Abstract
“Once a Jew, always a Jew,” this was Erasmus’ attitude toward the notorious convert Johann Pfefferkorn and other converts from Judaism, as is revealed here. Erasmus treated such converts as Christians by religion but Jews by race. Erasmus’ vision of Christianity as capable of absorbing everyone without differences of race, ethnicity or origin, was no more than empty rhetoric, or alternatively, Erasmus’ own incapability to keep to his own values. Erasmus knew personally, and highly appreciated, the convert (Christian of long standing) and scholar Matthew Adrian and yet he defined him as “by race a Jew but in religion a Christian.” Thus, according to Erasmus, Jewish origin did not vanish, even when a Jew was no longer a Jew.
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Notes
- 1.
See n. 38, Chapter 9.
- 2.
Pabel, “Erasmus of Rotterdam and Judaism,” 21–35.
- 3.
CWE, 64, 243; ASD V-3, 62: “Nam beatus Paulus nobis spem bonam ostendit, fore, ut aliquando Judaeorum pertinacissima natio ad idem ovile congregetur, ac nobiscum agnoscat unum Pastorem Jesum.”
- 4.
It was first expressed in Erasmus’ Enchiridion. See John C. Olin, Six Essays on Erasmus and a Translation of Erasmus’ Letter to Carondelet, 1523 (New York: Fordham University Press, 1979), 12–13: “The emphasis on Holy Scripture as wellspring of Christian piety, the need for a life of simple faith and charity as opposed to a life of external devotions alone, the rejections of shame and pretentiousness in religious practice, the obligation to help the poor, the revulsion at war.” In his De bello Turcico, Erasmus detailed his plan to convert the Turks. Emissaries would be sent to convince the Turks by setting a personal example based on their evangelical life: CWE 64, 265; ASD V-3, 82.
- 5.
The letter was attached to a selection of Chrysostom’s writings that Erasmus translated and edited. He sent it to João III, expecting the king to become his patron, Ep 1800: 240–247: “Vereor enim ne nostri mores partim in causa sint quo minus Turcae, Mahometani, Saraceni, Moschobitae, Graeci, et si quae sunt aliae nationes semichristianae, vel schismaticae, sese adjugant ovili Christi, quo minus Judaei respiciant a sua caecitate, qua tot jam seculis detinentur: quos equidem demirabor, si tam dilucidae Chrysostomi rationes, si tam urgentia Scripturarum testimonia, non saltem huc adigant, ut pudeat pigeatque tam diutinae calamitatis.”
- 6.
Ep 1800: 236–240: “[…] nec tot bellis nec tot opinionum dissidiis concuteretur orbis, ac longius abessemus omnes et a Judaismo simul et a Paganismo; sed regnaret in nobis Christus, et sub illius vexillis fellici tranquillitate frueremur. Denique latius sese profferent Christianae ditionis pomeria.”
- 7.
Franz Posset, “In Search of the Historical Pfefferkorn: The Missionary to the Jews, 1507–1508,” in Adams and Heß (eds.), Revealing the Secrets of the Jews, 46. The reference is to epistle 2 of the Epistolae obscurorum virorum (F. G. Stokes, On the Eve of the Revolution [New York: Harper & Row, 1964], 47); Franz Posset, Johann Reuchlin (1455–1522): A Theological Biography (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015), 584. That Pfefferkorn was no outsider to Christianity, and considered himself an authentic and legitimate Christian, and of deep spirituality, see David H. Price, “Johannes Pfefferkorn and Imperial Politics,” in Adams and Heß (eds.), Revealing the Secrets of the Jews, 27–41 (especially p. 39).
- 8.
CWE 5, 181; Ep 701, 21–25 (November 1517): “[…] sub praetextu defendende fidei Christiane Christianam religionem subuersum ire, tum magnam inierit gratiam apud suos verpos […] Dispeream nisi, si fiat illius anatomia, non unum Iudeum sed sexcentos Iudeos in illius pectore comperias […] Utinam minus verum esset proverbium, semper ex malo Iudeo peiores fieri Christianos!”
- 9.
CWE 5, 179; Ep 700, 22–31: “Dispeream ni in eius pectore non unum Iudeum comperias…ex nocente Iudaeus nocentior Christianus.”
- 10.
CWE 5, 175; Ep 697, 11–15: “Scribunt ad me docti Pepericornium, ex scelerato Iudaeo sceleratissimum Christianum, edidisse librum lingua Germanica, in quo doctos omneis et inter hos me mira rabie lacerat ac discrepit. O pestem indignam talibus adversariis, dignam carnifice! Tanti erat aqua tingi, ut concordiam Christianam personatus Iudaeus turbaret.”
- 11.
Epistolae obscurorum virorum, I, epist. 23; II, epist. 3.
- 12.
Epistulae obscurorum virorum, II, epist. 69: “[…] disposuerunt loannem Pfefferkorn christianum et dimidium ludaeum, qui est bonus ebrius et ille iam examinat ne forte ibi latet venenum sub melle.” The letters appeared for the first time, not in their full scale, in 1515. The full scale critical and accepted text was prepared by Eduard Böcking (Ulrich von Hutten, Epistolae obscurorum virorum [Leipsic: Teubner, 1869]) and was published as a supplement to Böcking’s Ulrich von Hutten, Opera quae reperiri potuerunt omnia, edidit Eduardus Böcking, V vols. (Leipsic: Teubner, 1859–62); For an (out of date) English translation: Francis Griffin Stokes, Epistolae obscurorum virorum: The Latin text with an English rendering, notes, and an historical introduction (London: Chatto and Windus, 1909); Ulrich von Hutten, et al. On the Eve of Reformation: Letters of Obscure Men translated by Francis Griffin Stokes; new introduction by Hajo Holborn (New York: Harper & Row, 1964).
- 13.
David H. Price, “Johannes Pfefferkorn and Imperial Politics,” in Adams and Heß (eds.), Revealing the Secrets of the Jews, 27–41 (especially, 28, 39).
- 14.
Idem, 28 n. 5.
- 15.
Coined by Yaacob Deutsch, Judaism in Christian Eyes: Ethnographic Descriptions of Jews and Judaism in Early Modern Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
- 16.
CWE 5, 181; Ep 701, 37–38: “[…] Atque utinam iste totus aduc Iudeus esset et ceteros circunspectius admitteremus!” See also Oberman, The Impact of the Reformation, 103–104.
- 17.
For “Half-Jews half-Christians” see my quotes and discussion further on in this chapter.
- 18.
CWE 5, 167; Ep 694: 34–38. “Deinde vide, quaeso, quonam organo utantur isti verae religionis haudquamquam veri proffessores: homine prorsus idiota, frontis perfrictae, et de quo peccandum nullum omnino detrimentum fieri possit; cui non esset impingendum semiiudaei vocabulum, nisi factis esse declararet sesquiiudaeum.”
- 19.
CWE 5, 203–204; Ep 713: 2–9: “Recutitus ille ex nocentissimo verpo scelerator non Christianus sed Christianistes, editio libello […] Plus unus ille semiiudaeus Christianus nocuit rei Christianae quam uniuersa Iudaeorum sentina […]” Later Erasmus changed his stance on this affair so as not openly to support Reuchlin and to maintain an independent mind. See his letter of November 1519, Ep 1041: 13–15: “Ego nec Reuchlinista sum nec ullius humanae factionis […] Christianus sum et Christianos agnosco; Erasmistas non feram, Reuchlinistas non noui – I am no supporter of Reuchlin and not a part of any faction of people […] I am a Christian and as such approve Christians.”
- 20.
Carlebach, Divided Souls, 3–4; Miriam Eliav-Feldon, Renaissance Impostors and Proofs of Identity (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), 62–63; Yovel, The Other Within, xi–xiii, 78–102.
- 21.
Ep 686: 6–13: “[…] Hebraicae literaturae totius sic peritus […] Neque solum callet ad plenum linguam, verum etiam in ipsis autorum adytis est diligentissime versatus, ac libros omnes sic habet in promptu vt digitos vnguesque suos.” Markish, Erasmus and the Jews, 68–69.
- 22.
Markish, Erasmus and the Jews, 37; Carlebach, Divided Souls, 50; COE, I, 9–10.
- 23.
Ep 686: 5–6: “Commodum huc appulit Matthaeus Adrianus, genere Hebraeus sed religione iam olim Christianus […]”; Markish, Erasmus and the Jews, 68–69.
- 24.
For the full quotation, see n. 26, Chapter 9.
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Ron, N. (2019). By Race Jews, by Religion Christians. In: Erasmus and the “Other”. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24929-8_11
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