On the burning of the Jews: in which places and why

In that same year, from the feast of John the Baptist until the feast of All Saints, throughout the whole Kingdom of Arles, except in the city of Avignon, which Pope Clement VI had purchased and where he defended the Jews living there, all the Jews were burned and killed, as far as the town of Solothurn, where they too were burned.

This was because of the mortality that raged in that year and the next, which was ascribed to the Jews. It was said, and common rumor held, and they themselves confessed the same thing, as will appear in the events of the following year, that they had poisoned the springs.

For this reason, the people of Constance then ordered their people to draw water from the lake and not from the springs, and that Jews should use only the springs and wells of the Christians, while the wells of the Jews were filled with dung and stones.

On the persecution of the Jews in the German lands

In the aforesaid year, 1348, in the month of November, the persecution of the Jews began. First, in Germany, at the fortress of Solothurn, all the Jews were burned because of the rumor that they had poisoned springs and streams.

This later seemed clear through their own confession and also through the confession of Christians corrupted by Jews, who had been induced by Jews to commit the aforesaid crime. Certain newly baptized Jews confessed the same thing. Some of them remained in the faith, while others apostatized, yet when placed on the wheels they confessed that they had scattered poison and poisoned waters. Thus, when their fraud had been exposed, no doubt remained.

Within the cycle of one year, that is, from the feast of All Saints in 1348 until the feast of blessed Michael the Archangel in 1349, all Jews, young men and maidens, old people together with the great, were burned and killed from Cologne to Austria because of the aforesaid crime. Blessed be God, who in every way handed over the wicked, who believed that they could extinguish His Church, not knowing that it was placed upon a firm rock. While they tried to overthrow it, they killed themselves bodily and eternally.

Now let us pursue the individual killings.

First, they were killed or burned in Solothurn in the month of November. Then, in Zofingen, they were captured and some of them were placed on wheels. Then, in Stuttgart, all were burned. Likewise, in Landsberg, a town of the diocese of Augsburg, and in Büren, Memmingen and Burgau of the same diocese, they were burned in the month of November.

In the month of December, on the day of Saint Nicholas, they were burned and killed in Lindau; on the sixth day before the Ides of December in Böttingen; on the Ides of December in Haigerloch; and on the thirteenth day before the Kalends of January in Horb, they were burned in a pit.

When the wood and straw had been consumed, some Jews, young and old, remained half-alive. Some of the stronger ones seized clubs and stones and dashed out the brains of those who wanted to crawl out of the fire, compelling them in this way to descend to hell, when they wanted to separate themselves from the fire. And the curse seemed to be fulfilled: “His blood be upon us and upon our children.”

On the sixth day before the Kalends of January, the Jews in Esslingen burned themselves in their houses and in their synagogue. Likewise, they were burned in Nagold.

But in the aforesaid town of Zofingen, poison was found in the barrel of a Jew called Tröstli. The consuls of that city found it while investigating there, and by testing it proved that it was poison. Because of this, two Jewish men and one Jewish woman were then broken on wheels. The others were spared by command of Lord Albert, Duke of Austria, who ordered that they be defended. But this did little good, because within the following year, as many as he had in his fortifications and throughout the whole diocese of Constance were killed.

On the burning of Jews in individual places

In the year of the Lord 1349, the burning of the Jews, once begun, increased more and more. For when the truth of the aforesaid poisoning had been discovered, the people rose up unanimously against the Jews.

First, the citizens in Ravensburg, on the fourth day before the Nones of January, burned the Jews in the fortress to which they had fled so that they might be protected there by King Charles. After the burning, the citizens imprisoned the king’s household.

But the people of Constance shut their Jews in two houses on the second day before the Nones of January. On the fifth day before the Nones of March, they burned them in the fields, 330 in number, at sunset. Some of them went to the fire dancing, others singing psalms and others weeping. They were enclosed in a house newly built there for this purpose and were reduced to ashes.

On the second day before the Ides of January, they were burned in Buchhorn; on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of February in Basel, except for the children, who were taken away from them by the citizens and baptized; on the twelfth day before the Kalends of February in Messkirch and Feldkirch; on the ninth day before the Kalends of February in Speyer; and on the third day before the Kalends of February in Ulm.

On the third day before the Ides of February, they were burned in Überlingen; on the sixteenth day before the Kalends of March, in the city of Strasbourg, where they burned them for six days because of the great number who were there; on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of March in Mengen; on the eleventh day before the same Kalends in Sulgen; on the ninth day before the same Kalends in Schaffhausen and Thurgau; on the seventh day before the same Kalends in Saint Gall; and on the fifth day before the Nones of March in Constance, as above, except for those who had been reserved, whom they burned on the third day after the Nativity of blessed Mary.

On the fifteenth day before the Kalends of April, they were killed and burned in the town of Baden and in the lower fortress. Those who had been brought there from Rheinfelden for protection were killed there and afterward burned. On the second day before the Kalends of May, they were likewise destroyed in Radolfzell.

In Mainz and Cologne, they were burned on the tenth day before the Kalends of September. On the fourteenth day before the Kalends of October, the Jews who had been kept in Kyburg Castle were burned, 330 in number. They had been collected from Winterthur, Diessenhofen and other towns of the Duke of Austria, who had been defending them.

But the imperial cities were no longer willing to endure them. Therefore, they wrote to Albert, Duke of Austria, who was defending his Jews in the counties of Ferrette, Alsace and Kyburg, saying that either he should have them burned by his judges, or they themselves would have them burned according to justice. The duke ordered them to be burned by his own judges.

The last were burned on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of October, in the place mentioned above. And so, within the cycle of a year, as has been said, all the Jews from Cologne to Austria were burned. The same awaits them there, because they are cursed by God.

I would believe that the end of the Hebrews had come, if the time of the preaching of Elijah and Enoch had already been completed. But because it has not been completed, it is necessary that some of them be preserved, so that what is written may be fulfilled: that the hearts of the children will be turned to the fathers, and the hearts of the fathers to the children.

But in which regions they are preserved is not known to me. I think, rather, that the people and seed of Abraham are preserved more in the lands overseas than in these regions. Therefore, here I shall make an end concerning the Jews.