Many Western Europeans in the late fourteenth century blamed the Black Death on the Jews. Such belief was especially common among townsfolk and the peasantry. The Jews were believed to induce the plague by, among other means, poisoning the wells from which Christians drew water. These beliefs were widespread and caused the anti-semitism of the masses to increase, resulting in widespread progroms. The nobility and the hierarchy of the Church attempted to suppress such beliefs and activity, but with little success. The religious persecution resulted in many Jews immigrating to Poland and Russia, where they remained until the twentieth century.