The Jew, The Gypsy and El IslamBurton, Richard Francis, Sir
Islamic
The Jew, The Gypsy and El Islam
Burton, Richard Francis, Sir
Islam; Jews; Romanies
A.D. 1399. The same was done by the Jews of Poland.
A.D. 1468. The Jews of Toledo in Spain crucified a Christian boy.
A.D. 1475. The Jews again insulted the Host, and were expelled the
territories of the Bishop of Passau.
A.D. 1492-1498. The Jews were expelled from Spain, in consequence of
popular clamour, by Isabel the Catholic. Many retired to Portugal,
where asylum was granted to them under the conditions, first, that each
should pay a certain sum of gold for admission, and, secondly, that if
found in Portugal after a certain day, they should either consent to
be baptized or be sold for slaves. At the expiration of the appointed
time many remained. “The King therefore gave orders to take away all
their children under fourteen years of age, to distribute them amongst
Christians, to send them to the newly discovered islands, and thus
to pluck up Judaism by the roots.” This expulsion, which has been
strongly commented upon by modern historians, is still fresh in the
memory of the Jews, and an Eastern Rabbi can hardly conceal the hatred
with which even in these days he regards a Spanish official.
A.D. 1495. The Jews of Trent, by means of one of their number, a
physician, decoyed to his house, whilst the Christians were at church,
it being Maunday Thursday, a boy two years and a half old, by name
Simeon, the son of a tanner. Before the Paschal festival commenced, the
principal Jews collected in a room near their synagogue. The child,
gagged with a kerchief, was extended in the form of a cross, and was
held down by his murderers. The blood, pouring from heavy gashes, was
collected in a basin, and when death drew near the victim was placed
upon his legs by the two men, and the others pierced his body with
sharp instruments, all vying in brutality and enjoying the torture.
The corpse having been found in the Etsch river, which flows through
the city, led to the detection of the crime; the murderers were put
to death, the synagogue was razed to the ground, and a church was
built over the place where the horrid deed was done. A sculpture was
put on the Bridge Tower in Frankfort-on-the-Maine, and a picture of
a “Christian Infant murdered by the Jews” was placed in one of the
galleries in the Hôtel de Ville. Of late years it has been removed,
in deference to the feelings of the Hebrew community, which, of late
years, has formed a large and important section of the commercial
population. This murder has been abundantly commented upon. Dr. John
Matthias Tiberinus, in Trent at the time, and Jacobus Philippus
Bergamensis, of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, who was then
living at the neighbouring town of Bergamo, gave accounts of it; whilst
an engraving was produced in the _Chronicles_ of John Louis Gottfried,
edited by Matthæus Merianus. On the other hand, Pietro Mocenigo, the
Doge of Venice, and his Senate asserted: “Credimus certe rumorem ipsum
de puero necato commentum esse et artem; ad quem finem, viderint et
interpretentur alii.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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