Les juifs et l'inquisition dans la France méridionale

Presents excerpts from the "Practica officii Inquisitionis", a manual for members of the Inquisition composed by Bernard Gui, the Inquisitor of Toulouse in 1307-23. The selected excerpts are in Latin, while the introductory material to the excerpts and the explanatory notes, by Lévi, are in French. The excerpts relate to the Jews, most of whom had been expelled from France by the 14th century. The "Practica", however, provided tools for later use, especially against the Jews in Spain. The excerpts state that baptized Jews returning to Judaism, and Christians converting to Judaism, should be viewed as heretics, and that instigators of "apostasies" should be punished as severely as the delinquents. Jews who attempted to convert Christians were to be severely punished. The excerpts also deal with the incarceration of Jews who aroused suspicion of conducting such activities, and present lists of Jewish books which, like the Talmud, were to be burned for alleged blasphemous, false, and disgraceful comments about Jesus and Mary. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)