lancholy sameness--perpetual exactions, the
means of enforcing them differing only in their degrees of cruelty.
Under Henry III the Parliament of England began, 1250, to consider
that these extraordinary succors ought at least to relieve the rest of
the nation. They began to inquire into the King's resources from this
quarter, and the King consented that one of the two justices of the
Jews should be appointed by parliament. But the barons thought more of
easing themselves than of protecting the oppressed. In 1256 a demand
of eight thousand marks was made, under pain of being transported,
some at least of the most wealthy, to Ireland; and, lest they should
withdraw their families into places of concealment, they were
forbidden, under the penalty of outlawry and confiscation, to remove
wife or child from their usual place of residence, for their wives and
children were now liable to taxation as well as themselves. During the
next three years sixty thousand marks more were levied. How, then, was
it possible for any traffic, however lucrative, to endure such
perpetual exactions?

The reason must be found in the enormous interest of money, which
seems to have been considered by no means immoderate at 50 per cent.;
certain Oxford scholars thought themselves relieved by being
constrained to pay only twopence weekly on a debt of twenty shillings.
In fact, the rivalry of more successful usurers seems to have
afflicted the Jews more deeply than the exorbitant demands of the
King. These were the "Caorsini," Italian bankers, though named from
the town of Cahors, employed by the Pope to collect his revenue. It
was the practice of these persons, under the sanction of their
principal, to lend money for three months without interest, but
afterward to receive 5 per cent, monthly till the debt was discharged;
the former device was to exempt them from the charge of usury. Henry
III at one time attempted to expel this new swarm of locusts; but they
asserted their authority from the Pope, and the monarch trembled.

Nor were their own body always faithful to the Jews. A certain
Abraham, who lived at Berkhampstead and Wallingford, with a beautiful
wife who bore the heathen name of Flora, was accused of treating an
image of the Virgin with most indecent contumely; he was sentenced to
perpetual imprisonment, but released, on the intervention of Richard,
Earl of Cornwall, on payment of seven hundred marks. He was a man, it
would seem, of infam