Pope Innocent XI has shown a degree…
July 1689 CE
Pope Innocent XI has shown a degree of sensitivity in his dealings with the Jews within the Italian States.
He had compelled the city of Venice to release the Jewish prisoners taken by Francesco Morisini in 1685, and discouraged compulsory baptisms which accordingly became less frequent under his pontificate; but he has been unable to abolish the old practice altogether.
More controversially, he had in October 1682 issued an edict by which all the money-lending activities carried out by the Roman Jews were to cease, and had extended the ban the following year to Ferrara and other Jewish ghettos under his authority.
Such a move, if put fully into effect, would incidentally have financially benefitted the pope’s own brothers, who play a dominant role in European money-lending.
However, ultimately convinced that such a measure would cause much misery in destroying livelihoods, the pope has twice delayed enforcement of the edict.
Meanwhile, the Roman Jewish community, prohibited from shop keeping and most trades and crafts, has shrunken, while ...