Can Jews Count? Oh, sorry, I meant Protestants

I went to a list labelled 109 Locations whence Jews have been Expelled since AD 250. And no, it was not as I first thought compiled by Jews, it was compiled by Jew-admiring Protestants.

I copied the full list going year followed by location. Then I got the dashes between them shortened on a word document, which had a widget telling me 108 replacements were made. Somehow, 108 is not 109. There is one little difference between them.

But more important than a possible miscount (or keeping the title after one dubious item was removed?) is whether they know what to count.

Look at how often they were expelled from France (prior to Nazis):

1182 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - France
1306 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - France
1322 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - France (again)
1394 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - France
1420 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Lyons
1453 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - France

For one thing, this means, they were back somewhat quickly. While Lyons is not the whole of France, it is in France, not in Empire, back then (as far as I know), meaning that before 1420 they were back in France, at least the part called Lyons. And the expulsion from Lyons didn't stop them from going elsewhere in France, so ... prior to the great expulsion in Spain, at the very least, expulsions were not too longterm.

But for another, this means France counts as five different locations.

I do find Papal States only once on the list, 1569, under Pope St Pius V. It could have been mentioned he made two exceptions, ghetto of Rome and ghetto of Ancona. He also gave them ample time to cross the border to surrounding places in Italy or huddle in Rome and Ancona, so ample, they could have taken each direction in one Sabbath journey per day, resting totally on Sabbaths, and still be out in time.

I am not sure if it is relevant to context or not, but previous year, 1568, Pope St Pius V had decreed another expulsion, namely of homosexual offenders from all types of clerical public dignity, the offenders were either to be reduced to lay status or to make penance for all their lives (for instance, a Benedictine monk having given the vows to God and not to the Church could not get the vows back from the Church, therefore he could not marry as a layman (unless one judged that celibate was in such a case not a necessary part of conversio morum, Bendictines don't vow celibacy directly, but it's normally considered as included in convesion morum), however, he could also not go around in public as a Benedictine monk, he had to do penance in solitude).

In some way it could be relevant even if Jews had no involvement in making the sexual conduct worse, namely insofar as both sodomy and usury are considered as unnatural indulgence in barrenness. Fighting against one of the sins and fighting against the other could have been associated in the saint's mind. Wait ... I looked up the Pope in Italian wiki, which gave a Latin text of Hebraeorum gens, from which these words:

Nam ut tam multa usurarum genera omittamus, quibus Hebraei egentium Christianorum substantiam usquequaque exinaniverunt, perspicuum satis putamus eos, furum & latronum receptores, atque participes, qui quasque res ab iis subreptas, & interversas, non modo profanas, sed etiam divino cultui servientes ne internoscantur, aut ad tempus supprimere, aut alio transferre, aut omnino transformare conantur, plerique etiam specie tractandae rei proprio exercitio convenientis, honestarum mulierum domos ambientes, multas turpissimis lenocinii praecipitant, quodque omnium perniciosissimum est, sortilegiis, incantationibus, magicisque superstitionibus & maleficiis dediti, quam plurimos incautos atque infirmos Satanae praestigiis inducunt, qui credant eventura prenunciari, furta, thesauros, res abditas revelari, multaque paeterea cognosci posse, quorum ne investigandi quidem facultas ulli omnino mortalium est permissa.

The accusations are three (I might make a full translation later*, I am tired now and need a coffee), namely,

• 1) let's not talk about usury, that's peanuts
• 2) they hide thieves and stolen goods, including even stolen sacred vessels
• 3) the provide the magic deceits** of Satan to those who want love filters and divination.

As said, considering they had 90 days to get away from Papal states excepting ghettos of Rome and Ancona, and how small the Papal States were (less than 90 km in each direction), they could walk a Sabbath journey per day and be out in time. Some preferred overcrowding the ghetto of Rome, though.

I recall the context of the expulsion 1268, by St Louis IX. It is not against Jews as Jews, but against usurers as usurers. It also expels foreign usurers that are (nominal, bad) Catholics, like Lombard and Florentine ones. Perhaps this is the expulsion from France which brought the total to 109 (if you rename it "locations and times" instead of just "locations"), and which was, very properly, taken away from the list.

This expulsion obviously recalls that by Ulysses Grant in 1862. The item is given as:

1862 -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Areas in the U.S. under General Grant's Jurisdiction[1]

Footnote 1 explains that this means the Jurisdiction General Grant exercised in the areas of the South which he occupied during the war. It means carpetbaggers.

To make a comparison, during the Napoleonic wars, France did not expel Jews, it made Rothschild a baron. Both occasions show Jews willing to earn good money while war is going on. Grant had his financing from other quarters, notably industrialised parts of the North. Napoleon wanted Rothschild as a financer.

By contrast, I don't think Grant tried to expel Jews already resident in those parts of the South since Antebellum and who were not profiteering.

Likewise, St Louis IX did not expel Jews who were not usurers. He also had less interest in their money than Napoleon, since, while it was suggested usurious money be confiscated to finance seventh crusade, he said no, he did not want it financed by such a dishonourable resource.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_IX#Mesures_prises_contre_les_Juifs

He personally helped a lot of people who had been of Jewish confession and who became Christians, and he was personally sponsor to more than one of them. In the case of burning the Talmud, those taking the initiative were ex-Jews who were probably personally grossed out by certain parts of it, and perhaps not quite wrongly so.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Nanterre UL
Seven Holy Founders of the Servites***
12.II.2019

* I'm off for coffee now ... back, let's see what I can do.

Yeah, here we go:

Source: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebraeorum_gens
Nam ut tam multa usurarum genera omittamus,		For, to omit the so many kinds of usury,
quibus Hebraei egentium Christianorum substantiam usquequaque exinaniverunt,		by which Hebrews have totally ruined the fortune of poor Christians
perspicuum satis putamus eos, furum & latronum receptores, atque participes, qui quasque res ab iis subreptas, & interversas,		we find it sufficiently evident that they, as receivers and partakers of thieves and robbers, who with all things of them smuggled and hidden
non modo profanas, sed etiam divino cultui servientes ne internoscantur,		not only profane, but also serving the divine cult, in order to prevent discovery
aut ad tempus supprimere, aut alio transferre, aut omnino transformare conantur,		try to either suppress them for a time, or hand them over to others, or totally transform them.
plerique etiam specie tractandae rei proprio exercitio convenientis,		and many also, under species of vehiculating a convenient thing for proper exercise
[have the case endings been meddled with?]
honestarum mulierum domos ambientes, multas turpissimis lenocinii[s] praecipitant,		going around the houses of honest women push many of them over into the worst consents of adultery
[that's one defintion of lenocinium, at least]
quodque omnium perniciosissimum est, sortilegiis, incantationibus, magicisque superstitionibus & maleficiis dediti,		and what is most pernicious of all, given to spells, incantations, magical superstitions & witchcrafts
quam plurimos incautos atque infirmos Satanae praestigiis inducunt,		lead as many uncautious and weak ones as possible into the deceits of Satan
qui credant eventura prenunciari, furta, thesauros, res abditas revelari, multaque praeterea cognosci posse,		who then believe that future events are foretold, thieveries, treasures, hidden things revealed and many more things be able to be known
quorum ne investigandi quidem facultas ulli omnino mortalium est permissa.		of which not even a faculty to investigate (let alone know) is allowed to any single mortal at all.

** Changed resumé of charges from "magic of Satan" to "deceits of Satan" as per closer translation efforts.

***Sanctorum septem Fundatorum Ordinis Servorum beatae Mariae Virginis, Confessorum, quorum depositio respectivis diebus recolitur. Quos autem in vita unus verae fraternitatis spiritus sociavit, et indivisa post obitum veneratio populi prosecuta est, eos Leo Decimus tertius, Pontifex Maximus, una pariter Sanctorum fastis accensuit.