ABSTRACT
IF the legal status of the Jews were our sole criterion, the picture of their relations with medieval Christians would need to be painted in very sombre hues. Laws, however, were made to be broken, and the actual relations between Jews and Christians were for long periods far different to those which the Church Councils and, to a less degree, the Jewish ritual code tended to produce. Jews and Christians often defied the laws which sought to keep them asunder. l
With but rare exceptions, the general trend of the Church influence on medieval legislation was towards the creation of barriers between Jews and Christians. Anti-social in the main, Church Council vied with Church Council in its proposals for marking off the Jews as a separate class, with ever-growing completeness. Periods and epochs can, however, be assigned for greater or less severity.
