Cum Nimis Absurdum
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''Cum nimis absurdum'' was a papal bull issued by
Pope Paul IV Pope Paul IV, born Gian Pietro Carafa, C.R. ( la, Paulus IV; it, Paolo IV; 28 June 1476 – 18 August 1559) 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 pa ...
dated 14 July 1555. It takes its name from its first words: "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 e 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
Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
s in the
Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...
, renewed
anti-Jewish Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
legislation and subjected Jews to various degradations and restrictions on their personal freedom. The bull established the
Roman Ghetto The Roman Ghetto or Ghetto of Rome ( it, Ghetto di Roma) 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 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 Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...
ownership and practising
medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...
among
Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words '' Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρ ...
. 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 Pope Pius V ( it, Pio V; 17 January 1504 – 1 May 1572), born Antonio Ghislieri (from 1518 called Michele Ghislieri, O.P.), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1566 to his death in May 1572. He is 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 Pope Paul IV, born Gian Pietro Carafa, C.R. ( la, Paulus IV; it, Paolo IV; 28 June 1476 – 18 August 1559) 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 pa ...
, 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 The Roman Inquisition, formally the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition, was a system of partisan tribunals developed by the Holy See of the Roman Catholic Church, during the second half of the 16th century, respons ...
, modelled on the
Spanish Inquisition The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition ( es, Tribunal del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición), commonly known as the Spanish Inquisition ( es, Inquisición española), was established in 1478 by the Catholic Monarchs, King Ferdinand ...
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".MacCulloch, Dairmuid. ''Reformation in Europe'', London, 2005 In September 1553, Cardinal Carafa had overseen the burning of the Talmud in Rome.Green, David B., "1555, Pope Paul Iv Orders Jews to Live in a Ghetto", ''Haaretz'', July 14, 2013
/ref>
Deutsch Deutsch or Deutsche may refer to: *''Deutsch'' or ''(das) Deutsche'': the German language, in Germany and other places *''Deutsche'': Germans, as a weak masculine, feminine or plural demonym *Deutsch (word), originally referring to the Germanic ve ...
and
Jacobs Jacobs may refer to: Businesses and organisations *Jacob's, a brand name for several lines of biscuits and crackers in Ireland and the UK *Jacobs (coffee), a brand of coffee * Jacobs Aircraft Engine Company, former American aircraft engine compan ...
link this to part of the reaction to the
Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and ...
that led to censorship of books deemed detrimental to Christians.Deutsch, Gotthard and Jacobs, Joseph. "The Popes", ''Jewish Encyclopedia'', 1906
/ref>


Content

Two months after becoming Pope, Paul IV issued ''Cum nimis absurdum''. As temporal ruler of the
Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...
it applied to those areas over which he had direct control.


Provisions

Paul IV Pope Paul IV, born Gian Pietro Carafa, C.R. ( la, Paulus IV; it, Paolo IV; 28 June 1476 – 18 August 1559) 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 pap ...
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.Ravid, Benjamin. "Cum Nimis Absurdum and the Ancona Auto-da-Féy revisited: their impact on Venice and some wider reflections", ''Jewish History'', (2012) 26: 85-100, DOI 10.1007/s10835-012-9158-2
/ref> The last measure was carried out in Rome with unrelenting cruelty. According to
Herbert Thurston Herbert Henry Charles Thurston (15 November 1856 – 3 November 1939) was an English priest of the Roman Catholic Church, a member of the Jesuit order, and a prolific scholar on liturgical, literary, historical, and spiritual matters. In ...
, " icts 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 ..." 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. This contradicted a precedent set as early as 598, by
Gregory the Great Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregoria ...
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.Thurston, Herbert. "History of Toleration". The Catholic Encyclopedia
Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 19 February 2016
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 The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does ...
declared by the Church, or fraternize in any way with Christians. Jews were limited to the trade of
rag-picking A rag-and-bone man or ragpicker (UK English) or ragman, old-clothesman, junkman, or junk dealer (US English), also called a bone-grubber, bone-picker, chiffonnier, rag-gatherer, bag board, or totter, collects unwanted household items and sells t ...
, and were not to trade in grain, barley, or any other commodity essential to human welfare. Nor were they to use other than
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
or
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
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. 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"''."Jews, the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation", Early Modern Jewish History, Center for Online Judaic Studies
/ref> In
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
, Church officials never proposed segregation of the Jews as such a measure would not have been supported by the king or the nobles. 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"''.Novoa, James Nelson. "Surviving the Ghetto", Centro Primo Levi, July 9, 2014
/ref>


See also

*
yellow badge Yellow badges (or yellow patches), also referred to as Jewish badges (german: Judenstern, lit=Jew's star), are badges that Jews were ordered to wear at various times during the Middle Ages by some caliphates, at various times during the Medieva ...


References


Sources

*Bice Migliau and Micaela Procaccia with Silvia Rebuzzi and Micaela Vitale, ''Lazio Jewish Itineraries: Places, History, and Art'', trans. Gus Barker. Venice: Marsilio, 1997. * *{{cite book , last=Stow , first=Kenneth R. , year=1977 , title=Catholic Thought and Papal Jewry Policy 1555–1593 , publisher=The Jewish Theological Seminary of America , location=New York , isbn=978-0873340014


External links


Original Latin textEnglish translation of original text
1555 in law 1555 works Christianity and law in the 16th century 16th-century papal bulls Antisemitism in Italy Documents of Pope Paul IV Jewish Italian history 1655 in Christianity