Conclusion 269
ones, synagogues continued to be constructed throughout medieval Europe during
the High Middle Ages.10 In general the popes of this period introduced few new
and drastic measures against Jews; rather the increasing number of papal pro-
nouncements on a variety of subjects, which were subsequently enshrined in canon
law, indirectly but steadily increased the oppression of Jewish communities.11
My second conclusion concerns the Jewish perspective. Although papal percep-
tions of Jews throughout the High Middle Ages are a well-established area of research,
Jewish ideas about the papacy are not. Jewish writers were desperate to ensure the
safety of those communities and grateful for statements of papal protection, yet they
were also highly critical of Christian beliefs about the papacy, particularly apostolic
succession. They acknowledged that popes had always played and would continue to
play an important role in safeguarding their well-being and determining their future.
Yet although contemporary and later writers often valued papal protection more
highly than that of monarchs, emperors, or clergy, they knew that it had carefully cir-
cumscribed limits. Jewish ideas about the papacy are therefore nuanced and complex
and deserve more rigorous and wide-ranging investigation.
It is difficult to gauge the effect of papal pronouncements on individual Jewish
communities.12 Rulers certainly ignored them when they were not in their interest. 13
Yet we have seen how popes often had a restraining effect on both civic and religious
authorities.14 Indeed they managed to ensure some measure of religious freedom
for Jews in the face of more hostile rulers and to curb some of the excesses of the
clergy, not least of the mendicants. Nevertheless, given the increasing expulsions of
Jews from parts of Europe during the High Middle Ages, the papacy overall was
too quiet and ineffective.15 Far away in Rome, Jews remained only a minor con-
cern of medieval popes.16 When they did intervene, their intervention was often
inadequate.17
Yet we must also conclude that the Apostolic See took a generally favourable
stance towards the Jews throughout our period.18 As the High Middle Ages pro-
gressed, popes, egged on by the friars, increasingly favoured missionary activity and
began to hope for the immediate conversion of the Jews.19 Yet although there ap-
pears to be a degree of papal hardening towards the Jews over time, this did not
really become apparent until the late medieval and early modern period—with
which the High Middle Ages should not be confused.20 Early modern popes were
faced with a very different world from their medieval predecessors.
10 Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews, History, pp.122–4; p.130.
11 Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews. History, p.94.
12 Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews. History, p.462.
13 Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews. History, pp.463–5.
14 Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews. History, p.465.
15 Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews. History, p.466.
16 Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews. History, p.463.
17 Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews. History, p.467; p.469.
18 Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews. History, pp.468–9.
19 Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews. History, p.468.
20 Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews. History, p.467.