248 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
CoMMon ThEMES And IndIVIduAl ATTITudES
As we have seen, following Gregory the Great’s example, in the eleventh, twelfth, and
thirteenth centuries popes based their directions for the treatment of Jews in Christian
society on PaulineAugustinian principles, the stipulations of the Theodosian Code
and the Justinian Code, and in accordance with the idea of Christian clemency
towards a people who, in the words of Alexander II, were ‘everywhere prepared to
serve’, deliberately emphasizing that Jews were to be granted protection in response
to their petitioning.9 Yet although all popes espoused commitment to protection of
Jews, nevertheless papal correspondence reveals nuanced differences in the attitudes
of individual popes as to the degree of that protection.10
one reason for the continuing protection was the idea of Jews as witnesses. As
we noted in his additional paragraph at the beginning of his reissue of the
‘Constitutio pro Iudaeis’, Innocent III reiterated the idea of unwitting Jewish tes
timony to the truth of Christianity:11
... Thus the Prophet says, ‘Thou shalt not kill them, lest at any time they forget thy law’,
or more clearly stated, thou shalt not destroy the Jews completely, so that the Christians
should never by any chance be able to forget Thy law, which, though they themselves
fail to understand it, they display in their book to those who do understand.12
Gregory IX insisted on the same theme:
... yet (despite all this) these very ones, along with others who have taken the Cross,
plot impious designs against the Jews, and pay no heed to the fact that the proof for
the Christian faith comes, as it were, from their archives ...13
hence he emphasized his displeasure that crusaders involved in the ‘Barons’ Crusade’
ignored the fact that the old Testament itself was a proof of Christianity.14
9 Innocent III, ‘licet perfidia Judeorum’ (15 September 1199), Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.92–4;
Simonsohn, pp.74–5; honorius III, ‘Sicut Iudaeis’ (7 november 1217), Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.144;
Simonsohn, p.102; Gregory IX, ‘Sicut Iudaeis’ (3 May 1235), Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.218; Simonsohn,
pp.154–5; Innocent IV, ‘Sicut Iudaeis’ (22 october 1246), Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.260–2; Simonsohn,
p.189; ‘Sicut Iudaeis’ (9 July/June 1247), Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.274; Simonsohn, pp.192–3.
10 For example, honorius III, ‘Cum olim nobilis’ (28 January 1217), Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.144;
Simonsohn, p.102; honorius III, ‘dilecta in Christo’ (21 June 1219), Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.150–2;
Simonsohn, pp.106–7; Gregory IX, ‘lachrymabilem Judeorum in’ (5 September 1236), Grayzel,
Vol. 1, pp.226–8; Simonsohn, pp.163–4; ‘lachrymabilem Judeorum in’ (5 September 1236), Grayzel,
Vol. 1, pp.228–30; Simonsohn, p.165; Innocent IV, ‘Ex parte Judeorum’ (12 June 1247), Grayzel,
Vol. 1, p.268; Simonsohn, pp.193–4; Innocent IV, ‘lachrymabilem Judeorum Alemannie’ (5 July
1247), Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.268–70; Simonsohn, pp.194–5; ‘Ex parte Judeorum’ (6 July 1247), Grayzel,
Vol. 1, p.272; Simonsohn, pp.195–6.
11 Innocent III, ‘licet perfidia Judeorum’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.92; Simonsohn, pp.74–5.
12 Innocent III, ‘licet perfidia Judeorum’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.92; Simonsohn, p.74: ‘... dicente
propheta; “ne occideris eos ne quando obliviscantur legis tue,” ac si diceretur appertius; ne deleveris
omnino Judeos, ne forte Christiani legis tue valeant oblivisci, quam ipsi non intelligentes, in libris suis
intelligentibus representant.’
13 Gregory IX, ‘lachrymabilem Judeorum in’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.226; Simonsohn, p.163: ‘iidem
cum aliis crucesignatis adversus Judeos eosdem impia consilia cogitantes nec attendentes, quod quasi
ex archivis ipsorum Christiane fidei testimonia prodierunt.. .’
14 Gregory IX, ‘lachrymabilem Judeorum in’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.226–8; Simonsohn, pp.163–4.