126 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
Nevertheless, despite such papal censures Spanish monarchs and even bishops
continued to employ Jewish officials, in particular as tax collectors. So although by
the end of the thirteenth century Spanish rulers began to take note of Church and
civic councils on the issue, Jews continued to hold office in Spain into their expul-
sion from the peninsula in 1492.131
The second papal concern was with tithes—the tenth of their income which
medieval peasants paid annually to the Church either in money or goods. whereas
the papacy demanded that Jews pay tithes, kings were not happy since this form of
taxation diverted Jewish money from the Crown. In 1205 Innocent III complained
to Alfonso vIII of Castile (1158–1214) that he was exempting Jews from their
payment of the tithe, granting them more land on which tithes were due and
making the Church pay huge compensation to Jews for their converted slaves:132
we have also heard that when slaves of Jews, bought or homeborn, become converted
to the Faith, although the price to be paid for them is canonically fixed, you neverthe-
less permit the Jews to seize as much of the good of the bishopric as they (the Jews)
affirm by oath that the slaves were worth to them. whence recently you ordered that
200 aurei be paid by our venerable Brother the bishop of Burgos for a certain Saracen
woman the servant of some Jew, though the bishop says she was worth hardly ten
solidi. And although in the matter of your not allowing the Jews and Saracens of your
Kingdom to be compelled to pay the tithe from their possessions, we have already had
apostolic letters sent to you, you nevertheless have not only refused to have them com-
pelled to pay the tithe, but have even granted them greater opportunity not to pay the
tithe, and given them greater rights in the buying of more extensive possessions. Thus
while the Synagogue grows in power the Church becomes weaker, and the handmaid
is openly preferred.133Then in 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council declared that Jews were liable for tithes
on property that had passed to them from Christians.134 And in 1218 and 1219
Honorius III complained yet again that Jews in Spain were not paying the tithe
and insisted that the archbishop of toledo end all commercial relations between
Jews and Christians until they did.135 The result was that the archbishop brokered
ulterius nullatenus sinas. Quid enim est Iudeis Christianos supponere, atque hos illorum iudicio sub-
icere, nisi Ecclesiam dei opprimere et Satane Synagogam exaltare, et dum inimicis Christi velis placere
ipsum Christum contemnere?’
131 Abulafia, Christian-Jewish Relations 1000–1300, pp.113–14.
132 Innocent III, ‘Non minus pro’ (5 May 1205), Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.112; Simonsohn, pp.85–6.
133 Innocent III, ‘Non minus pro’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.112; Simonsohn, p.85: ‘Accepimus autem... et,
cum servi Judeorum emptitii sive vernaculi convertuntur ad fidem, licet pretium quod pro talibus dari
debet, in canone sit taxatum, per Judeos ipsos tantum facis de bonis episcopalibus detineri, quantum
ipsi eosdem servos valuisse firmaverint juramento. Unde, nuper a venerabili fratre nostro.... Burgensi
episcopo, pro quadam Sarracena, Judei cujusdam ancilla, quam vix asserit decem solidos valuisse,
ducentos aureos recipi mandavisti et, licet, super eo quod Judeos et Sarracenos tui regni compelli ad
solvendas decimas de possessionibus non permittis, litteras tibi apostolicas duxerimus transmittendas,
tu tamen, nedem eos noluisti ad decimarum solutionem inducere, verum etiam liberiorem eis decimas
non solvendi et emendi ampliores possessiones licentiam tribuisti, ut, Synagoga crescente, decrescat
ecclesia, et libere preponatur ancilla.’
134 Tanner, Vol. 1, p.266.
135 Honorius III, ‘In generali concilio’ (26 January 1218), Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.144–6; Simonsohn,
p.103; ‘Ad audientiam nostram’ (3 September 1220), Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.156–8; Simonsohn, p.111.