Constitution for the Jews (1199 AD)
Although in many ways the disbelief of the Jews must be reproved, since nevertheless through them our own faith is truly proved, they must not be oppressed grievously by the faithful as the prophet says: “Do not slay them, lest these be forgetful of Thy Law,” [Ps. 58 (59):12] as if he were saying more openly: “Do not wipe out the Jews completely, lest perhaps Christians might be able to forget Thy Law, which the former, although not understanding it, present in their books to those who do understand it.”
Just as, therefore there ought not to be license for the Jews to presume to go beyond what is permitted them by law in their Synagogues, so in those which have been conceded to them, they ought to suffer no prejudice. These men, therefore, since they wish rather to go on in their own hardness than to know the revelations of the prophets and the mysteries of the Law, and to come to a knowledge of the Christian faith, still, since they beseech the help of Our defense, We, out of the meekness proper to Christian piety, and keeping in the footprints of Our predecessors of happy memory, the Roman Pontiffs Calixtus, Eugene, Alexander, Clement, and Celestine, admit their petition, and We grant them the buckler of Our protection.
For we make the law that no Christian compel them, unwilling or refusing, by violence to come to baptism. But if any one of them should spontaneously,a nd for the sake of faith, fly to the Christians, once his choice has become evident, let him be made a Christian without any calumny. Indeed, he is not considered to possess the true faith of the Christianity who is recognized to have come to Christian baptism, not spontaneously, but unwillingly.
Too, no Christian ought to presume, apart from the juridicial sentence of the territorial power, wickedly to injure their persons, or with violence to take away their property, or to change the good customs which they have had until now in whatever region they inhabit.
Besides, in the celebration of their own festivals, no one ought to disturb them in any way, with clubs or stones, nor ought any one try to require from them or to extort from them services they do not owe, except for those they have been accustomed from times past to perform.
In addition to these, We decree, blocking the wickedness and avarice of evil men, that no one ought to dare to mutilate or diminish a Jewish cemetery, nor, in order to get money, to exhume bodies once they have been buried.
If anyone, however shall attempt, the tenor of this decree once known, to go against it – may this be far from happening! – let him be punished by the vengeance of excommunication, unless he correct his presumption by making equivalent satisfaction.
We desire, however, that only those be fortified by the guard of this protection who shall have presumed no plotting for the subversion of the Christian faith.
Given at the Lateran, by the hand of Raynaldus, Archbishop of Acerenza, acting for the Chancellor, on the 17th day before the Kalends of October, in the second indiction, and the 1199th year of the Incarnation of the Lord, and in the second year of the pontificate of the Lord Pope, Innocent III.
Source. Internet Medieval Sourcebook – D. Andrew Byler. Innocent III, Constitution for the Jews. Migne, PL 215. 1855.
Etsi Non Displiceat (1205 AD)
Even if it may not displease the Lord, but rather be acceptable to Him that the dispersion of the Jews lives and serves under Catholic kings and Christian princes, whose remnants will finally be saved when in those days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely, nevertheless they greatly offend the eyes of divine majesty, who prefer the sons of the crucifiers, against whom the blood still cries in the Father’s ears, to the co-heirs of the crucified Christ, and as if the son of the handmaid could and should be heir with the son of the free woman, they place Jewish servitude before the freedom of those whom the Son has freed.
Indeed, you should know that it has come to our attention that in the Kingdom of France the Jews have become so insolent that, under the appearance of usurious wickedness, through which they extort not only usury but usury upon usury, they usurp the goods of churches and possessions of Christians, and thus what the prophet laments in the person of the Jews seems fulfilled among the Christian people: “Our inheritance,” he says, “has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners” (Lamentations 5).
Moreover, although it was established in the Lateran Council that Jews should not be permitted to have Christian servants in their houses, neither under the pretext of raising children, nor for service, nor for any other cause, and that those who presume to live with them should be excommunicated, they themselves do not hesitate to have Christian servants and nurses, with whom they sometimes commit abominations which it is more appropriate for you to punish than for us to explain.
Furthermore, although the same council has decided that the testimony of Christians against Jews in common causes should be admitted, since they also use Jewish witnesses against Christians, and has decreed that whoever would prefer Jews to Christians in this matter should be anathematized, they are shown such deference in the Kingdom of France that Christian witnesses are not believed against them, but they are admitted to testify against Christians.
But if sometimes those to whom they lend their money under usury produce Christian witnesses regarding a payment made, more credence is given to the document which the debtor had carelessly left with them through negligence or carelessness, than to the witnesses introduced; indeed, witnesses are not even received in this matter against them. They have even become so insolent—which we relate with embarrassment—that in Sens, near a certain old church, they have built a new Synagogue, considerably higher than the church, in which, not as formerly before they had been expelled from the kingdom, with a lowered voice, but with a great clamor, celebrating their services according to the Jewish rite, they do not hesitate to impede the celebration of divine services in that church.
Moreover, blaspheming the name of the Lord, they publicly insult Christians that they believe in a certain rustic hanged by the Jewish people, whom indeed we do not doubt was hanged for us, since he bore our sins in his body upon the tree, but we do not confess him to be rustic in manners or lineage; indeed, even they cannot deny that he descended according to the flesh from a priestly and royal line, and his manners were distinguished and honorable.
Also on the day of preparation (Good Friday), Jews, contrary to the old custom, publicly running through the streets and squares, mocking Christians gathering from all sides according to custom to adore the crucified one on the cross, and by their reproaches they try to recall them from the duty of adoration. The doors of the Jews also remain open to thieves until midnight, and if anything stolen is found among them, no one can obtain justice from them.
Therefore, the Jews abuse the royal patience, and, while remaining among Christians, they take advantage of their hosts and secretly kill Christians when they have the opportunity, as is said to have happened recently, when a certain poor scholar was found dead in their latrine.
Therefore, lest the name of the Lord be blasphemed through them, and lest the liberty of Christians be worse than the servitude of Jews, we admonish your royal serenity and exhort you in the Lord, and enjoin you for the remission of sins, that you should restrain the Jews from such presumptions, and endeavor to abolish such abuses from the Kingdom of France, that you may be seen to have zeal for God according to knowledge, and since even secular laws punish more severely those who blaspheme the name of the Lord, so punish such blasphemers that the punishment of some may be the fear of all, and that the ease of pardon may not provide an incentive for wrongdoing.
Furthermore, rise up powerfully to eliminate heretics from the Kingdom of France, and let not the royal highness permit wolves hiding under sheep’s clothing to destroy the sheep to remain hidden in his land, but demonstrate in their persecution the fervor with which he pursues the Christian faith.
Given at Rome, at Saint Peter’s, on the seventeenth day before the Kalends of February, in the seventh year.
Source. Patrologia Latina – Translated by Claude.AI. Innocent III, Etsi Non Displiceat. Migne, PL 215. 1855.
Etsi Judaeos (1205 AD)
As for those Jews, whom their own guilt has subjected to perpetual servitude since they crucified the Lord, whom your prophets had predicted would come in the flesh for the redemption of Israel (471), Christian piety accepts and sustains their cohabitation. Meanwhile, because of their perfidy, the Saracens who persecute the Catholic faith and do not believe in the one crucified by them cannot sustain themselves, but rather have been expelled from their territories. Yet they cry out more vehemently against us because we tolerate among us those who truly confess our Redeemer condemned by them to the torture of the cross. Nevertheless, they ought not to be ungrateful to us, repaying Christians with insult for grace and with contempt for familiarity. Having been mercifully admitted into our familiarity, they repay us in the way that, according to the common proverb, the mouse in the pouch, the serpent in the lap, and the fire in the bosom are accustomed to reward their hosts.
We have learned that the Jews, whom the grace of princes has admitted to their lands, have become so insolent that they commit excesses against the Christian faith that are not only unspeakable but even wicked to contemplate. For when Christian women serve as nurses for their children (479), on the day of the Lord’s Resurrection, when they receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ, for three days before they nurse them, the Jews make them pour their milk into a latrine. Furthermore, they commit other detestable and unheard-of acts against the Catholic faith, because of which the faithful should fear incurring divine indignation, since they allow them to perpetrate with impunity things that bring confusion to our faith.
Therefore, we have asked our most beloved son in Christ, Philip, the illustrious King of France (473), and we have also commanded the noble men… the Duke of Burgundy and the Count of Troyes, to repress the excesses of the Jews in such a way that they may not presume to raise the neck submitted to the yoke of perpetual servitude against the reverence of the Christian faith. We strictly forbid (474) that henceforth they have Christian nurses or servants (475), lest the children of the free woman serve the children of the slave, but as servants rejected by the Lord, against whose death they wickedly conspired, let them at least through their actions recognize themselves as servants of those whom Christ’s death made free and them servants. For since they have already begun to gnaw like a mouse and to sting like a serpent, it is to be feared that the fire received in one’s bosom may consume those who harbor it.
Therefore, we command your fraternity by apostolic writings, ordering that you diligently admonish and effectively induce the aforementioned king and others on our behalf, so that the perfidious Jews may in no way become insolent, but under servile fear may always display the shame of their guilt and revere the honor of the Christian faith. If, however, the Jews do not dismiss Christian nurses and servants, you, supported by our authority, under penalty of excommunication, strictly forbid all Christians from daring to engage in any commerce with them.]
Given on the Ides of July.
Source. Patrologia Latina – Translated by Claude.AI. Innocent III, Etsi Judaeos. Migne, PL 215. 1855.
Letter to Master Peter, Presbyter of Santa Columba (1205 AD)
Latin Text
Non decet eos, quos unda baptismatis regeneravit in Christo et adoptavit in filios veræ lucis, ut cohabitent illis, quos duritia cordis ab aguilione [veri luminis extracavit, ne in eorum obfen ebretur…] pias adimplere morientium voluntates. Nulli ergo, etc. Si quis autem, etc.
Datum Romae, apud Sanctum Petrum, IX Kalendas Februarii, anno septimo.
English Translation
It is not fitting that those whom the waters of baptism have regenerated in Christ and adopted as sons of true light should cohabit with those whom hardness of heart [has removed from the stimulus of true light…] to piously fulfill the wills of the dying. Let no one therefore, etc. But if anyone, etc.
Given at Rome, at St. Peter’s, on the 9th day before the Kalends of February, in the seventh year.
Source. Patrologia Latina – Translated by Claude.AI. Innocent III, Letter to Master Peter. Migne, PL 215, col. 507. 1855.
Letter to the King of Castile (1205 AD)
Latin Text (excerpts)
Non minus pro illorum peccato qui faciunt, quam pro eorum qui sustinent detrimento, dolemus et graviter conturbamur, quod regia celsitudo illis se gravem exhibet et severam, quibus benigna et propitia deberet adesse, illosque molestat, quos praecipue fovere deberet. Accepimus autem, quod, cum universos clericos regni tui ab omni exactione absolveris et collecta, mutata tandem post tempora voluntate, ipsis, pro velle tuo, collectas et exactiones imponis, cum, servi Judaeorum empti sive vendicti convertuntur ad fidem, licet pretium quod pro talibus dari debet, in canone sit taxatum, per Judaeos ipsos tantum facis de bonis episcopalibus detineri, quantum ipsi eosdem servos valuisse firmaverint juramento.
Unde, nuper a venerabili fratre nostro…. Burgensi episcopo, pro quadam Sarracena, Judaei cujusdam ancilla, quam vix asserit decem solidos valuisse, ducentos aureos recipi mandavisti, et, licet, super eo quod Judaeos et Sarracenos tui regni compelli ad solvendas decimas de possessionibus non permittis, litteras tibi apostolicas duxerimus transmittendas, tu tamen, nequidem eos noluisti ad decimarum solutionem inducere, verum etiam liberiorem eis decimas non solvendi et etiam ampliores possessiones licentiam tribuisti, ut, Synagoga crescente, decrescat ecclesia, et libere praeponatur ancilla…
Ne igitur, charissime in Christo fili, ecclesiasticam libertatem deprimere, et Synagogam, ac Moschiam extollere videaris, neque in Ecclesiam, sponsam Christi, aut ministros ipsius exerceas quae tuae fidei puritatem offuscent, serenitatem regiam monemus in Domino et hortamur, quatenus praedicta omnia et in te corrigas perfecte, et in aliis corrigi concessa tibi facias potestate.
English Translation
We grieve and are gravely disturbed no less for the sin of those who commit these things than for the harm of those who suffer them, that your royal highness shows itself harsh and severe to those to whom it ought to be kind and favorable, and harasses those whom it especially ought to cherish. Moreover, we have learned that, although you absolved all the clergy of your kingdom from every exaction and collection, having changed your will after a time, you impose collections and exactions upon them according to your pleasure; and when servants of Jews, whether bought or sold, are converted to the faith, although the price which ought to be paid for such persons is fixed by canon law, through the Jews themselves you cause to be withheld from episcopal goods as much as these same Jews affirm under oath that those servants were worth.
Wherefore, recently from our venerable brother… the Bishop of Burgos, for a certain Saracen woman, the handmaid of a certain Jew, whom he asserts was scarcely worth ten solidi, you commanded two hundred gold pieces to be received; and, although concerning the fact that you do not permit the Jews and Saracens of your kingdom to be compelled to pay tithes on their possessions, we have deemed it necessary to send you apostolic letters, nevertheless you not only refused to induce them to payment of tithes, but indeed you granted them freer license not to pay tithes and even to acquire larger possessions, so that, with the Synagogue increasing, the Church decreases, and the handmaid is freely preferred…
Therefore, lest you, most beloved son in Christ, should appear to oppress ecclesiastical liberty and to exalt the Synagogue and the Mosque, and lest you practice against the Church, the bride of Christ, or her ministers, things which obscure the purity of your faith, we admonish and exhort your royal serenity in the Lord that you perfectly correct all these things in yourself, and cause them to be corrected in others by the authority granted to you.
Source. Patrologia Latina – Translated by Claude.AI. Innocent III, Letter to the King of Castile. Migne, PL 215, col. 616. 1855.
Letter to the Clergy of Barcelona (1208 AD)
Latin Text (excerpts)
Orta tempestate in hoc mari magno et spatioso, et in ea genere periclitante humano, verus Jonas, Dei Filius, Jesus Christus, in altitudinem ejus veniens, se permisit ab ipsa tempestate demergi, ut nos Deo reconciliaret in suo sanguine, ac in suam imaginem transformaret, innovaretque per lavacrum regenerationis ejusdem sanguine consecratum, non excludens conditionem vel sexum, sed, sine personarum acceptione, illud commune instituit sacramentum, per quod in adoptione filiorum Dei ex omni genere poterit assumi…
Sane, ad nostram noveritis audientiam pervenisse, quod, cum generale baptismum in ecclesia vestra celebratur, quamplures Saraceni, concurrentes ad ipsum, cum instantia postulant baptizari, quorum domini, tam Judaei quam et Christiani, timentes amittere commodum temporale, eos prohibere praesumunt, ab Ecclesia pretium requirentes pro illis quos regenerat Domino per baptismum, et pignora violenter pro ipsis per violentiam auferentes, inferendo alias gravamina nihilominus et jacturas.
Cum igitur Ecclesia quoslibet venientes ad agnitionem fidei, relictae vetustatis errore, recipere debeat et pulsantibus gremium aperire, et auster prohibere non debeat baptizari filios aquilonis, universitati vestrae per apostolica scripta praecipiendo mandamus, quatenus nemini petenti sacramentum fidei denegetis, sed tam Judaeos quam Saracenos, illud humiliter postulantes, in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus sancti, ad Redemptoris gloriam baptizetis, Christianos, qui praesumpserint impedire, vel ab Ecclesia exigere praemium pro renatis, ab hujusmodi praesumptione cessare, monitione praemissa, per censuram ecclesiasticam, appellatione postposita, compellentes.
Judaeis autem, nisi per charissimum in Christo filium nostrum… Aragonum regem illustrem, ab hac nequitia fuerint revocati, Christianorum commercia per districtionem ecclesiasticam, appellatione postposita, subtrahatis.
Datum Ferentini, VII Kalendas Septembris, anno nono.
English Translation
When a tempest arose upon this great and spacious sea, and in it the human race was in peril, the true Jonas, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, coming into its depths, permitted himself to be submerged by that very tempest, that he might reconcile us to God in his blood, and might transform us into his own image and renew us through the washing of regeneration consecrated by that same blood, excluding neither condition nor sex, but without respect of persons he instituted that common sacrament by which from every race people might be adopted as sons of God…
Indeed, you should know that it has come to our attention that, when general baptism is celebrated in your church, very many Saracens, flocking to it, urgently seek to be baptized, whose masters, both Jews and Christians, fearing to lose temporal profit, presume to prohibit them, demanding a price from the Church for those whom the Lord regenerates through baptism, and violently seizing pledges for them, besides inflicting other burdens and losses.
Since therefore the Church ought to receive all who come to the knowledge of the faith, abandoning the error of antiquity, and to open her bosom to those who knock, and the south wind ought not to prohibit the baptism of the sons of the north, we command your community by apostolic writings that you deny the sacrament of faith to no one seeking it, but baptize both Jews and Saracens who humbly request it, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, to the glory of the Redeemer, compelling by ecclesiastical censure, with appeal set aside, those Christians who presume to hinder this or to demand payment from the Church for the reborn, to cease from such presumption, warning having been given beforehand.
But from the Jews, unless through our most beloved son in Christ… the illustrious King of Aragon, they shall have been recalled from this wickedness, you shall withdraw Christian commerce through ecclesiastical stricture, with appeal set aside.
Given at Ferentino, on the 7th day before the Kalends of September, in the ninth year.
Source. Patrologia Latina – Translated by Claude.AI. Innocent III, Letter to the Clergy of Barcelona. Migne, PL 215, col. 977. 1855.
Letter to King Philip of France (1208 AD)
Latin Text
Ut contra crudelissimos hostes suos Ecclesia sancta Dei, [etc., ut in alia] usque: Quapropter serenitatem regiam rogandam duximus et monendam, in remissionem sibi peccaminum injungentes, quatenus cum a praedictis legatis fueris requisitus, consilium eis ad hoc et auxilium opportunum impendas, populos tibi subditos inducendo ut ad opus tam sanctum tam per se quam per sua obsequium Deo devotum et subsidium Ecclesiae necessarium exhibere procurent, scientes remissionem peccaminum [etc., usque] obtulerint vero Deo.
Quia igitur apud eos districtio forte poterit proficere temporalis a quibus super hoc spiritualis inductio non admittitur, tuam regalem mansuetudinem in Domino deprecamur quatenus Judaeos sub tuo dominio constitutos inducas regiaque potestate compellas ut debitoribus suis in hujusmodi Dei obsequium profecturis omnino relaxent usuras, et terminos ad exsolvendum sortem praefixos, si fieri potest, prorogent competenter; ut praeter subventiones alias quas Ecclesiae in tam sancto negotio ministraveris, ex hoc quoque merces tibi aeterna retributionis accrescat.
Datum Ferentini, VII Idus Octobris, pontificatus nostri anno undecimo.
English Translation
That the holy Church of God may prevail against her most cruel enemies, [etc., as in another letter] up to: Wherefore we have deemed it necessary to ask and admonish your royal serenity, enjoining upon you for the remission of your sins, that when you shall have been requested by the aforesaid legates, you should give them counsel and opportune assistance for this purpose, inducing the peoples subject to you that they may endeavor to render both personally and through their possessions devout service to God and necessary aid to the Church for so holy a work, knowing the remission of sins [etc., up to] they shall have offered to the true God.
Since therefore temporal stricture may perhaps avail with those from whom spiritual inducement on this matter is not admitted, we beseech your royal gentleness in the Lord that you induce the Jews established under your dominion and compel them by royal power that they entirely remit usuries to their debtors who are setting out in this service of God, and, if it can be done, suitably extend the terms fixed for paying back the principal; so that besides the other aids which you shall have ministered to the Church in so holy a business, from this also may eternal reward of recompense increase for you.
Given at Ferentino, on the 7th day before the Ides of October, in the eleventh year of our pontificate.
Source. Patrologia Latina – Translated by Claude.AI. Innocent III, Letter to King Philip of France. Migne, PL 215, col. 1340. 1855.
Ut Esset Cain (1208 AD)
As Cain was to be a vagabond and fugitive upon the earth, lest he be killed by anyone, the Lord placed a mark of trembling upon his head: Because the Jews, against whom the blood of Jesus Christ cries out, although they should not be killed, lest the Christian people forget divine law, nevertheless they ought to be dispersed throughout the earth as wanderers, so that their faces may be filled with shame, and they may seek the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. For blasphemers of the Christian name should not be supported by Christian princes in the oppression of the servants of the Lord, but rather be subdued in servitude, which they deservedly rendered themselves worthy of when they laid sacrilegious hands upon Him who conferred true venerable freedom upon them, crying out that His blood be upon them and their children.
However, as has been made known to our ears, certain secular princes, not having an eye toward God, to whom all things are naked and open, since it is shameful to exact usury from Him, receive Jews in their towns and villages, to appoint them as ministers for the collection of usury, who do not fear to afflict the churches of God and the poor of Christ. Moreover, when Christians who have received loans from Jews pay them the principal and more, the overseers and servants of these powerful people often seize pledges, and sometimes imprison these Christians, compelling them to pay the heaviest usury. Wherefore widows and orphans are despoiled of their inheritances, and churches are defrauded of tithes and other customary offerings, since Jews hold castles and villages they have occupied, who utterly refuse to respond to the prelates of the churches regarding parochial rights.
Scandal is also generated through them in the Church of Christ to no small degree, because while they themselves abhor eating the flesh of animals which the faithful slaughter as unclean, they obtain this from the favor of princes that butchers hand over animals to be slaughtered to them, who, tearing them apart according to the Jewish rite, take from them as much as they want, leaving the remainder to Christians; Jewish women doing similar things with milk that is sold publicly for nourishing infants.
They presume to do another thing no less detestable to Christians, that at the time of grape harvests a Jew tramples grapes wearing linen leggings, and after extracting the purer wine according to the Jewish rite, they keep as much of it as they please, leaving the remainder, as if defiled by them, to Christian faithful; from which sometimes the sacrament of the blood of Christ is prepared. Moreover, Christian witnesses, however good and above all exception, they utterly refuse to admit against themselves, with the favor of the powerful.
Indeed, our venerable brother, the Bishop of Auxerre, in order to remove this abomination from his diocese, having taken counsel of prudent men, forbade these things to be done under the bond of anathema, enjoining in a solemn synod the surrounding priests that they should prohibit such things from being done in their churches under penalty of excommunication. Many of the faithful, devoutly obeying, chose to abstain from the aforementioned abominations. But certain nobles and powerful people and their ministers, attending to the gifts of the Jews, which subvert their hearts, presumed to terrify with threats and affect with insults some of the faithful who, because of the good of obedience and fear of the pronounced sentence, decided to abstain from such things, even compelling some who were captured to redeem themselves, and refusing to release them except at the pleasure of the Jews; who, lest they be restrained by the sentence of excommunication against persons and interdict against lands from such actions, attempt to protect themselves by the obstacle of an appeal interposed to the Apostolic See, in evasion of ecclesiastical discipline.
Furthermore, the Jews, if because of this a sentence of excommunication or interdict is sometimes promulgated against Christians, glory in the fact that, on their account, ecclesiastical instruments are suspended on the willows of Babylon, and priests are nevertheless defrauded of their revenues. But you, as we have heard, who as a Catholic man and servant of Jesus Christ ought to oppose Jewish superstitions out of reverence for Him, lest the enemies of the cross be exalted in themselves against the servants of the Crucified One, principally favor them, and they have you as their chief defender in the aforementioned excesses. Would not your zeal be gravely kindled against someone subject to you if he were to provide aid to your enemy? How much more, therefore, can you fear divine offense, that you do not fear to provide favor to those who presumed to affix the only-begotten Son of God to the cross, and still do not desist from blasphemies?
Wishing, therefore, that the scandal arisen from this among the people be removed, and that the excess of such presumption which you are said to have committed against Christ and His Church be abolished, we ask, admonish, and exhort your nobility in the Lord, mandating to you by apostolic writings that you yourself correct the aforesaid in such a way, desisting from similar things henceforth, that you may be seen to have zeal for the orthodox faith, and that we may not be compelled to lay our hands upon the correction of these things, we who, according to the Apostle, have in readiness to vindicate all disobedience, since we have been appointed by the Lord for this purpose, that we may uproot what must be uprooted and plant what must be planted.
Given at Rome at Saint Peter’s, on the 16th day before the Kalends of February, in the tenth year.
Source. Patrologia Latina – Translated by Claude.AI. Innocent III, Ut Esset Cain. Migne, PL 215. 1855.
Fourth Lateran Council (1215 AD)
67. Jews and excessive Usury
The more the christian religion is restrained from usurious practices, so much the more does the perfidy of the Jews grow in these matters, so that within a short time they are exhausting the resources of Christians. Wishing therefore to see that Christians are not savagely oppressed by Jews in this matter, we ordain by this synodal decree that if Jews in future, on any pretext, extort oppressive and excessive interest from Christians, then they are to be removed from contact with Christians until they have made adequate satisfaction for the immoderate burden. Christians too, if need be, shall be compelled by ecclesiastical censure, without the possibility of an appeal, to abstain from commerce with them. We enjoin upon princes not to be hostile to Christians on this account, but rather to be zealous in restraining Jews from so great oppression. We decree, under the same penalty, that Jews shall be compelled to make satisfaction to churches for tithes and offerings due to the churches, which the churches were accustomed to receive from Christians for houses and other possessions, before they passed by whatever title to the Jews, so that the churches may thus be preserved from loss.
68. Jews appearing in public
A difference of dress distinguishes Jews or Saracens from Christians in some provinces, but in others a certain confusion has developed so that they are indistinguishable. Whence it sometimes happens that by mistake Christians join with Jewish or Saracen women, and Jews or Saracens with christian women. In order that the offence of such a damnable mixing may not spread further, under the excuse of a mistake of this kind, we decree that such persons of either sex, in every christian province and at all times, are to be distinguished in public from other people by the character of their dress — seeing moreover that this was enjoined upon them by Moses himself, as we read. They shall not appear in public at all on the days of lamentation and on passion Sunday; because some of them on such days, as we have heard, do not blush to parade in very ornate dress and are not afraid to mock Christians who are presenting a memorial of the most sacred passion and are displaying signs of grief. What we most strictly forbid however, is that they dare in any way to break out in derision of the Redeemer. We order secular princes to restrain with condign punishment those who do so presume, lest they dare to blaspheme in any way him who was crucified for us, since we ought not to ignore insults against him who blotted out our wrongdoings.
69. Jews not to hold public offices
It would be too absurd for a blasphemer of Christ to exercise power over Christians. We therefore renew in this canon, on account of the boldness of the offenders, what the council of Toledo providently decreed in this matter : we forbid Jews to be appointed to public offices, since under cover of them they are very hostile to Christians. If, however, anyone does commit such an office to them let him, after an admonition, be curbed by the provincial council, which we order to be held annually, by means of an appropriate sanction. Any official so appointed shall be denied commerce with Christians in business and in other matters until he has converted to the use of poor Christians, in accordance with the directions of the diocesan bishop, whatever he has obtained from Christians by reason of his office so acquired, and he shall surrender with shame the office which he irreverently assumed. We extend the same thing to pagans.
70. Jewish converts may not retain their old rite
Certain people who have come voluntarily to the waters of sacred baptism, as we learnt, do not wholly cast off the old person in order to put on the new more perfectly. For, in keeping remnants of their former rite, they upset the decorum of the christian religion by such a mixing. Since it is written, cursed is he who enters the land by two paths, and a garment that is woven from linen and wool together should not be put on, we therefore decree that such people shall be wholly prevented by the prelates of churches from observing their old rite, so that those who freely offered themselves to the christian religion may be kept to its observance by a salutary and necessary coercion. For it is a lesser evil not to know the Lord’s way than to go back on it after having known it.
71. Crusade to recover the holy Land
If any of those setting out are bound by oath to pay interest, we ordain that their creditors shall be compelled by the same punishment to release them from their oath and to desist from exacting the interest; if any of the creditors does force them to pay the interest, we command that he be forced by similar punishment to restore it. We order that Jews be compelled by the secular power to remit interest, and that until they do so all intercourse shall be denied them by all Christ’s faithful under pain of excommunication. Secular princes shall provide a suitable deferral for those who cannot now pay their debts to Jews, so that after they have undertaken the journey and until there is certain knowledge of their death or of their return, they shall not incur the inconvenience of paying interest. The Jews shall be compelled to add to the capital, after they have deducted their necessary expenses, the revenues which they are meanwhile receiving from property held by them on security. For, such a benefit seems to entail not much loss, inasmuch as it postpones the repayment but does not cancel the debt. Prelates of churches who are negligent in showing justice to crusaders and their families should know that they will be severely punished.
Source. Papal Encyclicals Online – Innocent III, Fourth Lateran Council, 1215.