jewishpersecution


Crusades-Encyclopedia Return to Crusades-Encyclopedia Return to Jews and the Crusades Jewish Persecution During the Crusades See accompanying source selections below

The Modern Controversy: Popular and Scholarly The First Crusade embarked from Europe in roughly three major waves. Although the Pope and other major leaders had agreed on a later date of departure, the participants of the first wave set out early and on their own. As they made their way through Germany, they reportedly reasoned that if they had a duty to fight the Muslim infidel in the Holy Land, then they had an equal responsibility to deal with the Jewish infidel of Europe. As a result, some of the participants of the first wave actively sought out German Jews and offered them the disturbing choice of death or conversion to Christianity. This resulted in the slaughter of thousands of Jews who were unwilling to abandon their faith. In some cases, when all hope of resistance was lost, many besieged and desperate Jews slew their families, including their children, and then killed themselves to insure they neither abandoned their faith nor suffered the abuse of the crusaders. The attacks on Jews are among the most controversial events of the crusading period. In 1996 the so-called Reconciliation Walk movement began its tour to apologize for the crusades by apologizing to Jewish communities in Germany. Karen Armstrong, the popular English writer and well known critic of the crusades, has written that the attacks on Jews during the crusades “would bequeath to the Western world…a long and shameful tradition of hatred for the Jewish people.”(1) Armstrong cites the attacks as the first pogroms of Europe and has suggested that the prejudices of Nazi Germany were inspired by the crusades.(2) Similar motives have been attributed to the crusaders by James Carroll, who in a recent popular study claimed that attacks on Jews during the crusades were, “Europe’s rehearsal for the extermination of Jews that would not conform.”(3) Scholars have used similar language as Thomas Madden has placed the crusaders attacks on Jewish communities under the category of “mishaps, blunders, and crimes,”(4) while Jonathan Riley-Smith has referenced such attacks as the “first holocaust” of European Jews.(5) Concerning the issue of modern apologies for the crusades (see chapter one), scholars who reject such a proposal seem less opposed when the issue is not related to the crusaders dealings with Islam. Riley-Smith, although a critic of the idea of apologizing for the crusades in principle, has suggested that, “If we are going to express contrition for the behavior of the crusaders, it is not so much to the Muslims that we should apologize, but to the Jews and to our fellow Christians.”(6) Anti-Semitism in Christian Europe before the Crusades Life for Jews in Medieval Europe was often complicated by the historical prejudices of the dominant Christian majority. A large number of influential early Christian writers had interpreted the Christian scriptures as hostile to Judaism. Such an interpretation was drawn from several New Testament passages in which Jesus describes Jewish leaders as “snakes” and a “brood of vipers.” (7) Perhaps most telling of all is the instance in which Pontius Pilate asked the Jewish mob what he should do with the imprisoned Jesus. In all four Gospels the Jews are recorded as enthusiastically responding “Crucify him!”(8) At this Pilate washed his hands, symbolizing the responsibility the Jews will have for Christ’s death, to which the mob responded, “Let his blood be on us and our children.”(9) Such passages became the basis of early and medieval Christian beliefs that Jews were responsible for the unforgivable execution of Christ. Medieval clerical writers studied and, in many cases, revered a number of important early Christian writers who had considerable influence on the development of early Christianity. Such writers argued that the followers of Christ represented the fulfillment of the scriptures and their new faith was to serve as a replacement for Judaism. In this sense, Christianity was superior to Judaism, and the fact that some persisted in the practice of Judaism, rather than embracing what for Christians was the obvious truth of Christianity, became the cause of suspicion and mistrust. This mistrust of Jewish communities led to the emergence of the so-called blood libel myths. Although the myths were sensational, including tales of ritual murder and cannibalism, many Christians from the lower classes of society appeared to have believed them.(10) Jews were viewed with suspicion in Christian antiquity and this carried over into the early medieval period. At the Council of Toledo in 694, “impious Jews” were condemned for their suspected treachery towards Christians for having “entered into a plot” that they might “throw the Church into confusion…to bring ruin to the Fatherland and to all the population.”(11) With the Muslim conquest of most of Spain in the eighth century, Iberian Christians became convinced that Jews had assisted and welcomed the conquerors.(12) Similar concerns, misunderstandings, and rumors about Jews inspired annual assaults on French Jewish populations from the early ninth century until at least the twelfth century. Each year in Toulouse a Jew was required to receive a public slap in the face. On at least one occasion the Jew was reportedly hit so hard that he died of a fractured skull.(13) In an event that may serve as a prefigurement of the later attacks on Jews during the First Crusade, the destruction of the Holy Sepulcher in 1009 by the reportedly mad Egyptian Caliph al-Hakim resulted in multiple outbreaks of mob violence against Jews in Europe.(14) Although Jews experienced several instances of discrimination and periodic bouts of persecution, it would be a mistake to define their existence in medieval Europe as solely one of victimization. Scholars of Jewish history have emphasized that, contrary to the claims of many popular writers, violence toward Jews during the crusades did not represent a turning point in medieval Jewish life.(15) While popular Christian perspectives of the Jews in the middle ages had long been dominated by suspicion and mistrust, the perspectives of the clerical elite, as well as many secular rulers, were often considerably less hostile throughout the Middle Ages. A lack of uniform laws allowed Jewish communities much flexibility in relocating to lands where the ecclesiastical and secular leadership might be more appreciative of their presence and the wealth that often came with it. Since the early Middle Ages many French and German Jews had been granted charters by bishops or secular rulers that allowed for certain protections including a relatively broad degree of religious freedom (with the exception of proselytization). Many medieval European Jewish communities also found ways to prosper economically within the frameworks established for them by Christian and secular authorities. In some cases, European Jews were also granted significant political standing in Christian communities, which was perhaps best demonstrated by the right of many Jews in French and German communities to bear arms well into the 13th century.(16) It should also be understood that violence in medieval Europe was certainly not exclusive to Jews as Christian on Christian bloodshed was far more common. In the 10th and 11th centuries violence among Christians was such a problem that ecclesiastical authorities, fearing its destabilizing effects in Europe, launched the Peace and Truce of God movements in an attempt to bring it under control (see chapter two). Consequently, it is not surprising that Jews living in Christian lands during periods of increased violence among Christians occasionally become victims of such violence. While Popes and other important medieval churchmen sometimes used harsh and discriminatory terms to describe the Jews and their place in Christian Europe, they generally did not accept the more defamatory popular stories circulating about the Jews and often made significant efforts to quell potential violence against Jewish communities. For clerical leaders, there were two important theological reasons that were at the heart of such sentiments. First, Jewish communities in Europe provided a living breathing historical witness to events from the Bible. The very existence of the Jews, they argued, served as a testament to the historical reliability of the scriptures. Second, Christian leaders believed that Jews were central to the redemption narrative as the Bible foretold the conversion of the Jews at the end of time. It was believed that the conversion of the Jews would usher in the second coming of Christ and the final redemption. Indeed such an event was eagerly anticipated by some Christians looking for signs of the second coming at the beginning of the new millennium. Therefore, the Jews as a community of religious believers were allowed to continue to exist so that they could fulfill such a prophecy. For related reasons, forced conversions to Christianity, like those that took place during the crusades, were never endorsed by any Pope and were formally rejected by canon law. Yet the fact that violence toward Jews continued, even when condemned by the highest ecclesiastical and secular authorities, is demonstrative of the gulf between law and practice in Medieval Europe, as popes and kings often had much less power and influence than their published statements would suggest. Attacks on Jews during the Crusades The First Crusade embarked from Europe in three waves. At a time of near famine conditions in Europe, the second and third waves of crusaders heeded the leadership of the Pope and waited until after the robust harvest of 1096 to assure they had proper supplies. The impatient members of the first wave, however, set out earlier that year expecting to be supplied by charity and gifts from local Christian populations along their route. When proper supplies were not made available, the crusaders took to plunder and theft to secure their provisions. So while they may have been enthusiastic, they were also poorly led, poorly organized, poorly equipped, and viewed with hostility by many of the local communities through which they traveled. Although Pope Urban II had hoped that the crusade would be mostly composed of knights and others who were suitable for a military expedition, people of all classes and stations took the cross upon hearing of the spiritual benefits promised at Clermont. As a result, the first wave of crusaders, the so-called People’s Crusade, was composed mostly, although not exclusively, of members of the lower classes of society. Their members fell into four major groups under different leadership and, for the most part, did not travel together. Of these four groups, the one under the direction of the charismatic preacher Peter the Hermit, connected with soldiers under the leadership of the knight Walter of Sansavoir, was the only one to actually make it to the East, reaching as far as Asia Minor where their forces were quickly annihilated by the Turks. The other three armies that made up the rest of the first wave, under the direction of the priests Folkmar and Gottschalk and the German Count Emicho of Leiningen, were all destroyed as they made their way through Hungary. By October of 1096 the People’s Crusade was over and had contributed nothing to the final later success of the First Crusade. Although the People’s Crusade was inconsequential to the success of the First Crusade, the extreme violence committed by some of its members toward European Jews remains a source of controversy. Without question, the most notorious leader of the People’s Crusade was Emicho. Based in the Rhineland, Emicho was a well known robber baron who held lands near Mayence (Mainz) and Worms, but it was the brutality inflicted by his forces on European Jews that became his legacy. In early May of 1096 Emicho’s crusaders marched along the Rhine attacking Jews nearly everywhere they found them. In the city of Speyer the Jews took temporary refuge from their attackers in their synagogue. The crusaders successfully stormed the building and killed several Jews in the process. At this point, Bishop John, perhaps abiding by a charter from 1084 that provided the Jews of Speyer physical protection, successfully convinced the crusaders to stop their attack. Not only did the bishop grant the surviving Jews protection in his castle, but he punished some local citizens who had aided the crusaders by cutting off their hands.(17) Apparently undaunted by the bishop’s actions, Emicho’s crusaders then marched to the city of Worms where Jews again became their victims. At Worms the violence was much deadlier than at Speyer, as perhaps eight hundred Jews were slaughtered by the crusaders. Aware of the events at Speyer, some Jews again turned to the local bishop for help and were allowed to hide in his compound. Other Jews reportedly gave their valuables to trusted Christian families for safekeeping and hid in their homes where they began a regiment of fasting and prayer. In response zealous townspeople, eager to assist the crusaders, began to tear apart homes searching for Jews. Hundreds of Jews were discovered and, although some accepted conversion to Christianity, over three hundred were slain. Then the rampaging mob turned their attention to the roughly five hundred Jews protected in the bishop’s compound. With this turn of events the bishop told his guests that the only way he could ensure their safety was through their conversion to Christianity. In response, several Jews killed their families and then themselves while nearly all others became passive victims of the mob when it finally stormed the bishop’s compound. In both cases, those who accepted death, whether by their own hand or the hands of the mob, were celebrated by later Hebrew chroniclers as martyrs for refusing to abandon their faith.(18) News of the massacre at Worms quickly spread through the surrounding Jewish communities. When the Jews at Mayence learned that the crusaders would be visiting their town next, they petitioned the city’s archbishop and a local count for protection. Both the archbishop and the count agreed to do so, but only in return for a considerable amount of silver, which the Jews promptly paid. They even sent gold to Emicho, which he accepted in exchange for a promise of no further attacks on Jews. Although the Jews of Mayence made arrangements with the city leaders for their safety, they received little support from the townspeople who threw open the city gates and welcomed the crusaders. Upon entering the city the crusaders, accompanied by several townspeople, headed straight for the bishop’s palace. Leading the attack was Emicho, who had lied when he earlier accepted their gold in exchange for peace. In response to the threat of the mob, the archbishop and his staff fled to the nearby town of Rudesheim, leaving the Jews behind to deal with the mob on their own. Again, like with earlier attacks in Speyer and Worms, many non resisting Jews were slain, but by a much greater degree than on previous occasions some Jews fought back against their attackers. Their situation was hopeless as they were greatly outnumbered, not as well armed, and weakened from fasting. The mob quickly overpowered those defending the bishop’s palace and murdered several hundred Jews. Like in previous attacks some Jews were offered the chance to convert to Christianity, which some did, to save themselves or their families. Also like on previous occasions, the majority of Jews either accepted their executions at the hands of the mob or committed suicide. The records of the suicides are particularly gruesome, as Jewish parents are recorded as cutting the throats of their small children to keep them from falling into the hands of the crusaders and then killing their spouses before killing themselves. Attacks on Jews in Mayence and the immediate surrounding area continued into early June. When it was over, anywhere between seven hundred and thirteen hundred Jews were dead.(19) After taking part in only the opening days of the attacks in Mayence, a band of Emicho’s crusaders left the main body and headed for the Moselle Valley region where they launched more attacks on Jews in Trier and Metz. Meanwhile, Emicho and his remaining followers continued on to the city of Cologne, a curious northwest route for crusaders supposedly headed for the Holy Land. Upon hearing of the crusaders’ approach, the Cologne Jews turned to sympathetic Christians for help and in many cases found refuge in Christian homes. On 1 June a mob composed of crusaders and local townspeople finally attacked the Jewish quarter. When they found it was essentially abandoned, they looted the homes and destroyed the synagogue. While the local bishop later smuggled many of the Jews into neighboring communities for their protection, a group of peasants found out about one of the areas Jews were hidden. Men, women, and children were again slaughtered or, in several cases, tortured in hope they would convert. This violence was quickly followed by similar attacks in neighboring villages. Without doubt, the attacks on Rhineland Jewry during the First Crusade represented the greatest violence towards Jews during the crusading era. Yet attacks on Jews did not begin or end with the so-called People’s Crusade and were not limited to the Rhineland. Some earlier attacks took place in France shortly after the Council of Clermont. French Jews had sent warnings, but Rhineland Jews, more confident of their place in their societies, showed relatively little concern until violence broke out in Germany.(20) There were also at least two other major attacks on Jews carried out by other armies of the Peasants’ Crusade. The army of Folkmar attacked Jews in Prague while Gottschalk’s army attacked Jews in Regensburg. Once again Jews were offered conversion or death while local bishops attempted to provide some protections. With the calling of the Second Crusade by Pope Eugenius III in 1146, clerical authorities took precautions to avoid the kind of violence toward Jews that developed during the First Crusade. No less a figure than St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the most revered and renowned preacher of the twelfth century, made extensive efforts to prevent violence toward Jews prior to the launching of the Second Crusade. Although Bernard had spoken about the Jews in harsh and discriminatory terms on several occasions, he also consistently condemned acts of bloodshed against them. When violence broke out again in Mayence during the preaching of the Second Crusade, Bernard was called to the city by the Archbishop where his presence and preaching prevented widespread violence toward the Jewish community. So while Jews were again attacked during the Second Crusade, the efforts of both ecclesiastical and secular authorities insured such violence was considerably reduced from the First Crusade. In comparison, the worst attack on Jews during the First Crusade took place in Mayence where anywhere from seven hundred to thirteen hundred Jews were slain. In contrast, the worst attack on Jews during the Second Crusade took place in Wurzburg resulting in roughly two dozen deaths. Sporadic violence against Jews continued in later crusades, most notably during the Third Crusade and the Shepherds’ Crusade of the fourteenth century, but none of these attacks witnessed the same level of violence seen during the First Crusade. The Sources: *Solomon bar Samson on the Slaughter of the Rhineland Jews, 1096.* The following selections are taken from a Hebrew historical account by Solomon bar Samson written around the year 1140. Although we know little about the author, he provides one of the best Hebrew accounts of the crusaders’ attack on the Jews in the Rhineland. Solomon provides a particularly gripping account of the ritual suicides performed by some desperate and besieged Jews (after killing their families) as a form of sanctification to insure they would not abandon their faith out of fear of abuse by the crusaders. The following source selection is taken from Jacob Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World: A Sourcebook, 315-1791, (New York: JPS, 1938), 115-120. ----------------- It was on the third of Siwan.... at noon [Tuesday, May 27], that Emico the wicked, the enemy of the Jews, came with his whole army against the city gate, and the citizens opened it up for him. [Emico a German noble, led a band of plundering German and French crusaders.] Then the enemies of the Lord said to each other: 'look! They have opened up the gate for us. Now let us avenge the blood of 'the hanged one' [Jesus]." The children of the holy covenant who were there, martyrs who feared the Most High, although they saw the great multitude, an army numerous as the sand on the shore of the sea, still clung to their Creator. Then young and old donned their armor and girded on their weapons and at their head was Rabbi Kalonymus ben Meshullam, the chief of the community. Yet because of the many troubles and the fasts which they had observed they had no strength to stand up against the enemy. [They had fasted to avert the impending evils] Then came gangs and bands, sweeping through like a flood until Mayence was filled from end to end. The foe Emico proclaimed in the hearing of the community that the enemy be driven from the city and be put to flight. Panic was great in the town. Each Jew in the inner court of the bishop girded on his weapons, and all moved towards the palace gate to fight the crusaders and the citizens. They fought each other up to the very gate, but the sins of the Jews brought it about that the enemy overcame them and took the gate. The hand of the Lord was heavy against His people. All the Gentiles were gathered together against the Jews in the courtyard to blot out their name, and the strength of our people weakened when they saw the wicked Edomites [Christians] overpowering them. The bishop's men, who had promised to help them, were the very first to flee, thus delivering the Jews into the hands of the enemy. They were indeed a poor support; even the bishop himself fled from his church for it was thought to kill him also because he had spoken good things of the Jews.... [Archbishop Ruthard had been paid to remain and defend the Jews. He was later accused of having received some of the plunder taken from them.] When the children of the covenant saw that the heavenly decree of death had been issued and that the enemy had conquered them and had entered the courtyard, then all of them-old men and young, virgins and children, servants and maids-cried ,out together to their Father in heaven and, weeping for themselves and for their lives, accepted as just the sentence of God. One to another they said: "Let us be strong and let us bear the yoke of the holy religion, for only in this world can the enemy kill us-and the easiest of the four deaths is by the sword. But we, our souls in paradise, shall continue to live eternally, in the great shining reflection [of the divine glory]." [In Jewish law the four death penalties were: stoning, burning, beheading, strangulation.] With a whole heart and with a willing soul they when spoke: "After all it is not right to criticize the acts of God-blessed be He and blessed be His name-who has given to us His Torah and a command to put ourselves to death, to kill ourselves for the unity of His holy name. Happy are we if we do His will. Happy is anyone who is killed or slaughtered, who dies for the unity of His name so that he is ready to enter the World to Come, to dwell in the heavenly camp with the righteous-with Rabbi Akiba and his companions, the pillars of the universe, who were killed for His names sake. [The Romans martyred Akiba during the Bar Kokba revolt, about 135 CE] Not only this; but he exchanges the world of darkness for the world of light, the world of trouble for the world of joy, and the world that passes away for the world that lasts for all eternity. Then all of them, to a man, cried out with a loud voice: "Now we must delay no longer for the enemy are already upon us. Let us hasten and offer ourselves as a sacrifice to the Lord. Let him who has a knife examine it that it not be nicked, and let him come and slaughter us for the sanctification of the Only One, the Everlasting and then let him cut his own throat or plunge the knife into his own body." [A nick in the slaughterer's knife would make it ritually unfit.] As soon as the enemy came into the courtyard they found some of the very pious there with our brilliant master, Isaac ben Moses. He stretched out his neck, and his head they cut off first. The others, wrapped by their fringed praying shawls, sat by themselves in the courtyard, eager to do the will of their Creator. They did not care to flee into the chamber to save themselves for this temporal life, but out of love they received upon themselves the sentence of God. The enemy showered stones and arrows upon them, but they did not care to flee, and [Esther 9:5] "with the stroke of the sword, and with slaughter, and destruction" the foe killed all of those whom they found there. When those in the chambers saw the deed of these righteous ones, how the enemy had already come upon them, they then cried out, all of them: "There is nothing better than for us to offer our lives as a sacrifice." [The outnumbered Jews had no chance to win: Emico is reported to have had about 12,000 men.] The women there girded their loins with strength and slew their sons and their daughters and then themselves. Many men, too, plucked up courage and killed their wives, their sons, their infants. The tender and delicate mother slaughtered the babe she had played with, all of them, men and women arose and slaughtered one another. The maidens and the young brides and grooms looked out of the Windows and in a loud voice cried: "Look and see, O our God, what we do for the sanctification of Thy great name in order not to exchange you for a hanged and crucified one...." Thus were the precious children of Zion, the Jews of Mayence, tried with ten trials like Abraham, our father, and like Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah [who were thrown into a fiery furnace, Daniel 3:21]. They tied their sons as Abraham tied Isaac his son, and they received upon themselves with a willing soul the yoke of the fear of God, the King of the Kings of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He, rather than deny and exchange the religion of our King [Isaiah l4: 19] "an abhorred offshoot [Jesus]....' [Christians al Jews of those days often spoke contemptuously of each others religion.] They stretched out their necks to the slaughter and they, delivered their pure souls to their Father in heaven. Righteous and pious women bared their throats to each other, offering to be sacrificed for the unity of the Name. A father turning to his son or brother, a brother to his sister, a woman to her son or daughter neighbor to a neighbor or a friend, a groom to a bride, a fiancé to fiancee, would kill and would be killed, and blood touched blood, The blood of the men mingled with their wives', the blood of the fathers with their children's, the blood of the brothers with the sisters, the blood of the teachers with their disciples', the blood z the grooms with their brides', the blood of the leaders with the cantors', the blood of the judges with their scribes', and the blood of infants and sucklings with their mothers'. For the unity of d honored and awe inspiring Name were they killed and slaughtered. The ears of him who hears these things will tingle, for who h ever heard anything like this? Inquire now and look about, was there ever such an abundant sacrifice as this since the days of the primeval Adam? Were there ever eleven hundred offerings on one day, each one of them like the sacrifice of Isaac, the son of Abraham? For the sake of Isaac who was ready to be sacrificed on Mount Moriah, the world shook, as it is said [Isaiah 33:7]: "Behold their valiant ones cry without; [the angels of peace weep bitterly]" and [Jeremiah 4.28] "the heavens grow dark." Yet see what these martyrs did! Why did the heavens not grow dark and the stars not withdraw their brightness? Why did not the moon and the sun grow dark in their heavens when on one day, on the third of Siwan, on a Tuesday eleven hundred souls were killed and slaughtered, among them g many infants and sucklings who had not transgressed nor sinned, g many poor, innocent souls? Wilt Thou, despite this, still restrain Thyself, O Lord? For thy sake it was that these numberless souls were killed. Avenge quickly the blood of Thy servants which was spilt in our days and in our sight. Amen. Now I shall recount and tell of the most unusual deeds that were done on that day [May 27, 1096] by these righteous ones.... Who has ever seen anything like this? Who has ever heard of a deed like that which was performed by this righteous and pious woman, the young Rachel, the daughter of Rabbi Isaac ben Asher, the wife of rabbi Judah? For she said to her friends: "I have four children. Do not spare even them, lest the Christians come, take them alive, and bring them up in their false religion. Through them, too, sanctify the name of the Holy God." So one of her companions came and picked up a knife to slaughter her son. But when the mother of the children saw the knife, she let out a loud and bitter lament and she beat her face and breast, crying: Where are Thy mercies, O God?" In the bitterness of her soul she said to her friend: "Do not slay Isaac in the presence of his brother Aaron lest Aaron see his brother's death and run away." The woman then took the lad Isaac, who w as small and very pretty, and she slaughtered him while the mother spread out her sleeves to receive the blood, catching it in her garment instead of a basin. When the child Aaron saw that his brother Isaac was slain, he screamed again and again: "Mother, mother, do not butcher me,'' and ran and hid under a chest. She had two daughters also who still lived at home, Bella and Matrona, beautiful young girls, the children of her husband Rabbi Judah. The girls took the knife and sharpened it themselves that it should not be nicked. Then the woman bared their necks and sacrificed them to the Lord God of Hosts who has commanded us not to change His pure religion but to be perfect with Him, as it is written [Deuteronomy 18:13]: "Perfect shall you be with the Lord your God." When this righteous woman had made an end of sacrificing her three children to their Creator, she then raised her voice and called out to her son Aaron: "Aaron, where are you? You also I will not spare nor will I have any mercy." Then she dragged him out by his foot from under the chest where he had hidden himself, and she sacrificed him before God, the high and exalted. She put her children next to her body, two on each side, covering them with her two sleeves, and there they lay struggling in the agony of death. When the enemy seized the room they found her sitting and wailing over them "Show us the money that is under your sleeves," they said to her. But when it was the slaughtered children they saw, they struck her and killed her, upon her children, and her spirit flew away and her soul found peace at last. To her applied the Biblical verse [Hosea 10:14]: "The mother was dashed in pieces with her children." . . . When the father saw the death of his four beautiful, lovely children, he cried aloud, weeping and wailing, and threw him upon the sword in his hand so that his bowels came out, and wallowed in blood on the road together with the dying who were convulsed, rolling in their life's blood. The enemy killed all that who were left in the room and then stripped them naked; [Lamentations 1: 11] "See, O Lord, and behold, how abject I am become." Then the crusaders began to give thanks in the name of "the hanged one" because they had done what they wanted with all those in the room of the bishop so that not a soul escaped. *Albert of Aix on the Slaughter of the Rhineland Jews, 1096.* Albert of Aix (or Aachen) wrote a history of the First Crusade and the early history of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem until the year 1120. Although he wrote in the mid twelfth century, and never visited the East, he reportedly based his work on several eyewitness accounts. His account condemns the excessive “cruelty” of the crusaders and their attempts at forced conversion and ascribes their motivations as a combination of misguided piety and greed. However, Albert does make a curious distinction between murdering the Jews for money, “rather than for the sake of God’s justice.” This source selection is taken from August. C. Krey, The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eyewitnesses and Participants, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1921), 54-56. ------------------- At the beginning of summer in the same year in which Peter, and Gottschalk, after collecting an army, had set out, there assembled in like fashion a large and innumerable host of Christians from diverse kingdoms and lands; namely, from the realms of France, England, Flanders, and Lorraine. . . . I know not whether by a judgment of the Lord, or by some error of mind;, they rose in a spirit of cruelty against the Jewish people scattered throughout these cities and slaughtered them without mercy, especially in the Kingdom of Lorraine, asserting it to be the beginning of their expedition and their duty against the enemies of the Christian faith. This slaughter of Jews was done first by citizens of Cologne. These suddenly fell upon a small band of Jews and severely wounded and killed many; they destroyed the houses and synagogues of the Jews and divided among themselves a very large, amount of money. When the Jews saw this cruelty, about two hundred in the silence of the night began flight by boat to Neuss. The pilgrims and crusaders discovered them, and after taking away all their possessions, inflicted on them similar slaughter, leaving not even one alive. Not long after this, they started upon their journey, as they had vowed, and arrived in a great multitude at the city of Mainz. There Count Emico, a nobleman, a very mighty man in this region, was awaiting, with a large band of Teutons, the arrival of the pilgrims who were coming thither from diverse lands by the King's highway. The Jews of this city, knowing of the slaughter of their brethren, and that they themselves could not escape the hands of so many, fled in hope of safety to Bishop Rothard. They put an infinite treasure in his guard and trust, having much faith in his protection, because he was Bishop of the city. Then that excellent Bishop of the city cautiously set aside the incredible amount of money received from them. He placed the Jews in the very spacious hall of his own house, away from the sight of Count Emico and his followers, that they might remain safe and sound in a very secure and strong place. But Emico and the rest of his band held a council and, after sunrise, attacked the Jews in the hall with arrows and lances. Breaking the bolts and doors, they killed the Jews, about seven hundred in number, who in vain resisted the force and attack of so many thousands. They killed the women, also, and with their swords pierced tender children of whatever age and sex. The Jews, seeing that their Christian enemies were attacking them and their children, and that they were sparing no age, likewise fell upon one another, brother, children, wives, and sisters, and thus they perished at each other's hands. Horrible to say, mothers cut the throats of nursing children with knives and stabbed others, preferring them to perish thus by their own hands rather than to be killed by the weapons of the uncircumcised. From this cruel slaughter of the Jews a few escaped; and a few because of fear, rather than because of love of the Christian faith, were baptized. With very great spoils taken from these people, Count Emico, Clarebold, Thomas, and all that intolerable company of men and women then continued on their way to Jerusalem, directing their course towards the Kingdom of Hungary, where passage along the royal highway was usually not denied the pilgrims. But on arriving at Wieselburg, the fortress of the King, which the rivers Danube and Leytha protect with marshes, the bridge and gate of the fortress were found closed by command of the King of Hungary, for great fear had entered all the Hungarians because of the slaughter which had happened to their brethren. . . . But while almost everything had turned out favorably for the Christians, and while they had penetrated the walls with great openings, by some chance or misfortune, I know not what, such great fear entered the whole army that they turned in flight, just as sheep are scattered and alarmed when wolves rush upon them. And seeking a refuge here and there, they forgot their companions. . . . Emico and some of his followers continued in their flight along the way by which they had come. Thomas, Clarebold, and several of their men escaped in flight toward Carinthia and Italy. So the hand of the Lord is believed to have been against the pilgrim who had sinned by excessive impurity and fornication, and who had slaughtered the exiled Jews through greed of money, rather than for the sake of God's justice, although the Jews were opposed to Christ. The Lord is a just judge and orders no one unwillingly, or under compulsion, to come under the yoke of the Catholic faith. *Ekkehard of Aura on the Slaughter of the Rhineland Jews, 1096.* The other major Christian account detailing the slaughter of the Jews during the First Crusade comes from the German Benedictine chronicler Ekkehard of Aura (d.1126). He participated in the First Crusade as a member of the third wave which, combined with his residence in Germany during the attacks on Jews, well positioned him to record the events of the First Crusade. Ekkehard’s account is harsh on Emicho, noting he was a man of “ill repute” and that he lived a “tyrannical mode of life.” Yet he is somewhat more sympathetic to the crusaders as he attributes their attacks on Jews as the result of misguided zealousness for God rather than simply greed. Ekkehard also notes how other Christians were scandalized by the attacks and, as a result, “concluded that the whole expedition was vain and foolish.” The following source selection is taken from August. C. Krey, The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eyewitnesses and Participants, (Princeton: 1921), 53-54. ----------------------- Just at that time, there appeared a certain soldier, Emico, Count of the lands around the Rhine, a man long of very ill repute on account of his tyrannical mode of life. Called by divine revelation, like another Saul, as he maintained, to the practice of religion of this kind, he usurped to himself the command of almost twelve thousand cross bearers. As they were led through the cities of the Rhine and the Main and also the Danube, they either utterly destroyed the execrable race of the Jews wherever they found them (being even in this matter zealously devoted to the Christian religion) or forced them into the bosom of the Church. When their forces, already increased by a. great number of men and women, reached the boundary of Pannonia, they were prevented by well fortified garrisons from entering that kingdom, which is surrounded partly by swamps and partly by woods. For rumor had reached and forewarned the ears of King Coloman; a rumor that, to the minds of the Teutons, there was no difference between killing pagans and Hungarians. And so, for six weeks they besieged the fortress Wieselburg and suffered many hardships there; yet, during this very time, they were in the throes of a most foolish civil quarrel over which one of them should be King of Pannonia. Moreover, while engaged in the final assault, although the walls had already been broken through, and the citizens were fleeing, and the army of the besieged were setting fire to their own town, yet, through the wonderful providence of Almighty God, the army of pilgrims, though victorious, fled. And they left behind them all their equipment, for no one carried away any reward except his wretched life. And thus the men of our race, zealous, doubtless, for God, though not according to the knowledge of God, began to persecute other Christians while yet upon the expedition which Christ had provided for freeing Christians. They were kept from fraternal bloodshed only by divine mercy; and the Hungarians, also were freed. This is the reason why some of the more guileless brethren, ignorant of the matter, and too hasty in their judgment were scandalized and concluded that the whole expedition was vain and foolish. *Bernard of Clairvaux’s Preaching against Rudolph according to Otto of Freising, 1146.* The following is taken from Otto of Freising’s Gesta Friderici imperatoris [Deeds of the Emperor Frederick] and was composed in the mid-twelfth century. The work describes the successful efforts of Bernard of Clairvaux to restrain a popular German monk named Rudolph who was preaching violence against the Jews in the Rhineland. The effectiveness of Rudolph’s preaching was best demonstrated by the thousands of people he reportedly convinced to join the crusade. Consequently, when Rudolph preached against the Jews, the local bishop called for immediate aid from Bernard, perhaps the only clerical figure of greater repute in the Rhineland, to help quell any potential violence. The following source selection is taken from Edward A. Synan. The Popes and the Jews in the Middle Ages: An Intense Exploration of Judaeo-Christian Relationships in the Medieval World. (New York: MacMillan, 1965), 74-75. ------------------ The aforesaid Abbot of Clairvaux, teaching them to avoid that propaganda, directed messengers or letters to the people of Gaul and Germany in which he skillfully demonstrated from the authority of the Sacred Page that the Jews ought not to die in consequence of the immensity of their crimes, but rather to suffer the Diaspora…And when he came to Mayence, there he found Rudolph, dwelling, and enjoying the greatest popularity. Still, having summoned him and admonished him that he ought not, against the rule of monks, presume to preach the Word, wandering over the globe, on his own authority, with the result that he induced this fellow [Rudolph] having promised obedience, to go back to his monastery, even though the people were highly indignant, even ready to start a rebellion, had they not been restrained by the consideration of his [Bernard’s] sanctity. *Bernard of Clairvaux: Defense of the Jews recorded by Ephraim bar Jacob, 1146.* The following is taken from a Jewish history written during the later twelfth century by the German Talmudist and poet Ephraim bar Jacob (b.1133- d.1196). The source claims to recreate the preaching and arguments used by Bernard as he sought to suppress violence against Rhineland Jews as advocated by Rudolph during the preaching of the Second Crusade. The following source selection is taken from Edward A. Synan. The Popes and the Jews in the Middle Ages: An Intense Exploration of Judaeo-Christian Relationships in the Medieval World. (New York: MacMillan, 1965), 75. -------------- [Bernard asked] It is noble of you to wish to go forth against the Ishmaelites; still, whoever touches a Jew so as to lay hands on his life, does something as sinful as if he laid hands on Jesus himself! My disciple, Rudolph, who has spoken against them to exterminate them, has preached only unrighteousness, for, concerning them it stands written in the Books of Psalms: “Do not kill them, let my people not be forgotten!” Footnotes: 1. Karen Armstrong. Holy War: The Crusades and Their Impact on Today’s World. (New York: Anchor, 2001), 71. 2. Armstrong, 71. 3. James Carroll, Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001), 248. 4. Thomas Madden. “The Real History of the Crusades.” [Online] Crisis Magazine, April 1, 2002. http://www.crisismagazine.com/april2002/cover.htm [Cited 09/03/2006]. 5. Jonathan Riley-Smith. The Crusades: A Short History. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), 16. 6. Jonathan Riley-Smith. “Rethinking the Crusades.” First Things: The Journal of Religion, Culture, and Public Life. 101 (March 2000), 20-23. 7. The “brood of vipers” reference is cited four times in the New International Version of the Bible, including Matthew 3:7, 12:34, 23:33, and Luke 3:7. The reference to “snakes” is found in Matthew 23:33, also in the New International Version. 8. See Matthew 27:22-31, Mark 15:13-20, Luke 23:21, John 19:15, New International Version. 9. Matthew 27:25, New International Version. 10. Additionally, by the late middle ages, discrimination against Jews in medieval Europe in some cases effectively trapped them into unpopular economic pursuits such as money lending, which was often forbidden to Christians. As a result, Christians in debt to Jewish lenders sometimes vented their fury by destroying records of their loans and killing the Jews to whom they owed money. 11.Edward A. Synan. The Popes and the Jews in the Middle Ages. (New York: Macmillan, 1965), 52. 12.Synan, 51-52. 13.Leonard B. Glick. Abraham’s Heirs: Jews and Christians in Medieval Europe. (New York: Syracuse University Press, 1999), 74. 14. Christopher Tyreman. Fighting for Christendom: Holy War and the Crusades, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 23. 15. Jacob Katz. Exclusiveness and Tolerance: Studies in Jewish-Gentile Relations in Medieval and Modern Times. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1961), 6-7. See also Robert Chazon. European Jewry and the First Crusade. Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1987. 16. Katz, 6. This right to bear arms was more a sign of political status, rather than a means of self defense, as in some cases similar rights were limited only to knights and other elite members of medieval European society. Katz notes, “As a result of this permission [to bear arms] the Jews ranked with the knights and the feudatories who belonged to the upper strata of medieval society.” 17. Alfred J. Andrea. The Medieval Record [full citation needed]p. 352 . 18. See the account by Solomon bar Samson in this essay. 19. Glick, 101. 20. Glick, 93. For example, the Jews os Speyer had been drawn to the city by the Bishop’s issuance of a charter in 1084 that allowed for their physical and economic protection.