Geronimo had prepared, at the instance of the pope, a treatise with this purpose in view. He had collected all the extravagances accidentally uttered by one or two of the hundreds of Agadists figuring in the Talmud. Shameless malice or ignorance dictated manifestly false accusations against the Talmud. Thus, he stated that it permitted the beating of parents, blasphemy, and idolatry, also the breaking of oaths, provided that on the previous Day of Atonement the precaution had been taken to declare them invalid. Conscientiousness in respect to oaths and vows he thus construed as perfidy, and, like Nicholas-Donin, drew the conclusion that the Jews did not fulfill their obligations towards Christians. Of course, he revived the calumny of Alfonso of Valladolid, that the Jews cursed the Christians in their daily prayers. Every inimical reference in the Talmud to heathens or Jewish Christians, Geronimo interpreted as applying to Christians, a fabrication with disastrous consequences, inasmuch as the enemies of the Jews repeated these deadly charges without further inquiry. When the attacks on the Talmud unexpectedly became the subject of discussion, the Jewish representatives defended the arraigned points, but were so hard pressed that they split up into two parties. Don Astruc Levi handed in a written declaration, setting forth that he ascribed no authority to the Agadic sentences quoted incriminating the Talmud; that he held them as naught, and renounced them. The majority of the notables supported him. To save the life of the whole they sacrificed a limb. Joseph Albo and Ferrer (Don Vidal) alone maintained their ground, declaring that the Talmudic Agada was a competent authority, and that the equivocal passages had a different meaning from that ascribed to them, and were not to be interpreted literally. So the machinations of the pope and his creatures had at least succeeded in bringing about a division in the ranks of the defenders of Judaism.