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diff --git a/78599-0.txt b/78599-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6fe4278 --- /dev/null +++ b/78599-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3079 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78599 *** + + + + + Arnold Prize Essay, 1894. + + THE EXPULSION OF THE + JEWS FROM ENGLAND IN 1290 + + BY + + B. L. ABRAHAMS + + _Formerly Scholar of Balliol College._ + + Oxford + + B. H. BLACKWELL 50 AND 51, BROAD STREET + + London + + SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO. + + M DCCC XCV + + + + + LONDON: + PRINTED BY WERTHEIMER, LEA & CO. + CIRCUS PLACE, LONDON WALL. + + + + +This Essay, to which the Arnold Prize in the University of Oxford +was awarded in 1894, has appeared in the _Jewish Quarterly Review_ +for October, 1894, and January and April, 1895. I am indebted to the +Editors of the _Review_ for permission to republish it. + +I wish to express my obligations to _Bibliotheca Anglo-Judaica: a +Bibliographical Guide to Anglo-Jewish History_, compiled by Messrs. +JOSEPH JACOBS and LUCIEN WOLF, and to _The Jews of Angevin England_, +by Mr. JOSEPH JACOBS. Nearly all the passages bearing on Anglo-Jewish +history, down to 1206, are contained in the latter book, and many of +the references in the earlier part of my essay might have been made +to its pages. I thought it better, however, to refer direct to the +original authorities, and have, as a rule, mentioned Mr. Jacobs’ book +only when using passages in it which have been nowhere else printed. + +Some articles which I have contributed to Mr. R. H. I. PALGRAVE’S +_Dictionary of Political Economy_, to the First Volume of the +_Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England_, and to the +_Jewish Chronicle_ for April 26th, 1895, contain information bearing on +the subject of this Essay. + + + + + THE EXPULSION OF THE JEWS FROM ENGLAND IN 1290. + + +The expulsion of the Jews from England by Edward I. is a measure +concerning the causes of which no contemporary historian gives, or +pretends to give, any but the most meagre information. It was passed +by the King in his “secret council,” of the proceedings of which +we naturally know nothing. Of the occasion that suggested it, each +separate writer has his own account, and none has a claim to higher +authority than the rest; and yet there is much in the circumstances +connected with it that calls for explanation. How was it that, at a +time when trade and the need for capital were growing, the Jews, who +were reputed to be among the great capitalists of Europe, were expelled +from England? How did Edward, a king who was in debt from the moment +he began his reign till the end, bring himself to give up the revenue +that his father and grandfather had derived from the Jews? How could +he, as an honourable king, drive out subjects who were protected by +a Charter that one of his predecessors had granted, and another had +solemnly confirmed? To answer these questions we must consider what +was the position that the Jews occupied in England, how it was forced +on them, and how it brought them into antagonism at various times with +the interests of the several orders of the English people, and with +the teachings of the Catholic Church. We shall thus find the origin +of forces strong enough when they converged to bring about the result +which is to be accounted for. + + + I.--THE JEWS FROM THEIR ARRIVAL TO 1190. + +Among the foreigners who flocked to England at, or soon after, the +Conquest were many families of French Jews. They brought with them +money, but no skill in any occupation except that of lending it out +at interest. They lent to the King, when the ferm of his counties, or +his feudal dues were late in coming in;[1] to the barons, who, though +lands and estates had been showered on them, nevertheless often found +it hard, without doubt, to procure ready money wherewith to pay for +luxuries, or to meet the expense of military service; and to suitors +who had to follow the King’s Court from one great town to another, or +to plead before the Papal Curia at Rome.[2] + +But though they thus came into contact with many classes, and had +kindly relations with some, they remained far more alien to the masses +of the people around them than even the Normans, in whose train they +had come to England. Even the Norman baron must, a hundred years after +the Conquest, have become something of an Englishman. He held an +estate, of which the tenants were English; he presided over a court +attended by English suitors. In battle he led his English retainers. He +and the Englishman worshipped in the same church, and in it the sons +of the two might serve as priests side by side. But the Jews remained, +during the whole time of their sojourn in England, sharply separated +from, at any rate, the common people around them by peculiarities of +speech, habits and daily life, such as must have aroused dread and +hatred in an ignorant and superstitious age. Their foreign faces alone +would have been enough to mark them out. Moreover, they generally +occupied, not under compulsion, but of their own choice, a separate +quarter of each town in which they dwelt.[3] And in their isolation +they lived a life unlike that of any other class. None of them were +feudal landowners, none farmers, none villeins, none members of the +guilds. They did not join in the national Watch and Ward. They alone +were forbidden to keep the mail and hauberk which the rest of the +nation was bound to have at hand to help in preserving the peace.[4] +They were not enrolled in the Frank-pledge, that society that brought +neighbours together and taught them to be interested in the doings +of one another by making them responsible for one another’s honesty. +They did not appear at the Court Leet or the Court Baron, at the +Town-moot or the Shire-moot. They went to no church on Sundays, they +took no sacrament; they showed no signs of reverence to the crucifix; +but, instead, they went on Friday evening and Saturday morning to a +synagogue of their own, where they read a service in a foreign tongue, +or sang it to strange Oriental melodies. When they died they were +buried in special cemeteries, where Jews alone were laid.[5] At home +their very food was different from that of Christians. They would not +eat of a meal prepared by a Christian cook in a Christian house. They +would not use the same milk, the same wine, the same meat as their +neighbours. For them cattle had to be killed with special rites; and, +what was worse, it sometimes happened that, some minute detail having +been imperfectly performed, they rejected meat as unfit for themselves, +but considered it good enough to be offered for sale to their Christian +neighbours.[6] The presence of Christian servants and nurses in their +households made it impossible that any of their peculiarities should +remain unobserved or generally unknown.[7] + +Thus, living as semi-aliens, growing rich as usurers, and observing +strange customs, they occupied in the twelfth century a position that +was fraught with danger. But, almost from their first arrival in the +country, they had enjoyed a kind of informal Royal protection,[8] +though, as to the nature of their relations with the King during the +first hundred and thirty years of their residence, very little is +known. It was probably less close than it afterwards became, for the +liability to attack and the need for protection had not yet manifested +themselves. + +But, at the end of the eleventh century, there began to spread +throughout Europe a movement which, when it reached England, converted +the vague popular dislike of the Jews into an active and violent +hostility. While the Norman conquerors were still occupied in settling +down in England, the King organising his realm, and the barons +enjoying, dissipating, or forfeiting their newly-won estates, popes and +priests and monks had been preaching the Crusade to the other nations +of civilised Europe. At one of the greatest and most imposing of all +the Church Councils that were ever held, where were present lay nobles +and clerics of all nations, attending each as his own master, and able +to act on the impulse of the moment, Urban II., in 1095, told the +tale of the wrong that Christians had to suffer at the hands of the +enemies of Christ. He told his hearers how the Eastern people, a people +estranged from God, had laid waste the land of the Christians with fire +and sword; had destroyed churches, or misused them for their own rites; +had circumcised Christians, poured their blood on altars and fonts, +scourged and impaled men, and dishonoured women.[9] Such denunciations, +followed by the appeal to all present to help Jerusalem, which was +“ruled by enemies, enslaved by the godless, and calling aloud to be +freed,” excited, for the first time in Europe, a furious and fanatical +hatred of Eastern and non-Christian races. The Jews were such a race, +as well as the Saracens, and between the two the Crusaders scarcely +distinguished. Before they left home and fortune to fight God’s enemies +abroad, it was natural that they should kill or convert those whom they +met nearer home. Through all central Europe, from France to Hungary, +the bands that gathered together to make their way to the Holy Land +fell on the Jews and offered them the choice between the sword and the +font.[10] + +The disasters that followed the first Crusade brought with them +an increase in the ferocity of the attacks to which the Jews of +Continental Europe were subjected, and S. Bernard, when he preached +the second Crusade, found that he had revived a spirit of fanaticism +that he was powerless to quell. He had wished for the reconquest of +the Holy Land as a result that would bring honour to the Christian +religion; but his followers and imitators thought less of the end than +of the bloodshed that was to be the means. A monk, “who skilfully +imitated the austerity of religion, but had no immoderate amount of +learning,”[11] went through the Rhineland preaching that all Jews +who were found by the Crusaders should be killed as enemies of the +Christian faith. It was in vain that Bernard appealed to the Christian +nations whom his eloquence had aroused, in the hope that “the zeal of +God which burnt in them would not fail altogether to be tempered with +knowledge.” He himself narrowly escaped attack: and the Jews suffered +from the second Crusade as they had suffered from the first.[12] + +England was so closely related to the Churches of the Continent that +it could not fail to be affected by the great movement. But the first +Crusade was preached when the Conquest was still recent, and the +Normans had no leisure to leave their new country; the second, during +the last period of anarchy in the reign of Stephen. + +Thus there were, during the first hundred years after the Council of +Clermont, few English Crusaders. Yet the Crusading spirit, working +in a superstitious mediæval population, called forth a danger that +was destined to be as fatal to the English Jews as were the massacres +to their brethren on the Continent. The Pope who preached the first +Crusade had told his hearers that Eastern nations were in the habit of +circumcising Christians and using their blood in such a way as to show +their contempt for the Christian religion. This charge was naturally +extended to the Jews as well. What alterations it underwent in its +circulation it is hard to say; but in 1146, a tale was spread among +the populace of Norwich, and encouraged by the bishop, that the Jews +had killed a boy named William, to use his blood for the ritual of +that most suspicious feast, their Passover. The story was supported by +no evidence more trustworthy than that of an apostate Jew, which was +so worthless that the Sheriff refused to allow the Jews to appear in +the Bishop’s Court to answer the charge brought against them, and took +them under his protection. But the popular suspicion of the Jews lent +credibility to the story, and so terrible a feeling was aroused that +many of the Jews of Norwich dispersed into other lands, and of those +who remained many were killed by the people in spite of the protection +of the Sheriff.[13] The accusation once made naturally recurred, first +at Gloucester, in 1168, and then at Bury St. Edmund’s, in 1181. “The +Martyrs” were regularly buried in the nearest church or religious +house, and the miracles that they all worked would alone have been +enough to continually renew the belief in the terrible story.[14] + +Under the firm reign of Henry II., anti-Jewish feeling found no further +expression in act. The King, like his predecessors, gave and secured +to the Jews special privileges so great as to arouse the envy of their +neighbours. They were allowed to settle their own disputes in their own +_Beth Din_, or Ecclesiastical Court, and in so far to enjoy a privilege +that was granted only under strict limitations to the Christian +Church.[15] They were placed, apparently, under the special protection +of the royal officers of each district.[16] They lived in safety, and +they made considerable contributions to the Royal Exchequer. + +The death of Henry II. and the accession of Richard I., the first +English Crusading King, brought trouble, as was but natural, to the +rich and royally favoured infidels of the land where the blood +accusation had its birth. The interregnum between the death of one +King and the proclamation of the “peace” of his successor was always +a time of danger and lawlessness during the first two centuries after +the Conquest, and the growth of the crusading spirit, and of the +popular belief in the truth of the blood accusation, caused all the +forces of disorder to work in one direction, viz., against the Jews. +The day of Richard’s coronation was the first opportunity for a great +exhibition of the anti-Jewish fanaticism of the populace. The nobles +from all parts of the country brought with them to London large trains +of servants and attendants, who were left to occupy themselves as +best they might in the streets, while their lords were present at the +ceremony. The Jews, who had been refused permission to enter the Abbey, +took up a prominent position outside. Their appearance exasperated the +crowd, and in the mediæval world a crowd was irresistible. While the +service was proceeding, the Jews were fiercely attacked by the “wild +serving men” of the nobles and the lower orders of citizens. One at +least was compelled to accept baptism to save himself from death. Later +in the same day, when the King and magnates were banqueting in the +palace, the attack on the Jews was renewed. The strong houses of the +Jewry were besieged and fired, and the inhabitants were massacred. But +soon “avarice got the better of cruelty,” and in spite of the efforts +of the King’s officers the city was given up to plunder and rapine.[17] + +Though the King was bitterly angry at what had happened, the first +attempt at punishment showed him how powerless he was against the +forces hostile to the Jews. Had the offenders been nobles or prominent +citizens, he could, when the first irresistible disorder had subsided, +have taken vengeance at his leisure. But what could he do against a +collection of serving-men and poor citizens, whom no one knew, who had +come together and had separated in one day? When he departed for the +Crusades, he left behind him all the materials for more outbreaks of +the same kind. In the more populous towns Crusaders were continually +gathering together in order to set out for the Holy Land in company: +and they, aided by the lower citizens, clerics, and poor countrymen, +and in some cases by ruined landholders, fell on and killed the Jews +wherever they had settlements in England, at Norwich, York, Bury St. +Edmunds, Lynn, Lincoln, Colchester, and Stamford.[18] Again the Royal +officers were unable to touch the offenders. When the Chancellor +arrived with an army at York, the scene of the most horrible of all +the massacres, he found that the murderers were Crusaders, who had +long embarked for the Holy Land, peasants and poor townsmen who had +retired from the neighbourhood, and some bankrupt nobles, who had +fled to Scotland. The citizens humbly represented that they were +not responsible for the outrage and were too weak to prevent it. No +punishment was possible except the infliction of a few fines, and the +Chancellor marched back with his army to London.[19] + +It was clear that the King must strengthen his connection with the +Jews. He could not afford to lose them or to leave them continually +liable to plunder. They were too rich. In 1187, when Henry II. had +wanted to raise a great sum from all his people he had got nearly as +much from the Jews as from his Christian subjects. From the former he +got a fourth of their property, £60,000, from the latter a tenth, or +£70,000.[20] It is of course improbable that, as these figures would +at first seem to show, the Jews held a quarter of the wealth of the +kingdom, but they were as useful to the King as if they had. He had +a far greater power over their resources than over those of his other +subjects; their wealth was in moveable property, and what was still +more important, it was concentrated in few hands. It was easily found +and easily taken away.[21] + + + II.--THE CONSTITUTION OF THE JEWRY. + +Richard’s policy, or his councillors’, was simple. On the one hand, in +order to encourage rich Jews to continue to make England their home, +he issued a charter of protection, in which he guaranteed to certain +Jews,[22] and perhaps to all who were wealthy, the privileges that +they had enjoyed under his father and great-grandfather. They were to +hold land as they had hitherto done; their heirs were to succeed to +their money debts; they were to be allowed to go wherever they pleased +throughout the country, and to be free of all tolls and dues. On the +other hand he asserted and enforced his rights over them and their +property by organising a complete supervision of all their business +transactions. In 1194 he issued a code of regulations, in which he +ordered that a register of all that belonged to them should be kept for +the information of the treasury. All their deeds were to be executed +in one of the six or seven places where there were establishments of +Jewish and Christian clerks especially appointed to witness them; they +were to be entered on an official list, and a half of each was to be +deposited in a public chest under the control of royal officers.[23] +No Jew was to plead before any court but that of the King’s officers, +and special Justices were appointed to hear cases in which Jews were +concerned, and to exercise a general control over their business.[24] + +These arrangements underwent various modifications under Richard’s +successors. The privileges which had at first been granted to certain +Jews by name were extended by John to the whole community[25]; and the +royal hold over them was tightened by an edict, issued in 1219, which +ordered the Wardens of the Cinque Ports to prevent any Jews who lived +in England from leaving the country.[26] + +This elaborate constitution did not indeed afford complete security +against a repetition of the massacres of 1189 and 1190, but its +existence was a more solemn and official recognition than had been +given before of the fact that the King was the sole lord and protector +of the Jews, and that he would regard an injury done to them as an +injury to himself. And thus it went far to secure to him his revenue +and to them their safety. From this time forward, the Jews yielded to +the king, not simply irregular contributions, such as the £60,000 they +had paid to Henry II., and the sums they had paid to Longchamp towards +the expenses of Richard’s Crusade,[27] but a steady and regular income. +They paid tallages, heavy reliefs on succeeding to property, and a +besant in the pound, or ten per cent., on their loan transactions; they +were liable to escheats, confiscation of land and debts, and fines and +amercements of all kinds.[28] Their average annual contribution to the +Treasury, during the latter part of the twelfth century, was probably +about a twelfth of the whole Royal revenue,[29] and of the greater part +of what they owed the realisation was nearly certain. Other debtors +might find in delay, or resistance, or legal formalities, a way of +avoiding payment. But the King had the Jews in his own hands. He could +order the sheriffs of the county to distrain on defaulters, and there +was no one between the sheriffs and the Jews.[30] He could despoil +them of lands and debts. He could imprison them in the royal castles. +In the reign of John, all the Jews and Jewesses of England were thrown +into prison by his command, and are said to have been reduced to such +poverty that they begged from door to door, and prowled about the city +like dogs.[31] The only way they had of removing any of their property +from his reach was by burying it. Whereupon the King, if he suspected +that a Jew had more treasure than was apparent, might order him to have +a tooth drawn every day until he paid enough to purchase pardon.[32] + +Powerless as the Jews were against royal oppression in England, the +position that was offered to them by Richard and John was no worse +than that of their co-religionists in other countries of Europe. Those +of Germany were the Emperor’s _Kammerknechte_;[33] those of France +had been expelled in 1182, and though they were soon recalled, might +at any time be expelled again.[34] A Jew in a feudalised country was +liable to be the subject of quarrel between the lord on whose estate +he dwelt and the king of the country, and he could be handed about, +now to the one and now to the other.[35] The right to live and to be +under jurisdiction, was everywhere still a local privilege that had to +be enjoyed by the permission of a lord, lay or clerical, and had to +be paid for. In England, the Jews, so long as they were protected by +the King, were at any rate under the greatest lord in the land. The +towns where especially they wished to settle for the purposes of their +business, were, thanks to the policy of William the Conqueror, mostly +on the royal domain. And the royal power acting through its local +officers was used to the full to protect the Jews. The sheriffs of the +counties were especially charged to secure to them personal safety and +the enjoyment of the immunities that had been granted to them.[36] + +The arrangement by which Jewish money-lenders received on English +soil the protection of the King against his own subjects was not very +honourable to either of the parties. But the King had no compunction, +and the Jews had no choice. It could endure so long as the royal power +was strong enough to override the objections of barons and abbots to a +measure in favour of their creditors, of the towns to an encroachment +on their privileges, and of the Church to the royal support of a body +of infidel usurers. + +At the end of the twelfth century neither towns nor landholders nor +Church were in a position to offer any effectual protest. In the +thirteenth century the strength of the opposition of each of these +three orders grew steadily. But in each it pursued a separate course, +though to the same end, and each order struck its decisive blow at +a different moment. Hence the various forms of opposition must be +separately considered. + + + III.--THE CONFLICT WITH THE TOWNS. + +The towns were the first to carry out a practical and effective +anti-Jewish policy. It was they that suffered most keenly and +constantly from the presence of the Jews. They had bought, at great +expense, from King or noble or abbot, the right to be independent, +self-governing communities, living under the jurisdiction of their own +officers, free from the visits of the royal sheriffs, and paying a +fixed sum in commutation of all dues to the King or the local lord; +and yet many of them saw the King protecting in their midst a band +of foreigners, who had the royal permission to go whithersoever they +pleased, who could dwell among the burgesses, and were yet free not +only from all customs and dues and contribution to the ferm,[37] but +even from the jurisdiction of those authorities which were responsible +for peace and good government.[38] This was exasperating enough; but +there was more and worse. The exclusion of the sheriff and the King’s +constables was one of the most cherished privileges of towns, but, +wherever the Jews had once taken up their residence, it was in danger +of being a mere pretence. At Colchester, if a Jew was unable to recover +his debts, he could call in the King’s sheriffs to help him. In London, +Jews were “warrantised” from the exchequer, and the constable of the +Tower had a special jurisdiction by which he kept the pleas between +Jews and Christians. At Nottingham, complaints against Jews, even in +cases of petty assaults, were heard before the keeper of the Castle. +At Oxford the constable called in question the Chancellor’s authority +over the Jews; contending that they did not form part of the ordinary +town-community.[39] Moreover, the debts of the Jews were continually +falling into the King’s hands, and whenever this happened, his officers +would no doubt penetrate into the town to make on behalf of the royal +treasury a collection such as had never been contemplated when the +burgesses made their agreement, which was to settle once and for all +their payment to the King.[40] + +In some of the towns the feeling against the Jews was expressed in +riots as early as the reign of John, and the beginning of that of Henry +III. But the King in each case took stern measures of repression. John +told the mayor and barons of London that he should require the blood +of the Jews at their hands if any ill befell them.[41] In Gloucester +and in Hereford, the burgesses of the town were made responsible for +the safety of the Jews dwelling amongst them. In Worcester, York, +Lincoln, Stamford, Bristol, Northampton, and Winchester, the sheriffs +were charged with the duty of protecting them against injury.[42] Such +measures only increased the ill-feeling of the burgesses. At Norwich in +1234 the Jewry was fired and looted.[43] The Jews were maltreated and +beaten, and were only saved from further harm by the timely help of the +garrison of the neighbouring castle. At Oxford the scholars attacked +the Jewry and carried off “innumerable goods.”[44] + +But the towns soon began to use a far more effective method than +rioting in order to rid themselves of the Jews. Just as they had found +it worth while to pay heavily for their municipal charters, so now +they were willing to pay more for a measure which would secure them +in the future against a drain on their revenues and a violation of +their privileges. Whether a town held its charter from the King, or +was still dependent on an intermediate lord, the motive was equally +strong. An abbot or a baron would be glad to second the efforts made by +the inhabitants of one of his vills to expel a portion of the populace +which took much from the resources whence his revenue came and added +nothing to them.[45] The abbot of Bury St. Edmund’s induced the King to +expel the Jews from the town in 1190.[46] The burgesses of Leicester +obtained a similar grant from Simon de Montfort in 1231, those of +Newcastle in 1234, of Wycombe in 1235, of Southampton in 1236, of +Berkhampsted in 1242, of Newbury in 1244, of Derby in 1263; at Norwich +the citizens complained to the King, but without any result, of the +harm that they suffered through the growth of the Jewish community +settled in the city.[47] In 1245 a decree in general terms was issued +by Henry III., prohibiting all Jews, except those to whom the King had +granted a special personal license, from remaining in any town other +than those in which their co-religionists had hitherto been accustomed +to live.[48] This series of measures did not simply deprive the Jews in +England of a right which had been solemnly granted them and which they +had long enjoyed. It went much further. For, by circumscribing the +area in which they could carry on their business, and so diminishing +their opportunities of acquiring wealth, it threatened their very +existence in a land where their wealth alone secured them protection. + + + IV.--THE CONFLICT WITH THE BARONS. + +At the same time that the towns were making their attack on the Jews +in their own way, there was growing up within the baronial order a +new party, stronger than the towns in the elements of which it was +composed and in its capacity for joint action, and filled, on account +of the private circumstances of its members, with a deeper hatred of +the Jews than the greater barons, who had hitherto represented the +order, had ever known. For the old Baronial party which had forced +Magna Carta on John was too rich to be seriously indebted to the Jews, +and the anti-Jewish feeling of its members must have been blunted by +the fact that, when they had to pay their debts, they could raise the +money by benevolences levied on their tenants.[49] Moreover some of +them imitated on their own estates the King’s policy of sharing in the +profits of usury.[50] Hence they were little influenced by personal +grievances, and it was no doubt partly from political considerations, +and partly as a concession to the lesser and poorer members of their +order, that they had introduced into Magna Carta certain limitations +of the power of the Jews, or of their legatee, the King, over the +estates of debtors, a measure which, small as it was, was repealed +on the re-issues of the charters, when, during the minority of Henry +III., the great Barons had to undertake the duty of Government. And yet +even the great Barons must have felt, after twenty years’ experience +of the personal Government of Henry III., that an alteration in the +Royal system of managing the Jewry was necessary if their order was +ever to succeed in the constitutional struggle in which it was engaged. +They knew that many of those among the King’s acts which they hated +worst would have been impossible but for the Jews. It was by money +extorted from them that he had been enabled to prolong his expeditions +in Brittany and Gascony, to support and enrich his foreign favourites, +and to baffle the attempts of the Council to secure, by the refusal of +supplies, the restoration of Government through the customary officers. +In 1230, and again in 1239, he took from them a third of their +property; in 1244, he levied a tallage of 60,000 marks; in 1250, 1252, +1254, and 1255 he ordered the royal officers to take from them all that +they could exact, after thorough inquisition and the employment of +measures of compulsion so cruel as to make the whole body of Jews in +England ask twice, though each time in vain, for permission to leave +the country. Thus the whole Baronial order was for a time united, on +the ground of constitutional grievances, in a policy which found its +expression in the successful attempt of the National Council in 1244 +to exact from the King the right of appointing one of the two justices +of the Jews, so as to gain a knowledge of the amount of the Jewish +revenue, and a power of controlling its expenditure.[51] + +But such a measure did nothing to relieve the personal grievances +of the lower baronage, and it was naturally from this class that +further complaints proceeded. Its members, unlike the greater barons, +made no profit from the encouragement of usury. On the other hand, +they were among the greatest sufferers from the practice. Many a one +among them must, when summoned to take part in the King’s foreign +expeditions, have been compelled to pledge some land to the Jews in +order to be able to meet the expenses of service; and no doubt the +Jews derived from such transactions a large share of the profits that +enabled them to make their enormous contributions to the exchequer. +A landholder’s debt to a Jew would, when once contracted, have been, +under any circumstances, difficult to pay off. But the lower baronage, +or knight’s bachelors, were threatened, when they had fallen into debt, +with new dangers, the knowledge of which intensified their hatred of +the whole system of money-lending. “We ask,” they said in the petition +of 1259, “a remedy for this evil, to wit, that the Jews sometimes give +their bonds, and the land pledged to them, to the magnates and the +more powerful men of the realm, who thereupon enter on the land of the +lesser men, and although those who owe the debt be willing to pay it +with usury, yet the said magnates put off the business, so that the +land and tenements may in some way remain their property, ... and on +the occasion of death, or any other chance, there is a manifest danger +that those to whom the said tenements belonged may lose all right in +them.”[52] + +The special wrongs of the lower baronage were, in the course of the +Civil War, temporarily lost sight of. Nevertheless, the action of the +whole baronial party throughout the war contributed greatly, though +indirectly, to the ultimate banishment of the Jews from England. +Just as the towns had, by their measures of exclusion, weakened +the mercenary bond that united the Jews to the King, so now the +barons, by their wholesale destruction of Jewish property, worked, as +unconsciously as the towns had done, to the same end. They attacked +and plundered the Jewry of London twice in the course of the war, and +destroyed those of Canterbury, Northampton, Winchester, Cambridge, +Worcester, and Lincoln. Everywhere they carried off or destroyed the +property of their victims. In London they killed every Jew that they +met, except those who accepted baptism, or paid large sums of money. +They took from Cambridge all the Jewish bonds that were kept there, and +deposited them at their head-quarters in Ely. At Lincoln they broke +open the official chests, and “trod underfoot in the lanes, charters +and deeds, and whatever else was injurious to the Christians.”[53] “It +is impossible,” says a chronicler, in describing one of these attacks, +“to estimate the loss it caused to the King’s exchequer.” + + + V.--THE BEGINNING OF EDWARD’S POLICY OF RESTRICTION. + +When the Civil War was over, the position of the King’s son Edward +as, on the one hand, the sworn friend of the lower baronage, and, on +the other hand, the leader of the Council and the most powerful man +in England,[54] made it impossible that the Jews should continue to +carry on their business under the royal protection as they had hitherto +done. And Edward’s personal character and political ideals were such +as to make him execute with vigour the policy towards the Jews that +was forced on him by his relations with the lower baronage. He was a +religious prince, one who could not but feel qualms of conscience at +seeing the “enemies of Christ” carrying on the most unchristian trade +of usury in the chief towns of England. He was a statesman, the future +author of the Statutes of Mortmain and _Quia Emptores_, and he wished +to see the work of the nation performed by the united action of the +nation, and its expenses met by due contributions from all the National +resources. But in so far as the Jews had any hold on English land they +prevented the realisation of this ideal. Sometimes they took possession +of land that was pledged to them, and then the amount of the feudal +revenue and the symmetry of the feudal organisation suffered, though +the King might gain a great deal in other ways;[55] very often they +secured payment in money of their debts by bringing about an agreement +for the transfer to a monastery of the estates that had been pledged +to them as security,[56] and then the land came under the “dead hand”; +sometimes they contented themselves with a perpetual rent-charge,[57] +and then it would be hard, if not impossible, for the struggling debtor +to discharge his feudal obligations.[58] + +The indebtedness of the Church must have shocked Edward’s sympathies +as a Christian, just as much as the indebtedness of the lay +landholders thwarted his schemes as a statesman. For the condition +of ecclesiastical estates was indeed deplorable. They had begun to +fall into debt in the twelfth century, no doubt in consequence of +the expense that was necessary for the erection of great buildings, +and their debts had gone on growing, partly in consequence of bad +management, partly through the necessity of fulfilling the duties of +hospitality by keeping open house continually, partly through the +exactions of the Pope and the King. The Bishop of Lincoln pledged the +plate of his cathedral, the Abbot of Peterborough the bones of the +patron-saint of his Abbey; at Bury St. Edmunds each obedientiary had +his own seal, which he could apply to bonds which involved the whole +house; and loans were freely contracted which accumulated at 50 per +cent.[59] Hence in the thirteenth century Matthew Paris wrote that +“there was scarcely anyone in England, especially a bishop, who was +not caught in the meshes of the usurers.”[60] “Wise men knew that +the land was corrupted by them.”[61] The literary documents of the +latter half of the century fully confirm these accounts. The See of +Canterbury was weighed down with an ever-growing load of debt when +John of Peckham first went to it.[62] The buildings of the cathedral +were becoming dilapidated for want of money to repair them.[63] +Those of the neighbouring Priory of Christ Church were in an equally +bad state, and its revenue was equally encumbered.[64] The bishop +of Norwich was so poor that in spite of the extortions regularly +practised by his officials, he had to borrow six hundred marks from +the Archbishop of Canterbury.[65] The Bishop of Hereford had been +compelled to seek the intervention of Henry III., in order to obtain +respite of his debts to the Jews.[66] The Abbey of Glastonbury was +weighed down by “immeasurable debts,” and, in order to save it from +further calamities, the Archbishop had to order a reorganisation of +expenditure so thorough as to include regulations concerning the number +of dishes with which the abbot might be served in his private room.[67] +The Prior of Lewes asked permission to turn one of his churches from +its right use, and to let it for five years to any one who would hire +it, in order that he might thus get together some money to help to pay +off what the priory owed.[68] The Church of Newnton could not afford +clergymen.[69] Even the great Monastery of St. Swithin’s, Winchester, +in spite of the revenue that its monks drew from the sale of wine and +fur and spiceries, and from the tolls paid by the traders who attended +its great annual fair, was always in debt, sometimes to the amount of +several thousand pounds.[70] Except in the cutting down of timber and +the granting of life annuities in return for the payment of a lump sum, +the religious houses had no resources except the money-lenders.[71] +They borrowed from English usurers, from Italians, from Jews, and from +one another.[72] + +If the lay and ecclesiastical estates of England were to be freed from +their burdens, heroic measures were necessary. The barons had done +their part in the work by carrying off or destroying such bonds as they +could find. But the financial revolution, to be effective, must be +carried out by due process of law. + +When, on the restoration of tranquillity, the Council under Edward’s +influence began its attempt to redress the grievances against which the +barons had been fighting, the first measure in the programme of reform +was one for the relief of the debtors of the Jews. Any interference +with Jewish business would, of course, entail a loss to the Royal +Exchequer, and, honest and patriotic as Edward was, his poverty was so +great that he could not afford to sacrifice any of his resources. But +the exhausting demands that the King had made on the Jews in the time +of his difficulties, and the terrible destruction of their property +that had taken place during the war, must have so far diminished the +revenue to be derived from the Jews as to make the possible loss of it +a far less serious consideration than it would have been twenty years +earlier. Accordingly, at the feast of St. Hilary in 1269, a measure, +drawn up by Walter of Merton, was passed, forbidding for the future the +alienation of land to Jews in consequence of loan transactions. All +existing bonds by which land might pass into the hands of Jews were +declared cancelled; the attempt to evade the law by selling them to +Christians was made punishable with death and forfeiture; and none to +such effect was to be executed in future.[73] + +But this was only a slight measure compared with what was to follow. +The Jews might still acquire land by purchase, and needy lords and +churches, when forbidden to pledge their lands, were very likely, +under the pressure of necessity, to sell them outright. Already the +Jews were “seised” of many estates,[74] and, according to the story of +an ancient historian,[75] they chose this moment to ask the King to +grant them the enjoyment of the privileges that regularly accompanied +the possession of land, viz., the guardianship of minors on their +estates, the right to give wards in marriage, and the presentation +to livings. Feudal law recognised the two former privileges, and the +Church recognised the latter,[76] as incidental to the possession of +real property. It was strange, however, that the Jews should present +a demand for new social privileges of this kind to a council that had +already shown its determination to deprive them of their old legal +rights; and it was only natural that the churchmen should take the +opportunity of denouncing their “impious insolence.” Certain of the +councillors were at first in favour of granting the Jews’ request; but +a Franciscan friar, who obtained admittance to the Council, pleaded +that it would be a disgrace to Christianity, and a dishonour to God. +The Archbishop of York, and the Bishops of Lichfield, Coventry, and +Worcester were present, and argued that the “perfidious Jews” ought to +be made to recognise that it was as an act of the King’s grace that +they were allowed to remain in England, and that it was outrageous +that they should make a demand, the granting of which would allow +them to nominate the ministers of Christian churches, to receive the +homage of Christians, to sit side by side with them on juries, assizes +and recognitions, and perhaps ultimately to come into possession of +English baronies. Edward and his equally religious cousin, the son of +Richard, King of the Romans, were present at the council to support the +argument of the Bishops,[77] and not only were the original requests +refused, but the Jews were now forbidden by the act of the King and his +Council to enjoy a freehold in “manors, lands, tenements, fiefs, rents, +or tenures of any kind,” whether held by bond, gift, enfeoffment, +confirmation, or any other grant, or by any other means whatever. They +were forbidden to receive any longer the rent-charges which had been +a common form of security for their loans. Lands of which they were +already possessed were to be redeemed by the Christian owners, or in +default of them, by other Christians, on repayment without interest of +the principal of the loan in consequence of which they had come into +the hands of the Jews. In the interest of parochial revenues, Jews were +forbidden to acquire houses in London in addition to those which they +already possessed.[78] + + + VI.--THE PROHIBITION OF USURY. + +Very soon after the passing of the Statute of 1270, Edward left England +to join the second Crusade of St. Louis, and did not return till +1274, two years after he had been proclaimed king. At once he took up +with characteristic vigour, and with the help and advice of a band of +statesmen and lawyers, the work of administrative reform that he had +already begun as heir-apparent. He recognised that the state of affairs +established in 1270 could not endure, since, under it, the Jews, while +practically prevented from lending money at interest, now that the +law forbade them to take in pledge real property, the only possible +security for large loans, were nevertheless still nothing but usurers, +allowed by ancient custom and royal recognition to carry on that one +pursuit as best they could, and prevented by the same forces from +carrying on any other. Edward, with his usual love for “the definition +of duties and the spheres of duty,”[79] felt that it was necessary to +define for the Jews a new position, which should not, as did their +present position, condemn them to hopeless struggles, nor demand from +him acquiescence in what he believed to be a sin. + +For the Church had never ceased to maintain the doctrine of the +sinfulness of usury which Ambrose and Clement, Jerome and Tertullian, +had taught in strict conformity with the communistic ideas of primitive +Christianity. It is true that till the eleventh century usury and +speculative trading generally had not been active enough to call for +repression, nor would the Church have been strong enough to enforce on +the Christian world the observance of its doctrine. It could not follow +up the attempt made by the Capitularies of Charles the Great to prevent +laymen from practising usury, and it had to rest content with enforcing +the prohibition on clerics.[80] But the growth under Hildebrand of +the power of the Church over every-day life, and the elevation of the +moral tone of its teaching that resulted from its struggles with the +temporal power, enabled it to adopt with increasing effect measures +of greater severity. Hildebrand, in 1083, decreed that usurers +should, like perjurers, thieves, and wife-deserters, be punished with +excommunication;[81] and the Lateran General Council of 1139, when +exhorted by Innocent II. to shrink from no legislation as demanding +too high and rigorous a morality, decreed that usurers were to be +excluded from the consolations of the Church, to be infamous all their +lives long, and to be deprived of Christian burial.[82] The religious +feeling aroused by the Crusades still further strengthened the hold on +the Christian world of characteristically Christian theory, while the +prospect of the economic results that they threatened to bring about in +Europe, awoke the Church to the advisability of putting forth all its +power to protect the estates of Crusaders against the money-lenders. +Many Popes of the twelfth century ordained, and St. Bernard approved +of the ordinance[83] that those who took up the Cross should be freed +from all engagements to pay usury into which they might have entered. +Innocent III. absolved Crusaders even from obligations of the kind that +they had incurred under oath, and subsequently ordered that Jews should +be forced, under penalty of exclusion from the society of Christians, +to return to their crusading debtors any interest that they had already +received from them.[84] + +Stronger even than the influence of the Crusades was that of the +Mendicant Orders. The Dominicans, who preached, and the Franciscans, +who “taught and wrought” among all classes of people throughout +Europe, carried with them, as their most cherished lesson, the +doctrine of poverty. It was by the teaching of this doctrine, and +by the practice of the simple unworldly life of the primitive +Church, that the founders of the two orders had been able to give +new strength to the ecclesiastical institutions of the thirteenth +century. And their teaching, if not their practice, made its way from +the Casiuncula to the Vatican. Cardinal Ugolino, the dear friend of +S. Francis, became Gregory IX.; Petrus de Tarentagio, of the order +of the Dominicans, became Innocent IV.; and Girolamo di Ascoli, the +“sun” of the Franciscans, was soon to become Nicholas IV. Moreover, +the work of formulating and publishing to the world the official +doctrines of the Church was in the hands of the Mendicants. A +Dominican, Raymundus de Peñaforte, was entrusted by Gregory IX. with +the preparation of the Decretals, which formed the chief part of the +canon law of the Church.[85] And friars of both orders codified with +indefatigable labour the moral law of Christianity, and set it forth +in hand-books, or _Summæ_, which were universally accepted as guides +for the confessional, and which all agreed in condemning usury.[86] +Hence, the doctrine of its sinfulness was taught throughout Christian +Europe, by priests and monks, by Dominican preachers and Franciscan +confessors, who could enforce their lesson by the use of their power +of granting or refusing absolution. How strong and violent a public +opinion was thus created is best shown in the lines in which Dante, the +contemporary of Edward I., tells with what companions he thought it fit +that the Caursine usurers should dwell in hell.[87] + +There was every reason why the hatred of usury should be as strong in +England as anywhere. The Franciscan movement had spread throughout the +country, and had found among Englishmen many of its chief literary +champions.[88] And the Englishman’s pious dislike of usury had been +strengthened by many years of bitter experience. Italian usurers +had in the previous reign gone up and down the country collecting +money on behalf of the Pope, and lending money on their own account +at exorbitant rates of interest.[89] From some of the magnates they +obtained protection (for which they are said to have paid with a share +of their profits),[90] but to the great body of the Baronage, to the +Church, and to the trading classes their very name had become hateful. +One of them, the brother of the Pope’s Legate, had been killed at +Oxford.[91] In London Bishop Roger had solemnly excommunicated them +all, and excluded them from his diocese.[92] + +No English king who wished to follow the teachings of Christianity +could willingly countenance any of his subjects in carrying on a +traffic which was thus hated by the people and condemned by all the +doctors of Christendom. Even Henry III. was once so far moved by +indignation and religious feeling as to expel the Caursines from his +kingdom,[93] and had religious scruples about the retention of the +Jews.[94] But, as has been shown, he could not do without the Jewish +revenue. Edward was not only free from dependence on that source of +income, but he was also a far more religious king than his father. He +was a man to obey the behests of the Church, instead of setting them at +naught with an easy conscience, as his father had done. In the second +year of his reign the Church, by a decree passed at the Council of +Lyons, demanded from the Christian world far greater efforts against +usury than ever before.[95] Till this time, though Popes and Councils +had declared the practice accursed, churches and monasteries had had +usurers as tenants on their estates, or had even possessed whole +ghettos as their property.[96] Now this was to be ended, and it was +ordained by Gregory X. that no community, corporation, or individual +should permit foreign usurers to hire their houses, or indeed to dwell +at all upon their lands, but should expel them within three months. +Edward, in obedience to this decree, ordered an inquisition to be made +into the usury of the Florentine bankers in his kingdom with a view +to its suppression, and allowed proceedings to be taken at the same +time and with the same object against a citizen of London.[97] And the +events of the last reign enabled him to proceed to what at first seems +the far more serious task of bringing to an end the trade that the Jews +had carried on under the patronage, and for the benefit, of the Royal +Exchequer. + +For the Jews could no longer support the Crown in times of financial +difficulty as they had been able to do in previous reigns. The +contraction of their business that was the result of their exclusion +from many towns, and the losses that they had suffered through the +extortions of Henry III. and the plundering attacks of the barons, +had very greatly diminished their revenue-paying capacities, and the +legislation of 1270 must have affected them still more deeply. At the +end of the twelfth century they had probably paid to the Treasury about +£3,000 a year, or one-twelfth of the whole royal income,[98] and for +some parts of the thirteenth century the average collection of tallage +has been estimated at £5,000;[99] but in 1271--by which time the royal +income had probably grown to something like the £65,000 a year which +the Edwards are said to have enjoyed in time of peace[100]--Henry +III., when pledging to Richard of Cornwall the revenue from the +Jewry, estimated its annual value, apart from what was yielded by +escheats and other special claims, at no more than 2,000 marks.[101] +And while the resources of the Jews had fallen off, the needs of the +Crown had increased. Not only must Edward have conducted his foreign +enterprises at a much greater cost than did his predecessors, under +whom the English knighthood had been accustomed to serve without +serious opposition, but, in addition, he had to make the best of a vast +heritage of debt that his father had left him.[102] He had to seek +richer supporters than the Jews, and such were not wanting. + +The Italian banking companies were the only organisations in Europe +that could supply him with such sums of money as he needed. From all +the greatest cities of Italy--from Florence, Rome, Milan, Pisa, Lucca, +Siena, and Asti--they had spread to many of the chief countries of +Europe, to France, England, Brabant, Switzerland, and Ireland.[103] +They were merchants, money-lenders, money-changers, and international +bankers, and in this last occupation their supremacy over all rivals +was secured by the great advantage which the wide extent of their +dealings enabled them to enjoy, of being able to save, by the use +of letters of credit on their colleagues and countrymen, the cost +of the transport of money from country to country.[104] They were +thus the greatest financial agents of the time. They transacted the +business of the Pope. At the Court of Rome ambassadors had to borrow +from them.[105] In France their position was established by a regular +diplomatic agreement between the head of their corporation and Philip +III.[106] In England they had in their hands the greater part of the +trade in corn and wool;[107] and the protection and favour of English +kings was often besought by the Popes on their behalf in special +bulls.[108] + +Edward began his reign in financial dependence on the Italians. His +father had in the earliest period of his personal government incurred +obligations to them which he himself, as heir apparent, had to increase +considerably at the time of his Crusade.[109] When in later years +he needed money to pay his army, he borrowed it from them; when he +diverted to his own use the tenth that was voted for his intended +second Crusade, they gave security for repayment.[110] So great were +the amounts that they advanced to him, that between 1298 and 1308 the +Friscobaldi Bianchi alone, one of the thirty-four companies that he +employed,[111] received in repayment nearly £100,000.[112] He was +compelled to favour them, although he attempted to stop their usury. He +gave them a charter of privileges.[113] He presented them with large +sums of money. He bestowed on the head of one of their firms high +office in Gascony. At various times he placed under their charge the +collection of the Customs in many of the chief ports in England.[114] + +Edward’s close connection with a body of financiers so rich and +powerful made the Jews unnecessary to him. If he was not to disobey the +decree of the Council of Lyons he must either withdraw his protection +from them or else forbid them any longer to be usurers. To withdraw his +protection from them would be to expose them to the popular hatred, +the danger from which had been the justification of the relations that +had been established between Crown and Jewry after 1190, and still +existed. He chose the second alternative. In 1275 he issued a statute, +in which he absolutely forbade the Jews, as he had just forbidden +Christians,[115] to practise usury in the future. He gave warning +that usurious contracts would no longer be enforced by the king’s +officers, and he declared the making of them to be an offence for which +henceforth both parties were liable to punishment. To ensure that all +those contracts already existing should come to an end as quickly as +possible, he ordered that all movables that were in pledge on account +of loans were to be redeemed before the coming Easter.[116] + + + VII.--EDWARD’S POLICY: THE JEWS AND TRADE. + +Thus the Jews, already shut out from the feudal and municipal +organisation of the country, were forbidden by one act of legislation +to follow the pursuit in which the kings of England had encouraged them +for two hundred years. + +However, for the hardships imposed by the Christian Church there was +an approved Christian remedy. Thomas Aquinas, the greatest authority +on morals in Europe in the thirteenth century, had written: “If rulers +think they harm their souls by taking money from usurers, let them +remember that they are themselves to blame. They ought to see that the +Jews are compelled to labour as they do in some parts of Italy.”[117] +A Christian king, and one whom Edward revered as his old leader in +arms and as a model of piety, had already acted in accordance with +the teaching of Thomas Aquinas. In 1253 St. Louis sent from the Holy +Land an order that all Jews should leave France for ever, except +those who should become traders and workers with their hands.[118] +And now, when Edward was forbidding the Jews of England to practise +usury, he naturally dealt with them in the fashion recommended by the +great teacher of his time and adopted by the saintly king. “The King +also grants,” said the Statute of 1275, “that the Jews may practise +merchandise, or live by their labour, and for those purposes freely +converse with Christians. Excepting that, upon any pretence whatever, +they shall not be levant or couchant amongst them; nor on account +of their merchandise be in scots, lots, or talliage with the other +inhabitants of those cities or boroughs where they remain; seeing they +are talliable to the King as his own serfs, and not otherwise.... And +further the King grants, that such as are unskilful in merchandise, +and cannot labour, may take lands to farm, for any term not exceeding +ten years, provided no homage, fealty, or any such kind of service, or +advowson to Holy Church, be belonging to them. Provided also that this +power to farm lands, shall continue in force for ten years from the +making of this Act, and no longer.”[119] + +The 16,000[120] Jews of England were thus called upon to change at +once their old occupation for a new one, and the task was imposed upon +them under conditions which made it all but impossible of fulfilment. +They were forbidden to become burgesses of towns; and the effect of +the prohibition was to make it impossible for them, in most parts of +England, to become traders, for it practically excluded them from the +Gild Merchant. It is true that some towns professed that their Gild +was open to all the inhabitants, whether burgesses or not, so long +as they took the oath to preserve the liberties of the town and the +king’s peace.[121] But most of the Gilds were exclusive bodies, to +which all non-burgesses would find it hard to gain admission,[122] and +Jewish non-burgesses, though not as a rule kept out by a disqualifying +religious formula,[123] would on account of the unpopularity of their +race and religion, find it trebly hard.[124] As non-Gildsmen, they +would be at a disadvantage both in buying goods and in selling them. +They would find it hard to buy, because, in some towns at any rate, the +Gildsmen were accustomed to “oppress the people coming to the town with +vendible wares, so that no man could sell his wares to anyone except to +a member of the society.”[125] They would find it in all towns hard to +sell, in some impossible. In some towns non-Gildsmen were forbidden to +deal in certain articles of common use, such as wool, hides, grain, +untanned leather, and unfulled cloth; in others, as in Southampton, +they might not buy anything in the town to sell again there, or keep a +wine tavern, or sell cloth by retail except on market day and fair day, +or keep more than five quarters of corn in a granary to sell by retail. +There were even towns where the municipal statutes altogether forbade +non-Gildsmen to keep shops or to sell by retail.[126] + +It was almost as difficult for Jews to become agriculturists or +artisans, as to become traders. They were allowed by the statute to +farm land, but for ten years only, and they were far too ignorant +of agriculture to be able to take advantage of the permission. They +could not work on the land of others as villeins, because, even if a +Christian lord had been willing to receive them, they would have been +prevented by their religion from taking the oath of fealty.[127] + +Only under exceptional conditions could they work at handicrafts. A +Jew who possessed manual dexterity might, as was sometimes done in the +thirteenth century, have worked for himself at a cottage industry, +and might, though the task would have been a hard one, have gained +a connection among Christians, and induced them to trust him with +materials.[128] But many crafts were at the time coming under the +regulations of craft-gilds. Certainly as early as the beginning of +the fourteenth century, there were in London fully-organised gilds of +Lorimers, Weavers, Tapicers, Cap-makers, Saddlers, Joiners, Girdlers, +and Cutlers.[129] In Hereford there were Gilds for nearly thirty +trades.[130] It was probably very often the case, as it was with the +Weavers’ Gild in London, that a craft-gild existing in any town could +forbid the practice of the craft in the town to all who had not been +elected to membership, or earned it by serving the apprenticeship that +the Gild’s statute required.[131] The period required by the Lorimers’ +statute was ten years, by the Weavers’, seven, and in some cases +certainly, and probably in all, the apprenticeship had to be served +under a freeman of the city.[132] The apprentice who had served his +time, was still, in some towns and industries, unable to practise his +craft, unless he became a citizen and entered the frank pledge.[133] +It was difficult for a Jewish boy to become an apprentice, since the +Church threatened to excommunicate any Christian who received into +his house, as an apprentice would naturally be received, a Jew or +Jewess; it was impossible for a Jewish man to become a citizen, for the +king forbade his Jewish “serfs” to be in scot and lot with the other +inhabitants of the cities in which they lived. + +Excluded from the trades and handicrafts of the towns, the Jew might +try other means of earning a livelihood. He might attempt to travel +with wares or with produce, from one part of England to another, or +he might be an importer or an exporter. But wholesale trade of this +kind would be open to those alone who had command of a large capital. +And this was not the only difficulty in the way. If the Jew went +about the country with his goods from fair to fair, or from city to +city, he would do so at very great risk. He would have to travel over +the high roads, the perils of which made necessary the Statute of +Winchester, and are recounted in the words of its preamble, _de jour +en jour roberies, homicides, arsons, plus sovenerement sont fetes que +avaunt ne soleyent_.[134] If he survived the dangers of the road and +reached a fair, he would find there an assemblage made up in part of +“daring persons,” such as those, who, in spite of the orderly traders +and citizens, had caused the massacre at Lynn in 1190,[135] or those +who at Boston killed the merchants and plundered their goods, until +“the streets ran with silver and gold,”[136] or those citizens of +Winchester who, in the reign of Henry III., carried on for a time a +successful conspiracy to rob all itinerant merchants who passed through +the country.[137] With his foreign face and striking badge, he would be +the first mark for the hatred of the riotous crowd. And if he escaped +violence and robbery, he had still to fear the officials of the lord of +the fair, who exercised for the time unlimited and irresponsible power, +and who, according to the regulations of some fairs, could destroy the +goods of any trader if their quality did not please them.[138] When he +had managed to escape from the mob and the officials, his difficulties +were not over. He might make his bargains, but there was no court of +justice to which he could appeal to enforce the completion of any +transaction that required a longer time than that of the duration of +the fair. Redress for any injustice committed at a fair, or for the +failure to carry out an agreement made there, could be obtained only +through application made by the municipality of the complainant to that +of the wrong-doer.[139] The Jew had no municipality to present his +claims. If those with whom he had transactions deceived him, or refused +to pay him, he was helpless. There was no power to which he could +appeal. + +If instead of going to a fair he tried to sell, in a town, produce +from another country or from a different part of England, he was in +a position of even greater difficulty. In a strange town he was as +much an alien as in a strange country, and there was scarcely any +limit to the vexations and sufferings that on that account he would +have to endure. In London, for example, alien merchants were forbidden +to remain in the city for more than forty consecutive days. While +they were there they might not sell anything by retail, nor have any +business dealings at all with any but citizens. There was a long list +of articles that they were altogether forbidden to buy. They might not +stow their goods in houses or cellars; they had to sell within forty +days all that they had brought with them; they were allowed neither to +sell anything after that time, nor to take anything back with them. +They were continually annoyed by the officers of the city.[140] All +these disadvantages the Jew would have to endure to the full while +competing with many powerful organisations which were engaged in +foreign trade, and had, after long struggles, secured from the king +special charters of privilege. Such were the companies of the merchants +of Germany, who had their steelyard in London and their settlements +at Boston and Lynn; the Flemings, who had their Hanse in London; the +Gascons who enjoyed a charter; the Spaniards and Portuguese; the +Florentines, most powerful of all, and the Venetians, whose enterprise +was, at the beginning of the fourteenth century at any rate, carried on +under the auspices of the Republic.[141] + +The last opportunity for the Jews was to take part in the export +of English produce. English wool was the most important article of +international trade in Western Europe. It was brought from monasteries +and landholders chiefly by the rich and powerful companies of Flemish +and Italian merchants, and sent to Flanders and Italy to be woven and +dyed.[142] The Jews had, apparently, long taken some slight part in +wholesale trade,[143] but the amount of capital that it required, and +the power of the rivals who held the field, made it impossible for many +of them to take to it immediately as a substitute for money-lending. +Still it was the only form of enterprise in which they would not be at +a hopeless disadvantage; and some Jews, those probably who had a large +capital and were able to recall it from the borrowers, followed the +example of the Italians, and made to landholders advances of money to +be repaid in corn and wool.[144] + + + VIII.--THE TEMPTATIONS OF THE JEWS. + +But even for those Jews who were rich enough to take part in wholesale +trade, there was still a great temptation to transgress the prohibition +against usury. All the legal machinery that was necessary for the due +execution and validity of agreements between Jews and Christians--the +chest in which the deeds were deposited, and the staffs of officers +by whom they were registered and supervised--were still maintained in +some towns, since they were necessary alike for the recovery, by the +ordinary process, of the old debts (many of which, in spite of the +order for summary repayment in the Statute of 1275, still remained +outstanding)[145] and for the registration of any new agreements that +might be made for the delivery of corn and wool, or for the repayment +of money lent ostensibly without interest. There was no lack of +would-be borrowers to co-operate with the Jews in using this machinery +in order to make agreements on which, in spite of the prohibition of +usury, money might profitably be lent. The demand for loans was great, +far too great to be satisfied, as the Church thought it reasonable +to expect,[146] by money advanced without interest; and owing to the +progress of the change from payment of rents in kind or service to +payment in cash,[147] it was steadily growing. It had been met by the +money of the Italian bankers, of the Jews, of English citizens, and, +as is freely hinted by writers of the time, of great English barons, +who secretly shared in the transactions and the profits of the Jewish +and foreign usurers.[148] The supply had suddenly been checked by the +simultaneous prohibition of all usury whether of Jews or of Christians. +Now a Jew who wished, by collusion with a borrower, to evade the law +against usury, had only to study the methods that had been followed +by the Caursines, and those that were still followed by the Italians +and acquiesced in by the heads of the religious houses with whom +they had dealings. The Caursines, for example, sometimes avoided the +appearance of usury by lending 100 marks and receiving in return a +bond, acknowledging a loan of £100.[149] Sometimes they lent money for +a definite period, on an agreement that they were to get a “gift,” +in return for their kindness in making the loan, and “compensation” +in case it were not repaid in time.[150] Sometimes by a still more +elaborate device, the Italians combined their two professions of +money-lenders and merchants, by inducing a monastery which had borrowed +money, to acknowledge the receipt, not only of the sum actually +received, but also of the price of certain sacks of wool which it bound +itself in due time to supply.[151] The Jews, no doubt, followed the +example of the Caursines and of the Italians. In official registers, +which are still extant, there are mentioned bonds which secured to +Jewish creditors a large payment in money together with a small payment +in kind, and which doubtless represent collusive transactions, in +which the offence of usury was to be avoided by the substitution of a +recompense in kind for interest in money. Other bonds for repayment of +money alone are mentioned in the same registers as having been executed +after 1275, and every one of the kind that was executed between that +date and the date of the amendment of the Statute against usury may +be safely considered to represent a transaction which was an offence, +either veiled or open, against the prohibition.[152] + +The temptation to transgress the Statute of 1275 could appeal only to +Jews with capital, but on the poorer Jews other temptations acted with +even more strength and even worse results. + +The only reputable careers known to have been open to the +poorer Jews were to become servants in the houses of their rich +co-religionists,[153] or else to imitate in a humble way their +financial transactions, either by keeping pawnshops,[154] or by +carrying on, in towns where there was no recognised Jewry, business +of the same kind as that of the rich money-lenders in the larger +Jewish settlements. To follow these pursuits was now impossible, in +consequence, not only of the prohibition of usury, but also of the +strictness with which Edward enforced the old legislation against the +residence of Jews in towns where there did not exist a chest for the +deposit of Jewish debts, and a staff of clerks to witness and register +them.[155] There was thus nothing to which the poorer Jews could turn. +Crowded as unwelcome intruders into a small and decreasing number of +towns,[156] without legal standing or industrial skill, hated by the +people and declared accursed by the Church, they were bidden to support +themselves under conditions which made the task impossible unless they +could take by storm the citadel of municipal privilege which bade +defiance to the “greatest of the Plantagenets” throughout his reign. + +Under such conditions degeneration was inevitable. Some of the Jews are +said to have taken to highway robbery and burglary;[157] some went into +the House of Converts, where they got 1½d. a day and free lodging.[158] +But to the dishonest there was open a far more profitable form of +dishonesty than either of those already mentioned, viz., clipping the +coin. + +The offence had long been prevalent. In 1248 such mischief had been +done that, according to Matthew Paris “no foreigner, let alone an +Englishman, could look on an English coin with dry eyes and unbroken +heart.”[159] It was in vain that Henry III. issued a new coinage, so +stamped that the device and the lettering extended to the edge of the +piece,[160] and caused it to be proclaimed in every town, village, +market-place, and fair that none but the new pieces with their shapes +unaltered should be given or taken in exchange.[161] The opportunity +for dishonesty was too tempting. The coins that actually circulated in +the country were of many different issues,[162] they were not milled +at the edges,[163] they were so liable to damage and mutilation of +all kinds that their deficiency of weight had to be recognised and +allowed for.[164] Hence anyone who had many coins passing through +his hands could secure an easy profit by clipping off a piece from +each one before he passed it again into circulation. In the early +part of the reign of Edward I., such was the deficiency in the weight +of genuine coins (an annalist of the period estimates it at 50 per +cent.),[165] and such the amount of false coin in circulation, that +the price of commodities rose to an alarming height, foreign merchants +were driven away, trade became completely disorganised, shopkeepers +refused the money tendered to them, and the necessities of life were +withdrawn from the markets.[166] The King had to promise to issue a +new coinage, but the announcement of his intention only increased the +general disturbance. The Archbishop of Canterbury complained that +in consequence of the disturbance of circulation, he could not find +anyone, except the professional usurers, from whom he could borrow +money on which to live during the interval before the revenues of his +see began to come in.[167] When the King at this period of his reign +went to a priory to ask for money, the first and most cogent of the +excuses that he heard was that “the House was impoverished by the +change in the coinage of the realm.”[168] Public opinion ascribed to +the Jews the greatest share in the injuries to the coinage. “They are +notoriously forgers and clippers of the coin,” says Matthew Paris.[169] +And that the suspicion was not absolutely without justification is +shown by the fact, that early in Henry III.’s reign, the community +made a payment to the King in order to secure as a concession the +expulsion from England of such of its members as might be convicted +of the crime.[170] When inquiries were ordered into the causes of +the debasement, in 1248, it was generally considered that the guilt +would be found to rest with the Jews.[171] The official verdict +included them with the Caursines and the Flemish wool-merchants in its +condemnation.[172] + +It was not unnatural that Edward, when the evil reappeared in his +reign, should share the general suspicion against the Jews, seeing +that they had only recently begun to give up dealing in money, while +many of the poorer among them must have become, since 1275, desperate +enough to be ready to take to any tempting form of dishonesty. The +King’s indignation at the suffering that had been caused by the injury +done to the old coinage, and at the expense that was involved in the +preparation of the new issue which had become necessary, prompted him +to act on his suspicions, and to take a measure of terrible severity in +order to make sure of the apprehension of the most probable culprits. +When, in 1278, he was making preparations for an inquiry into the +whole subject of the coinage, he caused all the Jews of England to +be imprisoned in one night, their property to be seized, and their +houses to be searched. At the same time the goldsmiths, and many others +against whom information was given by the Jews, were treated in the +same way.[173] + +The prisoners were tried before a bench of judges and royal officers. +There can be no doubt that many innocent men were accused, even if +they were not condemned. At a time when all the Jews in England were +imprisoned, there was a great temptation for Christians to bring +false accusations against those among them whom they disliked on +personal or religious grounds, especially as there was a good chance +of extorting hush-money from the accused, or, in case of condemnation, +of concealing from the escheators some of their property.[174] The +Jews and the King recognised the danger. One Manser of London, for +example, was wise enough to sue that an investigation might be held +into the ownership of tools for clipping that were found on the roof +of his house.[175] The King, anxious that punishment should fall only +on the guilty, issued a general writ, in which the various motives for +false accusation were recited, and it was ordered that any Jew against +whom no charge had been brought by a certain date might secure himself +altogether by paying a fine.[176] Nevertheless, a large number both of +Jews and Christians were found guilty. Of the Christians only three +were condemned to death, though many others were heavily fined. For +the Jews, however, there was no mercy. Two hundred and ninety-three of +them were hanged and drawn in London, and all their property escheated +to the King. A few more had been condemned, but saved their lives by +conversion to Christianity.[177] + +The activity with which Jews took part, or were supposed to take part, +in the debasement of the coinage, and in the prohibited practice of +usury,[178] must have aroused in the mind of the King some misgivings +on the subject of his new policy. Nevertheless, he did not as yet +despair of its ultimate success. The crimes of the Jews were no +greater than those of the Christians around them, though they called +forth heavier punishment. Christians clipped and coined; Christians +still lent money on usury.[179] And a certain amount of crime among +Jews could not but be looked for as a natural result of the terrible +difficulties in the way of the social revolution that had been demanded +of them. Edward saw that he had been trying to do too much at once. The +Jews could not change their occupation as suddenly as he had wished. +The country could not do without money-lenders. By making the lending +of money at interest a penal offence, and thus encouraging debtors and +creditors to keep their transactions secret, Edward had weakened the +supervision that had been exercised by the Treasury, since 1194, over +the business and property of the Jews, and thus he had increased the +chance of fraud in the collection of tallages, and in the apportionment +of the share of each estate that had long been claimed by the Crown +as the succession due on Jewish property.[180] But he had not stamped +out usury, though the Statute of 1275 had forbidden it. He had not even +secured the redemption of all pledges of Christians from the hands of +the Jews, though the Statute of 1275 had demanded it. And, therefore, +in order that he might not keep on the Statute Book a law of which the +effective administration was impossible, he mitigated the severity of +the provisions of 1275, and issued, probably a few years later, a new +Statute, in which he prescribed certain conditions under which usury +was to be permitted. He allowed loans to be made under contract for the +payment of interest at the rate of half a mark in the pound yearly, +but for three years only; and, in order to reduce the temptation to +conclude secret transactions, restored legal recognition to all debts +of the value of £20 or upwards that were made under the prescribed +conditions, and were registered before the chirographer and clerk, +and threatened heavy penalties against all who should lend up to that +amount without registration.[181] + +Edward was wise in thus substituting for his earlier, harassing +measure, one that allowed for gradual change, and that attempted to +control the evil of which the immediate suppression was impossible. But +the few years’ experience that he had already had ought to have made +him go farther still. It ought to have shown him that it was hopeless +to expect the Jews to give up usury so long as the greater part of them +were practically excluded from all other pursuits, and that, if ever he +was to bring to a successful issue the policy that he had inaugurated, +he would have to find some means of enabling them to work side by side +with Christians, and to compete with them on equal conditions. + +Such a task would have been full of difficulties, the greatest of +which resulted from the active hostility with which the rulers and +teachers of the Christian Church in the thirteenth century, unlike +their predecessors, regarded the Jews. The growth and nature of this +hostility must now be considered. + + + IX.--THE JEWS IN RELATION TO THE CHURCH OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY. + +The Popes of the earlier part of the Middle Ages had found enough +employment for their energies in the effort to maintain their own +position in Christendom; and they had neither the wish nor the power to +seek a conflict with a race that remained wholly outside the Church. +In the twelfth century there was no other general Church Law directed +against the Jews than that which forbade them to live in the same +houses with Christians, and to have Christian servants.[182] In England +especially, Churchmen of the twelfth century showed towards the Jews +a tolerant spirit, and made no effort to augment their unpopularity +or to diminish their privileges. The examples of Anselm, and of his +contemporary, Gilbert of Westminster, show that in the attempts made at +that time by men of high position in the Church to convert the Jews, no +method was employed except that of reasonable persuasion.[183] Churches +and monasteries took charge, at times of danger, of the money, and +even of the families, of Jews. Such friendly intercourse as existed +between Jews and Christians was allowed to go on without any attempt at +ecclesiastical interference.[184] + +The accession of Innocent the Third to the pontificate brought about a +rapid change in the attitude of the Church towards the Jews. Innocent +was the first to advance, on behalf of the Papacy, the claim that the +Lord gave Peter not only the whole Church, but the whole world to +rule,[185] and he endeavoured with a merciless enthusiasm, from which +all unbelievers and heretics in Christian countries had to suffer, to +make good his claim, and to establish in Europe one united Catholic +Church. He took his stand on the doctrine, which his predecessors had +held[186] in a modified form, and without ever acting on it, that the +Jews were condemned to perpetual slavery on account of the wickedness +of their ancestors in crucifying Christ; and he thought that they ought +to be made to feel, and their neighbours likewise, that it was only +out of Christian pity that their presence was endured in Christian +countries. + +The position of the Jews at the time of Innocent’s accession to the +pontificate was very far from being such as his theory required. They +had magnificent synagogues, they employed Christian servants, they +married, or were said to marry, Christian wives; they refused, in what +some Christians regarded as a spirit of outrageous insolence, to eat +the same meat and to drink the same wine as the Gentiles, and they made +no secret of their disbelief in the sacred history of Christianity. +Moreover, they were suspected of exercising a considerable influence on +the growth of the heresies which it was the chief work of Innocent’s +life to combat. The Vaudois, the Cathari, and the Albigenses, all +kept up Jewish observances, and were said to have learnt from the +Jews their heretical dogmas; the Albigenses, indeed, were accused of +maintaining that the law of the Jews was better than the law of the +Christians. And, nevertheless, Christian kings supported the Jews +in every way. They countenanced their usury, they refused (so, at +least, Innocent said) to allow evidence against them on any charge +to be given by Christian witnesses, and they even employed them in +high offices of State. In view of these facts, Innocent thought that +a great effort of repression should be made, and he wrote to the King +of France, the Duke of Burgundy, and other monarchs, asking for their +assistance in the work of reducing the Jews to that condition of +slavery which was their due. He decreed in his general Church Council +that Jews should be excluded in future from public offices, and that +they should wear a badge to distinguish them from Christians; and +he renewed the old regulation of the Church, which required them to +dismiss Christian servants from their houses. In order to ensure that +the last provision should be observed, he decided that any Christians +having any intercourse with Jews that transgressed it should be subject +to excommunication. For the enforcement of his other anti-Jewish +measures he relied on the help of the temporal power in all Christian +countries.[187] + +The declaration of war made by Innocent III. was a terrible calamity +for the Jews; but though it affected at once the whole of Christian +Europe, still its evil results might have passed away in time. Popes +were but men and politicians; and just as Innocent had, by the +publication of his wishes and decrees concerning the Jews, set himself +in opposition to his predecessors, so might his successors, in their +turn, moved by different feelings or taking a different view of the +interests and duties of the Church, set themselves in opposition to +him, and go back to the old lenient opinions and practice. But within +a few years of the death of Innocent, the work of attacking the Jews +ceased to be in the hands of any one man, and passed over to a body of +men habitually influenced not by personal or political considerations, +but only by what they conceived to be the interest of religion, +and filled with a hatred of the Jews more fierce and fanatical and +steadfast than that of the Popes could ever have been. + +The Dominican order was formally constituted in 1223, and from the +earliest years of its existence devoted itself to the task of rooting +out unbelief from the Christian world. The work that its members +at first professed to regard as peculiarly their own was that of +preaching, but on the Jews their preaching had no effect. With an +ingenuity and determination worthy of the order that in a later +century was to provide the Inquisition with its chief ministers, the +Dominicans devised and carried out another plan of action. Assisted by +converted Jews who had joined them, they undertook the study of Hebrew, +and their master, Raymundus de Peñaforte, induced the King of Spain +to build and endow seminaries for the purpose.[188] Armed with this +new knowledge, they were able to attack first, what they represented +as the foolish and pernicious contents of such Jewish books as the +Talmud, and secondly, the stubbornness of the Jews who refused to +accept the doctrines of Christianity, the truth of which the Dominicans +professed to be able to demonstrate from the Old Testament. Two +incidents which must at the time have been famous throughout Europe +illustrate their method of warfare. In 1239 Nicolas Donin, a converted +Jew who had become a Dominican friar, laid before Gregory IX. a series +of statements concerning the Talmud. Helped, no doubt, by all the +influence of his order, he induced the Pope to issue bulls to the Kings +of France, England, and Spain, and the bishops in those countries, +ordering that all copies of the Talmud should be seized, and that +public inquiry should be held concerning the charges brought against +the book. In England and Spain nothing seems to have been done, but in +Paris the Pope’s instructions were carried out, and, at the instigation +of the leading Dominicans, St. Louis ordered that all copies of the +Talmud that could be found in France should be confiscated, and that +four Rabbis should, on behalf of the Jews, hold a public debate with +Donin, in order to meet, if they could, the charges that he was +prepared to maintain. In the course of the debate, which was held in +the precincts of the Court and in the presence of members of the Royal +family and great dignitaries of the Church, Donin asserted that the +Talmud encouraged the Jews to despise, deceive, rob, and even murder +Christians, that it contained blasphemous falsehoods concerning Christ, +superstitions and puerilities of all kinds, and passages disrespectful +to God and inconsistent with morality. The Rabbis answered as best +they could, but the court of Inquisitors decided that the charges +had been substantiated, and ordered that all the confiscated copies +of the Talmud should be burnt. After a delay of about two years the +_Auto-da-fe_ took place, and fourteen cartloads of the Talmud were +sacrificed.[189] The other famous incident of the kind took place in +Spain. Pablo Christiano, a converted Jew, who, like Donin, had joined +the Dominicans, challenged the Jews of Aragon to a discussion on the +differences between Judaism and Christianity, and induced James I. +to compel them to take up the challenge. The famous Nachmanides came +forward as the representative of his co-religionists. Pablo undertook +to show that the Old Testament, and other books recognised by the Jews, +taught that the Messiah had come, that he was “very God and very man,” +that he suffered and died for the salvation of mankind, and that with +his advent the ceremonial law ceased to be of any effect. Nachmanides +denied that any of these propositions could be substantiated from the +Jewish sacred books. For four days the disputation was carried on in +the presence of the king and many great personages of Church and State. +Of course the verdict was that the Christian disputant had beaten the +Jew.[190] + +The method of conducting these two controversies showed that the +Dominicans were determined to use every possible weapon against the +Jews. The Talmud, a huge, heterogeneous and unedited compilation, +contains passages which are trivial and foolish, and others, written +by men who had memories of persecution fresh in their minds, which +express bitter hatred towards the “Gentiles,” that is, the Romans who +had taken Jerusalem, and had destroyed the nationality of the Jewish +race. It was easy for an opponent to pick out such passages, to assert +that what was said against the “Gentiles” expressed, not the feelings +of the victims of persecution against the Romans of the second century, +but the feelings of all Jews towards all non-Jews, at every time and +at every place, and to convince an uncritical audience that those who +held in honour the book that contained such passages were enemies of +religion, against whose influence it behoved all Christian powers to +guard the faithful. Similarly, by compelling the Jews to take part +in a discussion concerning the prophecies of the Old Testament, the +Dominicans imposed on them the choice between the two alternatives +of betraying their religion by acquiescing in what they believed to +be a false interpretation of their scripture, or else of proclaiming +publicly their disbelief in doctrines which were at the very foundation +of Christianity. The effect on the ruling classes in Europe of the +two discussions just mentioned must have been very great. And the +Dominicans were continually carrying on the same work, though, of +course, seldom before audiences so distinguished. Pablo, for example, +travelled about Spain and Provence, compelling the Jews, by virtue of +a royal edict that had been issued in his favour, to hold disputes +with him on matters of religion.[191] Many other members of the order +devoted their lives to the same pursuit,[192] and thus did their +best to fill the rulers of the Church with a dread of the terrible +consequences that the existence of Judaism threatened to the Christian +religion. + +And, unfortunately for the Jews, their religion began to be feared +at the same time as cruel and powerful fanatics like Innocent and +the Dominicans were doing their best to cause it to be hated. There +is good reason to believe, though detailed evidence is not abundant, +that towards the end of the Middle Ages Judaism exercised over the +superstitions of other faiths the same fascination as in the first +century of the Roman Empire. Thomas Aquinas believed that unrestricted +intercourse between Jews and Christians was likely to result in the +conversion of Christians to Judaism, and for that reason he thought it +right, in spite of the general liberality of his opinions concerning +the Jews, that intercourse with them should be allowed to such +Christians alone as were strong in the faith, and were more likely to +convert them than to be converted by them.[193] “It happens sometimes,” +wrote a Pope of the thirteenth century, “that Christians, when they +are visited by the Lord with sickness and tribulation, go astray, and +have recourse to the vain help of the Jewish rite. They hold in the +synagogues of the Jews torches and lighted candles, and make offerings +there. Likewise they keep vigils (especially on the Sabbath), in the +hope that the sick may be restored to health, that those at sea may +reach harbour, that those in childbirth may be safely delivered, and +that the barren may become fruitful and rejoice in offspring. For the +accomplishment of these and other wishes, they implore the help of the +said rite, and in idolatrous fashion show open signs of devotion and +reverence to a scroll, not without much harm to the orthodox faith, +contumely to our Creator, and opprobrium and shame to the Universal +Church.”[194] + +The anti-Jewish feeling that grew up from the causes that have just +been described called into existence new institutions and measures +designed for the purpose of humbling the Jews and checking the growth +of Judaism. In compliance with the cruel request of Innocent, most +of the monarchs of Europe compelled their Jewish subjects to wear +a badge.[195] Local church councils, which hitherto had contented +themselves with the attempt to enforce the old prohibition against +the employment by Jews of Christian servants and nurses, now went +further, and forbade Christians to allow the presence of Jews in their +houses and taverns, to feast or dance with them, to be present at the +celebration of their marriages, their new moons, and their festivals, +and to employ their services as doctors.[196] The Popes of the latter +part of the thirteenth century appointed Dominicans in various +countries of Europe to perform the duty of preaching to the Jews, and +of holding inquisitions into their heresies, in the hope that with the +help of the secular power they might stamp them out.[197] + +In England the relation of the Jews to the Christians underwent +somewhat the same changes as in Continental Europe. Before the +thirteenth century the Jews in England had, as has been said above, +been free from molestation by the Church,[198] and their chief danger +had been from the brutality and greed of the disorderly populace, of +desperate outcasts, and of marauding Crusaders.[199] The first great +attack made on them by any constituted power came from Stephen Langton, +who, not content with passing at his Provincial Synod a decree which, +in accordance with the regulations of Innocent, enforced the use of the +badge and prohibited the erection of new synagogues, went so far as +to issue orders that no one in his diocese should presume, under pain +of excommunication, to have any intercourse with Jews, or should sell +them any of the necessaries of life. The Bishops of Lincoln and Norwich +issued the same orders in their dioceses.[200] Many other bishops in +the reign of Henry III. did their best, partly by legislation in their +diocesan synods and partly by the use of their personal and spiritual +influence, to check intercourse between Jews and Christians.[201] Of +course the king’s guardians, in the interest of the royal income, a +considerable part of which was derived from the Jewry, interfered to +prevent the measures of Langton and his colleagues from being carried +into effect. And Henry, when he took into his own hands the work of +government, while, on the one hand, he showed his sympathy with the +fears of the Church by building a house for the reception of Jewish +converts,[202] and by lending the sanction of the civil power to the +decree that ordered the use of the badge,[203] nevertheless followed +the example that his guardians had set, and protected the Jews against +the aggression of the Church. + +There were many reasons which might have caused Edward to sympathise +more strongly than his father had done, with the anti-Jewish feelings +of the Church. He was a pious man and a pious king, filled with a sense +of his kingly duty towards “the living God who takes to himself the +souls of Princes.”[204] He was a Crusader, though the great crusading +age was over, a founder of monasteries, a pilgrim to holy places; and +through his confessors he was in close connection with, and under +the influence of, the Dominican order.[205] Some of his bishops were +determined enemies of the Jews. John of Peckham, for example, the +Archbishop of Canterbury, insisted at one time on the demolition of +all the small private synagogues in London, at which the Jews were in +the habit of worshipping after the confiscation of their great public +synagogues at the end of the reign of Henry III.; at another time he +demanded from the king the help of the temporal power against Jews +who having once been converted to Christianity, wished to go back to +their old faith; on another occasion he took the bold step of writing +to the Queen concerning her business transactions with the Jews, +solemnly warning her that unless she gave them up she could never +be absolved from her sins, “nay, not though an angel should assert +the contrary.”[206] At Hereford, Bishop Swinfield was so determined +to prevent intercourse with Jews that, when he heard that certain +Christians intended to be present at a marriage feast to be given by +some rich Jews of the city, he issued a proclamation threatening with +excommunication any who should carry out their intention, and, when his +proclamation was disregarded, he carried out his threat.[207] + +Certain events that happened, or were said to have happened, in England +in Edward’s lifetime, some, indeed, under his own observation, may +well have seemed to him to justify the attitude of the Church. In +1275 a Dominican friar was converted to Judaism.[208] In 1268, while +Edward was in Oxford, the Chancellor, masters and scholars of the +University, and the Parochial Clergy, were going in procession to visit +the shrine of St. Friedswide when, according to a story that gained +general credence, a Jew of the city snatched from the bearer a cross +that was being carried at their head and trod it under foot.[209] At +Norwich, early in Edward’s reign, a Jew was burnt for blasphemy.[210] +At Nottingham, in 1278, a Jewess was charged with abusing in scandalous +terms all the Christian bystanders in the market-place.[211] + +Edward’s conduct could not but be influenced by the general tone of +opinion in the Church, by the strong anti-Jewish feeling of some of his +bishops, and by the follies, real or supposed, of the Jews themselves. +In continuation of his father’s policy he made, throughout his reign, +such contributions as, with his scanty means, he could afford, to the +support of the House of Converts.[212] He renewed the edict concerning +the wearing of the badge, and extended it to Jewesses, whereas it had +formerly applied only to Jews.[213] In order that the Dominicans might +be able to carry on in England the same efforts at conversion as they +were already pursuing in France, Spain and Germany, he issued to all +the sheriffs and bailiffs in England writs bidding them do their best +to induce all the Jews in the counties and towns under their charge to +assemble and hear the word of God preached by the friars.[214] To meet +the danger to religion that might arise from the blasphemous utterances +of Jews, he ordered that proclamation should be made throughout England +that any Jew found guilty (after an enquiry conducted by Christians) +of having spoken disrespectfully of Christ, the Virgin Mary, or the +Catholic faith, should be liable to the loss of life or limbs.[215] + +Thus far, and no farther, was Edward prepared to go with measures for +the suppression of Judaism as a religion. He believed that the Jews, +so long as they remain Jews, lived in ignorance and sin, and he did +what he could to help the friars in the effort to convert them. He +believed that some among them were likely to make blasphemous attacks +on Christianity, and he did what he could to keep them in check. But he +believed that it was possible for them to live in peace and quietness, +carrying on trades and handicrafts, among Christian neighbours in +Christian towns. And it was to enable them to do so that he adopted +the policy of 1275, and bade the Jews renounce usury, giving them at +the same time permission “to practise trade, to live by their labour, +and, for those purposes, freely to converse with Christians.” But, +as we have seen, there were imposed on the Jews who attempted to +avail themselves of this permission, legal disadvantages which wholly +unfitted them for industrial competition with non-Jews, and compelled +them to continue the practice of usury. That Edward recognised this +fact is shown by the issue of the revised Statute of Usurers some years +after 1275; but that measure was inconclusive and inconsistent with the +rest of his policy. Sooner or later the conclusion would have forced +itself on him that until the Jews were, by the acquisition of the right +to become burgesses and gildsmen, enabled to enter into industrial +competition on equal terms with Christians, all his efforts to make +them traders instead of usurers would be wasted. He would then have had +before him two alternatives. He might, on the one hand, have declined +to sacrifice his seignorial rights over the Jews, whom he had described +in the Statute of 1275 as “talliable to the king as his own serfs, and +not otherwise,” and in that case he would have had to recognise that +his whole Jewish policy was an impossible one. Or he might, on the +other hand, have revoked the provision in the statute which forbade the +Jews to be in “scots, lots, or talliage with the other inhabitants of +those cities or burgesses where they remained.” Such a measure would +have been a step in the only direction which could possibly lead to the +success of his policy. But it would not by itself have been enough to +secure success; for, when the legal difficulties of the Jews had been +removed, there would still have remained the social difficulties which +proceeded from the dislike in which they were held by the Church and +the people; and, unless these difficulties also could be removed, so +that the Jews might be in a position of social equality, as well as +legal equality, with Christians, and associate with them in friendly +intercourse, the king’s policy would be as far from success as ever. +Which alternative Edward would have decided to adopt is, of course, +a question we have no means of answering; but the decision was taken +out of his hands by the interference, for the first and last time in +English history, of the head of the Catholic Church in the relations +between the Jews and the king. + +At the end of 1286, Honorius IV. addressed to the Archbishops of +Canterbury[216] and York[217] and their suffragans the following bull:-- + +“We have heard that in England the accursed and perfidious Jews have +done unspeakable things and horrible acts, to the shame of our Creator +and the detriment of the Catholic faith. They are said to have a +wicked and deceitful book, which they commonly call Thalmud, containing +manifold abominations, falsehoods, heresies, and abuses. This damnable +work they continually study, and with its nefarious contents their +base thoughts are always engaged. Moreover, they set their children +from their tender years to study its lethal teaching, and they do not +scruple to tell them that they ought to believe in it more than in the +Law of Moses, so that the said children may flee from the path of God +and go astray in the devious ways of the unbelievers. Moreover, they +not only attempt to entice the minds of the faithful to their pestilent +sect, but also, with many gifts, they seduce to apostasy those who, +led by wholesome counsel, have abjured the error of infidelity and +betaken themselves to the Christian faith; so that some, being led away +by the treachery of the Jews, live with them according to their rite +and law, even in the parishes in which they received new life from the +sacred font of baptism; and hence arise injury to our Saviour, scandal +to the faithful, and dishonour to the Christian faith. Some also who +have been baptised they send to other places, in order that there +they may live unknown and return to their disbelief. They invite and +urgently persuade Christians to attend their synagogues on the Sabbath +and on other of their solemn occasions, to hear and take part in their +services, and to show reverence to the parchment-scroll or book in +which their law is written, in consequence of which many Christians +Judaise with the Jews. + +“Moreover, they have in their households Christians whom they compel to +busy themselves on Sundays and feast-days with servile tasks from which +they should refrain. And so they cast opprobrium on the majesty of God. +They have in their houses Christian women to bring up their children. +Christian men and women dwell among them; and so it often happens, +when occasion offers and the time is favourable to shameful actions, +that Christian men have unblessed intercourse with Jewish women and +Christian women with Jewish men. + +“Yet Christians and Jews go on meeting in each others’ houses. They +spend their leisure in banqueting and feasting together, and hence the +opportunity for mischief becomes easy. On certain days they publicly +abuse Christians, or rather curse them, and do other wicked acts which +offend God and cause the loss of souls. + +“And although some of you have been often asked to devise a fitting +remedy for these things, yet you have failed to comply. Whereat we are +forced to wonder the more, since the duty of your pastoral office binds +you to show yourselves more ready and determined than other men to +avenge the wrongs of our Saviour, and to oppose the nefarious attempts +of the foes of the Christian faith. + +“An evil so dangerous must not be made light of, lest, being neglected, +it may grow great. You are bound to rise up with ready courage against +such audacity in order that it may be completely suppressed and +confounded and that the dignity and glory of the Catholic Faith may +increase. Therefore by this apostolic writing we give orders that, as +the duty of your office demands, you shall use inhibitions, spiritual +and temporal penalties, and other methods, which shall seem good to +you, and which in your preaching and at other fitting times you shall +set forth, to the end, that this disease may be checked by proper +remedies. So may you have your reward from the mercy of the Eternal +King. We shall extol in our prayers your wisdom and diligence. Let us +know fully by your letters what you do in this matter.” + + + X.--THE EFFECTS OF THE CLERICAL OPPOSITION. + +Edward was too religious to disregard the wishes of the Pope, expressed +thus formally and solemnly and with the utmost strength of language. +And he had special reasons for paying heed to the words of Honorius +IV., on whose money-lenders he was dependent for loans, and whose +predecessor had, by the exercise of his spiritual powers, secured for +him a tenth part of the goods of the clergy of England.[218] From the +moment of the issue of the bull, the policy inaugurated by the statute +of 1275 was doomed. For of the two alternatives that Edward would have +had before him in any further Jewish legislation that he might have +undertaken--the alternatives of the abandonment of the policy of 1275, +or the extension of it by further measures for the assimilation of the +status of Jews to that of Christians--the Church now demanded that he +should at once adopt the former. It demanded that the Jews of England +should live isolated from the Christians; and this they could do only +so long as they kept to pursuits, such as usury, for the practice of +which they required no connection with the organisation of a gild or a +town. + +For a time Edward could take no decisive measures, since when the +bull reached England, he had left for Gascony.[219] In that province +nothing had apparently as yet been done to satisfy the demand made by +the Council of Lyons, in 1274, that alien usurers should no longer be +tolerated in the land of Christians. It was hopeless to try to enforce +in a distant dependency the policy that had been beset in England with +so many difficulties, and had now incurred the direct opposition of the +Church. The only alternative was expulsion, a measure that on French +soil suggested itself the more naturally, since two French kings had +practically adopted it already. Before he returned home, Edward issued +an order that all Jews should leave Gascony.[220] + +The application of the same measure in England was a more serious +matter, since the English Jews were doubtless a much larger community +than those of Gascony. But, determined not to tolerate them as usurers, +and convinced of the hopelessness of his efforts to change them into +traders, Edward had no alternative but to treat them as he had treated +their coreligionists in Gascony. + +No doubt he was influenced in his resolution by the members of his +family and court. His wife and mother and various of his officers had +been in the habit of receiving liberal grants from the property and +forfeitures of the Jews.[221] They must have known that this resource +was decreasing steadily, and was not worth husbanding, and they must +have welcomed a measure which would bring into the King’s hands a +fairly large amount of spoil capable of immediate distribution. And, +probably, some of the ecclesiastical members of the court felt, as +his mother certainly did,[222] a religious hatred of the Jews and a +religious joy at the prospect of their disappearance. + + + XI.--THE EXPULSION. + +Of the course of events for the first few months after Edward’s return +to England, very meagre accounts have come down to us. His searching +inquiry into the conduct of the judges during his absence[223] must +have taken up most of his time and energy. As soon as he had meted out +punishment to those whom he had found guilty of corruption, he turned +to the Jewish question. On the 18th of July, 1290, writs were issued to +the sheriffs of counties, informing them that a decree had been passed +that all Jews should leave England before the feast of All Saints of +that year.[224] Any who remained in the country after the prescribed +day were declared liable to the penalty of death.[225] + +Every effort was made by the King to secure the peace and safety +of the Jews during the short period for which they were allowed to +remain, and in the course of their journey from their homes to the +coast, and from the coast to their ultimate destination. The sheriffs +were ordered to have public proclamation made that “no one within the +appointed period should injure, harm, damage, or grieve them,” and +were to ensure, for such as chose to pay for it, a safe journey to +London. The wardens of the Cinque Ports, within the district of whose +jurisdiction many of the Jews would necessarily embark, received orders +in the same spirit as those that had been addressed to the sheriffs of +the counties. They were to see that the exiles were provided, after +payment, with a safe and speedy passage across the sea, and that the +poor among them were enabled to travel at cheap rates and were treated +with consideration.[226] These general orders were reinforced by the +issue of special writs of safe-conduct for individual Jews.[227] The +exiles were allowed to carry with them all of their own property that +was in their possession at the time of the issue of the decree of +expulsion, together with such pledges deposited with them by Christians +as were not redeemed before a fixed date. A few Jews who were high in +the favour of royal personages, such as Aaron, son of Vives, who was a +“chattel” of the King’s brother Edmund,[228] and Cok, son of Hagin, who +belonged to the Queen,[229] were allowed before their departure to sell +their houses and fees to any Christian who would buy them. + +On St. Denis’s Day all the Jews of London started on their journey +to the sea-coast.[230] The treatment that they met with was not so +merciful as the king had wished. Many of the richer among them +embarked with all their property at London. At the mouth of the Thames, +the master cast anchor during the ebb-tide, so that his vessel grounded +on the sands, and invited his passengers to walk on the shore till +it was again afloat. He led them to a great distance, so that they +did not get back to the river-side till the tide was again full. Then +he ran into the water, climbed into the ship by means of a rope, and +bade them, if they needed help, call on their Prophet Moses. They +followed him into the water, and most of them were drowned. The sailors +appropriated all that the Jews had left on board. But subsequently the +master and his accomplices were indicted, convicted of murder, and +hanged.[231] + +One body of the exiles set sail for France. During their voyage fierce +storms swept the sea. Many were drowned. Many were cast destitute on +the coast that they were seeking, and were allowed by the King to +live for a time in Amiens.[232] This act of mercy, however, called +forth the censure of the Pope, and the _Parlement de la Chandeleur_, +which met in the same year, decreed that all the Jews from England and +Gascony who had taken refuge in the French king’s dominions should +leave the country by the middle of the next Lent.[233] Another body, +numbering 1,335, and consisting, to a great extent, of the poor, +went to Flanders.[234] The only known fact that we have to guide our +conjectures as to the ultimate place of settlement of any of those who +left England is that, in a list of the inhabitants of the Paris Jewry, +made four years after the Expulsion, there appear certain names with +the additions of _l’Englische_ or _l’Englais_.[235] It may well be that +many Jews from England, speaking the French language, were able, in +spite of the Act of the _Parlement de la Chandeleur_, to become merged +in the general body of the Jews of France, who were many times as +numerous as those of England had been.[236] Many, too, may have thrown +in their lot with their 850,000 coreligionists of Spain.[237] + +The property that the Jews left behind them in England consisted of +such dwelling-houses, and other houses, as remained to them in spite of +the strict conditions imposed by the Statute of 1275, of the synagogues +and cemeteries of their local congregations, and of bonds partly for +the repayment of money, and partly for the delivery of wool and corn +for which the price had been paid in advance. All fell into the hands +of the King,[238] except, possibly, the houses in some of those towns, +such as Hereford, Winchester, and Ipswich, of which the citizens had +by the purchase of manorial rights become entitled to all fines and +forfeitures.[239] The annual value of the houses, as shown in the +returns made by the sheriffs, was, after allowance had been made for +the right of the Capital Lords, about £130. The value of the debts, as +shown in the register made by the officers of the Exchequer, was about +£9,100, but the amount for realisation was diminished by the King’s +resolve to take from the debtors, not the full amount for which they +were liable, and which, under the amended statute of the Jewry,[240] +could include three years’ interest, but only the bare principal that +had been originally advanced. Even this was not fully collected; +payment was, by the King’s permission, delayed, and confirmations, +made in 1315 and 1327, of the renunciation of interest, show how long +some of the debts remained outstanding. Edward III. finally gave up the +claim to all further payment.[241] + +It was ordered that the houses should be sold and the proceeds devoted +to pious uses.[242] But it appears that they were nearly all given away +to the King’s friends.[243] + + + XII.--THE NECESSITY FOR THE EXPULSION. + +The Expulsion was not the act of a cruel king. The forbearance which +marks the orders to the officers who were charged with the execution +of the decree had been shown by Edward many a time before, when he +protected Jews against claims too rigorously enforced, and ordered that +his own rights should be waived where insistence on them would have +deprived his debtors of their means of subsistence.[244] + +Nor was it prompted by greed. It is true that immediately after it, +and according to the account of many chroniclers, as an expression of +gratitude for it, the Parliament voted a tenth and a fifteenth.[245] +But this cannot have been a bribe offered beforehand, for the writs +announcing the decree were issued on the fourth day after that for +which the Parliament was summoned.[246] It is impossible to suppose +that in so short an interval the question was brought up, the policy +chosen, the price fixed, and the decree issued. It is equally +impossible that Edward’s conduct should have been affected by the +prospect of the confiscation of the small amount of property that the +Jews left behind them. + +The Expulsion was a piece of independent royal action, made necessary +by the impossibility of carrying out the only alternative policy +that an honourable Christian king could adopt. And the impossibility +was not of Edward’s making. It was the result of many causes, and +the knowledge of it had been brought home to him by many proofs. The +guesses of our contemporary, and all but contemporary, authorities +who take on themselves to explain his action, show how many were the +obstacles before which he had to confess himself vanquished. In one +chronicle the Expulsion is represented as a concession to the prayer +of the Pope;[247] in another, as the result of the efforts of Queen +Eleanor;[248] in a third, as a measure of summary punishment against +the blasphemy of the Jews, taken to give satisfaction to the English +clergy;[249] in a fourth as an answer to the complaints made by +the magnates of the continued prevalence of usury;[250] in a fifth +as an act of conformity to public opinion;[251] in a sixth, as a +reform suggested by the King’s independent general enquiry into the +administration of the kingdom during his absence, and his discovery, +through the complaints of the Council, of the “deceits” of the +Jews.[252] + +Each of these statements gives us some information as to the nature +and extent of the failure of Edward’s policy. None gives the true +cause, for none sets before us the true position of the Jews and their +relations with their neighbours. It is true that it was the bull of +Honorius that finally compelled Edward to give up his attempt to +assimilate the position of the Jews to that of Christian traders. It +is true, no doubt, that his mother had from the first dissuaded him +from generous treatment, and, perhaps, had induced him to lessen the +chance of the success of his policy by asserting his right over them +as over his serfs.[253] But the bull of the Pope and the personal +influence of the Queen-mother were alike unnecessary. If Edward had +waived all his rights, if the Church had in his reign relented towards +the Jews instead of increasing its bitterness towards them, both acts +of generosity would have come too late. The same causes that had +made the Jews accept the position of royal usurers at the end of the +eleventh century, and of royal chattels at the end of the twelfth, +made it impossible for them to give up either position at the end of +the thirteenth. From the moment of their arrival in England they had +been hated by the common people. They never had an opportunity of +acquiring interests in common with their neighbours, or of entering +their social or industrial institutions. Isolation brought with it +danger. For the sake of safety they had to accept royal protection; +and their protectors long held them in a close grip, until one at last +refused to tolerate them under the same conditions as had satisfied his +predecessors. But to have given them their freedom would only have +been to expose them to the old dislike and the old danger. If Edward +had allowed them to become citizens, and had set at naught the bull of +Honorius, he would have seen the English towns refusing to support his +policy and denying to the Jews the right to join the gild merchant, +to learn trades and to practise them, and to enjoy the protection of +municipal laws and customs. + +For towards all new-comers, of whatever race or religion, the +English burgesses of the Middle Ages showed a spirit of unyielding +exclusiveness.[254] But the feeling against the Jews was far greater +than that against any other class. Every reference to them in English +literature, before the Expulsion and long after it, shows its strength +and bitterness. “Hell is without light where they sing lamentations,” +says one poet of them.[255] Another who, writing a few years after the +Expulsion, mentions the massacre at the coronation of Richard I., finds +in it nothing to wonder at, and nothing to regret. To him it is only +natural that “The king took it for great shame, That from such unclean +things as them any meat to him came.”[256] The chroniclers of the time +refer to them again and again, and always in the same tone of dislike. +“The Jews,” says Matthew Paris, in his account of one of the most cruel +of Henry III.’s acts of extortion, “had nearly all their money taken +from them, and yet they were not pitied, because it is proved, and is +manifest, that they are continually convicted of forging charters, +seals and coins.”[257] “They are a sign for the nation like Cain the +accursed,” he says elsewhere.[258] The eulogist of Edward I., when he +recounts the great deeds of his hero, tells with pride and without +a word of pity how “the perfidious and unbelieving horde of Jews is +driven forth from England in one day into exile.”[259] And just as no +punishment that they can suffer is regarded as too heavy for their +sins, so no story of their misdoings, whether it be of the murder of +Christian children, of insults to the Christian religion, or of fraud +on Christian debtors, is too improbable or too brutal or too trivial to +be repeated.[260] + +The popular hatred showed itself in deed as well as in word. The +massacres of 1190 were imitated on a small scale at intervals during +the sojourn of the Jews in England. Braziers and hosiers, bakers and +shoemakers, tailors and copperers, priests and Oxford scholars were all +ready to take part in the looting of a Jewry.[261] + +Nor was there any influence exercised by the higher classes to make +the populace less intolerant. A great lady declared that it was a +disgrace for one of her rank to sit in a carriage in which a Jewess +had sat.[262] A great noble thought it a good jest, when a Jew on his +estate fell into a pit on a Friday, to order that he should not be +helped out either on the Jewish Sabbath or on the Christian, in order +that the absurdity of the Mosaic legislation might be demonstrated--at +the cost, as it resulted, of the Jew’s life.[263] + +Bishops supported with eagerness the charge of child-murder repeatedly +brought against the Jews,[264] though Popes and Councils had declared +it to be groundless[265]; and the judge who showed the greatest +eagerness for the punishment of the Jewish prisoners who were accused +on the monstrous charge of having murdered Hugh of Lincoln, was a man +who was held in especial honour by his contemporaries as a scholar and +“a circumspect and discreet man.”[266] + +Thus the Christians were not likely to endure the Jews as neighbours +and fellow-workers, and the Jews, even if they had been permitted, +would have been as little willing to live the life and follow the +ordinary pursuits of citizens. It was not that they loved usury as +a calling. On the contrary, they entered willingly into all those +professions that gave them the opportunity of being their own +masters and living according to their own fashion. Many of them were +physicians, and among the most esteemed in Europe.[267] In Italy, +where the municipal and gild organisations were easier to enter, +and less narrow and exacting in their constitution, than those of +England,[268] they worked at trades.[269] In Sicily, under Frederic +II., some Jews were employed as administrators, and many more were +agriculturists.[270] In Rome, one was treasurer of the household of +Pope Alexander III., and in Southern France another filled the same +office under Count Raymond, of Toulouse.[271] In Austria, they were +the financial ministers of the Archduke,[272] and in Spain, one was +chamberlain to Alphonso the Wise, and many others were in the service +of the same king.[273] In England, some Jews were attached to the Court +of Henry III., and treated with special favour; others were useful and +valued adherents of Richard, King of the Romans,[274] and, after the +prohibition of usury, others, as we have seen, became corn-merchants, +and wool-merchants. + +But the whole character of the Jews, their religious beliefs, and +their national hopes, were such as to make repellent to them those +close relations with Christians and Englishmen which would have +been necessary if they had entered into the feudal or municipal +organisations of the Middle Ages. Though there was no religious +obstacle to prevent them from entering a Gild, still they could not, +without violating their religion, eat at a Gild feast, or take part in +its religious ceremonies. Their teachers, like those of the Church, +warned them against social intercourse with the Christians, “lest it +might lead to inter-marriage.”[275] They did not speak the English +language.[276] They remained willingly outside the national and +municipal life. + +Their isolation caused them no sorrow. Rather must it have been dear +to them as a sign that they were faithful members of the one race to +which in truth they belonged, the race of Israel. The interests that +filled their mind were those that were common to them, not with the +inhabitants of the country in which they lived, but with their brethren +in faith and race scattered throughout the world. The rapidity and +copiousness with which the stream of Jewish literature poured forth in +the Middle Ages, showed how unfailing was the strength of the Jewish +life which was its source. In Southern Europe the Jews waged among +themselves fierce controversies over problems such as were suggested by +the support that some of their Rabbis gave, or appeared to give, to the +Aristotelian doctrines of the eternity of matter and the uncreativeness +of God.[277] Among the English Jews, and in the communities of Northern +France with whom the English Jews were in continual communication, +literature, though less controversial and engaged with less deep +questions, sufficed, nevertheless, even better to provide continual +and engrossing interest for the orthodox. There were read and written, +down to the last years before the Expulsion, commentaries and +super-commentaries on the Bible and the Talmud, lexicons and grammars, +treatises on ritual and ceremonial. The Rabbis discussed what blessings +it was right to use on all the occasions of life, on rising in the +morning, or on retiring to rest at night, on eating, on washing, on +being married, on hearing thunder.[278] The English Jews were strict +observers of the ceremonial law,[279] they made use in daily life of +the minutiæ of Rabbinical scholarship, they drew up their contracts +“after the usage of the sages,”[280] and thus, like all the Jews of +mediæval Europe, they were continually reminded, in the pursuit of +their ordinary interests and occupations, that they were a peculiar +people. How proud they were of the position is shown by the poetical +literature which, as preserved in the Jewish prayer book, is the most +precious legacy that mediæval Judaism has left us. It was common to +Jews in all lands; it commemorated all the sorrows of their nation, and +gave expression to all their hopes. It made them feel that, scattered +as they were, they yet had a destiny of their own, and it banished from +their minds, as a counsel of baseness, the thought of making themselves +one with the “Gentiles” around them. It reminded them that exile and +persecution, and ultimate triumph were the appointed lot of Israel, and +that the same teachers who had prophesied that the Chosen People should +suffer, had also prophesied that in the fulness of time they should be +redeemed. They knew that in the hour of danger and persecution there +had never been wanting martyrs to testify in death to the unity of God +and to the Glory of his Name. And they could not doubt that the Lord +of Mercy and Justice would mete out due recompense to the oppressors +and the oppressed.[281] + +Thus the memory of their past, and the commonplace occurrences of their +daily life, continually strengthened the bonds that bound Jews together +after twelve centuries of dispersion. In the thirteenth century of +the Christian era, as in the first, they still regarded the Holy Land +as their true home. Three hundred Rabbis from France and England went +thither in 1211.[282] There Jehudi Halevi ended his days.[283] There +Nachmanides taught that it was the duty of every Jew to live, and, true +to his own lesson, he set out on his pilgrimage in the seventieth year +of his age. And in his own and the next generation many Jews from Spain +and Germany followed his example.[284] A Jewish traveller of the Middle +Ages says of certain of the communities of his coreligionists that he +visited: “They are full of hopes, and they say to one another, ‘Be of +good cheer, brethren, for the salvation of the Lord will be quick as +the glancing of an eye:’ and were it not that we have hitherto doubted, +and thought that the end of our Captivity has not yet arrived, we +should have been gathered together long ago. But now this will not be +till the time of song arrives, and the sound of the turtle-dove gives +warning. Then will the message arrive, and we shall ever say ‘The Name +of the Lord be exalted.’”[285] + +Nowhere in Europe could such men have been content to live the life of +those around them, to bind themselves with the ties of citizenship, to +find their highest hopes on earth in the destiny of the town, or the +country, in which they dwelt. They were but sojourners. They lived in +expectation of the time when the Lord should return the Captivity of +Zion, and they should look back on their exile as reawakened dreamers. + +Without the privilege of isolation they could not live; and if in +England the communities of the Gentiles had been open to them, they +would never have entered them. + + * * * * * + +The Expulsion of the English Jews was an event of small importance +alike in English and in Jewish history. In England the effect that +it produced was barely perceptible. The loss of their capital was +too slight to produce any economic change.[286] The only class that +benefited from their departure was the Florentine merchants, whose +trade grew from this time even greater than before.[287] Political +results of importance have sometimes been attributed to the Expulsion. +The victory of the towns over the King has been said to have been +hastened by the loss of the financial support of the Jews.[288] +But it cannot have come any the sooner for the disappearance of a +community from whom the King had long ceased to get any real help +in his enterprises abroad, or in his struggles at home. The trading +classes still complained after the Expulsion, as they had done before +it, of the prevalence of the “horrible practice of usury, which has +undone many, and brought many to poverty,”[289] and the “horrible +practice” prevailed none the less; and perhaps the poorer agricultural +classes of England, the newly enfeoffed rent-payers, found, as did the +corresponding class in France,[290] that the expulsion of the Jews +only compelled them to go to more cruel money-lenders than before. +The coin was clipped as regularly after the Expulsion as before it, +and the Christian goldsmiths were as rigorously treated as the Jewish +money-lenders had been.[291] The Church, which had helped to drive out +the Jews, soon found itself in conflict with Christian heresy, compared +with which Jewish unbelief was harmless. + +The Jews, on their side, were driven from a land which thirty-five +years earlier they had begged in vain to be allowed to leave.[292] +They went forth to join the far greater bodies of their countrymen in +other lands, and with them to fulfil the career of sorrow that they +had begun. The loss of their inhospitable home in England was but one +episode in their tragic history. From France they were again to be +expelled, despoiled and destitute.[293] In Germany the blood-accusation +met them as in England.[294] In Spain popular massacres and clerical +persecution were already preparing the ground for the Inquisition.[295] +The time was still far off when Jew and Christian could live side +by side and neither suffer because he would not worship after his +neighbour’s fashion. That time could not come until society was more +heterogeneous, and the circles of interest of ordinary men wider, than +they could be in the thirteenth century, until the citizen ceased to +live his life, bodily and spiritual, within the walls of his native +town, under the shadow of the Church. + + + + + FOOTNOTES: + +[1] J. Jacobs, _Jews of Angevin England_, 43–4; 64–5. + +[2] Cf. the account of the litigation of Richard of Anesty in +Palgrave’s _Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth_, Vol. II. +(Proofs and Illustrations), pp. xxiv.–xxvii. + +[3] See Jewries of Oxford and Winchester, in the plans in Norgate’s +_England under Angevin Kings_, I., pp. 31, 40; and Jewry of London, +described in _Papers of Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition_, pp. 20–52. + +[4] _Chronica Rogeri de Hoveden_ (Rolls Series) II., 261; _Gesta +Henrici II. et Ricardi I._ (Rolls Series), I. 279. + +[5] _Gesta Henrici II. et Ricardi I._ (R. S.), I. 182; _Chronica Rogeri +de Hoveden_ (R. S.), II. 137. + +[6] Depping, _Les Juifs dans le Moyen Age_, 170; Jacobs’ _The Jews of +Angevin England_, 54, 178; _Statutes of the Realm_ (Edition of 1810), +I. 202 (Judicium Pillorie) and 203 (Statutum de Pistoribus). See also +_Leet Jurisdiction in Norwich_ (Selden Society, 1891), p. 28, where, in +a list of amercements inflicted at the Leet of Nedham and Manecroft, +the following entry occurs:--“De Johanne le Pastemakere quia vendidit +Carnes quas Judei vocant trefa, 2s.” + +[7] Mansi, _Sacrorum Conciliorum Collectio_, Venice, 1775, XX. 399; +Wilkins, _Concilia Magnae Britanniae_, I. 591, 675, 719; _Gesta Henrici +II. et Ricardi I._ (R. S.), I. 230. _Chronica Rogeri de Hoveden_ +(R. S.), II. 180. + +[8] Cf. the words of John’s Charter: “Libertates et consuetudines sicut +eas habuerunt tempore Henrici avi patris nostri.”--_Rotuli Chartarum_, +p. 93. + +[9] _Recueil des Historiens des Croisades--Historiens Occidentaux_ +(Paris, 1866), III. 321, 727. Cf. especially (p. 727), Altaria suis +foeditatibus inquinata subvertunt, Christianos circumcidunt, cruoremque +circumcisionis aut super altaria fundunt aut in vasis baptisterii +immergunt (Roberti Monachi, _Historia Iherosolimitana_). + +[10] Neubauer and Stern, _Hebräische Berichte über +die Judenverfolgungen während der Kreuzzüge_; Hefele, +_Conciliengeschichte_, V., 224, 270; Graetz, _Geschichte der Juden_ +(second edition) VI., 89–107. + +[11] C. U. Hahn, _Geschichte der Ketzer im Mittelalter_, III. 17. + +[12] Graetz, _Geschichte der Juden_ (second edition), VI., 155–170. Cf. +Hefele, V., 498, _n._ 2. + +[13] Jacobs, _Op. Cit._, 20, 257. + +[14] _Historia et Cartularium Monasterii S. Petri Gloucestriae_ +(R. S.), I., 21; _Chronica Jocelini de Brakelonda_ (Camden Society), +12, 113–14; _Annales Monastici_ (R. S.), I., 343, II., 347; Matt. +Paris, _Chronica Majora_ (R. S.), IV., 377, V., 518; Jacobs’ _Jews of +Angevin England_, 19; and cf. _Chronicles of Reigns of Stephen, Henry +II., Richard I._ (Rolls Series), I., 311. + +[15] _Materials for History of Thomas Becket_ (Rolls Series), IV. 148; +Jacobs, _Jews of Angevin England_, 43, 155. + +[16] Cf. the protection given to Jews of Norwich by the Sheriff +(Jacobs, 257). + +[17] _Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II., and Richard I._ +(Rolls Series), I. 294–9. + +[18] Radulfi de Diceto, _Opera Historica_ (R.S.), II. 75–6. Jacobs, +_Jews of Angevin England_, 176; _Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, +Henry II., and Richard I._ (Rolls Series), I. 309–10, 312–322. + +[19] _Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II., and Richard I._ +(R.S.) I. 323–4. + +[20] Jacobs, _Jews of Angevin England_, pp. 91–6; Gervase of Canterbury +(R.S.) I. 422. + +[21] Enormous wealth was possessed by Abraham fil Rabbi, Jurnet of +Norwich and Aaron of Lincoln. Jacobs, _Op. Cit._, 44, 64, 84, 90, 91. + +[22] Rymer, _Fœdera_ I. 51. + +[23] _Chronica Rogeri de Hoveden_ (R.S.), III. 266–7. + +[24] _Chronicon Johannis Brompton_ in Twysden’s _Historiæ Anglicanæ +Scriptores_ X., col. 1258. + +[25] _Rotuli Chartarum_ (Record Commission), p. 93. + +[26] Tovey, _Anglia Judaica_, 81. + +[27] _Gesta Henrici II. et Ricard. I._ (R.S.), II. 218; M. Paris, +_Chronica Majora_ (R.S.) II. 381, and Jacobs, 162–4. + +[28] Jacobs, 222, 228–30, 239–40. + +[29] _Ibid._, 328. + +[30] Jacobs, 222. + +[31] M. Paris, _Chronica Majora_ (R.S.) II. 528; _Annales Monastici_ +(R.S.) I. 29, II. 264, III. 32, 451; _Chronicles of Lanercost_ +(Maitland Club), p. 7. + +[32] M. Paris, _Chronica Majora_ II., 528. + +[33] Depping, _Les Juifs dans le Moyen Age_, 185. + +[34] Bouquet, _Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France_, +xvii. 9. + +[35] Depping, _Les Juifs dans le Moyen Age_, 59, 60, 185, 194. Cf. +_Rotuli Chartarum_, I. 75 (_Carta Willielmi Marescalli, de quodam +Judaeo apud Cambay_). + +[36] Tovey, _Anglia Judaica_, 78–9. + +[37] Stamford was an exception in this respect, Madox, _Firma Burgi_ p. +182. + +[38] Et Judæi non intrabunt in placitum nisi coram nobis aut coram +illis, qui turres nostras custodierint in quorum ballivis Judæi +manserint, _Rot. Chart._, 93. + +[39] Cutts, _Colchester_, 123; Tovey, _Anglia J._, 50; _Forty-Seventh +Report of Deputy-Keeper of Public Records_, 306; Lyte, _History of +the University of Oxford_, 59; _Papers of Anglo-Jewish Historical +Exhibition_, 35–6; _De Antiquis Legibus Liber_ (Camden Soc.), p. +16, (A.D. 1249, Nam rex concessit quod Judei qui antea warantizati +fuerunt per breve de scaccario, de cetero placitassent coram civibus +de tenementis suis in Londoniis). _Chronica Jocelini de Brakelonda_ +(Camden Soc.), p. 2, (Venit Judeus portans literas domini regis de +debito sacristæ). + +[40] Cp. _Chronica Monasterii de Melsa_ (R.S.), I., 177. Interea +mortuus est Aaron Judæus Lincolniæ, de quo jam dictum est, et compulsi +sumus, regis edicto totum quod illi debuimus pro Willielmo Fossard +infra breve tempus domino regi persolvere. + +[41] Rymer, _Fœdera_, I., 89. + +[42] _Calendar of Patent Rolls from 1281 to 1292_, p. 15; Tovey, +_Anglia Judaica_, 77, 78, 79. + +[43] Tovey, 101; _Norfolk Antiquarian Miscellany_, I., 326. + +[44] _Annales Monastici_ (Rolls Series), iv. 91. + +[45] Especially irritating must have been the fact that the one +restriction on the business of Jews, as money-lenders, was the order +that forbade them to take in pledge the land of tenants on the royal +demesne. W. Prynne, _The Second Part of a Short Demurrer to the Jews’ +long discontinued remitter_, etc., London, 1656, p. 35; _Norfolk +Antiquarian Miscellany_, I. 328. + +[46] _Chronica Jocelini de Brakelonda_ (Camden Society), p. 33. + +[47] Thompson, _Leicester_, 72; Madox, _Hist. of Exchequer_, I. 260, +notes O and P; J. E. Blunt, _Establishment and Residence of Jews in +England_, 45; Papers Anglo-J. H. Ex. 190; Prynne, _The Second Part of +a Short Demurrer_, etc., p. 37; _Norfolk Antiquarian Miscellany_, I. +326, (De Judeis dicebant quod major multitudo manet in civitate sua +quam solebat, et quod Judei qui aliis locis dissainati (_sic_) fuerunt +venerunt ibidem manere ad dampnum civitatis). + +[48] Prynne, _The Second Part of a Short Demurrer_, etc., p. 75; Madox, +_History of the Exchequer_, I. 249: Et quod nullus Judaeus receptetur +in aliqua villa sine speciali licentia Regis, nisi in villis illis in +quibus Judaei manere consueverunt. + +[49] Jacobs, _Jews of Angevin England_, 269–271. + +[50] M. Paris, _Chronica Majora_, V. 245. Cf. the article in the +Constitutions enacted by Walter de Cantilupe, Bishop of Worcester, at +his diocesan synod in 1240: Quia vero parum refert, an quis per se vel +per alium incidat in crimen usurarum, prohibemus ne quis Christianus +Judæo pecuniam committat, ut eam Judæus simulate suo nomine proprio +mutuet ad usuram. Wilkins, _Magnæ Britanniæ Concilia_, I. 675, 676. +Stubbs, _Select Charters_, 385–6. + +[51] For the nature and duration of the earlier struggle between the +king and the barons, see Stubbs, _Constitutional History of England_ +(Library Edition), II., 40, 44, 63, 67, 69–77. For the king’s acts of +extortion from the Jews, see Matthew Paris, _Chronica Majora_, III., +194, 543; IV., 88; V., 114, 274, 441, 487; Madox, _History of the +Exchequer_, I., 224–5, 229; Prynne, _Second Part of a Short Demurrer_, +40, 48, 66, 70, 75, 57. For the appointment by the Council of one +Justice of the Jews, M. Paris, _Chronica Majora_, iv. 367. + +[52] Stubbs, _Select Charters_, 385–6. + +[53] _Annales Monastici_, II. 101, 363, 371, III. 230, IV. 141, +142, 145, 449, 450; _Liber de Antiquis Legibus_ (Camden Society), +62; _Chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft_ (R. S.), II., 151; _Chronicle +of William de Rishanger_ (Camden Society), 24, 25, 126; _Florentii +Wigorniensis Chronicon ex Chronicis_ (English Historical Society), II. +192. + +[54] Tout, _Edward I._, 13, 39. + +[55] Palgrave, _Rotuli Curiæ Regis_ (Record Commission), II., 62 +(Judaei habeant seisinam); _Gesta abbatum Monasterii S. Albani_ +(R. S.), I., 401; _Placitorum Abbreviatio_ (Record Commission), p. 58; +Jacobs, pp. 90, 234. + +[56] _Chronicles of the Abbey of Melsa_ (Rolls Series), I., 173, 174, +306, 367, 374, 377; II., 55, 109, 116; _Archæological Journal_, vol. +38, pp. 189, 190, 191, 192. + +[57] Blunt, _Establishment and Residence of the Jews in England_, 136; +Prynne, _Second Part of a Short Demurrer_, p. 105. + +[58] A very long list of landowners indebted to the Jews could be +extracted from Madox, _History of Exchequer_, Vol. I., p. 227, _sq._ +Cf. Prynne, _Second Part_, etc., pp. 96, 98, 106; _Calendar of Patent +Rolls from 1281 to 1292_, p. 25. + +[59] _Gesta Henrici II._ (R. S.), I., 106; _Giraldi Cambrensis Opera_ +(R. S.), VII., 36; _Cronica Jocelini de Brakelonda_ (Camden Soc.), p. 2. + +[60] III., 328. + +[61] V. 189. + +[62] _Letters of John of Peckham_ (Rolls Series), I., 20, 156. + +[63] _Ibid._, I., 203. + +[64] _Ibid._, I., 341. + +[65] _Ibid._, I., 177, 187. + +[66] Roberts, _Excerpta e Rot. Finium_ (Record Commission), II., 68. + +[67] _Letters of John of Peckham_, I., 261. + +[68] _Ibid._, I., 380. + +[69] _Ibid._, I., 194. + +[70] _Obedientiary Rolls of S. Swithin’s, Winchester_ (Hampshire Record +Society), 1892, pp. 10, 18. + +[71] _Letters of John of Peckham_, I., 244; Kitchin, _Winchester_, 55; +_Obedientiary Rolls of S. Swithin’s_, pp. 22, 25. + +[72] Cf. _Letters of John of Peckham_, I., 542. + +[73] Tovey, _Anglia Judaica_, 175–7. + +[74] _Gesta Abbatum Monasterii S. Albani_ (Rolls Series), I. 401; +_Placitorum Abbreviatio_ (Record Commission), p. 58, col. 2. + +[75] _De Antiquis Legibus Liber_ (Camden Society), 234 _sq._ + +[76] Hefele, _Conciliengeschichte_, V., 1028. + +[77] _Annales Monastici_ (R.S.), IV., 221. + +[78] Blunt, _Establishment and Residence_, etc., 134–9. + +[79] Stubbs, _Constitutional History_, II., 116. + +[80] Ashley, _Economic History and Theory_, I., 126–32, 148–50. + +[81] Hefele, _Conciliengeschichte_, V., 175. + +[82] _Ibid._, 438–441. + +[83] Jacobs, _The Jews of Angevin England_, 23. + +[84] _Corpus Juris Canonici_ (Leipzig, 1839), II., 786. + +[85] Raumer, _Geschichte der Hohenstaufen und ihrer Zeit_, III., 581. + +[86] Endemann. _Studien in der Romanisch-Kanonistischen Wirthschafts- +und Rechtslehre_, I., 16–18. Stintzing, _Geschichte der Populären +Literatur des Römisch-Canonischen Rechts_. + +[87] + + E pero lo minor giron suggella, + Del segno suo e Sodoma e Caorsa. + _Inferno_, XI. 49, 50. + +[88] _Monumenta Franciscana_ (Rolls Series), XLV., L., 10, 38–9, 61. + +[89] Macpherson, _Annals of Commerce_, I., 399–400. + +[90] M. Paris, _Chronica Majora_, V., 245. + +[91] _Ibid._, III., 48. + +[92] _Ibid._, III., 332–3. + +[93] _Ibid._, IV., 8. + +[94] M. Paris, _Historia Anglorum_, III., 104. + +[95] Ashley, _Economic History and Theory_, I. 150; Labbeus, +_Sacrosancta Concilia_, xi. 991, 2. + +[96] Depping, _Les Juifs dans le Moyen Age_, 202, 207; Muratori, +_Antiquitates Italicæ Medii Aevi_, I. 899, 900; _Ninth Report of the +Historical Manuscripts Commission_, p. 14 (No. 264). + +[97] _Forty-fourth Report of Deputy-Keeper of Public Records_, pp. 8, +9, 72; _The Question whether a Jew_, etc., by a Gentleman of Lincoln’s +Inn (London, 1753), Appendix, § 18. + +[98] Jacobs, 328. + +[99] _Papers Anglo-Jewish Hist. Exhibition_, 195. + +[100] Stubbs’ _Constitutional History_, II. 601. + +[101] Rymer, _Foedera_, I. 489. Cf. _Jewish Chronicle_ for April 26, +1895, p. 19, col. 2. + +[102] _Chronicles Ed. I. and II._ (ed. Stubbs), Vol. I., p. C. Cf. +_Forty-second Report of Deputy-Keeper of Public Records_, p. 479 (At +the beginning of his reign Edward says, in his writs to the sheriffs, +“Pecuniæ plurimum indigemus”). _Forty-third Report_, 419. + +[103] Muratori, _Antiquitates Italicæ Medii Aevi_ (Dissertatio XVI); +Depping, _Les Juifs dans le Moyen Age_, 213–6; Rymer, _Foedera_, I., +644. + +[104] Macpherson, _Annals of Commerce_, I. 405, 6; and see Peruzzi, +_Storia del Commercio e dei Banchieri di Firenze_, 170. + +[105] Peruzzi, 169; _Archaeologia_, xxviii. 218, 219. + +[106] Muratori, _Antiquitates Italicæ Medii Aevi_, I. 889. + +[107] _Archaeologia_, xxviii. 221; Cunningham, _Growth of English +Industry and Commerce, Early and Middle Ages_, Appendix D; Peruzzi, +_Storia del Commercio_, 70. + +[108] Rymer, _Foedera_, I. 660, 823, 905. + +[109] _Archaeologia_, xxviii. 261–272. + +[110] Rymer, _Foedera_, I. 644, 788. + +[111] Peruzzi, 174. + +[112] _Archaeologia_, xxviii. 244–5. + +[113] _Ibid._, 231, Note 1. + +[114] Peruzzi, 172–5. + +[115] _The Question whether a Jew_, etc. Appendix, § 18. Prynne, _A +Short Demurrer_, 58. + +[116] Blunt, _Establishment and Residence_, etc., 139–144. + +[117] Thomas Aquinas, _Opusculum_, XXI. (_Ad Ducissam Brabantiae_ in +Vol. XIX. of the Venice edition, 1775–88.) + +[118] M. Paris, _Chronica Majora_, V. 361, 2. + +[119] Blunt, _Establishment and Residence_, etc., 141. + +[120] This is the number of those who left the country in 1290. _Flores +Historiarum_ (Rolls Series), iii. 70. Probably the number of those in +the country in 1275 was about the same. + +[121] Gross, _The Gild Merchant_, I. 38. + +[122] _Ibid._, I., 39–40. + +[123] _Ibid._, II., 68, 138, 214, 243, 257. + +[124] One Jew alone is known to have become a member of a Gild +during the residence of the Jews in England before 1290. He became a +citizen at the same time. His election took place in 1268 (Kitchin’s +_Winchester--Historic Towns Series_, p. 108). After 1275 it would have +been illegal. + +[125] Gross, _The Gild Merchant_, I. 41. + +[126] Gross. _The Gild Merchant_, I. 45, 46, 47. + +[127] _Liber Custumarum_ (Rolls Series), 215. + +[128] Ochenkowski, _Englands Wirthschaftliche Entwickelung im Ausgange +des Mittelalters_, 51–4. + +[129] _Liber Custumarum_ (Rolls Series) 80–81, 101–2, 121; _Liber +Albus_ (Rolls Series), 726, 734. Riley, _Memorials of London_, 179. + +[130] Johnson, _Customs of Hereford_, 115–6. + +[131] _Liber Custumarum_, 418–425. + +[132] _Liber Custumarum_, 78, 81, 124. Riley, _Memorials of London_, +179, 216. + +[133] _Liber Custumarum_, 79, Ochenkowski, _Op. Cit._, 64. + +[134] Stubbs, _Select Charters_, 470. + +[135] Jacobs, 116. + +[136] Walsingham, _Historia Anglicana_ (Rolls Series), I. 30. + +[137] M. Paris, _Chronica Majora_, v. 56–8. + +[138] Ochenkowski, _Englands wirthschaftliche Entwickelung_, 157. + +[139] Cunningham, _Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Early and +Middle Ages_, 175. + +[140] _Liber Custumarum_ (Rolls Series), xxxiv.–xlviii., 61–72; _Liber +Albus_, xcv., xcvi., 287; Macpherson, _Annals of Commerce_, I. 388–9. + +[141] _Liber Custumarum_ and _Liber Albus_, as referred to in preceding +note: Cunningham, _Growth of English Industry and Commerce, Early +and Middle Ages_, 181–6; Ochenkowski, _Englands wirthschaftliche +Entwickelung_, 180; _Calendar of State Papers (Venetian)_, lx.–lxix.; +Peruzzi, _Storia dei Banchieri e del Commercio di Firenze_, 70. + +[142] Cunningham, _Growth_, etc., 185; Macpherson, _Annals of +Commerce_, pp. 415, 481; _Calendar of State Papers (Venetian)_, +lxvi.–lxvii. + +[143] Jacobs, 66–7; _Archæological Journal_, xxxviii. 179. + +[144] This was the procedure adopted by the Italians: They paid down a +sum as earnest-money, and then took a bond (Peruzzi, 70). Cf. Tovey, +207. + +[145] For pledges still unredeemed, land still in the hands of the Jews +and old debts still unpaid long after the Statutes of 1270–1275 had +been passed, see MSS. in Public Record Office (_Queen’s Remembrancer’s +Miscellanea_, 557, 13–23); Rymer, I. 570; John of Peckham, I. 937; +_Calendar of Patent Rolls_, 1281–1292, p. 81; Prynne, _Second +Demurrer_, pp. 74 and 80 (=154). + +[146] Labbeus, _Sacrosancta Concilia_, XI. 649–50. + +[147] Vinogradoff, _Villeinage in England_, 179, 307. + +[148] M. Paris, V. 245; Wilkins, _Conc._, I. 675; _De Antiq. Legibus_, +234 sq. (Archbishop of York’s remarks on the corruption of the Great +Council and on the _fautores_ of Jews.) + +[149] M. Paris, _Chronica Majora_, V. 404–5. + +[150] Muratori, _Antiquitates Italicæ Medii Aevi_, I., 893. + +[151] _Rotuli Parliamentorum_, I. 1, 2. + +[152] “The Debts and Houses of the Jews of Hereford,” in _Transactions +of the Jewish Historical Society of England_, vol. I. + +[153] _Royal Letters_ (Rolls Series), II. 24. + +[154] _Leet Jurisdiction of Norwich_ (Selden Society), p. 10; Cf. +_Ancren Riwle_ (Camden Society), 395. “Do not men account him a good +friend who layeth his pledge in _Jewry_ to redeem his companion?” + +[155] Rymer, _Foedera_, I. 503, 634; _Papers of the Anglo-Jewish +Historical Exhibition_, 187–190. + +[156] _Norfolk Antiquarian Miscellany_, I. 326, quoted _supra_, p. 20 +(_n._ 3). + +[157] _Calendar of Patent Rolls_, 1281–1292, p. 98; _Papers +Anglo-Jewish Hist. Ex._ 167. + +[158] See _Dictionary of Political Economy_, Article JEWS, (House for +Converted). + +[159] _Chronica Majora_, V. 15. + +[160] _Annales Monastici_ (Rolls Series), II. 339. + +[161] M. Paris, _Chronica Majora_, V. 15, 16. + +[162] Ruding, _Annals of the Coinage_, I. 179. + +[163] Ashley, _Economic Hist., Theory_, I. 169. + +[164] Ashley, I., 215, n. 95; cf. Jacobs, 73 and 225. + +[165] _Annales Monastici_ (Rolls Series), IV. 278. + +[166] _Annales Monastici_, IV. 278; _Liber Custumarum_, 189. + +[167] John of Peckham, _Registrum Epistolarum_ (Rolls Series), I. 22. + +[168] _Annales Monastici_, III. 295. + +[169] _Historia Anglorum_, III. 76. + +[170] Tovey, 109; Madox, _History of the Exchequer_ I. 245, z. + +[171] M. Paris, _Chronica Majora_, IV. 608. + +[172] _Ibid._, V., 16. + +[173] _Annales Monastici_, IV. 278. + +[174] _Calendar of Patent Rolls from 1281 to 1292_, 128, 147, 173, 176, +213, 291, 451; _Chron. Ed. I._, I. 93; _Rotuli Parliamentorum_, I. 51a; +Rymer, _Fœdera_, I., 570. + +[175] _Papers Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition_, 42–3. + +[176] Tovey, 211–13. + +[177] _Chronicles of Edward I. and Edward II._ (Rolls Series), I., 88; +_Chronicon Petroburgense_ (Camden Society), 29. + +[178] “Whereas in the time of our ancestors, kings of England, loans at +interest were wont and were allowed to be made by Jews of our kingdom, +and much of such profits fell into the hands of those our ancestors, +as the issues of our Jewry; and we, led on by the love of God, and +wishing to follow more devoutly in the path of the Holy Church, did +forbid unto all the Jews of our kingdom who had viciously lived from +such loans, that none of them henceforth in any manner be guilty of +resorting to loans at interest, but that they seek their living and +sustain themselves by other legitimate work and merchandise, especially +since by the favour of Holy Church they are suffered to sell and live +among Christians. Nevertheless, afterwards, in a blind and evil spirit, +turning to evil, under colour of merchandise and good contracts and +covenants, what we established by rational thought, premeditating +mischief anew, they do it with Christians by means of bonds and divers +instruments, which remain with the Jews, and in which, on a given debt +or contract, they put double, treble, or quadruple more than they lend +to the Christians [this reads like an exaggeration], penally abusing +the name of usury....” (_Papers Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition_, +225–6). + +[179] For Coining, see Ruding, _Annals of the Coinage_ I. 197; +_Calendar of Patent Rolls from 1281 to 1292_, 97; _Abbreviatio +Rotulorum Originalium_ (Record Commission), 49; Peckham, _Registrum +Epistolarum_, I. 146. For Usury, _Forty-fourth Report of the +Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records_, pp. 8 and 9; _Archæologia_, +XXVIII., 227–9; Peckham, II., 542; and for a later period, _Rotuli +Parliamentorum_, II. 332_a_, (VII.) 350_b_. + +[180] _Papers of Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition_, p. 192 (note 54) +and p. 222. + +[181] _Papers of Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition_, pp. 224–9. + +[182] See the Decrees of the Third Lateran Council of 1179, Mansi, +_Concilia_, XXII., 231. + +[183] St. Anselm, _Epistolæ_, III., 117 (Migne, _Patrologiæ Cursus +Completus_, Vol. 159, columns 153–155); Gilbert of Westminster, +_Disputatio Judaici cum Christiano_ (_Ibid._ 1005–1036). + +[184] _Chronicles of Stephen, Henry II., and Richard I._ (Rolls +Series), I., 310 (among the victims of the massacre at Lynn in 1190 +was _quidam Judæus, insignis medicus, qui et artis et modestiæ suæ +gratia Christianis quoque familiaris et honorabilis fuerat_); _Gervase +of Canterbury_ (Rolls Series), I., 405. (The Jews help the monks of +Canterbury in their struggle with the Archbishop in 1188); _Rotuli +Litterarum Clausarum_ (Record Commission), I., 20_b_. (_Rex, &c., +domino Lincolniensi Episcopo, &c.; mandamus vobis quod non permittatis +injuste catalle Judæorum receptari in ecclesiis in diocesi vestra_, +February 28th, 1205); _Chronica Jocelini de Brakelonde_ (Camden +Society), p. 33. (A.D. 1190, _Abbas jussit solempniter excommunicari +illos qui de cetero receptarent Judeos vel in hospicio reciperent in +villa Santi Ædmundi_); Jacobs, _The Jews of Angevin England_, 269. +(“_English Jews drink with Gentiles._”) + +[185] Moeller, _History of the Christian Church, Middle Ages_ (Eng. +Tr.). p. 279. + +[186] Mansi, _Concilia_, XXII. 231. + +[187] Letters of Innocent (Migne, _Patrologiæ Cursus Completus_, +Vols. 214–217); Lib. VII., 186; Lib. VIII., 50, 121; Lib. X., 61, +190; _Corpus Juris Canonici_ (Leipzig, 1839), II., 747–8; Graetz, +_Geschichte der Juden_, VII., 7, 8; Depping, _Les Juifs dans le +Moyen Age_, 183; Hahn, _Geschichte der Ketzer_, III., 6, 7; Hurter, +_Geschichte Papst Innocenz des Dritten_, II., 234; Güdemann, +_Geschichte des Erziehungswesens, u.s.w._, I., 37; Rule, _History of +the Inquisition_, I. 10, 17. + +[188] Graetz, _Geschichte der Juden_, VII., 27. + +[189] _Revue des Etudes Juives_, I. 247, 293; II. 248; III. 39; Noel +Valois, _Guillaume d’Auvergne_, pp. 118, 137. + +[190] _Histoire Littéraire de la France_, XXVII., 562–3; Graetz, +_Geschichte_, VII., 131, 135. + +[191] Graetz, _Geschichte der Juden_, VII., 135; J. Jacobs, _Inquiry +into the Sources of the History of the Jews in Spain_, xviii., 18. + +[192] _Scriptores Ordinis Prædicatorum_ (Quétif and Echard), I., 246, +396, 398, 594. + +[193] Thomas Aquinas, _Summa Theologiæ_, Secunda Secundæ, Quæstio X. + +[194] Baronius, _Annales Ecclesiastici_ (ed. Theiner), XIII., 87. + +[195] _Revue des Etudes Juives_, VI. 81; VII. 94. + +[196] Mansi, _Concilia_, XXIII., 1174–6; Martène, _Thesaurus_, IV., 769. + +[197] Depping, 198; Hahn, _Geschichte der Ketzer_, III., 13; Rule, +_History of the Inquisition_, 27, 80, 81, 91, 332, 335–6. + +[198] _Supra_, p. 53. + +[199] _Supra_, pp. 12, 13, 19. + +[200] Wilkins, _Magnæ Britanniæ Concilia_, I., 591; Tovey, _Anglia +Judaica_, 83; Rye, _History of Norfolk_, 87. + +[201] Wilkins, _Magnæ Britanniæ Concilia_, I., 657, 693, 719; _Letters +of Bishop Grosseteste_ (Rolls Series), 318. + +[202] Matthew Paris, _Chronica Majora_, III., 262. + +[203] Tovey, _Anglia Judaica_, 148. + +[204] Rymer, _Fœdera_, I., 743. + +[205] Tout, _Edward I._, pp. 69, 149. + +[206] John of Peckham, _Registrum Epistolarum_ (Rolls Series), I., 239; +II., 407; III., 937; Wilkins, _Magnæ Britanniæ Concilia_, II., 88–9; +Prynne, _Second Demurrer_, 121–2. + +[207] _Household Roll of Bishop Swinfield_ (Camden Society), pp. c., ci. + +[208] Graetz, _Geschichte der Juden_, VII., note 11. _Florence of +Worcester_ (English Historical Society), II., 214. + +[209] Tovey, _Anglia Judaica_, 168. + +[210] _Forty-ninth Report of the Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records_, +p. 187. + +[211] _Forty-seventh Report of the Deputy-Keeper of the Public +Records_, p. 306. + +[212] _Dictionary of Political Economy_, Article, “Jews (House for +Converted).” + +[213] Tovey, _Anglia Judaica_, 208. + +[214] _Forty-ninth Report of the Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records_, +p. 95; Rymer, I., 576; Madox, _Exchequer_, I., 259. + +[215] Tovey, p. 208. + +[216] Baronius, _Annales Ecclesiastici_ (ed. Theiner), XIII., 10, 11. + +[217] _Revue des Etudes Juives_, I., 298. + +[218] Rymer, I., 560–1. + +[219] Edward left England in May, 1286. _Florence of Worcester_ +(English Historical Society), II., 236. + +[220] _Willelmi Rishanger Chronica et Annales_ (Rolls Series), 116; +_Flores Historiarum_ (Rolls Series), III., 70–71. + +[221] _Forty-second Report of the Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records_, +593; _Forty-fourth Report_, 109, 295; _Forty-fifth Report_, 72, 163; +_Forty-ninth Report_, 81; _Calendar of Patent Rolls from 1281 to 1292_, +62, 193; _Archæologia_, VI., 339; Madox, _History of the Exchequer_, I. +225 _w_; 230 _b_; 231 _l_; John of Peckham, _Registrum Epistolarum_, +II. 619; III., 937; Rogers, _Oxford City Documents_ (Oxford Historical +Society), 208, 219; Tovey, _Anglia Judaica_, 200. + +[222] Graetz, _Geschichte der Juden_ (Second Edition), VII., note 11. + +[223] _Chronicles of Edward I. and Edward II._ (Rolls Series), I., 97; +_The Chronicle of Pierre de Langtoft_ (Rolls Series), II., 185–6. + +[224] Tovey, _Anglia Judaica_, 240. + +[225] _Bartholomæi de Cotton, Historia Anglicana_ (Rolls Series), p. +178. + +[226] Tovey, _Anglia Judaica_, 240–2. + +[227] _Ib._ 241; _Calendar of Patent Rolls from 1281 to 1292_, 378, +381, 382. + +[228] _Calendar of Patent Rolls_, 379. + +[229] _Ib._ 384. + +[230] _Ib._ 232. + +[231] Walter of Hemingburgh, _Chronicon_ (English Historical Society), +I., 21, 22; Bartholomæus Cotton, _Historia Anglicana_ (Rolls Series), +178; _Annales Monastici_, III., 362, IV., 327. + +[232] _Opus Chronicorum_ in _Chronicles of S. Albans, J. de Trokelowe, +etc., Annales_ (Rolls Series), 57. + +[233] Laurière, _Ordonnances des Rois de la France_, I., 317. + +[234] _Fortieth Report of Deputy-Keeper of Public Records_, p. 474. + +[235] _Revue des Etudes Juives_, Vol. I., pp. 66, 67, 69. + +[236] Graetz, VII., 267. + +[237] _Ibid._, 155. + +[238] Langtoft, II., 189; Hemingburgh, II., 21; Madox, _Exch._, I., 261. + +[239] Johnson, _Customs of Hereford_, p. 100; Madox, _Firma Burgi_, +12, 19, 23. I am not at all confident of the accuracy of Mr. Johnson’s +statement, on which the latter half of this sentence is founded. +Certainly some of the houses of the Jews of Hereford, Winchester, and +Ipswich, were granted away by the king (_Lansdowne MSS._, British +Museum, Vol. 826, part 5, Transcript 4), _Rotuli Originalium_ (Record +Commission), I., 73_b_–76_a_. + +[240] _Papers Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition_, p. 230. + +[241] _Rotuli Parliamentorum_, I., 346_b_; II., 8_a_, 402_a_; _Statutes +of Realm, 1 Ed. III._, Stat. 2, § 3. + +[242] Tovey, 235; Prynne, _Second Demurrer_, 127; _Papers, Anglo-Jewish +Historical Exhibition_, 21. + +[243] A list, not quite complete, of the houses belonging to the +expelled Jews is contained in the Manuscript known as _Q. R. +Miscellanea_: “Jews,” No. 557, 9 and 11 (Public Record Office). A list +of persons who received from the King grants of Jews’ houses, to hold +at a nominal rental, is printed in _Rotulorum Originalium Abbreviatio_ +(Record Commission) pp. 73a-76b, and the deeds of gift are copied in +full in _Lansdowne MSS._ (British Museum) Vol. 826, Part 5, Transcript +4. Nearly all the houses mentioned in _Q. R. Miscellanea_ are granted +away by deeds included in the _Rotuli Originalium_ and the Lansdowne +Transcript. + +[244] Madox, _Exch._ I. 2, 248_h_, 258_i_, etc.; Tovey, 207; Prynne, +_2nd Demurrer_, 59, 76; Rymer, _Fœdera_, 523, 598. + +[245] _Chronica Monasterii de Melsa_ (Rolls Series), II., 251–2. +_Annales Monastici_, III., 362; W. de Hemingburgh, _Chronicon_ (English +Historical Society) II., 22. + +[246] Parliament was summoned for July 15th; see Parliamentary Paper +69, of 1878 (H. of C.) “Parliaments of England.” The writs ordering the +Expulsion were issued on July the 18th; see Tovey, 240. + +[247] French Chronicler of London, in Riley’s _Chronicles of Old +London_, 242. + +[248] _Annales Monastici_, II., 409. + +[249] _Ib._, III., 361. + +[250] W. de Hemingburgh, II., 20. + +[251] _Chronicles of Edward I. and Edward II._ (Rolls Series) Vol. I. +99 (“Omnes Judæi ... _concedente_ Rege Edwardo ... exulantur”). + +[252] _The Chronicle of Pierre Langtoft_ (Rolls Series), II., 187–89. + +[253] Cum ... concesserimus Karissimæ matri nostrae Aleanorae Reginae +Angliae quod nullus Judaeus habitet vel moretur in quibuscunque villis +quas ipsa mater nostra habet in dotem.... _Papers of the Anglo-Jewish +Historical Exhibition_, pp. 187–8. _Forty-fourth Report of the Deputy +Keeper of the Public Records_, p. 6. Graetz, _Geschichte der Juden_ +(Second edition), VII., note 11. + +[254] Compare the treatment of the Flemings, who settled as weavers +in different towns of England soon after the Conquest, but had to +retreat to one district in Wales, where they lived under special royal +protection. Cunningham, _The Growth of English Industry and Commerce_, +176; and see Gross, _Gild Merchant_, II., 155–6. + +[255] Jacobs, 14. + +[256] _Ibid._, 107. + +[257] _Historia Anglorum_, III., 76. + +[258] _Ibid._, III., 103. + +[259] _Chronicles of Edward I. and Edward II._ (Rolls Series), +_Commendatio Lamentabilis_, II., 14. + +[260] M. Paris, _Chronica Majora_, V., 114; _Annales Monastici_, IV., +503; _Gesta Abbatum Monasterii, S. Albani_ (Rolls Series), I., 471. + +[261] _Annales Monastici_, IV., 91; _Norfolk Antiquarian Miscellany_, +I., 331; _Forty-fourth Report of the Deputy-Keeper of the Public +Records_, 188; _De Antiquis Legibus_, Camden Soc., 50; Tovey, 156; +Prynne, _Second Demurrer_, 118. + +[262] Jacobs, 26. + +[263] W. Rishanger, _Chronica et Annales_ (Rolls Series), p. 4. + +[264] M. Paris, _Chronica Majora_, IV. 30, 31. + +[265] Hahn, _Geschichte der Ketzer_, III., 35, n. 2. + +[266] M. Paris, _Chronica Majora_, V. 517; _Annales Monastici_, I. 345. + +[267] _Revue des Etudes Juives_, XVIII., 258; _East Anglian_, V. 10; +Jacobs, 88–9. + +[268] Perrens, _Histoire de Florence_, III., 220–1, 226. Gregorovius, +_Gesch. der Stadt Rom._, V., 308. + +[269] Thomas Aquinas, _Opusculum_, XXI. + +[270] Güdemann, _Gesch. des Erziehungswesens_, etc., II., 287. + +[271] Güdemann, II., 71; _Hist. Litt. de la France_, XXVII., 520. + +[272] Graetz, VII., 97. + +[273] _Ib._, 125–7. + +[274] _Royal Letters_ (Rolls Series), II., 46; Madox, I., 257 _g_; +Rymer, _Fœdera_, I., 356. + +[275] Jacobs, 269. + +[276] JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW, IV., 12, 551; _Hist. Litt. de la +France_, 27, 485, 650, _sq._ + +[277] _Hist. Litt. de France_, XXVII., 27, 650, _sq._ + +[278] _Hist. Litt._, 435, 441, 462, 484, 487, 507, _sq._; JEWISH +QUARTERLY REVIEW, IV., 25. + +[279] Jacobs, 286. + +[280] _Archæological Journal_, XXVIII., 180. + +[281] Cf. L. Zunz, _Die Synagogale Poesie des Mittelalters_, Berlin, +1856. + +[282] Graetz, VII., 6. + +[283] _Ibid._, VI. + +[284] VII., 138; VII., 307–8; VII., 188–9. + +[285] Benjamin of Tudela, trans. Asher, I., 163. + +[286] See the Tables in Thorold Rogers’ _History of Agriculture and +Prices_ Vols. I. and II. + +[287] Peruzzi, _Storia del Commercio e dei Banchieri de Firenze_, 175. + +[288] Papers, _Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition_, p. 211. + +[289] _Rotuli Parliamentorum_, II., 332–350. + +[290] Graetz, VII., 101. + +[291] J. de Trokelowe, etc., _Chronica et Annales_ (Rolls Series), 58; +Ruding, _Annals of the Coinage_ (Third Edition), I., 198–202. + +[292] M. Paris, _Chronica Majora_, V., 441, 487. + +[293] Graetz, VII., 264–7; Depping, 228–9. + +[294] Graetz, VII., 181–8, 252. + +[295] _Ibid._, 163–4, 318–20, 363. + + + + + Transcriber’s Note + + +Some inconsistencies in spelling, hyphenation, and punctuation have +been retained. Obvious punctuation misprints were silently corrected. + +This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text. Small capitals +changed to all capitals. + +Changed “Révue” in “Révue des Etudes Juives” to “Revue” (footnotes 189, +217, 267). + +p. 27: changed “Newneton” to “Newnton” (The Church of Newnton could not +afford clergymen) + +p. 36 n. 4: (footnote 106 in this file) changed “Italicae” to “Italicæ” +(Muratori, Antiquitates Italicæ Medii Aevi, I. 889.) + +p. 47: changed “no” to “not” (where there did not exist a chest) + +p. 55 n. 1: (footnote 187 in this file) changed “der” to “des” +(Geschichte Papst Innocenz des Dritten) + +p. 72: changed “Statue” to “Statute” (conditions imposed by the Statute +of 1275) + +p. 76: added comma in “The king took it for great shame, That” to align +with reference material from attached footnote. It comes from verse. +Verified with source material located on archive.org. + +p. 77: changed “Bradiers” to “Braziers” (Braziers and hosiers, bakers +and shoemakers) + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78599 *** |