76 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
Jews living in christian lands was so clear and emphatic that it came to be regarded
by later canonists as an important milestone in the history of the church’s treat-
ment of Jews. for this reason and alongside Gregory’s original letter stating that
conversion must be by persuasion alone, it was later included in the Decretum and
became an axiom of canon law.58
Pointed reference to Jewish subservience may have reminded christians of the
stipulation of the Theodosian code that Jews who showed contempt for chris-
tianity forfeited their privileges and ought to be regarded as adversaries of christ.
in his letter itself Alexander did not refer to the code, suggesting that rather than
emphasizing the restrictive as well as the protective nature of traditional roman law,
he preferred to stress the importance of christian clemency.59 By citing Gregory’s
disapproval of the forced conversion of Jews, he signalled his commitment to reaf-
firming the church’s stance of comparative toleration. hence, the idea of christian
kindness towards Jews was not based on any post-enlightenment idea of toleration
or respect for other religions, but on the belief that Jews were willing to fulfil a role
in medieval society which highlighted the christian theological position that, as
the people of the old covenant who had been replaced by those of the New, they
must naturally be subservient to the latter. That was why Alexander cited Gregory’s
letter forbidding christians from harming Jews and declared that God in his mercy
had spared them so that they might live dispersed, but unharmed, throughout the
world. Thus, as we should expect from a successor of St Peter, Alexander’s state-
ments reaffirmed the traditional teaching of the church as enunciated by St Paul
and St Augustine: Jews were to live unharmed in christian communities in order
that they might eventually be reconciled to christianity.
The letters of Gregory the Great had a profound influence on the papacy’s stance
towards the Jews in the eleventh century and also in the twelfth and thirteenth cen-
turies. Yet in contrast to their comparative leniency and clemency, we have observed
how another, competing strand of legislation concerning Jewish protection and
restriction also greatly influenced church pronouncements. The councils of Toledo
were a series of eighteen Spanish councils which began in the fourth century and
ended shortly before the Muslims conquered Spain in 711. Their decrees were par-
ticularly harsh on Jews, perhaps because of ongoing fears about the infidel ‘other’
manifested in the many military campaigns against Muslims at the time, or perhaps
because, given the large numbers of Jews in Spain compared to many other parts of
europe, Spanish christians felt the need to exercise a stricter control.
certainly the decrees of these councils were very different in tone from the cor-
respondence of Gregory the Great. Particularly influential was canon 57 of the
fourth council of Toledo (633), which, although it condemned forced baptism,
58 Gratian, c.23.q.8.c.11, col. 955. See Gilbert dahan, Les intellectuels chrétiens et les juifs au moyen
âge (Paris, 1990), p.115; heinz Schreckenberg, Christlichen Adversus-Iudaeos-Texte und ihr literarisches
und historisches Umfeld (frankfurt am Main, 1982), p.149; Gregory i, ‘Scribendi ad fraternitatem’
(June 591), Simonsohn, pp.4–5; Gratian, d.45. c.3, cols 160–1. See dahan, Les Intéllectuels chrétiens
et les juifs au moyen âge, p.114; Schreckenberg, Die Christlichen Adversus-Iudaeos-Texte, p.145; Parkes,
The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue, pp.210–11.
59 Stow, Alienated Minority, p.39.