=1256.= At this same time, certain Jews, infamous by reason of the unhappy death of the boy crucified at Lincoln, found guilty by the oath of twenty-five knights, and condemned to death, lay in prison, to the number of three score and eleven, in order that they might be hanged. They sent, as their rivals declare, secret messengers to the minorite friars with the view that they should intercede for them, that they might be released from prison, notwithstanding that they were worthy of a most ignominious death. The friars, as the world said (if the world is to be believed in such a matter), were induced by money to procure the freedom of the Jews by their prayers and intercession, from the imprisonment and death they had deserved. But in my opinion, it is to be believed that the friars acted from piety, guided by a spirit of compassion, because, so long as any one is alive in this world, he can still use his will, so that there is hope of him. But for the devil and for those manifestly damned, one can neither hope nor pray, because there is no hope for them. Now death and a final sentence had irrevocably ensnared them. But this way of looking at the matter cannot excuse the friars, nor prevent scandal from blackening their character. The people drew back their hands from giving them alms as they had before done. So it fell out that the devotion of Londoners towards the minorites grew lukewarm, just as the charity of the Parisians grew cold towards the preachers, who there sought to weaken the ancient and approved customs of the University. In the same year, on the Ides of May, four score and eleven Jews were released from the Tower of London, where they had lain in fetters, for the crucifixion of Saint Hugh, the boy of Lincoln. These Jews, I say, were found guilty upon oath, in accordance with the statement of the Jew who at the first was hanged at Lincoln.[119]