The City of Rome 241
protection for them as their temporal lord.112 A further reason for the papal pres-
entation of ‘sicut iudaeis’ may have been Eugenius’ need for financial assistance
from Roman Jews, since, as we have seen, Jewish moneylenders were allowed to
conduct their business by charging a regulated amount of interest—unlike Christians
who were prohibited from usury.113
The attitude of Bernard of Clairvaux to the Jews provides an important clue
to his protégé Eugenius iii’s perspective towards both the Jewish community in
Rome and to biblical Judaism.114 in his De Consideratione, Bernard went so far as
to compare the duties of the papal office to Jewish servitude.115 Yet as we have seen,
he also called for their safety during the second Crusade. Although he wrote of
their ‘crime’ of killing Jesus, he noted that Jesus was Jewish and his correspondence
shows that he accepted the commonly-held eschatological view of the Jews’ expected
soteriological role at the end of the world.116
Eugenius’ relationship with Jews was similarly complex. He decreed ‘sicut
iudaeis’ to protect them, but he also released crusaders on the second Crusade
from their debts—which resulted in financial ruin for many. That might seem to
contradict a possible contractual relationship with Roman Jews intended to obtain
their financial backing. The Roman Jews’ apparent support for Eugenius during
the uprising of the Commune suggests respect, but perhaps merely reflects the
terms of a deal.117
Two decades later, the Liber Pontificalis recorded how in november 1165 the
same adventus ceremonial was re-enacted for Alexander iii as he entered the city
after a lengthy period of exile.118 it seems that Jewish ceremonial involvement in
papal adventus processions did not include the display of the Torah to the pope
until about 1145 for Eugenius iii, and again in 1165 for Alexander iii. indeed
historians have pointed to the similarities between the circumstances of Eugenius’
and Alexander’s early reigns and their adventus celebration: both had been forced
to leave Rome hurriedly after their elections; both became popes when the Roman
Commune ruled the city; both marked their re-entry into the city with a papal
adventus ceremony after time in exile; both exchanged ritual honours with the
Jewish community in Rome during this adventus.119 Although the ceremony of
displaying the Torah had already been performed in Paris in 1131 for innocent ii,
the recorded displays of the Torah in Rome for Eugenius iii and Alexander iii
confirm that the scroll of the Law was borne aloft in procession through the city,
just as Christians bore their cross or relics at this event.120
When Celestine iii was consecrated in 1191 the Roman Jews were again absent
from the ceremonial on Easter sunday, yet they were prominent on Easter Monday
112 Champagne, The Relationship between the Papacy and the Jews in Twelfth-Century Rome, p.144.
113 Champagne, The Relationship between the Papacy and the Jews in Twelfth-Century Rome, pp.144–5.
114 Champagne, The Relationship between the Papacy and the Jews in Twelfth-Century Rome, p.152.
115 Champagne, The Relationship between the Papacy and the Jews in Twelfth-Century Rome, p.154.
116 Champagne, The Relationship between the Papacy and the Jews in Twelfth-Century Rome, pp.154–8.
117 Champagne, The Relationship between the Papacy and the Jews in Twelfth-Century Rome, p.158.
118 Champagne, ‘Walking in the shadows of the Past’, p.491.
119 Champagne, The Relationship between the Papacy and the Jews in Twelfth-Century Rome, p.178.
120 Champagne, ‘Celestine iii and the Jews’, p.273.