Denton.
_Judæus Odor_ (Vol. vii., p. 207.).--The lines are to be found in the
_London Magazine_, May, 1820, p. 504.:
"Even the notion, which is not yet entirely extinct among the vulgar
(though Sir T. Browne satisfactorily refuted it by abundant arguments
deduced from reason {296} and experience)--the notion that they have a
peculiar and disagreeable _smell_, is, perhaps, older than he imagined.
Venantius, a bishop of Poictiers, in the sixth century, who holds a
place in every _corpus poetarum_, says:
'Abluitur Judæus odor baptismate divo,
Et nova progenies reddita surgit aquis.
Vincens ambrosios suavi spiramine rores,
Vertice perfuso, chrismatis efflat odor.'
Venant. _Poemat._, lib. 4. xx.
"'Cosa maravigliosa,' says an Italian author, 'che ricevuto il santo
Battesimo, non puzzano più.'"
I believe the reference "lib. 4. xx." is inaccurate. At least I have not
succeeded in finding the lines. That may be an excusable mistake: not so
the citing "an Italian author," instead of giving his name, or saying that
the writer had forgotten it.
The power of baptism over the _Judæus odor_ is spoken of familiarly in the
_Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum_:
"Nuper quando unus dixit mihi quod non credit, quod Pfefferkorn adhuc
est bonus Christianus: quia dixit quod vidit eum ante unum annum, et
adhuc foetebat sicut alius Judæus, et tamen dicunt communiter, quod
quando Judæi baptizantur, non amplius foetent; ergo credit quod
Pfefferkorn habet adhuc nequam post aures. Et quando Theologi credunt
quod est optimus Christianus, tunc erit iterum Judæus, et fides non est
ei danda, quia omnes homines habent malam suspicionem de Judæis
baptizatis. . . . Sed respondeo vobis ad illam objectum: Vos dicitis
quod Pfefferkorn foetet. Posito casu, quod est verum, sicut non credo,
neque unquam intellexi, dico quod est alia causa hujus foetoris. Quia
Johannes Pfefferkorn, quando fuit Judæus, fuit macellarius, et
macellarii communiter etiam foetent: tunc omnes qui audierunt, dixerunt
quod est bona ratio."--Ed. Münch: Leipzig, 1827, p. 209.
A modern instance of belief in the "odor" is in, but cannot decently be
quoted from, _The Stage, a Poem_, by John Brown, p 22.: London, 1819.