Human Sacrifice in Folklore and Mythology Codexery

Blood libel

Antisemitic trope falsely accusing Jews of ritual murder.

Blood libel is an antisemitic trope that falsely accuses Jews of murdering Christians to use their blood in religious rituals.[1][2] The accusation originally emerged in late antiquity against early Christians, then was revived a millennium later as a slander against Jews.[3][2] From the medieval era into the present, the blood libel, together with accusations of well poisoning and host desecration, formed a central element in the persecution of Jews throughout Europe.[4][2]

Quick Facts

First medieval example
1140s, Kingdom of England
Notable alleged victims
  • William of Norwich (1144)
  • Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (1255)
  • Simon of Trent (1475)
Canonized alleged victim
Gabriel of Białystok (Russian Orthodox Church)
Ottoman firman against libel
1553 or 1554 (Suleiman the Magnificent)
Shiraz blood libel
1910, 12 Jews killed
Field
Antisemitic trope
Known for
False accusation of ritual murder of Christians by Jews
Associated victims
  • William of Norwich
  • Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln
  • Simon of Trent

Facts from the source article.

Key facts and history

The earliest known antecedent is from the tenth century, when Damocritus alleged that Jews captured and sacrificed a stranger every seven years.[5][2] Thomas of Monmouth falsely claimed that an annual Jewish council chose a country for killing a Christian child during Easter.[6] In 1235, after five boys' bodies were found in Fulda, inhabitants claimed Jews killed them for blood, and 34 Jews were burned with Crusaders' help.[7][2] Pope Innocent IV in 1247 ordered prelates to annul measures against Jews based on the ritual murder libel.[8][9]

The earliest medieval blood libel accusations in England date to the mid-1100s, starting with the 1144 case in Norwich where Jews were falsely blamed for the death of a boy named William of Norwich.[6][2] The initial recorded blood libel beyond England occurred in Blois, France, in 1171, where approximately 31 to 33 Jews, including 17 women, were executed by burning.[10][2] According to Jewish tradition, the blood libel accusations motivated Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel to create the Golem of Prague during the 16th century.[11][2]

What the cited sources add

The Pope Innocent IV source records his 1247 statement that clergy and princes falsely devised godless plans against Jews, charging them with dividing a murdered boy's heart on Passover.[8][9] The "Early Medieval Origins" account adds that in the Blois case, the burned bodies were supposedly maintained unblemished, a well-known miracle and martyr myth.[2] The source "Early Medieval Origins and Continued Use of Blood Libels against Jews" explains that the blood libels arose during a period when the church and the Crusades were fostering increasingly anti-Jewish attitudes.[2]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Blood libel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gottheil, "Blood Accusation", Funk & Wagnalls, 1901–1906; "The Blood Libel Legend: A Casebook in Anti-Semitic Folklore", University of Wisconsin Press, 1991, p. 266; Turvey, Brent E. Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis, Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual murder m; Chanes, Jerome A. Antisemitism: A Reference Handbook, ABC-CLIO, 2004, pp. 34–45. "Among the most serious of these [anti-Jewish] manifestations, which reverberat; Goldish, Matt. Jewish Questions: Responsa on Sephardic L en.wikipedia.org
  2. "Early Medieval Origins and Continued Use of Blood Libels against Jews", 2024-09-30. facts only, no text reused. brewminate.com
  3. Wikipedia, "Blood libel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Emanuele D'Antonio, Jewish Self-Defense against the Blood Libel in Mid-Nineteenth Century Italy: the Badia Affair and Proceedings of the Castilliero Trial (1855; Norman Cohn, Europe's Inner Demons, (1975) Paladin Books 1976 pp. 1–8.; Albert Ehrman, 'The Origins of the Ritual Murder Accusation and Blood Libel,' Tradition vol. 14, No. 4 Spring 1976 p. 83 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Blood libel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Chanes, Jerome A. Antisemitism: A Reference Handbook, ABC-CLIO, 2004, pp. 34–45. "Among the most serious of these [anti-Jewish] manifestations, which reverberat (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Blood libel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Blood Accusation in Jewish Encyclopedia. (Richard Gottheil, Hermann L. Strack, Joseph Jacobs). Accessed 31 October 2018. Note that the version of the Jewish Enc; Patterson, "Anti-Semitism and Its Metaphysical Origins", Cambridge University Press, 2015, p. 1 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Blood libel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Langham, "William of Norwich", The Jewish Historical Society of England, 10 March 2008}};{{br; (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Blood libel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "1235: 34 Jews Burned to Death in First 'Blood Cannibalism' Case", Haaretz, 2014-12-28; "Blood Libel" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Blood libel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pope Innocent IV, Catholic Encyclopedia (1910), Vol. 8, pp. 393–394 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Pope Innocent IV, Catholic Encyclopedia (1910), Vol. 8, pp. 393–394. facts only, no text reused. newadvent.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Blood libel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Albert Ehrman, "The Origins of the Ritual Murder Accusation and Blood Libel," Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought, Vol. 15, No. 4 (Spring 1976): 85.; Susan L. Einbinder "Pucellina of Blois: Romantic Myths and Narrative Conventions," Jewish History, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Spring 1998): 29; "Heritage: Civilization and the Jews: Source Reader", Praeger Special Studies, 1984, p. 134; Trachtenberg, "The Devil and the Jews, The Medieval Conception of the Jew and its Relation to Modern Anti-Semitism", Yale University Press, 1943; Susan L. Ein en.wikipedia.org
  11. Wikipedia, "Blood libel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Angelo S. Rappoport The Folklore of the Jews (London: Soncino Press, 1937), pp. 195–203" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Blood libel (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

More in Human Sacrifice in Folklore and Mythology

Book of AbrahamBridge of ArtaCallirhoë (Calydonian woman)Cleostratus (mythology)Comaetho (priestess)CoresusCrom CruachDemophon of ElaeusDomaldeIdomeneus (son of Deucalion)IphigeniaMacaria (daughter of Heracles)

Spotted an error? Know more?

Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced

Comments

Loading…
Open in the interactive codex →