The Christian Reaction.—The third and fourth Lateran councils (1179-1215), roused to suspicion through the Albigen sian movement, marked the growth of the reaction against the Jew. Besides renewing the old restrictions forbidding Gentiles to enter into Jewish service or to be otherwise subordinated, they ordered the infidels to be distinguished by a special badge and forbade the faithful so much as to lodge amongst them, thus lay ing the foundation of the infamous Ghetto system (q.v.). These regulations were not everywhere immediately or consistently en forced, but they remained a part of the ecclesiastical panoply, to come again into prominence in the 15th century, in the wake of the Hussite wars and the preaching of John of Capistrano, and in the i6th, as a consequence of the reformation. The counter offensive against heresy found its expression also in conversionist sermons at which attendance was enforced; in the censorship or confiscation of Hebrew books; and in compulsory religious dis putations, the most important of which were those of Paris before Louis IX. in 1240 and of Tortosa under the patronage of the anti pope Benedict XIII. in 1413-14. The inevitable result of all this was to make the popular prejudice still stronger.
The last country of western Europe to be settled by the Jews had been England, whither they penetrated in the wake of the Norman Conquest (in the Scandinavian countries, they never figured to any appreciable extent). This marked the culmination of the western sweep which had been going on since the begin ning of the Christian era, and had made the Jews into an essen tially European people. The backward swing of the pendulum began almost immediately. With the First Crusade (1o96), there took place in the Rhineland the first of the long series of mas sacres which made the middle ages one long martyrdom for the Jews and ultimately had the effect of driving them back again towards the east. These were henceforth renewed on every con ceivable pretext in almost every country of Europe. To reinforce racial and religious prejudice, the infamous ritual murder accusa tion (q.v.) became common from the 12th century, and the even more fantastic charge of the desecration of the Host was formu lated at the beginning of the 13th century of ter the recognition of the doctrine of transubstantiation. Meanwhile, the growth of the financial activities of the Lombards and Cahorsins rendered the Jew less necessary in the field which he had previously tended to monopolize, and drove him into the meaner calling of pawn broking.
The logical outcome of the changed condition of affairs was, in current opinion, to drive the infidel away altogether. This had previously happened in isolated cities or regions, the first country to rid itself of the Jews entirely was England, whence they were expelled by Edward I. in 1290. This was followed
a few years later by the more deadly expulsion of the far more important communities of France (1306), which a couple of partial recalls (1315 ff. and utterly failed to make good. From Germany, by reason of its special political conditions, there was no general expulsion. It figures instead as the classical land of Jewish martyrdom, where banishment was employed only locally and sporadically to complete the work of the long series of massacres. These reached their climax, though not their close, at the period of the black death, when the absurd charge of poisoning the wells became current. Some of the refugees crossed the Alps into Italy, where, owing to the tolerant example of the Holy See, conditions were better. But the vast majority turned their steps towards Poland, where their settlement was especially encouraged by Casimir the Great 70). This was the origin of the vast nuclei of Jews in the old Russian empire, who still retain the German dialect which their ancestors brought with them from the West and imposed upon the indigenous communities which they found on their arrival.
In Spain the condition of the Jews, even under the Christian rulers, compared very favourably with that of their brethren in northern Europe. However, with the passage of time and the growth of national and religious feeling, their situation deterio rated. In 1391, and again in 1411, a wild wave of massacre swept through the Peninsula. Following the example of their fathers in Gothic times, many Jews (less stout-hearted than their breth ren elsewhere) sought refuge in baptism. To cope with the problem of these so-called Marranos, who remained true at heart to their old faith, the Inquisition was introduced (1478). But the presence in the country of Jews true to their religion seemed a constant encouragement for their converted brethren to relapse. Accordingly, four months after the capture of Gra nada (which did away with all need for further conciliating the religious minority), Ferdinand and Isabella issued the edict of expulsion which put an end to the settlement of the Jews in Spain after so many centuries (March 31, 1492). This included the more distant possessions of the crown of Aragon—Sicily and Sardinia—in spite of the fact that the problem of the crypto Jew was unknown in them. It was in vain that Isaac Abrabanel (1437-1508), the last of the long line of Jewish scholar-states men in the Peninsula, begged for reconsideration. The edict was imitated in Portugal' (1496) and in Navarre (1498) after a very brief interval. Almost simultaneously, the last remnant of the ancient French communities was banished from Provence. An expulsion from the kingdom of Naples (1510 and, more com pletely, 1548) and from the duchy of Milan (1597) followed the Spanish occupation.