A Study Of The Pope’s Jewish Protection Policies In The Middle Ages

Set in the medieval period,this study focuses on the Popes,the supreme rulers of Christendom in that period,and explores medieval papal Jewish policies based primarily on primary source materials such as their Papal Bulls,Encyclicals,Briefs,Apostolic Exhortation,and Letters on Jews and Judaism.The most basic and common text of papal Jewish policy was a Jewish protection Bull called SICUT JUDAEIS,issued by more than twenty Popes,which sought to redress social injustices and to ensure that Jews’ due rights were not infringed upon,but that they were not granted freedoms other than those prescribed by law.In addition to the fixed Bull texts,other papal communications on Jews and Judaism,such as Encyclicals,Briefs,Apostolic Exhortation,and Letters,detail other papal Jewish policies that sometimes restricted Jewish social interaction,travel,dress,rituals,occupations,etc.,but more often they protected Jewish lives.We therefore believe that the medieval Popes in general adopted a series of Jewish protection policies.These policies did not emerge out of nowhere,they have deep theological,legal,social and economic roots.Theologically,St.Augustine of Hippo’s "Witness Doctrine",which states that the Jews "bear witness" to the triumph of the Church as the new Israel,"bear witness" that the truth of the Hebrew Bible heralds the coming of Christ,and that therefore a merciful God,though he had subjected them to the torments of the tribulation,would keep them in existence.This theory laid the theological foundation on which the Jews were able to survive in the Middle Ages.Two prominent medieval theologians,St.Bernard of Clairvaux and St.Thomas Aquinas,inherited and developed this theology,worked to protect the survival of the Jews,and greatly influenced how Jews were viewed in medieval Christendom.Legally,the Popes,while upholding the traditions of the Church,demanded as much as possible that believers comply with secular laws and regulations,so that a large part of their policies toward the Jews was to follow the requirements set forth by established secular laws.At the same time,the traditional legal textbook of the Church,the Decretum Gratiani,is an ecclesiastical authority that must be consulted and followed.In the social sphere,the Jewish question has always taken a back seat to the problems faced by the Popes,who cared for the Jews but did not give them primacy,and whose fundamental aim in Jewish policies was to ensure that the Jews would be "submissive" and would not cause trouble,and to preserve the sovereignty of the Pope and the stability of society.In the economic sphere,given the important role of the Jews in European trade and in the development of urbanization,the Popes were bound to ensure their survival to some extent.These roots were intricately intertwined in the papal policies of Jewish protection.However,as is well known,the Middle Ages were full of Christian persecution of the Jews,forced baptisms,frequent false accusations,and whenever various man-made and natural disasters occurred,the Jews became the scapegoats,so it can be seen that the Popes’ policies of Jewish protection were far from having achieved the desired effect,and could even be said to have failed.The reasons for this failure are manifold.First of all,the attitude of the Popes toward the Jews was always wavering,sometimes"pro-Jewish" and sometimes "anti-Jewish",always yielding to the pressure of all parties,and jumping back and forth between these two attitudes.When pressured by the clergies,they would introduce severe Jewish restrictive policies,and when receiving petitions from the Jewish community,they would withdraw some of the restrictive policies and promulgate protection policies.The inconsistency of the Popes’ own position made it impossible for their Jewish protection policies to be effectively implemented.Secondly,although the Popes were nominally the supreme power holder in Christendom,the scope of their power had serious regional limitations,especially in the medieval feudal lord society,where the Popes’ precepts and commands were on the one hand,but whether or not to obey them depended on the favor or disfavor of the local secular rulers.Thirdly,as a complex,hierarchical,pyramid-like organization,the Church’s internal inconsistency,i.e.,the inconsistency between the Popes at the top,the clergies at the middle,and the laymen at the bottom,was one of the main reasons why the Popes’ policies of Jewish protection could not be truly implemented.The inability of the clergies and laymen to see the Jews on the same level as the Popes,who mostly treated them according to their own likes and dislikes,and the failure of the Popes themselves to adhere strictly to their own policy,made their Jewish protection policies far from being as effective as it should have been.