The Papal Promise of Protection 81
iV objected to accusations at fulda that Jews killed christians to utilize their blood
as part of the Passover ritual, insisting that no-one should accuse Jews of using
human blood in their religious rites—thereby refuting charges of blood libel and
re-iterating that Jews must always be protected.84 That his predecessor Gregory iX
had already addressed the archbishops and bishops of Germany over blood libels
suggests such serious allegations were becoming commonplace.85 As with honorius
iii, the re-issues of the ‘constitutio pro iudaeis’ by Gregory and innocent iV
excluded innocent iii’s first paragraph but included his additional final sentence.
This suggests that although these later popes used less vehement language than
their predecessor, they knew of innocent iii’s re-issue and subscribed to his idea
that Jews were a potential threat to christian society.
The ‘constitutio pro iudaeis’ was issued eight more times in the second half of the
thirteenth century, in every case with the addition of the final sentence.86 Alexander
iV issued it in 1255, Urban iV in 1262, Gregory X in 1272 and again possibly in
1274, Nicholas iii, in 1278, Martin iV in 1281, honorius iV sometime between
1285–1286/7—we do not have a date for the actual letter—and Nicholas iV
between 1288 and 1292. Martin iV’s re-issue significantly contained a further add-
itional clause limiting the freedom of action of the inquisition with regard to Jews,
forbidding inquisitors or indeed anyone else to use force against them in their inves-
tigations; this was not repeated in honorius iV’s and Nicholas iV’s re-issues.87
hence a consistent commitment to protection persisted throughout the thirteenth
century, but, as we shall see, the idea of Jews as potential enemies was beginning to
infiltrate this traditional position.
ProTecTioN froM riTUAL MUrder, BLood
LiBeL, ANd hoST deSecrATioN
in the twelfth century there is growing evidence for the persecution of Jews by
christian communities. for the first time in medieval chronicles and annals we
hear of accusations of the ritual murder of christian children. The idea driving
such accusations was that Jews kidnapped pious christian children in order to
84 innocent iV, ‘Sicut iudaeis’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.274; Simonsohn, pp.192–3. See Christendom and
its Discontents, ed. S. Waugh, P. diehl (cambridge, 1996), p.222.
85 innocent iV, ‘Lachrymabilem Judeorum Alemannie’ (5 July 1247), Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.268–70;
Simonsohn, pp.194–5.
86 Alexander iV, ‘Sicut iudaeis’ (22 September 1255), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.55–7; Simonsohn,
pp.211–12; Urban iV ‘Sicut iudaeis’ (26 April 1262), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.70–1; Simonsohn, p.219;
Gregory X, ‘Sicut iudaeis’ (7 october 1272), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.117–20; Simonsohn, pp.242–3; and
possibly ‘Sicut iudaeis’ (10 September 1274), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.133–4; Simonsohn, p.246; Nicholas
iii, ‘Sicut iudaeis’ (2 August 1278), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.139–42; Simonsohn, p.249; Martin iV, ‘Sicut
iudaeis’ (1 March 1281), Simonsohn, p.254; ‘Sicut iudaeis’ (2 August 1281), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.147–50;
Simonsohn, pp.254–5; honorius iV, ‘Sicut iudaeis’ (1285–1286/7), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.162–3;
Simonsohn, p.260 and Nicholas iV, ‘Sicut iudaeis’ (1288–1292), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.191–2; Simonsohn,
p.265.
87 Martin iV ‘Sicut iudaeis’, Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.147–50; Simonsohn, pp.254–5. We should note
that neither Boniface Viii nor clement V seem to have issued the ‘constitutio pro iudaeis’.