Papal bull from Nicholas IV to Margaret of Provence, Queen of France [Present-day France]: “As you have exposed before us, you have acquired certain sums from Jews of your country, but have no knowledge to whom these [usurious] monies should be restored, and your conscience has provided a supplication to the Apostolic See. We therefore, yielding to your righteous petition, as well as to your devotion, consider these aforesaid funds to be restored, as long as you donate a third of them to the support of the Holy Land.” [Researcher’s note: This bull is in response to a letter from the Queen, who claimed that her conscience was burdened by the wealth she confiscated from “her” Jews; the papal response ignores the fact that meticulous “Jew registers” were kept in order to facilitate these special “Jew taxes;” thus, the Pope goes along with Margaret’s bold claim that direct restitution appears impossible, and he orders “representational restitution” in the form of support for the Crusades, completely cutting off the entire Jewish community from any reparations – in addition to letting Marguerite keep two thirds of the money. However, it should also be noted that Margaret was the only woman who had ever led a crusade, and there can be little doubt that the Vatican was truly in awe of her religious devotion.]
Grayzel, Solomon. The Church and the Jews in the XIIIth Century, Volume II (1254-1315). The Jewish Theological Seminary of America: New York, 1989. Page 189. Researched by Dominik Jacobs 11/4/2019