Catholic Church and Judaism

The Catholic Church and Judaism have a long and complex history of cooperation and conflict, and have had a strained relationship throughout history that has improved since the twentieth century. Both claim a common heritage of tradition, going back to Abraham and insist that they are the true extension of faith described in the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible, which they evoke to establish their authority and justify their status as God's covenantal partner.

Both religions have roots in the period of Second Temple Judaism and only gradually over the next centuries separated from each other while engaging in mutual polemics. Though initially persecuted, Christianity was legitimised in 313 and was declared the official religion of the Roman Empire in 380, which led to increasing restrictions on the Jews by the imperial government. Based on the teachings of Paul and Augustine of Hippo as well as Roman law, the Catholic Church opted to allow Jews to live in the now Christian Empire in their role as witnesses to the Old Testament. This role offered them some privileges and protections, such as from forced conversion, but also limited their role and rights in society as stated in Roman law. Rabbinic Judaism generally viewed Christians as heretics and idolaters. The popes, starting with Gregory the Great, often served as the persons who Jews would petition for intervention and Gregory's letter Sicut Judaeis became the basis for later papal bulls of protection.

Whereas Jews lived fairly unharmed in the early Middle Ages, the situation changed gradually with the start of the crusades at the end of the eleventh century. Popes usually spoke out against anti-Jewish violence but with the increase in temporal powers of the papacy, it also started to regulate Jewish presence in society.