"I had made up my mind to write no more either
about the Jews or against them. But since I learned that these miserable
and accursed people do not cease to lure to themselves even us, that is,
the Christians, I have published this little book, so that I might be
found among those who opposed such poisonous activities of the Jews who
warned the Christians to be on their guard against them. I would not have
believed that a Christian could be duped by the Jews into taking their
exile and wretchedness upon himself. However, the devil is the god of the
world, and wherever God's word is absent he has an easy task, not only
with the weak but also with the strong. May God help us. Amen.
***
"He did not call them Abraham's children, but a
'brood of vipers' [Matt. 3:7]. Oh, that was too insulting for the noble
blood and race of Israel, and they declared, 'He has a demon' [Matt
11:18]. Our Lord calls them a 'brood of vipers'; furthermore in John 8
[:39,44] he states: 'If you were Abraham's children ye would do what
Abraham did.... You are of your father the devil.' It was intolerable to
them to hear that they were not Abraham's but the devil's children, nor
can they bear to hear this today.
***
"They are the real liars and bloodhounds, who have
not only perverted and falsified the entire Scriptures from beginning to
end and without ceasing with their interpretations. And all of the anxious
sighing, longing and hoping of their hearts is directed to the time when
some day they would like to deal with us heathen as they dealt with the
heathen in Persia at the time of Esther...
***
"On how they love the book of Esther, which so
nicely agrees with their bloodthirsty, revengeful and murderous desire and
hope. The sun never did shine on a more bloodthirsty and revengeful people
as they, who imagine to be the people of God, and who desire to and think
they must murder and crush the heathen. And the foremost undertaking which
they expect of their Messiah is that he should slay and murder the whole
world with the sword. As they at first demonstrated against us Christians
and would like to do now, if they only could; have also tried it often and
have been repeatedly struck on their snouts...
***
"Their breath stinks for the gold and silver of
the heathen; since no people under the sun always have been, still are,
and always will remain more avaricious than they, as can be noticed in
their cursed usury. They also find comfort with this: 'When the Messiah
comes, He shall take all the gold and silver in the world and distribute
it among the Jews.' Thus, wherever they can direct Scripture to their
insatiable avarice, they wickedly do so.
Therefore know, my dear Christians, that next to
the Devil, you have no more bitter, more poisonous, more vehement and
enemy than a real Jew who earnestly desires to be a Jew. There may be some
among them who believe what the cow or the goose believes. But all of them
are surrounded with their blood and circumcision. In history, therefore,
they are often accused of poisoning wells, stealing children and
mutilating them; as in Trent, Weszensee and the like. Of course they deny
this. Be it so or not, however, I know full well that the ready will is
not lacking with them if they could only transform it into deeds, in
secret or openly.
***
"A person who does not know the Devil, might
wonder why they are so at enemity with the Christians above all others;
for which they have no reason, since we only do good to them.
***
"They live among us in our homes, under our
protection, use land and highways, market and streets. Princes and
government sit by, snore and have their maws open, let the Jews take from
their purse and chest, steal and rob whatever they will. That is, they
permit themselves and their subjects to be abused and sucked dry and
reduced to beggars with their own money, through the usury of the Jews.
For the Jews, as foreigners, certainly should have nothing from us; and
what they have certainly must be ours. They do not work, do not earn
anything from us, neither do we donate or give it to them. Yet they have
our money and goods and are lords in our land where they are supposed to
be in exile!
***
"If a thief steals ten gulden he must hang; if he
robs people on the highway, his head is gone. But a Jew, when he steals
ten tons of gold through his usury is dearer than God himself!
***
"Do not their TALMUD and rabbis write that it is
no sin to kill if a Jew kills a heathen, but it is a sin if he kills a
brother in Israel? It is no sin if he does not keep his oath to a heathen.
Therefore, to steal and rob (as they do with their moneylending) from a
heathen, is a divine service... And they are the masters of the world and
we are their servants - yea, their cattle!
***
"I maintain that in three fables of Aesop there is
more wisdom to be found than in all the books of the Talmudists and rabbis
and more than ever could come into the hearts of the Jews...
***
"Should someone think I am saying too much - I am
saying much too little! For I see in [their] writings how they curse us
Goyim and wish as all evil in their schools and prayers. They rob us of
our money through usury, and wherever they are able, they play us all
manner of mean tricks... No heathen has done such things and none would to
so except the Devil himself and those whom he possesses - as he possesses
the Jews.
***
"Burgensis, who was a very learned rabbi among
them and by the grace of God became a Christian (which seldom occurs), is
much moved that in their schools they so horribly curse us Christians (as
Lyra also writes) and from that draws the conclusion that they must not be
the people of God.
***
"Now behold what a nice, thick, fat lie it is when
they complain about being captives among us! Jerusalem was destroyed more
than 1,400 years ago during that time we Christians have been tortured and
persecuted by the Jews in all the world. On top of that, we do not know to
this day what Devil brought them into our country. We did not fetch them
from Jerusalem!... Yes, we have and hold them captive, as I would like to
keep my rheumatism, and all other diseases and misfortunes, who must wait
as a poor servant, with money and property and everything I have! I wish
they were in Jerusalem with the other Jews and whomsoever they would like
to have with them.
***
"Therefore the blind Jews are truly stupid
fools...
***
"Now just behold these miserable, blind, and
senseless people.
***
"...their blindness and arrogance are as solid as
an iron mountain.
***
"Learn from this, dear Christian, what you are
doing if you permit the blind Jews to mislead you. Then the saying will
truly apply, 'When a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into the
pit' [cf. Luke 6:39]. You cannot learn anything from them except how to
misunderstand the divine commandments...
***
"Therefore be on your guard against the Jews,
knowing that wherever they have their synagogues, nothing is found but a
den of devils in which sheer self-glory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and
defaming of God and men are practiced most maliciously and veheming his
eyes on them.
***
"Moreover, they are nothing but thieves and
robbers who daily eat no morsel and wear no thread of clothing which they
have not stolen and pilfered from us by means of their accursed usury.
Thus they live from day to day, together with wife and child, by theft and
robbery, as arch-thieves and robbers, in the most impenitent security.
***
"However, they have not acquired a perfect mastery
of the art of lying; they lie so clumsily and ineptly that anyone who is
just a little observant can easily detect it. But for us Christians they
stand as a terrifying example of God's wrath.
***
"If I had to refute all the other articles of the
Jewish faith, I should be obliged to write against them as much and for as
long a time as they have used for inventing their lies-- that is, longer
than two thousand years.
***
"...Christ and his word can hardly be recognized
because of the great vermin of human ordinances. However, let this suffice
for the time being on their lies against doctrine or faith.
***
"Did I not tell you earlier that a Jew is such a
noble, precious jewel that God and all the angels dance when he farts?
***
"Alas, it cannot be anything but the terrible
wrath of God which permits anyone to sink into such abysmal, devilish,
hellish, insane baseness, envy, and arrogance. If I were to avenge myself
on the devil himself I should be unable to wish him such evil and
misfortune as God's wrath inflicts on the Jews, compelling them to lie and
to blaspheme so monstrously, in violation of their own conscience. Anyway,
they have their reward for constantly giving God the lie.
***
"No, one should toss out these lazy rogues by the
seat of their pants.
***
"...but then eject them forever from this country.
For, as we have heard, God's anger with them is so intense that gentle
mercy will only tend to make them worse and worse, while sharp mercy will
reform them but little. Therefore, in any case, away with them!
***
"Over and above that we let them get rich on our
sweat and blood, while we remain poor and they such the marrow from our
bones.
***
"I brief, dear princes and lords, those of you who
have Jews under your rule-- if my counsel does not please your, find
better advice, so that you and we all can be rid of the unbearable,
devilish burden of the Jews, lest we become guilty sharers before God in
the lies, blasphemy, the defamation, and the curses which the mad Jews
indulge in so freely and wantonly against the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ, this dear mother, all hristians, all authority, and ourselves. Do
not grant them protection, safe-conduct, or communion with us.... .With
this faithful counsel and warning I wish to cleanse and exonerate my
conscience.
***
"Let the government deal with them in this
respect, as I have suggested. But whether the government acts or not, let
everyone at least be guided by his own conscience and form for himself a
definition or image of a Jew.
***
"However, we must avoid confirming them in their
wanton lying, slandering, cursing, and defaming. Nor dare we make
ourselves partners in their devilish ranting and raving by shielding and
protecting them, by giving them food, drink, and shelter, or by other
neighborly
***
"Therefore we Christians, in turn, are obliged not
to tolerate their wanton and conscious blasphemy.
***
"Accordingly, it must and dare not be considered a
trifling matter but a most serious one to seek counsel against this and to
save our souls from the Jews, that is, from the devil and from eternal
death.
***
"What shall we Christians do with this rejected
and condemned people, the Jews? Let us apply the ordinary wisdom of other
nations like France, Spain, Bohemia, et al., who made them give an account
of what they had stolen through usury, and divided it evenly; but expelled
them from their country;. For as heard before, God's wrath is so great
over them that through soft mercy they only become more wicked, through
hard treatment, however, only a little better. Therefore, away with them!
***
"How much more unbearable it is that we should
permit the entire Christendom and all of us to be bought with our own
money, be slandered and cursed by the Jews, who on top of all that be made
rich and our lords, who laugh us to scorn and are tickled by their
audacity!
***
"What a joyful affair that would be for the Devil
and his angels, and cause them to laugh through their snouts like a sow
grinning at her little pigs, but deserving real wrath before God.
***
"Since they live among us, we dare not tolerate
their conduct, now that we are aware of their lying and reviling and
blaspheming. If we do, we become sharers in their lies, cursing and
blaspemy. Thus we cannot extinguish the unquenchable fire of divine wrath,
of which the prophets speak, nor can we convert the Jews. With prayer and
the fear of God we must pratice a sharp mercy to see whether we might save
at least a few from the glowing flames. We dare not avenge ourselves.
Vengenance a thousand times worse than we could wish them already has them
by the throat. I shall give you my sincere advice:
First to set fire to their synagogues or schools
and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man
will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor
of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are
Christians, and do not condone or knowingly tolerate such public lying,
cursing, and blaspheming of his Son and of his Christians. For whatever we
tolerated in the past unknowingly - and I myself was unaware of it - will
be pardoned by God. But if we, now that we are informed, were to protect
and shield such a house for the Jews, existing right before our very nose,
in which they lie about, blaspheme, curse, vilify, and defame Christ and
us (as was heard above), it would be the same as if we were doing all this
and even worse ourselves, as we very well know.
Second, I advise that their houses also be razed
and destroyed. For they pursue in them the same aims as in their
synagogues. Instead they might be lodged under a roof or in a barn, like
the gypsies. This will bring home to them that they are not masters in our
country, as they boast, but that they are living in exile and in
captivity, as they incessantly wail and lament about us before God.
Third, I advise that all their prayer books and
Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing and blasphemy are
taught, be taken from them. [...]
Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to
teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb. For they have justly
forfeited the right to such an office by holding the poor Jews captive
with the saying of Moses (Deuternomy 17 [:10 ff.]) in which he commands
them to obey their teachers on penalty of death, although Moses clearly
adds: "what they teach you in accord with the law of the Lord." Thoses
villains ignore that. They wantonly employ the poor people's obedience
contrary to the law of the Lord and infuse them with this poison, cursing,
and blasphemy. In the same way the pope also held us captive with the
declaration in Matthew 16 {:18], "You are Peter," etc, inducing us to
believe all the lies and deceptions that issued from his devilish mind. He
did not teach in accord with the word of God, and therefore he forfeited
the righ to teach.
Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways
be abolished completely for the Jews. For they have no business in the
countryside, since they are not lords, officials, tradesmen, or the like.
Let they stay at home. [...]
Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them,
and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them and
put aside for safekeeping. The reason for such a measure is that, as said
above, they have no other means of earning a livelihood than usury, and by
it they have stolen and robbed from us all they possess. Such money should
now be used in no other way than the following: Whenever a Jew is
sincerely converted, he should be handed one hundred, two hundred, or
three hundred florins, as personal circumstances may suggest. With this he
could set himself up in some occupation for the support of his poor wife
and children, and the maintenance of the old or feeble. For such evil
gains are cursed if they are not put to use with God's blessing in a good
and worthy cause.
Seventh, I commend putting a flail, an ax, a hoe,
a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hands of young, strong Jews and
Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow, as
was imposed on the children of Adam (Gen 3[:19]). For it is not fitting
that they should let us accursed Goyim toil in the sweat of our faces
while they, the holy people, idle away their time behind the stove,
feasting and farting, and on top of all, boasting blasphemously of their
lordship over the Christians by means of our sweat. No, one should toss
out these lazy rogues by the seat of their pants.
***
"But what will happen even if we do burn down the
Jews' synagogues and forbid them publicly to praise God, to pray, to
teach, to utter God's name? They will still keep doing it in secret. If we
know that they are doing this in secret, it is the same as if they were
doing it publicly. For our knowledge of their secret doings and our
toleration of them implies that they are not secret after all and thus our
conscience is encumbered with it before God.
***
"Accordingly, it must and dare not be considered a
trifling matter but a most serious one to seek counsel against this and to
save our souls from the Jews, that is, from the devil and from eternal
death. My advice, as I said earlier, is:
First, that their synagogues be burned down, and
that all who are able toss in sulphur and pitch; it would be good if
someone could also throw in some hellfire. That would demonstrate to God
our serious resolve and be evidence to all the world that it was in
ignorance that we tolerated such houses, in which the Jews have reviled
God, our dear Creator and Father, and his Son most shamefully up till now
but that we have now given them their due reward.
***
"To sum up, dear princes and nobles who have Jews
in your domains, if this advice of mine does not suit you, then find a
better one so that you and we may all be free of this insufferable
devilish burden - the Jews...
***
"Let the government deal with them in this
respect, as I have suggested. But whether the government acts or not, let
everyone at least be guided by his own conscience and form for himself a
definition or image of a Jew. When you lay eyes on or think of a Jew you
must say to yourself: Alas, that mouth which I there behold has cursed and
execrated and maligned every Saturday my dear Lord Jesus Christ, who has
redeemed me with his precious blood; in addition, it prayed and pleaded
before God that I, my wife and children, and all Christians might be
stabbed to death and perish miserably. And he himself would gladly do this
if he were able, in order to appropriate our goods...
***
"Such a desperate, thoroughly evil, poisonous, and
devilish lot are these Jews, who for these fourteen hundred years have
been and still are our plague, our pestilence, and our misfortune.
***
"I have read and heard many stories about the Jews
which agree with this judgment of Christ, namely, how they have poisoned
wells, made assassinations, kidnapped children, as related before. I have
heard that one Jew sent another Jew, and this by means of a Christian, a
pot of blood, together with a barrel of wine, in which when drunk empty, a
dead Jew was found. There are many other similar stories. For their
kidnapping of children they have often been burned at the stake or
banished (as we already heard). I am well aware that they deny all of
this. However, it all coincides with the judgment of Christ which declares
that they are venomous, bitter, vindictive, tricky serpents, assassins,
and children of the devil, who sting and work harm stealthily wherever
they cannot do it openly. For this reason, I would like to see them where
there are no Christians. The Turks and other heathen do not tolerate what
we Christians endure from these venomous serpents and young devils...next
to the devil, a Christian has no more bitter and galling foe than a Jew.
There is no other to whom we accord as many benefactions and from whom we
suffer as much as we do from these base children of the devil, this brood
of vipers.
***
"We are at fault for not slaying them [the Jews].
***
"I wish and I ask that our rulers who have Jewish
subjects exercise a sharp mercy toward these wretched people, as suggested
above, to see whether this might not help (though it is doubtful). They
must act like a good physician who, when gangrene has set in, proceeds
without mercy to cut, saw, and burn flesh, veins, bone, and marrow. Such a
procedure must also be followed in this instance. Burn down their
synagogues, forbid all that I enumerated earlier, force them to work, and
deal harshly with them, as Moses did in the wilderness, slaying three
thousand lest the whole people perish. They surely do not know what they
are doing; moreover, as people possessed, they do not wish to know it,
hear it, or learn it. There it would be wrong to be merciful and confirm
them in their conduct. If this does not help we must drive them out like
mad dogs, so that we do not become partakers of their abominable blasphemy
and all their other vices and thus merit God's wrath and be damned with
them. I have done my duty. Now let everyone see to his. I am exonerated.
***
"My essay, I hope, will furnish a Christian (who
in any case has no desire to become a Jew) with enough material not only
to defend himself against the blind, venomous Jews, but also to become the
foe of the Jews' malice, lying, and cursing, and to understand not only
that their belief is false but that they are surely possessed by all
devils. May Christ, our dear Lord, convert them mercifully and preserve us
steadfastly and immovably in the knowledge of him, which is eternal life.
Amen.
***
"They are the real liars and bloodhounds, who
have not only perverted and falsified the entire Scriptures from
beginning to end and without ceasing with their interpretations. And all
of the anxious sighing, longing and hoping of their hearts is directed
to the time when some day they would like to deal with us heathen as
they dealt with the heathen in Persia at the time of Esther... On how
they love the book of Esther, which so nicely agrees with their
bloodthirsty, revengeful and murderous desire and hope.
(1)The sun never did shine on a more
bloodthirsty and revengeful people as they, who imagine to be the people
of God, and who desire to and think they must murder and crush the
heathen. And the foremost undertaking which they expect of their Messiah
is that he should slay and murder the whole world with the sword. As
they at first demonstrated against us Christians and would like to do
now, if they only could; have also tried it often and have been
repeatedly struck on their snouts...
Their breath stinks for the gold and silver of
the heathen; since no people under the sun always have been, still are,
and always will remain more avaricious than they, as can be noticed in
their cursed usury. They also find comfort with this: "When the Messiah
comes, He shall take all the gold and silver in the world and distribute
it among the Jews.
(2) Thus, wherever they can direct Scripture to
their insatiable avarice, they wickedly do so. Therefore know, my dear
Christians, that next to the Devil, you have no more bitter, more
poisonous, more vehement and enemy than a real Jew who earnestly desires
to be a Jew. There may be some among them who believe what the cow or
the goose believes. But all of them are surrounded with their blood and
circumcision. In history, therefore, they are often accused of poisoning
wells, stealing children and mutilating them; as in Trent, Weszensee and
the like. Of course they deny this. Be it so or not, however, I know
full well that the ready will is not lacking with them if they could
only transform it into deeds, in secret or openly.
(3)A person who does not know the Devil, might
wonder why they are so at enemity with the Christians above all others;
for which they have no reason, since we only do good to them. They live
among us in our homes, under our protection, use land and highways,
market and streets. Princes and government sit by, snore and have their
maws open, let the Jews take from their purse and chest, steal and rob
whatever they will. That is, they permit themselves and their subjects
to be abused and sucked dry and reduced to beggars with their own money,
through the usury of the Jews. For the Jews, as foreigners, certainly
should have nothing from us; and what they have certainly must be ours.
They do not work, do not earn anything from us, neither do we donate or
give it to them. Yet they have our money and goods and are lords in our
land where they are supposed to be in exile!
If a thief steals ten gulden he must hang; if he
robs people on the highway, his head is gone. But a Jew, when he steals
ten tons of gold through his usury is dearer than God himself!
Do not their TALMUD and rabbis write that it is
no sin to kill if a Jew kills a heathen, but it is a sin if he kills a
brother in Israel? It is no sin if he does not keep his oath to a
heathen. Therefore, to steal and rob (as they do with their moneylending)
from a heathen, is a divine service... And they are the masters of the
world and we are their servants - yea, their cattle!
I maintain that in three fables of Aesop there
is more wisdom to be found than in all the books of the Talmudists and
rabbis and more than ever could come into the hearts of the Jews...
Should someone think I am saying too much - I am
saying much too little! For I see in [their] writings how they curse us
Goyim and wish as all evil in their schools and prayers. They rob us of
our money through usury, and wherever they are able, they play us all
manner of mean tricks... No heathen has done such things and none would
to so except the Devil himself and those whom he possesses - as he
possesses the Jews.
Burgensis, who was a very learned rabbi among
them and by the grace of God became a Christian (which seldom occurs),
is much moved that in their schools they so horribly curse us Christians
(as Lyra also writes) and from that draws the conclusion that they must
not be the people of God.
Now behold what a nice, thick, fat lie it is
when they complain about being captives among us! Jerusalem was
destroyed more than 1,400 years ago during that time we Christians have
been tortured and persecuted by the Jews in all the world. On top of
that, we do not know to this day what Devil brought them into our
country. We did not fetch them from Jerusalem!... Yes, we have and hold
them captive, as I would like to keep my rheumatism, and all other
diseases and misfortunes, who must wait as a poor servant, with money
and property and everything I have! I wish they were in Jerusalem with
the other Jews and whomsoever they would like to have with them.
Now what are we going to do with these rejected,
condemned Jewish people?... Let us apply the ordinary wisdom of other
nations like France, Spain, Bohemia, et al., who made them give an account
of what they had stolen through usury, and divided it evenly; but expelled
them from their country;. For as heard before, God's wrath is so great
over them that through soft mercy they only become more wicked, through
hard treatment, however, only a little better. Therefore, away with them!
How much more unbearable it is that we should
permit the entire Christendom and all of us to be bought with our own
money, be slandered and cursed by the Jews, who on top of all that be made
rich and our lords, who laugh us to scorn and are tickled by their
audacity!
What a joyful affair that would be for the Devil
and his angels, and cause them to laugh through their snouts like a sow
grinning at her little pigs, but deserving real wrath before God. (From
THE JEWS AND THEIR LIES) Maybe mild-hearted and gentle Christians will
believe that I am too rigorous and drastic against the poor, afflicted
Jews, believing that I ridicule them and treat them with much sarcasm. By
my word, I am far too weak to be able to ridicule such a satanic brood. I
would fain to do so, but they are far greater adepts at mockery than I and
possess a god who is master in this art. It is the Evil One himself.
Even with no further evidence than the Old
Testament, I would maintain, and no person on earth could alter my
opinion, that the Jews as they are today are veritably a mixture of all
the depraved and malevolent knaves of the whole world over, who have then
been dispersed in all countries, similarly to the Tartars, Gypsies and
such folk."
"THE JEWS AND THEIR LIES"
(1543)