Perhaps for no group of people were the "dark ages" so aptly named as for the Jews. Over the course of a thousand years, the life of the Jewish people changed radically and not in a positive way. At the beginning of the 5th century the future seemed bright, but by the 15th century life was shrouded in darkness. This essay will investigate exactly how the legal position of the Jews could have deteriorated so badly. When we consider the legal position of the Jews in medieval Germany, the question we must ask ourselves is: what was Jewish law like at that time? We can understand Jewish law as Christian legal materials and documents concerning Jews (Cohen 1994:30). The law on the Jews was carried out by two main bodies: the monarch and the church. One of the most famous characteristics of the medieval period was what might be described as “Christian piety” or “religious fanaticism” (Adler 1969:11). Christianity became the focal point of society and the church held great power. People generally followed the edicts of church councils and papal opinions (Cohen 1994:36) so as not to risk excommunication, a great and dangerous disgrace in medieval society. Thus, while secular law was the primary legislation and although canon law did not always have a direct impact on state Jewish law, it is still important to consider ecclesiastical law when investigating the legal position of medieval Jews (Cohen 1994:42) . it was, like medieval German law in general, disintegrated in nature (Kisch 1935: 69). Furthermore, it often overlapped and contradicted itself, thanks to the wide range of sources from which it was derived (Cohen 1994: 31). Medieval Jewish law has been described as a 'law of privilege made up of occasional favors and restrictions of various kinds without remedy...... middle of paper ......l Socialism' London: Notre Dame pp9-14Altmann, Bertoldo. (1940) 'Studies in Medieval German Jewish History' in 'Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research vol. 10' pp5-98Brenner, Michael. (2008) 'A Brief History of the Jews' Princeton: Princeton University Press pp97-106Cohen , Mark R. (1994) 'Under Crescent and Cross, the Jews in the Middle Ages' Princeton: Princeton University Press pp 30-50Goodman, Paul . (1911) 'History of the Jews' London: JM Dent & Sons Ltd pp100-118Kisch, Guido. . (1935) "The Jewish Law of Medieval German Law Books: Part I" in Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research Vol. 7' pp 61-145Johnson, Paul. (1987) 'A history of the Jews' London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson pp 230Poliakov, Léon. (1955) 'The History of Anti-Semitism Vol. I: from Roman times to the Jewish court The London: Routledge & Kegan Paul pp35-81