ABSTRACT
To compensate for the papacy's insufficient fanaticism, Abner of Burgos advised that nothing less than massacre of the Jewish communities would be required for their salvation. The desirability of converting the Jews was never an issue for the papacy, although what means could lawfully be employed to convince the stiff-necked Jews of their error remained a burning issue. In 1543, the papacy granted to the Jesuits, a new order at the time established on the principle of unconditional obedience to the Pope, the right to operate two case di catecumeni. At a critical historical moment when Italian nationalists were stripping the Pope of his temporal power and possessions, the Papacy was reasserting its absolute control over the spiritual realm. When Rome fell to Italian nationalists in 1870, the papacy's temporal power was drastically reduced by the secular Italian government at home in its new capital of Rome.
