Introduction 15
whole with Rome at its centre.^67 The pope, who ordered the Church and led the
fight against its enemies, was the head of the Church, the body of Christ.^68
In addition the increasing temporal power of the papacy in the twelfth and thir-
teenth centuries through the expansion of the papal states served to augment the
papacy’s confidence in its role as the ultimate spiritual authority in Europe, which
in turn encouraged an ever more urgent drive towards a greater definition of
Christian society and belief.^69 As canon law developed from the 1160s onwards, it
both augmented and justified the papacy’s central role in Europe and encouraged
in the faithful the sense of a common Christian purpose superseding territorial
identity and headed by the pope. In this respect the long pontificate of Alexander
III was particularly important. Although continuously disturbed until 1177 by the
activities of four anti-popes, the rule of a pope, who was himself skilled in canon law,
could not but ensure its growth at the curia.^70 u nsurprisingly, therefore, Alexander’s
pontificate witnessed renewed attention to Jews and became an important mile-
stone in the history of papal-Jewish relations.^71
Apart from the issue of protection, Alexander’s correspondence reflected other
growing concerns. His stipulation that Jews must pay a tithe was new and was
repeated in the decrees of the Third Lateran Council (1179). His decree that Jews
were not to hold public office would be reiterated during the pontificate of
Innocent III at the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215. Alexander’s correspondence
also shows the reinforcement of longstanding provisions against Jews exercising
authority over Christians, such as had been formulated by councils of the Visigothic
67 Dominique Iogna-Pratt, Order and Exclusion. Cluny and Christendom Face Heresy, Judaism and
Islam (1000–1150) (Paris, 1998), trans. G. R. Edwards (Paris, 2002), p.2; see also Jean Rupp, L’idée
de Chrétienté dans la pensée pontificale des origins à Innocent III (Paris, 1939); Jan Van Laarhoven,
‘Christianitas et la Réforme grégorienne’, Studi Gregoriani 6 (1959–60), 1–98.
68 For example, Peter the Venerable, ‘Sermo de sancto Marcello papa et martyre, Sermones tres’, ed.
G. Constable, Revue Bénédictine 64 (1954), 259. See Iogna-Pratt, Order and Exclusion, p.265.
69 Some historians have argued that the development of the idea of a united Christian society was
part of a much greater concern by the Church for the containment, if not eradication, of ‘the Other’;
see, for example, Robert Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society: Authority and Deviance in
Western Europe, 950–1250, 2nd edn (Oxford, 2007), passim. For discussion of the newly invigorated
Christian society of the thirteenth century see, for example, Chazan, Daggers of Faith, p.12. The
Church began to demand that higher than the sovereignty of the various kings over the Church should
be the universal hegemony of the Church; see Salo Baron, ‘“Plenitude of Apostolic Powers” and
Medieval “Jewish Serfdom”’, in Ancient and Medieval Jewish History, ed. L. A. Feldman (New
Brunswick, 1972), p.289.
70 It is possible that Alexander III was not the Master Rolandus scholars once thought. Yet his
(rather hesitant) development of canonical doctrine, for example on marriage, makes it probable that
he was trained in canon law. Furthermore, like his later successor Innocent III, he had an excellent
legal mind and as pope was able to decide doubtful cases on his own authority, without necessarily
needing to cite authorities. I am most grateful to Martin Brett for discussion of these ideas.
71 For the eleven surviving letters of Alexander III concerned with the Jews, see Simonsohn, pp.50–62.
See especially on the tithe: Alexander III, ‘Quia super his’ (1159–1179), Simonsohn, p.50; ‘Non sine
multa’ (1174–1179), Simonsohn, p.57. For the threat of excommunication against Christians who did
not compel Jews to pay the tithe, for the prohibition against Jews holding public office, and for for-
bidding Christians to serve Jews, see Alexander III, ‘Non sine multa’, Simonsohn, p.57; ‘Ad audientiam
apostolatus’ (25 January (before) 1179), Simonsohn, pp.57–8; ‘Licet universis Christi’ (before 1179),
Simonsohn, pp.59–60; ‘Ad haec cum sacris’ (c.1179), Simonsohn, p.60. For a detailed discussion of
Alexander III’s extensive and legalistic treatment of the Jews, see Grayzel, ‘Pope Alexander III and the
Jews’, pp.555–72.