156 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
Constitution 71 of the same council, were trying to force Jews to return the interest
they had received from all borrowers.133 in response, Honorius endorsed innocent’s
legislation that Jews be allowed to charge a ceiling rate of interest for the general
populace, and also continued his predecessor’s stance of allowing special privileges
for those who took the Cross. so both in 1217 and 1219, Honorius complained
that, according to reports that he had received from Blanche of Champagne, Jews
in her territory were not allowed the same privileges with regard to money-lending
to crusaders as those living under Philip Augustus.134 Clearly Honorius was div-
ided as to how he should respond: he was deeply concerned that european Jews
might suffer at the hands of crusaders, but at the same time he wished to send a
clear signal that he was endorsing the policies of his predecessor.
The correspondence of Gregory iX, Honorius’ successor, shows that papal
preoccupation with usury continued. Gregory issued a number of statements in
response to appeals about usury and Jews in spain, england, and France. in 1231
he complained to the bishop of Burgos and the deans of Burgos and Calahorra that
in the Kingdom of Castile Jews were exacting high amounts of usury to the detri-
ment of parish churches, which as a result had been forced to sacrifice properties
from the revenues of which they had traditionally paid the tithe.135 in 1233 he
complained to the archbishop of Compostella that Jews in spain were demanding
huge amounts of usury in spite of the decrees of Lateran iV which forbade extor-
tion.136 in a further letter of 1238 to the archbishop of sens and the bishop of
senlis he freed Louis iX of France from any obligation to repay money which he
had acquired from Jews but which bore the ‘sin’ of usury.137 Rather, it should
be used to support the Latin states in the near east:
wherefore, we command that, by our authority, you shall take care of this King with
regard to this affair in a manner that may, please God, redound to the salvation of his
soul. That money, moreover, which he must give to make up for his inability to find
(the rightful owners), and which you shall have caused to be set aside, we want con-
verted into a subsidy for the Roman empire.138nevertheless, Gregory continued to uphold the papacy’s commitment to pro-
tecting the Jews. so in a letter of 1233 to the archbishops and bishops of France he
complained bitterly about the treatment of Jews who in desperation had appealed
to him. He recounted how they had been imprisoned and tortured by certain lords
who hoped to seize their property and had even driven them from their territories,
133 stow, ‘Papal and Royal Attitudes toward Jewish Lending in the Thirteenth Century’, 164–5.
134 Honorius iii, ‘Cum olim nobilis’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.144; Simonsohn, p.102; ‘dilecta in Christo’,
Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.150–2; Simonsohn, pp.106–7.
135 Gregory iX, ‘Miramur si vera’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.188–90; Simonsohn, pp.132–4.
136 Gregory iX, ‘Judei quos propria’ (18 May/17 June 1233), Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.204–6; Simonsohn,
pp.145–7.
137 Gregory iX, ‘ex parte karissimi’ (22 March 1238), Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.234–6; Simonsohn,
pp.168–9.
138 Gregory iX, ‘ex parte karissimi’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.236; Simonsohn, pp.168–9: ‘Quocirca man-
damus quatenus dicto regi super hiis, prout, secundum deum, anime sue saluti expedit, auctoritate
nostra providere curetis. Quod autem dandum ab ipso pro satisfactione illorum qui commode inveniri
non possunt, duxeritis ordinandum, converti volumus in subsidium imperii Romanie.’