78 PIAST
accept arbitration over Silesia. In 1339, at the Treaty of Cracow, he formally
conceded Bohemian suzerainty over the Silesian princes. In 1343, at the Treaty
of Kalisz, after lengthy proceedings both in Rome and in a special judicial
enquiry in Warsaw into the misdeeds of the Teuton Knights, he signed a peace
with the Order. In return for Kujawy and Dobrzyn, he surrendered the whole of
Pomerania with Danzig. By confirming the Order's possession of Chelmno, he
lost the point on which all Polish legal proceedings had been based. It was a hard
bargain. But thus secured, he could turn to war. Already in 1340, he had entered
the lists in the long three-sided contest with the Lithuanians and Hungarians for
the inheritance of Red Ruthenia and the coveted title of Dux Russiae. In 1343-8,
he fought the Duchy of Swidnica. In 1351, he took the Prince of Mazovia in fief
(See Map 7.)
Meanwhile, almost every aspect of Polish life was brought before the King's
reforming and regulating gaze. A distinct caste of royal administrators was cre-
ated to obviate previous reliance on officials of local significance. In 1347, the
whole corpus of existing law was codified, and published in two seperate col-
lections - one for Wielkopolska, the other for Malopolska. These original
'Statutes' of Casimir the Great, relating to every sphere of public activity,
formed the core round which Polish Law developed over the next four centuries.
In the King's lifetime, they were enlarged by the addition of his subsequent
decrees and by a body of so-called preiudicata or theoretical legal case-studies.
The concern for order and permanence was reflected in the new Gothic archi-
tecture, everywhere in evidence. Fifty military fortresses were constructed.
Trade flourished as never before. Unlike most countries in Europe, Poland
escaped the scourge of the Black Death, and economic life was not disrupted.
The arrival of numerous Jewish refugees from Germany marked a further stage
in the expansion of a community which was destined to attract the largest con-
centration of Jewry in Europe. The reign saw a further growth of towns, no less
than twenty-seven of which were fortified with encircling stone walls. There
was a marked improvement in the popular diet, and in the material standard of
life for all sections of society. The stage was set for the 'Great Days of Cracow',
1363-4.
Cracow in 1363, thirty years after Casimir's accession, was turning from a
wooden town into a city of brick and stone. In the great Market Place, 200 yards
square, and laid out after the Mongol invasion, the Gothic Cloth Hall was under
construction. The Kosciol Mariacki (St. Mary's Church) was in the eighth year
of its 53-year remodelling. A site was being prepared for the new ratusz, or City
Hall. On Wawel Hill, where the third cathedral, redesigned by Lokietek, was
within a few months of completion, the stone of the new Royal Castle gleamed
white behind the scaffolding. One mile to the east, beyond the walls, stood the
new town of Kazimierz, named after the King. On its central square, a syna-
gogue, a ratusz, and the Church of St. Catherine were all in the course of con-
struction. In the shadow of this modern magnificence, the wooden houses of the
old city behind St. Florian's Gate, with their little chapels and three churches -