Papacy

Pope Gregory VII
Pope Gregory VII, in 1078, decreed that Jews could not hold office or be superiors to Christians.

Pope Alexander III
In 1179, Pope Alexander III presided and over 290 bishops attended the Third Council of the Lateran. Canon 26, a law that was a result of the council, banned Jews from employing Christian servants.

Pope Innocent III
Statement by Pope Innocent III in 1205: “... the Jews, by their own guilt, are consigned to perpetual servitude because they crucified the Lord ... As slaves rejected by God, in whose death they wickedly conspired, they shall by the effect of this very action, recognize themselves as the slaves of those whom Christ's death set free ... .”

The Fourth Lateran Council, in 1215, was gathered by Pope Innocent III. Some laws or canons resulting from the council were aimed at the Jews. Canon 68 forced Jews to wear a Jewish badge and hat, Canon 69 disqualified Jews from holding public offices, and Canon 70 forbade Jews that converted to Christianity from returning to Judaism.

Pope Honorius III
Pope Honorius III's bull In generali concilio, issued in 1218 and addressed to the archbishop of Toledo, demanded the enforcement of the decision of the Fourth Lateran Council that Jews wear distinguishable clothing from Christians; also that Jews be made to pay the tithe to local churches.

Pope Gregory IX
Pope Gregory IX incorporated the doctrine of perpetual servitude of the Jews (perpetua servitus iudaeorum) into canonical law in 1234. He ordered for all copies of the Talmud to be confiscated with the bull Si vera sunt in 1239.

Pope Clement IV
The Council of Breslau, in 1266, ordered for Poland the prohibition of Jews from living next to Christians, the requirement of Jews to wear a distinctive hat, and that Jews were not to have more than one synagogue in a town.

Statement by the papal legate of Pope Clement IV at the Council of Breslau: “Since the Poles are a new plantation on the soil of Christendom, we must continually be on our guard lest the Christian population here, where the Christian religion has not yet taken deep root in the hearts of believers, succumb to the influence of the counterfeit faith and the evil habits of the Jews living in their midst.”

The bull Turbato corde issued by Clement IV, in 1267, ordered that Christians that converted to Judaism be treated as heretics.

Pope Nicholas III
Pope Nicholas III, in 1278, issued the bull Vineam soreth that ordered the attendance of Jews at conversion sermons.

Pope John XXII
Pope John XXII expelled Jews from his domain of Avignon in 1322 and issued the bull Ex parte vestra, which refused the right of asylum in churches to Jews that converted to Christianity that are suspected of relapse, and ordered the inquisitors to pursue Jews even into their places of refuge. He also ordered for the Talmud to be burned.

Pope Eugenius IV
In 1442, Pope Eugenius IV ordered the Jews to be prohibited from the building of synagogues, money-lending for interest, holding public office, and testifying against Christians.

Statement by Eugenius IV in his decree: “We decree and order that from now on, and for all time, Christians shall not eat or drink with Jews; nor admit them to feasts, nor cohabit with them, nor bathe with them. Christians shall not allow Jews to hold civil honors over Christians, or to exercise public offices in the State. Jews cannot be merchants, Tax Collectors, or agents in the buying and selling of the produce and goods of Christians, nor their Procurators, Computers or Lawyers in matrimonial matters, nor Obstetricians; nor can they have association or partnership with Christians. No Christian can leave or bequeath anything in his last Will and Testament to Jews or their congregations. Jews are prohibited from erecting new synagogues. They are obliged to pay annually a tenth part of their goods and holdings. Against them Christians can testify, but the testimony of Jews against Christians in no case is of any value. All and every single Jew, of whatever sex and age, must everywhere wear the distinct dress and known marks by which they can be evidently distinguished from Christians. They cannot live among Christians, but in a certain street, separated and segregated from Christians, and outside which they cannot under any pretext have houses.”

Pope Paul IV
Pope Paul IV’s 1555 bull, Cum nimis absurdum, placed more restrictions on the Jewish people. Its name comes from the bull's first words: “Since it is absurd and utterly inconvenient that the Jews, who through their own fault were condemned by God to eternal slavery ... .” The bull renewed many prior canonical restrictions against the Jews. Among the bull's orders includes restricting Jews in their commercial conduct, forbidding them to have only one synagogue in any city, enforcing the wearing of the Jewish hat, forbidding Jews to be titled “signor”, and ordering Jews to live in a ghetto. Paul IV had ordered over twenty Marranos (Spanish Jews that converted to Christianity that were secretly practicing Judaism) to be burned at the stake in Ancona. In 1559, the pope placed the Talmud on the list of banned books.

Pope Pius V
The bull Hebraeorum gens by Pope Pius V, issued in 1569, ordered the removal of the Jews from his territory in 90 days.

Statement by Pius V: “The Jewish people fell from the heights because of their faithlessness and condemned their Redeemer to a shameful death. Their godlessness has assumed such forms that, for the salvation of our own people, it becomes necessary to prevent their disease.

Besides usury, through which Jews everywhere have sucked dry the property of impoverished Christians, they are accomplices of thieves and robbers; and the most damaging aspect of the matter is that they allure the unsuspecting through magical incantations, superstition, and witchcraft to the Synagogue of Satan and boast of being able to predict the future. We have carefully investigated how this revolting sect abuses the name of Christ and how harmful they are to those whose life is threatened by their deceit.

On account of these and other serious matters, and because of the gravity of their crimes which increase day to day more and more, We order that, within 90 days, all Jews in our entire earthly realm of justice - in all towns, districts, and places - must depart these regions.

After this time limit shall all at the present or in the future, who dwell or wander into that city or other already mentioned, be affected, their property confiscated and handed over to the Siscus, and they shall become slaves of the Roman Church, live in perpetual servitude and the Roman Church shall have the same rights over them as the remaining [worldly] lords over slaves and property.”

Pope Gregory XIII
The bull Sancta mater ecclesia by Pope Gregory XIII, in 1584, ordered Jews to listen to conversionist sermons weekly.

Pope Clement VIII
In 1592, Pope Clement VIII issued the bull Cum saepe accidere that forbade the Jewish community of the Comtat Venaissin of Avignon to sell new commodities. He expelled Jews from most of the Papal States, in 1593, with the bull Caeca et obdurata. With the issuing of the bull Cum hebraeorum malitia he put a ban on the Talmud.

Statement by Clement VIII: “All the world suffers from the usury of the Jews, their monopolies and deceit. They have brought many unfortunate people into a state of poverty, especially the farmers, working class people, and the very poor.”

Pope Pius VI
Pope Pius VI issued an anti-Jewish proclamation restoring anti-Jewish legislation, in 1775, called Editto sopra gli ebrei (Edict over the Hebrew). Some of the 24 clauses in the Editto are that Jews are condemned to death if they spend the night outside a ghetto and studying the Talmud is forbidden.

Pope Pius VII
After Napoleon's rule ended and Pope Pius VII was restored to power in the mid-1810s, the pope reinstated the Roman ghetto for the confinement of Jews.

Pope Leo XII
In the 1820s, Pope Leo XII ordered the Jews of Rome to live in Rome's ghetto. The Pope also forced Jews to attend and pay for Christian sermons.

Pope Pius IX
After the fall of the Roman Republic of 1849 and the pope being restored to power, Pope Pius IX forced the Jewish people of Rome into the ghetto in 1850. After the Papal States were annexed by the Kingdom of Italy, in 1870, and the ghetto was dismantled, he described Jews as dogs that were “barking up and down Rome's street”.

The Papal State police, during 1858, seized a six old boy from his Jewish parents after a Christian servant girl reportedly baptized the boy named Edgardo Mortara. This had made the child legally a Christian convert, and the Papal State law prohibited Christians from being raised by Jews. Pope Pius IX took custody of Edgardo Mortara and refused to return him to his parents. The pope had the child brought up as a Christian.