William of Norwich

Saint William of Norwich (1132? - 22 March 1144) was an English boy whose violent death was attributed to the entire Jewish community of Norwich. Although it was alleged that there had been other similar cases of ritual murder by Jews throughout European history, it is the first known medieval allegation of ritual murder or blood libel against Jews.

William, as a 12-year old boy, was an apprentice tanner who regularly came into contact with Jews and visited their homes as part of his trade. He was last seen entering the home of a local Jewish family, before disappearing until his mutilated body was found. Jewish suspects were indicted before a grand jury. The Sheriff intervened on the basis that the grand jury did not have authority to try the accused, who were direct subjects of the King. The accused were released and the crime remained unresolved. Subsequently, William was venerated as a martyr and held up as a symbol of peasant liberty against Jewish anti-Christianity and noble avarice. He was shortly thereafter regarded as a local saint in Norwich after miracles were attributed to him.

The account is recorded in The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich^[1], a Latin work written about 1173 by Thomas of Monmouth. Thomas was a monk in the Norwich Benedictine monastery, who has been described as "an exceedingly credulous person" by historians and whose writings are the basis of numerous historical accounts. However, the historian, Dr. Jessopp of Norwich, one of the editors of Thomas' work, believes that Thomas belongs to the class of those who are "deceivers and being deceived."[3]

[edit] The background

The Catholic Encyclopedia [4] states the facts of the case, as accounted by Thomas, as follows:

...a boy's corpse showing signs of a violent death was found in Thorpe Wood near Norwich. It was not touched until Easter Monday, where it was buried without any ceremony where it lay. In the meantime a number of young men and boys had visited the spot and the Jews were suspected of the murder on account of the nature of the wounds ... The body was recognized as that of William, a tanner's apprentice, who with his master had been in the habit of frequenting the houses of certain Jews. The grave was opened by William's uncle, the priest Godwin Stuart, the body recognized, the burial Office read, and the grave recovered. A few days later the diocesan synod met under the presidence of Bishop Eborard, and Stuart accused the Jews of the murder, and offered to prove his accusation by ordeal. But the Jews of the Norwich Jewry were the king's men and under the protection of the sheriff, who pointed out that the bishop had no jurisdiction in the case. The failure to secure a condemnation against the Jews seems to have been largely due to the presence of this strong official who held the castle of Norwich. The only result of Sturt's action at this time was to secure the translation of the body from Thorpe Wood to the monks' cemetery on 24 April.

The story of a servant woman is presented:

Next day the messenger and William were seen to enter a Jew's house and from that time William was never again seen alive. On the Wednesday, after a service in the synagogue, the Jews lacerated his head with thorns, crucified him, and pierced his side. For this last scene Thomas produces the evidence of a Christian-serving woman, who, with one eye only, caught sight through a crack in a door of a boy fastened to a post, as she was bringing some hot water at her master's order, presumably to cleanse the body. She afterwards found a boy's belt in the room and in after years pointed out to Thomas the marks of the martyrdom in the room. When, a month after the martyrdom, the body was washed in the cathedral, thorn points were found in the head and traces of martyrdom in the hands, feet, and sides.

One may note that the account does not mention the collection of William's blood nor of the reason for the alleged ritual murder.

[edit] The Jews of medieval Norwich

A Jewish community is thought to have been established in Norwich by 1135, although a man called 'Isaac' is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. Most lived in a Jewish quarter or Jewry, located in what is now the Haymarket and White Lion Street.^[2] This is very close to Norwich Castle, a pattern seen in other English towns which may have been for reasons of security. The Norwich community subsequently became one of the most important in England.

Anti-Jewish sentiment erupted in 1144, with William's death and the subsequent baronial obstruction to the investigation. His body was found upon Mousehold Heath, an extensive woodland to the North-East of Norwich that still exists. Court records clearly suggest that the boy was tortured and before his murder (it was not the custom at the time to perform an autopsy). As a result of the obstruction of justice the local community revolted against the authorities and attempted to form a free-court to hold a trial against the accused. Only the intervention of the local sheriff, representing the king, saved the Jewish suspects from the mob. The case of William of Norwich can be seen to be a creation of an 'antisemitic' stereotype which long endured; for instance, William of Norwich was depicted on a late-medieval bridge in the German city of Frankfurt.

[edit] Canonization

The motive of the clergy – in particular, William de Turbeville (Bishop of Norwich 1146-1174) – to establish a cultus may have been partly pecuniary. De Turbeville encouraged Thomas of Monmouth, a Benedictine monk who lived in Norwich to write The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich. Monmouth was contemporary to the events he describes. His Latin work written about 1173 is the source of all subsequent folk-lore and myth upon William of Norwich. One might note that it was written a generation after the events it claims to depict.

Before any attempt at an autopsy as to how the boy met his death, the Prior tried to get the body for Lewes Priory in Sussex, for he realized that it might become an object ‘of conspicuous veneration and worship.’

There is little evidence of a flourishing cult of William in Norwich, although offerings were made at his tomb until the sixteenth century. There was a scholars' guild dedicated to St William in the Norfolk town of Lynn.

[edit] Conclusion

Although proper inquiry was made by the initial court resulting in certain facts^[clarify] being established the trial was never completed. Although the motives of William's family is clear and understandable, the motives of the local nobility as well as the King has been questioned, leading the contemporaries^[who?] as well as most historians^[who?] to conclude a conspiracy to silence the investigation was made.

One of the eyewitnesses to William's abduction was made by a local servant and recounted by Thomas, and is powerful in testimony. However, some revisionist historians^[who?] have said that Thomas wrote his account from court documents nearly 29 years after the murder, suspecting that the eyewitness account is a forgery.

What is certain is that owing to the extra-legal protection by the local nobility, no action was taken against the accused Jews, though it was witnessed that William had been seen entering the house of a Jew named Deusaie or Eleazar.^[3]

As a result of the feelings generated by the William ritual murder story and subsequent intervention by the authorities on behalf of the accused, the growing suspicion of collusion between the ruling class and Jews only fueled the general anti-Jewish and anti-King Stephen mood of the population. When Richard obtained power it was felt a new reform of national life would occur. Consequently, with the increase in national opinion in favor of a Crusade, and the residual anger over the Judeo-Islamic alliance^[clarify] in the Middle East revived, the Jewish deputation attending the coronation of Richard the Lionheart in 1189 was attacked by the crowd.

A widespread attack began on the Jewish population in London and York leading to massacres of Jews at London and York. The attacks were soon followed by others throughout England. As a result of Norwich's local nobility's partisanship on behalf of Crusader King Richard's opponents, the local yeomanry and peasantry revolted against the lords and attacked their supporters especially Norwich's Jewish community. On Feb 6 1190, all Norwich Jews who didn't escape to the support of the local castle were slaughtered in their village. Despite the general suspicion and displeasure of the English with the Jews, the community remained unscathed until they were expelled from all of England in 1290 and repatriated to Spain, Italy, Greece and elsewhere. Jews were not allowed to settle in England until 1655 when Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell asked Parliament to allow Jews renouncing Papal sovereignty and who were fleeing Catholic persecution in the Low Countries and France to settle under writ of Parliament.

[edit] See also

• Blood libel against Jews
• Blood libel
• The Prioress' Prologue and Tale

[edit] References

1. ^ Jessop and James, The Life and Miracles of William of Norwich by Thomas of Monmouth, Cambridge, 1897.J. See also [1]
2. ^ Ayers, Brian (1994). English Heritage Book of Norwich. Batsford. ISBN 0713475684. 
3. ^ Per Jewish Encyclopedia [2]

1. Parkes, James, The Jew in the Medieval Community: A study of his political and economic situation. Second Edition. New York: Hermon Press, 1976. p. 125

This article is based upon text (used with permission) from Aaron of Lincoln 1125-1186: the life and times of a Medieval Jew by Mae E. Sander.

See Anthony Bale, The Jew in the Medieval Book: English Antisemitisms 1350-1500 (Cambridge University Press, 2006) for a full discussion of saint cults like that of William of Norwich in medieval England.

[edit] External links

• Saint William of Norwich in the Catholic Encyclopedia
• William of Norwich in the Jewish Encyclopedia