them and Nobility of Extraction all which he attributes to the Jewish Nation Profit indeed is the thing that all Kingdoms and States much look after and with good reason for money is the comfort of peace and the sinews of war but such profit is onely desirable as is joyned with glory to God honor to the Magistrate and Countrey and the safety and prosperity of the subject Upon which grounds if I should grant him the application of profitableness to themselves yeâ— should I think it over-dear to be purchased with such essects as might accompany it God ought to be the beginning and the end and Religion the way of his Worship is principally to be regarded Now toleration of that which is contrary to it or a receiving of them which would endanger it which would not onely be a suffering of Superstition to be practised by oothers but be also an occasion to the Natives of this miscarriage is scarce to be warranted however there where as yet it is not admitted There be certain times and seasons which make that at one time dangerous which might at another be admitted with more security The truth is apt to have not onely fickleness weakness accompanying it but also great differences and dissentions although incorruptible in it self and many though not agreeing in all things yet may be contained within the verge of its necessaries and fundamentals Where the greatest power of Religion is there the Devil is the busiest sowing Tares amongst the Wheat and mixing the corn with his cockle This we must confess is the condition of our Countrey at present and I fear the Jews too well consider it By so much the more therefore as they may desire to come in doubtless in this respect the State hath as great to deny them Honor and Credit is the second thing by which a State ought to rule and according to which order and bound its profit It was a saying of that renowned Lord Burleigh 〈…〉 Lord Treasurer of England when about his Charge in the Revenue that nothing was sit for a Prince that was not also joyned with honor and that he did not like that the Treasury should fill like the Spleen when the whole body was worse for it Now what honor it would be to admit them who were once â—expelled before of whose worth * Judge Cook himself faith thâ—â— Act De 〈…〉 made â—â—â—â—onally to expell them and that the â—â—â—teeâ—th granted was pro â—xpâ—lsâ—â—ne Judaeâ—rum faithfulness and profitableness we have once experienced in our Ancestors I cannot determine But this second rule depends especially upon that which precedes and of this which follows I acknowledge that whilst they were here before much profit redounded to the Kings of England from them but in what way hath been declared not from their merchandizing upon which our adversary principally insists Our countrey is not so convenient for that way as others may be and if they should be here admitted again spread once more throughout the land thousands there would be which could not have opportunity to exercise that way through the inconveniences of their habitations They exercise themselves in that way of life which most suits with their profit and the commodiousness of the place wherein they live Usury was most practised by them here and is still in Italy and other parts where they have not such opportunity of trading But grant that the trade is now enlarged through the discovery of the â—ast Indies by sea and of America as it is enlarged so also more of our inhabitants follow that course then formerly being sufficient to satisfie for that business So that if the Jews be admitted to trade again our Merchants must needs be justled by them and what would redound to the State in Custom and Excise the Land being already sufficiently furnished would not compensate the damage of the subject If many should be suffered to trade this could not be avoided and if not then needs must they betake themselves their number encreasing to some other course of life which might prove no less dangerous they being * Perfida genâ— agens quod solet 〈◊〉 in pera c. Crantzius Saxon. lib. 11. cap. 7. noted to be as sucking Leaches where ere they come in some way or other But if they should trade with other Countreys rather in way of Sale and Exportation less profit would the State receive from them He magnifies the skill his Countreymen have in all kinds of merchandize and that is occasioned as he confesses by the opportunity they have being every where dispersed to serve one another And would not this turn to their own advantage more then to the benefit of their entertainers Might they not hereby ingross the Trade wholly to themselves and serving one another cheat the Natives in their Traffick And what would the English be better for their trafficking with their Countreymens money who live in Spain for larger their banks vvould be more they vvould engross the trading And if the King of Spain savv it profitable for him he vvould so far dispense in the Inquisition as to give them no occasion of removing from or keeping this treasure out of his Dominions And vvhat though they have not a Countrey to repair to as other strangers and thereby as he alledges are not likely to take avvay their riches Can they not transport it as they do he tells us in Spain They shortly also expect vve see their Messias to come and restore them to the Countrey of their Ancestors and being aliens they vvould little love the Countrey and so do little for it tending by their good vvills to any great advantage If they be so well received and live so happily all over as he instanceth for illustration of this branch or profit vvhy then are they not content to keep them vvhere they are already It must needs be their ovvn good or ours vvhich they so much desire or for that they must have a Synagogue here also not vvilling but that every place should be blessed with their Religion This he intimates expresly that they might have leave here also to serve God Is it the soil or the air they desire their Religion should be seated in why not as well serve God where they are There 's something more then this in the business But by whom is it they are thus received and entertained he confesses the people hate them generally and must this be for nothing In a fixed and established State where factions do not bandy such as they are generally where they live scarce is any grievously hated but there is some notable cause for it And if the King of Denmark hath invited them into his Dominions or the Duke of Savoy or of Modina it is for some respect or other Perhaps they may be admitted for the same ends our Kings formerly so long retained them viz. for their own gain though much to the Subjects discommodity and
makes his own markets takes most that is offered and so the Jews emptying their purses purchase their continuance a little longer But vengeance pressed them at their very heels they acting such an horrid murther this year beyond the seas as is scarce to be thought and if not theirs harder to be believed Doubtless the prejudice and antipathy betwixt the English Nation and them now was such as would not admit of any reconciliation and thereupon might divers inconveniences proceed but especially the disagreement of their Religion joyned with great perverseness of disposition plunged them into devillish and unheard of wickedness This year they were generally imprisoned here in England and as we may say as guilty in approbation at least of what their Countreymen practised in other parts who at Munchen in Bavere stabbed a childe throughout his whole body with needles taking his blood in a bason to use it Aventin Boiorum annal l. 7. p 442. as the suspition was then in sacrifice for stanching that issue of blood wherewith this people Christians know why is continually pestered These butchers were detected by the drover an old Hag taken in the very manner while she was stealing a second for the same purpose The bodie of the former being found out by her directions the fresh print of infinite wounds filled with gore imploring vengeance as it were with so many watered and blubbred eyes so enrage the multitude that they could not expect the Judges sentence but fall immediately upon these Jews notwithstanding the Princes servants and their chief Magistrates earnest endeavors to appease the tumult conveying as many Jews as they could into their Synagogue which the people burning with fury set on fire and with it burned 180. Jews But this by way of digression falling out in this year Now to return again to England The several Kings making their markets out of the Jews store-houses at all occasions the score was to be discharged at the subjects cost Not content to let them rob the Countrey by their unmerciful dealings they must also upon their wicked desires give them securitie against justice it self for a little gain It hapned that in the 15. year of this King 1288. he being then in Gascoin a certain Knight sued a Jew for the unjust detaining of a mortgaged Manor The Jew shifts off the business and for his discharge produces a protection King Henry had granted him that he should never be convented before any Magistrate but himself alone Thom â—aâ—sing Upon this the Knight goes over to the King desiring justice against his adversary avoiding the equity of Law by such an unreasonable priviledge The King answers it would not stand with reverence due to the memory of his Father to make void that he had granted in this matter but he would indulge him also this priviledge that so he might be even with his adversary that what injury he or any other Christian should offer to that man they should not be bound to appear before any but himself alone as long as the Jew should stand upon his Charter The Knight returns home with this answer and his honest adversary being acquainted with his success was glad to come to what accommodation Law would offer no longer insisting upon his former grant This peoples honesty in this particular is very conspicuous This man hath an intention to be wicked and must have a priviledge for it But counting of Christians worse then of Turks and Infidels because more directly opposing them in their way of superstition what they might get any way they counted it their own and honestly enough fear of punishment no conscience bridling their malice But such like throws of their dishonesty were but still signs of their ensuing death and of that delivery the Land was about to make of them it being radicated in the nature of things to unite their spirits and double their diligence against that which is shortly likely to work their ruine Their iniquity being now fully ripe their time is also already accomplished Thom Walsing in Edv. â— King Edward is returned out of Gascoign and being honorably received of the Clergie and Nobilitie holds a Parliament at Westminster such as was likely to bring nothing but calamity to the Jews for whose expulsion so much had been before this time offered The people in Parliament are said to be resolved rather to undo themselves once then be always undoing their Religion safety of their Children and the Kingdoms honor and profit which by the imbasing and clipping of its coyn had gone to wrack call upon them and a fifteenth is offered to the King to have them expelled Vide Holinsh in Edw. 1. It seems they did not now overbid for the fifteenth was accepâ—ed and an Act made August 31 1290. Matth. Westm and the 18 of the King that upon pain of hanging they their waves and children Walsingham Holinsh alii should before the Feast of All-Saints next ensuing depart the Land Some say they had onely money given them to bear their charges over into France Others say that all goods not moveable with their Tallies and Obligations being confiscate all other moveables as gold and silver they were licensed to carry over The number of them when they departed was about 16511. many more then at their first coming an increasing misery to the Land where ere they come By vertue of this injunction and in obedience to it Holinsh they prepare for their removal Divers of the richest hire a great ship and therein having put much treasure are carried down the Thames towards the mouth of the River beyond Quinborough where the Master wickedly conspiring with the Mariners to rob them of their riches they are advised to go down out of the ship with him and walk upon the sands to take the air Having so done and it being now flowing water and the sands beginning to be covered the Master is drawn up by a cord on ship-board but they are then left exposed to be swallowed up of the waves Crying out for help they are inhumanely bid to call upon Moses for deliverance and perish miserably by the floods This greediness of gain in the Master and Mariners was justly rewarded he with others being arraigned and condemned by the Justices Itinerants and accordingly executed for so vile a fact though little pity was had for the generality of them that perished Sir Ed Coâ—k being looked upon onely as pursued by the hand of divine justice Now gone they are and the English peoples disquiet with them and never since could they procure licence to return King Henry the third founded an house for those of them that should be converted in his 17 year Cambden Stows Survey which afterwards in the 50 of Edward the third was again dissolved and appointed to the keeping of the Rolls in which service it continues to this day King Edward the first also cleansing his Territories of the
Jews Matth. Westm as so many locusts had before commanded whilst beyond the seas that the parts of Aquitain should likewise be swept of them Thus I have proceeded as an Historian keeping close to that way according as I am informed by our Writers And hereupon I am not ignorant that some there are and that not without reason who may deny their assent to what is said concerning their expulsion being induced to believe the contrary by greater authority then this report The Oracle of Law in his time pronouncing no Statute to have been made for their banishment Judge Cook in the second part of his Institutes upon the Statute De Judaismo affirms there was none but onely that which was for the taking avvay their Usury upon vvhich they left the Land as he conceives being so deprived of their Trade or way of life I have not arrived at that height of arrogance as to oppose so great a man especially in his own way but yet shall tender something to consideration as I am warranted by History whereby I hope I shall escape the hazard of being thought to break the bounds of modesty being found onely in that way in which at first I set forward Our Historians all with joynt consent affirm them to have been actually banished or expelled many of whose words I shall first set down and then see onely what they might seem further to hint unto us Matthew of Westminster Vide Balecâ—n descript Ang. an approved * Augusti 31. Judaeorum exasperans multitudo quae per diversas urbes castra fortia habitabat per retroacta tempora confidenter jussa est cum uxoribus parvulis suis unà cuÌ„ bonis suis mobilibus cedere circa festum omnium Sanctorum quod eis prâ— termino ponebatur quem sub poena suspendii transgredi non est ausa quorum numerus erat ut credebatur 16511. Exierat antea tale edictum à laudabili rege Anglorum in partibus Aquitaniae à quâ omnes Judaei pariter exulabant Author in his Flores Historiarum at the 1290. year of our Lord hath these words Aug. 31. Judaeorum exasperans multitudo c. On the third day of August the exasperating multitude of Jews which in times past had lived confidently in divers Cities and strong Towns is commanded with their wives children and moveables to depart England about the Feast of All-Saints which is set as the utmost limit of their continuance which under pain of hanging they durst not pass the number of whom was thought to be 16511. Such a Decree had gone out before from the commendable King of England in the parts of Aquitain out of which in like maner the Jevvs vvere banished So he Thomas Walsingham in his Hypodigma Neustriae writes thus Rex Angliae reversus de Wasconia c. * Rex Angliae reversus de Wasconia Londoniis solemniter reeipitur à clero omni plebe Qui Judaeos omnes eodem anne expellens de Anglia datis expensis in Gallias bona corum reliqua confiscavit The King of England being returned out of Gascoign is solemnly received by the Clergy and all the people at London who the same year expelling all the Jews out of England giving them to bear their charges over into France confiscated the rest of their goods and Polydor. Virgil in his seventeenth Book at the 1290. year of Christ delivers the matter thus Anno deinde qui c. * Anno deinde qui insecutus est Concilium Londâ—â— ad Westmonasterium â—aâ—e â—aâ— in quâ— imgrimis agitata est Judaenum ejectio quorum erat per omnâ—m Angliam ingâ—â— multitudo quâ—â—â— oves abâ—aeâ—â—ts segregarentur Itaque publico edicto jussum est ut â—atra 〈◊〉 dies â—mpeâ— abiâ—ent cum bonis illi jussis concilii parentâ— aliâ—â—â—â— dis esserunt Then in the year which followed a Council was held at Westminster in which first of all is debated the ejection of the Jews of which there was throughout England a great multitude that so the sheep might be separated from the goats Therefore it is commanded by a publique Edict that within a few days all should depart with their goods they obeying the command of the Council went divers ways thus far Polydor who useth the word Concilium for that we call Parliament it with other words being as a great * 〈◊〉 R. Cotton Antiquary observes an usual term in ancient Authors for that thing Polychronicon lib. 7. cap. 38. saith the Jews were put out of England and never came again Stow in his Annals writes that this year all the Jews were banished this Land for which the Commons gave a fifteenth In like manner writes Hollnshead expresly that they were banished by act of Parliament and that a Fifteenth was granted to the King to have them expelled that all their goods not moveable were confiscate with their Tallies and Obligations all their other moveables of gold and silver the King licensed them to convey with them that they could never since obtain a priviledge to return and with these concurreth Speed who tels us that the King to purge England whither he was now returned from such corruptions and oppressions as under which it groaned and not neglecting therein his particular gain banished the Jews out of the realm confiscating all their goods leaving them nothing but money to bear their charges * Florilegus Dunstable Others might be brought who testifie the same thing neither is there any Historian that I know who denies it Now strange it is that all these should be misacquainted and mistaken that those of the near adjoyning times to their departure should so grosly erre and that those who lived in the same time should deliver to posterity so great a falshood For if any had reported their departure to have been voluntary it might have been found out by some of those who succeeded and had their gatherings from them Matthew of Westminster sets down the day the Act should be made for their expulsion mentions the time set as the utmost bound of their continuance and withall the penalty or punishment they were to suffer even hanging if found hereafter and that the King had made such a decree before for banishing them the parts of Aquitaine a strange thing that he should so grosly erre in so many circumstances Walsingham writes that the King returned home that he was met by the Clergy and all the people and that this year they were expelled Polydor * Illi jussis concilii parentes alii aliò discesserunt saith it was by Parliament by its publike Edict and that they obeying its commands departed hinting unto us the end that so the sheep might be separated from the Goats Polychyronicon saith they were put out of Stow that they were banished out of England Holinshead and Speed use the same term this last adding also the Kings design which was to purge the Land from such corruptions
that purpose he brings her a purge but she having by the special providence of God discovered his treachery according to former agreement sends him with it to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh telling him that he stood more in need of Physick Upon this he carries it to the old man desirous at least to dispatch one of them But he being too cunning for him demands what he hath there and upon answer a purge telling him he must be a Physitian to purge ill humors out of him presently causeth him to be apprehended Being convicted and according to sentence brought to the place of execution he there professed that he loved Queen Elizabeth as well as Jesus Christ himself The argument of their faithfulness as to the Rabbi is but very jejune and therefore no wonder if he produce so few examples First he mentions how faithful they were to the Kings of Egypt and instanceth in the fidelity of Antipater to Julius Caesar For the first they knew the power of the Ptolomies continually able to crush them and therefore if some stood to them and proved faithful what did they herein but what their own advantage led them to and what the necessity of their State required But how faithful were their Kings to the Babylonian Monarchs to whom they did more then promise obedience would they not always take their opportunity to rebel And because he speaks of their fidelity to the Romans how came I pray the War with Vespasian and Titus his Son even as before Zedekiah had rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar and that proved the destruction of the City so came it also to pass the last time It was an opinion strong in those days through the East that Jewry should bring forth the Monarch of the world Vide Sueton in Vespas in confidence of this the Jews rebel slay the Governor put to flight the Pro-Consul of Syria Vespasian is chosen General against them there is chosen Emperor and so the Roman Writers account that saying to be fulfilled and then Titus is sent into Judaea and finisheth the work begun by his father How faithful they were in Adrians time we shewed before in the Introduction how they behaved themselves also in Egypt Cyrene and Cyprus Then the Rabbi instanceth some particular places and persons as the Jews of Bureos who denyed obedience to Don Pedro de Cruel who had killed his brother how many Jews were made Tutors to Noblemens children of Samuel Alvalensi the Jews carriage at the besieging of Mantua and in the Signory of Brasil These were but a few if twenty times more in comparison of the nature and carriage of the whole Nation which how faithful it hath been generally to the people in all places hath already been sufficiently discovered To insist no more upon these few particulars The next last two things he instances as arguments of their faithfulness are rather negative then positive therefore can conclude nothing for his purpose when they were banished by Ferdinand Isabel out of Spain they made no resistance ergo they were faithful how will this rightly follow and when they were thence expelled it was not for any unfaithfulness therefore to prove their fidelity is as good an argument as the former If they had had opportunity and sufficient warning though they were half a million I do not much question what they would have done And for their praying which he urgeth for an argument of their faithfulness for the Commonwealths wherein they live so perhaps they did when they sent to the Prince of Babylon to stir him up against Christendom when they conspired to fire the City of London when they sucked away the sap of the English prosperity by their extortions when they clipped and coyned money and so rather spoiled this Commonwealth Did they not then also pray for the prosperity of it As for any cruelty which might be shewed toward them when expelled out of Spain and Portugal I take not upon me to be a patron of it neither of that which might be exercised toward them by our own nation whilst here residing Many times they have been used most pittifully but generally in all places they might thank themselves for it their carriage here especially was such as upon the least advantage the people would shew their hatred of it Lastly for to meet with objections made against their faithfulness the Rabbi endeavors to clear his Countrymen from three aspersions usually cast upon them viz. usury killing children and seducing Christians to their Religion I wish they were but aspersions that they might the sooner be wiped off but that will not be by all the skill their Nation hath Was not usury with great extortion their continual practice What it was in England and Italy we have already seen What it was in France see Baronius his Annal. ad anâ— 1198 1223. 1306. 1348. Ingenti foenore cives ita sibi obaerato habebant ut corum praediis ditati â—im dias fere Civitates vendicarent alios in custodia penes se servarent plerosque fortunis omniâ—us dissolvendi causa debiti spoliatos mendicis non dissimiles efficerent idem ad an 1198. and that it is used by them in Germany he himself confesseth Their principles of Religion do not forbid it then to us though amongst themselves Besides he should have done well to declare what they do in Poland Prussia and other places especially where they cannot have such opportunity of trading How they have used Christian children enough and too much hath been shewn already it is not good any more to stir that puddle Vide Socrat. iâ— 7 cap. 10. Krantzuan lib. 10. Wandal cap 18. Papir Masson lib. 3. pag. 335 Vide Baronium in Annal. ad an 1198. 1236. 1252. 1287. ibid. 1305. 1348. 1410. Et Bzovium ad ann 1432. 1475 1494. Not only do our own Authors affirm this but Forreign writers testifie the same also to have been done in divers places whose authority to question more then that of Manana of the Chronicles of the Xantes and others vvhich he brings as testimonies of their faithfulness to which particulars we have already answered it 's neither ingenuity nor modestie to do it For their perswading Christians to their Religion we know it to be the practice as the ambition of all parties to draw as many as they can in safety unto them nay many further venture then stands with their safety Novv for the Rabbi to perswade us that this is not their desire especially meeting vvith such as may easily be dravvn aside he cannot but be convinced of its impossibility This vvas the cause for vvhich they were banished Granada and Spain by Ferdinand and Isabel having seduced some Noblemen of the Kingdom of Andaluzie vvhich he confesseth And for their dravving Christians to their Religion see the Rabbi himself in a Book published 1650. called The hope of Israel Sect. 17. Where he instanceth those of his Religion vvho attempted to draw