One would have fancied that such a statute as was just read, would have been the crown’s crowning act of violence towards the poor Jews; and since they had suffered so much of murder, plunder, and robbery both from the king and his subjects, a little respite, at least, would have been granted to them. But various as their oppressions were, so were they also incessant. Soon after the above decree was proclaimed, Prince Edward proceeded to the Holy Land, “that grave of immense treasures and innumerable lives.” His expenses were heavy; the Jews were therefore taxed at 6,000 marks. Now it was high time, after all their endurances, to be completely drained of their silver and gold, as they really were; they were therefore unable to raise the demanded sum with the promptitude with which it was required. Earl Richard came forward again, and advanced the money on the security of the Jews. But they seem to have been mortgaged to him in the present instance for one year only, for the next year they were again very heavily taxed. Several individuals were assigned over to Prince Edward, who had to pay £1000.
The Christians of that reign seemed to have cultivated an unaccountable covetousness for every thing Jewish, not only their money, but also their public buildings, and particularly their synagogues. We are thus informed, that this year another synagogue in London—the principal one—was taken away from the Jewish congregation and given to the Friars Penitents, who were sadly in want of a church. Unfortunately for the poor Jews, the Friars’ dark hole of a chapel was standing close to that magnificent synagogue, upon which those “locusts,” as Tovey calls them, set their avaricious and malicious affection, and did not rest till they got the king to sanction their robbery. The pretext they fixed upon was of a most blasphemous nature. They complained, that in consequence of the great noise the Jews made in their synagogue during their worship, they were not able to make the body of Christ quietly. The king thought the reason was a cogent one, and without any further consideration, ordered the Jewish place of worship to be turned into a den of thieves. But the king was so gracious as to permit the Jews to build for themselves another synagogue in some other convenient place, if they chose. No doubt expecting to get another church for his impious subjects.
Henry the Third must have been tormented with the torturous apprehension—as was the tyrannical Herod—that the Jews anticipated his death with great complacency.[1] Henry began to grow infirm, and did not expect to enjoy this world much longer: he determined therefore not to allow the Jews to be glad on that account. The cruelties, therefore, which he inflicted upon them in his last days, were of so barbarous a nature as to excite the commiseration of their most venomous foes. He called upon his unfortunate Jewish subjects to reckon up all their accounts with him, and pay him in the balance without delay. All arrears of his arbitrary tallages were to be settled in the short term of four months, but half of the aggregate sum was to be paid in seventeen days. Should any one be unable to pay, or give adequate security, he was forthwith to be imprisoned, and the privilege of bail denied him, except by body for body. And if any of their sureties should fail to pay in their whole quota on the appointed days, any sums formerly paid in part were to be forfeited, and their persons, goods, and chattels to be at the king’s mercy. Numbers of them upon this occasion were imprisoned in the Tower of London, and other places. Nothing but weeping and lamentation were to be seen and heard in every corner of every street. Dr. Tovey states—“Even the friars, who had so lately taken possession of their synagogue, as it is said, pitied them; nor were the Caursini and the Caturcensian brokers (though their rivals in extortion) without compassion; for nothing could be more rigorous and unmerciful than the king’s proceedings at this time.”
[1] – That savage tyrant, Herod, when he was taken ill in Jericho, which dreadful illness terminated his life, apprehending the approach of his dissolution, and remembering the many cruelties which he inflicted on the poor Jews; he had every reason to believe that joy instead of mourning would succeed his death. He ordered, therefore, his sister and brother-in-law to seize the principal men of the city of Jericho, and to put them to the sword the moment of his decease, in order that mourning should be a sine qua non.
I ended my last Lecture with the erection of a Jewish converts’ institution, which Henry had established “to deliver his father’s soul from the flames of purgatory,”[1] and with the same subject will I conclude my lecture tonight; and I am truly glad that this protracted Lecture is coming to a close. It seems that at the end of Henry’s reign there were great numbers of Jewish converts. Before that institution was established, I doubt not that many were deterred from embracing Christianity, in consequence of the distressing prospect they had before their eyes, of being deprived of all they possessed, and without any means of support.[2] The provision thus made for the Christian Jews induced many a one to make public confession of his faith. On one of the rolls of that reign, about five hundred names of Jewish converts are registered. But as all institutions, if not diligently looked after, become in process of time abused, so was that one, in an especial manner. The revenues were swallowed up by a few of the officers of that house, and the majority of the poor converts were subject to sheer starvation.[3] Henry, therefore, thought that it would be a meritorious thing on his part—especially as he expected ere long to be called before an awful tribunal to give an account of his stewardship—to give fresh encouragement to that asylum, and institute a strict investigation as to what became of the revenues assigned to that establishment; and he also enacted, that for the future none should receive any support from the house, except those who were really in want of it. The regulations of the house and chapel were also revised and improved. The king’s commissioners for that purpose were the mayor of London, and John de St. Dennis, warden of that asylum.[4] I repeat what I took the liberty to express in my last Lecture, that such institutions are most important in our own days, and I venture to cherish the hope, that I shall have the happiness to see institutions of that kind established in every town in England where the Jews reside, which, I am convinced, would be the means of making MANY avow their secret belief in the truth of the Christian religion.
[3] – See [Appendix V].
[4] – See [Appendix W].
It is a most gratuitous assertion on the part of Dr. Jost, that only the impoverished Jews, and such as had to fear any punishment by reason of some transgression against the laws of the country, took refuge in that house.[1] The Jewish historian has no authority for such a statement except his prejudices. There are records existing which prove the contrary.[2]