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Bulls, Papal, Concerning Jews

The 1901 Jewish Encyclopedia

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General Principles.

The Roman Church does not claim any jurisdiction over persons who have not been baptized; therefore the relations of the popes, as the heads of the Church, to the Jews have been limited to rules regarding the political, commercial, and social conditions under which Jews might reside in Christian states. As sovereigns of the Papal States the popes further had the right to legislate on the status of their Jewish subjects. Finally, voluntary action was occasionally taken by the popes on behalf of the Jews who invoked their aid in times of persecution, seeking their mediation as the highest ecclesiastical authorities. The general principles governing the popes in their treatment of the Jews are practically identical with those laid down in the Justinian Code: (1) to separate them from social intercourse with Christians as far as possible; (2) to prevent them from exercising any authority over Christians, either in a public (as officials) or a private capacity (as masters or employers); (3) to arrange that the exercise of the Jewish religion should not assume the character of a public function. On the other hand, however, the popes have always condemned, theoretically at least, (1) acts of violence against the Jews, and (2) forcible baptism.

The history of the relations between the popes and the Jews begins with Gregory I. (590-604), who may be called the first pope, inasmuch as his authority was recognized by the whole Western Church. The fact that from the invasion of the Lombards (568) and the withdrawal of the Byzantine troops the Roman population was without a visible head of government made the Bishop of Rome, the highest ecclesiastical dignitary who happened to be at the same time a Roman noble, the natural protector of the Roman population, to which the Jews also belonged. Still, even before this time, Pope Gelasius is mentioned as having recommended a Jew, Telesinus, to one of his relatives as a very reliable man, and as having given a decision in the case of a Jew against a slave who claimed to have been a Christian and to have been circumcised by his master against his will (Mansi, "Concilia," 8:131; Migne, "Patrologia Græco Latina," 59:146; Vogelstein and Rieger, "Gesch. der Juden in Rom," 1:127-128). In the former instance the pope acted merely as a private citizen; in the latter he was most likely called upon as an ecclesiastical expert to give a decision in a local affair. The legend may also be quoted which makes of the apostle Peter an enthusiastic Jew who merely pretended zeal for Christianity in order to assist his persecuted coreligionists (Jellinck, "B. H." 5:60-62, 6:9-10; Vogelstein and Rieger, c. 1:165-168; "Allg. Zeit. des Jud." 1903).

Gregory the Great.

Nevertheless, the history proper of the popes in their relation to the Jews begins, as said above, with Gregory I. He often protected the Jews against violence and unjust treatment on the part of officials, and condemned forced baptism, but he advised at the same time the winning of the Jews over to Christianity by offering material advantages. Very often he condemned the holding of Christian slaves by Jews (Grätz, "Gesch." 5:43; Vogelstein and Rieger, c. 1:132-135). A very obscure order is contained in a letter of Pope Nicholas I. to Bishop Arsenius of Orta, to whom he prohibits the use of Jewish garments. Leo VII. answered the Archbishop of Mayence, who asked whether it was right to force the Jews to accept baptism, that he might give them the alternative of accepting Christianity or of emigrating (Aronius, "Regesten"; comp. Vogelstein and Rieger, c. 1:139). see see Anacletus II. (antipope), whose claim to the papal throne was always contested, was of Jewish descent, and this fact was used by his opponents in their attacks upon him. Benedict VIII. had a number of Jews put to death on the ground of an alleged blasphemy against Jesus which was supposed to have been the cause of a destructive cyclone and earthquake (c. 1020; Vogelstein and Rieger, c. 1:213).

In the bitter fight between Gregory VII. and the German emperor Henry IV. the pope charged the emperor with favoritism to the Jews, and at a synod held at Rome in 1078 he renewed the canonical laws which prohibited giving Jews power over Christians; this necessarily meant that Jews might not be employed as tax-farmers or mint-masters. Calixtus II. (1119-24) issued a bull in which he strongly condemned forced baptism, acts of violence against the lives and the property of the Jews, and the desecration of their synagogues and cemeteries (c. 1120). In spite of the strict canonical prohibition against the employment of Jews in public capacities, some popes engaged their services as financiers and physicians. Thus Pope Alexander III. employed Jehiel, a descendant of Nathan ben Jehiel, as his secretary of treasury (Vogelstein and Rieger, c. 1:225).

Innocent III.

The extreme in the hostile enactments of the popes against the Jews was reached under Innocent III. (1198-1216), who was the most powerful of the medieval popes, and who convened the Fourth Lateran Council (1215); this council renewed the old canonical prohibitions against trusting the Jews with public offices and introduced the law demanding that Jews should wear a distinctive sign on their garments (BADGE). The theological principle of the pope was that the Jews should, as though so many Cains, be held up as warning examples to Christians. Nevertheless he protected them against the fury of the French Crusaders (Grätz, c. 7:5; Vogelstein and Rieger, c. 1:228-230). Gregory IX., who in various official documents insisted on the strict execution of the canonical laws against the Jews, was humane enough to issue the bull. "Etsi Judæorum" (1233; repeated in 1235), in which he demanded that the Jews in Christian countries should be treated with the same humanity as that with which Christians desire to be treated in heathen lands. His successor, Innocent IV., ordered the burning of the Talmud in Paris (1244); but Jewish history preserves a grateful memory of him on account of his bull declaring the Jews innocent of the charge of using Christian blood for ritual purposes (BLOOD ACCUSATION). This bull was evidently the result of the affair of Fulda (1238), concerning which Emperor Frederick II. also issued a warning. The defense of the Jews against the same charge was undertaken by Gregory X., in his bull "Sicut Judæis" (Oct. 7, 1272; Stern, "Urkundliche Beiträge," 1:5).

The relations of the popes to the Jews in the subsequent two centuries present a rather monotonous aspect. They issued occasional warnings against violence, threatened the princes who allowed the Jews to disregard the canonical laws concerning badges or concerning the employment of Christian servants, but conferred minor favors on certain Jews. As a typical instance, it may be noted that Boniface VIII., when the Jews did him homage, insulted them by returning behind his back the copy of the Torah presented to him, after making the oft-repeated remark about reverence for the Law but condemnation of its misrepresentation.

Martin V.

The excitement of the Church during the Hussite movement rendered the Jews apprehensive, and through Emperor Sigismund, who was heavily indebted to them, they obtained from Pope Martin V. (1417-31; elected by the Council of Constance after the Great Schism) various bulls (1418 and 1422) in which their former privileges were confirmed and in which he exhorted the friars to use moderate language. In the last years of his pontificate, however, he repealed several of his ordinances, charging that they had been obtained under false pretenses (Stern, c. 1:21-43). Eugene IV. and Nicholas V. returned to the policy of moderation, especially in advising the friars against inciting mobs to acts of violence. Sixtus IV., while sanctioning the Spanish INQUISITION, repeatedly endeavored (1482 and 1483) to check its fanatic zeal and prohibited the worship of the child Simon of Trent, whom the Jews of Trent were falsely accused of having murdered (1474). He also employed several Jews as his physicians.

Alexander VI. (Borgia), known in history as the most profligate of all the popes, was rather favorably inclined toward the Jews. It is especially noteworthy that he allowed the exiles from Spain to settle in his states, and that he fined the Jewish community of Rome for its objection to the settlement in its midst of these unfortunates. Occasionally, however, he ordered the imprisonment of Maranos; and on the whole it seems that the pope's leniency was prompted by his greed. Leo X. also, the humanist on the throne of St. Peter, was in general favorably inclined toward the Jews, whom he employed not only as physicians, but also as artists and in other positions at his court. The beginning of the REFORMATION influenced his action in the controversy between Reuchlin and Pfefferkorn, which he settled in such a way as not to give any encouragement to those who demanded reforms in the Church.

Clement VII. (1523-34) is known in Jewish history for the interest which he took in the case of the Messianicpretender David Reubeni, and for the protection which he granted to Solomon Molko, who, as an apostate, had forfeited his life to the Inquisition. He also issued an order to protect the Maranos in Portugal against the Inquisition (1533 and 1534).

The Reformation.

The Reformation and the consequent strictness in enforcing the censorship of books reacted on the condition of the Jews in so far as converts from Judaism eagerly displayed their zeal for their new faith by denouncing rabbinical literature, and especially the Talmud, as hostile to Christianity. Consequently Pope Julius III. issued an edict which demanded the burning of the Talmud (1553) and prohibited the printing of it by Christians. In Rome a great many copies were publicly burned (Sept. 9, 1553). The worst was yet to come. Paul IV. (1555-59), in his bull "Cum nimis absurdum" (July 12, 1555), not only renewed all canonical restrictions against the Jews—as those prohibiting their practising medicine among Christians, employing Christian servants, and the like—but he also restricted them in their commercial activity, forbade them to have more than one synagogue in any city, enforced the wearing of the yellow hat, refused to permit a Jew to be addressed as "signor," and finally decreed that they should live in a ghetto. The last measure was carried out in Rome with unrelenting cruelty.

Pius V.

After a short period of respite under Paul IV.'s successor, Pius IV. (1559-66), who introduced some alleviations in his predecessor's legal enactments, Pius V. (1566-72) repealed all the concessions of his predecessor, and not only renewed the laws of Paul IV., but added some new restrictions, as the prohibition to serve Jews by kindling their fires on the Sabbath; he excluded them from a great number of commercial pursuits, and went so far in his display of hatred that he would not permit them to do homage, although that ceremony was rather a humiliation than a distinction (1566). Three years later (Feb. 26, 1569) the pope decreed the expulsion of the Jews from his territory within three months from the date of the promulgation of the edict, and while the Jews of Rome and Ancona were permitted to remain, those of the other cities were expelled. They were permitted to return by the next pope, Gregory XIII. (1572-85), who, while he showed an occasional leniency, introduced a large number of severe restrictions. Thus, the Jews were prohibited from driving through the streets of the city, and they were obliged to send every week at least 150 of their number to listen to the sermons of a conversionist preacher (1584). The terrible custom of keeping Jews in prison for a certain time each year, and of fattening them and forcing them, for the amusement of the mob, to race during the carnival, when mud was thrown at them, is mentioned (1574) as "an old custom" for the first time during Gregory's pontificate.

Sixtus V. (1585-90), again, was more favorable to the Jews. Aside from some measures of relief in individual instances, he allowed the printing of the Talmud after it had been subjected to censorship (1586). The policy of succeeding popes continued to vary. Clement VIII. (1592-1604) again issued an edict of expulsion (1593), which was subsequently repealed, and in the same year prohibited the printing of the Talmud. Under Clement X. (1670-76) a papal order suspended the Inquisition in Portugal (1674); but an attempt to interest the pope in the lot of the Jews of Vienna, who were expelled in 1670, failed. The worst feature of the numerous disabilities of the Jews under papal dominion was the closing of the gates of the Roman ghetto during the night. Severe penalties awaited a Jew leaving the ghetto after dark, or a Christian entering it.

Pius VI.

Pius VI. (1775-1800) issued an edict which renewed all the restrictions enacted from the thirteenth century. The censorship of books was strictly enforced; Jews were not permitted any tombstones in their graveyards; they were forbidden to remodel or enlarge their synagogues; Jews might not have any intercourse with converts to Christianity; they were required to wear the yellow badge on their hats both within and without the ghetto; they were not permitted to have shops outside the ghetto, or engage Christian nurses for their infants; they might not drive through the city of Rome; and their attendance at conversionist sermons was enforced. When under Pius VI.'s successors the pressure of other matters caused the authorities to become negligent in the fulfilment of their duties, these rules were often reenforced with extreme rigor; such was the case under Leo XII. (1826).

Pius IX. (1846-78), during the first two years of his pontificate, was evidently inclined to adopt a liberal attitude, but after his return from exile he adopted with regard to the Jews the same policy as he pursued in general. He condemned as abominable laws all measures which gave political freedom to them, and in the case of the abduction of the child Mortara (1858), whom a servant-girl pretended to have baptized, as well as in the similar case of the boy Fortunato Coën (1864), showed his approval of the medieval laws as enacted by Innocent III. He maintained the ghetto in Rome until it was abolished by the Italian occupation of Rome (1870).

His successor, Leo XIII. (1878-1903), was the first pope who exercised no territorial jurisdiction over the Jews. His influence, nevertheless, was prejudicial to them. He encouraged anti-Semitism by bestowing distinctions on leading anti-Semitic politicians and authors, as Lueger and Drumont; he refused to interfere in behalf of Captain Dreyfus or to issue a statement against the blood accusation. In an official document he denounced Jews, freemasons, and anarchists as the enemies of the Church.

Pius X. (elected 1903) is not sufficiently known to permit a judgment in regard to his attitude toward the Jews. He received Herzl and some other Jews in audience, but in his diocese of Mantua, before he became pope, he had prohibited the celebration of a solemn mass on the king's birthday because the city council which asked for it had attended a celebration in the synagogue.