Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/458

 JEWS

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JEWS

Apostolic See. . . . They oppress the Jews by star- vation, imprisonment, and by tortures and sufferings; they aiBict them with all kinds of pxmishments, and sometimes even condemn them to death, so that the Jews, although living under Christian princes, are in a worse phght than were their ancestors in the land of the Pharaohs. The.y are driven to leave in despair the land in which their fathers have dwelt since the mem- ory of man. . . . Since it is our pleasure that they shall not be disturbed, ... we ordain that ye behave towards them in a friendly and kind manner. When- ever any unjust attacks upon them come under your notice, redress their injuries, and do not suffer them to be visited in the future by similar tribulations." The protestations of the Roman pontiffs do not seem to have been much heeded in the Christian states gener- ally. In 1254, nearly all the Frencli Jews were ban- ished by St. Louis from the king's domains. Between 1257 and 1266, Alfonso X of Castile compiled a code of laws which contained several clauses against the Jews and countenanced the blood accusation which had been contradicted by Innocent IV. During the last years of Henry III (d. 1272), the Jews of England fared worse and worse. About this time. Pope Gregory X issued a Bull ordaining that no injury be inflicted upon their persons or their property (1273); but the popular hatred against them on the charge of usury, use of Christian blood at their Passover, etc., could not be restrained; and the thirteenth century which had witnessed their persecution in all parts of Christen- dom, except Austria, Portugal, and Italy, closed with their total expulsion from England in 1290, under Edward I, and their carnage in Germany in 1283 and 1298. During the same period, public disputations had been resorted to — but with little success — for the conversion of the Jews. Further light on the severity of measures enacted by popes or councils concerning the Jews, as well as on the motives of popular prejudice and hatred, will be found below, under section Judaism: (4) Judaism and Church Legislation.

(9) Last Part of the Middle Ages {1300-1500).— \i the beginning of the fourteenth century, Jewish rabbis were divided concerning the value of the Zohar, the sacred book of the Kabbalists (see Kabbala), which Moses of Leon had recently published. A still deeper division prevailed among them with regard to the cultivation of Aristotle's philosophy and the human- istic sciences and literature, and it resulted in 1305 in a public ban on the part of several Jewish leaders against the study of science. The next year (1306), Philip IV plundered and expelled all the French Jews, some of whom travelled as far as Palestine to enjoy there freedom under the rule of the mameluke sultan, Nassir Mohammed (d. 1341), while most remained on the border of France, thinking that the royal avarice which had caused their banishment would bring about their early return. Meantime, their coreligionists of Castile narrowly escaped the carrying out of stringent measures against their own rights and privileges (1313). The banished French Jews were actually re- called in 1315 by Louis X, and admitted for twelve years. But as early as 1320, there arose against them the bloody persecution of some 40,000 pastoureaux who pretended to be on their way to the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. In 1321, the Jews were accused by the lepers of having poisoned the wells and rivers, whereupon a new persecution ensued. The same year, owing to intrigues against them, the Jews of Rome, then very flourishing in society and literature, would have been expelled from Roman territory by John XXII who residetl in Avignon, had it not been for the timely intervention of Roliert of Anjou, Vicar-General of the Papal States. In Castile, where the Jews po.s- sessed great influence with Alfonso XI (1 312-1 3,')0), the various plans against them actually failcil,;ind the king showed himself favourable to them till the day of his death. Their enemies were more successful in Na-

varre on the occasion of the war of independence which this province waged against France. As the Jews were apparently in the way of the secession, they were subjected to a violent persecution during the course of the war (1328), and to oppressive measures after Navarre had become a separate kingdom.

In Germany, they fared still worse during the riots and the civil wars under Louis IV (1314-1347). For two consecutive years (1336, 1337), the Armleder, or peasants wearing a piece of leather wound around their arm, inflicted untold sufferings upon the Jewish inhabi- tants of Alsace and the Rhineland as far as Swabia. In 1337, also, on the charge of having profaned a con- secrated Host, the Jews of Bavaria were subjected to a slaughter which soon extended to those of Bohemia, Moravia, and Austria, although Benedict XII had is- sued a Bull promising an inquiry into the matter. Besides, Louis IV, who always treated his Jewish sub- jects as mere slaves, subjected them (c. 1342) to a new and most onerous poll-tax. Greater Jewish mas- sacres occurred in 134S-1349 while the fearful scourge, known as the " Black Death ", desolated Europe. The report that the Jews had caused the scourge by poison- ing the wells used by Christians, spread rapidly and was beheved in most towns of Central Europe, despite the Bulls issued by Clement VI in July and September, 1348, declaring their falsity. Despite the fact, too, that the same pontiff had solemnly ordered that Jews be not forced into baptism, that their sabbaths, festivals, synagogues, and cemeteries be respected, that no new exactions be imposed on them, they were plundered and murdered in many countries of Central and Northern Europe. The next years were, on the whole, a period of respite from persecution for the Jewish race. In Castile, the Jews attained to a great influence under Don Pedro (1360-1369), and the misfortunes which then befell them arose partly from the prevalent view that they availed themselves of their power to lap up the people's possessions with their tax-farming, and partly from their constant loyalty to Don Pedro's cause, during the civil war which broke out between him and Don Henry. The latter, after reacliing the throne, showed himself friendly to the Jews, and agreed only reluctantly to some of the restrictive measures urged by the Cortes in 1371. In Germany, they were readmitted as early as 1355 into the very towns which had sworn that for 100 or 200 years no Jew should dwell within their walls.

In France, they were granted special privileges by King John (1361), which they enjoyed to the full ex- tent under his successor, Charles V ( 1 364- 1 380). But the last twenty years of the fourteenth century were again disastrous for the European Jews. In France, scarcely was Charles V dead, when ])o]iular riots were started against them becau^ic of tlirir e.xtortionate usury and encouragement to baptizetl Jews to recant, and finally brought about the permanent exile of the Jewish population (1394). In Spain, the reign of John I (d. 1390) witnessed a great curtailing of the Jews' power and privileges; and that of Henry III (d. 1406) was marked by bloody assaults in many cities of Castile and Aragon and even in the island of Majorca, on account of which numerous Jews em- braced Christianity. In Germany (1384), and in Bo- hemia (1389, 1399), the Jews were likewise persecuted. Boniface IX had protested, but in vain, against such outrages and slaughters (1389); and it is only in his states, in Italy, and in Portugal, that the Jewish race had any measure of peace during these years of car^ nage.

At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Jews enjoyed some manner of respite in nearly all the coun- tries" where they had been allowed to stay or whither they had fled from persecuting France and Spain. But these peaceful days did not last long. As early as 1 IDS, there a]ipeared in the name of the infant King of Castile, John II, an edict which revived the dormant