148 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
arrests of various French Jews in 1180, Christians were freed in the next year from
all debts owed to Jews made on royal land, and in 1182 Jews were expelled from
the royal domain altogether by Philip Augustus.75 Yet despite objections from the
clergy, they were re-admitted in July 1198; probably the king regretted the finan-
cial losses resulting from their expulsion—unless the expulsion itself was a means
for immediate financial gain and not intended to be permanent.76 in 1206, how-
ever, Philip put a ceiling on the interest Jews could charge Christians.77 Jewish
usury was not to exceed two pennies per pound per week and there was to be a
prohibition on the use of Church vessels as pledges. Furthermore, interest owed by
crusaders in particular was frozen at the same standard rate.78 since there were 240
pence in the pound, this meant that the king was fixing a huge rate of return for
the Jews: 43 per cent per annum.79 in order to prevent too massive a profit, how-
ever, Philip added that interest was not to be compounded until a full year had
elapsed.80 in the previous year, 1205, innocent iii had rebuked Philip for policies
he considered too favourable towards Jews, and it is possible that this condemna-
tion induced the king to issue the safeguard.81 even so, the edict was extremely
favourable to Jewish money-lending and so, from its profits, to royal revenues.
innocent iii pronounced regularly on usury, not just in the context of crusading
but much more widely. According to his Register, in 1205 he complained about
‘vicious’ Jewish usury in the kingdom of France;82 in 1207 he urged the bishop
of Auxerre to punish all usurers;83 and in 1208 he complained to the count of
nevers about specifically Jewish usury.84 in the same year he ordered Philip
Augustus to compel French Jews to remit all usury to debtors departing for cru-
sades, in particular in favour of those joining that crusade against heretics in the
south of France.85 These letters, together with growing criticism by the French
clergy of royal support for Jewish usury, regarded by many as sinful, may indeed
have encouraged the rounding up of French Jews by the Crown in 1210.86 Yet later
in his pontificate, in 1214, innocent was again to complain to Philip that usury
had grown to such an enormous degree in France that he was afraid there would
75 stacey, ‘Crusades, Martyrdom and the Jews of norman england 1096–1190’, p.245.
76 william Chester Jordan, The French Monarchy and the Jews: from Philip Augustus to the Last of
the Capetians (Philadelphia, 1989), p.44; Gavin Langmuir, Toward a Definition of Anti-Semitism
(Berkeley, Oxford, 1990), pp.142–3.
77 Honorius iii, ‘Cum olim nobilis’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.144; Simonsohn, p.102.
78 Church, State and Jew in the Middle Ages, ed. R. Chazan (new York, 1980), pp.205–7.
79 Church, State and Jew in the Middle Ages, ed. Chazan, pp.205–7.
80 Church, State and Jew in the Middle Ages, ed. Chazan, pp.205–7.
81 innocent iii, ‘etsi non displiceat’ (16 January 1205), Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.104–8; Simonsohn,
pp.82–4.
82 innocent iii, ‘etsi non displiceat’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.104–8; Simonsohn, pp.82–4. see Grayzel,
Vol. 1, pp.104–6; Simonsohn, p.82: ‘sub specie usurarie pravitatis’.
83 innocent iii, ‘Tue fraternitatis discretio’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.124; Simonsohn, pp.91–2.
84 innocent iii, ‘Ut esset Cain’ (17 January 1208), Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.126–30; Simonsohn,
pp.92–4.
85 innocent iii, ‘Ut contra crudelissimos’ (9 October 1208), Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.132; Simonsohn,
pp.94–5.
86 Jordan, The French Monarchy and the Jews, p.73.