ssistance of the
government. Napoleon, aware that the Old Testament law was civil and
political as well as religious, shrewdly asked advice from these and
other men of the more enlightened sort. It was agreed to call a
council. The Emperor summoned his prefects to name its members, and
appointed a committee to represent the government at its sessions.
Decisions taken by this assembly were to be submitted to a general
Sanhedrim of all Europe. The assembly of French Israelites met in
Paris during the latter part of 1806, and after due deliberation gave
satisfactory answers to a carefully prepared set of questions
propounded by the government commission. In 1807 the economic
situation had nevertheless become graver. The Sanhedrim met early in
February. Its members vied in flattery with the Roman priesthood,
setting the imperial eagle above the ark of the covenant, and blending
the letters N and J with those of the Jehovah in a monogram for the
adornment of their meeting-place. On March fourth they issued a decree
which is still the basis of religious instruction among Jewish youth.
They forbade polygamy, and admitted the principle of civil marriage
without anathema; they ordered all Israelites to treat those who
believe that God is the Creator of heaven and earth as fellow-citizens
and brothers; to obey the civil and military laws, including that of
conscription, and to train their children to industry and handiwork;
they also invited them to enter the learned professions, and to attach
themselves to the country by the purchase of public obligations. Usury
was absolutely forbidden, the Israelite being enjoined as a religious
precept to make no distinction in money transactions between Hebrew
and Christian. The minutest details of the whole transaction were
foreseen and regulated by Napoleon, and may be studied in his
correspondence with his ministers.

A year later, after careful and mature deliberation, there appeared an
imperial decree, not only organizing the Jewish Church and regulating
its relations with the state, but defining the civil and political
status of Hebrews. They were pronounced to be citizens like other men;
but they could not exact higher interest than five per cent., while if
they should demand over ten they should be punished for usury. Every
Jew in the northeastern department must have a license to do business,
and a notarial authorization for pawnbrokerage. Any Jew not domiciled
at the moment in Als