Witchcraft & Heresy Lesson 10

Lesson and description here, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

Original: The Inquisitions started to weed out the heretics but through the justice system within the Church. It was a way in a sort of formal convictions of heretics, which included several groups such as the Cathars, the Waldensins, Jews, beguines and beghards, and other alleged witches and heretics. To be a heretic was to have religious belief outside of the dominant official religious order. Basically, to not believe or believe in something other than what the Church teaches. As for the Jews, converted or not, it eventually got to the extreme point to where their blood would simply convict them of being a heretic and not allowed to rise in positions or join positions in government or the Church. The Pure Blood Law of Spain claimed that Jewish blood was demonic and if exceeded a fraction of one thirty-secondths was enough to be convicted. This can go as far as three generations back, and obviously displays harsh racism. It astounds me that anti-Semitism roots back so far. The case of the convictions and persecutions of the Jews in Medieval times really opens my eyes to the fact that this has been going on for as long as they have existed. It blows my mind that they are given this treatment in which essentially roots down to just the simple fact that they are “heretics.” I understand that every group straying from the religious norm has dealt with this, as we have learned, but I find Jewish discrimination to be particularly interesting. That is so because of widely known acts against them, including the Holocaust, the Ku Klux Klan, and so on. On top of that, it is especially interesting the fact that Christianity flat out disrespects the Jews in the New Testament. This is such a controversial subject that to this day still has not ceased to exist.
Student response #1: You point out the most basic concept: that there was no freedom of religion. As simple and fundamental as it is, it is also very easy to overlook. I mean, this is a concept that we have, at the heart of it all, been discussing this whole term. Just the act of practicing magic was an act of heresy because it was not prescribed to do in the Bible or other literature of the Church. So in that sense you were not doing what they wanted you to do and it threatened as well as frightened them. Needless to say, the Medieval people did not have a whole of freedom in general.
Student response #2: I particularly liked how effectively you worded the harsh realities of the things the Jews had to endure during the Middle Ages. Your post further brings out the thought that is completely astounding that a religion such as Christianity felt the need to do this to a differing group. That they cared so much and were threatened and frightened by another group who simply possessed differing beliefs. As I write this I have an astrology book sitting in front of me, this would eventually get me killed in Medieval culture. It absolutely blows my mind just as much as does the fact that Jews have been going through this before Medieval times and to this very day.