Jews and the Inquisition Mantua (Italy), October 10, 1740

GENERAL EDICT OF THE HOLY OFFICE

We, Brother Pietro Martire Cassio, of the Dominican Order, Master of Sacred Theology, from the City of Mantua, his diocese and state, and the Duchy of Guastalla, General Inquisitor specially appointed by the Holy Apostolic See against the general heretical depravity.

As we desire, according to what duty demands, that the Holy Catholic Faith, without which it is impossible to be pleasing to God, continue to remain pure and uncorrupted by every heretical contagion in this our jurisdiction, by the apostolic authority granted to us, out of holy obedience and under penalty of automatic excommunication and in conjunction with the penalties imposed by the sacred canons, decrees, constitutions, and papal bulls, we order that all and each person within our jurisdiction, regardless of status, rank, office and condition, both ecclesiastical and secular, disclose within one month to the Holy Office of this city, or its Bishop, and formally expose anyone about whom they know, have known, or will know:

First. That they are heretics, or suspected, or defamed as heretics; believers, or their advocates, hosts, and defenders; that they participate, or have participated, in the rites of Jews, Mahometans, Saracens, or Gentiles; that they have committed apostasy from the Holy Catholic Faith; that they invoke, or have howsoever, expressly or tacitly, invoked the Devil, or honor, or have honored, the same; that they have participated in, or aided, or aid with any experiment whatsoever of witchcraft, sorcery, magic, or similar superstitious acts, particularly when these involve abuse of holy things.

Second. That they, if Jews, have persuaded, or try to persuade the Christians to follow Judaic customs, and to live according to rites contrary to the Holy Catholic Faith; that they have prevented, or try to prevent, other Jews from receiving baptism; that they have persuaded, or try to persuade, people already baptized to return to Judaism; that they have taught, or teach, doctrines opposed to those articles of faith which are common to us and to them, and scorn the Catholic religion and the Catholic faith, either in words or in deeds.

Third. That they, while not being priests, dare, or have dared with sacrilegious impudence to celebrate Mass or administer the sacrament of penitence to Christ’s faithful.

Fourth. That they abuse, or have abused, the sacrament of confession against the apostolic decrees and constitutions.

Fifth. That they have held, or hold secret meetings on religion.

Sixth. That they utter heretical blasphemy against God and His saints, particularly the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Seventh. That they thwart, or have thwarted the office of the Holy Inquisition, or offended a witness, a denouncer, or a minister of the same.

Eighth. That they have, or have had books, or writings, by heretics, or containing heresies, or dealing with religion without the approval of the Holy Apostolic See, or have read, kept, printed, published, defended, or read, keep, print, publish, defend, them; the same applies to books of sorcery, witchcraft, magic, spells, and superstitions, particularly with abuse of holy things.

Nine. That they have, by deed or words, scorned the orders, statutes, customs, censures, offices and ceremonies used and approved by Roman Holy Mother Church.

Ten. That they are in possession of, or hold otherwise in their power documents associated with trials, written depositions, legal papers, or any kind of property falling within the competence of the Holy Office.

Having above specified the instances in which exposure is mandatory, we declare that we do not exclude other cases falling within the competence of the Holy Office, as cited in the holy canons, decrees, ecclesiastical laws and papal bulls.

We warn that these precepts will not be deemed satisfactorily observed, as they should, by those who think they can expose the offenders through notices, or letters, anonymous or otherwise unreliable, which are disregarded by the Holy Office.

No one will be able to have his excommunication, or the penalties for disobedience, lifted, before formally exposing to us, or to the bishop, the aforesaid heretics, or those suspected of heresy.

PARTICULAR ORDERS

Because we know that the plague of heresy is often spread through books and writings, we order and command, under penalties at our discretion, supplemented by excommunication for all the printers subject to our jurisdiction, that these not dare print, or have others print, books, writings or compositions, though Catholic (with the exception of edicts, proclamations, bans, precepts, or similar documents issued by a Curia), without signature or permit by us or our vicar. Such signature will have to appear at the beginning of the book, or printed work, accompanied by the approval of the book itself. We order, under the same penalties, that the same printers not divulge the work, or the printed book, before we, or our deputies, have given authorization to publish, when the work, signed by the author, and with a printed copy, has been handed over to the Holy Office, in order that the texts be collated and kept in our archive, in conformity with the rules of the Index.

We order that all booksellers, under the same discretionary penalties, plus excommunication and loss of the books, not dare introduce books into this our jurisdiction if these are not on the list signed by us, our vicar or another deputy; if introduced, the books should not be unpacked or uncrated without our assistance, or our permission, or our vicar’s; and neither should the books be shipped without our permission, as above.

We also order, under penalties at our discretion, that the same booksellers, within three months of the publication of this edict, give us a true and faithful inventory of all the books, with the names of the author, printer, commentator, the place and date of publication; not dare keep or sell books other than those noted in the inventory presented to us; have in their shop the Index of forbidden books, so as to be able to decide which ones can be sold, or bought, as per the rules of the Index itself.

Furthermore, we order that the aforesaid printers and booksellers of this our jurisdiction, under penalties at our discretion, appear before us within eight days from the publication of this edict, in order to swear to conduct their office in conformity with the Catholic faith, as demanded by the rules of the Index, possibly already issued by one of our predecessors.

We also urge anyone, either secular or belonging to a religion, to exercise diligence in keeping their libraries purged from forbidden books of any kind, and remind everyone of the penalty of excommunication and other penalties promulgated in the edicts, and noted in the Index, against those who keep, or read, forbidden books. To such people we cannot offer any support, either by giving them permission, or by simply tolerating them, as this is not in our power.

We command that every person of any status or condition not dare bring books of any kind, or printed papers, no matter how small, into our jurisdiction, without the list signed by the Inquisitor, or the Vicar of the city whence they came; or take such books out of the city without permission by us, or our vicar, under penalty of the loss of the books, and other discretionary penalties.

We order, under discretionary penalties, that excisemen, custom officers, and gatekeepers not let in aforesaid persons. If these have come to their offices without the aforesaid signed lists, their books should be confiscated and some given to us or our vicars. We order, under the same penalty, that carriers, boatmen, muleteers, and passengers not carry from one place to another, cases, bales, or bundles, with books in them, unless they have seen the lists. We order, under penalty of lashes and other penalties at our discretion, that charlatans and street singers not sell stories, songs, booklets, sheets, or notebooks, before we or our vicar have seen them.

In conformity with the tenth rule of the Index of forbidden books, we order, under penalty of the loss of books, that heirs and legitimate successors take to the Holy Office the list of the books left by the deceased, and have us, or our vicar, sign it, before they read, sell, or give them to others. The booksellers, or others, are prohibited, under the same penalty, from receiving or buying aforesaid books in the absence of aforesaid list.

We forbid the Jews, under penalty of lashes or three jerks of the rope, from buying, receiving, or accepting as pawn, images of Our Lord Jesus Christ, crosses, reliquaries, reliquaries with relics in them, blessed “Agnus Dei” discs, or similar objects used in the Christian cult and religion. We declare that the same Jews must obey the aforesaid orders about books, under the same penalties. Also, they must expose and denounce, as above, whenever they learn about anything included in this general edict, under penalty of incarceration at our discretion, and other penalties. We hereby declare that we intend to confirm all edicts about the Jews that have been

written and promulgated by our predecessors, pronouncing them valid and inflexible, as if they were verbatim inserted into the present edict.

EXHORTATION

Since the Holy Office seeks above all the salvation of souls and the conversion of sinners, we exhort and pray to the heart of the Lord that any person who might have fallen into heresy, apostasy and error, or done, or said, something contrary to what Holy Mother Church believes and teaches, might return to Her Holy Womb. We assure and promise that should such individual promptly betake himself to this Holy Tribunal, accusing himself of his mistakes with sincerity of heart, he will be absolved, and secretly reconciled through just salutary penance; should he be already known, and denounced by others, by appearing spontaneously he will deserve greater mercy.

Placing a burden on their conscience, we exhort the Reverend Fathers Confessors who should find among their penitents cases that fall within the competence of the Holy Office, or penitents who know of people fallen in such errors, to instruct such persons to do whatever duty they are obliged to do, and not absolve, which they legitimately cannot do, those they are obliged to denounce, until these people have turned themselves in.

We order, under grave penalties at our discretion, that the aforesaid confessors not tear up, or burn, their penitents’ heretical and forbidden books and writings; instead, they shall hand them to us or our vicar.

We also inform that those who denounce, witness, and spontaneously appear in the Holy Office, will be kept absolutely secret, and will be assured, by virtue of the Bull Si de protegendis by Pius V, that this will not be prejudicial to them.

And so that no one plead ignorance, we order that all printers, booksellers, gatekeepers, innkeepers, hosts of foreigners, excisemen, and everyone subject to our jurisdiction, under penalty of incarceration and other penalties at our irremissible discretion, post this our edict in their shops, inns, hostels, rooms for rent, placing it in an easily visible spot, as to be seen and read by everybody.

We finally order, by virtue of the Holy Spirit and holy obedience, that, on the first holy day of obligation after receiving this edict, at a moment when the church will be most crowded, all abbots, provosts, rectors, parish-priests and vice parish-priests announce the edict to the people in a loud, intelligible voice; repeat it every year on every Lenten and Advent Sunday, and, after Easter, send sworn declarations, signed by two other persons, that they have carried out all of this both during Lent and during Advent.

As to abbots, provosts, priors, guardians, rectors, and heads of religious orders, we order them to do the same with their subjects, and to post one of the two copies of the edict we will send them on the door of the church, or in another open space, in such a way that it would be impossible to take it down, except by violence. Likewise, we order the aforesaid, under the penalties imposed by the Holy Office, to have all decrees on matters concerning the Holy Office

read in their refectories, and to send us at the end of each year a declaration, signed by them and by two senior monks.

With the aforesaid authority, and under penalty of excommunication and other discretionary penalties, we order that every person of any status, rank, or condition, not dare tear up or remove this copy of our edict from the doors or places where it will be posted.

In witness thereof we have issued the present document, signed in our hand and our notary’s, and sealed with the seal of this Holy Inquisition.

From the Holy Office in Mantua , October 10 th , 1740