In a message dated 97-07-10 16:40:06 EDT, Tom writes:
> Pat,
> What is decreed and what happens varied greatly. Lateran IV decreed that
> no new religious orders be founded, which did not prevent more from
> being founded. Examples could be multiplied. The law was there to be
> used by those who wanted to confine Jews, but actual efforts never were
> very consistent across the board.
>
> tom izbicki
>
Tom
Most of what I know comes from literature, so please explain further. Some
countries expelled Jews altogether, so had no need for ghettos. In Ivanhoe,
Scott seems to believe that Jews could cross England without being detected.
But that seems conjectural (does he know?), and maybe less to the point than
the edict denying their right to be there. Certainly there was an impairment
of civil rights, so if you're saying it's misconstrued or exagerrated, give
me an outline of how you see it. In another context, I'd be reluctant to
argue that maybe slavery wasn't so bad because, after all, some slaves
escaped.
It's an issue that needs to be aired, because It crops up in such peculiar
ways. In Commedia, Dante has Saint Bernard of Clairveaux as the highest
saint in his highest heaven. If I pick up the literature on Dante, I'm told
Saint Bernard was a mystic. If I pick up the historical literature, I'm told
he's an anti-Semite. Why the discrepancy between these two literatures? I'm
genuiinely baffled about this whole issue, so am interested in any light you
can shed.
pat sloane
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