One thing is certain,
that when they first entered Germany, which they speedily overran,
they appeared under the character of Egyptians, doing penance for
the sin of having refused hospitality to the Virgin and her Son,
and, of course, as believers in the Christian faith,
notwithstanding that they subsisted by the perpetration of every
kind of robbery and imposition; Aventinus (ANNALES BOIORUM, 826)
speaking of them says: 'Adeo tamen vana superstitio hominum
mentes, velut lethargus invasit, ut eos violari nefas putet, atque
grassari, furari, imponere passim sinant.'
This singular story of banishment from Egypt, and Wandering through
the world for a period of seven years, for inhospitality displayed
to the Virgin, and which I find much difficulty in attributing to
the invention of people so ignorant as the Romas, tallies strangely
with the fate foretold to the ancient Egyptians in certain chapters
of Ezekiel, so much so, indeed, that it seems to be derived from
that source. The Lord is angry with Egypt because its inhabitants
have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel, and thus he
threatens them by the mouth of his prophet.
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