Note 256 — PERSIAN STORIES. (continued 2)

A most absurd idea, and a foul slander on the “chosen people”—not to say that all are to be considered as “Israelites indeed,” and so forth. During the middle ages in Europe it was generally believed that the Jews, on certain of their religious festivals, stole and murdered little Christian children!—See the Tale of the Prioress in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and in Originals and Analogues (printed for the Chaucer Society, pp. 251, 257), “The Boy killed by a Jew for singing ‘Gaude Maria!’” and “The Paris Beggar-boy murdered by a Jew for singing ‘Alma redemptoris mater!’” Such idle stories were invented and diligently circulated by the monks, and sore persecution had the unfortunate and innocent Jews to suffer in consequence!