The following documents are drawn from the Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. VIII, covering the pontificates of Gregory XIII and Sixtus V. Six documents with significant bearing on the Jews are found in this volume: a confirmation of trading privileges for Oriental (Levantine) merchants including Hebrews at Ancona; the founding of a college in Rome for neophyte youths converted from Judaism; a renewal of the prohibition on Hebrew physicians treating Christians; a constitution empowering inquisitors to proceed against Jews who blaspheme Christ or lead Christians astray; a mandate for compulsory weekly sermons to Jews for their conversion; and a broad grant of new commercial privileges to Hebrews throughout the Ecclesiastical State by Sixtus V. Translations are made from the Latin originals as preserved in the Vatican Archives and printed in the Bullarium; the Sixtus V document, which was issued in Italian, is translated from that Italian text.
Pope Gregory XIII — Confirmation of Privileges for Levantine Merchants (Including Hebrews) at Ancona and in the Ecclesiastical State (1573 AD)
It is fitting that from the benignity of the Apostolic See there should proceed assistance for all those who, even though strangers to the Christian religion, labor strenuously in acquiring and transporting goods for the use of the temporal dominion of the Holy Roman Church, so that they may be preserved as much as possible from harm, and so that what is said to have proceeded from this source may be confirmed by apostolic support in order to be the more firm.
§ 4. Earlier privilege: one movable synagogue per locality
A petition was recently set forth before us on behalf of the communities of Hebrews, Turks, Greeks, and other male and female merchants of Oriental parts dwelling in the city of Ancona and other places subject to the Holy Roman Church, recounting that formerly, under Paul III our predecessor of happy memory — who had accepted that our beloved son Guido Ascanius Sforza, deacon cardinal of Saint Mary in Via Lata, his camerarius at that time, had already granted to those same Hebrews, Turks, Greeks, and other Orientals that it should be lawful for them, for their convenience and the satisfaction of their minds, to erect one movable school or synagogue in each place of the Ecclesiastical State in which they might happen to reside, which was to be freely theirs, the Orientals’ own; so that no other Hebrew or other community of Hebrews or of any other nation than Oriental should have authority or superiority in that same school or synagogue; yet it was to be kept in an honest place, and if they wished to transfer it, they were not to be compelled for that reason to seek permission from a notary; provided only that it not be adjacent to any church, lest it give any cause of scandal in the neighborhood — apostolic letters had been issued for the benefit of these merchants and their persons and goods.
§ 5. No one may be prevented from purchasing their merchandise
And that no one, whether a Christian, a Turk, a Moor, or a Hebrew, was to be forbidden or prohibited, whether directly or indirectly, from purchasing the goods brought by those Oriental Hebrews both to the city of Ancona and to whatever other place of the Church; but it was to be open to all to buy, without fear of any penalty, even such as might be expressed in proclamations published and to be published by the command of any superior or official, excepting goods commonly prohibited from being transported from place to place without a certain dispensation.
§ 6. No billeting of soldiers upon them
And no Hebrew, Turk, Greek, or other Oriental was to be required to receive soldiers or to give them lodging, or for that reason to contribute to any Hebrew among those who might lodge such soldiers, nor could they for that reason be expelled from their dwellings, or any of their goods, whether furnishings or monies, be ejected, provided their dwellings were not joined to the city walls or to any suspected place.
§ 7. Special jurisdiction for their civil and criminal causes
And that in the causes of those Hebrews, Greeks, Turks, and all other Orientals, in which their interests were at stake, both civil and criminal, no official was to interfere; but all commission of those causes was to be made through the governor of Ancona or his judges and the consul of those Orientals or his substitute, whose jurisdiction was to be understood not severally but jointly; and differences among those Orientals alone were to be cognized by the consul or his substitute, while differences between those Orientals and others were to be cognized jointly by the said governor together with the said consul or his substitute, respectively; yet in criminal causes the said consul or his substitute was to be summoned and notified, with a copy of the charge given to him with a competent term to inform himself of the matter and, if he wished, to intervene in defense of the accused.
§ 9. Exempt from bans and extraordinary levies
And because those Hebrews, Turks, Greeks, and other Orientals were coming and going and were affected by bans issued from time to time by local officials, it had been declared that those Orientals were exempt from every penalty imposed and to be imposed by such bans, provided they did not carry arms in the city or place in which they had stayed, nor go about at night beyond the customary hour without a light, in certain things and bans commonly prohibited; and those Orientals, Hebrews, Turks, and Greeks were not included in the impositions of tithes, twentieths, and other burdens, both ordinary and extraordinary, imposed on Hebrews and through Hebrews from time to time, but they and their goods and persons were to be understood free and immune from those, unless it clearly appeared that such Levantines had chosen and contracted domicile there.
§ 22–24. Gregory XIII confirms and extends these privileges; Italian Hebrews cannot claim debtor’s delay against Oriental creditors
Since a humble supplication was lately presented before us on behalf of those Hebrews, Turks, Greeks, and merchants that we deign, of apostolic benignity, to approve those foregoing letters for their greater validity and observance, we — moved by the same reasons by which those our predecessors were induced, and inclined by their humble supplications humbly presented to us in this matter — do by apostolic authority, by the tenor of the present letters, approve and confirm those letters and all and each of the chapters, concessions, indults, and decrees contained in them that are lawful and honest and are in use, and add to them the fullness of firm and inviolable validity, and supply all and each of the defects of law and fact, if any shall have perchance intervened in the same.
And moreover, pursuing those Hebrews, Turks, Greeks, and the aforesaid merchants with ampler favors and graces, we establish and ordain that henceforth and for ever, whenever any one of those Orientals shall die whose heirs are not present, lest their goods be dissipated, their consul shall cause an inventory to be made by the hands of a public notary, with the presence of witnesses and the assistance of an honest man to be deputed by the Bishop of Ancona, of all the goods, possessions, monies, and effects of the said deceased, which are to remain in the hands of that same consul, as is customary.
And no Italian Hebrew who has received or receives goods or merchandise or any other things from those Hebrews, Greeks, and Turks and other Orientals, or who is their debtor, may or should obtain any benefit of a five-year or other delay against those same Orientals — even if he shall have obtained or obtains it from the Apostolic See or from us or from our Roman Pontiff successors — and notwithstanding it, proceedings and execution may and should be had against him, in court and out, just as if he had not obtained or were not obtaining such a benefit.
Given at Rome, at Saint Peter’s, under the Fisherman’s Ring, on the fifth day of April 1573, in the second year of our pontificate.
Dated April 5, 1573; pontificate year 2.
Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. VIII, pp. 35–39. Pope Gregory XIII, confirmation of privileges for Levantine merchants at Ancona. Translated from the Latin.
Pope Gregory XIII — Foundation of an Ecclesiastical College of Neophyte Youths in Rome (1577 AD)
Bearing His office on earth, though unworthily, who wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, we must so extend our apostolic solicitude and the affection of charity in all directions that we cease not to desire and seek with all our strength not only the repentance of heretics and schismatics straying from the path of orthodox faith, but also the true conversion and salvation of those who, walking in the darkness of unbelief, miserably perish — especially of Jews.
§ 1. Weekly sermons to Jews in Rome; many have converted
With this spirit we had some time ago commanded that Christ our Savior, once promised to their ancient fathers and prophets, be announced and preached to the Jews in our beloved City; from which it came about that some of them, illuminated by heavenly grace and mercy shining upon them, received the faith of Christ and were baptized; and now also frequently both those said Jews and others, having renounced the Mahometan impiety, are by the same grace inspired and baptized.
§ 2. College erected for youth converted from Judaism, Islam, and other infidelity
We therefore, pressing forward as much as we can upon the propagation and increase of the Christian faith, and wishing both to attend to the salvation and education of those boys and youths who have recently been converted from the race of Jews, Turks, Moors, and similar Mahometans to the faith of Christ, and will be converted day by day with God’s help, and also to provide that from among them may come forth workers fit for the work of the Gospel who, in the City itself and other places in Italy, and indeed in all parts of the world in which Jews and infidels dwell, may be able and capable of expounding, teaching, and preaching the mysteries of the Christian faith, even in the proper language of those peoples, whether Hebrew or Arabic, have judged nothing more fitting than to erect a college for the education of these persons. To the glory therefore of God Almighty and the exaltation of the holy Christian faith, in this same beloved City in a place to be chosen for this purpose, one ecclesiastical college, to be called the College of Neophyte Youths, by our own motion and out of our certain knowledge and the fullness of apostolic power, by the tenor of the present letters, we erect and institute; which college shall consist for two parts of those who come from Judaism, and for the third part of those who, receding from Mahometanism, whether Turks or Moors or of any other nation, have recently embraced the Christian faith, or at least, they being lacking, of those procreated from neophyte parents. And to that same college, until it shall have been sufficiently provided for by us from other revenues, for its sustenance and by way of endowment, we assign one hundred gold pieces from our own and the Apostolic Camera’s or the Data table’s monies to be paid in each month.
§ 3–4. College exempt from all local jurisdiction and taxation; enjoys privileges of the Roman University
We will that the said college, and its rectors, bursars, masters, preceptors, and scholars existing in it from time to time, and their domestic servants, officials, and ministers, and the movable and immovable goods of the college itself and of those persons, of whatever quality and quantity, existing in the said City and outside it and otherwise wherever, be exempt from all jurisdiction, correction, visitation, dominion, superiority, and power of the senator, conservators, and reformers of the said City for the time being, and of the rector of the general Studium, the vicar of the City, and any ordinary of the places or any other judges and officials constituted in the City or elsewhere anywhere. And the college itself and those contracting with it in their own goods and property we exempt and wholly free from the payment and exaction of any tolls, gabelles, customs duties, tithes, and whatever other ordinary or extraordinary burden imposed and to be imposed from any cause.
To the said college, its scholars, rectors, and bursars, we grant and indulge that they may use, enjoy, and benefit from whatever privileges, exemptions, liberties, faculties, and indults which the general Studium of the beloved City and its rector and doctors actually lecturing in it use, enjoy, and benefit from in whatever way, and will in future be able to benefit from in whatever way.
Given at Rome, at Saint Peter’s, under the Fisherman’s Ring, on the twenty-ninth day of July 1577, in the sixth year of our pontificate.
Dated July 29, 1577; pontificate year 6.
Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. VIII, pp. 189–191. Pope Gregory XIII, Vices Eius nos, on the foundation of the College of Neophyte Youths in Rome. Translated from the Latin.
Pope Gregory XIII — Hebrew and Infidel Physicians Not to Be Admitted to Treat Sick Christians (1581 AD)
Paul Pope IV, our predecessor of pious memory, having issued a perpetual constitution, had among other things enacted that Jewish physicians, even when called and requested, could not attend to or be present at the care of ailing Christians.
§ 1. Pius V had confirmed and extended this prohibition everywhere
Pius Pope V, also our predecessor, subsequently approved, renewed, and confirmed that constitution by his letters, decreed and willed that it obtain the force of perpetual firmness, and under intimation of divine judgment commanded and mandated that all things contained in that same constitution be henceforth firmly observed, not only in lands and dominions subject to the Holy Roman Church, but also everywhere.
§ 2. The prohibition is widely ignored; Jewish physicians invited by Christians
Yet since it has come to our notice, not without great distress of our mind, that that constitution is by no means observed — but that there are still many among Christian men who, while wishing their bodily sicknesses to be healed by illicit means, and chiefly by the services of Jews and other infidels, are unmindful of the true salvation of their souls and bodies simultaneously; and what is greatly to be lamented, often fall into the gravest danger of eternal damnation, having called and employed Jewish and infidel physicians of this kind for their treatment — from which it comes about that both a great occasion of sinning is given to Jews and other infidels, and at the same time a salutary precept is neglected, once issued by Innocent Pope III, our predecessor similarly, in a general council, and later renewed by the aforesaid Pius V: that all physicians, when called to the sick lying in bed, should above all admonish them to confess all their sins to a suitable confessor according to the rite of the Holy Roman Church, and should not visit them beyond the third day unless a longer time had been granted to the sick person by the confessor for some reasonable cause, on which his conscience was burdened, and it appeared to those physicians through a written attestation of the confessor that the sick persons had confessed their sins.
§ 3–5. Gregory XIII renews the prohibition; heavy penalties including denial of sacraments and Church burial
Therefore we, wishing to coerce both the Jews who dare to act against these apostolic mandates and the Christians who summon them or grant them leave to practice medicine and open the way for them to sin, do by apostolic authority, by the tenor of the present letters, approve, confirm, and renew the aforesaid constitutions of our predecessors, and command them to be inviolably observed; and adding by this our constitution, to endure in perpetuity, to those same constitutions and precepts for the firmer observance of them, we strictly forbid and interdict all Christians of either sex that henceforth they call or admit Jews or other infidels to the care of ailing and infirm Christians, or cause, permit, or allow them to be called or admitted.
We therefore mandate all and each of our venerable brothers the patriarchs, primates, archbishops, and bishops, and also our beloved sons the other local ordinaries and whatever pastors and others having and exercising the care of souls, under our displeasure and other penalties to be inflicted at our discretion, that they publish or cause to be published the present letters in their churches situated in those cities or dioceses in which Hebrews or other infidels sojourn, as soon as they shall have been brought to them, and thereafter at the start of each year’s Lenten fast.
And that if anyone, after their publication — even one exempt in whatever way, and of whatever status, grade, order, condition, and preeminence — shall have dared to act against them, the Church’s sacraments are by no means to be administered to him, not even by exempt religious; and dying thus, he shall lack ecclesiastical burial. Which things all the parish priests must not fail to make known to the sick at the proper time, especially when they have learned that a Jewish or infidel physician has been admitted by them; and otherwise those same local ordinaries shall proceed with due animadversion against transgressors of this mandate, and shall likewise punish the Jews themselves, according to the letters of the aforesaid popes Paul and Pius issued against them, for transgressing them.
Given at Rome, at Saint Mark’s, under the Fisherman’s Ring, on the twenty-sixth day of July 1583, in the twelfth year of our pontificate.
Dated July 26, 1583; pontificate year 12.
Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. VIII, pp. 373–375. Pope Gregory XIII, on Hebrew and infidel physicians not being admitted to treat sick Christians. Translated from the Latin.
Pope Gregory XIII — On the Crimes of Jews and Infidels into Which the Inquisitors of Heretical Wickedness May Inquire (1581 AD)
The ancient wickedness of the Jews, with which they have always resisted the divine goodness, is so much the more wicked in their children, inasmuch as those children themselves, more wicked than their fathers — convicted of greater crimes and therefore expelled from their own seats and dispersed throughout all the regions of the world, reduced to perpetual servitude — found no greater clemency in any lord’s dominion than in Christian provinces, and most of all in the bosom of apostolic piety, which, laboring for their conversion, received them mercifully and sustained them in cohabitation together with its own children, and always with pious zeal strove to attract them to the light of truth, and aided them with the things necessary to life, forbade injuries and insults done to them, and finally surrounded them with many privileges of its beneficence. Yet they, tamed by no benefits and remitting nothing of their former wickedness, still persecute our Lord Jesus Christ reigning in heaven in their synagogues and everywhere; and, most hostile to the members of Christ as well, they do not cease daily to dare more and more horrible crimes against the Christian religion.
§ 1. Inquisitors authorized to proceed against Jews in the following cases
We therefore, wishing to prevent our purity of piety from being polluted, or the Christian name from being insulted with impunity by base slaves, do establish and declare that inquisitors of heretical wickedness may freely proceed in all the causes and cases that follow.
§ 2. Denial of the one eternal God or other shared articles of faith
If any Jew or infidel shall have asserted, preached, or privately insinuated to any person that there is no one eternal, omnipotent God, creator of all visible and invisible things, and the like.
§ 3. Invocation of demons; sorcery and divination
If he shall have invoked demons, or consulted or received their answers, or directed prayers or sacrifices to them for divination or another cause, or shall have sacrificed or offered fumigations of incense or another thing to them, or rendered them any other services of impiety.
§ 4. Teaching Christians to commit the above crimes
If he shall have taught Christians by word, deed, or example, or in any other wicked manner, or shall have led or attempted to lead them to commit the aforesaid things.
§ 5. Blasphemy against Christ or the Blessed Virgin Mary
If he shall have impiously uttered that our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ was a mere man or even a sinner, or that the Mother of God is not a virgin, and other such blasphemies of this kind, which are commonly called heretical in themselves, to the ignominy, contempt, or corruption of the Christian faith.
§ 6. Leading a Christian to apostatize or adopt Jewish rites
If, by the work, help, counsel, or favor of any of them, any Christian shall have fallen away from the faith and renounced what he had once received, or shall have passed or returned to the rites, ceremonies, superstitions, or impious sects of Jews or other infidels, or shall have fallen into any heresy; or whoever shall have furnished aid, counsel, help, or favor in any way so that he might renounce the Christian faith or fall into heresy.
§ 7. Preventing a catechumen or Jew from converting to Christianity
If anyone shall have detained, turned away, or dissuaded from the faith or from instruction in the faith, or from receiving holy Baptism, or in any way impeded from coming to the faith or from being washed in the cleansing of regeneration, any catechumen or anyone among the Jews or infidels who, inspired by God, wishes to come to the Christian faith, after his will has been declared by nod, word, deed, or any other means.
§ 9. Possessing or distributing Talmudic or other condemned Hebrew books
If he shall have kept, guarded, or circulated heretical or Talmudic books, or other Jewish books condemned or otherwise prohibited in whatever way, or shall have transported them to any places, or shall have lent his services to that end.
§ 10. Mocking Christ or attaching an animal or object to a cross in derision
If he shall have mocked Christians, and holding our Lord Jesus Christ — the salvific victim of our redemption immolated on the altar of the cross — in scorn and contempt, whenever, but most especially on the sacred day of Good Friday, shall have affixed or hung a lamb or sheep or something else to a cross, or spat upon it, or done anything whatsoever against it.
§ 11. Retaining Christian nurses or forcing them to dispose of milk after receiving Communion
If he shall have retained Christian nurses, against the statutes of the sacred canons and the sanctions of various Roman Pontiffs our predecessors; or, retaining them, on the day on which they shall have received the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, shall have compelled them to pour out their milk, for one or more days, into latrines, drains, or other places.
§ 12–13. Inquisitors of the whole world deputed as judges in all these cases
In all and each of these cases, all the aforesaid inquisitors of heretical wickedness of all the kingdoms, provinces, cities, dominions, and places of the entire Christian world, we depute as perpetual judges in their respective places, to inquire diligently and proceed concerning these things against Jews and whatsoever infidels, jointly or separately, as in causes of the faith, according to the form of the sacred canons and the constitutions of this Office of the Inquisition; and those whom they shall have found guilty in any one or more of these criminal excesses, against them — according to the degree of the fault, and also according to the number or multiplication of the crimes, or habitual offending — let them decree stripes, oars even in perpetuity, confiscation of goods, exile, and other more serious penalties, and otherwise make examples of them that may deter those criminals from such crimes in the future.
Given at Rome, at Saint Mark’s, under the Fisherman’s Ring, on the twenty-sixth day of July 1583, in the twelfth year of our pontificate.
Dated July 26, 1583; pontificate year 12.
Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. VIII, pp. 378–381. Pope Gregory XIII, on the crimes of Jews and infidels into which inquisitors of heretical wickedness may inquire. Translated from the Latin.
Pope Gregory XIII — Sancta Mater Ecclesia, On the Preaching of the Word of God to Hebrews Once a Week for Their Conversion, in Places Where Their Synagogues Exist (1584 AD)
Holy mother Church, whose head is Christ, pouring her innate charity broadly out upon all, never ceases with pious affection to have mercy on the peculiar remnants of the ancient Israelite people and people of God, and is deeply saddened that the nation of the Jews — once enriched with extraordinary gifts and graces, for whom was the adoption of sons, the glory, the testament, the legislation, the service and the promises, whence also Christ our Savior deigned to be born according to the flesh — now dispersed for so many ages through the diverse parts of the world, and wretchedly wandering like a plague-ridden flock through trackless and waterless places, is perishing of hunger for the word of God and thirst for the refreshing water, and being expelled far not only from the earthly Jerusalem over which the Lord wept, but, what is more grievous, also from the heavenly Jerusalem, unless it shall confess Christ whom it denied. Moved by this compassion and sorrow, we too are not lightly stirred, and daily devise something by which provision may be more opportunely made for their conversion and salvation, and they may be able, God being propitious, to arrive at the way of understanding which they have closed to themselves.
§ 1. All bishops and prelates commanded to arrange weekly sermons for Jews where synagogues exist
Wherefore, meditating on these things with anxious mind, and following in the footsteps of Nicholas Pope V and certain other Roman Pontiffs our predecessors, we command by this general constitution all patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, and other prelates of churches, even those distinguished with the honor of the cardinalate, that each in his own cities, lands, and places in which a competent number of Jews constituting a synagogue dwells, should take care, on the Sabbath or another fixed day of the week, to have a sermon or lecture delivered to the Jews themselves, summoned to a designated place — not, however, a sacred one nor one where holy things are customarily performed — by some master in theology or another suitable man to be chosen by them, with a fitting stipend assigned to him from the contribution of those same Hebrews or otherwise as shall seem most convenient to them, skilled in the Hebrew language as far as possible; in which sermons or lectures the scriptures of the Old Testament — namely of Moses and the prophets, and especially those which are read or chosen that Sabbath in their synagogues — shall be expounded to them according to the interpretations of the holy Fathers and the true sense of the Catholic Church; and therein shall be discoursed concerning the truth of the Christian faith, the certain coming and incarnation of the Son of God, His nativity, life, miracles, passion, death, burial, descent into hell, resurrection, ascension into heaven, the preaching of His Gospel throughout the whole world by His apostles and other saints, confirmed by innumerable and most illustrious virtues and the glory of illustrious miracles, and His spiritual and true kingdom; and concerning the abolition of the impious worship of idols and the calling of the nations; concerning the perpetual desolation both of Jerusalem and of the land of those same Jews, and their dispersion and captivity everywhere on earth; and concerning other dogmas and articles of similar argument from the law and the prophets; and moreover concerning the long and futile expectation of the Jews for the Messiah’s coming and for a carnal kingdom of his, and their vain hope of returning to the promised land and the restoration of the third temple, which has so often and indeed daily frustrated them; and finally concerning their manifold and varied errors and heresies into which they have most miserably plunged themselves, since they refused to acknowledge the Lord Christ coming in the flesh; and concerning the false interpretation of the sacred Scriptures handed down by their rabbis — who have twisted and corrupted and do not cease to corrupt and deprave the literal sense of those scriptures with fables, lies, and various deceits and methods — and concerning all other things which can convert them to the knowledge of the faith, to the correction of their errors, and to the orthodox faith, the preacher shall prudently address for the reason of place, time, and argument taken up, with true demonstrations drawn from holy Scripture, with no detraction or anger, but with great charity and modesty striving to open to them the light of truth.
§ 2. Jews over twelve required to attend; penalties for absentees and for any Christian who prevents their attendance
To which sermons and lectures we will that all and each of the Jews of either sex over the age of twelve, not prevented by illness or another legitimate cause — which they must make known to the ordinaries — dwelling or arriving from elsewhere in the city and places aforesaid, even if they do not have domicile there, shall come in turn and in thirds at least, and never fewer. If they shall neglect to do this, they shall be compelled to attend those same sermons, by the penalty of interdiction of commerce with the faithful and other penalties to be imposed at the discretion of the ordinary according to the degree of contumacy, until they shall have made competent satisfaction. And if any of the number of the faithful shall be so unmindful of the salvation of himself or of his neighbor — of whom each has a commandment — that he shall have drawn away or impeded or striven to impede them in any way from these salutary sermons or lectures, directly or indirectly, he shall be bound by the sentence of excommunication by that very fact.
Given at Rome, at Saint Mark’s, in the year of the Lord’s Incarnation 1584, on the fifteenth of July, in the thirteenth year of our pontificate.
Dated July 15, 1584; pontificate year 13.
Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. VIII, pp. 487–489. Pope Gregory XIII, Sancta Mater Ecclesia, on the weekly preaching of the word of God to Hebrews for their conversion. Translated from the Latin.
Pope Sixtus V — Grant of Privileges to Hebrews Dwelling in the Ecclesiastical State (1586 AD)
Christian piety, having compassion on the unhappy condition of the Hebrews, suffers them to dwell among itself, and embraces them even with singular humanity, so that through the frequent sight of them the memory of the Lord’s Passion may stand more often before the eyes of the faithful, and those same Hebrews, touched by this piety, may acknowledge their errors and arrive at the true light which is Jesus Christ.
Therefore we also, who do not deny the clemency of Christian piety to the Hebrews themselves seeking our protection, by virtue of the apostolic service enjoined upon us, and following in the footsteps of Pius Pope IV of happy memory and of very many other Roman Pontiff predecessors of ours, wishing to provide opportunely for the condition of the communities of Hebrews, by our own motion — not at their instance or that of any of them or of another on their behalf — but of our mere deliberation and out of our certain knowledge and the fullness of apostolic power, do by the tenor of the present letters grant and bestow in perpetuity upon those same Hebrews the following privileges, indults, and graces expressed in the vernacular language so that each one of them may more easily understand them.
§ 2. General freedom to dwell throughout the Ecclesiastical State and to engage in all trades and commerce
We grant generally that every Hebrew of whatever sex, rank, condition, and status may now and henceforth at their pleasure come and trade throughout the Ecclesiastical State, and dwell in the cities, large towns, and lands of that State — excepting villages and hamlets — living in conformity with the present constitutions; and they may freely engage in every sort of art, exercise, trade, and commerce in grain, wheat, wine, livestock partnerships, and sowing of grain; and likewise they may make partnerships with Christians and have dealings, familiarity, and friendship with them for the aforesaid occasions, availing themselves of the trades, offices, occupations, and manual work of Christians by paying their honest and due wages; and in particular of Christian butchers, who shall be bound to give them meat, according to custom in Ancona and other places, at the price that Christians pay. They may not, however, keep Christian male or female servants, nor cause them to do things that are prohibited to those Christians, in conformity with the constitutions of the Pontiffs.
§ 3. Assignment of convenient housing in new localities; rents fixed
In the cities, towns, and lands where they come newly to dwell, let them be assigned houses, dwellings, and places that are convenient and suited to the rite, living with families, trades, merchandise, and similar affairs of theirs, on the understanding that the rents at the start shall be honest according to custom, and may never be increased or altered, in conformity also with the letters of Pius IV.
§ 4. Toleration of Hebrew rites and books; no compulsion on feast days; head tax for new settlers
We moreover are pleased to tolerate those Hebrews and their rites, constitutions, and laws, and likewise we permit them to keep all the Hebrew books, once purged or to be purged in future of blasphemies against holy Church, and with the changing of names, as was already established and ordained at the Council of Trent and by Pius IV with the advice of Pius V when then Cardinal of Alexandria, as appears from the Index and from writings of the secretary of that council. Nor shall any Hebrew ever be compelled on feast days or their own solemnities to appear in court for civil causes, or to do things that are against their rites and laws. Those Hebrews who newly enter and come in future to dwell in the Ecclesiastical State, the males from the age of fifteen to sixty paying twenty giuli per head immediately upon entering as an entry tax, and thereafter likewise twelve giuli every year per head to the Reverend Apostolic Camera, for as long as they shall be there or shall live, paying half of those twelve giuli at the end of each semester — shall never be bound to pay or contribute for other burdens, taxes, twentieths, imposts, or levies of whatever sort or cause, imposed or to be imposed; excepting the annual payment made at the Capitol for the yoke of Agone, Testaccio, or Palii.
§ 5. Synagogues and cemeteries permitted; tax of ten ducats per synagogue in use only
Hebrews newly entering the said State may have and open their schools and synagogues, where they say and perform their offices and rites, in those cities, towns, and lands where they were previously open, paying in future only for the synagogues that shall be opened and used, to the house of catechumens in Rome their ordinary tax; not being bound however for the past or for others not opened or already in debt or failed, to satisfy anything. At the same time it shall be lawful and permitted for them to recover the places where they buried the dead, paying to the possessors and patrons who shall have bought them their price; and they may buy others newly for this purpose with the assent of the ordinaries. Likewise the Hebrews may use the lands bought for the said purpose from time to time, the portions needed for burials, and enjoy the rest in their way or let it.
§ 6. Banking to be governed by existing terms agreed with the Apostolic Camera
Where banks are newly being set up in the cities, towns, or lands of the said State, let the bankers enjoy and observe those terms and tolerances that are already in agreement with the Apostolic Camera, confirmed by Pius IV and others, where, according to what they shall agree with the communities of the places — but however with the participation and assent of the Reverend Apostolic Camera — those Hebrews not intending to sell pledges before eighteen months, nor to collect interest on interest, nor to do anything against honesty.
§ 9. Hebrews to travel freely without the badge; not to pay tolls or customs
All Hebrews of whatever sex and status in their travels may freely and continuously come and go without any badge, and finally go to fairs without it, stay there, and return from them in the manner that the Hebrews of Rome go and are accustomed, in conformity with the instrument made with the Reverend Apostolic Camera on 21 April 1581, provided that stopping at fairs or lands for more than one day they must wear the badge. Going generally on journey, Hebrews shall not be bound or compelled to pay passages, gabelles, duties, or tolls for their persons, nor for their goods, chattels, or merchandise, other than what and as much as Christians pay — which was also previously granted to them by the Pontiffs. No Hebrew sailing by sea, both going and returning, may be taken as a slave, or despoiled or deprived of his goods or merchandise, confirming the briefs of Paul III and Gregory XIII granted for this purpose. And they may freely carry, transport, or send lawful merchandise from the Levant to Christendom, and from Christendom to the Levant, as Christians do. It shall not be lawful for any Christian of whatever rank, sex, and condition to baptize, do violence, or cause to be baptized any Hebrew of whatever sex, without having license or command from his ordinaries, and this in conformity with the orders and dispositions of the sacred canons, councils, and constitutions of the Pontiffs.
§ 10. Male Hebrews obliged to attend Christian sermons six times per year
Male Hebrew men shall be bound to go to hear the sermons and addresses of Christians three times a year, when they shall be invited or called by the preachers, and three other times a year on some solemnity, when it shall seem good or they shall be invited by the ordinaries; for the rest of the time let no one be compelled, but may go of his own free will even uninvited.
§ 11. Licensed Hebrew physicians may treat Christians
Every Hebrew physician who shall have obtained license from us and the Apostolic See may freely and without scruple from Christians treat Christians, in conformity with the licenses and assents of the Pontiffs.
Given at Rome, at Saint Peter’s, under the Fisherman’s Ring, on the twenty-second day of October 1586, in the second year of our pontificate.
Dated October 22, 1586; pontificate year 2.
Source. Bullarium Romanum, Taurinensis Edition, Vol. VIII, pp. 785–790. Pope Sixtus V, grant of privileges to Hebrews in the Ecclesiastical State. Translated from the Italian.