Anti-Jewish Rhetoric of Canon Law: Ecclesiastical Legislation and Jews in the 14th-Century Bohemian Lands
Anti-Jewish Rhetoric of Canon Law: Ecclesiastical Legislation and Jews in the 14th-Century Bohemian Lands

Summary/Abstract: The paper investigates one of the aspects of anti-Jewish violence and rhetoric in the Late Middle Ages (14th century) which were based on the concept of rejection of Jews due to their theological guilt. According to ecclesiastical works, this guilt originated in Jews’ involvement in Christ’s death and was subsequently proved by the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem and by their exile. The main interest of this study is based on how the canon law and ecclesiastical legislation of the new established Archbishopric of Prague at the time of Black Death persecutions shaped the perception of the medieval Jewish community in the Bohemian lands (e.g., clothing regulation, Jewish-Christian public and private relations, prohibitions of Christian servants, wet nurses and midwives in Jewish households, etc.). Rhetorical violence that created an ideological frame for the negative representation and portrayal of Jewish community in the pre-modern era is illustrated by articles concerning Jews from the Provincial Statutes of Archbishop Ernest of Pardubice (Statuta provincialia Arnesti, 1349). The first Archbishop of Prague drew from an extensive library of medieval canon law, compiling texts from basic legal handbooks and from his episcopal predecessors. The selection of legal teachings about Jews and the combination of this material in one unified whole represents not only the official position of the local church, but also an ambivalent yet still compact supplement to the policies of the King of Bohemia and later Emperor Charles IV concerning his Jewish subjects. The paper attempts to call into question the seeming dichotomy between the persecuting character of canon law and the protecting character of secular legislation.

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