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Jewish History (2012) 26: 85100 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012 DOI: 10.1007/s10835-012-9158-2
Cum Nimis Absurdum and the Ancona Auto-da-F revisited: their impact on Venice and some wider reections
BENJAMIN RAVID
Brandeis University, Waltham/Boston, USA E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract Two major events are generally cited as indicative of the new hostile Counter-Reformation attitude of the Papacy toward the Jews and consequently as causing a deterioration of the situation of the Jews throughout the Italian peninsula. The rst is the papal bull Cum Nimis Absurdum issued in 1555 by Paul IV, the zealous former Cardinal Caraffa, only months after he assumed the papal throne, while the second is the burning at the stake in 1556 of the former New Christians who had reverted to Judaism in Ancona. While not minimizing the importance of Cum Nimis Absurdum and the action against the former New Christians in Ancona, it may nevertheless be instructive to step back and reconsider their impact on the Jews of the Italian peninsula and clarify whether they really represented a major peninsula-wide turning point.
Introduction
Two major events are generally cited as indicative of the new hostile Counter-Reformation attitude of the Papacy toward the Jews and consequently as causing a deterioration of the situation of the Jews throughout the Italian peninsula. The rst is the papal bull Cum Nimis Absurdum issued in 1555 by Paul IV (15551559), the zealous former Cardinal Giovanni Pietro Carafa, only months after he assumed the papal throne. The second is the burning at the stake in 1556 of the former New Christians who had reverted to Judaism in Ancona. Of course there were also previous important manifestations of the new Counter-Reformation spirit, notably the establishment of the Roman Inquisition in 1542, which was created to deal with Protestants rather than with Crypto-Jews, and of the Casa dei Catecumeni (House of Converts), founded in Rome in 1543, and the burning of the Talmud by papal command in Rome, Venice, Ferrara, Mantua, Urbino, and Florence in 1553.1 While not minimizing the importance of Cum Nimis Absurdum and the action against the former New Christians in Ancona, it may nevertheless be instructive to step back and reconsider their impact on the Jews of the Italian peninsula and clarify whether they really represented a...