" Other names might be mentioned
besides Buxtorf's.
Nor did Rashi fail to receive the supreme honor of being censored
by the Church. Under St. Louis
autos-da-fe were made of
his works, and later the Inquisition pursued them with its
rigorous measures. They were prohibited in Spain and burnt in
Italy. The ecclesiastical censors eliminated or corrected
whatever seemed to them an attempt upon the dignity of religion.
At the present time many French ecclesiastics know Rashi only for
his alleged blasphemies against Christianity.
While the Catholics and Protestants who possessed Hebrew learning
applied themselves to the study of Rashi, among the Jews
"he was always revered, always admired, even as an exegete,
but he was admired to so high a degree that no one thought of
continuing his work and of deepening the furrow he had so
vigorously opened. It seemed as though his commentary had
raised the Pillars of Hercules of Biblical knowledge and as
though with him exegesis had said its last word. During this
period the grammatical and rational study of the word of God
fell Into more and more neglect, and its real meaning became
Increasingly obscured. The place of a serious and sincere
exegesis was taken by frivolous combinations, subtle
comparisons, and mystical interpretations carried out
according to preconceived notions and based on the slightest
accident of form in the text.
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