317 had the privilege of being raised to the magiftracy (H), and, Their priin most places of the kingdom, to have Christian slaves; which vileges in was attended with very great inconveniences, and often with Languedoc fupenormous abuses (I). A. C. 1236. BUT the greatest perfecution that befel them, during this prefed. Perfecuted interval, was that which was raised against them by the Pa- under St. rifians, in the reign of St. Lewis, on account, as was pre- Lewis, tended, of their facrificing fome Christian children on Good Friday, and ufing their blood on their Paffover-folemnity and for which many of them were cruelly butchered at that metropolis. It did not stop there, but fpread itself into the provinces of Brie, Touraine, Anjou, Poitou, and Maine, where above 2500, who refused to turn Chriftians, were put to the most torturing deaths; and would, in all likelihood, have gone much farther, had not the pope interpofed, and fent a letter to defire that monarch to let them have liberty of confcience. But though this put a stop to their misery at present, it did not prevent their fuffering greatly under the crufade of fhepherds, which was raised during his imprisonment in the Holy Land, in order to go thither to release him; and which was carried on with the fame enthusiastic fury as that which we have mentioned in fpeaking of Spain, and which happened in the fubfequent century. The head of e INNOCENT III. epift. 155. (H) The city of Montpelier in particular had been frequent ly in danger of seeing a Jerv at the head of the magiftracy: upon which account, William IV. lord of it, found himself obliged to forbid it by his laft will, as his grand father had done about fifty years before. Nevertheless, to discharge his confcience, he bequeathed a confiderable fum to one Bonet a Jew, from whom he had received fingular favours (20). This fhews in what credit they were still in thefe fouthern parts. (I) The continuators of Baronius give an inftance of a young Christian woman, who had been by her Jewish mafter inspired (20) Teftament Guillelm. Monfpel. Spicil. tom. ix. p. 145, 161. Bzy. Ann. fub, A. C. 1213. N. 19, Spondan, fub cod, an. Ñ, 25. p. 53. (21) that that mobbish army was an Hungarian named James, first a Mohammedan, then a Ciftertian monk, and now a deferter from that order. He led them firft to Orleans, where he maffacred all the priests and friars he could find; thence marched to Bourges, where he caufed all the Jewish books to be feized, in order to burn them; and fo went on committing the vilest disorders, till they were at length overpowered, Banifhed and a great many of them put to death. We are told of a out of conference which was held on the year following, between France, R. Fechiel, a learned cabbaliftical Jew, and Nicholas Donim, A. C. a famed convert from Judaifm, before Queen Blanche, then $253. regent of the kingdom, and a private encourager of this new crufade. The Christians and Jews give us different accounts of the fuccefs of it (K); but that St. Lewis was no friend to the Jews, plainly appears from the edict, which he sent whilst under his confinement, to have them banished out of France, which his queen regent punctually executed, and died on the year following. The Jews. however pretend, that it was the king himself that banished them after his return. Recalled, 1275. THEY were recalled in the next reign by Philip the Bold, a prince of a fweet difpofition, who was moreover induced to it from their known usefulness in promoting trade, making f Vid. geft. S. Ludovic. per GUILLELM. DE NANGIACO, Hift. Franc. fcript. tom. v. p. 359. MATTH. PARIS, Hift. Angl. Henr. III. p. 530. SOLOM. BEN VIRG. p. 417. 8 M. PARIS, ibid. p. 576. SOLOM. BEN VIRG. ibid. & feq. (K) The Jews, who make him a great favourite of St. Lewis, and his prime minifter, give him by far the victory in this conference. But, whatever may have been the fuccefs of it, it is abfurd to fuppofe him to have been raised to that height of power by a prince that was fo great an enemy to his nation. The French authors, on the contrary, pretend, that he was fo overpowered by his antagonist, that he had not a word more to fay; and, through fhame of his defeat, left that kingdom, and retired into the Holy Land; tho' it may as well be that devotion, fuch as reigned at this time among Chriftians as well as Jews, for pilgrimages thither, and not his defeat, was the motive that fent him thither. However, one may guess how numerous the Jews were then in France, fince their banifhment did fo depopulate the country, that they were obliged to fend for artifts, workmen, &c. to fupply their place; and, at length, to permit fuch Jerus as would turn merchants or tradefmen to stay. And we read moreover of a city near Paris which was called the Jewish city (22). (22) De bac vid, Bafnag, ub. fup. c. xx. §. 10. money banished by Edward I. money circulate, and thereby improving his finances which were almost exhausted. This recall admits of no contradiction, nor their becoming powerful and wealthy under his reign; fince they were afterwards wholly banished in great numbers by Philip the Fair, as will be feen in its proper place. Towards the latter end of this thirteenth century flourished the famed rabbi Levi Ben Gerfbom, and grandfon, by a daugh- Levi Ben ter, of R. Nachmanides. He was born in Provence h, which Gerfhom, being then subject to Spain, both French and Spaniards claim A. C. him as their countryman (L). Gafcony had likewise a great 1290. number of Jews, who had gained fuch an afcendant there, that Jews in Gafcony complaint was made to Edward I. then in poffeffion of it, by an English knight, who, having mortgaged fome lands to one of them, and fummoned him before a judge, refused to appear or release the mortgage. The king gave him such an anfwer as gave the Jew to understand that he must comply; and that, though he had fuffered them to enjoy all the privileges which his father had granted to them, yet, if he found they had abused them, he would himself be judge, and fhew, that he did not defign to give them the preference over the Christians; upon which the Jew fubmitted to the law. But the king having foon after escaped being killed by a clap of thunder which paffed over his bed, and killed two of his officers in the fame chamber, thereupon banished them out of Gascony, and all his other dominions in France 1. There had, by this time, crept fuch abominable abuses among the Chriftians, as well as the Jews, in all thofe Gallic. parts (M), that GANTZ TZEMACH, p. 145. BARTOLOC, ub. fup. WOLF. ub. fup. N. 348. p. 726. P. 53. (L) He wrote a comment on the Pentateuch, which he finished in the year 1330, wherein he affirmed that the angels there mentioned to have appeared to Abraham, Balaam, c.were only vifions and dreams; and would never be prevailed on to admit of the different interpretations of the thalmud concerning them. Eight years after, he publifhed his comment on Samuel, and fome other works, which the reader may fee in Bartolacci and WALSINGHAM, vit. Reg. Angl. A. C. 1288. Great a- that pope Nicholas IV. was obliged to fend orders to all his bufes a- inquifitors there to be more watchful over them both, and to mong them. fupprefs all thofe fcandalous practices; which they did ac Banifbed cordingly with great exactness as well as feverity. However, it is not unlikely, that our king Edward, being then on the point of going to the holy war, had, like the rest of the crufaders, given into the notion, that the perfecution of those enemies to Chrift was the most effectual means of obtaining a bleffing on that enterprise. His example was, not long after, followed by Philip the by Philip, Fair, who wholly banished them out of his dominions (N); there; though, in other cafes, they conformed to the established religion. The Jews, on the other hand, not only had from thefe inftances been induftrious in unhinging and perverting the Chriftians, but in reclaiming the converts which thofe had made upon them; infomuch, that there was a new order of Rejudaizers, as they were called by them, or Relapfed, as the Chriftians ftiled them, who were readmitted into the fyna. gogue by washings and other ceremonies; and these commonly went with their crowns fhaved like the monks (23). We are told of another kind of abuse under that pontif (24): a woman, who had pledged her beft cloaths to a Jew, went to defire the use of them for the Eafter holidays which he refufed, unless the brought him a confecrated wafer: this fhe did; and, he having pierced it in feveral places, and, perceiving it bleed abundantly, he flung it into boiling water. Some Chriftians coming in at that inftant, to borrow money and of him, perceived it, and went and indicted him for it. He was accordingly condemned; all his effects were confifcated, his houfe demolished, and the church of St. Saviour built upon that fpot. The reader is at liberty to believe or reject this ftory; but we fhall find in the fequel, that very many of their perfecutions and fufferings in thefe late centuries were founded upon fuch abuses and miraculous discoveries. (N) The Jews have greatly exaggerated their fufferings, as well as the number of the banifhed, which they make to exceed that of the Ifraelites that took poffeffion of Canaan under Joshua (25); tho' it is scarcely credible that ever they amounted to half that number in all France. Some authors attribute this perfecution to much fuch a miraculous difcovery of a wafer pierced by a few, as we mentioned in the last note; and add, that he was condemned to be burnt alive for it, but faved himself from the flames, by holding the thalmud in his (23) Vid. Bafnag. ub. fup. c. xx. §. 10. Wolf. Bartol. ub. fup. (24) Id. ibid. Walfingb. ub. fup. Naucter. Chron. gener. xliv, tom. ii. p. 875. Bainag ub. fup. §. 15. (25) Ganos, ub. fup. p. 143. Bzovius, fub A. C. 1306, p. 83. hands and though feveral causes are affigned for their expulfion, yet it is commonly allowed that he did that good deed from a bad principle, that is, in order to enrich himself by their plunder; and facrificed the whole nation to his extreme avarice. For he seized on all their wealth and effects, and fuffered them to take only their cloaths, and as much money as would conduct them out of the kingdom: by which means great numbers perifhed in the way, and the rest happily reached Germany. And hence it is, that the generality of the German Jews look upon themselves of French extract. Those only faved themselves from banishment, who embraced Chriftianity; among whom was the famed Nicholas de Lyra, who wrote more learnedly and strongly against the Jews than any did either before or fince (O). But of those that were baptized, few were so fincere, and many of them relapsed, and shewed their refentment by fpitting upon the images of the faints, and other fuch indignities; and one of them was burnt alive four years after this edict'; and yet the Jews pretend, that Philip died fuddenly by a fall in hunting, as a punish ment for this injuftice to them m; which is manifeftly falfe. Con * Contin. Chron. GUIL. NANGIS, fub. A. C. 1310. DA CHER. Spicil. tom. xi. p. 637. ap. Basnag. ub. fup. §.6. tinuat. Chronol. ub. fup. m SOLOM. BEN VIRG. p. 149. hands (26). One of the continuators of Baronius owns the miracle of the wafer, but fays, it happened fixteen years earlier, and fo could not be the cause of their present banishment; which Platina attributes to their exercifing of the magic art (27). (0) There is fome controverfy about his native country, as well as about his being a convert from Judaifm; though with refpect to the latter, his great fkill in the Hebrew and rabbinic learning, will not fuffer us to doubt of his having been of Jewish extract and education. However, after his converfion, he ftudied fome time in the university of Paris; after which he entered into the Franciscan or Si Lyranus non lyraffet, (26) Spondan. Ann. Eccl. fub. A. C. 1306. (27) In vit. Clement. (28) Vid. Wolf. ub. fup. N. 1697, p. 912. Bafnag, ub. fup, c. 21. §. 5, &c. MOD. HIST. VOL. XIII. Y THEY A. C. 1300: |