Johannes Pfefferkorn

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Johannes (Josef) Pfefferkorn (1469–1523) was a German Christian theologian and writer who converted from Judaism. Pfefferkorn actively preached against the Jews and attempted to destroy the Talmud.

1 Writings
2 Works
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

Born a Jew in Moravia, Pfefferkorn moved to Cologne. After committing a burglary, he was imprisoned and upon his release in 1504 he converted to Christianity and was baptized by the Dominicans together with his family.

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. ^[1]

Pfefferkorn succeeded in influencing the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, who already had expelled the Jews from his own domains of Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola, to destroy all religious books in the Hebrew language on the grounds that they were against Christianity. Two of the emperor's edicts, dated August 19 and November 10, 1509, ordered the destruction of all Hebrew books except the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). Pfefferkorn was instrumental on April 10, 1510 in seizing of all the Jewish books from the Jewish community of Frankfurt.

Through the help of the Archbishop of Cologne, Uriel von Gemmingen, the Jews asked the emperor to appoint a commission to investigate Pfefferkorn's accusations. The commission, comprised of the archbishop and the representatives of the universities of Cologne, Erfurt, Heidelberg, and Mayence, was assisted by such Christian scholars as Victor of Carben, Hoogstraaten, and Johannes Reuchlin. Reuchlin reported in favor of the Jews, and on May 23, 1510, the emperor suspended his edict of November 10, 1509, and the books were returned to the Jews on June 6.

The ensuing battle of pamphlets between Pfefferkorn and Reuchlin reflected the struggle between the Dominicans and the humanists. In 1520, Pope Leo X declared Reuchlin guilty and condemned his writings.

Diarmaid MacCulloch writes in his book The Reformation ^[2] that Desiderius Erasmus was another opponent of Pfefferkorn, on the grounds that he was a converted Jew and therefore could not be trusted.

[edit] Writings

In his first pamphlet, Pfefferkorn maintained that even the poorest Jews subject themselves to hardships rather than embrace Christianity "... due to the Talmud, which is the source of all evil, and which the Jews hold in greater reverence than the ten commandments of God."

In the second 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 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."

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.

[edit] 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)

[edit] References

^ Reuchlin, Pfefferkorn, and the Talmud in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries in The Babylonian Talmud. The History of the Talmud translated by MICHAEL L. RODKINSON. Book 10 Vol. I Chapter XIV (1918) p.76
^ Diarmaid MacCulloch: Reformation: Europe's House Divided, 1490-1700. New York: Penguin Books Ltd. (2004) p. 665