Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews (107 page)

303
Diocletian, as part of his effort to impose order on the empire, decrees the destruction of Christian churches and texts.

306
Constantine, said to be about eighteen years old, replaces his father, Constantius, as one of the four ruling tetrarchs and immediately sets out from Trier to unite the Roman Empire under his sole authority.

312
Constantine attacks and defeats the forces of his rival Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge near Rome. Before the battle, Constantine had a vision of the cross, and he spurs his troops under the sign of the cross. The victory confirms his faith in Jesus Christ. Constantine's armies march behind the unifying insignia from now on.

324
At the Battle of Chrysopolis, on the eastern side of the Bosporus, Constantine defeats his last rival, Licinius, finally imposing sole political control over the whole empire.

325
Seeking a religious unity to match his newly won political unity, Constantine convenes the Council of Nicaea, which "unifies" Christian theology and belief with its Nicene Creed. At a council banquet, Constantine first relates the story of his vision of the cross and his "conversion" at Milvian Bridge. The cross comes to the center of Christian cult, theology, and symbolism.

c. 326
Constantine's mother, Helena, during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, "finds" the True Cross.

335
Constantine presides at the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem.

337
Constantine dies, not long after being baptized. A period of bloody dynastic rivalry among his surviving sons ensues.

361
Julian, a nephew of Constantine, becomes emperor. He will reject Christianity and order the Temple in Jerusalem rebuilt as a way of refuting Christian claims.

363
Julian, the last pagan emperor, is killed in Persia. The Temple restoration fails, which Christians take as proof of their claims. Subsequent emperors outlaw pagan worship, make heresy a capital crime, and formalize the Christian character of the empire.

c. 387
Saint John Chrysostom of Antioch initiates and perfects the
Adversus Judaeos
sermon genre. In the same year, Ambrose, bishop of Milan, baptizes the convert Augustine.

388
Ambrose defends the righteousness of synagogue burning, putting the very existence of Judaism at risk.

c. 400
Augustine completes
The Confessions.

410
The Gothic hordes of Alaric sack Rome.

414
History's first organized assault on Jews
as Jews
takes place in Alexandria. Around the same time, history's first charge of ritual murder is brought against Jews in Antioch.

427
Augustine completes
The City of God,
which argues decisively for the survival of Judaism within the Christian world, but which also defines the dispersal of Jews as their proper condition.

429
The emperor abolishes the patriarchate of Israel, marking the end of Jewish political sovereignty until 1948. But it also leads to a further flourishing of Jewish academies in Babylonia and Persia. Jewish self-understanding develops ever more independently of Christianity.

590
Gregory J ("the Great") becomes pope, begins a papal tradition of defending Jews, especially against forced conversions.

638
The Muslims conquer Jerusalem, and against the wishes of the Christian patriarch, they invite Jews back into the city.

c. 900
Jewish culture in Iberia thrives. Saadyah ben Joseph affirms the compatibility of religion and philosophy. What might be considered the first university is begun in Córdoba in a period of
convivencia
among Jews, Muslims, and Christians.

1054
The Eastern Schism, the split between the Byzantine Church and the Latin Church, becomes formal.

c. 1070
Pons Vitae,
a Neo-Platonic portrayal of the cosmos by the Iberian Jewish poet and philosopher Solomon ibn Gabirol, gains wide readership in Europe among Christian scholars who do not know the author's identity.

1076
Emperor Henry IV prostrates himself in the snow at Canossa before Pope Gregory VII.

1096
With the beginning of the First Crusade, the Church defines violence as a sacred act. Crusaders attack Jewish communities in the Rhineland. Many Jews choose to die rather than convert.

c. 1098
Anselm completes
Cur Deus Homo,
asserting that God became man in order to suffer and die on the cross.

1119
Pope Callixtus II issues the papal bull
Sicut Judaeis
in defense of Jews; it will be reissued by more than twenty popes in the following four centuries.

1130
Abelard rebuts Anselm, insisting that Christ came to show humans how to live, not to submit to a brutal death willed by a sadistic Father.

1141
Bernard of Clairvaux denounces Abelard at the Council of Sens and has him condemned as a heretic. A few years later, Bernard orders crusaders not to attack Jews, but also reiterates the idea that their degradation serves God's purposes.

c. 1144
Jews are accused of ritual murder of a Christian child in England, a "blood libel" that will be endlessly repeated.

1159
Maimonides (Moses ben Maimón) leaves Iberia for North Africa during a period of Islamic repression signaling the end of
convivencia.
His work as a philosopher and physician contributes to an intellectual revival in Europe.

1184
Emperor Frederick Barbarossa convenes the Great Diet of Mainz, to replicate Constantine's unifying achievement at Nicaea. He is the first to call himself Holy Roman Emperor.

1215
Pope Innocent III declares the Magna Carta null and void. In the same year, he convenes the Fourth Lateran Council, which decrees "Outside the Church there is no salvation." It also introduces laws to denigrate and isolate Jews, the ancestors of the yellow star.

1231
Pope Gregory IX issues
Excommunicamtis,
empowering Dominican and Franciscan courts, the beginning of the Inquisition.

1242
King James I of Aragon forcibly requires Jews to listen to convert makers' sermons. Jews are herded into churches; friars are empowered to enter synagogues uninvited. Christians blame Jewish recalcitrance on the secrets of the Talmud. King Louis IX of France orders the Talmud burned in Paris.

c. 1160
The Dominican Thomas Aquinas publishes
Summa Contra Gentiles,
a summary of Christian faith as it should be presented to those who reject it, especially Jews. Now Jews who refuse to convert are regarded as deliberately defiant, instead of "invincibly ignorant."

1263
King James I of Aragon requires Nachmanides (Rabbi Moses ben Nachman) to debate Dominicans in Barcelona. Nachmanides refutes Christian claims. The Church moves in earnest to convert Jews.

c. 1280
Moses de Leon composes the
Zohar.
It will form the heart of Kabbalah, which will transform Jewish spirituality, underwrite Jewish resistance to the new conversionism, and influence the mind of Europe.

1302
Pope Boniface VIII promulgates
Unam Sanctam,
claiming ultimate papal authority.

1348
The Black Plague that devastates Europe brings with it a new level of Christian violence against Jews, with perhaps three hundred communities wiped out. A rumor is circulated that the plague originated in a Jewish well-poisoning scheme in Toledo. Pope Clement VI defends the Jews against the charge.

1391
A massacre of Jews in Seville, and then pogroms elsewhere in Iberia, result in unprecedented rates of Jewish conversion, which in turn lead Christians to suspect all
conversos.

1449
The Statute of Toledo is issued by the city council, banning anyone of Jewish descent from holding office, introducing the idea of "blood purity." Pope Nicholas V condemns it.

1453
Constantinople falls to Muslim Turks, who use new artillery weapons in the siege. Nicolaus of Cusa responds with
De Pace Fidei
("Peace Among the Religions"), arguing for religious respect, including respect for Jews.

1478
The Spanish Inquisition is established to ferret out secret Jews. A period of conflict between the Inquisition and the papacy begins.

1492
Jews are expelled from Spain; more than 150,000 are driven out. Pope Alexander VI welcomes Jewish refugees to Rome.

1517
Martin Luther posts his Ninety-five Theses in Wittenberg. His "That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew" (1523) and "On the Jews and Their Lies" (1543) recapitulate the terrible ambivalence of Europe. He defines the Jew as the born enemy of the German Christian.

1545
Emperor Charles V presses Pope Paul III to convene the Council of Trent to combat Protestantism. Trent declares that all sinners, not Jews, are responsible for the death of Christ, but Trent also imposes new strictures on "unbelievers," including Jews.

1555
The century-long conflict between the Inquisition and the papacy is resolved when the grand inquisitor Caraffa becomes Pope Paul IV. He ratifies the blood purity Statute of Toledo and issues
Cum Nimis Absurdum,
which establishes the Roman ghetto. The Peace of Augsburg ends religious wars by dividing the German realm into Protestant and Catholic states.

c. 1570
Isaac Luria embodies the creative Jewish response to catastrophic events. His renewal of Kabbalah introduces the ideas of creation as God's self-exile and of
tikkun olam,
Israel's role in restoring God through acts of justice and study of Torah.

1608
The Jesuit order forbids admission to anyone descended from Jews to the fifth generation, a restriction that will be maintained until the twentieth century. Three years later, Pope Paul V decrees that the blood purity standard will apply to the Church in Rome as well as elsewhere. This will be reversed by subsequent popes.

1632
Baruch Spinoza is born in Amsterdam. He is schooled in Talmud and Kabbalah, and grows up to become one of the first great Enlightenment thinkers.

1771
Voltaire embodies a new, racial antisemitism, defining Jews as "deadly to the human race."

1789
The French Revolution begins. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen applies to Jews, too—but only as individuals.

1799
Napoleon, in extending the principle of equality before the law, breaks down ghetto walls across Europe, including in Rome. But he, too, will introduce restrictions designed to stifle Jewish "nationhood."

1815
After the defeat of Napoleon, the Holy Alliance restores elements of the old order. When Pope Pius VII is reinstated as ruler of the Papal States, he immediately reestablishes the Roman ghetto.

1818
Karl Marx is born in Trier of a long line of rabbis, although his father had become a Christian. One of his first works will be "On the Jewish Question" (1843): "Money is the jealous god of Israel."

1854
Pius IX defines the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Four years later, the Virgin Mary is reported to appear to a girl near Lourdes.

1861
Italian nationalists seize most of the papal territories, isolating the pope in Rome and its environs.

1869
The First Vatican Council convenes.

1870
Pastor Aeternus
proclaims papal infallibility. Weeks later, Italian nationalists take control of Rome.

1871
Revolutionaries take over Paris, proclaiming the Paris Commune and murdering the archbishop. Charles Darwin publishes
The Descent of Man,
which predicts that "civilized" races will "exterminate ... the savage races." The Kulturkampf, Bismarck's campaign against the Catholic Church, begins in Prussia.

1894
Captain Alfred Dreyfus is arrested in Paris, charged with spying for Germany, and jailed on Devil's Island.

1898
Emile Zola publishes "
J'Accuse
....!" Pope Leo XIII condemns antisemitism, but in a private letter. Most Church elements, like the newspaper
La Croix,
are aligned with antisemitic forces as a way of reconnecting with the masses.

1905
Protocols of the Elders of Zion,
a document purporting to be records of a Zionist congress, appears in Russia.

1917
The Code of Canon Law, centralizing authority in Rome, is adopted by the Church.

1929
The Lateran Treaty between Mussolini and the Vatican assures the pope's autonomy in Vatican City. The Vatican agrees to the suppression of the Popular Party, a Catholic political party opposed to fascism.

1933
Hitler comes to power. His first bilateral treaty is the concordat with the Vatican, negotiated by Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli.

1939
Pacelli becomes Pope Pius XII. He cancels Pius XI's in-progress encyclical condemning antisemitism.

1942
Dutch bishops denounce the Nazi roundup of Jews. Edith Stein is arrested, and later dies in Auschwitz.

1943
Madeleine Dreyfus Lévy dies in Auschwitz. When Jews are rounded up at the foot of Vatican Hill, Pius XII does not openly protest.

1948
The state of Israel is established.
Jesus et Israel
is published by the Jewish historian Jules Isaac, linking contempt for Judaism to central Christian teaching. 1960 Pope John XXIII meets with Jules Isaac, calls for a change in the Church's relationship with Jews. He eliminates the words "perfidious Jews" from Catholic liturgy.