Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara, The
David I. Kertzer
Number of quotes: 27
Book ID: 239 Page: 4
Section: 3A2A,2A1
Pietro Lucidi, marshal in the papal carabinieri and head of the police detail, entered, with Brigadier Giuseppe Agostini, in civilian clothes, following him in. The sight of the military police of the Papal States coming inexplicably in the night filled Marianna with dread.....
“Your son Edgardo has been baptized,” Lucidi responded, “and I have been ordered to take him with me.”
Quote ID: 5992
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 6
Section: 3A2A,2A1
At 11 p.m., they presented themselves at the forbidding gate of San Domenico and asked to be taken to the Inquisitor. Despite the hour, they were rushed up to the Inquisitor’s room. They implored Father Feletti to tell them why he had ordered the police to take Edgardo. Responding in measured tones, and hoping to calm them, the Inquisitor explained that Edgardo had been secretly baptized, although by whom, or how he came to know of it, he would not say. Once word of the baptism had reached the proper authorities, they had given him the instructions that he was now carrying: the boy was a Catholic and could not be raised in a Jewish household.. . . .
The men begged him to reveal his grounds for thinking that the child had been baptized, for no one in the family knew anything about it. The Inquisitor replied that he could give no such explanation, the matter being confidential, but that they should rest assured that everything had been done properly. It would be best for all concerned, he added, if the members of the family would simply resign themselves to what was to come. “Far from acting lightly in this matter,” he told them, “I have acted in good conscience, for everything has been done punctiliously according to the sacred Canons.”
Quote ID: 5994
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 11
Section: 3A2A,2A1
Momolo had one last hope: the Inquisitor. Only he could call a halt to the looming disaster. Accompanied by Marianna’s brother Angelo, Mortara set out for San Domenico.At five o’clock, the two men arrived at the convent and were ushered into the Inquisitor’s rooms. Momolo, in a loud but unsteady voice, declared that there had surely been some mistake about the supposed baptism of his son, and asked Father Feletti to tell him what grounds he had for thinking that the child had been baptized. The Inquisitor would not respond directly. The rules of the Holy Tribunal had been scrupulously followed, he said, and there was no point in asking for any further explanation. When Momolo begged for another delay, Father Feletti told him it would serve no purpose.
Momolo should not worry, the Inquisitor said, for his son would be treated well; indeed, little Edgardo would be under the protection of the Pope himself. He suggested that Momolo prepare some clothes for the boy; he would send someone to pick them up. Having a nasty scene when the police took Edgardo away, the Inquisitor warned, would benefit no one.
When Momolo returned home, he realized that time had run out on him.
Quote ID: 5995
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 74
Section: 3A2A
Edgardo’s new Father, Pius IX, may well be the most important pope in modern history. The fact that his reign, from 1846 to 1878, was the longest of any pope since Peter himself was merely a demographic achievement, a product of his relative youth at ascension to office and his longevity.
Quote ID: 5996
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 83
Section: 3A2A,2A1
As Pius IX saw it, he had been a great friend to the Jews.The chain of events that led the boy to Rome’s Catechumens began when Father Feletti, Bologna’s Inquisitor, heard reports that a Christian servant had secretly baptized a Jewish child in the city. Following well-worn Inquisition procedures, Feletti had written, on October 26, 1857, to the Commissioner of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Rome, Cardinal De Ferrari, for permission to proceed with an inquiry. On November 9, the Cardinal replied, in a letter reporting the results of the session of the Holy Office at which the case was discussed:
“Your letter of 26 October, relative to the baptism conferred on the young Hebrew boy, has been taken into consideration today and your suggestion to proceed with prudence has been approved."
Quote ID: 5997
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 86/87
Section: 3A2A
Napoleon III, repulsed by the anachronistic character of papal government, had unsuccessfully tried to persuade the Pope to modernize his state. News of the seizure of the Jewish child from Bologna, and of the boy’s captivity in Rome, enraged him. It was especially galling because the Pope’s ability to hold the child in Rome depended on the protection offered by French soldiers.In the view of Roger Aubert, it was the Mortara affair that drove the Emperor over the brink, turning him against the pontifical state.
Quote ID: 5998
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 93
Section: 3A2A,2A1
At the center of the story was the servant Anna Morisi. She was the only witness to the baptism. It was on the basis of her account alone that Father Felitti had ordered Edgardo seized.. . . .
A key figure in Morisi’s story was Cesare Lepori, the neighborhood grocer. It was he, she said, who had first suggested that she baptize the sick child and who had then told her how to do it.
Quote ID: 5999
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 93
Section: 3A2A,2A1
When Momolo returned from Rome, he decided to confront Cesare Lepori. It must have been hard for Momolo to control his emotions when he entered the Lepori store, for at the time he too believed that the young grocer was responsible for the tragedy that had befallen him.. . . .
The best account we have of what followed comes from an unexpected source: a retired judge, a Catholic, Carlo Maggi, who lived in the neighborhood. On October 6, Maggi appeared before a Bologna notary who had been hired by Momolo to transcribe and certify his account.
Quote ID: 6000
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 94
Section: 3A2A,2A1
The grocer went on to add, Maggi recounted, that he was hardly in a position to teach the girl how to baptize someone, as he was not sure how to do it himself.
Quote ID: 6001
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 95
Section: 3A2A,2A1
The retired judge ended his account by saying that as he left the grocer behind, he realized that his earlier skepticism was unjustified; Lepori was telling the truth. {5}
Quote ID: 6002
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 95
Section: 3A2A,2A1
But the attack on the young woman’s credibility went well beyond this assault. She was portrayed not only as a liar but as a slut and a thief as well.
Quote ID: 6003
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 95
Section: 3A2A,2A1
Momolo and Marianna themselves knew something about the subject, for after Anna had worked for them for three years, in early 1855, they discovered that she was pregnant.
Quote ID: 6004
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 96
Section: 3A2A,2A1
Rather than simply firing her, as many other employees would have done, Momolo and Marianna arranged to have Anna sent to a midwife’s home for the last four months of her pregnancy. They paid all the expenses for her lodging and the delivery itself. To protect her reputation—and their own, since they had promised to take her back once the baby was born and delivered to the foundling home—they told neighbors and friends that the girl had become ill and had returned to her parents to recuperate.
Quote ID: 6005
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: ix
Section: 2C,3A2A,2A1
Where else, indeed, could rule by divine right be so well entrenched, so well justified ideologically, so spectacularly elaborated ritually? The Pope had been a worldly prince, a ruler of his subjects, for many centuries, and the contours of his domain in 1858-- ….
Quote ID: 5991
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 109
Section: 3A2A,2A1
Four months after tearfully bidding Edgardo good-bye at their home in Bologna, Marianna finally got to hold her child in her arms again. On Friday, October 22, she and Momolo were ushered into a room in Rome’s Catechumens where their son nervously awaited them.
Quote ID: 6006
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 112
Section: 3A2A,2A1
The priests, talking loudly enough to be heard across the room, spoke of the airtight arguments being prepared by the Church authorities as the basis for what would be the Pope’s final refusal of the request to let Edgardo return home. A dramatic encounter followed, as described in the Universit` Israelitica account:The poor parents begged the two speakers not to poison their conversation with such words, but rather than go along with this reasonable request, the two clerics exclaimed that it would be contrary to their duty, which was to exhort the parents to follow their child in his new faith. It was only by embracing Christianity that they would be permitted to see their son; if they converted, they would be treated with the greatest respect.
Quote ID: 6007
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 112
Section: 3A2A,2A1
As his parents were leaving, Edgardo threw himself in his mother’s arms. The effect of the scene—the priests and sisters on their knees, begging Jesus to show them the light—was to redouble the tears, the kisses, and the sighs, while the poor mother pressed the boy to her breast until finally the Rector came to tear the boy away, saying, “That’s enough.”
Quote ID: 6008
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 127/128
Section: 3A2A,2A1
Catholic defenders of the Church published their own version of events, echoing the Catholic press in Europe. One pamphlet, published in New York in November 1858 under the pseudonym of “Fair Play,” typical of these broadsides, branded the “alleged Mortara kidnapping case” a “windfall to the enemies of God’s Church.” Blaming the child’s baptism on Momolo Mortara for breaking the Papal States’ law that prohibited Jews from having Christian servants, it argued that no one, not even a pope, could “unbaptize a Christian child.”
Quote ID: 6009
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 128
Section: 3A2A,2A1
And Fair Play concluded, grandiosely, “The Holy Father’s protection of the child, in the face of all the ferocious fanaticism of infidelity and bigotry, is the grandest moral spectacle which the world has seen for ages.”{18}
Quote ID: 6010
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 206
Section: 3A2A,2A1
Asked if she knew why they had called her [PJ: Anna Morisi] in, she replied: “I guess it’s because of the boy of my old employers, the Mortaras, Jews who live in Bologna, who I baptized, and who because of that was taken from his family by order of the Inquisitor, Father Feletti. I assume that’s the reason because I heard that this monk was recently put in jail.”
Quote ID: 6012
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 206
Section: 3A2A,2A1
Hearing the story, Anna recollected, “Lepori suggested that I baptize him, so that when he died he would go to heaven. But I told him I didn’t know how to baptize someone. I was only 14 or 15 years old, and didn’t have much education about Christianity, since I was raised so roughly.” The grocer, she said, assured her it was easy. All you had to do was say” ‘I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,’ take some water from a well, and sprinkle a few drops on the boy’s head.”When I got back to the house, I saw that the parents were watching over their sick son, so I had to wait for about an hour. They finally left the room, which was the living room, and went to their bedroom; I don’t know why. I quickly drew a little water from the well, went over to the boy’s crib, and repeated the words that I’d been taught, with the fixed idea of sending a soul to heaven. I put the fingers of my right hand in the glass of water, sprinkled a few drops on the boy’s head, and in a moment it was all done, without anyone noticing.
Quote ID: 6013
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 208
Section: 3A2A,2A1
“There were only the two of us, so I couldn’t give you any proof.”“And what did the Inquisitor say about what you had done? Did he praise you or blame you?”
“He told me that if I understood correctly that he was in bad shape, I acted excellently in baptizing the boy, because that way, if he died, he’d go to heaven.”
Quote ID: 6014
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 256
Section: 3A2A,2A1
By the time the Pope, with Edgardo at his side, met with the delegates of Rome’s Jewish community in early 1861, most of Italy had been united under the Savoyard king’s rule.
Quote ID: 6015
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 260
Section: 3A2A,2A1
By this time, Edgardo had already spent half of his life in the Church. Memories of his parents were getting hazy, for he had not seen or heard from them since their last visit to the Catechumens in 1858.By the time he was thirteen, Edgardo had decided to devote his life to the Church, and he became a novice in the order of the Canons Regular of the Lateran, on his way to becoming a friar himself. He took the name of Pio, honoring his new father and protector, Pius IX.
Quote ID: 6016
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 260
Section: 3A2A,2A1
Shortly thereafter, in 1867, the Pontiff sent the boy a message that shows, almost a decade after Pius IX’s first defense of the decision to hold on to Edgardo, the Pope’s unchanged view that he had done God’s will, and that for doing so he had suffered grievously. He wrote:"You are very dear to me, my little son, for I acquired you for Jesus Christ at a high price. So it is. I paid dearly for your ransom.
. . . .
People lamented the harm done to your parents because you were regenerated by the grace of holy baptism and brought up according to God’s wishes. And in the meantime no one showed any concern for me, father of all the faithful."{16}
Quote ID: 6017
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 295
Section: 3A2A,2A1
According to Edgardo, the Pope also established a lifetime trust fund of seven thousand lire to ensure his support.{1}Known as a scholarly man—reputed to preach in six languages, including the notoriously difficult language of the Basques, and to read three others, Hebrew among them—Father Mortara dedicated his life to spreading the faith, singing the praises of the Lord Jesus Christ, and traveling throughout Europe, going where he was most needed. As a preacher, he was in great demand, not least because of the inspirational way he was able to weave the remarkable story of his own childhood into his sermons. As he recounted it, his saga was the stuff of faith and hope: a story of how God chose a simple, illiterate servant girl to invest a small child with the miraculous powers of divine grace, and in so doing rescued him from his Jewish family—good people but, as Jews, on a God-forsaken path.
Quote ID: 6018
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 239 Page: 298
Section: 3A2A,2A1
On March 11, 1940, the 88-year-old monk died at the Belgian abbey in which he had lived for many years. Two months later, German soldiers flooded into Belgium, soon to begin round up all those tainted with Jewish blood.
Quote ID: 6019
Time Periods: 7
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