Gerónimo de Santa Fe

Jerónimo de Santa Fe (fl.1400-1430) (born Yehosúa ben Yosef ibn Vives) was a Spanish physician and religious writer who after conversion to Catholicism, wrote in Latin as Hieronymus de Sancta Fide (Jerome of the Holy Faith).^[1][2]

Born Yehosúa ben Yosef ibn Vives, his epiphet "al-Lorquí", from Lorca, near Murcia, may indicate his place of birth or later residence. An alternative hypothesis places his home time as Alcañiz.^[3]

According to Richard Gottheil (1911)^[4] it is not correct to identify him with the author of the same name who wrote an anti-Christian letter to Solomon ha-Levi (Paul de Burgos). The only proof offered for such an identification is a note appended to the manuscript of the letter to the effect that "the author afterward became a Christian." This note, not in another manuscript ("Cat. Leyden," pp. 276, 354), was probably added by a later copyist who was misled by the similarity of the names (see Joshua ben Joseph ibn Vives al-Lorqui). Joshua ha-Lorki was baptized before Vicente Ferrer delivered his proselytizing sermons in Lorca. Although not a rabbi, as Spanish chroniclers claim, he was well versed in the Talmud and in rabbinical literature. In order to show his zeal for the new faith he tried to win over to Christianity his former cobelievers, and to throw suspicion on them and on their religion. For that reason he was called "megaddef" (= "the blasphemer"), from the initial letters of his name, Maestro Geronimo de Santa Fé. He offered to prove from the Talmud that the Messiah had already come in the person of Jesus. For this purpose he induced Antipope Benedict XIII, whose physician he was, to arrange the Disputation of Tortosa with learned Jews. Either before or after the debate Hieronymus, at the request of Pope Benedict XIII., wrote two articles in which he heaped up accusations against the Jews and repeated the old slanderous charges. One of these articles was Tractatus Contra Perfidiam Judæorum; the other, De Judæis Erroribus ex Talmuth; they were published together as Hebræomastix (Zurich, 1552; Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1602; Hamburg, n. d.), printed in the Bibliotheca Magna Veterum Patrum, Lyons, vol. xxvi., and Cologne, 1618; they were also translated into Spanish under the title Azote de los Hebreos. Articles in response were written by Don Vidal Benveniste, with the title "Ḳodesh ha-Ḳodashim," and by Isaac Nathan ben Kalonymus in his "Tokaḥat Mat'eh."

Hieronymus had several sons. One of them, Pedro, was in special favor with Queen Maria. Another was assessor for the governor of Aragon and lived in Saragossa; this son of the "apostle of Tortosa," as De los Rios calls him ("Hist." iii. 264), took part in the rebellion against Pedro Arbucs, was arrested with other Marranos, and, in order to escape the disgrace of being publicly burned, killed himself in prison. His body was burned publicly on Oct. 21-22, 1486. Other members of the Santa Fe family were burned as marranos in 1497 and 1499.

Works

• "De iudaicis erroribus ex Talmut"^[5]

See also

• Disputation of Tortosa

References

1. ^ Jerónimo (de Santa Fe), by Carlos del Valle Rodríguez - 2006 Biblioteca bíblica ibérica medieval - Page 181
2. ^ Klaus Reinhardt, Horacio Santiago-Otero - 1986 JERÓNIMO DE SANTA FE (s. xiv-xv) Jerónimo de Santa Fe, antes Yehosúa ha-Lorquí (Yehosúa ben Yosef ibn Vives al-Lorquí), nació hacia mediados del siglo XIV.
3. ^ Reinhardt "Se discute si el apellido ha-Lorquí debe referirse a Llorca como al lugar de nacimiento de Yehosúa ha-Lorquí o si indica solamente que este último era oriundo de esa ciudad. En la segunda hipótesis podría pensarse en Alcañiz (Teruel)"
4. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia 1911 IBN VIVES AL-LORQUI (OF LORCA), JOSHUA BEN JOSEPH By : Richard Gottheil Meyer Kayserling
5. ^ El tratado "De iudaicis erroribus ex Talmut" Jerónimo (de Santa Fe), Moisés Orfali Levi

• This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a publication now in the public domain.