The Popes And The Jews In The Middle Ages

Examines the theological attitudes and practical behavior toward Jews of various popes, from Gelasius I (492-496) to Alexander VI (1492-1503). Pre-Christian Rome was favorable to Jews. The first anti-Jewish laws were introduced by the Christian rulers of the Roman Empire. However, papal Rome used Roman law as a pattern for its legislation, and some provisions favorable to Jews were maintained. All of the popes aspired to convert the Jews to Christianity, sometimes due to practical considerations rather than theological ones. For example, Gregory the Great (590-604), who defined the future policies of the papacy toward the Jews, regarded the existence of a heterodox populace among Christians at a time of war against barbarians and heretics as politically dangerous. Despite this, the popes opposed the forced conversion of Jews, protected their lives and personal freedom, and condemned popular anti-Jewish superstitions. Even at the time of the harshest persecutions, popes like Innocent III respected Jews as people who had a unique role in the history of salvation. In medieval papal documents there are no traces of racism. In the 14th-15th centuries, when the problem of Conversos arose, the popes opposed limitations on "New Christians". The lower clergy and the common people did not always follow pontifical prescriptions, and anti-Jewish violence and forced conversion was a common occurrence. Contends that the papacy bears responsibility for what was done by Christians to Jews.

The theme uniting the essays reprinted here is the attitude of the medieval Church, and in particular the papacy, toward the Jewish population of Western Europe. Papal consistency, sometimes sorely tried, in observing the canons and the principles announced by St Paul - that Jews were to be a permanent, if disturbing, part of Christian life - helped balance the anxiety felt by members of the Church. Clerics especially feared what they called Jewish pollution. These themes are the focus of the studies in the first part of this volume. Those in the second part explore aspects of Jewish society and family life, as both were shaped by medieval realities.

Rebecca Rist explores the nature and scope of the relationship of the medieval papacy to the Jews of western Europe in the context of the substantial and on-going social, political, and economic changes of the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries.

A collection of medieval European documents of the Church and state, including theological positions on the Jews; papal decrees and local and national charters granting rights to Jews; documents relating to protection of Jews; ecclesiastic limitations on Jews, relating particularly to usury and attacks on the Talmud; missionizing (e.g. forced sermons and disputations); and persecution by the state (e.g. confiscation of properties, bodily attacks, and expulsions).

The theme uniting the essays reprinted here is the attitude of the medieval Church, and in particular the papacy, toward the Jewish population of Western Europe. Papal consistency, sometimes sorely tried, in observing the canons and the principles announced by St Paul - that Jews were to be a permanent, if disturbing, part of Christian life - helped balance the anxiety felt by members of the Church. Clerics especially feared what they called Jewish pollution. These themes are the focus of the studies in the first part of this volume. Those in the second part explore aspects of Jewish society and family life, as both were shaped by medieval realities.

Story of three Jewish Popes, Anacletus II, Gregory VI, and Gregory VII who ruled the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages, all members of the Pierleoni family of Rome, the so-called "Rothschilds" of their times.

This narrative history surveying one thousand years of Jewish life integrates the Jewish experience into the context of the overall culture and society of medieval Europe. It presents a new picture of the interaction between Christians and Jews in this tumultuous era. Alienated Minority shows us what it meant to be a Jew in Europe in the Middle Ages. The story begins in the fifth century, when autonomous Jewish rule in Palestine came to a close, and when the papacy, led by Gregory the Great, established enduring principles regarding Christian policy toward Jews. Kenneth Stow examines the structures of self-government in the European Jewish community and the centrality of emerging concepts of representation. He studies economic enterprise, especially banking; constructs a clear image of the medieval Jewish family; and portrays in detail the very rich Jewish intellectual life. Analyzing policies of Church and State in the Middle Ages, Stow argues that a firmly defined legal and constitutional position of the Jewish minority in the earlier period gave way to a legal status created expressly for Jews, who in the later period were seen as inimical to the common good. It was this special status that paved the way for the royal expulsions of Jews that began at the end of the thirteenth century.