THE JEWS IN EUROPE. 301 



they fell a prey. Henry III, after forcibly assessing them several 

 times, took (in 1230) suddenly from them a third of their possessions ; 

 afterward, to get a loan, he mortgaged all the Jews of Great Britain 

 to Count Richard. The Jews begged, since their condition had be- 

 come unendurable, for permission to emigrate ; but it was refused 

 them, since the king loved them all too dearly to let them go. Bish- 

 ops, as Grossetete, of Lincoln, demanded their banishment, and Ed- 

 ward I ordered it in 1290 ; and in this way robbed himself of a most 

 valuable instrument, by which previous kings had indirectly taxed 

 their subjects. On account of the general lack of regular and suffi- 

 cient income for the crown a lack under which all states at that time 

 suffered some persons must be found who would take the place of 

 those who had been banished. Such substitutes presented themselves 

 in the associations of the Caorsines and the Italian money-brokers. 

 Their way to England was paved by the Roman curia, which used 

 them as its collectors, though the most prominent of them became 

 bankrupt suddenly in 1345, and went off with debts unpaid. As usur- 

 ers and financial managers for the crown, they were hated no less than 

 the Jews. 



In France the system of extortion practiced upon the Jews was 

 still more methodical and crafty. Philip Augustus began his reign at 

 the age of fifteen (1182) with the plundering and banishing of all Is- 

 raelites. The report that they put a Christian to death every year at 

 the time of their passover is said to have led him to this course, but the 

 debts left him by his father were the immediate occasion. In the year 

 1198 they were recalled. Louis VIII declared all their claims for in- 

 terest to be invalid, and ordered that the moneys due them should be 

 paid to their lords, the king and the barons. Louis IX, convinced 

 equally that all taking of interest was heinous sin, and that all the Jews 

 of the land were his slaves, compelled them several times to purchase 

 the privilege of remaining in the country ; and, when he thought that 

 he had extorted enough from them, banished them from his kingdom, 

 with confiscation of whatsoever they still possessed. When the Jews 

 implored before the governor of Karbonne for the restoration of the 

 rights that had been taken away from them by the king, they com- 

 plained : " The Jews are robbed of their means, and yet compelled to 

 pay their debts ; while, on the other hand, those who owe them are 

 freed from the obligation to pay their Jewish creditors. They are 

 forbidden to loan money on interest, and yet are not allowed to earn a 

 living in any other way." The king's order was not completely car- 

 ried out. Many remained, others returned afterward from time to 

 time. 



Louis's brother, Count Alphonse of Poictiers, made use of a par- 

 ticularly shrewd procedure in his state, which was afterward imitated 

 in Germany. Under the pretext of expenditure for a crusade, he had 

 himself authorized \j the Pope to appropriate to himself all interest 



