200 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
err in those things which pertain to the truth of the old law, the Church judges
concerning those men and punishes [them], because in so far as in this they are not
outside [the Church].252Hence Innocent became the first pope to state directly that as Christ’s vicar he had
authority over Jews,253 declaring in the Apparatus super quinque libris decretalium that
if they acted immorally against their law, then the pope had the right to judge them:
Again, the pope can judge the Jews, if they act against the law (of the Gospel) in
morals, if their rabbis should not punish them, and in the same way if they should
discover heresies in respect of their own law.254rabbis could impose a ban on their communities as a way of exerting internal
discipline.255 As vicar of Christ, Innocent had power not only over Christians but
over all unbelievers, whether ‘internal’ or ‘external’:
we believe that the pope, who is the vicar of Jesus Christ, has power not only over
Christians but even over all infidels. From whence... a gentile who does not have any law
except natural law, can licitly be punished by the pope if he acts against natural law.256The thirteenth-century canonist oldradus Pontanus upheld the same view:
The Pagans and Jews should be counted among the sheep of Christ by the creation,
guiding and redemption of Christ... Whence also the pope has power over them just
as Christ has set him over his sheep.. .257Innocent was claiming much greater jurisdiction for the papacy over Jews than had
Gratian in the Decretum.
nevertheless, in 1247 he modified his stance on the Talmud somewhat in a
letter to louis IX in which he stated that it was his duty as pope to look into all
matters and to act justly.258 In response to Jewish rabbis in the kingdom of France,
who had recently asserted that without the Talmud they could not make sense of
their Bible nor their other statutes and laws, he confirmed that:
252 Guy Terre, Summa de heresibus (Cologne, 1631), p.5: ‘Iudaei foris sunt solum quantum ad
pertinentia ad novum Testimonium, nec quoad haec ab ecclesia iudicantur; quod ea vero quae ad veri-
tatem veteris legis pertinent, si errent Iudaei, ecclesia de illis iudicat et punit, quia quantum ad hoc
non sunt foris.’
253 Pakter, Medieval Canon Law and the Jews, p.72.
254 Innocent IV, Apparatus, Bk 3, rubrica 34, cap. 8, p.176r: ‘Item Iudaeos potest iudicare Papa, si
contra legem (evangelii) faciunt in moralibus, si eorum prelati eos non puniant, et eodem modo si
haereses circa suam legem inveniant.’ See Dahan, Les Intelléctuels chrétiens et les juifs au moyen âge,
pp.105–6.
255 Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews. History, p.115; p.444.
256 Innocent IV, Apparatus, Bk 3, rubrica 34, cap. 8, p.176r: ‘credimus quod Papa, qui est vicarius
Ihesu Christi, potestatem habet non tantum super Christianos sed etiam super omnes infideles
... unde... credo, quod si gentilis qui non habet legem nisi naturae, si contra legem naturae facit, post
licite puniri per Papam.’
257 oldradus Pontanus laudensis, Concilia aurea (lyon, 1550), Consilium 264, fol.115va: ‘Pagani
et Iudaei oves Christi computanter creatione, gubernatione et redemptione ex parte Christi... unde
et papa super eos potestatem habet sicut super oues suas quas inter alias commisit Christus.’ See
Dahan, Les Intéllectuels chrétiens et les juifs au moyen âge, p.106.
258 Innocent Iv, ‘Ad instar animalium’ (12 August 1247), Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.274–80; Simonnsohn,
pp.196–7.