“T. R. apud West. 26 die Feb.”—Pat. 56, H. 3, pars 1, m. 19.
X.
The following particulars, as registered by Prynne, evidently show that there were many wealthy persons who, in spite of losing all, embraced Christianity:—
“This year, a Jew’s wife proving a convert Christian, her husband was attached for her goods, by the king, as belonging to him upon her conversion; who thereupon paid a fine to have this new case judicially determined in the Jews’ Exchequer, as this record attests.”
“Cum Abraham Batekot Judeus attachiatus esset ad respondend. regi de catallis Amiciæ Judeæ, quæ fuit uxor sua, quæ quidem catalla post conversionem suam ad regem pertinebant, ut dicitur. Idem Judeus finem fecit cum rege pro dimid. marc. auri quam regi solvit, ut secundum legem et consuetudinem Judaismi ad scaccarium Judæorum super hoc deducatur. Et mandatum est justic. ad custod. jud. assignatis, quod citra festum S. And. ad scaccarium Judæorum, quod justum fuerit de catallis prædictis fieri faciant, sicut prædict. est T. per R. de Essington.”
LECTURE VI.
My last Lecture, which must have been as tedious to you as it was to myself, finished with the death of Henry the Third. A melancholy monotony pervaded the whole of that lecture. The principal feature in Henry’s disposition was, as you are well aware, uncontrollable avarice, which was the cause of the many cruel persecutions, to which the poor unfortunate Jews were exposed.
I may just recapitulate, in a few minutes, the sums extracted from the Jews in the preceding reign. In the years 1230 and 1231, 15,000 marks; in 1233, 18,000 marks; in 1236, 1800 marks. The amount of taxation in 1237, not mentioned. In 1239, a third part of their goods; in 1241, 20,000 marks; in 1244, 20,000 marks; in 1245, 60,000 marks, which tax the king received with his own hand; in 1246, 10,000 marks; in 1247, 5,525 marks; in 1249, 10,000 marks; in 1250, a great part of their goods was taken away; in 1251, 5,000 marks of silver, and 40 of gold; in 1252, 3,500 marks; in 1253, 5,000 marks; in 1259, 5,000 marks; in 1269, 1,000 pounds; in 1271, 6,000 marks; besides many more, of which we have no records, and also besides the vast sums occasionally extorted from numbers of individuals.[1]