History of the Jews, Vol. 5 (of 6)Graetz, Heinrich
History
History of the Jews, Vol. 5 (of 6)
Graetz, Heinrich
Jews -- History
take active steps for the conversion of the Jews. He had, it is true,
convinced himself that at Rome, where since the time of Pope Gregory
XIII a Dominican monk was wont on certain Sabbaths to hold forth, in
a sleepy manner, before a number of Jews, they either ignored him
or mocked at him. But he thought that the Protestant princes, more
zealous Christians than the Catholics, ought to devise a better plan.
It also grieved this thorough scholar that the colleges of rabbis
presumed to criticise writings concerning the Jewish religion, and
that they ventured to express their approval or disapproval; this was
an infringement of the rights and the dignity of Christians! Withal
Wagenseil, as has been said, was kindly disposed to the Jews. He
remarked with emphasis that he thought it wrong and unworthy to burn
Jews, to rob them of all their property, or to drive them with their
wives and children out of the country. It was excessively cruel that in
Germany and other countries children of Jews should be baptized against
the will of their parents, and compelled to accept Christianity. The
oppressions and insults to which they were exposed at the hands of the
Christian rabble were by no means to be approved. It was not right that
they were compelled to say "Christ is risen," that they were assailed
with blows, had dirt and stones thrown at them, and were not allowed to
go about in safety. Wagenseil wrote a pamphlet to expose the horrible
falsehood of the charge, that the Jews use the blood of Christians.
For the sake of this pamphlet, which spoke so warmly for the Jews,
his other absurdities should be pardoned. Wagenseil expressed his
indignation at the horrible lie:
"It might pass if the matter stopped with idle gossip; but
that on account of this execrable falsehood Jews have been
tormented, punished, and executed by thousands, should have
moved even stones to compassion, and made them cry out."
Is it credible that in the face of this judgment, spoken with firm
conviction by Wülfer and Wagenseil, who not only had associated with
Jews for years, but were accurately acquainted with Jewish literature,
and had penetrated into its innermost recesses as none before them,
their contemporaries should seriously revive the horrible falsehood,
and justify it with ostentatious learning? A Protestant, John Andrew
Eisenmenger, professor of Oriental languages, repeated the accusation,
a thousand times branded as false, and furnished posterity with
abundant material for charges against the Jews. Eisenmenger belonged
to the class of insects which sucks poison even out of flowers. In
confidential converse with Jews, pretending that he desired to be
converted to Judaism, and in the profound study of their literature,
which he learned from them, he sought only the dark side of both.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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