Earlier in Henry’s reign, attempts had been made to convert the Jews to Christianity, and a house, called the _Domus Conversorum_, was opened for the reception of converts, in Chancery Lane. But it appears that few of these were made. To be sure, the condition annexed to proselytism—that the proselyte should by that act forfeit his whole property[128]—does not seem very well calculated to bring about such a change. After a few years, however, even these efforts seem to have been given up. Harder and harder measure was dealt to the Jews. They were forbidden to have Christian nurses for their children; they were not allowed to buy or eat meat during Lent; they could not hold any religious disputations; their very prayers in the synagogue must be uttered in a low tone, for fear that the ears of Christians should be polluted by them! But, for all their harsh usage, they were regarded as being unduly favoured by the king. When the Barons’ War broke out, five hundred of the richest Jews in London were seized, in order to extort a subsidy from them; the others were pitilessly murdered. Similar scenes occurred in the other large cities. After the battle of Lewes, their condition was in some degree amended; but to the end of Henry’s reign the same system of merciless pillage and cruelty continued with no real abatement. In 1268 an occurrence took place at Oxford, which might have caused as furious an ebullition of popular feeling as the supposed outrage at Lincoln. As the chancellor and other officers of the University were on their way to the shrine of St. Frideswide, a Jew rushed up, seized the cross that was borne in front of the procession, and trampled it under foot. He escaped before he could be seized. It is wonderful that the act did not provoke a massacre. The presence of Prince Edward, who chanced to be in Oxford, perhaps prevented it. He ordered that the Jews should, as the penalty of their countryman’s offence, erect a cross of white marble, with the images of the Virgin and Child, on the spot where Merton College now stands.