The power of the clergy tended greatly to increase this general detestation against the unhappy Jew.  And when undisciplined fanatics of the lowest order, under the guidance of Peter the Hermit and Walter the Penniless, were fired with the spirit of the Crusades, fearful massacres of Jews were perpetrated in Treves, Metz, Spiers, Worms, and Cologne.  Everywhere the tracks of the Crusaders were deeply marked with Jewish blood.

Half a century after the shocking massacres of Jews during the First Crusade, another storm gathered, as the monk Rodolph passed through Germany preaching the duty of wreaking vengeance on all the enemies of God.  The terrible cry of “Hep!”—­the signal for the massacre of Israelites—­ran through the cities of the Rhine.  Countless atrocities took place as the Crusaders passed on, as the Jews record with triumph, to perish by plague, famine, and the sword.

V.—­The Jews in England

In the Dark Ages England was not advanced beyond the other nations of Europe in the civil or religious wisdom of toleration.  There were Jews in England under the Saxons.  And during the days of the Norman kings they were established in Oxford and in London.  They taught Hebrew to Christian as well as to Jewish students.  But they increased in both wealth and unpopularity, false tales about atrocities committed by them being bruited abroad.  In many towns furious rabbles at different times attacked the Jewish quarters, burnt the dwellings, and put the inmates cruelly to death, as at York, where hundreds perished during a riot in the reign of Richard I. King John by cruel measures extorted large sums from wealthy Jews.

The Church was also their implacable enemy, securing many repressive enactments against them.  Jewish history has a melancholy sameness—­perpetual exactions, the means of enforcing them differing only in their cruelty.  When parliament refused to maintain the extravagant royal expenditure, nothing remained but still further to drain Hebrew veins.  In the reign of Henry III. a tale was spread of the crucifixion of a Christian child, called Hugh of Lincoln.  The story refutes itself, but it created horror throughout the country.  For this crime eighteen of the richest Jews of Lincoln were hanged, and many more flung into dungeons.

The death of Henry brought no respite, for Edward acted with equal harshness.  At length he issued the famous irrevocable edict of total expulsion from the realm.  Their departure was fixed for October 10, 1290.  All who delayed were to be hanged without mercy.  The Jews were pursued from, the kingdom with every mark of popular triumph in their sufferings.  In one day 16,511 were exiled; all their property, debts, obligations, mortgages were escheated to the king.  A like expulsion had been effected in France; and Spain, where the Jews were of a far nobler rank, was not to be outdone in bigotry.