“Edict” of King Ruprecht [Present-day Germany; Wittelsbach Dynasty]: “We Ruprecht […] publicly announce to all electoral princes, princes, dukes, lords, knights, servants, the communities in the cities and everyone else in our holy empire who is a subject and faithful 1) that we have ordered Elya of Winheim and Isaack of Oppenheim – our chamber-servants – with the power of this letter, to collect Our golden penny (‘gulden pfennig’) for us from all of Our and the empire’s Jews whether they belong to the electoral princes, or other princes, dukes, lords, cities, knights or servants, in cities, markets, or villages […] 2) We have also ordered and authorized the aforementioned Jews Elyan* and Isac* to require and collect fines on crimes committed by Jews or by Christians against Jews** […] in Our name until this order is revoked. 3) And We order each and every Jew living in our holy empire […] who receives this letter, that they are to pay […] Our chamber-servants Elya and Isack* for Our sake […] annually the golden penny […] as mentioned above and that they obey their demands as if We were making these demands ourselves. 4) […] if any Jew or Jewess, one or many, fails to pay the golden penny, and chooses to defy [this order], all the other Jews […] are to stop having any relations with them […]; and whoever does not, falls out of Our and the kingdom’s favor. […]” [Researcher’s note: *The names are actually spelled differently in the original text. **Since Jews were considered to be the property of the king, it was required that he be compensated for any “damage” they suffered.]
König Rupercht von der Pfalz in seinen Beziehungen zu den Juden – Ungedruckte Königsurkunden nebst ergänzenden Aktenstücken; Gesammelt und mitgeteilt von Moritz Stern; (Kiel, 1898); p. 7 f; (“King Ruprecht of the Rhineland-Palatinate in his Relations with the Jews – Unpublished Royal Documents along with supplementary files; collected and shared by Moritz Stern”); Researched and Translated by Ziba Shadjaani 5/11/2017