The Inquisition, which had been created to suppress the Cathars, set their sights on Jewish conversos in southern France. The popes protested that baptized Jews not only relapsed to their former faith, but they were even converting Christian subjects to Judaism. A bull passed by Gregory X in 1273 decreed that any Jews who relapsed, as well as Christians who converted to Judaism, were condemned as heretics and liable to prosecution. The Jews of Toulouse, who had buried a Christian convert in their cemetery, were tried before the Inquisition in 1278 and their head rabbi was sentenced to be burned alive. Philip IV initially ordered his seneschals to not imprison any Jews at the instance of the Inquisitors but in 1299 he rescinded the order.In 1306, the king, needing money, ordered the Jews expelled from France and their property confiscated. All real estate and movable goods belonging to Jews were to be auctioned off and any valuables found hidden in the dwellings became the king’s personal property. Philip the Fair was not about to let his Christian subjects off the hook if they owed Jews any money; he instead took their place and exacted debt payments, which they had to declare.
On July 22, just after the Jewish fast day of Tisha B’Av, they were arrested and ordered banished from France, allowed to keep nothing but the clothes on their backs and 12 sous each. A French historian has commented “In striking at the Jews, Philip the Fair at the same time dried up one of the most fruitful sources of the financial, commercial, and industrial prosperity of his kingdom.”In 1315, Louis X permitted the Jews to return to France for 12 years after it was said that the Christian moneylenders who replaced them were far more rapacious and even took to flaying debtors alive. It appears that they paid Louis 122,500 livres for the privilege of returning.
According to the king’s decree, the Jews were to earn a living by the work of their hands or by selling good quality wares, they were to wear an identifying badge and not discuss religion with Christian subjects. They were to be left unmolested and their synagogues and cemeteries restored. Their religious books were to be given back as well, excepting the Talmud. After the 12 year grace period was up, the king was not to expel the Jews again without giving them a year’s notice. They were not to lend on usury and no one was to be forced by the king or his officials to repay them usurious loans.If they engaged in pawnbroking, they were not to take more than two deniers in the pound a week; they were to lend only on pledges. Two men with the title "auditors of the Jews" were entrusted with the execution of this ordinance and were to take cognizance of all claims that might arise in connection with goods belonging to the Jews that had been sold before the expulsion for less than half of what was regarded as a fair price. The king finally declared that he took the Jews under his special protection and that he desired to have their persons and property protected from all violence, injury, and oppression.
This settlement held for most of the 14th century. In 1394, Charles VI issued an ordinance where he announced that he had received numerous complaints of injustices and frauds committed by the Jews against Christian subjects and that the Jews had been investigated and found to have violated numerous parts of the settlement. Therefore, the king decided, no Jews would reside in his domains. The decree was not immediately enforced, a respite being granted to the Jews in order that they might sell their property and pay their debts. Those indebted to them were enjoined to redeem their obligations within a set time; otherwise, their pledges held in pawns were to be sold by the Jews. The provost was to escort the Jews to the frontier of the kingdom. Subsequently, the king released Christian subjects from their debts.
