The Washington times., 1919-12-21
TODAY
Continued from First Page.

ihS- .bcSiueS lHey were Inc most
efficient tax gatherers the kings
could find; they alone understood
business, and each great Christian
as rule took care to keep his own
Jewish physician. while forbidding
little Christians that luxury.
The crime" of the Jews was the
establishing OF schools such as that
OF Salerno, nine hundred years ago,
and the great school of Montpelier
They said with Almamon the Mo
hammedan: "They are the elect
of God, His best and most useful
servants, whose lives are devoted
to the improvement OF their ra.
donal faculties"
And that was treason to God
and the King, at that time when
established power already realized
that thinking Is dangerous-fo for
established power.
Many young people, and a few
old. Will ask, What book can l
read for further information
Read "A History of the Warfare
of Science With Theology in Chris
tiandom," by Andrew D. White.
late president and professor of
history at Cornell University.
Read THE Intellectual Develop
ment o. Europe" by John w. Drap-
er.
Read Buckley's History of
Civilization in England"
Read any good. non-sectarian
history of the Middle Ages.
The brutality, ignorance, super
stition, and cruelty that history re-
veals belong, not to any one people
or any one religion, but to the
backwardness and savagery among
human beings, accentuated after
barbarism had wiped out the an
cient civilization, early in our era.
When you read about the horrors
of the Auto da fe," where Jews
and others were burned alive
wholesale, you read of brutality In
a Catholic country. When you
read OF the physician Servetus "for
WV Aoui . iooSICu lLC
slow fire, begging for the love Of
God that they would put on more
wood, or do something to end his
torture you read of a burning at
Geneva, in Switzerland, ordered by
John Calvin, the Protestant, sim
cerely convinced, no doubt, that
the smell of Servetus' burning
flesh was highly acceptable to God
above.
Men burned each other because
they were savage beasts. They
hated and burned Jews because
they feared their superior knowl-
edge, their business cunning which
outwitted them, and because it was
necessary to condemn them in
order to steal their money with
good grace.
And bear In mind the lower or
der of intelligence among the Jews
was as superstitious and as full of
hate as among any other people.
Their greatest names are Mai
monides, Rabbi Moses Ben Mai
mon, and Spinoza. He ranks with
the greatest of human intellects.
Both Of these men the Jewish
Church authorities formally ex-
communicated. They would have
done much more than excommuni-
cate them had they dared. But
Spinoza, fortunately, was safe
from his co-religionists under the
Dutch government, although not
always safe from his Christian
surroundings, and Maimon, or
"Rambam," was safe with his Sui
tan in Egypt. For comic reading,
see in Pollock's Life of Spinoza"
the curse that the synagogue put
upon the great philosopher. His
name was never to be mentioned,
and every part Of his body, waking
and sleeping, was cursed sepa-
rately. Those that did the cursing
are only remembered because they
linked their vile names with that
OF the great philosopher.
Religious hatred, ancient as the
first savage banging his head Oh
the ground in front of an idol,
praying for good luck in some plan
of murder, dies hard. Only tie
other day, in New York City,
reformed rabbi" attacked pub
licly Felix Adler, a student and
teacher, accusing him of saying
too little about God in his lecture.
1t never occurs to the deeply re-
ligious that God. being all power
full and omniscient, could attend to
his own quarrels, if he thought it
worth while. Adler did not, but
might say to the reformed rabbi.
attenuated descendant of Spinoza's
synagogue: IF you can get along
smoothly without Moses or his
laws, why not let me use my judg-
ment about the rest of our relig-
ion 2"