Cum nimis absurdum

Cum Nimis Absurdum is a July 14, 1555 by Pope Paul IV promulgated Papal Bull, which regulated the lives of Jews in the Papal States. Among the most important concrete effects included the construction of the Roman ghetto. Prior to these limitations, many Jews fled the Papal States in other states where similar provisions did not exist.

Like all papal documents cited by the incipit, ie after the opening words of the bull:

"Cum Nimis Absurdum et inconveniens existat, Iudaei ut, quos propria culpa perpetuae servituti submisit [ ... ] "

"It is extremely inappropriate and unsuitable that the Jews, who condemned their own offense to perpetual servitude [ ... ] "

The bull directed against the expression of social superiority of Jews over Christians. The occasion was namely the fact that Jews " lived together not only in the immediate vicinity with Christians and their churches, but also rented homes in more genteel residential areas, as purchasers of property and possessed, even nurses and maids and other Christians had set as a servant ."

The bull is a document of the early modern anti-Judaism.

Content

The Bull contains 15 orders:

Aftereffect

On January 15, 1775 issued by Pope Pius VI. a Editto sopra gli Ebrei which summarizes all the Jewish laws of the Papal States, which had been adopted since Cum Nimis Absurdum. Unlike the encyclical of Benedict XIV of June 1751, which had emphasized the protection of the Jews from the Christians, the edict of 1775 again put the emphasis on the protection of Christians against the Jews.