The favourable condition of Israel in Western Europe, with the exception of the above prohibitions, lasted under Charlemagne’s successor Louis, who, a pious Catholic though he was, did not refrain from bestowing benefits upon the Jews and from defending them against popular prejudice and ecclesiastical oppression. Influenced partly by the principles of enlightened statesmanship which he had inherited from his father, and partly by the philo-judaism of his second wife Judith, he showered many favours upon the Jews. The works of the Jewish writers, Josephus and Philo, were assiduously studied at Court. Jews and Jewesses were received and petted in royal circles, and their co-religionists were held in high esteem by the nobility. They were exempt from the barbarous punishment of the scourge and from the ordeals of fire and water. They were permitted to employ Christian workmen and to own Christian slaves, to settle their disputes in their own courts of justice, to build new synagogues, to farm the revenues of the realm, and to carry on trade freely. For their sake the market-day was changed from the Sabbath to Sunday. In return for all these privileges they had to pay a tax to the treasury, which exercised a supervision over their incomes. But this very toleration excited the resentment of strict Catholics, who could not see without disgust the canons of the Church disregarded and her enemies honoured. The clerical party, under the leadership of St. Agobard, Bishop of Lyons, wished to reduce the Jews to the position which they occupied under the bigoted Merovingian dynasty. An opportunity for the expression of these feelings offered itself in an incident such as has often proved the immediate cause of bloodshed between the faithful and unbelievers in the Ottoman Empire. A female slave of a rich Jew of Lyons ran away from her master and sought freedom in baptism. The Jews demanded the restoration of the slave. The Bishop refused to comply. The Court supported the Jews, the clerical party the Bishop. The Emperor endeavoured to restore peace by summoning a council wherein the bishops and the heads of the Jewish community might settle their differences by argument. The adversaries met and “roared rather than spoke” to each other. The council broke up, and the feud continued to rage. The Bishop preached to his flock sermons hostile to the Jews. ♦828♦ The friends of the latter intrigued in the Imperial Court on their behalf, and prevailed upon the Emperor to command St. Agobard to desist from his oratorical exercises, and the Governor of Lyons to lend his assistance to the Jews.