7.11. D. Jewish Sufferings in the Middle Ages
Chapter 3 A Summary of Jewish History D. Jewish Sufferings in the Middle Ages
Turning from the un-Christian attitude of the spiritual guides and leaders of the Christian Church to the experience of the Jewish people at the hands of the princes and peoples of so-called Christian nations, what a terrible picture meets our gaze! “Jews Massacred in France,” “Jews Massacred in Germany,” “Jews Massacred in England,” “Jews Massacred in Germany and France,” “Jews Massacred in Spain,” again and again and again. These headings, not to mention expulsions, oppressions, and spoliations without number, stare us in the face as we turn over the pages of the history of mediæval Europe, and the cold lines assume a terrible significance as we peruse tale after tale of bodily and mental torment, such as no other people have suffered and survived. And as we read on and try to realise the awful scenes, the desolate cry of the sufferers rings in our ears like a long-drawn wail borne across the centuries: “How long, O Lord, how long.”1 1 G. F. Abbott, Israel in Europe. A few facts from their experience in the leading countries of Europe must suffice. By confining the Jewish population in the narrow quarters of a ghetto whose space never widened, though the families within it increased, where they were shut within gates every night, they were kept like a caged beast who can be slaughtered at will; and whenever necessity forced the Jew to go abroad the yellow badge at once marked him as an object for insult and violence. A people held to be so degraded, so accursed, and of a double necessity living their life apart, even while dispersed among the other peoples, regarded with suspicion and continually exposed to violence; without hope of justice, became suspicious, hated and avoided the sight of others, and appeared to justify the evil opinion formed of them. It was easy to make the hated people the scapegoat in all cases of crimes committed, and, in that superstitious and ignorant age, of evils, also which had a natural origin.
“If sickness prevailed, it was because the Jews had poisoned the wells; if a Christian child were lost, it had been crucified at a Jewish ceremony; if a church sacristan was careless, it was the Jews who had stolen the Host from the altar to stab it with knives at the time of the Passover. In many periods, in almost all lands, whoever sinned or suffered, the Jew was accused, and the occasion straightway made use of for attacks in which hundreds or thousands might perish. the wild cry of the rabble, ‘Hep! hep!’—probably derived from the Latin formula, ‘Hierosolyma est perdita’—might break out at any time.”1 1 Hosmer, The Jews.