It has been noted in a previous chapter that, up to the end of William Rufus’s reign, the chief hardship that befell the Jews in England was, that the Norman kings extracted large sums from them, partly as loans—for which, perhaps, payment was hardly contemplated by either party—and partly as the price of the protection afforded them. The same state of things continued during the reigns of Henry I., Stephen, and Henry II. Throughout this long period,—not much less than a hundred years,—the Jews continued to gather in riches without molestation, to an extent which proved ruinous to themselves in subsequent generations, little as they anticipated such a result at the time.[107] There were not wanting signs, however, which might have indicated the approaching danger. During the reign of Stephen, A.D. 1145, the charge was made against the Jews,—for the first time in England, if not in Europe,—of having kidnapped and crucified a boy at Norwich, in contemptuous parody of the Saviour’s passion. The case was brought before the notice of the king, and the accused were adjudged to pay a fine to the Crown—a most suspicious termination of the inquiry. No further outbreak, however, occurred: and during the protracted reign of his successor, Henry II., the same condition of things continued. That able and powerful monarch, whatever might be his difficulties with the clergy, repressed with a strong hand all overt acts of violence against the peculiar people, who looked to him for protection.[108] But he could not prevent their growing unpopularity. Society had become largely influenced by the crusading spirit. The loss of Jerusalem,—which had been wrested by so large an expenditure of blood and treasure from the hold of the Infidel,—roused everywhere a more bitter feeling than ever against the enemies of Christ. It was mainly through the Crusades that the Jews had acquired their wealth; and the spectacle of unbelievers living in ease and luxury, at the cost of the faithful servants of Christ, whose bones were whitening the plains of Palestine, or who had returned to England to pine in poverty, stirred public indignation to the utmost. The train was already laid for a furious onslaught upon them. It needed but a spark to bring about the explosion.