Middle Ages
There were many expulsions, including an expulsion from Trani in 1380, as well as all other Jewish communities south of Rome and a brief expulsion from Bologna in 1172. A nephew of Rabbi Nathan ben Jehiel acted as administrator of the property of Pope Alexander III, who showed his amicable feelings toward the Jews at the Lateran Council of 1179, where he defeated the designs of hostile prelates who advocated anti-Jewish laws. Under Norman rule the Jews of southern Italy and of Sicily enjoyed even greater freedom; they were considered the equals of the Christians, and were permitted to follow any career; they even had jurisdiction over their own affairs. Indeed, in no country were the canonical laws against the Jews so frequently disregarded as in Italy. A later pope—either Nicholas IV (1288–1292) or Boniface VIII (1294–1303)—had for his physician a Jew, Isaac ben Mordecai, nicknamed Maestro Gajo.
Read more about this topic: History Of The Jews In Italy
Famous quotes related to middle ages:
“Of all the barbarous middle ages, that
Which is most barbarous is the middle age
Of man! it is—I really scarce know what;
But when we hover between fool and sage,
And don’t know justly what we would be at—
A period something like a printed page,
Black letter upon foolscap, while our hair
Grows grizzled, and we are not what we were.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)