DURING THE THIRTEENTH century, contact between Christians and Jews was encouraged by the fact that monasteries could at times be public spaces. One space that functioned as such was the cloister, where academic lessons were typically imparted and which also functioned as a central meeting place. Such was the case at St. Martin of Tournai, where, in addition to the “activities of the cathedral school”:

As mentioned in chapter 1, at Cluny the cloister functioned as a place where monks engaged in reading, and it would be logical to conclude that this is where they read (and perhaps heard readings of) manuscripts from which they learned the techniques of cuaderna vía poetry. Public recitation of cuaderna vía poems outside of monasteries enhanced the possibility for contact between Christian clerics and Jews because Jewish communities were located nearby important Castilian pilgrimage monasteries and at times under their control. For example, in 1221 King Fernando III (r. 1217–1252) decreed that Jews living on lands in Burgos controlled by Santa María de las Huelgas were to be vassals of that monastery. Other monasteries situated close to Jewish communities include San Zoilo in Carrión de los Condes, which will be discussed in the following chapter, and the monastery in Frómista (which included the Church of San Martín) annexed to San Zoilo.

Interaction between Jews and Christian clerics was also an offshoot of the fact that commercial transactions between monasteries and Jews were a part of daily life on the Camino de Santiago.