A. D. 1200. 361 



the unfortunate people, who were obliged to apply to them for the ufc 

 of money, that they might be enabled to fatisfy the king and his mi- 

 nifters. And thus a fyftem of ufurious oppreflion was at the fame time 

 prohibited by law, and fandioned by the pradice of the fovereign, who 

 ufed the Jews as his inftruments to fleece the people, in order to fill his 

 own coffers. The kings even went fo far as to claim the whole proper- 

 ty of the Jews, as belonging to themfelves, thus extending to that un- 

 fortunate race the principle of the laws of flavery, which declare, that 

 a flave can have no property, all his pofFeflions of every kind belonging 

 to his mafter *. And fo great was the revenue extorted by the kings 

 from thofe people, that there was a particular office eftabliftied for the 

 management of it, called the exchequer of the Jews, under the diredion 

 of officers called the keepers, ov Jii/lices, of the 'Jews, who in the more 

 antient times were Chriftians and Jews joined together, but afterwards 

 for the moft part Chriftians only. \^Madox''s Hi/i. of the excheq. c. 7.] 



The Engliih writers are full of complaints againft William II for his 

 favours to the Jews. Henry I, and his grandfon Henry IT, conferred 

 feveral privileges on them, and permitted them to be owners of land ; 

 but the later extorted from them a fourth part of their property ; not- 

 withftanding which, the Jews appear to have thought themfelves favour- 

 ably treated in his reign. This year King John, for the fum of four 

 thoufand marks, gave the Jews of England and Normandy a charter 

 confirming to them the privileges granted by his predeceflLrs, and permit- 

 ting them to live freely and honourably in his dominions, and to hold 

 property in lands, &c. and authorizing them to purchafe every thing 

 brought to them, except what belonged to the church, and bloody 

 cloth f ; and to fell every thing pledged or pawned with them, if not 

 redeemed within a year and a day. [^Madox's Hfi. of the excheq. c. 7, 

 § 8, note {e).-] 



The Magnet or Lodestone, the moft pretious of all ftones (except 

 the flint which kindles our dayly fire) and infinitely more valuable than 

 all the diamonds in the world, was known to the philofophers of antient 

 Greece for its quality of attrading iron ; and in later ages the few, who 

 underftood the fecret, were enabled to perform a number of ingenious 



• In tlie laws afcrlbed to Edward the Con- f ' Panno fanguinolento,' which Tovey \_Aiiglia 



fefTor, [c. 29] the Jews and all their goods are jfiijaica, p. 62] believes to be deep red or crimfoa 



declared to be the property of the king. William cloth: and he quotes Kcnriei's Parochial antlquit'n:, 



of Newburgh \_L. iv, c. 11] fays that King Rich- p. 576, for the abbat of Burcefter clothing his 



ard was greatly enraged at the flanghter of the fervants ' blodeo panno,' which to-be-fure could 



Jews, on account of the affront to his royal nna- nut be cloth flained with blood, but mull have 



jefty by the contempt of his prottftion, and alfo been cloth of a blood-red colour. See alfo ' bio- 



for the great lofs to his exchequer ; ' for what- ' dio velvet' and, blodio panno' in Foedera, V, ix, 



' ever property is found in polTcflion of the Jews, p. 276. But why the Jews fliould have been par- 



' -who are well inotvn to he the royal ufurers, be- ticularly debarred from buying either red cloth or 



' longs to the exchequer.' — Was not that the bloody cloth, I fuppofe, nobody can now tell, 

 true reafon that Chriftians were prohibited from 

 lending money uoon intereft ? 



Vol. I, ' Z z 



