THE \\'ESTERN MEDITERRA.I\'EAN KINGDOM 1200-1500preoccupations of someone who had observed with his own
eyes the extraordinary transformation of Catalonia from a
county on the edge of Europe into a thriving hub of business
and into the focal point of a federation of states inhabited
by people of all three monotheistic religions.
The extent to which the friars were genuinely innovative
in their attacks on Jews and Muslims has been the subject of
vigorous debate. Jeremy Cohen has argued that the friars
became involved as inquisitors with the Jews when the Church
became aware of Jews trying to 'convert' Christians. (These
would probably be former Jews whom the rabbis were hoping
to win back to Judaism.) Only in such special cases as these
would the Inquisition have authority over Jews. An 'Inquisitor
of the Heretics and Apostate Jews of France', known in 1285,
would have been given the brief of checking that Jews con-
verted to Christianity were sincere and that they had aban-
doned such Jewish practices as refusal to eat pork or even
the use of special kosher butchers. Other scholars, such as
Robert Chazan, lay stress on the continuing debates within
the Church about the relationship between Judaism and
Christianity, debates which were of considerable importance
in defining the limits of Christian belief. Chazan points out
that Peter the Venerable, abbot of the great monastery of
Cluny in the middle of the twelfth century, had also attacked
the Talmud, and it was he who commissioned the first trans-
lation of the sacred text of Islam, the Koran, not because
he wanted to compare Christian and Muslim belief in an
impartial way, but because it was felt necessary to attack the
rival religions on their own ground, armed with knowledge of
their texts; to go and do no more than preach the Christian
word was not likely to impress the enemy. Indeed, there was
a growing desire to engage directly with the leaders, rabbis
or imams, of the rival faiths?)
Chazan would certainly agree that the attack on the Jews
and Muslims was intensified in the thirteenth century; and
it was in Catalonia that the debate developed most vigor-
ously. And this reflects the possibilities that were open to
preachers now that the kings of Aragon could grant them
privileged access to the mosques and synagogues of their
- R. Chazan, Daggers ofFaith. Thirtemth-rentwy Christian missirmizing and
Jewish response (Berkeley/Los Angeles. l9R9). pp. 7-24.