ival
bankers, the Caorsini, and the friars themselves, were moved to
commiseration, though some complained that the wild outcries raised in
the synagogue on this doleful occasion disturbed the devotion of the
Christians in the neighboring churches.

The death of Henry released the Jews from this Egyptian bondage; but
they changed their master, not their fortune. The first act of
Edward's reign, after his return from the Holy Land, regulated the
affairs of the Jews exactly in the same spirit; a new tallage was
demanded, which was to extend to the women and children; the penalty
of nonpayment, even of arrears, was exile, not imprisonment. The
defaulter was to proceed immediately to Dover, with his wife and
children, leaving his house and property to the use of the King. The
execution of this edict was committed, not to the ordinary civil
authorities, but to an Irish bishop (elect) and to two friars.

This edict was followed up by the celebrated Act of Parliament
Concerning Judaism,[85] the object of which seems to have been the
same with the policy of Louis IX of France, to force the Jews to
abandon usury, and betake themselves to traffic, manufactures, or the
cultivation of land. It positively prohibited all usury and cancelled
all debts on payment of the principal. No Jew might distress beyond
the moiety of a Christian's land and goods; they were to wear their
badge, a badge now of yellow, not white, and pay an Easter offering of
threepence, men and women, to the King. They were permitted to
practise merchandise or labor with their hands, and--some of them, it
seems, were still addicted to husbandry--to hire farms for cultivation
for fifteen years. On these terms they were assured of the royal
protection. But manual labor and traffic were not sources sufficiently
expeditious for the enterprising avarice of the Jews. Many of them,
thus reduced, took again to a more unlawful and dangerous occupation,
clipping and adulterating the coin. In one day, November 17, 1279, all
the Jews in the kingdom were arrested. In London alone two hundred and
eighty were executed after a full trial; many more in other parts of
the kingdom. A vast quantity of clipped coin was found and confiscated
to the King's use. The King granted their estates and forfeitures with
lavish hand.

But law, though merciless and probably not overscrupulous in the
investigation of crime, did not satisfy the popular passions, which
had been let loose by these