Krzyże i kapliczki pokutne (pojednania), jako element średniowiecznej jurysdykcji karnej
Crosses and Chapels of Penance (Reconciliation) as Part of the Medieval Criminal Jurisdiction

Summary/Abstract: The article presents issues related to the history of criminal law and the so-called legal archeology. In addition it shows their sources and their impact on the formation and development of legal culture in the Middle Ages on Polish land. The key issue is the evolution of the penalty and the emergence of the composition system (łac. compositio), in which there have to reach a settlement between the perpetrator of the murder and the victim’s family (relatives). Element of the agreement was imposed on the perpetrator of the murder of an obligation to build a stone cross or chapel. These elements - crosses and shrines - had an expiatory character. Therefore they are commonly known as penitential crosses and shrines. There is several hundred of these stone witnesses of the medieval criminal justice in Poland.

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