Pedro, Alfonso

Pedro, Alfonso a noted convert from Judaism, whose original name was Moses Cohen, a native of Huesca, in Aragon, was born in the year 1062. At the age of forty-four he was baptized in the cathedral of his native city, in 1106, on St. Peter's day; and, in honor of the saint, and his godfather, king Alfonso VI, he took the name of Pedro Alfonso. He afterwards wrote a defense of Christianity and a refutation of Jewish incredulity, in the form of a dialogue between Moses and Pedro Alfonso, under the title Dialogi in quibus impice Judaeorum opiniones evidenfissinmis tamn natusalis quam ccelestisphilosophiae arounmentis conafutantur, quaedamque Prophetarum abstrusiora loca illustrantur (Cologne, 1536). This work is spoken of in high terms, and has been of'great use in Spain. We have also by him a Disciplina clericalis, under the title of "Proverbs," in which he seems to have borrowed from the Arabic writers, especially the tales and fables of Pilpay. A part of this work still exists in the Hebrew translation, and is known as the Book of Enoch (Idris). See Furst, Bibl. Judaica, 1:36; Da Costa, Israel and the Gentiles, p. 312; Finn, Sephardiis, p. 181; Lindo, Jews in Spain, p. 56; Kalkar, Israel und die Kirche (Hamb. 1869), p. 22; Steinschneider, Jewish Literature, p. 174; Catal. libr. liebr. in Bibl. Bodlej. No. 3546; Jost, Gesch. d. Judenthuns, 3:38; De Castro, History of the Jews iin Spain (Cambridge, 1871), p. 57; Adams, History of the Jews (Boston, 1812), 1:260; Delitzsch, Jeschurun- (Grimma, 1838), p. 137 sq.; id. Saat auf Hoffnung (Erlangen, 1876), 13:142 sq.; Evangelical (Lutheran) Rev. (Gettysburg, 1876), p. 359 sq. (B. P.)