LECTUREV.Inmy last Lecture I brought down the history of the Jews in this country, to the year 1233, the seventeenth of the reign of Henry the Third. You have heard, that as soon as the government of the country was taken out of the hands of Hubert de Burgh, the Jews began to experience very great persecutions and grievous exactions from the king, the most acquisitive of all Englishmonarchs.1They had indeed acquired great wealth during the administrations of the Earl of Pembroke and Hubert de Burgh; but they could as much enjoy that wealth as King Damocles the celebrated banquet. They beheld amid their enormous affluence thesword which was suspended over their heads by a single hair.1– A. Strickland.All sorts of ridiculous and base calumnies began to be invented against them, in order to furnish a warrant for inflicting upon them fines, extortions, imprisonment, banishments, and other unheard of cruelties.My Lecture this evening commences, as you perceive, by the syllabus in your hands, with the sufferings of the Jews of Norwich—sufferings which owe their existence to the venomous calumnies invented by Christians in order to possess themselves of their Jewish neighbour’s wealth. In the year 1235, a year when Henry was greatly in need of money, in consequence of his great outlay on his sister Isabella’s marriage to the emperor of Germany, as well as his own contemplated marriage with Eleanor of Provence: poor Count Berenger having positively declined giving the twenty thousand marks which the mean Henry asked as a dowry, Henry must, therefore, have been very glad of getting an opportunity, be it ever so foul, of extorting the required sumfrom the poor Jews. The Jews of Norwich were at that time enormously rich. Seven of them were therefore accused of circumcising a Christian child of that city, and they were brought before the king himself, whilst he was celebrating his nativity at Westminster. The poor Jews were condemned to be drawn and hanged, and, of course, their property confiscated, and thus were the king’s wants supplied for that time.You next perceive in the syllabus, briefly noticed, the famous trial of Jacob of Norwich. The syllabus, however, can give you no idea of the nature of thatinfamous process, or of the absurd charge which originated that trial.In the year 1240, the afore-mentioned rich Jew was accused of stealing a boy from his parents, and circumcising him. The monkish historians tell us, that it proved a case of such difficulty, that theposteawas thought proper to be returned to parliament.Parliament could not decide. Indeed, the strangeness of the accusation would havepuzzled any body of men to decide. Four years were allowed to elapse before the charge was brought, and the principal witness was a little boy, of about nine years of age, who stated that when he was about five years old he was playing in a certain street; the Jews allured him into the house of one Jacob, where they kept him a day and a night, and then blindfolded him and circumcised him. Yet strange to say, with his eyes blinded, and amidst the confusion of so painful an operation, the youthful boy was able to notice several minute particulars, which he narrated, but which certainly never had any existence, inasmuch as the particulars he related to have taken place after the circumcision, have no connexion with that rite.In addition to the boy’s unlikely story, there were no symptoms whatever that witness ever underwent such an operation. Under such circumstances, and with such unsatisfactory evidence, the poor Jews would, doubtless, have been honourably acquitted. But as this calumny originated, in all probability,with the ecclesiastics, they could not brook disappointment; and contrived, therefore, to become accusers, witnesses, and judges themselves.The bishops accordingly insisted upon the matter being tried in their courts; and as soon as the charge was dismissed by parliament, as incapable of being proved satisfactorily, the professing ministers of Christianity, who stated that the boy was circumcised in derision and contumely of their Lord and Master, determined to take the law into their own hands. They maintained that such questions belonged exclusively to the jurisdiction of the Church, and that the state had no right to interfere.Baptism and circumcision, they argued, being matters of faith, the ministers of that faith had, therefore, alone the right of deciding cases of that kind. The poor Jews were therefore once more dragged before a judge and jury who were most inimical to them, whose avaricious affections were set on their hard-earned riches. One can easily guessthe result of the judgment seat, and the fate of the unfortunate Norwich Jews.William Ralegh, Bishop of Norwich, acted as judge: the archdeacon and the priests as witnesses, who deposed on oath that they saw the boy immediately after he was circumcised, and that there were then all the signs, that such an operation had been performed upon him. Why and wherefore the archdeacon and priests kept it quiet so long; the judge did neither ask nor care. How it came to pass that the signs had, in the short space of four years, totally disappeared, the judge did not investigate. A certain Maude also deposed, in confirmation of the charge, that after the boy was taken home, the Jews called upon her to warn her against giving him any swine’s flesh to eat.Four of the accused were condemned to be dragged by horses’ tails and to behanged.1How hateful must the ecclesiastics have rendered themselves to the Jews! With whata despicable idea have they furnished the Jews, of the Christian religion! Are we to be surprised that a Jew who embraced Christianity, and received even holy orders, was induced to return to Judaism, and to submit to suffer persecution with his brethren, rather than countenance the religion of suchmen?2Is it to be wondered at the paucity of Jews becoming the disciples of a religion, whose professors were so devoid, not only of any religious feelings whatsoever, but also of any human feelings? And shall we wonder that the Jew who embraced Christianity in those days was so dreadfully hated, and considered altogether such an one as his new co-religionists?1– SeeAppendix A.2– SeeAppendix B.The populace, who, as usual, only waited for an opportunity to rob and plunder, as soon as the verdict was pronounced, set fire to the houses of the Jews and reduced them to ashes; and so barefaced were those murderers and robbers, that when the sheriff of Norfolk ventured to interfere on behalf of thewretched Jews, they complained to the king of the sheriff’s audacious interference.The Jews residing then in Newcastle-upon-Tyne were banished from that place: we are not informed, however, of the cause of that cruel measure; but simply in consequence of a petition of the inhabitants of that town, who, in all probability, mortgaged their houses to the Jews, and by the expulsion of their creditors from amongst them, hoped to rid themselves of their debts, as no offence whatever is mentioned in the king’sletter.11– SeeAppendix C.The king began zealously to espouse the conduct of the Church towards the Jews; and by royal proclamation prohibited Christian women from entering into the service of Jews asnurses:1and the reason given for this interdict is, that there was an universal custom among the Jews of obliging their hired Christian nurses to abstain from nursing their children for three days after Easter,lest the body and blood of Jesus Christ—which all Christians in those Popish times were obliged to receive at that holy festival—should by incorporation be transfused into their children.1– SeeAppendix D.This abominable instance of blasphemy and folly emanated from the pen of Pope Innocent the Third, in an epistle to the Bishop of Paris, in a style unworthy of the polite Englishear.1How inconsistent! The Jews are first accused of little faith, or of total unbelief, and then again of believing too much. The ridiculous reason would imply that the Jews believed not only in the doctrine of Christ, but also in that of antichrist,viz.: the doctrines of transubstantiation. If the Jews had at all such a practice as above alluded to, it would have been because of Easter generally occurring about the time of the Jewish passover; and the fear of leaven being introduced into their dwellings, might have induced them to have recourse to such an expedient.1– SeeAppendix E.The Christian inhabitants of Southampton, followed the example of those of Newcastle, and petitioned the king to rid them also of the Jews, and perhaps with them of their debts, which the king readily granted.The king’s continual want of money was a never ceasing torment to the poor Jews, for when he could not obtain any money, to squander away, from his barons and nobles, he fell upon the Jews and wrung out of them whatever he wanted.When Eleanor’s two uncles came over to this country—one of which having become primate of England, became also a great oppressor of the Jews—Henry, out of complaisance to his consort, received and entertained them with such magnificence, that, not knowing how to support the charge by honest means, he sent word to the Jews, that unless they presented him with twenty thousand marks, he would expel them all the kingdom; and thus he supplied himself with money for his unjustgenerosity.11– A.♦Strickland. M. Paris. Speed.♦‘Stricland’ replaced with ‘Strickland’The following circumstance is related byDr.Tovey, on the authority of Matthew Paris:—“The next year [the nineteenth year of his reign], the king, keeping his Christmas at Winchester, sent out writs to all his archbishops, bishops, barons, abbotts, and priors, that, without any excuse, they should meet him in parliament upon the octaves of Epiphany at Westminster, to treat upon matters of the highest consequence. Whither, when they were all come, William de Keele, the king’s secretary, stood up, and told them he was commanded by the king to say, ‘that however ill his majesty might have behaved himself hitherto, in being guided by foreigners, he was determined to be so no longer; for they had cheated him of all his money: and that therefore, as he intended for the future to have no other counsellors but his natural born subjects, he hoped they would give him a fresh supply.’ The manner of raising it, he said, was to be left to themselves;and though the king was very necessitous in his private circumstances, he was willing, if they thought proper, that the money raised should be disposed of by their own commissioners to the public advantage. At which speech the barons being greatly surprised, made answer, that they had already given the king such large sums, without receiving any return from him, either of good government or affection, that they thought it inconsistent with their honours to lay any further tax upon the people till they saw better occasion, and therefore desired to be excused.“But the king, who was not so easily to be satisfied, insisting upon the vast expenses he had been at lately, in marrying his sister to the emperor (whose portion was three hundred thousandmarks),1as also from his own marriage; and likewise, swearing to take their advice in all things for the future, and forsake his foreigners, they were prevailedupon to grant him a thirtieth part of all their moveables; and the clergy did the same. But as the money, by agreement, was not to be disposed of without their privity and consent, and was, likewise, to be deposited in some abbey, castle, or other place of security, and not in his exchequer; the king, finding himself, in a great measure, disappointed, was resolved to get money by some other means, which he might call his own, and lavish away at pleasure. He, therefore, fell to work again upon his Jewish mines, and extracted no less than ten thousand marks—from the immediate payment whereof no Jew was to be excused, but by the king’s especialwrit.”2Ten of the richest Jews were obliged to become security for the payment of this unreasonable demand. Not that the Jews were unable at once to raise the required sum, but they dared not appear as wealthy as they reallywere.31– All of which he expended on Eleanor’s coronation.2– SeeAppendix F.3– SeeDr.Jost.The wealth which the Jews have accumulated in this country must have been enormously great; and the ten sureties must have been equal to raise any sum, be it ever so large, if we may judge from the wealth of individuals amongst them. From one, Aaron of York—who seems to have supplied a great part of the necessities both of the king and queen—in the short space of seven years, the king exacted upwards of 30,000 marks of silver; and to the queen the same Jew also paid upwards of 200 marks ofgold.1Dr.Jost says, “that Aaron’s riches wereimmeasurable.”2The same Aaron also entered into a compact with the king to pay him annually, during the whole period of his life, the sum of one hundred marks, in order to be free fromtaxes.3Nor was Aaron the only one so gifted with this world’s riches. We read of another Jew of Hereford, Hamon by name, who must have been equally rich. We do not hear anything about him during his life-time; but we read, that when he died—which took place about two years prior to the above exaction—his daughter, Ursula, was obliged to pay 5,000 marks for arelief.41–Aurum Reginæ, or queen gold, a due which the queens of England were entitled to claim on every tenth mark paid to the king, as voluntary fines for the royal good will. Eleanor sometimes demanded it in a most unreasonable manner.Tovey. A. Strickland.2– “Sein Reichthum war unermesslich.”3– “Considering the different values of money, this, I believe, is as much as the richest nobleman pays at present.”—Anglia Judaica,p. 108.“When we read or speak of any sum of money in our histories, from the Saxon times to the year 1344, we are to consider it, on an average, as about thrice the weight and value of the like sum in our time.”—Introduction to the History of Commerce, by Anderson.4– “Though, by Magna Charta, the relief of an earl’s son, for a whole county, was settled but at one hundred pounds; of a baron’s heir, for a whole barony, at but one hundred marks; and no more than one hundred shillings was to be paid for the relief of a knight’s fee—all which were called the antiqua, or accustomed reliefs of the kingdom.”In order to diminish the enormity of the incessant persecutions the poor Jewswere subject to, recourse was continually had to many mean and unworthy acts of vilifying them. Some of them were imprisoned at Oxford, under the pretence of having forcibly taken away a young Jew who had been converted and baptized—a charge which, as it was unjustly grounded, was properly opposed, and in which their innocence so plainly appeared, that the king very soon after commanded them to be released.No offence was, indeed, too improbable to be laid to their charge. They were even accused of plotting against the state, and of attempts to overturn the government; but the most absurd accusation brought against them was, that a party of them had collected together large quantities of combustible materials at Northampton, for the purpose of employing them in the destruction of London, by fire. Upon this incredible charge, many Jews were burned alive, and their effects seized and delivered into the king’s hands. Matthew Paris, who lived in this reign, and was an eye-witness of the oppressionsto which the Jews were subjected by the crown, gives a distressing picture of their sufferings. He concludes his account of the manner in which the king practised his extortions with these words:Non tamen abrando, vel excoriando sed eviscerandoextorsit.11– Matt. Paris,p. 831; Blunt,p. 42.To put a stop to the repeated calumnies which were brought against them, as clippers and falsifiers of the coin, they came to the conclusion of paying the king one hundred pounds, in order “that all Jews who should belawfullyconvicted of clipping, robbery, or harbouring of clippers or robbers, should be for ever banished therealm.”11– SeeAppendix G.We must also notice the memorableParliamentum Judaicum, which occurred in the twenty-fifth year of Henry’s reign,A.D.1240. Soon after this public testimony of their loyalty, as citizens of the state in which they lived, they were agreeably surprised at hearing that a certain number of their nation weresummoned to attend a parliament at Worcester, in order, as the writ ran, “to treat with the king as well concerning his own as theirbenefit.”1Many of them entertained the most sanguine hopes that such an occurrence would terminate as much to their honour as to theiradvantage.2But in this expectation they were speedily and sorely disappointed; for the purport of his majesty’s most gracious speech informed them that he wanted money, and that they must raise, among their own people, twenty thousand marks, half of which was to be paid at midsummer, and the other half at Michaelmas. This peremptory command, however, they appeared unable to obey, although they had the singular privilege of appointing their own collectors; but the collectors were not able to raise the demanded sum; and the consequence was, that themselves, their wives and children, were seized, and incarcerated,and their goods and chattels were taken fromthem.31– SeeAppendix H.2– SeeAppendix I.3– SeeAppendix J.Henry’s expedition against the King of France, two years afterwards, in order to regain the provinces of Guienne and Poictou, was another reason for demanding money from his Jewish subjects. You are, however, aware that Henry was totally unsuccessful in that ill-advised expedition. After which the king and the queen determined to spend a merry winter atBordeaux.1Whilst there the king became interested in a certain Jewish convert, Martyn by name, whom he sent to this country with orders to the Archbishop of York, whom he had left governor in England, and Walter de Cantelupe, Bishop of Worcester, to provide some convenient place for the well educating of the same Jewish convert, and to furnish him with the means ofsubsistence.1The king seemed always kindly disposed towards Jewish converts.1– A. Strickland.The Jewish Converts’ Institution, as amatter of course, must have been full; and we find it, therefore, soon after augmented. It appears that Peter Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester, had bequeathed a legacy of one hundred pounds for the existing Jewish Converts’Institution.11– SeeAppendix K.From the following circumstance, it would seem that the converts were expected to join their patrons in their railing accusations against their unbelieving brethren. The poor converts found themselves, therefore, very awkwardly situated, as will evidently appear to every intelligent reader of the following occurrence.The Jews were again accused of crucifying a child. The story and the made-up circumstances are so extraordinary, that I shall give you the whole account, as given by Matthew Paris, and translated by William Prynne, in his malicious Demurrer.“Anno 1244 in August, the corpse of a little male child was found buried in thecity of London, in whose thighs and arms, and under whose paps, there was a regular inscription in Hebrew letters. To which spectacle when as many resorted, admiring at it, and not knowing how to read the letters, knowing that the letters were Hebrew, they called thither converted Jews who inhabited the house which the king had founded in London, that they as they loved their life or members, for the honour, love, and fear of their Lord the King, without figment of falsehood, might declare that writing. For the king’s bailiffs, and conservators of the peace were present. They likewise believed, neither without cause, that the Jews had either crucified that little child in obloquy and contumely of Christ (which was related frequently to have happened) or had afflicted him with sundry torments to crucify him, and when he had given up the ghost, they had now cast him there, as unworthy the cross. Moreover, there appeared in his body blue marks, and rents of rods, and manifestsigns and footsteps of some other torment. And when as those converts were brought to read those things that were inscribed, and studied that they might perfectly read them, they found the letters deformed, and now not legible, being many ways disordered, and tossed up and down, by reason of the extension and contraction of the skin and flesh. But they found the name of the father and mother of the little child, suppressing their surnames, and that the child was sold to the Jews; but to whom, or to what end, they could not find. In the mean time, certain of the London Jews took a secret and sudden flight, never to return again, who by this very thing rendered themselves suspected. And some affirmed, that the Lord had wrought miracles for the child. And because it was found that the Jews at other times had perpetrated such wickedness, and the holy bodies crucified had been solemnly received in the Church, and likewise to have shined brightly with miracles, althoughthe prints of the five wounds appeared not in the hands and feet and side of the said corpse, yet the canons ofSt.Paul took it violently away, and solemnly buried it in their church, not far from the great altar.” To the honour and credit of the then Jewish converts, let this event be recorded, that though they were stimulated by the Christians to accuse their unconverted brethren, by whom they were so violently hated, they brought no accusation whatever against their enemies; and their total silence respecting the charge of crucifying Christian children should have convinced the dignitaries of the Church, that that charge was nothing more but a base and false calumny.The king, after his return to England, found himself very much impoverished, having lost his military chest, and his moveable chapel royal, with all its rich plate, at the battle of Taillebourg. Henry wishing, however, to celebrate the wedding of his brother Richard with his sister-in-law, Sancha, in royal style, he called, therefore, upon the poor Jews to furnish the funds for the splendidfestivities. And Aaron of York alone was compelled to pay no less than four thousand marks of silver and four hundred marks of gold; and the Jews of London were mulcted in likeproportion.1He was still poor, and wanted more money; he applied, therefore, to his parliament for it. They well knew, that vast sums had been exacted by him from the Jews; the barons, therefore, inquired, what became of all their money. The king did not relish this sort of procedure on the part of those noblemen, and appeared to refuse an answer to such an ill-timed query. The barons, in order to be acquainted in future with his revenues derived from the Jews, insisted on having one, at least, of the justices of the Jews appointed by parliament. The king found himself obliged to acquiesce in that bold proposal, and moreover to confirm it by charter. The Jews were by no means sorry for this baronical step, for it afforded them a little respite. For in return for the king’s consenting to thenew parliamentary measure, the barons were likewise obliged to yield to his request, and supply his pecuniary wants, so that the Jews had peace from him, during the whole ofthatyear. But it was only forthatyear. The next one was introduced with another demand.1– M. Paris; A.♦Strickland.♦‘Stricland’ replaced with ‘Strickland’In consequence of the king’s again wanting money to meet the Welsh incursions, the Jews were once more applied to and despoiled of, 10,000 marks: transportation to Ireland was the punishment in case of refusal.Many families removed and hid themselves, fearing Ireland, as it would seem, more thanEngland;1so that the king had recourse to his father’s measures, and issued a most cruel proclamation respecting their wives and children: in which, orders were given to the justices appointed for the protection of the Jews, that they should causeto be proclaimed throughout all the counties of England, where the Jews were, that if a Jewess, the wife of any Jew, or their children, fly, or take to flight, or in any way skulk from the village where they were on the festival ofSt.Andrew, in the twenty-ninth year of that reign, up to the year following: so that if they did not promptly appear, at the summons of the king, or of his bailiffs, in the bailiwicks in which they dwelt, that the husband of that Jewess, and even the Jewess herself, and all their children, shall be presently outlawed; and all their lands, revenues, and all their chattels, shall come into the hands of the king, and be sold, for the assistance of the king, and for the future, they shall not return into the kingdom of England, without the king’s special orders.1– It is a favourite boast on the part of many Irish Christians, that their countrymen never persecuted the Jews. The above incidental piece of information may account for it.Westminster Abbey was about this time rebuilt; and the Jews, who were prohibited from entering any Christian place of worship, were at the same time commanded to aid in the rebuilding and ornamenting of that magnificent church.Lucretia, widow of David, a Jew of Oxford, was obliged to pay 2590 pounds, which was devoted to that undertaking.Anderson tells us: “About this time, the beautiful and stately abbey church of Westminster began to assume the venerable and majestic appearance which it wears to this day, except the finely rebuilt north front, reared on the ancient foundation, which is now strengthened and new cased, where the stone had fallen to decay.” Maddox, in his “History of Exchequer,” adds: “For this purpose, Henry grants and dedicates to God andSt.Edward, and the Church of Westminster for the re-edifying of that fabrick, the sum of £2590, which he extracted from Lucretia, the widow of David, a Jew of Oxford.” Upon which Hunter, in his “History of London,” remarks: “It is amusing to reflect, that one of our noblest and most ancient Christian structures owes its renovation and embellishment to the Jewish nation.”There was a tallage laid upon the Jews, for that very purpose, which went by the nameof the Jews’ alms; which is evident from the following passage in Prynne’s Demurrer:“In the29thof HenryIII.the king sends writs to his justices for the custody of the Jews, and to his sheriffs to levy the debts due to him from the heirs of Hamond the Jew of Hereford, and that Crespin, a Jew, should pay him twenty-eight marks, to be laid out in silk and cloth of gold for Westminster Church,as his alms.”The most uninteresting part of Jewish history in the annals of this country, is that during the reign of HenryIII.we can scarcely relate any thing but it is closely connected with the uncontrollable avarice of the British monarch, as well as that of his subjects. There is a disagreeable sameness in those annals. I must once more relate, that Henry extracted again 60,000 marks from the Jews, for which even the monkish historians find no excuse. In order to keep their treasures well supplied, usury was permitted to them by act of parliament, which rendered them most odious in the opinions of their Gentile debtors, who, generally,as soon as they incurred some large debt, began to scheme their creditor’s destruction; and which was the means of branding them with the unobliterable stigmas of “the usurious race,” and “money brokers,” which polite Gentile writers indulge in even to this veryday.11– Miss Strickland, in her popular work, “Lives of the Queens of England,” seems to think such epithets quite elegant. Seevol. i.,p. 354.Whilst treating of this subject, I think it proper to call your attention to the pope’s usurers in this country, which will show that the poor Jews got more of the name than of the gain. Their method was extremely characteristic.The Jews were very much amused at it.Dr.Tovey, after expatiating for some time on the usurious practice of the Jews, proceeds, “when I said the Jews were the sole usurers of the kingdom, I meant to have excepted the pope; for he, indeed, the pope, was wont to carry on that infamous trade, in such a shameful manner, by the help of several Italian merchants, called Caursini, that theJews themselves might have profited by his example. For though, according to the strict and legal acceptation of the word, his contracts were not usurious, yet the effects of them were the most unheard of usury. His method was this: if a person wanted a sum of money, which he could not repay under six months, he would lend it him for three, without any interest at all; and then covenant to receive fifty per cent. for every month afterwards, that it should remain unpaid. Now, in this case, said he, I am no usurer: for I lent my money, absolutely without interest; and what I was to receive afterwards was a contingency that might be defeated. A bond of this kind, which surpasses every thing of modern invention, is transmitted to us by Matthew Paris.”“To all that shall see this present writing, Thomas the prior, and the convent of Barnwell wish health in the Lord. Know ye that we have borrowed and received at London, for ourselves, profitably to be expendedfor the affairs of our church, from Francisco and Gregorio, for them and their partners, citizens and merchants of Millain, a hundred and four marks of lawful money sterling, thirteen shillings and four pence sterling being counted to every mark, which said one hundred and four marks we promise to pay back on the feast ofSt.Peter ad vincula, being the first day of August, at the new temple in London, in the year 1235. And if the said money be not all paid, at the time and place aforesaid, we bind ourselves to pay to the aforesaid merchants, or any one of them, or their certain attorney, for every ten marks, forborn two months, one mark of money, for recompense of damages, which the aforesaid merchants may incur by the nonpayment of it; so that they may lawfully demand both principal, damages, and expenses, as above expressed, together with the expenses of one merchant, for himself, horse, and servant, until such time as the aforesaid money be fully satisfied. Andfor the payment of such principal, interest, damage, and expenses, we oblige ourselves, our church, and successors, and all our own goods and the goods of our church, moveable, or immoveable, ecclesiastical, or temporal, which we have, or shall have, wheresoever they shall be found, to the aforesaid merchants and their heirs. And do further recognise, and acknowledge, that we possess, and hold the said goods from the said merchants, by way of courtesy, until the premises be fully satisfied. Renouncing also for ourselves and successors, all help of canon, and civil law, all privileges, and clerkship, the epistle ofSt.Adrian, all customs, statutes, lectures, indulgences, and privileges obtained for the king of England, from the see apostolic, as also the benefit of all appeal, or inhibition from the King of England; with all other exceptions, whether real or personal, that may be objected, against the validity of this instrument. All which things we promise faithfully to observe, and in witness thereofhave set to the seal of our convent.—Dat. London, die quintoElphegi[24 April.] An. Gratiæ 1235.” Matthew Paris adds—“When the Jews came to understand this Christian way of preventing usury, they laughed very heartily.”The king made himself heir of the Jewish possessions, whether houses or lands, which they should possess or purchase in this realm. Prynne furnishes us with a clause of the original writ, wherein the king claims to succeed to the Jewishproperty.11– SeeAppendix L.It appears that in consequence of the incessant taxation of, and continual display of ill will towards, the unhappy Jews, they began to think that England would not remain their home much longer, and were therefore careless about many things. Their cemetery was about that time out of repair, and there was a disposition on the part of many to leave it so; but it seems that their leaders, who were perhaps urged by the king,insisted on having the burying place repaired, and determined to compel every one to contribute towards it. To be able to carry their intentions into effect, they applied to the king for permission to excommunicate all such who should refuse to co-operate and assist in the undertaking. The king turned this circumstance to his advantage, and granted the required license, on the condition that the fines which might arise out of the excommunications should go to him.An incident which occurred about this time, of a most awful nature, furnishes us with an idea of the great animosity which the Jews manifested towards the religion of their Gentile neighbours—I will not call it Christianity—image-worship is its proper appellation. It would seem that they displayed their hatred by treating the dumb Christian idols with contempt; and any care taken of such an idol, inspired them with murderous rage even against their nearest and dearest relations, as the following narrativeshows.1The style is altogether popish.1– It is to be noticed, however, that the Jew here alluded to was a most unprincipled man. His hatred did not arise out of conviction that his religion was the only true one. It is remarkable, that to this very day, the most ignorant and wicked Jews are the most hostile to Christianity.“There was a certain rich Jew, having his abode and house at Berkhamstede and Wallingford, Abraham by name, not in faith, who was very dear to Earl Richard, who had a very beautiful wife, and faithful to him, Flora by name. This Jew, that he might accumulate more disgrace to Christ, caused the image of the Virgin Mary, decently carved and painted, as the manner is, holding her son in her bosom, to be put in an indecent place, and which is a great shame and ignominy to express, blaspheming the image as if it had been the very virgin herself, threw all sorts of dirt upon her, days and nights, and commanded his wife to do the like. But Flora’sdelicate feelings so much revolted at the injunction, that she not only refused to be partner in the indecent act, but secretly removed the filth from the image as often as it was covered. Which when the Jew her husband had fully found out, he therefore privily and impiously strangled the woman herself, though hiswife.1But when these wickeddeeds were discovered, and made apparent, and proved by his conviction, although other causes of death were not wanting, he was thrust into the most loathsome castle of the Tower of London. Whence to get his freedom, he most certainly promised that he would prove all the Jews of England to have been most wicked traitors. And when as he was greatly accused by almost all the Jews of England, and they endeavoured to put him to death, Earl Richard interceded for him. Whereupon, the Jews grievously accusing him both of the clipping of money and other wickedness, offered Earl Richard a thousand marks, if he would not protect him; which, notwithstanding, the earl refused, because he was called his Jew. This Jew Abraham therefore gave the king seven hundred marks, that he might be freed from perpetual imprisonment, to which he was adjudged, the earl assisting him therein.”1– This most impious and wicked man, doubtless, thought he did God service, and fulfilled a plain positive Mosaic precept, namely, “If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, whichisas thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;namely, of the gods of the people whichareround about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from theoneend of the earth even unto theotherend of the earth; thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: but thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.” (Deut.xiii.6–9.) Poor Flora did not entice him to worship the image. The whole Jewish congregation, therefore, justly considered Abraham as a murderer, and worthy of death.”Whilst this Abraham was imprisoned, he promised to the king that if his liberty were granted to him, he would discover tohis majesty, his brethren’s misdemeanors, stating that they had a great deal of wealth concealed from the king. Accordingly, as soon as he was set free, a royal search was instituted for all the Jewish estates, and was conducted in the most barbarous manner, inasmuch as that unprincipled Abraham went along with the commissioners appointed for that purpose, and urged them to make diligent search, threatening them, if at all lax, to inform against them to the king. This man proved to them a source of immense trouble. It is a gratifying fact that no Jewish convert caused them willingly any troublewhatever.11– Seep. 250. It is an unjust insinuation on the part ofMr.Moses Samuel, in his “Address on the Position of the Jews in Britain,”p. 27, that the Jewish converts—as he peevishly calls them apostates—of that time were “breeding mischief against the sons of Judea, and vituperating their holy religion.” Oh, no,Mr.Samuel; the unconverted Jews breeded mischief against each other, but not the converted ones.I am almost ashamed to proceed with my monotonous lecture. I have once more to tell you that the king was in trouble forwant of money. He determined, once more, to see what the Jews could do for him. To begin with, they were obliged to furnish the king with 5,000 marks previous to his leaving forGascony.1Whilst there, a match was made up between Prince Edward and Eleanora of Castille. The intended marriage was necessarily attended with extravagant expenses. The king, therefore, commissioned his brother Richard to extort from the luckless Jews the sum required for the nuptial festivities of hisheir.2But Henry was insatiable; he wanted more money, for which he applied first to the barons, conjuring up a pitiable tale,viz., that he apprehended a Spanish invasion.But the barons happily could refuse to be caught with chaff, and therefore boldly confessed their unbelief, and declined to give money. The king, therefore, commissioned his brother, once more, to levy money from the Jews: and a very large sum it was.
Inmy last Lecture I brought down the history of the Jews in this country, to the year 1233, the seventeenth of the reign of Henry the Third. You have heard, that as soon as the government of the country was taken out of the hands of Hubert de Burgh, the Jews began to experience very great persecutions and grievous exactions from the king, the most acquisitive of all Englishmonarchs.1They had indeed acquired great wealth during the administrations of the Earl of Pembroke and Hubert de Burgh; but they could as much enjoy that wealth as King Damocles the celebrated banquet. They beheld amid their enormous affluence thesword which was suspended over their heads by a single hair.
1– A. Strickland.
All sorts of ridiculous and base calumnies began to be invented against them, in order to furnish a warrant for inflicting upon them fines, extortions, imprisonment, banishments, and other unheard of cruelties.
My Lecture this evening commences, as you perceive, by the syllabus in your hands, with the sufferings of the Jews of Norwich—sufferings which owe their existence to the venomous calumnies invented by Christians in order to possess themselves of their Jewish neighbour’s wealth. In the year 1235, a year when Henry was greatly in need of money, in consequence of his great outlay on his sister Isabella’s marriage to the emperor of Germany, as well as his own contemplated marriage with Eleanor of Provence: poor Count Berenger having positively declined giving the twenty thousand marks which the mean Henry asked as a dowry, Henry must, therefore, have been very glad of getting an opportunity, be it ever so foul, of extorting the required sumfrom the poor Jews. The Jews of Norwich were at that time enormously rich. Seven of them were therefore accused of circumcising a Christian child of that city, and they were brought before the king himself, whilst he was celebrating his nativity at Westminster. The poor Jews were condemned to be drawn and hanged, and, of course, their property confiscated, and thus were the king’s wants supplied for that time.
You next perceive in the syllabus, briefly noticed, the famous trial of Jacob of Norwich. The syllabus, however, can give you no idea of the nature of thatinfamous process, or of the absurd charge which originated that trial.
In the year 1240, the afore-mentioned rich Jew was accused of stealing a boy from his parents, and circumcising him. The monkish historians tell us, that it proved a case of such difficulty, that theposteawas thought proper to be returned to parliament.
Parliament could not decide. Indeed, the strangeness of the accusation would havepuzzled any body of men to decide. Four years were allowed to elapse before the charge was brought, and the principal witness was a little boy, of about nine years of age, who stated that when he was about five years old he was playing in a certain street; the Jews allured him into the house of one Jacob, where they kept him a day and a night, and then blindfolded him and circumcised him. Yet strange to say, with his eyes blinded, and amidst the confusion of so painful an operation, the youthful boy was able to notice several minute particulars, which he narrated, but which certainly never had any existence, inasmuch as the particulars he related to have taken place after the circumcision, have no connexion with that rite.
In addition to the boy’s unlikely story, there were no symptoms whatever that witness ever underwent such an operation. Under such circumstances, and with such unsatisfactory evidence, the poor Jews would, doubtless, have been honourably acquitted. But as this calumny originated, in all probability,with the ecclesiastics, they could not brook disappointment; and contrived, therefore, to become accusers, witnesses, and judges themselves.
The bishops accordingly insisted upon the matter being tried in their courts; and as soon as the charge was dismissed by parliament, as incapable of being proved satisfactorily, the professing ministers of Christianity, who stated that the boy was circumcised in derision and contumely of their Lord and Master, determined to take the law into their own hands. They maintained that such questions belonged exclusively to the jurisdiction of the Church, and that the state had no right to interfere.
Baptism and circumcision, they argued, being matters of faith, the ministers of that faith had, therefore, alone the right of deciding cases of that kind. The poor Jews were therefore once more dragged before a judge and jury who were most inimical to them, whose avaricious affections were set on their hard-earned riches. One can easily guessthe result of the judgment seat, and the fate of the unfortunate Norwich Jews.
William Ralegh, Bishop of Norwich, acted as judge: the archdeacon and the priests as witnesses, who deposed on oath that they saw the boy immediately after he was circumcised, and that there were then all the signs, that such an operation had been performed upon him. Why and wherefore the archdeacon and priests kept it quiet so long; the judge did neither ask nor care. How it came to pass that the signs had, in the short space of four years, totally disappeared, the judge did not investigate. A certain Maude also deposed, in confirmation of the charge, that after the boy was taken home, the Jews called upon her to warn her against giving him any swine’s flesh to eat.
Four of the accused were condemned to be dragged by horses’ tails and to behanged.1How hateful must the ecclesiastics have rendered themselves to the Jews! With whata despicable idea have they furnished the Jews, of the Christian religion! Are we to be surprised that a Jew who embraced Christianity, and received even holy orders, was induced to return to Judaism, and to submit to suffer persecution with his brethren, rather than countenance the religion of suchmen?2Is it to be wondered at the paucity of Jews becoming the disciples of a religion, whose professors were so devoid, not only of any religious feelings whatsoever, but also of any human feelings? And shall we wonder that the Jew who embraced Christianity in those days was so dreadfully hated, and considered altogether such an one as his new co-religionists?
1– SeeAppendix A.2– SeeAppendix B.
1– SeeAppendix A.
2– SeeAppendix B.
The populace, who, as usual, only waited for an opportunity to rob and plunder, as soon as the verdict was pronounced, set fire to the houses of the Jews and reduced them to ashes; and so barefaced were those murderers and robbers, that when the sheriff of Norfolk ventured to interfere on behalf of thewretched Jews, they complained to the king of the sheriff’s audacious interference.
The Jews residing then in Newcastle-upon-Tyne were banished from that place: we are not informed, however, of the cause of that cruel measure; but simply in consequence of a petition of the inhabitants of that town, who, in all probability, mortgaged their houses to the Jews, and by the expulsion of their creditors from amongst them, hoped to rid themselves of their debts, as no offence whatever is mentioned in the king’sletter.1
1– SeeAppendix C.
The king began zealously to espouse the conduct of the Church towards the Jews; and by royal proclamation prohibited Christian women from entering into the service of Jews asnurses:1and the reason given for this interdict is, that there was an universal custom among the Jews of obliging their hired Christian nurses to abstain from nursing their children for three days after Easter,lest the body and blood of Jesus Christ—which all Christians in those Popish times were obliged to receive at that holy festival—should by incorporation be transfused into their children.
1– SeeAppendix D.
This abominable instance of blasphemy and folly emanated from the pen of Pope Innocent the Third, in an epistle to the Bishop of Paris, in a style unworthy of the polite Englishear.1How inconsistent! The Jews are first accused of little faith, or of total unbelief, and then again of believing too much. The ridiculous reason would imply that the Jews believed not only in the doctrine of Christ, but also in that of antichrist,viz.: the doctrines of transubstantiation. If the Jews had at all such a practice as above alluded to, it would have been because of Easter generally occurring about the time of the Jewish passover; and the fear of leaven being introduced into their dwellings, might have induced them to have recourse to such an expedient.
1– SeeAppendix E.
The Christian inhabitants of Southampton, followed the example of those of Newcastle, and petitioned the king to rid them also of the Jews, and perhaps with them of their debts, which the king readily granted.
The king’s continual want of money was a never ceasing torment to the poor Jews, for when he could not obtain any money, to squander away, from his barons and nobles, he fell upon the Jews and wrung out of them whatever he wanted.
When Eleanor’s two uncles came over to this country—one of which having become primate of England, became also a great oppressor of the Jews—Henry, out of complaisance to his consort, received and entertained them with such magnificence, that, not knowing how to support the charge by honest means, he sent word to the Jews, that unless they presented him with twenty thousand marks, he would expel them all the kingdom; and thus he supplied himself with money for his unjustgenerosity.1
1– A.♦Strickland. M. Paris. Speed.
♦‘Stricland’ replaced with ‘Strickland’
The following circumstance is related byDr.Tovey, on the authority of Matthew Paris:—
“The next year [the nineteenth year of his reign], the king, keeping his Christmas at Winchester, sent out writs to all his archbishops, bishops, barons, abbotts, and priors, that, without any excuse, they should meet him in parliament upon the octaves of Epiphany at Westminster, to treat upon matters of the highest consequence. Whither, when they were all come, William de Keele, the king’s secretary, stood up, and told them he was commanded by the king to say, ‘that however ill his majesty might have behaved himself hitherto, in being guided by foreigners, he was determined to be so no longer; for they had cheated him of all his money: and that therefore, as he intended for the future to have no other counsellors but his natural born subjects, he hoped they would give him a fresh supply.’ The manner of raising it, he said, was to be left to themselves;and though the king was very necessitous in his private circumstances, he was willing, if they thought proper, that the money raised should be disposed of by their own commissioners to the public advantage. At which speech the barons being greatly surprised, made answer, that they had already given the king such large sums, without receiving any return from him, either of good government or affection, that they thought it inconsistent with their honours to lay any further tax upon the people till they saw better occasion, and therefore desired to be excused.
“But the king, who was not so easily to be satisfied, insisting upon the vast expenses he had been at lately, in marrying his sister to the emperor (whose portion was three hundred thousandmarks),1as also from his own marriage; and likewise, swearing to take their advice in all things for the future, and forsake his foreigners, they were prevailedupon to grant him a thirtieth part of all their moveables; and the clergy did the same. But as the money, by agreement, was not to be disposed of without their privity and consent, and was, likewise, to be deposited in some abbey, castle, or other place of security, and not in his exchequer; the king, finding himself, in a great measure, disappointed, was resolved to get money by some other means, which he might call his own, and lavish away at pleasure. He, therefore, fell to work again upon his Jewish mines, and extracted no less than ten thousand marks—from the immediate payment whereof no Jew was to be excused, but by the king’s especialwrit.”2Ten of the richest Jews were obliged to become security for the payment of this unreasonable demand. Not that the Jews were unable at once to raise the required sum, but they dared not appear as wealthy as they reallywere.3
1– All of which he expended on Eleanor’s coronation.2– SeeAppendix F.3– SeeDr.Jost.
1– All of which he expended on Eleanor’s coronation.
2– SeeAppendix F.
3– SeeDr.Jost.
The wealth which the Jews have accumulated in this country must have been enormously great; and the ten sureties must have been equal to raise any sum, be it ever so large, if we may judge from the wealth of individuals amongst them. From one, Aaron of York—who seems to have supplied a great part of the necessities both of the king and queen—in the short space of seven years, the king exacted upwards of 30,000 marks of silver; and to the queen the same Jew also paid upwards of 200 marks ofgold.1Dr.Jost says, “that Aaron’s riches wereimmeasurable.”2The same Aaron also entered into a compact with the king to pay him annually, during the whole period of his life, the sum of one hundred marks, in order to be free fromtaxes.3Nor was Aaron the only one so gifted with this world’s riches. We read of another Jew of Hereford, Hamon by name, who must have been equally rich. We do not hear anything about him during his life-time; but we read, that when he died—which took place about two years prior to the above exaction—his daughter, Ursula, was obliged to pay 5,000 marks for arelief.4
1–Aurum Reginæ, or queen gold, a due which the queens of England were entitled to claim on every tenth mark paid to the king, as voluntary fines for the royal good will. Eleanor sometimes demanded it in a most unreasonable manner.Tovey. A. Strickland.2– “Sein Reichthum war unermesslich.”3– “Considering the different values of money, this, I believe, is as much as the richest nobleman pays at present.”—Anglia Judaica,p. 108.“When we read or speak of any sum of money in our histories, from the Saxon times to the year 1344, we are to consider it, on an average, as about thrice the weight and value of the like sum in our time.”—Introduction to the History of Commerce, by Anderson.4– “Though, by Magna Charta, the relief of an earl’s son, for a whole county, was settled but at one hundred pounds; of a baron’s heir, for a whole barony, at but one hundred marks; and no more than one hundred shillings was to be paid for the relief of a knight’s fee—all which were called the antiqua, or accustomed reliefs of the kingdom.”
1–Aurum Reginæ, or queen gold, a due which the queens of England were entitled to claim on every tenth mark paid to the king, as voluntary fines for the royal good will. Eleanor sometimes demanded it in a most unreasonable manner.Tovey. A. Strickland.
2– “Sein Reichthum war unermesslich.”
3– “Considering the different values of money, this, I believe, is as much as the richest nobleman pays at present.”—Anglia Judaica,p. 108.
“When we read or speak of any sum of money in our histories, from the Saxon times to the year 1344, we are to consider it, on an average, as about thrice the weight and value of the like sum in our time.”—Introduction to the History of Commerce, by Anderson.
4– “Though, by Magna Charta, the relief of an earl’s son, for a whole county, was settled but at one hundred pounds; of a baron’s heir, for a whole barony, at but one hundred marks; and no more than one hundred shillings was to be paid for the relief of a knight’s fee—all which were called the antiqua, or accustomed reliefs of the kingdom.”
In order to diminish the enormity of the incessant persecutions the poor Jewswere subject to, recourse was continually had to many mean and unworthy acts of vilifying them. Some of them were imprisoned at Oxford, under the pretence of having forcibly taken away a young Jew who had been converted and baptized—a charge which, as it was unjustly grounded, was properly opposed, and in which their innocence so plainly appeared, that the king very soon after commanded them to be released.
No offence was, indeed, too improbable to be laid to their charge. They were even accused of plotting against the state, and of attempts to overturn the government; but the most absurd accusation brought against them was, that a party of them had collected together large quantities of combustible materials at Northampton, for the purpose of employing them in the destruction of London, by fire. Upon this incredible charge, many Jews were burned alive, and their effects seized and delivered into the king’s hands. Matthew Paris, who lived in this reign, and was an eye-witness of the oppressionsto which the Jews were subjected by the crown, gives a distressing picture of their sufferings. He concludes his account of the manner in which the king practised his extortions with these words:Non tamen abrando, vel excoriando sed eviscerandoextorsit.1
1– Matt. Paris,p. 831; Blunt,p. 42.
To put a stop to the repeated calumnies which were brought against them, as clippers and falsifiers of the coin, they came to the conclusion of paying the king one hundred pounds, in order “that all Jews who should belawfullyconvicted of clipping, robbery, or harbouring of clippers or robbers, should be for ever banished therealm.”1
1– SeeAppendix G.
We must also notice the memorableParliamentum Judaicum, which occurred in the twenty-fifth year of Henry’s reign,A.D.1240. Soon after this public testimony of their loyalty, as citizens of the state in which they lived, they were agreeably surprised at hearing that a certain number of their nation weresummoned to attend a parliament at Worcester, in order, as the writ ran, “to treat with the king as well concerning his own as theirbenefit.”1Many of them entertained the most sanguine hopes that such an occurrence would terminate as much to their honour as to theiradvantage.2But in this expectation they were speedily and sorely disappointed; for the purport of his majesty’s most gracious speech informed them that he wanted money, and that they must raise, among their own people, twenty thousand marks, half of which was to be paid at midsummer, and the other half at Michaelmas. This peremptory command, however, they appeared unable to obey, although they had the singular privilege of appointing their own collectors; but the collectors were not able to raise the demanded sum; and the consequence was, that themselves, their wives and children, were seized, and incarcerated,and their goods and chattels were taken fromthem.3
1– SeeAppendix H.2– SeeAppendix I.3– SeeAppendix J.
1– SeeAppendix H.
2– SeeAppendix I.
3– SeeAppendix J.
Henry’s expedition against the King of France, two years afterwards, in order to regain the provinces of Guienne and Poictou, was another reason for demanding money from his Jewish subjects. You are, however, aware that Henry was totally unsuccessful in that ill-advised expedition. After which the king and the queen determined to spend a merry winter atBordeaux.1Whilst there the king became interested in a certain Jewish convert, Martyn by name, whom he sent to this country with orders to the Archbishop of York, whom he had left governor in England, and Walter de Cantelupe, Bishop of Worcester, to provide some convenient place for the well educating of the same Jewish convert, and to furnish him with the means ofsubsistence.1The king seemed always kindly disposed towards Jewish converts.
1– A. Strickland.
The Jewish Converts’ Institution, as amatter of course, must have been full; and we find it, therefore, soon after augmented. It appears that Peter Rupibus, Bishop of Winchester, had bequeathed a legacy of one hundred pounds for the existing Jewish Converts’Institution.1
1– SeeAppendix K.
From the following circumstance, it would seem that the converts were expected to join their patrons in their railing accusations against their unbelieving brethren. The poor converts found themselves, therefore, very awkwardly situated, as will evidently appear to every intelligent reader of the following occurrence.
The Jews were again accused of crucifying a child. The story and the made-up circumstances are so extraordinary, that I shall give you the whole account, as given by Matthew Paris, and translated by William Prynne, in his malicious Demurrer.
“Anno 1244 in August, the corpse of a little male child was found buried in thecity of London, in whose thighs and arms, and under whose paps, there was a regular inscription in Hebrew letters. To which spectacle when as many resorted, admiring at it, and not knowing how to read the letters, knowing that the letters were Hebrew, they called thither converted Jews who inhabited the house which the king had founded in London, that they as they loved their life or members, for the honour, love, and fear of their Lord the King, without figment of falsehood, might declare that writing. For the king’s bailiffs, and conservators of the peace were present. They likewise believed, neither without cause, that the Jews had either crucified that little child in obloquy and contumely of Christ (which was related frequently to have happened) or had afflicted him with sundry torments to crucify him, and when he had given up the ghost, they had now cast him there, as unworthy the cross. Moreover, there appeared in his body blue marks, and rents of rods, and manifestsigns and footsteps of some other torment. And when as those converts were brought to read those things that were inscribed, and studied that they might perfectly read them, they found the letters deformed, and now not legible, being many ways disordered, and tossed up and down, by reason of the extension and contraction of the skin and flesh. But they found the name of the father and mother of the little child, suppressing their surnames, and that the child was sold to the Jews; but to whom, or to what end, they could not find. In the mean time, certain of the London Jews took a secret and sudden flight, never to return again, who by this very thing rendered themselves suspected. And some affirmed, that the Lord had wrought miracles for the child. And because it was found that the Jews at other times had perpetrated such wickedness, and the holy bodies crucified had been solemnly received in the Church, and likewise to have shined brightly with miracles, althoughthe prints of the five wounds appeared not in the hands and feet and side of the said corpse, yet the canons ofSt.Paul took it violently away, and solemnly buried it in their church, not far from the great altar.” To the honour and credit of the then Jewish converts, let this event be recorded, that though they were stimulated by the Christians to accuse their unconverted brethren, by whom they were so violently hated, they brought no accusation whatever against their enemies; and their total silence respecting the charge of crucifying Christian children should have convinced the dignitaries of the Church, that that charge was nothing more but a base and false calumny.
The king, after his return to England, found himself very much impoverished, having lost his military chest, and his moveable chapel royal, with all its rich plate, at the battle of Taillebourg. Henry wishing, however, to celebrate the wedding of his brother Richard with his sister-in-law, Sancha, in royal style, he called, therefore, upon the poor Jews to furnish the funds for the splendidfestivities. And Aaron of York alone was compelled to pay no less than four thousand marks of silver and four hundred marks of gold; and the Jews of London were mulcted in likeproportion.1He was still poor, and wanted more money; he applied, therefore, to his parliament for it. They well knew, that vast sums had been exacted by him from the Jews; the barons, therefore, inquired, what became of all their money. The king did not relish this sort of procedure on the part of those noblemen, and appeared to refuse an answer to such an ill-timed query. The barons, in order to be acquainted in future with his revenues derived from the Jews, insisted on having one, at least, of the justices of the Jews appointed by parliament. The king found himself obliged to acquiesce in that bold proposal, and moreover to confirm it by charter. The Jews were by no means sorry for this baronical step, for it afforded them a little respite. For in return for the king’s consenting to thenew parliamentary measure, the barons were likewise obliged to yield to his request, and supply his pecuniary wants, so that the Jews had peace from him, during the whole ofthatyear. But it was only forthatyear. The next one was introduced with another demand.
1– M. Paris; A.♦Strickland.
♦‘Stricland’ replaced with ‘Strickland’
In consequence of the king’s again wanting money to meet the Welsh incursions, the Jews were once more applied to and despoiled of, 10,000 marks: transportation to Ireland was the punishment in case of refusal.
Many families removed and hid themselves, fearing Ireland, as it would seem, more thanEngland;1so that the king had recourse to his father’s measures, and issued a most cruel proclamation respecting their wives and children: in which, orders were given to the justices appointed for the protection of the Jews, that they should causeto be proclaimed throughout all the counties of England, where the Jews were, that if a Jewess, the wife of any Jew, or their children, fly, or take to flight, or in any way skulk from the village where they were on the festival ofSt.Andrew, in the twenty-ninth year of that reign, up to the year following: so that if they did not promptly appear, at the summons of the king, or of his bailiffs, in the bailiwicks in which they dwelt, that the husband of that Jewess, and even the Jewess herself, and all their children, shall be presently outlawed; and all their lands, revenues, and all their chattels, shall come into the hands of the king, and be sold, for the assistance of the king, and for the future, they shall not return into the kingdom of England, without the king’s special orders.
1– It is a favourite boast on the part of many Irish Christians, that their countrymen never persecuted the Jews. The above incidental piece of information may account for it.
Westminster Abbey was about this time rebuilt; and the Jews, who were prohibited from entering any Christian place of worship, were at the same time commanded to aid in the rebuilding and ornamenting of that magnificent church.
Lucretia, widow of David, a Jew of Oxford, was obliged to pay 2590 pounds, which was devoted to that undertaking.
Anderson tells us: “About this time, the beautiful and stately abbey church of Westminster began to assume the venerable and majestic appearance which it wears to this day, except the finely rebuilt north front, reared on the ancient foundation, which is now strengthened and new cased, where the stone had fallen to decay.” Maddox, in his “History of Exchequer,” adds: “For this purpose, Henry grants and dedicates to God andSt.Edward, and the Church of Westminster for the re-edifying of that fabrick, the sum of £2590, which he extracted from Lucretia, the widow of David, a Jew of Oxford.” Upon which Hunter, in his “History of London,” remarks: “It is amusing to reflect, that one of our noblest and most ancient Christian structures owes its renovation and embellishment to the Jewish nation.”
There was a tallage laid upon the Jews, for that very purpose, which went by the nameof the Jews’ alms; which is evident from the following passage in Prynne’s Demurrer:
“In the29thof HenryIII.the king sends writs to his justices for the custody of the Jews, and to his sheriffs to levy the debts due to him from the heirs of Hamond the Jew of Hereford, and that Crespin, a Jew, should pay him twenty-eight marks, to be laid out in silk and cloth of gold for Westminster Church,as his alms.”
The most uninteresting part of Jewish history in the annals of this country, is that during the reign of HenryIII.we can scarcely relate any thing but it is closely connected with the uncontrollable avarice of the British monarch, as well as that of his subjects. There is a disagreeable sameness in those annals. I must once more relate, that Henry extracted again 60,000 marks from the Jews, for which even the monkish historians find no excuse. In order to keep their treasures well supplied, usury was permitted to them by act of parliament, which rendered them most odious in the opinions of their Gentile debtors, who, generally,as soon as they incurred some large debt, began to scheme their creditor’s destruction; and which was the means of branding them with the unobliterable stigmas of “the usurious race,” and “money brokers,” which polite Gentile writers indulge in even to this veryday.1
1– Miss Strickland, in her popular work, “Lives of the Queens of England,” seems to think such epithets quite elegant. Seevol. i.,p. 354.
Whilst treating of this subject, I think it proper to call your attention to the pope’s usurers in this country, which will show that the poor Jews got more of the name than of the gain. Their method was extremely characteristic.
The Jews were very much amused at it.Dr.Tovey, after expatiating for some time on the usurious practice of the Jews, proceeds, “when I said the Jews were the sole usurers of the kingdom, I meant to have excepted the pope; for he, indeed, the pope, was wont to carry on that infamous trade, in such a shameful manner, by the help of several Italian merchants, called Caursini, that theJews themselves might have profited by his example. For though, according to the strict and legal acceptation of the word, his contracts were not usurious, yet the effects of them were the most unheard of usury. His method was this: if a person wanted a sum of money, which he could not repay under six months, he would lend it him for three, without any interest at all; and then covenant to receive fifty per cent. for every month afterwards, that it should remain unpaid. Now, in this case, said he, I am no usurer: for I lent my money, absolutely without interest; and what I was to receive afterwards was a contingency that might be defeated. A bond of this kind, which surpasses every thing of modern invention, is transmitted to us by Matthew Paris.”
“To all that shall see this present writing, Thomas the prior, and the convent of Barnwell wish health in the Lord. Know ye that we have borrowed and received at London, for ourselves, profitably to be expendedfor the affairs of our church, from Francisco and Gregorio, for them and their partners, citizens and merchants of Millain, a hundred and four marks of lawful money sterling, thirteen shillings and four pence sterling being counted to every mark, which said one hundred and four marks we promise to pay back on the feast ofSt.Peter ad vincula, being the first day of August, at the new temple in London, in the year 1235. And if the said money be not all paid, at the time and place aforesaid, we bind ourselves to pay to the aforesaid merchants, or any one of them, or their certain attorney, for every ten marks, forborn two months, one mark of money, for recompense of damages, which the aforesaid merchants may incur by the nonpayment of it; so that they may lawfully demand both principal, damages, and expenses, as above expressed, together with the expenses of one merchant, for himself, horse, and servant, until such time as the aforesaid money be fully satisfied. Andfor the payment of such principal, interest, damage, and expenses, we oblige ourselves, our church, and successors, and all our own goods and the goods of our church, moveable, or immoveable, ecclesiastical, or temporal, which we have, or shall have, wheresoever they shall be found, to the aforesaid merchants and their heirs. And do further recognise, and acknowledge, that we possess, and hold the said goods from the said merchants, by way of courtesy, until the premises be fully satisfied. Renouncing also for ourselves and successors, all help of canon, and civil law, all privileges, and clerkship, the epistle ofSt.Adrian, all customs, statutes, lectures, indulgences, and privileges obtained for the king of England, from the see apostolic, as also the benefit of all appeal, or inhibition from the King of England; with all other exceptions, whether real or personal, that may be objected, against the validity of this instrument. All which things we promise faithfully to observe, and in witness thereofhave set to the seal of our convent.—Dat. London, die quintoElphegi[24 April.] An. Gratiæ 1235.” Matthew Paris adds—“When the Jews came to understand this Christian way of preventing usury, they laughed very heartily.”
The king made himself heir of the Jewish possessions, whether houses or lands, which they should possess or purchase in this realm. Prynne furnishes us with a clause of the original writ, wherein the king claims to succeed to the Jewishproperty.1
1– SeeAppendix L.
It appears that in consequence of the incessant taxation of, and continual display of ill will towards, the unhappy Jews, they began to think that England would not remain their home much longer, and were therefore careless about many things. Their cemetery was about that time out of repair, and there was a disposition on the part of many to leave it so; but it seems that their leaders, who were perhaps urged by the king,insisted on having the burying place repaired, and determined to compel every one to contribute towards it. To be able to carry their intentions into effect, they applied to the king for permission to excommunicate all such who should refuse to co-operate and assist in the undertaking. The king turned this circumstance to his advantage, and granted the required license, on the condition that the fines which might arise out of the excommunications should go to him.
An incident which occurred about this time, of a most awful nature, furnishes us with an idea of the great animosity which the Jews manifested towards the religion of their Gentile neighbours—I will not call it Christianity—image-worship is its proper appellation. It would seem that they displayed their hatred by treating the dumb Christian idols with contempt; and any care taken of such an idol, inspired them with murderous rage even against their nearest and dearest relations, as the following narrativeshows.1The style is altogether popish.
1– It is to be noticed, however, that the Jew here alluded to was a most unprincipled man. His hatred did not arise out of conviction that his religion was the only true one. It is remarkable, that to this very day, the most ignorant and wicked Jews are the most hostile to Christianity.
“There was a certain rich Jew, having his abode and house at Berkhamstede and Wallingford, Abraham by name, not in faith, who was very dear to Earl Richard, who had a very beautiful wife, and faithful to him, Flora by name. This Jew, that he might accumulate more disgrace to Christ, caused the image of the Virgin Mary, decently carved and painted, as the manner is, holding her son in her bosom, to be put in an indecent place, and which is a great shame and ignominy to express, blaspheming the image as if it had been the very virgin herself, threw all sorts of dirt upon her, days and nights, and commanded his wife to do the like. But Flora’sdelicate feelings so much revolted at the injunction, that she not only refused to be partner in the indecent act, but secretly removed the filth from the image as often as it was covered. Which when the Jew her husband had fully found out, he therefore privily and impiously strangled the woman herself, though hiswife.1But when these wickeddeeds were discovered, and made apparent, and proved by his conviction, although other causes of death were not wanting, he was thrust into the most loathsome castle of the Tower of London. Whence to get his freedom, he most certainly promised that he would prove all the Jews of England to have been most wicked traitors. And when as he was greatly accused by almost all the Jews of England, and they endeavoured to put him to death, Earl Richard interceded for him. Whereupon, the Jews grievously accusing him both of the clipping of money and other wickedness, offered Earl Richard a thousand marks, if he would not protect him; which, notwithstanding, the earl refused, because he was called his Jew. This Jew Abraham therefore gave the king seven hundred marks, that he might be freed from perpetual imprisonment, to which he was adjudged, the earl assisting him therein.”
1– This most impious and wicked man, doubtless, thought he did God service, and fulfilled a plain positive Mosaic precept, namely, “If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, whichisas thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers;namely, of the gods of the people whichareround about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from theoneend of the earth even unto theotherend of the earth; thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: but thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.” (Deut.xiii.6–9.) Poor Flora did not entice him to worship the image. The whole Jewish congregation, therefore, justly considered Abraham as a murderer, and worthy of death.”
Whilst this Abraham was imprisoned, he promised to the king that if his liberty were granted to him, he would discover tohis majesty, his brethren’s misdemeanors, stating that they had a great deal of wealth concealed from the king. Accordingly, as soon as he was set free, a royal search was instituted for all the Jewish estates, and was conducted in the most barbarous manner, inasmuch as that unprincipled Abraham went along with the commissioners appointed for that purpose, and urged them to make diligent search, threatening them, if at all lax, to inform against them to the king. This man proved to them a source of immense trouble. It is a gratifying fact that no Jewish convert caused them willingly any troublewhatever.1
1– Seep. 250. It is an unjust insinuation on the part ofMr.Moses Samuel, in his “Address on the Position of the Jews in Britain,”p. 27, that the Jewish converts—as he peevishly calls them apostates—of that time were “breeding mischief against the sons of Judea, and vituperating their holy religion.” Oh, no,Mr.Samuel; the unconverted Jews breeded mischief against each other, but not the converted ones.
I am almost ashamed to proceed with my monotonous lecture. I have once more to tell you that the king was in trouble forwant of money. He determined, once more, to see what the Jews could do for him. To begin with, they were obliged to furnish the king with 5,000 marks previous to his leaving forGascony.1Whilst there, a match was made up between Prince Edward and Eleanora of Castille. The intended marriage was necessarily attended with extravagant expenses. The king, therefore, commissioned his brother Richard to extort from the luckless Jews the sum required for the nuptial festivities of hisheir.2But Henry was insatiable; he wanted more money, for which he applied first to the barons, conjuring up a pitiable tale,viz., that he apprehended a Spanish invasion.But the barons happily could refuse to be caught with chaff, and therefore boldly confessed their unbelief, and declined to give money. The king, therefore, commissioned his brother, once more, to levy money from the Jews: and a very large sum it was.