purpose; a Jew of Lincoln sat in judgment as Pilate.  But the earth could not endure to be an accomplice in the crime; it cast up the buried remains, and the affrighted criminals were obliged to throw the body into a well, where it was found by the mother.  A great part of this story refutes itself, but among the ignorant and fanatic Jews there might be some who, exasperated by the constant repetition of this charge, might brood over it so long as at length to be tempted to its perpetration.

I must not suppress the fearful vengeance wreaked on the supposed perpetrators of this all-execrated crime.  The Jew into whose house the child, it was said, had gone to play, tempted by the promise of life and security from mutilation, made full confession, and threw the guilt upon his brethren.  The King, indignant at this unauthorized covenant of mercy, ordered him to execution.  The Jew, in his despair or frenzy, entered into a still more minute and terrible denunciation of all the Jews of the realm, as consenting to the act.  He was dragged, tied to a horse’s tail, to the gallows; his body and his soul delivered to the demons of the air.  Ninety-one Jews of Lincoln were sent, to London as accomplices, and thrown into dungeons.  If some Christians felt pity for their sufferings, their rivals, the Caorsini, beheld them with dry eyes.

The King’s inquest declared all the Jews of the realm guilty of the crime.  The mother made her appeal to the King.  Eighteen of the richest and most eminent of the Lincoln Jews were hung on a new gallows; twenty more were imprisoned in the Tower awaiting the same fate.  But if the Jews of Lincoln were thus terribly chastised, the church of Lincoln was enriched and made famous for centuries.  The victim was canonized; pilgrims crowded from all parts of the kingdom, even from foreign lands, to pay their devotions at the shrine, to witness and to receive benefit from the miracles which were wrought by the martyr of eight years old.  How deeply this legend sank into the popular mind may be conceived from Chaucer’s Prioress’ Tale.

The rest of the reign of Henry III passed away with the same unmitigated oppressions of the Jews; which the Jews, no doubt, in some degree revenged by their extortions from the people.  The contest between the royal and ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the Jews was arranged by certain constitutions, set forth by the King in council.  By these laws no Jew could reside in the kingdom but as king’s serf.  Service was to be performed in the synagogue in a low tone, so as not to offend the ears of Christians.  The Jews were forbidden to have Christian nurses for their children.  The other clauses were similar to those enacted in other countries:  that the Jew should pay all dues to the parson; no Jew should eat or buy meat during Lent; all disputes on religion were forbidden; sexual intercourse between Jews and Christians interdicted; no Jew might settle in any town where Jews were not accustomed to reside, without special license from the King.