Where a Jew wishes to free a Christian slave, he must do so in such a
way that the latter may attain the rank of a Roman citizen, to wit:
that, by the act of emancipation, no services shall be reserved for
the benefit of any Hebrew, or of anyone else; and that said liberated
slave may have the power to pass his life wherever he chooses, free
from all obligation to, or association with, the Jews. If, however, any
Hebrew should fraudulently sell or liberate a slave, and evidence of
said illegal act should be proved at any future time, and any damage
to the slave should result; where a freeborn person exposes such a
fraudulent transaction, he shall be entitled to all the property of the
parties, both vendor and purchaser, who perpetrated the fraud. Should
a Christian be concerned in such a proceeding, he shall be given as a
slave to whomever the king may direct; and where he has property, half
of it shall be confiscated for the benefit of the public treasury,
and the offender shall be branded with eternal infamy. Should a slave
detect a fraud of this kind, he shall be given his freedom, and shall
remain under the patronage of him in whose service he was until that
time; and in order that exact justice may be done, the master of said
slave shall receive another from the Crown in his stead, and, in
addition, shall be entitled to a pound of gold from him whose deceit
was exposed by the slave.
Where a Hebrew circumcises a Christian, or induces one to join his
sect, or perform any of his rites, he shall be beheaded; the informer
shall receive a proper reward; and the property of said Jew shall be
forfeited to the royal treasury. All slaves who are known to be the
issue of marriages between Christians and Jews, we hereby declare shall
be made Christians. And if such slaves as have been converted to the
Jewish religion should desire to remain in that perfidious belief, and
and should refuse to return to the true faith, they shall be scourged,
and scalped, in the presence of the assembled people, and delivered
up to whomever we may select, to remain in perpetual servitude. Where
the unlawful marital unions hereinbefore mentioned have already taken
place, we hereby decree that the infidel party to the same shall have
a right to embrace the true faith, should he or she desire to do so.
Should, however, said party refuse, the marriage shall be dissolved,
and the recalcitrant person shall be driven into perpetual exile. To
the other provisions of this law we add the following: that whenever
any Jew desires sincerely to embrace the Catholic faith, and has been
purified by the holy water of baptism, he shall be entitled to retain,
without molestation, all the property which he possessed at that time.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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