REASONS 
 
 r 
 
 BELIEVING THAT THE CHARGE 
 
 LATELY REVIVED AGAINST 
 
 THE JEWISH PEOPLE 
 
 A BASELESS FALSEHOOD. 
 
 DEDICATED BY PERMISSION 
 
 TO 
 
 HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY 
 THE QUEEN. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. ALEX? M C CAUL, D.D. 
 
 OF TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 B. WERTHEIM, 14, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 
 
 MDCCCXL. 
 
 PRICE TWO SHILLINGS.
 
 A L E X A N D K H MACINTOSH, 
 
 PRINTER, 
 GREAT NEW-STREET, LONDON.
 
 5 
 
 TO 
 
 HER MOST GRACIOUS MAJESTY, 
 
 VICTORIA, 
 
 BY THE GRACE OF GOD, 
 
 QUEEN OF CHEAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, DEFENDER 
 OF THE FAITH, 
 
 ETC. ETC. ETC. 
 
 MADAM, 
 
 TIME was when to persecute and 
 oppress the Jewish people was regarded as one of 
 the most effectual modes of defending the faith. 
 YOUR MAJESTY has taught the nations a lesson of 
 charity, as well as faith, by taking God's ancient 
 people under YOUR MAJESTY'S special protection. 
 Whilst some of the powers of the earth have 
 wavered, and continued to do homage to the spirit 
 of unjust prejudice and the practice of persecution, 
 
 2114227
 
 IV DEDICATION. 
 
 to YOUR MAJESTY'S Government belongs the just 
 praise of asserting the claims of justice and mercy, 
 by interposing in behalf of the unhappy victims 
 of religious hatred. All who are interested in 
 the cause of suffering humanity, and anxious for 
 the honour of Christianity, rejoice. As YOUR 
 MAJESTY'S loyal and devoted subject, I am thank- 
 ful that the blessing of God Almighty has thus 
 been secured for YOUR MAJESTY, YOUR MAJESTY'S 
 Illustrious House, and YOUR people, knowing that 
 none ever conferred benefits upon Israel without 
 a return of blessing from HIM who hath said, " I 
 will bless them that bless thee." (Gen. xii. 3.) 
 
 With a hearty prayer that God may abundantly 
 fulfil this promise to YOUR MAJESTY, may grant 
 YOUR MAJESTY a long, happy, and glorious reign, 
 and establish YOUR MAJESTY'S children's children 
 upon the throne of these realms, I now thankfully 
 avail myself of YOUR most gracious permission to 
 dedicate to YOUR MAJESTY this defence of the 
 Jewish people, and remain 
 
 YOUR MAJESTY'S 
 
 Most dutiful and loyal Subject 
 and Servant, 
 
 ALEX. M'CAUL. 
 
 LONDOK, 
 
 July 1, 184-0.
 
 REASONS, &c. 
 
 EVER since the period of the Reformation the 
 condition of the Jews has been gradually improv- 
 ing. The light of God's Word has tended to the 
 dissipation of prejudice, and the diffusion of its 
 principles of justice has delivered the Jewish 
 people from those absurd and calumnious accu- 
 sations which were once so common. The mercy, 
 which Protestants have learned in the New Tes- 
 tament, has put an end to the use of the rack and 
 the wheel, and extinguished the flames in which 
 formerly so many Israelites perished ; whilst at the 
 same time a sober and enlightened interpretation 
 of the prophecies has procured for them that 
 respect as a people which was justly due to their 
 genius, their learning, and their place amongst 
 the nations of the earth. A remnant of the old 
 superstition, however, has again revived the most 
 foul and most pernicious calumny with which they 
 have ever been vexed, and rekindled the spirit of 
 persecution. It is true that the calumny and the 
 persecution have both arisen in a land of dark- 
 ness, and have had their origin in a particular
 
 locality and under particular circumstances ; but 
 occasion has hence been taken to bring a general 
 charge against the whole Jewish nation, and to 
 excite universal prejudice, which, if allowed to 
 spread, must again end in outbreaks of popular 
 fury such as used to disgrace Christendom in the 
 days of Popery. Had the calumny and the per- 
 secution been confined to the ignorant followers of 
 Mahomet, it would have been hardly worth notice. 
 In Europe a vindication of the Jewish people 
 would have been, and was thought, unnecessary, 
 if the interference of Europeans, and an impres- 
 sion said to be made in certain quarters, had not 
 pointed out the necessity of showing the falsehood 
 of the general accusation. 
 
 The Jewish people are again charged with 
 using Christian blood at the celebration of the 
 Passover, by mixing it either in their unleavened 
 cakes or their wine, and, in order to obtain it, with 
 murdering Christians, especially children, every 
 year previous to the time of the feast. Particular 
 cases require a particular examination. The 
 groundlessness, however, of the general prejudice 
 may be easily shown from general considera- 
 tions. 
 
 In the first place, the charge has been made only 
 in the times and regions of ignorance, and in 
 countries where justice is not impartially adminis- 
 tered, or where confessions elicited by the torture are 
 considered as sufficient testimony. How is it that 
 during the last two centuries the sound of this
 
 accusation has gradually died away in Europe ? 
 Why is it that no case of the kind now occurs in 
 France, or Holland, or Prussia, or England ? The 
 efficiency and vigilance of the police the number 
 and skill of local magistrates have greatly in- 
 creased. Amongst a mass of the Jewish people 
 bigotry is as prevalent. The prejudices of the 
 uneducated Christian multitude against the Jews 
 are, generally speaking, as strong, and yet not 
 even an accusation of the kind is breathed, much 
 less sustained in any of these countries in a court 
 of justice. How is this to be accounted for? The 
 Jews are most scrupulous in fulfilling the require- 
 ments of their religious system, and have been at 
 all times ready to lay down their lives rather than 
 renounce their faith. If therefore Christian blood 
 were annually required by the Jewish religion, it 
 would most undoubtedly annually be shed and if 
 annually shed, some one case, either in England, 
 or Holland, or France, or Prussia, or Saxony, &c., 
 must have been detected, examined, and proved 
 during the last hundred years. One such case is 
 not to be found. Does not this cast a strong 
 shade of suspicion upon the cases recorded in 
 former times ? Does it not lead us to conclude 
 that if the rack had been as little employed in 
 centuries gone by, and false accusers been as sure 
 of punishment, and Jews as certain of a fair and 
 impartial hearing, the execution of Jews for child 
 murder would have been unknown ? 
 
 2dly. The charge is confined to certain countries 
 B 2
 
 and places. It wants universality, and its partiality 
 goes far to prove that it is false. Had the require- 
 ment of Christian blood been a part of Judaism, it 
 would have been as generally spread as Judaism 
 itself, whereas, never until the present occasion, 
 so far as I can find, has the accusation been heard 
 from Asia or Africa. " The Jews," says the emi- 
 nently learned Wagenseil, " have at all times lived 
 in great numbers in various parts of Asia and 
 Africa, and still live there in crowds ; and, 
 according to old custom, they bake their Easter 
 cakes, circumcise their children, marry in all 
 honesty, perform their public worship, and close 
 their eyes in death, without ever being troubled 
 with the charge of requiring or having required 
 the blood of Christians for any such purpose. It 
 is only in Europe that they have been suspected, 
 and here almost entirely in Spain and the German 
 territories, where they have always been treated 
 with injustice, and burdened with calumnious lies. 
 Now if blood were an indispensable requisite, the 
 Jewish people could nowhere do without it, which 
 nevertheless they do, as none ever charged them 
 with the contrary."* This partial prevalence of 
 the charge is a strong argument of its falsehood. 
 Had the use of Christian blood formed any part of 
 Rabbinic doctrine or practice, it would have been 
 known wherever the Jews are dispersed, for it is 
 impossible to suppose that they would abstain 
 from Christian murder where Christians have no 
 * Wagenseil, " Unwidersprechliche Widerlegung," p. 161.
 
 power, and practise it where Christian power is 
 supreme that they would commit the crime in 
 preference where detection would bring down 
 inevitable vengeance, and abstain from it in 
 countries, where, if detected, they might have had 
 some chance of escape. 
 
 3dly. The charge is as novel as it is partial. 
 Apion brought a similar charge against the Jews 
 of fattening a Greek every year in the temple, and 
 then sacrificing him, and tells a story of a man 
 whom Antiochus found in the temple ; * and 
 perhaps Apion's story may have furnished the 
 model to the later calumniator. But for many 
 centuries of the Christian era, the accusation was 
 unknown. "Never," says Basnage, "were the 
 Jews accused of anything similar in the early ages, 
 when the increase and prosperity of the Church, 
 rising on the ruins of the Synagogue, must have 
 rendered their jealousy and their hatred more 
 sensitive. Why is it that they have thought of 
 crucifying Christians in the latter ages, in which 
 they could not hope for impunity, and never did 
 so under the government of the heathen emperors, 
 when the crime would not have appeared so 
 enormous, and would not have been so severely 
 punished. It is, for example, only since the 
 middle of the thirteenth century that children are 
 said to have been murdered."'!" Such was the 
 opinion of Basnage, and certain it is that neither 
 
 * Joseph, against Apion, lib. ii. 
 ]- Basnage Histoire, liv. ix. c. xiii. 2.
 
 6 
 
 Bartolocci,* nor Schudt,f nor Eisenmenger,J nor 
 Geusius, all enemies to the Jews, have been able 
 to produce any charge of child-murder, but one, 
 before the year 1135, and the mention of that one 
 is entirely devoid of any general inculpation of 
 the Jewish nation, as being in the habit of killing 
 Christian children, or using Christian blood. 
 Socrates || tells us that some Jews, at a place 
 called Inmestar, between Chalcis and Antioch, 
 who, in a time of feasting and mirth, had drunken 
 so much as to have lost self-control, tied a 
 Christian child upon a cross and mocked it, and 
 that, hurried on in their wickedness, they after- 
 wards scourged it until it died. Far, however, 
 from bringing any general charge against the 
 Jews, or mentioning any popular opinion of their 
 using Christian blood, he does not ascribe even 
 this act to deliberate wickedness, but narrates it as 
 the sudden impulse of a drunken frolic. How is 
 it, then, that before the year 419, and between 
 that year and 1135, no charge of child-murder 
 was heard of against the Jewish people ? How is 
 it, if their religion requires the use of Christian 
 blood, that for nearly twelve centuries the accusa- 
 tion was altogether unknown ? Can any one believe 
 
 * Bibliothec. Rabb., torn. iii. p. 702 et sqq. 
 -f- Jiidische Merkwiirdigkeiten, part i. 465, &c., and part ii. 
 328, &c. 
 
 j Endecktes Judenthum, part. ii. c. 3. 
 
 Victimae humanae, part i. p. 368. Edit. Groning., 1675. 
 
 11 Eccles. Hist., lib. vii. c. 16.
 
 that, if the Jews, scattered everywhere amongst 
 Christians, had every year been in the habit of 
 killing Christian children, not one of the thou- 
 sands of cases that must have occurred would 
 have been discovered until the year 1135? The 
 total silence of historians upon the subject the 
 manner in which they ignore the accusation, will 
 go very far towards proving that, up to that time, 
 no such crime was committed ; the moral and 
 intellectual condition of the century in which the 
 charge originated makes the charge itself more 
 than suspicious. 
 
 4thly. This charge is brought forward amongst 
 others, now universally acknowledged to be gross 
 and ridiculous falsehoods, and almost every case 
 of child-murder recorded is itself interwoven with 
 a narrative of lying wonders, so that of each such 
 history one part is confessedly fabulous ; and if 
 the one part be rejected, why should the other be 
 believed ? A mere enumeration of these charges 
 is in itself sufficient to prove their falsehood, and 
 this is now given in order to convince the cre- 
 dulous that constant repetition of a charge is no 
 proof of its truth, nor affords any warrant for 
 believing, that if it had not some foundation, it 
 would not have been so often repeated. Sigebert 
 Gemblacensis* tells us, that in the year 560, a 
 certain Jew stole an image of our Saviour, pierced 
 it with a weapon, carried it to his house, and was 
 going to burn it, when, seeing himself stained 
 
 * In Pistorius' German. Script., torn. i. p. 736, Edit. 
 Ratisbon, 1726. Bartoloc. Bibliothec., iii. p. 705.
 
 8 
 
 with its blood, he hid it. The Christians, search- 
 ing for it, were guided to the place by the marks 
 of the blood, and having recovered it all bloody, 
 stoned the Jew. 
 
 About the year 787 a Christian at Beyrout 
 having left his house an image of our Lord re- 
 mained behind, which some Jews having found, 
 treated with great indignity. They impiously 
 pierced the hands and feet of the image with nails, 
 and repeated other things perpetrated at the 
 crucifixion ; at last, taking a spear they struck the 
 side of the image, and there came forth a copious 
 stream of water and blood, which the Churches 
 both of the East and the West treasured up, and 
 by its means performed an infinity of miracles, of 
 which not the least was the conversion of almost 
 all the Jews at Beyrout, who turned their syna- 
 gogue into a Church and had it consecrated by 
 the bishop.* 
 
 1017. There was, as is related byGlaber himself 
 a cotemporary, a violent storm at Rome, by which 
 the whole city was shaken, and vast numbers of 
 the inhabitants killed. At last, the Christians 
 received information that an image of Christ had 
 been mocked in the synagogue. Pope Benedict 
 had the guilty Jews beheaded, and immediately 
 the winds ceased. f 
 
 1066. Eberhard, Archbishop of Treves, endea- 
 vouring to convert the Jews, threatened that if 
 they did not submit before Easter, they must all 
 depart. The Jews, however, by means of a wax 
 * Bartoloc., 1. c. 711. f Ibid. 712.
 
 effigy of the archbishop magically prepared, 
 effected his death.* 
 
 1135. The Jews are said to have crucified a boy 
 at Norwich. f 
 
 1166. The Jews at Pontoise were accused of 
 having crucified a young man. The body was 
 brought to Paris, and wrought many miracles.^ 
 
 1185. They were expelled from France for a 
 similar offence and for usury. 
 
 1247. Many Jews were burnt at Belitz in 
 Brandenburg, for having stabbed a consecrated 
 host, from which the blood flowed. || 
 
 In 1250, the Jews of Saragossa are said to have 
 nailed a child named Dominic to the wall in the 
 form of a cross, and then most cruelly pierced his 
 side with a spear. To conceal the crime they 
 buried the body on the shore. But by night the 
 place shone with such a brilliant light as to 
 attract the Christians, who having found the 
 sacred remains, carried them with great pomp 
 into a church, where many miracles were 
 perform ed. 
 
 1255. The Jews of Lincoln were accused of 
 having stolen a boy eight years old. They then 
 sent for the principal Jews from all the cities of 
 England, and appointed one to act as Pilate, 
 others as the tormentors, and then re-enacted all 
 
 *Bartoloc., 712. f Tovey Anglia Judaica, p. 11. 
 
 J Jost's Geschichte, vi. 266. 
 
 || Busching Geschichte der Judischen Religion, p. 217. 
 Bartoloc., 1. e. p. 716.
 
 10 
 
 the indignities mentioned in Scripture ; scourged 
 him, cruelly crowned him with thorns, fastened 
 him to a cross, gave him gall to drink, and lastly, 
 when dead, pierced his side with a spear. To 
 crown all, they took out his bowels, as being 
 particularly serviceable in their magic practices, 
 and then, that the matter might not be known to 
 Christians, diligently concealed the corpse. The 
 earth, however, vomited forth the innocent body 
 worthy of a more honourable sepulchre, and as 
 often as the Jews tried to bury it, it showed itself 
 again next day above ground. Terrified beyond 
 measure, they threw it into a well, where the 
 mother at last found it. The master of the house 
 was seized, and confessing the whole matter, was 
 tied to horses' tails, and thus torn to pieces. 
 Ninety Jews were carried off in chains to London, 
 and received due punishment.* 
 
 In 1271, we have another instance, said to 
 have happened in Pfortzheim. The Jews carried 
 off and murdered a girl of seven years old, whom 
 they threw into a river. The body being found 
 by fishermen was carried into the town, and, 
 before the Marquis of Baden, stretched out her 
 hand as if demanding vengeance. The Jews were 
 taken, and being put to the torture, confessed 
 themselves guilty, and were executed.f 
 
 In 1287, another boy, of the name Werner, 
 was murdered at Wesel. A heavenly light again 
 discovered the murder, and the body being 
 * Bartoloc., 1. c. 717. Tovey, p. 136. f Bartoloc., 1. c. p. 718.
 
 11 
 
 carried into the chapel of St. Cunibert, performed 
 wonderful miracles, and forty Jews were put to 
 death.* 
 
 In 1288, the Jews of Pacherat, in the diocese of 
 Wiirtzburg, were charged with having secretly 
 murdered a good and devout Christian man, and 
 having pressed out his blood, "as it were with a 
 wine-press, and which they are said to use as a 
 medicine." 
 
 About the same time the Jews of Munich were 
 accused of the murder of a Christian child, and 
 therefore, the inhabitants, without waiting for 
 judge or jury, burnt them all in a house whither 
 they had fled for refuge, j" 
 
 A. D. 1290. A Jew was burnt at Paris for ill- 
 using a consecrated wafer. It appears, that he 
 lent money to a woman who gave a garment as a 
 pledge. At Easter they came to get it back, 
 when " the perfidious Jew dared to say to the 
 woman, If you bring me the body of Christ, which 
 you say is in the consecrated host, I will restore 
 your garment without money. The woman, over- 
 come by avarice, and loving money more than 
 her soul, promised to do so. And, therefore, 
 going to communion on Easter-day, she retained 
 the sacrament in her mouth without swallowing 
 it, and then leaving the church, carried it to the 
 
 *Bartoloc., 1. c. p. 719. 
 
 f Henric. Stero. Altahens. in Freher., torn. i. p. 572. Edit. 
 1717. Pfeffinger, corpus juris public! ad ductum Vitriarii. Francf. 
 175*, p. 1277.
 
 12 
 
 Jew, who put it in a saucepan upon the fire with 
 boiling water ; and when the sacrament remained 
 unhurt, he took a sword and several times struck 
 the host, from which blood came forth and dyed 
 the water red. Taking it out of the saucepan, he 
 then put it into cold water, which was also turned 
 red. Christians entering his house found out the 
 dreadful sacrilege, for the host of itself flew out 
 before them. The Jew, therefore, was taken, and 
 having confessed the crime, was burnt. The 
 sacrament was reverently carried by the priests 
 to church, a devout multitude of the faithful 
 accompanying, the Jew's house was turned into 
 a church, and called ' Ecclesia Salvatoris del 
 Boglente.' "* 
 
 1299. Two nuns in Roetingen, a city of Fran- 
 conia, saw two bright lights over the house of a 
 Jew. An alarm was given, the house broken into, 
 and a host discovered which he had bought from 
 the warden of the church. The host was carried 
 about among the Jews, who pierced it with needles 
 and awls, and pounded it in a mortar, but seeing 
 that blood flowed forth from the wounds and 
 bruises, they buried it. " But Almighty God by 
 many miracles made it known to his faithful 
 people," who therefore rose in various cities in a 
 most Christian manner, and killed the Jews, those 
 who had committed the sacrilege and those who 
 had not.t 
 
 In the year 1303, followed another child- 
 * Bartoloc., 1. c. 720. f Ibid. 1. c. 723.
 
 13 
 
 murder, in Thuringen, and, as before, the earth 
 refused to conceal the body ; many miracles were 
 wrought, and the citizens, together with the son of 
 the Landgrave at their head, killed hosts of the 
 
 o ' 
 
 Jews, (turmatim occidenmt.) * 
 
 In 1330, the Jews in Gustrow in Vandalia, 
 bought another host from a Christian woman, 
 and pierced it with daggers, during which it 
 uttered a cry like the cry of an infant. A Jewish 
 woman was converted, who gave information, and 
 the Jews were punished. 
 
 In 1348, the Jews were said to have poisoned 
 the wells and rivers, and thus to have caused the 
 plague which prevailed in Europe, and thousands 
 of them were murdered. 
 
 Henry of Rebdorf, himself a contemporary, says, 
 that " this pestilence and death of the whole 
 human race prevailed to a degree never heard of 
 or recorded before." Whole cities and villages 
 were depopulated during the six years that its 
 ravages continued, and a general persecution of the 
 Jews ensued. " In Franconia," says this writer, 
 "John Burggrave of Nuremberg at first resisted 
 and routed the persecutors both nobles and 
 peasants. But at last he ordered the Jews them- 
 selves to be slain, and they were slain on all sides 
 and driven out naked, as an evil report was spread, 
 that throughout the countries of the Christians 
 they had thrown bags of poison into the wells, and 
 
 * Bart., 1. c. 723.
 
 14 
 
 in divers other methods poisoned them by means 
 of some Christians, and thus were endeavouring 
 to extinguish Christianity. Some Jews and Chris- 
 tians being put to the torture, made confession of 
 this fact. The persecution lasted two years or 
 thereabouts." * 
 
 In 1379, in Belgium, the Jews pierced a conse- 
 crated host, which poured forth drops of blood. 
 The Jews were burnt, by order of Wenceslaus, the 
 Duke, and " God, by the performance of great 
 miracles, increased the sacred worship of the 
 
 Eucharist, "f 
 
 In 1393, they were accused of having caused 
 the madness of Charles VI. of France, and all who 
 would not embrace Christianity were banished. J 
 
 In the year 1399, the Jews in Poland bought an 
 Eucharist from a Christian servant, and pierced it 
 with knives, but the Divine power sprinkled their 
 faces with blood, which could not be washed out, 
 and being terrified by many other prodigies, they 
 divided the Eucharist into small pieces, and buried 
 it in a field near Posen. But whilst a Christian 
 boy was feeding a herd, he saw it flying in the 
 air, and the oxen immediately bending their knees 
 to adore it. After seeing it several times, he 
 reported it to the bishop, who ordained a solemn 
 supplication. At length the host was found, some 
 miracles having been performed, and a chapel was 
 built on the spot by the Bishop. The servant, 
 
 * Freher, Script. Germ. Argent., 1717? torn. i. p. 630. 
 f Bart., 1. c. 724. J Busching, p. 218.
 
 15 
 
 the traitress, was taken ; the Jews being also 
 apprehended, and burnt at a slow fire, together 
 with dogs, who, maddened by the fire, tore them 
 to pieces. The servant bewailed the crime she 
 had committed, but the Jews remained hardened 
 in their wickedness. Many celestial prodigies 
 were afterwards wrought by the Divine goodness, 
 moved by which, Vladislaus, King of Poland, built 
 a more magnificent church, and had it dedicated 
 to the most holy body of Christ; they also who 
 journeyed thither on pilgrimage received Divine 
 benefits far beyond the ordinary powers of nature, 
 an illustrious catalogue of which Thomas Treter 
 copied from ancient monuments, and the votive 
 tablets of that church, in order to confound 
 [Protestant ?] innovators ; and Stephen Damale- 
 witch testifies, that he with his own eyes saw the 
 bloody mark on the sacred Eucharist still pre- 
 served there." * 
 
 In 1468, some were executed and others 
 banished, for having crucified a Christian boy in 
 Sepulveda, in Spain. t 
 
 In 1475, all the Jews, excepting those that were 
 burnt, were driven out of the territories of the 
 Bishop of Passau, " on account of an horrible 
 wickedness, committed upon the venerable sacra- 
 ment of the Eucharist. Having bought eight 
 consecrated hosts, privily abstracted by one Chris- 
 topher Eisengreish, they pierced them with knives, 
 
 * Bart, 1. c. 725. 
 f- Busching Gcschichte, p. 219.
 
 16 
 
 and, the blood flowing out, they sent two to the 
 Jews of Prague, two to those of Saltzburg, to be 
 examined in the same way, and cast as many 
 more into a burning furnace to be consumed, but 
 in vain. Two angels were seen in the furnace, 
 and two doves flew forth.* " 
 
 In 1518, they were accused in the electorate of 
 Brandenburg, of having ill-treated consecrated 
 hosts, and murdered Christian children. Above 
 thirty were burnt, and the rest banished, f 
 
 Such are some of the charges which used to 
 be brought against the Jews. Does the reader 
 receive them all ? Does he believe that they 
 used to crucify images, and shed their blood, or 
 that they could raise storms at will to destroy 
 thousands of Christians, or produce a six years' 
 pestilence, or that they could kill a Christian 
 bishop by burning a wax image, or deprive a king 
 of reason, or that they drew blood from consecrated 
 wafers, and that miracles were wrought to discover 
 their wickedness ? Why then should he receive the 
 charges concerning the use of Christian blood in 
 the Passover ? The testimony for the latter is not 
 in the least degree stronger than that for the former. 
 Lying wonders form as much a part of the stories 
 concerning the murdered children as those which 
 describe bleeding crucifixes, or flying sacramental 
 wafers. Contemporary writers may be cited for 
 the one set of facts as well as for the other. The 
 atrocious and murderous lies which envelop this 
 * Pfeffinger, 1. c. p. 1281. f Busching, 1. c.
 
 17 
 
 charge of using blood gives us strong reason for 
 suspecting, that it is as devoid of truth, as calum- 
 nious, and as devilish as those image and wafer 
 stories, by means of which so many thousands of 
 unhappy Israelites were put to death, whose blood 
 still cries to heaven for vengeance. 
 
 It is not unusual, even in those who confess the 
 insufficiency of the evidence and the improbability 
 of the charge, to argue, nevertheless, from the 
 frequency of the repetition, that it must have some 
 foundation in fact. Thus, even Johann Christoph. 
 Wolf says, "It never appeared to me at all pro- 
 bable that the Jews, to whom all use of blood is 
 so solemnly interdicted, could ever make them- 
 selves believe that Christian blood was necessary 
 to make expiation for themselves or to remove 
 other evils." And yet, he says, that some of the 
 crimes laid to their charge must have been com- 
 mitted, because " Too many examples, both of 
 ancient and recent date, are adduced to permit us 
 to deny all."* And to the same effect Grotius says, 
 " Apparet ergo vetus esse hoc sive crimen, sive 
 fabulam. Utrum apud nos non facile dictu est. 
 Nam neque omnibus, neque nullis credendum est." 
 
 "'At WOTEJ? yaf opus xat aVurr/at wAicray oivfyots. 
 
 "[Evertit multos non credere, credere multos.] " -J- 
 
 The argument is, however, in the highest 
 
 degree irrational. If there be any weight at all 
 
 in the mere repetition of a story, it will be 
 
 equally useful to confirm our faith in the bleeding 
 
 * Bibliothec. ii. 1102. f Epistolae. 693. 
 
 c
 
 18 
 
 images, and the miraculous hosts. These stories 
 have been repeated just as often. If the repetition 
 adds nothing to their credibility, neither can it 
 to accusations concerning the use of blood. 
 
 Great stress has, however, been laid upon the 
 case of a child whose body was found in the river 
 Etsch, which flows through Trent, a representa- 
 tion of which in stone used to be seen upon the 
 Bridge-tower in Frankfort-on-the-Maine, and an 
 account of which was written by Dr. John Mat- 
 thias Tiberinus, who was at Trent at the time. 
 Wagenseil has, however, examined that story at 
 great length, and shown that the different accounts 
 of it are totally inconsistent with one another, and 
 devoid of credit. Tiberinus says, for instance, 
 that the deed was perpetrated close to a fire- 
 hearth in the entrance to the synagogue, whereas 
 it is well-known, that in no synagogue in the 
 world is a fire-hearth to be found. Jacob Philip, 
 of the order of Hermits of St. Augustin, who was 
 living at the time at Bergamo, not far from Trent, 
 and also wrote an account in his "Chronicle," 
 says, that it was on the altar of the synagogue 
 that the murder was effected, though in syna- 
 gogues altars are no more to be found than fire- 
 hearths. A still greater difference exists in other 
 particulars. The sculpture on the Bridgetower in 
 Frankfort represented the child as stretched out 
 on his back, and pierced from the wrist of the left 
 arm, which is extended to the ancle, with fifteen 
 awls. But in John Louis Gottfried's " Chronicles,"
 
 19 
 
 edited by Matthaeus Merianus, in an engraving, 
 the child is represented as nailed upon a cross ; 
 on his left side is an old Jew with a knife in his left 
 hand, the point of which is in the child's side, 
 where it has made a wound, and in his right hand 
 a saucer in which he receives the blood, and 
 beside him another old Jew, who is waiting to do 
 the same, the text to which is, " In the year 1475, 
 on Maunday Thursday, 23d March, the cursed 
 Jews in Trent tortured to death a poor infant boy, 
 two years and a half old, of the name of Simon, 
 the son of a tanner." To all which Wagenseil 
 adds, " The body of the murdered Simon still lies 
 in Peter's Church in Trent, upon the high altar, 
 under a case of clear crystal, quite naked and 
 rather black, and no stranger would think of 
 visiting Trent without seeing it. I myself saw it 
 on my way to Italy, together with my companion, 
 a Genoese nobleman. We had permission, which 
 it is not easy to obtain, to get up upon the top step 
 of the very high altar, and a priest pointed out 
 with his finger some marks, as it were, of wounds 
 made with a knife. It is, however, quite certain, 
 that on neither side can a regular row of wounds 
 made by the puncture of large awls be perceived, 
 and thereby the picture on the Bridge-tower in 
 Frankfort is convicted of falsehood. Neither can 
 any nail-marks be seen in the hands or feet, much 
 less a wound in the side, and this puts to shame 
 Merian's copperplate in Gottfried's " Chronicle." 
 Neither is there a piece of flesh as large as an egg 
 
 c 2
 
 20 
 
 cut out of the right cheek, as Tiberinus lyingly 
 pretends ; much less is the whole right jaw, 
 together with another part of the body, entirely 
 cut away, as Jacobus Philippus Bergamensis 
 fables." The direct contradictions in the different 
 accounts, and the falsification of all by the appear- 
 ance of the body, prove that, however the child 
 came by his death, the accounts of it belong 
 rather to poetry than history. The fact, that the 
 body was found by a Jew and information imme- 
 diately given to the Bishop as to the highest 
 authority, makes it highly probable that the Jews 
 were altogether innocent of any participation in 
 it. Such, at least, was the opinion of the Duke 
 and Senate of Venice, who notwithstanding all the 
 proceedings, did not scruple, in a decree addressed 
 to Padua and other places, to brand the whole as 
 a wilful lie, devised for some base purpose. Their 
 words are, " Credimus certe, rumorem ipsum de 
 puero necato commentum esse, et artem; ad quern 
 jinem, viderint et interpretentur alii." The case, 
 
 * The whole decree is thus given by Wagenseil : 
 " Petrus Mocenigus, Dei Gratia Dux Venetiarum, &c. 
 Nobilibus et sapientibus viris, Antouio Erizzo de suo mandate 
 Podestati, et Bertuccio Contarino capitaneo Paduae, et suc- 
 cessoribus suis dilectis salutem et dilectionis affeetum. 
 
 " Ad nostram pervenit notitiam, quod ex causa cujusdam 
 rumoris dissipati, scilicet, in Tridento inventum fuisse quondam 
 puerum necatum, a Judaeis illius loci, habitantes in terris et 
 locis nostris, et quod absurdius est, facto impetu a Christianis 
 nostris, aggredi illos, et praedari sursum et deorsum commeantes ; 
 usque adeo ut transire de loco in locum dubiteut, ne caedantur
 
 21 
 
 therefore, which appears to be the one best attested 
 in history, as having such cotemporary testimony, 
 is not consistent with itself, and was denounced as 
 a lie at the time. It may be said, however, that 
 the Jews themselves confessed the fact. But their 
 confession of guilt, when writhing under the 
 torture, only proves that the accusers were more 
 savage than the accused. Indeed it is truly 
 astonishing that Christians ever allude to this 
 charge as a reproach to the Jews, or an evidence 
 
 et spolientur : cujus quidem temeritatis auctores et impulsores 
 esse dicuntur quidam Praedicatores, et etiam ipsi Zaratani, 
 conciones de his habentes in populo, quae res, quantum nobis 
 displiceat, quam molesta, et ingrata sit, optime intelligere pro 
 prudentia vestra potestis. Credimus certe, rumorem ipsum de 
 puero necato commentum esse, et artem ; ad quern finem, 
 viderint et interpretentur alii. Nos vero semper voluimus, ut in 
 terris et locis nostris, Judaei securi et impune inhabitarent, omnis 
 injuria et vis absit ab illis, non secus quam fit ergo caeteros 
 fideles et subditos nostros, et si quis est qui aliter praesumat vel 
 cogitet, male nos et indignationem nostram novit. Et, licet non 
 dubitemus, quin pro vestra circumspectione intelligatis ista non 
 convenire, et praesertim hoc tempore, providentesque provisuri- 
 que sitis, ne in ista civitate et territorio nostro, contra Judaeos 
 innovetur quicquam dicta de causa ; tamen voluimus et vobis 
 mandamus, ut sub severissimis poenis providere debeatis, et talem 
 operam dare, quod secure et tute habitare valeant, et sursum 
 deorsum ire et redire Judaeos omnes istuc habitantes ; procedeudo 
 contra in obedientes et obviando, ne a praedicatoribus, aut aliis 
 excitetur populus ad tales insultus, quo nihil displicentius audire 
 et intelligere possumus. Has autem nostras literas in actis 
 Concellariae vestrae, ad futuram memoriam registrare faciatis. 
 Datae in nostro ducali Palatio, die 22 Aprilis, Indictione octava 
 1475." Wagenseil unwidersprechliche Widcilegung, p. 191.
 
 22 
 
 of Jewish cruelty. The history of every case throws 
 but a doubtful shade upon the latter, but convicts 
 the former of diabolic barbarity. Even supposing 
 that the Jews were guilty of all they are charged 
 with, of crucifying images, stabbing consecrated 
 wafers, and murdering children, does that excuse 
 the tumultuous and wholesale massacres by which 
 thousands of Jews and Jewesses, aged men and 
 children, perished ? or the slow fires over which 
 human beings were roasted together with dogs ? 
 or the rack and the wheel which compelled even 
 the innocent to confess themselves guilty? Of the 
 two, the Jews, even as represented by their 
 enemies, appear the least cruel. The historian, 
 who, receiving the charges against the Jews as 
 true, might be inclined to write a passing censure, 
 would be compelled to change it into an apology, 
 as soon as he compared them with their Chris- 
 tian judges and executioners. " We never men- 
 tion the massacre of St. Bartholomew without 
 horror," says Gregoire, " but the Jews have been 
 an hundred times victims in more tragical scenes 
 and who were their murderers?"* 
 
 5thly. As the accusations come in the midst of 
 acknowledged fables, so the reasons assigned for the 
 commission of the crime are palpable and self-evident 
 falsehoods. The one now revived is that the Jews 
 require blood for the celebration of the Passover. 
 The use popularly assigned for the use of Christian 
 blood is, that it is put into their unleavened bread at 
 * Essay, p. 16.
 
 23 
 
 Easter. But there are several others once equally 
 popular. It used also to be gravely asserted that 
 they used Christian blood to free them from an 
 ill odour, which, it was supposed, was common 
 to the Jewish nation ; others said that of the Chris- 
 tian blood they made love potions ; others that 
 with it they stopped the blood at the circumcision 
 of their children ; others that it served as a 
 remedy for the cure of secret diseases ; others that 
 it was required for the Jewish bride and bride- 
 groom during the marriage ceremony ; others that 
 the Jewish priests were obliged to have the hands 
 tinged with it when they pronounced the blessing 
 in the synagogue ; others that it helped Jewish 
 women in childbirth and promoted their recovery; 
 others that the Jews used blood to make their 
 sacrifices acceptable. But the most common story 
 was, that the blood was used to anoint dying Jews; 
 that at the point of death the rabbi anointed his 
 departing brother, and secretly whispered into 
 his ear these words, " If the Messiah on whom the 
 Christians believe be the promised true Messiah, 
 may the blood of this innocent murdered Christian 
 help thee to eternal life !"* " Pierius Valerianus 
 assures us, that the Jews purchase, at a dear rate, 
 the blood of Christians, in order to raise up devils, 
 and that by making it boil, they obtain answers to 
 all their questions." f 
 
 Wagenseil gravely undertakes to disprove most 
 
 * Wagenseil, pp. 129, 130. 
 f Gregoire's Essay, p. 247.
 
 24 
 
 of these charges, but it is to be hoped that the 
 mere mention of them together is sufficient to 
 show their falsehood. It is rather too bad to 
 reproach the Jews on the one hand with unbelief, 
 hatred, and contempt for Christians, and then to 
 charge them with such faith in the wonder-work- 
 ing and soul-saving power of Christian blood, that 
 to obtain it they expose themselves to the fury of 
 their enemies. The enormous lying, profound 
 ignorance of Judaism and the Jews, as well as 
 degrading superstition involved in some of these 
 charges, throw discredit upon all. The mere 
 recital of these follies shows that they are the 
 offspring of an unenlightened imagination, if not 
 the invention of a malignant heart. 
 
 Gthly. The total absence of all credible testi- 
 mony compels us to refuse our belief. The only 
 evidence to be had is that extracted from the 
 victims of the torture. But that mode of exami- 
 nation would have made the same persons confess 
 that they were metempsychoses of Judas Iscariot or 
 Pontius Pilate, that they had caused the ruinous 
 convulsions of an earthquake, or the devastations of 
 the cholera morbus. Grotius says admirably, " Ex- 
 pendenda sine motu animi testium religio, numerus, 
 et oculatine sint an auriti tantum. Nulla fides 
 autem est, cui minus fidei esse debeat, quam 
 tormentorum. Mentietur, ut ait vetus quidam, 
 qui ferre potuerit ; mentietur qui ferre non 
 potuerit."* Yet this is the only testimony alleged. 
 * Epist. 693.
 
 THERE is, I repeat, NO EVIDENCE WHATEVER, 
 EITHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, GENTILE, JEWISH, OR 
 CHRISTIAN, TO PROVE IN ANY ONE CASE, THAT 
 THE JEWS DO, OR EVER DID, USE CHRISTIAN BLOOD 
 FOR ANY ONE OF THE PURPOSES ABOVE SPECIFIED. 
 It is possible that Jews may have killed Christians, 
 as it is certain that Christians have killed and do 
 kill one another, whereby the name of Christ is 
 sadly profaned ; but the commission of murder by 
 Jews is of very rare occurrence. They do not 
 often figure in our criminal courts as shedders of 
 blood. Except in this particular charge, the 
 history of Christendom represents them as free 
 from this sin. Wagenseil cites from the treatise 
 " De Veritate " the testimony of Grotius, who, 
 speaking of the Jews since the dispersion, says, 
 " Et tamen tanto tempore Judsei, nee ad falsorum 
 deorum cultus deflexerunt, ut olim, NEC C^DIBUS 
 SE CONTAMINANT nee de adulteriis accusantur." 
 He might have added, what is said in the letter 
 just quoted, " Apud Batavos Judsei suspecti talium 
 facinorum non sunt." * 
 
 But whatever may be inferred from their 
 general character, a charge so foul as that now 
 brought against the Jews ought not to be received 
 without the most unquestionable testimony ; and 
 that testimony is not to be found, either amongst 
 the converts from Judaism, or in their books, or 
 
 * "De Veritate Rel. Christ." lib. v. 16. Oxon. 1700, 
 p. 246.
 
 26 
 
 * 
 
 amongst Christians who have studied the Rabbinic 
 writings. 
 
 If the practice of murdering Christian children 
 and using their blood prevailed amongst the Jews, 
 how is it that not one respectable witness to the 
 fact can be adduced from amongst the thousands 
 of converts who have joined the Christian Church 
 in these 1,800 years? Eisenmenger, a man of 
 profound and extensive Jewish learning, and a 
 most bitter enemy to the Jews, though he devotes 
 a long chapter to the subject, and had made it 
 his business to search after everything prejudicial 
 to the Jews, is able to bring forward but one 
 convert who appeared to know anything about 
 it, and of that one Eisenmenger himself says, 
 that he does not believe him. That convert's 
 name is Samuel Frederick Brentz, and his testi- 
 mony is as follows : " When a Jewess in child- 
 birth has a difficult time, and cannot bring to the 
 birth, the Rabbi, or the chief Jew next to him, 
 called the Parnes, takes a clean skin of parch- 
 ment, and writes three slips, the first of which he 
 puts on her head, the second into her mouth, the 
 third into her right hand, whereupon she imme- 
 diately brings the child into the world. But of 
 what sort the ink is which they use for this purpose, 
 they keep a profound secret. I have, however, 
 been truly and credibly informed, that the Jews 
 from time to time buy or steal Christian children, 
 and martyr them. Perhaps it is with the blood of
 
 27 
 
 these children that such slips of parchment are 
 written, as I know that they consider it no sin 
 to undertake anything against the Goim or 
 Christians."* Eisenmenger, however, himself 
 adds, " I cannot believe that the Jews use blood 
 for this purpose, nor that it has the effect here 
 described of assisting the birth." Brentz is 
 evidently a liar, and does not dare to make a 
 positive charge he does not say that he ever 
 had cognizance of any such crime, but only, 
 " I have been truly and credibly informed," and, 
 "perhaps," the blood is thus used. Besides, the 
 pretended miracle wrought by the blood convicts 
 him at once of barefaced lying. As to myself, 
 I have had personal acquaintance with hundreds 
 of converts, learned and unlearned, and have 
 made diligent inquiry, especially in Poland, where 
 the question was stirred some years ago, but, 
 except one drunken fellow, who was a disgrace to 
 Christianity, I never found one convert who had 
 ever heard of or knew of anything of the kind. 
 Amongst the converts whom I have known have 
 been persons from every part of Poland, some 
 from Germany, Holland, Bohemia, Hungary, 
 France, Italy, Africa some rabbies some sons 
 of celebrated rabbies others men of extraordi- 
 nary attainments in Hebrew and Jewish learning. 
 But they have, one and all, declared most 
 solemnly, that the charge brought against the 
 Jews of using Christian blood is a foul and 
 
 * Eisenmenger, part II. c. iii. p. 225.
 
 28 
 
 calumnious falsehood. If such a crime had been 
 practised amongst the Jews, beyond all doubt it 
 would have been known to some of these converts. 
 Their total and entire ignorance of it is, in my 
 mind, a decisive proof that the charge is utterly 
 false and devoid of foundation. 
 
 To this may be added, that the last fifty years 
 has produced a numerous class of reformers 
 amongst the Jews, still more hostile to rabbinism 
 and the rabbies than even converts, who have laid 
 open all the failings of Judaism with an unsparing 
 hand, but not one of them has charged the most 
 superstitious of the nation with child-murder. 
 
 Lastly, No trace of such a practice exists in any 
 part of that voluminous literature which the rabbies 
 have devoted to every rite, ceremony, and usage of 
 the synagogue. In all my reading of Jewish and 
 rabbinical books, I most solemnly declare, that I 
 never found any thing in the slightest degree indi- 
 cative of the practice of using Christian blood, or 
 of killing Christians periodically, for any purpose 
 whatever. On the contrary, the Jews have the 
 utmost horror of all blood, and look upon a dead 
 man and his blood as defiling. The rabbinical 
 system looks upon a Gentile as a beast, and his 
 dead body as carrion, it is therefore just as reason- 
 able to believe that the Jews use the blood of 
 horses or asses for their Passover cakes as that of 
 Christians. If any trace of such a practice had 
 existed in their books, surely it would have been 
 known to the Buxtorfs, or Wagenseil, or Edzard, or
 
 Knorr von Rosenrotb, or Selden, or Lightfoot, or Vi- 
 tringa,or Danz, Eisenmenger, or Wolfius. Several 
 of these writers were very hostile to the Jews. 
 Eisenmenger, who has been already referred to, 
 has raked up everything that is anti-Christian, or 
 malignant, in the Talmud, or the writings of indi- 
 vidual rabbies, but has not adduced one single 
 passage, referring directly or indirectly, to any 
 such horrid practice. Wagenseil wrote what he 
 called a Denunciatio Christiana, and called upon 
 "all high potentates" to put an end to "Jewish 
 blasphemy," a plain proof that he was not pre- 
 possessed in their favour, and yet this same Wagen- 
 seil, by his profound Jewish and Hebrew learning 
 thoroughly competent to form a judgment in the 
 matter, wrote a tract in vindication of the Jews, 
 which is entitled, " Indisputable Refutation of the 
 horrible Falsehood, that the Jews require Christian 
 blood, which has robbed so many of these inno- 
 cent people of money and property, land, and 
 life," and which I have freely used in the pre- 
 ceding pages. My solemn conviction is, that if 
 such a custom had ever prevailed amongst the 
 Jews, it would have been found with every cere- 
 mony attendant upon it, prescribed at full length 
 in the writings of the rabbies, who, in the Hebrew 
 language, have never scrupled to pour out all their 
 anti-sociality, all their hatred, and all their desire 
 of revenge upon their Christian oppressors and 
 persecutors ; and if such a thing had existed in 
 the whole range of Jewish literature, it would
 
 30 
 
 assuredly have been discovered by anti-Talmudic 
 reformers, or converts to Christianity, or by some 
 of those profound students of rabbinic literature 
 who have flourished since the Reformation. 
 
 But perhaps it may be said, that in the printed 
 books, these passages, like many in the Talmud, 
 have been suppressed for fear of Christian censors. 
 To this it might be replied, that the Rabbinic 
 scholars referred to have had free access to manu- 
 scripts of the Talmud and other rabbinic works ; but 
 there is one Christian theologian eminently skilled 
 in Rabbinical literature, his knowledge of which 
 was derived altogether from manuscripts, as he 
 wrote before the invention of printing : and who, 
 though he wrote expressly and severely against 
 Judaism, and is by no means delicate in his style, 
 does not once allude to any passage of the kind. 
 Raymund Martin, the learned author of the Pugio 
 Fidei, who flourished just at the time* that this 
 accusation began to be common, shows an unusual 
 acquaintance with Rabbinic and Talmudic writings, 
 the intolerance and iniquity of which he unspar- 
 ingly exposes. It would have been much to his 
 purpose to have brought forward a charge like this, 
 but he is totally silent. That he would have urged 
 it had he known it, may safely be inferred from 
 what he has produced. In the twenty-second 
 chapter of the third part, he proves, ex professo, 
 the wickedness of the Rabbinic system, and after 
 many other proofs he adds the following : 
 * A.D. 1284.
 
 31 
 
 " Another instance of the iniquity of their laws 
 is found in the Talmud, in the book Baba Kama, 
 in the chapter Haggozel. ' A tradition says, If 
 an Israelite and a Gentile come before thee to 
 judgment, . if thou canst absolve the Israelite 
 according to Jewish law r , absolve him, and say, 
 this is our way of judging ; but if thou canst 
 absolve him according to Gentile law, absolve him, 
 and say, this is your way of judging. But if not, 
 then they are to come upon him with cunning 
 frauds. R. Samuel says, the error of a Gentile is 
 also lawful. For, behold, Samuel bought a piece 
 of gold for four small coins, and added one more 
 (that he might go away the sooner and not perceive 
 the fraud.) Rabbi Cahana bought one hundred 
 and twenty casks of wine for the price of one 
 hundred : he said, My trust is in thee.' So far 
 the Talmud. From these and similar passages 
 Jews infer, that they may and ought to deceive 
 Christians, and others who are not Jews. Thus also, 
 from other passages they infer that they may and 
 ought to kill Christians, of which the following ex- 
 ample is found in the book Mechilta. ' Exod. xiv. 7, 
 And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the 
 chariots of Egypt. From whom did he take them ? 
 If you say from the Egyptians, is it not said 
 already, Exod. ix. 6, He slew all the cattle of 
 Egypt 1 . If you say from Pharaoh, then there is a 
 difficulty, for it is said already, ix. 3, Behold the 
 hand of the Lord shall be upon thy cattle. But if 
 you say they were from the Israelites, it is said 
 already, x. 26, Our cattle shall go with us. From
 
 32 
 
 whom then were they ? It is plain they must have 
 been from those who feared the word of the Lord. 
 Hence we learn that those of the servants of 
 Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord, were a 
 stumbling-block to Israel : and hence R. Simeon, 
 ben Jochai, says, Slay thou the best amongst the 
 Gentiles, and of the best of serpents bruise the 
 head. Thus far the Talmud, and by this they 
 mean to say, that as of serpents he especially is to 
 be killed that is the greatest and best of its kind, 
 Christians are to be dealt with in the same way. 
 For killing Christians, and throwing their children 
 into pits, and even for killing them when they can 
 do it secretly, they derive an argument from that 
 which is said in the book Aboda Zara, chapter En 
 Maamidin, ' As to Gentiles, and robbers, and 
 those that tend small cattle, they are neither to be 
 helped out of a well nor to be thrown into it. But 
 heretics, and informers, and apostates, are to be 
 thrown in, but not to be helped out. The Com- 
 mentary of Rashi says : Heretics mean, the priests 
 of idols ; informers mean calumniators, who betray 
 the wealth of their brethren into the hands of the 
 Gentiles. R. Shesheth says, If there be a step in 
 the pit, removing it, let him find an excuse and 
 say. Lest an evil beast descend upon him. Rabba 
 and R. Joseph both say, If there be a stone upon 
 the mouth of the well, he is to cover it and say, I 
 do it that the beasts may pass over it. R. Nachman 
 says, If there, be a ladder in the well, he is to take 
 it away and say, I wish to get down my son from 
 the roof.' Thus far the Talmud. Thy prudence,
 
 33 
 
 O reader, may perceive that the Talmud, which so 
 perniciously teaches them to lie arid to kill Chris- 
 tians, is not the law of God, but the figment of the 
 devil, &c."* Thus says Raymund Martin, and 
 it is evident that if he had known of any passage 
 authorizing: Jews to use violence in order to effect 
 
 o 
 
 the death of Christians, or requiring them to use 
 Christian blood every year at the Passover, it would 
 have been more to his purpose, and he would 
 infallibly have quoted it. His intimate acquaint- 
 ance with Jewish writings gives us reason to con- 
 clude that if such a passage had existed, he must 
 have known it. His total silence on the subject 
 is therefore a strong argument to prove that in his 
 time no such practice existed. 
 
 It may be said, that this passage is quite 
 
 sufficient to show that the Jews are guilty. I grant 
 
 that the passages quoted are most atrociously 
 
 wicked ; but, 7thly, their atrocity is to me the 
 
 strongest proof that the practice of killing Christians 
 
 for the Passover never existed amongst the Jews either 
 
 in theory or practice. The men who thought, and 
 
 taught, and wrote, and printed, such maxims 
 
 without remorse, would have had no scruple 
 
 in teaching, or writing, or printing about the 
 
 murder of Christian children at Passover time, 
 
 or any other use of Christian blood, had any such 
 
 custom ever been known in their law or their 
 
 practice. Besides, shocking as is the doctrine 
 
 cited by Raymund Martin, it is to be noted, that 
 
 * Pugio Fidei, Part III. c. xxii. 22. 
 D
 
 34 
 
 these passages do not permit the Jews to use violence 
 to kill even a robber, much less an innocent and unof- 
 fending infant. Nay, they actually forbid it. They 
 distinguish between the Gentile and the Jew, who, 
 for some reason or other, is regarded as heretic, 
 apostate, or informer, and, as expressly as they 
 assert the murder of the one to be lawful, they pro- 
 nounce the murder of the other to be unlawful. 
 
 In the " Old Paths," p. 15, I have already 
 cited Maimonides' version of this principle, which 
 makes it still more clear that to murder even an 
 idolater is unlawful. " If," says he, "a Gentile, 
 an idolater, be seen perishing or drowning in a 
 river, he is not to be helped out. If he be seen 
 near to death, he is not to be delivered. But to 
 destroy him by active means, or to push him into 
 a pit, or such-like things, is unlawful, as he is not 
 at war with us." The Talmud, and its most 
 famous interpreter, Maimonides, are, therefore, 
 so far from authorizing the murder of Christian 
 children, that they forbid it. These passages are 
 justly censured for their want of charity and 
 humanity. But they are so far fi/om warranting 
 the conclusion 'which equally uncharitable Chris- 
 tians would draw from them, that it would be just 
 as easy to derive a general permission for murder 
 from the words, " Thou shalt not kill." The rab- 
 binic law is clear enough in its definitions. It 
 allows its professors to kill an heretic ; it says that 
 to save a perishing idolater is not necessary ; it 
 adds, however,
 
 35 
 
 -now nn MSV31 Tinb ismb is ITS -n2b 
 " But to destroy him by active means, or to push 
 him into a pit, or suck-like things, is unlawful."* I 
 feel therefore no hesitation in saying, that accord- 
 ing to the principles laid down in one of the most 
 intolerant passages in the Rabbinic system, a 
 Rabbinical Jew would feel that in killing a Chris- 
 tian, he was guilty of a transgression. 
 
 After these arguments had been written, ap- 
 peared, in the " Times" newspaper of June 25th, 
 extracts from the work of a convert to monkery, a 
 reputed ex-rabbi, which from its want of Jewish 
 learning, and the transparency of its malice, would 
 require no notice, if it had not been republished 
 now, as a document of some authority. Of the 
 author of this document I would say, in the first 
 place, that he is guilty of wilful misrepresentation. 
 He attempts to show from R. Solomon Jarchi, that 
 the murder of Christians is not only allowed but 
 commanded. " In the same place the same Solo- 
 mon says, ' The brain has been taken from the 
 tamest serpent, slay the best of the Christians ;' 
 by which it is signified that every Hebrew is bound 
 to kill a Christian, and is saved by such an act." 
 To this the simple answer is, that this assertion is 
 false. There is no such passage in R. Solomon. 
 The semblance of truth is gained only by mis- 
 representation. This author has put out one word 
 which is in R. Solomon, and put in another which 
 is not in R. Solomon, and by the same process it 
 
 * Hilchoth. Accum. c. x. 1. 
 D2
 
 36 
 
 is possible to prove anything in the world. The 
 word which he has put out is " Gentiles" (or as 
 some copies have it " Egyptians "). The word 
 which he has put in is " Christians." R. Solo- 
 mon's words are, 
 imo v^" 1 DTOnaaiz? mta :mn (nnsaaa?) o^aaa? -ia 
 
 " The best amongst Gentiles [amongst Egyp- 
 tians] slay. Of the best amongst serpents bruise 
 thou the brains."* Now this change cannot be 
 designated by a milder term than misrepresenta- 
 tion, and is of the utmost importance. The charge 
 is that the Jews kill Christians and use Christian 
 blood. The insertion of the word Christian gives 
 it plausibility. The word "Gentiles" would prove 
 too much, for it would imply a command to kill 
 Gentiles generally, Mahometans and Pagans, as 
 well as Christians, but of this the Jews have never 
 been accused. If, therefore, this passage does not 
 prove that the Jews use Mahometan blood at the 
 Passover, neither can it prove that they use Chris- 
 tian blood. Another piece of misrepresentation is 
 the insinuation that this is the doctrine of Judaism, 
 whereas it is only a saying of an individual rabbi, 
 and is quoted as such by Rabbi Solomon 
 '01 -iaiN wa '-i rrn 
 
 * In the Wilmersdorf edition of the Pentateuch with Rashi 
 and Ramban, there is a third reading [D^EaiZ?]* "amongst 
 heretics." In the manuscripts used by Breithaupt the reading 
 was Q>l;Qtp " amongst Gentiles," and this is the reading pre- 
 served from Mechilta by Raymund Martin, as cited above. He 
 also read nDTf instead of -itpa .
 
 37 
 
 " Hence Rabbi Simeon was accustomed to say, 
 c." To make all the Jews in the world account- 
 able for Rabbi Simeon's private opinion is a wanton 
 perversion of fact. The passage, therefore, in 
 Rabbi Solomon, as it stands, proves nothing. The 
 wilful alteration to suit his purpose, proves that 
 the Ex-Rabbi was not very scrupulous in his 
 regard for truth. 
 
 In his second quotation he is guilty of a similar 
 fraud. After stating that the rabbles explain Scrip- 
 ture very perversely, he says, " For example, the 
 precept of Moses in the book of Exodus : ' And 
 ye shall be holy men unto me : neither shall ye 
 eat of any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field, 
 ye shall cast it to dogs,' is thus interpreted by the 
 same Rabbi Solomon, who says, * Moses not only 
 commanded us to throw such flesh to the dogs, but 
 ye may sell it to the Christians, and if he speaks 
 of dogs, and not of Christians, it is that ye may 
 learn that dogs are preferable to Christians. Thus 
 he says in Exodus, " Not a dog shall move his 
 tongue, that ye may know that the Lord hath put 
 a difference between the Egyptians and Israel." 
 Now supposing the Ex-Rabbi's quotation to be 
 correct, it proves too much. It proves that in the 
 eyes of a Jew a Christian is more contemptible 
 than a dog. Does any one believe then that the 
 Jews would put dog's blood into their Passover 
 cakes, or make use of dog's blood to anoint their 
 sick ? If not, how can he believe that they would 
 use the blood of that which is more contemptible
 
 38 
 
 still ? But the citation is not correct. The 
 manner in which this passage of Rabbi Solomon 
 is translated, will satisfy every one acquainted 
 with the Jews and their literature, that this monk 
 never was a rabbi at all, but a very ignorant and 
 illiterate person. At present I have to do only with 
 his misrepresentation. In the above short extract 
 from Rabbi Solomon, the word " Christian" occurs 
 three times, now what will the reader think of the 
 Ex-Rabbi when I tell him that in the original it 
 does not occur at all ? Rabbi Solomon's words 
 are as follow : 
 
 imb iifcbn isfcttfED 2b2 sbs la^M i 2b22 sin n 
 b22 mniBB? ns^i&b tain 1 * bp i-oab TOO i nb222 
 1222 nbsnu? -p&b nbsb n&ib iittbn n& 72 DM niwan 
 '3 rma b2 -ottf nopa n2"pn pst^ airon ii^bi i2iaa 
 ib tan nD"n nas laitrb nbs v^n 1 * wb bi < ' ^2 b2bi 
 
 11 Even he is as a dog; or, perhaps it means 
 nothing more than a dog according to its literal 
 sense ; that is to say, the command, ' Sell it to an 
 alien,' (Deut. xiv. 21) is applied to the case of 
 that which dieth by itself, a fortiori it applies in 
 the case of that which is torn of beasts, which is 
 lawful for all purposes of profit. If, so, why is it 
 said, ' Cast it to the dogs ? ' It teaches thee that 
 a dog is more honoured than he. The Scripture 
 also teaches thee that the Holy and Blessed One 
 deprives no creature of its reward, for it is written, 
 ' But against any of the children of Israel shall 
 not a dog move his tongue.' (Exod. xi. 7.) Here
 
 then the Holy and Blessed One says, Give him 
 his reward [by letting him have that which is torn 
 of beasts.]" The reader will perceive that the 
 word Christians does not occur at all. The word 
 which does occur once is " alien," taken from 
 Deut. xiv. 21, and includes all who are not 
 Israelites or Jewish proselytes. The passage, 
 therefore, manifests no particular grudge against 
 Christians. It expresses the Rabbinic feeling 
 towards all Gentiles, and the supposed superiority 
 of the Jewish people. But every reader -of the 
 New Testament will remember that by this very 
 image our blessed Saviour himself represented the 
 difference between the Jews and the idolatrous 
 heathen. When the Syrophoenician woman applied 
 for help, he said, "It is not meet to take the 
 children's -bread and cast it to dogs." (Matt. 
 xv. 26.) The passage, therefore, as it really 
 stands, is of no use whatever in proving the charge 
 revived against the Jews. The deliberate misre- 
 presentation, of which the monk is guilty in insert- 
 ing three words not in the original, shows that his 
 ideas respecting truth were not very refined. 
 
 The next part of the monk's accusation asserts 
 that the Jews use Christian blood at the circumci- 
 sion of every male child, on the 9th of the month of 
 Av, at Easter, at the death of every Jew, and at 
 the feast of Purim. This is entirely a question of 
 fact. The decision of such questions does not, 
 however, rest simply on the testimony of witnesses.
 
 40 
 
 Some narratives are, at first sight, so improbable 
 and absurd as to leave no doubt of their falsehood. 
 Such is the case with the statement before us. 
 The story, of using Christian blood once a-year, 
 just left the possibility of obtaining secretly a 
 supply of blood sufficient for the demand. But 
 when we are told, that besides Easter, it is used 
 on the great fast-day in Av, and Purim, and not 
 only on these three annual occasions, but at the 
 circumcision and death of every Jew, that is, every 
 day in the year, in every country where Jews are 
 found, and yet that it is never discovered, that 
 Christians are killed in sufficient numbers to 
 supply this daily demand, and yet that not one 
 case is detected, that the children are not even 
 missed : when such a tale as this is told, a cross- 
 examination of the man who tells it seems unne- 
 cessary, the monstrosity of the accusation convicts 
 the accuser of falsehood. It is clearly and plainly 
 impossible that such a constant supply of Christian 
 blood could be obtained without detection. Let 
 the reader just think of the number of Jewish 
 children circumcised every day in London, or 
 Amsterdam, or Warsaw, and the number of Jews 
 who die in those cities, that in every such case, 
 as this monk says, blood is used, that at every 
 such circumcision at least ten Jews must be pre- 
 sent, and yet that none of the hundreds and 
 thousands present on such occasions have come 
 forward to disclose the mystery, that not one of
 
 41 
 
 the thousands of converts now scattered over 
 Europe was lucky enough to have had the secret 
 revealed to him. Who can believe it? 
 
 Besides, if this account were true, the use of 
 Christian blood becomes one of the most important 
 features of Judaism, a rite that occurs every day, 
 how is it then that not the slightest hint occurs 
 respecting it in any of their books ? Since the 
 publication of this account, I have again examined 
 their most famous compendiums of rabbinic law 
 upon the ceremonies prescribed at circumcision, 
 Easter, Purim, the washing and burial of the 
 dead, but cannot find the slightest trace of any 
 such custom. I have looked into the works of 
 Buxtorf and Bodenschatz, \vho have treated all the 
 Jewish ceremonies with extreme accuracy, and a 
 profundity of Jewish learning rarely attained even 
 by rabbies, but they knew nothing of the admix- 
 ture of blood. Is it possible that they could be 
 ignorant of such an every-day custom ? I must 
 repeat, that if any such rite or ceremony prevailed, 
 it would be mentioned in all its detail in the 
 books of Jewish law. The total omission of it 
 satisfies me that the charge is a pure invention 
 of malignity. 
 
 But this monk says, that it is not generally 
 known. It is communicated orally, and that to a 
 few only. " It is," he says, " in the first place 
 necessary to understand that this mystery of the 
 blood is not known by all the Jews, but only by 
 the rabbies, the hahams (doctors), the Scribes
 
 42 
 
 and Pharisees, who are called by the Jews ' Has- 
 seidem,' and who preserve it with the strictest 
 secrecy." But, if this be true, how did it happen 
 that his father revealed it to him when he was 
 only thirteen years old ? " Jesus," he says, " is 
 my witness, that when I arrived at the age of 
 3,* an age at which the Jews put on the head 
 a horn called the ' tefilis/ [Tphillin] which is a 
 sign of strength, my father said to me, ' I put on 
 thy head the tefilis,' and he then revealed to me 
 the mystery of blood, cursing me by all the 
 elements of heaven and earth if I should reveal 
 it even to my brothers." Now, how do these two 
 statements agree ? The one that the mystery is 
 revealed only to the rabbies ? The other, that his 
 father intrusted this dread and fatal secret, in- 
 volving the ruin of his nation and his own, to a 
 beardless boy of thirteen? The story is utterly 
 incredible. The reader must remember, that at 
 every circumcision ten persons must be present, 
 and that if blood be put into the wine they must 
 see it. He must also think of all the circumcisions 
 that take place all over Europe, and, therefore, 
 the many tens who must see the blood dropped 
 into the wine . Is it possible to suppose that they 
 can all be ignorant of the fact? Moreover, at many 
 circumcisions, even in a town where there is a 
 rabbi, he is not present. And at the washing of 
 the dead a rabbi is rarely seen, it being often 
 
 * Thus it stands in the "Times," but it ought to be " 13," 
 as appears from the following words.
 
 43 
 
 committed to very low and illiterate people, fre- 
 quently to women, to whom our author says, the 
 secret is never to be communicated, who mixes 
 the blood in that case ? 
 
 Besides its inconsistency it has all the vague 
 generality of a lie. Why does this monk rest 
 satisfied with the general assertion, that on certain 
 occasions the Jews use blood ? Why did he not 
 state the numerous cases that must have come 
 under his own notice, and in which he, as a rabbi 
 and as one intrusted from an early age with their 
 mysteries, must himself have been a participator? 
 At the beginning of the statement he claims our 
 faith on this very ground. He says, " I, however, 
 who, by the grace of God, have received holy 
 baptism, and adopted the angelic form of a mo- 
 nastic life, despising the haughty and unclean Jews 
 1, who have been one of their rabbies, and 
 know their mysteries, WHICH I HAVE PRESERVED 
 
 TO THE VERY MOMENT OF RECEIVING HOLY BAP- 
 TISM, but which now I despise, I, for the benefit 
 of Christianity, now publish these mysteries, and 
 that with irrefragable proofs." 
 
 Here then he declares, that he, as a rabbi, lived 
 according to these secret laws up to the very 
 moment of baptism.* Would it not then have 
 been much more for the benefit of Christianity, 
 if he had made known the last child whom he had 
 
 * Had he no period of inquiry or instruction previous to the 
 administration of that holy rite? Was his conversion instan- 
 taneous ?
 
 44 
 
 helped to murder, the place where his body and 
 bones were concealed, the number and names of 
 his accomplices, and called upon the friends and 
 parents of the missing child to confirm his state- 
 ment ? Such a course would necessarily be adopted 
 by a penitent whose hands were reeking with 
 blood, who wished to quiet his conscience and 
 make restitution for the evil he had committed. 
 Such a course would really have benefited Chris- 
 tianity, and would have furnished infinitely more 
 important proof than garbled and altered passages 
 from R. Solomon's Commentary. That this course 
 was not adopted proves that its adoption was 
 impossible. That the Government of the country, 
 where this statement was first published, did not 
 compel him to adopt this course, and made no 
 inquiries after the murdered children, proves that 
 they did not look upon his statement as worthy 
 of credit. This Ex-Rabbi's protestation, therefore, 
 is entirely neutralized by his wilful misrepresen- 
 tations of the author whom he cites by the utter 
 impossibility of his alleged facts and the vague- 
 ness of his accusation respecting a crime of the 
 deepest die, and in the commission of which he 
 must from his office have frequently assisted. It is 
 moreover to be noted that of this witness, on whose 
 testimony we are called upon to find the whole 
 Jewish nation guilty of daily murder and Thyes- 
 tean festivities, we are not told even the name, 
 much less the name of the place where he offi- 
 ciated, and the manner in which he conducted
 
 45 
 
 himself from the age of thirteen to thirty-eight, 
 when he became a monk. Such evidence would 
 be rejected with scorn in any criminal court in 
 the civilized world. 
 
 But I am not compelled to be satisfied with 
 showing the want of all evidence to establish 
 
 O 
 
 the charge : it is possible to bring competent 
 witnesses to prove the contrary. It is well known 
 that Mr. Pieritz, educated for the Rabbinic office 
 in Poland, and once a rabbi at Yarmouth, but 
 now a Christian missionary, a man of character 
 and of learning, went both to Damascus and 
 Alexandria to bear his testimony to the utter 
 falsehood of the charge. Some few of the numerous 
 converts to Christianity now residing in England, 
 whose names I have been able to collect, testify 
 as follows : 
 
 " We the undersigned, by nation Jews, and 
 " ' having lived to the years of maturity in the 
 " faith and practice of modern Judaism, but now 
 '*' by the grace of God members of the Church 
 " of Christ, do solemnly protest that we have 
 " never directly nor indirectly heard of, much 
 " less known amongst the Jews, of the practice 
 " of killing Christians or using Christian blood, 
 " and that we believe this charge, so often brought 
 " against them formerly, and now lately revived, 
 " to be a foul and Satanic falsehood." 
 
 " M. S. ALEXANDER, Clk, Professor of Hebrew and 
 Rabbinical Literature in King's College, London ; 
 formerly officiating Rabbi in the Jewish congregations 
 at Norwich and Plymouth.
 
 46 
 
 " M. TARTAKOVER, native of Galicia ; formerly 
 
 student of the Talmud and Chasid. 
 
 " H. POPER, native of Hesse ; formerly Jewish School- 
 master. 
 " A. LEVI, native of Warsaw in Poland ; formerly student 
 
 in the School for Rabbies at Warsaw. 
 "MOSES MARGOLIOUTH, native of Suwalki, in 
 
 Poland ; educated as Talmudic student for the office 
 
 of Rabbi. 
 " P. H. STERNSHOSS, native of Korolavka, Galicia ; 
 
 formerly student of Talmud and Chasid. 
 ALFRED M. MEYERS, native of Breslau. 
 " AARON SAUL, sen., 90 years of age, baptized 1812, 
 
 of Amsterdam. 
 
 " S. HOGA, son of the Rabbi of Casimir. 
 "B. DAVIDSON, native of Gnesen, near Posen, in 
 
 Prussia. 
 " RIDLEY H. HERSCHEL, native of Strzellno, in the 
 
 Duchy of Posen, studied the Talmud at Posen and 
 
 Breslau. 
 
 ISRAEL J. F. HERSCHEL, of Queen's College, Cam- 
 bridge, formerly of the Duchy of Posen. 
 "AARON SAUL, baptized 1812, a native of Dover, 
 
 Kent. 
 "J. A. PIERITZ, native of Klecko, in the Duchy of 
 
 Posen. 
 
 " P. RAPHAEL, native of Prussia. 
 S. J. W. EDELSTEIN, native of Brody, in Galicia, 
 
 Poland ; educated under the Jewish Rabbi. 
 " G. C. ISAACS, native of Exeter. 
 "JOHN DAVIES, native of Bridgewater. 
 " A. STRAUSS, aus Rogasen, Posen. 
 " J. PARISER, native of Pilz, Do. 
 " M. FRIEDLANDER, native of Blascy, Do. 
 "DAVID DANIEL, from Poland, educated at Prusieng. 
 " H. A. STERN, born in Reichenbach, educated in 
 
 Frankfort-on-Maine.
 
 47 
 
 MARTIN L. HIRSCHFELD, from Baldenburg, 
 
 educated in Berlin. 
 
 SAMUEL JACOB BEHRENS, Lubeck. 
 "ABRAHAM TEUMMIM, native of Dicla, Galicia; 
 
 formerly Rabbi in Sorredna, in Hungary. 
 " ISAAC FLIES, aus Schoenefliess in Preussen. 
 "WOOLF SAMUEL and son, native of Poland, in 
 
 Gnesen. 
 "ALEXANDER ISAAC BEHRENS, aus Hagenau in 
 
 Mecklenburg. 
 
 "IMANUEL PEISER, aus Lissa in Herzogth. Posen. 
 " G. OELBERG, aus Tiefenthal, Grossherzogthum 
 
 Hessen. 
 
 B. WERTHEIM, Hesse. 
 "J. A. KARGER, geb. in Tirschtiegel, Herzogthum 
 
 Posen. 
 
 "ERASMUS SCOTT CALMAN, a native of Lithu- 
 ania, resided in Courland, well acquainted with the 
 
 doctrine of the Chasidim. 
 JACOB WOLLENBERG, geboren in Kutno, in 
 
 Russisch-Polen. 
 
 Here are persons, neither afraid nor ashamed to 
 give their names and the place of their birth, some 
 of whom command respect by the offices which 
 they now fill, many of whom have been rabbies, 
 readers in synagogues, Jewish schoolmasters, can- 
 didates for the rabbinate, all of whom are ready, 
 if it were necessary, to give evidence on oath, 
 men born in Judaism, and educated in various 
 parts of the world, who all declare their ignorance 
 of the crime here imputed to the Jewish people, 
 witnesses who gain nothing by giving this testi- 
 mony, and would lose nothing by testifying 
 the contrary, if their conscience allowed them.
 
 48 
 
 Amongst them are those who have conducted 
 all the religious ceremonies to which the monk 
 refers, who have ministered at circumcision 
 watched over the preparation of the Passover- 
 cakes, and performed the last sad offices for the 
 dead. Some of them once members of that most 
 fanatical of Jewish sects, the Chasidim, to some of 
 whom, if any use of Christian blood existed, it 
 must have become known, but who have thank- 
 fully and zealously embraced the opportunity now 
 afforded them of protesting against the falsehood 
 of the accusation. They all answer as, with the 
 one exception already stated, all converts have 
 done for the nineteen years that I have had an 
 opportunity of being intimately acquainted with 
 the Jewish people. They have earnestly and 
 solemnly denied the charge. 
 
 Such testimony far outweighs the evidence pro- 
 duced on the other side. But it is not enough to 
 show that this crime is unknown, it is necessary to 
 state that the use of Christian blood in Passover- 
 cakes or in wine is impossible, as being contrary to 
 the fundamental principles of modern Judaism and 
 the Mosaic law. It is well known that Moses 
 forbade the use of the blood of animals, and that 
 the Jews are so scrupulous on this point that they 
 will not eat any meat that is not killed in a 
 particular manner, and even then take the utmost 
 pains in extracting every remaining particle of 
 blood before preparing it for food. If, then, they 
 abhor even the blood of animals, and rather
 
 49 
 
 abstain from meat altogether, as many Jews in 
 England do, who live in towns where there are 
 no Jewish slaughterers, who will believe that they 
 can make use of Christian blood ? 
 
 " How should they eat children, to whom it is not 
 lawful to eat even the blood of the brute creation?" 
 said a Christian martyr,* when suffering the 
 torture, to make her confess that Christians were 
 guilty of a similar crime, and then Christians 
 thought the argument valid. f Why should it not 
 be equally valid in the mouth of a Jew, whose 
 religion is equally repugnant to any and every use 
 of blood ? 
 
 But this argument is rendered doubly strong 
 in the mouth of a Jew, when we remember that 
 human blood is expressly forbidden by the rabbies. 
 Had the heathen said to the Christian martyrs, 
 "You tell us that the blood of animals is for- 
 bidden, but from that it does not follow that 
 human blood is unlawful show us a passage 
 in your sacred writings expressly prohibiting the 
 
 * Euseb. Eccles. Hist., lib. v, c. 1. 
 
 f This argument was constantly used by the Apologists. 
 Thus Tertullian says : " Erubescat, o Pagani, error vester 
 Christianis, qui ne animalium quidem sanguinem in epulis 
 esculentis habemus, qui propterea quoque suffocatis, et mor- 
 ticinis abstinemus, ne quo modo sanguine contaminemur vel 
 intra viscera sepulto." 
 
 In like manner Minucius Felix 
 
 " Tantum ab humano sanguine cavemus, ut nee edulium 
 pecorum in cibis sanguinem novonmus." 
 
 Consult Kortholt. Paganus Obtrcctator Kilon. 1698. p. 597. 
 
 E
 
 50 
 
 blood of men, and we will believe you," the 
 primitive Christians could not easily have pro- 
 duced such a passage. They might have argued 
 by implication, but to have cited a passage 
 exactly answering this condition would have 
 been impossible. If the Jew be asked to do so, he 
 can refer at once to the Rabbinic determination 
 cited by Selden, when treating of the use of 
 blood 
 
 vbs? r^ni ttrna DS o^nsiD nmtt-iiDN mwn m 
 
 -in * 22133 i^si isVn o'ot&n DT bnw mria 
 nnts baiN *p insi mn ns -ma m rrbr 
 
 " Human blood, if it be separated from the body, 
 is unlawful by the words of the Scribes, and the 
 transgression is to be punished with the flogging of 
 rebellion. It is, however, lawful to swallow the blood 
 from the teeth. But if, in eating bread, blood be 
 seen upon it, that blood must first be scraped off, and 
 then the bread may be eaten, for such blood has 
 been separated from the body." * What more, 
 or more express, can be required ? The use of 
 human blood is named, it is forbidden it is to 
 be punished with the severest punishment, except- 
 ing that of death, known to the Rabbinic law. 
 How, then, can any one believe that the whole 
 Jewish nation should live in constant disobedience 
 to their law ? A Jew is not allowed to eat 
 bread stained with his own blood ; how, then, can 
 
 * Maimon. Hilchoth Maachaloth Asuroth, c. vi. 1. compare 
 Selden de Jure Nat. et Gent., lib. vii. c. 1.
 
 51 
 
 Satan himself dare to accuse them of mixing 
 Christian blood in their bread and wine ? And 
 yet we can give another and a stronger argument 
 still. Every reader of the Bible knows that, 
 acccording to the Mosaic law, the touch of a 
 dead man, even a Jew, and a fortiori a Gentile, 
 renders a Jew ceremonially unclean. The rabbies 
 go further, and say, that if a living Gentile touches 
 wine, it is unlawful, not only to drink it, but even to 
 make a profit of it. 
 
 oa^ DHDD ian nan 12 saatD bs-i^ ptp mab wn 
 
 rp'ona IIDH Ninu? 
 
 " Hence thou hast learned, that concerning 
 wine belonging to an Israelite which a Gentile 
 has touched, the law is the same as in the case of 
 common Gentile wine, which is unlawful to make a 
 profit of." * And very similar is the law respecting 
 Gentile bread. A Jew who eats it, unless he has 
 been destitute of food for three days, is also sen- 
 tenced to the flogging of rebellion. f 
 
 If, then, human blood is expressly forbidden, 
 if the touch of a dead man, or even a living 
 Gentile, is so defiling as to make bread and wine 
 unlawful to a Jew, it is utterly impossible that he 
 could take within his lips anything contaminated 
 by the touch of Gentile blood. 
 
 But prejudice will still say, How then do you 
 account for the origin of the charge ? How could 
 it become so general, if it had not some founda- 
 
 * Ibid. xi. 3, 4. 
 
 f Consult " Old Paths," p. 201. 
 E2
 
 52 
 
 tion ? I ask, in reply, How do you account for 
 the fact that the heathen brought the very same 
 charge against the primitive Christians ? They 
 also were accused of killing infants and drinking 
 their blood,* and tortured to make them confess 
 it. How was it that that charge became so general 
 and so generally believed as to cause the perse- 
 cution of the whole Christian Church ? Was there 
 any foundation for it then ? Yes, it had a foun- 
 dation, the very same foundation that it has now, 
 laid deep and low in the bottomless pit by him 
 who was a liar and a murderer from the begin- 
 ning. It had and has its foundation in ignorance, 
 prejudice, superstition, and religious hatred. The 
 heathen nations, especially of Canaan and Phoe- 
 nicia, really offered human sacrifice and used 
 human blood. t Nothing, therefore, more easy or 
 more natural, for the profane and unclean imagi- 
 nation of the heathen, than to suppose that, at 
 the secret assemblies of Christians, from which 
 they were excluded, such were the sacred mys- 
 teries of Christianity. Subsequently religious 
 prejudice transferred the very same charge to 
 
 * " Dicimur sceleratissimi de sacramento infanticidii." Ter- 
 tullian, Apolog. c. vii. 
 
 " Infans, farre contectus, ut decipiat incautos, apponitur 
 eis, qui sacris imbuatur. Is infans, a tirunculo, farris superficie, 
 quasi ad innoxios ictus provocato, coecis occultisque vulneribus 
 occiditur : hujus (proh nefas) sitientes sanguinem lambunt, &c.'* 
 Miijueius Felix in Octavio. For a full detail of the accusa- 
 tions, see Kortholt. loc. citat. 
 
 j- See Geusius, Victimae Humanas, passim.
 
 53 
 
 the Christian heretics. They also were accused 
 of puncturing children to death, in order to get 
 the blood for the celebration of the Passover.* 
 When, therefore, darkness, superstition, and fana- 
 ticism, attained to supremacy in Christendom, and 
 the Crusades stirred up the fury of the multitudes 
 against the Jews, for at that time this charge first 
 became common, religious hatred, animated by 
 thirst for Jewish gold, found a pretext for perse- 
 cution ready made to their hands. They revived 
 the charge first brought against the Christian 
 Church, and afterwards against heretics. It is 
 also very possible, that at that time, when the 
 Jews were murdered by thousands, burned over 
 slow fires, and subject to every refinement of tor- 
 ture, that a spirit of retaliation incited them to 
 revenge whenever it was possible. But however 
 that be, the charge itself is utterly devoid of 
 foundation. 
 
 It was never heard of in the first ages of Chris- 
 tianity is entirely unknown in some countries 
 where multitudes of Jews have lived for centuries 
 is comparatively modern in its origin is one of 
 many accusations now universally acknowledged 
 as false is itself generally joined with lying 
 miracles the best authenticated case was at the 
 
 * " Sacramenta perhibentur funesta habere. Nam de infantis 
 anniculi sanguine, quum de toto ejus corpore minutis punctionum 
 vulneribus extorquent, quasi eucharistiam suam conficere perhi- 
 bentur, miscentes eumfarince panemque inde fadentes" Augus- 
 tin. in Kortholt. 1. c.
 
 54 
 
 time denounced as a lie the reasons assigned 
 for the commission of the crime are palpable false- 
 hoods not one eye-witness of any such fact can 
 be produced the only testimony is that procured 
 by the torture the two converts who make a vague 
 and general charge are convicted liars every 
 convert of respectability protests that he is entirely 
 ignorant of it the Jewish law forbids the murder 
 of Gentiles prohibits the use of all blood gene- 
 rally, and of human blood in particular, and 
 pronounces wine even touched by a living Gentile 
 to be unfit for use. Several of these reasons, 
 taken singly, would be sufficient to disprove the 
 charge : taken together they appear to me to 
 amount to a demonstration of its falsehood. 
 
 I have suppressed nothing that is unfavourable 
 have considered it my duty to adduce, in the 
 citation from Raymund Martin, one of the most 
 objectionable passages that can be found in all the 
 rabbinic writings, but that I consider the very 
 strongest point of the defence. For there, where 
 intolerance is the most appalling, is found the 
 prohibition, which in itself disproves the charge. 
 Having, in controversial works, freely exposed 
 the errors of the rabbinic system, it appeared to 
 be a bounden duty to express my conviction of the 
 baseless falsehood of the calumny now revived 
 against the Jewish people. But it was not merely 
 a cold sense of duty. Nineteen years of intimate 
 acquaintance with Israelites, and study of their 
 literature, have produced in me a profound
 
 55 
 
 respect for their genius, their kindness of 
 heart, and their preference for learning and 
 religion before wealth and luxury. Never was 
 a people more misunderstood and misrepresented 
 than the Jews. I confess, that from the Bible 
 I had learned to regard them with awe. A nearer 
 approach has taught me to look upon them with 
 respect and affection. The promises of God, 
 respecting the glorious destinies which yet await 
 them, present them to our view as the hope of the 
 world. The day is fast approaching when they 
 shall be recognized as God's peculiar people : when 
 " Their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, 
 and their offspring among the people ; and all that 
 see them shall acknowledge them that they are the 
 seed which the Lord hath blessed." (Isa. Ixi. 9.) 
 In the contemplation of that day I desire to do 
 them good, and rejoice to think that Her Majesty 
 the Queen has set an example, that will, I hope, be 
 followed by all the Sovereigns of Christendom, of 
 graciously stretching forth Her arm for their pro- 
 tection. Her Majesty will find that Her Royal 
 favour has been extended to a loyal and grateful 
 people, yea, to a nation whose destinies are ever 
 watched over by the Almighty Himself, and will, 
 I doubt not, experience that Jewish prayers, called 
 forth by Her Majesty's goodness, are able to draw 
 down a rich and abundant blessing.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Since the preceding sheets were sent to press, 
 the following signatures have been received, from 
 Liverpool and Cheltenham, from believing Israelites 
 anxious to protest against the falsehood of the charge 
 now revived against their nation : 
 
 ISAAC DAVIS JAMES ROSENBLOOM, native of 
 
 Poland, Student of the Talmud. 
 ALFRED ROBINSON, native of Mecklenburg 
 
 Schwerin. 
 
 HENRY JEUTZKY, native of Poland. 
 T. A. LYONS, native of Herris Paul, from Gnesen, 
 
 Prussia. 
 DAVID SAMUEL MARGOSCHIS, native of Zol- 
 
 kow, in Galicia, Student of Talmud. 
 REV. H. S. JOSEPH, late Rabbi and Reader in the 
 
 Jewish Synagogue, Bedford ; now Clergyman of the 
 
 Church of England. 
 SAMUEL HERBERT. 
 ABRAHAM NATHAN. 
 HENRY LEVI. 
 SIMON WILSON. 
 MORITZ LITTAUER. 
 SIMON FRANKEL. 
 
 J. G. WOLFSBERG, native of Cracow, Poland. 
 JOSEPH SAMUEL FRIEDLANDER. 
 PHILIP HYNAMS. 
 JULIUS LAZARUS. 
 GEORGE LAZARUS. 
 HENRY MYERS.
 
 58 
 
 LEVI GOLDSTONE. 
 J. BERNSTEIN. 
 A. DUENDORFF. 
 C. A. OLLENDORFF. 
 
 Also the following letter from a gentleman well 
 known and highly respected by many in this 
 metropolis. 
 
 Islington Green, June 30, 1840. 
 DEAR AND REV. SIR, 
 
 As a Hebrew of the Hebrews, and brought up in the know- 
 ledge of all Jewish mysteries, ancient and modern, I am willing 
 at any time to give my oath for confirmation, and as an end of 
 all strife, that neither ancient nor modern Jews make use of the 
 blood of either Christians, or barbarians, Scythians, bond or 
 free, male or female, on the Passover, either directly or indi- 
 rectly, neither in their victuals nor ceremonially. 
 
 I am, dear Sir, yours, &c. 
 
 G. ABRAHAMS, 
 
 Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the 
 Son of God, at Regent-street Chapol, 
 City-road, London. 
 
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