A. D. 1 291*. 451 



the pofleflion of a monaftery *, I fhall only obferve, that one confequence 

 of the anarchy was, that nineteen Syrian merchants, trading in time of 

 peace under the fecurity of the pubhc faith, were plundered and ignomini- 

 oufly put to death by the people of Acre. The refufal of fatisfadion for 

 the outrage brought upon them the vengeance of the fultan Khalil, who 

 took the city by ftorm, carried all the remaining inhabitants into cap- 

 tivity, and made an end of the Latin dominion in Syria, and of the holy 

 wars, which during two centuries wafted the blood and treafure of Eu- 

 rope. {^Gibbon, V. xi, p. 166, and authorities quoted.'^ 



After the final lofs of Syria a folemn edid was ifTued (I prefume, by 

 the pope) whereby the Chriftians were prohibited from having any 

 commerce with the fubjects of the fultan. Cruifmg veflelswere ftation- 

 ed to intercept thofe, 'Viho, Jetting aftde the fear of God, prefumed to trade 

 with them : the tranfgreffors were declared infamous, and rendered in- 

 capable of performing any legal ad : their property was confifcated, and 

 themfelves condemned to be made flaves to any perfon who {hould ap- 

 prehend them. [Sanuto, ap. Gejla Dei per Francos, V. ii, p. 28.] 



1 292 — An order had been iffued ten years ago for the officers em- 

 ployed on the fea coaft to guard againft the importation of counterfeit 

 and defaced money, [i2o/. pat, 1 1 Edw. I, m. 4] which appears to have 

 had but little effed ; for now the trade and intercourfe of the country 

 were fo much injured by an inundation of bad money from foreign 

 countries, that the currency of all money but that of England, Ireland, 

 or Scotland, was totally prohibited : and all perfons arriving from abroad 

 were required to fubmit their money to the examination of officers ap- 

 pointed for that purpofe in Dover, Sandwich, London, Bofton, South- 

 ampton, and the Cinque ports. Immediately after this another ftatute 

 was cnaded for punifhing thofe merchants, chiefly foreigners, who 

 brought defaced and counterfeit money into the kingdom, by forfeit- 

 ures and other penalties : and all other people, pofTefling bad mioney, 

 were direded to bring it to the mint to be recoined, on pain of forfeit- 

 ure. The bad money, now fmuggled into England, and generally put 

 up in bales of cloth and other packages to elude the fearch of the offi- 

 cers, confifted partly of light pieces ftamped with mitres and lions, 2of 

 of which weighed only 16/4 of Englifh money, and partly of counter- 

 feits of Englifh money, made of bafer metals and covered over with 

 filver, which were coined at Avignon and elfewhere. \Stat. /^, $, 6, of 

 20 Edw. /.] 



The brighteft ornament of England and of the thirteenth century 

 was Roger Bacon, a Francifcan friar of Oxford. This heaven-taught 



* Platina, the biographer of the popes, fays [j>. profecutiug the pious and necejfary Afiatic war. It 

 4.25, ed. 1664] that the quarrel of the Venetians certainly was a sexy profitable war in many refpefts 

 and Genoefc prevented Pope Alexander IV from to the popes. 



5 L a 



