Cum nimis absurdum

Last updated
Cum nimis absurdum
Latin for 'Since it is absurd'
Papal bull of Pope Paul IV
C o a Paulus IV.svg
Signature date 14 July 1555
SubjectOn the Jews in Rome
Text
 Praeclara Carissimi
Pope Paul IV Paulus IV Papa Neapolitanus.jpg
Pope Paul IV

Cum nimis absurdum was a papal bull issued by Pope Paul IV dated 14 July 1555. It takes its name from its first words: [1]

Contents

Since it is absurd and utterly inconvenient that the Jews, who through their own fault were condemned by God to eternal slavery, can under the pretext that pious Christians must accept them and sustain their habitation, are so ungrateful to Christians, as, instead of thanks for gracious treatment, they return contumely, and among themselves, instead of the slavery, which they deserve, they manage to claim superiority: we, who newly learned that these very Jews have insolently invaded our City Rome and a number of the Papal States, territories and domains their impudence increased so much that they dare not only to live amongst the Christian people, but also in the vicinity of the churches without any difference of dressing, and even that they rent houses in the main streets and squares, buy and hold immovable property, engage maids, nurses and other Christian servants, and commit other and numerous misdeeds with shame and contempt of the Christian name. Considering that the Church of Rome tolerates these very Jews evidence of the true Christian faith and to this end [we declare]: that they, won over by the piety and kindness of the See, should at long last recognize their erroneous ways, and should lose no time in seeing the true light of the catholic faith, and thus to agree that while they persist in their errors, realizing that they are slaves because of their deeds, whereas Christians have been freed through our Lord God Jesus Christ, and that it is iniquitous for it to appear that the sons of free women serve the sons of maids.

The bull revoked all the rights of the Jewish community and placed religious and economic restrictions on Jews in the Papal States, renewed anti-Jewish legislation and subjected Jews to various degradations and restrictions on their personal freedom.

The bull established the Roman Ghetto and required the Jews of Rome, who had existed as a community since before Christian times and numbered about 2,000 at the time, to live in it. The Ghetto was a walled quarter with three gates that were locked at night. Under the bull, Jewish males were required to wear a pointed yellow hat, and Jewish females a yellow kerchief. Jews were required to attend compulsory Catholic sermons on the Jewish shabbat .

The bull also subjected Jews to various other restrictions such as a prohibition on property ownership and practising medicine among Christians. Jews were allowed to practice only unskilled jobs, as rag men, secondhand dealers or fish mongers. They could also be pawnbrokers.

Paul IV's successor, Pope Pius V, enforced the creation of other ghettos in most Italian towns, and his successor, Pope Pius VI, recommended them to other bordering states. The Papal States ceased to exist on 20 September 1870 when they were incorporated in the Kingdom of Italy, but the requirement that Jews live in the ghetto was formally abolished by the Italian state only in 1882.

Background

Gian Pietro Carafa was seventy-nine when he assumed the papacy as Pope Paul IV, and was by all accounts austere, rigidly orthodox, and authoritarian in manner. As a cardinal, he had persuaded Pope Paul III to establish a Roman Inquisition, modelled on the Spanish Inquisition with himself as one of the Inquisitors-General. Carafa vowed, "Even if my own father were a heretic, I would gather the wood to burn him". [2]

In September 1553, Cardinal Carafa had overseen the burning of the Talmud in Rome. [3] Deutsch and Jacobs link this to part of the reaction to the Protestant Reformation that led to censorship of books deemed detrimental to Christians. [4]

Content

Two months after becoming Pope, Paul IV issued Cum nimis absurdum. As temporal ruler of the Papal States it applied to those areas over which he had direct control.

Provisions

Paul IV sought to strictly enforce earlier canonical restrictions against the Jews — as those prohibiting their practising medicine among Christians, employing Christian servants, and the like — but he also restricted them in their commercial activity, forbade them to have more than one synagogue in any city, enforced the wearing of the yellow hat, refused to permit a Jew to be addressed as "signor", and finally decreed that they should live in a designated area separated from Christians. [5] The last measure was carried out in Rome with unrelenting cruelty. [4]

According to Herbert Thurston, "[E]dicts issued at various times for the destruction of copies of the Talmud, the Bull "Cum nimis absurdum" of Paul IV constraining the Jews of Rome to live segregated in a Ghetto and subject to other harassing disabilities, represent rather the prejudices of individual pontiffs ..." [6]

There was to be no more than one synagogue in each state, territory and domain. It forbade the construction of new synagogues, and decreed the demolition of any others beyond the one permitted. Furthermore, Jews were not allowed to own real property and were required to sell those properties which they then owned within a set period of time. [5] This contradicted a precedent set as early as 598, by Gregory the Great which clearly laid down that the Jews were to be allowed to keep their own festivals and religious practices, and their rights of property, even in the case of their synagogues. [6]

Paul IV restated a canon of the Fourth Council of the Lateran of 1215 that required Jews and Muslims to wear something to distinguish them from Christians. Paul now specified that Jews were required to wear some distinguishing sign, yellow in color.

They were forbidden to have Christian nurses, maids or servants, nor Christian wet-nurses. They were prohibited from working or have work done on Sundays or on other public feast days declared by the Church, or fraternize in any way with Christians. [5]

Jews were limited to the trade of rag-picking, and were not to trade in grain, barley, or any other commodity essential to human welfare. Nor were they to use other than Latin or Italian words in short-term account books that they held with Christians, and, if they did so, such records would not be binding on Christians in legal proceedings. Nonetheless, Serena di Nepi demonstrates that Jewish bankers remained actively involved with Christian partners in a variety of activities, including the purchase and sale of real estate. [7]

Those who were physicians, were not to attend, even if summoned, any Christians, and they were not to be addressed as superiors even by poor Christians.

The bull listed restrictions on loan practices. Collateral, put up as temporary security for their money, was not to be sold unless such goods were put up a full eighteen months prior to the day on which such collateral would be forfeit. At the expiration of the specified number of months, if Jews sold a security deposit, they were to remit all money in excess of the principal of the loan to the owner of the collateral.

Purpose and impact

The measures were aimed at bringing about Jewish conversions. "These policies were easier to enforce in the Papal States, where the Pope had executive power, as well as elsewhere in Italy, where the papacy had influence. Beyond Italy, though, the provisions of the bull were largely ignored". [8] In Poland, Church officials never proposed segregation of the Jews as such a measure would not have been supported by the king or the nobles. [8]

Serena di Nepi argues that "in spite of the increasing implosion of the Jewish world of Rome, imposed by papal policy, which imposed exclusion and enclosure, the Jews of Rome were able to hold steadfast to an identity, preserve a specificity and defend themselves against persisting attempts to convert them through active proselytism and social exclusion calculated to erode their adherence to their Jewish faith". [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pope Pius IV</span> Head of the Catholic Church from 1559 to 1565

Pope Pius IV, born Giovanni Angelo Medici, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 December 1559 to his death, in December 1565. Born in Milan, his family considered itself a branch of the House of Medici and used the same coat of arms. Although modern historians have found no proof of this connection, the Medici of Florence recognized the claims of the Medici of Milan in the early 16th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pope Clement VIII</span> Head of the Catholic Church from 1592 to 1605

Pope Clement VIII, born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1592 to his death, in March 1605.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1555</span> Calendar year

Year 1555 (MDLV) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pope Paul IV</span> Head of the Catholic Church from 1555 to 1559

Pope Paul IV, born Gian Pietro Carafa, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 May 1555 to his death, in August 1559. While serving as papal nuncio in Spain, he developed an anti-Spanish outlook that later coloured his papacy. In response to an invasion of part of the Papal States by Spain during his papacy, he called for a French military intervention. After a defeat of the French and with Spanish troops at the edge of Rome, the Papacy and Spain reached a compromise: French and Spanish forces left the Papal States and the Pope thereafter adopted a neutral stance between France and Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seraglio</span> Admin buildings in the former Ottoman Empire

A seraglio, serail, seray or saray is a castle, palace or government building which was considered to have particular administrative importance in various parts of the former Ottoman Empire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Ghetto</span> Jewish ghetto in Rome, Italy

The Roman Ghetto or Ghetto of Rome was a Jewish ghetto established in 1555 in the Rione Sant'Angelo, in Rome, Italy, in the area surrounded by present-day Via del Portico d'Ottavia, Lungotevere dei Cenci, Via del Progresso and Via di Santa Maria del Pianto, close to the River Tiber and the Theatre of Marcellus. With the exception of brief periods under Napoleon from 1808 to 1815 and under the Roman Republics of 1798–99 and 1849, the ghetto of Rome was controlled by the papacy until the capture of Rome in 1870.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Jews in Italy</span> Aspect of Italian and Jewish history

The history of the Jews in Italy spans more than two thousand years to the present. The Jewish presence in Italy dates to the pre-Christian Roman period and has continued, despite periods of extreme persecution and expulsions, until the present. As of 2019, the estimated core Jewish population in Italy numbers around 45,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Great Synagogue of Rome</span> Synagogue

The Great Synagogue of Rome is the largest synagogue in Rome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alessandro Farnese (cardinal)</span> Italian cardinal and diplomat (1520–1589)

Alessandro Farnese, an Italian cardinal and diplomat and a great collector and patron of the arts, was the grandson of Pope Paul III, and the son of Pier Luigi Farnese, Duke of Parma, who was murdered in 1547. He should not be confused with his nephew, Alessandro Farnese, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, grandson of Emperor Charles V and great-grandson of Pope Paul III.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish hat</span> Cone-shaped pointed hat, worn by Jews in Medieval Europe and parts of the Islamic world

The Jewish hat, also known as the Jewish cap, Judenhut (German) or Latin pileus cornutus, was a cone-shaped pointed hat, often white or yellow, worn by Jews in Medieval Europe. Initially worn by choice, its wearing was enforced in some places in Europe after the 1215 Fourth Council of the Lateran for adult male Jews to wear while outside a ghetto to distinguish them from others. Like the Phrygian cap that it often resembles, the hat may have originated in pre-Islamic Persia, as a similar hat was worn by Babylonian Jews.

SantAngelo (<i>rione</i> of Rome) Rione of Rome in Lazio, Italy

Sant'Angelo is the 11th rione of Rome, Italy, located in Municipio I. Often written as rione XI - Sant'Angelo, it has a coat of arms with an angel on a red background, holding a palm branch in its left hand. In another version, the angel holds a sword in its right hand and a scale in its left.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mattei family</span>

The House of Mattei was one of the most powerful noble families of Rome during the Middle Ages and early modern era, holding high positions in the papal curia and government office. The family amassed significant art collections under art enthusiasts such as Ciriaco Mattei.

This timeline of antisemitism chronicles events in the history of antisemitism, hostile actions or discrimination against Jews as members of a religious and/or ethnic group. It includes events in Jewish history and the history of antisemitic thought, actions which were undertaken in order to counter antisemitism or alleviate its effects, and events that affected the prevalence of antisemitism in later years. The history of antisemitism can be traced from ancient times to the present day.

The history of the Jews in Turin, Italy, can be first traced to the 4th century when bishop Maximus of Turin recorded the presence of Jews in the city. The city of Turin is in north-west Italy and is the capital of the Piedmont region.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlo Carafa</span> Italian cardinal

Carlo Carafa was an Italian cardinal, and Cardinal Nephew of Pope Paul IV Carafa, whose policies he directed and whom he served as papal legate in Paris, Venice and Brussels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish ghettos in Europe</span> Neighborhoods of European cities in which Jews were permitted to live

In the early modern era, European Jews were confined to ghettos and placed under strict regulations as well as restrictions in many European cities. The character of ghettos fluctuated over the centuries. In some cases, they comprised a Jewish quarter, the area of a city traditionally inhabited by Jews. In many instances, ghettos were places of terrible poverty and during periods of population growth, ghettos had narrow streets and small, crowded houses. Residents had their own justice system. Around the ghetto stood walls that, during pogroms, were closed from inside to protect the community, but from the outside during Christmas, Pesach, and Easter Week to prevent the Jews from leaving at those times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1559 papal conclave</span> Election of Pope Pius IV

The 1559 papal conclave was convened on the death of Pope Paul IV and elected Pope Pius IV as his successor. Due to interference from secular rulers and the cardinals' disregard for their supposed isolation from the outside world, it was the longest conclave of the 16th century.

The history of the Jews in Ancona in Italy, began when Jews settled into the city in the first half of the 14th century, contributing to money-lending and other economic roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish Museum of Rome</span> Museum in the basement of Romes synagogue

The Jewish Museum of Rome is situated in the basement of the Great Synagogue of Rome and offers both information on the Jewish presence in Rome since the second century BCE and a large collection of works of art produced by the Jewish community. A visit to the museum includes a guided tour of the Great Synagogue and of the smaller Spanish Synagogue in the same complex.

The papal bull Dundum ad nostram audientiam was promulgated by Eugene IV on August 8, 1442. It advocated the complete social separation of Jews and Christians and created a legal basis for the creation of Jewish ghettos in Europe. The later papal bull Cum nimis absurdum built on Dundum ad nostram audientiam to create the Jewish ghetto of Rome in the Papal States.

References

Sources