Page 89 - The Track Of The Jew Through The Ages - Alfred Rosenberg

Alfred Rosenberg

flight over the rooftops and struck dead. In the course of 48 hours,
according to some historians, 2000 and, according to others, 4000
Jews were said to have been killed. The penalty on the locals for
that was carried out in all strictness and many were exiled and 50
men executed.
Not long after, the Jews were again in control, and were
able to ensure the monopoly of the corn sales so that the people
found themselves through the systematic forcing ofprices once again
in their old situation. However, there appeared a great strengthening
of the displeasure of the Portuguese in the form of the Inquisitorial
Court, and from now on we see the persecutions ofthe Jews standing
under the sign of religious fanaticism.
Nevertheless this is only their external aspect, since all the
baptisms and torments did not resolve the Jewish question and their
character remained the same. Greater persecutions were introduced,
even systematic expulsions from the country, and this was effected
with great severity. The Inquisitorial Court will always form one of
the darkest chapters and will be an example defended by none of
what the Jewish-Roman principle in its pure form must lead to if it
were left to itself.
Nevertheless, in order to obtain a correct perspective of the
well known events, it must be emphasised that the Inquisition was
directed not only against the Jews but mainly against the
Albigensians, 142 Waldensians 143 and Protestants. These were not
less cruelly persecuted by Rome, indeed mostly worse than the Jews.
Whereas the popes often took the latter under protection, and even
called them "faithful subjects", the former heretics were handed
over mercilessly to the terrible court.
But the time for Jewish persecutions was over, the
proclamation ofhuman rights introduced for the Jews of the whole

142
th
[The Albigensians, or Cathars, were a heretic sect that flourished in the 12 and
13 th centuries in Italy and southern France. They were dualists who posited a sharp
distinction between the realms of spirit and matter and found the worldly ostentation
of the Church repugnant.]
143
[The Waldensians were a heretic sect founded by Peter Waldo of Lyons in the
1
12" century. During the Protestant Reformation many Waldensians joined the
Reformed Church.]
66