Dialogue against the Jews

Proemium and Prologue

PROEMIUM AND PROLOGUE HE PROEMIUM OF Petrus Alfonsi, an illustrious man and [converted to] a Catholic Christian from a Jew, begins. To the one and first eternal omnipotent creator of all things who is without beginning and without end, knowing all, who accomplishes all that he wills, who placed humankind, endowed with reason and wisdom, above every animal, so that with these two powers he may desire with understanding things that are just and flee from those that are contrary to salvation, [to him be] honor and glory, and may his marvelous name be blessed forever and ever. Amen. PROEMIUM ENDS. The prologue by the same person begins, on his dialogue. The author of the following work said: The Omnipotent One has inspired us with his spirit and led me on the correct path, first removing the white spot from the eyes1 and then the weighty veil of a corrupt soul. Then the halls of the prophets lay open for us and their secret places were revealed, and we applied the mind to perceiving their true understanding and we tarried over interpreting it. Thus we considered both what ought to be understood and what ought to be believed thereby, namely, that God is one in a trinity of persons, which do not precede one another in time whatsoever, nor are they separated from one another by any division , which [persons] Christians name Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and that the blessed Mary, conceiving by the Holy Spirit, gave birth to Christ without mixing with a man, generating an animate body that was the dwelling place of the incomprehen39 1. For the phrase albuginem...... in oculo, see Lv 21.20 (Vulg.). 40 ALFONSI sible deity. Therefore, there is one Christ, complete with three substances, namely, body, soul, and deity, and this very same one is both God and man. And [we believe] that the Jews cruci fied him by their disposition and will, so that just as he was the Creator, he would also become the Redeemer of the entire holy Church (namely, of the faithful both preceding and following after), and he died in the body and was buried, and on the third day was resurrected from the dead. Then he ascended into heaven and he is there at the same time with the Father; he will come again on the day of judgment, to judge the living and the dead, just as the prophets have spoken and have predicted for the future. Therefore, when I had arrived at so exalted a degree of this faith, by the impulse of divine mercy, I took off the cloak2 of falsehood and was stripped bare of the tunic3 of iniquity and was baptized in the see of the city of Huesca in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, having been purified by the hands of Stephen,4 the glorious and legitimate bishop of the same city. At the moment of baptism, in addition to those things that have already been mentioned, I believed in the blessed apostles and the holy Catholic Church. This occurred in the year 1106, the year 1144 of the [Spanish ] era from the nativity of the Lord, in the month of June, on the feast day of the apostles Peter and Paul.5 Thus I took upon myself the name of the apostle, that is, Peter , out of reverence for and as a remembrance of this same day. Moreover, my spiritual father [godfather] was Alfonsus,6 the glorious emperor of Spain, who received me at the sacred font. This is why I took for myself the name Petrus Alfonsi, appending his name to the name of mine that I have already mentioned . 2. “Cloak”: pallium, also a mantle worn by members of the ecclesiastical hierarchy . 3. Tunica: a long outer vestment worn by subdeacons when assisting the priest at solemn functions. 4. Bishop of Huesca, 1099–1130. 5. The feast day of Sts. Peter and Paul falls on 29 June. 6. I.e., Alfonso I, the Battler, King of Aragon from 1104 to 1134. And when it became known to the Jews who had known me previously, and had considered me well-trained in the books of the prophets and the sayings of the sages, and to have even a portion, although not great, of all the liberal arts, that I had accepted the law and faith of the...