Simon

CONCERNING S. SIMON, A BOY KILLED BY JEWS AT TRENT.

YEAR 1475.

Simon, a boy killed by Jews at Trent in the Alps (S.)

[1] As we were about to cross from Germany into Italy in the year 1660, we were detained at Trent for a full eight days, first by rains, then by the Adige swollen from the rains to such a height that it promised no passage for boats or rafts under the bridges with which it is spanned. Lest this delay should vex us too much, as we hastened to the Roman libraries and archives, the hospitable charity of the Reverend Father Joseph Feurstain, Rector of our college there, made it bearable: and lest it should be entirely fruitless, we ourselves endeavored to make it useful, the Mausoleum of S. Simon in the church of S. Peter, by piously and curiously visiting all the sacred places of that city. Among these the most celebrated in fame is the Mausoleum of the holy boy Simon, which at S. Peter's has been raised in white marble to such a height that the altar, destined for the celebration of the Sacrifice of the Mass before the venerable relic, requires no other adornment; and from the rear side it has a stairway, by which a spectator, raised from the ground, can contemplate with his own eyes the monument of Jewish cruelty, namely the incorrupt body of the infant of about a year and a half, pitifully lacerated with flesh torn from the right cheek and right shin, and the entire skin pricked with needles.

[2] For in that marble Mausoleum of which we have spoken, after it rises to two or three cubits, within the outermost joints of the four corners a square space opens up and is placed beneath a casket elegantly wrought of ebony, above which the remaining portion of this structure, splendidly fashioned into a peak, is so suspended from the said four corners that through the gilded lattices with which the open sides are covered, the casket itself can be seen, and within the casket, fitted with transparent crystals, the body of the holy boy can be observed most fittingly reclined. Around this work, moreover, a chapel is built in elegant construction and circular form, tastefully adorned with plaster carvings, both on the wall and on the rounded vault that covers the entire chapel: which indeed must be entered from the left side of the choir, through a spacious and square atrium of similar construction, always open to the worshipping public as long as the church is open: while the latticed doors of the chapel itself are customarily opened only at the time of the Sacrifice or on greater feasts.

[3] The Church of Trent first undertook the veneration of the Saint, moved to this by divine miracles: the name inscribed in Martyrologies on March 24 and 30, whence the report having spread into Germany, his memorial is found inscribed in the Martyrology of Usuard, augmented and printed at Cologne in the year 1490, in these words: In the town of Trent, the passion of S. Simon, Boy and Martyr. But also in the Calendar of the Missal according to the use of the Roman curia, printed at Venice in the year 1487, one reads at March 30: The Passion of Blessed Simon of Trent, and it is reported in Molanus and Canisius. Then Gregory XIII, substituting the Baronial for the Martyrology which the Roman church had previously used, in the year 1584 approved the commemoration of Blessed Simon being proposed to the universal Church in it, to be made on the 24th day of March, which commemoration James Christopher, Bishop of Basel, having the Basel Martyrology reprinted according to the revision made in the Roman one, in the same year in which the Roman one had appeared, inserted into the calendar of his Church on the same day and in the same formula: adding that more had been reported about him at the 12th day before the Kalends of April, where these words are read: At Trent, of the boy Simon, not yet three years old, also in the Basel one on the 21st, whom the Jews in the year of salvation 1475, cruelly cutting with knives and scissors and piercing with styluses, killed in contempt of the Christians, who paid the penalty of their crime when caught, by the evidence of the corpse found in the river, which being magnificently entombed became illustrious through miracles.

[4] What occasion the people of Basel may have had for reporting this to that day, on which the deliberation among the Jews about committing the crime is said to have first begun according to the Acts, feast at Trent. rather than to the 9th before the Kalends, on which it is established the crime was committed, we cannot divine. This is certain: only the day of the passion was observed by the people of Trent, and was thereafter venerated with special devotion: when, one hundred and thirteen years after the killing, Cardinal Madruzzo, Bishop of Trent, obtained from the Pope the faculty of proclaiming a feast throughout his entire diocese with its own Office and Mass.

[5] We present the Acts divided into two parts: the first from a double manuscript collated with the edition of Surius, Acts partly from a Latin manuscript, namely one from Rougevallee of the Canons Regular near Brussels, the other transcribed by our John Gamansius from the Franciscan Fathers at Eger in the kingdom of Bohemia: and this part has as its author John Matthias Tiberinus, a Doctor of medicine, the one who by order of the Bishop inspected the body of the slain infant, and being interrogated about the kind and manner of death, was obliged under oath to deliver his opinion; moreover he wrote to the Senate and people of Brescia the sequence of events, partly from an Italian printed work: as he himself learned it, while the guilty were still being held captive. We took the second part from an Italian account, printed at Trent, when the feast was celebrated for the first time by Papal indult; and reprinted after five years in the year 1593: which, because it is composed from the Public Acts concerning the examination and confession of the accused, rightly deserves to be held of great trustworthiness, even though it bears the name of no author: and since it also adds notable circumstances from time to time to the things Tiberinus wrote, we have also used it to illuminate the first part.

[6] Furthermore, as Janus Pyrrhus Pincius of Mantua transcribed the first part, not indeed word for word but almost entirely in the same sense, in Book 4 of the Lives of the Bishops of Trent, at times rendering it more ornate: other works derived from these. so from that Italian account from which we took the second part, a more recent German version was derived, printed at Innsbruck in the year 1628 and sent to us by the aforesaid Rector of our College at Trent: in which we justly wonder that no mention is made either of the chapel and mausoleum described above, or of the subsequent miracles, which we do not doubt could have been noted in great number.

ACTS OF S. SIMON KILLED BY JEWS.

Simon, a boy killed by Jews at Trent in the Alps (S.)

BHL Number: 7762, 7763

BY JOHN MATTHIAS TIBERINUS

PART I OF THE ACTS.

Containing the history of the passion by John Matthias Tiberinus, Doctor of medicine.

From manuscripts and Surius.

CHAPTER I.

The Jews deliberate about the killing of a Christian boy: Simon is captured.

[1] John Matthias Tiberinus, Doctor of the liberal

arts and of medicine, Author's Prologue. to the magnificent Rectors, the Senate and people of Brescia, greetings. I write to you, magnificent Rectors and most illustrious citizens, a most momentous matter, such as no age has ever heard from the Passion of the Lord to these present times: which recently in these past days our Lord Jesus Christ, graciously taking pity on the human race, provoked by so great and so horrible a crime, has at last brought to light: so that our Catholic faith, if it is weak in any part, may become as a tower of strength; and the ancient rage of the Jews may be wiped from the entire Christian world, and their memory may utterly perish from the land of the living. Hear, you who rule the peoples, this unheard-of crime, and in the manner of faithful shepherds keep watch over your peoples. Let the inhabitants of the earth awaken, and see what sort of vipers they nourish in their own bosom. The cruel Jews not only consume the goods of Christians with their ravenous hunger for usury, but conspiring against our very lives and destruction, they feed upon the living blood of our children, whom they afflict with atrocious torment in their synagogues, and slaughter after the manner of Christ with cruel death.

[2] Recently in the city of Trent, which toward the North separates Italy from Germany, with the Lavisio river flowing between, in that district The Jews in Holy Week, which, receding from the bridge over the Adige, extends toward the castle on the left, three Jewish families were settled, whose heads were Tobias, Angelus, and Samuel: with whom was a certain bearded old man named Moses, whom they proclaimed as one who knew by a prophetic spirit the time and hour of the coming Messiah. These, in the week which we Christians call Holy, on Tuesday, the twelfth day before the Kalends of April, in the year of the Incarnate Word one thousand four hundred and seventy-five, assembled in the house of Samuel, where the synagogue and their temple is, for the purpose of inspecting a live calf which had been brought to them that day from the village of Leuigi. And while they were conversing among themselves on various matters, Angelus poured forth this utterance from his raging breast: they deliberate about killing a Christian boy, On this Good Friday we have meat and fish in abundance: only one thing is lacking to us. Samuel replied: And what is it you lack? Then casting glances at one another, all silently understood that he was speaking of immolating a Christian infant, whom they atrociously slaughter in contempt of our Lord Jesus Christ, and feeding on the blood drained from him in their unleavened bread, they preserve themselves by Christian blood from the stench with which they grievously smell: and this they call their Jobel, that is, Jubilee. But they agreed that the matter must be discussed more cautiously on account of the servants, who, occupied with various duties because of the approaching Good Friday, were running back and forth.

[3] On the following day, however, when all had assembled in the synagogue, they consulted as to where they might more conveniently kill him. for which they designate the house of Samuel; Tobias and Angelus refused to have it done in their own houses on account of their narrowness, because in a small space it would be difficult to hide so great a crime from the children: but on account of the convenience of everything and the spaciousness of the place, they affirmed it would be better at Samuel's house. But when they had so decreed, they debated by what device they could steal a male infant. And while they contended among themselves with diverse opinions, Samuel ordered his servant Lazarus to come to him: before whom, when he had immediately presented himself; the servant refusing to commit the kidnapping; Lazarus, he said, if you have the courage to steal a Christian boy and deliver him to us, we will immediately give you a hundred gold Philippics. To this the servant briefly replied thus: This matter, venerable Fathers, is one of the utmost danger: I utterly refuse to attempt it. And immediately leaving the temple, having gathered up his belongings, he migrated to other lands.

[4] On Thursday, however, all assembled in the synagogue said to Tobias: We observe that no one can better satisfy our wishes they commit the crime to Tobias: than you: for you deal daily with the Christians, and nearly all are familiar to you. You can easily intercept one: because no one notices you when you walk about the city. We will see to it that many good things shall always come to you from us. Tobias refuses, and assigns many reasons for the danger in the enterprise. But they bind him with their curses, and unless he obeys, they bar him from the synagogue forever. Tobias therefore, seeing that all had conspired against him, and that a reward would now be set before him, seized with a blind greed for gold, said: I will gladly undertake this task, Fathers. But as you know, who walking about the city, I am a poor man, and my trade is not sufficient for comfortable living. I also have many small children; I commend them and myself to you alone. All answered: Bring the boy here, for no ingratitude toward you will ever be found in us. Then the traitor, turning to Samuel, said: Let your doors not be locked with any key, so that if anyone should conveniently come my way, I may easily push him inside. And when evening had passed, he went out and began to walk about the entire neighborhood alone: and crossing through the street which the common people call the Fossatum, he quickly made his way all the way to the square. But when he found no one conveniently, he quickly turned his steps and at the same time retraced his observed path.

[5] After he had reached the place which the inhabitants call the Fossatum, he finds Simon unguarded, he spotted before the door of his father's house a remarkable boy sitting upon a piece of wood, named Simon, who, not yet twenty-nine months old, was so beautiful in every respect that nothing could be found in him that could justly be criticized. And approaching, he observes that no one is watching the boy: Tobias, being affable, extends a finger to the infant. The beautiful boy, being gentle and trusting as he was, softly takes the index finger with his white hand: he proceeds, and the boy follows with unequal steps. And when the traitor had passed beyond the father's house, with his savage right hand he seized the most beautiful hand of the infant, and now dragged him, now pushed him by striking his soft back with his knees. Then the boy, looking back, began with tears to raise pious cries, and to sweetly call upon his mother's name. The traitor, immediately terrified, drew out a silver coin, and carries him off: and offering it to the infant, calmed him with gentle words. After the executioner had reached the end of the street, carefully surveying everything, he noticed a cobbler sewing on the left. There, terrified, he immediately stopped his steps, until at last the craftsman turned his eyes elsewhere. Then, seizing the opportunity, crossing the street with swift pace, he thrust the infant into the house of Samuel.

[6] Here Samuel, like a tiger waiting for blood, snatching up the boy, the delighted Jews receive the boy, carried him more swiftly into his own chamber. I pass over here what great joy those dragons felt: for they were howling like ravenous wolves with dry throats over Christian blood. And lest the boy, frightened in an unfamiliar place, should cry out, some offered grapes, others apples, others other things by which infants are usually delighted; until, with the boy silent, the day joined with the night. Meanwhile his mother Mary, when she saw the boy was absent, and did not find him as usual among the neighbors, beating her breast, the anxious parents search, together with her husband Andrew, searched for the infant throughout the entire city. But all the boys, from whose lips the Holy Spirit often speaks, asserted that he should be sought among the Jews: for it would happen, they said, that the Jews had snatched him and would hang him on a cross in reproach of the Christian faith. And had not night suddenly stolen the day from their midst, they would have turned their way to the Jews. Whence, driven by the fallen darkness, weeping bitterly, they returned home.

l Surius: of the way.

CHAPTER II.

The cruel butchery inflicted upon S. Simon.

[7] It was the time when first rest refreshes human hearts, The boy is stripped for the slaughter, and the voices of men and dogs were at rest. Then the cruel Moses, together with the remaining most savage Jews, carrying that innocent infant, entered the vestibule which adjoins the front doors of the synagogue: and there, sitting upon a bench by the fireplace, he received the boy upon his knees. Then all standing around, they pulled his garment down to the navel and up to the elbows in reversed order, and gathering the flowing tunic, they girded it to his side, which Moses begins, so that from the thigh down to the ankles, with his stockings pulled down, he was stripped bare; and Samuel, taking a cloth that hung from his belt and wrapping it around the boy's neck, compressed it so he would not cry out, while others held his hands and feet. Then Moses, unsheathing a knife, pierced the tip of the infant's member: and seizing a pair of forceps, began to tear apart the right cheek near the chin, and placed the piece of flesh cut off in a basin prepared there. and the rest imitating him, The bystanders collected the sacred blood, and passing the forceps in alternation, each one cut off a morsel of living flesh for himself. Thus all the chief ones did, until the wound far exceeded the roundness of an egg. And whenever the boy, with the noose slipping, made noise with his throat, they frequently brought their hands to his mouth, cruelly suffocating him.

[8] slowly completes it, When Moses had thus cruelly completed this, he immediately raised the right shin of the infant, and setting it upon his knees, proceeded to tear apart the outer part, which lies between the ankle and the calf muscle, similarly with the same blade: and seizing the forceps, in turn they lacerated the living flesh with the living blood. Afterwards that most savage old man, the ringleader of so great a crime, raising the half-dead infant, asked Samuel to sit down beside him on the boy's left: and both violently extending his most holy arms in the manner of a crucifix, urged the rest to pierce that sacred body with hard needles. All therefore gathered around, beginning from the crown of the head

down to the soles of his feet, they pierced him with dense blows, saying: Tolle Jesse minaelle parichiefelle passusen pegmalen: which is: Just as we killed Jesus, the God of the Christians, who is nothing, so may our enemies be confounded forever. the boy expires amidst the torments: Already for more than an hour the pitiable boy had endured the terrible torment, and with the vital spirit cut off, his strength failing, he was collapsing: and raising his heavy eyes to heaven, he seemed to call upon the Powers above as witnesses, and bowing his head, he rendered his holy spirit to the Lord,

As when a crimson flower, cut by the plough, Languishes in dying, and as poppies with drooping neck Let fall their heads, when perchance weighed down by rain.

Then Moses and all the rest, raising their eyes and palms to heaven, gave thanks to God that they had offered both vengeance and sacrifice against the Christians: and leaving the body there, running with applause and great clamor over the rooftops, they showed that they had received ineffable joy. the body is hidden in a cellar: And going down to supper, Samuel ordered the servants to conceal it under the wine casks: for they feared the proclamations of the Bishop, and the rumor that was growing more and more against them, lest, seized by the fury of the people and slain, they should suddenly be dragged to torture.

[9] it is displayed in the synagogue for viewing, On the next day, which recalls the Passion of the Lord to the memory of all who believe in Christ, with the rivers flowing into the city held back, the parents of the infant, together with the praetorian cohort, searching everywhere, did not find him. But on Saturday the Jews, assembling in the synagogue, in the sight of all extended the corpse upon the Almomor. For the Almomor is a certain table before the altar, where they chant psalms, antiphons, and hymns, and after completing their prayers, they again placed the body in the same spot. But on the third day, which had brought the holy Passover to the faithful of Christ, when the Jews perceived that nearly everyone's thoughts were fixed upon them, having taken counsel and weighed the opinions of many, they said: Let us cast this clothed body into the river which flows beneath our house, and going to the Bishop let us say, it is thrown into the water, that the water brought it into our house, and being held by the iron grate it could not flow away with the stream. For upon seeing such things, no one will believe that the Jews killed the boy. The proposal pleased everyone: and the traitor, ascending to the Bishop, disclosed the sequence of events in the order in which he had been instructed. drawn from the water it becomes illustrious through miracles. Then the Bishop, rejoicing, ordered John de Salis, the Praetor, and James de Sporo, Prefect of his city of Trent, to accompany him to the place where the boy lay. And descending at once, they found the corpse in the water wrapped in clothes: which they immediately extracted, and having carefully noted its wounds, they placed it in the basilica of S. Peter: where, with a great throng of people and sick coming together, it shines forth daily with many and great miracles.

m Surius: instructed.

CHAPTER III.

Concerning the rage of the Jews against Christians and the punishment of their patron.

[10] Behold, Christian, Jesus crucified again among robbers. Behold what the Jews would do, The rage of the Jews against Christians is set forth if they held power among the faithful of Christ. Glorious Simon, Virgin, Martyr, and Innocent, scarcely weaned and whose tongue did not yet sound human speech, was stretched on the cross by the Jews in contempt of our faith. Hear, you who tolerate so cruel a race of men in your cities. The Jews have decreed by an eternal statute that the divine Eucharist and the Blessed Mary ever Virgin should be cursed daily: asserting that all words are polluted with sin, except those which are known to tend toward contempt of the Roman Church. Likewise in the third book of the Talmud (for the Jews prefer this code to the books of Moses and the Prophets: and Christ: and to make the Talmud more believed, they add fables to fables, saying that God studies the Talmud) therein it is perpetually decreed by law that three times every day, in that prayer which they consider more efficacious than all other prayers, all the faithful of Christ should be cursed. This prayer, too, standing with joined hands, directing their attention to nothing in the world, the men pour forth in Hebrew, the women in whatever language they learned from their early years. The Levite alone chants it in a loud voice, with all the rest responding, Amen.

[11] The words of the prayer sound thus: For the converts let there be no hope, and let all suddenly be scattered: their blasphemous prayer to God: let the little ones be diminished in their mothers' wombs, and let them rise no more: and let all the enemies of your nation Israel be destroyed, and let the kingdom of wickedness of the Christians be uprooted and confounded. Do, Lord, do, fulfill what we ask, in our days swiftly: because you are the blessed God, who puts enemies to flight and destroys the wicked. And in the second book of the Talmud they affirm that our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, suffers the greatest torments in hell. the age of the boy killed, It is not surprising, Christians, if Christ afflicts us with war, famine, thirst, hail, and frost: if he allows us, his people, redeemed by his precious blood, always to slip toward worse things: since we suffer his enemies to reign among us. What, I ask, is this other than, having despised the most sacred faith, to cling to its perpetual enemies? Simon, of whom we speak, was born on Friday, the 6th before the Kalends of December, in the year from the saving birth of the Virgin one thousand four hundred and seventy-two, of Andrew and Mary, parents of the poorest condition, under the happy rule of Lord John Hinderbach, fourth Bishop and Lord of Trent. For which reason all the Jews, from the greatest to the least, have been confined in prisons and chains, not to depart thence before they pay the penalties due. Farewell. At Trent, the Nones of April, 1475.

[12] Thus far John Matthias, as it is found in Surius and in the manuscript of Rougevallee. The Eger manuscript, omitting the closing "Farewell" etc., adds the following.

MIRACLE

Sait, the defender of the Hebrew cause, having undertaken it, While the wretch sits, here sleep comes upon him: vengeance taken on the Jews' patron. The place, unable to bear him, hurls the wretched man into the fire; Seeking help, he grasps the brass vessel with his hand; He immediately buries his head in the boiling waters, And with his skin consumed, blind, he lacks the light. The land of Roveredo, witnessing the greatest miracles, Gives you, holy Boy, this seat deservedly.

The great miracles and wondrous signs which God works around this blessed boy, because they grow daily more frequent to the confusion of the Jews, will be recorded in another booklet after the due penalties have been exacted from them.

PART II

Acts after the passion of S. Simon from the Italian printed source.

FROM THE ITALIAN ACCOUNT.

CHAPTER I

The investigation made into the missing boy. The vain attempts of the Jews to conceal the crime.

[13] The body washed After the blessed boy breathed forth his soul, those cruel beasts washed the bloody little body in a basin with clean water, with which they then sprinkled their houses, in the manner in which we Christians are accustomed to purify ours with holy water: and each counted himself fortunate who could wash his hands and face in the same water. The aforesaid basin is preserved to this day in the convent of S. Bernardino of the Observant Fathers, a few steps outside the city of Trent. it is hidden in the hayloft.

Furthermore Samuel, who had stripped the boy, clothed him again in his own garments, and his servant Vitalis, at his master's command, carried him to the hayloft to be hidden under the straw. The holy body lay there from the very night of his

martyrdom until the evening of the following Friday. Meanwhile the boy's parents, weary from searching and wasting away with grief, went to the Bishop: who, understanding the matter, immediately commanded The father seeking his son that the lost boy be publicly sought throughout the entire city, with a penalty of death imposed on whoever in any way knowing something should fail to reveal and report whatever he knew.

[14] Instructed by these mandates, the most afflicted father and mother go to the palace, meet with the Praetor, who at that time was John dalla Sale, with his bodyguard he knocks on Samuel's house, a Doctor of laws and noble citizen of Brescia, and having set forth the will of the Prince, they obtained from him the Captain of the praetorian cohort as a companion, so that under his leadership and public authority they might freely enter anywhere to search for their son. And since they left no place unexplored, they finally reached the house of the wicked Samuel. When they unexpectedly knocked on the doors of the man who was cheerfully dining, and he had resisted for some time the bodyguard requesting entry, he was at last compelled to admit them, greatly distressed that his Passover should be disturbed at such a time, and that the sanctity of his house should be polluted by the contact with Christians, forbidden at that time by Jewish superstition. Yet he did not keep far from them, but both he himself and his wife Brunetta and his son Israel accompanied those who wished to search through every room of his house. and searches the house and canal in vain. When nothing was found in these, and no one suspected anything about the hayloft, they all departed together. Then, since no other place remained which they might search by investigating, it was decided to examine the waters themselves, in case perchance the boy might be found drowned in them. Therefore the father caused the canal to be blocked — which through an underground channel passes through many houses, extends beneath Samuel's very dwelling, and not far from there pours its entrusted waters into the Adige — through Cyprian da Borme, and then searched the entire canal with him for the one he mourned as lost.

[15] When evening came, Samuel called Bonaventura his cook, from the hayloft into the cellar, and ordered him to take the corpse from the hayloft and carry it to the wine cellar and hide it there, lest the returning soldiers, wishing to search this place they had passed over, should find it there. The servant obeyed and hid the boy under the wine casks; not, however, so much to his own satisfaction that he could rest easy. Therefore, taking it up again without his master's knowledge, he carried it to the stable, and there in a corner, thence to the stable, where the ground was slightly hollowed out in the manner of a pit, he threw the slain boy. Then covering that place with straw and transferring there the pile of wood that happened to be at hand in that spot, he turned a wine barrel against the corner itself, and thus closed off the entire place. So until the dawn of the following Saturday the innocent Martyr of Christ lay hidden, finally the body is carried to the synagogue whom at daybreak Samuel brought back to the synagogue, and kept there until the sunrise of the following day, venerable for the Lord's Resurrection: when the Jews, assembled together, because they perceived that they were being pointed out by the eyes and hands of all as the authors of the crime, deliberated on what they should do in this matter.

[16] Here there were various opinions with discordant minds: there were those who thought the corpse should be thrown into the Adige; but others objected as the Jews deliberated that the Christians, intent on their every movement, could easily observe if they carried anything out to the river; and therefore they did not dare to leave the house. To some it seemed more prudent, having dug a pit within the cellar, to bury their crime with earth: but this too, the earth being recently disturbed, seemed likely to arouse the suspicion of the soldiers and to reveal the crime, if they attempted to dig out the soil. While they were thus caught in this dilemma, Bonaventura, directed by his master's nod, took the corpse from the synagogue, the servant throws it into the canal, and carrying it back to the cellar, threw it into the water flowing more freely through the canal in that part where, uncovered by any vault, it passes under the houses. Then ascending to the kitchen, he announced to his mistress Brunetta, with the other household women listening, that he had seen something white in the water, and announces the find to his mistress, which he himself suspected to be the body of a boy; and perhaps of that one whom the Christians were seeking throughout the entire city with such great clamor, and whom the water had carried there drowned.

[17] But she, carefully dissimulating her conscience, lest she arouse any suspicion about herself among the servants and maidservants, she tells the Jews: went to the synagogue and reported to Samuel and Tobias, whom she found there, what she had heard from Bonaventura. From these, Tobias immediately followed her to the cellar, and seeing that the body could not be kept under the water, however much he tried to push it down with a long pole, and others threw stones upon it to make it sink weighted down, he returned to the synagogue maddened with rage. Where, having changed their plan, it pleased all that Tobias should go to the Most Reverend Bishop himself, who send Tobias to the Bishop. and report that a boy had been brought by the water to Samuel's cellar, perhaps the one whose parents had been searching for him as lost during those days. For the criminals believed that if they were the first to report the find, they would be farthest removed from suspicion of the killing: especially since the boy had been sought in vain in their house.

[18] He goes, and as he had been instructed, so he speaks to the Bishop. The latter, glad at the information, He comes takes with him the Praetor John and the Prefect of the City James de Sporo, and following Tobias with a great multitude of people, finds the body floating on the water and immediately orders it to be drawn out and presented to him. But when he beheld the monstrously lacerated limbs and examined each wound, moved to the depths of his being, he exclaimed: It is impossible that anyone other than an enemy of the Christian faith devised this crime. I therefore call you as witness, Jesus Christ, who, crucified and buried, are commemorated as having risen today, and promises vengeance: that I will by no means allow this impiety to remain unavenged. And to you, innocent Blessed one, I promise that whoever has stained his hands with your blood will receive from me the penalty due to his cruelty. Having said this, he departed and ordered the Praetor to institute a diligent investigation of the entire matter and to report the findings to him. Moreover it seemed admirable to both him and the others present others marvel at the incorrupt corpse that the tender flesh had not yet putrefied and did not yet emit any foul odor: and this was indeed the more to be marveled at, because in the cellar, the stable, and the water itself — places liable to induce putrefaction — the condition of all the limbs had persevered so intact, as if the killing had been recently committed.

[19] Many citizens were present when the corpse was lifted from the water: and its foul butchery. and when it was stripped of its garments, they attentively examined the wound inflicted on the head and the foully lacerated right cheek; then on the naked body they saw a similar mutilation of the right shin, and the punctures of needles driven through all the limbs: such as usually result from the stings of bees. The boy's father Andrew was also summoned, and recognized this as the body of his lost little son: the flowing blood points to the Jews. and it was the clear and unanimous judgment of all, and they so asserted before the Jews themselves, that this was their savagery: and that they ought therefore to be tortured with equal torments. For in addition to the other most evident proofs, it happened that suddenly, at the approach of the Jews, blood began to flow from every limb, which was reverently received by the bystanders and wiped with cloths, and held in great veneration. Indeed, in various places throughout the house the floor was found stained with blood, and especially in that place where the rabid dogs had carried out their butchery.

CHAPTER II.

The punishment exacted from the Jews after a thorough investigation of the case.

[20] The Jews examined When these things had been so done, the Praetor ordered the innocent body to be carried to the hospital of S. Peter, and forbade its burial without his consent: but leading Moses and the remaining Jews aside, he examined each one separately, asking how and when the child's corpse had been brought there. And perceiving that they all did not answer in agreement with one another, and that they did not maintain composure with a countenance betraying their inner agitation, he immediately signaled to his bodyguard that all should be seized and bound and carried off to the castle, each to be committed to a separate custody: they are sent to prison: lest, instructed and emboldened by mutual conversations, they should unanimously conspire to deny the crime under torture. Meanwhile Brunetta, suspecting the soldiers would return, hid the blood collected, as has been said, in the dish inside a cupboard: which was afterwards found and poured into a glass vial, and placed in the church of S. Peter, in the same place where the body of the holy Boy is kept, and shown to those who devoutly approach.

[21] The Praetor, however, so that the matter might proceed more swiftly in so great a case, ordered Archangelus Balduinus to be summoned, physicians consulted a Tridentine physician; John Matthias Tiberinus, a Brescian, illustrious no less in the poetic and oratorical faculty than in medical skill; and Christopher de Fatis of Terlago, a most celebrated surgeon; so that, having diligently inspected the corpse and examined the wounds, they might declare under oath what they thought about the matter. They, carrying out what they had been ordered, unanimously pronounced that the boy had not died in the water, they answer that he was not drowned, and this for these reasons. Because the bodies of those suffocated in water are usually found swollen, and emit water through the mouth, nostrils, and other passages of the body, the more corrupt and foul the longer they have been submerged. The same are always found with gaping mouth, wide open throat, pale and livid color, and without a wound, except such as may have been inflicted before they fell or were thrown into the water; moreover the blood does not even then flow from a wound, but sits cold within the veins, and all the limbs grow stiff. Here, however, everything was found to be the contrary; no swelling in the body, but that the boy was killed. no moisture appearing from it: the mouth closed, the throat tight, the color of the flesh ruddy, no bruise or blow: but wounds inflicted with cutting and piercing to the head, cheek, shin, member, and all the limbs, flowing with entirely fresh blood, just as if the body were alive, and all the joints having likewise full mobility.

[22] After the Praetor understood these things, he requested from the Bishop, his Prince and Lord, that some skilled Doctor of laws be added to him, an assessor is added to the Praetor: whose counsel he might use in so difficult a matter: and the City Prefect, already named above, James de Sporo, was chosen for this, a most learned man and a most praised zealot of justice. While they deliberated and conferred among themselves, there was a great concourse of people arriving from everywhere to see the pitiable spectacle: among whom there was no one who was not deeply moved and prayed to God that he might deign to reveal the authors of so great a cruelty. The wretched mother also rushed forward, the mother approaches her son's corpse: and filling everything with wailing and lamentation; as soon as she had access through the parted crowds to her son's body, and beheld it so foully lacerated, she could not satisfy her grief with mourning, but overcome in strength she fell to the ground, and among the hands of the weeping neighbor women was not led but carried home. Throughout the entire city voices were heard of those crying out that the Jews were guilty of the boy's death and demanding their punishment. In order that the Praetor might learn the reason for this opinion spreading among the common people, he summoned a certain John,

[23] He replied, as was the case, that the Jews were accustomed to prepare their unleavened bread on the Wednesday of the holier week, learns they customarily use Christian blood, and to mix into it the blood of a Christian child; which they also use at their Passover in the evening, that is, on Thursday, and likewise on Friday, mixing it with wine: and that to the customary blessing of the table they add curses against Christ and the Christian faith, asking God to send upon the Christians all those plagues with which he scourged Pharaoh and his kingdom for their obstinacy in retaining and oppressing the people of Israel. I remember, moreover, he said, that as a young man I often heard from my father that in the city of Tungguch in lower Germany, they committed a similar outrage elsewhere. about forty years ago the Jews conspired and slaughtered a Christian boy, whose blood they used at their Passover: of whom, when the crime was detected and they had confessed, more than forty-five were condemned to the flames, but my father, having escaped by flight with some others, came to these parts.

[24] With such evidence, confirmed by so powerful a presumption, the Praetor girded himself for conducting the interrogation of the prisoners: The Jews tortured who at first steadfastly denied the deed and complained that they were being tortured though innocent: then, turning to their customary frauds, they lied that a certain Swiss neighbor of theirs, a poor man named Gianzarum, seemed to be implicated in this crime: who, having previously been hostile to the Jews and having made threats, they contrive a calumny against the poor Swiss man, had committed this murder, the blame for which he would divert onto them by throwing the body into the water, knowing it would be carried to their houses. And they adorned this calumny with such colors that the innocent man was seized with his wife and thrown into chains, and was only freed by a miracle, which will be narrated below. Finally, when the Bishop had commanded the Praetor not to interrupt the investigation on account of any festival, however great, but to press the accused continually toward confession, their stubbornness was at last overcome, and the wretches revealed the entire order of the deed they had committed.

[25] The fame of the accused's confession soon spread throughout all Italy and Germany: those who confessed the crime wherefore the Jews, anxious for the safety of their brethren, whom they now saw could be freed by no frauds, pooled their counsels and monies for corrupting the administrators of public justice: and when they saw that nothing could be accomplished with the Praetor and Prefect, they so increased the collected sum that they were confident of overcoming either Bishop Hinderbach or Sigismund of Austria for the liberation of the captives. others tried to exempt them from punishment: But they found the hands of these also closed to gifts and their ears to prayers. Therefore, so that they might at least delay the pronouncement of the sentence and gain time in which they might find an opportunity, by prayer or bribery, by force or deceit, to contrive something in favor of the criminals, they sent from the city of Padua the most skilled Doctors of laws, to defend the case whether by right or by wrong, and to entangle it by every means, so that the sentence could not quickly be rendered. But their effort too was vain, God being unwilling that so great a crime should go unpunished for the accused.

[26] For a long time, however, it was debated with what penalty and punishment they should be chastised. a worthy punishment is sought, Some wanted them variously torn apart and thrown into the river; some wanted their heads cut off and the bodies dragged about and thus scattered so that they could by no means be gathered; others said they should be strangled with a noose, others hanged by their feet with a dog, which being unable to bear the pain would unleash its rage and teeth upon the malefactors: finally some pronounced that they should be burned alive. At length sentence was passed upon both Bonaventuras, that their limbs should be broken on the wheel and their bodies consumed by flames: but since they asked to be baptized, so that they might die as Christians, the Praetor mitigated the rigor of the sentence and ordered them to be beheaded and then burned. Tobias was placed on a cart and led through the city, which is exacted from all, torn with pincers before he suffered the breaking of his legs on the wheel and was finally burned alive. Moses, decrepit with age, escaped the punishment he had deserved by dying in prison, either from poison administered by friends, or from the severity of the torture, or even by a violent death which he inflicted on himself in despair, as is the more common opinion of many: the corpse of the dead man was tied to a horse's tail, dragged through the city, and left on the wheel for dogs and vultures. Samuel and Angelus, after their limbs were torn with pincers, were likewise placed on the wheel and burned: which same fate, except for the torment of the pincers, was suffered by Vitalis, Mohar, Israel, Ioph, Solomon, and other guilty Hebrews, and the goods of all were confiscated.

CHAPTER III

The religious veneration decreed and instituted for S. Simon: some miracles.

[27] A chapel is erected on the site of the killing: After the Jews had paid the deserved punishments, thought began to be given to honoring the innocent Martyr. And first indeed, in the very place where he had been so cruelly killed, the buildings having been demolished, a church was built and consecrated to his memory. Then by public decree of the city it was provided that no Jew should be permitted to establish a dwelling at Trent. Finally, as miracles grew more frequent, pilgrimages from every region began to be made to visit the holy little body: whence various blind persons were illuminated, the body becomes illustrious through miracles: many were freed from dangerous illnesses, very many women were either delivered from difficult childbirth or freed from the distress of prolonged barrenness, through the interposed intercession of this saint: which also the boy's mother Mary felt to be efficacious toward herself in many ways, having been made a widow within a few years through the death of her husband, and from then on being loaded with the greatest divine benefits.

[28] By all of which it was brought about that Gregory XIII ordered Blessed Simon the Martyr to be inscribed in the sacred calendar of the Roman Church on March 24 in these words: the name is inscribed in the Roman Martyrology: At Trent, the passion of S. Simeon, an innocent boy, most cruelly slain by the Jews in hatred of Christ, who afterward shone forth with many miracles. Which in the later revision of the Baronian Martyrology are read somewhat more abbreviated. After this, in the year 1588, Pope Sixtus V, at the supplication of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Cardinal Madruzzo, Bishop and Prince of Trent, granted a feast is decreed; that the feast of the aforesaid Saint might be celebrated throughout the entire diocese of Trent with its own Office and Mass: with a plenary Indulgence added in perpetuity for all those who, on the said feast day, after receiving the Sacraments of Penance and Eucharist, would visit the church of S. Peter; where the body of the holy Martyr, resting with all the precious instruments of his passion in its own altar, is religiously visited not only by citizens but also by foreigners passing back and forth through these borderlands of Italy and Germany.

[29] a procession is ordered for March 23 The most joyful news of this Pontifical decree, brought to Trent, soon stirred the spirits of all to celebrate the first solemnity of the new Saint with the greatest possible display. Therefore by decree of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lords, the Canons of Trent, first the church of S. Peter was hung all around with the most precious tapestries, and in the midst of it a couch was erected with much silk and golden cloth, to receive the sacred body of the Martyr. This was reverently placed upon it around midday of the day which preceded the feast itself, namely the 23rd of March, and remained there for the consolation of all running thither from everywhere for the sake of indulgences, visible for at least two hours. At the hour for chanting Vespers, with the Chapter of Canons the entire Clergy was present, in which the body was carried around through the city. also gathered from the suburban parishes, together with the assembled communities of all religious: by whom, after a period of common prayer, in which the propitious favor of God himself and of the Saint was sought, a solemn procession was organized, with the sodalities of the Confraternities going before in the customary manner, with their Crosses, banners, and candles; and among these two hundred little boys most elegantly adorned, with a banner and image of their fellow young Saint: then the secular and religious Clergy followed the Canons, carrying lighted torches in their hands. With the entire procession thus proceeding, the Parish Priests of the four parishes of Trent received the venerable relic upon their shoulders, taken from that rich and beautiful platform, and placed it on an elegant bier within a silver cradle, adorned with many gold and silver necklaces and jewels, and so arranged that the body could easily be viewed by those walking around.

[30] Above the body thus being carried, four principal Doctors bore a rich canopy, The order of this procession, fashioned with golden fabric: whom the Illustrious and Very Reverend Lords, the Dean and Archdeacon of the Church of Trent, followed immediately, divided onto either side, after whom likewise two Very Reverend Provosts processed, one of S. Michael, the other of Gries, both pontifically vested in mitre and cope: and finally the Most Reverend Lord Bishop Suffragan of Trent, having a most splendid mitre on his head, attended by eight priests wearing handsome tunics: besides whom two Levites with silver thuribles continuously honored the sacred Relics with the smoke of burning incense. This principal part of the entire procession was followed by the Lords Councillors, Doctors, and Nobles of the city and diocese assembled to honor the solemnity, and as many others of the male sex as had gathered. Last came the women in the greatest number, intermingled with most finely attired young girls. All, moreover, both men and women, carried burning candles in their hands: and the general opinion of most was that there were in all about thirteen thousand.

[31] The order of the advancing procession was this. From the church of S. Peter to the church of the Most Holy Trinity, its manner, from there to the Cathedral basilica of S. Vigilius, thence it proceeded to S. Mary Major: with the procession pausing at each place, and musical harmonies being chanted over the body reverently placed there. Finally the return to S. Peter's was begun, and on the return, in the street called Cantone, the entire history of the aforementioned martyrdom was represented to the life, and this so aptly that not only was the spectacle praised by all, but the people testified that they had been wonderfully moved to a feeling of devotion by it. After, moreover, all had returned to the place whence they had set out, conclusion. with the customary hymn of the Church on such occasions, Te Deum Laudamus, solemn Vespers of the Saint were sung. On the feast day itself the Suffragan Bishop celebrated Mass pontifically, and the ordinary preacher of the Cathedral church delivered a splendid oration to the people on the merits and miracles of the holy Boy. The following miracles, a few out of many, are here recorded.

[32] Innocent captives are released: Gianzerus the Swiss with his wife was imprisoned in the castle and bound with chains, because accused by the Jews of having, either himself or with his wife's knowledge or assistance, dragged the body of Blessed Simon into the canal; when he directed his prayers to God and to this glorious Innocent, that through his merits his innocence might be made manifest, the chains were suddenly broken and the fetters loosened. Nor did the ministers of justice delay in restoring to liberty those innocents so proven by so evident a

miracle.

[33] one suffering from fever is healed, Lord Gaspar Martinengus of Brescia, suffering from a continuous fever, made a vow to visit Blessed Simon, and upon fulfilling it immediately recovered his health, in the presence of Lord Matthias Tiberinus, the Brescian physician, and the reverend Priest Zuane, and Lord Stephen Nodar of Caden, in the year 1475.

[34] Laurence Jodicus of Innsbruck, deprived of the light of his eyes for an entire year, a blind man, approaching and kissing the place where the body of Blessed Simon was kept, was instantly illuminated, in the presence of the reverend Priests Lord John of Florence and Lord John of Enno, inhabitants of the city of Trent, in the year 1475.

[35] At Sacheta in the territory of Mantua, John de Soldo of Brescia had been mute for eight years, a mute man, from a blow of a beam that had fallen on his head: this man, when he heard of the wonderful prodigies which God was working through Blessed Simon, knelt down and received his speech, in the presence of Lord Cominus and Master Balthasar of Brescia.

[36] Vincent Andrew of Rendena, attacked by seven men rushing upon him and mortally wounded, one wounded unto death, when having received the Sacraments of the Church he was believed about to expire, devoted himself to Blessed Simon, and falling into sleep, found himself completely healed the following day.

[37] At Pomarolo in the Lagarina Valley, Catherine, daughter of Zeno from the said town, paralyzed and stricken with palsy, a paralytic, having made a vow to Blessed Simon at Trent, had herself carried in a cart, and being brought to the church of S. Peter, as soon as she devoutly touched the casket of the sacred body, she received the health of all her limbs: in the presence of the Vicar of Bolzano and Rompelanza, shield-bearer of the Most Reverend Bishop of Trent.

[38] Andrew, an innkeeper at the sign of the War-Flower in Verona, sick unto death and given up by the physicians, a patient given up by doctors, remembering to make a vow to Blessed Simon of Trent, as soon as he acted on this thought of his, fell asleep: and the following morning, rising healthy, he began to set out for Trent to fulfill what he had vowed.

[39] Francis of Peschiera (a most strongly fortified town at the outlet of Lake Garda), residing at Verona, a blind man, fell into an illness by which, having entirely lost the use of his eyes, he remained blind for fourteen years: at last, having made a vow to the Virgin of Loreto and to Blessed Simon, he was illuminated by the mercy of God.

[40] one disabled in the feet, Margaret of Arbizzano from the Pubesella valley in the Veronese territory, so infirm that she could in no way walk on her own feet, was healed after making a similar vow; and for the sake of fulfilling it she came on foot all the way to Trent, on the twelfth of April of the year 1475.

[41] In the parish called Banal, of the Lord's Judicature, the daughter of Dominic Mazza had been hunchbacked for seven years and so bent over hunchbacked and curved; that she could only move about anywhere on her hands and feet equally pressed to the ground. This girl, brought to Trent, as soon as she entered the church of S. Peter and touched the sacred platform, being lifted by her mother to see upon it the little body of the glorious Martyr, recovered her health so perfectly that she began to walk without impediment; in the presence and sight of Master Anthony Prato and Girold the Stationer.

[42] James Concius of Ossana from the Val di Sole made a vow for his son who was already dead; a dead boy is raised and for the life miraculously restored to him, he offered to the Saint a silver image of eleven pounds: which is seen to this day.

[43] At Lavis near Trent, Barbara, daughter of the tailor Bald, fell into the Lavisio river and was not drawn out by her parents until dead; who, turning their trust to God, called upon Blessed Simon in their vows, and received their daughter alive and well. Many other things could be added to these: but for the sake of brevity they are omitted, and a drowned girl. so that the ending may be in that prayer which the Church of Trent recites as proper to S. Simon under this antiphon. Intercede for your homeland, Blessed Simon; may your merits help us, by whose prayers and invocation many who despaired of health have been made well. V. Rejoice and be glad, Church of Trent, R. Enriched by the glory of so great a son. Prayer for S. Simon. Prayer: O God, restorer of innocence, for whose name Blessed Innocent Simon was slain by the perfidious Jews with the torment of a most cruel death; grant us, we beseech you, that by his interceding merits, undefiled by the contagions of this life, we may deserve to reach our heavenly homeland.

Bishop of Galese, says the Italian text: but what this bishopric in partibus infidelium is (for from these the titles of Suffragans or Chorepiscopi are usually taken) we have not yet been able to divine.

CONCERNING S. JOHANNETTUS, A BOY KILLED BY JEWS IN THE DIOCESE OF COLOGNE. By Aegidius Gelenius.

Johannettus, a boy killed by Jews in the diocese of Cologne (S.)

Seligenthal is a monastery of Conventual Franciscans, a thousand paces distant from Siegburg, Captured near Siegburg, following the bank of the Sieg river toward the East. Here a boy sent for the purpose of learning good letters (Johannettus was his name) was intercepted on the way by the Jews and killed in hatred of the faith with knives; killed by the Jews, one of which, resembling a pen-knife, enclosed in a silver box, is preserved in the church of Siegburg, formerly dedicated to S. Michael by S. Anno, Archbishop of Cologne. They believed they would conceal their crime by covering the innocent body with turf near the castle called zur Mühlen, which the family of Gebertshagen now possesses. But pigs, digging with their snouts, uncovered it, it is dug up by pigs; which the swineherd reported to the mother. She was preparing to place it on a cart to carry it to the cemetery at Troisdorf for customary burial; and would have done so, had not the horse, having come closer to Siegburg, at that road which still retains the boy's name, being called die Kindtsgass, reared up and refused to go further, by no force to be compelled to cross that hill. When this held the mother and her companions in astonishment, the horse halting and a hand extended, they began together to beseech God that he would deign to signify to them what that strange immobility of the balking horse portended: and soon they saw from the gaping coffin the boy's hand extended toward the left, toward Siegburg. Therefore they ran to the Clergy existing there and led the procession organized on the spot to where they had left the body. The horse carrying it it is brought to Siegburg: no longer had to be pulled and led, but going ahead of the procession of its own accord willingly, it began to lead those chanting psalms, until the Relics were carried into the church in triumphal fashion and placed in a tomb beside the old sepulcher of S. Anno. Where Johannettus became illustrious through great miracles, and the hand extended from the coffin, enclosed in silver, remained incorrupt until the Swedish devastation: especially the finger which his mother, desirous of Relics resplendent with so many miracles, had cut off, but was compelled to restore, because she could not set foot out of the church of S. Michael until, having revealed the theft, she had appeased her son. where he became illustrious through miracles, The chief grace by which this holy Innocent flourished, namely of obtaining offspring for barren marriages, has been a constant tradition even to these times, and the sequence of events is somehow taught by ancient paintings and monuments which the barbarity of the Swedes left at Siegburg. For the Relics of the sacred body, like other venerable remains, were scattered by heretical enemies; from whom the hand, redeemed together with the aforementioned instrument of martyrdom, is religiously preserved by the Most Reverend and Most Illustrious Lord Bertram von Bellinghausen, Prelate and temporal Lord of Siegburg. until the Swedish incursion.

The ancient veneration of him is attested by the chapel surviving in his name, A chapel dedicated to his name, in the place where the balking horse gave warning that they should not proceed further. Which chapel the possessors of the castle of zur Mühlen diligently repair, although they are heretics: for if it is neglected, the deaths and funerals of the leading persons among them are often observed to follow.

These things were sent to us in the year 1643 by that most diligent man, historiographer of the Archiepiscopal Church of Cologne and also a great admirer of this work of ours: the name is referred to this day. since religious veneration and worship, surviving in some degree to this day, is abundantly attested; nor is any day known that was specifically dedicated to this Saint, nor are any chronological indicators of the time when he suffered to be found: we believed he could most fittingly be reported on this day, and his memory joined with that of S. Simon of Trent, killed by similar barbarity: until more light may be brought from elsewhere.