In the year 5319, all the holy books in the community of Prague were taken by order of the authorities when they accused us of praying against them. Because of this, all the prayer books and other books weighing eight hundred pounds of books were sent to the city of Vienna. Even the cantors prayed by heart in the synagogue until the truth became clear to the king that they had lied in their accusation against us, and all the books were returned.

At that time, on the 17th of Tammuz, seventy-two houses in the Jewish quarter were burned. In that year, the anger went forth from the Emperor Rudinus against the Jews who were in Prague, and the royal decree went forth that all the Jews be expelled from his kingdom, and not one remained in their houses. Only in Prague did twelve householders remain for a few days. But the days did not last long - the Emperor's mercy was aroused for the Jews, and he graciously called them to peace, and they returned to their land and their property [(Tzedah LaDerech).

And it is written there in the introduction to the Tzedah, the printer Shlomo son of HaRav Mordechai, known as Mordechai Tzemach, said that the effort for this great salvation was made by my father, who risked his life and traveled through Italy to Rome and brought letters of favor from the Pope to the Emperor, who permitted his settlement, and his words bore fruit because the Emperor listened to his voice and his mercy was aroused for us, for he was a merciful king. The matters are great and lengthy, but I did not want to extend further, end of quotation].

In the year 5319, Pope Pius IV was appointed and he weakened the decrees of the aforementioned Pope from year 5316. He gave the Jews a place to sustain themselves, except for the matter of converting from returning the interest that had already been consumed, for regarding that matter, we all fled from the provinces of that land [(Sha'arei Kedusha 117b)].