Page 92 - The Track Of The Jew Through The Ages - Alfred Rosenberg

The Track of the Jew through the Ages

Whether that is right cannot be proved. Another incident similarly
aroused a great tumult. In 576, when a Jew of Clermont wished to
be baptised and, as was customary, went in white clothes to the
baptistery he was doused with stinking oil by another. It was only
thanks to the intervention of the bishop that the assailant was not
beaten to death by the annoyed people. However the latter did not
allow themselves to be held back from destroying the synagogue
149
later.
These and many other undeniable facts handed down to us
show that not only the clergy bear the blame when, in similar cases,
Jews were expelled from many dioceses, or, according to the custom
then, had to be baptised. That the religion is only the expression of
national feeling and that the latter cannot be changed by baptism
was not known by the monks of that time, and how indeed should
they have when even nowadays there are people who consider mere
baptism to be sufficient to make a European out of a Jew.
The Jews were now excluded from all official and state
positions, and finally expelled from France, though they came back
150
with the decline of the power of the Merovingians. Charlemagne,
and especially Louis the Pious, favoured the Jews everywhere and
thus there was soon established an unscrupulous commerce and usury
of the Jews with complete lack of limitation in all the French lands.
We see them enjoying great wealth in a short time and occupying
high positions and a powerful contingent at the court, which was
controlled by their money. Half of Paris is mortgaged to them and
belongs to them as their property, the countless debtors are
imprisoned or work as slaves for their Jews. 151
The power and lack of conscience of the Jews appears to us
especially clearly from the Annals of Lyons. Lyons was, already in
Roman times, on account of its fortunate situation, a city of active

,49
Boissi, op.cit. Vol.11, p.31.
150
[The Merovingian dynasty began with Chiideric I (ca.457-48 1 ), whose son Clovis
I (481-511) united the whole of Gaul under Merovingian rule. The Merovingian
dynasty came to an end in 752 when Chiideric III was deposed by the Pope.]
J. de Bruel, Theatre des [Antiqiutez] de Paris, Paris, 1612, Vol. IV, pATil.
151
[Jacques du Breul (1528-1614) was a prior of the Saint-Germain-des-pres Abbey
in Paris.]
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