A.D . 1189.] •ERSECL'TION OF THE JEWS. 81 in procession into the choir, where the king put off his rovai robes, and taking others of less weight, and a lighter crown also, he proceeded to the dinner-table, at which the archbishops, bishops, earls, and barons, with the clergy and people, were placed, each according to his rank and dignity, and i'easted splendidly, so that the wine flowed along tinpavement and walls of the palace. All this took pitici: on Sunday the third before the nones of September.* Of the persecution of the Jews. Many Jews Avere present at this coronation, contrary to the king's command; for he had caused proclamation to be made the day before, that no Jews or women should attend, on account of the magical incantations which take pinco sometimes at royal coronations. 15ut the courtiers laid hands on them, although they came in secret, and when they had robbed and scourged them dreadfully, they cast them out of the church ; some of them died, and others could hardly be said In have life, left in them. The populace of the city hearing of this attack of the courtiers on the Jews, made a similar assault on those who remained in the city, and, after they hail put to death numbers of both sexes, and rased to the ground or burned their houses, they plundered their gold and silver, their writings and valuable garments. Those of the Jews who escaped being put to death, took refuge ill the tower of London, and afterwards, by taking up their residence secretly here and there among their friends, they caused others to become rich by their own losses. This persecution began in the year of their jubilee, which they call the year of remission, and it hardly ceased before the end of the year, so that what ought to have been to them a year of remission, was turned into a jubilee of confusion. On the morrow, when the king heard of the wrong that had been done them, he chose to consider it as a wrong done to himself; wherefore, he caused three of them to be apprehended, tried by the judges of his court, and hanged one of them because he had stolen something belonging to a Christian : and the other two, because they had kindled a fire in the city, by which * Vinesauf [ Itiner. Itich.] agrees with Wenrlnver in this ilate ; which makes il probable that I icrvusc, who lis.es it on llie 11th, is m error. 1er the 11th of September in that year fell on a Monday. VOL. II. G