The Church and the Jews in the XIIIth century

An edition of all the papal bulls concerning the status and rights of the Jews from 1254-1314. The full Latin text of 92 bulls, issued by the popes from Alexander IV to Clement V, is given (11 are published for the first time), together with detailed English summaries. Excerpts from the legislation of provincial and local councils, from the same period, concerning the Jews are also published and translated. Includes reprints of two of Grayzel's articles as introduction and appendix. "Popes, Jews, and Inquisition from 'Sicut' to 'Turbato'" (pp. 1-45) [first published in "Essays on the Occasion of the Seventieth Anniversary of Dropsie University" (1979)] deals with the change in papal legislation, from the relatively protective "Sicut Judaeis" bulls of the early 12th century to the "Turbato Corde" bull of 1267, which empowered the Inquisition to investigate Jews suspected of proselytizing and punish offenders. "References to the Jews in the Correspondence of John XXII" [first published in the "Hebrew Union College Annual" 23 (1950-1951)] relates to the years 1316-1334: the material is mostly descriptive, as policy regarding the Jews was by then in the hands of the Inquisition and the secular powers. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)