88 JEWS PROSPER IN THE REIGNS OF

structed not only their own people, but several Christian students of the university.

When a see or living in the gift of this wary king fell vacant, he was in the habit of retaining it in his own hands until he became pretty well acquainted with its revenues, when he sold it to the best bidder.* The royal simonist was in the habit of appointing Jews to take care of the vacant benefices, to farm them, and to manage these negociations for his benefit; from this mark of confidence, and from the increasing wealth of the Jews, we may conclude that the reign of Rufus was very advantageous to the interests of his Jewish subjects. This king, however, did not enjoy his kingdom for any long duration. His tragical end is well known.

In the long reign of Henry the First, we hear almost nothing of the Jews, which I look upon as evidence that they went on prosper

* When Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, died, William Rufus appointed no successor for five years after, but kept the possession of the archbishopric in his own hands.

RUFUS AND HENRY I.

89

ously, and perhaps began to make some progress amongst their Christian brethren. Prynne, a Puritan writer, and the most virulent enemy of the Jews from among Protestants, informs us that the Jews were then beginning to proselytize and even to bribe some Christians with money, in order to induce them to embrace Judaism, which may account for the incident mentioned in this reign, that monks were sent to several towns in which the Jews were established, for the express purpose of preaching down Judaism.

We read in Peck's "Annals of Stamford," that "Joffred, abbot of Croyland, in the tenth year of Henry the First, sent some monks from his abbey to Cottenham and Cambridge, to preach against the Jews; and about the same time some ecclesiastics were sent from other parts to Stamford, to oppose the progress of the Jews in that place;" where, as we are told by Peter of Blessens, that "they preaching to Stamfordians, exceedingly prospered in their ministry, and

strengthened the Christian faith against Jewish depravity."

It appears from the history of Philip, prior of St. Frideswide, of Oxford, that the Jews used then to mock publicly the lying fables of the priests.

The prior, when writing of the miracles performed by the body of that famous saint (which was preserved in his monastery), tells us that "whereas people flocked from all parts of the kingdom to worship St. Frideswide, and were cured by her of all manner of distempers; a certain Jew of Oxford called Eum Crescat, the son of Mossey, the Jew, of Wallingford, was so impudent as to laugh at her votaries, and tell them that he could cure their infirmities as well as the saint herself, and therefore hoped they would make him the same offerings. To prove which he would sometimes crook his fingers, and then pretend he had miraculously made them straight again; at other times he would halt like a cripple, and then in a few minutes skip and dance about, bidding the crowd observe how

AND ST. FRIDESWIDE.

suddenly he had cured himself.

91

Wherefore

(the most devout amongst them wishing some exemplary judgment might befall him) St. Frideswide, no longer able to suffer his insolence, caused him suddenly to run mad and hang himself; which he did with his own girdle, in his father's kitchen." Upon which, says the historian, "he was, according to custom, conveyed in a cart to London, all the dogs of the city following his detestable corpse, and yelping in a most frightful manner."

The Jews having experienced so much favour and protection from the first three Norman monarchs, were naturally led to hope that they had found in this country a permanent asylum from their persecutions. Under this impression, they had employed the season of their tranquillity in the acquirement of property. They were, however, soon made to experience the fallacy of their expectations; for with the accumulation of wealth their security vanished, and as their riches increased, so, in proportion, did their

92 THERE WAS NO PEACE TO THE JEWS

oppressions. From the period of this monarch's death to the time of their expulsion, your histories abound with details of their hardships. A melancholy monotony pervades the history of those two hundred years. Indeed, the treatment which they received in this country, during that period, was of a nature more disgraceful than that they received in other parts of Europe; for while elsewhere, as in Spain and Germany, the monarchs generally exerted themselves to repress the hostility of the clergy and people, the English kings, scarcely one excepted, manifested as persecuting a spirit as any of their subjects. It would be as useless as it would be tedious, to notice each particular instance of cruelty and tyranny which is mentioned to have been exercised towards them, for there is scarcely a year without some records concerning them, and hardly a record which relates to them but furnishes some evidence of their sufferings. Taxes and contributions to an exorbitant amount, were continually imposed upon them at the mere will of the crown, and payment enforced by