History of Trento (II)

In the 14^th century Trento became part of the Austrian rule, under the domain of the Habsburg family. This political status will continue for the following six centuries. 

A dark episode in the history of Trento was the Trent blood libel. A three-year-old Christian boy, Simonino, disappeared in the eve of Good Friday, and the Jewish small community of Trento was accused of killing him, for which eight Jews were burned in a stake and the boy was canonized. 

In the 16^th century the city became notable for the Council of Trent (1545-1563) which gave to the rise to the Counter-Reformation. The prince bishops Bernardo Clesio and Cristoforo Madruzzo, both great European politicians and Renaissance humanists, embellished and expanded the city. During this period, and as an expression of this Humanism, Trento was also known as the site of a Jewish printing press. 

Prince-bishops ruled Trento until the Napoleonic era, when it bounced around among various states. Under the reorganization of the Holy Roman Empire in 1802, the Bishopric was secularized and annexed to the Habsburg territories. The Treaty of Pressburg in 1805 ceded Trent to Bavaria, and the Treaty of Schönbrunn for years later to Napoleon's Kingdom of Italy. The population resisted French domination with gunfights. The resistance leader, Andreas Hofer, recovered Trento for the Austrias for a while, but 4000 volunteers from Trentino died and Hofer was executed on the express order of Napoleon.