Paulus Casossa, also Paradisus, a convert from Judaism, flourished in the 16th century in Italy. For about five years, from 1.533-1538, he was professor of Hebrew, and wrote Dialogus de modo Icgendi Ilebraica (Paris, 1534). Jolni Quinqiiarboreus (in Colomesius, Italia et liispanio, p. 68) says of him that, like his great namesake, he was also of the tribe of Benjamin ; and in a work which he dedicated to Paradisus he ad- dresses him in his dedication in the following manner, "Omnes in tui admirationem ingenii dexteritate tra- his." Paradisus died in 1543, greatly lamented by Quinquarboreus, who gives vent to his feelings in the following lines: "Descende hue iterum, tui precantur. Nam postquam invida fata te tulerunt. Nemo substitui tibi meretur. Hac ergo ratione nunc neccsse est, Ut sis suppositins tii)i ipse." See Fiirst, Bill. Jud. iii, 65; AVolf, Bibl. Ilebr. iii, n. 1811 h ; iv, 950, n. 1811 /,- Jo- cher, A llgem. Gelehrlen - Lea-ikon, s. v. ; Kalkar, Israel und die Kirche, p. 76. (B. P.)
PAULUS
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PAULUS
Paulus (or Paululus) of Fulda, a convert from Judaism, flourished towards the end of the 11th cen- tury. Of his early life we know nothing, not even the year when he embraced Christianity. He entered the monastery at Fiilda, and wrote the Lif" of S.Er- hard, bishop of llcgenshurg (reprinted in Bollandi Ada Sanctorum, vol. i, Jan. 8), and De Conversione S. Paitli Apostoli. Whether he is the same as Paulus Bernrie- densis, as some suggest, is difticult to say. See Jocher, A llgem. Gelehrten-Lexikon, s. v. (B. P.)
Paulus OF Pkague, originally named Elciianan ben-Mkxachem, was born of Jewish parents about the year 1540, and embraced Christianity at Nuremberg in 1556. He died near the close of the IGth century. Paulus wrote, in Hebrew verse, a treatise on the Mes- siah according to the Jewish Kabbalah (Helmstiidt, 1580 ; afterwards translated into Latin, Demonstrutfo cubbalisHca, ibid. 1580) : — Solida et ijerspicua demon- stratio de SS. Trinitate, etc. (Leips. 1574): — Corfes- sio Jidei et testimoma Scrijiturce sacra; de j-esur7-eclione mortuorum, printed in the 2d edition of his Solida (ibid. 1576) : — Symbolum apostolicum ex ^etere Testamento confiiinatinn (Wittenberg, 1580) : — Jona quadrilinyiiis, the book of Jonah in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Ger- man (Helmstadt, 1580). See Fiirst, Bihl. Jud. i, 229 ; iii, 69; Wolf, Bibl. Hebr. i, 143, 964; iii, 910; Saat anf Hoffnung (Erlangen, 1869-1870), vii, 374; Fabricii De- lectus argumentorum. et syllabus scriptorum (Hamburg, 1725), p. 581. (B. P.)
Paulus, Alvarez, of Cordova, the biographer of his friend the martyr Eulogius, flourished in the mid- dle of the 9th century. Of his early life nothing is known beyond the fact that he was of Jewish parent- age. The times in which Alvarez lived were very troublesome to the Christians. When, in July, A.D. 711, the last Gothic king, Rodriguez, perished at the great fight near Xeres de la Frontera, and Spain had become a province of the Eastern caliphate, an im- petuous ambition moved the Arab leaders to extend their conquests beyond the Pyrenees, and from the bor- ders of Catalonia they reached the walls of Tours. Here, however, they had to meet face to face the chivalrous Charles IMartel, who utterly overthrew the invading host, thus washing away the insult offered to his coun- try in a deluge of blood. By this most critical and de- cisive victory the European countries were saved from the ravages of a universal war, and the infamy of sub- jugation to the Mohammedan power. In the battles fought in those times many Christians fell, while not a few sought martyrdom. Two parties divided tlie Church, the rigid and the more liberal : the latter thought that under these difficult circumstances everything should be done to preserve and foster the friendly relations subsisting between them and the Mohammedan raagis- tratoe, Avhile the former looked upon such conduct as be- ing a violation of the duty to confess Christ before men, and not be ashamed of him. One of the fiercest repre- sentatives of the latter class was Paulus Alvarez, who, in his Tndiculus Liimiitosus, casts it as a reproach upon the Christians that bj- accepting offices at court they be- came guilty of participating in infidelity, and stj'les them leopards, taking upon themselves every color. He justified those who voluntarily entered the Mohamme- dan circles in order to defy the false prophet, and thus become martyrs for Christ's sake. He compared these martyrs with the witnesses for the truth of olden times, who fearlessly came forward before princes and people. His zeal was not always in the right direction, but he felt an ardent hatred against the unbelievers, as well as against all priests who would not recognise the glory of martyrdom. Among his many epistles there is one written to a certain Eleazar, in which he confesses his belief that Messiah had already come, and then contin- ues: "Which of us has the most right to the name of Jew ; you, who have passed from the worship of iiUils to the knowledge of one God, or I, who am an Israelite
both by birth and faith ? Yet I no longer call myself a Jew, because that new name is given to me which the mouth of the Lord hath named! Abraham is in truth my father, but not only because my ancestors proceed from him. Those who have expected that Messiah should come, but who also receive him because he is already come, are more truly Israelites than those who, after long waiting for him, rejected him when he came, and yet cease not to expect his coming." See Neander, Hist, of the Christian Religion and Church, iii, 337 sq. (Torrey's ed. Boston, 1872) ; Gieseler, Church Hist, ii, 95 sq. (Smith's ed. N. Y. 1865); Da Costa, Israel and the Gentiles, p. 310 sq. ; Kalkar, Isixiel u. d. Kirche, p. 21 ; Antonii Bihl. Ilisp. i, 349 ; Florcz, Espana Sagrada (Madrid, 1747-1801, 42 vols. 4to), xi, 62, where the works of Alvarez are given ; also Migne, Patrol. Lat. vol. cxv, where the biography of Eulogius is to be found. (B, P.)