Three Hebrew narratives have survived from the intensified campaigns of the Church
of the mid-thirteenth century: one—The Disputation of Rabbi Yehi’el of Paris—which,
as we have seen, was from the assault on the Talmud of the 1240s, and two from the
new-style missionizing of the 1260s.1 Of the latter, the Hebrew account of the
Dominican friar Paul Christian’s missionizing endeavours in Paris is straightforward,
while by contrast the great Jewish rabbi Nachmanides’ famous narrative of the
Disputation of Barcelona in 1263 between himself and the same Paul Christian is
more complex.2 As we saw in the previous chapter, for Jews, the assault on the Talmud
and related rabbinic literature during the 1230s and 1240s was potentially extremely
dangerous, indeed arguably as much as the later missionizing attempts of the 1260s.3
Be that as it may, increasingly in the second half of the thirteenth century the
mendicant friars encouraged popes to demand that Jews listen to their conversion-
ary sermons, and to re-enforce these with written and verbal assaults on Judaism.
Such activity further undermined the Pauline–Augustinian idea of protection
while simultaneously fostering the idea of Jews as enemies of Christian society. In
particular mendicant theologians, especially Franciscans—perhaps because they
felt a particular affinity with the poor—were exercised over Jewish usury.4 We have
also seen how, even though medieval Judaism was not generally a proselytizing
religion, popes increasingly saw the Jewish faith as a danger to Christians. At times
this led them to concur with the friars, yet they never endorsed excesses.
In this chapter we shall examine this theme of conversion. Furthermore, we
shall see how the papacy’s aim to direct Christian treatment of Jews through
ecclesiastical courts and in particular through an inquisition headed by friars,
inevitably led to clashes with secular authorities who also claimed authority over
‘our Jews’ (‘Judaei nostri’). Jews were legally citizens, certainly not slaves or serfs;
canon lawyers and theologians advocated Jewish servitude, not actual serfdom;
Jews were subject to certain restrictions not binding on other groups in medieval
society.5 Usually they were subject to secular, not canon law, and problems arose
1 Robert Chazan, ‘The Hebrew Report on the Trial of the Talmud: Information and Consolation’,
in Le Brulement du Talmud a Paris, 1242-124, ed. G. Dahan (Paris, 1999), p.81.
2 Chazan, ‘The Hebrew Report on the Trial of the Talmud’, p.81; p.82.
3 Chazan, ‘The Hebrew Report on the Trial of the Talmud’, p.83.
4 Shlomo Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews. History (Toronto, 1991), pp.219–20.
5 Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews. History, pp.95–6; p.101; pp.157–68.
6
The Papacy and the Place of Jews in
Christian Society