Johannes Pfefferkorn
Johannes (Josef) Pfefferkorn (1469 – 1523) was a
Jewish-
German Catholic theologian and writer who
converted from
Judaism. Pfefferkorn actively preached against the
Jews and attempted to destroy copies of the
Talmud, and engaged in a long running pamphleteering campaign against and with
Johann Reuchlin.
Early life
Born a Jew, possibly in
Nuremberg, Pfefferkorn moved to
Cologne after many years of wandering. After committing a burglary, he was imprisoned and released in 1504. He converted to
Christianity in 1505 and was
baptizedtogether with his family.
Anti-Jewish writings
Pfefferkorn became an assistant to the
prior of the
Dominican friar order at Cologne,
Jacob van Hoogstraaten, and under the auspices of the Dominicans published several
libelous pamphlets in which he tried to demonstrate that Jewish religious writings were hostile to Christianity. Pfefferkorn had a limited knowledge of the subject.
In
Der Judenspiegel (Cologne, 1507), he demanded that the Jews should give up the practice of
usury, work for their living, attend Christian sermons, and do away with the Books of the Talmud. On the other hand, he condemned the persecution of the Jews as an obstacle to their conversion, and, in
Warnungsspiegel, defended them against charges of murdering Christian children
for ritual purposes. In a pamphlet,
Warnungsspiegel, he pretended to be a friend of the Jews, and desired to introduce Christianity among them for their own good. He urged them to convince the Christian world that the Jews do not need Christian blood for their religious rites and advocated seizing the
Talmud by force from them.
"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 attacked them in:
Wie die blinden Jüden ihr Ostern halten (1508);
Judenbeicht (1508); and
Judenfeind (1509). In his third pamphlet he contradicted what he had written earlier and insisted that every Jew considers it a good deed to kill, or at least to mock, a Christian; therefore he deemed it the duty of all true Christians to expel the Jews from all Christian lands; if the law should forbid such a deed, they do not need to obey it: "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 preached 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."
In the fourth pamphlet, Pfefferkorn declared that the only way to get rid of the Jews was either to expel or enslave them; the first thing to be done was to collect all the copies of the
Talmud found among the Jews and to burn them.
Against Hebrew books
Convinced that the principal source of the obduracy of the Jews lay in their books, he tried to have them seized and destroyed. He obtained from several Dominican convents recommendations to
Kunigunde, the sister of the
Emperor Maximilian, and through her influence to the emperor himself. On
19 August 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 the destruction any Hebrew book except the
Hebrew Bible (
Old Testament). Pfefferkorn began the work of confiscation at
Frankfort-on-the-Main, or possibly
Magdeburg; thence he went 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
10 November 1509, gave the direction of the whole affair to Uriel von Gemmingen, with orders to secure opinions from the Universities of
Mainz,
Cologne,
Erfurt, and
Heidelberg, from the inquisitor
Jacob van Hoogstraaten of Cologne, from the priest
Victor von Carben, and from
Johann Reuchlin. Pfefferkorn, in order to vindicate his action and to gain still further the good will of the emperor, wrote
In Lob und Eer dem allerdurchleuchtigsten grossmechtigsten Fürsten und Herrn Maximilian (Cologne, 1510). In April he was again at Frankfort, and with the delegate of the Elector of Mainz and Professor
Hermann Ortlieb, he undertook a new confiscation.
Van Hoogstraaten and the Universities of Mainz and Cologne decided in October 1510 against the Jewish books. Reuchlin declared that only those books obviously offensive (as the
Nizachon and
Toldoth Jeschu) would be destroyed. The elector sent all the answers received at the end of October to the emperor through Pfefferkorn. Reuchlin reported in favor of the Jews, and on
May 23,
1510, the emperor suspended his edict of 10 November 1509, and the books were returned to the Jews on June 6.
Battle of pamphlets
The ensuing battle of pamphlets between Pfefferkorn and Reuchlin reflected the struggle between the Dominicans and the
humanists. Thus informed of Reuchlin's vote Pfefferkorn was greatly excited, and answered with
Handspiegel (Mainz, 1511), in which he attacked Reuchlin unmercifully. Reuchlin complained to the Emperor Maximilian, and answered Pfefferkorn's attack with his
Augenspiegel, against which Pfefferkorn published his
Brandspiegel. In June 1513, both parties were silenced by the emperor. Pfefferkorn however published in 1514 a new polemic,
Sturmglock, against both the Jews and Reuchlin. During the controversy between Reuchlin and the theologians of Cologne, Pfefferkorn was assailed in the
Epistolæ obscurorum virorum by the young Humanists who espoused Reuchlin's cause. He replied with
Beschirmung, or
Defensio J. Pepericorni contra famosas et criminales obscurorum virorum epistolas (Cologne, 1516),
Streitbüchlein (1517). In 1520,
Pope Leo X declared Reuchlin guilty with a condemnation of
Augenspiegel, and Pfefferkorn wrote as an expression of his triumph
Ein mitleidliche Klag (Cologne, 1521).
Diarmaid MacCulloch writes in his book
The Reformation: A History (2003)
[5] that
Desiderius Erasmus was another opponent of Pfefferkorn, on the grounds that he was a converted Jew and therefore could not be trusted.
Works
- Der Judenspiegel (Speculum Adhortationis Judaicæ ad Christum), Nuremberg, 1507
- Der Warnungsspiegel (The Mirror of Warning), year?
- Die Judenbeicht (Libellus de Judaica Confessione sive Sabbate Afflictionis cum Figuris), Cologne, 1508
- Das Osterbuch (Narratio de Ratione Pascha Celebrandi Inter Judæos Recepta), Cologne and Augsburg, 1509
- Der Judenfeind (Hostis Judæorum), ib. 1509
- In Lib und Ehren dem Kaiser Maximilian (In Laudem et Honorem Illustrissimi Imperatoris Maximiliani), Cologne, 1510
- Handspiegel (Mayence, 1511)
- Der Brandspiegel (Cologne, 1513)
- Die Sturmglocke (ib. 1514)
- Streitbüchlein Wider Reuchlin und Seine Jünger (Defensio Contra Famosas et Criminales Obscurorum Virorum Epistolas (Cologne, 1516)
- Eine Mitleidige Clag Gegen den Ungläubigen Reuchlin (1521)
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