Acts – Page 16 – OAJA.org

1. Full Date of Act	1241
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	“Levies Against Jews” issued by King Henry III
3. Geography of Act	England
4. Text of Act	Commentary from Other Sources: 1) In England, first series of royal levies against Jewish finances, which forced the Jews to sell their debts to non-Jews at cut prices. Avraham, Yerachmiel Ben: All in the Name of Jesus: The Murder of Millions (2016)
5. Source	None
6. Researcher	None
7. Year of Research	None
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	1242
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	Jews Expelled from Berkhampstead Around 1242
3. Geography of Act	England
4. Text of Act	Commentary from other sources: 1) "Simon de Montfort ... issued an edict expelling the Jews from his home city of Leicester. This proved to be the start of a host of expulsions from various cities and towns - ..." Langham, Raphael: The Jews in Britain: A chronology, p. 18
5. Source	None
6. Researcher	None
7. Year of Research	None
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	Jan. 15, 1243
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	Writ of Conrad IV of Germany
3. Geography of Act	Holy Roman Empire; Present-day Germany
4. Text of Act	Conrad IV commands Gerhard [I.] von Sinzig (‘Sintzig’) to raise fifty Mark from the Jews of Sinzig, if necessary, though imprisonment and extortion and to send [these funds] to the royal court.
5. Source	Regesten zur Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland während des Mittelalters. Bearbeitet von Dr. M. Wiener. Erster Teil. (Regesta regarding the history of Jews in Germany during the Middle Ages. First Part.); (Hannover; 1862)
6. Researcher & Translator	Ziba Shadjaani
7. Year of Research & Translation	2020
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	Dec. 8, 1243
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	28 Henry III, Membrane 18, 1243
3. Geography of Act	England
4. Text of Act	For the bishop and brothers of the hospital of St. Anthony of Vienna. — The king gave to the master and brothers of the hospital of St. Anthony of Vienna the chapel of the blessed Mary in London, which had once been a synagogue of the Jews. And the sheriffs of London are ordered to cause brother Thomas, the procurator and messenger of their master and brothers, to have full seisin of the same chapel without delay. Witness the king.
5. Source	The text of this Act is available in Latin in the “Close Rolls of the Reign of Henry III, Preserved in the Public Record Office, Printed under the Superintendence of the Deputy Keeper of the Records, A.D. 1242-1247,” Printed Under the Authority of His Majesty’s Stationery Office by The Hereford Times, Ltd., 1916, p. 142, available from archive.org.
6. Researcher	Kate Wraith
7. Year of Research	2024
8. Notes	Translator This text of the Act was translated using Google translate.

1. Full Date of Act	1244 C.E.
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	Statutum de Iudaismo, issued by King Henry III of England
3. Geography of Act	England [Provisional]
4. Text of Act	“The justices appointed for the protection of the Jews are ordered, as soon as they read this letter, to cause to be proclaimed throughout all the counties of England where there may be Jews that if a Jewess, the wife of any Jew, or their children, fly, or take to flight, or in any way skulk from the village where they were on the festival of St. Andrew, in the twenty-ninth year of that reign, up to the year following: so that if they did not promptly appear, at the summons of the king, or of his bailiffs, in the bailiwicks in which they dwelt, that the husband of that Jewess, and even the Jewess herself, and all their children, shall be presently outlawed; and all their lands, revenues, and all their chattels, shall come into the hands of the king, and be sold, for the assistance of the king, and for the future, they shall not return into the kingdom of England, without the king’s special orders.”
5. Source	Close rolls of the reign of Henry III preserved in the Public Record Office, London : H. M. Stationery Office, 1902-1938, Vol. 5 (1242-47), p. 275, Accessed online
6. Researcher	Dominik Jacobs
7. Year of Research	2016
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	1244
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	“Impia gens” (“Impious Nation”) issued by Pope Innocent IV
3. Geography of Act	Papal States
4. Text of Act	Commentary from other sources: 1) Pope Innocent ordered Louis IX of France to burn all copies of the Talmud. This order was repeated in 1248 and 1254. Green, Jonathan and Nicholas J. Karolides (Reviser): Encyclopedia of Censorship; (New York; 2005)
5. Source	None
6. Researcher	None
7. Year of Research	None
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	1244
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	Jews Expelled from Newbury Around 1244
3. Geography of Act	England
4. Text of Act	Commentary from other sources: 1) "Simon de Montfort ... issued an edict expelling the Jews from his home city of Leicester. This proved to be the start of a host of expulsions from various cities and towns - ..." Langham, Raphael: The Jews in Britain: A chronology, p. 18
5. Source	None
6. Researcher	None
7. Year of Research	None
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	May 9, 1244
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	Letter written by Pope Innocent IV to King of France
3. Geography of Act	Present-day France
4. Text of Act	Order throughout your entire realm that everywhere (the Talmud) be found that it be burned...
5. Source	Sbaralea, Bullarium Franciscanum I, p. 322, n. 41
6. Researcher & Translator	Joan Paez
7. Year of Research & Translation	2016
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	Jul. 1, 1244
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	“Privilege,” issued by Frederick II, Duke of Austria, to the Jews of Austria, Styria and Krain
3. Geography of Act	Present-day Austria
4. Text of Act	5. Jews may not take as collateral any bloody or wet garments, nor those belonging to a church. 8. Any disputes between Jews shall not be adjudicated by the magistrate in town, but only by the Duke or by the Royal Chamberlain; in crimes against the person, the Duke shall have exclusive jurisdiction. 24. Nobody shall board in the house of a Jew.
5. Source	Aronius, J. Regesten zur Geschichte der Juden im Fränkischen und Deutschen Reiche bis zum Jahre 1273 [Regests of the History of the Jews in the Frankish and German Empires until the Year 1273]. Simion: Berlin, 1902. Page 233.
6. Researcher	Dominik Jacobs
7. Year of Research	2020
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	Jul. 27, 1245
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	Decree issued by the First Council of Lyons
3. Geography of Act	France
4. Text of Act	We order that Jews be compelled by the secular power to remit interest, and that until they do so all intercourse shall be denied them by all Christ's faithful under pain of excommunication…The Jews shall be compelled to add to the capital, after they have deducted their necessary expenses, the revenues which they are meanwhile receiving from property held by them on security.
5. Source	“First Council of Lyons-1245 A.D.” No Author, Accessed online.
6. Researcher	None
7. Year of Research	2011
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	Oct. 23, 1245
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	Papal Bull “Cum In Sacro Generali,” issued by Pope Innocent IV to the Archbishop of Besançon
3. Geography of Act	Present-day France
4. Text of Act	Since, after careful deliberation, it has been decreed in the General Council that the Jews shall by their clothes be distinguishable from the Christians, lest Christians and Jews be able to have sinful intercourse with women of the other faith, we, therefore, through Apostolic Letters, order Your Fraternity to compel the Jews of your province and diocese to wear clothes in accordance with the decree of the said Council. After duly warning them, you shall compel them to this by shutting them off from communication with the faithful, appeal denied.
5. Source	Grayzel, Solomon. Church And the Jews In the XIIIth Century: a Study of Their Relations During the Years 1198-1254, Based On the Papal Letters And the Conciliar Decrees of the Periods. The Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning: Philadelphia PA, 1933. P. 259.
6. Researcher	Dominik Jacobs
7. Year of Research	2019
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	1246 C.E.
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	Orders of Confiscation issued by Louis IX
3. Geography of Act	France [Provisional]
4. Text of Act	"[…] 2. However, from those we held captive who are our Jews, since we wish to have from them as much as possible, you should seize goods […]. 4. We also order and command you to not compel anyone to repay debts to the Jews and receive nothing of debts which Christians owe to Jews."
5. Source	La collection Doat, CLIII, fol 243. Accessed online
6. Researcher	Franziska Wagener
7. Year of Research	2016
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	Apr. 19, 1246
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	Canons decreed by the Council of Beziers
3. Geography of Act	Present-day France
4. Text of Act	§37.— Because the Jews severely oppress the Christians by the exaction of usury, in spite of the fact that usury was completely forbidden by God, therefore we caused the Provincial Council to provide that the Jews shall not receive immoderate usury from Christians. Should they continue to exact it, the Church shall compel them to restore it by excommunicating the Christians who have commercial or any other dealings with them. §38.— Nor shall they have Christian servants or nurses in their homes. Nor shall they offer meat for public sale on days when Christians abstain. Nor shall they be permitted to be superiors to Christians as bailiffs or in any other offices. Moreover, meat which they prepare, they shall sell privately in their own homes and not in Christian marketplaces. §39.— In order that Jews may be told apart from Christians, we decree and emphatically order that they shall wear a round sign in the center of their breast. Its circumference shall be one finger in width, and of the measure of one half a palm in height. §40.— Nevertheless we forbid them to work publicly on Sundays and on festivals, that they may not scandalize Christians, nor be scandalized by them. §41.— We desire and we command that during Holy Week, from the day of the Lord's supper until the day of the Resurrection, none shall leave his house unless by reason of necessity. Prelates shall then have them guarded from molestation by Christians, especially during the said week. §42.— Moreover, we decree that each year, at the Feast of Resurrection, the Jews shall pay for each family six denars of Melgoriensian money as an offering to the parish churches. §43.— Furthermore, those Christians shall be excommunicated who because of illness, entrust themselves for healing to the care of Jews.
5. Source	Grayzel, Solomon. Church And the Jews In the XIIIth Century: a Study of Their Relations During the Years 1198-1254, Based On the Papal Letters And the Conciliar Decrees of the Periods. The Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning: Philadelphia PA, 1933. P. 333.
6. Researcher	Dominik Jacobs
7. Year of Research	2019
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	May 1246 C.E.
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	Canons issued by Council of Bezier
3. Geography of Act	France [Provisional]
4. Text of Act	No member of the religion of Moses shall physic a Christian.
5. Source	“Twelve centuries of Jewish persecution: a brief outline of the sufferings of the Hebrew race in Christian lands, together with some account of the different laws and specific restrictions under which they have ar various times been placed.” Gustav Pearlson. Page 200
6. Researcher	None
7. Year of Research	None
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	Jun. 9, 1246
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	Writ of Conrad IV of Germany
3. Geography of Act	Germany; Holy Roman Empire
4. Text of Act	Conrad IV commands Gerhard [I.] of Sinzig (‘Sintzig’), his Burggraf […] to immediately pay (turn over) one hundred Mark to Gerhard von Bruneck from the Jews, whom he has imprisoned.
5. Source	Regesten zur Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland während des Mittelalters. Bearbeitet von Dr. M. Wiener. Erster Teil. (Regesta regarding the history of Jews in Germany during the Middle Ages. First Part.); (Hannover; 1862)
6. Researcher & Translator	Ziba Shadjaani
7. Year of Research & Translation	2020
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	May 15, 1248
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	“Condemnation of the Talmud” issued by Odo of Chateauroux
3. Geography of Act	France
4. Text of Act	Condemnation of the Talmud by Odo, May 15, 1248…Certain books by the name of Talmud having been presented by the Jewish masters to us armed with apostolic authority, we have examined these books and caused them to be carefully examined by men of discretion…Whereas we found that these books were full of innumerable errors, abuses, blasphemies, and wickedness such as arouse shame in those who speak of them and horrify the hearer, to such an extent that these books cannot be tolerated in the name of God without injury to the Christian faith, therefore, with the advice of those pious men whom we caused to be gathered especially for that purpose, We pronounce that the said books are unworthy of tolerance, and that they are not to be restored to the Jewish masters, and we decisively condemn them. We are also possessed of full knowledge as to the place and time of other books not shown to us by the Jewish masters nor by us examined, although we have often made demands for them; and we shall do what there is to be done with regard to them.
5. Source	“Odo of Chateauroux, on the Jewish Tamud (1247, 1248).” Jacob R. Marcus, Accessed online.
6. Researcher	None
7. Year of Research	2011
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	1250
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	“Papal Bull” issued by Pope Innocent IV
3. Geography of Act	Papal States
4. Text of Act	Commentary from other sources: 1) Refused permission to Jews of Cordova to build a new synagogue. Jewish Encyclopedia: The Popes, jewishencyclopedia.com
5. Source	None
6. Researcher	None
7. Year of Research	None
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	Aug. 1251 C.E.
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	Writ of Conrad IV
3. Geography of Act	Present-day Germany [Provisional]
4. Text of Act	“Conrad IV pledges to Gotfried von Hohenloch for 3000 Mark silver the city Rotenburg and its Jews along with Gebsattel.”
5. Source	Regesten zur Geschichte der Juden in Deutschland während des Mittelalters. Bearbeitet von Dr. M. Wiener. Erster Teil. (Regesta regarding the history of Jews in Germany during the Middle Ages. Edited by M[eir] Wiener, PhD. First Part.); (Hannover; 1862);
6. Researcher & Translator	Ziba Shadjaani
7. Year of Research & Translation	2020
8. Notes	Researcher The above is a translation of a German summary of the original Latin text. The original can be found in Stälin’s Wirtembergische Geschichte (History of Württemberg).

1. Full Date of Act	1252
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	“Ad Extirpanda” Bull issued by Pope Innocent IV
3. Geography of Act	Present-day Italy
4. Text of Act	Commentary from other sources: 1) “...in 1252, Pope Innocent IV authorizes the use of torture by the Inquisitors against Jews and other apostates.” “Jewish Persecution.” Online article
5. Source	None
6. Researcher	None
7. Year of Research	None
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	Apr. 27, 1252
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	Decree, issued by Conrad von Hochstaden, Archbishop of Cologne
3. Geography of Act	Present-day Germany
4. Text of Act	Whereas the Jews, as We Ourselves believe, must live in hope of being protected, and that the effects of divine grace may be beneficial to them, be it known that We hereby award them Our protection, here in the City of Cologne, which they may enter and settle down in, for a term of two years, in exchange for either servitude, or a tribute paid twice a year on the feast of St. John the Baptist and on Christmas Day, and that they shall not negotiate this, under any circumstances, through anybody, be it an advocate, an assembly, or anyone else.
5. Source	Weyden, Ernst. Geschichte der Juden in Köln am Rhein von den Römerzeiten bis auf die Gegenwart nebst Noten und Urkunden (History of the Jews in Cologne on Rhine from Roman Times to the Present, accompanied by Notes and Documents). DuMont-Schauberg: Cologne, 1867. Page 353.
6. Researcher	Dominik Jacobs
7. Year of Research	2020
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	Jan. 31, 1253
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	Ordinances of 1253, decreed by King Henry III of England
3. Geography of Act	England
4. Text of Act	The King has provided and decreed, etc. that no Jew dwell in England unless he do the King service, and that as soon as a Jew shall be born, whether male or female, in some way he shall serve the King. And that there be no communities of the Jews in England save in those places wherein such communities were in the time of the lord King John, the King’s father. And that in their synagogues the Jews, one and all, worship in subdued tones according to their rite, so that Christians hear it not. And that all Jews answer to the rector of the parish in which they dwell for all parochial dues belonging to their houses. And that no Christian nurse hereafter suckle or nourish the male child of any Jew, and that no Christian man or woman serve any Jew or Jewess, nor eat with them, nor dwell in their house. And that no Jew or Jewess eat or buy meat in Lent. And that no Jew disparage the Christian faith, nor publicly dispute touching the same. And that no Jew have secret intercourse with any Christian woman, nor any Christian man with a Jewess. And that every Jew wear on his breast a conspicuous badge. And that no Jew enter any church or any chapel save in passing through, nor stay therein to the dishonour of Christ. And that no Jew in any wise hinder another Jew willing to be converted to the Christian faith. And that no Jew be received in any town without the special licence of the King, save in those town wherein Jews have been wont to dwell. And the justices appointed to the guardianship of the Jews are commanded to cause these provisions to be carried into effect and straitly kept on pain of forfeiture of the goods of the Jews aforesaid. Witness the King at Westminster on the 31st day of January.
5. Source	English Economic History: Select Documents, Edited by Alfred Edward Bland, Richard Henry Tawney. Macmillan: New York, 1919. p. 45. Accessed online
6. Researcher	Dominik Jacobs
7. Year of Research	2016
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	Jul. 23, 1253
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	Papal Bull “Sicut Tua Nobis Fraternitas,” issued by Pope Innocent IV to the Archbishop of Vienne
3. Geography of Act	Present-day France
4. Text of Act	Since Your Fraternity tells us that the souls of the Christians are known to be threatened with serious danger because of intercourse with the Jews of your Province whom you say that you have tolerated in that Province until now because of the command of the Apostolic Throne, though not without loss to Christians and scandal on the part of many, we, aspiring wholeheartedly toward the salvation of souls, grant to you, by the authority of these letters, full power to expel the said Jews from your province, either through your own power or that of others, especially since, as we have heard, they do not obey the above-named statutes issued against them by the Apostolic Throne.
5. Source	Grayzel, Solomon. Church And the Jews In the XIIIth Century: a Study of Their Relations During the Years 1198-1254, Based On the Papal Letters And the Conciliar Decrees of the Periods. The Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning: Philadelphia PA, 1933. P. 293.
6. Researcher	Dominik Jacobs
7. Year of Research	2019
8. Notes	Researcher Both the Latin Viennensi as well as the English Viennese may refer to either Vienne, France, or Vienna, Austria. Even the French Viennois can mean either one. Footnotes make it clear that the bull was sent to Vienne, not Vienna.

1. Full Date of Act	1254 C.E.
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	“Regulations of Ottocar” (“Codex Juris Municipiorum”) issued by Ottocar
3. Geography of Act	Present-day Czech Republic [Provisional]
4. Text of Act	“[…] 1) Jews may take interest at a rate of 5 pfennig in the mark, 6 pfennig in the pound, and 1 pfennig in 30. 2) When a Jew is a plaintiff against a Christian, he must produce Christian as well as Jewish witnesses, and vice versa. 3) A Jew found with an unmarried Christian woman shall be sentenced to death. 4) A Jew found with a married Christian woman shall be sentenced to death. 5) Blood-stained garments may not be taken in pledge. 6) A Christian killing a Jew shall be sentenced to death. 7) A Jew taking an ecclesiastical vessel in pledge shall surrender it on demand without reimbursement. 8) A Jew called upon to take an oath in a lawsuit concerning a Christian shall swear by the Pentateuch. […]”
5. Source	The Jewish Encyclopedia: The History, Religion Literature, and Customs of the Jewish People From the Earliest Times to the Present Day; edited by Isidore Singer; New York/London;
6. Researcher	Ziba Shadjaani
7. Year of Research	2018
8. Notes	Researcher Charles IV confirmed Ottocar’s regulations in 1356 and King Wenceslaus IV renewed them in 1393.

1. Full Date of Act	Mar. 14, 1254
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	Papal Letter, issued by Pope Innocent IV to the Bishop of Constance
3. Geography of Act	Present-day Germany
4. Text of Act	Although, after careful deliberation, it was decreed in the sacred General Council that the Jews should be distinguishable from the Christians by their clothes, lest Christians and Jews be able to have sinful intercourse with women of the other faith, nevertheless, we have been informed, the Jews of your Province and Diocese do not observe this decree, and as a result they may dare to commit the sin of forbidden intercourse under the veiling of error. Wanting, however, that this statute should be rigorously observed, we, through Apostolic Letters, command Your Fraternity, if this is true, to compel the Jews to wear the sign so that by their clothes they may make themselves distinguishable from Christians. This you shall do by shutting them off from communication with the faithful, after due warning, but without the right of appeal.
5. Source	Grayzel, Solomon. Church And the Jews In the XIIIth Century: a Study of Their Relations During the Years 1198-1254, Based On the Papal Letters And the Conciliar Decrees of the Periods. The Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning: Philadelphia PA, 1933. P. 295.
6. Researcher	Dominik Jacobs
7. Year of Research	2019
8. Notes	None

1. Full Date of Act	1255
2. Name of Act (or Short Description)	Blood libel
3. Geography of Act	England
4. Text of Act	Commentary from other sources: 1) "Life was incredibly hard for England’s Jews at the time. The first instance of a blood libel - where Jews were accused of killing a Christian child in order to use his blood in Jewish rituals - occurred in 1144 in the English town of Norwich. A second blood libel took place in 1255 - during Licoricia’s lifetime - when the body of a young child was found in a well in the town of Lincoln. The boy’s friends accused local Jews of kidnapping, torturing and murdering the child. Lincoln’s sheriff arrested over 90 Jews; 18 were executed. Both of the children at the centers of these blood libels were made into saints (St. William of Norwich and St. Hugh of Lincoln), stoking Christian hatred of local Jews still further." Dr. Yvette Alt Miller, "The Most Famous Jewish Woman in Medieval England," aish.com
5. Source	None
6. Researcher	None
7. Year of Research	None
8. Notes	None