106 Law and Morality Abroad (to ca. ad 1550)treaty with Tunis. Th is was followed by a similar one with Egypt in 1297,
providing for protection of commerce and merchants, as well as for visits to
the holy sites under escort.
Th e papacy looked upon these burgeoning ties with considerable misgiv-
ings, fearing that these trading ties were strengthening the hand of the en-
emy side in the Crusades. As early as 971, the Byzantine government, simi-
larly concerned, pressured Venice to ban trade in what would now be called
strategic goods with the Muslim states. Weapons and timber were in this
category, as well as weaponry such as swords, lances, and breastplates. Th is
apparently had only a limited eff ect. When En glish Prince Edward (soon to
be King Edward I) arrived in crusader- held Acre in 1171, he was appalled to
discover Venetian merchants transporting arms and provisions from there
to Alexandria.
To deal with this concern, the Th ird Lateran Council, in 1179, adopted a
canon prohibiting all trade with Muslims in war materials. A similar ban
was promulgated in 1215 by the Fourth Lateran Council. Th is provided that
off enders were to be barred from churches until they had paid full damages
for their misdeeds and sent those damages on to the Holy Land. Aft er the
fall of Acre to the Egyptians— the last crusader foothold on the Levant main-
land— in 1292, the ban was extended to cover all trading with the Muslims.
Pope Clement V issued a bull to this eff ect in 1308. As a penalty, he decreed a
loss of all civil rights, such as the right to inherit bequests, and even enslave-
ment. In 1311– 12, he authorized the Knights of St. John (the Knights Hospital-
lers, now known as the Knights of Malta) to capture ships of Christian mer-
chants violating the rules and to sequester their cargoes. In 1326, Pope John
XXII decreed that anyone who even contended that it was lawful to sell non-
war materials to Muslims be condemned as a heretic and excommunicated.
Th e bull In coena Domini (“At the table of the Lord”), promulgated by Pope
Urban V in 1363, contained a long list of antisocial acts that the faithful were
admonished not to commit. Th ese included the supply of arms, ammunition,
and war materials to Saracens, Turks, or other enemies of Christendom.
Not surprisingly, human ingenuity, in combination with the lust for prof-
its, proved equal to the task of circumventing these apparently absolute and
draconian rules. Th e papacy itself gradually entered the business of making
exceptions to its own rules. It is a fascinating story that has yet to be re-
counted in detail. For present purposes, it is only necessary to emphasize a