The Popes and the Jews in the Middle Ages

The Popes and the Jews in the Middle Ages PDF

Author: Edward A. Synan

Publisher: New York : Macmillan

Published: 1965

Total Pages: 264

ISBN-13:

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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.

Popes and Jews, 1095-1291

Popes and Jews, 1095-1291 PDF

Author: Rebecca Rist

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 0198717989

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In Popes and Jews, 1095-1291, Rebecca Rist explores the nature and scope of the relationship of the medieval papacy to the Jewish communities of western Europe. Rist analyses papal pronouncements in the context of the substantial and on-going social, political, and economic changes of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, as well the characters and preoccupations of individual pontiffs and the development of Christian theology. She breaks new ground in exploring the other side of the story - Jewish perceptions of both individual popes and the papacy as an institution - through analysis of a wide range of contemporary Hebrew and Latin documents. The author engages with the works of recent scholars in the field of Christian-Jewish relations to examine the social and legal status of Jewish communities in light of the papacy's authorisation of crusading, prohibitions against money lending, and condemnation of the Talmud, as well as increasing charges of ritual murder and host desecration, the growth of both Christian and Jewish polemical literature, and the advent of the Mendicant Orders. Popes and Jews, 1095-1291 is an important addition to recent work on medieval Christian-Jewish relations. Furthermore, its subject matter - religious and cultural exchange between Jews and Christians during a period crucial for our understanding of the growth of the Western world, the rise of nation states, and the development of relations between East and West - makes it extremely relevant to today's multi-cultural and multi-faith society.

Popes, Church, and Jews in the Middle Ages

Popes, Church, and Jews in the Middle Ages PDF

Author: Kenneth Stow

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-05-09

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 1000951111

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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.

Popes, Church, and Jews in the Middle Ages

Popes, Church, and Jews in the Middle Ages PDF

Author: Kenneth Stow

Publisher:

Published: 2023

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781003417354

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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.

Popes from the Ghetto

Popes from the Ghetto PDF

Author: Joachim Prinz

Publisher:

Published: 1968

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13:

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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.

Alienated Minority

Alienated Minority PDF

Author: Kenneth Stow

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-06-01

Total Pages: 364

ISBN-13: 9780674044050

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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.