140 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
Later, nicholas iii instructed his chancellor to prepare a general letter on the
subject of Jews paying tithes on property that had once belonged to Christians,31
and in a letter to the bishop of León and to the dean and archdeacon of Ledesma
in salamanca of 1284, Martin iV set out a number of complaints concerning Jews
which clergy had made against King dionysius (1279–1325). One was that in the
case of Jews or Muslims who had gained possession of a Christian’s property by
purchase or through default on a loan, the king was not only flouting Constitution
67 of Lateran iV which had decreed that tithes and first fruits of this land must still
be paid, but was even going out of his way to cancel these taxes if the new owners
farmed the territories themselves.32 in 1289 nicholas iV wrote to the archbishop
of Braga and the bishops of Portugal confirming a forty-point document on which
the king of Portugal and the Church had reached an understanding, including how
to deal with the failure to compel Jews to pay tithes to local churches.33 in 1290 he
repeated the general letter of Pope John XXi which, as we have seen, had reserved all
the benefices enjoyed during his lifetime by Raymond de Peralta to the Apostolic
see.34 Part of the income Raymond enjoyed had come from tithes paid by the Jews of
Calatayud. Thus throughout this entire period the papal curia kept on eye on busi-
ness dealings with Jews, particularly if they involved money owed to the Church.
THe PAPACY And UsURY in CHRisTiAn sOCieTY
Lending at high rates of interest, otherwise known as usury, was a particular con-
cern of the medieval Church which regarded it as a crime on the same scale and of the
same order as homicide, sacrilege, perjury, sodomy, incest, parricide, and simony.35
31 Bulls of nicholas iii (1277–1278), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.137–9.
32 Gregory X, ‘isti sunt articuli’ (1 April 1284), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.152–4; Simonsohn, pp.257–9;
the king said he had not and would do this in the future and if his father issued an edict condoning
these acts he would revoke it.
33 nicholas iV, ‘Cum olim inter’ (7 March 1289), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.172–4; Simonsohn,
pp.268–70.
34 nicholas iV, ‘Tenorem quarundam’ (27 november 1290), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.184–5. After 1291
popes continued to issue letters concerned with business transactions and Jews. in 1299 Boniface Viii
confirmed an ecclesiastical agreement between the ecclesiastical and secular rulers of Pamiers, one of
whose sections stipulated an equal division of income derived from ovens, mills, banks, markets,
courts, and from Jews. see Boniface Viii ‘ea que judicio’ (17 February 1299), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.202–
- in 1305 Clement V excused Philip of France from having forced financial contributions from the
French Church and from Lombards and Jews. see Clement V, ‘sane nobis’ (1305), Grayzel, Vol. 2,
pp.210–11. He also ordered that Jews must be boycotted if they did not pay tithes in the parish of
Mainz on property which had once been Christian. see Clement V ‘sua nobis’ (14 March 1312),
Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.222–3; Simonsohn, pp.293–4. And he requested that the archbishops of Bremen
and the bishops of Hildesheim and Brandenburg help the archbishop and church of Magdeburg to
regain the archbishop’s property and rights again with the threat of a boycott against the Jews. see
Clement V, ‘si ex iniuncti’ (1 July 1312), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.223–4; Simonsohn, pp.295–6. in the
fourteenth century John XXii would continue to make pronouncements about financial transactions
and Jews. see John XXii, ‘Apostolice sedis’ (11 April 1330), Grayzel, Vol. 2, p.338; Simonsohn,
pp.360–1. note that nothing was said in this case about the debt being usurious.
35 James Parkes, The Jew in the Medieval Community (London, 1938), p.283; Kenneth stow, ‘Papal
and Royal Attitudes toward Jewish Lending in the Thirteenth Century’, American Jewish Studies
Review 6 (1981), 163.