Hello, I was surfing wikipedia and came across the "Statute of Kalisz." It was a Polish legal document from the 1200's, and it has some statements that seem rather revolutionary to me based on my small knowledge of the high middle ages. For example:
...Should a Jew be taken to court, not only a Christian must testify against him, but also a Jew, in order for the case to be considered valid.
However, the article also mentions that some fellow (Professor Romuald Hube) has decided that the statute is a fabrication that was written at a later date. I was unable to find much further information, and the page about Romuald Hube that is linked is written in Polish.
So, was this statute most likely a fabrication? Maybe a fabrication? Or are Romuald Hube's criticisms disregarded? Thanks!
edit: "...Jews living in Poland equal rights..." sorry!
There is no good reason to believe that the Statute of Kalisz is a fabrication. Romauld Hube was a Polish legal scholar who lived in the mid-19th century. His work is not well-remembered even among historians of Poland, and I've honestly no idea why he's mentioned on the wikipedia page.
If the Statute of Kalisz was a fabrication, it's an exceedingly plausibly one. In the mid-13th century, other Christian rulers in central Europe issued broadly similar sets of proclimations affirming the rights of Jews as a corporate community. The Statute of Kalisz was issued by Duke Boleslaw "the Pious" of 'Greater Poland' (meaning Wielkopolska) in 1264.
The Statue was not without historical precendent although the rights it granted to Jews as a corporate commuinity were exceedingly permissive by the standards of the time. In 1244, Duke Frederick II of Austria (aka Frederick the Quarrelsome) issued a similar charter in which he affirmed the rights of Jews, especially in his court. In 1254, King Otto of Bohemia also issued a charter to the Jews in his domain, although I know less about this case.
And in 1251, King Bela of Austria issued an royal proclamation on the rights and privledges of the Jews in his domains. This document was examined closely by historian Nora Berend in her award-winning book At the Gate of Christendom: Jews, Muslims and 'Pagans' in Medieval Hungary c. 1000- c. 1300. Berend contends that the "Privileges of 1251" is an authentic document, although today the oldest surviving copy dates from the early 15th century. This is because we have other annals and laws from as early as 1306 that refer back to the "privledges", so it would be logical to conclude that such a document was clearly in existence fairly close the to the claimed date of origin. Furthermore, this type of manuscript history is entirely typical for documents from Medieval Central Europe.
In short, most of the claims laid against the Statue of Kalisz must also be laid against similar documents from the same general region and time period, some of which are quite well-attested.