rther, let no
Christian venture maliciously to harm their persons without a judgment
of the civil power or to carry off their property or change their good
customs which they have hitherto in that district which they inhabit."
Innocent himself and several of his predecessors and successors are
known to have had Jewish physicians. Example speaks even louder than
precept, and the example of such men must have been a wonderful
advertisement for the Jewish physicians of the time.

Besides Innocent III, many of the Popes of the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries issued similar decrees as to the Jews. It may be recalled that
this was the time when the Papacy was most powerful in Europe and when
its decrees had most weight in all countries. Alexander II, Gregory IX,
and Innocent IV all issued formal documents demanding the protection of
the Jews, and especially insisting that they must not be forced to
receive Baptism nor disturbed in the celebration of their festivals.
Clement VI did the same thing in the next century, and even offered them
a refuge from persecution throughout the rest of France at Avignon.
Distinguished Jewish scholars, who know the whole story from careful
study, have given due credit to the Popes for all that they did for
their people. They have even declared that if the Jews were not
exterminated in many of the European countries it was because of the
protection afforded by the Church. We have come to realize in recent
years that persecution of the Jews is not at all a religious matter, but
is due to racial prejudice and jealousy of their success by the peoples
among whom they settle. All sorts of pretexts are given for this
persecution at all times. Formal Church documents and the personal
activities of the responsible Church officials show that during the
Middle Ages the Church was a protector and not a persecutor of the Jews.

There is abundant historical authority for the statement that the Popes
were uniformly beneficent in their treatment of the Jews. In order to
demonstrate this there is no need to quote Catholic historians, for
non-Catholics have been rather emphatic in bringing it out. Neander, the
German Protestant historian, for instance, said:

"It was a ruling principle with the Popes after the example of
their great predecessor, Gregory the Great, to protect the
Jews in the rights which had been conceded to them. When the
banished Popes of the twelfth century returned to