Table Of ContentConflict and
Religious Conversation
in Latin Christendom
CULTURAL ENCOUNTERS IN
LATE ANTIQUITY AND THE MIDDLE AGES
General Editor
Yitzhak Hen, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Editorial Board
Angelo di Berardino, Augustinianum–Instituto Patristico, Rome
Nora Berend, University of Cambridge
Leslie Brubaker, University of Birmingham
Christoph Cluse, Universität Trier
Rob Meens, Universiteit Utrecht
James Montgomery, University of Cambridge
Alan V. Murray, University of Leeds
Thomas F. X. Noble, University of Notre Dame
Miri Rubin, University of London
Previously published volumes in this series are listed at the back of the book.
Volume 17
Conflict and
Religious Conversation
in Latin Christendom
Studies in Honour of Ora Limor
Edited by
Israel Jacob Yuval and Ram Ben-Shalom
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Conflict and religious conversation in Latin Christendom : studies in honour of
Ora Limor. -- (Cultural encounters in late antiquity and the Middle Ages ; 17)
1. Christianity and other religions--Judaism.
2. Judaism--Relations--Christianity.
3. Church history--Middle Ages, 600-1500.
4. Intellectual life--Religious aspects--Christianity--History.
5. Intellectual life--Religious aspects--Judaism--History.
I. Series
II. Limor, Ora honouree.
III. Yuval, Israel Jacob editor.
IV. Ben-Shalom, Ram editor.
261.2'6'0902-dc23
ISBN-13: 9782503535142
© 2014, Brepols Publishers n.v., Turnhout, Belgium
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher.
D/2014/0095/52
ISBN: 978-2-503-53514-2
e-ISBN: 978-2-503-54322-2
Printed on acid-free paper
Contents
Illustrations vii
‘There is no Hatred in Polemics — And Liberty is Granted’
RAm Ben-SHALom and ISRAeL JACoB YuvAL 1
Jewish Romans, Christian Romans, and the Post-Roman West:
The Social Correlates of the contra Iudaeos Tradition
PAuLA FRedRIkSen 23
Ecclesia and synagoga: The Changing meanings of a Powerful Pairing
mIRI RuBIn 55
emicho of Flonheim and the Apocalyptic motif in the 1096 massacres:
Between Paul Alphandéry and Alphonse dupront
BenJAmIn Z. kedAR 87
‘Ante omnia, fratres carissimi, diligatur deus, deinde proximus’:
Herman/Judah’s Opusculum de conversione sua Re-examined
HARveY J. HAmeS 99
Semantics of mohammed and Islam in Joachim of Fiore
ALexAndeR PATSCHovSkY 115
vi Contents
martyrdom and Sexuality: The Case of an eleventh-Century Piyyut
for Hanukkah and its visual Interpretation in the Fifteenth Century
SARIT SHALev-eYnI 133
Polemic and Pluralism: The Jewish-Christian debate
in Solomon ibn verga’s Shevet Yehudah
JeRemY CoHen 167
Christians, Jews, and Hebrew Books in Fifteenth-Century Sicily:
Between dialogue and dispute
nAdIA ZeLdeS 191
The Foundation of Christianity in the Historical Perceptions
of medieval Jewry as expressed in the Anonymous
Various Elements on the Topic of Christian Faith
(London, BL, mS Addit. 27129, pp. 88b–92a)
RAm Ben-SHALom 221
From Polemics and Apologetics to Theology and Politics:
Alonso de Cartagena and the Conversos within the ‘mystical Body’
CLAude B. STuCZYnSkI 253
Between Calvinists and Jews in Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam
YoSeF kAPLAn 277
Index 305
Illustrations
Figure 1, p. 71. ‘Detail from Jacob van Maerlant’s vernacular rhymed bible’, Den
Haag, kB, MS 76E16, fol. 71r. Thirteenth century.
Figures 2 and 3, p. 76. Details of ‘Mirror of Salvation’ (Heilsspiegelaltar),
altarpiece by Conrad Witz, ‘Ecclesia and synagoga’, Basel, kunstmuseum.
c. 1435.
Figure 4, p. 78. ‘Dedication image’, Speculum humanae salvationis (Mirror of
Human Salvation), Glasgow, University Library, MS Hunter 60, fol. 1r.
c. 1455.
Figure 5, p. 135. ‘Liturgical poem for Hannukah’, Hamburg Miscellany, Ham-
burg, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. Hebr. 37, fols 78v–79r. Meinz
(?), c. 1428–34.
Figure 6, p. 137. ‘Martyrdom of two women who circumcised their sons’,
Hamburg Miscellany, Hamburg, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Cod.
Hebr. 37, fol. 79r, detail. Meinz (?), c. 1428–34.
Figure 7, p. 138. Martyrdom of St Agatha, panel painting, Swiss School. 1473.
Figure 8, p. 142. ‘Eleazar before the king’, Hamburg Miscellany, Hamburg,
Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. Hebr. 37, fol. 79r, detail. Meinz
(?), c. 1428–34.
Figure 9, p. 142. ‘Martyrdom of Eleazar’, Hamburg Miscellany, Hamburg,
Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. Hebr. 37, fol. 79r, detail. Meinz (?),
c. 1428–34.
viii ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 10, p. 143. ‘Martyrdom of the seven sons’, Hamburg Miscel lany, Ham-
burg, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. Hebr. 37, fol. 79r, detail.
Meinz (?), c. 1428–34.
Figure 11, p. 144. ‘The young son before the king/ the mother leaning over the
bodies of her dead children’, Hamburg Miscellany, Hamburg, Staats- und
Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. Hebr. 37, fol. 79v, detail. Meinz (?), c. 1428–34.
Figure 12a, p. 145. ‘The mother and the martyrdom of the seven sons/Mary and
the Crucifixion of Christ’, devotional panel, Cologne, Richartz-Museum
– Fondation Corboud, Inv.-Nr. WRM 340–42, upper register. Cologne,
Sankt Gertrud, c. 1470.
Figure 12b, p. 147. ‘Martyrdom of the seven sons’, devotional panel, Cologne,
Richartz-Museum – Fondation Corboud, Inv.-Nr. WRM 340–42, upper
register, right panel. Cologne, Sankt Gertrud, c. 1470.
Figure 13, p. 150. ‘Miracle of the Ritual Bath’, Hamburg Miscellany, Hamburg,
Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. Hebr. 37, fol. 79v, detail. Meinz
(?), c. 1428–34.
Figure 14, p. 155. ‘Wedding feast of Johanan’s daughter’, Hamburg Miscellany,
Hamburg, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. Hebr. 37, fol. 80r, detail.
Meinz (?), c. 1428–34.
Figure 15, p. 157. ‘Scenes of Judith’, Hamburg Miscellany, Hamburg, Staats-
und Universitätsbibliothek, Cod. Hebr. 37, fols 80v–81r. Meinz (?), c.
1428–34.
‘There is no Hatred in Polemics
— And Liberty is Granted’
Ram Ben-Shalom and Israel Jacob Yuval
הרוא התיה םירצונלו םידוהיל
Those who know Professor Ora Limor personally may wonder what such
a gentle and peace-loving woman sees in religious polemics that were
violent in word and often in deed? Ora’s attraction to the field may be
related to the nature of inter-religious dialogue. Identity is born of controversy
— Christian identity was created through the negation of Judaism, and Jewish
identity in a Christian environment entailed the repudiation of the Christian
alternative. In the case of relations between Jews and Christians, the alterna-
tive identity indeed posed a threat, resulting in the need for self-defence. Such
clashes of consciousness and words also engender discourse, however, and not
just war. They imply dialogue, and this may be what attracted Ora Limor to the
field of religious polemics.
In her research Ora Limor has pursued points of encounter between people
and ideas. The first book she published was the account by the Genovese lay
merchant, Inghetto Contardo, of a series of discussions in which he took part,
in the year 1286, at the port city of Majorca, a meeting place for people from all
over the world. In this edition and subsequent publications Limor demonstrated
that the level of knowledge possessed by merchants and other lay polemicists in
matters of faith was inferior to that of ecclesiastics, leading them to favour more
mundane arguments. The general tone in such lay disputations was moderate
Ram Ben-Shalom ([email protected]) is Professor of Jewish History at the
Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Israel Jacob Yuval ([email protected]) is Professor of Jewish History at the Hebrew
University of Jerusalem.
Conflict and Religious Conversation in Latin Christendom: Studies in Honour of Ora Limor,
ed. by Israel Jacob Yuval and Ram Ben-Shalom, CELAMA 17 pp. 1–22
(Turnhout: Brepols, 2014) BREPOLS PUBLISHERS 10.1484/M.CELAMA-EB.1.102007
2 Ram Ben-Shalom and Israel Jacob Yuval
and, at times, even amicable. In a number of cases, the disputants — aware of
the polemical advantage of inspiring trust and establishing rapport — sought to
downplay the differences between the two faiths. Thus, for example, Inghetto
minimized the importance of Christian symbols such as the cross or crucifix in
order to generate goodwill and receptiveness in his Jewish interlocutors.1
In her research Ora has sought the nexus between doubt, openness, and
moderation. A striking example of this is her brilliant analysis of the second
novel of the first day in Boccaccio’s Decameron.2 The religious disputation
between the two merchants, Giannotto and Abraham, is set in Paris. Boccaccio
describes the friendship between the ignorant Christian merchant and the
learned and devout Jew. Giannotto is concerned that his friend will be denied
entry to Heaven, due to his lack of belief in Christ. Despite his superficial
theological arguments, based primarily on Christian success in conquering
the world, Abraham is convinced, due to his friendship with Giannotto, to
travel to Rome in order to observe the pope and the cardinals and determine
whether he finds their behaviour commendable. He stipulates that he will con-
vert to Christianity if he is persuaded of the probity of the Christian clergy
and thereby of the superiority of Christian belief, but will remain faithful to
Judaism if he observes the contrary. Boccaccio’s primary interest lay not in reli-
gious polemic, but in the corruption of the higher echelons of the Church in
Rome. Through the religious debate, however, we discover that Abraham the
Jew makes no distinction between the substance of faith and the organization
to which it is entrusted. As Abraham insists on first making a visit to Rome,
Giannotto fears that his cause is lost. The narrative leads towards the conclu-
sion that the wickedness of the pope and the cardinals demonstrates the inferi-
ority of Christianity to Judaism. The reversal comes in the form of Abraham’s
surprising decision to convert nonetheless, citing the success of Christianity in
the world — despite the greed and debauchery of its leaders — as proof of its
superiority. Boccaccio’s comical tale levels scathing criticism at the Christian
Church, while praising the Christian faith, and unfolds in an atmosphere of
religious tolerance and openness.3
1 See The Disputation of Majorca 1286, ed. by Limor, i, 17–82; Limor, ‘Three Anti-Jewish
Disputations from Medieval Genoa’, pp. 83–84; Limor, ‘Missionary Merchants; Limor, Die
Disputationen zu Ceuta (1179) und Mallorca (1286); Limor, ‘Polemical Varieties’.
2 Boccaccio, Decameron, ed. by Usher, p. 35 (I. 2); Limor, Jews and Christians in Western
Europe, iii, 148–67.
3 Limor, Jews and Christians in Western Europe, iii, 148–67.
