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Jews & the Medieval Church: From Tolerance to Persecution
Jews & the Medieval Church: From Tolerance to Persecution
I. Early Christian Theologians and the Jews
Jews & the Medieval Church: From Tolerance to Persecution
I. Early Christian Theologians and the Jews
A. Theological Negation (verus Israel)
“The Jews sacrifice their children to Satan…they are worse than wild
beasts…The synagogue is a curse…[the Jews] have fallen into a
condition lower than the vilest animals. Debauchery and drunkenness
have brought them to the level of the lusty goat and pig. They only
know one thing: to satisfy their stomachs, to get drunk, to kill and
beat each other…I hate the Jews, because they violate the Law…It is
the duty of all Christians to hate the Jews.”
- St. John Chrysostom (347-407), Against the Judaizers
“Impelled by drunkenness, they were guilty of scoffing at
Christians and even Christ himself; and in derision of the cross
and those who put their trust in the Crucified One, they seized a
Christian boy, and having bound him to a cross, began to laugh
and sneer at him. But in a little while becoming so transported
with fury, they scourged the child until he died under their
hands.”
- Socrates Scholasticus (c.380- c.450), Ecclesiastical History
Jews & the Medieval Church: From Tolerance to Persecution
I. Early Christian Theologians and the Jews
A. Theological Negation (verus Israel)
B. Political Toleration (sicut Iudaeis)
Jews & the Medieval Church: From Tolerance to Persecution
I. Early Christian Theologians and the Jews
A. Theological Negation (verus Israel)
B. Political Toleration (sicut Iudaeis)
C. Practical Limitation
Jews & the Medieval Church: From Tolerance to Persecution
I. Early Christian Theologians and the Jews
A. Theological Negation
B. Political Toleration
C. Practical Limitation
II. Jews in the Middle Ages
Jews & the Medieval Church: From Tolerance to Persecution
I. Early Christian Theologians and the Jews
A. Theological Negation
B. Political Toleration
C. Practical Limitation
II. Jews in the Middle Ages
A. Early Medieval Background
Jewish money-lenders in medieval France
Jews & the Medieval Church: From Tolerance to Persecution
I. Early Christian Theologians and the Jews
A. Theological Negation
B. Political Toleration
II. Jews in the Era of the Crusades
A. Early Medieval Background
B. The First Crusade: Riots in the Rhineland
1250 French Bible illustration depicts Jews being massacred by Crusaders
Jews & the Medieval Church: From Tolerance to Persecution
I. Early Christian Theologians and the Jews
A. Theological Negation
B. Political Toleration
II. Jews in the Era of the Crusades
A. Early Medieval Background
B. The First Crusade: Riots in the Rhineland
C. The Second Crusade (1145-46) & After
12th century images of monks preaching the Crusades
[Bernard preached] …It is noble of you to wish to go forth against the
Ishmaelites; still, whoever touches a Jew so as to lay hands on his life,
does something as sinful as if he laid hands on Jesus himself! My
disciple, Ralph, who has spoken against them to exterminate them,
has preached only unrighteousness, for, concerning them it stands
written in the Books of Psalms: “Do not kill them, let my people not
be forgotten!”
- Recorded by Ephraim bar Jacob, 1146
Jews & the Medieval Church: From Tolerance to Persecution
I. Early Christian Theologians and the Jews
A. Theological Negation
B. Political Toleration
II. Jews in the Era of the Crusades
A. Early Medieval Background
B. The First Crusade: Riots in the Rhineland
C. The Second Crusade (1145-46) & After
III. Jews Under Islam
Jews & the Medieval Church: From Tolerance to Persecution
I. Early Christian Theologians and the Jews
A. Theological Negation
B. Political Toleration
II. Jews in the Era of the Crusades
A. Early Medieval Background
B. The First Crusade: Riots in the Rhineland
C. The Second Crusade (1145-46) & After
III. Jews Under Islam
A. Muslim Spain
THE RUINED CITADEL
Samuel Ha-Nagid (993-1055)
I billeted a strong force overnight in a citadel laid waste
in former days by other generals. There we slept upon
its back and flanks, while under us its landlords slept.
And I said to my heart: Where are the many people who
once lived here? Where are the builders and vandals,
the rulers and paupers, the slaves and masters? Where
are the begetters and the bereaved, the fathers and the
sons, the mourners and the bridegrooms? And where
are the many people born after the others had died, in
days gone by, after other days and years? Once they
lodged upon the earth; now they are lodged within it.
They passed from their palaces to the grave, from
pleasant courts to dust.
Moses Maimonides teaching (1135-1204)
A page from a draft of
Maimonides’s
Guide to the Perplexed
Jews & the Medieval Church: From Tolerance to Persecution
I. Early Christian Theologians and the Jews
A. Theological Negation
B. Political Toleration
II. Jews in the Era of the Crusades
A. Early Medieval Background
B. The First Crusade: Riots in the Rhineland
C. The Second Crusade (1145-46) & After
III. Jews Under Islam
IV. Christian-Jewish Relations in Later Middle Ages
14th century image of Jewish moneylenders
Jews & the Medieval Church: From Tolerance to Persecution
I. Early Christian Theologians and the Jews
A. Theological Negation
B. Political Toleration
II. Jews in the Era of the Crusades
A. Early Medieval Background
B. The First Crusade: Riots in the Rhineland
C. The Second Crusade (1145-46) & After
III. Jews Under Islam
IV. Christian-Jewish Relations in Later Middle Ages
A. Economic Exploitation
Jews & the Medieval Church: From Tolerance to Persecution
I. Early Christian Theologians and the Jews
A. Theological Negation
B. Political Toleration
II. Jews in the Era of the Crusades
A. Early Medieval Background
B. The First Crusade: Riots in the Rhineland
C. The Second Crusade (1145-46) & After
III. Jews Under Islam
IV. Christian-Jewish Relations in Later Middle Ages
A. Economic Exploitation
B. Increased Religious Persecution
1493 Image of Simon of Trent- artistic conception of a blood libel
Medieval artistic conception of Jews desecrating the Host
A late medieval image of Jews with badges
Medieval Jews & Christians debate