Salomon Molcho

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Salomon Molcho ( Hebrew שלמה מולכו Schlomo Molcho ), originally Diogo Pires (born around 1500 in Lisbon ; died 1532 in Mantua ) was a cabalistic preacher from Portugal who was burned at the stake in 1532 as Marrane who had returned to Judaism .

Life

Molcho was the son of Portuguese Marranos and was baptized Diogo Pires. He became the scribe of the Portuguese King John III. , met David Reuveni at the court of Lisbon in 1525 and was impressed by him. When Pires indicated that he wanted to return to Judaism, Reuveni saw it as a danger for Pires and for himself. Therefore Pires circumcised himself and called himself Salomon Molcho (“melech” means “king” in Hebrew). As rekonvertierter Marrane threatened him in Portugal death by fire, which is why he in what was then the Ottoman Empire belonging Salonika fled.

There he studied the Kabbalah and in 1529 published the Hebrew book Sepher mepho`ar in Saloniki , in which he interpreted the Sacco di Roma , the sack of Rome by the mercenaries of Charles V , as a sign of the imminent liberation of the Jews . Later he worked as a preacher in Palestine , especially in the center of the oriental Kabbalah, which arose in Safed after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain . Here he prophesied the Kingdom of the Messiah for 1540.

In March 1529 he appeared in Italy and began to preach in the Jewish community of Ancona , but was denounced to the church authorities. He then went first to Rome (1530), then to Venice (1531) and finally returned to Rome. Here he was sentenced to death, but released at the personal intercession of Pope Clement VII . It is said that he predicted a flood of the Tiber. In 1532 he met David Reuveni again in northern Italy. Both decided to ask Emperor Charles V for help at the Reichstag in Regensburg . They wanted to propose to him the publication of a declaration aimed at drawing the Jewish people into the fight against the Ottomans . Reuveni and Molcho were not admitted, but arrested on the orders of the emperor. Molcho was brought to Mantua, tried and burned at the stake as a relapsed Marrane after refusing a pardon for Charles V in the event of his return to Catholicism.

Molcho's influence reached as far as Poland , where many Jews viewed him as the true Messiah .

effect

The story of Salomon Molcho found several literary uses, for example B. in a novel trilogy by Aharon Avraham Kabak (Hebrew 1913-1927). In German, Max Brod devoted himself to the subject under the title Reubeni, Prince of the Jews (novel, 1925; later drama of the same name).

literature

  • Reinhold Mayer, Inken Rühle: The Messiahs. History of the Messiahs of Israel in three millennia. Bilam, Tübingen 2002, ISBN 978-3-933373-05-2 (first edition under the title Was Jesus the Messiah? History of the Messiahs of Israel in three millennia ).
  • Heinrich Graetz : History of the Jews. Leipzig 1907, Volume 9, pp. 224-276.
  • Haim Harboun: Les Voyageurs juifs du XVIe siècle. Volume 3: David Reubeni. Editions Massoreth, Aix-en-Provence 1989 (contains a transcription of David Reubeni's diary).
  • Julius Voos : David Reubeni and Solomon Molcho: a contribution to the history of the messianic movement in Judaism in the first half of the 16th century . Bonn 1933, OCLC 923839028 (Inaugural dissertation Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelsuniversität 1933, 69 pages).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Kurt Schubert: Jewish history . 7th edition. CH Beck, 2012, ISBN 978-3-406-44918-5 , p. 79
  2. ^ Johann Maier: Jewish history in data . Verlag CH Beck, Munich, 2005, ISBN 3-406-52827-9 , p. 65
personal data
SURNAME Molcho, Solomon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pires, Diogo (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Kabbalistic preacher and sect leader
DATE OF BIRTH around 1500
PLACE OF BIRTH Lisbon
DATE OF DEATH 1532
Place of death Mantua