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       (1987)
Joshua Trachtenburg, The Devil and the Jews: medieval conception of the Jew (1943)
R. Po-Chia Hsia, The Myth of Ritual Murder: Jews & Magic in Reformation Germany (1988)
Claudine Fabre-Vassas, The Singular Beast: Jews, Christians & the Pig (1997)