In the letter, the Jewish community appeals to the pope, apparently Clement XIV, to intervene and stop a newly imposed and degrading requirement to bow and kneel during an annual tax payment ceremony.
Community leaders wrote that the demand had no basis in previous regulations, did not conform to accepted custom and was not mentioned in any official documents, records or earlier papal decrees.
In the letter, they wrote: “Holy Father, since the entire Jewish community was privileged to live under your good and praiseworthy leadership, and all the more so under your rule and authority, it has always sought to bear its hardships quietly and patiently, without complaint and without appearing demanding or troublesome. But now, as the community finds itself oppressed and burdened with a demand that was never practiced in the past, it has no choice but to turn to you in humility and tears.”
The authors went on to note that under an order issued by Pope Clement IX in a letter dated January 18, 1668, and under a formal agreement signed later that year, the community had followed a fixed custom ever since. Each year, on the first Saturday of Carnival, the community rabbi and its representatives were sent to the Capitoline office to show respect and loyalty to the authorities and to pay a fixed annual contribution of 300 scudi, exactly as set out in official documents.
They added that even when Pope Benedict XIV introduced a change in 1746 regarding the attire worn by the representatives, requiring black urban dress with a cloak, no change was made to the manner of the ceremony itself and no new demand was added beyond long-standing practice.
“Now, however, they seek to impose on the community rabbi and its representatives something that was never customary: to kneel during the official appearance,” the letter states. “This demand not only contradicts accepted custom, but is also unsupported by any official record. Public and notarial documents from previous years, as well as official Capitoline journals, mention many details of the ceremonies, yet make no mention whatsoever of kneeling.”
The document was written during a period when Rome’s Jews lived under the direct rule of the Papal State and were confined to the city’s ghetto, established in 1555. At the time, Carnival in Rome included practices described in historical accounts as humiliating toward Jews, including races in which Jews were forced to run in minimal clothing along the Via del Corso to the amusement of the crowd.
To avoid taking part in such degrading spectacles, the Jewish community was often compelled to pay large sums of money. These practices continued until 1870, when the forces of the Kingdom of Italy captured Rome from the Papal States.