Difference between revisions of "Johannes Pfefferkorn" - New World Encyclopedia
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Pfefferkorn's name has become practically synonymous with anti-Jewish treason in the Jewish community, and his career after his supposed victory of Reuchlin is unknown. | Pfefferkorn's name has become practically synonymous with anti-Jewish treason in the Jewish community, and his career after his supposed victory of Reuchlin is unknown. | ||
| − | == | + | ==Making a career of apostasy== |
| − | Born a Jew, possibly in [[Nuremberg]], Pfefferkorn moved to [[Cologne]] after many years of wandering. After allegedly committing a burglary, he was imprisoned and released in 1504. He converted to [[Christianity]] in 1505 and was [[baptism|baptized]] together with his family. | + | Born a Jew, possibly in [[Nuremberg]], Pfefferkorn moved to [[Cologne]] after many years of wandering. After allegedly committing a burglary, he was imprisoned and released in 1504. He converted to [[Christianity]] in 1505 and was [[baptism|baptized]], together with his family. |
| − | Pfefferkorn became an assistant to [[Jacob van Hoogstraaten]], the [[prior]] of the Dominican monastery at Cologne, and under the auspices of the Dominicans published several pamphlets alleging that the Jewish religious writings | + | Pfefferkorn became an assistant to [[Jacob van Hoogstraaten]], the [[prior]] of the Dominican monastery at Cologne. He showed talent as a writer, and under the auspices of the Dominicans published several pamphlets alleging that the Jewish religious writings such as the [[Talmud]] and later [[rabbi]]nical works were extremely hostile to [[Christianity]]. The tone of his writings and the anti-Jewish policies he espoused became increasingly extreme with time, as he encountered bitter opposition from his former co-religionists. |
| − | In ''Der Judenspiegel'' (1507), he demanded that the Jews should give up the practice of [[usury|lending at interest]], attend Christian sermons, and do away with the books of the Talmud. | + | In ''Der Judenspiegel'' (1507), he already demanded that the Jews should give up the practice of [[usury|lending at interest]], attend Christian sermons, and do away with the books of the Talmud. On the other hand, he condemned the outright persecution of the Jews as an obstacle to their [[conversion]], and in ''Warnungsspiegel'' he defended the Jews against charges of murdering Christian children [[blood libel|for ritual purposes]]. Here he portrayed himself as a friend of the Jews who desired to introduce Christianity among them for their own good. However, he also advocated seizing the Talmud by force. "The causes which hinder the Jews from becoming Christians," he wrote, "are three: first, usury; second, because they are not compelled to attend Christian churches to hear the [[sermon]]s; and third, because they honor the ''Talmud''." |
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| − | |||
Bitterly opposed by the Jews on account of this work, he virulently counter-attacked in ''Wie die blinden Jüden ihr Ostern halten'' (1508), ''Judenbeicht'' (1508), and ''Judenfeind'' (1509). In ''Judenfeind'', he contradicted his earlier defense of the Jewish violence against Christians and insisted that every Jew considers it a good deed to kill, or at least to mock, a Christian. "It is the duty of the people to ask permission of the rulers to take from the Jews all their books except the Bible," he declared. He also deemed it the duty of all true Christians to expel the Jews from all Christian lands. If the law should forbid such a deed, he claimed, Christians do not need to obey it. He even went so far as to preach that Jewish children should be taken away from their parents and educated as Catholics. In conclusion he wrote: "Who afflicts the Jews is doing the will of God, and who seeks their benefit will incur damnation." | Bitterly opposed by the Jews on account of this work, he virulently counter-attacked in ''Wie die blinden Jüden ihr Ostern halten'' (1508), ''Judenbeicht'' (1508), and ''Judenfeind'' (1509). In ''Judenfeind'', he contradicted his earlier defense of the Jewish violence against Christians and insisted that every Jew considers it a good deed to kill, or at least to mock, a Christian. "It is the duty of the people to ask permission of the rulers to take from the Jews all their books except the Bible," he declared. He also deemed it the duty of all true Christians to expel the Jews from all Christian lands. If the law should forbid such a deed, he claimed, Christians do not need to obey it. He even went so far as to preach that Jewish children should be taken away from their parents and educated as Catholics. In conclusion he wrote: "Who afflicts the Jews is doing the will of God, and who seeks their benefit will incur damnation." | ||
Revision as of 21:08, 4 August 2008
Johannes (Josef) Pfefferkorn (1469 – 1523) was a Jewish-German Catholic theologian and writer who converted from Judaism and became an infamous anti-Jewish pamphleteer. After joining the Dominicans, Pfefferkorn criticized Jewish tradition, especially the Talmud, as anti-Christian. He attempted to have copies of the Talmud confiscated or destroyed, urged that Jews be forced to attend Christian sermons and eventually that they be expelled from Christians lands if the did not convert.
Pfefferkorn succeeded temporarily in influencing Emperor Maximilian to authorize the confiscation of the Talmud in several major German cities under Pfefferkorn's supervision. However, protests from more liberal-minded Catholics soon caused the opening a broader investigation. Pfefferkorn's leading opponent in this dispute was the German humanist Johann Reuchlin. A long-running a bitter pamphleteering campaign now began between the two men.
The emperor ultimately decided to rescind his decree against Jewish literature, but Reuchlin found himself in trouble with the Dominicans, who were in charge of the Inquisition. Pope Leo X ultimately decided against Reuchlin, and Pfefferkorn declared himself victorious, although his the emperor did not re-adopt adopt his recommendations.
Pfefferkorn's name has become practically synonymous with anti-Jewish treason in the Jewish community, and his career after his supposed victory of Reuchlin is unknown.
Making a career of apostasy
Born a Jew, possibly in Nuremberg, Pfefferkorn moved to Cologne after many years of wandering. After allegedly committing a burglary, he was imprisoned and released in 1504. He converted to Christianity in 1505 and was baptized, together with his family.
Pfefferkorn became an assistant to Jacob van Hoogstraaten, the prior of the Dominican monastery at Cologne. He showed talent as a writer, and under the auspices of the Dominicans published several pamphlets alleging that the Jewish religious writings such as the Talmud and later rabbinical works were extremely hostile to Christianity. The tone of his writings and the anti-Jewish policies he espoused became increasingly extreme with time, as he encountered bitter opposition from his former co-religionists.
In Der Judenspiegel (1507), he already demanded that the Jews should give up the practice of lending at interest, attend Christian sermons, and do away with the books of the Talmud. On the other hand, he condemned the outright persecution of the Jews as an obstacle to their conversion, and in Warnungsspiegel he defended the Jews against charges of murdering Christian children for ritual purposes. Here he portrayed himself as a friend of the Jews who desired to introduce Christianity among them for their own good. However, he also advocated seizing the Talmud by force. "The causes which hinder the Jews from becoming Christians," he wrote, "are three: first, usury; second, because they are not compelled to attend Christian churches to hear the sermons; and third, because they honor the Talmud."
Bitterly opposed by the Jews on account of this work, he virulently counter-attacked in Wie die blinden Jüden ihr Ostern halten (1508), Judenbeicht (1508), and Judenfeind (1509). In Judenfeind, he contradicted his earlier defense of the Jewish violence against Christians and insisted that every Jew considers it a good deed to kill, or at least to mock, a Christian. "It is the duty of the people to ask permission of the rulers to take from the Jews all their books except the Bible," he declared. He also deemed it the duty of all true Christians to expel the Jews from all Christian lands. If the law should forbid such a deed, he claimed, Christians do not need to obey it. He even went so far as to preach that Jewish children should be taken away from their parents and educated as Catholics. In conclusion he wrote: "Who afflicts the Jews is doing the will of God, and who seeks their benefit will incur damnation."
Anti-Jewish policies
Pfefferkorn did not limit his campaign against the Jews to writing. He obtained recommendations from several Dominican establishment addressed to Kunigunde, the sister of the Emperor Maximilian, and through her influence to the emperor himself. On August 19, 1509, Maximilian, who already had expelled the Jews from his own domains of Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, ordered the Jews to deliver to Pfefferkorn all books opposing Christianity or else to destroy any Hebrew book except the Old Testament. Pfefferkorn began the work of confiscation at eitehr Frankfort-on-the-Main or Magdeburg and them proceeded to Worms, Mainz, Bingen, Lorch, Lahnstein, and Deutz.
Through the help of the elector and archbishop of Mainz, Uriel von Gemmingen, the Jews asked the emperor to appoint a commission to investigate Pfefferkorn's accusations. A new imperial mandate of November 10, 1509, gave the direction of the whole affair to archbishop, with orders to secure opinions from the universities of Mainz, Cologne, Erfurt, and Heidelberg, as well as from the inquisitor Jakob Hochstraten of Cologne, from the priest Victor von Carben, and from the humanist scholar Johann Reuchlin. To justify his views, Pfefferkorn, now wrote In Lob und Eer dem allerdurchleuchtigsten grossmechtigsten Fürsten und Herrn Maximilian. In April, 1510 he was again at Frankfort, and with the delegate of the elector of Mainz and Professor Hermann Ortlieb, he undertook a new confiscation of Jewish books.
In October 1510, the inquisitor Hochstraten and the universities of Mainz and Cologne decided in favor of Pfefferkorn's allegations that Talmud and other Jewish works deserved to be taken from the Jews. Reuchlin, on the other hand, declared that only sections of the Talmud which were specifically and virulently anti-Christian should be banned. Besides the Hebrew Bible itself, he divided the books into six classes, demonstrating that the those openly insulting to Christianity were very few and viewed as worthless by most Jews themselves. He showed the others to be either works necessary to the Jewish worship—which were licensed by both papal and imperial law—or contained matter of historical and scholarly value which ought not to be sacrificed. Rather than confiscating the books of the Talmud, the Zohar, the commentaries of Rashi, and the works of later rabbinical sages, he proposed that the emperor should decree that there be two Hebrew chairs at every German university, for which the Jews should furnish books.
The elector-archbishop sent all the answers received at the end of October, and on May 23, 1510, the emperor suspended his edict of 1509. The confiscated books were returned to the Jews.
Battle against Reuchlin
Informed of Reuchlin's vote in favor of the Jews, Pfefferkorn answered with Handspiegel (1511), in which he attacked Reuchlin personally. Reuchlin complained to the Emperor Maximilian and also answered Pfefferkorn's attack with his Augenspiegel, against which Pfefferkorn published his Brandspiegel. In June 1513, both parties were ordered to silence by the emperor. In 1514, however, Pfefferkorn published a new polemic, Sturmglock, against both the Jews and Reuchlin.
However, the issue had now become emblematic of the ideological struggle between the Dominicans and the humanists. The inquisitor Hochstraten began an investigation against Reuchlin's views in 1513. Reuchlin appealed to Pope Leo X, and controversy became an issue at the major German universities. Pfefferkorn, as well as the Dominican brand of late scholasticism generally, was assailed by the young humanists who espoused Reuchlin's cause in the satirical Epistolæ obscurorum virorum ("Letters of the Obscure Men"). The Lateran Council at its session of 1516, decided in favor of Reuchlin, but this verdict was set aside. Meanwhile and Pfefferkorn replied against the "Obscure Men" with Beschirmung (1516), and Streitbüchlein (1517).
The controversy then lost steam as public attention shifted to Martin Luther's clash with the pope over the selling of indulgences and the reformation of the Roman Catholic church. However, in 1520, Pope Leo X condemned the views which Reuchlin had expressed in Augenspiegel, and Pfefferkorn wrote an expression of his triumph Ein mitleidliche Klag (1521).
Legacy
After this, nothing more is heard of Pfefferkorn or his career in the Dominican order. The Dominicans had won their fight against Reuchlin, but the emperor's edict against the Jews was not revived.
Among the Jews, the name of Pfefferkorn lives in infamy, not only as a famous Jewish convert to Christianity, but as one who supported the harshest of policies against the Jews and their religion.
See also
Notes
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
- This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.
External links
- Reuchlin, Pfefferkorn, and the Talmud in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries at sacred-texts.com
- Reuchlin at Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College
- Minorities in the Imperial Tradition
- [[wikisource:Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Johannes Pfefferkorn "|Johannes Pfefferkorn]".] Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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