Editing History of Christianity (section)

===Challenges and repression===
The twelfth century saw a change in the goal of a monk from contemplative devotion to active reform.{{sfn|Fox|1987|p=298}}{{sfn|Jestice|1997|pp=1, 5–6}} Among these new activist preachers was [[Saint Dominic|Dominic]] who founded the [[Dominican Order]] and was significant in opposing [[Catharism]].{{sfn|Léglu|Rist|Taylor|2013|p=8}}{{sfn|Rubin|Simons|2009|p=4}} In 1209, [[Pope Innocent III]] and King [[Philip II of France]] initiated the [[Albigensian Crusade]] against [[Catharism]].{{sfn|Marvin|2008|pp=3, 4}}{{sfn|Kienzle|2001|pp=46, 47}} The campaign took a political turn when the king's army strategically seized and occupied lands of nobles who had not supported the heretics, but had been in the good graces of the Church.{{sfn|Rummel| 2006|p=50}} It ended in 1229 when the region was brought under the rule of the French king, creating [[southern France]], while Catharism continued until 1350.{{sfn|Marvin| 2008|p=216}}{{sfn|Dunbabin|2003|pp=178–179}}

Moral misbehaviour, such as sexual misconduct, being drunk and disorderly in public, or heresy by either laity or clergy, were prosecuted in [[Inquisition|inquisitorial courts]]. These courts were established when someone was accused, then after prosecution, courts were dissolved. Inquisitorial courts were composed of both church and civil authorities.{{sfn|Arnold|2018|pp=363, 365}}{{sfn|Ames|2009|p=16}}{{sfn|Deane|2022|p=xv}} Though these courts had no joint leadership nor joint organization, the [[Dominican Order]] held the primary responsibility for conducting inquisitions.{{sfn|Peters|1980|p=189}}{{sfn|Mout|2007|p=229}}{{sfn|Zagorin|2003|p=3}} The [[Medieval Inquisition]] brought between 8,000 and 40,000 people to interrogation and sentencing; death sentences were relatively rare.{{sfn|Arnold|2018|pp=363, 367}} The penalty imposed most often was an act of penance which might include public confession.{{sfn|Wood|2016|p=9}} Bishops were the lead inquisitors, but they did not possess absolute power, nor were they universally supported.{{sfn|Rubin|Simons|2009|pp=5–6}}{{sfn|Arnold|2018|p=365}} Inquisition became stridently contested as public opposition grew and riots against the Dominicans occurred.{{sfn|Arnold|2018|p=363}}{{sfn|Ames|2009|pp=1–2; 4; 7; 16; 28; 34}}{{sfn|Given|2001|p=14}} The [[Fourth Lateran Council]] of 1215 empowered inquisitors to search out moral and religious "crimes" even when there was no accuser. In theory, this granted them extraordinary powers. In practice, without sufficient local secular support, their task became so overwhelmingly difficult that inquisitors were endangered and some were murdered.{{sfn|Arnold|2018|pp=365; 368}}

From 1170-80, the Jewish philosopher Moses ben Maimon (commonly known as [[Maimonides]]) wrote his fourteen-volume code of Jewish law and ethics, titled the "[[Mishneh Torah]]".{{sfn|Maimonides|1983|pp=iii-v}} A turning point in Jewish-Christian relations occurred when the [[Talmud]] was [[Disputation of Paris|put "on trial" in 1239]] by the French King [[Louis IX of France|Louis IX]] and [[Pope Gregory IX]] because of contents that mocked the central figures of Christianity.{{sfn|Schacter|2011|p=2}} Talmudic Judaism came to be seen as so different from biblical Judaism that old Augustinian obligations to leave the Jews alone no longer applied.{{sfn|Rosenthal|1956|pp=68–72}}{{sfn|Schacter|2011|p=2}}{{sfn|Shatzmiller|1974|p=339}} A rhetoric with elaborate stories casting Jews as enemies accused of ritual murder, [[blood libel]], and desecration of the Christian eucharist host grew among ordinary folk. The spread of the [[Black Death]] led to attacks on Jewish communities by people who blamed them for the epidemic.{{sfn|Rubin|Simons2009|p=6}}{{sfn|Resnick|2012|p=4}}{{sfn|Mundy|2000|p=58}} Jews often acted as financial agents for the nobility, providing them [[usury|loans with interest]] while being exempt from certain financial obligations. This attracted jealousy and resentment.{{sfn|Moore|2007|p=110}} Count [[Emicho|Emicho of Leiningen]] massacred Jews in search of supplies and protection money, while the [[History of the Jews in England (1066–1290)#Massacres at London, Bury and York (1189–1190)|York massacre of 1190]] also appears to have originated in a conspiracy by local leaders to liquidate their debts.{{sfn|Rose|2015|p=70}}

The nobility of Eastern Europe prioritized subduing the [[Balts]], the last major polytheistic population in Europe, over crusading in the Holy Land.{{sfn|Fonnesberg-Schmidt|2007|pp=23; 65}}{{refn|group=note|These rulers saw crusade as a tool for territorial expansion, alliance building, and empowerment of their own nascent church and state.{{sfn|Firlej|2021–2022|p=121}}}} In 1147, the ''[[Divina dispensatione]]'' gave these nobles indulgences for the first of the [[Northern Crusades]], which intermittently continued, with and without papal support, until 1316.{{sfn|Christiansen|1997|p=287}}{{sfn|Hunyadi|Laszlovszky|2001|p=606}}{{sfn|Fonnesberg-Schmidt|2007|pp=65; 75–77, 119}} The clergy pragmatically accepted the forced conversions the nobles perpetrated despite continued theological emphasis on voluntary conversion.{{sfn|Fonnesberg-Schmidt|2007|p=24}}