It would not be just to omit the fact that several among the European sovereigns condemned these proceedings, and did their best to check them. Clement VI., a self-indulgent and easy-tempered man, whose reign was a continued scene of slack and voluptuous living, was nevertheless roused by the enormities of the wrongs which he saw perpetrated on the helpless Jews, to exert himself to the best of his power in arresting the popular frenzy and punishing the offenders. Charles of Moravia, also, Duke Albert of Austria, and others, would fain have saved them if they could. But the fury of the people would not be restrained, and Albert was obliged to condemn five hundred of them to the flames. In Lithuania alone were they permitted any respite. Here they were protected by Casimir III., King of Poland, known in history as the Great. He confirmed the privileges granted them by his predecessor Boleslaus, and bestowed additional favours on them. It is popularly believed that he was induced to show them this consideration by his attachment to a beautiful Jewess named Estherka.[140] It is at least certain that throughout his reign the Jews in Poland escaped persecution, and large numbers of Jews migrated to that country. The history of the Jews in the Netherlands during the fourteenth century very nearly resembles that of their German brethren. They had settled long before in the Low Countries, where the trade had fallen almost entirely into their hands. Their numbers were swelled by fugitives from England and France, from which countries, as we have seen, they had been forcibly expelled. They were treated sometimes kindly, sometimes harshly, according to the caprice of the rulers and the people. They were expelled from the duchy of Brabant in 1370, on account of a charge of sacrilege, which was very frequently made in mediæval times. It was said that they had stolen and then stabbed the holy wafer at Brussels, which bled profusely. A banker of Enghien, named Jonathan, was charged as the chief offender, on the evidence of a woman, who confessed to having been an accomplice. All the Jews suspected were put to torture, and afterwards torn with red-hot pincers, and then burned.[141]