ABSTRACT

In place of a universal monarchy and a universal Church there arose strong individual, autonomous states, each contending with the other, and independent religions and sects, each struggling against the other. That the Court Jew was an indispensable innovation, just as officialdom and the standing army had been, and served to complete the unified state and the mercantilist system, is shown by the fact that we find him in practically every Court and in practically every country. In a century in which Jesuits fought against Jansenists, Puritans against Anglicans, Lutherans against Calvinists, in which France drove out the Huguenots and Austria the Protestants, and in which a destructive war was waged for thirty years for religious reasons, the religion of the Court Jews played a subordinate role. The Court Jew was never a homo capitalisticus in this sense. He constantly identified himself with his work and he placed his capacity for sacrifice and devotion at the service of his prince.