Page 87 - The Track Of The Jew Through The Ages - Alfred Rosenberg

Alfred Rosenberg ,

further, "they adorn their horses with toupees, and indulge in a luxury
that has a disadvantageous effect on all the inhabitants of the land".
The displeasure of the people was indeed so intense that
Alfonso IV (1325-57) strictly forbade the Jews to strut through the
streets with golden chains and to adorn their horses with jewels,
which had already been forbidden to the Christians previously.
Further new complaints forced the king to a decree against usury
(1353) wherein it was ruled that nobody could be forced to pay
more than 3373%.
This ruling, which was felt by the Jews as an unprecedented
limitation of their freedom, caused many of them to emigrate, a
sign that they all hoped not to be subjected to such a violation in
other countries. But since, along with them, immeasurable wealth
would have left, Alfonso decided, in the interests of the country, to
appropriate for the state a great part of the wealth of the Jews who
wished to emigrate. This law marked him out in the eyes of the
Jews as one of the most frightful oppressors of Jewry.
The above mentioned decree against usury seems not to
have borne much fruit for, when the imperial cities gathered in 136 1
complaints were again loudly raised against the Jewish commercial
enterprise that was ruining the entire country.
But that did not help at all; quite on the contrary, the Jews
saw to it through the then king Pedro I, the "model ofjustice", as
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one Jewish historian calls him, that all penalties against usury
would be abolished and that the unprecedented privilege would be
granted to the Jews ofmaking invalid all the objections of a Christian
with regard to a business that they had sworn to be an honestly
conducted one!
This "relief " (Kayserling) immoderately increased the
influence of the Jews. They were the king's treasurers, tariff
collectors in Tisbon, in general the highest officials in the country.
In 1383, it came to a great popular uprising and thanks only to the
efforts of the beloved imperial administrator and later king Joao
was it possible to preserve the Jews from a bloody punishment.
Now their conduct to their rescuer is remarkable. When Joao needed
140
M. Kayserling, Geschichte der Juden in Portugal, p. 23.
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