The perverted use of the legal system by anti-Jewish activists is not a modern phenomenon by any means. When Jews were allowed to return to England in 1656, their opponents seized upon the law in an attempt to force them out of the country.
Jews had been expelled from England by the Edict of Expulsion issued by King Edward I in 1290. It was only in 1656 that Cromwell, despite opposition from Parliament, permitted the Jews to return to England and the Jewish community to exist publicly and to worship at synagogues.
Opposition to the presence of Jews was a constant menace in the early years of return. In 1660, the mayor and aldermen of London petitioned King Charles II to: "expel all professed Jews out of your kingdom". Charles refused to do so, and instead openly offered the Jews safety. A further anti-Jewish petition in 1664 lead him to issue an 'Order in Council' guaranteeing protection for his Jewish subjects.
With the King thus resolved, the anti-Semitic activists switched to “lawfare”, attempting to use archaic laws against the Jews.
In 1673 Jews were accused of breaking the Conventicle Act of 1664, which prohibited non-Anglican services of more than five people. King Charles intervened to stop the legal proceedings, and again assured the Jews of their freedom.
Early in 1685, as King Charles was succeeded by King James II, 37 Jews were in prison and awaiting trial, having been arrested in London and charged under an old Elizabethan law with failing to attend church (another 11 Jews had been accused but not arrested).
Although King James II is remembered mainly for what his subjects saw as attempts to impose absolute monarchy and to limit their freedoms, this last Catholic king of England was forceful in allowing freedom of religion for all of his subjects.
On November 13th, the newly crowned James II instructed the Attorney-General to stop the harassing prosecution and release them, and ordered that henceforth they should be allowed to enjoy the liberty and profession of their religion:
At the Court of Whitehall, 13th November 1685.
Present, the King's most Excellent Majesty in Council.
UPON reading this day at the board the petition of Joseph Henriques, Abraham Delivera, and Aaron Pacheco, overseers of the Jewish synagogue, and the rest of the Jewish nation, setting forth, that his late Majesty, of blessed memory, having found the Petitioners and their nation ever faithful to the government, and ready to serve him oh all occasions, was pleased, in February 1673, to signify his royal pleasure, that whilst they continued quiet, true, and faithful to the government, they should enjoy the liberty and profession of their religion, which they accordingly peaceably exercised till Michaelmas Term last; that several writs out of the King's Bench, on the statute made in the 23d year of Queen Elizabeth, had been taken out against forty-eight of the Jewish nation, by one Thomas Beaumont, and thirty-seven of them arrested thereupon, as they were following their occasions on the Royal Exchange, to the great prejudice of their reputation both here and abroad ; and therefore praying his Majesty to permit and suffer them, as heretofore, to have the benefit of the free exercise of their religion, during their good behaviour towards his Majesty's government His Majesty, having taken this matter into his royal consideration, was pleased to order, and it is hereby accordingly ordered, that his Majesty's Attorney General do stop all the said proceedings at law against the Petitioners; his Majesty's intention being, that they should not be troubled upon this account, but quietly enjoy the free exercise of their religion, whilst they behave themselves dutifully and obediently to his government.
W. Bridgeman.
Source:
Reports of Cases Argued and determined in the Consistory Court of London; Containing the Judgments of the Right Hon. Sir william scott. By John Haggard, ll.d. Advocate. Printed by a. Strahan, Edinburgh, 1822.
http://books.google.com/books?lpg=PA511&pg=PA511&id=9ZE0AAAAIAAJ&ots=Mcvp6Inm8r#v=onepage&q&f=true
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