Abstract
The New Christians who arrived in Naples at the beginning of the sixteenth century believed that they had come to a place very different from Spain and Portugal. Italy lacked the tribunals of the Inquisition which had persecuted them in Spain and sent them looking for safe refuge. However, by the 1540s, the situation took a dramatic turn. Under Paul III, the papacy began the slow process of rebuilding after the devastation of the sack of Rome and of developing a response to the Protestant Reformation. Rather than seeking common ground with evangelicals or innovating in ways that would respond positively to the protests against the church, the papacy took a turn towards a more austere ethic, one that emphasized the most traditionalist and authoritarian strains in the Church’s past. The biblical division of the wheat from the chaff (Matthew 3: 12) became the guiding metaphor for the church as the Roman curia searched for more precise definitions of its guiding doctrines and marginalized those, including cardinals, who sought compromise with heresy and irreligion. The Roman Inquisition (1542), the Society of Jesus (1540), and the first Index of Prohibited Books (1549) were all founded in a relatively brief span of time, as instruments which at least in part served the goal of opposing the spread of evangelical teaching in Italy and reinforcing the authority and image of the clergy.
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Notes
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Francesco Albizzi, De Inconstantia in Iure Admittenda, vel non.... (Amsterdam 1683), 58.
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Anna Foa, “Un vescovo marrano. Il Processo a Pedro de Aranda (Roma 1498),” Quaderni Storici. 99 (1998), 533–551.
Giuseppe Marcocci, “‘...Per capillos adductos ad pillam.’ Il dibattito cinquecentesco sulla validità del battesimo forzato degli ebrei in Portogallo (1496–1497),” in Salvezza delle Anime, Disciplina dei Corpi. Un Seminario sulla Storia del Battesimo., ed. Adriano Prosperi (Pisa: Edizioni della Normale, 2006), 339–423; Segre, “La Controriforma,” 721.
Marrano was the term most commonly used by contemporaries to refer to those conversos who refused complete conversion to Christianity and continued to practice Judaism in one form or another.
There is little surviving documentation relating to this campaign, which has nonetheless received ample attention from scholars. Segre, “La Controriforma,” 721–722; Pier Cesare Ioly Zorattini, “Ancora sui giudaizzanti portoghesi di Ancona (1556): condanna e rinconciliazione,” Zakhor. V (2001– 2002), 39–51.
Prosperi, “L’Inquizione romana e gli ebrei,” 80.
Aron di Leon Leoni, “La diplomazia estense e l’immigrazione dei cristiani nuovi portoghesi a Ferrara al tempo di Ercole II,” Nuova Rivista Storica., LXXVIII (1994), 293–326; idem., “Gli ebrei a Ferrara nel XVI secolo,” in Il Rinascimento. Storie e Personaggi., ed. Adriano Prosperi: vol. 6 of Storia di Ferrara. (Ferrara: Corbo, 2000), 278–311; Renata Segre, “La formazione di una communità marrana: i portoghesi a Ferrara,” in Storia d’Italia., Annali 11: Gli Ebrei in Italia., ed. Corrado Vivanti (Turin: Einaudi, 1996), 781–834.
Leoni, “Gli Ebrei a Ferrara,” 300.
Guido dall’Olio, “Il controllo di eresia,” in Storia di Ferrara., 6: 216; Leoni, “Gli Ebrei a Ferrara,” 299.
Aron di Leone Leoni, “Due personaggi della ‘Nation Portughesa’ di Ferrara: un martire e un’avventuriero,” Rassegna Mensile d’Israel. LVII, 3 (1991), 411–415.
Leoni, “Due personaggi,” 416–420; Savelli, who also played an important role in the Neapolitan trials, proved to be a cleric of a harsh anti-Jewish bent not only as an inquisitor, but in his pastoral role as Bishop of Benevento, where he issued decrees forbidding Jews to leave the ghetto for three days prior to Easter and to enter churches during celebration of the mass. See Cesare Colafemmina. “Gli Ebrei a benevento,” Italia Judaica VI: Gli Ebrei nello Stato Pontificio Fino al Ghetto (1555).. (Rome: Ministero di Beni Culturali e Ambientali, 1998), 225–226 and the entry in Dizionario Storico dell’Inquisizione., s.v. Savelli, Giacomo.
Leoni, “Due personaggi,” 423–428.
The Roman phase of the trial, which lasted 14 months, is completely obscure, though the decreta. of the Congregation of the Holy Office in ACDF contain references to it.
Leoni, “Due personaggi,” 430–435.
Pier Cesare Ioly Zorattini, “Ebrei e nuovi cristiani fra due inquisizioni: il Sant’Uffizio di Venezia e quello di Pisa,” in L’Inquisizione e gli Ebrei in Italia., ed. Michele Luzzati (Bari: Laterza, 1994), 233–241; Brian Pullan, “L’Inquisizione e gli Ebrei a Venezia,” in Luzzati, L’Inquisizione e gli Ebrei., 251–264.
Pullan, The Jews of Europe., 46–50.
Pier Cesare Ioly Zorattini, “Jews, Crypto-Jews, and the Inquisition,” in The Jews of Early Modern Venice., eds. Benjamin Ravid and Robert C. Davis (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), 98–99.
Ibid.., 104–107.
ACDF, Stanza Storica., II 1-g, “Repertorio di decreti del Sant’Ufficio ordinati per città,” 22.
quoted in Zorattini, “Ebrei e nuovi cristiani fra due inquisizioni,” 240.
Processi del S. Uffizio di Venezia Contro Ebrei e Giudaizzanti., ed. Pier Cesare Ioly Zorattini (Florence: Olschki, 1980–1999), 2: 54–55, 79–91.
Prosperi, “Ebrei a Pisa,” 129–130; Lucia Frattarelli Fischer, “Gli ebrei, il principe, e L’Inquisizione,” in Luzzati, l’Inquisizione e gli Ebrei., 217–231.
Prosperi, “Ebrei a Pisa,” 133.
Giuseppe Marcocci, “Itinerari marrani. I portoghesi a Livorno nei secoli dell’età moderna,” in Livorno 1606–1806, luogo di Incontro tra Popoli e Culture., ed. Adriano Prosperi (Torino: Allemandi, 2009), 405–417.
Prosperi, “Ebrei a Pisa,” 136–143.
ACDF, Decreta Sancti Officii 1597–1599., f. 845. (November 25, 1599).
Marcocci, “Itinerari marrani.”
Giuseppe Laras, “I marrani di Livorno e l’Inquisizione di Livorno,” in Livorno e il Mediterraneo nell’età Medicea. Atti del Convegno 23–25 Settembre 1977. (Livorno: Bastogi, 1978), 99; Alvarez’s execution is described in a contemporary chronicle: Racconto delle Cose piu Considerabili che Sono Occorse nel Governo di Roma., ed. Maria Teresa Bonadonna Russo (Rome: Società Romana di Storia Patria, 2004), 88–89.
Prosperi, “Ebrei a Pisa,” 132–33, 148–49.
Stefania Pastore, “Tra conversos, gesuiti, e Inquisizione: Diego de Guzmán e i processi di Ubeda (1549–1552),” in Inquisizione: Percorsi di ricerca., ed. Giovanna Paolin (Trieste: Università di Trieste, 2001), 217.
“Istrucciones de Don Fernando de Valdes,” in Introducción a la Inquisición Española. Documentos Basicos para el Estudio del Santo Oficio., ed. Miguel Jiménez Monteserín (Madrid: Editora, 1980), 216.
ANTT, Conselho Geral da Inquisição., livro 323, doc. 4.
Francisco Bethencourt, The Inquisition: A Global History, 1478–1834., trans. Jean Birrell (Cambidge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 174–245, originally published as L’Inquisition à l’Epoque Moderne. Espagne, Portugal, Italie XVe–XIXe Siecle. (Paris: Fayard, 1995); “Istrucciones para la visita inquisitorial al distrito,” in Introducción., ed. Monteserín, 291–338; Charles Amiel, “Crypto-Judaïsme et Inquisition. La matière juive dans les édits de la foi des Inquisitions ibériques,” Revue de l’histoire des religions. CCX, no. 2 (1993), 145–168.
José Pedro Paiva, “As entradas da Inquisição, na vila de Melo, no século xvii: pânico, integração/segregação, crenças e desagregação social,” Revista de História das Ideias. 25, (2004), 169–208.
Jaime Contreras and Gustav Henningsen, “Forty-Four Thousand Cases of the Spanish Inquisition (1540–1700): Analysis of a Historical Data Bank,” in The Inquisition in Early Modern Europe: Studies on Sources and Methods., eds. Gustav Henningsen and John Tedeschi (DeKalb: Northern Illinois University Press, 1986), 124–125; on the early anti-judaizing campaigns of the Spanish Inquisition, see among others Ricardo García Cárcel and Doris Moreno Martínez, Inquisición: Historia Crítica. (Madrid: Temas de Hoy, 2000), 31–41, 209–216; Juan Gil, Los Conversos y la Inquisición Sevillana., (Seville: Universidad de Sevilla, 2000–2001); John Edwards, Religion and Society in Spain, ca. 1492. (Aldershot: Variorum, 1996); Tarcisio de Azcona, “La Inquisición española procesada por la Congregacion General de 1508,” in La Inquisición Española. Nueva Visión, Nuevos Horizontes., ed. Joaquin Perez Villanueva (Madrid: Siglo Veintiuno, 1980), 89–155.
On Valdés’ reorganization of the Spanish Inquisition, see José Luis González Novalín. El Inquisidor General Fernando de Valdés (1483–1568). (Oviedo: Universidad de Oviedo, 1968–1971); idem., “Reforma de las leyes, competencia y actividades del Santo Oficio durante la presidencia del inquisidor general don Fernando de Valdés (1547–1566),” in La Inquisición Española. Nueva visión, nuevos horizontes., 193–218, as well as the Dizionario Storico dell’Inquisizione., s.v. Valdés, Fernando de.
Charles Amiel, “Les cent voix de Quintanar. Le modèle castillan du marranisme (I),” Revue de l’Histoire des Religions. 218, no. 2 (April–June 2001), 204–211.
Contreras, Sotos contra Riquelmes., 87–110.
Ibid.., 187–258.
Ibid.., 35–42.
Correspondencia Diplomatica entre Espana y la Santa Sede durante el Pontificado de S. Pio V.. ed. Luciano Serrano. (Madrid, 1914), 3: 168–175.
Robert Rowland, “l’Inquisizione portoghese e gli ebrei,” in l’Inquisizione e gli Ebrei., 47–66, in part. 51–55.
Giuseppe Marcocci, I custodi dell’Ortodossia. Inquisizione e Chiesa nel Portogallo del Cinquecento. (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2004), 136.
The first regimento. of the Portuguese Holy Office is printed in its entirety in Antonio Baião, A Inquisição em Portugal e no Brasil seculo XVI. Subsidios para a sua historia.. (Lisbon: Arquivo Historico Portugues, 1920), appendix, 31–57.
Marcocci, I custodi dell’ortodossia., 85–86, 110, 125–126.
Elvira Azevedo Mea, “A Inquisição Portuguesa. Apontamentos Para o seu Estudo,” in L’Identità Dissimulata. Giudaizzanti Iberici nell’Europa Cristiana dell’Età Moderna., ed. Pier Cesare Ioly Zorattini (Florence: Olschki, 2000), 330.
Antonio Borges Coelho, Inquisição de Évora. Dos Primórdios a 1668.. (Lisbon: Caminho, 1987), 1: 195–196.
Jose Veiga Torres, “Uma longa guerra social. Novas perspectivas para o estudo da Inquisição portuguesa. A Inquisição de Coimbra,” Revista da Historia das Ideias. 8 (1986), 56–70; Mea, “A Inquisição portuguesa,” 330.
Borges Coelho, Inquisição de Évora., 1: 314–321.
Baião, A Inquisição., appendix, 15.
Mea, “A Inquisição portuguesa,” 322; Marcocci, “‘...per capillos adductos ad pillam’,” 403–404.
Amabile, Il Santo Officio della Inquisizione., 1: 97–119, 196–215; Giovanni Romeo, “Una città, due inquisizioni: l’anomalia del Sant’Ufficio a Napoli nel tardo ’500,” Rivista di Storia e Letteratura Religiosa. XXIV (1988): 42–67; Adriano Prosperi, Tribunali della Coscienza. Inquisitori, Confessori, Missionari. (Turin: Einaudi, 1996), 65–75. On the case of Milan, see Massimo Carlo Giannini, “Fra autonomia politica e ortodossia religiosa: il tentativo di introdurre l’Inquisizione ‘al modo di Spagna’ nello Stato di Milano (1558–1566),” Società e Storia. XCI (2001): 79–134.
Romeo De Maio, Le Origini del Seminario di Napoli. (Naples: Fausto Fiorentino, 1958); Michele Mancino, Licentia Confitendi. Selezione e Controllo deiConfessori a Napoli in Età Moderna. (Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2000), 23–65.
I calculated the total number of trials by a comparison of the trials left in the fondo Sant’Ufficio of the Archivio Storico Diocesano di Napoli with a contemporary index compiled by Francesco Joele (Amabile, Il Santo Officio., vol. II, doc. 2, 6–12.) To this I added three trials, those of Francesco Cortellaro, Hieronimo Ferraro, and Horatio Spinola, which are mentioned in the correspondence but not present in either the Neapolitan archive or the Joele inventory. For the data on the trials I have relied on Il Fondo Sant’Ufficio dell’Archivio Storico Diocesano di Napoli, Inventario (1549–1647)., ed. Giovanni Romeo, “Campania Sacra,” 34, 2003, which supersedes the older inventory in L’Archivio Storico Diocesano di Napoli. Guida., eds. Giuseppe Galasso and Carla Russo, (Napoli: Guida, 1978).
The series of letters from the bishops of the Regno to the Congregation of the Holy Office, (ACDF, Stanza Storica., LL 3-a) provides plenty of evidence of the lack of means and in some cases lack of will of Southern bishops to mount trials for heresy and apostasy.
Romeo, “L’Inquisizione a Napoli e nel Regno di Napoli,” 629–640.
ACDF, Stanza Storica., HH 1-a, f. 1.
Giovanni Romeo, Aspettando il boia. Condannati a morte, confortatori e inquisitori nella Napoli della Controriforma. (Florence: Sansoni, 1993), 83–84.
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Mazur, P.A. (2013). Conversos in Counter-Reformation Italy. In: The New Christians of Spanish Naples 1528–1671. Early Modern History: Society and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137295156_3
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