SCAPEGOATING & CONSPIRACY
THEORIES:
IMAGE OF JEWS IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE
I. Medieval Image of Jews:
A. New
Testament:
special association
between Devil & Jews as "Christkillers"
John 8:42-44 Christ to Jews:
"If God were
your father you would love me ... you are of
your
father the devil ... a murderer from the beginning."
Revelations 2:9:
"I know the blasphemy
of them that say they are Jews and are not
but
are a synagogue of Satan." (= common term for Jews in MA)
B. Medieval legends, stories
13th C. legend of the "wandering Jew"; Jews as sorcerers, magicians
C. CRUSADES:
1095 Crusade begins
in France, first turns on "enemy within"
1096 massacres of
Jews in Rhineland cities (Speyer, Mainz,
Worms, Trier, Cologne)
before Crusaders march to Holy Land
D. MILLENARIANISM & COMING OF ANTI-CHRIST:
Eschatology: study of "last things," signs of last days,
including
Four Horsemen of the
Apocalypse: war, famine, plague, revolution;
Armageddon: battle
betw. forces of good & evil, Christ vs anti-Christ;
Anti Christ: son
of devil & Jewish harlot (inversion of Christ)
MILLENIUM:
1,000 year reign,
kingdom of God on earth after Armageddon
E. PASSION
PLAYS --
religious dramas performed
during Easter week, represent
Jews
as allied with Devil in arranging for Crucifixion of Christ
15th C. Germany: Herzog
von Burgund: Jews awaiting anti-Christ;
false
Messiah unmasked as Jew; crimes agst Christian children
II. IMAGE OF JEWS AS SORCERERS
A. Theophilus Legend:
Byzantine apostate
priest turns to Jewish magician,
pact
with devil; theme: Christians receiving magical powers from Jews
B. King Solomon as alleged author of Clavicle or Key of
Solomon
major
source of medieval learned magic,
spells
use Hebrew names of God as source of magical power
(Yahweh, Adonai, Tetragrammaton,
etc.)
France, 1254:
Louis
IX orders burning of Jewish Talmud (commentary)as necromancy
C. Jewish magical tradition: Kabbalah as magical texts of Judaism
Legend of Zambri:
source of magical power = Hebrew names of God
Jewish ritual objects
(eg MEZUZAH) used as charms by Christians
legal codes: laws
against sorcery including in sections on Jews
III. Jews in role as "enemy within" (scapegoats)
POISONING: common charge against Jewish physicians (Bernardino of Siena)
WELL POISONING CONSPIRACY:
1321,
southern France, allied w/ Moslems, lepers
forged
"letter" from King of Tunis as evidence of plot
1323: expulsion of
Jews from France for lese majeste, treason
1291: earlier expelled
from England by Edward I (financial motive)
ARSON:
Bavaria
1337: massacre of Jews for setting city Deggendorf on fire
PROFANATION OF HOST:
context of Christian
Eucharistic emphasis of 13th C:
scholastic doctrine
of transubstantiation: bread = body of Christ:
Jews skeptics on divinity
of Christ and on "real presence" in Host
1215
Lateran IV: requirement for yearly Communion;
also
requirements for marking Jews (with yellow patch)
1243:
first accusation of host desecration in Belitz (near Berlin)
entire
Jewish population of town burned as punishment
1510: last large case, 26 Jews burned
(later examples occur
in 19th C. in East Europe)
RITUAL MURDER: charge of killing and sacrificing infants (Cohn,
Ch. 1)
records
for 150 cases from 12th & 16th C.;
charge is both similar
to & different from accusations against witches
alleged motive: need
blood of Christian (child) for Passover meal
1144
William of Norwich, England: first such case, no trial
1475 Simon of Trent,
northern Italy: trial against group of Jews
Sources:
R.I. Moore, The
Formation of a Persecuting Society (l987)
R.
Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder: Jews
& Magic in Reformation Germany (1988)
Johsua
Trachtenburg, The Devil and the Jews: the
medieval conception of the Jew
and
its relationship to modern anti-Semitism (1943)
Claudine
Fabre-Vassas, The Singular Beast: Jews, Christians & the Pig (1997)