that he had killed the Christian and thrown him into the river at night. Whereupon he was condemned to be burned. During the reading of the sentence the archbishop came before the king. Having listened to the reading of the sentence, the bishop asked: ‘Is this Pedro de Guzman the husband of Beatrice, or another man?’ They replied: ‘The husband of Beatrice.’ The bishop then said: ‘I observe astonishing things here. The sentence says that the Jew killed him on the first of January, but I met him alive last night in a village near the city; he will return to-day or to-morrow.’ Whereupon the king said: ‘In this case, either the Jew was mad, or has just lost his senses, for he has confessed to a crime which he did not commit.’ But the bishop said: ‘No trust, nor reliance is to be placed in torture or in the acts of the lords.’ The Jew said: ‘Our lord the king! I am not mad, nor have I ever been mad; but they made me lose my senses through torture; for mercy has perished from the Christians, and they executed on me such judgments as are not executed on those who rebel against the king’s crown. Seeing that after inflicting many kinds of torture, they kept on devising new ones, I preferred one death to several deaths.’ The king then sent two of his servants to bring the Christian, and he also sent a Jew with them, in order that they should not bribe him and hide him. When the Christian came before the king, the king stood up on his feet, and said: ‘Praised be He who sheds light upon obscure things! Praised be He to whom belongeth justice and judgment! Why did He charge fools like us to sit upon the throne of justice, while we are like the beasts of the field that know not at what they stumble? Moreover, I heard that in ancient times it had been the custom of the Greeks to weep when an infant was born, and to rejoice and laugh when an old man died. Their reason was because it is fitting to weep for the new-born babe, since he is come to the valley of weeping; but when he dies, it is fitting to rejoice, since he has gone to a place of rejoicing and rest. Now the Jews ought to weep when they are born and when they die, as well as during the days that intervene; for it is not enough that they suffer evils inherent in exile, but their enemies seek occasions against them to overthrow them. I grieve very much for them, not because they are Jews, but because they are poor and lowly. We have no other kingdom, but that which the King of the universe gave us; and He said by His prophet: “But on this man will I look, even on him that is poor and of a contrite spirit.”[254] Now thou, O bishop, deservest my favor, for thou hast kept me back from shedding innocent blood. The Lord sent thee, in order that perverted justice should not go forth from our hand.’