Jews through Christian eyes: The Jewish 'Other' in thirteenth-century papal documents, artwork, and sermons

Abstract

This thesis examines the Jewish Other in thirteenth-century Europe and argues that it was a proto-colonial Other. It examines a period of great upheaval within the Church and argues that the anxiety resulted in a more intense Jewish Other that had to be heavily regulated and persecuted. It analyzes these constructions through papal documents, artwork, and sermons and uses them to compare and contrast various images of the Jewish Other. The result of this reconstruction is that thirteenth-century images of Jews were malleable and ambivalent, allowing authors and artists to construct multiple images of the Jew that helped deal with a multitude of Christian anxieties.