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Source 11.6: The Black Death and European Jews

Extreme and traumatic events such as the plague cry out for explanation so that people can find some sense of orientation in a bewildering and chaotic environment. One such explanation lay in the scapegoating of minorities or outsiders, constructing conspiracies to account for the inexplicable. In France, “beggars and mendicants of various countries” were accused of poisoning wells, tortured to produce confessions, and then burned to death. More frequently the target of such attacks were Jews, who had long been damned as “Christ killers,” prohibited from practicing certain occupations, and stereotyped as greedy moneylenders. Many church authorities, however, had encouraged toleration, hoping that Jews might finally convert to Christianity. But as the plague took hold, accusations against Jews for poisoning wells mounted, as did attacks upon them, confessions extracted under torture, and executions by burning. Conflicting economic interests played an important role in these events. Rulers and city fathers often wanted to preserve the Jews as a source of tax revenue, while those indebted to Jewish lenders might well benefit from their death. This account by the German chronicler Jacob Von Königshofen (1346–1420) illustrates that horrendous process.

Questions to consider as you examine the source:

What differences of opinion on dealing with Jews appear in this source?
What mix of motives lay behind these attacks on Jews?
How do these attacks on Jews compare with those that occurred during the Crusades? See Source 10.2 in the Thinking through Sources feature for Chapter 10.

Jacob Von Königshofen

About the Great Plague and the Burning of the Jews, ca. Early Fifteenth Century

In the matter of this plague the Jews throughout the world were reviled and accused in all lands of having caused it through the poison which they are said to have put into the water and the wells. . . . For this reason the Jews were burnt all the way from the Mediterranean into Germany . . . , but not in Avignon, for the pope protected them there.

[I]n Basel the citizens marched to the city hall and compelled the council to take an oath that they would burn the Jews, and that they would allow no Jew to enter the city for the next two hundred years. . . . And there was a great indignation and clamor against the deputies from Strasbourg. So finally the Bishop and the lords and the Imperial Cities agreed to do away with the Jews. On . . . St. Valentine's Day [1349] they burnt the Jews on a wooden platform in their cemetery. There were about two thousand people of them. Those who wanted to baptize themselves were spared. Many small children were taken out of the fire and baptized against the will of their fathers and mothers. And everything that was owed to the Jews was cancelled, and the Jews had to surrender all pledges and notes that they had taken for debts. The council, however, took the cash that the Jews possessed and divided it among the workingmen proportionately. The money was indeed the thing that killed the Jews. If they had been poor and if the feudal lords had not been in debt to them, they would not have been burnt. After this wealth was divided among the artisans, some gave their share to the Cathedral or to the Church on the advice of their confessors. . . .

In some cities the Jews themselves set fire to their houses and cremated themselves.

Source: Jacob Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World: A Sourcebook, 315–1791 (New York: JPS, 1938), 43–48, http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/jewish/1348-jewsblackdeath.asp.