Arnold

Cardinal-bishop of Cologne; died April 3, 1151. One of the few prelates who, during the Crusades, protected the Jews from the violence of the mob. When, during the Second Crusade, the inflammatory sermons of the French monk Rodolphe caused the populace throughout the Rhine provinces to attack the Jews, and torture and kill such of them as would not accept baptism, this cardinal-bishop was persuaded by a gift of money to set aside the castle of Wolkenburg, Lorraine, near Königswinter, as an asylum for the Jews, and to allow the many Jews that fled thither to defend themselves with arms against the aggressors. The property that the Jews left behind was turned over to the bishop. This occurred on Sept. 23 and 24, 1146. Toward the end of that month two Jews, Abraham and Samuel, were murdered on their way up to the castle. Moved by a second present from the Jews, the bishop had the murderer cruelly put to death.

Bibliography:

  * Aronius, Regesten zur Gesch. der Juden im Fränkischen und Deutschen Reiche, Nos. 236, 237, 250;
  * Brisch, Gesch. der Juden in Cöln, 1879, p. 146. The authority for these statements is Ephraim ben Jacob, who was one of those shut up in Wolkenburg. Besides his account, see Neubauer and Stern, Hebr. Berichte über die Juden-Verfolgungen Während der Kreuzzüge, 1892, pp. 60, 190;
  * Grätz, Gesch. der Juden, vi. 179.



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