182 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
Iudaeis et Saracenis et eorum servis,110 consisted of seven capitula, or chapters, con-
cerning Jews, Muslims, and their servants, three of which date from the twelfth
century.111 Among these, Capitulum 5 was Canon 26 of the Third lateran Council
of 1179, which, as we examined in Chapter Five, decreed that neither Jews nor
Muslims be allowed to keep Christian servants. Titulus 20 of Book 3 of Compilatio
secunda, De conversione infidelium, comprised decretals of Clement III and
Celestine III concerned with marriage between Christians and infidels who had
converted to Christianity.112 In particular, those of Clement discussed the problem
of whether converted Jews and Muslims might be allowed to abandon their infidel
spouse in favour of a new Christian marriage. Titulus 4 of Book 5 of the Compilatio
secunda entitled De Iudaeis et Saracenis included six texts, two of Alexander III and
four of Clement III, three of which were concerned with Jews.113 Capitulum 1, a
letter of Alexander III, allowed for the restoration of old, dilapidated synagogues
but forbade the embellishment or aggrandisement of those currently in use,114 a
stipulation which Innocent III likely had in mind when in his letter ‘Etsi non
displiceat’ of 1205 he complained of the height of the local synagogue in Sens
compared to the neighbouring church.115 Capitulum 2, another letter of Alexander
III, ruled that Christians might not serve Jews nor employ Jewish doctors or their
wives lest they be seen to be nurturing Jewish children in their homes, and that
Christians should reject any form of usury. In contrast to these decretals curtailing
Jewish freedom, Capitulum 3, ‘Sicut Iudaeis’, Clement III’s re-issue of the
‘Constitutio pro Iudaeis’ of 1188, ironically placed Jews under papal protection.
By contrast to Compilationes prima and secunda, Compilationes tertia, quarta and
quinta included decretals of popes from the first half of the thirteenth century
onwards. Book 5 of Tertia contained Titulus 3 De Iudaeis which cited the letter
‘Etsi Iudaeos’ of 1205 in which Innocent III echoed his predecessor Alexander III
in reminding the archbishops of Sens and Paris that Jews should be forbidden to
employ Christians as wet nurses or servants in their homes and that any who dis-
obeyed this ruling should be denied all commerce with Christians.116 Titulus 10 of
Book 5, De usuris, presented five decretals on usury, one of which was entitled ‘Per
miserabilem’, Innocent III’s letter of 1198, originally entitled ‘Post miserabile’, which
authorized the Fourth Crusade and forbade Jews from exacting usury from crusaders. 117
Book 5 of the Compilatio quarta contained Titulus 4, De Iudaeis et Saracenis, which
cited three constitutions of the Fourth lateran Council concerned with Jews:
Constitution 68 which decreed that Jews and Muslims must wear distinguishing
110 1 Comp. 5.5, p.55.
111 Capitula 5 and 6 were decrees of the Third lateran Council and Capitulum 7 was a decretal of
Alexander III. Surprisingly, although Titulus 15 of Book 5 of Compilatio prima, (De usuris) comprised
twelve texts on usury, none of them referred to the Jews. See 1 Comp. 5.15, p.59.
112 2 Comp. 3.20, pp.86–7. The decretal of Celestine III included a discussion of whether Saracens
(Muslims) converted to Christianity should be allowed to marry widows of men they had killed in
battle.
113 2 Comp. 5.4, p.98.
114 X.5.6.3, col. 772; X.5.6.7, col. 773.
115 Innocent III, ‘Etsi non displiceat’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.104–8; Simonsohn, pp.82–4.
116 3 Comp. 5.3, p.130.
117 3 Comp. 5.10, p.131.