The Roman Catholic Church—Policies—Economic Limitations

 

Medieval Jewish moneylenders

Illuminated manuscript of Jewish money lenders in France at the time of Louis XI

While the notion of Jewish harm inflicted on Christians was initially an issue of the religious sphere of life, with the passage of time this notion could easily be expanded and was. With the Jewish move into heavy concentration in money-lending during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, churchmen-who regarded themselves and were regarded by others as protectors of the Christian masses and who were aware that the Church attack on Christian money-lending had opened the way for Jewish involvement in this important sphere of the economy-began to call for limitations that would safeguard vulnerable Christians. Such safeguards included limitations on those who might borrow from Jews and on the objects that might be left as pledges with Jewish lenders.

The most prominent of these safeguards was demanded at the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, already noted for its enactment of distinguishing Jewish garb. With respect to Jewish money-lending, the assembled leaders of the Roman Catholic Church legislated that Jews not lend money at exorbitant rates of interest, which were proving harmful to Christian borrowers. Jews were to lend only at moderate rates of interest. Eventually, some churchmen concluded that earlier ecclesiastical thinking about the permissibility of Jewish lending had been misguided and that Jews in fact had no right to take interest from Christians at all.

Once again, the Church could only demand. It was up to the secular authorities to enforce these ecclesiastical demands. For many lay authorities, Jewish money-lending was the source of considerable revenue, making them loathe to surrender such funds. Through the later centuries of the Middle Ages, ecclesiastical and lay leaders were involved in an ongoing battle over the issue of Jewish lending.

Images

  1. Pope Innocent III
  2. Monti de Pieta

Primary Texts

  1. Pope Innocent III, 1208 Papal Document
  2. Fourth Lateran Council, 1215 Conciliar Decree
  3. Council of Narbonne, 1227 Conciliar Decree
  4. Pope Gregory IX, 1237 Papal Document

Secondary Literature

  1. S. Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews- History, 157-227.
  2. R. Chazan, The Jews of Medieval Western Christendom, 58-63.
  3. K. Stow, “Papal and Royal Attitudes toward Jewish Lending in the Thirteenth Century,” AJS Review6 (1981)-161-184.
  4. A. Toaff, “Jews, Franciscans, and the First Monti de Pieta in Italy (1462-1500),” Friars and Jews in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, ed. Steven J. McMichael and Susan E. Myers (Leiden- Brill, 2004), 239-253.

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