PAPAL PROTECTION
OF THE JEWS
Pope Gregory X, 1272
Gregory, bishop, servant of the servants of God,
extends greetings and the apostolic benediction to the beloved
sons in Christ, the faithful Christians, to those here now and
to those in the future.
Even as it is not allowed to the Jews in their
assemblies presumptuously to undertake for themselves more than
that which is permitted them by law, even so they ought not to
suffer any disadvantage in those [privileges] which have been
granted them. [This sentence, first written by Gregory I in 598,
embodies the attitude of the Church to the Jew.] Although they
prefer to persist in their stubbornness rather than to recognize
the words of their prophets and the mysteries of the Scriptures
[which, according to the Church, foretold the coming of Jesus],
and thus to arrive at a knowledge of Christian faith and salvation;
nevertheless, inasmuch as they have made an appeal for our protection
and help, we therefore admit their petition and offer them the
shield of our protection through the clemency of Christian piety.
In so doing we follow in the footsteps of our predecessors of
blessed memory, the popes of Rome -- Calixtus, Eugene, Alexander,
Clement, Innocent, and Honorius.
We decree moreover that no Christian shall compel
them or any one of their group to come to baptism unwillingly.
But if any one of them shall take refuge of his own accord with
Christians, because of conviction, then, after his intention will
have been manifest, he shall be made a Christian without any intrigue.
For, indeed, that person who is known to have come to Christian
baptism not freely, but unwillingly, is not believed to posses
the Christian faith.
[The Church, in principle, never approved of
compulsory baptism of Jews.]
Moreover no Christian shall presume to seize,
imprison, wound, torture, mutilate, kill or inflict violence on
them; furthermore no one shall presume, except by judicial action
of the authorities of the country, to change the good customs
in the land where they live for the purpose of taking their money
or goods from them or from others.
In addition, no one shall disturb them in any
way during the celebration of their festivals, whether by day
or by night, with clubs or stones or anything else. Also no one
shall exact any compulsory service of them unless it be that which
they have been accustomed to render in previous times.
[Up to this point Gregory X has merely repeated
the bulls of his predecessors.]
Inasmuch as the Jews are not able to bear witness
against the Christians, we decree furthermore that the testimony
of Christians against Jews shall not be valid unless there is
among these Christians some Jew who is there for the purpose of
offering testimony.
[the Church council at Carthage, as early as
419, had forbidden Jews to bear witness against Christians; Justinian's
law of 531 repeats this prohibition. Gregory X here -- in accordance
with the medieval legal principle that every man has the right
to be judged by his peers -- insists that Jews can only be condemned
if there are Jewish as well as Christian witnesses against them.
A similar law to protect Jews was issued before 825 by Louis the
Pious (814 - 840) of the Frankish Empire.]
Since it happens occasionally that some Christians
lose their children, the Jews are accused by their enemies of
secretly carrying off and killing these same Christian children
and of making sacrifices of the heart and blood of these very
children. It happens, too, that the parents of these very children,
or some other Christian enemies of these Jews, secretly hide these
very children in order that they may be able to injure these Jews,
and in order that they may be able to extort from them a certain
amount of money by redeeming them from their straits. [Following
the lead of Innocent IV, 1247, Gregory attacks the ritual murder
charge at length.]
And most falsely do these Christians claim that
the Jews have secretly and furtively carried away these children
and killed them, and that the Jews offer sacrifices from the heart
and the blood of these children, since their law in this matter
precisely and expressly forbids Jews to sacrifice, eat, or drink
the blood, or to eat the flesh of animals having claws. This has
been demonstrated many times at our court by Jews converted to
the Christian faith: nevertheless very many Jews are often seized
and detained unjustly because of this.
We decree, therefore, that Christians need not
be obeyed against Jews in a case or situation of this type, and
we order that Jews seized under such a silly pretext be freed
from imprisonment, and that they shall not be arrested henceforth
on such a miserable pretext, unless -- which we do not believe
-- they be caught in the commission of the crime. We decree that
no Christian shall stir up anything new against them, but that
they should be maintained in that status and position in which
they were in the time of our predecessors, from antiquity till
now.
We decree in order to stop the wickedness and
avarice of bad men, that no one shall dare to devastate or to
destroy a cemetery of the Jews or to dig up human bodies for the
sake of getting money. [The Jews had to pay a ransom before the
bodies of their dead were restored to them.] Moreover, if any
one, after having known the content of this decree, should --
which we hope will not happen -- attempt audaciously to act contrary
to it, then let him suffer punishment in his rank and position,
or let him be punished by the penalty of excommunication, unless
he makes amends for his boldness by proper recompense. Moreover,
we wish that only those Jews who have not attempted to contrive
anything toward the destruction of the Christian faith be fortified
by support of such protection ...
Given at Orvieto by the hand of the Magister
John Lectator, vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Church, on the
7th of October, n the first indiction [cycle of fifteen years],
in the year 1272 of the divine incarnation, in the first year
of the pontificate of our master, the Pope Gregory X.
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