Story of the convert Stephen and his father. of the Red King's success in this crooked kind of missionary enterprise reached the ears of a Jew father—where we are not told—whose only and well-beloved son was lost to him by conversion to the Christian faith. The young man had been favoured with a vision of the protomartyr Stephen, who had bidden him ask for baptism and take his own name at the font.[1] He went to a priest, told his tale, and was admitted to baptism by the name which was appointed to him. His father, mourning for his loss, went to King William and made his complaint; praying that at his command his son might be restored to his old faith.[2] Rufus held his peace; the argument which alone persuaded him to meddle in such matters had not yet been urged.[3] A promise of sixty marks of silver, payable on the second conversion of the youth, brought the King to another mind,[4] and Stephen was called into the royal presence. A dialogue took place
- [Footnote: same story as that which William of Malmesbury tells, iv. 317; "Insolentiæ
in Deum Judæi suo tempore dedere indicium; semel apud Rothomagum, ut quosdam ab errore suo refugas ad Judaismum revocarent, muneribus inflectere conati."]
- ↑ Eadmer, Hist. Nov. p. 47. The protomartyr pleads his own example; "Uno dierum per viam forte eunti apparuit alter juvenis, vultu et veste decorus, qui interrogatus unde vel quis esset, dixit se jam olim ex Judæo Christianum effectum, Stephanum protomartyrem esse."
- ↑ Ib. "Æstuans quonam modo suis sacris filium posset restituere, didicit quemadmodum Willielmus rex Anglorum nonnullos hujusmodi, pecuniæ gratis, nuper Judaismo reddiderit." This way of speaking might almost make us think that the Jew was not living in William's dominions; yet the whole tenor of the story, which seems to be laid at Rouen, looks otherwise. One phrase is odd; "paternis rogat legibus imperiali sanctione restitui." William Rufus, as we shall see, did not forget his imperial as well as his royal dignity, but Rouen was an odd place in which to show himself in the imperial character.
- ↑ Ib. "Tacet ille ad rogata, nondum audiens quamobrem tali negotio sese deberet medium facere."
- ↑ Ib. "Advertit Judæus mysterium cur suis precibus non responderet, et e vestigio sexaginta marcas argenti se illi daturum, si Judaismo restitueret filium suum, pollicetur." This almost looks as if the Jew thought at first that the King, out of zeal for the Hebrew cause, would do the job for him for nothing.
