Richard died in the last year of the century, and John, the cruellest and most detestable of the English kings, succeeded to the throne. But for a time his usage of the Jews was milder than that of any of his predecessors. He issued a charter restoring to them all the privileges they had possessed in the times of the pure Norman kings. They might dwell where they pleased; might hold lands and fees; their evidence was to be of equal value with that of Christians; and, if charged with an offence, they could be tried only in the King’s Court. With what motive this was done, it is not easy to say. John may have simply wished to conciliate their goodwill and so induce them to be as liberal to him as possible. But the suspicion that he meant to allow them time and opportunity for accumulating vast riches, and then seize on them himself, has much to justify it. It is, again, not unlikely that the countenance which he showed them rendered them more than ever odious to his subjects; and when this became patent, he was in no way inclined to incur unpopularity on their account.[110] Any way, some ten years after his accession, there was a sudden and total change in his demeanour towards them. Without any reason assigned, the whole of the Jews were arrested, cast into prison, and their property confiscated to the Crown. Suspecting that they had disclosed to the authorities only a portion of their wealth, and that large secret hoards still existed, he caused them to be put to the most cruel tortures, to compel them to give up these also. The well-known tale of the Jew of Bristol, of whom 10,000 marks of silver[111] were demanded, and who, on his refusal, was sentenced to lose a tooth every day until he paid it, is perfectly well authenticated. He allowed, it is related, seven of his teeth to be knocked out of his head, and then, to save the remainder, consented to the payment. The king is said to have obtained as much as 60,000 marks by this pillage of his subjects. Nor did the cruelty and injustice end here. The rebellious barons, regarding the Jews as the property of the Crown, seized upon their treasures and demolished their houses, to repair the breaches in the walls of London. Before concluding the history of the twelfth century, it will be proper to give some brief account of the various impostors claiming to be the expected Messiah who made their appearance during its continuance, and also to say something of the great doctors and learned men who adorned the period in question.