The Papal Promise of Protection 79
Like Alexander ii before him, calixtus was reminding the faithful that the christian
clemency advocated in his letter of protection was at one with the position of Gregory
i who had intimated that, although Jews must be accorded no further liberties
than those allowed by civil law, they should not be deprived of their possessions or
livelihood.67
A similar letter of protection issued by eugenius iii (1145–1153) has also not
survived.68 however, ‘Sicut iudaeis’, the first extant version of the ‘constitutio pro
iudaeis’ issued by Alexander iii between 1159 and 1181, stated categorically that
Jews were under papal protection. They were not to be forced to accept baptism,
wounded, killed, or deprived of their property, nor disturbed in celebrating their
religious rites, nor compelled to render unaccustomed services to christians. Their
cemeteries were not to be rifled, nor their corpses disinterred to extort money.69
This letter was re-issued by clement iii and celestine iii, although celestine’s
letter has not survived and we know of its existence only from the letters of
innocent iii and his thirteenth-century successors.70
As we shall see in chapter Three, although the ‘constituito pro iudaeis’ did not
refer specifically to crusading, its five re-issues between 1199 and 1250, as its pre-
vious issues in the twelfth century, were often linked with papal calls for crusades
and in response to associated appeals by Jewish communities.71 in September
1199, soon after his accession, innocent iii re-issued it, even though his imme-
diate predecessor celestine iii had already done so, probably near the end of his
pontificate.72 Like his predecessor Alexander ii, innocent laid down that Jews,
whose guilt for christ’s death condemned them to perpetual servitude, must still
be protected as the servants of christians.73
As we noted in the introduction, innocent iii’s re-issue of the ‘constitutio pro
iudaeis’, differed significantly in tone from its previous re-issues.74 Although it
repeated the protection they granted, it contained an additional paragraph at the
beginning with a reference to Psalms 59: 12:
Although the Jewish perfidy is in every way worthy of condemnation, nevertheless,
because through them the truth of our own faith is proved, they are not to be severely
oppressed by the faithful. Thus the Prophet says, ‘Thou shalt not kill them, lest at any67 Gregory i, ‘Sicut iudaeis’ (June 598), Simonsohn, pp.15–16. See dahan, La Polémique chrétienne
contre le Judaïsme au moyen âge (Paris, 1991), p.27.
68 eugenius iii, ‘Sicut iudaeis’ (1145–53), Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.76; Simonsohn, p.47.
69 Alexander iii, ‘Sicut iudaeis’ (1159–1181), Simonsohn, pp.51–2.
70 clement iii, ‘Sicut iudaeis’ (10 May 1188), Simonsohn, pp.66–7; celestine iii, ‘Sicut iudaeis’
(1191–1198), Simonsohn, p.68; clement iii, ‘Quam gravis et’ (27 May 1188), ed. J. von Pflugk-
harttung, Acta pontificum Romanorum inedita, Vol. 3: Urkunden der Päpste vom Jahre c.590 bis zum
Jahre c.1197 (Stuttgart, 1888), pp.363–4.
71 Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.76.
72 innocent iii, ‘Licet perfidia Judeorum’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.92–4; Simonsohn, pp.74–5; ‘Graves
orientalis terrae’ (31 december 1199), Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.98; Simonsohn, p.78; ‘Nisi nobis dictum’
(4 January 1200), Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.98; Simonsohn, pp.78–9; see Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.76, footnote 3.
73 innocent iii, ‘etsi Judeos quos’ (15 July 1205), Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.114–16; Simonsohn, pp.86–8.
74 robert chazan, ‘Pope innocent iii and the Jews’, in Pope Innocent III and his World, ed. J. c. Moore
(Aldershot, 1999), pp.194–7.