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The Political System By H.
Kozlowski |
The
Constitution of Poland was never written. It was a body of laws sanctioned by ancient
custom and subsequent legislation. By the end of Zygmunt
Waza's reign it became a rigid state instrument, and
underwent but few changes until the last quarter of the XVIII th century.
Every
nobleman of
The
elections took place in a suburb of
2. THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE KING
At
first the King's power was considerable. The King was the supreme judge until
the elective tribunals were established in Batory's
time, which, however, did not supersede him in civil matters. He was
commander-in-chief of the army. He could call out the national insurrection of
nobles (pospolite ruszenie),
but only with the consent of the Seym, of which he
was an integral part.
He
convened the national and local Seyms at times
instanced by law and at other times on extraordinary occasions. He specified
the matters to be submitted for the consideration of the Seym.
The resolutions and acts of the Seym, as well as
court decrees, were issued in his name. He had power to appoint ambassadors to
foreign countries, but could give them instructions in minor matters only. The
ambassadors were responsible to the Seym. Similarly,
the King could confer with foreign representatives only in the presence of the
Council of the Senate. The King could not go abroad, marry, or secure divorce,
without the assent of the Senate. Although the King derived his power from the
election, he was responsible to nobody. He was merely limited by the privileges
which he granted, or which were granted by his predecessors and which he
confirmed. After the extinction of the Jagiellon
dynasty the electorate claimed the right to renounce allegiance to the King in
case of his disregard of the law or of the articles of the covenant (de non praestanda-obedientia). The executive power of the State
was vested in the King. He was, however, handicapped in the exercise of it by
the life tenure of officials and by their independence. He had the sole right
to appoint civil and military officers, but could not recall any officials
unless guilt had been established before the Seym
sitting, as a court of justice. The right of appointing bishops was vested in
the King, and he had the power to donate; or mortgage crown lands.
All
offices were life tenures. The chief offices which, with the exception of the
Hetmans and the Under-Treasurer, entitled the incumbent to senatorial dignities
were:
The
Chancellor, or Keeper of the Great Seal. Both
ecclesiastical and temporal nobles could hold this office. The Chancellor was
the representative of the King and the interpreter of his will and intentions.
He read the speeches of the Crown, presented to the Seym
the matters for consideration, negotiated with foreign ambassadors and acted as
intermediary between the people and the king. All royal decrees, mandates and
correspondence were prepared and sign signed by him.
The
Under-Chancellor attended to minor affairs and assumed the duties of the
Chancellor in his absence. The Grand Marshall had charge of the King's safety,
and was at the head of the administration of the police and judicial
departments of the capital and its vicinity. His jurisdiction was very' large.
Two Under-Marshalls, assisting the Grand Marshall, were also regular officials.
The
State Treasurer had charge over the royal exchequer. He was responsible
for the collection of revenue and the expenditures approved by the Seym. His reports were regularly submitted to the Seym, and for every misuse of funds he was responsible with
his private fortune. He was also in charge of the mint and of the royal
domains.
An Under-Treasurer attended to the minor matters of the office.
Hetmans. One Grand Hetman
commanded the Crown army and another the Lithuanian
army. They were charged with the duty of defending the country against invasion
and of guarding the Republic against internal disturbances.
The
Field Hetmans (also one for Crown and one for
All the above mentioned dignitaries were ministers of state
There
were many minor state or court offices, some of which during the course of time
lost their significance and were retained merely for honorary designations. Of
the crown officers who discharged their duties outside of the capital, the
following were the most important:
The
"Woyevoda" was a provincial
Governor. The Woyevoda led the insurrection of nobles
of his province in case of war, looked after the weights and measures in towns,
prescribed the prices of products, and had jurisdiction over Jews. The office
entitled the holder to a seat in. the Senate.
The
"Castellan's" was one of the offices which, like that of the Woyevoda, had a, historical tradition, but which in time
proved to be a mere honorary title of the leader of the nobility of a district.
In case of war he organized the citizens of the district and led them to the Woyevoda. The office gave the incumbent senatorial rank.
The
actual executive work in the country was done by the Starostas.
They enforced the decrees, and had charge over the law and order of their
respective districts. They were also judges of the nobility in criminal
matters. The civil jurisdiction was almost, wholly in the hands of special
judges, appointed by the King from the lists of candidates presented by the
nobility of the districts.
The
King, the Senators and the representatives of the nobles constituted the Polish
Seym or Parliament. The King was an integral part of
the Seym, although his constant presence during the
sessions was not required. The Senate consisted of the archbishops and bishops,
ministers of state, castellans and woyevodas. The
high state offices created after the Senate was definitely constituted (the
middle of the XVth century) did not find
representation in it. That is why the Under-Treasurer and the Hetmans had no
seats in the Senate. The Representatives were elected by the land seymiks, which were the legislative organs of the local
autonomous government, and were bound to observe the mandates given to them.
There
was no specified place or time for the sessions of the Seym.
The king summoned it whenever occasion arose. Sometimes it met twice a year, at
other times once in several years. In the XVth
century the sessions lasted for a few days; in the XVIth
century deliberations lasted several months. Later on the Seym
met regularly every second year, and the time limit was six weeks.
Extraordinary sessions could be called between the regular sessions and were to
last not more than two weeks.. The "Liberum veto," whereby one deputy could dissolve a
session of Seym and render nugatory all its previous
decisions, came into life in the middle of the XVIIth
century, in the era of moral and political decline.
The
state revenue was derived from various duties and taxes, and from the leasing
of the crown domains. The land tax was a general tax, from which only the
clergy, and later the nobility also, were exempt. The products of the salt and
metal mines were taxed, as were also, dwellings in the country and in the
cities. The various taxes levied in the cities on commerce, transportation,
manufactures and crafts, and the Jewish capitation tax were the other kinds of
state revenue. The tax rate was a variable quantity; in cases of need the Seym would double, treble, and even quadruple the usual tax
rate. Until the year 1717 the clergy were exempt from taxation. In
extraordinary cases the Church would donate to the state treasury a "subsidium charitativum," the
amount of which was fixed by the Church Council. The expenditures went for the
maintenance of the King and his court, for state administration and foreign
representation, and for the regular army. The collection of taxes and the
disposition of the revenues were under the control of the Treasurer,
responsible to the Seym. Some taxes went directly to
certain officials on whose ability to collect them depended
the size of their incomes; others were farmed out, and in some instances the
army officers collected the taxes designated for the maintenance of the army.
6. STATUS OF VARIOUS CLASSES OF POPULATION
The Nobles
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Nobles |
The
nobles were the ruling class with the exclusive right to enjoy full
citizenship. Nobility was, hereditary in the male line, and an escutcheon was
an outward sign of it. The power to ennoble resided originally in the King, but
after the end of the XVIth century the approval of
the Seym was required. As the class-consciousness of
the nobility grew, attempts were made to restrict admission. Naturalization of
foreign nobles, after 1641, similarly became a matter over which the Seym had sole control.. There were not gradation in the ranks of the nobility who guarded
jealously against the rise in station of anyone by reason of hereditary title.
By the act of 1638 no noble could accept or use a title, which had not been
registered in the acts of the Union of Lublin in 1569. The following were the
special privileges and immunities enjoyed by the nobility exclusively:
The
right to acquire and own land in the country as well as real estate in cities,
with all the wealth below the surface; The property of the nobles was exempt
from confiscation without due process of law; only to the nobility was the door
of the more exalted temporal and spiritual offices open;
They
were exempt from taxation, making only such contributions as they voluntarily imposed
upon themselves, with the single exception of compulsory military duty in case
of war.
A
noble was answerable only to his own courts. For killing a person not of noble
rank he was punishable by a fine only. He enjoyed the right of habeas corpus; had
complete freedom of speech, was an elector of the King and qualified to become
a candidate for the royal office. Finally, he had a voice in the affairs of the
country by electing delegates to the National Seym
through the local seymiks. There was only one
restriction to which the nobles had to submit, and that was the prohibition of
being a merchant or an artisan. By settling in a city and engaging in this kind
of work a noble forfeited all his rights to nobility.
The Clergy
Next
to the mobility in order of enjoyment of special privileges and immunities was
the Roman Catholic clergy. All the higher offices were given exclusively to
persons from among the nobility, with the exception of the doctoral
canons," to which only priests holding doctors degrees in theology, law
and medicine could be appointed. Catholic diocesan bishops were members of the
Senate. Many high state offices including that of the Chancellor,
were open to the clergy. The King appointed the bishops and canons, as well as
the abbots and rectors.
The
nobility was tireless in opposing the tax exemptions of the clergy, the tithes
and ecclesiastical jurisdiction. By a law of 1510 the Seym
prohibited bequests of land to the Church in order to stop the tremendous
growth of "the dead hand," as the Church estates were called.
The Dissidents
The
legal guarantees of equality of rights of dissidents with Catholics were
contained in the provisions of the Warsaw Confederacy of 1573, and were sworn
to by every new monarch. With the growth of the Catholic reaction they became
more or less a dead letter, and dissidents were made, the subjects of
discrimination. No bishop of the Orthodox Church or even of the Uniate Church was recognized in the Senate, and State
offices were very seldom filled by persons from among the non-Conformists. In
1632 the Seym prohibited the erection of new
dissident churches in the cities of the Crown, and in 1717 this prohibition was
extended to the rest of the country
The Townspeople
The
XVI th and XVII th centuries saw the decline of the once, prosperous and
powerful Polish cities. Geographical and economic conditions as well as
pernicious legislation were the causes of it.
The
townspeople did not have access to any state offices or to the higher spiritual
positions. They were excluded from the national insurrection. Aside from the
economic advantages the nobility planned to derive, by making themselves
independent of the cities, the chief motive in destroying important and
powerful cities was to remove every possibility of furnishing the King with an
ally strong enough to overturn the existing order of things and to introduce
absolute government in
The Peasants
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Peasants |
In
the XVIth century there was not so much as a trace
left of the independence of the peasant and his right to self-government. The
laws limiting his freedom became more rigid, and the punishment for flight from
the jurisdiction of his master more severe The owner of the Manor had
jurisdiction over his peasants, and prescribed laws and regulations for them;
he could transfer them from place to place; he could take away certain leased
parcels of land and, give them others instead; he prescribed the amount of free
labor the peasant had to render. There existed no state regulations as to the
number of free days the peasant was obliged to give to his landlord, as to the
number of beasts of burden that he had to bring with him to help in the work
and as to the other duties he had to perform. In time the manor became an
entirely independent economic unit. The peasant was obliged to buy all his
necessities of life from the landlord and was compelled to sell all the
products of his farm to the manor. The manor also established a monopoly of
milling, bleaching and of spirits and beer production. The landlord compelled
his peasants to purchase certain quantities of these drinks for various
occasions, such as marriages and christenings. Similar conditions prevailed in
church estates and crown lands, except that in crown lands the peasant had a
right to appeal to the royal referee's court for redress. In spite of the loss
of personal liberty, dating from 1496 in
The Jews
The
Jews in