ON ALBERT THE BOY, IN POLAND KILLED BY THE JEWS, LAID TO REST AT THE COLLEGE OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS OF LUBLIN.
IN THE YEAR 1598.
PrefaceAlbert, a boy, killed by the Jews in Poland, laid to rest at Lublin in the College of the Society of Jesus (St.)
By D. P.
[1] In the preceding days, namely the 17th and 19th of this month, treating of Saints Rudolph and Werner, we said so many things concerning the unquenchable thirst of Christian blood with which the impious race of the Jews burns, and have heaped up so many examples of like ferocity, that the mind would shrink from augmenting this day again with such horrid narratives; were it not that the very commemoration contributes much, not only to make long the memory of those whose short life the rage of the impious cut short, but also to repair the contempt The body under the altar most wickedly done to Christ our God, through his enemies, in his members. Let there come forth then from Poland the boy Adalbert, or, as the authors preferred to write more contractedly, Albert: but let him come forth without the title of Blessed or Saint, without the title of Blessed because having suffered at the end of the last century, he has not yet obtained that honor from the Apostolic See; while nonetheless under the altar he is honorably kept enshrined by the Ordinary of the place himself, a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, probably with the sacred Congregation of Rites consulted, at any rate not disapproving what, done publicly, could not lie hidden.
[2] The history of the matter in Polish language most extensively was written by Frederick Szembeck, History from public Acts written in Polish a Priest of our Society, in 1614, from the tables of the Castle, of Mielnik, of Lokov, of Krasnystaw; from the Acts of the most ample Tribunal in the Kingdom of Poland, and the criminal cases of the city of Lublin; finally from the accurate inquiry of the two most illustrious Bishops of Luceoria, Bernard Maciejowski (who afterwards was Bishop of Krakow and a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, and not so long after Archbishop of Gniezno and Primate of the whole Kingdom) and his successor Martin Szyszkowski, at Lositze, at Worniki, at Liteuniki, at Sanowietz, instituted at various times: of which Tables, Acts, Cases, and Inquiries exemplars or transcripts, most thoroughly proved by public trust and sealed with seals, are preserved at Krakow in the Archive of the Society of Jesus at Saint Peter's. So it was written from Poland to Heribert Rosweyde, by Frederick Szembeck when he had begun collecting the Lives of the Saints; and at the same time there was signified some thought taken of translating that history into the Latin language. Meanwhile Father Frederick himself sent into Belgium a brief synopsis of the same, composed likewise by Simon Kacorovius, a priest of our Society, which we judged worthy to insert in this work.
[3] This author has a distinguished elogium in the Library of the Society compiled by Philip Alegambe, for his learning, prudence, piety, notable for procuring Relics of Saints and writing lives and namely because he wondrously promoted the cult of the Saints, by procuring the sacred relics of many, which he distributed through diverse places of Poland; lending his labor in this to the Most Serene Kings of Poland Sigismund III and Vladislaus IV: and also because he wrote and published in Polish the Lives of Saint Dorothy the Widow, Patroness of Prussia, and of Saint Jutta of Brunswick, and of her Confessor Blessed John Lobeda, and of other Patrons of Prussia: which would that someone might render into Latin for us for May 5 and October 30, on which days we are persuaded we must treat of them, unless we are taught that other days fit them by those who both understand that language, and can better know on what day and in what manner each is venerated. Further, why there is not reckoned among these books and others elaborated by Frederick the history of the boy Albert, on whose occasion we treat these things, likewise by him who presided over the whole examination of the cause I could think of no other cause than that it itself had not seen the light; into whose hands afterwards it came, the one whom I had previously interpellated about that matter, R.P. Ludovicus Hoffman, when he was Procurator of his Province at Krakow, could not so far attain by searching. The same afterwards transferred to the Lublin college, wrote on January 15, 1674, that he had happened upon a book printed in 1602 in the Polish idiom, with the inquiries and tribunal decree of 1599 around March 25, where the origin and process of the cause is vividly described: and that the author of the book was Simon Alexander Habiki, then Lector of the Bishop of Krakow, most conscious of this cause, because through his hands this business was laid before the Bishop, as Pastor of this diocese.
[4] An epitome of the earlier one is given here Since the Latin version of this so authentic writing had been promised, I was the more cheered the less either, from the archive of Krakow (scattered by invasions) the original Acts of judgments could be had; or, from them, the treatise of Frederick gathered was hoped to be found. But the report since sent, scarcely filling one little page of paper, because it contained not a simple version of the aforesaid book, but a very brief epitome, though most accurate, less satisfied expectation: and because it is not permitted to wait longer for more things, I present the compendium of Szembeck's deduction, as written by a contemporary author, and reviewed by Szembeck himself and corrected here and there by his own hand; for which our posterity, in the review of the whole work, will be able to substitute the entire version of Habiki's or Szembeck's elaboration, if someone should take care to send it here, or from the very words of the original Acts, if perchance they are found anywhere, to compose a new deduction; by the example of those which in more than one place of this month we have collected from similar examinations of sworn witnesses.
[5] April 18 Kacorovius had prefixed this title to the epitome composed by him: "Illustrious martyrdom of the four-year-old boy Albert or Wojciech Petrenius, killed by the Jews in Poland, about April 20, according to the new Calendar in the year of the Lord 1598, when their Easter was impending to them, as is said in the context, without any mention of the month or day. Nor does it matter that in that year the Christians, according to the recent innovation of the Calendar, celebrated their Easter on March 22. For not only others, still adhering to the Julian calculus, did it on April 16, as they reckoned; but the Jews had their own peculiar, very erratic cycle, without any respect to the astronomical full moon, as we have shown at the end of Exercise 1 of the ancient catalogs of the Roman Pontiffs, treating of the day of Christ's death, around the Jewish Easter when he was apprehended by the Jews at that time when the moon no longer giving any light, and thus having advanced far beyond the full moon, there was need for lanterns and torches, as the Evangelical text expressly teaches. The cycle of Jewish years and consequently of annually recurring feasts, which the Jews say was observed 1100 years ago, Dionysius Petavius our own explains in book 7 On the doctrine of times from chapter 17 to 20, and of which he had disputed all the reasoning, causes, and principles in book 2 of his work; here he hands down its use and method, according to which, in our year 1598, the Jews, then reckoning the year of the world 5358, celebrated their Easter on April 21, the third feria, as the Rabbis of Amsterdam, consulted on this, confirmed with their assent. This reckoning of the Jewish Easter, moreover, it will perhaps be useful to observe also in other cases, so that the cause of a murder perpetrated on some day not much congruent with the calculations of the Christian Easter may be given, at least in the centuries last past: for there are those who say that this computation which the Jews now observe was only received in use a few centuries ago.
HISTORICAL EPITOME
By Simon Kacorovius S. J.
BY KACOROVIUS S. J.
[1] In the kingdom of Poland, in Podlachia, in the province of Drohicen, Born of rustic stock in the diocese of Luck or Luceoria, a mile and more from the royal town of Lositze, lies the village of Swinarzewo, assigned as a dowry among other things to the illustrious man Stephen Pati the Hungarian, afterwards Senator of the kingdom of Hungary; in which all the rustic families followed the Greek rites, except one Latin head of household, Matthias Petrenius, with his wife and children. To this man, among other offspring, was born from his wife Anne, Wojciech or Adalbert, a boy of four years, of distinguished disposition, beautiful face, cheerful countenance, who filled his parents' minds with great hope: and therefore his father continually desired to have him in his sight: and in the year 1598 (which to the boy was the last), on March 25, the day after the Latin Easter holidays, he goes to the field with his father he had taken him out to the field, for the sake of solace, about to plow. Who, about evening wearied of the delay, childishly alone returned to the village; the wretched father secure of the error, because the road was very direct and short, much less fearing the cruelty by which the innocent little one soon perished. But that solace and security cost him dearly. For Wojciech, torn from thence, since, as in that tender age, he did not know how to keep the direct way, and alone returning home turned onto the road which leads to another village, Wozniki; where (as commonly in those borders, by wicked custom) Marcus Sachnowitz the Jew, from the neighboring town of Miendzyrzecz, had the mills and public inn leased.
[2] He becomes prey to the Jews Meanwhile the son of the same Marcus, Aaron Gromek, and the son-in-law Isaac Chaitschyk, returning home to the said town not far from there; seeing the wandering little boy, and all safe on every side (because by Salomon his Rabbi not so long before Aaron had been asked to provide a victim of this kind for the impending Easter), glad at the occasion, without delay lift the infant, drawn by caresses, into the cart; with swiftest horses fly to the paternal inn at Wozniki, and conceal him in a subterranean cellar.
[3] The father of the boy, as he returned from the field and understood that he was absent, at once ran to the road by which he had wandered; the lost boy is sought by his parents cried out, ran, cried out, asked those he met, did all in vain. Intempestuous night drove the man into the house, but did not take away his care. On the following day, both parents went their separate ways, and learned this alone from Adam and Matthias, Boyars Calecian, that they had met on the day before on that road on which the boy had perished the Jews I have said: whence they took the conjecture, which was the fact, that he had been taken by the Jews. But they did not dare to accuse the assassins, both because they had no manifest argument, and because, the lord of those lands Stephen Pati being absent at that time, there was no one to be patron of the orphaned. The father however had gone there, if by chance by any trace to the nest itself he might come: but mocked with fallacious answers, and with lying prophecy by the wife of Marcus, he found no solace for his grief.
[4] Held in an underground cave for many days Seized meanwhile in that prison by Anastasia, a woman of the Greek schism and bound to those cruel Jews by debts and services, he was fed and caressed until the time of his slaughter came. Now their most horrid Easter approached, therefore four days before, in the depth of night, from the neighboring places come together the chief among them, Moses and Salomon, by whose admonition the beginning of the illustrious deed had already been made: and what alone was then in the house, the Christian maidservant Margaret, when she brought the light, being ordered to depart to interrupted rest, they themselves carry the boy from the cellar into a more secret cave. There, destitute of all help, He is slaughtered in a horrid manner the sacred victim, they, armed with butcher's knives, stand around, stunned by the novelty of the spectacle horrible even to a beast. Then, fearing to be betrayed by an outcry, fearing that the blood poured out would be contaminated by the flood of entrails, they most barbarously tighten a cord around his throat. Then with a wooden nail they firmly close the passage: they sew up his eyes with the eyelids: then Salomon and Moses before the others drive sacrificial knives beneath his chest between the ribs from the opposite side, and cut the veins beneath the tongue. Isaac in the palms and in the soles, the skin cut away, opens all the veins: his private parts too being amputated, they catch the blood flowing from every part in vessels placed beneath. Thus most cruelly butchered, and thrown into the corner under the beer barrels, the blood, a portion of it having been left to the head of the household, they carry off with themselves, and send to their own, to be poured into the dough of the bread (which they call "Evicomen," as if the sign of God the helper).
[5] The crime is revealed God would not leave such a great crime unavenged: and first it was made manifest to the household, then to the whole world. For because they hold it baneful to themselves that such corpses be buried (as Marcus's wife had freely confessed to Anastasia, urging her to bury it), in the silence of untimely night they cast it into the reeds of a swamp flowing underneath: where a fowler who by chance was hunting ducks, indicated the sight to the steward of the Woznicense court: by whom the sad father, admonished, recognized his dearest son, and with the greatest mourning carried him to the same court of his Lord Peti. All were now sure that the Jews had dared so much, but whom or how they would convict, the counsel did not appear. Until that same Anastasia, when on market day in the neighboring town she had heated her head, although so often warned, by her loquacity (or compelled by God the avenger?) betrayed the authors; and Margaret the maidservant brought thither, gave credence to her speaking, by narrating what she had seen of the blood and of the coming of the Jews and the untimely departure. Fame flies, announcing that the boy had been killed by the Jews: there, the matter so manifest, Abraham Skowieski of the equestrian order, appointed steward of that village by Stephen Peti, casts Marcus and Isaac the son-in-law and Aaron the son (dragged back from flight) The Jews are taken and others from the same house into chains.
[6] I pass over many things for brevity's sake, which the Jews, laboring for their own and for the common cause, attempted: by exceptions of law, by golden reasons, by terrors both human and summoned from poisoning art: how finally by the denial of false witnesses they most powerfully and most cunningly strove to turn the whole matter from themselves upon the head of the prosecutor: and would have won, had not God added as a patron to the innocent blood the most religious foreign man Stephen Peti. When by the formula of law the crime had been proved by witnesses and manifest indications, and all things had been brought into tables, the scrutiny written down by public trust, closed and sealed, they are sent to the supreme tribunal of the realm at Lublin. Led thither with armed hand in chains, with Anastasia the informer, they are handed over to the Judges with the highest entreaties, that by the blood of Christ they should not let the murder of an innocent boy go unpunished. and they are brought to the highest tribunal of the realm In sum, after many labors, with Adam Stadnitzki de Zmigrod striving among those most ample Judges as the Inquisitor (commonly called Marschalcus) and with John Gostoniski de Lenzenitze, brother of his wife, most grave and religious and noble men, concerning the sanguinary authors it was discovered, not only concerning the crime itself, but also concerning the use of the blood, which was diligently sought.
[7] For Isaac confessed, being indeed a Rabbi, and they confessed the crime, and the use of the blood that the Jews used that blood partly in wine, partly in paschal bread: but when he refused to give the reason, he confessed however that therefore they cast such corpses unburied, because they deem it sacrilege for any office of piety to be paid by them to gentiles: nor would he speak more, grieving that this had escaped him: yet from these things it was known that this cruelty is exercised against innocent boys out of hatred of the Christian name. Wherefore by the prescript of the laws, Marcus and his son Aaron were condemned to be torn alive in pieces: with Isaac reserved for fuller cognizance of the cause for which they butchered infants and used the blood. They are condemned Who, distrusting himself, lest he should finally reveal mysteries so inhuman as he had begun, forestalled the hand of the executioner at great prejudice to his cause, and tying a cord around his throat broke it; yet his corpse, which was due to him alive, was cut in pieces publicly. What here did the Jews not attempt again, that, when they could not defend the life of the authors, they might at least defend their fame and their own safety? But these things perhaps on another occasion will be said more fully at some time: let us explain the honor of the divine boy.
[8] Bernard Macejovius, still Bishop of Luceoria, both to soften his own grief, First honorable translation of the blessed boy which so unjust a butchery of his flock had brought him, and judging that the veneration of him whom Christ had honored by the imitation of his wounds owed this, that he should be honored with a more conspicuous sepulchre, begged the father that he would give him the holy little body. When with his Bishop consenting, it was exhumed and brought, distinguished by manifest scars, especially of the left side, first in the domestic chapel, then in the temple of Liteuniki, where at that time he was dwelling, with the utmost solemnity, as reigning in the heavens, he adorned it; and honorably before the altar in a cave he enclosed it with planks, not enduring that it be covered with earth; with the help and praise of Christopher Piasetzki, Theologian and celebrated preacher of the Society of Jesus; awaiting if God should suggest something better. For seventeen months there it lay, not without veneration: until in the year 1600 the same Bernard Macejovius himself, designated Bishop of Krakow, into the temporary chapel of the Lublin College, founded by him and by the most illustrious Nicholas Zebrzydowski, now Senator of the kingdom, Palatine of Krakow, Another more celebrated in the year 1600 in an elegant coffer closed with white lead, with solemn pomp, with very many from the College of the most noble Judges of the tribunal of the realm, and with two Bishops, Stanislaus Gomolinski of Chelm, and Paul Wolurzki of Kamenets, and others of all orders accompanying, he brought in, and having protested that he would leave this to the Fathers of the Society and to his college as a distinguished monument of love (which they held most pleasing), placed it within the altar.
[9] A third in the year 1603 Meanwhile the church of the College was completed, to which all sacred things had to be transferred. Wherefore, since it was so necessary, the chapel and altar being dismantled, in a cave built for the use of the dead under the principal altar, in a higher place excavated in the wall, until both a more convenient place could be prepared, and the Bishop consulted, it was replaced. And thence again in the year 1605, with Bernard Macejovius now Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church conceding and giving power, it was religiously carried privately into a private chapel by the same Fathers, in whose veneration and of others it is held up to this day. Nor were miracles wanting: and I could name those who, having experienced his help against the most pertinacious petitions of the impure spirit, professed this by their handwriting, if they had not forbidden it by name. Wherefore yielding to their modesty and just requests, to another more opportune time, His help not in vain implored by some with many other things, I shall defer it. And let it suffice now to have written these things briefly: for if I should wish to narrate everything as it was done, how often the Jews and by what arts strove to obscure in darkness the matter more clear than midday: how by books published, tables painted, sent to the supreme Pontiff Clement VIII and to other chief men and Prelates, and even brought into churches, the blessed boy was honored: with what faith and diligence all these were investigated and collected: it would be necessary to institute a longer commentary than fits this purpose. I make an end, praying the everlasting God, who is as great in small things as in the greatest, that by the patronage of the blessed infant he may perpetuate and frequent his own glory (as he has begun) and the consolations of mortals: who reigns forever and ever thrice one, alone blessed, immortal, omnipotent. Amen.
NOTES.
APPENDIX.
Of several Innocents tortured by the Jews.
From the Polish printed book of 1602.
Albert, boy, killed by the Jews in Poland, laid to rest at Lublin in the College of the Society of Jesus (St.)
FROM THE POLISH BOOK
[1] The same collector who wrote Albert's Martyrdom Simon Alexander Habiki, who published in Polish the aforementioned book on Albert's martyrdom, also thought it useful to weave to the same a list of several Innocents butchered by the impious Jews, knowledge of whom he had gathered from various authors; and also of horrible sacrileges exercised against the most holy Eucharist. Ludwig Hoffman rendered into Latin and transmitted to us the synopsis of both. The latter, since they do not make to our purpose, we sent to Paris to the Reverend Father Jacob de Machault, a long-celebrated writer from his many books published on the venerable Sacrament, and now having under hand the Eucharistic Annals. From the former we here cull those of whom mention has not been made by us elsewhere, in the very words in which they were indicated but with the order of sequence of years changed, without a more laborious examination of individual cases, since this is not of this place or time.
[2] Among others he relates a girl of 1261 killed at Pforzheim In the year 1261 in the village of Pforzheim, a certain old woman sold a girl of seven years to the Jews; who, binding her neck with a cord, pricked her veins with needles, and thence pressed out the blood. The body of her so killed they threw into the running water, and covered with stones. A fisherman afterwards, intent on catching fish, by divine permission found that body, with the hand raised to heaven. The body having been brought to the city, the whole people, knowing of such butcheries, exclaimed: "Jews, Jews, the impious killers." The Duke of Baden learned this: who after he came to the body, it, though lifeless, arose, stretching out the hand to the Prince, as if seeking justice: and after half an hour lay down again. When a Jew was brought to the body, at once from all the veins blood flowed out. Seeing the prodigy, the Jews confessed the crime, and along with the old woman were put to the wheel, except two who took their own lives with their own hands. Pforzheim is a town of the Margraviate of Baden on the river Enz, between two once celebrated Abbeys, Hirsau and Maulbronn, distant from Baden itself six German miles.
[3] in the year 1401 a boy's blood bought in Swabia In the year 1401, in the city of Diessenhofen in Swabia, the Jews bought Christian blood from a certain peasant for three florins. When he was drawing it from a four-year-old boy, he, terrified and caught, confessed: wherefore he was put to the wheel, the Jews burned. Diessenhofen is a town of Thurgau on the bank of the Rhine, belonging to the Helvetian confederation, a few leagues above Schaffhausen.
[4] In the year 1407, under Jagellon King of Poland, Jews dwelt in the city of Kraków, similar deeds done at Kraków in 1407 who killed one boy. This deed being dissimulated by the Office, the Preachers, especially R. Budek, made much of it to the people from the pulpit. The people stirred were kindled with zeal, and beat any Jews they met, and destroyed and burned their houses. The rest who survived the slaughter were driven beyond Kazimierz: and so Kraków was freed from their dwelling.
[5] in Spain 1454 In the year 1454, in Castile, a Christian boy was taken by the Jews and cut to pieces: whose heart was burned to ashes and used to season the dishes and cups among their feasts; for which deed and other similar the Jews were driven out of all Spain in the year 1459.
[6] In the year 1457 at Turin (I believe the capital of Piedmont is meant), a Jew wishing to slaughter a boy, at Turin in 1453 since he could not, for fear of men coming up that way, cut off a piece of the boy's calf, and wrapping it with the blood in a cloth, fled.
[7] In the year 1480 in the city of Motta in the territory of Venice, at Motta in 1480 (it is a town of the March of Treviso on the river Livenza in the borders of Friuli), the Jews exercised their cruelty upon a boy whom they cruelly butchered on Good Friday: which that year fell for the Christians on the last of March. Three of them taken to Venice, with confession obtained in tortures, were condemned to death.
[8] Tyrnavia 1494 In the year 1494 at Tyrnavia in Hungary, twelve Jews and two Jewesses, a boy being seized, secretly cut his veins and limbs, and pressed out the blood to the last drop. The parents, diligently seeking the boy, sent to the suspected house of the Jews: where, fresh blood being found which could in no way be washed away, all were caught. And first the Jewesses tortured on the rack confessed the crime and betrayed other accomplices: then all together were burned. Tyrnavia is well enough known in the county of Pozsony, today the seat of the Archbishop of Esztergom, distant nearly fifteen Hungarian miles from Vienna: where when in the year 1523 the same Jews had killed another boy; another at Biringa, a town of the same region, thirty were burned, the rest were driven from all Hungary.
[9] and 1513 Two boys sold to the Jews for slaughter, at Waltkirch by the father In the year 1513 a father sold his own four-year-old son to the Jews at Waltkirch for ten Rhenish florins, alas! on this condition that, a little blood being let out, they would restore him alive: but they pricked him to death. The father, the matter thus done having been seized and condemned to death, constantly asserted the fact: with whom was also punished he who, hired by the Jews, was carrying this boy's blood from Waltkirch to Elgasum to other Jews, and openly confessed this to many standing by. And this seems to have been done in Alsace, where Waltkirch is a well-known town, two German miles from Freiburg. and at Kraków by the mother But why do we wonder that the father did this? when also the mother could forget the fruit of her womb, and leave him to the Jews' discretion. Our author writes that this was done at Kraków, before the Jews were driven out thence. There a certain woman with her little son and another companion, on the pretext of some business, went to the Jews, and sold him the boy. On the return, asked by her companion where the boy was, she answered that he had gone ahead home. But when he did not appear at home either, the companion, suspecting what was the case, brought the matter to the judges: but they enjoined silence on the accuser, threatening grave penalties if she stirred anything more.
[10] In the year 1547 at Rawa in Greater Poland, a town at the head of the river of the same name, Finally several in Poland and Lithuania in 1547 fifteen Polish leagues distant from Warsaw, two Jews, Moses and Abraham, took and killed a boy from a certain cobbler, by name Michael. The father brought suit against them, and having them convicted in law, by decree of the Office had them burned: and all the rest were proscribed forever, so that none may dwell there to this day, as the Acts of the cited year testify. For the same reason also no Jew, outside the time of fairs, does Pultovia suffer to pass the night with her, a town of Mazovia, looking towards Warsaw at a distance of six leagues.
[11] In the year 1569 a certain Laurence of Bobrowia, first in torture, in the year 1569 then freely confessed, how he had sold a two-year-old boy, named John, son of the widow Margaret Kozanina, neighbor of Piotrków, for two marks to Jacob of Leizyca, a Jew: whom then, cruelly pierced and slaughtered by the impious ones, the advocate Acts of Piotrków testify. Ludovicus Dycx, Administrator of the Royal of Kraków, and also Advocate of Piotrków, described this martyrdom in his report to the King: adding also that at Bielko and elsewhere Christian blood was copiously shed by the Jews. The memory of the aforesaid cruelty exists in the monastery of Witów where hitherto is shown the sepulchre of the boy killed by the Jews.
[12] The same Joachim Smierlowicz, a Jew, did in the year 1574 in the city of Puni in Lithuania, in the year 1574 which city is twelve miles distant from Vilna, on the river Niemen: where he cruelly cut up a seven-year-old girl, named Elizabeth, daughter of Ursula a widow of Lublin, on Tuesday before Palm Sunday, and collected the blood in a pot. Not long after, at Zglobice upon the river Dunajec, Jews who had stolen a boy brought him to Tarnów. But when from certain grounds suspicion fell on them, and sharp threats of tortures were added, taking counsel for themselves, they cast the boy into a certain deserted house. At Tarnów likewise a Christian boy was found with the Jews, dressed in Jewish garb: and had it not been so quickly noted, it is easy to conjecture what they would have done with him: wherefore they were also condemned to a pecuniary fine.
[13] In the year 1590, near Szydlów in a village, the Jews kidnapped a rustic boy, in the year 1590 and with wondrous torments and cuttings of veins and various prickings, the blood having been pressed out, cast his body into out-of-the-way places. But the innocent blood crying to heaven, and the parents' care approaching, the corpse was found, retaining the traces of so horrid a butchery, that no one could look on it without immense grief of soul.
[14] in the year 1595 In the year 1595 at Gostynin, a certain woman sold a third infant, as was reported, to the Jews for similar torments: of which deed at that time Poland was full, so that by pictures circulated among the people, the cruelty exercised against this boy was illustrated, on account of which two Jews perished under the hands of the torturers.
[15] In the year 1597, not far from the preceding place, near Szydlów, and in the year 1597 at the house of a certain simple rustic the Jews observed an infant: on whom they lay in wait for some time, pretending that they wished to buy from the peasant what was necessary for themselves. And although he excused himself that there was nothing for sale at his house, they continued to frequent his house, insisting that at least bread be sold to them. Until at length, an occasion being found, when by chance the boy alone was at home, they took him, and soon by exquisite torments killed him, the blood being preserved, with which they sprinkled their new Szydlów Synagogue; and the corpse, wholly drained of juice and smoked, they cast beyond the borders of the territory: which when found pierced, in the eyelids, throat, veins, and various limbs, cut also in the genitals and constricted by fire: so that at that most sad spectacle the hearts of all beholding were wasting away.