‘Death to the infidel. It is the will of God!’ Such was the cry that rang through Europe—‘Death to the Moslem, whose unhallowed shrine overshadows the holy place, in which the Saviour Himself has worshipped, whose blasphemies awake the same echoes which His Divine preaching once called forth!’ Yes. But were these the only shrines where false worship was offered? were they in Jerusalem the only ones who blasphemed the Lord? If the slaughter of the unbelieving Turk was acceptable to the Most High, why not that of the unbelieving Jew? It was strange that this peril should not have been dreaded by the Jews dwelling in the lands which the mania called forth by Peter the Hermit overspread. But it does not seem to have done so; they made no attempt to escape from the approaching danger. They even continued the ordinary course of their business, making the same enormous gains out of the Crusaders’ necessities, which they had done out of every other political movement for generations past. The great baron, who had vowed to lead his hundreds, or it might be his thousands, of armed followers to the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre, mortgaged his lands, or his jewels, or perhaps sold them outright, to the Jews, on such terms as we can hardly believe that the one could have asked or the other agreed to. Poorer men parted with their all on the like terms. But that there were some shrewd men left among the Christians, who were not carried away by the tide of popular excitement, the whole wealth of the community would have passed into the hands of the Jews. It is needless to add that the bitter feelings towards this isolated race—who were for ever battening on the wants and sufferings of others—were greatly aggravated by these proceedings, and it was not long before this burst out into a flame.

All over Northern France and Germany, the Jews seem to have been numerous at this time; but in what is now Rhenish Prussia, and along the banks of the Moselle, they were to be found in the greatest abundance. It was near the city of Treves that the first vast multitude of undisciplined fanatics assembled, under the leadership of Walther von Habenicht and Peter the Hermit. As they set forth, under the guidance of a goat and a goose, to find their way to the Holy Land, a cry was suddenly raised, doubtless by some enemy of the Jews, that while they were marching to destroy the enemies of the Lord Jesus in Palestine, they were leaving unassailed at home those who were not only His enemies, but His murderers—the Jews! The cry was instantly caught up, the frantic crowd rushed into Treves, and began a general pillage of the Jews’ houses, and a massacre of their occupants. Taken by surprise, the authorities offered no interference; indeed, no interference they could have offered would have been of the slightest avail. The unhappy Jews, equally unprepared, could neither resist nor escape. Scenes too shocking for description ensued. Women tied heavy weights round their necks, and threw themselves into the rivers to avoid the last dishonour. Men slew their own children, to save them from the tortures to which they would be subjected; their own lives they yielded up in despairing silence. Some fled to the citadel, hoping to be protected against the violence of their assailants; but the Bishop of Treves received them with threats and reproaches, refusing to interfere in their behalf, unless they would accept baptism. The same scenes took place in Cologne, Worms, Spires, and Mayence. Everywhere the only hope of escape from torture and death was baptism; except, indeed, where a heavy bribe had been paid for episcopal protection, or where, as at Spires, the Jews armed themselves and sold their lives dearly. The tide of murder rolled on, sweeping the shores of the Maine and the Danube, the same scenes being everywhere repeated. In Bavaria, it is said that as many as 12,000 Jews were slaughtered. The Emperor Henry IV. seems to have been the only potentate whom these atrocities struck with horror. He issued a decree, repairing, so far as was possible, the wrongs that had been done, and forbidding them for the future. But, for the most part, the historians of those times relate the horrors that took place with a sangfroid which speaks volumes as to the light in which they were regarded by those who witnessed them.

But the three mighty hosts, led by Peter and his two colleagues, passed on and perished, and the exhaustion succeeded which such a drain on the population must necessarily occasion. It was not until half the twelfth century had passed away that the crusading mania was again roused. Then a fanatic monk, named Rodolph, commenced a mission through the German cities, calling on all men, by the watchword ‘Hep, Hep’ (the initials of the words Hierosolyma est perdita) to assist in slaying and crushing the enemies of God. The Jews knew too well, by past experience, that they were included under this latter term, and many effected a timely retreat. Nevertheless, a frightful carnage took place in Strasburg, Mayence, and the other Rhine cities, encouraged, unhappily, by too many of the clergy. It is like a bright gleam of sunshine on a dark November day, to read the protest addressed by the saintly Bernard of Clairvaulx, to his brother clergy against the blind and savage spirit by which Rodolph was possessed.[103]

‘The Jews,’ he writes, ‘ought not to be persecuted; they ought not to be put to death, they ought not to be driven into banishment. What says the Scripture? “Slay them not, lest My people forget.” The Jews are living monuments to remind us of the sufferings of the Lord. Therefore it is that they are scattered.... Therefore they endure a hard bondage under Christian princes; yet, in the eventide of the world, they will be converted, and He will remember them. Addressing Rodolph himself, he says, ‘You are of another mind from Him who said, “Put up thy sword into the sheath, for he that taketh the sword shall perish with the sword.” Does not the Church triumph more gloriously over the Jews when she refutes and converts them, than if she slew them with the edge of the sword?’ It is satisfactory also to learn that Pope Eugenius III. advocated the same view, and that Rodolph was ordered back to his convent, though not before he had occasioned the most terrible crimes and sufferings.

But the condition of the Jews grew no better, but rather worse, as the century advanced. The calumny—whether it was the revival of an ancient accusation against the Jews, or one newly invented at this period—of crucifying boys at their Passover, in mockery of the Saviour’s passion, was widely diffused and credited. It was reported that, about A.D. 1180, during the youth of Philip Augustus, they had in this manner murdered one Richard, a youth belonging to Pontoise; and, in confirmation of the truth of the story, the body, when it was conveyed to Paris, worked many miracles. Philip had no sooner ascended his throne than he put forth an edict, A.D. 1182, whereby all debts due to Jews were annulled, and all pledges held by them were to be restored to the original owners. Not satisfied with this display of somewhat cheap generosity, he made a second proclamation, confiscating all their property which was not removable, and commanding them to sell everything else belonging to them, and depart from his dominions. In vain they appealed for mercy. King and nobles and bishops alike closed their ears. The twofold offence of holding heretical opinions and mortgages on estates was not to be forgiven. It will readily be credited that at the enforced sale of their goods the prices bidden were of the lowest. The unhappy Jews were compelled to depart, amid the execrations of the populace, from the homes in which their whole lives had been passed, carrying with them little but their wives and children. It was not enough that they had been, by the most high-handed injustice, stripped of their possessions; they were not to be allowed to remain in the land where the wrong had been done, and so remind the doers of their crime!

It will surprise no one to be told that their removal did not increase the wealth or relieve the public burdens of the nation. It was found that the expulsion of the Jews was, as Fouché said of the murder of the Duke d’Enghien, ‘more than a crime, for it was a blunder.’ Within twenty years Philip found it necessary to issue a new edict, permitting their return. But it does occasion our wonder to hear that the Jews consented to the step. It speaks volumes for the depth of the misery to which they had been reduced, that they could be prevailed on to trust themselves again to the justice and mercy of a king who had so flagrantly proved his disregard of both.[104] Not long after their return, we are told that they held an assembly by permission of the Queen’s mother, at a castle on the Seine. Here the old charge of scourging, crucifying, and crowning with thorns a youth whom they had seized was once more alleged against them. Philip repaired in person to the spot, where he condemned eighty of the accused to be burned alive.[105]

In Spain, during this century, the Jews were still equitably dealt with, though there were signs of the change of feeling towards them which was gradually taking possession of the public mind. For this two causes may be assigned. In the first place, the power of the Mahometans, who had always been the protectors of the Jews, was fast waning; and the Christian sovereigns no longer dreaded the enmity of the Jews, who in previous generations might have been dangerous allies to their rivals. In the second, the downfall of the Ommiad Caliphs, who had uniformly been just and generous in their dealings with the Jews, proved most disastrous to them. The Almohades, who, A.D. 1150, superseded them, were fierce and bloody fanatics, inclined to force the faith of Islam on all with whom they came in contact. One of the first edicts of Abdel-Mumen, the founder of the dynasty, required all his subjects, of whatsoever creed, to profess Mahometanism. The usual consequences followed. Many Jews went into voluntary exile; many more made an outward profession of their persecutor’s creed, still secretly retaining their own. The happy days of the Spanish Jews were over. Moorish rule was ended.

In the Christian kingdom, however, justice and right still prevailed. The royal authority was uniformly exerted for the protection of peaceable and unoffending men. But there were occasions on which this power proved insufficient to restrain the violence of the people, who had probably learned from their neighbours to regard the Jews with disfavour. Thus, a riot occurred at Toledo, A.D. 1108, instigated, in all likelihood, by the crusaders, who were just on the point of setting out for Palestine. The populace, under the usual pretext of slaying the enemies of Christ, attacked and burned the houses of the Jews, wrecked the synagogues, immolating the Rabbins, as it were, on their own altars, and made a general massacre of the common people. Alphonso tried in vain, first to repress, and then to punish, the offenders.

But this occurrence, shocking as it was, was a mere temporary outburst of popular fury. It was not repeated, not even in the reign of his descendant, Alphonso VIII., in 1171, when, above all other times, a Jewish massacre might have been looked for. This king had become deeply enamoured of a beautiful Jewess, named Rachel Fermosa. For her society he neglected his queen, and withdrew himself from public business. Grave misfortunes ensued: his forces were defeated at Alarcos, and the kingdom menaced by the hostility of the neighbouring states. The people believed that these calamities were due, not to the bad administration of public affairs, but to the indignation of Heaven at the king’s unhallowed affection for an unbeliever. Their jealousy was also roused by the favour shown to her countrymen. A rebellion broke out, the rioters burst into the king’s palace, and assassinated Fermosa before the eyes of her lover. But they satisfied themselves with her death, and did not molest the Jewish favourites whom she had patronized.

Alphonso IX. showed even greater favour to the Jews than had been bestowed on them by his predecessors. Innocent III. repeated in his instance the charge which Gregory VII. had brought against his ancestor, ‘of elevating the Synagogue at the cost of the Church.’ He relieved both Jews and Moors, we are told, from the payment of tithes, and allowed them to hold landed property,—a rare privilege in those days. One of his laws—which allowed a Jew, in the event of one of his slaves being converted to Christianity, to claim, at the hands of the person who had converted him whatever indemnity he might think proper—seems to be as unfair to the Christians as the legislation of those times usually was to the Jews.

In Hungary, Germany, and Bohemia, their condition, during the period we have under consideration, appears to have been prosperous. Ladislas, King of Hungary, convened, we are told, a Synod in 1092, in which various regulations relating to the Jews were made. It was ordered that if a Jew bought a Christian slave of either sex, the slave should be set at liberty, and the price paid for him confiscated to the bishop. His son Coloman re-enacted this prohibition against the use of Christian slaves, but permitted the Jews to purchase and cultivate lands, on condition of employing Jewish or pagan labour, and settling in such places only as were under the jurisdiction of a bishop. These laws prove that the Jews must have been both a numerous and wealthy part of the population.

In Germany and Bohemia they had many stately synagogues, particularly in the great towns, and were not interfered with by the government. Nevertheless, they did not escape persecution. A fanatic priest, named Gotesel, incited a band of lawless ruffians, amounting in number to fifteen thousand, to attack the Jews; and he was supported, it is believed, in secret, by persons high in authority. He plundered the property of the Jews, outraged their women, and massacred the men all over Franconia. He then entered Hungary, and commenced perpetrating the like atrocities; when he was attacked and slain, together with the greater part of his followers. Soon afterwards the Landgrave of Leiningen declared in like manner a religious war against the Jews, and having assembled a body of troops, committed great havoc among them, pursuing them at last, like his predecessor, into Hungary; where, like his predecessor again, he was defeated and slain.[106]

In Russia, early in the twelfth century (A.D. 1113), there was a savage outbreak in the city of Kief, against the Jews. The same cry seems to have been raised which has so frequently been heard in other lands, their accumulation of wealth, at the cost, it was supposed, of their neighbours. The merciful Vladimir, who succeeded to the throne, tried to protect them, but could only do so by assenting to their expulsion from Russia. This was their first, and their longest, term of banishment from any European country. They were not allowed to return for 600 years.

During this period lived Solomon, called Rashi, or as it is more commonly written, Jarchi. He was the most renowned of the many commentators on the Talmud. It is said that no edition of that work has appeared since his time which had not his commentary appended to it. He was born A.D. 1040, and died A.D. 1105.