Ariel Toaff - Blood Passover

Johannes Brompton, Chronicon, in Historiae Anglicanae Scriptores , London, Jacob Flescher, 1652, vol. X, p. 1050; "anno 1160 [...] regisque Henrici Secundi quidam puer a Judaeis apud Gloverniam crucifixus est". Chronicon Petroburgense, by Th. Stapleton, London, 1894, p. 3: "anno 1161 [...] in hoc Pascha quidam puer crucifixus est apud Gloucestriam".

Historia Monasterii S. Petri Gloucestriae , by W.H. Hart, London, 1863, in Rerum Medii Aevi Scriptores , vol. LIII, t. I, p. 20: "anno 1168 [...] Haraldum puerum [...] gloriosum Christo martirem sine crimine necatum [...] in amnem Sabrinem [Judaei] proiecerant".

Cfr. G.L. Langmuir, The Knight's Tale of Young Hugh of Lincoln , in "Speculum", XLVII (1972), pp. 459-482; Vauchez, La santità nel Medioevo , cit., p. 99.

Cfr. A.B. Friedmann, The Prioresss's Tale and Chaucer's Anti-Semitism , in "Chaucer Review", XIX (1974), pp. 46-54.

Cfr. Stacey, From Ritual Crucifixion to Host Desecration , cit., pp. 11-28; C. Cluse, "Fabula ineptissima", Die Ritualmordlegende um Adam von Bristol , in "Ashkenas", 5 (1995), pp. 293-330.

"Sanctus Richarus a Judaeis crocifixus fuit". Cfr. Vauchez, La santità nel Medioevo , cit., p. 99.

The term used for the killing of the Christian boy by the Jews of Paris is jugulaban t. Cfr. H.F. Delaborde, Oeuvres de Rigord et Guillaume le Breton , Paris, 1882, vol. V, p. 15.

For an extensive bibliography on the ritual murder of Blois, see, among others, Sh. Spiegel, "In monte Dominus videbitur". The Martyrs of Blois and the Early Accusation of Ritual Murder , in Mordecai K. Kaplan Jubilee Volume , by M. Davis, New York, 1953, pp. 267-287 (in Hebrew]; Marcus, The Jew in the Medieval World , cit., pp. 127-130; R. Chazan, T he Blois Incident of 1171. A Study in Jewish Intercommunal Organization , in "Proceedings of the American Academy for Jewish Research", XXXVI (1968), in "Jewish History", XII (1998), pp. 29-46; and, lastly, Sh. Shwarzfuchs, A History of the Jews in Medieval France , Tel Aviv, 2001, pp. 117-123 (in Hebrew).

Cfr. Haberman, Sefer ghezerot Ashkenaz we-Zarfat , cit., pp. 120-124.

Cfr. ibidem, p. 126. On the massacre at Boppard, see Yuval, "Two Nations in Your Womb" , cit., p. 192; Roth, Medieval Jewish Civilization , cit., p. 568.

Cfr. Haberman, Sefer ghezerot Ashkenaz we-Zarfat , cit., p. 161. See also Yuval, "Two Nations in Your Womb", cit., p. 185.

Cfr. Haberman, Sefer Zechirah , cit., pp. 42-43; Id. (same author), Sefer ghezerot Ashkenaz we-Zarfat , cit., pp. 231-232. On the facts of Spira, see also Yuval, "Two Nations in Your Womb", cit., pp. 185, 192, and in particular, Roth, Medieval Jewish Civilization , cit., pp. 568- 569.

Cfr. Haberman, Sefer Zechirah , cit., p. 40.

Annales Erpherfurtenses , in "Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores", XVI, Hannover, 1859, p. 31.

Annales Marbacenses , ibidem, p. 178 ("ut ex eis sanguinem ad suum remedium elicerent ".

Hermann L. Strack was the first author to note that the first to notice that the belief in the ritual use of blood by the Jews, although widespread in Germany even beforehand, was mentioned explicitly for the first time in 1255, on the occasion of the Fulda case (cfr. Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice , cit., pp. 178, 277). Based on this consideration, Langmuir ( Toward a Definition of AntiSemitism , cit., pp. 263- 281) maintains that the origin of the motive of that which is called "ritual cannibalism" in connection with the facts of Fulda. Before that time, in all the cases reported, the crimes were said to have involved "ritual crucifixion", without any mention of the blood motif. This thesis seems today generally accepted (see, among others, Mentgen, The Origins of the Blood Libel , cit., pp. 341-349; Roth, Jewish Medieval Civilization, cit., pp. 119-120).

"Utrum, sicut fama communis habet, Judaei christianum sanguinem in parasceve necessarium habeant". In this regard, see Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice , cit., pp. 178, 277, and, recently, Sh Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews. History, Documents: 1464-1521 , Toronto, 1990, pp. 48-52.

"Quod ex maledictione parentum currat adhuc in filios venam facinoris per maculam sanguinis, importune fluidam proles impia inexpiabiliter crucietur, quosque se ream sanguinis Christi recognoscat poenitens et sanetur" (Tommaso da Cantimpré, Bonum universale de apibus , cit., pp. 304-305). See also Roth's arguments, Jewish Medieval Culture , cit., pp. 120-121.

For the identification of Donin with the converted Jew mentioned in Thomas de Cantimpré, see Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice , cit., p. 175. For a convincing examination of the Hebrew texts placing the French apostate in relation with the anti-Jewish accusations made after the Fulda case, see, in particular, S. Grayzel, The Church and the Jews in the XIIIth century , Philadelphia (Pa.), 1933, pp. 339-340, and more recently, J. Schatzmiller, Did Nicholas Donin Promulgate the Blood Libel? in Studies on the History of the People and the Land of Israel Presented in Azriel Shochet , 1987, vol., pp. 175-182 (in Hebrew).

"Certissime vos scitote nullo modo sanari vos posse ab illo, quo punimini verecundissimo cruciatu nisi solo sanguine Christiano" (Thomas da Cantimpré, Bonum unverisale de apibus , cit., p. 306).

Cfr. Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice , cit., pp. 169-191; Roth, Medieval Jewish Civilization , cit., pp. 568-569.

"Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Scriptores", IX, Hannover, 1848, p. 658.

Johannes Vitodurani Chronicon , by G. von Wyss, Zurich, 1856, pp. 106-108.

"Circiter anno quadregesimo secundo, vel tertio proxime elapso, hic in dicto oppido Leontio aliqui Hebraei, in duabus aedibus habitationem habuerint [...] cum illi Judaei dictae puellae (Ursulae) ut ex sequenti eorum inquisitione patet compotes facti, eandem dicto anno, die Parasceves martyrio affecerunt et occiderunt, et postea hic in aqua proiecerunt, ut tam enormem caedem et facinus occultarent [...] quod sanguis eius ex eodem corpusculo elicitus ac effusa fuerit [...] et ita Judaeos omnes sanguis eius ex eodem corpusculo elicitus ac effusus fuerit [...] et ita Judaeos omnes unanimiter fuisse confessos et effatos, quomodo dictam infantem die Parsceves anno praefato enecassent et martyrio affecissent (in cella vinaria)".

See note above. On this document and the 18th century reports of ritual murder of Lienz, see [Benedetto Bonelli], Dissertazione apologetica sul martirio del beato Simone da Trento nell'anno MCCCCLXXV dagli ebrei ucciso , Trent, Gianbattista Parone, 1747, pp. 242- 246; F. Rohrbacher, Usula von Lienz: Ein von Juden gemartertes Christenkind , Brixen, 1905.