The persecution of the Jews by the Gothic Spaniards naturally made them the implacable enemies of the Christians. Being a very numerous colony in Spain--for Hadrian had transported thither many thousand families--the Jews gave the Arabs very effective help in conquering the country, both by betraying places to them, and garrisoning captured towns while the Arabs went on to fresh conquests. Consequently the relations between the Jews and Moslems were for a long time very cordial, though this cordiality wore off in the course of time. . .
In France the prejudice against the Jews shewed itself very strongly among the clergy, though Louis I and his wife Judith favoured them. They were generally ill-treated, and their slaves were induced by the clergy to be baptized. Thereupon they became free, as Jews were not allowed to have Christian slaves. But it must be admitted that the Franks had reason for disliking the Jews, as it was well known that they sold Christian children as slaves to the Moslems of Spain.
Wow. That last remark is one of the things I often find most interesting in reading old texts. This is one of the things that makes Haines especially interesting as a writer. He shows his prejudices openly and yet still manages to view the overall picture with amazing objectivity in light of his prejudices. Did the Jews really sell Christian children to the Moors as slaves? I have no idea, but it sounds like one of those urban legends that everyone knows but no one can prove or find a source for. Still, considering how badly the Jews were treated it wouldn't surprise me if it happened at least once or twice. Vengeance leads people to do pretty outrageous things some times.
Anyway, all things must pass and a bit later Haines notes that:
The good understanding between the Jews and the Arabs with the gradual process of time gave place to an ill-concealed hostility, and at the beginning of the twelfth century there seems even to have been a project formed for forcing the Jews to become Moslems on the ground of a promise made by their forefathers to Mohammed that, if in five centuries their Messiah had not appeared, they would be converted to Mohammedanism.
Of course, when the Christian retook Spain the Jews were in a bit of a bind. The Christians still hated them and now they had the added impetus of the Jews' collaboration with the Moors. Interestingly, the Jews of Toledo appear to have pulled a fast one in 1085 when the Christians reclaimed that city. Says Haines:
They waited on Alfonso and assured him that they were part of the ten tribes whom Nebuchadnezzar transported into Spain, and not the descendants of those Jerusalem Jews who crucified Christ. Their ancestors, they said, were quite free from the guilt of this act, for when Caiaphas had written to the Toledan synagogue for their advice respecting the person who claimed to be the Messiah, the Toledan Jews returned for answer, that in their judgment the prophecies seemed to be fulfilled in Him and therefore He ought not by an means to be put to death. This reply they produced in the original Hebrew. It is needless to say that the whole thing was a fabrication.
A little fast footwork there, wouldn't you say?
Eventually, the Inquisition murdered and drove out all the Jews from Spain, with the exception of those known today to have continued their rituals in private while publicly accepting Christianity. The remaining Moslems were also killed or driven out, and you have to give Haines credit that he states, "The story of the treatment of Jews by Christians is indeed one of the darkest in the history of Christianity."
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