Christians in the medieval period believed that their religion was 100% correct and if you didn’t believe in the resurrection of Jesus you were either an inferior human being or simply incompetent and could fathom who powerful Jesus was. Regardless of your opinion to the Church if you did not believe in the resurrection you were wrong therefore there was no need for said people (the Jews) to have socio-political power or any authority over Christians. For instance within Novella 146 it says that if anyone (the Jews) went against the teachings of the Church then they should be exiled from the city. Furthermore, the Church spread hatred against the Jews and warned Christians because the Church didnt want anyone to fall away from it’s teachings. If people went away from the Church the church would lose both money and power.The Novella also speaks about Jews having no authority in regards to the church. The Jews were not allowed to interject in any of the teachings of the Church for fear of misguiding Christians. If Jews were caught going against the Church there were predetermined punishments which would ultimately result in exile. The final point that Novella 146 makes its that all the workings of the Church and the marginalization of the Jews was for the good of the Jews in that the Church was trying to spur the Jews into believing in Christ. The Church didn’t care about the way in which people believed but rather the fact that they believed in Jesus.

Rosenwein in his section brings up other discriminatory practices that were exhibited by the Church. In the excerpts from Chapter 14 it says that Jews and Christians were never allowed to intermarry due to that being an unholy union in the eyes of God. Christians were also forbade from buying Jews as slaves for fear of Jewish idealism and theology effecting the thought processes of upright, noble, and faithful Christians. In the circumstance that a child would be born out of a Christian and Jewish relationship the faithful Christian was required to have that child immediately baptized after birth for fear of negative Jewish influence. Finally from chapter 14 it says that no Jew would be allowed to hold public office simply because, if the Jew did not have the mental capacity to grasp to the idea of how Christ was powerful enough to rise from the dead then how could that Jew be smart enough to have control over smart Christians who believe in the truth. In chapter 14 there are many ways in which the Jews were discriminated against. Jews weren’t allowed to marry Christians, be sold as slaves to Christians, to have children with Christians, and finally not allowed to hold public office. All of these things were put into place by the Church in order to negate the spread of false Jewish teachings to faithful Christians.

Rosenwein in Chapter 6.23 reiterates the points made in the previous chapters regarding Jews but he also brings up new ways in which the Church further discriminated against the Jews. I think the most important idea that came from this section is that the Church required the Jews to pay tithes to the Church. A tithe is paying 1/10 of your salary to the church. The Church made the Jews pay for services that they weren’t allowed to use. They were paying the institution that was discriminating against them.

All of these actions that were spurred on by the Church were to help keep the Jews in line and help spread the fear of falling away and going against the Church. These rules set forth by the Church to create fear and breaded animosity within a multi-religious community. Finally the ultimate goal of the Church was to have every single person believe in Jesus Christ and they discriminated heavily against anyone who went against their power or authority. Simply, the wanted all people to believe in Christ and have faith in him and they didn’t care about the manner in which people believed as long as they believed.