Page 100 - The Track Of The Jew Through The Ages - Alfred Rosenberg

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The Track of the Jew through the Ages

the Jew rich. But let the wealth be taken from him that was acquired
through dishonesty; the Christian army, which sacrifices its own
lands and its money in order to defeat the Saracens, should not spare
the treasuries of the Jews". 162
Under Philippe-Auguste, 163 the Jews had a similar affluence
and property, and the king, like all the rulers, was not badly disposed
towards them. When he was once in St. Germain en Laye, he received
the news that in Bray a Christian, on account of a robbery of a Jew,
had been handed over to the latter for sentencing and that they had
bound his hands behind him, crowned his head with thorns, dragged
him through the streets and finally hanged him. This permitted the
king to burn over 80 Jews.
The mood of the people against the Jews was however
embittered to such an extent that Philippe-Auguste found himself
obliged to investigate the oppressions, confiscate many possessions
of the Jews and expel them from the country, which however was
not strictly followed. "This year", writes the historian Rigord,
"deserves to become a celebratory year, because on account of these
measures the Christians obtained forever their freedom which had
been suppressed by the Jews". 164
Since 1181, however, the Jews were finally driven out from
some cities: from Rouen, Etampes, etc. even though they remained
in many others.
th
The 1 and following centuries were, for the Jews, in spite
of their repeated expulsions, a time of wealth and power such as
they have reacquired only in the 20 th century.
The relations with the Jews developed in many different
ways in different parts of France; people were most tolerant in the
south, where the Albigensians, through their opposition to the
principles of the Catholic Church, treated the Jews as their apparent
confederates - for which reason these could quietly collect endless
162 See Andre Reville, Lespaysans au Moyen-Age, p. 3 [The social historian Andre
Reville's Les Paysans au Moyen-Age (XHIeme etXIVeme siecles) was published
in 1896.]; and Depping, Histoire des Juifs dans le Moyen-Age.
163
[Philippe Auguste (1165-1223) was the last of the Kings of the Franks and,
from 1 190, the first King of France, Philippe II.]
164
Depping, op.cit., p. 137.
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