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Allison P. Coudert

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MULSOW_f6-70-121 10/23/03 1:44 PM Page 88 88 ALLISON P. COUDERT The widespread incidents of conversions and reconversions dur- ing the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were clearly a result of the fragmentation of Christianity in the wake of the Reformation. The Reformation encouraged conversion in another way as well, by making it more possible for those Jews who had been forcibly con- verted to Christianity or who had professed to accept it while con- tinuing to adhere to Judaism in secret (the so-called Marranos) to revert to the faith of their ancestors. As many historians have pointed out, the very fact of religious schism and the resulting religious plu- ralism, together with the conversion and reconversions of both Christians and Jews, created a situation in which doctrinal purity was undermined and skepticism, if not outright atheism, flourished. In this climate, ecumenism could flourish as well. This was clearly the case in Sulzbach. As I have argued elsewhere, Sulzbach was perhaps the only place where true philosemitism flourished, for here Jews were accepted as Jews, not simply as possible converts.44 Conversion was not an issue among the Kabbalists at Sulzbach because they firmly believed that the Kabbalah provided the means for uniting every kind of Christian with every kind of Jew, Moslem, and Pagan in a single, universal religion. I would suggest that it was in this atmosphere that Späth gained the positive attitude towards Jews that eventually led to his conversion. Christian August’s policy towards the Jews was highly unusual for a ruler of the time. Not only did he encourage the immi- gration of Jews into the Sulzbach territories, but he protected the Jews who came and never made his protection a means of extor- tion, as did so many other Christian rulers. The Christian Hebraist Johann Christoph Wagenseil gives a glowing picture of Christian August’s relations with his Jewish subjects. From his account one can clearly see that Christian August’s approach was unusual enough to rate special mention, especially because of his dismissal of the charge of ritual murder as an outright lie and his threat to punish any sub- ject who spread such rumors: In this context we especially need to mention that the illustrious Prince Christian August of Pfaltz-Sulzbach, etc. has perfectly learned the sacred 44 “The Kabbala Denudata:Converting Jews or Seducing Christians?” In Christian- Jews and Jewish-Christians, eds. Richard H. Popkin and Gordon M. Weiner (Dordrecht: Kluwer, 1994). Copyright © 2004. Brill. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or Copyright © applicable copyright law. EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 6/10/2017 8:42 AM via EASTERN KENTUCKY UNIV AN: 132905 ; Mulsow, Martin, Popkin, Richard Henry.; Secret Conversions to Judaism in Early Modern Europe Account: s8356098 MULSOW_f6-70-121 10/23/03 1:44 PM Page 89 JUDAIZING IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 89 Hebrew language together with all the Jewish secrets, even the Cabbala, and that he delighted in such studies daily. Also after the rumor started for the second time in his territory, in 1682 and 1692, that the Jews had hanged Christian children, a rumor which was investigated and found to be totally false, he also had official proclamations nailed up everywhere to the effect that his subjects and inhabitants were strictly admonished under pain of mandatory corporal punishment not to believe this aforementioned vain fiction and lying rumor, much less to spread it further or to command or allow their children, servants or tenants to speak of it, let alone to verbally attack a Jew or ask, or allow, someone to attack a Jew because of these rumors. Whoever wishes to consider these important events bad, of minor importance, and unworthy should consider the words said by the wisest king of the Jews (Proverbs xxi:1): “The heart of a king and prince is in the hands of the Lord. Like a stream, he directs it where he will.”45 The fact that so many Christians continued to believe Jews capable of murdering innocent children was an important factor in Späth’s conversion to Judaism. The volumes of the Kabbala denudata were published in 1677, 1678 and 1684. Späth did not officially convert to Judaism until 1696. It is therefore impossible to argue that Späth’s experiences in Sulzbach were directly responsible for his later conversion. In fact, from the letter he wrote to van Helmont after his conversion, it is clear that 45 J.C. Wagenseil, Benachrichtigungen wegen einiger die Judenschafft angehende wichtigen Sachen. Erste Theil worinnen 1. Die Hoffnung der Erlösung Israelis oder klarer Beweiß der grossen und wie es scheinet/allgemach herannahenden Juden-Bekehrung/sammt vorgreifflichen Gedancken/wie solche nechst Verheißung Göttlicher Hülffe/zu befordern. 2. Wiederlegung der Unwarheit daß die Juden zu ihrer Bedürfniß Christen-Blut haben müssen. 3. Anzeigung/wie leicht es dahin zu bringen/daß die Juden forthin abstehen müssen/die Christen mit Wuchern und Schinden zu plagen (Leipzig, 1705), 32–33: “Hieher gehöret absonderlich/daß der Durchlauchtigste Fürst Christianus Augustus von Pfaltz-Sulzbach etc. die heilige Hebräische Sprach/sammt allen der Jüden Geheimnüßen/auch so gar der Cabbala, vollkommen erlernet/und mit solchen Studien sich täglich ergetzet. Er hat auch/nach- dem in seinem Land zum zweyten mahl/als 1682 und 1692 der Ruf auskommen/als wenn die Juden Christen-Kinder aufgehangen hätten/nach genau untersuchter und Grund-falsch befundener Sache allenthalben öffentliche Mandata anschlagen lassen/durch welche Dero Hochfürstliche Durchl. Landes-Unterthanen und Ingesessenen bey unausbleiblicher Leibes-Straffe ernstlich geboten worden/den eitel erdichteten und lügenhafften Ausstreuen keinen Glauben beyzumessen/vielweniger aber davon weiter Ausbreitung zu thun/noch ihren Kindern und gebrodeten Leuten/oder Hintersassen davon zu reden/geschweig einen Juden deswegen anzufechten oder fürzuwerffen heissen oder gestatten. Wer wolte diese hohe Begebnisen für schlecht/ger- ing und nicht würdig achten/daß ihnen beygeschrieben werde/was der weisseste König [p. 33] unter den Juden Prov. xxi. i. gesagt: Des Königs (und Fürsten) Hertz ist in der Hand des Herrn/wie Wasser-Bäche/und er neigets wohin er will.” Copyright © 2004. Brill. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or Copyright © applicable copyright law. EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 6/10/2017 8:42 AM via EASTERN KENTUCKY UNIV AN: 132905 ; Mulsow, Martin, Popkin, Richard Henry.; Secret Conversions to Judaism in Early Modern Europe Account: s8356098 MULSOW_f6-70-121 10/23/03 1:44 PM Page 90 90 ALLISON P. COUDERT while he was in Sulzbach and under the influence of van Helmont and Knorr von Rosenroth, he continued to believe that their kind of kabbalistic Christianity was the true religion. But as I have argued elsewhere, the kabbalistic convictions of the three people primarily responsible for the publication of the Kabbala denudata, Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, Francis Mercury van Helmont, and Christian August, undermined such basic Christian beliefs as the Trinity, the eternity of Hell, and even the notion that Jesus was the coequal and coeter- nal son of God. Thus the ecumenism and positive attitude toward Jews that Späth found in Sulzbach, together with the tendency of the Christian Kabbalists there to attenuate Christian doctrine by either explaining it allegorically or dismissing it altogether further undermined Späth’s Christian convictions. Spener certainly believed this to have been the case. He singled out van Helmont as respon- sible for Späth’s conversion on the grounds that he had made Späth’s belief in Christianity “lukewarm.”46 Späth eventually came to the conclusion that if Christians disagreed so fundamentally among them- selves and if Christian Kabbalists appropriated Jewish philosophy for their own purposes while discarding Christian fundamentals, perhaps the real kernel of truth lay in the Judaism, from which Christianity arose. Herman van der Hardt suggested that this was indeed Späth’s reasoning when he described him as concluding after a long inter- nal battle that, “everything is uncertain except this: God is certainly one.”47 The other instrumental factor in Späth’s conversion was his utter revulsion at the way Christians treated Jews and his sudden real- ization that the “suffering servant” in Isaiah, chapter 53 referred to the Jewish people as a whole. Schudt describes this decisive moment, which occurred in Amsterdam. He was out walking when a picture of Jesus covered with wounds and boils fell out of his pocket and onto the pavement. A Jew walking nearby picked the picture up and remarked, “That is Israel, the man of sorrows.”48 Späth abruptly realized that just as the Jews had suffered for the sins of the gen- 46 P.J. Spener, Consilia et judicia theologica latina, III: 430. 47 Van er Hardt made this observation in a conversation he had with Stolle. See G.E. Guhrauer, “Beiträge zur Kenntneiss des 17. u. 18. Jahrhunderts aus den handschriflichen Aufzeichungen Gottlieb Stolle’s”, in: Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Geschichte 7 (1847), 403. 48 Schudt, Merkwürdigkeiten, IV, 200. Copyright © 2004. Brill. All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except fair uses permitted under U.S. or Copyright © applicable copyright law. EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 6/10/2017 8:42 AM via EASTERN KENTUCKY UNIV AN: 132905 ; Mulsow, Martin, Popkin, Richard Henry.; Secret Conversions to Judaism in Early Modern Europe Account: s8356098 MULSOW_f6-70-121 10/23/03 1:44 PM Page 115 JUDAIZING IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 115 Finsternüß in ein heilsam Licht. Er selbst, [89] nicht ein ander Person, Character, Qualitaet oder Glantz, oderwie es Nahmen haben mag.
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