Die Stellung der Juden im Merowingerreich nach dem Zeugnis der Synodalakten

Abstract

Abstract In research into the history of the Jews in the Merovingian kingdom, relevant Council decrees have so far played a very subsidiary role compared to information gleaned from narrative sources. Yet besides facilitating discoveries of importance not only for the Merovingian period, and scarcely to be found in other sources, a number of these decrees also found their way into the canon law of the High Middle Ages and acquired long-term significance as a result. The compilation presented here systematically investigates this source material according to perspectives important for the synods: Christian-Jewish intermarriages; Christian slaves owned by Jews, and the danger, as the Church saw it, of proselytism; Jews as holders of public offices; Judaizing tendencies amongst Christians; attempts to limit contact between Christians and Jews. From this it becomes apparent that the position of the Jews in the Merovingian kingdom was not as perilous as is often assumed based on the narrative sources. On the contrary, during this era the foundations were laid for a later autonomous Jewry in Europe. The essay also elaborates on the importance of the synodal decrees as source material for investigating the history of Jewry in the early medieval period. The concluding tables provide a systematic overview and also demonstrate which of the decrees were incorporated again into the medieval canonical collections.