A Comm for Historymemes

Part of all of this was that Christianity grew to forbid usury between members of the faith, i.e. Europeans could not lend money to each other at interest. The Jews were under no such restriction themselves, so they became the de facto moneylenders, or rather the moneylenders were ultimately mostly Jews. This did not make them popular. In the middle ages, the latest pogrom aimed at the Jews was just as likely to be because some local ruler decided he really didn't feel like paying off his debts.