The Conversion of Herman the Jew

Autobiography, History, and Fiction in the Twelfth Century

Jean-Claude Schmitt, Alex J. Novikoff

• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9780812208757
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Historical Biographies
• Index: History

Sometime toward the middle of the twelfth century, it is supposed, an otherwise obscure figure, born a Jew in Cologne and later ordained as a priest in Cappenberg in Westphalia, wrote a Latin account of his conversion to Christianity. Known as the Opusculum, this book purportedly by "Herman, the former Jew" may well be the first autobiography to be written in the West after the Confessions of Saint Augustine. It may also be something else entirely.In The Conversion of Herman the Jew the eminent French historian Jean-Claude Schmitt examines this singular text and the ways in which it has divided its readers. Where some have seen it as an authentic conversion narrative, others have asked whether it is not a complete fabrication forged by Christian clerics. For Schmitt the question is poorly posed. The work is at once true and fictional, and the search for its lone author—whether converted Jew or not—fruitless. Herman may well have existed and contributed to the writing of his life, but the Opusculum is a collective work, perhaps framed to meet a specific institutional agenda.With agility and erudition, Schmitt examines the text to explore its meaning within the society and culture of its period and its participation in both a Christian and Jewish imaginary. What can it tell us about autobiography and subjectivity, about the function of dreams and the legitimacy of religious images, about individual and collective conversion, and about names and identities? In The Conversion of Herman the Jew Schmitt masterfully seizes upon the debates surrounding the Opusculum (the text of which is newly translated for this volume) to ponder more fundamentally the ways in which historians think and write.

Chapter 1

Fiction and Truth

Three Centuries of Erudition

The first printed edition of the Opusculum appeared during the formative period of Christian anti-Jewish apologetics: in Leipzig in 1687 Johann Benedikt Carpzov took to reediting the famous Pugio fidei (or Dagger of Faith), a treatise composed in 1278 by the Dominican Raymond Martini, a lecturer on the Studium in Barcelona. Born there around 1210–1215, Raymond Martini joined the Dominican order in around 1237–1240, and in 1250 was sent to Tunis by Raymond of Peñaforte as part of the new Studium arabicum dedicated to evangelizing Muslims. Upon his return Raymond Martini wrote the Dagger of Faith, which marks the culmination of his work and is distinguished by its firsthand knowledge of Hebrew texts. He died in 1285–1290.¹ Carpzov (1639–1699), for his part, belonged to a long line of Lutheran theologians and ministers. He himself worked in both capacities in his native city of Leipzig where he finished his career as minister of Saint Thomas (1689) and a professor of theology (1684). He is the author of several exegetical works, a translation of Maimonides and studies of the Talmud, as well as sermons and letters. His edition of the Pugio fidei features a frontispiece of an armed hand representing the eponymous dagger of Raymond Martini’s work; the dagger reaches out from a celestial cloud and threatens a terrified old rabbi, flanked by an acolyte in oriental costume who throws himself to the ground. Following the title page comes Carpzov’s four-page dedication to Jacobus Bornius, a lawyer and advisor to the prince elector of Saxony. This is followed by a series of different texts: a 126-page Introductio in theologiam Judaicam by Carpzov himself; then, the six-page separately paginated prologue (Proemium) of Raymond Martini; after this, the Observationes in proemium pugionis fidei by Joseph de Voisin (184 pages); and then finally the full text of the Pugio fidei (pp. 191–961), also edited by Joseph de Voisin and published for the first time in Paris in 1651. This Joseph de Voisin, a native of Bordeaux (1610—1685) and protected by the prince of Conti, was a famous Hebraist, the translator of several Kabalistic texts, and also the author of a Theologia Judaeorum (1647). His French translation of the Missel romain (1660), immediately placed on the index of forbidden books, was the occasion of a great ecclesiastical-political polemic.

It is following this new edition of the Pugio fidei that one arrives in Carpzov’s work at the editio princeps of the Opusculum de sua conversione, complete with a distinct pagination of thirty-two pages. Carpzov dedicates this edition to the theologian Theophilus Spizel, whom he describes as “a most vigilant minister of orthodoxy.” Born in Augsburg, where he ended his career as doyen of the Lutheran church, Spizel (1639–1691) must have met Carpzov while studying theology at Leipzig. He is the author of controversial anti-Jewish and anti-Anglican writings. After this dedication, Carpzov explains, in the space of two pages, the circumstances under which he came to publish this previously unedited text: the manuscript was brought to his attention by the librarian of the Academy in Leipzig, the poet Joachim Feller (1628–1691),² who told him that it was the work of a “proselyte.” Carpzov was actually searching desperately to find among the holdings of the library the work of Raymond Martini, which he had thought lost. He says that he immediately admired the elegance of the written form of the manuscript and he specifies that he had hitherto never come across the name Herman among anti-Jewish polemicists. The friends he consulted confirmed to him that the Opusculum remained unedited. Carpzov finds particularly noteworthy the account Herman gives of his meeting with the Abbot Rupert of Deutz, a well-known author of the early twelfth century, and the information that he gives about his own period, which also happens to be that of Bernard of Clairvaux.

It is under the banner of an anti-Jewish polemic, then, that the Opusculum reaches a scholarly audience at the end of the seventeenth century. The work is considered a personal account meant to confound Jews and push them toward conversion through the edifying example of a convert who himself recounted the story of his progression toward grace. It is Carpzov’s edition, let us remember, that Migne would reedit in the nineteenth century in the Patrologia Latina and that historians would use exclusively until the second half of the twentieth century.

The second edition of the Opusculum appears in Johann Dietrich von Steinen’s Brief Description of the Noble “Houses of God” in Cappenberg and Scheda (Dortmund, 1741). This edition has a completely different purpose from the first. The issue is no longer proving the superiority of Christianity over Judaism, but describing the first stages of the history of the order of Prémontré in Germany, and especially in Rhineland-Westphalia. The history of these “Houses of God” in Cappenberg and Scheda affords an opportunity to consult all the available local sources, including the Opusculum. It is the ecclesiastical and religious history, and more especially the history of Prémontré, that defines this second wave of interpretation of our text. In the historiographical fate of Herman the Jew, the history of the order of Prémontré plays a role of primary importance. The foundation of this order of canons regular in 1119–1121 is part of the great eleventh- and twelfth-century Gregorian movement of reform and owes itself to a single priest, Norbert of Xanten. Like many of its contemporary orders, the new order of Prémontré adopts the less rigid Rule of the Augustinians and spreads rapidly, especially in the north of Europe. The order’s first appearance in Germany is in Cappenberg in 1121. The story of this foundation is related in the Vitas of Godfried of Cappenberg and Norbert of Xanten.

We have already said that the Vita of Godfried mentions the entrance into Cappenberg of a frater hebraeus; the Opusculum also mentions Cappenberg in connection with the wondrous visit the young Jew made in the company of Bishop Eckbert of Munster. Curiously, it is not the name of Cappenberg that history has attached to Herman’s, but that of a filial priory called Scheda in Westphalia. According to tradition the author of the Opusculum calls himself “Herman of Scheda” and not “Herman of Cappenberg.” Two writs of the archbishop of Cologne dated 1170 justify this displacement: one mentions a provost of Scheda by the name of Herman (Herimannus Schedensis prepositus), but without qualifying that he is a Jewish convert; the other specifically mentions the provost Herman the Jew (Herimanno Israhelita preposito), but also says nothing of his connection to Cappenberg. There are no further sources until 1619 when the prior of Scheda Johannes Caesar compiles a list of provosts and abbots who preceded him. At the top of that list he places Hermannus Israelita, but once again no connection is established between him and the author of the Opusculum. The link is only formally established several years later by the abbot of Scheda Wilhelm Grüter and the vicar general for the archbishop of Cologne, Johannes Gelenius, for on 23 and 24 June 1628 they proceed to open the tombs of two people whom they believe played a distinguished role in the founding of Scheda. Gelenius left a detailed written report of the exhumation. In the first tomb were found the bones of the preacher Echardus, who according to tradition convinced a widow by the name of Wiltrudis and her children to contribute to the founding of Scheda. Located seven feet below the ground, the second tomb contained a skeleton in good condition, with a “large and deep” cranium and thirty-two teeth. A tombstone covered the remains. It lacked any inscription, but there was an effigy of a brother from Prémontré in a long robe wearing a cross and with his hands clasped on his chest. This effigy had one peculiarity: at his feet lay “a pointed hat similar to the one Jews wear publicly in paintings” (superne acuminatum ea forma qua judaei pinguntur).³ For Grüter and Gelenius there is no doubt about their finding: this tomb can only be that of the first “abbot” of Scheda. They are all the more familiar with his history since the library of the priory possessed a manuscript of the Opusculum. The abbot and the vicar general order the exhumation of Herman’s remains and present the act as the elevation and transportation of the relics of a saint. Gelenius composes an epitaph in commemoration of the event and to celebrate the one who, following the example of Saint Paul (the universal model for Jewish converts), is a “fox” who has transformed himself into a “lamb.”⁴ The fifth of July 1628 saw the transportation of Herman’s remains into the sacristy. The vicar general removes some relics for the chapel of Saint Margaret in the cathedral of Cologne, the sepulcher chosen by his parents and himself.

Thus by the seventeenth century at the latest Scheda, the “daughter” house of Cappenberg, had posited for itself a founding “saint” in the person of Herman the Jew, a “first abbot” rather than an actual founder. Objective criteria such as the presence in this priory of a twelfth-century brother named Herman, indeed Herman the Jew, with the same name as the supposed author of the Opusculum whose link to Cappenberg is known, no doubt helped to confirm his identification. More generally, another factor also needs to be borne in mind: starting in the twelfth century a rivalry develops between Scheda and her “mother” house of Cappenberg, the latter complaining of the “daughter” house’s desire for independence. Cappenberg thus “commits the imprudent move of repudiating her daughter’s subject status” (filiam subjectionem [. . .] minus prudenti diu denegaverunt).⁵ It is therefore possible that the brothers of Scheda wished to find in Herman, so glorified by his reputation as a convert, the figure of the original saint they needed. My hypothesis is that Herman, whether he was indeed the provost of Scheda, or, as is more likely the case, he was confused with a later person of the same name (the abbot Herman of Scheda who is attested to at the end of the twelfth century), has played a role in the collective memory of this priory close to that of the two major “founders” of the Order: Norbert of Prémontré and Godfried of Cappenberg. The incompleteness of medieval sources unfortunately does not permit exact knowledge of when and how the role of “original saint” was created and assigned to Herman the Jew.

The terrible destructions of the Thirty Years War (1618–1648) in Rhine-Westphalia following the Council of Trent prompted those responsible for the immense ecclesiastical province of Cologne to bring about a “religious reordering” (Religionsordnung) in the style of a Catholic reconquest. One of the principal promoters of this reconquest is none other than the vicar general Johannes Gelenius, whom we have just met at Scheda in the context of unearthing the “relics” of Herman the Jew. From 1626 until 1631 he assists the archbishop Ferdinand of Bavaria (1612–1650) in his work of reform and reconstruction. A series of synods, pastoral visits, and Episcopal mandates testifies to their joint efforts. They pay close attention to the cult of saints as a support for their reformist activities as well as the persecution of witchcraft, which was experiencing renewed fervor during these same years. This may well explain the presence of Gelenius at the side of Abbot Grüter at Scheda in June 1628.

At the very same time, the canons of Prémontré were preoccupied with carrying Herman the Jew, or of Scheda (for them it is all the same), to the altar. In 1625 Johann Christof Van der Sterre of Antwerp gives him a place in the catalogue of saints of the Order of Prémontré (Natales Sanctorum candidissimi Ordinis Praemonstratensis). The initiative comes from the priory of Saint-Michael of Anvers. Herman is named “first abbot and provost” of Scheda and is given as a feast day on 23 December. In the historiography of the order it seems that the prestige of another Herman far more famous and with better saintly credentials, abbot Herman-Joseph of Steinfeld (1150–1241), did not in fact eclipse the reputation of his modest namesake at Scheda, but rather was projected upon the earlier Herman. In the catalogues of illustrious persons in the Order of Prémontré, the alphabetic classification made it possible for Herman of Scheda to come directly before blessed Herman-Joseph. It was therefore difficult not to merge the two. Herman-Joseph was born in 1150 (also in Cologne) to a poor but once affluent family. He entered Steinfeld young, was sent to study in Frisia, and returned to enter into the priesthood. His many visions of the Virgin Mary, with whom he contracted a “mystical marriage,” established his reputation.⁶ The conflation of the two Herman “saints” of Prémontré is made explicit in the Lilium inter spinas, a work which Van der Steere consecrated in 1627 to the “blessed Herman Joseph, priest and canon of Steinfeld of the Order of Prémontré.” Only in this work is the feast date of Herman of Scheda fixed on 6 August and not 23 December. In the dedicatory note Van der Steere cites a passage from the Opusculum.⁷ In 1645 the canon Aegidius Gelenius, historiographer of the archbishop of Cologne and relative of Johannes Gelenius, cites Van der Streere and mentions the presence in Cologne of the relics of Herman of Scheda, whose autobiographical Vita he transcribes.⁸

In carrying out the exhumation of Herman’s remains, Abbot Grüter aims at recovering the relics of a “saint.” But hagiography is not his only motive. His abbey falls victim to a violent internal conflict. Driven by the provost Caspar von der Hees, certain canons wish to limit the recruitment of brothers to the nobility. Others, under the direction of Abbot Wilhelm Grüter, want to retain the possibility of recruiting among common people. In this campaign, the memory of Herman is high stakes: if a simple Jewish convert managed to become the first “abbot” of Scheda, and indeed a saint, are Grüter’s claims against privileging the nobility not fully justified? The discovery of Herman’s tomb did not, however, thwart a victory for the opposing party. In 1647, after a string of events, Caspar von der Hees is reestablished in his prerogatives and the third successor of Grüter, Johannes Hansaeus, is forced to quit the abbey with his non-noble brothers. But he is not ready to give in just yet. In Brussels he hands over to the Bollandistes a file containing one copy of the Opusculum that was preserved at Scheda (the original is now lost), the text of a morning prayer also attributed to Herman the Jew, the written report by Johannes Gelenius describing the exhumation in 1628, and the epitaph that Gelenius composed in honor of Herman. This turned out to be a providential gift since the greatest part of the archives of Scheda would disappear in the midst of this troubled period and then later during the French Revolution. Even the abbey itself would not survive the turbulences of the Napoleonic era: it was shut down in 1809 and the church destroyed in 1817. Today only a nineteenth-century manor and a large farm occupy the site. At best, only a few ivy-covered rocks scattered nearby recall the old priory. In the dining room of the manor house, a mediocre eighteenth-century painting illustrates the founding of Scheda by the priest Echardus, the widow Wiltrudis, and her sons.

No further attempts were made to sanctify Herman the Jew. In the middle of the seventeenth century, while the local defeat and departure of the low-born canons ruined the cause for the Jewish convert, the hagiographic critics of the Bollandists (who on the other hand had no hesitation in honoring Godfried of Cappenberg in 1643 with a place in the Acta Sanctorum) defeated the arguments favorable to recognizing Herman the Jew as a saint. Nevertheless, the scruples of the literate Jesuits led them to prepare an edition of the Opusculum based on Hansaeus’s copy. But only the 1735 edition of the Acta Sanctorum mentions, by the title of praetermissus (“failed”!), the name of Herman.

In the meantime, as we have seen, the suspicions of the Bollandists did not prevent the publication in Dortmund in 1741 of a new edition of the Opusculum, distinct from that of Carpzov. The goal here was neither to frame an anti-Jewish polemic nor to bring to light a saint from Prémontré. For Johann Dietrich von Steinen, author of the new edition, the intended purpose is an ecclesiastical history of Westphalia and in particular the history of its “noble abbeys” of Cappenb...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Chapter 1. Fiction and Truth
• Chapter 2. Medieval Autobiography
• Chapter 3. The Dream and Its Interpretation
• Chapter 4. Conversion to Images
• Chapter 5. Baptism and Name
• Chapter 6. “A New Era of Conversion”
• Conclusion
• Extract from the Vita of Godfried, Count of Cappenburg (c. 1150–1155)
• Herman the Former Jew: Short Work on the Subject of His Conversion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Acknowledgments