Note 1116 — Chapter III · RELIGION AND THE SPIRIT OF THE RENAISSANCE.

Decamerone i. nov. 3. Boccaccio is the first to name the Christian religion, which the others do not. For an old French authority of the thirteenth century, see Tobler, Li di dou Vrai Aniel, Leipzig, 1871. For the Hebrew story of Abr. Abulafia (b. 1241 in Spain, came to Italy about 1290 in the hope of converting the Pope to Judaism), in which two servants claim each to hold the jewel buried for the son, see Steinschneider, Polem. und Apol. Lit. der Arab. Sprache, pp. 319 and 360. From these and other sources we conclude that the story originally was less definite than as we now have it (in Abul. e.g. it is used polemically against the Christians), and that the doctrine of the equality of the three religions is a later addition. Comp. Reuter, Gesch. der Relig. Aufklärung im M. A. (Berlin, 1877), iii. 302 sqq. 390.