movables Hollinsh and away he goes What people in the world would not have laid these things to heart and striven by the amendment of their lives to have hindred succeeding plagues but wretched is that people which commits iniquity by a Law and whose very principles of Religion prompts them to horrid and unlawful actions They count it no sin but rather the contrary even to commit murder so they can but thereby scoff at and deride the Christian profession Some five years after the Kings going into France keeping his Christmass at Westminster seven Jews are brought before him by one Tolie Matth. Westm and grievously accused They had gotten a childe at Norwich and had circumcised him calling him Jeremiah 〈◊〉 Virg. 〈◊〉 16. Mat. Paris kept him a year together intending to crucifie him at Easter when they should meet together for that purpose The thing was confessed by them and they thereupon cast into prison abiding there the Kings pleasure Now begun this Prince to be sore pinched with want Coming to the Crown so extream young Sir Rob. Cotton he wanted that experience which others might attain who having not so much of their will at first by discipline with years might gather experience His Minions cost him dear he flew to that height in lavishments that at last he was constrained to break up house and betake himself to the Monks to take his Commons This could not but turn to the Jews cost and disâ—â—â—â—â— He so orders the matter 〈◊〉 that one Abraham found to be a delinquent redeems himself with 7000. marks and Aaron protests the King hath since his last being in France taken from him at times 30000. marks besides 200. of gold given to the Queen In the year 1239. they are grievously fined again paying the fifth part of all their movables They had committed a murder secretly and the King takes hence occasion to empty their purses imploying Geofrey Templar Mat Paris one of his Minions in the Collection About this time also they are reported to have done over that at Norwich again which they did some 4. years before circumcising another childe whom they called Jurnin who is also destined by them to the Cross But the just God turned the mischief upon their own heads the childe being in time discovered whilest his father heard him crying in the Jews house William de Raele the Bishop with other of the Nobility being inraged for the fact apprehend all that live in the Town The Jews pretending the Kings protection the Bishop answers It belongs not to the King but to the Church to Judge this matter of Circumcision wherefore four of them being drawn at horses tails to the place of execution Krantzius 〈…〉 receive their reward At Prague also they are said this year to have crucified a Christian And that which shewed their faithfulness sufficiently and procured them hatred not in the least degree Holinâ—s h. 〈…〉 and Fox Acts and Woâ—â—n was that in the year 1253. at Northampton they combined together and that for the destruction of that City which first harboured them preparing to set even the City of London on fire This could not but enrage much yet having entred such courses as rendred them more then odious they are resolved to go on though to their own destruction But what they intended to do to the City they suffer themselves for many of them being taken in the same Town where they hatcht their design are themselves reduced to ashes in the time of Lent And this year also were they expelled out of France Matth. Westm by command of King Philip who then warred in their ancient Countrey Matth. Paris The Saracens there expostulating with him for his violence offered to themselves who never injured Christ upbraid him with the fostering them in his realm who were his murderers The cause was religion and he thought all things reflecting upon it were to be removed to stop therefore the Saracens mouths this people must quit their habitations King Henry was now about this time beyond the Seas making a visit to his French Dominions Matth. Paris and there wanting money sends over his brother Richard to procure it The Nobility for the most part plainly deny to help him with any but as for the Jews they are a sure refuge they are fleeced at all hands and they might thank their purses that here they lived Not long after returning home and having spent an incredible sum of money in his journey and thereby contracted a great debt being put off by his Barons he betakes himself again to his never failing treasury he squeezes the Jews again and yet having pressed out almost both blood and moisture turns them over unto his brother He pittying their condition little molests them but upon pawns supplies the King with a great sum of money But what shall we say to a people that is given up to a reprobate minde and commits iniquity with greediness whom neither fear of God of the Laws love unto mankinde nor the dictates of humanity can bridle and restrain whose blindness is such whose stubborness is so great that no experience can remedy no affliction can lessen They are not yet satisfied with Christian blood they will rather venture all then not vent their malice against Christian profession They have another annual Tragedy to act and Lincoln for this year must be the Stage There in that City in the year 1255. they get a child into their hands of eighteen years of age whom after many cruel whippings scourgings and tortures they again crucifie and murder Marth Paris Hollinsh alii In derision of Christ a Pilate is made before whom he is brought accused and condemned suffering their malice in the same manner as our Savior had done before they imitating as near as they can their ancestors in this their horrid and abominable act Being dead the childe is thrown into a well near the house where this butchery was committed The poor woman missing her son and inquiring after him finds he was seen playing last before that door with the Jews children and hence upon suspition the well is searched and the body found The man of the house being apprehended and examined by John Lexinton upon promise of pardon confesses the murder acknowledges it to be their custom every year to crucifie a child but very secretly and therefore not easie to be discovered The King would not suffer the man to live but presently commands his execution when coming to die he accuses most of the Jews in England as accessory to the Fact it being their custom upon notice given most of them to meet upon such a wicked occasion In Sovember an hundred two were carried up to the King being â—hen at Westminster thence were commanded to the Tower of these afterwards 18. were hanged the rest remain'd long time in prison The body of the child whose name was Hugh was honorably
time to desolation being consumed with fire together with its ornament the Temple some few pillars only left to posterity to testifie the stateliness of what had been Of the remnant of this people â—dem ibid. few were left behinde in their own Countrey eleven hundred thousand perished in the Siege and ninety seven thousand were taken Captives they being scattered abroad in divers Countreys yet especially abounded in Egypt Cyrene and Cyprus where after some fifty years continuance they begin to commit outrages in an unheard of manner Dion lib. â— 8. here 200000. there 250000 are butchered by them they eat their flesh besmear themselves with their blood wear their skins saw them asunder cast them to beasts make them kill one another The Emperor Trajan wondering and scarce believing such horrid treachery prosecutes them as so many Monsters and enemies of mankinde an infinite number are offered up as a parentation Yet still they cannot rest Dion lib. 69. In his Successor Adrians days they must up again and try their fortune That Prince had built a new City where their Jerusalem stood and called it after himself Aelia setting up a Sow over the gates thereof in opposition to them giving free liberty to all Nations for the exercise of their Religion such injuries offered to their Superstition as they cannot digest whilst he remains amongst them they murmure being gone break out into open rebellion joyn battel with one of the most expert Captains in his time Julius Severus which brings a bloody victory to the adversary and a fearful slaughter to themselves Those that remained Joan. Vaâ—aeus Chron. Hisp Anno 137. Adrian transports into Spain his own Countrey and thence or from elsewhere we have nothing considerable of them until the decay of the Roman Empire Papirius Nissenus lib. 1. At last it comes to that pass that Christians selling Church-livings for money the Jews buy Christians for their slaves which being taken notice of by Gregory the great and Heraclius the Emperor proving their enemy the Kings of France and Spain are stirred up by him to their conversion or extirpation Ammonis lib 4. Hist Hisp Under Theodebert and Theodorick Kings of France they enjoyed the most serene times but Dagobert joyns with Sesebodus of Spain to their undoing Yea so odious afterwards became they to Christians Petrus Cluniacensis that some perswading Christian Princes to the recovery of the Holy Land out of the hands of their brethren the Saracens their goods are presently pointed at as most fit to pay the Souldiers wages Rodulphus vilis Papirius Messonus in Lud. 7. yea some flew so high to pronounce the only way to obtain their ancient Countrey from the Infidels was to take away their lives here as fighting more against the Cause by their superstition and cruelties which being suffered made God displeased then the other by their swords and military Engines A stop was given to this heady and rash sentence by the interposition of St. Bernard and others But as if such mischief nothing concerned them some of them seated about Orleance in the year one thousand Papirius Messonus ex Glabo sent an Ambassage to the Prince of Babylon stirring him up against the Christians The Ambassador suspected and examined the truth is discovered they are thence run upon and destroyed as Monsters of men by the People Not long after they arrive here in this Island Stow Holinsh Baker say they were first of al admitted by him if there were any before here in the Land they were but very sew about the year 1070. first of all admitted by William the Conqueror being brought from Roan by him Their good welcom in other parts was no cause of their defire to see this Country He had made room enough for them by that havock he had made of the English Nation little good will bare he to it and this was never taken by it as a sign of his contrary disposition He and all his Successors intended to use them to their own advantage dealing with them as spunges suffered them to suck up the English treasure which they then squeeze out into their own Coffers For in his fourth yeer Roger de Heveden 〈◊〉 Hen. 2. Wilâ—elmus rex 4. anno regni sui c. holding a Council of his Barons he summons up 12. out of each County commands them to shew their Laws and Customs and agree upon that which afterwards was held authentick Here it is provided that the Jews setled in the Kingdom as the title runs should be under the Kings protection that they should not subject themselves to any other without his leave it is declared that they and all theirs are the Kings and if any should detain any of their goods he might challenge it as his own Being here thus brought in and settled they lose no time by their great extortion they fill their purses for the treasury and the English treasure up prejudice and heart-burnings against them both which will be shewed in the sequel of our story when mixing the blood of innocents with their sacrifices they made so great impression on the Englishmens hearts as scarce ever will be worn out with the strength of time and then never could be satisfied but with their expulsion Indeed in the days of K. William the second little of transaction occurs in reference to them but what was caused by his own means That Kings Scepticism in Religion Baker Will. 〈◊〉 in Will 2. or rather profaneness did but increase the fury of their Superstition Being at Roan in Normandy he takes upon him for a reward to reduce one who was turned Christian to his former ways again but being not able to perform his promise and put to a stand by his young adversary he bids him be gone out of his presence but keeps half of the money to himself And here at London he makes a disputation be held betwixt the Christians and them The Bishops assemble the King is present promises to pass into the Jews cause if clearly conquerors They are said to have carried away nothing but confusion but this came of it that afterwards they became more confident stiffly affirming themselves not to have been overpowerd with reason but faction The insolency of their carriage in this business wrought grudges in Christians which Will. Malm. joyned with the natural enmity to them as Jews might have done more if the joy conceived for the Kings stability and their own victory had not something allayed the matter and as yet scarce knowing one another there wanted experience of the Jews conditions which time produced when growing secure through peace and plenty they easily betrayed themselves Throughout the reign of Henry the first we hear nothing of them As yet they were not so fully setled coming over removing from place to place providing themselves ways of livelyhood and were so active as though they were not many at the
first and scarce for a while residing any where but at London yet shortly they were spread throughout the whole Land no Town at all considerable but multitudes in it At the first they had this advantage that through the English peoples ignorance of their manners for the generality and the horridness of them which afterwards appeared they might have opportunity to conceal their malice against the truth Yet at length it is fully discovered when in the year 1144. Fox Acts and Monum and the ninth of King Stephen all Laws of humanity broken all ingenuity which ought to be shewed by strangers towards them that harbor them in a malitious opposition against the truth and furious despight against Jesus Christ the Saviour of the world in the City of Norwich they lay violent hands upon a poor infant which following the example of their Ancestors they most cruelly crucifie and murder What the Christians might think hereupon we may easily judge what indignation and implacable hatred might arise and that not only in respect to Religion but out of sollicitation for the children of their own bowels who living amongst them might easily be insnared catched and miserably butchered when any childe was missing suspitions and jealousies could not but abound This they could not be ignorant of Fex Acts and Monum and how by this means they digged pits to fall into themselves Notwithstanding having got a taste of Christian blood and delighting much in that wretched cruelty seventeen years after and the seventh of King Henry the second in the Town of Glocester they act the former part over again Stow in his Survey of â—mden crucifying another child in like manner in scorn and derision of our Saviour and Profession This together with clipping and spoiling the coyn might justly have provoked more then we can read of No great stir was made about it though such acts were not likely long to be tolerated with more then ordinary patience Yet this King instead of taking such course with them as they might deserve rather strives and bears with such enormities takes away no priviledge but adds unto them For whereas ever before for the space of 100. years they had had no burying place allowed them any where but at London and so were constrained to bring all their dead from the most remote parts hither Rog. de Hove-den in Hen. 2. Stows survey Hollinsh he gives them leave upon their Petition at the Parliament at Oxford to purchase ground convenient for their service in all places provided it were without the Town walls In the year 1189. King Henry the second dieth Hollinsh Speed and before this his son whom most unfortunately as it happened he had assumed to the Government and made partaker of his Kingdom some think this young King to have born no great good will to the Jews and that he would have manifested the same had he survived his father But he dying Richard succeeds of that name the first Now the people begun to be very weary of these their guests besides what 's said being grievously oppressed with their usury Now also were they reported to do mischief in companies where they came poyson men and women as they had done the wels in Germany during the troubles betwixt the Emperour and Pope Whereupon King Richard the day before his Coronation forbids any of them by Proclamation Krantius Wandal Hist lib. 9. or their wives to come within the Church or Palace during the solemnity They as yet having not experienced the fury of the people or expecting impunity for their presents they intended to offer approach neer the Court gate Chron. West whereof the Chieftain with divers of his affinity enter Hereupon a Christian strikes one of them with his hand bidding him stand further off as the King had commanded whereat others taking occasion as watching for an opportunity lay at them with stones and other things that come to hand whereof ensues the death of some and hurt of many It happened Matth Paris in Rich. 1. Holinsh that one of them being hurt in the tumult desired to be baptized which he was accordingly but being brought before the King and examined renounced again the Christian Faith Polydor. Virg. whereupon the King looking upon the Bishops and demanding what was to be done with him the Archbishop of Canterbury wisely replied If he will not be a childe of God then let him be a childe of the devil but others would have had him dealt with after another fashion But the noise of what was done at Court presently arrives in the City of London Matth. Paris Speed Holinsh Then the heady multitude having got what they wished presently make to the Jews houses but finding them entred and the doors locked some they break open pillage and rifle the houses those that are too strong they set on fire the owners miserably perishing in the flames and those that come forth are unmercifully received on the points of swords and spears by their implacable and furious enemies Tidings hereof being brought to the King he dispatches away Rich. de Glanvill his chief Justice and other Ministers of State to appease the People but they being little reverenced and their authority as little regarded return again as they came having only ventured their lives to no purpose This lasted from the noon of one day to two a clock of the next and then the rout broke up inquisition was made for offenders and some executed some houses of Christians having also perished and much harm done This on the morrow draws out a proclamation from the King Matth. Paris Holinsh to the end the like for the future might be prevented none under great penalties are to hurt or molest a Jew But the King having taken upon him the Cross and having crossed the Seas into France upon his expedition into the Holy Land the people take occasion at his absence having the memory of the stirs at London fresh in their minds to satisfie their greedy desires in the Jews destruction in divers parts of the Realm Yet the occasion was given by themselves Polidor Virgil. Holinsh That freedom from molestation which was indulged to them by the King they will not bestow upon one of their own Nation It hapned in Lin that one of them turned Christian and being for that mortally hated by them they sought occasion to take away his life resolving to kill him where ere they meet him Accordingly meeting him on a time in the streets they sell upon him He to save his life betakes himself to the next Church whither they also pursuing him break it open Hereupon a tumult is raised by the crying out of the Christians who earnestly endeavoured to save the Convert and with that many of the Inhabitants and divers Marrinors who were strangers came in unto the rescue The Jews are beaten home to their houses which the Sailers
out of greediness of gain rob rifle and pillage and setting them on fire get them to their ships hoise up sails and away they go Thus God raises up even strangers who came thither to trade to scourge this crooked and rebellious people The next place which took the alarum was S. Holinsh Edmundsbury in Suffolk on the 15 of March and the 2 of the King when they being no less hated for their cruel oppression are set upon by the people plundred and slain Things were sooner composed here by the care of the Abbot and the residue of the Jews expelled the Town never to return thither again At Stamford and at Lin also at the same time were great stirs all places desiring nothing more then to be rid of these their guests But the greatest commotion was at York Mat. Paris alii when the hand of God severely punished their stubbornness and cruelty There March the 17. in the same year the people envying the happiness of those Towns who so used them set most violently upon them forcing them for safety to take their heels Hence four or five hundred fly to Towers to save themselves where being besieged and seeing little hopes to escape the danger one of their Rabbies makes an Oration to them exhorting them rather to kill one another then fall into their hands who opposed their Law He begins first cuts his wives throat whose name was Anna next his childrens then his friends and lastly his own the rest follow his example throwing their slain relations over upon their Christians heads Some in another Tower hearing what was become of these set the place and themselves on fire calling upon their companions hard by to do the like but these esteeming better of their lives then so offer to yield on condition that for turning Christians and being baptized they might have them spared This is agreed upon and concluded but they coming out were most perfidiously cruelly butchered malice and passion breaking the bounds of faith given After this massacre the people run to the Cathedral get all their Bonds and Obligations into their hands by which they had bound many a man unto them so unreasonably as if the Authors were not of credit which report it it were incredible But all these a fire being made in the midst of the Church they reduce to ashes Now the King was beyond the Seas Mat. Paris alii on his way to Palestine but receiving this news hears it with great indignation fretting that his orders being so little observed his authority should be so much infringed as also for that he had received upon his setting forwards great sums of money from the Jews wherefore he sends his commands to the Bishop of Ely to see these insurrections severely punished The Bishop according to these injunctions marches down to York with agreat Army but mist his prey the chief Actors in the Tragedy being fled into Scotland upon the rumor of his coming The Magistrates and chief Citizens excused themselves as not accessary to the fact which was committed principally by the Souldiers who being crossed and gathered together were to pass over to the King and follow him on his expedition and other Countrey people which flocked thither from the Towns near adjoyning But the stout Bishop would not be satisfied with this put off but fleeced the Citizens the multitude being pardoned for that the Ring-leaders of the rout were fled away The Inhabitants of Lin excused themselves laying the matter upon the Sailers and had little said unto them In the fixth year of this Kings reign 1194. Rog Hoved. in Rich. 1. were Justices Itinerant sent throughout the Land in September Amongst other Instructions this is given them in charge to enquire diligently of murthers of Jews of the Jews Pledges Goods Lands and Writings Commissioners and places are appointed to inroll all their Debts Pledges Lands Rents and Possessions and great penalties appointed to the breakers of these orders according to that above-mentioned that they and all theirs are the Kings All this while these several Kings bore with them by reason of the profit which redounded to their coffers yet no great damage did they hitherto suffer But now their actions rendring them more and more obnoxious as well as their Religion and having hoarded up abundance of wealth to the undoing of the subject from henceforth they become a prey to the Prince as often as his necessities call upon him who knowing where to have supply forces them always by strong hand to disgorge themselves which provoking them for recruit to double their diligence the people come to pay for it at the last Now had King John succeeded his brother Matth. Westin a Prince sufficiently covetous and griping Being in want or at least pretending it in his eleventh year 1210 he commands all the Jews of both Sexes throughout his Kingdom to be apprehended imprisons them and inflicts great punishments upon them that they might empty themselves to fill his purse some he commands to have an eye pull'd out one at Bristol being more resolute then his fellows stands it out refusing to redeem his liberty at so great a rate as the King required He to take a speedy and certain way with him as he thought Matth. Paris K. John in the first of his raign granted them such a priviledge as can scarce be paralleld making one Jacob of Londâ—n High Priest that so they might acrifice which else could not be done J â—ook commanded he should every day as long as he refused to submit have a tooth pull'd out of his head The poor man had but eight in all stood out seven days then having but one tooth left him to save that agrees to the Kings demand and pays the money By this time their iniquities were grown so high that they were counted a burden to the earth on which they trod no rising no stir but part of it must fall upon them In the Wars betwixt the King and Barons the City of London was taken by the Barons men who presently breaking in fall upon the Jews destroy them as the common plague and rase their houses down to the ground Stows survey of the stones of which Ludgate was afterwards partly repaired as appeared by an inscription in a stone when the gate was builded the last time King John after this leaves this life Sâ—â—ed and his Kingdom also to a childe in a sad condition Now was Lewis the Dolphin in England and the royal prerogative in the hands of the Barons yet by the honesty and prudence of the Earl of Pembrook all things were reduced to a quiet state and condition the aliens expelled and peâ—ce setled The Jews during his non-age were little molested but in his 14. year 1230. they did sufficiently smart K. H 3. is for France and wanting money whither should be betake himself but to their purses he gets the third part of all their
buried in the Cathedral and he ever after accounted a Martyr About two years after hapned a thing in Teuxbury Hollinsh Mat. Paris which perhaps might as well be omitted as spoken of It chanced there that a Jew fell into a Jakes on Saturday which being their Sabboth he would not that day be drawn out for breaking of it The Earl of Glocester hearing this news forbids him to be taken out the next on Sunday for that neither he said should the Christian Sabboth be broken by him whereupon the poor man lying there till Munday miserably died Of this story I have read these verses rimed according to the Poetry of that age Christian Tende manus Solomon ut te de stercore tollam Jew Sabatta sancta colo de stercore surgere nolo Christian Sabatta nostra quidem Solomon celebrabis ibidem In the year 1262. and of this Henry the 3. the 47. Holinsh Stows survey a Jew little remembring into what a tickle condition their deserts had brought them wounds a Christian within Colechurch in the Ward of Cheap He is pursued home to his house by the multitude and there slain with whose life yet they would not be satisfied But going on in their fury they break up and pillage the houses of that Nation and kill divers so full were the Londoners of prejudice and spight against them that upon all occasions they could not buâ— discover it But not onely against their persons do they rage The publike toleration of their Religion was also a great offence to them running therefore to their Synagogue at the west side of Olaves Jury where they for the most part lived they utterly destroy it The ground being afterwards by the King given away became the seat of Friers next of a Nobleman then of a Merchant and since that of the Windmil Tavern But now ere long the sparks of discontent and grudges betwixt the King Barons were quite blown up into a flame Sir 〈◊〉 Conor His lavishments and neglect in administration of Justice had subjected him to their plots and combinations and betwixt both parties sprung a more then civil War The Barons had gotten the hearts of the Citizens who easily drawn with the promises of freedom and reformation of abuses took their part but the Jews loving neither in reality clave to the King sufficiently knowing their own interest in this matter though at other times they could take no warning but by their abominable actions drew still upon themselves one plague at the heels of another But here they saw on whom they depended what it was that kept them here and what they might expect if the Barons should prove victorious Holinsh 〈…〉 Accordingly therefore in the year 1264. they that inhabite in London resolving to do what they may plot the destruction of Barons and Citizens altogether But nothing except desolation and misery attending them they are detected hereof almost all slain their houses ransack'd abundance of treasure being therein found scraped up together But within a while providence had decided the civil quarrel Holiash giving the victory unto the King whereupon a Parliament was called and many turned out of their estates being proscribed by Law Divers of those disinherited Gentlemen being thus out-lawed and sore repining at their condition betake themselves to the Isse of Oxholm whither resorts a multitude of the baser sort who rob and risle the places near adjoyning and act according to the custom of men carried by necessity and desperation Now Lincoln being not far distant is taken and sacked by them wherein not unmindeful of the publique enemy the Jews they run to their Synagogue which they burn together with their Law and many of them in it thinking it even sin if to their other robberies they should not add this of spoiling them who in that place had broken the bounds of all humanity and thereby deserved many deaths And now we come to the last passage we meet with during the long raign of this King Things seeming to be prettily settled yet clouds begin to gather again The Earl of Glocester is unsatisfied with affairs and therefore must up and make way for better fortune by his sword He comes up to London and gets possession of the City The Jews then their wives and children being sensible of the approaching of their ruine with the Popes Legat flock into the tower of which they have a part assigned them to defend But things being after a while composed they also for a while enjoy quietness and security Now began the English liberty from these incroachers to draw on amain for in the year 1272. King Edward the first had ascended the throne succeeding his father Their oppressions were now grown so intollerable that longer they could not be endured the people of England being almost ready to quit their dwellings and leave them their habitations * Math. West Edv. rex ad Parlamentum Westmonasterii omnes Nobiles regnt sui jusserat congregari in quo Statuta multa ad utilitatem regni fuerunt publicata inter quae Judaeis fuit interdicta effraenatlicentia usurandi Et ut possent à Christianis discerni praecepit rex quod instar tabularum unius palmaelongitudinem signâ—i ferrent in exterioribus indumentis Therefore in the third of the King a Parliament is called and in it amongst other things their unreasonable usury is restrained by Law and for that they are accounted unworthy of any charitable thought they are ordered to wear plates in their clothes clear to be seen that every one might take notice who they were But that they cannot get one way they will have another the measure of their iniquities was not yet compleat and therefore they run on still to their own destruction Would any people under the cope of heaven having had so many warnings undergone so many troubles suffered such massacres yet go on as if to make amends and procure themselves safety was to heap guilt upon guilt and adde treachery to violence But in the year 1278. and the sixth of the King they wash Matth. Westm Paris clip and counterfeit his coyn as they had done before in the reign of Henry the second Being apprehended they likewise accuse the Christians as accessary At London nigh 300 are executed amongst whom there were three Christians many being also put to death in other places King Edward Holinshed according to the tenor of their hold here in England and their obnoxiousness to which their actions had reduced them counted all they had his own and for non-payment of what was demanded the whole generation scattered through the whole Land are shut up in one night where they enjoyed no day until they had fined at his pleasure The Commons now offered to the King the fifth part of their moveables to have them banished 〈◊〉 but this Prince having this opportunity his Predecessors wanted of their vying with one another
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