Jewish–Christian relations during
the thirteenth century
The thirteenth century witnessed a steady deterioration in the condition of
Jews at a time of cultural flourishing and communal development. This
was due largely to a general rise in Christian piety, from above and from
below, and growing influence of the pope and the Christian clergy on
Christian sovereigns. From above, the papacy reasserted its influence over
the lives of European Christians in 1215 at the Fourth Lateran Council.
While its edicts dealt primarily with the regulation of Christian life,
Canons 67–70 had a direct bearing on Jews. Canon 67 placed a limit on
the rate of interest Jewish creditors could charge Christian debtors and
cancelled the debts owed to Jewish creditors by crusaders. Canon 68
required Jews to wear a distinguishing badge or form of dress, and forbade
Jews (and Muslims) from appearing in public on Christian holidays. Canon
69 forbade Jews from holding public office, apparently a common practice
hitherto. Canon 70 encouraged Christian clergy to prevent Jewish converts
to Christianity from converting back to Judaism. The impact of these
decrees depended on the willingness of Christian sovereigns to enforce
them, which varied from state to state. On the whole, they led to the
increasing impoverishment of Jews and to a growing separation of Jews
from the Christian population, particularly in France. To aid in the papal
efforts to heighten Christian piety, the pope created the Papal Inquisition
in 1233 (not to be confused with its Spanish counterpart, which was
formed more than two centuries later).
Papal attempts to revivify Christendom were complemented by grassroots
initiatives within the church, notably the emergence of two mendicant
orders, the Franciscans and the Dominicans. More than anyone else, the men-
dicant orders spearheaded the assault on Christian heresy and religious laxity.
They attributed the decline of Christian piety in part to excess contact
between Christians and Jews and to the material success of Jews despite the
Augustinian instruction that Jews be made to suffer.
In assessing the presence of Jews in Christian Europe, Dominican scholars
such as Raymond Martini reinterpreted two of Augustine’s four reasons for
Christian toleration of Jews. A pervading notion in the thirteenth century
that the Second Coming of Christ was imminent diminished the urgency of
Augustine’s notion that Jews must be allowed to remain Jews until the end of
time. This led to an escalation of missionary efforts among Jews. More impor-
tant, perhaps, during the thirteenth century Christian scholars discovered the
existence of postbiblical Judaism; hitherto, they had apparently presumed
Judaism to be the Judaism of the Bible and the time of Christ. Because
Augustine had rooted toleration of Jews in the role of Jews as preservers of
Scripture, there was no basis for tolerating postbiblical – that is, Rabbinic –
Judaism. This led to two forms of attack on the Talmud: actual burning of
88 The Jews of medieval Christendom