Popes and Jews, 1095-1291

188 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291

whose judgement the common magistrate may follow... But they must not be

brought into court on their Sabbaths, nor may they bring others since we permit them

to celebrate their festivals and those matters they hold praiseworthy, so that the more

carefully their customs may be preserved; nor must they be attacked, nor beaten, nor

killed nor disturbed in their festivals, nor may money nor other matters be brought to

bear without the judgement of the local governor, nor on receipt of any money may

their graves be dug up.160

He also repeated the papacy’s concern about Christian wet nurses:

for there are some who—unutterable though it is to say—have Christian nurses whom

they don’t permit to give milk to their children when they have eaten the Body of Christ,

unless for three days beforehand they express their milk into the latrine, as if they believe

that the body of Christ is received bodily and descends through bodily processes.161

nevertheless, he also emphasized that Jews must not be baptized by force,

stating categorically that:

therefore they [Jews] are to be led to take up the faith rather by authoritative and

reasoned inducements than harshness, because a compelled service does not please

God ...162

He also discussed how if Jews refuse to accept the Christian faith they were to be

penalized in nine major ways. In accordance with the correspondence of Alexander

III and Innocent III the sixth penalty was:

that in the days of mourning and of the lord’s Passion they appear as little as possible

in public... as on the day of preparation [Good Friday] they keep doors and windows

closed... and let them not say anything in disparagement of our faith.. .163

The seventh penalty recalled Constitution 67 of lateran Iv that:

how males, as well as females bear some open sign in every Christian province and in

every type so that thus they may be discerned by Christian peoples by the style of their

dress.164

160 Hostiensis, Summa aurea, Book 5, col. 1518: ‘Item permittitur eis agere, et conveniri apud
iudices nostros ordinarios, non apud seniores eorum, sed arbitrium possunt eligere et Iudaeum, cuius
sententiam ordinarius exequatur... Sed nec in sabbatis suis trahi debent ad iudicium, nec ipsi alios
trahent, quia festivitates suas ab eis permittimus celebrari. Et sibi laudabiles quas habuerint, attentius
consuetudines conservantur, nec debent caedi, nec percuti, vel occidi, seu in suis festivitatibus pertur-
bari, nec pecunia, vel aliae res auferri sine iudicio potestatis terrae, nec sepulchra eorum effodi, obtentu
alicuius pecuniae.’
161 Hostiensis, Summa aurea, Book 5, col. 1518: ‘nam sunt quidam, qui quod nephandum est dic-
ere, nutrices Christianas habentes non permittunt lactare filios, cum corpus Christi sumpserunt, nisi
primo triduum lac effuderint in latrinam quasi intelligunt, quod corpus Christi incorporetur, et ad
successum descendat’.
162 Hostiensis, Summa aurea, Book 5, col. 1519: ‘Sunt igitur inducendi ad fidem suscipiendam
authoritatibus et rationibus blandimentis potius, quam asperitatibus quia coacta servitia non placet Deo.’
163 Hostiensis, Summa aurea, Book 5, col. 1521: ‘ut in diebus lamentationum, et Dominicae pas-
sionis in publicum minime prodeant... ut in die parasceues hostia et fenestras clausas teneant... et ne
in contumeliam fidei nostrae aliquid dicant.. .’.
164 Hostiensis, Summa aurea, Book 5, col. 1521: ‘ut tam masculi, quam feminae aliquod signum
apertum deferant in omni Christianorum provincia, et omni type, ut sic Christianis populis qualitate
habitus descernantur’.