Quo Primum

Mykayla Jackson
Mr. Simonini
AP European
27 May 2013
On Jews and Christians Living in the Same Place * * A Quo Primum is an encyclical of Pope Benedict XIV, issued by Pope St. Pius V. This proclamation took place in the 18th century, when religious tolerance seemed to be at a low. In this proclamation, people debate the idea of how the Christians and Jews in Poland are living together. They state arguments, pros and cons. Since the earliest of times, people often disagreed with Christians being over powered. When they were put up against major powers, stirs began to happen within the society. St. Pius V in A Quo Primum gives clear details as to why these situations are wrong in a society. * First, when examining the document, you get a sense of the time frame Pope Benedict XIV is speaking from. It gives you the idea of how the jobs were distributed, the leadership roles, households and government. It gave you two sides, how these things should be, and how the Jews “corrupted” them. People of the towns of Poland often had certain Christian households, family and servants along with their churches, but when the Jews entered they messed up this orderly system. The author made it seem as though the Jews caused a somewhat major downfall. In a sense, these details could come off with the idea that the Pope clearly favored the Christians. Could it have been his religion? Maybe he hated the idea of his people being corrupted by something that might take away his church. So, it does contain bias thoughts. * Within this document, the Pope often makes references to his predecessors. His elders often had the same idea as him, maybe not as strong, but they had the same message or point. They all believed that the Christians should not intermingle with the Jews, whether in Poland or not. It came off that they all held the same fear: the Christians could easily me overthrown. All of the people made good notes towards the bishops and leaders within that area; they just understood that often other religions outweighed Christians in that county. But everyone mentioned in this document often had the same dislike towards the Jews, his or her control, power, and leaders. In all sections though, Jews seemed to be viewed as evil and the source to all problems. * Obviously, Pope St. Pius V intended for the church officials to hear this. He wanted all people to adhere to his preaching’s, giving kindness, to an extent, to the Jews within Europe and, mostly, Poland. He makes it seem as though he plans to give all people a chance, wishing for their not to be a problem. The Jews should simply accept that the Christians are at a higher standpoint than them, giving them most of the power and better roles in the society. St. Pius wanted the Christians to be nice, but careful. In Poland, the Jews had already begun to take money supplies from the Christians, leaving the Christian monarchy to retire due to a loss of income and support. Also, in some areas, the Jews left the Christian farmers in poor shape, abusing them to a point that they could no longer receive a valuable income from their business. Jews could be perceived as cruel rulers. So someone could say that this document was a warning of what would come if the Christians didn’t take a stand in these areas of distress. * This document gives constant reminders of the situations of the religious tolerance levels within Europe during these times. It helps the reader identify how the religions often clashed. Jews were very obviously down graded or belittled. Every source within this document contains the idea that all religions were nice, but Christianity was the best. Christianity contained the smartest, most powerful and basically wonderful people in the world. * It seems as though in this document it was the beginning of the idea that Jews were terrible, much like in the holocaust. Jews were persecuted for fear of being overpowered, so weakness fuels this distruction. People were murdered because people felt uncomfortable with the fact that their authority was questioned. * Altogether, the people of this realm needed to learn that things will be okay if they gradually made it prominent that they were offended. Prosecution ends in revolt and people who take it all too seriously, making every go made with this sense of power. Revolution is never good for a society of scared people. People will always act as their leaders will. With this document, the leaders speak of how their subject should assert their authority, show whose boss. That’s not the answer. It still applies for today and our actions. No one should ever find an answer among what they know is not right. In the end, who wins? No one. Everyone loses when nothing is right. When no one wants to cooperate in an orderly manor and make situations okay through less destructive actions. * *