Attraverso la schiavitù. Un’ipotesi di lettura del modello romano di gestione dell’alterità religiosa tra Cinque e Seicento

Through slavery. A possible reading of the Roman model for religious alterity between the sixteenth and seventeenth-centuries. The essay reflects on the evolution of the Roman attitude toward Mediterranean slavery in the Early Modern period. It especially stresses the conversion of Muslim slaves in Rome. The famous motu proprio by Pope Pius V that ensured freedom to any baptised slave to be able to come to the Capitoline Hill in Rome is the focus of the article. Why did the pope order to give freedom to those slaves acting against both Catholic tradition and established customs? The article argues that the political and theological scenario in the background could offer an explanation. It is important to observe the complexity of the management of alterity in the Papal States and abroad. Slaves, embodied a diversity in a legal perspective; any slave could bring together multiple identities in his inner and mysterious true consciousness. Slaves could come from all over the world and they could be officially Muslims, Jews, Eastern Christians, heretics and Catholics. In addition, everyone could choose to convert or tell a fake narrative about his real origins. To evaluate these stories was one of the central aspects of the management of slavery which was behind the follow different practices in Rome and beyond.