Christianity and Society in the Modern World
Series editors
HUGH McLEOD AND BOB SCRIBNER
The Jews in Christian Europe
1400-1700
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The Jews in Christian Europe 1400-1700
JOHN EDWARDS
Published 1998 by Routledge
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First issued in paperback 2019
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright 1998 by John Edwards
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Edwards, John, 1949
The Jews in Christian Europe.
(Christianity and society in the modern world).
1. Europe. Jews, 14001700
I. Title. II. Series
940.04924
ISBN 0-415-00864-6
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Edwards, John, 1949
The jews in Christian Europe, 14001700/John Edwards.
p. cm. (Christianity and society in the modern world)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-415-00864-6
1. Jews Europe History. 2. Judaism Relations Christianity.
3. Christianity and other religions Judaism.
4. Jews-History 701789. 5. Europe Ethnic relations.
I. Title. II. Series.
DS135.E81E38 1988
940.004924 dcl9
Typeset in Great Britain by
Scarborough Typesetting Services
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-86749-8 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-00864-8 (hbk)
To the memory of
W. W. Simpson
(1907-1987),
who worked for peace and for true understanding
between Christian
and Jew
I have my brothers among the Turks, Papists, Jews and all peoples. Not that they are Turks, Jews, Papists and Sectaries or will remain so; in the evening they will be called into the vineyard and given the same wage as we.
(Sebastian Franck)
Contents
Evidently, no historical work is written in a vacuum. Nevertheless, it is by no means certain that every historian will openly admit his or her personal approach to the subject in hand. As what follows can only be, by its very nature, a kind of essay on Jewish life in Europe in the medieval fifteenth century and in the so-called early modern period, that is between 1500 and 1700, it is particularly necessary in this case to make clear from the start what the work does, and does not, attempt to do, and to describe its standpoint.
In the first place, it is no way a comprehensive survey, and still less a monograph. It is therefore neither immensely detailed on a small theme, nor all-inclusive in its subject matter. It is neither a history of the Christian European society of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with Jews attached as some kind of appendage, nor an exercise in Jewish history for its own sake. The method employed in the book is more fully discussed in the Introduction, but it is important to note at this stage that the work attempts a two-way view of Christian and Jewish life, with a stress on the relationships between adherents of the two faiths, rather than on their separate, internal histories.
The writers ability to provide such a perspective has, inevitably, some positive and some negative features. To begin with, a grounding in the historical school of Oxford University, the later influences of modern French and Spanish historical writing, together with a lively and stimulating Medieval History Department in Birmingham University, have all had their effects, which are duly and gratefully acknowledged. In this context it is worth adding that no apology is made for the medieval perspective of much of the text which follows. In addition, though, the book is written in a living Christian faith, and, in that sense, is neither dispassionate nor neutral. However, as its dedication indicates, it is also written on the contemporary frontier between faiths, and particularly in the light of some years of dialogue and shared experience with Jews. Such activity has never been more urgently necessary than it is in the present century and, in this sense too, the following work is deeply-felt and committed.
It cannot, owing to the limitations of the author in both linguistic knowledge and personal experience, show an intimate or internal understanding of Jewish life, but the growing output of Jewish historians of the early modern period has been carefully considered and used as far as possible. In truth, though, the ancient and destructive division between Church and Synagogue is still, as much as it has ever been, in need of healing. It is hoped that the book will help, in a small way, to meet this desperate need.
Moseley, Birmingham,
on the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
8 September, 1987, C.E.
The use of the phrase social history of religion in itself suggests, in these complex times for historical writing, certain presuppositions about the meaning and explanation of the very term religion. When the question at issue is the interrelationship between two distinct religious traditions or communities in a chronological period of two centuries, the matter becomes even more complicated, since the likelihood is that each will have its own view of the importance of that period and its place in that religions perception of its own history. Both these difficulties will be major preoccupations throughout the pages which follow, but first it is necessary to define, as far as possible, the scope of the material which is to be discussed. The first possible conflict between Jewish and Christian perceptions arises at once, with the question of dating. Even the numbering of the year in which a given event took place involves certain fundamental religious affirmations. Since dating by regnal years is not a serious option, it is necessary to decide between the traditional Jewish date of the creation of the world by the Lord and the Christian date of the birth of Jesus Christ as the basic reference point. For practical purposes, however, the decision has already been made by the western dominance over the history of the world, which has been achieved, largely in a Christian tradition, over the last four or five hundred years. Therefore this discussion will concern the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries of the era dated from the supposed date of Jesuss birth, though this may be thought of, as has become a matter of Jewish convenience too, in terms of a Common rather than a Christian era.
