Pat,
I am just reading myself back into the literature on medieval
Antisemitism/Antijudaism. It is copious. Among the writers I need to
tackle are Chazan & Langmuir, but I did ready Jeremy Cohen's The Friars &
the Jews back the last time I was pursuing this topic. I think it is a
purely modern thing to separate out what we find unpleasant about a
figure (Bernard, in your example) and what we find admirable (his
mysticism). Like ourselves, the people we study were bundles of ideas
and impulses which may seem contradictory from outside but were part and
parcel of their own worldview.
On the specific point of my message, my intent was not to offer some
rehabilitation but to point out, as one who has worked on canon law over
many years, that the existence of legislation does not mean that
enforcement was uniform. In fact, the multiple repetitions of
certain prohibitions (e.g., against clerical concubinage) suggests to me
that laws often are not enforced. The actual situation of the Jews in
any kingdom or region has to be investigated from local sources. Any
local authorities wishing to create a ghetto or attempt other forms of
segregation of Jews could reach for the Lateran legilation for a model,
but even that effort might fall into disuse with time.
tom
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