Conference taveng::bagels

1465.0. "Magna Carta" by TAVIS::JUAN () Wed Jun 28 1995 13:31

	Last week I had the opprtunity to visit the U.K. with some customers,
	in order to see some linkWorks Installations. After business, I took
	a few days off to go around London.

	While in london I went to visit some old friends, i.e.: the 
	collections of the British Museum. As allways, I was impressed by
	the beauty of the ancient works - and, as allways, I wondered
	about the "kashrut" of reaping art and richess of ancient people
	and bringing them to the capital of the Empire. Of course, many
	items were saved because of they were brought to London, and, of
	course, I have my simpathies to the people that were the rightful
	owners and heirs to those objects.

	However, the reason for this note, is an object, a document, of
	absolute English origin, that rightfully is kept at the British
	Museum: The Magna Carta.

	Most English speaking countries trace the origin of their liberties
	to the Magna Carta, and in many (most) non-English speaking western
	countries it is cited as the basis of civil rights. So this time,
	not only did I look with reverence to the old manuscript (two copies
	of the original document to the barons are kept at the Museum) but
	I did something noone else did: I read the translation from Latin 
	into English.

	And here came in my surprise - and rage.

	After the initial declaration about the parties that were present
	at the signature of the Magna Carta, and after some initial articles 
	stating that the Church in England should be free and the
	properties of the barons should be returned to them, the document
	begins to take care of the jews.

	I don't have the translation with me, but it goes something like
	this:

	In case that a nobleman dies and his heir is underage, and said 
	nobleman has any debts to a Jew, those debts will be frozen until
	the heir is of age and only then they will be repaid - if possible,
	with no compensation for the waiting.

	If the noblemans propery returns to the crown, any debt he might 
	have to a jew will be paid by the crown, but with no interest at all.

	There might be some more clauses relating to discrimination against 
	the Jews.

	Does someone now what is the official status of the Magna Carta, if
	it is still binding the English crown?

	Juan-Carlos Kiel
 

I agree that this is not the sort of thing you to hear about in
elementary school. Although it is discrimination against Jews, we
still must remember that Christians of that time were not allowed
to lend money at interest to other Christians. I suppose you could
look at this as a kind of tax for the priviledge of being allowed
to charge interest in the first place. I could imagine even harsher
rules (the Jew might have lost all his money in some of these cases).
And there's always the "golden rule" syndrome: he who has the gold
sets the rules.

Dave

    Also, recall what the status of the average English peasant was
    vis-a-vis the aristocracy. Mark Twain wrote an (albeit amusing)
    historical novel about it called _A Connecticut Yankee in King
    Arthur's Court_. The fact that the overwhelming majority of the
    English population was literally chattle in the hands of the local
    nobleman does not of course mitigate the manifest singling-out of
    the Jew for especial ill-treatment, but it does put it in perspective 
    somewhat.
    
    Also, we all have something to learn from the terrible mistakes
    of the past for our own times--to fight oppression and suppression
    of minority opinions by our governments and by their puppets, often
    through force. Ve'hamayvin yavin.
    
    Yehoshua