CHAPTER XVI

THE JEWS COMMIT ANOTHER OUTRAGE UPON THE CHRISTIANS

SOON afterwards the Jews renewed their malevolent and impious practices against the Christians, which drew down upon them deserved chastisement. At a place named Immestar situated between Antioch in Syria and Chalcis, the Jews, while amusing themselves in their usual way with a variety of sports, impelled by drunkenness were guilty of many absurdities. At last they began to scoff at Christians and even Christ himself; and in derision of the cross and those who put their trust in the crucified One, they seized a Christian boy, and having bound him to a cross, began to laugh and sneer at him. But in a little while they became so transported with fury, that they scourged the child until he died under their hands. This brutal conduct occasioned a sharp conflict between them and the Christians; and as soon as the emperors were informed of the circumstance, they issued orders to the governor of the province to find out and punish the delinquents with the utmost severity. Thus vengeance overtook the Jewish inhabitants of this place for the wickedness they had committed in their impious sport.