The ideology of reform and changing ideas concerning Jews in the works of rupert of deutz and hermannus quondam iudeus
In 1965 Lea Dasberg postulated that one result of the Investiture Struggle was that the political and economic status of the Jews began to erode. Jews, as the perceived allies of the emperor, were cast in the role of the enemies of an increasingly assertive Church intent on establishing its freedom from all non-ecclesiastical interference.' This theory has not received widespread acclaim; nonetheless, there is an obvious appeal in the suggestion that one should investigate possible connections between the Gregorian Reform and changing twelfth-century attitudes of Christians to Jews. The religious revival toward the end of the eleventh century, which spilled over into the twelfth century, was marked by the attempt of the reforming popes to disengage the Church from lay authority. In the eyes of popes such as Gregory VII, only a Church unimpeded by temporal encroachment could play its allotted function to create in society iustitia, or justice. And that meant total compliance of all who lived in that society with the life ordained by Jesus Christ.2 Only a universal Church that was properly steered by Rome, through papal legates and bishops who looked to Rome for instruction, could effectively play this role. One side of the Reform movement thus concentrated on the structure which the Church needed in order to Christianize society.
Biblical Exegesis and the Jewish-Christian Controversy in the Early Twelfth Century
In the prologue to his commentary on Leviticus composed in the mid- twelfth century, the reformist abbot Ralph of Flaix noted with anxiety the effect on his monks of Jewish argumentation against Christian exegesis of the Old Testament:
The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Authority and Deviance in Western Europe 950-1250
Preface to the Second Edition. Preface to the First Edition. Introduction. 1. Persecution. Heretics. Jews. Lepers. The Common Enemy. 2. Classification. 3. Purity and Danger. 4. Power and Reason. 5. A Persecuting Society. Bibliographical Excursus: Debating the Persecuting Society. Bibliography. Index