In 1240, King Louis IX of France arranged for a “disputation,” a debate, to “disprove and malign” Judaism and Jewish thought. On one side were four of the most distinguished rabbis of France – Yechiel of Paris, Moses of Courcy, Judah of Melun, and Samuel Ben Solomon of Château-Thierry. On the other was Nicholas Donin, a Franciscan monk. Donin, who was not born a Christian, had converted from Judaism.
During the two hundred years that followed, there were two other such debates, one in Barcelona in 1263 and another Tortosa in 1414. In both cases, representing the church were Jewish converts to Christianity.
