Chapter XVI
.—
The Jews commit Another Outrage upon
the Christians and are punished.
Soon
afterwards the Jews
renewed their malevolent and impious practices against the Christians,
and drew down upon themselves deserved punishment. At a place named
Inmestar, situated between Chalcis and Antioch in Syria, the Jews were
amusing themselves in their usual way with a variety of sports. In this
way they indulged in many absurdities, and at length impelled by
drunkenness they were guilty of scoffing 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
becoming so transported with fury, they scourged the child until he
died under their hands. This 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. And thus the Jewish
inhabitants of this place paid the penalty for the wickedness they had
committed in their impious sport.