BERTHOLD OF FREIBURG°

BERTHOLD OF FREIBURG° (13th century), Dominican preacher and theologian. In his Summa, completed in about 1295, the oldest known textbook of canon law in the German language, Berthold contests the validity of forced conversion to Christianity, obtained by "use of arrow or lance," or by "pushing people under the baptismal font against their will." He further prescribes that converts should be allowed to retain their property after baptism, in opposition to the fiscal policy followed by certain princes who commonly confiscated the property of the new converts to compensate for the loss of the Jewish tax. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: R. Stanka, in: Theologische Studien der oesterreichischen Leo-Gesellschaft, 36 (1937), 146; Monumenta Judaica (1963), 162, 165. (Emmanuel Beeri)