Aquinas, Thomas Germany were paupers and peasants who had been stirred up by monks and preachers The church hierarchy did not effectively counter a populist piety that the killing of Jews expiated sins and atoned for the crucifixion of Christ Mobs also felt that Jews were legitimate targets because they lived within Christendom and constituted an immediate threat, whereas the Muslims were far away The first pogroms broke out in Rouen in French Lorraine Jews were forced into baptism or slaughtered Though warnings were sent out from France to beware the onslaught of the mobs, the German Jews dismissed them and trusted in their fellow countrymen When Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penniless led their forces there, their brutal intentions were quickly made known Though many bishops and priests tried to protect them, it is estimated that up to 10,000 Jews who lived in settlements around the Rhine and Danube Rivers perished Cities affected included Treves, Meuss, Ratisbon, and Prague The more disciplined crusader armies took anti-Semitism with them into the Holy Land when they finally arrived and burned Jews in their synagogues Later crusades did not witness the same degree of bloodshed against Jews in Europe Nonetheless, the earlier massacres unleashed bitterness and tension between the two religious groups, especially evident among the intellectuals and hierarchy, for the next few centuries When the Second Crusade was proclaimed, Pope Eugenius III (1145–53) suggested that Jewish moneylenders cancel the debts of Christian crusaders Influential abbot Peter of Cluny wrote Louis IX of France that European Jews finance the war effort A French monk named Radulph traveled around Germany— without his monastery’s approval—preaching that the Jews were the enemies of God At the risk of his life, the saintly and respected Bernard of Clairvaux confronted and condemned Radulph but still urged that Jews not collect interest on crusaders’ debts Since Jews could not count on the protection of the church, they were forced to accept a special legal status in the eyes of the civil government This new identity meant that Jews now were quarantined in ghettos, bound to wear badges or unique clothing, and even kept from reading the Talmud By the end of the Middle Ages, western European Jewry was in ruins, and Jews fled eastward to Poland and Russia See also Crusades; Umayyad dynasty Further reading: Flannery, Edward H The Anguish of the Jew Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1985; Lewis, Bernard Cultures in Conflict: Christians, Muslims, and Jews in the Age of Discovery New York: Oxford University Press, 1995; Yuval, 21 Israel Jacob Two Nations in Your Womb: Perceptions of Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages Translated by Jonathan Chipman and Barbara Harshav Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006 Mark F Whitters Aquinas, Thomas (1225–1274) philosopher and theologian St Thomas Aquinas was born at Roccasecca, Italy, to Count Landulf and Countess Theodora From early on, Thomas was diligent in his studies and had a meditative mindset He received his education from the monastery of Monte Cassino and the University of Naples Thomas entered the Dominican Order and then studied in Paris from 1245 under the well-known philosopher Albertus Magnus (1195–1280) He spent 10 years visiting Italy, France, and Germany In 1248 he lectured on the Bible at a college in Cologne, Germany He was in Paris from 1252 c.e., eventually becoming a professor of theology and writing books He was awarded the degree of doctor in theology in 1257 Between 1259 and 1268 he lectured as professor in the Dominican covenants of Rome and Naples Thomas also worked at the papal court as an adviser He was a well-known figure by the time he came to Paris in 1269 His intellectual inquiries about the relationship between philosophy and theology made Thomas a controversial figure His Scholasticism made him an avid reader of works pertaining to Christian theologians, Greek thinkers, Jewish philosophy, and Islamic philosophy Thomas wrote his first book as a commentary on Sentences, a seminal book on theology by Peter Lombard (1095–1161) Aristotle (384–322 b.c.e.) influenced him greatly, and his comments on Sentences contained about 2,000 references to Aristotle Critics also associate Thomas with the doctrine of Averroës (1126–98), distinguishing between knowledge of philosophy and religion The Dominicans sent Thomas to Naples in 1272 to organize a studium generale (a house of studies) The pope had asked him to attend the Council of Lyon on May 1, 1274, and to bring his book Contra errores Graecorum (Against the errors of the Greeks) In spite of his deteriorating health, he started the journey in January He died on his way there on March 7, 1274, at the Cistercian abbey of Fossanova In Christian theology the 13th century was an important time, as two schools of thought were raging with controversy The Averroists separated philosophical truths