David NAVARRO

Published in Rhythms, expressions and representations of the body

Keywords: Alfonso X, Augustine of Hippo, Fourth Lateran, Jews, Siete Partidas.

This article examines Augustine of Hippo’s Doctrine of Jewish Witness in Alfonso X’s Partida 7.24 De los judios. This Augustinian tenet, derived from traditional theological anti-Judaism, serves as the juridical principle for the first six laws of the Partida. These postulates, the most extensive and detailed of the Partida, enhance the Jews’ hermeneutical features, and denote a lenient posture toward their religious freedom and communal jurisdictional autonomy. In addition, these precepts differ from the Jews’ functional traits and the segregationist tone present in the rest of the laws of the text, drawn from the Church’s Lateran campaign and popular tradition. I posit the Augustinian Witness Doctrine represents the main legal framework in the redaction of this Partida, creating an opening for a new discussion on the monarch’s debated tolerant stance toward his Jewish subjects.