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JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO
CIVILIZATION
AN ESTIMATE

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS
TO CIVILIZATION

AN ESTIMATE

BY
JOSEPH JACOBS

Philadelphia
The Jewish Publication Society of America
1919

Copyright, 1919
BY
The Jewish Publication Society of America

PREFATORY STATEMENT
Joseph Jacobs was a thinker and writer of
unusual breadth and versatility. Among the sub
jects to which he gave his attention as early as 1886
was the comparative distribution of Jewish ability,
as the result of researches he had undertaken in
association with Sir Francis Galton. The present
work was the natural outcome of these studies
which appeared in the Journal of the Anthro
pological Institute and were afterwards republished
as Studies in Jewish Statistics, 1891.
Dr. Jacobs at the time intended to write a com
prehensive work, entitled "The Jewish Race — A
Study in National Character," in sixty-seven chap
ters, the outline of which was printed privately in
London, 1889. Unfortunately he never went any
further with this plan. Similarly his idea of an even
more ambitious work, "European Ideals — A Study
in Origins," did not go beyond the outline which ap
peared in 191 1. It was perhaps his occupation
with this general subject which again turned his
thought to Jewish contributions to European
civilization. This subject engaged the attention of
Dr. Jacobs during his last years, and, while he did
not live to complete the work, it is fortunate that
he at least left the first of the three books he had in

prefatory statement
mind in such form that it can be published without
change. One of its chapters appeared in the first
volume of the Menorah Journal, December, 19 15
(pp. 298-308), under the title "Liberalism and
the Jews."
The careful reader will notice that the Intro
duction and various parts of the book show the
polished style of the master, while here and there
the absence of his revising hand is keenly felt.
Nevertheless, the brilliant mind, the wide reading,
and the broad information of the author are mani
fest everywhere, and his calmness and objectivity of
judgment will make this, his last work, a valuable
contribution, not only to Jewish literature, but to
the history of modern civilization.
Joseph Jacobs was not an apologete — his wish
was to point out the. share of the Jews in the
world's progress. His occupation with the gen
eral subject had convinced him that the part played
by the Jews had never been adequately ac
knowledged. On the other hand, he was careful to
bring forward no claims which could not be sub
stantiated by solid facts. It is a matter of deepest
regret that he was not to finish his task and to
bring the later chapters to the high level of the
Introduction. Let us be sincerely thankful for
what we have.
As stated in his Introduction, Dr. Jacobs had
planned to divide this work, dealing with Jewish
4

prefatory statement
contributions to European civilization, into three
books. In the first book, entitled "Jews of the
Past," he intended to dwell upon Jewish achieve
ment in the various fields of research during the
past two thousand years and to show that the Jews
have made themselves a constituent element of
that civilization to which they are heirs equally
with other nations, creeds, and peoples. The sec
ond book was to be devoted to the evaluation of
the contributions of individual Jews to modern
European culture in the immediate past and pres
ent. The third book was to determine the value
of Jews in the modern cultural State and thus meet
the question raised by the modern higher anti-
Semites who, in consonance with their mediaeval
ideals, are opposed to Jewish influence in the
Church-State which they would like to see revived.
When, in January, 19 16, Dr. Jacobs died, this
task had been but partially accomplished. Book I
was practically ready for publication, though, had
the author lived, he would undoubtedly have sub
jected many parts to a thorough revision. Of Book
II he left notes, which would have served him as
an outline. These notes show the masterly fashion
and the thoroughness with which he had intended
to treat this important subject. Nothing has been
found of Book III.
Book I, being complete in itself, is herewith
offered to the public, with the express statement that

prefatory statement
it has not been altered in word or fact. The author
embodied in it a wealth of knowledge and informa
tion, accumulated during a busy and energetic life,
and the arguments are marshalled with the bril
liancy characteristic of Dr. Jacobs. It may indeed
be said that the question raised by the higher anti-
Semites, which was to be dealt with in the last book,
has been adequately answered in the present
volume. During the last few years the political situation
in many European countries has undergone radical
changes, and it is therefore natural that some of the
statements in this book should appear obsolete —
such as the numerous references to the treatment
of the Jews in Russia under conditions which have
since been materially changed.
January, 19 19.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
Prefatory Statement  3
Introduction : The Higher Anti-Semitism  9
I. The People of the Book  61
II. The Church and the Jews  90
III. Jews Become Europeans  114
IV. Medieval Jews as Intellectual Intermediaries... 138
V. Influence of Jewish Thought in the Middle Ages 164
VI. Jews and Commerce  190
VII. Jews and Capitalism  218
Vila. Excursus on Sombart  247
VIII. The Break-down of the Church Empire  268
IX. Jews and Liberalism  293
Index  325

INTRODUCTION
The Higher Anti-Semitism
There is among the peoples of the world one
which has preserved its individuality throughout
the ages with remarkable persistence. This peo
ple is among the nations, and of them, but yet
in some way apart from them. Up to a time
within the memory of men still living, members
of this people were set apart as unworthy to
possess all the rights of citizenship in all lands
in which they dwelt; even at the present day, a
majority of them are still debarred from the
higher rights of human beings. The only excuse
or explanation for this discrimination against
them was that they refused to bow down in the
House of Rimmon, to worship strange gods, and
to give up their way of thinking about the high
est things which had approved itself as right
and true to their fathers. Rather than abandon
that faith they have, for the past millennium and
a half, suffered continuously contumely and moral

introduction
segregation, and from time to time torture and
even death, while at successive periods they have
been obliged to shake off the soil of their native
land and seek refuge in other countries which
for the time were less intolerant. These men
are known by the name of Jews.
'Tis a little people, but it has done great
things. When in the land in which it first came
to national consciousness, it created a concep
tion of the Highest Being of the universe, which
has been adopted in essence by the foremost
races of humanity. It had but a precarious hold
on a few crags and highlands between the desert
and the deep sea, yet its thinkers and sages with
eagle vision took into their thought the destinies
of all humanity, and rang out in clarion voice
a message of hope to the down-trodden of all
races. Claiming for themselves and their peo
ple the duty and obligations of a true aristoc
racy, they held forth to the peoples ideals of
a true democracy founded on right and justice.
Their voices have never ceased to re-echo around
the world, and the greatest things that have
been done to raise men's lot have been done
always in the spirit, often in the name, of the
Hebrew prophets. 10

INTRODUCTION
Nor did their beneficial activities cease when
they were torn away from their own land by
all-powerful Rome. For nearly two thousand
years .they have taken their share in all the
movements that have made the modern Euro
pean man. At times they have helped to spread
culture from one nation to another; at others,
they have helped to light it anew in a fresh
land. On some occasions they have even been
leaders in these movements, but mostly they have
been content to take their share in the cultural
development of their fellow-men, contributing to
it by the qualities which their unique position
among the nations had developed in them. In
the intricate warp and woof of civilization Jewish
threads have been at all times constituent parts
of the pattern, and to attempt to remove or un
ravel them would destroy the whole design. By
these contributions they have earned their right
to continue to work for the European culture that
thej? have helped to develop.
Yet, though the Jews have taken their due
share in the culture and economic development
of the nations among whom they dwelt, they
have been pursued by hatred and persecution
throughout the Diaspora. The origins of this
11

INTRODUCTION
Jew-hatred and antipathy are rather obscure.
All imperialistic systems necessarily tend toward
toleration of the different creeds of the divergent
races, which they weld into empires. Yet we
find traces of antipathy to Jews in the three
great ancient empires, Persian, Hellenistic,
Roman, as reflected in the Book of Esther, the
Books of Maccabees, and in Josephus against
Apion. Other aliens became natives after a
couple of generations; other enslaved captives
became freedmen, and their children full citizens;
other religious cults were regarded as "licit" in
the Persian, in the Hellenistic, and in the Roman
empires; other races or sections were permitted
to be autonomous within limits if only they pro
vided their due quota of taxes and recruits. The
Jews alone stood out and apart from the nations
among whom they settled, and were regarded
with disfavor by the ruling classes and, as a
consequence, with hatred or contempt by the
mob. The ancient city-states had their chief
bond of union in the common worship of the
local deity, and no Jew, while he remained a
Jew, could share in this worship. Other citi
zens, together with this civic cult, could combine
adhesion to widespread national or imperial
12

INTRODUCTION
deities; the Jew alone worshipped One God. He
was the sole exception to the increasing tendency
of the ancient world to syncretize local, national,
and imperial deities into one Pantheon.
It is probable, however, that there was much
less anti-Semitism among the peoples of antiq
uity than might appear from the scanty records
of Jew-hatred, which consist mainly of con
temptuous or inimical references by satirists like
Juvenal, or embittered partisans like Tacitus.
Men cannot live together in the common occu
pations of every-day life without engendering
kindly feelings of communion. The wide spread
of Jewish propagandism in the early Roman
empire, of which there is increasing evidence,
is sufficient proof of the friendly bonds between
Jew and Gentile. The quick spread of Chris
tianity among the resulting proselytes was a
striking result of these friendly relations.1 But
for the action of the Church these assimilative
tendencies would doubtless have continued till
Jews would have been distinguished from their
'The map of the early Christian churches attached to the
seventh volume of Renan, Origines du Christianisme, is still
th« best representation of the Jewish Diaspora of the second
century. 13

INTRODUCTION
fellow-citizens only by a difference of creed and
religious practice.
Anti-Semitism indeed throughout the ages has
been forced from above downwards as a part
of political or ecclesiastical policy. The mob
easily takes up State or Church cries without
fully appreciating their bearing. Though per
sistent hatred is as rare as perfect love, it is
easy enough to arouse ill-will in lower natures
whose chief excitement in life is afforded by
their enmities. We find an instance of this arti
ficial creation of anti-Jewish feeling in the earli
est record of anti-Semitism, the Book of Esther.
As interpreted by Dr. Jacob Hoschander,1 this
romance embodies an actual stage in the rela
tions between the Persian Jews and the Persian
state. While willing to accept the monotheism
of Zoroaster, they refused to accept the syncreti-
zing religious tendency of the Persian Imperialists,
and were thus persecuted as "Little Persians."
Something similar seems to be at the bottom of
the conflict with Antiochus Epiphanes, who evi
dently wished the Jews not so much to give up
their own God as to accept the Hellenic gods
l^Iewish Quarterly Review, New Series, ix, p. 1, seg."]
14

INTRODUCTION
in addition to Him. The struggles against Rome
under Vespasian and Hadrian were of a more
purely national character, but, according to Jew
ish tradition, the last conflict had also its re
ligious aspects.
Once, however, the purely national conflict
was over, there was no reason why the Jews
should not have amalgamated with other races
of the Roman empire in all respects except re
ligion. They were, indeed, in a more favor
able position to do so than any other of the
multifarious elements which constituted the em
pire of Rome. They alone could worship their
God wherever they resided; their creed was con
nected with a book and not with a city or a
land. Hence they rapidly acquired citizenship
throughout the empire, and, before long, reached
the final distinction of acquiring the Jus Hono-
rum. For two hundred and fifty years, between
the fall of Bethar and the emeute at Alexandria
under St. Cyril, there are no signs of popular
antipathy against the Jews in the later Roman
empire. So, too, in Babylonia, Jews and Gen
tiles lived at peace for eight hundred years up
to the persecution of Yezdegird II. These in
stances seem to prove that there is no innate
15

INTRODUCTION
tendency to anti-Semitism among the peoples un
less forced from above downwards.
But all these assimilative tendencies were at
once checked when the Christian Church became
dominant in the later Roman empire. The
Christiaa emperors deliberately deprived the
Jews of the right to serve the State, and by 418
they were excluded, from all public employments
that could in any way give them authority over
true believers. While their synagogues were
allowed to remain (though no new ones were
to be built), they were not allowed, under pen
alty of death, to make converts even of their
slaves, while every encouragement was given to
apostasy from Judaism. These signs of the ill-
favor of the rulers were soon interpreted in the
usual way by the mob, and the long series of
Jewish massacres by Christians began at the
beginning of the fifth century at Alexandria,
instigated by the bishop St. Cyril. In the pagan
empire religion was but a department of the
State; in the Christian empire State and Church
became identified, and the principle was laid
down that none could belong fully to the State
who was not a true member of the State-Church.
Henceforth no Jew, while he remained a Jew,
16

INTRODUCTION
could have full citizenship in a Christian state;
and Israel entered into a spiritual ghetto, not to
emerge for a millennium and a half.
Islam borrowed from the Church the theo
cratic principle, and even bettered the instruction.
The unbeliever was to be put to the sword, or,
if one of the "Peoples of the Book" (Jews, Chris
tians, Sabaeans), was accorded a contemptuous
and degraded tolerance. Henceforth both Church
and Mosque put the Jews of Christian and
Muslim lands outside the pale of citizenship.
Under the Caliph Omar, Jews were ordered
to wear a distinctive dress, and in 849 the Emir
Mutawakkil emphasized the distinction by order
ing the Jews to wear a badge as a sign of in
famy. This diabolic expedient was adopted by
Innocent II J at the Vatican Council of 1215,
and henceforth in Islam and Christendom the
Jews were marked out as objects of contempt
and degradation whenever they went forth
among their fellow-countrymen. At the same
time the callings for which they were eligible
were more and more restricted, till at length
the only methods by which they could earn
their living were disreputable (usury, pawn-
broking, peddling second-hand goods). Every
17

INTRODUCTION
Easter the pulpits of Christendom resounded
with the outcries against the killers of Christ, and
soon the myth of the "blood accusation" caused
them to be regarded as infra-human by the
credulous mob. The belief that they were af
fected by a mystic curse on account of their
non-belief was encouraged by the Church as
affording a perpetual object-lesson of the terrible
results of infidelity. No wonder the mob from
time to time carried into terrific deeds the broad
hints given by the Church. There is scarce a
city of Europe whose stones have not been
stained by the blood of innocent Jews and Jew
esses, slain to enhance the glory of the Cross.
But the important thing to observe is that all
these horrors were the direct result of the de
liberate policy of the Church to mark out the
Jews as objects of hatred and degradation. The
anti-Semitism of the Middle Ages came from
above downwards; it was no natural outcome of
the clash of racial tendencies or temperaments.
Again and again we find Jews and Christians
joining together in friendly communion, even in
common sport, the great equalizer of social dis
tinctions.1 1 One of the most striking examples of this occurred in a stag
hunt at Colchester in 1267, which I have described in Jewish
Ideals, pp. 225-33. 18

INTRODUCTION
The only protection found by the Jews against
the disabilities imposed upon them by Church
pohcy was afforded by the royal or the imperial
power, which found it expedient to use the Jews
as indirect tax-gatherers. The Church set its face
against all capitalism, which it regarded as
"usury" and declared to be infamous and un
christian. The Jews, unaffected by the Church
fulminations, were tacitly allowed to lend money
with the understanding that, in the last resort,
the money thus accumulated was at the disposal
of the king, who thus became the arch-usurer
of his realm. The Jews thus became buffers in
the mediaeval state between the conflicting forces
of king, nobles, and municipalities, and whenever
the position of any of these forces became se
cure the Jews were expelled as unnecessary and
expensive. In this way they were expelled from
England in 1290, France in 139 1, and Spain
in 1492, while in Germany and Italy, where the
struggle of the feudal forces was indeterminate,
the expulsions were sporadic. Meanwhile in
Eastern Europe a complex political federation
had arisen to which the principle of a Church-
State could not be radically applied. In the
year 1386 the duchy of Lithuania was joined to
19

INTRODUCTION
the kingdom of Poland by a dynastic alliance
with the Jagellon dukes. Now Lithuania was a
member of the Greek-Orthodox Church, whereas
Poland had been Catholic for nearly five cen
turies. It was, therefore, impossible to apply
the principle of a uniform creed to the new fed
eration, and for the first time since Constantine
the principle that citizenship depended upon ex
act uniformity with the State-Church was broken
through. The Jews found, therefore, an asylum
in the Jagellon kingdom, and to this day the
Israelites of those districts retain the German
dialect (Yiddish) which they brought with them
into Poland and Lithuania in the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries.
A somewhat similar condition of affairs was
produced in Central Europe by the Reformation.
Here the churches and monarchs had to face
the fact of divergence of creed among the in
habitants of a given area. For a time the old
principle of a State-Church was kept alive by
the curious expedient of making the people con
form to the religion of their ruler (Cujus regio,
ejus religio). But this attempt at establishing
a dynastic Church soon broke down, and the rulers
of North Europe had to take into account the
20

INTRODUCTION
fact that some at least of their subjects refused
to be cooped up in the cloisters of the national
Church. Anabaptists and Jesuits, Brownists and
Quakers, made the question of religious tolera
tion a matter of practical politics, and Jews no
longer enjoyed the monopoly of exclusion from
the national Church.
Slowly the idea grew of a citizenship apart
from participation in the rites of the national
Church. The conception gradually advanced that
loyalty to the State was the primal duty of
a citizen, and not conformity to the tenets of
the State-Church. The internecine struggle of
Huguenots and Leaguers in France brought out
the first enunciation of the principle of religious
toleration by the middle party of the Politiques.1
From their time onward the principle has re
ceived wider and wider development in the
thought of Hobbes and Spinoza, Locke and
Hoadley. Voltaire and Rousseau, and broader
and broader application in practice in the Holland
of William the Silent, the England of William
III, the Prussia of Frederick the Great, and
1 See Figgis, From Gerson to Grotius, chapter rr. It is, perhaps,
worth while remarking that the chief intellectual voices of the
Politiques, Jean Bodin, Michel I'Hopital, Michel de Montaigne,
had each a Jewish parent 21

INTRODUCTION
the Austria of Joseph II. At last, in the
cataclysm of the French Revolution and in the
military state of Napoleon, with its "carriere
ouverte," the principle was applied to the Jews,
who were henceforth regarded, in increasing
measure, as full citizens of their native states.
The process of emancipation was a protracted
one, and was not gained without doughty struggles
of the spiritjCarried on exclusively by the Liberals
of Europe, mainly during the years from 1848
to 1870. From Waterloo to Sedan the Liberals
of Europe were on the side of the Jews, and
the Jews, as a matter of principle and grati
tude, on the side of the Liberals; at the latter
date all the countries of Western Europe had
emancipated their Jews, and the principle of the
unity of Church and State had thereby been
practically abolished. Only one great State of
Europe, the Empire of All the Russias, still
retains the mediaeval principle of a Church-State,
even to the present day, and its Jews — the de
scendants of the refugees of Poland-Lithuania —
are still treated as the ecclesiastical helots of a
mediaeval theocracy.
While the principles and practice of religious
toleration were only applied to the close con-
22

INTRODUCTION
fines of Christian heterodoxy, the condition of
the Jews, either before the law or in public
opinion, underwent no amelioration. Indeed, it
practically reached its nadir at the end of the
seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth
century. But as soon as some of the leading
spirits of Europe began to plead openly for a
recognition of Jewish rights to manhood and
citizenship, improvement became discernible both
in legislation and in social recognition. Crom
well's liberal act in readmitting the Jews to Eng
land, the abortive Jewish Naturalization Bill of
1753, Von Dohm's plea, and the Abbe Gregoire's
memoir, Lessing's noble Nathan der Weise,
and Macaulay's resonant speeches had a cumu
lative effect upon the minds and consciences
of Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Germans, who
began to work for and with their Jewish fellow-
citizens in order that they might take their place
in the national progress. In the "sixties" and
"seventies" of the nineteenth century it seemed
as if the sempiternal antagonism between Jew
and Christian had been at last allayed, and that
henceforth they would work side by side without
conflict or contention for the common good of
their respective states. 23

INTRODUCTION
But side by side with the liberal tendencies of
the mid-nineteenth century there has been a
recrudescence of the earlier principle of the me
diaeval Church-State and the feudal subordina
tion of classes which accompanied it. Immedi
ately after Waterloo came the Reaction with its
Holy Alliance, and the Jews of mid-Europe were
at once thrown back into mediaeval darkness,
while the Hep-hep riots of 1819 showed that
the mob were as ready as ever to reflect the
changed attitude of their rulers. The Romantic
movement in French and German letters, the
Oxford movement in the Anglican Church, the
revival of Ultramontanism in the European
Areopagus combined to bring back the mediaeval
ideal of the Church-State to the more conserva
tive spirits of Europe. Meanwhile the feudal
forces that had so long ruled Europe, already
disrupted by the libertarian and equalitarian
tendencies of the French Revolution, found their
position further threatened by the Industrial
Revolution and the rise to power of a middle
class unknown to the Almanach de Gotha. This
led them to band themselves anew in defence
of king and Church, the only forces that could
prop up their tottering supports. Thus arose
24

INTRODUCTION
the new Conservatism headed, curiously enough,
in England and Prussia, respectively, by two
converted Jews, Benjamin Disraeli and Friedrich
Julius Stahl. The Clericals of Europe hastened
to ally themselves with the renovated aristocracy
who still retained their monopolistic hold on the
military and official posts, even of the Liberal
Governments of Western Europe. Thus the way
was paved for the Counter-Revolution which was
to dominate Europe after Sedan, and incidentally
to raise again the spectre of Jew-hatred in a new
form. During the period between 1848 and 1870
the map of Europe was recast under the influ
ence of the new principle of nationality. For
nearly four centuries states had been formed out
of incongruous elements, the only bond of unity
in many cases being given by the common mon
arch. States were regarded as, strictly speaking,
appanages of the Crown, and passed from fam
ily to family as the result of dynastic alliances.
The felicitous marriages of the Hapsburgs,
which gave them the Holy Roman empire
and the Austrian conglomerate of nationalities,
formed a model for all the monarchs of Europe,
and kingdoms were recklessly formed out of
25

INTRODUCTION
discordant nationalities by the simple process of
royal marriages. In process of time, however,
this subordination to the same overlord welded
some of these conglomerates into real nations
with common speech, common customs, common
law, and common ideals. With the clash of
conflict in the Napoleonic era this communion
of feeling and interest sprung into national con
sciousness, and in Spain, in Russia, and in Prus
sia, Napoleon dashed himself to pieces in the
conflict with the new force. Henceforth those
who spoke the same tongue and had the memory
of the same historic deeds, suffered or wrought
in common by themselves or their ancestors,
claimed to be governed in common according to
their own ideals. This mighty force led to the
unification of Italy and of Germany and to the
still unsatisfied aspirations of a United Ireland
and of a United Poland. By a natural mytho-
poeic tendency this communion of language and
interest of memories and ideals was thought to
be the result of common race or ancestry. His
torians and litterateurs, after the fashion of their
kind, reflected in ingenious works this imagina
tive national genealogy, and on both sides of
the Rhine real literary ingenuity traced the
26

INTRODUCTION
course of history to the fountain-heads of
race. Modern anthropology has entirely under
mined this misconception, showing that through
out Europe there has been a constant inter
mingling of races since the Bronze Period of
three thousand years ago. But it takes time for
scientific conclusions to percolate through the
people, especially when they conflict with national
or local vanities. In the meanwhile the op
posing chauvinisms of Michelet and Dahn, of
Coulanges and Waitz, had aroused the animosities
of the Teutonic against the Latin races, which found
their culmination in the Franco-Prussian War.
The result of that war made the new German
empire the arbiter of 'Europe and Otto von
Bismarck the all-powerful influence within it.
During the first stage of his career as Imperial
Chancellor (1871-1877) he had to work hand
in hand with the National Liberal party, to
which all German Jews belonged, and among
the chief leaders of which were Eduard Lasker
and Ludwig Bamberger. One heard nothing
of anti-Semitism in those days either in Germany
or in the rest of Western Europe. But in 1878
Bismarck broke loose from the National Lib
erals, and allied himself with the Conservatives
27

INTRODUCTION
and Centre with whom his sympathies as noble,
as Junker, as landed proprietor, and as authori
tarian were much more thorough. Henceforth
his chief opponents in the Reichstag were the
National Liberals with Lasker at their head,
and he directly encouraged the revival of Jew-
hatred in order to discredit them. Virulent
articles and pamphlets appeared in his "reptile
press," and he even permitted the Court Chap
lain, Adolf Stoecker, to disgrace his position by
direct attacks on the Jews in pulpit and plat
form. Modern anti-Semitism was thus "made
in Germany" by the direct encouragement of
Otto von Bismarck.
This newer form of Jew-hatred could not be
ostensibly founded on religious prejudice. States
men had had sufficient experience of the political
evils arising from religious animosities from the
time of the Wars of Religion in the sixteenth
century. The newer doctrines of race and na
tionality afforded a seemingly safer basis of
operations. Renan, the most potent literary in
fluence in Europe, had tickled European van
ity by a contrasted characterization of Aryans
and Semites, in which the latter were declared
to be inferior to the former in all the higher
28

INTRODUCTION
elements of civilization, even in religion. The
enemies of the Jews eagerly applied this highly
imaginative account of the Semitic genius to the
Jewish race. They accordingly gave the name
of "anti-Semitism" to their protests against any
continuance or increase of Jewish influence in
modern nations. Further virus was added to
the movement by the remarkable economic de
velopment of Germany in which Jews, by their
commercial training and international relations,
took so prominent a part. They often outdis
tanced their Gentile competitors, avoiding the
dangers of the new banking (the "Krach" of
1873); the realities of commercial envy and
rivalry were thus added to the artificial incite
ments of racial animosity and nationalistic chau
vinism. In two other directions the particular condi
tions of Prussia — the dominant partner in the
new German empire — enabled the Jew-haters to
bar them out of two of the highest careers.
Tradition has always closely connected the offi
cers of the Prussian army with the nobility, who
claim the right to consider the officers' mess a§
a species of club. Further, the Church in Prus
sia is "established," something on the same lines
29

INTRODUCTION
as the Anglican; so that in its way Prussia is a
Church-State or, as it is technically termed, a
Cultur-Staat, in which the Protestant Lutheran
religion is regarded as an essential and indis
pensable part of the culture involved. The
Prussian universities are regarded as special
organs of the Cultur-Staat, and full admission to
the faculties (which again were regarded as
professional clubs) is restricted to members of
the. Established Church. Thus in Prussia, Jews,
in the later stage of the Bismarck regime, were
rigidly excluded from the officers' messes of the
army and the professional chairs of the universi
ties. The prestige of Prussia in the German
empire caused its example, in these regards, to
be followed more or less fully throughout the
empire. This specifically Prussian form of antipathy
to Jews was voiced by Heinrich von Treitschke,
the head representative of what has been termed
the Prussian school of historians. He injected
into his German history, which earned him the
title of the German Macaulay, the ideals of the
Junker party, which aimed at the predominance
of the Conservative noble and landed classes of
Prussia throughout Germany. He saw in the
30

INTRODUCTION
Jews the typical representatives of the Liberal
mercantile classes, and attacked their influence
in the most virulent terms. In particular he
regarded the Liberal tendencies of Heine and
Borne as specially corrupting, and indulged in
unworthy and undignified language about their
characters. He was opposed by Mommsen and
Virchow, the two noblest voices of German lib
eralism; but his views have had immense influ
ence on the official world of Germany, and have
found their latest echo in the pages of Cham
berlain. They are specially interesting as show
ing the influence of historic and political tenden
cies on an individual publicist. Treitschke seems
to be expressing individual views; he is really
voicing partisan theories.1
The evident encouragement given to this re
crudescence of Jew-hatred in its new form by
Germany, which formed the model for the re
construction of most of the European states
(even including France), naturally led to imi
tation in less developed nations. In Austria and
1 It is rather curious to find German ideals defended with so
much heat by persons with names like Treitschke (properly
Treitschky) and Chamberlain — not very Germanic names. Simi
larly we have Englishry defended from Jewry by a gentleman
of the un-English name Hilaire Belloc.
31

INTRODUCTION
Hungary, politically strong allies of Germany,
parties were actually formed to urge in the par
liaments of these countries restrictions on Jewish
political and even civil rights. Somewhat later
in France, the home for over a century of liberal
thought, anti-Semitic voices were raised among
the reactionary parties which were attempting to
restore Monarchy and Clericalism. Here Jew-
hatred was further embittered by a disastrous
financial experiment of the reactionary forces.
Certain clerical financiers had induced the Fau
bourg St. Germain to entrust its capital to a
banking organization known as the Union Gene-
rale, which was to replace the Rothschilds as the
repository of Catholic funds. Unfortunately the
Union failed, and the impoverished aristocracy
were led to see the cause of their financial ruin
in the machinations of the Jews. At the same
time the Jesuits were attempting to obtain a
monopoly of the French officers' messes for their
pupils, in the interests of a monarchical resto
ration, and advocated, after the Prussian model,
the rejection of the Jews from the rank of officers.
The notorious case of Captain Dreyfus was the
outcome of this, and finally wrecked the clerical
plot to get control of the army.
32

INTRODUCTION
Meanwhile in Eastern Europe the theoretical
encouragement thus given to the revival of Jew-
hatred by the Counter-Revolutionary principles
of the aristocratic, militaristic, and Clerical fac
tions of North-western Europe, encouraged by
the precept and example of Bismarck, had been
translated into action by the mob of Russia. In
that country, the sole survival of the mediaeval
Church-State among the Governments of Europe,
the Jews, regarded as a legacy from old Poland
and confined within the ancient limits of that
kingdom, were marked out for the enmity
of the populace by every form of degrading
disability. At the death of the Liberator Czar
Alexander II, in 1 88 1, the excitement of the
people found its vent in attacks upon the Jews,
which were encouraged by the officials, as time
was thus given them to organize the Reaction
which then took shape. The widespread sym
pathy aroused for the Jewish victims, especially
in Anglo-Saxon lands, led to a continuous exodus
from the Russian house of bondage, and colonies
of Russian Jews began to spread throughout
the civilized world, notably adding to the Jew
ish population of France, England, and America
(Germany having practically closed its doors
33

INTRODUCTION
to any accession from Russia). This exodus
added a new element to whatever relics had sur
vived of the older anti- Jewish prejudices of these
lands. Whereas previously they had become
identified in every respect with the Sittlichkeit
of their fellow-citizens, while preserving their
distinctive religious tenets and practices, they
were now once more regarded as aliens, since
a large number of them were no longer native-
born. Within thirty years nearly a million and
a half Jews from Eastern Europe had been
added to the third of a million already settled
in these three countries, many of whom had
themselves been born elsewhere. It would indeed
be surprising if so large a transference of human
beings from one environment to others entirely
different could be effected without producing some
signs of restiveness in the countries concerned.
On the whole, however, the Anglo-Saxon coun
tries have come through the ordeal with a
triumphant vindication of their essential principles
of justice and liberalism. Indeed it would be
difficult for either to act otherwise. England,
as the head of an empire composed of mul
tifarious races and creeds, could not logically
take discriminative steps against any one creed
34

INTRODUCTION
or race. America, whose greatness is founded
upon the hospitable welcome she has given to
the oppressed or adventurous of all lands, was
only acting in accordance with her true self in
affording a shelter to the oppressed Russian and
Roumanian Jews.
Yet even in these favored lands there have
been some signs of a revival of anti-Jewish
prejudice. In England the Alien Act of 1905
was almost avowedly directed to checking Jewish
immigration, and of recent years a few utter
ances in the public press have re-echoed the
anti-Semitic sentiments in the same reactionary
circles as on the Continent of Europe. In
America, where a reversion to the class dis
tinctions of Europe is making itself shown, cer
tain restrictions of social intercourse with Jews
have insinuated themselves in summer resorts1,
private schools, university clubs, and even in
university faculties. It is possible that the latter
tendency may be traced to the indirect influence
of the Prussian universities which have been
attended by so many American professors.
It will thus be seen from this rough sketch of
the more recent phases of anti-Semitism that this
is due, almost entirely, to the initiative of Prince
35

-INTRODUCTION
Bismarck in the later stage of his policy. But its
comparatively wide spread proves that it appeals
to certain general sentiments that have to be
taken into account. Any divergence from the so
cial norm to which men are accustomed arouses
their antipathy as implying the possibility that
their own thoughts or ways are not the best.
" 'Ere's a stranger, Bill; 'eave 'alf a brick at 'im,"
was Punch's way of putting this feeling. The
Jew differs from others in practices and beliefs
with regard to the matters which men still con
sider the most fundamental and important. The
more rigid among them refuse commensality to
their Gentile neighbors, in accordance with their
dietary laws, and thus stand in the way of the
most practical form of social communion. Again
they are endogamous, and, to prevent intermar
riage, have, almost as a matter of course, to put
a bar upon intercourse between their young peo
ple. In addition to all this, as has been shown
above, the majority of Jews in western lands have
again become aliens owing to the tyranny of Rus
sia. Finally, the crude theories of race, which
had so much to do with the creation of new na
tionalities in the nineteenth century, have now
become part of the popular consciousness, and
36

INTRODUCTION
the comparatively easy identification of Jews as
of a different race causes these various divergen
cies to become conscious at every point of social
contact. Other communities of different race and
religion have aroused the same sort of antipathy:
the Scotch in England in Johnson's time; the
Irish in America before the Civil War; Germans
in Russia; Poles in Germany; Armenians in
Turkey — the list seems interminable. Yet many
of these antipathies have died away when not
encouraged by the higher minds of the dominant
races; and it should be the hope of all good citi
zens that the appeal of Jew-hatred to the lower
minds of men will also suffer a final extinction.
When men hate one another, they invariably
defend their hatred on the ground of high prin
ciple. Even the wolf of fable did not devour
the lamb till it had recited various excuses for its
meal. Similarly, the anti-Semite of to-day alleges
various reasons why he would deny the Jew the
right hand of fellowship and sometimes even the
rights of citizenship. I propose, in the follow
ing pages, to discuss the reasons given for oppo
sition to Jews, so far as these are based upon
real principles of action and not merely instinc
tive or imitative antipathies. As shown above,
37

INTRODUCTION
most anti-Semites, who have acted on any kind of
principle, have been either members of the privi
leged and reactionary classes or have voiced their
views. Regarding the Jews as inimical to the
principles which they consider as best for their
respective nations, they have fought strenuously
against what they term Jewish influence, and, as
far as they were sincere, were perfectly justified
in so doing, provided they fought fairly. The
mere fact that, in combating Jewish influence, they
were attempting to retain or further their own
does not, in the slightest, militate against their
sincerity or justification. The very essence of civ
ilized government is to allow each interest in a
state to exercise as much influence as it can in
favor of itself, provided this cannot be shown to
be to the detriment of the whole. So far as
these newer forms of anti-Jewish antipathy are
based on any kind of principle, they may be said
to constitute the higher anti-Semitism as con
trasted with lower forms, which are merely imi
tative, unreflective, and almost entirely the out
come of the natural tendency to hate the man in
any way different from ourselves, which is part of
our lower nature.
These higher anti-Semites attack the Jews from
38

INTRODUCTION
different, and often contradictory, standpoints,
which it may be as well to enumerate roughly.
There is, first and foremost, the nationalistic
school, which regards the Jews as both alien in
origin and alien in spirit, and hence a disturbing
element of the national ideals. These are often
joined by the ultra-Conservatives, who, remem
bering the recent connection of Jews with Liber
alism, regard them as typically Liberal. Certain
sections of the Roman Catholic Church, espe
cially the Jesuits and Ultramontanes, follow in
the Jewish question that rigid consistency of pol
icy, which is the admiration of their enemies and
the despair of their friends. In addition to the
old grounds of antipathy to Jews, the Curia re
gards the Jews as the chief moving spirits of what
it regards as its chief enemies — Freemasonry and
Secularism. Then there is the scarcely avowed
militaristic school which regards the Jews as the
representatives of capitalism and therefore on
principle opposed to war. These four tendencies
(nationalistic, conservative, militaristic, Catholic
or High Church) are often found combined in
Germany, Austria, France, and England. Cer
tain sections of Socialists are opposed to the Jews
as typical capitalists, whereas one of the heads of
39

INTRODUCTION
their offending to reactionary parties everywhere
is that Socialism is so largely Jewish. Many
earnest Christians, even outside the Roman Catho
lic Church, consider that the Jews have been the
main instrument in undermining Christian dogmas,
and are, therefore, opposed to them on that
ground. On the other hand, there is quite a school
of Neo- Pagans, like my friend the late Prof. York
Powell, who regard the Jews as responsible for
saddling Europe with an alien faith. The New
Aristocracy of Nietzsche and his followers con
sider the Jews responsible for the "slavish" mo
rality of Christendom. It is perhaps unnecessary
to refer to isolated and eccentric views like those
of Mr. Stanton Coit, of the London Ethical So
ciety, who regards the Jews, owing to their cos
mopolitanism, as a disturbing element in the
national-ethical churches — each, as it were, with a
separate national god: — which he would like to
see established. Another such sporadic case is
that of Mr. Chesterton, who appears to be preju
diced against the Jews on the general principle
that a fine old crusty prejudice is a good old
Johnsonian quality.
Various as are the voices thus raised against
the Jews, there is one ground-tone which swells
40

INTRODUCTION
out above the rest and becomes dominant. As
might have been anticipated from our historical
sketch, it is that of the Counter-Revolution, the
anti-Liberal movement which spread through Eu
rope after 1870 under the influence of Bismarck.
This has recently found a representative utterance
in Chamberlain's Foundations of the Nineteenth
Century, which, in many ways, sums up the
whole anti-Semitic movement from Renan to
Treitschke. Though really superficial and in
consistent, Chamberlain's book has had an ex
traordinary popularity because it flatters the
national and racial vanity of Germans (and inci
dentally of Englishmen), who are represented to
be the Chosen Race, from whom alone real gen
ius and real progress can be anticipated. As part
of his argument he has been compelled to show
that the other claimants for the title of Chosen
Race, the Jews, have no claim to creative genius,
even in religion; and this has helped to increase
the popularity of his book, since attacks are al
ways popular, and he has been able to appeal to
the conscious and unconscious anti-Semitism of
his readers. He makes some show of basing his
claims for the racial superiority of the Germans
upon modern anthropological science ; but even he
41

INTRODUCTION
has to confess his failure in this regard, and finally
bases his views on his own "historic insight" —
in other words, prejudice. The marked attention
which Chamberlain pays to the Jews is indeed a
high compliment, and it is worth while remark
ing that, while formerly Jews were despised as of
inferior culture, they now seem to be feared as
of different culture, uneasily suspected to be
higher.1 Otherwise, why Mr. Chamberlain's dia
tribes ?
It is time to come to an understanding with
these anti-Semites; to speak, as it were, with the
enemy in the gate. If the above diagnosis of the
history of Jew-hatred be true, it has always come
from above downwards, and has always been kept
alive among the people by the knowledge that it
is supported by the opinions of men whom they
respect. Popular opposition to Jews, as to Catho
lics, Quakers, or Agnostics, can only be removed
or lessened if the higher intellectuals of the na
tions recognize its injustice and futility. The be
lief in Jewish badness can only disappear in the
same way as the belief in witches and ghosts ; and
it is characteristic that the revival of the one be-
1 See the remarkable book of the late Prof. Shaler, The
Neighbor. 42

INTRODUCTION
lief has been synchronous with the recrudescence
of the others, very much in the same quarters.
For this purpose it is not sufficient merely to
answer the arguments of the higher anti-Semites;
in its broader aspects the Jewish question raises
any number of fundamental problems of modern
society — political, economic, social, and religious
— which no one could profess to solve as side-
issues of what is itself a side-issue. Thus to reply
adequately to the four chief lines of attack men
tioned above would be to defend the modern spirit
against the Counter-Revolution.1 It would be
impossible, as a side-issue of the Jewish question,
to convince Conservatives of the- claims to exist
ence of Liberalism and Democracy; nor could one
discuss the intricate problem of peace and war in
order to mollify the militaristic school of anti-
Semites. One might perhaps convince the Roman
Catholic Church that the enemies of the Jews were
in reality its own enemies and that the connection
of Jews with Freemasonry was not so close as it
imagines. But it would be impossible for it to
relinquish its old principle of the Church-State
1 Compare Renan : "Les ennemis du Judaisme, regardez-y de
pres, vous verrez que ce sont en general des ennemis de l'esprit
moderne." 43

INTRODUCTION
without ceasing to be Catholicism. So, too, it
would be easy to prove to Orthodox Christians
that, so far from undermining religion by their
scepticism, Jews have had their own religion
equally undermined by the spirit of the age.1 But
they could never be convinced that the existence
of Judaism is not a standing protest against the
doctrines of the Trinity. Socialistic enemies of
the Jews might, perhaps, be left to fight it out
with the anti-socialistic section, but one could
scarcely discuss the whole question of Socialism as
part of our topic. Similarly, the Neo-Pagans and
the New Aristocrats might be left to discuss their
anti-Semitic views with their Christian and Demo
cratic opponents, but the fundamental questions
involved between the two schools could scarcely be
solved as an excursus to the discussion of the
Jewish question.
No, the Jewish defence, if it is to be at all effec
tive, must be of a direct and positive character.
The claim of the Jews to a "place in the sun," in
modern life, must, in the last resort, be based on
their capacity for contributing valuable elements
to that life. This can only be determined by the
'This was clearly seen by the late Leroy Beaulieu in his
Israel Among the Nations. 44

INTRODUCTION
history of the past, remote and recent. Unless
they have shown themselves in the past capable of
contributing to the higher aspects of European cul
ture, it would be improbable that they would be
able to join fully in it now that they are allowed,
in some measure, to work with their fellow-citi
zens. Again, if they have acquired, by a long
process of unnatural selection, any special capa
bilities, adapting them for special work in the
world, this ought to show itself in actual achieve
ment during recent times, when they have been
allowed, to some extent, to show their capacity.
We know little of the forces that make or modify
racial character, but we do know, from the widest
inductions of history and common observation,
that it is one of the most permanent forces on
earth; so much may be granted to race-theo
rists like Gobineau or Chamberlain. Frenchmen
repeat to this day most of the characteristics of
Caesar's Gauls; the Englishry of Edward I or
Chaucer is as marked as that of Edward VII or
William Morris. So, too, the Jewish martyrs of
York Castle in 1190 recall to the English Chron
iclers of the time the very lineaments of the he
roes of Jerusalem 1,120 years previously. Karl
Marx shows, on behalf of the bearers of the
45

INTRODUCTION
world's burdens, the exalted indignation of an
Isaiah. Henri Bergson seems destined to take
the same place in the world's thought of the twen
tieth century that Maimonides did in the twelfth
and Spinoza did in the seventeenth. Heinrich
Heine only shows, in higher degree and more
modern form, the same incisive wit that animates
Judah al-Harizi or Immanuel of Rome. If it can
be shown that Jews throughout the ages have con
tributed their share to the world's higher life and
have, by their experiences, acquired specific ca
pacities to continue to do so, they have a right to
say to the world: "Stand aside; let us to our ap
pointed work."
To raise the further inquiry whether Jews are
likeable or "clubable" is rather a young lady's
or a snob's question than a man's. The peoples
that have fashioned the world — Phoenicians and
Romans, Normans and Spaniards, Englishmen
and Prussians, Yankees and Japs — have not made
themselves liked in the process. Their claim to
existence and influence has been based upon the
work they have done for the world quite apart
from their likeability. So, in the last resort, must
it be with Jews.
If these considerations are correct, our task in
46

INTRODUCTION
the present work must be to appraise Jewish con
tributions to the world's culture, and it is need
less to dilate upon the difficulties of such a task.
If it be difficult, in Burke's phrase, to indict a
whole nation, it is even less easy to appraise its
worth. The complications are both objective and
subjective, or, to avoid those hateful words, ma
terial and personal. It is no slight task to ad
judge the spiritual work of a historic people
throughout three thousand years, during the ma
jor part of which they have been scattered over.
all the lands of civilization. A people contributes
to the world's progress either through its institu
tions and general tendencies or through its indi
vidualities. The chief institution in which Jew
ish influence is prominent is the Christian Church,
which, in its organization, its liturgy, and much
of its spirit, still shows traces of its Jewish origin.
Above all, the Bible, which has permeated Chris
tendom in thousands of ways, is the noblest prod
uct of the Hebraic spirit, and is, in its way, a
Jewish institution. During the Middle Ages the
Jews, by their spread among the nations, were
enabled to contribute to the intellectual and com
mercial development of Europe by their activities
as intermediaries in thought and commerce. They
47

INTRODUCTION
even contributed, in an indirect way, to the build
ing up of the feudal kingship, and constituted one
of the unifying elements of the mediaeval Euro
pean system. Their position as forming the sole
exception to the Christian consensus had its in
fluence in promoting the slow development of free
thought and religious toleration. They had their
contributions to add both to the Renaissance and
to the Reformation, and it is notorious that the
modern trend toward political liberty and demo
cratic institutions in the Anglo-Saxon world was
largely influenced by the principles of the Hebrew
Scriptures. In more modern times Jews have had
much to do in shaping the principles and policy
of that large movement of the world's thought
known as Socialism. A recent work of Prof.
Sombart even goes so far as to assert that the
transformation of the economic constitution of so
ciety, caused by capitalistic methods of produc
tion, is due mainly to the Jews; and this claim
would have to be considered and measured.
In short, to appraise the. contributions of Jews
to the world's advancement is little less than to
write the history of civilization for the past two
thousand years. Fortunately, for the particular
end in view, the work has been done, in large
48

INTRODUCTION
measure, sporadically and for other purposes. For
the past fifty years Jewish and Gentile scholars
have thrown the light of research upon all these
topics,1 and, while it is difficult, it will not be im
possible to summarize their results sufficiently for
the particular purpose we have in view.
When we come to the latest age, since the Jew
ish emancipation, we have to deal with individuals
rather than with institutions or tendencies. The
number of Jews who have contributed in one way
or another to the world's progress, instruction,
and delight in recent years is indeed remarkable,
and would deserve record for its own sake. The
difficulties of enumeration are almost insuperable.
The Jewish origin of many professional, scien
tific, and artistic celebrities is often unknown and
sometimes concealed even by themselves, and
there is always the danger of wrongful inclusion
or exclusion lest one do injustice either to Jews or
to others. Here I have had practically no prede
cessors, and have had to perform the laborious
'The following may be mentioned as examples of such con
tributions from the outside: Hatch and Harnack on Church
organization; Lecky and Schleiden on Jewish contributions to
mediaeval science; Stoeckl on the Jewish elements in mediaeval
mysticism; Burckhardt on the Renaissance; Sir Frederick Pol
lock on Spinoza; Diestel on the symbolic methods of medieval
exegesis. 49

INTRODUCTION
task of collecting together the Jewish celebrities
with as much care and industry as I could bestow.
Fortunately, this is a subject to which I have de
voted considerable attention for the past thirty
years, and have dealt with in a less complete fash
ion on two preceding occasions.1
For, in my view, such an estimate of contem
porary contributions to the world's progress is an
essential part of the Jewish defence. Against the
vague anti-Semitic denunciations of Jewish char
acteristics, which are mainly the results of preju
dice and, in any case, cannot be checked or meas
ured, we can here set down the definite results of
Jewish achievement. We can even go further
and, by the aid of modern statistical science as
developed by Galton and Pearson, arrive at some
measurable comparison between the output of
Jewish ability and that of others. The science of
probabilities even enables us to go further and to
determine, with some precision, the probable pro
portions of Jews of different ranks of ability,
which would otherwise not be measurable.
I have spoken above of the subjective or per-
1 A comparative estimate of Jewish ability in the Journal of
the Anthropological Institute, 1887, and the section on Biography
in my little volume on The Jewish Encyclopedia, a guide to
its contents, 1906, pp. 90-110. 50

INTRODUCTION
sonal difficulties in the way of such an investiga
tion as that which I am now outlining. I refer,
of course, to the fact that this book, which has
for its purpose to put forth the claims of the
Jews to the world's recognition, emanates from
one who is himself a Jew by race and training.
It would be distasteful to make any such claims
at all but that one is forced to do so in answer to
the attacks of the anti-Semites. It would be even
still more distasteful if one had to put forth any
exclusive claims on the part of the Jews. What
one chiefly objects to in Chamberlain's book is the
arrogance and insolence of the exclusive claims
that it advances on behalf of the "Teutonic" gen
ius. No one would deny for a moment the mag
nificent contributions to the spiritual and material
development of modern civilization made by
"Teutons" (by which term, in the last resort, Mr.
Chamberlain means Europeans in general) ; but
to contend that no other race has ever made any
contributions worth considering, nor can do so,
owing to permanent racial inferiority, exceeds all
the bounds of good taste and even good breeding.
Mr. Chamberlain has pushed the conception of
the Chosen Race beyond all bounds.
Modern men have arrived at a transvaluation
51

INTRODUCTION
of the notion of a Chosen Race which is at once
more modest and more human. They have trans
formed it into the notion of Chosen Races, each
with its own special characteristics, each, there
fore, with a capacity to contribute something of
its own to the treasure of human achievement. No
race has a monopoly of any of the human quali
ties or capacities, but each has, by innate or
acquired ability, some or other of these qualities
in a more fully developed form. At appropriate
moments of the world's history a race may
influence others by its specific qualifications. To
give a simple example, the whole of modern
European art has been transformed by an ac
quaintance with the Chinese and Japanese notion
of mass and tone "values" as revealed by the
Goncourts.1 It is a man's duty to learn for what part of
the world's work he is best fitted by his original
or acquired qualities; similarly every race with
distinctive characteristics should learn to acquire
self-knowledge of its own capacities, so that it
1 1 observe that, in tracing the modern revival of the dance in
the negroid forms of the cake-walk, turkey-trot, and tango,
writers like Dr. Havelock Ellis speak with full appreciation of
the charm of a return to a frank enjoyment of the sensuous ele
ments of life without any vilification of the Negro.
52

INTRODUCTION
can do the best for itself and for the world in
developing those qualities likely to advance the
cause of humanity and, of course, repressing
any which are at all anti-social. They have a
right to call upon their fellow-men to help them,
so far as possible, in developing the former, in
repressing the latter. I conceive, therefore, that
I am doing nothing objectionable or in bad taste
in attempting to ascertain from the achievements
of my own people their special capacities to
advance the world. The time may come when
men, instead of reviling others for being dif
ferent from them, would welcome such differ
ences as likely to lead to new contributions to
the world's advancement, while at the same time
adding to the charms of social intercourse. Noth
ing leads to boredom more than uniformity of
manners and thoughts.
Having these facts of Jewish influence before
us, we may then be in a position to draw some
conclusions as to the position of the Jew in the
modern state. Granting the racial differences
which have seemingly aroused so much ill-will,
one may raise the question whether such sec
tional differences are not especially desirable in
the modern state, the chief danger of which is
53

INTRODUCTION
a tendency to mediocre uniformity akin to Chi-
nesism. There should be such a thing as divi
sion of labor in the spiritual as well as in the
working world. It may be contended that the
Jew is especially adapted for the modern Cul
ture-State, whereas he was forcedly an alien
element in the older Church-State, with its feudal
fixity of classes and uniformity of creed. The
higher anti-Semitism of modern times is, as we
have seen, mainly the outcome of an attempted
revival of the Church-State. In this connection
the Jewish question is but one aspect of the final
stand of the privileged classes of Europe to stem
the forces of modern democracy.
In accordance 'with the above principles, I
have divided the discussion of Jewish influence
in the following pages into three books. In
the first book I have endeavored to enumerate
the Jewish contributions to civilization during
the past two thousand years, showing that they
have made themselves thereby a constituent ele
ment of that civilization to which they are
equally heirs with other nations, creeds, and peo
ples. In the second book I have tried to evaluate.
the contributions of individual Jews to modern
European culture in the immediate past and
54

INTRODUCTION
present. I have tried to avoid the chief danger
of such enumerations by giving not only lists
of names, which may be both confusing and
misleading to the general reader, but also, as
often as possible, giving the proportion of Jewish
names in general lists, which is the only fair
way of comparison. Finally, in the third book,
I have essayed the difficult task of determin
ing the value of Jews in the modern cultural
state and thus to give an adequate answer to
the question raised by the higher anti-Semites
of to-day, who, in consonance with their me
diaeval ideals, are opposed to Jewish influence
in the Church-State which they would like to
see revived.
It will be found, I think, that I have dis
cussed, at appropriate stages of the argument,
all the anti-Semitic objections to Jews and their
influence which are really deserving of mention.
I must confess that I have not condescended to
consider some of the cruder views of lower
natures such as that all Jews are usurers or
pitiless, or the like. No consideration will be
found in these pages of the so-called blood
accusation, which is merely a piece of mediaeval
folk-lore revived for sinister purposes. The
55

INTRODUCTION
only questions at issue to be discussed here are
the extent and effect of Jewish influence through
out the ages and especially at the present time.
Our various discussions may bring out results
of interest and value apart from their apologetic
validity. If the thrice-tested facts of the Jewish
superiority of intellectual output in Book II can
be trusted, it would appear that the Jewish
germ-plasm is a valuable asset in the world's
treasure-house of character. I have shown, I
think fairly conclusively, that there is a certain
probability that a determinate number of Jews
at the present time will produce a larger num
ber of "geniuses" (whether inventive or not, I
will not say) than any equal number of men of
other races. It seems highly probable, for ex
ample, that German Jews at the present moment
are quantitatively (not necessarily qualitatively)
at the head of European intellect.1 There are
certain indications that those Russian Jews who
have been released from Russian tyranny will
show the same extent of capacity.
1 Yet I can remember the time when the most contemptuous
term which an English journalist could apply to any character
was that of German Jew. The contributions of Beit, Mond,
Speyer, and Cassel to the higher life of England have been
a remarkable return for this depreciation. 56

INTRODUCTION
It is still a disputed point among anthropolo
gists whether the common points of Jews are
due to race or environment. Our results, so far
as they go, seem to confirm those who contend
for a common ancestry of contemporary Jews,
since it is improbable that high ability of similar
type should be so uniformly the outcome of
much dissimilarity of environment. If this be
so, the desirability of further propagation of the
Jewish germ-plasm is a matter not merely of
Jewish interest. In this connection the question
of the high ability of the Jewish half-breeds, to
which James Russell Lowell devoted so much
attention, calls to be considered; at any rate, their
existence, in large number, is sufficient to disprove
Chamberlain's contention of the radical superior
ity of the German over the Jewish germ-plasm.
But modern students of heredity recognize
three elements in the formation of a man's
character — heritage, environment, and training.
The question as to the origin of Jewish ability
(which, after all, is generally recognized even
by anti-Semites) has hitherto been exclusively
discussed from one or other of the first two stand
points; it still remains to be considered whether
much, if not most, of the Jewish capacity has
57

INTRODUCTION
not been produced by the special Jewish train
ing in the home and in the synagogue. A long
course of Jewish history has developed a special
Jewish ethos which has created certain architec
tonic ideals distinctive of Jews. Some of these
ideals, as embodied in the Bible, have already
had their influence on civilized humanity; it
remains to be seen whether others, which have
hitherto been confined to the Jewish home, may
not attract the sympathetic attention and imita
tion of the world, which is nowadays more than
ever ready to learn from all quarters. It will
thus be seen that the Jewish question is con
nected with numbers of others, both eugenic
and euthenic, quite apart from the problems
raised by the higher anti-Semites; I have en
deavored, at times, in the following pages to
touch upon these larger aspects quite apart from
their bearing on the general lines of the Jewish
defence. The Jewish question is in these various
ways both practically and theoretically a world
problem, as indeed the Hebrew prophets recog
nized with rare insight three thousand years ago.
Isaiah's picture of the suffering Servant of the
Lord might have been written to-day of Russian
Israel. 58

BOOK ONE
JEWS OF THE PAST

59

CHAPTER I
The People of the Book
The Jews have been made what they are by
the Bible, by which I mean, of course, what is
usually termed the Old Testament. Their life
has been dominated by its law, their feelings
by its psalter, their ideals by its prophets, their
outlook on life by its wisdom, and their hopes
for the future by its apocalypse. When anti-
Semites complain of the burden imposed upon
the life of the Jew by the mass of talmudic tech
nicalities they are unaware that, in nine hundred
and ninety-nine cases out of a thousand, these
enactments are simply applications of the law
of the Bible. The Mishnah and Gemara, which
make up the Talmud, bear the same relation to
the legal portions of the Pentateuch as the
Digest to the Institutes of Gaius or Justinian.
The prophets, it is true, found no successors in
Israel for their remarkable amalgam of rhap
sody and politics, but their spirit informed all
61

JEWISH .CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
the higher thought of the nation till it ceased
to be a nation, and has continued to inspire the
higher spirits of the Jewish people ever since.
The sweet singers of Israel did not cease with
the Fifth Book of the Psalms. In the Psalms
and Odes of Solomon, in the rhythms of the
daily prayers, in the Piyyutim and Selihot of
the mediaeval hymnologists, the sacred poets of
Israel carried on the tradition of the psalmist,
more often than not spoiling their poetic effect
by too closely clinging to the phraseology of
their biblical predecessor. The practical sagacity
with which the world has ever credited Jews
has always been ennobled by touches of the
higher biblical wisdom. Thus we find Gliickel
of Hameln interspersing her reflections on the
state of business at Hamburg or the prospect
of good matches for her children with pious
acceptance of the decree of the Most High.
Lastly, the apocalyptic visions of Ezekiel and
Daniel found innumerable successors from Enoch
to Herzl, all connecting the fate of the Jewish
nation with the higher history of humanity. For
over two thousand years the whole of Jewish
literature — exegesis and legislation, hymnology
and satire, philosophy and mysticism — centered
62

THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
round and was derived from the Bible. If it
be true, as it obviously is, that the Bible is a
creation of the Jews, it is also true, though not
so obvious, that the Jews are a creation of the
Bible. It was this intimate relation between book
and people which enabled them to survive
through all the vicissitudes of ancient, mediaeval,
and modern history. Throughout the ages the
most convenient bond between men has been
that of contiguity. In the vast majority of
cases the land made the people, that is after
they had settled down upon it in the agricul
tural stage. But there are two great exceptions
to this rule in historic times. The Teutonic
clans so impressed their character upon the lands
to which they wandered that the very soil was
named after the tribes — France, Normandy,
England, Lombardy, Burgundy, and the like.
The clans of Israel, or rather of Judah, after
they were dispersed from Judaea, never became
associated again with any definite land, but yet
retained all that feeling of fellowship which goes
to make up a people. That they did so was in
large, almost in exclusive, measure due to the
Bible. The Jews have indeed deserved the title
63

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
given to them by Muhammed, "The People of
the Book."1
But the book that has thus made the Jews
what they are has also, in large measure, laid
the foundation of European civilization. In all
matters spiritual the Bible is the one common
fountain-head of European thought and feeling,
as, with perhaps ^Esop's Fables, it is the only
book which every European has read who has
read any book. If, in Matthew Arnold's phrase,
Hebraism rules the conduct of three-quarters of
life (for most men he might have made it nine-
tenths), for the majority of men it has been the
Bible alone which has represented what the poet-
critic calls Hebraism. In the Middle Ages, in
deed, the remaining quarter of life, which is
filled up with art and thought, was also mainly
dependent upon the Bible for its influence. The
beginnings of modern drama are to be found in
the miracle plays, which, in all the cloisters of
Europe, enacted the scenes of the Bible for the
people who could not read it.2 The Gregorian
music which rolled through all the cathedral
1 As a matter of fact, the term is applied in the Koran to any
people or sect having a sacred Scripture, and thus includes
Christians and "Sabajans" as well as Jews.
2 See for details Chambers' Mediaeval Stage, Oxford, 1903.
64

THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
aisles of Europe has been traced back to the
cantillations with which Jews recited the sacred
text. Remove from the Old Masters their de
lineations of the biblical scenes, and there would
not be much left of pre-Raphaelite art. Even
in law, in which the genius of Rome was ulti
mately to exercise so supreme an influence on
European legislation, the Bible in the beginnings
had its word to say. Alfred's Dooms were
prefaced with extracts from Leviticus adapted
to the needs of Anglo-Saxon England, and in
almost all the early Teutonic codes, when writ
ten down, were extracts from the pentateuchal
codes which formed part of the record; nor
must it be forgotten that the Digest in its final
form is a Christian document and has undergone
the influence of the Christian, which includes
the Hebrew Scriptures. President Woodrow
Wilson, in his treatise on the State, draws marked
attention to this aspect:1 "It would be a mis
take, however, to ascribe to Roman legal con
ceptions an undivided sway over the develop
ment of law and institutions . during the Middle
Ages. The Teuton came under the influence,
not of Rome only, but also of Christianity;
'Section 2201 65

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
and through the Church there entered into
Europe a potent leaven of Judaic thought.
The laws of Moses as well as the laws of Rome
contributed suggestion and impulse to the men
and institutions which were to prepare the mod
ern world; and if we could but have the eyes to
see the subtle elements of thought which con
stitute the gross substance of our present habit,
both as regards the sphere of private life, and
as regards the action of the state, we should
easily discover how very much besides religion we
owe to the Jew." x
Not alone has the Bible had influence upon
European law, it has affected, even more strik
ingly, the law-making institutions of Europe.
The constitutionalism of modern Europe, which
we have seen spread in recent years to countries
as remote from European modes of thought as
China, Persia, and Turkey, can be distinctly
traced back to the constitutional struggles of
England in the seventeenth century, and every
one knows that at the back of the parliamentary
'Mr. Chamberlain, however, goes too far in suggesting that
the universalistic element in Roman law is due to Semitic (he
hints at Jewish) influence. Here, of course, he is working as
usual for the nationalism of his party against any taint or tinge
of universalism. 66

THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
movement was the inspiration of ancient Israel.
The Puritans carried their recognition of this
influence so far as to load their children with
unwieldy names taken or imitated from the Old
Testament.1 The appeal of both those who
held tb the divine right of kings and of those
who were for a democratic government was, in
both cases, to the Bible as the final authority
in Commonwealth times.2 Indeed the whole idea
of the Reformation was to restore to the Bible
the absolute authority in matters of religion and
faith which, according to the Reformers, had
been usurped by the popes. In Protestant lands,
almost to the present day, a definite statement
of the Bible on one side or the other of a dis
puted point was held, for most people, to settle
the matter. If the influence of the Bible was
strong in Old England, it was still stronger in
New England in the seventeenth century, and
even gave it a tendency toward Republicanism
' See Bardsley, Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature, Lon
don, 1879; which contains such specimens as Maher-shalal-
hash-baz Smith; If-Christ-had-not-come-into-the-world-thou-
hadst-been-damned Barbone (generally known, "for short," as
Damned Barbone).
2 See Figgis, The Divine Right of Kings, second edition,
London, 1914; Gooch, History of English Democratic Ideas in
the Seventeenth Century, Cambridge, 1898.
67

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
which was, in the next century, to lead to the
dissolution of the bond between England Old
and New.1
It would perhaps be going too far to claim
that the spread of modern Republicanism was
due entirely to the Bible. The Swiss and Italian
republics arose before the Bible, by means of
the Reformation, had had so extensive an influ
ence on political thought. But undoubtedly in
Holland, in England, and in the United States
the example of Israel winning its freedom from
Pharaoh or opposing its own monarchs, when
they attempted to force unpopular doctrines or
actions upon it, was a strong force at the back
of the stern Calvinists, who were the chief force
in getting rid of tyrannous monarchy. The Eng
lish Rebellion began with the cry: "To your
tents, O Israel."
How deeply the Bible has sunk into the folk-
soul of all Europeans is shown, perhaps, most
conclusively by its ingrained influence upon the
language of the peoples. Quite apart from the
fact that the heroes of the Bible — Adam, Noah,
Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samson, Saul,
1 See' Oscar S. Straus, Origin of Republican Form of Govern
ment, New York, 1882. 68

THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
David, Solomon, and the rest — have taken the
place of the old mythical heroes of the Sagas
and national legends, the phraseology of daily
life in all European languages bears traces of
biblical influence. Whenever we speak of "a
land flowing with milk and honey," "a still,
small voice," "a tale that is told," "darkness
which may be felt," "vanity of vanities," "law
of the Medes and Persians," "a wife of one's
bosom," "an apple of one's eye," we are re
peating biblical expressions. Whenever we "eat,
drink, and be merry," "take sweet counsel to
gether," "grind the faces of the poor," "cause
the widow's heart to sing for joy," "make a
covenant with death," "heap coals of fire," and
"be weighed in the balances and found
wanting," we are unconsciously plagiarizing
the Hebrew Scriptures. Much of our popular
wisdom comes from the same source, as, for
example, "Put not thy trust in princes"; "Go
to the ant, thou sluggard"; "Answer a fool
according to his folly"; "A wise son maketh a
glad father"; "Be not righteous over much";
"A soft answer turneth away wrath"; "The
race is not to the swift"; "Love is strong as

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
death"; "In the multitude of counsellors there
is safety"; "Righteousness exalteth a nation."
In the very fixation of the forms of a lan
guage the Bible has often had a critical influ
ence. Our only record of the earliest stages
of the Teutonic languages is given by Ulfilas'
translations of the Gospels. Owing to the
activities of the Bible societies, there are hun
dreds of dialects the only printed records of
which consist of the translations of the Bible.
Amid the warring struggles of the different Ger
man dialects for mastery, Luther's version of
the Bible gave the victory to High German. We
all know what effect King James' Version has
had upon the English tongue, arousing even the
envy of Roman Catholics, notwithstanding their
doctrinal preference for the Douay Version.1
I may perhaps best summarize the influence
of the Bible on European culture by giving the
Table of Contents of the admirable little book
of Prof. E. von Dobschiitz on "The Influence
of the Bible on Civilization," which reached me
in time for the revision of this chapter. He
practically divides up the history of Christian
1 See the eulogy of Cardinal Wiseman, qudted by Trench in
his English Past and Present. 70

THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
civilization into sections according to the atti
tude of men, during various periods, toward the
Bible, as follows :
Chapter I. The Bible Makes Itself Indispensa
ble for the Church (to 325 a.d.).
II. The Bible Begins to Rule the Chris
tian Empire (325-600 a.d.) .
III. The Bible Teaches the German Na
tions (500-800 A.D.).
IV. The Bible Becomes One Basis
of Mediaeval Civilization (800-
1150 A.D.).
V. The Bible Stirs Non-Conformist
Movements (1 150-1450).
VI. The Bible Trains Printers and
Translators (1450-1611).
" VII. The Bible Rules Daily Life (1550-
1850).
" VIII. The Bible Becomes Once More the
Book of Devotion.1
Of course, Prof. Dobschiitz is dealing with the
New as well as the Old Testament, but most
1 The same author's article on the "Bible in the Church," in
Hastings' Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, deals with the
subject topically rather than chronologically. It has, in addition,
valuable bibliographies for each section.
71

JEWISH. CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
of his remarks apply to both sections of the
Canon. He shows how the blood of the mar
tyrs, that became the seed of the Church, was
mainly shed in defence of the Bible, possession
of which was taken by the pagans as a sure
sign of treason (I). Both in the Christian em
pire and among the Germans the Bible was
made the basis of much legislation and still
more of authoritative dogma (II and III). In
the Middle Ages it gave rise to art and pil
grimages, besides the great sectaries (IV-V).
Its influence on language, literature, and thought
lasted on almost to the present day (VI, VII).
While the Bible has lost its central position in
European thought at the present time, Prof.
Dobschiitz contends that it will always form a
basis for character formation among serious
natures (VII). In all this discussion Prof. Dob
schiitz is speaking rather as a sociologist than
a theologian, and leaves out of account, for the
most part, the influence of the Bible on the
subtleties of theology.
But it is not merely on the externalities of
languages and institutions, closely as these may
come home to the heart of the European peo
ples, that the Bible has left its deepest impress.
72

THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
European religion, taken in its broadest sense,
is the religion of the Bible. Putting aside, for
the moment, the differences between the two
Testaments, the religion of Israel freed man
kind from that worship of Luck and Fate which
is at the basis of all savagery. It recognized
that human affairs and human character were
ruled by high principles which soared above
individual existence and bound men together in
common allegiance to noble ends; it further
connected each individual soul with the Source
of these principles — the Ruler of the universe.
Human nature was at once dignified by this
notion of personal communion with the Highest
Being, while at the same time it was deepened
and solemnized by a sense of sin as treason
toward the Spirit of the universe.1
The very notion of a Kingdom of Heaven
as distinct from the secular and mundane polit
ical state gave men an ideal toward which they
might strive and, at the same time, a touch-
1 There is some evidence that the later mysteries of Greek
and Roman religion tended toward the same personal com
munion with the gods; but not all Greeks and Romans were
initiates, and the essence of the official classic religions was out
side the individual life. See, however, "Communion with Deity,"
in Hastings' Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics.
73

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
stone by which they could distinguish between
law, morals, and other folk-ways. It is, there
fore, not surprising that the Jews alone of
ancient peoples conceived the notion of general
progress in their Messianic conception. As has
often been pointed out, Greeks and Romans
look back upon the past as the golden age.
The Jews alone look forward to the coming of
the Kingdom of Heaven and its Messiah in the
golden future. Nor was there any exclusive
ness in the picture drawn of this future felicity.
While regarding themselves, as all nations and
sects do, as specially called upon to carry aloft
their own ideals, they regarded their mission as
fulfilled only when all the nations of the earth
should be blessed in their seed.1
But perhaps the profoundest influence that
the Bible has exercised upon human thought and
action has been the tender care for the bearers
of the burden of humanity shown by both the
Law and the Prophets. Everyone recognizes
with Renan that the prophets were the first
socialists. We recognize the kinship of Maz-
zini with Isaiah or Hosea, when he pleads the
cause of the poor. But the spirit that animates
' Gen. 18, 18. 74

THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
such a code as that contained in the Book of
the Covenant (Exodus 21-23) ls equally full of
thought for the down-trodden, put into straight
forward legislation. If that code were fully
carried out, even at the present day, there would
not be so much murmuring and gnashing of
teeth from below. If weights and measures
were always true; if he that smiteth a man
were surely put to death; if no bribe were taken;
if the poor man's pledge were returned to him
at eve; if the alien or the widow or the orphan
were not vexed nor afflicted; if all damage done
were made good ; if the worker's wage were never
kept from him, and so on, the evils of a capi
talistic system would be much reduced.
When confining our estimate of the influence
of the Bible to the Old Testament, as we must
do for the present purpose, we have to leave
out of account the appeal of the motive of the
life beyond the grave, which has had so much
influence in modern religion. It is perhaps the
most striking characteristic of the Old Testa
ment that it practically makes no appeal to this
motive. There are slight traces of a belief in
a future life, dim and unattractive as this may
be; but no prophet, no psalmist appeals to its
75

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
existence as a reason for living the higher life
and obeying the high motive. Later on, under
the influence of Persia, Jews acquired the notion
of Paradise as a counterbalance to the concep
tion of Sheol, and then made the two appeals
more stringent and effective; but in the Old
Testament itself the appeal is never made, and
we cannot, therefore, reckon it in when estimating
the influence of what we have called the Bible
on European civilization.
The influence of the Bible on European cul
ture reaches its culmination, of course, in its
monotheism. The worship of the One Lord of
the universe has now become so ingrained in
the European mind that it is difficult to realize
the reverence paid to the multitude of local
deities which characterized the classical world.
It is true that in the more modern worship of
saints we have something analogous to the more
ancient reverence for local deities. It is also
true that in the development of Greek thought
and in the syncretism of the great empires a
tendency grew to recognize One Supreme Being,
so that in theory the world was prepared for
acceptance of the One God. But while the
saints may possibly be regarded as survivals of
76

THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
the old local deities, they are never regarded,
even by the most superstitious, as of equal rank
with the Most High, and, on the other hand,
the more philosophic pagans, even down to the
Emperor Julian, still regarded the minor deities
of the Pantheon as possessing noumenal exist
ence. Without the Bible and Bible religion Eu
ropeans would, so far as we know, still be wor
shipping the gods, probably by animal sacrifices.
This obvious truth appears to be a source of
irritation to many proud "Aryans." From Las
sen and Renan to Delitzsch and Chamberlain,
they seek to minimize, in one way or another,
the debt they are forced to acknowledge to
Israel for teaching them to worship the One
God. Renan's peculiar and bizarre thesis was
that monotheism is simply an instinct of a desert
folk as all Semites originally were, who had,
therefore, nothing visible to worship in the wide
expanse of the sandy desert which represented
for them the Infinite. Monotheism in this sense,
far from being the highest form of religion, is,
according to Renan, merely the minimum of
faith, the most negative form of the worship
of the ideal. Renan's views in this regard have
been driven out of the court of critical opinion
77

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
mainly by the consideration that not all Semites
were monotheistic, but only the Israelites, and
that the characteristic of the monotheism of
Israel is its ethical character ; 1 only in Israel
do we find united the lordship of the two worlds,
which aroused Kant's awe — "the starry heavens
above, the moral law within."
Of recent years, however, the attempt has
been made by Prof. Delitzsch, of Berlin, to de
clare that this ethical monotheism was not orig
inal with Israel, but existed among the Baby
lonians, from whom it is thereby asserted that
the Israelites obtained the sublime notion. The
myths and legends of the early chapters of
Genesis have been shown to be, in almost every
case, similar to, and therefore probably derived
from, analogous portions of Chaldaic mythology.
But, as Prof. Morris Jastrow has ably shown,
in every case the form given to the myth by the
biblical narrators is distinctly imbued with the
specific ethical monotheism of the Hebrews.
Thus in the myth of Creation the Babylonian
1 Steinthal points out very pertinently that not alone some of
the nomad Semites (after Muhammed) but also some of the
noblest Greek philosophers were monotheists (Ueber Juden und
Judenthum, Berlin, 1910, p. 94). Had the latter but a minimum
of religion ? 78

THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
account remains always on the level of the nature-
myth, whereas the biblical account removes the
element of conflict between the different gods,
and makes the whole creation the outcome of a
Spirit anterior even to light.1 The Jews bor
rowed the material of the Creation and other
similar myths from the Babylonians, it is true;
but the form they gave in every case was their
own, and whether the fundamental religious views
of the Hebrews were derived from the Baby
lonians or not scarcely affects the fact that Eu
ropean civilization derived its fundamental faith
from the Jews.
One scarcely understands this reluctance to
admit indebtedness for ideals to external sources.
A people or a nation works out its own ideals
to the extreme limit, and then can only hope
for expansion or improvement of them by cross-
fertilization with the ideals of others, with which
they are at first not so much in sympathy.2 This
'M. Jastrow, Hebrew and Babylonian Traditions, New York,
1914, chapter II.
2 In the education of the human race, to use Lessing*s noble
conception, we cannot proceed otherwise than in the paedagogics
of an individual. When I was a teacher, and one of my pupils
declared that he couldn't stand Euclid, I always used to say:
"That's the very proof that you need training in geometry, for
it is there that your mental capacity is obviously weakest."
79

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
is true of the highest as of the lowest forms of
culture. The Mongols of China and Japan
have been mainly influenced in their religious
thought by the Aryan religion of Buddha. The
Hamites of Africa have recognized the highest
that could appeal to them in the Islam of Se
mitic Arabia. The Hebrews themselves, in post-
biblical times, were clearly influenced by the
angelology and demonology of Persia. Why
should it be thought anomalous or beneath the
dignity of Europeans to have supplemented their
own ideals by adopting for their highest ideal
ism the religion of Israel? Steinthal draws apt
attention to a parallel influence of Semites on
an Aryan people in the remarkable Renaissance
which came to Persia after its conquest by the
Arabs. Persian art, as we know — its textiles,
its pottery, its illuminations — was entirely due
to this Semitic Renaissance. The Persian lan
guage was re-made under Arabic influence; the
great Persian epic of Firdausi is of this periodj
and the mystic poets, Sadi and the rest, are a
felicitous combination of Aryan and Semite.1 I
would add that Persia showed equal powers of
1 See my Introduction to The Rose Garden of Persia, London,
1898. 80

THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
influencing Islam, which owed to it the Barme
cides and probably the "Arabian Nights," as
well as the one great Islamic heresy. Mr. Mur
ray, in his History of Chess,1 points out that it
was Persian armies that placed the Abbasids
on the throne, that the whole organization of
the state was Persian, and, he adds, that the his
tory of Muslim Chess is largely the history
of Persian players. The more we study the
history of civilization the more we find this
give-and-take of different cultures as the neces
sary condition for its development. Why, then,
should Chamberlain & Co.2 object to recog
nizing a certain indebtedness of European cul
ture to Jewish influence in religion?
How Europe has repaid this indebtedness to
Israel need not be here touched upon. I am
more concerned to state that there has never
been any claim by Jews for any such payment;
nor would such claim be justified. Nor would
it be politic ; gratitude to one individual for
favors received is nominally tempered by re
sentment against the scheme of things which
'P. 158.
= Whenever I speak of Chamberlain & Co., I refer to points
which Mr. Chamberlain shares with many predecessors. Those
peculiar to himself are referred to under his own name.
81

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
causes the necessity for receiving favors. If
Mr. Popakopoulus, who does me the honor to
blacken my shoes occasionally, attempts to scamp
'his work or cheat me out of my change, I am
not inclined to regard his lapses with more
leniency because he may possibly have within
his veins some of the blood of an iEschylus or
a Plato. So, too, if Pietro Vivanti sells me
inedible fruit or does not carry through a piece
of work he has agreed to do, I should remain
unaffected by his pleadings (which he is scarcely
likely to make) that he is descended from Lu
cretius or Horace. Just in the same way Mr.
Abramsky, or Mr. Isaacstein, or let us even say
Mr. Jacobs, has no diploma entitling him to do
inefficient work or a piece of underhand trickery
because he may be a direct descendant of Samuel
or Hosea. In fact, in all these cases, the pos
session of so illustrious a pedigree only creates
the greater disappointment if its possessors fall
short of the current standards of manners or
morals found in the ordinary citizen. Noblesse
oblige should be the slogan of noble races as
well as of noble families.
No, the claim the Jews have upon Europe,(
owing to their special relation to the Bible, is
82

THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
something other and more important from our
present point of view. Europe has learnt from
the Jewish Bible the fundamentals of social jus
tice and righteousness as part of its religion.
When, therefore, Jews knock at the doors of
Europe and claim, as they are doing, social
recognition after they have obtained political
equality, they may fairly say: "You and we are
brothers in spirit, we are both sons of the Book."
Chamberlain & Co. are always reiterating the
charge that the Jews are Orientals camped in
Europe. But so great has been the influence
upon European culture in its fundamental aspects
by ancient Israel that we might almost transpose
the relation and say, as has indeed been said,
that the ancient Israelites were Europeans en
camped in Western Asia. Whether due to
the influence of the Bible or not, there is more
spiritual affinity between Germans and the
Israelites of the Bible than between the Israelites
and, say, Egyptians or Assyrians.1 When Max
Muller planned his Sacred Books of the East,
'The Teutonic tone of the Books of Samuel is indeed note
worthy in this regard. At one time I had thought of translating
the Septuagint version of Samuel (which is fuller in several
places) under the title "The Saga of King David and King
Saul." 83

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
he consciously or unconsciously gave a Western
position to the Bible by omitting it from his
list. Indeed, when one turns over the weary,
dreary pages of these volumes, the contrast both
as literature and as inspiration is indeed striking.
Mr. Chamberlain, who so frequently insists upon
the superiority of the Indo-Teuton religion,
ought, as a punishment, to be compelled to read
through the whole of the fifty volumes of the
Sacred Books of the East.
Chief among the contrasts which differentiate
the Bible from the other Sacred Books of the
East is the notion of progress, which is so
essentially European and incidentally, I may say,
prophetic. Bagehot used to insist upon the ex
treme rarity of the notion of progress in the
history of humanity. Savages regard what is
as the norm; they cannot conceive of change
either in the past or the future. As against
this, the Hebrew prophets, with splendid indig
nation, regarded the present condition of their
nation as abominable, and felt a confident hope
that the divine plan of the universe involved
an amelioration not alone for themselves but
for the whole world.
Now in the divine plan of the prophets there
84

THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
were two elements which distinguished the He
braic ideals from those of all others and which
have extorted the imagination and admiration
of Europe. The first of these is the idealiza
tion of the poor and suffering as the type of the
good man.1 The Bible is emphatically on the
side of the "under-dog," and in prophetic dic
tion God is mainly regarded as the Protector
of the poor. This is against the whole spirit
of classical antiquity, which regards the Ka-
lokagathos as the ideal man, and always regards
the gods as fighting on the side of the winners
in life's battles. Indeed, though Europe has
nominally accepted the Hebraic idealization of
the poor and has done heroic work of recent
years on the divine plan of the Hebrew prophets,
yet it has been on the whole against the grain,
and the natural tendency of the natural man is to
applaud and to admire the rich and strong.
Nietzsche, as is well known, developed a whole
anti-Gospel on these lines.
The second unexpected ideal of the Hebrew
prophets is that which holds up peace as the
final aim of humanity. This ideal again is far
'See Isidore Loeb, La Religion des Pauvres dans la Bible,
Paris, 1892. 85

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
from being congenial to the European or even
to the Indo-European character. The warrior
is the ideal type among Brahmins, Homeric
Hellenes, Romans, Celts, and Vikings. The
charme or battle-joy of the Greeks and the Ber-
serkir rage of the Vikings illustrate what I mean.1
Even to the present day the soldier is the idol
of the populace, and men who profess the Gospel
of the Prince of Peace have not been ashamed
to advocate a gospel of war. Whenever an ad
ditional subsidy was needed in the Reichstag,
Moltke would dilate upon the ennobling and self-
sacrificing character of the soldier's life, and his
successor, Von der Goltz, has written down a
veritable gospel of war in his Nation in Arms}
Yet though Europe has only imperfectly as
similated the Jewish ideals of poverty as spiritual
' My friend, Prof. R. G. Moulton, points out, in the Introduc
tion to his Modern Readers' Bible, that the war idea is kept
alive nowadays by reading the Greek and Roman classics and
literature derived from them; he considers Bible readings would
be an antidote.
2 Even Robert Louis Stevenson, in an interview he once gave
at San Francisco, declared that he did not see the superiority of
the slow deaths caused by commercial competition over the quick
and honorable departure from the world on the battlefield.
Only in these latter days are men gradually being convinced of
the iniquity of war by its disastrous effects upon the Stock Ex
change (Norman Angell). 86

THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
riches and of peace as the international goal, after
all it has accepted these aims as part of the notion
of progress, which it took over in large measure
from the Hebrew Bible. Certainly there is no
incongruity in Europe accepting Jews into its
spiritual brotherhood because of its imperfect
acceptance of the ideals of poverty and peace.
There are movements on either side which, at any
rate in regard to the former ideal, have made
an approximation easy. St. Francis took poverty
for his bride, and made it the badge of his friars,
while Jews, on the other hand, have, from his
toric and human reasons, laid aside a good deal
of the old Hebraic admiration for poverty,
emphasizing rather the very human view of
biblical wisdom that wealth should be the reward
of virtue.
I have laid stress upon the identity of ideals
among modern Europeans and modern Jews
owing to their common derivation from the
ideals of the Hebrew Bible, because, as it seems
to me, this is the dominating fact in discussing
what is known as the Jewish question. This,
in the last resort, is raised by the doubts cast
by the higher anti-Semites whether Jews have
sufficiently the same ideals to be received within
87

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
the higher culture of Europe and America with
out danger to that culture. If indeed there were
such fundamental differences of ideals between
Jews and others,1 there might be something in
the "cultural menace," of which some academic
anti-Semites in America speak so glibly when
talking of Jews. Cultures can only cross-fer
tilize when they are sufficiently alike to form
part of the same species. If they are abso
lutely incongruous, however perfect each may
be in its own way, any attempt to combine the
two must necessarily result in failure. Take
the case of the Japanese. From what I have
seen, heard, and read of the Japanese nation,
they have a sensitiveness of honor (Bushido),
an intensity of patriotism, a joyousness of out
look upon life, a refined courtesy which, in each
aspect, surpasses the stage reached by Euro
peans.2 Yet in my opinion it would be dan
gerous, if not impossible, to implant the same
ideals and tendencies among Europeans, who,
owing to the absence of a common historic foun-
1 On the actual difference of ideals, see next chapter, "The
Church and the Jews."
2 In judging of the Japanese character I have had the' ad
vantage of enjoying the friendship of my college chum, Baron
Dairoku Kikuchi.

THE PEOPLE OF THE BOOK
dation, must always regard Japanese and Chinese
as alien, not alone in race and nationality, but
also in culture. With the Jews it is different;
the foundations for the two cultures concerned
are the same, and, as we shall see, the structures
reared upon these foundations during the last
two thousand years have been, in large measure,
identical, except in so far as this has been pre
vented by ecclesiastical tyranny. Both Europeans
and Jews have claim to the title of the People
of the Book.

89

CHAPTER II
The Church and the Jews
In the preceding chapter we have seen that
the fundamental conceptions of European civil
ization — the notion of social progress through
righteousness and the solemnization of life
through the idea of personal communion with
the divine — have been derived both by Jews
and Gentiles from the Old Testament, which
thus becomes a spiritual bond between them.
But it is not alone merely the outlines of this
civilization which are common to Jew and Gen
tile; many of the details are identical, and for
the same reason, because derived from the folk
ways of ancient Israel. During the first fifteen
Christian centuries the culture of Christendom
was, in large measure, created by the Church,
and both in creed and ritual the undivided
Western Church, in its beginnings and largely
throughout its career, was Jewish in form and
tone. 90

THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS
This is seen both in ritual and in institutions,
as well as in doctrine. The Common Prayer,
both of Church and Synagogue, is based upon
the Psalter, "the hymn-book of the Second Tem
ple." When one speaks of a Te Deum or a
Magnificat, a Miserere, or In exitu Israel, the
reference is to the Psalms of the Vulgate as
used in the Roman Church.1 The Trisagion of
the Greek Church is merely the Kedushah of
the Jewish service, itself derived from the an
gelic respond of Is. 6, 3. The central function
of the Church service, the mass (or in Protes
tant churches the communion), derives its "ele
ments," in the last resort, from the wine and
unleavened bread used at the home service of
the Passover, and Bickell has shown that the
original ritual of the mass is derived from that
of the Seder service in Jewish homes on the first
night of the Passover.2 The First and Second
Lessons of the Church, derived respectively from
the Old and New Testaments, are simply an imi
tation of the practice of the Synagogue to read
' On the general influence of the Psalms on Christian life and
thought, see Prothero, The Psalms in History and Biography,
in "Everyman's Library."
2 Messe und Pascha, 1872; English translation, The Lord's
Supper and the Passover Ritual, London, 1892.
91

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
sections from the Law and the Prophets every
sabbath. There are even indications that at an
early stage the same passages were read in both
places of worship at the same period of the year.1
Churches are "oriented" because synagogues
had their holy ark against the eastern walls so
that worshippers might face towards Jerusalem.
The eastern position of the priest, over which
such violent controversies have arisen in the
Church, is due to the same cause. The vest
ments of priests and bishops can be traced back
to those of the Israelite priests. The font of
baptism is immediately derived from the Mikweh,
or ritual bath of Jewish practice, though now
only used in the Church for new-born infants.
The Church altar represents, in position and
significance, the holy of holies of the Jewish
Tabernacle and Temple. The position of the
pulpit recalls that of the "Bemah," from which
the Jewish homilist of talmudic times used to
utter- his expository or consoling words. Anoint
ing was a Jewish custom long before it was a
Christian one; indeed, the word "Messiah" sim
ply means "anointed," as does its Greek equiva-
' See my article, Triennial Cycle, in Jewish Encyclopedia,
vol. xii. 92

THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS
lent "Christ." The notion of church asylum
is clearly derived from that of the cities of refuge
in the Levitical scheme.
The Church owes nearly as much of its insti
tutions to Jewish example as of ritual and cere
monial. Thus Hatch has shown that, in all
probability, the bishop derives from the gabbai
or treasurer or "overseer" (hence the name
"Episcopus") of the synagogue. One may even
conjecture that the peculiar form of the episcopal
blessing with two erect fingers is merely a modi
fication of the priestly blessing with hand up
lifted and the fingers separated in pairs. The
elders of the Church are but a duplicate of the
elders of the Synagogue. ' Visiting the sick was
one of the recognized modes of Jewish corporal
charity long before it became a characteristic
of Christian philanthropy. It is still a matter
of dispute whether hospitals did not originate
among Jews. But there can be little doubt that
the charity boxes of churches came from the
same practice in the synagogues. Simon ben
Shetah established religious schools among Jews
long before there is any trace of Sunday-schools
among Christians. The whole method of ordi
nation of priests is a direct descendant of the

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
Semikah or laying on of hands of Jewish prac
tice, which gave the power to "bind and loose"
just as in the Christian Church. The missionary
character of early Christianity was only a repe
tition of the missionary spirit of the Judaism of
the time which Harnack grants was a prepara
tion for the Christian mission.1 Even the Canon
Law of the Church has not been without influence
from Jewish sources.2 To quote but one example :
The tables of forbidden relations are, in the
main, derived from the Levitical laws about in
cest, and it is well known that the objection to
marrying a deceased wife's sister was based upon
Leviticus 19.3
But it is not alone in the externalities of
ritual and institutions that this dependence of
Christianity on Judaism can be traced; the fun
damental ideas of the theologies of both re
ligions are practically identical. "The Kingdom
of Heaven" is so essentially a Jewish concep
tion that few outsiders, who use the expression,
are aware of its exact meaning. So scrupulous
1 Mission and Expansion of Christianity, vol. i, p. 55.
2Aptowitzer, Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, vol. i, p.
217, seg.; vol. ii, p. 55, seg.
3Lagarde, The Law Not to Marry a Deceased Wife's Sister,
Leyden, 1878. 94

THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS
were Jews in avoiding the use of the word
"God" that they utilized various euphemisms
in its stead, among which the favorite expres
sion was "Heaven"; the "Kingdom of Heaven"
is, therefore, merely the Jewish equivalent for
the Kingdom of God. It has been well said
that the chief ideas that ruled the Middle Ages
can be traced back to Augustine's De Civitate
Dei, which is only a Latin form of the Jewish
conception of the "Kingdom of Heaven." Dr.
Tennant has developed several interesting trea
tises showing that the Christian notion of Orig
inal Sin is almost entirely derived from Jewish
conceptions, though it must be allowed that it
has received much more elaborate development
in Church doctrine. This is probably due to
the fact that in Judaism this rather harsh and
one-sided conception was modified by the parallel
doctrine of what the Rev. S. Levy has aptly
termed Original Virtue, by which the offspring
of virtuous parents have a kind of super-added
merit; the special Hebrew term is "the merit
of the fathers." l As a counterpart to these
notions which are, after all, only the theological
1 See S. Levy, Original Virtue, and Other Short Studies, Lon
don, 1907. 95

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
counterpart of the biological notion of heredity,
Jewish theology, even in Bible times, has devel
oped the idea of God's Grace as vouchsafed to
his special favorites, though here again it must
be allowed that Christian theologians have ex
panded the notion into innumerable side-chan
nels which come to a head, not alone in Calvinism,
but in the Jansenism of Port Royal. But the
original germ is there in the Synagogue. The
Fatherhood of God is a commonplace of Hebrew
thought, nor is the analogous conception of the
Son of God altogether alien to Jewish notions.
The idea of a Chosen People, so obnoxious to
many Christians, was taken over bodily by early
Christians, who, as Harnack has shown,1 regarded
the world as created for their sakes, just as Jews
had previously done.2
The close connection of Church and Syna
gogue in matter of belief is nowhere more strik
ingly shown than in their eschatology. As was
mentioned in the last chapter, the Old Testament
shows little interest in the life after death, but
between the two Testaments the Jews acquired
from the Persians a deep interest in the future of
1 Loc. cit.
2 IV Ezra, vi, 54-9, edit. Charles, ii, 579.
96

THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS
the soul, as well as a whole system of angelology
and demonology connected with this conception.
The vague conception of Sheol as the abode of
the dim ghosts of the dead became intensified
into the notion of Gehenna (itself a Jerusalem
locality where, garbage was burned) which, in
contrast to the Persian Paradise, was regarded
as the abode of sinful souls. The resurrection
of the dead at the day of last judgment thus be
came added to Jewish hopes and fears; the Angel
of Death became a prominent feature of Jewish
mythology. All this was taken over by the
Church, which even improved the occasion by
emphasizing the terrors of Hell. The deepened
sense of the consequences of sin, which was thus
brought about, led to further developments of
the doctrine of Atonement, already conspicuous
in Old Testament theology. Mr. Montefiore has
pointed out that the notion of Repentance, as the
necessary preliminary to Atonement, is charac
teristically Jewish and that in this regard Jesus
was more Jewish than "Christian." 2 Con
fession of sin as a proof of Repentance is again
a Jewish practice which was developed by the
Church into one of its most characteristic institu-
1 Jewish Quarterly Review, xvi, pp. 209-257.
97

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
tions. At the same time was developed a notion
of mental diseases being produced by demons
which could be exorcised by powerful personalities
and their disciples, a notion which was taken up
in its entirety in the New Testament.1 The use
of charms and amulets developed from this notion
both among Jews and Christians.
It is needless to remark that the whole notion
of a Messiah is Jewish in origin, as the name
indeed indicates.2 The main question between the
two creeds was whether the often discordant ele
ments, which could be discerned in the biblical
utterances about the Messiah, were "fulfilled" in
Jesus; but there was never any doubt about the
origin of the idea itself. Jews, for the most part,
laid stress upon the victorious aspects of the Re
deemer; Christians, for obvious reasons, em
phasized his identity with the Suffering Servant
of the Lord.3 As it turned out, the latter
"prophecy" was destined to be more literally
fulfilled by the people of Israel than by the Man
Jesus. 1 See F. C. Conybeare in Jewish Quarterly Review, viii, 587,
seg. 2 See above, p. 92.
3 Is. 53. 98

THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS
In considering the claims of the Man of
Nazareth, Christian theologians find more and
more difficulty in distinguishing the doctrines
he puts forth from those to be deduced from
the Old Testament or from its Apocrypha. The
Kingdom of Heaven and the Fatherhood of
God are, as we have seen, commonplaces of
older Hebrew thought. Jesus himself bases his
whole system on the Shema',1 and the command
to love one's neighbor as one's self, taken from
Leviticus 19, 18, or in so many words, on ethical
monotheism which is the fundamental Jewish
position. The Golden Rule, it is well known, had
been put forth, though in a negative and more
practical form, before the time of Jesus by Hillel
in the mere enunciation of the principle; and it
may be here remarked that both had been antici
pated by Confucius. The Sermon on the Mount
has been shown to be a rechaufee of current Phari
saic doctrine,2 while the Lord's Prayer is a cento
from the Jewish 'Amidah, being a shortened form
of five of the original six of the "Eighteen
Blessings," and one of its phrases, "deliver us
1 Deuteronomy, 6, 4.
2 See G. Friedlander, Origin of the Sermon on the Mount,
London, 1909. 99

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
from the evil one," is only comprehensible by
reference to the special Jewish coaception of the
Yezer ha-Ra', or Evil Inclination.1 The notion
that Sabbath was made for man and not man for
the Sabbath was not original with Jesus, and his
whole attitude toward the Law was by no means
unusual at his time. He risked and earned death
in order to fulfil the commands of the Torah,
to keep the Passover in Jerusalem. No wonder
that he himself declared that he had come not
to annul but to fulfil the Law,2 and modern
theologians can only point vaguely to his person
ality as the sole differentia of primitive Chris
tianity from developed Judaism.
So close was the identification of the two in
the early ages of Christianity that there are
numbers of documents which the most learned
Christian theologians cannot even to this day
determine whether they belong to one or the
other. Thus, to take a recent example, the Odes
of Solomon, discovered by Prof. Rendell Harris
in Syriac, are declared by him to be specifically
' See C. Taylor, Sayings of the Jewuh Fathers, 1st edition,
p. 142.
2 Matthew 2, 17, which is quoted in the Talmud, Shabbat
116 b; compare ibid., 18. 100

THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS
Christian, whereas the even greater authority of
Harnack declares for their Jewish tone. One
of the earliest of Christian documents, the
"Teaching of the Twelve Apostles," which was
used as a catechism for Christian disciples, has
been shown to be, in its first part, merely an ex
pansion of a similar work for Jewish neophytes
entitled "The Two Ways." The Didascalia or
Apostolic Constitutions of the early Church are
full of Jewish elements, as are the Clementine
Epistles. In the New Testament itself, the Reve
lation of St. John has been recently discovered
to be an expansion of a Jewish apocalypse. It
is well known that the Logos of the first chapter
of St. John's Gospel is directly derived from the
thought of Philo, while St. Luke shows acquaint
ance with, and utilizes the historic knowledge of,
Josephus. In several of these instances there is
a certain amount of doubt whether the document
is definitively Jewish or Christian, but the fact
that such doubt could arise in the minds of capable
students of early Christianity is sufficient for the
point I am here making of the substantial agree
ment," if not identity, of the two creeds in most
theological fundamentals.
The same doubt exists about some of the early
101

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
Christian heresies, as, for instance, the Ebionites.
Montanism is declared by Renan to be an essentially
Jewish heresy, while the relation of Millenarian-
ism to the Book of Daniel is obvious on the
face of it. No wonder that as late as 380 the
Christians of Antioch went to synagogue as a
matter of course, and St. John Chrysostom up
braids his hearers for doing the same.
The practical identity of the two creeds was
so striking, especially to the outer world, that
the Church had to go out of its way to invent
differences in practice. The earliest of these
was the transference of the Sabbath to the Sun
day, which to this day troubles the conscience
of the Seventh Day Baptists. The great Coun
cil of Nicaea took elaborate steps to prevent
Easter from falling upon the same day as Pass
over in order to distinguish the two. As we
have seen earlier, as soon as it obtained the
supremacy, the Church put a stop to any identi
fication of the two creeds by barring commen-
sality and intermarriage and taking steps to de
grade the social status of the Jew. The very
intensity of its hatred showed the nearness of
the danger (and of the doctrines) ; it was a
family quarrel. 102

THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS
No doubt there were differences of belief and
practice, as well as the identities which I have
thus emphasized (for the first time, so far as
I am aware, in such detail). The rejection of
the Law by Pauline Christianity at once put a
barrier between the two offshoots of Hebraism.
The image worship, which the early Church
adopted from the pagan world, was especially
obnoxious to the Jewish consciousness. The
combined socialism and Orphic mystery of the
early Christian love-feasts (Agapae) is a new
departure which, after all, scarcely established
itself even in the Church; the "kiss of ' peace,"
its sole survival, was a Jewish practice; above
all, the doctrine of the Man-God (and its corol
lary, the Virgin birth) was a distinct contri
bution of Hellenism, and was utterly alien to
Jewish notions, which have repudiated them con
sistently from that day to this. For this repudia
tion of the crucial distinction between Christian
ity and Judaism Jews were soon excluded from
Christian fellowship. As early as 306 the
laws of the Church debarred the faithful from
marrying or even eating with Jews. They were
soon prevented from bearing witness, true or
false, against Christians, and by 538 they were
103

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
forbidden to exercise any authority over true
believers, whether as public officials or as private
masters. Considering the closeness of the two
religions, both in creed and practice, it is not
difficult to understand these ecclesiastical enact
ments as precautions against confusion between
the two faiths on the part of the pagans. What
is rather difficult to understand is the endorse
ment by the state of the principle that all mem
bers of the state must be members of the State-
Church. It is possible that the spread of the
Arian heresy and its results may have predis
posed statesmen towards this remarkable policy,
which has had such disastrous results not alone
for Jews but for all citizens, since it has made
uniformity of doctrine a test of state service.
They may have observed that, in cases like
Spain and Lombardy where the rulers were
Arians and the subjects Catholics, the State fell
into anarchy and was, in Spain, conquered by
the unbelievers. As a contrast to this they ob
served the uniform success of the Franks, who
were Catholics, from the king to his meanest
subjects. Once adopted as a state policy, all
the force of the Church was naturally devoted
to keeping the principle intact, which made the
104

THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS
" Church the arbiter and ruling principle of the
State. In this connection the position of the Jews
in the mediaeval Church-State was indeed re
markable in many respects. It is generally re
garded nowadays, both by Christians and Jews,
as the typical example of persecution of creed.
In reality it is the first great example of tolera
tion in Church policy after the Catholic idea of
repudiation of heresy within the state had pre
vailed. Contrast the case of an Albigeois of
Narbonne with a Jew of the same city at the
beginning of the thirteenth century. The for
mer, because he doubted the Virgin birth of
Christ or held divergent views as to the Pro
cession of the Holy Ghost, would be condemned
to the flames, whereas the Narbonne Jew was
allowed to live on, with life and property secure,
so far as the Church was concerned, though
he equally repudiated the Virgin birth and didn't
even profess to acknowledge the existence of
the Holy Ghost. The object of the Church in
making this contrast was, of course, not due to
any desire to encourage free thought. The Jews
were to be kept alive as living witnesses to the
105

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
Passion and proofs of Holy Writ.1 At the same
time they were to be prevented from enjoying
power or wealth, so that their infidelity would
carry with it its obvious punishment as an example
to all men.
Now, in principle, the anti-Semites of to-day
seek to revive the Jewish disabilities of the
mediaeval Church-State, because most of them
wish to revive the Church-State. It matters not
that with Mr. Chamberlain the Church which
is thus to be thrust into power again is the
Lutheran Protestant with the vaguest of dog
mas, while with M. Drumont it is the Cath
olic Church with all its dogmatisms' that would
regain that position. They can scarcely hope
any longer to restore the Church-State of the
Middle Ages in its entirety and force all citi
zens to be of one creed, but they do desire that
their own theological views, as embodied in
their own Church, should have a predominant
influence upon legislation. They attack the Jews
as the most prominent example of non-agree
ment with the Established Church (Lutheran in
Prussia, Catholic formerly in France). But Mr.
Chamberlain is almost equally adverse to Cath-
1 St. Bernard; see below, p. 128.
106

THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS
olics as to Jews; Drumont, or, at any rate, his
party, was aiming probably even as much at
Protestants as at Jews.
It is indeed difficult to see how they can hope,
in any way, to effect their object of excluding
modern Jews from the modern State. They
could only do this by insisting upon a cer
tain uniformity of belief from all citizens; and
so great have been the inroads of agnosticism
and modernism that any principle excluding Jews
would, in all probability, exclude even larger
circles of Christians. For it is notorious that
just in those points in which Jews theologically
differ from their Christian fellow-citizens the
modern world is at last coming around to the
Jewish attitude. The older view, which re
garded every utterance of the Old Testament
as cryptically pointing toward one or the other
of the utterances or exploits of Jesus, is en
tirely exploded. The notion of direct prophecy
by texts of the Old Testament of the coming
and detailed acts of Jesus is equally antiquated.1
A celebrated example is fhe well-known alleged
prophecy of the Virgin birth in Isaiah 7, 14,
1 See Kuenen, The Prophets and Prophecies of Israel, Lon
don, 1878. 107

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
which, as Dr. Skinner remarks in his com
ments on the passage, in the Cambridge Bible,
is now given up in favor of the Jewish
view. Isaiah 53 is no longer regarded even
by Christian theologians as a direct prophecy
of Jesus, but rather of the nation of Israel in
personified form.1 The difficulties of Trini-
tarianism are ever on the increase, and there
is a marked apologetic tone, in the dyslogistic
sense of that word, in the defenders of the
Virgin birth.2 If all are to be excluded from
the full privileges of citizenship who do not be
lieve in the Trinity or the Virgin birth, Jews
will not be the only sufferers.
Whatever may be the religious future of
humanity in the immediate future, Jews are in
an exceptionally fortunate position to meet the
inevitable changes. If there is a revival of
faith, it will doubtless affect them as much as
others; indeed there are signs that the world
is beginning to be willing to listen to Jewish
teachers in matters of religion. One might
1 See Robinson, The Religious Ideas of the Old Testament,
New York, 1913, p. 176.
2 See J. Orr, The Virgin Birth of Christ, New York, 1907,
to which I contributed a paper (sadly mutilated in publication)
on the Jewish aspect of the subject. 108

THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS
even predict that a revival of Messianism among
Jews would meet with a wide sympathy among
Christians. Again, if science makes even wider
conquests in the religious sphere than it has
done hitherto, it by no means follows that
Judaism may not survive the scientific triumph.
Its two fundamental doctrines, the Unity of
God and the Messianic Hope, could easily be
transvaluated into scientific terms, as James
Darmesteter once pointed out. Science is, with
each advancing stage of its progress, insisting
upon the unity of all forms of energy, while
scientific philanthropy is looking forward to an
era when poverty will be no more,1 and when
peace will be assured by the impossibility of
gaining anything by war,2 or, in other words,
when the two requirements of the Messianic Age
will be fulfilled. Even if the depressing prophecy
of Guyau as to the "non-religion" of the future
be fulfilled, Jews, to say the least, can be as non-
religious as others, and cadit qucestio judaica.
Already they have shown, in the Ethical Culture
movement, that they are prepared for such a
deplorable consummation of their great history.
1 See J. H. Hollander, The Abolition of Poverty, 1914.
2 Norman Angell. 109

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
It is indeed remarkable that just when Jews are at
last free to practise and, if they desire it, to propa
gate their faith, they should find it undermined
from without by the Higher Criticism of Chris
tians and within by the Ethical Culture of Jews.
Whatever may be the future of what may be
termed theological religion, there is little doubt
that it will take up less and less space in men's
thoughts compared with what it did in the Mid
dle Ages, when everything was tinged with
theological speculation. The trend of the age
is away from dogmatic belief. Amiel was right
in saying that the days of the over-sure in things
spiritual was over. When so many men of
distinction and brilliant parts doubt the very
existence of personal communion between man
and the Supreme Being of the universe, it
would be nugatory to lay stress upon unessen
tial differences about the metaphysical consti
tution of that Supreme Being. This idea gives
an air of unreality to theological speculation of
all kinds, which accounts for the apologetic tone
now predominant in works on theology of all
schools. And if theology be discredited, it is
difficult to s:e how Jews can suffer civic discrim
ination on any theological grounds.
110

THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS
Outside theology, the elements of modern
civilization are open equally to Jew as to Chris
tian, and one of the most marked characteris
tics of the past century has been the eagerness
with which they have entered into possession
of them. In literature, in art, in science, and
in practical life, the Jew has taken his full share
in modern culture, and compared with these
the theological side of men's lives is rapidly
shrinking. Thus, in the theological sphere,
the points of conflict between Jew and Gentile
have become less and less; the points of
communion are, for reasons just indicated, in
creasing as the ages go past; and at the same
time, outside theology, there is an ever-increasing
sphere of spiritual activity in which Jews can
and do join with equal right as any of their
fellow-citizens. I am aware that the higher anti-Semites, like
Mr. Chamberlain, will insist that the theological
differences that still remain are of the highest
importance in questions of idealism in human
intercourse. The devil can quote Browning for
his purpose: The little more and how much it is;
The little less and how far away!
Ill

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
And with regard to all social matters this canon
is especially applicable. The slightest difference
of accent or of manner may be repellant in
social intercourse and may make one select or
reject this one or that as one's chosen com
rade. But the point I am making now is that
it is practically impossible that, in a modern
state, theological differences, such as divide Jews
from Gentiles, can any longer be made the basis
of political disqualifications. And provided that
political equality is secured to the Jews, they can
safely let social equality work itself out in due
process of time by the natural links of con
tiguity and common work for national needs.
Meanwhile our examination of the Church —
that great institution which has caused, in the
past, the discrimination against Jews in Euro
pean nations that has had such disastrous re
sults — has shown that, in essentials, Church doc
trine and practice are largely derived from and
are identical with those of the Synagogue. In
the preceding chapter we have seen that the funda
mentals of European civilization are identical
for Jew and Gentile; in the present one it has
been shown that much of the details of that
civilization are likewise identical in the two
112

THE CHURCH AND THE JEWS
spiritual spheres. Even the most violent church
man must recognize the substantial identity of
the fundamental ideals of Church and Synagogue.
It will be shown in succeeding chapters that
much of the superstructure raised on these founda
tions was also the common work of Jew and
Gentile.

113

CHAPTER III
Jews Become Europeans
We have seen how, by adoption of the main
Jewish ideals by Christianity, the fundamental
principles upon which both Jews and Christians
were to guide their lives for nearly two thou
sand years became practically identical, though
with divergencies in details the importance of
which both sides tended to exaggerate. We
have now to study the Jewish superstructure
raised upon these principles on European soil
during the Middle Ages, so as to ascertain how
far the Jewish element in Europe became vitally
incorporated with the rest in the European
State system. There is much current mis
understanding on this point both among Jews
and others. The mediaeval Jews are regarded as
an entirely alien element in Europe — of alien
race (which is mainly true), of alien tongue
(which is not true; they were merely bilingual),
entirely outside the State organizations (which
114

JEWS BECOME EUROPEANS
is only partly true), and untouched by the
general European stream of culture. This last
is so far from being true that they both shared
in it and actually contributed to' it largely, con
sidering their numbers. It is true that Jews
held a special status in mediaeval Christendom
and Islam, but it is forgotten how many dif
ferent sections of society had an equally special
status. To understand the position of the Jews
in Europe, both in the Middle Ages and in con
temporary Eastern Europe, one must get a
clear idea of this status of the Jews about which
the learned seem to be still at sea.
The most usual view, among legal historians
like Scherer,1 or Maitland and Pollock,2 is that
the Jews were regarded as aliens in the different
countries in which they lived; and that this ex
plains their peculiar disabilities, for in the Middle
Ages aliens had no rights.3 But against this lies
the patent fact that the children of aliens have
all the rights of the land of their birth, so that
alienage is not a heritable quality, whereas
' Die Verhaeltnisse der Juden in den deutsch-oeslerreichischen
Laendern, Leipzig, 1901.
2 History of English Law, vol. i, p. 451-8.
"Heftier, Voelkerrecht, 8th edition, p. 108; quoting Wilda,
Strafrecht der Germanen, 672. 115

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
Judaism in mediaeval times obviously was. It
would be absurd, for example, to call Moses of
Oxford, who sold the site of Merton College
to Walter de Merton, an alien, since we could
trace his ancestry in England for at least six
generations back. Nor were they without rights,
as is contended in an ingenious essay by Mr.
Frank I. Schechter,1 since they had rights espe
cially conferred upon them by charters which we
can trace from the time of Henry I onward. I
am afraid I must equally withdraw my own ex
planation of the mediaeval Jewish status, which I
put forward in my Jews of Angevin Eng
land, 1893. I there traced the civil disabilities
of the mediaeval Jew to his enforced position as
usurer, whose estate always escheated to the king,
whether he was Jew or Gentile. Since the Jew
could only be a usurer, as we shall see, his prop
erty, would be, in this view, constructively the
king's, even while he was living. Against this
view Pollock and Maitland2 rightly urge that
there was an essential difference between Jewish
and Christian usury, inasmuch as the Jew could
' "The Rightlessness of Mediaeval English Jewry," Jewish
Quarterly Review, New Series, vol. iv, pp. 121-151.
*Loc. cit., i, 471. 116

JEWS BECOME EUROPEANS
sue for his usurious debts in the king's courts, and
the Christian could not.
Nor can one subscribe to Prof. Jenks' view
that the special relation of Jew to king or em
peror was simply due to the fact that the monarch
was the natural protector of all classes of society
who could find none other. As administrator of
the land regarded as the royal domain, he had
jurisdiction over widows, orphans, aliens, Jews,
lunatics, and later the printing press.1 Feudal
law was, at any rate in the beginning, the law of
the fiefs, and those who did not belong to the
fiefs had to have their own law or that of the
king. Hence the Canon law for priests, and the
Merchant law for merchants ; 2 and hence it would
seem the law of the Jewish Exchequer for Jews,
though Prof. Jenks does not say so. But here
again the existence of charters granted by kings
and emperors to Jews is sufficient to show that
the special relations between them were not due
to the casualties of the common law but to a
quasi-contractual compact between them, for
which, in many cases, we can find Jews paying
due consideration.
1 Jenks, loc. cit., p. 91.
2 Op. cit., p. 26. , 117

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
The key to the situation lies in the political
relations of Church and State from the time of
Constantine onward. The Church had from the
beginning, as we have seen, gone out of its way
to emphasize the differences between the two
creeds and to invent differences of practice (Sun
day against Sabbath; Easter instead of Passover;
Gospel lections instead of Haftarot, etc.). As
soon as it approached State recognition, it pro
ceeded further on the way to segregation of Jew
and Christian. Thus the Council of Elvira, in
306, forbade Christians to marry Jews or even to
eat with them; and the former barrier was em
phasized in the Theodosian code, in 339, on
penalty of death, it being declared a little later,
in 388, that such intermarriage was equivalent to
adultery. In the former year, 339, Jews were
forbidden to purchase Christian slaves, and con
version from Christianity to Judaism was early
forbidden (357) on pain of loss of property.
Jews were, a little later, excluded from all public
offices and dignities (418), and prevented from
building new synagogues (423). Thus there is
a distinct and deliberate attempt on the part of
the Church, as soon as it got into power, to segre
gate and degrade Jews. 118

JEWS BECOME EUROPEANS
But the new Christian emperors were em
perors as well as Christians, and felt obliged to
follow the tradition of Roman law about the
Jews, as well as their new ecclesiastical masters.
Now, in the law of imperial Rome, Judaism
was a "religio licita." And hence we find the
codes forbidding disturbance of Jewish religious
assemblies (393), and permitting the Jews to
excommunicate "false brothers" (392), and to
regulate their own congregations (398). They
were even exempted from being called to the
courts or for any public service on sabbaths and
festivals (409).
This anomalous position represented the am
biguous attitude of the Christian empire towards
them. Jews could not be regarded as heathens,
since they held a part of the truth, indeed that
part of the truth which "proved" Christianity.
Therefore their continued existence was desira
ble as a proof of the true faith. On the other
hand, by their obstinate refusal to accept the
full truth, they kept themselves outside the pale
and were thus infidels, though not heretics, since
they had never accepted Christianity and there
fore had not "chosen" their own creed, which
had come to them by birth. Now it was the
119

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
policy of the Catholic Church to contend that
heretics and infidels were "perpetui inimici."1
The mediaeval status of the Jew was thus a
compromise between the "religio licita" of the
Roman empire and the "perpetui inimici" of the
Catholic Church.
But what caused the rulers of the State to
adopt this stringent unity of faith among its
subjects demanded by the Catholic Church?
That is really the puzzle of mediaeval history,
not alone as regards Jews but with regard to
all heretics. How was it to the interest of the
ruling classes of the State that all their sub
jects should profess the same beliefs as to the
unseen world? One can understand the Church
laying stress upon this, since it gave her the con
trol over men's minds and fates. But why
should Theodosius, or Honorius, or Sisebut, or
Erwig demand uniformity of belief among their
subjects and consequently load their Jews with
disabilities? Partly, of course, because they were
believing and even at times fanatical church-
'In the well-known Calvin's (really Colvill) case, by which it
was decided that Scotchmen, born after the Union of 1603, were
not aliens to English law (7 Coke's Reports, p. 33*). Coke quotes
the maxim "All infidels are, in law, perpetui inimici." He also
refers to Y.B. 12 H. VIII, f. 4. 120

JEWS BECOME EUROPEANS
men, but also, it is probable, because they had
observed the bad results of diversity of creed
even in State affairs. The early emperors had
doubtless noticed how the conflict of pagans
and Christians had weakened the State. The
Catholic Visigoth kings, who begin the long line
of persecuting monarchs, had observed how the
existence of Arian monarchs, with Catholic sub
jects, had weakened and destroyed the Lom
bards and presented a perpetual source of weak
ness in Visigothic Spain. Whatever be the
cause, from the seventh century onwards, Jews
held the anomalous position of being regarded
as perpetual enemies, from the Church point
of view, yet holding a permitted religion, from
the point of view of the State.
The same attitude was adopted by Islam.
Muhammed himself had coquetted with the Jews
in the hope that they would adopt him as their
Messiah. But, on being repulsed, he made them
the first "Dhimmis," or subject yet protected
races. Yet Islam was in much the same posi
tion toward Judaism as Christianity itself, inas
much as it recognized its validity so far as it
went. When the Arabs spread into neighboring
lands possessing inhabitants with diverse creeds,
121

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
the principle was laid down that the "Ahl
al-Kitab," or peoples possessing Scriptures, should
be tolerated in Islamic lands, though subject to
certain legal and social disqualifications. These
applied to Christians and Sabaeans, as well as
to Jews; but as time went on the last-mentioned
became almost the sole examples of "the people
of the book." Of course, Jews could not in
termarry with true believers, or hold them as
slaves, and they had to wear a distinguishing
mark or badge known as Shakalah, a provision
which was afterwards adopted by Innocent III
at the Lateran Council of 121 5.
Thus both in Church and Mosque the Jews
were tolerated persons, though laboring under
disabilities, and this gave them a special func
tion to perform as intermediaries between the
two faiths in the early Middle Ages. They
could travel both in Christian and Muslim lands
without interference on account of their creed,
while in both spheres they would find brethren
in faith with whom they could communicate in
Hebrew and who yet spoke the vernacular. By
the middle of the ninth century we find an Ara
bic geographer, Ibn Khordadhbeh, in his Book
of Routes, referring to Jewish merchants,
122

JEWS BECOME EUROPEANS
called by him Radanites, as bringing goods and
slaves from Europe to. the Far East and back.
When sending an embassy to Harun al-Rashid'
Charlemagne sent a Jew named Isaac to ac
company the embassy, probably as interpreter.
So well understood was this role of commercial
intermediary by the Jew that in the early Ger
man capitularies the regular formula was "Jews
and other merchants." We shall see later on
how this commercial intermediacy of the Jews
influenced the slave, drug, and spice trades, which
were the chief things interchanged between East
and West in the early Middle Ages up to the
Crusades. The Crusades brought about a new turn in
the condition of the European Jews in two ways.
Being wars of religion, they aroused the re
ligious passions of Europe to the highest pitch,
and brought out popular antipathy to Jews, who
were equally enemies of Christ with the Saracens.
But, besides this, the need of ready cash for the
Crusaders themselves emphasized the position of
the Jews in the different countries as indirect tax-
gatherers of the king. Their use for this pur-

1 For details, see chapter vi. 123

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
pose had been seen by those "superb political
animals," as Prof. Jenks calls the Normans.1
William the Conqueror brought over Jews
from Rouen to England soon after the Con
quest, and we find them equally prominent in
the Two Sicilies in the twelfth century. The
Church policy towards "usury," as is well known,
had thrown into Jewish hands all capitalism,
and the Norman kings had the sense to see the
use that could be made of the Jewish capitalists,
as indirect tax-gatherers, to increase the royal
power. The Jews were thus utilized to break up the
Clan-State of feudalism, by the Norman and
other kings, when the strict tenure by military
service began to be commuted in the form of
money payment by scutages and the like. This
commutation could only be made in ready cash,
of which the Jews were the only persons who
could supply them to the chance comer. It is
clear, from Magna Charta and elsewhere, that
the kings, by this means, got a hold on the
baronage. The Jews, not being able to bear
'I desire to express my indebtedness to Prof. E. Jenks for the
insight given into mediaeval conditions by his Law and Politics
in the Middle Ages. 124

JEWS BECOME EUROPEANS
arms — another survival of their status in the
pagan empire — could not hold fiefs, and so had
to confine their activities to the towns, where
they often acted as intermediaries between the
kjngs and the municipalities in the triangular
quarrels among kings, nobles, and townfolk.
Something similar had occurred earlier in the
Carolingian empire where the Jews had come
under the special protection of the emperors, as
indeed did all merchants. In the early Middle
Ages it was inconceivable that anybody should
be in the country without being somebody's
"man." Hence in the Holy Roman empire Jews-
were regarded as "servi camerae," or, in other
words, they were only subject to the emperor's
chancery in matters of jurisdiction, and that meant
ultimately of taxation.
But it is entirely misleading to regard this
special and direct relation to the king and the
emperor as anything particularly degrading to
the mediaeval Jew. The barons were equally the
king's "men," as indeed their name directly im
plies. The Jews had, like the barons, the right
of free movement through the land, which at
once differentiated them from the serfs or
"adscripti glebae." This made them practically
125

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
free men, so far as any person could be free
in the hierarchical systems of feudalism.1 Even
the principle that the property of the Jew ulti
mately belonged to the king or the emperor was
no more than an extension of the principle of
"eminent domain," which applied equally to
other sections of the nation.2 When we read
of the many exactions extorted from the Jews,
it seems at first sight as if they were excep
tionally treated in this regard, but, to take the
case of England as an example, one finds in
Madox's History of the Exchequer exactly the
same class and amount of reliefs, aids, amercia
ments, fines, and so on, extorted alike from Jew
and Christian.
That the Jew held no such degraded position
in the early Middle Ages as is usually repre
sented is shown by the fact that he had his own
law to deal with cases in which Jews only were
concerned. We find this in Spain and Sicily,
1 The Jews recognized this themselves at the time. See Tosa-
fot, Baba Kamma, 58a: "The Jews may stay wherever they wish,
just like the knights."
2 See Maitland's translation of Giercke, Political Theories
of the Middle Ages, p. 79, and notes 270, 271, on the maxim
"Omnia principis esse intelliguntur," and on the doctrine of
"dominium soninens." 126

JEWS BECOME EUROPEANS
as well as in England. There was nothing in
congruous to mediaeval ideas in this. Everyone
belonged to a certain group, community or "uni-
versitas" (corporation .or fellowship) which was
collectively responsible for him, and this group
gave him his status. Each status had its own
set of laws. There were the Law Merchant,
the Canon Law, the Laws of the Forest and of
the Staple, Crowner's Quest Law, besides the
jurisdiction of the Manor and Municipal Courts.
Perhaps the most remarkable instance is given
by the court attached to the "universitas" or com
munity of foreign students at Paris, Bologna,
or Oxford, who had thus, as it were, exterri
toriality; there is still a survival of this in the
University Courts of to-day at Oxford and Cam
bridge. There was, therefore, nothing abnormal
in the Assize of Jewry or the Jewish Exchequer,
except as implying a special status for the
mediaeval Jew, which was no more degrading or
exceptional than that of the merchant, the cleric,
the student, or the forester.
But this special status of the Jew was com
mon throughout Western Europe owing, in the
first instance, to the common influence of the
Church, and in the second to the example of
127

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
the Norman chanceries. The most remarkable
thing about mediaeval Europe is the conformity
of attitude shown by the different nations which
helped to produce that common feeling which we
nowadays call, indifferently, Christianity or civili
zation. The chief element in this was, of course,
the Church ; but beside it was that tendency which
we know as chivalry, based on feudalism and
finding its military representative in the mounted
knight. No more striking example of the unity
of feeling, produced by these elements, can be
given than the spread of the Arthurian and Car-
lovingian romances, from Iceland to Portugal,
from England to Sicily.
Now among these unifying elements, which
help to give the common ground of civilization
for all Europe, west of the Oder, must be in
cluded the existence of Jews, with their special
yet common status, in all these countries. They
may have been small in numbers, but they loomed
large in the popular imagination owing to the
policy of the Church, expressed in St. Bernard's
words: "They are living symbols for us, rep
resenting the Lord's Passion. For this are they
dispersed to all lands, so that, while they pay the
just penalty of so great a crime, they may be
128

JEWS BECOME EUROPEANS
witnesses for our redemption." J In other words,
the Church regarded the Jews as ecclesiastical
helots. Jews were to be kept alive as living
proofs of the Passion, but at the same time they
were to be degraded in every possible way in
order to show the ill-effects of denying the
Passion. How late this attitude of the Church kept on
and how deeply it influenced men's minds may be
illustrated by a summary of the argument given
by J. J. Beck,2 who discusses whether Jews ought
to be suffered in a Christian republic and on what
conditions. The reasons he gives for tolerat
ing them is because God has done so up to the
present, because their dispersion was prophesied,
and because toleration is the right of every man,
and they are even men like Christians. Be
sides this, they prove the truth of the Old Testa
ment, and God's providence has preserved them;
while much inconvenience may result from ex
pelling them, as is shown by Spain; besides
which it is easy to check their wickedness and
usury, and one ought to love one's enemies, and
' Bouquet, Recueil, xv, 606.
2 See his elaborate treatise, Von Recht der Juden, Niiren-
berg, 1741. 129

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
we can check their blasphemies. But they ought
not to injure Christians or disturb them at their
devotions; should wear special clothing and not
build new synagogues or convert any Christians,
or prevent any of their brethren from becoming
Christians ; they should not receive converts or
speak disrespectfully of the religion of Christians
or insult their Lord and Savior.
But though there was something really devil
ish in the Church's deliberate scheme to keep
the Jews ever before the eyes of Christendom
and yet degrade them by all the disabilities they
could induce the secular powers to impose, it
would be unjust to regard this attitude as a
special instance of the Church's intolerance and
persecuting tendency. So far from this being
the case, the Church's attitude toward and
treatment of the Jews was, in a measure, a re
markable example of- toleration. If an ordi
nary Frenchman, or Spaniard, dared to express
doubts as to the Virgin birth, or as to the
Procession of the Holy Ghost, he was liable to
death by burning or torture; yet, by his side
might stand a Jew who resolutely and abso
lutely denied both dogmas without suffering
directly any corporal pains for the heinous
130

JEWS BECOME EUROPEANS
offence. The existence of these recognized de-
niers of the fundamentals of the Faith must have
kept alive, in the minds of all men, the possibili
ties of doubt. The very existence of the Jew
was, in a measure, an incitement to freedom of
thought, though in Church policy he was being
preserved in the midst of Christendom for quite
the opposite effect.
Yet, while the Jews thus contributed, in their
way, toward the growth of that common feeling,
which we nowadays know as European civiliza
tion, they helped also toward the growth of that
feeling of nationalism which ultimately broke up
the mediaeval community of feeling and caused
the Holy Roman empire to become a mere
shadow. For, by their direct relations to the
kings, they helped toward that consolidation of
royal power and centralization of all justice,
which was the necessary prelude to the making of
the State, in the modern sense of the word. In
all the chief towns the Jewries formed an ele
ment which enabled the kings and emperors to
exercise a leverage on the municipalities, while,
by their position as universal heirs to the estate
of each Jew, they were enabled to get control of
most of the nobles. This activity of the Jews,
131

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
in helping to crystallize the different nations
around their kings, began with the Crusades,
which tended to reduce all men toward the same
taxable level. But it did not last very long,
owing to the expensive character of this method
of taxation which led, sooner or later, to ex
pulsion of the Jews, their place in this regard
being taken by Italian merchants. By the time
of the Black Death (1349), this function of the
Jew, in helping to create the separate nationalities
of Europe, by contributing to the king's power,
had almost died away.
The Jews could not have had these effects,
either in unifying Christendom or nationalizing
the West European nations, if they had been en
tirely outside the national life, as is usually repre
sented. So far from this being the case, they
were, after the Crusades, throughout Europe a
distinct organ of the State. Their usury was used
by the kings as part of the national exchequer in
England, France, Spain, Italy, and Germany, and
thus the king became a "sleeping" partner in all
their transactions; so it is not too much to say
that, in every case, he was the arch-usurer of his
kingdom. That otherwise the Jews formed part of the
132

JEWS BECOME EUROPEANS
national life is shown by their complete adop
tion of the vernacular wherever they dwelt.1
By a curious coincidence some of the earliest
examples of French exist in the French glosses
transliterated into Hebrew, to be found in the
commentaries of Rashi (died 1104) and his
school, the Tosafists. If the English Jews also
spoke French, that was because they really be
longed to the upper classes of England, who
did the same up to the middle of the fourteenth
century. Perhaps the most touching examples
of this full adoption of the national languages
is shown by the history of Yiddish. When the
German Jews were expelled from the south
German towns in the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, they carried with them into Poland
the dialect used in the south German districts,
and retain this language up to the present day.
So, too, when the Spanish Jews had to leave
Spain, they carried with them their Spanish
language, which is used by them in the Levant

' Even in clothing there was no distinction in the early Middle
Ages, or otherwise there would have been no necessity for the
badge. In later times only Jews became conspicuous by their
dress, owing to the fact that they clung to the fashions of earlier
days. 133

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
under the title of Ladino up to the present day.1
Similarly the Russian Jews, when settling in
America, preserved their identity as inhabitants
of different Russian towns like Grodno, Wilna,
and the like. It is true that, in addition to these
tongues, many or even most Jews read and,
possibly in some cases, speak Hebrew, owing to
the excellent system of education which the needs
of their religion caused them to adopt. But, from
a linguistic point of view, they formed part of
the nations among whom they dwelt, as thor
oughly and consistently as at the present day.
The separation in language and deliberate segre
gation in Jewish quarters only came after the
Black Death, with the innumerable expulsions
which brought German-speaking Jews into Poland,
Spanish-speaking Jews into Turkey, and French-
speaking Jews into Germany or Italy.
How completely Europeanized Jews had be
come by the end of the first Christian millen
nium was strikingly shown by the Takkanah of
Rabbi Gershom of Mayence (about 1000 A.D.),
by which Jews agreed to adopt monogamy while
1 They even retained the different Spanish dialects, as was
shown by their keeping separate the congregations of Catalonia,
of Aragon, and of Castile, even at Constantinople, or Salonica.
134

JEWS BECOME EUROPEANS
dwelling in Christian lands. Owing to the Jew
ish principle that the. Law is perfect and perpet
ual, it could not be granted that the patriarchs
had done anything illegal in marrying more wives
than one; but the rabbis wisely recognized that
they would be outraging the feelings of their
neighbors if they continued this Oriental practice
in Europe, and voluntarily agreed, by the above-
mentioned enactment, to confine themselves to one
wife while living surrounded by Christians.1 In
so doing they were only following a general prin
ciple which has been summed up in the Jewish
legal maxim, "Dina de-Malkuta Dina" (the law
of the land is the law of the Jew), which pre
vented any wide divergence between Jewish and
European law, even when administered by Jews,
except with regard to their religious require
ments. Dr. A. A. Neuman gives an interesting
instance of this from the Responsa of Ibn Adret,
in which that authority declares that the king
of Aragon could legally, according to Jewish
1 Occasionally Jews got permission from the kings to marry
more than one wife (presumably when the first wife was sterile).
(See Jacobs's Spanish-Jewish History, Nos. 3, 148, 946, 1226,
1227.) It will be remembered that Luther gave permission for
the duke of Hesse to have two wives, for the same reason. For
the Papalist position, see A. L. Smith, Church and State, 72.
135

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
law, do something which a Jewish king in the
Holy Land would not be allowed to do under the
same jurisdiction.1
Thus, in the last resort, the Jews of the Mid
dle Ages were, in a measure, true nationals of
the different states where they had their dwelling-
place, even though they had a special status and
autonomy in matters concerning themselves. But
this did not make them so conspicuous in the
mediaeval State, since almost all men who had
similar occupations possessed their own distin
guishing status, and in most cases had their own
law courts to decide disputes among themselves.
The differentia was given by the Church policy,
which deliberately aimed at degrading the Jewish
status by special marks on clothing and by inter
dictions of all kinds against community of in
terest and community of intercourse between Jew
and Christian.
Yet, notwithstanding this, Jew and Christian
did share in the common life to a large extent,
even in sport, and certainly in commerce and,
above all, in the world of intellect. As we have
seen, Jews adopted the language and even the
' Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, No.
22, p. 65. 136

JEWS BECOME EUROPEANS
dress of the nations among whom they dwelt,
until they were expelled or obliged to wear the
badge. They constituted a common element in
Western Europe, which helped to give that sense
of community which is so striking a characteristic
of mediaeval times and is the foundation of the
common feeling of European civilization in the
present day. Yet, by their peculiar relation to
the kings and emperors, they also contributed to
that growth of nationalism which broke up the
consensus of the Holy Roman empire and made
modern Europe. But besides these effects on
European culture, the existence of a separate class
of Jews, with a special status in most of the
countries of Christendom and in all those of
Islam during the early Middle Ages, enabled them
to act as intermediaries between East and West,
between Christendom and Islam, both in the in
tellectual and in the material spheres, as will be
shown in the following chapters.

137

CHAPTER IV
Medieval Jews as Intellectual Inter
mediaries
We have seen that, owing to the peculiar
status, religious and legal, of Jews in the Holy
Roman empire and in Islam, they held a privi
leged position, in both spheres. In consequence
of this they formed suitable intermediaries be
tween Christian and Muslim lands where they
were both permitted to travel and could find
kinsmen or coreligionists wherever they did so.
As a consequence we soon find them monopoliz
ing international trade between East and West
under the name of Radanites, as described by
Ibn Khordadhbeh at the beginning of the ninth
century.1 They carried goods not only but
also ideas from East to West, for in the ninth
and tenth centuries the Orient was practically the
sole factory of thought. The early Caliphs, as
soon as they had consolidated their conquests,
1 See chapter vi. 138

JEWS AS INTELLECTUAL INTERMEDIARIES
sought to make accessible to their subjects the
wisdom of the ancient world, so far as still ex
tant in Syriac translations from the Greek, con*
centrating at first their attention upon Greek
astronomy and medicine, but also making ac
cessible the chief works of Aristotle as a guide to
systematizing their own thought. The Jews
who lived in Muslim countries soon adopted
from their Arab confreres this Greek science
and thought, and were later able, in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, to help transfer
it to the newly created schools and universities
of Europe, which thus owes to them a catalysing
influence, at a critical moment, in the develop
ment of European thought and culture.
It is difficult to appraise this intellectual in
fluence of Jews on mediaeval Europe at its true
value. The subject is still obscure; it has not
yet been worked out in all its details by modern
scholars. There is still no adequate account of
Arabic astronomy and medicine, or even philos
ophy, and this is not extraordinary, considering
there is a whole world of Arabic manuscripts
still to be explored. The mediaeval science of
Europe only attracts slight attention, owing to
its completely obsolete and useless character.
139

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
Only on the Jewish side have we anything like
an adequate account of their translating activities
and of their original contributions to astronomy
and mathematics. The great polyhistor, Moritz
Steinschneider, devoted seventy years of his
laborious life to the study of just this aspect of
Jewish culture, its intermediation in mediaeval
science, and was fortunately able to complete his
investigations in two of its chief aspects.1 Un
fortunately, Steinschneider disdained putting his
results in any shape suitable for popular compre
hension or cultural appreciation; and I have had
great difficulty in getting at the real value of
Jewish contributions from his drier-than-dust
annals. Where the forest is difficult to view on
account of the trees, one can only attempt to
locate the forest in its connection with the larger
world. Even when one has determined the exact con
tributions made by Jews to mediaeval science and
1 Die Hebraeischen Uebersetzungen des Mittelalters, Berlin,
1893. Die Mathematik bei den Juden, Berlin, 1905. Unfor
tunately, he never summed up his researches on Jewish medicine,
and only wrote a popular lecture on Jewish contributions to
folk-literature (Zur Volksliteratur der Juden, in Archiv filr Lit
er atur geschichte, ii, Leipzig, 1871, pp. 1-21), though the lattei'
sections of his Uebersetzungen deal sufficiently with this last
subject. 140

JEWS AS INTELLECTUAL INTERMEDIARIES
thought, either in translated or in original form,
the results may seem unimportant, owing to the
small intrinsic value of Arabic and mediaeval
science in general. Due to their addiction to
book learning, as opposed to experiment and ex
perience, the mediaevals added little that was
positive; it is probable that a single year nowa
days adds more to our knowledge of nature and
of man than the whole period between 800 and
1500, which we may class as mediaeval.1 But
slight as may have been the intrinsic value of
mediaeval contributions to science and thought,
the habit of thinking was kept alive by them,
and this was no slight contribution. But for the
Jews and the scholastics, Europe might have
fallen into a deadly monotony of orthodox con
servatism akin to that of China.
In attempting to appraise the Jewish share
in this catalysis of European thought, we have
to distinguish between their activities, on the
one hand, as translators or intermediaries be
tween Arabic science and Europe and, on the
' The sole exception seems to be in political science, where the
actual needs of the day led to experiment and induction. See
Maitland, Giercke, and Figgis, From Gerson to Grotius, Cam
bridge, 1907. Here the Jews contributed nothing till Bodin.
141

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
other, their direct and original contributions which
we cannot, of course, expect to be of intrinsically
greater value than those of other mediaevals.
It is in their intermediation as translators be
tween Islam and Christendom that we have to
find the chief valuable function of Jewish in
tellectual activity in the Middle Ages. And here
we have to distinguish, among the various Jew
ish translations enumerated by Steinschneider, be
tween what I would call "terminals" and "junc
tions." When a Jew translated from the Arabic
(or sometimes from the Latin) into Hebrew,
and no translation was made into any European
tongue, this corresponds to a railway terminal,
from which the train proceeds no further. But
if the translating process is continued further
into Latin, we may regard this instance as equiv
alent to a railway junction through which many
trains pass. It is obvious that, for the present
purpose, we need only confine our attention to
these translating "junctions," since it is only
in that case that Jewish activity was of an in
termediary kind. We shall see further on that
even what I have called "terminal translations"
have significance from the general standpoint of
this book. 142

JEWS AS INTELLECTUAL INTERMEDIARIES
It is not perhaps so difficult to sum up, in
broad outline, what mediaeval Europe owed in
tellectually to the Arabs. There is, first and
foremost, the Indian numerals, with the use of
the zero and the decimal system, which we still
call "Arabic figures" ; with this came Indian
geometry. Then most of the astronomical tables
used by astronomers, ship-masters, and map-
makers in mediaeval times were derived from
the Arabs. As we can tell from their names,
many drugs and condiments came from the
Saracens, and some of mediaeval medical prac
tice can be traced back to them. Even at the
present day a certain number of folk-tales, de
rived from India and still current among the
folk, can be traced directly through Arabia.
Along with these we may reckon the game of
chess, which, though Indian in origin and Per
sian by name, came into Europe with the Moors.
Besides these, mediaeval acquaintance with cer
tain of the Greek writers, notably Aristotle in
philosophy and Galen in medicine, was acquired
in Arabic forms, while the cycle of thought,
known as Averroism, had a remarkable, if re
stricted, influence on the progress of free thought
in Europe. Jews were, as we shall see, intimately
143

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
connected with every one of these movements
or contributions, and in every case it may be
doubted if they would have spread to Europe
without the intermediation of Jews by means, in
most cases, of translation.
The chief centers of this translating activity
of the Jews were Toledo and Naples, both out
posts of Christian Europe on the borders of
Muslim Spain and Sicily. The fanaticism of
the Almohades had driven Jews of Muslim lands,
like Abraham ibn Ezra, the Ibn Tibbon family,
across into Christian countries where they brought
to their coreligionists a knowledge of Arabic
science which they translated into Hebrew. The
need of translating into that language the works
of the great Jewish thinkers like Saadya, Bahya,
Judah ha-Levi, and Maimonides also led to much
translating activity from Arabic into Hebrew. As
an outcome of this, great Christian patrons of
learning, who were anxious to acquire the wis
dom of the Arabs, then the most powerful as
well as the most cultured people on earth, made
use of Jewish translators from the Arabic to help
in the transmission. Among these patrons may
be specially mentioned the archbishop Raymond
of Toledo in the twelfth century, Charles of
144

JEWS AS INTELLECTUAL INTERMEDIARIES
Anjou and the emperor Frederick II in the
thirteenth century, Alfonso X in the same cen
tury, and Robert of Anjou and Pedro III of
Aragon in the fourteenth century. In many cases
the translations thus ordered appeared under the
names of Christian translators, who made use of
the Jews merely as "understudies" or dragomen
who probably read out the translation from the
Arabic (or Hebrew) into the vernacular, Span
ish or Italian, which the Christian translator then
turned into Latin. Roger Bacon, in his Com
pendium Studii,1 describes the process in the
following terms : "But far greater errors happen
in translating philosophy. Wherefore, when a
many translations on all kinds of knowledge have
been given us by Gerard of Cremona, Michael
the Scot, Alfred the Englishman, Hermann the
German, and William the Fleming, you cannot
imagine how many blunders occur in their works.
(Besides, they did not even know Arabic.) In
the same way Michael Scot claimed the merit of
numerous translations. But it is certain that
Andrew a Jew laboured at them more than he
did . . . and so with the rest."
We have several instances of such collabora-
1 Ed. Brewer, p. 471. 145

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
tion in addition to those hinted at by Roger
Bacon. Jacob ben Makir helped Johannes de
Brixia to translate Al-Zarkali into Latin, 1263.
A certain Abraham assisted Ralph of Bruges
with the translation of a work on the Astrolabe,
Jacob Anatoli helped Michael Scot with his trans
lation of al-Farghani, and a certain Magister
Maynus, afterward baptized under the name of
John, helped John de Planis to translate Aver-
roes. A Jew named Jacob helped in Paravitius's
translation of one of Avenzoar's medical works.
When Plato of Tivoli dedicates one of his works
to the convert John of Seville, we can have little
doubt that he was indebted to him for help in
some of his translations, as we know he was
similarly indebted to Abraham bar Hiyya (known
to the Christian world as Savasorda). But quite
apart from this indirect help in the process of
transmission from Orient to Occident, we have
direct evidence of Jewish participation in all the
lines of research mentioned above as due to the
Arabs, and to that we may now return.
It is impossible to overestimate the importance
of the adoption by Europe of the Indian arith
metic with its decimal system and use of zero.
Without this modern mathematics would have
146

JEWS AS INTELLECTUAL INTERMEDIARIES
been impossible, and on mathematics the whole
superstructure of modern civilization is erected.1
Now the latest inquirers on the introduction of
Arabic figures (that is, Indian numerals) into
Europe come to the conclusion that the Jewish
Radanites, to whom we shall have to refer again,
"must necessarily have spread abroad a knowl
edge of all number systems used in recording
prices or in the computations of the market." 2
Their views are unexpectedly confirmed by a
passage in Abraham ibn Ezra, who, in speak
ing of the transmission of the Indian stories
known as Kalilah wa-Dimnah, to which we shall
refer later, mentions the Jew whom the Caliph
Es-Saffah (750-5) employed to translate the
book, who was sent by him to India and brought
back a Hindu named Kanka, who introduced
the Indian numerals. It is worth while quoting
Abraham ibn Ezra's exact words: "In olden
times there was neither science nor religion among
1 See an interesting development of this thesis in Cornhill
Magazine, 1905. It is obvious at once that engineering, quan
titative chemistry, and statistics depend directly upon mathe
matical progress.
2 Hindu-Arabic Numerals, by Prof. D. E. Smith and Dr.
L. C. Karpinski (Ginn & Co.), p. 101. See my review, Jewish
Quarterly Review, New Series, vol v, p. 123.
147

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
the sons of Ishmael . . . till the great king,
by name Es-Saffah (750-5), arose, who heard
that there were many sciences to be found in
India. . . . And there came men saying that
there was in India a very mighty book on the
secrets of government, in the form of a fable.
. . . And the name of the book was Kalilah and
Dimnah. . . . Thereupon he sent for a Jew
who knew both languages, and ordered him to
translate this book. . . . And when he saw that
the contents of the book were extraordinary —
as indeed they are — he desired to know the science
of the Indians, and he accordingly sent the Jew
to Arin, whence he brought back one who knew
the Indian numerals, and besides many astron
omical writings ( ?) ." 1
Not alone was a Jew thus the means of bring
ing the Indian numerals from India to Arabic
lands, but there ' can be no doubt that it was
through a Jew that the Indian arithmetic was in
troduced to European students of mathematics.
For it was John of Seville, known also as Aven
Deuth (that is, Ibn Daud), who translated
1 Steinschneider in Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen
Gesellschaft, vol. 24, pp. 353-354. See also Jacobs, Fables of
Bidpai, pp. xviii-xix. 148

JEWS AS INTELLECTUAL INTERMEDIARIES
Muhammed al-Khwarizmi's work on Practical
Indian Arithmetic into Latin, which first brought
this method to the notice of European students.
The method was named after the author's name,
"Algorism," which, in the last resort, means "the
method of Khiva."1 In a similar way Indian
geometry was introduced at the same time by
Plato of Tivoli, John of Seville's friend, who
translated into Latin from the Hebrew Abraham
bar Hiyya's work on the subject, which he en
titled "Liber Embadorum." Later on both
books, John's "Algorism" and Plato's "Liber
Embadorum," were used by Leonardo di Pisa
as the foundation for his text-books on Indian
arithmetic, geometry, and trigonometry, on which
the whole study of these subjects was based in the
Middle Ages. There could be no doubt of the
intermediation of the Jews in introducing this vital
change in the foundations of European mathe
matics. In astronomy, the chief form of applied
mathematics, Jews were equally prominent in
transferring the Arabic knowledge of the stars
and Greco-Arabic astronomy generally from
'Cantor, Gesch. d. Math. (Leipsig, 1880), i, 612, and other
references given by Steinschneider, Heb. Uebers., p. 982, Note 64.
149

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
Islam to Christendom. It is true that the trans
lation into Latin of the Almagest of Ptolemy
was made in 1117 by Gerard of Cremona with
out, so far as known, any assistance from a
Jew.1 But all the more important astronomical
tables of the Middle Ages were either trans
lated or compiled by the help of Jews, and it
was of course these tables which were the founda
tion of all practical applications of astronomy
in observatory work, map-making, and, above
all, navigation. In large part these tables were
original contributions, inasmuch as they implied
adaptation of the astronomical formulae to the
particular epoch for which they were written.
Strictly speaking, therefore, their enumeration
would come under the next section of our inquiry
dealing with original work. But, as much of the
work involved was also merely translation and
adaptation, we may perhaps sum up their his
tory in this place.
In the year 1070 a number of Jewish astron
omers helped in the compilation of the Toledo
1 He also' translated Euclid; so that Greek mathematics, both
pure (Euclid) and applied (Ptolemy), was introduced into
Europe without Jewish aid, a striking exception to the general
rule. Roger Bacon, however, implies that Gerard, like Michael
Scot, had a Jewish interpreter by his side. See supra, p. 145.
150

JEWS AS INTELLECTUAL INTERMEDIARIES
Tables, edited by Ibrahim al-Zarkali just before
Toledo fell into the hands of the Cid.1 When
Alfonso X of Castile desired to utilize these
tables and adapt them to the epoch of his time,
he obtained the services of Isaac ibn Sid (Don
Zag) and other Jewish astronomers, who com
piled the Alfonsine Tables and translated them
into Spanish. These, again, were re-adapted by
Isaac Israeli, also in Toledo, in 13 10, and his
tables were later utilized by Scaliger and Petavius.
Again, in Toledo, Joseph ibn Wakkar made new
tables in 1396, and a little before that time Pedro
III (IV) of Aragon had new tables made for
him by Jews. Emanuel ben Jacob, known as
Bonfils de Tarascon, compiled valuable tables
based upon those of al-Battani. These were later
quoted by Favaro, Pico de la Mirandola, and
Peiresc, having been translated into Latin in 1406
by John Luca, M.D. The most important of
these Jewish tables, however, were those com
posed by Abraham Zacuto, teacher of astronomy
at Salamanca, and astronomer royal to King
Emanuel of Portugal in 1492. These tables were
translated into Latin and Spanish by his pupil,
Joseph Vechino, and were used by Columbus in
: M. Steinschneider, Eludes sur Zarkali. Rome, 1888.
151

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
his epoch-making voyage to the New World.
His copy still exists, with his autograph notes,
at the Columbina at Seville.1 It may be added
that all these tables may be traced back to the
Indian ones referred to by Abraham ibn Ezra
in the passage given above, in which a Jew was
also intermediary and which were adapted by
a Jewish astronomer.
The works of al-Battani and al-Farghani, the
two chief Arabic writers on astronomy, were
translated into Latin from the Arabic by Johan
nes Hispalensis about 1140. Al-Kindi's treatise
on the Moon Stations was translated for Robert
of Anjou, at the beginning of the fourteenth cen
tury, by Kalonymos ben Kalonymos, known to his
Christian friends as Maestro Calo. Al-Heitham's
general work on astronomy was translated at the
request of Alfonso X by a Jew named Abraham
into Spanish and thence, probably by a Chris
tian, into Latin. A later Hebrew translation,
by Jacob ben Makir, was translated much later
by Abraham de Balmes for Cardinal Grimani,
in the middle of the sixteenth century. It must
be remembered that Jews had a special interest
'M. Kayserling, Christopher Columbus and the Discovery of
America, pp. 47-8, note. 152

JEWS AS INTELLECTUAL INTERMEDIARIES
in astronomical calculations owing to the di
vergence of their calendar, both from the Chris
tian and the Muhommedan one. It must be re
membered, too, that they took an equal interest
with those of the daughter religions in the
promises of astrology.
Turning to medicine, the other chief science
in which the Arabs helped to transmit the wis
dom of the Greeks into Europe, one cannot trace
any intermediation of Jews in this regard, the
works of Galen and Hippocrates being trans
lated from the Arabic by Constantinus Afer and
Gerard of Cremona. Curiously enough, the first
of these translators rendered accessible to Eu
rope the chief Jewish physician, Isaac Judaeus,
who wrote in Arabic. There is a Spanish trans
lation, probably by a Jew, in the Escurial, which
also contains another of the works of Mai
monides on Haemorrhoids. Maimonides's well-
known letter on Diet, written for the son of
Saladdin, was translated into Latin by the con
vert John of Capua. But in adapting the works
of the Arabic medical writers into Latin the Jews
were exceptionally active. The chief translations
in which Jews helped were the Continens of
Rhazes, translated by Moses Faradj at the re-
153

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
quest of Charles of Anjou in 1280, and the
Colliget of Averroes, translated by the Jew
Bonacosa at Padua, 1255. Jews also helped
in the translation of the Book of Simples, by
Albucasis, and the Rules of Health, by Aven-
zoar (Ibn Zuhr), 1281. Jewish activity in
mediaeval medicine was seemingly more practical
and original than intermediary, as we shall see
further on.
One of the most remarkable instances of Jew
ish intermediation is afforded by the strange
story of the transmission of a number of Indian
tales from east to west, known under the various
titles of "Fables of Bidpai" (or Pilpay), "Kalilah
wa-Dimnah," "Directorium humanae vitae," and
so on. I have myself edited the English version
of this, under the title "The Moral Philosophy
of Doni," which I have described as "The Eng
lish version of an Italian adaptation of a Spanish
translation of a Latin version of a Hebrew trans
lation of an Arabic adaptation of the Pehlevi
version of the Indian original." This has had an
extraordinary vogue. From the pedigree at
tached to my edition, I calculate that the tales
have been translated into thirty-eight languages,
in one hundred and twelve different versions which
154

JEWS AS INTELLECTUAL INTERMEDIARIES
have passed into about one hundred and eighty
editions. Some of the tales contained in it had
extraordinary popularity, and it has even been
calculated that one-tenth of the common fairy
tale store of Europe has been derived from this
source. Two of the links in the above-men
tioned chain are certainly due to Jews, the
Hebrew translation of Rabbi Joel' and the Latin
translation of John of Capua, while, if Abraham
ibn Ezra's statement, quoted above, is founded
on fact, the first stage of the travels of these
stories from India was also accompanied by a
Jew. According to al-Mas'udi, the game of
Chess was also introduced at the same time as
the tales, with which the date given by their
latest historian agrees.1 There are similar tales
known by the name of "The Book of Sindibad"
and "Barlaam and Josaphat." But though both
appeared in Hebrew, these only formed a side-
switch in the train of transmission, and they can
not be counted to the credit of Jewish intermedia
tion. Perhaps one may refer here to a similar
set of stories, written in Latin by the convert
Petrus Alfonsi about 1115, entitled "Disciplina
1 H. J. R. Murray, The History of Chess, Oxford, 1913, pp.
26-7, 209-10. 155

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
clericalis," most of which have been adapted in
French, as Fableaux, and utilized in the novel
literature of Boccaccio and his followers. But
these books are of extreme interest as showing
a common field for Jewish and Christian appre
ciation of the tale-telling instincts of man.
As regards Aristotle and his great commen
tator, Averroes, we must distinguish. It is usu
ally stated that Aristotle came to mediaeval Eu
rope mainly through Latin translations of Arabic
commentaries on Aristotle, and secondly that
these Arabic comments were translated into He
brew and from thence into Latin by Jews. Both
statements are true and are proved to the hilt in
Renan's earliest, most brilliant, and perhaps most
original piece of work, his Averroes et
I'Averroisme. But the Latin translations made
by Jews from the Hebrew are separated by three
hundred years from those made directly from the
Arabic, which were the only ones that could have
had direct influence on scholasticism. The earliest
translations of Averroes were made by Michael
Scot at the beginning of the thirteenth century,
before most of the Hebrew versions had been
made. It is possible that Roger Bacon's assertion
that he. was assisted by a Jew named Andrew ap-
156

JEWS AS INTELLECTUAL INTERMEDIARIES
plies to these translations, but in that case his
assistance must have been with regard to the
Arabic text. The Jewish translations from the
Hebrew into Latin were those of Elia del Medigo
for Pico de la Mirandola about 1480, and those
of Jacob Mantino and Abraham de Balmes be
fore 1520.1 The School of Padua, on which
Renan lays so much stress, had its chief activity
in the sixteenth century, and its influence, which
Renan probably overrates, was part of the gen
eral Renaissance movement in favor of free
thought. Averroism as represented by the He
brew versions are, as regards the Middle Ages,
"terminal," and have to be considered later with
relation to other internal movements of Jewish
intellectual life during that period.
This may serve as a transition to the second
branch of our subject, the direct contributions of
Jews to mediaeval civilization, and first with re
gard to medicine. The mere existence of fifty
Jewish medical authors in Arabic, enumerated by
Ibn Usaibi'a,2 does not prove anything more
'The sole exception to this statement seems to be the transla
tion of the Middle Commentary on the Meteorology made after
the Hebrew version of Kalonymos ben Kalonymos, 1316. Stein
schneider, Hebraische Uebersetzungen, p. 139.
2 The list is given, after Leclerc, by Isidore Loeb, in Magazin
fur die Wissenschaft des Judentums, vol. vii, pp. 101-110.
157

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
than direct influence on Arabic medicine, and thus
indirect on European. The chief Arabic Jewish
writers who seem to have had direct influence
on mediaeval European medicine were Isaac Is
raeli on Fever, and Moses Maimonides on Diet,
both of which works were early translated into
Latin and were often quoted as authoritative.
As is well known, the chief centers of medical
practice and science in the early Middle Ages
were at Salerno and Montpellier, and it is usually
asserted that Jews helped both in the founding
and development of these schools.1 Very little
evidence, however, can be adduced with regard
to Salerno. Among the early professors of the
ninth century were two named Joseph and Josan,
but they are not definitely stated to be Jews. A
favorite manual on anatomy at Salerno was that
of one Copho, stated to be a Jew, but as the
title of his treatise is Anatomia Porci, the at
tribution seems very doubtful. Nor is the evi
dence with regard to Montpellier of a much more
definite character, though we know that Abraham
1 F. H. Garrison, History of Medicine, p. 90, claims Aven-
zoar as a Jew, which would add greatly to the importance of
Arabic Jewish medicine. Steinschneider, however, denies him
to be a Jew (Hebrdische Uebersetzungen, p. 748).
158

JEWS AS INTELLECTUAL INTERMEDIARIES
Abigdor studied medicine at Montpellier in the
latter half of the fourteenth century.
Turning to astronomy, we have somewhat more
definite information about original contributions
of Jews, chiefly owing to recent discoveries about
Levi ben Gerson, the inventor of the Jacob's
Staff, described by him in his philosophical work
Wars of the Lord, finished about 1340, of
which no less than one hundred and thirty-six
chapters are devoted to astronomy. These were
immediately translated into Latin by orders of
Pope Clement VI in 1342, but when the original
Hebrew was published in 1560 that section was
omitted. This Jacob's Staff, so named after
Genesis 30, 37, served the purpose of a quadrant
to determine the Right Ascension of sun and
stars, introduced by Regiomontanus after reading
the Latin translation of Gersonides.1 It was also
used by Martin Behain, by Columbus, Vasco da
Gama, and Magellan, and its general use among
mariners was not given up till Hadley introduced
his quadrant in 1731. Another quadrant, intro
duced by a Jew, was that of Jacob ben Makir,
after whom it was called "Quadrans Judaicus,"
which was an improvement on the old quadrant
1 See A. Schueck, Der Jakobsstab, Munich, 1896.
159

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
of Robert the Englishman. We have already re
ferred to the large number of astronomical tables
executed by the Jews in the Middle Ages and
culminating in the Almanack Perpetuus of
Abraham Zacuto, used by Columbus in his epoch-
making voyages.
Levi ben Gerson died in 1344; he is also dis
tinguished in the history of science as the dis
coverer of the "Camera Obscura," which he de
scribed fully.1 Hitherto the earliest mention of
this ingenious instrument is given in the Vitruvius
of 152 1, though Leonardo da Vinci, who died
two years before, had known of it.2 Bonet de
Latis, physician to the Borgia Pope Alexander
VI, invented certain astronomical rings for ascer
taining planetary orbits. Thus the contributions
of Jews to mediaeval astronomy were of appre
ciable importance, and the art of navigation owes
them much.
So, too, in the cognate art of map-making,
there are two Jewish names, Mecia and Cres-
ques, the latter of considerable importance. At
Mallorca in the Balearic Islands, there lived one
1 See J. Carlebach, Levi ben Gerson als Mathematiker, Berlin,
1910. 2M. Curtze in Himmel und Erde, 1901, pp. 225-6.
160

JEWS AS INTELLECTUAL INTERMEDIARIES
Jaffuda Cresques known as "Cresques lo Juheu,"
who is usually credited with that monument of
cartography known as the Catalan Map, sent as
a present from the monarch of Aragon to his
brother of France, 138 1, and still extant in the
Bibliotheque Nationale. This marks an epoch
in European map-making, inasmuch as it added
the discoveries of Marco Polo to the conventional
map-drawing. When Prince Henry started his
nautical observatory at Sagres, and thus began
the modern epoch of geographical discovery, he
summoned Cresques to take the leadership in
1423. It has been suggested that Cresques must
have known Levi ben Gerson's work and intro
duced the use of the Jacob's Staff, but this is
more than doubtful. He certainly did not add
any information from Jewish travellers like Ben
jamin of Tudela and the others,1 who indeed had
no influence on geographical science, and are to
be included among the "terminals" (see infra,
p. 181).
Jews contributed not alone to the established
sciences of medicine, astronomy, and geography,
but also to the pseudo-sciences which had an equal
' Enumerated by Zunz, Gesammelte Schriften, Berlin, 1875, pp.
146, seg. 161

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
vogue in the Middle Ages. They were as earnest
believers in astrology (with the exception of
Maimonides) as their Christian contemporaries,
though it is difficult to point out any particular
astrological work which they either transmitted
to Europe or impressed upon it by original con
tributions. One of the earliest Arabic astrologers,
however, was the Jew Mashallah.1 So, too, in
alchemy there are traces in Hebrew manuscripts
of participation of Jews in this foster-father of
modern chemistry. Vincent of Beauvais quotes
as his chief master in alchemy the Jew Jacob
Aranicus.2 One of the instruments still used
among chemical apparatus is known as the "bain
marie," and is stated to have originated with one
Maria Judaea ; but it is extremely doubtful
whether such a lady ever existed, the probability
being that one of the early treatises on alchemy
was attributed to Miriam, the sister of Moses,3
just as other treatises were attributed to Solomon
and other biblical heroes. How far mediaeval
magic, white and black, was connected with the
1 Steinschneider, Arabische Literatur der Juden, pp. 15-23.
2 Spec, nat., vii, 107; Spec, doctr., xi, 107.
" Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenldndischen Gesellschafi,
vol. 58, pp. 300-309. 162

JEWS AS INTELLECTUAL INTERMEDIARIES .
Jews is again difficult to ascertain or appraise.
The influence of the Kabbalah can certainly be
traced in the amulets and abracadabras of the
mediaeval magicians, but from the nature of the
case the whole affiliation is difficult to trace, nor
would much credit come to Jews by their partici
pation in these blind strivings to control the un
known.

163

CHAPTER V
Influence of Jewish Thought in the
Middle Ages
The main influence, however, of mediaeval
Jews on the civilization of Christendom was
by means of their chief thinkers, Ibn Gabirol
and Maimonides. Their philosophical works
were translated into Latin, that of the former
by Dominic Gundisalvi1 at Toledo, with the aid
of the convert Johannes Hispalensis, about 1160,
under the title Fons Vita, and the latter, under
the title Dux Neutrorum, by an anonymous trans
lator, who used the Hebrew translation of Judah
al-Harizi instead of that of Moses ibn Tibbon.
Both thinkers are quoted by name and with re
spect by all the chief scholastics of the thirteenth,
the greatest of the centuries: William of
Auvergne, bishop of Paris (1228-49) ; Alexander
1 Called Domingo Gonzalez in the Spanish translation of the
Fons Vito?. 164

INFLUENCE OF JEWISH THOUGHT
of Hales (died 1 245 ); Albertus Magnus, count
of Bollstadt ( 1 193-1280) ; and Thomas Aquinas
(1225-70). The last three wrote encyclopedias
of theology, each entitled Summa, culminating in
the Summa Theologia of Aquinas, which has
ruled Catholic theology down to the present day,
having been declared authoritative by the penul
timate Pope Leo XIII. In so far as these Jewish
thinkers had an influence on Aquinas, either in
the form of adoption or opposition, they have
thus helped to shape the thought of Catholic
Europe and, indirectly, of Protestantism even
down to the present day.1
The reason why these Jewish thinkers, espe
cially Maimonides, had so great an effect upon
their Christian colleagues in the thirteenth cen
tury was because the relations between faith and
reason had passed approximately through the
same phases in Judaism and Christianity, and had

' In what follows I am much indebted to the two chief scholars
who have studied the relations of Jewish philosophy to scholas
ticism: M. Joel,Beitraege zur Geschichte der Philosophic, Bres-
lau, 1878 ; and J. Guttmann, Die Scholastik des dreizehnten Jahr-
hunderts in ihren Beziehungen zum Judenthum und zur jiidi-
schen Literatur, Breslau, 1902; and Das Verhdltniss des Thomas
von Aguina zum Jadenthum und zur judischen Literatur, Got-
tingen, 1891. 165

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
reached an eirenicon by Maimonides early enough
to afford the same solution to the great scholastics.
The earliest representatives of Jewish philosophy,
Saadya, Bahya, Abraham bar Hiyya, Solomon ibn
Gabirol, and Joseph ibn Zaddik, were mainly in
fluenced by the Neo-Platonism of the Kalam, cur
rent among the Arabic thinkers. But, with Abra
ham ibn Daud (1110-1180), the Aristotelianism,
which had been made predominant in Arabic
thought by Avicenna and Averroes, became pre
dominant also in Jewish thought and brought into
prominence the fundamental contradictions be
tween a philosophy founded, like that of Aristotle,
on pure reason and a faith based upon a written
scripture.1 The chief points of contradiction were
three : How can the God of philosophy — the
divine Substance of the universe — possess such
attributes as are implied in the Bible; how can
He create a world in time as implied in the first
chapters of Genesis; and how can His Provi
dence apply to the individual acts of man and
'Judah ha-Levi, who, in his al-Khazari (1140), recognized
this contradiction, is outside the general development of Jewish
thought, taking a position corresponding to that in Arabic phil
osophy of al-Ghazali, by whom indeed he was strongly influenced.
Both thinkers are opposed altogether to the application of phil
osophy to theology. 166

INFLUENCE OF JEWISH THOUGHT
things? In addition to these fundamental prob
lems there was the further subsidiary inquiry
as to how certain individuals, known as prophets,
could acquire knowledge as to the true answers
to these questions. Moses ben Maimon (Mai
monides, born at Cordova, 1135, died at Cairo,
1204) may be fairly said to have solved these
problems (from the mediaeval standpoint) in his
Arabic work entitled Dalalat al-Hairin ("Guide
of the Perplexed"), composed 1190, and soon
after translated into Hebrew by Moses ibn Tibbon
and also by Judah al-Harizi, under the title
Moreh Nebukim; the latter version was, as we
have seen, translated into Latin and made ac
cessible to the chief scholastics of the thirteenth
century, who utilized it to solve exactly the same
problems which had arisen in Christian thought
as in Judaism, and for the same reason — the
adoption of Aristotelianism.
With the earlier scholastics (like Anselm, Ber
nard, and John of Salisbury), or even with
Abaelard, these difficulties had not occurred be
cause, in the main, the basis of their thought, so
far as it was philosophical, was Platonic, or at
least Neo-Platonic. They had based themselves
mostly upon St. Augustine, who was imbued
167

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
with Platonism, while many of the treatises
which had come to them from the Arabs with
the name of Aristotle, like the Secretum Sec-
retorum, or the Liber de Causis, were really
Neo-Platonic works. Now Christianity had al
ready been largely influenced by Neo-Platonic
thought from the very beginning in the Gospel
of John, and was not, therefore, fundamentally
disturbed by further infusion of it.
But when Archbishop Raymond of Toledo,
in the middle of the twelfth century, caused the
physical and metaphysical works of Aristotle to
be made accessible in Latin translations, executed,
as we have seen, by Dominic Gundisalvi (pos
sibly assisted by his Jewish associate, Johannes
Hispalenis) and by Gerard of Cremona, the
same problems necessarily arose which had en
gaged the attention of Maimonides.1 It can
therefore be easily understood how eagerly his
aid was invoked by the great scholastics of the
thirteenth century, who were puzzled by the same
problems and had reached the same crisis in their
line of thought.
'The logical and rhetorical works had already been made
accessible in Latin by Boethius, and formed the basis of the
Quadrivium. See H. O. Taylor, The Mediceval Mind, chapter
34, Methods of Scholasticism. 168

INFLUENCE OF JEWISH THOUGHT
But before dealing in such detail as our space
permits with the manner in which the Christian
scholastics adopted the solution of the Jewish
theologian, a discussion would be in order of
the contrasting influence of Solomon ibn Gabirol
upon the same thinkers, which forms one of the
most; curious episodes in the history of thought.
He is quoted by all of the four greater scholas
tics of the thirteenth century mentioned above
under the name of Avicebron, Avicebrom, or
Avicebrol. None of them, however, knew that
he was a Jew; indeed, William of Auvergne
argues rather elaborately that, though an Arab,
he must have been a Christian, because his views
about the Will of God correspond so closely to
the Christian doctrine of the Word or Logos.1
When Jourdain published his researches upon the
Latin translations of Aristotle, he came across
these and similar references to Avicebron's work,
Fons Vita, and declared that the scholasticism of
the thirteenth century could not be properly under
stood without taking into account the influence of
this work.2 Almost immediately afterward Salomon
xDe Universo I, xxv, quoted by Guttmann, Scholastik, p. 26,
Note 2.
2 Recherches, second edition, 1843, p. 197, Note.
169

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
Munk discovered a Hebrew abridgment derived
from the original Arabic of the Fons Vita and at
tributed to Solomon ibn Gabirol, previously known
as a liturgical poet. The discovery made a great
sensation in its day; Ritter, the historian of
philosophy, who had previously denied to Jews
any originality in the history of thought, with
drew his allegation owing to the independence of
Ibn Gabirol and the influence of his novelties.
The chief of these was his assertion of a material
substratum to spiritual beings1 (intelligences have
matter as well as form), and consequently that
the essence of the Divine Nature was in will
rather than in thought.2 Now the former view,
that not alone corporeal but spiritual substances
have both matter and form, is one of the chief
points of difference between the Franciscan and
the Dominican scholastics, Alexander of Hales
and Duns Scotus agreeing with Avicebron (from
whom they derived the doctrine) as against Al
bertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas. So also
1 It will be remembered that Spinoza was expelled from the
Synagogue because even in youth he held that there was a ma
terial substratum to God.
2 It is curious to compare the insistence upon the Will to Live
and the Will to Power of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche in the
post-Kantian philosophy. 170

INFLUENCE OF JEWISH THOUGHT
with regard to the doctrine of the Divine Will,
William of Auvergne accepts it in its main fea
tures, speaking, in consequence, of Avicebron as
"unique and the most noble of all philosophers," x
whereas Albertus Magnus opposes Avicebron sys
tematically because radically opposed to Aristotel-
ianism. Dr. Joel accordingly contended that the
introduction of Avicebron's novel views was the
special ferment in the scholasticism of the thir
teenth century which determined the lines of its
development. This has been denied by Witt-
mann,2 and seemingly with justice; his influence
was more by way of evoking opposition than by
compelling imitation.
On the other hand, it is scarcely possible to
exaggerate the influence of Maimonides upon the
greater scholastics on some of the most vital
points of what may be termed their natural
theology. It was Alexander of Hales who first
introduced Aristotelianism, as represented by the
Arabic commentaries, especially of Avicenna, into
Christian theology, which he began to systematize
in the form of a Summa. Now the most strik-
1 De Trinitatce, xii.
2Wittmann, Die Stellung des heil. Thomas v. Aguin zu
Avencebrol, Miinster, 1900. 171

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
ing contrast between the Arabic Aristotle and the
Bible is with regard to the creatio exnihilo,
given in Genesis 1-2. This was a problem that
had already been dealt with most minutely by
Maimonides, who, in his Guide, discusses and re
futes the arguments in favor of the eternity of
the world. Now it is remarkable that Alex
ander of Hales, Albertus Magnus, and Thomas
Aquinas, all utilize this summary of Maimonides
and adopt his arguments, as they themselves
acknowledge. The fact is, Judaism and Christian
ity had both met with the same difficulty which
again confronts them to-day. They had to recon
cile the doctrine of Evolution with that of Crea
tion. The genius of Maimonides enabled both
Church and Synagogue to overcome or evade the
opposition and retain allegiance to the Scriptures
for another six hundred years.1
So, too, the introduction of Aristotelian physics
into both Jewish and Christian thought raised
the problems both of the divine attributes and
of divine Providence. The play of forces re
vealed by physics seemed so different from the
1 It is again a Jewish philosopher, Henri Bergson, who is
nowadays leading the forces against the agnostic tendencies of
evolution. 172

INFLUENCE OF JEWISH THOUGHT
personal Deity revealed by the Scriptures, that
the Jewish thinkers, culminating in Maimonides,
had to allow that we could only know the ex
istence, not the essence, of the Divine Being, and
with regard, to His attributes, could only de
termine these by negation, not affirmation. In
these views he is followed, one might almost say
slavishly, by the greater scholastics, Albertus
Magnus and Thomas Aquinas. The Divine
Cause revealed by the Aristotelian philosophy
was something other than the loving Father re
vealed in Scripture; and here again Maimonides,
by an ingenious distinction, saved the face of
Scripture by claiming individual Providence for
man alone, whereas in the super-lunary world
there was only a general supervision. In this
view again he was mostly followed by Albertus
and Thomas, though with modifications by the
latter. Christian thinkers were also influenced
by Maimonides's views on angels and prophecy,
perhaps the most ingenious of his speculations,
though, with regard to the former topic, both
Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas denied
that the angels are the intelligences emanating
from the Divine Nature.
Thus on some of the most fundamental prob-
173

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
lems of theology the great Christian doctors of
scholasticism were content to derive their chief
arguments from the chief Jewish thinker of the
Middle Ages. Indeed it might almost be con
cluded that the Church had added to her Doc
tor Angelicus and her Doctor Magnificus the
Doctor Perplexorum of the Synagogue who had
dealt so ably with some of the main problems
that confronted her. Of course, there were whole
fields of Christian theology outside the purview
of Maimonides, such as the Trinity, the Virgin
birth, Original Sin, and the like, but on all the
great problems of God's nature and providence,
and His creation, Christian scholasticism was
content to adopt the views of Moses ben
Maimon.1 Even greater influence, though in a more re
stricted sphere, was exercised by another move
ment in Jewish thought, which came to a head
in the thirteenth century and is known as the
1 For details, reference may be given to the works of Gutt-
mann mentioned above, or his summary account, Der Einfluss
der maimonidischen Philosophic auf das chrisiliche Abendland,
in the first volume of the work on Maimonides, published by
the Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Wissenschaft des Juden-
tums, Leipsig, 1908. The main points are also given in the
monograph by Louis-Germain Levy on Maimonides, in the series
Les Grands Philosophes, Paris, 1911, pp. 261-17.
174

INFLUENCE OF JEWISH THOUGHT
Kabbalah. This combined in itself all the mystic
elements of the cultures through which Judaism
had passed-* — the ecstasies of the Bible theoph-
anies, the Neo-Platonism of Alexandria, and the
Sufism of the Arabs; and in some of its later
developments it is not above the suspicion of
having been touched by the more mystical as
pects of Christianity. Its chief monument, the
Zohar, was probably put together in the thirteenth
century, but contains traces of much earlier strains
of mystical doctrine. It attracted the attention
of men like Raymond Lully, Pico de la Miran-
dola, and traces of it are even to be found in
Dante. But its chief effect upon European
thought was in the period of the Reformation
when it served to supply to Protestantism that
mystical element which had been the chief attrac
tion in the older forms of faith. A. Stoeckl, in
his voluminous History of Mediaeval Philosophy,
devoted a whole section to the analysis of Kab-
balistic Theosophy.1 In combination with a re
vival of Pythagoreanism it appealed to Reuchlin
'Vol. iii, 394-608. He repeats these affiliations in his later and
shorter Lehrbuch zur Gesch. d. Philosophie. It should be
added, however, that he is far from convincing as to the in
fluence of the Kabbalah on Luther. 175

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
and Cornelius Agrippa; in connection with the
new study of Nature it affected Paracelsus,
Cardan, Von Helmont, and Robert Fludd, as
well as, one may add, the rest of the Cambridge
Platonists; so far as Luther was philosophical,
he derived his philosophy from the Kabbalah,
with a touch of gnosticism and a coloring of
Manichaeism, and in this he was followed by
Melancthon. The great German mystics, like
Weigel and Jakob Boehme, were also kabbalistic
in general outline. Just as Catholicism had
sought to temper the divine mysteries by the
rationalism of Maimonides, so Protestantism, in
its turn, modified its rationalistic tendencies by a
resort to the mysticism of the Kabbalah.
Meanwhile, within the ranks of Judaism itself,
the lines of thought developed by Maimonides
were further expanded in a direction which pro
duced a third system of Jewish thought, which
had ultimately even greater effects upon European
speculation than either Maimonides or the Kab
balah. Levi ben Gerson, whom we have already
met with as the inventor of the Jacob's Staff and
the Camera Obscura, dared, in his Wars of the
Lord (called by antagonists Wars Against the
Lord), to contend for the eternity of the world,
176

INFLUENCE OF JEWISH THOUGHT
against which Maimonides had argued so
strenuously. He also held that only the in
tellectual side of men's natures lasted on beyond
their death, deriving this view probably from
Averroes, upon whose works he wrote com
mentaries. Against his views there came a pro
test by Hasdai Crescas, who, nevertheless, held
that extension was one of the attributes of the
Divine; he denied final causes, and contended for
a strict determinism. These views, with much
derived from the Kabbalah and even from Mai
monides, were cast into a Cartesian mould by
Baruch Spinoza, who sums up the whole line of
Jewish thought, into which he incorporated a
few hints from Bruno, Hobbes, and Descartes.1
His influence upon European speculation has
been simply enormous, even up to the present day.
Through personal intercourse with Leibniz in the
last year of his life,2 he gave the determining in
fluence to that thinker's view, which was destined
to dominate the whole of the eighteenth century
philosophy. After Kant, the chief epigonoi,
1 For a detailed account of Spinoza's indebtedness to his
Jewish predecessors I may perhaps refer to my article on him
in the Jewish Encyclopedia, xi, 517-18.
'See L. Stein, Leibnitz und Spinoza, Berlin, 1890; and com
pare B. Russell, Philosophy of Leibniz, Cambridge, 1900, p. 5.
177

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, were mainly oc
cupied in grafting the pantheism of Spinoza on
the epistemology of Kant; Hegel even declared
that to be a philosopher one must first be a
Spinozist. His influence was even as great among
the less formal thinkers, like Lessing, Goethe,
Schleiermacher, as well as among poets and
essayists, like Shelley, Byron, Coleridge, Auerbach,
Matthew Arnold, Froude, George Eliot, and
Renan. Spinoza's influence has even extended to the
fundamental principles of contemporary science,
which, by a happy divination, he anticipated in
many respects as regards the conservation of
energy, the importance of conation as the essence
of evolution, and the aspect of the universe as
a combination of configurations and motions.1
Accordingly, natural philosophers like Herbert
Spencer, Haeckel, and Ostwald have practically
adopted Spinoza as the basis of their thinking.
It is a curious coincidence that the main oppo
sition to this deterministic and pantheistic view
1 Even the infinity of attributes, one of the most startling
points in Spinoza's system, may be regarded as a premonition
of the recognition by modern mathematicians of the infinity of
non-Euclidean spaces. 178

INFLUENCE OF JEWISH THOUGHT
of the universe nowadays comes from the
"creative evolution" of another Jewish thinker,
Henri Bergson.
But quite apart from the direct influence on
European thought and thinkers of the three great
systems of Maimonides, the Kabbalah, and
Spinoza, the mere existence and sufferings of a
body of men, like the Jews, daring to differ from
the Christian consensus must have made a deep
impression upon the imagination of mediaeval
Europe. These men were risking death, and,
what was more, were choosing degraded and
segregated lives solely for the sake of what they
conceived to be the truth. Men like Roger
Bacon, Lully, Bruno, and Servetus must have
been supported, in their struggle with the Church,
by the consciousness that they were not risking
more than the Jewish thinkers with whom each
of them was, at some time in his life, acquainted.
In this sense the Jews, by their very existence,,
were a standing incitement to freedom of thought,
though within their own circles they were often
as intolerant as their Christian neighbors.
We have already seen that the Averroism of
the school of Padua, which brought the scep
ticism of the Renaissance to its height in the
179

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
denial of immortality by Pomponati, was mainly
due to the activity of Jewish translators into Latin
of the Hebrew versions of Averroes. This is not
the sole contribution of Jews to Renaissance
thought. The Humanists, like Poggio Brac-
ciolati, and Giannozzo Mannetti, his son Agnolo,
and Pico de la Mirandola, devoted almost as
much attention to Hebrew learning as to Greek,1
and we have already seen how the last-named
utilized the Kabbalah, which probably also had
its influence on Giordano Bruno. But the in
fluence of the Renaissance upon the Jews is even
more marked than their influence upon the
Renaissance. Giuda Romano even adopted
scholasticism, while his cousin Manoello, a friend
of Dante, wrote a kind of Divine Comedy in
Hebrew, besides bewailing Dante's death in an
Italian sonnet. Messer Leon, in his rhetoric,
Nofet Zufim, used Quintilian and Cicero as
models, and it is characteristic that this work, the
only one of a living author printed in the fifteenth
century, was of a distinctly humanistic character.
But perhaps the most characteristic product of
this Jewish Renaissance, as we may call it, was
the Dialoghi di Amore of Don Judah Abarbanel,
1 See Burckhardt, Civilization of the Renaissance, ii, pp. 197-9.
180

INFLUENCE OF JEWISH THOUGHT
known as Messer Leone Hebreo, which appeared
in Venice, 1535, and went through numerous
editions, and was translated into Latin, French,
and Spanish. What we call Platonic love was
really derived from this curious treatise of
Abarbanel, which is frequently quoted and re
ferred to by Burton in his Anatomy of Melan
choly. This influence of the Renaissance on the Jews
is far from isolated as an instance of the way in
which European movements affected European
Jews quite throughout the Middle Ages. This is
shown most conspicuously in their translating
activity, especially in what I have called above
their "terminal" translations, which were not used
to pass on knowledge to the Christian world and
went no further than the Hebrew. In Stein-
schneider's work on Jewish translations he has,
in each of the four sections (philosophy, mathe
matics, medicine, and miscellaneous) a chapter
devoted to the Christians whose works have been
translated into Hebrew, and in mathematics and
medicine these outnumber those translated from
the Arabic. Albertus Magnus, Duns Scotus,
Michael Scot, Raymond Lully, Thomas Aquinas,
among philosophers; Sacrobosco and Regiomon-
181

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
tanus, among mathematicians; Arnold di Villa-
nova, Constantinus Afer, Julius of Salerno,
Maurus of Salerno, Roger and Roland of Parma,
and Saladin of Salerno, in medicine ; besides many
others, even less familiar, were all rendered ac
cessible to the mediaeval Jews in Hebrew trans
lations. Even some of the Arthurian romances
and Marie de France's fables were adapted and
made current among the Jews; for example, the
romance of Sir Bevis of Hamton was current
among the German Jews under the title of
Bovobuch. In their more original works they
often showed European, as well as Arabic, in
fluences; if their poetry was mainly liturgical,
there was much of it of a secular nature, and oc
casionally they wrote in the vernaculars of their
native country; there is even a Jewish Min
nesinger, Siisskind von Trimberg, unknown to
Richard Wagner and Mr. Chamberlain. Through
the intimate relations of Hebrew and Arabic they
were fortunately able to make their grammatical
studies the beginnings of comparative philology.1
The very polemics and disputations which they
carried on with Muslims and Christians made it
'A. H. Sayce, Treatise on Comparative Philology.
182

INFLUENCE OF JEWISH THOUGHT
necessary for them to acquire a knowledge of the
rival religions, and it is recognized that the
sketches made of them in Judah ha-Levi's al-
Khazari are models of fairness and impartiality.
In short, there was a natural and human give-and-
take in the intellectual relations of European Jews
and Christians.
Of course it would be possible to exaggerate
both sides of these movements and claim, with
Lecky and Draper, that all independent thinking
and research in mediaeval Europe was due to the
impact of Arabic thought brought about by Jew
ish intermediation. Or, on the other hand, Jews
may be regarded, as by Mr. Chamberlain and
others, as merely encamped in Europe, like
the Turks, Without any intellectual communion
with the rest of their fellow-countrymen. The
latter position is simply gratuitously insolent and
is sufficiently refuted by the innumerable in
stances of Jewish influence upon European move
ments given in the present and the preceding
chapters. It is, perhaps, more necessary to
moderate the excessive claims that may be made
that mediaeval thought and science were domi
nated by Jewish influence. It has been cus
tomary, in this connection, to reckon in the whole
183

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
translating activity of mediaeval Jews, which cer
tainly produces a very impressive effect, but, by
making a careful distinction, as I have done, be
tween "terminals" and "junctions," we see that
the former can only be adduced to prove, not the
influence of Jews upon Europe, but rather the
influence of both Arabia and Europe upon the
Jews. We have, accordingly, seen that the main
"junctions," which Jews can claim as passing on
Arabic knowledge to the schools of Europe, were
through John of Seville in the twelfth century,
Andrew, Michael Scot's dragoman, in the
twelfth century, and the translators of Averroes
in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Elia del
Medigo, Jacob Mantino, and Abraham de Balmes.
The Averroism of the Middle Ages was neither
as important as Renan claimed, nor was it due
entirely to the Jews.
On the other hand, we have seen that the in
troduction of Indian arithmetic and geometry into
Europe was due to John of Seville and Abraham
bar Hiyya. It was even shown to be probable
that the Jew was the medium through which the
Indian numerals were first brought to the Arabic
world, along with Indian fables and Indian chess.
Practically all the astronomical tables which were
184

INFLUENCE OF JEWISH THOUGHT
used by astronomers, astrologers, map-makers,
and mariners (including Columbus in the last-
named) were made by Jews, who also contributed
some of the more important Portulani by which
the seamen steered. So, too, the chief instru
ments used for taking observations on board, the
Jacob's Staff and the new quadrant, were due to
Levi ben Gerson and Jacob ben Makir; to the
former we have been enabled to trace the first
description, if not the invention, of the Camera
Obscura. As regards medical theory, there is
little that can be directly traced to Jews except
through the translations of Isaac Israeli on
Fever and of Maimonides on Dietetics; their help
in founding the schools of Salerno and Mont
pellier still remains to be proven.
But if we have seen reason to moderate the
claims made for Jews as intermediaries between
Islam and Christendom in science and philos
ophy, our inquiries have rather raised than les
sened the debt which Christian theology owes
to independent Jewish thinkers like Ibn Gabirol,
Maimonides, the Masters of the Kabbalah, and
Spinoza. While it would be going too far to
state, with some Jewish inquirers, that Avicebron
(Ibn Gabirol) was the- ferment of the thirteenth
185

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
century scholasticism, his original thought had a
certain influence on the greater scholastics, and it
is scarcely possible to exaggerate the influence of
Maimonides on their views of Creation, Provi
dence, and Prophecy. He had had to deal with
the same problems as Alexander of Hales, Al
bertus Magnus, and Thomas Aquinas, earlier
than they, and it was to be expected that they
should adopt his solutions about points of natural
theology which were entirely common to the
two faiths. If Stoeckl, the historian of mediaeval
philosophy, is to be believed, the whole of
Reformation theology was permeated by kab-
balistic influences, and it is notorious that modern
thought is equally permeated by Spinozism, which,
in a measure, sums up the whole development of
Jewish metaphysics during the Middle Ages.
The above contributions constitute consider
able factors in the making of mediaeval Europe.
But it would be misleading to exaggerate their
extent. Owing to their careful segregation, there
were whole spheres of mediaeval life in which
Jews were prevented from participating. Even
in the pagan empire they had, by their own
choice, been exempted from bearing arms, and
thus in the Holy Roman empire they were out-
186

INFLUENCE OF JEWISH THOUGHT
side the whole system of feudalism and chivalry.
European art and music were entirely religious,
that is, Christian, and here again Jews were
excluded from taking any part, though there was
probably some influence of Synagogue cantilla-
tion on the Gregorian chants. Though they
spoke the vernaculars, they had little inducement
to write in these languages for purely literary
purposes, and it was obviously impossible for
them to share in the glories of the great ca
thedrals raised to the honor of the saints of the
Christian Church. Even in the sphere of thought
they had nothing to do with the cathedral schools
and university colleges that monopolized the
higher education of mediaeval Europe.
No, the Jews took their part in the European
culture of the Middle Ages, but that part was
restricted by their special relations to the Church-
State. In some directions, as in mathematics and
astronomy, in theoretical navigation, and natural
theology, and in the earlier phases of intermedia
tion between East and West, they did even more
than their fair share as compared with other
races and nations. It is doubtful, for example,
whether mediaeval England or Germany could
contribute such a list of mathematicians and as-
187

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
tronomers up to the year 1500 as is given in Miss
Goldberg's index to Steinschneider's Mathematik
bet den Juden, running to 252 names, though
mediaeval Englishmen were probably five times,
and mediaeval Germans ten times, as numerous
as the European Jews of the Middle Ages.1 If
they contributed nothing to art, architecture, and
literature, if they were outside the field of arms,
this was mainly due to their exclusion from any
sphere within the influence of the Church. Using
the vernaculars of their native countries, they
could not avoid being assimilated in the folk
ways of their fellow-countrymen, even with re
gard to their superstitions; but it must be con
fessed that they gave as good as they took, at
any rate in the intellectual sphere.
They were enabled to do these services to
Europe by their peculiar position in the
State systems of Islam and Christendom, which
enabled them to be an intermediary between
them. It was because they were intermediaries
in commerce that they were enabled to be inter-
1 On the other hand, Jews cannot claim as many thinkers of
the importance of Alcuin, John Scotus, Anselm, John of Salis
bury, Alexander of Hales, Roger Bacon, Duns Scotus, and
Occam ; here the qualitative superiority seems to be on the side
of the Englishman. 188

INFLUENCE OF JEWISH THOUGHT
mediaries in thought, and we have still to ascer
tain, in some detail, the economic role played by
the intermediary Jews in Europe, partly by their
control of the trade routes between East and
West, and partly by the position forced upon
them by the Church attitude toward capitalism,
stigmatized as "usury." This will form the sub
ject of our next chapter.

189

CHAPTER VI
Jews and Commerce
It is usually assumed that there is a natural
tendency in the Jewish character toward com
merce. This was certainly not the case in Bible
times. The Israelites, perched up on highlands,
far. from the two main caravan routes, from
Damascus to Egypt, had little occasion to engage
in traffic. Each household produced all the food,
clothing, timber, and tools it needed, and only
for a few luxuries did it have resort to "wander
ers," known invariably as foreigners — Canaanites,1
Midianites,2 and Ishmaelites.3 The mere fact
that there was no coined money used in Israel
until the time of the Maccabees would be alone
sufficient to prove how little trade was current
among the Israelites. How little popular it
was, even in the times of the Mishnah (first two
centuries, C.E.), is shown in the maxims, "Have
1 Job 40, 30; Proverbs 31, 24.
2 Genesis 37, 28.
"Genesis 37, 25. 190

JEWS AND COMMERCE
little business" ; 1 "The less trading, the more
Torah." 2 The ideal of the Israelite was to re
pose in the shade of his own fig-tree, but not to
have a large number of figs to trade with.
Josephus gives the reason: "We do not dwell
in a land by the sea and do not therefore in
dulge in commerce either by sea or otherwise." 3
It is to the dispersion and wanderings of the
Jews that we can trace the growth of a taste or
addiction to trading as a means of livelihood. It
is indeed extraordinary how widespread the Jew
ish communities had become by the end of the
first century.* They were the only body of men
in the Roman empire who could retain their
communion and identity, while so widely dis
persed, because of their religion, which had no
trace of local restriction, like all the other cults
of antiquity. A Jew could worship God in An-
tioch, Alexandria, or Rome, whereas an Athenian
would feel himself debarred from communion
1 Abot 4, 14.
'Ibid., 6, 6.
3 Contra Apionem, i, 12.
4The latest enumeration is that given by J. Juster, Les Juifs
dans I'Empire romain, i, pp. 180-209, mainly from recently dis
covered inscriptions. Less complete accounts in Schiirer and T.
Reinach s.<v. "Diaspora" in Jewish Encyclopedia, iv, 561-2.
191

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
with Athena unless he resided within an easy ac
cess of the Acropolis, or of a similar fane in one
of the Athenian colonies. Yet most Jews re
tained the practice of visiting the Temple, en
joined by the Law, and this would lead to just
those wandering tendencies which, in biblical
times, they had associated with the alien mer
chant. Their concentration, too, when sold as
slaves, in the imperial towns would tend to di
vorce them, for the most part, from the pastoral
and agricultural life to which they had hitherto
been accustomed, and we accordingly find them
in the Roman empire also artisans and small
traders as well as farmers and colonists.
Except, however, in Egypt, where they are
found as important merchants in Alexandria, al
most from the foundation of the city, there is no
evidence of any exclusive or predominant addic
tion to commerce on the part of Jews till the rise
of Islam in the seventh century. Still less is there
any evidence before that time of a tendency
toward general trading for speculative purposes;
previously we find them restricting their commer
cial activity to one particular line of goods. The
earliest instance of such general trading I find in
connection with one of the seven wonders of the
192

JEWS AND COMMERCE
world.1 When the Colossus of Rhodes fell in
653 it was a Jewish merchant of Emessa who
purchased the debris and carried it off on nine
hundred camels.2
Though in the early days of Islam the motive
for conquest appears to have been, according to
modern research, rather tribute than conversion,
as soon as the various Emirates were organized,
the greatest pressure was brought to bear upon
the non-faithful to induce them to accept Islam.
It is true that Christians (and "Sabaeans"), as
well as Jews, as "People with Scriptures," were
also permitted to reside among Muslim peoples,
though with certain disabilities. But Jews had
been used to similar restrictions previously,
whereas Christians found it hard to accept the
yoke of the Muslim. Any movement backward
and forward of Christians from the Muslim
states would naturally be regarded with suspicion
when there was practically a perpetual state of
war between the countries of the Crescent and
the Cross. Besides, the Christians of the East
were Nestorians, Jacobites, or Orthodox, and re
garded as heretics by those of the West. In
1 See J. Juster, op. cit. ii, 294-309.
2 Paulus Diaconus, 656. 193

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
Christian lands the peaceful presence of a Mu-
hammedan was scarcely conceivable till the tide
of Spanish conquest brought the Moriscos under
Christian domination. Accordingly, the Jew was
the only person who could pass freely from the
Muslim to the Christian sphere of influence.
Thus in less than a couple of centuries after the
Hegira we find him practically monopolizing the
trade between the two spheres.
In 847 the Postmaster-General of the Caliphate
of Bagdad, named Ibn Khordadhbeh, wrote, in his
Book of Ways,1 a full description of the routes
taken by such Jewish intermediaries; his account,
as we shall see, gives the key to the whole eco
nomic history of the Jews in the Middle Ages,,
and therefore deserves to be given here in its en
tirety.2 "ROUTES OF THE JEWISH MERCHANTS CALLED
RADANITES
These merchants speak Arabic, Persian, Ro
man (Greek), the language of the Franks, An-
dalusians, and Slavs. They journey from west
' De Goeje's edition in Bibl. Geogr. Arab., vi, 114.
2 Prof. I. Friedlaender has been good enough to check my
translation and supplement my information in numerous ways.
194

JEWS AND COMMERCE
to east, from east to west, partly on land, partly
by sea. They transport from the west eunuchs,
female and male slaves, silk, castor, marten and
other furs, and swords. They take ship in the
land of the Franks, on the Western Sea, and
steer for Farama (Pelusium). There they load
their goods on the backs of camels and go by
land to Kolzum (Suez) in five days' journey
over a distance of twenty-five parasangs. They
embark in the East Sea (Red Sea), and sail
from Kolzum to El-Jar (port of Medina) and
Jeddah (port of Mecca) ; then they go to Sind,
India, and China. On their return they carry
back musk, aloes, camphor, cinnamon, and other
products of the Eastern countries to Kolzum,
and bring them to Farama, where they again
embark on the Western Sea. Some make sail
for Constantinople to sell their goods to the
Romans; others go to the palace of the king of
the Franks to place their goods.
Sometimes these Jew merchants prefer to
carry their goods from the land of the Franks
in the Western Sea, making for Antioch (at the
mouth of the Orontes) ; thence they go by land
to Al-Jabia (?), where they arrive after three
days' march. There they embark on the Eu-
195

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
phrates for Bagdad, and then sail down the
Tigris to al-Obolla. From al-Obolla they sail for
Oman, Sind, Hind, and China. All this is con
nected one with another.
These different journeys can also be made by
land. The merchants that start from Spain or
France go to Sous al-Akza (Morocco), and then
to Tangiers, whence they march to Kairuwan and
the capital of Egypt. Thence they go to al-
Ramla, visit Damascus, al-Kufa, Bagdad, and
Basrah, cross Ahwaz, Fars, Kirman, Sind, Hind,
and arrive at China. Sometimes they likewise
take the route behind Rome, and, passing through
the country of the Slavs, arrive at Khamlij, the
capital of the Khazars. They embark on the
Jorjan Sea, arrive at Balkh, betake themselves
from there across the Oxus, and continue their
journey toward the Yourts of the Toghozghor,
and from there to China."
It will be observed that these Jewish merchants
are called Radanites 1 ; and one of the languages
with which they are credited is Persian, so that it
would seem that their headquarters were in
Persia. It has accordingly been determined that
' From Persian rah dan, knowing the way.
196

JEWS AND COMMERCE
their headquarters were in the town of Rhaga,1
near Teheran (the Rhages of Tobit's birthplace),
which was in the ninth century the commercial me
tropolis of Persia, from which caravans went to
Armenia, Khorassan and Khazaria.2 At the latter
place they would connect with the Jewish mer
chants who, according to Ibrahim ibn Ya'kub.3
carried wares from Byzantium to Prague and
there exchanged them for fur, metals, and slaves.
It will be observed that all the routes of
these "Radanites" ended in China, and this
is confirmed by the fact that the ritual of the
Chinese Jews shows clear marks of Persian in
fluence. We know that they suffered in the sack
of Quinsay, 878.* A little later Benjamin of
Tudela refers to Jews in China, and there
are still traces of them at Kaifung-fu, and
earlier they were to be found at Kanfu and Hang-
chau. They appear to have arrived there very
early, perhaps in the first Christian century, re-
1 When destroyed by Ghinkhiz Khan in the thirteenth century,
it claimed half a million inhabitants (Hammer, Gold. Horde,
77). Ibn Fakih (De Goeje, loc. cit., v, 270) places his account
of the Radanites in connection with al-Ray.
2Ritter, Asien, vi, i, 595.
3 Quoted by G. Jacob, Handelsartikel der Araber, p. 9.
4 Beazley, Dawn. 197

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
taining certain ceremonials (chair and veil of
Moses), which have disappeared among Jews but
are referred to in the New Testament. We ac
cordingly, in nearly contemporary accounts, find
them scattered on these main routes, from Arabia
to China, at Bokhara, Khotan, and Samrakand,
at Kis and at Cranganore, at Quilon and
Zayton.1 The character of the goods the Radanites
transported from East to West also deserves
attention. The drugs, perfumes, and condi
ments they brought to Europe could not be ob
tained there, though the last-named were abso
lutely essential to give some taste to the salt
meats of winter and the salt fish of Lent. The
musk and other perfumes were equally neces
sary to overcome the stuffy atmosphere and un
sanitary habits of the mediaeval castles. It is
perhaps worth while interpolating here an ex
planation why the Jewish Radanites, who
seemed so important in the ninth century, left so
little trace of their influence on international com
merce in later times. Almost immediately after
Ibn Khordadhbeh wrote his account there were
'The date of the brass "Sasanarn" giving them feudal rights
is 750. 198

JEWS AND COMMERCE
riots in China (878 CE.) against foreign mer
chants, which would for a time put an end to
the Radanite commerce. In the next century
most of the Slav lands where these Jewish mer
chants obtained their slaves were Christianized
and thus largely excluded from the slave trade,
while the same century saw the fall of Khazaria
through the Varangians, and the Radanite trade,
through the close connection of Rhaga with the
Caspian Sea, evidently depended largely upon
the favor of the Jewish kings of Khazaria.
Toward the end of the tenth century again the
Sammanides, who ruled the district around Khiva,
the gateway to Chinese trade, fell before the
Tartars, who formed henceforth a barrier against
Western traders. Finally, the tenth century saw
the rise of Venice, which took the place of the
Radanites in the Mediterranean trade. Through
these means the Radanites lost their monopoly of
international trade, though in the meantime they
had amassed that wealth in gold which enabled
them to become the bankers of Europe when
Europe needed money.
In exchange for these, these Jewish merchants
brought chiefly slaves from the Frank and the
Slav lands, and even before the rise of Islam
199

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
Jews had become connected with this wretched
trade, as we can see from Pope Gregory and
Gregory of Tours. The Church vigorously pro
tested against this, but not from humanitarian
reasons, since Christians were allowed to hold
slaves, but for fear that Christian slaves should
be converted to Judaism, or even the pagan slaves
should thus be added to the Jewish forces. The
object is plainly stated in Justinian's Novella,
xxxvii, which declares that not alone Jews but
Arians, Donatists, and pagans should not be al
lowed to hold Christian slaves. Nevertheless, the
rulers of Christian states found it impossible to
carry out the Church's wishes in this regard, and
up to the tenth century Jews were the chief slave-
dealers of Europe and were thus indirectly the
cause of introducing Christianity into England,
according to the well-known anecdote. In the
tenth century their place in the slave trade was
taken by Amalfitani and Venetians. The latter
would, during the course of this century, tend to
exclude more and more completely Jews from the
Oriental trade. In 964 they prohibited Venetian
vessels from carrying Jewish passengers to Byzan
tium; in 992 they extended the prohibition to
Jewish goods. 200

JEWS AND COMMERCE
It would be interesting in this connection to
determine the amount of Jewish intermediation
with regard to the influence of Arabia in pro
ducing what we term personal refinement.
Mr. Houston Chamberlain and thinkers of his
school may be distressed to learn that what we
know as refinement, that is, careful personal
choice in the material surroundings of our lives,
can be traced not to the Teutonic Goths and
Vandals but to the Semitic Saracens. Before the
twelfth century, the homes, even of the higher
classes in Europe, were nearly as bare and rude
as those of savages; their food was of the most
primitive kind, without variety, and consisting in
winter mainly of salted meat, owing to the im
possibility of keeping fodder for any but the sires
and dams. Almost all the luxuries that came in
about that time were from the East, as can be
seen even at the present day by the derivation of
their names. In material for clothes they thus
obtained cotton, silk, velvet, satin (from Zayton),
damask, cashmere, camlet, muslin (from Mosul),
chintz, moire, taffeta, gingham, chiffon, serge,
craimoisy, mohair; and in articles of dress, sash,
shawl, chemise, tiara, mask, and turban; in house
decoration we have carpets, tapestry, mattress,
201

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
sofa, divan, alcove, baldaquin (from Badgad),
and lacquer work, besides carafe, cup (French,
Tasse), jar, candle (French, bougie), and valise;
among table fruits we owe to the Arabs mul
berries, pistachios, figs, citrons, watermelons, apri
cots, damsons, oranges, peaches, lemons, and
limes ; among vegetables, the artichoke, asparagus,
spinach, and eschalet (from Askalon), as well as
rice; among flowers, the lilac, rose, jasmine, and
tulip. Some of the more domestic musical instru
ments, like the lute, the tambour, tambourine, and
rebeck, come from the same source; of precious
stones, the ruby, turquoise, amber, jasper, jade,
and lapislazuli; while all spices, pomades, and
cosmetics, and many dyes, including indigo (from
India), are Eastern in origin. In medicine, the
Arabs introduced syrups and julep, nitre and soda,
senna and camphor, alum and borax, tamarinds
and laudanum, and mercury as a drug. Many of
these objects were doubtless introduced after the
Crusades, but some of them can be shown to have
been used in Europe before the twelfth century,
and in these cases their introduction was probably
due to the Radanites. I have drawn out a list of
some thousand objects whose names, in the various
202

JEWS AND COMMERCE
European languages, can be derived from Oriental
tongues.1 Out of these one may fairly attribute to the
influence of the Radanites the introduction of ob
jects which are mentioned before the eleventh cen
tury in writers like al-Mas'udi, al-Kindi, Istakhri,
Avicenna, Isaac Israeli, or Constantinus Afer.
Again, words derived from the Persian through
the Arabic or the Greek are likely to be early,
since, later on, the loans were in the opposite
direction. Judging by these criteria, Europe owes to the
Jewish Radanites the introduction of oranges and
apricots, sugar and rice, Jargonelle pears, and
Gueldre roses, senna and borax, bdellium and asa-
fcetida, sandal-wood and aloes, cinnamon and ga-
lingale, mace and camphor, candy and julep,
cubebs and tamarinds, slippers and tambours,
mattress, sofa, and calabash, musk and jujube,
jasmine and lilac. There is also evidence that
some of the more important items of foreign
' For English I have used Skeat ; for French, Devic's supple
ment to Littre, and Lammens, Remargues sur les Mots Francois,
Beyrout, 1890; for Spanish and Portuguese, Dozy and Engel-
mann; for Dutch, Dozy, Oosterlingen, Leyden, 1867; for Anglo-
Indian, Yule's Glossary; and for Elizabethan commerce, Bar
rett's list in Hakluyt, ii, 127. 203

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
trade came in with the Radanites, as was perhaps
natural. Thus the word "douane," for custom
house, "tariff," "bazaar," "bale," "fondac," or
factory, and "baggage," all occur early, as well
as "barge," "barque," and "sloop" (Lammens).
There is also probability that the royal breed of
horses in France known as limousin, introduced
in the ninth century, was due to these Jewish
merchants, who exchanged French slaves in Spain
for Arab (really Barbary) horses, with bay color,
small heads, white stockings, and curved tails.1
On the debit side, however, there is probably to
be found the introduction of opium into China
from India, with its Arabic name "A-fu-yung,"
at the beginning of the ninth century.2
These wandering Jewish merchants, who
brought Eastern luxuries into Europe and took
back furs, young slaves, and non-precious metals
to Saracen countries, would mainly conduct their
business for cash. Most of the ordinary transac
tions of the time were carried out in kind or, in
other words, by barter. Now money was in those
' See Ridgeway, Origin of the Thoroughbred Horse, and
Pigeonneau, Histoire du Commerce. The croup of a horse is,
according to Lammens, of Arabic origin, and so is "to caracole."
2 Yule, s.v. 204

JEWS AND COMMERCE
days only to be found in the towns, chiefly in the
market towns, and accordingly it is only in these
that Jews were to be found in the Middle Ages.
The manors were a compromise between the Mili
tary and the Clan State, in neither of which the
Jew had a place, and therefore he could neither
do military service for a fief nor hold a farm un
der a "lord." Thus the whole constitution of
mediaeval Christendom forced the Jews into the
towns, and prepared them for the function of
helping to transform the economics of Europe
from a barter to a money system.
This transition came in Western Europe mainly
in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. It spread
from the king as head of the Military State down
wards; he found it more efficient to keep an army
of mercenaries under his continual control than
to depend upon the often unwilling service of his
vassals. Hence the increasing practice of com
muting the duty of military service for a fixed
sum (named "scutage" in England), and this
later on led to general taxation not alone of vas
sals but of all persons living in the territory un
der the control of the king.1 The same practice
'As in the Saladdin tithe in England; see Jenks, Law and
Politics, p. 95. 205

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
was soon followed by abbeys and monasteries who
desired to build, and by the superior nobles who
wished to have a force at command, or desired
to build castles, or to go on crusade. For all
these purposes, warfare, taxation, building, or
crusading, actual cash was much more efficient
than aids in kind or service. Hence the twelfth
century sees the rise, in Western Europe, of a
money-economy instead of a barter-economy.
But where were kings, nobles, and clergy to
get any large sums of coin? Those who pos
sessed coin would not lend it in most cases without
some compensation for risk and loss of use, which
we nowadays call interest or profit. But the
Church had definitely set its face against all tak
ing of interest, regarding it as unjust to sell some
thing which doesn't exist (Thomas Aquinas).1
Usury, as all taking of interest was called, was
1 T. Reinach elaborately argues, in Revue des itudes Juives,
vi, p. 141, that this is due to the Vulgate mistranslation of Luke 6,
14 ; but it is simpler to regard it as due to the direct prohibition of
Exodus 22, 24. See M. Hoffmann, Geldhandel der deutschen
Juden, Leipzig, 1910, to which I am much indebted for what fol
lows. It is just possible that the stringency of Church doctrine
was influenced, as in the case of the badge, by Muslim views.
See E. Cohn, Der Wucher (Riba) in Quotan, Chadith und Figh,
Heidelberg, 1903 ; B. Fekar, L'usure en droit musulman, Lyons,
1908. 206

JEWS AND COMMERCE
regarded as "mercatura illicita," and Church
council after Church council thundered against its
practice by Christians who were ipso facto ren
dered excommunicate. Lay usurers were threat
ened with infamy and put on the same level as
murderers and adulterers, being excluded from
religious burial. Churchmen who indulged in the
practice were to be deprived of their benefices.
Strangely enough, it was allowed to take usury
from heathens or Jews, as being outside the Chris
tian communion and therefore "perpetual ene
mies" ("Ubi jus belli, ibi jus usurae").
The Church was thinking more of the condi
tions of an agricultural community in which loans
are more precarious and usury more dangerous
than in other spheres of economics.1 But for any
kind of industrial progress this restriction of bank
ing facilities was a great check on economic
progress. In particular, building operations,
which were the chief form of large transactions
(as well as of art) in the Middle Ages, could
hardly be undertaken without unusual expendi-
'This is brought out clearly by the Catholic theologian Funk
in his Zins und Wucher. See W. J. Ashley, Introduction to
English Economic History and Theory, Book I, chapter vi, who
is inclined to defend the Church prohibition of usury for mediae
val conditions. 207

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
ture of money, which scarcely any private persons
would be able to accumulate.
Here came in the function of the Jew in me
diaeval economics, who was not affected by the
Church prohibitions and was equally unaffected by
any prohibition of rabbinic law against lending to
Gentiles, though the biblical command not to lend
to brother Jews was rigidly adhered to. Nor
could the Church prevent the practice of Jewish
usury, since Jews were outside of the sphere of
the Canon law. Hence we find, from the twelfth
century onwards, Jews as the recognized money
lenders, • to whom all the upper classes of society
resorted whenever they wished to build, or travel,
or fight; the lower classes still, for the most part,
paid for their living in service or kind, and ex
isted on a barter-economy. To give just a few
examples from England, nine of the Cistercine
monasteries and the abbey of St. Albans were
all built by monies advanced by Aaron of Lin
coln, the great Jewish financier of the twelfth
century. The interest granted for such loans was indeed
high and might fairly be termed usurious. When
fixed by law in Germany and England, it was
rarely below 43% per cent when the sole secur-
208

JEWS AND COMMERCE
ity was the debtor's word or bond. But it must
be remembered that Jews in particular under
went great risks, as they were often repaid in
bad or clipped money, and had to bribe or pay
law costs to recover their money, while, if the
debtor died, his heirs might not recognize the
debt, or his overlord might seize his whole prop
erty. Above all, the Jew was continuously subject
to exactions from the kings and emperors, who,
as we have seen (Chapter III), regarded them
as part of their "eminent domain." All prop
erty of a usurer who died escheated to the king,
whether he were Jew or Gentile, so that the prop
erty of a Jewish usurer was always potentially
the property of the king from this point of view,
quite apart from his peculiar status as perpetual.
enemy. But in allowing the Jew to sue for his
usurious debt in the king's courts, the kings
naturally claimed their dues, and, in addition,
taxed them to an amount which was never under
a fifth and often reached as much as a quarter
or a third of their income. In addition, popes
and kings and even nobles and clergy, who had
Jews under their jurisdiction, claimed the right,
quite arbitrarily, to remit interest or even the
209

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
whole debt, as Philip Augustus did in 1180, on
condition that the debtors of the Jews should pay
part of their debts into the royal treasury. As a
consequence, we find about one-twelfth of the
royal income derived directly, or indirectly, from
Jewish usury.1 Small comparatively as this frac
tion was, it was constitutionally of considerable
importance, since this source of income was en
tirely under the king's control and very often
enabled him to exercise influence upon such of his
nobles or of the towns as had got into the hands
of "his" Jews. In fact, in this way the kings of
England and Spain, and to a less extent the kings
of France and the emperors of the Holy Roman
empire, became the arch-usurers of their realms.
The Jews, however, had far from monopoly
of usurious loans. Lamprecht,2 indeed, contends
that up to the twelfth century the chief loans
were mainly made by the clergy; up to the thir
teenth by citizens and nobles; and only in the
fourteenth by Jews. This distinction, however, is
too rigid, as already in the twelfth century we
find the right of trading debarred to Jews in
'For England, see Jacobs, Jews of Angevin England. For
Germany, Hoffmann. For Spain, Jacobs, Spanish Jewish History.
2 Deutsches Wirtschaftsleben in Mittelalter, i, pp. 1446, seg.
210

JEWS AND COMMERCE
the charters, and instances of money-lending by
them are found even earlier. Besides, throughout
the period from 1100 to 1350, during which
Europe changed from a barter-economy to a
money-economy, usurious loans were illicit and
secret by Christians, permitted and enforced by
the courts when made by Jews. On the other
hand, Bourgelot declares that the Jews were solely
money-lenders, whereas Lombards were money
changers and Cahorsins small bankers. This dis
tinction does not hold, since we find Lombards and
Cahorsins lending money and Jews changing it.
For by the thirteenth century direct and open
competition came into the money-lending business
through those whom the Jews themselves called
"the pope's usurers." a One of the needs for a
cash economy was for the payment of Peter's
pence and other papal dues to Rome. Bankers on
a large scale from Rome, Siena, Florence, Este,
Pisa, and Pistoja, mostly in connection with the
Roman Curia, and known collectively as "Lom
bards," agreed with the ecclesiastical debtors of
the papal court at the fairs of Champagne to pay
their debts at Rome and let the indebtedness run
on from fair to fair at the rate of 10 per cent, or
' Matt. Paris, ed. Luard. 211

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
60 per cent per annum. Money-lenders on a
smaller scale, named Cahorsins, after Cahors, but
mostly coming from Asti and Cheri, were more
direct competitors of the Jews as usurers, and
represent the whole class in Dante; but their
numbers were comparatively small (only four, for
example, were existent at Constance in 1282),
and hence there were no popular uprisings against
them. These Lombards (after whom Lombard Street,
the banking quarter of London, is called) were
the direct rivals of the Jews in supplying the ab
beys and nobles with monies intended for pay
ment in Rome. Hence the Jews protested against
their admission in London, in 1255, and in Co
logne, in 1266; but in vain. Behind the Lom
bards was the power of the Roman Curia, which
often threatened excommunication to those who
did not pay their debts, however usurious. As
the thirteenth century passed on, the competi
tion of the Lombards became more serious,
and when the Black Death in the middle of the
fourteenth century had wiped out many of the
German communities, the Italian bankers and
their imitators at Augsburg and Nuremberg en-
212

JEWS AND COMMERCE
tirely ousted the Jews from the larger fields of
money-lending. Meanwhile in England and France Jews had
been expelled, to a large extent, because the ex
periment of using them as indirect tax-gatherers
and illicit bankers had proved too expensive and
against the public conscience. The feudal system
kept Jews out of the country and the farms. The
guild system prevented them from earning their
living as industrials, or even as merchants, because
these guilds were religious fraternities, arranging
for masses of the souls of dead members, as well
as trade organizations. Consequently, when it
was decided that the Jewish usury was objection
able and too expensive, the only alternative was
expulsion, whicch occurred in England in 1290,
in France in 1306 (and later dates), and in Ger
many, in various sporadic cases, in the different
cities which had comparative autonomy from the
rule of the emperors. In Spain fearful persecu
tions, in 1 39 1, largely wiped out the Jewish pop
ulation as Jews, though leaving the converted
remnant to continue their financial activities as
Marranos. We may now attempt to measure, to some ex
tent, the influence of Jewish usury upon the eco-
213

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
nomic development of the Middle Ages from
noo to 1400. They certainly helped the transi
tion from a barter-economy to a money-economy,
in which, during that period, they had, to a large
extent, a monopoly. Of course, loans were made,
both with and without interest, by Gentiles un
der various forms, which evaded the prohibition
of usury, or really did not come under that term
as conceived by Canonists. But in anything like
a speculative employment of capital for purely
industrial or trade purposes, the Jews were almost
the sole bankers, where credit was required with
out fluid collateral or pledge. Even where nor
mal loans were usual between Christians, the Jews
probably reduced the current rate of interest.
Thus in North Germany, where there were no
Jews, 10 per cent was regarded as a usual re
turn for the use of capital with secure collateral,
whereas in South Germany, where there was Jew
ish competition, such interest was between 4^
and %y2 per cent; in Kiel, where there were no
Jews, the ordinary interest in the thirteenth cen
tury was between 15 and 33% per cent; in Lin-
dau interest was charged by Christian merchants
even to the amount of 216 per cent per annum,
so that the citizens begged for the admission of
214

JEWS AND COMMERCE
Jews into the town as a remedy for this intoler
able state of things.1
It would, however, be a mistake to regard the
mediaeval Jews as the originators of banks, prop
erly so called, that is institutions which receive
other people's monies and lend them out. These
can be distinctly traced to the Italian towns,
Genoa, Florence, and Venice; and even Sombart
has failed to prove any connection of Jews with
the beginnings of banking in these towns. The
question whether they originated bills of exchange
is still under discussion, though there is something
like them in talmudic law.2 The late Prof. Charles
Gross pointed out that the transference of debts
from one Jew to another had something like the
effect of increasing the currency, but such trans
fers were by no means frequent. Roscher and
Scherer contend that the legal principle, that
sales made bona fide in market overt are valid,
is derived from the Jewish practice of money
lenders in the Middle Ages, and shows the in
fluence of talmudic law. Indirectly, modern pawn-
broking may be said to be derived from the Jew
ish usury of the Middle Ages, because the Monte
' Hoffmann, op. cit., p. 29.
2Ketubot 101b; Baba Batra 172a.
215

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
di Pieta of Italy were mainly founded in order
to protect the common people from the high rates
charged by Jewish money-lenders.1 But this was
rather later than the period we are at present
considering, when Jews, by the competition of
Lombards, had been reduced from unlicensed
bankers to pedlars and pawn-brokers, which was
their main occupation in Mid-Europe after the
Black Death.
Perhaps the most important influence of me
diaeval Jewish usury was in the effect it had upon
the king's position with regard to his subjects. It
gave him a sure source of income, which, though
probably not more than one-tenth of the whole
amount, was free from any direct interference on
the part of his subjects. So far as this helped
to consolidate the nation by making the king's
power effective in all quarters of the land,
it helped the general growth of nationalities,
which were ultimately destined to break up the
uniformity of the Middle Ages.
Economically, however, the part taken by Jew
ish usury, though important in its tendency, was
probably not large in extent. It is probable that
90 per cent of the inhabitants of feudal Europe
' See Revue des Etudes Juives, ii, pp. 175, seg.
216

JEWS AND COMMERCE
never made use of money throughout their lives,
being fixed on their fields and earning their liv
ing by service to their lords. With them the Jews
had practically nothing to do. It was only in the
towns that their presence was at all effective in
helping to prepare the way for the industrial de
velopment of Europe.

217

CHAPTER VII
Jews and Capitalism
We have seen that Jews helped considerably in
the transition of Europe from a barter-economy
to a money-economy during the quarter of a mil
lennium ( 1 100-1350). By the later date their
functions in this regard had been transferred to
Italian bankers, and they themselves, to a large
extent, removed from the countries of Western
Europe, except Spain. Forty years later, during
the terrible persecutions of 1391, promoted by
the fanaticism of St. Vincent Ferrer, the majority
of the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula became for
cibly converted to Christianity, but yet retained
their adhesion to their ancestral faith secretly,
mostly marrying among themselves, and were
marked out as "new Christians" or, in popular
parlance, Marranos.
For reasons not quite clear, the Jews of Spain
had preserved their monopoly of money-lending,
up to the fateful date 1391, without any interfer
ence from the "papal usurers," as in the west of
218

JEWS AND CAPITALISM
Western Europe. Consequently, when nominally
converted, they continued to conduct the financial
operations of the Spanish kings and nobles during
the last struggle with the Moors, and, as is well
known, in this way came to finance the voyages
of Columbus. When the more faithful part of
the Jewish "nation" was expelled from Spain in
the same year as the discovery of America, 1492,
they still retained their relations, family, friendly,
and financial, with the Marranos, or "new Chris
tians," left behind; and this enabled them, some
what later on, to take a prominent part in the
transference of the commercial hegemony from
Spain to the Netherlands and England. But they
were only enabled to do this by developments in
European economics, which led from a money-
economy to a credit-economy, which is at present
the ultimate stage of economic development.
With the early stages of this transition the Jews
had practically nothing to do, though they availed
themselves of its facilities as soon as they settled
down after the convulsion of 1492.1
'The three stages in Spanish Jewish finance are marked by
the years 1391 (the Ferrer Riots), 1492 (the Expulsion), and
1593 (the foundation of the Amsterdam community). It was
between the last two dates that Europe independently created
its international credit-economy. 219

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
As R. Ehrenberg has shown, in his admirable
work, Das Zeitalter der Fugger (Jena, 1896),
the beginnings of the modern credit system, and
thus of modern capitalism, in Europe were due
to the need of money payments to mercenary sol
diers in the wars between Charles V and Francis
I, from 1520 onward, for over thirty years.
Here, for the first time in European finance,1
large sums were lent to governments (on the
security of the taxes) by individual firms, or
groups of firms, the Fuggers in Augsburg financing
Charles V, the Strozzi being the main backers of
Francis I. Now, though both these leading
capitalists enlisted the resources of many other
German and Italian firms, there is no evidence of
any Jewish capitalists being concerned in this first
great attempt to finance modern states in their
capacity as military organizations. The experi
ence of the Hundred Years' War in France, the
struggle with the Moors in Spain, and the fights
of the Condottieri in Italy, had shown the
necessity of such financial backing when the two
great world powers, the Hapsburgs and the
'That is, on so large a scale. The Bardi and Prescobaldi
of Florence failed on account of the loans made by them to
Edward III. 220

JEWS AND CAPITALISM
Valois, determined to fight for the conquest of
the world. Jews had nothing to do with this
first stage in the development of modern
capitalism. Nor were they connected with the exchanges
in which these large credit transactions were con
summated. Special meeting-places for merchants
for money-lending and money-changing were early
established in Lucca, Genoa, Florence, Venice, and
other Italian cities, as well as in Montpellier and
Marseilles in France, at Barcelona (after the ex
pulsion of the Jews from that city), and even
in London, in Lombard Street. But the first real
exchange building (where transactions were con
ducted daily and not only at fair time) has been
traced to Bruges, where a special building was
named after the "Bursa," the name of a Bruges
family (Van der Burse), which had a purse on
its coat of arms. Both name and custom were
then transferred to Antwerp, where the model of
all European Bourses was built in 1531. Here
again there is no evidence of Jewish participation
in the organization of the Antwerp Exchange,
though it is possible that some of the Mendez
family utilized it before Don Jose went to Con-
221

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
stantinople to begin his remarkable career as
financier of the Turkish empire.
These Marrano families spread, in the six
teenth century, throughout the New World, and
toward the end of it a number of them settled in
Amsterdam and formed a financial link between
the empire of Philip II and the revolted Nether
lands. A little later there was a similar settle
ment in Hamburg, and connections of the chief
Marrano families like the Caceres, Carvajal,
Conegliano, Henriques, and others, are found in
the seventeenth century in Mexico, Brazil, Lis
bon, the Canary Islands, Amsterdam, Hamburg,
and even London. This wide spread of members
of the same family enabled them to facilitate
commercial transactions between the different
countries, and especially to operate the movements
of bullion needed to settle the balance of trade.
Thus, to give a single example, it was calculated
that Ferdinand Carvajal brought in annually
£100,000 worth of bullion to London, equal to
one-twelfth of the national income at the time,
and this was urged as one of the reasons for ad
mitting the Jews into England.1 Those were the
1 Up to quite recently the official bullion brokers of the Bank
of England were Messrs. Mocatta and Goldsmid.
222

JEWS AND CAPITALISM
days of mercantilist conceptions, when exagger
ated importance was attributed to the influx of
the precious metals.
Besides this trade in bullion, the Marranos were
also able, by their wide dispersion, to assist in
the transfer of the colonial trade of the New
World in sugar and indigo. There is some evi
dence that the Jews introduced sugar plantation
into St. Thomas, and even into Brazil; and when
they were expelled from the latter, in 1654, they
transferred a good deal of their activity in this
regard to Barbados, Jamaica, and Martinique and
San Domingo, largely increasing the sugar pro
duction in these islands. The sugar trade between
the French West-Indian islands and the mother-
country was concentrated at Bordeaux, where the
Marrano firm of Gradis, a branch of the Mendez
family, practically controlled it.'
There is little doubt that these activities of the
Marranos in the bullion and colonial trades
helped in a measure to transfer the hegemony of
the world's commerce from Spain and Portugal
to Holland and England, from Lisbon and Ant
werp to Amsterdam and London. Cromwell
' On the other hand, there is little evidence of any important
participation of Jews in the other "colonial" product, tobacco.
223

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
made use of them for this and other purposes,
and obtained valuable information from them in
his war with Spain,1 and his sense of their utility
in this regard was doubtless one of the reasons
for his promoting their re-entrance into English
life. But there were other and more potent rea
sons for the transfer of trade supremacy from
the Iberian nations to the Dutch and English,
and it would be an exaggeration to attribute any
decisive influence to the Jewish factor, which was
solely due to their international connections.
On the European Continent Jewish commercial
development was also due to their wandering
habits and dispersed family relations. Owing to
the competition of the Italians and the increasing
stringency of guild regulations, Jews were mainly
restricted to peddling and pawn-broking by the
beginning of the sixteenth century. Money-lend
ing on a small scale still remained with them as
a monopoly, but their frequent expulsions in Mid-
Europe prevented any large accumulation of cap
ital enabling them to do business on a large scale,
while the kings and rulers had given up the prac
tice of regarding their Jews as integral, though
informal, parts of their treasuries. Meanwhile,
'L. Wolf, Cromwell's Jewish Intelligencers, London, 1891.
224

JEWS AND CAPITALISM
the Wars of Religion, with their mercenary
troops, had brought into existence a new class of
intermediary — the commissary, or war-factor
("Kriegsfaktor"). The Jews, by their connec
tion with the second-hand trade, were favorably
situated to carry out this function, and we, accord
ingly, find them increasingly active in this regard,
from Joselmann of Rosheim and Bassevi of
Prague, in the sixteenth, to the Oppenheimers and
Wertheimers of the imperial court, at the end of
the seventeenth century. In the great struggle
between Marlborough and Louis XIV we find Sir
Solomon Medina, on the one side, and Jacob
Worms, on the other, as among the chief sources
of supplies for the respective armies.
In the interim German Jews had increased their
capital by the purchases of loot during the Thirty
Years' War, and a certain number of them had
been found useful by the smaller German courts
for making purchases or obtaining prompt loans.
There thus arose the practice of appointing the
chief Jew in a residential city as a court-Jew
( "Hof-Jude" ) . These often combined the posi
tion of purchasing agents with that of war com
missaries. It may be further conjectured that
those of the German princes who were fortunate
225

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
enough to have had money at their disposal were
enabled to invest it through their court-Jews to
advantage, sometimes by loans to their more ne
cessitous peers. Thus, when we find the electors
of Hanover and Treves assisting Emanuel Op-
penheimer to recover his father's debts from the
imperial treasury, it may be conjectured that part
of their own capital had been advanced through
the medium of his father, Samuel Oppenheimer.
We certainly know that later on Mayer Roth
schild acted as an intermediary of this kind be
tween the elector of Hesse-Cassel and the Dan
ish treasury. In this way these "Hof- Juden"
acted, in some respects, as pioneers in the field of
international finance, which has grown so great
of recent years.
The main series of these "Hof-Juden" were
those connected with the imperial court of Vienna,
who began the practice under Ferdinand II in
connection with the Thirty Years' War.1 The
chief names are Moses Meisels and Jacob Bassevi
of Prague, Samuel Oppenheimer of Heidelberg,
Samson Wertheimer of Worms, and his son,
Wolf Wertheimer. The multi-racial constitution
of the Austrian empire was doubtless the cause
1 G. Wolf, Ferdinand II und die Juden, Vienna, 1864.
226

JEWS AND CAPITALISM
why Jews, scattered among all the provinces of
the empire, were the most suitable intermediaries
in collecting money and provisions. Leffmann
Behrends at the Hanoverian court, Behrend Leh-
mann at that of Saxony, Marx Model at Ansbach,
Jost Liebmann at the court of the Great Elector,
and Joseph Suss Oppenheimer at that of Wiir-
temberg are other representative names. The
last-named was, for a time, the ruling influence in
Wiirtemberg affairs, but suffered a tragic fate in
1716. But almost every small German court had
its "Hof-Jude" up to the beginning of the nine
teenth century, though the financial reforms of
Frederick the Great rendered their aid less im
portant in the latter half of the eighteenth cen
tury. It is more difficult to determine the share of
Jews in the initial stages of joint-stock trading.
In a measure this has always existed in the ship
ping industry, where the capital for distant voy
ages was rarely supplied by the captain alone.
But the historians of commerce trace the begin
nings of real joint-stock trading, in which the
shares had a face value endorsed to bearer and
could be dealt with as negotiable property, to the
formation of the Dutch East India Company, in
227

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
the very first issues of which Jews had a share,
though a very moderate one.1 They had noth
ing to do with the English East India Company,
which followed four years later, nor with the
Plymouth and London Companies, which started
the colonization of North America.
So, too, it is impossible to trace any Jewish
influence on the origin of the stock exchanges of
Europe or the world. As soon as the Antwerp
exchange was firmly established in the beginning
of the sixteenth century, dealings began to be
made in "futures" in the price of pepper, as well
as in instruments of credit. There is no evidence
of any Jewish initiative in these transactions,
though possibly some Marranos may have in
dulged in them. The Royal Exchange of Lon
don was established by Sir Thomas Gresham in
imitation of the Antwerp exchange, with which
he was familiar, in 1572, when there were prac
tically no Jews in London. It was not till more
than a century later that twelve Jewish brokers
were allowed to conduct business there (mainly
in bullion broking) in combination with one hun
dred native brokers and twelve others, "foreign-
1 For details of their participation, see Excursus on Sombart,
infra, pp. 247, seg. 228

JEWS AND CAPITALISM
ers." In Amsterdam their participation in the
exchange, both for produce and stocks, seems to
have been greater, and the first full account of
any European stock exchange was made by a
Spanish Jew, Joseph de La Vega. Much exag
geration has been indulged in with regard to the
participation of Jews even in contemporary ex
changes, their number in the London Stock Ex
change, at the present day, only amounting to 5
per cent, and in New York to 15 per cent,
proportions by no means predominant or out of
scale with the commercial significance of the Jew
ish contingent in these cities. It should, besides,
be added that most of the Jewish members of the
stock exchange center their dealings on foreign
stock, where, again, their international connec
tions give them an advantage.
It has been alleged by Prof. Sombart that Jews
broke down the old system of customary prices,
and introduced the modern system of competi
tion. There is nothing to justify so broad a state
ment, though, of course, the peddling and second
hand trading of the Jews (as of others) inter
fered somewhat with the prices fixed by the guilds,
till quite a late period in continental trade.
Schmoller, in his classical treatment of the sub-
229

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
ject, attributes very little importance to the
pedlar;1 and it is, of course, the Industrial Revo
lution of the eighteenth century, with its conse
quent increase of factory towns and wholesale
trading in general, which is the true cause of the
competitive methods of modern trade.
Nor can the Jews claim any special influence
on modern economic development through their
comparatively large connection in the great fairs
of Mid-Europe, especially that held at Leipzig.
Between the years 1675 and 1839 the average
number of Jews who invaded the Leipzig fairs
rose from 416 in 1675 to 6,444 m I§39; ana" m
the early years of the nineteenth century they are
reckoned to have formed over a quarter, and
sometimes a third, of the total visitors. Here
again their wide dispersion accounts for their
large activity. It was convenient for them to meet
customers from all the localities with which they
had business relations, and the central position of
Leipzig enabled Jews from Amsterdam, Nizhni-
Novgorod and Frankfort, from Dessau and Vi
enna, from Cracow and Hamburg, to meet thrice
a year and arrange their affairs. This must have
helped to increase foreign trade, and especially
' Zur Geschichte der deutschen Kleingewerbe, pp. 237-46.
230

JEWS AND CAPITALISM
*
inter-urban trade; but Jews were not the only
merchants who did this, nor did they begin the
practice, as was sufficiently shown by the fairs of
Champagne in the Middle Ages, in which they
had little or no share.1
The wandering habits of Jews also led to an
extensive development of their commercial activi
ties, which may have helped to organize and de
velop general trade. In England, for example,
it was customary for the Jews of the sea-port
towns (who are frequently referred to in Cap
tain Marryatt's novels) to send out their sons
every Monday morning to neighboring villages
as hawkers, who would return in time for the
Friday night meal, meanwhile helping to circu
late goods and bring back second-hand products.
So, too, in Vienna, Jewish firms used to send out
agents into the Bohemian and other villages to
purchase wool, which was then made up in central
factories. The same practice was at the root of
Jewish commerce in Russia, where these itinerant
agents were known as "Wocher." Jewish traders
1 The visits of Jews at the Leipzig fairs have been enumerated
in two monographs by Markgraf, 1894, and Freudenthal, 1902.
The former refers to the period 1664-1839, the latter goes into
more detail for 1675-99. 231

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
thus collected furs throughout East Europe, and
to this day the fur trade is largely in their hands.
It is, however, probable that it was through
their transactions at these fairs that the Jews ac
quired sufficient capital to play the role of "Hof-
Juden" and commissaries at the end of the seven
teenth and throughout the eighteenth century.
The incessant European wars of that period called
for a much larger outlay than could be afforded
by the usual taxation. Resort had to be had to
loans and funded debts, and in Central Europe,
at least, there were few large capitalists ready to
advance loans of this kind. As Ehrenberg has
shown, the practice of financing war loans began
in the era of the Fuggers, in the conflict between
Charles V and Francis I. But the result was the
bankruptcy of the Fuggers, owing to the failure
of Philip II, in 1575, and the failure of the
Strozzi, who were the chief financiers of* the
French monarchy. These precedents would be
enough to discourage any financiers who had sur
vived the horrors of the Thirty Years' War. But,
in addition to this, there was the doubtful ques
tion whether money lent to a monarch became a
debt to the state after his death; absolute mon
archy has its financial disadvantages. 232

JEWS AND CAPITALISM
With respect to the Jews, the case was some
what different. Here the German kings and
princes could offer privileges (of residence, of
freedom of movement, and the like) which could
not be well measured in money, but which were
an inducement to Jews to lend their capital on
much more reasonable terms than their Christian
competitors, who had all these privileges without
paying for them. The favored position of the
"Hof-Juden," at the different German courts,
enabled them, as has been suggested above, to in
vest the capital of the more economical princes
with those who were vying with Louis XIV in
the splendor of their courts or the extent of their
armed conflicts. Further, for commissary pur
poses during the war, Jews were the only per
sons who would be likely to find Jewish friends
in the enemy's country through whom they could
deliver and obtain supplies. Recent researches
have shown that, for over half a century, Jewish
capital kept the Austrian treasury going.
Throughout the wars with the Turks and those
of the Spanish Succession and up to the first
Silesian War, the extraordinary expenses of the
Viennese court were obtained from a succession of
Jewish financiers, beginning with Samuel Oppen-
233

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
heimer and including the families of Wertheimer,
Sinzheim, Lehmann, and D'Aguilar, the latter a
link with the Sephardic families of Amsterdam
and London. These Jews supplied nearly eighty
million gulden between the years 1698 to 1739, or
an average of two million a year, whereas the
total income of the treasury was not more than
six millions.1 Their transactions extended
through Austria, the west and south of Germany,
Hungary, Transylvania, and Serbia, and even to
Switzerland and Italy. They got powder from
Holland, Poland, and Russia; saltpetre from Bo
hemia, Silesia, and Hungary; weapons from
Styria and Carinthia ; linen from Holland ; wool
from Bohemia ; horses and rafts from Salzburg
and Bavaria; corn from Bamberg, Mayence, and
Treves ; wine from the Rhine and Moselle ; brandy
from Moravia. Here again it was the disper
sion of the Jews which enabled them to conduct
such extensive operations, and their connection
with the Leipzig fairs doubtless assisted them in
this wide net-work of transactions.

1 See the admirable monograph of M. Grunwald, Samuel
Oppenheimer und sein Kreis, Leipzig, 1913, which gives, in an
elaborate table opposite page 160, the advances made year by
year by the various Jewish firms. 234

JEWS AND CAPITALISM
It should perhaps be mentioned that, after
1740, the center of Jewish finance was trans
ferred from Vienna to London, as was indicated
by the migration of Moses D'Aguilar to the lat
ter city. Here a number of Amsterdam Jews had
come over with William III, and helped to trans
fer the bullion trade in particular from Amster
dam to London. In 1745 Sampson Gideon, their
chief representative, helped the British Govern
ment by his firm attitude during the advance of
the Young Pretender, as he had previously done
during the South Sea Bubble, in which, be it re
corded, Jews had nothing to do, nor with Law
of the Mississippi Scheme. As a reward, the
Government brought in the Jew bill of 1753,
giving the English Jews rights of naturalization,
but this had to be withdrawn during the follow
ing year owing to the clamor of the populace. A
large number of the Sephardic families of Lon-.
don became converted in despair, but their con
nection with the Royal Exchange still continued,
and the brothers Goldsmid became the leading
bullion brokers and private bankers of London
till the end of the century.
It should be here remarked that the advances
by Jewish merchants to European monarchs or
235

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
governments in the eighteenth century were of
quite a different character to the tallages and aids
given by the mediaeval Jews to the royal treas
uries of England, France, or Spain. These were
actual payments made for the privilege of exist
ence in these countries, and no one expected them
to be repaid to the unfortunate Jew. But the ad
vances made by Oppenheimer and his circle to
the Austrian treasury were distinctly recognized
as loans, and were more or less repaid from time
to time. By their inter-relations the Jews of Mid-
Europe formed a connected banking association,
issuing loans to the various monarchs and oc
casionally, as we have seen, transferring monies
from one to the other. By their intra-national
operations they prepared the way for the interna
tional finance of the nineteenth century, in which
they were, in large measure, pioneers.
Schmoller has shown, in one of the most mas
terly of his essays, that, in the money-economy of
European nations, finance goes through three
stages : ( i ) local, where towns try to keep all
trade to themselves and treat other towns as "for
eign" ; (2) territorial, where this close corpora
tion is extended to a number of towns; and,
finally, (3) national, in which customs and ex-
236'

JEWS AND CAPITALISM
cise and other financial operations are conducted
in the service of the whole state, chiefly for
purposes of war.1 Jews had little or nothing to
do with the first two of these stages, and, with re
gard to the third, they are chiefly connected with
the war loans and commissariat of the wars of
Louis XIV. But there is a further stage not rec
ognized, or at least not emphasized by Schmoller,
in which finance becomes international, and here
Jews became an influential factor, partly owing to
the continued monopoly of bullion broking by the
Marrano families, but chiefly because of the
financial genius of Nathan Rothschild.
His father, Mayer Amschel Rothschild, a
money-changer and bric-a-brac dealer in Frank
fort, became the Hof-Jude of the landgrave of
Hesse-Cassel, then possessed of the largest pri
vate fortune in Europe, derived mainly from the
hire of Hessians to quell the American Revolu
tion. Rothschild had helped the landgrave to in
vest this money in Frankfort city loans and in
the Danish state debt. Meanwhile his son Na
than, after a successful career as manufacturer of
Manchester goods for seven years, had settled in
'G. Schmoller, The Mercantile System, in W. J. Ashley's
Economic Classics (New York, 1894).
• 237

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
London in 1805, and married a sister-in-law of
Sir Moses Montefiore, and thus became connected
with the Sephardic bullion-brokers of London.
When therefore the grand duke of Hesse-Cassel
had to flee from his duchy after Jena, it Was nat
ural that his agent should transmit the "running
cash" of the landgrave to his son Nathan at Lon
don, who immediately utilized it by buying bul
lion for Lord Wellesley, about to begin his
Peninsular campaign. The deaths of Abraham
Goldsmid and Sir Francis Baring, in 18 10, left
Nathan Rothschild undisputed master of the bul
lion market in London, and all the payments made
to the Continent by England during the struggle
with Napoleon — reckoned to amount to £15,000,-
000 from 1808 to 1 8 14 — were made through
him. After his father's death, in 18 12, he ar
ranged for the establishment of branches of the
firm in Paris, Vienna, and Naples, and from 18 18
onward the five brothers were the chief medium
through which the governments of Europe issued
their loans for the next thirty years, during which
they amounted to nearly three-quarters of a billion
dollars.1 'Ehrenberg suggests that they obtained the capital for these
loans by the profits in bullion broking before Waterloo, and in
238

JEWS AND CAPITALISM
The example of the Rothschilds in thus estab
lishing brothers in different European capitals was
followed by other Jewish families like the Sterns,
Speyers, Lazards, Oppenheims, Warburgs, and
Seligmans. These sometimes joined in, but at
other times competed with the Rothschilds in is
suing numerous loans for industrial purposes in
Europe during the period 1818-48. After the
latter date the practice of issuing loans through
favored firms was mostly given up, and the sub
scriptions were thrown open to the general pub
lic. At the same time the joint-stock principle
was introduced into banks, and institutions like
the Credit Mobilier, the Dresdener Bank, and the
Deutsche Bank were founded mostly by combi
nations of Jewish firms, which considerably re
duced the predominance of the Rothschilds in the
financial world but increased the general influence
of Jews in international finance.
It would, however, be a mistake to regard all
these Jewish firms as acting together. Heine re
fers to Rothschild and Fuld as "Two rabbis of
finance, who were as much opposed to one another
the four years, 1815-18, by "bearing" operations against the loans
issued by Ouvrard and Baring on behalf of the French and
British Governments, who were therefore obliged to admit the
Rothschilds into the loan-issuing "ring" from 1818 onwards.
239

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
as Hillel and Shammai"; and in much later days
the opposition of the firms of Montagu and Roths
child was equally marked in London. The Sterns
obtained the Portuguese loans in opposition to the
Rothschilds, and the Pereires were successful
against them in getting the concession for the
South Russian railways. Yet in France the pre
dominance of the Rothschilds was so marked that
as early as 1848 it was reckoned that the Paris
house was worth six hundred million francs, as
against three hundred and sixty-two millions pos
sessed by the rest of the Parisian bankers. In
1876 an attempt to check this predominance was
started by a number of Catholic families, who
founded the Union Generate, which, however,
failed disastrously in 1885, causing the ruin of
many noble French families and being the secret
origin of the anti-Semitism which broke out im
mediately afterwards.1 The failure of the
Barings in 1893 brought to an end the rivalry of
seventy years between "Jew Rothschild and his
fellow-Christian Baring," referred to by Byron in
his Don Juan (xii, 5) ; but here the Rothschilds
intervened, and prevented the utter ruin of their
rivals. As a consequence, the firm was left pre-
' The struggle is graphically described by Zola in his L' Argent.
240

JEWS AND CAPITALISM
dominant in the financial world in London and
the British empire.
It would, however, be misleading to regard the
Jewish element in international finance as increas
ing in importance during the nineteenth century;
on the contrary, it probably reached its maximum
in 1848, when the third French Revolution re
duced the importance of Baron James de Roth
schild (the Baron Nucingen of Balzac), and at
the same time introduced the principle of public
subscription for state loans. Since that time other
firms, English, French, and German, not of the
Jewish race, have adopted the principle of estab
lishing branches in the different capitals of Europe
as well as in the United States, while the largest
accumulations of capital had been made during
that period, not by banking but by industrial
operations. The great capitalists of the world are
armament-makers like the Krupps and Arm
strongs, the iron masters like Carnegie and- Whit-
worth, the Standard Oil magnates like Rocke
feller, Frick, and Flagler, the railway magnates
like the Vanderbilts, the Goulds, and the like. It
is only quite recently that a few German Jews
have become prominent in the industrial world,
like the Monds in the chemical industries, Ballin
241

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
in ship-building, Rathenau in the electrical in-
dustries,- and Friedlander-Fuld in coal.
Jewish finance had, however, a certain influ
ence on the beginnings of railways in continental
Europe. The Rothschilds financed the great
Northern Railway of France and the Nordbahn
of Austria, the Bischoffheims the railway system
of Belgium, the Pereires the Southern Railways
of Russia, with which the Poliakoffs and Brodskys
were also connected. Baron de Hirsch founded
his grea't fortune by establishing the railway sys
tem of the Balkans, and the Bleichroeders had
much to do with the Prussian railway system be
fore it was taken over by the Government. In
America the firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. have done
much toward combining the interests of the -vari
ous railway systems, and were, for a time, the
bankers of the Harriman lines, extending over
fifty thousand miles, and amounting to twelve
billion dollars. But the last-named firm has
recently withdrawn from its railway connec
tions, and the participation of the others is now in
the past, often in the long past. Jewish finance
appears to run more particularly into the pioneer
trades, where profits are at first more promising.
This may account for their relative importance
242

JEWS AND CAPITALISM
in the early stages of the British colonial em
pire, though it would be entirely misleading to
attribute to them any predominant influence; the
relative smallness of their numbers would have
been enough to prevent this. In South Australia
the firm of Montefiore was an influential element
in the early years of the colony, and in New Zea
land Sir Julius Vogel gave a great impulse by his
bold policy of attracting British capital to the
development of the colony. In South Africa the
Mosenthals were the chief factors in developing
the wool and hide trades, and originated the mo
hair industry, which now controls half the
world's output; and the brothers De Pass were
for many years the largest ship-owners in Cape
Town. In Natal, Nathaniel Isaacs was appointed,
in 1828, "principal chief," with sole rights of
traffic with the Zulus, by Tchaka, the so-called
Napoleon of South Africa. In the Transvaal,
Samuel Marks, Barnett Barnato, and the firm of
Wernher, Beit & Co., have been large factors in
the development of the diamond industry. In
Canada, the Joseph family were prominent in the
early development of the Canadian railway sys
tem. With regard to the West-Indian colonies, ref-
243

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
erence has already been made to the large par
ticipation of Jews in the sugar trade, their chief
output. They practically monopolized the Ja
maica trade in sugar, rum, and molasses in the
middle of the eighteenth century. At that time
a number of Jews who had settled in Newport,
R. I., where the tolerant principles of Roger
Williams still ruled, did extensive business with
the West-Indian islands. Aaron Lopez owned
at one time as many as thirty vessels. Jacob
Rivera introduced there the manufacture of
spermacetti. So, too, Abraham de Lyon intro
duced viticulture into Georgia, where also Dr.
Nunes largely developed the growth of indigo.
In California, Jewish firms had much to do with
the early development of the country, and espe
cially with the connection of that state with Alaska
and its seal fisheries, which have been largely de
veloped by Jewish firms. These are almost the
sole examples, of pioneer influence of Jews in
American commerce, and would form but an in
finitesimal fraction of its whole vast extension.
In more recent developments, however, Jews play
some considerable part in copper mining and
smelting (the firms of Guggenheim and
Lewisohn), in the peculiarly American establish-
244

JEWS AND CAPITALISM
ments known as department stores, and in the
clothing industries, which they practically monop
olize.1 To sum up, the influence of Jews on the vast
extension of modern commerce has been mainly
due to their international connections, which
enable them to transfer goods and bullion from
one country to another with the least risk. The
scattering of the Marranos throughout the Span
ish empire, just when the large production of
the precious metals in America gave an enormous
impetus to European commerce, tended to throw
the bullion trade into their hands; this was the
more important, as from 1600 to 1750 the whole
financial policy of Europe was ruled by the mer
cantile system, based on the desirability of re
taining as much gold as possible within the
country. In Mid-Europe the restriction of Jew
ish activity to money-lending, pawn-broking, and
the second-hand trade generally threw into their
hands much of the loot of the numerous wars of
the seventeenth century, and caused them to be
' See J. E. Pope, The Clothing Industry in New York, Colum
bia, Mo., 1905. It was necessary to go into some detail on
Jewish commercial activities in the United States owing to the
exaggerations indulged in with regard to this by Sombart. (See
infra, p. 247, seg.) 2A5

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
utilized as commissaries and court factors by the
various German princes. By this means they had
some influence on the general development of na
tional finance in the German principalities, as
opposed to the territorial and local stages which
preceded their participation. Their wide disper
sion led to their comparatively large share in the
Leipzig and other fairs, which may have helped
toward the stabilizing of European prices. The
wandering habits thus induced were a preparation
for the relatively large share of Jews in the early
stages of colonial expansion; but here, as else
where, the Jews shared in modern movements and
did not monopolize them.

246

CHAPTER Vila
Excursus on Sombart
The preceding account of Jewish influence on
modern capitalism would have to be much en
larged if one could trust the analysis of it made
by Prof. Werner Sombart in his Die Juden und
das Wirtschaftsleben} According to him, all
the predominant features which distinguish mod
ern capitalism from mediaeval trade and industry
are directly due to Jewish influence. Thus, the
economic form of the modern state was due to
the activities of the Jews as purveyors and finan
ciers, in providing the state with capital for war
and development (I, v). They helped con
siderably in "* the foundation of modern colonies,
which has determined the policy and controlled
the development of modern states (I, iv), and
quickened international trade by the large scale
' Leipzig, 1911. Translation by M. Epstein, 1913, The Jews
and Modern Capitalism. 247

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
of their trade, the variety of their wares, and the
introduction of new commodities (I, iii). As a
consequence, we find the centers of trade chang
ing from one country or center to another, ac
cording as Jews were expelled or found shelter;
Sombart gives as examples the transference of
trade from Spain to. Holland, from Antwerp to
Amsterdam, from Augsburg to Frankfort and
Hamburg (I, ii). Above all, Jews have trans
formed economic life in commercializing it by
creating credit instruments and introducing the
custom of buying and selling securities, which
supplied mobile capital for industrial undertak
ings (I, v) ; they thereby introduced their capi
talistic point of view into modern trade, with
its competitive (against "just") prices, its adver
tisements, adulterations, payment by instalments,
utilization of waste products, and general effi
ciency (I, vii).
This would indeed be a formidable debt owed
to Jewish influence by the modern world, if the
whole foundation of its economic life had been
determined or even largely influenced by Jews.
But it is to be feared that they cannot lay such
a flattering unction to their souls (if Prof.
Sombart will grant that they have souls). In
248

EXCURSUS ON SOMBART
the first place it is curious to find the author of
a standard work on modern capitalism so mis
leading or misled as to its true characteristics.
As Mr. J. A. Hobson points out in his Evolu
tion of Modern Capitalism, 1894, the essence of
this is the employment, by persons with money
capital, of hired men, generally known as "hands,"
for production on a large scale by means of ma
chines; hence he terms his subject "A Study of
Machine Production." The main, indeed ex
clusive, motive of the capitalist, or "undertaker,"
is to obtain profits ("Unternehmergewinn," the
Germans call it); and hence he is called by his
Socialist opponents a "profiteer." The method
by which this profit is determined is by the re
lations of supply and demand in an open market
accessible to all capitalists under the stress of
unrestricted competition. Here comes in the
contrast with mediaeval conditions, in which prices,
and therefore profits, were regulated and made
customary by the state or local authorities on the
Canon Law principle of a "just price," and com
petition was restricted or rather removed by the
veto on usury or money-lending and by the regu
lations of guilds or close trade and mercantile
corporations. 249

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
Now the cause of this transition from regu
lated and customary prices to competitive ones
is the best known and most fundamental phe
nomenon in economic history. It is known as the
Industrial Revolution, and began in England in
the quarter of a century between 1760 and 1785,
with numerous inventions in the machines of the
textile industries, and the introduction of steam
produced by sea-coal as a motive power. Jews
had absolutely nothing to do with this, for there
is not a single name of a Jewish manufacturer
known in England before 1798, when Nathan
Rothschild began his short career as a manufac
turer of Manchester goods and, though fairly
successful, gave it up, after seven years, for
bullion broking upon settling in London in 1805.
The Jews did not even begin to settle in Birming
ham, Liverpool, or Manchester until about 1780,
and then as pedlars and pawn-brokers. Through
out the eighteenth century the Jews of England
did not number one-tenth of 1 per cent of the
population, and nineteen-twentieths of them
were concentrated in London, which was never
predominantly a manufacturing town. The Jews
were either business men, bullion brokers, pedlars,
or pawn-brokers. 250

EXCURSUS ON SOMBART
Nor is there any evidence of any activity of
Jews in the spread of industrialism or capitalism
from England to the Continent or to America.
No Jewish name occurs among the manufac
turers who attempted to carry out Napoleon's
protectionist schemes in France or even in the
Confederation of the Rhine.1 Even Prof. Som
bart, who gives an entirely imaginary picture
of Jewish participation among the early Amer
ican pioneers,2 does not contend that Jews were
at all actively engaged in American manufacture
in its early stages.3 There were probably not
over two thousand Jews in the whole of the
United States by 1800, out of a population of
five millions, and nine-tenths of these were settled
in Charleston, New York, Philadelphia, and Lan
caster. In attempting to make out that this hand-
1 Schmoller, however, declares that the Berlin silk manufac
tories had French and Jewish factors, and that afterwards they
were developed by Jewish manufacturers, the Mendelssohns,
Friedlanders, Veits, and Marcuses (loc. cit., p. 89).
2Loc. cit.
3 Their participation in the sugar industry was not really of
a capitalistic nature, since it was entirely based upon slave
labor. Socialists may term the modern "hand" a slave, but he
can at least change his employer or go on strike and thus employ
the weapon of competition, characteristic of the capitalistic
system. 251

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
ful of merchants had the lion's share in the eco
nomic development of England or America, Prof.
Sombart is emulating Lord Dundreary in at
tempting to make the tail, or, one would say,
rather, the tip of the tail, wag the lion.
The truth of the matter is, Prof. Sombart,
in overriding his hobby, has vastly exaggerated
the part played by Jews in modern economic de
velopment. That part, as we have seen in the
preceding chapter, consisted in promoting, inter
national trade and supplying, in a relatively large
measure, the bullion that balanced it. Now, in
the eighteenth century, in England, external com
merce was by no means a predominant part of
the whole English output. Macpherson, in his
Annals of Commerce, reckoned the export trade
to be about one in thirty-two of the whole out
put, and even at the present day it is not more
than a fifth. In the middle of the eighteenth
century the total exports of England were about
£15,000,000, and the total income of the Jew
ish community of London was estimated at half
a million, implying at that time a turnover of
two millions. The commercial classes at that
time were estimated by Arthur Young to con
stitute seven hundred thousand souls out of a
252

EXCURSUS ON SOMBART
total population of eight million and a half. If
these figures were at all accurate, the Jews of
England, while they may have controlled one-
eighth of the foreign commerce, only manipu
lated half of i per cent of the total business
of the country, which was, at that time, estab
lishing the capitalistic system destined to rule the
world. When put into figures, Prof. Sombart's
visionary estimates tend rather to disappear.
A remarkable instance of this has been given
by H. Waetjen in his study of Sombart's state
ments about Jewish participation in modern col
onization.1 Sombart had asserted that the Jews
had much to do with the founding of the Dutch
East India Company in 1602, which, we have
seen, was practically the beginning of the mod
ern joint-stock method of trading. Waetjen has
ascertained, from an examination of the books
of the company, that of the first subscription of
six and a half millions of florins the Jewish con
tribution consisted of 4,800 florins, or less than
a tenth of 1 per cent. He also shows that
Sombart is entirely mistaken in stating that the
first governor of Java was a Jew, and indeed
1 H. Waetjen, Das Judentum und die Anfaenge der modern
Kolonisation, Berlin, 1914. 253

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
shows that no Jew was allowed to become a
higher official of the company, and not even a
director of it. As regards the English East India
Company, Jews were excluded from all the "reg
ulated companies." 1 Similarly with regard to
the Dutch West India Company, founded in
1 62 1, which was, to some degree, helped by the
Brazilian Jews; but the total contribution of the
eighteen Amsterdam Jews, who subscribed to
its seven million capital in 1623, was only thirty-
six thousand florins, about half of 1 per cent.
Here again we find gross exaggeration on the
part of Prof. Sombart.
As regards the claim that the economic form
of the modern state is due to Jewish finance and
army-purveying (Sombart, I, v), we have seen
above that this began, without any participation
by Jews, in the era of the Fuggers, at the be
ginning of modern history, when France at
tempted to put forth claims to territorial ag
grandizement in Italy and began the century-
long conflict between the Bourbons and the Haps-
burgs. Similarly, their participation in modern
colonization (I, iv) had been reduced to its
' Cunningham, Growth of English Trade, Cambridge, 1892,
vol. ii, p. 283. 254

EXCURSUS ON SOMBART
proper proportions in the preceding chapter, and
the introduction of new wares and international
trade, on which Sombart lays so much stress
(I, iii), has been roughly noted above, and is
far from significant when one recalls the long
tariff lists of modern international trade.
There is the same want of historical founda
tion with regard to Sombart's claim that the
Jews invented the chief instruments of credit and
began the practice of buying and selling them
(I, vi). He himself owns that he has no definite
proof of the Jewish origin of the Bill of Ex
change, and his seemingly striking connection of
the Polish Jewish form of that document known
as the "Mamran," with similar talmudic instru
ments, has been shown by Steckelmacher 1 to be
erroneous, and that the very name, instead of
being Hebrew, is simply a corruption of "mem-
brana," while the words of the instrument itself
speak of its conferring "the same rights as the
bills of exchange which are usual in the royal
courts." As regards the rise of the Bourses with
speculation in "futures" 2 and trading in instru-
'M. Steckelmacher, Randbemerkungen zu Werner Sombart,
Berlin, 1912, p. 8.
2 They were frankly called "Apuestas," or wagers, on the
Antwerp Bourse. See Ehrenberg, op. cit., i, p. 81.
255

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
ments of credit, we have seen that all this arose in
Antwerp and London before Jews existed there.
Sombart further confuses the Royal Exchange of
London, founded in 1572, with its Stock Ex
change, which only came into existence in 1780.
The twelve Jewish brokers allowed on the former
were mainly bullion brokers. As Jews did such
little trade in manufactures, it is highly im
probable that advertisements began with them,
and Sombart only quotes a casual instance. The
utilization of waste products is again a by
product of manufacture on a large scale, with
the initial stages of which Jews had nothing to
do. As hawkers or dealers they may have in
troduced the practice of payment by instalments,
but Sombart gives no reliable evidence of this,
and it is to be remembered that Jews were not
the only pedlars on the beach.
Finally, as regards Sombart's curious conten
tion that the presence of Jews was the cause of
the transference of trade hegemony from one
town or country to another, this is surely a case
of inverting the position of the cart and the
horse. The Jews followed the trade, and not
the trade the Jews. They naturally resorted to
any open markets where their transactions would
256

EXCURSUS ON SOMBART
not be hampered by the price restrictions of the
guilds which they were not allowed to join.
Other and much more profound reasons can be
given for the transference of the Venetian trade
supremacy to Spain and Portugal, and thence to
Holland and England.1 How would Prof. Som
bart explain the rise and fall of the Hanseatic
League by his Jewish hobby, when, for the most
part, there were no Jews at all in the Hanse
towns? The small part taken by the Jewish
Marranos in transferring trade supremacy from
the Iberian Peninsula to the Netherlands is the
only germ of truth in this part of his position.
When a professor of economics is so lax
about his economic facts and history, it would
be idle to expect him to be more profound in
his incursions into the much more complex prob
lems of Jewish theology and racial psychology.
Yet the historical part of Prof. Sombart's work,
which fills the first one hundred and fifty pages
of his book (in the English edition), is followed
by another couple of hundred pages, tracing this
alleged connection between Jews and modern
'See Roscher, Handel und Gewerbe, third edition, 1882, pp.
82-7. 257

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
capitalism to even more imaginary characteris
tics of the Jewish race and even of the Jewish
religion. According to Sombart, Jews were particularly
adapted for their role as founders of mod
ern capitalism owing to their dispersion and posi
tion as alien semi-citizens having great wealth
(II, x). Even the religion of the Jew deter
mined his capacity for economic life, being
rationalistic, legalistic, and non-mystical. The
conception of sin in Judaism, according to Som
bart, is quite commercial in character, the sole
motive for holiness being the reward in the world
to come. The rational aspect of Jewish life also
led to its commercialization owing to the self-
control preached by it (II, xi) ; even the isola
tion of Israel has helped commercially by re
moving all sentiment from business with
"strangers," and making the Jews the apostles of
Laissez-faire. Sombart notices the remarkable
resemblance of Jews and Puritans in this regard,1
and yet contends that there is something racial
' He owns indebtedness in this regard to the book of Max
Weber on "Puritanism and Capitalism," which led to his apply
ing the same arguments to Jews. But, if so, how can there be
any racial element in the connection? 258

EXCURSUS ON SOMBART
in the tendency of Jews toward commerce be
cause of their intellectuality, energy, and adapt
ability (II, xii). Prof. Sombart decides that the
Jews were not originally a commercial people,
but have, throughout the ages, been money
lenders; even the Talmud shows a remarkable
knowledge of money transactions (III, xiii) ; and
all this, according to him, bears a trace of the
original desert origin of the Jewish race, which
is comparatively pure. This desert origin is the
key to their nomadic tendencies, and even ac
counts for their predilection for city life, since
modern cities are great deserts! (Ill, xiv).
This farrago of fantasies about Jewish life
and religion scarcely deserves serious considera
tion, especially as we have seen that it is put for
ward to explain a series of facts which are either
non-existent or grossly exaggerated. As regards
the "new" view1 that Jewish aptitude for finance
is due to the fact that they were, from the in
ception of their national life, money-lenders, it is
sufficient to point out that, during the first thou
sand years of Israelite national existence, there
was no coined money. Before the period of
the Maccabaeans the basis of the national life
1Loc. cit., p. 301. 259

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
was a self-contained agricultural economy which
needed no money. Again the alleged desert
origin of Jewish characteristics is merely a be
lated echo of Renan, and is based upon an utter
misunderstanding of the ethnological connections
of the Jewish race. While they adopted a Semitic
language on settling in Canaan, their racial
affinities were much closer with the broad-headed
and mountainous Armenians, whom they resem
ble in face and expression even at the present
day.1 As regards the absence of mysticism from
Jewish religion, this is due merely to absence
of knowledge on Prof. Sombart's part. There
is a mystical strain in Judaism from the time
of Ezekiel and the apocalyptic books up to the
appearance of the Kabbalah, which, we have
seen above, was the main source of Christian
mysticism at the time of the Renaissance. It
was a Jewish philosopher who put forth the
mystical and supremely independent view that we
should love God even though He did not love

' It is remarkable in this connection that Hebrew tradition
traces their ultimate origin to mount Ararat.
2 Spinoza, Ethics, V. Goethe was particularly struck by this
conception (Dicktung und Wahrheit), and utilized it in his
Egmont. 260

EXCURSUS ON SOMBART
Prof. Sombart refers to the Talmud as show
ing the legalistic and the commercial spirit of
the Jewish religion; one might just as well make
the same assertion about Christianity on the
strength of Justinian's Corpus Juris, which is,
after all, a Christian document. As in the one
case reference would naturally be had to the
"Book of Common Prayer," "The Imitation of
Christ," and other devotional manuals, so Prof.
Sombart might have obtained a more adequate
idea of Jewish devotion by reading, in accessible
translation, the Jewish Prayer Book, not to men
tion the Book of Psalms, which has given a
mode of approach to the Divine, both for Jew
and Christian. There is a special class of Jew
ish works which brings out the purely ethical
character of the Jewish religion in a striking
manner. Men are most earnest at the point of
death; and it became a practice for pious Jews
to give ethical advice to their children in what
is known as ethical wills. Prof. Sombrat
would find some difficulty in supporting his super
ficial views from these productions.1 Now as
1 On these see the interesting essay by Israel Abrahams, Jewish
Quarterly Review, iii, pp. 436, seg.
261

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
regards the contention that the Jewish religion
regards good works as only the means of obtain
ing celestial profits, it is to be observed that this
is a natural and human aspect of all the religions
of civilization. Everybody knows how it is em
phasized in Islam, and yet Muhammedans have
not shown any particular genius for commerce or
finance. But in Christianity itself the whole doc
trine of Justification by Works is based upon the
same conception, and what is Dante's Divina
Commedia but a sublime and continuous ex
emplification of the connection of sublunary good
ness and badness with supernal rewards and pun
ishments? Fifty years ago one of the favorite
evangelical volumes of sermons was Binney's
How to Make the Best of Both Worlds; and
nothing could be more commercial than its title
and tone. Prof. Sombart himself has observed
the resemblance between the Puritans and Jews
with regard to the combination of piety with
business, and one might add the example of the
Quakers, in whom it was equally conspicuous.
Even the Jesuits proved themselves as much suc
cesses as men of business as they ultimately
262

EXCURSUS ON SOMBART
proved failures in winning back the world to their
Church.1 Sombart even drags in the memoirs of Gliickel
of Hameln to prove the commercial aspects of
Jewish piety, because she is always praying for
rich husbands for her daughters. If this were
conclusive, the whole of the French nobility with
their manages de convenance would be convicted
of the same commercialism. Poor Gliickel! If
ever a womanly soul gave signs of the most trust
ful piety, showing the greatest confidence in the
designs of her Heavenly Father, it was surely
Gliickel. That she was a good business woman
as well as a deeply pious soul is only another in
stance of this curious combination which is found
quite as widely spread among Christians as
among Jews. We might easily parallel Gliickel
of Hameln by Thackeray's picture of old Mrs.
Newcome, the head of the banking-house and
the support of evangelical missions and charities.
It is curious that Sombart should have made
these fundamental errors in explaining even the
small amount of justification for connecting Jews
'Where the fundamental arguments are so egregiously unjus
tified by facts, it is obviously unnecessary to refute details, which
has been effectively done by Steckelmacher, op. cit., and M.
Hoffmann, Judentum und Kapitalismus, Berlin, 1912.
263

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
with modern capitalism, since he has given the
real reasons — their being dispersed over a wide
area as aliens and semi-citizens (II, x). It is
for him to explain further how, if their existence
as aliens conduced to their commercial and finan
cial capacity, their position as semi-citizens also
helped toward that end. But we have seen that
it was the international dispersion of the Mar
ranos and, to some extent, of the German Jews
which enabled them to perform their intermediary
functions; and it was religious persecution, and
not their desert origin, which caused both their
dispersion and their quasi-alien status. In the
same chapter Sombart gives, as a further reason,
the wealth of the Jews, which is a necessary basis
for his contention, but has failed to consider the
fact that this wealth was only found in a few
hands even among Jews who, taken as a whole,
are the poorest people having European civiliza
tion. That is a little problem which may be left
for Prof. Sombart to work into his wild theories.
One may also ask him to explain how it has come
about that, wherever the hand of oppression has
been removed and the open career has been
afforded, Jews, with their alleged commercial in
stincts, have become less and less addicted to
264

EXCURSUS ON SOMBART
commercial pursuits. The proportion of pro
fessional men, and indeed of artisans, has notably
increased among them during the past century.
Thus Prof. Sombart fails to prove either side
of his double thesis, the Jewish foundation of
capitalism or the capitalistic foundation of
Judaism. His failure is not surprising, consid
ering that, notwithstanding his industry, he shows
such want of real insight into Jewish life or
thought. But it is even more remarkable that
he makes such blunders in the basic facts of
economic history in which he ought to be an
expert. He has evidently been obsessed with
the idea that the slogan, "business is business,"
rules both Jewish life and religion, and, with
indefatigable patience, has sought for every fact,
however minute or misleading, which could carry
out his exaggerated views.1
Perhaps the most striking example of Som
bart's exaggerations is shown in his attempt to
prove that "what we call Americanism is noth
ing else than the Jewish spirit distilled" (p. 44).
To substantiate this startling statement he points
' His historical exaggerations have been pointed out by Below
in Hist. Zeiis., cviii, 614, seg., as well as F. Rachfahl in Preuss.
Jahrb., cxlvii, i, 13, seg. 265

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
out a few isolated facts, as that in 1785 Abra
ham Mordecai settled in Alabama, and that in
1 66 1 Asser Levi became the owner of some
real estate in Albany. Chicago, according to
Prof. Sombart, is fundamentally Jewish because
the first brick house there was built by Benedict
Schubert, and Philip Newburg introduced the
tobacco business there. He gives (p. 44) an
elaborate picture of the pioneers of America going
forth to conquer the wilderness in batches of
twenty families, the twentieth of which started
the country store, on which the rest depended
for their supplies, and suggests that in most cases
this twentieth family was Jewish. Now it is
quite true that the country store was the germ
of American business development, and that all
the great business leaders like Levi Morton,
E. D. Morgan, H. B. Claflin, Marshall Field,
Pullman, Pillsbury, Armour, J. D, Rockefeller,
and J. J. Hill received their business training in
country stores; but there is absolutely no evi
dence of any large participation of Jews in coun
try stores in early days, and up to 1850 there
were not enough of them to go around, even if
the country store occupied one in a thousand
families instead of being one in twenty. As a
266

EXCURSUS ON SOMBART
matter of fact, American Jews mostly remained
in the coast tpwns of the East, and scarcely a
handful joined the pioneers who settled in coun
try villages. It is difficult to restrain one's
patience when dealing with such obvious and
opinionated distortions of notorious facts.

267

CHAPTER VIII
The Break-down of the Church-Empire
In the preceding chapter and its appendix, in
order to dispose at once of the more obvious
and more material aspects of the subject, we
have considered the influence of Jews in the
economic development of Western Europe up
to the present day, whereas previous chapters
were confined to their intellectual and other in
fluence up to the Renaissance. We must now
retrace our steps and deal with the relations of
Jews to the European developments for the
three centuries between the Renaissance and the
French Revolution. This period is distinguished
in European history by the break-up of the
Church-Empire, with the fundamental principle of
orthodoxy as the basis of citizenship, which was
the cause, as we have seen, of the anomalous
position of the Jews in the European State sys
tem. It might therefore have been anticipated
that this period would have seen an ameliora-
268

THE BREAK-DOWN OF THE CHURCH-EMPIRE
tion in the Jewish position and an increased
share of Jews in the intellectual development of
the European mind. Yet these three centuries —
1492-178 1 — saw the lowest condition of the Jew
ish people, politically, socially, and intellectually,
and the Jewish spirit probably reached its nadir
at the Peace of Westphalia, 1648. This is the
more remarkable, as the chief motive force of
the period, the Reformation, may be regarded
as a revival of Hebraism in European affairs, and
one would have thought that Jews would have
benefited by an appeal to their own Scriptures,
which were never so revered as during this time;
the contrary was the case.
The reasons for this were complex, and were
both external and internal. The expulsions of the
preceding centuries had driven the Jews from
the lands of Western Europe and of rising cul
ture and influence to those of Central and East
ern Europe, Germany, Poland, and Turkey,
destined to be lands of internecine conflict and
of declining culture. But there was a further
internal movement in European civilization
which rendered the position of the Jews still
more precarious, and, in a measure, degraded, in
the national Church-State, into which the me-
269

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
diaeval Church-Empire broke up, than in the Em
pire itself. These were, for a considerable time,
more theocratic than the papal Empire which had
been growing more and more secularized, and, in
a measure, tolerant, owing to the influence of
Humanism in Italy.
The Reformation put- a stop to all this, and
revived, in all its acuteness, the animosities of
theological controversy. Christendom was split
up into an infinity of sects, and the disputes of
Lutherans and Zwinglians, of Arminians and
Calvinists, of Independents and Presbyterians, of
Jesuits and Port-Royalists, distracted men's minds,
and aroused their bitterest feelings. Shakespeare
might well make Shylock say: "See how these
Christians love one another." And where the
fellow-Christian was so well hated the Jew could
less hope to be tolerated. Well might Bossuet,
in his Histoire des Variations, contend against
Protestantism, that owing to the multiplication of
sects the last state of the Church was far worse
than before, provided, of course, that the underly
ing assumption of the whole controversy were
granted, that any of the conflicting doctrines con
tained the only and the whole truth.
For it was equally the claim of each of the
270

THE BREAK-DOWN OF THE CHURCH-EMPIRE
Protestant persuasions, as of the Roman Cath
olic Church, that it alone held the key to man's
salvation. Each of them also took over from
Rome that conception of the State, which re
garded it as one of its functions to safeguard the
salvation of each and all of its citizens. Hence
arose a Protestant theory of persecution,1 which
regarded it as part of the State's duty to see that
the souls of its citizens should not be destroyed
by the moral contagion of heresy, regarded as an
infectious spiritual disease. The immediate re
sult of the Reformation was to produce a num
ber of national papacies, in which the monarch
took the place of the pope, and claimed an equally
divine right to safeguard the souls of his sub
jects. Even in republics like Geneva, Scotland,
or Massachusetts, this duty to persecute was vested
in the magistrate or in an oligarchic board of
ministers. Jews could not hope to escape, even
though all sides recognized that they held a
part of the Christian truth, for it was equally
the contention of all parties that the decisive
criterion of salvation lay in just these divergencies
from the common fund of truth. It is curious
' See Lord Acton's essay on the Protestant theory of persecu
tion in his History of Freedom and Other Essays, London, 1909.
271

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
that the contemporary Jews had so little influence
on the Reformation which, in a measure, might
be described as a reversion to the pure Hebraism
of the Old Testament and a renunciation of the
Hellenistic elements in the Church.
On the Reformation itself Jews had directly
but slight influence. Reuchlin, one of its chief
forerunners, was, as we have seen, convinced that
the surest foundation for the Christian truth was
to be found in the Kabbalah, and therefore de
fended the study of the Talmud against the con
vert Pfefferkorn, and thus led up to the pub
lication of the Epistola Obscurorum Virorum,
which was practically the first skirmish in the
struggle.1 When, later on, Protestants were
forced back on the literal interpretation of the
Bible as their last stronghold, the question
whether the vowel-points were an integral part
of the text came into prominence, and the services
of Elijah Levita were called in to settle the ques
tion. Indeed, throughout the whole controversy
there was an uneasy suspicion that the Hebrew
1 The best account of the Epistola in English still remains that
of Sir William Hamilton, in his Discussions, pp. 202-38. See
also the relevant chapters in L. Geiger's Johann Reuchlin, Leip
zig, 1871. 272

THE BREAK-DOWN OF THE CHURCH-EMPIRE
truth was only possessed by Hebrews, and the
chief Protestant scholars had resort to the in
struction of rabbis to ascertain it. Throughout
Western Europe a complete school of Christian
Hebraists, among whom may be mentioned Hugh
Broughton, John Selden, and Lightfoot in Eng
land, the Buxtorfs in Germany and Switzerland,
and Surenhus in Holland, made considerable study
of the Talmud and of the post-biblical literature of
the Jews. The two chief Protestant translations
of the Bible, the Lutheran and King James'
Versions, were largely influenced by the Jewish
commentators — Luther by Rashi through de
Lyra's Postilla, and the Authorized Version by
Kimhi. In several of the controversies of the
day Jewish learning was called in as arbiter;
Selden's great work on tithes was based upon
rabbinical sources. Protestant theologians
throughout North Europe consulted Manasseh
ben Israel, and even Pascal's Pensees are full of
references to Jewish authorities. But the chief
theological controversies of the age, on the author
ity of the Church tradition, on Justification by
Faith, on Free Will, on Grace, on Original Sin,
and on Transubstantiation, dealt with topics for
the most part outside the sphere of Jewish in-
273

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
fluence, and so far tended to minimize the Judaic
element in Christian theology.
Curiously enough the most potent influence
was in the political rather than in the theological
sphere, and came direct from the Bible without
connection with contemporary Jews. The theo
cratic and republican tone of the Old Testament
had a wide influence on the sectaries. The short
lived rule of the Anabaptists was based entirely
upon biblical models. I have previously referred
to the biblical influence on Puritan ideals of gov
ernment and social life, and even upon their per
sonal names, and it would be easy to extend the
list.1 A single concrete instance must suffice
here. One of the burning questions of the age
was as to the right of rebellion against kings,
which seemed opposed to their divine right to
passive obedience. Both Papalists and Puritans
were agreed as to the divine right, though the
former contended that this was "conceded" and
conferred on kings by the pope. Yet the Jesuits
needed some modification to excuse their oppo
sition to Henry IV, and the Puritans to legalize,
from the biblical standpoint, their taking arms
against Charles I. Both sides got out of the
1 Supra, chapter i. 274

THE BREAK-DOWN OF THE CHURCH-EMPIRE
difficulty by the theory of a double covenant,
one between the Lord and the king and the
people, in which God promised prosperity if
He were truly worshipped; and the other be
tween the king and the people, that he would help
them in such worship; if the second covenant
were broken the people were released from their
compact. For proof of such a double covenant,
both sides refer to Jehoiada's making these two
covenants with Jehoash.1 Incidentally it may
be mentioned that the notion of popular sover
eignty at the root of such covenants was made
the basis of the theory of the original contract
between government and people, which forms
the whole basis of the theory of government ac
cording to Locke and Rousseau, which was the
motive force of the English, the American, and
the French Revolutions. A further instance, how
biblical texts were regarded as decisive in deter
mining political questions, may be given from
John Cotton's An Abstract of the Laws of New
England as They are Now Established (London,
1641). In dealing with the election of magis
trates, he gives biblical references for each of
his rules. "All magistrates are to be chosen ( 1 )
' Second Kings 11, 17. 275

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
by the free Burgesses — Deut. i, 13; (2) out of
the free Burgesses — Deut. 17, 15; (3) out of
the ablest men and most approved amongst them
— Ex. 18, 21; (4) out of the rank of Noble
men or Gentlemen amongst them — Eccles. 10, 17,
Jer. 30, 21"; and so throughout.1 But it is un
necessary to press this point, which is universally
known, and besides has only indirect bearing upon
the influence of Jews themselves, apart from their
Scriptures. One of the effects of the Reformation was to
intensify the belief in witchcraft and generally
in thaumaturgic practices, on which the prac
tical Kabbalah of the Jews may possibly have
had some influence; Reuchlin certainly appears
to have had some belief in Jewish magic. If so,
the Jews were severely punished, for it helped
to intensify the popular belief that there was
something uncanny about them, and led to those
"vulgar errors" of the Fator Judaicus and about
Jews wearing tails, of which Sir Thomas Browne
speaks, and the latter of which has lingered on
to the present day.2
1 See Dobschiitz, The Influence of the Bible on Civilization,
New York, 1914, p. 159.
2 Perhaps the most remarkable instance of this attitude was
shown in the burning of Jean Allard at Paris, in 1620, for hav-
276

THE BREAK-DOWN OF THE CHURCH-EMPIRE
The Protestant theory of persecution, as we
have seen, was based upon the conception of
the theocratic state derived from Old Testament
models. The extermination of the Canaanites,
the executions of Agag and Haman, the exter
mination of the prophets of Baal, were quoted
as precedents of similar severities toward the
rebels against God's truth. But, in reality, it
was the Hellenistic insistence upon the all-im
portance of doctrine and faith which lay at the
root of the theory. The old Hebrews, so far
as they had any principle at the root of their
persecuting zeal, based it upon the anti-social
practices, to which the worship of Baal, of
Moloch, or of Asherah led. Both Catholics and
Protestants deliberately waged war against doc
trine or opinion, though, of course, in the last
resort they would have contended that this had
a deleterious effect upon national character and
had to be guarded against as insidious moral
contagion. There was further a survival of
the Greco-Roman conception of the collective
liability of the citizens to the gods of the state,
ing cohabited with a Jewess, which was thus regarded as an
unnatural offence. Evans, Criminal Prosecution of Animals,
p. 165. 277

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
which would cause the transgression of one citi
zen against the gods to bring down their wrath
against the whole state.1 Divergent opinion in
theological matters was thus regarded as a sort
of moral smallpox, which the state was justified
in exterminating by any means, however severe.
Both sides in the Protestant-Catholic controversy
were therefore eager to display their zeal for the
faith, as was shown, in the legal murder of
Servetus by Calvin.
Yet the mere existence of dissidents from the
state belief, both in Protestant and in Catholic
countries, brought about a state of affairs which
led ultimately to the toleration of different be
liefs within the state, from which Jews finally
benefited. The stages are fairly clear, and in
each of them Jews had directly, or indirectly,
considerable influence.2
' There is, of course, a trace of this conception in the Hebraic
theocracy, as shown in the leading case of Achan, but the strong
individualism of the prophets reduced its significance.
2 1 follow, for the general outlines, E. S. P. Haynes, Religious
Persecution; u Study of Political Psychology, London, 1904.
Bishop Creighton's Hulsean lectures, Persecution and Tolerance,
London, 1895, are scarcely an adequate treatment of the subject,
and do not do justice to his powers. Sir Frederick Pollock's
essay on "The Theory of Persecution," in his Essays in Juris
prudence, 1882, pp. 144-75, is still slighter.
278

THE BREAK-DOWN OF THE CHURCH-EMPIRE
After the first lining-up of the two forces in
Germany had shown that it would be impossible
to carry out the mediaeval practice of exterminat
ing heresy by burning up the heretics, a compro
mise was reached at the Peace of Augsburg,
^^555^ by which the religion of each separate
state was to be determined by that of its ruler.
This principle, enshrined in the phrase "Cujus
regio, ejus religio," did not imply any tolera
tion within the state of divergent religious
opinion from the state church, but allowed, or
compelled, the holders of such opinions to trans
fer their allegiance elsewhere. In other words,
banishment was substituted for incineration as
a punishment for heresy. Within the state the
legislation "De Heretico Comburendo" was still
operative, as was seen, on a large scale, in the
England of Bloody Queen Mary; but it was ap
plied to Protestants in Catholic lands and to
Catholics in Protestant countries. But here was
international toleration and recognition of alien
faiths between states, though there was, as yet,
no intra-national tolerance.
Now it is scarcely possible that, in thus sub
stituting banishment for burning, the rulers of
the different states had not in mind a consistent
279

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
application of this principle to Jews throughout
the Middle Ages. Whenever a city or a state
had had enough of its Jews, it banished them;
the motives may have been mainly economic, but
the ground for such action was the divergence
of creed. Certainly decrees of banishment were
applied more frequently to Jews in this period
than to dissenters from the Church-States. Dur
ing the fifteen years preceding the Peace of
Augsburg, in 1555, Jews were refused entrance
to the Rhenish Palatinate in 1540, expelled from
Naples and Meissen in 1541, from Bohemia in
1542, from Basel, Zwickau, Plaun, and Leob-
schuetz in 1543, from Austria in 1544, from
Landau and Asslingen in 1545, from Colmar
in 1549, from Genoa in 1550, from Bavaria
and Wurtemberg in 155 1, from Brunswick in
1553, and from the Palatinate in 1555. With
these examples before them, it would not be diffi
cult for the Diet of Augsburg to determine upon
banishment as an alternative to conversion for
dissenters from the state church.
Similarly in the next stage of toleration, rep
resented by the Edict of Nantes, 1598, both
Jewish example and indirect influence are dis
cernible. It cannot be by chance that the three
280

THE BREAK-DOWN OF THE CHURCH-EMPIRE
most prominent voices among the Politiques, who
laid down the principles which were to result in
the Edict — Michel de I'Hopital, Jean Bodin,
and Michel de Montaigne — were all partly of
Jewish race. Montaigne, for example, had a
Jewish mpther, a Protestant brother, while him
self a strict professing Catholic. The existence
of these divergent creeds within their own families
cannot have failed to influence the Politiques to
work out a practical plan for securing intra
national toleration.1 All of them recognized the
desirability of one creed for the state, if it could
be made effectual, and therefore allowed the
theoretical right to persecution. They only
adopted toleration as a practical pis aller; once
it had been shown that persecution had failed,
they contended that toleration of a second
creed (not necessarily of more) was the only
practical means of securing the state against
anarchy. It is probable, however, that the example of
Poland had also some bearing upon the views
of the Politiques and their illustrious follower,
' On their views see the chapter of J. N. Figgis on "The
Politiques and Religious Toleration," in his excellent book,
From Gerson to Grotius, Cambridge, 1907.
281

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
Henry IV. Poland was the one state in me
diaeval Europe in which creed and citizenship
did not, indeed could not, go together. From
the year 1386 the Catholic kingdom of Poland
and the Orthodox duchy of Lithuania had been
united under the same Jagellon dynasty; and the
Catholic Church in Poland dared not persecute
Lithuanian subjects of the same king because
they were of the Greek Church, nor deny their
"Polish" citizenship, and similarly in Lithuania
the co-existence of different creeds, in the same
state system, had to be permitted. As a con
sequence, it was easy for the Polish-Lithuanian
kingdom to admit the existence of a third creed;
and we accordingly find that Poland formed the
asylum for the dispossessed Jews of Germany
throughout the fifteenth century. This indeed
accounts for the fact that, even to the present
day, more than half the Jews of the world are
still to be found within the confines of Old
Poland, where they speak the archaic German
known as Yiddish, which they brought with
them thither in the fifteenth century. This tol
erated existence of so large a number of persons,
notoriously holding anti-Trinitarian views, must
have helped in the spread in Poland of the doc-
282

THE BREAK-DOWN OF THE CHURCH-EMPIRE
trines of Lelio Sozzini and his nephew, Fausto
Sozzini, after whom anti-Trinitarianism was
called Socinianism. Protestantism, in all its
forms, had also spread widely in Poland, and
the variegated religious aspect of the country be
came familiar to the Politiques during the two
years 1573-4, in which Henry, duke of Anjou,
was king of Poland.
Unfortunately the influence of the Politiques
applied only to France, where the only Jews
were new Christians of Bordeaux and Marseilles,
though Henry IV entered into negotiations with
the secret Jews of Spain in 1595, and granted
privileges to the few Jews of Metz under his
jurisdiction in 1602. Meanwhile, however, there
had arisen in Europe a state which, from the
very first, was committed to- practical toleration.
The United States of the Netherlands were a
republic, and therefore had no dynastic connec
tion with any of the ruling creeds, and at the
same time their first stadtholder was, by con
viction and experience, the first princely advo
cate of genuine toleration. But, besides this, the
whole basis of the Dutch Commonwealth was
economic; their strength consisted in their com
mand of the North Sea fisheries. Now com-
283

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
merce, like war, regards efficiency, apart from
birth or creed, as the sole test of service. Hol
land was thus the first type of the Welfare State,
which regarded the material welfare of its citi
zens as its chief aim, and its phenomenal suc
cess made it a rival to the Church-State, which
had hitherto formed the only type of the
European State system. It was not, therefore,
surprising that, as soon as the Batavian re
public was firmly established, a colony of Spanish
Jews settled at Amsterdam in 1593, and soon
proved their value as citizens by their participa
tion in the higher finance of the republic, owing
to their family relations with the Marranos
spread throughout the Spanish and Portuguese
dominions. England soon followed the example
of Holland by the re-admission of Jews under
Cromwell, and there were the beginnings of the
same policy by Colbert, at least as regards the
French colonial empire, in his rescript of May
23, 1 67 1.1
Meanwhile there came forth from Holland
the first plea for absolute toleration, and, charac
teristically enough, it emanated from a Dutch
Jew. Spinoza's Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
1 Revue des Etudes Juive, ii, 99.
284

THE BREAK-DOWN OF THE CHURCH-EMPIRE
contained the first contention that the state, as
such, had no concern with the private opinions
on religion or other subjects of its citizens.1 The
book aroused much scandal owing to its free
thought on theological topics, and thereby at
tracted the more attention to its plea for tolera-
ion. Spinoza's view of the functions of the state
were derived (possibly through Hobbes) from
Jean Bodin, the chief theorist of the Politiques.
This regarded the state as the source of all
law, and gave currency to the notion of a "Com
pact Omnicompetent Sovereign," from whose dic
tates there was no appeal. Under Locke and
Austin this was destined to become the founda
tion of Anglo-Saxon law; in itself it could be
used to buttress the most complete absolutism,
as by Hobbes and the French jurists; but by con
fining the commands of the sovereign to secular
affairs, as advocated by Spinoza, it could leave
an opening for complete toleration, as was shown
in the English Toleration Act of 1689, which
1 Sir Thomas More, in his Utopia, had indeed advocated gen
eral toleration, but only as a far-distant ideal, and he himself
proved to be a consistent persecutor when Lord Chancellor and
keeper of Henry VIII's conscience. Seebohm, The Oxford Re
formers. 285

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
marks- the third stage in the progress of European
toleration. This act was one of real toleration, that is,
while recognizing a dominant religion (the Es
tablished Church, or rather two Established
Churches, Anglicanism in England, Presby
terian-ism in Scotland), it regards dissent as
not, of itself, an offence against law. This is
far indeed from true religious liberty or equality,
since it does not give dissenters equal political
rights, though it grants them, so far as possible,
full civic rights and protects all peaceable and
decent worship. As Tom Paine remarks some
where, toleration once regarded as a favor would
nowadays be considered an insult. But it was
a great advance on intolerance and persecution,
which did not allow even civil liberty to dis
senters from the state Church. The fact that
it was granted in England by a Dutch prince,
William III, is significant. Its chief literary
defender, John Locke, had passed some time in
Holland, and there, doubtless, learnt the prin
ciples which he expounded in his Letters on
Toleration. It is possible also that there was some reflex
influence of the growing spirit of toleration and
286

THE BREAK-DOWN OF THE CHURCH-EMPIRE
even of equality in the American colonies of
England. The Lords Baltimore in Maryland,
Roger Williams in Connecticut, William Penn
in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey, had prac
tically established religious toleration in those
states, while New York, under its Dutch gov
ernors, had, for the most part, adopted the
toleration of the home country. These states
gave henceforth a bright example of a possi
bility of citizens working for the common good
of the state, while each worshipping God in his
own way.1 These were followed early in the
next century by the constitution of Georgia, laid
down by the author of the Letters on Tolera
tion. As a test case, mention may be made of
the reception of a certain number of Jews in New
York in 1654, after their being expelled from
Brazil, when recaptured by the Portuguese from
the Dutch. Old Peter Stuyvesant, the governor,
was in some doubt, but, on referring the matter
to Amsterdam, was ordered to carry out the
general Dutch policy of toleration.
It cannot be said that Jews had much direct
'See S. H. Cobb, The Rise of Religious Liberty in America,
1902, which can be supplemented by O. S. Straus' Roger Wil
liams, and Origin of Religious Liberty.
287

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
influence on this third stage of toleration, though,
as we have seen, it was dominated by Holland,
where Jewish influence was shown by the respect
paid to Manasseh ben Israel and the interest
aroused by Spinoza. But the advantages gained
through the toleration of Jews by Holland certainly
affected the progress of the principle of toleration
as applied to them, as we have seen in the ex
amples of Cromwell and Colbert, and even in
Germany there grew up a class of tolerated Jews
("Tolerierte Juden," "Schutz- Juden" ) , and the
Great Elector not alone received Huguenots after
the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685, but
had previously invited to Berlin the Jews ex
pelled from Vienna in 1670. Yet, though toler
ated, they were burdened with a number of de
grading disabilities; the numbers were limited,
both directly and also by restricting the annual
number of marriages among them; they still had
to bear the badge or other distinctive marks, were
mostly confined to ghetti, and were not allowed
access to the oligarchic guilds that ruled all trade,
and, above all, were laden with innumerable taxes,
which made the rulers as much sharers in their
usury as the mediaeval kings.1
'A. Dietz, in his Stammbuch der Frankfurter Juden, 1907, pp.
288

THE BREAK-DOWN OF THE CHURCH-EMPIRE
The fourth stage in the history of religious
liberty, as applied to Jews and others, began
with the French Revolution, and will be con
sidered in the next chapter, in dealing with the
general relations of Jews and Liberalism. But
it remains to consider how far they were con
nected with what Lecky, Leslie Stephen, Mr.
Baynes, and others consider to be the underlying
cause of increasing toleration culminating in re
ligious equality. All these investigators con
sider that the real underlying cause of increas
ing laxity toward heresy and dissent was the
growth of scepticism about dogmatic religion
caused by the Renaissance and the growth of
scientific inquiry. At the very beginning of the
movement, Pomponazzi, the typical sceptic of the
Renaissance, had put the difficulty, raised by
the co-existence of the three religions, Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam: "If the three religions
are false, all men are deceived; if only one is
true, ,the majority are deceived." And Mon
taigne had put the practical difficulty clearly
when he declared that men ought to be very
400-7, gives a list of not less than thirty-four different kinds of
taxes and impositions to which the Jews of Frankfort were sub
jected. 289

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
sure of their own faith before burning other men
for disbelieving it. When these other men were
often relatives, friends, and neighbors, practical
men felt increasingly the difficulty of carrying
out the stern logic of the Churches; the diver
gence of faith was an infectious moral disease
that had to be stamped out at all costs. Soon
sarcasm was to add its undermining influence to
the direct assaults of rationalism; Bayle, Swift,
Voltaire, and Diderot were to complete the work
of the Politiques and the Dutch. It thus came
about that, while at the beginning of the period
we are now considering it would have seemed
absurd for a Catholic or a Calvinist not to save
the soul of his heretical neighbor by burning his
body, the same conduct would seem monstrous
to men who were looking forward to strangling
the last of the kings with the entrails of the
last of the priests. Persecution that seemed
inevitable and logical in the sixteenth century
had grown to be detestable by the lapse of two
centuries. It is difficult to say whether Jews had much
direct influence on this more subtle cause of
toleration. The general influence of the demi-
Jew Montaigne, in making scepticism the re-
290

THE BREAK-DOWN OF THE CHURCH-EMPIRE
ligion of all men of the world throughout West
ern Europe, can scarcely be exaggerated, and
Emerson rightly takes him as the type of the
sceptic. But while the existence of a Jewish
mother and a Protestant brother may account
for Montaigne's toleration, his scepticism was
individual, as is shown by the contrasting case
of the demi-Jew Bodin, who, while equally tol
erant, was a consistent and rigorous believer in
witchcraft. The existence of so large a number
of Marranos, professing one creed and secretly
believing and observing another, resulted, oc
casionally, in the appearance of a Jewish sceptic
like Uriel Acosta or Orobio de Castro; but
there is absolutely no evidence of any wide
spread scepticism about their own faith, or about
religion in general, among the Jews of this
period, which is characterized, indeed, more by
the growth of superstition among them. The
great controversy of the age was that between
Jacob Emden and Jonathan Eybeschuetz about
the efficacy of amulets.
Just on the eve of the Revolution the ration
alism of the age made its appearance in Judaism
with the remarkable personality of Moses Men
delssohn. By showing himself the intellectual
291

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
equal of the highest German minds of his time,
he prepared the way for his fellow-Jews to acquire
the open career; and by breaking down their
prejudices against adopting European culture with
which, during the preceding two centuries, Jews
had failed to keep up, owing to their forced migra
tions, increased persecution, and social isolation,
he enabled them to take advantage of the oppor
tunities which were about to be offered to them.

292

CHAPTER IX
Jews and Liberalism
The eighteenth century was the era of the "be
nevolent despots" like Frederick II, Joseph II,
Catherine II, who adopted the ruling principle of
the Welfare State that the object of government
should be the good of the people, but considered
that it could only be carried out for the people
but not by them. The weakness of the prin
ciple consisted in the difficulty of securing a herit
able succession of capable benevolence, and the
collapse of Prussia at Jena and of Joseph IPs
well-meant but unreflective reforms led, in the
nineteenth century, to the triumph- of the prin
ciple, first enunciated in America and carried out
in France, of government for the people by the
people. The transition to the next stage, from
religious toleration to religious liberty, is marked,
as regards the Jews, by the tolerance edict of
Joseph II in 1781, which, for the first time,
threw open service in the army to the Jews, and
placed them, to some extent, on the same level
with other dissenters from the state Church of
Austria. 293

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
But this was still toleration and not liberty, and
was soon cast into the background by the full re
ligious liberty granted by the French Revolution
in 1 79 1 in imitation of the clause in the Ameri
can Constitution of 1787, which entirely separated
State and Church. The granting of full re
ligious liberty to Jews had previously been ad
vocated by Mirabeau, and, though Rousseau's
influence, which was all-important in the Revo
lution, still retained a touch of Genevan intoler
ance, Jews came within his religious requirements
for citizenship by their belief in Providence and
in future reward and punishment. It has to be
remembered that in spirit, if not in will-power
or influence, Louis XVI was of the school of the
benevolent despots, and it was he who signed the
edict of November 13, 1791, which placed, for
the first time in European history, Jews on the
same level as the adherents of all other creeds as
regards civil and political qualifications. Holland
was appropriately the first country to grant the
same religious equality to its Jews.1
1 It is perhaps worth while remarking that one of the most
prominent leaders on the Jewish side in Holland, Herz Bromet,
had lived as a free Burgher in Surinam for a long time, and
that the example of America, especially New York State, was
adduced in favor of the movement. (Graetz, xi, 230-1.)
294

JEWS AND LIBERALISM
The French Revolution, from our present
standpoint, is the more remarkable inasmuch as
it is the only great European movement on which
Jews had absolutely no influence, direct or indi
rect, owing to their inappreciable numbers and
insecure position in the chief centers, Paris, Lyons,
and Marseilles; they were influenced by it, not it
by them. As the Revolution principles spread
into the neighboring countries with the French
arms, in Venice the walls of the original ghetto,
from which all the rest received their names, fell
at once on the entry of Napoleon's troops. No
wonder they welcomed with fervor the victories
of the French troops; and we can catch in Heine
echoes of the enthusiasm with which Napoleon
was acclaimed as the Liberator.
Napoleon's own attitude was not so uniformly
friendly to Jews. On his way back from Auster-
litz, in 1805, he learnt, at Strassburg, of the wide
distress caused in Alsace by the exactions of cer
tain Jewish usurers in that province, and on his
return to Paris issued edicts directed against the
Alsatian Jews, restricting their usurious activity.
It is fair to add that these enactments were ob
viously directed against the usury of these Al
satian Jews, and not against Jews in general, since
295

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
they were specifically declared not to apply to the
Jews of Bordeaux in the South or Northern Italy
then under Napoleon's control. It would indeed
have been against the whole tendency of his ca
reer to have made the Jews an exception to that
principle of the carriere ouverte aux talents,
which was the keynote to his whole policy, as it
is logically to all war-lords. It was by no acci
dent that similar indifference towards the creed
of their soldiers, or civil servants, was shown by
William the Silent, Wallenstein, Cromwell, Wil
liam III, and Frederick the Great.
Napoleon's attention having thus been drawn
to the Jewish question, he proceeded, with char
acteristic energy, to solve it by summoning to
Paris a representative assembly of the Jews of
France, Germany, and Italy, who should deter
mine on what terms Jews could be admitted into
a modern Country-State, which had been freed
from the shackles of the mediaeval Church-State,
and only recognized a certain prerogative in the
Church to which the majority of Frenchmen be
longed (the Concordat of 1802). After sum
moning an assembly of Jewish notables for a pre
liminary inquiry, in 1806, a more formal San-
hedrin was summoned in the following year, to
296

JEWS AND LIBERALISM
which twelve test questions were submitted, among
them, whether the French Jews could regard
France as their fatherland and Frenchmen as
their brothers, and the laws of the state as bind
ing upon them. Further points were raised as to
polygamy, divorce, and mixed marriages; remain
ing questions related to the position of rabbis and
the Jewish laws about usury. All these problems
were decided to the satisfaction of Napoleon,
though some of them aroused much searching of
heart among the more strictly orthodox. The out
come legally recognized that there was nothing in
Jewish law or faith which prevented its adherents
from being legitimate and full members of a mod
ern state which, at that time, practically recog
nized Catholicism as the state Church. The sig
nificance of the decision was far-reaching not
alone for the Jews but for the whole European
State system; it was a practical recognition that
the country, not the faith, was the foundation of
a nation, and thus gave the final blow to the con
ception of a Church-Empire, which had upheld
the contrary principle. It was not without sig
nificance that simultaneously the emperor of
Austria agreed to the dissolution of the Holy
Roman empire. 297

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
But though the Jews had had no influence on
the French Revolution and no share in Napo
leon's revolutionary reorganization of West
Europe, next to the serfs they reaped the most
benefit from both movements, because these were
the two most oppressed classes under the feudal
system still surviving. Accordingly, they im
bibed with enthusiasm the libertarian principles
of the Revolution and the "open career" ad
ministration of Napoleon. They threw off with
avidity most of the shackles which prevented their
joining in general European culture, and Jewish
parents of means immediately began giving their
sons and, what is more, their daughters the
secular education which would adapt them to the
careers which now seemed to be open to them as
publicists, lawyers, and civil servants. When the
reaction came, under the Holy Alliance, with its
attempt to revive the Church-State and the closed
career of prerogative, Jews everywhere in West
ern Europe joined the Liberal forces, from whose
triumph alone they could hope for a dispersal
of the clouds which once more obscured the sun
of liberty, in which they had basked for a few
short years. Jews soon ranked among the in
tellectual leaders of continental Liberalism, and
298

JEWS AND LIBERALISM
from 1815 to 1848 exercised an appreciable in
fluence on the course of public opinion. In par
ticular a brilliant band of Jewish litterateurs in
Germany helped to mediate between French Liber
alism and German public opinion, and practically
led the movement known as Young Germany,
which opposed the cosmopolitan tendencies of the
eighteenth century to the narrow nationalism of
the Reaction and advocated the Revolution prin
ciples of liberty, equality, and fraternity, as
against the revival of the claims of authority and
privilege by the Holy Alliance. Borne and
Heine, Hartmann and Saphir, Jacoby and Karl
Marx, are recognized by friends and foes alike
as among the leading influences which led ulti
mately to the downfall of Metternich and his
school. They were aided in their Liberal tendencies by
a remarkable group of emancipated Jewesses,
who introduced into Germany the vogue of the
political salon after the manner of Madame Ro
land and Madame de Stael. They were mostly
from the Berlin circle, which had arisen around
Moses Mendelssohn, and carried his tendencies
towards rationalism and culture to extreme limits.
His two daughters, Dorothea and Henriette, and
299

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
their friends Henriette Herz and Rahel Levin,
created salons to which were attracted some of
the more liberal spirits of the cultured world of
Berlin. Dorothea Mendelssohn ultimately mar
ried Friedrich von Schlegel, and became one of
the Muses of the German romantic school. Pub
licists of distinction like Wilhelm von Humboldt
and Friedrich von Gentz formed, with her and
others of her circle, a "Bond of Virtue"
(Tugendbund), which, according to all appear
ances, was named on the principle of lucus a non
lucendo. Rahel, "the little woman with a great
soul," as Goethe called her, was even a more
striking personality. She numbered among her
friends men of such different types as Schelling
and Schleiermacher, the Prince de Ligne and
Fichte, Schlegel and Gutzkow, Prince Louis
Ferdinand, Frederick the Great's nephew, and
Fouque, Gentz, and the Humboldts, and she
finally married Varnhagen von Ense. She was
the first to appreciate, to its full extent, the multi
form genius of Goethe, and helped the rise to
fame of Borne, Heine, and Victor Hugo. She
was undoubtedly the most striking personality
among the women of her age in Germany, and is
300

JEWS AND LIBERALISM
nowadays regarded as one of the chief fore
runners of the Feminist movement.1
These salons had an air of cultured Bohemian-
ism, which attracted many men of rank in Mid-
Europe who were beginning to be repelled by the
exactions of social gatherings in which all asso
ciations were determined by armorial bearings.
A similar salon was held in Vienna by Baroness
von Arnstein, in whose mansion all the diplomats
of the Congress of Vienna met as on neutral
ground.2 Such gatherings, while helping to liber
alize good society in Mid-Europe, also brought
the position of Jews to the notice of the ruling
classes, and, in many cases, aroused a determina
tion to repair their wrongs. You cannot accept
a man socially yet refuse him the most elementary
rights politically.
The Revolution of 1830 brought into Euro
pean prominence the two most brilliant members
of Rahel's coterie, Ludwig Borne and Heinrich
Heine. Both had made their mark as litterateurs
in the preceding decade, but Borne's Letters
1 See Ellen Key, Rahel Levin.
2 Similar salons were held later by distinguished Jewesses
like Countess Waldegrave, in London, and Madame Raffalo-
vitch, in Paris ; and the Rothschilds have throughout made their
houses centers of the most cultured influence.
301

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
from Paris and Heine's French Conditions
(contributed to the Augsburger Zeitung) drew
the attention of all liberal Germany to the new
hopes aroused by the downfall of the absolutist
monarchy in France. Henceforth they were the
dominating voices in arousing among the Ger
man Liberals the hope of similar liberty, while in
France itself they helped to bring to the knowl
edge of French culture the deeper currents of
German thought and literature. In particular
their brilliant wit and incisive sarcasm set the tone
for the feuilleton literature of all Mid-Europe.
By their very isolation they were enabled to re
gard men and affairs with a certain detachment,
and they both wrote with an iridescent insolence
which can only be described by the Jewish tech
nical word Hutzpah. Treitschke complained of
their frequent irreverences and flippancies, but in
both respects Heine, "the wittiest Frenchman since
Voltaire," was merely following in the foot
steps of his predecessor, and Borne, like Diderot,
knew that the most effective weapon against au
thority is sarcasm.1
1 Treitschke, in the Bilder extracted from his history, does
more than justice to the Jewish influence on German Liberalism.
His anti-Semitism, as so often happens, made him see Jewish
influence where it was not, and exaggerated it where it existed.
302

JEWS AND LIBERALISM
Under their leadership a whole school of lib
eral journalists arose in Germany and Austria,
many of them Jews like Saphir and Hartmann,
and they have given a tone to Mid-European
journalism which has lasted on to the present day.
They thus helped to internationalize Liberalism
of the French form, with its rather vague and in
definite strivings after liberty, equality, and fra
ternity, as contrasted with the Liberalism of the
English type which, dominated by Jeremy Ben-
tham, aimed at constitutional, economical, and so
cial forms of a definite character. Young Ger
many, as represented by Heine and Borne, left
the latter type of Liberalism severely alone.
Yet, in the struggle for constitutional liberty,
which led to the Revolution of 1848, Jews took a
considerable part on the more practical side. The
agitation in Prussia may be said to have begun
with Dr. Johann Jacoby's Four Questions,
which gave rise to Herwegh's outburst of admira
tion (to which Mr. Houston Chamberlain's at
tention may justifiably be drawn) :
"Und wieder ob den Landen
Lag jiingst ein schwerer Bann:
Da ist ein Mann erstanden,
Ein ganzer, deutscher Mann."
303

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
It was Jacoby who in 1848 stood out from a
deputation to King Frederick William IV, when
he refused to listen to them, and said: "It is the
great misfortune of kings that they will not lis
ten to the truth." At the Vorparlament at Frank
fort one of the most striking figures was Moritz
Hartmann, who, with Karl Beck and Alfred
Meissner, had constituted the chief poetic voices
of Austrian Liberalism. In the March days at
Berlin one of the most familiar figures was Leo
pold Zunz, the founder of Jewish science, and
known familiarly to the Berlin populace as "Vater
Zunz." Another Jewish scholar, Schiller-Szinessy,
was a conspicuous figure in the Hungarian revolt,
and a brother of Adolph Jellinek lost his life in
the struggle. In Paris, Adolphe Cremieux was
one of the leaders of the Revolutionary party,
and in Italy the salon of Signora Nathan (mother
of the late mayor of Rome, Ernesto Nathan)
was a center for the adherents of Mazzini.
Everywhere during that critical year Jews took
a part, and often a leading part, in the upheaval
against absolutism.1
1 No adequate or connected account has yet been given of the
part taken by the Jews in the Revolution of 1848. Incidentally,
a good deal of information is contained in the last volume of
304

JEWS AND LIBERALISM
Yet Jews were not altogether unrepresented
among the Conservative forces, counting, indeed,
two of their .chief leaders, F. J. Stahl in Prussia
and Benjamin Disraeli in England. Disraeli's is
the better known name, but it is probable Stahl
was equally influential.1 He is described by Sir
A. W. Ward in the Cambridge Modern History,
x'> 395) as "the intellectual leader of the con
servative aristocratic party and the most remark
able brain in the Upper Chamber ... he largely
supplied the ruling party with the learning and
wealth of ideas on which to found their claims.
Their organ was the Kreuzzeitung, and the party
was called. by its name." Bluntschli calls him,
"after Hegel the most important representative
of the philosophical theory of the State. He, in
many ways, advanced political science by his dia
lectical and critical ability in founding new points
of view."2 But Stahl's historic influence will
G. Brandes, Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature,
vi, "Young Germany."
'Lord Acton, in his Letters to Mary Gladstone, p. 200, de
clares that Stahl was the greater man ; but Acton, from his close
relations with Gladstone, was a somewhat prejudiced witness.
Dollinger, who was an equally competent judge, ranked Disraeli
higher. 2 The Theory of the State, p. 73.
305

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
probably rest on his connection with Bismarck at
the formative period of his career, when the
future chancellor was also a member of the
Kreuzzeitung party.
Disraeli's career and influence is far better
known and need not be further adverted to in this
place. The fact that both were converts has lit
tle significance from our present point of view,
since many of the Jewish leaders on the Liberal
side had also adopted Christianity. It is more
pertinent to remark that one cannot trace their
conservatism to their Judaism, since there was
everything in the Jewish position of their time
to range Jews on the Liberal side. Stahl and
Disraeli are, therefore, to be regarded merely as
examples of Jewish ability. There is nothing spe
cifically Jewish in their influence, unless we regard
the socialistic strain in Disraeli's conception of
"Young England" as a part of the Jewish sym
pathy with the "under-dog," which can be at
tributed to their own experiences and to the tra
ditions of the prophets.
Certainly we find a strong Jewish participation
throughout the socialistic movement which, from
its inception up to the present day, has been
largely dominated by Jewish influence. Modern
306

JEWS AND LIBERALISM
socialism can be traced back to St. Simon, but yet,
at the death of the master, the whole movement
would have collapsed but for the organizing abil
ity of Olinde Rodrigues and the religious enthu
siasm of his brother Eugene. A practical turn
was also given by their cousins, Isaac and Jacob
Pereire, who, as bankers, had thought out the
best means of carrying out the principles of the
school in practical life. An extension of the facili
ties for banking would lower the rate of in
terest and therefore leave more to be distributed
to the workers, while the development of rail
ways would reduce the cost of transportation and
thus lower the cost of living and raise real wages.
Accordingly, the Pereires devoted themselves, with
religious enthusiasm, to creating the Credit Fon
der, and later the Credit Mobilier, and were the
chief agents in developing the railway system of
Northern France, incidentally making themselves
multi-millionaires in the process, though they
never lost their enthusiasm for the socialistic
ideals.1 Most of these left the St. Simonian Church
'They got their altruistic tendencies from their family con
nections. Their uncle, Jacob Rodrigues Pereire (1750-80), was
the first teacher of deaf-mutes. 307

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
when it diverged into the sexual vagaries of En-
fantin, though one of his creeds was: "I believe
that God has raised up Saint Simon to teach the
Father (Enfantin) through Rodrigues." Felicien
David, the musician, however, accompanied En
fantin on his epoch-making journey to Egypt, in
which he implanted the idea of the Suez Canal
in the minds of Muhammed Ali and Ferdinand
de Lesseps, and Gustave d'Eichthal devoted his
enthusiasm and energies to creating, out of the
ideas of St. Simon and Enfantin, a new religion
which should revert to the socialism of the
prophets, while denying or ignoring, like them,
any other life than this. It is said that he con
sulted Heine as to the best means of founding
such a religion. "Get crucified and rise again on
the third day," was Heine's caustic reply.1 En-
fantin's vagaries, while they destroyed any direct
practical outcome for St. Simonism, drew wide
attention to its views, and Jews helped in their
spread throughout Europe, Moritz Veit per
forming that function in Germany, and M. Parma
'The socialistic tone of J. S. Mill's Principles of Political
Economy, which differentiates it from its Ricardoan predeces
sors, is undoubtedly due, in large measure, to his intercourse
with d'Eichthal. See their correspondence, and compare L.
Stephen, The English Utilitarians, iii, 46.
308

JEWS AND LIBERALISM
in Italy.1 The cosmopolitan position of Jews is
seen at its best in such- propagandism, and it is
not surprising that they should have been at
tracted by views the kernel of which were to be
found in the prophets of Israel, whom indeed
Renan, in his Histoire d'Israel,- brilliantly char
acterized as socialistic preachers.2
The later stages of socialism in Europe were,
as is well known, dominated by Karl Marx, who
based upon Ricardo's "iron law" of wages the
imposing edifice of Das Kapital, for long the
gospel of advanced socialism. The brilliant Fer
dinand Lassalle introduced its principles into Ger
man politics, and the most recent stages of Ger
man socialism have been controlled by the oppor
tunism of E. Bernstein, while among its most
prominent leaders have been V. Adler and Paul
Singer. This participation of Jewish intellect and sym
pathies with the Liberal current in European poli
tics made Jewish emancipation a part of the
Liberal creed throughout Europe. Jews were
'A. J. Booth, Saint-Simon and Saint-Simonism, 1871, p. 165.
2 Georges Weill, the historian of the St. Simonian movement,
contributed an interesting essay on Les Juifs et le Saint-
Simonisme in Revue des Etudes Juives, xxxi, pp. 261-273.
309

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
fighting for themselves in fighting for the general
liberties, and their position in the forefront of
the struggle was thus justified by the representa
tive principle at the root of modern Liberalism.
Jewish disabilities were the last stronghold of the
old Church-State conception, and the struggle on
the side of the Reaction, to retain this fundamen
tal principle, was the more intense. If Jews were
granted full civil and political rights, it could no
longer be contended that Christianity was a fun
damental principle of the State (or, as the Eng
lish obiter dictum put it, "Christianity is a parcel
of the common law"). Hence the extreme vio
lence of the defence, which seems, at first sight,
out of all proportion to the interests or numbers
involved. Thus the struggle was as embittered in
Switzerland as anywhere, though the Jews there
only constituted a handful, and the traditions of
the country were in favor of toleration.
From this aspect the fight in England is typical.
As soon as the Catholics had obtained emancipa
tion in 1828 (the Jews had stood aside in order
not to complicate the question), Jewish emanci
pation became part of the Liberal creed, and the
struggle was waged in parliament, or rather in
310

JEWS AND LIBERALISM
the House of Lords, for the ensuing thirty years.1
England was the home of toleration, and her Tol
eration Act, passed as early as 1689, formed the
third stage in the European progress toward re
ligious liberty. Yet the more conservative ele
ments in English life fought against the removal
of Jewish disabilities because it meant the visible
proof of the secularization of English politics.
It is perhaps characteristic that the Tory resist
ance was mainly broken down by Disraeli, of Jew
ish, and by Lord George Bentinck, of Dutch
descent. With Jewish emancipation in England, Liber
alism reached its acme about i860. Complete
civil and religious liberty was gained for Jews
throughout Western Europe during the next de
cade, in the German confederation and in Switzer
land, 1866, in Austria and Hungary, 1867, and
in the German empire, 1871, while even in Spain
the expulsion order was practically repealed, and
toleration, if not liberty, was given to Jews there
' Jewish emancipation in England is thus a striking example
of Dicey's law that thirty years generally elapse before a change
in public opinion is reflected in legislation (Law and Public
Opinion in England.) But against this law is the struggle in
Prussia, which lasted for fifty years, from 1816 to 1866.
311

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
in 1869. By that time Liberalism, both in the
French sense of liberty and equality before the
law and in the English sense of constitutional
government and free-trade, had gained its fullest
triumph, and had spent its force. Its negative
work had been most valuable; it had freed the
human spirit from intolerable shackles and thrown
into the lumber-room the clogging survivals of
mediaeval Feudalism. But to the human spirit
thus freed it had little instruction to give of a
constructive kind; its slogan seemed to be "Go as
you please," or, to use its own formula, laissez
faire, laissez aller. It was rather superficial in
its treatment of national and social forces, and
made no appeal to the more generous imaginative
emotions. It was inevitable that a reaction should
set in, if only to fill the void. Nationalism which
had given vitality to France under Napoleon,
and in Spain, Russia, and Prussia had brought
down his downfall, was opposed to Liberal cos
mopolitanism. Protection to native industry,
which had, only for a moment and in England,
lost its hold, replaced free-trade, and the strong
individualism of "Manchestertum" was drowned
in the rising flood of Collectivism, whether in the
more formal guise of socialism or in the vaguer
312

JEWS AND LIBERALISM
tendencies of philanthropy. In none of these cur
rents of opinion had Jews a prominent voice ex
cept, as we have seen, in the latter, though there
they were mainly effective in opposition and
criticism. All these tendencies, which may roughly be
summed up as the Counter-Revolution, found a
home in victorious Prussia and a voice in Otto
von Bismarck, its representative statesman. As
we have seen, his views on the nature of the State
had been influenced in his formative period by
F. J. Stahl, and his socialistic sympathies may
possibly have been aroused by Ferdinand Lassalle ;
but he was of too independent a character to sub
mit much to external influences, and the tendencies
he represented, Junkertum and Militarism, were
entirely opposed to Jewish Liberalism. For some
fifteen years he found it convenient to work with
the National Liberal party, to which all German
Jews belonged, and among whose leaders the
most prominent were two Jews, Eduard Lasker
and Ludwig Bamberger. But in 1878 he broke
with the party, and let loose the forces of "anti-
Semitism" as a means of discrediting them. The
movement, thus encouraged by Bismarck, soon
spread to Austria and was transformed in Russia
313

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
into the Pogroms of 1881. In France the Royal
ists and Jesuits conceived hopes of reviving the
Church-State, and adopted anti-Semitism as a
means of discrediting not alone Jews but also
Protestants and other opponents of Catholicism.
Their adherents, the French nobility, were espe
cially embittered against the Jews by the bank
ruptcy of the Union Generate, a banking estab
lishment in which all their money had been placed
in the hope of wresting the control of French
finance from the hands of the Rothschilds. Their
chief hope lay in getting control of the General
Staff, by filling its posts with young men of noble
birth, trained by Jesuits. In order to attain this,
they schemed to remove all Jews and Protestants
from the Staff, and thought they had found a
rare chance in their perverse persecution of Cap
tain Alfred Dreyfus. Their scheme recoiled on
their own heads, and the final result of the Drey
fus afaire was to break the alliance of clericalism
and militarism, at least in France.
The Dreyfuss afaire was specially significant
as bringing into play, at one time, all the forces
that have given vitality to anti-Semitism. The
New Nationalism, based not on country but on
race and fostered by chauvinistic anthropologists
314

JEWS AND LIBERALISM
as well as historians, the revived Church spirit,
which sees in the National Church not so much
the guardian of Christian truth as a spiritual bond
of national unity, the New Collectivism, which
sees in capitalism the chief anti-social force, and
the revived militarist spirit which glorifies war
as the regenerator of the nation — all these move
ments combine to regard the Jew, considered as
alien, infidel, capitalist, and pacificist, as the rep
resentative enemy. All the reactionary forces re
gard a revival of the mediaeval Church-State as
both the means and the end of their strivings, and
naturally find the position of the Jew, both theo
retically and practically, one of the chief
stumbling-blocks in their way.
We have now traced, through the Christian
centuries, the State ideal of Europe, with special
reference to the position of the Jews in the various
European countries- as fixed by these political
ideals. We have seen the Church-Empire, after
the downfall of Arianism, forcing upon the Euro
pean states the principle that citizenship should
be identical with orthodoxy. This prevented the
Jew from becoming a citizen in the mediaeval
states, though, owing to his Roman citizenship
315

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
and general usefulness, first as merchant, then as
capitalist, and throughout as intermediary, he was
permitted to hold a tolerated, though intention
ally degraded, position. He was retained as a
Christian evidence, yet at the same time as a
warning of the results of rejecting Christian
truth. The experiment of using the Jew as an
indirect tax-gatherer proved, in most cases, too
costly, and resulted ultimately in his expulsion
from most of the states of Western Europe, and
his concentration in the Turkish empire or in the
dual kingdom of Poland-Lithuania, which had to
be quasi-tolerant because its constituent elements
were of different sections of the Christian faith.
When the Church-Empire broke up into dif
ferent Church-States at the time of the Reforma
tion, the condition of the Jews became worsened
in the national papacies thus formed, owing to the
religious animosities aroused by the reforming
spirit. Protestants felt bound to show that they
were equally eager for the faith and opposed to
the enemies of Christ as their Catholic opponents.
Yet the actual existence of dissenting parties
within Christianity led by degrees to increasing
internal toleration, first by allowing a certain lib
erty of choice in the creed of the Church-State
316

JEWS AND LIBERALISM
(Peace of Augsburg, 1555), then by allowing a
certain autonomy to a single dissenting creed
(Edict of Nantes, 1598), and finally by permit
ting civil, though not political, equality to all
Christian dissenters from the established Church
(Act of -Toleration, 1689). Yet Jews gained lit
tle by this advance in toleration, since the prin
ciple that Christianity was part of the state law
was still rigorously upheld.
Meanwhile there was rising, under the influ
ence of the New World, a conception of the
state ideal, which regarded the welfare of the
whole people as the true aim of social organiza
tion, and welcomed the co-operation of all citi
zens, without distinction of creed, toward that
end. This phase is represented by the rise of
the Netherlands. This commercial form of re
ligious toleration (not religious liberty) is found
wherever Dutch influence extends, in New Am
sterdam, in the England of Cromwell and Wil
liam III, and even in the Prussia dynastically
connected with Holland. At the same time the
same principle was naturally applied in the pro
fessional armies which grew up during the Wars
of Religion, and, in increasing measure, the sol
diers of William the Silent, of Cromwell, of Wil-
317

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
Iiam III, of Frederick the Great, and of Carnot
and Napoleon were welcomed without distinction
of creed or race, provided they were efficient.
Thus both commerce and war tended to break
down the associations of citizenship and creed
within the Church-States, and the general trend
of the American and French Revolutions laid
down the principle of full religious liberty by
which Jews were ultimately to profit under the
growth of nineteenth century Liberalism.
In all this movement Jews had directly very
little influence, though, as we have seen, the
political theories of Bodin and Spinoza and the
general sceptical movement headed by Montaigne
affected public opinion that was ultimately to be
enshrined in law.1 But their indirect influence
was the greater; they were the supreme example
of fidelity to creed, notwithstanding the attempts
of the different states to crush or entice them.
Their steadfastness, combined with the influence
of their own Scriptures, served as an example for
the resolute Protestants, who declined to be forced
into belief in the dominant creed. Religious
1 Montaigne's sceptical influence, however, was individual, not
Jewish, though his views on toleration were, doubtless, influenced
by his mixed relationships. 318

JEWS AND LIBERALISM
liberty has been rightly described as the parent
of political liberty; but for the clashing of the
sects, the forces of absolutism would have crushed
out both political and religious liberty, as they did
in France and Spain. And religious liberty is of
even more spiritual consequence than political,
since it keeps alive the principle that there are
certain spiritual ideals without which life itself is
not worth living. The Jews have been the
supreme example of devotion to this ideal, and
have been silent, though effective, martyr wit
nesses, not so much of their own truth but of the
supreme value of the ideal element in human
nature and development.
It remains to be seen whether the ideals of
religious and political liberty, which have thus
been gained through so much blood and tears,
will be preserved intact against the rising forces
of the reaction and counter-revolution which are,
at bottom, an attempt at a revival of the Church-
Empire. The slogan, "One God, one king, one
people," has again been raised, and armies that
are nations in arms are in movement to the cry.
Anti-Semitism is largely the result of this reac
tion, and while it is dominant in the councils of
certain nations, Jews must once more take up
319

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
their role of martyrs to the wider truth. Nowa
days, however, they do not fight alone, and it is
scarcely possible that, in Western Europe and
in lands dominated by Western European ideals,
they can be re-interned in their ghetti. But the
Colossus of the North still retains the mediaeval
ideal of the Church-Empire, and while that con
trols Russian State policy, Jews will have to
suffer, in all the Russias, indignities and disa
bilities from which they have been freed in the
lands of true civilization and religious liberty.
The ideal of the unified Church-State has been
shattered by the assaults of modern criticism and
the growth of true religious liberty. But the con
ception of all the citizens of a compact territory
animated by the same ideals still retains its attrac
tion; only the unification nowadays is with regard
to the goal rather than to the roads that lead to
it. In other words, the Welfare State (inter
preting welfare as spiritual as well as material)
is taking the place of the Church-State of the
Middle Ages and of Reformation times. What
then is to become of the separate Churches or re
ligious bodies which are found in profusion in
modern states? That is the sole ecclesiastical
problem which the modern statesman has to face.
320

JEWS AND LIBERALISM
Except among the extreme parties, such as the
Ultramontanes, the obvious solution would seem
to be that given by the modern federal constitu
tion in which each state (in this case Church)
has a corporate life of its own over which it has
autonomous control, except in any case where this
conflicts with the general federal ideals. The
Jewish Synagogue may rightly claim its place
among these Churches within the state as having
its part in promoting the general welfare.1
Owing to their mediaeval disabilities, Jews,
though sharing, as we have seen, in the higher
life and in the commerce of Europe, were yet
kept in a kind of enclave in each of the Euro
pean nations, and thus acted, both intellectually
and economically, as a separate body with dis
tinctive tendencies caused by their isolation and
disabilities. Accordingly, we have been able in
the preceding pages to estimate roughly the part
taken by the Jews as a body in the various move
ments which have made European civilization
'In this connection the title of Dr. Figgis's latest book, The
Churches in the State, is significant as contrasted with the older
treatise of Innes, Church and State. Dr. Figgis has been largely
influenced by the views of Maitland and Giercke on the claims
to independent life of the Universitas, or Genossenschaft, as
against the Societas, or limited liability company.
321

JEWISH CONTRIBUTIONS TO CIVILIZATION
what it is to-day. In all these movements (ex
cept possibly one, the French Revolution) we have
seen the Jews, as Jews, contributing toward Eu
ropean culture while sharing in it themselves.
Their monotheistic views and liturgic practices
were the foundation of the mediaeval Church,
both in creed and deed. By their connection with
their brethren in the East and their tolerated ex
istence, both in Islam and in Christendom, they
helped toward that transmission of Oriental
thought, science, and commerce, which had so
large an influence on the Middle Ages and led on
to the Renaissance and the Reform, in both of
which movements Jews had their direct part to
play. So, too, in the struggle for religious liberty
and in the different stages of toleration, which lay
at the root of political liberty, Jews had their
part to play, and, when freed from their shackles
by the French Revolution, took a leading role both
in nineteenth century Liberalism and in the Col
lectivism which has now replaced it.
But, when fully emancipated, Jews no longer
acted in the European world of ideas collectively,
but as individuals, often choosing opposite ideals
and, in most cases, applying the talents thus let
free to objects apart from the general political
322

JEWS AND LIBERALISM
or religious movements of the time. Great as
has been the influence of Jews in their collective
capacity on the development of European thought
and culture up to the present day, it is possible
that their influence as individuals, during the past
fifty years, has been even more, extensive, though
less discernible, owing to the absence of any gen
eral direction to Jewish intellectuality. The re
markable outburst of Jewish talent, which has
been so striking a characteristic since the age of
emancipation, will form the subject of our next
Book.

323

INDEX

Aaron of Lincoln, 208.
Abaelard, 167.
Abarbanel, Don Judah, 180, 181
Abigdor, Abraham, 159.
Abraham, a Jew, assists Ralph
Bruges, 146.
Abraham bar Hiyya, 146, 149, 1
184.
Abrahams, Israel, 261.
Acosta, Uriel, 291.
Acton, Lord, 271, 305.
Adler, V., 309.
^Eschylus, 81.
iEsop's Fables, 64.
Afer, Constantinus, 153, 182, 2
Agrippa, Cornelius, 176.
Al-Battani, 151, 152.
Albertus, Magnus, 165, 170, 1
173, 181, 186.
Albucasis, 154.
Alcuin, 188.
Alexander of Hales, 164, 170, 1
172, 186, 188.
Alexander II., Czar of Russia
Al-Farghani, 146. *S2-
Alfonsi, Petrus, 155-
Alfonsine Tables, 151.
Alfonso X., of Castile, 145, 1
152.
Alfred the Englishman, 145.
Alfred, King, Dooms of, 65.
Al-Ghazali, 166.
Al-Harizi, Judah, 146, 164, 167.
Al-Heitham, 152.
Al-Khwarizmi, Muhammed, 149.
Al-Kindi, 152, 203.
Allard, Jean, burning of, 276.
Al-Mas'udi, 155, 203.

Al-Zarkali, Ibrahim, 146, 151.
Anabaptists, the, 273.
Andrew, a Jew, Michael Scot's
dragoman, 145, 156, 184.
of Angell, Norman, 86, 109.
Anselm, 167, 186.
66, Antiochus Epiphanes, 14.
Anti-Semitism, 9, 13, 14, 16, 18,
27, 28, 29, 35, 38, 54, 87, 88,
240, 302, 313, 314, 318.
Aptowitzer, V., 94.
Aquinas, Thomas, 165, 170, 172,
173, 181, 186, 206.
Aristotle, 143, 156, 166, 168, 169,
°3 172.
Arminians, the, 270.
Arnold, Matthew, 64, 178.
72' Arnstein, Baroness von, 301.
Aranicus, Jacob, alchemist, 162.
Ashley, W. J., 207, 237.
Atonement, doctrine of, 97.
71. Auerbach, B., 178.
Augustine's De Civitate Dei, 95.
33- Augustus, Philip, 210.
Austin, 285.
Aven Deuth; see John of Seville.
Avenzoar, 146, 154, 158.
51" Averroes, 146, 154, 156, 157, 166,
177, j8o, 184.
Averroism, 143, 156, 179.
Avicebrol, 169; see also Ibn Ga
birol.
Avicebrom, 169; see also Ibn Ga
birol.
Avicebron, 169, 170, 171. '86; see
also Ibn Gabirol.
Avicenna, 166, 171, 203.
325

INDEX

Bacon, Roger, 145, 146, 150, 156,
179. 188.
Bagehot, 84.
Bahya, 144, *66,
Ballin, A., 241.
Balmes, Abraham de, 152, 157
184.
Baltimore, Lord, 287.
Balzac, IL, 241.
Bamberger, Ludwig, 27, 313-
Bardi, they 220.
Bardsley's Curiosities of Puritan
Nomenclature, 67.
Baring, Sir Francis,- 238, 239, 240.
Barnato, Barnett, 243.
Barrett, 203.
Bassevi, Joseph, of Prague, 225,
226.
Bayle, 290.
Baynes, A., 289.
Beaulieu, Leroy, 44'
Beauvais, Vincent of, 162.
Beazley, 197.
Beck, J. J., 129.
Beck, Karl, 304.
Behain, Martin, 159-
Behrends, Leffmann, 227.
Beit, Alfred, 56.
Belloc, Hilaire, 31.
Below, 265.
Benjamin of Tudela, 161, 197.
Bentham, Jeremy, 303.
Bentinck, Lord George, 311.
Bergson, Henri, 46, 172, 179.
Bernard, 167.
Bernstein, E., 309.
Bevis, Sir, of Hamton, romance
of, 182.
Bickells, Messe und Pascha, 91.
Bidpai, Fables of, 148, 154.
Binney's sermons, 262,
Bischoffheims, the, 242.
Bismarck, Otto von, 2y, 28, 30,
33, 36. 4*» 3o6, 3*3-
Black Death, 132, 134, 212, 216.

Bleichroeders, the, 242.
Bluntschli, 305.
Boccaccio, 156.
Bodin, Jean, 21, 141, 281, 285,
291, 318.
Boehme, Jakob, 176.
Boetius, 168,
Bonacosa, a Jew of Padua, 154.
Booth, A. J., 309.
Borne, Ludwig, 31, 299, 3001, 301,
30-2, 303.
Bouquet, legal historian, 129.
Bourgelot, 211.
Bossuet, 270.
Bourse, the, 2n, 255. „
Bovobuch, 182.
Bracciolati, Poggio, 180.
Brandes, G-, 305.
Brewer, 145.
Brixia, Johannes de, 146,
Brodskys, the, 242.
Bromet, Herz, 294.
Broughton, Hugh, 273.
Browne, Sir Thomas, 276.
Browning, Robert, n 1.
Bruno, Giordano, 177, 179, 180.
Buddha, religion of, 80.
Burckhardt, 49, 180,.
Burk, Edmund, 47.
Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy,
181.
Buxtorfs, the, Hebraists, 273.
Byron, 178, 240.
Cahorsins, the, 211, 212.
Calo, Maestro; see Kalonymos ben
Kalonymos.
Calvin, 278.
Calvinism, 96.
Calvinists, the, 270.
Cantor, Geo-rg, 149.
Cardan, 176.
Carlbach, J., r6o.
Carvajal, Ferdinand, 222.
Cassel, Ernest, 56,
Castro, Orobio de, 291.

32(J

INDEX

Chamber's Mediaeval Stage, 64.
Chamberlain, Houston Stewart, 31,
4i, 42, 45, 5i» 57. 66, 77* 81,
83, 84, 106, hi, 182, 183, 201,
303.
Charlemagne, 123.
Charles of Anjou, 144, 154.
Chesterton, Gilbert K., 40.
Chrysostom, St, John, 102.
Cicero, 180.
Claflin, H. B., 266.
Clement VI., Pope, 159.
Cobb, S. H., 287.
Cohn, E., 206.
Coit, Stanton, 40.
Colbert, 284, 288.
Coleridge, 178.
Coke's Report, 120.
Columbus, Christopher, 151, 159,
185, 219.
Confucius, 99.
Conybeare, F. C, 98.
Cotton, John, 275.
Coulanges, chauvinism of, 27.
Council of Elvira, 118.
Creighton, Bishop, 278.
Crescas, Hasdai, 177.
Cresques, Jaffuda, 16&, 161.
Cremieux, Adolphe, 3°4-
Cromwell, 23, 223, 284, 288, 296,
3i7.
Cunningham, 254.
Curtze, M., 160.
D'Aguilar, Moses, 234, 235.
Dahn, chauvinism of, 27.
Dante, 175, 180, 212, 262.
Darmesteter, James, 109.
David, Felicien, 308.
De Goeje, M. J., 194, 197.
D'Eichthal, Gustave, 308.
Delitzsch, Friedrich, yy.
De Pass Brothers, ship-owners,
243-
Descartes, 177.
Devic, 203.

Diaconus, Paulus, 193.
Dicey 's law, 311.
Diderot, 290-, 302.
Disraeli, Benjamin, 24, 305, 306,
311.
Diestel, 49.
Dietz, A., 288.
Dobschiitz, E,. von, 70, 71, 72, 276.
Dollinger, 305.
Douay Version, 70.
Dozy, R., 203.
Draper, historian of philosophy,
183.
Dreyfus, Captain Alfred, 32, 314-
Drumont, E., 106, 107.
Ebionites, the, 102.
Ehrenberg, R., 220, 232, 238, 255.
Eliot, George, 178.
Ellis, Havelock, 52.
Elvira, Council of, 118.
Emanuel ben Jacob, 151.
Emden, Jacob, 291.
Emerson, R. W., 291,
Enfantin, 308.
Engelmann, 203.
Ense, Varnhagen von, 300.
Epstein, M., 247.
Es-Saffah, Caliph, 147. 148.
Evans, 277.
Eybeschuetz, Jonathan, 291.
Faradj, Moses, 153.
Favaro, 151.
Fekar, B., 20*6.
Ferrer, St, Vincent, 218.
Ferrer Riots, 219.
Fichte, 178, 306.
Field, Marshall, 266.
Figgis, J. N., 67, 141, 281, 312,
Firdausi, epic of, 80.
Fludd, R., 176.
Fouque, 300.
France, Marie de, fables of, 182.
Frederick II., 145.
Freudenthal, on Leipzig fairs, 231.
Friedlaender, I., 194.

32?

INDEX

Friedlander-Fuld, 242,
Friedlander, G„ 99.
Friedlanders, the, 251.
Froude, 178.
Fuggers, the, 220, 232, 254.
Fuld, Jewish banker, 239.
Funk, Catholic theologian, 207.
Gaius, Institute of, 61.
Galen, 143, 153.
Gama, Vasco da, 159.
Garrison, F. H., 158.
Gehenna, notion of, 97,
Geiger, L., 272.
Gentz, Friedrich von, 300.
Gerard of Cremona, 145, 150, 153,
168.
Gershom, Rabbi, of Mayence, 134.
Gersonides; see Levi ben Gerson.
Ghinkhiz Khan, 197.
Gideon, Sampson, 235.
Giercke, legal historian, 126, 141,
321.
Gladstone, W. E., 305.
Gliickel of Hameln, 62, 263.
Gobineau, race-theory of, 45.
Goethe, W., 178, 260, 300.
Goldberg, Miss Adelaide, 188.
Goldsmid; see Mocatta and Gold-
smid.
Goldsmid, Abraham, 238.
Goltz, von der, 86.
Gooch, 67.
Gospel lectures, 118.
Graetz, H„ 294.
Gregoire, Abbe, memoirs of, 23.
Gregorian music, 64.
Gregory, Pope, 200.
Gregory of Tours, 200.
Gresham, Sir Thomas, 228.
Grimani, Cardinal, 152.
Gross, Charles, 215.
Grunwald, M., 234,
Guggenheim, firm of, 244,
Gundisalvi, Dominic, 164, 168.
Guttmann, J., 165, 169, 174. 328

Gutzkow, 300.
Guy aii, 109.
Hadley, 159.
Haeckel, 178.1
Haftarot, 118.
Hakluyt, 203.
Hamilton, Sir William, 272.
Hammer, 197.
Hanseatic League, 257.
Harnack, Adolf, 49, 941 96, 101.
Harris, Rendell, 100.
Hartmann, Moritz, 299, 303, 3°4.
Harun, al-Raschid, 123.
Hatch, E., 49, 93.
Haynes, E. S. P., 278.
Heffter, legal historian, 115.
Hegel, 178, 305.
Heine, Heinrich, 31, 46, 239, 295,
299, 300, 301, 302, 303, 308.
Helmont, von, 176.
Hep-hep riots, 24.
Hermann, the German, 145.
Herwegh, 303.
Herz, Henriette, 300.
Herzl, Theodor, 62. .
Higher Anti-Semitism; see Anti-
Semitism.
Hill, J. J., 266.
Hillel, 99, 240.
Hippocrates, 153.
Hirsch, Baron M. de, 242.
Hispalensis, Johannes, 152, 164,
168.
Hoadley, 21.
Hobbes, Thomas, 21, 177, 285.
Hobson, J. A., 249.
Hoffmann, M., 206, 210, 215, 263.
Hof-Jude, the, 225, 226t 227, 232,
233, 237.
Hollander, J. H., 109.
Horace, 81.
Hoschander, Jacob, 14.
Hugo, Victor, 300.
Humboldt, Wilhelm von, 300.

INDEX

Ibn Adret, Responsa of, 135.
Ibn Daud; see John of Seville.
Ibn Daud, Abraham, 166.
Ibn Ezra, Abraham, 144, 147, 152,
155.
Ibn Fakih, 197.
Ibn Gabirol, 164, 166, 169, 170,
l85.
Ibn Khordadhbeh, 122, 138, 194,
198.
Ibn Makir, Jacob, 146, 152, 159,
185.
Ibn Sid, Isaac, 151.
Ibn Tibbon, Moses, 164, 167.
Ibn Tibbon family, 144.
Ibn Usaibi'a, 157.
Ibn Wakkar, Joseph, 151.
Ibn Ya'kub, Ibrahim, 197.
Ibn Zaddik, Joseph, 166,
Ibn Zuhr; see Avenzoar.
Immanuel of Rome, 46.
Innes, author of State and Church,
321.
Innocent III., Pope, 17, 122.
Isaac, a Jew, sent by Charle
magne ^ 123.
Isaacs, Nathaniel, 243.
Israeli, Isaac, of Toledo, 151. 158,
185, 203.
Istakhri, 203.
Jacob, a Jew, assists Paravitius,
146.
Jacob Aronicus, alchemist, 162.
Jacob, G., 197.
Jacobs, J., 135, 148, 210,
Jacob's Staff, 159, 161, 176, 185.
Jacoby, Johann, 299, 303, 304.
Jansenism, 96.
Jastrow, Morris, 78, 79.
Jellinek, Adolph, 304.
Jenks, E., legal historian, 117, I24i
205.
Jesus, 99, 100, 108.

Joel, Rabbi, translator of Indian
tales, 155.
Joel, M., 165, 171.
John of Capua, convert, 153, 154.
John of Salisbury, 167, 188.
John ef Seville, a convert, 146,
148, 149, 184.
Joselmann of Rosheim, 223.
Joseph family, the, 243.
Josephus, 12, 101, 191.
Jourdain, 169.
Judaea, Maria, 162.
Judaeus, Isaac, 153.
Judah al-Harizi, 146, 164, 167.
Judah ha-Levi, 144, 166, 183.
Julian, emperor, 77.
Julius of Salerno, 182.
Juster, J., 191, 193.
Justinian, Institutes of, 61.
Justinian, Novella of, 200.
Justinian, Corpus Juris of, 261.
Juvenal, 13.
Kabbalah, the, 175, 176, 177, 179,
185, 260, 272, 276.
Kalam, the, 166.
Kalonymos ben Kalonymos, 1 52,
157-
Kant, Immanuel, 78, 177, 178.
Karpinsky, L. C, 147.
Kayserling, M., 152.
Kedushah, 91.
Key, Ellen, 301.
Kikuchi, Baron Dairoku, 88.
Kimhi, 273.
King James* Version, 70.
Kingdom of Heaven, 95, 99.
Kuenen, A., 107.
Kuhn, Loeb & Co., firm of, 242.
Lagarde, Paul de, 94.
Lammens, D., 203, 204.
Lamprecht, historian, 210.
Lasker, Eduard, 27, 28, 313.
Lassalle, Ferdinand, 309, 313.

329

INDEX

Lassen, 77.
Lateran Council, 122.
Latis, Bonet de, i6o».
La Vega, Joseph de, 229.
Lazards, the, 239,
Lecky, historian of philosophy, 49*
183, 289.
Leclerc, 157.
Lehmann, Behrend, 227,
Leibnitz, 177.
Leon, Messer, 180.
Leone Hebreo, Messer, 181 ; see
also Abarbanel.
Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 308.
Lessing, author of N-athan der
Weise, 23, 79, 178.
Levi, Asser, 266.
Levi ben Gerson, 159, 160, x6x,
176, 185.
Levin, Rahel, 300, 301.
Levita, Elijah, 272.
Levy, Louis-Germain, 174.
Levy, S., 95'
Lewisohn, firm of, 244.
L'Hopital, Michel, 21, 281.
Liebmann, Jost, 227.
Lightfoot, English Hebraist, 273.
Locke, John, 21, 275, 285, 286.
Loeb, Isidore, 85, 157.
Lombards, the, 211, 212, 216.
Lopez, Aaron, 244.
Lowell, James Russell, 57-
Luard, editor of Matt. Paris, 211,
Luca, John, 151.
Lucretius, 81.
Lully, Raymond, i75» *79» 181.
Luther, Martin, 70., 135, 175, 176.
273.
Lyon, Abraham de, 244.
Lyra, N. de, 273.
Macaulay, Lord, 23.
Macpherson, 252.
Madox, legal historian, 126.
Magellan, 159.

Magnus, Albertus, 165, 170, 172,
173, 181, 186.
Maimonides, Moses, 46, 144, 153,
158, 162, 164, 166, 167, 168,
171, 172, 173, 174, 176, 177,
179, 185, 186.
Maitland, legal historian, 115, 116,
126, 141, 321.
Mamran, a legal document, 255.
Manasseh ben Israel, 273, 288.
Mannetti, Agnolo, 180.
Mannetti, Giannozzo, 180.
Manoello, friend of Dante, 1 80 ;
see also Immanuel of Rome.
Mantino, Jacob, 157, 184.
Marcuses, the, 251.
Markgraf, on Leipzig fairs, 231.
Marks, Samuel, 243.
Marranos, the, 213, 218, 219, 222,
223, 228, 245, 257, 264, 284,
291.
Marryatt, Captain, 231.
Marx, Karl, 45, 299, 309.
Mashallah, Jewish Arabian astrol
oger, 162.
Maurus of Salerno, 182.
Maynus, Magister, 146.
Mazzini, 74, 304.
Mecia, 1601.
Medigo, Elia del, 157, 184.
Medina, Sir Solomon, 225.
Meisels, Moses, 226.
Meissner, Alfred, 304.
Melancthon, 176.
Mendelssohn, Dorothea, 299, 30 a.
Mendelssohn, Henriette, 299,
Mendelssohn, Moses, 291, 299.
Mendelssohns, the, 251.
Merton, Walter de, 116.
Messer, Leon, 180.
Messiah, notion of, 92, 97.
Metternich, Prince, 299.
Michelet, chauvinism of, 27.
Mill, J. S., 308.
Mirabeau, 294.
330

INDEX

Mirandola, Pico de la, 151, 157,
175, 180.
Moccata and Goldsmid, bullion
brokers, 222.
Model, Marx, 227.
Moltke, 86.
Mommsen, Th., 31.
Mond, Ludwig, 56.
Monds, the, 241.
Montagu, firm of, 240, 243.
Montaigne, Michel de, 21, 281,
289, 290, 291, 318.
Montanism, 102.
Montefiore, Claude G,, 97.
Montefiore, Sir Moses, 238.
Mordecai, Abraham, 266.
More, Sir Thomas, 285.
Morgan, E. D., 266.
Morton, Levi, 266.
Mosenthals, the, 243;
Moses, the laws of, 66.
Moses of Oxford, 116.
Moses ben Maimon; see Maimon
ides.
Moulton, R. G., 86.
Muhammed, 64, 121.
Muller, Max, 83.
Munk, Salomon, 170.
Murray, J. R., iSS-
Murray's History of Chess. 81.
Mutawakkil, Emir, 17.
Nantes, Edict of, 280, 288, 317.
Napoleon, 22, 238, 251, 295, 296,
297, 298, 312, 318.
Napoleon, Sanhedrin of, 296.
Nathan, Ernesto, 304.
Nathan, Signora, 304.
Neuman, A. A., 135.
Newburg, Philip, 266.
Nicaea, Council of, 102.
Nietzsche, Friedrich, 4a, 85, 170.
Nunes, Dr., 244. 331

Occam, 188.
Omar, Caliph, 17.
Oppenheimer, Emanuel, 226.
Oppenheimer, Joseph Suss, 227.
Oppenheimer, Samuel, 226, 233,
234, 235.
Oppenheimers, the, 225.
Oppenheims, the, 239.
Ordination, 94.
Orr, J., 10S.
Ostwald, 178.
Paine, Tom, 286.
Paracelsus, 176.
Paravitius, 146.
Paris, Matt., 211.
Parma, M., 308,
Pascal's Pensees, 273.
Paulus Diaconus, 193.
Pedro III. of Aragon, 145, 151.
Peiresc, 151.
Pelavius, 151.
Penn, William, 287.
Pereire, Isaac, 307.
Pereire, Jacob, 307.
Pereire, Jacob Rodrigues, 307.
Pereires, the, 240, 242, 307.
Pfefferkorn, a convert, 272.
Philo, 101.
Pigeonneau, 204.
Pisa, Leonardo di, 149.
Planis, John de, 146.
Plato, 81.
Plato of Tivoli, 146, 149-
Poliakoffs, the, 242.
Pollock, Sir Frederick, 49.' "5.
116, 141, 278.
Polo, Marco, 161.
Pomponati, 180.
Pomponazzi, 289.
Pope, J. E., 245.
Port-Royalists, the, 270.
Powell, York, 210.
Presbyterians, the, 270.
Prescobaldi, the, 220.

INDEX

Prothero's The Psalms in History
and Biography, 91.
Ptolemy, Almagest of, 150.
Quintilian, 180.
Rachfahl, F., 265.
Radanites, the, 123, 138, 147, 194,
196, 197, 198, 199, 202, 203,
204.
Raffalovitch, Madame, 301.
Ralph of Bruges, 146.
Rashi, 273.
Rathenau, 242.
Raymond, archbishop of Toledo,
144, 168.
Reinach, T., 191, 206,
Regiomontanus, 159, 181.
Renan, Ernest, 13, 28, 41, 42, 74,
77, 102, 156, 157, 178, 184.
260, 309.
Reuchlin, J., 175, 272, 276.
Rhazes, Arabic writer on medicine,
153.
Ricardo's iron law, 309,
Ridgeway, 204.
Ritter, historian of philosophy,
170, 197.
Rivera, Jacob, 244.
Robert of Anjou, 145, 152.
Robert the Englishman, 160.
Robinson, 108.
Rockefeller, J. D., 266.
Rodrigues, Eugene, 307.
Rodrigues, Olinde, 307.
Roger of Parma, 182.
Roland, Madame, 299.
Roland of Parma, 182.
Romano, Giuda, 180.
Roscher, legal historian, 215, 257.
Rothschild, Baron James de, 241.
Rothschild, Mayer, 226.
Rothschild, Mayer Amschel, 237.
Rothschild, Nathan, 237, 238, 250.

ii^thschild's, the, 32, 239, 240,
242, 301, 314.
Rousseau, 21, '275, 295.
Russell, B., 177.
Saadya, 144, 166.
Sacrobosco, 181.
Sadi, mystic poet, 80.
St. Bernard, 106, 128.
St Cyril, bishop, 16.
St. Francis, 87.
St. Simon, 307, 308, 309.
St. Simonism, 308, 309.
Saladin of Parma, 182.
Sanhedrin of Napoleon, 296,
Saphir, 209, 303.
Saracens, the, 123, 143, 201, 204.
Savasorda ; see Abraham bar
Hiyya.
Sayce, A. H., 182.
Scaliger, 151.
Schechter, Frank I., 116.
Schelling, 178, 300.
Scherer, legal historian, 115, 215.
Schiller-Szinessy, S. M., 304.
Schlegel, Friedrich von, 300.
Schleiden, 49.
Schleiermacher, 178, 300..
Schmoller, G., 229, 236, 237, 251.
Schopenhauer, A., 170.
Schubert, Benedict, 266.
Schueck, A., 159.
Schiirer, E., 191.
Scot, Michael, 145, 146, 150-, 156,
181, 184.
Scotus, Duns, 170, 181, 188.
Scotus, John, 188.
Selden, John, 273.
Seligmans the, 239.
Semikah, 94.
Servetus, 179, 288.
Shakespeare, William, 270.
Shaler, Prof., author of The
Neighbor.
Shamraai, 240.

332

INDEX

Shelley 178.
Simon ben Shetah, 93V
Singer, Paul, 309.
Skeat, 203.
Skinner, J., 108.
Smith, D. E., 147.'
Smith, A. L., 135.
Socinianism, 283.
Sombart, Werner, 48, 215, 228,
229, 247-267.
Sozzini, Fausto, 283.
Sozzini, Lelio, 283.
Spencer, Herbert, 178.
Speyer, Edgar, 56.
Speyers, the, 239.
Spinoza, Baruch, 21, 46, 49, 170,
177, 178, 179, 185, 260, 284,
285, 288, 318.
Stael, Madame de, 299.
Stahl, Friedrich Julius, 24, 305,
306, 313.
Steckelmacher, M., 255, 263.
Stein, L., 177.
Steinschneider, Moritz, 140, 142,
148, 149, 151, 157, 158, 162,
181, 188.
Steinthal, 78, 80.
Stephen, Leslie, 289, 308.
Sterns, the, 239, 240.
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 86.
Stoecker, Adolf, 28.
Stoeckl, A., 28, 175, 186.
Straus, Oscar S., 68, 287.
Strozzi, the, 220, 232.
Stuyvesant, Peter, 287.
Sufism, 175.
Surenhus, Dutch Hebraist, 273.
Susskind von Trimberg, Jewish
Minnesinger, 182.
Swift, J., 290.
Tacitus, 13.
Tarascon, Bonfils de; see Emanuel
ben Jacob.
Taylor, C, 100.

Taylor, H. O., 168.
Tennant, 95.
Thackeray, W. M., 263.
Theodosian code, 118.
Treitschke, Heinrich von, 30, 31,
41, 302.
Trisagion, gi.
Tugendbund, the, 300.
Ulfilas, translator of the Gospels,
70.
Ultramontanes, the, 321.
Vasco da Gama, 159.
Vechino, Joseph, 151.
Veit, Moritz, 308.
Veits, the, 251.
Villanova, Arnold de, 182.
Vinci, Leonardo da, 160,
Virchow, 31.
Visigoth kings, 121.
Vogel, Sir Julius, 243.
Voltaire, 21, 290, 302.
Waetjen, H„ 253.
Wagner, Richard, 182.
Waitz, chauvinism of, 27.
Waldegrave, Countess, 301.
Warburgs, the, 239.
Ward, Sir A. W., 305.
Weberr.Max, 258.
Weigel, German mystic, 176.
Weill, Georges, 309.
Wellesley, Lord, 238.
Wernber, Beit & Co., 243.
Wertheimer, Samson, 226.
Wertheimer, Samuel, 226.
Wertheimer, Wolf, 226.
Wertheimers, the, 225, 234,
William of Auvergne, 164, 169.
William the Conqueror, 124.
William the Fleming, 145.
Williams, Roger, 244, 287.
Wilson, Woodrow, 65.

333

INDEX
Wiseman, Cardinal, 70. Yezdegird II., persecution of, i-5-
Wittmann, historian of philosophy, Yeser ha-Ra' , 100.
I7I. Young, Arthur, 252.
Wolf, G., 226. Yule's Glossary, 203, 204.
Wolf, L., 224. ZwiHglians, the, 270.
W'ocher, the, Jewish itinerant Zacuto, Abraham, 151, 160.
agents, 231. Zola, £., 24.0.
Worms, Jacob, 22s. Zunz, Leopold, 161, 304.

334

1279