Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/97

 9 th S. III. FEB. 4, '99.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

91

point still stands the little church referrec bo by PROF. BUTLER, bearing the fresco o the Crucifixion upon its front, facing th Ghetto that was, and displaying the words o Isaiah quoted, both in Hebrew and Latin This miserable building was erected nomin ally by a converted Jew; but the peop and religion it insulted so long are free anc flourishing, while it moulders neglected, filth j and generally closed. A Christian endea voured once to pick my pocket near it, so have reason to remember the spot.

With regard to the question which MR BUTLER says he has answered, i.e., "Wh were Jews at Rome obliged to wear national badge, especially a large letter O of a yellow colour on the breast? " I am unable to endorse his attempted explana tion. The custom of wearing a rounc yellow badge prevailed only during th thirteenth century, having been decreed by Innocent III. in 1215; but it was not to b the peculiar distinguishment of Jews. Sara cens and heretics were likewise included in the enactment.* They were to wear a large round of yellow stuff sewn on their breast covering; but it was not a letter of the alphabet. The first complaint we hear of it occurs in 1269, when Beniamin ben Abraham bewails the degrading badge, the confiscation of the holy books, the destruc tion of gravestones, and the desecration o: Hebrew graves (cf . ' Hebr. Literatur-Vereins, 1888). Nevertheless, under the phenomena number of Pontiffs whose reigns cumber the last half of the thirteenth century although Jews in Rome suffered, they are believed to have enjoyed relatively consider- able tranquillity. Tribute and homage were exacted from them by Popes and princes, and "the thirty pieces" of silver were made obvious in the figures of the sums paid. They had to provide also a Syrian mantle for the "Senator Urbis" and a capari- son for his horse. Among other and more galling exactions, they were compelled to con- tribute largely to cover the cost of the Passion Play on Monte Testaccio and the games in the Circus Agonalis (Piazza Navona). This first appears clearly in an edict of Robert, King of Naples, as " Senator Urbis," 2 March, 1334. By this time (if not many years before), however, the Senators had changed the badge worn by the Jews from the odious yellow round" into a reddish cloak.t This pro-

to warn Christians against forbidden carnal inter- course with heretics.
 * The special intention of this seems to have been

t Yellow in those days was the most prized colour after blue. It was the prevailing colour of Angevin

bably took place after Charles of Anjou was Senator, A.D. 1270, and it may (as is thought by certain writers) have signified the purple robe which had been mockingly put upon Jesus (?). Physicians, however, were able to obtain exemption from wearing this.

At that later terrible period for Roman Jews when the Dominican Paul IV. (1555), imitating the Venetian Ghetto,* formed an- other having five gates t in Rome, and issued his bull " Cum nimis absurdum," he compelled male Jews to wear a yellow " berretta " and their womankind to wear a yellow veil or "reticella." He did not revive the former badge, however, and the colour, which was of the orange tint, may or may not have been selected in memory of traditional Judas colour. It may, more probably, have been suggested by the San Benito worn by con- demned heretics, which in turn represents the colours of fire and flames.

When Paul IV. died, in 1559, great was the rejoicing among all classes in Rome, especially among the Jews, who similarly rejoiced at the death of Pius IX., and with good reason. We read how the magistrates and bystanders witnessed the breaking up of the Pope's statue, and how they laughed derisively when a Jewish youth went up and placed his yellow 'berretta" upon the pontifical head, which remained a target for stone practice through- out the day, until some one out of pity hurled it into the Tiber.

But I must not dwell at greater length on has filled, volumes. { ST. CLAIR BADDELEY.
 * his interesting subject, which would fill, and

Robert Browning's poem ' Holy-Cross Day, on which the Jews were forced to attend an annual Christian Sermon in Rome,' is an attempt to describe Jewish feeling on the

ubject. The poet notes that Gregory XVI.

1833-46) abolished the sermon. W. C. B.

It is more than "local tradition," it is an listorical fact, that by a Papal bull issued in 584 Jews were compelled to hear a sermon n " Holy Cross Day " (14 Sept.) at the church f S. Angelo in Pescheria, adjoining the jhetto. Browning gives a graphic descrip- ion of the unwilling congregation and the

lair, as well as of Angevin lilies. One has merely to xamine the fourteenth-century frescoes and litera- <ure to remark the universal fashion for "biondi rini "; probably a survival from classic times.

erm.
 * The "Shut-in"; corrupted from a Hebrew

t Leo XII. added three more gates.

t Cf. 'Geschichte der Juden in Rom,' A. Berliner,

!93; ' Die Juden im Mittelalter,' G. B. De| ' 834; 'C. Re. Statuti della Citta di ~ 11 Ghetto di Roma,' F. Natale, 1887.