230 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
when they participated in his official entrance into the city in 1120.25 if, as is pos-
sible, Alexander ii’s ‘Placuit nobis’ inspired Calixtus ii’s first issue of ‘sicut iudaeis’,
then, indirectly, the Pierleoni may have played a major role in ensuring the papacy’s
continuing protection of Roman Jews, thereby ensuring that they never endured the
violent pogroms suffered by other European Jewish communities.26
Yet, as we saw in Chapter Two, there was a long tradition that the anti-pope,
Anacletus ii (1130–1138), elected together with the rightful pope innocent ii in
1130, was a member of this powerful Pierleoni family.27 When he attained the
papacy in 1130, Bernard of Clairvaux, along with other churchmen, were quick to
remind Christians of his supposed Jewish ancestry. indeed, part of Bernard’s vig-
orous defence of innocent ii consisted of denigrating Anacletus as a member of the
Pierleoni.28 As we noted in Chapter six, innocent ii himself described the usurp-
ation of the papal throne by Anacletus as ‘an insane Jewish perfidy’.29
nevertheless, Anacletus’ ancestry did not secure the support of the Jewish com-
munity in Rome. furthermore, the Jews of Paris also displayed their loyalty to
innocent ii while in exile in france when on Easter day 1131 they presented him
with their scrolls of the law as he approached the monastery of st Denis—perhaps
in hope of protection. This first recorded offering of the scrolls was highly signifi-
cant since it involved presenting the Word of God, demonstrating not only Jewish
temporal and spiritual subservience to the papacy but their unquestioned loyalty
to innocent himself. such Jewish support added weight to innocent’s claim of
legitimacy in light of public derision of his opponent’s Jewish ancestry. The act of
presenting the Torah showed that no Jewish descendant—in this case Anacletus
ii—could necessarily command Jewish loyalty.30
The struggle of 1130–1138 between innocent and Anacletus caused a division
among the cardinals, and provoked continuing anti-Jewish sentiments against
Anacletus as a member of the Pierleoni family. Although on the death of Anacletus
in 1138 Peter Leone and his brothers made peace with innocent, instability in
Rome continued to grow with innocent’s return to the city.31 indeed the widening
rift between innocent and the Roman people during his final years in office (1139–
- led to the formation of the Roman Commune in 1143.32 By 1145 when
25 Uodalscalcus de Eginone et Herimanno, ed. P. Jaffé, Monumenta Germania Historiae scriptores,
Vol. 12 (Hanover, 1856), p.446. see Champagne, The Relationship between the Papacy and the Jews in
Twelfth-Century Rome, pp.123–4.
26 Champagne, The Relationship between the Papacy and the Jews in Twelfth-Century Rome, p.122;
p.123.
27 Alberto somekh, ‘Gli Ebrei a Roma durante l’alto medievo’, in Roma fra Oriente e Occidente.
Settimane di studio del centro italiano di studi sull’alto medioevo 49, 2 vols (spoleto, 2002), Vol. 1, p.216.
28 Ex Historia Mauriniacensis monasterii, MGHS 26, p.39. see fedele, ‘Le famiglie di Anacleto ii
e di Gelasio ii’, 401.
29 innocent ii, ‘Apostolicae sedis consueta’ (6 october 1131), PL 179, cols 102–4. see innocent ii,
‘Apostolicae sedis consueta’, col: 103: ‘Judaicae perfidiae furorem’. see Louis israel newman, Jewish
Influence on Christian Reform Movements (new York, 1925), pp.251–2; Mary stroll, The Jewish Pope:
Ideology and Politics in the Papal Schism of 1130 (Leiden, 1987), p.163.
30 Champagne, The Relationship between the Papacy and the Jews in Twelfth-Century Rome, p.128.
31 fedele, ‘Le famiglie di Anacleto ii e di Gelasio’, 421.
32 Champagne, The Relationship between the Papacy and the Jews in Twelfth-Century Rome, p.101.