228 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
so apart from the anti-Jewish propaganda published during the reign of the
anti-pope Anacletus ii, Jews and Christians co-existed peacefully in the city and
the Jewish inhabitants of Rome suffered little of the discrimination from their gen-
tile neighbours that Jews so often suffered elsewhere.12 As we saw in Chapter one,
in the story of Rabbi simeon and the Jewish pope recorded in the Ma’asah Book,
Jewish communities would at times approach a pope with a petition for
protection.
indeed on a number of occasions those in Germany, france, and spain turned
to the leaders of the Jewish community in Rome for guidance and assistance.13
As we noted in Chapter Two, however, in about 1010 rumours began to circulate
in the West that Jews had encouraged Muslims to destroy the Holy sepulchre;
that led to pogroms not only in orleans, Rouen, Limoges, and throughout the
Rhineland but also in Rome itself. sometimes secular leaders weighed in and gave
succour to Jewish communities, as in August 1178 when frederick ii placed the
Jews of Avignon under the protection of the bishop of the town of Pons.14 Yet, as
we have observed, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries protection of Jewish
interests often rested with ecclesiastical rather than secular powers and the ability
of Jews in Rome to petition the pope had lasting implications for Jewish commu-
nities in Europe more widely.15
so the distinctive nature of the Jewish community in Rome, the capital of
Christendom, set it apart from other communities.16 it had always enjoyed a direct
line of communication with the papacy and already in the sixth century was suffi-
ciently influential to seek papal intervention when needed. Thus, although Gregory
the Great’s correspondence showed a commitment to the traditional teachings of
the Church which closely monitored Christian interaction with Jews, when, for
example, Jews in sicily complained of unfair treatment, the Roman community
petitioned Gregory and he told the bishop of Palermo to rectify the situation.17 We
have already noted a number of occasions when popes intervened on behalf of Jews
in Rome: in 1264 urban iV requested the help of the prior and canon of Troyes in
collecting debts which the archbishop of sens owed Jewish merchants in the city;18
in 1255 Alexander iV wrote to the civil authorities of the Apostolic see and
the Kingdom of sicily decreeing that Jews not be taxed as they journeyed to and
12 Marie Therese Champagne, ‘Celestine iii and the Jews’, in Pope Celestine III (1191–98): Diplomat
and Pastor, ed. J. Doran, D. smith (farnham, Burlington, 2008), p.275.
13 Champagne, ‘Walking in the shadows of the Past’, pp.471–2.
14 René Moulinas, Les Juifs du pape en France. Les communautés d’Avignon et du Comtat Venaissin
aux 17e et 18e siècles (Paris, 1981), p.22.
15 Champagne, ‘Walking in the shadows of the Past’, p.473.
16 Champagne, ‘Walking in the shadows of the Past’, p.493.
17 for example, Gregory exhorted the citizens of Rome never to celebrate saturday as a sabbath.
see Gregory i, ‘Pervenit ad me quosdam’ (september 602), Simonsohn, pp.22–3; Gregorii Magni registrum
epistularum libri VIII–XIV, Appendix, ed. D. norberg (Turnhout, 1982), pp.991–3. see Champagne,
‘Walking in the shadows of the Past’, p.472.
18 urban iV, ‘Dilecti(s) filii(s)’ (27 March–2 April 1264), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.81–2; Simonsohn,
pp.223–4.