Analysis Of The Anonymous Of Mainz

During the First Crusade, the Jewish people of the time suffered many violent attacks against them at the hands of the Roman Catholic Crusaders. The Anonymous of Mainz: A Hebrew Account of the First Crusade was written shortly after the end of the First Crusade, by an anonymous Jewish author. The author writes about the slaughter of the Jewish people by the crusaders primarily in the city of Mainz, but also in other cities in the Rhineland such as Speyer and Worms. Throughout the text, the author attempts to restore faith to the demoralized Jewish people, while giving the impression that the Jewish faith is superior to the Roman Catholic one. In the retelling of the events that happened in the city of Mainz, the author tells the …show more content…
The crusaders are also shown to be much more predatorily than the Jewish people and they always initiate the violence in this document. During one part of the retelling, the author recounts how the crusaders stalk and terrorize the Jewish people by saying, “When [a crusader] saw one of us, they ran after him and pierced him with a spear, to the point that we were afraid even to cross our thresholds”4. The Roman Catholics are depicted as unreasonable, violent and their faith seems to be entirely based upon war and murder. The author describes the Jewish people as more reasonable and faithful as opposed to the Roman Catholics constant violence and military based actions, illustrating to the demoralized Jews the superiority of their Religion over the Roman Catholics. The First Crusade was very damaging to the population size of the Jewish people as well as their morale. The Anonymous of Mainz: A Hebrew Account of the First Crusade attempts to give hope to the Jewish people by telling inspiring stories about heroic Jewish martyrs, displaying how the Jewish people are closer to God and how they are a more peaceful group as a whole. While describing the massacres of the Jewish cities Mainz, Speyer and