“Ask, good friend Nicholas,” said the King.
“What need is there for your Majesty to leave your kingdom to fight your enemies beyond the border, when you have so many dangerous enemies within your kingdom?” [[44]]
“To whom do you refer?” cried the King.
“I refer to all disbelievers in Spain, the heretics, the Jews and the followers of Mahommet—people who deny the divinity of our Lord, our Saviour, and His Holy Mother. Do we not, as good Christians, hate the Jews and Moslems and do they not hate us? Does not your Majesty know that the Jews are commanded in their holy Bible to abstain from greeting the Christians?”
“How can that be true,” said the wise King, “since the Hebrew Bible was written at a time when there were no Christians?”
“Nevertheless,” continued Nicholas, “I have heard it said, that even though a Jew would greet a Christian saying to him, ‘Peace be unto you,’ he immediately adds under his breath, ‘but may the Devil take you.’ ”
“How do you know this?” exclaimed the King in astonishment.
“I was told this,” replied Nicholas, “by a most saintly man, one Geronimo, a converted Jew.”
“No, no,” interrupted Pedro, “I would not believe such a man. Any one who changes his religion will not scruple to change his word, twisting the truth into falsehood. Do you not also realize that the testimony of such a convert is probably unreliable, because he is now [[45]]anxious to show how intensely he loves his new faith, and this he does best by hating the religion which he has abandoned?”
“Your Majesty may be right,” said Nicholas, “but,” he added, “there is nothing which vexes my soul so much as the unbounded impudence of the Jews, who would not hesitate to tell your Majesty that their Religion is better than our Holy Faith.”