POLITICS AND RELIGION IN THE ERA OF RAMON !LULLnon-Christian subjects. A crucial element in the struggle was
the insistence that Jews and Muslims must listen to conver-
sionist sermons delivered by friars on their home ground.
The papacy was already urging the bishops and friars of the
Aragonese lands to go and preach to the Jews and Saracens
as early as 1245: 'if they do not wish to come of their own will,
our officials shall compel them to do so, putting aside all
excuses'. James I was occasionally prepared to license such
preaching, though he was also happy to withdraw the licence
if the Jews offered him sums of money to get the friars off
their backs. And the friars, frustrated at the sullen refusal of
the non-Christians to pay much heed, for conversions were
still quite few, began to develop further methods for con-
vincing the infidel of the error of his ways.
One method that applied to both Muslims and Jews was
the foundation of language academies where Arabic, Hebrew
and other oriental languages could be taught to friars, so they
could study the holy books of Islam, Judaism and the east-
ern Christian sects in schism with Rome. Cities in formerly
Muslim-held territory, such as Valencia, were obvious choices
for such academies; perhaps the most remarkable was one
apparently established in Tunis around 1250, during a period
of warm diplomatic relations between its ruler and the Ara-
gonese, though how much it achieved and how long it lasted
cannot be stated for certain.
Another approach was to tackle the 'enemy' head on, by
public disputations and the publication of books aimed either
at preachers or their audience, which sought to demonstrate
the errors of Judaism and Islam. Best documented of the
disputations is that of Barcelona (1263), briefly mentioned
earlier; this was held under the auspices of King James I,
and the eminent rabbi from Girona variously known as Moses
ben Nahman, Nahmanides, Ramban and (perhaps) Astrug de
Porta was forced to defend Judaism against the argument
that the Messiah had already come. His protagonist, Paul
the Christian, was - like Nicholas Donin in Paris two decades
earlier - a Jewish convert to Christianity; Paul had joined
the Dominican Order, and he was expected to use his know-
ledge (such as it was) of Hebrew literature, including the
Talmud, to show that even within the Jews' own books there
could be found hard evidence for the truth of Christianity.
Two accounts of this disputation survive, one in Hebrew by