Ariel Toaff - Blood Passover

"[...] litterae, quas Ursus habebat seu portatur, continebant inter alia ista verba in lingua hebraica: 'Notum sit omnibus illud quod portat Ursus est iustum'; et deinde in subscriptione legalitas dictarum litterarum, inter alia verba erant ista: ‘Moises de Hol de Saxonia, Iudeorum principalis magister" [...] et dicit quod dictus vas erat coopertum de quodam coramine albo, super quo coramine erant scripta in hebraico hec verba: 'Moyses Iudeorum principalis magister', super quo coramine albo ipse Samuel etiam se subscripsit manu sua in litera hebraica, scribendo hec verba: 'Samuel de Tridento'" [“… the letters that Oros carried with him contained, among other things, these words in Hebrew: ‘May it be known to all that which Oro carries is kosher’; and then, the inscription of the said letters, said as follows, among other things: ‘Moses of Halle of Saxony, main head of the Jews’, upon which Samuel then signed his name in Hebrew letters on the white leather, writing these words: ‘Samuel of Trent’”] (cfr. Esposito and Quaglioni, Processi , vol. I, cit., pp. 255-256).

See the text in The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich by Thomas of Monmouth , Now First Edited from the Unique Manuscript, by A. Jessopp and R.M. James, Cambridge, 1896.

It would be possible to compile an extremely long and extensive bibliography on this topic. See, in particular, the extremely curious monograph by M.D. Anderson, A Saint at Stake. The Strange Death of William of Norwich, 1144 , London, 1964, and the important works by Langmuir and McCullogh, to which we will return later: G.L. Langmuir, Thomas of Monmouth, Detector of Ritual Murder , in "Speculum", LIX (1984), p. 820-846; Id., Toward a Definition of Anti-Semitism , Berkely-Los Angeles (Calif.) - Oxford, 1990, pp. 209-236; Id., Historiographic Crucifixion , in G. Dehan, Les Juifs en regard de l'histoire. Mélanges en honneur de Bernard Blumenkranz , Paris, 1985, pp. 109-127; J.M. McCullogh, Jewish Ritual Murder, William of Norwich, Thomas of Monmouth and the Early Dissemination of the Myth , in "Speculum", LXXII (1997), pp. 109-127. "We note that it was in England, the German regions and in those Alpine regions in which the devotion of the "child martyrs" was most widespread, always presented as victims of the Jews", (A Vauchez, La santità nel Medioevo , Bologna, 1989, p. 104).

"In England [...] various images remain of the child martyr William of Norwich (d. 1144), who was never canonized" (Vauchez, La santità nel Medioevo , cit., p. 454).

Theobald’s deposition, accompanied by other fragments from the written hagiography of Thomas of Monmouth, is recorded by J.R. Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World. A Source Book (315-1791), New York, 1974, pp. 121-126.

Cfr. J. Jacobs, St. William of Norwich , in "The Jewish Quarterly Review", IX (1897), 748-755.

In this regard, see G. Mentgen, The Origins of the Blood Libel , in "Zion", LIX (1994), pp. 341-349 (in Hebrew).

Thomas de Cantimpré, Bonum universale de apibus , Douay, Baltarzar Belleri, 1627, pp. 303-306. For Thomas's statements relating to the drawing lots among the Jewish community [of] candidates for the annual ritual sacrifice of the child who was destined to renew the supply of Christian blood, see H.L. Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice. Human Blood and Jewish Ritual , 1909, pp. 174-175.

Cfr. A. Molinier, Enquête sur un meurtre imputé aux Juifs de Valréas (1247 ), in "Le Cabinet Historique", n.s., II (1883), pp. 121-133; Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice , cit., pp. 179-182, 277-279; Langmuir, Towards a Definition of Antisemitism , cit., pp. 290-296.

"Consuetudo est inter Judaeos et ubicunque maxima sit multitudo Judaeorum facere factum simile annuatorum et maxime in partibus Yspaniae, quia ibi est maxima multitudo Judaeorum".

This is the argument set forth by Langmuir, who is often accepted and shared uncritically. "Ever since the of ritual murder accusation was first made against the Jews in the Middle Ages, that is, from 1150 at Norwich, to 1235, for almost a century, the Jews of England and northern France were accused of crucifying Christian children, but not of ritual cannibalism (i.e., the consumption of their blood for ritual purposes). Absolutely no accusation of ritual cannibalism was ever made in Germany until the Fulda case in 1235, and this accusation came to light it was a novelty. It is true that, between 1146 and 1235, the Jews of Germany were accused of killing children of different ages and as a consequence they were assaulted, but there is no evidence of the ritual cannibalism accusation before 1235 at Fulda" (cfr. Toward a Definition of Antisemitism , cit., pp. 266-267). On the recent arguments set forth by N. Roth, Medieval Jewish Civilization , New York-Lond, 2003, pp. 119-121, 566-570.

Cfr. McCullogh, Jewish Ritual Murder , cit., p. 728.

Annales Herbipolenses , in "Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores", XVI Hannover, 1859, p. 3.

Cfr. A.M. Haberman, Sefer ghezerot Ashkenaz we-Zarft ("Book of Persucutions in Germany and France"), Jerusalem, 1971, p. 119; Id, Sefer zechirah. Selichot we-qinot le-Rabbi Efraim b. Ya'akov ("Book of Memory. Prayers and Elegies of the Rabbi Efraim di Bonn"), Jerusalem, 1970, pp. 22-23.

This is the argument advanced by I.J. Yuval, " Two Nations in Your Womb", Perceptions of Jews and Christians , Tel Aviv, 2000, pp. 182- 184 (in Hebrew), partially accepted by John McCullogh.

"We read nothing about Jewish blood ritual [...] till right into the thirteenth century. It is mentioned for the first time in 1236 on the occasion of the Fulda case, but then already being generally believed in Germany" (cfr. Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice , cit., p. 277). As we have seen, Strack's arguments are accepted and taken up by Langmuir ( Toward a Definition of Anti-Semitism , cit., pp. 266-267) and more recently by R.C. Stacey, From Ritual Crucifixion to Host Desecration. Jews and the Body of Christ , in "Jewish History", XII (1998), pp. 11-28.

Marquardo Susanni, Tractatus de Judaeis et aliis infidelibus , Venice, Comin da Trino, 1558, c. 25rv: "de illo Vuilelme puero in Anglia, qui fuit crucifixus a Judaeis in die Parasceves in Urbe Vormicho [...] quod Judaei degentes Nordovici quendam Christianum puerum furtim captum totum integrum annum enutriverunt, ut adventante Paschate cruci affigerent, qui tanti criminis convicti meritas dederunt poenas".

Cfr. McCullogh, Jewish Ritual Murder , cit., pp. 702-703.

Cfr. Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice , cit., p. 177; J. Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Jews , Philadelphia (Pa.), 1961, pp. 123-130, 143-144; Langmuir, Historiographic Crucifixion , cit., pp. 113-114; André Vauchez mentions the popular devotion for Herbert of Huntington, presumed victim of the Jews at about 1180 (cfr. Vauchez, La santità nel Medioevo , cit., p. 99). On ritual murders in England in general, see C. Holmes, The Ritual Murder Accusation in Britain , in "Ethnic and Ritual Studies", IV (1981), pp. 265-288.