Will Durant --- The Jews (1300 - 1564)

the jews 1300 to 1564. one the wanderers in his flores historiarum of 1228 roger wendover told of an armenian archbishop who visiting the monastery of saint albans early in the 13th century was asked about the story that a jew who had talked with christ was still alive in the near east the archbishop assured the monks that the story was true his attendant added that the archbishop had dined with this immortal only a short time before leaving armenia that the man's name latin wise was cartophilus that when jesus was leaving the tribunal of pontius pilate this cartophilus struck the lord in the back saying go faster and that jesus said to him i go but thou shalt tarry till i come other armenians visiting saint albans in 1252 repeated the tale popular fiction expanded it buried the name of the wanderer and told how every hundred years or so he fell into a grave illness and deep coma from which he recovered as a youth with memories still fresh of the trial death and resurrection of christ the story sank out of record for a while but reappeared in the 16th century and excited europeans claimed to have seen a haas awareness as der eviga uda or le joief er was now called at hamburg in 1547 and 1564 vienna in 1599 lubeck in 1601 paris in 1644 newcastle in 1790 finally in utah in 1868 the legend of the wandering jew was welcomed in a europe that was losing its faith as a reassuring proof of the divinity and resurrection of christ and a fresh pledge of his second coming for us the myth is a somber symbol of a people losing its homeland in the 71st year of the christian era wandering for 18 centuries over four continents and suffering repeated crucifixions before regaining its ancient habitation in the unstable flux of our time the jews of the dispersion found least misery under the sultans in turkey and the popes in france and italy jewish minorities lived safely in constantinople salonika asia minor syria palestine arabia egypt north africa and moorish spain the berbers gave them a reluctant toleration yet simon duran led a flourishing settlement in algeria in alexandria the jewish community as described by rabbi obadiah bertinoro in 1488 lived well drank too much wine sat cross-legged on carpets like the moslems and removed their shoes before entering the synagogue or the home of a friend german jews finding refuge in turkey wrote back to their relatives enthusiastic descriptions of the happy conditions enjoyed there by the jews in palestine the ottoman pasha allowed the jews to build a synagogue on the slope of mount zion some western jews made pilgrimages to palestine holding it good fortune to die in the holy land and best of all in jerusalem nevertheless the center and zest of jewish thought in this age were in the unforgiving west there they were least unfortunate in enlightened italy in naples they enjoyed the friendship of king robert of anjou they prospered in ancona ferrara padua venice verona mantua florence pisa and other hives of the renaissance italy has many jews said erasmus in 1518 spain hardly any christians commerce and finance were respected in italy and the jews who served those necessities were valued as stimulating agents in the economy the old requirement the jews should wear a distinguishing badge or garment was generally ignored in the peninsula well-to-do jews dressed like the italians of their class jewish youths attended the universities and an increasing number of christians studied hebrew occasionally some holy hater like saint john of capistrano would excite his hearers to demand the full enforcement of all blue law canonical disabilities against the jews but though capistrano was supported by popes eugenius iv and nicholas v the effect of his eloquence was transient in italy another franciscan friar bernardino of feltray attacked the jews so vociferously that the civic authorities of milan ferrara and venice ordered him to be silent or decamp when a three-year-old child was found dead near the house of a jew and trent in 1475 bernardino proclaimed that the jews had murdered it the bishop had all the jews in trent imprisoned and some under duress of torture said that they had slain the boy and drunk his blood as part of a passover ritual all the jews in trent were burned to death the corpse of little simon was embalmed and displayed as a saintly relic thousands of simple believers made pilgrimages to the new shrine and the story of the alleged atrocities spreading over the alps into germany intensified anti-semitic feeling there the venetian senate denounced the tale as a pious fraud and ordered the authorities within venetian jurisdiction to protect the jews two lawyers came from padua to trent to examine the evidence they were nearly torn to pieces by the populace pope sixtus iv was urged to canonize simon but he refused and forbade honoring him as a saint however simon was beatified in 1582 in rome the jews for centuries enjoyed fairer conditions of life and liberty than anywhere else in christendom partly because the popes were usually men of culture partly because the city was ruled and divided by orsini and kelowna factions too busy fighting each other to spare hostility to others and perhaps because the romans were too close to the business side of christianity to take their religion fanatically there was as yet no ghetto in rome most of its jews lived in the hebraicus on the left bank of the tiber but they did not have to palaces of the roman aristocracy rose amid jewish dwellings and synagogues near christian churches some oppression remained the jews were taxed to support the athletic games and were forced to send representatives to take part in them half naked against jewish customs and tastes racial antagonism survived jews were caricatured on the roman stage and in carnival farces but jewesses were regularly presented as gentle and beautiful note the contrast between barabbas and abigail in marlow's jew of malta and between [ __ ] and jessica in the merchant of venice by and large the popes were as generous to the jews as could be expected of men who honored christ as the messiah and resented the jewish belief that the messiah had not yet come in establishing the inquisition the popes exempted unconverted jews from its jurisdiction it could summon such jews only for attacks on christianity or for attempts to convert a christian to judaism jews who never ceased professing judaism were on the whole left undisturbed by the church though not by the state or the populace several popes issued bulls aiming to mitigate popular hostility pope clement vi labored in this regard and made papal avignon a merciful haven for jews fleeing from the predatory government of france martin v in 1419 proclaimed to the catholic world whereas the jews are made in the image of god and a remnant will one day be saved and whereas they have besought our protection following in the footsteps of our predecessors we command that they not be molested in their synagogues that their laws rights and customs be not assailed and that they be not baptized by force constrained to observe christian festivals nor to wear new badges and that they be not hindered in their business relations with christians eugenius iv nicholas as we shall see issued repressive legislation but for the rest says gretz among the masters of italy the popes were most friendly to the jews several of them alexander the sixth julius ii leo the tenth ignoring old decrees entrusted their lives to jewish physicians contemporary jewish writers celebrated gratefully the security enjoyed by their people under the medici popes and one of them called clement vii the gracious friend of israel says a learned jewish historian this was the heyday of the renaissance period and a succession of cultured polished luxurious worldly wise popes in rome regarded the promotion of culture as being as important a part of their function as the forwarding of the religious interests of the catholic church they tended therefore from the middle of the 15th century onward to overlook inconvenient details of canon law and to show a wide tolerance for those who were not catholic the jewish loan bankers constituted an integral part of the economic machinery of their dominions while as broad-minded men of the world they appreciated the conversation of jewish physicians and others with whom they came into contact hence the persecutory regulations that had been elaborated by the fathers of the church and codified by the third and fourth lateran councils were almost entirely neglected by them with this example before their eyes the other italian princes the medici of florence the estenzi of ferrara the gonzaga of manchua acted in much the same fashion though they were disturbed by occasional interludes of violence or fanaticism as for example when seven arola obtained control of florence in 1497 the jews mixed with their neighbors and shared in their life to a degree that was almost unexampled they played a distinct part in certain respects of the renaissance they mirrored it in their own lives and in their literary activities in the hebrew tongue they made important contributions to philosophy music and the theater they were familiar figures in many of the italian courts some once famous figures illustrate these bright days in the relations of christians and jews emmanuel ben solomon hiromi that is of rome was born in the same year as dante 1265 and became his friend he was as much a renaissance man as a loyal jew could be positioned by profession preacher biblical scholar grammarian scientist man of wealth and affairs poet and writer of frivolous songs that very often past the bounds of decency a complete master of hebrew he introduced the sonnet form into that language he almost rivaled the italians in fluency and spirit and not again before haina would a jewish poet show such talent for satire such brilliance and width perhaps emmanuel had imbibed some of the avarois skepticism of the age one of his poems expresses a distaste for heaven with all its virtuous people he thought only ugly women were virtuous and a preference for hell where he expected to find the most tempting beauties of all time in his old age he composed a weak imitation of dante tophet va eden heaven and paradise in judaism as in protestantism there was no purgatory more generous than dante emanuel following rabbinical tradition admitted into heaven all the righteous of the nations of the world however he condemned aristotle to hell for teaching the eternity of the universe a similar spirit of lighthearted humor gave tang and verve to the writings of colonist ben colonimus king robert of naples on a visit to provence noticed the young scholar of the beautiful name and took him to italy at first colonist was all for science and philosophy he translated aristotle archimedes ptolemy galen alfa robbie and everowis into hebrew and wrote in a high ethical vein but he found the gay mood of naples easy to assimilate when he moved to rome he became a jewish horus satirizing amiably the faults and foibles of christians jews and himself he mourned that he had been born a man had he been a woman he would not have had to pour over the bible in the talmud or to learn the 613 precepts of the law his purim tractate made fun of the talmud and the popularity of this satire among the roman jews suggests that they were not as pious as their more unhappy brethren in other lands the renaissance revived not only greek but hebrew studies cardinal egydio di piterbo invited elijah lavita from germany to rome in 1509 for thirteen years the jewish scholar lived in the cardinals palace as an honored guest teaching ego hebrew and receiving instruction in greek through the efforts of ajito roiklyn and other christian pupils of jewish teachers chairs of hebrew were established in several italian universities or academies elijah del medico who taught hebrew at padua was so highly regarded there despite his refusal of conversion that when a violent controversy broke out among the christian students over a problem in scholarship the university authorities and the venetian senate appointed del merigo to arbitrate which he did with such a edition intact that all parties were satisfied pico de la miranda invited him to teach hebrew in florence there elijah joined the humanist circle of the medici and we may still see him among the figures painted by benozzo but soli on the medici palace walls the scholar gave no encouragement to pico's notion of finding christian dogmas in the kabbalah on the contrary he ridiculed that apocalypse as a heap of stupefying absurdities north of the alps the jews were less fortunate than in italy they were expelled from england in 1290 from france in 1306 from flanders in 1370. france recalled them in 1315 on condition of giving to the king two-thirds of any money they might collect on loans made before their expulsion when the royal prophets on these operations ended the jews were banished again in 1321 they returned in time to be blamed for the black death and were again exiled in 1349 they were recalled in 1360 to lend financial aid and skill in raising sums to ransom the captured french king from england but in 1390 an israelite converted to christianity mysteriously disappeared the jews were accused of killing him some tortured jews confessed that they had advised the convert to return to judaism public opinion was inflamed and charles vi reluctantly ordered another banishment of the harassed race there was a substantial community of jews in prague some of them went to hear the sermons of who'sa's forerunner milita because he showed so much knowledge and appreciation of the old testament boos studied hebrew read hebrew commentaries and quoted rashi and maimonides the taborites who carried husa's reforms close to communism called themselves the chosen people and gave the names edom moab and amalek to the german provinces against which they waged war the hussite armies however were not averse to killing jews when they captured prague in 1421 they gave them not the muhammadan choice of conversion or taxation but the simpler choice of apostasy or death of all the christian states poland was second only to italy in hospitality to the jews in 1098 1146 and 1196 many jews migrated from germany to poland to avoid death at the hands of crusaders they were well received and prospered by 1207 some of them owned large estates in 1264 king balaslov the pious gave them a charter of civil rights after the black death more germans moved to poland and were welcomed by the ruling aristocracy as a progressive economic ferment in a nation still lacking a middle class casimir third the great 1333-1370 confirmed and extended the rights of the polish jews and the grand duke vittost guaranteed these rights to the jews of lithuania but in 1407 a priest told his congregation at krakow that jews had killed a christian boy and had gloated over his blood the charge provoked a massacre casimir iv renewed and again enlarged the liberties of the jews in 1447. we desire he said that the jews whom we wish to protect in our own interest as well as in the interest of the royal exchequer should feel comforted in our beneficent reign the clergy denounced the king archbishop olasniki threatened him with hellfire and john of capistrano coming to poland as papal leggett delivered incendiary speeches in the marketplace of krakow in 1453. when the king suffered defeat in war the cry arose that he had been punished by god for favoring infidels as he needed the support of the clergy and further war he rescinded his charter of jewish liberties pogroms occurred in 1463 and 1494. perhaps to prevent such attacks the jews of krakow were thereafter required to live in a suburb gazebo there and in other polish or lithuanian centers the jews overcoming all obstacles grew in number and prosperity under sigismund the first their liberties were restored except of residence and they remained in favor with sigismund the second in 1556 three jews in the town of sakachev were charged with having stabbed a consecrated host and made it bleed they protested their innocence but were burned at the stake by order of the bishop of kelm sigismund ii denounced the accusation as a pious fraud designed to prove to jews and protestants that the consecrated bread had really been changed into the body and blood of christ i am shocked by this hideous villainy said the king nor am i sufficiently devoid of common sense as to believe that there could be any blood in the host but with the death of this skeptical ruler in 1572 the era of good feelings between the government and the jews of poland came to an end for a time the jews lived peaceably in medieval germany they functioned actively along the great river avenues of trade in the free cities and the ports even archbishops asked imperial permission to harbor jews by the golden bull of 1355 the emperor charles iv shared with the imperial electors the privilege of having jews as servi camera servants of the chamber that is the electors were empowered to receive jews into their dominions protect them use them and mouth in germany as in italy students eager to understand the old testament at first hand learned hebrew the conflict between roykland and peppercorn stimulated this study and the first complete printing of the talmud in 1520 provided further impetus the influence of judaism culminated in the reformation theologically this was a reversion to the simpler creed and severe ethic of early judea christianity protestant hostility to religious pictures and statuary was of course a return to the semitic antipathy to graven images some protestant sects observed saturday as the sabbath the rejection of mariola tree and the worship of saints approached the strict monotheism of the jews and the new ministers accepting sex and marriage resembled the rabbis rather than the catholic priests critics of the reformers accused them of judaizing called them semi judea half jews karl stott himself said that wanted to go back to moses calvin included judaizing among the deadly sins of cervetis and the spaniard admitted that his hebrew studies had influenced him in questioning the trinitarian theology calvin's rule in geneva recalled the dominance of the priesthood in ancient israel zavingly was denounced as a judaizer because he studied hebrew with jews and based many of his sermons and commentaries on the hebrew text of the old testament he confessed himself enchanted by the hebrew language i found the holy tongue beyond all belief cultivated graceful and dignified although it is poor in the number of words yet its lack is not felt because it makes use of its store in so manifold of fashion indeed i may dare to say that if one conceives its dignity and grace no other language expresses so much with so few words and so powerful expressions no language is so rich in many sided and meaningful modes of imagery no language so delights and quickens the human heart luther was not so enthusiastic how i hate people he complained who lug in so many languages as zvingly does he spoke greek and hebrew in the pulpit at marburg in the irritability of his senility luther attacked the jews as if he had never learned anything from them no man is a hero to his debtor in a pamphlet concerning the jews and their lies 1542 he discharged a volley of arguments against the jews that they had refused to accept christ as god that their age-long sufferings proved god's hatred of them that they were intruders in christian lands that they were insolent in their usurious prosperity that the talmud sanctioned the deception robbery and killing of christians that they poisoned springs and wells and murdered christian children to use their blood and jewish rituals we have seen in studying his aging character how he advised the germans to burn down the homes of jews to close their synagogues and schools to confiscate their wealth to conscript their men and women to forced labor and to give all jews a choice between christianity and having their tongues torn out in a sermon delivered shortly before his death he added that jewish physicians were deliberately poisoning christians these utterances helped to make protestantism so indebted to judaism more anti-semitic than official catholicism though not more so than the catholic populace they influenced the electors of saxony and brandenburg to expel the jews from those territories they set the tone in germany for centuries and prepared its people for genocidal holocausts two on the rack why did christians and jews hate each other doubtless of pervasive and continuing reason was a vital conflict in religious creeds the jews were a perennial challenge to the fundamental tenets of christianity this religious hostility led to a racial segregation at first voluntary later compulsory issuing in the establishment of the first ghetto in 1516. the segregation accentuated differences of dress ways features worship and speech these differences encouraged mutual distrust and fear this fear generated hate the jews turned into a glory their usual exclusion from marriage with christians their pride of race boasted of dissent from kings who had ruled israel a thousand years before christ they scorned the christians as superstitious polytheists a little slow of mind mouthing gentle hypocrisies amid merciless brutalities worshiping a prince of peace and repeatedly waging fratricidal wars the christians scorned the jews as outlandish and unprepossessing infidels thomas moore told of a pious lady who was shocked to learn that the virgin was a jewish and who confessed that thereafter she would be unable to love the mother of god as fervently as before the theory of the eucharist became a tragedy for the jews christians were required to believe that the priest transformed the wafer of unleavened bread into the body and blood of christ some christians like the lollards doubted it stories of consecrated wafers bleeding at the prick of a knife or a pin could strengthen belief and who would do so horrible a deed but a jew such legends of a bleeding host were plentiful in late medieval centuries in several cases as at noyberg near pasau in 1338 and at brussels in 1369 the allegations led to the murder of jews and the burning of their homes in brussels a chapel was set up in the cathedral of san goudal to commemorate the bleeding host of 1369 and the miracle was annually celebrated with a festival that became the flemish kermes in neuberg a clerk confessed that he had dipped an unconsecrated host in blood had hidden it in a church and it accused the jews of stabbing it it should be added that enlightened ecclesiastics like nicholas accuser condemned as shameful cruelties the legends of jewish attacks on the host economic rivalries hid behind religious hostility while the papal prohibition of interest was respected among christians the jews acquired almost a monopoly of money lending in christendom when christian bankers ignored the taboo firms like the bardi pt and strozzi in florence the welshers hochstetters and figures in augsburg rose to challenge this monopoly and a new focus of irritation formed both christian and jewish bankers charged high interest rates reflecting the risks of lending money in an unstable economy rendered more unstable by rising prices and debased currencies jewish lenders ran greater risks than their competitors the collection of debts owed by christians to jews was uncertain and hazardous ecclesiastical authorities might declare a moratorium on debts as in the crusades kings might and did lay confiscatory taxes upon jews or force loans from them or expel the jews and absolve their debtors or exact a share in permitted collections north of the alps nearly all classes except businessmen still regarded interest as usury and condemned the jewish bankers especially when borrowing from them since the jews were generally the most experienced financiers they were in several countries employed by the kings to manage the finances of the state and the site of rich jews holding lucrative posts and collecting taxes from the people inflamed popular resentment even so some christian communities welcomed jewish bankers frankfurt offered them special privileges on condition that they would charge only thirty two and a half percent while their rate to others was 43 percent this seems shocking but we hear of christian money lenders charging up to 266 percent the holsters of nuremberg charged 220 in 1304 the christian lenders in brendesi charge 240 percent we hear of towns calling for the return of jewish bankers as more lenient than their christian counterparts ravenna stipulated in a treaty with venice the jewish financiers should be sent to it to open credit banks for the promotion of agriculture and industry nationalism added another note to the hymn of hate each nation thought it needed ethnic and religious unity and demanded the absorption or conversion of its jews several church councils and some popes were aggressively hostile the council of vienna in 1311 forbade all intercourse between christians and jews the council of zamora in 1313 ruled that they must be kept in strict subjection and servitude the council of basel between 1431 and 1433 renewed canonical decrees forbidding christians to associate with jews to serve them or to use them as physicians and instructed secular authorities to confine the jews in separate quarters compel them to wear a distinguishing badge and ensure their attendance at sermons aimed to convert them pope eugenius iv at war with the council of basel dared not to be outdone by it in troubling the jews he confirmed the disabilities decreed by that council and added that jews should be ineligible for any public office could not inherit property from christians must build no more synagogues and must stay in their homes behind closed doors and windows in passion week a wise provision against christian violence moreover the testimony of jews against christians should have no validity in law eugenius complained that some jews spoke scandalously about jesus and mary and this was probably true hatred begot hate in a later bull eugenius ordered that any italian jew found reading talmudic literature should suffer confiscation of his property pope nicholas v commissioned saint john of capistrano in 1447 to see to it that every clause of this repressive legislation should be enforced and authorized him to seize the property of any jewish position who treated a christian despite such edicts the general christian public behave toward the jews with the good nature that actuates nearly all men women and animals when their purposes are not crossed but there could be found in most communities a minority not averse to practicing cruelty when this might be done with collective impunity so the faster row originating as shepherds bound for the holy land but attracting riffraff as they passed through france in 1320 decided to kill on root all jews refusing to be baptized a toulouse 500 jews sought refuge in the tower they were besieged by a wild mob which gave them a choice between baptism or death the governor of the city tried in vain to rescue them finding resistance impossible the fugitives instructed the strongest among them to slay them in this way we are told all but one died and the survivor though offering to submit to baptism was torn to pieces by the crowd in like manner all the jews of 120 communities in southern france and northern spain were blotted out leaving only some destitute remnants in 1321 on a charge of poisoning wells 120 jews were burned near china in 1336 a german fanatic announced that he had received a revelation from god commanding him to avenge the death of christ by killing jews he gathered a following of five thousand peasants who called themselves armed leader from a leather band worn on the arm they ranged through alsace and the rhineland killing all the jews they could find a murderous mania swept through bavaria bohemia moravia and austria in 1337. pope benedict the 12th tried in vain to stop it but only in raspbian and vienna where the jews effectively protected elsewhere thousands were tortured and killed the black death was a special tragedy for the jews of christendom the same plague could slain mongols muslims and jews in asia where no one thought of blaming the jews but in western europe a populist maddened by the ravages of the pestilence accused the jews of poisoning the wells in an attempt to wipe out all christians fevered imaginations brewed details the jews of toledo it was said had dispatched agents with boxes of poison made from lizards and basilisks and christian hearts to all the jewish communities in europe with instructions to drop these concentrations into wells and springs the emperor charles iv denounced the charges absurd so did pope clement vi many burger masters and municipal councils spoke to the same effect which was little indeed a false belief spread among the christians that the jews were rarely touched by the plague in some cities perhaps through differences in hygienic laws or medical care the fever did seem less fatal to them than to the christians but in many places for example vienna radism avignon rome the jews suffered equally nevertheless some jews were tortured into confessing that they had distributed the poison christians closed their wells and springs and drank rain water or melted snow merciless pogroms broke out in france spain and germany in one town in southern france the entire jewish community was cast into the flames all jews in savoy all jews around lake lehman all in bern freeborg basel nuremberg brussels were burned clement vi the second time denounced the horror and the charge declared the jews innocent and pointed out that the plague was as severe where no jews lived as anywhere else he admonished the clergy to restrain their parishioners and excommunicated all persons who killed or falsely accused jews in strasbourg however the bishop joined in the accusation and persuaded the reluctant municipal council to banish all jews the populace thought this measure too mild it drove out the council and installed another which ordered the arrest of all jews in the city some escaped to the countryside many of these were killed by the peasantry two thousand jews left in the city were jailed and were commanded to accept baptism half of them submitted the rest refused and were burned on february 14 1439 all in all some 510 jewish communities were exterminated in christian europe as a result of these programs many more were decimated in saragasa for example only one jew out of five survived the black death persecutions lee estimated three thousand jews killed at airfort twelve thousand in bavaria in vienna on the advice of rabbi jonah all the jews gathered in their synagogue and killed themselves similar mass suicides occurred in warms openheim krems and frankfurt a panic of flight carried thousands of jews from western europe into poland or turkey it would be hard to find before our time or in all the records of savagery any deeds more barbarous than the collective murder of jews in the black death slowly the surviving jews of germany crept back to the cities that had despoiled them and rebuilt their synagogues but they were all the more hated for having been wronged in 1385 all 36 towns of the swabian league imprisoned their jews and released them only on condition that all debts owed them should be cancelled this was especially satisfactory to nuremberg which had borrowed seven thousand pounds from them or about seven hundred thousand dollars in thirteen eighty nine a number of jews were massacred on a charge that they had desecrated a consecrated host on the same excuse fourteen jews were burned in posin in thirteen ninety nine for diverse reasons the jews were expelled from cologne in 1424 spire in 1435 strasbourg and augsburg in 1439 wurzburg in 1453 air force in 1458 mainz in 1470 nuremberg in 1498 and um in 1499. maximilian the first sanctioned their expulsion from nuremberg on the ground that they had become so numerous and through their usurious dealings they had become possessed of all the property of many respectable citizens and to drag them into misery and dishonor in 1446 all jews in the mark of brandenburg were imprisoned and their goods were confiscated on charges which bishop stephen of brandenburg scored as a cover for greed those princes have acted iniquitously who prompted by inordinate avarice and without just cause have seized on certain jews and thrown them into prison and refused to make restitution of that of which they robbed them in 1451 cardinal nicholas accuser one of the most enlightened men of the 15th century enforced the wearing of badges by the jews under his jurisdiction two years later john of capistrano began his missions as leggett of pope nicholas v in germany bohemia moravia silesia and poland his powerful sermons accused the jews of killing children and desecrating the host charges which popes had branded as murderous superstitions urged on by this scourge of the jews the dukes of bavaria drove all hebrews from their duchy bishop godfrey of wurzburg who had given them full privileges in franconia now banished them and in town after town jews were arrested and deaths due them were annulled at preslau several jews were jailed on capistrano's demand he himself supervised the tortures that rung from some of them whatever he bad them confess on the basis of these confessions 40 jews were burned at the stake on june second fourteen fifty three the remaining jews were banished but their children were taken from them and baptized by force capistrano was canonized in 1690 the tribulations of the jews in radism illustrate the age a converted jew hans vogel alleged that israel bruna 75 year old rabbi had bought from him a christian child and had killed it to use its blood in a jewish ritual the populist believed the accusation and cried out for the death penalty the city council to save the old man from the crowd imprisoned him emperor frederick iii ordered him released the council dared not obey but it arrested vogel told him that he must die and invited him to confess his sins he admitted that bruno was innocent and the rabbi was freed but news came to rat aspen the jews under torture had confessed to killing a child in trent belief in fogle's charge rose again the council ordered the arrest of all raspbian jews and the confiscation of all their goods frederick intervened and laid a fine of eight thousand gilders on the city the council agreed to free the jews if they would pay this fine and an additional ten thousand gilders or two hundred fifty thousand dollars as bail they answered that eighteen thousand gilders were more than all the property still left them they could not possibly raise such a sum they were kept in jail for two years more and were then released on taking oath not to leave raspbian and not to seek revenge the clergy however agitated for their expulsion and threatened with excommunication any tradesmen who sold goods to jews by 1500 only 24 families remained and in 1519 these were expelled their expulsion from spain has been described above as vital to the history of that country in portugal their crucifixion was renewed when clement vii at the urging of charles v allowed portuguese prelates to establish the inquisition in 1531 for the purpose of enforcing the practice of christianity upon the novus christ mostly jews who had been baptized against their will the severe code of torquemada was adopted spies were set to watch the converts for any relapse into jewish religious observances and thousands of jews were imprisoned emigration of jews was prohibited for their economic functions were still necessary in the portuguese economy to prevent flight christians were forbidden to buy property from jews and hundreds of jews were sent to the state for attempting to leave the country shocked by these procedures and perhaps swayed by jewish gifts clement abrogated the powers of the portuguese inquisition and ordered the release of its prisoners and the restoration of confiscated goods his bull of october seven fifteen thirty two lay down humane principles for dealing with the converts since they were dragged by force to be baptized they cannot be considered members of the church and to punish them for heresy and relapse were to violate the principles of justice and equity with sons and daughters of the first muranos the case is different they belong to the church as voluntary members but as they have been brought up by their relatives in the midst of judaism and have had this example continually before their eyes it would be cruel to punish them according to the canonical law for falling into jewish ways and beliefs they must be kept in the bosom of the church through gentle treatment that clement was sincere appears from a brief issue by him on july 26 1534 when he felt death upon him it instructed the papal nuncio in portugal to hasten the release of imprisoned converts pope paul iii continued the efforts to aid the portuguese jews and 1800 of the prisoners were freed but when charles v returned from his apparently successful expedition against tunis he demanded as reward the restoration of the inquisition in portugal paul reluctantly agreed in 1536 but with conditions that seem to king john the third to nullify his consent the accused must be confronted with the accuser and the condemned should have the right of appeal to the pope a fanatical convert helped the inquisitors by placarding lisbon cathedral with the defiant announcement the messiah has not yet appeared jesus was not the messiah and christianity is a lie as such a statement was clearly calculated to injure the jews we may reasonably suspect an agile provocateur paul appointed a commission of cardinals to investigate the procedures of the portuguese inquisition it reported when a pseudo-christian is denounced often by false witnesses the inquisitors drag him away to a dismal retreat where he has allowed no sight of heaven or earth and least of all to speak with his friends who might sucker him they accuse him on obscure testimony and inform him neither of the time or the place where he committed the offense for which he is denounced later on he has allowed an advocate who often instead of defending his cause helps him on the road to the stake let an unfortunate creature acknowledge himself a true believing christian and firmly denied the transgressions laid to his charge they condemn him to the flames and confiscate his goods let him plead guilty to such and such a deed though unintentionally committed they treat him in a similar manner under the pretense that he obstinately denies his wicked intentions let him freely and fully admit what he is accused of he is reduced to extremist necessity and condemned to the dungeons never lifting bloom and this they call treating the accused with mercy and compassion and christian charity even he who succeeds in proving his innocence is condemned to pay a fine so that it may not be said that he was arrested without cause the accused who are held prisoners are racked by every instrument of torture to admit the accusations against them many die in prison and those who are set free with all their relatives bear a brand of eternal infamy though harassed by political developments and the danger of losing spain and portugal as leo had lost germany and clement england paul did all that he could to mitigate the inquisition but day by day the terror went on until the portuguese jews found by whatever desperate device some escaped from their hosts and joined the jews of spain in seeking some corner of christendom or islam where they might keep their law and yet be allowed to live three the second dispersion where could they go sardinia and sicily where jews had lived for a thousand years past were included with spain and ferdinand's addictive expulsion by 1493 the last jew had left palermo at naples thousands of the fugitives were welcomed by ferrante the first by dominican friars and by the local jewish community but in 1540 charles v decreed the expulsion of all jews from naples genoa had long had a law limiting the entry of additional jews when conversos arrived from spain in 1492 they were not allowed to stay more than a few days a genoese historian described them as cadaverous emaciated specters with sunken eyes differing from the dead only in retaining the power to move many died of starvation women bore dead infants some parents sold their children to pay for transport from genoa a small number of the exiles were received into ferrara but were required to wear a yellow badge perhaps as a precaution against the spread of disease venice had long been a haven for the jews efforts had been made to expel them in 1395 and 1487 but the senate had protected them as important contributors to commerce and finance a considerable part of the venetian export trade was carried on by jews and they were active in the import of wool and silk from spain spices and pearls from india for a long time they had of their own choice occupied the quarter named after them the judeka in 1516 after consultation with leading jews the senate ordained that all jews except a few specially licensed should live in a section of the city known as the ghetto apparently from a foundry or ghetto existing there the senate ordered all muranos or converted jews to leave venice many christian competitors urged the measure some christian merchants opposed it as threatening the loss of certain markets especially in islam but charles v threw his influence into the scale and the expulsion decree was carried out soon however jewish merchants crept back into venice exiles from portugal replaced the expelled muranos and portuguese became for a time the language of the venetian jews many iberian exiles were kindly received into rome by pope alexander vi and prospered under julius ii leo the 10th clement vii and paul the third clement allowed muranos to practice judaism freely holding that they were not obligated by any compulsory baptism in ancona the adriatic port of the papal states where the jews were a vital element in international trade clement established a haven for professing jews and guaranteed them against molestation as to paul the third no pope said cardinal sotoletto has ever bestowed upon christians so many honors such privileges and concessions as paul has given to the jews they are not only assisted but positively armed with benefits and prerogatives a bishop complained that muranos entering italy soon returned to the practice of judaism circumcising their baptized children almost under the eye of the pope and the populace under pressure of such criticism paul reestablished the inquisition in rome in 1542 but he took the part of the muranos throughout his life his successors caught in a reaction against the easy ways of the renaissance turned to a policy of making life uncomfortable for the jews old canonical decrees were again enforced paul iv 1555-1559 required every synagogue in the papal states to contribute ten dockets or about two hundred fifty dollars toward the maintenance of a house of catholic humans where jews were to be instructed in the christian faith he forbade the jews to employ christian servants or nurses to take christians as medical patients to sell christians anything but old clothes or to have any avoidable intercourse with christians they were not to use any but the christian calendar all synagogues in rome were destroyed but one no jew might own realty those who had any were to sell it within six months by this plan christians were unable to buy five hundred thousand crowns or about twelve and a half million dollars worth of jewish property for a fifth of the actual value all jews remaining in rome were now by 1555 confined to a ghetto where 10 000 persons had to live within a square kilometer several families occupied one room and the low level of the quarter subjected it to the periodical overflow of the tiber making the region a plague-stricken swamp the ghetto was surrounded by grim walls whose gates were shut at midnight and opened at dawn except on sundays and christian holy days when they were closed all day outside the ghetto the jews were compelled to wear a distinctive garb the men a yellow hat the women a yellow veil or badge similar ghettos were established in florence in siena and by people edict in ancona and bologna where it was called inferno paul iv issued a secret order that all muranos in ancona should be cast into inquisition prisons and their goods confiscated twenty four men and one woman were there burned alive as relaxed heretics in fifteen fifty six and twenty seven jews were sent to the galleys for life it was for the jews of italy a ghastly twilight to a golden age a handful of jewish refugees slipped into france and england despite the excluding laws nearly all germany was closed to them many went to antwerp but only a few were allowed to stay more than a month diogo mendes a portuguese murano established an antwerp a branch of the bank that his family had founded in lisbon by 1532 he was so successful that the antwerp council arrested him and fifteen others on a charge of practicing judaism henry viii who employed mendesh as a financial agent intervened and the sixteen were released on payment of a heavy fine the final cause of many such arrests other jews passed on to amsterdam where they would prosper after the liberation of holland from spain in 1589 those fugitives who sought asylum in regions of islam not directly controlled by the turkish sultan fared little better than in christendom jews trying to land at iran algiers and buja were shot at by moors and several were killed forbidden to enter the cities they built an impromptu ghetto of huts put together from scraps of lumber one hut caught fire and the entire settlement including many jews was consumed those who went to fez found the gates closed against them they squatted in the fields and lived on herbs and roots mothers killed their infants rather than let them die of starvation parents sold their children for a little bread pestilence carried off hundreds of children and adults pirates raided the camp and stole children to sell them as slaves murderers ripped open the bodies of jews to find jewels they were believed to have swallowed after all these sufferings the survivors with incredible courage and under endless disabilities developed new jewish communities in moorish north africa at algiers simon duran ii repeatedly risked his life to protect the exiles and to organize them into some security at fez jakub barab became the most famous talmudist of his time under the mammaluk and ottoman sultans the spanish refugees found humane acceptance in cairo and soon rose to leadership of the jewish community salim the first abolished the old office of nagid or prince by which one rabbi had appointed all rabbis and had controlled all jewish affairs in egypt thereafter each jewish community was to choose its own rabbi and manage its own internal concerns the new rabbi of cairo david ivanabi zimra a spanish immigrant ended the seleucid method of chronology which the jews of asia and africa were using and persuaded them to adopt as the jews of europe had done in the 11th century a calendar that reckoned by the year since creation ano mundi tentatively fixed as 3761 bc wherever the sephardic or iberian jews went they acquired cultural often political leadership over the native jews in salonika they became and remained till 1918 a numerical majority of the population so that non-spanish jews who came to live there had to learn spanish under this jewish hegemony salonika was for a time the most flourishing commercial center in the eastern mediterranean sultan bajas at the second welcomed jewish exiles to turkey for they brought with them precisely those skills in handicrafts trade and medicine which released developed among the turks said baja said to ferdinand the catholic you call ferdinand a wise king who has made his country poor and enriched ours like all non-muslims in islam the jews were subject to a poll or head tax but this exempted them from military service most of the turkish jews remained poor but many rose to wealth and influence soon nearly all physicians in constantinople were jews suleiman so favored his jewish physician that he freed him and his family from all taxation jews rose to such prominence as diplomats under suleiman that christian ambassadors had to court these jews as an approach to the sultan suleiman was shocked by the oppression of the ancona jews under paul iv and remonstrated against it to the pope on march 9 1556 he demanded the release of such ancona jews as were subjects of turkey and they were freed garcia mendacia of the mendish banking family after practicing philanthropy and suffering insult and injury in antwerp ferrara and venice finally found peace in istanbul the holy land under turkish rule received again the people that had first made it holy as jerusalem was sacred to christians and muslims as well as to jews only a limited number of hebrews was allowed to live there but at saphed in upper galilee the jews grew so rapidly in number and cultural prestige that jakob tried to establish a sanhedrin there as a ruling congress for all jewry it was a bold conception but the jews were too divided in space language and ways to permit such a unification of rule nevertheless in jewish prayers throughout his lament christendom jave was supplicated to gather the dispersed from the four corners of the earth and that yom kippur and passover the jews everywhere joined in the hope that sustained them through all tragedies next year we shall be in jerusalem four the technique of survival the ability of the jews to recover from misfortune is one of the impressive wonders of history part of that heroic resilience which man in general has shown after the catastrophes of life segregation was not the worst in dignity they were happier and safer with one another than amid the hostile crowd poverty they could bear since they had known it for centuries and it was not their prerogative indeed they were more likely to be proud of their occasional wealth and conscious of their immemorial indigence the unkindest cut of all however motived was the badge or distinguishing garment that marked them off as the despised and rejected of men the great historian of the jews writes bitterly the jew badge was an invitation to the gammon to insult the wearers and to spatter them with mud it was a suggestion to stupid mobs to fall upon them to maltreat them and even to kill them and it afforded the higher class an opportunity to ostracize the jews to plunder them or to exile them worse than this outward dishonor was the influence of the badge on the jews themselves they became more and more accustomed to their ignominious position and lost all feeling of self-respect they neglected their outward appearance they became more and more careless of their speech because they were not admitted to cultured circles and in their own midst they could make themselves understood by means of a jargon they lost all taste and sense of beauty and to some extent became despicable as their enemies desired them to be this is exaggerated and too general many jews retained their pride some gloried in the splendor of their dress we hear again and again of jewish girls renowned for their beauty and the yiddish which in the 16th century evolved as a jargon of german with slavic and hebraic borrowings was developing a vigorous and buried literature even as gretz wrote his history of the jews but in any case the supreme crime of those centuries was the deliberate degradation of an entire people the merciless murder of the soul part and basis of the crime was the exclusion of the jews from almost all occupations but commerce and finance for reasons already summarized and because a tithe of agricultural produce was demanded by the church jews more and more withdrew from cultivation of the soil and finally they were forbidden to own land since they were not admitted to the guilds which were formerly christian religious organizations they could not rise in the manufacturing world and their mercantile operations were hedged in with christian monopolies by and large in their dealings with christians they found themselves limited to petty industry trade and money lending in some regions they were forbidden to sell to christians anything but second-hand goods after the 13th century they lost their invidious preeminence in finance but their fluid capital their international languages their international connections through scattered relatives enabled them to achieve a high place in the foreign commerce of the christian states so prominent was the jewish role that those countries which excluded them lost and those that received them gained in the volume of their international trade this was one not the main reason why spain and portugal declined while holland rose and why antwerp yielded commercial leadership to amsterdam it was a saving consolation that the jews in their internal affairs could be ruled by their own laws and customs their own rabbis and synagogue councils as in islam so in jewry religion law and morality were inextricably one religion was held to be co-extensive with life in 1310 rabbi yaka ben asher formulated jewish law ritual and morality in a rabaturim or four rows this replaced the mishna torah of 1170 of maimonides with a code in which all the legislation of the talmud and the rulings of the gnm were made obligatory on all jews everywhere the turim became the accepted guide for rabbinical law and judgment until 1565. the disasters of the 14th and 15th centuries disrupted the social organization of the jews the rabbis like the priests suffered a high mortality in the black death persecutions expulsions and a fugitive life almost put an end to jewish law the sephardic jews found it difficult to accept the language and customs of the jewish communities which offered to absorb them they set up their own synagogues kept their own spanish or portuguese speech and in many cities there were separate congregations of spanish portuguese italian greek or german jews each with its own rabbi customs charities and jealousies in this crisis the jewish family saved the jewish people the mutual devotion of parents and children brothers and sisters provided a haven of stability and security these centuries of disorder in jewish morays ended when rabbi joseph caro issued from safid his shukha naruch venice 1564-65 in this table in order the religion law and customs of the jews were once more codified but as carol based his code chiefly on spanish judaism the hebrews of germany and poland felt that he had paid too little attention to their own traditions and interpretations of the law rabbi moses isilos of krakow added to the table in order is a cloth for the table in 1571 which formulated the ashkenazi variations on carro's mostly sephardic code with this emendation the remained till our own time the justinian and black stone of orthodox jews to say of a jew that he obeyed all the precepts of the shukhanurukh was the summit of jewish praise since all formulations of jewish law were based on the talmud we can or can we imagine the trepidation with which the jews followed the vicissitudes of their second holy book in its literary and less authoritative section the haggadah there were some passages that ridiculed certain christian beliefs converts from judaism paved their way into christian acceptance by denouncing these passages and calling for the suppression of the entire talmud despite such movements culminating in the attack of fefercorn on roiklyn leo the tenth encouraged the first printing of the talmud in venice in 1520 but julius iii signalized the passing of the renaissance by ordering the inquisition to burn all copies to be found in italy in 1553 jewish homes were invaded thousands of copies were seized there were bonfires of jewish books in rome bologna ravenna ferrara padua venice and mantua milan however refused to obey the incendiary decree committees of jews pleaded with the pope to rescind his edict he procrastinated while the volumes burned but pius iv ruled that the talmud might be published after submitting to censorship thereafter the jews censored their own publications the zohar text of jewish capitalism survived uninjured because some catholic scholars thought they found init proofs of the divinity of christ the zohar had been written shortly before 1295 as one of a series of mystical works transmitting the kabbalah or secret tradition of jews who took refuge from poverty persecution and befuddlement in contemplating the divine and esoteric symbolism of numbers letters backward reading of words the ineffable name of yave and so on sorrowing jews gathered in private groups to seek by fasting weeping ascetic austerities and kabbalistic interpretations some novel revelation above all as to the coming of the messiah who would redeem israel from all its griefs those who have tried to feel the unprecedented depth of racial suffering which the jews experienced in the 14th 15th and 16th centuries can understand such forgivable escapes into consolatory mysticism and the repeated deception of the desperate jews by belief that the messiah had actually come in 1524 a young and handsome arabian jew calling himself david rubini rode on a white horse through rome to the vatican and presented himself to clement vii as brother and envoy of a jewish king whom he described as reigning in arabia over the old hebrew tribe of reuben his king said david had three hundred thousand soldiers with insufficient arms if the pope and the european princes would provide the weapons the tribe would drive the muslims out of palestine clement was interested and treated david with all the courtesies due to an ambassador the jews of rome were pleased to see a jew so honored they supplied david with the means to keep high diplomatic state and when an invitation came to him from john the third of portugal he sailed in a ship with a numerous retinue and under a jewish flag john the third was so taken with his proposals that he suspended the persecution of the muranos the jews of portugal most of them baptized against their will became half hysterical with joy and many proclaimed their belief that david was the messiah diogo piresh a converted jew who had become secretary to the king had himself circumcised to prove his judaism he changed his name to solomon moko made his way to turkey and announced that roubani was the forerunner of the messiah who himself would arrive in 1540. roubani had made no claims to be either messiah or forerunner he was a visionary imposter who wanted money ships and arms the flight of pirish moko aroused king john's suspicions he banned rubini the part david left was stranded on the coast of spain and was arrested by the inquisition charles v apparently to please clement ordered him released roubini went to venice in 1530 and proposed to the senate that it should arm the jews of europe for an attack upon the turks meanwhile mokul came to ancona received a passport from the pope wrote across italy and preached judaism fervently in rome when the inquisition sought to arrest him as a relapsed converso clement rescued him and sent him safely out of the city although moko had now lost faith in robani he joined him in a rash mission to radism where they petitioned charles to arm the muranos against islam charles had them arrested and brought them with him to manchu there mocha was sentenced to be burned at the last moment he was offered an imperial pardon if he would return to christianity he refused and welcomed martyrdom in 1532 roubani was sent to spain was imprisoned by the inquisition and died about 1536 apparently by poisoning the brokenhearted jews of europe crept back into their ghettos their mysticism and their despair 5. jewish thought it was not to be expected that the age of the second dispersion should produce any high culture among the jews their energy was consumed in the brute task of survival education in which they had excelled was disrupted by the mobility and insecurity of life and while christian europe moved with exhilaration into the renaissance the jews of christendom moved into the ghetto and the kabbalah the second commandment forbade them to share in the revival of art jewish scholars were many but for the most part they sang themselves in the talmud there were grammarians like prophet duran and abraham de balmes translators like isaac ibn pulkar who put al-ghatsali into hebrew and jacob mountain who rendered avicenna avarois maimonides and levi ben gerson into latin elijah levita alarmed orthodox jews by arguing conclusively in 1538 that the masoretic text of the old testament that is the text with notes vowel points and punctuation was not older than the 5th century a.d the odyssey of the abravanels illustrates the vicissitudes of the jewish intellect in the 15th and 16th centuries born in lisbon in 1437 don isa cabravanelle served alfonso v portugal as finance minister but he mingled his public life with biblical and historical studies and made his spacious home a salon of scholars scientists and men of affairs when afonso died abrabanel lost the royal favor and fled to spain in 1484. he was absorbed in writing commentaries on the historical books of the bible when ferdinand the catholic called him to office and for eight years esoc shared in managing the finances of castile he labored to avert the disaster that befell the jews in 1492 failing he joined them in their melancholy exodus at naples he was employed by the government but the french invaders of 1495 sacked his home destroyed his choice library and forced him to flee to corfu there he wrote as many a jew must have written those years my wife my sons and my books are far from me and i am left alone a stranger in a strange land he made his way to venice and was given a diplomatic post in 1503 amid these fluctuations of fortune he found time to write several philosophical or theological works now of minor interest but he established the principle that scriptural events and ideas should be interpreted in terms of the social and political life of their times he was allowed to spend his final six years in unwanted security and peace his sons were his decoration samuel abrabanel prospered at salonika was made finance minister at naples and earned the love of his people by his many philanthropies judah leona brabanel leo hebreus rose to such prominence as a physician in genoa and naples that he became known as leon merigo he studied many sciences wrote poetry and ventured into metaphysics in 1505 he was appointed physician to gonzalo de cordoba but two years later the great captain fell out with ferdinand and leon joined his father in venice his dialogue written in 1502 published in 1535 found quite an audience among the renaissance italians for whom the philosophical analysis of love served as prelude or obligato to amorous victories intellectual beauty the beauty of order plan and harmony is superior to physical beauty argued the dialogues the supreme beauty is the order plan and harmony of the universe which is the outward expression of divine beauty love rises in stages from the admiration and pursuit of physical to intellectual to heavenly beauty and culminates in the intellectual love of god the understanding and appreciation of the cosmic order and the desire to be united with the deity the manuscript may have been known to castilione who made bamboo speak to like effect in the il cortigano of 1528 and the printed book may have found its way across the century to influence spinoza's amore dei intellectualis to this ethereal amur the dispersed portuguese jews preferred usque's impassioned prose poem in portuguese consolation for the sorrows of israel ferrara 1553 it pictured the alternate triumphs and disasters of the jewish nation and comforted the jews with the assurance that they were still god's chosen people they had been punished by god for their sins but they were being purified by their sufferings and no devil tree of man could cheat them of their divine destiny to happiness and glory jewish contributions to science inevitably slackened in this prolonged vivisection of a people not only did insecurity poverty and instability impede scientific pursuits but one of the most respected and influential of the rabbis solomon ben abraham ben adret of barcelona at the very beginning of this period in 1305 had forbidden under penalty of excommunication the teaching of science or philosophy to any jew under the age of 25 on the ground that such instruction might damage religious faith nevertheless isak israeli the younger of toledo summarized the astronomy of his time in 1320 and clarified the jewish calendar in chronology emanuel bonfis of tarascon drew up valuable astronomical tables and anticipated exponential and decimal calculus abraham crescus of mallorca master of maps and compasses to the government of aragon in 1377 which was so widely recognized as the best world map yet made that aragon sent it as a distinguished gift to charles vi of france where it is now a prized possession of the bibliotheque nacional abraham's son yehuda crescus was the first director of henry the navigator's nautical observatory at sagresh and helped to chart his explorations pedro noonish's treatise on the sphere from 1537 opened the way for mercator and all modern cartography and garcia dorta's colloquioce dos simple medicines of 1563 marked an epic in botany and founded tropical medicine avraham zakuto was the one major figure in the jewish science of the 15th century while teaching at salamanca from 1473 to 1478 he compiled his almanac perpetuum whose astronomical tables were used as navigational guides on the voyages of vasco de gama cabral albuquerque and after 1496 columbus zakuto was among the refugees from spain in 1492. he found temporary asylum in portugal he was consulted by the court in preparing dagama's expedition to india and the ships were equipped with his improved astrolabe but in 1497 persecution drove him from portugal too for years he wandered in poverty until he settled in tunis and there in his old age he comforted himself by writing a history of his people his pupil joseph pacino positioned to john ii of portugal was sent to chart latitudes and solar declinations along the guinea coast and the charts so prepared proved invaluable to de gama visino was one of the commission to which john ii referred columbus's proposals for seeking a western route to the indies in 1484 and shared in the negative decision jewish physicians were still the most sought for in europe harassed with religious condemnations and official restrictions and risking their lives in treating prominent christians they were nevertheless the favorites of popes and kings their contributions to medical science were not now brilliant except for daughters to tropical medicine but amateus lucitanus exemplified the finest traditions of his profession and his people driven by the inquisition from the portugal whose latin name he had taken he lived passingly in antwerp ferrara and rome and settled in ancona circa 1549 whence he was often called to treat that same pope julius iii who labored to destroy the talmud to the end of his life he was able to take oath that he had never concerned himself with compensation had never accepted valuable presence had served the poor without fee had made no distinction in his practice among christian jew and turk and had allowed no difficulties of time or distance to interfere with devotion to his calling his curiation medicinalium century septum of 1563 gave clinical records of 700 cases that he had treated these centuries were studied and treasured by physicians throughout europe the king of poland invited damatus to be his personal physician lusitanus preferred to remain in ancona but in 1556 he was compelled to resume his wandering when paul iv demanded the conversion or imprisonment of all muranos in italy benedret's moratorium on science and philosophy had less effect on philosophy than on science and less in france than in spain the influence of maimonides was still strong among the jews who managed to survive in southern france joseph cosby dared to write treatises on logic and ethics for the guidance of his son and defended the liberal philosophical tradition that had received its classical exposition in maimonides's this approach produced a major jewish thinker in levi ben gerson known to the christian world as gersonitis like most jewish philosophers he earned his bread by practicing medicine and realized hippocrates is ideal of the physician philosopher born at banyol in 1288 in a family of scholars he lived nearly all his life in orange pepino and avignon where he worked in peace under the protection of the popes there was hardly a science that he did not deal with hardly a problem in philosophy that he left untouched he was a learned talmudist he contributed to the mathematics of music he wrote poetry in mathematics and astronomy he was among the lights of the age he anticipated in 1321 the method later formulated by moralico in 1575 and pascal in 1654 of finding the number of simple permutations of n objects by mathematical induction his treatise on trigonometry paved the way for regio montanus and was so widely esteemed that pope clement vi commissioned its translation into latin as descenibus cordis et arcubus in 1342 he invented or materially improved the cross staff for measuring the altitude of stars this remained for two centuries a precious boon to navigation he made his own astronomic observations and ably criticized the ptolemaic system he discussed but rejected the heliocentric hypothesis in a manner suggesting that there were quite a few adherents of it in his time he perfected the camera obscura and used it with the cross staff to determine more accurately the variations in the apparent diameter of the sun and moon as ben gerson's science stemmed from the arabic mathematicians and astronomers so his philosophy was based on a critical study of the commentaries in which avarois had expounded aristotle during the years 1319 to 1321 levi composed commentaries on these commentaries covering aristotle's treatises on logic physics astronomy meteorology botany zoology psychology and metaphysics and to these studies he added of course repeated readings of maimonides his own philosophy and most of his science were embodied in a hebrew work entitled in the fashion of the age milkamoat adonai battles of the lord 1317-1329 it ranks second only to the more nabookim in jewish medieval philosophy and continues maimonides attempt to reconcile greek thought with jewish faith much to the detriment of the faith when we consider the similar efforts of avarois and thomas aquinas to harmonize mohammedanism and christianity with aristotle we might almost say that the impact of aristotle on medieval theologies inaugurated their disintegration and the transition from the age of faith to the age of reason their sonities sought to soften orthodox resentment by professing his readiness to abandon his views if these should be proved contrary to scripture an old scholastic dodge nevertheless he went on to reason at great length about god creation the eternity of the world the immortality of the soul and when his conclusions contradicted scripture he interpreted it with such violence to the text that his critics renamed his book battles against the lord we must not take literally said levi such stories as that of joshua stopping the sun these and similar miracles were probably natural events whose causes were forgotten or unknown finally he proclaimed his rationalism without disguise the torah cannot prevent us from considering to be true that which our reason urges us to believe their sanity is derived the existence of god from what the atheist holbach would call the system of nature the law and order of the universe reveal a cosmic mind to this he adds the teleological argument most things in living nature seem designed as means to end and providence gives every organism the means of self-protection development and reproduction the world as cosmos or order was created in time but not out of nothing an inert formless mass pre-existed from eternity creation gave it life and form between god and the created forms is an intermediary power which gerson following aristotle and averroes calls nus poeticas the active or creative intellect this emanation of divine intelligence guides all things and becomes the soul in man so far as the soul depends upon the individual's sensations it is mortal so far as it conceives universals and perceives the order and unity of the world it becomes consciously part of the active intellect which is immortal bengerson's philosophy was rejected by the jews as essentially a form of avaroism a rationalism which would ultimately dissolve religious belief christian thinkers studied him spinoza was influenced by him but the heart and mind of thoughtful jews were more faithfully expressed by hastai ben abraham crescus who had imbibed the conservatism of solomon ben adrift born in barcelona in 1340 crescus lived through a period of rabid anti-semitism he was arrested on a charge of having desecrated a host he was soon released but his son on the very eve of marriage was killed in the massacres of 1391. persecution strengthened hostile's faith for only by belief in a just god and the compensatory heaven could he bear a life so evil in injustice and suffering seven years after the martyrdom of his son he published in spanish a tratado which sought to explain to christians why a jew should not be asked to accept christianity courteously and moderately he argued that the christian dogmas of the fall trinity immaculate conception incarnation atonement and transubstantiation involved in super bowl contradictions and absurd impossibilities yet when he composed his major work or adonai light of the lord in 1410 he took a stand from which the christians might have defended these theories he renounced reason and bad at surrender to faith though he was not officially a rabbi he shared the rabbinical view that the renewed persecutions were a divine punishment for subjecting the revealed religion to rationalistic dilution if he wrote philosophy it was through no admiration for it but to prove the weakness of philosophy and reason and to affirm the necessity of belief he repudiated the attempts of maimonides and gerson to reconcile judaism with aristotle who was this greek that god had to agree with him he protested the aristotelian notion that god's supreme quality is knowledge rather it is love god is the absolute good christ admitted that reason cannot harmonize god's foreknowledge with man's freedom we must therefore reject not freedom but reason we must believe in god free will and immortality for our peace of mind and our moral health and we need make no pretense to prove these beliefs by reason we must choose between our proud weak reason which dissolves belief and begets despair and our humble faith in god's word through which alone we can bear the indignities and inequities of life crescus was the last of a brilliant line of medieval jewish philosophers he was not at once appreciated by his people for his pupil joseph albo caught the philosophical audience with his more readable ikarum or fundamental principles this combined maimonides and crescus in an eclectic system more consonant than either with orthodox judaism which was not prepared to admit the irrationality of faith after albo's death in 1444 the jews retired from philosophy almost from history till spinoza massacres dislocations destitution and restrictions of residence and occupation had broken their spirit and had diminished their number to the lowest level since the fall of jerusalem in 70 a.d the despised and rejected of men found refuge in the sorrowing chance and comforting fellowship of the synagogue in hopes of divine forgiveness earthly justification and celestial bliss scholars buried themselves in the talmud confining their reason to the elucidation of the saving law while some followed the kabbalah into a mysticism that subliminated misery into heaven scaling delusions jewish poetry ceased to sing only a remnant lifted its head now and then defiantly against the storm or soften the ironies of life with wistful humor and dry wit not till the humble jew of amsterdam would dare to unite judaism scholasticism and cartesianism into a sublime merger of religion and science with the jews wake from their long and healing sleep to take their place again in the raceless and timeless international of the mind

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Id: L0Q-AVhT99Q

Length: 79min 57sec (4797 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 07 2019