Daily Medieval

Moses of Oxford was one of the most prominent scholars and legal minds in Anglo-Jewry of the 13th century. Born in Oxford to a four-generati...

Just as London had a Jewish presence after the arrival of William and the Norman French, Oxford started to see a significant Jewish popula...

In the City of London there is a street still called Old Jewry, currently dominated mostly by financial offices. In 2001 the remains of a mi...

The difference between different groups of Jews starts with the Jewish Diaspora, the displacement of Israelites outside of the Southern Leva...

The first book printed in Hebrew with a date on it was printed in Italy and dated 18 February 1475. It was a commentary by Rashi on the Chu...

An exegete is someone who interprets a text, especially religious texts. One of the leading Jewish exegetes in the Middle Ages was Shlomo Yi...

"Apostasy" is the abandonment or renunciation of a religious (or political) belief. Yesterday's post on Canon 70 of the Fourt...

After the past few entries concerning the anti-Jewish Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, we come finally to Canon 70, dealing wi...

The attempt to limit contact with Jews in public and keep their public authority diminished forced them to wind up being more crucial than e...

Continuing our look at the final four Canons of the proceedings of the 1215 Fourth Lateran Council , we come to Canon 68, which wanted to ma...

Today we look specifically at the institutional racism against Jews established by Pope Innocent III in the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215...

Modern ideas of race and racism are largely based on skin color, but the Middle Ages saw many other factors. To quote ( again ) Regino of Pr...

Not everyone believed that race and ethnicity were purely a result of being descended from the sons of Noah. Some felt the natural world/en...

What did medieval people think about different races? How did they distinguish one ethnic group from another? This question occurred to me w...

Although Charlemagne is a famous name, and we know a lot about him, his descendants and the events of the Carolingian era are not always wel...

In Saint-Omer in France there was a Benedictine abbey called the Abbey of St. Bertin , founded in 638 and existing right up to the late 18th...

Our discussion on clerical celibacy , and how Emperor Justinian decreed no bishop or higher position could be married, leads us to take a l...

Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (527 - 565) took a keen interest in Christianity, and he had some thoughts on clerical celibacy . His Justini...

The last post talked about attempts by popes to "monasticize" parish priests, preventing them from having families that could be ...

Pope Gregory VII (c.1015 - 1085) tried to establish many reforms in the Church, they did not all "stick." One of his reforms was t...

The Fourth Lateran Council called in 1215 by Pope Innocent III had three chief objectives: Church reform, freeing the Holy Land, and elimi...

The Fourth Lateran Council called in 1215 by Pope Innocent III had three chief objectives: Church reform, freeing the Holy Land, and elimi...

The Fourth Lateran Council called in 1215 by Pope Innocent III had three chief objectives: Church reform, freeing the Holy Land, and elimi...

After years of being pope and asserting his will on the world, Innocent III decided to bring together all the church leaders and establish ...

Pope Innocent III believed in the absolute power of the pope over secular authorities , and he did what he could to assert that power where...

Pope Innocent III was determined to assert papal authority over every area possible. He made sure that kings, although they had their ...