for
evil, at his bidding. Exempt from taxation and fines, they
hoarded wealth, which the King might seize at his pleasure,
though none of his subjects could touch it. The Jew's
special capacity--in which Christians were forbidden by the
Church to employ themselves through fear of the sin of
usury---was that of money-lender.

In this status the Jews remained without eventful history
until the latter part of the twelfth century, when the
crusading spirit had aroused a more intense hatred of the
race. At the coronation of Richard I (1189) certain of the
Jews intruded among the spectators, causing a riot, in which
the Jewish quarter was plundered; and this violence was
followed by a frenzy of persecution all over the land. A
rumor spread that the Jews were accustomed to crucify a
Christian boy at Easter, and this aroused the populace to
fury against them. Murder and rapine prevailed in several
places. Five hundred Jews, who were allowed to take refuge
in the castle at York, were there besieged by the townsmen,
in whom no offers of ransom could appease the thirst for
blood. These avengers were led on by their own clergy, with
the cry, "Destroy the enemies of Christ!" A rabbi addressed
his countrymen: "Men of Israel, it is better that we should
die for our law than to fall into the power of those that
hate it, and our law prescribes that we may die by our own
hands. Let us voluntarily render up our souls to our
Creator." Then all but a few of them burned or buried their
effects, and, after setting fire to the castle in many
places, the men cut the throats of their wives and children,
and then their own.

Richard I had special dealings with the Jews, the effectual
results of which were more securely to bind them as crown
chattels and to add to the royal emoluments. King John, well
estimating the importance of the Jews as a source of
revenue, began his reign by heaping favors upon them, which
only made his subjects in general look upon them with more
jealousy. Under Henry III both the wealth of the Jews and
the oppressions which laid exactions upon it increased; and
during the half-century preceding their expulsion from the
realm, their condition, as shown by Milman, became more and
more intolerable.

Jewish history has a me