Trudy Gold
Introduction to Jewish History in France and the Curious Case of Septimania

Trudy Gold - Introduction to Jewish History in France and the Curious Case of Septimania

- There you have it. Jewish population in France, about 500,000, which makes it, believe it or not, the fourth largest Jewish community in the world. We concentrate so much on Jewish history that you forget there’s about 15 million Jews in the whole world and after Israel, America, and Russia, it is now France but, of course, the majority of the French community today, are Jews who came from the old Paris. And that, of course, means from Algeria, and from Morocco. Now, as I’m sure William told you yesterday, this is the beginning of a large endeavour on France where the core team will all be looking at certain aspects of French history, French culture, which will take us right into January. So, I want to start please with the next slide. Who doesn’t fall in love with France? There you see the major Jewish centres of population. You have a shot of Marseille, a shot of Paris, which, of course, has the largest number, a shot of Nice, and a shot of Lyon. France, what on earth can we say about France? It is a completely divided society. It has been a divided society. So, by way of an introduction to Jewish history, I’m going to give you an overview and then I’m going backwards.

Now, on one level, it’s the birthplace of Jewish emancipation in Europe, it’s the birthplace of the rights of man. It’s the first European nation to admit the Jews, it’s not only into the state structure but to the highest level of administration in politics. There have been Jewish prime ministers of France, the Jews of France, certainly to the end of the 19th, and up until the Second World War, were the most assimilated and integrated jury, certainly one of the most in the whole of Europe. And very patriotic and very committed to French Republic. Now, the point is though that France has, was, and always probably will be a divided society. And can you see how I’ve created the division if you don’t mind, Judi? Yeah, so what I’ve suggested to you that France can never really make up its mind what kind of country it wants to be. Yes, it is the country of the Enlightenment. Yes, it’s the country of the Rights of Man. The French Revolution was a secular revolution. Napoleon does a deal with the Catholic Church and brings it back. At the turn of the 20th century, the state divorced the church but on the other hand, it is the monarchy, it’s the army, it’s the Catholic Church, and straight down the middle. And where on earth do the Jews fit in? And one of the problems is that the Jews, a very small minority in terms of French history, but the first non-Christian minority of any number to live in France. Antisemitism is going to become a potent tool of both the nationalists and the clerical right.

We are going to see, as we go through this course, the growth of right-wing extremism, particularly in the 19th century. In the 19th century, the French couldn’t make up their minds whether they were going to be a republic or a monarchy. The army was horrifically humiliated in 1870-71 in the Franco-Prussian War. The church in the 19th century, for 45 years, had an incredibly zealous Catholic in Pious IX, who was a total conservative, of very much opposed to the forces of secularism, liberalism and socialism. And in that incredible melee, which also coincided with a stock market crash, the collapse of a few important companies, the collapse of the Catholic Union Bank, the Jews are going to be the scapegoat. So, since, and the scapegoat is that the Jews can never ever be French. And, of course, it exploded into the Dreyfus Affair. However, there’s another side of France. There’s the liberal France, there is the enlightened France. It’s embodied by characters like Clemenceau , officers like Picquart in the terrible Dreyfus Affair. Writers, intellectuals like Émile Zola, Charles Péguy, or Proust himself. And the battle lines have been drawn for a long time. Unfortunately, there is French intellectual antisemitism, characters like Guy de Maupassant, and Celine, who in the thirties, Celine in the thirties, went as far as to call for the destruction of the Jews. And yet back in the 1860s, the Jews established the Alliance, which was an organisation, a Jewish organisation that was very much going to promote French values throughout the whole of the Jewish world. And the real story of France is that the majority of Jews fell in love with it and became bourgeois. However, on the edge of modernity, there were always Jews who were seen as those pushing an agenda that the Right didn’t want.

So, the other point about the Jews is that prior to World War I, their Jewish intellectuals were incredibly important as reviewers, as journalists, particularly art collectors of modern art, which if you look at the way I’ve divided up, which was an anathema to those on the conservative side, the fact that you had prime ministers like Léon Blum, in his youth, Léon Blum had actually scandalised the bourgeois by writing a publication called Du Mariage, in which he suggested premarital sexual experimentation for both men and women. And you can imagine what the Catholic and conservative middle-class actually did to that. They were also seen as part of the Symbolist movement, and, therefore, part of Decadent movements. In art, of course, you have Chagall, Soutine, Modigliani, Durkheim, and all at the forefront of new disciplines. So, the first point to make, and bearing in mind that we are going to be spending two and a half months on France is that I want you to take away with you this notion of the Janus face. It’s far more than anything we experience in England, America, although that could be a question mark soon, it’s far more on a par with Vienna and Berlin, both of whom I think were fractured societies in the 19th and 20th century. And it’s when societies fractured that the Jew, the non-Christian minority group becomes the major scapegoat. And yet on the other hand, particularly when you’re dealing with France, it was the first country to embrace the Jew. So, you can understand the terrible dilemma. And in a way, it’s summed up by two important characters in the Académie Française. Now, the Académie Française in England is the word intellectual a dirty word? Certainly on the continent and in France, intellectuals are given far more weight. And the Académie Française actually goes back to the time of Richelieu, it was established in 1635. It grew out of informal meetings of intellectuals in a salon at the Hôtel de Rambouillet.

And it’s responsible for the regulation of the French language, spelling, literature. It was actually suppressed during the revolution. It was restored by Napoleon and it’s very, very important in France. The president of France is the protector. And since 1805, it’s met at the Palais Institute, it has 40 seats and the members of the academy are known as the Immortals. It’s because of their motto which appeared on the official seal of the charter granted by Richelieu and members remain for life. There was only two expulsions at the end of World War II. Pétain and Charl Baudelaire were all excluded because of their association with Vichy. And in total, only 20 members have been expelled. There have been a total of 710 members of the Académie Française. It is so prestigious. And the first woman was elected in 1980. Now, what I want to give you, to show you, as it were the huge dilemma of the Académie Française and the Jews. Let me show you two quotes. Turn of the century quotes from two members of the Académie Française. Can we please start with Theodore Reinach? Now, Theodore Reinach was a Jew. His dates are 1860 to 1928. He was educated at top in French schools. He became a scholar; he was called to the Bar. He practised law, but in fact, in the end, devoted himself to the study of coins. He had a chair in numismatics at the Collège de France. He was the director of various journals. He goes to America, he writes very important works on the ancient kingdoms of Asia. Also, his history of the Israelites in their, after the loss of their independence. Now, this is what he had to say. “The Jews, since they have ceased to be treated as pariahs, must identify themselves in heart and in fact with the nations that have accepted them, renounce their practises and aspirations, their peculiarities of custom and language, which tended to isolate them from their fellow citizens.

And in a word cease to be a dispersed nation, and henceforth, only be considered as a religious denomination.” He actually, he was related to the Ephrussi fam. He was related to the Rothschilds and to the Ephrussi family. He fascinating individual, and I’m going to do far more on him later on in the course. So, what’s he basically saying? We are citizens of France, of the Jewish religion. Give up anything else. Now, I want to turn to another man who is a member of the Académie at the same time, 1862 to 1923 is his date. And he is Maurice Barrès. He comes from Northeast France. He was involved with the Symbolist movement. He was a journalist, he was a writer. He was a very important writer. He wrote plays, he wrote plays for the Comédie Française. And he turned, but he turns away from liberalism to an idealisation of nationalism. He actually becomes Anti-Dreyfusards and close to Charles Maurras who I will be spending a lot of time on. And this is what he had to say, so this is really at the centre of it all. “The Jews do not have a country in the sense that we understand it. For us, La Patrie is our soul and our ancestors, the land of our dead. For them it is the place where their self-interest is best preserved. Their intellectuals use ideas which are most useful to them. For example, the idea that all men are brothers, that nationality is a prejudice to be destroyed. You will not deny that the Jew is a different being.” So, at the Académie Française itself, of 40 members and many of them are going to divide over the Dreyfusards Affair. You have one, a Jew who is saying, “We are Jews only of religion, France is our country.

And here you have an important intellectual in France saying, ‘Hold on a minute, you don’t understand La Patrie, you can never understand. You can only float with ideas.’” And let me read you another couple of quotes from Jews, again, at the same period. This from Zadoc Kahn, who is the chief rabbi of Paris. “We have adopted the customs and traditions of the country, which has generously adopted us. And today, thanks to God, there are no longer any but Frenchmen in France. France will not repudiate her past, her traditions, and her principles, which constitute the best of her moral patron. As for us, we continue to love our country and bear witness in all circumstances as to our gratitude and devotion.” And here you have another rabbi, rabbi Bloch, another important French rabbi. “The Jews have enriched the arts, letters, politics, the military industry, and commerce with avidity, and with avidity and love and not without success. Better to show how they cherish their new home and to make themselves worthy of her love and protection.” So, of course, I could give you so many different writers on this particular subject, but I wanted you to understand that write-up. And I would suggest you write up until today, France is a divided subject, is a divided country and it’s also divided as far as the Jews are concerned.

And, of course, it’s further exacerbated today, by a large Muslim population, the largest Muslim population in Western Europe in percentage, and, of course, unfortunately, with many of the Muslims, there is an anti-Jewish feeling which has further added to the terrible Malay. And, of course, the Muslims ironically, are also in the front line for those on the Right. So, you have a very, very complicated situation today. And what I want to do now though is to go right back to the beginning. And what I’ll be doing in my next three sessions is really talking about the history of France to get us up to the French Revolution. And as William brilliantly explained to you yesterday, France was divided into many, many different sections. And when is it really united as a very important point? And I, William goes as far as to say, “It doesn’t unite as the sort of area we know today.” Really up until Napoleon, so don’t forget that when I’m talking about the Jews of France, I’m going to be very careful to talk about various areas of France, particularly when you are dealing with this particular period. So, can we please go on to the next slide, Judi? Here you have a map of Gaul in Roman times, because, of course, Gaul in the time of Caesar, it is a Roman project province and, of course, as you know with early history, we are looking for sources and there aren’t that many. But what we do know that the Akalas who was the ethnic of Judea was banished by Augustus de France. And that was, of course, down to the area around what is now Marseille. He was exiled along the Mediterranean to that area. And so was his younger brother Herod Antipas, who, of course, was tetrarch of Galilee. He was then exiled to Lyon by Caligula. And when Jerusalem was conquered and the Romans actually filled three ships with Jewish captives and sent them to Gaul, and in fact, we found… Archaeologists have found symbols, Jewish symbols of menorah dating from the 1st century, the 4th century, found in all, not just in the South, but also around the Bordeaux region.

So, we also know that there was a Jewish presence in Mets in the 4th century, how do we know this? From really the finding of Jewish symbols. And from 65, 465 onwards, there is a lot of evidence. Now, the Gaul is gradually conquered. That whole area and that includes Spain, is conquered by whom? The Roman Empire in the West falls. It falls to the Visigoths. And can we go on to the next slide? As I’ve said to you, one of the problems with Jewish history, I’ve said this to you many times when we’re studying Jewish history, we study the history of the outside world and we have to fit the Jews in. Now, the Jews have now been exiled from their country as citizens of the Roman Empire though, they had quite a lot of rights, but now they are living amongst the Pagans, and in, and Clovis who is king, he is the founder of the Merovingian Dynasty, and he converts to Christianity in 496. And this, whereas we know from the early records, Jews living amongst the Pagans before the advent of Christianity, they were quite useful to the Pagans. Remember they were merchants and there doesn’t seem to have been much problem for them. But when Clovis comes to the throne, he is the founder of the Merovingian Dynasty. He converts to Christianity in 496. Now, by this period, if you remember, Rome had taken on board Christianity, even though Rome fell, Christianity went on the march. I’m now going to show you two extracts from the Christian Bible. I think it’s important that you read these because I’m now going to be talking about what I believe in many ways, is the main problem of the diaspora that certainly is behind much of the anti-Judaism and ironically, the accusations, or the accusations against Jews as money lenders.

And tragically, you find it in the Christian Bible. And this, of course, is Matthew 27. And I’ve abridged it, it’s verse 15-26. The Gospels means good news. It is a propaganda document and it’s just the story of, and remember I’m talking as a Jewish historian, not a theologian. And I want to say at the outset, Christianity is a religion of morality. It is a religion of love but there is a problem with the Jews, and I think it’s best to face it upfront because if we’re ever going to do anything about it, we have to, both sides have to face it. So, now we’ve got a problem with this particular verse because a lot of work has been done mainly by Jewish historians on first, this particular period of history. Pilate, we know, was one of the most harsh governors that was ever sent out by the Roman officials. He’s governing in Judea. It’s also, we also know that it’s the Passover time and it’s a centre of huge unrest. About a million people are assumed to have come to the temple for the Passover. Now, the story goes that Joshua of Nazareth, Yeshua is betrayed to the Jewish authorities who hand Him over to the Romans. The Jews never, remember they’re living under Roman rule and He’s accused of treason. Now, according to Saint Matthew’s Gospel, Saint Matthew’s Gospel most sources believed was written about 60 years after Jesus’ death.

The first Gospel is Mark, then Matthew, then Luke. John is written about 120 years after Jesus’s death. Now, remember it’s written under Roman rule. Pilate seems to be exonerated because he says to the crowd, “At Festival time, the governor was in the habit of releasing anyone, a prisoner chose, whom the crowd chose.” There’s no cross-reverencing anywhere in the sources on this, by the way. And I personally find it very illogical that a Roman governor, particularly a harsh one when there’s a lot of unrest in the city, would actually release someone, would suggest someone be released who is accused of treason. So, Pilate said, “Who do you want to be released?” Jesus, Barabbas, or Jesus, the so-called Christ Which of the two do you want me to release?“ "Barabbas,” they said. Pilate said, “What am I to do with Jesus?” They said, “Have Him crucified.” Pilate saw that a riot was rising. He took some water and washed his hands, saying, “I am innocent of this Good Man’s blood. It is your affair,” to which the people replied, “His blood be on us and on our children.” Now, there are writers like Hiam Maccabi who go on, who will go as far as to say that this is the foundation document of Jew-hatred. His blood be upon us and upon our children. Now, remember, Christianity spread like wildfire. The side of Christianity that inspired people, it promised them morality, it spread particularly amongst the slave population. It concentrated on the world to come. But the point was, it’s a long way away from Judaism now. Because, of course, particularly after Saint Paul, the religions completely, they completely split. Paul believes in Jesus, Jesus’ Messiah in a Christian sense, which means divinity, which means that the Jews, by being responsible, because this is quite clear, the Jews are going to be responsible for the crucifixion.

There is no way that a Christian author writing under the Romans would’ve given the Romans the responsibility. I’m saying to you that crucifixion was the Roman method of execution. So, you draw your own conclusions. But the point is, this is the day aside. And you need to understand this to understand how some of the French kings are going to deal with the Jews, particularly those who see themselves as pious. Can you go on please, Judi, can we? Now, this is from Saint Gregory. I could have chosen so many different extracts since John’s Gospel, for example, where there is a passage where Jesus walked amongst the Jews and he said to them, “You are of the children, the devil.” So, and this is Saint Gregory. Now, this is after Rome has taken on board Christianity. There are pages and pages and pages of this kind of writing. “Slayers of the Lord, murderers of the prophets, adversaries of God, haters of God, men who show contempt for the law, enemies of their father’s faith, advocates of the devil, brood of vipers, slanderers, scoffers, men whose minds are in darkness, assembly of demons, wicked men, and haters of righteousness.” So, as it were, if you don’t mind, can you go back to the picture of the conversion of Clovis, please, if you don’t mind, Judi, if you could slip back, yeah. So, as far as, Clovis has now converted to Christianity and his whole population has converted. And by 574, their attempts to force Jewish conversion, baptism, or expulsion, and… But it’s at this. But we also know that down in the South, something very, very interesting is about to happen. Can we go on to Pepin III, please, which means jumping on?

Here you have Pepin the Short. He is the first Carolingian King. He’s the son of Charles Martel, and he is the father of the Great Charlemagne who becomes the first Holy Roman Emperor. In the year 800, the church needed a secular ruler who would back the church’s interests. This is the Pope in Rome, the all-powerful what is now called the Catholic Church, the True Church. They needed a secular ruler and they chose Charlemagne. And this is his father Pepin. Now, and in fact, he becomes the sole ruler of the Franks. He unifies the tribes in 747 and he’s the first Frankish king to be anointed by the Pope. And interestingly, under him, the Jews are going to be protected. So, on one level, he’s very important in terms of French history. He’s very important in terms of the church, but he’s also going to be a protector of the Jews, why? Now, why on earth would this have happened, why? What we know to start with about the Radhanites. I’ve already lectured to you about the Radhanites. These were these extraordinary merchants that started out in the South of France who travelled all the way to China. And the Radhanites were Jewish merchants and they were very important in the economy of the kingdom. Secular rulers always had a problem. Quite often, they needed certain groups. What if the church hated those groups? So, it’s important to remember that under Pepin, we know that the Jews had some very important roles. We know that under Charlemagne, Isaac was an ambassador for him to the courts of the Muslims in Spain. In 711, what happens is the Visigoths had Christianized, and what happens in 711, crossing over from North Africa, the Muslims slowly take over. And what happens is when they conquer the city, the Visigoths were persecuting the Jews in Spain, the Christian Visigoths.

What happens is, in 711, when the Muslims conquer a city, they handed the city over to the Jews and moved on and they go all the way to Southwest France. We know that in the reign of Pepin and in the reign of Charlemagne, Jews are used as ambassadors. And we know that Isaac, the Jew, was sent as ambassador to the Caliph. Now, this is actually it. It is to the Ambassador Caliph in Cordoba. And he was said to have asked for a rabbi to instruct the Jews in Narbonne. And they grant personal privileges. They give the Jews complete judicial autonomy. Now, the activities of the church councils were not taken very seriously, and we also know that under Charlemagne, that the Jews were allowed to enter into lawsuits with Christians, but they were not allowed to employ Christians on a Sunday. And they weren’t allowed to trade in currency at this period. There were certain things that the church insisted on, but by and by, they’re living a reasonable life. And we know that Louis, the Debanaire, Charlemagne’s successor also continued this, although he’s getting a lot of stick now from major church figures like Saint Agobard of Lyon, who believed in the dangerous power of the Jews. He wrote a track date called “De Insolentia Judeorum” and also “De Judaicis Superstitionibus”. And he describes the Jews as children of the devil. Now, I’m coming onto a very, very strange tale. Can you please show us the next map? Okay, now this is the Kingdom of Septimania. It was founded by the Theodoric in 509 and it formed part of his domain. Remember as I already told you, France is not united. Originally, it was the Western-half of Gallia, a Roman province. It was inherited by the Visigoths who called it Gallia, and it was defended until 719 when it was overrun by the governor of Al-Andalus.

Now, this is very important. Al-Andalus, of course, is Spain. Now, the story is, there’s a thesis by a very controversial historian called Zuckerman, and he’s done a lot of research. He’s looked into documents in Hebrew, in Arabic, in Latin, and French. Unfortunately, according to Professor Lee Levin, most of, the problem with Zuckerman’s book is it’s almost unreadable, it’s a Ph.D. thesis and it’s very difficult to read. And he said much of it has gone down the black hole of history but what was Septimania? I’ve already established it’s a land in the French Medi. It’s North of the Pyrénées. It’s given the name Septimania. There are two potential regions, ideas. One that it was based on, because originally in Roman times it was given to veterans. The land was given to veterans of the Seventh Legion. They settled there when they retired, or it’s based on the Seven Cities you can see around Narbonne, Carcassonne, et cetera. And we know it had a large Jewish population. And were they Jews that had come in from Spain? Because remember after the Muslims took Spain, that life for Jews really improve. It’s known as the Golden Age. And it’s an area that we’ll be turning to in much detail later on next year. Now, Pepin III, who I’ve already mentioned, he decided he wanted to drive the Muslims out of South France. The problem with Narbonne, it had incredibly strong walls. Now, and it had a large population of Jews. And evidently, there are lots of conflicting stories that he offered the Jews 50,000 marks if they would open the gates. So, according to Zuckerman, they weren’t interested in the bribe, but he offered them in return, an independent kingdom. And according to Zuckerman, Narbonne fell, and Pepin kept his word. And evidently, according to Zuckerman, it was sent, messages were sent to Babylon, to the El Exhalar of Babylon to send a direct descendant of the house of David to become the descendant of the Jews in exile. Now, he took the man who came, evidently took the Hebrew name of Machia, and that is the story.

Now, already, you can see how many myths and legends have come out of this story. Not just Jewish myths and legends, but Christian myths and legends because this is the crazy story of the Holy Grail, by the way. I’m going to divert into this very quickly because I’m not giving any credence to it. There is a Christian story, and it’s just a story that Mary Magdalene escaped to this area, and in fact, the Holy Grail was Jesus’ Child. And that’s, of course, been developed in many fictitious stories. But a far more interesting story is another notion that in fact, this descendant of the House of David was encouraged to marry into the Carolingian Dynasty. And we do know that Machia did fight with Charlemagne to drive out the Muslims and extend the kingdom. And we also know that he had the Lion of Judah in his, on his shield. He fell in battle but the kingdom’s going to disappear after 140 years. But the point is, there’s a lot of evidence that it actually existed. I mean, for example, Benjamin of Tudela, he’s writing much later, but he talks about it. Now, what is also true is that Hebrew sources do correlate the fact that the Jews held a lot of land after the fall of Narbonne to the Frances. Now, what is unusual? Usually, the Jews preferred to live under the Muslims. But in this particular area, in that region, which, of course, is so rich and so fertile, it’s the base where the Radhanites are setting on their huge merchant journeys. It’s, a lot of land, and power is given to the Jews in that area. Now, what Benjamin of Tudela reports, he holds the significant land holdings. Remember he’s writing three centuries later in the possession of the Davidic Nasi of Narbonne. And he goes on to say, Narbonne is an ancient city of Torah. From it, Torah falls to all lands. There are sages, magnates, and princes. And he talks about the Great Prince of Blessed Memory, a descendant of the House of David. He holds and landed properties from the rulers of that country. And no one may dispossess him by force. Their chieftain is Rabbi Abraham, head of the Academy, and Rabbi Machia, and Rabbi Judah and many other sages like them.

Now, Abraham Evangel, who is the author of “Safer Saver”, who completed his work shortly before Benjamin of Tudela, he also visits Narbonne. And again, he talks about it and he talks about Charlemagne. King Charles requested the king of Babylon of the Caliph, to send him a Jewish prince. He sent Machia of the seed of royalty to the House of David. So, what do we know? We know that there was a large Jewish population in Septimania, which is not surprising. Think about its ports of exit into the Mediterranean. And also, it’s a long way from the central authority. It’s on the borderlands and it had been part of Andalus. Did it happen, didn’t it happen? Well, I just, I tend to think it did. How do I believe the story of the House of David? I’m not sure, although it is written up in the… It’s very much written up in the Jewish sources. And important to remember also that what is certainly true, that the Jews living in that area did have an awful lot of privileges. We know they owned states, they acquired estates from Christians, they had all sorts of titles to land, to Salt Works, a lot of vineyards owned by Jews, and they… And we also know that the church was absolutely furious because they believe those tithes should go to the church but they don’t. So, how much freedom did the Jews enjoy? Okay, another historian, Benbassa, he feels very strongly that you can’t just talk about the history of persecutions in the history of the Jews in France. That there was a period under the Carolingians whether it was a semi-autonomous kingdom or not, it was a time when these rulers who were very, very astute, allowed the Jews to prosper in their region. So, the tale of Septimania. Now, this honeymoon, can we go on, please?

This honeymoon is going to come to an end. There you see a picture of the Great Charlemagne. And the kingdom fell into abeyance. And then, of course, we’re going to move into another period, and that is the period of the Capetian Monarchs. And before that, what we’re going to see is a huge upswing in church power, and when there’s an upswing in church power, problems happen for the Jews. And of course, in 1095, the church proclaims the first crusade. Now, initially, to take back the land of Israel from the Muslims, but it’s also to assert supremacy over the Christian rulers. Who rules in mediaeval times? Is it the church? Is it the state? So, in 1096, the Pope proclaims the first crusade, and there are going to be many, many different crusades. In fact, there are going to be seven. And let’s have a look at the conquest of Jerusalem because, and then I want you to ask yourself. This is the terrible siege of Jerusalem. When the church Chronicles they relate with much passion how Jerusalem is up to its knees in blood. It was a very, very terrible time. Now, French kings are going to become very important in the story of the Crusades. Now, the first of the, before the crusade, the first of the Capetian Monarchs is somebody called Robert II. And he, there’s a Hebrew manuscript that tells us how the king conspired with his fossils, who destroyed, who decided to destroy all the Jews who would not escape baptism. However, we know that down in the South, Jewish culture still flourishes. And, of course, you’re going to have the great figure of Rashi, which Rabbi Rosen is going to lecture on, later on. Now, we know that during the horror of the first crusade, Jews were shut up in a church in Rome. And all those who wouldn’t baptise were murdered.

And it was the Jews of France who wrote to the Jews of the Rhineland telling them, “Pray for us, pray for us.” And, of course, later on, it’s going to happen to the Jews of the Rhineland. Now, why were these attacks? They’re not just religious. Under the Capetians, Jews lose a lot of the Radhanites that they had had in Septimania, for example, they are no longer able to own land. They’re no longer allowed to own vineyards. So, what do they do? They are allowed to become money lenders. And they are also obviously allowed to be merchants because that is the, you know, that is very much something that the countries need. And the Jews are very useful as merchants because they’re international. But think about money. What happens when you go on a crusade? Why did kings and princes and knights go on crusades? For the kings, it was their place in Heaven because it’s the greatest way of inviting time in purgatory. if you go on a crusade. For the princes, it’s plunder, for the knights, it’s plunder. And also they’re up to their necks in debt to the Jews. So, these mess, it’s always a miss-messages. On one level, you must baptise the Jews because they are accursed. On the other level, you need to make sure that you’ve got the debts. Well, if you burn their houses and you burn them, they no… You no longer owed any, you don’t owe them any money. And to give you a notion of the view of the Jew, just think about Notre. Just think about the Great Cathedral of Paris. If you go to the front of Notre Dame, you will see the synagogue blindfolded and the church triumphant, so the horror continues. We’re going to see a very, very difficult time for the Jews of France for the next 300 years. For example, Philip Augustus, who is so beloved of French historians, he was a very strong king, he was. He arrests all the Jews. He stole all their money.

He published an edict of expulsion. They had to be expelled within three months. They had to sell all their personal property, immovable property, and, but all anything else that… But their immovable property was all confiscated. And they were, they had to leave the royal domain, which at that stage is around Paris and the North of France. It doesn’t extend to the South. And their synagogues were converted into churches. There was a synagogue, you know, on the which was made into a church. However, in 1198, he had to invite them back into Paris because he needed their expertise as money lenders that when he was short of revenue, he didn’t have anyone else to work for him. And now we come to the figure of Louis the Pious. There you see the expulsion. Here you have King Louis the Pious. King Louis, beloved of the church. King Louis, what can I tell you about him? He had, he comes to the throne at a time when the church is triumphant. I want to refer back to Pope Innocent III. He’d been Pope between 1198 and 1216. He was by far the most powerful pope of mediaeval times. He claimed supremacy over all of the kings and princes. He extended the crusades. He proclaimed crusade against the Muslims in Iberia. And he was the king. He was the pope behind the Albigensian Crusade in the Southwest of France, the area of Septimania. If you think about it, it’s remote from Paris. There are many Jews there. It was also the centre of Christian heresy, the heretics, the Castiles, they believed that the Catholic church was evil and they believed in a God of another world, a Greater God. And they were considered to be heretics, and the first, and a crusade was launched against them. He also was the pope responsible for the latter and council, and said for the first time, “Jews and Muslims must wear a special badge.”

He said that the Muslim recapture of Jerusalem in 1187 was a blight on Christianity. It’s responsible for the moral lapses in Christianity, and what we need to do is to clean up the Catholic church. He was desperate for another crusade. It’s under his watch that you begin to see various orders like the Dominicans and the Franciscans. And the Dominicans, of course, the hounds of God who are going to become the main arbiters of the… Who are going to become the main arbiters of the Inquisition. So, Philip Louis IX, he comes to the throne as an infant. And his mother was an incredibly zealous Christian. He gets an incredibly good press in the Catholic Chronicles because he’s a very pious man. He wears a hair shirt, he goes on two crusades. He is a lawgiver, he’s just to the poor, but he is violently anti-Jewish. And it’s in his reign that you see the burning of the Talmud. And he is responsible for the burning of two cartloads of Talmud, and if you think that every Talmud has 2,000, 2 million Hebrew roads, he also was the first king to engage in a disputation. What happened was a Jewish renegade convert, he loved converts. If Jews converted, he gave them a lot of money, mainly confiscated from Jews. And he stood godfather to children of converts. A Jewish convert claims that the Talmud was violently anti-Christian. So, he, with the blessing of the Pope, orchestrated the first-ever disputation in Paris. A great rabbi called Rabbi Yechiel led the Jewish side. And, of course, it had to be a triumph for Christianity because the Jewish side was not to say anything that was contrary to the divinity of Christ and the elevation and the special place of His Mother Mary. So, of course, the disputation, the burning of the Talmud, actually Rabbi Yechiel fled Paris. He fled to Jerusalem where he was one of the scholars who was responsible for restoring Jewish knowledge in the land of Israel. He’s later going to be joined by the Manatees who also faces another disputation in Christian Aragon.

Because what happens is as the church goes on the march, as the West goes on the march, it’s going to go from the South of France into Northern Spain. And some of these countries, these areas are going to become Christianized. Now, Louis the IX, Pious to the French Saint Louis, he is given sainthood because he was so pious. The ruler of Byzantine, the Christian ruler actually gave him the crown of thorns and he built, or Chappelle to cold the crown of thorns. He built that beautiful monument to encase the crown of thorns. He was a completely pious Christian. And, but the story doesn’t end with him. I’m going to end my first part of French history here, but I’m going to take you forward. Can we see the next slide, please? This is about John de Joinville was a close associate and he was a chronicler of Louis the 19th. And this is what he reports on the king. “He told me that there was once a great disputation between the clergy and the Jews at the Monastery of Cluny. They asked the Jews as a question, ‘Who is your master? Do you believe that the Virgin Mary who bore God in her body and in her arms, was a Virgin Mother and is a Mother of God.?’ And the Jews replied that all of this day they believed nothing. So a knight said, ‘You should pay for it.’ He smote the Jews and beat them to the Earth, then the Jews turned to flight and so ended the disputation.” So, that’s very much a picture, but can we now have a look? Yes, Saint Louis, Missouri. Saint Louis, Missouri is actually, this capital is the Capital of Missouri, and it is named in honour of Saint Louis. Remember, Saint Louis was a Catholic population. He is a great lawgiver. He was a completely zealous king. Remember he’s canonised by the church. This is where we are at cross purposes.

And in 2022, a group of Jews objected to the fact that he is, if you like, the patron saint of the Capital of Missouri. And they wanted the statue removed. Now the one of the leading academics of the Catholic University of Missouri and a historian had this to say, can we read it, please? This is the Archdiocese of Saint Louis. “The history of the Statue of Saint Louis, the king is one founded in piety and reverence before God and phenomenon believers, respect for one’s neighbour. The Catholics, Saint Louis is an example of an imperfect man who strives to live a life modelled after the life of Jesus Christ. For Saint Louisians, he as a model of how we should care for our fellow citizens, and we should be proud to identify,” sorry, it was 2020, I beg your pardon. So, I think I will end there. There’s… I should give you one other quote. There have been popes who have tried very hard to come to terms with the problem between Judaism and Christianity. And this is actually from Pope John Paul II. He actually sought pardon, he was Pope between 1978 and 2005. “For the sins committed by not a few Catholics against the people of the covenant, we are deeply saddened by the behaviour of those who in the course of history have caused these children to suffer, and asking your forgiveness. We wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood.” And it’s Thomas Martin, who’s Professor of History and Director of the Centre of Mediaeval Studies at Louis University, he was the man who said, “Under no circumstances should we remove the South statue.” And there were Catholic vigils to prevent any problems. And as far as I know, nothing has happened. So, I think I’ll stop there and let’s see what questions we have.

Q&A and Comments:

Incorrect grammar, the academy is feminine, so, therefore, there’s a France, the word probably aye. It’s driving me nuts, thank you, Marion. As you know, I am a little bit dyspraxic and that’s true. Yes, two of you, this is from Shelly. If Reinach wants Jews to announce their peculiar customs, how can they be a religious denomination? The different religion is peculiar. You see, this is one of the tragedies, Shelly, this is really one of the tragedies of the Jews in France. You know, how can you be a citizen of France and like everybody else, and also a Jew? It’s complicated, whoever said it wasn’t?

Thank you, Maria. Thank you. Yes, I pronounce wrongly, I know I am. So, I’ve really got a block about words. My friend Anita thinks it’s a psychic block. And I have been actually… I’ve actually been diagnosed as dyspraxic. So, please, accept my apologies.

Yes, if another one of you tells me, yeah, yes. It’s Narbonne and Carcassonne. Yes, please, say Narbonne, okay.

Q: Where does Pepin the son of Charlemagne fit into all this?

A: Arlene, I was trying to explain. He was pretty good. He was good to the Jews. It all goes wrong, that everyone’s put, and in, everyone is correcting my pronunciation. Patrick said he has the same problem.

Q: Shelly, why did Jews ever go back to places like into their City when they’ve been expelled and killed?

A: It was a very, very difficult time. Things would get better, you’d go back. Optimism, they didn’t have their own country. The wandering Jews.

Somebody’s saying this is ridiculous. This is a history class, not knit linguistics. Maybe I need a little help with linguistics.

The Jewish kingdom of Septimania, thank you, Marcia.

Oh, the couple of Missouri is Jefferson, not Saint Louis, so Saint Louis is just in Missouri. Thank you, the Messiah of Septimania by Lee Levin. Yes, it’s good, you might want to mention the impact of Saint Augustine on this church’s attitude to the Jews, yes.

And this is Shelly. My brother lives in Saint Louis, I have to ask him about the desire to take the statue down. Perhaps it was because it was during COVID. Maybe it wasn’t widely known. Regarding the Holy Grail.

Q: Could you talk one day about the exotic stories written by the likes of Benjamin, Lee, and Lincoln?

A: It’s not my field, but I have a friend who in fact, hey, he’s not alive now. I, Henry Lincoln used was a friend of mine a long time ago. They’re great tales, aren’t they? Thank you, Carrie. Ah, Carrie, nice to hear.

Anita says, “I’m okay with your pronunciations.” Wait a minute, this is from Norman. Wow, he says, “The book about Septimania starts at 450 pounds, secondhand one started at 100 pounds. the cost of academia,” wow, that is something.

This is Rod, the Christian Church obviously didn’t know what the word pious means. To kill Jews who did not convert is not how I understand what it means to be pious, we have a problem. I’m confused, also, just did a quick internet search, and most of the sites praise the way Louis the Pious treated the Jew. That’s not how Jewish historians read it.

Ronnie, I’m afraid, again, this is the problem of Jewish history. It’s an extraordinary issue. It’s Louis the Pious. He used them, he threatened them. But wait, it’s going to get worse under his grandson, Philip the Fair. And the next presentation I’m going to deal with, I’m going to deal with Philip the Fair, and I’m also going to deal with his daughter Isabella of France. She’s known as the She-Wolf of France. And the reason I’m bringing her into the story is that really she is responsible for the hundred-years War between England and France. So, you’re going to have a bit of French history and a bit of Jewish history. And I’m going, in English history and I’m going to try harder with the pronunciations. But I am going to reiterate, I have been officially diagnosed as dyspraxic. Nothing I can do about it, but I will try harder anyway, Judi, I think that, are there any other questions?

This is Elizabeth, Council of Nice here. All men are all-divine, so all Jews are gods. Don’t go there, Elizabeth. That is much too complicated at this time of night.

Anyway, shall we stop there, Judi? God bless all of you, take care, bye.

• [Judi] Thanks, everybody, bye-bye.