free the Holy Land from Moslem control, Christian crusaders routinely massacred Jewish communities as part of their religious zeal.The persecution of Jews has been so pervading and so rampant down through the centuries that one might be tempted to overlook some attempts at humane treatment. Bernard of Clairvaux served as the spiritual leader of the Second Christian Crusade in 1144. He was greatly distressed by the slaughter of five thousand European Jews during the First Crusade in 1096 and he spoke out to prevent a repeat performance. Pope Calixtus II in 1120 issued the Papal Bull Sicut Judaeis. That document forbade the mistreatment of Jews, and that same document was invoked by others Popes in later reigns. Despite the efforts of Bernard and Calixtus, hundreds more Jews were slaughtered during the Second Crusade (NCR 12/12/97 24)Stories circulated among Christians at various points in history about Jewish rituals that required the blood of Christian children. On into the Middle Ages, Jews were not just reviled for their non-Christian religious beliefs but were condemned as being satanic, blasphemers, and as a "sub-species of the human race." (Cohn-Sherbok page xvi.) Major Jewish exterminations followed a medieval fable, which blamed the Jews for the poisoning drinking water and causing plagues.Post-medieval literature depicted Jewish caricatures and stereotypes such as Shakespeare's image of Shylock in the "Merchant of Venice." Martin Luther spoke as harshly about Jews as he did about the Catholic Church when he initiated the Protestant Reformation. 1492 was not just the year that the Spanish monarchy bankrolled Columbus' expedition to the New World. In that same year, the Catholic Spanish rulers brought anti-Jewish contempt to a logical conclusion with its Inquisition, the expulsion of Jews from their nation and the torture of those who claimed to have been converted.From the Middle Ages on down through modern times, Jews were perse...
