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 in any military or administrative office. There were also various decrees by Visigothic kings at a number of Councils of Toledo. They decreed for Jews to be forced to convert, expelled, prohibited from mixed marriages, owning slaves, and holding office, forced into slavery, and for their children to be taken and raised as Christians. 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.

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

Kingdom of the Franks and 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. Chilperic's son and king of the Franks, Chlothar II, in 614, forbade Jews to serve in any military or administrative office. His successor, Dagobert I, demanded that Jews convert to Christianity or leave his dominions in 629. Those who did not convert or leave his dominions were killed.

King Robert II of France (987–1031) supported the persecution of Jewish people, including massacres and forced conversions. He demanded on pain of death that Jews convert to Christianity. Many were killed for refusing.

Jews who 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 Jewish property 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 Jewish property in 1305, and expelled Jews in 1306. Jewish people were also ordered to be expelled from France by King Charles IV in 1322, King Charles VI in 1394, and King Louis XIII in 1615. King Louis XII expelled Jews from Provence in 1501, and King Louis XIV expelled Jews from Martinique in 1683.

Visigothic Kingdom
The ecclesiastical Third Council of Toledo, convened by Bishop Leander of Seville under Visigothic King Recared I in 589, enacted restrictions against Jews in Canon 14. It forbade Jews from having Christian wives, concubines, and slaves. Children of mixed marriages with Jews were to be baptized into Christianity. The council also disqualified Jews from holding any office in which they could punish Christians.

King Sisebut (who reigned from 612 to 621) forced Jews to convert to Christianity. He issued a decree in the mid-610s that ordered Jews to convert or leave. Those who didn't convert or leave were punished with death.

The Fourth Council of Toledo in 633, convened by King Sisenand, decreed: “If a Jew has a Christian wife and wishes to live with her, he must become a Christian; if he will not do so, they are to be separated, and the children go with the mother; in the same fashion the children of unbelieving [Jewish] mothers and Christian fathers, become Christians.” He also forbade Jews from holding any public office and owning Christian slaves, and he also approved of the forced conversions of King Sisebut. Sisenand's successor, Chintila, convoked the Sixth Council of Toledo in 638, which established that only Catholics could live in Spain and that Jews had to convert or leave Spain.

King Recceswinth (649–672) issued laws that prohibited Jews from celebrating their Passover, observing the Sabbath, circumcising their children, keeping their dietary laws, and marrying by Jewish rite. Violation of these laws was punishable by death.

The Twelfth Council of Toledo, initiated by King Erwig and presided over by Archbishop Julian of Toledo, issued 28 laws condemning the Jewish people in 681. The council demanded the Jews' conversion or expulsion. In the 690s, Erwig's successor, Egica, convened the Seventeenth Council of Toledo, which decreed for Jews to be enslaved and their children to be taken and raised as Christians.

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, known as blood libel, and most were executed after refusing to convert to Christianity. Over 30 Jews were killed. The Jewish children were forcibly baptized. There were other blood libels in Braisne, Paris, and Pontoise in the late 12th century, and in Valréas in 1247, Troyes in 1288, Colmar in 1292, Chinon in 1317, Strasbourg in 1387, and Arles in 1453. Jews were also killed in Chinon, Colmar, Troyes, and Valréas. 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, established by Pope Gregory IX in the 13th century, and lasted for centuries. Officials of the Inquisition or inquisitors targeted suspected Jewish converts to Christianity who relapsed to Judaism and Christians who 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 who converted to Christianity and were suspected of relapsing and ordered the inquisitors to pursue Jews even into their places of refuge. He also ordered 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 it 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 to be 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, known as 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.