“_Die Gelehrten unter ihnen trieben die Arzeneiwissenschaft, doch mehr als Kunst, und sie sind durch Bekanntschaft mit geheimen Heilmitteln so berühmt gewesen, dass die Geistlichkeit in ihrem Wunder-Kuren gestört ward, und nur dadurch einen Ausweg suchte, dass sie die Juden für Zauberer verschrie. Daher hat das gemeine Volk sich geängstigt Juden ans Krankenbette zu rufen._”――Jost’s Geschichte der Israeliten, vol. vii., pp. 113, 114. Dr. M‘Caul, after dilating on the Jewish knowledge of astronomy, writes thus:――“Their attention to medicine is a matter of equal notoriety. Their medical literature is considerable, and would, no doubt, throw much light on the history of that science.... For a long list of Jewish medical writers, see Barlolocii, part iv.; Repertorium libr. per Materias, p. li.; and the Catalogue of the Oppenheim Library, pp. 171, 497, 645.”――_An Apology for the Study of Hebrew and Rabbinical Literature_, p. 6. LECTURE III. IN my last lecture I brought down the history of the Jews in this country, to the death of Henry the Second. The reign of that monarch seems, upon the whole, especially when compared with subsequent reigns, not to have been very unfavourable to the prosperity of the Jews. They experienced the usual share of imprisonment, fine, and banishment, which does not seem to have much depressed their general state. From the nature of some of the fines, which I described to you on Friday evening last, we may infer the wealth and power of individuals amongst them. One Josce, it seems, was fined by the king for supplying the rebels in Ireland with large sums of money; another Jew was fined for taking in pawn the abbey plate of St. Edmundsbury. When the king intended to proceed to the Holy Land, after having made an agreement to the same effect with Philip Augustus, King of France, at the parliament held at Northampton in the year 1188, the Jews were commanded to supply nearly half the subsidy requisite for the undertaking――the Christians being taxed at £70,000, and the Jews at £60,000; and though this money was never levied, in consequence of a disagreement between the two kings, and Henry’s subsequent death, as I have already stated,¹ yet these are facts which clearly prove the flourishing state of the Jewish finances in England during this reign; and although the Jews had been frequently subjected to heavy pecuniary exactions under the reign of Henry the Second, still the vigorous administration of that prince had shielded them from popular violence. They were still able to carry on their trades and their professions. In spite of the reports circulated by the monks, that the Jews were sorcerers (in consequence of their superior medical skill), Christian patients would frequent the houses of the Jewish physicians in preference to the monasteries, where cures were pretended to have been effected by some extraordinary relics, such as the nails of St. Augustine, the extremity of St.