A Tomb for Boris Davidovich by Danilo Kiš

Author:Danilo Kiš [Kiš, Danilo]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Eastern Europe, Short Stories, Classics, Political, Contemporary
ISBN: 9781564782731
Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
Published: 1976-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

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{FOR FILIP DAVID}

In the year of Our Lord 1330, on the twenty-third day of the twelfth month, it came to the vigilant ears of the Most Venerable Father in Christ, Monsignor Jacques, by the grace of God Bishop of Pamiers, that Baruch David Neumann, a refugee from Germany and a former Jew, had abandoned the blindness and perfidy of Judaism and been converted to the Christian faith; that he had received the sacrament of holy baptism in the town of Toulouse at a time of persecution, at the instigation of the devout Pastoureaux; and that afterward, "like a dog who goggles his vomit", this Baruch David Neumann used the opportunity-since in the town of Pamiers he had lived like a Jew with other Jews-to return to that sect offensive to God, and to his former Jewish ways, so that His Excellency the Bishop ordered that he be arrested and thrown in the dungeon.

Finally, he ordered that he be brought to him, and Baruch Neumann appeared before him in the Bishop's great hall, the left wing of which opened onto the torture chamber.

Monsignor Jacques gave the order that Baruch be brought through this chamber to remind him of the instruments God has mercifully placed in our hands in the service of His Holy Faith and for the salvation of the human soul.

Monsignor Jacques had beside him at the table as his helper Friar Gaillard de Pamiers, the representative of the Inquisitor of Carcassonne. Also present were the Magistrate Bernard Faissasier of Pamiers and the Magistrate David de Troyes, a Jew who had been called in as interpreter to His Excellency the Bishop, in case Baruch was brazen enough to touch on dogma and the Law, since he was known to be a specialist in the Old Testament, Jewish Law, and the Book of the Evil One.[10]

Monsignor Jacques began, therefore, to question Baruch about all these things, since the Jew swore on Moses' Law that he would tell only the truth, primarily about himself but also about others, living and dead, whom he would call as witnesses.

When this came to pass, he said and confessed as follows:

This year (on last Thursday it was exactly a month) the devout Pastoureaux arrived in Grenade armed with long knives, spears, and whips, with crosses made out of goatskin sewn to their clothes, carrying rebel flags and threatening to exterminate all Jews, Solomon Vudas, a young Jew, then found the Grand Defender of Grenade in the company of his scribe, the Jew Eleazar, and asked him, as he told me later, whether he would protect him from the devout Pastoureatix. He said that he would. However, since the Pastoureaux kept arriving in ever-increasing numbers and began searching even the houses of Christians and prominent citizens, he told Solomon that he would not be able to protect him any longer, and advised him to take a boat down the Garonne to Verdun, to a larger and safer castle belonging to a friend. So Solomon took

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