234 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
portico of the Lateran’s western entrance, which began with two scenes referring
to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in ad 70, the papacy emphasized its
ancient Jewish roots.57 in Christian tradition the Lateran Basilica had long been
associated with Jewish history, and this belief was encouraged by the competition
with st Peter’s Basilica for the coveted appellation of mater et caput.58 As early as
the tenth century, sergius iV (904–911) had ordered the erection of an inscription
comparing the Church’s rituals to the law given to Moses on Mount sinai in order
to emphasize the Lateran’s ancient reputation and to reflect the Christian belief
that its altar contained Jewish relics, including the Tablets of the Law.59 We also
know that Petrus Mallius (c.1145–1181), a canon of the rival st Peter’s, addressed
the Lateran as a ‘synagogue’ in his Descriptio basilicae Vaticanae—implying that he
was aware of, and wished to denigrate, the Lateran’s Jewish associations.60 During
the pontificate of nicholas iV, a mosaic created in the Lateran apse around 1291
catalogued Jewish relics, including the Ark of the Covenant, supposedly deposited
underneath the high altar, as well as four bronze columns which had been brought
back from Jerusalem to Rome by Titus and Vespasian, and which reminded viewers
of the special relationship of the basilica to biblical Judaism.61
so both Christian and Jewish writers—John the Deacon, nicolaus Maniacutius,
Canon Benedict, and Benjamin of Tudela—asserted that these ‘Temple Treasures’
were in Rome and even were to be found in the Lateran’s high altar. Hence the
palace maintained Jewish associations through its promotion as the ‘new Temple’.
indeed the claim that the ‘Temple Treasures’ resided in the Lateran paved the way
for nicolaus’ re-naming of the papal chapel as the Sancta Sanctorum (The Holy of
Holies)—an obvious reference to the ‘Holy of Holies’ of the old Jewish temple in
Jerusalem. it is significant that these ‘Temple Treasures’ were supposedly situated
in or under the main altar of the Lateran basilica, while the Sancta Sanctorum in
the palace retained the sacred image of Christ, physical relics from the Holy Land,
and other relics of Christ and the saints: all this deliberately emphasized the Sancta
Sanctorum as the new and Christianized ‘Holy of Holies’.62
Thus the medieval papacy claimed both to have inherited the old Covenant of
biblical Judaism and to maintain a special relationship with current Roman Jews.63
The two Lateran texts, the mosaics on the Lateran portico, the renaming of the
private papal chapel as the Sancta Sanctorum in the late twelfth century, and the
papal adventus ceremony which, as we shall see, was expanded in the twelfth cen-
tury to include the display of the Torah to the pope by representatives of the Jewish
community, all showed the papacy increasingly wished to identify itself with
biblical Judaism.
57 Champagne, ‘“Treasures of the Temple” and Claims to Authority in Twelfth-Century Rome’,
pp.115–16.
58 Champagne, ‘Walking in the shadows of the Past’, p.493. The Vatican was (and is) an area on
the west bank of the River Tiber across from the city of Rome.
59 Champagne, ‘Walking in the shadows of the Past’, pp.478–9.
60 Champagne, ‘Walking in the shadows of the Past’, pp.479–80.
61 Champagne, ‘Walking in the shadows of the Past’, p.480.
62 Champagne, The Relationship between the Papacy and the Jews in Twelfth-Century Rome, p.149.
63 Champagne, The Relationship between the Papacy and the Jews in Twelfth-Century Rome, p.60.