****************************************** 1.  Cod.  Theod., xvi. 8:  “De Judaeis, Coelicolis, et Samaritanis;” Cod.  Just., i. 9:  “De Judaeis et Coelicolis.”  With regard to these coelicolae, see Gothofredus on Cod.  Theod., xvi. 8, 9, and also J. Bernays, “Ueber die Gottesfuerchtigen bei Juvenal,” in the Comm.  Philol in hon.  Th.  Mommsen, 1877, p. 163. ******************************************

He harassed the Jews with a law enjoining them to observe Easter on the same day as the Christians, a law which it was of course found impossible to carry out. 2

******************************************* 2.  Gibbon, chapter xlvii. *******************************************

In the Germanic states which arose upon the ruins of the Roman empire, the Jews did not fare badly on the whole.  It was only in cases where the state was dominated by the Catholic Church, as, for example; among the Spanish Visigoths, that they were cruelly oppressed; among the Arian Ostrogoths, on the other hand, they had nothing to complain of.  One thing in their favour was the Germanic principle that the law to be applied depended not on the land but on the nationality, as now in the East Europeans are judged by the consuls according to the law of their respective nations.  The autonomy of the Jewish communities, which had been curtailed by the later emperors, was now enlarged once more under the laxer political and legal conditions.  The Jews fared remarkably well under the Frankish monarchy; the Carolingians helped them in every possible way, making no account of the complaints of the bishops.  They were allowed to hold property in land, but showed no eagerness for it; leaving agriculture to the Germans, they devoted them selves to trade.  The market was completely in their hands; as a specially lucrative branch of commerce they still carried on the traffic in slaves, which had engaged them even in ancient times. 1

*************************************** 1.  Agobardus Lugdunensis, Die Insolentia Judaeorum, De Judaicis superstitionibus.  Agobard was no superstitious fanatic, but one of the weightiest and most enlightened ecclesiastics of the Middle Ages. ***************************************

Meanwhile the Church was not remiss in seeking constantly repeated re-enactments of the old imperial laws, in the framing of which she had had paramount influence, and which she now incorporated with her own canon law. 2

*************************************** 2.  Compare Decret. i., dist. 45, c. 3; Decr. ii., caus. 23, qaest. 8, c. 9, caus. 28, qu. 1, c. 10-12; Decr. iii., de consecr., dist. 4, c. 93; Decretal.  Greg. 5, 6 ("De Judaeis, Sarracenis, et eorum servis"), 5, 19, 18; Extrav. commun 5, 2. ***************************************

Gradually she succeeded in attaining her object.  In the later Middle Ages the position of the Jews in the Christian society deteriorated.  Intercourse with them was shunned; their isolation from being voluntary became compulsory; from the I3th century onwards they were obliged to wear, as a distinctive mark (more necessary in the East than in the West), a round or square yellow badge on their breast. 3