The Curious Case of Ancona: “Levantines,” Accommodation, and the Exigencies of Papal Power in Adriatic Italy, 1532–15551

This article investigates the extent and limits of papal power to coerce non-Catholics’ conversion to Catholicism in the Papal States’ Adriatic port city of Ancona. With a long history as a crossroads of Mediterranean religions and cultures, Ancona hosted a substantial population of non-Catholic mer...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Sixteenth century journal Vol. 55; no. 1-2; pp. 93 - 111
Main Author Lacopo, Frank
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Chicago University of Chicago Press 01.04.2024
Subjects
16th century
Catholicism
Julius III (Pope) (1487-1555)
Paul III (Pope) (1468-1549)
Popes
Power
Religious conversion
Italy
Ancona Italy
Adriatic Sea
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Summary:This article investigates the extent and limits of papal power to coerce non-Catholics’ conversion to Catholicism in the Papal States’ Adriatic port city of Ancona. With a long history as a crossroads of Mediterranean religions and cultures, Ancona hosted a substantial population of non-Catholic merchants into the sixteenth century. Since commercial diasporas were crucial to the financial success of the Papal States, Popes Paul III (1534–49) and Julius III (1550–55) took an accommodating approach to religious nonconformity in Ancona. Ancona’s lay elite, on the other hand, sponsored proselytization without papal support immediately after the first sessions of the Council of Trent, showing the extent to which local confessional impulses could diverge from papal agendas in the Papal States. Owing to multiple economic, political, and geographical contingencies, Ancona was both a nexus of commercial activity and a periphery of papal power.
ISSN:0361-0160
2326-0726
DOI:10.1086/731069