The Papacy and the Place of Jews in Christian Society 215
those suspected of heresy and converted Jews who had apostatized.65 He also in-
formed the inquisitors that he had enjoined the prelates of France to assist them.66
Nicholas Iv’s correspondence also contained a number of letters concerned
with inquisition. In 1288 and again in 1290 he reissued ‘Turbato corde’.67 In 1290
he complained to prelates of the provinces of Aix, Arles, and embrun and the
nobles of the Comtat venaissin that Jews were encouraging apostasy, not only
among other Jews who had been baptized but among baptized Christians, and he
urged them to help the inquisitors.68 He also wrote to the Franciscans of these
provinces urging them to enquire into reports he had received that certain baptized
men and women still kept up Jewish rites, including lighting lamps and candles in
their synagogues, making offerings, holding vigils, especially on the Sabbath, and
showing reverence to the Torah Scroll. If they should discover such Christians, or
indeed those who had misled them, they were to proceed against them as they
would against idolators and heretics.69
yet, despite such draconian measures, Nicholas showed a softer side, writing in
the same year to the inhabitants of the Comtat venaissin and to the bishop of
Carpentras granting them the special privilege that, as long as they were prepared
to appear before local courts, they should not have to answer to any other jurisdiction,
unless the accusers could produce proof that this privilege had been specifically
abrogated—and he included Jews in this privilege.70 On the other hand, he also
informed the clergy and nobles of the Comtat venaissin that the bishop must not
be impeded in his work unless someone could produce a papal document specific-
ally authorizing such interference; this edict was to apply to all inhabitants of the
Comtat including Jews.71
Certainly popes were concerned to ensure that Jewish communities complied with
inquisitorial procedures. Sometime before 1298, Boniface vIII ordered that the same
procedures be set in motion against Christians who adopted or reverted to the rites of
the Jews as were deployed against heretics who had confessed or been convicted on
Christian or Jewish testimony.72 Nevertheless, in a letter of 1299 to the Jews of Rome,
65 Martin Iv, ‘ex parte dilectorum’ (21 October 1281), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.150–1; Simonsohn,
pp.255–6.
66 Martin Iv, ‘ex parte vestra’ (21 October 1281), Grayzel, Vol. 2, p.152; Simonsohn, p.256.
67 Nicholas Iv, ‘Turbato corde audivimus’ (5 September 1288), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.171–2;
Simonsohn, pp.267–8; ‘Turbato corde audivimus’ (9 September 1290), Grayzel, Vol. 2, p.181;
Simonsohn, pp.275–6.
68 Nicholas Iv, ‘Attendite fratres et’ (28 January 1290), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.174–8; Simonsohn,
pp.271–2; ‘Inter innumerabiles sollicitudines’ (28 January 1290), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.178–9. See René
Moulinas, Les Juifs du Pape: Avignon et le Comtat Venaissin (Paris, 1992), pp.13–31; René Moulinas,
Les Juifs du Pape en France. Les Communautés d’Avignon et du Comtat Venaissin aux 17e et 18e siècles
(Paris, 1981), pp.17–30.
69 Nicholas Iv, ‘Ad augmentum Catholice’ (20 February 1290), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.179–80;
Simonsohn, pp.273–4.
70 Nicholas Iv, ‘Sicut ad nostrum’ (5 November 1290), Grayzel, Vol. 2, p.182; Simonsohn, p.276;
‘Intellecto dudum’ (6 November 1290), Grayzel, Vol. 2, p.183; Simonsohn, p.277.
71 Nicholas Iv, ‘Ut ex gratia’ (9 November 1290), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.183–4; Simonsohn,
pp.277–8.
72 Boniface vIII, ‘Contra Christianos’ (before/c.1298), Grayzel, Vol. 2, p.209; Simonsohn, pp.285–6.
We also have letters of John XXII concerned with the Talmud and the Inquisition. In 1320 he wrote
to the archbishop of Bourges and his suffragans ordering him to ensure that the Jews in their provinces