158 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
to the bishop of Chichester, the bishop-elect of Valence, and the abbot of
st Augustine at Canterbury about the ‘burdensome and immoderate usury’ that Jews
in england were exacting more generally from Christians.146 The next year he again
urged Louis—as well as the archbishop of sens and the bishop of senlis—to use
money seized from the Jews, and believed to be usurious, to assist the crusading
cause,147 while he complained to the bishop of Chichester, the bishop-elect of Valence,
and the abbot of the monastery of st Augustine of Canterbury, that letters he had sent
previously about Jewish exaction of ‘burdensome and immoderate usury’ from cru-
saders had been dismissed by the archbishop of Canterbury without proper considera-
tion.148 Once again we see Gregory upholding the commitment of the papacy to
protect the Jews, while at the same time attempting to encourage crusading.
in contrast to the harsh legislation of Louis iX but very much in line with the
wishes of his predecessor, in 1247 innocent iV ordered Thibaut iV of Champagne,
King of navarre, to ensure that his subjects repay debts which they owed to Jews,
while another letter of the same year again ordered him to insist that any money
borrowed from Jews be returned to them and to restrain any of his subjects who
dared molest them.149 Thus innocent showed himself determined to ensure that
Thibaut did not allow Jewish property to be seized under the pretext that it had
been gained through usurious transactions. Yet that same year he also bestowed on
the titular bishop of Morocco the same privileges for those who campaigned in
Africa as granted by Lateran iV for those departing for the Holy Land—which
implied that the same regulations were to be followed concerning money-lending
to crusaders by Jews.150 in further correspondence of 1248 to his legate, Odo
of Châteauroux, cardinal bishop of Tusculum, who was about to join the First
Crusade of Louis iX, in a general letter to the Christian faithful in 1252, and in a
letter to the prior of the dominicans at Paris in 1253, he repeated the concessions
his predecessor Gregory iX had granted to crusaders.151 Thus again he maintained
treading the same fine line between protecting Jews from crusader excesses while
insisting on the importance of crusading and hence the particular rights of cru-
saders with regard to money-lending.
The papacy continued to be preoccupied with usury and to issue similar state-
ments about Jews during the second half of the century. in 1257 Alexander iV
ordered Thibaut ii of navarre, V of Champagne, son of Thibaut iV, to seize the
146 Gregory iX, ‘dilectus filius magister’ (5 January 1237), Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.230–2; Simonsohn,
pp.165–7; for the phrase ‘immoderato gravamine usurarum’, see Gregory iX, ‘dilectus filius magister’,
Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.232; Simonsohn, p.166.
147 Gregory iX, ‘ex parte tua’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.232–4; Simonsohn, pp.167–8; ‘Cum karissimo
in’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.238; Simonsohn, p.170.
148 see Gregory iX, ‘dilectus filius magister’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.230–2; Simonsohn, pp.165–7. see
Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.232; Simonsohn, p.166: ‘immoderato gravamine usurarum’.
149 innocent iV, ‘ex parte Judeorum’ (12 June 1247), Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.268; Simonsohn, pp.193–4;
‘e x parte Judeorum’ (6 July 1247), Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.272; Simonsohn, pp.195–6.
150 innocent iV, ‘Cum laicorum obsequiis’ (3 April 1247), Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.262; Simonsohn,
p.189.
151 innocent iV, ‘Pravorum molestiis eum’ (21 July 1248), Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.280; Simonsohn,
pp.199–200; ‘Afflicti corde pro’ (1252), Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.290; Simonsohn, p.206; ‘Planxit hactenus
non’ (2 April 1253), Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.290; Simonsohn, p.206.