Holy Wars and Antisemitism
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4 Holy Wars and Antisemitism (700s–1300) At the end of the eleventh century, Muslim Turks threatened Constantinople , the capital of the Byzantine Empire . Emperor Alexius Comnenus , who was also the head of the Eastern or Greek Orthodox Church, appealed to Pope Urban II for help. The pope, who headed the Roman Catholic Church in the western part of the old Roman Empire , called for a holy war. That holy war would later be called a crusade. It was the ! rst of several crusades. (The cross is the central symbol of the Christian faith and the word crusade literally means “a war for the cross.”) Although the crusades did not stop the Turks from taking Constantinople, they did have a profound impact on the way individuals and groups throughout Europe, the Middle East, and beyond saw themselves and others. Jews were deeply affected by the crusades, even though they seemingly had nothing to do with the ! ght. “US” AND “THEM” IN NORTHERN EUROPE In the seventh century, only a few Jews lived in northern Europe. Many of the earliest arrivals were former soldiers in the Roman armies or traders who had followed those armies. By the eighth century, more Jews had settled in the region. Many of them had come by way of the old Roman trade routes. By 900, a growing number of Jewish families were living in the valley of the Moselle River, in what is now France and Germany. And by 1000, some were moving to the Rhineland—the valley of Germany’s Rhine River. The newcomers found themselves in a frontier society where war was commonplace. As a result of repeated invasions by nomadic tribes from other parts of Europe and central Asia, powerful men, each with an army of warriors or knights loyal only to him, ruled much of the region. Each kept the peace and protected the less powerful in his territory in exchange for goods o r services. 56 A CONVENIENT HATRED: THE HISTORY OF ANTISEMITISM This system is known today as feudalism ; it was based on personal relationships. Those relationships may have had their origins in the bonds between the invading warriors and their chiefs. As they settled into the territories they conquered, some chiefs became nobles who granted ! efs—estates—to their warriors in return for their service on the battle- ! eld. These young men were known as vassals . The word comes from the Celtic word for “boy”; in a very real sense, early vassals were “the boys” who fought on behalf of their “chief.” In time the relationships among these warriors and chiefs created a society roughly arranged like a pyramid, with a king or an emperor at the top. Below him were his vassals—the most powerful nobles in the kingdom. Those nobles, in turn, had their own vassals, and so on down the line to the lowest vassals of all—warriors who had no land or soldiers of their own. One’s rank in society depended on the value of the services provided. At the lowest level, serfs held the right to farm a few strips of land for themselves in return for their work on the lord’s estate. At a much higher level, a duke held the right to the income of his large estate in return for providing the king with a certain number of warriors for 40 days each year. Then, as now, titles and ranks could be somewhat misleading. A duke with a strong army could become more powerful than any king, and a peasant with a skill that was in high demand could maintain his indepen- dence in a world that was, increasingly, anything but free. The only unifying force in northern Europe in the days of feudalism was the Roman Catholic Church, headed by the pope. The church struggled to unite Christians by keeping alive Roman laws and learning. Missionaries spread out across northern Europe to convert pagans and stamp out heresies. Although the church had members of all ranks, it was organized in much the way kingdoms were—with the pope at the top of the pyramid and bishops and abbots roughly equal to nobles and knights. In fact, they often came from the same families. Many bishops owned large estates, had many vassals, and relied on serfs to work their land. These church leaders took part in the struggles for power that occurred often throughout northern Europe. A few even went to war themselves. Church leaders also helped kings and other rulers manage their affairs; they were able to read and write at a time when most people in Europe, including many kings, were illiterate. How did Jews ! t into this world? After all, they could not take an oath of loyalty to a great lord and become his vassals; to do so, they would have had to swear their loyalty on the relics of Christian saints, which meant Holy Wars and Antisemitism (700s–1300) 57 at least partially accepting Christianity. And they certainly had not moved north to become serfs. They had settled in the north because they saw opportunities there for a better life. Most Jews arrived in northern Europe in the eighth and ninth centuries. It was a time when the region’s economy was beginning to recover from centuries of wars and invasions. Because Christians had had to concentrate for so long on protecting themselves from invaders, few of them had the skills, experience, or contacts to revive trade with countries along the Mediterranean Sea. For help, a number of rulers turned to Jewish merchants who had lived in the Mediterranean region for gener- ations before making their way no rth. They were experienced in doing business with both Christians and Muslims. These Jews had other advantages as well. Unlike most of their Christian neighbors—serfs, peasants, and even dukes—who were tied to a particular piece of land or even to a particular ruler, many Jews were free to move from place to place. Indeed, those who worked as traders needed to travel. They were also literate at a time when the vast majority of Europeans could neither read nor write. Many were also familiar with a new numbering system used in the Muslim world—the decimal system. It sounds like a small advantage until you think about the dif! culties of adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing long columns of numbers using Roman numerals. Very few Christian merchants were familiar with this new way of working with numbers, because the church considered the decimal system a pagan device well into the 1400s. 1 For Christians, the Jews’ use of the new numbering system added to their differentness and strengthened the sense that they were outsiders. So did the fact that their business dealings were mainly with nobles rather than ordinary people. In a society in which hunger was a fact of life and money scarce, ordinary people could not possibly afford the exotic spices, jewels, or bolts of fancy cloth that many Jewish merchants brought to northern Europe. Not every Jew, of course, was involved in buying and selling luxury goods. Most of the newcomers worked as dyers, shoemakers, blacksmiths, butchers, and harness makers. Others were scribes, winemakers, and phy- sicians. Many did odd jobs. These Jews also aroused strong feelings. Their Christian neighbors saw them as rivals. Yet over the years, the two groups learned how to get along with one another. Christians and Jews swapped everyday goods and services in the marketplace. They also exchanged infor- mation, traded stories, and learned a little about one another’s customs and beliefs. As neighbors, they shared many of the same problems and faced 58 A CONVENIENT HATRED: THE HISTORY OF ANTISEMITISM many of the same risks. Fires, # oods, and a host of epidemics threatened both Christian and Jewish families. Records reveal that the two groups often fought side by side in defense of their town or city. Yet, although these experiences built trust, genuine friendships were rare. Religious differences were often a barrier to close ties between Jews and Christians. The word religion comes from a Latin word meaning “to tie or bind together.” People who share a religion are bound together by common beliefs, values, and customs. They form a community linked not only by a faith but also by a worldview. Although almost every religion teaches respect for individual differences, believers often see nonbelievers (or believers of other faiths and traditions) not only as misguided and blind to the truth but sometimes as devious, dangerous, or even treacherous. Many Christians were particularly troubled by Jews’ refusal to accept Jesus as their messiah. After all, Christians found what they understood to be predictions of Jesus’s return to Earth throughout the Hebrew Scriptures (known to Christians as the Old Testament ). Indeed, they viewed such Jewish prophets and leaders as Moses , Elijah, David , and Isaiah as indi- viduals who foresaw the coming of Jesus centuries before his birth. Why, they wondered, did Jews interpret those passages differently and insist that the prophets were speaking about their own times rather than antici- pating the coming of Jesus? Some Christians came to believe that Jews knew Christianity was the true religion but rejected it anyway. To these Christians, the idea that people would deny the truth was so outrageous that it could have only one explanation—Jews were in part nership with the devil . Why, then, were Jews allowed to live among Christians? The answer dates back to the teachings of St. Augustine (see Chapter 2). He main- tained that the church had a responsibility to keep Jews alive because of their connection to Jesus , who was a Jew.