Karuko"Wski, Stanislaus, a celebrated Roman Catholic jirelate, was born in Bland in 1526. Of Ids early life nothing is known to us. In 15G3 he was made bisliiip of Wladislaw, and became coadjutor to the arch- bishop of Gnesen in 1577, and in 1581 sole occupant of the archbishopric and primate of Poland. In the civil history of Poland Karnkowski played jio imimportant part. King Stephen (Betori) was crowned b}' him (Hay 1, 157G), and on the death of the king Karnkowski him- self assumed the reins of government until a ro3'al suc- cessor was found in the person of the Swedish crown- prince Sigismund, whom he also crowned. It is gener- ally supposed that Karnkowski belonged to the .Jesuit- ical order. In Kalisch he built a college for the .Jesuits : he also founded two schools for the theological training of Roman Catholics. Under his protection tlie cele- brated .Jesuit .Jacob Wujek translated the Bilile into Po- lish, a work which to tliis day remains the only authen- tic edition in the Polish (Roman Catholic) Church. Karnkowski died May 2G, 1G03. He published Consti- tutiones synodales dioceses cum caiechesi : — Sermones ad parochos: — De ecclesia utraqiie ; etc. See Wetzer und Welte, Kircheii-Lexikon, xii, 632.
Karo, Joseph bex-Ephraim, ^ Jewish Rabbi, one of the most celebrated characters in Rabbinic literature, was born in Sjiain in 1488, of a family of note. Amid the great persecutions which the Spanish Jews suffered in the early part of the IGth century, the Karo family were exiled, anil settled finally at Nicopolis, in Euro- pean Turkey. His early Talmudical education .Joseph received under tlie instruction of liis own father, and the youth quickly evinced, in the ready acquisition of Talmudic lore, a particular liking for tradition. The Mishua text, it is said, he had learned by heart, and be- fore he had reached the age of twenty-five he was ac-
cepted as a Talmudical authority. From Nicopolis .Jo- seph removed successively to Adrianoiile and Salonica. WhUe a resident of these places (about 1522-35) he be- came acquainted with the great cabalistic fanatic Sa- lomo Moleb(j of Pcjrtagal. and he was finally induced to remove to Safet (q. v.), in Palestine, the great cabalis- tic centre in the East in the IGth century. In Safet he studied much with the Rabbinical authorities of Pales- tine, and during the controversy on the Jewish gaonate [see Jacob Berab] Joseph Karo was one of the four disciples whom Jacob Berab ordained when forced by Levi ben-Chabib to quit the country. See Ordination, Jewish. Previously infatuated with the Cabalists' Mes- sianic notions, and now (Jacob Berab died Januar\', 1541, shortly after quitting Palestine) one of the four Rabbis ordained by the only authority competent to perform the sacred rite, he became satisfied that he was divinely chosen for some important mission, perhaps even the Messiahship itself. (He believed, says Griitz [see below], that he would die and be again raised up to become the leader of his nation.) Ever since 1522 he had been engaged in writing an extensive religious and ritual codex, entitled ~&i^ IT'Sl (Beth Yosepth, first published at Sablonets, 1553, 4 vols, folio), a revision, correction, and enlargement of a like work by Jacob ben- Asher ; he now hastened the completion of this gigantic undertaking in the hope that its publication would lead his people to assign him at once the jilace to which he believed himself divinely called. He completed the work in 1542, but- it gauied for him only the recognition of being one of the ablest rabbis of Safet. Unremit- tingly he continued his labors, determined to bring about the result which he believed to be his mission — the union of Israel — and with it hasten the days of the Messiah. In the IGth century the Talmud was exten- sively studied among the Jews. Every important con- gregation sustained not onh' a rabbi, but a college. Thus many lucrative positions were open to men inclined to study, and there resulted a general interest in the study of the Talmud. But many students imply many interpreters, and thus it came that, after a time, each congregation, and sometimes even each member of a college, had their own interjiretation of the Talmudical precepts, and Jewish orthodoxy Avas at a loss how to judge rightly. Joseph, comprehending the danger of a general division and a loose interjiretation, determined to meet the case by a compilation of rabbinical law and usage, i. o. by the publication of the interpretations which the Talmud had received at the hands of the most distinguished teachers in Israel. At first he sim- ply subjected his former work to a general supervision, wlaich he completed after twelve years of haril labor. Finding, however, that this did not quite accomplish the desired result, he set about writing a new work, and af- ter nine years of intense application presented his peo- ple with a compendium of rabbinical law and usage, en- titled Tl^^" 'I'^V'^ {ShuJchan .4r((^-, first published at Venice, 1565), which to this day remains a rabbinical authority. His name now became celebrated in all lands Avhere Jews made tlieir abode, and at Safet itself (which really meant all I'alestine) he was cheerfidly ac- corded the place of first authority, as a worthy successor of Jacob Berab. See, however, the article INIoses de Trani. He died in 1575. One result Karo's labors had at least effected — the harmony of all Israelites in expounding the law through the Talmud — tlie estab- Ushment of Rabbinic Judaism — after all. a very dittcrent religion from that revealed through IMoses at Jlount Sinai, foretold hy tlie prophets, and taught by IMoses IMaimonides. For a long time the Shulchan Aruk was the text-book in all the Je^vish schools, the accepted interpretation among aU that people, and many are the editions that have been published of it, legions the schol- ars who hnve commented upon it. Karo's other work of note which deserves mention liere is Chisiph Mi.'^hne, a commcntarv on 3Iaimonidcs's Jad Uavhazaka, which