THE BULWARK OF CHRISTENDOM 151ling merchant-preacher. He seems to have followed the practices of the
Sabbateists, complementing the theology of the Talmud with Zoarist jargon
and financial wizardry. In 1754, he claimed to have been converted to Islam,
thereby imitating his 'Master', Sabbataj Cebi, who ninety years before had
appeased the Ottoman authorities by exactly the same step. In the following
year he returned to his native Podolia, and soon attracted a host of disciples
from the teeming ghettos of the borders. The orthodox Jewish authorities were
outraged. One winter's night in 1756, they hastened to the Bishop of Kamieniec
having surprised the Frankists inflagrante. They had broken into a novices'
prayer meeting in the village of Lanckorona, and, in the words of the Bishop's
report, had discovered a scene of gross debauchery: 'cantilenas impias, altas ac
tripudia devotionibus intermiscentes, carnales commistiones distinctis cum
uxuribus, consanguineis, imo et affinibus suis, Mosaicae renuntiando legi pub-
lice perpetraverint.'^29 It was the beginning of a scandal which reached the very
highest circles of the Republic. Frank, having instructed his followers to pro-
claim the validity of Catholic teaching on the Trinity and the errors of the
Talmud, took refuge across the border. Meanwhile, his supporters were
released from arrest by the Bishop, who foresaw the prospect of a sensational
conversion. A public disputation between the Frankists and the Talmudists, and
a test case in the consistory court, led to open conflict. The public executioner
was ordered to burn all the Talmudic books in the diocese. The orthodox
Jewish elements replied with violence. The Frankists were attacked in the
streets, and were shorn of half their beards as a sign of heresy. Appeals by
Baruch Jawan, Jewish aide of the chief Minister, Bruhl, in Warsaw, produced a
royal decree to end the disturbances. In January 1759, when Frank recrossed the
Dniester into the Republic with twelve apostles, he returned as a conquering
Messiah. He staged another disputation against the Talmudists in the Cathedral
of Lwow, which he was adjudged to have won six points to nil, with one point
drawn. He then requested Christian baptism for himself and all his sect. At one
of the mass christenings which followed, his godparents included the Uniate
Archbishop of Lwow, the Countess Bruhl, and several eastern magnates. At a
second christening in Warsaw, the King-Elector himself agreed to be godfather.
Whereupon, a stream of denunciations led to Frank's arrest. Under torture in
the Bernardine cloister in Warsaw, he confessed to charges relating to
polygamy, embezzlement, and impersonation of the Messiah. In deference to
the King, he was incarcerated in the monastery of Czestochowa. But he was far
from finished. In 1767, when Russian forces invaded the Republic, Frank offered
to turn to Orthodoxy and was released from prison by Suvorov. Fleeing to
Austria in 1772, he caused a stir by setting his daughter Eva, his chosen succes-
sor, to seduce Joseph II. He finally settled at Oberrad near Frankfurt-am-Main,
where he bought a castle, and where, as 'Baron von Frank, Prinz von Polen', he
lived in a fairy-tale world of barred gates, spies, and chemical experiments.
Surrounded by a guard of one thousand hussars dressed in diamond-studded
uniforms, he rode to Mass at the parish church of Burgel in a gilded coach. His