History of the Jews, Vol. 3 (of 6)

by Heinrich Graetz

When Richard had returned to his palace from his coronation in the church, there entered, among others who came to do homage to the king, a deputation of the richest and most prominent members of the congregations of England to hand in their presents. On their appearance, Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury, a fanatical church dignitary, remarked fiercely, that no presents ought to be accepted from Jews, and that they ought to be dismissed from the palace, for on account of their religion they had forfeited the privilege to rank among other nations. Richard, who did not think of the evil consequences that might follow, innocently obeyed the instruction of the archbishop. The palace menials, who showed the Jews out of the palace, thought themselves privileged to abuse them. The gaping crowd likewise fell to, and pursued the Jewish deputies with blows of the fist, with stones and clubs. Soon there spread about in all parts of London the false report that the king desired the humiliation and destruction of the Jews, and immediately the mob and the crusading rabble banded together to enrich themselves with the possessions of the Jews. The pillagers made an attack upon the houses in which the Jews had sought refuge, and set fire to them. Meanwhile night had come, and covered with her shadows the ghastly butchery of the Jews. It was in vain that the newly-crowned king sent one of his courtiers, Ranulph de Granville, to make inquiries about the uproar, and put a stop to it. At first he could not make himself heard, and was moreover assailed with jeers by the raging mob. Many Jews were murdered; others killed themselves, because they were called upon to submit to baptism, among them Jacob of Orleans. Most of the Jewish houses were burnt, and the synagogues destroyed. The fire, which had been applied in order to destroy the records of the debts of Christians to Jews, spread, and consumed a part of the city. Only one Jew apostatized to Christianity, the wealthy Benedict of York, who with his fellow-deputy had been ejected from the palace, and dragged into a church, where he had pretended to submit to baptism. When Richard, however, learnt the real circumstances of the affair, he ordered those implicated to be executed. Richard was so careful of the welfare of the Jews of his realm that, fearing that the persecution in London might spread through England and his French dominions, he promulgated edicts that the Jews were to be inviolate, and even sent deputies to Normandy and Poitou to suppress any outbreaks against the Jews that might occur. He, moreover, allowed Benedict of York to return to Judaism, when he learnt that he had been baptized under compulsion, and heard from him the confession that he had remained a Jew at heart, and wanted to die as such. The fanatical Archbishop of Canterbury, who was present at the interview, being asked his opinion, answered, "If he will not remain a son of God, let him be a son of the devil." As long as Richard remained in London, the Jews were at peace; but as soon as he crossed the Channel, in order to inaugurate a new crusade together with Philip Augustus, the scenes of London were repeated all over England. It was not only religious zeal which incited the Christians against the Jews of England, but rather envy of their prosperity, and, above all, desire for their property. The first to suffer was the wealthy and notable congregation in the flourishing commercial city of Lynn. If we may believe Christian writers, it would appear that the Jews first provoked the fury of the Christians against themselves. They are said to have attacked a baptized Jew, and when he fled for refuge into a church, they captured it by storm. Thereupon the Christians are said to have been called to arms. At the time there happened to be crusaders in the city. The Jews, being defeated by the latter, took refuge in their houses, and there were assaulted with fire and sword, but few escaping with their lives. It is impossible, however, that the Jews should have been the first to attack, for the citizens themselves, when called upon by royal commissioners to explain these disturbances, fixed the blame on the crusaders, who, in the meantime, had decamped with the booty of the Jews. A Jewish physician, who, by his modesty and skill, had won popularity even among the Christians, was murdered by these ruffians for mourning too much for his people, and invoking the justice of heaven upon their murderers.

Soon after the Lynn massacre, the Jews of Norwich were surprised in their houses, and butchered (6th February, 1190). A month later (7th March), the Jews of Stamford were severely maltreated, because on the market day many crusaders and strangers happened to be in the city, who were sure to be in stronger force than their opponents, in case the Jews, assisted by the citizens, should offer them resistance. They believed that they were performing a godly act if they treated as enemies those whose property they were lusting after, and they hoped to extort from the Jews their traveling expenses for the crusade. Without the least provocation, they fell upon the Jews, murdered some, forcing others to flee to the royal castle, broke into the houses, and carried away everything valuable. The robber crusaders absconded from the town with their booty, so that none of it might fall into the hands of the royal judges. One of these brigands was all but declared a saint; he deposited his plunder at the house of a friend, who murdered him to get possession of his ill-gotten gains. The Jews of Lincoln nearly shared the fate of their brethren of Lynn, Norwich, and Stamford; but on getting wind of the danger threatening them, they betook themselves with their property to the royal castle for protection.

But most tragic of all was the lot of the Jews of York, because among them were two men, who enjoyed princely fortunes, had built magnificent palaces, and had accordingly aroused the envy of the Christian inhabitants. One of these was Joceus, the other was Benedict, who had been so brutally ill-treated at Richard's coronation. The latter, who had reverted to Judaism after his compulsory baptism, died from the wounds which had been inflicted on him in London. Crusaders who wanted to obtain wealth, citizens who were chagrined at the prosperity of the Jews, noblemen who owed money to them, and priests who were animated by a bloodthirsty fanaticism, all entered into a conspiracy to destroy the Jews of York. In the dead of night, during a conflagration which had either broken out by accident or been kindled by design, the conspirators broke into the house of Benedict, which was inhabited only by his wife and daughters, carried away all the valuables, and set the house on fire. Joceus, who had foreseen the danger threatening him, repaired with his family and most of the members of the congregation to the citadel, and demanded protection. But few Jews remained in the town, and these were attacked by the conspirators, who appeared openly on the day following their successful experiment, and offered the Jews the choice between baptism and death. The Jews in the tower, however, were besieged, by an immense multitude of people of all classes, and were called upon to embrace Christianity. One day the governor of the citadel sauntered out of the fortress, and as the Jews feared that he would betray them, and hand them over to their enemies, they refused him re-admittance into the fortress. The latter made complaint before a high royal official, the lord-lieutenant of the province, who happened to be present at the time, that the Jews had had the audacity to shut him out of the fortress which had been entrusted to him. Infuriated in the highest degree, the lord-lieutenant gave orders to the besieging multitude to demolish the fortress, and take vengeance on the Jews. He even brought up re-inforcements in order to ensure victory. The siege lasted six days; the Jews repulsed all attacks bravely. The governor was beginning to repent of having given orders to storm the place, and many noblemen and prudent citizens were withdrawing from an enterprise which promised so many evil consequences to them, if it became known to the king, when up rose a monk in a white robe, who exhorted the besiegers by voice and example to continue their work. He held a special, solemn service, read mass, and took the Host to assure himself that divine assistance would be rendered them in conquering the weak little troop of Jews in the castle. He was nevertheless struck to the ground by a stone hurled by a Jewish hand, and yielded up his fanatical spirit.

The Jews had, in the meantime, exhausted their provisions, and death stared them in the face. When the men were deliberating what to do, one learned in the Law, who had come over from France, Yom Tob, of Joigny, counseled them to slay one another, saying, "God, whose decisions are inscrutable, desires that we should die for our holy religion. Death is at hand, unless you prefer, for a short span of life, to be unfaithful to your religion. As we must prefer a glorious death to a shameful life, it is advisable that we take our choice of the most honorable and the noblest mode of death. The life which our Creator has given us we will render back to Him with our own hands. This example many pious men and congregations have given us in ancient and modern times." Many were of the same way of thinking; the timid, however, would not abandon the hope of being able to save their lives. In the meantime, the heroic rabbi made preparations for the sacrifice. All valuables were burnt, fire was applied to the doors, and the men with the courage of zealots passed the knife across the throats of those dearest to them. Joceus, the leader of the congregation, first slew his beloved wife Anna, and to him was allotted the honor of being sacrificed by the rabbi. Thus most of them perished at one another's hands, on the day before that great Sabbath which forms the introductory festival in celebration of the redemption from Egyptian bondage, at about the same time when the last Zealots had put themselves to death in a similar manner after the destruction of the Temple, to avoid falling into the hands of the Romans. The few survivors had to contend during the night with the spreading fire, and secure for themselves some sheltered places. On the Sabbath (17 March, 1190), when the enemy advanced to the attack, the survivors declared their willingness to open the gate, and receive baptism; and to convince their foes of the shocking sacrifice that had been made, they threw the corpses of the suicides from the wall. Scarcely were the gates opened, when the leader of the Christian conspirators, together with his guardsmen, cut down the Jews, who were begging with tears in their eyes to be baptized; thus not a single member of the Jewish congregation of York survived; altogether about 500 Jews perished. On the following day, Palm Sunday (18th March), 750 Jews were butchered by crusaders in Bury St. Edmunds. Throughout England, wherever Jews were to be found, unless protected by the citizens, they met with the death of martyrs. A congregation of twenty families, consisting only of Jewish proselytes, likewise suffered martyrdom. King Richard was greatly enraged at these cruelties, and commissioned his chancellor to institute inquiries, and punish the guilty. But the crusaders had decamped, the guilty citizens and noblemen fled to Scotland, and the rest escaped punishment. Only the governor of York was deposed from his office.

But on the accession of Richard's brother, King John, who by his unprincipled conduct degraded England into a vassalage of the papal chair, the Jews were robbed even of the help of generous citizens. If John behaved ruthlessly towards all the world, the Jews certainly could not expect to be well treated by him.

Somewhat more fortunately placed than their co-religionists in France and England were the Jews of the German empire, which at that time was very extensive. The German nations, by nature more religious, and therefore more fanatical than the French and the other Romance nations, often indeed made existence for the Jews a veritable hell upon earth; but as emperors and princes protected them, the hatred against them could not produce any material effect. As Henry IV, during the first, and Conrad III, during the second crusade, protected the Jews, the notion arose that the German emperors had constituted themselves the guardians of the Jews, that any one who harmed them committed high treason, and that in return for his protection they became his "servi cameræ," the serfs of the imperial chamber. Frederick Barbarossa, the most powerful German emperor, who took Charlemagne for a model, was the first to begin the conversion of free Jews into "servi cameræ." The legend is interesting which characterizes the connection of the German emperor with the Jews in history. After the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, a third of the Jews is said to have been sold as slaves at the rate of thirty for a bad penny. These, scattered throughout the Roman empire, were the property of the Roman emperor, and became his "servi cameræ." The emperor, however, had taken upon himself the duty of protecting them, as a reward for Josephus' service to Titus, whom he had cured of gout. The rights and obligations of the Roman emperors towards the Jews passed over, through Charlemagne, to the German emperors, and hence the latter were similarly constituted the protectors of the Jews, and the Jews became their "servi cameræ." The Jews had, in all essentials, been "servi cameræ" before, in France and England; that is, they were half-and-half the property of the king or the barons, and under one or another title they constantly had to hold their purses in readiness to replenish the empty coffers of their lords. In Germany, however, they had in return the protection of the emperor. It was certainly not to be expected that the successors of Vespasian, of the house of Teut, should fulfil this office of champion of the Jews quite disinterestedly. On the contrary, they needed more revenue than other princes, as they had no land, and received but little money from their vassals. It seemed, therefore, only right that the Jews should, in return for his imperial support, supply the emperor with pocket-money.

Although the Jews of Germany were "servi cameræ," they were not robbed wholly of their personal rights in the twelfth century. They were allowed to carry weapons, and even to fight single combats. During the siege of Worms, Jews fought side by side with Christians, and the rabbi even permitted them to use weapons on the Sabbath for the purpose of defense. They had their own jurisdiction, and were not compelled to appear before an alien judge. Now and again some of them attained a higher position. The brave Duke Leopold of Austria, renowned in history for his capture of King Richard of England, had a Jewish treasurer, who, in spite of the canonical resolution of the Lateran council, was allowed to keep Christian servants. In Silesia, in the neighborhood of Breslau, Jews owned several villages with the bondmen appertaining to them. But as the prohibition to keep Christian domestics gained ground, the Jews were obliged to sell their landed estates, to remove to the towns, and there to engage in business and money-lending. In spite of the imperial protection, they were often exposed to ill-treatment. The infamous invention that the Jews used Christian blood found credence also in Germany, and here more than in any other place, and wherever the dead body of a Christian was found, princes and people immediately laid the murder at the door of the Jews. A ship containing Jews was proceeding from Cologne to Boppard, and after it there sailed another with Christian passengers. The latter found the dead body of a Christian woman in Boppard, and forthwith they jumped to the conclusion that the Jews of the first ship had slain her; the Christians immediately pursued and overtook them, and called upon them to submit to baptism, and on their refusal hurled them into the Rhine. In the general peace which the emperor decreed before his expedition to the Orient, the Jews were also included. He warned priest and monk not to stir up the people against them; but they had to supply funds for the crusade.

Under Frederick's successor, Henry VI, a horrible massacre of the Jews took place, the fanatics breaking loose upon them at different places from the district of the Rhine to Vienna. Under such afflicting circumstances, when they were not sure of their lives for one moment, it was impossible for them to advance to a high degree of culture. They were deeply religious and beneficent, and they assisted one another, and foreign immigrants, with everything that they possessed. Religion and the cohesion of the members of the community were the pillars on which they had to lean for support; but they were without enthusiasm or taste for any branch of knowledge. The study of the Talmud continued to be the only occupation of the more intellectual among them; but even in this they only followed the road marked out by Rashi and the Tossafists, without ever diverging from it. Those who desired to give spiritual nourishment to their mind, as well as acquire intellectual acuteness, absorbed themselves in a kind of mystic lore, the import and significance of which is lost to us.

Ephraim ben Jacob, of Bonn (1132–1200), made a name for himself at about this time. He was not, indeed, a rabbi by profession, but was none the less adept in Talmudical lore, and in addition was an extraordinary linguist. At the age of thirteen he was shut up with his relatives in the tower of Wolkenburg during the persecution that attended the second crusade; there he saw the sufferings of his brethren in faith, and described them later on in an impartial, enthusiastic and vividly written martyrology, which he brought down to the year 1196–97. Ephraim was also a skilful versifier, and he composed many liturgical poems, particularly lamentations on the sufferings of his time. His verses possess no poetical beauty, but they are characterized by a certain wit, which is displayed in ingenious allusions to Biblical verses and Talmudical passages.

It seems scarcely credible that Germany, hostile as it was towards the Jews at that time, should have given birth to a Jewish poet who was able to sing in beautiful strains, knew how to handle rhyme, meter, strophes in the vernacular, and was so warmly appreciated that he was received into the circle of poets. Süsskind (Süzkint) of Trimberg, a small town on the Saale in Franconia, adopted the poetic style of Walter von der Vogelweide and Wolfram of Eschenbach. He was probably a physician by profession, but nothing is known of the events of his life. In the castle of the lords of Trimberg, which stood on the ridge of a vine-covered hill, and was reflected in the winding Saale, or in the neighboring castle, Bodenlaube, in the company of noble knights and beautiful dames, he poured forth, lute in hand, his melodious strains, and the largesses which were showered on him formed his sole means of support. Süsskind sang of the high worth of the pure woman, and pictured to the knights his ideal of a nobleman: "Who acts nobly, him will I account noble." He speaks of the freedom of thought, not yielding to force: