428 david d’andrea
propaganda. Jews were accused of violating social charity and weakening
the Christian community. in the middle of the 15th century, an obser-
vant franciscan movement sought to replace Jewish usurers with public
nonprofit pawn banks, called Monti di Pietà. the franciscans hoped that
low-interest loans from Christian public institutions would eliminate the
need for private Jewish moneylenders. after the first Monte di Pietà was
established in Perugia in 1462, the institutions quickly spread throughout
italy.24 the creation of Christian institutions that loaned money at inter-
est, albeit not for profit, produced heated debate among theologians and
communities. the Venetian debate provides a key insight into the admin-
istration of Venetian charity.
as the result of warfare on the Venetian mainland, in 1516 Jews were
allowed to settle in Venice. their presence in the city was tolerated for
their service to the poor as moneylenders, yet they were carefully super-
vised and restricted in their movement.25 When the issue arose as to
whether the contract with the Jews should be renewed, a bitter debate
erupted that lasted for months. although all Venetian nobles considered
the Jews a potential threat to the state, one faction considered them a
necessary evil while the other considered them an intolerable affront to
God. the two groups were united, however, in believing that only pious
actions would merit divine favor and that unChristian actions would bring
down divine wrath. the debate between the factions revolved around the
central issue of religion and the poor.
the faction that wanted to expel the Jews from Venice focused on the
divine rewards that would flow from this pious action, as it had to other
states. Basing their arguments on canon and divine law, its adherents
insisted that toleration of Jewish usury would bring ruin to Venice in the
form of divine wrath. in June 1519 antonio Balbi argued that it would be
better to expel the Jews “from the whole world and God would make this
republic prosper. the King of Portugal expelled the Jews and was rewarded
24 for the most recent overview, see ariel toaff, “Jews, franciscans, and the first Monti
di Pietà in italy (1462–1500),” in McMichael and Myers, eds., Friars and Jews in the Middle
Ages, pp. 239–53.
25 for Monti and Jews in Venice and the Veneto, see Pullan, Rich and Poor, pp. 429–509;
robert finlay, “the foundation of the Ghetto: Venice, the Jews, and the War of the League
of Cambrai,” Proceedings of the American Philological Society 126 (1982), 140–54; elisabeth
Crouzet-Pavan, “Venice between Jerusalem, Byzantium, and divine retribution: the ori-
gins of the Ghetto,” in alisa Meyuhas Ginio, ed., Jews, Christians, and Muslims in the Medi-
terranean World after 1492 (London, 1992), pp. 163–79; robert C. davis and Benjamin ravid,
eds., The Jews of Early Modern Venice (Baltimore, 2001); and Benjamin ravid, Studies on the
Jews of Venice, 1382–1797 (aldershot, 2003).