ABSTRACT
The dramatic religious and political upheavals that swept through Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries changed this part of the world. It saw a major exodus of Jews from Western Europe to the Balkans and Eastern Europe. The status of Jews in post-Napoleonic Italy varied from kingdom to kingdom. This was particularly true in the Papal States, where restrictions on Jews were considered an integral part of Roman Catholic teaching. The Industrial Revolution and the rise of modern capitalism had triggered dramatic social and economic changes throughout Europe. The age-old stereotypes and hatreds that had haunted Jews for centuries found new life in a racist ideology that blended historic anti-Jewish and anti-Judaic feelings with questions about the threat of Jews to the greater racial health of Europe. Anti-Semitism, a phrase coined by the German writer Wilhelm Marr in 1879, differed from traditional Christian anti-Jewish prejudice, which viewed Jews in a religious context.
