The Papal Promise of Protection 91
object a magician could force the powers of darkness to do his will—which it was
believed might, if the magician was a Jew, have serious consequences for christians
and christian society. The use of statues or pictures to bring pain or misfortune to
the person represented was frequently blamed on Jews: hence, for example, Las Siete
Partidas, a castilian statutory code first compiled during the reign of Alfonso X of
castile (1252–1284), contained a prohibition against Jews making waxen images
of the crucifixion.139 in england, regulations enacted around 1237 for the govern-
ment of the diocese of coventry referred to such accusations, stating:
Since God left us for this purpose nothing more valuable upon earth after his ascen-
sion to heaven than the sacraments in the sight of which his memory is preserved,
we ought to venerate them to such an extent that no blasphemy ever exist against
them or against their authority. Yet there are certain persons who, on account of their
disdain of christ, as for example skeptics or others who on account of their contempt,
descend into the profound abyss, or others, as for example, wicked christians and
Jews, who, on account of their practice of magic, are accustomed to try with outra-
geous daring various shameful acts against the eucharist and the holy oil. We therefore
command that these objects shall be placed in separate vases, and kept under the most
efficient lock.... 140indeed it is likely that, although Jewish scholars like Maimonides frequently tried
to discourage belief in magic, it may well have been common practice among Jews.
Nevertheless, though some Jews, as some christians, may have practiced magic,
there are several particular reasons why by the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
christians increasingly identified them with magicians.141 first, they often found
Jewish customs and rituals strange and ‘other’—reason enough to attribute them
to magic. Then, because of the traditional emphasis on learning in their commu-
nities, Jews were often more knowledgeable than their christian counterparts—
notably in astrology and medicine, arts often popularly considered to have magical
aspects. Since christians commonly believed that hebrew—the language of
the old Testament—was the language of both good and evil spirits, stories of
legendary figures, for example of King Solomon with his ring of magic powers,
served to further hostile interpretations. Perhaps most importantly of all, since,
according to Matthew 27: 25, the Jews were supposed to have put christ the
redeemer of the world to death, there seemed an inevitable connection between
Jews and the devil. Jews were believed to have the evil eye; that was why they were
forbidden to be present at the coronation of richard i of england in 1189. Those
139 Albert Bagby, ‘The Jew in the cantigas of Alfonso X, el Sabio’, Speculum: A Journal of Medieval
Studies 46/4 (1971), 673–4.
140 Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.328: ‘Ad hec cum nihil carius reliquerit nobis deus in terris post ascensionem
suam ad coelos, quam sacramenta in quorum visione ipsius habetur memoria, ipsa debemus venerari
in tantum, ut contra ipsa, immo contra ipsorum auctoritatem, nulla possit fieri blasphemia. Quia ergo
solent quidam propter opprobria christi, ut increduli, quidam, qui propter minimum contemptum
descenderunt in profundum abyssi, quidam autem, qui propter veneficia, ut mali christiani et Judei,
aliqua turpia circa eucharistiam et chrisma et oleum sanctum, ausu temerario, immo nimis ausi,
presumere; precipimus ut sub optima clausura clavium reponantur in diversis vasis, prout decet
honestius... ’.
141 Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.74, footnote 145.