Aaron of Lincoln

In the pipe rolls (the records of royal finances in Medieval England) for 1166 is a mention of £616 12s 8d owed to Aaron of Lincoln by King Henry II, who borrowed from him for projects in nine counties.

Aaron was born about 1123 in Lincoln, although it is thought that he spent part of his early life in France. Later he owned a plot of land near Lincoln Castle which is probably where his house was. A building called the Norman House in Lincoln (seen here)—probably the oldest stone dwelling in England—was once (but no more) believed to have been Aaron's house.

He became a financier, working through different agents and a partner, Isaac son of Josce. He built up a financial base for himself that is believed to have surpassed the wealth of the king, making him the wealthiest individual in England.

Much of his wealth came from the repayment of loans he made for the building or renovation of abbeys and monasteries. Nine Cistercian abbeys were built on money borrowed from Aaron, as well as Peterborough Abbey, Lincoln Minster, and the Abbey of St. Albans.

When he died in 1186, Henry II claimed that his estate reverted to the Crown by escheat (a legal move that transfers to the Crown the estate of a person who dies without heirs; recall the recent post about David of Oxford trying to get an heir). The Crown therefore inherited all Aaron's debts, and was able to collect on them. The cash that Aaron was holding at the time of his death was immediately sent to France to be used in Henry's wars against Philip Augustus. (Unfortunately, the ship carrying the money sank in the English Channel.) His debts were so numerous and so large that a separate division was created in the Exchequer solely to deal with Aaron's finances.

It was called Aaron's Exchequer and existed for 15 years while the Crown collected on his debts and assumed the money into the royal coffers. Even then, an amount of about £7,500 was still outstanding. There was one change made in the debt process after Aaron's death: interest stopped accruing, since Christians did not indulge in usury.

At one point, Aaron had made a deal with the abbot of Meaux to drop a debt from 1800 marks to 1260 marks. After Aaron's death, the Crown discovered the original paperwork on the 1800 marks and demanded the difference of 540 marks from the abbey! Still, there was plenty of money involved: 430 separate debts to smaller barons and knights amounted to £15,000, now to be collected by the king.

The Massacre of Jews at York was brought about by a man who was heavily indebted to Aaron and wanted to destroy the records of his debt. By this time Henry's son Richard was king. Richard created the separate Exchequer of the Jews afterward.

But now for something completely different: tomorrow let's talk about Lincoln, and the castle therein.

The Archa System

The Exchequer of the Jews was created in 1194 by King Richard I of England in order to keep track of all records of debts owed to Jewish moneylenders (as well as possessions and property of every Jew in England). The reason was not only to give the Crown an accurate account of what Jews held (and could be exploited), but also to prevent unscrupulous debtors from trying to avoid repayment by criminally destroying records.

The method of keeping the records secure was explained here. It included a system of multiple keys needed to unseal and examine the records, and a committee of equal members of Christians and Jews.

It was not feasible, however, to expect all records to maintain accuracy if they were kept in a central location like Winchester (the London seat of the Crown's administration). A system of archæ, or chests, was arranged around England so that records could be kept up-to-date more easily. They could always be summoned to Winchester for examination (such as the Oxford archa brought to London—along with his wife—after the death of David of Oxford).

Each archa had three locks and required three keys to be opened so that there could not easily be any attempt at tampering. Richard did not trust these archæ to be kept by the Jews, so he had them stored in royal castles or major monasteries. The Tower of London kept one which was later moved to the Royal Exchequer. Oxford had one in its castle on the west end of town. We recently talked about the Jewish presence in Oxford, and the wealthy David of Oxford. There were 26 locations for archæ around England, in places such as Bristol, Canterbury, Norwich, Worcester, and York.

Any loan made by a Jewish moneylender was recorded on a chirograph. A chirograph was a document in duplicate or triplicate or even quadruplicate. In the case of the exchequer of the Jews, it was a document with the terms of the loan written out three times. The parchment was then cut into three; one copy went to the lender, one to the debtor, and the third copy kept in the archa.

This system worked from 1194 until 1290, when Edward I expelled all Jews from England, claiming all their property for himself.

Curiously, there was an exchequer specifically for a certain Jewish moneylender; yes, for just one man. Tomorrow I'll tell you about Aaron's Exchequer.

Keeping Track of Jewish Debts

The catalyst for the 1189 tragedy in York after the coronation of King Richard I was three men who wanted to criminally erase the debts they owed to the Jewish moneylender Aaron of York. Richard Malbysse, Robert de Turnham, and Robert de Gant instigated the massacre in order to destroy the records of their debts and avoid paying them. (By the way, "Malbysse" may have been a real surname but more likely the nickname that has come down to us. William of Newburgh, a historian who was alive at the time of the massacre, referred to Richard as Ricardus vero agnomine Mala Bestia, homo audacissimus. ("Richard truly named Evil Beast, the most audacious man.")

Richard, like kings of England before and after him, understood the financial value of keeping Jews safe under the Crown's protection. He created the Exchequer of the Jews (Scaccarium Judaeorum), an institution separate from the Royal Exchequer, designed to keep track of debts so that the incentive to free oneself from repaying money by destroying the records was no longer an option. And since this repository of financial records was being created, why not include anything and everything owed to and owned by Jews?

Following is part of the actual (translated) decree (ellipses and emphasis are mine):

All the debts, pledges, mortgages, lands, houses, rents, and possessions of the Jews shall be registered. The Jew who shall conceal any of these shall forfeit to the King his body and the thing concealed, and likewise all his possessions and chattels, ..., and there shall be appointed two lawyers that are Christians and two lawyers that are Jews, and two legal registrars, and before them and the clerks of William of the Church of St. Mary's and William of Chimilli, shall their contracts be made.

And charters shall be made of their contracts by way of indenture. And one part of the indenture shall remain with the Jew, sealed with the seal of him, to whom the money is lent, and the other part shall remain in the common chest: wherein there shall be three locks and keys, whereof the two Christians shall keep one key, and the two Jews another, and the clerks of William of the Church of St. Mary and of William of Chimilli shall keep the third. And moreover, there shall be three seals to it, and those who keep the seals shall put the seals thereto. 

... For every charter there shall be three pence paid, one moiety thereof by the Jews and the other moiety by him to whom the money is lent; whereof the two writers shall have two pence and the keeper of the roll the third. 

And from henceforth no contract shall be made with, nor payment made to, the Jews, nor any alteration made in the charters, except before the said persons or the greater part of them, if all of them cannot be present. And the aforesaid two Christians shall have one roll of the debts or receipts of the payments which from henceforth are to be made to the Jews, and the two Jews one and the keeper of the roll one.

Moreover every Jew shall swear on his Roll, that all his debts and pledges and rents, and all his goods and his possessions, he shall cause to be enrolled, and that he shall conceal nothing as is aforesaid. And if he shall know that anyone shall conceal anything he shall secretly reveal it to the justices sent to them, and that they shall detect, and shew unto them all falsifiers or forgers of the charters and clippers of money, where or when they shall know them, and likewise all false charters.

The three sets of locks and keys reduced the chance of tampering, since the chest holding the official documents could only be opened if all three possessors of the keys were present.

There were two major benefits to this decree: one to the Crown, and one to the Jewish population. The Crown would have records of every transaction and could use them to tax the Jews involved. The Jewish moneylenders also benefitted, because any debtor wishing to accuse the moneylender of unfairness, or who tried to get out of repayment, now had to deal with a moneylender with the full weight of the Royal Exchequer behind him.

An additional benefit to the Crown was that the death of a moneylender without heirs meant a faithful accounting of all the moneylender was owed was known and therefore could be collected ... by the Crown, of course. Note the recent posts on David of Oxford, who was so in need of an heir that he divorced one wife precipitously, and how his second wife was put in the Tower while his accounts were examined after his death, until everything was settled.

Documents from this office are extant for 1219-20, 1244, 1253, and 1266-87. (In 1290, all Jews were expelled from England by Edward I, or forced to convert, which forced many into the Domus Conversorum.)

It would be inefficient to have every record kept in a single vault in Winchester. There were Jews and moneylenders all over England. I'll talk a little more about the organization of the Exchequer tomorrow. 

The Illustrated Receipt

In the earliest days of this blog, there were no illustrations. I eventually decided there were some posts that would be enhanced by an appropriate image. In some cases, however, there was no image available specific to the subject of the post; for instance, there are some individuals about whom I've written that were no important enough to have an image created in their lifetime that has survived, if it existed at all. In those cases I would find something—a picture of a manuscript, a woodcut of folk doing some related work—that links however tangentially to the subject.

In today's case, however, the illustration is the subject. I have enlarged it at the risk if throwing off the formatting of the web page to let you see it more clearly.

This is a unique document: it is a sketch that was made at the top of a 1233 receipt from the Exchequer, listing tax payments from the Jews of Norwich. Illustrating an Exchequer receipt was unnecessary, but the unknown scribe/accountant was making a point, a point that provides us with the earliest visual caricature of Jews in a negative light.

The top center shows a three-faced figure labeled "Isaac fil jurnet." This is Isaac of Norwich, probably the richest moneylender in Norwich. We know he was owed a lot of money by the abbot and monks of Westminster, taking them to court to force repayment. This was decades after Richard I established the Exchequer of the Jews and the Ordinance of Jewry that should have made his lawsuit easier, but King Henry III was not Richard and did not so carefully protect the Jews in his realm from anti-semitism.

Isaac is shown with a forked beard, a sign of the devil. There are two other Jews represented, one just below Isaac and one to the left. Both have long, hooked noses, and a demon between them is pointing a clawed finger at each of their noses, indicating that they have noses like the demon's. The Jew to the left is labeled Mosse Mokke, who was a collector of debts for Isaac. The one below Isaac is labeled Abigail, who some believe was married to Mosse Mokke and also worked for Isaac.

To the far left is a monk with scales full of coins, representing the money owed by Westminster. A demon behind him has an arrow coming from his mouth to the back of the monk.

To the right of Isaac is a demon in a tower labeled "Dagon," the pagan god of the Philistines from the Old Testament. He is accompanied by a demon with a horn who is summoning several other demons to come to Isaac's aid. All the demons have horns and hooks noses and claws.

Considering that a scribe took the time to indulge in the unusual step of creating such a detailed negative portrayal of Jews in an official document of the Exchequer, the likelihood for anti-semitism "on the street" must have been enormous.

Was it the same everywhere? Jews had scattered all over Europe and on all parts of the Mediterranean Coast. What was going on with other Jewish communities in the Middle Ages. Tomorrow I'll tell you about the Maghreb Jews.

Exchequer of the Jews

In 1194, Richard I of England created a system by which all financial transactions by Jews would be documented by the Crown. This system created an office that was subordinate to the Royal Exchequer, and became known as the Exchequer of the Jews.

His motivation was the Massacre at York, as well as the anti-semitic riots that took place at his own coronation.

I think it would be interesting to see part of the actual (translated) decree (ellipses and italics are mine):

All the debts, pledges, mortgages, lands, houses, rents, and possessions of the Jews shall be registered. The Jew who shall conceal any of these shall forfeit to the King his body and the thing concealed, and likewise all his possessions and chattels, ..., and there shall be appointed two lawyers that are Christians and two lawyers that are Jews, and two legal registrars, and before them and the clerks of William of the Church of St. Mary's and William of Chimilli, shall their contracts be made.

And charters shall be made of their contracts by way of indenture. And one part of the indenture shall remain with the Jew, sealed with the seal of him, to whom the money is lent, and the other part shall remain in the common chest: wherein there shall be three locks and keys, whereof the two Christians shall keep one key, and the two Jews another, and the clerks of William of the Church of St. Mary and of William of Chimilli shall keep the third. And moreover, there shall be three seals to it, and those who keep the seals shall put the seals thereto. 

... For every charter there shall be three pence paid, one moiety thereof by the Jews and the other moiety by him to whom the money is lent; whereof the two writers shall have two pence and the keeper of the roll the third. 

And from henceforth no contract shall be made with, nor payment, made to, the Jews, nor any alteration made in the charters, except before the said persons or the greater part of them, if all of them cannot be present. And the aforesaid two Christians shall have one roll of the debts or receipts of the payments which from henceforth are to be made to the Jews, and the two Jews one and the keeper of the roll one.

Moreover every Jew shall swear on his Roll, that all his debts and pledges and rents, and all his goods and his possessions, he shall cause to be enrolled, and that he shall conceal nothing as is aforesaid. And if he shall know that anyone shall conceal anything he shall secretly reveal it to the justices sent to them, and that they shall detect, and shew unto them all falsifiers or forgers of the charters and clippers of money, where or when they shall know them, and likewise all false charters.

The three sets of locks and keys eliminated the chance of tampering, since the chest holding the official documents could only be opened if all three possessors of the keys were present.

There were two major benefits to this decree: one to the Crown, and one to the Jewish population. The Crown would have records of every transaction and could use them to tax the Jews involved. The Jewish moneylenders also benefitted, because any debtor wishing to accuse the moneylender of unfairness, or who tried to get out of repayment, now had to deal with a moneylender with the full weight of the Royal Exchequer behind him.

An additional benefit to the Crown was that the death of a moneylender without heirs meant a faithful accounting of all the moneylender was owed was known and therefore could be collected ... by the Crown, of course.

Documents from this office are extant for 1219-20, 1244, 1253, and 1266-87. (In 1290, all Jews were expelled from England by Edward I, or made to convert.)

One of these documents, in 1233, has an unusual feature: it is illustrated. The illustration above is part of it. The whole drawing is interesting as one of the earliest examples of Jews shown in a negative depiction. We're going to look at it very carefully next time.