Jewish Ideas about the Papacy 57
claim that the pope has overall charge of Christianity, and the texts used to endorse
this authority.166 He then recounted how, according to the New testament:
when Jesus went to heaven he left behind him, to substitute him, peter his disciple,
who will be the shepherd of his flock and will lead the community of his believers and
whatever he shall do shall be done from heaven, and whoever disobeys him and does
not listen to his words does not have a share in Jesus.167He also explained how Christians:
say that Jesus had given him [St peter] the keys of heaven. And the purpose of the keys
is to open the gates of hell, to punish the souls of sinners, even though they believe in
Jesus.168He then described how:
the punishments are in the form of steps, one step is called purgatory, and its purpose
is to absolve and purify sins because this is where the sinning souls will be purified and
will bear their punishment, for the time set for each soul, according to the value of the
sin. one soul will stand there for a very long time, and one soul for a very short time,
and others for a medium length of time, all in accordance with the largeness of the sins
and the smallness of the sins.169Duran considered the pope’s power of remitting a certain number of days in
purgatory as of great significance: because the keys of heaven were entrusted to
him as Jesus’ substitute; because he alone had the authority to shorten the length
and type of punishment; because Christians have called this power of the keys a
‘treasure of the Church’.170 Christians, Duran concluded:
were right in giving this name. Because they make the assumption that the pope is the
king of poor and silly souls. He governs the people who believe in this. And he wins
whatever they have, and the treasures of gold and silver have been revealed to him to
enter them into the ‘treasure of the Church’.171ha-goyim’, see especially Berger, ‘on the Uses of History in Medieval Jewish polemic against
Christianity’, pp.30–2; pp.34–5. For discussion of Hasdai Crescas, see, for example, Harry wolfson,
Crescas’ Critique of Aristotle. Problems of Aristotle’s Physics in Jewish and Arabic Philosophy (Cambridge,
Mass., 1957; repr. 1971), pp.1–37; Baron, A Social and Religious History of the Jews, Vol. 9, p.104;
Judaism on Trial, ed. Maccoby, p.50; p.88; p.92; p.180; p.222; Berger, The Jewish-Christian Debate in
the High Middle Ages, pp.29–32.
166 profiat Duran, ‘Sefer klimat ha-goyim’, ed. N. posnanski in Ha sofeh me’eres Hagar 3 (1913),
pp.99f.; pp.143f., and 4 (1914), p.37; p.81; p.115; and especially pp.41–2, and ‘Sefer klimat ha-
goyim’, in Osar wikuhim, ed. Eisenstein, pp.279–80. But for a much more recent edition, see talmage,
The Polemical Writings of Profiat Duran, p.30; p.35; p.44; p.45; p.81.
167 profiat Duran, ‘Sefer klimat ha-goyim’, in Osar wikuhim, ed. Eisenstein, p.279; talmage, The
Polemical Writings of Profiat Duran, p.30; p.35; p.44; p.45; p.81.
168 profiat Duran, ‘Sefer klimat ha-goyim’, in Osar wikuhim, ed. Eisenstein, p.279; talmage, The
Polemical Writings of Profiat Duran, p.30; p.35; p.44; p.45; p.81.
169 This seems to imply that hell comes after the purgatory stage and is therefore also a stage and
not final—which was (and is) of course not orthodox Christian doctrine.
170 profiat Duran, ‘Sefer klimat ha-goyim’, in Osar wikuhim, ed. Eisenstein, p.279; talmage, The
Polemical Writings of Profiat Duran, p.30; p.35; p.44; p.45; p.81.
171 profiat Duran, ‘Sefer klimat ha-goyim’, in Osar wikuhim, ed. Eisenstein, p.279; talmage, The
Polemical Writings of Profiat Duran, p.30; p.35; p.44; p.45; p.81.