Early Middle Ages and Crusades
French knights sent to fight at Barbastro attacked communities on the way; Pope Alexander II wrote to the bishops of Spain to forbid it
1063·Aragon
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Knights who had come from France for the Barbastro campaign attacked along the way the Jewish communities of Aragon and the Pyrenean slopes, deeming it fitting to begin with the infidels they encountered before going to seek the others.
Pope Alexander II wrote to the bishops of Spain and to the Viscount of Narbonne to condemn these acts of violence, laying down the distinction that would become doctrine: Muslims wage war on Christians, Jews are everywhere ready to serve, it is therefore not lawful to kill them. The letter is the first pontifical document protecting Jews against a crusading expedition avant la lettre.
- Period :
- Early Middle Ages and Crusades
- Type :
- Massacre
- Region :
- Western Europe
- Country :
- Espagne
Lettres d'Alexandre II ; Decretum de Gratien ; chroniques aragonaises.