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7 - Gendered Discourses of Time and Memory in the Cult and Hagiography of William of Norwich

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2023

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Summary

Ad exequendum igitur tante et tam execrande malitie conspirantes flagitium mox innocentem uictimam manibus cruentis arripiunt et a terra sublatum patibuloque applicatum pari uoto certatim extinguere contendunt. Et nos rem diligentius inquirentes et domum inuenimus et rei geste signa certissima in ipsa deprehendimus et manifesta. Erat autem, ut fama traditur, pro patibulo postis inter postes duos medius lignaque ad ipsos a medio in dexteram et utrobique porrecta. Et sicut per uulnerum et uinculorum uestigia postmodum reuera deprehendimus, a dextris dextera et pes dexter uinculis strictissime coartantur; a sinistris uero leua nec non et pes leuus gemino clauo affigitur. Hec autem ex industria sic agebantur ne scilicet quandoque inuentus deprehensis in eo hinc et inde clauorum fixuris, a iudeis non a christianis deprehenderetur utique fuisse occisus.

(Conspiring to accomplish the crime of this great and detestable malice, they [the Jews] next laid their blood-stained hands upon the innocent victim, and having lifted him from the ground and fastened him upon the cross, they vied with one another in their efforts to make an end of him. And we, after enquiring into the matter very diligently, did both find the house, and discovered some most certain marks in it of what had been done there. For report goes that there was there instead of a cross, a post set up between two other posts, and a beam stretched across the midmost post and attached to the other on either side. And as we afterwards discovered, from the marks of the wounds and of the hands, the right hand and foot had been tightly bound and fastened with cords, but the left hand and foot were pierced with two nails: so in fact the deed was done by design that, in case at any time he should be found, when the fastenings of the nails were discovered it might not be supposed that he had been killed by Jews rather than by Christians).

During the Easter of 1144, the body of a twelve-year-old apprentice leather-worker was discovered in a wood on the outskirts of Norwich. Although the mystery of William’s murder was never officially resolved, his death was blamed, by some, on the Jews.

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Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2015

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