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
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, or provide them with food, bread, or any other similar service for the honor and observance of those feast days in any manner, nor render any service or attendance.
§ 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.