many others, inform us that a general massacre of the Jews took place at the coronation of Richard I., merely because a few of the more respectable among them mingled, out of curiosity, with the com- pany that frequented the church on that occasion, and broadly hinted that the mob were instigated to the act by some of the monks and clergy.
In consequence of the unrestrained butchery of the Jews, the King sent his writs throughout all the counties of England, for- bidding that any should do harm to the Jews, but that they should be allowed to enjoy their peace. But these proclamations did not produce the desired elFect, for Fox informs us {Acts and Monu- ments, vol. I., p. 305), after the Chronicle of Westminster, that there were no less than 1500 of the Jews destroyed in York alone, besides those slaughtered in other places.
ANATHEMAS INEFFECTUAL. 43 seen,^ they were banished, or, as some contend, freely departed the kingdom, in the eighteenth year of the reign of Edward I. The French clergy carried their measures even still further, and were the means of bringing into existence the most severe law against usurers that is anywhere to be found. The usurer, by the French