About Norwich, should not one read Gavin Langmuir who has written at
length on it? If one wants to see how a modern scholar can imply
Norwich's event was possible, one might read Scott's entry in the
Dictionary of the Christian Church. Also is not "anti-semite" a secular,
mid-nineteenth century coinage designed to describe scientific
(pseudo-scientific) racism as that developed to replace religious and (as
in the case of the nobility) order conceptions as these weakened
drastically? That there was racism in medieval anti-Jewish belief is
undeniable, however. It surfaced in all sorts of sources, as, for example,
in Caesarius of Heisterbach's manual for Cistercian novices. Still, the
main formal language in the middle ages was religion, and, although many
doubted it, the converted were often thought washed clean of their stench.
Again let me ask you whether, given the tendency to think in terms of
progress, expanding revelation, etc., one can expect a really convinced
Christian or Muslim to believe that Judaism equals their revelations or,
given the desire to everywhere find the traces of sin and degeneration,
Jews to think of Christianity or Islam as equal to their faith? John
Mundy
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