The Impact of the Crusades 113
Be that as it may, as we noted in Chapter One, it might seem at best a terrible
oversight that Urban II failed to anticipate that his speech at Clermont and the
subsequent enthusiasm for his crusade might precipitate violence against Jewish
communities, and therefore that consequently he failed to re-issue ‘Constitutio pro
Iudaeis’ before the crusade began, as his successors were to do on the eve of subse-
quent crusades.59 As we have seen, the earliest possible re-issues of ‘Sicut Iudaeis’
date from Calixtus II and Eugenius III, while the earliest extant version was com-
posed after gratian and was not issued until the pontificate of Alexander III, at
some point between 1159 and 1181.60 Urban had only the precedent of his ancient
predecessor gregory I who had issued ‘Sicut Iudaeis’ under very different circum-
stances and, as we have seen, for very different reasons: in response to a plea from
the Jews of palermo concerned about the anti-Jewish activities of its bishop.61 when
Urban called for the First Crusade in 1095 he had no crusading precedent on which
to draw. His aim was to encourage the knightly classes and he had no idea that his
call would also resonate with the peasantry;62 on the contrary, he seems to have been
taken aback by it. As he had no reason to envisage the ensuing mob violence, there
was no obvious reason for him to issue ‘Sicut Iudaeis’.
Since Shelomo bar Shimshon’s First Crusade chronicles portray so many aspects
of Christianity in derogatory terms, his anti-papal stance is hardly surprising.
possibly his negative portrayal vented the rage he felt in the face of severe persecu-
tion; or perhaps he was attempting to consolidate the defence against Christian
forces threatening Jewish identity. Certainly, as we have seen, in the face of crusader
atrocities the chronicles emphasized the importance of martyrdom or qiddush
ha-Shem among the Jews of the rhineland, even representing Jewish women as
willing to sacrifice themselves and their children for their faith.63 So although it is
Studies 76/4 (2001), 926. Earlier historians had attributed this protest to Urban II; see, for example,
Cecil roth, ‘The popes and the Jews’, Church Quarterly Review 123 (1936/7), 79; and his entry (1971)
‘p opes’, in Encyclopaedia Judaica (Jerusalem 1971), cols 851–61; another anti-pope who does not
come off well in relation to the Jews is Benedict XIII (elected 1394) who was responsible for the
disputation of tortosa (1413–1414) and a wave of persecution in the Iberian peninsula; see roth,
‘The popes and the Jews’, 83. For the Jewish and Christian accounts of the disputation of tortosa, see
Judaism on Trial: Jewish-Christian Disputations in the Middle Ages, ed. and trans. H. Maccoby
(r utherford, London, 1982), pp.168–86; pp.187–215.
59 Solomon grayzel, ‘The papal Bull “Sicut Iudeis”’, in Studies and Essays in Honour of Abraham A.
Neuman (philadelphia, Leiden, 1962), p.251. For a discussion of the various re-issues of the
‘Constitutio pro Iudaeis’, see Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.76–8; Solomon grayzel, ‘The papal Bull “Sicut
Iudaeis”’, in Essential Papers in Judaism and Christianity in Conflict, ed. J. Cohen (New York, London,
1991), pp.231–59.
60 For possible issues which are not extant, see Calixtus II, ‘Sicut Iudaeis’, Simonsohn, p.44 and
Eugenius III, ‘Sicut Iudaeis’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.76; Simonsohn, p.47. For the extant issue of Alexander
III, see Alexander III, ‘Sicut Iudaeis’ (1159–1181), Simonsohn, pp.51–2.
61 gregory I, ‘Sicut Iudaeis’ (June 598), Simonsohn, pp.15–16; Anna Abulafia, ‘Christians and Jews
in the High Middle Ages: Christian views of Jews’, in The Jews of Europe in the Middle Ages (Tenth to
Fifteenth Centuries). Proceedings of the International Symposium held at Speyer, 20-25 October 2002, ed.
C. Cluse (turnhout, 2004), p.20.
62 For example, see the description of Urban II’s speech at Clermont in The Gesta Francorum et
aliorum Hierosolimitanorum, ed. r. Hill (Oxford, 1962), p.1.
63 Alfred Haverkamp, ‘The Jews of Europe in the Middle Ages: By way of Introduction’, in The
Jews of Europe in the Middle Ages (Tenth to Fifteenth Centuries). Proceedings of the International
Symposium held at Speyer, 20-25 October 2002, ed. C. Cluse, p.6; Abulafia, ‘Christians and Jews in the