Saturday, September 06, 2008

Concerning New Laws against the Jews, in which Old Ones are Confirmed, and New Ones are Added

So, I have been looking at the Forum Iudicum, the Legal Codes of the Visigoths. The laws make it all but impossible to be a Jew, which I guess was the point.
III. Jews shall not Absent themselves, or Remove their Children or Slaves, to Avoid the Blessing of Baptism.
IV. Jews shall not Celebrate the Passover According to their Customs, or Practice Circumcision, or Induce, any Christian to Renounce the Church of Christ.
V. Jews shall not Presume to Keep the Sabbath, or Celebrate Festival Days, According to their Ritual.
VI. Every Jew shall Cease from Labor on Sunday, and on all Appointed Holidays.
VII. Jews shall not make any Distinction in their Food According to their Custom.
What's interesting is that up until the late 6th century, the Visigoths were mainly Arian Christians, and for some reason along with the Arianism came tolerance for Jews. However, many of their subjects in Hispania were Catholic, which would introduce religious strife.

In 589, King Reccared converted to Catholicism which did not bode well for the Jews.

Fast forward to 672 CE and King Wamba of the Visigoths. Almost immediately after his succession to the throne he faced a rebellion in the French Riviera, in Nimes, Narbonne, Maguelonne. Among the rebels were a large number of Jews.
With the rebellion thus put down, the Jews of Narbonne were expelled the same year. There was also a formal expulsion of all Jews in the kingdom who didn't convert to Christianity on grounds of the particular ferocity of the Jewish revolutionaries and of their community's noted support for the rebellion.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Today, one of the bigger threats to Judaism is the barrage of stringencies from rabbis who seem to try to outdo each other.

September 07, 2008 3:43 PM  

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