ly being
threatened, was added a number of vexatious and personal insults, even in
ordinary times, and when they enjoyed a kind of normal tolerance. They
were almost everywhere obliged to wear a visible mark on their dress,
such as a patch of gaudy colour attached to the shoulder or chest, in
order to prevent their being mistaken for Christians. By this or some
other means they were continually subject to insults from the people, and
only succeeded in ridding themselves of it by paying the most enormous
fines. Nothing was spared to humiliate and insult them. At Toulouse they
were forced to send a representative to the cathedral on every Good
Friday, that he might there publicly receive a box on the ears. At
Beziers, during Passion week, the mob assumed the right of attacking the
Jews' houses with stones. The Jews bought off this right in 1160 by paying
a certain sum to the Vicomte de Beziers, and by promising an annual
poll-tax to him and to his successors. A Jew, passing on the road of
Etampes, beneath the tower of Montlhery, had to pay an obole; if he had in
his possession a Hebrew book, he paid four deniers; and, if he carried his
lamp with him, two oboles. At Chateauneuf-sur-Loire a Jew on passing had
to pay twelve deniers and a Jewess six. It has been said that there were
various ancient rates levied upon Jews, in which they were treated like
cattle, but this requires authentication. During the Carnival in Rome they
were forced to run in the lists, amidst the jeers of the populace. This
public outrage was stopped at a subsequent period by a tax of 300 ecus,
which a deputation from the Ghetto presented on their knees to the
magistrates of the city, at the same time thanking them for their
protection.

When Pope Martin IV. arrived at the Council of Constance, in 1417, the
Jewish community, which was as numerous as it was powerful in that old
city, came in great state to present him with the book of the law (Fig.
364). The holy father received the Jews kindly, and prayed God to open
their eyes and bring them back into the bosom of his church. We know, too,
how charitable the popes were to the Jews.

In the face of the distressing position they occupied, it may be asked
what powerful motive induced the Jews to live amongst nations who almost
invariably treated them as enemies, and to remain at the mercy of
sovereigns whose sole object was to oppress, plunder, and subject them to
all kinds of vexations? To understand t