How were the Jews and the Catholic Church able to work together in medieval times?

Answer 1

When the Moors were expelled from Spain, it was Jewish scholars that translated the documents, left behind in the Moors' libraries, from Arabic into Latin.

These documents included treatises on mathematics (including algebra). It was from here we got our first concept of zero.

The resultant rise in western knowledge was one of the sparks of the Renaissance.

Answer 2

The Jews of Medieval Britain were not always in harmony with the the Chritian Brotherhood. The local Barons in York had borrowed money from the local jews but when the loans were due incited riots that led to the massacre of the jewish population. This was not an isolated incident either, So I think the answer to your question is how ever long there usefulness lasted.

Answer 3

you're evaluating apples and oranges. you won't be able to degree the previous with a yardstick from the present. confident, there have been some abuses interior the Church -- *monks* merchandising indulgences -- yet those have been corrected. @ Rocky -- Boy, do you want a historic previous lesson. the 1st connection with Christ's church as "catholic" became with the aid of St. Ignatios (c 35 - 107), Bishop of Antioch. The Emperor Constantine died in *337*, and there *became NO* Roman Catholic Christian church earlier the large Schism between East and West in 1054. earlier that, the single, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church created with the aid of Christ had 5 patriarchies -- or seats of authority - in Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, meaning there have been 5 Patriarchs. The Patriarch of Rome grew to become the Catholic Christian Pope after the Schism. you do no longer could take my be conscious for it. Google the 'historic previous of Christianity' so which you will no longer make a fool of your self interior the destiny. And who have been those different "Christians" you consult with? the place is there documentation that they existed everywhere yet on your concepts? . . . . Oh, it rather is spectacular; you haven't any longer any documentation.

Answer 4

The Church needed the Jews to handle their finances (since they were forbidden from lending money at interest, considering it usury). The Jews did not "need" the Catholic Church, but were willing to help out.
Unfortunately, because the Jews were "different" with their secret language and different holy book and wierd dietary habits, and because they refused to become good catholics, and because they were able to do business in a more modern fashion and therefore accumulated wealth, it periodically occurred to the Church that represssion and persecution would be advantageous in saving their souls and filling the coffers of the Church.
There is a fable ablout "Killing the goose that lays the golden egg" that comes from this period and may have been directed at those who thought that longterm wealth could be stolen.

Answer 5

basically European Jews and the Catholic Church adopted a policy of peaceful co-existance. The same was done with the Muslims during that period - except for the one Sultan of Jerusalem who decided to rock the boat...

Neither Catholic Church nor Jewish dogma state that they need to exist solely and unopposed - both recognise the existance of other religions

Answer 6

Sometimes they got along, and sometimes not. For an excellent and readable history of the Jewish people see Alibris.com for a copy of Jews, God, and History by Max Dimont.

Answer 7

Who said that they "worked" together. The Popes of that era simply wiped out any Jew or other, who disagreed with their rearrangement of the faith.