Jews and Money 137
informed the bishop of Marseilles that, just like Christians, Jews must be com-
pelled to pay the tithe on any property they owned.6 sometime between 1172 and
1173 he also told an unknown bishop—as well as Richard archdeacon of Poitiers—
that if the apparent facts of the case were established, silvester, treasurer of Lisieux,
and his sureties should be freed from further interest owed on a debt to a London
Jew. The case was complex, since, after Thomas Becket’s quarrel with Henry ii
(1154–1189), silvester had followed Becket into exile, and as a result Henry had
temporarily taken control of his prebend at waltham.7
in a further letter written sometime between 1174 and 1179 Alexander ordered
the archbishop of Canterbury to force Jews in his jurisdiction to pay the tithe on
property they occupied.8 Then in 1179 he wrote to Henry ii himself asking him
not to press Robert, abbot of the monastery of st Augustine of Canterbury, to
repay various debts he owed to Jews.9 And in 1193 his successor, Celestine iii, also
issued an important letter concerned with tithing and ordered a certain dean John,
william de st Valery, an archdeacon, and Magister Roger normannus, a canon of
Rouen, to compel Jews to pay the tithe on property they owned; they were to
forbid Christians all dealings with Jews who failed to obey.10
Papal preoccupation with tithing continued in the thirteenth century. Consti-
tution 67 of Lateran iV referred specifically to Jews and tithes:
we decree, under the same penalty, that Jews shall be compelled to make satisfaction
to churches for tithes and offerings due to the churches, which the churches were
accustomed to receive from Christians for houses and other possessions, before they
passed by whatever title to the Jews, so that the churches may thus be preserved from
loss.11Like Alexander iii before him, innocent iii made several specific financial pro-
nouncements in light of petitions sent to Rome. in 1205 he asked Alphonso Viii
of Castile (1158–1214) to ensure that the Jews of Castile pay a tithe on their
property;12 in 1207 he commanded the Jews of Toledo to pay in its entirety the
tithe for possessions they had legally acquired from Christians;13 and in the same
year he urged the bishop of Auxerre to proceed against Jews who refused to pay
tithes from churches and properties they had bought.14
6 Alexander iii, ‘Quia super his’ (1159–1179), Simonsohn, p.50.
7 Alexander iii, ‘idem...si episcopo’ (1172–1173), Simonsohn, p.53.
8 Alexander iii, ‘non sine multa’ (1174–1179), Simonsohn, p.57.
9 Alexander iii, ‘Audivimus regiae’ (16 February 1179), Simonsohn, pp.60–2.
10 Celestine iii, ‘Cum iudaice duricia’ (23 May 1193), Simonsohn, pp.69–70.
11 Tanner, Vol. 1, pp.265–6: ‘Ac eadem poena iudaeos decernimus compellendos ad satisfaciendum
ecclesiis pro decimis et oblationibus debitis, quas a christianis de domibus et possessionibus aliiis
percipere consueverant, antequam ad iudaeos quocumque titulo devenissent, ut sic ecclesiae conser-
ventur indemnes.’
12 innocent iii, ‘non minus pro’ (5 May 1205), Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.112; Simonsohn, pp.85–6.
13 innocent iii, ‘Precibus dilectorum filiorum’ (4/2 January 1207), Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.122;
Simonsohn, pp.90–1.
14 innocent iii, ‘Tue fraternitatis discretio’ (16 May 1207), Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.124; Simonsohn,
pp.91–2.