Statute of Kalisz

The General Charter of Jewish Liberties known as the Statute of Kalisz was issued by the Duke of Greater Poland Boleslaus the Pious on September 8, 1264 in Kalisz. The statute served as the basis for the legal position of Jews in Poland and led to creation of the Yiddish-speaking autonomous Jewish nation, which lasted until 1795. The statute granted exclusive jurisdiction over Jewish matters to Jewish courts and established a separate tribunal for matters involving Christians and Jews. Additionally, it guaranteed safety and personal liberties for Jews such as freedom of religion, trade, and travel. The statute was ratified by subsequent Polish Kings: Casimir III of Poland in 1334, Casimir IV of Poland in 1453, and Sigismund I of Poland in 1539.

Following are abridged excerpts from the forty-six chapters of the Statute of Kalisz: :"1. ... If any Christian should accuse any of the Jews in any matter whatsoever, even a criminal matter, he shall not be admitted to testimony except with two good Christians and also with two good Jews...

:"2. ... If any Christian shall sue a Jew, asserting that he has pawned securities with him, and the Jew denies it, then if the Christian refuses to accept the simple word of the Jew, the Jew by taking oath must be free of the Christian.

:"7. ... If a Jew and a Christian fighting with each other engage in hitting or wounding, then neither the judge of the city, nor the consuls, nor even anybody else, but only the palatine of the Jews or his surrogate shall judge them, and the place of the trial shall be with the Jews...

:"12. ... If a Christian gets into an argument with a Jew in any way, and if that Christian wounds the Jew with a bloody or livid wound ... then the Christian ... must and shall be required to give to that Jew five marks for a blow to the jaw by any finger, ten marks for a livid wound, but for a bloody wound half of his possessions both movable and immovable to the aforesaid Jew...

:"13. ... If... any Christian kills one of the Jews ... then (he) ... must be punished with the imposition of death, a head for a head, and it is not to be done otherwise in this matter.

:"16. ... If any of the Jews enters into the home of any Christian, none of the Christian people must offer him any impediment, physical inconvenience, or annoyance.

:"17. ...Any Jew may freely and securely walk or ride without any let or hindrance from city to city and province to province in our realm, in accordance with the law of secure liberty in all our cities or provinces without let or hindrance on the part of their subjects, and any Jew in our realm may freely, securely, and without any let or hindrance take with him his goods, property, or whatsoever merchandise he wishes or is able to have, and to sell such things and buy others, and to alter and convert them to his own satisfactory uses; he may freely and securely delay or stay in a place of the city of town without let or hindrance, for as long as it suits him... they shall pay customary tolls just as other Christians do, and nothing else.

:"20. ... Wherever the Jews have an inn in any city or town of our realm, they may slaughter sheep and cattle for meats for their own use, and if any meats should be displeasing to them according to their custom and will, then they may sell these in whatever way they are better able or seems good to them.

:"22. ... If any of the Christians rashly and presumptuously jeers at their synagogues, such a Christian shall be required to pay and must pay to our palatine their guardian two talents of pepper as punishment.

:"29. ... If any of the Christians, not observing or heeding our statutes, should violently enter into the home of the Jew seeking whatever property of his own... that Christian must be judged as a bandit and robber.

:"30. ... No Christian may summon any Jew into the ecclesiastical court in any way whatsoever, or for whatever property or summons he be summoned, nor shall the Jew make answer before the judge in the ecclesiastical court, but the Jew shall appear before his palatine appointed for that term, and furthermore the aforesaid palatine, along with our governor for that term, shall be required to defend and protect that Jew, and prohibit his responding to the summons of the ecclesiastical court.

:"39. ... If any Jew is to be prosecuted by any Christian alleging that the Jews of necessity annual use the blood of Christians or the sacraments of the Church of the Christians, concerning which the statues and constitutions of Pope Innocent teach us that in such matters they are not culpable, since this is against their own law; and if despite this any Christian... accuses any Jew of such things, then... he must prove it with three good propertied Jews in our realm... and... four Christians... If by such testimony the Christian proves (his case) against the Jew, then the Jew shall be deserving of death and must be punished with it; and whenever the Christian does not adduce such testimony, and is not able to prevail against the Jew, then he alone is to be condemned...

References

*Ivo Cyprian Pogonowski, "Jews in Poland. A Dcumentary History", Hippocrene Books, Inc., 1998, ISBN 0-7818-0604-6.

ee also

*History of the Jews in Kalisz