A HISTORY OF NORFOLK be heard next day, and if they were convicted, punishment would of course follow. But the Jews found a friend in the sheriff of Norfolk, who was re- sponsible for the safety of all citizens, Jew or Gentile, and who knew well enough that not even under King Stephen and in those anarchic days, could he hand over the whole Jewish community to the tender mercies of a mob infuriated by appeals to the worst passions of bigotry, personal hatred, and the hope of a general pillage of their victims. The quarter in which the Jews had their residences was situated in close proximity to the great castle, sufficiently garrisoned by a force of disciplined men-at-arms under the command of the sheriff. Seeing the danger that threatened, and apprehending that nothing less was intended than a whole- sale massacre of the Jews, John dc Caineto, the sheriff, acted with promptness and decision. He ordered the whole Jewish community to move in a body into the precincts of the castle, where they would be under sufficient pro- tection till the imminent danger should have passed off, and there they con- tinued for a time to reside until it was safe for them to go back to the Jewry. In the meantime the body of the dead boy was acknowledged to be that of Godwin's nephew, William. Very soon the popular voice proclaimed him a saint and a martyr, and this belief was strengthened when Aimar the prior of St. Pancras, at Lewes, who happened to be present at the Norwich Synod, made a proposal that the body should be delivered to him, with a view of making it an object of ' conspicuous veneration and worship,' possibly in the Cluniac priory at Castleacre, where it appears that the monastic church had but recently been completed. By Bishop Everard's order, however, the body of the martyred saint was buried in the monks' cemetery, but when a crop of miracles sprung up around his grave and a number of wonderful stories were circulated and believed by the people of all classes, the body was moved from one place to another till finally it was deposited in a shrine in the cathedral, and the cult of St. William of Norwich became a profitable source of income to the monastery. The story of this reputed murder and subsequent glorification of the boy into a saint and martyr produced a very wide effect upon the beliefs and sentiments of Jew-haters all over Europe, which has not yet, by any means, worn itself out ; though few of those who are still the victims of this horrible superstition are at all aware that the mythical calumny attributing a ritual murder at the Paschal Festival to Jewish fanaticism originated in the first instance in the story of the Norwich boy-saint so skilfully dealt with by the clergy assembled at the diocesan synod in 1 144, and subsequently by the monks of the priory.^ Though the contemporary writer of the life of St. William does not say so, there are nevertheless indications in his book that Bishop Everard was but a cold supporter of the alleged martyrdom of St. William. He appears by this time to have felt that he had little sympathy with the old monasticism of which, as has been said, the Norwich priory was the latest representative. A craving for a stricter rule and a more ascetic discipline in the religious houses was in the air, and Everard, peradventure worried and saddened by the attitude of both seculars and regulars in their attempt to make capital of ' Life and Miracles of St. WiUiam of 'Norwich, by Thomas of Monmouth. With Introduction, Translation, and Notes by Aug. Jessopp, D.D. and Montague R. James, Litt. D. 222
