FUNES

FUNES, town in Navarre, northern Spain. A charter granted to Funes and the neighboring town of Viguera at the beginning of the 12th century also regulated relations between Jews and Christians, including the mode of establishing evidence in litigation. Ordeal by battle between Jews and Christians was prohibited and a high blood price was fixed for the murder of a Jew. Jewish landowners were required to pay tithes to the church. In 1171 King Sancho VI extended the same privileges to the Jews of Funes as those he had granted to the Jews of tudela in 1170, based on the fuero ("municipal charter") of Nájera. The Jews were freed from other dues in return for undertaking maintenance of the citadel of Funes, and they were not to be held responsible for the death of a Christian killed by them during an attack on the citadel, where they were living. In 1328, following the death of Carlos IV, the Jews of Funes were attacked. Many Jews were killed. The Jewish community had its own executive official, the bedinus. Much may be learned of life in the community in the 13th century from the list of fines imposed on members who had transgressed the law. Little of importance is known of the Jews in Funes from the 14th century onward. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: M. Kayserling, Die Juden in Navarra (1861), index; Baer, Urkunden, 1 (1929), index.