July 14, 1555 – Creation of the Rome Ghetto by PAUL IV, Bull Cum nimis absurdum (Since it is absurd)

This is not a creation of Hitler or Goebbels, let alone Mussolini, who was not an anti-Semite and whose first mistress, Margherita Sarfatti, was Jewish. It is a bull published by Pope Paul IV on July 14, 1555, i.e., in the middle of the Renaissance and not in the darkness of the Middle Ages.

This bull does not come out of the blue. There were at least 24 anti-Semitic papal bulls before that of Paul IV and 38 after! To these bulls, it would be appropriate to add the statements of the Apostles and the Fathers of the Church.

The general position of the Church in the past seems to have been that it was necessary to discriminate against the Jews, to regulate their behavior vis-á-vis Christians, to designate them for opprobrium, but not to physically attack them: this is the doctrine of the “witness people” of Saint Augustine; the Jews must subsist so that everyone can see what happens to a people who do not recognize Christ. The declarations are clearly defensive in nature, aimed at protecting Christians against Jewish behavior.

The object of the bull revolves pretty much around the same discriminatory measures, one could say, of apartheid: wearing special clothes, expulsion or confinement in special quarters, prohibition to exercise certain public functions, prohibition of mixed marriages, encouraging forced conversions and special taxes to fund these conversions, prohibition of the Talmud and Autodafe, cancellation of Christian debts towards Jews, prohibition on Jews from having Christian servants or nannies etc.

The official justification is always the same, the Jewish people are cursed by God since they do not recognize their Son and are condemned to dispersion and wandering. Unofficially, however, a purely racial justification cannot be ruled out, as Pope Gregory I (540 – 604) put forward the doctrine of the Jews as a carnal people, in constrast to the Christian people, who are spiritual; this theme of the ‘carnal people’ could easily lead to the people of the ‘beast’, of the ‘antichrist’ and of ‘the Devil’.

In the Middle Ages, when popes received tribute from delegates of the Jewish-Roman community on the day of their coronation, they traditionally replied: “Legum Probo, sed improbo gentium” (“I approve of the law, but I disapprove of race”). We should also recall the existence in Spain, from 1449 onwards, of certificates of racial purity, in Spanish ‘estatuto de limpieza de sangre’ – ratified by PAUL III. Among the Jesuits, the requirement for this certificate, which had been instituted in 1593, was not lifted until 1946…

Returnig to the bull of Paul IV himself, in addition to confining the Jews in a district of Rome (now a very touristy area!), it imposed the wearing of a yellow pointed hat on men and a yellow headscarf on women. Jews were prohibited from owning real estate or practicing medicine with Christians (as a precaution!). 

• Lungotevere de’ Cenci (along the Tiber River)

• Via del Portico d’Ottavia (its lively central street)

• Teatro Marcello and the nearby Capitol Hill

The neighborhood itself was surrounded by walls, with three doors locked at night. Only one synagogue per city was allowed. The successor of Paul IV, Pius IV extended the system of ghettos to other Italian cities, and the successor of the latter, Pius V, forbade the presence of Jews in his domains outside Rome and Ancona. Pius V is considered the most anti-Semitic Pope. He is canonized and his canonization has not been abrogated…

Here is the translation of Paul IV’s bull establishing the Roman ghetto, Cum nimis absurdum (Because it is so absurd)

Bull Cum Nimis Absurdum

Laws and ordinances to be followed by Jews living in the Holy See decreed by the Bishop Paul, servant of the servants of God, for future recollection.

As it is completely absurd and improper in the utmost that the Jews, who through their own fault were condemned by God to eternal servitude, 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.

§ 1. Desiring firstly, as much as we can with God, to beneficially provide, by this. that will forever be in force, we ordain that for the rest of time, in the City as well as in other states, territories and domains of the Church of Rome itself, all Jews are to live in one and if there is not that capacity in two or three or however many quarters may be enough; they should reside entirely side by side in designated streets and be thoroughly separate from the residences of Christians, by our authority in the City and by that of our representatives in other states, lands and domains noted above, and that there must be only one entrance and exit from this quarter.

§ 2. Furthermore, in each and every state, territory and domain in which they are living, they will have only one synagogue, in its customary location, and they will construct no other new ones, nor can they own buildings. Furthermore, all of their synagogues, besides the one allowed, are to be destroyed and demolished. And the properties, which they currently own, they must sell to Christians within a period of time to be determined by the magistrates themselves.

§ 3. Moreover, so that Jews should be distinguishable everywhere: men must wear a hat, women, indeed, some other evident sign, yellow in color, that must not be concealed or covered by any means, and must be tightly affixed; and furthermore, they cannot be absolved or excused from the obligation to wear the hat or other emblem of this type to any extent whatever and under any pretext whatsoever of their rank or prominence or of their ability to tolerate this adversity, either by a chamberlain of the Church, clerics of an Apostolic court, or their superiors, or by legates of the Holy See or their immediate subordinates.

§ 4. Also, they may not have nurses or maids or any other Christian domestic or service by Christian women in wet-nursing or feeding their children.

§ 5. They may not work or have work done on Sundays or on other public feast days declared by the Church.

§ 6. Nor may they incriminate Christians in any way or promulgate false or forged agreements.

§ 7. And they may not presume in any way to play, eat or fraternize with Christians.

§ 8. And they cannot use other than Latin or Italian words in short-term account books that they hold with Christians, and, if they should use them, such records would not be binding on Christians.

§ 9. Moreover, these Jews are to be limited to the trade of rag-picking, or “cencinariae” (as it is said in the vernacular), and they cannot trade in grain, barley or any other commodity essential to human welfare.

§ 10. And those among them who are physicians, even if summoned and inquired after, cannot attend or take part in the care of Christians.

§ 11. And they are not to be addressed as superiors [even] by poor Christians.

§ 12. And they are to close their [loan] accounts entirely every thirty days; should fewer than thirty days elapse, they shall not be counted as an entire month, but only as the actual number of days, and furthermore, they will terminate the reckoning as of this number of days and not for the term of an entire month. In addition, they are prohibited from selling [goods put up as] collateral, put up as temporary security for their money, 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 aforementioned number of months, if Jews have sold a security deposit of this sort, they must sign over all money in excess of the principal of the loan to the owner of the collateral.

§ 13. And the statutes of states, territories and domains wherever they presently live, concerning primacy of Christians, are to be adhered to and followed without exception.

§ 14. And, should they, in any manner whatsoever, be deficient in the foregoing, it would be treated as a crime: in Rome, by us or by our clergy, or by others authorized by us, and in the aforementioned states, territories and domains by their respective magistrates, just as if they were rebels and criminals by the jurisdiction in which the offense takes place, they would be accused by all Christian people, by us and by our clergy, and could be punished at the discretion of the proper authorities and judges.

§ 15.Not to be confuted by conflicting decrees and apostolic rules, and regardless of any tolerance whatever or special rights and dispensation for these Jews of any Roman Pontiff prior to us and of the aforementioned See or of their legates, or by the courts of the Church of Rome and the clergy of the Apostolic courts, or by other of their officials, no matter their import and form, and with whatever, even with repeated derogations, and with other legally valid sub-clauses, and erasures and other decrees, even those that are “motu proprio” and from “certain knowledge” and have been repeatedly approved and renewed. By this document, even if, instead of their sufficient derogation, concerning them and their entire import, special, specific, expressed and individual, even word for word, moreover, not by means of general, even important passages, mention, or whatever other expression was favored, or whatever exquisite form had to be retained, matters of such import, and, if word for word, with nothing deleted, would be inserted into them in original form in the present document holding that rather than being sufficiently expressed, those things that would stay in effect in full force by this change alone, we specially and expressly derogate, as well as any others contrary to them.

Declared at St. Mark’s, Rome, in the one thousand five hundred fifty fifth year of the incarnation of our Lord, one day before the ides of July, in the first year of our Papacy.