The Churches in Germany, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, suffered from the weakness of the nation. Both had to pass through struggles and sufferings, which threatened destruction to every exclusive Church system; they became too narrow to embrace the whole spiritual and intellectual life of men. Since the war, men had gradually felt the need of toleration. With the Protestants, Luther's principle again revived, that only inward conviction could bring men into the Church. It was later, that the old Church yielded a grumbling toleration. Science had discovered, amongst other things, that in spite of some passages of Holy Scripture, the sun does not turn round our earth, but our earth round the sun. Unwillingly did the Church receive this, after the discovery had occasioned her many a heart's pang.
The Protestant Church had fewer difficulties to overcome, but the aristocratic structure of the Roman Catholic Church, again so firmly united, and supported by great political interests, would naturally find it far more difficult to yield to necessity.
Whoever should wish to write a history of the religious conscience of Germans, would have to examine how it was, that after the war there arose in both confessions, precisely at the same time, a reaction of the heart against the ruling parties, which in spite of the difference of dogmas, shows a great similarity in the representations of this tendency. The need of elevation of soul, in a period which was poor in feeling, made the Protestant Spener, and the Catholic Spee and Scheffler into pietists, and mystics. It is true, the restraining power of the Protestant Church could no longer check the development of individuality. Through it the scientific man could easily satisfy himself, when he came, from the study of history, from observation of the heavens, from the secret of numbers, and through the weighing and measuring of the powers of the elements, to a new representation of the world of creation, and thereby to new views of the being of the Godhead. Thus the genius of the great Leibnitz was the growth of the Protestant Church. Any one also whose fancy took a wild flight, or to whom deep thought and meditation disclosed some peculiar aspect of the Deity, might easily release himself from Church-communion with his fellow-citizens, and unite himself perhaps with congenial spirits in some special community. Thus did Böhme, and the eccentric Kuhlmann, Zinzendorf, and Herrnhuter. This was incomparably more difficult in the Roman Catholic Church. Whoever attempted to go his own way, had to experience the anger of a strict mistress, and rarely did a powerful mind break loose from the restraint.
But the ruling majority of ecclesiastics had even in the old Church lost much of their energy. The warlike champion of the restored Church, the order of Jesuits, had itself suffered in its greatness; it had become powerful and rich, the connection between the provinces and Rome had been loosened, the independence of individual houses was greater, and the curse had fallen on it which pursues the prosperous. It became pre-eminently the representative of modern courtly splendour in church and school. Even in earlier times the order had not disdained brilliant displays, nor to enter into the feelings of the great world, but then it had been like the prophet Daniel, who only wore the Persian dress in order to serve his God among the heathen; now Daniel had become a satrap. Through the Westphalian peace, the great mission work of the order was limited. Still however, did it continue skilfully to draw within its circle the souls of individuals, whoever was rich or distinguished was firmly ensnared. Its main object was not the salvation of souls, but the fame which would accrue to the order. The greatest amount of work was done in the Emperor's territory. Wherever heresy still flickered, the lay authorities assisted. But one race, more stubborn and stiff-necked than the sons of the Hussites, or the Moravian brothers, incessantly excited the spirit of conversion in the order, it was the Jews.
Already in the time of the Romans, the Jews may have dwelt within the colonies on the Rhine, near the temple of Jupiter of golden Maintz, and the baths of the proud Agrippina; they afterwards established themselves within the German cities. In respect to German law they were as foreigners; they were placed under the protection of the Emperor, who transferred his power over them to the Archbishop of Maintz, the Chancellor of the Empire. As the Emperor's dear servitors, besides the other taxes, they had to pay him and the princes a penny offering, which was raised on Christmas-day. This tax, one of the sources of the Emperor's revenue, should have been security for his protection, but it became an opportunity for the worst oppression; and they were drawn upon for contributions on every occasion that money was wanted. Their taxes reached to an exorbitant height. On sudden money emergencies, or as an act of favour, the Emperor sold, or gave away his right of taxation to the Princes and cities; and the year's rent of three, four, or even one hundred Jews, was a secure and important income. Thus it was a source of gain to the Princes and Sovereigns to possess many Jews, from whom they raised money to the utmost.
On the other hand it was an exclusive right of the Jews to lend out money on interest for notes of hand or mortgages, which was strictly forbidden to the Christians of the middle ages by the Pope and Emperor. Thus naturally the whole of the money dealing came into the hands of the Jews. And by the high interest which they received--especially on short loans--they must rapidly have acquired great wealth. But this boundless right was not secure against sudden attacks, both Pope and Emperor sometimes took the liberty of giving the creditor a dispensation from the payment of the interest, nay even of the capital.
Thus they became the financiers of the olden time in both great and little traffic, the richest persons in the country, in spite of monstrous imposts.
But this opulence stimulated still more the hate and covetousness of the multitude. In the early part of the middle ages they appear to have been seldom persecuted by Christian fanaticism. But after the Crusades, the declining Church and the populace of the towns vied with each other in seeking their lives and treasure. A tradition which continues up to the present day was brought forward against them. They were supposed to poison wells, to introduce the plague, to murder Christian children, use their blood at their Passover, and feed on their hearts; and to whip the consecrated host with rods, &c. Persecutions, plundering of houses, and extensive murders were almost periodical. Christianity was forced upon them by the sword, torments, and imprisonment, but usually in vain. No warlike people ever withstood brutal violence, with more heroic courage than this defenceless race. The most magnanimous examples of enduring heroism are mentioned by Christian writers themselves. Thus it went on during the whole of the middle ages, and still in the sixteenth century we find the Sovereigns endeavouring to fill their empty coffers from the money bags of the Jews, and the populace still storming their houses, as in the wild Jewish outbreak at Frankfort-on-Main in 1614. Some great scholars, physicians, and natural philosophers among them, acquired a repute which spread through all the countries of Europe, inspiring even Christians with involuntary respect, but these were rare exceptions.
Amidst all these adverse circumstances, the indestructible vital energies of this people still continued, as we find them among the Jews of the present day: privileged by the Emperor, helpless before the law of the country, indispensable, yet deeply hated, desired, but cursed, in daily danger of fire, robbery, and murder, yet the quiet, masters of the property and welfare of hundreds, in an unnatural adventurous position, and yet always steadily occupied, amidst the densest mass of Christians, yet separated from them by iron boundaries, they lived a twofold life; in presence of Christians they were cold, stubborn, patient, timid, cringing, and servile, bowed down under the oppression of a thousand years: yet all the pride of noble blood, great wealth, and superior talent, the full glow of southern feeling, every kindly emotion and every dark passion were to be found in that race.
After the Thirty years' war, the Jews obtained scarcely more protection from the fury of the multitude, and their spiritual trials became greater. If the Protestants, who were then weak and embarrassed, vexed them more by repulsive arrogance than by their arts of proselytism, the old Church was the more zealous. They were more prosperous in trade and usury since the Westphalian peace, indeed a splendid prospect had opened for them. The diminution of international wholesale business, the ruin of old commercial houses at Nuremberg and Augsburg, the continued depreciation of the coinage, the unceasing need of money, with the territorial lords, small and great, was favourable to the multifarious activity of the Jewish business, which found skilful instruments throughout all Germany, and connections from Constantinople to Cadiz. The importance to German trade of the close cohesion of the Jews amongst themselves, at a period when bad roads, heavy tolls, and ignorant legislation, placed the greatest limits upon commerce, is not yet sufficiently appreciated. With unwearied energy, like ants, they everywhere bored their secret way through the worm-eaten wood of the German Empire: long before the letter post and system of goods carriers had spread a great network over the whole circuit of the country, they had quietly combined for these objects; poor chafferers and travelling beggars, passed as trusty agents between Amsterdam and Frankfort, Prague and Warsaw, with money and jewels under their rags, nay concealed within their bodies. In the most dangerous times, in spite of prohibitions, the defenceless Jew stole secretly through armies, from one German territory into another; and he carried Kremnitzer ducats of full weight to Frankfort, while he circulated light ones among the people. Here he bought laces and new church vestments for his opponents, the ecclesiastics; there he smuggled through an enemy's territory, to some prince, arms and implements of war; then he guided and accompanied a large transport of leather from the interior of Russia to the fair of Leipzig, he alone being capable by flattery, money, and brandy, of overmatching the covetousness of the Sclave nobles. Meanwhile, the most opulent sat in the well-grated rooms of their Jewish town, concealing securely, under lock and key, the bills of exchange, and mortgages of the highest lords, they were great bankers, even according to our present standard.