268 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
of an increasingly unified and centralized Christian society, I have argued that
papal pronouncements reflected both an overriding vision of the appropriate status
and treatment of Jews, and the pragmatic policies of individual popes. Overall, my
aim has been to illustrate how papal statements, fortified by canon law, theology,
and the teachings of the Church fathers, became increasingly unified by a common
fear that through contact of Christians with Jews and Judaism, Christianity itself
would be weakened and endangered.
My intention in this book has been to explore afresh the nature of the relation-
ship between the papacy and Jewish communities, illuminating the predicament of
medieval Jews within Christian society. Blindness (‘Caecitia’) and stubbornness
(‘Duritia’) were charges which medieval Christians levelled at Jews for their incom-
prehensible refusal to acknowledge Christ as the Messiah prophesied in the Old
Testament. In response Jewish rabbis and other authorities subverted such ideas by
exposing and questioning inaccuracies and inconsistencies in Christian ideas about
popes and the papacy, not least regarding the doctrine of apostolic succession. By
evaluating the other side of the history—Jewish perceptions of popes and the
papacy as an institution—I have shown how differences in papal attitudes were not
just a question of personal quirks of individual popes—although personality was
important—but were tied to ongoing changes in society. Two issues which greatly
affected Jewish communities and were directly linked to the papacy’s authorization
of crusades were physical protection and usury. Yet many other papal concerns
were related not to crusading but to social and political developments largely out-
side papal control.
My conclusions are twofold. The first concerns the papal perspective. Given the
highly complex nature of the relationship between popes and Jews during the High
Middle Ages, the phrase ‘papal policy’—often used by historians to describe papal
attitudes—misleadingly suggests a monolithic, clearly planned, and carefully
defined initiative towards Jewish communities. Rather, against a background of
Pauline–Augustinian theology, papal pronouncements about Jews were responses to
secular and religious authorities in the context of the continually changing eco-
nomic and social conditions of medieval Europe, the developing idea of the nation
state, the growing bureaucracy and centrality of the papal curia, and the different
characters and lengths of pontificate of those who held the ‘throne of St Peter’.
Christian theology ensured that popes remained committed to protecting the Jews,
but popes also believed that they must ensure the spiritual welfare of Christian
society. Over time this led them increasingly to restrict the activities of Jewish
communities.
The limited and demarcated role which Jews were expected to play in an expand-
ing papal vision of this society brought with it the idea of Jewish subservience
and was an important factor in the general deterioration of Christian attitudes. Yet
the aim of papal pronouncements was never to degrade the Jews for its own sake but
to fulfil the requirements of theology and papal authority. We have seen, for
example, how popes were inconsistent over the issue of synagogues. Although
officially Jews were not supposed to build new synagogues, but only to maintain old