THE JEWISH COLONIES IN POLAND AND LITHUANIA
1. THE IMMIGRATION FROM WESTERN EUROPE DURING THE PERIOD OF THE CRUSADES
While the Jewish colonies on the shores of the Black Sea and on the
territory of modern South Russia were due to immigration from the lands
of the Greco-Byzantine and Mohammedan East, the Jewish settlements in
Poland were founded by new-comers from Western Europe, from the lands of
German culture and "the Latin faith."[20] This division was a natural
product of the historic development that made Slavonian Russia gravitate
towards the East, and Slavonian Poland turn towards the West. Even prior
to her joining the ecclesiastic organization of the West, Poland had
attained to prominence as a commercial colony of Germany. The Slav lands
on the banks of the Varta and Vistula, being nearest to Western Europe,
were bound to attract the Jews, at a very early period, in their
capacity as international traders. There is reason to believe that, as
far back as the ninth century, Jews living in the German provinces of
Charlemagne's Empire carried on commerce with the neighboring Slav
countries, and visited Poland with their merchandise. These ephemeral
visits frequently led to their permanent settlement in those strange
lands.
Information concerning the Jews of pre-Christian Poland has come down to
us in the shape of hazy legends. One of these legends narrates that,
after the death of Prince Popiel, about the middle of the ninth century,
the Poles assembled in Krushvitza, their ancient capital, to choose a
successor to the dead sovereign. After prolonged disputes concerning the
person to be elected, it was finally agreed that the first man found
entering the town the following morning should be chosen as the ruler.
It so happened that on the following morning the first to enter the town
was the Jew Abraham Prokhovnik.[21] He was seized and proclaimed prince,
but he declined the honor, urging that it be accorded to a wise Pole by
the name of Piast, who thus became the progenitor of the Piast dynasty.
Another legend has it that at the end of the ninth century a Jewish
delegation from Germany waited upon the Polish Prince Leshek, to plead
for the admission of Jews into Poland. Leshek subjected the delegates to
a protracted cross-examination concerning the principles of the Jewish
religion and Jewish morality, and finally complied with their request.
Thereupon large numbers of German Jews began to arrive in Poland, and,
in 905, they obtained special written privileges, which, according to
the same legend, were subsequently lost. These obscure tales, though
lacking all foundation in fact, and undoubtedly invented in much later
times, contain a grain of historic truth, in that they indicate the
existence of Jewish settlements in pagan Poland, and point to their
German origin.
The propagation of Latin Christianity in Poland (beginning with 966),
which placed the country under the control not only of the emperors of
Germany but also of its bishops as the representatives of the Roman See,
was bound to stimulate the intercourse between the two countries and
result in an increased influx of Jewish merchants and settlers. However,
this slow commercial colonization would scarcely have assumed any
considerable dimensions, had not exceptional circumstances forced a
large number of Jews to seek refuge in Poland. A compulsory immigration
of this kind began after the first Crusade, in 1096. It started in
near-by Slavonian Bohemia, where the Crusaders attacked the Jews of
Prague, and converted them forcibly to Christianity. The Bohemian Jews
made up their minds to flee to neighboring Poland, which had not yet
been reached by the devastating Christian hosts. The Bohemian Prince
Vratislav robbed the immigrants on the way, but even this could not
prevent many of them from leaving the country in which both people and
Government were hostile to them (1098).
Beginning with this period there was a steady flow of Jews from the
Rhine and Danube provinces into Poland, increasing in volume as a result
of the Crusades (1146-1147 and 1196) and the severe Jewish persecutions
in Germany. The accentuation of Jewish suffering in Germany during the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the royal power was incapable of
shielding its _Kammerknechte_ against the fury of the fanatical mob or
the degrading canons of the Church, drove vast numbers of Jews into
Poland. Here the refugees sought shelter in the provinces nearest to the
Austro-German border, Cracow, Posen, Kalish, and Silesia.
The first signs of discord between Christians and Jews are to be noticed
in the second half of the twelfth century, when Poland fell asunder into
several feudal Principalities, or "Appanages."[22] The Prince of Great
Poland, Mechislav III., the Old, in his desire to enforce law and order,
found it necessary to issue, in 1173, strict injunctions forbidding all
kinds of violence against the Jews and in particular the attacks upon
them by Christian "scholars," the pupils of the ecclesiastic and
monastic colleges. Those found guilty of such attacks were to be heavily
fined. On the whole, the rulers were willing to take the Jews under
their protection. Under Mechislav the Old, Casimir the Just, and Leshek
the White, who reigned at the end of the twelfth and the beginning of
the thirteenth century, the Jews farmed and administered the mint of
Great and of Little Poland. On the coins struck by these Jews, many of
which have come down to us, the names of the ruling princes are marked
in Hebrew characters.[23] At the very beginning of the thirteenth
century (1203-1207) we hear of Jews owning lands and estates in Polish
Silesia.
Such was the rise and growth of the Jewish colonies in Poland. As time
went on, the commercial intercourse between these colonies and the West
led to a spiritual relationship between them and the centers of Jewish
culture in Europe. A contemporary Bohemian scholar of the Tosafist
school, Rabbi Eliezer, informs us that the Jews of Poland, Russia, and
Hungary, having no scholars of their own, invited their spiritual
leaders from other countries, probably from Germany. These foreign
scholars occupied the posts of rabbis, cantors, and school teachers
among them, and were remunerated for their services. At the same time
studious Polish Jews were in the habit of going abroad to perfect
themselves in the sciences, as was also the case with the Jewish
settlers in Russia. From the German mother country the Polish Jews
received not only their language, a German dialect, which subsequently
developed into the Polish-Jewish jargon, or Yiddish, but also their
religious culture and their communal organization. All this, however,
was in an embryonic stage, and only gradually unfolded in the following
period.
2. THE CHARTER OF PRINCE BOLESLAV AND THE CANONS OF THE CHURCH
The importance of Jewish immigration for the economic development of
Poland was first realized by the feudal Polish princes of the thirteenth
century. Prompted by the desire of cultivating industrial activities in
their dominions, these princes gladly welcomed settlers from Germany,
without making a distinction between Jews and Christians. Nor did the
native Slav population suffer inconvenience from this immigration,
which, on the contrary, brought the first elements of a higher
civilization into the country. In a land which had not yet emerged from
the primitive stage of agricultural economy, and possessed only two
fixed classes, owners of the soil and tillers of the soil, the Jews
naturally represented the "third estate," acting as the pioneers of
trade and finance. They put their capital in circulation, by launching
industrial undertakings, by leasing estates, and farming various
articles of revenue (salt mines, customs duties), and by engaging in
money-lending. The native population, which medieval culture, with its
religious intolerance and class prejudice, had not yet had time to
"train" properly, lived at peace with the Jews.
The influence of the Church, on the one hand, and that of adjacent
Christian Germany, on the other, slowly undermined this patriarchal
order of things. The popes dispatched their legates to Poland to see to
it that the well-known canonical statutes, which were permeated with
implacable hatred against the adherents of Judaism, did not remain a
dead letter, but were carried out in practice. During the same period
the Polish princes, in particular Boleslav the Shy (1247-1279),
endeavored to draw German emigrants into Poland, by bestowing upon them
considerable privileges and the right of self-government, the so-called
"Magdeburg Law," or _ius teutonicum_.[24] The Germans, while settling in
the Polish cities as merchants and tradesmen,[25] and thus becoming the
competitors of the Jews, imported from their native land into the new
environment the spirit of economic class strife and denominational
antagonism. The best of the Polish rulers were forced to combat the
effects of this foreign importation, and found it necessary to encourage
the economic activity of the Jews for the benefit of the country and to
shield them against the insults of their Christian neighbors.
Boleslav of Kalish, surnamed the Pious, who ruled over the territory of
Great Poland, was a prince of this kind. In 1264, with the consent of
the highest dignitaries of the state, he promulgated a statute defining
the rights of the Jews within his dominions. This charter of privileges,
closely resembling in its contents the statutes of Frederick of Austria
and Ottocar of Bohemia, became the corner-stone of Polish-Jewish
legislation. Boleslav's charter consists of thirty-seven paragraphs, and
begins with these words:
The deeds of man, when unconfirmed by the voice of witnesses or
by written documents, are bound to pass away swiftly and
disappear from memory. Because of this, we, Boleslav, Prince of
Great Poland, make it known to our contemporaries as well as to
our descendants, to whom this writing shall come down, that the
Jews, who have established themselves over the length and
breadth of our country, have received from us the following
statutes and privileges.
The first clause of the charter prescribes that, when civil and criminal
cases are tried in court, the testimony of a Christian against a Jew is
to be accepted only if confirmed by the deposition of a Jewish witness.
The following clauses (§§2-7) determine the process of law in litigation
between Christians and Jews, involving primarily pawnbroking; the rules
prescribed there protect equally the interests of the Jewish creditor
and the Christian debtor. Lawsuits between Jew and Jew do not fall
within the jurisdiction of the general municipal courts, but are tried
either by the prince himself or by his lord lieutenant, the
voyevoda[26], or the special judge appointed by the latter (§8). The
Christian who has murdered or wounded a Jew answers for his crime before
the princely court: in the former case the culprit incurs "due
punishment," and his property is forfeit to the prince; in the latter
case he has to satisfy the plaintiff, and must in addition pay a fine
into the princely exchequer (§§9-10).
This is followed by a set of paragraphs which guarantee to the Jew the
inviolability of his person and property. They forbid annoying Jewish
merchants on the road, exacting from them higher customs duties than
from Christians, demolishing Jewish cemeteries, and attacking synagogues
or "schools" (§§12-15). In case of a nocturnal assault upon the home of
a Jew, the Christian neighbors are obliged to come to his rescue as soon
as they hear his cries; those who fail to respond are subject to a fine
(§36).
The rights and functions of the "Jewish judge,"[27] who is appointed to
try cases between Jew and Jew, sitting "in the neighborhood of the
synagogue or in some other place," are set forth elaborately (§§16-23).
The kidnaping of Jewish children with the view of baptizing them is
severely punished (§27). The charter further prohibits charging the Jews
with the use of Christian blood for ritual purposes, in view of the fact
that the groundlessness of such charges had been demonstrated by papal
bulls. Should nevertheless such charges be raised, they must be
corroborated by six witnesses, three Christians and three Jews. If the
charges are substantiated, the guilty Jew loses his life; otherwise the
same fate overtakes the Christian informer (§32). All these legal
safeguards were, in the words of the charter, to remain in force "for
all time."
The Polish lawgiver was evidently anxious to secure for the Jews such
conditions of life as might enable them to benefit the country by their
commercial activity, while enjoying liberty of conscience and living in
harmony with the non-Jewish population. Boleslav's enactment expresses,
not the individual will of the ruler, but the collective decision of the
highest dignitaries and the representatives of the estates, who, as is
pointed out in the document, had been previously consulted.
Thus the temporal powers of the state, guided by the economic needs of
the country, endeavored to establish Jewish life in Poland on more or
less rational civic foundations. The ecclesiastic authorities, however,
inspired rather by the cosmopolitan ideals of the Roman Church than by
love of their native land, strained all their energies to detach the
Jews from the general life of the country. They segregated them from the
Christian population because of their alleged injuriousness to the
Catholic faith, and reduced them to the position of a despised caste.
The well-known Church Council of Breslau, convened in 1266 by the Papal
Legate Guido, had the special mission of introducing in the oldest
Polish diocese, that of Gnesen, the canonical laws, including those
applying to the Jews. The motives by which this legislation was
prompted are frankly stated in the preamble to the section of the
Breslau "constitution" which deals with the Jews:
In view of the fact--runs clause 12--that Poland is a new
plantation on the soil of Christianity (_quum adhuc terra
Polonica sit in corpore Christianitatis nova plantatio_), there
is reason to fear that her Christian population will fall an
easy prey to the influence of the superstitions and evil habits
of the Jews living among them, the more so as the Christian
religion took root in the hearts of the faithful of these
countries at a later date and in a more feeble manner. For this
reason we most strictly enjoin that the Jews residing in the
diocese of Gnesen shall not live side by side with the
Christians, but shall live apart, in houses adjoining each other
or connected with one another, in some section of the city or
village. The section inhabited by Jews shall be separated from
the general dwelling-place of the Christians by a hedge, wall,
or ditch.
The Jews owning houses in the Christian quarter shall be compelled to
sell them within the shortest term possible.
Further injunctions prescribe that the Jews shall lock themselves up in
their houses while church processions are marching through the streets;
that in each city they shall possess no more than one synagogue; that,
"in order to be marked off from the Christians," they shall wear a
peculiarly shaped hat, with a horn-like shield (_cornutum pileum_), and
that any Jew showing himself on the street without this headgear shall
be subject to punishment, in accordance with the custom of the country.
The Christians are forbidden, under penalty of excommunication, to
invite Jews to a meal, or to eat and drink with them, or dance and make
merry with them at weddings and other celebrations. The Christians are
barred from buying meat and other eatables from Jews, since the sellers
might treacherously put poison in them.
These prohibitions are followed by the ancient canonical enactments
forbidding the Jews to keep Christian servants, nursery-maids, and
wet-nurses, and barring them from collecting customs duties and
exercising any other public function. A Jew living unlawfully with a
Christian woman is liable to imprisonment and fine, while the woman is
subject to a public whipping and to banishment from the town for all
time.
The Church Council which held its sessions in Buda (Ofen), in Hungary,
in 1279, was attended by the highest ecclesiastic dignitaries of Poland.
This Council ratified the clause concerning the "Jewish sign,"
supplementing it by the following details: The Jews of both sexes shall
be obliged to wear a ring of red cloth sewed on to their upper garment,
on the left side of the chest. The Jew appearing on the street without
this sign shall be accounted a vagrant, and no Christian shall have the
right to do business with him. A similar sign, only of saffron color, is
prescribed for "Saracens and Ishmaelites," _i. e._ for Mohammedans. The
law barring Jews from the collection of customs and the discharge of
other public functions is extended by the Synod of Buda to the
"sectarians," to the Christians of the Greek Orthodox persuasion.
In this manner the condition of the Jews of Poland in the thirteenth
century was determined by two factors operating in different directions:
the temporal powers, actuated by economic considerations, accorded the
Jews the elementary rights of citizenship, while the ecclesiastic
powers, prompted by religious intolerance, endeavored to exclude the
Jews from civil life. As long as patriarchal conditions of life
prevailed, and Catholicism in Poland had not yet assumed complete
control over the country, the policy of the Church was powerless to
inflict serious damage upon the Jews. They lived in safety, under the
protection of the Polish princes, and, except for the German immigrants,
managed to get along peaceably with the Christian population. But the
clerical party was looking out for the future, taking assiduous care
that "the new plantation on the soil of Christianity" should develop
along the lines of the older plantations, and was scattering the seeds
of religious hatred in the patient expectation of a plentiful harvest.
3. RISE OF POLISH JEWRY UNDER CASIMIR THE GREAT
The Jewish emigration from Western Europe assumed especially large
proportions in the first part of the fourteenth century. The butcheries
perpetrated by the hordes of Rindfleisch and Armleder, and the massacres
accompanying the Black Death, forced a large number of German Jews to
seek shelter in Poland, which was then undergoing the process of
unification and rejuvenation. In 1319, King Vladislav[28] Lokietek[29]
laid the foundation for the political unity of Poland by abolishing the
former feudal divisions, and his famous son Casimir the Great
(1333-1370) was indefatigable in his endeavors to raise the level of
civil and economic life in his united realm. Casimir the Great founded
new cities and fortified old ones, promoted commerce and industry, and
protected, with equal solicitude, the interests of all classes, not
excluding those of the peasants. He was styled the "peasant king," and
the popular commendation of his efforts in the upbuilding of the cities
was crystallized in the saying that Casimir the Great "found a Poland of
wood and left behind him a Poland of stone."
A ruler of this type could not but welcome the useful industrial
activity of the Jews with the liveliest satisfaction. He was anxious to
bring them in close contact with the Christian population on the common
ground of peaceful labor and mutual helpfulness. He was equally quick to
appreciate the advantages which the none too flourishing royal exchequer
might derive from the experience of Jewish capitalists. Such must have
been the motives which actuated Casimir when, in the second year of his
reign (1344), he ratified, in Cracow, the charter which Boleslav of
Kalish had granted to the Jews of Great Poland, and which he now
extended in its operation to all the provinces of the kingdom.
On later occasions (1346-1370) Casimir amplified the charter of Boleslav
by adding new enactments. In view of the hostility of the municipalities
and the clergy towards the Jews, the King found it necessary to insist
in particular on placing Jewish legal cases under his own jurisdiction,
and taking them out of the hands of the municipal and ecclesiastic
authorities. The Jews were granted the following privileges: the right
of free transit through the whole country, of residing in the cities,
towns, and villages, of renting and mortgaging the estates of the
nobility, and lending money at a fixed rate of interest, the last
pursuit being closed to Christians by virtue of canonical restrictions,
and therefore left entirely in the hands of the Jews. The Polish
lawgiver was equally solicitous about enforcing respect for the Jew as a
human being and drawing him nearer to the Christian in private life, in
violent contradiction with the tendency of the Church to isolate the
infidels from the "flock of the faithful." "If the Jew," runs one of
the clauses of Casimir's charter, "enters the house of a Christian, no
one has a right to cause him any injury or unpleasantness. Every Jew is
allowed to visit the municipal baths in safety, in the same way as the
Christians,[30] and pay the same fee as the Christians."
Casimir was equally interested in ordering the inner life of the Jews.
The "Jewish judge," a Christian official appointed by the king to try
Jewish cases, was enjoined to dispense justice in the synagogue or some
other place, in accordance with the wishes of the representatives of the
Jewish community. The rôle of process-server was assigned to the
"schoolman," _i. e._ the synagogue beadle. This was the germ of the
future system of Kahal autonomy.
It seems that in the fateful year of the Black Death (1348-1349) the
Polish Jews too were in great danger. On the wings of the plague, which
penetrated from Germany to Poland, came the hideous rumor charging the
Jews with having poisoned the wells. If we are to trust the testimony of
an Italian chronicler, Matteo Villani, some ten thousand Jews in the
Polish cities bordering on Germany met their fate in 1348 at the hands
of Christian mobs, even the King being powerless to shield the
unfortunates against the fury of the people. A vague account in an old
Polish chronicle relates that in the year 1349 the Jews were
exterminated "in nearly the whole of Poland." It is possible that
attacks on the Jews took place in the border towns, but, judging by the
fact that the Jewish chroniclers, in describing the ravages of the Black
Death, make no mention of Poland, these attacks cannot have been
extensive. Be this as it may, there can be no doubt that, threatened
with massacres in Germany, large numbers of Jews fled to the neighboring
towns of Poland, and subsequently settled there.
It may be mentioned in this connection that from about the same time
dates the origin of the Jewish community of Lvov (Lemberg),[31] the
capital of Red Russia, or Galicia, which had been added to his dominions
by Casimir the Great.[32] In 1356 Casimir, in granting the Magdeburg Law
to the city of Lemberg, bestowed upon the local Jews the right "of being
judged according to their own laws," _i. e._ autonomy in their communal
affairs, a privilege accorded at the same time to the Ruthenians,
Armenians, and Tatars.
Casimir the Great's attitude towards the Jews was thus a part of his
general policy with reference to foreign settlers, whom he believed to
be useful for the development of the country. This, however, did not
prevent certain evil-minded persons, both then and in later ages, from
seeing in these acts of rational statesmanship the manifestation of the
King's personal predilections and attachments. Rumor had it that Casimir
was favorably disposed towards the Jews because of his infatuation with
the beautiful Jewess Estherka. This Jewish belle, the daughter of a
tailor, is supposed to have captured the heart of the King so completely
that in 1356 he abandoned a former favorite for her sake. Estherka lived
in the royal palace of Lobzovo, near Cracow. She bore the King two
daughters, who were brought up by their mother in the Jewish religion,
and two sons, who were educated as Christians, and who subsequently
became the progenitors of several noble families. Estherka was killed
during the persecution to which the Jews were subjected by Casimir's
successor, Louis of Hungary. The whole romantic episode presents a
mixture of fact and fiction in which it is difficult to make out the
truth.
Similarly blurred reports have come down to us concerning the
persecutions by the new ruler, Louis of Hungary (1370-1382). During the
reign of this King, when, as the Polish historians put it, justice had
vanished, the law kept silent, and the people complained bitterly about
the despotism of the judges and officials, an attempt was made to rob
the Jews of the protection of the law. Nursed as he was in the Catholic
traditions of Western Europe, Louis persecuted the Jews from religious
motives, threatening with expulsion those among them who had refused to
embrace the Christian faith. Fortunately for the Jews his reign in
Poland was too ephemeral and unpopular to undo the work of his famous
predecessor, the last king of the Piast dynasty. Only at a later date,
during the protracted reign of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Yaghello, who
acquired the Polish crown by marrying, in 1386, Louis' daughter Yadviga,
did the Church obtain power over the affairs of the state, gradually
undermining the civil status of the Jews of Poland.
4. POLISH JEWRY DURING THE REIGN OF YAGHELLO
With the outgoing fourteenth century, Poland was drawn more and more
into the whirlpool of European politics. Catholicism served as the
connecting link between this Slav country and Western Europe. Hence the
influence of the West manifested itself primarily in the enhancement of
ecclesiastic authority, which, being cosmopolitan in character,
endeavored to obliterate all national and cultural distinctions. The
Polish king Vladislav Yaghello (1386-1434), having been converted from
paganism to Catholicism, and having forced his Lithuanian subjects to
follow his example, adhered to the new faith with the ardor of a
convert, and frequently yielded to the influence of the clergy. It was
during his reign that the Jews of Poland suffered their first religious
persecution in that country.
The Jews of Posen were charged with having bribed a poor Christian woman
into stealing from the local Dominican church three hosts, which
supposedly were stabbed and thrown into a pit. From the pierced hosts,
so the superstitious rumor had it, blood spurted forth, in confirmation
of the Eucharist dogma. Nor was this the only miracle which popular
imagination ascribed to the three bits of holy bread. The Archbishop of
Posen, having learned of the alleged blasphemy, instituted proceedings
against the Jews. The Rabbi of Posen, thirteen elders of the Jewish
community, and the woman charged with the theft of the holy wafers,
became the victims of popular superstition; after prolonged tortures
they were all tied to pillars, and roasted alive on a slow fire (1399).
Moreover, the Jews of Posen were punished by the imposition of an
"eternal" fine, which they had to pay annually in favor of the Dominican
church. This fine was rigorously exacted down to the eighteenth century,
as long as the legend of the three hosts lingered in the memory of pious
Catholics.
As in the West, religious motives in such cases merely served as a
disguise to cover up motives of an economic nature--envy on the part of
the Christian city-dwellers of the prosperity of the Jews, who had
managed to obtain a foothold in certain branches of commerce, and
eagerness to dispose in one way or another of inconvenient rivals.
Similar motives, coupled with religious intolerance, were responsible
for the anti-Jewish riots in Cracow in 1407. In that ancient capital of
Poland the Jews had increased in numbers in the beginning of the
fourteenth century, and, by their commercial enterprise, had attained to
prosperity. The Cracow burghers were jealous of them, and the clergy
found it improper that the doomed sons of the Synagogue should live so
tranquilly under the shelter of the benevolent Church. A silent but
stubborn agitation was carried on against the Jews, their enemies merely
waiting for a convenient opportunity to square accounts with them.
On one occasion, on the third day of Easter, the priest Budek, who had
gained the reputation of an implacable Jew-baiter, delivered a sermon in
the Church of St. Barbara. As he was about to leave the pulpit, he
suddenly announced to the worshipers that he had found a notice on the
pulpit to this effect: "The Jews living in Cracow killed a Christian boy
last night, and made sport over his blood; moreover, they threw stones
at a priest who was going to visit a sick man, and was carrying a
crucifix in his hands." No sooner had these words been uttered than the
people rushed into the Jewish street, and began to loot the houses of
"Christ's enemies." The royal authorities hastened to the rescue of the
Jews, and by armed force put an end to the riots. But several hours
later, when the bells of the town hall began to ring, summoning the
members of the magistracy to a meeting, for the purpose of punishing the
instigators of the disorders, some one in the crowd shouted that the
magistracy was inviting the Christians to another attack upon the Jews.
Thereupon the rabble came running from all parts of the city and began
to slay and plunder the Jews, setting fire to their houses. Some Jews
sought refuge in the Tower of St. Anne, but the mob set fire to the
tower, and the unfortunate Jews had to surrender. A number of them, to
save their lives, adopted Christianity, while the children of the slain
were all baptized. Many Christians, according to the testimony of the
Polish historian Dlugosh[33], grew rich on the money plundered from the
Jews.
One cannot fail to perceive in all these catastrophes the influence of
neighboring Germany[34]. It was from Germany that the clerical reaction
which followed upon the struggle of the Church with the reformatory Huss
movement penetrated to Poland. The Synod of Constance, which condemned
Huss, was attended by the Archbishop of Gnesen, Nicholas Tromba, who
appeared at the head of a Polish delegation. On his return, this leading
dignitary of the Polish Church presided over the proceedings of the
Synod of Kalish (1420), which had also been convened in connection with
the Huss movement.
At the suggestion of this Archbishop, the Council of Kalish solemnly
ratified all the anti-Jewish enactments which had been passed by the
Councils of Breslau and Buda (Ofen),[35] but had seldom been carried out
in practice. These laws, as will be remembered, forbade all intercourse
between Jew and Christian, and ordered the Jews to live in separate
quarters, to wear a distinctive mark on the upper garment, and so forth.
At the same time the Jews were required to pay a tax in favor of the
churches of those diocesan districts "where they now live, and where by
right Christians ought to live," this tax to correspond to "the losses
inflicted by them upon the Christians." These injunctions were issued as
special instructions to the members of the clergy in all the dioceses.
The ecclesiastic tendencies gradually forced their way into secular
legislation. The fanatics of the Church exerted their influence not only
on the King but also on the landed nobility, the _Shlakhta_,[36] which
at that time began to take a more active interest in the affairs of the
state. At the convention of the Shlakhta in Varta[37] (1423) King
Vladislav Yaghello sanctioned a law forbidding the Jews to lend money
against written securities, only loans against pledges being permitted.
The ecclesiastic origin of this enactment is betrayed in the ugly manner
in which the law is justified in the preamble: "Whereas Jewish cunning
is always directed against the Christians and aims rather at the
property of the Christian than at his creed or person...."
5. THE JEWS OF LITHUANIA DURING THE REIGN OF VITOVT
An entirely different picture is presented at that time by Lithuania,
which, in spite of its dynastic alliance with Poland, retained complete
autonomy of administration. The patriarchal order of things, which was
nearing its end in Poland, was still firmly intrenched in the Duchy of
Lithuania, but recently emerged from the stage of primitive paganism.
Medieval culture had not yet taken hold of the inhabitants of the wooded
banks of the Niemen, and the Jews were able to settle there without
having to face violence and persecution.
It is difficult to determine the exact date of the first Jewish
settlements in Lithuania. So much is certain, however, that by the end
of the fourteenth century a number of important communities were in
existence, such as those of Brest, Grodno, Troki, Lutzk, and Vladimir,
the last two in Volhynia, which, prior to the Polish-Lithuanian Union of
1579, formed part of the Duchy. The first one to legalize the existence
of these communities was the Lithuanian Grand Duke Vitovt, who ruled
over Lithuania from 1388 to 1430, partly as an independent sovereign,
partly in the name of his cousin, the Polish King Yaghello. In 1388 the
Jews of Brest and other Lithuanian communities obtained from Vitovt a
charter similar in content to the statutes of Boleslav of Kalish and
Casimir the Great, and in 1389 even more extensive privileges were
bestowed by him on the Jews of Grodno.
In these enactments the Lithuanian ruler exhibits, like Casimir, an
enlightened solicitude for a peaceful relationship between Jews and
Christians and for the inner welfare of the Jewish communities. Under
the laws enacted by Vitovt the Jews of Lithuania formed a class of free
citizens, standing under the immediate protection of the Grand Duke and
his local administration. They lived in independent communities,
enjoying autonomy in their internal affairs as far as religion and
property are concerned, while in criminal affairs they were liable to
the court of the local starosta[38] or sub-starosta, and, in
particularly important cases, to the court of the Grand Duke himself.
The law guaranteed to the Jews inviolability of person and property,
liberty of religion, the right of free transit, the free pursuit of
commerce and trade, on equal terms with the Christians. The Lithuanian
Jews carried on business on the market-places or in shops, they plied
all kinds of trades, and occasionally engaged in agriculture. Men of
wealth lent money on interest, leased from the Grand Duke the customs
duties, the revenues on spirits, and other taxes. They held estates
either in their own right or in the form of land leases. The taxes which
they paid into the exchequer were adapted to the character of their
occupations, and on the whole were not burdensome. Aside from the
Rabbanite Jews there existed in Lithuania Karaites, who had immigrated
from the Crimea, and had established themselves in the regions of Troki
and Lutzk.
Accordingly the position of the Jews was more favorable in Lithuania
than in Poland. Jewish immigrants, on their way from Germany to Poland,
frequently went as far as Lithuania and settled there permanently.
Lithuania formed the extreme boundary in the eastward movement of the
Jews, Russia and Muscovy being almost entirely closed to them.
6. THE CONFLICT BETWEEN ROYALTY AND CLERGY UNDER CASIMIR IV. AND HIS
SONS
The conflict of tendencies in the Polish legislation concerning the Jews
manifested itself with particular violence in the reign of Casimir IV.,
the third king of the Yaghello dynasty. The attitude of Casimir IV.
(1447-1492), who was imbued with the ideas of the humanistic movement
then in vogue, was at first that of a wise ruler, the guardian of the
common interests of his subjects. As Grand Duke of Lithuania he had
followed the liberal Jewish policies of his predecessor Vitovt. He
protected the personal and communal rights of both the Rabbanite and
Karaite Jews--to the latter he granted, in 1441, the Magdeburg Law--and
he frequently availed himself of the services of enterprising Jewish
financiers and tax-farmers to increase the revenues of the state.
Having accepted the Polish crown, Casimir was resolved to rule
independently and to disregard the designs of the all-powerful clergy.
Shortly after his coronation, in August, 1447, while the King was on a
visit to Posen, the city was devastated by a terrible fire. During the
conflagration the ancient original of the charter which Casimir the
Great had bestowed upon the Jews was lost. A Jewish delegation from the
communities of Posen, Kalish, and other cities petitioned the King to
restore and ratify the old Jewish privileges, on the basis of copies of
the charter which had been spared. Casimir readily granted the request
of the deputies. "We desire"--he announces in his new charter--"that the
Jews, whom we wish to protect in our own interest as well as in the
interest of the royal exchequer, should feel comforted in our beneficent
reign." Corroborating as it did all the rights and privileges previously
conferred upon the Jews--liberty of residence and commerce, communal
and judicial autonomy, inviolability of life and liberty, protection
against groundless charges and attacks--the charter of Casimir IV. was a
direct protest against the canonical laws only recently reissued for
Poland by the Council of Kalish, and for the whole Catholic world by the
great Council at Basle. In opposition to the main trend of the Council
resolutions, the royal charter permitted the Jews to associate with
Christians, and exempted them from the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastic
law courts (1453).
The King's liberalism aroused the resentment of the Catholic clergy. The
leader of the clerical party was the energetic Archbishop of Cracow,
Cardinal Zbignyev Oleshnitzki, who openly headed the forces arrayed in
opposition to the King. He denounced Casimir bitterly for granting
protection to the Jews, "to the injury and insult of the holy faith."
Do not imagine--Oleshnitzki writes to the King in May,
1454--that in matters touching the Christian religion you are at
liberty to pass any law you please. No one is great and strong
enough to put down all opposition to himself when the interests
of the faith are at stake. I therefore beg and implore your
Royal Majesty to revoke the aforementioned privileges and
liberties. Prove that you are a Catholic sovereign, and remove
all occasion for disgracing your name and for worse offenses
that are likely to follow.
In his letter Oleshnitzki refers to the well-known agitator and
Jew-baiter, the Papal Legate Capistrano, who had come to Poland from
Germany in the fall of 1453. With this "scourge of the Jews" as his ally
Oleshnitzki started a campaign against Jews and heretics (or Hussites).
On his arrival in Cracow Capistrano delivered on the market-place
incendiary speeches against the Jews, and demanded of the King
persistently to revoke the "godless" Jewish privileges, threatening him,
in case of disobedience, with the tortures of hell and terrible
misfortunes for the country.
At first the King refused to yield, but the march of events favored the
anti-Jewish forces. Poland was at war with the Teutonic Order.[39] The
first defeat sustained by the Polish troops in this war (September,
1454) gave the clergy an opportunity of proclaiming that the Lord was
chastising the country for the King's disregard of Church interests and
for his protection of the Jews. At last the King was forced to listen to
the demands of the united clergy and nobility. In November, 1454, the
Statute of Nyeshava[40] was promulgated, and by one of its clauses all
former Jewish privileges were rescinded as "being equally opposed to
Divine right and earthly laws." The reasons for the enactment, which
were evidently dictated by Oleshnitzki, were formulated as follows: "For
it is not meet that infidels should enjoy greater advantages than the
worshipers of our Lord Christ, and slaves should have no right to occupy
a better position than sons." The Varta Statutes of 1423 and the former
canonical laws were declared in force again. Clericalism had scored a
triumph.
This anti-Jewish tendency communicated itself to the people at large. In
several towns the Jews were attacked. In 1463 detachments of Polish
volunteers who were preparing for a crusade against the Turks passed
through Lemberg and Cracow on their way to Hungary. The disorderly
crowd, consisting of monks, students, peasants, and impoverished
noblemen, threw itself on the Jews of Cracow on the third day of Easter,
looted their houses, and killed about thirty people. When Casimir IV.
learned what had happened, he imposed a fine on the magistracy for
having failed to forestall the riots. Similar disorders were taking
place about the same time in Lemberg, Posen, and other cities.
As far as Casimir IV. was concerned, the clerical policy, artificially
foisted upon him, did not alter his personal readiness to shield the
Jews. But under his sons, the Polish King John Albrecht and the
Lithuanian Grand Duke Alexander Yaghello, the anti-Jewish policy gained
the upper hand. The former ratified, at the Piotrkov Diet of 1496, the
Nyeshava Statute with its anti-Jewish restrictions. John Albrecht is
also credited with the establishment of the first ghetto in Poland. In
1494 a large part of the Polish capital of Cracow was destroyed by fire,
and the mob, taking advantage of the prevailing panic, plundered the
property of the Jews. As a result, the Jews, who at that time were
scattered over various parts of the city, were ordered by the King to
move to Kazimiezh,[41] a suburb of Cracow, and to live there apart from
the Christians. Kazimiezh became, in consequence, a wholly Jewish town,
leading throughout the centuries a life of its own, and connected with
the outside world by mere threads of economic relationship.
While the throne of Poland was occupied by John Albrecht, his
brother Alexander ruled over Lithuania as grand duke. At first
Alexander's attitude towards the Jews was rather favorable. In 1492 he
complied with the petition of the Karaites of Troki, and confirmed the
charter of Casimir IV., bestowing upon them the Magdeburg Law, and even
supplementing it by a few additional privileges. Various items of public
revenue, especially the customs duties, were as theretofore let to the
Jews. Alexander also paid the Jewish capitalists part of the money
advanced by them to his father. In 1495, however, the Grand Duke
suddenly issued a decree ordering the expulsion of all the Jews from
Lithuania. It is not known whether this cruel action was due to the
influence of the anti-Jewish clerical party, and was stimulated by the
news of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, or whether it was prompted
by the financial dependence of the ruler on his Jewish creditors, or by
the general desire to enrich himself at the expense of the exiles. As a
matter of fact Alexander confiscated the immovable property of the
expelled Jews in the districts of Grodno, Brest, Lutzk, and Troki, and a
large part thereof was distributed by him among the local Christian
residents. The banished Jews emigrated partly to the Crimea (Kaffa), but
the majority settled, with the permission of King John Albrecht, in the
neighboring Polish cities. However, when a few years later, after the
death of his brother, Alexander accepted, in addition, the crown of
Poland (1501), he allowed the Jews to return to Lithuania and settle in
their former places of residence. On this occasion they received back,
though not in all cases, the houses, estates, synagogues, and cemeteries
previously owned by them (1503).
By the beginning of the fourteenth century Polish Jewry had become a big
economic and social factor with which the state was bound to reckon. It
was now destined to become also an independent spiritual entity, having
stood for four hundred years under the tutelage of the Jewish center in
Germany. The further development of this new factor forms one of the
most prominent features of the next period.
FOOTNOTES:
[20] It need scarcely be pointed out that, in speaking of the Jewish
immigration into Poland, we have in mind the _predominating_ element,
which came from the West. It is quite possible that there was an
admixture of settlers from the Khazar kingdom, from the Crimea, and from
the Orient in general, who were afterwards merged with the western
element.
[21] The word signifies "the powder merchant"--five hundred years before
the invention of powder!
[22] [The most important of these were: Great Poland, in the northwest,
with the leading cities of Posen and Kalish; Little Poland, in the
southwest, with Cracow and Lublin; and Red Russia, in the south, on
which see p. 53, n. 2. In 1319 Great Poland and Little Poland were
united by Vladislav Lokietek (see p. 50), who assumed the royal title.
His son Casimir the Great annexed Red Russia. Thenceforward Great
Poland, Little Poland, and Red Russia formed part of the Polish Kingdom,
with Cracow as capital, though they were administered as separate
Provinces. On the Principality of Mazovia, see p. 85, n. 1.]
[23] Some coins bear the inscription משקא קרל פולסקי, "Meshko
(= Mechislav) Król Polski," "Meshko, king of Poland," or ברכה משקא,
"Benediction [on] Meshko." Other coins give the names of the Jewish
minters, such as Abraham, son of Isaac Nagid, Joseph Kalish, etc.
[24] [_Das Magdeburger Recht_, a collection of laws based on the famous
_Sachsenspiegel_, which was composed early in the thirteenth century in
Saxony. Owing to the fame of the court of aldermen (_Schöppenstuhl_) at
Magdeburg, the Magdeburg Law was adopted in many parts of Germany,
Bohemia, Hungary, and particularly of Poland. One of its main provisions
was the administrative and judicial independence of the municipalities.]
[25] [They were organized in mercantile guilds and trade-unions
and formed the estate of burghers, called in Polish
_mieszczanie_--pronounced _myeshchanye_--and in Latin _oppidani_,
"town-dwellers," thus standing midway between the nobility, or
_Shlakhta_ (see p. 58, n. 1), and the serfs, or _khlops_.]
[26] [The word, spelled in Polish _wojewoda_, signifies, like the
corresponding German _Herzog_, military commander. The voyevoda was
originally the leader of the army in war and the representative of the
king in times of peace. After the unification of Poland, in 1319, the
voyevodas became the administrators of the various Polish provinces (or
_voyevodstvos_) on behalf of the king. Later on their duties were
encroached upon by the starostas (see below, p. 60, n. 1). With the
growth of the influence of the nobility, which resented the authority of
the royal officials, their functions were limited to the calling of the
militia in the case of war and the exercise of jurisdiction over the
Jews of their province. They were members of the Royal Council, and as
such wielded considerable influence. Their Latin title was _palatinus_.]
[27] [_Judex Judaeorum._ He was a Christian official, generally of noble
rank. See p. 52.]
[28] [In Polish, Wladyslaw. The name is also found in the forms
Wladislaus and Ladislaus.]
[29] [_I. e._ "Span-long," so called because of his diminutive stature.]
[30] A privilege denied to them by the canons of the Church.
[31] [Lvov, written in Polish Lwów, is used by the Poles and Russians;
Lemberg is used by the Germans.]
[32] [Before Casimir the Great Red Russia formed an independent
Principality (see p. 42, n. 1). The identity of Red Russia with Galicia
has been assumed in the text for the sake of convenience. In reality Red
Russia corresponds to present-day _Eastern_ Galicia, in which the
predominating population is Little Russian or Ruthenian, while _Western_
Galicia, with Cracow, formed part of Little Poland. In addition Red
Russia included a part of the present Russian Government of Podolia.]
[33] Jan Dlugosz, called in Latin Johannes Longinus [author of _Historia
Polonica_. He died in 1480].
[34] The recently published records of the court proceedings in the
Cracow pogrom of 1407 show that its principal instigators were German
artisans and merchants who resided in that city.
[35] See p. 47 and p. 49.
[36] [Written in Polish _Szlachta_, probably derived from the old German
_slahta_, in modern German _Geschlecht_, meaning _tribe_, _caste_. The
Polish Shlakhta was in complete control of the Diet, or _sejm_
(pronounced _saym_), from which the other estates, the peasants and
burghers, were excluded almost entirely. In the course of time, the
Shlakhta succeeded also in wresting the power from the king, who became
a mere figurehead.]
[37] [In Polish, _Warta_, a town in the province of Kalish. These
conventions of the nobility assumed, in the fifteenth century, the
character of a national parliament for the whole of Poland.]
[38] [Lithuania was administered by starostas as Poland was by voyevodas
(see p. 46, n. 1). The starostas--literally "elders"--were originally
nobles holding an estate of the crown, which was given to them by the
king for special services rendered to him. In the course of time they
became, both in Lithuania and in Poland proper, governors of whole
regions, taking over many of the functions of the voyevodas. The
relationship between the two officers underwent many changes. On the
effect of this change upon the jurisdiction of the Jews compare Bloch,
_Die General-Privilegien der polnischen Judenschaft_, p. 35.]
[39] [A semi-ecclesiastic, semi-military organization of German knights,
which originated in Palestine during the Crusades, and was afterwards
transferred to Europe to propagate Christianity on the eastern confines
of Germany. The Order developed into a powerful state, which became a
great menace to Poland.]
[40] [In Polish _Nieszawa_, the meeting-place of the Diet of that year.]
[41] More exactly _Kazimierz_, the Polish form for Casimir (the Great),
after whom the town was named.