THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
frequently, it is true, for secular reasons, or from fear or compulsion, there was a great number of sincere believers in Christ. In the beginning of the fifteenth century the Dominican Vincent Ferrer (q.v.), who wandered through Italy, France, and Spain as a missioner, developed an astonishing activity in converting Jews; at least 20,500 are said to have been baptized in Castile and Aragon. The reason for such zeal of conversion in Spain was due to the extraordinary power of the Jewish population which threatened to suppress the spiritual and material development of Spain.
In France there were comparatively few efforts
in this direction; and at the court of Louis the
Pious there was even a suspicious sympathy with
Judaism. With the exception of Nicholas of Lyra
(1300-40), of Jewish descent, though
3. Missions born a Christian, who wrote a number
in Other of controversial writings against the Countries. Jews, there was hardly any one who labored for the conversion of the Jews. Still, France lacked neither pious proselytes and families of proselytes nor numerous compulsory baptisms, persecutions, and acts of violence. In Italy both power and monks were deeply interested in the conversion of the Jews. Lorenzo of Brundisium (d. 1619), general of the Capuchins, preached with great power and traveled through Italy, Hebrew Bible in hand, converting rabbis and laymen. In Rome many Jews accepted Christianity at all periods, and in 1550 Paul III. founded an institute for the conversion of the Jews; while Pius V- won more than a hundred learned and rich Jews for the Church. Many of the innumerable proselytes in Italy occupied high positions in the Church, or were received into the nobility of the nation. The history of missions among the Jews in England is singular. During the reign of William Rufus, the Jews complained because so many of their number became Christians; the king attempted to force them to return to Judaism, but the steadfastness of these proselytes hindered the execution of his menaces (1100). About 1200 Richard, prior of Bermondsey, established a hospital of converts, and the Dominicans in Oxford opened a similar institution. Henry III. set apart a special house in London for the reception and care of proselytes, for which it soon became necessary to organize branch institutions. Under Edward I. 500 proselytes received baptism in the Converts' House, yet this same king was compelled, in 1290, to banish 16,500 Jews for usury and coining. Germany stands in the strongest contrast to England. Here there is no record of any missionary efforts, but only of compulsory baptisms occasioned by the persecutions during the crusades, the invasions of the Tatars, and the Black Death.
Modern Roman Catholic efforts for the conversion of the Jews began in France. The two brothers Lehmann, both proselytes, worked successfully under Pius IX. among the Jews of France. The proselyte Abb6 Bauer used his brilliant oratorical gifts for the conversion of the Jews in Paris and Vienna. The most extensive work, however, was carried on in Palestine by the proselyte Maria Alphonse Ratisbonne, who joined the Roman Catho-
lic Church in 1842. With his brother he established the order of N6tre Dame de Sion for the education of Jewish girls and founded many charitable institutions, not only in Palestine, but also in France England, Chalcedon, Galatia, and elsewhere.
III. In Protestant Churches: Luther's attitude toward the Jews was at first favorable, as is evident from his Dass Jesus ein geborner 1. Lutheran Jude war, but in later works, as in his and Von den Juden und ihren Lilgen, he Reformed showed utter hopelessness of the con- Churches, version of the Jews, so that little zeal in that direction could have been expected. Nevertheless, there were numerous proselytes in the Lutheran and Reformed Churches, among them Immanuel Tremellius of Ferrara, who at Heidelberg, with Ursinus and Olevianus, took part in the compilation of the Heidelberg Catechism. In the seventeenth century Ezra Edzard (b. at Hamburg June 28, 1629; d. there Jan. 1, 1708) of Hamburg, was greatly interested in the conversion of the Jews, and from his own means established a considerable fund for that purpose. His sons Georg and Sebastian continued his work. Similar funds seem to have existed in other cities; as, for example, in Geneva, where a part of the ecclesiastical revenue is still called Fond des proselytes, and again in Darmstadt and Frankfort. Among the Pietists, who distinguished themselves by their missionary zeal, Spener declared it the duty of the government to take care of the conversion of the Jews; while the Moravian Samuel Lieberkuhn labored thirty years among the Jews. In 1728, at the suggestion of A. H. Francke, Callenberg founded at Halle an Institutum Judaicum, which lasted until 1792. The two first missionaries of that institution were Widmann and Manitius, who from 1730 to 1735 traveled through Poland, Bohemia, Germany, Denmark, and England. In 1736 they were joined by Stephan Schulz, the most important worker of that institute, who extended his travels over the whole of Europe and the Orient. Through the instrumentality of Lessing, and still more through Moses Mendelssohn, a reform movement took place among the Jews, starting from Germany and penetrating the East, while in the Romance countries similar results were achieved by the French Revolution. The gradual renunciation of the Talmud on the part of the liberal Jews dates from that time. The immediate result was that large numbers turned to Christianity, especially in Berlin. In 1816-13, 3,984 Jews, and these the richest and most cultured, were baptized in the eight old Prussian provinces.
The corruption of the churches and their institutions, and the apostasy of thousands from all faith, led many in England to believe that 2. English the end of the world was near, and Missions, that soon a general conversion of the Jews was to take place. With Simeon of Cambridge, Marsh of Birmingham, the proselyte J. F Fry, and the preacher Legh Richmond, Lewis Way, a wealthy clergyman, founded in 1808, under the patronage of the Duke of Kent, the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews, which included both churchmen and dissenters until 1815, when the latter withdrew from the organiza-