After 410 A.D. the effete Roman Empire collapsed in its civil, military and moral life, life, aided by the onslaughts of Alaric, the Visigothic leader; from that point onwards the Roman Catholic church became the dominant power throughout the old Empire, endorsed , of course, by Constantine 1 and his successors . The church, the cloistered communities, the great landowners, the ruling princes, and their underlings took control of religious and much social life. Roman law, which had given the Jews a “place in society” was gradually replaced by local feudal and ecclesiastical law, and the “Jew” was deprived of his “rights”, and so became dependent on the variable and unreliable favours of his “protectors”. Differing local and national law codes replaced the Theodosian code in the west, while in the east the laws of Justinian continued to be in general use. Laws, too numerous to mention, controlled all Jewish economic and social activity,e.g.- loans needed to be registered, a licence was needed to engage in trade, on marriage a payment was exacted, and so too for a change of residence, burial of the dead, or employment of a servant.
Charters of Settlement were granted to Jewish communities by the ruling authorities or princes, the most well-known being the Pale in Russian and Polish lands. The attitude of such rulers could change overnight from one of acceptance to rejection and expulsion. For the privilege of being granted a right of settlement an annual rent was exacted from the Jewish community . That community then became the “property” of the ruler,-eg. Edward 1 in England had ownership of some Jewish communities.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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