ng 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.

During the reign of John I., in 1388 A.D., a fierce popular preacher