MMW 13 Chapter Notes - Chapter Reading: Leper Colony
6 May 2018
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There were two major events that resulted in the mass killing of Jews and lepers in
France: The Sheperds’ Crusade of 1320 and another uprising in 1321. The Sheperds’ Crusade
was started, reportedly, when a shepherd boy in Spain received a vision that told him that the
Muslim kingdom of Granada had to be taken over by Christians. From there, there was a call
among the peasants that was then supported by nobles to launch a crusade. The pope and the
king refused. In France, the peasants rose up and went around the countryside attacking Jews,
nobles, and lepers. They killed them without discrimination and took their property. They also
attacked the clergy, which led to the movement’s condemnation by the Pope. In 1321, there was
a more urban version of this revolt where peasants and city dwellers rose up and killed mostly
lepers, but also a good number of Jews.
The reasons why they did this go back pretty far. The Jews acted kind of like debt
collectors to the king: they had to pay ⅔ of whatever debts they were paid back to him and
when they were expelled from France only a few decades before the revolt, the Crown took
possession of all their property, wealth, and debts. The people didn’t like that the king was
oppressing them, and they hated the Jews for being agents of the king in that sense, so they
went after them. Along with this was, of course, the longstanding hatred of Jews for being non
Christians. They were also considered untrustworthy because they weren’t Christian. They
attacked the lepers also because they just generally disliked lepers, but also because they
wanted the leper houses and whatever donations that those houses brought. The second revolt
was also supported by local officials, and upon the spread of the movement to their town, the
municipal authorities claimed the leper houses and their subsequent monetary donations
received from the Crown and the townspeople.
There were a number of conspiracy theories that floated around which helped the people
justify what they were doing to the king and thereby avoiding royal persecution for superseding
royal authority illegally. The most popular one was that the lepers and Jews were conspiring
with the Muslims to poison the king and the whole of Christendom, so they had to be killed for
treason and otherwise imprisoned for their crimes. All of this came to a head and the king ended
up expelling the Jews from France in 1321. This made the peasantry very happy.
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Document Summary
There were two major events that resulted in the mass killing of jews and lepers in. France: the sheperds" crusade of 1320 and another uprising in 1321. The sheperds" crusade was started, reportedly, when a shepherd boy in spain received a vision that told him that the. Muslim kingdom of granada had to be taken over by christians. From there, there was a call among the peasants that was then supported by nobles to launch a crusade. In france, the peasants rose up and went around the countryside attacking jews, nobles, and lepers. They killed them without discrimination and took their property. They also attacked the clergy, which led to the movement"s condemnation by the pope. In 1321, there was a more urban version of this revolt where peasants and city dwellers rose up and killed mostly lepers, but also a good number of jews. The reasons why they did this go back pretty far.
