[139] [I. e. son of Mark, or Mordecai. On "syndics" see p. [111], n. 2.]
[140] [Twenty per cent was the legalized rate of interest in Italy at the end of the fifteenth century. See Israel Abrahams, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, p. 242.]
[141] We quote the following in abbreviated form. [For the complete text see the article cited in the next note.]
[142] From the Hebrew text it is not clear whether they offered themselves voluntarily as victims, or whether they were picked out by others. According to the local tradition in Ruzhany, the former was the case. [See Dubnow in the Russian Jewish monthly Voskhod, July, 1903, p. 19, n. 1.]
[143] The corresponding word in Hebrew (שלומים), which is marked with dots in the original, represents the year of the event: [5]420 aera mundi, which equals 1659 C. E.
[144] I. e. they tried to convert the martyrs to Catholicism.
[145] [Allusion to Judges ix. 9, where the English version translates differently. The Hebrew word for "tree" also signifies "wood," and is used in polemic literature for "cross.">[
[148] [The Senate formed the upper chamber of the Polish parliament.]