=2. Reuchlin and the Talmud.=――It was in Reuchlin’s time that the Dominican monks, under the leadership of a man named Pfefferkorn, and in their hatred of the Jews, brought charges against the Talmud, and tried hard to induce the Emperor Maximilian to have all copies of it confiscated and burnt. Reuchlin, who was at the head of the Anti-Dominicans, defended the Talmud most energetically and successfully. ‘I confess,’ he said on one occasion, ‘that I know very little of the contents of the Talmud, but the opposite party know just as much. How could one presume to give a judgment on mathematics if he knew nothing of the science? The Talmud ought not to be burnt, for so long as it exists a harmless subject is supplied for theological discussion. Destroy the Talmud, and Christian divines will take to disputing about their own religion, whether Paul was married, or if “Saint” Augustine was a monk!’ Thus, curiously enough, the Talmud divided the Christian camp into two parties, Humanists and Obscurants, as they were called, and in their disputes the Talmud found its safety. We have seen that it was not burnt that time.[55] =3. Another Jewish Influence, Elias Levitas.=――Another successful Jewish teacher among Christian scholars of this period was Elias Levitas. He was born in 1468 at Neustadt, near Nuremburg. In 1504 we find him at Padua, teaching Hebrew. In 1509, when Padua was suffering from the effects of war and conquest, Levitas came to Rome. Here he taught the Cardinal Egidio de Viterbo, in whose house he lived ten years. George de Selve, Bishop of Lavour, was also one of his pupils, and it was probably in consequence of the bishop’s recommendation that Levitas was invited to come to France as professor of Hebrew. He must have felt himself greatly honoured when thus begged to come into a country in which no Jew was allowed to reside. And it is pleasant to know that he did not accept the invitation, but refused a distinction at the hand that dishonoured his race. In 1527, when Rome was abandoned to disorder and plunder, Elias Levitas went to Venice. In 1540 we find him employed as corrector in the printing office of one Fagius, and in 1549 he died. His literary career commenced with a copious editing of some grammatical works of the old masters, but he went on to write books himself on every topic connected with Hebrew grammar and lexicography. Many of these works were translated into Latin. Scholars find a treatise which he wrote on the Massorah, and on the origin of the vowel points, most interesting as well as valuable. He supplied his Jewish brethren also with a German translation of the Pentateuch, Megilloth, and Haphtaroth.