King of Portugal (1357-67). This monarch, whose motto was "What
the soul is to the body, justice is to the state and to
society," was a model of justice, at least in his attitude
toward the Jews. Two youths of noble blood who had been in his
service a long time had robbed a Jewish pedler out of hate and
had then treacherously murdered him. Brought before the king,
the murderers acknowledged the deed. The king reflected with
sorrow onthe many years of service which they had rendered him;
but, in spite of the intercession of certain nobles who held
that such men should not be executed for the sake of a peddling
Jew, the king pronounced sentence of death, and the youths were
beheaded. The king defended the Jews of Coimbra who, when
certain of the clergy had invaded their Juderia to beg for eggs
and had broken into the house of a Jew, drove the ecclesiastics
out of the Juderia. Pedro, whose body - physician was the
Portuguese chief rabbi D. Moses Navarro, ordained that if a Jew
sold, leased, or rented real estate