Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania

Isidore of Seville: His Attitude Towards Judaism and His Impact on Early Medieval Canon LawAuthor(s): Bat-sheva AlbertReviewed work(s):Source: The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Series, Vol. 80, No. 3/4 (Jan. - Apr., 1990), pp.207-220Published by: University of Pennsylvania PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1454969 .Accessed: 01/09/2012 12:16

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

University of Pennsylvania Press and Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, University of Pennsylvania arecollaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Jewish Quarterly Review.

http://www.jstor.org

THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW, LXXX, Nos. 3-4 (January-April, 1990) 207-220

ISIDORE OF SEVILLE: HIS ATTITUDE TOWARDS JUDAISM AND HIS IMPACT ON

EARLY MEDIEVAL CANON LAW

BAT-SHEVA ALBERT, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan

ABSTRACT

This study presents a discussion of Isidore of Seville's attitude toward Judaism and the Jews as reflected in his works, and offers a tentative assessment of the impact of this attitude on medieval anti-Jewish legisla- tion as reflected in the anti-Jewish decisions of the Fourth Council of Toledo (633), over which Isidore presided and the decisions of which he redacted.

Isidore's views on Judaism and the Jews are stated both in his polemi- cal (De Fide Catholica) and in his exegetical works (Allegoriae and Quaestiones in Vetus Testamentum). They were written for the instruc- tion of the clergy, and anti-Jewish polemic was an important feature of this educational program. Yet the sheer number and vehemence of his anti-Jewish exegeses reveal the extent of Isidore's anti-Jewish attitude: the Jews were the killers of Christ and were therefore condemned to exile and persecution. Jews who persist in their faith should be con- demned to servitude and eventually to extermination. Isidore's theologi- cal anti-Judaism was translated into practical measures through the legislation of the Fourth Council of Toledo.

Although the problem of Isidore's authorship of the Hispana is still unresolved, all citations of the anti-Jewish enactments of this council in the canonical collections of Burchard of Worms, Yvo of Chartres, and Gratian prove his lasting influence. Two Toledan decisions were Isidore's original and harsh contribution: Canon 60, calling for the removal of Jewish children from their families and their education by Christians, and Canon 65, forbidding Jews and Christians of Jewish origin (aut his qui ex iudaeis sunt) to hold public office. Burchard, Yvo, and Gratian retained Canons 59, 60 and 62. Gratian alone retained the original text of the famous Canon 65 and included seven out of ten anti-Jewish provisions of the Fourth Council of Toledo in his Decretum. As the Decretum became almost the only source for previous canonical deci- sions, it was Gratian who assured Isidore's lasting influence on anti- Jewish legislation.

Isidore of Seville (ca. 560-636), the last of the Latin Church Fathers, the head of the Catholic Church in Visigothic Spain, and

208 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW

the great agent of transmission of the classical heritage to the Middle Ages, had a strong impact also on the formation and evolution of Christian medieval attitudes and legislation against the Jews.

His contribution to anti-Jewish attitudes differs from that of his predecessors-Jerome, Augustine, and Pope Gregory the Great. Jerome and Augustine were extremely influential in this sphere on account of their exegetical and literary achievements. As for Gregory, many of his letters concerning the Jews were incorpo- rated in important collections of canon law-such as those of Bur- chard of Worms (ca. 965-1025) and Yvo of Chartres (ca. 1040- 1115). But only Isidore of Seville left his mark on both exegetic literature and anti-Jewish legislation.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to present a discussion of the Isidorian attitude towards Judaism and the Jews as reflected in his work, and to offer a tentative assessment of the impact of this attitude on medieval anti-Jewish legislation, the latter on the basis of the decisions of the Fourth Council of Toledo held under Isidore's presidency in 633. I will also try to assess the effect of Isidore's anti-Jewish legislation on early collections of canon law.

Isidore of Seville's views on Judaism and the Jews are stated first in his polemical work De Fide Catholica ex Veteri et Novo Testamento contra Judaeos,' and in his exegetical writings, the Allegoriae quaedam sacrae Scripturae' and the Mysticorum ex- positiones Sacramentorum seu Quaestiones in Vetus Testamen- tum.3 Although other works by Isidore also contain references to our topic, these are the major sources of his anti-Jewish attitudes.

None of these three works, not even the De Fide Catholica contra Judaeos, was actually written for a polemical purpose;4 they were composed for the instruction of a Christian, more specifically an ecclesiastical, audience, in the elements of Chris- tian theology. Anti-Jewish polemic was an essential feature of this program. Of course his polemics and his exegesis are wanting in originality, a quality repulsive to Isidore's nature; but this

' Patrologia latina [henceforth PL], vol. 83, col. 449-538. 2 Ibid., col. 97-130. 3 Ibid., col. 207-424. 4 Cf. B. Albert, "De Fide Catholica contra Judaeos d'Isidore de Seville: La

polemique anti-juddique dans L'Espagne du VIIe siecle." REJ 141 (1982): 289-316.

ISIDORE OF SEVILLE-ALBERT 209

strict conformity to patristic sources was meant to serve his purpose of transmitting their content as truthfully as possible.

I was able to trace over ninety percent of the sources of De Fide Catholica contra Judaeos. As for the remainder, my failure to do so is no final proof of Isidore's originality. If Isidore lacks originality in his polemics and exegesis, the sheer number of his anti-Jewish references and his emphasis on this topic are charac- teristic of his attitude: one could credibly contend that Isidore is actually obsessed by Judaism.

In his exegesis Isidore often neglects the literal sense as well as the moral sense of the Bible. The anti-Jewish polemical aspect is stressed more strongly in his mystic-allegorical exegesis than in Jerome's exegetical works. Lacking both Jerome's linguistic ex- pertise and knowledge of Hebrew and Judaism, as well as Augus- tine's philosophical culture and insight, Isidore does not argue with Judaism-he attacks its beliefs and adherents. In the Alle- goriae he supplies the allegorical meaning of prominent figures and events in the Bible. Out of the 170 allegories, sixty-three deal with Judaism and the Jews, always in a derogatory manner. Nineteen allegories accuse the Jews of deicide and two link the Jews with Antichrist.

Isidore repeats the traditional Christian arguments against Judaism. The first book of the De Fide Catholica5 contains an exposition of Christology and an extremely detailed description of the Passion and its historical consequences. The second book6 is of a more polemical nature and deals with the election of the Gentiles, the abolition of the old law, and the efficacy of the sacraments for ensuring salvation.

The christological sections of the work are not remarkable in any way. However, in this conventional setting, as in other Isi- dorian writings, we find several recurring anti-Jewish themes, the most important of which is the description of the inherent wicked- ness of the Jews, who had frequently been condemned by the Prophets for their sins.7 This concept of Jewish sinfulness is also repeated in the Allegoriae. Here the Jews are identified with Cain the murderer, who is the first to prefigure the first-born people

S PL 83: col. 449-500. 6 Ibid., col. 499-538. 7 Ibid., col. 51 2D-5 13D.

210 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW

who killed Jesus;8 with Ham, with Reuben, who sinned with his father's concubine,9 with Miriam, who was punished with leprosy for denigrating her brother, and with Moses, who represents the Synagogue which had become leprous after slandering Christ. 1

Isidore's hostile attitude towards the Jews finds expression in the derogatory, even insulting, description of Judaism and the Jewish people. Their heart is hard,11 and their religion is a "perni- ciosa Judaeorum perfidia." 12 Furthermore, they are impious and unfaithful"3 and given over to carnal desires. 14 They are as sterile as they are numerous,15 and their utter stupidity is best represented by Abraham's ass.16

This is no arbitrary selection of Isidore's anti-Jewish utterances, nor is it a superficial impression left by a cursory reading of his works. This is the result of a careful and quantitative examina- tion of his writings. Examples of the denigration of the Jews in Isidore's writings can be easily multiplied. The main reason for Isidore's anti-Jewish attitude is the responsibility imputed to the Jews for the Passion of Christ. This accusation of deicide consti- tutes the central theme of his anti-Judaism. Not only did the Jews assemble in order to perpetrate this crime-they were unanimous in approving of it.

The formulation of this accusation surfaces as a leitmotiv: Isidore repeats the accusation four times in the De Fide Catho- lica,17 and in his Allegoriae, a shorter work, he mentions it fifteen

8 Allegoriae, col. lOOB. 9 Ibid., col. 106A: "Ruben primogenitus interpretatur visionis filius; populum

figuravit qui violavit cubile Dei Patris, quando carnem quam sibi Christus de- sponderat confixit in patibulo crucis." This allegory is most representative of Isidore's attitude. The allegorization of Reuben's lecherous conduct as referring to the Crucifixion is very farfetched but serves Isidore's purpose of accusing the Jews of deicide.

'1 Ibid., col. 109A. De Fide Catholica, col. 462B: "O duritia cordis Judaici!"

12 Ibid., col. 450B: " . . . ad quorum refellendam perfidiam"; col. 460A: "perni- ciosa Judaeorum perfidia."

3 Ibid., col. 449B, 460C. 14 Allegoriae, col. 35D. 15 Quaestiones, col. 240C, 241A. 16 Ibid., col. 250C: "Asinus autem ille insensata est stultitia Judaeorum. Ista

insensata stultitia portabat omnia sacramenta, et quod ferebat nesciebat." 17 De Fide Catholica, col. 479B, 485B-C, 486A, 487B.

ISIDORE OF SEVILLE-ALBERT 211

times directly, that is to say explicitly describing the execution of Christ.18

In Christian theology the consequences of the part which the Jews allegedly played in the Crucifixion are well-known; they lost their independence, they were exiled, and their descendants were condemned to bear the burden of their rightfully incurred punish- ment. There follows a most important thesis underlying the Isi- dorian anti-Jewish legislation: those Jews who persist in their faith will be condemned to long-lasting servitude to the Chris-

19 20 This harsh sentence was tians 9and eventually to extermination.Thsarhenncws

18 E.g., Allegoriae, col. 122C: "Christus est, quem crucifixerunt Judaei." Col. 112A: "Dalila, quae Samson verticem decalvavit Synagogam significat, quae Christum in loco Calvariae crucifixit." Decalvatio was a severe form of punish- ment meted out in Visigothic Spain. In 590 Duke Argimund was punished by decalvatio and by cutting off his right hand for his plot against King Reccared (E. A. Thompson, The Goths in Spain [Oxford, 1969], pp. 103-104). Whether this consisted of shaving or scalping is a thorny question (ibid., p. 104, n. 1), although P. D. King (Law and Society in the Visigothic Kingdom [Cambridge, Eng., 1971], p. 90, n. 5) thinks that scalping is more probable. Still, Isidore could have taken the term from Jerome, who used it in the Vulgate (1 Chron 19:4: "Hanon pueros David decalvavit"), and for describing Samson ("Samson quoque producit in medium, nec decalvatum quondam Nazareum a muliere considerat," Adversus Jovinianum, 1:23; PL 23:252D-253B). Jerome obviously used the term as refer- ring to a shameful shaving of the hair. Isidore could thus easily combine these meanings of decalvatio. Later, under King Ervig (680-687), decalvatio was a legal punishment, for example, for treason (King, Law and Society, p. 40, n. 3) or for failure to serve in the army (ibid., p. 77), and was widely used against the Jews (ibid., pp. 134, 135, 136). See the important discussion of this punishment, as found in geonic sources of the 8th century, in A. M. Rabello, The Jews in Visigothic Spain in the Light of the Legislation [Hebrew] (Jerusalem, 1983), pp. 150-151. For more "indirect" Isidorian references to the deicide see, for example, Allegoriae, col. 112B: "Saul regni Judaici insinuat repromissionem, vel reprobationem, sive ejusdem populi aemulationem, qui David, id est, Chistum, injusto odio invidiae conatus est occidere. David filii Dei et Salvatoris nostri expressit imaginem, sive quod insectatione Judaeorum injustam persecutionem sustinuit, sive quia Christus ex ejus stirpe carnem assumpsit."

" Quaestiones, col. 255Bff 20 De Fide Catholica, col. 515A-B: "Multa enim peccata prius fecerant filii

Israel, sed nunquam sic traditi sunt tam longae perditioni et captivitati; quando autem compleverunt mensuram patrum suorum; et post prophetarum necem Christum interfecerunt, tunc peccata peccatis cumulantes, traditi sunt in longam exterminationem." Col. 520A: "Nam illae repromissiones reparationis, quas eorum prophetarum sermo complectitur, illi parti promittuntur quae ex Judaeis in Deum creditura est; nam neque omnes Judaei redimendi sunt, neque omnes salvi erunt.

212 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW

precisely what Visigothic anti-Jewish legislation attempted to achieve, namely the subordination of the Jews to the Christian majority, a position designed to lead to the ultimate disappear- ance of Judaism in Spain.21

A third recurring topic in Isidore's anti-Jewish works is the bond between the Jews and the Antichrist. His source is probably Jerome's Commentary on Daniel,22 where Jerome describes the Antichrist as a Jew who will usurp kingship by cunning and who will conquer the Romans by fraud. Jerome states that no Jew will ever reign without the Antichrist's help and that the Jewish Antichrist will persecute the Christians.

Isidore quotes this exegesis (partially or with variations) five times in his literary works: he accuses the Jews of being the Synagogue of Satan, and the Antichrist himself of being a Jew by

23 birth. Moreover, the Synagogue, faithful believer in the Anti- christ ever since the Crucifixion,24 will at his advent submit the Christians to severe persecution.25

It is important to note the recurrence of Isidore's ideas in the anti-Jewish decisions of the Fourth Council of Toledo over which

Sed sceleratis et peccatoribus contritis atque consumptis, hi qui fide electi fuerint salvabuntur."

21 Cf. B. S. Albert, "Un nouvel examen de la politique anti-juive Visigothique: A propos d'un article recent," REJ, 135 (1976): 329.

22 Jerome, De Antichristo in Danielem 4, 11:21 (Commentarium in Danielem, Libri III-IV, ed. F. Glorie [Corpus Christianorum, Series latina, 75A] [Turnhout, 1964], p. 917).

23 Quaestiones, col. 386D-387A: "Concubinam hoc in loco (Judg 8:31: Gide- on's concubine) Synagogam vocat. Quae in novissimis temporibus Antichristo est creditura de qua Joannes Apostolus in Apocalypsi ait: 'Qui dicunt se Judaeos esse et non sunt, sed sunt Synagoga Satanae' (Apoc. 2.9). De qua ultimis temporibus nequissimus filius, id est Antichristus est generandus."

24 Allegoriae, col. 113A: "Roboam filius Salomonis Jeroboam servus, quibus Israel in duas partes divisus est significat divisionem illam in Domini adventu factam, in qua pars credentium ex Judaeis regnat cum Christo, qui est ex David genere ortus; pars vero secuta Antichristum, cujus ad cultum nefandae servitutis errore constricti sunt."

25 Sententiarum libri tres, I, PL 83, col. 593B: "Gravius sub Antichristi tempori- bus contra Ecclesiam desaeviet Synagoga, quam in ipso adventu Salvatoris Chris- tianos est persecuta." Cf. Jerome, De Antichristo in Danielem, (IV), XI, 25/26, p. 918: " . . . de Antichristo, qui nasciturus est de populo Judaeorum et de Baby- lone venturus.. ."; ibid., 28/30, p. 920. For additional references to the special relationship between the Jewish people and Antichrist, see Allegoriae, col. 129; Quaestiones, 388AB.

ISIDORE OF SEVILLE-ALBERT 213

he presided; this recurrence proves that he formulated the Coun- cil's decisions. Canon 66, repeating the prohibition of Jewish ownership of Christian slaves, adds what one could call a typical Isidorian justification for this interdiction: it is evil that followers of Christ should serve the agents of Antichrist.26 In Canon 58, forbidding the Christians to receive presents and bribes from Jews,27 Isidore restates the correlation previously established in the Allegoriae between Judaism and adherence to Antichrist.28 This statement, formulated in a conciliar decision, is most signifi- cant, as it reveals the influence of Isidore's anti-Jewish thought on the practical steps which he took as head of the Visigothic Church to implement his views. Jews were to be brought to conversion by all means short of physical violence, and those who had been forcibly compelled to receive baptism were to remain Christians. Isidore's theological anti-Judaism was thus translated into practical measures through conciliar legislation.

The assessment of the later impact of this Isidorian legislation on canon law must also be dealt with; any such discussion raises the question of the authorship of the Hispana.

The first redaction of this important Visigothic canonical col- lection, comprising conciliar decisions up to the Fourth Council of Toledo, has been attributed to Isidore of Seville ever since the ninth century. The supposed Isidorian authorship of the collec- tion is a problem much debated by historians of canon law,29 and it has a vital bearing on the subject matter of the rest of this study.

26 Fourth Council of Toledo, col. LXVI, Concilios visigoticos e hispano- romanos, ed. J. Vives, T. Marin-Martinez, G. Martinez-Diez (Barcelona-Madrid, 1963), p. 214: " . . . ut iudaeis non liceat christianos servos habere nec christiana mancipia emere nec cuiusquam consequi largitate; nefas est enim ut membra Christi serviant Anti-Christi ministris." On the Fourth Council of Toledo see A. M. Rabello, ibid. pp. 56-59.

27 "Concilios," p. 211: "Multi quippe hucusque ex sacerdotibus atque laicis accipientes a iudaeis munera perfidiam eorum patrocinio suo foveant, qui non inmerito ex corpore Anti-Christi esse noscuntur, quia contra Christum faciunt."

28 Cf. above, n. 25. 29 A very short but useful discussion of the question is to be found in the article

by A. del Val, "Isidoro de Sevilla," Diccionario de historia eclesiastica de Espafia (Madrid, 1972), 2:1214. Although Maassen and Le Bras rejected the attribution of the Hispana to Isidore of Seville, Sejourn6 and Madoz strongly endorsed it, and G. Martinez Diez, in La collecion canonica hispana (Madrid, 1966), 1:322, ex- pressed the view that one cannot exclude the possibility of a direct involvement of

214 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW

One may legitimately assume that the canons of the Fourth Council of Toledo were formulated by Isidore, its president, as a close textual examination of these decisions will bear out.30 All references to, or citations of, those decisions to be found in the canonical collections of Burchard of Worms, Yvo of Chartres, and Gratian may be taken as proof of Isidore's lasting and direct influence on anti-Jewish legislation. Moreover, if we accept the general agreement among students of canon law that he played a part in the early redaction of the Hispana,31 citations of refer- ences to this source (either directly or by means of the False Decretals which incorporated a great part of the Hispana), namely conciliar decisions earlier than the Fourth Council of Toledo in the works of the eleventh- and twelfth-century canonists ex- amined here, would point to Isidore's indirect influence. The Fourth Council of Toledo was a turning point in the history of anti-Jewish legislation. The Council enacted ten canons (out of seventy-five) concerning the Jews, thus reflecting the preoccupa- tion of Isidore and King Sisenand with the Jews and their conversion.

I have dealt elsewhere with the theological as well as the 32 historical background of these decisions. Here I would only

stress that two of the canons are entirely original and as such are

Isidore in this redaction. See also the less outspoken opinion of A. Garcia y Garcia, "Derecho canonico," Diccionario de historia eclesiastica, 1:734-735, who stresses the point that Isidore exerted great influence on all aspects of Visigothic life and culture; and also R. Naz, "Hispana," in Dictionnaire de droit canonique (Paris, 1957), 5:col. 1159-1160.

30 P. Sejourne, Isidore de Seville, le dernier Pere de l'Englise, son role dans l'histoire du droit canonique (Paris, 1929), pp. 133-137; J. Fontaine, Isidore de Seville et la culture classique dans l'Espagne visigothique (Paris, 1950), 2:808, especially n. 4. For a recent discussion of the as yet unsolved problem of the "Isidorian" authorship of the Hispana, see J. N. Hillgarth, "The Position of Isidorian Studies: A Critical Review of the Literature, 1950-1975," Studi Medi- evali 24 (1983): 870.

31 F. Rodriguez, "Los antiquos concilios espafioles: la edicion critica de la coleccion canonica Hispana," Monumenta Iuris Canonici, Series C; Subsidia (Proceedings of the Fifth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, eds. S. Kuttner and K. Pennington; Rome, 1980), 6:10; Rodriguez points out that the origins of the Hispana are earlier than the Fifth council of Toledo (636); this "primitive" redaction was used by the Spanish councils up to the Twelfth Council of Toledo (681).

32 Cf. above, n. 21.

ISIDORE OF SEVILLE-ALBERT 215

an important part of Isidore's program for the progressive elimina- tion of Judaism from Spain. This objective was to be realized through an educational process. Canon 60 calls therefore for a removal of all Jewish children from their families so that they might be educated in monasteries or by faithful Christians.33 These steps would as a matter of fact bring them eventually to conversion and absorption in Christian society. Canon 65 forbids all Jews and those "aut his qui ex iudaei(s) sunt," meaning Christians of Jewish origin, to hold public office.34 This was to become the ideological basis for the theory of "limpieza de sangre" ("purity of blood") which excluded all Jewish converts or de- scendants of conversos from office in sixteenth-century Spain.35

Our main concern here is to follow the Toledan anti-Jewish legislation in the early canonical collections, thereby tracing the scope of Isidorian influence.

3 Fourth Council of Toledo, canon 60 (Concilios visigoticos, p. 212): "Iudaeo- rum filios vel filias ne parentum ultra involvantur errore, ab eorum consortio separari decernimus deputatos aut monasteriis aut christianis viris ac mulieribus Deum timentibus, ut sub eorum conversatione cultum fidei discant atque in melius instituti tam in moribus quam in fide proficiant." For discussion, see below, n. 37.

34 Ibid., Canon 65 (ibid., p. 213): "Praecipiente domno atque excellentissimo Sisenando rege id constituit sanctum concilium, ut iudaei aut his qui ex iudaei(s) sunt officia publica nullatenus adpetant, quia sub hac occasione christianis in- iuriam faciunt."

35 See my discussion of Canon 65 of the Fourth Council of Toledo as a legal argument for the exclusion of conversos from public office. This argument was used by Pero Sarmiento in his "Sentencia-Estatuto (1449) and in the Memorial written in its defense by the Bachiller Marcos Garcia de la Mora (surnamed Marquillos de Mozarambros). See also the replies in defense of the Conversos made by Lope de Barrientos, bishop of Cuenca, and especially Alfonso de Cartagena. In his Defensorium unitatis Christianae de Cartagena explained the preposition "ex" of the sentence "hii qui ex iudaeis sunt" as meaning spiritual (as opposed to carnal) filiation and the present tense of "(ex iudaeis) sunt" as a proof that this refers to actually observant Jews and not to Jews by extraction who were ("fuerunt") descended from ("ex") Jews. But these interpretations could not prevent the literal interpretation of "hii qui ex iudaeis sunt" which was to be the legal justification for the statutes of "limpieza de sangre"; cf. B. S. Albert, "The 65th Canon of the IVth Council of Toledo (633) in Christian Legislation and its Interpretation in the 'Converso' Polemics in XVth Century Spain," in Proceedings of the VIIIth World Conference of Jewish Studies (Jerusalem, 1982), pp. 44-48, and the bibliography cited there. See also E. Benito Ruano, Los origenes del problema converso (Barcelona, 1976), pp. 22f.

216 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW

Three of the canons of the Fourth Council of Toledo are quoted by the three canonists mentioned above. Canon 60,36 which ordered all Jewish children37 to be educated by Christians,38 and Canon 62, which strictly prohibited any further relations between Jews and Jewish converts,39 are of greater significance.

36 Cf. above, n. 32. 37 Although there is considerable support for the view that Canon 60 should be

understood as referring to baptized children of baptized Jews, a close examination of the text does not bear it out. W. J. Pakter, De his quiforis sunt: The Teachings of the Medieval Canon and Civil Lawyers Concerning the Jews (Johns Hopkins University Ph.D. diss., 1974; University Microfilms International, 291), nn. 205, 207, and the discussion there. But Pakter adds that Agobard of Lyon (ca. 769- 840) and the Council of Paris-Meaux (845-846) understood it as referring to the unbaptized children of Jewish parents (ibid.). Burchard of Worms and Yvo of Chartres (cf. n. 38) had the following version: "ludeorum filios vel filias bap- tizatos," but this was discarded by Gratian who adopted the original text of the Fourth Council of Toledo, omitting "baptizatos" (cf. n. 38). Gratian's selection of the original Toledan text (cf. above, n. 33) was ignored by Pakter. Cf. also B. Albert "Un nouvel examen," p. 21, n. 103. Moreover, the text of the Excerpta canonum from the Hispana, which dates from 656-665 (thus thirty years at most after Isidore's death), proves definitely that Canon 60 deals with children born to Jewish, not to converted, parents: 1, IX, titulus V, 3: "de filiis iudaeorum ut a parentibus separati christianis debeant deputari": Concilio Toletano IV, tit. 60. Compare with ibid., Canon 4: "de filiis fidelium iudaeorum ne praevaricatis parentibus et damnatis a rebus parentum exules fiant." It is obvious that Canon 4 deals with children from converted ("fideles") Jews who have relapsed; Canon 3 and Canon 5 (quoting Canon 65 of Toledo IV, "ne iudaei vel si qui ex iudaeis sunt) deal with unconverted Jews.

More proof, if needed, is supplied by the text of the Hispana Sistematica written in Spain between 675 and 681 and based on the Excerpta: Martinez-Diez, La collecion canonica, 2:417: 1. IX, 3: "Ex concilio quo supra," IV, Canon 60: "De filiis iudaeorum at a parentibus separati christianis debeant deputari." 4: "ex concilio quo supra, col. 61: De filiis iudaeorum, ne praevaricatis parentibus damnatis a rebus parentum exules fiant." The author always adds an adjective (baptizati Iudaei, praevaricatis parentibus) when he refers to converted Jews. This (although we do not have as yet a critical edition of the Hispana), the Excerpta, and the Hispana Sistematica prove that in the seventh century Isidore's canon was understood to apply to Jewish children born to Jewish parents, just as Gratian understood it.

38 Burchard of Worms, Decretum libri XX. PL 140,1. 4, cap. 83, col. 742; Yvo of Chartres, Decretum, PL 161 p. I., col. 124. Gratianus, Decretum Corpus Iuris Canonici, ed. E. Friedberg, II pars, causa XXVIII, quaest. I. c. 11 (Leipzig, 1879, reprinted Graz, 1959), p. 1087.

3 Fourth Council of Toledo, Canon 72, Concilios visigoticos, p. 212: "Saepe malorum consortia etiam bonos corrumpunt; quanto magis eos qui ad vitia proni

ISIDORE OF SEVILLE-ALBERT 217

The third canon retained by the canonists is 59, which deals with Jewish converts who relapse and practice circumcision. They are to be compelled to return to Christianity; their circumcized chil- dren are to be taken away from them; as for circumcized slaves, they must be set free.40

Canon 65,41 which excluded both Jews and their converted descendants from public office, is of special interest. Burchard of Worms adopted a less severe decision concerning Jews holding a position of authority over Christians in a canon, falsely attributed to the Council of Paris-Meaux (845-846), according to which

42 Jews were not to act as bailiffs or tax-farmers. It does not, however, forbid Jews to hold any kind of authority over Chris- tians, and in no way refers to Christian officials of Jewish origin.

Yvo of Chartres reverted to the Toledan decision but seems to have been somewhat puzzled as to what was actually intended by it. He therefore simplified the text,43 but in doing so he only succeeded in confusing his readers; he omitted the first part of the original sentence ("Iudaei aut his qui ex iudaei[s] sunt"), retaining the last part, and opening his quotation with "qui ex judaeis, officia publica nullatenus adpetant" ("those who are [descended] from Jews must not by any means seek public office"). Whether this referred to the Jews, to members of their households, or to their converted offspring is a matter of interpretation, but the Toledan equation of Jews and converts of Jewish origin was lost.

Gratian, as usual, was very prudent with his sources; he quoted the full text of Canon 65. Whether he was or was not aware of the possible implications of this decision on office-holding by Jewish converts cannot be ascertained, but the inclusion of this

sunt? Nulla igitur ultra communio sit hebraeis aut fidem christianam translatis cum his qui adhuc in veteri ritu consistunt, ne forte eorum participio subvertantur. Quiquumque igitur amodo ex his qui babtizati sunt infidelium consortia non vitaverint, et hii christianis donentur, et illi publicis caedibus deputentur." Cf. Burchard of Worms, Decret. 1. 4, Canon 84, col. 742(?); Yvo of Chartres, Decret., P. I. cap. 278, col. 124; Gratianus, Decret., p. II, c. 23, col. 1087.

40 Fourth Council of Toledo, Canon 57, Concilios visigoticos, pp. 211-212: Burchard of Worms, Decret., cap. 85. col. 742-743; Yvo of Chartres, Decret., P. I., cap. 270, col. 124; Gratian, P. III, D. 4, c. 94, col. 1392.

41 Cf. above, n. 33. 42 Burchard of Worms, Decret., C. XV, cap. 31, col. 903. 43 Yvo of Chartres, Decret., P. XIII, cap. 97, col. 820-821.

218 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW

canon in the Decretum was of utmost importance, as Gratian was the first canonist to do so.44

Furthermore, Gratian also adopted two other anti-Jewish canonical decisions of the Fourth Council of Toledo which were not quoted by earlier canonists. He selected Canon 61, which states that the children of Jewish relapsi are not to be deprived of their property,45 and Canon 63 ordering the conversion of Jews married to Christian women. Children born of such marriages were to be raised in the faith of their mother, whose social status would also be theirs; as to children born to Jewish mothers and Christian fathers, they would understandably be raised in their father's faith.46 Gratian was thus the most important agent in the transmission of the Isidorian anti-Jewish legislation, as he selected seven out of ten anti-Jewish provisions of the Fourth Council of Toledo for his collection.

It now remains to consider in detail the indirect Isidorian legacy bequeathed to medieval canon law. This consists of anti- Jewish decrees (other than those enacted by the Fourth Council of Toledo), as exemplified in the early recension of the Hispana collection, which is generally considered to be contemporaneous with Isidore.

One can hardly be definitive about this legacy as Burchard of Worms and Ivo of Chartres were acquainted with the Hispana through the False Decretals or the Hibernensis,47 rather than with

44 Gratian, Decret., II pars, causa 17, quaest. 4, c. 31, p. 823: "Constituit sanctum concilium ut Iudei, aut hii qui ex ludeis sunt (Tolet. IV, 65) offitia publica nullatenus appetant . . ." Still, Pope Innocent III did not bother himself with the interpretation of "hii qui ex Judaeis sunt," and therefore seems to have used the appropriate decision of the Third Council of Toledo (589), Canon 13, Concilios visigoticos, p. 219: "Nulla officia publica eos (Judaeos) opus est agere per qua eis occasio tribuatur poenam Christianis inferre." Cf. Decretales C.V., c. 16, Corpus Iuris Canonici, t. II, c. 777, Concil. Lat. IV; "Quum sit nimis absurdum, ut blasphemus Christi in Christianos vim potestatis exerceat, quod super hoc Toletanum Concilium provide statuit nos propter transgressorum aud- aciam in hoc generali concilio innovamus prohibentes ne Iudei publicis officiis praeferantur, quoniam sub tali praetextu Christianis plurimum sunt infesti." For further discussion of the question of ineligibility for office and the interpretations of "hii qui ex ludeis sunt," cf. Pakter, De his quiforis sunt, pp. 228-229.

45 Canon 61, Concilios visigoticos, p. 212. 46 Canon 63, ibid. 47 R. Naz, "Hispana," Dict. de droit canon., 5:1159. The author of the False

Decretals used the Hispana Gallica Augustodinensis, a Gallic edition somewhat different from the early Spanish version (ibid.).

ISIDORE OF SEVILLE-ALBERT 219

the Visigothic edition of the Hispana. Still, several of the non- Spanish anti-Jewish decrees found in the Hispana were adopted by both Burchard of Worms and Yvo of Chartres. These are two relatively unimportant pieces of legislation. At the so-called Coun- cil of Carthage (426), participants in "Jewish superstition and celebrations" were to be excommunicated.48 The Council of Agde (506?) ruled that prospective Jewish converts to Christianity were to undergo an eight month's catechumenate before baptism.49

Yvo of Chartres, who was obviously much more interested in the Jews and in Jewish-Christian relations than Burchard of Worms, retained two earlier anti-Jewish canons which can be traced to the Hispana. These enactments deal with an important aspect of everyday Jewish-Christian relations, namely the sharing of meals. This had already been prohibited by the famous Spanish council of Elvira (300?-306?), which excommunicated Christians who shared meals with Jews,50 but this was again prohibited by the Council of Agde.5"

Turning to Gratian, we must consider whether he derived this material from Burchard and Ivo or, as seems more likely, directly from the Hispana via the False Decretals. In any case, he retained only the prohibition against taking part in Jewish banquets as enacted at Agde.52

To sum up, clearly the anti-Jewish canons of the Fourth Coun- cil of Toledo were incorporated into the great eleventh- and twelfth-century collections of canon law. Out of fourteen canons concerning the Jews which appear in his collection, Burchard of Worms selected four canons of the Fourth Council of Toledo. Five supplementary items may be traced to the Hispana, probably via the False Decretals. Yvo of Chartres deals with Judaism and the Jews in thirty canons. Seven were taken from the Fourth

48 Burchard of Worms, Decret., 1. X, cap. 7, col. 834; Yvo of Chartres, Panormia, 1. VII, cap. 72, col. 1323B. Cf. Hispana, PL 84. c. 207.

4' Burchard of Worms, Decret. 1. IV, cap. 81, col. 742; Yvo of Chartres, Decret., P. I, cap. 275. CF. Hispana, c. 268.

50 Ivo of Chartres, Decret. XIII, cap. 117, col. 826; cf. Hispana, c. 269. 51 Yvo of Chartres, ibid., cap. 119, col. 826; cf. Hispana, c. 307. Histoire du

droit canonique, VII, c. 1087. 52 Gratian, II pars, quaest., c. 45, c. 1087. Still one should remember that

Gratian borrowed heavily from earlier canonical collections, especially from Yvo of Chartres: J. Gaudemet, "Collections canoniques et codifications", Revue de droit canonique, 33, 2 (1983): 83.

220 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW

Toledan Council; four others were derived from the Hispana. Nonetheless it was Gratian who selected seven Toledan anti- Jewish decisions, retaining the harsher enactments, namely the forced Christian education of Jewish children (Canon 61) and the exclusion of Jews and their baptized offspring from public office (Canon 65). Isidore of Seville had clearly succeeded in his en- deavor; with the assistance of Gratian, the greatest of the canon- ists, he was to exert a strong influence on later conciliar and papal anti-Jewish canonical legislation.

Finally, we should bear in mind that Gratian's Decretum be- came almost the only source for previous canonical decisions. To quote Horst Fuhrmann, "Whatever did not figure in Gratian's Decretum was non-existent, whatever did figure in it, was de- finitive."53

53 H. Fuhrmann (Einfluss und Verbreitung der pseudo-isidorischen Falschungen von ihrem Auftauchen bis in die neuere Zeit [Stuttgart, 1972-74], 1:50) quotes F. Maassen, Geschichte der Quellen und der Literatur des canonischen Rechts, Vorrede, pp. viiif.