>Jews played the role of moneylenders for interest,
>practicing usury, nominally forbidden to medieval
>Christians, thus annoying the Christian peasants and
>small townspeople who had to pay what they considered
>to be immoral fees for use of money and occasionally
>lose their collateral.
Moneylenders of last resort is more correct. There were plenty of Christian moneylenders and ways to get around usury prohibitions. People borrowed money from Jewish lenders because they couldn't get loans elsewhere. So Christians from all levels who were in a fix and in need of a quick loan could go to Jewish lenders who over time became scapegoats for the economic crises that caused the credit crunches to begin with.