They must have been Rabbinic Jews.
At 12:31 PM 9/20/2000 +0100, you wrote:
>Then there's the following (admittedly a couple of hundred years before
>Chaucer):
>
>"
>Clifford's Tower:
>Massacre at York (1190)
>
>The site of Clifford's Tower, the keep of York's medieval castle, still
>bears witness to the most horrifying event in the history of English Jewry.
>On the night of 16 March 1190, the feast of Shabbat ha-Gadol, the small
>Jewish community of York was gathered together for protection inside the
>tower. Rather than perish at the hands of the violent mob that awaited them
>outside, many of the Jews took their own lives; others died in the flames
>they had lit, and those who finally surrendered were massacred and
>murdered.
>
>Understandably, this appalling event has become the most notorious example
>of antisemitism in medieval England. Yet, it was by no means an isolated
>incident, but rather the culmination of a tide of violent feeling which
>swept the country in the early part of 1190.
>"
>
>-- I suspect this isn't irrelevant to how we (or Chaucer, indeed) intended
>us to respond to The Prioress's Tale.
>
>Robin Hamilton
>
>
>
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