Pope Paul IV — Laws and Ordinances to Be Observed by Jews Dwelling in the Ecclesiastical State (1555 AD)
Since it is altogether too absurd and inconvenient that Jews — whom their own guilt has subjected to perpetual servitude — under the pretext that Christian piety receives them and tolerates their cohabitation, should be so ungrateful to Christians that they repay them with contumely for grace, and should seek to assert dominion over them in place of the servitude they owe; and since it has recently come to our notice that those same Jews in our beloved City and in certain cities, lands, and places of the Holy Roman Church have burst into such insolence that they presume not only to dwell intermingled with Christians and near their churches, with no distinction of dress whatsoever, but even to rent houses in the nobler streets and squares of the cities, lands, and places in which they dwell, and to acquire and possess stable goods, and to keep Christian wet-nurses, maidservants, and other hired Christian servants, and to commit various other things to the ignominy and contempt of the Christian name — we, considering that the Roman Church tolerates those same Jews in testimony of the true Christian faith and to the end that, attracted by the piety and benignity of the Apostolic See, they may at last acknowledge their errors and strive to arrive at the true light of the Catholic faith, and therefore considering it fitting that, so long as they persist in their errors, they should in actual effect acknowledge that they are servants and Christians are free through Jesus Christ God and our Lord, and that it is unjust that the children of the free woman should serve the children of the bondwoman —
§ 1. Jews to dwell in a single quarter, separated from Christians
Wishing to provide wholesomely in the premises, as far as with God we can, by this our constitution, perpetually valid, we enact that henceforth for all future time, both in the City and in whatsoever other cities, lands, and places of the said Roman Church, all Jews are to dwell solely and exclusively in one and the same street — or, if that should prove insufficient, in two or three or as many as shall suffice — contiguous streets completely separate from the dwellings of Christians, to be designated by us in the City and by our magistrates in the said other cities, lands, and places, with only one entrance and one exit.
§ 2. Only one synagogue permitted; all others to be demolished; no immovable goods
And in each and every city, land, and place where they shall dwell, they shall have only a single synagogue in the customary place, and shall not be able to construct any other new one, nor to possess immovable goods. Moreover, all their other synagogues, except one only, shall be demolished and destroyed. And immovable goods which they presently possess, within a time to be fixed for them by those same magistrates, they shall sell to Christians.
§ 3. Jews to wear a distinctive badge
And so that Jews may everywhere be recognized, males shall be bound and obliged to wear openly a hat, and females some other evident badge — both of a sky-blue color — so that they may in no way be concealed or hidden. Nor may any of them be excused from wearing the hat or the other badge on the pretext of any rank or preeminence they may claim, nor dispensed or absolved in any way by the camerarius of the same Church, or the clerks of the Apostolic Camera or others presiding over it, or by the legates or vice-legates of the Apostolic See.
§ 4. No Christian servants or wet-nurses
They shall not keep Christian wet-nurses or maidservants or other serving persons of either sex, nor cause their infants to be suckled or nursed by Christian women.
§ 5. No public labor on Sundays or Church feast days
Nor shall they work or cause others to work publicly on Sundays or other feast days of obligation prescribed by the Church.
§ 6. No oppression of Christians; no fictitious contracts
Nor shall they oppress Christians in any manner, nor enter into fictitious or simulated contracts.
§ 7. No gaming, eating, or familiar association with Christians
Nor shall they presume in any way to play or eat with Christians, or to have familiarity or association with them.
§ 8. Account books to be kept in Latin and Italian only
Nor, in the account books and reckonings they shall keep from time to time with Christians, may they use any letters other than Latin or any language other than the vernacular Italian; and if they do use others, such books shall carry no weight against Christians.
§ 9. Restricted to the rag trade only
The said Jews, confining themselves solely to the trade of rags and old clothing (called strazzaria or cenciaria in the vernacular), shall not engage in any commerce in grain, barley, or other things necessary for human use.
§ 10. Jewish physicians not to treat Christians
And those among them who are physicians shall not, even when called and requested, attend to or be present at the treatment of Christians.
§ 11. Jews not to allow Christians to address them as “Lord”
Nor shall they allow themselves to be addressed as “Lord” by poor Christians.
§ 12–13. Calculation of months in lending; rules on pawned goods
And they shall reckon months in their accounts and reckonings as consisting of thirty complete days, and days that do not add up to thirty shall be counted not as whole months but only as so many days as they actually were, and they shall call in their credits according to the number of those days and not at the rate of a whole month. And pledges consigned to them from time to time as security for their monies they may not sell before the expiration of eighteen full months from the day on which those pledges were given to them; and after those months have elapsed, if those same Jews shall have sold the pledges, they shall consign to the owner of the pledges all the money that shall have remained over their credit.
§ 14. Penalties for violations, up to being declared enemies of all Christians
And if they shall in any way be deficient in any of the foregoing, they may be punished according to the nature of the offense, in the City by us or our vicar or others to be deputed by us, and in the said cities, lands, and places by those same magistrates — even as rebels and guilty of the crime of lèse-majesté and declared enemies of all Christian people — at the discretion of our vicar, of those to be deputed, and of the magistrates.
Given at Rome, at Saint Mark’s, in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1555, on the day before the Ides of July, in the first year of our pontificate.
Dated July 14, 1555; pontificate year 1.
Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. VI, pp. 498–501. Pope Paul IV, Cum nimis absurdum. Translated from the Latin.