Gregory the Great

Not everyone acted this way. Gregory the Great, pope from 590, also wanted the Jews to convert, but he ordered bishops to repay Jews for confiscated synagogues and condemned conversion by force.1

The canon Sicut Iudaeis non, which first appeared in the twelfth century and was repeated by nearly all later popes, restated the Augustinian balance: it prescribed an inferior place for Jews but granted them basic guarantees and legal protection. The treatment differed sharply from the Church's attitude to other religions, above all Islam, viewed as an enemy of Christendom.2

This theological framework was adopted by later church leaders and, in medieval law, became a basic toleration of Jews, though not 'tolerance' in the modern sense. Pope Gregory I (590 to 604) declared that Jews were not to be unjustly restrained or wronged; the aim was a balance between imposing restrictions and an inferior rank and avoiding arbitrary treatment.3