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In order to understand the actions and reactions of Jews in the medieval society of Europe, a distinction needs to be made between the outsiders' view and the insiders' view of this population group. …

In the Christian-dominated Europe of the premodern period, privileges were the central foundation of the legal position of the Jews. The privilege granted by a sovereign did not necessarily mean a preferential treatment with regard to the Jews. Usually, it granted protection limited in time, scope, and space, as well as specific rights, in exchange for specified obligations. Since the Late Middle Ages, there also existed privileges designed from the outset to the detriment of the Jews; such privileges were often integrated into police ordinances and Judenordnungen (regulations on…

The distinct formulistic and ritualized nature of medieval legal culture was both the starting point for and a constitutive element of the  more judaico (Lat. “according to Jewish custom”) form of oath, with which Jews were put under oath in legal proceedings from the early Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were used by Christian courts with the intention of forcing Jews to make truthful statements without recourse to Christian formulas. The different formulations of the oath reflect the limits of the integrati…