Letter T

T.

THE TABLES OF HEAVEN — of what kind of writing they are, see above in [the entry] Joseph [the oration].

TERTIUS, bishop of Iconium, disciple and amanuensis of Paul, wrote (the Apostle dictating) that Epistle which is to the Romans; at the end of which, adding also his own salutation, he says: ¹ I, TERTIUS, who wrote the Epistle, SALUTE you in the Lord. This [man], since he was little skilled in speech, nor sufficiently practiced in writing, ² rendered far more obscure the epistle — which, on account of the multitude and sublimity of [its] questions, is more obscure than the rest of Paul’s epistles — while he tried to explain the meanings and thoughts of Paul with elocutions sometimes confused, with unfinished sentences, and with the order-series sometimes transposed. Diodorus, bishop of Tarsus, in the exposition of the epistle to the Romans, is witness of this matter. Theodolus, presbyter of Coele-Syria, in the exposition of the epistle to the Romans, reads, for Tertius, Terentius. ³

THADDAEUS the Apostle — who is also called Lebbaeus and Judas — author of the Catholic epistle which is numbered last among the seven catholic [epistles], is said to have written a Gospel, which Gelasius reprobated in the fifteenth Distinction. ⁴

THE INSCRIPTION THAV, or the letter ת Thau [Tau], is a vital, auspicious, and most salutary sign, ⁵ with which the divine mercy is wont spiritually to mark the foreheads of those whom it has decreed to snatch away from the fury of the divine vengeance. Ezekiel makes mention of this mystery in that celebrated vision, which he saw in the sixth year of the Babylonian transmigration, in the sixth month, on the sixth day, in these words: ⁶ AND the glory of the Lord of Israel was taken up from the Cherub; and he called the man that was clothed with linen, and had a writer’s inkhorn at his loins. And the Lord said to him, Pass through the midst of the City, in the midst of Jerusalem, and mark Thau upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and mourn for all the abominations that are done in the midst thereof. And he said to the others, in my hearing — to the men in whose hand were the weapons of destruction — Go through the city, following him, and strike: let not your eye spare, nor be moved with pity: the old man, the youth, and the virgin, the little one, and the women, slay unto utter destruction; but upon whomsoever you shall see Thau, kill [him] not. These [things] Ezekiel [says] concerning the letter Thau — which God therefore willed to be inscribed on the foreheads of those to be saved, ⁷ to show that he deservedly snatched such [men] away from so great a slaughter of the whole people, because they alone in the whole city had kept the law of God, whose first letter they bore before them on [their] forehead. For Thau is the letter with which begins the Hebrew word תורה thorah, which signifies the divine law; and ת Thau is likewise the last of all the Hebrew letters — the completion, end, and consummation of the whole Jewish alphabet: by whose mark God willed those to be discerned who had fulfilled the whole will of the law (so far as human frailty permits), and had accomplished all the precepts of the divine scripture from the first even to the last letter. And hence, I judge, flowed that custom of distinguishing the living from the dead among the notaries of the ancient soldiery of the Gentiles, ⁸ who — when in the little rolls, in which the proper names of the soldiers were contained, they wished to show how many of the soldiers survived and how many had fallen in war — set the mark T (tau) at the head of the line to designate a survivor; but Θ (Thita [Theta]), ⁹ because it is transfixed through the middle with a dart (that is, with the sign of death), they set beside the name of each dead man. And judges set the same Θ Theta before the names of those whom they visited with punishment. ¹⁰ This same [mark], too, painters and sculptors used to write on the epitaphs of tombs — because it is the capital letter of the Greek word Θ θνήσκω, which signifies I die, or θανάτου, which signifies death. To which the Etruscan poet Persius not ungracefully alluded, when he urged the slaying of vice, in this verse:

And one can set the black Theta before a vice.

And again another Poet:

O letter Theta, unhappy far beyond the rest.

IT IS TO BE KNOWN also, as Jerome in most places of his works, is witness — that the Jews, before the Babylonian captivity, had other [letters] (that is, of another shape than now), ¹¹ letters common with the Samaritans, received namely from Moses; whose shapes afterward Ezra, having returned from the captivity, changed, ¹² so that the Jews — who in the number, order, sound, and signification of [their] letters agreed with the unbelieving Samaritans, [those] enemies of the Jewish name — might at least differ from them in the shape of the letters: the last of which is called, by the common word of both nations, Thau; and which formerly represented the figure of a cross †, ¹³ Ezra transformed into this mark ת, which the Jews now use. It was, therefore (unless I am mistaken), the sign Thau written on the foreheads of those who were rescued from the devastation of the city — ¹⁴ the figure of the life-giving cross, the symbol of human salvation, and the sign of the redemption of the whole world. By the inscription of which sign it was mystically signified that no one escapes the punishment of everlasting death who has not been marked with the seal of the cross: that is, who has not had inwardly impressed the faith of the cross, passion, and death of Christ; and who, outwardly on his forehead — which is the index of inner confidence, boldness, and constancy — has not borne the cross of Christ; that is, [who has not] with bare and open forehead intrepidly preached the cross of Christ, and reposed all his glory in it, saying, together with Paul: ¹⁵ FAR be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world. In the cross, I say, of Him who summons his soldiers with these words: ¹⁶ IF anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me — indicating by this saying that no one can enter into eternal life with Christ, unless he first, in this world, through the way of tribulations, follow the footsteps of Christ going before, bearing before him the sign of Christ’s cross in heart, mouth, and hand. ¹⁷ This is that sign of the living God, concerning which the Angel in the Apocalypse cries out to the devastating Angels: ¹⁸ HURT not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, until we sign the servants of our God on their foreheads. Assuredly a sign of victory and of triumph, ¹⁹ by which whosoever shall have been protected will break the efforts of all enemies, invisible and visible; neither sin, nor death, nor the world, nor Satan, nor the gates of hell shall prevail against him.

Nevertheless I judge it not to be passed over, that the name Tau is taken as much for the last letter of the Hebrew Alphabet as for any sign whatsoever; whence, since in Ezekiel not the sole figure of the letter Thau itself, ת, is written separately, but the whole word — which almost all interpret as Sign — it is indeed uncertain ²⁰ whether the words of the prophet are to be understood of the letter Thau itself, or of some other sign. Theodotion understood [it] of Thau, the last letter of the alphabet; and for that which the Seventy, Aquila, and Symmachus translated sign, he put the Hebrew ת itself. Isidore, bishop of Seville, judged that by Thau is signified the Greek letter T (taf), because it represents the figure of the Lord’s cross. But Chrysostom, in the eighteenth homily to the people of Antioch, expounds by Thau nothing else than an indeterminate sign. Finally, Origen, in the homily On the Epiphany, concludes that the letter Thau was the very figure of the cross.

THOMAS the Apostle. The Gospel which was familiar to the Manichaeans under the name of the same Apostle ²¹ (Gelasius being witness) he is believed to have written: of which Origen makes mention, in the first homily on Luke, saying: I KNOW a certain Gospel which is called ACCORDING TO THOMAS and ACCORDING TO MATTHIAS; and we read several others, lest we should seem to be ignorant of anything, on account of those who think they know something if they have known these [things]: but in all these we approve nothing else than what the Church [approves], that is, only four gospels. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, in the sixth catechetical oration, hands down that the author of this gospel was a certain Thomas, ²² disciple of Manes the Persian. Athanasius in the Synopsis, and Gelasius in distinction 15, reject [it] among the condemned scriptures. ²³ Epiphanius, in the second book of the Panarion, relates that the Encratite heretics had in use a certain book whose title is THE ACTS OF THOMAS — which Innocent, the first Pope, reprobates in the epistle to Exuperius. ²⁴ Augustine, in the first book On the Lord’s sermon on the mount, and in the book against Adimantus, and in the 22nd book against Faustus, attests that the Manichaeans ²⁵ had writings of this kind, in which it was read that the Apostle Thomas — when he was, at a certain marriage-feast, a stranger and wholly unknown — being struck on the palm [cheek] by a certain servant, imprecated upon the man a continual and savage vengeance. Him [the servant], when he had gone out to the fountain to serve water to the guests, a Lion, rushing upon [him], slew; and his hand — with which he had struck the Apostle’s head with a light blow — torn from the body (according to the word of the Apostle desiring and imprecating it), a dog brought to the table at which the Apostle was reclining. There are enumerated by Athanasius in the Synopsis, together with the repudiated books, the Circuits, or Itinerary of Thomas the Apostle; and by Gelasius, distinction 15, his Apocalypse is repudiated. It is also SAID that this Apostle wrote to Clement (who was pontiff after Peter) an epistle concerning the [things] seen by him in Parthia, Media, Persia, and India — of which Clement himself makes mention in the ninth volume of the Recognitions.

TIBERIUS CAESAR — in whose fifteenth year Luke writes that John preached ²⁶ — published writings of various kinds, in an affected and harsh style, after the imitation of Messalla Corvinus, whom, as a youth, he had attended [as an old man]. ²⁷ He composed also a lyric poem, whose title is: A COMPLAINT ON THE DEATH OF JULIUS CAESAR. He made also Greek poems, imitating Euphorion, and Rhianus, and Parthenius — with which poets he was so delighted that he dedicated their writings and images in the public libraries, among the ancient and chief authors. Suetonius [attests this], in [the life of] Tiberius.

TIMOTHY of Lystra — born of a gentile father [and] a Hebrew mother ²⁸ — was made first bishop of Ephesus by Paul, while yet quite a youth, on account of his eminent virtues. Him the Apostle, in the salutations of his letters, seems to indicate to have been a co-adjutor to him in the writing and composing of some epistles, ²⁹ which are inscribed with the names of Paul and Timothy joined together. And these are:

TO the Corinthians, the second [epistle]; ³⁰ to the Colossians, one; ³¹ to the Philippians, one; ³² to the Thessalonians, two; ^{33 34} to Philemon, one. ³⁵

These, however, Photius, bishop of Constantinople, judges to have been first composed by Paul alone, ³⁶ and then communicated and ascribed to [his] uniquely beloved disciple Timothy, out of the inborn modesty and charity of the Apostle.

THERE ARE carried about, likewise, under the name of Timothy the bishop, four Books to the catholic church, ³⁷ which Salvian, bishop of Marseilles — prefixing a preface to them — shows not to be of this Timothy, but published by a certain writer of his own times; who, fleeing the breath of human praise, [his] own name concealed, feigned the word Timothy (by which the honor of the Divinity is expressed), that he might signify that he had written not to catch the honor of men, but for the honor of God alone — imitating in this the example of Luke the evangelist, who, in the exordium of each of his works, feigned the name of Theophilus, ³⁸ pretending that he was writing to a man, when he was directing [his] writings to the love of God, by whom he had been impelled to write. ^{39 40} The character of this work, unless my taste deceives me, savors of the phrase and style of that same Salvian.

TITULUS, in the sacred letters, sometimes signifies ⁴¹ ἐπιγραφή, that is, an inscription which is written over things, that at once, at first sight, it may be known what the superscribed thing is. ⁴² So the Evangelists report the title set over the Lord’s cross by Pilate, written in Greek, Latin, and Hebrew letters, ^{43 44} that thereby the cause of Christ’s death might be manifest. Sometimes it signifies ⁴⁵ marble columns, pyramids, pillars, or arches, inscribed with the names and eulogies of illustrious men, for preserving the memory of the [things] brilliantly done by them. Thus in the first volume of Kings we read ⁴⁶ that Saul, the nation of the Amalekites being conquered, erected for himself a title ⁴⁷ — or, as our edition has it, a triumphal arch — on Mount Carmel. So in the second book of the same work we read [it] written: ⁴⁸ NOW Absalom had erected for himself, while he was yet alive, a title [pillar], which is in the King’s Valley: for he had said, I have no son, and this shall be the monument of my name. And he called the title by his own name; and it is called THE HAND OF ABSALOM even to this day. Which words Josephus, expounding in the seventh book of the Antiquities, [renders]: NOW Absalom had erected for himself, in the King’s Valley, a marble column with an inscription, distant two stadia from Jerusalem, which he willed to be called the Hand of Absalom — saying that, if it should befall his children to perish, yet in this his name would remain. Sometimes Titulus, in the sacred letters, is the same as a statue, ⁴⁹ image, and likeness set up for the veneration and worship of some man — which, [under] the setting-up of a Title, God, forbidding in the third volume of the law, ⁵⁰ says: YOU shall not make for yourselves an idol and a graven thing, nor erect titles. Sometimes also Titulus denotes ⁵¹ an unshaped stone — standing without any inscription, and without any polishing of art, and erected on the surface of the earth — such as we read in Genesis was the stone which Jacob, sleeping at Bethel of Luz, put under his head, and, ⁵² roused from sleep, set up as a title, pouring oil upon it, and saying: THE Lord shall be to me for a God, and this stone [shall be] a title. From these words it is clear that that Title was not a column or a pyramid, but a rude stone, at first lying on the ground, then erected on high, for the perpetual remembrance of the [things] which had befallen the Patriarch Jacob in that place. This Moses called מצבה matsevah, that is, a standing Stone; and the seventy interpreters at times translated [it] λίθον, that is, Stone.

TITULUS, or the Inscription of the cross of Jesus Christ ⁵³ — see above, [in] those [things] which are written by us in [the entry] Pontius Pilate.

THE BOOK OF TOBIAS THE YOUNGER, forged by sorcerous men, ⁵⁴ contains incantations and certain magical images, by which Tobias, son of Tobit, is feigned to have driven off the demons from his spouse Sara. The Senate of the Sacrosanct Roman Inquisition condemned the book, [it being] rejected among the works of magical impiety.

THE TRADITIONS OF THE JEWS Epiphanius very frequently cites, certain [of them] without the author’s name: out of whose authority he himself brings forward — against the Hieracites — the Genealogy of Melchizedek ⁵⁵ from the nation of the Sidonians; and against the Melchizedechians, the Genealogy of the prophets Elijah and Daniel. Likewise, against the Antidicomarianites, he shows from the same traditions that Joseph, the spouse of the Virgin Mary, had another wife before Mary, ⁵⁶ and had by her four sons — who in Mark and John are named James, Joseph, Jude, and Simeon — and two daughters, Mary and Salome; [and] that, she being dead, when he was a widower and eighty years old, he took the Virgin Mary to wife. Likewise, against the Collyridians, he relates that the parents of the Virgin Mary were Joachim and Anna. Again, disputing against the Manichaeans, he proves from the same [traditions] that Lazarus, when he was raised by Christ, ⁵⁷ was thirty years old, and after the resurrection survived thirty other [years]. Jerome also cites other Hebrew traditions in the book of Hebrew Traditions, very often. Euthymius, in chapter 23 of Matthew, alleges a certain kind of Jewish traditions, which — because they are not written — are called ἄγραφα [unwritten].

THE TRADITIONS OF THE ELDERS — which Matthew in Hebrew called גזירות הזקנים Ghezerot ha-zekenim, that is, the Constitutions of the Elders (but the Greek codex, in the singular number, calls [it] τὴν παράδοσιν τῶν πρεσβυτέρων, that is, the tradition of the Elders) — the divine scripture commemorates in several places, especially in Matthew chapter 15, ⁵⁸ where the Pharisees, accusing the Apostles, question Christ, saying: WHY do your disciples transgress the Traditions of the Elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread. Whom Christ, convicting of a greater crime, and in turn questioning, says: ⁵⁹ WHY do you also transgress the commandment of God for your tradition? And a little after he adds: ⁶⁰ IN VAIN do they worship me, teaching the doctrines and commandments of men. At the observers of these Traditions God, being angry, threatens through his prophets, saying in Isaiah: ⁶¹ BECAUSE they have feared me with the commandment and doctrines of men, wisdom shall perish from their wise men. And in Jeremiah: TRULY the lying stylus of the scribes has wrought falsehood. The wise are confounded… they have cast away the word of the Lord, and there is no wisdom in them. ⁶² These same Traditions Paul the Apostle, everywhere deriding — and calling [them] now Jewish fables, now old-wives’ trifles, now foolish questions and profane vanities — deters Timothy from the handling of them, in these words: [that they] should NOT attend, he says, to endless Genealogies, ⁶³ which afford questions rather than the edification of God which is in faith — as some, wishing to be teachers of the law. And again to the same he says: ⁶⁴ Avoid FOOLISH questions, and [those] without instruction. And again: Avoid silly and old-wives’ fables. And, to Titus, repeating the same: Avoid ^{65 66} foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions of the law; for they are unprofitable and vain. Nor does he warn this in vain, [being] himself experienced [in it], how much the observance of these traditions had harmed himself and others; for on account of these (as the epistle written to the Galatians testifies) ⁶⁷ he himself persecuted beyond measure the Church of God, and assailed it, being a zealot of the paternal traditions in Judaism. Since, therefore, both Christ and Paul so sharply inveigh against Traditions of this kind, therefore — lest anyone should perhaps think that human Traditions of whatsoever kind are universally condemned — it will not be beside the purpose briefly to indicate ⁶⁸ what are the doctrines and commandments of men reprobated by God.

THE MANICHAEANS impiously affirmed that, by the Traditions of the Elders, all the Scriptures of the old Testament are to be understood; ⁶⁹ and these, they said, were called by Paul Jewish fables and profane vanities. ⁷⁰ But against the madness of these, Paul himself, writing to the Romans, ⁷¹ cries out: ⁷² THE LAW indeed [is] holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good. And to Timothy he says: ⁷³ BUT do you continue in the [things] which you have learned, because from infancy you have known the sacred letters, which can instruct you unto salvation by the faith which is in Christ Jesus: for all Scripture, divinely inspired, is profitable to teach, to reprove, to correct, to instruct in justice, that the man of God may be perfect, furnished unto every good work.

THE PTOLEMAITE Heretics, as Epiphanius hands down in the first [book] against the heresies, understood, by the Traditions condemned by Christ, not all, but some, Scriptures of the old Testament, ⁷⁴ which they divided into three parts: of which one they said was founded by God, another by Moses, the third written by the Elders of the Jews, and afterward rejected by Christ, saying: ⁷⁵ WHY do you also transgress the commandment of God for your tradition? For God said, Honor father and mother; and, He that shall curse father or mother, let him die the death. ^{76 77} But you say, If a man shall say to father or mother, KORBAN ([which is] a Gift), whatsoever from me shall profit you: and you no longer permit ⁷⁸ him to do anything for his father or mother — rescinding the word of God by your tradition, which you have delivered, &c. But since the words of this tradition are nowhere found in the whole old testament, it is manifest that Christ, under the name of Traditions, condemned no part of the divine Scriptures, ⁷⁹ but other Jewish constitutions, foreign to sacred Scripture, and contrary to the word of God.

LUTHER, and all the foul filth of the Lutherans, interpret — by the traditions and doctrines of men rejected by Christ — all ecclesiastical Sanctions ⁸⁰ which have not, in the divine letters, an open and express testimony of God. But it appears that they lie wickedly, ⁸¹ from this: that Christ and Paul, in the places already cited, do not condemn good and just traditions of men (although these have not the express word of God), but only Jewish constitutions — that is, [those] repugnant to the commandments of God; such as was that [tradition] of the Pharisees, ⁸² Whatsoever GIFT is from me shall profit you ⁸³ — which destroyed the divine precept concerning piety toward parents. But the ecclesiastical Sanctions, and the decrees of the Fathers, which promote and increase the worship of God, ⁸⁴ Christ wills to be observed — so that through Paul he says: STAND, and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by our word or by our epistle. ⁸⁵ And he himself, establishing a law concerning the traditions of the Pastors to be kept, says: ⁸⁶ ALL THINGS whatsoever they shall say to you, observe and do. And to the Pastors he says: ⁸⁷ HE who hears you, hears me; and he who despises you, despises me. And: ⁸⁸ IF he will not hear the church, let him be to you as the heathen and the publican. For no less does he deserve to be cast out among the Heathen who refuses the ecclesiastical traditions ⁸⁹ than he who refuses the gospel; since — the constitutions of the church being rejected — the gospel too must needs be cast off. ⁹⁰ Which also blessed Basil, in the book On the Holy Spirit, plainly attests in these words, chapter 27: If we shall attempt once to repudiate the unwritten ordinances and customs — as though a great force were not in them — we shall, secretly and by degrees, disapprove the very established sentences of the gospel, or rather shall contract its preaching into an empty name. I judge it therefore Apostolic to continue in these traditions also, which are not written. But of these we have spoken more fully elsewhere.

STRATONICUS, Bishop of Cumae, in his Collectanea, judges that these Traditions were the tenets and decrees of the Jewish sects. ⁹¹ For there were four modes of life among the Jews (as Josephus and Epiphanius write): ⁹² of which the Pharisees professed one, the Galileans another, the Sadducees a third, the Essenes a fourth.

Now the dogmas of the Pharisees were of this kind: ⁹³

1. That all things are done by Fate — that is, by the prescience and immovable decree of God — the free assent of the human will nevertheless remaining. ⁹⁴ For with such a tempering does God, the best, govern the affairs of men, that, although all things depend on his deliberation, yet in man there is entire the faculty of approaching to virtue and to vice.

2. That souls are incorrupt and immortal, and that their judgments take place beneath the earth, and that rewards befall to each according to the desert of virtue and of malice.

3. That the souls of the pious return from the lower regions into this life, to new bodies, and again pass from these into other bodies; ⁹⁵ but that the souls of the wicked, condemned to perpetual prisons, are tormented with unending punishment.

4. That the elders are to be venerated, and that it is not lawful either to answer back to those admonishing, or to gainsay [them].

5. That the traditions of the elders — which are not written among the Mosaic laws, but delivered by the forefathers from hand to hand — are to be received with the highest veneration, and to be honored with equal honor with the Mosaic law.

THE GALILEANS, who took their origin from Judas the Galilean, of the country of Gamala, followed the same tenets as the Pharisees, ⁹⁶ adding only this one thing of their own: namely, that God alone is to be held for Lord, and that no mortal prince is to be obeyed, but that, for the asserting of liberty, all hard and harsh [things] are to be endured. Josephus relates that this kind of men often stirred up the peoples to cast off the empires of kings and lords, and to refuse the payment of tribute ⁹⁷ (which is a manifest testimony of servitude); and among these he writes that there were, in the time of Herod, six thousand men who — when the whole nation of the Jews had bound their fidelity by oath to Caesar and the King — these alone would neither take the oath nor promise fidelity. There are also [those] who think that of this sect were those Jews whom we read, glorying in liberty, ⁹⁸ to have said to Christ (in whom they had lately believed): ⁹⁹ WE ARE THE SEED OF ABRAHAM, AND WE HAVE NEVER SERVED ANYONE; and that they therefore had adhered to Christ, because they hoped that he would one day be the asserter and vindicator of Jewish liberty.

The SADDUCEES had opinions diverse from these, ¹⁰⁰ namely:

1. That there is no Fate at all, nor any decree of divine deliberation, but that all things are so in the power of men that each is the author to himself of his happiness as well as of his misfortune.

2. That souls are altogether extinguished together with the body, ¹⁰¹ and that no rewards or punishments remain after this life.

3. That there is no nature of Angels, ¹⁰² but only names — by which either the motions which God breathes into men are designated, or those demonstrations of his power which he himself puts forth.

4. That, besides the Mosaic books and the divine laws comprised in the same volumes, ¹⁰³ no other authority of scriptures, nor tradition of men, is to be received.

The ESSENES, more notable cultivators of piety, and not much unlike Christian monks, ¹⁰⁴ had bound themselves to these laws and sanctions:

1. That all things are ruled by fate — that is, by the will of God — and that nothing befalls men beyond the determination of fate.

2. That souls are immortal, and that to them, after this life, the rewards and punishments of their deeds are repaid — to the good, indeed, beyond the Ocean, where there is a region which neither cold nor heat oppresses, but a pleasant Zephyr breathes; but to the wicked, among the lower regions, where the places are wretched and full of groanings.

3. That every oath is to be avoided as a kind of perjury, because whatever a perfect man shall say ought to have the force of an oath; and that he is condemned as guilty of a lie, who is not believed without God as witness.

4. That the highest reverence, after God, is to be shown to Moses the lawgiver — whom, if anyone shall blaspheme, let him be condemned to death.

5. That the chief study is to be applied to the divine letters, and to the writings of the ancient fathers; and thence are to be sought the [things] that avail for the care of souls.

6. That the prefect of the common fellowship is to be so obeyed, that nothing may be done without his command.

7. To lead a continent and celibate life, and to abstain from all wedlock through the whole [of] life.

8. That all goods are common, and [that there is] one patrimony of all, which is dispensed through common stewards.

9. That they neither buy nor sell anything among themselves, but that it is free for all to receive, from whom they please, what is needful.

10. That white garments are to be used, and that the cloak and shoes are not to be changed, unless the former be altogether torn, or consumed by long use.

11. That so great a care of cleanliness is to be had, even in natural [bodily] purgations, that each one daily, in the most secret places, digs for himself a pit with a little mattock, in which he may relieve his belly ¹⁰⁵ — the garment being first let down all around for the sake of covering the body, and then the earth which he had dug out being brought back into its place — namely, lest an injury be done to the splendor of the divine light.

12. That before the rising of the Sun, the author of the light about to be born is to be celebrated with public praises; but afterward each is to go to his own arts and studies.

13. That at the fifth hour of the day they come together into a common dining-hall, clothed in sacred garments (that is, in linen coverings); and there, sitting in silence, they eat of the same bread and pottage; nor is it lawful for anyone to taste anything, unless a public prayer precede the meal, and follow [it] — [a prayer] which praises God, the giver of sustenance, both before and after food.

14. That after the meal, the sacred vestments being laid aside, each withdraws to his own works until evening.

15. That those lately approaching to the discipline of the Essenes are not at once to be taken into fellowship, but — clothed in a white garment and an apron [perizoma], and girt with a little mattock — are to be tested by their curators for three whole years, until they give approved proofs of [their] virtue.

EPIPHANIUS, in the first book against the heresies, says that the Traditions of the elders are four Jewish Expositions of the divine law, ¹⁰⁶ devised by certain masters of the Hebrews — that is, by Moses the Prophet, by Rabbi Akiba, by Rabbi Ida, and by the sons of Asamonaeus — who, out of the aforesaid expositions, deduced certain constitutions, full of superstition and vanity, which they also commanded to be observed, together with the rest of the commands of the divine law, with equal obligation.

JEROME, in the third commentary ¹⁰⁷ on Isaiah, and in the tenth question to Algasia, and on the third chapter of the epistle to Titus, writes that these are certain constitutions of the Jews, called by the Greeks δευτερώσεις [deuteroseis], which the first among the Hebrews, before the coming of Christ, taught — Shammai and Hillel, whose school Akiba took up (the teacher of Aquila the proselyte); and after him Meir, whom Jochanan the son of Zaccai succeeded; and after him Eliezer; and in order Delphon; and again Joseph; and lastly Joshua — even to the last destruction of the holy city.

THOMAS Aquinas, in the commentaries on both epistles to Timothy, once and again asserts that by the name of Traditions is signified that huge and vast work of Jewish traditions, ¹⁰⁸ called by the Jews תלמוד Talmud, that is, Instruction [Discipline]; in which are collected all the decrees of the aforesaid masters — Shammai, Hillel, Akiba, Joseph, and the sons of Asamonaeus — together with innumerable other statutes, opinions, and expositions of the Rabbis, both of divine and of human laws, by which the whole nation of the Jews is now governed. This work had its beginning ¹⁰⁹ (as the Talmud expositors themselves write) in the year one hundred and fiftieth after the last destruction of Jerusalem, [made] by Judah, son of Simon, who gathered into one volume the explanations of the law and the prophets, and all the writings which the above-mentioned Rabbis and the other doctors — as much before as after the coming of Christ — had thus far written; which [volume] they called משנה Misna, that is, Repeated reading, or Repetition. But in the three-hundredth year from the same last devastation of Jerusalem, Rabbi Jochanan — taking to himself as colleagues Rab and Samuel — joined this Misna and certain other writings into one volume, which they called the JERUSALEM TALMUD, ¹¹⁰ because it was written among the ruins of the city of Jerusalem. Again, in the year four hundred thirty-sixth from the same destruction (which was the year of Christ four hundred seventy-sixth), Rabbi Ashe and Rabbi Hammai — dwelling in Babylon of Egypt, which is now called Cairo ^{111 112} — reducing all the writings of [their] predecessors into one, constructed a new body of many volumes, called the BABYLONIAN TALMUD; which, since they could not (being prevented by death) complete it, Rabbi Meir, son of Rabbi Ashe, put the finishing hand to the work. But since both he, and his forefathers and posterity, had gathered through the several books of this Talmud not only many and execrable contumelies and blasphemies against Christ our God, ¹¹³ but had also written many sanctions and precepts against that very law of Moses which they profess, and against all the law of nations, and all the law of nature (which they — as being men — are bound to keep), it seemed [good] to the Supreme Pontiffs and to other Christian princes ¹¹⁴ that the reading and use of so nefarious a doctrine should be forbidden to all the Jews who live under the dominion of Christians, and that all the Talmudic books throughout the whole Christian world should be given to the flames. Which also has often been done, certain writers worthy of credit attest. Among whom Bernard of Luxembourg, in the catalog of heretics, book two, relates that Pope Gregory the ninth of that name, in the year of the Lord 1230, adjudged all the Talmudic volumes to the flames; and likewise that Pope Innocent the fourth of that name did the same again, in the year of our salvation 1244. Again, when the same volumes had been restored by the Jews, and, by the help of the printing art, propagated to a well-nigh infinite number, Pope Julius III — a new edict being promulgated — commanded [them] to be sought out, and (in the year 1553, when the feast of Tabernacles was being celebrated by the Jews in the month of September) to be burned throughout all the cities of Italy. Pope Paul IV, together with the Senate of the Sacrosanct Roman Inquisition, in the year 1559, again commanded the same to be done, and willed the Talmudic books to be numbered among the writings condemned ¹¹⁵ by the Catholic Church.

Wherefore I cannot but here greatly marvel at the vain zeal of Peter Galatinus, of the order of the Minors [Franciscans], ¹¹⁶ who — when, in the first book On the arcana of the catholic truth, he had undertaken the defense of the Talmudic volumes — fell into such vanity that he not only affirmed that the Talmudic works ought to be translated into Latin and publicly expounded in the schools of Christians, ¹¹⁷ but even tried to establish this very [thing] by the authority of Pope Clement V, who — in the Council of Vienne, the same holy synod approving — decreed that in the schools of Christians there should be teachers skilled in the Hebrew and Chaldaic tongue, who should translate the books of the Jews into Latin and publicly teach their language (as is noted in the fifth volume of the Clementine sanctions, in the title On Masters). This decree of Clement (says Peter), since it cannot be understood of the Hebrew books of the divine scripture — because these had already been translated so many times — it is consonant that his words are to be understood of the Talmudic works of the Jews, not yet turned into Latin. A pretty argument indeed, and worthy of such a defender — who did not observe that Clement’s canon speaks of the first rudiments and instructions of the Hebrew and Chaldaic tongues, ¹¹⁸ which are rather to be sought from those who, among the Jews, wrote grammatical traditions and Hebrew and Chaldaic dictionaries, than from those who collected the Talmudic writings.

I MYSELF had indeed decided to make no mention of such books, and to abolish by silence all memory of this doctrine, as much as could be done: but since the experience of past times has taught me that volumes of this kind, so often extinguished, revive again like the heads of the hydra ¹¹⁹ — the avarice of Christian princes permitting it, who, induced by any small price, sell to the Jews the faculty of restoring these books — therefore I judged that I should be doing a work worth the labor, if I should in some part make manifest certain of the basenesses, impieties, and blasphemies comprised in the Talmudic volumes, the books being named expressly where these are had; so that, if ever these nefarious writings (with which Asia, Africa, Greece, and Germany still abound) be recalled to light among us, the champions of Christian piety may have an index, by which — as it were by the hand — they may be led to finding out and detecting the particular books of this work, and the places in which the aforesaid blasphemies are written; so that, these being detected, they may again inflame the Christian princes against the necks of the reviving hydra. But that the citations, inscriptions, and arguments of the same books and places may be more easily and more openly understood, I have judged it necessary to append in this place a catalog of all the Talmudic volumes — once transcribed by me out of that most opulent Library of the Jews of Cremona, out of which, in the year of our salvation 1559, by command of the Senate of the Sacrosanct Roman Inquisition, twelve thousand Talmudic codices were burned. also to note the titles of the books in Hebrew characters and points, ¹²⁰ lest their appellations — written only in Latin letters — might so easily be corrupted by the copyists.

A CATALOG OF THE VOLUMES OF THE WHOLE TALMUD.

The whole תלמוד Talmud is divided into six orders, which they call סדר seder. Now each seder is distributed into several tractates, which are called מסכת Massecheth; and these again contain several chapters, which are named פרקים Parachim, that is, divisions.

זרעים ZERAIM, that is, Of Seeds, the first order, containing these eleven tractates:

1. ברכות Berachoht, that is, Of Blessings, or concerning the blessings and thanks to be rendered to God; contains nine chapters.
2. פאה Phea, that is, Of the Corner, or concerning the portion of the harvest to be left for the poor in the corner of the field; has ten chapters.
3. דמאי Demai, that is, Of Doubt, or concerning the giving of tithes of doubtful things; has ten chapters.
4. תרומות Tneroma [Terumoth], that is, Concerning the fiftieth part of things to be rendered to the priests; has ten chapters.
5. שביעית Ceuiith [Sheviith], that is, Of the Seventh, or concerning the seventh year of the resting field; has ten chapters.
6. כלאים Chilaim [Kilaim], that is, Of Mixtures, or Concerning crops which it is unlawful to mix together; has nine chapters.
7. מעשר ראשון Mahaster riscion [Maaser rishon], that is, Of the First tithe, or Concerning the first tithes which were given to the Levites; has nine chapters.
8. מעשר שני Master sceni [Maaser sheni], that is, Of the Second tithe, which — after the tithes given to the Levites — had to be eaten and consumed in Jerusalem; has five chapters.
9. חלה Challa, that is, Of the Cake, or Concerning the first portion of the cake, which always had to be offered from the mass of bread; has four chapters.
10. ערלה Arla [Orlah], that is, Of the Enclosure, or Concerning the enclosure which was made for trees lately planted, in sign that before the completed third year it was lawful for no one to eat of their fruits; has three chapters.
11. ביכורים Bicurim, that is, Of Firstfruits, or Concerning the firstfruits — out of only seven things — to be offered in the temple; has four chapters.

מועד MOED, that is, the second order, of the festivals, containing the twelve tractates written below:

1. שבת Sciabath [Shabbat], that is, Of the Sabbath, or Concerning the Sabbath and the [things] which on it are lawful, or not; contains twenty-four chapters.
2. עירובין Eruuin [Eruvin], that is, Concerning the associations which were mutually lawful to the Jews on the Sabbath; has ten chapters.
3. פסחים Pesachim, that is, Of the Passovers, or Concerning the [things] which pertain to the celebration of the Passover; contains ten chapters.
4. שקלים Sekalim [Shekalim], that is, Of the Sicles, or Concerning the exaction of the Sicles which had to be made for the buying of the lambs which were daily offered in sacrifice; eight chapters.
5. יומא Ioma [Yoma], that is, Of the great Day, or Concerning the day of propitiation, and the [things] to be done on it; has eight chapters.
6. סוכה Succa [Sukkah], that is, Of the Hut, the Tabernacle, or Concerning the feast of Tabernacles; contains five chapters.
7. ביצה Beza [Beitzah], that is, Of the good Day (that is, of the feast), or Concerning all the [things] which ought to be done on it; has five chapters.
8. ראש השנה Roshasaua [Rosh Hashanah], that is, Of the head of the year, or Concerning the [things] which are to be done in the solemnity of that day; contains five chapters.
9. תענית Thaanith [Taanith], that is, Of Fasting, or concerning fasting; has four chapters.
10. מגילה Meghila [Megillah], that is, Of the History, or Concerning the history of Esther, which is to be read in the solemnity of Mordecai and Esther; four chapters.
11. מועד קטן Moed Katan, that is, Of the Little Feast, or Concerning the lesser feast-days which fell between the first and last day of the Passover of Tabernacles; has three chapters.
12. חגיגה Chagiga [Chagigah], that is, Of the Solemnity, or concerning the precept by which all males are bound to go three times a year to Jerusalem for the solemnity; has three chapters.

נשים NASIM [NASHIM], that is, Of Women, the third order, containing seven tractates, namely:

1. יבמות Ieuamot [Yevamoth], that is, Of Sisters-in-law, or Concerning the taking [to wife] of the wife of a brother deceased without children; contains sixteen chapters.
2. כתובות Chetuboth [Ketuboth], that is, Of Contracts, or Concerning the contracts of dowries, and the mutual obligations between husband and wife; has thirteen chapters.
3. נדרים Nedarim, that is, Of Vows, or Concerning the vows of women; has eleven chapters.
4. נזיר Nazir, that is, Of the Nazirite, or concerning the vow of the Nazirites, separated from the common food; contains nine chapters.

5. סוטה Sota [Sotah], that is, Of Deviation, or Concerning the deviation which a wife makes from [her] husband, by cleaving to another man; has nine chapters. 6. גיטין Ghitin [Gittin], that is, Of Bills of divorce, or Concerning the bill of divorce and divorce; has nine chapters. 7. קידושין Kiduscin [Kiddushin], that is, Of betrothals, or Concerning espousals; contains four chapters.

נזיקין NEZICHIN [NEZIKIN], that is, of damages, or concerning damages — the fourth order, containing these ten tractates:

1. בבא קמא Baba kamma, that is, the first part [gate], which treats Of damages that are wont to be done both by men and by beasts; has ten chapters.
2. בבא מציעא Baba Mezia, that is, the Middle, or second, part, which deals with lawsuits, rights, and usuries; contains ten chapters.
3. בבא בתרא Baba batra, that is, the third part, which deals with sales and purchases, &c.; has ten chapters.
4. סנהדרין Saneedrin [Sanhedrin], that is, Of the ordinary Judges, and of the [things] pertaining to judgment; likewise concerning those who have a part in the world to come, and concerning the Messiah especially, in the chapter which is called Helec [Helek]; has eleven chapters.
5. מכות Macoth [Makkot], that is, Of Stripes, or Concerning the stripes to be inflicted on the guilty; has three chapters.
6. שבועות Seuuoth [Shevuot], that is, Oath, or Concerning oaths, and concerning the keepers of things [deposits]; contains eight chapters.
7. עדיות Hedioth [Eduyot], that is, Of Testimonies, or Concerning the determinations which were made from the witnesses of [their] predecessors; has eight chapters.
8. עבודה זרה Auada zara [Avodah Zarah], that is, Of foreign servitude, or Concerning idolatry, and concerning those [things] in which the Jews are forbidden to communicate with the gentiles; contains five chapters.
9. אבות Aboth [Avot], that is, Of the Fathers, in which it is treated of the ancient fathers, who from Moses even to Simon the Just shone forth above the rest; has five chapters.
10. הוריות Oraioth [Horayot], that is, Of Decisions, or Concerning the sentences determined by the Ordinary judges, and concerning the penalties against those who do contrary; has three chapters.

קדשין CHADASCIN [KODASHIM], that is, of sanctifications, the fifth order, containing eleven tractates, that is:

1. זבחים Zeuachim [Zevachim], that is, Of Immolations, or Concerning the immolations of sacrifices, and the place of sacrificing; has fourteen chapters.
2. חולין Chulin [Chullin], that is, Of Slaughterings, or Concerning the animals to be killed for common food; contains twelve chapters.
3. מנחות Menachoth, that is, Of Meal[-offerings], or Concerning the farinaceous meals to be offered by the priests in the temple; has thirteen chapters.
4. בכורות Becoroth [Bechorot], that is, Of Firstborn, or Concerning the firstborn of animals — whether to be offered, or to be redeemed; has nine chapters.
5. ערכין Erachin [Arachin], that is, Of Prices [Valuations], or Concerning the prices of things which anyone had promised to give to God; has nine chapters.
6. תמורה Themura [Temurah], that is, Of Substitution, or Concerning the substitution not to be made in sacrifices; contains seven chapters.
7. מעילה Meila [Meilah], that is, Of Prevarication [Sacrilege], or Concerning the prevarication of those who wrongly used things sacrificed; has six chapters.
8. כריתות Cherithuth [Keritot], that is, Of Excisions, or Concerning the souls of sinners to be destroyed in the world to come; has six chapters.
9. תמיד Thamid [Tamid], that is, of the continual, namely sacrifice — or Concerning the continual sacrifice of two lambs; has five chapters.
10. מדות Midoth [Middot], that is, Of Measurements, or Concerning the dimensions and measures of the temple; has five chapters.
11. קינים Kinim [Kinnim], that is, Of Nests, or Concerning the offerings of chicks, doves, and turtledoves to be made by the poor; has five chapters.

טהרות TAHAROTH, that is, the sixth order, of purifications, containing these twelve tractates:

1. כלים Chelim [Kelim], that is, Of Vessels, or Concerning the purification of vessels; has thirty chapters.
2. אהלות Ahaloth [Ohalot], that is, Of Houses [Tents], or Concerning the purifying of houses in which human corpses have lain; has eighteen chapters.
3. נגעים Negaim, that is, Of Plagues, or Of Strikings, or Concerning the purification from leprosy and the other plagues; has fourteen chapters.
4. פרה Para [Parah], that is, Of the Heifer, or Concerning the purification to be made from the ashes of the red cow; has twelve chapters.
5. טהרות Taharoth, that is, Of Purifications, or Concerning the purification from an uncleanness contracted otherwise than from a human corpse; contains ten chapters.
6. מקואות Mikuaoth [Mikvaot], that is, Of Congregations, or Collections of waters — or Concerning the fountain and the waters in which men of both sexes were immersed [baptized], that they might be cleansed from spiritual uncleannesses; has ten chapters.

7. נדה Nida [Niddah], that is, Of the Menstruant, or Concerning the purification of a woman from uncleanness contracted both by reason of the menstruum and of childbirth; contains ten chapters. 8. משקין Maskin [Makhshirin], that is, Of Emissions, or Concerning the purification of men from the uncleanness [contracted] from the putrefaction of the seed flowing through the male member; has ten chapters. 9. זבים Zabim, that is, Of those with a flux, or Concerning the purification of those with a flux from the uncleanness contracted through contamination; has six chapters. 10. טבול יום Tuul Iom [Tevul Yom], that is, Of the [one] baptized of the day, or Concerning the one immersed of the same day — who, although through the washing of that water he was purified from spiritual uncleanness, yet not perfectly, until on the following day he should make an offering in the temple for the uncleanness from which he had been purified by the water; contains four chapters. 11. ידים Iadaim [Yadayim], that is, Of Hands, or Concerning the hands to be washed of those wishing to touch sacred things, or to eat of consecrated things; and concerning the vessel and the waters with which the hands are to be washed; has ten chapters. 12. עוקצין Okezin [Uktzin], that is, Of the Stalks of fruits, or [concerning] when the stalks by which the apples and the other fruits adhered [to the tree] were said to be contaminated from the touch of unclean fruits; has five chapters.

The sum of the whole Talmud contains sixty-three tractates.

A CATALOG OF SOME ERRORS,

which out of the innumerable follies, blasphemies, and impieties of the Talmudic work we have collected, that from these few we might exhibit to you some specimen of these execrable volumes, in which almost infinite blasphemies are contained not only against Christ our God, but also against the Mosaic law, against the law of nature, and against the very majesty of divine sublimity.

AGAINST CHRIST OUR GOD.

The blasphemies which the impious Jews emit against Christ our God are so execrable that the mind shudders, and the hand recoils from writing them: therefore it will suffice only to have here indicated certain places where these are had.

By what birth Christ was born, and what mother he had. Order one, tractate nine, verse forty-ninth, beginning from the word Mehila.

What was Christ’s profession, study, and craft. Order four, tractate four, chapter five, folio seventeen.

What God Christ worshipped. Order four, tractate four, chapter two, folio 107.

For what cause, and by what punishment, the Jews killed Christ. Order four, tractate four, chapter six, folio 43.

In what place the soul of Christ is now detained. Order three, tractate six, folio 57.

AGAINST THE SUBLIMITY OF THE DIVINE MAJESTY.

God, before the creation of the world — lest he grow torpid with idleness — exercised himself in building various worlds; which, when he had founded them, a little after he destroyed, and again restored, until he had learned to make this world which we now have. Order one, tractate four, chapter three.

God spends the whole first three hours of the day in the reading of the Jewish law. Order two, tractate one, chapter fourteen.

Moses, when he had once ascended into heaven, found God writing the accents in the holy scripture. Order five, tractate six, chapter five.

God, on the first day of the new moon of the month of September, judges the whole world; then, on the remaining ten following days of the same Moon, applies himself to writing the just in the book of life, but the wicked in the book of death. Order two, tractate eight, chapter five.

God daily makes prayers and supplications with devout mind. Order one, tractate one, chapter one.

God has a certain separate place, in which at many appointed times he weeps with tears and afflicts himself, because — angry with the Jews — he overthrew the temple of Jerusalem and dispersed his people into captivity. Order two, chapter five; and order one, chapter seven.

God daily puts upon himself, about the head and arms, fillets, or certain leathern little straps, called Thephilin [Tefillin], and clothes himself with a certain linen tunic which is called Zizith [Tzitzit]; and, thus adorned, he prostrates himself upon [his] knees, and prays. Order two, tractate eight, chapter five.

God commanded the people of the Jews that at each new moon they should perform a sacrifice of expiation, to expiate the crime perpetrated by God, when he unjustly took away from the Moon the light which he attributed to the Sun. Order four, tractate six, chapter one.

God, as often as he remembers the calamities which the Jews suffer from the Gentiles, pours out two tears into the Ocean sea, and, from grief, beats his breast with both hands. Order one, tractate one, chapter nine.

God, in the three last hours of the day, for the sake of relaxing [his] mind, once played with a certain fish of vast ma—

—of vast magnitude, which is called Leviathan. Order two, tractate one, chapter fourteen; and order four, tractate 8.

God, for an unknown cause being angry with the great fish Leviathan, killed it, and salted its flesh, that from it he might furnish food to the souls of the saints in the world to come. Order four, tractate three, chapter five.

God is angry once daily, and then the combs of the barnyard cocks lose their redness, and meanwhile [the cocks] stand upon one foot; then, if anyone at that same moment curse someone, he [the cursed] straightway falls down dead. Order one, tractate one.

God created the element of fire on the day of the Sabbath. Order two, tractate three, chapter four.

When once certain Rabbis had entered into a disputation against Rabbi Eliezer, God — a voice being sent down from heaven — pronounced the sentence against them in favor of Rabbi Eliezer; wherefore the Rabbis, indignant, condemned God with the penalty of anathema. Then God himself, smiling, said, “My sons have conquered me.” Order four, tractate two, chapter seven.

When God, on a certain day in the court of heaven, was disputing about a certain kind of leprosy — which he himself said was clean, the other Rabbis dissenting, who affirmed it to be unclean — the matter at last, by the common assent of all, devolved to a certain most wise Rabbi; who, when he was preparing to bring forth [his] sentence, straightway his soul, leaving the body, began to cry out, “Clean, Clean.” Order four, tractate two, chapter seven.

So great once was the prudence in a certain Rabbi, that by this cunning he eluded both the Devil and God at once. When the Rabbi was laboring in the last article of life, he entreated the Devil with prayers that he would lead him — now already dying — even to the gates of the heavenly kingdom, that, the place of the divine habitation being inspected thence, he might depart glad from this life. When the Devil had granted this favor to [his] old friend, the Rabbi, casting himself at once within the gates of heaven, swore by the living God that he would never withdraw thence; for which cause God was compelled to keep the man with him, lest he make him a perjurer. And thus, by this one art, the most prudent man deceived God and the Devil at once.

AGAINST THE SAINTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

When the Angel Gabriel had committed a grave crime, God commanded him to be scourged with a fiery whip. Order two, tractate five, chapter eight.

Adam coupled with all living things, as well males as females, nor ever satisfied his lust, until [afterward] he lay with Eve. Order three, tractate one, chapter six.

The Raven sent out by Noah at the time of the flood was unwilling to depart from the ark; for it feared lest, after its departure, Noah should couple with the crow, its wife. Order four, tractate four.

Job never was among human affairs [never existed], and his history is a fiction. Order four, tractate three.

David did not sin in adultery and in homicide; and whoever shall have believed that he sinned in these is a heretic. Order two, tractate one, chapter five.

AGAINST THE LAW OF MOSES.

That it is lawful to use one’s own wife in the masculine manner. Wherefore, when two women had complained of this matter before the synagogue, the Rabbis answered that the man is the lord of the wife, and that therefore he can use the body of his wife howsoever he will — not otherwise than he who buys a fish; for he can eat at his pleasure of both the anterior and the posterior parts of his fish. Order three, tractate three, chapter two, and folio twenty, face two.

If anyone shall have joined to himself in matrimony either his own daughter or his own sister, he does a thing most acceptable to God. Order two, tractate one.

A Rabbi who does not hate his enemy even unto death, and who does not seek vengeance against him, is unworthy of the name of Rabbi. Order five, tractate one, chapter two.

That those who contradict the words of the Scribes are to be punished more grievously than [those who contradict] the words of the Mosaic law: whoever contradicts the latter can be absolved, but whoever shall have contradicted the words of the Rabbis, let him die the death. Order four, tractate four, chapter ten.

If witnesses shall have been convicted of falsity, they ought to be punished with the penalty of retaliation [talion]; but if it shall have happened that the accused was unjustly condemned, and so afflicted with punishment, then the false witnesses ought to be absolved, and punished with no penalty. Order four, tractate 4.

If the greater part of the Judges shall have condemned someone to death, he ought to die; but if all, none excepted, shall have consented in his condemnation, let him be absolved. Order four, folio seventeen.

If anyone shall have found a purse in a public place, and shall have known that its owner has already despaired of finding the purse, he is not held to the restitution of the purse. Order four, tractate two, chapter five.

AGAINST CHARITY AND HUMANITY.

We ordain that every Jew thrice in the day blaspheme the whole nation of the Christians, and pray God that he confound and exterminate it together with its kings and princes; and this the priests of the Jews do especially, praying in the synagogue thrice daily, in hatred of Jesus of Nazareth. Order one, tractate one, chapter four.

That God commanded the Jews that, by any means whatever — whether by fraud, or by force, or by usury, or by the sword — they should claim to themselves the goods of the Christians. In the same place.

It is commanded to all the Jews that they hold all Christians in the place of brutes, [and] that they treat them not otherwise than brute animals. Order four, tractate 8.

If the beast of a Jew shall have killed the beast of a Christian, the Jew is not held to pay the price for it; but if the beast of a Christian shall have killed a Jew’s beast, the Jew is held to compel the Christian to make restitution for the beast. Order four, tractate one, chapter four, folio thirty-eighth.

A Jew may do to the gentiles neither good nor evil in any wise; but let him strive, with all zeal and industry, to take a Christian out of life. Order four, tractate eight, chapter two.

If any Hebrew, while he wishes to kill a Christian, should by chance happen to kill a Jew, he is worthy of absolution. Order four, tractate four, and nine.

If any Jew shall have seen a Christian near a precipice, he is bound straightway to cast him down. Order four, tractate eight — with which, in the same tractate, the author Raualfez [R. Alfasi] agrees, chapter two, folio 355, face two; and the volume Arba Turim, in the book Ioradea [Yoreh Deah], chapter one hundred fifty-eighth.

The empire of the Christians is more execrable than the empire of the other nations; and it is a lighter sin to serve a gentile prince than a Christian. Order two, tractate one, chapter five, folio eleven and fifteen.

That the temples [churches] of the Christians are houses of perdition and places of idolatry, which the Jews are bound to destroy. Order two, tractate one, chapter two.

The Gospels of the Christians — which ought to be entitled “iniquity revealed and sin made manifest” — ought to be burned by the Jews, even if the name of God should be contained in them. In the same place.

OTHER HERESIES AND SUPERSTITIONS.

That the souls of men migrate from body into body by this law: that if the soul sin in the first body, it be sent into a second; in which, if it sin again, it is sent into a third body; in which, if it cease not to sin, it is at last thrust down into gehenna. Order four, tractate 2, and in many other places.

That the soul of Abel migrated into Seth, but the soul of Seth into Moses. In the same place.

The souls of unlearned men will not receive their bodies in the resurrection. Order three, tractate two, folio three.

Two Rabbis, each several week, on the day before the Sabbath, used to create two calves, which then they ate whole. Order four, tractate four, chapter two, folio 65.

Whosoever shall have eaten thrice on the Sabbath will attain eternal life in the other world. Order two, tractate one, chapter six.

Nothing ought to be eaten in an even number, but in an odd; for in this number God is especially delighted. Order four, tractate 2, chapter 7.

If anyone shall have prayed with face turned to the south, he will attain wisdom; but to the north, riches. Order four, tractate 3, chapter 2, folio 25.

If anyone shall have passed under the belly of a camel, or between two camels, or between two women, he will never be able to learn anything from the Talmud. Order four, tractate 10, chapter 1.

If anyone shall have denied the Talmudic books — in which are contained the aforesaid most holy precepts — he denies God himself. In the Preface of the whole Talmud.