The king, being anxious to procure for himself the services of his friends, after his disastrous differences with his Gentile subjects, resolved to do so at the expense of his Jewish ones. He remitted the interest money which was owing to them from several of his friends. So that, though they were permitted to return to their homes, they had well nigh been deprived of any means of subsistence in those homes. Parliament, however, soon met, and enacted that their houses, goods, and chattels should be restored to them in the same condition they were in before the battle of Lewes. The Jews, therefore, enjoyed comparative tranquillity for the period of four years, since that meeting of parliament. They agreed to pay £1000, to be free from taxes during that period; under the proviso, however, that neither the king nor the prince should undertake any crusade during that time: and some few had even great favours bestowed upon them, especially those who rendered the king effectual service in his distresses. Yet was their tranquillity only comparative; they were by no means universally exempt from trouble and annoyance, and individuals were subject to grievous calumnies and accusations, as was the case with the Jews of Lincoln during that period. The dean and chapter of that city would not pay their debts; they contrived to accuse their Jewish creditor of forging a bond. It is a faithful picture of the English of those days, “that when churchmen and laymen, prince and prior, knight and priest, come knocking at Isaac’s door, they borrow not his shekels with these uncivil terms. It is then, Friend Isaac, will you pleasure us in this matter, and our day shall be truly kept, so God save me?――and kind Isaac, if ever you served a man, show yourself a friend in this need. And when the day comes and I ask my own, then what hear I, but the curse of Egypt on your tribe, and all that may stir up the rude and uncivil populace against poor strangers.”¹ ¹ Sir Walter Scott. The Jews in Oxford for a long time seem, upon the whole, to have been more prosperous than their brethren in many other places. You have heard that they had schools and seminaries there at an early period of their history in England.¹ Their occupation there seems to have been almost altogether in the literary line, so that we do not find any documents respecting forged bonds. The Jews have always appreciated learning very much and encouraged it. We read of individuals selling some land at a very low rate indeed, for the erection of an institution for that purpose. The celebrated Sir Walter de Merton, the founder of a college in Oxford bearing his name, purchased a site from a Jew, as appears from a deed in the college treasury.² ¹ See pp. 87, 109. ² See Appendix P.