Bodo (bishop)

Bodo (c. 814 ["Assuming a difference of no more than five years, we may suppose that Bodo was born about the time of Charlemagne's death and the accession of Louis the Pious." [http://www.jstor.org/pss/1453233] ] –876) was the palace deacon to Louis the Pious, Emperor and King of the Franks from 814 to 840. In early 838, Bodo intended to make a pilgrimage to Rome but instead converted to Judaism, allegedly selling his fellow pilgrims into slavery in Muslim Spain.Fact|date=August 2007 His conversion was regarded as a rejection of the Carolingian culture and the Christian faith. Bodo left the Frankish Kingdom for Muslim Spain in 839. He took the Jewish name "Eleazar", had himself circumcised and married a Jewish woman. In 840 Bodo moved to Saragossa, where he incited the Moorish government and the people to persecute the Spanish Christians.

Correspondence with Álvaro

In 840 Bodo began a correspondence with a Christian intellectual Pablo Alvaro of Cordova (Cordova was also a Muslim area of Spain). Alvaro, possibly was born a Jew, but had converted to Christianity. Because Bodo and Alvaro were both converts, they began a dialogue to try to convince each other to go back to their old faith. Some of their letters have been preserved.

The source of the following letter is disputed, but it is attributed to Bodo:

As for your assertion that Christ is God, joined with the Holy Spirit, and you worship him because he had no human father, then along with him you ought to worship Adam the father of the human race, who had neither father nor mother, whose flesh, blood, bones and skin were created from clay. Breath was put in him by the Holy Spirit, and he became an intelligent being. Then too, Eve was created from Adam's rib without a father or mother, and breath came into her and she became intelligent. So worship them too! [http://www.uwm.edu/People/corre/arab/bishop2.html]

See also

* Pablo Alvaro
* La Convivencia
* Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain

Footnotes

References

* Corré, Alan D. [http://www.uwm.edu/People/corre/arab/bishop2.html The Bishop's Letter]
* Epstein, Lawrence [http://www.convert.org/book2.htm The Theory and Practice of Welcoming Converts to Judaism]
* Gottheil, Richard & Vogelstein, Hermann, " [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1229&letter=B Bodo] " ~ "Jewish Encyclopedia"
* Ress, Franklin [http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1468-0254.2005.00152.x?cookieSet=1 "From Aachen to Al-Andalus: the journey of Deacon Bodo"]