the
liberties of the Tower. Rufus, in his cynical way, marked his hatred of
the monks by summoning a convocation, where English bishops met Jewish
rabbis, and held a religious controversy, Rufus swearing by St. Luke's
face that if the rabbis had the best of it, he would turn Jew at once.
In this reign the Jews were so powerful at Oxford that they let three
halls--Lombard Hall, Moses Hall, and Jacob Hall--to students; and their
rabbis instructed even Christian students in their synagogue. Jews took
care of vacant benefices for the king. In the reign of Henry I. the Jews
began to make proselytes, and monks were sent to several towns to preach
against them. Halcyon times! With the reign of Stephen, however, began
the storms, and, with the clergy, the usurper persecuted the Jews,
exacting a fine of L2,000 from those of London alone for a pretended
manslaughter. The absurd story of the Jews murdering young children, to
anoint Israelites or to raise devils with their blood, originated in
this reign.

Henry II. was equally ruthless, though he did grant Jews cemeteries
outside the towns. Up till this time the London Jews had only been
allowed to bury in "the Jews' garden," in the parish of St. Giles's,
Cripplegate. In spite of frequent fines and banishments, their historian
owns that altogether they throve in this reign, and their physicians
were held in high repute. With Richard I., chivalrous to all else,
began the real miseries of the English Jews. Even on the day of his
coronation there was a massacre of the Jews, and many of their houses
were burnt. Two thousand Jews were murdered at York, and at Lynn and
Stamford they were also plundered. On his return from Palestine Richard
established a tribunal for Jews. In the early part of John's reign he
treated the money-lenders, whom he wanted to use, with consideration. He
granted them a charter, and allowed them to choose their own chief
rabbi. He also allowed them to try all their own causes which did not
concern pleas of the Crown; and all this justice only cost the English
Jews 4,000 marks, for John was poor. His greed soon broke loose. In 1210
he levied on the Jews 66,000 marks, and imprisoned, blinded, and
tortured all who did not readily pay. The king's last act of inhumanity
was to compel some Jews to torture and put to death a great number of
Scotch prisoners who had assisted the barons. Can we wonder that it is
still a proverb among the English Jews, "Thank God that th