Editing Simon of Trent (section)

==Papal investigation==
On 3 August 1475, [[Pope Sixtus IV]] commanded Bishop Hinderbach to suspend judicial proceedings until the arrival of the papal representative, [[Battista dei Giudici]], [[Bishop of Ventimiglia]], who would conduct a joint investigation with the Bishop of Trent. Giudici arrived in Trent in September. The local authorities worked against his investigation, preventing him from visiting Jews in prison and impeding his access to trial records.<ref name="Quaglioni">{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Giudici, Battista dei|encyclopedia=[[Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani]]|lang=it|volume=56|date=2001|last=Quaglioni |first=Diego |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/battista-dei-giudici_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220701022113/https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/battista-dei-giudici_(Dizionario-Biografico)/ |archive-date=1 July 2022}}</ref>

In the face of persistent hostility, he relocated to [[Rovereto]], which was then under Venetian control,<ref name=Quaglioni/> and summoned Hinderbach and the podestà to answer for their conduct. Instead of appearing, Hinderbach had an account of the proceedings drawn up to vindicate his own actions, circulating it widely and so giving general credence to the notion that Simon of Trent had in fact been murdered by Jews.

The case was reviewed in Rome, where Hinderbach had powerful friends, including the papal librarian [[Bartolomeo Sacchi]], who accused Giudici of being in the pay of the Jews. Giudici wrote two treatises on the affair, an ''Apologia Iudaeorum'' defending the Jews, and an ''Invectiva contra Platinam'' (aimed at Sacchi) defending himself.<ref name=Quaglioni/> A committee of cardinals, chaired by Giovan Francesco Pavini, former professor of [[canon law]] at the [[University of Padua]] and an old friend of the bishop of Trent, exonerated Hinderbach and censured Giudici. A [[papal bull]] was issued on 20 June 1478, accepting that the inquiries in Trent had been carried out in legal fashion but avoiding a finding of fact with regard to Simon's death, while also reasserting papal protection for the Jews and the unlawfulness of ritual murder trials, in line with a decree of [[Pope Innocent IV]] from 1243.<ref>{{harv|Hsia|1992|p=127}}</ref>