History of the Jews, Vol. 4 (of 6)

by Heinrich Graetz

But though Reuchlin went down into the Jews' lane to carry off a hidden treasure, he was at first no less intensely prejudiced against the Jewish race than his contemporaries. Forgetful of its former glory, and blind to the solid kernel, because enveloped in a repulsive shell, Reuchlin looked on the Jewish people as utterly barbarous, devoid of all artistic taste, superstitious, mean and depraved. He solemnly declared that he was far from favoring the Jews. Like his pattern, Jerome, he testified to his thorough-going hatred of them. At the same time as his Hebrew grammar he wrote an epistle, in which he traced all the misery of the Jews to their blind unbelief, instead of looking for its source in Christians' want of charity towards them. Reuchlin, no less than Pfefferkorn, charged the Jews with blasphemy against Jesus, Mary, the apostles and Christians in general; but a time came when he regretted this indiscreet lucubration of his youth. For his heart did not share the prejudices of his head. Whenever he met individual Jews, he gave them his affection, or at least his esteem; he probably found that they were better than Christians represented them to be. His sense of justice did not allow him to let wrong be done to them, much less to help in doing it.

When Pfefferkorn and the Cologne Dominicans approached Reuchlin, he was at the zenith of his life and fame. High and low honored him for his rectitude; Emperor Frederick had ennobled him; Emperor Maximilian appointed him counselor and judge of the Suabian League; the circle of humanists, the order of free spirits within and without Germany, loved, worshiped, almost deified him. Though hitherto no shadow of heresy had fallen on Reuchlin, who was on the best of terms with the Dominicans, yet the friends of darkness instinctively saw in him their secret enemy. His cultivation of science and classical literature, his anxiety for an elegant Latin style, his enthusiasm for Greek, by which all Germany had been infected, and worse than all, his introduction of Hebrew, his preference for "Hebrew truth," for the Hebrew text over the corrupt Latin Vulgate, which the church held as canonical and unassailable, were considered by the obscurantists as crimes, for which the Inquisition could not, indeed, directly prosecute him, but which secured him a place in their black book.

The order given to Pfefferkorn, the secret agent of the Dominicans of Cologne, to implicate Reuchlin in the examination of blasphemous Jewish writings, as said above, was a cunningly devised trap. On his second journey to the imperial camp, Pfefferkorn waited on Reuchlin at his own house, endeavored to make him a confederate in his venomous schemes against the Jews, and showed him the imperial mandate. Reuchlin declined the proposal somewhat hesitatingly, though he approved of destroying Jewish libels on Christianity; but he pointed out that the emperor's mandate was faulty in form, and that, therefore, the authorities would not willingly enforce it. Reuchlin is said to have hinted that, if invited to do so, he would interest himself in the matter. Pfefferkorn, in consequence, applied to the emperor for a second mandate, correct in form and unassailable. But the Jews had not been idle in endeavors to induce the emperor to revoke the mandate and restore their books.

The community of Frankfort had appointed Jonathan Levi Zion, a zealous member, to advocate their case with the emperor. The community of Ratisbon also had sent an agent to the imperial court. Isaac Triest, a man greatly beloved by the persons surrounding the emperor, took great pains to frustrate Pfefferkorn's plans. The Jewish advocates were supported by influential Christians, including the representative of the archbishop and the Margrave of Baden. They first adduced the charters guaranteeing religious liberty, granted to the Jews by emperors and popes, in accordance with which even the emperor had no right to interfere with the management of their private affairs, or to attack their property in the shape of religious books. They did not fail to inform the emperor that their accuser was a worthless person, a thief and burglar. The Jewish advocates thought that they had attained their end. The emperor had listened to their petition in an audience, and promised them a speedy reply. Their friendly reception led them to look for an immediate settlement of this painful affair; moreover, it was a good omen that Uriel von Gemmingen, their protector, was appointed commissary.

But they did not understand Maximilian's vacillating character. As soon as Pfefferkorn appeared before him, armed with another autograph letter from his sister, wherein the ultra-pious nun conjured him not to injure Christianity by the revocation of his mandate, the scales were turned against the Jews. The emperor was in reality secretly piqued that the despised Jews of Frankfort, in contempt of his mandate, had refused to give up the books found in their houses.

He thereupon issued a second mandate (November 10th, 1509), wherein he reproached the Jews with having offered resistance, and ordered the confiscation to be continued. But he appointed Archbishop Uriel as commissioner, and advised him to obtain counsel from the universities of Cologne, Mayence, Erfurt and Heidelberg, and to associate with himself learned men, such as Reuchlin, Victor von Karben, and the inquisitor, Hoogstraten, who was wholly ignorant of Hebrew. With this mandate in his pocket, Pfefferkorn hastened back to the scene of his activity, the Rhenish provinces. Archbishop Uriel appointed Hermann Hess, chancellor of the University of Mayence, his delegate, to direct the confiscation of Jewish books. Accompanied by him, Pfefferkorn again repaired to Frankfort, and the book-hunt began afresh. Fifteen hundred manuscripts, including those already seized, were taken from the Frankfort Jews, and deposited in the town hall.

Worse than the emperor's vacillating conduct was the apathy shown by the large communities of Germany in the appointment of delegates to a conference to discuss and frustrate the malicious plans of Pfefferkorn, or rather, of the Dominicans. Smaller communities had contributed their share towards the expenses occasioned by this serious matter, but the larger and richer communities of Rothenburg on the Tauber, Weissenburg and Fürth, on which the Jews of Frankfort had counted most, displayed deplorable indifference. But when, in consequence of the second mandate, Jewish books were confiscated not only at Frankfort but also in other communities, more active interest was manifested. First the Frankfort senate was influenced in their favor. The Jewish booksellers were accustomed to bring their bales of books for sale to the spring Fair at Frankfort. Pfefferkorn threatened to confiscate these also, but the senate of Frankfort refused to assist in the measure, being unwilling to break the laws regulating the Fair. The Jewish booksellers, moreover, had safe-conducts each from the prince of his own country, protecting not only their persons, but also their property. The archbishop maintained sullen silence, but was inclined to favor the Jews. He did not call together the learned men whom the emperor had mentioned to examine the Jewish books, and did no more than he could help. Many princes, also, whose eyes had been opened to the ultimate results of this strange confiscation, seem to have made representations to the emperor. Public opinion was particularly severe on Pfefferkorn. But he and the Dominicans were not idle; they endeavored to win over the emperor and public opinion, and it is remarkable that the enemies of publicity should have opened the mouth of that hitherto silent arbitress, and rendered her powerful.

For this purpose there appeared another anti-Jewish pamphlet, with Pfefferkorn's name on the title-page, entitled, "In Praise and Honor of Emperor Maximilian." It blew clouds of incense into the emperor's face, and regretted that the charges against the Jews, from indifference and ignorance, were so little noticed in Christian circles. It reasserted that the Talmud, the usury of the Jews, and their facilities for making money, were the causes of their obstinately refusing to become Christians. Thus the Cologne Dominicans—always standing behind Pfefferkorn—by means of public opinion again attempted to put moral pressure on Maximilian.

But this public opinion must have spoken so strongly in favor of the Jews, that Maximilian was induced to take a step unusual for an emperor, namely, in a measure revoke his former commands, by directing the senate of Frankfort to restore to the Jews their books (May 23d, 1510), "till the completion of our purpose and the inspection of the books." Great was the joy of the Jews. They had escaped a great danger: not their religious books only, so dear to their hearts, but their position in the Holy Roman Empire had been at stake, since the Dominicans, in case of success, would not have stopped at the confiscation of books, but would have inflicted new humiliations and persecutions.

But the Jews triumphed too soon; the Dominicans and their confederate and tool, Pfefferkorn, would not so readily surrender the advantages already secured. A regrettable occurrence in the Mark of Brandenburg supplied fresh energy to their machinations, and a pretext for formulating an accusation. A thief had stolen some sacred emblems from a church, and when questioned as to the holy wafer, he confessed having sold it to Jews in the Brandenburg district. Of course, the thief was believed, and the bishop of Brandenburg entered on the persecution of the Jews with fiery fanaticism. The elector of Brandenburg, Joachim I, an ardent heretic-hunter, had the accused brought to Berlin. The accusation of reviling the host was soon supplemented by the charge of infanticide. Joachim had the Jews tortured, and then ordered thirty to be burnt. With firmness, songs of praise on their lips, these martyrs of Brandenburg met their fiery deaths (July 19th, 1510), except two, who, with the fear of the stake upon them, submitted to baptism, and suffered the seemingly more honorable fate of being beheaded. This is the first mention of Jews in Berlin and Brandenburg. The occurrence made a great stir in Germany, and the Cologne Dominicans employed it to induce the emperor to issue a new mandate for the confiscation of Jewish books, seeing that to the Talmud alone could be attributed the alleged hostility of the Jews to Christianity. They sheltered themselves behind the same go-between; the bigoted nun, the ducal abbess Kunigunde, to whom the diabolical wickedness of the Jews, as revealed by the above occurrence, was presented in most glaring colors, was again to influence the emperor. The Dominicans suggested to her how detrimental to Christianity must be the fact that the host-reviling and child-murdering Jews could boast of having had their books restored to them by order of the emperor, who thus, to a certain extent, approved of the abuse of Christianity which they contained. The abbess thereupon fairly assailed her brother, and at their interview at Munich besought him on her knees to reconsider the matter of the Jewish books. Maximilian was perplexed. He was loath to refuse his dearly beloved sister what she had so much at heart; on the other hand, he was not highly edified by Pfefferkorn's tissue of lies about the Jews. He found an expedient to appear just to both parties. He issued a new mandate, the fourth in this affair (July 6th, 1510), addressed to Archbishop Uriel, directing him to resume the inquiry, but in another form. The indictment was not to be considered as proved, but was to be thoroughly investigated. The archbishop of Mayence was to take the opinions of the German universities named, and also of Reuchlin, Victor von Karben and Hoogstraten, to whom the emperor sent a special summons in official form. The final decision as to the character of the Jewish writings was to be communicated to him by Pfefferkorn, the originator of the inquiry. The Jews had reason to look forward with anxiety to the issue; their weal and woe depended on it.