crease of learned men did not fail of increafing their old feuds Feuds and and quarrels, and still more between their difciples and them. broils For these having gained a taste of polite learning, wanted to among dive still deeper into the arts and fciences, which their mafters them. were no less defirous and careful to prevent. We have had frequent occafion, thro' the course of their hiftory, to obferve that they bred them up in a fingular contempt for all kind of fo- Prophane reign learning; and we find, in the apoftil to the text of the learning Mifbna, a fevere curfe intailed on him that breeds up a boy, condemned and him that fuffers his fon to learn the Greek tongue; as if by fomethe one was equally impure as the other. But by this time we are now upon, they found it next to impoffible to fupprefs either the knowlege of foreign tongues, or many of their ftudious difciples confequently from diving into their books, and conceiving a fingular liking for polite literature: fo that the profeffors now began to divide themselves on that account, fome by endeavouring to fupprefs and condemn that prophane curiofity, others by reftraining it within fome limits, and a third fort, by giving it its full scope and liberty (P); and these laft fo far prevailed, that the young ftudents began to apply themselves so closely to the study of the ruch, who deduced his genea logy from Baruch, Jeremiah's fecretary, and pretended that his family had paffed into Spain at the deftruction of Jerufalem by Titus. He was fuch a lover and master of the mathematics, that the king of Granada called him the Mathematician, and heard him read several lectures on that science at court. He continued in that country, greatly esteemed, till his death, which happened an.1007, when he gave an ample proof of his repentance for having fallen out with the former Ifaac, and having rejected all means of being reconciled to him: for, finding his death approaching, he fent his fon to him to obtain his pardon; which the other, who was as near his latter end, readily granted, and, as a token of his fincerity, took care of that youth's education whilft he lived. The other three were likewise men of (P) It was indeed in a man- mathematics, 1 Ferw learned mathematics and other fciences, that Spain, in a little time, produced a great number of learned men among them IT proved far otherwife in France, where the fcarcity of rabbies of any note was such, during these two centuries, that in France. We do not read of above five or fix that diftinguished them-felves for their learning. The most celebrated of them was R. Ger- R. Gershom, or Gerfion, who, whether a native of France, or fhom. of Mentz in Germany, as most pretend, published there his book of constitutions, which, tho' it was a long time before it could meet with the approbation of the rest of the Jewish doctors, yet it was at length received as a body of excellent laws, about the year 1204, and its author dignified with the title of Light of the French captivity. He is affirmed by fome to have died an. 1028, and by others 40 years later. So that those who pretend that he flourished in the ninth century, are, egregiously mistaken. He had fome eminent difciples, whofe characters and writings the reader will find in the margin (Q). e GANTZ & al. ub. fup. d Id. ibid. BARTOLOC. ub. fup. tom. iv. p. 69, & feq. WOLF Bibl. Hæbr. fub voc. (Q) The most celebrated of. them was R. Jaacob, the fon of Jekar, a great mufician, and cafuift, whofe decifions are received with the greatest esteem, and cannot be rejected without: incurring a crime. He is faid to have flourished about the fame time with his mafter; and to have died in the fame year. The next was R. Judah, firnamed Abercellonita, who was a profeffor of laws at Barcelona, and wrote a treatife on the rights of women, and another on the various Jewish calculations of time; fuch as from the exod, from the first Jewish monarch, from the entry of Alexander into Jerufalem, &c. which laft was followed down to the 10th century, when rabbi Sherirah, formerly mentioned, ob liged the Jews to reckon from the creation of the world +†. Judah likewife published fome fermons. The last worth mentioning, was R.Mofes Hadarfbian, or the Preacher. These two laft introduced preaching in their fynagogues, which had been till then much neglected; but the latter feems by his title of Preacher, to have been the most admired, and was likewife the author of the Bereshith Rabbah, or large comment on Genefis, often quoted by Chriftians (6) against the Jews, and by us frequently in their preceding history. He died in the year 1070, and left behind him a no lefs celebrated difciple, viz. Solomon Farchi, or the Lunatic, whom we have had frequent occafion to mention in this chapter. † See before, p. 13, fub note. (6) Vid. int. al. Pet. Galatin, v.c. l. viii, c. 11. alib. paff. Raym. Pugio Fidei Mic. Neander & al, mult, BUT this centu BUT among the rest of the French rabbies of this centu- The fam ry, we must not omit the author of the pretended hiftory of Jofephus, Fofipp Ben Gorion, whom, as we have elsewhere fhewn, the a native of Jews have fubftituted for the Greek historian of that name *. France, in This Jewish impoftor, to gain the greater credit with his readers, begins with giving himself out for a royal prince and1· prieft of the Jewish nation, in whofe perfon providence had united The high thofe two dignities, to war against their enemies. He calls himfelf titles be the Jofeph full of the fpirit of wisdom and understanding, of coun- gives himfel, fortitude, knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord; and who felf. facrificed his life to the defence of the fanctuary and people of God. He adds, that one of his foldiers, one day, cried aloud to him, thou art the man of God. Blessed be the God of Ifrael, who hath created the foul that animates thee, and hath endowed. thee with fuch extraordinary wisdom! And when taken by the Romans, their army asked each other with tears, Is that the perfon fo admired among the Jews, and fo dreaded by the Romans? How is he caught, who was alone once able to inject terror into our army, and hath filled the univerfe with the fame of his valiant deeds? Titus himself was no lefs taken with his perfon and courage, and raised him above all the priests and Levites' of his nation (R). WE have already taken occafion to fpeak of his fabulous His hiftory hiftory, and the occafion of his impofing it on the world in fabulous, an age fo far remote from that in which he pretends to have and wrote wrote it, as well as of the time in which it began to be made in oppofiknown to the world, viz. A. C. 1140. His impofture hath tion to the however fo well fucceeded by his pirating from the Greek true Jofeand original Jofephus, fuch facts as were to his purpose, misrepresenting and adding fuch others as he pleased, and couching his history in the Hebrew tongue, whereby the Greek one became not only neglected but fufpicious, and at length rejected as a forgery, by those of his nation. So that we need not wonder if the generality of them have fince extolled it to * See Anc. Hift. vol. x. p. 695, & (H). Vid. LADISL. Decret. lib. i. c. 10. ap. VERBOCZ Corp. jur. Hungar. phus. the skies, and fo many learned men among the Christians have Jews in mia. fibi affociaverit, a Christian woman, or buy a Christian slave, they fhould be fet at liberty, and the price given for them confifcated to the bishop 8. His fon Coloman being come to the throne, forbad them, by a new law, the ufing of Christian flaves, but permitted them to buy and cultivate lands, on condition they used no other but Pagan flaves, and settled only in fuch places as were under the jurisdiction of a bifhop h. These two laws fhew the Jews to have been numerous and powerful in that kingdom. Success in THEY were no lefs fo in Germany and Bohemia, where Hungary they had built many ftately fynagogues, in most of their noted and Boke- cities, particularly in the former, at Treves, Cologn, Mentz, and Francfort. They had likewise settled themselves in the latter, ever fince the 10th century, when they affifted the Christians against the irruptions of the barbarians, and for which they were allowed to have a fynagogue there alfo (S). They f COLODAN. Reg. decr. lib.i. ad an. 1100 ap. VERBOCZ. ub. fup. p. 65. JOSIPPON feu JOSEPH BEN GORION. Hift. Jud. libri fex p. 309, & 346. De hoc vid. BASNAG. Hift. des Juifs lib. ix. an. 6. paff. (S) We are told however, that they were fo much terrified by a variety of prodigies which feemed to threaten the deftruction of the world, that having loft all hopes of the coming of the Meffiah, they for the most embraced Chriftianity. And indeed, if we may believe those hiftorians, this eleventh century was remarkably pregnant with fuch wonders, and nothing fo common as the then intercourfe between this and the other world; there being scarce a night in which there were not fome travellers from the one to the other. Pope Benedict XII. was feen to come from thence, mounted on a black horfe, to give notice of a bishop being cruelly tormented there, becaufe all his alms had been the fruit of his extortions; and to advise his furviving brother to open the chefts of his ill-gotten wealth, and diftribute it to the poor. Others came to inform against They underwent indeed, in several parts, fome grievous perfecutions from the zealots, fuch as those we have hinted under the last note; but the emperor Henry (not the Vth, as the Jews have mistaken it', but his father, who was then at variance with pope Gregory about fome inveftitures) having de- Protected clared himself for them, they were not only resettled in their an- by the emcient abodes, but had, by his orders, all the goods refunded peror, which they had been plundered of. This occafioned fresh A. C. complaints and accufations, they being charged with having 1096, magnified their loffes, in order to enrich themselves by a more plentiful restitution, which, if true, they did easily bear the fcandal of, for the advantage they gained by it. A. C. 1094. BUT what most contributed to kindle the heat and fury of the zealots against them, was the march of the crufaders Majacred thro' Cologn, Mentz, Worms, Spires, and other cities of Ger- by the crumany, where they committed fresh maffacres in every oneJaders, from April to July, on those that refused to be converted. The Jewish hiftorians reckon but 5000 that were either butchered or drowned; and as to the number of those that saved themselves by diffembling, it was beyond compute*; and they are fo far from having exaggerated the particulars of that perfecution, that the Chriftians make the number of the for iShaliheleth Hakkabalah, fub A. M. 4856. p. 110. Id. ibid. against whole monafteries of nuns, who were employed in making drawers for men, which made them burn with lus to wards them. All which, and many more, paffed for current in thofe times. However, those prodigies had not converted fuch numbers of the Jews, but that there was still left a quantity fufficient to ftir up the zeal of a priest named Gotefeal against them, who at the head of 15000 banditti, committed the moft horrid outrages against them, and was fupported and encouraged in it by fome of the crowned heads. He had already gone thro' Franconia, and was entered Hungary, when they were caught plundering ((7) Moulin's Chron, German. 1. xv. & xvi. p. 123–125. (3) Id. Ibid. & S 2 mer |