The Persecuting Society: Church, Crown, and Jewish Moneylending

The following text is a re-evaluation of Robert Moore's persecuting society thesis in light of recent criticism. The Persecuting Society asserts that the fundamental condition of Jewish persecution in the 13th century was law and order. In other words, persecution had become an institutionalized phenomenon through which medieval Christians--particularly, the English and French monarchies--segregated, both geographically and ideologically, Jews in England and France. The character of such persecution was primarily economic, but based in religious roots. The paper thus also discusses the role of the Church in establishing and justifying social and economic controls against Jews within the English and French persecutional state apparatuses. The text affirms Moore's persecuting society thesis on two accounts: First, that the English and French crowns developed institutions which marginalized and persecuted Jews; secondly, that functionaries of the Church, particularly ecclesiastic functionaries and later popes of the 13th century, did so as well.