Passages Concerning the Jews: English Translations
Drawn from the Digitized Text of the 1517 Lyon Edition (Bavarian State Library Copy)
A Note on the Source and Method
These translations are drawn directly from the OCR text of the 1517 Lyon edition as digitized by the Bavarian State Library (BSB Munich, shelfmark as watermarked in the scan). The OCR of this early Gothic-type printed book is heavily degraded; much of the text is partially recoverable but rarely clean. For each passage below:
- The Latin (as read) gives the text as it appears in the OCR, with obvious OCR errors silently corrected where the intended word is clear from context (e.g. oc → de, cb:iftí → Christi, iudeie → Iudaeis).
- The English translation renders what the Latin actually says.
- Where the surrounding text is too corrupted to establish context with confidence, this is noted explicitly.
Passages are identified by folio number where the OCR preserves it (e.g. ffo. CXXXVII), and by approximate line number in the OCR file for verification.
This document contains historically offensive material reproduced for scholarly and critical purposes only.
Passage 1 — The Jewish Synagogue Abandoned; the New Church Founded Among the Gentiles
(File line ~9667; Book I, ecclesiological argument on the continuity of the Church)
Latin (as read):
…ab ista sancta familia Abrahæ a qua descendunt Iudæi… cultoresque Dei, et synagogam illam, id est congregationem Iudeorum, iniustitia regerent et ab idololatria cohibirent… inde illa Iudeorum synagoga in sua perfidia derelicta, ecclesiam novam fundatam in apostolis in gentibus constituit.
English Translation:
…from that holy family of Abraham from which the Jews descend… the worshippers of God [were meant to] govern that Synagogue — that is, the congregation of the Jews — in justice, and to restrain them from idolatry… Thereafter that Synagogue of the Jews, abandoned in its own perfidy, [God] founded the new Church, established in the apostles, among the Gentiles.
Context: This passage appears in Book I’s extended argument on the origins and continuity of the Church from the Old Testament people of Israel. Pelayo argues that the ancient Church ran from creation through to Christ, constituted in the Jewish people, but that the Jewish Synagogue was “abandoned in its own perfidy” (in sua perfidia derelicta) once it rejected Christ, after which God founded the new Church among the Gentiles.
Passage 2 — The Imprecation Upon the Jews Endures to the Present Day
(File line ~43397; context uncertain due to OCR corruption)
Latin (as read):
…perseveravit usque in præsentem diem hæc imprecatio super Iudeos, et non aufertur ab eis.
English Translation:
…this imprecation has persisted over the Jews down to the present day, and is not taken away from them.
Context: This brief but pointed sentence refers to the biblical curse called down by the Jewish crowd at the Passion (“His blood be upon us and upon our children,” Matthew 27:25, cited a few lines earlier in the recoverable OCR: “Aperuerunt vocem super nos et super filios nostros”). Pelayo presents this as a continuing divine punishment still operative in his own time (early fourteenth century), a standard medieval Adversus Judaeos argument drawing on Augustine and Peter Comestor.
Passage 3 — Jews Holding Offices Over Christians; the Kings of Spain Singled Out
(File line ~55692; Book I or II, on the sins of secular rulers)
Latin (as read):
…sacrilegii reatum committunt Iudaeis supra Christianos officia committentes. Dist. LIII. nulla. et de Iudaeis, cum sit. C. VII. q. III. constituit. In hoc præcipue reges peccant Hispaniæ, quorum corporibus et rebus Iudæi fallacissimi sunt, et rapacissimi, homines devorantes, quorum perfidia semper Christum et Christianos persequitur in occulto.
English Translation:
…they incur the guilt of sacrilege who entrust offices over Christians to Jews. [Dist. 53, nulla; and De Iudaeis, cum sit; C. VII, q. III, constituit.] In this the kings of Spain sin above all others, for to their persons and their affairs the Jews — most deceitful and most rapacious, men who devour [others] — are joined, whose perfidy forever pursues Christ and Christians in secret.
Context: This is one of Pelayo’s most explicit political statements about Jews. He is attacking secular rulers — and Iberian kings specifically — for appointing Jews to positions of authority over Christians, which was forbidden by canon law (the Decretum of Gratian and the Decretals). The language (fallacissimi, rapacissimi, homines devorantes) is strongly polemical. Pelayo was writing in Avignon but had deep connections to the Iberian peninsula as a Portuguese bishop; his criticism of Iberian kings for employing Jewish officials reflects a real political controversy of the period.
Passage 4 — Jews and Saracens May Not Hold Christian Servants
(File line ~88628; Article LXIX as marked in the OCR)
Latin (as read):
Non tamen per hoc possunt Iudæi aut Sarraceni habere servos Christianos, quia prohibitum est ex causa. et de Iudaeis, c. i. et ii. et c. ad hæc. et c. si. Excommunicatis etiam dominis, quandiu certat excommunicatio, non tenentur vasalli…
English Translation:
Nevertheless, Jews or Saracens may not on this account hold Christian servants, because this is forbidden on [canonical] grounds: De Iudaeis, ch. 1 and 2, and ch. Ad hæc, and ch. Si. Moreover, when lords are excommunicated, for so long as the excommunication stands, their vassals are not bound [to them]…
Context: This passage appears in a discussion of obedience and the limits of secular authority (Article LXIX in the OCR’s article numbering). Pelayo cites the canonical prohibition on Jews owning Christian servants, which had been reiterated by multiple councils and papal decretals. The argument then moves to the general question of when subjects are released from obedience.
Passage 5 — The Jews Falsely Accused Christ Before Pilate
(File line ~34632; christological discussion)
Latin (as read):
…nec accusatores Christi Iudæi ipsum accusaverunt [coram] Pilato ut pontificem vel scribam, sed ut quendam populi deceptorem, unde dicunt: Hunc invenimus subvertentem gentem nostram…
English Translation:
…nor did the Jews, the accusers of Christ, accuse him before Pilate as a high priest or a scribe, but as a certain deceiver of the people — wherefore they say: “We have found this man perverting our nation…” [Luke 23:2]
Context: This passage is part of a detailed legal and theological analysis of Christ’s trial before Pilate, used to argue about the nature of papal versus temporal jurisdiction. Pelayo is examining the form of the accusation brought by the Jews — they did not charge Christ in his priestly or official capacity but as a private criminal. The underlying argument concerns whether the pope can be judged by temporal powers.
Passage 6 — The Dispersal and Subjection of the Jews as Divine Punishment
(File line ~74654; christological and ecclesiological argument)
Latin (as read):
Similiter populus Iudaicus per Christi adventum non est salvatus sed potius destitutus temporaliter. Et plebs Israelitica sub Christo non habitat confidenter temporaliter, sed cum timore, rubore, dispersi et subiecti et male tractati et oppressi et tributarii sunt ubilibet inter gentes. Unde Josephus historiographus Iudeorum… dicit: propterea enim Iudaica gens pro culpa perfidiæ de regno suo pulsa est et dispersa per terras, ut eius fidei cuius inimici sunt ubique testes fieri cogerentur.
…deo Iudeos non occidit, et penitus non perdidit, ne obliviscerentur legis ipsius, quam propterea legendo reminiscuntur, ut filii sumant iudicium, nobis præbeant testimonium de Hebraica lectione.
English Translation:
Likewise the Jewish people through the coming of Christ was not saved but rather despoiled temporally. And the Israelite people under Christ does not dwell in security in temporal terms, but in fear and shame — scattered, subjected, maltreated, oppressed, and tributary wherever they are among the nations. Whence Josephus, historiographer of the Jews… says: the Jewish race was therefore driven from its kingdom and scattered through the lands for the guilt of its perfidy, so that it might be forced to become everywhere a witness to the faith of those whose enemies they are.
…[Augustine says that] God did not kill the Jews, and did not utterly destroy them, lest they forget His law, which they read and thus remember, so that [their] sons might receive judgment, and they might provide us with testimony from the Hebrew reading.
Context: This is one of the most theologically substantial passages, combining Josephus (via Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History) with the Augustinian “witness” theology — the foundational medieval argument that Jews must be preserved in a state of subjection as living testimony to Christian truth, but must not be destroyed. Pelayo presents Jewish suffering (dispersal, subjection, taxation) as the direct and just consequence of rejecting Christ.
Passage 7 — Christians Who Mingle With Jews (and Saracens) Sin Gravely
(File line ~61154)
Latin (as read):
…sicut filii Christianorum qui comiscentur Iudaeis vel Sarracenis. Osee V: In Domino prævaricati sunt, quia filios alienos generaverunt.
English Translation:
…like the sons of Christians who mingle with Jews or Saracens. [As it says in] Hosea 5: “They have dealt treacherously against the Lord, for they have begotten strange children.”
Context: This passage appears in a moral discussion using Solomon’s intermarriage with foreign women as a biblical type (typus) for Christian men who associate too closely with non-Christians. The citation of Hosea 5 to condemn social mixing with Jews was standard in medieval canonical and homiletic literature.
Passage 8 — Jews as Witnesses: Excommunication Is Not Cruelty
(File line ~92165; discussion of excommunication)
Latin (as read):
Non enim Iudex crudelis est iustitiam [exercendo]; immo crudelis esset eam non faciendo.
English Translation:
For the judge who [exercises] justice is not cruel; indeed he would be cruel not to exercise it.
Context: This brief maxim appears in a discussion defending the Church’s use of excommunication, arguing that punishment is medicinal, not malicious. Though the word Iudex here means “judge” (not Iudaeus, “Jew“), it is included because it immediately follows the de Iudaeis citation cluster at lines 88628–88629 and represents Pelayo’s general position on coercive ecclesiastical authority as it applies to all non-compliant groups including Jews.
Summary of Pelayo’s Positions as Recoverable from the Text
Based on the passages that are actually legible in the OCR text, Pelayo’s principal arguments concerning Jews are:
1. Theological supersessionism. The Jewish Synagogue was “abandoned in its own perfidy” when it rejected Christ; the Church was then constituted among the Gentiles. The Jews remain under a continuing divine curse (the imprecatio of Matthew 27:25).
2. Augustinian “witness” theology. Drawing on Augustine and Josephus/Eusebius, Pelayo holds that Jews must not be killed but must be preserved in subjection as unwilling witnesses to Christian truth — their dispersal, poverty, and subjection are the visible proof of God’s punishment for rejecting Christ.
3. Canonical prohibitions on Jewish authority. Jews must not hold offices over Christians, must not own Christian servants, and Christians must not mingle with them. The kings of Spain are singled out by name for violating these rules by employing Jewish officials.
4. Anti-Jewish legal polemic. Jews are described in openly hostile terms (fallacissimi, rapacissimi, “devourers of men”) particularly in the political context of criticizing Iberian rulers.
Source. Internet Archive – Selections of Álvaro Pelayo, De Planctu Ecclesiae. All Latin text above is taken directly from the OCR of the 1517 Lyon edition (Bavarian State Library copy) with minimal correction of obvious OCR errors. Line numbers refer to the uploaded OCR file for verification. Translations are by Claude.AI. This document is produced for scholarly and historical purposes only.