In causa perfidi iudei... Przyczynek do sporów chrześcijan z Żydami w Polsce późnośredniowiecznej
In causa perfidi Iudei… A Contribution to the Issue of Disputes Between the Christians and the Jews in the Late Medieval Poland

Summary/Abstract: In their disputes with Christians, contrary to the regulations included in the privileges, not only did the Jews take their cases before Jewish judges, the governor or the King, but also before urban and ecclesiastical courts. The sources leave no doubt that also the clergy were indebted to the Jews, which was registered in the consistory books of Gniezno. Cases in which one of the parties were Jews are extremely rare. In 1466, a case between Hyczak the Jew and Gniezno altarist Mikołaj Komorski was registered. The latter was in debt to Hyczak and for this reason was threatened with excommunication. The lack of a court judgment indicates that the two parties reached an agreement. Of more than a thousand judgments recorded in the three volumes of the Consistory of Gniezno (the years 1438-1458, 1459-1483, 1484-1525) only 5 concerned the Jews. The first issue, of 1445, concerned the Jews of Kalisz who did not meet the payment of tribute for the right of the parish. Three cases were related to the clergy indebted to the Jews. The last case concerned a vicar, who put the Bible in pledge to Ploma, a Jewish woman, for 30 grzywny (units of silver). Ecclesiastical courts based their judgments on canon law and tried to keep moral and social order.

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