yr13_ees_2007_kirby

=**__Why did Napoleon free the Jews?__**= = =

__//**Abstract**//__
===This essay gave me the opportunity to investigate two subjects that I find absolutely fascinating. The times of the French revolution and the fantastical ideological changes that happened during that time, the principles of personal liberty and equality were trumpeted for the first time in a brave attempt at truly revolutionizing societies core values. It also allowed me to investigate a slightly darker topic, that of the oppression of the Jewish people throughout the ages. I was surprised to find out the long history that I did, it is typical of modern folk to think only of the horrendous ghettos and concentration camps of Hitler when we think of institutionalized racism however this seems to be an attitude that instead of being created has persisted throughout the ages with bigoted religious ‘rivalry’ which could only be surpassed with the coming of secularism. These two subjects converge with Napoleon Bonaparte, the most written-about man of all time. A man of an incredibly complex character and set of desires, which become so essential to understanding the age. It is on researching the complexities of his emancipation of the Jews from France and its conquered territories that I realized that in truth nobody knew why he had acted the way he had. There were arguments for and against various theories but his conviction for the equality seemed bizarre to some historians, hypocritical to others and some labelled him cynical. I decided that it would be preposterous to try and terminate the debate with a rash conclusion and that in truth we cannot necessarily know why Bonaparte did what he chose to do. All history is contemporary history and all pretence to ‘know’ about the past is just that, we deduce what we can from what we have available to us. Contents Page===

Introduction__4

Background of Jewish oppression_____6

Background of Napoleon___7

Napoleon and Catholicism_9

Napoleon and Judaism 11

Conclusion__16

This essay is an attempt to understand and convey some of the massively complex issues that surround the emancipation of the Jewish people [|[1]] and the role that Napoleon Bonaparte played in this. I first became interested in this topic whilst in Venice where I was surprised to discover that etymologically the word ‘ghetto’ does not come from Nazi Germany but instead from Venice where ‘campo gheto’ was an area that iron foundries in Venice used in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries for cooling slag.[|[2]] This led me to look further into the history of institutional anti-Semitism and thus into Napoleon Bonaparte’s attempts to emancipate the Jewish race in his lands. Despite it being centuries since his death Napoleon Bonaparte is a figure who manages to stir up impressive conflict as to his character, intentions, intelligence, morals and even sanity. In France he is often hailed as a hero, one guided by a desire to mpake liberty equality and fraternity a reality for Europe but non French historians are more divided, D.G. Wright asserts that ‘his military genius has never been surpassed’ whilst R.S. Alexander claims that his wanton disregard for human life [|[3]] and his tendency to underestimate the importance of supply lines shows him to be nothing more than lucky. If even his ability as a general are polemical how much more so must be an attempt to analyse the motivation behind his actions? When I looked as to why Napoleon went through so much in his attempts to make the Jewish religion equal to the other religions of France I saw no fundamental justification: Napoleon was not a man overly troubled by the morality of equality or the great principles of the revolution, neither was he particularly interested in the potential for Jewish immigration or any other influence. There is evidence for either of these points of view. That napoleon was a pragmatist concerned with French self interest or a genuine liberator acting for altruistic reasons to free an oppressed people. Two questions arise from this though. Firstly, although we can analyse sources + reach a likely consensus on what happened in the past and we may debate its effects, can we ever know__ __what motivated napoleon when he may well not have known for himself. The 2nd question follows on from this: is it the role of history and of historians to look at the complex aspect of motivation.__
 * Introduction**

Background of Jewish Oppression
It is a common misconception that the systematic mistreatment of the Jewish people, the creation of ghettos, the obligation to wear the Star of David and institutional racism were unique to the reign of Hitler. Alas this is not true. The Jewish race was subjected to this treatment far before Hitler came to power. Since 1215 Jewish people had been obliged to wear special clothing [|[4]], in the 1400’s the Jews were persecuted by the Spanish inquisition from 1478 and later the Portuguese inquisition [|[5]]. There was rarely particular justification for this prejudice and it often barely rose above petty bigotry sometimes rooted in the Bible[|[6]] and claims of deicide [|[7]]. In a world where atheism was non-existent and religions competed violently for their own supremacy[|[8]], Judaism was considered heresy and punished as such. Jewish people were often not allowed to work in any profession other than money lending or peddling as these were seen as sufficiently degrading, also Catholic doctrine of the time saw money lending for interest as a sin[|[9]] and as such Jews dominated the trade which gave anti-Semites more ammunition due to the unpopular nature of usury. The Catholic Church gained much power during the period of crusades[|[10]] and this increased power gave them the ability to better organize and ensure their own religious superiority by crushing others such as Judaism. During the crusades thousands of Jews were murdered for their beliefs because of the religious fervour that had been whipped up in the fighters.[|[11]] After the crusades, the power held by the church, now military as well as religious, meant they could enforce anti-Semitic ideology upon Western Europe. In 1209 the count of Toulouse was humiliated following a crusade against his land and forced to change his legislation to be more restrictive upon the Jews.[|[12]] The religiously dominated nature of European politics[|[13]] meant that alternative religions would never truly be tolerated as long as religion was so connected to the institutions of the state. The French revolution was so radical an overhaul that it gave the worlds first real opportunity for a secular state where Protestants, Catholics and Jews could be given equal status in front of the law. Many, including the emperor to be, Napoleon Bonaparte, seemed to embrace this radical new ideology.

Is this conclusion too brief ^ ? I know it needs some more sourcing

Background of Napoleon Bonaparte //‘I was born when my country was dying. Thirty thousand Frenchmen disgorged upon our shores, drowning the throne of liberty in a sea of blood; such was the hateful spectacle that offended my infant eyes’[[[|http://history-wiki.wikispaces.com/page/edit/yr13_ees_2007_kirby?responseToken=bdde9111520dd63abb1cf30fc71f2ec3#_ftn14|**[14**]]//]] The Italian roots of Napoleon are often played down but I believe it is important to recognize that French was his second language, which he never even learnt to spell properly[|[15]]. This little reported fact is an interesting example of the many levels of Napoleons character which are obscured by his military and social successes. Napoleon flew through the military academy, completing a two-year course in just half that time. His examiner noted that he was ‘very applied [to the study of] abstract sciences, little curious as to the others; [having] a thorough knowledge of mathematics and geography..."[|[16]][|] By the age of 16 Napoleon was already a second lieutenant. He spent much of his early career in Corsica where a complex three-way struggle was in progress between the royalists and the revolutionaries (as was true for most of France) and the Corsican nationalists hoping to gain from the confusion. Napoleon fought for the revolutionaries until he came to the attention of the nationalist leader and was forced to flee to the French mainland[|[17]]. He then used the help of a Corsican friend to get involved in the siege of Toulon where his prowess as a military leader helped end the siege prematurely and his career accelerated from there on. He became famous following his defence of the Convention in the Tuileries Palace. He continued to speed up the chain of command until being put in charge of the ‘Armée d’Iitaly’ in 1796 where he fought a successful campaign invading much of northern Italy. It is thought that it is during this campaign, when he entered Venice that Napoleon had his first run in with the official view as to the treatment of Jews.[|[18]]
 * Napoleone di Buonaparte** was born in Corsica on the fifteenth of august 1979. He later changed his name to the more French sounding ‘Napoleon Bonaparte’. He was ethnically Italian and often talked of the French in the third person. He deemed the bloody nature of the revolution sickening, writing:

One of the principle achievements of the French revolution was the ‘declaration of the rights of man and the citizen’, which guaranteed freedom of religion and free exercise of worship. This was not however entirely implemented as archaic legislation against the Jews remained in place, especially in the French region of Alsace where the majority of France’s Jews lived. However the segregation present in Italy was a shock to Napoleon, where Jews were forced to spend each night in their own area (Campo Gheto) and forced to wear a ‘Star of David’ in order to differentiate themselves. It is important to remember that the modern day connotations of the word ‘Ghetto’ are far different than they were in the 1700’s, Some historians for example have referred to the Ghetto of Venice in quite favourable terms, Bernard Dov Cooperman in ‘The Venetian Ghetto’ writes: ‘//The Ghetto's Jews did not refer to their enforced residence as a jail. Rather, it was a Biblical 'camp of the Hebrews,' a place of Holiness on the way to the Promised Land. In Verona they declared a public celebration of its establishment. For the puritanical young rabbi, Samuel Aboab, who had first seen Venice as a 13-year-old student, the city's Ghetto seemed Isaiah's Jerusalem....Aboab's attitude tells us much about Venetian Jewry's intense efforts to order their enclosed world; his choice of words tells us even more about how these Jews identified with their community-behind-walls and gloried in it.’ //Regardless Napoleon appears to have been horrified by the notion and immediately ordered that the Ghetto walls be torn down and all Jews be given equality. He ordered that the star of David be replaced with the ‘tricolour’ of France[|[19]]. This action is pivotal to the question I am posing. Was Napoleon’s iconoclastic action an attack on racial and religious bigotry as symbolized by the ghetto or, like the French legislation banning religious symbols in schools (source) a declaration of ‘laïcité’. In other words, was he setting out to attack religious oppression or setting out to attack religion?

Napoleon’s achievements at home are less documented than his conquests abroad, however these are his most enduring attainments and should not be forgotten. Napoleons obsession with his own legacy and achievements is well recognized; he often compared himself to Julius Caesar and Charlemagne[|[20]] and was well aware of the influence he would have to exert in order to achieve such greatness. Napoleon was prepared to use any means to appeal to the most people possible. He believed his right to the control of France was greater than the ancient Catholic Church and this is symbolized by the manner of his crowning: not as popular belief would have it ‘grabbing’ the crown from the Pope to crown himself and his wife he had however already decided the manner in which the procedure would take place and was not prepared to allow the Pope to appear superior by ‘giving’ him the emperorship of France.[|[21]] France’s catholic majority meant that Napoleon would have to toe a tight line between control of this now secular nation and the sensibilities of France’s civilians. Napoleons own religious beliefs are not well known. In public he was Catholic[|[22]] but as to whether this reflected faith or political pragmatism evidence is contradictory. Napoleons desire for recognition and even worship led him to some oddly heretic moments. During his Egyptian campaign his apparent respect for the Muslim faith and some clever manoeuvring led to him being called ‘Sultan Kebir’ or ‘the great sultan’. This seems to have caught Napoleons imagination and he later claimed (by proxy) that he, ‘loved the Muslims, cherished the prophet, instructed himself by reading the Koran every today, and desired to build a mosque unrivalled in splendour and to embrace the Muslim faith’.[|[23]] France had been through a period of intensely anti-catholic policy from the revolutionary government. However within two months of the coup d’état of Brumaire,[|[24]] wherein Napoleon took control of government First Consul Bonaparte allowed non-alienated churches to reopen and began to grant amnesty to deported priests.[|[25]] As liberal as these actions may seem to be, Bonaparte never had any intention of allowing the Catholic Church to return to its previous strength. Evidence seems to show that although Bonaparte did not personally adhere to any particular faith, he nonetheless thought it wise to attempt to cool the fires of violence that had erupted against the Catholic Church, so that a France united in Catholicism could serve as a symbol of peace and prosperity. These actions show to an extent just quite how much Napoleon utilized religion as a tool for his control of the French state, which is useful for our exploration of how he dealt with those of the Jewish faith. Napoleons control of the church was also used for his own Benefit, in fact sometimes he placed himself above religious figures. Three Church feasts, Ascension Day, All Saints on November 1, and Christmas, became State festivals, while the Church sanctified two state occasions, July 14 and December 2, the anniversary of the coronation and the victory of Austerlitz.[|[26]]. However the most blatant example of Napoleons self-obsession can be seen with how the Imperial Catechism proscribed the veneration of the Emperor’s name day. While the ancien régime attached the feast of St. Louis, the patron saint of every king from 1610 to 1792, to August 15, the feast of the Assumption, Napoleon I replaced the royal saint with St. Napoleon.[|[27]] The catechism went further still by asserting that Napoleon I had been “raised up by God in difficult circumstances, that he was God’s anointed, and that good Christians must love him, pay taxes, accept conscription or go to hell.”[|[28]] Progressively, Catholicism had become a religion of imperial grandeur under Napoleon I.[|[29]] Thus, in dealing with Catholicism and Islam we can see napoleon channelling religious fervour for his own, much more secular, ends. The question thus arises: was this also true of his attempts to liberate the Jews?
 * Napoleon and Catholicism**

Napoleon was brought into the French system as a consequence of the French revolution; the holes in military leadership that were made as a consequence of the splintering of French society were the only reason it was possible for a non-bourgeois to become a military leader. However Napoleon fought against the royalists not on principle but because he worked for the government. He was no great philosopher or idealist; he did not believe in the weak government that the republic had spawned as is shown in his ‘coup’. His decision to become the emperor finalized this. After all, Caesar and Charlemagne never worried about the thoughts of their government. It is therefore debateable as to whether or not Napoleon believed in the principles of the revolution, in the notion of a secular society, equality for all men in front of the law and the right to a fair trial. However crucial to any judgment of Napoleon’s pragmatism or morality is his response to the issue of Jewish oppression in Europe. In other religious areas he fought against societies bigotry in a commendable fashion. Despite the revolutions ideals of religious equality in practice this tended to stretch only to Protestants, never to Jews. The age-old prejudice, which I have already touched upon, was so integral to the society of Europe for a variety of reasons and the rules were somewhat ‘different’ for them. Napoleon was not forced to confront this until he encountered the Ghetto of Venice wherein he evaluated the position that Jews had in France and its conquered lands. However Napoleon's personal views towards the Jews are not always made obvious, as he made statements varying between support and opposition to the Jewish people at various times. Historian Rabbi ‘Berel Wein’ in ‘Triumph of Survival’ claims that Napoleon was primarily interested in seeing the Jews assimilate, rather than prosper as a separate community:// "Napoleon's outward tolerance and fairness toward Jews was actually based upon his grand plan to have them disappear entirely by means of total assimilation, intermarriage, and conversion." //This attitude is maintained when talking about the question of the treatment of the Alsace Jews and their debtors, which was raised in the Imperial Council on April 30, 1806. Whatever his motivation the net effect of his policies, however, significantly improved the position of the Jews in Europe, and he was widely admired by the Jews as a result. Napoleon passed a number of measures supporting the position of the Jews in the French Empire, including recreating a representative group elected by the Jewish community, called ‘The Sanhedrin’. In conquered countries such as Italy he abolished laws restricting Jews to ghettos. In 1807, he made Judaism, along with Roman Catholicism and Lutheran and Calvinist Protestantism, official religions of France in striking contrast to these apparently liberal act however Napoleon rolled back a number of reforms in 1808, declaring all debts with Jews annulled, reduced or postponed, which pushed the Jewish community to near financial collapse. Jews were also restricted in where they could live, in hopes of assimilating them into society. These restrictions were eliminated again by 1811. This is another area where it is difficult to understand Napoleon’s stance. Why, when in complete control of the French empire would he change his mind about the emancipation? Once we know exactly how Napoleon treated the Jews we can start to ask ourselves why. I said in the beginning of my essay that Napoleons demand that the Star of David that the Jews were obliged to wear be replaced with the tricolour of the French flag was symbolic of his approach to Jewish emancipation, Napoleon did not see Catholicism as being inherently French; he saw French identity as nothing more than a sense of French culture and a feeling of national identity. His desire to create a nation to rival Caesar meant that he needed a French nation of all sorts united by his notion of nationalism. In one way the idea of Napoleon the liberator and Napoleon the pragmatic nationalist are not mutually exclusive. He wanted France to be a beacon to people of the world for its equality and radical ideals. If France could welcome Jewish people of Europe as the only state that would offer them a fair civil status then surely they would flock to France in great numbers? Population was massively influential on the power of a nation[|[30]] and despite there being only thirty thousand Jews in France Napoleon was aware of the benefits that mass immigration would have upon France. Was the attempt to get Jewish people equality more a slightly cynical attempt to franco-ise them and bring an increase in population? Though Napoleon's personal attitude towards the Jews is not certain, he clearly saw political benefit in supporting them. He hoped to use equality as a way of gaining advantage from discriminated groups, like Jews or Catholics. Both aspects of his thinking can be seen in a response to a physician who asked why he pressed for the emancipation of the Jews, after his exile in 1816:// ‘My primary desire was to liberate the Jews and make them full citizens. I wanted to confer upon them all the legal rights of equality, liberty and fraternity as was enjoyed by the Catholics and Protestants. It is my wish that the Jews be treated like brothers as if we were all part of Judaism. As an added benefit, I thought that this would bring to France many riches because the Jews are numerous and they would come in large numbers to our country where they would enjoy more privileges than in any other nation. Without the events of 1814, most of the Jews of Europe would have come to France where equality, fraternity and liberty awaited them and where they can serve the country like everyone else.’ //Great opposition to Napoleon's plan to make equal citizens out of the Jews living in France was led by Molé, Beugnot, Segur, and Regnier. Notwithstanding this heavy opposition, including anti-Semitism generated by numerous national newspapers, Napoleon was quoted as saying, "This is not the way to solve the Jewish question. I will never accept any proposals that will obligate the Jewish people to leave France, because to me the Jews are the same as any other citizen in our country. It takes weakness to chase them out of the country, but it takes strength to// assimilate //them." Despite Napoleons attempts at reducing anti-Semitic legislation he was forced to reintroduce it in the region of Alsace where the majority of the Jewish population lived. One anecdote serves to show how Napoleon was sympathetic to his Grognards. A young soldier served with exceptional bravery. He was from Alsace. The Emperor decided to decorate him with a medal in front of his troops. The Emperor said, "David Bloom, you are a brave soldier. Your place with the Old Guard is inevitable." Then he took off his own silver medal, which he wore proudly, and pinned it on David Bloom's uniform. Bloom responded by saying, "Sire, I am from Alsace and I find it difficult to accept this decoration as long as my family is being dishonoured by French laws that limit their equality and freedom." Napoleon was visibly upset and was reported to have said, "They have lied to me again, and I will correct these unfair restrictions immediately." (translated from the Original, 1799)
 * Napoleon and Judaism**
 * Letter to the Jewish Nation from the French Commander-in-Chief Buonaparte**

General Headquarters, Jerusalem 1st Floreal, April 20th, 1799, in the year of 7 of the French Republic

BUONAPARTE, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF THE ARMIES OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC IN AFRICA AND ASIA, TO THE RIGHTFUL HEIRS OF PALESTINE. Israelites, unique nation, whom, in thousands of years, lust of conquest and tyranny have been able to be deprived of their ancestral lands, but not of name and national existence !

Attentive and impartial observers of the destinies of nations, even though not endowed with the gifts of seers like Isaiah and Joel, have long since also felt what these, with beautiful and uplifting faith, have foretold when they saw the approaching destruction of their kingdom and fatherland: And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. (Isaiah 35,10)

Arise then, with gladness, ye exiled ! A war unexampled In the annals of history, waged in self-defense by a nation whose hereditary lands were regarded by its enemies as plunder to be divided, arbitrarily and at their convenience, by a stroke of the pen of Cabinets, avenges its own shame and the shame of the remotest nations, long forgotten under the yoke of slavery, and also, the almost two-thousand-year-old ignominy put upon you; and, while time and circumstances would seem to be least favourable to a restatement of your claims or even to their expression ,and indeed to be compelling their complet abandonment, it offers to you at this very time, and contrary to all expectations, Israel's patrimony !

The young army with which Providence has sent me hither, let by justice and accompanied by victory, has made Jerusalem my head-quarters and will, within a few days, transfer them to Damascus, a proximity which is no longer terrifying to David's city.

Rightful heirs of Palestine !

The great nation which does not trade in men and countries as did those which sold your ancestors unto all people (Joel,4,6) herewith calls on you not indeed to conquer your patrimony ;nay, only to take over that which has been conquered and, with that nation's warranty and support, to remain master of it to maintain it against all comers.

Arise ! Show that the former overwhelming might of your oppressors has but repressed the courage of the descendants of those heroes who alliance of brothers would have done honour even to Sparta and Rome (Maccabees 12, 15) but that the two thousand years of treatment as slaves have not succeeded in stifling it.

Hasten!, Now is the moment, which may not return for thousands of years, to claim the restoration of civic rights among the population of the universe which had been shamefully withheld from you for thousands of years, your political existence as a nation among the nations, and the unlimited natural right to worship Jehovah in accordance with your faith, publicly and most probably forever (JoeI 4,20).

The sources indicate three possible reasons for Napoleons emancipation of the Jews: 1. His conviction in the principles of the French Revolution and its ideals of personal liberty and secularism 2. The potential political gains from Jewish immigration and the assimilation of the Jewish race into the mainstream. 3. Napoleons arrogance, his desire to lead and to be treated as a great leader led him to search for the religious approval of the Jews in a similar vein to that of the Muslims. However each of these claims can be soundly defeated by the substantial evidence against, nobody can say with any true certainty that Napoleon truly cared for those of the Jewish faith and desired their equality, he produced legislation that nearly bankrupted them and showed a distinctly bigoted view of Jewish affairs. Despite being head of state and answerable to nobody he still decided that he would take back liberal legislation and slowly reintroduce it, he crumbled to outside pressures regardless of how unnecessary this was. As to the political gains it appears that they can be ‘disproved’ by the proclamation on page 14 wherein Napoleon attempted to create an Israeli state in the Middle East, however he did not manage to reach the geographical point where he had planned to create this state due to intervention by the British, however this indicates Napoleons desire to create an independent Jewish state which would circumvent the possible political gains that could be made from Jewish immigration. Napoleons arrogance, whilst firmly inflated by such things as the prayer that was written to him (page 17) it would have been easier for him to have bent to the pressures back home and made himself more popular to the majority of the French public by imposing strict regulations upon the Jewish people. All theories can be firmly supported and convincingly destroyed from the available evidence. Can we truly know what the justification for the good treatment of Napoleon was? Can you ever truly understand it? Beyond theorizing and speculating based upon shaky and fragmented evidence is there ever any way to truly comprehend matters of the human brain// now //let alone hundreds of years ago? The answer of course is that it depends on your point of view, is history written in stone, assured fact, or is it just whatever the latest historians book (with Napoleon there have been hundreds) deduces the ‘truth’ to be?
 * Conclusion**

I implore Thee, Creator of Heaven and the Universe and alI who inhabit it. Thou hast established alI boundaries and limitations of the world and each nation with its respective language. Thou didst give the Sceptre of power into the hands of their kings to lead the people under their reign with righteousness, justice, an uprightness; that each pers on in his own place should live in peace.
 * Prayer of the Children of Israel Citizens of France and Italy for the success and prosperity of our Mater's Ar my The Emperor, the King Napoleon the Great (may his glory shine)**

How fortunate we are, how good is our lot, that from Thy hand glory and beauty were poured out upon the head of a powerful man, full of vibrancy, NAPOLEON the Great, to sit on the Throne of France and Italy. Could another be found as worthy as NAPOLEON deserving of such honours and kingship, who shepherds his people with sincerity and with the understanding of his heart ? Thou, GOD, hast wondrously bestowed Thy kindness upon him. As other Kings of the world approached to fight him, Thou didst protect him on the day of war, Thou didst save him from those who stood up against him, until he subdued them and they sought peace from him. With his kind spirit, he spoke words of peace to them.

Kings have now untied to break their treaty and replace peace with the blood of war. They have gathered armies to fight against him and against alI those who admire him. They have come to our borders, and our master, the Emperor, the King, is standing with the might of his army to confront them.

O GOD, master of greatness, strength, power and beauty, we implore Thee to stand next to his righteousness; help him, support him with Thy mighty arm: guard him as the apple of Thine eye with an abundance of strength and health. Save him from alI evil and tell him "I am your salvation."

Send Thy light and truth, that they may lead him. Render foolish all those who rise against him for evil. Let Thy light shine upon his plans. Strengthen his armies and those of his allies.

May he succeed in all his endeavors and reign over his enemies. May they seek peace from him, for he is a man who loves peace, and peace he will exercise among his nation.

Father of compassion, Master of Peace, implant in the heads of all Kings and their advisors thoughts of peace and tranquility for the benefit of all mankind. Let the Sword not pass through our land and spill the blood of our brethren. Let all nations unite in total peace and tranquility forever.

May the words of our prayers be acceptable to Thee.

Amen//

[|[1]] That is to say the first emancipation of western Europe in the late 18th century [|[2]] This area still exists as ‘Campo Gheto Novo’ in cannaregio sestiere [|[3]] He often executed unarmed enemy soldiers and is known for having left wounded soldiers to die if they could not keep up with his retreats [|[4]] Prager, Dennis, Telushkin, Joseph. Why the Jews? The Reason for Antisemitism//. Touchstone (reprint), 1985. [|[5]] Kamen, op. cit., pp. 29-31. [|[6]] The Book of Esther, Chapter 3, says: "Letters were sent by the runners to all the king’s provinces stating that they should destroy, kill, and annihilate all the Jews, from youth to elderly, both women and children, on a particular day, namely the thirteenth day of the twelfth month (that is, the month of Adar), and to loot and plunder their possessions."[|] [|[7]] Deicide is the killing of a God. The first accusation that Jews were responsible for the death of Jesus came in a sermon in 167 CE attributed to Melito of Sardis entitled// Peri Pascha//,// On the Passover//. [|[8]] The crusades for example [|[9]] If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. [Ex 22:25] [|[10]] The eleventh to thirteenth century [|[11]] http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1096jews-mainz.html [|[12]] Michael Costen,// The Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade//, p 38 [|[13]] The despotic nature of the states of western Europe meant that the states were subjected to their leaders religious opinions, often dissidents were persecuted [|[14]] [[[|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleon_I_of_France#_ref-1|]Durant]], Will and Ariel (1975), p.91 The Story of Civilization: Part XI// The Age of Napoleon// [|[15]] McLynn (1998), p. 18. [|[16]] Asprey (2000), p. 13. [|[17]] R.S. Alexander ‘Napoleon’ p. 12. [|[18]] http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Venice.html [|[19]] http://www.Napoleon-series.org/ins/weider/c_jews.html [|[20]] http://thriceholy.net/Texts/Liddon3.html [|[21]] http://www.georgianindex.net/Napoleon/coronation/coronation.html [|[22]] R.S. Alexander ‘Napoleon’ p46 [|[23]] Susanne Desan, Reclaiming the Sacred: Lay Religion and Popular Politics in Revolutionary France __(Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990), 29; Rémond 47. [|[24]] November 9, 1799. [|[25]] Desan 13. [|[26]] Rémond 81 [|[27]] Rémond 81 [|[28]] Wilson-Smith 178. [|[29]] Bernard Semmel,__ The Methodist Revolution__ (New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1973), 193. [|[30]] France’s military prowess at the time was often put down to its having the largest population in Western Europe. Schom, Alan (1998). Napoleon Bonaparte: A Life. Perennial