try to find out just what were the
conditions in Europe with regard to the practice of medicine by the
Jews. There is no doubt that at Salerno, where the influence of the
Benedictines was very strong and where the influence of the Popes and
the ecclesiastical authorities was always dominant, full liberty of
studying and teaching was from the earliest days allowed to the Jews.
Down at Montpellier it seems clear that Jewish physicians had a large
part in the foundation of the medical school, and continued for several
centuries to be most important factors in the maintenance of its
reputation and the upbuilding of that fame which draw students from even
distant parts of Europe to this medical school of the south of France.
During the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries Jewish
physicians were frequently in attendance on kings and the higher
nobility, on bishops and archbishops, cardinals, and even Popes. Every
now and then the spirit of intolerance among the populace was aroused,
and occasionally the death of some distinguished patient while in a
Jewish physician's hands was made the occasion for persecution. We must
not forget, after all, that even as late as Elizabeth's time, when
Shakespeare wrote "The Merchant of Venice," he was taking advantage of
the popular sentiment aroused by the execution of Lopez, the Queen's
physician, for a real or supposed participation in a plot against her
Majesty's life. Shylock was presented the next season for the sake of
adventitious popularity that would thus accrue to the piece. The
character was played so as to depict all the worst traits of the Jew,
and was scornfully laughed at at every representation. This is an index
of the popular feeling of the time. Bitter intolerance of the Jew has
continued. Down almost to our own time the Ghettos have existed in
Europe, and popular tumults against them continue to occur. Quite
needless to say, these do not depend on Christianity, but on defective
human nature.

During the Middle Ages the best possible criterion of the attitude of
the Church authorities towards the Jews is to be found in the
legislation of Pope Innocent III. He is the greatest of the Popes of the
Middle Ages; he shaped the policy of the Church more than any other; his
influence was felt for many generations after his own time. His famous
edict with regard to them was well known: "Let no Christian by violence
compel them to come dissenting or unwilling to Baptism. Fu