§ 95. Islam and the Jews in Europe.The Saracens (§ 81, 2) were overthrown in the 11th century by the Normans. The reign of Islam in Spain too (§ 81, 1) came to an end. The frequent change of dynasties, as well as the splitting up of the empire into small principalities, weakened the power of the Moors; the growth of luxurious habits in the rich and fertile districts robbed them of martial energy and prowess. The Christian power also was indeed considerably split up and disturbed by many internal feuds, but the national and religious enthusiasm with which it was every day being more and more inspired, made it invincible. Rodrigo Diaz, the Castilian hero, called by the Moors the Cid,i.e.Lord, by the Christians Campeador,i.e.champion, who died inA.D.1099, was the most perfect representative of Spanish Christian knighthood, although he dealt with the infidels in a manner neither Christian nor knightly. Also the Almoravides of Morocco, whose aid was called in inA.D.1086, and the Almohades, who had driven out these from Barbary inA.D.1146, were not able to stop the progress of the Christian arms. On the other hand, neither the unceasing persecutions of the civil power, nor innumerable atrocities committed on Jews by infuriated mobs, nor even Christian theologians’ zeal for the instruction and conversion of the Israelites, succeeded in destroying Judaism in Europe.
The Saracens (§ 81, 2) were overthrown in the 11th century by the Normans. The reign of Islam in Spain too (§ 81, 1) came to an end. The frequent change of dynasties, as well as the splitting up of the empire into small principalities, weakened the power of the Moors; the growth of luxurious habits in the rich and fertile districts robbed them of martial energy and prowess. The Christian power also was indeed considerably split up and disturbed by many internal feuds, but the national and religious enthusiasm with which it was every day being more and more inspired, made it invincible. Rodrigo Diaz, the Castilian hero, called by the Moors the Cid,i.e.Lord, by the Christians Campeador,i.e.champion, who died inA.D.1099, was the most perfect representative of Spanish Christian knighthood, although he dealt with the infidels in a manner neither Christian nor knightly. Also the Almoravides of Morocco, whose aid was called in inA.D.1086, and the Almohades, who had driven out these from Barbary inA.D.1146, were not able to stop the progress of the Christian arms. On the other hand, neither the unceasing persecutions of the civil power, nor innumerable atrocities committed on Jews by infuriated mobs, nor even Christian theologians’ zeal for the instruction and conversion of the Israelites, succeeded in destroying Judaism in Europe.
§ 95.1.Islam in Sicily.—The robber raids upon Italy perpetrated by the Sicilian Saracens were put an end to by the Normans who settled there inA.D.1017. Robert Guiscard destroyed the remnant of Greek rule in southern Italy, conquered the small Longobard duchies there, and founded a Norman duchy of Apulia and Calabria inA.D.1059. His brother Roger, who died inA.D.1101, after a thirty years’ struggle drove the Saracens completely out of Sicily, and ruled over it as a vassal of his brother under the title of Count of Sicily. His son Roger II., who died inA.D.1154, united the government of Sicily and of Apulia and Calabria, had himself crowned inA.D.1130 king of Sicily and Italy, and finally inA.D.1139 conquered also Naples. In consequence of the marriage of his daughter Constance with Henry VI. the whole kingdom passed over inA.D.1194 to the Hohenstaufens, from whom it passed inA.D.1266 to Charles of Anjou; and from him finally, in consequence of the Sicilian Vespers inA.D.1282, the island of Sicily passed to Peter of Arragon, the son-in-law of Manfred, the last king of the Hohenstaufen line. The Normans and the Hohenstaufens granted to the subject Saracens for the most part full religious liberty, the Emperor Frederick recruiting from among them his bodyguard, and they supplied the bravest soldiers for the Italian Ghibelline war. For this purpose he was constantly drafting new detachments from the African coast, as Manfred also had done. The endeavours made by monks of the mendicant orders for the conversion of the Saracens proved quite fruitless. It was only under the Spanish rule that conversions were made by force, or persecution and annihilation followed persistent refusal.§ 95.2.Islam in Spain.—The times of Abderrhaman III.,A.D.912-961, and Hacem II.,A.D.961-976, were the most brilliant and fortunate of theOmmaiadeankhalifate. After the death of the latter the chamberlain Almansor, who died inA.D.1002, reigned in the name of Khalif Hescham II., who was little more than a puppet of the seraglio, and his rule was glorious, powerful and wise. But interminable civil contentions were the result of this disarrangement of government, and inA.D.1031, in consequence of a popular tumult, Abderrhaman IV., the last of the Ommaiades, took to flight, and voluntarily resigned the crown. The khalifate was now broken up into as many little principalities or emirships as there had been governors before. Amid such confusions the Christian princes continued to develop and increase their resources. Sancho the Great, king of Navarre,A.D.970-1035, by marriage and conquest united almost all Christian Spain under his rule, but this was split up again by being partitioned among his sons. Of these Ferdinand I., who died inA.D.1065, inherited Castile, and inA.D.1037 added to it Leon by conquest. With him begins the heroic age of Spanish knighthood. His son Alfonso IV., who died inA.D.1109, succeeded inA.D.1085 in taking from the Moors Toledo and a great part of Andalusia. The powerful leader of theAlmoravides, Jussuf from Morocco, was now called to their aid by the Moors. On the plain of Salacca the Christians were beaten inA.D.1086, but soon the victor turned his arms against his allies, and within six years all Moslem Spain was under his government. His son Ali, in a fearfully bloody battle at Ucles inA.D.1107, cut down the flower of the Castilian nobility; this marked the summit of power reached by the Almoravides, and now their star began slowly to pale. Alfonso I. of Arragon,A.D.1105-1134, conquered Saragossa inA.D.1118, and other cities. Alfonso VII. of Castile,A.D.1126-1157, whose power rose so high that most of the Christian princes in Spain acknowledged him as sovereign, and that he had himself formally crowned emperor of Spain inA.D.1135, conducted a successful campaign against Andalusia, and inA.D.1144 forced his way down to the south coast of Granada. Alfonso I. of Portugal, drove the Moors out of Lisbon; Raimard, count of Barcelona, conquered Tortosa, etc. At the same time too the government of the Almoravides was being undermined in Africa. InA.D.1146 Morocco fell, and with it North-western Africa, into the hands of theAlmohadesunder Abdelmoumen, while his lieutenant Abu Amram at the same time conquered Moslem Spain and Andalusia. Abdelmoumen’s son Jussuf himself crossed over into Spain with an enormous force in order to extinguish the Christian rule there, but fell in a battle at Santarem against Alfonso I. of Portugal. His son Jacob avenged the disaster by the bloody battle of Alarcos inA.D.1195, where 30,000 Castilians were left upon the field. When, notwithstanding the overthrow, the Christians a few years later endeavoured to retrieve their loss, Jacob’s successor Mohammed descended upon Spain with half a million fanatical followers. The critical hour for Spain had now arrived. The Christians had won time to come to agreement among themselves. They fought with unexampled heroism on the plain of Tolosa inA.D.1212 under Alfonso VIII. of Castile. The battlefield was strewn with more than 200,000 bodies of the African fanatics. It was the death-knell of the rule of the Almohad in Spain. Notwithstanding the dissensions and hostilities that immediately broke out among the Christian princes, they conquered within twenty-five years the whole of Andalusia. The work of conquest was carried out mostly by Ferdinand III., the saint of Castile,A.D.1217-1254, and Jacob I., the conqueror of Arragon,A.D.1213-1276. Only in the southernmost district of Spain a remnant of the Moslem rule survived in the kingdom of Granada, founded inA.D.1238 by the emir Mohammed Aben Alamar. Here for a time the glories of Arabic culture were revived in such a way as seemed like a magical restoration of the day of the Ommaiades. In consequence of the marriage inA.D.1469 of Ferdinand of Arragon, who died inA.D.1516, with Isabella of Castile, these two most important Christian empires were united. Soon afterwards the empire of Granada came to an end. On 2nd January,A.D.1492, after an ignominious capitulation, the last khalif, Abu Abdilehi Boabdil, was driven out of the fair (Granada), and a few moments later the Castilian banner waved from the highest tower of the proud Alhambra. The pope bestowed upon the royal pair the title of Catholic monarchs. The Moors who refused to submit to baptism were expelled, but even the baptized, the so-called Moriscoes, proved so dangerous an element in the state that Philip III., inA.D.1609, ordered them to be all banished from his realm.They sought refuge mostly in Africa, and there went over openly again to Mohammedanism, which they had never at heart rejected.270§ 95.3.The Jews in Europe.—By trade, money lending and usury the Jews succeeded in obtaining almost sole possession of ready money, which brought them often great influence with the needy princes and nobles, but was also often the occasion of sore oppression and robbery, as well as the cause of popular hatred and violence. Whenever a country was desolated by a plague the notion of well-poisoning by the Jews was renewed. It was told of them that they had stolen the consecrated sacramental bread in order to stick it through with needles, and Christian children, that they might slaughter them at their passover festival. From time to time this popular rage exploded, and then thousands of Jews were ruthlessly murdered. The crusaders too often began their feats of valour on Christian soil by the slaughter of Jews. From the 13th century in almost all lands they were compelled to wear an insulting badge, the so called Jews’ hat, a yellow, funnel-shaped covering of the head, and a ring of red cloth on the breast, etc. They were also compelled to herd together in the cities in the so called Jewish quarter (Italian=Ghetto), which was often surrounded by a special wall. St. Bernard and several popes, Gregory VII., Alexander III., Innocent III., etc., interested themselves in them, refused to allow them to be violently persecuted, and pointed to their position as an incontrovertible proof of the truth of the gospel to all times.The German emperors also took the Jews under their special protection, for they classed them, after the example of Vespasian and Titus, among the special servants of the imperial chamber, (Servi camera nostræ speciales).271In England and France they were treated as themancipiumof the crown. In Spain under the Moorish rule they had vastly increased in numbers, culture and wealth; also under the Christian kings they enjoyed for a long time special privileges, their own tribunals, freedom in the possession of land, etc., and obtained great influence as ministers of finance and administration, and also as astrologers, physicians, apothecaries, etc.; but by their usury and merciless greed drew forth more and more the bitter hatred of the people. Hence in the 14th century in Spain also there arose times of sore oppression and persecution, and attempts at conversion by force. And finally, inA.D.1492, Ferdinand the Catholic drove more than 400,000 Jews out of Spain, and in the following year 100,000 out of Sicily. But even the baptized Jews, the so-called “New Christians,” who were prohibited from removing, fell under the suspicion of secret attachment to the old religion, and many thousands of them became victims of the Inquisition.—Many apologetic and polemical treatises were composed for the purpose of discussion with the Jews and for their instruction, but like so many other formal disputations they did not succeed in securing any good result, for the Jewish teachers were superior in learning, acuteness, and acquaintance with the exposition of Old Testament Scriptures, upon which in this discussion everything turned.But an interesting example of a Jew earnestly striving after a knowledge of the truth and working himself up to a full conviction of the divinity of Christianity and the church doctrine of that age, somewhere aboutA.D.1150, is presented by the story told by himself of the conversion of Hermann afterwards a Premonstratensian monk in the monastery of Kappenberg in Westphalia.272But on the other hand there are also isolated examples of a passing over to Judaism as the result, it would seem, of genuine conviction. The first known example of this kind appears inA.D.839, in the case of a deacon Boso, who after being circumcised received the name Eleazar, married a Jewess, and settled in Saracen Spain, where he manifested extraordinary zeal in making converts to his new religion. A second case of this sort is met with in the times of the Emperor Henry II., in the perversion of a priest Wecelinus. The narrator of this story gives expression to his horror in the words,Totus contremisco et horrentibus pilis capitis terrore concutior.Also the Judaising sects of the Pasagians in Lombardy during the 11th century (§108, 3) and the Russian Jewish sects of the 15th century (§ 73, 5) were probably composed for the most part of proselytes to Judaism.273
§ 95.1.Islam in Sicily.—The robber raids upon Italy perpetrated by the Sicilian Saracens were put an end to by the Normans who settled there inA.D.1017. Robert Guiscard destroyed the remnant of Greek rule in southern Italy, conquered the small Longobard duchies there, and founded a Norman duchy of Apulia and Calabria inA.D.1059. His brother Roger, who died inA.D.1101, after a thirty years’ struggle drove the Saracens completely out of Sicily, and ruled over it as a vassal of his brother under the title of Count of Sicily. His son Roger II., who died inA.D.1154, united the government of Sicily and of Apulia and Calabria, had himself crowned inA.D.1130 king of Sicily and Italy, and finally inA.D.1139 conquered also Naples. In consequence of the marriage of his daughter Constance with Henry VI. the whole kingdom passed over inA.D.1194 to the Hohenstaufens, from whom it passed inA.D.1266 to Charles of Anjou; and from him finally, in consequence of the Sicilian Vespers inA.D.1282, the island of Sicily passed to Peter of Arragon, the son-in-law of Manfred, the last king of the Hohenstaufen line. The Normans and the Hohenstaufens granted to the subject Saracens for the most part full religious liberty, the Emperor Frederick recruiting from among them his bodyguard, and they supplied the bravest soldiers for the Italian Ghibelline war. For this purpose he was constantly drafting new detachments from the African coast, as Manfred also had done. The endeavours made by monks of the mendicant orders for the conversion of the Saracens proved quite fruitless. It was only under the Spanish rule that conversions were made by force, or persecution and annihilation followed persistent refusal.
§ 95.2.Islam in Spain.—The times of Abderrhaman III.,A.D.912-961, and Hacem II.,A.D.961-976, were the most brilliant and fortunate of theOmmaiadeankhalifate. After the death of the latter the chamberlain Almansor, who died inA.D.1002, reigned in the name of Khalif Hescham II., who was little more than a puppet of the seraglio, and his rule was glorious, powerful and wise. But interminable civil contentions were the result of this disarrangement of government, and inA.D.1031, in consequence of a popular tumult, Abderrhaman IV., the last of the Ommaiades, took to flight, and voluntarily resigned the crown. The khalifate was now broken up into as many little principalities or emirships as there had been governors before. Amid such confusions the Christian princes continued to develop and increase their resources. Sancho the Great, king of Navarre,A.D.970-1035, by marriage and conquest united almost all Christian Spain under his rule, but this was split up again by being partitioned among his sons. Of these Ferdinand I., who died inA.D.1065, inherited Castile, and inA.D.1037 added to it Leon by conquest. With him begins the heroic age of Spanish knighthood. His son Alfonso IV., who died inA.D.1109, succeeded inA.D.1085 in taking from the Moors Toledo and a great part of Andalusia. The powerful leader of theAlmoravides, Jussuf from Morocco, was now called to their aid by the Moors. On the plain of Salacca the Christians were beaten inA.D.1086, but soon the victor turned his arms against his allies, and within six years all Moslem Spain was under his government. His son Ali, in a fearfully bloody battle at Ucles inA.D.1107, cut down the flower of the Castilian nobility; this marked the summit of power reached by the Almoravides, and now their star began slowly to pale. Alfonso I. of Arragon,A.D.1105-1134, conquered Saragossa inA.D.1118, and other cities. Alfonso VII. of Castile,A.D.1126-1157, whose power rose so high that most of the Christian princes in Spain acknowledged him as sovereign, and that he had himself formally crowned emperor of Spain inA.D.1135, conducted a successful campaign against Andalusia, and inA.D.1144 forced his way down to the south coast of Granada. Alfonso I. of Portugal, drove the Moors out of Lisbon; Raimard, count of Barcelona, conquered Tortosa, etc. At the same time too the government of the Almoravides was being undermined in Africa. InA.D.1146 Morocco fell, and with it North-western Africa, into the hands of theAlmohadesunder Abdelmoumen, while his lieutenant Abu Amram at the same time conquered Moslem Spain and Andalusia. Abdelmoumen’s son Jussuf himself crossed over into Spain with an enormous force in order to extinguish the Christian rule there, but fell in a battle at Santarem against Alfonso I. of Portugal. His son Jacob avenged the disaster by the bloody battle of Alarcos inA.D.1195, where 30,000 Castilians were left upon the field. When, notwithstanding the overthrow, the Christians a few years later endeavoured to retrieve their loss, Jacob’s successor Mohammed descended upon Spain with half a million fanatical followers. The critical hour for Spain had now arrived. The Christians had won time to come to agreement among themselves. They fought with unexampled heroism on the plain of Tolosa inA.D.1212 under Alfonso VIII. of Castile. The battlefield was strewn with more than 200,000 bodies of the African fanatics. It was the death-knell of the rule of the Almohad in Spain. Notwithstanding the dissensions and hostilities that immediately broke out among the Christian princes, they conquered within twenty-five years the whole of Andalusia. The work of conquest was carried out mostly by Ferdinand III., the saint of Castile,A.D.1217-1254, and Jacob I., the conqueror of Arragon,A.D.1213-1276. Only in the southernmost district of Spain a remnant of the Moslem rule survived in the kingdom of Granada, founded inA.D.1238 by the emir Mohammed Aben Alamar. Here for a time the glories of Arabic culture were revived in such a way as seemed like a magical restoration of the day of the Ommaiades. In consequence of the marriage inA.D.1469 of Ferdinand of Arragon, who died inA.D.1516, with Isabella of Castile, these two most important Christian empires were united. Soon afterwards the empire of Granada came to an end. On 2nd January,A.D.1492, after an ignominious capitulation, the last khalif, Abu Abdilehi Boabdil, was driven out of the fair (Granada), and a few moments later the Castilian banner waved from the highest tower of the proud Alhambra. The pope bestowed upon the royal pair the title of Catholic monarchs. The Moors who refused to submit to baptism were expelled, but even the baptized, the so-called Moriscoes, proved so dangerous an element in the state that Philip III., inA.D.1609, ordered them to be all banished from his realm.They sought refuge mostly in Africa, and there went over openly again to Mohammedanism, which they had never at heart rejected.270
§ 95.3.The Jews in Europe.—By trade, money lending and usury the Jews succeeded in obtaining almost sole possession of ready money, which brought them often great influence with the needy princes and nobles, but was also often the occasion of sore oppression and robbery, as well as the cause of popular hatred and violence. Whenever a country was desolated by a plague the notion of well-poisoning by the Jews was renewed. It was told of them that they had stolen the consecrated sacramental bread in order to stick it through with needles, and Christian children, that they might slaughter them at their passover festival. From time to time this popular rage exploded, and then thousands of Jews were ruthlessly murdered. The crusaders too often began their feats of valour on Christian soil by the slaughter of Jews. From the 13th century in almost all lands they were compelled to wear an insulting badge, the so called Jews’ hat, a yellow, funnel-shaped covering of the head, and a ring of red cloth on the breast, etc. They were also compelled to herd together in the cities in the so called Jewish quarter (Italian=Ghetto), which was often surrounded by a special wall. St. Bernard and several popes, Gregory VII., Alexander III., Innocent III., etc., interested themselves in them, refused to allow them to be violently persecuted, and pointed to their position as an incontrovertible proof of the truth of the gospel to all times.The German emperors also took the Jews under their special protection, for they classed them, after the example of Vespasian and Titus, among the special servants of the imperial chamber, (Servi camera nostræ speciales).271In England and France they were treated as themancipiumof the crown. In Spain under the Moorish rule they had vastly increased in numbers, culture and wealth; also under the Christian kings they enjoyed for a long time special privileges, their own tribunals, freedom in the possession of land, etc., and obtained great influence as ministers of finance and administration, and also as astrologers, physicians, apothecaries, etc.; but by their usury and merciless greed drew forth more and more the bitter hatred of the people. Hence in the 14th century in Spain also there arose times of sore oppression and persecution, and attempts at conversion by force. And finally, inA.D.1492, Ferdinand the Catholic drove more than 400,000 Jews out of Spain, and in the following year 100,000 out of Sicily. But even the baptized Jews, the so-called “New Christians,” who were prohibited from removing, fell under the suspicion of secret attachment to the old religion, and many thousands of them became victims of the Inquisition.—Many apologetic and polemical treatises were composed for the purpose of discussion with the Jews and for their instruction, but like so many other formal disputations they did not succeed in securing any good result, for the Jewish teachers were superior in learning, acuteness, and acquaintance with the exposition of Old Testament Scriptures, upon which in this discussion everything turned.But an interesting example of a Jew earnestly striving after a knowledge of the truth and working himself up to a full conviction of the divinity of Christianity and the church doctrine of that age, somewhere aboutA.D.1150, is presented by the story told by himself of the conversion of Hermann afterwards a Premonstratensian monk in the monastery of Kappenberg in Westphalia.272But on the other hand there are also isolated examples of a passing over to Judaism as the result, it would seem, of genuine conviction. The first known example of this kind appears inA.D.839, in the case of a deacon Boso, who after being circumcised received the name Eleazar, married a Jewess, and settled in Saracen Spain, where he manifested extraordinary zeal in making converts to his new religion. A second case of this sort is met with in the times of the Emperor Henry II., in the perversion of a priest Wecelinus. The narrator of this story gives expression to his horror in the words,Totus contremisco et horrentibus pilis capitis terrore concutior.Also the Judaising sects of the Pasagians in Lombardy during the 11th century (§108, 3) and the Russian Jewish sects of the 15th century (§ 73, 5) were probably composed for the most part of proselytes to Judaism.273