52 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
studies in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, among others, by the Victorines,
which led to theological discussions between Christians who could read Hebrew
and Jews.128 The old testament was accepted as a basis for argument, but Christian
and Jewish writers accused each other of creating a false impression of it by con-
cealing certain passages—sometimes entire books—or by making additions to the
text.129 Christian writers both proposed doctrinal positions which they knew Jews
would reject and also attempted to refute Jewish rabbinical interpretations.130 in
particular, as they became increasingly aware of classical texts and more expert in
grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic, they became convinced that rational proof could
be provided for Christianity, and so felt particularly challenged by continuing
Jewish rejection of its theology.131 The intellectual awakening of the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries, therefore, tended to increase Christian anti-Judaism.132
Christians lampooned Jews for not accepting key aspects of Christianity.133
Debate about the Eucharist within the Church may have encouraged Jews to
reproach Christians with lack of unity in their faith—indeed it has been suggested
that the growth of blood libel and host desecration charges may have been con-
nected with the fact that from the eleventh century onwards Christian theologians
were developing the doctrine of transubstantiation promulgated at Lateran iV in
1215.134 More acquaintance with Jewish works criticizing Jesus, Mary, and
Christian doctrine may also have stimulated inflammatory charges and libels.135
Cross-fertilization of Christian and Jewish writing is evident in works such as the
twelfth-century Dialogus inter Christianum et Iudeum which covered major topics
separating Christianity from Judaism: the validity of the law of Moses, original sin,
the incarnation, and the trinity.136 Christian writers such as peter Damian, gilbert
Crispin, and peter of Blois all cited old testament texts in their arguments, espe-
cially messianic passages, to prove the Messiah had come, while peter the Venerable’s
Tractatus contra Iudaeorum inveteratam duritiam included a chapter dedicated to
‘the absurd and stupid tales of the Jews’.137
in much the same way as their Christian counterparts searched for inconsisten-
cies in the talmud and other authoritative Jewish texts, Jews proposed detailed
128 Harvey Hames, Like Angels on Jacob’s Ladder: Abraham Abulafia, the Franciscans and Joachimism
(Bristol, 2007), p.2; Moore, Jews and Christians in the Life and Thought of Hugh of St Victor, p.65.
129 Blumenkranz, ‘The roman Church and the Jews’, p.217.
130 Blumenkranz, ‘The roman Church and the Jews’, p.205.
131 Abulafia, ‘Christians and Jews in the High Middle Ages’, pp.22–3.
132 Cohen, ‘Scholarship and intolerance in the Medieval Academy’, p.311.
133 For example, guibert of Nogent’s treatise against the Jews on the incarnation, written by
c.1111; see Abulafia, ‘Christians and Jews in the High Middle Ages’, p.23.
134 Blumenkranz, ‘The roman Church and the Jews’, p.224; Abulafia, ‘Christians and Jews in the
High Middle Ages’, p.26; Little, The Jews in Christian Europe, p.287; roth, The Medieval Conception
of the Jew, pp.303–4.
135 Abulafia, ‘Christians and Jews in the High Middle Ages’, p.27.
136 Anna Abulafia, ‘Jewish-Christian Disputations and the twelfth-Century renaissance’, Journal
of Medieval History 15/2 (1989), 118; Abulafia, ‘Christians and Jews in the High Middle Ages’,
pp.21–2.
137 Little, The Jews in Christian Europe, pp.284–5. For gilbert Crispin’s disputation between a
Christian and a Jew written around 1093, see Abulafia, ‘Christians and Jews in the High Middle Ages’,
p.22.