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RITUAL MURDER

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 373 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RITUAL See also:MURDER , a See also:general See also:term for human See also:sacrifice in connexion with religious ceremonies. False accusations as to the practice of ritual murder by See also:Jews and Christians have often been made. " The, Christians of the second and third centuries suffered severely under them " (Strack). See also:Justin See also:Martyr. (150-160) in his Second See also:Apology (ch. 12) vigorously defends the See also:Christian community against this See also:charge; Octavius, Minucius See also:Felix, See also:Tertullian, See also:Origen and other See also:Church Fathers all refer to the subject and indignantly repudiate the atrocious See also:libel that the See also:Eucharist involved human sacrifice. The myth was revived against the Montanists, and in the later See also:middle ages against various sects of heretical. Christians. In See also:recent years the See also:accusation has been again levelled against " foreigners " during the disturbances in See also:China. The See also:chief sufferers, however, from the charge were the Jews. • The charge was never coherently defined, but a notion prevailed that at the See also:Passover Christian See also:blood was used in Jewish See also:rites. For. this belief there is no See also:foundation whatever, as is proved in the classical See also:treatise' on the subject by See also:Hermann L.

Strack, Regius See also:

Professor of See also:Theology at See also:Berlin University. The first occasion on which the See also:medieval Jews were accused of the murder of a Christian See also:child was at See also:Norwich in 1144. In the following See also:century other instances of the charge occurred on the See also:Continent, and by this See also:time (middle of the 13th century) the See also:legend had grown into a belief that " the Jews of every See also:province annually decide by See also:lot " which See also:congregation or See also:town is to be the See also:scene of the mythical murder. It is easy to understand how` in ages when the Jews were everywhere regarded with superstitious See also:awe, such stories to their detriment would find ready See also:credence, but the revival of the myth in recent times by the See also:anti-Semite is a deplorable instance of degeneration. It is only necessary here to refer to the See also:Lincoln See also:case (1255), the See also:Trent case (1475) and more recently the See also:Damascus case (184o), the See also:Tisza-Eszlar affair (1882), the Xanten charge (1891) and the Polna case (1899). All of these charges—sometimes invented by malicious seceders from the Jewish See also:fold—were followed by spoliation and tragic persecution of the Jews. On the other See also:hand many Jewish proselytes to See also:Christianity have strenuously defended the Jews from the charge, among them may be particularly named Prof. D. Chwolson (Blutanklage, 1901). In 184o a protest against the charge was signed by 58 Jewish-Christians, the See also:list being headed by M. S. See also:Alexander, See also:Anglican See also:bishop at See also:Jerusalem.

Further testimonies of a similar See also:

kind are collected in Strack (op. cit. p. 239). Many of the popes have issued bulls exonerating the Jews (cf. Strack, p. 250); similarly temporal princes have often taken a similar step (ibid. p. 26o). Many Christian scholars and ecclesiastics have See also:felt it their See also:duty to utter protests in favour of the Jews. Among them have been the most eminent Christian students of Rabbinism of recent times, e.g. Professors Alexander McCaul, P. See also:Lagarde, See also:Franz See also:Delitzsch, A. Merx, T. See also:Noldeke, C.

Siegfried, A. Wunsche, G. H. Dalman and J. von Dellinger. A careful examination of the See also:

evidence with a See also:complete acquittal of the Jews) is contained in a notable See also:work by a See also:Catholic See also:priest, F. See also:Frank, Der Ritualmord vor den Gerichtshofen der Wahrheit and der Gerechtigkeit (1901, 1902). The literature on the other See also:side is entirely antisemitic and in no instance has it survived the See also:ordeal of See also:criticism. The most notorious exponent of the charge was A. Rohling, the worthlessness of whose writings on the subject is exposed by (among many others) Strack (op. Cit. pp. 155 seq.). A list of some of the most important of the cases is given by J.

See also:

Jacob in the Jewish Encyclopedia, iii. 266-67. (I.

End of Article: RITUAL MURDER

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