“There was a certain rich Jew, having his abode and house at Berkhamstede and Wallingford, Abraham by name, not in faith, who was very dear to Earl Richard, who had a very beautiful wife, and faithful to him, Flora by name. This Jew, that he might accumulate more disgrace to Christ, caused the image of the Virgin Mary, decently carved and painted, as the manner is, holding her son in her bosom, to be put in an indecent place, and which is a great shame and ignominy to express, blaspheming the image as if it had been the very virgin herself, threw all sorts of dirt upon her, days and nights, and commanded his wife to do the like. But Flora’s delicate feelings so much revolted at the injunction, that she not only refused to be partner in the indecent act, but secretly removed the filth from the image as often as it was covered. Which when the Jew her husband had fully found out, he therefore privily and impiously strangled the woman herself, though his wife.¹ But when these wicked deeds were discovered, and made apparent, and proved by his conviction, although other causes of death were not wanting, he was thrust into the most loathsome castle of the Tower of London. Whence to get his freedom, he most certainly promised that he would prove all the Jews of England to have been most wicked traitors. And when as he was greatly accused by almost all the Jews of England, and they endeavoured to put him to death, Earl Richard interceded for him. Whereupon, the Jews grievously accusing him both of the clipping of money and other wickedness, offered Earl Richard a thousand marks, if he would not protect him; which, notwithstanding, the earl refused, because he was called his Jew. This Jew Abraham therefore gave the king seven hundred marks, that he might be freed from perpetual imprisonment, to which he was adjudged, the earl assisting him therein.” ¹ This most impious and wicked man, doubtless, thought he did God service, and fulfilled a plain positive Mosaic precept, namely, “If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which _is_ as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; _namely_, of the gods of the people which _are_ round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the _one_ end of the earth even unto the _other_ end of the earth; thou shalt not consent unto him, nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou conceal him: but thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.” (Deut. xiii. 6–9.) Poor Flora did not entice him to worship the image. The whole Jewish congregation, therefore, justly considered Abraham as a murderer, and worthy of death.”