The Papal Promise of Protection 73
at various times of crisis, the extent to which their activities were ineffective is
(^) obvious from the eventual expulsion of Jews from almost every part of medieval
europe by the end of the Middle Ages. Yet again it is crucial to remember that
protecting Jews was only one of a great number of concerns of medieval popes—
and although they frequently did more to protect them than their clergy or the
secular leaders, protection was never a concern high on the agenda. That the papal
curia was far away from most Jewish communities, with the exception of that of
rome, meant that any communication—never easy in the medieval world—was
often delayed.47 furthermore the nature of the protection popes were prepared to
offer was itself variable. This is difficult to grasp because based on theological prin-
ciples in which tolerance of other religions and ways of life—tolerance of what
historians have in recent years termed ‘the other’—was never a primary nor even
a pressing concern. What that protection was which popes believed it was their
duty as heads of christian society to offer to Jews, and the reasons why they felt
such a duty existed, is the subject to which we now turn.
PAPAL TrAdiTioN
Papal attitudes towards the Jews in the high Middle Ages were complex because—
as we have emphasized—the papacy’s stance comprised a mixture of protection
and restriction. Yet from its earliest beginnings popes were committed to guaran-
teeing basic rights of life and religious observance to Jewish communities. Jews
were to live unharmed in christian society because the teachings of St Paul empha-
sized that they were witnesses to the truth of the old Testament. in romans 11,
Paul had argued that the Jews would be reconciled to the christian faith at the end
of days when a remnant of them would be saved and their conversion en masse
would signal the dawn of a new era—as predicted by the prophets of the old
Testament.48 citing Genesis 25: 23 ‘the elder shall serve the younger’ Paul had ar-
gued that God had instituted a new covenant for christians that replaced their old
Jewish covenant. Whereas Grace saved christians who lived by faith, the Jews,
who lived only by the Torah—the first five books of the old Testament—Genesis,
exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, deuteronomy—had been led to perdition.
As we have seen, in the fifth century St Augustine of hippo had developed and
expanded such Pauline ideas. in the De civitate Dei and the Contra Iudaeos, as in
Contra Faustum, he had argued that Jews were living, though unwitting, witnesses
to christ. Augustine believed that they held a specific role in the divine plan for the
development of human society because their very existence provided a useful set of
arguments for preaching christianity to pagans.49 As we noted in the introduction,
47 Sophia Menache, The Vox Dei. Communication in the Middle Ages (New York, oxford, 1990), passim.
48 romans 11: 11–12, Biblia sacra iuxta Vulgatam versionem, 2 vols, 2nd edn, ed. r. Weber
(Stuttgart, 1975), Vol. 2; romans 11: 25–6, Biblia sacra iuxta Vulgatam versionem, ed. Weber, Vol. 2.
49 St Augustine, De civitate Dei 2, ed. B. dombart, A. Kalb (Stuttgart 1981), Bk 18, ch. 46, p.329;
St Augustine, Adversos Iudaeos, The Fathers of the Church, Vol. 27, ed. r. J. deferrari (New York, 1955),
pp.391–414; De civitate Dei 1, ed. dombart, Kalb, Bk 4, ch. 34, pp.188–9; Vol. 2, Bk 18, ch. 46,