Explanation of Materials
Draft due Friday, February 14
Final copy due Monday, February 17 (hard copy and electronic, please)
DOCUMENT SET I
- From the History of the Kings of England, written about 1125 by
William of Malmesbury, an English monk and probably the greatest historian of
the twelfth century. King William II Rufus ("The Red") of England reigned from
1087 to 1100. William Rufus was the son and successor of William the Conqueror,
the first Norman king of England, who after the 1066 Conquest of England had
invited Jews to come from Normandy and settle in London. There is no record of
a permanent Jewish settlement in England prior to 1066.
- From the Disputation of a Jew and a Christian, written about 1090 by
Gilbert Crispin, an English cleric. The work is intended for Archbishop Anselm
and his fellow clerics.
- [See the introduction preceding the document.]
DOCUMENT SET II
General Background: Click here for information on the "ritual murder" accusation.
- Hebrew historical account of an occurrence in Blois, a town in northern
France under the jurisdiction of Count Theobald [see introduction preceding the
document].
In the wake of the alarming Blois incident, the Jews of northern France, led by Rabbi Jacob Tam of Troyes, quickly undertook political negotiations for the safety of other Jewish communities. Part of the correspondence from these negotiations survives:
- Letter from the leaders of the Paris Jewry, telling of the negotiations with
King Louis VII of France, brother-in-law of Count Theobald of Blois.
- Letter from the Jewish community of Troyes (in northern France) to the Jews
of the Rhineland (Germany), telling them of the negotiations with the King and
also of a meeting with Theobald's brother, the Count Henry of Champagne.
- Letter of Nathan ben Rabbi Meshullam reporting on his negotiations with another of Theobald's brothers, Bishop William of Sens.
GENERAL BACKGROUND FOR DOCUMENT SETS III and IV
These documents are all taken from the registers of official papal correspondence. Letters such as these conveyed the administrative orders of the pope and were frequently issued in response to formal petitions from individuals or groups. Bringing a petition all the way to the papal court was a costly and time-consuming process and was not undertaken unless the matter was too serious, far-reaching, or difficult for a local bishop to handle.
The Church's official position on the Jews was reflected by the bull Sicut Judeis, the opening lines of which were written by Pope Gregory I (the Great) in 598: "Even as the Jews ought not have the freedom to dare do in their synagogues more than the law permits them, so ought they not suffer curtailment of those [privileges] which have been conceded to them." (A bull is a papal pronouncement of ecclesiastical law, which the clergy are required to enforce. The name of a bull is taken from its opening words, in this case "Just as to the Jews...")
Innocent III is "commonly regarded as the greatest of all the medieval popes, both in ability and in achievement. Under him and his immediate successors, the medieval church reached the apex of its spiritual, intellectual, and temporal power. The papal monarchy perfected its organization and expanded its authority over both ecclesiastical and secular affairs. The integration, development, and application of the canon law continued steadily...[Innocent III] had studied theology at Paris and canon law at Bologna. He had a thorough comand of both subjects and possessed a serene, incisive, orderly mind. Some historians maintain that he accepted the whole, full-blown theory of papal theocracy...and deliberately aimed to put the theory into practice. Others see him as more pragmatic. All agree that he sought to maximize the political power of the papacy...[He also] devoted constant attention to the moral reform of the church and to improving its internal administration."[1] Innocent III was the pope who in 1215 made it part of canon law that Jews should wear a badge on their clothing to distinguish them from Christians.
DOCUMENT SET III
- "Edict in favor of the Jews." A general mandate from Pope Innocent III
(1198-1216), this letter is essentially a reconfirmation of Sicut Judeis
with few modifications.
- Letter from Innocent III to the king of France, 1205.
DOCUMENT SET IV
General Background: See above, "General Background for Document Sets III and IV," and click here for information on the "ritual murder" accusation.
- Letter from Innocent IV (1243-1254) to the Archbishop in whose diocese the
town of Valria fell (southern part of the German empire, on the border with
France). The letters are issued from Lyons (in southern France) rather than
Rome because of ongoing strife between Innocent IV and the German emperor. At
this time Innocent IV, while pretending to negotiate with the emperor
Frederick, had slipped out of Rome in disguise and established the papal curia
at Lyons, which was over the Alps and far safer than Rome from the threat of
imperial armies.
- Letter to secular rulers (see footnote to document).
- Letter circulated to all the high clerical authorities in Germany (see
footnote to document).
- This letter is another re-issue of the bull Sicut Judeis (see Set III, document 1 above, "Edict in Favor of the Jews" for the full text of the letter). Innocent IV has modified the edict by appending a new clause to the end, which is printed here.
 Essay Assignment 2 | Ken Stow's Handout on Documentary Analysis  |
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