The absence from Rome of the popes during the seventy years which elapsed between the settlement of Clement V. at Avignon, and the appointment, in 1378, of an antipope in the person of Urban VI., renders the history of the Jews during this century unusually meagre. But they appear to have lived unmolested in the various Italian towns. They must have been on good terms with the pope’s legate at Bologna, where they presented him with a copy of the Old Testament Scriptures, said to have been written by Ezra himself. This is still preserved, we are told, in the library of the Dominicans in that city. They were protected also by the Venetian government, which allowed them to settle as bankers in their city. They were careful, however, to maintain a strict supervision over them, and in 1385 obliged them to live within the Ghetto, as the Jewish quarter in an Italian city is usually styled.
Learning flourished in Italy among the Jews during this century. The recently founded universities were thronged with Jewish students, and classical literature was especially studied. There were several scholars among them of great repute. Pre-eminently conspicuous are Immanuel ben Solomon and Moses Rieti. The former of these, regarded by the Jews as the greatest of their poets, and said to have been the friend of Dante, wrote a work on Paradise and Hell which is an imitation of the Divina Commedia of the great Italian. He wrote also religious poetry and several commentaries on the Old Testament Scriptures.
FOOTNOTES:
[135] In the Norman kingdom of Naples, where the feudal system had a firmer hold than in any other part of Italy, the Jews were more severely treated; but even there, as we shall see, persecution was promptly and firmly checked.
[136] The absurd charges alleged against the Jews were not confined to the crucifying of Christian boys, poisoning of rivers, and insults offered to the consecrated wafer. In Innocent III.’s pontificate they were accused of selling the milk of their women as common milk, in order that Christian children might be brought up on it, and so (it is presumed) imbibe Jewish opinions. It was said that they trampled the grapes in the winepresses in linen stockings, drawing out the best wine for themselves and leaving the refuse for the Christians, in the hope that they would use it in the administration of the Holy Eucharist!
[137] It is a curious fact that the Jews sometimes received the severest treatment from pontiffs whose characters stood high for both justice and mercy, and sometimes were equitably and leniently dealt with by those from whose general character nothing but intolerance and harshness might have been expected. Innocent III. (A.D. 1198) was one of the greatest and best of those who have filled the papal chair—wise and far-sighted, just and merciful. Yet his language respecting the Jews is in the highest degree harsh and intolerant. He repeats the familiar charge that they are guilty of the blood of the Redeemer, and as such are branded with the curse of Cain. He denounces their employment by the State, even as collectors of the taxes, and threatens the severest chastisement to those who show them any favour. On the other hand, Innocent IV. (A.D. 1243), who succeeded to the papacy some fifty years afterwards, an inflexible and haughty bigot, issued a bull in favour of the Jews which is a perfect marvel for its humanity and justice. He denounces the cruelty and lawless violence with which they were treated. He treats with merited scorn the monstrous charges of sacrificing Christian boys in order to use their blood in the Paschal rites, and forbids such charges to be received. Nay, he adds that if the accuser cannot sustain his charge by the evidence of three Christians and three Jews, he must himself undergo the punishment due to a murderer. Sometimes the pontiff and his edicts accord. Martin V.’s acts (A.D. 1417) towards the Jews bear the stamp of his generous character. He orders that all synagogues shall be protected, the Jewish worship permitted, all privileges, customs, and institutions maintained, unless any of these should be found subversive of public morality, or insulting to the Catholic faith. No compulsion is to be used to bring any Jew to baptism. No one is to disturb them in the celebration of their festivals. He repeals the order issued by the Dominicans, requiring them to hear controversial sermons. He gives them full licence to trade. The nineteenth century, in the most enlightened countries, has done little more for them.
[138] They charged no interest for the first month, thinking in that way to escape the odium of usury.
[139] Bernard of Clairvaulx, a zealous partisan of the rival pope, Innocent V., dilates on the outrage offered to Christ through the occupation of the seat of St. Peter by ‘Judaica Soboles.’—Bern. Epist. 134.
CHAPTER XXIII.
A.D. 1300-1400.
THE JEWS IN GERMANY, THE LOW COUNTRIES, ETC.
The history of the Jews in Germany throughout the fourteenth century is one long series of wrongs and barbarities. Almost immediately after its commencement, the disturbances at Nuremberg, which had been suppressed by Duke Albert some ten or twelve years previously, broke out afresh. In the course of these the mob, seizing on Mordecai, a Rabbi of learning and high repute, publicly hanged him. In the next generation, a man named Armleder, a publican by trade, incited an outbreak among the peasants of Alsatia with such fatal effect that more than 1500 Jews were slaughtered. In Swabia also great numbers were murdered; while at Deckendorf we are informed that the whole of the Hebrew inhabitants of the town were massacred, and their property pillaged or destroyed. There appear to have been no special grounds for these enormities. The whole atmosphere was, as it were, charged with deadly vapours, and the slightest spark of discontent was enough to cause a disastrous explosion. The authorities in some cases sided with the rioters; in others they stood aloof, and allowed them to work their pleasure; while in some few they interfered to stay the mischief if they could, generally with but little success. Great injury was also done to the Jews all over Germany, by the censure passed on them by Pope Clement V. for their excessive usury. Numberless lawsuits, we are told, were in consequence instituted against them, in which their right to recover money lent on interest by them was challenged. A few years subsequently the whole of the Hebrew population of Hungary was expelled from the country by Louis I., who displayed his intemperate zeal, not by that act only, but by his attempts, in concert with Casimir of Poland, to force the profession of Christianity on the Lithuanians.