13th–14th centuries
Burning of the Talmud ordered by Innocent IV
1244·Rome
The toll is reproduced exactly as the source states it — never rounded, never added to another. Tolls overlap from one event to the next.
After the disputation of Paris and the condemnation of the Talmud, Innocent IV confirmed the sentence and wrote to Saint Louis asking him to have the confiscated copies delivered to the flames. The letter, dated from Rome, reprised the argumentation of his predecessor: the Jews were held in error less by the Bible than by the traditions of their masters.
The pope would partially reconsider shortly afterward, having been informed that a community deprived of the Talmud can no longer study its own Law, and authorized the restitution of the expurgated books. The principle of prior censorship had been established; it would govern the Church's relationship with the Jewish book through the Index and beyond.
- Period :
- 13th–14th centuries
- Type :
- Trials and executions
- Region :
- Western Europe
- Country :
- Italie
Solomon Grayzel, *The Church and the Jews in the XIIIth Century* ; Gilbert Dahan, *Le brûlement du Talmud* ; *Bullarium Romanum*.