70 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
by the decrees of local church councils and by the fervour of religious mobs which
often resulted indirectly from papal legislation, popes themselves never directly
endorsed expulsions—although they might have done much more to prevent them.
Meanwhile despite the fact that the french authorities allowed Jews who sur-
vived expulsion from england to enter france, on his accession in 1285 Philip iV,
‘the fair’ (1285–1314) imprisoned all french Jews; then in 1306 he confiscated
their property and forced them to leave the country;28 only in 1315 would Louis
X (1314–1316) permit their return.29 But then, until their definitive expulsion by
charles Vi (1380–1422) in 1394, they continued to suffer from outbreaks of vio-
lence in several french regions—in part because they were blamed for the onset
and spread of the Black death, which, as with their christian contemporaries, wiped
out many communities.30
So throughout the thirteenth century Jews were expelled from numerous parts of
western europe: Brittany in 1240, Gascony between 1287–1288, Anjou and Maine
in 1289, Niort in 1291, Nevers in 1294, and england in 1290.31 during the last
decade of the thirteenth century there were thousands of Jewish conversions in the
south of italy and persecutions in the north.32 in Germany too there were expulsions
and persecutions: in 1012 the emperor henry ii (1014–1024) had expelled Jews
from Mainz; in 1235 an accusation of ritual murder was advanced in fulda—which
led in 1236 to an investigation by frederick ii (1220–1250) and the issue of a priv-
ilege in favour of the Jews. That privilege refuted the accusations, forbade the repeti-
tion of the charge, and stated that Jews were under the emperor’s special protection
as ‘servants of our chamber’ (‘servi camere nostre’), thereby extending protection to
the whole of Germany. Such protection included guarantees on freedom of worship,
travel, disposal of property, protection from unlawful exaction, and from the for-
cible conversion of children and servants to christianity.33 Notwithstanding, in
1247 a further ritual murder charge was brought against Jews in the french town of
Valréas, while in Spain in 1250 the death of a choir boy under suspicious circum-
stances in Saragossa prompted another. in 1285 a charge of blood libel in Munich
resulted in 180 Jews being burned alive in the town’s synagogue, while following yet
another ritual murder accusation, in 1287 a mob in oberwesel killed forty Jewish
men, women, and children. in 1289 charles of Anjou (king of Sicily, 1266–1285)
expelled Jews from all his domains in france and southern italy.34 in only one
instance did the papacy approve such an expulsion—in 1253 when the archbishop
28 Abulafia, Christian–Jewish Relations 1000– 1300 , p.61.
29 Abulafia, Christian–Jewish Relations 1000– 1300 , p.84.
30 Abulafia, Christian–Jewish Relations 1000– 1300 , p.84; Jody enders, ‘dramatic rumors and
Truthful Appearances. The Medieval Myth of ritual Murder by Proxy’, in Rumor Mills. The Social
Impact of Rumor and Legend, ed. G. A. fine, V. campion-Vincent, c. heath (New Brunswick, London,
2004), p.21.
31 William chester Jordan, ‘Jews, regalian rights and the constitution in Medieval france’, in
Ideology and Royal Power in Medieval France: Kingship, Crusades and the Jews, ed. W. c. Jordan (Aldershot,
2001), pp.1–2.
32 Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews. History, pp.350–1.
33 david Abulafia, Mediterranean Encounters, Economic, Religious, Political, 1100– 1550 (Aldershot,
Burl., 2000), Xii, p.219; richards, Sex, Dissidence and Damnation, pp.98–9.
34 Mundill, England’s Jewish Solution, pp.299–302.