The Impact of the Reformation on Early Modern German Jewry

It seems somewhat unnecessary by now to state candidly that the Reformation, at least as traditionally understood, never occurred. While something most assuredly happened in Germany in the sixteenth century, it is impossible to conceive of what that something was absent a discussion of what came before and what came after. In other words, any inquiry into the ‘Reformation’ calls for coverage of a daunting range of topics, personalities, and localities. We do know that anniversaries, such as the one commemorating the 500 anniversary of Luther’s 95 Theses, are historical constructs. As Robert Scribner, the renowned historian of the German Reformation, has reminded us in a slender but provocative book on another anniversary – the occasion of the 500 anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther – for most of us, the Reformation began when Luther brazenly, if rather commonly, posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg in 1517. But, Scribner cautions,


Introduction
It seems somewhat unnecessary by now to state candidlyt hat the Reformation, at least as traditionallyu nderstood, never occurred. While something most assuredlyh appened in Germanyi nt he sixteenthc entury,i ti si mpossible to conceive of what that something was absent ad iscussion of what came before and what came after.I no ther words, anyi nquiry into the 'Reformation' calls for coverageo fadaunting rangeo ft opics, personalities, and localities.
We do know thata nniversaries, such as the one commemorating the 500 th anniversary of Luther's9 5T heses, are historical constructs.A sR obert Scribner, the renownedh istorian of the German Reformation, has reminded us in as lender but provocative book on another anniversary -the occasion of the 500 th anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther -for most of us, the Reformation began when Luther brazenly,i fr ather commonly, posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenbergi n1 517. But,S cribner cautions, Despitem uch scholarlydebate, it remains uncertain whether the theses weree verp osted; the real significanceo ft he alleged incident resided in the fact that much later in the sixteenth century am yth was created that this was how 'the Reformation' began. This myth is typical of an umber of myths about the Reformation. It involves at eleological view of history,a na rrangement from hindsight of the course of events into an inevitable pattern in which no other outcome is envisaged than 'the Reformation' as later ages understood it.¹ Ruing what he deems an excessive focus on Luther,S cribner points to the complexity of aprotracted historicalprocess that better reflects the Reformation as a historical phenomenon.² ForS cribner and for us, however,s uch myths and historical constructions provide av aluable opportunity to question handed-down assumptions and to seek abroader context for understanding both the past and present.
Like other scholars, Scribner observed that the term 'Reformation' was itself somewhat anachronistic in the sixteenth century.I tw as usedi nt he modern sense to describeaperiod in Church history onlyb eginning in the seventeenth century underp articularlyp olemicalc ircumstances, eventuallyb ecominga self-legitimatingm antraf or confessional churches in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.³ Still, while the Reformation in the modern sense was aconstruction, the term Reformation did have important currencyinthe late medievalperiod and the sixteenthc entury in three specific contexts: first,a salegal code; second, as ar estructuring of auniversity curriculum; and finally, as internal reform of the church (coming closest here to later Reformation notions). The term also carried apopularsense, almostofapocalyptic dimensions, of ushering in a great change.⁴ In this regard, thereissome overlap with more recent discussions of Confessionalization (see below).
Recognizing the complexity of something called the Reformation, as well as the need to take along view of events and developments, includingearlier trends (which some scholars suggest we seek alreadyb ack in the twelfth century) and later developments, beginning with Confessionalization, we have ar emarkable opportunity to (re)consider developments within German Jewry duringthe Reformationp eriod.
Jewishh istoriographyh as balanced its treatment of the Reformation and the Jews between two poles, reflected in the varyingi nterpretations of Luther as the embodiment of the German lauter,pure,⁵ or the Hebrew lo-tahor,impure.⁶ On the one hand,t he Reformation is recognized as ad ecisive event thatl ed to increasinglyb itter and abusive theological and political,a nd in some cases even 'racial,' discrimination and concomitant expulsion from various cities and territories throughout central Europe. Indeed, accordingt os ome scholars,  Ibid., 4.  Ibid.  "Light" in Hayyim Hillel Ben-Sasson'stranslation; see Haim Hillel Ben-Sasson, "The Reformation in Contemporary Jewish Eyes," The Israel AcademyofSciences and Humanities Proceedings 4:12 (1970): 239-326.  See ibid., 272and n. 96,and 288; see also Joseph M. Davis on Eliezer Eilburg; as Davis points out,a na nonymous polemical treatise playedw ith Luther'sf irst name as well, since 'martina' was the Aramaic word for clay, it could notet hat "In 1520 ap riest named Martin arose […] and his name proves that he is common clay[…]";Joseph M. Davis, "The 'TenQuestions' of Eliezer Eilburg," Hebrew Union CollegeA nnual 80 (January,2 009): 173 -244, here at 229. the reformers' attitude towards the Jews pavedthe wayfor the centuries-later annihilation of European Jewry -the Sonderweg theory.⁷ On the other hand, in the view of other scholars, the Reformation ushered in ad issolution of the homogeneousa nd all-powerful church and led to the eventual removal of anti-Jewish motifs such as host desecration and ritual murder. Further,t he Reformation, with its emphasis on the Hebrew Bible and the refashioning of Protestants as the ancient Israelites and Christian cities as new Zions, by the end of the sixteenth century led to an unprecedented degreeoftoleration of Jews through the reception of Roman Lawa nd the interest in Hebrew language, the Hebrew Bible, and Jewish customs.J ews, too, felt the burning apocalyptic sense of the age, envisioningt heiro wn redemption and the beginning of am essianic era. Moreover,m anyscholars suggest that the Reformation, with its alleged Protestant Ethic, led to the economic reintegration of European Jewry by the end of the sixteenth century.⁸ Well representing an older stream of historical interpretation -one which noted the ill treatment of the Jews but also their essentialO therness -the towering nineteenth-century Jewishh istorian Heinrich Graetz (1817-1891) once wrotet hat, It is astonishing, yetn ot astonishing, that the surgingm ovement,t he convulsive heaving that shook the Christian world from pole to pole in the first quarter of the sixteenth century scarcelytouched the inner life of the Jews […]Havinghad no 'Middle Ages,' they needed no new epoch. They needed no regeneration, they had no immoral course of life to redress, no cankeringc orruption to cure,n od am to raise against the insolencea nd rapacity of their spiritual guides.They had not so much rubbish to clear away […].⁹  See Salo WittmayerB aron, AS ocial and Religious History of the Jews,vol. 13 (2 nd ed.) (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969), 217: "Hencei tw as mainlyi nt he territoryo ft he Holy Roman Empirethat the great drama of the Reformation immediatelyaffected manyJewish communities and constitutedamajor factor in the subsequent destinies of the Jewish people, down to the Nazi eraa nd beyond."  According to Baron, for example, "At the same time, the chronologicallyprecedinginfluences of the Protestant Reformation upon Jewish history had to be treatedinasubsequent chapter as an integral factor in the transformation of modern Europe and the ensuingemancipation of the Jews" ;S alo W. Baron, "Emphases in Jewish History," in History and Jewish Historians:E ssays and Addresses (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1964): 65 -89,h ere at 69. Baron argues that, "[…]inthe long run, the Reformation contributed to the religious diversification, and subsequentlyt ot he growing secularization, of Europe. In time, these forcesw ere bound to affect deeplyalso the positiono fJ ews in the modern world";B aron, ASocial and Religious History of the Jews,vol. 13,2 06.  Heinrich Graetz, History of the Jews,vol. IV (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1956America, [orig.1894), 477.
The Impact of the Reformation on Early Modern German Jewry One of the few,e arlys cholars to examine the contemporary Jewish view of the Reformation wasH aim Hillel Ben-Sasson (1914-1977. As Ben-Sasson noted at the beginning of one of his by now dated, but still important and landmark essays: Essentiallythis conflict within the Christian community no doubt left the Jewinthe roleof an outside observer.N evertheless, therew ere some Jews whor egarded themselvesa si nvolved in this struggle,whether through force of circumstances, or as ar esult of certain illusions that they chose to nurture. Whatever the cause, it can hardly be denied that many of the phenomena of the Christian controversy and attendant problems had adefinitebearing upon Jewish life and thought.¹⁰ Ben-Sasson identified the fact,abit begrudgingly perhaps,thatthe Reformation clearlyhad resonanceinJewish life and thought.Inthe years since his research, the regular rejection of traditionalhistoriographicalemphases on intellectual accomplishments and persecution, in favorofamore nuanced and frequentlyless pristine, harmonious, and isolatedsociety than was once imagined has fruitfully complicated our imageo fe arlym odernG erman Jewry. Thus, an abundanceo fr ecent studies have added significant depth to our understanding of the position of Jews and the Jewishc ommunity in the larger non-Jewishworld and have pointed to remarkablyrich social interactions and intellectual engagements between Jews and Christians. Yethistorians often remain reticent to explore the extent to which the broader changes associatedw ith the Reformation affected the social and communal aspects of 'internal' Jewish life. This is true to such adegree that we mayevenallow for the standard bifurcation of 'internal' and 'external,' or even the segregation of what wereo nce distinct fields of inquiry such as social, political, intellectual, economic, and culturalhistory.¹¹ The representation of Jews and Judaism, the accomplishments and activities of some Jewish scholars, and even the impact of Judaism and Jews on the Reformation have receivedmuch attention in scholarshipand continue to garner interest from Jewisha nd Christian scholars alike. Less attention, however,h as been paid to other aspectso ft he Reformation and the Jews. Ar ecent exception is the book Jews, Judaism, and the Reformation in Sixteenth-CenturyG ermany, which appeared in 2006.The volume attempts to place the issue of the Reformation into conversation with the topic of Judaism and the Jews through the exploration of al onger historical and intellectual context and the consideration of a broad rangeo fr eformers' (beyond Luther's) attitudes towards Judaism and the Jews. Particularlyh elpful for present purposes, it also probed the impact of the Reformation on Jewishintellectual, legal, religious, and communal developments.¹² The short shrift paid until recentlytothe internal effects of the Reformation on the Jews is undoubtedlyd ue, at least in part,tot he deartho fs ources available to scholars. Plausibly, too, the focus of Reformation studies and the assumption -among Christian and Jewish scholars alike -that Jewish and Christian interaction was quite limited, likelyalso contributed to this neglect.Arange of diverse studies, however,has shown thatthe multi-faceted earlymodern German Jewish communities werecloselylinked to alonger and broader Jewish tradition,and that they variouslyengaged with, borrowed from, and at times rejected the momentous changes sparked by the Reformation.¹³ This topic calls for some caution.While we have certainlywitnessed abroadening of perspective and historical recalibration (as demonstrated in some of the scholarship referenced in the notes), one might arguet hat in our recent rusht o repudiatethe older lachrymoseview of Jewish history we maybegoingtoo far in the other direction, running the risk of over-emphasizing notions of convivencia and acculturation. The balance of this essay, therefore, will rehearse some of the valuable opportunities to contextualize earlym odern German Jewish developments in the erao fR eformation, but alsor emind us that Jewish communal his- Dean PhillipB ell and Stephen G. Burnett,e ds., Jews,J udaism, and the Reformation in Sixteenth-Century Germany ( Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2006).  Traditionally, the Reformation has been interpreted to have had little direct impact on the religion of sixteenth-century Jews.A so ne earlyt wentieth-century scholar wrote, "Despitet he spread of Luther'sw ritings amongt he Jews,i tl eft the spirit of the people untouched, and onlyi ni solated instances did conversions to Lutheranism occur; Luther himself complained that Jews read his works onlytorefute them":Louis Israel Newman,Jewish InfluencesonChristian Reform Movements (New York: Columbia University Press, 1925), 629. The same author notes, however,that the Reformation did have asignificant impact on later Jewish history,usheringinanew erafor European Jewry and pavingthe wayand serving as amodel for the nineteenth-century Reform movement within Judaism (ibid.).
The Impact of the Reformation on Early Modern GermanJ ewry tory and development werea lsom arked by boundaries and uniquec oncerns as well as ac onnection with longer-term internal trajectories and discourse.  (1496). In the first half of the sixteenth century,r egional expulsionso ccurredi nanumber of areas, including Brandenburg( 1510); Alsace( ca. 1520), and Saxony( 1540). The regional expulsionsm ight also include large archbishoprics,s uch as Cologne (1429) ic, and social changes in the Germancommune, including discussions about the nature of ministry and political power,f or example. In addition, the religious changes prior to the Reformation, which led to as acralization of German communal life, help to explain the growingm arginalization of the Jews in late medieval German society.T he Reformation continued this marginalization, while also revamping the terrain in some crucial ways.

The Politics of Jewish and Christian Relations
Jewishlife in earlymodern Germany was subsumedunderdifferent layers of experience and authority.While Jews livedi ns pecific cities, towns,o rv illages, they were also subject to territorial and imperial conditions. These territorial realities -which were themselvesi nfluenced by the Reformation -could affect Jewishs ettlement and Jewry law, at times creatingo pportunities and at times leading to restriction or expulsion. In such cases, Jewish relations with the emperor and the imperial court could be pivotal. Jewish delegates made their wayto the emperor and to imperial diets to pleadthe case of their communities and to offer much-needed financial support.T he famous Shtadlan,J osel of Rosheim (1476 -1554), came, in time, to side with the Catholic emperor.Ben-Sassonattributes this to his "conservative turno fm ind and social ideology,"¹⁶ though it is also related to general political conditions.¹⁷ Accordingt oJ osel: At all times -as we have now seen with our own eyes in the case of apeople that has established anew faith, with all kinds of leniencies in order to cast off the yoke. And their aim was to set upon us and annihilate the people of Israel by various and harsh legal measures and massacres. But God, seeingthe affliction of His people,sent His angel, merciful kings, tog ivep ower and might to his majesty,the Emperor Charles -long mayhel ive! -that he might prevail over them on manyo ccasions,b reakingt heir covenant and voidingt heirconspiracy.
[ … ]A nd by am iracle he triumphed and savedt he people of Israel from the hands of the new faith established by the priest called Martin Luther, an unclean man, whoi ntended to destroy and slaya ll the Jews,b oth young and old. Blessed be the Lord, whofoiled his counsel and frustrated his designs and allowed us to behold His vengeance and manys alvations to this day.¹⁸ The status of the Jews in Hesse provides an intriguing prism through which to look at discussions of toleration and expulsion of the Jews in aReformation context.Inthe 1530s,the LandgravePhilip sought to clarify the position of the Jews living in his territory.Eminently practical in his economics and often his politics as well, Philip granted the Jews limited protection while turning to reforming Bucer distinguished between the biblical Israel of the elect (or of the spirit) and empirical Judaism (or corporeal Israel), providingn umerous historical exampleso fr ulerse xpelling the Jews. Philip, however,c ast the Jews as an oble race, who might reestablish their covenant with God.A long the way, they might also provet ob eo ff inancial benefit to the territory.
Underlying these various positions on the fateofthe Jews of Hesse, one discerns several core 'Reformation' issues. First,the debate over true religious identity and the notion of ad fontes,i nw hich different religious groups strovet o claim historical, and thereby ac ertain spiritual, legitimacy and primacy.T his battle would continue at the end of the sixteenth century,through Confessionalization, as Catholics and Protestants debated the calendar and Jews such as David Gans (1541-1613) attempted to make Jews into historical actors,w ith a role in shaping the past and present.²⁰ Second, we find ac lose relationship between matters of state and religious tolerance (not toleration in the modern sense),with an emphasis on moral behaviora nd ac ertain Godlyl aw thate ven Joselr eferenced.²¹ Third,w es ee the reality,v eiled in criticism, of religious change. While it is true that late medieval Jews grappled with informers and apostasy,Josel raised the discussion of these groups to an entirelynew level, reflecting manyo ft he debates current within the Christian world of conversion between Christian religions, particularlys ignificant after the middle of the sixteenth century.²² At the same time, Josel noted that Bucer'sw ritingsh ad the effect of stirring up the common people and inciting them against the Jews.²³ In their defense, Josel insisted that Jews weret he true Chosen People of God and J.H.E. Heitz, 1898), 156.Lateronhenotes, "We arealso men, created by God the almighty to live on the earth, to live and deal amongt hem and with them" (ibid., 157).  ElishevaCarlebachhas noted that in his depiction of the expulsion of the Jews from Regens-burgJ osel'semphasis on apostates as aprimary hostile Other deflects responsibility for oppression of the Jews fromt erritorial rulers to an internal malefactor; ElishevaC arlebach, "Between The work of JacobKatz and other historians forcedare-evaluation of the oncep erceivedm onolithic natureo fJ ewish religious belief and community boundaries. Katz articulated concepts he labeled "halakhicflexibility" and the "semi-neutral society" that revealed aJewish society able to encompass degrees of deviationf romr abbinic or communal norms in pre-modern times. Evidencef or such divergencecan be found in arangeoftexts.Yom-TovLipmann Mühlhausen'spolemical Sefer ha-Nizzahon, to give one example, served both to argueagainst Christian theology as well as Jews who deviated and apostatized fromJ udaism; see Israel JacobY uval, "Kabbalisten, The Impact of the Reformation on Early Modern German Jewry stressed the continuity of the Jewish people.²⁴ Joselthus placed the Jews and Judaism squarelyw ithin the confines of Reformation debates, but he did so by maintaining theire xceptionalism.

Confessionalization and the Jews: AL ong View of the Reformation
Taking along view of the Reformation, Confessionalization -namely,the social and theological process of denominational identity construction duringand after the Reformation -is ahighlycharged concept thathas been much discussed in recent historiography. It is worth consideringi nt he context of GermanJ ewry.²⁵ Four central, and overlapping,topics raised by the Confessionalization paradigm resonatew ith what we now know about earlym odern German Jewry:q uestions of conformity (orthodoxy?) and the role of customs;t he marginalization and eradication of dissident behavior; the formalization and monopolization of education;a nd, communal or institutional (re)organization.
Earlym odernG erman Jewish customs books soughtt oc odify local and regionalc ustoms,e speciallya sr egional identitiesd eveloped and as German Jews responded to abroader pull in earlymodern Judaism towardscodification. The tension between moreu niversal codes and particularl ocal practices and scholars highlights nicelyw hat appears to be ap eriod of transition in which standards of belief and practice werec oalescing. Earlym odern Ashkenazic authorities initiallyh ad distinctlym ixed responses to the codification reflected in the Shulhan Arukh. Hayyim ben Bezalel (c. 1520 -1588) grumbled that such codification complicated the problem by which "there are manyuneducated who are not worried about the ancient writings, do not even understand them, and in the meantime forgett he Torah."²⁶ Initiallyh ostile Ashkenazic reactions to codifica-tion²⁷ gave way, within ag eneration or so, to an engagement with, if not complete embrace, of Joseph Karo's( 1488 -1575) and Moses Isserles's( 1530 -1572) codes of Jewish law.²⁸ Joseph Davis has argued that,despite the ongoing production of collections of local customs,the synods of late sixteenth-century German Jewry "gave evidence of the new,clearer sense of forming asingle community."²⁹ Ironically, however,b othl ocalized customs and broader codification could create greater uniformity,a lbeit at different levels and in different ways. plan, "Between Christianity and Judaism in EarlyModern Europe: The Confessionalization Process of the WesternSephardi Diaspora," in Judaism, Christianity,and Islam in the Course of History:E xchange and Conflicts,e ds.L othar Gall and Dietmar Willoweit (Munich:R .Oldenbourg, 2011): 307-41.  Moritz Güdemann, Quellenschriftenz ur Geschichted es Unterrichts und der Erziehungb ei den deutschenJ uden: Vond en ältesten Zeiten bis aufM endelssohn( Amsterdam: Philo Press, 1968), 77.His brother,the Maharal of Prague (c 1512/25-1609), was an even moreoutspoken opponent.Maharal believed that such codes allowed, even forced, people to make decisionsfrom ignoranceand lowered the level of knowledge moreg enerally. He wrotethat it was bettertodecide fromt he Talmud itself (relyingo nacollection of decisions allows one to decide without knowing); see ibid., 69. In earlym odern German Jewry,d issidence was not merelym oralized against; it was also punished, specificallyt hrough finesa nd excommunication (herem). Amongt he more common forms of dissidence, aside from informing³⁰ and apostasy,w ef ind Sabbath desecration (as well as the transgression of other religious laws, such as shaving the beard),³¹ the disruption of prayer or synagogue decorum,³² disrespect for the authority of communal officials,³³ the violation of sumptuary laws, scandalous behavior (includingp articipation in games of chance and violence),³⁴ problematic writings,³⁵ and inappropriate relations with Christians -either relations that weret oo intimate or actionst hat might provoke negative Christian reaction.³⁶ The Reformation could provide as ounding-board against which to measure Jewishbehavior and religious observance. Josel'sfamoustwentieth-century biographer, Selma Stern, sawJ osel as as ocial critic and social reformer of German Jews who, like the humanists, brought the Jews back to the wellsprings of their history and, like adherents of the devotio moderna,p atterned his own conduct and lifestyle after the Pietists of Germany.³⁷ Stern attributedt oJ osel'sp etition to the Royal Commission the sames pirit that animated broadsides and articles of the rebellious peasantso ft he 1520s.³⁸ Indeed, she sawhis "Articlesa nd Reg-  Graupe (Hamburg: ChristiansV erlag, 1973), for example, "[for every] man or woman, young man or maiden, it is forbidden, on the Sabbath and on holidays to go to drink in an on-Jewish inn. Likewise it is forbidden to visit on Shabbat [a] skittle floor,acomedy, fencingschool -with penalty of 4R t. Women and girls should generallynot go to the opera, not even on weekdayswith the same punishment" (86).  Selma Stern, Josel of Rosheim: Commander of Jewry in the Holy Roman Empireo ft he German Nation, trans. Gertrude Hirschler (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1965(orig., 1959 ulations" as the first large-scale attempt to purge the life of Jews, improved eteriorating social and economic conditions,and facilitatethe adjustment to changing social and economic realities.³⁹ Various pinkasim (communal ledgers) and communal legislation also addressed these issues. Famously, the important Frankfurt synod of 1603 attempted to formulate German-wide standards of behavior and governing mechanisms. It devised punishments for av ariety of transgressors,i ncluding Jews who compelled opposing litigantstogotosecular courts,⁴⁰ who informed on the community,orwho used their wealth or power to press their own advantages;⁴¹ created centralizedcourts and tax collection centers;⁴² and attempted to regulate rabbinic jurisdiction⁴³ and rabbinic titles,⁴⁴ as well as the publication of books.⁴⁵ Of course, earlier,l ate medieval, Germans ynodsh ad also grappledw ith some of these and other challenges, and the ordinances of the earlyseventeenth century synod need to be read in the context of those discussions as well as the Confessional discussions of the laters ixteenth century.
The defining and punishment of dissent wasarecurrent topic in earlymodern German Jewishs ources. On one hand,s uch discussions continued late medieval considerations;⁴⁶ on the other,t hey revealedi ncreased concern with generating and regulating communal norms of behavior,for both internal organization and external accountability.I nt his sense, the Jewish communities were indeedapart of the earlymodern territorialization of the state,which itself took even greater interest in the internal boundaries and affairs of the Jewish communitiest han its late medieval predecessors.
Jewisheducation in the earlymodern period similarlymaintainedimportant links with previous traditions, all the while evidencing new emphases. In the earlym odern period, the educational institution of the Talmud  The Impact of the Reformation on Early Modern German Jewry better structured and more formallyo rganized, serving ab roader communal population.⁴⁷ The spread of printing made seminal works mores tandardized and accessible. Leadingr abbinic authorities increasinglyp romoteda' proper' order of study. This, along with the possessiono fc ertain standard works,s uch as populargrammars, openedthe door to more consistency in Jewisheducation. Alongsidealament for the dismal Hebrew skills of manyJews, acall for areturn to the text and ac ertain Reformation Biblicism could sometimes be detected among some Jewish writers.⁴⁸ Jews alsos imilarlyd rew from and imbibedn on-Jewishl iterature, thought, and practices.The work of the late sixteenth-century Prague astronomer and historian David Gans, for example, has been seen within the context of contemporary German and Czech chronicles as well as within the context of burgeoning burgher literature in earlym odern Germany.⁴⁹ According to MordechaiB reuer, In his low opinion of the rabbinical titularies and hierarchyGans mayhavebeen influenced by the elevation of the layelement in the congregation effected by the Lutheran Reformation, and moreparticularlybythe egalitarianism practiced by the BohemianBrothers who required their priests to make their livingt hrought he work of their own hands.⁵⁰ Earlym odernG erman Jewry evinced signs of growingc ommunal organization, despite thinlys pread settlement and oftens mall community size. Increasingly, Jews -like their non-Jewishpeers -turned to more bureaucratic toolsand practices.⁵¹ Not surprisingly,the earlymodern period witnessed agrowingnumber of community pinkasim,m emorybooks, formal constitutions,c ommunity offices, and institutions, such as thosefor the sick. In some cases, the impetus for communal institutional re-structuring came from the outside, as Christian civic, territorial, or even imperial agents required Jews to adhere to particularcodes,policies, or practices.
Consider the protocol book of Friedberg for the year 1574. Accordingt ot he document,t he rabbi was closelys upervised and his powers and duties clearly circumscribed.⁵² In this case, the rabbi waso bligatedt or emain in his position for four years, without residinginanother area; the council, for its part,was obligated to refrain from seeking another rabbid uringt his period. The rabbi in question was not to ostracize/excise or place under the ban anyr esidents in the holycommunity,orfrom anyofthe surroundingarea, without the agreement of the council. The council, however,r etainedt he authority to ostracize/excise community members without the agreement of the rabbi. The council was to provide the rabbitwelve Guldeninsalary every year,and he was freed from all customary taxes (though not every tax obligation). The rabbi wasalso to receive one Guldenfrom each betrothal and aGuldenfor the lodging of each student in the yeshivah.Other regulations and agreements werealso outlined.Importantly,the rabbi was restricted from making changes in the community'sc ustoms without the consent of the community board.⁵³ Rabbinic contracts onlyemergedinthe sixteenth century,asdid formal processes for selecting arabbi by ac ommunity.⁵⁴ The development,orp rofessionalization, of the rabbinatet hat began in Germany in the fourteenth century has been placed within the context of social and religious (pastoral) changes thatoccurred among Jews and Christians after the Black Death.⁵⁵ It has also been seen as part of late medieval, especiallyf ifteenth-centuryd evelopments in lawa nd university education (in which the rabbinic diploma is paralleled to that of the university doctor).⁵⁶ It has been further compared to the developmento fc ity councils,guild structures, and the professionalization of lawyers and physicians in the later Middle Ages.⁵⁷ Ac omprehensive comparison of these documents and communal contracts made with Christian priestsi nt he late medieval and Reformation period may shed light on earlym odern German Jewish communal developments and en-gagementw ith the non-Jewish world. Setting aside for the moment their important religious practices and orientations, sixteenth-century Church ordinances grappled with similar concerns to Jewishs ynodsa nd rabbinicc ontracts. The 1582 Church ordinancef rom Nassau-Dillenburg, for example, noted the need for proper recognition and jurisdiction of clergy,a nd stipulated that the clergy should serveasmoral role models. Other contracts specified the moralupbraiding of congregants and citizens.⁵⁸ Contracts for priests set out term limits and a rangeofsalaries and benefits thatparalleled thosefound in rabbinic contracts.⁵⁹ Christian clergy had particularf inancial responsibilities, ritual tasks (e. g., Mass and baptism),⁶⁰ teachingand supervision of scriptural and doctrinal interpretation, and pastoral duties (i. e., visiting the sick⁶¹ and the delivery of sermons)that differentiated their contracts from thoseo fa ppointed rabbis,h owever.⁶² On the one hand, sixteenth-century German Jewishc ommunal developments mirrored late medievala nd Reformation changes in which the community arrogatedi mportant authority,a nd layl eaders could see themselvesa se ncompassings ome aspectsofsacral power and exercisingthe ability to appoint and removeclergy.
On the other hand,Christian (even Protestant and Lutheran concerns,asreflected in Luther'so wn,often changing, notion of ministry) ⁶³ discussions of sacral authority were, almost by definition, differentlyf ocused, drawinga st hey did from general contemporary concerns as well as specific Christian traditions and innovations. What is more,t he context for discussions about the rolesa nd authority of the rabbi and other related issues involved arangeofT almudicmaterials and prior, late medieval, German Jewishc ommunal discussions and rabbinic responsa.

Conclusions
The Reformation -particularlyinabroad sense that began in the fifteenthcentury and continued beyond the sixteenth -had an otable impact on Jews and