Free Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews by James Carroll Page A

Toledo is issued by the city council, banning anyone of Jewish descent from holding office, introducing the idea of "blood purity." Pope Nicholas V condemns it.
    1453 Constantinople falls to Muslim Turks, who use new artillery weapons in the siege. Nicolaus of Cusa responds with De Pace Fidei ("Peace Among the Religions"), arguing for religious respect, including respect for Jews.
    1478 The Spanish Inquisition is established to ferret out secret Jews. A period of conflict between the Inquisition and the papacy begins.
    1492 Jews are expelled from Spain; more than 150,000 are driven out. Pope Alexander VI welcomes Jewish refugees to Rome.
    1517 Martin Luther posts his Ninety-five Theses in Wittenberg. His "That Jesus Christ Was Born a Jew" (1523) and "On the Jews and Their Lies" (1543) recapitulate the terrible ambivalence of Europe. He defines the Jew as the born enemy of the German Christian.
    1545 Emperor Charles V presses Pope Paul III to convene the Council of Trent to combat Protestantism. Trent declares that all sinners, not Jews, are responsible for the death of Christ, but Trent also imposes new strictures on "unbelievers," including Jews.
    1555 The century-long conflict between the Inquisition and the papacy is resolved when the grand inquisitor Caraffa becomes Pope Paul IV. He ratifies the blood purity Statute of Toledo and issues Cum Nimis Absurdum, which establishes the Roman ghetto. The Peace of Augsburg ends religious wars by dividing the German realm into Protestant and Catholic states.
    c. 1570 Isaac Luria embodies the creative Jewish response to catastrophic events. His renewal of Kabbalah introduces the ideas of creation as God's self-exile and of tikkun olam, Israel's role in restoring God through acts of justice and study of Torah.
    1608 The Jesuit order forbids admission to anyone descended from Jews to the fifth generation, a restriction that will be maintained until the twentieth century. Three years later, Pope Paul V decrees that the blood purity standard will apply to the Church in Rome as well as elsewhere. This will be reversed by subsequent popes.
    1632 Baruch Spinoza is born in Amsterdam. He is schooled in Talmud and Kabbalah, and grows up to become one of the first great Enlightenment thinkers.
    1771 Voltaire embodies a new, racial antisemitism, defining Jews as "deadly to the human race."
    1789 The French Revolution begins. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen applies to Jews, too—but only as individuals.
    1799 Napoleon, in extending the principle of equality before the law, breaks down ghetto walls across Europe, including in Rome. But he, too, will introduce restrictions designed to stifle Jewish "nationhood."
    1815 After the defeat of Napoleon, the Holy Alliance restores elements of the old order. When Pope Pius VII is reinstated as ruler of the Papal States, he immediately reestablishes the Roman ghetto.
    1818 Karl Marx is born in Trier of a long line of rabbis, although his father had become a Christian. One of his first works will be "On the Jewish Question" (1843): "Money is the jealous god of Israel."
    1854 Pius IX defines the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Four years later, the Virgin Mary is reported to appear to a girl near Lourdes.
    1861 Italian nationalists seize most of the papal territories, isolating the pope in Rome and its environs.
    1869 The First Vatican Council convenes.
    1870 Pastor Aeternus proclaims papal infallibility. Weeks later, Italian nationalists take control of Rome.
    1871 Revolutionaries take over Paris, proclaiming the Paris Commune and murdering the archbishop. Charles Darwin publishes The Descent of Man, which predicts that "civilized" races will "exterminate ... the savage races." The Kulturkampf, Bismarck's campaign against the Catholic Church, begins in Prussia.
    1894 Captain Alfred Dreyfus is arrested in Paris, charged with spying for Germany, and jailed on Devil's Island.
    1898 Emile Zola publishes " J'Accuse ....!" Pope Leo XIII