Religious Polemics

This paper focuses on how thirteenth- and fourteenth-century inquisitors conceived of the beliefs, practices, and workings of non-conformist Christian groups. The inquisitors’ view of what constituted a heretical sect and how it worked was remarkably modern in at least three respects. First, it was strikingly historical and geographical: the inquisitors were interested in the historical and geographical dimensions of heretical sects, including the changes that particular heretical rituals, doctrines, and communities underwent over time. Second, the inquisitors were deeply interested in distinguishing different groups and subgroups, and produced elaborate classifications and comparisons. Finally, the inquisitors, driven by their need for hard evidence meeting procedural requirements, somewhat shifted the notion of heresy from inner beliefs to observable rituals and habits. At the same time, however, inquisitional trial records abundantly demonstrate that they were well aware of how precarious it is to draw a straightforward causal link between inner beliefs, words, and outer actions. Based on examples from three early inquisitorial descriptions of heresy, including the Practica inquisitionis heretice pravitatis by Bernard Gui, this paper examines how medieval inquisitors conceived of heretical sects, their changes over time, and the relationship between religious beliefs and actions, and how they headed towards a peculiar, and in many ways familiar, religious theory of religion.

ABSTRACT
The objective is to present and comment two extracts, taken from two independent texts, which retell the biography of the Prophet Muhammad. Both of the sources, Rodrigo ]iménez de Rada's 'Historia Arabum' chapters I-VI, and Marcos de Toledo's 'Prologus Alcorani', were wrirten in Toledo, in the thirteenth century, The fragments, extracted frorn the Arabs' History (1245) and the second Latin translarion of the Qur'an (1210-1211), belong to the literary movement of the Islamic-Christian conrroversy, the primary objective of which was to present information about Islam and interpret them frorn such an angle so that the enemy religion was showed ridiculous and inferior to Christianity. In order to justify the selection of the texts, the connection between the two authors will be mentioned.
Marcos de Toledo belonged to the intellectual circle formed under the auspices of Don Rodrigo ]iménez de Rada when the latter was the archbishop ofToledo (1209-1247).
KEYWORDS: Christian Muhamrnad, Islamic-Christian controversy, Marcos de Toledo, Rodrigo ]iménez de Rada

"Megaleh Temirin (Revealer of Secrets), ed. Jonatan Meir, Three volumes, Mosad Bialik, Jerusalem

Megaleh Temirin (Revealer of Secrets), first published in Vienna in 1819, is one of the sharpest and wittiest pieces of Jewish literature written in the first half of the nineteenth century, and is perhaps the most important piece of Hebrew prose composed before the stories of Mendele Mocher Seforim. A sly and complex story deriding Hasidism and Hasidim, it is told through the correspondence between the beadles of Hasidic courts and contemporary rabbis, and it presents a dark picture of  avaricious frauds and swindlers whose main concern was control over territory and the souls of believers, a goal achieved by beguiling the authorities and attacking all opponents. Perl lends his book a ‘Hasidic’ feel both in its physical design and in its language, presenting a Maskilic version of In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov that lays Hasidism bare so that no reader will ever be able to look at that, or any other Hasidic book, in the same way again. In addition to the book’s satiric sting, which would have been enough to bring its readers a dual pleasure, Perl’s hints at contemporary people and places, hidden within anagrams and numerological tricks. With the unraveling of these clues, which also include the use of actual Hasidic sources, the book is a valuable, contemporary view of historical reality. A meticulous reading of the book may therefore open a window on the hidden worlds of Hasidism and the Haskalah at the start of the nineteenth century.


The first volume (Imagined Hasidism) serves as an introduction to the complex satirical writings of Josef Perl of Tarnopol (1773-1839). At the center of the book stands an analysis of the satires, Megaleh Temirin (1819) and Bochen Tzadik (1838), including a systematic treatment of the ‘characters’ in the central works and a discussion of the dozens of manuscripts to be found in the Perl Archive in Jerusalem. Perl’s writings are analyzed here in the fuller context of Hebrew and Yiddish literature in general and Maskilic and Hasidic literature in particular, as well as other polemical writings and governmental records critical of Hasidism. The study thus presents a complex and nuanced picture of the relationship between literature and history, between the anti-Hasidic reports and the more complicated historical reality, and lays the groundwork for further research into the genre of nineteenth-century Maskilic satire.

The second and third volumes (Megaleh Temirin) present for the first time an annotated edition of Megaleh Temirin. It is based on the first edition and the scattered manuscripts and it includes a comparison to its Yiddish translation. The book is accompanied by appendices on its origins and contents, including fundamental treatments of several passages: an explication of the encoded names, the Hasidic sources used by the author, and the variants found in the manuscripts and in the only edition of the book in Yiddish.

The editor of the book, Professor Jonatan Meir, teaches in the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University. He has published several articles on the Haskalah of Eastern Europe, Hasidism, and a number of varied topics in twentieth-century Kabbalah.


Contents

Volume 1  - Critical Edition

Concerning this edition
Key personalities
Sefer Megale Temirin – Critical Edition


Volume 2 - Appendixes:
1. Glossary, Abbreviations, Acronyms
2. Explanation of the Speaking Names
3. Perl’s Hasidic Sources
4. Manuscripts of Sefer Megale Temirin
5. Yiddish Introduction to Sefer Megale Temirin
Bibliographic Abbreviations

-------------------------------
Reviews:
(1) Dan Meron, 2013, ‘Megaleh Temirin’, Kivunim Hadashim 29, 55 pages (Hebrew)
(2) David Assaf, 2014, ‘Hasidim will not Read it but Tear it’, Haaretz, Tarbut ve-Sifrut, p .6 (Hebrew) http://onegshabbat.blogspot.co.il/2014/04/blog-post_18.html
(3) Eliezer Brodt, 2014, 'New book Announcement- Megale Temirin', The Seforim Blog http://seforim.blogspot.co.il/2014/01/new-book-announcement-megale-temirin.html
(4) Matan Hermoni, 2014,  הסבתא המופקרת של הספרות העבריתHaaretz, Sfarim (Hebrew) http://www.haaretz.co.il/.premium-1.2382365
(5) Shinichi Yamamoto, 2015, 山本　伸一, "ヨナタン・メイール編著『想像のハシディズム』", ユダヤ・イスラエル研究　第28号  http://www.waseda.jp/assoc-jsjs/jistudies.html
(6) David Biale and David Assaf,, 2015, 'Revealer Revealed', Jewish Review of Books, pp. 17-21  http://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/1454/revealer-revealed/
(7) Hillel Halkin, 2015, "Sex, Magic, Bigotry, Corruption- and the First Hebrew Novel', Mosaic Magazine,  http://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/2015/05/sex-magic-bigotry-corruption-and-the-first-hebrew-novel/
(8) Tomer Persico, 2015, "Interview", Lula'at haEl Blog, http://tomerpersico.com/2015/08/10/meir_perl/

Throughout the nineteenth century, Maskilic journals increased their publication of anti-Hasidic satires. From the eighteen-sixties onward, this literature came primarily as a response to the revival in the publishing of Hasidic hagiography and to the spread of Hasidism into new territory. To this point, no complete review or even general survey has been performed on this extensive polemical literature, despite the fact that it has much to teach us about Hasidism and the Haskalah in those years. We are not speaking of an insignificant bibliographical lacuna, but of a disregard for an entire field of research which would shed light not only on a forgotten chapter of modern Hebrew and Yiddish literature but also on an important chapter in the relationships between Maskilim and Hasidim in that period and the genesis and development of the different streams of Hasidism. This Maskilic literature intended to do more than eradicate Hasidism; it aimed to strengthen the self-consciousness of the individual Maskilim who found themselves alone in Hasidic territory. Paradoxically, the literature documented the very movement it intended to eradicate from the world. The distorted reflection displayed in the anti-Hasidic literature does more than present a caricature of its subject -- it conceals hitherto unknown elements about the nature and development of the Hasidic movement. The present article deals with one such case, a satire on Bratslav Hasidism from 1863, which has at its core a Maskilic satirical text written by Yehiel Meller on pilgrimage to the grave of R. Nahman of Bratslav in Uman.





כתבי עת של משכילים לאורך המאה התשע עשרה הרבו לפרסם סאטירות בגנותה של החסידות. משנות הששים ואילך באה ספרות זו בעיקר כתגובה להתעוררות הדפסת ספרות השבחים החסידית ולהתפשטות החסידות במרחבים חדשים. לא קיימת עד עתה סקירה שלימה, ואף לא מיפוי כללי, של אותה ספרות פולמוסית ענפה, על אף שיש בה ללמד הרבה על דרכי החסידות וההשכלה באותן שנים.  לא מדובר רק בחסרון ביבליוגרפי שאין לו משמעות, אלא בהתעלמות משדה מחקר רב עניין שעשוי להאיר לא רק על פרק נשכח בספרות עברית ויידיש החדשה אלא גם על פרק חשוב ביחסים בין משכילים לחסידים באותה תקופה, ועל דרכי צמיחתם, פיצולם והתפתחותם של זרמים שונים בחסידות. הייתה זו ספרות שיותר מאשר נועדה לבער את החסידות נועדה לחזק את תודעתם העצמית של המשכילים הבודדים במרחבים החסידיים; ספרות שבאופן פרדוקסלי תיעדה תנועה אותה חפצו לבער מן העולם. הבבואה המעוותת בה התהדרה הסאטירה האנטי חסידית לא רק הציגה דימוי – אלא טומנת בחובה הצבעה על אלמנטים חדשים ועל התפתחויות בחסידות. במקרה אחד ממין זה הנוגע לחסידות ברסלב בשנות השישים של המאה התשע עשרה עוסק המאמר. שלפנינו - שעיקרו מהדורה של טקסט משכילי שכתב יחיאל מלר - בשנת 1863 - על העלייה לקבר ר' נחמן מברסלב באומן
"""

El objetivo de este trabajo es presentar y comentar los fragmentos de dos textos distintos que narran la biografía de Mahoma. Los dos textos, los capítulos I-VI de la Historia Arabum de Jiménez de Rada y el Prologus Alcorani de Marcos de Toledo, escritos en el Toledo del siglo XIII, pertenecen a la literatura de controversia islamo cristiana, cuyo propósito era suministrar las informaciones sobre el Islam con el objetivo de refutarlo.

Ces documents inédits-et semble-t-il uniques-intéressent à la fois l'étude du latin médiéval et celle des relations entre juifs et chrétiens, en Ashkénaz, au XIIIe siècle. Ils offrent plusieurs pages de latin translittéré tout en se distinguant par leurs diverses caractéristiques des autres écrits destinés, dans la littérature hébraïque médiévale, à la controverse avec les chrétiens. L argumentation se fonde exclusivement ici sur des emprunts à la tradition latine chrétienne invariablement restitués dans la langue originale (en caractères hébreux), généralement accompagnés d une ébauche de traduction hébraïque et fréquemment précédés, en hébreu et en ancien français (caractères hébreux), d'indications relatives à leur utilisation polémique. Cette stratégie argumentative s apparente à celle des chrétiens invoquant à la même époque, sur des questions analogues, la tradition rabbinique. Ces deux florilèges sont manifestement le fruit d un travail collectif, encore inachevé, dont ils ne représentent que deux étapes distinctes et sans doute deux témoins parmi beaucoup d autres. Ils attestent la réalité d un débat judéo-chrétien qui n était en aucune manière réservé à une élite, et l'imminence de ses enjeux. Ils sont la preuve d une réaction concertée à l entreprise chrétienne de conversion. L édition et la traduction s accompagnent d une analyse codicologique, paléographique, linguistique et textuelle. Les commentaires de la seconde partie situent le détail de l'argumentation dans l ensemble des écrits de controverse judéo-chrétienne. Les conclusions, fondées sur la complémentarité des approches, s achèvent par une mise en contexte prenant en compte les perspectives de recherche encore offertes par ces deux documents exceptionnels.

Jewish sources commonly refer to Muslims as “Ishmaelites” and to Islamdom as “the Kingdom of Ishmael” due to an alleged biblical genealogy that both Jews and Muslims accept. Other classic Jewish sources, however, associate pre-Islamic Arabs as well as Muslims with two other biblical nations, Ammon and Moab, even when, and even though, the “standard” appellations are at hand. The Ammon and Moab nexus is mentioned in academic literature but without much elaboration. This article investigates several Jewish mentions of the nexus – most of Hispano-Jewish provenance – and proposes five explanations for its use.

Résumé
Les sources juives qualifient généralement les musulmans d’Ismaélites et le domaine de l’Islam en tant que “royaume d’Ismaël”, et ce au nom de généalogies bibliques reconnues autant par les juifs que les musulmans. D’autres sources juives classiques, cependant, rattachent les Arabes préislamiques ainsi que les musulmans à deux autres nations mentionnées dans la Bible, Ammon et Moab, et ce indépendamment de leur traditionnelle appellation d’Ismaélites. Jusqu’à présent, le lien avec Ammon et Moab n’a été que sommairement évoqué dans la littérature scientifique. La présente étude examine plusieurs sources juives, pour la plupart d’origine hispanique, évoquant un pareil lien.

The Legend of St. Alexander Nevsky includes a story about papal envoys who without result try to persuade the prince to accept the church union. The episode includes several elements which fit rather in the context of the 1440s than in the 13th century. The fact questions the mainly accepted thesis that the Legend was originally written in the 1260s or 1280s.

More than 20 years after presenting his first interpretation of the mosaic from the House of Aion in a paper entitled “Uwagi na temat mozaiki z Domu Aiona w Nea Paphos (Cypr)” (Meander 9/10, 1987, p. 421-438, in Polish, and translated to English: « The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory [in Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from the “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus]»), where he proposed reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 3. The Dionysian thiasos; 4. Apollo and Marsyas; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis, the author now enhances his initial interpretation with numerous reflections concerning the historical context of this work of art, created in the years 320-360.
If, according to the author, the mosaic is a “Hymn” in honour of the pagan gods, Man (his soul) and his place in the (pagan) universe, then at the same time it polemicises with the Christian faith and its God, Jesus Christ.
The author puts forward numerous new solutions relating to the mosaic’s iconography and iconology. Analysis of the mosaic also leads him to propose a solution to the as-yet unanswered question regarding the absence of images of the crucified Christ in Christian art of the 3rd and 4th centuries, up until 420/430, when the first images of Christ on the cross appear.
CONTENTS:
Introduction
1. Research to-date (recap)
2. Description of mosaic (recap)
2.1. Composition of five mythological scenes
2.2. Brief iconographic description of mythological panels
2.3. Outline of individual iconographic elements and their respective roles
2.4. The pagan gods’ air of majesty and dignity as an expression of piety
3. A few words about the pagan reaction
4. An apology of pious human life according to pagan principles and a polemic on the Christian model of Man and his theological idol, Jesus Christ
4.1. Divine intervention in the act of human conception (allusion to/polemic on the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary)
4.2. The Epiphany of Dionysus (an allusion to the Epiphany of Christ – Theou Pais)
4.3. The procession and dissemination of Dionysian order (allusion to/polemic on Christ’s entry into Jerusalem)
4.4. The error of Marsyas (polemic on/allusion to the error of Jesus the Messiah): arrest, sentencing for arrogance and lack of piety (asebeia) and condemnation to a martyr’s death
4.5. The anabasis (or anagoge psyches) of a ‘beautiful soul’ (allusion to/polemic on the Ascension of Christ)
5. A few words on the mosaic programme prior to final conclusions
Final conclusions
Key words: mythological mosaic, House of Aion, Nea Paphos, Late Antiquity, Roman art, allegorical narrative, allusive language of mythological pictures, wordplay (Marsyas-Messias), Jesus Christ, anti-Christian polemic, Dionysos, Cassiopeia, Apollon, Nereides, Abstract Personifications, Greek Mythology, ΚΥΠΡΟΣ

In his stigmatization against believers in Christ, Celsus reminds that I Enoch was re-read like a very ‘living’ Christological tradition in contemporary proto-Christian groups. With his response, Origen stresses that there is a disagreement between such a Christological interpretation and the ‘true’ faith. This article underlines that the ‘extremities’ involved in such polemical statements seem to implicate, on the one hand, the so-called ‘Judeo-Christian’ angelomorphic Christology and, on the other hand, its re-readings carried out by the so-called ‘Gnostic’ groups of Third Century CE. Origen seems to connect the complex universe of the so-called ‘angelomorphic Christology’ to the polemical construct of ἰουδαϊσμός/ ἰουδαΐζειν. A further conclusion can be drawn from the article: the references to Enochic literature carried out by Origen could be better explained as ‘functional’ re-readings. In some cases, Origen seems to reject the authority of Enochic writings (for example, see Cels. 5, 53, Comm. Jo. VI 25, 217, Hom. II in Ps. 15); but in other cases, the Alexandrinian is impelled to confirm his exegetical statements on the basis of Enochic literature (for example, cfr. Princ. IV 4, 8).

The text of this current translation comes from Samuel Krauss’ 1902 collection of manuscript transcriptions—originally found in Cod. Heb. 54 of the Vienna Israelite Theological Library, but denominated by Krauss as “Ms. Vindobona,” after the Latin name for Vienna. The manuscript was allegedly stolen from the Institute’s library by the Nazis, and subsequently disappeared—possibly being either destroyed or looted during the bombing of Berlin. The truth of this lost manuscript may never be known, but a few things are clear: despite its sometimes disturbing content, the text is a paradox, both vulgarly base and eloquently beautiful, epic satire, tragically antiheroic, and altogether exceptional literature worthy of appreciation by the humanities.

Based on:
Krauss, Samuel, ed. Das Leben Jesu: Nach Judischen Quellen. Berlin: S. Calvary,
1902.

Megaleh Temirin (Revealer of Secrets), first published in Vienna in 1819, is one of the sharpest and wittiest pieces of Jewish literature written in the first half of the nineteenth century, and is perhaps the most important piece of Hebrew prose composed before the stories of Mendele Mocher Seforim. A sly and complex story deriding Hasidism and Hasidim, it is told through the correspondence between the beadles of Hasidic courts and contemporary rabbis, and it presents a dark picture of  avaricious frauds and swindlers whose main concern was control over territory and the souls of believers, a goal achieved by beguiling the authorities and attacking all opponents. Perl lends his book a ‘Hasidic’ feel both in its physical design and in its language, presenting a Maskilic version of In Praise of the Ba’al Shem Tov that lays Hasidism bare so that no reader will ever be able to look at that, or any other Hasidic book, in the same way again. In addition to the book’s satiric sting, which would have been enough to bring its readers a dual pleasure, Perl’s hints at contemporary people and places, hidden within anagrams and numerological tricks. With the unraveling of these clues, which also include the use of actual Hasidic sources, the book is a valuable, contemporary view of historical reality. A meticulous reading of the book may therefore open a window on the hidden worlds of Hasidism and the Haskalah at the start of the nineteenth century.

The first volume (Imagined Hasidism) serves as an introduction to the complex satirical writings of Josef Perl of Tarnopol (1773-1839). At the center of the book stands an analysis of the satires, Megaleh Temirin (1819) and Bochen Tzadik (1838), including a systematic treatment of the ‘characters’ in the central works and a discussion of the dozens of manuscripts to be found in the Perl Archive in Jerusalem. Perl’s writings are analyzed here in the fuller context of Hebrew and Yiddish literature in general and Maskilic and Hasidic literature in particular, as well as other polemical writings and governmental records critical of Hasidism. The study thus presents a complex and nuanced picture of the relationship between literature and history, between the anti-Hasidic reports and the more complicated historical reality, and lays the groundwork for further research into the genre of nineteenth-century Maskilic satire.

The second and third volumes (Megaleh Temirin) present for the first time an annotated edition of Megaleh Temirin. It is based on the first edition and the scattered manuscripts and it includes a comparison to its Yiddish translation. The book is accompanied by appendices on its origins and contents, including fundamental treatments of several passages: an explication of the encoded names, the Hasidic sources used by the author, and the variants found in the manuscripts and in the only edition of the book in Yiddish.

The editor of the book, Professor Jonatan Meir, teaches in the Goldstein-Goren Department of Jewish Thought at Ben-Gurion University. He has published several articles on the Haskalah of Eastern Europe, Hasidism, and a number of varied topics in twentieth-century Kabbalah.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Contents


Introduction                                                                                     
Scholarship on the anti-Hasidic writings of Josef Perl • Hasidic hagiography and the emergence of satire • Two-fold reading of Perl’s writings and the gematriyot • Satire, literature, and history • ‘Holy Books’ and subversive books

Chapter 1: Josef Perl, Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov, and the ‘Holy Books’
Prayer of the fall of Hasidism and the expungement of their books • Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht and the critique of hagiography • Sefer Sipurey Ma‘asiyot and the parodic response to it • Rabbi Nathan of Nemirov, ‘heretical books’ and the ‘Holy Books’ • In praise of the true Tsaddikim • ‘Laughter of the heretics’: testimonies about the polemics against Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht • ‘Holy Books’, ‘sacredness of hagiography’, and parodies of hagiography • Appendix: Parodic manuscript about an opponent of the ‘Holy Books’ who was reborn as a horse

Chapter 2: Speaking Names in Sefer Megale Temirin                             
Time of the composition of Megale Temirin, censorship, and a note on the Buch • Hasidic books and the emergence of parody • Structure of Sefer Megale Temirin • The Introduction to Sefer Megale Temirin • Main Hasidic courts • The court in Żołyń (Łożne) and the peregrinations of the Buch • The court of Dishpal (Międzyboż), moneyboxes of the Besht, the holy relics • The court in Aklo (Olika) and the ritualized reading of Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht • Function of the footnotes and the parodic hagiography • History of the rabbis – clandestine opponents of Hasidism • The Besht in Tarnopol • Rabbi Meir Jacob of Zasław and the letters from Galicja  • Zaddikim in Galicja • Ciphered stories • ‘Holy Places’: reincarnations of a praise from Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht • The revelation of the Buch and the death of the secretary • ‘Gang of criminals’: another death and an escape to the Land of Israel • The End: Ovadia Ben Petahia and the rabbi of Opatów

Chapter 3: Joseph Perl, Hirsh of Zydaczów, and the Polemics of Gematriyot
Reb Zevi Hirsh of Zydaczów and Hasidism in Galicja • Maskilic opposition to the Zydaczówer • Letters concealed in Sefer Megale Temirin • A manuscript about the misdeeds of the Hasidim • Books, education, and a note on Reb Nathan of Nemirov • Zydaczówer’s ban on the Maskilim and the first Gematria • Parodic letter of Perl and the second Gematria • About the parodic letter and the jumble of gematriyot • Denunciation and expulsions of R Zevi Hirsh • ‘Father of impurity’: Joseph Perl and the writings of the rabbi of Komarno • Final note • Appendix: Parodic letter against the Zydaczówer

Chapter 4: Speaking Names in the Book of Sefer Bohen Zaddik               
The manuscript of Sefer Bohen Zaddik and the difficulties with its publication • Structure of the book • In search for the true Zaddik and the rabbi of Opatów • Travels of Ovadia Ben Petahia between the towns of Galicja • Kromcza Ruska (Zaleszczyki) or the entrance to Galicja • ‘Briks’ (Tarnopol): Rabbi Jehoshua Heschel Babad and the school • ‘Bicik’ (Lemberg) Rabbi Jacob Orenstein and a ban on the Maskilim • ‘Abdera’ (Brody) Rabbi Ephraim Zalman Margaliot and Sefer ha-Zoref • The explanation of the names of the rabbis • Utopia and dystopia • The hidden butcher and his kabbalistic writings • The discovery of the colonies • The image of the disciples of the Gaon and the ‘true Hasid’ • ‘The solution for the East’ or heterotopia •  The will to flee and the emissary

Chapter 5: The Imaginary Influence of Sefer Megale Temirin                     
The myth about the success of the book • Pamphlet Megale Sod • The manuscript about the misdeeds of the Hasidim • Dialogues about Sefer Megale Temirin • For whom Sefer Megale Temirin was intended and who read it • Note concerning Sefer Megale Temirin in Yiddish • Influence real and imagined • Was Sefer Shivhe ha-Besht written by a parodist? • Temerl Bergson and Sefer Megale Temirin • Writ of defense of Hasidism • Sefer Megale Temirin and the Hebrew literature • Appendix: writ of defense of Joseph Judah Lob Sossnitz

Afterword: Note on the Anti-Hasidic Outlook                                       

Bibliographic Abbreviations   

Reviews:
(1) Dan Meron, 2013, ‘Megaleh Temirin’, Kivunim Hadashim 29, 55 pages (Hebrew)
(2) David Assaf, 2014, ‘Hasidim will not Read it but Tear it’, Haaretz, Tarbut ve-Sifrut, p .6 (Hebrew) http://onegshabbat.blogspot.co.il/2014/04/blog-post_18.html
(3) Eliezer Brodt, 2014, 'New book Announcement- Megale Temirin', The Seforim Blog http://seforim.blogspot.co.il/2014/01/new-book-announcement-megale-temirin.html
(4) Matan Hermoni, 2014,  הסבתא המופקרת של הספרות העבריתHaaretz, Sfarim (Hebrew) http://www.haaretz.co.il/.premium-1.2382365
(5) Shinichi Yamamoto, 2015, 山本　伸一, "ヨナタン・メイール編著『想像のハシディズム』", ユダヤ・イスラエル研究　第28号  http://www.waseda.jp/assoc-jsjs/jistudies.html
(6) David Biale and David Assaf,, 2015, 'Revealer Revealed', Jewish Review of Books, pp. 17-21  http://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/1454/revealer-revealed/
(7) Hillel Halkin, 2015, "Sex, Magic, Bigotry, Corruption- and the First Hebrew Novel', Mosaic Magazine,  http://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/2015/05/sex-magic-bigotry-corruption-and-the-first-hebrew-novel/
(8) Tomer Persico, 2015, "Interview", Lula'at haEl http://tomerpersico.com/2015/08/10/meir_perl/
(9) Ariel Evan Mayse, 'Review', Jewish History (2015)ת  http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10835-015-9245-2
(10) Review - Gal-Ed

Abstract: Written in 1425 by one of the participants in the Disputation of Tortosa (1413-1414), the Sefer ha-Iqqarim is one of the most important philosophical-theological writings of the 14th and 15th centuries. It was composed during the period comprised between the persecutions of 1391 and the expulsion of 1492 and characterised by a multitude of conversions. Like Sa‘adya Gaon, Maimonides and Hasdai Crescas — the latter being his teacher —, Joseph Albo examines the “Principles” of Judaism, their relation with reason and their religious specificity. This reflection is constructed by means of references to the Jewish tradition, but also, in one particular context, by opposing everything that calls this tradition into question. Thus, references to Christianity, in various forms, are omnipresent in the Sefer ha-Iqqarim. A veritable “Defence and Illustration” of Judaism, the Sefer ha-Iqqarim cannot be reduced to its polemical dimension, yet this dimension should be taken into account for an exact appreciation of its purpose, reception and scope.

Résumé : Après une présentation générale du texte, des circonstances de sa publication et des précautions méthodologiques qui doivent être adoptées pour la mise en évidence de sa dimension polémique, l’étude montre que bien des éléments du discours développé par Joseph Albo doivent être compris en référence au christianisme, religion par laquelle l’existence même des communautés juives espagnoles était alors menacée : cette lecture est confortée par le rapprochement, sur différentes questions, de passages disséminés dans cette œuvre monumentale et par leur mise en relation avec le chapitre III, 25, explicitement polémique. Certains de ces passages sont présentés, traduits, et commentés dans leur contexte. Les conclusions de cette étude sont mises en relation avec la censure chrétienne du livre (voir l’article consacré à ce sujet) et sa réception dans les littératures apologétique et polémique juive et chrétienne des XVe-XVIIe siècles.

Cette étude porte sur un corpus  d'une  soixantaine de textes, qui ne sont pas uniquement polémiques (mais aussi apologétiques), qui ne sont pas rédigés uniquement en hébreu (mais aussi en espagnol et en portugais), et qui ont été composés  sur une large période. Elle vient combler une lacune puisque, si les travaux sur les sources hébraïques de Nicolas de Lyre ne manquent pas, il n’en existe aucun sur la réception de son œuvre dans la littérature juive.
Elle montre que Nicolas de Lyre (essentiellement la Postille et le Quodlibet) est souvent cité — presque toujours pour être réfuté — dans cette littérature (jamais en latin), et plus particulièrement dans certains textes où il est omniprésent (l’un d’entre eux, rédigé en Espagne, au XVe siècle, est entièrement consacré à une réfutation de son Quodlibet). Comme il était impossible de restituer l’ensemble des références à l’exégète franciscain, l’étude s’attarde plus précisément sur une sélection de passages avant de mettre en relation les conclusion de leur analyse avec ce que révèle celle de tous les autres. Le texte de Nicolas de Lyre auquel renvoie chacune des mentions retenues est systématiquement donné en note.
La présence exceptionnellement importante de Nicolas de Lyre dans la littérature juive est due à plusieurs facteurs : la diffusion de ses écrits, son statut dans le monde chrétien, et le fait que les auteurs juifs soient — ou semblent — convaincus de son origine juive : à travers lui, en effet, c’est l’ensemble de la tradition chrétienne qui est mise en cause dans sa dimension exégétique et théologique et pour ceux qui le réfutent, comme pour ceux qui l’utilisent dans les activités missionnaires qui s’adressent aux juifs, l’enjeu est bien toujours la conversion.
Attestée sur une longue période, la présence de Nicolas de Lyre dans la littérature juive procède directement du caractère composite – et parfois polémique – de son œuvre. Elle mérite d’être prise en compte pour que soit plus exactement appréciée l’influence de l’exégète franciscain.

La recherche porte sur les sources antiques et chrétiennes (la seconde partie portera sur les sources arabes et juives), parfois non identifiées, ou citées de façon muette, que Raymond Martin utilise dans son ouvrage. Les deux éditions du Pugio Fidei (XVIIe siècle) n’étant pas indexées, il n’existe aucune étude d’ensemble sur cette question et les études partielles sont très peu nombreuses.
L’analyse de détail (menée systématiquement, en relation avec les bases de données dont on dispose aujourd’hui) montre que la plupart des citations païennes et chrétiennes sont de seconde main et qu’en ce domaine, les emprunts à Thomas d’Aquin, souvent muets et parfois très étendus, sont beaucoup plus nombreux que ne le laissaient entendre les études antérieures. L’étude de ces citations nous informe à la fois sur la « bibliothèque » utilisée par l’auteur du Pugio fidei (en partie reconstituée, au terme de cette démarche), sur sa méthode de travail et sur l’étendue de ses connaissances. Elle intéresse donc l’histoire des bibliothèques (celle du couvent dominicain de Barcelone a disparu, sans véritable inventaire, au début du XIXe siècle), du texte et de son auteur.

The Jewish-Muslim polemics is as old as Islam. Many quranic verses challenge the Jews and Jewish ideas. From the ninth century onward, adherents of both faiths in the Near East (but not only) produced polemical and apologetic literature—though much more was produced from the Islamic perspective than from the Jewish. Interreligious debates continued throughout the medieval era and up to modern times—though my discussion here extends only from the rise of Islam to the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492.

Maʿaśeh Mehmeṭ is a polemical story against Islam written by a seventeenth or eighteenth-century Italian Jew. Reinvestigation of this text reveals that it has aspects that have not been discussed in the academic literature thus far. The article suggests possible sources of inspiration for the author, discusses the hidden polemic in the text, and offers a possible motive for writing it. A critical edition of Maʿaśeh Mehmeṭ appears in an appendix to the article.

ʿAlī b. Aḥmad b. Ḥazm devoted much of his oeuvre to polemics against Jews and Judaism. In so doing, he often based his case on what he said were Jewish sources — which, he insisted, the Jews had falsified and fabricated. How familiar was he with these sources, and how did he acquire this familiarity? The article investigates a series of references to Jewish sources by Ibn Ḥazm, attempts to determine their origin — possibly the Talmuds and other post-Biblical works that contain Midrash — analyses his treatment of them, and ventures several hypotheses about the roots of his familiarity. While scholarship to date provides no unequivocal proof of the correctness of these hypotheses, Ibn Ḥazm’s recourse to Jewish sources in his polemical writings is evidently the result of thorough research on his part.

The corpus of anti-Christian Jewish polemical literature-consisting of texts written in Hebrew or vernacular languages, during the Middle Ages and the early modern times-is as rich as it is poorly known. The studies devoted to these writings are invariably limited to one single text or to a choice of texts, which, in spite of being scientifically justified, is necessarily arbitrary. The study of the totality of this corpus is still to be done. Since many texts were lost and others are still in manuscript, such a study could not be exhaustive. However, since the function and specificity of this literature can only be apprehended by adopting a large perspective and by taking into account its multifarious relation to the historical, intellectual and religious contexts, this type of investigation is highly necessary. My intervention proposes therefore a first "total" approach of this polemical literature.

The apocall,rrtic motif of the Great Whore of Babylon, an attractive allegorization of Roman pagan oppression directed at the first Christian communities, manifests a prolonged trajectory in western medieval iconogaphy, dating back at least as far as the Carol.ingian period, and achieving its most extensive protagonism and diffusion dudng the transition from the fifteenth to the sixteenth centuries, due to various interrelated cultutai factors: the gtowing interest in the monstrous and prodigious as a premonitory slgn of political events, the eschatological effervescence fomented bv a mi11enary mentality that established 1500 as the year that would see the end of time, or the apocallptic expectations of Martin Luther and the frst Protestant circles, rvho identified the pope in Rome and the elite of the Catholic Church with the Anti-Christ. This study analyzes the recuperation and utiüzation of apocalyotic imagery, and in particular, the biblical icon of the Great \ü7hore in the service of the new prophetic environment and of religious polemics, as well as its dedvations in biblical illustration, emblem books or üe mordtziog literature of the Nfodern Age. ,,[...] amicos nobis esse deligendos, qui nec temporum diuturnitate, nec iocorum distantia, sed ne quidem post mortem amare desistant." (Claude \[inois'annotation to Alciato's emblem CLIX)

‘Abd al-Ḥaqq al-Islāmī, a fourteenth-century Muslim polemicist of Jewish origin, has been somewhat obscured in research due to doubts about the uniqueness and originality of his thinking and the extent of his Jewish education. This article, part of a broader research effort presently under way, attempts to surmount these doubts by demonstrating that ‘Abd al-Ḥaqq made a unique contribution to the oeuvre of Muslim anti-Jewish polemics, displayed originality in his extensive use of gematria and adaptation of source material to his agenda, and possessed no small amount of Jewish knowledge. The last-mentioned is reflected in his familiarity with the structure and messages of the Bible, at least a superficial acquaintance with parts of the Oral Law, and possibly some proficiency in Hebrew.

Contribuciones adicionales de ‘Abd al-Ḥaqq al-Islāmī a la polémica judío-musulmana

‘Abd al-Ḥaqq al-Islāmī, un polemista musulmán del siglo XIV y de origen judío, ha sido algo silenciado por la investigación puesto que existían dudas respecto a la excepcionalidad y originalidad de su pensamiento, así como respecto a la extension de su educación en el Judaísmo. Este artículo, parte de un estudio más amplio, intenta superar esas dudas demostrando que ‘Abd al-Ḥaqq hizo una contribución única a las obras de polémica musulmana anti-judía, mostró una amplia originalidad en su extenso uso de la gematría y adaptación de las fuentes a su agenda, mostrando, asimismo, un gran conocimiento judío. Esto último queda demostrado por su familiaridad con la estructura y el mensaje bíblicos, por un conocimiento superficial de partes de la ley oral y por una cierta habilidad con el hebreo.

La « polémologie » des controverses entre juifs et chrétiens reste un domaine d'autant plus inexploré que ces controverses, elles-mêmes, n'ont à ce jour fait l'objet d'aucune étude d'ensemble. Les travaux les mieux documentés présentent plusieurs caractéristiques communes qui limitent nécessairement la portée de leurs conclusions : ils n'intéressent, le plus souvent, qu'un seul texte ou un seul auteur, une sélection de textes, une thématique particulière, une période ou un espace circonscrits ; relative-ment peu nombreuses, les mises en contexte sont toujours restreintes, et, en tout état de cause, jamais étendues à l'ensemble de la polémique judéo-chrétienne ; dans la plupart des cas, enfin, les interactions entre traditions polémiques juive et chrétienne sont ignorées comme si ce vaste corpus s'était constitué sans que ses deux composantes pluriséculaires se soient jamais rencontrées… En ce domaine comme ailleurs, l'analyse de détail reste indispensable, mais elle ne saurait se substituer à une mise en perspective et une réflexion problématisée portant sur l'ensemble du dossier, seules susceptibles de mettre en évidence sa spécificité-s'il en a une-et celle de ses composantes. Les problématiques relatives aux controverses religieuses, et plus particulièrement à celle qui oppose ici christianisme et judaïsme, sont trop nombreuses et trop inextricablement mêlées pour être toutes abordées dans ce contexte nécessairement restreint. Nous voudrions proposer, tout au plus, un état du dossier et une première approche des questionnements qui paraissent être à la fois les plus compréhensifs, les plus novateurs et les plus négligés 1 .

: Le thème du Verus Israel trouve sa plus ancienne formulation explicite dans le Dialogue avec Tryphon de Justin Martyr (IIe s.). Il donne lieu, dans la dernière partie du texte, à de longs développements étayés par une riche argumentation. Avec les motifs qui lui sont associés (pérennité ou caducité de la Loi ; identité du Messie), la question du Verus Israël fut à l’évidence déterminante dans l’histoire de la séparation entre christianisme et judaïsme. Mais la place qu’elle occupe chez Justin est-elle représentative de l’importance qui lui était alors accordée par l’ensemble des chrétiens, et cette interrogation subsiste-t-elle au-delà du IIe siècle ? L’enquête proposée dans cet article aboutit à une conclusion négative : dans la tradition chrétienne —  y compris dans les écrits de controverse —, le thème du « véritable Israël » ne persiste, jusqu’au Moyen Âge, que sous une forme de plus en plus ponctuelle, sommaire et conventionnelle. Le leitmotiv du rejet d’Israël est, certes, repris avec insistance, mais on hésite de plus en plus, semble-t-il, à revendiquer explicitement, comme Justin, la dénomination d’Israël pour le peuple des chrétiens. La littérature juive qui se présente et se structure, à partir du Xe siècle, comme une réponse à l’argumentation chrétienne, confirme cette impression, puisque, contrairement à tous les autres motifs polémiques, celui du « véritable Israël » n’y trouve aucun écho.

The Islamic polemical tract Kitāb Masālik al-Naẓar reveals much about its author, the Jewish apostate Sa‘īd b. Ḥasan. Sa‘īd plunges into diverse polemic themes, including some with which he is poorly acquainted, and uses sources from all three Abrahamic faiths, showing greater familiarity with Jewish sources than with the Qur’ān. The discussion explores Sa‘īd’s treatment of various issues in Muslim–Jewish polemics through the prism of his important polemical tract, Masālik al-Naẓar, and takes one of the first steps toward lifting Sa‘īd out of his undeserved obscurity in scholarship.

This article revisits the legends about Friar Anselm Turmeda / ʿAbdullāh al-Tarjumān (d.ca. 1427), drawing upon the historical method and the argument of John Tolan’s Saint Francis and the Sultan. First, the essay recalls Tolan’s work, including the crucial notion of lieux de mémoire. Second follows a sketch of Turmeda’s life and the internal contradiction in his writings. The third and longest section examines the development of the Turmeda legend, noting stages in the evolution of that legend that parallel Tolan’s observations about the memory of Francis of Assisi. Fourth and finally, the essay revisits the matter of historical method and suggests some ways in which the life and work of Turmeda provides helpful guidance for Muslim-Christian dialogue today, both in Muslim-majority lands and in the West.

Václav Koranda the Younger (c. 1425–1519) was a representative of the third generation of Czech Utraquists. He died just before the first reformist elements started to enter Bohemia from Germany. Although contemporary Utraquism didn’t bring any major innovations to the faith, Koranda was very active in establishing Utraquist positions opposing those of Catholics and radical reformers. However, this period is deeply fascinating and in many ways transformational in terms of literary culture. Printed books started to become more common as a means of communication, which was demonstrated both in Koranda’s literary work and the composition of his own personal library. His activities in several roles (as a university and church official and as an author of religious and political works) led to a rather extensive collection of his written works being preserved, constituting exceptional material for the research of social communication in Bohemia during the reigns of George of Poděbrady and the Jagiellonian kings.

Did a secret Cathar Church exist in twelfth- to thirteenth-century Europe? Is it possible to identify this Church on the basis of dualism, understood as the belief in the creation of the material world by the devil or in the eternal existence of two opposed principles, good and evil? This book reopens the classical canon of texts on the Cathars, from Ebervin of Steinfeld’s letter (1140s) to Bernard of Clairvaux all the way up to the register of Jacques Fournier (1318-1325), carefully organizing these texts by genre and period, and narrating the intriguing story of the endeavour, medieval and modern, to define the Cathar heresy in terms of dualistic tenets. With the aim rather of understanding than dismissing it, the book cautiously dismantles the curious conglomerate of ideas modern scholars called “dualistic”, and demonstrates that the construction of dualist heresy was, in fact, a collaborative enterprise in which Catholic polemists, imbued with patristic images of Manicheism and striving to define the orthodox position in opposition to its enemies, interacted with the processes of self-definition and doctrinal evolution of various nonconformist groups, mainly in the Rhineland, northern Italy, and southwestern France. Growing knowledge of dissident ideas, rituals, and networks transformed the original patristic habits of the writers on heresy, while these networks themselves underwent deep changes due to their internal dynamics as well as to the way they were conceived by their Catholic opponents. The book argues that, for Catholic thinkers, dualist heresy was a preeminent “other” whose function in the culture of its time was to delegitimize some old Christian ecclesiological ideas and radical ascetic behaviours, and to define a new, relatively world-affirming version of urban Christianity. At the outset, therefore, dualist heresy was a polemical caricature, but never a simple invention. The knowledge on heresy described very real myths and practices, and it was constantly growing and changing. Far from being a simple transposition of patristic polemics, the concept of dualist heresy is nothing less than an important indicator of deep doctrinal and social transformations in Western Christendom between 1140 and 1330.

RESUMO: No presente artigo, pretendemos discutir como o bispo Isidoro de Sevilha concebia a "questão judaica". Neste sentido nos propomos a analisar a sua obra Fide Catholica ex veteri et novo testamento contra judaeos, na qual ele tenta demonstrar a Verdade cristã e a cegueira judaica. Seu propósito era obter a solução do problema judaico, através da conversão dos judeus. Ele acreditava que esta era via para completar a Sexta Era da história universal cristã e acelerar a aproximação do juízo final. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Isidoro de Sevilha, Judaísmo, exegese, apologética, visigodos O Autor e o contexto Isidoro de Sevilha (560-633) é o autor de uma vasta obra, vive num período no qual as monarquias bárbaras haviam substituído o Império Romano, na sua parte ocidental, e criado uma aguda fragmentação do poder. Devido à perda de unidade política, houve por bem, elaborar um projeto que visava à reordenação da realidade. Ele compreendia o importante papel da Igreja num mundo em desagregação e concebia o momento em que vivia como o limiar de uma era e o momento-chave para a conclusão da finalidade da história. De acordo a sua compreensão do mundo, influenciada pela concepção históricofilosófica de Agostinho de Hipona, vivia-se na "Sexta Era" que havia sido iniciada com a primeira vinda do Redentor e teria sua consumação na segunda vinda do Cristo, ou seja, o Juízo Final. Este mundo seria substituído pelo Reino de Deus na Terra. A sua atitude reflete essa concepção e a percepção do papel fundamental da Igreja no  Professor do Departamento e do programa de Pós-Graduação em História da Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo.

https://editorial.csic.es/publicaciones/libros/12476/0/sefer-ha-iqqarim-livre-des-principes-iii-25-un-cha.html

The Sefer ha-‘Iqqarim is one of the most important philosophical and theological Spanish texts of the XIVth and XVth centuries and a precious document for the history of Jewish-Christian relations.
The chapter III, 25 takes the form of a response to the attacks of a certain “Christian sage” against the Law of Moses.
The present book contains an introduction, the Hebrew text of this chapter, its French translation, notes, indices and a bibliography. The commentaries analyze the structure of the chapter, identify the sources, establish parallels, and situate the text within the Judeo-Christian controversial literature.

Résumé : Composé en 1425 par l’un des participants à la dispute de Tortosa (1313-1314), le Sefer ha-‘Iqqarim compte parmi les écrits philosophico-théologiques espagnols les plus importants des XIVe-XVe siècles. Sa rédaction s’inscrit dans la période qui suit les persécutions de 1391 et précède l’expulsion de 1492, période marquée, en Espagne, par de très nombreuses conversions. Dans la lignée de Sa‘adya Gaon (882-942), de Maïmonide (1135-1204), et de Hasdaï Crescas (ca 1340 – ca 1410) qui fut son maître, Joseph Albo s’interroge sur les « Principes » du judaïsme, sur leur rapport avec la raison et sur leur spécificité religieuse. Cette réflexion se construit par référence à la tradition juive, mais aussi, dans un contexte particulier, par opposition à tout ce qui la met en cause : aussi les allusions au christianisme sont-elles omniprésentes dans le Sefer ha-‘Iqqarim ; elles prennent des formes très diverses, souvent allusives, mais déterminantes pour sa composition, et tout à fait explicites dans le chapitre III, 25.
Ce chapitre  (12 feuillets r°-v° dans le manuscrit hébreu 744 de la BNF) se présente comme une réponse aux attaques d’un « sage chrétien » contre la Loi de Moïse opposée aux enseignements de Jésus. Les arguments chrétiens sont exposés dans la première partie et suivis d’une réfutation méthodique. Les références implicites à la littérature juive ou chrétienne antérieure ou contemporaine y sont nombreuses. Dans cet ensemble, certains écrits de Thomas d’Aquin sont omniprésents.
Parties de l’ouvrage : 1) Introduction ; 2) Texte hébreu du chapitre (pour l’essentiel, selon l’édition d’Isaac Husik, [Philadelphie, 1929-1930], les manuscrits directement consultés ne présentant que des variantes mineures) ; 3) Traduction française ; 4) Notes de la traduction ; 5) Synopsis du chapitre ; 6) Indices ; 7) Bibliographie. Les commentaires sont essentiellement consacrés aux points suivants : mise en évidence de la structure très rigoureuse du chapitre et de sa place centrale dans l’économie de l’œuvre ; recherche des sources directes et indirectes, et des parallèles ; situation de ce chapitre et de l’ensemble du livre dans l’ensemble des écrits de controverse judéo-chrétienne antérieurs, contemporains et postérieurs.

This article discusses a debated issue in Jewish–Muslim polemics: Did Lot have intercourse with his daughters, as told in Genesis 19:33–35? The treatment of this question by three scholars of Jewish origin who lived in different parts of the Islamic world at different times is examined in this article. Two of these scholars converted to Islam and wrote an anti-Jewish tract; the third was a rabbi who embroiled himself with the authorities in his area of residence because he claimed that Lot indeed had intercourse with his daughters.

מאמר זה דן באחת מהסוגיות שעמדו במוקד פולמוס בין יהודים ומוסלמים: האם לוט בא על בנותיו, כאמור בבראשית יט: 33–35. במאמר תבחן התייחסותם של שלושה מלומדים ממוצא יהודי שחיו בעולם האסלאם בתקופות ובאזורים שונים לסוגיה זו. שניים מהם המירו את דתם לאסלאם ואף חיברו קונטרס כנגד הדת היהודית והשלישי הוא רב שהסתבך עם הרשויות במקום מגוריו משום שטען כי לוט בא על בנותיו.

Al-Risāla al-Sabīʿiyya fī Ibtāl al-Diyāna al-Yahūdiyya is an anti-Jewish polemic written in the late nineteenth century by Israel b. Shemuel of Jerusalem, a Jewish-born convert to Islam. The academic treatment of this work is scanty and sometimes mistaken. In the article, the misunderstanding of the Risāla is discussed and Conrad’s argument that the author was Christian is challenged.

'אלרִסַאלַה אלסַבִּיעִיַּה בִּאִבְּטַאל אלדִיַאנַה אליַהוּדִיַּה' הוא חיבור פולמוסי כנגד היהדות שנכתב בשלהי המאה הי"ט. מחברו הוא ישראל בן שמואל הירושלמי, מומר יהודי לאסלאם. ההתייחסות ל'רִסַאלה' בספרות האקדמית מועטה מאוד ולעתים אף שגויה. להלן אדון באופן השגוי שבו הוצגה עבודה זו וכן אצא כנגד הטענה של לורנס קונרד כי מוצאו של מחברה הוא נוצרי.

Among historians, there is no consensus about why the Reformation failed in Poland even though initially, in the mid-16th century, it had been spectacularly successful. It is generally assumed that Poles’ refusal to embrace Protestant denominations is essentially attributable to the Counter-Reformation efforts undertaken by the Jesuits in Poland. The article aims to present four forms of such activities. First, the Jesuits founded schools across the Commonwealth, which stopped Polish youths from going to Western-European Protestant schools and universities. Second, they taught theology to simple people, thereby imparting knowledge useful in religious polemics. Thirdly, they launched disputes with dissenters and disseminated their outcomes in print. Fourthly, they engaged in private persuasive talks with Poland’s leading Reformers, which caused the latter to convert back to Catholicism.

The article is concerned with the vision of the Western Church by Russian intellectuals of the 11th–12th centuries as far as it can be studied on the basis of the “anti-Latin” sermons produced by Russian orthodox clergy of the time. These sermons are often regarded as badly composed and non-original. However, the systematic comparison of such texts with their most probable  prototypes demonstrates that Russian intellectuals were competent enough to add their own observations and estimations to the available information about the West leaning. Our knowledge of political and cultural relations between Rus’ and western Europe extends remarkably when we establish by whom and when the noted amplifications were made.

Sorry for the typo in the title of Kuno of Beichlingen in the note 53.