CALIXTUS°

CALIXTUS°, name of several popes. -CALIXTUS II (1119–24). Calixtus II first issued the bull Sicut Judaeis which served as a model for many of his successors down to the 15th century (cf. papal bulls ). The reason for its first issuance may have been the deteriorating status of the European Jews following the massacres perpetrated in the First Crusade. Additionally, the likelihood that anti-Jewish legislation might be adopted by the Ecumenical Council, which the pope called to meet in the Lateran Palace in 1123, may have motivated the Jews of Rome to appeal to the pope. The date of this bull may therefore have been 1122 or 1123. -CALIXTUS III (1455–58). Calixtus III displayed the anti-Jewish sentiments which characterized his native Spain in the 15th century. His coronation parade was marred by a riot over the Torah scroll which the representatives of the Jewish community were carrying in accordance with custom; the mob's attempt to rob the ornaments endangered the pope's life. In 1455 Calixtus III objected to the proximity of the Palermo synagogue to a church. He imposed a special tax on the Jews of the Papal States to help to pay for the proposed Turkish war. In 1456 he issued a brief, revoking the privileges which some of his predecessors had extended to the Jews. However, he granted permission to establish Jewish loan banks in the duchy of Milan. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Grayzel, in: Studies… A.A. Neuman (1962), 243–80; Baron, Social2, 4 (1957), 7–8; Vogelstein-Rieger, 2 (1895), 15–16; L. Poliakov, Les banchieri juifs et le Saint-Siège (1965), 118–9. (Solomon Grayzel)