The representatives of the Four Lands--says a well-known annalist of the first half of the seventeenth century[71]--reminded one of the Sanhedrin, which in ancient days assembled in the Chamber of Hewn Stones (_lishkath ha-gazith_) of the temple. They dispensed justice to all the Jews of the Polish realm, issued preventive measures and obligatory enactments (_takkanoth_), and imposed penalties as they saw fit. All the difficult cases were brought before their court. To facilitate matters the delegates of the Four Lands appointed [a special commission of] so-called "provincial judges" (_dayyane medinoth_) to settle disputes concerning property, while they themselves [in plenary session] examined criminal cases, matters appertaining to _hazaka_ (priority of possession) and other difficult points of law. The Council of the Four Lands was the guardian of Jewish civil interests in Poland. It sent its _shtadlans_[72] to the residential city of Warsaw[73] and other meeting-places of the Polish Diets for the purpose of securing from the king and his dignitaries the ratification of the ancient Jewish privileges, which had been violated by the local authorities, or of forestalling contemplated restrictive laws and increased fiscal burdens for the Jewish population. But the main energy of the Waad was directed towards the regulation of the inner life of the Jews. The statute of 1607, framed, at the instance of the Waad, by Joshua Falk Cohen, Rabbi of Lublin, is typical of this solicitude. The following rules are prescribed for the purpose of fostering piety and commercial integrity among the Jewish people: to pay special attention to the observance of the dietary laws, to refrain from adopting the Christian form of dress; not to drink wine with Christians in the pot-houses, in order not to be classed among the disreputable members of the community; to watch over the chastity of Jewish women, particularly in the villages where the Jewish arendars[74] with their families were isolated in the midst of the Christian population. In the same statute rules are also laid down tending to restrain the activities of Jewish usurers and to regulate money credit in general.