Economics of Contempt

Economics of Contempt The financial role of European Jewry and the Knights Templar in the age of crusades

Jared Mayer Toll April 24th 2015 History 828 Dr. Carlson

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The age of Crusades marked a fundamental shift in Christian self-perception that enabled the institutionalization of religious tension. Religious orders and societies were conceived to take on these systematic functions and to protect the Church’s stature. One of such orders, the Knights Templar, developed into a sophisticated financial entity by the twelfth and thirteenth century. At the same time, the papal authorities, exemplified in Pope Innocent III and his Fourth Lateran Council, worked to debase Jewish prominence in the financial and secular happenings of Europe. The papacy had sought to control the temporal forces in Europe, thus suppressing Jewish economic participation and sanctioning specific Christian groups to take up a role in the emerging commercial structure. This facilitated the Templars’ takeover of the practice of usury across the Christian realm, as their transnational structure, similar to the Jews, placed them strategically in the developing economic system. Moreover, while the Jews were permitted to charge (moderate) interest, the Templars used innovative methods of securing duties from their economic practices. While these activities occasioned a time of affluence for both of these communities, they ultimately led to a situation of violence and contempt. By looking at the similar economic functions of these groups, it is clear that the resulting oppression of both communities, though portrayed as justified through their depiction as sacrilege, arose out of a pragmatic necessity to alleviate financial distress. From its inception, the Church has always had a problematic relationship with Judaism. Many leaders of this new faith had sought to rid Christian identity of its Jewish roots, using the Judaic religion as a point of contrast in their formation of a distinct entity. As early as the Gospels and in the writings of disciples, the Jews were depicted as lacking

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the sensibility to realize the role of Christ in worldly salvation.1 Still, early Christian manifestations of anti-Judaism were quite distinct from modern understandings of antisemitism. While there is much crossover, the role of the Jews as a theological abstraction had actually served to protect them from acts of violence and molestation. In this early theology, the presence of Jews was to be tolerated because their existence as subjugated beings confirmed the triumph of Christianity.2 Moreover, the remnant of the exiled Jewish population would play an important role in ushering in the time of salvation. Thus, the situation of the Jews as a dispersed peoplehood was perceived as divine punishment for their rejection of Christ as the Messiah and for their responsibility in his untimely death.3!! Since the Christianization of Europe and much of the Near East, the Jews have held a precarious role within these developing societies. The Jews, as a distinct population that was to be tolerated yet subjected, found themselves spread across this vast Christian realm. Notwithstanding the periodic episodes of persecution, the Jews had become fairly immersed in many Christian settlements, playing an integral part in the development of these societies despite their religious differences. In general, violent attacks against the Jews arose out of practicality, rather than doctrinal incitement. Furthermore, by the eleventh century, the Jews in European regions began concentrating their capital and enterprises in commerce.4 Moreover, as Jews were not restricted by Christian strictures, they took up the practice of money lending and became a central element in the burgeoning economic system. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 1!Leon Poliakov, The History of Anti-Semitism Volume I: From the Roman times to the Court Jews (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974), 24. Sharf, Jews and Other Minorities in Byzantium (Jerusalem: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1995), 21.! 3!Poliakov, 24.! 4!Aziz S. Atiya, Crusade, Commerce, and Culture (Bloomington, 1962),195.! 2!A.

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There is a tragic irony in the fact that Jews took up the “evil” practice of money lending in Christian Europe. As the Church had banned usury among Christians, and the Jews were deprived of many fundamental rights, they were more or less forced into taking up this sacrilegious occupation. Moreover, the Jews had to lend money at “high risk, against little security,” causing them to charge substantial interest as a means of guaranteeing profit.5 This served to reinforce the Christian image of the Jews as malicious beings, as they practiced a devilish trade and charged immoderate rates. Thus, while Jewish money lending services allowed for these societies to function and grow financially, the taboo against usury heightened tensions between the populations, which would be furthered by the fact that many Christians became indebted to the lenders. Although dispersed, many Jews retained ties with members of other Jewish communities that allowed a sort of transnational network to develop. This network facilitated trade amongst the communities and allowed for the maintenance of an international identity. Jewish merchants and bankers used their links to other communities to move products and establish themselves along the routes to the East, thus strategically placing them in the rising economic system. Secular leaders began to see the practicality in using the Jews’ transnational system and money-lending schemes as a means of bolstering their region’s economy and their own personal fortune. Accordingly, the medieval European kings began regarding the Jews of their lands as their own private property, realizing the potential income that could be secured by taxes levied against the Jews and from acquiring a share in all Jewish business profits.6 This made Jews attractive

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 5!Avner Falk, A Psychoanalytical History of the Jews (Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996), 408.! 6!Falk, 410.! !

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to rulers who sough cash for their courts and military expenditures.7 Despite their acquired practicality and protection, the Jews of Europe became natural targets for those seeking to fund their crusading ventures. By the eleventh century the Jews had established an extensive financial system, which was perceived by many as being at the expense of Christian society, and amassed mainly from their sinful practice of usury.8 Furthermore, the Jews provided loans for the early crusading movements, as individuals went to great lengths in mustering their armies and weaponry prior to embarking on the venture east. Consequently, antisemitic sentiments arose as a pragmatic response to the fact that many of these Christians found themselves indebted to the Jews. If the Crusades were intended to eradicate non-believers, it is not surprising that the Jews, who formed a distinct religious group that was prevalent in Christian lands, became some of its first targets. In 1095, Pope Urban II gave a dramatic speech that called for the liberation of Jerusalem from the clutches of Islam.9 While it cannot be determined exactly what the Pope pontificated, it is clear that this speech triggered an armed conquest of the Holy land and thus incited the First Crusade.10 The instigation of the Crusades has been described as an attempt by the Pope to suppress internal conflict among Christian feudal lords, directing such hostilities towards those outside the Christian realm.11 This occasioned a troubling situation for the Jewish communities who found themselves among or on the path of, the crusading forces. While the Papacy had not sanctioned an attack on the Jews !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 7!Falk, 410.! 8!Jonathan Phillips, The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople (Penguin Books, 2005), 78.! 9!Andrew Jotischky, Crusading and the Crusader States (Pearson Longman, 2004), 47.! 10!Jotischky, 47.! 11!Michael Haag, The Templars: History & Myth (London: Profile, 2008), 89.! !

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of Europe, some Christian leaders and clergymen took up the conquest as an opportunity to assault the Jews, whom they perceived as enemies in their midst. The initial events of the First Crusade marked a devastating moment in Jewish history. Under the initiatives of the First Crusade, the Jews became seen as the enemies at home. As the Church had historically disseminated much propaganda regarding the Jews, fringe groups, such as the crusading forces behind Count Emicho and Peter the Hermit, used these sentiments to gather support for their cause. The groups asserted the need to first to avenge their crucified Messiah by attacking the Jews prior to turning the sword to the more distanced Saracen enemy.12 Moreover, as the Jews had become a prosperous force in Europe, profiting greatly from their moneylending practices, many crusaders became indebted to Jews, causing a tense situation across the Rhineland. Therefore, the Jews became perceived as a domestic threat, as both creditors and crucifiers, whose existence proved concerning to those on a quest to suppress infidels. In 1096, merely months after Pope Urban II’s call for a Crusade, numerous Jewish communities were massacred across the Rhineland. While many Christians, including clergymen, sought to protect their Jewish neighbors, the hostile attitude swept across the region, triggering a large-scale assault on many prominent communities.13 Still, it is important to understand the violence of this early crusading period as the result of political weakness, economic anxiety and normal interreligious hostilities.14 The armies that broke off to attack Jews were not inspired by abnormal antisemitic zeal, but rather held a seemingly normalized contempt for the Jews that was historically !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 12!Poliakov, 48.! 13!Jotischky, 56.! 14!Robert Chazan, Church, State, and Jew in the Middle Ages (New York: Behrman House, 1980), 144.! !

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contingent. Christian theological anti-Judaic propaganda had historically aided in dehumanizing the Jews and portrayed them as a menace to Christian society. Yet, it was this rationale coupled with the pragmatic necessity to finance and unite the diverse crusading movement, which resulted in these atrocities. Regardless of their origins, these massacres marked the beginning of the gradual deterioration of the status of Jews in Europe.15 Throughout the events of the First Crusade, the Papacy and many secular rulers sought to restrain the attacks against the Jews. To many kings the Jews were a fundamental source of economic significance, while many Christian leaders remained adamant in their understanding of the Jewish role in Christian theology. Additionally, following the Crusade, many Christians had come to perceive the subsequent failing of the armies responsible for the massacres as the result of divine punishment for their ungodly attacks on the Jews.16 Still, for the centuries to come, any time medieval Europe was swept by a crusade, hatred of the Jews “was fanned into flames virtually everywhere.”17 During the Second Crusade (1147-1149), the Jews of northern Europe again suffered from exceptional hostility and violence. Following the call for crusade, the French Cistercian monk Radulf began preaching against the Jews.18 The unauthorized monk called for the slaughter of the Jewish “foes of Christianity” and incited violent uprisings across the region.19 This provoked a popular movement against many nobles !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 15!Poliakov, 53.! 16!Steven Runciman, A History of the Crusades (CUP, Cambridge, 1951), 141.! 17!Poliakov, 49.! 18!Jill N. Claster, Sacred Violence: The European Crusades to the Middle East, 1095-1396 (Toronto: U of Toronto, 2009), 148.! 19!Christopher Tyerman, God’s War: A New History of the Crusades (Belknap Press, 2009), 282.! !

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and secular authorities, who generally acted to protect their local Jewish inhabitants or financiers.20 Members of the Church greatly opposed the anti-Jewish violence, leading the influential clerical figure Bernard of Clairvaux to write explicitly against it. Saint Bernard wrote, “The Jews must not be persecuted, slaughtered, nor even driven out,” in an attempt to thwart the violent provocations of Radulf.21 Bernard highlights the role of the Jews in the Holy writ, and establishes the protection of the Jews as a fundamental theological belief in the Church. Moreover, the protection of the Jews, both secular and religious, demonstrates their recognized role within Christian Europe’s social structure during the Middle Ages. Still, this protection was volatile and could not withstand the intensity of the antiJewish sentiments that swept across Christendom on numerous occasions. Resembling the outbreaks of 1096, “economic jealousy and financial anxiety fuelled the ferocity” of the attacks on Jews seen in both the Second and Third Crusades.22 In the late twelfth century, many Christians became distressed by the happenings of the commercial revolution, which was facilitating the conversion of capital towards a cash-based economy.23 Once again, this economy crisis stimulated many crusaders to take up arms against the Jews. Prior to the Third Crusade (1189-1192), riots against the Jews broke out in England, as King Richard moved to finance his campaign.24 The Third Crusade’s funding preparations and requirements occasioned the destruction and seizure of Jewish !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 20!Tyerman, 282.! 21!Bernard of Clairvaux, “Letter to Eastern France and Bavaria Promoting the Second Crusade (1146),” Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations. Accessed via http://www.ccjr.us/dialogikaresources/primary-texts-from-the-history-of-the-relationship/258-bernard-of-clairvaux! 22!Tyerman, 285.! 23!Tyerman, 285.! 24!Tyerman, 438.!

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property and commerce throughout England.25 Cash-strapped crusaders were resentful of the perceived wealth of Jews, who likely served as their creditors.26 This idea, coupled again with the vocation of violence against the “enemies of the cross,” occasioned an assault on the community. These early outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence can be seen to have prepared the way for the legislation of Pope Innocent III, and thus culminated in a turning point for the reality of medieval Jewry.!! As the Crusades progressed, the papal power began seeing the holy cause as a means of asserting its political significance in the temporal sphere. Through the Crusades, the papacy aspired to further extend its traditional authority across the Christian realm. One of the most powerful and influential pontiffs of the Middle Ages, Pope Innocent III (1198-1216), exemplifies this trend. Noted as the “incarnation of medieval papacy at its zenith,” Innocent was elected to guide the Church at a climatic time.27 His rule followed a century of progress, in which rapid population growth, the development of urban centers, and the establishment of strong centralized governments with effective administrative systems, brought about a new reality.28 Given these circumstances, a power struggle ensued between the papacy and secular authorities, as both strove for supremacy on the European continent. The Popes and Holy Roman Emperors had historically vied with each other for the domination of Europe. In this, the Jews became a handy tool. European Jews served to reinforce the social cohesion of Christians, especially in these times of political, economic and/or social crisis. In these situations, the tension between the Jews and !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 25!Tyerman, 438.! 26!Tyerman, 439.! 27!Edward A. Synan, The Popes and the Jews in the Middle Ages (New York: Macmillan, 1965), 83.! 28!Claster, 211.! !

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Gentiles usually becomes exacerbated, and the Jews become perceived as a more eminent threat to the prosperity of Christian society.29 This allows for the maintenance of a unified Christian sense of self, as the ”psychological process of displacement, externalization, and projection” causes the Jews to become the overarching enemy.30! Accordingly, hungry for power and hegemony, Innocent sought to use the Jews in his pursuit of a universal Christian empire under his leadership. Pope Innocent III held the belief that an ideal Christian society could only be achieved if it was united under the authority of the papacy. Accordingly, as the pontiff, he felt that he had the right to interfere in secular happenings within the Christian realm.31 The Pope sought to assert a type of feudal lordship over Christendom, which would empower him to use his position to coordinate the energies of Europe towards a common Christian cause. The Pope’s desire for unity went “hand-in-hand” with his ideal of imposing religious uniformity.32 Innocent felt that the only way of achieving his ultimate goal of reconquering the Holy Land was to first purify Christianity itself. He felt that only a Christian society free from sin and heretical practices could hope to restore Christian sovereignty in the Levant.33 Turning inwards, Innocent went to great lengths to combat religious sectarianism within the Church, upholding a relentless policy of intolerance towards heretics or neutrals.34 By 1208, Innocent launched a full-fledged crusade against the well-established

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 29!Falk, 368. 30!Falk, 398.! 31!Synan, 86. 32!Claster, 212.! 33!Synan, 98.! 34!Claster, 212.! !

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Albigensian Christian sect in southern France.35 In his Albigensian Crusade, Innocent sought to further involve himself in secular affairs. The Pope had enticed the King of France to take action and went so far as to urge a truce between the French and English monarchs so they could turn their efforts towards this venture. Furthermore, in the effort to quash dissenters, the papacy began introducing a system of institutions and orders to survey society on a localized level. Put forward by papal authorities, an anxiety over “evil doers of every kind” was strengthened and various groups of individuals who were deemed outside the norm were marginalized.36 The systematic programs enacted in the pursuit of heretics brought about the formation of special institutions such as the Dominican Order and the Inquisition.37 Although initially established with the objective of eradicating heresy within the Church, they worked to broaden Church jurisdiction as they spread across Europe, creating an increasingly hostile environment for the Jews. Furthermore, Innocent’s concern with religious uniformity led him to have an inflexible attitude towards the Jews. Fearful that the Jews were harmful to Christian society because they threatened to pollute it, Innocent worked to advance limitations on Jewish behavior and integration.38 The Pope saw his world as one without neutral perspectives, to the point that if Jews were not fully a part of Christendom, they were its enemies.39 Still, the foundation of the pontiff’s contempt for the Jews was based in anti-Judaic theology, and thus quite distinct from most modern manifestations of antisemitism. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 35!Claster, 218.! 36!Poliakov, 65.! 37!Poliakov, 68.! 38!Claster, 222.! 39!Synan, 87. !

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Ecclesiastical policy in regards to the Jews had long existed in the papacy prior to Innocent’s pontificate. The reoccurring Constitutio pro Judeis, known also as the Sicut, provided the Jews with papal protection from infringements on their rights to physical security and religious practice.40 This remained a common concept in Innocent’s own dealings with Jews, as his version of the protective bull, Constitutio pro Judeis (1199), ordered that no Christians “shall do the Jews any personal injury […] or deprive them of their possessions.”41 Still Innocent hedged his protection of the Jews, detailing how they were to remain in their position of servitude, and were only guaranteed these basic rights if they remained in good will. Thus, while this decree served to protect the Jews, it nonetheless prescribed them an inferior and limited status within Christian society. Innocent’s dictation of Jewish status stemmed from the theological abstraction that Jews had come to represent in the Christian realm. He articulated his imposed limitation on Jewish behavior and sought to enforce these boundaries as a means of protecting Christianity. Moreover, the Pope was influential in asserting his power on Catholic priests and secular rulers who had allowed the Jews to hold some authority. For this reason, many historians have described Innocent pontificate as a pivotal point in medieval Jewish life, marking the beginning of a steady decline.42!However,!while! Innocent’s personality and utilization of his pontificate allowed him to have a great impact in expressing and arousing anti-Jewish sentiments, he was still “simply a man of

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 40!Robert Chazan, “Pope Innocent III and the Jews,” in Pope Innocent III and His World, ed. John C. Moore (Aldershot, UK, and Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 1999), 188-189.! 41!On the Jews - Decree of 1199” in A Source Book for Mediaeval History. Selected Documents Illustrating the History of Europe in the Middle Age, ed. Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar Holmes McNeal (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905). Accessed via http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2277! 42!Chazan, “Pope Innocent,” 188.!

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his times, sharing perceptions and fears widely spread through his milieu.”43 He was not the architect of these conceptions of Jewish harmfulness, but rather used his authority to propagate these ideas through policies and rhetoric. Pope Innocent worked to harden the Christian perception of the Jews and broaden the range of limitations imposed on the community.!The Pope had become uneasy with the situation of Christian-Jewish relations and made efforts to inhibit excessive contact between the two. He successfully heightened existing anxieties regarding the Jews and pushed already established restrictions in new directions. In his rhetoric, he supplemented traditional policy regarding the Jews by intensifying the papal attitude through more effective and extreme legislative methods.44 Innocent used his power to extend his definition of Jewish status beyond the religious realm and into secular society. This is evident in his letter to King Philip II of France in 1205, where Innocent outlines his agenda.!In his letter, Pope Innocent expresses his concern regarding the Jews of France, specifically due to evidence that the secular authorities had sanctioned their conduct. Innocent described how the “Jews have become so insolent” by their methods of usury and gained influence at the expense of Christians.45 He levied three major economic complaints against the Jews, voicing opposition to the compounding of interest by Jewish lenders, their appropriation of ecclesiastical goods and tithes, and their seizure of Christian properties.46 To the Pope, the Jewish accumulation of wealth was a significant scandal because they were theologically prescribed a subordinate role in Christian

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society.47 Jews were to remain in a state of “temporary servitude” if they wanted to exist in the Christian realm and the happenings in France proved counter to such an ideal.48 Innocent III called the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 to ratify his sovereign decrees across the Christian realm. Innocent used this great assembly, characterized as “marking the pinnacle of pontifical power,” to canonize hostile notions regarding the Jews that had long been pulsating in medieval Christian society.49 In his four rulings on the Jews, Innocent effectively extended existing anti-Jewish legislation and enhanced the commitment to their enforcement. In doing so, Innocent attempted to further define the role of Jews in Christian society, alienating them both socially and commercially. The fact that the Pope felt it necessary to overtly marginalize the Jews demonstrates the extent of their integration within Christian society. In the Council’s judgments, Innocent reiterates many of the points he made to the King of France in 1205. He explains that it is blasphemous for Jews to hold any authority over Christians and that any hostility expressed by the Jews towards Christians is intolerable.50 In the 68th canon, Innocent decreed that Jews, as well as Saracens, must distinguish themselves in their dress.51 This distinctive marker was to be worn by Jews throughout Christendom as a means of protecting Christians from naively having intercourse with the marginalized group. However, it is unlikely that many people took the charges of immorality that justified the need for such a distinction seriously. Rather, the imposition of a distinctive Jewish mark was likely intended for the commercial and social separation of the Jews, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 47!Synan, 94.! 48!Synan, 92.! 49!Poliakov, 64.! 50!The Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council 1215 in H. J. Schroeder, Disciplinary Decrees of the General Councils: Text, Translation and Commentary, (St. Louis: B. Herder, 1937). 236-296. Accessed via http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/lateran4.asp! 51!The Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council 1215. !

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drawing an eerie parallel to more recent historical happenings. The rapid economic growth of the period leading up to Innocent’s election had attracted many Jews to the money trade. Though the Church initially sanctioned this movement, which was further encouraged by secular authorities, it nevertheless served to sharpen hostilities between the Jews and their gentile hosts.52 Accordingly, Innocent opened up Jewish economic activity as a new area of ecclesiastical regulation, initiating an extensive process of “demanding secular limitation on the purportedly harmful Jewish economic activities attendant upon the move into moneylending.”53 Though earlier popes had voiced their concern with such practices, Innocent enacted more severe regulations, which greatly impacted Jewish financers for centuries to come.54!! In the Fourth Lateran Council, Innocent rhetorically shafted the Jews from their established economic role. In the 67th canon, Innocent explicitly ruled against Jewish financial activities, imposing restrictions on their money lending practices and interest rates. In turn, he effectively drew on established Christian notions of Jewish malevolence. He sought to marginalize Jewish commercial practices, declaring that the Jews were exhausting Christian resources and exploiting monetary services to subvert Christian society. In this judgment, Innocent states, Wishing, therefore, in this matter to protect the Christians against cruel oppression by the Jews, we ordain in this decree that if in the future under any pretext Jews extort from Christians oppressive and immoderate interest, the partnership of the Christians shall be denied them till they have made suitable satisfaction for their excesses.!55!

These restrictions were meant to protect the Christian populace from this perceived !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 52!Chazan, “Pope Innocent,” 200.! 53!Chazan, “Pope Innocent,” 194.! 54!Chazan, “Pope Innocent,” 200.! !

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pestilence, as he clearly demonstrated by pressuring Christians to abstain from excessive commercial intercourse with the Jews. This was to be coerced through the threat of ecclesiastical punishment without appeal, illustrating the Pope’s desire to control even secular activities. In this canon, Innocent illustrates how the prohibition of usury amongst Christians has facilitated this “treachery of the Jews” in the money trade.55 This sheds light on a shifting papal perception of commerce, which could be understood as operating to empower the developing of Christian financial institutions. During the commercial revolution of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, many Catholic theologians began the process of differentiating the sin of usury from commercial credit agreements.56 The exercise of commercial credit and charitable loans was described as ethical, as it was endorsed by righteous individuals and involved respectable Christian institutions.57 Moreover, the sin of usury remained a vile Jewish practice, demonstrating how the distinction between good and bad loans was crafted in “both symbolic and legal terms,” hinging mainly on the figure of the devilish Jewish usurer.58 Consequently, Pope Innocent III canonized these anxieties regarding the Jews and developed innovative methods of furthering their limitations. He sought to inhibit Jews from social and commercial interactions, and imposed his ideals throughout the secular realm. His propagation of distrust and his extensive rhetorical judgments effectively debased Jewish financial practices in Christian Europe. This created a void within the evolving economic system, which the Order of the Knights Templar and their !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 55!The Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council 1215.! 56!Francesca Trivellato, “Credit, Honor, and the Early Modern French Legend of the Jewish Invention of Bills of Exchange,” in The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 84, No. 2, The Jew in the Modern European Imaginary (June 2012), 299.! 57!Trivellato, 299.! 58!Trivellato, 299.!

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innovative banking structure were quick to fill. Founded in the twelfth century, the Knights Templar was a militant organization of Christian knights that was created to protect unarmed pilgrims along their journey to the Holy land. The necessity for the Templars came from the insecurity of the roads leading east, which had become areas of violent plunder and unremitting danger. Members of the Order took oaths of poverty and abstinence, seeking to create an ascetic community dedicated to the utmost pious practices.59 Giving up their property and assets, these armed monks were granted residency on the ancient site of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem.60 The papal authorities realized that violence within Christendom could not be fully suppressed, and thus used such orders as a means of controlling and channeling its directives.61 Consequently, the Knights Templar became an officially sanctioned charity; ordained by the papacy and entrusted with unique capacities. The remarkable growth of the Templar order stemmed from the Church’s perception of the knighthood as an essential instrument in the continued survival of Christendom in the Holy land. Three papal bulls served to inaugurate the Order, giving it an unusual range of rights and privileges. The Omne Datum Optimum (1139) provided the Templars with papal protection, exemption from certain tithes and taxes, and granted them with the ability to collect from the spoils of Muslim conquest.62 In 1144, the decree Milites Templi ordered the clergy to protect the Templars and encouraged the faithful to contribute to the Order’s cause. This decree also allowed the Order to make tax

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 59!Haag, 109.! 60!Haag, 109.! 61!Haag, 89.! 62!Malcolm Barber and A. K. Bate. The Templars: Selected Sources (Manchester UP, 2002), 59.! !

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collections on its properties once a year.63 Militia Dei (1145) consolidated the Templar’s independence from local clerical hierarchies and secular authorities, furthering their abilities to collect tithes on their own land and travel freely throughout the Christian realm.64 These papal decrees complemented the earlier writings of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who had been fundamental in mustering the Church’s approval of the combative monks. In his lengthy treatise, In Praise of the New Knighthood, Bernard contrasted the virtuous members of the Templar with the common actions of secular knighthood.65 Moreover, he praised the Knights Templar for their role as custodians of the holy places in the crusader states.66 Bernard’s prominence across the Christian realm and his role in presiding over the writing of the Rule that dictated the Templar behavior, granted the Order much public veneration.67 It was the support of Bernard, and the subsequent papal legislation, that facilitated massive contributions to the Order. Throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the Templars became one of the most wealthy and prestigious religious orders in all of Christendom.68 Spreading across Christian realm, the evolving Order amassed large tracts of land donated mainly from their members and other Christian nobles. By forming extensive political connections and utilizing their developing knowledge of urban commercial society, the Order rose to a position of significant prominence. Moreover, the Templars’ unique situation and !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 63!Barber, The Templars, 64.! 64!Barber, The Templars, 65.! 65!James Wasserman, The Templars and the Assassins: The Militia of Heaven (Rochester, VT: Destiny, 2001), 278-279.! 66!Bernard of Clairvaux, In Praise of the New Knighthood, prologue-chapter five, translated by Conrad Greenia ocso, from Bernard of Clairvaux: Treatises Three, (Cistercian Fathers Series, Number Nineteen, Cistercian Publications, 1977) Accessed via http://www.the-orb.net/encyclop/religion/monastic/bernard.html! 67Wasserman, 159.! 68!Malcolm Barber, The Trial of the Templars (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2006), 1.!

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privileges enabled them to partake in the developing financial system. This was driven substantially by the continuous demand for funding the crusading efforts and the Orders own financial innovations.69 In the earliest days of the Order, its founder, Hughes de Payens perceived commercial activities as one of the essential duties of the Templar.70 Their developing situation, as an established a transnational network entrusted by the papacy, provided the resources needed to cultivate an expansive and secure financial institution. On their estates, the Templars had already begun converting agricultural produce and rents in-kind into money to be sent to the Holy land. To assist the transfer of this capital, they advanced a sophisticated banking system. Their various fortresses along the routes to the Levant became depositories for wealth, providing travellers with a safer alternative than to carry these valuables with them on the dangerous trek east.71 This permitted many pilgrims and crusaders to place their assets under the safeguard of the Templars prior to embarking on their journey to the Holy land. As the Templar’s financial power increased, they began devoting more of their infrastructure to economic pursuits. By the mid-twelfth century, the Order had begun to move away from its original mission of providing armed protection, shifting their focus to managing capital and the innovative practice of issuing credit. Under the Templar initiatives, Christians who deposited their assets with in one of their institutions would receive a note of credit describing their holdings. This allowed these accountholders to withdraw funds from any of the Templar banking houses that spread across both Europe !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 69!Wasserman, 169.! 70!Wasserman, 169.! 71!Wasserman, 169.! !

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and the Levant. This aided in keeping pilgrims safe, as they were no longer travelling with tangible valuables. These services provided precise records of accounts, allowing the establishment of a process of payments and deposits that would ultimately lead to the “modern practice of drawing checks against an account.”72 Moreover, the Templars’ trusted and powerful financial structure proved fundamental in enlarging the scope of a cash-based credit system. As the Church historically opposed the practice of money lending among Christians, the Templars developed complex methods to overcome these constraints. Using clever legislative loopholes, the Templar reserved the right to profit from assets deposited in their institutions and from their loans and properties. The Templar advanced a directive of charging rent, rather than interest, to effectively skirt the Christian probation of usury. Rent essentially became a euphemism for interest, which was further veiled by the complex character of the Templars’ economic services. Interest payments became concealed as administrative expenses, and were to be deducted in advance from any money received.73 Moreover, through the manipulation of exchange rates, the Templars profited from international transactions.74 All of this was in great contrast to the original mission of the movement, a betrayal William of Tyre attempts to stress when he notes “there is not a province in the Christian world which has not bestowed upon the aforesaid brothers a portion of its goods.”75 In the two centuries of its existence, the Knights Templar set up an expansive banking system that was key to European society’s progression towards a cash-based !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 72!Wasserman, 168.! 73!Wasserman, 169.! 74!Wasserman, 169.! 75!Haag, 109.! !

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economy.76 Powerful secular and religious leaders utilized the Templars’ network and bureaucracy to perform a wide variety of financial services. In France, the Templar became responsible for transmitting funds, managing debt and credit, and collecting taxes.77 Likewise, in 1198, when Pope Innocent III levied taxes on the clergy, he called upon the Templars to aid in the collection of these duties.78 Moreover, in the same period that the Pope sought to impose harsh economic restrictions on the Jews, he sanctioned the Templars’ practices and employed them for his own financial needs. In doing so, the pontiff effectively degraded the Jewish role in the economy, while simultaneously endorsing the Knights Templar to become a crucial force in that very enterprise. By the fourteenth century, the Knights Templar had a recognizable presence throughout Europe and the Mediterranean. Though the Mamluk expulsion of Christians from the Holy land in 1291 severed the Order from its main purpose of existence, the Templars retained a position of prominence in Christian society.79 The Templar banking system remained largely intact, and continued to be used across the Christian realm. Nevertheless, the Order’s position in finance led to its eventual downfall. The monetary practices of the Templars placed them in an increasingly tension situation, as the ambitions of secular rulers greatly indebted them to the Order. Thus, after nearly two hundred years of existence, the Templars’ role in finance induced their own ruthless demise, with its leaders brutally tortured and its extensive holdings seized.80 In this era of conflict, the phenomena of nationalism significantly increased !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 76!Wasserman, 169.! 77!Wasserman, 168.! 78!Wasserman, 168.! 79!Barber, The Trial, 2.! 80!Wasserman, 153.! !

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amongst the secular rulers in Europe. Feuds between the various monarchies were embittered by these expansionist ambitions and the prolonged military incursions facilitated the accumulation of great debts. At the same time, many European monarchs worked to centralize state authority by furthering their influence in their own territories. These nationalist pursuits put the secular powers at odds with the papal authorities, as they began to challenge the papacy’s universal claims to sovereignty.81 In the case of France, the expansion of the kingdom in the thirteenth century led to a troubling situation by the turn of the century. King Philip IV of France (1285-1314) inherited a vast kingdom with a lengthy historical connection to the papacy upon his accession to the throne.82 Along with this rite to rule, Philip IV became responsible for the substantial debt his forefathers had incurred in their military campaigns to expand French rule.83 However, this did no stop Philip IV from embarking on his own ambitious conquests. Under his rule, the French monarchy continued its disastrous military efforts against both England and Flanders.84 Moreover, Philip IV exploited the sacred connection between the France’s monarchical dynasty and the papacy, establishing a “political theology” in an attempt to focus loyalty upon his monarchical rule.85 This annexation of power created a tense situation between the King and the ruing pontiff, Boniface VIII (1294-1303). Still, the major cause of Philip IV’s problems arose from the financial weakness of his kingdom. Throughout his rule, the French King sought out a variety of different methods to !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 81!Claster, 289.! 82!Barber, The Trial, 39.! 83!Barber, The Trial, 44.! 84!Falk, 492.! 85!Barber, The Trial, 39.! !

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alleviate his financial liabilities. Lacking a stable source of income, Philip IV instituted innovative taxes and confiscated the assets of affluent groups in his realm on numerous occasions. Moreover, in an effort to secure a share of the Church’s revenues, the King imposed a royal taxation on the French clergy.86 Though the Fourth Lateran Council deemed it acceptable for secular rulers to tax the clergy, it was to be done only with papal consent.87 As Philip IV became desperate, he began arbitrarily collecting taxes; thus intensifying his conflict with Pope Boniface.88 Following the election of Clement V (1305-1314), relations between the French King and papal authorities began to soften. This occasioned Philip IV to move against the groups that had provided his kingdom with financial services. His first move was to seize the assets of the Lombard merchants by arresting the leaders of the group to which he was greatly indebted.89 The King continued this method of alleviating debts by expelling the Jews from France in 1306. Prior to this expulsion, Pope Clement V had granted the King a pardon for the confiscation of Jewish assets in an effort of reconciliation.90 The King instructed his officials to work with the Inquisition, seizing all Jewish properties and debts owed to them.91 This was not unheard of at the time, as similar events had transpired in England only a few decades earlier. The eviction of these groups was a scheme to collect cash and alleviate debts related to these communities. By 1307, Philip IV had attempted virtually every economic expedient known to !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 86!Claster, 289.! 87!Barber, The Trial, 48.! 88!Barber, The Trial, 48.! 89!Barber, The Trial, 53.! 90!Robert Michael, A History of Catholic Antisemitism: The Dark Side of the Church (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 60.! 91!Michael, 60.! !

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medieval rulers, but utterly failed to attain the financial security he desired. This caused the King to move against the Templars, who had been even more involved in France’s financial administration than both the Lombard and the Jews.92 For decades the Templars had served as the royal treasurers of the French monarchy and had amassed considerable land and wealth. Moreover, Philip IV had become greatly indebted to the Order during his attempts to accommodate the inflating cost of war.93 Thus, on Friday the 13th of October 1307, the King of France arrested the Templars throughout his realm, ordering the seizure of their property and levying various heretical charges against the Order.94 Like the Jews and the Lombard merchants, the monetary resources of the Templars and their position as royal financiers induced the King’s actions. The pragmatic nature of the events in France in the early fourteenth century exemplify the consequences of a particular group emerging as an overwhelming economic force. Similar to the outbreaks of violence towards the Jews during the Crusades, the Templars’ position in the developing financial system caused a tense situation that eventually led to their demise. It is the economic and political circumstances that prompt such acts, which is usually to be aided by the manipulation of theology. As the Jews’ and Templars’ persecutions were stimulated by practicality, it was justified by the oppressive regimes through manipulating theological sentiments. The violent uprisings that swept across the Jewish communities of Europe arose mainly from the necessity to secure funds for the crusading efforts. While Christian notions of antiJudaism were undoubtedly employed in these events, such sentiments had existed for !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 92!Barber, The Trial, 53.! 93!Barber, The Trial, 53.! 94!Barber, The Trial, 1.! !

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many centuries prior, rarely instigating any sort of pogrom. Likewise, Philip IV’s suppression of the Knights Templar arose out of his demand for capital and justified his acts by declaring the Order a heretical force in Christendom. Thus, by comparing the oppression of the Templars and the Jews, it is clear that economic necessity is a crucial factor in these types of situational discriminations. The Fourth Lateran Council was the pinnacle of Christian assembly in the Middle Ages. Pope Innocent III outlined the papacy’s sovereign authority, detailing his perceived influence on the happenings of the secular realm. In his judgments, Innocent decreed the limitations of the Jews in Christian society, attempting to alienate them both socially and economically. He presented his definition of Jewish status in Christian civilization, further consecrating the anti-Jewish sentiments that had long existed in the Church. At the same time, the Knights Templar was developing into a transnational financial force that was sanctioned by the papacy. Accordingly, the Templar banking system (with its deposits, creditors, debtors, mortgage systems and charges of “rent”) effectively displaced the need for Jewish moneylending practices in much of the Christian realm in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.

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Primary Sources Bernard of Clairvaux, In Praise of the New Knighthood, prologue-chapter five, translated by Conrad Greenia ocso, from Bernard of Clairvaux: Treatises Three, Cistercian Fathers Series, Number Nineteen, © Cistercian Publications, 1977, 127-145. Accessed via http://www.the-orb.net/encyclop/religion/monastic/bernard.html Bernard of Clairvaux, “Letter to Eastern France and Bavaria Promoting the Second Crusade (1146),” Council of Centers on Jewish-Christian Relations. Accessed via http://www.ccjr.us/dialogika-resources/primary-texts-from-the-history-ofthe-relationship/258-bernard-of-clairvaux “On the Jews - Decree of 1199” in A Source Book for Mediaeval History. Selected Documents Illustrating the History of Europe in the Middle Age, ed. Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar Holmes McNeal (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905). Accessed via http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/2277 The Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council 1215 in H. J. Schroeder, Disciplinary Decrees of the General Councils: Text, Translation and Commentary, (St. Louis: B. Herder, 1937). 236-296. Accessed via http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/lateran4.asp Secondary Sources Atiya, Aziz S. Crusade, Commerce, and Culture (Bloomington, 1962). Barber, Malcolm, and A. K. Bate. The Templars: Selected Sources (Manchester: Manchester UP, 2002). Barber, Malcolm. The Trial of the Templars (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2006). Chazan, Robert. Church, State, and Jew in the Middle Ages (New York: Behrman House, 1980). Chazan, Robert. “Pope Innocent III and the Jews.” in Pope Innocent III and His World, ed. John C. Moore (Aldershot, UK, and Brookfield, VT: Ashgate, 1999) 187-204. Claster, Jill N., Sacred Violence: The European Crusades to the Middle East, 1095-1396, (Toronto: U of Toronto, 2009). Falk, Avner. A Psychoanalytical History of the Jews (Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 1996). ! Haag, Michael. The Templars: History & Myth (London: Profile, 2008).! ! Jotischky, Andrew. Crusading and the Crusader States (Pearson Longman, 2004). Michael, Robert. A History of Catholic Antisemitism: The Dark Side of the Church (New

York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).! ! Phillips, Jonathan. The Fourth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople (Penguin Books, 2005).! ! Poliakov, Leon. The History of Anti-Semitism Volume I: From the Roman times to the Court Jews (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974). Runciman, Steven. A History of the Crusades (CUP, Cambridge, 1951). Sharf, A., Jews and Other Minorities in Byzantium (Jerusalem: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1995). Synan, Edward A., The Popes and the Jews in the Middle Ages (New York: Macmillan, 1965). Trivellato, Francesca. “Credit, Honor, and the Early Modern French Legend of the Jewish Invention of Bills of Exchange,” in The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 84, No. 2, The Jew in the Modern European Imaginary (June 2012), 289-334. Tyerman, Christopher. God’s War: A New History of the Crusades (Belknap Press, 2009). Wasserman, James. The Templars and the Assassins: The Militia of Heaven (Rochester, VT: Destiny, 2001). !