Anti-Semitism in European Middle Ages 800-1400 (Encyclopaedia Judaica)

["Christian" leadership stating that Jews are better observing - influence on the "Christian" population - racist Church legislation against the Jews - First Crusade of 1096 and massacres and suicides]

<Jews had appeared in western Europe from the beginning of the Christian era. At the commencement of the Middle Ages, no sign of singular animosity toward them was discernible [[was to see]]. The clerical anti-Jewish polemics of the period deplored the influence the Jews exerted on the people, and pointed to the existence of cordial, sometimes intimate, Judeo-Christian relations. Characteristic are the epistles of the ninth-century Christian reformer Archbishop *Agobard:

"Things have reached a stage where ignorant Christians claim that the Jews preach better than our priests ... some Christians even celebrate the Sabbath with the Jews and violate the holy repose of Sunday ... Men of the people, peasants, allow themselves to be plunged into such a sea of errors that they regard the Jews as the only people of God, and consider that they combine the observance of a pure religion and a truer faith than ours."

The *Church Councils continually legislated to prevent these contacts. Ecclesiastical propaganda seems to have produced its first fruits at the beginning of the 11th century, when persecutions and expulsions were recorded in Rouen, Orleans, Limoges, and Main. A persecution inflicted at the time on Christians in the Orient was used as a pretext, and, apparently dating from the same period is the fable depicting the Jews as legionaries of the Anti-Christ.

However, the crucial event was the First Crusade (1096). Religious excitation commingled with greed for gain. As bands of crusaders set out to recapture the sepulcher of Jesus they were prompted to wreak vengeance on Jesus' legendary enemies, and attacked the Jewish quarters of German and French towns along their way. The massacres perpetrated during the summer of 1096 made a lasting impression on both Christians and Jews. The tradition of sacrifice, *Kiddush ha-Shem, was expressed in collective suicides to avoid forced conversion [[and to avoid the stake]]. (col. 101)

[Guilds without Jews - money questions - the criminal "Christian" church demonizing the Jews]

<European economic life began to revive in the 12th century. Although the Christian guilds which began to flourish in the cities did not admit Jews, an action which had unfavorably repercussions on their commercial activities, the economic resurgence in Europe considerably increased credit operations, against which the church began to adopt measures.

The church regarded the practice of *usury [[high interest rates]] as endangering the eternal salvation of its flock [[human herd]], and opposed the overt and authorized practice of usury, i.e., the acceptance of pledges [[temporary deposits for money]], with particular severity. Being inevitable in contemporary economic conditions, however, the church subsequently endorsed the practice of usury by the Jews, for according to the prevalent opinion their souls were lost in any case.

The doctrine and practice which thus spread constituted a major source of anti-Semitism for, in general, agrarian societies tended to leave the practice of usury to foreigners (those who were not "brothers"). The Jew, already stigmatized as an infidel and decide, was now regarded by most as the direct antagonist of the Christian, and thus began to symbolize the hostile stranger par excellence. The process of differentiation was slow, as (col. 101)

shown by the legend of a miraculous conversion around 1220 which places the following question in the mouth of a little girl:

"Why is it that the Jews and the Christians have different names since they speak the same language and wear the same clothes?" Thus the Jews was distinguished primarily by his name, and in contemporary idiom the verb "to judaize" meant both to be a heretic and to lend money on interest.

[Secret collaboration with the Jewish capital of princes and church high officials - Aquinas' judgment - Crusade preaching and scapegoat role]

Secular princes and church prelates were in fact the Jews' silent partners in the practice of usury. Although this partnership multiplied the sources of internal antagonism among Christians, the Jews were assured of an influential protection justified by patristic doctrines: the monarchs of the Holy Roman Empire regarded the Jews as serfs of the chamber (*servi camerae).

Thomas *Aquinas considered them condemned to perpetual servitude because of their crime, but they were not to be deprived of the necessities of life. As a later scholastic, Angelo di Chivasso (1411-1495), said: "to be a Jew is a crime, not, however, punishable by a Christian."

Each renewed preaching for the Crusades roused anti-Jewish excesses, despite the protection afforded by the ecclesiastical and lay authorities. Religious consciousness in the masses intensified, and the evolution of theological thinking tended to emphasize and particularize the Jewish role as the scapegoat of Christianity.

[Lateran Council of 1215: host desecration decision - Jews have to wear a distinguishing mark to hinder relations between Jews and "Christians"]

The 12th and 13th centuries saw the crystallization of the doctrine of transubstantiation, whereby the flesh and blood of Christ become present in the consecrated Host and wine - a doctrine definitively stated at the Fourth *Lateran Council (1215). As a result, the Eucharistic [[Lord's supper]] cult acquired concrete character.

Miraculous tales in connection with the Host, proliferated, frequently of *Host desecration by the Jews, and the *blood libel also began to inflict its ravages. These two closely connected allegations both relate to the delusion that a criminal conspiracy was being fabricated by the Jews against Jesus and the Christians. Psychologists have explained this suspicion as the transference of a guilt complex on the part of communicants. In partaking of the flesh and blood, they sought to identify themselves with the God-man who had taken upon himself the sins of the world, but they were unable to attain this identification satisfactorily. The resultant feeling of culpability could well be projected onto the "witness" people: the Jews were the people of God, but the only group to remain outside the universal communion of Christians.

The Fourth Lateran Council also promulgated a canon requiring the Jews to wear a distinguishing mark: the decision was intended to make any intimate relations between Jews and Christians impossible. The form of mark was not specified. In practice, the Jews in Latin countries were made to adopt a disk sewn onto their clothing, and in the Germanic countries a distinctive hat. Characteristically, contemporary iconography also depicts the biblical patriarchs, as well as Christian heretics of all kinds, in this dress. The appearance of the Jewish "badge also helped to propagate fables that showed the Jews as physically different from other men. Other features ascribed include a tail and horns - the attributes of the devil - and a distinctive smell (foetor judaicus), the converse of "the odor of sanctity". (col. 102)

[Expulsion wave since 1290 - Jews damned as "wandering Jews"]

During the 13th century the economic position of the Jews, and consequently the protection from which they benefited, was impaired by the development of finance on an international scale in Italy by, e.g., the Florentine and Siennese banks, and by the Lombards in France. [[Then the Crusader States were completely lost since 1290]]. The [[racist "Christian]] kings of England found that they could now dispense with the services of the Jews, and expelled them in 1290. In 1306 the first general expulsion from France took place. *Expulsions (col. 102)

and massacres also followed in the [[racist "Christian]] German towns. The mass expulsions helped to perpetuate the image of Jewish homelessness, of the *Wandering Jew condemned to roam from country to country. In the eyes of the masses.

[Racist "Christian" anti-Semitic Passion plays since 14th century]

At the beginning of the 14th century the specter of conspiracy against [[criminal racist]] Christianity found new expression in the popular belief that the wells were being poisoned by the Jews. It is necessary to draw a distinction between these myths of a popular demonology, which the church itself did not endorse, but on the contrary combated, and the clerical anti-Jewish tradition. Apart from the religious and economic factors referred to above, persistent agencies of religious excitation were the development of a literature written in the vernacular and the growing popularity of the "Passion plays", which reenacted the crucifixion. Passion plays took place annually, lasted several days, and presented the cruelty and perfidity of the Jewish executioners in a highly realistic fashion.

[Protection of Jews by authorities - works - Muslim Spain with tolerance - racist "Christian" Spain with inquisition and expulsion of the Jews]

Very often the established lay and ecclesiastical authorities continued to protect the Jews. The most implacable adversaries of the Jews were now recruited among the rising middle class, and particularly among the mendicant Franciscan and Dominican orders. The Italian anti-Jewish Franciscan preachers John of *Capistrano and *Bernardino da Feltre, at whose instigation the institution of the *Monte di Pietà [["Hill of Mercy"]] spread rapidly, and the Dominican Vincente *Ferrer in Spain, were especially vituperative [[sharp]]. In Spain, the slow pace of the [[criminal racist]] Christian reconquest - a process lasting from the 11th to the 15th centuries - enabled the Jews to continue to benefit from a privileged situation.

Thus the conceptions current in the rest of Europe took time to spread to the Peninsula. It was not until the end of the 14th century that the preaching of Archdeacon Fernando *Martinez of Seville set in motion a wave of bloody persecutions. The numerical and social importance of Spanish Jewry resulted in a different evolution, particularly the phenomenon of Crypto-Judaism practiced by the *Conversos. The Castilian *Inquisition was founded in 1478 to eradicate it. In 1492 Jews of the faith were expelled from Spain after a preliminary blood libel trial - the case of Nino de la Guardia - had been staged.

[[The same criminal Inquisition of criminal racist Church happened in racist Portugal]].

[Poland as a Jewish center - Russia as the center of criminal anti-Semitic Orthodox Church]

Poland, where a [[criminal racist]] Christian middle class was slow to develop, became the principal country of refuge for European Jewry at the end of the Middle Ages. [[The Jews were used as settlers to develop the country]]. Russia however, followed a different course in consequence of a religious schism which menaced Russian Orthodoxy at the end of the 14th century. This "judaizing heresy" predicated in an extreme form the tendencies of return to the Old Testament present in the Reformation movements of western Europe. It acquired followers at the court of Moscow but was rapidly stifled. As a result, access to Russia was barred to Jews hereafter. Religious struggle was thus the starting point for the traditional judeophobia of the ruling Russian dynasties.

[Anti-Semitism becomes a custom in languages and in criminal racist "Christian" religious instruction of criminal racist "Christian" Church]

In general, popular susceptibility to anti-Semitism developed in the Middle Ages. It was henceforth perpetuated by linguistic usage and religious instruction. In all languages the term "Jew" and its derivatives had assumed a derogatory significance. Religious instruction by the catechism, practically the only form of popular education until a later period, instilled hostility against the "executioners of Christ" into the souls of children. "If it is incumbent upon a good Christian to detest the Jews, then we are all good Christians", Erasmus stated ironically at the beginning of the 16th century.> (col. 107)

[Propaganda strategies of criminal racist anti-Semitic "Christian" Church against the Jewish population 1215-1500]

[[It can be admitted that also Jewish propaganda had it's strategies against the "Christians" with their "Jesus"]].

[The defamation strategy of robbery]

Example of a "legend": A Jew is said having stolen a picture of "holy virgin" Maria

Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Anti-Semitism, vol. 3, col. 109-110: Six panels illustrating a legend about the theft of a
picture of the Virgin Mary by a Jew by Alfonso X of Castile (1252-1284)

Six panels illustrating a legend about the theft of a picture of the Virgin Mary by a Jew. From Las Cantigas de Santa Maria, a compilation of poetry and music by Alfonso X of Castile (1252-1284). Madrid, Escorial Library, Ms. T-I-I, Cant. 34. From left to right: The Jew steals the picture; urged on by a devil, he hides it in the toilet bowl; two devils carry him away to his death; a Christian and his wife find the picture and wash it clean; the couple give the picture a place of honor in their home; pilgrims come to pay homage to the holy picture.

The Desecration of the Host

The accusation that the consecrated wafer used in the celebration of the Mass was defiled by Jews in their desire to recrucify Jesus.

[[See the example]]: "The Profanation of the Host", a series of six panels painted by Paolo Uccello c. 1468 for a church in Urbino. Urbino, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche.

Paolo Uccello: Jews are said having stolen the host

Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Anti-Semitism, vol. 3, col. 103-104a: The [[Jewish]] woman who has
stolen the Host hands it over to a Jewish pawnbroker. Detail of first panel.

Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Anti-Semitism, vol. 3, col. 103-104b: The terrified Jew and his family watch as blood flows from the Host, which they have tried to burn, while [["Christian"]] soldiers break down the door. Two details from second panel.

Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Anti-Semitism, vol. 3, col. 105-106: The Jew,his wife, and their
children are burned at the [["Christian"]] stake. Detail from third panel

[The defamation strategy of the sow]

Die Judensau: The Jewish Sow

An early German libel which gained widespread popularity associated Jews with the unclean pig forbidden for them by the laws of kashrut [[nutrition rules]]. Originating in the 13th century and appearing first in three-dimensional form in churches and town-halls and later as illustrations in books and broadsheets, it took the form of Jews sucking from a sow, resp. from a pig, resp. from a boar. Often a rabbi straddled the animal backwards, sucking its tail.

Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Anti-Semitism, vol. 3, col. 117, chair in Cologne Cathedral from14th century with a Jew suckling a Jewish sow, and two others feeding it. [[You can see the pointed Jewish hats]].

Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Anti-Semitism, vol. 3, col. 117-118, a 15th-century German woodcut of a Jewish
sow, in this case a boar.

The Jews have pointed Jewish hats.

[[Addition: The wrong idea of the sow - the intelligent and helpful sow

The whole history of the "sow" resp. the pig or the boar is misleading the "Christian" and the Jewish population. Before Jewry existed (before the Mose books were written) the sow resp. the pig was a holy animal in the former religions, and it was forbidden by the Jewish patriarcs because there had to be made a front against the other religions. "Christian" propaganda made their own stories about sows and pigs and connected the sow with dirt. But a sow resp. a pig is only "dirty" when it's kept in the dirt. Sows and pigs are very intelligent animals, and one has to consider that every tooth brush and every brush was made of sow and pig bristles before plastic times. Add to this there has never died anybody because of sow meat]].

[The defamation strategy of killing of "Christian" children]

Tales of a killed child - combined with a Jewish sow

Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Anti-Semitism, vol. 3, col. 119-120, allegation having
killed a "Christian" child, in combination with the Jewish sow

An early 18th-century Frankfort broadsheet combined the Judensau and the Simon of Trent libels. the horned Jewish devil urges the Jews to drink the sow's milk and eat its excrement, "since they are, after all, your best delicacies."

Text concerning the child:
Anno 1475 am Grünen-Donnerstag war das Kindlein Simeon 2 Jahr alt, als es von den Juden ist umgebracht worden.
Diese Abbildung stehet zu Franckfurt am Maÿn am Brücken Thurn abgemahlt.

French: Cet enfant,nommé Simeon, agé de 2 Ans fut tué par les Juifs le jour du Grand-Jeudi de l'An 1475.
Ce portrait est peint, sous la porte du pont de Francfort sur Le Mayn.

[[Engl.: In 1475 on Great Thursday the child Simeon of 2 years was murdered by the Jews.
This picture is shown in Frankfort on the Main on the Tower Bridge. This is a copy of it.]]

Text concerning the Jewish Sow:
Au weih Rabbi Anschl, au, au! Mausch, au weih, au, au!
Sauff Mauschi sauff, die Milch! Friss du Rabbi den Dreck, es ist doch alle Zeit euer bestes Geschleck!

O Veh Rabbi Anschel, au, au! Maûche o Veh, au, au!
Bois Maûche, bois ce lait! Manges Juifs, ces ordures! Ces sont friands pour vous, de bonnes confitures.

[[Engl.: Wow rabbi Anschl, wow, wow! Mausch, wow, wow!
Drink Mauche, drink the milk! Eat, Jews, eat this shit! This is the best you can eat, it's your marmelade]].

[The defamation strategy of having sex with "Christian" women"]

[[In the name of a certain "Jesus" criminal "Christian" Church claimed that all "Christian" women would be "spiritually the wives of Our Lord Jesus Christ". By this impossible claim criminal "Christian" Church invented lots of racist laws against sexual relations between the religions and between the races, e.g., against sex between black and white]].

<Erotica

The theme of Jewish sexuality and sensuality, especially in relation to Christian women, is of early origin. The code of Spanish law, Las Siete Partides, compiled under the supervision of Alfonso X c. 1265, included a series of laws concerning the Jews. Law IX is entitled: What penalty a Jew deserves who has intercourse with a Christian woman.

Jews who live with Christian women are guilty of great insolence and boldness, for which reason we decree that all Jews who, hereafter, may be convicted of having done such a thing shall be put to death. For if Christians who commit adultery with married women deserve death on that account, much more do Jews who have sexual intercourse with Christian women, who are spiritually the wives of Our Lord Jesus Christ because of the faith and the baptism which they receive in His name; nor do we consider it proper that a Christian woman who commits an offense of this kind shall escape without punishment. Wherefore we order that, whether she be a virgin, a married woman, a widow, or a common prostitute who gives herself to all men, she shall suffer the same penalty which we mentioned in the last law in the Title concerning the Moors, to which a Christian woman is liable who has carnal intercourse with a Moor [i.e., confiscation of property, scourging, or death].> (col. 127-128)

Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Anti-Semitism, vol. 3, col. 127-128, cartoon showing
Jewish grandfathers showing a young naked "Christian" woman

These examples of pictures of anti-Semitism are only for documentation.

[[Addition: The Plague - and the expulsions of the Jews

The four allegations of the defamation strategy of
1. robbery
2. Jewish sow
3. killing children
4. having sex with "Christian" women who were considered the wives of a certain "Jesus"

were a killing propaganda strategy of criminal racist "Christian" Church. It can be admitted that there were also Jewish allegations against non-Jews which are never presented in Encyclopaedia Judaica.

When the plague came up by the rat flea on the Asian rats (which were transported in Italian "Christian" commercial cargo vessels), the "science" of these days could not explain the illness of the plague and the Jews were given the guilt. In combination with the defamation strategies before the mental forces of the racist "Christian" authorities went into an inexcusable expulsion wave against the Jews. Until now the "holy" books are not cleaned of the defamations against other religions. The "religions" and their "holy books" are even protected with their defamations, and nobody changes the defamating "holy books" until today...]]

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Sources
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Anti-Semitism, vol. 3, col. 101-102	Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Anti-Semitism, vol. 3, col. 103-104	Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Anti-Semitism, vol. 3, col. 105-106	Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Anti-Semitism, vol. 3, col. 107-108
Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Anti-Semitism, vol. 3, col. 109-110	Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Anti-Semitism, vol. 3, col. 117-118	Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Anti-Semitism, vol. 3, col. 119-120	Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971): Anti-Semitism, vol. 3, col. 127-128

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