continued the same system of tyranny against the Jews.  In 1279 they were charged with having issued counterfeit coin, and on this vague or imaginary accusation two hundred and eighty men and women were put to death in London alone.  In the counties there were also numerous executions, and many innocent persons were thrown into dungeons; and, at last, in 1290 King Edward, who wished to enrich himself by taking possession of their properties, banished the Jews from his kingdom.  A short time before this, the English people had offered to pay an annual fine to the King on condition of his expelling the Jews from the country; but the Jews outbid them, and thus obtained the repeal of the edict of banishment.  However, on this last occasion there was no mercy shown, and the Jews, sixteen thousand in number, were expelled from England, and the King seized upon their goods.

At the same period Philippe le Bel of France gave the example of this system of persecuting the Jews, but, instead of confiscating all their goods, he was satisfied with taking one-fifth; his subjects, therefore, almost accused him of generosity.

[Illustration:  Fig. 363.—­Jewish Conspiracy in France.—­From a Miniature in the “Pelerinage de la Vie Humaine” (Imperial Library, Paris).]

The Jews often took the precaution of purchasing certain rights and franchises from their sovereign or from the feudal lord under whose sway they lived; but generally these were one-sided bargains, for not being protected by common rights, and only forming a very small part of the population, they could nowhere depend upon promises or privileges which had been made to them, even though they had purchased them with their own money.

To the uncertainty and annoyance of a life which was continually being threatened, was added a number of vexatious and personal insults, even in ordinary times, and when they enjoyed a kind of normal tolerance.  They were almost everywhere obliged to wear a visible mark on their dress, such as a patch of gaudy colour attached to the shoulder or chest, in order to prevent their being mistaken for Christians.  By this or some other means they were continually subject to insults from the people, and only succeeded in ridding themselves of it by paying the most enormous fines.  Nothing was spared to humiliate and insult them.  At Toulouse they were forced to send a representative to the cathedral on every Good Friday, that he might there publicly receive a box on the ears.  At Beziers, during Passion week, the mob assumed the right of attacking the Jews’ houses with stones.  The Jews bought off this right in 1160 by paying a certain sum to the Vicomte de Beziers, and by promising an annual poll-tax to him and to his successors.  A Jew, passing on the road of Etampes, beneath the tower of Montlhery, had to pay an obole; if he had in his possession a Hebrew book, he paid four deniers; and, if he carried his lamp with him, two oboles.  At Chateauneuf-sur-Loire a Jew on passing had to pay