sighhswolf

In the last post I touched on the disdain of Christians of the reformation period and Martin Luther especially for the apparent affluence of European Jews.
Poor Christians saw the Roman Catholic church as being lavish and excessive in pomp and circumstance and the Jews as getting rich off of their usury prowess.
Along with his condemnation of Judahism as a spiritual concept, his anti-catholic message also becomes clear here as well.


What shall we Christians do with this rejected and condemned people, the Jews? 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. (remainder omitted)


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. (...remainder omitted).


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.

Without comment I offer the above writings to those of you have not explored the Protestant Reformer whose brand of spirituality carries his name today.
Yes there were many circumstances that would have colored the opinions of those who sought change
and a breaking of the Catholic stranglehold of the population of that time period, but remember that those thoughts above were an echo in the mind of later zealots and madmen of our modern era.

Just a thought.
Wolf

Mecha_Dude

...but they can wear condoms!

Amos

That's a long post and not much of it rings a bell in my mind. If you would change the word Jew for protestant it would make more sense to me.

As a Catholic I hold that heaven is for Catholics and Jews only and actually have many arguments for that.

Catholic and Jews are equal in this sense and neither is favored by God over the other. We are more agressive because of the filioque and that is where the protestants get their sidetracked.

[ October 13, 2002: Message edited by: Amos ]</p>

sighhswolf

Well.....I would have expected the wording may be
a little off for your convictions Amos.
But see I kinda put all the religious forefathers in one big pot.
You know.....like stir it all up real good and let em fight it out and see which comes out the winner.
Course in my pot there will actually be no winner, because whoever survives will face all the non-believers alone without the benefit of the sympathies of the others.
Or maybe we should let the survivor of this pot face the Muslim zealots..yea, thats it...we will get the Catholics and the Jews and the Protestants in one big pot...they fight it out and whoever comes out alive has to face the Muslims..
Yea I like that idea.
We will make it fair though...no weapons, hand to hand combat only.
Hummm
Wolf

Amos

That is a good suggestion. No weapons!

Just as suicide is foolish so is war. A good argument should settle everything. . . . but I did like the witchhunts and still believe that witches float.

I am gone for a week or so.