Background: Beginning in the eleventh century Europe entered a period of radical social and political change, of increasing expansion and local autonomy. Kingdoms emerged and Europe’s population grew dramatically. Cities, once located mostly along the Mediterranean, now increasingly began to appear inland. Connected by river and road they grew in population. By the 15th century the Church would face its first significant challenge to its authority, the Protestant Reformation.Capital was needed to finance the expansion, but Church doctrine forbade Christians to lend money at interest. So it fell upon the stranger at home, the Jews. Forbidden to own or work the land, shut out from most trades and crafts, the Jews were, by default, made Europe’s bankers. And along with their new role the Jews became also collectors of rent and taxes on behalf of the wealthy land owners. The peasants, destitute and forced to surrender their meager wealth as rent and taxes vented their frustration on those nearest at hand, the owner’s representatives.
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Borrowing by the Church and aristocracy meant that they would accumulate debt, and it took little time to realize that the easiest way to eliminate debt was to simply expel the Jews and appropriate their property. Europe’s expulsions began in the 1100’s and continued for several centuries, the two better know being from England in 1290, and Spain in 1492. Jews expelled from the southern regions generally settled in North Africa, while those from Central Europe settled in Poland. (see Grosser, Paul E. & Halperin, Edwin G., The Causes and Effects of Anti-Semitism (CEAS), 1978, p.103)The Black Death: The plague known as the Black Death traveled from the Orient to the Middle East and Europe. It devastated Europe, more than a third of the total population dying from the disease in the mid-14th century. Although Jews also were victim, rumors spread accusing them of poisoning Christian wells in order to spread the disease (CEAS. p. 127). Hundreds of Jewish communities were destroyed. “On January 9, 1349, nearly the entire Jewish population of Basel was massacred by townspeople.” That massacre was typical of others across Europe as,
“the people and local leaders of Switzerland, France and Germany accused Jews of poisoning wells. Most were burnt alive… in 1215 Pope Innocent III … passed [an edict that would inspire] Nazi Germany in the 20th century –Jews were required to wear a yellow badge at all times.”
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Burning of Jews during the Black Death epidemic, 1349
In Strasbourg, a city not yet touched by the plague, 900 Jews were gathered together and burned alive.
"In Spain in1491 [the eve of the infamous Inquisition] Spanish inquisitors forced Jews to confess that they had killed a Christian child, one Christopher of Toledo or Christopher of La Guardia, later made a saint of the Roman Catholic Church and venerated as Santo Nino de La Guardia. No missing child was ever reported that would correspond to this child and corroborate the tale. The tale was elicited from the victims by the holy inquisitors under torture, by suggestion (for example, "Confess that on this date you did do X"). It is likely that the blood libel was well known by this time.
“The libel of La Guardia occurred on the eve of the expulsion from Spain. Conversos were tortured till they confessed that with the knowledge of the chief rabbi the Jews had assembled in a cave, crucified a child, abused him and cursed him as was done to Jesus. The crucifixion motif explained why blood libels occurred at the time of Passover.