A collective book deepens knowledge of the reign of Louis IX without obscuring the anti-Jewish policy of the kings of France, nor confining the Jews to the “dark pages” of expulsion. By reinscribing medieval Judaism in the history of France, it is a question of normalizing Jewish history.
“France, without the Jews, would not be France.” Emerging in 2014 in a context that Pierre Birnbaum described as a “new anti-Semitic moment”, this slogan was repeated by Manuel Valls on different occasions to affirm, with the position of the State, the part of Jews in the identity of the France. The hypothesis of a France without Jews is based on the objective increase in departures to Israel, correlated with the increase in manifestations of anti-Jewish hostility. But the fact that it generalizes its virtuality suggests that the Jews form a distinct and removable part of the nation. The question of the place of Jews in France is paradoxically reactivated in a protective public discourse.
This question produced an unexpected echo within the framework of the commemoration of the eighth centenary of the birth of Saint Louis, placed at the heart of the cultural programming of the Center des monuments nationaux in 2014. It is up to its president, Philippe Bélaval, concerned about “not (leave) in the shadow any aspect of the time of Saint Louis” (p. 5), which is the initiative of the conference organized by Paul Salmona and Juliette Sibon at the Museum of Art and History of Judaism, from which the seventeen contributions that make up the work come.
Inspired by the powerful pages of Jacques Le Goff, who died in April 2014, the project consisted of “frontally addressing” the question of Louis’s relationships IX to Jews and Judaism. The concern to deepen the knowledge of the reign while avoiding the hagiographic rut converged with that of reinscribing medieval Judaism in the history of France, with a view to decompartmentalizing historiography.
White page and dark pages
The threefold objective of the work is set from the introduction: to recall the “Jewish part” of a history which “contributes to shaping, from primary school, the idea of an ethnically and lastingly homogeneous nation”, where rootless Jews would make a fleeting appearance before expulsion fulfilled their “natural” destiny (p. 18); open up Jewish studies, by bringing together specialists in the history of medieval Jews and medievalists specializing in political, economic, social and cultural history; restore historical reason to its rights, distancing itself from the “national novel” as well as from “tearful Jewish literature” (p. 10).
Demystification does not exclude nuance. Consider “the increased marginalization of French Jews in XIIIe century in light of the ideology and politics developed at the court of Louis IX » (p. 18) does not imply repairing the forgetting of the Jews by inscribing them only on the “dark pages” of French history.
The hypothesis according to which anti-Judaism does not exhaust the explanation of Louis’s policy IX vis-à-vis the Jews, repeated in the introduction, comes from historiographical trends acclimatized in France over the past twenty years, under the influence, in particular, of the book by David Nirenberg to which the conclusion refers, without however mentioning the recent revision by the historian of his own positions. Against the paradigm of the “persecuting society” and the specter of teleology, it is a question of reducing the part of religious hatred in the historical explanation and of restoring to the Jews their quality of actors of a history which cannot not just that of persecutions.
In this regard, the book bears witness to discrepancies for which it rightly takes credit for not having masked them. For Gérard Nahon, the “blows” of Louis’ administration IX help to explain the absence of posterity of the prestigious medieval Jewish community: the “economic liquidation”, “subsidized conversions and repeated destruction of (their) books (…) were right” of the Jews, finally expelled by Philippe le Bel in 1306 (p. 32). Conversely, the absence of expulsion under the reign of Louis IX is a leitmotif of the work and a key element in the mitigation of its anti-Jewish policy. This work is therefore at least as much a historiographical essay as a synthesis on the place of the Jews in the kingdom of France in the XIIIe century.
Diversity and integration of Jews
Distributed in four parts (“Jews and Judaism in France in the time of Louis IX », “The legislation on usury and on the wearing of the rouelle”, “The ideological arsenal against the Jews and Judaism” and “The policy of Saint Louis in the light of other contemporary sovereigns”), the texts are brief, remarkably clear and independently designed. Their complementarity is built as you read. Gérard Nahon’s perspective introduces the major reasons (anti-usury policy, taxation and royal extortion, imposition of the rouelle, trial and burning of the Talmud) that the articles treat from different angles, from the legislation, but also from the administrative investigations, chronicles, exegesis, stained glass windows, letters, books. We will only remember a few aspects here.
Long-standing stereotypes about the Jewish condition are contradicted by highlighting the geographic dispersion and cultural diversity of Jews, but also their social disparity and the multiplicity of their activities. The study of the writing, language, style and decoration of Hebrew manuscripts by Colette Sirat confirms the acculturation of Jews in a Christian environment. Daily relationships, the community of perceptions and emotions allow us to understand how, at the XIIIe century, “the Jews of France could sing a poem denouncing the misdeeds of those Christians who persecuted them, to the tune of a Christian love song” (p. 52).
The Jewish point of view is also taken into account, although sources are lacking. The famous letter from Meïr Siméon de Narbonne challenges Louis’ policy IX by justifying, in particular, the practice of lending at interest. Never sent to the king, it nevertheless relates to “compensation literature” rather than “combat with the pen” (Pierre Savy). Converselythe Angevin estate studied by Juliette Sibon provides a space for negotiation for recognized Jewish institutions which obtain, in return for money, exemptions from distinctive signs or tax relief.
Finally, beyond the nuances of the anti-Judaism of the princes, the main lines of a global political evolution are emerging. The construction of the State and the development of techniques of power would determine, more than anti-Judaism, the development of the law or the weight of taxation. Gaël Chenard notes that, in the implementation of direct levies, the Count of Poitiers does not make “that much difference between Jews and merchants”. The “essential difference” lies in the legal status of the Jews, “who are nothing more than serfs, and the weak defense they can put up” (p. 132).
Formulated here as factual evidence, the legal “difference” of the Jews is important for two reasons: it is linked to their situation as a religious minority; it constitutes them as a limiting case in the movement of construction of subjection.
The instability of the “minority” condition
We will regret the omission of the theological point of view in a context where the Christian definition of power is being refined. In the stained glass windows of the Sainte-Chapelle studied by Françoise Perrot, the treatment of the institution of royalty and the conquests of the princes of the Old Testament illustrates the appropriation of the history of the Hebrew people by the King of France. This appropriation reflects less the recognition of a link than the capture of a story. It is consistent with the evangelical program of “fulfillment” of the ancient Law conveyed by theology. The fragility of the minority condition is coupled with an original religious dispute which allows us to account for the reason for the servitude of the Jews as well as the ambivalence which characterizes the “Jewish policy” of Christian princes.
On the scale of the work, the explanation schemes sometimes reproduce this ambivalence. The emphasis is sometimes on anti-Jewish persecution, sometimes on the participation of Jews in global logics, especially political and economic, in which case the persecution is integrated in the mode of concession. Historiographical work does not impose this dissociation. In the interpretation of the investigations intended to restore Jewish usury to Christian debtors, Marie Dejoux combines the concern for the government of the kingdom and that of the salvation of the king. The conversion of the rejection of the Jews into love of the king is “an art of governing which is based in many respects on the stigmatization of certain groups” (p. 73).
In another register, Gilbert Dahan shows that scholarly exegesis, marked by the development of textual criticism and the correlative interest in Hebrew and Jewish exegesis, coexisted with a more crude exegesis and more inclined to anti-Jewish interpretations. , at work in the moralized bibles frequented by the future Louis IX. Maurice Kriegel also points out the ambiguous conclusion of the Talmud affair: in 1247, the pope put an end to the anti-Talmudic offensive, but entrusted the chancellor of the University of Paris with the continuation of the investigation which led, in 1248, on a new and “final” conviction.
The instability of the Jewish condition is due to the multiple expressions of this ambivalence. A whole spectrum, however, separates Louis’s policy IX from that of Frédéric IIwhose reign Henri Bresc describes as that of law (much less restrictive towards Jews), reason (which prevails against anti-Jewish accusations) and knowledge (as illustrated by the emperor’s familiarity with the Maimonidean intellectuals). And it is precisely the variety of angles and lighting, associated with the diversity of historiographical positions, which makes this very accessible book a tool for knowledge, reflection and discussion.