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During the reign of Prince-Bishop [[Johannes IV Hinderbach]], an [[Austrians|Austrian]] noble, under the jurisdiction of [[Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III]], [[Bernardine of Feltre]], an itinerant [[Franciscan]] preacher, had delivered a series of sermons in Trent in which he vilified the local Jewish community. That Jewish community consisted of three households headed by Samuel (who arrived in 1461), Tobias, and Engel.<ref>{{harv|Hsia|1992|p=14-15}}</ref> They formed a distinct community marked by their professions—Samuel was a moneylender and Tobias a physician—and their apparent wealth in comparison with the artisans and sharecroppers of Trent.<ref>{{harv|Hsia|1992|p=25}}</ref> [[Johannes Hinderbach|Prince-Bishop Hinderbach]] has granted the Jewish community permission to reside and practice their professions in Trent.
During the reign of Prince-Bishop [[Johannes IV Hinderbach]], an [[Austrians|Austrian]] noble, under the jurisdiction of [[Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III]], [[Bernardine of Feltre]], an itinerant [[Franciscan]] preacher, had delivered a series of sermons in Trent in which he vilified the local Jewish community. That Jewish community consisted of three households headed by Samuel (who arrived in 1461), Tobias, and Engel.<ref>{{harv|Hsia|1992|p=14-15}}</ref> They formed a distinct community marked by their professions—Samuel was a moneylender and Tobias a physician—and their apparent wealth in comparison with the artisans and sharecroppers of Trent.<ref>{{harv|Hsia|1992|p=25}}</ref> [[Johannes Hinderbach|Prince-Bishop Hinderbach]] has granted the Jewish community permission to reside and practice their professions in Trent.


By 24 March 1475, there was "great outcry among the Christians on account of the missing child", including claims the child had been abducted by the Jews. The houses of the Jews were searched by the authorities on 24 March, but no body was found. Samuel's property was large, including a hall that was used as a synagogue and a water cellar that was used for [[mikvah|ritual bathing]]. The cellar was supplied with water by a channel that ran under the house. The Jews (in reaction to the rumours they had abducted the child) made a second search of their homes and still found nothing. On 26 March 1475, Easter Sunday, as the evening meal was being prepared, Seligman, a cook, found Simon's body in the water in Samuel's cellar. Samuel himself, accompanied by two other members of the Jewish community, reported this to the [[podestà]] immediately.<ref name=finding>{{harv|Hsia|1992|p=26-27}}</ref>
By 24 March 1475, there was "great outcry among the Christians on account of the missing child", including claims the child had been abducted by the Jews. The houses of the Jews were searched by the authorities on 24 March, but no body was found. Samuel's property was large, including a hall that was used as a synagogue and a water cellar that was used for [[mikvah|ritual bathing]]. The cellar was supplied with water by a channel that ran under the house. The Jews (in reaction to the rumours they had abducted the child) made a second search of their homes and still found nothing. The Following day 26 March 1475, Easter Sunday, as the evening meal was being prepared, Seligman, a cook, found Simon's body in the water in Samuel's cellar. Samuel himself, accompanied by two other members of the Jewish community, reported this to the [[podestà]] immediately.<ref name=finding>{{harv|Hsia|1992|p=26-27}}</ref>


Following their report of the body's discovery, the entire Jewish community (both men and women) were arrested and forced under torture to confess to Simon's murder for ritual purposes, a classic example of [[blood libel]]. [[Ronnie Po-chia Hsia]] argues that "the narrative imperative, the official story of ritual murder, the trial record of 1475-76, represents nothing less than a Christian ethnography of Jewish rites".<ref>{{harv|Hsia|1992|p=94}}</ref>
Following their report of the body's discovery, the entire Jewish community (both men and women) were arrested and forced under torture to confess to Simon's murder for ritual purposes, a classic example of [[blood libel]]. [[Ronnie Po-chia Hsia]] argues that "the narrative imperative, the official story of ritual murder, the trial record of 1475-76, represents nothing less than a Christian ethnography of Jewish rites".<ref>{{harv|Hsia|1992|p=94}}</ref>

Revision as of 08:41, 19 April 2020

Simon of Trent
Born1472
Trento, Italy, Holy Roman Empire
Died21 March 1475
Trent, Prince-Bishopric of Trent
Venerated inCatholic Church (popular devotion)
Canonizedno
Feast24 March
AttributesYouth, martyrdom
PatronageChildren, kidnap victims, torture victims
ControversyBlood libel
Catholic cult suppressed
1965 by Pope Paul VI

Simon of Trent (German: Simon Unverdorben, lit. 'Simon Immaculate'; Italian: Simonino di Trento), also known as Simeon (1472 – 21 March 1475), was a boy from the city of Trent, Prince-Bishopric of Trent, whose disappearance and murder was blamed on the leaders of the city's Jewish community, based on the recovery of his body from the cellar of a Jewish family's house and the confessions of Jews obtained under judicial torture.

Events

During the reign of Prince-Bishop Johannes IV Hinderbach, an Austrian noble, under the jurisdiction of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III, Bernardine of Feltre, an itinerant Franciscan preacher, had delivered a series of sermons in Trent in which he vilified the local Jewish community. That Jewish community consisted of three households headed by Samuel (who arrived in 1461), Tobias, and Engel.[1] They formed a distinct community marked by their professions—Samuel was a moneylender and Tobias a physician—and their apparent wealth in comparison with the artisans and sharecroppers of Trent.[2] Prince-Bishop Hinderbach has granted the Jewish community permission to reside and practice their professions in Trent.

By 24 March 1475, there was "great outcry among the Christians on account of the missing child", including claims the child had been abducted by the Jews. The houses of the Jews were searched by the authorities on 24 March, but no body was found. Samuel's property was large, including a hall that was used as a synagogue and a water cellar that was used for ritual bathing. The cellar was supplied with water by a channel that ran under the house. The Jews (in reaction to the rumours they had abducted the child) made a second search of their homes and still found nothing. The Following day 26 March 1475, Easter Sunday, as the evening meal was being prepared, Seligman, a cook, found Simon's body in the water in Samuel's cellar. Samuel himself, accompanied by two other members of the Jewish community, reported this to the podestà immediately.[3]

Following their report of the body's discovery, the entire Jewish community (both men and women) were arrested and forced under torture to confess to Simon's murder for ritual purposes, a classic example of blood libel. Ronnie Po-chia Hsia argues that "the narrative imperative, the official story of ritual murder, the trial record of 1475-76, represents nothing less than a Christian ethnography of Jewish rites".[4]

Fifteen of the Jews, including Samuel, the head of the community, were sentenced to death and burnt at the stake. The Jewish women were accused as accomplices, but argued their gender did not allow them to participate in the rituals which were restricted to men. They were freed from prison in 1478 due to papal intervention. One Jew, Israel, was allowed to convert to Christianity for a short while, but he was arrested again after other Jews confessed he was part of the Passover Seder. After a long period of torture he was also sentenced to death on 19 January.[5] The notoriety of the Trent trial inspired a rise in Christian violence towards Jews in the surrounding areas of Veneto, Lombardy, and Tirol, along with accusations of ritual murder, culminating in the prohibition of Jewish money lending in Vicenza in 1479 and the expulsion of Jews in 1486.[6]

On 3 August, Pope Sixtus IV commanded Bishop Hinderbach to again suspend judicial proceedings until the arrival of the papal representative, Bishop Giovanni Battista dei Giudici of Ventimiglia,[7] who would conduct a joint investigation with the Bishop of Trent. After that investigation, del Giudici denied the child Simon was a martyr and disputed the occurrence of a miracle at his grave. When the Bishop of Ventimiglia demanded the immediate release of the Jews, he was denounced by Hinderbach and assailed by the mob. Del Giudici withdrew to Rovereto and summoned Hinderbach and the podestà to answer for their conduct. Instead of appearing, Hinderbach answered by a circular, directed to all churchmen, describing the martyrdom of Simon, justifying his own role in the proceedings, and denouncing the work of the Bishop of Ventimiglia as pro-Jewish. While the papal commissary was taking a man named Enzelin to Rome to stand trial for Simon's murder, the Bishop of Trent and the podestà continued their proceedings against the Jews, several of whom they executed. Later in 1475, Pope Sixtus appointed a commission of six cardinals to investigate the proceedings. The head of the commission was a close friend of Bernadine of Feltre, the preacher whose sermons set the stage for the attacks on the Jews of Trent. Hinderbach sent two envoys to Rome to update the Prince-Bishop on the papal opinion. Through endless defense of the martyrdom of Simon and obtaining the support of various clergy, on 20 June 1478, the commission concluded that the trial had been conducted in keeping with legal procedures. Pope Sixtus issued a papal bull that asserted Hinderbach's innocence while also reasserting papal protection for the Jews and the unlawfulness of ritual murder trials.[8][9][10]

School of Niklaus Weckmann, Martyrdom of Saint Simonino

Centuries later, historian Ariel Toaff hypothesized that there may be some tenuous historical basis to the accusations against the Jews of Trent.[11] The book was criticized for giving credence to testimony obtained under torture. It was withdrawn from circulation and redacted by its author.[12][13]

Veneration

Simon became the focus of attention for the local Catholic Church. The local bishop, Hinderbach of Trent, tried to have Simon canonized, producing a large body of documentation of the event and its aftermath.[14] Over one hundred miracles were directly attributed to Saint Simon within a year of his disappearance, and his cult spread across Italy, Austria and Germany. However, there was initial skepticism, and Pope Sixtus IV sent the Bishop of Ventimiglia, a learned member of the Dominican Order, to investigate.[15] The veneration was eventually reinvigorated in 1588 by the Franciscan Pope Sixtus V, who officially approved his cultus.[16] Simon was thus considered a martyr and a patron of kidnap and torture victims. His entry in the old Roman Martyrology for 24 March read: Tridénti pássio sancti Simeónis púeri, a Judǽis sævíssime trucidáti, qui multis póstea miráculis coruscávit. ("At Trent, the martyrdom of the boy St. Simeon, who was barbarously murdered by the Jews, but who was afterwards glorified by many miracles.")[17]

Maximilian I, a future Holy Roman Emperor, was a strong proponent of Simon's veneration and commissioned a silver monument of the child.[18] He also had Simon's relics carried in procession when he was made emperor in 1508.

In 1758, Cardinal Ganganelli (later Pope Clement XIV, 1769–1774) prepared a legal memorandum which, to the exclusion of all other allegations of ritual murders of infants which records were thoroughly made available to him, expressly admitted as proven only two: that of Simon of Trent and that of Andreas Oxner.[19] At the same time, he remarkably extols the glories and accomplishments of the Jewish people across history, writing that the murder of Simon of Trent does not suffice to injure the reputation of the entire Jewish people.[20]

Simon's cultus was confirmed by the Popes for local public liturgical observance ("beatification") within the Diocese of Trent.[16] Pope Benedict XIV himself states this in his Apostolic Letter dated 22 February 1755 and addressed to Fr. Benedetto Vetrani, Promoter of Faith.[21] "It is simply untrue to say that the Church has canonized little Simon of Trent. A decree of beatification was issued by Sixtus V., which took the form simply of a confirmation of cultus and which allowed a Mass to be said locally in honour of the boy martyr. Everyone knows that beatification differs from canonization in this, that in the former case the infallibility of the Holy See is not involved, in the latter it is."[22]

Pope Paul VI removed Simon from the Calendar of Saints in 1965. "Simon of Trent is not in the new Roman Martyrology of 2000, nor on any modern Catholic calendar."[16]

In 2020, the Italian artist Giovanni Gasparro [it] painted a depiction of Simon's death. He was later accused of Antisemitism for this painting.[23]

Image gallery

  • Altobello Melone, Simon of Trent, ca.1521, oil on panel, Castello del Buonconsiglio, Trent (Italy)
    Altobello Melone, Simon of Trent, ca.1521, oil on panel, Castello del Buonconsiglio, Trent (Italy)
  • Unknown painter, Ex voto; fresco, end of the 15th century, church of Santa Maria Annunciata, Bienno (BS), Italy
    Unknown painter, Ex voto; fresco, end of the 15th century, church of Santa Maria Annunciata, Bienno (BS), Italy
  • Incunabulum of Friedrich Creussner, Nuremberg, 1475
    Incunabulum of Friedrich Creussner, Nuremberg, 1475
  • Simon of Trent's martyred body. Engraving, Nürnberg, around 1479.
    Simon of Trent's martyred body. Engraving, Nürnberg, around 1479.
  • Stone medallion with the purported martyrdom scene of Simonino di Trento. Palazzo Salvadori, Trent
    Stone medallion with the purported martyrdom scene of Simonino di Trento. Palazzo Salvadori, Trent
  • Illustration in Hartmann Schedel's Weltchronik, 1493
    Illustration in Hartmann Schedel's Weltchronik, 1493
  • Unknown painter, fresco, end of the 15th century, church of Santa Maria Annunciata, Bienno (BS), Italy
    Unknown painter, fresco, end of the 15th century, church of Santa Maria Annunciata, Bienno (BS), Italy
  • Statue of Simon of Trent on the facade of a palace in Trento (situated in "Via del Simonino")
    Statue of Simon of Trent on the facade of a palace in Trento (situated in "Via del Simonino")
  • Martyrdom of Simon of Trent above a Judensau.
    Martyrdom of Simon of Trent above a Judensau.
  • Martyrdom of Simon of Trent above a Judensau.
    Martyrdom of Simon of Trent above a Judensau.

See also

References

  1. ^ (Hsia 1992, p. 14-15)
  2. ^ (Hsia 1992, p. 25)
  3. ^ (Hsia 1992, p. 26-27)
  4. ^ (Hsia 1992, p. 94)
  5. ^ (Hsia 1992, p. 95–104)
  6. ^ (Hsia 1992, p. 128–129)
  7. ^ Giovanni Battista Giudici, O.P.
  8. ^  Joseph Jacobs; Aaron Tänzer (1901–1906). "Simon (Simedl, Simoncino) of Trent". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
  9. ^ (Hsia 1992, p. 127)
  10. ^ "GIUDICI, Battista dei" - di Diego Quaglioni - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 56 (2001) (in Italian)
  11. ^ Hannah Johnson, Blood Libel: The Ritual Murder Accusation at the Limit of Jewish History, University of Michigan Press, 2012. pp. 132ff. – via Google Books.
  12. ^ Lisa Palmieri-Billig (7 February 2007). "Historian gives credence to blood libel". The Jerusalem Post.
  13. ^ Adi Schwartz (24 February 2008). "Bar-Ilan Scholar Recants Controversial Blood Libel Theory". Haaretz.
  14. ^ Paul Oskar Kristeller, "The Alleged Ritual Murder of Simon of Trent (1475) and Its Literary Repercussions: A Bibliographical Study ", in: Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research, Vol. 59 (1993), pp. 103-135. JSTOR 3622714
  15. ^  Gotthard Deutsch; Joseph Jacobs (1901–1906). "Popes, The". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
  16. ^ a b c Kohl, Jeanette (2018). Gail Feigenbaum (ed.). "A Murder, a Mummy, and a Bust: The Newly Discovered Portrait of Simon of Trent at the Getty". Getty Research Journal (10). Getty Research Institute: 37–60. doi:10.1086/697383. ISBN 978-1-60606-571-6 – via Google Books.
  17. ^ The Roman Martyrology, 24 March, "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 28 September 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  18. ^ Feigenbaum, Gail (2018-03-06). Getty Research Journal, No. 10. Getty Publications. ISBN 978-1-60606-571-6.
  19. ^  Joseph Jacobs; Isaac Broydé (1901–1906). "Clement XIV. (Lorenzo Ganganelli)". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
  20. ^ "Un Mémoire de Laurent Ganganelli sur la Calomnie du Meurtre Rituel". Revue des études juives (in French). Vol. XVIII. Ed. Peeters. January–March 1889. pp. 179 et seq – via Google Books.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  21. ^ Pope Benedict XIV, Apostolic Letter to Fr. Benedetto Veterani, Promoter of Faith, 22 February 1755, pp. 144-162, in Bullarium – via Google Books.
  22. ^ The Month. Vol. CXXIII. Longmans, Green, and Co. January–June 1914. p. 78 – via Google Books.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
  23. ^ Reich, Aron. "Italian artist accused of antisemitism for new painting of blood libel". Jerusalem Post. March 27, 2020.

Sources

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Simon of Trent.
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