Persecution of Jews in France

Roman emperors
Under Christian emperors, Jews were persecuted in the Roman Empire, which included forbidding Jews from marrying Christians, restricting Jewish ownership of slaves, and punishing those that converted from Christianity to Judaism.

Christian church councils
The ecclesiastical Councils of Clermont in 535, Orléans in 538, and Paris in 614, prohibited Jews from holding office, prohibited marriage between Jews and Christians, prohibited Jews from walking public streets during Passion Week, and forbade Jews from serving any military or administrative office.

The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) mandate for Jews to wear the Jewish badge was imposed in Languedoc, Normandy, and Provence by councils held in 1227, 1231, and 1234.

Avitus
Bishop Avitus forced Jews to convert to Christianity or be expelled in 576 in Clermont.

Kings of France
In 582, Chilperic I, King of Soissons, ordered the Jews of his realm to be baptized to Christianity. He imprisoned a Jew named Priscus for resisting to convert to Christianity.

King of the Franks, Dagobert I gave Jews the alternatives of conversion to Christianity or exile in 629. Those that did not convert or leave his dominions were killed.

Robert II, King of France (987–1031) supported the persecution of Jews including massacres and forced conversions.

Jews were arrested and taxed extra, except if they converted to Christianity, by order of King Philip II. He expelled Jews from France in 1182 and synagogues were converted into churches. Philip II burned eighty Jews in Bray in 1192.

King Louis IX (later canonized by Pope Boniface VIII as a Christian saint) ordered the burning of the Talmud, enforced the wearing of the Jewish badge, and expelled Jews from his dominions. He also encouraged Jews to convert to Christianity and confiscated property from Jews to organize a crusade.

Jews were also expelled from France by King Philip IV in 1306, King Charles IV in 1322, King Charles VI in 1394, and King Louis XIII in 1615.

Massacres of the 1010s
In the 1010s, Jews were massacred in Limoges, Orléans, Rouen, and other places near the Rhine river.

Crusades
Jews were killed and forcibly converted to Christianity in France by Crusaders in the late 11th century and the mid-12th century during the First and Second Crusades. In 1236, before the Barons' Crusade, Crusaders forcibly baptized Jews and killed those that resisted in Anjou and Poitou.

Blood libels
In the town of Blois, in 1171, the Jews are arrested after being falsely accused of committing ritual murder of a Christian child or blood libel and most are executed after refusing to convert to Christianity. Over 30 Jews are killed. The Jewish children are forcibly baptized. Jews were also accused of blood libels in Pontoise in 1179, Weissenburg in 1270, and Troyes in 1288. In Troyes, over a dozen Jews were condemned by the tribunal of the Inquisition and burned at the stake.

Host desecration accusations
Jews were murdered after accusations of host desecration in Paris in 1290 and Nancy in 1761.

Pastoureaux of 1320
The Pastoureaux of 1320 were religious fanatics that killed Jews and forced Jews into being baptized into Christianity in France and northern Spain.

John XXII
Pope John XXII expelled Jews from his domain of Avignon in 1322 and issued the bull Ex parte vestra, which refused the right of asylum in churches to Jews that converted to Christianity that are suspected of relapse, and ordered the inquisitors to pursue Jews even into their places of refuge. He also ordered for the Talmud to be burned.

Persecution of Jews during the Black Death
Jews were falsely blamed for the Black Death or bubonic plague pandemic in Europe during the mid-1300s. They were persecuted and massacred. Jews were often used by Christians to blame due to their resentment of them considering the antisemitic Christian belief that Jews as a people hold the responsibility for killing Jesus Christ or Jewish deicide. Many Jews were murdered in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, and Switzerland.