There was in Asia, in a great city,
Among Christian folk, a street of Jewry,
Sustained by a lord of that country
For foul usury and lucre of villainy,
Hateful to Christ and to his company;
And through the street men might ride and wend
For it was free and open at either end.
A little school of Christian folk there stood
Down at the farther end, in which there were
Many children, born of Christian blood.
—from “The Prioress’s Tale,”
The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer