The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

340
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
August 15th. 1 Venice, too, thought of banishing the Jews
in 1569, on account of their felonious relations with the
Turks. 2
Notwithstanding all these strict ordinances, Pius V. had a
certain feeling of kindhness for this unhappy people ; above
all, he sought as far as possible to win them to Christianity,
nor, as he himself says, were his efforts altogether unsuccessful.
Many Jews and Jewesses were baptized ;
whenever any of the
more eminent among the Roman Jews showed themselves
ready for conversion, the Pope performed the sacred rite
with his own hands, and in this way many were led to follow
their example. At the end of November, 1566, the house of
catechumens, built by Paul III., was almost quite full, and
about the same time, the convent of the Annunziata, where
recently-converted Jewish girls could take the veil, was found
to be too small for the numbers that entered, so that the
convent had to be transferred to a larger house. ^ Pius V.
also furnished revenues for the catechumenate, which he
placed under the spiritual care of the Jesuits.* He soon gave
up his idea of purchasing a special palace for the use of the
converted Jews,^ and later on he thought it better not to have
1 Brief to Cardinal Armagnac on May 4, 1569, in Laderchi'
1569, n. 190. According to the *Avviso of July 26, 1570 (Urb.
1040, p. 312, Vatican Library) the Jews at Avignon vainly offered
large sums of money to the Pope to be allowed to remain. Accord-
ing to Charpenne, Avignon, II., 453, the Jews of that place
nevertheless succeeded in remaining.
" Laderchi, 1569, n. 78.
^ Bull of November 29, 1566, Bull. Rom., VII., 489.
* Laderchi, 1566, n. 109. Sacchini P. III., i, 2, n. 70. The
Jesuits very soon gave up the house of catechumens.
5 Negotiations were made for the palace of the former abbre-
viator, Chirinotto, " che e sotto la Trinita " (*Avviso di Roma of
August 31, 1566, Urb. 1040, p. 278b, Vatican Library). Pius V.
abandoned the plan because he feared to be cheated in the price
{*ibid. 301, October 12). A *" Bulla pro domo catechumenorum
Urbis," of August 28, 1568, is in the Archives of Briefs, Rome.
According to the *report' of Strozzi on January 18, 1567, the
Pope gave the catechumens 10,000 scudi (State Archives, Vienna).