Papal Claims to Authority over Judaism 171
pointed, conical, dome-shaped, funnel-shaped, terminating in a knob or spike, or
with a peak bent into Phrygian form.38 Yet although Jews in Germany, Austria,
and Poland already traditionally wore a conical hat (Judenhut), in 1223 Gregory
IX complained to the German bishops that Jews were not also wearing the
rouelle. 39
There is evidence that in the diocese of Paris such badges were used to distinguish
Jews from Christians even before the legislation of lateran Iv. If so, this again
points to the reactive, as much as proactive, nature of the statutes of ecumenical
councils. It is also possible that the idea of distinguishing garb was inspired by the
statutes of eighth- and ninth-century Caliphs who used badges to demarcate Jews
and Christians from Muslims; as late as the fourteenth century Muslims still re-
quired that Christians and Jews wear distinguishing headgear in territories under
their control.40 From the Council of narbonne (1227) onwards, however, the badge
became the usual sign required by the Church to demarcate Jews from Christians: a
requirement regularly reiterated throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth cen-
turies, including at nine Church councils between 1215 and 1370, by nine royal
decrees following louis IX’s order that Jews adopt it in 1269, and increasingly in the
municipal statutes of French towns such as nice, Marseilles, and Avignon.
In Spain the badge was introduced by King James I of Aragon in 1228 and by
Thibaut Iv of Champagne (King of navarre 1234–1253) in 1234, while Alfonso X
of Castile decreed that Jews must wear the rouelle or face a fine, although his
decree seems to have been widely ignored. From 1218 onwards Jews often wore a
badge in the form of diptych-shaped Tablets of the law.41 The Synod of oxford
of 1222 not only echoed the legislation of both lateran III and lateran Iv that
Christians must not live with Jews, that Jews must not employ female Christian
servants, forbidding also the building of new synagogues and decreeing that Jews
must pay tithes due from the lands they had obtained, but also declared that they
must wear on their outer garment a special badge of a different colour from the
garment itself, two fingers wide by four fingers long.42 That ruling was subse-
quently given official confirmation by Henry III (1216–1272) in legislation of
1253 and similar provisions were enacted at other local church councils and
synods throughout England.43 Similarly in 1221 Frederick II ordered all Jews in
the Kingdom of Sicily to wear distinctive clothing, while more generally the men-
dicant friars exerted pressure on secular powers in Italy to enforce the legislation
of lateran Iv.
Just as Canon 26 of lateran III emphasizing the impropriety of Jews serving
Christians was repeated in subsequent papal correspondence, so too was the issue
of distinguishing garb. In a letter of 1215–1216, Innocent III ordered the arch-
bishops and bishops of France to ensure that Jews wore clothes that set them apart
38 Mellinkoff, Outcasts, p.59.
39 richards, Sex, Dissidence and Damnation, pp.108–9.
40 Mellinkoff, Outcasts, p.45.
41 Mellinkoff, Outcasts, p.60.
42 Antisemitism through the Ages, ed. Almog, p.113.
43 Antisemitism through the Ages, ed. Almog, p.114.