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Medieval Anti Jewish Nationalism During The Reformation Of The Roman Empire

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The sons of Israel must have lived in a constant state of fear ever since Christianity first saw a glimpse of power. Who else could draw the ire of the Christians than those who dare stain their fists with the sanguine blessing of the lord? Following the Catholic reformation of the Roman empire was the immediate vilification of the Jews, whose near constant state of poverty in separate settlements allowed the ruling population to maintain control of them while feigning fear. Medieval anti-Jewish sentiment was used by the leaders of the Christian masses as a mitigating force for their societal aches. The supposed treacheries of the Jews were simply common ailments of most civilizations.
The beginning of the 10th century denotes the zealous…show more content…
Once this point was reached, the people who actually met Jews were assuaged of guilt in their dealings with them. Peril was quick to follow when these remorseless folk were given reason to react, which is where Christianity took the reigns. Jews were guilty of “Blood Libel”, they were the killers of Jesus, who refused his love and would rather run to the arms of the anti-Christ or the Muslim invaders. The heavy Christian influence and the Crusades made it a dangerous time for Jews. To the Christian people of Europe the Jews became a venomous foe for which they could attack in the name of Christ. Ademar de Chabannes was a particularly fierce fighter against Jewish sacrilege.
Ademar believes that the Jews were allies of the heretics and saracens and nearly identical to them because each of these groups rejected the truth of the Christian faith. In one of his later sermons, he clearly identifies Jews and heretics as essentially the same when he notes that just as the Jews in Jesus’ day refused to believe that he was the living bread, now, in Ademar’s own day, the heretics refuse to believe in the truth of the Eucharist Jews, with the murder of Christ became the living embodiment of Heresy, an ultimate rejection of faith. This crime gripped the heartstrings of the Christians so much so that any response had to be momentous. It became an irrational action to an unfathomable misdeed. A compounding factor was the Crusades. The Islamic-Christian conflict forced
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