Papal Claims to Authority over Judaism 191
Such collections and commentaries contained, summarized, and discussed a
number of important decretals and decrees of conciliar legislation which demar-
cated the legal and theological status of Jews.186 Indeed the number of papal pro-
nouncements cited in these works reveals the seriousness with which canon lawyers
treated the problem of Jewish–Christian interaction and suggests that in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries there was not only a growing interest in, but also
a growing unease about, the presence of Jews in Christian society.187
PAPAl ConTrol ovEr JEWISH CoMMunITIES
We have seen that the papacy sought in a number of different ways to maintain
some measure of control over the activities of Jewish communities throughout
Europe. As we observed in Chapter Two, one of these was by promulgating the
‘Constitutio pro Iudaeis’, issued five times in the twelfth century and ten times in
the thirteenth century, in response to pleas from Jewish communities for protection.
These re-issues show that, although popes might come and go, papal protection
continued. As we saw in Chapter Three, some popes, well aware of a history of
crusader violence against Jews and that many crusaders held Jews responsible for
the death of Christ, thought it necessary to signal especial protection on the eve of
fresh crusades.188 Popes also despatched other letters of protection—such as those
of Gregory IX who expressed with particular vehemence his horror at the killing of
Jews by crusaders during the ‘Barons’ Crusade’ of 1236, emphasized that the cru-
saders’ evil desires aroused divine displeasure, and affirmed that, since the papacy
had granted privileges to the Jews, crimes against them injured the Apostolic
throne itself.189
186 For some general works on the influence of canon law on papal ‘policy’ towards infidels, see
Benjamin Kedar, ‘Canon law and the Burning of the Talmud’, Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law
9 (1979), 79–83; Benjamin Kedar, Crusade and Mission: European Approaches towards the Muslims
(Princeton, 1984); Walter Pakter, Medieval Canon Law and the Jews (Ebelsbach am Main, 1988);
Bernard Blumenkranz, Juifs et Chrétiens dans le monde occidental 430–1096 (Paris, 1960); Heinz
Schreckenberg, Die christlichen Adversus-Judaios-Texte (11th-13th Jahrhundert) mit einer Ikonographie
des Judenthemas bis zum 4 Lateranskonzil (Frankfurt am Main, 1988). Each decretal had a specific
context which needs be taken into account—in particular who initiated the papal intervention, why,
and what the specific case was.
187 Kedar, ‘Canon law and the Burning of the Talmud’, 79–82; Kedar, Crusade and Mission,
pp.72–4; Pakter, Medieval Canon Law and the Jews, pp.332–6; Blumenkranz, Juifs et Chrétiens dans le
monde occidental 430–1096, pp.373–91; Schreckenberg, Die christlichen Adversus-Judaios-Texte (11th-
13th Jahrhundert) mit einer Ikonographie des Judenthemas bis zum 4 Lateranskonzil, pp.637–46; David
nirenberg, Communities of Violence: Persecution of Minorities in the Middle Ages (Princeton, 1996),
pp.200–30.
188 Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.9; p.76; Stacey, ‘Crusades, Martyrdom and the Jews of norman England
1096–1190’, pp.234–5; p.238.
189 Gregory IX, ‘lachrymabilem Judeorum in’ (5 September 1236), Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.226–8;
Simonsohn, pp.163–4; ‘lachrymabilem Judeorum in’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.228–30; Simonsohn, p.165.
For the ‘Barons’ Crusade’ of 1239, see Michael lower, ‘The Burning at Mont-Aimé: Thibaut of
Champagne’s Preparations for the ‘Barons’ Crusade’ of 1239’, Journal of Medieval History 29/2 (2003),
95–108; Michael lower, The Barons’ Crusade: A Call to Arms and its Consequences (Philadelphia,
2005), passim.