In 1348 there appeared in Europe a devastating plague
which is reported to have killed off ultimately twenty-five million people. By
the fall of that year the rumor was current that these deaths were due to an
international conspiracy of Jewry to poison Christendom. It was reported that
the leaders in the Jewish metropolis of Toledo had initiated the plot and that
one of the chief conspirators was a Rabbi Peyret who had his headquarters in
Chambéry, Savoy, whence he dispatched his poisoners to France, Switzerland, and
Italy.
By authority of Amadeus VI,
Count of Savoy, a number of the Jews who lived on the shores of Lake Geneva,
having been arrested and put to the torture, naturally confessed anything their
inquisitors suggested. These Jews, under torture, incriminated others. Records
of their confessions were sent from one town to another in Switzerland and down
the Rhine River into Germany, and as a result, thousands of Jews, in at least
two hundred towns and hamlets, were butchered and burnt. The sheer loss of
numbers, the disappearance of their wealth, and the growing hatred of the
Christians brought German Jewry to a catastrophic downfall. It now began to
decline and did not again play an important part in German life till the
seventeenth century.
The first account that follows
is a translation from the Latin of a confession made under torture by Agimet, a
Jew, who was arrested at Chatel, on Lake Geneva. It is typical of the
confessions extorted and forwarded to other towns.
The confession of Agimet is found
in the Appendix to Johann S. Schilter's 1698 edition of the Middle High German
chronicle of the Strasbourg historian, Jacob von Königshofen (1346-1420).
The
Confession of Agimet of Geneva, Châtel, October 20, 1348
The year of our Lord 1348.
On Friday, the 10th of the month
of October, at Châtel, in the castle thereof, there occurred the judicial
inquiry which was made by order of the court of the illustrious Prince, our
lord, Amadeus, Count of Savoy, and his subjects against the Jews of both sexes
who were there imprisoned, each one separately. [Jews were sometimes imprisoned
separately to prevent suicide.] This was done after public rumor had become
current and a strong clamor had arisen because of the poison put by them into
the wells, springs, and other things which the Christians use-demanding that
they die, that they are able to be found guilty and, therefore, that they
should be punished. Hence this their confession made in the presence of a great
many trustworthy persons.
Agimet the Jew, who lived at
Geneva and was arrested at Châtel, was there put to the torture a little and
then he was released from it. And after a long time, having been subjected
again to torture a little, he confessed in the presence of a great many
trustworthy persons, who are later mentioned. To begin with it is clear that at
the Lent just passed Pultus Clesis de Ranz had sent this very Jew to Venice to
buy silks and other things for him. When this came to the notice of Rabbi
Peyret, a Jew of Chambory who was a teacher of their law, he sent for this
Agimet, for whom he had searched, and when he had come before him he said:
"We have been informed that you are going to Venice to buy silk and other
wares. Here I am giving you a little package of half a span in size which
contains some prepared poison and venom in a thin, sewed leather-bag.
Distribute it among the wells, cisterns, and springs about Venice and the other
places to which you go, in order to poison the people who use the water of the
aforesaid wells that will have been poisoned by you, namely, the wells in which
the poison will have been placed."
Agimet took this package full of
poison and carried it with him to Venice, and when he came there he threw and
scattered a portion of it into the well or cistern of fresh water which was
there near the German House, in order to poison the people who use the water of
that cistern. And he says that this is the only cistern of sweet water in the
city. He also says that the mentioned Rabbi Peyret promised to give him
whatever he wanted for his troubles in this business. Of his own accord Agimet
confessed further that after this had been done he left at once in order that
he should not be captured by the citizens or others, and that he went
personally to Calabria and Apulia and threw the above mentioned poison into
many wells. He confesses also that he put some of this same poison in the well
of the streets of the city of Ballet.
He confesses further that he put some
of this poison into the public fountain of the city of Toulouse and in the
wells that are near the [Mediterranean] sea. Asked if at the time that he
scattered the venom and poisoned the wells, above mentioned, any people had
died, he said that he did not know inasmuch as he had left everyone of the
above mentioned places in a hurry. Asked if any of the Jews of those places
were guilty in the above mentioned matter, he answered that he did not know.
And now by all that which is contained in the five books of Moses and the
scroll of the Jews, he declared that this was true, and that he was in no wise
lying, no matter what might happen to him.