Chapter XIV: Reuchlin and the Talmud (2)

Authorized by the provincial of his order, Hoogstraten, in his capacity as inquisitor, suddenly issued (September 15th, 1513) a summons to Reuchlin to appear at Mayence within six days, at eight o'clock in the morning, to be examined on the charge of heresy and of favoring the Jews. On the appointed day Hoogstraten, with a host of Dominicans, appeared in Mayence; they were confederates, chosen to sit as judges in the commission. Hoogstraten opened the session, acting at once as judge and accuser. He had prepared an unassailable bill of indictment against Reuchlin and the Talmud, and taken the precaution to seek allies, so that he might not stand alone in this weighty contest. Shortly before, he had addressed letters to four universities, begging them to express their opinion on Reuchlin's book, "Augenspiegel," in accordance with his own views, and all had fulfilled his expectations.

The accusation which he brought forward was, of course, that which Pfefferkorn and Arnold von Tongern had already made. It had for its basis: Reuchlin favors the Jews too much, treats "the insolent people" almost as members of the church, and as men on an equality with others, while his writings savor too much of heresy. Hoogstraten, therefore, instructed the court to pronounce sentence upon Reuchlin's "Augenspiegel": that it was full of heresy and error, too favorable to the unbelieving Jews, and insulting to the church, and therefore ought to be condemned, suppressed, and destroyed by fire. One must not overlook the great difference between a German and a Spanish inquisition court. Torquemada or Ximenes would have made short work of it, and condemned the book together with the author to the stake. Hoogstraten was not too kind-hearted for such a sentence; but he dared not venture so far, because he would have had all Germany, the ecclesiastical as well as the temporal rulers against him.

General indignation was aroused at the injustice of a trial carried on in violation of all rules. The students of the Mayence University, not yet tainted by the corruption of theology, their judgment not warped by casuistry, and not influenced by foreign considerations, loudly proclaimed their displeasure at this shameless proceeding of the Inquisition. They carried the doctors of jurisprudence with them, and this induced other earnest men to interfere.

To the surprise of the Dominicans, the aged, venerable Reuchlin appeared in Mayence, accompanied by two respected counselors of the Duke of Wurtemberg. The chapter now took great trouble to effect a reconciliation. But Hoogstraten, who wished to see smoke rise from the fagots, would agree to nothing, and delayed the negotiations till the 12th of October, the time when the final sentence would be pronounced. The inquisitor commanded all the ecclesiastics in Mayence to announce from the pulpit that everyone, Christian or Jew, if he would escape punishment, must give up all copies of the "Augenspiegel" to the flames. The people were promised thirty days' indulgence, if they assembled on the appointed day at the church square to celebrate the auto-da-fé and increase its splendor. On the 12th of October the place before the church in Mayence was thronged with spectators --the curious, the sympathetic, and the seekers after indulgence! Decked out like peacocks, the Fathers and Brothers of the Dominican order, and the theologians of the universities of Cologne, Louvain, and Erfurt, strutted along to the tribunal erected for them, and "the earth trembled under their feet." Hoogstraten, till now the accuser, again took his place among the judges. They were about to pronounce the formula of the curse, and have the fire kindled, when a messenger hastily arrived, bringing a letter from Archbishop Uriel, which turned them speechless.

Uriel von Gemmingen, like most bishops of his time, was more worldly-minded than spiritual, and had no canonical fanaticism against Jews. The presumptuousness of the Dominicans of Cologne and their unjust proceedings against Reuchlin angered him, too. Therefore, he issued a proclamation to the commissioners selected from his chapter, ordering that judgment be delayed for one month until a new agreement might be arrived at. If they did not consent, this letter deprived them of their privileges as judges of the inquisitorial court, and every thing hitherto decreed was null and void. Utterly dumbfounded, the Dominicans listened to the notary's reading of the document, which entirely frustrated their schemes and machinations. Hoogstraten alone boldly dared express his anger at the denial of their rights. The other confederates slunk away ashamed, followed by the jeers of the street boys, and the cry of the men, "O that these Brothers, who wished to outrage a just man, might be burnt at the stake."

If it is true, as the Dominicans relate, that the rabbis of Germany met in a synod in Worms, and found in the defeat of the Dominicans who raged against Reuchlin a sign of the downfall of the Roman (papist) hierarchy, they were certainly endowed with prophetic vision. It was also said that Reuchlin had secret intercourse with rabbis.

Reuchlin was by no means so situated as to be able to triumph over his enemies and those of the Jews. Though subdued for the moment, they were certainly not vanquished. He knew their cunning and malignity too well to give himself up to inactive enjoyment of his victory. He knew that their persecutions would only be redoubled in the future. Therefore, he hastened to announce his appeal to the pope, so that silence might be imposed from that quarter on his embittered enemies. But Reuchlin justly feared that with the vacillation and venality of the Vatican his cause would go badly, if the investigation were conducted beyond the jurisdiction of the pope by the Dominicans of Cologne. Therefore, he sent a Hebrew letter to Bonet de Lates, the Jewish physician of Pope Leo X, begging him to plead for the pope's favor in his cause.

Leo, of the celebrated family of the Medici, about whom his father had said that he was the wisest of his sons, had succeeded to the papal chair only a few months before. He was an aristocrat, more interested in politics than in religion, a Roman pagan rather than a Catholic priest, looking down with contempt from his Olympian heights on theological controversy as child's play. He only considered how best to steer between the two warring states or houses of Hapsburg and Valois, without endangering the temporal interest of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. With candor that would surprise us today, the pope ventured to say, "It is well known how useful this fable of Christ has been to us and ours!" With him now rested the decision, whether Reuchlin's "Augenspiegel" savored of heresy, and whether he duly or unduly favored the Jews. Leo, whose pontificate fell in a time when theological questions threatened to embroil all Europe, perhaps knew less of them than his cook. Much, therefore, depended on the light in which the conflict between Reuchlin and the Dominicans was placed before him. For this reason Reuchlin begged the physician Bonet de Lates, who had access to the pope and care of "the person of his Holiness," to win over Leo X, so that the trial might not take place in Cologne or its vicinity, where his cause would be lost. Reuchlin laid all the circumstances before him: how Pfefferkorn and the Cologne Dominicans had conspired against the Jews and the Talmud, and how only his extraordinary efforts had saved the Talmud from destruction. Had the Dominicans been able to get hold of and read this letter, they could have brought forward incontestable proof of Reuchlin's friendliness towards the Jews, for in it he wrote much that he had publicly denied.

It is natural that Bonet de Lates brought all his influence to bear in favor of Reuchlin. And it was probably owing to his zeal that Leo so soon (November 21st, 1513) issued instructions to the bishops of Speyer and Worms on the controversy between Reuchlin and Hoogstraten. Leo ordered that they be examined separately or together, by the bishops or by judges appointed by them, who, without the intervention of any other tribunal, were to pronounce judgment, to be accepted without appeal. The bishop of Worms, a Dalburg, with whom Reuchlin was on friendly terms, did not care to accept the commission. So the young bishop of Speyer, George, elector palatine and duke of Bavaria, appointed two judges, who summoned both parties to appear within a month before the tribunal in Speyer. Reuchlin came punctually, accompanied by a procurator and friends. Hoogstraten, on the other hand, trusting to the power of the Dominicans, did not present himself, nor send a competent representative. The judges commenced the suit, not with becoming energy, but with a certain half-heartedness, perhaps from fear of the revenge of the Dominicans. The trial was spun out over three months (January to April, 1514).

Only after Reuchlin had written two German papers on the matter in dispute and the progress of the proceedings, did the bishop deign to notice the evidence and pass judgment, which was wholly in favor of Reuchlin. He stated that the "Augenspiegel" contained not an iota of heresy or error, that it did not unduly favor the Jews, that, therefore, Hoogstraten had slandered the author, and silence should be imposed on him in this matter; that the writings might be read and printed by everyone, and that Hoogstraten be charged with the costs (111 Rhenish gold florins).

The Dominicans of Cologne gnashed their teeth, stormed and raged at the issue of the suit, and used every effort to overthrow the judgment of the apostolic court. At that time, on account of the disunion in Germany, it was very difficult to put into execution a judicial decree, and the Dominicans were not inclined to lessen the difficulty when the sentence was given against themselves. They laughed at the bishop of Speyer, calling him a stupid fellow. The notice of the verdict in Cologne was torn down by the bold Pfefferkorn. Hoogstraten had unofficially--that is to say, without giving notice to the bishop of Speyer, then acting as apostolic judge--appealed to the pope, although he had scouted the idea of such an appeal before. His hope of winning the suit against Reuchlin and securing the condemnation of the "Augenspiegel" was founded on the venality of the Vatican. "Rome will do anything for money," he frankly said; "Reuchlin is poor, and the Dominicans are rich; justice can be suppressed by money." Hoogstraten could also count on the good will of the cardinals, who inveighed against free inquiry. At all events, they could be depended upon to drag out the suit so long that Reuchlin's means would not suffice to meet the costs. Besides this, the Dominicans relied on obtaining from the universities, in particular the leading one of Paris, the condemnation of the "Augenspiegel," and using it to exert pressure upon the pope. All Dominicans, Thomists and obscurantists, both in and outside Germany, made common cause to work the downfall of Reuchlin.

This union of the Dominican party had the effect of binding together the friends of learning, the enemies of scholasticism, bigotry and church doctrine--in one word, the Humanists--and inducing them to take concerted action. Virtually a society of Humanists, a Reuchlinist party, was formed in western Europe, the members of which silently worked for one another and for Reuchlin: "One supported the other, and said to his comrade, Be brave." "All we who belong to the ranks of learning are devoted to Reuchlin no less than soldiers to the emperor." It was a formal alliance, which the supporters of Reuchlin loyally adhered to. So, in consequence of Pfefferkorn's bitter hostility to the Jews and the Talmud, two parties were formed in Christendom, the Reuchlinists and the Arnoldists, who waged fierce conflict with each other. It was a struggle of the dark Middle Ages with the dawn of a better time.

Young Germany was working with all its might on behalf of Reuchlin and against the bigots: besides Hermann von Busche, and Crotus Rubianus (Johann Jäger), there was the fiery Ulrich von Hutten, the most energetic and virile character of the time. In fact, Hutten's energy first found a worthy aim in the passionate feud between Reuchlin and the Dominicans. Formerly his fencing had consisted of passes in the empty air; his knightly courage and fiery genius had met only phantom adversaries. Now, for the first time, the youth of six-and-twenty had a clear perception of the relation of things; he saw a real enemy, to meet whom with his knight's sword and the sharper weapon of his intellect, in a life and death struggle, would be a praiseworthy, glorious undertaking. To destroy the Dominicans, priests and bigots, and establish the kingdom of intellect and free thought, to deliver Germany from the nightmare of ecclesiastical superstition and barbarism, raise it from its abjectness, and make it the arbiter of Europe, seemed to him the aim to toil for. As soon as Hutten was clearly conscious of this, he worked ceaselessly for his object, the first step towards its realization being to help Reuchlin, the leader in the struggle for humanism, to gain the victory over his mortal foes. A cardinal, Egidio de Viterbo, who delighted in the Hebrew language and in the Kabbala, openly sided with Reuchlin. He wrote to him, "The Law (Torah) revealed to man in fire was first saved from fire when Abraham escaped the burning furnace, and now a second time, when Reuchlin saved, from the fire, the writings from which the Law received light, for had they been destroyed eternal darkness would again have set in. So, exerting ourselves for your cause, we are not defending you, but the Law, not the Talmud, but the church." It is remarkable that the whole Franciscan order, from hatred of the Dominicans, took up Reuchlin's cause.

In almost every town there were Reuchlinists and anti-Reuchlinists, whose mutual hatred brought them at times to blows. The motto of one was, "Rescue of the 'Augenspiegel' and preservation of the Talmud," and of the other, "Damnation and destruction to both." Involuntarily the Reuchlinists became friends of the Jews, and sought grounds on which to defend them. The adherents of the Dominicans became fiercer enemies to the Jews, and sought out obscure books to prove their wickedness.

The report of this contest spread through Europe. At first limited to Germany, the controversy soon reached both Rome and Paris. Hoogstraten and the Dominicans worked with energy to have the judgment of Speyer overthrown, in the latter place by the greatest university, in the former by the papal see, and to have Reuchlin's writings sentenced to the flames. In both places they had powerful and influential allies, who devotedly and zealously worked for their party.

Reuchlin, although his suit had been lawfully won in the apostolic court in Speyer, was forced to take steps to counteract the appeal instituted by the intrigues of his enemies. And his friends succeeded in influencing the pope. Leo X appointed the cardinal and patriarch Dominico Grimani as judge of the inquiry. It was well known that this ecclesiastical prince cultivated rabbinical literature, and, as patron of the Franciscan order, hated the Dominicans, and took Reuchlin's side. Without doubt prominent Jews were working in Rome for Reuchlin, but, like the German Jews, they had the good sense to keep in the background, so as not to imperil the cause by stamping it as Jewish. Cardinal Grimani issued (June, 1514) a summons to both parties, but in consideration of Reuchlin's advanced years permitted him to send a representative, while Hoogstraten had to appear in person. Furnished with recommendations and a well-filled purse, the inquisitor appeared in Rome with undiminished confidence of obtaining a victory. What could not be obtained in Rome for money?

Reuchlin had nothing of the kind to offer; he was poor. He had not the magic wand which commands the gold of bigoted women, nor the conjurer's formula over father-confessors, who are apt treasure-diggers. But there was no lack of recommendations from his friends and well-wishers. Emperor Maximilian, who, much to his own regret, had originated all this disturbance, by lending ear to Pfefferkorn's stupidities and his sister's hysterical piety, often interceded with the pope for Reuchlin. The emperor wrote that he believed that the Cologne people wished to prolong the controversy illegally and through intrigue, in order to crush the excellent, inoffensive, learned and orthodox Reuchlin; that what he had written (in favor of the Hebrew Scriptures) had been written at the emperor's command, with a good object, and for the benefit of Christendom.

But the Dominicans defied public opinion, the commission appointed by the pope, and the pope. They spoke of the pope as of a schoolboy under their authority. If he did not give a decision in their favor, they threatened to withdraw their allegiance, and desert him, even risking a rupture with the church. They went so far as to threaten that in case Reuchlin proved victorious, they would ally themselves with the Hussites in Bohemia against the pope. So blinded was this faction by revengeful feelings, that from sheer obstinacy they would undermine Catholicism. Nor did they spare the majesty of the emperor; when they learned that Maximilian had interceded for Reuchlin with the pope, they heaped abuse on him.

The Dominicans built their hopes on the verdict of Paris, the head of all European universities. If this important school of divinity condemned Reuchlin's writings and the Talmud, then even the pope would have to submit. Every influence was, therefore, brought to bear to obtain a favorable opinion from Paris. In particular, the king of France, Louis XII, was worked on by his confessor, Guillaume Haquinet Petit, to influence the school of divinity in favor of the Dominicans. The political events which had set the German emperor and the French king at variance were also brought into play. Because the emperor of Germany was for Reuchlin, the king of France decided for the Dominicans and against the Talmud. But this decision was not easily obtained, for Reuchlin numbered many warm friends in Paris. The consultation was prolonged from May to the beginning of August, 1514.

Many of the voters spoke in favor of Reuchlin and at the same time expressed their indignation at the unlawful proceedings; but they were cried down by the fanatics. Many French divines were guided by the example of Saint Louis, who, at the instigation of the baptized Jew, Nicholas Donin, and by command of Pope Gregory IX, had ordered the Talmud to be burnt three centuries before. The Parisian doctors, therefore, gave sentence that Reuchlin's "Augenspiegel," containing heresy, and defending with great zeal the Talmudic writings, deserved to be condemned to the flames, and the author to be forced to recant.

Great was the joy of the Dominicans, particularly those of Cologne, over this judgment. They believed their game to be won, and that the pope himself would be forced to submit. They did not delay in making known to the public this concession, so hardly won, by means of another libelous pamphlet.

The lawsuit, allowed to lag in Rome, was wilfully delayed still more by the Dominicans. The commission appointed had a close translation of the "Augenspiegel" prepared by a German in Rome, Martin von Grönigen; but the opposition found fault with it. Numerous hindrances blocked the progress of the suit, and at this stage cost Reuchlin 400 gold florins. The Dominicans had hoped so to impoverish their adversary, the friend of the Jews, that he would be incapacitated from obtaining justice. The prospect of seeing Reuchlin's cause triumphant at Rome diminished. Reuchlin's friends were, therefore, anxious to create another tribunal, and appeal from the badly advised or intimidated pope to public opinion.

During this tension of minds in small and great circles, whilst high and low ecclesiastics, princes and citizens, anxiously awaited news as to how the Reuchlin lawsuit had ended, or would end in Rome, a young Humanist (most likely Crotus Rubianus, in Leipsic), wrote a series of letters, which, for wit, humor and biting satire, had not been equaled in all literature. The "Letters of Obscurantists" (_Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum_), published in 1515, in a great measure directed against the rascally Ortuinus Gratius, laid bare, in the language of the unpolished monks, their own baseness and insolence, their astonishing ignorance, their lust, their animosity and vileness, their despicable Latin, and still more contemptible morality, the absurdity of their logic, their foolish chatter--in short, all their intolerable vices were made so evident, and described so clearly, that even the half-educated could comprehend. All Reuchlin's enemies, Hoogstraten, Arnold von Tongern, Ortuinus Gratius, Pfefferkorn, their accomplices, and the Paris University, were lashed with whips and scorpions, so that no spot on them remained sound. This clever satire, containing more than Aristophanian scorn, made the stronger an impression as the Dominicans, the Thomists, the Doctors of Divinity, revealed themselves in their own persons, in their miserable meanness, placing themselves, metaphorically speaking, in the pillory. But it was inevitable that, in deriding the bigots and the papacy, the whole tyranny of the hierarchy and the church should be laid bare. For, were not the Dominicans, with their insolent ignorance and shameless vices, the product and natural effect of the Catholic order and institution? So the satire worked like a corroding acid, entirely destroying the already rotting body of the Catholic Church.

The Jews and the Talmud were the first cause of the Reuchlinist quarrel; naturally, they could not be left out of account in the letters of the Obscurantists. So it happened that the much despised Jews became one of the topics of the day.

A roar of laughter resounded through western Europe at the reading of these satirical letters. Everyone in Germany, Italy, France and England who understood Latin, was struck with the form and tenor of these confessions of Dominicans and scholastics. Their awkward vulgarity, dense stupidity, egregious folly, impurity of word and deed, stood so glaringly in contrast with their presumed learning and propriety, that the most serious men were moved to mirth. It is related that Erasmus, who, at the time of reading the letters, suffered from an abscess in the throat, laughed so heartily that it broke, and he was cured. The merry Comedy of the Fools put Reuchlin entirely in the right, and the Dominicans were judged by public opinion, no matter how the pope might deal with them. All were curious to know who could be the author. Some thought it was Reuchlin himself, others Erasmus, Hutten, or one of the Humanist party. Hutten gave the right answer to the question as to the author: "God himself." It appeared more and more clearly that so slight a cause as the burning of the Talmud had taken a world-wide significance, the will of the individual serving only to further the interests of all. In Rome and Cologne, far-seeing Reuchlinists discerned in it the work of Providence.

Only the German Jews could not indulge in merriment. The Dominicans had meantime worked in another way to obtain their object, or at least to have revenge on the Jews. Of what avail was it to the Jews that some enlightened Christians, having had their attention drawn to Judaism, were seized with so great a predilection for it that they gave expression to their new convictions in writing? Christendom as a whole was irrevocably prejudiced against Jewish teachings and their adherents. Erasmus rightly said, "If it is Christian to hate the Jews, then we are true Christians." Therefore, it was easy for their enemies to injure them. Pfefferkorn had often pointed out that there were in Germany only three great Jewish communities, at Ratisbon, Frankfort and Worms, and that with their extermination, Judaism in the German kingdom would come to an end.

To bring about the expulsion of the Jews from Frankfort and Worms, their enemies had discovered effective means. The young Margrave, Albert von Brandenburg, hitherto bishop of Magdeburg, who later attained melancholy renown in the history of the Reformation, had been elected to the archbishopric of Mayence. The enemies of the Jews, acting probably on a suggestion from Cologne, induced Archbishop Albert to issue an invitation to religious and secular authorities and to towns, principally Frankfort and Worms, to attend a diet in Frankfort, to discuss how the Jews might be banished and never be permitted to return. Obeying the invitation (January 7th, 1516), many deputies appeared. The program was to this purport: All the estates were to unite and take an oath to relinquish the privileges and advantages derived from the Jews, to banish all Jewish subjects and never, under any pretext, or for any term, permit them to return. This resolution was to be laid before the emperor for his confirmation.

The Jews of these places saw certain danger hanging over their heads. If at other times the German princes and rulers were disunited and indolent, in the persecution of Jews they were always united and energetic. Nothing remained for the Jews but to send a deputation to Emperor Maximilian, and implore him to grant them his favor and support them against so malevolent a measure. The emperor happily remembered that the Jews, even when ruled by various great or petty rulers, were in reality the servants of himself and the empire, and that their banishment would be an encroachment on his suzerainty. Maximilian hastened, therefore, to send a very forcible dispatch to Elector Albert and the chapter of Mayence, to the religious and secular authorities, and to the towns (January, 1516), expressing his displeasure at their conference, and forbidding them to meet again at the appointed time. So the Jews were for the moment saved. But the archbishop of Mayence, or in his absence the chapter, did not give up the pursuit of the desired object. The enemies of the Jews, the friends of the Cologne Dominicans, still hoped to turn the emperor against them. But the hope was vain; the Jews were not banished for the present.

Reuchlin's lawsuit, although delayed by the struggles of the two parties, whose time was taken up in plotting against each other's intrigues, made slow but perceptible progress. Hoogstraten, seeing that the commission would decide in favor of Reuchlin, vehemently demanded a decision by council, inasmuch as it was a question, not of law, but of faith. Pope Leo, who did not care to be on bad terms with either party, in opposition to his own repeated command had to yield to a certain extent. On the one side Emperor Maximilian and many German princes insisted upon having Reuchlin declared blameless and silencing the Dominicans; on the other side the king of France and young Charles (at that time duke of Burgundy), the future emperor of Germany, king of Spain and America, used threatening language towards the pope, demanding that the matter be taken up seriously, and that Reuchlin's book be condemned. Leo, therefore, considered it advisable to escape from this critical position. He submitted the matter for final decision to a court of inquiry, formed of members of the Lateran Council, then in session. Thus the dispute about the Talmud became the concern of a general council, and was raised to the dignity of a European question.

The council committee finally declared in favor of Reuchlin. Before Leo X could confirm or reject its decision, Hoogstraten and his friends influenced him to issue a mandate suspending the suit. This temporizing exactly suited Leo's character and his position between the excited rival parties. He hated excitement, which he would have brought on himself, if he had decided in favor of either party. He did not wish to offend the Humanists, nor yet the bigots, nor the German emperor, nor the king of France, nor the ruler of Spain. So the suit was suspended, and at any favorable opportunity could be taken up again by the Dominicans. Hoogstraten had to leave Rome in disgrace and dishonor, but he did not give up the hope of winning his cause in the end. He was a strong-willed man, who could not be discouraged by humiliations, and so unprincipled that falsehood and misrepresentations came easy to him.

If Pope Leo believed that at his dictation the conflict would cease, he overestimated the authority of the papacy, and mistook the parties as well as the real issue involved. Feeling ran too high to be quieted by a word from those in power. Neither party wished for peace, but for war, war to the knife. When Hoogstraten returned from Rome, his life was in danger. Furious Reuchlinists often conspired against him, and sought by polemical leaflets to exasperate public opinion still more against the Dominicans. Hutten, since his mature judgment had taken in the situation at Rome, was most eager to bring about the downfall of ecclesiastical domination in Germany.

The secret could be no longer kept, it was given out from the house-tops that there was dissension in the church. Not their foes, but the provincial of the Dominican order, Eberhard von Cleve, and the whole chapter, represented in an official letter to the pope that the controversy had brought them, the Dominicans, into hatred and contempt; that they were held up to the mockery of all, and that they --so very undeservedly!--were decried, both in speech and writing, as the enemies of brotherly love, peace and harmony; that their preaching was despised, their confessional avoided, and that everything they undertook was derided, and declared to be only the result of pride and meanness.

Meanwhile the contention between Reuchlin and the Dominicans, especially Hoogstraten, developed in another direction, and affected Judaism at another point. The Kabbala formed the background of this movement. Out of love for this secret doctrine, supposed to offer the key to the deepest knowledge of philosophy and Christianity, Reuchlin had wished to spare the Talmud, because in his opinion it contained mystical elements. The youthful Kabbala became the patroness of the old Talmud. Reuchlin understood but little of Kabbalistic doctrines, but his eagerness for knowledge and his zeal spurred him on to study. Moreover, the attack by his adversaries upon his orthodoxy, honesty and erudition, had made it an affair of honor for him to prove convincingly that the Kabbala agreed with Christianity. But he was unfortunate in the choice of his Hebrew models. For a long time he sought a guide, until chance brought him to the most confused source of information: the foolish writings of the Kabbalist, Joseph Jikatilla, of Castile, which the convert Paul Riccio had lately translated into Latin. As soon as Reuchlin heard of this literary treasure of Joseph Jikatilla, he did not rest till he had obtained it, and again set about proving that the Kabbala was in agreement with Christianity.

Believing that the Kabbala reveals and confirms the highest truths, the mysteries of Christianity, Reuchlin composed a work on Kabbalist science, and dedicated it to Pope Leo X, giving new emphasis to his contention that the Jewish writings, instead of being burnt, should be cherished.

Reuchlin must have counted on the approval of the pope, to whom he dedicated the work, for having found new support for the tottering faith. He hoped that Leo X would at length grant him peace and rest by pronouncing judgment in the suit between himself and the Dominicans, which, though suppressed, was persistently urged by the latter. The Christianlike Kabbala was to be his intercessor at the Vatican. He did not stand alone in his foolish fondness for the secret doctrine. Not only the cardinals but the pope himself expected to gain much for Christianity by proper research into the Kabbala.

As the interest in the Reuchlin controversy began to flag, another movement started in Germany, continuing, as the other had begun, to shake the firm pillars of the papacy and the Catholic Church, and prepare the regeneration of Europe. The discussion aroused by the Talmud created an intellectual medium favorable to the germination and growth of Luther's reform movement. Destined soon to become a force in the world's history, even the Reformation arose from small beginnings, and needed most powerful protection not to be nipped in the bud. Martin Luther was a strong, straightforward, obstinate and passionately excitable character, holding with tenacity to his convictions and errors. By the opposition which he met, Luther finally came to the conclusion that each individual pope, consequently the papacy, was not infallible, and that the basis of faith was not the pope's will, but the Scriptural word.

The death of the old emperor, Maximilian, who had been unequal to the task of grappling with the theological perplexities called forth by himself, and the election of a new emperor, spun out for half a year, drew politics into the arena, and gave rise to a confusion in which the friends and foes of free religious thought and of gloomy orthodox faith were not distinguishable. Hutten and the Humanists favored Charles V, in whose own country, Spain, the Dominicans still had the upper hand, and where the flames from the stake were still unextinguished; but he was opposed by the pope. The Reuchlinist and the Lutheran cause, as it were, the Talmud and the Reformation, were merged into each other. So great a change had taken place that the electors assembled to elect an emperor declared against the obscurantists of Cologne and in favor of Reuchlin.

Instead of condemning the Talmud, Pope Leo X encouraged the printing of the work. Thus, through a movement incomprehensible to all its contemporaries, the unexpected took place: Reuchlin was justified, and the Talmud was justified, and in a measure favored by the pope. Indeed, Daniel Bomberg, a rich Christian publisher in Antwerp, in the same year brought out a complete edition of the Babylonian Talmud in twelve folio volumes, the model of all later editions.

A clever pantomime, which first appeared in Latin or French, and was soon translated into German, portrays Reuchlin as the originator of the great and growing movement. It represents a doctor, on whose back may be read the name of Capnion (Reuchlin), throwing a bundle of straight and crooked sticks on the stage, and then going away. Another figure (Erasmus), having in vain endeavored to put the bundle in order, shakes his head over the chaos, and disappears. Hutten also comes in. Luther appears in monk's dress, and with a firebrand kindles the crooked twigs. Another figure, in imperial robes, strikes with its sword the spreading fire, only giving it wider play. At length comes the pope, who, wishing to extinguish the fire, seizes a vessel, and pours the oil in it upon the flames, then clasps his hands on his head, while the bright flames shoot up never again to be stifled. Pfefferkorn and the Talmud should not have been missing in this dumb show, for they were the fuse that started the conflagration.

The situation was such that the slightest breath made the flames leap up. Luther had gained firmness and courage at the imperial diet of Worms, and by his speech, revealing fearlessness, completed the rupture with the papacy. Although urged by his own bigotry, besieged by obscurantists and exhorted by princes, Emperor Charles was disposed to condemn the reformer to the stake as a heretic, yet partly from consideration for Frederick, elector of Saxony, partly from policy, hoping thereby to hold the pope in check, he only declared him an exile a month later. Meanwhile Luther was already on his Patmos, the Wartburg, hidden and protected. Whilst in solitude he worked at a German translation of the Bible, ultra-reformers overthrew church regulations, altered the church services, did away with masses and priestly decoration, abolished the vows of monks, and introduced the marriage of priests--that is to say, the priests publicly acknowledged their former secret mistresses as their wives. The time was ripe for the Reformation, and it took firm hold of North Germany, Denmark and Sweden, extending to Prussia, Poland, and, on the other hand, to France and even Spain, the country of darkest and most bigoted ecclesiasticism and the home of persecution. Zwingli, the reformer of Switzerland, after much wavering, declared himself against the papacy; so, in that country, too, where there was more freedom of action than in submissive Germany, the new church service was introduced, the marriage of priests permitted, pictures and crucifixes destroyed, and monasteries done away with. A new order of things had set in; all-powerful Rome stood impotent before the new spirit. The enthusiasm of the Anabaptists began to arouse public feeling and transform all relations of life.

At first, Luther's Reformation affected the Jews but slightly. Catholics and innovators in every town, especially in Germany, were so occupied with fighting each other, that they had no leisure for the persecution of Jews; so there came a pause. Luther, whose voice even then was more powerful than that of the princes, at first defended them from numerous accusations. In his plain-spoken and fervent way, he said:

"This rage (against the Jews) is still defended by some silly
theologians, and advocated by them; they declare insolently
that the Jews are the servants of the Christians, and subject
to the emperor. I beg you to tell me who will join our
religion, be he the most amiable and patient of men, when he
sees that they are treated so cruelly and inimically, and not
only in an unchristian way, but even brutally. Most of the
Passion preachers (in Holy Week) do nothing but make the sin
committed by Jews against Christ heavier and greater, and
embitter the hearts of believers against them."

In one of his works, the title of which, calculated to startle their antagonists, ran, "Jesus was born a Jew," Luther expressed himself against the indelible hatred of the Jews still more sharply:

"Those fools, the papists, bishops, sophists and monks, have
hitherto so dealt with Jews, that every good Christian would
rather have been a Jew. And if I had been a Jew, and seen such
stupidity and such blockheads reign in the Christian Church,
I would rather have been a pig than a Christian. They have
treated the Jews as if they were dogs, not men; they have done
nothing but revile them. They are blood-relations of our Lord;
therefore, if it were proper to boast of flesh and blood, the
Jews belong to Christ more than we. I beg, therefore, my dear
papists, if you become tired of abusing me as a heretic, that
you begin to revile me as a Jew."

"Therefore, it is my advice," continued Luther, "that we treat
them kindly. Now that we drive them by force, treating them
deceitfully and ignominiously, saying that they must have
Christian blood to wash away the Jewish stain, and I know not
what more nonsense,--prohibiting them from working amongst
us, from living and having social intercourse with us, forcing
them to be usurers, how can we expect them to come to us? If we
would help them, so must we exercise, not the law of the pope,
but that of Christian love--show them a friendly spirit,
permit them to live and to work, so that they may have cause
and means to be with us and amongst us."

These were words which the Jews had not heard for a thousand years. They show unmistakable traces of Reuchlin's mild intercession in their favor. Many hot-headed Jews saw in Luther's opposition to the papacy the extinction of Christianity and the triumph of Judaism. Three learned Jews went to Luther, and tried to convert him. Enthusiastic feelings were aroused among the Jews at this unexpected revulsion, especially at the blow dealt the papacy and the idolatrous worship of images and relics; the boldest hopes were entertained of the speedy downfall of Rome, and the approaching redemption by the Messiah.

But the Jewish religion gained much more by the Reformation than the Jewish race. Despised before, it became fashionable, so to say, in the early days of the Reformation. Reuchlin had expressed the modest wish that at the few German universities a professor of the Hebrew language might be appointed. Through his zeal for Hebrew (he had published, shortly before his death, a work on Hebrew accents and prosody), and through the increasing conviction that without this knowledge the Bible must remain a sealed book, princes and universities sought teachers, and instituted Hebrew professorships not only in Germany and Italy, but also in France and Poland. The light, graceful, classic muse, which had withdrawn many hearts from the church, was more and more neglected, and the serious Hebrew mother was sought out instead. Young and old did not hesitate to seek Jews from whom to learn Hebrew. A friendly connection was formed between Jewish masters and Christian pupils, to the intense vexation of bigots on both sides; and many prejudices died out by these means. The principal teacher of the Christians was a grammarian of German descent, Elias Levita (born 1468, died 1549). This poor man, who had to struggle for his daily bread, laid the foundation of the knowledge of the Hebrew language. The plundering of Padua--where, perhaps, he was born--brought him, by way of Venice, to Rome, where Cardinal Egidio de Viterbo, wishing to advance in his grammatical and Kabbalistic studies, took him into his house, supporting him and his family for more than ten years. Not only this church dignitary, but many other Christians of high position sat at Levita's feet. One was George de Selve, bishop of Lavour, the French ambassador, as learned as he was statesmanlike. Against the reproach of some bigoted rabbis, Levita defended himself by the remark that his Christian pupils all were friends of the Jews, and tried to promote their welfare. On the inducement of his patron, Egidio, he worked at a Hebrew grammar in the Hebrew language, the greater part of which was translated into Latin by Reuchlin's pupil, Sebastian Münster. Elias Levita had not a mind of great depth, nor did he propound a new theory on the structure of the Hebrew language. He rigorously adhered to the grammatical system of the Kimchis, because he did not know their predecessors. His usefulness consisted in his command over the whole Scriptural vocabulary, his pedagogic skill, and his gift of vivid presentation. Beyond the elements he did not go, but they perfectly satisfied the wants of the time. Only one deviation did Levita make from the beaten track. Against the firm belief of the time that the accents and the vowel signs in the Hebrew Bible were of ancient origin, having been revealed on Mount Sinai, or, at all events, introduced by Ezra, he maintained that they had not been known even at the time of the Talmud, because they had been superfluous when Hebrew was a living language. It can easily be imagined what a storm this opinion raised. It at once upset all preconceived notions. The bigots raised a cry against him as though he had by his assertion disowned Judaism. Elias Levita was, therefore, little liked by his brother Jews, and associated more with learned Christians, which brought much blame from the over-pious, and produced evil consequences for his descendants.

He was not the only teacher of the Hebrew language and literature to Christians. As before him, Obadiah Sforno had given Reuchlin instruction in Hebrew, so at the same time as Levita, Jacob Mantino and Abraham de Balmes were engaged in instructing Christians.

Throughout Christendom there was a desire to know the Hebrew language. The printers reckoned on such good sales that in several places in Italy and Germany, even where there were no Jews, new and old Hebrew grammatical writings were published. Everyone wished to know Hebrew and to understand the Hebrew language and literature. Some years before the representatives of the church had considered the knowledge of Hebrew superfluous, or even a pernicious evil touching on heresy; but through the Reformation it became a necessary branch of divinity. Luther himself learnt Hebrew to be able to penetrate the meaning of the Bible.

The change of mind was most evident in France. The Paris university, the leader of thought, had by a majority condemned Reuchlin's "Augenspiegel" in favor of the Talmud and Hebrew studies; scarcely six years later there was a professorship and a printing press for Hebrew, and the confessor of King Louis, William Haquinet Petit, though a Dominican, the one whose slander had brought about the condemnation of Reuchlin's work, appeared as a patron of Hebrew literature.

At his advice King Francis I invited the bishop of Corsica, Augustin Justiniani, a man well read in Hebrew literature, to come to France. This young king felt, or at least showed, interest in learning and also in the study of Hebrew. He invited Elias Levita to come to France, and fill the professorship of Hebrew there, probably at the instigation of his admirer, De Selve. One must take into consideration what this signified at that time. In France proper, for more than a century, no Jew had been permitted to dwell, nor even to make a passing stay, and now a Jew was invited, not merely to reside there, but to accept an honorable post and instruct Christians. What heresy! Elias Levita, however, declined this flattering proposal; he would not have felt at ease there as the only Jew, and to urge the admission of Jews into France was not in conformity with his character. Justiniani undertook the task of introducing the study of Hebrew into France.

At the University of Rheims the French students made attempts to speak Hebrew. As there were not sufficient grammars, Justiniani had the wretched Hebrew grammar of Moses Kimchi printed. Yet more remarkable is it that in Paris, where three hundred years previously the Jewish orthodox party, with the help of the Dominicans, had burnt Maimuni's religious philosophical work, "Guide of the Perplexed," the Dominican Justiniani now caused a Latin translation of the same to be published (1520). Naturally, the Christian teachers of the Hebrew language remained dependent on their Jewish masters; they could not take a single step without them. Paulus Fagius, a reforming priest and disciple of Reuchlin, wishing to establish a Hebrew press in Isny, called upon Elias Levita to go there. This offer was accepted, for Levita was in difficulties, and could find no publisher for his Chaldean and Rabbinical dictionaries. Paulus Fagius was particularly pleased with these works, because they appeared to him to offer the key to the Kabbala, so much sought for by Christian scholars.

Through the agitation by Reuchlin and Luther the neglected science of the Bible was to a certain extent cultivated. Judaism and Christianity are both founded on the Sacred Writings, yet they were quite strange to the followers of both religions. The glorious memorial of a much favored time was so shrouded and surrounded with a network of senseless explanations, so disfigured by these accessories, that its full value was completely unknown. Because everything was looked for in, and imported into, the Holy Scriptures, the true meaning was not discovered. To the Christian laity the Bible had been inaccessible for a long time, because the papacy, with instinctive fear, had forbidden its translation into the vernacular. So the faithful knew only fragments or isolated texts, and, owing to distorted interpretations, these not always correctly. Even the clergy were not familiar therewith, for they were acquainted only with the Roman Catholic Latin version, and in this the fundamental truths of the Bible were confused by perversions and errors. It was, therefore, a work of great importance that occupied Luther in his solitude on the Wartburg--the translation of the Bible, the Old and New Testaments, into German. For this purpose Luther had to learn Hebrew, and seek information from Jews. To his contemporaries it seemed as if God's Word had for the first time been revealed; this clear voice they had never before heard. A breath of fresh air was wafted on men, when the ramparts were broken down that had so long held its spirit imprisoned. Classical antiquity had improved the taste of a small circle. Hebrew antiquity rejuvenated the whole generation, once more infusing love of simplicity and naturalness. The Bible was soon translated into all European languages; the Catholics themselves were obliged to disregard the papal command, and render it into intelligible language for the people's use. The Jews also felt the want of the Holy Scripture in the vernacular. A translation into Spanish was made in Ferrara, by a Marrano, Duarte de Pinel, who had escaped from Portugal, and called himself Abraham Usque as a Jew.

The demand for Hebrew Bibles was so great that Daniel Bomberg undertook the great work of publishing the Old Testament, with the commentaries of Rashi, Ibn-Ezra, Kimchi, Gersonides, and others. The sale of this rabbinical Bible was so rapid that new editions were continually appearing.