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| Saint Louis IX (late 16th century) by El Greco |
SAINT LOUIS IX OF FRANCE – SOWING THE SEEDS OF
THE HOLOCAUST
The
Roman Catholic Church honors Saint Louis IX of France (1214-70) as the ideal
medieval Christian ruler.
Not
many kings are canonized confessors in the Roman Catholic West, and their
rarity makes them stand out as saints. Among the most famous would be Saint Edward
the Confessor, Saint Ferdinand of Castile, a handful more.
What
evidence of sanctity did the medieval world expect from a layman who was a
member of the royal class, even more unusually, a king?
What
did Christians at this time in Western history consider worthy of veneration
among members of the royalty?
Answering
these questions tells us how medieval Christendom interpreted and defined
holiness for their rulers.
Saint
Louis IX was canonized for his practice of Christian virtue.
He
was, to begin with, a man of Christian faith.
Hagiographies
often underscore his devout upbringing under his mother, Blanche of Castile,
who is related to have said, “I love you, my dear son, as much as a mother can
love her child, but I would rather see you dead at my feet than that you should
ever commit a mortal sin.”
The
king repeated his mother’s sentiment when he penned a letter of advice to
his eldest son, who succeeded him as Philip III:
“Therefore,
dear son, the first thing I advise is that you fix your whole heart upon God,
and love Him with all your strength, for without this no one can be saved or be
of any worth.
“You
should, with all your strength, shun everything which you believe to be
displeasing to Him. And you ought especially to be resolved not to commit
mortal sin, no matter what may happen and should permit all your limbs to be
hewn off, and suffer every manner of torment, rather than fall knowingly into
mortal sin.”
Saint
Louis IX’s life is best understood in the context of his Christian faith.
He
married Marguerite of Provence when he was 20 years old, she was 14. They
abstained from sexual relations for three nights, which they spent in prayer. During
their marriage they practiced sexual continence throughout Advent and Lent, on Fridays
and Saturdays, and for various liturgical events.
They
had five sons and six daughters, but only four sons and three daughters
survived to adulthood.
Saint
Louis IX practiced penance according to the custom of the day.
His
works of charity were renowned. He regularly fed the poor from his table,
washed their feet, and ate the leavings. He served the sick and lepers,
sometimes emptying the bedpans.
He
founded hospitals at Pontoise, Vernon, and Compiégne, and houses for the blind
and for reformed prostitutes.
His
religious devotion was widely known. He paid an astronomical sum to acquire the
relic of the Crown of Thorns and then built a masterpiece of Gothic architecture,
the Sainte-Chapelle, to house it and other relics. The price of the Crown of Thorns
exceeded the cost of building the Sainte-Chapelle.
At
one point he considered abdicating his crown in favor of his eldest son and
retiring to a monastery. Blanche of Castile, his mother, to her great relief, was
able to dissuade him.
Today
he is acknowledged by historians as an important reformer of the French legal system.
Among his reforms, trial by ordeal was proscribed, the “court of the king” or curia regis was constituted into a
regular court of justice, and the presumption of innocence became normative in
criminal procedure. His acts in this domain have been elevated as exemplifying the
virtue of justice.
His
reign was defined by two unsuccessful Crusades, both of which he led in fulfillment
of a religious vow he had made upon being cured of a life-threatening illness. Religiously
inspired aggression against the Muslims was considered at the time meritorious before
God and the Church and deserving of pious esteem.
He
was taken prisoner during his first Crusade. He angrily ordered that his ransom
be paid in full when he learned that one of his officials had hoodwinked his captors
in making the payment.
In
his death throes during his second Crusade, he laid himself down in a bed of ashes.
His dying words were, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem”—mystical, fervent.
Testifying
to his fama sanctitatis, crowds knelt
in veneration before his relics during their itinerary back to Paris. He was canonized
by the pope after a relatively short period, 27 years.
Demonstrably
a holy man, Saint Louis IX was also a man of his time. He mirrored medieval mores.
Today at least some of his words and deeds would be considered absurd, even
abhorrent and not indicative of holiness.
Under Saint Louis IX, blasphemers were punished by mutilating their tongue and lips. He banned gambling, at one point tossing from the ship deck the backgammon board and dice of his brother, Charles of Anjou. Not surprisingly, the saint prohibited prostitution, herding the offenders into ghettos.
He
forbade lending money at interest, which was understood by the medieval mind as
the sin of usury. Jews, who did not consider money lending at interest a sin
and who played a major role as bankers in medieval society, were devastated by
this prohibition. Italians, also medieval bankers, were set back. Jews
and Italians were expelled from the realm and their property was confiscated in
conjunction.
As was customary, Saint Louis IX expected his wife and children to obey him. Described as “domineering,” he required Marguerite to consult him in all her decisions.
His political decisions were not always the most astute. In the interest of advancing the peace, he conceded territories to England that, historians observe, became the base of English operations during the Hundred Years’ War.
He depleted the treasury by spending it on the Crusades.
He considered Muslims the enemies of Christians. His judgment of the Koran was that it was “full of…”—and here he uses a familiar expletive.
Jews bore the heavy hand of the saint’s severe interpretation of the Christian faith.
Since the beginning of Christianity, bad blood has existed between Jews and Christians, with more than enough injury and bloodshed to go around. By the time of Saint Louis IX anti-Semitic discrimination was an institution in European society, and the ingrained prejudice would sometimes erupt in pogroms.
Under Saint Louis IX, blasphemers were punished by mutilating their tongue and lips. He banned gambling, at one point tossing from the ship deck the backgammon board and dice of his brother, Charles of Anjou. Not surprisingly, the saint prohibited prostitution, herding the offenders into ghettos.
The
effect on the economy was that it was substantially diminished by the proscription
against money lending.
As was customary, Saint Louis IX expected his wife and children to obey him. Described as “domineering,” he required Marguerite to consult him in all her decisions.
His political decisions were not always the most astute. In the interest of advancing the peace, he conceded territories to England that, historians observe, became the base of English operations during the Hundred Years’ War.
He depleted the treasury by spending it on the Crusades.
He considered Muslims the enemies of Christians. His judgment of the Koran was that it was “full of…”—and here he uses a familiar expletive.
Jews bore the heavy hand of the saint’s severe interpretation of the Christian faith.
Since the beginning of Christianity, bad blood has existed between Jews and Christians, with more than enough injury and bloodshed to go around. By the time of Saint Louis IX anti-Semitic discrimination was an institution in European society, and the ingrained prejudice would sometimes erupt in pogroms.
Catholic
Education Resource Center offers us the following account of Christian-Jewish relations
in medieval Europe, around the time of Saint Louis IX:
begin
…many
Jews were killed in the Crusades. During the First, Second, and Third Crusades,
there were misguided, misinformed, or cynical attacks on Jews. The Church
actively opposed these attacks, and local clergy often came to the defense of
Jews in their community.
…The
Crusades were bad for European Jews because the religious enthusiasm that they
engendered often spilled over into popular attacks on the infidels at home. But
the purpose of the Crusades was never to kill Jews.
The
Fourth Lateran Council held in 1215 is often remembered for its anti-Jewish
decrees. It is true that the council excluded Jews from various public offices,
yet this was merely a restatement of existing Roman law. More troubling from
the modern point of view was the requirement that all Jews wear identifying
badges. This naturally conjures up images of German Jews forced to wear cloth
badges by the Nazis. But the clergy of the 13th century were unfamiliar with
the atrocities of the 20th. The medieval badges were part of a larger attempt
to avoid sinful behavior in Christian society. …the Jewish badges were meant to
warn Christians who might otherwise unknowingly become intimately familiar
with a Jew, something also forbidden by Roman law.
...The
13th century also brought the expansion of the Inquisition.
…According
to Roman law, and therefore canon law, a Christian was forbidden to convert to
Judaism. The problem was that throughout the Middle Ages secular authorities or
local populations frequently threatened to attack or expel Jews unless they
accepted baptism. Most Jews moved on, if they could. But many others would go
to the baptismal font rather than lose their lives or property. When the
persecution was over, these baptized Jews would return to Judaism or, fearing
the Inquisition, exist in a netherworld between the two faiths. The Church did
not recognize a forced conversion as valid…. Yet if someone received baptism
without objection, even if they were acting in response to an implied or spoken
threat, that was considered valid. …It was the job of the inquisitors,
therefore, to make certain that these new Christians remained Christian.
Of
all medieval institutions, the Church stood alone in Europe in its consistent
condemnation of Jewish persecutions. Yet they happened anyway. England expelled
all Jews in 1290; France in 1306; Spain in 1492. Europeans disliked the Jews
for their affluence and for the closed nature of their society, which seemed to
scorn Christians. Jews were commonly believed to use Christian blood in their
rituals, to desecrate the host, and to engage in ritual murder. …When the Black
Death arrived in the 14th century, the Jews were accused of polluting the wells
or incurring divine disfavor through their rituals.
end
See:
https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/history/the-church-and-the-jews-in-the-middle-ages.html
—Thomas
F. Madden, “The Church and the Jews in the Middle Ages,” Crisis Vol. 21, No. 1 (January 2003)
We
have already mentioned the prohibition against money lending with interest.
Notably, the king’s persecution of the Jews entailed more than the loss of
their means of livelihood. In 1230 he retroactively abolished the obligation of
borrowers to pay interest on loans, and in 1234 he annulled a third of all debts
owed to Jews. When as a result the Jews were unable to pay their debts to
Christians, their property was confiscated and appropriated by the Crown. Some
of the royal windfall was used to finance the Crusades.
Saint
Louis IX is particularly notorious for burning the Talmud. In 1240 he organized
a public disputation that took place in his court about controversial passages
in the Talmud, including allegations of blasphemy against Jesus and Mary. Predictably,
the Jewish side lost the debate, and consequently, two years later, the king consigned
24 cartloads of the Talmud and related texts to the fire.
A
Jewish resident of St. Louis, Missouri, writes in 2009:
“One
of the chief perpetrators of Jewish agony over the past few millennia was King
Louis IX of France, otherwise known as St. Louis, the man for whom our fair
city was named.
“…at
the top of Art Hill, there's that big statue of St. Louis, a physical entity
toward which Missouri’s Jews can direct their misery.
“And
so, this Tisha b’Av, members of Washington University’s Chabad will be
gathering at the base of St. Louis’ statue at 5:30 p.m. to recite liturgical
poems memorializing the misery he wrought. Since Tisha b’Av is a day of
fasting, refreshments will not be served.”
—Aimee
Levitt, “Down With King Louis IX!” Riverfront
Times (July 29, 2009)
Most
disconcerting for us contemporaries is the king’s enforcement of the 1215
decree of the Fourth Lateran Council that required Jews to wear the Jewish
badge or rouelle in French. The rouelle was officially imposed in 1269. It
is an infamous medieval artifact because its direct line includes the badge the
Nazis forced Jews to wear under pain of death and which facilitated their genocide
during the Holocaust.
We
would expect that Saint Louis IX, a leading medieval figure, would act in continuity
with the long history of anti-Semitism in Europe. He behaved according to his sincere
understanding of the Christian faith.
Although
he is distantly removed from the genocidal Nazi regime, it is evident that he played
no small part laying the groundwork in Europe for the mass murder of Jews under
Adolph Hitler. Saint and king, Louis IX sowed the seeds of the Holocaust.
Centuries
ago the Roman Catholic Church canonized this man. However, it is no reason to canonize every single one of his acts for recapitulation by posterity.
***
Detailed
information about Saint Louis IX is available from reputable media channels like
Encyclopedia Britannica, Catholic Encyclopedia, and Franciscan Media, all of which
were consulted.
Text
of Saint Louis IX’s letter to his eldest son was obtained from the Medieval Sourcebook
of Fordham University:
A
variety of sources, including book publications, selected pages of which are available
on the Internet, offer critical information about Saint Louis IX.
Esther
Benbassa, The Jews of France: A History
from Antiquity to the Present (1999):
Jim
Bradbury, The Capetians: Kings of France
987-1328 (2007):
Gerard
Castillo, 16 Marriages That Made History
(2015):
“Louis
IX: Saintly King of France,” Christianity
Today:
Negative
historical accounts about the treatment of Jews by Christians are readily accessible,
for example:
Abba
Solomon Eban, Heritage: Civilization and
the Jews (1986):
“Modern
Jewish History: King Louis,” Jewish Virtual Library:
Detailed
historical information about the Jewish badge is available from reputable sources.
United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., “Jewish Badge: Origins,” Holocaust Encyclopedia:
“Jewish
Stars and Other Holocaust Badges,” Holocaust Memorial Center:
“Timeline
of Events: 1939-1941,” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum:
“Star
of David Badge,” Digital Kenyon: Research, Scholarship, and Creative Exchange:
***
“Scattered
throughout the Talmud, the founding document of rabbinic Judaism in late
antiquity, can be found quite a few references to Jesus — and they’re not flattering. In this lucid, richly
detailed, and accessible book, Peter Schäfer examines how the rabbis of the
Talmud read,
understood, and used the New Testament Jesus narrative to assert, ultimately,
Judaism’s superiority over Christianity.
“The
Talmudic stories make fun of Jesus’ birth from a virgin, fervently contest his
claim to be the Messiah and Son of God, and maintain that he was rightfully
executed as a blasphemer and idolater. They subvert the Christian idea of
Jesus’ resurrection and insist he got the punishment he deserved in hell — and that a similar fate awaits his followers.
“Schäfer
contends that these stories betray a remarkable familiarity with the Gospels — especially Matthew and John — and represent a deliberate and sophisticated
anti-Christian polemic that parodies the New Testament narratives. He carefully
distinguishes between Babylonian and Palestinian sources, arguing that the
rabbis’ proud and self-confident countermessage to that of the evangelists was
possible only in the unique historical setting of Persian Babylonia, in a
Jewish community that lived in relative freedom. The same could not be said of
Roman and Byzantine Palestine, where the Christians aggressively consolidated
their political power and the Jews therefore suffered.
“A
departure from past scholarship, which has played down the stories as
unreliable distortions of the historical Jesus, Jesus in the Talmud posits a much more deliberate agenda behind
these narratives.”
—Book
overview of Jesus in the Talmud (2009)
by Peter Schäfer, Princeton University Press
Since
the Holocaust, the relations between Christians and Jews have come under close
scrutiny.
There’s
a lot of bad blood between Christians and Jews, and it isn’t going away.
The
Talmud is an artifact of the bad blood between Christians and Jews. It’s
shocking to Christians to read of Jewish blasphemies in the Talmud, but why
should we be surprised? The Talmud after all inherited the legacy of Jesus’
enemies in the Jewish religious establishment, the very people who engineered
his murder. Today that ill-will and even animosity persists as a historical
undercurrent between Christians and Jews. Those of us who have almost no direct
experience with Jews receive this baggage with fraught dismay and sadness.
When
there is conflict between groups, there’s a need for dialogue, information,
activism, and reform.
Public domain image
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