Through Jewish eyes: polemical literature and the medieval papacy

Although the medieval papacy's stance towards the Jews is a well-established area of research, Jewish ideas about the papacy remain a surprisingly underdeveloped historical topic. This article explores such ideas through the genre of polemic and disputational literature. Jewish writers were keen to ensure the safety of their communities in western Europe and grateful for statements of papal protection. They fully acknowledged that popes had always played and would continue to play an important role in safeguarding their well-being and determining their future. Yet although contemporary and later writers often valued papal protection more highly than that of monarchs, emperors or clergy, they also knew that it had its carefully circumscribed limits. Furthermore, although they were respectful of the papacy's power, both spiritual and temporal, they were dismissive of the scriptural and theological formulations on which Christian claims for apostolic authority rested and highly critical of Christian beliefs about the papacy, in particular that of apostolic succession. Jewish ideas about both individual popes and the medieval papacy as an institution are therefore nuanced and complex; they deserve rigorous and wide-ranging investigation and it is hoped that this article will contribute to their better understanding.

The medieval papacy and holy war: General crusading letters and papal authority, 1145-1213

Chapter in an edited collection on the twelfth-century papacy and its authorisation of crusades to the Near East.

The nullity of the government of Queen Victoria in Ireland, or, The pope the virtual ruler of the land : Being an exhibition of the laws of the papacy, set up by the Romish bishops to subvert the authority of their lawful sovereign, in 1832 /

Mode of access: Internet.

Papalism. A treatise on the claims of the papacy as set forth in the encyclical Satis Cognitum.

Appendix A: Epistola encyclica--Satis cognitum: p. 697-718.

A history of the papacy from the great schism to the sack of Rome /

Includes index.

The empire and the papacy, 918-1273,

Mode of access: Internet.

The empire and the papacy, 918-1273 /

Bibliography: p. [viii]

A defence of the American policy, as opposed to the encroachments of foreign influence, and especially to the interference of the papacy in the political interests and affairs of the United States.

Mode of access: Internet.

A history of the papacy from the great schism to the sack of Rome.

Includes bibliographical references.

A history of the papacy during the period of the reformation,

v. 1. The great schism: The Council of Constance, 1378-1418.--v. 2. The Council of Basel: The Papal resoration, 1418-1464.--v. 3. The Italian Princes, 1464-1518.--v. 4. The Italian Princes, 1464-1518.--v. 5. The German revolt, 1517-1527.

The history of the papacy in the XIXth century,

i. Introduction, Pius VII.--II. Leo Xii to Pius IX.

The age of the renascence; an outline sketch of the history of the papacy from the return from Avignon to the sack of Rome (1377-1527),

Series title also at head of t.-p.