Badge
THE JEWISH EKCYCLOPEDIA
Badis
down
to Charles VI.
ative on both sexes;
wear a
It
was generally made imper-
but
at times Jewesses
veil called " orales " or " cornalia.
had
to
The age
"
at which it was worn varied Marseilles to thirteen at Aries
from seven years at and fourteen at Avignon. It was mainly worn upon the breast but during the reign of Philippe le Hardi a second Badge was worn on the back. The color at first ordered
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ar0Vt*&*r2'/fiff •
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426
Adding injury to insult, the authorities forced the Jews to pay an annual sum for the use of the badges, and, curiously enough, one finds them left as pledges ("Revue Etudes Juives," v. 307, 308). When the Jews left the rest of France the wearing of the Badge was still kept up at Avignon, which was under the rule of the popes; and evidence of the Badge is found there as late as 1592. In Spain the use of the Badge varied in the different kingdoms. Pope Honorius III. gave a dispensation (1219) to the Jews of Castile whereas James I. in 1228 ordered those of Aragon to Spain, wear it. His example was followed Italy, and by the king of Navarre, and even by the England, emir of Granada, Ismael Abu-1-Walid The practise of wearing (1315-26). the Badge does not appear to have continued long in Spain. The Council of Zamora, 1313, complains of its not having been put into force; and many instances are given of permission to Jews to discontinue it. In 1371 the ordinances were revived, and a bull of Benedict XIII. (May 11, 1415) insisted upon the Jews carrying a yellow and red Badge, the men on their breast, the women on their forehead. Italy appears to have been troubled less with injunctions about the Badge than the other parts of Christendom. Throughout the thirteenth century the Badge is only known in Sicily (Zunz, "Z. G." p. 488) but in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries local injunctions are found in Venice, Verona, Parma, Rome, Asola, and Genoa. It was known as the " 0. for travel.
"'
- t
ftfr*-'—
fSXt
from its shape, and appears to have resembled the form used in France rather than that customary in Spain. In several instances it was accompanied by
—s*35*SS»
the pointed hat (see Judekhut) while in Venice the hat entirely replaced the Badge. The age at which it was worn, and the place upon which it was fixed, varied as much as in France but, as a rule, the former
was
thirteen years.
In England the form of the Badge varied from worn in the rest of Europe, at least in later
that
years. It was first imposed upon the Jews in England by Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, in 1222, and was in the form of a band, two fingers broad and four long. It was at first white, and afterward changed to yellow. In 1274, under Edward its shape became that of the Tables of the Law. I. In Germany the earliest mention of the Badge is in a dispensation accorded to the Jews of Erfurt, Oct. but it would appear that throughout the 16, 1294 fourteenth century the hat was the chief mark of identification used, though the Badge was reintroduced by Emperor Sigismund in 1434 at Augsburg. Similar restrictions are given at Nuremberg, Bamberg, and Frankfort in the middle of the fifteenth century. Here, in almost every case, the Badge was a yellow sign (compare G. Wolf, "Geschichte der Israelitischen Cultusgemeinde in Wien," p. 68, Vienna, 1861). Schudt, in his " Judische Merkwiirdigkeiten," gives facsimiles of those used at Frankfort in the years 1613-16, which vary Other from 92 to 48 mm. Countries. In Austria it would appear that the hat was the only sign of distinction according to the Council of Vienna, 1467, whereas in Hungary, 1279, the Badge was placed on the left ,
English
Jew wearing
(From a
Cottontail
MS.
Tablet-shaped Badge. in the British
Museum.)
was saffron yellow, but under King John colored red and white. The size varied
erally
it
was partiwas gen-
it
about three or four fingerbreadths from one
side to the other, the circle of the Badge one fingerbreadth in thickness. Under King John it was of
the size of the gieat seal, about 35 mm. in diameter, in the time of Charles V. as large as 50 mm. When a Jew was found without the Badge he was fined various sums, ranging from five sous at MarCharles seilles to ten Tours li vres under Saint Louis. V. reduced this to twenty Parisian sous. For special reasons and doubtless for payment the Jew was allowed to go without the Badge but the instances of this permission in Prance are rare, and generally only
and
