Abraham a Sancta Clara°

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ABRAHAM A SANCTA CLARA°

ABRAHAM A SANCTA CLARA ° (c. 1644–1709), Augustinian friar and anti-Jewish propagandist; court preacher in Vienna from 1677. His numerous sermons and tracts violently attacked the Jews along the traditional lines of popular anti-Jewish hatemongering. He charged the Jews with causing the plague by witchcraft, denounced them along with the devil as Christianity's worst enemy, and gave currency to the *host desecration libel. The coarse language and style of his sermons and tracts influenced the Viennese brand of *antisemitism (and its disseminators such as S. *Brunner, J. *Deckert, and K. *Lueger) and of *National Socialism.

bibliography:

R.A. Kann, A Study in Austrian Intellectual History (1960), 50–115 (bibliography 306–9); O. Frankl, Der Jude in den deutschen Dichtungen des 15., 16., und 17. Jahrhunderts (1905), index. add. bibliography: F. Schillinger, Abraham a Sancta Clara: pastorale et discours politique dans l'Autriche du xviie siècle (1993).

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Abraham a Sancta Clara°

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