To the venerable brothers, the archbishops appointed throughout the kingdom of France, to whom these letters shall come: greeting and apostolic blessing.

If the things asserted about the Jews living in the kingdom of France and in other provinces are true, no punishment would be sufficient or fitting for them.

For, as we have heard, they are not content with the Old Law, which the Lord gave in writing through Moses. Indeed, they set it aside entirely. They claim that the Lord also gave another law, called the Talmud, that is, “teaching,” and they falsely say that it was delivered orally to Moses and implanted in their minds. They say that it was preserved for a long time without writing, until certain men came whom they call sages and scribes. These men, so that it would not slip from human memory through forgetfulness, reduced it to writing in a volume whose size exceeds the text of the Bible enormously.

In this book, so many abuses and wicked things are said to be contained that those who report them are ashamed, and those who hear them are horrified.

Since this is said to be the chief reason that keeps the Jews obstinate in their unbelief, we have thought it necessary to admonish and exhort your fraternity. By apostolic writings, we command you that on the first Sabbath of the coming Lent, in the morning, when the Jews assemble in the synagogues, you are to have all the books of the Jews in your province seized by our authority and faithfully preserved among the Friars Preachers or the Friars Minor. If necessary, you are to call upon the help of the secular arm for this.

You are also to pronounce a sentence of excommunication against all clergy and laity subject to your jurisdiction who, if they have Hebrew books and have been warned by you generally in the churches, or specifically, refuse to hand them over.

Given at the Lateran, on the fifth day before the Ides of June, in the thirteenth year of our pontificate.

The same form was written to the archbishops of England, Castile and León.