A.D. 1100-1200 (_continued_).
THE JEWS IN ENGLAND.—JEWISH IMPOSTORS.
It has been noted in a previous chapter that, up to the end of
William Rufus’s reign, the chief hardship that befell the Jews in
England was, that the Norman kings extracted large sums from them,
partly as loans—for which, perhaps, payment was hardly contemplated
by either party—and partly as the price of the protection afforded
them. The same state of things continued during the reigns of Henry
I., Stephen, and Henry II. Throughout this long period,—not much
less than a hundred years,—the Jews continued to gather in riches
without molestation, to an extent which proved ruinous to themselves
in subsequent generations, little as they anticipated such a result
at the time.[107] There were not wanting signs, however, which
might have indicated the approaching danger. During the reign of
Stephen, A.D. 1145, the charge was made against the Jews,—for the
first time in England, if not in Europe,—of having kidnapped and
crucified a boy at Norwich, in contemptuous parody of the Saviour’s
passion. The case was brought before the notice of the king, and the
accused were adjudged to pay a fine to the Crown—a most suspicious
termination of the inquiry. No further outbreak, however, occurred:
and during the protracted reign of his successor, Henry II., the
same condition of things continued. That able and powerful monarch,
whatever might be his difficulties with the clergy, repressed with a
strong hand all overt acts of violence against the peculiar people,
who looked to him for protection.[108] But he could not prevent their
growing unpopularity. Society had become largely influenced by the
crusading spirit. The loss of Jerusalem,—which had been wrested by
so large an expenditure of blood and treasure from the hold of the
Infidel,—roused everywhere a more bitter feeling than ever against
the enemies of Christ. It was mainly through the Crusades that the
Jews had acquired their wealth; and the spectacle of unbelievers
living in ease and luxury, at the cost of the faithful servants
of Christ, whose bones were whitening the plains of Palestine, or
who had returned to England to pine in poverty, stirred public
indignation to the utmost. The train was already laid for a furious
onslaught upon them. It needed but a spark to bring about the
explosion.
The crisis came almost immediately after the death of Henry. Anxious
at once to show their loyalty and secure the protection of the
new sovereign, the Jews sent a deputation, consisting of men of
the highest repute among them, to attend the coronation of King
Richard, and present him with rich gifts suitable to the occasion.
Their presence was regarded as a profanation of the ceremony, and
orders were sent them to stay away. They obeyed, but a few of their
number, supposing themselves unknown, or that they would not be
noticed, ventured into the Abbey. They were detected and dragged
violently out. The popular fury was inflamed. The houses of the Jews
were everywhere broken open, plundered, and set on fire. The king
endeavoured to put a stop to the riot, but in vain. The pillage and
murder went on throughout the entire night. On the following day
order was restored, many of the rioters were arrested, and a strict
inquiry made. Three were hanged, but it is a curious illustration
of the state of the public feeling of the day, that none of these
were punished for injuries done to the Jews. Two of the three had
robbed a Christian, pretending that he was a Jew, and the third had
set on fire the house of a Jew, but, unluckily for the offender, a
Christian’s house had been burned along with it. It would really seem
that, in the existing state of public feeling, the government dared
not punish any one for the simple offence of injuring a Jew!
The news of the outbreak ran like wild fire through the country, and
everywhere the rabble were roused to the same violence. In Norwich
and Stamford, and other large towns, the Jews were attacked, their
houses gutted, themselves maltreated and slain. At Lincoln, the
humane governor of the castle gave them timely warning. They retired
with their valuables within its shelter, and were preserved. At
York, a Jew named Benedict, who had declared himself a convert to
Christianity to save his life, and had afterwards recanted, became
the special object of popular fury. He had died of exhaustion
and terror before the commencement of the _émeute_; but the mob,
disregarding that circumstance, attacked his house, burned it to
the ground, and murdered his wife and children. The other Jews—as
many of them, that is, as had heard in time of the danger that
was threatening them—took refuge within the walls of York Castle,
thinking, probably, to escape as their brethren at Lincoln had done.
Those who were left behind were ruthlessly massacred, man, woman, and
child, a few only excepted, who submitted to be baptized.
The Jews within the castle seem to have been received favourably by
the governor. But they suspected him of treachery. Unhappily, their
Christian brethren had given them but too good reason for their
suspicious temper. A rumour was circulated among them that he meant
to open the gates to the rioters, conditionally on being rewarded
for his treachery by receiving a large portion of the plunder. One
day, when he had gone out into the town, they took the desperate step
of shutting the gates against him, and, manning the walls, declared
they would defend themselves against all who might attack them. The
governor’s indignation was roused to the utmost at this ingratitude.
It chanced that the sheriff of the county was in York, attended by an
armed force. The governor appealed to him to recapture the fortress
from the traitors who had seized it. The sheriff assented, and, aided
by the mob, made an assault on the castle. The besieged defended
themselves manfully, and for a long time kept their enemies at bay.
At last it became evident that they could resist no further. Then
their Rabbi, a man of learning and high character, addressed them,
and warned them that there was nothing but death before them—a speedy
and honourable death by their own hands, or a death attended by every
circumstance of insult and barbarity by the hands of their enemies.
Surely it was better to choose the first.
This proposal was agreed to by nearly all present. They collected
their valuables. Such as were combustible they burned, the rest they
buried. They then set fire to the castle in several places, slew,
first of all, their wives and children, and then one another. The
Rabbi was the last to die. He stabbed the last survivor of his flock,
and then drove the sword into his own heart. The fearful scene which
had taken place, a thousand years before, in the Castle of Masada,
was repeated, with scarcely any variation but those caused by the
difference of time and place. If any evidence were required of the
resolute and unchangeable character of the Jewish people, this story
would surely suffice.
In the morning a renewed assault was made, and then came the fearful
discovery of what had taken place. The conduct of the victors fully
justified the forebodings of the Rabbi; the few who had shrunk from
death at the hands of their countrymen were dragged out of their
hiding-places and butchered. Then the work of plunder began. The gold
and jewels were carefully secured, but the papers, of which there
was a great store, were burned. This was an unhappy mistake for the
rioters. The papers were mostly bonds and acknowledgments of debts,
the reversion of which, by the law, became the property of the Crown.
Consequently, by this act, large sums were forfeited which would have
enriched the royal treasury. The reader will not be surprised to
hear that a commission of inquiry was straightway sent down to York.
But the papers had been hopelessly destroyed, and the ringleaders of
the outrage had fled to Scotland. The chief citizens entered into
recognizances for the better observance of order; but it does not
appear that any of the perpetrators of this horrible murder of 500,
or some say 1500, innocent persons ever underwent any legal penalty.
When Richard returned from his captivity, however, he resolved to
place the affairs of the Jews in a more satisfactory condition. He
found that during his absence the utmost lawlessness had prevailed.
The Norman baron had been in the habit of seizing on any wealthy Jew,
carrying him to his castle, and inflicting any amount of torture on
him, till he paid the sum demanded of him.[109] He forbade this,
declaring the Jews to be the chattels of the Crown, with which it
would be treason to meddle. A special court in the king’s Exchequer
was set apart for the management of Jewish finances. The amount of
property belonging to every Jew was duly registered and assessed.
This was no doubt arbitrary and extortionate, but still it was better
than lawless pillage, and probably did not prevent the Jews from
continuing to amass large fortunes. During the remainder of his short
reign they experienced no further persecution.
Richard died in the last year of the century, and John, the cruellest
and most detestable of the English kings, succeeded to the throne.
But for a time his usage of the Jews was milder than that of any
of his predecessors. He issued a charter restoring to them all the
privileges they had possessed in the times of the pure Norman kings.
They might dwell where they pleased; might hold lands and fees; their
evidence was to be of equal value with that of Christians; and, if
charged with an offence, they could be tried only in the King’s
Court. With what motive this was done, it is not easy to say. John
may have simply wished to conciliate their goodwill and so induce
them to be as liberal to him as possible. But the suspicion that
he meant to allow them time and opportunity for accumulating vast
riches, and then seize on them himself, has much to justify it. It
is, again, not unlikely that the countenance which he showed them
rendered them more than ever odious to his subjects; and when this
became patent, he was in no way inclined to incur unpopularity on
their account.[110] Any way, some ten years after his accession,
there was a sudden and total change in his demeanour towards them.
Without any reason assigned, the whole of the Jews were arrested,
cast into prison, and their property confiscated to the Crown.
Suspecting that they had disclosed to the authorities only a portion
of their wealth, and that large secret hoards still existed, he
caused them to be put to the most cruel tortures, to compel them
to give up these also. The well-known tale of the Jew of Bristol,
of whom 10,000 marks of silver[111] were demanded, and who, on his
refusal, was sentenced to lose a tooth every day until he paid it, is
perfectly well authenticated. He allowed, it is related, seven of his
teeth to be knocked out of his head, and then, to save the remainder,
consented to the payment. The king is said to have obtained as much
as 60,000 marks by this pillage of his subjects. Nor did the cruelty
and injustice end here. The rebellious barons, regarding the Jews as
the property of the Crown, seized upon their treasures and demolished
their houses, to repair the breaches in the walls of London.
Before concluding the history of the twelfth century, it will be
proper to give some brief account of the various impostors claiming
to be the expected Messiah who made their appearance during its
continuance, and also to say something of the great doctors and
learned men who adorned the period in question.
As regards the first of these subjects—adventurers claiming to be the
Messiah of prophecy have put forward their pretensions throughout
the whole of Jewish history, from the times of Judas of Galilee to
those of which we are now writing; but never in such numbers as at
this era. The first of them appeared in France in 1137. He was put
to death, many synagogues were destroyed, and their congregations
severely punished on his account. Another followed, a few years
afterwards, in Spain, where he received the support of a learned
Rabbi in Cordova. Notwithstanding this, he seems to have had but
few disciples, and soon subsided into insignificance. A third, in
Moravia, attracted more attention. He claimed to have the power of
rendering himself invisible, and several times—it is presumed by the
help of some juggling trick—succeeded in escaping from his pursuers.
His followers at last, dreading the anger of the king, delivered him
up, and he was hanged.
Several more made their appearance in the East, chiefly in Arabia
and Persia. One of these, who had been cured, by what he thought
a miracle, of his leprosy, drew great multitudes after him. His
pretensions were exposed by the Jewish doctors; but nevertheless
large numbers of Jews were slain in consequence of the tumults he
excited. Another, an Arabian, is chiefly remarkable for the ingenuity
by which he escaped torture. He told the king that if his head should
be cut off he would rise again from the dead. The king instantly
beheaded him with his scimitar, but only to find that the impostor
had by this stratagem baffled his tormentors.
But the most famous of all was Eldavid, on whose strange history
Disraeli has founded his ‘Wondrous Tale of Alroy.’[112] He was
born about the middle of the twelfth century, in Amaria, a city
tributary to the sovereign of Persia. He was acquainted with
Talmudical learning, and had learned, it was said, some strange
cabalistic secrets. He raised an insurrection among his countrymen,
whom he deluded by several apparent miracles. After some unavailing
attempts to get him into their power, the Persians bribed his
father-in-law, with a promise of ten thousand crowns, to betray him.
His father-in-law invited him to a feast, and there assassinated him.
FOOTNOTES:
[107] At a Parliament held at Northampton, when it was proposed
to raise a tax for an expedition to the Holy Land, the Jews were
assessed at £60,000, and the whole of the rest of the population of
the country at £70,000 only.
[108] Two of these, similar to the outbreak in Stephen’s time,
occurred in 1160 and 1181. It has been shrewdly remarked, that the
Jews were always charged with this crime just at the times when the
kings wanted money.
[109] The readers of Sir Walter Scott will remember the graphic scene
in ‘Ivanhoe,’ where Front de Bœuf threatens to roast Isaac of York
alive, unless he pays his demand.
[110] It is said that, deceived probably by the long continuance of
their immunity from ill-usage, the Jews had begun to make display of
their wealth, in a manner which gave great offence to the citizens of
London; who treated them, in consequence, with many indignities. This
had reached the king’s ears, and he wrote a letter to them respecting
it.
[111] Between six and seven thousand pounds, English money.
[112] His history is given in detail by the celebrated Benjamin of
Tudela.