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Rh Christian knights, and certainly like them were immune from taxes and military service. That the severe enactments against the vagrants often remained a dead letter is obvious; the noble patrons of the race who profited by the peculiar acts or privileges of their clients, nullified or disregarded them. Thus while the French Government under Francis I. (1539) forbad any gipsy to enter France and exiled all already within it, there were found in 1545 no less than 5000 males, capable of bearing arms: other stern edicts of 1606 and 1660 seemed equally abortive. For Louis XIV. was obliged in 1682 to issue a peremptory notice 'contre les Bohémiens' and all the noble persons who sheltered them.

12. This welcome given to penitents, anxious to atone for some evil act in the past of the race (for which they were justly accursed), certainly suggests a connexion with Ahasuerus, the Wandering Jew. Unhappily, the legend seems to be an invention (like the Rosicrucian hoax) of certain pious apologists for the reformed faith in 1602; the name of author and printer of the first issue of the little tract at Leiden are both pseudonyms. The 'eternal Jew,' met (as it was said) by Bishop Eizen at Hamburg in 1542, was clearly intended as a challenge from the Protestant side to the corporate tradition of the Roman Church: here was much stronger evidence. England, Denmark and Sweden soon followed with translations: in Catholic countries little was heard of it, but Botoreus, a Parisian advocate, spoke scornfully of the popular credulity in this respect (1604). There were, however, constant and (seemingly) well-authenticated instances of his appearance, down to 1868, when he was heard of at Salt Lake City, as appearing to an Irish Mormon named O'Grady! It would seem that the fable is a revival of a much older