In Westphalia, where so shortly before they had venerated
the Brothers of the Cross, they now persecuted them with
relentless severity; and in the Mark, as well as in all the other
countries of Germany, they pursued them as if they had been the
authors of every misfortune.
The processions of the Brotherhood of the Cross undoubtedly
promoted the spreading of the plague; and it is evident that the
gloomy fanaticism which gave rise to them would infuse a new
poison into the already desponding minds of the people.
Still, however, all this was within the bounds of barbarous
enthusiasm; but horrible were the persecutions of the Jews, which
were committed in most countries, with even greater exasperation
than in the twelfth century, during the first Crusades. In every
destructive pestilence the common people at first attribute the
mortality to poison. No instruction avails; the supposed
testimony of their eyesight is to them a proof, and they
authoritatively demand the victims of their rage. On whom, then,
was it so likely to fall as on the Jews, the usurers and the
strangers who lived at enmity with the Christians? They were
everywhere suspected of having poisoned the wells or infected the
air.
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