INTRODUCTION

Summary

Baruch Teutonici, Jewish resident of Toulouse in southern France, was a desperate man in the summer of 1320. On the fifteenth of June he survived the devastating experience of being dragged from his study by an angry mob of Christian rioters, pushed through narrow streets past lifeless bodies of friends and neighbors and thrust into the imposing brick and stone cathedral of St. Stephen. There he was forced to accept baptism at knife point. A month later, Baruch stood before an inquisitorial tribunal trying to explain why he wanted permission from bishop Jacques Fournier to reject his baptism and return to the Jewish faith. After weeks of testimony and deliberation, Baruch's request was denied and he began to receive formal instruction in the beliefs of Christianity. By the end of September, he had publicly resigned himself to living the rest of his life as a Christian named John.

Baruch's case was tragic, but by the early fourteenth century incidents of violence against Jews – including forced conversions – were hardly a novelty in the Christian-dominated lands of western Europe. Historians such as R.I. Moore have suggested various factors which led to the emergence of a “persecuting society” in the medieval west, one in which Jews, Muslims and others deemed to be outside the normative boundaries of Christian society increasingly came to face persecution from their neighbors.