Nicholas Donin
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Nicholas Donin (Nicolas Donin) of La Rochelle, a Jewish convert to Christianity in early thirteenth-century Paris, is known for his role in the 1240 Disputation of Paris, which resulted in a decree to publicly burn all available manuscripts of the Talmud.
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[edit] Excommunication
Having expressed his doubts as to the value of the Jewish oral tradition, Donin was in 1225 excommunicated from Paris's organized Jewish community by R. Yechiel of Paris in the presence of the whole congregation and with the usual ceremonies. Having for ten years lived in the state of excommunication, though still clinging to Judaism, he became dissatisfied at last with his position, and embraced Christianity, possibly under the influence of Christians, who saw the benefit they could derive from such a recruit, embittered as he was against his coreligionists. Donin joined the Franciscan Order.
[edit] Crusader
Donin's first act of retaliation as a Franciscan was to stir up the Crusaders to the bloody persecutions in Brittany, Poitou, and Anjou, in which 3,000 Jews were killed, 500 accepting the alternative of baptism.
[edit] Disputations
[edit] Authority of Pope Gregory IX
In 1238 Donin went to Rome, presented himself before Pope Gregory IX, and denounced the Talmud. Thirty-five articles were drawn up, in which Donin stated his charges.
The pope was easily convinced of the truth of the accusation, and despatched to the authorities of the Church transcripts of the charges formulated by Donin, accompanied by an order to seize all copies of the Talmud and deposit them with the Dominicans and Franciscans. If an examination substantiated the charges of Donin, the books were to be burned.
[edit] Authority of King Louis IX
This order was generally disregarded, except in France, where the Jews were compelled under pain of death to surrender their Talmuds (March, 1240). Louis IX ordered four of the most distinguished rabbis of France -- Yechiel of Paris, Moses of Coucy, Judah of Melun, and Samuel ben Solomon of Château-Thierry -- to answer Donin in a public disputation. In vain, however, did the rabbis disprove the charges of blasphemy and immorality which were the main points of Donin's arraignment. The commission condemned the Talmud to be burned. On Friday, June 17, 1244), fire was set accordingly to twenty-four carriageloads of written works.
[edit] Bibliography
- Ibn Verga, Shevet Yehudah, ed. Wiener, p. 114;
- A. Lewin, in Monatsschrift, 1869, pp. 9 et seq.:
- Isidore Loeb, in Rev. Et. Juives, i. 247 et seq.;
- Wagenseil, Tela Ignea Satanæ;
- Heinrich Graetz, Geschichte vii. 94 et seq.
- This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.
