>There
>is nothing here restricting Jews to ghettos, but you are not the first
>person to think this. Lateran IV has attracted all sorts of popular
>misconceptions. The only part of this program which is truly original, in a
>Christian context (there is a Muslim precedent), is the requirement that
>Jews and Muslims wear distinctive dress (not a Jew badge, not yet). What I
>think is significant is the way all these canons are grouped together, at
>the end of the long number of canons defining the spiritual borders of
>Christians and the duties and responsibilities of those who called
>themselves Christians.
Moreover, as was pointed out earlier, these regulations were not uniformly
followed. One of the pope's many criticisms of Count Raimond VI of
Toulouse, in addition to his abbetting heretics, was his utilization of
jews in administrational positions. This was forbidden in Lateran IV (and
perhaps in Lat. III?) but the nobility of the Languedoc, and probably
elsewhere, continued to utilize them for some time.
Similarly, in Toulouse at least, the jews appear to have lived "together"
in one region of the city. Nevertheless, there were non-jews who also
lived amongst them, and the neighborhood was not enclosed or otherwise
designated (in the 12th or 13th c. at least) as a "ghetto." A perusal of
street names, or even the accounts of the Parisian tailles of the late 13th
and 14th c. suggest that there were similarly "Italian" neighborhoods, in
addition to the conglomerations of people according to their profession.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Nicole Morgan Schulman Omittamus studia dulce est desipere,
Dept. of History, U. of Toronto et carpamus dulcia iuventutis tenere!
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