325
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Jews of Vienna killed themselves in their synagogue upon the advice of their rabbi Jonah, is unfounded (see
Scherer,
Albrecht's successor, p. 371). (1358-65), forged the so-called "Privimajus," according to which Emperor Fredhad in 1156 given to the dukes of Austria I.e.
Rudolph IV. legium erick
I.
unusual privileges, among which was the right to keep Jews and " public usurers. " Emperor Karl IV. confirmed the right of the Austrian dukes to keep Jews in all places in their dominion, and made a treaty with the dukes of Austria, in his capacity as king of Bohemia, that neither party would allow Jews who had left their country to settle in that of the other (Dec. 13, 1360). This measure was adopted in order to prevent Jews who might endeavor to escape from extortions from seeking another home. If a Jew found another home, his bonds were inval-
Such " Totbriefe " issued by Rudolph are extant from the year 1362. The same conditions prevailed under Rudolph's brothers and successors, Albrecht III. (1365-95) and Leopold III. (1365-86). When Jews had left the country, those who reidated.
mained had to indemnify the duke for the loss which he had suffered. In 1367 several Jews, probably the representatives of their coreligionists, made a treaty with the dukes, promising to pay 20,000 florins for
two Jews, Musch and Chadgim (Hayyim), who had left the Austrian territory in consideration of which payment the dukes allowed them to take all of the
In 1366 the dukes issued an order that no Jew should engrave a seal and two years later they prohibited dealing in gold and silver and money-changing by Jews, restricting them to lending money on pledges. About Eestric1370 all the Jews in the Austrian terrifugitives' property.
tions on Oc- tories were imprisoned by secret order, eupations. and their property was confiscated. One report has it that the object of this outrage was to con vert the Jews to Christianity. However this may have been, the attempt failed; only two, a man of forty and a young girl, were baptized, the former of whom returned to Judaism and was burned at the stake. At a subsequent period, probably in 1378, a new charter was granted to the Jews. The deed is not now extant; but from quotations in later documents
learned that the Jews were given a renewed assurance of the ducal protection the right of residence in all the ducal lands it is
they were to be assisted in to them collecting their debts ; and the dukes undertook to The Jews were not issue no letters of invalidation. to be blackmailed by loans and taxes beyond those stipulated by their charters, and accusations against them must be proved by the testimony of honest
was accorded
unversprochenen ") Christians and Jews. Notwithstanding the promise that they should not be troubled with demands for loans by the dukes, the latter in 1379-80 exacted another loan of 10,000 pounds of Vienna pennies, assessed under the penalty of excommunication against all the Jews of Austria. Similarly, in spite of the promise granted in the charter, the dukes in 1382 remitted the interest which the citizens of Vienna owed to the Jews on loans. An order of 1371 prohibits the sale of wine and grain by the Jews of Styria; yet the Jews of Vienna are expressly exempted from the impost ("
Austria
by the municipality of into the city. laid
Vienna on wine brought
How
did the Jews, who in 1370 were robbed of all their property, levy ten years later the sum of 10,000
pounds of pennies on the members of their community? This is easily answered, when the fact is considered that the confiscation did not include the bonds which they had in their hands and which constituted the greater part of their possessions. Thus the condition of the Jews under rulers who were considered partial to them was rather precarious; but their situation became worse under the succeeding dukes. Of the Jews under Albrecht IV. (13951404), son of Albrecht III., and Wilhelm, the son of Leopold III. (1395-1406), who ruled over Austria in common, very little is known. The charter granted to the Jews of Carinthia and Styria Oct. 23, 1396, which states that the privileges granted them in 1377 shall be confirmed, is merely a confirmation of the " Handfeste " (charter) described above. Restrictions, such as the prohibition of dealing in any merchandise in the city of Linz (1396), or of holding real estate, even where it had been obtained Further as a foreclosed mortgage, are based on Restricthe principle that Jews should be retions. stricted to money-lending. Of particular interest is the fact that a Jew, named Guntzenhauser, had to sign a promise that he would not practise medicine (1403). This was evidently done upon the demand of the university, whose professors frequently complain of the competition of Jewish physicians. The invocation of the " great Jew Czaphonas Paneach, " found in that document, is evidently not, as Scherer (I.e. p. 403) and Wolf ("Studien zur Jubelfeier der Wiener Universitat," p. 16, Vienna, 1865) interpret it, a mystic formula it refers to the Aramaic version of Gen. xli. 45, and means, therefore, an oath in the name of Him
who knoweth
all secrets.
The hostility of the general population to the Jews manifested itself in 1406, when a fire broke out in the synagogue of Vienna and the mob used the opportunity to sack the Jewish quarter. The worst, however, was to come under Albrecht V. (1404-39), who,
when
at fourteen he
was declared
his father Albrecht IV.,
and the
of age, succeeded
Leopold IV. Albrecht was a religious fanatic and the popular prejudice, which declared the Jews responsible for every evil, had at that time accused the Jews of having caused the Hussite schism. This fanaticism found soon a pretense of justification in the circulation of the story that a rich Jew, Israel of Enns, had bought of a sexton's wife a consecrated host in order to profane it. Under the order of the duke, all the Jews of AusHostTrag'edyof tria were imprisoned (May 23, 1420); Enns. the poor among them were expelled from the country and the well-to-do were kept in prison, and their property was confisSome, in order to save their lives, embraced cated. Christianity, but of these the majority returned to Judaism and were burned at the stake. Others committed suicide and this probably gave rise to the legend that R. Jonah and the whole congregation of Vienna killed themselves in the synagogue. The only result of an appeal to the pope (Martin V.) by latter's cousin,
