22 Popes and Jews, 1095–1291
their own successor to the Old Testament in the Talmud.^105 Hence, in response to
increasing complaints about the Talmud, popes began to view it as a hindrance and
stumbling block to the Jews’ eventual reconciliation with the Christological mes-
sage of the Gospel, seeing it as their apostolic duty to show spiritual leadership in
promoting such reconciliation.
So with Gregory IX, we recognize another important turning point in papal rela-
tionships with Jews. For the first time, papal correspondence—influenced by Nicholas
Donin, a convert from Judaism, and by the friars—referred to the Talmud and other
Jewish theological writings. Whether Gregory’s primary concern with the Talmud was
that it was blasphemous, or that its heretical content prevented Jews from recognizing
the truth of Christianity, remains a matter of debate.^106 Perhaps more crucially, it
seems that Gregory could see no way to incorporate the Talmud into his vision of the
Christian society of which he believed himself, as pope, to be the head. If he ignored
the Talmud, he would be tolerating an apparent alternative to the New Testament,
thus failing to preside over a fully Christian society. In response to the complaints of
Donin, therefore, in 1239 he ordered all Jewish books in France to be handed over for
the mendicant orders in Paris to inspect for alleged heresies and blasphemies,^107
and in 1240 he not only approved the Paris Disputation which took place at the
court of Louis IX and was designed to prove that Jesus was the Messiah, but sub-
sequently ordered that copies of the Talmud be burnt.^108 His successors would
continue to denounce it as blasphemous and sometimes even as heretical.^109
Many historians have pointed to the contrast between such statements, which
denied the Talmud any status in Judaism, and the care that popes continued to show
in opposing violence and the levying of populist charges against Jews. Evidently
the popes themselves saw no contradiction between condemning the Talmud for
blasphemy and insisting on protection for Jews, believing both activities to be part
105 For example, on Peter the Venerable and the Talmud, see Iogna-Pratt, Order and Exclusion,
pp.361–2.
106 Grayzel, ‘The Talmud and the Medieval Papacy’, pp.224–5; Grayzel, ‘Popes, Jews and
Inquisition from “Sicut” to “Turbato”’, p.163; Judaism on Trial: Jewish–Christian Disputations in the
Middle Ages, ed. and trans. H. Maccoby (Rutherford, London, 1982), pp.19–38; Joel Rembaum, ‘The
Talmud and the Popes: Reflections on the Talmud Trials of the 1240s’, Viator 13 (1982), 203–24;
Stow, ‘The Church and the Jews: from St Paul to Paul IV’, pp.142–5; Stow, ‘The Church and the Jews:
St Paul to Pius IX’, pp.26–8.
107 Gregory IX, ‘Fraternitati tue presentium’ (9 June 1239), Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.238–40; Simonsohn,
pp.171–2; ‘Si vera sunt’ (9 June 1239), Grayzel, Vol. 1, pp.240–2; Simonsohn, pp.172–3. There is a
vast amount of secondary literature on popes and the Talmud. See, for example, Walter Pakter,
Medieval Canon Law and the Jews (Ebelsbach, 1988), pp.70–3; Benjamin Kedar, ‘Canon Law and the
Burning of the Talmud’, Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law 9 (1979), 79–82; Cohen, The Friars and the
Jews, pp.60–76; Cohen, Living Letters of the Law, pp.319–30; Robert Chazan, ‘The Hebrew Report of
the Trial of the Talmud: Information and Consolation’, in Le Brulement du Talmud à Paris, 1242– 1244 ,
ed. G. Dahan (Paris, 1999), pp.79–93; Judah Galinsky, ‘The Different Hebrew Versions of the
“Talmud Trial” of 1240 in Paris’, in New Perspectives on Jewish-Christian Relations, ed. E. Carlebach,
J. Schachter (Leiden, Boston, 2012), pp.109–40; Piero Capelli, ‘Rashi nella controversia parigina sul
Talmud del 1240’, in Ricercare la Sapienza di Tutti gli Antichi, Series 3, Vol. 1. Miscellanea in onore di
Gian Luigi Prato, ed. M. Milani, M. Zappella (Bologna, 2013), pp.441–8; The Trial of the Talmud:
Paris, 1240. Hebrew Texts translated by John Friedman, Latin Texts translated by Jean Cornell Hoff;
Historical Essay by Robert Chazan (Toronto, 2012).
108 For details of the trial see Judah Rosenthal, ‘The Talmud on Trial. The Disputation at Paris in
the Year 1240’, Jewish Quarterly Review 47/1 (1956), 58–76, 47/1 (1956), 145–69.
109 Stow, Alienated Minority, pp.251–9.