Monstrous and barbarous as this outbreak was, it must be allowed that it was mainly provoked by the Jews themselves; but in what ensued a few years afterwards at the Court of Ferdinand the First, called the Great, the aggression was wholly unprovoked. This monarch, who united under his sway the crowns of Leon and Castile, had resolved on a religious war for the extirpation of the Moslem power in Spain. But, before entering on this, he was advised by his queen, Donna Sancha, that the surest way to call down the blessing of Heaven upon his enterprise, would be to massacre all the Jews in his dominions! It is a redeeming feature in the sad history of that time, that the Spanish bishops interfered, and forbade the massacre on pain of spiritual penalties, and the reigning Pope, Alexander II., upheld them in their action. Ferdinand’s successor, Alphonso VI., adopted a totally different policy. He found himself so hardly pressed by the action of the Moors in Africa, that the help of the Jews became a matter of pressing necessity with him.[100] He in consequence not only avoided all persecuting measures, but bestowed on them so many favours and privileges, that Pope Alexander’s successor severely censured him for his policy, which he declared to be ‘a submission of the Church to the synagogue of Satan.’ At this period we have to mention, as we have not done previously, the position of the Jews in England. It is a popular mistake to suppose that they made their appearance there, for the first time, in the train of William the Norman. Many Jews, no doubt, settled in England at that time; but others had been resident there, though probably in scanty numbers, before this date. A canon of Egbert of York (made A.D. 740) prohibits Christians from taking part in the Jewish festivals. There is mention of them a hundred years later in a charter granted to the monks of Croyland. The laws of Edward the Confessor (A.D. 1041) declare them to be the property of the sovereign, as was the case at that time in France. But it was not until the reign of William Rufus that they took any part in English history. Then we find that that king, who cared little for religion in any shape, and entertained a bitter dislike to the clergy, permitted the Jews publicly to uphold their religion in any way they pleased. Nay, he proclaimed a formal disputation between the advocates of the rival religions in London, and swore, if the Rabbins got the better of the Bishops, ‘by St. Luke, he would turn Jew himself!’ The Jews are said to have claimed the victory, though we do not hear of the king keeping his vow. At Rouen, afterwards, he entertained a complaint made by certain Jews, that their children had been beguiled into professing Christianity, offering at the same time to pay a handsome sum if the children returned to their ancient faith. The king took the money, and ordered the converts to abjure their new profession. Failing in one or two instances to effect this,