The Jews seem to have been treated by that monarch exactly as slaves, and were presented as gifts to his children. Prince Edmund was presented with a rich Jew, Aaron. As it happened, however, Aaron was not the worse off on that account; for Edmund does not seem to have inherited much of the avarice and rapacity either of his father or mother. This Jew, therefore, fared far better than many of his brethren. He was enfranchised altogether by that prince for the trifling remuneration of an annual pair of gilt spurs,¹ and had, moreover, the peculiar liberty of residing wherever he liked in any part of the kingdom. There were several others who were favoured with the king’s countenance; for instance, Cressey and two other Jews of London were freed, by the intercession of the king of the Romans, from all sorts of tallages, for the space of five years, for the trifling remuneration of one mark and a half of gold, to be paid by each of them annually. And also to a certain Jacob le Eveske, by the interference of the queen, an exemption was conceded from all sorts of tributes and taxes all his life-time; and the same privilege to his son Benedict after his father Jacob’s death. A few other instances of that kind are adduced by Prynne. ¹ See Appendix T. However, the favour bestowed on individuals had only the effect of exciting the odium of the populace against the whole community, and thus kindled the flame of persecution in the breasts of the British Christians to an incredible pitch. In fact, they first pretended that the crown lavished too many favours on the Hebrews, and then maintained that the king was not a good Christian in consequence; till they wrought him up to the pitch they aimed at. Eleanor even, who was as unprincipled a plunderer of the Jews as the king himself, whenever an opportunity occurred, was also accused of patronizing them, simply because it was supposed that when Eleanor was married to Henry, a great number of Jews followed her to this country, hoping to experience the same favour they enjoyed in her paternal country. All these pretences pressed heavily upon the poor Jews. New cruel enactments were devised against them; and the king was obliged to sanction them, in order to retain the pretensions to the name Christian. Cruelty to the Jews seems, then, to have been an infallible feature of a good Christian. Thus, in the fifty-first year of this reign, when the statute of Pillory passed, it was enacted, amongst other things, that “no person should purchase flesh of a Jew.” “The regulations of these statutes,” says Mr. Blunt, “had reference principally to the conduct of the Jews, and to their intercourse with the Christians.” If their fury went no further, the Jews would have had no reason to be sorry; for truth to speak, the less intercourse the Jews had with _those_ Christians, the safer they were. But the people did not stop here. Indeed, there were circumstances