his it is sufficient to remember
that, in their peculiar aptness for earning and hoarding money, they
found, or at least hoped to find, a means of compensation whereby they
might be led to forget the servitude to which they were subjected.

There existed amongst them, and especially in the southern countries,
some very learned men, who devoted themselves principally to medicine; and
in order to avoid having to struggle against insuperable prejudice, they
were careful to disguise their nationality and religion in the exercise of
that art.

[Illustration: Fig. 364.--The Jewish Procession going to meet the Pope at
the Council of Constance, in 1417.--After a Miniature in the Manuscript
Chronicle of Ulrie de Reichental, in the Library of the Mansion-house of
Basle, in Switzerland.]

They pretended, in order not to arouse the suspicion of their patients, to
be practitioners from Lombardy or Spain, or even from Arabia; whether they
were really clever, or only made a pretence of being so, in an art which
was then very much a compound of quackery and imposture, it is difficult
to say, but they acquired wealth as well as renown in its practice. But
there was another science, to the study of which they applied themselves
with the utmost ardour and perseverance, and for which they possessed in a
marvellous degree the necessary qualities to insure success, and that
science was the science of finance. In matters having reference to the
recovering of arrears of taxes, to contracts for the sale of goods and
produce of industry, to turning a royalty to account, to making hazardous
commercial enterprises lucrative, or to the accumulating of large sums of
money for the use of sovereigns or poor nobles, the Jews were always at
hand, and might invariably be reckoned upon. They created capital, for
they always had funds to dispose of, even in the midst of the most
terrible public calamities, and, when all other means were exhausted, when
all expedients for filling empty purses had been resorted to without
success, the Jews were called in. Often, in consequence of the envy which
they excited from being known to possess hoards of gold, they were exposed
to many dangers, which they nevertheless faced, buoying themselves up with
the insatiable love of gain.

Few Christians in the Middle Ages were given to speculation, and they were
especially ignorant of financial matters, as demanding interest on loans
was almost always looked upon as usury,