Peerless Daffodil. _Narcissus incomparabilis._
Dedicated to _St. Alphonsus_.
~March 24.~
Cambridge Term ends.
_St. Irenæus_, Bp. of Sirmium, A. D. 304. _St. Simon_, an Infant
Martyr. _St. William_ of Norwich.
_St. Simon_, an Infant.
The _Jews_ are said to have murdered this infant in 1472. After having
deliberated at their synagogue in the holy week, on the preparations for
their passover, they came to the resolution of crucifying a child on
Good Friday, and having stolen Simon, they made him the victim, and sung
around his body while elevated. Whenever an act of cruelty was to be
perpetrated on the Jews, fables like these were forged, and the brutal
passions of the mob let loose upon the life and wealth of fugitive
Israelites.
_St. William_ of Norwich, A. D. 1137,
Was another of these pretended martyrs to Jewish hatred. Weever states,
that “the Jews in the principal cities of the kingdom, did use sometimes
to steal away, and crucify some neighbour’s male child,” as if it were a
common practice. Since protestantism, no such barbarities have been
imputed to the Jews.