The Causes Of Blood Libel In Medieval England Between1066and1290

For a long time, China’s studies on English Jews mainly focused onanti-Semitism in medieval Europe. In a sense, blood libel is one of the most typicaland influential medieval anti-Semitic phenomena in Europe. However, there are fewresearches about blood libel which is usually quoted as an example though it is partof medieval anti-Semitism. Blood libel is a false accusation that Jews sacrificeChristian children either to use the blood for various “medicinal” purposes or toprepare Passover Matza or for vengeance and mock crucifixions (Dunes266). As aphenomenon of medieval Christian anti-Semitism, blood libel still has a profoundinfluence on other peoples’ cognition of the Jewish people in modern times.This thesis tries to unravel the mystery why the concept of blood libel emergedand spread in the medieval England from four aspects: religious, cultural, politicaland economic conflicts between Christians and Jews. In the first chapter, the authorelaborates on differences about the doctrines between Christians and Jews, andconfirms that there is much hostility between Christians and Jews. In the secondchapter, the author elaborates on the Jewish unique living habits and how such habitswere distorted in Christian legends aimed to slander the Jews. As a result, there ismuch horror between Christians and Jews. In the third chapter, the author elaborateson the reasons why only Jews could be engaged in the lending industry and theJewish dual economic standards toward the Christians and Jews and confirms thatthe Jews inevitably received the jealousy and hatred from the Christians. In the lastchapter, the author elaborates on the influence of the dominant Roman CatholicChurch on Jews in the medieval Europe and how the Jews become the marginalizedpagan. As a result, the Jews could only become the social scapegoats. Therefore, theconclusion of the author is that the concept of blood libel resulted from the religioushostility and the cultural horror between Christians and Jews, was fueled by Jewishinferior political and economic status in medieval England, and eventually formed into a dominant yet false stereotype of Jews.The author believes that a clear understanding of the blood libel events inmedieval England is the resource of the widespread blood libel events andanti-Semitic massacres in other European countries in Middle Ages. Since the impactof the blood libel legends still can be found in contemporary western world, theauthor of this paper believes that the study of the causes of the blood libel can serveas a good channel to the cognition of the Jews in Britain today, in the hope ofproviding a better understanding the roots and the influence of anti-Semitism on theWestern literature and culture since the Middle Ages.