186 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
So like his predecessor Gregory IX, Innocent Iv had an extensive knowledge of
papal decretals concerning Jews. According to the Apparatus super quinque libris
decretalium, although infidels were not part of Christ’s Church, they were never-
theless part of Christ’s flock and so subject to the pope, Christ’s vicar.146 The pope
therefore had the power to judge the Jews if they appealled to the old Testament
as a source for moral teachings.147 As we shall see, both Gregory IX and Innocent
Iv used this idea to justify ordering the burning of copies of the Talmud and their
decrees that those who taught or followed its heretical teachings should be
punished.148
HoSTIEnSIS, PAPAl DECrETAlS, AnD JEWS
one further legal commentary especially important for confirming the papacy’s
insistence on the servile but protected status of Jews in Christian Europe was the
Summa aurea, the work of Henry of Segusio, cardinal bishop of ostia, otherwise
known as Hostiensis (c.1200–1271), which survives in two versions of which the
earlier was completed in 1250–1251 after the First Council of lyons.149 Comprising
one and a quarter million words it was published in 1253 and became a definitive
text, commenting on the Liber extra but also interpolating new titles where existing
ones were inappropriate.150 Although no simple rubric of the Summa aurea was
concerned solely with Jews, while by contrast certain rubrics concentrated solely
on Muslims and heretics, the work nevertheless contained material pertinent to
their status. Thus one rubric of Book 3, De conversione coniugatorum, commented
on the status of marriage and religious life,151 and included discussion of how
spouses could be converted and reconverted to Christianity.152 Another, De conver-
sione infidelium, considered who should be deemed an infidel, and how infidels
and their offspring might be converted to Christianity.153
Book 5 contained the rubric De Iudaeis, Saracenis et eorum servis, a detailed
discussion of the correct status of Jews which Hostiensis summarized under the
following headings:
1: Who are called Jews and why they are so called; 2: And in what things they are to
be tolerated; 3: And in what things they are to be penalized; 4: Whether the Church
sins when she allows the Jews to perform their rites; 6: Whether a blasphemer of
Christ can exercise power over Christians; 7: Whether Jews should be compelled to146 Innocent IV, Apparatus, Bk 3, rubrica 34, cap. 8, p.176r.
147 Also if their own rabbis did not punish them when necessary and if these rabbis found heresies
in their interpretation of Jewish law; Innocent IV, Apparatus, Bk 3, rubrica 34, cap. 8, p.176r.
148 Innocent IV, Apparatus, Bk 3, rubrica 34, cap. 8, p.176r.
149 Brundage, Medieval Canon Law, p.214; Brundage, Medieval Canon Law and the Crusader,
pp.99–105.
150 Clarence-Smith, Medieval Law Teachers and Writers, pp.46–7.
151 Hostiensis, Summa aurea, Book 3, cols 1115–23.
152 Hostiensis, Summa aurea, Book 3, cols 1116–17.
153 Hostiensis, Summa aurea, Book 3, cols 1123–5.