ABSTRACT
Any historian concerned with Jewish-Christian relations in medieval Europe comes face to face with a rather perplexing paradox. On the one hand, he must draw a gloomy picture of persecution and humiliation, intolerance and fanaticism; on the other, he should not forget or obscure the fact that the Jews were the only tolerated non-Christian minority. The very same political and religious culture that hounded Jews was also careful to protect and preserve them.
