444 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
predestined to bear the guilt and the punishment of the deed, was receiving its merited portion; 2. They perpetrated horrible atrocities upon Christian children, and mocked the host and the cross; 3. They imposed upon the Christians by exacting exorbitant rates of interest. In no Christian state were they safe. They were aliens in all, and had the rights of citizenship in none. The " enemies of Christ " and " the perfidious " were common names for them, and canonists and theologians use the latter expression. The ritual of Good Friday contained the words, " Let us pray also for the perfidious Jews."1 The Decretals of Gratian, the Third and Fourth Lateran and other councils class together under one and the same canon the Jews and the Saracens.2 Such eminent men as Peter the Venerable have more good to say of the Saracen than of the Jew.
Three classes are to be taken into account in following the treatment of the Jews, — the popes, including the prelates, the princes, and the mass of the people with their priests.
Taking the popes one by one, their utterances were, upon the whole, opposed to inhumane measures and uni formly against the forced baptism of the Jews. Gregory the Great protected them against frenzied persecution in Southern Italy. Innocent IV., 1247, denied the charge of child murder brought against them, and threatened with excommunication Christians oppressing them.3 Martin IV., in 1419, issued a bull in which he declared that he was follow ing his predecessors in commanding that they be not inter rupted in their synagogal worship, or compelled to accept baptism, or persecuted for commercial transactions with Christians. On the other hand, the example of Innocent III. gave countenance to the severest measures, and Eugenius IV. quickly annulled the injunctions of his predecessor, Martin IV.
1 Oremus et pro perfidis Judaeis. Dollinger, p. 216.
2 The caption of Gratian's Decretals, ch. XV. G, is de Judaeis et Saracenis et eorum servis.
» Graetz, VII. 100.
§ 77. THE JEWS. 445
As for the princes, the Jews were regarded as being under their peculiar jurisdiction. At will, they levied taxes upon them, confiscated their goods, and expelled them from their realms. It was to the interest of princes to retain them as sources of revenue, and for this reason they were inclined to protect them against the violence of blind popular prejudice and rage. Frederick II. imposed upon them per petual slavery as a vengeance upon them for the crucifixion.1
The inception of the Crusades was accompanied by violent outbursts against the Jews. Innocent III., in 1216, estab lished the permanent legal basis of their persecution. Their expulsion from Spain, in 1492, represents the culminating act in the mediseval drama of their sufferings. England, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, and Hungary joined in their persecution. In Italy they suffered least. Tens of thousands were burned or otherwise put to death. They were driven, at one time or another, from almost every country. The alternative of baptism or death was often presented to them. The number of those who submitted to death was probably larger than the number who accepted baptism. Most of those, however, who accepted baptism afterwards openly returned to the faith of their fathers or practised its rites in secret.2
It is an interesting fact that, during these centuries of persecution, the Jews, especially in Spain and France, de veloped an energetic literary activity. Gerschom, Raschi, and the Kimchis belong to France. The names of Maimonides and Benjamin of Tudela head a long list of scholarly Spanish Jews. The pages of Graetz are filled with the names and achievements of distinguished students in medicine and other departments of study.3
1 Perpetuam servitutem ad perpetuam Judaici sceleris ultionem, Bre"holles, I. 57.
2 Dollinger's statement, p. 235, that the number who submitted to com pulsory baptism was very insignificant compared to the number who accepted death is not justified by the statistics given by Graetz.
3 Jacobs, Jews in Angevin England, tries to prove that the English Jews also developed a culture of their own. Graetz positively denies this, VI. 225.