Abravanel Samuel (one of the three of the same name) was baptized in 1391, when he took the name of Juan de Sevilla.
Aemilius, Paulus, born in Breslau, Germany probably in the first part of the sixteenth century, died at Rome in 1576. After embracing Christianity he was appointed Professor of Hebrew at Ingoldstadt in 1547. He was the first Jewish bibliographer.
Alexander de Franciscis Hebraeus. As a Jew he was known as Elisha de Roma. After his baptism in the sixteenth century he entered the Order of the Dominican Friars, in which he distinguished himself as an orator. Pope Clement VIII. appointed him proctor, then vicar-general, and finally Bishop of Forli. He wrote—1. Hebrew notes on Genesis and Exodus, with special reference to the text of the Vulgate. 2. A book entitled "De Tempore et de Sanctis."
Alexanderson (Ben Alexander) Daniel. After embracing Christianity at Rouen, in France, 1621, he wrote in Syriac or rabbinic an open letter, giving the reasons for his conversion and calling upon his former co-religionists to follow his example. The letter was translated into several European languages, and went through two English editions. (London, 1688 and 1703.)
Alfonsi Petrus (Moses Sephardi) was born at Huesca, Aragon, in 1062, and died in 1110. He was physician to King Alfonso VI. After his baptism he wrote a series of twelve dialogues between Moses and Pedro, i.e., between himself as a Jew and a Christian.
Alonzo de Cartagena, son of Solomon ha Levi, or Paul of Burgos, was born in Burgos, Spain, in 1385, and was baptized with his father, brothers and sisters in 1391. After studying philosophy and law, he became deacon of Santiago and Segovia. He and his brother, called Gonzalo Garcia, represented Spain at the Council of Basel. Alonzo, who was called "the joy of Spain and the delight of religion," published several philosophical and theological works, as well as some erotic poems.
Andreas Johannes, a native of Xativa in the sixteenth century. After his conversion he wrote a letter to the congregations of Southern France, exhorting them to accept Christianity (Paris, 1552). His works which were originally written in Spanish, were translated into Italian by Domenio Castila (Seville, 1537), and frequently reprinted in Leipzig, Venice and Utrecht.
Alfonso de Zamora, born about 1474, embraced Christianity in 1506, and his father Juan did likewise. Alfonso became professor of Oriental languages at the University of Salamanca. For over fifteen years he laboured under the auspices of Cardinal Ximenes, in the preparation of the Complutensian Polyglot. He wrote a number of grammatical and lexicographical works, an Epistle in Hebrew and Latin to the Jews in Rome, in which he tried to convince them of the truth of Christianity, translations of Commentaries on Isaiah and Jeremiah, &c., an Introduction to the Targum, and a polemical work entitled, "Libro de la Sabiduria de Dios."
Anacletus II., Pietro Pierleoni Antipope to Innocent II., from 1130 to 1138. It is maintained that he was a very near descendant of one Baruch, a rich Jew who had joined the Roman Church. There can be no doubt that he was of Jewish origin, as Bernard of Clairvaux, a supporter of Innocent, in a letter to Lothair, wrote that "to the shame of Christ a man of Jewish origin was come to occupy the chair of St. Peter." He was friendly to the Jews. This is interesting enough, but the more so, because it gave rise to the legend of a Jewish Pope by the name of Andreas, discovered among some penitential liturgies issued by Eliezer Ashkenazi (Frankfurt on Maine, 1854.) In this it is said Andreas had himself embraced Christianity, and become successively Cardinal and Pope. In answer to an appeal from the Jews for protection against an imminent persecution, he not only, by a speech, subdued the popular passion but also calmed the Jews by sending them a penitential prayer which had been composed in Hebrew, signed with his name Andreas.
Another legend in circulation among the Jews, varying in the details, is that this Pope's name was Elhanan, the son of Simon the Great, a rabbi of Mayence, who was kidnapped when quite a child by a servant, on the Day of Atonement. And when he became Pope, the story of his origin was told him by his old Professor of Wurzburg, when he summoned the Jews of Mayence to send a delegation to Rome, to discuss the question between Judaism and Christianity with him. Accordingly, his own father appeared before him, and one evening made himself known to him by his birth-signs or, as some say, by a peculiar move in chess which he had learned from him. The result was that the Pope suddenly fled in disguise to Mayence and returned to Judaism. But his end was either that he was forcibly burned at the stake or that he committed suicide. (See "Sippurim," by J. B. Brandeis, Prague) This is the Judeo-German version, but there are also Spanish and Arabic versions which differ in some of the details. (See "Jewish Encyclopædia.")