Dear Rebecca,
> I was wondering if anyone can tell me if the sort of accusations that
> were levelled against Jews (infant sacrifice, perverting sacraments, etc)
> were ever used against heretics. I know some similar charges were used
> against the Templars, and Boniface, but I wanted to know if such things
> were ever used of the esoteric sects such as the Valentinian Gnostics,
> the Cathars or the antinomians. I'm interested in the conflation of
> spiritual and physical harm in these charges; that when people were in
> fear of a spiritual attack on the body of the Church, they often used for
> this fear the metaphor of physical harm, particularly against the young
> and helpless.
You might want to look at R. I. Moore, The Birth of a Persecuting
Society (don't know the year, but late 80s or early 90s) for some
examples of what you're thinking of. Joshua Trachtenberg, Europe's
Inner Demons, should also be of some help.
For lit. on the charges against the Jews: if you can read German, you
ought to look at Frantisek Graus, Pest - Geissler - Judenmorde,
Go"ttingen 1987 (2nd edn. 1988); if not, try (for a start) Joshua
Trachtenberg, The Devil and the Jews. Miri Rubin, whom you mention,
has written two excellent articles on the Host desecration charge
(one in *Christianity and Judaism* 1992 in the Studies in Church
History series, the other in the recent vol. *In and Out of the
Ghetto*, ed. R. Po-Chia Hsia and Hartmut Lehmann, 1995). I am not
aware if she has dealt with the other charges you mention, in detail.
For a interesting account on the well-poisoning charge, look at Carlo
Ginzburg, *Ecstasies* (the Italian original is *Storia notturna*),
first and second chapter. The ritual murder libel is treated by Gavin
I. Langmuir, *Towards a Definition of Antisemitism* (1990?), where he
has collected some of his pathbreaking articles on the matter.
> Thanks in advance for any help you can offer,
Welcome!
Cheers, Christoph
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