The Disputation of Barcelona Begins

On this day, a public disputation opened at the royal palace in Barcelona. The Jewish Encyclopedia records that it was held before James I of Aragon, and that the two speakers were Moses ben Nahman, known as Nachmanides, and Pablo Christiani, a Jewish convert who had become a Dominican.

The questions were whether the Messiah had already come, whether that Messiah was divine or human, and which faith was the true one. Christiani argued from aggadic passages in the Talmud. Nachmanides answered that he did not accept every aggadah as binding, and that the peace the prophets promised had not arrived. The debate ran for four days. After Nachmanides published his account, the king could no longer protect him, and he left Aragon.