12 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
divided about the limited types of livelihood open to them and about which of
these they chiefly favoured.^55 However, the continued Jewish presence in a Christian
society increasingly unified in its identity by the ongoing formation of embryonic
nation states and frequent renewals of religious fervour ensured that popes could
never ignore the status of Jews. Random persecution continued in the twelfth
century, as at Fulda in 1118, and previously unheard charges of ritual murder arose
in England after the alleged murder by Jews of William of Norwich in 1144. In
France, too, such charges became more frequent after the execution at Blois in 1171
of more than thirty Jews accused of murdering a Christian child, supposedly to use
his blood for Passover rituals.^56
As we shall examine in Chapter Two, in response to such persecution, appeals
from the Jewish communities encouraged six popes in the twelfth century and ten
in the thirteenth, to re-issue the letter of protection for the Jews known as ‘Sicut
Iudaeis’, originally promulgated by Gregory I in the sixth century and later known
as the ‘Constitutio pro Iudaeis’.^57 In some cases it was re-issued to refute accusa-
tions of ritual murder and blood libel. But in the twelfth century it also derived
from papal recognition of the increased need to protect Jews after the onset of the
crusades.^58 The success of the First Crusade in capturing Jerusalem ensured that the
France, Italy, or Germany. This does suggest that the relative abundance of papal pronouncements
about the Jews in this compared to in earlier periods is to be explained in terms of richer materials. For
estimations of numbers of Jews in England see, for example, Joe Hillaby, ‘Beth Miqdash Me’at: The
Synagogues of Medieval England’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 44/2 (1993), 182–98.
55 For example, Liebeschütz believed that Jews played a more important role as moneylenders in
the twelfth than in the thirteenth century, arguing that in the latter century Christian moneylenders
found a way around the ecclesiastical prohibition of interest; see Liebeschütz, ‘Judaism and Jewry in
the Social Doctrine of Thomas Aquinas’, 66. Others believe that Jews increasingly became lenders
from the twelfth century onwards because Christians were so discouraged from lending at interest; see,
for example, Roth, The History of the Jews in Italy, p.84; pp.103–17.
56 Richard Barrie Dobson, The Jews of Medieval York and the Massacre of March 1190 (York, 1974),
p.19; Gavin Langmuir, Toward a Definition of Anti-Semitism (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1996),
p.307; Robert Stacey, ‘Crusades, Martyrdom and the Jews of Norman England 1096–1190’, in Juden
und Christen zur Zeit der Kreuzzüge, Vorträge und Forschungen 47, Konstanzer Arbeitkreis für mittelalter-
liche Geschichte, ed. A. Haverkamp (Sigmaringen, 1999), p.236; Stow, The ‘1007 Anonymous’ and
Papal Sovereignty, p.23; Christendom and its Discontents, ed. S. Waugh, P. Diehl (Cambridge, 1996),
p.221; Robert Chazan, In the Year 1096: The First Crusade and the Jews (Philadelphia, 1996), p.2.
57 For discussion of the expenses incurred in the process of asking for papal protection and also
how Jewish communities could obtain copies of ‘Sicut Iudaeis’ by paying a fee, see Grayzel, ‘‘The Papal
Bull “Sicut Iudeis”’, p.244. It was of course customary for all sorts of petitioners to Rome, not just
Jews, to pay for papal privileges.
58 The papal bull ‘Sicut Iudaeis’ is sometimes also referred to in edited collections as ‘Sicut Iudeis’,
‘Sicut Iudeis non’, and ‘Sicut Iudaeis non’ etc. To avoid confusion I have referred to it as ‘Sicut Iudaeis’
throughout. Gregory I, ‘Sicut Iudaeis’ (June 598), Simonsohn, pp.15–16; Calixtus II, ‘Sicut Iudaeis’,
Simonsohn, p.44; Eugenius III, ‘Sicut Iudaeis’ (1145–1153), Simonsohn, p.47; Alexander III, ‘Sicut
Iudaeis’ (1159–1181), Simonsohn, pp.51–2; Clement III, ‘Sicut Iudaeis’ (10 May 1188), Simonsohn,
pp.66–7; Celestine III, ‘Sicut Iudaeis’ (1191–1198), Simonsohn, p.68; Innocent III, ‘Licet perfidia
Judeorum’ (15 September 1199), Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.92–4; Simonsohn, pp.74–5. It seems that Innocent
also published another protective letter of 1214–1216 instructing the prelates of France to prohibit all
Christians, especially crusaders, from harming Jews or their families, but only the rubric survives; see
Grayzel, Vol. 1, p.142; Simonsohn, p.100. See also Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews. History,
p.44; 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/