hose parts of
the kingdom. In their zeal to punish crimes, they did not sufficiently
distinguish between the innocent and guilty; the smallest suspicion
became a ground of accusation and trial; the slightest evidence was
received against criminals; prisons were crowded with malefactors, real
or pretended; severe fines were levied for small offences; and the king,
though his exhausted exchequer was supplied by this expedient, found it
necessary to stop the course of so great rigor, and after terrifying and
dissipating by this tribunal the gangs of disorderly people in England,
he prudently annulled the commission;[*] and never afterwards renewed
it.

Among the various disorders to which the kingdom was subject, no one was
more universally complained of than the adulteration of the coin; and as
this crime required more art than the English of that age, who chiefly
employed force and violence in their iniquities, were possessed of, the
imputation fell upon the Jews.[**] Edward also seems to have indulged a
strong prepossession against that nation; and this ill-judged zeal for
Christianity being naturally augmented by an expedition to the Holy
Land, he let loose the whole rigor of his justice against that unhappy
people. Two hundred and eighty of them were hanged at once for this
crime in London alone, besides those who suffered in other parts of the
kingdom.[***]

* Spel. Gloss, in verbo Trailbaston. But Spelman was either
mistaken in placing this commission in the fifth year of the
king, or it was renewed in 1305. See Rymer, vol. ii. p. 960.
Trivet, p. 838., M. West. p. 450.

** Walsing. p. 48 Heming. vol. i. p. 6.

*** T. Wykes, p. 107.

The houses and lands, (for the Jews had of late ventured to make
purchases of that kind,) as well as the goods of great multitudes, were
sold and confiscated; and the king, lest it should be suspected that the
riches of the sufferers were the chief part of their guilt, ordered a
moiety of the money raised by these confiscations to be set apart, and
bestowed upon such as were willing to be converted to Christianity. But
resentment was more prevalent with them than any temptation from their
poverty; and very few of them could be induced by interest to embrace
the religion of their persecutors. The miseries of this people did not
here terminate. Though the arbitrary talliages and exactions levied upon
them had yielded a constant and a considerable revenue