investigation of their property.  At this investigation was present a wicked and merciless Jew, who rebuked the Christians for their tenderness to his brethren, and reproached the King’s officers as gentle and effeminate.  He gnashed his teeth, and, as each Jew appeared, declared that he could afford to pay twice as much as was exacted.  Though he lied, he was useful in betraying their secret hoards to the King.

The distresses of the King increased, and, as his parliament resolutely refused to maintain his extravagant expenditure, nothing remained but to drain still further the veins of the Jews.  The office was delegated to Richard, Earl of Cornwall, his brother, whom, from his wealth, the King might consider possessed of some secret for accumulating riches from hidden sources.  The rabbi Elias was deputed to wait on the Prince, expressing the unanimous determination of all the Jews to quit the country rather than submit to further burdens:  “Their trade was ruined by the Caorsini, the Pope’s merchants—­the Jew dared not call them usurers—­who heaped up masses of gold by their money-lending; they could scarcely live on the miserable gains they now obtained; if their eyes were torn out and their bodies flayed, they could not give more.”  The old man fainted at the close of his speech, and was with difficulty revived.

Their departure from the country was a vain boast, for whither should they go?  The edicts of the King of France had closed that country against them, and the inhospitable world scarcely afforded a place of refuge.  Earl Richard treated them with leniency and accepted a small sum.  But the next year the King renewed his demands; his declaration affected no disguise:  “It is dreadful to imagine the debts to which I am bound.  By the face of God, they amount to two hundred thousand marks; if I should say three hundred thousand, I should not go beyond the truth.  Money I must have, from any place, from any person, or by any means.”  The King’s acts display as little dignity as his proclamation.  He actually sold or mortgaged to his brother Richard all the Jews in the realm for five thousand marks, giving him full power over their property and persons; our records still preserve the terms of this extraordinary bargain and sale.

Popular opinion, which in the worst times is some restraint upon the arbitrary oppressions of kings, in this case would rather applaud the utmost barbarity of the monarch than commiserate the wretchedness of the victims; for a new tale of the crucifixion of a Christian child, called Hugh of Lincoln, was now spreading horror throughout the country.  The fact was confirmed by a solemn trial and the conviction and execution of the criminals.  It was proved, according to the mode of proof in those days, that the child had been stolen, fattened on bread and milk for ten days, and crucified with all the cruelties and insults of Christ’s Passion, in the presence of all the Jews in England, summoned to Lincoln for this especial