CHAPTER XI.
MARTYRDOM.
During Solomon’s sojourn in Hungary he was enabled to employ, for the benefit of his brethren in that region and in Poland, much favorable influence through the mediation of both Lord Zawis and the Emperor. The latter felt little regard for Jews; but the internal quiet of Hungary suited his momentary policy. He knew that Jews and sectaries occupied the one the finance, and the other the chief commerce of the neighboring kingdoms; and he did not desire that a sympathetic insurrection should disturb his own estates. Austria, and especially Vienna, included a large population long alienated in religion from Rome, and decidedly favorable to the Premsyl dynasty. He did not possess a florin in his treasury; and even his present small force clamored for pay. Rome exacted every groschen for herself, and compelled obedience by enforcing poverty Rudolph had irretrievably bound himself to the church; and the repression of so-called heretics at once conciliated ecclesiastics, and removed a possible source of antagonism to himself. For these reasons, Rudolph encouraged Ladislaus in renewing in Hungary, during the spring of 1280, the almost obsolete laws
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