The Formation of a Persecuting Society

Medieval persecution of Jews, lepers and heretics has been traditionally explained in terms of the problems the victims represented to society. Moore argues that such persecutions cannot be explained independently, and that all are part of a pattern of persecution in European society.

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The Tenth to the Thirteenth centuries in Europe saw the appearance of popular heresy and the establishment of the inquisition: expropriation and mass murder of Jews: the foundation of leper hospitals in large numbers and the propagation of elaborate measures to segregate lepers from the healthy. These have traditionally been seen as distinct and separate developments, and explained in terms of the problems which their victims presented to medieval society. In this stimulating book Robert Moore argues that the coincidences in the treatment of these and other minority groups cannot be explained independently, and that all are part of a pattern of persecution which now appeared for the first time to make Europe become, as it has remained, a persecuting society.