Editing Pope Innocent IV (section)

==Compromise on the Talmud==
Possibly prompted by the persistence of heretical movements such as the [[Albigensian]]s, an earlier pope, [[Gregory IX]] (1227–1241), had issued letters on 9 June 1239, ordering all the bishops of France to confiscate all [[Talmud]]s in the possession of the Jews. Agents were to raid each synagogue on the first Saturday of Lent 1240, and seize the books, placing them in the custody of the Dominicans or the Franciscans.<ref>Augustus Potthast, ''Regesta pontificum Romanorum'' I (Berlin 1874), no. 10759.</ref> The Bishop of Paris was ordered to see to it that copies of the Pope's mandate reached all the bishops of France, England, Aragon, Navarre, Castile and León, and Portugal.<ref>Augustus Potthast, ''Regesta pontificum Romanorum'' I (Berlin 1874), no. 10760.</ref> On 20 June 1239, there was another letter, addressed to the Bishop of Paris, the Prior of the Dominicans and the Minister of the Franciscans, calling for the burning of all copies of the Talmud, and any obstructionists were to be visited with ecclesiastical censures. On the same day, the Pope wrote to the King of Portugal ordering him to see to it that all copies of the Talmud be seized and turned over to the Dominicans or Franciscans.<ref>Augustus Potthast, ''Regesta pontificum Romanorum'' I (Berlin 1874), no. 10767–10768.</ref> On account of these letters, King [[Louis IX of France]] held [[Disputation of Paris|a trial in Paris in 1240]], which ultimately found the Talmud guilty of 35 alleged charges; 24 cartloads of copies of the Talmud were burned.<ref>Isidore Loeb, ''La controverse sur le Talmud sous saint Louis'' (Paris: Baer 1881).</ref>

Initially, Innocent IV continued Gregory IX's policy. In a letter of 9 May 1244, he wrote to King Louis IX, ordering the Talmud and any books with Talmudic glosses to be examined by the Regent Doctors of the University of Paris, and if condemned by them, to be burned.<ref>Augustus Potthast, ''Regesta pontificum Romanorum'' I (Berlin 1874), no. 11376.</ref> However, an argument was presented that this policy was a negation of the Church's traditional stance of tolerance toward Judaism. On 5 July 1247, Pope Innocent wrote to the Bishops of France and of Germany to say that because both ecclesiastics and lay persons were lawlessly plundering the property of the Jews, and falsely stating that at Eastertime they sacrificed and ate the hearts of little children, the bishops should see to it that the Jews not be attacked or molested for these or other reasons.<ref>Augustus Potthast, ''Regesta pontificum Romanorum'' I (Berlin 1874), no. 12596.</ref> That same year 1247, in a letter of 2 August to Louis IX,<ref>Loeb, p. 61.</ref> the Pope reversed his stance on the Talmud, ordering that the Talmud should be censored rather than burned. Despite opposition from figures such as [[Odo of Châteauroux]],<ref>[[Jacques Échard]], ''Sancti Thomae Summa suo auctori vindicata'' (Paris 1708), pp. 592–600. Loeb, p. 60.</ref> [[Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum]] and former Chancellor of the University of Paris, Innocent IV's policy was nonetheless continued by subsequent popes.<ref>[http://5tjt.com/the-pope-who-saved-the-talmud/ Rabbi Yair Hoffman, "The Pope who saved the Talmud"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141022150959/http://5tjt.com/the-pope-who-saved-the-talmud/ |date=22 October 2014 }}. Robert Chazan, ''Church, State, and Jew in the Middle Ages'' (New York : Behrman House 1979), 231–238. J.E. Rembaum, "The Talmud and the Popes: Reflections on the Talmud Trials of the 1240s," ''Viator'' 13 (1982), 203–223.</ref>