74 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
the reasons for this were fourfold. first, since the Jews’ acceptance of the old
Testament was a disinterested testimony to the truth of biblical christological
prophecy, the Jews were therefore a living testimony to the truth of christianity.
Secondly, their suffering as a result of their diaspora showed that God had punished
them for rejecting christ. hence their responsibility for his death and their disper-
sion was a testimony to the error of Judaism and the truth of christianity. Thirdly,
Jews reminded christians of the difference between the old carnal israel and the
new spiritual israel. Lastly, as a rhetorical personification of carnality and sin, Jews
constantly reminded christians that sin was part of the human condition.
Alongside such Pauline and Augustinian theology, the papacy had long held that
the rights of Jews living within christian society must be legally restricted. in
particular it came to rely on the fifth-century Theodosian code, a set of laws prom-
ulgated in 438 which were a comprehensive compilation of imperial constitutions
covering reigns of all emperors from constantine i (272–337) to Theodosius ii
(401–450) and which—considering its scope and magnitude—contained a sur-
prisingly detailed blueprint for the treatment of Jews in christian society.50 it
restricted the erection of new synagogues, threatened the curtailment of privileges
if Jews insulted christianity, and forbade Jews from owning christian slaves.51 Yet
it also protected basic rights for Jews: affirming their citizenship, allowing them to
set their own market prices and rules, specifying that they should exercise ordinary
jurisdiction in ritual matters, allowing recourse to arbiters in civil affairs, and out-
lawing attacks on synagogues. Perhaps most significantly it granted Jews due legal
process, forbidding christians to call them to court on the Jewish Sabbath and
prohibiting arbitrary cancellation of their rights.52 The code of Justinian was also
important since it legislated that synagogues should not be allowed to exist on land
belonging to an ecclesiastical institution—indeed the emperor Justinian (c.482–565)
had himself ordered that all existing synagogues in the empire be converted into
churches.
So from the fifth century onwards the papacy insisted on the implementation of
the Theodosian code concerning Jews and pursued an agenda of simultaneous
protection and restriction. With the pontificate of Gregory i in the sixth century
came further elaboration of that position. What is striking about Gregory’s corres-
pondence is how—in the context of his day—his stance towards Jews was so
comparatively mild; in over twenty of his letters he expressed approval of the pro-
tection the Theodosian code demanded. in ‘Sicut iudaeis’, which, as we have seen,
became the basis for the twelfth-century letter of protection, the ‘constitutio pro
iudaeis’, he argued that although Jews should not be accorded any liberties beyond
those allowed in civil law, within that law they should not suffer discrimination.
furthermore, although he insisted, in line with the Theodosian code, that the
pp.328–9; St Augustine, Adversus Iudaeos, ed. deferrari, pp.391–414, passim; De civitate Dei 1, ed.
dombart, Kalb, Bk 4, ch. 34, pp.188–9; Vol. 2, Bk 18, ch. 46, pp.328–9.
50 Codex Theodosianus 16,8,1– 29 , trans. P. Lang (Bern, frankfurt, New York, Paris, 1991), pp.84–159.
51 Mark cohen, Under Crescent and Cross: the Jews in the Middle Ages (Princeton, 1994), pp.32–5.
52 Codex Theodosianus 16,8,1– 29 , trans. Lang, pp.84–159, passim. See Stow, Alienated Minority,
p.23; cohen, Under Crescent and Cross, pp.32–4.