The myth of ritual murder : Jews and magic in Reformation Germany

From the mid-fifteenth century to the early seventeenth, German Jews were persecuted and tried for the alleged ritual murders of Christian children, whose blood purportedly played a crucial part in Jewish magical rites. In this engrossing book R. Po-Chia Hsia traces the rise and decline of ritual murder trials during that period. Using sources ranging from Christian and Kabbalistic treatises to judicial records and popular pamphlets, Hsia examines the religious sources of the idea of child sacrifice and blood symbolism and reconstructs the political context of ritual murder trials against the Jews. “This volume combines clarity of thinking, elegance of style, and exemplary scholarly attention to detail with intellectual sobriety and human compassion.”—Jerome Friedman, __Sixteenth Century Journal__ “Hsia has... succeeded in turning established knowledge to illuminatingly new purposes.”—G.R. Elton, __New York Review of Books__ “This meticulously researched and unusually perceptive book is social and intellectual history at its best.”—__Library Journal__ “A fresh perspective on an old problem by a major new talent.”—Steven Ozment, Harvard University R. Po-chia Hsia, professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, is also the author of __Society and Religion in Münster, 1535-1618__ From the mid-fifteenth century to the early seventeenth, German Jews were persecuted and tried for the alleged ritual murders of Christian children, whose blood purportedly played a crucial part in Jewish magical rites. In this engrossing book R. Po-Chia Hsia traces the rise and decline of ritual murder trials during that period. Using sources ranging from Christian and Kabbalistic treatises to judicial records and popular pamphlets, Hsia examines the religious sources of the idea of child sacrifice and blood symbolism and reconstructs the political context of ritual murder trials against the Jews. “This volume combines clarity of thinking, elegance of style, and exemplary scholarly attention to detail with intellectual sobriety and human compassion.”—Jerome Friedman, Sixteenth Century Journal “Hsia has... succeeded in turning established knowledge to illuminatingly new purposes.”—G.R. Elton, New York Review of Books “This meticulously researched and unusually perceptive book is social and intellectual history at its best.”— Library Journal “A fresh perspective on an old problem by a major new talent.”—Steven Ozment, Harvard University R. Po-chia Hsia, professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, is also the author of Society and Religion in Münster, 1535-1618

From the mid-fifteenth century to the early seventeenth, German Jews were persecuted and tried for the alleged ritual murders of Christian children, whose blood purportedly played a crucial part in Jewish magical rites. In this engrossing book R. Po-Chia Hsia traces the rise and decline of ritual murder trials during that period. Using sources ranging from Christian and Kabbalistic treatises to judicial records and popular pamphlets, Hsia examines the religious sources of the idea of child sacrifice and blood symbolism and reconstructs the political context of ritual murder trials against the Jews.

Contents 5 List of Illustrations 6 Acknowledgments 7 Abbreviations 8 1. Introduction: Ritual, Magic, and Murder 9 2. Endingen 22 3. Consolidation of a Discourse 50 4. Regensburg 74 5. Freiburg 94 6. The Professors and the Jews 119 7. Christianity Disenchanted 144 8. Worms 171 9. The Stuff of Legends 205 Conclusion 234 Sources 239 Index 251