ABSTRACT
Although in the early Middle Ages, the Jews lived freely among Christians, wore the same clothes, and spoke the same language as their Christian neighbours, they were potentially vulnerable to persecution and scapegoatism. For they remained a distinct racial and religious minority who ate different food, obeyed different laws, held distinct religious services, and educated their children separately. They were closely associated with both medicine and magic, two practices open to fear and suspicion. It was a combination of circumstances that was to direct popular antagonism against them and inaugurate a long, bitter, and tragic chronicle in the annals of human hatred.
