La posizione giuridica dell’ ebreo convertito nell’ età della Controriforma. La bolla Cupientes ludaeos (1542) e la successiva elaborazione dottrinale

Abstract

The Church policy in relation to the Jews during the Counter-Reformation was aimed at attaining the highest possible number of conversions. To that purpose, the Curia set in motion, on the one hand, a series of measures humiliating for the Jews (ghetto, burning of books, expulsions) and, on the other hand, another group of measures tending to create social and economic advantages for the converts. The present article rewiews those juridical regulations and the development of that doctrine (De Susannis, Ricciullo, Sessa). Nevertheless, one part of the juridical doctrine and, above all, the local clergy, especially in Spain, were strongly opposed to admit the converts to either civil or ecclesiastical dignities. To determine the actual juridical and social status of the converts, it would, therefore, be necessary to transcend the juridical resolutions and open the research to the archival documentation which reflects a much more complex and di verse reality.