Thursday 14 September 2006

The history of antisemitism

Those who contend that 'anti-Semitism' is a psychosis of the modern era, ignore the fact that the Jews inspired widespread opposition to their behaviours and attitudes in at least four other major historical epochs.

The peoples of the Chaldean-Babylonian, the Egyptian, the Greco-Roman and the Islamic civilisations of antiquity all displayed hostility to the Jews.

What follows is a chronology of the anti-Semitic opinions of the great and the good throughout history.

The 1894 work, Antisemitism: Its History And Causes, was written by the leading Jewish intellectual of the time, Bernard Lazare.

In this we read that Menelaus, the high priest of Antiochus Epiphanes, King of Syria, (ruled 175BC to 163 BC) accused the Jews of:

"... teaching hatred of the human race, of refusing to sit down at the table of strangers and showing no good-will towards them."
Lazare also tells us that the Greek historian, Siculus Diodorus, (30 BC – 20 AD) once said:

"The friends of King Antiochus Epiphanes (175-163 BC) advise him to expel the Jews as they would not mix with others and regard everyone as their enemy."
The same ancient author described the Jews as:
"Those alone among all the nations who were unwilling to have any intermingling with any other nation, and who regarded all others as enemies."
He also said:
"Usury is the practice of lending money at excessive interest rates. This has for centuries caused great misery and poverty for Gentiles. It has brought strong condemnation of the Jews."
Lazare also tells us that the Roman philosopher, Posidonius, 135BC - 51BC) was quoted by Strabo as having said:

"They are the worst of all men."
Strabo, (64BC - 21AD) himself, a Greek geographer and historian, wrote the following in his magnum opus, Geographica:
"The Jews have penetrated every country, so that it is difficult to find any place in the world where their tribe has not entered and become dominant."
Lazare also tells us that Antiochus Sidetes, (159-129 BC) the last Seleucid King of Syria, took exception to the Jews because of:

"Their persistence in shutting themselves up amidst their own kind and avoiding all intercourse with pagans, and to their eagerness to make that intercourse more and more difficult, if not impossible."
The same author tells us that Apollonius Molon, a Roman philosopher and rhetorician who was the tutor of Cicero and Caesar, wrote a book which was very critical of Moses for writing a book that was extremely hostile to non-Jews. He also tells us that (around 70BC) Molon said:

"The Jews, are enemies of all mankind; they have invented nothing useful, and they are brutal."
The Roman Consul, statesman and great man of letters, Cicero, (106-43 BC) is on record as having said:

"The Jews belong to a dark and repulsive force. One knows how numerous this clique is, how they stick together and what power they exercise through their unions. They are a nation of rascals and deceivers."
In his famous oration on behalf of Flacco, a Roman official, who had prevented Jewish gold shipments from reaching their headquarters in Jerusalem, Cicero said:
"We come now to the libel involving the gold, the Jewish gold. This is obviously why the present case is being tried close to the Aurelian Steps. It is because of this particular charge that you have sought out this location, Laelius and that mob. You know how large a group they are, and how influential they are in politics.

I will lower my voice and speak just loudly enough for the jury to hear me; for there are plenty of individuals to stir up those Jews against me and against every good Roman, and I don’t intend to make it any easier for them to do this.

Since gold was regularly exported each year in the name of the Jews from Italy and all our provinces to Jerusalem, Flaccus issued an edict forbidding its exportation from Asia. Who is there, gentlemen of the jury, who cannot sincerely commend this action? The Senate had forbid the exportation of gold on many previous occasions, and most strictly of all during my consulship.

Further, that Flaccus was opposed to this barbarous Jewish superstition was proof of his strong character that he defended the Republic by frequently denying the aggressiveness of the Jewish mobs at political gatherings was an evidence of his high sense of responsibility."
Flaccus had been removed from office and brought back to Rome to face trial after trying to enforce the Roman law banning the Jewish traffic in gold. After the trial, Flaccus’ ban on the shipping of gold was removed.

Bernard Lazare tells us that the great poet Ovid (43BC - 17AD) thought this:

"Their Sabbath is a lugubrious day."
Lazare also tells us that the Roman satirist, Persius, (34AD - 62AD)thought 'the Jews are nothing but a superstitious nation.'

Persius is also on record saying:

"You move your lips in silent dread, and turn pale at the Sabbath of the circumcised." (Satires)
In a letter written in 41AD, the Roman Emperor, Claudius, ordered the Jews to stop agitating for more rights in Alexandria and to be content with what they already had. Claudius also forbade Alexandrian officials:

"... to introduce or invite Jews who sail down to Alexandria from Syria or Egypt, thus compelling me to conceive the greatest suspicion; otherwise I will by all means take vengeance on them as fomenting a general plague on the whole inhabited world."
The Roman official and author, Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, told us more in his biography (published 120 AD) of Claudius:

"As the Jews were making constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus, he (Claudius) expelled them from Rome… They have a particular cult and particular laws; they despise the Roman laws."
Eusebius, the Bishop of Caesaria, tells us that Claudius eventually lost patience with the Jews and banished them from Rome.

The Roman stoic philosopher, statesman, orator and tragedian, Seneca, (4 BC - 65AD) was Rome's leading intellectual in the first century AD. He was made praetor in 50AD and was, at one point, tutor to the future emperor Nero. Here are some of the things he said about the Jews:

"These pestilential people (Jews) have been known to acquire such influence that they, the vanquished, impose their customs up on us, their conquerors".
"The customs of this accursed people have grown so strong, that they have spread through every land. The conquered have given laws to the conquerors… For those, however, know the cause of their rites, whilst the greater part of the people know not why they perform theirs".
"The Romans have adopted the Sabbath! This abominable nation has succeeded in spreading its usage throughout the whole world."
In a report to the Emperor, Vespasian, the Roman official, Euphrates, said:
"The Jews have long been in revolt not only against Rome but against humanity." (The Life of Apollonius Tyanaeus by Philostratus)
In his major work, The Satyricon, Petronius, (died 66AD) said that the Jews:

"... worship the hog and the ass."
The Roman philosopher and doctor, Celsus, (3BC – 64AD) is considered to be Rome’s leading writer on medicine. He opined:

"Jews pride themselves in possessing superior wisdom and disdain for the company of other men."
"The Jews are fugitives from Egypt who have never performed anything worthy of note and were never held in any reputation or account."
"More and more the myths put about by these Christians are better known than the doctrines of the philosophers. Who has not heard the fable of Jesus' birth from a virgin or the stories of his crucifizion and resurrection?...

But the point is this, and the Christians would do well to heed it: one ought first to follow reason as a guide before accepting any since anyone who believes without testing a doctrine is certain to be deceived... Just as the charlatans of the cults take advantage of the simpleton's lack of education to lead him around by the nose, so too with the Christian teachers: they do not want to give or receive reasons for what they believe. Their favourite expressions are: ‘Do not ask questions, just believe!’ and ‘Your faith will save you'!"
In his Institutio Oratoria, published around 70AD, the Roman Orator, Quintilian, said:

"The founders of cities are to be detested for concentrating a race which is a curse to others, namely the votaries of the Jewish mumbo-jumbo."
In Contra Apion by the 2nd century Jewish soldier and statesman, Josephus, the first century Alexandrian writer, Lysimachus, is quoted as having said:

"Moses... Exhorted them to show kindness to no one, to follow only the worst counsels and to overthrow all the sanctuaries and altars of the gods they might come upon."
In his Natural Histories, the Roman naturalist and statesman, Pliny the Elder, (killed when Vesuvius erupted in 79AD) said this:

"Jews despise all gods but their own, and are masters of sorcery."
Eusebius (265-339) was the Bishop of Caesaria. In 325AD he published his History of the Church, which stated:

"The younger Ananus… belonged to the sect of the Sadducees, who are the most cruel of all the Jews in the execution of judgment... Ananus… called together the Sanhedrin, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, the so-called Christ, James by name, together with some others, and accused them of violating the law, and condemned them to be stoned.

But those in the city who seemed most moderate and skilled in the law were very angry at this, and sent secretly to the king, requesting him to order Ananus to cease such proceedings." (Book 2, chapter 23)
"The Jews, afflicted with innumerable evils, commenced the Last War against the Romans.

Josephus again, after relating many things in connection with the calamity which came upon the whole Jewish nation, records, in addition to many other circumstances, that a great many of the most honorable among the Jews were scourged in Jerusalem itself and then crucified by Florus. It happened that he was procurator of Judea when the war began to be kindled, in the twelfth year of Nero. Josephus says that at that time a terrible commotion was stirred up throughout all Syria in consequence of the revolt of the Jews." (Ibid. Chapter 26.)
"After Nero had held the power thirteen years, and Galba and Otho had ruled a year and six months, Vespasian, who had become distinguished in the campaigns against the Jews, was proclaimed sovereign in Judea and received the title of Emperor from the armies there. Setting out immediately, therefore, for Rome, he entrusted the conduct of the war against the Jews to his son Titus.

For the Jews after the ascension of our Savior, in addition to their crime against him, had been devising as many plots as they could against his apostles. First Stephen was stoned to death by them, and after him James, the son of Zebedee and the brother of John, was beheaded, and finally James, the first that had obtained the episcopal seat in Jerusalem after the ascension of our Saviour, died in the manner already described.

But the rest of the apostles, who had been incessantly plotted against with a view to their destruction, and had been driven out of the land of Judea, went unto all nations to preach the Gospel, relying upon the power of Christ, who had said to them, 'Go ye and make disciples of all the nations in my name.' (Ibid. Book 3, chapter 5)
"As the rebellion of the Jews at this time grew much more serious, Rufus, governor of Judea… using their madness as a pretext, proceeded against them without mercy…

The leader of the Jews at this time was a man by the name of Barcocheba who possessed the character of a robber and a murderer, but nevertheless… boasted to them, as if they were slaves, that he possessed wonderful powers; and he pretended that he was a star that had come down to them out of heaven to bring them light in the midst of their misfortunes.

The war raged most fiercely in the eighteenth year of Adrian, at the city of Bithara, which was a very secure fortress, situated not far from Jerusalem. When the siege had lasted a long time, and the rebels had been driven to the last extremity by hunger and thirst, and the instigator of the rebellion had suffered his just punishment, the whole nation was prohibited from this time on by a decree, and by the commands of Adrian, from ever going up to the country about Jerusalem. For the emperor gave orders that they should not even see from a distance the land of their fathers." (Ibid. Book 4, chapter 6.)
In the Chronicle of Hadrian, year 16, Eusebius also tells us:

"The Jews, who took up arms, devastated Palestine during the period in which the governor of the province was Tineus Rufus, to whom Hadrian sent an army in order to crush the rebels."
"Cochebas, the duke of the Jewish sect, killed the Christians with all kinds of persecutions, when they refused to help him against the Roman troops." (Ibid. Year 17)
"The Jewish war that was conducted in Palestine reached its conclusion, all Jewish problems having beencompletely suppressed. From that time on, the permission was denied them even to enter Jerusalem; first and foremost because of the commandment of God, as the prophets had prophesied; and secondly by the authority of the interdictions of the Romans…

In Jerusalem the first bishop was appointed from among the gentiles, since bishops ceased to be appointed from among the Jews." (Ibid. Year 18.)
The Roman Senator and pre-eminent historian Tacitus, (56-115 AD) coined the following motto for the Jews that was widely repeated by other writers. 'Adversus onmes alios hostile odeum.' Which means, 'The enemy of all races but their own.'

Elsewhere Tacitus said similarly that Jewish laws were 'hostile to men, and calculated to inspire the Jew with hatred and opposition to the rest of mankind.'

In chapter 5 of Tacitus' Histories, he said:

"They slay the ram, seemingly in derision of Hammon… The Jews are descended from lepers, they honour the head of an ass, and they have infamous rites… The Jews consider as profane all that is held sacred with us...

The other practices of the Jews are sinister and revolting, and have entrenched themselves by their very wickedness… Reasons for their increasing wealth way be found in their stubborn loyalty and ready benevolence towards brother Jews. But the rest of the world they confront with the hatred reserved for enemies.

They will not feed or intermarry with Gentiles. Though a most lascivious people, the Jews avoid sexual intercourse with women of alien race. Among themselves nothing is barred. They have introduced the practice of circumcision to show that they are different from others.

Proselytes to Jewry adopt the same practices, and the very first lesson they learn is to despise the gods, shed all feelings of patriotism, and set at nought parents, children, and brethren. However, the Jews see to it that their numbers increase… their priests used to perform their chants to the flute and drums, crowned with ivy, and a golden vine was discovered in the Temple; and this has led some to imagine that the god thus worshipped was Prince Liber, the conqueror of the East.

But the two cults are diametrically opposed. Liber founded a festive and happy cult: the Jewish belief is paradoxical and degraded...

The Jews are a race that hate the gods and mankind. Their laws are in opposition to those of all mortals. They despise what is to us holy. Their laws condone them in committing acts which horrify us...

The Jews have purely mental conceptions of Deity, as one in essence… They believe that Being to be supreme and eternal, neither capable of representation, nor of decay...

When the Assyrians and after them the Medes and Persians were masters of the Oriental world, the Jews of all nations, then held in subjection, were deemed the most contemptible".
Bernard Lazare tells us that Tacitus also said:

"All those who embrace their faith undergo circumcision, and the first instruction they receive is to despise the gods, to forswear their country, to forget father, mother and children… The Jews consider as profane all that is held sacred with us."
The Roman poet Juvenal, (58 -138AD) said these things in Satires:

"They have a particular cult and particular laws; they despise the Roman laws."
"The Jews will sell you any dream you please for small change."
"Now the once-hallow’d fountain, grove, and fane,
Are let to Jews, a wretched, wandering train,
Whose furniture’s a basket fill’d with hay,
For every tree is forced a tax to pay."
"They would not even point out the way to any one except of the same religion. Nor, being asked, guide any to a fountain except the circumcised."
The Samarian philosopher and Saint, Justin Martyr, (100 – 165) said:

"Blaspheme not the Son of God; listen not to the Pharisees; ridicule not the King of Israel, as you are doing daily… Instead of expounding the meaning of the prophecies your teachers indulge in tomfoolery; they are anxious to ascertain why male camels are referred to in this or that passage, or why a certain quantity of flour is required for your oblations. They are worried to know why an alpha is added to the original name of Abraham. This is the subject of their studies."
"The Jews were behind all the persecutions of the Christians. They wandered through the country everywhere hating and undermining the Christian faith."
In Eusebius' History of the Church, Irenaeus of Smyrna describes the trial and execution of the Christian, Polycarp. In one place he says:

"Then they thought fit to cry out with one accord that Polycarp should be burned alive… The crowds immediately collected from the workshops and baths timber and fagots, the Jews being especially zealous in the work, as is their wont…

Forthwith then the materials prepared for the pile were placed about him; and as they were also about to nail him to the stake, he said: 'Leave me thus; for he who hath given me strength to endure the fire, will also grant me strength to remain in the fire unmoved without being secured by you with nails.'

So they did not nail him, but bound him. And he said: 'Father of thy beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ… I bless thee that thou hast deemed me worthy of this day and hour that I might receive a portion in the number of the martyrs… Among these may I be received before thee this day’...

When he had finished his prayer, the firemen lighted the fire and as a great flame blazed out… the fire … made a wall about the body of the martyr… we perceived such a fragrant odor, as of the fumes of frankincense or of some other precious spices. So at length the lawless men, when they saw that the body could not be consumed by the fire, commanded an executioner to approach and pierce him with the sword...

Accordingly certain ones secretly suggested to Nicetes, the father of Herod and brother of Alce, that he should plead with the magistrate not to give up his body ‘lest,' it was said: ‘they should abandon the crucified one and begin to worship this man.'

They said these things at the suggestion and impulse of the Jews… The centurion, therefore, when he saw the contentiousness exhibited by the Jews, placed him in the midst and burned him, as was their custom. And so we afterwards gathered up his bones, which were more valuable than precious stones and more to be esteemed than gold, and laid them in a suitable place… Such are the events that befell the blessed Polycarp."
In his Life of Apollonius of Tyana, the Greek author, Philostratus II (170 – 247AD) says:

"For the Jews have long been in revolt… against humanity; and a race that has made its own a life apart and irreconcilable, that cannot share with the rest of mankind in the pleasures of the table nor join in their libations or prayers or sacrifices, are separated from ourselves by a greater gulf than divides us from Susa or Bactra or the more distant Indies."
In AD 117, the Roman historian, Dio Cassius published Roman History. In book 78 he says:

"The Jews were destroying both Greeks and Romans. They ate the flesh of their victims, made belts for themselves out of their entrails, and daubed themselves with their blood... In all, 220,000 men perished in Cyrene and 240,000 in Cyprus, and for this reason no Jew may set foot in Cyprus today…

Then the Jews of Cyrene (in Libya) choosing as their leader one Andreas, slew the Romans and Greeks, and devoured their bodies, drank the blood, clothed themselves in the flayed skins, and sawed many in half from the head downwards; some they threw to wild beasts and others were compelled to fight in single combat, so that in all 220,000 were killed.

In Egypt they did many similar things, also its Cyprus, led by one of them named Artemion; and there another 40,000 were slain".
Tertullian (160 – 220AD) is a Father of the Christian church. In his essay, An Answer to the Jews, he says:

"The Jews formed the breeding ground of all anti-Christian actions."
Elsewhere he says:

"What other race is there in the world that has brought upon itself such infamy as has the Jewish?"
The Roman Priest and Saint, Hippolytus, (170-236) said:

"Give heed, thou Jew. Many a time does thou boast thyself, in that thou didst condemn Jesus of Nazareth to death, and didst give him vinegar and gall to drink…

Consider whether your small portion of vinegar and gall is not the cause of thy present condition involved in these myriad of troubles."
The Roman Emperor, Constantine the Great attempted to deal charitably with the Jews in his Edict of Toleration of 313. Just two years later, however, he wasn't prepared to be so forbearing. Constantine said:

"The Jews are a nefarious and perverse sect… We wish to make it known to the Jews and their elders and their patriarchs that if, after the enactment of this law, any one of them dares to attack with stones or some other manifestation of anger another who has fled their dangerous sect and attached himself to the worship of God, he must speedily be given to the flames and burn together with all his accomplices.

Moreover, if any one of the population should join their abominable sect and attend their meetings, he will bear with them the deserved penalties."
At the Council of Nicea, convened in 325AD, this was said:

"We ought not, therefore, to have anything in common with the Jews... our worship follows a... more convenient course...we desire dearest brethren, to separate ourselves from the detestable company of the Jews... How, then, could we follow these Jews, who are almost certainly blinded."
On 13 August 339, Emperor Constantius (337-361)decreed:

"A Jew shall not possess a Christian slave if any one among the Jews has purchased a slave of another sect or nation, that slave shall at once be appropriated for the imperial treasury. If, indeed, he shall have circumcised the slave whom he has purchased, he will not only be fined for the damage done to that slave but he will also receive capital punishment.

If, indeed, a Jew does not hesitate to purchase slaves-those who are members of the faith that is worthy of respect then all these slaves who are found in his possession shall at once be removed. No delay shall be occasioned, but he is to be deprived of the possession of those men who are Christians…

This pertains to women, who live in our weaving factories and whom Jews, in their foulness, take in marriage. It is decreed that these women are to be restored to the weaving factories.

This prohibition is to be preserved for the future lest the Jews induce Christian women to share their shameful lives. If they do this they will subject themselves to a sentence of death."
In 379AD, St. Ambrose (339-397) the Bishop of Milan, said this:
"The Jews are the most worthless of all men. They are lecherous, greedy, rapacious. They are perfidious murderers of Christ. They worship the Devil. Their religion is a sickness. The Jews are the odious assassins of Christ and for killing God there is no expiation possible, no indulgence or pardon.

Christians may never cease vengeance, and the Jew must live in servitude forever. God always hated the Jews. It is essential that all Christians hate them."
Ambrose’s followers the burned down a synagogue following one of his speeches after he preached that the synagogue was 'a house of impiety, a receptacle of folly, which God himself has condemned.' Afterwards Ambrose said:
"I declare that I set fire to the synagogue, or at least that I ordered those who did it, that there might not be a place where Christ was denied. If it be objected to me that I did not set the synagogue on fire here, I answer it began to be burnt by the judgment of God…

Who cares if a synagogue, a home of unbelief, a house of impiety, a receptacle of folly, which God himself has condemned, is burned?"
In Oratio in Christi resurrectionem, a letter to Eustathia, Ambrosia and Basilissa, Saint Gregory of Nyssa (331-396) said this:

"Jews are the slayers of the Lord, murderers of the prophets, enemies and haters of God, adversaries of grace, enemies of their fathers’ faith, advocates of the devil, a brood of vipers, slanderers, scoffers, men of darkened minds, the leaven of Pharisees, a congregation of demons, sinners, wicked men, haters of goodness".
Saint Basil, (330-379) the Bishop of Caesarea, a Doctor of the Church and one of the three Cappadocian Fathers, sais this:

"If someone should kill the beloved son of a man, and then stretch forth their hands still stained with blood to the afflicted father, asking for fellowship, would not the blood of his son, visible on the hand of the murderer, provoke him to just anger instead?

And such are the prayers of the Jews, for when they stretch forth their hands in prayer, they only remind God-the-Father of their sin against His Son… they who persevere in their blindness inherit the blood-guilt of the fathers."
St Jerome (342-420) said these things:

"The Jews must be hated, for they daily insult Jesus Christ in their synagogues."
"Jews are serpents, haters of all men."
"If you call it (a synagogue) a brothel, a den of vice, the Devil's refuge, Satan's fortress, a place to deprave the soul, an abyss of every conceivable disaster or whatever you will, you are still saying less than it deserves."
"A man who is a merchant can seldom, if ever, please God."
St. Hilary (315- 367) described the Jews thus:

"A people who had always persisted in iniquity and out of its abundance of evil glorified in wickedness."
St. John Chrysostum, (347 – 407) the Archbishop of Constantinople and a Church Father, delivered eight sermons in Antioch in the years 386-387. In these he said:

"If the Jews fill their granaries with fruit, their cellar with victuals, their bags with money and their chests with gold, it is neither by tilling the earth, nor by serving in war, nor by practicing any other useful and honourable trade, but by cheating the Christians and buying, at low price, from thieves the things which they have stolen."
"The synagogue is worse than a brothel…it is the den of scoundrels and the repair of wild beasts… Never has any prayed to God.... They are possessed by demons… the temple of demons devoted to idolatrous cults…the refuge of brigands and dabauchees, and the cavern of devils.

It is a criminal assembly of Jews…a place of meeting for the assassins of Christ… a house worse than a drinking shop… a den of thieves, a house of ill fame, a dwelling of iniquity, the refuge of devils, a gulf and a abyss of perdition… I would say the same things about their souls… As for me, I hate the synagogue…I hate the Jews for the same reason."
"The Jews have fallen into a condition lower than the vilest animal. Debauchery and drunkenness have brought them to a level of the lusty goat and the pig. They know only one thing: to satisfy their stomachs, to get drunk, to kill, and beat each other up like stage villains and coachmen.

The synagogue is a curse, obstinate in her error, she refuses to see or hear, she has deliberately perverted her judgment; she has extinguished with herself the light of the Holy Spirit."
"Our sheep are surrounded by Jewish wolves. Avoid them; avoid their impiety; it is not significant controversies that separate us from them, but the death of Christ. If you think that Judaism is true, leave the Church; if not, quit Judaism."
"The Jews are the most worthless of all men. They are lecherous, rapacious, greety. They are perfidious murderers of Christ. They worship the Devil. Their religion is a sickness. The Jews are the odious assassins of Christ and for killing God there is no expiation possible, no indulgence or pardon. Christians may never cease vengeance, and the Jew must live in servitude forever. God always hated the Jews. It is essential that all Christians hate them".
"I hate the Jews because they violate the Law. I hate the synagogue because it has the Law and the prophets. It is the duty of all Christians to hate the Jews."
"The synagogue is nigh to a curse. Obstinate in her error, she refuses to see or to hear; she has deliberately perverted her judgment: she has extinguished within herself the light of the Holy Spirit; she will go deeper and deeper into evil, and a length fall into the abyss… I would say the same thing about their souls."
Chrysotom also tells us that, at a time when the Roman Empire was in serious decline,the Jews 'possessed large sums of money… their patriarchs assembled immense treasures.'
He also tells us that Jews occupied 'the highest commercial position (in Antioch) causing a cessation of all business when they celebrated their holidays.'

Pope Sylvester I condemned 'Jewish anti-Christian activity.'

St. Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo and a Father of the Church, characterized the Jews as:

"Willfully blind to Holy Scripture, lacking in understanding, and haters of truth."
He also said:
"The Jews murdered Christ in order not to lose face ... They are undoubtedly our enemies… Long before the coming of the Saviour, Judaism had progressively become corrupt ... after the revelation of Christ, it fell completely under Satan's inspiration; formerly the chosen children of God, they became the sons of the devil…

The true image of the Hebrew is Judas Iscariot, who sells the Lord for silver. The Jew cannot understand the Scriptures and forever will bear the guilt for the death of Jesus."
"The Jews hold him, the Jews insult him, the Jews bind him, crown him with thorns, dishonour him with spitting, scourge him, overwhelm with reviling, hang him upon the tree, pierce him with a spear. The Jews killed him."
Augustine also said:

"Many of the Fathers taught that Antichrist would be a Jew and that the Jews would be his most devoted followers."
In AD 417, Rutilius Numatianus described a letter from a friend thus:

"Other insane practices… which he believes even some boys would not credit, go on in this lying slave-cage of Judea; and then he winds up with the wish that Judea had never been conquered in the wars of Pompey, or under the empire of Titus, for though the excrescence has been cut off, the virus creeps through the veins, and the conquered nation overcomes the conquerors."
The Emperor Theodosius didn't much like the Jews either. In 439, he decreed:

"No Jew, or no Samaritan who subscribes to neither religion, shall obtain offices and dignities; to none shall the administration of city service be permitted; nor shall any one exercise the office of a defender of the city. Indeed, we believe it sinful that the enemies of the heavenly majesty and of the Roman laws should become the executors of our laws, the administration of which they have slyly obtained and that they, fortified by the authority of the acquired rank, should have the power to judge or decide as they wish against Christians, yes, frequently even over bishops of our holy religion themselves, and thus, as it were, insult our faith.

Moreover, for the same reason, we forbid that any synagogue shall rise as a new building."
In July 531, the Emperor Justinian, (527-564) author of The Justinian Code, which negated civil rights for Jews, decreed:

"We therefore ordain that no heretic, nor even they who cherish the Jewish superstition, may offer testimony against orthodox Christians who are engaged in litigation, whether one or the other of the parties is an orthodox Christian."
In his History of the Franks, Gregory of Tours (539 – 594) said this:

"Bishop Cautinus appeared before king Clothar… In Cautinus there was no holiness, no quality to be esteemed. He was absolutely without knowledge of letters both ecclesiastical and secular. He was a great friend of the Jews and subservient to them, not for their salvation, as ought to be the anxious care of a shepherd, but in order to purchase their wares which they sold to him at a higher price than they were worth, since he tried to please them and they very plainly flattered him…

Although the blessed bishop Avitus often urged them to put aside the veil of the Mosaic law and interpret the Scriptures in their spiritual sense, and with pure hearts contemplate in the sacred writings Christ… there remained in their hearts, I will not now call it the veil which dimmed the light for Moses face, but a wall…

On another day the bishop sent messengers to them saying: ‘I do not compel you by force to confess the Son of God, but nevertheless I preach him and I offer to your hearts the salt of wisdom… if you are willing to believe as I, be one flock with me as your guardian; but if not, depart from the place.’

Now they continued a long time in turmoil and doubt and on the third day… they met together and sent word to him saying: ‘We believe in Jesus, son of the living God, promised to us by the words of the prophets, and therefore we ask that we be purified by baptism and remain no longer in this guilt.’

The bishop was rejoiced at the news and… went out to the baptistery beyond the walls and there the whole multitude prostrated themselves before I him and begged for baptism… The baptized were more than five hundred…

King Chilperic ordered many Jews to be baptized that year and received a number of them from the sacred font. Some of them however were purified in body only, not in heart, and lying to God they returned to their former perfidy so that they could be seen to observe the Sabbath as well as honor the Lord's day. But Priscus could not be influenced in any way to recognize the truth.

The king was angry at him and ordered him to be put into prison, in the idea that if he did not wish to believe of his own accord he would force him to hear and believe. But Priscus offered gifts and asked for time until his son should marry a Hebrew girl at Marseilles; he promised deceitfully that he would then do what the king required. Meantime a quarrel arose between him and Phatir, one of the Jewish converts who was now a godson to the king.

And when, on the Sabbath, Priscus clad in an orary and carrying nothing of iron in his hand, was retiring to a secret place to fulfill the law of Moses, suddenly Phatir came upon him and slew him with the sword together with the companions who accompanied him. When they were slain Phatir fled with his men to the church of St. Julian, which was on a neighboring street. While they were there they heard that the king had granted to the master his life but ordered the men to be dragged like malefactors from the church and put to death…

Phatir obtained permission and returned to Gunthram's kingdom whence he had come. But soon after he was killed by Priscus's kinsmen.

Now king Gunthram in the twenty fourth year of his reign started from Chalon and went to the city of Nevers… A huge throng of people came to meet him with standards and banners, singing praises… And the Jews who were to be seen taking part in these praises said: ‘May all the nations honor you and bend the knee and be subject to you.’

And so it happened that when the king was seated at dinner after mass he said: ‘Woe to the Jewish tribe, wicked, treacherous, and always living by cunning. Here's what they were after, when they cried out their flattering praises today, that all the nations were to honor me as master. They wish me to order their synagogue, long ago torn down by the Christians, to be built at the public cost; but by the Lord's command I will never do it.’

O King glorious for wonderful wisdom. He so understood the craft of the heretics that they entirely failed to get from him what they were going to propose later."
In 614, the Christian monk, Antiochus Strategos, wrote an account of the Sack of Jerusalem by the Persians.

Strategos was living in the monastery of St. Sabas in Jerusalem at the time.

"The beginning of the struggle of the Persians with the Christians of Jerusalem was on the 15th April in the fourth year of the Emperor Heraclius. They spent twenty days in the struggle. And they shot from their ballistas with such violence, that on the twenty-first day they broke down the city wall.

Thereupon the evil foemen entered the city in great fury, like infuriated wild beasts and irritated serpents. The men however, who defended the city wall fled, and hid themselves in caverns, fosses and cisterns in order to save themselves; and the people in crowds fled into churches and altars; and there they destroyed them. For the enemy entered in a mighty wrath… and slew all whom they found… and respected non at all, neither male nor female, neither young nor old, neither child nor baby, neither priest no monk, neither virgin nor widow….

They slaughtered tender infants on the ground, and then with loud yelps called their parents. The parents bewailed the children with vociferations and sobbings, but were promptly despatched along with them… Those who ran swiftly were pierced with arrows, the unresisting and quiet they slew without mercy. They listened not to the appeals of supplicants, nor pitied youthful beauty nor had compassion on old men's age, nor blushed before the humility of the clergy…

Holy churches were burned with fire, other were demolished, majestic altars fell prone, sacred crosses were trampled underfoot… Then their wrath fell upon priests and deacons; they slew them in their churches like dumb animals.

Thereupon the vile Jews, enemies of the truth and haters of Christ, when they perceived that the Christians were given over into the hands of the enemy, rejoiced exceedingly, because they detested the Christians; and they conceived an evil plan in keeping with their vileness about the people. For in the eyes of the Persians their importance was great, because they were the betrayers of the Christians…

And when the unclean Jews saw the steadfast uprightness of the Christians and their immovable faith, then they were agitated with lively ire, like evil beasts, and thereupon imagined an other plot. As of old they bought the Lord from the Jews with silver, so they purchased Christians out of the reservoir; for they gave the Persians silver, and they bought a Christian and slew him like a sheep…

When the people were carried into Persia, and the Jews were left in Jerusalem, they began with their own hands to demolish and burn such of the holy churches as were left standing....

How many souls were slain in the reservoir of Mamel! How many perished of hunger and thirst! How many priests and monks were massacred by the sword! How many infants were crushed under foot, or perished by hunger and thirst, or languished through fear and horror of the foe! How many maidens, refusing their abominable outrages, were given over to death by the enemy! How many parents perished on top of their own children! How many of the people were bought up by the Jews and butchered, and became confessors of Christ!…

How many fled into the Church of the Anastasis, into that of Sion and other churches, and were therein massacred and consumed with fire! Who can count the multitude of the corpses of those who were massacred in Jerusalem?"
In The Koran, the prophet Mohammed says these things:

"Whoever is a friend of a Jew, belongs to them, becomes one of them, God cannot tolerate this mean people. The Jews have wandered from divine religion. You must not relent in your work which must show up Jewish deceit."
"It is incomprehensible to me, why one has not long go expelled these death-breathing beasts… are these Jews anything else but devourers of men?"
"Satan has prevailed upon them. These are the party of Satan."
At the fourth Council of Toledo in 633, the keeping of Christian slaves by the Jews was disallowed thus:

"By the decree of the most glorious prince this sacred council ordered that Jews should not be allowed to have Christian slaves nor to buy Christian slaves, nor to obtain them by the kindness of any one; for it is not right that the members of Christ should serve the ministers of Anti-Christ.

But if henceforward Jews presume to have Christian slaves or handmaidens they shall be taken from their domination and shall go free."
The greatest British historian of the middle ages, the Venerable Bede, (673-735)says this in his Ecclesiastical History:

"Now from the time of the Passion of our Lord there ceased not amongst the Jewish people, who chose the seditious robber and rejected Christ the Saviour, either external wars or civil discord.

For the greatest cause of destruction to the Jewish people was, that after slaying the Saviour, they also tormented the heralds of His name and faith with wicked cruelty."
John Damscene, an 8th Century Syrian writer, said this:

"God gave the Jews the Sabbath because of grossness and sensuality andabsolute propensity of material things."
In his Capitulary for the Jews of 814, Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor, said:

"Let no Jew presume to take in pledge or for any debt any of the goods of the Church in gold, silver, or other form, from any Christian. But if he presume to do so, which God forbid, let all his goods be seized and let his right hand be cut off…

Let no Jew presume to take any Christian in pledge for any Jew or Christian, nor let him do anything worse; but if he presume to do so, let him make reparation according to his law, and at the same time he shall lose both pledge and debt...

Let no Jew presume to have a money-changer's table in his house, nor shall he presume to sell wine, grain, or other commodities there. But if it be discovered that he has done so all his goods shall be taken away from him, and he shall be imprisoned until he is brought into our presence...

Concerning the oath of the Jews against the Christians. Place sorrel twice around his body from head to feet; he ought to stand when he takes his oath, and he should have in his right hand the five books of Moses according to his law, and if he cannot have them in Hebrew he shall have them in Latin.

May the God who gave the law to Moses on Mount Sinai help me, and may the leprosy of Naamon the Syrian come upon me as it came upon him, and may the earth swallow me as it swallowed Dathan and Abiron, I have not committed evil against you in this cause."
In 827, Saint Agobard of Lyon wrote the following letter to Holy Roman Emperor, Louis the Pious:

"There came Gerric and Frederick who were preceded by Evrard, your agents... They showed themselves to be terrible to the Christians and mild to the Jews, especially in Lyon, where they set up a persecuting faction against the Church and they goaded the church to many groans, sighs, and tears…

When the Jews first arrived, they gave me a message in your name and another one to the man who rules the district of Lyon in place of the count; it ordered him to offer aid to the Jews against me. We absolutely did not believe that such messages as these issued from your judgment, although they were read out in your sacred name and sealed with your ring.

The Jews began to rage with a certain odious insolence, threatening that we would be afflicted with every sort of injury by the agents whom they had obtained to take vengeance upon Christians. After them, Evrard arrived and repeated the same thing and said that your majesty was truly angry with me because of the Jews. Then the aforementioned agents arrived, holding in their hands stipendiary tracts and sanctions which we do not believe exists by your command.

For these reasons, the Jews were made joyful beyond measure and the Christians saddened, and not only those who fled or hid or were detained, but the rest as well who saw or heard. In particular, it was because the Jews' opinion received such confirmation that they irreverently began to preach to the Christians what they ought to believe and hold, openly blaspheming the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ…

We suffered these things from the Jews' supporters and for no other reason but that we preached to Christians that they should not sell Christian slaves to them; that they should not allow these Jews to sell Christians to Spain nor to possess them as paid domestics lest Christian women celebrate the Sabbath with them… and that no Christian should buy meats sacrificed and butchered by Jews and sell them to other Christians; and that they should not drink their wine or other things like this.

For it is the practice of the Jews that when they slaughter an animal to eat … if the liver appears to be damaged when the entrails are opened, or if a lung clings to the side or breath inflates it, or bile is not found, and other things like this, the meat is considered to be unclean by the Jews and sold to the Christians and these meats are called by the insulting expression ‘Christian beasts.’

With regard to the blood which the Jews both consider to be unclean and do not use except to sell it to Christians, if it should happen to flow into the earth anywhere, even into a filthy place, they swiftly draw it out of the ground and put it in a vessel to preserve…

That the Jews daily curse Jesus Christ and the Christians in all their prayers under the name ‘Nazarenes,’ not only the blessed Jerome attests… but many of the Jews also bear witness to this…

Most pious lord, I have mentioned only a few out of the many things concerning the faithlessness of the Jews, our admonition, and the wounding of Christianity that is occurring through the supporters of the Jews, since I do not know whether this can even come to your attention. Nonetheless, it is absolutely necessary that your pious solicitude know how the Christian faith is being harmed by the Jews in certain ways. For when they lie to simple Christians and boast that they are dear to you because of the patriarchs… when they produce commands signed with golden seals in your name and containing words which, in our opinion, are not true… when the aforementioned agents ordered that the markets that usually occur on Saturdays should be moved lest Sabbatism be impeded…

After the preceding note had been dictated, a certain man from Cordoba arrived, fleeing from Spain. He said that he had been stolen as a little boy by a certain Jew of Lyon 24 years before and sold, and that he had fled this year with another boy from Arles who had been likewise stolen by a Jew six years earlier.

When we sought out those known to the man who was from Lyon and found them, some said that others had been stolen by this same Jew, others bought and sold, and that this year another boy was stolen and sold by a Jew. At that moment it was discovered that many Christians are sold by Christians and bought by Jews and that many unspeakable things are perpetrated by them which are too foul to write."
Bernard Lazare tells us that Agobard also said:

"Everything passes through their hands, they insinuate themselves into houses and gain confidence; by their usury they draw the sap, the blood and the natural vigour of the Christians."
In The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland, the English historian, Raphael Holinshed, said that the entry of the Jews into England in 1066:

"... was one of the grievances which England sustained by the hard dealings of the Conqueror."
In BBC Radio 4's, The Jewish Journey, we are told:

"The Jews of Rouen are invited by William the Conqueror to settle in England shortly after 1066, to help boost the economy. French Jews soon settle all over England, in York, in Lincoln, Gloucester, Bristol & London… There were in Rouen, in the XIIth century, extremely rich Jews, thanks to the conquest of England and the favours of William the Conqueror."
The Abbot of Cluny, Peter the Venerable, said this:

"Yes, you Jews. I say, do I address you… Truly I doubt whether a Jew can be really human… I lead out from its den a monstrous animal, and show it as a laughing stock in the amphitheater of the world, in the sight of all the people. I bring thee forward, thou Jew, thou brute beast, in the sight of all men."
In 1146, Peter urged Louis VII to see to it that the Jews be 'execrated and hated but not killed... rather punished in a way more fitting to their perversity.'

In Tractatus adversus Judaeorum inveteratam duritiam, we read:

"If the Jews fill their granaries with fruit, their cellar with victuals, their bags with money and their chests with gold, it is neither by tilling the earth, nor by serving in war, nor by practicing any other useful and honourable trade, but by cheating the Christians and buying, at low price, from thieves the things which they have stolen…

What’s the use of going to fight the Mohammedans when we have among us the Jews, who are worse than the Saracens?"
Pope Benedict XIV (1675-1758) tells us a little more about Peter:

"Peter, abbot of Cluny, wrote against Radulph to King Louis of France, and urged him not to allow the destruction of the Jews. But at the same time he encouraged him to punish their excesses and to strip them of the property they had taken from Christians or had acquired by usury; he should then devote the value of this to the use and benefit of holy religion, as may be seen in the Annals of Venerable Cardinal Baronius."
However, the French theologian, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, did his best to defend the Jews. In Epistle 363 to the clergy of France, Bernard said this:

"The Jews are not to be persecuted: they are not to be slaughtered: they are not even to be driven out. Examine the divine writings concerning them. We read in the psalm a new kind of prophecy concerning the Jews: God has shown me, says the Church, on the subject of my enemies, not to slay them in case they should ever forget my people.

Alive, however, they are eminent reminders for us of the Lord's suffering. On this account they are scattered through all lands in order that they may be witnesses to Our redemption while they pay the just penalties for so great a crime."
In Epistle 365, to Henry, Archbishop of Mainz, Bernard says this also:

"Doesn't the Church every day triumph more fully over the Jews in convicting or converting them than if once and for all she destroyed them with the edge of the sword: Surely it is not in vain that the Church has established the universal prayer which is offered fromt he rising of the sun to its setting, that the Lord God may remove the veil from their hearts, that they may be rescued from their darkness into the light of truth."
The Knights Templars of the Temple of Solomon were founded by Hugues de Payns with nine followers in 1118.

They were formed in order to defend Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land and evolved into a religious, military and banking order. Saint Bernard drew up the Templars original 72 articles, in 1128. Thus, at a time when the majority of the Christian world were up in arms against the Jew, the rules of an organisation which was to prove so critical to the establishment of the secret world of Freemasonry, in which secret organisation the Jews have always been over-represented, were being formulated by a cleric who was doing his best to defend them.

Gautier De Coincy, a 12th century French minstrel was unusual for his time in being equally hostile to the Christian establishment which, he believed, collaborated with Jewish exploitation of the poor. He depicted the peasantry as slaves to the Jewish usurers, whilst nobles and prelates enriched themselves on their share of the take. In his Miracle de Saint Hyldefonse, Gautier says:

"Through the Jews, they ruin the world… More bestial than naked beasts are all the Jews, without a doubt… Many hate them, as do I, and God hates them, as well I wist, and everyone must hate them indeed… I am so bitterly opposed to them that if I were king, not in one place would I allow any to remain."
In the decree, Concerning Loans From The Jews, the King of England, Henry II, (1133-1189) stated:

"All debts and pledges of Jews shall be written down, lands, houses, rents, and possessions. But a Jew who conceals any of these things shall be in forfeit to the lord king both in his person, in what he has concealed, and in all his goods and chattels. Nor shall it be lawful for the Jew ever to recover what he has concealed.

And let six or seven places be provided where they may make their declarations; and let two lawful Christians, and two lawful Jews and two lawful clerks be appointed. Let the Jews make their declarations in the presence of those men and in the presence of the clerk of William of the church of St. Mary and of William of Chimilli, and let the charters of their declarations be made in the form of a chirograph…

Three denarii shall be given for each charter; half by the Jew and half by him to whom the money is lent; and the two clerks shall have two denarii and the keeper of the rolls shall have the third denarius. No declaration shall be made in future, no payment made to a Jew, nor shall any change be made in the charters except in the presence of those mentioned or of the greater part of them, if they are not all able to be present. And the said two Christians shall have one roll of receipts of payments to be made to Jews in future, and the two Jews shall have one, and the keeper of the rolls shall have one.

Also every Jew shall swear upon his roll that all his debts, pledges, rents, goods, and possessions have been written down by him, and that he has hidden nothing, as we have said. And if any one learn that some one has hidden something, let him reveal it secretly to the judges sent to him, and let them detect and expose forgers of charters, and clippers of coins, and likewise concerning false charters."
In the 1173 document, The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich, Thomas of Monmouth, says this:

"When therefore he was flourishing in this blessed boyhood of his, and had attained to his eighth year, he was entrusted to the skinners to be taught their craft. Gifted with a teachable disposition and bringing industry to bear upon it, in a short time he far surpassed lads of his own age in the craft aforesaid, and he equaled some who had been his teachers.

So leaving the country, drawn by a divine urge he betook himself to the city and lodged with a very famous master of that craft, and some time passed away. He was seldom in the country, but was occupied in the city and sedulously gave himself to the practice of his craft, and thus reached his twelfth year.

Now, while he was staying in Norwich, the Jews who were settled there and required their cloaks or their robes or other garments to be repaired, preferred him before all other skinners. For they esteemed him to be especially fit for their work, either because they had learnt that he was guileless and skillful, or, because attracted to him by their avarice, they thought they could bargain with him for a lower price.

Or, as I rather believe, because by the ordering of divine providence he had been predestined to martyrdom from the beginning of time, and gradually step by step was drawn on, and chosen to be made a mock of and to be put to death by the Jews…

I have learnt from certain Jews, who were afterwards converted to the Christian faith, how that at that time they had planned to do this very thing with some Christian, and in order to carry out their malignant purpose, at the beginning of Lent they had made; choice of the boy William, being twelve years of age and a boy of unusual innocence.

So it came to pass that when the holy boy, ignorant of the treachery that had been planned, had frequent dealings with the Jews, he was taken to task by Godwin the priest, who had the boy's aunt as his wife, and by a certain Wulward with whom he lodged and he was prohibited from going in and out among them any more. But the Jews, annoyed at the thwarting of their designs, tried with all their might to patch up a new scheme of wickedness…

Accordingly, collecting all the cunning of their crafty plots, they found, I am not sure whether he was a Christian or a Jew, a man who was a most treacherous fellow and just the fitting person for carrying out their execrable crime, and with all haste-for their Passover was coming on in three days-they sent him to find out and bring back with him the victim which, as I said before, had slipped out of their hands.

At the dawn of day, on the Monday after Palm Sunday, that detestable messenger of the Jews set out to execute the business that was committed to him, and at last the boy William… was found. When he was found, he got round him with cunning wordy tricks, and so deceived him with his lying promises....

Then the boy, like an innocent lamb, was led to the slaughter. He was treated kindly by the Jews at first, and, ignorant of what was being prepared for him, he was kept till the morrow. But on the next day, which in that year was the Passover for them, after the singing of the hymns appointed for the day in the synagogue, the chiefs of the Jews.... suddenly seized hold of the boy William as he was having his dinner and in no fear of any treachery, and ill-treated him in various horrible ways. For while some of them held him behind, others opened his mouth and introduced an instrument of torture which is called a teazle and, fixing it by straps through both jaws to the back of his neck, they fastened it with a knot as tightly as it could be drawn.

After that, taking a short piece of rope of about the thickness of one's little finger and tying three knots in it at certain distances marked out, they bound round that innocent head with it from the forehead to the back, forcing the middle knot into his forehead and the two others into his temples, the two ends of the rope being most tightly stretched at the back of his head and fastened in a very tight knot. The ends of the rope were then passed round his neck and carried round his throat under his chin, and there they finished off this dreadful engine of torture in a fifth knot.

But not even yet could the cruelty of the torturers be satisfied without adding even more severe pains. Having shaved his head, they stabbed it with countless thorny points, and made the blood come horribly from the wounds they made…

Conspiring, therefore, to accomplish the crime of this great and detestable malice, they next laid their blood­stained hands upon the innocent victim, and having lifted him from the ground and fastened him upon the cross, they vied with one another in their efforts to make an end of him.

And we, after enquiring into the matter very diligently, did both find the house, and discovered some most certain marks in it of what had been done there. For report goes that there was there instead of a cross a post set up between two other posts, and a beam stretched across the midmost post and attached to the other on either side. And as we afterwards discovered, from the marks of the wounds and of the bands, the right hand and foot had been tightly bound and fastened with cords, but the left hand and foot were pierced with two nails.

Now the deed was done in this way, lest it should be discovered, from the presence of nail marks in both hands and both feet, that the murderers were Jews and not Christians, if eventually the body were found…

And since many streams of blood were running down from all parts of his body, then, to stop the blood and to wash and close the wounds, they poured boiling water over him.

Thus then the glorious boy and martyr of Christ, William, dying the death of time in reproach of the Lord's death, but crowned with the blood of a glorious martyrdom, entered into the kingdom of glory on high to live for ever…

As a proof of the truth and credibility of the matter we now adduce something which we have heard from the lips of Theobald, who was once a Jew, and afterwards a monk. He verily told us that in the ancient writings of his fathers it was written that the Jews, without the shedding of human blood, could neither obtain their freedom, nor could they ever return to their fatherland.

Hence it was laid down by them in ancient times that every year they must sacrifice a Christian in some part of the world to the Most High God in scorn and contempt of Christ, that so they might avenge their sufferings on Him; inasmuch as it was because of Christ's death that they had been shut out from their own country, and were in exile as slaves in a foreign land…

Wherefore the chief men and Rabbis of the Jews who dwell in Spain assemble together at Narbonne… cast lots for all the countries which the Jews inhabit; and whatever country the lot falls upon, its metropolis has to carry out the same method with the other towns and cities, and the place whose lot is drawn has to fulfill the duty imposed by authority…

Now in that year in which we know that William, God's glorious martyr, was slain, it happened that the lot fell upon the Norwich Jews, and all the synagogues in England signified, by letter or by message, their consent that the wickedness should be carried out at Norwich.

‘I was,’ said he ‘at that time at Cambridge, a Jew among Jews, and the commission of the crime was no secret to me. But in process of time, as I became acquainted with the glorious display of miracles which the divine power carried out through the merits of the blessed martyr William, I became much afraid, and following the dictates of my conscience, I forsook Judaism, and turned to the Christian faith.’

These words-observe, the words of a converted Jew-we reckon to be all the truer, in that we received them as uttered by one who was a converted enemy, and also had been privy to the secrets of our enemies."
In the 1196 treatise, Against the Perfidy of the Jews, Peter of Blois addresses John Bishop of Worcester thus:

"You have made long and anxious complaint in your letters that surrounded by Jews and heretics you are attacked by them and have not ready the authorities in the sacred Scripture by which you can refute their calumnies and answer their cunning sleights…

Wherefore life is allowed to the Jews of today, because they are our treasurers while they confirm the prophecies on our faith and the law of Moses. We read the Passion of Christ, not alone in their books but in their faces…

As for what you say that you desire to dispute with Jews so as to convert them and turn them to the faith, I commend you the less for that for you beat the air, exhausting yourself with foolish and vain zeal. God… has blinded them till the time when the heathen are converted to the Faith… It seems to me wiser for our Faith to conceal the injury done to it for the time rather than enter into discussion with a people stiff-necked and of a stubbornness truly bestial...

The Jew is always inconstant and shifty. Now he says Yes, anon he says No, at one time he quibbles about the literal meaning, at another he refers all to the times of his own Messiah, i.e. of the Antichrist, and after the manner of his father the devil often changes into monstrous shapes."
In 1204, Pope Innocent III (1160-1216) protested thus to King Philip Augustus of France against Royal Protection of Jewish moneylenders.

"But if sometimes those to whom they entrusted their money at interest produce Christian witnesses to the fact of repayment, more credence is placed in the document which the indiscreet debtor has left with his creditor through negligence or carelessness than in the witnesses he produces. Nay, in such a matter witnesses are not permitted against the Jews, so that their insolence has gone so far that we refer to it with shame the Jews of Sens built next to a certain old church a new synagogue, not a little higher than the church, in which place they celebrate their services in the Jewish rite.

This they do, not as was the case before they were ejected from the kingdom, i.e. in a low tone, but with a great clamour, not scrupling to avoid disturbing the more holy celebrations in the church...

Moreover, although it has been decreed by the Lateran Council that Jews should not be allowed to have Christian slaves in their houses, either under pretext of nursing their children, or as servants, or for any other reason whatsoever, but that those who presume to live with them should be excommunicated, yet they do not hesitate to have Christian servants and nurses, upon whom they sometimes practice abominations such as it rather becomes you to punish than us to point out.

They on being admitted to our acquaintance in a spirit of mercy, repay us, the popular proverb says, as the mouse in the wallet, the snake in the lap and fire in the bosom usually repay their host.

Let not the sons of the free woman be servants of the sons of the handmaid; but as servants rejected by their lord for whose death they evilly conspired, let them realize that the result of this deed is to make them servants of those whom Christ's death made free."
Innocent III forbade the promotion of Jews to public office 'since in such circumstances they may be very dangerous to Christians.' He added:

"The Jews are not to be killed by anyone, they are to us dangerous as the insect in the apple, as the serpent in the beast... Since, therefore, they have already begun to gnaw like the rat, and to stink like the serpent, it is to our shame that the fire in our breast which is being eaten by them, does not consume them...

Although Christian piety tolerates the Jews... and allows them to continue with us, although the Moors will not tolerate them, they must not be allowed to remain ungrateful to us in such a way as to repay us with contumely for favors, and contempt for our familiarity."
In 1205, Innocent III wrote to the Archbishops of Sens and Paris saying:

"The Jews, by their own guilt, are consigned to perpetual servitude because they crucified the Lord...As slaves rejected by God, in whose death they wickedly conspire, they shall by the effect of this very action, recognize themselves as the slaves of those whom Christ's death set free."
Innocent III was against admitting Jews to Christian cities and said:
"They repay their hosts, as the proverb says, after the fashion of the rat hidden in the sack, or the snake in the bosom... the sons of the free-woman should not serve the sons of the bond-woman."
Innocent summoned the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. The following are some of the enactments against the Jews.

"Jews must be prevented from exacting immoderate usury from Christians… Jews must pay tithes on property formerly owned by Christians… Jews must not appear in public at Easter, or on days of Christian lamentation, because they are in the habit of dressing up and railing at Christians on such occasions…

In several provinces, a difference in vestment distinguishes the Jews or the Saracens from the Christians; but in others, the confusion has reached such proportions that a difference can no longer be perceived. Hence, at times it has occurred that Christians have had sexual intercourse in error with Jewish or Saracen women and Jews or Saracens with Christian women.

That the crime of such a sinful mixture shall no longer find evasion or cover under the pretext of error, we order that they, of both sexes, in all Christian lands and at all times, shall be publicly differentiated from the rest of the population by the quality of their garment, especially since this is ordained by Moses."
King John signed the Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215, at the demand of his barons. Articles ten and eleven addressed usury and gave protection against foreclosure by ruthless usurers. Article 11 states:

"And if a man dies owing a debt to the Jews, his wife may have her dower and pay nothing of that debt; and if he leaves children under age, their needs shall be met in a manner in keeping with the holding of the deceased; and the debt shall be paid out of the residue, saving the service due to the lords. Debts owing to others than Jews shall be dealt with likewise."
A royal writ issued on behalf of King Henry III during his minority, addressed to the Sheriff of Devon in 1218, stated:
"If any Jew offend in aught for which he deserve to be put by gage and pledge, you attach him by view of Deulecresse Episcopus, our bailiff in those parts, to be before our Justices assigned to the custody of the Jews at Westminster at a convenient term to answer thereof, and in the attachments do the said Justices to wit of the offence of the said Jew and the term which you have appointed him, and that you also have a care that, if any Jew or Jewess fall into our mercy, you may not by the Assize of our realm exact from such Jew or Jewess more than 20d only."
In his 1233 Epistle to the Heirarchy in Germany, Pope Gregory IX (1170-1241) decreed thus:
"Ungrateful for favors and forgetful of benefits, the Jews return insult for kindness and impious contempt for goodness… See to it that the perfidious Jews NEVER in the future grow insolent, but that they always suffer publically the shame of theirs in servile fear…

The Talmud contains every kind of vileness and blasphemy against Christian Truth."
The Bendictine Monk, Matthew Paris, (1200-1259) was the greatest English historian of the Middle Ages. His Chronica Majora is full of references to the problems caused to the English people by Jews living amongst them.

"In this same year, (1255) about the time of the festival of the apostles Peter and Paul, the Jews of Lincoln stole a boy of eight years of age whose name was Hugh; and, having shut him up in a room quite out of the way, where they fed him on milk and other childish nourishment, they sent to almost all the cities of England where the Jews lived, and summoned some of their sect from each city to be present at a sacrifice to take place at Lincoln; for they had, as they stated, a boy hidden for the purpose of being crucified.

In accordance with the summons, a great many of them came to Lincoln, and on assembling, they at once appointed a Jew of Lincoln as judge to take the place of Pilate, by whose sentence, and with the concurrence of' all, the boy was subjected to divers tortures.

They beat him till blood flowed and he was quite livid, they crowned him with thorns, derided him and spat upon him. Moreover, he was pierced by each of them with a wood knife, was made to drink gall, was overwhelmed with approaches and blasphemies, and was repeatedly called Jesus the false prophet by his tormentors, who surrounded him, grinding and gnashing their teeth.

After tormenting him in divers ways, they crucified him, and pierced him to the heart with a lance. After the boy had expired, they took his body down from the cross and disembowelled it; for what reason we do not know, but it was asserted to be for the purpose of practising magical operations.

The boy's mother had been for some days diligently seeking after her absent son, and having been told by the neighbours that they had last seen him playing with some Jewish boys of his own age, and entering the house of one of that sect, she suddenly made her way into that house, and saw the body of the child in a well into which it had been thrown. The bailiffs of the city having then been cautiously assembled, the body was found and withdrawn from the well…

There was present at this scene one John of Lexington, a man of learning, prudent and discreet, and he thus addressed the people: ‘We, have already learned,’ said he ‘that the Jews have not hesitated to attempt such proceedings as a reproach and taunt to our lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified.’

Then addressing a Jew who had been seized upon, and the one whose house the boy had gone into whilst at play, and who was therefore an object of greater suspicion than the others, he said to him: ‘Wretched man, do you not know that a speedy death awaits you? Not all the gold of England will avail to ransom you, and save you from your fate.

However, I will tell you, undeserving as you are, how you may preserve your life and prevent your limbs from being mutilated. Both of these I will guarantee to you, if you will without fear or hesitation disclose to me, without any falsehood, all that has happened on this occasion.’

The Jew, whose name was Copin, thinking he had found a means of escape, then said: 'My lord John, if by your deeds you will repay me for my statements, I will reveal wonderful things to you.’

Then, being urged on and encouraged by the eloquence of John to do so, he continued: ‘What the Christians say is true for almost every year the Jews crucify a boy as an insult to the name of Jesus. But one is not found every year, for they only carry on these proceedings privately, and in out of the way places.

This boy Hugh, however, our Jews crucified without mercy… when they wished to hide his corpse… when they thought it was hidden from sight, the earth vomited it forth, and the corpse appeared unburied above ground; which circumstance, struck the Jew with horror. Finally, it was thrown into a well but even there, it could not be kept from sight, for the mother of the child, searching into all these misdeeds, discovered the body of the child and informed the bailiffs.’

After hearing those disclosures, John detained the Jew in close confinement. When these circumstances came to the knowledge of the canons of the cathedral church of Lincoln, they asked for the body of the child, which was given to them; and after it had been shown as a sight to an immense number of people, it was honourably buried in the church of Lincoln as if it had been the corpse of a precious martyr.

It should be known that the Jews had kept the boy for ten days, feeding him on milk all that time, so that during life he endured many kinds of torments. When the king, on his return from the north of England, was informed of this occurrence, he reproached John for having promised life and limb to such a wicked being; which he had no right to do; for a blasphemer and murderer like him deserved to die many times over.

When the guilty man saw that unavoidable punishment was impending over him, he said: ‘My death is imminent, nor can John aid or save me from perishing; now I will tell all of you the truth. Almost all the Jews of England agreed to the murder of this boy, of which they are accused, and from almost every city of England in which Jews dwell some of that sect were selected and summoned to be present at the sacrifice of him, as at a paschal offering.’

After he had given utterance to these words and to other ravings, he was tied to a horse's tail and dragged to the gallows, where he, was delivered over body and soul to the evil spirits of the air. The rest of the Jews who had participated in the crime, to the number of ninety-one, were carried to London in carts, and consigned to close imprisonment…

Afterwards, on an inquisition made by the king's justiciaries, it was discovered and decided that the Jews of England had by common consent crucified and put to death an innocent boy, after having flagellated him for several days; but for this offence, on the mother of the aforesaid boy making an appeal to the king against them for the said murder, God, the Lord of vengeance, visited them with retribution according to their deserts.

For on St. Clement’s Day, eighteen of the richer and higher order of Jews of the city of Lincoln were dragged to the new gibbets, erected specially for the purpose, and were hung up, an offering to the winds. More than eighty others also were kept in close confinement in the Tower of London, awaiting a similar fate."
Geoffrey Chaucer, (1340-1400) of Canterbury Tales fame, also refers to the killing of Hugh of Lincoln in The Prioress’s Tale, thus:

"Oure firste foo, the Serpent Sathanas,
That hath in Jewes herte his waspes nest...

A Jewerye, Sustened by a lord of that contree,
For foule usure, and lucre of Vileynye,
Hateful to Christ and to his compaignye...

O, cursed folk of Herod’s al newe!
What youre yvel entente yow availle?

O, younge Hugh of Lincoln, sleyn also
With cursed Jewes, as it is notable,
For it nis but a litel whyle ago;
Pray eek for us, we sinful folk unstable
That of his mercy God so merciable
On us His grate mercy multiplye,
For reuerence of his mooder Marye. Amen."
In Mathematics In The Service Of Theology, part 4, the English Friar, Roger Bacon, (1213-1292) says this:

"Another considerable reason for us to understand the geography of the world arises from the Church's need to know the location and condition of the ten tribes of Jews, who are destined to erupt in days to come.

For Orosius, in the third book of ‘On the Origin of the World,’ dedicated to St. Augustine, tells us that Ochus (Artaxerxes) forced a great many of the Jews to leave their country, and gave them orders to settle in Hyrcania, near the Caspian Sea. There they remain to this day, but greatly increased in number; and it is my opinion that some day they will burst out from that region.

Furthermore, the Master of History adds that Alexander the Great found them enclosed there, and crowded them in even more closely because of their hostility; but he gives his opinion that they will burst out when the end of the world is at hand, wreaking great havoc on mankind. Ethicus the astronomer, too, says in his Cosmography that all sorts of tribes must erupt when the day of the Antichrist draws near; before he comes on the scene they are destined to lay waste every region in the world…

If Alexander had not established a temporary defense against them, no tribe, no nation, as Jerome puts it, could have born their crushing weight. But since these peoples, still imprisoned in clearly-marked parts of the world, are destined to emerge and to gain the Antichrist as their leader, it is well for Christians, and especially the Roman Church-to consider carefully the geography of those places, so that they may be able to understand the savagery of these tribes.

In this way they will be able to foresee the day of the Antichrist's coming, as well as the place whence he will appear."
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