The Ritual Murder Accusation at Blois (1171)

The Ritual Murder Accusation at Blois (1171). Marcus source pp. 127-130 1990 edition.  

Historically, the accounts concerning ritual murders tend to follow a general pattern. Usually, rumors coming from Christian sources and lacking in circumstantial evidence would emerge that members of the Jewish community kidnapped the alleged target, preferably a Christian male child, who would soon be killed so that his blood would be collected and used in Jewish religious rituals. The Christian authorities would accuse the Jewish community of performing such dreadful deeds, and upon a certain hearing in front of one-sided rulers and Christian clergy, many Jews would be punished for the alleged crime with the death penalty. The Accusation at Blois is an example of one of the false accounts of ritual murders. Taking place in May 1171, this account depicts the accusations brought against the Jewish community of Blois, France, of having crucified a Christian child during the Passover holidays after which the corpse was thrown into the Loire. It represents the first accusation of ritual murder in Europe, though accusations like this happened in other lands as well, and resulted in the death of many members of the Jewish community.

The account starts with a description of the events surrounding the alleged deed. As such, the account recounts that there were forty Jews living in the region of Blois. The report takes place on a Thursday evening, when Isaac ben Eleazar, a Jew, was trying to help his horse drink water. At the same time, a Christian soldier was also there. The horse of the Christian soldier became frightened upon seeing the sides of a white hide that Isaac ben Eleazar was wearing under his coat. Upon seeing this, the Christian soldier went to his master to tell him that the Jewish man had thrown a Christian child in the water. 

The account clarifies that the Christian soldier was trying to seek favor with his own master, whom he knew to be at odds with an influential Jewish woman, Pulcelina, and as such, he wanted to seek revenge but did not have until this point any reason to do so. Thus, the master complained to the higher authority of the town, Theobald, a corrupt anti-Semite, who upon hearing this, imprisoned all the Jews of this city, except Pulcelina, the influential Jewish woman whom he liked. Pulcelina tried to intercede on behalf of the Jewish community, but the ruler did not pay heed to her being under the influence of his wife. The fatal death sentence on the Jewish community is brought about through the influence of a priest on the ruler.

The trial of the community presided by the priest and the ruler of the town exemplifies the use of non-scientific methods to determine the truth, such as taking the witness and immersing him in the Christian holy waters to see if he floated, which was interpreted to mean truth. The account specifies that this was an unjust judgment as it had deemed truth as lie and lie as truth. During this time, the neighboring Jewish communities were trying to negotiate a financial settlement for this issue, according to the custom of the time, though the priest convinced the ruler not to concede to such an agreement.

In order to carry out the judgment, the Jews of this town were placed in a wooden house in order to be burned unless they would convert to Christianity. Furthermore, the two principal rabbis of the town were to be burned at the stake, though after struggling to escape, their bodies weren’t consumed by the fire, and only their souls departed. This lead the Christian crowd witnessing these happenings to exclaim they had to be saints. One of the successful advocates for the release of the Jewish community was Rabbi Baruch, son of David, who was able to arrange a financial settlement for the release of some of the Jews, though not everyone, and he also managed to save the Torah scrolls.

The perspective from which this document is written sheds light on how trials of ritual murders were carried out. During this time period, testimony of even one witness though lacking in circumstantial evidence was sufficient for carrying out executions of a large number of people, especially if it also suited the political, religious, or personal agenda of the authorities in charge. The account seeks to give a detailed interpretation of the facts that were intentionally overlooked by the Christian authorities in order to suit their own agenda. Moreover, it shows how members of the Christian clergy had a major role in influencing decisions of the regional authorities. This account delineates how religious practices that are not in line with the Christian theology are suppressed through the use of force and death sentences.

When reading this document, it is interesting to observe that the conflict arose from a misunderstanding of the events taking place and it was highly subjective. The encounter between the Christian servant and the Jew takes places in the evening, not during daytime, and there are no other witnesses present to confirm or reject the account. Moreover, the judgment is passed on hearsay and on trial techniques that lack any scientific basis. Furthermore, the idea that Jews would perform their religious practices using a Christian child is at odds with the tenets of Judaism, though in this case Christian authorities readily embrace the belief that these practices would actually take place. The sentence is carried out in public, in front of a Christian audience, and serves as reinforcement for those present there to perpetuate Christian religious fervor. From the way the sentence was carried out against the entire Jewish community living in the region, it is evident that the trial did not seek to find the apparently guilty individual, but rather it sought to give a collective punishment. The other surrounding Jewish communities engaged in seeking to provide aid to the Jews of Blois, though their attempts were in part unsuccessful in averting this misfortune due to the influence of the Christian clergy on the local authorities. On the Jewish side, the Rabbis from the other Jewish communities and Jewish figures like Pulcelina are the authority figures that try to attenuate the misfortune that befell the Jewish community. It is noteworthy to find in this account that the legal provisions of the time included paying money to annul capital judgments while the Christian clergy was influential enough to prevent these provisions from taking place. Likewise, the integrity of this type of court system is highly questionable, since it proves itself unable to pass verdicts beyond a reasonable doubt.