His fucceffor indeed, John XXII. took a contrary method, -being induced thereto by a zealous fifter, and much more fo by fome of his bifhops, whom fhe had brought with her, and who had accufed the Jews of having fhewn 'fome indignity to the crofs, as it was carried in proceffion before them. THIS produced an edict, by which they were to be ba- An edict nished from all the territories of the church; which caufed against so much the greater confternation among them, as they were them; grown very numerous and rich under the favour of his predeceffors. They applied themselves to Robert, king of Jerufalem, a good friend of theirs, and a favourite of that pontif, who foon after prevailed upon him to revoke his edict; revoked. which he promised to do, provided his fifter could be fatiffied about it; and accordingly abrogated it as foon as she had received 100,000 florins from them (U). It is plain, therefore, that this edict was iffued out against his inclination, fince he was so easily prevailed upon to recall it . We have Protected feen already how Clement VI. endeavoured to fupprefs the by Cleperfecution which was raised against them in Spain, France, ment VI. and Germany, on the abfurd pretence of their poifoning the rivers there; and made no difficulty to give as many as could come a fafe fanctuary in his dominions. Some hiftorians have indeed accufed him of doing it out of covetousness; but he easily retorted the charge against them, by fhewing, that thefe perfecutions were only raised against them with a view of plundering them of all their riches. His very inquifitors, who exercifed fuch feverities against the Albigenfes, a kind of ancient Proteftants, fuffered the Jews to live in peace, and feldom gave them any disturbance, but when they found them guilty of fome fuch enormous abuses as those we have lately taken notice of. THEY were no lefs numerous and powerful at Bologna, where, besides their old fynagogue, which was too small to contain them, they built a new one much larger and finer, and erected a kind of academy in that city. This last owes its erection to one of the family of the Hannaharim (children) BASNAG. ub. fup. lib. ix c. 19. §. 8. (U) Our authors do not name the pope who iffued and revoked this edict, but mention his fifter Sanguifa, who is ftill more unknown. But fince they affirm, that this tranfaction happened under Robert king of Ferufalem, and there was then a king of that name of Jerufalem, Y 4 Jews at Bologna, A. C. 1394. who was then going from Rome thither. This family, which deduces its original from those Jews whom Titus tranfplanted from Jerufalem to Rome, had continued there till the latter end of the fourteenth century, and was both numerous and confiderable; but about this time went and fettled at Bologna, where they grew fo wealthy that they built ftately houfes, and the fynagogue above-mentioned, which is the nobleft in all Italy. They became ftill more famous for the many learned rabbies which came to teach in it; which is a fresh proof of what, hath been faid of the popes protecting and favouring them (W). But it is time to pafs on to other countries of Europe. (W) This city did then belong to the ecclefiaftical ftate; and pope Poniface IX. though fo much dreaded by his fubjects, did nevertheless permit them to erect the academy above mentioned, and to build that grand fynagogue, which, for its largenefs and beauty, is juftly admired by all travellers (33). The Fees here did likewife prefent Emeric, the pope's inquifitor (who flourished about the middle of the fourteenth century, and compiled the directory of the inquifition), with a bible faid to have been written by Ezra; which is ftill carefully preferved in the library of the Dominicans there. It hath the following infcription in Hebrew, at the end of the Pentateuch; This is the boek of the law of Mofes, which Ezra had wrote, and which he read on a wooden defk to a numerous affembly both of men and WE affirmed, that that roll of the law was written by Efdras's own hand at his return from the Babylonish captivity: 2. That it is affaredly the original from the teftimony of the ancient Jews, who received in their fynagogues, where it was kept: 3. That the Jews believed it fuch from one generation to another; and as fuch presented it to Emeric: 4. That the learned rabbies, who had examined it before witnesses, had acknowleged it as fuch, from fome peculiar characters and ftrokes which are not to be met with in the modern manufcripts: 5. It is there affirmed to have been the manufcript which was fhewn to the people on feftival days; whence it is concluded, that it ought to be held in great veneration, and as a book dictated by the Holy Ghoft, after all the other facred ones had been burnt (34). They likewife fhew you there a Megillath, or roll of the book of Efther, ftill more ancient than that of Ezra; and a bible written for the use of R. Menachem; (34) Montfauc. Diar. Ital. c. xxvij. the We do not read any thing worth mentioning concerning Jews in the Jews in England, till the time of king John; except that England. they were invited into this kingdom by William the Conqueror, Invited by and came from Rouen hither; and where, even fo early as the William reign of king Stephen, an. 1145, they were accused of cru- the Concifying a young Chriftian, in contempt of Chrift and his re- queror. ligion, and were accordingly punished for it. They were Accused of again profecuted for the fame atrocious fact at Gloucester, in crucifying the reign of Henry II. an. 1160. And for a third committed Chriftian at St. Edmondsbury, an. 1181. More of fuch perfecutions children. there may have happened in other places, which Matthew Paris hath not mentioned; and thefe he hath accompanied with fome circumftances which we fhail pafs by at prefent, because we shall have perhaps more frequent inftances of them in the following centuries, than the generality of our readers will be inclined to believe; though we shall be obliged to mention the most remarkable of them, as they were always, if not the true cause, yet at least the pretence and forerunners, of the most severe punishments inflicted on that unhappy nation. 1210. WE pass on therefore to king John, whofe reign was fo Banished troubled with inteftine feuds, that he was forced to maintain by king himself by the hardest exactions; the heaviest of which fell John, of courfe on the Jews in his dominions, whom he caused to A. C. be imprisoned, and put to moft violent tortures, when they refused to pay fuch taxes as he laid on them (X); and, at length, we are told ", confifcated all their effects, and banished them by a public edict. They did not fare much under better under the long reign of Henry III. during which many Henry of them chose to turn Chriftians, to avoid the feverity of his III. government; but, being afterwards detected, were justly punished for their diffimulation. This did not difcourage that prince from endeavouring their converfion; to promote which the more effectually, he caufed a feminary to be founded "Trivet. MATH. PARIS, Chronic. an. 1210, p. 159. the infcription of which was, that it was finished in the month of Adar, an. 953 (answering to A. C. 1187), to the end, that Menachem, and his pofterity, and the pofterity of his pofterity, might be inftructed out of that book. (X) Our author (35) men tions one of them at Bristol, of (35) M. Paris, fub, an. 1210, p. 159. for 1233 B. XVI. for the maintenance of Jewish converts, and where they might live without labour or ufury; which foon induced great numbers of them to come into it: and that house, we are told, fubfifted a confiderable time ". A. C. 1235; at Lon don, 1243. Jews at THE Jews of Norwich were fome time after accused of Norwich having stolen a Christian child, and of having kept him one punished, year, in order to circumcife and crucify him on the enfuing Paffover; but, the fact being timely detected, they underwent a due punishment (Y). Some years after, thofe of London were indicted for the fame crime, but with some difference in the manner; the child having been fold to them by his parents, and crucified, and the fact discovered by fome miraculous circumstances not worth relating; fo that he was canonized for a martyr, and his relicks wrought strange wonders. However, the murderers could not be found out; only fome Jews having left London about that time, were fhrewdly fufpected *. Their whole nation was ftill more alarmed on the following year, when the fhepherds made fuch havock of them in Spain, France, and Germany; and they had reason to fear the storm would fall next upon them here: to prevent which, they purchased an edict from the king, forbidding any one to hurt them in any of his dominions. But, as that prince's minifter was ftill craving for more money, MATH. PARIS, Chronic. an. 1210, p. 159. * Id. fub an. $244, p. 436. Id. ibid. Vid. BASNAG. ub. fup. c. zz. §. §. (Y) They are charged by the fame author (36), with having repeated the fame crime three times in that city, with very little variation of circumstances. On the first, they were brought to the king's court at Westminfer, and there confeffed the fact; for which they were only confined, and their lives left at the king's difpofal. The fame accufation was laid against them on the following year; and four of the wealthieft of them were hanged, and their effects confifcated. Laftly, they were accufed of the fame fact before the bishop, an. 1239, at which time it was that the child's father found him in the Jews houfe, after he had been loft a whole year. The accufed in vain appealed to the king; the bishop maintained, that the crime, being of a religious nature, was cognifable only by the fpiritual court; upon which four of them were dragged at the tail of fo many horses to a gibbet, where they were put to death. So that they must have been very incorrigible to dare commit the fame crime fo many times within the space of five years, and after having been fo feverely punished for it. (36) M. Paris, an. 1235, p. 231, 285. & an. 1236, F. 359. and 3 and they refused to pay it, they were accused of fome murder committed in London, where, after various vexations and fufferings, they were obliged to pay one third of all their wealth (Z). THE holy war, to which Henry was preffingly invited by New the pope, proved another pretence for squeezing money out taxes, of his fubjects, and especially from the Jews, whom he made A. C, no fcruple to strip of all they had left. The next was the 1252. pretended Spanifb war, to which the nobility and gentry refufed to contribute till it was actually declared. The Jews were again called upon for new fupplies, but being quite exhaufted, begged leave they might leave the kingdom for 1254. fome more propitious country (A); but that was refused to them, and they were forced to pay the fum, only with some alleviation. On the next year he demanded 8000 marks of them; and upon their pleading infolvency, fold them to his brother Richard, who paid him that fum for them, and would in all likelihood have made them refund it double, had he not been convinced of their real poverty and misery. 1255 THOSE of Lincoln were about the fame time accused of A child having crucified a young Chriftian, with feveral circum-crucified at. stances of inhumanity, which the reader may fee in the mar- Lincoln, gin (B). One Copin, at whofe houfe the fact was committed, 2 Id. fub. A. C. 1243, & 1250. (2) Our author tells us of one fingle Jew, named Aaron, who paid at different times, to extricate himself out of prison, and other vexations, about 200 marks of gold, and 30,000 of filver. The reft fared no better, being profecuted fometimes for coining falfe money, at others, for counterfeiting the, king's feal, and fuch-like; from which they found no other way to escape than by bleeding freely to that monarch, or bribing, as they did in feveral inftances, their judges to be favourable to them (37). (A) Elias, one of their brethren, undertook to plead for them before the council; and not in a pathetic speech, which was (B) Thefe are, that they fed (37) M. Paris, ibid, A. C. 1250, & feq. (38) Id. jub. an. 1254. p. 596. of A. C. 1255. |