Oligier Pauli of Denmark

From the Jewish side, an interesting argument, , probably only known to a few, was. advanced by Abraham Cardoso, who remained a follower of Sabbatai Sevi to the. end of his life. He challenged Isaac Orobio de Castro, the leading intellectual of the Jewish community of Amsterdam, who had initially accepted Sabbatai as the Messiah, and then became doubtful and finally antagonistic, after Sabbatai's conversion to Islam. Cardoso told Orobio that either he should believe anyone could be the Messiah, or he did not believe in the possibility of a messiah. If he believed that anyone could be the Messiah, then he should believe that Sabbatai .Sevi could be the Messiah, no matter what he does. To deny Sabbatai as a possible. messiah is, Cardoso contended, to deny the possibility of a messiah 4°. On Cardoso's grounds anyone could be the Messiah. In fact after Sabbatai .Sevi, ,. some other contenders appeared, such as Oligier Pauli of Denmark, who had a who had a. court of rabbis, claimed to have a Jewish grandfather and to be a distant descendant. of Abraham, and had the convert rabbi, Moses Germanus, as his apostle. 4 And, of. course, it could be argued that if one did not consider Oligier Pauli as a messiah then one did not really believe in the possibility of a messiah.