This turned out to be much less cringe than I'd feared it would be - and much more edifying than I'd expected.

The subject of "anti-Semitism" in the Church is of course a difficult one, if only because it can never be clear prima facie what one even means by the term. One man's "racism" is another's fair comment, as always! And there's a certain sort of (especially Marxist) Jew who will tell you that "the Catholic Church" - by which, perversely, he will normally mean the clergy - has been the very matrix of anti-Semitism down the centuries.

But the sort of anti-Semitism that leads to unjust and uncharitable laws, not to mention forced conversions and pogroms, has of course never been part of the Christian inheritance. On the contrary, it has been a curse of the lower orders in every society since before the time of Alexander of Macedon.

Holland and Sandbrook here open up a mediaeval can of worms with a surprising amount of tact, discretion, and thoughtfulness.