327
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
von den die es erdencken, nachdem sein kay. gn. daran zumal unglitlich beschieht " (Scherer, I.e.
sein
p. 427).
Jews
The complaints against the
residence of
in Austria
were frequently repeated in spite of the emperor's assurance that they would not be
allowed to settle there so that in his reply, dated Dec. 13, 1463, he makes the remark that while he was willing to carry out his promise not to allow any Jews to settle in Austria, he could not, in his capacity as king of the Romans, refuse them permission to come to his court whenever they Petitions had business to transact there. For Against some years this seems to have sufficed Rebut in 1479 the complaint is repeated, settlement, and the emperor is petitioned to issue a decree that no debt shall be valid unless the bond is signed in the presence of a judge. The hostility to the Jews was constantly fomented "by the clergy, who refused to give absolution or to admit to communion any judge or other official who in a litigation should render sentence in favor of the Jews. In order to stop this agitation, Frederick obtained from Pope Paul II. the bull " Sedis apostolic^ €opiosa benignitas" (May 31, 1469), in which the pope declared that the Jews had a claim to be treated
justly.
The emperor
also intervened in favor of
the Jews of Endingen, who had been accused of the murder of a Christian child (see Blood Accusation and Josel von Rosheim) and he took similar action when charges of a like nature were made in Trent The animosity of (1476) and Regensburg (1478). the citizens remained unabated. When the Hun;
garian king Matthias Corvinus captured Vienna in 1485, the citizens petitioned him that " in consideration of their disgraceful action toward God Almighty, the Jews should be expelled." The king granted the petition. The hostility of the population is further manifested in various polemical works of the period (Scherer, I.e. p. 433). The death of Frederick (Aug. 19, 1493) at once changed the condition of the Jews. His successor, Maximilian (1493-1519), seems, as heir presumptive, to have tried to induce his father to change his attitude toward the Jews. When Maximilian took possession of the throne, conditions changed to some extent in favor of the Jews, because his political ambitions especially his wars with Francis I. of France forced him to protect the Jews, who furnished his only reliable source of income. As under his father, the states (" Stande ") of Austria constantly complain that, contrary to their privileges, Jews are tolerated. Maximilian always answers by referring to the temporary character of his grants to the latter. Still, as can be seen from his attitude toward the charges made by the convert Pfefferkorn, who demanded the confiscation of all rabbinical books, the emperor was not favorably inclined to the Jews. When, therefore, the states in Carinthia and in Styria declared their willingness to indemnify him for the taxes of the Jews, he deExpulsions : creed their expulsion from those provCarinthia inces (Carinthia, March 9, 1496 Styria, and Styria. March 12, 1496), which, partly under his father, partly under his own reign, had been united with the Austrian possessions. The .states of Styria paid for the privilege of the expul-
—
—
Austria
Jews 38,000 pounds of Vienna pennies; while those of Carinthia paid 4,000 Rhenish florins (the text of this decree was published in " Allg. Zeit. des Jud. " 1849, p. 23). The motives assigned for the expulsion are partly religious, arising from alleged insults to the sacrament, and partly economic, in view of the Jews' usurious and fraudulent business practises. Carniola had only one Jewish settlement, in Laibach, and the citizens of that town also obtained a decree ordering the expulsion of the Jews (Jan. 1, 1515). In all of these territories Jews had existed since the thirteenth century, and probably earlier, as is indicated by the names of many places; e.g., Judenburg, Judendorf, etc. The decrees of expulsion, with very few exceptions, remained in force until the new era following the year 1848. In Austria proper the petition of the states for the expulsion of the Jews, though often repeated, was never fully granted; and in 1518 the emperor, in replying to a petition for expulsion, stated that, while he was willing to expel the Jews from Vienna and from the province of Austria, it was not his intention to expel them from the province at once. He, therefore, permitted them to reside in the cities on the border, Eisenstadt, Marcliegg, etc. where they should have a chance to look for a place of definite settlement. This policy the emperor maintained to the last. Shortly before his death (Jan. 12, 1519), he, in reply to repeated complaints of the states, announced that Jews who had been expelled from his various dominions would be allowed to reside in the border towns; and he further exempted from the expulsion the Jew Hiirschl, who had been permitted to reside in Vienna (May 24, 1518). This is the beginning of the era of the Court Jews. Maximilian was succeeded by his grandson Charles V. (1519-56), who, in his capacity of German emperor, exercised a considerable influence upon the condition of the Jews in Austria. The frequent expulsions at the end of the fifteenth and at the beginning of the sixteenth century had made it imperative for the German emperor (who, in his illusionary capacity as Roman emperor, considered himself as the protector of all the Jews, and who, as such, derived an income from the Jewish taxes) to provide some remedy. Charles, therefore, at the commencement of his reign confirmed the privileges of the Jews (1520), among which was the important stipulation that they should not be expelled without his consent from places where they had been allowed to settle. This charter he confirmed after his coronation as Roman emperor (May 18, 1530), and again on April 3, 1544. In the latter document he also declared against the blood The policy of maintaining the Jews accusation. where they had once been tolerated and of prohibiting their settlement elsewhere remained in general the policy of the Austrian rulers after his time, although this rule was not General sion of the
,
Policy.
without exceptions.
When, in 1525, demanded
the states of Austria again
that Jews should not be permitted to reside in any part of Austria, Ferdinand (to whom, in 1522, Charles had assigned his Austrian possessions) emphatically replied (Feb. 23, 1526) that he would allow them to live in any part of his possessions where Jews had previously dwelt. On May 28, 1529, he
