Peter Nigri

In 1459 he defended publicly in Freiburg a series of theses so successfully that the provincial chapter then in session there sent him to the University of Bologna for advanced courses in theology and canon law.

[1] Shortly after, on the invitation of the patron of learning, Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary, he became rector of his newly erected Academy of Philosophy, Theology, and Sacred Scripture at Buda, in gratitude for which Nigri dedicated to the king his Clypeus Thomistarum adversus omnes doctrinae doctoris angelici obtrectatores (Venice, 1481), in which he defends the teaching of Thomas Aquinas against the Scotists and Nominalists.

He had learned their language and become familiar with their literature at Salamanca and Montpellier by associating with Jewish children and attending the lectures of the rabbis.

At Ratisbon, Worms, and Frankfort-on-the-Main he preached in German, Latin, and Hebrew, frequently challenging the rabbis to a disputation.

[1] He wrote two anti-Semitic works, one in Latin, Tractatus contra Perfidos Judaeos (Esslingen, 1475), in which he severely attacked the Jews and the Talmud.