History of the Jews, Vol. 3 (of 6)Graetz, Heinrich
History
History of the Jews, Vol. 3 (of 6)
Graetz, Heinrich
Jews -- History
leader and model of the German and French Jews (8 May, 1147). Through
the influence of Bernard no Jew hunts took place in France, except at
Carenton, Rameru and Sully. In England, where since the time of William
the Conqueror many Jews had settled, who were in communication with
the French congregations, there were no persecutions, as King Stephen
vigorously protected them. The Jews of Bohemia, however, again suffered
severely when the crusaders marched through their country, 150 of them
meeting with martyrs' deaths. Directly the French army of the crusaders
had marched through Germany, and had advanced beyond its borders, the
Jews were able to leave their places of refuge in the castles, and
were not molested. Even those Jews who had weakly submitted to forced
baptism could now return to their ancient faith. A certain priest who
was as pious as he was humane, but whose name unfortunately has been
lost, gave them very great assistance. He led those Jews who had been
forcibly baptized into France and other countries, where they remained
till their former adhesion to the Church was forgotten. They then
returned to their homes and their religion.
On the whole, the fanaticism of the second crusade claimed fewer
Jewish victims than the first. This was partly owing to the protection
afforded to the Jews by the spiritual and temporal dignitaries, and
also because the participation of the German Emperor and the King
of France did not permit such crowds of crusading marauders as had
accompanied the expedition of William the Carpenter and Emicho of
Leiningen. But the Jews were compelled to pay a high price for the
shelter which was granted them, the price being their whole future. The
German Emperor from this time forward was regarded by the Jews as their
protector, and he considered himself as such, demanding in return the
fulfilment of certain duties. The German Jews, who had hitherto been as
free as the Germans or Romans, henceforth became the "servants of the
chamber" (servi cameræ) of the Holy Roman empire. This hateful name at
first only signified that the Jews enjoyed immunity from all attacks
like the imperial servants, and had to pay a certain tax to the emperor
for the protection thus granted to them, and that they had to perform
extraordinary services. But in later times the word was employed in
its original, odious sense, and the Jews were looked upon as bondmen
and dependent slaves. The German Jews who were on the point of raising
themselves from a state of barbarism, were thus hurled into the depths
of an abyss of degradation, from which they were enabled to raise
themselves only after a lapse of six hundred years. For this reason,
their intellectual efforts bore the stamp of degeneracy, their poems
consisted only of elegies and lamentations, which, like their speech,
were tasteless and barbaric, and even in the study of the Talmud very
little work of note was accomplished. The German Jews were pariahs in
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