Protestant refugees. While this might be seen as a setback, they had to remember that En gland’s newfound wealth came from plundering Spanish ships laden with treasures from the New World. So it was perfectly clear to the truly faithful that the speedy conquests of Mexico and Peru were proof that God supported the Catholic cause, and that the hateful English would never permanently plant their flag in the Americas. The Inquisition had exposed heretics and “secret Jews” hiding out as far away as Lima and Quito, so now was the time to gear up for the final confrontation here at home, and cut the Protestant population of Europe in half within a generation. And if anyone doubted the reasoning or the purpose, let him visit the barbaric city of London, and stand by and watch as God-fearing Jesuits were torn to pieces for public entertainment.
The doctor arrived, a pale and shrunken man, with a few wisps of hair clinging to his head like the whitish mold on a walnut. He told the servants to set up a screen.
The bishop asked the priests what Emperor Rudolf II was like personally. The Catholic Church enjoyed imperial protection, but was he fully committed to the cause?
Zeman hesistated. “My lord, the emperor is a deeply Christian man—”
Popel jumped in: “But there is no better place than his court to be a Jew. His Highness has collected quite a menagerie of Jewish magicians, astronomers, and counselors, who prance around the royal galleries like a bunch of perfumed monkeys dressed in men’s clothing.”
“Good use of animal imagery,” said the bishop. He instructed his scribe to make a note of the phrase, since it would play well with the country folk.
The doctor laid out his bloodletting instruments and collection bowl, and gestured for the patient to approach.
Bishop Stempfel was a big man who had been eating well. The doctor asked the bishop to describe his symptoms, then said that he needed to examine the patient more closely in order to palpate his abdomen, since fire in a bodily organ was the most likely cause of his ailment.
The bishop stripped to the waist, while on the other side of the screen, Popel condemned the casual social proximity of Christians and Jews in Rudolf II’s court and in the well-to-do houses in the ghetto, which resulted in all kinds of opportunities for illicit and unnatural couplings.
“Why would they want to invite their own destruction?” asked the bishop, getting gooseflesh as the doctor probed his gut with cold hands.
“Jews are more lustful than our people,” Zeman explained.
“You’d think they’d keep it in check, considering what we did to the last Jew who took a turn at the grindstone with a Christian maiden,” said Popel.
The bishop felt a sickly tugging in the scrotum as he was prodded in sensitive areas. His fingers fidgeted for a moment, then found comfort fondling his special set of rosary beads carved from human bone.
The doctor said, “My lord, I need to perform a complete examination of the digestive tract.”
The bishop stood dumbly for a moment before he realized what this meant. The room was quite cold by Roman standards, but he removed the last layer of linen covering his shameful places. The doctor directed him to bend forward slightly.
The probe was a hollow metal tube, with a flat projection at one end with a hole cut in it for viewing the exposed tissue.
Popel continued: “My informants tell me that in the Judenstadt the Jewish beadles have been in the streets all morning commanding them to burn something, but it’s all in some dreadful Hebrew code. So the Jews live among us, and repay our generosity by conspiring to burn the city to the ground, just as they once did in the Kleinseite district across the river.”
“Conspiring? With who—?” The bishop let out a yelp. The probing was much more painful than he thought it would be. The doctor kept turning the lead instrument roughly to view the damaged area.
“They have allied themselves with the Turkish menace, my lord.”
The bishop gasped for breath. He was sweating, which made his exposed skin turn clammy.
“I know, I didn’t want to believe it myself,” said Popel. “But honest mercenaries returning from the Hungarian front speak of a terrifying horde of Jewish cutthroats hiding somewhere to the east, waiting for the chance to descend upon us and feast on our flesh.”
The bishop felt as if a hot poker was searing his entrails.
“We know the Jews have gained insight into