INTRODUCTION
I
Peter Alphonse,[1] the author of the popular mediaeval collection of oriental folk tales or exempla, known as Disciplina Clericalis, was, according to his own testimony, born at Huesca in the kingdom of Aragon in the year 1062.[2] He was a Jew by birth and was known before his conversion by the name of Rabbi Moses Sephardi, or Moses the Spaniard. He was baptized under the name 'Petrus Alphonsus,'—the first part of the name due to the apostle on whose birthday the event occurred, the second part deriving from Alphonsus I[3] , "the glorious emperor of Spain who was my spiritual father and who received me at the baptismal font."[4] He was according to Söderhjelm[5] one of the many Jewish intellectuals of the Middle Ages who served as intermediaries between oriental and occidental culture.
A few years after his conversion he published his Dialogi—or Dialogus contra Judaeos[6] —in which the Christian Peter defends the doctrines of Christianity against the attacks of Moses the Jew (representing the attitude of the author before his conversion as well as that of the orthodox Jews of his time).
It was probably not far from the same time that the Disciplina Clericalis was written. The author had at least already become a
Christian,—a fact fully established by the Prolog of the Disciplina,
which begins: "Petir Alfons, seruaunt of Jesus Christ maker of this
book," and, "I return thanks to God who is the first without beginning;"
and the author closes the Prolog with, "May the omnipo-
- ↑ This seems to be the natural modern form of the second part of the name; though such forms as Aldefunsi, Adelfonsi, Amphulsi, Alfunsi, Alfonsi, Alphunsus, Alfonsus, Anfonsus, Anfulsus, etc., occur, and out text has Alfons. Cf. Hilka and Söderhjelm Die Disciplina Clericalis des Petrus Alfunsi. Heidelberg, 1911. Sammlung mitttellateinischer Texte, hrsg von Alfons Hilka, No. I, Introd. p. vii.
- ↑ See Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 157, col. 537-38. In the preface to the Dialogi, when speaking of his conversion to Christianity and his baptism, he says: "This (i. e. his baptism) happened in the year 1106 after the nativity of our Lord and in the 44th year of ray life, in the month of July on the birthday of the apostles Peter and Paul. Hoc autem factum est anno a nativitate Domini millesimo centesimo sexto, aetatis meae anno quadragesimo quarto, mense Julio, die natalis apostolorum Petri et Pauli.
- ↑ See Söderhjelm, op. cit.; but Labouderie speaks of him (Migne, op. cit. col. 531) as "Alphonse VI, king of Castille and Leon."
- ↑ Cf. Migne, op, cit. col. 538: Fuit autem pater meus spiritualis Alfunsus, gloriosus Hispaniae imperator, qui me de sacro fonte suscepit, quare nomen ejus praefato nomini meo apponens, Petrus Alfunsi mihi nomen imposui.
- ↑ Op. cit. p. vii.
- ↑ Though the work is so designated by Söderhjelm, Migne op, cit. col. 531, also cols. 535-6 and 537-8, always refers to it as Dialogi. Labouderie speaks of an edition printed in Cologne in 1536 under the title, Dialogi lectu dignissimi, in quibus impiae Judaeorum opiniones, et. cet.; the preface begins: Petri Alphonsi ex Judaeo Christiani Dialogi; and the discussion itself has the following title (Migne, cols. 537-38): Incipit Dialogus Petri cognomento Alphonsi, ex Judaeo Christiani et Moysi Judaei.
