But it also gave the kings the opportunity to periodically play the populist card, dramatically snubbing or humiliating their Jewish financiers, turning a blind eye or even encouraging pogroms by townsfolk who chose to take the Exception of Saint Ambrose literally and treat moneylenders as enemies of Christ who could be murdered in cold blood. Particularly gruesome massacres occurred in Norwich in 1144 AD, and in Blois, France, in 1171. Before long, as Norman Cohn put it, “What had once been a flourishing Jewish culture had turned into a terrorized society locked in perpetual warfare with the
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