In the Book and Literary World

The Pope from the Ghetto. The Legend of the family of Pier Leone. By Gertrud von Le Fort. Translated from the German by Conrad M. R. Bonacina. 330 pp. New York: Sheed & Ward. $2.50.

Rome the Golden, Rome the Eternal! Once more a novelist has attempted to capture some small fragment of the spirit of the historic city, this time in the twelfth century. In the middle of the city lay the ghost-like and awesome forum of the Romans. The inhabited portion was dominated by the great feudal families, the Frangipani, the Tusculan counts and others. They lived with small armies of retainers in their private fortresses, and made the streets of Rome a constant battle-ground. The Christian populace was unruly and fickle, and gave its allegiance to the family that made the boldest show of arms and passed out the most free bread. The nobles, greedy, stupid, troublesome barbarians from the North, “protected” a cowering, corrupt Papacy from each other—which in point of fact meant domination of the power and revenue of the Pope.

And last of all there was the great Roman colony of Jews. At this time there existed an official Catholic tradition of the inviolability of Israel; but this failed to mitigate the superstitions of the people and shrewdness of the nobles, who sanctioned pogroms after every disaster, natural or political. For were not earthquakes and bad luck in battle the work of the Jewish magicians?

After one of these pogroms an old and rich Jew, beaten and bloody, stumbled by accident into ###ligious procession and claimed the protection of the Pope, Leo IX. It was granted, and Chanoch ben Ezra remembered. Leo IX was the first of a brief line of idealistic, reforming Popes. Some years later the nobles of the city were up in arms and threatening to drive him out of Rome for forbidding the simoniac traffic in ecclesiastical offices. With the support of the populace the Pope might well have subdued the nobles, but they had distributed money to the people, while his pockets were empty.

And then Chanoch ben Ezra appeared and placed his fortune at the command of the Pope. The power of the nobles was destroyed, and an alliance between this Jewish family and the Papacy cemented. Baruch Leonis continued the policy of his father, Chanoch, and furthermore bought the allegiance of the most powerful noble, Johannes Frangipane, so that it became a saying that no Pope could fall when supported by the purse of Leonis and the sword of Frangipane.

Petrus Leonis was the son of Baruch. On the day that Petrus was baptized his wife Miriam rent her marriage veils, poured ashes on her head, and returned to the house of her father, Rabbi Nathan ### Jechiel. When, later, she lay ###bor, the riders of Petrus Leonis camped in her house, waiting to seize her offspring. In time Miriam gave birth to a boy, and he was taken away. With a mighty effort and great agony Miriam held back the twin of the boy for forty-eight hours, for a vision had told her that the twin should redeem her first-born for Israel. And wherever there lived Jews, this became known as the martyrdom of Miriam.

The son of Petrus and Miriam, Pier Leone, became known throughout the world for his learning and wisdom. In time he was made a cardinal, and the fortunes ### the house of Leonis mounted ###.

### as the power of the Leonis ###ted, so too did the dedication ### Miriam and her daughter, ###aea, to a single purpose. The ### grew. Jews from all over ###orld came to visit the house of Rabbi Nathan, to visit the blind girl who was destined to accomplish the will of the God of Israel.

At last there came a day when both the Pope Honorius and Petrus Leonis lay dying. Cardinal Pier Leone had been prominently mentioned as the next Pope, but the Frangipani were determined not to have him proteting his Jewish blood. The dignitaries of the city were assembled at the bed side of Petrus. Pier Leone kneeled at his father’s side. And then, in his last delirium, Petrus raised raised himself up and called for his wife, Miriam. But to him came instead his daughter, Trophaea. And at the sight of her Petrus uttered a great cry. “My people Israel, My people Israel,” echoed over the shocked and silent nobles through the vast halls of the Leonis castle and over the city. The martyrdom of Miriam had not been in vain.

The whole of Jewry, and Pier Leone too, paid bitterly for this return of Petrus Leonis to the religion of his fathers. Although Pier was eventually elected Pope after hardening his heart against the words of his father, the Italian cardinals withdrew from the conclave and elected a schismatical Pope, which began the great schism of the West. And in Rome itself the Jews suffered greatly because of their brother from the ghetto who occupied the Papal throne.

Although Catherine von Le Fort is reputedly a devout Catholic, her novel is wholely sympathetic to the Jews. It is a story of great loftiness and surpassing beauty; I know of few passages more sublime than the one in which the great cry of “My people Israel” comes to the lips of Petrus Leonis.

One will be at first puzzled and deterred by the strange form of the narrative; and then gradually one will realize that the author has by some potent magic achieved the atmosphere of the mediaeval chronicle. Alternately the writer is represented as an ecclesiastical historian, a city scribe, a commoner of the streets or a recorder of Jewish tradition; often he is but a voice from a massed chorus of suffering humanity. It is this impersonal but intensely human voice which, like a Greek chorus, lends dignity and even sublimity to both the crimes and the good deeds of the actors who drift across the historical stage. For it conveys to the reader the sense that the least act of man is seen and recorded.