Taken and combined ( in order) from the following sources:
Blood Ritual - By Philip De Vier
Jewish Ritual Murder - By Arnold S. Leese
Timeline
Ancient Times
Pre-History to the Rise of Rome, ca 500 BC.
ca. 1125 BC
Sacrifice of the Daughter of Jephthah by Fire
Jephthah, an early "Judge" or ruler of part of Israel, had an earlier chapter in his life when he was a mercenary soldier. His fame as a warrior and conqueror spread back to his people, who asked him to lead them against the Ammonites. He swore to become their leader if he was victorious.
He also swore to sacrifice the first virgin who greeted him on his victorious return from battle. Unfortunately for him, when he returned from his conquest the first to greet him was his only daughter, a virgin. We can assume she knew nothing of this vile oath as she ran to greet her father.
"Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me; for I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow." [Jephthah sent her away into the mountains for two months.] "And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her [i.e., sacrificed her] according to his vow which he made."
See Judges 11:1-40
This is a clear case of a virgin female human sacrifice, not to the Devil or a pagan deity, but to the Jews' own God! See any Bible dictionary, reference Bible or Old Testament commentary for further elucidation
ca. 900 B.C.
Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, Palestine, during the Solomonic Era
Moloch, Devourer of Children
While a complex and complicated collection of writings, one of the main themes of the Old Testament is the apostasy of the Israelites, the turning away from the God who had chosen them. A fine example of this is at Mount Sinai. Moses ascended the mountain to receive the Law. The people, however, became dissatisfied, and could not even wait a few days after his departure before constructing a pagan idol of a bull, "The Golden Calf." Such Deities were common among the Semitic tribes of the Near East.
Other deities intrigued them as well. Moloch (also Moleck, Molek or Milcom) was a brutal god who demanded the sacrifice of children by fire. Both Kings Solomon and Ahaz introduced his worship, going so far as to set up a sacrificial altar on the Mount of Olives. Solomon, the most cosmopolitan, multi-cultural king of the ancient Hebrews, had quite a large harem befitting an oriental despot of his stature. Among the harem were many foreigners who were devotees of Moloch. To placate his concubines, Solomon (and later Ahaz) allowed the import of this death cult, which cruelly demanded living sacrifice of children by fire. The perverted sacrifice sect sought greater acceptance by blasphemously identifying Moloch the Devourer with Yahweh/Jehovah.
"Molech or Moloch {meaning lord or king}, a Canaanite god of fire to whom children were offered in sacrifice. Both Solomon and Ahaz were said to have introduced his worship. The cult was heathenish in the eyes of the prophetic party. But the people at large seem to have regarded Moloch as a manifestation of Jehovah."
- A New Standard Bible Dictionary
In his monumental work The History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil, Paul Carus surveys the devlopment of the Juaic conception of Satan, The following passage gives us a particularly graphic description of the odious and wicked Hebrew human sacrifices to this hideous deity.
"The Jewish idea of Satan received some additional features from the attributes of the gods of surrounding nations. Nothing is more common in history than the change of deities of hostile nations into demons of evil. In this way Beelzebub, the Phoenician god, became another name for Satan; and Hinnon (i.e. Gehenna) the place where Moloch had been worshiped, in the valley of Tophet, became the Hebrew name for hell in place of the word Sheol, the world of the dead under ground."
"The idol of Moloch was made of brass, and its stomach was a furnace. According to the prophets (IS. lvii. 5; Ez. svi. 20; Jer. xix 5), children were placed in the monster's arms to be consumed by the heat of the idol. The cries of the victims were drowned by drums, from which ('toph' meaning drum) the place was called 'Tophet.' Even the king, Manasseh, long after David, made his son pass through the fire of Moloch (2 Kings xxi). Josiah endeavored to make an end of this terrible practice by defiling Tophet, in the valley of the children of Hinnon" (2 Kings xxxii 10).
-The History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil, pp. 71-72.
The reader who wants to know more of Moloch and other Biblical instances of human sacrifice should avail themselves of Bible dictionaries and commentaries. Some suggested Biblical reference texts are: 1 Kings 11:1-8; Leviticus 18:19-23; Leviticus 20: 2-9; Jeremiah 7:31 and 32:35; Isaiah 57: 3-10; 2 Kings 3:27, 16:3, 21:6 and 17:29-41; 1 Kings 16:34; 2 Kings 16:2-3; Ezekiel 20:26; Micah 6:7.
Reading only a few of these passage demonstrates that child torture and sacrifice forms a part of the Jewish cultural ethos. Such a deep undercurrent easily flows from one generation to another by underground oral tradition.
169 B.C.
King Antiochus Epiphanes of Syria, during the plundering of the temple of Jerusalem, found a Greek lying on a bed in a secret chamber who begged the king to rescue him. He was lured into the temple and held captive. When he began to beg, the attendants told him that a secret law commanded the Jews to sacrifice human beings at a certain time annually. They therefore searched for a stranger that they could get in their power. They fattened him, led him into the woods, sacrificed him, ate some of his flesh, frank his blood, and threw the remains of his body into a ditch. {Josephus, Jewish historian, contra Apionem}
A.D. 418
Baronius reports the crucifixion of a boy by the Jews at Imm, between Aleppo and Antioch.
A.D. 419
In the Syrian district of Immestar between Chalcis and Antioch, the Jews tied a Christian boy to a cross on a holiday and flogged him to death. {Socrat.}
A.D. 425
Baronius reports a crucifixion of a boy.
A.D. 614
After the Conquest of Jerusalem the Jews purchased, for a small amount of money, 90,000 prisoners from the Persian King Chosros II and murdered them all in the most disgusting ways. {Cluverius, Epitome Historia p. 386}.
This incident is also mentioned by Eusebius, an early church father and Bishop of the ancient See of Caesarea. He preached that the Jews in each community crucified a Christian boy for Purim. The Bishop also preached that rich Jews had purchased over 90,000 Christian captives for the purposes of slaughter. See Eusubius'
Ecclesiastic History and collections of his sermons for more of his strong feelings about the Jews.
Another engaging account of the slaughter of the 90,000 Christians appeared in
Anti-Semitism Throughout the Ages by Count Heinrich Coudenhove-Kalergi, a Philo-Semite and vigorous defender of the Jews. He records a number of instances when the Jews struck back resentfully and violently against their Christian oppressors. He too mentions the 90,000 figure, but with a slightly different twist, This incident and the others referenced by the count clearly illustrate the deep resentment and desire for revenge that must have lived in the heart of every Jew. He says:
"In Caesarea the Jews ... massacred their opponents and destroyed the church. In Antioch the Jews fell on their Christian neighbors, killed them and threw them into the flames just as the Christians had formerly done unto the Jews.
"When under the reign of Emperor Heraclius a war had broken out with Persia, and Chosroes II, King of Persia, had sent his general, Sharbarza, to Palestine and the latter had succeeded in storming Jerusalem, the Jews siding with the Persians massacred 90,000 Christians, destroyed Christian sanctuaries and reduced churches and cloisters to ashes.... No humane feeling was to be met with in any religious party. Religious zeal and vindictiveness had fanaticized the Jews and made them eager to remove from the Holy City all objects of desecration." Pp. 126-127
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A.D. 1071
Chocod in Histoire de la Magia says that between 1071 and 1670 there were 36 ritual murders in France, England and Germany.
A.D. 1144
Norwich, England
The famouse case in England was the first recorded accusation of Jewish ritual murder in Europe and the British Isles. The death of young William led to his canonization. He was one of the most popular saints in English medieval history. Pilgrims traveled great distances under then-dangerous conditions to pray at his shrine and tomb. Though controversial in our politically correct times, devotions continued to St. William. He featured, albeit tentatively, in
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church.
On 20 March 1144, a short time before Passover and Easter, Wiliam, the son of a peasant landowner, disappeared. His body was found in a wooded area with countless cuts and stab wounds, rumors abounded, and the Jews eventually came under accusation. Official charges never came even after two maidservants testified that they witnessed the murder. Charges of sacrilege, however, came from an ecclesiastical court. Riots and public disorder loomed, so the sheriff of Norwich placed the Jews under protective custody. He claimed they were the property of the King, a common legal concept in those times. The brave sheriff may also have received some bribe money, and undoubtedly saw an opportunity to ingratiate himself with the royal authorities by protecting "the King's Jews." As time went on, the church grew skeptical, and the proceedings came to a virtual halt. The matter remained adjudicated and the case unsolved, but not in the minds of the people who strongly felt William had died a martyr's death for his Christian faith. A monk favorable to the popular cultus became Bishop of Norwich, encouraging devotions and pilgrimages. Great healings and other miracles soon occurred. You can read more about this popular medival English saint in older editions of
Butler's Lives of the Saints and in the
Penguin Dictionary of Saints.
The following quotations come from Jacob Marcus's
The Jew in the Medieval World, in which the author quotes from
The Life and Miracles of Saint William of Norwich, a Latin work written about 1173 by Thomas of Monmouth, a contemporary of the events he relates. The story of the ritual murder of the boy William in 1144 is virtually the first of a long series of such accusations, a series that has not yet come to an end. The significance of these accusations is that by such descriptions of the Jew they have served throughout the ages to create an anti-Jewish mentality. Generations have believed that no Christian child was safe in Jewish hands. Hundreds of Jews have been imprisoned, killed, or burnt alive on this charge, yet it is equally true that in number instances the accusation of ritual murder was not made except with the vigorous support of the local church authorities.
"In the specific case of William of Norwich, the evidence, critically sifted, leads one to believe that he actually existed and that his body was found after he had died a violent death. Everything beyond this, however, is in the realm of speculation."
Marcus' writing conveys more than a whiff of the kind of moral anesthesia that usually accompanies Jewish treatments of ritual murder, in which mitigating doubts are magnified and in which any residual suspicion of evil is transferred from the one who
commits it to the one who
reports on it. The intent of such verbiage is to portray the criminal as the victim, the alarm raiser as the criminal. The
following is from Thomas of Monmouth's book:
"When therefore he was flourishing in this blessed boyhood of his, and had attained to his eighth year (about 1140), he was entrusted to the skinners (furriers) to be taught their craft....Now while he was staying at Norwich, the Jews who were settled there and required their cloaks or their robes or other garments to be repaired, preferred him before all other skinners.... Or, as I rather believe, because of the ordering of Divine Providence he had been predestined to martyrdom from the beginning of time... and gradually step by step was drawn on, and chosen to be made a mock of and to be put to death by the Jews, in scorn of the Lord's Passion, as one of the little foresight, and so the more fit for them....
"So it came to pass that the holy boy, ignorant of the treachery that had been planned, had frequent dealings with the Jews; he was taken to task... and he was prohibited from going in and out among them any more. But the Jews, annoyed at the thwarting of their designs, tried with all their might to patch up a new scheme of wickedness, and all the more vehemently as the day for carrying out the crime that they had determined drew near....
"Accordingly, collecting all the cunning of their crafty plots, they found-- I am not sure whether he was a Christian or a Jew-- a man who was a most treacherous fellow and just the fitting person for carrying out their execrable crime, and with all haste-- for their Passover was coming on in three days-- they sent him to find out and bring back with him the victim...
"When he was found, he got round him with cunning wordy tricks, and so deceived him with his lying promises....
Then the boy, like an innocent lamb, was led to the slaughter. He was treated kindly by the Jews at first, and, ignorant of what was being prepared for him, he was kept till the morrow. But on the next day (Tuesday, March 21), which in that year was the Passover for them, after the singing of the hymns appointed for the day in the synagogue, the chiefs of the Jews... suddenly seized hold of the boy William as he was having his dinner and in no fear of any treachery, and illtreated him in various horrible ways. For while some of them held him behind, others opened his mouth and introduced an instrument of torture which was called a teazle (a wooden gag), and, fixing it by the straps through both jaws to the back of his neck, they fastened it with a knot as tightly as could be drawn.
"[more knots were made, severely constricting his neck and head, and the instrument of torture was complete.]... and there they finished off this dreadful engine of torture in a fifth knot.
"But not even yet could the cruelty of the torturers be satisfied without the adding even more severe pains. Having shaved his head, they stabbed it with countless thorn points, and made the blood come horribly from the wounds they made [as in Jesus' crown of thorns]. And so cruel were they and so eager to inflict pain that it was difficult to say whether they were mroe cruel or ingenious in their tortures. For their skill in torturing kept up the strength of their cruelty and ministered arms thereto.
"And thus while these enemies of the Christian name were rioting in the spirit of malignity around the boy, some of those present adjudged him to be fixed to a cross in mockery of the Lord's Passion, as though they would say; Even as we condemned the Christ to a shameful death, so let us also condemn the Christian, so that, uniting the Lord and his servant in a like punishment, we may retort upon themselves the pain and reproach which they impute to us.
"....They next laid their blood-stained hands upon the innocent victim, and having lifted him from the ground and fastened him upon the cross, the yvied with one another in their efforts to make an end of him.
"And we, after enquiring into the matter very diligently, did both find the house, and discovered some most certain marks in it of what had been done there. ... there was instead of a cross a post set up between two other posts, and a beam stretched across the midmost post and attached to the other on either side. And as we afterwards discovered, from the marks of the wounds and of the bands, the right hand and foot had been tightly bound and fastened with cords, but the left hand and foot were pierced with two nails. Now the deed was done in this way, lest it should be discovered, from the presence of nail-marks in both hands and both feet, that the murderers were Jews and not Christians, if eventually the body was found. Both hands and feet were not nailed lest it look like a crucifixion.
"But while in doing these things they were adding pang to pang and wound to wound, and yet were not able to satisfy their heartless cruelty and their inborn hatred of the Christian name, lo! after all these many and great tortures, they inflicted a frightful wound in his left side, reaching even to his inmost heart, and, as though to make an end to it all, they extinguished his mortal life so far as it was in their power, (Jesus was similarly pierced by a lance whil nailed to the cross. The chronicler here imitates the Apostle John's narrative.) And since many streams of blood were running down from all parts of his body, then, to stop the blood and to wash and close the wounds, they poured boiling water over him.
"Thus then the glorious boy and martyr of Christ, William, dying the death of time in reproach of the Lord's death, but crowned with the blood of a glorious martyrdom, entered into the kingdom of glory.... (St. William after his death worked many miracles that brought streams of people).
"As a proof of the truth and credibility of the matter we now adduce something which we ahave heard from the lips of Theobold, who once was a Jew, and afterwards a monk. He verily told us that in the ancient writings of his fathers it was written that the Jews, without the shedding of human blood, could neither obtain their freedom, nor could they ever return to their fatherland. Hence it was laid down by them in ancient times that every year they must sacrifice a Christian in some part of the world.... in scorn and contempt of Christ, that so they might avenge their sufferings on him.... (The Jews rejected Jesus and were as a result punished by exile from Palestine, Angry, they took revenge by secretly crucifying Christians-- thus Theobold. This libel is reminiscent of Apion, an alexandrian writer of the first century.)
"Wherefore the chiefe men and RAbbis of the JEws who dwell in spain... and cast lots... and hatever country the lot falls upon, its metropolis has to carry out the same method with the other towns and cities, and the place whos lot is drawn has to fulfill the duty imposed...
"Now in that year... the lot fell upon the Norwich Jews."
- As quoted in Marcus, Jacob,
The Jew In The Medieval World, pp. 121 - 125
Modern-Day Recognition of the Norwich Case
The venerable and respected Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church carried a suprisingly revealing entry for St. William of Norwich. The allegations and facts of the case are honestly and clearly summarized.
"WILLIAM OF NORWICH, St. (1132-1144), supposed victim of a Jewish ritual murder. A tanner's apprentice at Norwich, he was enticed from home on Monday in Holy Week 1144 and on Holy Saturday, six days later, his body was found with marks of violence in a neighbouring wood. Acc. to Thomas of Monmouth, a monk of orwich and the only authority for the legend, William had been crucified and murdered by the Jews during the Passover. The story was substantiated by a converted Jew, Theobald, who asserted that acc. to Jewish religious tradition, a Christian must e sacrificied every year to obtain the deliverance of the people. This is the first known case of the blood accusation against the Jews; but as the authorities took no action, the account is open to suspicion.
"The cult of William of Norwich dates from the translation of his body from the chapter-house of the monks, where it had been buried, to the cathedral (1151) amidst a wave of religious enthusiasm. Many visions and miracles were reported to have taken place his tomb, and throughout the Middle Ages he enjoyed great popularity. Feast Day at Norwich, 26 Mar.; commemoration elsewhere, 25 Mar."
- The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (1989 ed.), p. 1483
Norwich. A twelve-year-old boy was crucified and his side pierced at the Jewish Passover. His body was found in a sack hidden in a tree. A converted Jew, called Theobald of Cambridge,confessed that the Jews took blood every year from a Christian child because they thought that only by so doing could they ever obtain their freedom and return to Palestine, and that it was their custom to draw lots to decide whence the blood was to be supplied; Theobald said that last year the lot fell to Narbonne but in this year to Norwich. The boy was locally beatified and has ever since been known as St. William. The Sheriff, probably bribed, refused to bring the Jews to trial.
In J. C. Cox's Norfolk Churches, Vol. II, p. 47, as also in the Victoria Country History of Norfolk, 1906, Vol. II, is an illustration of an old painted rood-screen depicting the Ritual Murder of St.William, the screen itself is in Loddon Church, Norfolk, unless the Power of Jewish Money has had it removed. No one denies this case as a historical event, but the Jews of course say it was not a Ritual Murder. The Jew, C. Roth, in his The Ritual Murder Libel and the Jew(1935) says: "Modern enquirers,after careful examination of the facts, have concluded that the child probably lost consciousness in consequence of a cataleptic fit, and was buried prematurely by his relatives." How these modern enquiries arrived at a conclusion like that after all these years, Mr. Roth does not say; nor is it a compliment to the Church to suggest that its ministers would allow the boy's death to be celebrated as a martyrdom of a saint without having satisfied themselves that wounds on the body confirmed the crucifixion and the piercing of the side. And why the relatives
should bury the boy in a sack and then dig it up and hang it in a tree would puzzle even a Jew to explain.
John Foxe's Acts and Monuments of the Church records this ritual murder, as did the Bollandists and other historians. The Prior, William Turbe, who afterwards became Bishop of Norwich,was the leading light in insisting that the crime was one of Jewish Ritual Murder; in the Dictionary of National Biography(edited by a Jew!) it is made clear that his career, quite apart from this Ritual Murder case, is that of a man of great strength of character and moral courage. -
Jewish Ritual Murder, Arnold Lease
A.D. 1147
Wurzburg, Germany.
During the confusion and frenzy of preparations for the Second Crusade to Palestine, a murdered Christian's body in the River Main. Public sentiments turned quickly against the JEws, and several suffered death by angry mobs.
A.D. 1160
Gloucester. The body of a child named Harold was found in the river with the usual wounds of crucifixion. Sometimes wrongly dated 1168. Recorded in Monumenta Germaniæ Historica,Vol. VI (Erfurt Annals); Polychronicon, R. Higdon; Chronicles, R. Grafton, p. 46.
A.D. 1166
Sir Richard Burton said the Jews at Ponthosa crucified a twelve year-old boy.
A.D. 1168
Gloucester, England.
Mob hysteria followed the discovery of a child's murder in Gloucester, England. The victim was seized on 21 February and hidden until 17 March. The boy, Harold, was interred as a martyr in Gloucester Cathedral and locally venerated.
A.D. 1171
Blois, France.
The first Blood Accusation on the continent (according to most sources) was the child salying at Bloid, France. The body, found during Holy Week, bore wounds suggestive of a ritual murder. Forty Jews (some sources say 33) were convicted and executed on 26 May 1171. A German Talmudist, Ephraim Ben Jacob (1132-1200), wrote a vivid account of the events, even taking the position that Jewish "Iniquity" may have been a motivating factor! Ben Jacob's account of the ritual murder accusation at Blois has been reprinted in Jacob R. Marcus' The Jew in the Medieval World.
Blois, France. At Passover, a Christian child was crucified, his body drained of blood and thrown into the river. A number of Jews were executed. Authority:Monumenta Germaniæ Historica, VI, 520; Magd Cent., 12, c. 14 and 13, c. 14.
A.D. 1179
Pontoise, France.
A boy named Richard was found dead. He showed marks of crucifixion, and his corpse was completely devoid of blood. Father Phillipe de Rigord, a convert jew who was priest and chaplain to King Phlip Augustus, appeared in court and testified at length about Jewish ritual murder and blood use. Local priests and laypeople rallied to the cause of the victim. The boy received a martyr's burial and was entombed in the Church of the Holy Innocents in Paris. Miracles and healings became associated with devotions at his tomb, and he was canonized as Saint Richard.
Pontoise.The authorities for this case are the Bollandists (Acta, Vol. III, March, 591);Madg.Cent., 23, c. 14;Spec. Vinc, 129, c. 25; and Cosm. Munst., 23, c. 14. A boy named Richard was tortured, crucified and bled white. Philip Augustus's chaplains and historians, Rigord and Guillaume l' Armoricain, attested this case. The body of the boy was taken to the Church of the Holy Innocents in Paris and he was canonised as St. Richard.
Under date 1080, Haydn's Dictionary of Dates, 1847, p. 282, says: "Thinking to invoke the divine mercy, at a solemnisation of the Passover, they (the Jews) sacrifice a youth, the son of a rich tradesman at Paris, for which all the criminals are executed and all Jews banished [from] France."
A.D. 1180
Paris, France.
Yet another Blood Accusation was raised in the French royal capitol.
A.D. 1181
Bury, England.
A young boy was slain by ritual killers at Bury-Saint-Edmunds, England. This was an important and widely known case in medieval times. He was later canonized as Saint Robert. Later, in 1190, the authorities expelled all the Jews from Bury and banned them from ever returning.
From another book: A child called Robert was sacrificed at Passover. The child was buried in the church and its presence there was supposed to cause 'miracles.' Authority: Rohrbacher, from the Chronicle of Gervase of Canterbury.
A.D. 1182
Expulsion of the Jews from France.
King Philip Augustus expelled the JEws from France. Blood Accusations certainly played a role in the sovereign's decision.
A.D. 1186
After several brutal murders, the king again expelled the Jews from France. NOTE: The Jews had already suffered a legal expulsion in 1182. These expulsions were most often incomplete. Nobles strongly felt the need to retain the services of their "court Jews" who managed their finances, estates and business interests. Ordinary Jews would feel the brunt of the expulsions while those in position of responsibility received unofficial exemptions. The fullest and complete expulsion, a true ethnic cleansing, was in Spain in 1492.
A.D. 1191
Bray-sur-Seaine, France.
Few details of the actual crime remain, but over 100 Jews were tried and executed.
A.D. 1192
Winchester, England.
The Jewish Encyclopedia mentions a "false charge." Other sources say a boy was crucified and mutilated.
A.D. 1192
Braisne, France.
In this peculiar case, a Christian was sold to the Jews by one Countess Agnes de Dreux. It seems the Countess had caught the man in theft and murder, and thought he deserved a terrible and ignominious death at the hands of the Jews. The unfortunate criminal was crucified and exsanguinated. The noble Countess, ofcourse, had no charges brought against her, but a number of Jews were tried and convicted. While justice was not rightly done to all concerned, this was an undisputed case of ritual human sacrifice. King Philip Augustus known as a fair and wise king, monitored the case personally.
Braisne. Philip Augustus attended to this case personally, and had the criminals burnt. It was a case of the crucifixion of a Christian sold to the Jews by Agnes, Countess of Dreux, who considered him guilty of homicide and theft. Authority: Histoire des Ducs et Comtes de Champagne, IV, 1st part, p. 72, Paris, 1865 by A. de Jubainville; Spec. Vinc., 129, c. 25; Gaguin, L. 6, De Francis; Magd. Cent., 12, c. 14, col. 1670.
A.D. 1199
Erfurt, Germany.
A.D. 1215
Catholic Doctrine of Transubstantiation Proclaimed By The Vatican
The Pope and the Lateran Council of Bishops in Rome jointly proclaimed the Doctrine of Transubstantiation or the Doctrine of the "Real Presence" of Christ in the communion ritual elements of bread and wine (the "host"). This was a literal belief that the communion bread or wafer is transformed by the words of the priest into the actual body of Christ. Likewise, the communion wine becomes the actual blood of Jesus. The priests understood this in a very literal way, teaching this to the largely uneducated medieval laity. Already long-believed and written about by Catholic theologians, this made it the official doctrine of the Church. The "real presence" in the "host" gave rise to the charges of host desecration, a related accusation to ritual murder and blood use. Later in the Timeline we will survey some of these kindred accusations more closely.
A.D. 1232
Winchester, England.
The Annals of Winchester and Haymson's History of the Jews in England both mention an alleged crucifixion of a young boy.
Winchester. Boy crucified. Details lacking. Mentioned in Hyamson's History of the Jews in England; also in Annals of Winchester; and conclusively in the Close Roll 16, Henry III, membrane 8, 26.6.1232.
A.D. 1235
Fulda, Hesse-Nassau, Germany.
Jews confessed to having killed five Christian children to obtain blood for ceremonial purposes. Emperor Frederick II, however, exonerated them. However, see below examples occurring in this same year of 1235.
Fulda, Hesse-Nassau. Five children murdered; Jews confessed under torture, but said the blood was wanted for healing purposes. Frederick II exonerated the Jews from suspicion, but the Crusaders had already dealt with a number by putting them to death. Frederick II called together a number of converted Jews, who denied the existence of Jewish ritual murder. But Frederick's bias is evident in his own words when, in publishing his decision, he gives his objects in calling these people together, "although our conscience regarded the innocence of the aforesaid Jews adequately proved on the ground of several writings." Had Frederick II lived to-day, he would have relied little upon religious literature in deciding whether Jewish Ritual Murder exists or not. Authority: Chron. Hirsaug., and Magd. Cent., 13, c. 24.
A.D. 1235
Lauda, Germany.
A corpse was found which apparently precipitated Blood Accusations.
A.D. 1235
Norwich, England.
Norwich again was the site of a ritual crime when Jews were caught after they kidnapped and circumcised a young boy. In a lenient court action, they were fined 20,000 marks.
Norwich. In this case, the Jews stole a child and hid him with a view to crucifying him. Haydn's Dictionary of Dates of date 1847, says of this case, "They (the Jews) circumcise and attempt to crucify a child at Norwich; the offenders are condemned in a fine of 20,000 marks." Further authority Huillard Breolles Grande Chronique, III, 86. Also Close Roll, 19 Henry III, m. 23.
A.D. 1235
Wolfsheim, Germany.
Similar events to those of Fulda also occurred at Wolfsheim.
A.D. 1236
Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II was alarmed at the outbreaks of riot and disorder that often followed ritual murder accusations. He called a conference of lerned Jewish converts to determine the truth. This particular group of converts said it was a lie. His Imperial Majesty agreed with the findings, placing legal impediments that made the bringing of blood charges difficult, if not impossible. The Jews and court historians always claim this as a clear refutation. As we will see, this did not end the problem.
A.D. 1244
London, England.
The body of a child was found unburied in a cemetery. Marks and ritual cuts were found. Though no perpetrators were found, the body was buried with great ceremony in St. Paul's.
London. A child's body found unburied in the cemetery of St. Benedict, with ritual cuts. Buried with great pomp in St. Paul's. Authority: Social England, Vol. I, p. 407, edited by H. D. Traill.
A.D. 1243
Kissengen, Bavaria, Germany.
A civil court convicted some JEws after they confessed to a ritual use of Christian blood for Passover.
A.D. 1247
Public indignation over child murders and blood charges often resulted in riots and mob actions, threatening public order and embarrassing the Church. On 5 July 1247, Pope Innocent IV called the charges false. Again, this caused no lack or decrease in the number of cases.
A.D. 1247
Valreas, France
In this quite unusual case, the accused Jews confessed to the murder of a two year old Christian girl, her body found in the city moat with most suspicious wounds. The Jews apparently confessed to the murder, but in a peculiar turn of events, disavowed the ceremonial blood use! Pope Innocent IV (see above) was critical of the handling of the case.
Valreas, France. Just before Easter, a two-year-old girl's body was found in the town moat with wounds on forehead, hands and feet. Jews confessed under torture that they wanted the blood of the child, but did not say that it was for ceremonial purposes. Pope Innocent IV said that three of the Jews were executed without confessing, but the Jewish Encyclopædia, 1903, Vol. III, p.261, says they confessed.
A.D. 1250
Saragossa, Spain.
In
this renowned case, a seven year old boy, Domingo Del Val, was kidnapped, tortured and finally crucified in June of that year. He was said to have been loved by the Christians for his beautiful singing of hymns. For this Christian piety, he was scorned by some Saragossa Jews. A Jew, Moises Albay-Huzet, was accused of the kidnapping and deliverance of the child into the hands of the death cult. He and other Jews were later convicted. The dead boy became another ritual murder martyr-saint, and was beatified locally, devotions and pilgrimages having already begun. On 24th November 1805 his sainthood and the validity of the devotions gained full recognition and affirmation by Pope Pius VII. The young victim, now called Saint Domingo, or Dominiculus (the Latin version of his name), became one of the favorite saints of medieval Spain. Even today in Spain, he is known as the patron saint of choirboys, reportedly, modern-day pilgrimages still have Saragossa as a destination. Along with Norwich and Blois, the Saragossa case was upheld by the Church as an indisputable occurrence of Jewish ritual murder.
Saragossa. A boy crucified, afterwards canonised as St. Dominiculus. Pius VII, 24th Nov.,1805, confirmed a decree of the Congregation of Rites of 31st August, according this canonisation.
A.D. 1253
Another Rare Papal Denunciation
Pope Innocent IV apparently felt he did not make his point the first time in 1247, so he issued another denunciation of the Blood Accusations. Clearly his 1247 Bull did little or nothing to change the minds of the public or bring even a decrease in the number of charges brought. Out of 264 Popes, less than a handful ever denied the reality of Jewish ritual murder.
A.D. 1255
Lincoln, England.
Along with Norwich, Bloise, and Saragossa, the events at Lincoln gained fame, not only in their day, but for centuries thereafter. A young lad, Hugh, was murdered, his body thrown down a well belonging to a Jew named Jopin. Hugh was horribly tortured and slain. Eighteen prominent Jews of Lincoln subsequently confessed to the group murder. At the conclusion of a duly appointed trial, they were hanged on the personal approval of King Henry III. The corpse of the hapless Hugh was interred with great pomp and honor in Lincoln Cathedral. Shortly thereafter came his canonization. The people always called him Little Saint Hugh to distinguish him from another Saint Hugh who had been a Bishop of Lincoln. Untold tens of thousands of pilgrims made the journey to pray at his tomb. Devotions to the saint diminished after the triumph of the protestant reformation in England and the ensuing efforts to eradicate Roman Catholic Devotions and holy places. Later his tomb was rudely stripped of it's saintly paraphernalia.
The case was quite notable and widely discussed for hundreds of years as a true instance of ritual murder. Geoffrey Chaucer modeled his "Prioress's Tale" in The Canterbury Tales on the real story of Little Saint Hugh. The Lincoln Case and other ritual crimes charged against the Jews was one of the reasons for their eventual expulsion from the kingdom. Older editions of Butlers Lives of the Saints and other devotional literature contain much information about the martyrdom, miracles and cures ascribed to Little Saint Hugh.
Lincoln. A boy called Hugh was kidnapped by the Jews and crucified and tortured in hatred of Jesus Christ. The boy's mother found the body in a well on the premises of a Jew called Joppin or Copinus. This Jew, promised by the judge his life if he confessed, did so, and 91 Jews were arrested; eventually 18 were hanged for the crime. King Henry III himself personally ordered the juridical investigation of the case five weeks after the discovery of the body, and refused to allow mercy to be shown to the Jew Copinus, who was executed.
Hugh was locally beatified, and his tomb may still be seen in Lincoln Cathedral, but the Jewish Money Power has evidently been at work, for between 1910 and 1930, a notice was fixed above the shrine as follows: "The body of Hugh was given burial in the Cathedral and treated as that of a martyr.When the Minster was repaved, the skeleton of a small child was found beneath the present tombstone.There are many incidents in the story which tend to throw doubt upon it, and the existence of similar stories in England and elsewhere points to their origin in the fanatical hatred of the Jews of the Middle Ages and the common superstition, now wholly discredited, that ritual murder was a factor of Jewish Paschal Rites. Attempts were made as early as the 13th century by the Church to protect the Jews against the hatred of the populace and against this particular accusation."
At a recent visit to Lincoln of the Jewish Historical Society, in 1934, the Mayor, Mr. G. Deer,said to them: "That he (St. Hugh) was done to death by Jews for ritual purposes cannot be other than a libel based upon the prejudices and ignorance of an unenlightened age." The Chancellor on the same occasion said: "It was quite obviously one of the very many cases of slander spread about the Jews from time to time. No doubt, the child died or fell down the well."
These people, Jews and Gentiles, bring no evidence whatever for their statements; it couldn't have happened, they say. Why not?
Was Henry III, weak in character as we know him to have been, ever charged with being an immoral man? Did the judges not examine the body, which was only four weeks dead? Is Haydn's Dictionary of Dates(1847 edition) mediæval and superstitious when it said of this case "They (the Jews) crucify a child at Lincoln, for which 18 are hanged"? There are no 'ifs' and 'buts' here! Or does Copinus's confession not tally with that of Theobald, quoted above in the first Norwich case? Copinus said, "For the death of this child, nearly all the Jews in England had come together and every town had sent deputies to assist in the sacrifice."
No one questions the historical facts in this case; but Jews and Judaised Gentiles unite in denying the fact of Ritual Murder.
Strack, in his The Jew and Human Sacrifice, written in defence of the Jews against the Blood Accusation,omits all mention of this famous case, which is the subject of the Prioress's Tale(Canterbury Tales) of Chaucer and is referred to in Marlowe's Jew of Malta. Hyamson's History of the Jews in England devotes the whole of Chapter IX to "Little St. Hugh of Lincoln," showing the importance of the Ritual Murder issue in the Jewish mind to-day.
The following Close Rolls of the Realm refer to the case of St. Hugh: Henry III, 39, m. 2,7.10.1255; 39, m. 2, 14.10.1255; 40, m. 20, 24.11.1255; 40, m.13, 13.3.1256; 42, m. 6; 19.6.1258. And the Patent Rolls, Henry III, 40, m.20, 26.11.1255; 40, m.19, 9.12.1255; 40, 27.3.1256; and 40, m.5,20.8.1256.
A.D. 1257
London, England.
The Jews of London reportedly sacrificed a child.
A.D. 1267
Pforzheim, Baden, Germany.
A seven year old girl's body was found in a river. An old hag had sold the child to some Jews. The child was tortured and bled over a large piece of linen cloth to soak it with Christian blood. A number of Jews were tried and put to death, some committing suicide rather than face the burning pyre of punishment. Some sources report that the victim as beatified. Her body was preserved in the castle church. In those days, the cause of a proposed saint first began by public acclamation and approval of veneration by the local bishop.
Pforzheim, Baden. An old woman sold a seven-year-old girl to the Jews, who bled her, strangled her and threw the body into the river. The old woman was convicted on the evidence of her own daughter. A number of Jews were condemned to death, two committing suicide.Authorities: Bollandists, Acta, Vol. II, p. 838; Rohrbacher, L' Histoire Universelle de l' Eglise Catholique, Vol. XVIII, pp. 697-700; Thos. Cantipranus, De ratione vitæ Vol. II, xxix. The child was canonised as a saint.
A.D. 1270
Wissembourg, Germany.
A ritual slaying happened in this German town. On 29 June, Jews were accused of hanging a child by the feet and opening every artery of the body in order to fully exsanguinate the corpse.
A.D. 1271
Pforzheim, Baden, Germany.
Ritual killers murdered a seven year old girl.
A.D. 1272
Although the exact text is in doubt despite some question about its authenticity, Pope Gregory X apparently issued a Bull calling the Blood Accusation a libel.
A.D. 1275
Decree of the Holy Roman Emperor.
Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph of Hapsburg banned ritual murder charges from imperial courts. The desire to preserve law and order was foremost in the minds of the authorities, plus monarchs were always subject to pressure from Jewish money interests, already strong in that day. The Kings and Emperors often profited handsomely from their dealings with the Jewish financial barons, and did not want such vile charges upsetting the balance.
A.D. 1276
London, England.
"The Close Roll of the Realm" mentions a boy slain and crucified.
A.D. 1279
Northhampton, England.
According to a reference source called Haydn's Dictionary of Dates, a court convicted and hanged fifty Jews after a famous ritual murder in Northhampton, England. Count Coudenhove-Kalergi says that some of the guilty parties were torn asunder by wild horses and their corpses hanged on a gallows.
Northampton. A child crucified. Haydn's Dictionary of Dates, 1847, says of this case: "They (the Jews) crucify a child at Northampton for which 50 are drawn at horses' tails and hanged."Further authorities: Reiley, Memorials of London, p. 15; H. Desportes, Le Mystère du Sang.
A.D. 1283
Mayence, France.
A murdered child was found with ritual stabs and torture wounds in the classic M.O. we have come to know. Many Jews fell victim to mob violence.
A.D. 1285
Munich, Germany.
In October, on hundred and eighty Jews died for having cooperated in the murder and blood extraction from a child named Heinrich.
A.D. 1286 - 87
Oberwesel-On-The-Rhine, Germany.
The Oberwesel Case was yet another instance of ritual murder regarded as true and valid. Both secular historians and the Church cited it as undoubtedly genuine. A boy, Werner, suffered cruelty and torture for three days at Passover. He hung by his feet and bled to death while still conscious. The boy, only 14 at the time of his ignominious death, was canonized as a saint. His feast day is 19 April. Sculpted portrayals of the repulsive crime stayed for centuries in the Oberwesel parish church. During the years of political correctness and "reform" in the Roman Catholic Church, the relief was removed from the Werner Chapel in 1968.
Oberwesel, on the Rhine. A boy named Werner was tortured for three days at Passover, hanged by the legs and bled white. The body was found in the river. This boy was beatified in the diocese of Treves, and his anniversary is on 19th April. A sculptured representation of this ritual murder is still to be seen in the Oberwesel Church. Authorities: Aventinus, Annals of Bavaria, 1521, 17, p. 576; Chron. Hirsaug., Magd. Cent., 13, c. 14.
A.D. 1287
Bern, Switzerland.
Numerous old records attest to the noted case in this famed Swiss city. A young fellow named Rudolph was lured into the house of a wealthy Jew named Matler, who tortured the boy before finally ritually slitting his throat. The murdered lad became canonized as Saint Rudolph of Bern. His name appears in several medieval martyrologies. A famous memorial fountain "The Fountain of the Child-Devourer" commemorating the ritual slaying was erected in 1540.
Berne. Rudolf, a boy, was murdered at Passover in the house of a rich Jew called Matler. Jews confessed that he had been crucified; many were put to death. The boy was canonised as a martyr, and his name can be found in several martyrologies. Documental authorities:Bollandists, Acta, Vol. II, April; Helvetia sancta(H. Murer); Karl Howald, Die Brunnen zu Bern, 1848, p. 250; Cosm. Munst., 13, p. 482. But a stone monument still exists in Berne commemorating the crime. It is called The Fountain of the Child-Devourer, and is now on the Kornhausplatz. It represents a monster, with a Jewish countenance, eating a child. The figure wears the Judenhut, the hat prescribed for the Jews to wear by decree of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. This monument was first placed in a street of the Jews' quarter as a reminder of the monstrous crime and as a punishment for the whole of Berne Jewry. Later, it was removed to its present situation.
A.D. 1288
Troyes, France.
After a trial, thirteen Jewish defendants were executed for ritual murder. The Jewish Encyclopedia of 1906 mentions this case.
A.D. 1290
Oxford, England.
"The Patent Roll" of Edward I mentions an order for the jail delivery of a Jew named Isaac de Pulet, who was under arrest for the murder of a Christian boy.
Oxford. The Patent Roll 18 Edward I, mem. 21, 21st June, 1290, contains an order for the gaol delivery of a Jew, Isaac de Pulet, detained for the murder of a Christian boy at Oxford.
Only one month after this, King Edward issued his decree expelling the Jews from the Kingdom. There is, then, every reason to believe that it was the Oxford murder which proved the last straw in toleration.
The reader will see (p. 20) that it was a similar ritual case which was one of the main stimulants to the King and Queen of Spain to expel professing Jews from that country in 1492.
The Jews, in attempting to escape responsibility for these deaths by Ritual Murder, do not hesitate to impugn the probity of two of the Kings of England, against whose moral character no one else has dared to cast a slur. Here are some examples. From the Jewish Chronicle Supplement, April,1936, p. 8 (speaking of the Lincoln case in the reign of Henry III):
"Henceforth and especially under the zealously Christian Edward I, the Crown and its officers became almost a worse peril to the Jews than mobs intent on loot and led on by fanatic priests and money. When 18th century writers of history began to examine the old records in a new sceptical temper, some may be found venturing on such unkind surmises as that the alleged crucifixions of Christian children only seemed to happen when kings were short of money." The foul accusation against men of upright character is repeated by the Jew Hyamson (History of the Jews in England, 1928 edition, p. 21), who writes: "It has also been pointed out that the Blood Accusation was as a rule made at a time at which the Royal Treasury needed replenishing."
To deny that the cases of St. William of Norwich and St. Hugh of Lincoln were Jewish Ritual Murders is to accuse certain English Kings, certain English Clergy, and certain English administrators,known to be men of good morals, of murdering and torturing Jews to get their money, after accusing them of horrible crimes. In the case of St. Hugh, the sentence was juridical; in the case of St. William,the mob took the matter into their own hands because the Sheriff would take no action himself.
Whom do you believe –– the Jews or the English?
"It is difficult to refuse all credit to stories so circumstantial and so frequent." So says Social England concerning Ritual Murders in England Vol. I, p. 407, 1893, edited by H. D. Traill.
A significant fact is that Haydn's Dictionary of Dates, at least up to 1847, quoted the Ritual Murders in Norman and Plantagenet England as undisputed facts. In later editions in the sixties, all mention of them is extirpated! We may take it that the Jewish Money Power began to dictate to the Press in England somewhere in the fifties of the last century.
A.D. 1294
Bern, Switzerland.
This famous Swiss city and present-day tourist attraction was again the site of a horrifying Blood Accusation. A number of Jews confessed. They were eventually convicted and executed. The remainder suffered expulsion from the city.
A.D. 1303
Weissensee, Thuringia, Germany.
A young schoolboy called Conrad was a victim of a homicide. The killers bled him dry after a session of ritual torture. Deep, horrible cuts through the muscles drained even more of his blood. We found no record of the disposition of the cases or whether the perpetrators were ever apprehended.
A.D. 1305
Prague, Bohemia (present-day Czech Republic).
Mob violence followed the suspicious death of a child at Passover.
A.D. 1329
Savoy, Italy.
A.D. 1331
Uberlingen, Germany.
In March a boy was lost to his parents. The corpse of a small child was found in a well. The body bore wounds reminiscent of ritual incisions and torture marks. A court ruled it was a ritual murder.
A.D. 1345
Munchen (Munich), Germany.
More ritual charges brought in this important German city.
A.D. 1347
Cologne, Germany.
Actual forensic evidence of a ritual murder was preserved in the Church of Saint Sigbert, to wit, a ritual slaughtering knife. It was kept in the reliquary devoted to holding the saint's relics, including the knife and clothes of the victim.
A.D. 1401
Dissenhofen, Germany.
A.D. 1435
Majorica Balearic Islands, Spain.
A pogrom to compel Jewish conversion occured 24 August 1391. A large number of Jews submitted to baptism. These "Conversos" (converts) "New Christians" or "Marranos" (a derogatory term from an Arabic word meaning swing) prospered. More Jews and Marranos relocated to the island. Relationships were peaceful during most times, but in 1435 there was a serious ritual murder charge. Jews were accused of crucifying a boy (in this case a Muslim rather than a Christian) on Good Friday in mockery of Christ's Passion. Accused were important members of the community who were put to death. All remaining Jews accepted forced baptism rather than death. After that no declared Jews remained on Majorca. Apparently all the New Christians were not true to the adopted faith as the Inquisition was later quite active in the Balearics. The Jews on the nearby Isle of Palma also accepted forced conversion. While Blood Accusations did arise in Islamic countries, this was one of the few cases in Europe involving a Muslim victim.
A.D. 1440
"A Jewish doctor in Pavia, Simon of Ancona, beheaded a four year old child stolen and brought to him by a degenerate Christian. The crime became notorious when a dog jumped out of a window into the street with the childs head. The murderer escaped."
-(Alphonsus Spina, De Bello Judaeorum, lib. III, confid. 7)
A.D. 1443
Lienz, Tyrol, Germany.
On Good Friday of 1443, a four year old girl, Ursula Boeck, was ritually murdered. This was a well known case, remaining in the public mind for many years. The body was buried in the parish Church of St. Andreas (dedicated to St. Andreas of Rinn, another famous ritual murder martyr) where a plaque still commemorates the events. In addition, the parish sells pamphlets from a Catholic publishing house which tell the sad but likely true story.
A.D. 1452
"In Savona several Jews killed a two year old Christian child. They pierced his whole body and collected the blood in a vessel they used to circumcision of their children. The Jews dipped small pieces of sliced fruit into the blood and enjoyed a meal of them"
-(Alphonsus Spina, De Bello Judaeorum, lib. III, confid. 7)
As we continue, watch for this grotesque ritual meal to re-appear in other accounts.
A.D. 1453
"In Breslau, Germany, the Jews stole a child, fattened him and put him in a barrel lined with nails, which they rolled back and forth to draw the childs blood."
-(Henri Desportes, Le Mystere Du Sang, 75)
A.D. 1462
Rinn, Innsbruck, Austria.
The Celebrated Case of Saint Andreas of Rinn
A young fellow named Andreas (Anderi or Andrew) Oxner was kidnapped and sold to the Jews for human sacrifice. On 12 June he was ceremonially slain on a large boulder deep in the forested Austrian Alps. Because of the clear ritual nature of the killing, the Jews were accused, but no suspects were ever apprehended. Since there were no official charges, debunkers and ritual murder deniers always claimed this was an accusation caused by anti-Semitism. It is true that there was no final adjudication by civil authorities, but the crime was investigated by both church and state. The ritual clues and marks on the body were undeniable. Rinn is near a border zone, and it is quite likely that the killers fled into either Germany, Switzerland or Italy. It is unlikely tey were from Rinn, though sympathizers there may have aided in choosing an appropriate victim.
The eminently religious Austrians felt the boy had suffered the death of a Christian martyr, and local veneration began. Soon pious pilgrims began to make the journey to Rinn. A series of wood carvings depicting the crimes hung in the parish church. Pilgrims also began to visit "Der Judenstein" the large boulder in the woods that was the crime scene. A small hamlet nearby is actually named Judenstein. In older times, pilgrims paid to see the children of the village in a play re-enacting the murder. The cultus of the Bless Andreas grew exceedingly popular. In 1778 Pope Benedict XIV issued a Papal Bull in Venice entitled Beatus Andreas in which the Pope fully approved and blessed the devotions to Saint Andreas as well as to Saint Simon of Trent (see 1475) Along with the cases of Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln and Saint William of Norwich, the Rinn case became widely regarded as a true and valid example of Jewish ritual murder.
Public devotions to Saint Andreas continued until 1985 when the post Vatican II "prelates of political correctness" un-beatified and decanonized little Andrew of Rinn as they had done to Saint Simon of Trent some twenty years earlier. Bishop Reinhold of innsbruck forbade the veneration of Saint Andreas. Along with Simon of Trent and William of Norwich, Andreas of Rinn was one of the best-known and widely adored ritual murder martye-saints of Renaissance times. Saint Andreas and his devotees did not go down without a fight. They defied the local Bishop and kept the shrine and chapel open until the Vatican completed its suppression of the saintly cultus in 1985, creating yet another martyr to political and religious correctness. In reality, several current sources say that Rinn and Judenstein are once again popular tourist/pilgrim destinations.
Rinn, Innsbruck. A boy called Andreas Oxner was bought by the Jews and sacrificed for his blood on a stone in the forest. The body was found by his mother in a birch-tree. No Jew was apprehended because, the border being near, they had fled when the crime was made known. The Abbe Vacandard, defender of the Jews, says there was no trial. Well, of course there wasn't. Even in 1937 there is no trial for a crime where the criminals have escaped! The boy has been sanctified by Pope Benedict XIV in his Bull Beatus Andreas, Venice, 1778, which says he was "cruelly assassinated by the Jews in hatred of the faith of Jesus Christ." This last is admitted by Pope Clement XIV, who wrote his report on the investigation he made into the matter of Jewish Ritual Murder when, as Cardinal Ganganelli, he had been commissioned by Pope Benedict XIV to go into the matter; and in this report, he says "I admit the truth of another fact, which happened in the year 1462 in the village of Rinn, in the Diocese of Brixen, in the person of the Blessed Andreas, a boy barbarously murdered by the Jews in hatred of the faith of Jesus Christ." No one questions the historical occurrence of this case. An engraving on wood representing the Ritual Murder still exists in the church.
A.D. 1468
Sepulveda, Segovia, Spain.
Savagery in Sepulveda
A child was sacrificed in a bloodthirsty, pitiless crucifixion ritual, reportedly instigated by Salomon Pichon, a rabbi. The Bishop of Segovia himself led the investigation. The offenders were apprehended, brought to Segovia, tried and executed. Some were burned at the pyre; others were drawn and hanged in a meadow occupied today by the monastery of San Antonio El Real.
El Obispo Juan d'Avila was himself an interesting character in the saga of Sepulveda. He was a "converso," a Jew baptized as a Christian. He later entered church service, eventually attaining a bishopric. Conversos excelled in all the professions, including the clergy, and d'Avila was not the only New Christian to obtain an episcopate. Antoehr man of mixed Spanish and Jewish ancestry, Juan de Torquemada, became Grand Inquisitor of Spain.
The Sepulveda case is oten omitted from lists of accusations compiled by the Jews and their apologists. This curious omission may be an aversion to refute a case investigated and prosecuted by a Jewish Christian.
Sepulveda, Segovia, Spain. The Jews sacrificed a Christian child on a cross. The Bishop of Segovia investigated the crime, and ordered the culprits to Segovia, where they were executed.It is important to know that this Bishop was himself son of a converted Jew; Jean d'Avila was his name. Colmenares's History of Segovia records the facts of the case, which was juridically decided by a man of Jewish blood. That may be the reason that one finds no mention of it in Strack's book in defence of the Jews, The Jew and Human Sacrifice.
A.D. 1470
Endingen, Germany.
A group of Jews including three brothers named Elias, Eberlin and Marklin, were finally executed, bringing an end to a case that began eight years earlier when the bones of two decapitated children who had disappeared were finally found. The remains were entombed in a local church where prayers and vigils were held. The events inspired several popular ballads as well as paintings and plays.
A.D. 1470 - 78
Regensburg, Germany.
Four ritual cases reported at Regensburg. Germany and Central Europe, as well as in the East, were hotbeds of cult activity.
A.D. 1475
Trento, Italia.
The Strange, Sad Saga of Saint Simon of Trent
The Setting for the Crime
Trent (Trento in Italian) was no Eastern European backwater town full of ignorant kulaks. It was in 1475 already an old and beautiful northern Italian city, experiencing the height of Renaissance art and culture. It had universities and a highly educated professional class
. It's people were of typically northern Italian stock, with a good dose of Alpine and German in the mix. Standards of literacy were high for the times. It was a Catholic city with many churches and devout religious people. Later in the 1500's it would host the famous Councils of Trent launching the Catholic Counter-Reformation against the encroachments of Protestantism. It was a clean, healthful, prosperous city growing and expanding in trade, culture and the arts. Trent was a comfortable place to live the good life of Renaissance times.
A Baby Boy Dissapeared
The cultured citizens were shocked when a thirty-month-old boy, Simon, disappeared. Just as in child abduction cases today, the parents and citizenry went through a period of shock and disbelief as efforts to find the boy failed. Perhaps, they hoped, he had only been disobedient, and went off somewhere to play with other children. As the time grew later and later, another kind of shock and terror took hold as they began to realize that any chance of finding the boy alive was fast fading away. The parents of little SImon must have felt awful. They were both away from home when the child went missing, perhaps attending Holy Week services. What terrible anguish and misgivings were felt by these frightened parents? If you have ever had a child or loved a child, you can place yourself in this horrid situation.
It seems that Simon played outside after hte family dinner, last seen sitting on the front steps of his home. Later testimony revealed that he was approached by one Tobias, a Jewish resident of Trent. Tobias was no ordinary citizen. He was a doctor, a surgeon to be exact, skilled in the use of knives and blades. Tobias became friendly with the boy, eventually picking him up and bearing him away to the house of a co-conspirator, one Samuel. Simon was not seen alive again. This all happened on 21 March 1475 on a Thursday. To be precise, it was Maundy Thursday of Holy Week- and it was also
Passover.
The crime, occuring as it did during this high holy season, attracted much attention. Eventually the focus of public attention fell upon the Jews. They were seen with the lad, and the full story soon unfolded. In a curious development, the body was "discovered" by some of the Jews in the river. This may have been a tactical move by the cult to go ahead and let the body be found, hopefully directing attention away from them. [Compare with teh Tizsa-Eszlar Case of 1882] After all, if they found the boys body in the water, then he probably drowned accidentally as the not yet three-year-old could not swim. If believed, then a funeral would be the end of it- or so they hoped.
Poor Simon's body was in the Adige River that flowed not far from the house of the co-conspirator, Samuel. The matter was not handled so easily. The boy's naked body had singular and extraordinary wounds and incisions. The child also showed recent signs of circumcision! Further examination showed that the body was almost completely bloodless. It was clear that he had not drowned.
What Really Happened to Little Simon?
Charged along with Dr. Tobias were seven other conspirators: Samuel (whos home was the crime scene); two twin brothers named Saligman; Vitalis (or Veitel); Moses; Israel and Mayr. Because of the religious ritual circumstances of the killing, Bishop Hinderbach of the Diocese of Trent presided over the trial. A thorough investigation and interrogation ensued, albeit some of it under judicial torture. Soon the disgusting, sorded details of this unspeakable crime emerged. According to the confessions of his abusers, Simon suffered greatly at their hands. All the tortures, including the slow exsanguination, happened whil the child was alive and aware! The old records contain the genuinely frightening and graphic details, which are truly repelling to most readers. We have chosen Sir Richard Burton's casenotes for this account. His scholarship and thoroughness in research are undisputed and exemplified in the quotation.
"The jews of Trent, by means of one of their number, a physician, decoyed to his house while the Christians were at church, it being Maundy Thursday, a boy two and a half years old, by name Simon, the son of a tanner. Before the Pachal festival commenced, the principal Jews collected in a room near their synagogue. The child, gagged with a kerchief, was extended in the form of a cross, and held down by his murderers. The blood, pouring from heavy gashes, was collected in a basin, and when death drew near the victim was placed upon his legs by the two men, and the others pierced his body with sharp instruments, all vying in brutality and enjoying the torture. The corpse having been found in the Etsch River [called Adige in Italian], which flows through the city, led to the detection of the crime; the murderers were put to death, the synagogue was razed to the ground, and a church was built over the place where the horrid deed was done. A sculpture was put on the Bridge Tower in Frankfort-on-the-Maine, and a picture of a Christian infant murdered by the Jews was placed in one of the galleries in the Hotel de Ville. Of late years it has been removed, in deference to the feelings of the Hebrew community, which of late years, has formed a large and important section of the commercial population. The murder has been abundantly commented upon. Dr. John Matthias Tiberinus, in Trent at the time, and Jacobus Philippus Bergamensis, of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, who was then living at the neighboring town of Beragamo, gave accounts of it; whilest an engraving was produced in the Chronicles of John Louis Gottfried, edited by Matthaeus Merianus."
-Sir Richard Burton in The Jew, the Gypsy, and El Islam,
pp 125-126
Fuller descriptions of the horrors suffered by Simon are available from the court records and later published accounts of the case.
The Trent Affair is plainly an example of a well-documented and proven ritual murder. It is one of the "multi-adjudicated" cases, that is, several kinds of courts and tribunals, including the Vatican, examined the evidence and all concurred in the findings. The original trial, presided over by Bishop Hinderbach, ended with a death senence. Jean de Salis de Brescia was the officer in charge of the inquiry. He brought in Jean de Feltro, a Jewish convert, who testified at length as to the reality of the charges. Another Jewish Christian convert, Wolfkan of Ratisbon, also testified to ritual blood magic.
The Jews of Trent went into a state of shock. This cosmopolitan city had no record of pogroms or anti-jewish violence. Jews had lived peacefully and profitably in Italy for centuries. Dr. Cecil Roth tells us:
"... On the whole, the condition of the Jews in Italy was enviable. It was, perhaps, the only country in Europe in which persecution was never elevated into a system. Mob outbreaks were rare, and in general, strictly localized.
"The Blood Accusation (notwithstanding the notorious case of Simon of Trent in 1475) was never widespread, and generally failed to secure official sanction ...."
- Cecil Roth, History of the Jews, p. 238.
This was essentially a proven case, and as Dr Roth (a jew) tells us, cannot be blamed on ignorance or naive anti-Jewish prejudices. Italy was not Poland. It had never really oppressed the Jews, lending even greater veracity to the case of Simon. The Trentine Jewish community, however, soon recovered from their initial shock, and began to resist the turn of events. Through bribery and pressure on the authorities, they gained a new trial. This tribunal sat in Ventimiglia, presided over by a respected jurist named Guidici. The verdict was the same. They confirmed the death sentences. But the rich, influential Jews of Trent did not stop there. Under howls of protest, the case came before Pope Sixtus IV. He appointed a respected canon lawyer, Father Panvino, to preside over a tribunal consisting of no less than six Cardinals. They too, confirmed the sentences, saying:
"The Hebrews killed the little boy Simon in order to obey a rabbinical religious law, their motive to serve a most wicked piety and devotion by obtaining Christian blood....."
[From a translation of the Tribunal records]
The verdict of the Papal Tribunal was the final coup de gras, and the appeals went no further. The controversy did not subside, and the decision caused deep resentment among the Jews. In the final stages, Dr. Tobias committed suicide and four others converted to Catholicism and received pardons.
Little Simon's Cause Is Taken to Heart by Devout Catholics
Yet the multi-adjucation continued through the beatification and canonization process of the Church. A cultus of devotion grew up around Simon, now known as a Child Martyr, killed because he was a Christian. his tomb was in the Church of St. Peter. Among the relics of the child saint were the sacrificial knife and other torture implements recovered from the cultists. The people of Trent made prayers and devotions beseeching his intercession. The local diocese declared him "venerable," the first step in the sainthood process. He became The Blessed Simon of Trent, Martyr. With Papal approval, masses and devotion were said in his name. By the time of the renaissance, canonization was a well-established procedure in the Church. The necessary claims of miracles went through complete and impassionate review before a final ruling. The whole process can sometimes take hundreds of years. In 1588 Pope Sixtus regularized the devotions to Simon, giving his full and unqualified approval. Later in February 1755, Pope Benedict XIV cited it in his work On The Canonization of Saints and issued the Bull Beatus Andreas, which gave full sanction and approval to the sainthood of Simon as well as the earlier martyr, Andreas of Rinn (see 1462). The reader may refer to Cardinal Ganganelli's Report to the Vatican on Ritual Murder (see 1758). In the late 1500's, Pope Gregory XIII visited and worshiped at St. Simon's Shrine during the Councils of Trent. During that time, hudnreds of Cardinals, Bishops and Priests must have visited all the parish churches of Trent, including St. Simon's tomb. This was a rarely disputed case. The church always affirmed the truth of the matter...
Saint Simon Dishonored and Disrespected
That is, until 1965. In that year in a stunning move, Archbishop Alessandro Gotardi of the Diocese of Trent, in a sacrificial gesture to "the prelates of political correctness" declared that the Jews were innocent. This culminated years of work and pressure from liberal historians, operating in the climate of "openness" and created by the Vatican II Council, presided over by "the ecumenical Pope," Paul VI. As a result of the decree of the Archbishop, the Vatican Congregation of Rites forbade the veneration of relics or the saying of masses in Simon's name.
This was an affront to the truth as well as a total depreciation of the five hundred years of prayer and devotion by devout Catholics to the little saint. yet even in this climate of liberalism, it became clear that the Vatican had no intention of opening any more records into ritual murder cases. Perhaps, though, the Jew and liberals were gratified with the Church's subside. maybe the church viewed de-canonization of too many saints at once as destabilizing. It's hard to say. The Jews and other ritual murder deniers celebrated a significant victory. One of the most famous and celebrated cases of all was overturned and expunged. Again, the genie was (mostly) back in the bottle.
- The following excerpt taken from "My Irrelevant Defence: On Jewish Ritual Murder by Arnold S. Leese (pp 18-19)
The Case of St. Simon of Trent. In 1475, a three-year-old boy named Simon disappeared in the Italian town of Trent; the circumstances were such that suspicion fell upon the Jews. Hoping to avert this suspicion, they themselves "found" the child's body in a conduit where they afterwards confessed to having thrown it. Examination of the body, however, revealed that the boy had not been drowned; there were strange wounds on the body, of circumcision and crucifixion. About seven Jews were arrested; they were tortured and confessed that the boy had been ritually murdered for the purpose of obtaining Christian blood to mix with the ceremonial unleavened bread; these confessions were made separately and agreed in all essential details. The Jews were tried and were ultimately executed. The officer in charge of the investigation of the crime, Jean de Salis de Brescia, had before him a converted Jew, Jean de Feltro, who described how his father told him that Jews of his town, Lanzhat, had killed a child at Passover to get the blood of which they partook in wine and cakes.
No one has ever dared to try and deny the historical events of this case; only the Jews invent "reasons" why it was not Ritual Murder! But there is no escape from the opposite conclusion. In 1759 in answer to a Jewish appeal from Poland, the Inquisition sent Cardinal Ganganelli (later he became Pope Clement XIV) to investigate and report on the whole subject, with particular reference to the many cases then being reported in Poland; although this man went out with a biased mind in favour of the Jews (in his report, he says: "With my weak faculties I endeavored to demonstrate the non-existence of the crime which was imputed to the Jewish nation in Poland," hardly the spirit in which to enter upon such an investigation!), he actually says of this Trent case (see Report of Cardinal Ganganelli, in C.Roth's The Ritual Murder Libel and the Jew, 1935, p. 83): "I admit then as true the fact of the Blessed Simon, a boy three years old, killed by the Jews in Trent in the year 1475 in hatred of the faith of Jesus Christ (although it is disputed by Basnage and Wagenseil); for the celebrated Flaminio Cornaro, a Venetian Senator, in his work On the Cult of the Child St. Simon of Trent(Venice, 1753) disposes of all the doubts raised by the above-mentioned critics."
The Jews try to throw discredit on the judges who condemned the Jewish murderers by quoting Pope Sixtus IV who refused to sanction the cult of St. Simon; but the reason for this was that the cult was not then authorized by Rome, but was a popular movement without authority and contrary to Church discipline;this same Pope later expressed his approval of the verdict on the Jews in the Papal Bull XII Kal. July, 1478.
We have not only the testimony as to the correctitude of the proceedings from Sixtus IV; but also that of several other Popes; such as Sixtus V, who regularized the popular cult of St. Simon by ratifying it in 1588, as cited by Benedict XIV in Book I, Ch. xiv, No. 4 of his On the Canonization of the Saints; also by this same Pope Benedict XIV in his Bull Beatus Andreas of 22nd February, 1755, in which he confirms Simon as a saint, a fact omitted from the arguments of that advocate for the Jews, Strack (The Jew and Human Sacrifice); Gregory XIII recognized Simon as a martyr, and even visited the shrine; and, as already stated, Clement XIV was obliged to recognize that it was a case of Jewish murder in hatred of Christianity.
St. Simon's shrine is in the Church of St. Peter, Trent; relics of him are still shown, among them the sacrificial knife.
In short, the Ritual Murder of St. Simon at Trent is supported by such evidence that those who doubt it are thereby condemning without reason high juridical and ecclesiastical authorities whose probity and intelligence there is not the slightest excuse to deny.
