Medieval Sourcebook:
Albert of Aix and Ekkehard of Aura:
Emico and the Slaughter of the Rhineland Jews
Albert of Aix
At the beginning of summer in the same year in which Peter, and
Gottschalk, after collecting an army, had set out, there assembled
in like fashion a large and innumerable host of Christians from
diverse kingdoms and lands; namely, from the realms of France,
England, Flanders, and Lorraine. . . . I know n whether by a judgment
of the Lord, or by some error of mind;, they rose in a spirit
of cruelty against the Jewish people scattered throughout these
cities and slaughtered them without mercy, especially in the Kingdom
of Lorraine, asserting it to be the beginning of their expedition
and their duty against the enemies of the Christian faith. This
slaughter of Jews was done first by citizens of Cologne. These
suddenly fell upon a small band of Jews and severely wounded and
killed many; they destroyed the houses and synagogues of the Jews
and divided among themselves a very large, amount of money. When
the Jews saw this cruelty, about two hundred in the silence of
the night began flight by boat to Neuss. The pilgrims and crusaders
discovered them, and after taking away all their possessions,
inflicted on them similar slaughter, leaving not even one alive.
Not long after this, they started upon their journey, as they
had vowed, and arrived in a great multitude at the city of Mainz.
There Count Emico, a nobleman, a very mighty man in this region,
was awaiting, with a large band of Teutons, the arrival of the
pilgrims who were coming thither from diverse lands by the King's
highway.
The Jews of this city, knowing of the slaughter of their brethren,
and that they themselves could not escape the hands of so many,
fled in hope of safety to Bishop Rothard. They put an infinite
treasure in his guard and trust, having much faith in his protection,
because he was Bishop of the city. Then that excellent Bishop
of the city cautiously set aside the incredible amcunt of money
received from them. He placed the Jews in the very spacious hall
of his own house, away from the sight of Count Emico and his followers,
that they might remain safe and sound in a very secure and strong
place.
But Emico and the rest of his band held a council and, after sunrise,
attacked the Jews in the hall with arrows and lances. Breaking
the bolts and doors, they killed the Jews, about seven hundred
in number, who in vain resisted the force and attack of so many
thousands. They killed the women, also, and with their swords
pierced tender children of whatever age and sex. The Jews, seeing
that their Christian enemies were attacking them and their children,
and that they were sparing no age, likewise fell upon one another,
brother, children, wives, and sisters, and thus they perished
at each other's hands. Horrible to say, mothers cut the throats
of nursing children with knives and stabbed others, preferring
them to perish thus by their own hands rather than to be killed
by the weapons of the uncircumcised.
From this cruel slaughter of the Jews a few escaped; and a few
because of fear, rather than because of love of the Christian
faith, were baptized. With very great spoils taken from these
people, Count Emico, Clarebold, Thomas, and all that intolerable
company of men and women then continued on their way to Jerusalem,
directing their course towards the Kingdom of Hungary, where passage
along the royal highway was usually not denied the pilgrims. But
on arriving at Wieselburg, the fortress of the King, which
the rivers Danube and Leytha protect with marshes, the bridge
and gate of the fortress were found closed by command of the King
of Hungary, for great fear had entered all the Hungarians because
of the slaughter which had happened to their brethren. . . .
But while almost everything had turned out favorably for the Christians,
and while they had penetrated the walls with great openings, by
some chance or misfortune, I know not what, such great fear entered
the whole army that they turned in flight, just as sheep are scattered
and alarmed when wolves rush upon them. And seeking a refuge here
and there, they forgot thei companions. . . .
Emico and some of his followers continued in their flight along
the way by which they had come. Thomas, Clarebold, and several
of their men escaped in flight toward Carinthia and Italy. So
the hand of the Lord is believed to have been against the pilgrim
who had sinned by excessive impurity and fornication, and who
had slaughtered the exiled Jews through greed of money, rather
than for the sake of God's justice, although the Jews were opposed
to Christ. The Lord is a just judge and orders no one unwillingly,
or under compulsion, to come under the yoke of the Catholic faith.
There was another detestable crime in this assemblage of wayfaring
people, who were foolish and insanely fickle. That the crime was
hateful to the Lord and incredible to the faithful is not to be
doubted. They asserted that a certain goose was inspired by the
Holy Spirit, and that a she goat was not less filled by the same
Spirit. These they made their guides on this holy journey to Jerusalem;
these they worshipped excessively; and most of the people following
them, like beasts, believed with their whole minds that this was
the true course. May the hearts of the faithful be free from the
thought that the Lord Jesus wished the Sepulchre of His most sacred
body to be visited by brutish and insensate animals, or that He
wished these to become the guides of Christian souls, which by
the price of His own blood He deigned to redeem from the filth
of idols! . . .
Source:
August. C. Krey, The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eyewitnesses
and Participants, (Princeton: 1921), 54-56
Ekkehard of Aura
Just at that time, there appeared a certain soldier, Emico, Count
of the lands around the Rhine, a man long of very ill repute on
account of his tyrannical mode of life. Called by divine revelation,
like another Saul, as he maintained, to the practice of religion
of this kind, he usurped to himself the command of almost twelve
thousand cross bearers. As they were led through the cities of
the Rhine and the Main and also the Danube, they either utterly
destroyed the execrable race of the Jews wherever they found them
(being even in this matter zealously devoted to the Christian
religion) or forced them into the bosom of the Church. When their
forces, already increased by a. great number of men and women,
reached the boundary of Pannonia, they were prevented by well
fortified garrisons from entering that kingdom, which is surrounded
partly by swamps and partly by woods. For rumor had reached and
forewarned the ears of King Coloman; a rumor that, to the minds
of the Teutons, there was no difference between killing pagans
and Hungarians. And so, for six weeks they besieged the fortress Wieselburg and suffered many hardships there; yet, during
this very time, they were in the throes of a most foolish civil
quarrel over which one of them should be King of Pannonia. Moreover,
while engaged in the final assault, although the walls had already
been broken through, and the citizens were fleeing, and the army
of the besieged were setting fire to their own town, yet, through
the wonderful providence of Almighty God, the army of pilgrims,
though victorious, fled. And they left behind them all their equipment,
for no one carried away any reward except his wretched life.
And thus the men of our race, zealous, doubtless, for God, though
not according to the knowledge of God, began to persecute other
Christians while yet upon the expedition which Christ had provided
for freeing Christians. They were kept from fraternal bloodshed
only by divine mercy; and the Hungarians, also were freed. This
is the reason why some of the more guileless brethren, ignorant
of the matter, and too hasty in their judgement were scandalized
and concluded that the whole expedition was vain and foolish.
Source:
August. C. Krey, The First Crusade: The Accounts of Eyewitnesses
and Participants, (Princeton: 1921), 53-54
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© Paul Halsall December 1997
halsall@murray.fordham.edu
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