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

6th century forced conversions by clergy
Bishop Avitus forced Jews to convert to Christianity or be expelled in 576 in Clermont. Archbishop Virgilius of Arles and Bishop Theodore of Marseille also compelled Jews to convert.

Monarchs and nobles of France
In 582, Chilperic I, King of Soissons, ordered the Jews of his realm to be baptized into Christianity. He imprisoned a Jew named Priscus for resisting conversion 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. He demanded on pain of death that Jews convert to Christianity. Many were killed for refusing.

Jews that converted to Christianity were forced to remain Christian on pain of exile, death, or mutilation by King Louis VII in 1144. His son and successor Philip II ordered Jews to be arrested and taxed extra, except if they converted to Christianity. He expelled Jews from France in 1182 and synagogues were converted into churches. Philip burned eighty Jews in Bray in 1192. His successor Louis VIII prohibited all interest owed on loans to Jews.

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. Louis' brother Count Alphonse of Poitou also required Jews to wear a badge. In 1268, he arrested all the Jews in his domains and confiscated their property.

In 1289, Count Charles II of Anjou expelled Jews from Anjou and Maine, and King Philip IV imprisoned Jews, confiscated their property in 1305, and expelled Jews in 1306. They were also ordered to be expelled from France by King Charles IV in 1322, King Charles VI in 1394, King Louis XIII in 1615, King Louis XII expelled Jews from Provence in 1501, and King Louis XIV expelled them from Martinique in 1683.

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

Crusaders
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 were 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 Braisne and Pontoise in the late 12th century, Valréas in 1247, Weissenburg in 1270, and Troyes in 1288. Jews were also killed in Valréas and Troyes. In Troyes, over a dozen Jews were condemned by the tribunal of the Inquisition and burned at the stake.

Papacy
The Inquisition was an ecclesiastical tribunal that was used to persecute heretics. It was initiated by the Catholic Church and established by Pope Gregory IX in the 13th century and lasted centuries. Officials of the Inquisition or inquisitors targeted suspected Jewish converts of Christianity that relapsed to Judaism and Christians that converted to Judaism. They were tortured and punished with death. In the 1270s, Pope Nicholas III ordered several French Jews to be burned and Jews were burned in Troyes in 1288 and in Paris in 1310.

In 1253, a bull expelling Jews from Vienne was issued by Pope Innocent IV.

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. Jews were also later expelled from Avignon by Pope Pius V in the 16th century.

The schismatic Pope Benedict XIII (1394-1423) debarred Jews from office, restricted their occupation, permitted only one small synagogue for each congregation, forbade the construction of new synagogues, compelled Jews to listen to Christian sermons, and renewed the Fourth Lateran Council's badge requirement for Jews. He also forbade the study of the Talmud and had copies of the Talmud confiscated and destroyed.

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.

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, Switzerland, and the Netherlands.

Hep-Hep riots
Antisemitic pogroms in 1819 that began in Germany called the Hep-Hep riots occurred in Germany, Alsace in France, and Denmark. Jews were abused and Jewish property was pillaged and destroyed. The riots lasted from August to October.