The burgesses and the barons in their anti-Jewish campaign found powerful allies among the high dignitaries of the Church, who had a two-fold set of grievances against Israel: practical grievances, and grievances begotten of religious bigotry. Pope Innocent III., in pursuance of his aggressive autocratism, had claimed the right of filling vacant benefices all over the Catholic world. In England the election to the see of Canterbury gave rise to a long struggle between Pope and King, which ended in John’s shameful and abject surrender. ♦1207♦ Cardinal Langton, Innocent’s nominee and instrument, on being raised to the primacy, made common cause with John’s disaffected nobility, and the two acting in concert frustrated the unpopular prince’s projected invasion of France in 1213. The same Archbishop passed at his provincial synod a decree, forcing the Jews to wear the badge and forbidding them to keep Christian servants or to build new synagogues. He also issued orders to his flock, threatening to excommunicate anyone who should have relations with the enemies of Christ, or sell to them the necessaries of life. The Jews were to be treated as a race outside the pale of humanity. Langton’s example was followed by the Bishops, many of whom exerted themselves both officially and unofficially to check intercourse between Jews and Christians. The crusade was carried on after Langton’s death. At one time the Archbishop of Canterbury demands the demolition of the Jewish synagogues, at another he calls upon the temporal power to prevent Jewish converts from relapsing into infidelity; on a third occasion he writes to the Queen remonstrating with her on her business transactions with the Jews, and threatening the royal lady with everlasting damnation. Similarly, time and again bishops hold the thunderbolt of excommunication over the heads of all true believers who should assist at a Jewish wedding, or accept Jewish hospitality. These attacks by the Church were prejudicial to the King’s pecuniary interests, and during Henry III.’s minority met with vigorous opposition on the part of his guardians. When the young King assumed the responsibilities of Government, he found himself placed in a difficult position: his interests compelled him to protect the Jews, while his loyalty to the Church forbade him to ignore the behests of her ministers. ♦1222♦ He compromised by sanctioning the use of the badge, and by ♦1233♦ building a house for the reception of Jewish converts (_Domus Conversorum_) on one hand, while, on the other, he shielded, to the best of his ability, the hunted people from the effects of ecclesiastical and popular wrath.