On March 17, 1808, Napoleon made three decrees in a failed attempt to promote the equality of Jews and integrate them into French society, building on the Jewish Emancipation of 1790–1791. The Infamous Decree, the third of the three decrees, had adverse effects. Although its aim was to grant equal citizenship, it restricted Jewish money lending (Catholics were not permitted to commit acts of usury, that is, the charging of interest as profit on loans), annulled all debts owed to Jews by married women, minors and soldiers and voided any loan that had interest rates exceeding 10 percent, and limited the residency of new Jewish peoples in France by restricting their business activities, while allowing work in agriculture and craftsmanship. The combination of these decrees severely weakened the financial position of once dominant rural French money lending Jews. The decree applied only to Jews in eastern France; those "established in Bordeaux and in the departments of the Gironde and the Landes, having given rise to no complaints and not involved in illicit traffic", were not affected, nor were those living in Paris. Background Napoleon Bonaparte initially won the allegiance of Jews when, in 1797, he emancipated Jews in Ancona, Italy. He officially chose two High Priests of the Jewish Nation and seven councillors to the High Priests. He allegedly encouraged Jews to reclaim Jerusalem in 1799 with the help of his army in a letter to a rabbi in Jerusalem, but the letter is suspected by many to be a forgery. He in no way acted against the Jews until the early 19th century, when he passed a series of three decrees, one of which became known as the Infamous Decree. Some, such as author Franz Kobler, attribute the change in attitude to his new attachment to France and to his newfound desire to protect the interests of the French people. When he was the hero of the Jews, he still was an "ardent patriot" of his home island of Corsica. In France, quite early in the 19th century, Jewish moneylenders were accused of usury in Alsace as well as of abusing other rights, which were given to them in their emancipation in 1791 under King Louis XVI. Napoleon sided with popular French opinion. Though Napoleon desired equality for the Jews, he called them "the most despicable of men" and proclaimed he did not want their number to increase in