What The Catholic Church Teaches About The Jews – Part 10
Popes Ordered Burnings Of The Jewish Talmud
The Catholic Church had many councils regarding how to handle the Jews, in the middle ages.
Moreover, the Popes issued many papal bulls regarding how to handle the Jews, in the middle ages.
These councils and bulls dealt with topics like the Talmud and other issues.
Popes ordered the burnings of the Jewish Talmud throughout the middle ages.
The first Pope to do so was Pope Gregory IX, who learned of the blasphemies in the Talmud, after the Jewish convert to Christianity, Nicolas Donin, presented the blasphemous passages to the Pope.
Subsequently, in 1239 AD, Pope Gregory IX ordered France and Spain to seize and examine copies of the Talmud for blasphemy.
After that, King St. Louis IX presided over a trial over the Talmud in 1240 AD.
Consequently, after hearing Donin and the Catholics arguing against the Jewish Rabbis, King St. Louis IX ruled in favor of Donin.
An inquisition burned 24 wagon loads, which contained around 10,000 copies of the Talmud, a couple years later.
Thereafter, Popes ordered burnings of the Jewish Talmud throughout the rest of the middle ages.
Moreover, in 1244 AD, Pope Innocent IV wrote this to King St. Louis IX:
The impious perfidy of the Jews–from whose hearts because of the enormity of their crimes our Redeemer did not lift the veil but still permits them to remain, as is fitting, in the blindness which is characteristic of Israel–not regarding the fact that Christian piety receives them only out of pity and patiently endures dwelling together with them, commits those enormities which stupefy hearers and horrify narrators. For these ingrates to the Lord Jesus Christ, who patiently awaits their conversion out of the richness of His long-suffering, showing no shame for their fault nor respecting the honor of the Christian faith, and omitting or scorning the Mosaic law and the prophets, follow certain traditions of their seniors concerning which the Lord rebukes them in the Gospel, saying: Why do you transgress the mandate of God and irritate Him by your traditions, teaching human doctrines and mandates?
Upon this sort of traditions, which in Hebrew are called the Talmud–and there is a great book among them exceeding the text of the Bible in length, in which are manifest blasphemies against God and Christ and the blessed Virgin, intricate fables, erroneous abuses, and unheard-of stupidities–they nourish and teach their sons and render them utterly alien from the doctrine of the law and the prophets, fearing lest, if they knew the truth, which is in the law and the prophets, and which testifies openly that the only begotten son of God will come in the flesh, they would be converted to the faith and humbly return to their Redeemer. And not content with these things, they make Christian women nurses of their sons in contumely of the Christian faith, with whom they commit many shameful things. On which account the faithful should be afraid lest they incur divine wrath while they unworthily allow them to perpetrate acts which bring confusion upon our faith.
And although our cherished son, the chancellor of Paris, and the doctors teaching at Paris in holy writ, by the mandate of pope Gregory, our predecessor of happy memory, after reading and examining the said abusive book and certain others with all their glosses, publicly burned them in the presence of clergy and people to the confusion of the perfidy of the Jews, as we have seen stated in their letters, to whom you as catholic king and most Christian prince rendered suitable aid and favor in this, for which we commend your royal excellency with praises in the Lord and pursue with acts of grace: because nevertheless the profane abuse of the Jews themselves has not yet quieted nor has persecution yet given them understanding, we earnestly ask, admonish, and beseech your highness in the Lord Jesus Christ that against detestable and enormous excesses of this sort committed in contumely of the Creator and in injury to the Christian name, as you piously began, you laudably continue to proceed with due severity. And that you order both the aforesaid abusive books condemned by the same doctors and generally all the books with their glosses which were examined and condemned by them to be burned by fire wherever they can be found throughout your entire kingdom, strictly forbidding that Jews henceforth have Christian nurses or servants, that the sons of a free woman may not serve the sons of a handmaid, but as servants condemned by the Lord, whose death they wickedly plotted, they at least outwardly recognize themselves as servants of those whom the death of Christ made free and themselves slaves. So we may commend the zeal of your sincerity in the Lord with due praises.
Impia judeorum perfidia
Pablo Christiani was another Jewish convert who, like Donin, went to Pope Clement IV to issue a Papal Bull censoring the Talmud in Spain, and like Donin, won over King James I of Aragon against the Jews, assisted by Raymond Martini and St. Raymond of Penyafort, in the Disputation of Barcelona, in 1263 AD.
Gerónimo de Santa Fe was another Jewish convert who, like the previous converts, argued for the burning of the Talmud, winning at the Disputation of Tortosa, in 1414 AD, with the help of St. Vincent Ferrer.
Popes Alexander IV, Honorius IV, John XXII, Eugene IV, Paul IV, Pope Pius IV, Pope Gregory XIII, Clement VIII were also amongst the Popes who condemned the Talmud.
Jewish convert Johannes Pfefferkorn also came forward with the blasphemies contained in the Talmud in the early 16th century.
Raymond Martini, Anton Margaritha, Samuel Friedrich Brenz, Johann Andreas Eisenmenger, Jacob Brafman, Elias von Cyon, and other Jewish converts have also criticized the Talmud.
Luigi Chiarini, August Rohling, Hermann Strack, Justinas Pranaitis, and Elizabeth Dilling were later Christian authors that exposed the blasphemies in the Talmud.
And, as I have said previously, the Talmud does in fact contain blasphemy.
The Jews no longer even hide it. Regarding Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Talmud says:
Yehoshua ben Peraḥya said: How beautiful is this inn. Jesus, his student, said to him: But my teacher, the eyes of the innkeeper’s wife are narrow [terutot]. Yehoshua ben Peraḥya said to him: Wicked one! Do you involve yourself with regard to that matter, the appearance of a married woman? He produced four hundred shofarot and ostracized him.
Jesus came before Yehoshua ben Peraḥya several times and said to him: Accept our, i.e., my, repentance. Yehoshua ben Peraḥya took no notice of him. One day Yehoshua ben Peraḥya was reciting Shema and Jesus came before him with the same request. Yehoshua ben Peraḥya intended to accept his request, and signaled him with his hand to wait until he completed his prayer. Jesus did not understand the signal and thought: He is driving me away. He went and stood a brick upright to serve as an idol and he bowed to it. Yehoshua ben Peraḥya then said to Jesus: Repent. Jesus said to him: This is the tradition that I received from you: Whoever sins and causes the masses to sin is not given the opportunity to repent. And the Master says: Jesus performed sorcery, incited Jews to engage in idolatry, and led Israel astray. Had Yehoshua ben Peraḥya not caused him to despair of atonement, he would not have taken the path of evil.
Jewish Talmud, Sanhedrin 107b and Sotah 47a
On Passover Eve they hung the corpse of Jesus the Nazarene after they killed him by way of stoning. And a crier went out before him for forty days, publicly proclaiming: Jesus the Nazarene is going out to be stoned because he practiced sorcery, incited people to idol worship, and led the Jewish people astray. Anyone who knows of a reason to acquit him should come forward and teach it on his behalf. And the court did not find a reason to acquit him, and so they stoned him and hung his corpse on Passover eve.
Ulla said: And how can you understand this proof? Was Jesus the Nazarene worthy of conducting a search for a reason to acquit him? He was an inciter to idol worship, and the Merciful One states with regard to an inciter to idol worship: “Neither shall you spare, neither shall you conceal him” (Deuteronomy 13:9). Rather, Jesus was different, as he had close ties with the government, and the gentile authorities were interested in his acquittal. Consequently, the court gave him every opportunity to clear himself, so that it could not be claimed that he was falsely convicted.
Jewish Talmud, Sanhedrin 43a
What is the punishment of that man, a euphemism for Jesus himself, in the next world? Jesus said to him: He is punished with boiling excrement.
Jewish Talmud, Gittin 57a
Watch this video for more:
Certainly, these blasphemies say it all about what the Jews think about Christ and Christians!
Thus, in a Catholic State, owning copies of the Talmud would again be illegal.
In conclusion, I will leave you with this quote from Our Lord:
