Papal bull “Consuevit Interdum,” from Clement V to Mary, Queen of France [Present-day France]: “With regard to the sum of ten thousand pounds which you acquired from the Jews of your country before their recent expulsion, we grant you the right to retain one half of this sum, as long as you will use the other half for the support of the Holy Land. You shall not be compelled to make any further restitution, since you cannot identify the Jews who owned the money, or those from whom they had usuriously taken it.” [Researcher’s note: Pope Clement V had issued a similar bull to Mary in 1306, when she had claimed a ‘troubled conscience’ on account of money taken from ‘her’ Jews; less than seven years later, the Queen curiously finds herself in the same predicament, and once again, the Vatican is ready to strike a deal, ordering a 50/50 split between the Crusades and the royal coffers. The fact that possible restitution is specifically treated in this bull, betrays the fact that such reparations were actually feasible, counter to the insinuations in the Queen’s supplication, and that a readmission of the Jews into France was already considered likely at the time of Clement’s reply.]
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 229. Researched by Dominik Jacobs 11/11/2019