Desecration of the Host: The Birth of an Accusation

Abstract

A New tale entered the circle of commonplace narratives about Jews which were known to men and women in the thirteenth century: the tale of Host desecration. This new narrative habitually unfolded (i) an attempt by a Jewish man to procure (buy, steal, exchange) a consecrated Host in order to (2) abuse it (in re-enactment of the Passion, in ridicule of bread claimed to be God), (3) only to be found out through a miraculous manifestation of the abused Host, which leads to (4) punishment (arrest and torture unto death, lynching by a crowd). The tale was a robust morality story about transgression and its punishment, and it always ended with the annihilation of the abusing Jew and often of his family, neighbours, or the whole local Jewish community. It was a bloody story, both in the cruelty inflicted on the Host/God and in the tragic end of the accused abuser and those related to him. This basic narrative was open to myriad interpretations and combinations, elaborations at every stage of its telling. It is a particularly interesting narrative inasmuch as it was often removed from the context of preaching and teaching, of exemplification, into the world of action and choice. The Host-desecration tale was not only a poignant story about Jews, it was also a blueprint for action whenever the circumstances of abuse suggested themselves in the lives of those who were reared on the tale. The story’s fictionality was masked from the very beginning of its life: it was always told as a report about a real event, with no irony or explicit elaboration. It was a concrete, new tale, which provided tangible knowledge about Jews, and through the actions of Jews, about the Eucharist.

Negative shocks and mass persecutions: evidence from the Black Death

“…Ritual Murder. Historians have documented how the rise of virulent antisemitic tropes over time led to an intensification of animosity over the course of the middle ages (Trachtenberg, 1943;Rubin, 2004). Blood libel accusations began in England in the 12th century and spread through Europe gradually (Stacey, 1998).…”

“…Another source of antisemitism were accusations of host desecration. As the belief that the consecrated eucharist contained the body of Christ became more important in the 12th and 13th centuries, stories of Jews desecrating the host began to circulate in parts of Europe (Rubin, 1992(Rubin, , 2004). Stacey writes: "we begin to see Jews taking on a new role, as enemies not only of the body of Christ on the cross and of the body of Christ in the Church, but also as the enemies of the body of Christ in the eucharist.…”

“…As moneylenders, Jews were associated with Judas who sold out Jesus for thirty pieces of silver(Archer, 1984, 49).37 The tensions around the month of April were further heightened by the fact that Passover typically coincides with Easter and Jews were accused of ritually murdering and sacrificing Christian children as part of this festival(Rubin, 2004). Numerous studies suggest that this was a factor during the Black Death.…”

The origins of the Inquisition in Andalusia

“…Thus a parallel accusation developed, that Jews would obtain such consecrated bread and, by submitting it to abuse, directly torture Jesus, rather than using a Christian child as a substitute. 88 The tormenting by Jews of the wax image of such a child is mentioned by Gonzalo de Berceo, in his Milagros de Nuestra Senora, while Alfonso X's Siete Partidas, as already noted, refer directly to Jews stealing Christian children on Good Friday and crucifying them, using wax images when no child was available. 89 It is effectively with Fidel Fita's 1887 writings that modern studies of the case of the «Santo Nifio»; began.…”