An Italian merchant called Giannotto and a Jewish merchant called...
Anatoly Karlin 🧲💯@akarlin
52 views
May 06, 2024
~1 min read
Advertisement
1
An Italian merchant called Giannotto and a Jewish merchant called Abraham are good friends in medieval Italy. However, Giannotto is deeply concerned that Abraham risks eternal hellfire by not converting to Christianity, and keeps beseeching him to consider conversion.
Abraham decides to go to Rome to observe the life of the clergy and see for himself if Christianity is worthy of his devotion. Giannotto, aware of their dissolute and corrupt ways, urges him not to, aware that any prospects of conversion would go out of the window should Abraham travel to Rome. However, the Jew insists, and leaves for Rome. Giannotto resigns himself to defeat.
After a few months, Abraham returns and declares his wish to convert to Christianity to a slack-jawed Giannotto. "How come?" asks Giannotto, "Were you not put off by the venal and dissolute ways of the clergy?" Abraham replies that not only were the Christian clergy gluttons and sellers of indulgences, but also pederasts and homosexuals ("sinning not only in the way of nature but after the manner of the men of Sodom"). Nonetheless, for all the degeneracy of the representatives of Christ on Earth, the Christian faith continues to spread and ascend, despite the best efforts of its own champions in cassocks. Consequently, Christianity must truly be the one true faith. And so Abraham was baptized, and became Jean.
And yes, I'm enjoying The Decameron, and somewhat surprised by just how ribald and anti-clerical it is. Impressive, considering it was written 150 years before the Reformation. There's genuine hatred of and mockery of the clergy. And surprisingly philo-Semitic, while espousing stereotypes about Jews that must have already been true - richer, smarter, and far more humorously cynical than average (above story could have been an Odessa anecdote).
Abraham decides to go to Rome to observe the life of the clergy and see for himself if Christianity is worthy of his devotion. Giannotto, aware of their dissolute and corrupt ways, urges him not to, aware that any prospects of conversion would go out of the window should Abraham travel to Rome. However, the Jew insists, and leaves for Rome. Giannotto resigns himself to defeat.
After a few months, Abraham returns and declares his wish to convert to Christianity to a slack-jawed Giannotto. "How come?" asks Giannotto, "Were you not put off by the venal and dissolute ways of the clergy?" Abraham replies that not only were the Christian clergy gluttons and sellers of indulgences, but also pederasts and homosexuals ("sinning not only in the way of nature but after the manner of the men of Sodom"). Nonetheless, for all the degeneracy of the representatives of Christ on Earth, the Christian faith continues to spread and ascend, despite the best efforts of its own champions in cassocks. Consequently, Christianity must truly be the one true faith. And so Abraham was baptized, and became Jean.
And yes, I'm enjoying The Decameron, and somewhat surprised by just how ribald and anti-clerical it is. Impressive, considering it was written 150 years before the Reformation. There's genuine hatred of and mockery of the clergy. And surprisingly philo-Semitic, while espousing stereotypes about Jews that must have already been true - richer, smarter, and far more humorously cynical than average (above story could have been an Odessa anecdote).
