The Satanic, beastly figures in this sixteenth century
woodcut are identified as Jews by the round badges
on their cloaks. Many Christians believed that Jews
were demonic creatures who were not truly human. Medieval
hostility towards the Jews increased over the course
of the Middle Ages even as the economic role of the
Jews in much of Europe became less central. In the
most virulent cases Jews were accused of imaginary
crimes and were attacked as allies of the Devil. Feudal
lords used both the growing wealth and the precarious
social position of the Jewish moneylenders to exact
special taxes and tithes from them. For its
part, the Church taught that moneylending was a sin
and added fuel to the notion that Jews were somehow
the ungodly enemies of Christians.
