116 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
specific about Jewish moneylenders. Nevertheless, Louis identified Jews as some
of the principal moneylenders in his kingdom and in 1146 issued a stern edict
releasing crusaders from all financial obligations to them beyond the repayment of
the principal and forbidding them from recovering interest lost through profits
generated by pledges, especially on land.73
As we have already noted, Eugenius may have issued the ‘Sicut Iudaeis’ because
he feared the fallout for Jews arising from his promulgation of ‘Quantum praede-
cessores’ which called for the Second Crusade.74 Certainly the Church’s concern
about protection of Jewish communities was more apparent during the Second
Crusade than it had been during the First. what is particularly striking about the
account of Ephraim of Bonn, who, as we have seen, described pogroms against
Jews during the preparations for the Second Crusade, is his depiction of Bernard
of Clairvaux.75 we know that on the eve of the Second Crusade, crusaders extorted
protection money from Jewish communities in the rhineland in return for a
promise not to attack them. This was despite Bernard’s attempts to prevent any
recurrence of bloodshed by preaching against instigations to violence orchestrated
by rudolph, a fellow Cistercian.76
Ephraim recorded that many crusaders extorted protection money from Jews,
but god took pity on their suffering and sent Bernard whom he described as a
decent priest, a great man, and a rabbi who knew about and understood Judaism.77
In preaching against rudolph, Bernard argued that anyone laying violent hands on
a Jew was laying hands on Christ himself, citing psalms 59: 12, ‘Kill them not, lest
my people forget’, to demonstrate that in inciting crusaders to kill Jews, rudolph
was theologically unsound.78 Clearly Ephraim believed that had it not been for
Bernard’s preaching, the Jewish communities would have been destroyed and there-
fore portrayed him as a great protector and saviour, going out of his way not only
73 Stacey, ‘Crusades, Martyrdom and the Jews of Norman England 1096-1190’, p.241; Stow,
Alienated Minority, pp.113–14.
74 Eugenius III, ‘Sicut Iudaeis’, Simonsohn, p. 47. See Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.76.
75 Ephraim of Bonn, Sefer Gezerot Sarfat ve-Ashkenaz ed. Haberman, p.116; Abulafia, ‘Christians
and Jews in the High Middle Ages’, p.25.
76 Bernard of Clairvaux, ‘Epistolae’, Opera Sancti Bernardi, ed. J. Leclercq, C. H. talbot, H. M.
rochais (rome, 1957–77), vol. 7 (1974), passim; Hebraische Berichte über die Judenverfolgungen
während der Kreuzzüge, ed. A. Neubauer, M. Stern (Berlin, 1892), pp.1–78; Stacey, ‘Crusades,
Martyrdom and the Jews in Norman England 1096-1190’, p.240; david Berger, ‘The Attitude of St
Bernard of Clairvaux toward the Jews’, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 40
(1972), 89–108, passim.
77 For letters of Bernard calling for the Jews to be protected from crusaders, see PL, 182, cols
563–72. See also in Sancti Bernardi... Opera, vol. 1, ed. J. Mabillon (paris, 1719), cols 329–30; col.
332; Bernard of Clairvaux, ‘Epistolae’, Opera Sancti Bernardi, 8 vols, ed. J. Leclercq, C. H. talbot,
H. M. rochais, vol. 8 (rome, 1977), pp.311–17; The Letters of St Bernard of Clairvaux, trans. B. S.
James, 3rd edn (Stroud, 1998), pp.462–3; p.466; Ephraim of Bonn, in Sefer Gezerot Sarfat ve-Ashkenaz
ed. Habermann, p.116.
78 Actually it is a partial citation and somewhat doubtful. The first to cite the text in full is Innocent
III in his re-issue of ‘Sicut Iudaeis’—see Stow, The ‘1007 Anonymous’ and Papal Sovereignty, passim. For
St Bernard’s emphasis that the Jews must be saved because they will eventually be converted, see The
Letters of Bernard of Clairvaux, trans. James, p.463. For discussion of Bernard’s letters protecting the
Jews, see Hebraische Berichte über die Judenverfolgungen während der Kreuzzuge, ed. A. Neubauer,
M. Stern (Berlin, 1892), pp.1–78; Berger, ‘The Attitude of St Bernard of Clairvaux toward the Jews’,
89–108; Stacey, ‘Crusades, Martyrdom and the Jews of Norman England 1096–1190’, p.240.