necessary for some special reason in order to meet local conditions.
Indeed at the end of the thirteenth and the early fourteenth century,
when these decrees were being issued in France, full liberty was allowed
in Italy, and there were no restrictions either as to medical practice
or education founded on adhesion to Judaism.

What need to be realized in order to understand the issuance of certain
local ecclesiastical regulations forbidding Jews to practise medicine
are the special conditions which developed in France at this time. Many
Jews had emigrated from Spain to France, and the reputation acquired by
Jewish physicians at Montpellier led to a number of the race taking up
the practice of medicine without any further qualification than the fact
that they were Jews. That gave them a reputation for curative powers of
itself because of the fame of some Jewish doctors and their employment
by the nobility and the highest ecclesiastics. It was hard to regulate
these wandering physicians. As a consequence of this, the faculty at
Paris, always jealous of its own rights and those of its students, at
the beginning of the fourteenth century absolutely forbade Jews from
practising on Christian patients within its jurisdiction. Of course the
faculty of the University of Paris was dominated by ecclesiastical
authorities. The medical school was, however, almost entirely
independent of ecclesiastical influence, and was besides largely
responsible for this decree. It was felt that something had to be done
to stop the evil that had arisen and the charlatanry and quackery which
was being practised. This was, however, rather an attempt to regulate
the practice of medicine and keep it in the hands of medical school
graduates than an example of intolerance towards the Jews. Practically
no Jews had graduated at its university, Montpellier being their
favorite school, and Paris was not a little jealous of its rights to
provide for physicians from the northern part of France. We have not got
away from manifestations of that spirit even yet, as our
non-reciprocating state medical laws show.

During the next quarter of a century decrees not unlike those of the
University of Paris were issued in the south of France, especially in
Provence and Avignon. Anyone who knows the conditions which existed in
the south of France at this time with regard to medical practice will be
aware that a number of attempts were made by the ecclesiastical
authori