Notwithstanding the harshness and severity of this decree, it seems not to have been sufficient to excite any commiseration on the part of the people. Many were still unwilling to allow the Jews to depart in quiet, but sought to take the last opportunity remaining to them to give vent to their unchristian hatred and enmity against these unfortunate people, and to despoil them of the small portion of their wealth which remained to them. The principal Jews were forced to provide themselves with letters of safe conduct from the king; and it became necessary, for their protection, to issue orders to the officers and magistrates of the towns through which they passed, to guard them against the violence of the populace. One instance of the barbarities to which they were subjected, deserves to be particularly noticed, as it affords a just example of the sentiments entertained by the people towards the Jews. It is thus related by Hollinshead, and copied by Lord Coke and many other writers since: “A sort of the richest of them,” he says, “being shipped with their treasure in a mighty tall ship which they had hired, when the same was under sail, and got down the Thames, towards the mouth of the river, towards Quinborough, the master mariner bethought him of a wile, and caused his men to cast anchor, and so rode at the same, till the ship, by ebbing of the stream, remained on the dry sand. The master herewith enticed the Jews to walk out with him on land, for recreation; and at length, when he understood the tide to be coming in, he got him back to the ship, whither he was drawn by a cord. The Jews made not so much haste as he did, because they were not aware of the danger; but when they perceived how the matter stood, they cried to him for help, howbeit he told them that they ought to cry rather unto Moses, by whose conduct their fathers passed through the Red Sea; and, therefore, if they would call to him for help, he was able enough to help them out of these raging floods, which now came in upon them. They cried indeed, but no succour appeared, and so they were swallowed up in the water. The master returned with the ship, and told the king how he had used the matter, and had both thanks and rewards, as some have written. But others affirm (and more truly as should seem) that divers of the mariners, which dealt so wickedly against the Jews, were hanged for their wicked practice; and so received a just reward of their fraudulent and mischievous dealing.”
By the time appointed, all the Jews had left England; the numbers have been estimated by some at 15,060, by others at 16,511.
The following few particulars are to be met with in the histories of the Jews themselves, respecting their changes, chances, troubles, and sufferings in this country. Ben Virga, in his chronicle Shaivet Y’hudah, states: “A.M. 5018, in the island which is now called England, a great and mighty destruction occurred in all the congregations, great and powerful in wisdom, knowledge, and honour, which were in those days. And especially that great city called London, which contained about two thousand Jewish householders; all of them were possessed of wisdom and wealth. It was there that Rabbi Abraham Aben Ezra, composed his epistle which he called, ‘The epistle of the Sabbath.’ The cause of their destruction was, that they [i.e. the Jews] should change their creed; and when they insisted on the sanctification of God’s name, they [i.e. the Gentiles] accused them of counterfeiting the coin. This calumny was brought before the king; the king examined and investigated the matter, and found that the false accusers invented that calumny against the Jews; and they escaped. After a time, the Nazarenes resumed their calumnies, and sought for persons to witness against the Jews, and they found such persons as they desired [who stated] how they saw a Jew clipping a coin; and though the king knew that it was all false, but on account of the murmuring of the populace, he wished to throw off their displeasure, and fearing lest the nation should rise with a sword in their hand, as was generally the case with them, and there would be no one to deliver, he commanded and banished them [the Jews], and this expulsion took place A.M. 5020.”
It is my firm conviction that Ben Virga’s account is the true one, as far as the facts of the case are concerned. There seems certainly to be a disagreement in the dates.[1]
[1] – See [Appendix G].
Rabbi G’daliah mixed up several incidents together, and also added a little of the marvellous out of his own vivid imaginations, which give his narrative altogether the air of fiction, which is the following:—
“A.M. 5020—A priest in England consented to be circumcised in order to be married to a Jewess, with whom he was desperately enamoured. The affair became known to the citizens, who were desirous of burning them. But the king chose to execute the revenge in a different way, and decreed that within three months, they should change their religion: those who circumcised the priest were burned, and many of the Jews changed their religion. And they [i.e. the Gentiles] took all their children from six years old and downwards, and carried them to the end of the realm, that they might forget the customs of their fathers, the Jews. The king died, and his son reigned in his stead, and presently there came upon his kingdom pestilence and famine, and his counsellors said to him, that it was because of the Jews [i.e. baptized ones], who do not sincerely believe, that that calamity came upon them. And he [the king] made two tents by the banks of the sea; upon one he painted the figure of Moses, our Rabbi—may peace be upon him—and also his name; and upon the other he painted their Messiah: and he told them they were permitted to become Jews, and none of them should be forced to any thing. But in order that he might ascertain who was a Jew [by creed], he wished that those who were desirous of becoming Jews should go into the tent of Moses, our Rabbi—may peace be upon him—and took upon themselves to do so. Now many of them entered into the tent of Moses, our Rabbi—may peace be upon him—and after they were gathered there, they were murdered, and cast into the sea, and thus all of them perished and were extirpated.”[1]
[1] – See [Appendix H].
Did Rabbi G’daliah write since the days of Sir Walter Scott, one might be inclined to think that the Jewish historian borrowed a leaf from one of the volumes of the Scotch novelist, only suppressing the names of Brian de Bois-Guilbert and Rebeccah, and putting instead “priest” and “Jewess;” but as Sir Walter flourished when the Hebrew writer was long since dead and gone, I am inclined to conjecture vice versa.
The reason why we are not favoured with more information on their history in this country, by themselves, has already been hinted at in the first Lecture.[1] It is certain that the Jews had many valuable libraries in this country, which were taken from them before they were driven out of it, and were bestowed on the universities and monasteries. However, this consideration belongs properly to the second series of these Lectures, which shall be fully treated when that series is delivered. Dr. Jost is by no means correct when he says, “There is no trace of (Jewish) schools in England; no Rabbi of that country occupies a place in the annals of Jewish scholars; there was no time for study, and no ambition stimulated and encouraged those who were eager for the acquirement of knowledge.”[2] Not only is this statement at variance with Rabbi Solomon ben Virga’s, but also with his own. He himself says, with reference to the English Jews, “The learned amongst them prosecuted the medical sciences, yet more as an art; and they were, through their acquaintance with some secret means of cures, so celebrated, that the divines were interrupted in their wonderful cures,” &c.[3] Indeed there are many statements in this historian’s productions, which must be received with a [♦]considerable degree of caution.