Pope from 1198 to 1216; born at Anagni in 1161; elected June 8, 1198; died July 17, 1216. A Roman writer said of him, "Thy words are the words of God; thy deeds are the deeds of the devil" (Gregorovius, "Gesch. der Stadt Rom," 5:92). This was eminently true of his conduct toward the Jews. He was the first pope who not only did not protect the Jews, but persecuted them with the utmost cruelty. Feeling obliged to Show some pity for the victims of the excesses committed by the crusaders, Innocent, on ascending the pontifical throne, issued a bull ("Sicut Judæis") in which he renewed the prohibitions that had been issued by Clement III. (see Popes). "Although," it read, "the faithlessness of the Jews can not be too much disapproved, they ought not to be excessively oppressed by believers, for they are the living witness of the true religion." He did not, however, conform to this maxim himself; and at his instigation the Lateran Council, over which he presided, dictated the humiliating laws which rendered the Jews the pariahs of humanity; and it especially condemned them to wear Badges.
"The Jews, like the fratricide Cain, are doomed to wander through the earth as fugitives and vagabonds, and their faces must be covered with shame. They are under no circumstances to be protected by Christian princes; but are, on the contrary, to be condemned to serfdom. It is, therefore, discreditable for Christian princes to receive Jews into their towns and villages, and to employ them as usurers in order to extort money from Christians. They [the princes] arrest Christians who are indebted to Jews, and allow the Jews to take Christian castles and villages in pledge; and the worst of the matter is that the Church in this manner loses its tithes. It is scandalous that Christians should have their cattle slaughtered and their grapes pressed by Jews, who are thus enabled to take their portion and to impose the leavings, prepared according to Jewish religious precepts, upon Christians. It is a still greater sin that this wine, prepared by Jews, should be used in the Church for the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. While the Christians are excommunicated for favoring the Jews, and their lands laid under the ban, the Jews are laughing in their sleeves because, on their account, the harps of the Church are hung on willows and the priests are deprived of their revenues"
Bibliography:
Güdemann, Gesch. 1:60 et seq., 2:85 et seq.;
Grätz, Gesch. 7:4 et seq.;
Vogelstein and Rieger, Gesch. der Juden in 1, passim.
G.
I. Br.
Copyright Statement These files are public domain.
Bibliography Information Singer, Isidore, Ph.D, Projector and Managing Editor. Entry for 'Innocent III. (Lothario Conti)'. 1901 The Jewish Encyclopedia. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tje/i/innocent-iii-lothario-conti.html. 1901.
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