ABSTRACT
Jan Jacob Mauricius’s careful and detailed account of how and why Isaak Saxel made such an accusation is a fascinating one intended to make the “lies of the accusers as bright as the sun.” Saxel is in Mauricius’s portrayal a desperate youth in constant search for money who had become indebted to some Jews. Since the accused Jews feared that the old ritual murder myths could tarnish their reputations, Mauricius and the judges continued to investigate in order to prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the spuriousness not only of Saxel’s allegations, but of all such ritual murder accusations. Most European Conversos knew well enough to keep any Jewish practices secret and to maintain the facade of Catholic identity. The growing interest in less hostile treatments of Jews and Muslims over the course of the century was no mere byproduct of a grand intellectual shift commonly known as the Enlightenment.
