Amasis, king of
Egypt, drove all the vagrants from his kingdom, forbidding them to
return under pain of death. The Soldan of Egypt expelled the
Torlaquis. The Moors did the same; and Bajazet cast them out of
all the Ottoman empire, according to Leo Clavius.
'In the second place, the Christian princes have deemed it an
important measure of state.
'The emperor our Lord, in the German Diets of the year 1548,
expelled the Gitanos from all his empire, and these were the words
of the decree: "Zigeuner quos compertum est proditores esse, et
exploratores hostium nusquam in imperio locum inveniunto. In
deprehensos vis et injuria sine fraude esto. Fides publica
Zigeuners ne dator, nec data servator."
'The King of France, Francis, expelled them from thence; and the
Duke of Terranova, when Governor of Milan for our lord the king,
obliged them to depart from that territory under pain of death.
'Thirdly, there is one grand reason which ought to be conclusive in
moving him who so much values himself in being a faithful son of
the church, - I mean the example which Pope Pius the Fifth gave to
all the princes; for he drove the Gitanos from all his domains, and
in the year 1568, he expelled the Jews, assigning as reasons for
their expulsion those which are more closely applicable to the
Gitanos; - namely, that they sucked the vitals of the state,
without being of any utility whatever; that they were thieves
themselves, and harbourers of others; that they were wizards,
diviners, and wretches who induced people to believe that they knew
the future, which is what the Gitanos at present do by telling
fortunes.
Pages:
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195