n J. G . Schudt, Jiidische Merckwiirdig-
keiten, Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1 7 1 4 - 1 7 1 8 , Vol. 3 , pp. 1 1 9 ff.
(313) Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft fiir jiidische Volkskunde, Hamburg,
1899, Vol. 3 , pp. 29 ff.
(314) Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Deutsches Wärterbuch, second section of
Vol. 4 , Leipzig, 1877, p . 2 , 3 5 3 .
(315) These works both appeared in 1681, the first in Nürnberg and the
second in Altdorf.

11 Poland: the Autonomous Center

(316) Aronius, Regesten, No. 724.

(317) Quoted in S. Dubnow, History of the Jews in Europe [in Russian],
Riga, 1936, Vol. 3 , p. 290.
(318) Cf. S. Dubnow, op. cit., Vol. 3 , p . 323.
(319) “Zawsze dla nas chlopkov bieda: musim karmic pana, ksiedza, zyda.”
(S. Adalberg, Ksiega przyslow . . . , Warsaw, 1894, No. 58.)
(320) “Chlop zarobil, pan wydal, a zyd skorzystal.” (Ibid, No. 56.)
( 3 2 1 ) “Zyd, Niemiece, diabel trzeci, jednej matki dzieci.” ( F . Korab-
Brzozowski, Przyslowia polskie, Cracow, 1896, No. 191.)
(322) Nathan Hannover, in the introduction to his chronicle of persecutions,
Yeven Metzulah, Venice, 1653.
(323) N . Kostomarov. Russian History [in Russian], St. Petersburg, 1880,
Vol. 2 , p . 230.
( 3 2 4 ) Quoted in S. Dubnow, History of the Jews i n Russia and Poland,
Philadelphia, 1946, p. 188.
(325) “Multitudes in Poland, Lithuania, and Prussia b y the late wars b y
the Swedes, Cossacks, and others being driven away from them.
Hence their yearly Alms t o the poor Jews o f the German synagogue
a t Jerusalem hath ceased, and o f 700 widows a n d poor Jews there,
about 4 0 0 have been famished, as a letter from Jerusalem to their
friends relates.” (Harleian Miscellany, Vol. 7, p . 579. See also D .
Kaufmann, “ L e Rachat d e Juifs prisonniers durant l a persécution d e
Chmielnicki,” R.E.J., Vol. 2 5 , p. 2 0 2 . )
(326) The Ukrainian priest Goliatovski, in his book The True Messiah,
written in 1667 and published in 1672.
(327) G. G. Scholem, “Le Mouvement sabbataïste en Pologne,” Revue de
l'Histoire des Religions, January, 1953, Vol. 1 4 3 , p. 48.
(328) G. G. Scholem, “Le Mouvement sabbataïste en Pologne,” Revue de
l’Histoire des Religions, April, 1953, Vol. 143, p . 216.
 Notes 326

(329) Quoted in S. Dubnow, History of the Jews in Europe [in Russian],

Riga, 1936, Vol. 4 , p . 144.
(330) Shibkhe ha-Besht [Eulogy of BEShT or Legend of BEShT], pub-
lished at Kopyss in White Russia in 1815.
( 3 3 1 ) G. G. Scholem, Les Grands Courants de la mystique juive, Paris,
1 9 5 0p, . 368.
(332) Quoted in S. Dubnow, Geschichte des Chassidismus, Berlin, 1931,
Vol. 1 , p. 191.
(333) Ibid, Vol. 2 , p . 300.
(334) From R. Elimelech of Lyssensk in his treatise, Noam Elimelech, pub-
lished i n Lvov [Lemberg] i n 1788.
(335) From R. Baruch of Miedzyboz, grandson of BEShT. Quoted in S. A .
Horodezky, The Hasidim and Hasidism [in Hebrew], Berlin, 1923,
Vol. 3 , p. 15.
(336) From Rabbi Jacob Isaac of Lublin. Quoted in S. Dubnow, Geschichte
des Chassidismus, Berlin, 1 9 3 1 , Vol. 2 , p . 236.
(337) Quoted in S. Dubnow, History of the Jews in Europe [in Russian],
Vol. 2 , pp. 238-39.
(338) Quoted in G. G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, New
York, 1 9 4 1 , p p . 349 f.
(339) S. Dubnow, “The Pogroms of Vochtchilo,” Voskhod [periodical in
Russian], 1889, Vol. 1 .
(340) Michael the Neophyte’s work written in 1 7 1 6 , first circulated in
manuscript. It was reproduced i n extenso i n the work o f Canon
Pikoulski, Jewish Wickedness (Zlosc zydowska, Lvov [Lemberg],
1 7 6 0 ) , which became the veritable breviary o f Polish anti-Semitism.
(341) During the Beilis trial in Kiev (1912), the last major trial for ritual
murder, the experts for the prosecution based their memoranda and
reports on the account of Michael the Neophyte.
(342) Quoted in S. Dubnow, History of the Jews in Europe [in Russian],
P- 93.

12 The Case o f Russia

(343) This is the chief reason why certain historians have attempted to
identify this Skharia, w h o appeared from Lithuania about 1470, with
the Zechariah o r Skharia o f Crimea, w h o was active some fifteen years
later. This, in particular, was the opinion of E . Panov, author of the
best study t o date o n the heresy o f the Judaizers ( R e v i e w o f the
Ministry of Public Instruction [ i n Russian], Nos. 189-91, St. Peters-
burg, 1877). But S. Dubnow, for instance, was of the contrary opin-
ion.
(344) E . Panov, op. cit. ( N o . 343), No. 1 9 1 , p . 16.
( 3 4 5 ) Joseph of Volotzk, in his Prossvietitel, in E . Panov. op. cit., N o . 18g,
p- 38.
(346) Joseph of Volotzk, in his letter to Nifonte, bishop of Souzdal, quoted
 Notes 327

b y S. Soloviev, History of Russia [in Russian], Moscow, 1855, Vol.

5, p . 257.
( 3 4 7 ) Paulus Iovius Novocomensis, Study of the Russian State [in Russian],
St. Petersburg, 1908, p. 268.
( 3 4 8 ) Quoted in I . Hessen, History of the Jewish People i n Russia [in
Russian], Petrograd, 1923.
( 3 4 9 ) Cf. Sh. Ettinger, “The Muscovite State and Its Attitude toward the
Jews,” Zion [periodical i n Hebrew], Nos. 3-4, Jerusalem, 1954,
p . 139.
( 3 5 0 ) Ibid., p . 1 4 1 .
( 3 5 1 ) A . Nartov, Stories of Peter the Great [in Russian], Imperial Academy
of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 1891.
(352) From the Imperial Russian Archives. (Cf. Stories and Writings about
Peter the Great [in Russian], St. Petersburg, 1898, p . 92.)
( 3 5 3 ) Quoted b y Kostomarov, Russian History, Vol. 2 .
( 3 5 4 ) Cf. S. Dubnow, History of the Jews in Europe [in Russian], Riga,
1936, Vol. 4 , p. 1 3 0 .
 Index

Abraham, sacrifice of, 85 Aue von, Hartmann, 92-93

“Abraham, sons of,” 1 0 , 1 9 , 159 Augustine, Saint, 1 6 0
Abraham of Bristol, 78, 79 autonomy of Jews, 35, 2 5 0 , 259
Adalbert, bishop of Worms, 43-44 autos-da-fé, 63, 1 4 0
Against Apion, 8, 1 6 1 avengers, “potential,” Jewish chil-
Agobard, Archbishop, 29, 30, 31, 34, dren as, 107
137
Akiba, Rabbi, 1 6 2 Baal Shem-Tob, 264, 267
Albert of Aix, 4 3 , 44 bandits, Jewish, 2 3 3 , 234
alcoholism, resistance to, 303-304 baptism, forced, 43, 45, 47n, 51, 83,
Alfonso, Count of Poitiers, 1 5 0 87, 1 2 8
Alfonso (Sicily), edict of (1435), 67 of slaves, prohibition of, 29
Alsfelder Passionspiel, 130, 1 3 1 as salvation from massacre, 45
Altona, Jews of, 236n Bar Kokheba rebellion, 1 2 , 2 1
Amolon, Archbishop, 2 9 , 31, 34 Behrens, Leffmann, 2 3 0 , 232
anathema, use of, 137, 265, 267 Ben Azzai, Rabbi, 2 0
ancestry, European, hypothesis of, 34 “Beni Israel,” 15
Andrew of Rinn, 272n Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint, 48
animosity, Christian, as vicious cir- Bernardino of Feltre, 1 4 7 , 148
cle, go, 1 2 3 Bernardino of Siena, Saint, 1 4 7 , 149,
Antichrist, 55, 146 152
antiquity, pagan, anti-Semitism in, Bernhold (monk), 5 1
3-16 BEShT, see Baal Shem-Tob
anti-Semitism, crystallization, 1 2 3 Bèze, Theodore de, 198, 2 0 8
Antoninus, 12, 21 “birth control,” imposed o n Jews
Apocalypse, 109, 146 see “reduction” policy
apologia, Jewish, 1 6 1 , 168 bishops, attempt t o protect Jews, 4 5
apologists, Christian, 2 1 supporting Amolon, 3 2
apostates, 69, 8 2 , 163, 177, 243 Black Death, 1 0 1 - 1 0 2 , 1 0 7 - 1 1 4 , 135,
imprint on Jewish history, 167-168 161-162
archetypes, 57, 77, 277, 3 0 1 blackmailers, accusing Jews of kid-
Armleder brothers, 1 0 7 , 1 1 1 naping, 62
arms, right to bear, 28, 9 1 , 93 blasphemies, anti-Christian, search
art, in Middle Ages, 135 in Talmud for, 243
artisans, German, 2 1 0 - 2 1 1 blood, human, 57, 61, 272-274
Ashkenazim, vi, 83n, 155, 1 6 2 , 164, blood types, 283-286
288, 289 Boccaccio, description of Plague,
“assimilation,” Jewish, vii, 55, 248, 107-108
204 Bodon, Deacon, 34
 Index 330
Bolislav V of Kalish, 247 charters for protection of Jews, 75-
Book of the Pious, 89 76, 1 1 4 , 1 1 8 , 247
Bossuet, Jacques, 1 8 0 , 1 8 2 , 184, 2 0 1 Riidiger’s charter (1084), 36
Bourgeois, Jean, 1 9 0 - 1 9 1 chattels, Jews as, 76
bourgeoisie, Christian, anti-Semitic children, sacrifice of, 86
writings of, 255 spying on parents, 147
urban, rise of, 53 Chilperic, King of Gaul, 28
Brant, Sebastian, 213 China, Jews in, v, vii, 1 3 , 15
Browe, Father P., 168 Chmielnicki, Bogdon, 257, 261, 270
Brussels, religious festival, a n d anti- chosen people concept, 1 6 1
Jewish activity, 6 2 Christ, Jesus, avengers of, 1 0 7
compared to Baal Shem-Tob, 264
cabala and cabalists, 91, 175, 199n, divine nature attributed to, 2 0
2 1 4 , 2 6 1 , 263-264 glorification of, 2 1 8
Caesarius of Heisterbach, 54, 65 life of, 1 8 1
Calvinism, attitude to Jews, 204 murder of, 57
canonizations, 6 2 rejection of, 254
canticles, anti-Semitic, 187-189 sufferings of, i n sermons, 6 0
Caorsins, 76-77, 80 trial of, 1 7 , 18
Capet, Hugh, 150 “Christen-Juden” (Christian-Jews),
“capitalist mentality,” 156 155, 211, 213
capitalist system, development, 77, Christian anti-Semitism, coming-of-
172 age of, 1 0 9
role of Jews in, 154 Christian influence on Jewish think-
caricature of Jew, in Germany, 136 ing, 88, 9 1
Carolingian Europe, Jews in, 29, 35 Christian servants, forbidden, 238
Casimir IV, Poland, 248 Christian theology, role o f Jews in,
Casimir the Great, 247 201
castration, as suggested punishment, Christian thought, influenced by Jew-
194 ish learning, 9 1
catechisms, anti-Semitism in, 180 Christianity, early, a n d anti-Semi-
Catharism, 139 tism, 1 7 - 2 5
cathedrals, building of, 56 Jewish resistance to, 2 1 4
Catherine I , edict of, 2 8 0 - 2 8 1 Christians, attracted to Judaism, 33-
Catherine the Great, Russia, 271
Catullus, 8 changes in attitude to Jews, 50
cemeteries, Jewish, destroyed, 107 complex attitude t o Jews, 1 5 8
centurion, blind (Longinus), 134 and Jewish physicians, 149
chaos, political, in 13th-century Ger- replacing Jews as bankers, 259
many, 9 9 Christians a n d Jews, relationships
chapels, commemorative, and ritual between, 8g-go
murder, 62-63 in Poland, 246
characteristics, differential, 293-305 12th and 13th centuries, 91-92
charity, of Jews, 2 0 0 , 2 5 1 , 253 Church, New, 2 0
Charlemagne, 1 5 0 Polish, propaganda, 2 7 2
Charles IV, emperor, 1 1 3 Roman Catholic, tenet on forced
Charles V , Germany, 156, 227, 228 baptism, 47
Charles VI, France, 1 1 6 Russian Orthodox, schism in, 263
Charles the Bold (Charles II), vs. S y n a g o g33,
u e56,
, 72, 134, 159
France, 1 5 0 as true chosen Israel, 159
Charlot the Jew (jongleur), 92 Church council decisions, fifth and
“Charter, Gold,” 2 7 1 sixth centuries, 2 6 - 2 7
charter, quote from, g 3 n circumcision, 1 0 , 2 0 5 , 277, 303
 Index 331

in China, 14 Council of Béziers, 1 4 9 , 1 5 0

prohibition of, 2 1 , 22 Council of Braza, 137
citizenship, Jews’ i n Germany, 1 1 7 Council of Breslau (1267), 247
civilization, Jewish, 228n Council of Clermont-Ferraud, 4 1
medieval, Crusades and, 4 1 Council of the Four Nations, 252,
Clement III, Pope, 46 259, 260, 272
Clement VI, Pope, bull of, 1 1 0 - 1 1 1 Council, Fourth Lateran, 64,65
Clement XIV, 2 7 2 Council of Ireland, 137
clergy, fearing subversion b y Jews, Council of Meaux, 32
208 Council of Toledo, 47n
Polish, attitude to Jews, 255-256 Council of Trier, 138
Clopin, (jongleur), 7 2 Council of Vienna (1267), 66, 149
Cochin, Jews of, 1 5 , 16, 2 9 0 council decisions, influencing rumors
codices, German, 81n, 9 3 , 1 1 3 , 167 against Jews, 1 0 5
Coincy, Gautier de, 5 3 , 1 2 9 court, discrimination at, 93
Cok Hagin, 79 court Jew, 229, 230, 2 3 2 , 2 3 3 , 243,
Cologne, Jews of, 45 2 5 0 , 255
commandments ( 6 1 3 ) , 166 covenant, notion of, 3, 8
communities, Jewish, 163, 228 Cromwell, Oliver, 2 0 5 , 2 0 8
life changed b y Crusades, 7 2 Crucifixion, guilt for, 1 8 6
Germany, 8 2 and Jews, 2 0 9
loss of democratic character, in religious theater, 3 3 , 130-133
233 Crusade, abortive, of 1 3 0 9 , 50
North African, 289 Albingensian, (1236), 49, 65
unstable existence, 12th-century of 1146, 48-49
France, 79 First, 4 1
Concini, Concino, 175, 177, 190 defeat of, 52
confessions, 63, 1 1 0 , 1 4 0 People’s, see Crusade, First
confiscations, 80, 1 0 6 Second, 58
conspiracy, Jewish, 1 1 0 “Shepherd’s” (1320), 50, 1 0 2 - 1 0 4
contagion, hypothesis of, 109-110 Crusades, Age of, 39-95, 1 0 4
contributions, levied on Jews, 43, 78 culture, Jewish popularization of, g o
conversions, of Jews, 67, 145, 1 6 0 , culture lag, and status of Jews, 8 1
168, 2 2 3 cults, anti-Jewish, 62
forced, 28, 1 6 1 customs o f Jews, serving t o stimulate
i n Gaul, 26 anti-Semitism, 269-270
to Judaism, 36
reasons for, 92 Dacquin, Philippe, 177
through disputation, 55 Dagobert, king of Gaul, 28
temptation of, 3 0 0 “dance of death” themes, 135, 232
converted Jews, 48, 271, 280 dancing, 33, 163, 207n
as persecutors, 52-53 David ben Eliezar, 2 0 6
converts, pagan, t o Christianity, 2 3 debate, public, o n Talmud, 7 0
property of, 82 o n right o f free discussion, 2 1 5
royal foundation (England), 203 debates, between Christians and
corporations, i n Germany, 2 1 1 Jews, 67-68
Cosmas, bishop of Prague, 45, 5 1 debts owed t o Jews, validity denied,
Cosmas Indicopleustes (monk), 5 80, 119
Cossacks, 2 5 7 , 258, 2 6 0 Decretales of Gregory IX, 94
costume, “Jewish,” 163-164 degradation of Jews, 83, 1 2 2
see also garments; hats deicide, 2 0 , 3 3 , 2 1 1
Council of Albi (1254), 149 Deluge, the (Polish), 256-274
Council of Basel, 1 2 1 demons, 199n, 241
 Index 332

Der Judenspiegel, 2 1 4 Edessa, see Urfa

destiny, unique, of Jews, vii, ix, 41, Eighteen Benedictions, 19
7 3 , 242 Elders of Zion, myth of, 58, 6on
d’Etampes, Louis, 115 Eleazar, Rabbi, 70
Devil, 1 9 9 n , 2 2 0 , 2 2 1 , 2 2 4 Eleazar of Worms, 9 1
Age of, 97-169 Eliezar ben Nathan, 84
enemies of, 1 5 2 Eliezer, Rabbi, 18
instrument of, 92 Elizabeth Petrovna, Russia, 2 8 1
identified with Jews, 137-154, 219, Emicho, see Leirengen, Emicho von
242 emigration, 2 6 0 - 2 6 1
personalized, 1 4 1 emotional reactions, collective, 1 1
Devil-hunters, professional, 140 Endingen affair, 63
devils, 130, 1 3 7 Endinger Judenspiel ( p l a y ) , 63
dialectics, defining powers of Devil, “enemies of the human race” argu-
138 ment, 2 1 2
Talmudic, 2 5 2 England, anti-Semitism in, 203-209
Dialogus Miraculorum, 54 Jewish financiers in, 77-79
Diet of Worms, 2 2 2 n massacres in, 4 9
Dieu le veult ( b a t t l e c r y ) , 4 1 English Jews, lost tribe of, 78
directives against Jews, enforcement Enlightenment, century of, 2 0 2
of, 65 thinkers of, viii
disasters, Jews held responsible for, entry, illegal, into England, 2 0 3
102 environment, a n d Jewish mentality,
diseases, among Jews, 298 305
Dispersion, Jewish, v , 4 , 5 , 6 , 13, and social attitudes, 296n
18, 1 9 , 20, 161, 172, 206, Erasmus, 1 2 3 , 2 1 4 , 2 1 5 , 2 2 4
2 1 7 , 222, 233, 2 5 3 , 2 5 9 , 283- erudition, importance of, 164, 253
284, 294, 305 espionage, accusation of, 244
disputations, between Christians a n d Esther, Book of, 7 , 163
Jews, 1 6 1 ethics, commercial, for Jews, 227
in dialogue, 55 Eudes of Chôteauraux, 70
domicile, see residence Eugenius III, Pope, 48
Dominicans, 68, 139, 214, 215 Everard, 30
Donin, Nicholas, 69, 70 evil, 1 8 0
d’Outremeuse, Jean, 59, 1 1 2 Jews as, 144, 279
drama, Latin, 1 2 t h century, 55 evil spirits, belief in, 8 8
of Middle Ages, 33 evolution, adaptive, of Jews, 72
religious, Jewish, 1 6 2 Exchequer of the Jews, 78
exclusivism, Christian, 2 1
Easter, and religious theater, 33 existence, struggle for, 87
ecclesiastical authorities, Polish, leg- and attitude to Jews, 254
islating against Jews, 247 expulsions of Jews, 36, 63, 80, 101,
ecclesiastical directives, anti-Jewish, 1 1 9 , 156, 176, 2 0 3 , 2 2 0 , 2 2 3 ,
in 13th century, 64-72 2 2 8 , 2 2 0 , 23710, 2 4 3 , 244, 2 8 1
economic disintegration, after Black expulsions and recalls, 78, 7 9 , 80-81
Plague, 1 1 8 France, 106, 113-114, 115
economic functions, determining Jew- Germany, 1 1 7 - 1 2 2
ish history, 275 exterminations, 62, 1 1 2 , 257, 270,
economic role of Jews, 7 3 , 82, 248 271
economic status of Jews, 34 extortions, 6 2
deterioration of, 32 of King John, 78
economic upheavals, 15th and 16th
centuries, 1 5 5 Fagin, 7 9
 Index 333

famine, great (1315-1317), 1 0 1 - 1 0 2 genes, 295

fanaticism, 5 0 , 1 1 1 genocide, Jewish, first case in Chris-
Feodor I I I , Tsar, 2 8 0 tian Europe, 1 0 0
Feodorovich, Michael, 279 German Jews, 4 2 , 164, 239
Feria, Thomas de, 43 status i n 1 5 t h century, 8 1
Fettmilch, Vicenz, 244 Germany, anti-Semitism in, 210
financial agents, Jews as, 1 1 6 Jewish financiers i n 1 2 t h century,
finance, Jewish, role of, 7 7 , 2 2 6 81-83
financiers, in England, 77-78 pre-eminently country for anti-
Jewish, pressure on, 1 1 7 Semitism, 1 2 4
Fiorentino, Ser Giovanni, 1 2 6 Gerondi, Jonah, Rabbi, 68, 7 1
Flaccus, prefect of Egypt, 7 ghetto, age of, 1 7 1 - 2 8 1
Flagellants, 111-112, 1 3 1 , 145 biological selection in, 300
Flavius Josephus, 8, 9 , 1 2 , 81n, 161 crystallization of anti-Semitism,
Fleury, Abbé, 1 8 0 154-169
floods, and famine, 1 0 2 life in, 165-167
foetor judaicus, 1 4 2 , 143n protection of, during performance
folklore, Jewish, 88 of Passion play, 1 2 9 - 1 3 0 n
foods, prohibited to Jews, 238 siege of, 244
14th century, 1 0 1 - 1 2 2 Spanish, 146
France, Anatole, 175 God, o f Abraham, 2 0
France, anti-Semitism i n , 173-202 universal, of the Jews, 1 2
Jewish financiers in 12th century, gold, sovereignty of, 2 2 9
79-80 gold and silver, conversion of prop-
Francis I , France, 151, 174 erty t o , 7 4
Frank, Hans, 52 Golden Bull, of Frederick II (1236),
Frank, Jacob, 264 61, 8 1
Frederick I I , Emperor, 60, 69, 8 1 gospels, apocryphal, 2 1 9
Frederick III, Emperor, 1 2 0 , 1 5 1 historicity of, 17
Frederick I of Prussia, 243 grace, loss o f b y Jews, 2 1
Frederick II of Prussia, vii Greeks in Alexandria, conflicts with
French, as language i n Jewish com- Jews, 8-9
munities in Germany, 35 Gregory IX, Pope, 69
French Judaism, end of history of, Gregory of Tours, 2 7 , 28, 59
117 Grimm Brothers, 239-240
French Revolution, 1 7 2 “guardian of the Jews,” 1 1 5
Freud, Sigmund, 153, 298 guild, commercial, Jews as, 35
Friedrich Wilhelm, Germany, 2 3 2 guilds, in Germany, 2 2 8
friars, preaching, 1 0 2 , 144 uprisings of, 101
fripiers (rag pickers), 1 7 3 , 190-196 Guillaume le Charpentier, 43
Fronde, 1 9 0 , 1 9 1 guilt, attributed to Jews, 186
Fruitolf (chronicler), 5 1 necessary to Christianity, 2 1
sense of, inspired by ordeals o f
Galigai, la, 175, 177 Jews, 85
Gamaliel, School of, 13 Gutenberg, Johann, 2 1 0
Gaon Elijah, sage of Vilna, 266
garments worn b y Jews, 64, 65, 66, Ha-Cohen, Joseph, sgn, 120n

67, 9 3 , 232, 260 Hadrian, anti-Jewish edicts, 1 2

Gaul, Jews in, 26, 28, 42 Halevi, Judah, v
Roman, Christianity in, 26 Hameln, Gliickel von, 2 3 0 - 2 3 1 , 235n-
Gaulmin, Gilbert, 199 238n
Geffroi de Paris, 80, 1 0 2 hanging, as suggested punishment
Gemara, 165 for Jews, 194
 Index 334

harassment without bloodshed, 236 iconography, 134

Hasidism, 264-269 Il Pecorone (Fiorentinn), 1 2 6
hatred, in Germany, 2 1 3 image, of Jews, 9 1 , 1 0 9 , 123-169
reply t o Christian animosity, 8 7 “images, primordial” (Jung), 3 0 1
traditional, 2 1 1 immunity, of Jews t o plague (leg-
hats, distinctive, worn b y Jews, 65n, end), 1 1 2 - 1 1 3
66, 136, 150, 164 incubus, 138
Hebraists, 1 9 8 , 1 9 9 , 2 1 4 , 2 4 3 India, Jews in, v, vii, 1 3 , 15
Hellenic culture, influence on Juda- Innocent III, Pope, 64
ism, 12-13 bull of 1201, 47
Henry IV, emperor of Germany, 46, Innocent IV, Pope, 61, 7 1
4 7 , SON Innocent VIII, Pope, 1 4 0
Henry VII, England, 2 0 3 Inquisition, the, 68, 139
Henry VIII, England, 2 0 3 and usury, 75
Heptaplomeres ( B o d i n ) , 197 inquisitions, by Polish clergy, 272
heredity, and blood types, 283 insignia, defamatory, 64-67, 193,
individual and racial, 295-305 238, 247-248
heresies, 139 see also rouelle
Sabbathaian, 278 insurrections, feudal, 9 9
uprooting of, 68 integration of Jews, 9 1
heresy, Hitlerian, 2 2 5 interest, exhorbitant, authorized, 115
of Judaizers, 2 7 , 276-278 intermarriage, of Jews and non-
heretics, Christian, insignia of, 67 Jews, 27, 3 4 , 288-289
heritage of Jews, 158 Isaac, sacrifice of, see martyrs, cult of
overevaluated by Christians, 1 6 0 Isaac of Vienne, Rabbi, 88
Hermann (monk), 48 Isabella of Castile, 2 8 1
hermetic isolation of Jews, 146, 156 Israel, v , 3 , 2 2 6 n
history, Jewish, a n d biological data, Israel of Rishin, Rabbi, 269
287 Isserlein, Israel, 163
first attempt at, 1 2 0 n Ivan III, Russia, reign of, 276-278
Hitler, Adolf, 52, 2 2 5 , 238 Ivan the Terrible ( I v a n I V ) , 279
Hofjude, see court J e w
Holy Roman Emperor, special rela- Jacob ben Azabel, 2 0 6
tionship with Jews, 46-47 Jacob ben Elias, 6gn
Holy R o m a n Empire, 77, 8 1 , 1 1 7 , Japan, Jews in, 1 3 , 14
154 Jean, bishop of Speyer, 43
Holy See, 82 Jehan Michel, 1 3 1
Holy Sepulcher, rumored destruction Jehovah, viii
of, 36 Jerome, Saint, 23
Holy Week, 64 Jerusalem, as first Christian com-
Horace, 8, 1 0 munity, 18
horns, attributed to Jews, 136, 142 siege of, 4
Host, transformation into living flesh, Jesuits, 256
59-60 Jesus, see Christ, Jesus
see also profanation of the Host Jesus Christ Was Born A Jew
Hugon (monk), 52 (Luther), 2 2 1 , 2 2 5 n
Huguenots, 1 9 7 n “Jew,” as perjorative word, 127, 196
humanists, 2 1 4 word defined, 179, 204, 239-240
infatuation with Hebrew, 2 0 4 “Jewish question,” the, 3 4 , 2 1 3 , 2 2 4 ,
humiliation, endurance of, 1 6 1 , 235 225, 239, 240
humility, in Jewish make-up, 88 John of Capistrano, Saint, 146, 248
Hulten, Ulrich von, 2 1 5 John the Good, France, 66, 1 1 4 , 1 1 5
Hundred Years’ War, 1 0 1 John I I Casimir, Poland, 263
 Index 335

John III Sobieski, 2 8 0 patristic, 6 8

John XXII, Pope, 104, 139 literatures, national, France and
“Jud Siiss,” see Oppenheimer, Süss Germany, 53
Judah the Hasid, Rabbi, 89, 9 1 Lithuania, Jews of, 2 5 2 n
Judaizing of Christians, 223 Little Book of Commandments, go
Judas, definition of, 179 liturgy, Jewish, 1 2 t h century, 83
and Jews, in medieval theater, 130 Roman Catholic, and Jews, 3 2 , 33
Jude, word defined, 2 1 1 , 239 Lombards, 7 3 , 76-77, 78, 80
Judeo-Christians, 18, 233 looting, see pillaging
Judenschachter (Jew killers), g g - 1 0 0 Louis I, see Louis the Pious
Jung, C. G., 3 0 1 Louis, Saint (Louis IX, France), 69,
Jupiter Sabazios, worship of, 1 0 80, 1 1 5 , 1 2 4
“just man,” 265 Louis IV, Emperor, 1 1 7 , 1 1 8
compared t o psychiatrist, 2 6 8 Louis VIII, France, 79
Juvenal, g, 1 0 , 11, 22 Louis X I I I , France, 1 5 1
Louis XIV, France, 1 7 4 , 178, 230
kahal, 2 5 1 - 2 5 2 Louis the Pious, France, 2 9 , 30, 34
Kant, Immanuel, vii Luther, Martin, 135, 1 4 4 , 198, 204,
Karaite schism, 265 216-226, 233n, 240-241
Karl Alexander o f Wiirtemberg, 230 lynchings, 106, 138
Khazar stock, 285 Lyons, as center of conflict, 29-30
Kherumian, R., 284, 285, 286
khevrot kedishah, 2 5 1 Maccabees, 3
Kinderfressenbrunnen, 63 magister judaeorum, 3 0
kings, see names o f individuals Mahieu of Ghent, g 2
Kleiderordnung, 238 Maimonides, Moses, 68-69, 7 1 , 91,
Konrad, bishop o f Padeborn, 274n 153, 168, 274
Mainz, Jews of, 4 4 , 4 7 , 52
Lancre, Pierre de, 153 Malabar, see Cochin
Last Judgment, 145, 146, 160-161 Malchus, 183
Law, the, 85, 87, 88, 198 Malleus Maleficorum, 1 4 1
legends, anti-Semitic, 63, 104-106, Manasseh ben Israel, 2 0 6 , 206n
112-113, 126, 142, 149-150, Manetho, g, 2 2
276
2 0 9 , 242, manuals of religious instructions, go,
Lehmann, Bernd, 2 3 2 179-180
Leiringen, Emicho von, 43, 44, 84 Marat, Clément, 1 7 4
Leopold, emperor o f Germany, 2 2 9 Margaret Theresa, Austria, 281
lepers, rumored conspiracy with Margaritha, Anton, 2 2 7
Jews, 1 0 4 - 1 0 6 , 1 1 0 , 1 3 9 Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria,
lèse-majesté divine, crime of, 177 244, 2 8 1
Letters of Obscure Men, 215 Maritain, Jacques, 226n
Levant, free states of, 48 marranos, 1 7 3 , 1 7 4 , 1 7 6 , 1 7 7 , 195,
“levirate,” 2 0 3 203, 205, 206, 209, 226
Liber vagatorum, 233n marriage contract, 2 3 1
Lietzmann, Hans, 1 7 , 2 2 marriages, in ghetto, 166
life, of Jews in Poland, 249 mixed, see intermarriage
respect for, 273 regulation of, 239
literature, anti-Semitic, England, 1 2 5 martyrdom, as institution, 8 6 , 161,
devoted to Jews ( L o w Countries), 207
125 of Isaac, chatelain of Troyes, 85
Jewish, martyrdom theme in, 1 6 2 martyrology, Jewish, 86
and masses, and increase in anti- of saints, 60
Semitism, 1 2 4 martyrs, Christian, 2 2
 Index 336
cult of, 86, 1 6 2 as only means of living, 76
Jewish, memory of, 83-84 reverence for, 156
massacres of Jews, 36, 42-43, 49, as symbol, 87
50, 51, 52, 53, 83, 99-100, monk-preachers, of Crusades, 48
106-107, 111, 113, 116, 133, monopoly, financial, of medieval
156, 236, 257, 259, 270-271 Jewish usurer, 77
commemoration of, 2 6 0 monotheism, Jewish, 8, 16
of First Crusade, map of, 45n Montaigne, 174
masses, and anti-Semitism, 8, 33 Montalto, Elijah, 175
Maximilian, Emperor, 2 1 4 Montesquieu, 83, 2 0 2
Mazarin, 1 9 0 - 1 9 1 Montfort, Grignon de, 186-189
Médicis, Marie de, 175 Mcses, 9
Medieval Christendom, decline of, represented with horns, 136
101 Moses ben Nachman, 169n
medieval civilization, 2 2 8 Moses of Coucy, Rabbi, 70, 88
knell sounded by plague, 1 0 8 Moses of Évreux, Rabbi, 88
peak o f i n 13th century, 9 1 Moses Loeb of Brody, 268, 269
Megenberg, Conrad von, 1 1 3 mother, special role o f i n heredity,
Mein Kampf, 5 302
Meir of Rothenburg, Rabbi, 1 6 2 , 164 mourning, national, for victims
Melun, decree of (1230), 80 of massacres, 2 6 0
Memorbücher, 83 murder, of Christian child, theme of,
memory, Jewish, 303
imprint left b y massacres, 83 ritual, see ritual murder
“memory traces” (Freud), 3 0 1 mutations, and mental predilections,
Mendelian heredity, laws of, 283 300
mentality, Jewish, 298, 300 mystery plays, of the passion, 129-
affected by persecution, 7 3 133
birth of, 83-90 mysticism, Jewish, in 13th-century
heredity and environment, 305 Rhineland, 9 1
Merchant of Venice, 1 2 6
merchants, Christian, replacing Jew- names, of Jews in Gaul, 28
ish tradesmen, 74 Nantes, Edict of, 1 9 0
international, 174 Nazis, 1 0 7 , 238
Jewish, i n Austria, 8 1 N e w Testament, commentaries o n ,
London, fear o f Jewish compe- 198n
tition, 208 and theater of Middle Ages, 1 2 6
Messiah, belief in, 168n, 169n, 206, “g Ab,” day of, 83n
2 3 5 , 261, 265 Nogent, Guibert de, 42n
false, 235, 263 Niirnberg, Jews of, 1 1 8
messianic year, 2 6 1 - 2 6 2
Micah, Rabbi, 45 oath, of Jew, 1 2 1
Michael the Neophyte, 2 7 1 obliteration, collective, social reper-
Middle Ages, Late, Western cussions, 1 0 9
Jews in, 26-37 “obscurantists,” 2 1 5
middle class, urban, Jews in Poland, occupations, of Jews in Poland, 249-
250 250
Mielot, Jean, 1 2 9 Old Testament, 3 , 11, 61, 203
minnesingers, anti-Jewish, 7 1 , 92 and Calvinism, 205
miracles, 5 9 , 62, 1 2 9 devotion to, 189
Malcho, Simon, 174 interest i n , 1 9 8
money, activities relating to, 246 interpretation of, 23, 9 1
demand for, 2 1 1 Oliver Twist, 79
 Index 337

Oppenheimer, Samuel, 229, 243 Philo of Alexandria, 13

Oppenheimer, Siiss, 2 3 0 , 2 3 2 “philo-Semitism,” 1 9 7
origin o f Jews, a n d group serology, philosophers, viii, 2 0 2
283-286 Photinians, 277
legends about, 9 physical effort, renunciation of, 167
Polish Jews, 246 physicians, Jewish, 147, 149, 150,
ornamentation, prohibition of, 163 1 5 1 , 152, 153, 1 7 5 , 178, 276n
orthodoxy, of court Jews, 2 3 2 role in Middle Ages, 72
outlaw life, as normal condition, 1 1 4 - women, 1 5 2
115 Piacenza, Franco da, 143n
Pierre of Acre, 1 0 5
paganism, in early church, 33 Pierre of Cluny, Abbé, 48
pamphlets, 1 7 7 , 1 9 1 , 2 0 7 - 2 0 9 , 214, Pilate, role of, 1 3 1 , 133
2 1 8 - 2 1 9 , 2 4 0 , 255 pilgrimages, 62, 63
“panmixia,” 3 4 , 285, 287 Pilpul, 252-253
parables, 264, 267 pillaging of Jewish homes, 62, 100,
pariah condition, attempts t o over- 103, 111, 116, 119, 259
come, 233 place names, designating Jewish
Parsis, as “Jews of India,” 16 massacres, 1 0 3
Pascal, Blaise, 1 8 0 , 2 0 1 plague, 1 0 1 - 1 0 2 , 1 0 7 - 1 1 4
conversion of, 186 Pliny the Younger, 2 1
Pascal, Jacob, of Toledo, 1 1 0 pogroms, 122, 236, 256
Paul, Saint, 1 9 , 160 i n late 19th-century Poland, 2 7 1
epistles of, 159 poisoners, Jews as, 7 2 , 1 0 4 - 1 0 5 , 139,
pawn offices, o f Franciscans, 149 150, 243
municipal, 1 4 7 myth of Jewish physicians as, 1 5 2
peasants, in Shepherds Crusade, Poland, ghettos of, 1 7 2
101-104 Jews of, 66, 146, 246-274
peines majeures, 67 sporadic anti-Semitism in, 270
penance, b y Jews, 2 6 0 poll tax, 1 1 8 , 1 5 2 , 259
penitence, climate of, 163 “Polonizing,” 2 6 0
Pensées (Pascal), 2 0 1 popes, a n d Jewish physicians, 1 5 0
people, asserting rights, 1 0 1 secret conversion to Judaism, 277
People’s Crusade, see Crusade, First population, Polish, percentage o f
Pepin the Short, 29 Jews ( 1 7 6 5 ) , 249
Peter the Great, Russia, 280 “Portuguese,” see marranos
Peter the Hermit, 43 “pound of flesh” theme, 7 9 , 1 2 6
Peyrère, Isaac de la, 199 predators, Jews described as, 154
Pfefferkorn, Johannes, 2 1 4 , 2 1 5 printing, invention of, 2 1 0 , 2 4 0 , 255
persecutions, of Christians, 2 1 , 2 3 , 36 Priscus, 28
of Jews, 36, 88, 1 2 1 , 2 1 1 , 2 1 3 , 2 1 4 privileges, abrogation o f , 2 4 8
and Jewish memory, 303 profanation of the Host theme, 49,
names of victims recorded, 83 58-59, 6 3 , 9 9 , 1 0 7 , 1 2 5 , 128,
and public opinion, 50-56 1 2 9 , 248, 256, 271
in Midi, 49 prohibitions, in Jewish life, 88, 2 4 2
see also expulsions; extermina- of Jewish physicians, 1 5 1
tions; harassment; massacres; propaganda, anti-Jewish, 3 3 , 187-189
pillaging Christian, 1 3 , 18
persecutors of Jews, 52, 1 5 2 Jewish, 34
Philip IT, France, 7 9 , 1 1 5 “of reminding,” 186
Philip IV, France, 66, 80, 1 1 5 property o f Jews, belonging to
Philip V , France, 1 0 4 , 1 0 6 princes, 9 4
Philip the Fair, see Philip I V and massacres, 1 1 3
 Index 338

proselytes, Christian, 19 reformers, of Carolingian renais-

rivalry for, 2 1 , 2 2 , 23 sance, 29
proselytism, b y Jews, 5, 10-13, 22- religiosity, of Middle Ages, 36, 154
2 3 , 2 9 , 8 1 , 276 religious movements, in Russia, 278
success of, 1 2 renaissance, Carolingian, 29
protection, false, of Jews, 4 3 , 1 1 8 Renaissance, the, period following,
letters of, 29 172, 173
protectors, of Jews, 45, 81-82, 245, renegade Jews, 58, 6gn, 1 1 6 , 143n
255 residence, right of, 1 1 8 , 1 2 1 , 237n
protégés, Jews as, 238 resistance, passive, to evil, 8 7
Protestants, French, in “Jewish” power of, 4 6
role, 189-190 Resurrection, in religious theater, 3 3
proverbs, anti-Jewish, 256 retribution, divine, 1 8 1 - 1 8 2
Prynne, William, 2 0 7 - 2 0 9 Reuchlin, Johann, 1 9 8 , 2 1 2 , 2 1 4 ,
psychological inheritance, o f ethnic 215, 2200
groups, 299 Revelation, Christian mystery of,
psychology, collective, vi 168
religious, v i revenge, against Jews, 3 6
psychosomatic illness, among Jews, Rhine Valley, massacres in, 42-43
298 Richard of Poitiers, 42
public opinion, 1 9 1 , 2 0 7 Rindfleisch, 9 9 , 1 0 7 , 1 2 0 , 164
anti-Jewish, 7 1 ritual murder, 4 9 , 56-64, 1 1 0 , 120,
churchmen as molders of, 36 1 2 5 , 1 4 2 , 1430, 146, 150, 156,
and persecutions, 50-56 157n, 183, 200, 214, 243, 248,
punishment, divine, of Jews (thesis), 270, 271, 272, 2740
23 committee to clear Judaism, 69
purification, baths of, 1 0 identified with Crucifixion, 193
Purim, 163 trial for, 85, 196-197
Puritans, converted to Judaism, 205 ritual slaughter of animals, 273
role, unique of Jews, 33
quarantine, of Jews, 278-279 Roman authorities, attitudes to Jews
“question,” the, i n Inquisition, 1 4 0 and Christians, 2 1
Roman emperors, as traditional pro-
rabbis, see names of individuals tectors o f Jews, 8 1
“race,” Jewish, 1 1 , 34 Roman Empire, Jews in, 4 , 5 , 13
race, pure, 295 no state anti-Semitism in, 1 2
racial classification, and distribution Rostand, Jean, 295, 299, 300
of blood types, 283 Roth, Cecil, 9 1
rag pickers (Parisian), see fripiers Rothwelsch, lexicon of, 233n
ransom of Jews, 43, 62, 118, 156, rouelle, 64-67, 1 5 0 , 164
261
see also insignia, defamatory
Rashi (Rabbi Solomon bar Isaac), Rouen Crusaders, 42n
Riidiger, bishop of Speyer, 36
35, 91
rationalist tendency, and alarm of Rudolf (monk), 48
Ruger, Cosme, 176
Jewish theologians, 68 rumors, anti-Jewish, 36, 110, 205,
reactions, Jewish, 5 0 , 73-95
206
recall of Jews, 66, 1 1 3 Russia, Jews in, 275-282
see also expulsion a n d recall Rutebeuf (trouvère ) , 92
“reduction” policy in Austria, 239, Ruthard, archbisop, 47
300
Reformation , g2, 189, 1 9 8 , 1 9 9 , 204, Sabbatai Zevi, 235, 263
213 Sabbatarians, 2 2 3
 Index 33g

Sabbath, Jewish, celebrated by Chris- deterioration of, 239

tians, 3 0 in Poland, 248, 2 5 0
celebration of, 144 social classes, and attitudes toward
Sabbathaianism, 265, 278 Jews, 255-256
Sachsenspiegel, 81n, 92-94 social position of Jews, following
sacrifice, human, 56 Black Plague, 114-122
sacrilege, discovery of, 59, 68 12th century, 54
sadism, i n theater o f Middle Ages, see also citizenship; economic
127 status; status of Jews
Saints, see names of individuals social problems, a n d expression o f
Sanhedrin of Jerusalem, 2 5 2 anti-Semitism, 2 4 0
Saracens, 50, 65 soldiers, professional, Jews as, 6
Sarah of Wiirzburg, 1 5 2 solidarity, Jewish, 8, 16, 2 5 1 , 261
Satan, see Devil Solomon bar Simeon, 4 4 , 84
satire, French, anti-Semitic, 124 Solomon ben Abraham, Rabbi, 68
Savonarola, 146 sophistry, in Talmudic study, 253
Saxony, expulsion o f Jews from, 2 2 3 Spinoza, Baruch, attacks on Juda-
scapegoat, role of Jews as, 60, 110, i s m , viii
2 2 4 , 255 status of Jews, 53, 2 2 8
Schwabenspiegel, 81n, 9 4 , 1 2 1 as hostages o f Christendom, 228
Schwartz, Peter, 2 1 1 in 13th century, 91-95
scorpions, Jews identified with, 135 see also citizenship; economic
“scourge of the Jews,” 145, 146 status; social position
“seduction,” Jewish, 34 Stephen, stoning of, 18n, 184
segregation, of Jews, 73 stereotype of Jew, 1 2 9 , 179, 1 8 1
selihot, 83, 2 6 0 see also archetypes
semiproselytes, 1 0 , 19 study, importance of, 165
separateness, Jewish, 8 inner world of, 87
Sephardic Jews, vi, 286, 288, 289 succubus, 138
“serfdom,” theory of, 76, 96, 1 1 7 suffering, obsession with, 135, 162
see also chattels; servitude suicides, 45, 50, 103, 106, 111, 162
servitude, perpetual, 159, 2 2 2 Summis Desiderantes, 1 4 0
serology, group, 283-286 Super illius specula, 139
n e w knowledge of, 2 8 7 - 2 9 0 “superstitions,” Jewish, 3 1
Shakespeare, creation of prototype, superstitions, popular, regarding
Shylock, 78-79, 1 2 6 Jews, 1 0 6 - 1 0 7 , 138, 144
Shtadlanim, 2 2 7 , 2 3 2 traditional, power of, 2 0 6
Sicily, Jews of, 67
“Sieur de Simonville,” see Simon, Tacitus, 11, 21, 212
Richard Talmud, 61, 7 0 , 71, 87, 138, 214,
Sigismund Augustus, Poland, 279 274, 3 0 2
silver, thirty pieces of, as symbol, interest of Inquisition in, 69
77, 130 study of, 165, 2 0 0 , 243, 252-253
Simon, Richard, 199-201 Talmudic reasoning, 157
Simon ben Yohai, Rabbi, 70 Talmudic scholarship, i n Caroling-
Simon of Trent, 63, 136, 148, 256, ian Europe, 3 5
272n Talmudic tradition, 1 3 , 82
singing, prohibition of, 3 3 Talmudic tradition, and usury, 75
1648, as messianic year, 2 6 1 tax collectors, Jews as, 155
Skarga, Peter, 255, 256 taxes, 155, 156
Skharia, 276 in Holy Roman Empire, 77
slander, 1 2 2 imposed on Jews, 82, 2 5 2
social class, of Jews, 275 see also poll tax
 Index 340

Tel-Aviv, Jews of, 283 usury, 1 1 4 , 1 1 9 , 1 7 9 , 2 1 1 , 2 1 3 , 217

Temple, fall of, 18, 2 0 , 7 0 , 81, 164 relegation of Jews to, 73-83
1096, summer of, 41-72
theater, of Middle Ages, 126-133 Vale of Tears, son, 1 2 0 , 124-125
popular, Renaissance, 63 Valerius Maximus, 1 0
religious, birth of, 33 Vigny, Alfred de, 178
themes, anti-Semitic, 2 4 2 vilification of Jews, theme of, 184-
see also legends; poisonings; pro- 185
fanation of the Host; ritual Vincent Ferrer, Saint, 144, 145, 161
m u r d e r ; rumors Vindiciae Judaecorum, 2 0 9
Theobold of Cambridge, 58 violence, anti-Jewish, in medieval
Theobold, Count of Champagne, 79 theater, 1 2 7
Theodore I I , edicts of, 32 Vom Schem Hamephoras ( L u t h e r ) ,
theologians, German, studying Tal- 135, 219, 225n
mud, 243 Voshtchilo, Basil, 2 7 0
Thirty Years’ War, aftermath, 2 2 9
Thomas Aquinas, Saint, 9 4 , 138 Wahl, Saul, 247n
Thomas of Cantimpré, 57 Walther v o n der Vogelweide, 9 2
tolerance, religious, 2 0 6 wanderers, Jews as, 1 1 8 , 1 2 1
Torah, 1 3 , 165, 266 “wandering Jew” legend, 183n, 242
Toynbee, Arnold, 228n war, Jewish, 2 0
tracts, 191, 192-193 Polish-Russian, 258
trades of Jews, 5-7 Sweden and Denmark, 237n
tradesmen, Jews in Carolingian Eur- Thirty Years’, 229
ope, 73 wealth, importance of, 155
traits, hereditary, 295 Wertheimer, Wolf, 232, 244
Trimberg, Siisskind von, g 2 William, Saint, 58
Tritheim, Johannes, 2 1 2 Wimpheling, Jacob, 2 1 0 , 2 1 3
Trogus, 9 witches and witchcraft, 35, 101-102,
Trou-aux-Juifs, 1 0 3 139-140, 142, 153, 197, 2 1 9
“troubled years,” (1605-1613), 279 wizards, 137
1 2 t h century, Jews in England, 78 Wolf of Zbarasz, 268
“type,” Jewish, myth of, 298 women, books for (Yiddish), 166
“wicked,” Jew as, 92 contempt for, 1 4 2
tzaddik, see “just m a n ” Worms, Jews of, 51
worship, freedom of, Jews, 21, 22
Ukranian peasants, uprising of, 256 Wiirzburg, Konrad von, 7 1
uniqueness o f Jews, concept of, 1 6 1
university studies, forbidden to Jews, “ X factor,” and personality, 304
121
Urban II, Pope, 4 1 Yehiel of Paris, 70
Urfa, fall of, 48 yellow (color) as symbol, 65
usurer, problem of, 94-95 Yiddish, 164n, 166, 2 5 0
role of, in 10th century, 74 Yosel (Joseph) of Rosheim, 156,
usurers, Christian, 76, 155 220, 223, 226, 228, 232
competition with, 80
excommunication of, 75 Zabloudovo, case of, 2 5 1
Jewish, 82, 148 Zerlin of Frankfurt, 1 5 2