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Jews and Cathari in Medieval France
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 June 2009
Extract
The flourishing of Catharism in southern France was accompanied by marked prosperity among southern French Jews. While the Cathari were openly professing their heresy and winning converts in the courts of influential nobles, the position of the Jews was noticeably ameliorating. The Jews of Languedoc, for example, held land in franc alleu, collected tolls, and occasionally even worked as bailiffs. Indeed, their social and political status compared favorably with that of their co-religionists in any part of Europe.
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- Jews and Cathari
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- Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1968
References
1 Saige, Gustave, Les juifs de Languedoc (Paris, 1881).Google Scholar For the infeudation of Jews in Languedoc see ibid., Pièces Justificatives, VI, VII, X, XII, and XIII.
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29 Ibid., Innocent III, 24: “ … quare Judei, contra quos clamat vox sanguinis Jesu Christi, etsi occidi non debeant, ne divine legis obliviscatur populus Christianus, dispergi tamen debent super terram ut vagi, quatenus facies ipsorum ignominia repleatur, et querant nomen Domini Jesu Christi”.
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid., Councils, X.
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33 Ibid., 17.
34 Ibid., 23.
35 Ibid., 24.
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