The following documents are drawn from the Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. VI, which covers the pontificates of Adrian VI through Paul IV. Each document below touches directly on the Church’s discipline regarding the Jews, whether concerning their conversion, the suppression of blasphemous books, financial obligations, or the comprehensive ordinances governing their life within the Papal States. Translations are made from the Latin originals as preserved in the Vatican Archives and printed in the Bullarium.
Pope Paul III — On the Privileges of Jewish Converts to the Faith, and Ordinances for Their Way of Life (1542 AD)
Desiring that Jews and all other infidels whatsoever be converted to the Catholic faith, and that they not be deterred from that same faith by the pretext of goods previously possessed by them, by our own motion and out of our certain knowledge, by apostolic authority, by the tenor of the present letters, and by this constitution hereafter to be valid, we enact that for any of those same Jews and infidels who shall wish to be converted to the said faith — even if he be under paternal power — all his goods, both movable and immovable, shall remain intact and unharmed. So that even a son of a family constituted under paternal power, as aforesaid, may not be defrauded or deprived, by his parents, of his lawful and whatever other portion of his patrimonial or maternal goods, or of goods otherwise due to him by right or succession; but that these be integrally owed to him, even if he has been converted to the faith itself against the will of his parents, and even while his parents are still living.
§ 1. Goods acquired by usury to be restored
And if the said goods were acquired through usury or other illicit gain, and the persons to whom restitution thereof ought in law to be made are known — for the sin is not remitted unless the ill-gotten goods are restored — those goods shall be entirely restored to those same persons. But when those persons are not present, since such goods ought through the hands of the Church to be converted to pious uses, we freely grant goods of this kind to those same Jews and other infidels, in favor of the baptism they have received, as in a pious use, and we decree that they remain with those converts.
We forbid, under pain of divine anathema, all persons, whether ecclesiastical or secular, from inflicting any molestation whatsoever upon them concerning such goods, under any sought pretext, or permitting it to be inflicted; but let them count themselves to have made a great gain, when they shall have won such persons for Christ.
§ 2. Care for the poor among converts
And since, as it is written, he who has the substance of this world and sees his brother in need, and shuts his bowels against him — how does the charity of God abide in him? — if those converts should at the time of their conversion be needy or indigent, we exhort all, both ecclesiastical and secular, through the mercies of our God, to extend helping hands to those converts. Let the diocesans themselves not only exhort Christians to succor them, but also take care, both from the revenues of the churches as far as they shall be able, and from those things which are to be converted by them to the uses of the poor, that they do not neglect to sustain such neophytes, and that they defend them with paternal affection from detraction and insults.
§ 3. Converts to enjoy full civic rights
And since through the grace of baptism they are made fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God, and it is far more excellent to reign in spirit than to be born in the flesh, by the same constitution we establish that they be true citizens of the cities and places in which they shall for the time being be regenerated by holy baptism, and that they enjoy the privileges, liberties, and immunities which others obtain solely by reason of birth and origin.
§ 4. Instruction in the faith; converts not to associate long with Jews
Let the baptizing priests and others who receive them at the sacred font take care, both before and after baptism, to instruct them diligently in the articles of the faith, the precepts of the new law, and the rites of the Catholic Church; and let both these priests and the diocesans take care that the converts do not associate, at least for a long time, with other Jews or infidels, lest, as sometimes happens, the occasion of a small relapse from a healed infirmity lead them back to their former damnation.
§ 5. Converts encouraged to marry original Christians
And since experience testifies that it is commonly found that mutual association among these neophytes renders them more fragile in the new faith and greatly harms their salvation, we urge the local ordinaries, insofar as they shall see it expedient for the growth of the faith, to take care and strive to unite those neophytes in marriage with original Christians.
§ 6. Converts not to observe Jewish rites
And let them forbid those same converts, under serious penalties, from burying their dead after the manner of the Jews, or observing the Sabbath or other solemnities and rites of the old sect in any way; but let them frequent churches and preachings as other Catholics do, and conform themselves in all things to Christian customs.
§ 7–8. Penalties for contemners; backsliders to be treated as heretics
Those who are contemptuous of the foregoing shall be denounced by the priests in whose parishes they dwell, or by others to whom it pertains by law or ancient custom to inquire into such things, or by any others whatsoever, to the diocesans or inquisitors of heretical wickedness; and, with the help of the secular arm invoked if necessary, they shall be so punished by them as to pass as an example to others. Moreover, a diligent inquiry into all these matters shall be made in provincial and synodal councils. And if any person, of whatever grade or pre-eminence, shall foster or defend such neophytes so as to prevent them from embracing the observance of the Christian rite and the other things aforesaid, he shall incur by that very fact the penalties promulgated against the abettors of heretics. Neophytes, moreover, if after canonical admonition they shall neglect to correct themselves and are found to have relapsed into Judaizing and returning to the vomit, shall be proceeded against by the local ordinaries, according to the institutes of the sacred canons, as perfidious heretics.
Given at Rome, at Saint Peter’s, under the Fisherman’s Ring, on the twenty-first day of March 1542, in the eighth year of our pontificate.
Dated March 21, 1542; pontificate year 8.
Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. VI, pp. 336–338. Pope Paul III, Cupientes Judaeos. Translated from the Latin.
Pope Paul III — On the Founding of a House for Jewish Converts in Rome (1543 AD)
We pursue those whom we are unequal to advancing with so many services, that from this the gifts of divine grace may shine forth more abundantly.
A petition lately presented to us on behalf of our beloved son Giovanni de Torano, rector of the parish church of Saint John of the Market, of the Campitelli region of the City, contained that — since, to the praise and glory of Almighty God and the whole heavenly court, and for the exaltation and increase of the orthodox faith, some Jews and Hebrews, divinely inspired, had cast off the shadowy blindness by which they were then bound, and had converted themselves to the knowledge of the true light, and had been baptized with the baptismal washing; and since, by reason of the various gifts and graces bestowed upon them by the benignity of the Apostolic See, very many other Jews and Hebrews, kindled with the like desire, long to cast off that same blindness and to acknowledge that same true light; and since in the said City there exists no place in which those Jews and infidels converted from Jewish blindness to the faith of Christ can be received — the said Giovanni humbly supplicated us to deign, by apostolic benignity, to grant him license to build, near the said church, one monastery for women and one hospital for male Jewish converts, and otherwise to provide opportunely in the premises.
We therefore, counting the great grace brought to us in our times by so divine a miracle from the Most High — though by minds unequal to it — and giving thanks therefor to that same Most High, and placing great trust in the Lord in the faith and integrity, and likewise the zeal for good works, of the said Giovanni, inclined by those supplications, grant by apostolic authority, by the tenor of the present letters, to the said Giovanni the faculty of erecting, near the said church, in the place designated for this purpose, one monastery for women and one hospital, under the invocation of Saint Joseph or another which shall seem good to the same Giovanni, for male Jews and infidels whatsoever who shall wish voluntarily and freely to convert to the said faith, in which they may be received and treated with charity — to be built and erected from the goods bestowed upon the same Giovanni by God, and from the alms of the faithful granted and to be granted for this purpose. And those buildings, once constructed, we erect and establish in perpetuity as a monastery and hospital of converted Jews, without prejudice to any person, and we apply and appropriate to them perpetually, as their endowment, all goods whatsoever to be donated and left to them.
And we establish in perpetuity in the said monastery and hospital one archconfraternity, which shall be the head of all the other confraternities and hospitals and monasteries and all other places whatsoever of converted Jews and Hebrews and infidels instituted and to be instituted wherever they may be, and we immediately subject to it and make dependent members of it all confraternities, monasteries, hospitals, and places subject to it. And the converts who are Jews and Hebrews and infidels shall remain in the said monastery and hospital as catechumens for a time to be determined by the said superior, and shall be bound to hear Mass and other divine offices in the said church as their parish church, and to come to the said church on Sundays and other solemn feast days for the purpose of hearing the divine word.
Given at Rome, at Saint Peter’s, under the Fisherman’s Ring, on the twenty-first day of March 1542, in the eighth year of our pontificate.
Dated March 21, 1542; pontificate year 8.
Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. VI, pp. 351–355. Pope Paul III, constitution on the founding of the House of Catechumens in Rome. Translated from the Latin.
Pope Julius III — On Compelling the Hebrews to Burn the Talmud and Other Books in Which the Name of Jesus Is Used Ignominiously (1554 AD)
Since, as we have recently learned not without distress of mind, although our venerable brothers the cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, general inquisitors of heretical wickedness throughout the Christian commonwealth, had at our command condemned and caused to be burned by fire a certain volume of Hebrew books called the Gemara of the Talmud, containing many things unworthy and offensive to the divine law and orthodox faith — nevertheless among those same Hebrews there are still said to be various books containing various blasphemies and ignominies against Christ our Redeemer and His most holy name and honor.
§ 1. Bishops commanded to search out and burn blasphemous books
We, wishing to provide opportunely in the premises, commit and command by the present letters to you and to each of you that you intimate and notify, on our behalf, to each and every community of Hebrews within the limits of your jurisdiction, that once four months have elapsed from the day of such intimation and notification, all and each of the books in which the name of Jesus our Savior — which is called “Yeshu HaNozri” — is named with blasphemy or otherwise ignominiously, both in their synagogues and public places and private houses, and everywhere else, be most diligently sought out; and that those who are found to have such books in their possession in any manner be irremissibly punished with the appropriate penalties, both monetary and of confiscation of goods, and, if their contumacy or the nature of the offense demands it, corporally, even to the ultimate punishment, and otherwise as those who apostatize from the faith of Christ are punished. And those same books, with all diligence, shall be inquired into and carefully investigated by you or others deputed by you for this purpose, and those who are found to have such books in their possession shall be altogether and irremissibly punished with the penalties with which the aforesaid apostates are punished.
§ 2. Hebrews not to be molested for other books that do not contain blasphemy
Not permitting henceforth those same Hebrews — who, in memory of the Lord’s Passion, are tolerated by holy mother Church so that, attracted at some time by our mildness, they may, with the divine Spirit inspiring them, be converted to the true light of Christ — to be in any way vexed or molested by any persons, even those wielding apostolic authority, on the occasion of any sort of books found among them, provided they do not contain blasphemy as aforesaid, except by our express command.
Given at Rome, at Saint Peter’s, under the Fisherman’s Ring, on the twenty-ninth day of May 1554, in the fifth year of our pontificate.
Dated May 29, 1554; pontificate year 5.
Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. VI, pp. 482–483. Pope Julius III, Contra Hebraeos retinentes libros Thalmudi. Translated from the Latin.
Pope Julius III — Imposing an Annual Subsidy of Ten Gold Ducats per Synagogue from Jews of the Ecclesiastical State for the Upkeep of the House of Catechumens in Rome (1554 AD)
Bearing the office of the eternal Shepherd, though unworthy, in these lands, we are pressed by assiduous cares and struck by continual reflection, so that all those sitting in the shadow of death may be led from wherever they may be to the Lord’s fold, and once led there, may find the necessary pastures, be comforted in the Lord, and advance in spiritual growth.
Since, as we have learned, in very many places subject to us and the Roman Church, certain goods or revenues have been set aside for the sustenance of poor Hebrews and for their other works or ceremonies; or the Hebrews themselves are accustomed to make certain contributions for the exercise of such ceremonies and works; and the revenues of the house or hospital of catechumens of the City, in which those same Jews who are from time to time converted to the faith of Christ and reborn at the font of Baptism are received charitably and instructed in the Catholic faith, are so slender and thin that they do not suffice for the sustenance of those catechumens and the maintenance of the other pious works exercised therein —
We, upon whom the universal care of the Christian faithful and their souls is incumbent, attending to the fact that from the conversion of Jews their community also benefits — since they are relieved of the expenses of sustaining those poor Jews who are converted from time to time, which they would have to bear before conversion — and therefore considering it fitting that those same Jews should contribute to the sustenance of those catechumens, by our own motion and out of our certain knowledge, by apostolic authority, we will, establish, and ordain that each and every community or congregation of those same Jews and Hebrews — both in the said City of ours and in all other cities, lands, provinces, and other places subject mediately or immediately to us and to the same Roman Church — for each of their places, synagogues, or whatever else they may be called, in which their superstitions or ceremonies are customarily performed, shall be bound and obliged to pay to the hospital or house of catechumens of the aforesaid City, or to those deputed for it from time to time, for the sustenance of those catechumens, on the feast of All Saints each year, the sum of ten gold ducats of the Camera — yet in such a way that the distribution of this sum of ten ducats shall be made according to the resources of each synagogue of each province, burdening one more than another according to its resources, and the wealthier being bound to contribute proportionably for the poorer synagogue of that province.
Given at Rome, at Saint Peter’s, under the Fisherman’s Ring, in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1554, in the fifth year of our pontificate.
Dated 1554; pontificate year 5.
Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. VI, pp. 484–486. Pope Julius III, Impositio annui subsidii decem ducatorum auri de Camera per unamquamque Judaeorum synagogam Status Ecclesiastici persolvendorum. Translated from the Latin.
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.
Pope Paul IV — Declaration That Jews of the Ecclesiastical State Owe Ten Ducats per Synagogue to the House of Catechumens, Even for Demolished or Alienated Synagogues (1556 AD)
After our predecessor Julius III of happy memory had, among other things, established and ordained that each and every community or congregation of Jews — both in the said City of ours and in other cities, lands, provinces, and places of the Holy Roman Church — for each of their places called synagogues or otherwise, in which their superstitions or ceremonies were customarily performed, should be bound and obliged to pay to the hospital or house of catechumens of the said City the sum of ten gold ducats of the Camera for the sustenance of those catechumens on the feast of All Saints each year; and after, by our other letters or constitution, we had enacted that henceforward for all future time those same Jews in each and every city, land, and place should be bound to have only a single synagogue, and should not be permitted to construct any others new, but on the contrary should be bound and obliged to demolish and destroy all their other synagogues except one only —
Since it is now claimed, or could be claimed, by some that the community or congregation of those same Jews, since it may have only a single synagogue in each of the said cities, lands, and places, is, by pretext of our said letters or constitution, bound and obliged to the payment of the said ten ducats only for the place and the sole synagogue that exists, and that those deputies are able to receive those ten ducats from the single synagogue of each place and no more —
We, whose intention it never was nor is, by those our letters or constitution, to exempt the community or congregation of those same Jews from the said payment of ten ducats for each of their synagogues, even those to be demolished, nor to prejudice those catechumens in the perception and exaction of the said sum of ten ducats for each synagogue, even one to be demolished in virtue of those same our letters or constitution — attending to the fact that the payment of the said synagogues was constituted by that predecessor not as payment for the places in which those Jews gathered to perform their said superstitions or ceremonies, but for the persons of those Hebrews themselves and for each and every community and congregation thereof — hereby declare that it never was nor is our intention to have exempted the community or congregation of those Jews from the said payment. And nevertheless, for the greater security of those catechumens, we will and by apostolic authority establish and ordain that each and every community or congregation of Jews or Hebrews, for each of their synagogues — both public and private and temporary — which existed in the City and other cities, lands, provinces, and places aforesaid at the time of the publication of our said letters or constitutions, even if such synagogue shall have been or shall be demolished or alienated, shall be bound and obliged to pay the said sum of ten ducats to the hospital or house of catechumens or to its aforesaid deputies, in the said City, on the said feast of All Saints, each year, including for time past. And that each and every community or congregation of Jews or Hebrews, both in the said City and in Bologna, Ferrara, Urbino, Camerino, and the other cities, lands, provinces, and places subject to us and the said Roman Church, shall be held and obliged, jointly and in the fullest form of the Apostolic Camera, for another community or congregation or synagogue of Jews or Hebrews whatsoever, to make the payment of the said ten ducats, as aforesaid, in the said City, each year on the feast of All Saints.
Read and published in Rome, in the Apostolic Chancery, in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1556, on Thursday the ninth day of the month of January.
Published January 9, 1556; pontificate year 1.
Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. VI, pp. 508–512. Pope Paul IV, declaration on the annual subsidy of ten ducats per synagogue owed by Jews of the Ecclesiastical State to the House of Catechumens. Translated from the Latin.