As I, gracious ladies, have heard said, there was in Paris a great
merchant, a very good man, who was called Gianotto di Chevigné, a man
most loyal and just, who had a great business in stuffs, and who had a
singular friendship with a rich Jew named Abraham, who also was a
merchant and also an honest and loyal man. Gianotto, seeing his justice
and loyalty, began to feel great sorrow that the soul of so worthy and
good a man should go to perdition through want of religion, and on that
account he began to beg in a friendly way that he would abandon the
errors of the Jewish faith and become converted to Christian truth, in
which he could see, being holy and good, that he would always prosper
and enrich himself; while in his own faith, on the contrary, he might
see that he would diminish and come to nothing, The Jew replied that he
did not believe anything either holy or good outside of Judaism; that he
in that was born and intended therein to live, and that nothing would
ever move him out of it.
Gianotto did not cease on this account to repeat after a few days
similar exhortations, showing him in a coarse manner, which merchants
know how to employ, for what reasons our faith was better than the
Jewish; and though the Jew was a great master in the Jewish law,
nevertheless either the great friendship which he had with Gianotto
moved him, or perhaps the words which the Holy Spirit put on the tongue
of the foolish man accomplished it, and the Jew began finally to
consider earnestly the arguments of Gianotto; but still, tenacious in
his own faith, he was unwilling to change. As he remained obstinate, so
Gianotto never ceased urging him, so that finally the Jew by this
continual persistence was conquered, and said:--"Since, Gianotto, it
would please you that I should become a Christian and I am disposed to
do so, I will first go to Rome and there see him whom you call the vicar
of God on earth, and consider his manners and his customs, and similarly
those of his brother cardinals; and if they seem to me such that I can,
between your words and them, understand that your religion is better
than mine, as you have undertaken to prove to me, I will do what I have
said; but if this should not be so, I will remain a Jew as I am." When
Gianotto heard this he was very sorrowful, saying to himself: I have
lost all my trouble which it seemed to me I had very well employed,
believing that I had converted this man; because if he goes to the court
at Rome and sees the wicked and dirty life of the priests, he not only,
being a Jew, will not become a Christian, but if he had become a
Christian he would infallibly return to Judaism.
Therefore Gianotto said to Abraham:--"Alas, my friend, why do you desire
to take this great trouble and expense of going from here to Rome? By
land and by sea, even to a rich man as you are, it is full of trouble.
Do you not believe that here we can find one who will baptize you? and
if perchance you have still some doubts as to the religion which I show
you, where are there better teachers and wiser men in this faith than
there are here, to immediately tell you what you want to know or may
ask? On which account my opinion is that this voyage is superfluous: the
prelates whom you would see there are such as you can see here, and
besides they are much better, as they are near to the chief Shepherd;
and therefore this fatigue you will, by my counsel, save for another
time,--for some indulgence in which I may perhaps be your companion." To
this the Jew replied:--"I believe, Gianotto, that it is as you say to
me; but summing up the many words in one, I am altogether, if you wish
that I should do what you have been constantly begging me to do,
disposed to go there; otherwise I will do nothing." Gianotto seeing his
determination said, "Go, and good luck go with you;" but he thought to
himself that Abraham never would become a Christian if he had once seen
the court of Rome, but as he would lose nothing he said no more.
The Jew mounted his horse, and as quickly as possible went to the court
of Rome, where arriving, he was by his fellow Jews honorably received;
and living there without saying to anybody why he came, began cautiously
to study the manners of the Pope and the cardinals and the prelates and
all the other courtesans; and he learned, being the honest man that he
was, and being informed by other people, that from the greatest to the
lowest they sinned most dishonestly, not only in natural but in
unnatural ways, without any restraint or remorse to shame them; so much
so that for the poor and the dissolute of both sexes to take part in any
affair was no small thing. Besides this he saw that they were
universally gluttons, wine-drinkers, and drunkards, and much devoted to
their stomachs after the manner of brute animals; given up to luxury
more than to anything else. And looking further, he saw that they were
in the same manner all avaricious and desirous of money, so that human
blood, even that of Christians, and sacred interests, whatever they
might be, even pertaining to the ceremonies or to the benefices, were
sold and bought with money; making a greater merchandise out of these
things and having more shops for them than at Paris of stuffs or any
other things, and to the most open simony giving the name and support of
procuration, and to gluttony that of sustentation: as if God, apart from
the signification of epithets, could not know the intentions of these
wretched souls, but after the manner of men must permit himself to be
deceived by the names of things. Which, together with many other things
of which we will say nothing, so greatly displeased the Jew, that as he
was a sober and modest man it appeared to him that he had seen enough,
and proposed to return to Paris. Accordingly he did so; upon which
Gianotto, seeing that he had returned, and hoping nothing less than that
he should have become a Christian, came and rejoiced greatly at his
return, and after some days of rest asked him what he thought of the
Holy Father, the cardinals, and the other courtesans; to which the Jew
promptly replied:--"It seems to me evil that God should have given
anything to all those people, and I say to you that if I know how to
draw conclusions, there was no holiness, no devotion, no good work or
good example of life in any other way, in anybody who was a priest; but
luxury, avarice, and gluttony,--such things and worse, if there could be
worse things in anybody; and I saw rather liberty in devilish operations
than in divine: on which account I conclude that with all possible
study, with all their talent and with all their art, your Shepherd, and
consequently all the rest, are working to reduce to nothing and to drive
out of the world the Christian religion, there where they ought to be
its foundation and support. But from what I see, what they are driving
at does not happen, but your religion continually increases; and
therefore it becomes clearer and more evident that the Holy Spirit must
be its foundation and support, as a religion more true and holy than any
other. On which account, where I was obstinate and immovable to your
reasoning and did not care to become a Christian, now I say to you
distinctly that on no account would I fail to become a Christian.
Therefore let us go to church, and there according to the custom of your
holy religion let me be baptized."
Gianotto, who had expected exactly the opposite conclusion to this,
when he heard these things was more satisfied than ever a man was
before, and with him he went to Notre Dame of Paris and requested the
priest there to give Abraham baptism: who, hearing what he asked,
immediately did so; and Gianotto was his sponsor and named him Giovanni,
and immediately caused him by competent men to be completely instructed
in our religion, which he at once learned and became a good and worthy
man and of a holy life.