Agobard of Lyons is a ninth century Christian bishop well-known to students of early medieval jewish history in part because he was involved in encouraging the active prosecution of the jews in Frankish kingdom under Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious. He wrote several treatises against the jews none of which are more than a few pages long, which are filled with information about them and scholars agree (often grudgingly) that Agobard was well acquainted with jewish culture and Judaism (although as far as we know he himself wasn't of jewish origin) in spite of being a fanatical opponent of both. 'On the Insolence of the Jews' is the third of Agobard's writings against the jews appearing in 827 AD.
As no English translation I know of has appeared of these texts I have decided to translate the Latin original into modern English as these texts are not well-known but are of inherent value to anti-jewish thought precisely because they are rich in contextual information as well as highlighting a period of time when Christianity was a major force against Judaism as opposed to trying to placate it as is common now.
To do this I have taken the text of Agobard's work from the 'Patrologia Latina' (Vol. 104, Col. 69-74) and translated it in relation to the meaning of text as to translate much of what Agobard says literally would be largely meaningless to most readers. I have also taken the liberty here and there of inserting qualifying words and phrases as to make the meaning clear without resorting to footnotes and thus hopefully making Agobard's text less stilted than it originally was.
On the Insolence of the Jews
I
To the most Christian and pious conqueror Emperor Louis from the humblest of your abject servants Agobard.
God Almighty, who has made you a righteous and just ruler and pre-ordained the difficult tasks that you have undertaken, has designated that you have a sublime wisdom and a religious knowledge above other mortals of our time. There is then no doubt that you have been prepared by God for these dangerous times as the apostle says: In the last days men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, and so on, while having an appearance of godliness. Of these we do not have to wait as they can seen at this time with the exception of the advent of Satan's kingdom and the public captivity of the holy city for forty-two months when the anti-Christ will rule at the head of the wicked.
Therefore; since these things are so: I beseech your sufferance so that I may speak to you of such things as it necessary to bring to your attention; from the perspective of the lowest of the servants of the Most Holy, so that they may be corrected. I would entreat those in your government to carry out these tasks but as you are the foundation of all authority and your ministers fear to speak of this then I entrust myself to your patience and goodness; even if it imperils me, so that you may be aware of the dangers you face.
II
Imperial agents; lead by Frederick and Evrard, came and showed themselves to be agents of the Jews who persecuted the meek Christians; especially at Lyon, where they desecrated the paintings of the Church and the Christian populace were goaded into angry demonstrations by this outrage. Nevertheless; in so far as it is harmful to the Church of Christ, let me begin and trust in your meekness and clemency. When they came for the first time the Jews gave me documents in your name which charged the count who rules Lyon to aid the Jews in their persecution of myself and my flock.
These documents; although they used your sacred name and were sealed using your ring, I do not believe came from you. The Jews then began to carry out the activities listed in this document with a hateful arrogance and threatened injury against Christians in order to sate their need for vengeance. After the Jews came Evrard telling everyone that you; your majesty, were very angry with me because of what I had said about the Jews. The Jews then used the documents; which I cannot believe to have come from your hand, to sanction nefarious activities and unjust legal proceedings.
This has given the Jews joy beyond measure and has aggrieved the Christians causing some to flee and others to hide while others inform on their fellow Christians to the Jews in order to gain leniency from them. The Jews then dare to preach irreverently against the Christians, speaking evil of the Lord God and our Saviour Jesus Christ before the multitude.
III
We are strengthened in our faith; against the perversity of these things, by the words of the Bible and many whisper that the behaviour of the Jews is an abomination and that they are not beloved by you and are not above other men as they would like to believe. As I am an unworthy servant of yours I may have gone to far in imposing on monasteries in letters the task of promulgating my teachings. However forgiveness should not be required for some of my priests; who I do not name, as they did not dare promulgate my teachings in the presence of the Jews as I had instructed.
The reason they did not dare to promulgate my teachings is the abuse they had suffered from the supporters of the Jews for no other reason than preaching that if a person sells slaves to Jews then that person is not a Christian. This is so that the Jews are unable to acquire Christian slaves to sell in Spain, are unable to acquire slaves for themselves and to make sure that baptised Christian women do not serve them on the Sabbath, dine with them and not eat flesh or drink their wine during the days of lent. This is especially so as the Jews; when slaughtering a cow for consumption, have three conditions for that slaughter that makes the animal unclean: the discovery of a lesion on the intestine or the liver, if the lung has split open in error or the animal was imperfectly sacrificed. This means; which can cause the meat to be poisonous, that the meat is regarded as unclean by the Jews and it is sold to the Christians who the Jews also insult by calling them cattle.
IV
With wine that which the Jews regard as foetid and unclean they do not make use of except for selling it to the Christians so that a Jew will place whatever wine that has split on the ground into a new vessel in order to accomplish this. These things; which are the preserve of the wicked, are not only attested to by Christian witnesses but by Jewish ones as well.
I do but that which our Lord Jesus Christ has commanded me and the prayers of all Christians enjoin me to do in dealing with the Jews. Not only that but the Blessed Jerome writes that he knows the Jews inside and out as a witness to them and that all Christians should bear witness to the Jews and share the Gospel with them. In this manner I told the Christians that: Whether you are an ordinary man or a master you are faithful and you love your brother, but if a man comes into existence that you feel is the enemy of all men, a backbiter, a criminal and a deceiver: then you will not feel you have to be a friend to him or his companion in partaking of food at table. If this is so then this person will find it impossible to be friendly with with that man whether he be his father or his lord and would not think himself unfaithful for not wishing to serve him.
Therefore; like we know the Jews to be without doubt blasphemers, the faithful of Christ should not be required to participate in the consummation of meat and drink with the Jewish enemies of the Lord God and in doing so we only follow the instructions and example of the Fathers of the Church. In any case because they live among us we should not pander to them and instead show them a life whether there is no need for riches as a contrast to their own by observing the rules of the Church and we should not be cautious in seeking to spread the truth of the Gospel among them.
V
Thus; most kindly lord, I have described to you the treachery of the Jews and of the damage to Christianity that the supporters of the Jews have caused due to the ignorance of the Christian doctrine of our local lord. His Christian faith has been injured and corrupted by the lies of the Jews and I pray that yours; my lord, has not. For the Jews glory in telling lies to the simpler Christians that they are beloved by and represent you, whilst boasting that your counsellors have influenced you towards their cause and against ours so that you would author a law which they use against us, because we have forbidden Christians from drinking their wine. Which they have strived long and hard to maintain because they have received many pounds of silver for the purchase of this wine and also try to lure Christians from religious observance so that they may sell them more food and drink.
They do this using the documents; which cannot be genuine, that are graced by your name and golden seal, which look to show a woman's dress like those worn by your relatives or the mother of your wife. In doing this they explain that to the glory of their ancestors: your law has allowed them to build a new synagogue.
This has lead them to try to misinform Christians by proclaiming that they [the Jews] are superior to the Christians as they are authorized by the aforementioned documents to decide when market days are to be held. To do this the Jews; who come from both near and far away to sell their wares, choose days that benefit them such as Christian holidays so that they may tempt Christians away from both the morning and evening mass so that they may purchase the necessities of life from them and also entertain themselves in the festivities.
So now; if it please your generous nature, let us that state that the Gallic Church and its officials as well as the kings has to the power to prevent these abuses by the Jews. The Jewish clergy have argued that they are doing what has been handed down to them by their ancestors and draw their arguments from the Old Testament, but these we have proved to be wrong because of the authority of the Acts of the Apostles and that therefore the Jews are the enemies of truth and are in many ways worse than the pagans.
VI
A man has testified; which I have sent to you separately, that a certain man; not yet twenty-four, recently fled from Cordoba in Spain to Lyon having been kidnapped by a certain Jew from Lyons when he was a young boy. Another boy had been kidnapped by a Jew of Arles six years ago. When he heard of this: he and some acquaintances went to find other children stolen like this and they found that Christian children were being bought and sold. One Jew had recently kidnapped and sold another boy. It is unspeakable that Christians continue to be kidnapped and sold by the Jews as these acts are base and are difficult even to write.