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the priest Paolo of Trent to poison the Prince Bishop of Trent in 1476, for condemning to death and executing the presumed murderers of the
sainted Simon. According to Mosè da Bamberg s deposition, Manno da Pavia, in turn, sold part of the blood obtained from Hoberle -- for
money -- to the family of Madio (Mohar, Meir), a money lender at Tortona; the blood is then supposed to have been used during the Passover
celebration. As we have seen, Madio is said to have been implicated in the supposed ritual murder of the sainted Giovannino of Volpedo in
1482, but, to his good fortune,
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is said to have been acquitted. Mosè of Bamberg, according to his own statement, had, for almost a year, been in the service of Leone,
Madio s son, and his [Madio s] sister Sara, who lived in the nearby castle of Serravalle with her son, Mosè, and, with them, had consumed
the same powdered blood, obtained at Regensburg, dissolved in wine during the Passover dinner of 1472 (52).
According to Leone, it was said that, during his sumptuous marriage to Sara, held in February of 1470 at Tortona, attended by over one
hundred guests from the Ashkenazi communities of northern Italy, some local nobles, displeased at their exclusion from those princely
festivities, had, perhaps with excessive enthusiasm, attempted to force open the host s doors. Unluckily for them, they were ill-received by
the Jews who, with weapons in their hands, threw them out of the palace, pursuing them as far as the local the piazza. A case of ill-breeding
and poor hospitality which cried out for vengeance. Obviously, Madio da Tortona s version of the facts and that of the guests differed
radically. Taking advantage of the nuptial celebrations, general noise and confusion, the nobles of Tortona reportedly attempted, rather
clumsily, if not downright stupidly, to break into the premises of the local bank, for the purpose of stealing money, collateral and other
valuables, but were said to have been ingloriously routed (53).
46
Jews in the Duchy of Milan were tried and sentenced for the possession of books, liturgical and study texts containing offensive and insulting
expressions about Jesus, the Messiah, the Virgin Mary, the dogmas of the Christian religion and anyone practicing Christianity On at least
four occasions during the second half of the 15th century. In 1459, they were convicted, and fined sixteen thousand ducats (54). In 1474 and
1480, the fines were increased to thirty two thousand ducats, promptly paid by the Jewish communities of the Duchy. As early as 1476, a
large group of rich and influential Lombard Jews, active at Alessandria, Broni, Piacenza, Monza and Piove di Sacco, headed, as usual, by
Manno da Pavia, were officially pardoned by Gian Galeazzo Sforza, presumably after paying a conspicuous fine, for insubordination; bad
manners, and defaming and offending the Duke s illustrious father (55). The mysteries of this trial -- if any trial was held remain to be
revealed in full.
At any rate an undoubted echo of these events may be found in the predication of the Minorite Friar Antonio da
p. 90]
Cremona at Chivasso in December 1471, in which the pious friar invoked the expulsion of the "perfidious and wicked Jewish race", guilty of
continuous blasphemy the Holy Faith in Christ in their books and prayers (56).
But a trial held at Milan in the spring of 1488 was more serious and dangerous than ever. Denounced by a converted Jew, forty of the most
influential exponents of the Ashkenazim community in the Dukedom were arrested and transferred to the provincial capital in chains,
accused of possessing texts -- particularly, liturgical breviaries -- suspected of containing prayers attacking Jesus as well as anti-Christian
invectives. The trial began on 16 March, in the presence of a commission of inquisitors, deputized by Ludovico the Moor, made up of
Franciscan and Dominican friars in addition to Ducal officials, and presided over by the vicar of the curia of the archbishop of Milan. The
accused, in the long and detailed interrogations, were requested to supply a due explanations for the apparently contemptuous phrases found
in their texts regarding Christians and the Christian religion, the Pope and baptized Jews, as well as Christ and Mary. The sentence, a severe
one, was handed down the following 31 May. Nine of the accused were condemned to death; the rest were expelled from the territory of the
Duchy, all property owned by all the accused was declared confiscated. Luckily for them, the Jews succeeded in commuting the cruel
sentence into a heavy fine of nineteen thousand ducats, to be paid by January 1490 (57).
When the due date rolled around, the full sum had not yet been collected, and only part of the sum had found its way to the coffers of the
Sforzas. A few months later, the disillusioned Ludovico the Moor ordered a public bonfire of the seized books. Mendele (Menachem)
Oldendorf, a young German Jew and son of a bankrupt merchant, a certain Herz (Naftali), also known as Golden , perhaps in remembrance
of when he had been rich, no doubt possessed a lively and versatile wit, in addition to an unusual degree of Hebraic culture; he was known
for holding brilliant homilies in the synagogue and functioned as a ritual butcher, he was an able writer in the Yiddish language and was a
respected copier of Hebraic codes. In 1474, he traveled from Regensburg to Venice, where he stayed until at least 1483, when he was present
at the famous bonfire at the Ducal Palace. In his autobiography, the young Oldendorf described the manner in which he had been informed
by trust-worthy persons of bonfires of Jewish texts at Milan and other places in the Duchy of Milan in 1490, regretting that the burnt
manuscripts included some which he had copied personally (58).
p. 91]
"I learned from one of the wise men of Israel [...] that in the year 5248 (=1488) Lord Ludovico the Moor ordering the burning of a great
number of Jewish books at Milan, the capital city, as well as in other localities in his territories. I, personally, a copier of codes, saw some of
my own texts among the books consigned to the flames. Blessed be God who enabled me to witness the revenge of God s Law against that
same nobleman (Ludovico the Moor), who has been captured and taken into France, where he died [...] Menachem Oldendorf, the German.
5274 (=1514).
One of the most important defendants in the Milan trial of 1488 was -- and this is not surprising -- Jacob, son of Manno of Pavia, who had
died in the meantime (59). Before the inquisitors, Jacob was requested, among others, to deny the rumor that the Jews were accustomed to
"making images in the form of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, and then throwing them in the fire, trampling them under foot or covering
them with excrement" (60). The accusation was not a new one. During Passover in 1493, Joav (Dattilo) and the other Jews, living at
Savigliano in Piedmonte, were condemned to the payment of a fine of five hundred gold ducats for a serious act of wickedness .
"[These Jews] kneaded the unleavened bread or mazzot, according to their rite and in outrage to the glorious crucifix [...] and prepared four
images of dough in the form of our Lord, Jesus Christ, in mockery of God and the Catholic faith, then burnt these dough dolls in the oven"
(61).
At a distance of only a few years from the Trent trials, it is not surprising that the judges should turn to one of the inquisitors, Lazzaro da San
Colombano to ask: whether or not the Jews were actually accustomed to abduct Christians for the purpose of committing reprehensible acts
against them in contempt for the Christian faith (62).
--
NOTES TO CHAPTER FIVE
1. On the personality of Alfonso de Espina and his virulently hostile attitude towards Jews and Marranos on the eve of the institution of the
court of the Inquisition in Castille, see, in particular, Y. Baer, A History of the Jews in Christian Spain, Philadelphia (Pa.), 1966, vol. II, pp.
283-299).
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