34 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
as reflecting a tradition that a twelfth-century anti-pope, Anacletus ii (1130–1138),
had been of Jewish descent.32 Yet neither interpretation holds the key to under-
standing the legend since ‘Elhanan’ need not represent any particular pope; what
the tale highlights is how Jews perceived papal protection, the relationship of rab-
binical authorities to the papacy and, at a more fundamental level, the relationship
of Judaism to Christianity.
The legend tells us that the child of a famous rabbi, Simeon the great of Mainz,
was stolen by a Christian servant, baptized, brought up by priests, became a car-
dinal and subsequently pope. Since he had attained the highest spiritual office in
medieval Europe and was held in great esteem, he chose to remain a Christian;
nevertheless, he remembered he had been a Jew and was the son of a great rabbi.
in order to bring his father to rome, he wrote a letter to the bishop of Mainz for-
bidding Jews to keep the Sabbath, to circumcise their sons, or to allow women to
take ritual baths. in response the Jews of germany sent rabbi Simeon to plead
their cause. Simeon showed the decree to the Jews of rome, who made contact
with a well-disposed cardinal, asking him to approach the pope with a petition for
protection.33 pope Elhanan subsequently ordered the german Jews into his pres-
ence and when rabbi Simeon appeared, beat him at chess—as only a Jew could do!
when the two recognized each other, Elhanan explained that he had only issued
the decree in order to bring his father to rome and ordered it annulled. The story
ends with Elhanan, having written a book against Christianity, which he left in a
vault in rome, taking a great deal of money back to Mainz where he embraced
Judaism once more; in rome they could not account for his disappearance!
This legend is highly informative for several reasons. First, it emphasizes that,
although the son of a rabbi benefitted from Christianity in terms of prestige and
32 roth, ‘The popes and the Jews’, 79; Demetrius Zema, ‘The Houses of tuscany and of pierleone
in the Crisis of rome in the Eleventh Century’, Traditio 2 (1944), 169–75; Bietenholz, Historia and
Fabula, p.106. it is worth noting that even Bernard of Clairvaux, who protected the Jews during the
Second Crusade, derided Anacletus on this account. See David Berger, ‘The Attitude of Saint
Bernard of Clairvaux toward the Jews’, Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research 40
(1972), 105–8. Despite his zealous defence of Jews against crusader excesses, in an attempt to blacken
Anacletus’s name and ensure that innocent ii (1130–1143), his own candidate for pope, was the
favoured choice of the kings of Europe, Bernard in a number of letters went so far as to claim that a
Jew on the throne of St peter would be an injury to Christ himself. See innocent ii, ‘Apostolicae sedis
consueta’ (6 october 1131), in Regesta pontificum romanorum ab condita ecclesia ad annum post
Christum natum 1198, ed. p. H. Jaffé, Vol. 1 (Berolini, 1851), no. 5370; Bernard of Clairvaux, Omnia
opera sancti Bernardi, ed. J. Leclercq, C. H. talbot, H. M. rochais, Vol. 7 (rome, 1974), pp.309–19;
pp.320–1; pp.335–6; Vol. 8 (rome, 1977), pp.134–6. See Berger, ‘The Attitude of St Bernard of
Clairvaux toward the Jews’, 104–8; Anna Abulafia, ‘The intellectual and Spiritual Quest for Christ and
Central Medieval persecution of Jews’, in Religious Violence between Christians and Jews: Medieval Roots,
Modern Perspectives, ed. A. Abulafia (Basingstoke, New York, 2002), pp.72–5. Bernard also elsewhere
in his writings used Jews as a standard of comparison for different types of heresy and sin. See Bernard
of Clairvaux, ‘Sermo mihi ad vos’, ed. in Jean Leclercq, ‘L’encyclique de Saint Bernard en faveur de la
croisade’, Revue Bénédictine 81 (1971), 298–9; Berger, ‘The Attitude of St Bernard of Clairvaux
toward the Jews’, 104–5; David Berger, ‘Christian Heresy and Jewish polemic in the twelfth and
Thirteenth Centuries’, Harvard Theological Review 68/3–4 (1975), 288.
33 For excellent discussion of the Jewish community in rome in the twelfth century and its rela-
tionship to the papacy, see Marie Therese Champagne, The Relationship between the Papacy and the Jews
in Twelfth-Century Rome: Papal Attitudes toward Biblical Judaism and Contemporary European Jewry
(p h.D. Dissertation, Louisiana State University, 2005), pp.1–197, passim.