The limits of conversion: ritual murder and the Virgin Mary in the account of Adam of Bristol
2007; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 33; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/j.jmedhist.2007.01.004
ISSN1873-1279
Autores Tópico(s)Medieval Literature and History
ResumoAbstract In a manuscript in the Harley Collection at the British Library (957), there is an account of what appears to be a case of ritual murder in Bristol, written c. 1280 but referring back to the reign of Henry II (1154-98). This account entitled in the 1808 catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts Fabula ineptissima de filio Willelmi Wallensis civis Bristolliae is far more than just another example of ritual murder, of Jewish hatred towards Christians. Although we are provided with a Christian martyr, the young Adam, we are also given insight into the corruption of the priesthood and the beauty and salvific effect of Marian devotion. In fact, the story about the ritual murder and cruelty shown by the Jew Samuel, his wife and son to Adam is part of the backdrop for what is truly important, the liturgy surrounding Mary, the mother of Jesus. The ritual murder while described in all its gory detail provides a didactic framework for the all important moral of the legend. Yet, the presence of the Jew and the ritual murder accusation are a necessary part of the story. All the elements in the account coalesce as the audience is provided with further evidence of the known wickedness and perfidy of the Jews, as portrayed in folk tales, anecdotes, on the stage and in sermons. The antidote to the demonic presence and deeds of the Jew is the Virgin Mary, who not only protects and embraces the martyr Adam, but also is instrumental in returning a stray and wayward priest to the fold. However, unlike other Marian miracle stories, in this case, the Jewish protagonists are neither punished not converted to Christianity. Mary is seemingly unable or unwilling to bring about their conversion and bring them into the Christian fold. Hence, written in the build up to the expulsion of the Jews from England and the first account of the ritual desecration of the host in Paris in 1290, this tale is a cautionary one in that it questions the efficacy of Jewish conversion and establishes a clear impermeable boundary between the satanic Jew and the Christian commenwealth. Keywords: Virgin MaryRitual murderJewsChristiansConversionEngland Notes 1 A catalogue of the Harleian manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1808), vol. 1, 484. Joseph Jacobs in his important The Jews of Angevin England included an illustration from the manuscript of a Jew stabbing a crucified Christian child, but did not treat the case itself. J. Jacobs, The Jews of Angevin England: documents and records (London, 1893), 152. Michael Adler in his study of the Jews of Bristol before the expulsion provided a short précis of the story, about which he wrote: ‘it is full of interest, but its value as history is open to serious doubt’. M. Adler, ‘The Jews of Bristol in pre-expulsion eays’, Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society of England, 12 (1931), 117-86 and especially 127-8. While Adler had intended to prepare an edition, it took another 65 years for this to be accomplished, this recently by a German historian, Christoph Cluse. See C. Cluse, ‘“Fabula ineptissima”: Die Ritualmordlegende um Adam von Bristol nach der Handschrift London, British Library, Harley 957’, Aschkenas, 5 (1995) 293-330. Robert Stacey has prepared an English translation of the text, as yet unpublished, which he very kindly made available to me. It is of passing interest that Gavin Langmuir who has written quite extensively about blood libels in general and the events in Norwich and Lincoln in particular, has totally ignored this very interesting and illuminating manuscript. 2 See W.C. Jordan, ‘Marian devotion and the Talmud trial of 1240’, Religionsgespräche im Mittelalter (Wiesbaden, 1992), 67-70. 3 See M. Rubin, ‘Mary’, History Workshop Journal, 58 (2004) 9, 11-2 and her Gentile tales: the narrative assault on late medieval Jews (New Haven and London, 1999), 7-39. 4 R.R. Mundill, England's Jewish solution: experiment and expulsion, 1262-1290 (Cambridge, 1998), 248-85. It is important to take into account the expulsion a year earlier of the Jews of Gascony. This was surely Edward's decision and most of the proceeds went to the Mendicants. 5 R. Vaughan, The illustrated chronicles of Matthew Paris: observations of thirteenth-century life (Cambridge, 1993), x. 6 Thus, in his treatment of the last days of Robert Grosseteste (d. 1253), bishop of Lincoln in the Chronica maiora, we find Matthew recording excerpts of the bishop's criticism of elements in the Church including the papacy and the mendicants, and then we are informed of the amazing miraculous event accompanying his death. Both are treated with the same seriousness and care. The same juxtaposition is found in a long chapter that sums up the first half of the thirteenth century, with events like the fall of Damietta and the wars in Normandy side by side with occurrences that seem to portend the end of the world, such as earthquakes and meteor showers. 7 See S. Menache, ‘Matthew Paris's attitudes toward Anglo-Jewry’, Journal of Medieval History, 23:2 (1997), 139-62 and her ‘Faith, myth and politics: the stereotype of the Jews and their expulsion from England and France’, The Jewish Quarterly Review, 75:4 (1985), 351-74. 8 R. Stacey, ‘1240-60: a watershed in Anglo-Jewish Relations?’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 61 (1988), 149-50. 9 This legend, of Byzantine origin, is first reported in Adamnanus of Hy's De locis sanctis where it is presented as the tale of a visitor from the East. It becomes very popular during the twelfth century in collections of miracles of the Virgin. See C. Cluse, ‘Stories of breaking and taking the cross: a possible context for the Oxford incident of 1268’, Revue d' Histoire Ecclésiastique, 90 (1995), 417-8. 10 Matthaei Parisiensis Monachi Sancti Albani Chronica Maiora, ed. H.R. Luard, 7 vols (Rolls Series, 57, London, 1872-83), vol. 5, 114-5. 11 It seems that Jews were increasingly involved in criminal activities during the thirteenth century. This is probably due to the economic situation which became more pressing. On this issue see Z. Rokeah, ‘The money and the hangman: crimes of coinage attributed to Jews and Christians in the second half of the 13th Century’ (Hebrew), in: Exile and return: Anglo-Jewry through the ages, ed. D.S. Katz and Y. Kaplan (Jerusalem 1993), 27-46. 12 See P. Hyam, ‘The Jewish minority in mediaeval England, 1066-1290’, Journal of Jewish Studies, 25 (1974), 282-3. 13 J.A. Giles, Matthew Paris' English history, 3 vols (London, 1852; repr. New York, 1968), vol. 3, 139. 14 Matthew also reports another ritual murder occurring in London, in 1240. See Giles, English history, vol 2, 21-2. For an analysis of this ritual murder accusation, see G. Langmuir, Towards a definition of antisemitism (Los Angeles 1990), 237-62. 15 Matthew writing for the year 1224: Oh dolore, oh plusquam dolore, fratres minores venerant in Angliam (‘O misery, O more than misery, the Friars Minor came to England’). See J. Moorman, The Franciscans in England (London and Oxford 1974), 21. 16 Matthaei Parisiensis, ed. Luard, vol. 5, 546. Ipsi vero, ut perhibit mundus, si mundo in tali casu credendam est, mediante pecunia ipsos suis precibus et intercessione et a carcere et a morte, quam meruerant, Judeos liberarunt; ut pie credendum arbitror, spiritu ducti pietatis, quia quamdiu quis in via est in hoc mundo, quia liberum habet arbitrium, salvari potest, et sperandum spes de eo. Pro diabolo autem aut manifeste dampnatis non est sperendum nec orandum, quia non est spes de ipsis. Mors enim et diffinitiva sententia ipsos semel irrevocabiliter illaqueavit. Nec potuit eos haec ratio excusare, quin, licet inculpabiles, scandalum eos denigraret. Populus autem plebeius, ne ipsis, ut prius, in elomosinis suis benefacerent, manum retraxerunt. 17 See C.W. Connell, ‘Western views of the origin of the “Tartars”: an example of the influence of myth in the second half of the thirteenth century’, The Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 3 (1973), 115-37. 18 Matthaei Parisiensis, ed. Luard, vol. 3, 488-89. quoddam genus hominum monstruosum et inhumanum, ex montibus borealibus propuisse … hi quoque capita habentes, magna nimis et nequaquam corporis proportionata, carnibus crudis et etiam humanis vescuntur. Regarding the Assassins, Matthew Paris says “principaliter ex parte Veteris de Monte”, that they represented the Old Man of the Mountain, a translation from the Arabic, shaikh al-jabal. See J.J. Saunders, ‘Matthew Paris and the Mongols’ in: Essays in Medieval History presented to B. Wilkinson, ed. T.A. Sandquist and M.R. Powicke (Toronto 1969) 117-22. Matthew also reports the eventual destruction of the Assassins by Helegu in 1256. See Matthaei Parisiensis, ed. Luard, vol. 5, 655. 19 Matthaei Parisiensis, ed. Luard, vol. 4, 76-8. Ne mortalium gaudia contuentur, ne sine lamentis mundana laetitia diu celebratur, eadem anno, plebs sathanae detestanda, Tartorum scilicet exercitus infinitus a regione sua montibus circumvallata prorupit … exuentes ad instar daemonum solutorum a tartaro … veri enim sunt inhumani et bestiales, potius monstra dicendi quam homines, sanguinem sitientes et bebentes, carnes caninas et humanas laniantes et devorantes. 20 See also the Dominican, William of Rubruck's account of his mission to the Mongols where he tries, without success, to uncover information about Alexander's barriers which supposedly shut out the Jews. The mission of Friar William of Rubruck: his journey to the court of the Great Khan Möngke, ed. and trans. P. Jackson (London, 1990), 261. See also the discussion in A.C. Gow, The red Jews: antisemitism in an apocalyptic age 1200-1600 (Leiden, New York and Koln, 1995), 53-63. Matthew includes a number of letters written by important personages regarding the threat presented by the Mongols. Among them a letter (c. 1241) from Henry Raspe, landgrave of Thuringia and Saxony to Henry I, duke of Brabant (1235-48) again playing on the same themes already mentioned, the end of days, images of the devil (‘their teeth are bloody and their jaws ever so ready to eat the flesh of men and to drink human blood’) and of course cannibalism. Chronicle, vol. 3, 450-1 (1257). Other letters included in the chronicle, such as that from Ivo of Narbonne, a clerk of the archbishop of Bordeaux (undated, but inserted in 1243), just enhanced what must have been uppermost in the imagination and minds of contemporary Christians: the equation between the Antichrist, the devil and the Mongols. 21 A short part of this story was translated into Hebrew by A.Z. Aescoli, Jewish messianic movements (Jerusalem, 1987), 213 as part of the messianic fervour awakened by the Mongols. However, he seems to have not understood that the Jews were trying to trick the Christian authorities into allowing them to send the Mongols the barrels filled with weapons, by claiming that they were full of poisoned wine. Aescoli could not understand why the Jews who were seemingly helping the Christians were then hanged. See S. Menache, ‘Tartars, Jews, Saracens, and the “Jewish-Mongol plot” of 1241’, History, 81 (1996), 319-42. 22 See The life and miracles of St William of Norwich, ed. and trans. A. Jessopp and M.R. James (Cambridge, 1896), 93-4. See also Langmuir, Towards a definition of antisemitism, 224-5 and the interesting, but strange and disturbing spin put on this evidence by M.D. Anderson, A saint at stake: the strange death of William of Norwich 1144 (London, 1964), 73, 106-8 who actually makes Theobald an eyewitness to the murder. 23 Narbonne as the place for the Jews yearly assembly is probably based on the tradition that the Jews had been granted religious autonomy there under the rule of a Nasi (a Jewish patriarch from the seed of King David) by the Carolingians. See J. Cohen, ‘The Nasi of Narbonne: a problem in medieval historiography’, AJS Review, 2 (1977), 45-76. The location of these secret meetings in the south of France is interesting in itself, perhaps suggesting an awareness that the Midi was considered a turbulent and disturbing place. In an area where heresy abounded in the twelfth century, and is connected with other heretical sects international councils, such as the important one held at St Félix de Caraman, near Toulouse, by the Cathars between 1174-76, it is conceivable that the northern chronicles that place the yearly Jewish councils in that area, reflect that greater fear of the purported religious anarchy there. See M. Lambert, Medieval Heresy (Oxford, 1992), 59, 126-8. See also the description of events in 1255 in the Annales de Burton, Annales Monastici, ed. H.R. Luard (Rolls Series, London, 1864), vol. 1, 340-8 and especially 341. 24 Matthaei Parisiensis, ed. Luard, vol. 4, 131-3. Toleraverunt igitur Christiani, ut ipsi Judaei tale xenium scelerati sceleratis optulissent. Matthew Paris was obviously aware of the classical tradition regarding the name for the place of punishment of the wicked in Tartarus: Scelerata sedes, and he plays with the words associating the Mongols with Tartarus and both the Jews and the Mongols with the devil and hell. See Vergilius, Aeneis, 6, 563 and Ovidius, Metamorphosis, 4, 455. 25 Matthaei Parisiensis, ed. Luard, vol. 4, 133. omnibus in propatulo monstraverunt fraudis inauditae laqueos absconditus Judeaorum, qui publicis mundis hostibus, qui, ut dicebatur, armis maxime indigebant, malverunt subvenire, quam Christianis, qui inter-se ipsos tolerant conversari. See also Menache, ‘Matthew Paris's attitude towards Anglo-Jewry’, 142-3. See also the manuscript collection examined by R. Nisse, ‘“Your name will no longer be Aseneth”: Apocrypha, anti-martyrdom and Jewish conversion in thirteenth-century England’, Speculum, 81 (2006), 734-53 where again the Jews are linked with the Mongol onslaught. 26 See for example the crude sketch of a Jew on an Essex forest eyre roll in 1277, where the clerk has scribled Aaron fil'diaboli. The clerk is clearly just expressing a common conception of the Jew. See Hyams, ‘The Jewish Minority in Mediaeval England’, 279. 27 ‘Fabula’, 306. 28 ‘Fabula’, 308. 29 ‘Fabula’, 310. quare me comburis tota nocte? Ego sum deus Abraham et deus Ysaac et deus Jacob, quem quarto nunc cruci affixisti, et adhuc me comburis. Desine miser desine, omnipotens est quem tu persequeris. 30 See R. Stacey, ‘Jews and Christians in twelfth-century England’, in: Jews and Christians in twelfth-century Europe, ed. M.A. Signer and J. Van Engen (Notre Dame, 2001), 344-5 who sees the use of language in the tale as a key to defining the threatening presence of the Jews who speak a language not understood by others (Hebrew) and another spoken by the enemy (French). 31 ‘Fabula’, 310-1. 32 ‘Fabula’, 312. Cum me apposuissetis ad ignem magnum, venit ad me valde pulchra domina et sedit inter me et ignem, et ait mihi lingua anglicana deosculans me quam diu eram iuxta ignem, “fili hac nocte venies ad patrem tuum et matrem, et guadebis cum eis”. 33 ‘Fabula’, 312.Vidi, a dexteris meis puerum deosculantem vulnera manuum mearum et pedum et dicentem mihi, “tu frater meus est dilectus”. 34 ‘Fabula’, 312. 35 ‘Fabula’, 313. 36 ‘Fabula’, 313. Maledictus sit christus tuus, quia a me tulit hac nocte filium et uxorem. 37 ‘Fabula’, 314. 38 ‘Fabula’, 316. Ad contumeliam Christi Ihesu Nazerani dei sui quem semper hodio habui veementer et matrem illius. 39 ‘Fabula’, 316. Heu Samuel, heu frater dilecte, male operatus es, amicum dei sanctum interemisti. 40 On the medieval fear of leprosy, see R. Palmer, ‘The Church, leprosy and plague in medieval and early modern Europe’, in: The Church and healing, ed. W.J. Sheils (Studies in Church History, 19, Oxford, 1982), 79-99. R. Stacey suggests that in his chronicle, Matthew Paris makes the association between excrement and Jews. Perhaps the author is playing with the symbolic notion of the pig eating Jews and therefore being unpalatable for Christians as they might end up eating Jews. In other words, like the fish who ate the Jews who were murdered at the expulsion, who then might be caught and eaten by Christians, this is another way of showing that Jews cannot become part of the Christian communitas. See R. Stacey, ‘1240-60’, 149-50. This might also be a reference to the fact that the Jews were commonly identified with the pig. They nursed from the pig and developed its illnesses such as leprosy. Again the lines between Jew and Christian in this tale are clearly drawn through this identification of the Jew with the pig, leprosy and excrement. See C. Fabre-Vassas, The singular beast: Jews, Christians, and the pig (New York, 1994), 97-128. 41 ‘Fabula’, 317-9. 42 ‘Fabula’, 322. Et dixerunt qui astabant christiani ingredientibus peregrines: “Nolite ingredi, domus enim judei est”. At illi non intellexerunt linguam Anglicanum, Hyberniensis errant. 43 ‘Fabula’, 322. 44 ‘Fabula’, 323. Et statim egressus venit ad sacerdotum, vicinum sedentem cum uxora sua. 45 ‘Fabula’, 325. et veniam commissorum ad plenum consequetur. 46 ‘Fabula’, 325. O bone vir, crede in Ihesum Christum, deum omnipotentem, et baptizaris in vera penitencia et confitere mihi peccata tua, et veniam consequeris a deo. 47 ‘Fabula’, 327. 48 Language also plays a significent element in the narrative, in that there is a clear dichotomy between those who understand and those who do not. The narrative and the litergical parts are in Latin, the language of the Church, the language by which the priest mediates between his congregation and God. Only the Jews understand the divine voice that speaks to them from the cross and from the fire, as it speaks in Hebrew. Even Adam admits that he does not understand what was said, and the Virgin speaks to him in English. The Irish priest confesses his sins in French, but he and his retinue do not understand English well. This is important as it allows them to enter Samuel's house even though neighbours tell them in English that the house belongs to a Jew. It is important for the narrative that they enter the house so that the salvific nature of Mary becomes manifest. However, the end of the narrative is a clear indication that one language is above all others; the language of the Church and Christianity. 49 See R.S. Stacey, ‘From ritual crucifixion to host desecration: Jews and the body of Christ’, Jewish History, 12 (1998), 19-20. In his analysis if this account, Stacey highlights its Eucharistic elements and also sees it as pointing the way towards Host desecration accusations. See also I.J. Yuval, “Two Nations in Your Womb”: Perceptions of Jews and Christians in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, (Berkeley 2006) pp. 190-200 who uses this text (as part of a larger thesis) to make the case for Jewish-Christian polemic over the depiction of their respective martyrs based on the liturgical passages which appear in the text. 50 See Gautier de Coinci, Les miracles de Nostre Dame, ed. V.F. Koenig, 4 vols (Geneva, Paris and Lille, 1955-70). See also G. Dahan, ‘Les Juifs dans les miracles de Gautier de Coincy’, Archives juives, 16 (1980) 41-8, 59-68; W.C. Jordan, The French monarchy and the Jews (Pennsylvania, 1989), 43-7 and W.C. Jordan, ‘Marian devotion’, 70-3. 51 See The Stella Maris of John of Garland: together with a study of certain collections of Mary legends made in northern France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, ed. E.F. Wilson (The Medieval Academy of America Publications, 45, Cambridge, MA, 1946), 3-76 where there is a very detailed discussion of the different Marian collections and the inter-relationship between them. 52 See Rubin, Gentile tales, 10-6. Gautier's version, which was very popular, indicates his horror of the Jews and advocates expulsion. 53 See Stacey, ‘From ritual crucifixion’, 11-25. 54 R. Stacey, ‘The conversion of Jews to Christianity in thirteenth-century England’, Speculum, 67:2 (1992), 278. 55 This is also supported by the fact that many converts chose to remain in the Domus Conversorum even after 1290, because of the difficulties they faced becoming integrated into English society. The Domus Conversorum was a half-way house whereby the converted Jews still lived with people immediately recognisable to them with shared a common past. See Stacey, ‘The conversion of Jews to Christianity’, 273-5. See also R. Nisse, ‘Your name will no longer be Aseneth’, 737-53 for the ambivalence towards conversion expressed in English sources in the thirteenth century. 56 It is interesting that this tale takes place in the east where both Jews and Christians are subject to Muslims. This is not a pure Christian environment and perhaps reflects criticism of Christian space as always being corrupt. L. Patterson (see the following note) suggests that it shows the dependence of Christianity on Judaism in the past, present and future in: ‘“The living witness of our redemption”: martyrdom and imitation in Chaucer's Prioress's Tale’, Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 31:3 (2001), 542. 57 L. Patterson, ‘The Living Witness of our Redemption’, 507-60. See also J. Wittman, ‘On the boundaries of civilization: the Jew in English literature in the late middle ages’ (Hebrew), in: Exile and Return, ed. Katz, 68-79. 58 Interestingly, in a sermon delivered in Florence in 1304, Giordano da Rivalto brings together all these different motifs. He tells the audience about the host desecration in Paris, then the tale of the Jewish boy with a child appearing in the host and then a case of ritual murder in Apulia which brought about the expulsion of the Jews from the Kingdom of Sicily. The ritual murder supposedly happened in 1290. Rubin, Gentile tales, 27. 59 The book at one time belonged to William Spynk, prior of the Cathedral in Norwich from 1488-1502. See Cluse, ‘Fabula ineptissima’, 294. 60 Bristol was a good place for the setting of the tale as the town had a significant Jewish community from the 1170s, though in the years immediately prior to the expulsion the community was not very large or well to do. In the late twelfth century, members of the community, such as Moses b. Isaac, were very involved with the slave trade from Ireland, though the latter was effectively stopped after the conquest of Ireland by Earl Strongbow for Henry II. However, the presence of an Irish priest on the streets of Bristol on his way to Rome in the 1180s would have made sense. See Adler, ‘The Jews of Bristol in pre-expulsion days’, 128-9, 164-73. 61 The concept of the hermeneutical Jew is taken from J. Cohen, Living letters of the law: ideas of the Jew in medieval Christianity (Berkeley, 1999), 1-6. 62 See K.F. Morrison, Understanding conversion (Charlottesville and London, 1992), xvi.
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