Trey Hawkins
October 17, 2017
Hsia, R. Po-Chia. Trent 1475: Stories of a Ritual Murder Trial. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992,
In Trent 1475, R. Po-Chia Hsia writes about the persecution of three Jewish families. The families of Samuel, Tobias, and Engel were accused, arrested, tortured, and some executed by the local Church of Trent for the murder of a small, Christian boy named Simon Unferdorben, son of Andreas, for the use in a Jewish religious ritual. The corpse of the boy was found in the cellar of Simon’s home which was Trent’s central Jewish synagogue. Jewish persecutions were becoming more common within European communities so Simon’s case may not be the first of its kind, but it is a good example of similar …show more content…
Though some Christians showed compassion and aided the persecuted Jewish community on trial (the women and children), the local Church, specifically Bishop Johannes Hinderbach, did not hold any compassion for Jews. The bishop’s interests lie in the mystical rituals of blood libel, and further extending his power and wealth by campaigning for the canonization of Simon. Simon’s martyrdom meant new pilgrims traveling to Trent, which meant more money. With the bishop having interests in the ecclesiastical and secular communities, as Hsia points out, “Merely establishing the motive and manner of the murder was insufficient; the magistrates wanted the investigation into Simon’s death to unlock the secret door of Judaism and allow them to construct an ethnography of Jewish rites” (Hsia, …show more content…
He argues that the magistrates treated the Jewish women much different than the Jewish men. The men were being accused of conspiring with one another to participate in the Jewish ritual, but the magistrates speculated that the Jewish women were like most women in the Middle Ages, left out of religious rituals. Hsia states that “the women were under less pressure to conform to the image of the demonic Jew” (Hsia, 115). Hsia also writes that the Jewish women used their social status to their advantage by confessing to the magistrates that, like Christian men, Jewish men did not include the women in all aspects of life. Hsia states the Jewish women in the interrogation records “emerged as individuals” (Hsia, 115). The magistrates still tortured the Jewish women, and eventually got what they needed from the women, including conversion to the Christian faith. The degree of torture that the Jewish women received is simply speculation, but their testimonies “revealed much about their lives, both before and after the disaster that destroyed their families” (Hsia
October 17, 2017
Hsia, R. Po-Chia. Trent 1475: Stories of a Ritual Murder Trial. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1992,
In Trent 1475, R. Po-Chia Hsia writes about the persecution of three Jewish families. The families of Samuel, Tobias, and Engel were accused, arrested, tortured, and some executed by the local Church of Trent for the murder of a small, Christian boy named Simon Unferdorben, son of Andreas, for the use in a Jewish religious ritual. The corpse of the boy was found in the cellar of Simon’s home which was Trent’s central Jewish synagogue. Jewish persecutions were becoming more common within European communities so Simon’s case may not be the first of its kind, but it is a good example of similar …show more content…
Though some Christians showed compassion and aided the persecuted Jewish community on trial (the women and children), the local Church, specifically Bishop Johannes Hinderbach, did not hold any compassion for Jews. The bishop’s interests lie in the mystical rituals of blood libel, and further extending his power and wealth by campaigning for the canonization of Simon. Simon’s martyrdom meant new pilgrims traveling to Trent, which meant more money. With the bishop having interests in the ecclesiastical and secular communities, as Hsia points out, “Merely establishing the motive and manner of the murder was insufficient; the magistrates wanted the investigation into Simon’s death to unlock the secret door of Judaism and allow them to construct an ethnography of Jewish rites” (Hsia, …show more content…
He argues that the magistrates treated the Jewish women much different than the Jewish men. The men were being accused of conspiring with one another to participate in the Jewish ritual, but the magistrates speculated that the Jewish women were like most women in the Middle Ages, left out of religious rituals. Hsia states that “the women were under less pressure to conform to the image of the demonic Jew” (Hsia, 115). Hsia also writes that the Jewish women used their social status to their advantage by confessing to the magistrates that, like Christian men, Jewish men did not include the women in all aspects of life. Hsia states the Jewish women in the interrogation records “emerged as individuals” (Hsia, 115). The magistrates still tortured the Jewish women, and eventually got what they needed from the women, including conversion to the Christian faith. The degree of torture that the Jewish women received is simply speculation, but their testimonies “revealed much about their lives, both before and after the disaster that destroyed their families” (Hsia