TIME EXTREMELY RICH. 243 Nor was Aaron the only one so gifted with this world's riches. We read of another Jew of Hereford, Hamon by name, who must have been equally rich. We do not hear anything about him during his life-time; but we read, that when he died-which took place about two years prior to the above exaction-his daughter, Ursula, was obliged to pay 5,000 marks for a relief.* In order to diminish the enormity of the incessant persecutions the poor Jews I believe, is as much as the richest nobleman pays at present."-Anglia Judaica, p. 108. "When we read or speak of any sum of money in our histories, from the Saxon times to the year 1344, we are to consider it, on an average, as about thrice the weight and value of the like sum in our time.”— Introduction to the History of Commerce, by Ander son. *Though, by Magna Charta, the relief of an earl's son, for a whole county, was settled but at one hundred pounds; of a baron's heir, for a whole barony, at but one hundred marks; and no more than one hundred shillings was to be paid for the relief of a knight's fee-all which were called the antiqua, or accustomed reliefs of the kingdom." 244 BASELESS CALUMNIES INVENTED were subject to, recourse was continually had to many mean and unworthy acts of vilifying them. Some of them were imprisoned at Oxford, under the pretence of having forcibly taken away a young Jew who had been converted and baptized -a charge which, as it was unjustly grounded, was properly opposed, and in which their innocence so plainly appeared, that the king very soon after commanded them to be released. No offence was, indeed, too improbable to be laid to their charge. They were even accused of plotting against the state, and of attempts to overturn the government; but the most absurd accusation brought against them was, that a party of them had collected together large quantities of combustible materials at Northampton, for the purpose of employing them in the destruction of London, by fire. Upon this incredible charge, many Jews were burned alive, and their effects seized and delivered into the king's hands. Matthew Paris, who lived in this reign, and was an eye-witness of the oppres sions to which the Jews were subjected by the crown, gives a distressing picture of their sufferings. He concludes his account of the manner in which the king practised his extortions with these words: Non tamen abrando, vel excoriando sed eviscerando extorsit.* To put a stop to the repeated calumnies which were brought against them, as clippers and falsifiers of the coin, they came to the conclusion of paying the king one hundred pounds, in order "that all Jews who should be lawfully convicted of clipping, robbery, or harbouring of clippers or robbers, should be for ever banished the realm."† We must also notice the memorable Parliamentum Judaicum, which occurred in the twenty-fifth year of Henry's reign, A.D. 1240. Soon after this public testimony of their loyalty, as citizens of the state in which they lived, they were agreeably surprised at hearing that a certain number of their nation were *Matt. Paris, p. 831; Blunt, p. 42. † See Appendix G. 246 JEWISH PARLIAMENT. summoned to attend a parliament at Worcester, in order, as the writ ran, "to treat with the king as well concerning his own as their benefit."* Many of them entertained the most sanguine hopes that such an occurrence would terminate as much to their honour as to their advantage. But in this expectation they were speedily and sorely disappointed; for the purport of his majesty's most gracious speech informed them that he wanted money, and that they must raise, among their own people, twenty thousand marks, half of which was to be paid at midsummer, and the other half at Michael mas. This peremptory command, however, they appeared unable to obey, although they had the singular privilege of appointing their own collectors; but the collectors were not able to raise the demanded sum; and the consequence was, that themselves, their wives and children, were seized, and incarce *See Appendix H. + See Appendix I. MARTYN A JEWISH CONVERT. 247 rated, and their goods and chattels were taken from them.* Henry's expedition against the King of France, two years afterwards, in order to regain the provinces of Guienne and Poictou, was another reason for demanding money from his Jewish subjects. You are, however, aware that Henry was totally unsuccessful in that ill-advised expedition. After which the king and the queen determined to spend a merry winter at Bordeaux.† Whilst there the king became interested in a certain Jewish convert, Martyn by name, whom he sent to this country with orders to the Archbishop of York, whom he had left governor in England, and Walter de Cantelupe, Bishop of Worcester, to provide some convenient place for the well educating of the same Jewish convert, and to furnish him with the means of subsistence.† The king seemed always kindly disposed towards Jewish converts. The Jewish Converts' Institution, as a * See Appendix J. † A. Strickland. |