The Bible, Israel, and Antisemitism: Part 11: Medieval Moneylenders and the Blood Libel
Early Christians believed that the Jews had fallen out of favor with God for the crucifixion (“God-killers”) and were therefore driven from their homeland by the Romans (c. AD 135) and dispersed through the nations of the world. Christians believed that their own religion superseded Judaism. After its legalization, Christianity spread through medieval Christendom, seeming to confirm all those ideas. This set the stage for the forging of a brutally hostile Christian antisemitism in the late Middle Ages.
Jews lived in small communities, dependent upon each other to maintain their religious and cultural traditions. Jews were often barred from land ownership, membership in trades and guilds, and as church law made Christian-to-Christian moneylending at interest a sin (e.g. Exodus 22.25), Jews were often pushed into the role of moneylending since they could charge interest. Jews who occupied this niche were often invited into Christian kingdoms and granted protections by kings who needed access to credit to purchase land, trade, and make war.
But when the Christian nobles ended up owing large sums to Jews, the resentful borrowers painted the “filthy God-killing” lenders as money-grubbing exploiters preying upon “good Christian people”. Kings could “punish the evil” by cancelling debts, expelling the “wicked Jews”, and seizing Jewish assets. This happened repeatedly throughout medieval Europe.
These resentments and suspicions took a sinister turn in the late 1100s. Without evidence and without trial, Christians accused Jews of being responsible for every social evil. If a Christian went missing, rumors would spread that Jews had kidnapped and murdered them and either eaten them or used their blood in a secret religious ritual. This came to be called “the blood libel”. Later, stories circulated about Jews stealing communion bread (which Christians believed was the body of Christ) and stabbing it, thus re-enacting the crucifixion. When the Black Death spread across Europe (1348-1351) one of the prevailing theories was that Jews were poisoning wells to kill Christians.
In some of these cases Christians would arrest a random Jew and torture him into confessing – and then they would execute him. In others, mobs would rush upon a Jewish community and slaughter them. Sometimes Jewish men would be murdered, and Jewish women and children would be forced to convert. At times Jewish communities would choose suicide or martyrdom over forced conversion.
These insidious rumors became myths that led to a general suspicion of Jews throughout Europe. These suspicions persisted into the modern era and provided fuel for the widespread antisemitism of the 19th and 20th centuries.
More in the next blog…
Jews lived in small communities, dependent upon each other to maintain their religious and cultural traditions. Jews were often barred from land ownership, membership in trades and guilds, and as church law made Christian-to-Christian moneylending at interest a sin (e.g. Exodus 22.25), Jews were often pushed into the role of moneylending since they could charge interest. Jews who occupied this niche were often invited into Christian kingdoms and granted protections by kings who needed access to credit to purchase land, trade, and make war.
But when the Christian nobles ended up owing large sums to Jews, the resentful borrowers painted the “filthy God-killing” lenders as money-grubbing exploiters preying upon “good Christian people”. Kings could “punish the evil” by cancelling debts, expelling the “wicked Jews”, and seizing Jewish assets. This happened repeatedly throughout medieval Europe.
These resentments and suspicions took a sinister turn in the late 1100s. Without evidence and without trial, Christians accused Jews of being responsible for every social evil. If a Christian went missing, rumors would spread that Jews had kidnapped and murdered them and either eaten them or used their blood in a secret religious ritual. This came to be called “the blood libel”. Later, stories circulated about Jews stealing communion bread (which Christians believed was the body of Christ) and stabbing it, thus re-enacting the crucifixion. When the Black Death spread across Europe (1348-1351) one of the prevailing theories was that Jews were poisoning wells to kill Christians.
In some of these cases Christians would arrest a random Jew and torture him into confessing – and then they would execute him. In others, mobs would rush upon a Jewish community and slaughter them. Sometimes Jewish men would be murdered, and Jewish women and children would be forced to convert. At times Jewish communities would choose suicide or martyrdom over forced conversion.
These insidious rumors became myths that led to a general suspicion of Jews throughout Europe. These suspicions persisted into the modern era and provided fuel for the widespread antisemitism of the 19th and 20th centuries.
More in the next blog…