242 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
when he performed the long and anticipated ceremony of coronation and imperial
unction for the emperor Henry Vi (1191–1197).121 Again, this distinctive contri-
bution of Roman Jewry to the Monday ceremonial, recorded by Cencius, cham-
berlain to Celestine in the Liber Censuum, was derived from the obligation of its
members to render specific and very public rituals to acclaim the pope, including
the display of the Torah and the offerings of the acclamations and pepper tributes.122
so all the evidence suggests that whereas in earlier adventus ceremonies popes
were acclaimed in Latin, Hebrew, and Greek, later on only the Jews sang their own
songs in Hebrew.123 After Calixtus ii, no further papal receptions featured trilin-
gual acclamations. The role of the Jews was therefore either to bear the scrolls of
the Torah—as in Eugenius iii’s and Alexander iii’s adventus—or to perform with
great joy the Hebrew laudes—as in 1188 for Clement iii. or they might do both,
as at Celestine iii’s adventus when we know for certain that the Jews not only
carried the Torah but praised the pope himself.124
Hence according to the accounts of papal adventus ceremonies celebrated in
1145 for Eugenius iii, 1165 for Alexander iii, 1191 for Celestine iii, and 1198 for
innocent iii, when the Jews of Rome presented the Torah they sometimes, but not
always accompanied this with the singing of the laudes. The description of Clement
iii’s entry-type adventus in 1188 noted that the Jews participated ‘according to
custom’ but did not specifically indicate whether the Torah was presented.125
nevertheless, there is no doubt that presentation of the Torah became a prominent
feature of the ritual.126 furthermore, neither in 1145 when such a presentation
was first embedded in the ceremony, nor throughout the twelfth century, is there
any evidence that Jews perceived in their action of presenting the Torah scrolls any
hidden or subversive meaning, even if in later centuries they may have sought to
subvert the ritual.127
so just like the other city’s inhabitants, Jews were expected to take part in the
Roman festivities. They performed their particular rites: exhibiting the Torah scrolls,
by 1165 described as a ‘customary’ presentation, and chanting in Hebrew—and so
particular to them alone—the laudes and Benedictus invocations.128 Historians have
suggested that the Jews’ dependence on the pope for protection, demonstrated in
the text of ‘sicut iudaeis’, generated the continuation of such praises in Hebrew,
accompanied by an even more significant act: the presentation of the Torah.129 it
is likely that the significance of the Torah scrolls, comparable to Christian relics of the
cross or other relics, had a much deeper significance than their mere acclamations
121 Champagne, ‘Celestine iii and the Jews’, pp.271–2.
122 Cencius Camerarius, ‘Liber Censuum’, in Le liber censuum de l’église romaine, ed. fabre, Duchesne,
Vol. 1, p.306. see Champagne, ‘Celestine iii and the Jews’, p.272.
123 Twyman, Papal Ceremonial at Rome in the Twelfth Century, p.200; p.204.
124 Champagne, ‘Celestine iii and the Jews’, pp.274–5; Twyman, Papal Ceremonial at Rome in the
Twelfth Century, pp.203–4.
125 Champagne, ‘Walking in the shadows of the Past’, p.489.
126 Champagne, ‘Walking in the shadows of the Past’, pp.489–90.
127 Champagne, ‘Walking in the shadows of the Past’, p.490.
128 Linder, ‘The Jews too were not Absent... Carrying Moses’ Law on their shoulders’, 334.
129 Champagne, The Relationship between the Papacy and the Jews in Twelfth-Century Rome, p.143;
Twyman, Papal Ceremonial at Rome in the Twelfth Century, p.204.