Cathedral Cities of England Part 15

[Ill.u.s.tration: EXETER

MOL'S COFFEE TAVERN]

In 1286 Edward I. a.s.sembled a parliament at Exeter, whilst in 1371 the Black Prince brought here his royal prisoner of France and stayed several days. The d.u.c.h.ess of Clarence, accompanied by many royal adherents, took refuge within the city walls in 1469. It was besieged by Sir William Courtenay, who eventually raised it on the mediation of the clergy.

The next event of importance not only affected Exeter, but threw into agitation the whole of the British Empire. Of two impostors that laid claim to the Crown which Henry VII. was wearing, the second was a youth called Perkin Warbeck. He bore such a striking resemblance to the Plantagenets that he had been secretly instructed to impersonate Richard Duke of York, the younger brother of Edward V., who it was pretended had escaped from the Tower and from the fate that overtook his brother. So ingratiating was his manner that he successfully enlisted the aid of the d.u.c.h.ess of Burgundy, who was holding her court at Brussels. His first attempt to land in England was in Kent; his second in Ireland. Both ventures being unsuccessful, he tried Scotland. There he convinced King James IV. that he was a true Plantagenet, and through him he raised an army and invaded England. However, the two kings having come to an understanding, Warbeck retired to Ireland. He there received an invitation from the Cornishmen, acting on which he landed at Whitsand Bay in that county.

At Bodmin he was joined by a considerable force of men, with whom he marched and laid siege to Exeter in the year 1497. At the approach of the royal forces his followers were dispersed, whilst he fled to Beaulieu in Hamps.h.i.+re. Two years afterwards he ended his career at Tyburn.

In 1536 Exeter was erected a county of itself. The year 1549 saw the investment of the city by a numerous body of popish adherents, from whom it was relieved by John Lord Russell in August. On the very day of its investment, the second of July, the strange spectacle of Welch being hanged from the tower of his own church, in which he had been accustomed to officiate as vicar, took place. He suffered on the charge of being a Cornish rebel. During the parliamentary war it was taken and retaken, finally to be surrendered to the Roundheads in 1646. Throughout it all the citizens were warm supporters of the Stuarts, as they had always been to the Crown. So much so was their loyalty that in a previous reign, that of Elizabeth, she presented to the Corporation, with many other marks of her royal favour, the motto "Semper Fidelis." During the stay of the parliamentary troops under General Fairfax, the Cathedral was ruthlessly defaced and divided into places of wors.h.i.+p for Presbyterians and Independents. The palace adjoining was also turned into barracks, and the Chapter House converted into stables. During these troubles Queen Henrietta Maria, the consort of Charles I., had returned to Exeter from Oxford, believing herself to be in danger from the hatred with which she feared she was regarded by the people. Here she gave birth to her youngest child, the Princess Henrietta. Leaving the infant at Exeter she escaped to France.

In the Guildhall, which is a picturesque Elizabethan building, are two full-length portraits: one depicts the features of General Monk, Duke of Albemarle, painted by Sir Peter Lely; the other was given by Charles II.

to the Corporation as some slight acknowledgment of the city's loyalty.

It represents the portrait of his sister, Princess Henrietta, then d.u.c.h.ess of Orleans. James II. was the next sovereign to bestow favour, which he did by establis.h.i.+ng a mint in 1688. His influence was shortlived, for on the arrival of the Prince of Orange in the August of the same year the inhabitants readily submitted. This prince is credited with establis.h.i.+ng a mint at Exeter, or it may be he simply completed or confirmed that of his predecessor. The following year saw him on the throne of the kingdom as William III., which ratified the declaration he had caused to be read by Burnet in the Cathedral of Exeter. Though visited by subsequent reigning princes, their presence may be said to have conferred more honour than to have promoted any material changes to the prosperity of Exeter.

The mainstay of the city is the glorious Cathedral, and the quaintness of some of its houses and streets is unique. They afford a great attraction to visitors, who are willing to go a long railway journey west simply to see and compare the merits and demerits of the Cathedral with the many others dotted throughout Great Britain.

The actual date of the Cathedral is in 1049. Its origin, as we have seen, occasioned no turning of the soil to receive foundations, but merely the conventual church of the monks, removed by Edward the Confessor to his new abbey at Westminster, adapted to meet the requirements of Bishop Leofric and his secular canons appointed to the united Sees of Devon and Cornwall. The head of the Diocese was at Exeter. What was the size and character of the converted monastic church at that time no two authorities seem able to agree. According to an old record at Oxford its lease soon ran out, for in the year 1112 a new church was commenced by Bishop Warlewast, continued by his successors, and finally completed by Bishop Marshall, who died in 1206. They are supposed to have carried out the plan of Warlewast; but as the whole of the fabric, with the exception of the towers, was entirely rebuilt in 1280, the original design is chiefly conjectural. The body of the church probably corresponded in character with the two ma.s.sive transeptal towers. These are quite a feature in that, with the exception of those at the collegiate church of Ottery in Devons.h.i.+re, they exist nowhere else in England. This arrangement of the towers did away with the necessity of either a central tower or lantern. It enabled the architect to extend a long unbroken roof throughout the nave and choir. The aisles, with the intervention of richly cl.u.s.tered pillars and pointed arches springing from their caps, range along on either side of the nave. With the sets of ribs starting each from a cl.u.s.tered centre, and spreading out as they soar towards the highest limit of the roof, as grand an exposition of beauty and n.o.ble gradations of perspective lines, as conceived by architects of the Decorative period, have been realised.

The period of this rebuilding was commenced in 1280 with the Early English style of architecture by Bishop Quivil, and was completed in 1369 in the best years of the Decorated style, just a few years before the Perpendicular came into vogue. It is said that this cathedral served as a model for the church at Ottery. Though this cathedral in miniature resembles the great edifice in Exeter in certain points, notably the transeptal towers, yet, if the princ.i.p.al part of it dates from 1260, it can hardly, with the one exception, have been a copy of the chief church of the Diocese. The Early English work of Ottery church takes, by comparison of dates, priority over that at Exeter by some twenty years.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EXETER

INTERIOR OF THE NAVE]

The west front, which is one ma.s.s of elegant tracery and canopied niches adorned with statuary, is the Decorated period merged into that of the Perpendicular, covering the years from about 1369 to 1394, under the episcopacy of Brantingham. The windows are excellent examples of elegant tracing. Under successive bishops after Quivil, the chief alteration was the lengthening of the nave and the roof vaulted by Grandison. The year 1420 really saw the completion of the building under Bishop Lacey. Time and weather having caused certain decay, Sir G. G. Scott was directed in 1870 to restore it. The undertaking took seven years. A new stall, a reredos, the choir repaved, rich marbles and porphyries used, and stained gla.s.s put up mainly by Clayton and Bell, were the chief items of restoration. When erecting the reredos Scott could never have foreseen the little storm it gave rise to, just when he was half-way through with the general renovation. Prebendary Philpotts, the Chancellor, and several others had their conscientious objections, which they laid before the Bishop's visitation court in 1873. It was ruled that the Bishop had the jurisdiction in the matter. He ordered the removal of the reredos in April 1874. In August of the same year Dean Boyd appealed to the Court of Arches, and had the previous decision reversed by Sir R.

Phillimore. However, Prebendary Philpotts saw fit to appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. They decided that the reredos should remain. Thus in 1875 was ended the controversy; and there rests Sir G. G. Scott's design, open to the criticism of all who are capable of framing an impartial one.

In this same year of 1875 much excitement arose over the church-tax. It was called indifferently "dominicals" and "sacrament money," which were said to be of the nature of t.i.thes. However, the disputes were ended by the distraints for payment.

In the Chapter House is preserved an important ma.n.u.script, including the famous book of Saxon poetry presented by Leofric on his accession to the See of Exeter. It is called the "Exeter Book," and is the life of St.

Guthlac, by Cynewulf, who was an early English writer. Born somewhere between 720 and 730 at Northumbria, Cynewulf was a wandering bard by profession. Late in life he suffered a religious crisis, and devoted his remaining years to religious poetry. An early work of his is a series of ninety-four Riddles.

It is an example of the effects of Latin influence, which in the end revolutionised the style of Old English literature as a whole. Cynewulf appears to have been a prolific writer. Besides the Riddles, the "Crist"

(dealing with the three advents of Christ), the lives of St. Juliana and St. Elene, and the "Fates of the Apostles" are ascribed to him, as well as "The Descent into h.e.l.l," "Felix," and the lives of St. Andreas and St. Guthlac. A valuable treasure is that in the possession of Exeter.

Many such precious relics are to be found distributed among the various ecclesiastical buildings in England, known only to antiquarians and people with interest akin to theirs. The quaint, picturesque old coffee tavern, with its bow windows of square-leaded panes, ends curiously at the top with a moulded outline so reminiscent of many houses in Belgium.

The tombs are mostly to the memory of bishops who each in his own time maintained the dignity of the See. Of those natives who came to the front through sheer ability may be enumerated the following: Josephus Isca.n.u.s, or Joseph of Exeter, a distinguished Latin poet of the twelfth century; his contemporary, Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury; John Hooker, author of "A History of Exeter in the Sixteenth Century"; Sir Thomas Bodley, who founded the magnificent Bodleian Library at Oxford; Matthew Lock, a seventeenth-century musical composer of note; and many others.

Amongst many notable inst.i.tutions is the Grammar School, which dates from the reign of Henry VIII.

The manufactures are few. The woollen trade, at one time only surpa.s.sed by Leeds, has now entirely departed from Exeter. If it were not for its glorious minster and the river Exe, up which vessels of three hundred tons' burden can come up right to the city's quay, Exeter would have long ago sunk to mere insignificance.

The river, which decided the early Britons to settle on its banks, the Romans to station the Second Legion of Augusta, the monks to establish their humble monastery, eventually to be absorbed into a see, has from the early times afforded facilities for exports and imports. The s.h.i.+p ca.n.a.l from Exeter to Topsham, which is in the estuary of the Exe, begun in 1564, enlarged in 1675 and again in 1827, materially a.s.sisted and rescued commerce from a serious decline. Those vessels that are too deep in the water remain at Topsham, whilst those of still greater tonnage discharge their holds at Exmouth, a port at the mouth of the river.

Norwich

Norwic.

("Doomsday Book.")

When this city first came into being it is puzzling to say. The difficulty is as to where the site was originally fixed. Three miles to the south of Norwich is the village of Caistor (St. Edmunds). Owing to its position on the river Wentsum, or Wensum, it was called Caer Gwent by the Britons, and for the like reason it was named by the Romans Venta Icenorum. It formed their princ.i.p.al station, as it before had served as the residence of the kings of the Iceni. From the ruins of Venta Icenorum gradually arose Norwich. As to when it was firmly established on its present eminence under the name of Nordewic, or North Town, there seems to be no reliable evidence. It first appears by that name in the Saxon Chronicle of the year 1004. It may possibly mean the town north of the old settlement. For one thing it is certain, in proportion as Nordewic rose Caistor sank from an important town to a mere village in ruins. According to an authority, an earlier date is arrived at than the entry in the Saxon Chronicle. He conjectures that the keep, the only remnant of the castle built on the summit of the steep mound by William Rufus, was the Saxon "burh," erected in 767. This, if correct, would clearly indicate that Norwich had already attained considerable importance. According to Spelman, it was the residence of the kings of East Anglia. They established a mint, where it is supposed coins of Alfred and several succeeding monarchs were struck. From its geographical position Norwich was frequently exposed to the attacks of the Nors.e.m.e.n, who could easily land on the Norfolk coast and cover the few intervening miles in a short time. The city was alternately in the possession of the Saxons and the Danes. Against the latter Alfred the Great repaired and fortified the citadel, to whom, however, he eventually handed it over after a treaty of peace. The Saxons afterwards regained it and held it till 1004, when it had to surrender to the Danes under their leader Sweyn. The terrible weak reign of Ethelred II. had earned him the epithet of Unready. His indolence caused his territories to be terrorised, the towns to be racked, and their inhabitants to be ma.s.sacred by the Danes under Sweyn, who, under pretext of avenging the murder of his sister, took the opportunity of ravaging and laying waste the land. On the accession of Canute, however, though a Dane, the cities began to prosper again. Thus it came about that Norwich, which had remained in a state of desolation till 1018, came again into Danish possession, but under Canute. With this fresh beginning it rapidly rose to great importance. By the time of the Norman Conquest, Norwich was cla.s.sed as second only to York in extent and prosperity, being described in the "Doomsday Book" as having 1320 burgesses with their families, 25 parish churches, and covering an area of not far short of 1000 acres. It was bestowed by the Conqueror on Ralph de Guaer, or Guader, in 1075, who rewarded his master's kindness by joining a conspiracy formed by the Earls of Hereford and Northumberland against the Crown. After having unsuccessfully defended the Castle, he retired into Brittany, leaving his wife to sustain the siege. The city was very much damaged, and the number of burgesses woefully reduced in numbers, some 560 only being left on the capitulation to the Conqueror. In view of the gallant defence by Guader's wife and garrison of Britons, William granted them all the honours of war and permission to leave the kingdom in perfect security. This siege was a great check to the advancement of the city.

At the same time the value of the property must have been considerably lessened. This depreciation after the drawing up of the "Doomsday Book"

in 1086 could hardly have suited the views of the Conqueror. To obviate the difficulty it would be necessary to introduce some new element, some attraction that would bring added interest and fresh residents willing to ply their industries in the town. The commencement of a new period of prosperity was soon realised after the establishment of a see at Norwich, though not until the time of William Rufus. One of his followers from Normandy was Herbert de Lozinga, or Lorraine, who having been made Bishop of East Anglia, decided to remove the See from Thetford to Norwich. In addition to the Cathedral, he established an episcopal palace and a monastery to maintain sixty monks, all in the year 1094. It had the desired effect; the city rapidly improved, the number of inhabitants greatly increased, and trade extended. In the reign of Stephen it was rebuilt. In 1122 Henry I. granted Norwich the same franchise as that enjoyed in London, incorporated in a charter. The government of the city was at the same time separated from that of the Castle, and entrusted to the chief magistrate, or Praepositus (provost), as he was styled. Another factor in the city's welfare was the colony of Flemish weavers who settled at Worstead, about thirteen miles from Norwich. They introduced the manufacture of woollen stuffs. A second colony, however, came in Edward III.'s time and settled right in Norwich, when it was made a staple town for the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NORWICH

THE MARKET PLACE]

The citizens, in the reign of John, suffered considerable loss from the depredations of the Dauphin, who had been invited from France to a.s.sist the barons. In 1272 a riot between the monks and the citizens caused the burning of the priory. The terrible plague, called the black death, that occurred between 1348 and 1349, destroyed two-thirds of the population.

The city no sooner was beginning to recover from this terrible visitation than one of its residents, John Listher, a dyer by profession, incited an insurrection called the Norfolk Levellers. They managed in 1381 to do much damage before the rebellion was quelled by the Bishop of Norwich, who defeated Listher and had him executed. From Henry IV. the citizens received permission to be governed by a mayor and sheriffs in 1403, and Norwich was made a county of itself. But in spite of it all the city severely suffered: what with the continued dissension between the monks and the citizens, when the monastic buildings were burnt down, and the tumults by tradesmen all too ready to lay aside their tools and follow some hare-brained leader with a grievance, and later on, after the peaceful period of Elizabeth, the Civil War. The most notable insurrection was that conducted under the reign of Edward VI. by a tanner, Robert Kett, and his brother William. Under the pretence of resisting the "enclosure of waste lands," they contrived to excite a most formidable rising. They seized upon the palace of the Earl of Surrey, and, converting it into a prison, confined many of the aristocracy. They then encamped upon Mouse-hold Heath, where eventually they were routed by the army under the Earl of Warwick in 1549. The two brothers were taken prisoners, Robert being hanged on Norwich Castle, and William suffering a like penalty on the steeple of Wymondham church, the parish from which they had both come. During the reign of Elizabeth a large body of Dutch and Walloons settled in Norwich, and introduced among many other articles the manufacture of bombazine, for which the city soon became noted. These refugees were Protestants, who had sought an asylum in England to escape the persecution of the Duke of Alva, and though many Roman Catholics and even some of the Protestants were unwilling martyrs to the stake at Norwich during this same reign of Elizabeth, the city no doubt appeared to these exiles to offer a better chance of life than that in the Netherlands. By the year 1582 their numbers had increased to five thousand. The Queen, who had encouraged and protected these emigrants, thus laid the foundation of the commercial and manufacturing prosperity of the town, as she had done elsewhere, and on her visit to Norwich was sumptuously feted. But the Civil War in Charles I.'s reign did much to upset trade in Norwich. It was held by the Parliamentarians, who seem to have got out of control.

The Cathedral was barbarously defaced, all its plate and ornaments looted, and the Bishop's Palace greatly damaged. The Castle, on the other hand, was strongly fortified for Cromwell. After the Restoration, Norwich was one of the first to swear allegiance to Charles II., who with his consort paid it a visit. He went away richer than he came, the city having a.s.signed its fee-farm to him, with the presentation of 1000 sterling besides. Since then the citizens have been content to lead a quiet life, and carry on such manufactures as ironworks, mustard, starch, and brewing of ale, though the textile manufacture, once important, has now declined. Printing, which was introduced here in 1570, but discontinued for several years, was revived in 1701, when newspapers began to be printed and circulated. Though, as we have seen, the monks and citizens often did not agree, yet we must not forget that it was mainly owing to the establishment of the See that prosperity came to Norwich. The presence of the Cathedral immediately rescued the city from oblivion, and, more, it raised it above the commonplace. All credit must be awarded to Herbert de Lozinga. For some reason or other he was dissatisfied with Thetford, which was then the seat of the Diocese, and determined to transfer it elsewhere. For this purpose in 1094 he purchased a large plot of ground near the Castle and soon commenced the building of a magnificent cathedral. It was purely Norman. Though it has undergone many alterations, additions, and restorations, Lozinga's plan is still in great evidence, much more so than many other examples of Norman work in England. With the establishment of a Benedictine monastery, Lozinga brought his work to a close, and dedicated it to Holy Trinity in 1101. As presented to us now, it is a s.p.a.cious cruciform structure, with a highly finished and ornamental Norman tower rising from the centre. This again is surmounted by an elegant octagonal spire of the Later Decorated style, and crocketed at the angles. The spire is 315 feet, and its height is exceeded in England only by that at Salisbury. The west front is of Norman character, with a central entrance, over which was placed a large window in the Later English style. The nave, remarkable for its elaborate 328 bosses, was stone-vaulted in the fifteenth century. The vaulting of the transepts and the chantry of Bishop Nix dates from the sixteenth century. The choir is richly ornamented with excellent design in tracery work of the Later English style, whilst the east end has several circular chapels.

The Lady Chapel, which was early English, was unfortunately demolished about 1580. The cloisters are very fine. They are 12 feet wide, and cover an area of 175 square feet, with 45 windows inserted. They were commenced in 1297 and completed in 1430. Though mainly composed of the Decorated period, they range in character from the early years of that style down to the Later English style. The Cathedral, in common with the city, suffered severely. At one time it was very much destroyed by fire.

The dome was repaired soon after by John of Oxford, who was the fourth bishop.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NORWICH

THE aeTHELBERT GATE]

Besides this it received repeated a.s.saults arising from the numerous disagreements between the monks and the citizens. It is always marvellous to think how such great works of art have come down to the present day exhibiting, in spite of fires, Commonwealth defacements, repairs and alterations, so much evidence of the skill of those great masters of mediaeval architecture. The Chapter House, usually a great feature of the cathedral, is missing at Norwich, though it once existed.

There are two monumental effigies, one to Bishop Goldwell about 1499, and the other to Bishop Bathurst in 1837, the work of Chantrey. Of the mural monuments there is one to Sir William Boleyn. He was the great-grandfather of Queen Elizabeth. His remains were interred on the south side of the Presbytery, in the midst of which once stood the tomb of Herbert de Lozinga, the founder. "Best viewed from the east," wrote George Borrow in "The Lavengro" in a description of Norwich Cathedral.

Perhaps the advice of this extraordinary man is the best one to follow.

Born at East Dereham, Norfolk, in 1803, of Cornish descent, educated at Norwich Grammar School, which he supplemented with the study of some twenty languages, he pa.s.sed an adventurous and varied career from running away from Norwich to be a footpad to travelling partly with gypsies over Europe and Asia, the latter part being supposed to account for his disappearance--the veiled period he called it, lasting from 1826 to 1833. In subsequent years he found time between his restless wanderings to write "The Gypsies in Spain" (1841), "The Bible in Spain"

(1843), the much delayed auto-biography, appearing in 1851, and "The Romany Rye" in 1857. After another long disappearance, when it was believed he was dead, he came to life again by publis.h.i.+ng his "Romano Lavo-Lil" (Gypsy Word-Book) in 1874. From this year till his death in 1881 the famous philologist, traveller, and author spent most of his time in lodgings in Norwich, where he became a familiar figure. The lives of many men can lay a better claim to be recognised by Norwich than Borrow, through virtue of their birthright. In the fourteenth century William Bateman, one time Bishop of Norwich, founded the great college of Trinity Hall at Cambridge. His great example was followed by another native of Norwich, Dr. Kaye or Caius, who established the beautiful college of Gonville and Caius at the same university. Matthew Parker, second Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury, as chaplain attended Queen Anne Boleyn to the scaffold; Robert Green became a popular writer in the reign of Elizabeth. In 1734 Edward King was born here. He gained much recognition as author of a work on ancient architecture ent.i.tled "Munimenta Antiqua," and for his many antiquarian researches was admitted Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. The Reverend William Beloe acquired a reputation by his translation of Herodotus, though possibly only known to cla.s.sical scholars. The Linnaean Society owes its inception to Sir James Edward Smith, M. D., whose first president he became. This distinguished native of Norwich was also the author of the "Flora Britannica."

The beautiful gate of Erpingham, which was erected in 1420 and faces the west end of the Cathedral, recalls the munificence of Sir Thomas Erpingham, by whom it was built. He greatly distinguished himself at the battle of Agincourt, and was eventually interred in the Cathedral of Norwich, the town of his residence, though not of his birth. Another resident was Sir John Fastof, who lived fighting as a renowned warrior for Henry IV., V., and VI. in their wars in France.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NORWICH

FROM THE NORTHEAST]

From the old Grammar School came, besides Borrow, Sir Edward c.o.ke, who was born in Norfolk. When only forty years of age he became Attorney-General, and lived in the reign of Elizabeth, always at strife with his dangerous and brilliant legal rival, Francis Bacon.

c.o.ke, by his opposition to the royal prerogative of raising money on the validity of the Court of High Commission, and in taking a considerable share in the drawing up of the Pet.i.tion of Right, and in the debates upon the conduct of Buckingham, earned the dislike of James I. Though treading on dangerous ground, c.o.ke nevertheless received active employment, and appears to have got on quite well in spite of royal displeasure.

Two other scholars were Brooke and Lord Nelson. Brooke entered the East India Company's army in 1819 at the age of sixteen. In his remarkable career he a.s.sisted the Sultan of Brunti to reduce the marauding Dyak tribes of Sarawak, and with such success that the Sultan created him rajah of the province of Sarawak in 1841.

A famous school of landscape painting was that at Norwich. It flourished in the first part of the nineteenth century, the princ.i.p.al artists of which were Crome,--who by the way was a native of Norwich,--Cotman, Vincent, and Stark.

Of recent years the Cathedral has undergone extensive restoration, namely, in 1892 and 1900.

Before closing this account we think it would be of interest to outline the causes that embittered the existence of the Jews and led to their persecution through the disappearance of a Christian boy in 1144 from Norwich.

We have had occasion, under Lincoln, to mention the att.i.tude adopted by the citizens towards the Jews. If anything, the feeling was more intense at Norwich. It is uncertain when they first resided in England, though it is supposed they visited before the Conquest for purposes of the slave trade, of which they held a monopoly. The position of the Jews in a Christian State entirely depended upon the att.i.tude of the Church, whose stringent measures effectually precluded any Semitic from the exercise of any public office unless the reception was confirmed by oaths of a Christian character. As this clause was foreign to the tenets of the Hebrew religion, and as the Church regarded the means of loans lent out on interest as prohibited by the Gospel, and as a disreputable calling and unworthy of a Christian, usury became the only means of subsistence to the Jew in England. They were not affected by the views of the Church, and soon made themselves felt. As, however, capital was needed for the building of monasteries, abbeys, and cathedrals by the Church, and the kings of England, especially John and Henry III., found it convenient to extort tallage, the Jews were tolerated. The rate of interest demanded for what was in the first place a trifling loan in a few years increased to a formidable debt. The means adopted by the Christian Church and kings of the middle ages to free themselves from this bondage in no way reflect any honour. The custom appears to have been for the king to seize the whole of the estate, both treasure and debts, of the Jew on his demise, though there may have been sons to inherit. Another was to burn the proofs of indebtedness after having slain the creditors, as the attack against the Jews organised by a set of n.o.bles, who were deep in their debt, is recorded to have taken place at York. For the Jew being a usurer, the estate fell into the hands of the King, who might be influenced to cancel the debt for a much smaller amount. We cannot then wonder that the lower cla.s.ses followed in the steps of their superiors. But above all, in the twelfth century the Church encouraged the circulation of a suspicion that the Jews sacrificed Christian children in their Pa.s.sover. However, the suspicion or "blood accusation," as it was called, first took root with a case in which a boy of the name of William disappeared at Norwich. This terrible accusation against the Jews has since been proved to have been founded on the shallowest pretexts, but at the time the myth was nevertheless encouraged by the clergy, since it attracted vast numbers of pilgrims to any cathedral or church which might contain the martyred remains of these boy-saints. The example of Norwich was followed in the same century by one at Gloucester and Edmondsbury, whilst in the following century the supposed martyrdom of Hugh of Lincoln served only to increase and confirm the popular belief. Hence the intense ill-feeling between the Christian and the Jew.