In 1256, in a Bull issued by Alexander IV against a tractate of William of Saint-Amour, of Paris, the Pope says that his action is based upon the report of four cardinals, to whom had been confided the task of examining the work. All copies are ordered to be burnt within eight days, under penalty of excommunication. Saint-Amour’s essay presents a very unfavourable picture of the condition of the Church of the times, and is especially sharp in its strictures upon the newly instituted mendicant orders. After the beginning of the series of official Indexes, the list of works concerning which the judgment of the Church was reversed under the authority of the different popes, or of successive councils, becomes considerable, and may easily have proved a perplexity to faithful believers who were prepared to accept as a final guide the infallible authority of the Church. Before the close of the 12th century, there appear to have been no attempts on the part of the Church to restrict the reading of the Scriptures, or the distribution of the manuscript copies of the Scriptural books. During the 13th century, several of the synods held in France issued prohibitions of the use or circulation of versions in the vernacular of the Scriptural books, with the exception only of the Psalms. A similar prohibition was enacted for popular versions of any doctrinal or theological writings. The Church was gradually developing the procedure, finally formulated as a general policy, under which laymen were to be forbidden reading either the Scriptures or works of doctrine except under the immediate direction of the ecclesiastical authorities. Between the years 1239 and 1320, a series of orders were issued by successive popes, beginning with Gregory IX, for the destruction of copies of the _Talmud_.[10] In the first portion of the 16th century, a more tolerant view was taken by the papal authorities in regard to the preservation of the literature and the learning of the Hebrews; but Julius III and his immediate successors again ordered the destruction of the _Talmud_. The work is also included in the first of the official Indexes, that of Paul IV. In the Tridentine Index, the previous prohibitions are relaxed, but under Clement VIII the _Talmud_ was once more condemned. The whole business of the supervision of literature and the control of opinion was of necessity very materially modified by the invention of printing. It was at first assumed that the control of literature by the Church would be strengthened by the new method of book production. The ecclesiastical authorities decided that no books should be printed excepting under their own supervision, and if there had been any effective means of carrying out such a decision, the printing-press would speedily have become a mere means of expression of Church doctrine and Church policy.