Probably the condition of his finances explains the excessive severity of his dealings with the Jews, who were accused at this time of their old offence, but with circumstances of additional horror.[126] At Lincoln a child, it was said, had been enticed into the house of a Jew named Copin, where he had been kept on bread and milk for ten days, and then crucified in the presence of all the Jews in England, who had been summoned to Lincoln for this purpose! There had been apparently a set rehearsal of our Lord’s crucifixion, a Jew sitting in judgment as Pilate. The body had been buried, but the earth refused to hide so hideous a crime, and cast up the remains. The Jews thereon were obliged to throw them into a well, where they were found by the child’s mother.[127] Such was the tale. Copin, when dragged before Lord Lexington, made a full confession of all that had been alleged, adding that it was the regular practice of the Jews so to celebrate their Passover, whenever they were able to secure the necessary victims. So fierce an outcry was raised when this was made public, that the king revoked the pardon granted by Lord Lexington, and Copin was hanged in chains. But this was far from satisfying the popular demand for vengeance. All the Jews in the land were declared guilty of complicity in the murder. Ninety-one persons were committed for trial, of whom eighteen were hanged, and twenty more imprisoned in the Tower to await the same fate, though it does not appear that the sentence was carried out. Hugh, as the child was called, was canonized; pilgrims from all parts of the world visited his tomb, where miracles were worked; and the church at Lincoln to which his remains were committed was rendered rich and famous for centuries to come. _The Prioress’s Tale_, written by Chaucer a hundred years afterwards, shows that in his time the story still retained its hold on the memory of the English people.