§ 69. REUCHLIN AND ERASMUS. 627
tential Psalms with a close Latin translation and grammatical iioles, a work used by Luther. The printing of Hebrew books Tiad begun in Italy in 1475.
Reuchlin pronounced Hebrew the oldest of the tongues — the one in which God and angels communicated with man. In spite of its antiquity it is the richest of the languages and from it other languages drew, as from a primal fountain. He complained of the neglect of the study of the Scriptures for the polite study of eloquence and poetry. i Reuchlin studied also the philosophy of the Greeks and the Neo-Platonic and Pythagorean mysticisms. He was profoundly convinced of the value of the Jewish Cabbala, which he found to be a well of hidden Avisdom. In this rare branch of learning he acknowledged his debt to Pico della Mirandola, whom he called " the greatest scholar of the age." He published the results of his studies in two works — one, De verbo mirijico, which appeared at Basel in 1494, and passed through eight editions ; and one, De arte cabbalistica, 1517. " The wonder-working word " is the Hebrew tetragrammaton Ihvh, the unpronounceable name of God, which is worshipped by the celestials, feared by the infernals and kissed by the soul of the universe. The word Jesu, Ihsvh^ is only an enlargement of Ihvh by the letter «. The Jehovah- and Jesus-name is the connecting link between God and man, the infinite and the finite. Thus the mystic tradition of the Jews is a confirmation of the Christian doctrine of the trinity and the divinity of Christ. Reuchlin saw in every name, in every letter, in every number of the old Testament, a profound meaning. In the three letters of the word for create, bara, Gen. 1 : l,he discerned the mystery of the Trinity; in one verse of Exodus, 72 inexpressible names of God ; in Prov. 30 : 31, a prophecy that Frederick the Wise, of Saxony, would follow Maximilian as emperor of Germany, a prophecy which was not fulfilled. We may smile at these fantastic vagaries ; but they stimulated and deepened the zeal for the hidden wisdom of the Orient, which Reuchlin called forth from the grave.
Through his interest in the Jews and in rabbinical litera- ^ See quotation in Janssen, II. 40.
628 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
ture, Reuchlin became involved in a controversy which spread over all Europe and called forth decrees from Cologne and other universities, the archbishop of Mainz, the inquisitor-general of Germany, Hoogstraten, the emperor, Maximilian, and Pope Leo X. The monks were his chief opponents, led by John Pfefferkorn, a bajitized Jew of Cologne. The controversy was ^provoked by ajtract on the misejy of thej^ews^jwritten by Reuchlin, 1505 — Missive warumb die Juden so lang im Elend sind. Here the author made the obstinacy of the Jews in crucifying Christ and their persistence in daily blaspheming him the just cause of their sorrows, but, instead of calling for their persecution, he urged a serious effort for their conversion. ^In a series of tracts, Pfefferkorn assaulted this position and demanded that his former coreligionists, as the sworn enemias of Christ, should be compelled to listen to Christian preaching, be forbidden to practise usury and that their false Jewish books should be destroyed. ^ The flaming anti-Semite prosecuted his case with the vigor with which a few years later Eck prosecuted the papal case against Luther. Maximilian, whose court he visited three times to present the matter, Hoogstraten and the University of Cologne took Pfefferkorn's side, and the emperor gave him permission to burn all Jewish books except, of course, the Old Testament. Called upon to explain his position by the archbishop of Mainz, with whom Maximilian left the case, Reuchlin exempted from destruction the Talmud, tlie Cabbala and all other writings of the Jews except the Nizahoti and the Toledoth Jeshu, which, after due examination and legal decision, might be destroyed, as they contained blasphemies against Christ, his mother and the Apostles. He^dvised the emperor to order every university in Germany to establish cliairs of Hebrew for ten years. ^
Pfefferkorn, whom Reuchlin liad called a "buffalo or an ass," replied in a violent attack, the Handmirror — Handspiegel wider und gegen die Juden — 1511. Both parties appeared before the emperor, and Reuchlin replied in the Spectacles — Aii-
^ Judo Hippie gpl ; Judenhe.ichte ; Ostrnihvch ; Judrnfciml, 1507-'00. 2 ^^ Enf/t.srhlag, oh man den Juden nUe ihrc B'lichcr nchmen, abthun mid verbrennen soil,'' Stuttgart, Nov. 0, 1510.