Christ The King

The following documents are drawn from the Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. V, which covers the pontificates of Eugene IV through Leo X. This volume contains four items bearing directly on the condition of Jews or Judaizers: Eugene IV’s comprehensive edict restricting Jewish-Christian relations (1442); Callixtus III’s renewal of those restrictions (1456); a clause in Leo X’s Fifth Lateran Council reform constitution ordering the expulsion of Judaizers from the Roman Curia (1514); and Leo X’s bull granting the title Rex Catholicus to Charles of Spain, which cites the expulsion of Jews from Spain as a meritorious act (1517). Translations are made from the Latin originals as preserved in the Vatican Archives and printed in the Bullarium.

Editorial note on the Taurinensis edition and the Spanish Inquisition bulls. A systematic examination of the complete rubric index of this volume confirms that the Taurinensis edition of Vol. V does not include three papal documents of major historical significance for the period: Sixtus IV’s Exigit sincerae devotionis (November 1, 1478), which authorized the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition to proceed against Judaizing conversos; his follow-up brief Quoniam nonnulli (January 29, 1482), which attempted to restrain Inquisition abuses and establish appeals to Rome; and Innocent VIII’s 1487 brief extending the Inquisition’s reach into Aragon. These documents are preserved in other editions of the Bullarium (notably the Roman edition) and in primary archives, but the Taurinensis editors omitted them from Vol. V. The absence is an editorial omission of the 1860 Turin edition, not a gap in the present translation project.

Pope Eugene IV — Edict Against the Jews: On Restricting Jewish-Christian Commerce and Cohabitation (1442 AD)

It has been brought to our attention that the Jews dwelling in the kingdoms and dominions of our most dear son in Christ, John, King of those kingdoms, have interpreted certain privileges and concessions granted to them by the Apostolic See so erroneously and perversely that, abusing what we had graciously granted them for a good and honest purpose and end, they commit under that pretext many dishonest and shameful acts, from which the purity of the Christian religion and faith has been not a little injured, and the minds of Catholic Christians have often been caused scandal. We have decreed and declared by other letters of ours that the concessions, privileges, and indults granted by us to the Jews of the said kingdoms and dominions operate only up to the terms of the common law, and extend themselves in no way beyond it, nor allow or admit any interpretation other than that of the common law itself.

Now, since — as we have learned by truthful report, not without great displeasure — although many wholesome constitutions, decrees, and decretal epistles have been issued by various Roman Pontiffs, our predecessors, concerning Jews and Saracens, the aforesaid Jews and Saracens dwelling in the said kingdoms and dominions, yielding to their own passions and resting upon their ancient perfidy, and not finding the legitimate meaning of those constitutions, decrees, and decretal epistles to suit their desires so that they may evade them, twist them to a corrupt and adulterous understanding and obscure them with perverse glosses, and do not fear to propagate and continue their ancient malice and temerity against the faithful, and to make use of their wickedness more presumptuously from day to day, to the very great contempt of the Christian faith and equally to the peril and loss of the souls of the faithful — we, desiring to take measures, as we are bound to do by the duty of the pastoral office, with such remedies as we can, to the end that the said Jews and Saracens and their impious Christian abettors, terrified by the imposition of penalties, may fear to relapse hereafter into their pernicious daring, and that the faithful in Christ, steadfastly persisting in their fidelity, may not have cause to waver on account of the perfidy of those people — by the edict of this our present constitution, perpetually valid and to be inviolably observed, by apostolic authority, we renew indiscriminately all the said constitutions, decrees, and decretal epistles, the tenors of all of which we will to be held as if inserted word for word in the present letters.

§ 3. Christians are forbidden to eat or drink with Jews

We further enact, establish, and ordain that henceforward, for all future time, Christians ought not to eat or drink together with Jews or Saracens, nor to admit them to their banquets, nor to cohabit with them, nor to bathe with them; nor ought Christians to receive from them, in time of illness or debility or at any other time, medicine or potions or the treatment of wounds or scars or any kind of medical remedy; and Christians shall not permit Jews and Saracens to be placed over Christians in secular dignities, nor to exercise public offices.

§ 4. Jews may not hold public office or employ Christians

Jews and Saracens likewise may not be farmers, collectors, conductors, or lessors of the revenues, goods, or affairs of Christians, nor their accountants, procurators, stewards, agents, negotiators, brokers, arrangers of betrothals, or negotiators of marriages, nor midwives, nor may they exercise any work in the houses or goods of Christians, nor have with Christians any partnership, office, or administration in any community, trade, or craft; and no Christian may leave or bequeath anything in his testament or last will to Jews or their congregation, or to Saracens.

§ 5. Jews may not build new synagogues, must pay tithes, and Jewish testimony against Christians is invalid

Jews likewise may not dare to erect or cause to be built new synagogues, but may only repair the old ones — yet not make them larger or more ornate than they were — and on the days of Lamentations and of the Lord’s Passion, they shall not pass through or walk in public places, nor keep their doors or windows open; and the Jews themselves and Saracens are to be constrained and compelled to pay tithes on whatsoever things and goods; and in whatsoever cases Christians may be witnesses against them, but in no case shall the testimony of Jews against Christians have force; and Jews and Saracens shall bring and conduct their suits only before Christian judges and ordinary judges, not before Christian judges specially deputed for them, nor before their own elders.

§ 6. Jews may not keep Christian servants or have Christians perform labor for them on Jewish holidays

§ 7. Jews who blaspheme are to be punished

Secular Christian judges shall punish and chastise Jews or Saracens who blaspheme God, or the most glorious and blessed Virgin Mary His Mother, or any of the saints — or who offend in this in any way — with a monetary or other more severe penalty, at their discretion.

§ 8. Jews must wear a distinguishing sign and live in a separate quarter

Moreover, all and each of the Jews and Saracens, of whatever sex and age, shall everywhere carry a distinct habit and notorious signs by which they may evidently be recognized among Christians; and they shall not dwell among Christians, but shall live among themselves within a certain street or place separated and segregated from Christians, outside which they may in no way have dwellings.

§ 9. Jews may not practice usury

From Christians they shall by no means exact, receive, or extort usury; and usury already extorted from Christians by usurious wickedness they shall immediately restore without difficulty to those from whom they extorted it.

§ 10–11. All contrary privileges revoked; obedience commanded

Furthermore, in order that both the faithful in Christ and the said Jews and Saracens dwelling in the said kingdoms and dominions may know themselves to be effectively bound to observe in every way the aforesaid decrees, decretal epistles, and constitutions, and may not be able in any way to shield themselves from the said observance by virtue or pretext of any privileges, exemptions, liberties, immunities, concessions, and indults granted to them in any manner — we, by the same apostolic authority, annul, revoke, and cancel all and each of such privileges, exemptions, liberties, immunities, concessions, and indults granted by us and by our predecessors in any manner contrary to the foregoing, and decree that they are of no force or effect whatsoever.

We moreover beseech in the Lord and exhort through the sprinkling of the Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King himself, and all and each of our venerable brothers the archbishops and bishops, and our beloved sons the princes, temporal lords, captains, men-at-arms, barons, knights, nobles, communities, and all other Christian faithful, ecclesiastical and secular, dwelling in the said kingdoms and dominions — and we enjoin upon them for the remission of their sins — that they themselves observe the said decrees, decretal epistles, and constitutions, and cause them to be inviolably observed by their subjects, both Christians and Jews and Saracens alike. And we nonetheless command all persons of either sex, that within the space of thirty days from the day of publication of the present letters in the place where they dwell, they begin and continue to observe all and each of the said decrees, decretal epistles, constitutions, and the things contained in them and in the letters of this our present constitution, and that they presume not hereafter at any time to act contrary to the foregoing or any of them, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, by themselves or another or others, under any sought-after pretext.

§ 12–13. Penalties for disobedience

Otherwise, upon the expiration of those same days, against those of them who shall not have complied with effect with our mandate, precept, and injunction — if they be Christians, of whatever state, grade, or condition they may be, even if they shine with papal, royal, patriarchal, archiepiscopal, episcopal, or any other ecclesiastical or secular dignity — we pronounce and promulgate by the tenor of these presents the sentence of excommunication; and if they be Jews or Saracens, the sentence of deprivation and loss of all their movable and immovable goods, which goods, or the proceeds thereof, we will to be converted and expended by the bishops of the places in which such goods are situated for the benefit of cathedral and other churches and pious places, as shall seem fit to those same bishops.

Given at Florence, in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1442, on the sixth day before the Ides of August, in the twelfth year of our pontificate.

Dated August 8, 1442; pontificate year 12.

Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. V, pp. 67–70. Pope Eugene IV, Edictum contra Hebraeos aka Dudum ad nostram audientiam. Translated from the Latin.

Pope Callixtus III — Renewal of All Restrictions on Jewish-Christian Commerce and Cohabitation (1456 AD)

If our excessive leniency in repressing the excesses of transgressors were to become tepid, their temerity would become all the more inclined to sin, and the example of impunity would spread to others. For this reason it pertains to our apostolic office also — even by the renewal of prior laws — to administer justice with its due execution in such a way that those things which are known to tend to the offense of the Divine Majesty and the pernicious example and scandal of the faithful, lest they produce worse effects, may be removed, and the audacity of future offenders restrained.

Some time ago, Eugene IV and then Nicholas V, Roman Pontiffs our predecessors, for certain reasonable causes then expressed, reduced all and each of the privileges, concessions, and indults granted by them or by other predecessors of ours to Jews dwelling in whatsoever dominions and lands to the terms of the common law only, and declared by various letters of theirs that they could operate and extend no further, nor admit any other interpretation.

Afterwards it was brought again to our hearing, not without bitterness of heart, that although it had been declared as aforesaid by those our predecessors, the said Jews, continually straying from the path of justice, abuse concessions, privileges, and indults of this kind to such a degree that those things which, for honest and persuasive reasons, had been graciously granted to them for wholesome and good ends, they pervert and accommodate to their perverse passions, and commit thereby many and diverse shameful and dishonest acts — on whose pretext the Christian faith and mildness are injured, and scandal is generated in the minds of the faithful. And although the institutes of the sacred canons expressly provide what is permitted and what is forbidden to those same Jews, the said Jews and Saracens, dwelling among Christians in Italy as well as in various other parts of the world, yielding to their own passions and resting upon their ancient perfidy, and not finding the legitimate meaning of those constitutions, decrees, and decretal epistles to suit their desires so that they may evade them, pervert them with corrupt understandings and obscure them with perverse glosses, and do not fear to propagate and continue their ancient malice and temerity against the faithful, and to make use of their wickedness more presumptuously from day to day — to the very great contempt of the Christian faith, and equally to the peril and loss of the souls of the faithful.

We, desiring to take measures with such remedies as we can to the end that the said Jews and Saracens and their impious Christian abettors, terrified by the imposition of penalties, may fear hereafter to relapse into their pernicious daring, and that the faithful in Christ, steadfastly persisting in their fidelity, may not have cause to waver on account of the perfidy of those people — by the edict of this our present constitution, perpetually valid and to be inviolably observed, by apostolic authority, we renew all and each of the said decrees, constitutions, and decretal epistles, the tenors of all of which we will to be held as if inserted word for word in the present letters. We furthermore enact, establish, and ordain that henceforward, for all future time, Christians ought not to eat or drink together with Jews or Saracens, nor admit them to their banquets, nor cohabit with them, nor bathe with them, nor receive from them in their illnesses or debility, or at any other time, medicine or potions, or the healing of wounds or scars, or any kind of medicament; and Christians shall not permit Jews and Saracens to be placed over Christians in secular dignities or to exercise public offices.

Jews and Saracens likewise may not be farmers, collectors, conductors, or lessors of the revenues, goods, or affairs of Christians, nor their accountants, procurators, stewards, agents, negotiators, brokers, go-betweens, arrangers of betrothals, or negotiators of marriages, nor midwives, nor may they exercise any work in the houses or goods of Christians, or have with Christians any partnership, office, or administration, or share in any community, trade, or craft; and no Christian may leave or bequeath anything to Jews or their congregation, or to Saracens, in his testament or last will.

Jews likewise may not dare to erect or cause to be built new synagogues, but may only restore the old ones — yet not make them larger or more ornate than they customarily were — and on the days of Lamentations and of the Lord’s Passion, they shall not pass through or walk in public places, nor keep their doors or windows open; and the Jews themselves and Saracens are to be compelled and constrained to pay tithes on whatsoever things and goods; and in whatsoever cases Christians may be witnesses against them; and in no case shall the testimony of Jews and Saracens against Christians have force; and Jews and Saracens shall not bring or conduct their suits before Christian judges specially deputed for them, nor before their own elders, in whatsoever causes.

Jews and Saracens may not keep a Christian wet-nurse, household member, or servant of either sex in their home; nor shall Christians, on Sabbaths or on Jewish feast days, light fires for those same Jews, nor provide them with food, bread, or any servile work for the honor and observance of those same feast days in any manner, nor render any service or attendance. Secular judges who are Christians shall punish and correct Jews or Saracens who blaspheme God, or the glorious blessed Virgin Mary His Mother, or any of the saints — or who offend in this in any way — with a monetary or other more severe penalty at their discretion. Moreover, all and each of the Jews and Saracens, of whatever sex, age, or condition, shall everywhere carry a distinct habit and notorious signs by which they may be recognized among Christians, and if they do otherwise, they shall be punished. They shall not dwell with Saracens, but shall live separately and apart. From Christians they shall by no means presume to extort usury; and usury already extorted, they shall restore without difficulty or delay to those from whom they have extorted it, if they survive and can be identified; but if those persons are not apparent and are in remote places, all and each of the sums of money extorted through such usury shall be entirely converted to the most holy expedition against the Turks or other enemies of the Christian name.

Furthermore, in order that both the faithful in Christ and the Jews and Saracens dwelling in Italy and other parts of the world among Christians may know themselves to be effectively bound to the complete observance of the said decrees, decretal epistles, and constitutions — and may not be able in any way to shield themselves from the said observance by virtue or pretext of any privileges — we, by the same apostolic authority, annul, revoke, and cancel all and each of such privileges, exemptions, liberties, immunities, concessions, and indults granted by Martin V, Eugene and Nicholas aforesaid, and our other predecessors the Roman Pontiffs, and any others, whether to kings and princes or to communities of cities, universities, lords of places, or any other faithful, and to the same Jews and Saracens in specific or general terms, under any forms of words, even by our own motion, and under any form or expression of words, even those of derogation, made or granted contrary to the foregoing or any of them — all of which we likewise will to be held as inserted in the present letters — and we by the same authority annul, revoke, and cancel all consequences that have followed therefrom, and decree that they are of no force or effect.

We furthermore beseech in the Lord and through the sprinkling of the Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ exhort all and each of our venerable brothers the patriarchs, primates, archbishops, bishops, and our beloved sons the princes, temporal lords, captains, barons, knights, nobles, lords of places, and all other Christian faithful, ecclesiastical and secular, dwelling in the said parts of Italy and in the other parts of the world as aforesaid — and we enjoin upon them for the remission of their sins — that they themselves observe the said decrees, decretal epistles, and constitutions and cause them to be inviolably observed by their subjects, both Christians and Jews and Saracens. And we moreover strictly forbid all the faithful in Christ to presume to attempt anything against the foregoing; and if they should knowingly act otherwise, they shall know themselves to be bound by the said penalties and sentences. Jews or Saracens who presume to resist and do not comply effectively with these our mandate, precept, and letters shall incur the penalty of deprivation and loss of all their movable and immovable goods, which goods, or their proceeds, by our executors or those to be specially deputed for this purpose, we will and command to be converted to the work of this most holy expedition and to the benefit of the Christian commonwealth.

Given at Rome, at Saint Peter’s, in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1456, on the fifth day before the Kalends of June, in the second year of our pontificate.

Dated May 28, 1456; pontificate year 2.

Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. V, pp. 127–130. Pope Callixtus III, Sanctio ad evitandum quodlibet christianorum cum Judaeis et Saracenis commercium. Translated from the Latin.

Pope Leo X — Supernae dispositionis arbitrio: The Fifth Lateran Council’s General Reform, §42: On the Expulsion of Judaizers (May 5, 1514)

Constitution VIII. Leo X. Passed in solemn public session of the Fifth Lateran Council at the Lateran basilica. Dated May 5, 1514, pontificate year 2. Source: Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. V, pp. 605–624. The following is §42 of a general reform constitution of forty-five sections, touching matters from episcopal appointments to clerical dress. The constitution as a whole is not primarily about Jews; §42, which its own rubric describes as a “reform concerning heretics to be sought out and punished,” names Judaizers alongside heretics in a mandate for their expulsion from the Christian community, particularly from the Roman Curia.

Context: By 1514, the Lateran V reform programme was engaging the problem of crypto-Judaism and heresy within the Church’s own administrative apparatus in Rome. Conversos from Spain and Portugal — Jews who had been baptized under pressure — were present in the Curia’s notarial and secretarial offices, and the Inquisition’s proceedings against Judaizers had generated controversy for decades. §42 responds by calling for a general inquisitorial procedure against Judaizers throughout Christendom, with special emphasis on purging the Curia itself. Relapsed Judaizers are explicitly excluded from any hope of mercy. The provision is legislative, not merely rhetorical: it mandates specific judicial action by papally appointed judges. Paired with §41 (on sorcerers and diviners), it reflects the Council’s effort to police the boundaries of Christian identity at the institutional center of the Church.

§ 42. Reform concerning those guilty of heresy and Judaizing

And in order that all baptized Christians who think badly of the faith, of whatever kind or nation they may be, and also heretics or those defiled with any taint of heresy, or Judaizers, may be utterly removed from the company of the faithful in Christ, and expelled from every place, and particularly from the Roman Curia, and punished with fitting chastisement — we establish that diligent inquisition be made against them everywhere, and especially in that Curia, by judges to be deputed by us, and that those found guilty of that crime and lawfully convicted be punished with fitting penalties; relapsed persons, moreover, we will to be afflicted with fitting penalties without any hope of pardon or remission.

Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. V, p. 616. Pope Leo X, Supernae dispositionis arbitrio, §42, passed at the Fifth Lateran Council, May 5, 1514. Translated from the Latin.

Pope Leo X — On the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain as Grounds for the Title “Catholic Monarchs” (1517 AD)

Some time ago, Alexander VI of happy memory, our predecessor, having regard for the outstanding virtues and merits of the illustrious Ferdinand, King of Spain, and of Isabella, Queen — for the immense labors which Ferdinand had endured in the expugnation of the kingdom of Granada against the perfidious Saracens, enemies of the Catholic faith; and also for the fact that, by the provident ordinance of those King and Queen, the Jews, whose commerce and habitation in the kingdoms and dominions of the same King and Queen had been very contagious, had been expelled anew from those kingdoms and dominions; and furthermore that the religious orders of both sexes had been formed to regular observance — wishing therefore to honor those King and Queen with a worthier distinction, granted them the name of Catholics, willing that from thenceforth Ferdinand King and Isabella Queen should be titled and named Catholic, as is more fully contained in the letters drawn up in that regard.

We, hoping that our most dear son in Christ, Charles, King of Spain — who, as we understand, is in the eighteenth year of his age — will in succeeding years not only imitate the virtues of those same Ferdinand and Isabella, but, with divine favor, advance further in the exercise of those same virtues; and wishing therefore to honor the said King Charles and his legitimate consort for the time being with the title of Catholic Monarchs — by our own motion and out of certain knowledge and fullness of power, we assign in the name of God to the said King Charles and his legitimate consort for the time being the name and title of Catholic Monarchs.

Given at Rome, at Saint Peter’s, in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1517.

Dated 1517.

Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. V, pp. 691–692. Pope Leo X, bull granting the title Rex Catholicus to Charles of Spain. Translated from the Latin.