Forced Baptisms: Histories of Jews, Christians, and Converts in Papal Rome
This book makes use of newly available archival sources to reexamine the Roman Catholic Church’s policy, from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, of coercing the Jews of Rome into converting to Christianity. Marina Caffiero, one of the first historians permitted access to important archives, sets individual stories of denunciation, betrayal, pleading, and conflict into historical context to highlight the Church’s actions and the Jewish response. Caffiero documents the regularity with which Jews were abducted from the Roman ghetto and pressured to accept baptism. She analyzes why some Jewish men, interested in gaining a business advantage, were more inclined to accept conversion than the women. The book exposes the complexity of relations between the papacy and the Jews, revealing the Church not as a monolithic entity, but as a network of competing institutions, and affirming the Roman Jews as active agents of resistance.
1111107190
Forced Baptisms: Histories of Jews, Christians, and Converts in Papal Rome
This book makes use of newly available archival sources to reexamine the Roman Catholic Church’s policy, from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, of coercing the Jews of Rome into converting to Christianity. Marina Caffiero, one of the first historians permitted access to important archives, sets individual stories of denunciation, betrayal, pleading, and conflict into historical context to highlight the Church’s actions and the Jewish response. Caffiero documents the regularity with which Jews were abducted from the Roman ghetto and pressured to accept baptism. She analyzes why some Jewish men, interested in gaining a business advantage, were more inclined to accept conversion than the women. The book exposes the complexity of relations between the papacy and the Jews, revealing the Church not as a monolithic entity, but as a network of competing institutions, and affirming the Roman Jews as active agents of resistance.
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Forced Baptisms: Histories of Jews, Christians, and Converts in Papal Rome

Forced Baptisms: Histories of Jews, Christians, and Converts in Papal Rome

Forced Baptisms: Histories of Jews, Christians, and Converts in Papal Rome

Forced Baptisms: Histories of Jews, Christians, and Converts in Papal Rome

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Overview

This book makes use of newly available archival sources to reexamine the Roman Catholic Church’s policy, from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries, of coercing the Jews of Rome into converting to Christianity. Marina Caffiero, one of the first historians permitted access to important archives, sets individual stories of denunciation, betrayal, pleading, and conflict into historical context to highlight the Church’s actions and the Jewish response. Caffiero documents the regularity with which Jews were abducted from the Roman ghetto and pressured to accept baptism. She analyzes why some Jewish men, interested in gaining a business advantage, were more inclined to accept conversion than the women. The book exposes the complexity of relations between the papacy and the Jews, revealing the Church not as a monolithic entity, but as a network of competing institutions, and affirming the Roman Jews as active agents of resistance.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780520254510
Publisher: University of California Press
Publication date: 12/01/2011
Edition description: First Edition
Pages: 336
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Marina Caffiero is Professor of History at the University of Rome ”La Sapienza.” She is the author of many books and editor of Sources for Women’s History. Lydia G. Cochrane has translated many books for university presses.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Negotiated Relations: Popes, the Church, the Jews
2. Favor fidei: The Birth of a New Jurisprudence
3. Offerings of Jewish Infants to the Catholic Faith
4. Cruel Grandparents
5. Denunciations and Retractions
6. Baptisms, Doctrines, Rites, and Symbols
7. Plural Identities: Neophytes Male and Female

Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index

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"This absolutely splendid research is destined to be a hallmark of scholarship in years to come."—Catholic Library World

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