Popes and Jews, 1095-1291

256 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291

not mean that there was no element of ‘anti­Jewishness’ in their utterances; that

may have been there consciously or unconsciously, varying from one pope to

another. Yet popes in their correspondence never employed images such as the

‘Judensau’—an image of Jews in obscene contact with a large female pig, an

unclean animal in Judaism—which became such a popular notorious symbol

in the later Middle Ages.63

hence just as a contemporary artisan who sculpted a statue of blind ‘Synagoga’

(‘Synagogue’) and triumphant ‘Ecclesia’ (‘Church’) for the local church doubtless

thought that in doing so he was depicting—in material culture for the benefit of

those who would hear the Mass there—correct theological teaching about the dif­

ference between Christianity and Judaism, so too the popes’ aim was to promul­

gate Christian theology. of course the artisan, like the popes, may also have been

motivated by less virtuous feelings of dislike for Jews, real or imagined, and by

suspicion of Judaism, known or unknown—but this was usually not the primary

motivation for his representation.

JEWS VErSuS MuSlIMS And PAGAnS

In ChrISTIAn SoCIETY

In a letter of 1225 addressed to all Christians in the province of rouen, honorius

III, comparing the Catholic, the heretic, the pagan, and the Jew, summed up the

papacy’s traditional stance towards non­Catholics:

hence, because the Catholic, his spirit of charity having grown cold, has become

inactive in the exercise of good works; because the heretic, misled by error, acts fool­

ishly; because the Jew, his heart still covered by a veil, gropes blindly; and because the

pagan, the Star of light not yet having as yet risen for him, walks in darkness;—therefore

does the lord in his mercy, wanting none to perish, renew his signs, and in his pity,

cause his wonders not to cease, when he strikingly and miraculously displays the faith

and merit of those whom he glorifies for the triumph of the Church, that in this way

Catholics, breaking through their mental sloth, may at once be aroused to good deeds.. .64

It concluded:

... heretics, forsaking their errors, may from the wrong road be led back to the
right...

And it compared pagans (here non­believers) with Jews:65

63 Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews. History, p.47.
64 honorius III, ‘Ineffabilis providentia dei’, Grayzel, Vol.  1, pp.172–4: ‘Ceterum quia caritate
frigescente ab exercitio hujusmodi boni operis torpet catholicus, errore devio abducente, derilat here­
ticus, cecutit, velamine adhuc super cor permanente, Judeus, et in tenebris ambulat, sidere lucis
nondum sibi oriente paganus; misericors dominus, qui neminem vult perire, signa interdum innovat,
et mirabilia miseratus immutat, ex numero illorum, quos in ecclesie triumphanti glorificat, aliquorum
fidem et merita in militanti miraculis declarando. ut per ea Catholici, mentis torpore discusso, ad
boni operis excitentur instantiam,... ’.
65 honorius III, ‘Ineffabilis providentia dei’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.172–4.