tained in Church and State, may even then have
floated aUuringlj before his miud. In order to
profit by his apostasy, the convert Faolos de Santa
Maria gave out that he had voluntarily embraced
Christianity, the theological writings of the Scholiast
Thomas of Aquinas having taken hold of his inmost
convictions. The Jews, however, mistrusted his
credulity, and knowing him well, they ascribed this
step to his ambition and his thirst for fame. His
family, consisting of a wife and son, renounced him
when he changed his faith. He studied theology
in the University of Paris, and then visited the papal
court of Avignon, where Cardinal Pedro de Juna had
been elected papal antagonist to Benedict XIII. of
Rome. The church feud and the schism between
the two Popes offered the most favorable opportu-
nity for intrigues and claims. Paulus, by his cleveiv
ness, his zeal, and his eloquence, won the favor of the
Pope, who discerned in him a useful tooL Thus he
became successively Archdeacon of Trevinjo, Canon
of Seville, Bishop of Cartagena, Chancellor of Cas-
tile, and Privy Councillor to King Henry III. of
Spain. With tongue and pen he attacked Judaism,
and Jewish literature provided him with the neces-
sary weapons. Intelligent Jews rightly divined in
this convert to Christianity their bitterest enemy,
and entered into a contest with him. . . .
The campaign against the malignity of Paul de Santa Maria was opened by a young man who had formerly sat at his feet, Joshua ben Joseph Ibn Yives, from the town of Lorca or Allorqui, a physi- cian and Arabic scholar. In an epistle written in a tone of humility as from a docile pupil to a revered master, he deals his apostate teacher heavy blows,
