5. In tracing the history of the Jewish people in the Middle Ages, the Crusades form a distinct epoch amid these centuries of darkness and turmoil. If the Jew had hitherto suffered at the hand of the Christian, and had been gradually reduced in social privilege, he was now grossly abused in the name of the religion of him who taught, " Love thy neighbor as thyself."' Undertaken to bring about a union of the Christians of the world — " tiiat ideal of a Christian commonwealth which forms the centre of the polemical and reUgious life of the Jlid- dle Ages"' — the crusading movement was inaugurated by a wholesale massacre and persecution first of the Jew, and afterwards of the iMussulman. The latter, perhaps, had given just provocation by his endeavors to sup- plant the Cross by tlie Crescent, but what had the inof- fensive and non-proselyting Jew done to deserve such acts of violence and rapine V Shut oui from all o^ipor- tunities for the development of their better qualities, the Jews were gradually reduced to a decline both in character and condition. From a learned, influential, and powerful class of tlie community, we find them, after
the inauguration of the Crusades, sinking into misera- ble outcasts; the common prey of clergy, and nobles, and burghers, and existing in a state worse than slav- ery itself. The Christians deprived the Jews even of the right of holding real estate, and confined them to the narrower channels of traffic. " Their ambition being thus fixed upon one subject, they soon mastered all the degrading arts of accumidatiug gain; and prohibited from investing their gains in the purchase of land, they found a more profitable employment of it in lending it at usurious interest to the thoughtless and extravagant. The effect of this was inevitable. At a time when com- mercial pursuits were held in contempt, the assistance of the Jews became indispensable to the nobles, whose hatred rose in proportion to their obligations; and, where there was the power, the temptation to cancel the debt by violence became irresistible." A raid against the Jews was a favorite pastime of a bankrupt noble, and we need not wonder that the Jew had recourse to the only revenge that was left him to atone for this gross injustice — the exaction of a more exorbitant gain when the opportunity was afforded him. Thus, in Eng- land, at the enthronement of Kichard I (1189), the Cru- saders, on their departure for the Holy Land, hesitated not to inaugurate their warfare by a pillage of the Jews. In the desperate defence which the latter waged against the knights of England in the castle at York, finding resistance useless, 500 of them, having first destroyed everj-thing of value that belonged to them, murdered their wives and children, and then deprived themselves of life, rather than fall a prey to Christian warriors. (See Hume, Histori/ of England.') A like treatment the . Jews received under the two following monarchs ; their lives and wealth were protected only f(3r a considera- tion. With the tyrannical treatment they received at the hand of king John (q. v.) every reader of historj'- is familiar. Under Henry III they were treated still wt>rse, if possible. The reign of Edwartl I (1272-1307) finally brought suddenly to a terminus the miserable condition of this people by a wholesale expulsion from the kingdom (A.D. 1290), after a vain attempt on the part of the priesthood to convert them to Christianity, preceded, of course, by a wholesale confiscation of their property. Theseexilesamounted to about 16,000. They emigrated mostly to Germany and France. In the former country the same sort of treatment befell tliem. In the Empire they had to pay all manner of iniquitous taxes —body-tax, capitation tax, trade taxes, coronation tax, and to present a multitude of gifts, to mollify the ava- rice or supply the necessities of emperor, princes, and barons. It did not suffice, however, to save them from the loss of their property. The populace and the lower cler- gy also must be satisfied ; they, too, had passions to grat- ify. A wholesale slaughter of the " enemies of Chris- tianity" was inaugurated. Treves, Metz, Cologne, Mentz, Worms, Spires, Strasburg, and other cities, were deluged with the blood of the " unbelievers." The word Hep (said to be the initials of Hiernsohjma est perdita, Jeru- salem is taken) throughout all the cities of the empire became the signal for massacre, and if an insensate monk sounded it along the streets, it threw the rabble into paroxysms of murderous rage. The choice of death or conversion was given to the Jews, but few were found willing to purchase their life by that form of per- jury. Rather than subject their offs]iring to conver- sion and such Christian training, Aithers jirosented their breast to the sword after putting their children to death, and wives and virgins sought refuge from the brutality of the soldiers by throwing themselves into the river with stones fastened to their bodies. (Comp. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [Harpers' edit.], V, 554.) Not less than 17,000 were supposed to have perished in the German empire during these persecu- tions ; yet those who survived clung to the land that had given them birth, and suffered from pillage and mal- treatment until tliey were expelled by- force — from Vi- enna (A.D. 119G), Mecklenburg (1225"), Breslau (1226),