Accusation of well poisoning

In Berne, Jews were burned following the arrival of confessions extracted at Chillon, and the survivors were expelled from the city. The Bernese council itself circulated the documents among the imperial cities.

Berne thus played an active role in spreading the accusation: this was not a city receiving a rumor, but a city dispatching it. It subsequently forbade Jews from settling there, and the prohibition remained in force for centuries. The fountain known as the Child-Eater, erected in a square in the city, preserves its contested memory.