Eric Alterman searched "Jews" at amazon.com and the first hit was: The Jews and Their Lies by Martin Luther (Paperback -- December 31, 2004).
That distasteful "work"--I'm surprised and disgusted to see it still in print--was written by Luther late in his life when he was old and sick. That's about the best face that can be put on it.
It also makes you wonder what metrics amazon is using for its searches.
St. Thomas More doesn’t appear to have had anything in particular against Jews, but he pursued heretics with an enthusiasm that seemed a tad unseemly even at the time and delighted in their agonies at the stake. Nobody’s perfect.
Posted by: Hypatia | June 27, 2008 at 12:20 PM
Frankly, I never cared for Thomas More all that much. He always struck me as kind of a self-righteous prig.
That, plus lose your head over the pope's perogatives on divorce? I don't think so.
But then I'm a Lutheran so dissing the pope comes a bit naturally.
Course, I could be wrong about More. I'm no expert on the era or the subject, but that's how he always struck me.
Posted by: John Petty | June 27, 2008 at 08:02 PM