> Date sent: Tue, 05 Nov 1996 13:12:09 -0500 (EST)
> From: Thomas Izbicki <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Peter the Venerable and Muslims
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Send reply to: [log in to unmask]
> While lay Christians in an Arabic-speaking community might not be direct
> targets, might not their clergy have needed information about Islam,
> perhaps even for very practical purposes. I am not convinced that all
> works nominally addressed to Muslims - or to Jews, especially in my own
> period, the 15th century. Some, like Pius II's letter to Mohammed II,
> were intended only nominally for non-Christian audiences. There even is
> an element of wishful thinking evident in Cusanus' writings, elevating the
> discourse in De pace fidei to a celestial plane.
>
> tom izbicki
>
>
I agree with this. Remember that one of Peter's concerns, expressed
to Bernard of Clairvaux when Peter was asking him to write a
refutation of Islam, was to help strengthen the "weak" who might need
support in their faith. When I was referring to the Spanish, this was
what I had in mind; sorry for not making that clearer.
Portions of Spain at the time were still heavily under Moorish and
Islamic influence. One might recall the outrage of Eulogius and
Alvaro in the ninth century at this fact. Whilst the situation had
certainly changed by the 12th century, nevertheless the Spanish
Christians would fit well into the area of Peter's concern, and would
have been more directly related to his experiences in Toledo than,
say, Christians in the Holy Land or elsewhere where he had never
visited.
Tim Rayborn
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