The following document is drawn from the Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. XIII, which covers the pontificate of Urban VIII (1623–1628). After a comprehensive search of the entire volume for all terms associated with Jews — including Iudaei, Hebraei, synagoga, Talmud, ghetto, vigesima hebraeorum, and related vocabulary — only one document in this volume bears substantively on the Jews: Urban VIII’s apostolic confirmation of the blood-purity statutes of the Metropolitan Church of Évora, Portugal.
This is a striking contrast with earlier volumes in the series. Where earlier pontificates — especially those of Paul III, Paul IV, Pius V, Gregory XIII, Clement VIII, and Paul V — generated extensive direct legislation on Jews (expulsions, Talmud burnings, ghetto regulations, jurisdictional arrangements, toleration fees), Urban VIII’s twenty-one-year pontificate produced, so far as this volume records, no direct papal legislation concerning Jews at all. The one document present here reaches the Jews only indirectly, as the target of an Iberian blood-purity statute whose exclusions Urban VIII is asked to confirm.
The document is nonetheless historically significant. It represents the final stage in a process by which the limpieza de sangre (“purity of blood”) system — originally a Spanish and Portuguese practice developed in the fifteenth century to exclude conversos (Jewish and Moorish converts and their descendants) from ecclesiastical and civic offices — received the highest possible papal endorsement. By apostolically confirming the Évora statutes, Urban VIII placed the full weight of the Holy See behind a discriminatory system that defined Jewish ancestry as a permanent hereditary disqualification for church office, running not merely to converts themselves but to their children, grandchildren, and all subsequent generations on the paternal line “to infinity,” and to the seventh degree on the maternal line.
Pope Urban VIII — Confirmatio Statutorum Ecclesiae Eborensis: Confirmation of the Statutes of the Church of Évora Concerning Proofs of Blood Purity Required of Those Admitted to Its Dignities and Benefices (March 20, 1625)
Constitution CXXVI. Urban VIII, year II. Dated at Rome, at Saint Peter’s, under the Fisherman’s Ring, March 20, 1625, pontificate year II. Source: Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. XIII, pp. 299–304. Issued on the petition of Philip IV of Spain (in his capacity as King of Portugal), presenting statutes enacted by Archbishop Joseph of Mello of Évora.
Preamble: Urban VIII confirms statutes submitted by Philip IV and approved by the Congregation of the Council
The sacred office of the apostolate, committed to our humility by the unfathomable providence of divine wisdom, demands that we direct our continual attention to the happy and prosperous governance of all churches, and especially the cathedral churches; and that, readily when petitioned, we fortify with the protection of apostolic confirmation those things which are reported to have been done for the purpose that they may endure permanently, firm and inviolate.
§1. Since, therefore, on behalf of our beloved son in Christ Philip, Catholic King of the Spains, it was lately set forth to us that our venerable brother Joseph, Archbishop of Évora, had enacted certain statutes and ordinances for the greater honor of the Church of Évora and the increase of the divine worship therein:
§2. We directed that these statutes and ordinances be reviewed and examined by our venerable brothers, the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, interpreters of the sacred Council of Trent — who, in fulfilment of our mandate, revised these statutes and ordinances and reduced them to the following form:
The Statutes of the Church of Évora: Text as confirmed by the Congregation of the Council and apostolically approved
We, Joseph of Mello, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See Metropolitan Archbishop of Évora, make known to all and each who shall see, read, and hear these our letters of statute, issued under expectation of the good pleasure of Our Most Holy Lord the Pope and of the Holy Apostolic See: that, since we saw our church of Évora to be one of the metropolitan churches of the Kingdom of Portugal and distinguished among them — both for its antiquity and the abundance of its revenues by which it surpasses the other churches of that kingdom, and because it has always, or at least for the most part, been accustomed to be governed by prelates of royal lineage, with its dignities and canonicates always served by those outstanding in nobility of blood and in learning, from among whom many have been raised to the rank of bishop — and that it would suffer notable harm in its authority and service if persons were admitted to its dignities, canonicates, benefices, and offices who descend from Hebrew blood, or who are tainted with any blemish of this kind, however slight, through the paternal or maternal line;
since experience teaches that the nature of such persons is turbulent and highly harmful in the service of the Church, and there is just reason to fear the imprisonment of such persons on account of the crime of apostasy and errors in the faith, as has very often occurred in past times and occurs everywhere at the present time, which redounds to notable harm of our church and to the disgrace and shame both of it and of the persons serving in it:
and wishing, as much as we can in the Lord and as the duty of our office requires, to forestall these inconveniences and scandals likely to arise, so that our aforesaid church may be honorably reverenced for all future times and may be able to preserve its authority acquired in so many ways — we have treated, not once but repeatedly and very often, with the dean and chapter of the said church about enacting a statute by which it would be provided that no person laboring under the aforesaid stain should be admitted to any benefice, office, or ministry of that church. And since we could not agree with them on the form and clauses of a statute, [we proceeded unilaterally, following the models of the statutes of the churches of Toledo and Coimbra,] and in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ we enact, make, and ordain the following statute for our said church:
The Exclusion Clause
That from now henceforth, for all future times, no dignity, canonate and prebend, or semi-prebend or quartanaria, or any other benefice hitherto erected and instituted in our said church of Évora or hereafter to be erected and instituted in it — whether vacant by cession, even by reason of exchange, or by decease or any other loss or surrender by those for the time being holding said benefices, or in any other manner — nor even by way of coadjutorship: may be conferred on any cleric descended from Hebrew [stock] — or on those who through the paternal line to infinity, or through the maternal line to the seventh degree inclusive, have contracted or shall contract that mark of infamy — or in any other manner on persons tainted with or laboring under a similar stain, or related by blood to persons so tainted.
And the same shall be deemed to hold for dignities, canonicates, and prebends, masterly and doctoral prebends, and any other benefices in our said church, including those attached to or owed to the university and academy of the general university of Coimbra or its doctors and professors.
Procedure: Letters of provision to be submitted for blood investigation before taking possession
As regards litigation, controversies, and doubts which may arise in the course of time concerning the foregoing, we provide that whoever shall obtain in any manner, by any authority, any of the dignities, canonicates, prebends, semi-prebends, quartanarias, and other benefices hitherto erected and instituted in our said church of Évora, or hereafter to be instituted and erected in it — even those attached to the said university and academy — shall be required, before he takes possession of it by himself or his procurator, to present to the Archbishop of Évora for the time being the letters of collation and provision issued to him, in accordance with the form of the ancient statute of our said church and by virtue of the present statute, in order that the said letters may be examined and inquiry made into the quality of lineage of the person provided or presented and the purity of his blood in accordance with the form of this statute.
This requirement shall not, however, apply to inquisitors appointed and other ministers of the Holy Office of the Inquisition who at any time have been, are, or for the time being shall be — since these shall be admitted to possession of the aforesaid dignities, canonicates, prebends, semi-prebends, quartanarias, and other benefices without any investigation into purity of blood.
Oath required of all admitted
That all and each who are to be admitted to such benefices shall first take an oath in the chapter convened in chapter, to observe this statute and never at any time to seek, obtain, or make use of any derogation of it, or relaxation or dispensation or absolution from the said oath, whether from the Archbishop and chapter, or even from the Roman Pontiff for the time being, or from the Apostolic See, or from any prelate or other person whatsoever. And before the taking of the said oath and the recording of an act thereof in the book of the chapter to be established for this purpose, subscribed by the person provided, he shall not be put into or inducted into possession of the benefice, nor may he be put or inducted into it.
If anyone shall be admitted to possession of any of the said benefices of our said church without having received said oath, or if possession of a benefice shall have been handed over to him in any manner, the act of such possession shall thereby be null and of no force or effect, and such possessor shall be deemed not a possessor but an intruder in court and out of court.
Procedure for the blood investigation
That the Archbishop for the time being, as soon as the letters of provision or collation or presentation shall have been presented to him by a person provided or presented or by his procurator, shall at once depute two canons of the aforesaid chapter and one of the approved notaries of the Évoran court to examine witnesses concerning the quality of lineage of the person provided or presented petitioning for possession of a benefice — and the said canons and notaries shall be entirely free from any impurity of blood and shall in no way descend from the blood of the aforesaid Hebrews. Those who have been deputed to make the investigation shall in no manner be able to excuse themselves from making it; and the Archbishop may compel them, and any one of them who refuses to comply, through censures and financial penalties or through the sequestration of the fruits of their benefices.
If the investigation is to be made outside the city and its territory, the Archbishop shall direct letters of commission to the vicar of the place where the investigation is to be made, to examine witnesses and write down the investigation — provided that both the commissioner from the chapter and the vicar’s notary are, as stated above, free from any stain of the said impure blood; if either should be disqualified, a substitute shall be provided by the Archbishop.
After investigation: Declaration of fitness; consequences of fraud
Having made the investigation in the aforesaid form, it shall be handed to the Archbishop to be examined; and having examined it, he shall declare by his decree in writing that the person provided or presented is qualified for the benefice and that possession should be given and ought to be given to him.
If after possession has been obtained it shall be legally ascertained that any of those admitted descends from the aforesaid Hebrew stock, the provision of office or ministry and the possession following therefrom shall thereby be null and of no force, and the person so provided and in possession shall be deemed deprived by that very fact; and the said office or ministry shall be committed and provided to another as vacant.
Extension to all officials and ministers of the church
The Archbishop shall ensure that the other offices of our aforesaid church be provided only to persons lacking the said stain of blood; and no one shall be admitted to the ministry of the church and its sacristy or choir who labors under the said stain. As regards the qualification of such officials and ministers, investigations shall be made before they are put into possession of their offices or ministries, as the Archbishop shall judge most expedient.
Jurisdiction
That the Archbishop and his commissioners appointed by him to make the investigations shall — if Our Most Holy Lord the Pope and the Holy Apostolic See shall be pleased — have all jurisdiction necessary, whenever, as often as, and wherever it shall be required, to compel and force witnesses to give testimony and to summon them thereto, and to do all things necessary for this business, and to proceed therein through censures, financial penalties, and other legal and factual remedies.
[Dated:] Year of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ 1623. Antonio Gomes, our secretary, caused this statute to be written and subscribed it. Joseph, Archbishop of Évora.
Urban VIII’s apostolic confirmation
§3–4. Since the said Philip King desires that these statutes and ordinances be approved and confirmed by us for greater firmness, we, wishing to comply with the pious desire of the same Philip King as much as we can in the Lord, inclined by the supplications humbly presented to us in his name on this matter, by the advice of the said Cardinals — by apostolic authority, by the tenor of the present letters, we perpetually approve and confirm the aforesaid statutes and ordinances, and we add to them the strength of inviolable apostolic firmness; and all and each of the defects in law or in fact, if any have intervened therein in any way, we supply.
§5. Decreeing that the statutes and ordinances and the present letters shall always and perpetually be valid, firm, and effective, and shall have their full and complete effects, and shall be inviolably observed by all whom they concern in any way for the future; and that they ought to be so judged and determined by all ordinary and delegated judges, even the auditors of the causes of the Apostolic Palace.
§6. Notwithstanding constitutions and apostolic ordinances, and the statutes and customs of the said church of Évora (even those strengthened by oath, apostolic confirmation, or any other firmness), and privileges, indults, and apostolic letters contrary to the foregoing in any way granted, confirmed, and innovated — from all of which, for the purpose of the foregoing, this one time only, we specially and expressly derogate.
Given at Rome, at Saint Peter’s, under the Fisherman’s Ring, March 20, 1625, in the second year of our pontificate.
Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. XIII, pp. 299–304. Urban VIII, Constitution CXXVI, Confirmatio quorumdam statutorum ecclesiae metropolitanae Eborensis de probationibus super puritate sanguinis ab iis faciendis, qui ad dignitates, aliaque beneficia eiusdem ecclesiae promoventur, March 20, 1625. Translated from the Latin.
Historical note. This constitution belongs to a long tradition of limpieza de sangre statutes and their papal confirmations that runs through the entire early modern period. The statutes of specific Iberian cathedral chapters — Toledo most famously, but also Coimbra, and now Évora, explicitly cited in the Évora text — had been enacted at various points from the mid-fifteenth century onward and received successive papal confirmations as a matter of course.
What is distinctive about the Évora statute is its unusual explicitness regarding the scope of the exclusion. The standard formulae for limpieza statutes excluded those of impure blood, with varying definitions of “impurity.” The Évora text specifies the genealogical reach with unusual precision: on the paternal line, the exclusion runs “to infinity” — that is, there is no number of Christian generations that can erase the disqualification once it has entered the bloodline. On the maternal line it extends to the seventh degree inclusive, still an extraordinary reach. The statute then adds a further clause excluding those “related by blood” to any person so tainted — meaning that collateral relatives, not just direct descendants, could be caught by the exclusion.
The rationale given by Archbishop Joseph of Mello is worth noting: it is not purely theological but is explicitly grounded in a claim about the character and behavior of persons of Hebrew descent — that “experience teaches that the nature of such persons is turbulent and highly harmful in the service of the Church,” and that there is “just reason to fear their imprisonment on account of the crime of apostasy.” This was the standard Iberian argument: the descendants of converts were presumed to be at heightened risk of relapsing into the religion of their ancestors, and this presumption of unreliability — rather than any specific offense — justified preemptive exclusion.
The exception for Inquisition officials is also revealing. Those who had served or were serving as inquisitors were exempted from the blood investigation entirely, regardless of their ancestry. This created a paradox at the heart of the limpieza system: the very institution responsible for policing “purity” was itself staffed by many officials of converso descent, and the exemption was in part a pragmatic acknowledgment of this reality.
The petition comes from Philip IV of Spain (r. 1621–1665), presented in his capacity as effective ruler of Portugal following the 1580 union of the crowns. Portugal would re-assert its independence in 1640, during Urban VIII’s own pontificate — but this 1625 confirmation predates the rupture. The Archbishop of Évora, Joseph of Mello, was himself a member of one of the leading noble families of Portugal, whose church served as the crown’s principal ecclesiastical showpiece in the Alentejo region.