FYI...Antisemitic events.... The preaching of the First Crusade inspired an outbreak of anti-Jewish violence. In parts of France and Germany, Jews were perceived as just as much an enemy as Muslims: they were held responsible for the crucifixion, and they were more immediately visible than the distant Muslims. Many people wondered why they should travel thousands of miles to fight non-believers when there were already non-believers closer to home. It is also likely that the crusaders were motivated by their need for money. The Rhineland communities were relatively wealthy, both due to their isolation, and because they were not restricted as Catholics were against moneylending. Many crusaders had to go into debt in order to purchase weaponry and equipment for the expedition; as Western Catholicism strictly forbade usury (unlike Orthodox Catholicism, which merely regulated it), many crusaders inevitably found themselves indebted to Jewish moneylenders. Having armed themselves by assuming the debt, the crusaders rationalized the killing of Jews as an extension of their Catholic mission. There had not been so broad a movement against Jews by Catholics since the seventh centurys mass expulsions and forced conversions. While there had been a number of regional persecutions of Jews by Catholics, such as the one in Metz in 888, a plot against Jews in Limoges in 992, a wave of anti-Jewish persecution by Christian millenniary movements (who believed that Jesus was set to descend from Heaven) in the year 1000, and the threat of expulsion from Treves in 1066; these are all viewed “in the traditional terms of governmental outlawry rather than unbridled popular attacks.” Also many movements against Jews (such as forced conversions by King Robert the Pious of France, Richard II, Duke of Normandy, and Henry II, Holy Roman Emperor around 1007–1012) had been quashed by either Roman Catholicism’s Papacy or its Bishops. The passions aroused in the Catholic populace by Urban II’s call for the first crusade moved persecution of Jews into a new chapter in history where these previous constants no longer held. A statue of a knight with a long beard. He is wearing a crown of thorns and elaborate armour. He has a sword in his left hand, and a shield rests against his right leg. Sixteenth-century bronze statue of Godfrey of Bouillon from the group of heroes surrounding the memorial to Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in the Hofkirche, Innsbruck. The extent of the eras antisemitism is apparent in Godfrey of Bouillon, who swore “to go on this journey only after avenging the blood of the crucified one by shedding Jewish blood and completely eradicating any trace of those bearing the name Jew, thus assuaging his own burning wrath.” Emperor Henry IV (after being notified of the pledge by Kalonymus Ben Meshullam the Jewish leader in Mainz) issued an order prohibiting such an action. Godfrey claimed he never really intended to kill Jews, but the community in Mainz and Cologne sent him a collected bribe of 500 silver marks. Sigebert of Gembloux wrote that before a war in behalf of the Lord could be fought it was essential that the Jews convert; those who resisted were deprived of their goods, massacred, and expelled from the cities. The first outbreaks of violence occurred in France. A contemporary chronicle of events written by an anonymous author in Mainz wrote “There first arose the officers, nobles, and common people who were in the land of France [Sarefat] who took counsel together and plotted…to make clear the way to go toward Jerusalem.” Richard of Poitiers wrote that Jewish persecution was widespread in France at the beginning of the expeditions to the east. The anonymous chronicler of Mainz also wrote “At the time the [Jewish] communities in France heard [about these things], trembling… seized them. They wrote letters and sent messengers to all the communities around about the River Rhine, [to the effect] that they should fast…and seek mercy from Him who dwells on high, that He might save them from their hands. When the letter reached the holy ones in the land [of the Rhine], namely the men of renown … in Mainz, they responded [to their brethren in] France as follows: ‘The communities have decreed a fast. We have done that which was ours [to do]. May the Lord save us and may He save you from all sorrow and oppression [which might come] upon you. We are in great fear.’” In June and July 1095 Jewish communities in the Rhineland (north of the main departure areas at Neuss, Wevelinghoven, Altenahr, Xanten and Moers) were attacked, but the leadership and membership of these crusader groups was not chronicled. Some Jews dispersed eastward to escape the persecution. On top of the general Catholic suspicion of Jews at the time, when the thousands of French members of the Peoples Crusade arrived at the Rhine, they had run out of provisions. To restock their supplies, they began to plunder Jewish food and property while attempting to force them to convert to Catholicism. Peter the Hermit preaching the First Crusade, as cited in the 1851 Illustrated London Reading Book Not all crusaders who had run out of supplies resorted to murder; some, like Peter the Hermit, used extortion instead. While no sources claim he preached against the Jews, he carried a letter with him from the Jews of France to the community at Trier. The letter urged them to supply provisions to Peter and his men. The Solomon bar Simson Chronicle records that they were so terrified by Peter’s appearance at the gates that they readily agreed to supply his needs. Whatever Peters own position on the Jews was, men claiming to follow after him felt free to massacre Jews on their own initiative, to pillage their possessions. Sometimes Jews survived by being subjected to involuntary baptism, such as in Regensburg, where a crusading mob rounded up the Jewish community, forced them into the Danube, and performed a mass baptism. After the crusaders had left the region these Jews returned to practicing Judaism. Wikipedia, Rhineland Massacres....( Antisemitic events) youtu.be/n2a2qd9Tf64
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 18:01:12 +0000
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