ca. 1453 C.E.

“Ordinance and Statutes Regarding Jews” issued by Bishop Gottfried of Würzburg, 1453 [Archbishopric of Würzburg; Present-day Germany] [Provisional]: “Gottfried (‘Gotfried’), Bishop of Würzburg and Duke of Frankonia, after we have taken to heart such serious complaints from his* and the subjects in his* Stift [a territory in the Holy Roman Empire that enjoyed the status of a free imperial state] […] regarding the Jews [in his* Stift], we have therefore, written down and decided with this statute: Ordinance And Statute Regarding The Jews 1453. Firstly, the Jews shall henceforth no longer loan money on interests […]. In eight days, after this our statute is made public, those who violate this statute, shall lose their capital. Also, three people in Würzburg […] shall announce this to all Jews and Jewesses who live in villages and elsewhere […] so that they register their debts, may they be [based on] guarantees, loans (on pledges) or trust […] between now and the following Sunday after Saint Kilian’s Day […]” [Researcher’s note: In this very long statute Bishop Gottfried also sets a date by which the Jewry are to leave his domain and commands that this statue be announced to “all dukes, lords, knights, and servants in all imperial cities” so that they may follow suit “as his grace no longer wishes to have Jews in his Stift.” *Even though, this statute was drawn up by the Bishop himself, he uses ‘his’ in several sections of the text referring to himself in the third person.]