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Neander's works, most of which have been translated into English, have secured for him a lasting place among the greatest ecclesiastical historians. He has come to be regarded as the father of modern Church history. His "Leben Jesu" was written as an answer to the "Leben Jesu" of David Friedrich Strauss, which had been submitted to him by the government for his opinion as to its heretical character, and as to whether it should be prohibited. His answer to the government will be ever memorable: "Scholarly works are to be fought with the weapons of science, not by the power of the state." When the Jews of Damascus were being persecuted in 1846, and the old "blood accusation" was revived, he publicly and vigorously denounced the "medieval lie."