The competition of the Caorsini, who disguised their

usury in commissions and expenses, first reduced their

■ value in the eyes of the King. The Government tried

to expel the new comers, but in vain ; they were the

servants of the Pope, and no one dared touch them.
"With the gradual relaxation of the Koyal interest in

the Jews, the clergy grew bolder in denouncing them

as heretics. The public mind became inflamed ; and

to gain popularity Edward I. passed the statute De

Jitdaumo, which, among other restrictions, prohibited

the Jews from practising the usury they had already

been compelled, to the King's great grief, to abandon.
Their expulsion from the country, amid horrible

cruelties, soon followed.
The Jews carried with them into exile the remem-
brance of many an outrage that marked their exodus
from Britain. Of one they preserved the tradition
through no less than five centuries. A number of
Jews were barbarously drowned in the Thames, close
by where London Bridge now stands. When the
old bridge was in existence the fall of the waters



56 The Life of Sir Moses Montefiore. [ch. v.
at ebb tide caused a disturbance under one of the
arches ; and this, as late as eighty j'ears ago, the
Jewish gossips firmly believed was occasioned by the
wrath of the Deity at the horrible crime committed
there in the year 1290.
It is generally assumed that from this date until
the Protectorate there were no Jews in England.
