Background
The initiator of the disputation and representative for the Christians was the Pope's personal physician, the Jewish Christian convert Joshua Lorqui. After his conversion to Christianity, Lorqui presented his employer, Antipope or Avignon Pope Benedict XIII, with a composition containing topics to contest with his former co-religionists. The aging pope, who rejoiced at religious debate, jumped at the opportunity to bring the Jews to a disputation. King Ferdinand I, then ruler of Aragon, did not stand in his way, and letters of invitation were sent to the various Jewish communities in 1413. Attempts by the Jews to free themselves of this were not successful.
The Jewish representatives were at a considerable disadvantage—where Nahmanides at the disputation of Barcelona and the Jewish representatives at the disputation of Paris had been granted immunity, "every Jewish attempt to respond to the Christian charges was met with the threat of the accusation of heresy". The disputation was not a free discussion between two parties but took the form of a propaganda attack by the Christian side against Jews, including the use of psychological pressure in the form of intimidation and threats. Before them stood a former Jew who was proficient in the Aggadic midrashim and made use of them to justify the Christian viewpoint.
Read more about this topic: Disputation Of Tortosa
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)