Luther’s condemnation exceeded that of his contemporaries.
For their part, Jews were not passive onlookers during these tumultuous
events. On the contrary, they used their conventional political strategy –
shtadlanut(petitioning) – to safeguard themselves and even take advantage
of these developments. In 1520, Josel of Rosheim, an Alsatian rabbi and
the unofficial spokesman for Jews in the Holy Roman Empire, obtained a
renewal of Jewish rights from Emperor Charles V. He and other Jews ini-
tially regarded Luther and his reform movement with guarded optimism.
Some Jews felt that Luther’s reexamination of scripture would ease
Christian antagonism. A few even regarded the Reformation as a sign that
messianic redemption was imminent, that Luther’s challenge to the Roman
Catholic Church, coupled with the Ottoman victories over the Holy
Roman Empire, marked the fulfillment of the prophet Daniel’s vision of
the defeat of a fourth empire (later reinterpreted as Rome) as a prelude to
redemption.
As Luther began to show hostility to Jews, the latter grew increasingly
wary of him. Earlier hopes that he might benefit the Jews gave way to wari-
ness and derision. Some Jews referred to him as Lo Tahor, a Hebrew play on
words that meant impure. In 1543, Josel of Rosheim offered to debate
Luther publicly.
Not all Protestant leaders were as openly hostile as Luther. John Calvin, for
example, emphasizing law over theology, regarded the legal tradition of the
Hebrew Bible more favorably than Luther, claiming that Jews had corrupted
a once useful, and potentially still useful, tradition. Calvin challenged the
widespread Christian rejection of moneylending, and argued that Jewish
usury was an abuse of an otherwise acceptable occupation. For Calvin, who
had little or no contact in Geneva with actual Jews, the real adversary was not
Jews but rival Christian theologians such as the anti-Trinitarian Miguel
Servetus, who Calvin claimed relied too much on the Hebrew Bible and
Jewish commentaries. Calvin denounced Servetus as a Judaizer, and had him
burned at the stake in 1553. Calvin’s followers, though, tended to be more
militant, expelling the Jews from Geneva in 1582.
As a series of wars between Catholics and Protestants consumed much of
Europe during the second half of the sixteenth century, most Jews tried to
remain neutral. Given the more overt hostility of Lutherans and Calvinists,
Jews generally regarded Catholic sovereigns as less hostile and more pre-
dictable. The Peace of Augsburg, which ended the first wave of religious wars
in 1555, introduced an element of uncertainty for Jews. This agreement
between Catholics and Protestants to disagree was epitomized by the princi-
ple cuius religio euis regio(literally, whose realm, his religion). While reflecting
a measure of mutual toleration between Catholics and Protestants – much to
the outrage of the pope – this principle implied the theoretical possibility of
outlawing, or at least curtailing, the practice of Judaism in a Catholic or
Protestant state.
World Jewry in flux, 1492–1750 111