JEWS. 213 JEWS. ever, under his successors, kings, bishops, feudal barons, and even the municipalities, joined in a carnival of persecution. From the eleventh to the fourteenth century, especially during the religious excitement wrought by the Crusades, their history is a series of massacres. AH manner of wild stories were circulated against them ; it was said that they were wont to steal the host, and to contemptuously stick it through and through ; to inveigle Christian children into their houses, and murder them ; to poison wells, etc. Occasionally their debtors, high and low. had recourse to what they called Christian religion as a very easy means of getting rid of their obligations. Thus Philip Augustus (1180-122.3), under whose rule the Jews seem to have held mortgages of enor- mous value on the estates of Church and State dignitaries, simply confiscated the debts due to them, forced tliem to .surrender the pledges in their possession, seized their goods, and banished them from France; the decree appears to have taken effect chiefly in the north : yet in less than twenty years the same proud but wasteful monarch was glad to let them come back and take up their abode in Paris. Louis IX.. who was a very pious prince, among other religious acts, canceled a third of the claims which the •lews had against his subjects, 'for the benefit of his soul.' An edict was also issued for the seizure and destruction of their sacred books ; and we are told that at Paris (1242) twenty-four carts filled with copies of the Talmud, etc.. were consigned to the flames. In the reign of Philip the Fair they were again expelled from France (1306) with the usual accompaniments of cruelty: but the state of the royal finances rendered it necessary, ten years later, under I.ouis X., to recall them ; and they were allowed to enforce payment of the debts due to them, on condition that two-thirds of the whole should be given up to the King. The semi-religious dis- orders, known as the rising of the shepherds. which broke out in Languedoc and the central regions of France ( 1321 ) . were signalized by hor- rible massacres of the .Jews. (See P..stoeels. ) In the following year the plague broke out. and the wildest crimes were laid to their charge. They were held responsible, likewise, for the Black Death which appeared in 1348. In whole provinces every .Jew was burned. At Chinon a deep ditch was dug, an enormous pile raised, and 160 of both sexes burned together. Yet Chris- tianity never produced more resolute martyrs than these .Jews, who met their tortures chant- ing hymns of rejoicing. Finally, September 17, 1394. they were indefinitely banished from Cen- tral France. The first appearance of the .Jews as traders in England dates from the period of the Saxons. They are mentioned in the ecclesiastical constitu- tions of Egbert, Archbishop of York. 740. The first real settlement was made under William the Conqueror, who. with his son. William Rufus. fa- vored them ; the latter, on the occasion of a public debate between them and the Christians, even swore with humorous profanity that if the rab- bins beat the bishops, "bv the face of Saint Luke' he would turn a .Jew himself. The same reckless monarch carried his contempt for the religious institutions of his kingdom so far that he actually fanT:ed out the vacant bishoprics to the .Jews ; and at Oxford, even then a seat of learn- ing, it has been surmised that they possessed three halls — Lombard Hall, Moses Hall, and Jacob Hall — where Hebrew was taught to Chris- tians as well as to the youths of their own persuasion. As they grew in wealth they grew in unpopularity. On the day of the coronation of Richard the Lion-Hearted (1189) some for- eign Jews being perceived to be witnesses of the spectacle, from which their nation had been strictly excluded, a popular commotion against them broke out in London ; their houses were pillaged and burned. Sir Richard Glanville, the Chief .Justice of the realm, acting under the or- ders of the indignant King, partially succeeded in arresting the havoc, and even in bringing some of the mob to justice (three were hanged). Similar scenes were witnessed at Norwich. Ed- mundsbury, Stamford, and York; in the last of these towns most of the Jews preferred voluntary martyrdom in the synagogue to forced baptism. When Richard returned from Palestine, though they were still treated with great rigor, their lives and wealth were protected for a considera- tion. .John at first covered them with honor; but the popular and priestly hatred only became the stronger, and the vacillating King turned on his proteges, after they had accumulated wealth, and imprisoned, maltreated, and plundered them in all parts of the country. Under Henry III., ac- cused of clipping the coin of the realm, they had as a penalty to pay the royal exchequer ( 1230) a third of their movable property. The unfounded stories of the crucifixion of the Christian boys. William of Norwich (1144) and Hugh of Lin- coln (12.55), roused the populace against the .Jews. Some efforts were made to induce them to give up their profession of usury, as was also done in France and elsewhere during the same period ; but they were so heavily taxed bv the goveiTunents of Christendom, and at the same lime so completely debarred from almost every occupation, that they could find no other means of subsistence. The attempt made by the Domi- nican friars to convert them failed utterly; and in 1253 the .Jews — no longer able to with- stand the constant hardships to which they were subjected in person and property — begged of their own accord to be allowed to leave the country. Richard of Cornwall, however, per- suaded them to stay. Ultimately, under Edward I., in 1290, they were driven from England, pur- sued by the execrations of the infuriated rabble, and leaving in the hands of the King all their property, debts, obligations, and mortgages. They emigrated for the most part to France and Ger- many, though it has been shown that some re- mained behind and managed to conceal themselves from the authorities. The number of Jews in England at the time of the expulsion is estimated at about 16.000. In Germany they were looked upon as the special property of the sovereign, who bought and sold them, and they were designated his Kamnirrknechte ('chamber-servants'). About (he eighth century they were found in all the Rhenish towns. In the tenth centuri- they were in Saxony and Bohemia ; in the eleventh, in Swabia. Franconia. and Vienna; and in the twelfth, in Brandenburg and Silesia. The same sort of treatment befell them in the Empire as elsewhere; they had to pay all manner of taxes, and to present gifts, to mollify the avarice or supply the necessities of emperors, princes, and barons. Only here and there did they possess
