Book Synopsis

A new investigation that shows how conversionary preaching to Jews was essential to the early modern Catholic Church and the Roman religious landscape

Starting in the sixteenth century, Jews in Rome were forced, every Saturday, to attend a hostile sermon aimed at their conversion. Harshly policed, they were made to march en masse toward the sermon and sit through it, all the while scrutinized by local Christians, foreign visitors, and potential converts. In Catholic Spectacle and Rome's Jews, Emily Michelson demonstrates how this display was vital to the development of early modern Catholicism.

Drawing from a trove of overlooked manuscripts, Michelson reconstructs the dynamics of weekly forced preaching in Rome. As the Catholic Church began to embark on worldwide missions, sermons to Jews offered a unique opportunity to define and defend its new triumphalist, global outlook. They became a point of prestige in Rome. The city's most important organizations invested in maintaining these spectacles, and foreign tourists eagerly attended them. The title of "Preacher to the Jews" could make a man's career. The presence of Christian spectators, Roman and foreign, was integral to these sermons, and preachers played to the gallery. Conversionary sermons also provided an intellectual veneer to mask ongoing anti-Jewish aggressions. In response, Jews mounted a campaign of resistance, using any means available.

Examining the history and content of sermons to Jews over two and a half centuries, Catholic Spectacle and Rome's Jews argues that conversionary preaching to Jews played a fundamental role in forming early modern Catholic identity.

Review Quotes

"Catholic Spectacle and the Jews of Rome represents a significant contribution to scholarship concerning the intricate dy­namics between the Catholic Church and Jewish community in Rome during the Early Modern period and the broader implications of these dynamics. . . . [One] noteworthy aspect of the book is the clarity of the writ­ing style and engaging prose."---Miriam Benfatto, Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu

"An essential reference."---SerenaDi Nepi, American Historical Review

"[A] significant contribution."---Linda Nola, Journal of Early Modern History

"Finalist for the Jordan Schnitzer Book Award, Association for Jewish Studies"

"Runner up for the British and Irish Association of Jewish Studies Book Prize"

"Winner of the Albert C. Outler Prize, American Society of Church History"

"Winner of the Dorothy Rosenberg Prize, American Historical Association"

"[Catholic Spectacle and Rome's Jews] demonstrates a method for writing excellent early modern global history."---Frank Lacopo, Renaissance and Reformation

About the Author

Emily Michelson is senior lecturer in history at the University of St Andrews. She is the author of The Pulpit and the Press in Reformation Italy and the coeditor of A Linking of Heaven and Earth and A Companion to Religious Minorities in Early Modern Rome. Twitter @Emily_Michelson