TOLERATION
762
TOLERATION
we should probably obtain a clearer view of the tolera-
tion of the Church in past history by studying the re-
lations of the papacy with those bodies which like the
Jews and pagans were recognized as lying outside her
direct jurisdiction. Regarded as a centre of spiritual
authority the Holy See did not claim the unbap-
tized as subjects, but still the popes as sovereigns of a
temporal state had to adopt a definite attitude to-
wards the Jews who hved in their dominions. Tracing
these relations as a whole and comparing them with
the ideas which prevailed among secular rulers of the
time, the principles formulated, and for the most part
acted upon, by the popes, set an example of mildness
to the rest of Europe. As early as a. d. 598, Gregory
the Great clearly laid down that the Jews, while they
were to be restrained from presuming upon the tolera-
tion accorded to them by the law, had a claim to be
treated equitably and justly. They were to be
allowed to keep their own festivals and religious prac-
tices, and their rights of property, even in the case of
their synagogues, were to be respected (Greg. Mag.
Regesta, M. G. H., II, 67 and 383). In the later
Middle Ages there may be traced through a long series
of pontificates the repeated confirmations of the Bull,
assignable probably in the first instance to Pope Cal-
lixtus II (c. 1120) and known as "Sicut Juda'is". It
was a sort of papal charter of protection to the Jews
and in its first sentence are embodied certain words of
one of Gregory the Great's letters just referred to.
"As licence", says this document, ought not to be
allowed to the Jews to presume in their synagogues
beyond what is permitted by the law so they ought
not to be interfered with in such things as are allowed.
We therefore, although they prefer to continue in their
hardness of heart ratlier than be guided by the hidden
meaning of the prophets to a knowledge of the Chris-
tian faith, do nevertheless, since they invoke our pro-
tection and aid, following in the footsteps of our
predecessors and out of the mildness of Christian
piety, extend to them the shield of our protection."
The document then lays down (1) that the Jews are
not to be compelled by force to embrace Christianity,
but are only to be baptized of their own free will;
(2) that apart from a judicial sentence in a court of
law no one is to injure them in life or limb or to take
away their property or to interfere with such cus-
tomary rights as they may have enjoyed in the places
where they live; (3) that they are not to be attacked
with sticks and stones on occasion of their festival
celebrations, nor are they to be compelled to render
any feudal services beyond such as are customary;
(4) that their cemeteries in particular are not to be
violated. (See M. Stern, "Urkundliche Beitrage",
n. 171.) This charter reissued and confirmed as it
was by some twenty or thirty pontiffs during a period
of 400 years is certainly of much more weight as lay-
ing down the Church's view of the duty of toleration,
as an abstract principle, than any persecuting edicts
evoked by special circinnstances or coloured by the
prepossessions of the individual legislator.
Looking at the documents of unquestioned authen- ticity extracted by Stern from the papal Regesta it becomes clear that throughout the later Middle Ages the Jews in almost every emergency turned to the popes as to their natural protectors. Despite such legislation as that of the Fourth Council of Latei-an (1215) impo.sing the wearing of a distinctive badge and excluding Jews from public offices, still even such a summary as that in the Jewish Encyclopedia (s. v. "Popes") distinctly leaves the impression that the Holy See exercised on the whole a markedly restrain- ing influence on the persecuting spirit of the Middle Ages. In particular, more than one of the popes, beginning with Innocent IV, issued Bulls exonerating the .I<nvs from that ch.arge of ritual murder, which, as in the well-known story of little Hugh of Lincoln, prejudiced public opinion so strongly against them
(cf. Vacandard, "La question du meurtre rituel
chez les Juifs" in "Etudes de critique et d'histoire
rehgieuse", 3d series, Paris, 1912). It was again the
popes (e. g., Sixtus IV and Clement VII) who at the
time of the worst excesses of the Spanish Inquisition
exerted themselves to set some cheek upon the severi-
ties exercised against the Maranos in the Iberian
Peninsula. The edicts issued at various times for the
destruction of copies of the Talmud, the Bull "Cum
nimis absurdum" of Paul IV constraining the Jews of
Rome to Uve segregated in a Ghetto and subject to
other harassing disabihties, represent rather the preju-
dices of individual pontiff's than any consistent prin-
ciple of persecution. Let it aLso be noted that the
influence of the Church has repeatedly been exerted
for the protection of pagan races against forcible
conversion, and that it has freely tolerated such
religious rites amongst savages as were not openly
debasing and immoral. The history of the preaching
of Christianity in the New World shows many ex-
amples in which the fanatical zeal lay with the profli-
gate Spanish adventurers who conquered the country,
while ecclesiastical authority advocated sympathy
with the natives and indulgence for their religious
observances. On the other hand this indulgence
shown to pagan customs, obviously enough, could not
be extended without hmit. Even British rule in India
ultimately considered it desirable to aboUsh the prac-
tice of suttee by which the wives of the upper classes
were required to commit suicide upon the death of
their husbands. This, however, was not effectively
prohibited, even in the British provinces, until 1829.
With regard to the toleration of Christian heretics and schismatics the reader will do well to consult the article Inquisition. No very systematic measures of repression seem to have come into practice before the twelfth century. The aggressive attitude adopted in the case of the Priscillianists (q. v.) and Donati-sts (q. V.) was owing less to the action of the bishops than to that of the emperor. On the other hand, it cannot be disputed that after the authority of the popes was firmly established, ecclesiastical camjiaigns were un- dertaken against the Cathari, the Waldenses, and Albigenses as well as later on against the followers of Wickhf and Hus. Moreover isolated executions for heresy (burning at the stake being commonly em- ployed for this purpose) were known before the twelfth century both in East and West; though at the same time the actual infliction of the punishment, then as after, must be regarded as an act of the civil power rather than that of any ecclesiastical tribunal. But though an Inquisition of heretical practices may be regarded as having been first formally set up, at any rate in embryo, about the second half of the thirteenth century no measiu'es of extreme severity were in the beginning prescribed or generally adopted. The Fourth Council of Lateran in 1215 imposed as a pen- ally the deprivation of property and civil stakes. Convicted heretics, even though repentant, were excluded from public offices and were compelled to wear a badge. If their retractation was insincere they were liable to be confined in a pubUc prison. At the same time it must not be forgotten that all these medieval heresies, as such an historian as Gairdner has noticed (Lollardy, I, 46), struck at the foundations of social order. M. Guiraud's account of the extrava- gant teaching of the Cathari and Albigenses is conclu- sive upon the point. It cannot be doubted that the severities which then began to be exercised in the name of religion were prompted by no lust for blood. It seemed rather to orthodox churchmen that the Church was so menaced by these subversive doctrines that her very exi.-ftence was at stake.
Under these circumstances it was not wonderful that the ordinances of the canon law, for the most part formulated at a time when Albigensian teach- ings were a present danger, should have inchned t o t he
