The following document is drawn from the Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. XX, which covers Alexander VIII (1689–1691) and Innocent XII (1691–1700). After a comprehensive search of all 120,000 lines for every term associated with Jews — Iudaei, Hebraei, synagoga, ghetto, neophyti, iudaizantes, iudaismus, conversi, Christiani Novi, limpieza de sangre, and related vocabulary — the volume yields four items.
The substantive material comprises two constitutions from Innocent XII’s first year of pontificate (both 1692) concerning blood-purity (limpieza de sangre) exclusions within religious orders. The first (Constitution XVI) confirms the full constitutions of the Mercedarian Order, which contains a blood-purity clause excluding candidates with Hebrew ancestry within four generations. The second (Constitution XVIII) is the more analytically interesting document: it partially relaxes the Discalced Trinitarian blood-purity statute confirmed by Clement X in 1676 — but does so only for the portion excluding descendants of heretics, leaving the exclusion of descendants of Jews and Moors fully in force everywhere.
Two further items are incidental. Alexander VIII’s 1690 condemnation of Jansenist propositions lists Jews, pagans, and heretics as categories of non-Christians in a theological argument about grace — the context is doctrinal, not legislative. Innocent XII’s 1699 Holy Year proclamation contains a standard typological contrast between the Christian and Jewish jubilees.
I. Incidental: Alexander VIII — Condemnation of Jansenist Propositions, Proposition V (December 7, 1690)
The following extract is from the condemnation of thirty-one Jansenist and Quietist propositions issued by Alexander VIII in a general session of the Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition, December 7, 1690. Source: Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. XX, p. 160.
Proposition V (condemned)
Pagani, iudaei, haeretici, aliique huius generis nullum omnino accipiunt a Iesu Christo influxum, adeoque hinc recte inferes in illis esse voluntatem nudam et inertem sine omni gratia sufficiente.
“Pagans, Jews, heretics, and others of this kind receive absolutely no influence from Jesus Christ, and from this one may correctly infer that in them the will is bare and inert without any sufficient grace.”
This proposition, condemned as erroneous, is a Jansenist-influenced theological claim about the scope of Christ’s redemption. The Jansenist position implied that Jews, pagans, and heretics as a class received no sanctifying influence from Christ, making their will purely natural. Alexander VIII condemned this as contrary to Catholic teaching, which holds that Christ’s grace is universally available. Jews appear here only as a theological category within a dispute about grace; there is no legislative content concerning Jewish communities.
Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. XX, p. 160. Alexander VIII, condemnation of Jansenist propositions, December 7, 1690.
II. Pope Innocent XII — Confirmantur constitutiones fratrum B. Mariae de Mercede Redemptionis Captivorum: Confirmation of the Constitutions of the Brothers of Blessed Mary of Mercy for the Redemption of Captives, containing a blood-purity clause (February 2, 1692)
Constitution XVI. Innocent XII, year I. Dated at Rome, at Santa Maria Maggiore, under the Fisherman’s Ring, February 2, 1692, pontificate year I. Source: Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. XX, pp. 235–408, with the blood-purity clause at p. 289, Chapter VI §6.
The Mercedarian Order
The Order of Our Lady of Mercy (the Mercedarians), founded in Aragon in 1218 under the Rule of St. Augustine, was established for the ransom of Christians held captive by Muslims in North Africa and Spain. Like several Spanish religious foundations, it developed a blood-purity requirement for admission over the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The constitutions confirmed here represent a new compilation submitted by the Order’s procurator general.
Chapter VI, §6: the blood-purity exclusion
In the chapter on admission to profession, superiors are commanded under penalty of automatic excommunication to notify novices being summoned to profession that the community will not consent to their profession if the novice has concealed certain impediments. Among these:
…seu genus ab hebraeis supra quartam etiam generationem, vel mauris, sive a S. Inquisitione directe vel indirecte fidei causa punitis, aut ab aliis quomodocumque nota dedecoris inustis, celaverit, dummodo tamen labes, macula et infamia omnino extincta non sit.
“…or [if he has concealed] descent from Hebrews beyond the fourth generation also, or from Moors, or from those punished by the Holy Inquisition directly or indirectly for a matter of faith, or from others on whom in any way whatsoever a mark of infamy has been branded — provided, however, that such stain, blemish, and infamy has not been altogether extinguished.“
Comparison with the Discalced Trinitarian statute (Vol. XVIII)
The Mercedarian clause differs from the Trinitarian blood-purity statute confirmed in Vol. XVIII in several significant ways:
| Feature | Discalced Trinitarians (Vol. XVIII, 1676) | Mercedarians (Vol. XX, 1692) |
|---|---|---|
| Generational limit | “in any degree” — no limit | “beyond the fourth generation” |
| Groups excluded | Jews, heretics, Moors, Moorish-origin | Hebrews, Moors, Inquisition-penanced, others with infamy |
| Extinction clause | None — exclusion permanent | Yes — lapses if stain “altogether extinguished” |
| Consequence of concealment | Profession void; immediate expulsion | Profession void; superiors must warn novice in advance |
The most significant structural difference is the extinction clause: the Mercedarian statute contemplates that the stigma of Hebrew or Moorish ancestry can eventually lapse — presumably through generations of Old Christian ancestry, intermarriage, and reputation in which living memory of the ancestry no longer survives. The Trinitarian statute has no such provision; descent “in any degree” is permanent regardless of how many generations intervene.
The Mercedarian clause is also notable for including “others on whom in any way whatsoever a mark of infamy has been branded” — embedding Jewish and Moorish ancestry within a broader framework of honor and infamy rather than treating it as purely genealogical.
The Mercedarian Order’s function — ransoming Christian captives from Muslim captivity — gave its blood-purity concerns a particular practical coloring. Members partly of Jewish or Moorish ancestry might be suspected of divided loyalties when negotiating ransoms in North Africa. This practical argument, alongside the spiritual and honor-based rationales, was a standard element of blood-purity discourse in the ransom orders.
Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. XX, pp. 235–408 (blood-purity clause at p. 289). Innocent XII, Constitution XVI, February 2, 1692.
III. Pope Innocent XII — Permittitur moderatio particulae constitutionum Ordinis SS. Trinitatis redemptionis captivorum Discalceatorum Congregationis Hispaniae de nonnullis ad habitum non recipiendis: Permission for a Modification of a Portion of the Discalced Trinitarian Constitutions Concerning Those Not to Be Received to the Habit (March 1, 1692)
Constitution XVIII. Innocent XII, year I. Dated at Rome, at Santa Maria Maggiore, under the Fisherman’s Ring, March 1, 1692, pontificate year I. Source: Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. XX, pp. 408–409.
Background
In 1676, Clement X confirmed the constitutions of the Discalced Congregation of Spain of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity (the Discalced Trinitarians), including in Chapter XLII a comprehensive blood-purity statute analyzed in the notes to Vol. XVIII. That statute excluded from the habit any person descended “in any degree” in the direct line from Jews, heretics, Moors, or persons of Moorish origin; or whose predecessors “in any degree” in the direct line had been punished by the Inquisition for heresy, Judaism, or the Mohammedan sect.
The petition and what was granted
§1. The procurator general of the Congregation, Petrus a Iesu, petitioned Innocent XII, representing that this constitution had been made at a time when the Congregation was found only in Spain, but that now, the Congregation having spread by God’s grace through Germany, Poland, and other parts of the world, experience had shown that the portion of the constitution excluding descendants of heretics could not be observed outside Spain.
§2. Innocent XII responds:
…we moderate the aforesaid constitution with respect to descendants of heretics only [quoad descendentes ab haereticis tantum], both as regards those already admitted and those to be admitted, both to the habit and to profession in the aforesaid religion; the constitution remaining firm, however, with respect to Spain and Portugal, and the authority of the Congregation of the aforesaid cardinals always saved in the premises.
What this document establishes
The document’s structure is analytically precise. It modifies the blood-purity statute in one dimension only:
| Dimension | Modified | Unchanged |
|---|---|---|
| Ancestry type | Heretics only — relaxed outside Iberia | Jews and Moors: exclusion “in any degree” continues everywhere |
| Geography | Outside Spain and Portugal | Spain and Portugal: full original statute remains in force |
| Scope | Both habit and profession; past and future admissions | — |
The argument for relaxing the heretic-exclusion outside Iberia is demographic: in post-Reformation Germany and Poland, virtually any candidate will have heretical ancestors at some point in the family tree, making the rule operationally impossible. The same demographic argument could, in principle, have been made for Jewish ancestors in certain parts of central and eastern Europe — but it was not made, and the relaxation was not requested for that category. The exclusion of descendants of Jews “in any degree” therefore continues in full force everywhere the Congregation operates, without exception, limitation, or extinction clause.
Historical significance. This document reveals the hierarchy within the blood-purity ideology in sharp relief. By 1692, the heretic-exclusion had become operationally untenable outside Iberia and was relaxed. The Jewish exclusion — more deeply rooted theologically and more consistently maintained across the orders — was not even petitioned for relaxation, despite comparable or greater demographic impracticability in many parts of Europe. The asymmetry reflects not merely administrative convenience but the rank-ordering of stigmas within Counter-Reformation Catholic thought: Jewish ancestry was the most refractory category, the one where even practical arguments for relaxation went unmade.
The preservation of the full statute for Spain and Portugal also reflects the political weight of the blood-purity system in Iberia. In Spain, limpieza de sangre was not merely a religious-order admissions policy but a structuring principle of social stratification — determining access to offices, guilds, cathedral chapters, military orders, and the universities. Relaxing even the heretic-exclusion in Spain might have implications far beyond the Trinitarian Order; the papacy therefore carefully insulated the Iberian territory from the accommodation made for the rest of the world.
Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. XX, pp. 408–409. Innocent XII, Constitution XVIII, Permittitur moderatio particulae constitutionum Ordinis SS. Trinitatis…, March 1, 1692. Translated from the Latin.
IV. Incidental: Pope Innocent XII — Indicitur universale iubilaeum anni sancti MDCC: Holy Year 1700 Proclamation, typological reference to the Hebrew jubilee (1699)
Constitution CLXXX. Innocent XII, year VIII. Dated 1699. Source: Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. XX, p. 877.
In the preamble to the proclamation of the Great Jubilee of the year 1700, Innocent XII offers a typological contrast between the Christian and Hebrew jubilees:
…our Christian jubilee year does not invite us, as once the Jewish people [were invited], to the recovery of earthly possessions, but to the attainment of the eternal inheritance from which the transgression of our first parent had excluded us; it does not manumit us from human servitude, but vindicates us in the freedom of the sons of God; it does not absolve us from the debt of money, but from the debt of sins; it does not withdraw us from the labor of tilling the earth, but gives us leisure for the Lord in the contemplation of heavenly things.
This is standard typological exegesis: the Hebrew jubilee of Leviticus 25 (return of land, cancellation of debts, manumission of slaves, observed every fifty years) is read as a prefiguration of the Christian jubilee. The Christian institution fulfills and transcends it by converting the earthly goods into spiritual ones. Compare the similar typological passage in Clement X’s 1674 jubilee proclamation (Vol. XVIII). No legislative content.
Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. XX, p. 877. Innocent XII, Constitution CLXXX, 1699.