Popes and Jews: 1095–1291 by Rebecca Rist

Abstract

Reviewed by: Popes and Jews: 1095–1291 by Rebecca Rist Marie-Thérèse Champagne Popes and Jews: 1095–1291. By Rebecca Rist. (Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2016. Pp. xxi, 336. $110.00. ISBN 978-0-19-871798-0.) Rebecca Rist has produced a valuable addition to current research on the relationship between the papacy and the Jews in the High Middle Ages (Popes and Jews: 1095–1291). Her previous publications have explored crusading, the medieval papacy, and papal-Jewish relations in narrower contexts; however, this time she delves deeply into the complexity of the relationship between the papacy, in particular, and the Jews, and the paradox of protection (particularly in Rome) and toleration, while also restricting Jewish life. The two-century period on which she focuses spanned a transformational era for European Jews of increasing suspicion, false accusations, and horrific persecution of individuals and whole communities. In exploring the papal-Jewish relationship, Rist builds on seminal works from the explosion of research by prominent scholars since the 1960s into Christian-Jewish relations in the Middle Ages. Scholars such as Kenneth Stow have written numerous articles and books exploring that relationship from the Jewish perspective. Rist's aim, as stated in the appendix, is "to re-focus . . . often neglected themes . . . with regard to specifically papal-Jewish relations" (p. 271). This volume seeks to offer a more comprehensive analysis of many aspects of that particular relationship through the use of an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary sources. [End Page 334] The chapters in this volume are each dedicated to different aspects of papal-Jewish interaction, including: papal protection of the Jews, the effect of the Crusades on the Jews, papal claims to authority over the Jews, the papacy and the Roman Jewish community, the Jews and money, and the impact of the crusades on Jews and Jewish communities; however, of special note are the sections devoted to Jewish ideas about the papacy, gleaned from numerous Hebrew sources. Using Hebrew, papal, and other Christian texts results in an examination of both perspectives in the same volume, and supplies a much more nuanced and complete picture. Rist's pragmatic analysis of events within their historical contexts leads to interesting perspectives and suggestions for papal motivations. Coming from a Jewish and Christian background, Rist strives to analyze and communicate both perspectives, which makes this study particularly worthwhile. She also explores the legal and theological underpinnings to treatment of the Jews within Christian society in specific situations, which suggests why individual popes' actions were not uniform. Her research reveals the truly limited protective power popes had, despite their attempts, particularly in the twelfth century in Rome; however, she also points out papal decisions that led to dreadful consequences for Jewish communities. Rist effectively sets each situation within its historical context, and rightly warns against "post-enlightenment distinctions" when exploring papal decrees (p. 4). Popes and Jews, 1095–1291 will be valuable for university students and academics because of its extensive bibliography and because it addresses multiple aspects of the papal-Jewish relationship within a limited time frame and in the same volume. She clearly demonstrates her skill at utilizing a vast collection of sources to tell this multifaceted story. At times, however, perhaps because the same sources apply to different topics, some sections from different chapters seem repetitive, and perhaps could have been consolidated for a smoother read; nevertheless, managing such a mountain of detail reveals a mastery of the sources. Marie-Thérèse Champagne University of West Florida Copyright © 2017 The Catholic University of America Press