Chapter IV: , VII (145)

"It might have been expected that, from the character of the
great war with Rome, the people, as well as the state of the
Jews, would have fallen into utter dissolution, or, at least,
verged rapidly towards total extermination. Besides the loss
of nearly a million and a half of lives during the war, the
markets of the Roman empire were glutted with Jewish slaves.
… Yet still this inexhaustible race revived before long to
offer new candidates for its inalienable inheritance of
detestation and misery. Of the state of Palestine, indeed,
immediately after the war, we have little accurate
information. It is uncertain how far the enormous loss of
life, and the numbers carried into captivity drained the
country of the Jewish population; or how far the rescript of
Vespasian, which offered the whole landed property of the
province for sale, introduced a foreign race into the
possession of the soil. The immense numbers engaged in the
rebellion during the reign of Hadrian imply, either that the
country was not nearly exhausted, or that the reproduction in
this still fertile region was extremely rapid. In fact, it
must be remembered that … the ravage of war was, after all,
by no means universal in the province. Galilee, Judæa, and
great part of Idumæa were wasted, and probably much
depopulated; but, excepting a few towns which made resistance,
the populous regions and wealthy cities beyond the Jordan
escaped the devastation. The dominions of King Agrippa were,
for the most part, respected. Samaria submitted without
resistance, as did most of the cities on the sea-coast. …
The Jews, though looked upon with contempt as well as
detestation, were yet regarded, during the reign of Vespasian
and his immediate successors, with jealous watchfulness. A
garrison of 800 men occupied the ruins of Jerusalem, to
prevent the reconstruction of the city by the fond and
religious zeal of its former inhabitants. … Still, … it is
impossible, unless communities were suffered to be formed, and
the whole race enjoyed comparative security, that the nation
could have appeared in the formidable attitude of resistance
which it assumed in the time of Hadrian."

_H. H. Milman,
History of the Jews,
book 18 (volume 2)._

JEWS: A. D. 116.
The rising in Trajan's reign.

"Not quite fifty years after the destruction of Jerusalem, in
the year 116, the Jews of the eastern Mediterranean rose
against the imperial government. The rising, although
undertaken by the Diaspora, was of a purely national character
in its chief seats, Cyrene, Cyprus, Egypt, directed to the
expulsion of the Romans as of the Hellenes, and, apparently,
to the establishment of a separate Jewish state. It ramified
even into Asiatic territory, and seized Mesopotamia and
Palestine itself. When the insurgents were victorious they
conducted the war with the same exasperation as the Sicarii in
Jerusalem; they killed those whom they seized. … In Cyrene
220,000, in Cyprus even 240,000 men are said to have been thus
put to death by them. On the other hand, in Alexandria, which
does not appear itself to have fallen into the hands of the
Jews, the besieged Hellenes slew whatever Jews were then in
the city. The immediate cause of the rising is not clear. …
To all appearance it was an outbreak of religious exasperation
of the Jews, which had been growing in secret like a volcano
since the destruction of the temple. …
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The insurgents were nowhere able to offer resistance to the
compact troops, … and similar punishments were inflicted on
this Diaspora as previously on the Jews of Palestine. That
Trajan annihilated the Jews in Alexandria, as Appian says, is
hardly all incorrect, although perhaps a too blunt expression
for what took place."

_T. Mommsen,
History of Rome,
book 8, chapter 11 (The Provinces, volume 2)._

See, also, CYPRUS, A. D. 117.

JEWS: A. D. 130-134.
The rising in Hadrian's reign.

The Emperor Hadrian, when his tour through the Empire brought
him to Palestine, A. D. 130, resolved to erect the destroyed
holy city of the Jews as a Roman colony with a Roman name, and
to divest it altogether of the character which made it sacred
in the eyes of the Jews. He forbade their sojourn in the new
city, and exasperated them still more by showing favor, it is
said, to the Christian sect. By this and by other measures a
fresh revolt was provoked, A. D. 132, incited by the priest
Eleazar and led by the bandit-chief Barcochebas, or
Bar-Kok-heba ('Son of the Star'). The cruel struggle, redeemed
by no humanity on either side, continued for three years, and
was ended only when hundreds of thousands of Jews had been
slain. "The dispersion of the unhappy race, particularly in
the West, was now complete and final. The sacred soil of
Jerusalem was occupied by a Roman colony, which received the
name of Ælia Capitolina, with reference to the emperor who
founded it [Publius Ælius Hadrianus] and to the supreme God of
the pagan mythology, installed on the desecrated summits of
Zion and Moriah."

_C. Merivale,
History of the Romans,
chapter 65._

"The whole body of the Jews at home and abroad was agitated by
the movement and supported more or less openly the insurgents
on the Jordan; even Jerusalem fell into their hands, and the
governor of Syria and indeed the emperor Hadrian appeared on
the scene of conflict. … As in the war under Vespasian no
pitched battle took place, but one place after another cost
time and blood, till at length after a three years' warfare
the last castle of the insurgents, the strong Bether, not far
from Jerusalem, was stormed by the Romans. The numbers handed
down to us in good accounts of 50 fortresses taken, 985
villages occupied, 580,000 that fell, are not incredible,
since the war was waged with inexorable cruelty, and the male
population was probably everywhere put to death. In
consequence of this rising the very name of the vanquished
people was set aside; the province was thenceforth termed, not
as formerly Judaea, but by the old name of Herodotus, Syria of
the Philistines, or Syria Palaestina. The land remained
desolate; the new city of Hadrian continued to exist, but did
not prosper. The Jews were prohibited under penalty of death
from ever setting foot in Jerusalem."

_T. Mommsen,
History of Rome,
book 8, chapter 11 (The Provinces, volume 2)._

JEWS: A. D. 200-400.
The Nation without a country.
Its two governments.

"In less than sixty years after the war under Hadrian, before
the close of the second century after Christ, the Jews present
the extraordinary spectacle of two regular and organized
communities: one under a sort of spiritual head, the Patriarch
of Tiberias, comprehending all of Israelitish descent who
inhabited the Roman empire; the other under the Prince of the
Captivity, to whom all the eastern [Babylonian] Jews paid
their allegiance. … Unfortunately it is among the most
difficult parts of Jewish history to trace the growth of the
patriarchal authority established in Tiberias, and its
recognition by the whole scattered body of the nation, who,
with disinterested zeal, and I do not scruple to add, a noble
attachment to the race of Israel, became voluntary subjects
and tributaries to their spiritual sovereign, and united with
one mind and one heart to establish their community on a
settled basis. It is a singular spectacle to behold a nation
dispersed in every region of the world, without a murmur or
repugnance, submitting to the regulations, and taxing
themselves to support the greatness, of a supremacy which
rested solely on public opinion, and had no temporal power
whatever to enforce its decrees. It was not long before the
Rabbins, who had been hunted down with unrelenting cruelty,
began to creep forth from their places of concealment. The
death of Hadrian, in a few years after the termination of the
war, and the accession of the mild Antoninus, gave them
courage, not merely to make their public appearance, but
openly to reëstablish their schools and synagogues. … The
Rabbinical dominion gradually rose to greater power; the
schools flourished; perhaps in this interval the great
Synagogue or Sanhedrin had its other migrations, … and
finally to Tiberias, where it fixed its pontifical throne and
maintained its supremacy for several centuries. Tiberias, it
may be remembered, was a town built by Herod Antipas, over an
ancient cemetery, and therefore abominated by the more
scrupulous Jews, as a dwelling of uncleanness. But the Rabbins
soon obviated this objection. Simon Ben Jochai, by his
cabalistic art, discovered the exact spot where the
burial-place had been; this was marked off, and the rest of
the city declared, on the same unerring authority, to be
clean. Here, then, in this noble city, on the shore of the sea
of Galilee, the Jewish pontiff fixed his throne; the
Sanhedrin, if it had not, as the Jews pretend, existed during
all the reverses of the nation, was formally reëstablished.
Simon, the son and heir of Gamaliel, was acknowledged as the
Patriarch of the Jews, and Nasi or President of the Sanhedrin.
… In every region of the West, in every province of the
Roman empire, the Jews of all ranks and classes submitted,
with the utmost readiness, to the sway of their Spiritual
Potentate. His mandates were obeyed, his legates received with
honour, his supplies levied without difficulty, in Rome, in
Spain, in Africa. … In the mean time the rival throne in
Babylonia, that of the Prince of the Captivity, was rapidly
rising to the state and dignity which perhaps did not attain
its perfect height till under the Persian monarchs. There
seems to have been some acknowledged hereditary claim in R.
Hona, who now appears as the Prince of the Captivity, as if
his descent from the House of David had been recognized by the
willing credulity of his brethren. … The Court of the
Resch-Glutha [Prince of the Captivity] is described as …
splendid; in imitation of his Persian master, he had his
officers, counsellors, and cupbearers. Rabbins were appointed
as satraps over the different communities. This state, it is
probable, was maintained by a tribute raised from the body of
the people, and substituted for that which, in ancient times,
was paid for the Temple in Jerusalem. … Whether the
authority of the Prince of the Captivity extended beyond
Babylonia and the adjacent districts is uncertain."

_H. H. Milman,
History of the Jews,
book 19 (volume 2)._

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JEWS: A. D. 415.
Driven from Alexandria by Cyril.

See ALEXANDRIA: A. D. 413-415.

JEWS: 5-6th Centuries.
Early Jewish settlements in Europe.
Arian toleration and Catholic persecution.

"The survey of the settlement of the Jews in Europe begins, as
we leave Asia, with the Byzantine Empire. They already lived
in its cities before Christianity acquired the empire of the
world. In Constantinople the Jewish community inhabited a
separate quarter, called the brass-market, where there was
also a large synagogue. They were, however, expelled thence by
an emperor, either Theodosius II., or Justinus II., and the
synagogue was converted into the 'Church of the Mother of
God.' … In Greece, Macedonia, and Illyria the Jews had
already been settled a long time. … In Italy the Jews are
known to have been domiciled as early as the time of the
Republic, and to have been in enjoyment of full political
rights until these were curtailed by the Christian emperors.
They probably looked with excusable pleasure on the fall of
Rome. … When Italy became Ostrogothic under Theodoric, the
position of the Jews in that country was peculiar. Outbreaks
of a spirit of hostility to them were not infrequent during
this reign, but at the bottom they were not directed against
the Jews, but were meant to be a demonstration against this
hated Arian monarch. … Those nations … which were baptised
in the Arian creed betrayed less intolerance of the Jews. Thus
the more Arianism was driven out of Europe and gave way before
the Catholic religion, the more were the Jews harassed by
proselytising zeal. … In spite of the antipathy entertained
against them by the leaders of opinion, the Jews of Italy were
happy in comparison with their brethren of the Byzantine
empire. … Even when the Lombards embraced the Catholic faith
the position of the Jews in Italy remained supportable. The
heads of the Catholic Church, the Popes, were free from savage
intolerance. Gregory I. (590-604), surnamed the great and
holy, who laid the foundation of the power of Catholicism,
gave utterance to the principle, that the Jews should only be
converted by means of persuasion and gentleness, not by
violence. … In the territory which was subject to the Papal
sway, in Rome, Lower Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia, he
steadfastly persisted in this course in the face of the
fanatical bishops, who regarded the oppression of the Jews as
a pious work. … In the west of Europe, in France and Spain,
where the Church was first obliged to make its way
laboriously, the situation of the Jews assumed a different and
much more favourable aspect. … It was a long while before
Catholicism gained a firm footing in the west of Europe, and
the Jews who had settled there enjoyed undisturbed peace until
the victorious Church gained the upper hand. The immigration
of the Jews into these important and wealthy provinces took
place most probably as early as the time of the Republic or of
Cæsar. … The presence of the Jews in the west of Europe is,
however, not certain until the 2d century. The Gaulish Jews,
whose first settlement was in the district of Arles, enjoyed
the full rights of Roman citizenship, whether they arrived in
Gaul as merchants or fugitives, with the pedlar's pack or in
the garb of slaves; they were likewise treated as Romans by
the Frankish and Burgundian conquerors." The Burgundian King
Sigismund, who embraced the Catholic faith in 516, "first
raised the barrier between Jews and Christians. … A spirit
of hostility to the Jews gradually spread from Burgundy over
the Frankish countries. … The later of the Merovingian kings
became more and more bigoted, and their hatred of the Jews
consequently increased. … The Jews of Germany are certainly
only to be regarded as colonies of the Frankish Jews, and such
of them as lived in Austrasia, a province subject to the
Merovingian kings, shared the same fate as their brethren in
France. … While the history of the Jews in Byzance, Italy,
and France, possesses but special interest, that of their
brethren in the Pyrenean peninsula rises to the height of
universal importance. … Jewish Spain contributed almost as
greatly to the development of Judaism as Judæa and Babylonia.
… Cordova, Grenada, and Toledo, are as familiar to the Jews
as Jerusalem and Tiberias, and almost more so than Naherdea
and Sora. When Judaism had come to a standstill in the East,
and had grown weak with age, it acquired new vigour in Spain.
… The first settlement of the Jews in beautiful Hesperia is
buried in dim obscurity. It is certain that they came there as
free men as early as the time of the Roman Republic, in order
to take advantage of the productive resources of this country.
The tortured victims of the unhappy insurrections under
Vespasian, Titus, and Hadrian were also dispersed to the
extreme west, and an exaggerated account relates that 80,000
of them were dragged off to Spain as prisoners. … The Jews
… were unmolested under the Arian kings; … but as soon as
the Catholic Church obtained the supremacy in Spain, and
Arianism began to be persecuted, an unfavourable crisis set in."

_H. Graetz,
History of the Jews,
volume 3, chapter 2._

JEWS: A. D. 615.
Siege and capture of Jerusalem by the Persians.
Sack and massacre.

See JERUSALEM: A. D. 615.

JEWS: A. D. 637.
Surrender of Jerusalem to the Moslems.

See JERUSALEM: A. D. 637.

JEWS: 7th Century.
General persecution.
First expulsion from Spain.

In the seventh century, during the reign of the Eastern Roman
Emperor Heraclius (A. D. 610-641) the Jews were subjected to a
more general and bitter persecution than they had experienced
before at the hands of the Christians. "It is said that about
this time a prophecy was current, which declared that the
Roman empire would be overthrown by a circumcised people. This
report may have been spread by the Jews, in order to excite
their own ardour, and assist their projects of rebellion; but
the prophecy was saved from oblivion by the subsequent
conquests of the Saracens. … The conduct of the Jews excited
the bigotry, as it may have awakened the fears, of the
imperial government, and both Phocas and Heraclius attempted
to exterminate the Jewish religion, and if possible to put an
end to the national existence. Heraclius not only practised
every species of cruelty himself to effect this object within
the bounds of his own dominions, but he even made the forced
conversion or banishment of the Jews a prominent feature in
his diplomacy." Thus Heraclius induced Sisebut, the Gothic
king in Spain, and Dagobert, the Frank king, to join him in
forcing baptism on the Jews, with the alternative of flight.

_G. Finlay,
Greece under the Romans,
chapter 4, section 5._

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"Urged by the request and incited by the example of Heraclius,
Sisebuto [or Sisebut] issued an edict in the year 616, that,
within a year, the Jews in Spain should either embrace
Christianity, or should be shorn, scourged, and expelled from
the kingdom, and their property confiscated. … It was a
premium on hypocrisy; for hypocrisy was an instrument of
self-preservation. Ninety thousand Jews made a nominal
submission."

_H. Coppée,
Conquest of Spain by the Arab-Moors,
book 2, chapter 3 (volume 1)._

See, also, GOTHS (VISIGOTHS): A. D. 507-711.

JEWS: 7th Century.
The Epoch of the Geonim.
The Exilarchate and the Gaonate.

After the death of the Caliph Othman (A. D. 655), when the
followers of Mohammed were divided into two camps—the
partisans of Ali and the partisans of Moawiyah, "the
Babylonian Jews and Nestorian Christians sided with Ali, and
rendered him their assistance." Prominent among the Jewish
supporters of Ali was Mar-Isaac, the head of a school. "The
unhappy Ali valued this homage, and, doubtless, accorded
privileges to the Jewish head of the school. It is quite
probable that from this time the head of the school of Sora
occupied a certain dignity, and took the title of Gaon. There
were certain privileges connected with the Gaonate, upon which
even the Exilarch—also politically appointed—did not
venture to encroach. Through this there arose a peculiar
relationship between the two entirely opposing offices—the
Exilarchate and the Gaonate. This led to subsequent quarrels.
With Bostanaï [then Exilarch] and Mar-Isaac, the Jewish
officials recognised by the Caliph, there begins a new period
in Jewish history—the Epoch of the Geonim. … For the space
of 40 years (680 to 720), only the names of the Geonim and
Exilarchs are known to us, historical details, however, are
entirely wanting. During this time, through quarrels and
concessions, there arose peculiar relations between the
officials of the Jewish-Persian kingdom, which developed into
a kind of constitution. The Jewish community in Babylonia
(Persia), which had the appearance of a state, had a peculiar
constitution. The Exilarch was at their head, and next to him
stood the Gaon. Both together they formed the unity of the
community. The Exilarch filled political functions. He
represented the Babylonian-Persian Judaism under the Caliphs.
He collected the taxes from the various communities, and paid
them into the treasury. The Exilarchs, both in their outer
appearance and mode of life, were like princes. They drove
about in a state carriage; they had outriders and a kind of
body guard, and received princely homage. The religious unity
of Judaism, on the other hand, was represented in the two
chief schools of Sora and Pumbaditha. They expounded the
Talmud, giving it a practical application; they made new laws
and institutions, and saw that they were carried out, by
allotting punishments for those who transgressed them. The
Exilarch shared the judicial power in common with the Gaon of
Sora and the head of the school of Pumbaditha. … The head of
the school of Sora, however, was alone privileged to be styled
'Gaon'; the head of the school of Pumbaditha did not bear the
title officially. The Gaon of Sora enjoyed general preference
over his colleague of Pumbaditha."

_H. Graetz,
History of the Jews,
volume 3, chapter 4._

JEWS: 8th Century.
Conversion of the Khazars to Judaism.

See KHAZARS.

JEWS: 8th Century.
Origin of the Karaites.

See KARAISM.

JEWS: 8-15th Centuries.
Toleration by Moors and Christians in Spain, followed by
merciless persecution and expulsion.
Treatment in Portugal.

"Under the Moorish government in Spain the lot of this
persecuted, tormented people was more tolerable than in any
Christian country. … Under the Christian kings of the 12th
and 13th centuries, they rose to still greater influence as
financial advisers and treasurers, astronomers and physicians;
in Toledo alone they numbered 12,000. … Their condition in
Spain from the time of the Moorish supremacy to the end of the
13th century was upon the whole more favourable than in any
other country of Europe. … The 14th century brought disaster
to the Jews of the Peninsula and elsewhere. … They were
detested by the people; first in one town and then in another
they were attacked and murdered, and their synagogues were
burned down; and at length, in 1391, the storm broke upon them
in all its fury, and raged through the length and breadth of
Spain. … Many thousands were slain; whilst 200,000 saved
themselves by receiving baptism, but it was discovered in a
few years that 17,000 had lapsed into Judaism. A century
later, in 1492, a royal edict commanded all Jews to quit the
country, leaving their goods behind them. As the Inquisition
at the same time forbade the sale of victuals to the Jews, the
majority … were compelled to submit to baptism. Of those who
withdrew into exile—the numbers are variously reckoned from
170,000 to 400,000—the greater part perished from pestilence,
starvation, or shipwreck. The descendants of those who
survived, the Sephardim, found refuge in Italy, and under
Turkish rule in the East, and, for a short space, even in
Portugal. … In Portugal the Jews fared even worse than their
brethren in Spain. … The Inquisition was … introduced as
the approved means for handing over to the exchequer the
wealth of the new Christians."

_J. I. von Döllinger,
The Jews in Europe
(Studies in European History, chapter 9)._

ALSO IN:
_H. C. Lea,
Chapters from the Religious History of Spain,
pages 437-468._

_W. H. Prescott,
History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella,
part 1, chapter 17 (volume 2)._

See, also, INQUISITION: A. D. 1203-1525.

JEWS: 11th Century.
First appearance of Jews in England.
Their treatment as usurers.

"Their first appearance in England is said to have been due to
the Conqueror, who brought over a Jewish colony from Rouen to
London. They were special favourites of William Rufus; under
Henry they play a less conspicuous part; but in the next reign
we find them at Lincoln, Oxford, and elsewhere, and there can
be no doubt that they were already established in most of the
chief English towns. They formed, however, no part of the
townsfolk. The Jew was not a member of the state; he was the
king's chattel, not to be meddled with, for good or for evil,
save at the king's own bidding.
{1926}
Exempt from toll and tax and from the fines of justice, he had
the means of accumulating a hoard of wealth which might indeed
be seized at any moment by an arbitrary act of the king, but
which the king's protection guarded with jealous care against
all other interference. The capacity in which the Jew usually
appears is that of a money-lender—an occupation in which the
scruples of the Church forbade Christians to engage, lest they
should be contaminated with the sin of usury. Fettered by no
such scruples, the Hebrew money-lenders drove a thriving
trade."

_K. Norgate,
England Under the Angevin Kings,
volume 1, chapter 1._

"The Church declared against capitalism of any kind, branding
it as usury. It became impossible in Angevin England to obtain
the capital for any large scheme of building or organisation
unless the projectors had the capital themselves. Here was the
function which the Jew could perform in England of the twelfth
century, which was just passing economically out of the stage
of barter. Capital was wanted in particular for the change of
architecture from wood to stone with the better classes, and
especially for the erection of castles and monasteries. The
Jews were, indeed, the first in England to possess
dwelling-houses built with stone, probably for purposes of
protection as well as of comfort. And as a specimen of their
influence on monastic architecture, we have it on record that
no less than nine Cistercian monasteries of the North Country
were built by moneys lent by the great Aaron of Lincoln, who
also boasted that he had built the shrine of St. Alban. …
The result of the Church's attitude towards Jews and towards
usury was to put the king into a peculiar relation towards his
Jewish subjects. The Church kept them out of all other
pursuits but that of usury, which it branded as infamous; the
State followed suit, and confiscated the estates of all
usurers dying as such. Hence, as a Jew could only be a usurer,
his estate was always potentially the king's, and could be
dealt with by the king as if it were his own. Yet, strange to
say, it was not to the king's interest to keep the Jews'
wealth in his own hands, for he, the king, as a good
Christian, could not get usury for it, while the Jew could
very soon double and treble it, since the absence of
competition enabled him to fix the rate of interest very high,
rarely less than forty per cent., often as much as eighty. …
The only useful function the Jew could perform towards both
king and people was to be as rich as possible, just as the
larger the capital of a bank, the more valuable the part it
plays in the world of commerce. … The king reaped the
benefit of these riches in several ways. One of his main
functions and main source of income was selling justice, and
Jews were among his best customers. Then he claimed from them,
as from his other subjects, fines and amerciaments for all the
events of life. The Pipe Rolls contain entries of fines paid
by Jews to marry, not to marry, to become divorced, to go a
journey across the sea, to become partners with another Jew,
in short, for all the decisive events of life. And above all,
the king got frequent windfalls from the heirs of deceased
Jews who paid heavy reliefs to have their fathers' charters
and debts, of which, as we have seen, they could make more
profitable use than the king, to whom the Jew's property
escheated not qua Jew, but qua usurer. In the case of Aaron of
Lincoln the king did not disgorge at all at his death, but
kept in his own hands the large treasures, lands, houses and
debts of the great financier. He appears to have first
organised the Jewry, and made the whole of the English Jews
his agents throughout the country. … In addition to these
quasi-regular and normal sources of income from his Jews, the
king claimed from them—again as from his other
subjects—various contributions from time to time under the
names of gifts and tallages. And here he certainly seems, on
occasion at least, to have exercised an unfavourable
discrimination in his demands from the Jews. In 1187, the year
of Aaron of Lincoln's death, he took a tenth from the rest of
England, which yielded £70,000, and a quarter from the Jews,
which gave as much as £60,000. In other words, the Jews were
reckoned to have, at that date, one quarter of the movable
wealth of the kingdom (£240,000 against £700,000 held by the
rest). … They acted the part of a sponge for the Royal
Treasury, they gathered up all the floating money of the
country, to be squeezed from time to time into the king's
treasure-chest. … The king was thus … the sleeping-partner
in all the Jewish usury, and may be regarded as the
Arch-usurer of the kingdom. By this means he was enabled to
bring pressure on any of his barons who were indebted to the
Jews. He could offer to release them of their debt of the
usury accruing to it, and in the case of debts falling into
his hand by the death of a Jew, he could commute the debt for
a much smaller sum. Thus the Cistercian abbeys referred to
above paid Richard I. 1,000 marks instead of the 6,400 which
they had owed to Aaron of Lincoln."

_Joseph Jacobs,
The Jews of Angevin England,
introduction._

JEWS: A. D. 1076.
Capture of Jerusalem by the Seljuk Turks.

See CRUSADES: CAUSES, &C.

JEWS: A. D. 1096-1146.
Massacre of Jews in Europe by Crusaders.

The lawless and savage mobs of Crusaders which followed in the
wake of the disorderly hosts of Peter the Hermit and Walter
the Penniless, A. D. 1096, expended their zeal, at the outset
of their march, in hunting and killing Jews. "Acting on the
notion that the infidels dwelling in Europe should be
exterminated before those in Asia should be attacked, [they]
murdered 12,000 Jews. In Treves, many of these unfortunate
men, driven to despair, laid violent hands on their children
and on themselves, and multitudes embraced Christianity, from
which they lapsed the moment the peril had passed. Two hundred
Jews fled from Cologne and took refuge in boats; they were
overtaken and slain. In Mayence, the archbishop, Rudhart, took
them under his protection, and gave them the great hall of his
castle for an asylum; the pilgrims, nevertheless, forced their
way in, and murdered 700 of them in the archbishop's presence.
At Spires the Jews valiantly defended themselves. At Worms
they all committed suicide. At Magdeburg the archbishop,
Ruprecht, amused himself by attacking them during the
celebration of the feast of tabernacles, and by seizing their
property."

_W. Menzel,
History of Germany,
chapter 145 (volume 1)._

The fervors of the Second Crusade [A. D. 1146] inclined, in
Germany, to the same direction, of Jew-hunting; but St.
Bernard, the apostle of the Crusade, was enlightened and
humane enough to suppress the outrage by his great influence.
{1927}
A monk named Radulf, self-appointed preacher of the Crusade in
Germany, stirred up the people of the cities of the Rhine
against the Jews, and numbers were massacred, notwithstanding
attempts of the emperor, Conrad, to protect them. But Bernard
went in person to the scene, and, by his personal authority,
drove the brutal monk into his convent.

_T. Keightley,
The Crusaders
chapter 3._

ALSO IN:
_H. Graetz,
History of the Jews,
volume 3, chapters 9 and 11._

_H. C. Adams,
History of the Jews,
chapter 15._

JEWS: A. D. 1099.
Conquest of Jerusalem by the Crusaders.

See JERUSALEM: A. D. 1099.

JEWS: 11-17th Centuries.
Alternating toleration and oppression in Poland.

"It cannot be denied that this frugal, careful race formed the
only class of traders in the land [16th-17th centuries]. That
branch of industry which the nobleman despised, owing to pride
or carelessness, and from which the peasant was excluded by
stupidity and ignorance, fell to the share of the Jews. Though
their presence may have been a misfortune for the nation in
after years, they were certainly at the same time a national
necessity. … Perpetually oppressed by capricious laws, the
race raised itself by perseverance and cunning. Ill-treated,
persecuted by fire and sword, still they returned, or others
took their place; robbed and plundered repeatedly, the wealth
of the land was yet theirs. … The first Jewish immigrants
were exiles from Germany and Bohemia. In 1096 they fled to
Poland, where at that time there was more religious tolerance
than in the rest of Europe. The cruelty and greed of the first
crusaders caused this exodus of the Jews. … Casimir the
Great [1333-1370], instigated by his love for Esther, the
beautiful Jewess of Opocno, gave the Jews such civil rights
and privileges as a Polish king could grant, which conduced to
the advantage of the land; but already in the time of Lewis of
Hungary, 1371, they were sentenced to exile. Notwithstanding
this, we find them scattered over the whole of Poland in 1386.
Christians were forbidden on pain of excommunication to have
any intercourse with Jews or to purchase from them. When they
settled in towns they were forced to live in particular
suburbs. … The incredible increase of the Jewish population,
supposed to be three times as rapid as that of the Polish
inhabitants, was very alarming, as the Jews managed to avoid
all public burdens and taxes. Sigismund Augustus [1548-1572]
resolved, in spite of their objections, to impose a poll tax
of one florin per head, and at the same time to discover by
this means their actual number. It was estimated at 200,000,
but only 16,000 florins were paid as tax. Their power was
increased by John Sobiesky, to whom they had prophesied that
he would ascend the throne. He favoured the Jews so much, that
the senate in 1682 implored him to regard the welfare of the
state, and not let the favours of the crown pass through their
hands. The laws forbidding the Jews on pain of death to trade
with the peasants, to keep inns, to sell brandy—laws which
were passed anew in every reign—show that they never ceased
to carry on these trades, so profitable for them, so ruinous
for the peasant."

_Count Von Moltke,
Poland:
chapter 6._

ALSO IN:
_H. Graetz,
History of the Jews,
volume 4, chapter 18._

JEWS: A. D. 1189.
Massacres in England.

At the time of the accession of Richard Cœur de Lion, king of
England, the crusading spirit had inflamed a specially bitter
hatred of the Jews. Some of the obnoxious people were
imprudent enough to press in among the spectators of King
Richard's coronation. They were driven back with blows; "a
riot ensued, and the Jews' quarter was plundered. A day
elapsed before the king's troops could restore order, and then
only three rioters were punished, for damage done to
Christians. Thus encouraged, or allowed, the frenzy of
persecution spread over the land. Generally it was the country
people who were setting out as pilgrims for Palestine, who
began the crusade at home, while the cities interposed to
preserve the king's peace. But the rumour that the unbelievers
were accustomed to crucify a Christian boy at Easter had
hardened men's hearts against them. The cause of murder and
rapine prevailed in Dunstable, Stamford, and Lincoln. At York,
the viscount allowed 500 Jews to take refuge in the castle.
Fearing, in spite of this, to be given up, they closed the
gates against the king's officers. They were now besieged by
the townsmen, under orders of the viscount, and the defence of
men untrained to arms and without artillery lay only in the
strength of the walls. They offered to ransom their lives, but
the crowd thirsted for blood. Then a rabbi rose up and
addressed his countrymen. 'Men of Israel, hear my words: it is
better for us to die for our law than to fall into the hands
of those who hate it; and our law prescribes this.' Then every
man slew his wife and children, and hurled the corpses over
the battlements. The survivors shut themselves up with their
treasures in the royal chamber, and set fire to it. The crowd
indemnified themselves by sacking the Jews' quarter, and
burning the schedules of their debts, which were kept for
safety in the cathedral."

_C. H. Pearson,
History of England during the Early and Middle Ages,
volume 1, chapter 32._

ALSO IN:
_H. C. Adams,
History of the Jews,
chapter 16._

JEWS: 12-15th Centuries.
Treatment in France.

In France, during the Middle Ages, the extorting of money from
the Jews was one of the devices depended upon for replenishing
the royal treasury. "It is almost incredible to what a length
this was carried. Usury, forbidden by law and superstition to
Christians, was confined to this industrious and covetous
people. … The children of Israel grew rich in despite of
insult and oppression, and retaliated upon their Christian
debtors. If an historian of Philip Augustus may be believed,
they possessed almost one-half of Paris. Unquestionably they
must have had support both at court and in the halls of
justice. The policy of the kings of France was to employ them
as a sponge to suck their subjects' money, which they might
afterwards express with less odium than direct taxation would
incur. Philip Augustus released all Christians in his
dominions from their debts to the Jews, reserving a fifth part
to himself. He afterwards expelled the whole nation from
France. But they appear to have returned again—whether by
stealth, or, as is more probable, by purchasing permission.
St. Louis twice banished and twice recalled the Jews. A series
of alternate persecution and tolerance was borne by this
extraordinary people with an invincible perseverance, and a
talent of accumulating riches which kept pace with their
plunderers; till new schemes of finance supplying the turn,
they were finally expelled under Charles VI. and never
afterwards obtained any legal establishment in France."

_H. Hallam,
The Middle Ages,
chapter 2, part 2 (volume 1)._

ALSO IN:
_J. I. von Döllinger,
The Jews in Europe
(Studies in European History, chapter 9)._

{1928}

JEWS: 13-14th Centuries.
Hostility of the Papacy and the Church.
Doctrine of the Divine condemnation of the Jews to Slavery.
Claim of the Emperors to ownership of them.

"The declaration by Innocent III. [Pope, 1198-1216] that the
entire nation was destined by God on account of its sins to
perpetual slavery, was the Magna Charta continually appealed
to by those who coveted the possessions of the Jews and the
earnings of their industry; both princes and people acted upon
it. … The succeeding popes took their stand upon the maxims
and behests of Innocent III. If the Jews built themselves a
synagogue, it was to be pulled down; they might only repair
the old ones. No Jew might appear as a witness against a
Christian. The bishops were charged to enforce the wearing of
the distinctive badge, the hat or the yellow garment, by all
the means in their power. The wearing of the badge was
particularly cruel and oppressive, for in the frequent tumults
and risings in the towns the Jews, being thus recognisable at
a glance, fell all the more easily into the hands of the
excited mob; and if a Jew undertook a journey he inevitably
became a prey to the numerous bandits and adventurers, who
naturally considered him as an outlaw. … Where popes failed
to interfere, the councils of the various countries made
amends for the omission; they forbade, for instance, a
Christian letting or selling a house to a Jew, or buying wine
from him. Besides all this, the order was often renewed that
all copies of the Talmud and commentaries upon
it—consequently the greater part of the Jewish
literature—should be burnt. … The new theory as to the Jews
being in a state of slavery was now adopted and enlarged upon
by theologians and canonists. Thomas Aquinas, whose teaching
was received by the whole Roman Church as unassailable,
pronounced that since the race was condemned to perpetual
bondage princes could dispose of the possessions of the Jews
just as they would of their own. A long list of canonical
writers maintained, upon the same ground, the right of princes
and governors to seize upon the sons and daughters of Jews and
have them baptized by force. It was commonly taught, and the
ecclesiastical claim still exists, that a Jewish child once
baptized was not to be left to the father. Meanwhile princes
had eagerly seized upon the papal doctrine that the perpetual
slavery of the Jews was ordained by God, and on it the Emperor
Frederick II. founded the claim that all Jews belonged to him
as Emperor, following the contention prevalent at the time
that the right of lordship over them devolved upon him as the
successor of the old Roman Emperors. … King Albert went so
far as to claim from King Philip of France that the French
Jews should be handed over to him. … From the 14th century
this 'servitude to the state' was understood to mean complete
slavery. 'You yourselves, your bodies and your possessions,
belong,' says the Emperor Charles IV. in a document addressed
to the Jews, 'to us and to the empire; we may act, make and do
with you what we will and please.' The Jews were, in fact,
constantly handed about like merchandise from one to another;
the emperor, now in this place, now in that, declared their
claims for debts to be cancelled; and for this a heavy sum was
paid into his treasury, usually 30 per cent."

_J. I. Von Döllinger,
The Jews in Europe
(Studies in European History, chapter 9)._

JEWS: A. D. 1290.
Banished from England.

"At the same time [A. D. 1290], the King [Edward I.] banished
all the Jews from the kingdom. Upward of 16,000 are said to
have left England, nor did they reappear till Cromwell
connived at their return in 1654. It is not quite clear why
the King determined on this act of severity, especially as the
Jews were royal property and a very convenient source of
income. It is probable, however, that their way of doing
business was very repugnant to his ideas of justice, while
they were certainly great falsifiers of the coinage, which he
was very anxious to keep pure and true. Earlier in the reign
he had hanged between 200 and 300 of them for that crime, and
they are said to have demanded 60 per cent. for their loans,
taking advantage of the monopoly as money-lenders which the
ecclesiastical prohibition of usury had given them."

_J. F. Bright,
History of England, period 1,
page 179._

The expulsion was in compliance with a demand made by
Parliament. "We have no record of any special action or crime
on the part of the Jews which suggested the particular
parliamentary demand in 1290." It had been made four years
before, when, "in one night, all the Jews in England were
flung into prison, and would most likely have been expelled
there and then, had they not outbribed the King with £12,000."

_G. H. Leonard,
Expulsion of the Jews by Edward I.
(Royal History Society Transactions,
new series, volume 5, 1891)._

JEWS: A. D. 1321.
Persecution of Lepers and Jews.

"In the year 1321, a general rumour prevailed through Europe
that the unhappy beings afflicted with leprosy (a disease with
which the Crusaders had become infected in the East …) had
conspired to inoculate all their healthy fellow-creatures with
their own loathsome malady. … The King of Grenada and the
Jews were denounced as the prime movers of this nefarious plot
directed to the extermination of Christianity; and it was said
that the latter, unable to overcome the many impediments which
opposed their own agency, had bribed the lepers to become
their instruments. This 'enormous Creed,' in spite of its
manifold absurdities, found easy admission; and, if other
evidence were wanting for its support, torture was always at
hand to provide confessions. Philip V. [of France] was among
the firmest believers, and therefore among the most active
avengers of the imaginary crime; and he encouraged persecution
by numerous penal edicts. At Toulouse, 160 Jews were burned
alive at once on a single pile, without distinction of sex,
and, as it seems, without any forms of previous examination.
In Paris, greater gentleness was manifested; those only were
led to the stake from whom an avowal of guilt could be
extorted."

_E. Smedley,
History of France,
part 1, chapter 8._

{1929}

"The lord of Parthenay writes word to the king that 'a great
leper,' arrested on his territory, has confessed that a rich
Jew had given him money, and supplied him with drugs. These
drugs were compounded of human blood, of urine, and of the
blood of Christ (the consecrated wafer), and the whole, after
having been dried and pounded, was put into a bag with a
weight and thrown into the springs or wells. Several lepers
had already been provisionally burnt in Gascony, and the king,
alarmed at the new movement which was originating, hastily
returned from Poitou to France, and issued an ordinance for
the general arrest of the lepers. Not a doubt was entertained
by anyone of this horrible compact between the lepers and the
Jews. 'We ourselves,' says a chronicler of the day, 'have seen
with our own eyes one of these bags, in Poitou, in a burgh of
our own vassalage.' … The king ordered all found guilty to
be burnt, with the exception of those female lepers who
happened to be pregnant. The other lepers were to be confined
to their lazarettos. As to the Jews, they were burnt
indiscriminately, especially in the South."

_J. Michelet,
History of France,
book 5, chapter 5 (volume 1)._

JEWS: A. D. 1348-1349.
Accused of causing the Black Plague.

On the appearance in Europe, A. D. 1348, of the pestilence
known as the Black Death, "there was a suspicion that the
disease was due to human agencies, and, as usual, the Jews
were asserted to have contrived the machinations by which the
calamity was created. They were charged with poisoning the
wells, and through France, Switzerland, and Germany, thousands
of these unhappy people were destroyed on evidence derived
from confessions obtained under torture. As far as he could,
the Emperor Charles IV. protected them. They escaped
persecution too in the dominions of Albrecht of Austria. It is
said that the great number of the Jewish population in Poland
is due to the fact that Casimir the Great was induced by the
entreaties of one Esther, a favourite Jewish mistress of that
monarch, to harbour and shelter them in his kingdom. It should
be mentioned that Clement VI. forbad the persecution of the
Jews at Avignon."

_J. E. T. Rogers,
History of Agriculture and Prices,
volume 1, chapter 15._

ALSO IN:
_H. Graetz,
History of the Jews,
volume 4, chapter 4._

JEWS: A. D. 1391.
Massacre and expulsion from Spain.

See above: 8TH-15TH CENTURIES;
also, INQUISITION: A. D. 1203-1525.

JEWS: A. D. 1492.
Expulsion of Jews from Spain.

See INQUISITION: A. D. 1203-1525.

JEWS: 17th Century.
Toleration in Holland.
Attractiveness of that country to wealthy Israelites.

See NETHERLANDS A. D. 1621-1633.

JEWS: A. D. 1655.
Toleration in England by Cromwell.

"Wednesday, December 12, 1655. This day, 'in a withdrawing room at
Whitehall,' presided over by his Highness [the Lord Protector,
Oliver Cromwell], who is much interested in the matter, was
held 'a Conference concerning the Jews';—of which the modern
reader too may have heard something. Conference, one of Four
Conferences, publicly held, which filled all England with
rumour in those old December days; but must now contract
themselves into a point for us. Highest official Persons, with
Lord Chief Barons, Lord Chief Justices, and chosen Clergy have
met here to advise, by reason, Law-learning,
Scripture-prophecy, and every source of light for the human
mind, concerning the proposal of admitting Jews, with certain
privileges as of alien-citizens, to reside in England. They
were banished near Four-hundred years ago: shall they now be
allowed to reside and trade again? The Proposer is Manasseh
Ben Israel,' a learned Portuguese Jew of Amsterdam; who, being
stirred up of late years by the great things doing in England,
has petitioned one and the other, Long Parliament and Little
Parliament, for this object; but could never, till his
Highness came into power, get the matter brought to a hearing.
And so they debate and solemnly consider; and his Highness
spake;—and says one witness, 'I never heard a man speak so
well.' His Highness was eager for the scheme, if so might be.
But the Scripture-prophecies, Law-learnings, and lights of the
human mind seemed to point another way: zealous Manasseh went
home again; the Jews could not settle here except by private
sufferance of his Highness."

_T. Carlyle,
Oliver Cromwell's Letters and Speeches,
part 9, letter 207._

"Cromwell … was able to overcome neither the arguments of
the theologians, nor the jealousies of the merchants, nor the
prejudices of the indifferent; and seeing that the conference
was not likely to end as he desired, he put an end to its
deliberations. Then, without granting the Jews the public
establishment which they had solicited, he authorized a
certain number of them to take up their residence in London,
where they built a synagogue, purchased the land for a
burial-ground, and quietly commenced the formation of a sort
of corporation, devoted to the Protector, on whose tolerance
their safety entirely depended."

_F. P. Guizot,
History of Oliver Cromwell,
book 6 (volume 2)._

JEWS: A. D. 1662-1753.
Condition in England.
Defeated attempt to legalize their naturalization.

"The Jews … were not formally authorised to establish
themselves in England till after the Restoration. The first
synagogue in London was erected in 1662. … There does not
appear … to have been any legal obstacle to the sovereign
and Parliament naturalising a Jew till a law, enacted under
James I., and directed against the Catholics, made the
sacramental test an essential preliminary to naturalisation.
Two subsequent enactments exempted from this necessity all
foreigners who were engaged in the hemp and flax manufacture,
and all Jews and Protestant foreigners who had lived for seven
continuous years in the American plantations. In the reign of
James II. the Jews were relieved from the payment of the alien
duty, but it is a significant fact that it was reimposed after
the Revolution at the petition of the London merchants. In the
reign of Anne some of them are said to have privately
negotiated with Godolphin for permission to purchase the town
of Brentford, and to settle there with full privileges of
trade; but the minister, fearing to arouse the spirit of
religious intolerance and of commercial jealousy, refused the
application. The great development of industrial enterprise
which followed the long and prosperous administration of
Walpole naturally attracted Jews, who were then as now
preeminent in commercial matters, and many of them appear at
this time to have settled in England,"—among others, the
family of Disraeli. In 1753, the Pelhams attempted to legalise
the naturalisation of Jews; "not to naturalise all resident
Jews, but simply to enable Parliament to pass special Bills to
naturalise those who applied to it, although they had not
lived in the colonies or been engaged in the hemp or flax
manufacture. …
{1930}
The opponents of the ministry raised the cry that the Bill was
an unchristian one, and England was thrown into paroxysms of
excitement scarcely less intense than those which followed the
impeachment of Sacheverell. There is no page in the history of
the 18th century that shows more decisively how low was the
intellectual and political condition of English public
opinion. According to its opponents, the Jewish Naturalisation
Bill sold the birthright of Englishmen for nothing, it was a
distinct abandonment of Christianity, it would draw upon
England all the curses which Providence had attached to the
Jews. The commercial classes complained that it would fill
England with usurers. … The clergy all over England
denounced it." After fierce opposition, the bill was finally
passed; "but as the tide of popular indignation rose higher
and higher, the ministers in the next year brought forward and
carried its repeal."

_W. E. H. Lecky,
History of England, 18th Century,
chapter 2 (volume 1)._

JEWS: A. D. 1727-1880.
Persecutions and restrictions in Russia.
The Pale.