Routine oppression of religious minorities went hand in hand with routine racial oppression.
the real horror of it all, actually, was the light-hearted, recreational aspect to it.
Of course, Jew bashing has always been big fun. It's a constant in European history...both secular and religious.
Behold the beast, for which I have turned back;
Do thou protect me from her, famous Sage,
For she doth make my veins and pulses tremble."
"Thee it behoves to take another road,"
Responded he, when he beheld me weeping,
"If from this savage place thou wouldst escape;
Because this beast, at which thou criest out,
Suffers not any one to pass her way,
But so doth harass him, that she destroys him;
And has a nature so malign and ruthless,
That never doth she glut her greedy will,
And after food is hungrier than before.
Many the animals with whom she mates,
And more they shall be still, until the Greyhound
Comes, who shall make her die in pain.
He shall not feed on either land or money,
But upon wisdom, and on love and virtue;
'Twixt Feltro and Feltro shall his nation be;
Of that fallen Italy shall he be the savior,
On whose account the maid Camilla died,
Euryalus, Turnus, Nisus, of their wounds;
Through every city shall he hunt the beast down,
Until he shall have driven her back to Hell,
There from whence envy first did let her loose.
Inferno, canto 1, Dante Alighieri