258 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
baptized but who had subsequently returned to Islam and Judaism because they
could not support themselves financially, should be housed in monasteries by the
Church.74
In particular, letters addressed to Spain concerned with the prevention of Jewish
dominance over Christians reflected popes’ awareness of the large Muslim and
Jewish populations of the Iberian peninsula. So in 1205 Innocent III urged Alfonso
VIII of Castile not to be seen exalting Synagogue and Mosque over Church and
thus decreasing ecclesiastical power by refusing to compel Jews to pay the tithe or
giving them greater rights to purchase extensive property.75 The same issues arose
in southern Italy and Sicily. As we saw in Chapter Two, a letter of honorius IV of
1285 ratified provisions and ordinances for the Kingdom of Sicily, and included a
decree that in cases of unresolved homicide, no community should be penalized by
a fine exceeding one hundred augustales where the victim was a Christian, but only
fifty augustales where he or she was Jewish or Muslim.76
Yet often these comparisons placed the Jews in a more favourable light than
their Muslim neighbours. We have seen how in the eleventh century Alexander II
emphasized in his letter ‘Placuit nobis’ of 1063 to Spanish bishops concerning the
Reconquista that ‘the case of Jews and Saracens is very different’, and he praised the
bishops of France and Spain who defended Jews against atrocities committed by
those fighting against the Muslim enemy.77 In the thirteenth century Gregory IX
also contrasted Muslims unfavourably with Jews, expressing his indignation that
crusaders in France who were about to take part in the ‘Barons’ Crusade’ of 1236
were massacring Jews when they should rather be preparing to set out against
Muslims:78
74 urban IV, ‘nonnulli sicut accepimus’ (26 July 1264), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.83–4; Simonsohn,
p.224. At the Council of Vienne between 1311 and 1312, it was decreed that since Jews and Muslims,
protected (against Christian testimony) by privileges specially granted by kings and princes, could not
be convicted in civil and criminal cases through the testimony of Christians alone—an arrangement
which was not only unjust, but even insulting to the Christian religion—kings and princes were for
bidden to grant such privileges in the future and to rescind those already granted. If Jews continued
to enjoy these privileges, they must be deprived of all contact with Christians. Yet Clement V also
made provision that hebrew, Arabic, and Chaldean be taught wherever the curia resided, as well as at
the universities of Paris, oxford, Bologna, and Salamanca because the conversion of nonCatholics
could not take place if preachers did not know the languages understood by diverse peoples. See
Clement V, ‘Quum Judaei’ (1311–1312), Grayzel, Vol. 2, p.225; ‘Inter sollicitudines’ (1311–1312/6
May 1312), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.225–7; Simonsohn, pp.294–5.
75 Innocent III, ‘non minus pro’ (5 May 1205), Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.112; Simonsohn, pp.85–6.
76 honorius IV, ‘Justitia et pax’ (17 September 1285), Grayzel, Vol. 2, p.155; Simonsohn, pp.260–1.
77 Alexander II, ‘Placuit nobis’ (1063), Simonsohn, pp.35–6, especially p.36: ‘dispar nimirum est
Judaeorum et Sarracenorum causa’.
78 Gregory IX, ‘lachrymabilem Judeorum in’, Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.226–8, especially p.226;
Simonsohn, pp.163–4, especially p.163: ‘... quod cum crucesignati civitatum vestrarum et diocesum
debuerint corda et corpora preparasse ad proelium domini proeliandum, ac hereditatem Christi lib
erare de manibus paganorum, qui exigentibus culpis populi Chrisitani detinent et coinquinant tem
plum dei... iidem cum aliis crucesignatis adversus Judeos eosdem impia consilia cogitantes nec
attendentes, quod quasi ex archivis ipsorum Christiane fidei testimonia prodierunt, et propheta
testante, si fuerint velut arena maris, ipsorum tandem reliquie salve fient, quoniam non repellet in
sempiternum dominus plebem suam.. .’. See also Gregory IX, ‘lachrymabilem Judeorum in’,
Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.228–30, especially p.228; Simonsohn, p.165. ‘Pagani’ often referred to Muslims;