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# The Theodosian Code and Alfonso X's law on relations between Jews and Christian women
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/poiavivshiisia-v-nachale-iv-v/
- Published: 2017-11-08T08:15:33.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:57:38.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Faith, Books, Observations, Mores, Society

The Theodosian Code, which appeared in the early 4th century, exerted a serious influence on the life of Europe, including on relations between Christians and Jews. The words of one of its laws, “it is perfectly clear that the sect of the Jews is forbidden by no law”, for instance, served for several centuries as an unshakeable charter of protection for the Jews. Yet according to the same code, a Christian woman who slept with a Jew was not merely condemned but sentenced to nine years of penance, and in some regions of Italy this prohibition extended even to female slaves.

B. Blumenkranz writes in his book “Jews and Christians in the Western World” that in 1285 Alfonso X issued a law under which a Jew faced the death penalty for a sexual liaison with a Christian woman. The cruel decree was explained by the fact that at baptism a girl becomes the bride of Christ. A wild justification, to be sure: by that logic, any sexual relationship of a baptised girl is treason against the Lord. It is a mercy, at least, that men do not become anybody's spouse at baptism.