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est crimes, and, though not found guilty, were compelled to pay the most enormous fines. Such was their oppression, that in 1254, they requested to depart from England, but it was not granted. 700 were massacred in London, 1262, by the barons to please the Londoners. King Edward I. passed many severe enactments against them, and drew from them several hundred thousand pounds. In 1287, he ordered all the Jews in the kingdom to be imprisoned, and 280 to be executed in London, besides vast numbers in other cities; and in 1290 he ordered them all to be banished from the kingdom, never to return upon pain of death. He seized their whole property, scarcely allowing them sufficient to bear their expenses into other lands; the number expelled was 16,511. From this time they were shut out of England for 350 years.

In France they met with no better treatment. In 1182, Philip the August, banished them, and confiscated their estates. He soon recalled them to exact money, as he said, to carry on the crusades. Under Lewis IX. they were forbidden to change their abode without leave of their feudal lord, and were sold with the land on which they dwelt; and if a Jew became a convert to Christianity, the whole of his property was confiscated to the use of his lord. The disgraceful badge he compelled them to wear on their garments, and forbad all intercourse with Christians.

In the year 1238 they were accused of sacrificing some Christian children, and using their blood at the passover. A violent persecution ensued, and 2,500 Jews were put to death by the most cruel tortures.-Soon after, they were all banished by Lewis from his dominions.

The next year a decrce of banishment was passed, and rigorously executed in Brittany, and all their debtors were exonerated; and in 1240, the council of Lyons requested all Christian princes to compel them to pay all the money they had gained by usury, to the crusaders.

Again they were recalled to France in 1295 by Philip the Bold, to revive commerce, but no sooner did they

accumulate great wealth, than they were expelled by Philip the Fair, in 1300, and stripped of all their treasures. In 1314 they were again recalled, upon condition of paying a heavy tax, but were allowed to remain in the kingdom only twelve years. In 1320 they were violently persecuted by the shepherds, who collected in a body to march to Jerusalem; many were put to death. In 1339 they were accused of having poisoned all the rivers, wells, and reservoirs of water. The populace fell upon them without formality, and executed upon numbers the greatest cruelties. By Philip the Tall, they were then again banished from the kingdom, and took refuge in Lombardy. In 1360 they purchased their return by an exorbitant sum, but scarce had they become re-established, when they were, in 1380, universally pillaged and nearly destroyed. In the reign of Charles VI. an act was passed for the final expulsion of the Jews from France. An inventory was taken of all their effects. From this last exile in 1394, they commence the date of their years. They retired chiefly into Germany.

The sufferings of the Jews in Spain from the crusaders, were probably greater than in any part of Europe. Their own writers indeed, view them greater than their people were ever called to suffer since the destruction of Jerusalem. In Spain, too, they were accused of poisoning the rivers and wells, and 15,000 were in consequence put to death. In 1396 the inhabitants of Seville and Cordova were exasperated against them by the preaching of Mortin, an archdeacon, and a violent persecution arose, which spread through various cities, so that many populous synagogues became deserted.

In 1413 about 25,000 Spanish Jews professedly embraced Christianity; but it was chiefly to avoid severe treatment, and they were found secretly practising Jewish rites. The officers of the Inquisition were ordered narrowly to watch them, and bring the delinquents to punishment. The result was terrible, 2000 were put to death, many were long imprisoned, and such as had their liberty, were compelled to wear two red crosses on their garments, to shew that they had escaped from

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the flames. 17,000 returned to the bosom of the papal church.

In 1492 Ferdinand and Isabella issued a fatal edict which banished all the Jews in four months from Spain. Seventy thousand families, or eight hundred thousand persons, pursuant to this decree, left that beautiful kingdom amidst the greatest distress and suffering. Vast multitudes perished on their way to foreign countries.Such as reached them were in the deepest distress, and many perished from famine and disease before they could find a settled abode. Portugal was esteemed the most fortunate asylum. But none could reach it without paying eight golden ducats to king John, and promising to quit his dominions at a limited time. His successor had some compassion on them, but was compelled by an alliance with Ferdinand, to compel them to depart. Wishing however to save them, he resolved to convert them to Christianity, and assembling them all at Lisbon, with the promise of ships, he commanded all the children to be separated from their parents, that they might be taught Christianity. The utmost distress ensued. Many parents killed their children rather than release them, and many assumed the name of Christians; but being insincere, they fell a prey to the inquisition.→ But few left the country.

In Germany, the Jews were accused of more and greater crimes than in other countries, and when accused were treated with great cruelty by the exasperated populace. 12,000 were killed at Metz, on a charge of poisoning the fountains. In 1350 Lewis, the king of Hungary, banished them all from his dominions. The Jews at Spira, of every age and sex, were murdered for insulting a priest. In the year 1400, on an accusation of poisoning the rivers and fountains, all were banished from the German empire, who would not receive bap

tism.

In 1434 the council of Basil prohibited all Christians from employing the Jews in any business whatever, forbad the Jews residing hear any church, or in the inside of any city, and compelled them to wear a particular habit, and lose all sums lent on sacred book.

In the year 1454 Lewis, the duke of Bavaria, banished them from his dominions, and confiscated their estates. In the East the Jews were persecuted in the middle ages with as much severity as in the West. In the thirteenth century, they were at one time all obliged to leave the Babylonian territories or adopt the Mahometan religion. By the invasion of the Tartars, in 1291, they were driven from place to place, and robbed of their possessions. And during the wars of Tamerlane, in 1500, all their schools were broken up-their learned men were destroyed, and the whole people exceedingly impoverished. In Persia they suffered in 1666, under Shaw Abbas II. ( a general massacre for three years. All without distinetion of age or sex were destroyed without pity, who would not renounce their religion.

Africa, too, presents us the astonishing fulfilment of prophecy respecting this wretched people. In some parts of it indeed, they have for a time exceedingly flourished. In Ethiopia they long had great tranquillity, but attempting in 960, to seize the throne of Abyssinia, they were reduced to the lowest extremities, and in 1600, they were on the very brink of ruin. In Egypt, too, they have been greatly prospered. At Cairo, they have formed all the customs of the city, so that no goods have ever passed the city on their sabbath, and they have had 30 synagogues; but they have always been free plunder for every dominant party. In Morocco, too, they have found refuge, when expelled from other countries, but the lowest classes of the Moors have ever felt at liberty to pillage and insult them, because the Koran and the judge are always against them. At Fez, a day is appointed for the payment of their tribute. No sooner is it paid, than the populace strike and insult them. The Negroes in the interior have been found treating them also in the most contemptuous manner, calling them dogs.

The Reformation freed the Jews from many sufferings in Europe, to which they had been exposed by the Papists, but Luther advised Christian princes not to receive them into their dominions. The emperor Rodolphus, wishing to drive them from Hungary, imposed

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an enormous tax upon them, which he supposed they would be unable to pay. In Moravia, a severe persecution commenced in 1574. In Poland, they enjoyed in the sixteenth century, greater privileges than were ever allotted them in any of the European states. The kings farmed to them the royal demesnes; but their prosperity excited discontent; and severe enactments were passed against them. In the city of Nuremberg, they were not permitted to walk without a guide. At Augsburg, they were suffered to enter only at the price of a florin for every hour they wished to remain. In Frankfort, where they numbered 30,000, they were plundered and ridiculed, and shut up in one long narrow street, which was closed upon them at both ends every night, during divine service among Christians. In Prague, where they filled a third part of the city, they were exposed to the greatest insults, and confined to the most degrading employ

ments.

By the popes in the sixteenth century they were treated with great severity. Pius V. expelled them in 1569, from every part of his dominions, except Rome and Ancona. There he suffered them to remain, he said, to remind the people of Christ's suffering, and that they might be converted.

The Jews offered Charles V. 800,000 crowns of gold, if he would suffer them to return to Spain; but their offer was rejected. In Spain and Portugal they lived only by dissimulating. Outwardly they were good Catholics, while they secretly practised the Mosaic rites, and if at any time they were discovered, they were at once put to the tortures of the inquisition. The sufferings of the Jews in that horrid tribunal for three centuries, were beyond all description.

After being shut out of England 350 years, the Jews made powerful efforts for restoration, in the revolution under Cromwell. The protector favored them, but so violent was the public prejudice against them, that no public act could be obtained. Similar efforts, but equally unsuccessful, have since been made.

Their gradual settlement, however, has been connived at by the rulers, but they are to this day aliens in the law.

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