CLEP Western Civ I

Answer: A - The statement that Jews were vilified by Christians for charging higher interest on loans than Christian lenders charged is not true. During the Middle Ages, the church prohibited Christians from charging interest on loans, so Christians who wanted loans went to Jewish lenders instead. However, this became a source of tension between the two groups; Jewish lenders weren’t vilified for charging higher interest than Christian lenders because there were no Christian lenders (since they couldn’t make any profit). Jewish persecution has existed virtually as long as Christianity has, and the Jewish people had a turbulent experience in the Middle Ages, just as they have throughout most of the Common Era. Medieval societies varied in their laws regarding forced conversion of Jews to Christianity, but it did occur. Widespread misfortune or calamity that did not have a clearly understood cause during that time was often attributed to Jews, as was the case with the Black Death. (For example, in Strasbourg in 1849, at the height of the Black Death in Europe, 900 Jews were burned alive.) In the High Middle Ages, several Western European nations, including England and France, banished Jews from their countries altogether.