“Religious hysteria during the Crusades was the most significant reason for the persecution of the Jews.” Discuss.

This question requires that candidates offer a considered and balanced review of the statement that the most significant reason for the persecution of the Jews during the Crusades was religious hysteria. Candidates may argue that the attempts to Christianize the Muslim lands on the peripheries of Europe spilled into efforts to purge Christianity of elements within Europe that were perceived to be undesirable and that the Jews were one such group. However, pre-existing anti-Semitism may be held to be more accountable and inferences of this may be seen in the popular response to official dogma from Rome, legal restrictions by various rulers that limited the occupation and livelihood of Jews, formal expulsions from certain territories and the belief in Jewish culpability for the Black Death.