Figure 55A. Friedrich August I (1670-1733) and Martin Luther stand by a table with an open bible on top.

The Hebrew letters for “Jehovah” are above. The surrounding Latin inscription can be translated as “The word of the Lord abides forever.” Georg Hautsch, Germany, 1717, 21.4 gm, 43.9 mm, Schnell 108, Whiting 247.

Martin Luther's major work on the Jews was published in 1543, a 65,000 word treatise Von den Juden und Ihren Lügen (On the Jews and Their Lies). In it he states that the Jews are a "base, whoring people, that is, no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision, and law must be accounted as filth... They are full of the devil's feces ... which they wallow in like swine." The synagogue was a "defiled bride, yes, an incorrigible whore and an evil slut ..."He argues that their synagogues and schools be set on fire, their prayer books destroyed, rabbis forbidden to preach, homes razed, and property and money confiscated. They should be shown no mercy or kindness, afforded no legal protection, and these "poisonous envenomed worms" should be drafted into forced labor or expelled for all time. He also seems to advocate their murder, writing "[w]e are at fault in not slaying them." (Various sources from Wikipedia).

Another case in point is the celebration of those who, through their religious zeal, have promulgated heinous acts against those whose beliefs differed from their own. One example is Godefroy de Bouillon (1061 1100), leader of the First Christian Crusade.