Papal Rhetoric: Heretics, Muslims, and Jews 261
baptized but subsequently apostatized, were seeking sanctuary in churches. What
is so striking about this letter and a second he subsequently wrote to the inquisitors
themselves, is the language by which he referred to the ‘enemies of the orthodox
faith’.89 here, as with Innocent III, is another example of a pope emphasizing that
Jews were enemies within Christendom.
The issue of apostasy resurfaced next in 1290, in letters to clergy in the provinces
of Aix, Arles, and Embrun and to the nobles of the Comtat Venaissin, in which
nicholas IV highlighted the danger it constituted to the unity of Christendom and
claimed that Jews, who he described as ‘corrupters of our faith’ were fomenting
it.90 As we saw in Chapter Six, that year he also urged Franciscan inquisitors in
Arles, Aix, and Embrun to root out heresy, and singled out for particular oppro
brium that people who had been baptized—converts from Judaism—were not
only frequenting synagogues, but lighting lamps, holding vigils, partaking in
Jewish rites, and even honouring the Torah Scroll.91 nicholas urged the inquisitors
to proceed against these Jews ‘as idolators and heretics’,92 and took the opportunity
to reissue ‘Turbato corde’.93 Boniface VIII similarly stipulated that it was important
to proceed against Christians who adopted or reverted to Jewish rites as against
heretics who had confessed or been convicted.94
Indeed the word ‘synagogue’ (‘synagoga’) itself seems to have been widely employed
by popes as a term of opprobrium. In Christian writing, perhaps originating from
the Gospel account of Christ’s cleansing of the Temple, Jewish synagogues had a
long tradition of being places of evil repute.95 In the fourth century John
Chrysostom had described the synagogue as a place inhabited by demons, a house
of prostitution, a theatre, and a place of ‘disgraceful behaviour and indecorous
dances... ruled by gluttony and licentiousness’ where Jews behaved ‘like drunken
dogs’.96 Similar language appears not only in papal correspondence but also in
twelfth and thirteenthcentury conciliar legislation. Thus, for example, referring
to the financial institutions of moneylenders, the Council of Paris (1213) claimed
89 Martin IV, ‘Ex parte dilectorum’ (21 october 1281), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.150–1, especially p.151;
Simonsohn, pp.255–6, especially p.255: ‘ad extirpandos orthodoxe fidei inimicos’; ‘Ex parte vestra’ (21
october 1281), Grayzel, Vol. 2, p.152; Simonsohn, p.256 (my italics).
90 nicholas IV, ‘Attendite fratres et’ (28 January 1290), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.174–8, especially p.176;
Simonsohn, pp.271–2, especially p.272: ‘Judaicae caecitatis’; ‘ac ipsi Judaei nostrae fidei corruptores
conversos, et baptizatos de ipsis ad fidem nostrram, immo ipsos etiam Christianos inficere, et aposta
tare pro posse nituntur quotidie in contumeliam fidei Christianae’ (my italics); Martin IV, ‘Inter
innumerabiles sollicitudines’ (28 January 1290), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.178–9.
91 nicholas IV, ‘Ad augmentum Catholice’ (20 February 1290), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.179–81;
Simonsohn, pp.273–4.
92 nicholas IV, ‘Ad augmentum Catholice’, Grayzel, Vol. 2, p.180; Simonsohn, p.273: ‘procedere
tanquam contra idololatras seu haereticos’.
93 nicholas IV, ‘Turbato corde audivimus’ (9 September 1290), Grayzel, Vol. 2, p.181; Simonsohn,
pp.275–6.
94 Boniface VIII, ‘Contra Christianos’ (before/c.1298), Grayzel, Vol. 2, p.209; Simonsohn, pp.285–6.
Yet, as we have seen, on one particular occasion in 1299 Boniface showed himself favourable to Jews.
See Boniface VIII, ‘Exhibita (nobis) pro parte’ (13 June 1299), Grayzel, Vol. 2, pp.204–6; Simonsohn,
pp.286–7.
95 John, 2: 13–22, Biblia sacra iuxta Vulgatam versionem, Vol. 2 ed. Weber.
96 Stow, Alienated Minority, pp. 24–5; robert Wilken, John Chrysosotom and the Jews: Rhetoric and
Reality in the Late Fourth Century (Berkeley, 1983), passim.