and educational opportunities, but allowed for rights to sales, thus encouraging them to work in the money lending business, encouraged the immigration of additional Jews to the area, and promised protection and autonomous rights, such as the right to judge themselves and the right to collect taxes. This bill of rights affected other kingdoms in Europe such as Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Silesia and Bohemia, which had high concentrations of Jews. During this period, the Jewish population mainly dealt with commerce and the collection of taxes and also gained key positions in many other aspects of life in Austria. In 1204, the first documented synagogue in Austria was constructed. In addition, Jews went through a period of religious freedom and relative prosperity; a group of families headed by notable rabbis settled in Vienna — these learned men were later referred to as "the wise men of Vienna". The group established a beit midrash that was considered to be the most prominent school of Talmudic studies in Europe at the time. The insularity and assumed prosperity of the Jewish community caused increased tensions and jealousy from the Christian population along with hostility from the Catholic Church. In 1282, when the area became controlled by the Catholic House of Habsburg, Austria's prominence decreased as far as being a religious center for Jewish scholarly endeavors due to the highly anti-Semitic atmosphere. Some Jewish business enterprises focused on civic finance, private interest-free loans, and government accounting work enforcing tax collection and handling moneylending for Christian landowners. The earliest evidence of Jewish officials tasked with the unpleasant role of collecting unpaid taxes appears in a document from 1320. During the same time, riots occurred scapegoating all Jews who resided in the area. The entire Jewish population was unfairly targeted by some angry non-Jewish neighbors and the animosity made daily life unbearable — the population continued to decline in the middle of the 14th century. At the start of the 15th century, during the regime of Albert III and Leopold III, the period was characterized by the formal cancellations of many outstanding debts that were owed to Jewish financiers, and those that would have been enforced by debt collection activity by Jews were left purposely outstanding so as to impoverish the Jewish creditor; there were then mass official confiscation of all Jewish assets, and the creation of policies demanding economic limitations against all Jewish people. Deportation from