The Papal States in the Mediterranean World: Conversion to Catholicism in Rome and Ancona
Restricted (Penn State Only)
- Author:
- Lacopo, Francesco
- Graduate Program:
- History
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- February 22, 2024
- Committee Members:
- Faisal Husain, Major Field Member
Matthew Restall, Major Field Member
Ronnie Hsia, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Robin Thomas, Outside Unit & Field Member
Kathryn Merkel-Hess Mcdonald, Professor in Charge/Director of Graduate Studies
Amanda Scott, Major Field Member - Keywords:
- Papal States
conversion
missions
Jesuits
Mediterranean World
Rome
Ancona
Adriatic
Jewish History
Religious History
Social History
Cultural History
Urban History
Papacy
Catholic Church - Abstract:
- This dissertation investigates the relationship between Counter-Reformation Catholicism and the Jewish, Muslim, and Eastern Orthodox inhabitants of two of the early modern Papal States’ major cities: the papal capital of Rome and the major port city of Ancona. In Rome, the early modern popes promoted aggressive policies of conversion, as the city was the theatrum mundi that served to represent the successes and failures of global Catholicism. In contrast, the papacy needed to refrain from driving non-Catholic commercial agents away from Ancona, necessitating a regime of toleration. The period under investigation (1543-1622) was one of expedient accommodation of Ancona’s religious diversity. When non-Catholics converted to Catholicism in early modern Ancona, they often did so on their own terms rather than as a result of coercion. This study draws on baptismal registers, papal taxation records, notarial documents, correspondence from religious orders, and other sources scattered across archives in Italy, the Vatican, and the United States. The research questions are the following: How did local actors mold the ways the popes wielded power as territorial princes and as universal pastors? How did the Papal States’ diverse communities respond to the papal impetus to enforce Catholic identity? And what do we mean when we speak of the early Papal States and Italy writ large given their regionally- and religiously-diverse histories? I reveal the limits of the popes’ power as it interacted with local social, economic, and cultural contexts in a period of rising social discipline and papal absolutism. Central themes in this dissertation include immigration, (in)toleration, and cultural encounter. Women and men arrived in Ancona and the rest of the Papal States from across the world, from Persia to the Caribbean and from across the Mediterranean, and converted for purposes including social assimilation, commercial benefit, and manumission from slavery. Many others outside of Ancona were coerced by the Inquisition and other Catholic authorities. In response to the early modern conversionary phenomenon, missions known as case dei catecumeni (catechumen houses) pioneered missionary strategies. These strategies informed and were molded by missions in other world regions. Each catechumen house also reflected local contingencies. In Ancona’s case, commercial agents crucial to the financial wellbeing of the Papal States resisted conversion and even leveraged their commercial importance to gain papal support for their non-compliance. As a socially- and confessionally-diverse Adriatic port, Ancona was typical. But its typicality made it exceptional in the theocratic Papal States. Rome, on the other hand, was unusual in its extreme intolerance. By displacing Rome as the sole subject of study, this dissertation shows how the Papal States operated by many of the same economic and social rules as other early modern states, despite being a theocracy. This dissertation utilizes three distinct methods. At its foundation is a quantitative analysis of hundreds of converts’ baptismal records and census documents spread across multiple archives in the former Papal States. Collating age, gender, former religion, conversion frequency, and other data points produces reasonably accurate profiles of convert populations in Rome and Ancona. These profiles reveal that Ancona saw less frequent targeting of vulnerable demographics for baptism and less outright coercion. The second method builds on the first, and involves reading baptismal records, notarial documents, and letters for substantive qualitative information. Narratives about converts in register entries permit the construction of prosopographies to illustrate personal convert experiences with conversion, toleration, and intoleration. A third level is analysis focuses on lengthy accounts of religious minorities’ lives from Inquisitional proceedings, correspondence, and other documents. These highly personal accounts show that many religious minority individuals and families were investigated by Catholic authorities. But unlike in Rome, Ancona’s Inquisitorial efforts rarely resulted in conversion, since the city’s distance from Rome and proximity to the Adriatic permitted more opportunities for dissent and resistance and, when necessary, escape. Chapter One discusses the development of religious toleration and intoleration in Italy and the Mediterranean, and dedicates special attention to the changing place of religious conversion in the broader context of the Reformation world. Chapter Two establishes Rome as a foundation for comparison with Ancona. The papal capital’s landscape of religious conversion is exceptionally well-documented, shows the ideal world of the Counter-Reformation popes as opposed to Ancona’s world of expediency, and offers opportunities for additional breakthroughs such as a deep analysis of the first conversions to occur in the Roman casa dei catecumeni. Chapter Three dissects Ancona’s history of toleration and accommodation through the vast corpus of early modern town council decrees, papal bulls, and other administrative sources. Chapter Four then turns to the often surprisingly qualitative Ancona baptismal registers and compares these sources to similar records housed in Rome’s archives. Ancona’s baptismal registers have never before been subject to systematic study. Chapter Five triangulates conversion and toleration in Ancona within the broader Catholic missionary world, largely through the archives of the Italian Inquisition, and outlines areas for future study.