he poor and
defenceless, the destruction of science, art, and beauty, the
desecration of the churches, the organized campaign against all that was
noble, all that was sacred, all that humanity holds dear, what was this
but Satanism?

In desecrating the churches and stamping on the crucifixes the Jacobins
had in fact followed the precise formula of black magic: "For the
purpose of infernal evocation ... it is requisite ... to profane the
ceremonies of the religion to which one belongs and to trample its
holiest symbols under foot."[624] It was this that formed the prelude
to the "Great Terror," when, to those who lived through it, it seemed
that France lay under the sway of the powers of darkness.

So in the "great shipwreck of civilization," as a contemporary has
described it, the projects of the Cabalists, the Gnostics, and the
secret societies which for nearly eighteen centuries had sapped the
foundations of Christianity found their fulfilment. Do we not detect an
echo of the Toledot Yeshu in the blasphemies of the Marquis de Sade
concerning "the Jewish slave" and "the adulterous woman, the courtesan
of Galilee?" And in the imprecations of Marat's worshippers, "Christ was
a false prophet!" a repetition of the secret doctrine attributed to the
Templars: "Jesus is not the true God; He is a false prophet; He was not
crucified for the salvation of humanity, but for His own misdeeds"? Are
these resemblances accidental, or are they the outcome of a continuous
plot against the Christian faith?

What, then, was the role of Jews in the Revolution? In this connexion it
is necessary to understand the situation of the Jews in France at this
period.

After the decree of banishment issued by Charles VI in 1394, Jewry, as a
body, had ceased to exist; but towards the end of the fifteenth century
a certain number of Jews, driven out of Spain and Portugal, were allowed
to settle in Bordeaux. These Spanish and Portuguese Jews, known as
_Sephardim_, appeared to acquiesce in the Christian religion and were
not officially regarded as Jews, but enjoyed considerable privileges
conferred on them by Henri II. It was not until the beginning of the
eighteenth century, during the Regency, that Jews began to reappear in
Paris. Meanwhile, the annexation of Alsace at the end of the previous
century had added to the population of France the German Jews of that
province known as the _Ashkenazim_.

It is important to distinguish between these two