The position of the Jew in other parts of Germany was far worse than in the commercial city of Hamburg. He was still spurned and scorned, oppressed, reviled, and hunted more fiercely than any pariah. Few Jewish congregations were left. At Frankfort-on-the-Main Jews were allowed to live on terms usually accorded to convicts. They were forbidden to wander forth from their Ghetto, except on urgent business. They were forbidden to walk two together in the neighbourhood of the town-hall, especially during Christian festivals and weddings. Whilst in the Ghetto itself, they were forbidden to talk aloud, or to receive strangers without the knowledge of the magistrates. They were forbidden to buy victuals in the market at the same time as the Christians. Handicapped in the race for money, they were yet overburdened with taxes. Their persons were marked with a badge and their houses with grotesque shields of quasi-armorial character. Even this sorry existence was not assured to them, for the town council reserved to itself the power of expelling any Jew at pleasure. As usual, the Jews contrived to obtain by artifice that which was withheld by force. They purchased indulgence, and the laws often remained mere memorials of Christian intolerance. But, while the magistrates derived profit from their merciful connivance, the guilds, which found formidable rivals in the Jews, strove to obtain their expulsion. The campaign was led by a brave and enthusiastic pastry-cook. Operations commenced on a certain September day in the year 1614. The Jews were at prayer, when a great noise was heard outside the gates of the Ghetto. A free fight ensued, the Christians, with the heroic pastry-cook at their head, assaulting; the Jews defending. Many fell on both sides, until victory inclined towards the confectioner’s army, and the quarters of the enemy were given up to plunder, destruction, and desecration, which lasted through the night. 1380 Jews, who had taken refuge in the burial ground, were for some time kept in suspense as to their fate, but were at last suffered to leave the city unencumbered by any property whatsoever. The proceedings would have been more thoroughly reminiscent of the Middle Age but for the fact that, in spite of the inexorable pastry-cook’s warnings, there were now found Christians humane enough to feed and to shelter the miserable exiles. The pastry-cook and his party ruled Frankfort with impunity for a whole year.