Note 426 — Chapter VI · GERMANY. (continued 2)

Boccaccio, Decamerone, Giorn. I--Alberti Argentinens. Chron, ann. 1348-9 (Urstisius, II. 147).--Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1248.--Aventinus, Annal. Boiorum Lib. VII. c. 20.--Grandes Chroniques V. 485-6.--Guillel. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1348-9.--Froissart, Lib. I. P. ii. ch. 5.--Meyeri Annal. Flandr. ann. 1349.--Henrici Rebdorff. Chron. ann. 1347.--Alberti Argent. de Gestis Bertold. (Urstisius, II. 177).--Mascaro, Memorias de Bezes, ann. 1348.--Gesta Treviror. ann. 1349.--Chron. Cornel. Zantfliet (Martene Ampl. Coll. V. 253-4).--Erphurd. Variloq. ann. 1348-9 (Menken. II. 506-7). Accusations such as were brought against the Jews were no new thing. In 1321 all the lepers throughout Languedoc were burned on the charge that they had been bribed by the Jews to poison the wells. Doubtless torture was employed to obtain the confessions which were freely made. The story went that the King of Granada, finding himself hard pressed by the Christians, gave great sums to leading Jews to effect in this way the desolation of Christendom. The Jews, fearing that they would be suspected, employed the lepers. Four great councils of lepers were held in various parts of Europe, where every lazar-house was represented except two in England; there the attempt was resolved upon, and the poison was distributed. King Philippe le Long was in Poitou at the time; when the news was brought him he returned precipitately to Paris, whence he issued orders for the seizure of all the lepers of the kingdom. Numbers of them were burned, as well as Jews. At the royal castle of Chinon, near Tours, an immense trench was dug, and filled with blazing wood, where, in a single day, one hundred and sixty Jews were burned. Many of them, of either sex, sang gayly as though going to a wedding, and leaped into the flames, while mothers cast in their children for fear that they would be taken and baptized by the Christians present. The royal treasury is said to have acquired one hundred and fifty thousand livres from the property of Jews burned and exiled.--Guillel. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1321.--Grandes Chroniques V. 245-51.--Chron. Cornel. Zantfliet. ann. 1321.