[110] It is said that, deceived probably by the long continuance of their immunity from ill-usage, the Jews had begun to make display of their wealth, in a manner which gave great offence to the citizens of London; who treated them, in consequence, with many indignities. This had reached the king’s ears, and he wrote a letter to them respecting it. [111] Between six and seven thousand pounds, English money. [112] His history is given in detail by the celebrated Benjamin of Tudela. CHAPTER XVII. GREAT JEWISH DOCTORS.—ABEN EZRA, MAIMONIDES, BENJAMIN OF TUDELA. It would be impossible, within the limits of a work like this, to give even an outline of the great schools of Jewish learning, which date from an age anterior to the coming of Christ, and have been continued even to modern times. The mere enumeration of the names of their renowned Rabbins, each the author of some profound thesis or learned commentary, would fill a volume. During the gloomiest ages of Christendom, when the lamp of learning was all but extinct, even in the cloister, where alone it glimmered, the Jews had light in their dwellings, like their ancestors of old who sojourned in Goshen, while the world without was wrapped in Egyptian darkness. They are, as a rule, but little known to ordinary readers, one reason of which doubtless is, that they concern themselves mainly with subjects which very nearly affect their own people, and find exercise for their peculiar mode of thought, but which neither suit the fancy nor awaken the interest of other races. Their treatises on the Talmuds and the Cabbala, on cosmogony and judicial astrology, even their commentaries on the Pentateuch and the Hebrew Prophets, are read with profound attention by their own people; but their learning and ability is lost on other readers. Nevertheless, there are some great names among their literary celebrities, which are familiar to the ears of all students, and with which all ought to be acquainted who would know anything of their history. There are three in particular, belonging nearly to the era with which we are now dealing, which ought not to be passed over. These are Aben Ezra, Moses the son of Maimon, commonly known as Maimonides, and Benjamin of Tudela.