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red & gilt decorative cloth hardbound 8vo. 8º (octavo). dustwrapper in protective plastic book jacket cover. near fine cond. binding square & tight. covers clean with some fading to rear cover. edges clean. faint erasure spot on front flyleaf, otherwise contents free of all markings, except for author s signature. dustwrapper in near fine cond. chipped at spine top, 1cm tear on rear, not price clipped. SIGNED on the 2nd front flyleaf by Joachim Prinz (his signature is also in gilt facsimile on the cover so you can compare them). nice clean copy. no library markings, store stamps, stickers, bookplates, no names, inking , underlining, remainder markings etc ~first edition. first printing (nap). deckled foredge (looks "hand cut"). 256p. 6 b&w illustrations. genealogy of the Pierleoni Popes. notes. bibliography. world history. history of the papacy. jewish history. biography. religion. history of christianity. italian history. ~ Popes from the Ghetto is the true story of the three Jewish Popes who ruled the Catholic Church during the Middle Ages. It is also an eye~opening and controversial view of medieval Christendom, and the alienation of the Church from its Jewish roots. This fascinating study culminates thirty years of research and writing by Dr. Joachim Prinz, the distinguished president of the American Jewish Congress. Bitterly attacked as "that Jew on the throne of Peter," Pope Anaclet II (1130~38) was still a Jew to his contemporaries even though his family had converted to Catholicism three generations before. As Dr. Prinz points out, this has been almost entirely forgotten in succeeding centuries. A student of Abelard and one of the most enlightened Pontiffs of the Middle Ages, Anaclet was a member of the Pierleoni, the so~called "Rothschilds of the Middle Ages," an enormously powerful banking family who dominated much of medieval Rome from their strongholds in the city's ancient Ghetto. He ascended the throne during the great medieval battle between the forces of reason and the militant advocates of unquestioning faith. Now new research has uncovered astonishing new evidence that two other Popes were also relatives of the Pierleoni. One is Gregory VI (1045~46), the first of the medieval Reform Popes, who, only fifteen years after the conversion of the Jewish Pierleoni, was seated on the Papal throne. He had frankly and openly bought the Papacy, and was deposed two years later. But his disciple and close relative, Hildebrand, succeeded to the throne as Gregory VII in 1073~85. This "Jewish" Pope became the most brilliant advocate of Papal supremacy in the history of the Holy See, and was later made a saint. Of particular interest and value to the general reader in this new day of ecumenical ferment and continued progress, will be Dr. Prinz's colorful, careful delineation of historical background. With clarity and immediacy rare among religious chroniclers, he traces the story of Judaeo~Christian relations back to Christ's ministry among his fellow Jews. He proceeds to the early growth of Christianity (at first only in Jewish communities on the Mediterranean) and follows its development from the Jew, Peter (the first Bishop of Rome), through the conversion of Constantine (who banned Passover as a Christian holiday), on to the growth of monasticism (developing from Jewish asceticism). In addition, much of the book is devoted to the great triumphs and horrors which punctuated the history of the Jews under medieval Christian rule ~the power and affluence of Jewish traders and moneyers~the violent anti~Semitic purges~the enormous contribution of Jews to the cultural and intellectual life of the period. The tower pictured on the jacket is one of the few Pierleoni possessions still extant. Known today as "The Tower of Countess Matilda," it stands at the end of what was once called "The Jew's Bridge," at the entrance to the Trastevere, Rome's medieval Ghetto.
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