remonial and legislative details of the Bible.

For a long time after the death of Maimonides, which took place in 1204,
Jewish thought found in the "Guide" a strong attraction or a violent
repulsion. Commentaries on the _Moreh_, or "Guide," multiplied apace.
Among the most original of the philosophical successors of Maimonides
there were few Jews but were greatly influenced by him. Even the famous
author of "The Wars of the Lord," Ralbag, Levi, the son of Gershon
(Gersonides), who was born in 1288, and died in 1344, was more or less
at the same stand-point as Maimonides. On the other hand, Chasdai
Crescas, in his "Light of God," written between 1405 and 1410, made a
determined attack on Aristotle, and dealt a serious blow at Maimonides.
Crescas' work influenced the thought of Spinoza, who was also a close
student of Maimonides. A pupil of Crescas, Joseph Albo (1380-1444) was
likewise a critic of Maimonides. Albo's treatise, "The Book of
Principles" (_Ikkarim_), became a popular text-book. It was impossible
that the reconciliation of Aristotle and Moses should continue to
satisfy Jewish readers, when Aristotle had been dethroned from his
position of dictator in European thought. But the "Guide" of Maimonides
was a great achievement for its spirit more than for its contents. If it
inevitably became obsolete as a system of theology, it permanently acted
as an antidote to the mysticism which in the thirteenth century began to
gain a hold on Judaism, and which, but for Maimonides, might have
completely undermined the beliefs of the Synagogue. Maimonides remained
the exemplar of reasoning faith long after his particular form of
reasoning had become unacceptable to the faithful.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

MAIMONIDES.

Graetz.--III, 14.

Karpeles.--_Jewish Literature and other Essays_, p. 145.

Steinschneider.--_Jewish Literature_, pp. 70, 82 _seq._,
94 _seq._

Schiller-Szinessy.--_Encycl. Brit._, Vol. XV, p. 295.

HIS WORKS:

_Eight Chapters_.--B. Spiers in _Threefold Cord_ (1893).
English translation in _Hebrew Review_, Vols. I and II.

_Strong Hand_, selections translated by Soloweycik (London, 1863).

_Letter to Jehuda Ibn Tibbon_, translated by H. Adler
(_Miscellany of the Society of Hebrew Literature_, Vol. I).

_Guide of the Perplexed_, translated by M. Friedlaender (1885).

CRITICAL ESSAYS ON MAIMONIDES:

I.H. Weiss.--_Study of the Talmud in the Thirteenth Century_,
_J.Q.R._, I, p. 290.

J. Owen.-