48 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
—and that led to its being condemned at the Disputation of paris in 1240 for the
specific crime of being a ‘Nova Lex’, in other words a corruption, not a representa-
tion, of Mosaic Law.106 The Nizzahon Vetus responded to such criticism in various
ways, emphasizing that on the contrary the talmud acted as ‘a safeguard and quali-
fication for all of the torah’, since the latter’s commandments are scattered among
twenty-four books, whereas the talmud clearly divides its material into sections:
that ensures that the talmud in no way diminishes the torah but rather aids under-
standing of it.107 in the thirteenth century Jewish writers addressed papal attitudes
towards the talmud in particular, not least because if it were banned, pogroms
against Jews would probably increase.
DiSpUtAtioNS BEtwEEN CHriStiANS AND JEwS:
tHE DiSpUtAtioN oF pAriS (1240)
The Disputation of paris of 1240 was the result of enquiries into the talmud insti-
gated by pope gregory ix (1226–1239) and Louis ix of France.108 Details of
the talmud trial were faithfully recorded in a polemical work known as the The
Argument (Vikkuah) of Rabbi Yacov of Venice (otherwise known as Jacob bar/ben
Elie or Jacob b. Elijah of Venice), probably written in the mid thirteenth century
by a southern French Jew living in exile in the iberian peninsula. in this work Elie
excoriated the apostate Jew, Nicholas Donin, whom he believed had betrayed
Judaism by his conversion and subsequent collaboration with enquiries into the
content of the talmud, said to contain blasphemies against Christ and the Virgin
Ma r y.109 He recounted how the great Jewish leader, rabbi Yehi’el of paris, publicly
rejected the converted Donin and how the latter subsequently reported tales of
ritual murder and blood libel at passover to the pope, hoping to incite him against
the Jews.110
106 ‘Liber nizzachon vetus’, in Tela ignea satanae, ed. wagenseil, Vol. 1, col. 259; for modern edi-
tions, see Sefer Nizzahon Yashan (Nizzahon Vetus). A Book of Jewish-Christian Polemic. A Critical
Edition, ed. Breuer, p.194; ‘Nizzahon Vetus’, in The Jewish-Christian Debate in the High Middle Ages,
ed. Berger, pp.163–4; for an English translation, see Berger, The Jewish-Christian Debate in the High
Middle Ages, p.230. See discussion of this passage in Stow, The ‘1007 Anonymous’ and Papal Sovereignty,
p.23; Berger, The Jewish-Christian Debate in the High Middle Ages, p.343.
107 ‘Liber nizzachon vetus’, in Tela ignea satanae, ed. wagenseil, Vol. 1, col. 259; for modern edi-
tions, see Sefer Nizzahon Yashan (Nizzahon Vetus). A Book of Jewish-Christian Polemic. A Critical
Edition. ed. Breuer, p.194; ‘Nizzahon Vetus’, in The Jewish-Christian Debate in the High Middle Ages,
ed. Berger, pp.163–4; for an English translation, see Berger, The Jewish-Christian Debate in the High
Middle Ages, p.230. The practice of dividing up theological works into manageable chunks in order to
provide a systematic theology was increasingly important for Christian, as well as Jewish writers from
the twelfth century onwards. See, in particular, peter Lombard, Sententiae in IV libris distinctae, 3rd edn,
ed. i. C. Brady, 2 vols (grottaferrata, 1971–81), passim. For discussion, see Martha Colish, Peter
Lombard, Vol. 1 (Leiden, New York, 1994), pp.34–5; pp.77–90; ‘Liber nizzachon vetus’, in Tela ignea
satanae, ed. wagenseil, Vol. 1, col. 259.
108 Judaism on Trial, ed. Maccoby, pp.19–38.
109 Abulafia, ‘Christians and Jews in the High Middle Ages’, p.24.
110 For an easily accessible text, see Jacob ben Elie, ‘Vikuah r. Ya’acov mivinisya’, in Osar wikuhim
(also spelt Ozar vikkuhim), ed. J. D. Eisenstein (New York, 1929) p.192. But for a more accurate text,
see ‘Vikuah r. Ya’acov mivinisya’, in Sefer Ginze nistarot, ed. J. Kobak (Bamberg, 1868), Vol. 1,
pp.29–30.