Note 180 — Chapter XXXIII · A.D. 1600-1700. THE JEWS IN GERMANY AND CENTRAL EUROPE.

It has already been observed that Martin Luther, though sometimes he speaks of the Jews rather with considerate compassion than anger, at other times, and especially later in his career, uses the very bitterest language respecting them, as, for instance, in his tract (published in 1543) on The Jews and their Lies, the title of which, it may be remarked, is quite in accordance with its contents. And again, in his exposition of Psalm xxii., written many years earlier, he thus writes: ‘Doubt not, beloved in Christ, that after the devil, you have no more bitter, venomous, violent enemy than the Jew.’ He also enjoins the sternest and most violent measures to be used against them. The great founder of Calvinism, again, though he is less fiery and vehement in his denunciation of them, cannot be said to regard them with any greater favour. He sees in them nothing but the virulent, determined enemies of Christ, whom it would be weakness, if not sin, to treat with any favour.