82. Translated and edited by Francis Egerton, Earl of Ellesmere.
83. In his charter to the city, King Henry exempts his Jews, who were to remain the exclusive property of himself and his successors.
84. The remarkable letter of Robert Grostête, then Archdeacon of Leicester, afterward the famous Bishop of Lincoln, to the Countess on this subject, shows the feelings of the most enlightened churchman in those times toward the Jews. His mercy, if it was mercy, would spare their lives. "As murderers of the Lord, as still blaspheming Christ and mocking his Passion, they were to be in captivity to the princes of the earth. As they have the brand of Cain, and are condemned to wander over the face of the earth, so were they to have the privilege of Cain, that no one was to kill them. But those who favored or harbored them were to take care that they did not oppress Christian subjects by usury. It was for this reason that Simon de Montfort had expelled them from Leicester. Whoever protected them might share in the guilt of their usuries."
85. This act, translated from the Norman French, is remarkable in that the King admits that they (the Jews) are, and have been, very profitable to him and his ancestors.
86. The act for the expulsion of the Jews has not come down to us; we know not, therefore, the reasons alleged for the measure. Of the fact there can be no doubt (see Report on the Dignity of a Peer, p. 180), and there are many documents relating to the event, as writs to the authorities in Gloucester and York, to grant them safe-conduct to the ports where they were to embark.
87. "Great," writes the author of Anglia Judaica, "were the spoils they left behind them. Whole rolls, full of patents relating to their estates, are still remaining in the Tower, which, together with their rents in fee and their mortgages, all escheated to the King."