To their honour be it spoken, they chose the latter alternative, and the whole Hebrew population, amounting to hundreds of thousands, prepared to leave the land; some of them going to Portugal, others to France, Italy, Flanders, Germany, or the East; and carrying with them quantities of gold and silver, which they managed to secrete about their persons, in spite of the royal prohibition.

"Once more, therefore, large numbers of Jews were uprooted from a soil to which they had become attached, and afresh dispersed among the nations.' The emigrants suffered fearfully from shipwrecks, from fatigue, and from diseases contracted on their journeys; but they carried with them wealth and learning, the two things which alone have secured for them the measure of consideration which they have ever enjoyed.

"There were some countries, however, which would not receive them at any price. Those who only wished to pass through Portugal had to pay a toll. Those who remained were soon after ordered to quit the kingdom, a secret order for the seizure of all children under fourteen being issued at the same time. This order was found out; and the agony caused by it you must imagine. Many and many a mother destroyed her own offspring, rather than give them to be brought up as Christians. However, the Portuguese people, more merciful than their king, often helped the children to escape with the parents.

"Even their own brethren hardly received them, because they did not wish to increase their numbers. In Africa the Moors treated them barbarously; the king of Fez refused them admittance. Many died of hunger or of the plague.

"I do not know where to stop. I might go on for weeks recounting the sufferings of that unhappy people, whose ancestors had cried, His blood be on us, and on our children.'

349

CHAPTER XXXIX.

JEWS IN ENGLAND, AND IN THE VERY ENDS OF THE

EARTH.

"The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth to the other."-DEUT. xxviii. 64.

"BUT

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OUT about England, mother, how were the poor Jews treated here?" said Stewart. "Well," Mrs. Conway answered, many of them came to this country very early, even as early as the Saxon times; while many more came over with William the Conqueror, who, in consideration of ample payment, gave them a place to live in, with leave to trade.

"William Rufus, probably from feelings of hostility to religion altogether, was very friendly to those who were accounted infidels; and thus they soon came to be well established both in Oxford and London. Indeed, in the former place they set up three halls for the instruction of youth, and taught Hebrew to Gentiles as well as Jews. And evidently here, as in other countries, they were not only the richest, but the most learned portion of the community.

"But some years later the same old tales began to be told of them, respecting the crucifying of children, etc., which had followed them everywhere; and Henry II. took advantage of these evil reports to extort large sums of money from them; though on the whole he was favourable to them, and seemed to esteem them as his richest vassals.

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And probably with good reason; for when Richard I. was crowned, the Jews attended in great numbers and extraordinary magnificence, bringing him splendid presents. But some persons who were evil-disposed towards them, caused them to be excluded from the abbey; and on the discovery of a few isolated individuals being present, there was a general uproar and rising of the people, who pillaged and plundered their houses all night long. And these wrongs were never avenged by the law.

"This was in London; and after the riot was over, one poor Jew, who to save his life had submitted to baptism, begged the king to let him off his engagement. The king appealed to the warlike Archbishop Baldwin, who bluntly answered, Why, if he is not willing to become a servant of God, he must even continue a servant of the devil.'

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Nevertheless, the example set in London was praised by all sorts of fanatical preachers throughout the kingdom, and speedily followed in many of the large

towns.

"Benedict, the relapsed convert, was a native of York; he died in London of the ill-treatment he had received; and a friend who took the news to his family found the whole city in a tumult. Very soon the house of Benedict was attacked, his family murdered, and the house burned. Then the wealthiest of the Jews who had escaped the first outrages, took refuge in the castle, with their effects; but soon, fearing treachery, they seized the citadel.

"This was immediately besieged; the assailants being urged on by a canon, who continued to cry, Destroy the enemies of Christ, destroy the enemies of Christ,' whilst the people attacked.

"At length the besieged felt that their doom was sealed;

and their aged rabbi rose in a council, and addressed them on the choice left, of death by their own hands or by those of the enemy, strongly urging the former, and speaking of it as a deed according to their law! A strange assertion this; but perhaps he referred to the Talmud.

"He sat down in tears; but his advice was taken by the majority, who set to work to collect all sorts of inflammable materials, on which they placed all their effects, and having fired the castle in many places, they first cut the throats of their wives and children, and then their own.

"When the rabble rushed in next morning, they found only a few miserable creatures, who offered to do anything to save their lives; nevertheless every living soul was put to the sword. After this they burnt all deeds and bonds, which so angered the king that he sent men down to investigate the affair; but no one suffered for the massacre of those hundreds of Jews.

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However, on Richard's return from the Holy Land, some protective measures were passed for their benefit.

;

"His brother John petted and caressed the nation not so his subjects. Henry III. also protected them; but the hatred of the Church towards them was now invincible. In this reign they were accused of clipping the coin; but Henry knew their power to help him, and continued his professed friendship, going so far as to summon a Jewish parliament, which, however, when it met, was expected like all others to grant him supplies, and then dismissed. Because these supplies were not immediately forthcoming, the collectors, their wives, and children, were imprisoned, and their goods seized.

"The king continued to extort money from them, and the hatred of the populace to increase, being now and then gratified by a massacre or two on the part of the

nobles. And this state of public feeling existed until Edward I. at length banished the whole nation, and forbade their return on pain of death. They did not reappear in England in a body for three hundred and fifty years. Perhaps some of these took refuge in Holland, where they have long lived in great numbers. I should have mentioned that for some time it had become a regular practice to sell the nation first to one prince or noble, and then another, and so make money by them.

"In Germany, during the same period, they had suffered perhaps even more-on all sorts of charges they suffered. They were said to poison fountains, to murder children, to assist invaders, or to blaspheme the host. It is really extraordinary how, in such a state of constant fear and anxiety, one learned doctor after another attained celebrity; but in Germany, perhaps peculiarly, the feverish hopes of the nation were fed and fostered by numerous false prophets and Messiahs.

"I suppose it was chiefly from Germany that Poland gained its numerous Jewish population. However, driven as I have described from so many European countries, they flocked back to the shelter of the crescent, and were found in large numbers in all North Africa, Syria, Arabia, and Egypt; while 50,000 are said to have taken refuge in the Ottoman empire. In Ethiopia, too, there have always been many Jews who have enjoyed more peace than elsewhere. The Falashas of Abyssinia claim to be descended from some Jews of Solomon's time.

There

"But they have been scattered far more widely. have long been Jews in China, though how long I cannot say, as the opinions of learned persons vary. They say themselves that they were once more numerous than at present. They declared to a Jesuit missionary who visited them that they had never heard of Jesus of Nazareth, but