The Papal Promise of Protection 85
thirteenth-century Chronica majora in which a rich Jew suffocates his wife after she
has cleaned a statue of the Virgin Mary that he had defiled in a latrine, the male
Jew is again depicted as the villain.104
Some have argued that during the twelfth century the rise in devotion to the
Virgin Mary, the popularity of the Marian Tale, and the depiction of the christ-
child in iconography and literature not only affected the development of accusa-
tions of ritual murder but that writers deliberately used them to manipulate the
emotions of christian communities and thus foster a more united christian iden-
tity.105 it was important that a boy be at the centre of these accusations since this
provided an explicit connection with the image of the suffering infant-christ, with
the boy becoming a symbol of the christ-child, since a male child rather than
an adult was the supposedly ideal symbol for a mock crucifixion.106 That would
explain why although, for example, in the case at Winchester in 1225, no child’s
corpse was ever found, an accusation of ritual murder was still brought against the
Jews. What mattered was what the murder of the child was supposed to represent.
other historians have argued that such accusations resulted from a christian
sense of guilt and inadequacy at child rearing and a transference of these feelings
onto their Jewish neighbours, who, increasingly living in particular sections of the
town, were likely to be extremely vigilant about the activities of their children.107
Their decision to live apart from their christian neighbours might be choice—to
preserve their Jewish identity and maintain the autonomy and cohesion of their
communities—or as a result of coercion by civil or religious authorities. hence, for
example, in 1267 the Synod of Breslau ordered Jews to live in a segregated quarter
of the city. however, whether or not Jews were more watchful of their children
than their christian counterparts, it seems very unlikely that christians would see
Jews as better parents. More probably ritual murder was becoming an urban myth,
a popular explanation of the occasional disappearance and death of christian chil-
dren which otherwise could not be explained.108
closely linked to charges of ritual murder was the charge of blood libel: that Jews
practised ritual murder for the express purpose of obtaining christian blood, as
alleged at fulda in 1235. Many medieval christians believed in the supernatural
powers of blood, particularly since, according to popular medicine, the human
body was understood in terms of balance, so that too much or too little blood could
cause illness; hence medical practice included bloodletting at certain times of the
moon’s cycle. They may also have believed that Jews had an especially complex
relationship with blood, partly because they knew they circumcised their baby boys,
partly because male Jews in particular were believed to suffer from haemorrhoids
104 Anthony Bale, ‘fictions of Judaism in england before 1290’, in The Jews in Medieval Britain:
Historical, Literary and Archaeological Perspectives, ed. P. Skinner (Woodbridge, 2003), p.136.
105 Bale, ‘fictions of Judaism in england before 1290’, pp.129–35.
106 on the cult of William of Norwich, see ronald finucane, Miracles and Pilgrims: Popular Beliefs
in Medieval England (London, 1977), pp.118–21; The Christ Child in Medieval Culture: Alpha Es et
O!, ed. M. dzon, T. M. Kenney (Toronto, 2012), p.84, passim.
107 Martin Goodman, The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Studies (oxford, 2002), p.167.
108 irvene resnick, Marks of Distinction: Christian Perceptions of Jews in the High Middle Ages
(Washington d.c., 2012), p.243; pp.194–206.