xvi

TCE, i- x

Tewkesbury TNA Torigni

Trans. TRHS VCH

Waverley Wendover

WHR Winchester WL

Worcester Wykes

Abbreviations

Thirteenth Century England, 9 vols so far, i- v, ed. P.R. Coss and S.D. Lloyd; vi-x, ed. M.e. Prestwich, R.H. Britnell and R.E Frame (Woodbridge, 1986-2003) 'Annals ofTewkesbury' , in Ann. Mon. , i. 43- 182 The National Archives, see PRO Robert of Torigni, in Chronicles o/the Reigns o/Stephen, Henry 1/ and Richard I, ed. R. Howlett, 4 vols (RS 82, 1884-9), iv Transactions [0/ the 1 Transactions 0/ the Royal Historical Society The Victoria His/ory 0/ the Counlies 0/ England, ed. H.A. Doubleday and others (London, 1900- ) 'Annals of Waverley', in Ann. Mon., ii. 129-4 12 Rogeri de Wendover Chronica sive Flores Historianml , ed. H.O. Coxe,5 vols (London, English Historical Soc., 1841 -4) The Welsh History Review 'Annals of Winchester', in Anll. Mon., ii. 3- 128 The Royal Charter Witness Lists: Henry 1/1, ed. M. Morris, List and Index Soc. 291 - 2 (2002); Edward I, ed. R. Huscroft , List and Index Soc. 279 (2000) 'Annals of Worcester ', in Ann. Mon., iv. 355- 562 'Thomas Wyke's Chronicle', in Ann. Mon. , iv. 6-354

•

'Adam of Bristol' and Tales of Ritual Crucifixion in Medieval England I

Robert C. Stacey

Stories describing the ritual crucifixion of Christian children by Jews were widely fOld and commonly believed by Chrlst,.ns throughout medieval Europe from the middle of the twelfth until the end of the sixteenth century.' Such stories seem to ba¥e had a particular appeal in medieval England, however, for reasons that remam only partially understood.' Between 1144, when the first allegation of ritual cruci­fixion was made against the Jews of Norwich, and 1290, when the entire JewISh population of England was expelled from the kingdom, at least a dozen allegations tbat Jews had murdered a Christian child were recorded by Enghsh chroniclers, hagiographers, or royal justices.- Not all these cases resulted in a saint's cult devel­oping around the body of the murdered child. Although devotional shrmes to the .ueged victims of ritual crucifixion were successfully estabhshed at Norwich by c. 1150, Bury St Edmunds in 1181 , and Lmcoln 10 1255, similar efforts at Gloucester in 1167, at London in 1244, and at Northampton in 1279 seem to have ended in failure.s The expulsion of 1290 brought an end to the establishment of new such cults, at least in England. But the shrines at Norwich, Bury and Lincoln continued to IIbaCI pilgrims until the end of the Middle Ages, and tales of ritual cruci fixion continued to be told, not only by Geoffrey Chaucer in his Prioress's Tale, but also by John Lydgate and a number of other late medieval English authors'

I AD earlier version of this paper was delivered at the University of Southampton in June 2004. I am .-ftaI to Dr Patricia Skinner and to the participants at that workshop for their kind invitation and their eamments, as I am also to the participants at the 2005 Gregynog Conference. 2 For recent studies of ritual crucifixion stories. scc Gavin Langmuir. Toward a Definition of A.u.ltism (Berkeley and London, 1990); Ronnie Po-Chia Hsia, Trent /4 75: Stories of a Ritual Murder 7HaI (New Haven and London, 1992) and The Myth of Ritual Murder: Jew.~ and Magic in Reformation Gtrwwmy (New Haven and London, 1988). Miri Rubin's work on host desecrat ion tales is very important far dUnking about ritual crucifixion stories also: sec in particular ' Desecration of the Host: The Birth of • Accusation' , in Christianity and Judaism, ed. Diana Wood, Studies in Church History 29 (Oxford, 1992), 169-82; and Gentile Tales: The Narrative Assault on Late Medieval Jews (New Haven and ~t999). J I have offered some suggestions on this subject in 'Anti-Semitism and the Medieval English Stale ' , in lit Medieval State: Essays Presented to James Campbell, ed. lR. Maddicott and D.M. Palliser (London ... Rio Gnonde, 20(0), 163-77. .. Joe Hillaby, 'The Ritual-Child-Murder Accusat ion: Its Dissemination and Haro ld of Gloucester'. ~ Historical Studies 34 ( 1994-96),69- 109, esp. 86 li sts ten such accusations. My estimate includcs .. ofHillaby's cases (exc luding the 11 92 Winchester case), along wi th several additional allegations of JewiIb child murder that are recorded only on the cyre rolls. For these additional a \1egations, sec Stacey. '~itism and the State', 170 n. 3 1. 5 Hillaby, 'The Ritual·Child.Murder Accusation ' . 69- 109. 6 Studies of the Prioress's Tale are numerous: the most recent is Roger Dahood, 'The Punishment of the -.. Hugh of Lincoln, and the Questi on of Satire in Chaucer's Prioress's Tale' , Viator 36 (2005), 46$-91. On Lydgate's 'Prayer to St Robert of Bury', see now the important artic le by Anthony Bale,

Robert C. Stacey 2

Despite the apparent ubiquity of the ritual crucifixion allegation in medieval England, relatively few such stories survive as properly developed saint 's lives. For William of Norwich (d. 1144), the first such martyr, we have the Vita et Passione Sallcti Willelmi Martyris Nonvicensis, written by Thomas of Monmouth in the third quarter of the twelfth century at Holy Trinity Priory, Norwich.' For Hugh of Lincoln (d. 1255), we have chroniclers ' accounts by Matthew Paris in his Chrollica Majora and by anonymous authors at Burton and Waverley Abbeys, along with a more or less contemporary Anglo-Norman ballad.8 For Robert of Bury (d. 1181), the saint 's life written for him by Jocelyn of Brakelond does not survive; beyond Jocelyn's brief remarks about Robert in his Life of Abbot Samson of Bwy and an equally short account by Gervase of Canterbury, we have only a narrative pictorial cycle and Lydgate's 'Prayer to St. Robert' , both dating from the fifteenth century, to guide us."

The survival of an elaborate but relatively little-studied ritual crucifixion tale from medieval Bristol is therefore of considerable importance. Although the exis­tence of this tale was first noted by Sir Humphrey Wan ley in the eighteenth-century Catalogue a/the Harieiall Manuscripts ill tire British Museum, its Latin text was not published until 1995, and it remains surprisingly little known by scholars of medi­eval England or medieval Judaism.lo I am currently working on a book on the tale which will include the Latin text with English translation, notes and commentary on the text , together with several interpretative chapters attempting to place the tale in its historical , literary, theological and liturgical setting. I I This paper presents some of the preliminary conclusions from that larger project. But since the tale itself is still so relatively little known, it may be helpful to begin with a summary of its plot,

before we begin to try to analyze it.

. " House Devil. Town SainI" : Anti-Semitism and Hagiography in Medieval Suffolk ', in Clltlllcer (mel t i ll! Jew ... : Sollrces. COl/texts . Met",illgs. cd. Sheila Delancy (New York and London. 2002). 185- 210. On the continuing presence of Jews in the religious culture of later medieval England. the essays of Denise Despres afC of great importance. Sec in part icular 'Cullie Anti-Judaism and Chaucer's Little Clcrgcon', Modern Phi/olag\1 (1994). 4 13- 27: ' Mary of the Eucharist: Cullic Anti-Judaism in Fourteenth-Century English Devotional Manuscripts'. in From Willless 10 iVilchcraft: J ell's oml Judaism ill Medie"al Cll/"is­l ion Thoughl, ed. Jeremy Cohen (Wiesbaden, 1996),375-401; and 'The Protean Jew in the Vemon

Manuscript' . in Challcer alld the J ews, 145-64 . 7 The Life tmd Mimc/es ofSI William of Norwich by Thomas of MOllmoulh, ed. and trans. by Augustus Jessopp and Montague Rhodes James (Cambridge, 1896). A new edition of thi s te )(t (which is badly needed) has been promised by Dr Willis Johnson to appear in the Oxford Medieval Texts series. On the date o f composition of this tale, see Gavin Langmuir. 'The Knight 's Tale of Young Hugh of Lincoln'. in Towards a Definition of Antisemitism. 237-62. and the important revisions to Langmuir's argument sug­gested by John M. McCulloh. ' Jewish Ritual Murder: William of Norwich. Thomas of Monmouth, and

the Early Dissemination of the Myth' . Speculum 72 (1 997).698- 740 . 8 eM v. 516- 19, 546, 552; Anti. Mall . i. 340-6, 348 (Burton): ii . 346-8 (Waverley); Francisque Michel.

Hughes de Lincoln (Paris. 1834). 1- 16. 9 The Memorials of Sa ill I Edmulld s AbbeI'. cd. Thomas Arnold (RS, 1890). 1. 223; Gervase of Canter-bury. Opera J-lislorica, ed. William Stubbs (RS. 1879), 1. 296: Bale. 'House Devil. Town Saint' . 188-2 10. 10 A Catalogue of the Horleiall Malll/scripts itl the Bri/ish Museum. cd. H. Wanley. continued by D. Casley. W. Hocker and C. Morton. 2 \'ols (London. 1759-62); revised by R. Nares. S. Shaw. J. Planta and F. Douce, 4 vols (London. 1808- 12). Wanley's description oflhe tale appears in vol. I of the 1808 edition, p. 484. The Latin te)(t has been published. with a useful introduction. by Dr Chri stoph Cluse .. "Fabula ineplissima" . Die Ritualmordlegende um Adam von Bristol nach der Handschrift London. British Library. Harley 957'. Aschkenas: Zeilschrift fiir Geschichte ulld Kulwre del' Juden 5 (1995). 293- 330. II I have dealt with somc ofthc theological implications of the tale in a previous article. "From RitU31 Crucifixion to Host Desecration: Jews and the Body o f Christ' . Jewisll History 12 (1 998) 11- 28.

'Adam of Bristol' and Tales of Ritual Cnlcijix ion 3

The death and martyrdom of Adam of Bristol: A synopsis 12

The story opens with an address by God to .. . attention to 'what the Jews have d t It~ a~:lence, commandmg the audience 's Throughout the story that follows c;r;~d ~~e I~; o:~trous and garrulous England' ." on the action, sometimes to inter' ret it .ms~ . WI penodlcally mtelJect comments audience that the events being de~cribe~ s~~~~f:cance, but more often to reassure the His own full knowledge and consent. God i t~ m~ment 10 the story took place with partIcIpates in the events the stor reco s us t eauthor of the story; but He also dual role in Adam's story as He d;' ~ u~~s" God, 10 other words, plays the same itself. s, or flstlans, to the biblical story of Creation

A narrator's voice then enters th tal . widowed sister and to inform the a~d ' e, to mtroduce the Jew Samuel and his witness took place in Bristol 'in the da ~n~eKthat ~II the events they are about to This was presumably meant to refer to ~heor . IDg f ~nry, father of the other Henry '. eldest surviving son, also named Henry (d ~llg:3~ IDg Henry \I (1154-89), whose father's lifetime and was known the ~. " was crowned 'co-kmg' during his however, that the author intended to ~e~:e; a~h the Younr King ' . It is just possible, whom people in thirteenth- and fourteen:h_

o e reIgn 0 King Henry I (1100-35),

believed to have been the father rather tha t~entury d~ngland somellmes mistakenly way, however, the story is retro~pective wnth ~ gran ather, of King Henry II. Either century past. ' I e actIon placed fIrmly in the twelfth-

With these preliminaries established Adam ' .. approaching his sister and asking to speak 'th h s story begms WIth Samuel arrive at this secret place Samuel tells her th ~I her 10 a secret place. When they son had gone into the ~i of ' a on t e prevIous day, he and his young Pretending to be a Christia~ also B~::I, ;-:-'here they encountered a Christian boy. tn their house where the two ;, ue s son IDvlted the boy to follow them back cautioned the Christian boy to fol~:~ t~~~d pla~ . together and eat apples. But he cover his face with his hood when h t ;t a . IStance back to their house, and to to his sister, he had taught his son to ed~na~[~h ' th~r door. As Samuel proudly declares pant ID hIS father's crimes. The son kn I IS ' I orhwas the son an unwtttmg partici­mate would be ~ ( ew c ear y w at the fate of hIS Christian pia -Christian boys 'w?t~i:st~~ep~t~ry goe~ on to reveal) Samuel had crucified three oth~r the neighbouring suburban parr::~: ~tn;,; tw~ frBom Bnstolltself, and the third from

Wh th bo ' ary s, edmmster. en e ys arnve at the Jews' house S I" .

=~~~~ t~e~~:J) lays out a luxuriou; m:~~~r ~h;~~n(:~~~rl~~:~~~:~~;~: neighbours h ' hI Ie, goes outSIde to make sure that none of hl's Cht· t'

ave seen the bo Wh'l IS Ian Christian boy his name y enter: I e Samuel is outside, his wife asks the Adam the opportuni t~ :te~e he Itves, and . who his relatives are. This provides &ct that his father ~ Willia;rO~~ \heaUhdlenCe) not only his name, but also the

Redcliff, just outside the city walls oaf ~;i:t~~ ~:a:I~~\~~ ~~ ~~~:~ h~~f~~r~:~

12 'I1tio pt'" 16-19 summary follows closely the one 1 ffi d ' , . IJ ' .1 am arateful to Ken Stow: the ed 'l [J,0 ~re 1~ From Ritual Crucifi xion to Host Desecrati on' 6", fecerint . . I or 0 eWlSh HlSlorv for .. .

.... mtchi Judei in Anglia dolatra et . - ' pernlisslOn to reuse this material. -. ~ from Cluse's published edftio IFruia . (Cluse. 305: fol. 19r). Although I shall cite __ ";'UIin.. transcriptions I offer here arenas we as oho numbers for all direct quotations from the

ipl My readings do sometimes diffi ~y ownh, and have been taken directly from the Harley 957

er Irom t ose offered by Cluse .

-------

4 Robert C. Stacey

who are shoemakers (sutores); that his mother ha:i~~~fven birth to her second

child the previous OIght; and that s~e~! ~~~ ~sh~ife compare notes. Having deter-Samuel re-enters the house, an f B . t I and that no one has seen the boy

mined that Adam is from a remote part o. ';:! 0 afe to crucify him. Samuel's wife enter their house, they conclude that It wIll wi~h beer But when Adam insists on then re-enters the chamber and phe.s, thhe boy d hl·m ·that she is his father 's niece

. ft Samuel's Whe as assure . gOlOg home, even a er . ·th gifts for his mother Samuel spnngs and will return him home in the mornmg dW~ . ds the Christian boY. and covers him the trap. He closes all the doors, gags an ~~amber to wait for nightfall. with a linen sheet. The Jews then depart the cross in their outhouse - the same

After supper, Samuel and his son prepare a cified three other Christian boys. A location where in the prevIOus year th,ey had .~ru ow begins in which Samuel lengthy and lurid account of Adam s CruCI IXIO~ :nd addres~es him as Christ, repeatedly identifies . Ad~ as ;he C~~tlan th~ocross so that they might believe in mocking him and telhng hIm to esc~n h ~mto the Virgin Mary, and specifically to him. \4 In his agony, Adam cnes out or e p 0 rtunity to demonstrate his St Mary of Redcliff, ,thus p~o~~~I~f ~;:n;~;~e~~w;~en break for refreshments, partIcular hatred for that w 0 . . d f d to his cross in the outhouse. leaving Adam bound, gagged, naIled an S Ie I nee again addresses Adam as the

When they return to the outhouse, ,amue 0 d u er lip with a bread knife, Christian god. HIS wIfe cuts, offh~~a~O: n~;:u~~ull/~he God of the Christians remarkmg as she does so, Be . h bl d the Jews offer him a hot, bItter dnnk, smiles!"· As Adam's face streams ~It r~' Samuel's son then stabs Adam in the of which Adam can bear to taste on y a \ e·

h· life offering his tunic and hood in

face with his mother's knIfe. Adam begs or ~d m' now from the cross, they throw return, but the Jews reject the offer. RemovlOg a his body to the ground and stomp on :Im. I . the Jews' outhouse, located at the

Thus far Adam's tortures have ta en pace 10 h d la ed Now however, the back of the house beyond the chambe~ where the bfor:e :o:'e y wh~re th~y proceed to three Jews drag Adam's body to ,the ront room ~n' over a ;eat fire .17 At this point, bind him to a SpIt and roast hIm, hke a fat chIck '. A!m,S throat declaring, 10

a loud voice suddenly booms out fromdtihe uncodnsJcalcooubs Desist wretch, desist! It h God f Abraham an saac an . . ., .

Hebrew, 'I am teO , 18 Th J re stupefied, not least because the VOIce is God whom you persecute. e ewS a Removin Adam from the SPIt, has spoken to them in Hebrew,. theIr ownS~:~~~a~e . the voice

g they have all heard,

they attempt to revIve hIm WIth beer. b ~ until he recovers consciousness Samuel's wife suggests that they put Adam to e returning him to the outhouse and can speak to them. Samuel, however" m~sts up~~ see if his Christ comes to free and nailing him once agam to the cross, an we WI

him from our hands' ." k d Samuel's wife questions him Nailed back onto the cross, Adam now awa es, ~n f Adam tells them that he

about what he has seen while being roasted over t e Ife.

. ~ I 20) ' ' Ecce deus christianorum' (Cluse. 309: fol. 20v); \4 'Hie est deus christianorum' (Cluse. 308 .• 0 . r . ' corpus dei christianorum' (Cluse. 309; ,f?1. 20v): ssimam' (Close. 308; fol . 20r). IS 'jlla meretrix' (Cluse, 309; fol. 2~): meret~cem pe 309 ' ~ 1 20v) 16 'Ecce quam pulcre ridet deus chnstlanorurn (Cluse. . o . . 17 'sicut gallina crassa' (Cluse. 309; fol. 20v). J b Desine miser desine. omnipotens est quem 18 'Ego sum deus Abraham et deus Ysaac et deus aco ." hI ..... r<:,·~ .. IIIt:ris' (Cluse. 310; fol. 2Ir). . .. __ .1 _ _ .. .. a,,, ,, nn<:t"~' (Cluse, 31 t : fol. 21 r).

'Adam of Bristol ' and Tales of Ritual CrucifIXion 5

had been comforted by a beautiful lady, and by a boy who kissed the wounds on Adam 's hands and feet and called him his beloved brother. The Jews ask where this boy is now, and Adam replies that he is still with him on the cross. Samuel ' s wife asks Adam who the boy is, and once again a voice booms out from Adam's throat, declaring' Jesus Christ the Nazarene is my name' 20

Now thoroughly terrified, Samuel's son begs his mother to leave the chamber with him so that they can go to sleep. Samuel, however, again wonders why, if Jesus is God, He does not rescue Adam; and declares, furthermore, that if he can get his hands on the boy whom Adam has seen in the fire he will crucify him too. Samuel then stabs Adam to the heart with a knife and Adam dies, whereupon immediately the voices of thousands of angels are heard exclaiming, 'Blessed are all the works of the lord God'." This is too much for Samuel's wife, who immediately declares her intention to convert to Christianity and is promptly murdered by Samuel. Samuel then asks his son whether he also intends to convert. When the son responds that he too wishes to become a Christian like his mother, Samuel stabs him to death also.

Grieving and raging at these events, Samuel digs a grave in the floor of the outhouse, into which he casts Adam's body, the cross on which he had been cruci­fied, and the nails and ropes by which he had been bound to the cross, swearing as he does so that he will never again crucify a Christian. After filling Adam 's grave with dirt, and smoothing the ground above it as best he can, Samuel returns to the main house. There he covers the bodies of his wife and son with a piece of rough woollen cloth. He scatters dirt over both the cloth and the floor (presumably to soak up the blood), banks the fire (a job which, the text notes, would have been done by his wife, had he not murdered her), and goes to bed.

In the morning, however, when Samuel goes out to use his outhouse, he is confronted at the entrance by an angel with a fiery sword standing guard over Adam's grave, who declares: ' Wretch, you shall not empty your bowels here! '" Samuel, astonished, falls backwards out the door of the privy, and decides to flee from Bristol. Noticing, however, that his clothes and sandals are still stained with blood from the previous night's atrocities, Samuel returns to his house to wash. After locking his house securely, he decides to report all these events to his sister, and to seek her advice about what to do.

Up to this point, the audience has thus been 'eavesdropping' on Samuel and his lister, listening in as he tells her of the events of the preceding eighteen hours. Now, however, the action of the story becomes contemporaneous. After ascertaining some further details from Samuel as to the fate of his wife and son, the appearance of the .... 1, and the whereabouts of Adam's body, Samuel's sister begins to make plans to ~ her brother's crimes. Returning to Samuel's house, the two of them bury his wife and son along with all their clothing beneath the floor of Samuel's back room, !be lister declaring that they will tell their fellow Jews that Samuel's wife and son hDe left him without telling him where they were going. Samuel 's sister then declares her intention to go and see the angel in the outhouse, but Samuel begs her in ~~ of the living God not to do so, because his visage is so terrible. Because ~ asb her m God's name not to do this, the sister agrees not to go - at which = VOIce of God Himself breaks in to declare, 'The woman was indeed strictly

to her law' .23

: ~.~ ~azarenusest nomen meum ' (Cluse, 3 12; fo1 . 2t v). II ...... .:omn .. ~domini domino' (Cluse, 312; fol. 2t v). ..... . non.Pwpl)lsven.~m' (Cluse, 314; fol. 22v).

... muher ceca fidehs m lege sua, dicit dominus deus ' (Cluse. 315; fol . 23r). -------------------

Robert C. Stacey 6

None of this, however, solves the problem of the angel in the outhouse. Samuel decides he will live with his sister for the time being, until the two of them can figure out a way to resolve the problem of Samuel's intrusive celestial visitor. After Samuel and his sister return to her house, Samuel's sister asks him to explain why he crucified Adam. Samuel responds that he did so to insult both Jesus and the Virgin Mary, against whom he holds a particular hatred. His sister then asks him why he hates Jesus and his mother: ' What evil has he done to you?' Samuel responds by declaring, ' I hate him because he has said, "I am Christ the son of the living God.'" To which his sister then responds: ' What is it to us if he said that? Let us hold to our law, which Jesus gave to us by the hand of Moses and Aaron, and that is enough for

US .'24 As the story goes on to make clear, Samuel's sister is prepared to conceal his

crimes not because she has any sympathy for her brother's criminal conduct, but rather because the entire Jewish people would be in danger if Samuel's crimes should ever become known. The story goes out of its way, indeed, to emphasize her disapproval of her brother's murders, and her recognition that in Adam her brother has killed 'a holy friend of God'.'5 The fact of the matter is, however, that if it should ever become known that Samuel had crucified a Christian boy, they and all the Jewish people would be destroyed by the avenging Christians. The two Jews conclude, therefore, that they will have to find a Christian priest who will , for a fee, remove Adam's body from Samuel's outhouse to a cemetery, without revealing his

actions to anyone. Samuel's sister finds such a man in the person of an Irish priest, newly arrived

with several companions on the first stage of a pilgrimage to Rome, and so an utter stranger in Bristol. Samuel's sister brings the priest and his companions back to her house, feeds and lodges them, pretending all the while that she and Samuel are Christians. The ruse is entirely successful. The Christians all get drunk, and the priest unsuccessfully propositions the sister'S serving maid. The entire household

then retires for the night. The next morning, after first swearing the Irish priest to secrecy, Samuel and his

sister explain to him that the boy buried in Samuel's outhouse is in fact their son, who has been crucified by Jews, but whose death they wish to conceal for fear that the king's officials, if they learn of it, will blame them for the crime in order to extort from them all their money. The two Jews then offer the priest money, for himself and his companions, ifhe will conceal the crime and bury the body honor­ably. The priest is completely taken in by this story, and after accepting the Jews' money, goes off with his two male companions to exhume Adam's body and remove

it to a Christian cemetery outside the city walls. When the priest enters Samuel's house, he and his two companions are met by the

odour of sanctity and the sound of an angelic choir, whose singing the story describes in quite precise detail. When the priest tries to enter the outhouse where Adam is buried, however, his entrance is barred by an angel, who orders him to go first to a local parish priest to confess his sins and be cleansed of them. The Irish priest does so immediately, making his confession, in French, to a married priest of

24 'Cui SOTor in secreto: "Frater, quare crucifixisti parvulum ilium"? Et ille: "Ad contumcliam Christi Ihesu Nazaren; dei sui , quem semper hodio habui veementcr ct matrern illius" , Cui soror: "Quare ilium hodio habes cum matre? Vel quid mali lib; fecit?" Cui Samuel: "Nichil mali mihi fecit , sed hodio ilium habui quia dixit 'Ego sum Chri stus filius dei vivi.'" Et ilia : "Quid ad nos si dixerit? Teneamus legem nostrarn quam dedit nobis Ihesus per manum Maysi et Aaron et sufficit nobis:' . (Cluse. 316: fol . BT). ... c • • _.,* .. _ .. ~: ......... ,,,"' intf"f~mi~ti' (Cluse. 316: fol. 23r),

. 'Adam of Bristol 'and Tales of Ritual CrucifIXion 7

the CIty. Returning now to Samuel's hou e h · . . have seen and heard in his abse d s h' t e pnest asks hIS compamons what they tical procession which has beenn~:;ea~ t e~ de~~ribe to him an elaborate ecclesias­a boy, both dressed in purple and diS~~;~~ t~X1tmg the house, led by a woman and

With considerable trepidation · the . elr respective wounds. outhouse; but the an el who . ' . prtest now approaches the door of the and admits him into t~e prese~~e g::;~mg It ro~ounces hIS confession efficacious With the assistance of the an els the e ange IC ost gathe~ed around Adam's grave. sews it into a shroud The ang~1 the . p~est ,,;"ps Adam s body 10 Imen cloth and sister to convert b~th Samuel an~ I~S ructs 1m to return to the house of Samuel's wooden coffin in which to trans ort ~s sl~ter to ChnstJan~ty. , and to construct a Only.t this point does the pries; reali!a~:t ~~~u~ ~hel~lests church in Ireland. remains unclear even now wh h " n IS sister are Jews, but It himself has murdered Adam. et er the Insh prtest fully understands that Samuel

The priest's efforts to convert the two J Samuel does, however, borrow some tools e;,~~re perfunctory and unavailing. qUIckly procures some wood out of wh · ch th . hIS ChrIStIan neIghbours and body. Refusing to remain an; Ion er i I h t e prtest constructs a coffin for Adam's priest gathers up his companions gret:rn: :it~et~ow ~ows ~ be a Jewish house, the Adam's body and the entire' . . e co 10 to amuel's house, collects Ireland. Nothing more is heardC~~~~eYr' SmaCmludlln

g hthe

angels, takes ship with it to

Aft' ue or IS sister

er returnmg to Ireland the . b · d' . by the angel. Also by ang~lic ~::t u~eshA :ms body in a spot revealed to him martyrdom _ the cross the nails and ~:n, e .ones the mstruments of Adam's (presumably in the cry'pt). The;n el the:

opes - 10 the cemetery beneath his church

resume their interrupted Pilgrim;ge to R~~ers~~e pnes;, WIth hIS companions, to when he returns to Ireland from his i . e. e ange tells hIm, however, that buried Adam's body and all th Pflghnmage, he WIll have forgotten where he has

. . e rest 0 t ese holy ob;ects Th · h . by dlvme decree because God has d . ,. IS, t e angel explams, is the day predestin'ed by God the Fathe~:~~ed that the spot shall remain hidden 'until

When the priest returns from R h h . was buried But he has I orne e as mdeed forgotten the spot where Adam

~~~~~ ~~:d~~~~:~t~!y :~~!r~2~~~~I{~~:~:~;~;??~e;~:~~: ;~~!d ,~~~~~ ~~~ to you and to all h . spo en to 1m: ThIS place shall be unknown

The text ends hUeman tcrheatures untIl the day predestined by God the Father." '27 re, ate very bottom of the d ' b · we have it. Immediately after in red . k h .b

Page, an IS 0 vlously complete as

'Amen. The book ·s f· . h d' . 10 , t e scn e who copIed the text has written· I lOIS e PraIse and glo t Ch · .

leader bless the body of the writer." s ry 0 n st. May the tongue of the

........ ta.a.. aulem iSle ignotus erit t 'b' . if -w ~27; fo~, 27r), I I et omm humane creature usque in diem prefinilam a deo patre'

'OIIlm. aum erat se' . _ . rmoms quem dlxerat sibi ang I . "L . , ...... :::.m d.iem prefinitam a dec patre" '(Cluse e ~;7' ~ ~~; Isle Ignolus eril libi el omni humane ...... as difficult here It d' . ' , . 0, r), ..... IiDaua legentis.' The ~~~ s h~en fimlo IIbro si l I,aus el gloria Christo, Corpus scribenlis 1_ Beatt Froncisci, AnalectQ Fro~cisC e echoes Ihe envoI 10 Thomas of Ce lano's Troctatlls de

-reference to Professor Adam KOSI:''''' 10 (1941). p. 330: 'Finito libro sit laus et gloria Christo' .

8 Robert C. Stacey

The date of the manuscript . . survive in a volume of Only a single copy of the Adam of Bnstol story IS k~~::;.'~~ fourtee~th century.'. A miscellaneous texts bound together dun~g ~~ laste~ to William Spink, prior of Holy

century or so la~erirthls ~~~~~~ ~~g~r~~~e :n~:gthiS because at the top of folio 18v, Tnmty, NOrwIC, om '. f ' h ge on which the Adam of on an otherwise blank page immedIately aClngl\t e .~a a late fifteenth- or early Bristol story begins, we have a notall~n;h;~e:~s . I'the book of Brother William sixteenth-century Enghsh secretar~l han , ,3\ Aro~nd 1700, this bound volume Spink, monk of NorwIch, pnce IveHPenlce.. . e 1757 it has been in the British passed into the library of SIr Robert ar ey, SlnC ,

Library, where it is now MS Harley 957.. terial typical of a fourteenlh-century For the most part, the volume containS rna . d from Boethius's De

monastic library: extracts from various hl str:~a~~::~~;C~!~~ses that so far 1 have Musica; two late twelfth-century copIes 0 ertius's Ele ies; and some tahles and been unable to Identlfy;selectlOns from Prope orts uir;s 3 and 4, however, onto charts containing esotenc WIsdom of vanou; s nt~i~ a quite different selection of which the Adam of Bnstol story was cople ,co. ndentl before being bound texts. This two-quire booklet probably clrculat~~~~~~i:as ini{ially produced for a into MS Harley 957; and ItS cokntlents suggesthree maJ'or texts 'Adam of Bristol ' is

. d' e The bon et containS '. non-monastic au lene . . . I ribe who wrote In an early written in Latin, and was copIed by ~ sing e s~ The 'Adam of Bristol' story fourteenth-century Anglicana han~ ofmo er~t"ti::~:Z;tions that reflecl a detailed is rubricated and illustrated WIt two ~ma I d t t 'The 33 Follies' is an anon­knowledge of the plotline of the story. T e secon e:

d, by the same scribe (Scribe I)

ymous Angl~-N,;;.nnanf ~::~~!~~ ~h~mt~~~:~~~~ltext in the booklet is Nicholas who copIed A m 0 f G d Teaching' written In Anglo-Nonnan, but Bozon's poem, 'The hPrLoverbs °d MO:dle English.i3 This poem was copied by two With some use of bot atm an I

. . late fourteenth-century hand. survives on the first. 29 A table of contents for the vO,lume. wottcn In a ks to indicate whether the volume was at unnumbered fo lio of the manuscnpt. but there are n~ pres~mar f Norwich pressmarks see Neil R. Kef. this date owned by ,Norwich Cathe.drh·lc Pnh·o:r' f;': .~~SCy.US;::~s~crjons of the Cumbrid~e Bibliogrtlphicul 'Mcdieval Manuscnpts from Norwlc at e ra n ,

Society 1 (1949},1 - 28. B' J ' I Re .. isrer of the English Cathedrtll priories of tile 30 On Spink, see now Joan Greatrex, logrtlp IIca I'::>

province ofCamerbury. c. 1066-1540 (O~ford, 1,997): . 5 d' The only other surviving book that 31 ' Iiber fratns WillehT~i Spynk. monach! Norwlcednsl~::rec loR325i8; but the calligraphic, late-Gothic contains Spink 's name IS. M~nchester. ~ohn R~lan IS: O~~ig Ai verso is completely different from ~he bookhand that records Spink 5 ownership of thiS v.o urn, ' H I 957 Cluse (294) misread thc pnce

, . h' hS ' k's namelswnttcnln arey , informal secretanal hand In w IC ,P,In h fi ce Five shillings seems an altogether more oflhe Harley 957 volume as five shllhngs rather t an we pe~ ,

. 1 'd' (not's') IS clear. likely price for such a volume. but the secretana ~ 11 t d by Tony Hunt 'The Anglo-Norman 32 This poem has been edited, and its many versions u yr"~ e . f ersions of thiS poem can be found " Folies" Poems', Plulells 3 (1985). 14-32 , The most recent IS~lng 0 d

V R th J Dean and Maurecn B,M,

in Anglo-NomwlI Literature: A Guide 10 Te.~ts ul"pd b~·lf,(m ll,!crS,ps(Se·n·eeS · 3 (~ondon 1999), 150--1. no, 266. ~ S ' ty Occaslona u Ica Ion '

Boulton, Anglo-Norman ext OCle , ' nth or carl fourteenth century. All known copies of this poem d<i:tc from th~ late t~rt~e Christ;phcr Thorn, Les prow!/,/}e,( de bon 33 The standard edition of thIS poem. IS ?y n e~ , ft 1' 17/4(LundandLeipzig,1921): fo.ra enseignemelll de Nicole Bozon, Lunds Umversltets ,Arss n 'I~~i no 252. On Bozon, who was active complete list of manuscripts, see Anglo-Norman Llte';:';:~:'L 'ric ' A~ A,;,hology. cd. David L. Jcffrey and from the late 1290s untH the I32Os, see The Anglo-~o r ' ~ d 'Nicole Bo"on Frere Milleur, ed. LucY Brian J. Levy (Toronto. 1990), an~ Les Contes /. ora Ises e - , Toulmin Smith and Paul Meyer (Pans. 1889).

'Adam oj Bristol' and Tales oj Ritual Crucifuion 9

different scribes, neither of whom were the' Adam of Bristol' scribe; but all three hands are sufficiently similar as to suggest that the three scribes were probably working in the same scriptorium.14 All three hands date to the early fourteenth century, most likely between 1310 and 1320; but in copying the 'Adam of Bristol' text, Scribe I seems to have gone to some trouble to make his hand look 'old fash­ioned' by adding forked ascenders, heavy shading on his diagonals and on his hori­zontal lines, and by lessening the tapering on his long vertical strokes. Together, these features were sufficient to make me once think the hand could have been as early as c. 1260. J5 Butl am now convinced that the text of 'Adam of Bristol ' as we have it is an early fourteenth-century copy of a tale that was composed earlier: certainly before 1290, when the entire Jewish community was expelled from England, and most likely in the middle third of the thirteenth century, when the issues it addresses were particularly current.

For whom might this booklet have been written? Someone with some disposable cash, obviously; but although books were without question luxury items in the early fourteenth century, this booklet was by no means a deluxe production, despite the fact that it contains two small illuminations. My guess is that when this booklet was made it would have sold for no more than a few shillings (around 1500, the entire manuscript was apparently priced at only five pence); and because it was never properly finished (the rubrication ends two-thirds of the way through the text, and the opening illuminated capital was never added), it might have sold for less than a shilling even when new.36

Nor are the three texts contained in this bonklet particularly demanding, either intellectually or linguistically. Any literate French speaker with a modest knowledge of Latin would have been able to read and understand them. They strike me, indeed, as precisely the sorts of texts that an early fourteenth-century layperson might have owned and used as devotional reading. But they would have been even more useful to a cleric, who could have drawn from them the sorls of exemplary stories and prov­erbs that enlivened contemporary sennons. Franciscans were of course particularly notable for their vernacular preaching to the laity, and also for their fondness of incorporating French lyric poems into their sermons. Indeed, as David Jeffrey and Brian Levy have noted, ' the vast majority of thirteenth-century Anglo-Nonnan lyrics that survive today are found in manuscripts compiled or transmitted by the friars',l7 All three of the texts contained in this bonklet are characteristic of a style ofpiety with which the Franciscans were particularly associated38 Indeed, Nicholas Bozon, the author of the ' Proverbs of Good Teaching' , was himself an English Fnnciscan friar, active between the late 1290s and the 1320s, whose poems circu­IMed mainly in Franciscan-connected manuscripts. As noted above, the scribal envoi willi which the 'Adam of Bristol' tale ends may also point toward a Franciscan

J4, 1_ peful to Dr Justin Clegg and to Dr Michelle Brown of the British Library for advice on the ; oipby oftbe manuscript.

.... 1tIcey. "From Ritual Crucifixion to Host Desecration'. 15. where I described it as being from 'the

• ItoIf or!be thineenth century'. ., :.. ........ Itudy ofthc price of books in the later Middle Ages would be warmly welcomed. ....... AItaIo-Nomron Lyric. 3 (paraphrase). On this same point. see also David L. Jeffrey. The Eurly 1_ t.,rIc tIItd Fra~iscan Spirituality (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1975), 169- 90,2 10--11 ; and M. Dominica ..... ~N~ In the Clt:~isters (Edinburgh, 1950), 77- 90, 11 0--18. , IW'r.. I tnvolvement I~ promoting a 1247 rimal murder charge at Valreas in France, see Gavin 'si 7' l!~ d'accusatlon de meurtre ri!Uel a I'ouest du Rhone ', Juijs el Judafsme de

:c. CIbien de Fanjeaux 12 (Toulouse, 1977),235-49, esp. 243-4.

10 Robert C. Stacey

connection." None of this is enough to prove that this two-qhuire bookthleet , ~:~ . d · I both style and content, owever,

~e~~~~~:\~:,~~;s~:I~r~t ~~t:::~rt;blY within a Franciscan milieu, whether lay or

clerical.

Situating the tale geographically d at f h 'Adam of Bristol' text was preserve

Although the only known cOPYd

°b t e who knew the spiritual and spatial

~;:~~h/~~ :r:~t;~~t~~~~:.el ":i~~~:~n~erefore t0OO;ie~~~t;:t ~:;::lt:~~I; composed with a specifically Bnstohan audle~c~~~h ~Irn . acrosS the River Avon parishioner ofSt Mary's Redchff, an ;~tramu~ ~om w~icl~ one of Samuel's three from the old walled cIty of Bnstol. e pans . located ·ust south of previous Christian victims h~iled, St Ma?'~ ~edmm:~~r'B:~~ were plrt of the old Redcliff. Redcliff and Bedmmster were m e d :;~ re~ained part of the medieval

fitz Harding fee ,::,;~~e ;~I: ~~~:~;:~entury, when they became. part of the dloce

l se of B~~a se of Bristol 40 Redcliff and Bedminster were thus qUIte separate

new y create loce . : . h was located in the medieval diocese of from the old wathlled C~~to~~ryn~:~~;~:~ is less than five minutes walking distance Worcester, even oug I' e tion that Adam had from the old city, even on very crow~ed street~d ~~~~: ~:o:~ ;0 his neighbours in come from a long distance away an so wou . . I eone who knew Bristol is likely therefore to be accurate. But thIs IS a fact on y som

Bri~:~~ :~!~C~~! t;:;~k~~~n~t an outsider writing in the mid-thirt:te~~\~:n:~~~ ~:~~ WryO~: ~e";~ :::~:t~t~i:',:[ a~:o::~~~e:~ie ~1t:.'::ll:~tChitYm' nledardl:~~ ~~:

, . d f t from the castle. SometIme In e

~~e~~::~!~:,Pt~~~ee: o~ B~:lleft this area and mov~i~oC~eS~~:,~s~~~:~~I~~ the city, near the royal castle along present-day :me ~~~~ected ~ith th~ massive, cation of the JewIsh commuOlty may have een ·th·n Bristol and with the mid-thirteenth-century rerouting of the n~erdsys~e~h::2~OS and I 240s; or it could simultaneous constructlohn of new

k townlw2~6 s o:~hegJewiSh community of Bristol by

have been prompted by t e anac s, ID, . h h f M

< rt · 41 The 'Adam of Bristol' story, however, imagmes t e geograp yo the onho lans. . . h Jr · on the western Bristol as it would have been prior to this r~locat~on, V;:~m ~;;'~a~~n!ould then have edge of the city, close to thhe w

J harvhesbwri:;eg~o~:d on Brandon Hill outside the

landed, and close too to t e eWIS U

western city walls.

39 On this envoi, see note 28 above. ha I of ease sponsored by St Mary's 40 51 Mary's Redcliffwas founded in the mid-twelfth century as a cCa~ dral Although Redcliff rapidly Bedminster Both churches were held by the canons ~f SI3h,SbUry , desubo·,d·,nate to Bedminster until

, , " technical y It remame ) became much the larger of the two mstltUtiOnS, ' J AS d ' Atlantic Civilisation (london, 1954 , 1852. See Bryan lin ie, The City and County of ~rI.stoE: 1I~/~;;SIOI and Gloucestershire History: The 41 - 2; D.C. Douglas, 'Bristol under the Normans ,I~ ssays I ical Socie • ed. Patrick McGrath and Centenary Volume of the Bristol and Glollcestersh,re Arch(Jeo~og .W·I nry 'Bristol'. in The Alias 0/ John Cannon (Bristol. 1976), 101 - 8; M.D. Lobel and E,M

d· arus I so ,

L bel (L d t975) 1- 26 an maps. ...,., Historic Towns , 11 , edt M.D, a on. on. h' • , t H' lIaby inclines toward the latter date. I sus!""¥· 41 I am grateful to Joe Hillaby for advice o~ t IS pam . 'Id'. d · the 12305 and 1240s. Either way. r d ted With the rebut mg unng that the move was eark,e'l' an soc~~~:e during the middle third of the thirteenth century. however, the move too p ace

'Adam of Bristol ' and Tales of Ritual CrucifIXion II

Situating Ihe tale historically If the tale was indeed composed somewhere in the middle third of the thirteenth century, then we can see that it is engaging with many of the ' hot bunon' issues of the day. Most striking in this respect is the text's apparent awareness of the terms in which anti-Christian polemics were being cast within the Jewish community itself. To be sure, the author frames his knowledge of some of the ways Jews talked about Christians by placing it within a typically mid-thirteenth-century Christian concern with Jews as blasphemers against the Christian god'2 But in emphasizing Samuel's particular odium toward the Virgin Mary ('that whore', as he calls her); Samuel 's offense at Jesus's claim to be the son of the living God; the mocking tone Samuel's wife takes toward the visuality of Christian religious culture ('how beautifully the Christian God smiles' ; her description of Adam's eyes, wide open on the cross, as being 'like the insane God of the Christians '); and in emphasizing Samuel's sister's conviction that Christians seek to obliterate the memory of Jews from the face of the earth, the 'Adam of Bristol ' author does indeed rellect the actual terms of an internal anti-Christian polemic that we can trace in contemporary Hebrew sources.43 Even Samuel's spining three times at the mention of the Virgin or when the Irish priest makes the sign of the cross is a halachically enjoined response to outright blas­phemy. 'Adam of Bristol' makes one wonder, therefore, just how truly 'internal' and 'secret' anti-Christian polemic actually was amongst thirteenth-century Jews, and raises the possibility that, in England at least, Christian perceptions of Jews as blas­phemers may sometimes have been rooted in real knowledge of the ways some Jews spoke and acted toward Christians when they thought it safe to do so.

Apart from the issue of blasphemy, the 'Adam of Bristol' author is also concerned with other aspects of mid-thirteenth-century Christian/Jewish interactions. He goes out of his way to note, for example, that Samuel's maidservant is a Christian, whereas his sister's maidservant is a Jew. Prohibitions on Christians as servants in Jewish households were repeated regularly in thirteenth-century church councils and in royal legislalion also.44 Closely connected with these prohibitions on Christians serving in Jewish households were more general concerns with Jews and Christians eating together at the same table, or engaging in other sorts of neighbourly interac­tions, such as anending weddings'S What 'Adam of Bristol' shows us, however, is bow easy and regular such neighbourly interactions apparently were between Jews IIId Christians in mid-thirteenth-century Bristol. We see Samuel and his family sitting out in front of their house in the evening, as did their Christian neighbours; we see Samuel chaning easily with his neighbours, and so being quickly able to detennine that none of them have seen Adam enter his house; and Samuel is also immediately able to borrow carpenter's tools from them with no questions asked. But the tale also shows us how dangerous such neighbourliness could be, because by ialeracting with Samuel in these ways, his Christian neighbours unwittingly facili­- Samuel's crimes. The story shows us, therefore, not only how 'necessary'

• LA: Watt. 'The English Episcopate. the State. and the Jews: The Evidence of the Thirteenth·Century ~ Dec:rces', TeE, ii, 37-47; Jeremy Cohen, The Friars and the Jews: The £,'o/Iltion 0/ Medif!'l.'a l • h+tnr (Ithaca, 1982). a.r.a..~ for example, the Nizzahon Yashan in David Berger, The Jewish·ChriSlilln Oehme in the High ;--Aaa(Philadelphia, 1979) . • "'"The ~Ilish Episcopate', collects the key references. .... t' 'a:SWUlfiel~'s prohibitions on Christians attending a Jewish wedding at Hereford in 1286 are

_Cecil Roth, A Historyo/theJews in England, 3rd edn (Oxford, 1964), 20.

12 Robert C. Stacey

thirteenth-century efforts to segregate Jews from Christians were perceived to be," but also how unavai ling such efforts could be in the absence of local knowledge. The Irish priest and his companions did not recognize Samuel, his sister, or ber maidservant, as Jews; and there was apparently nothing in either Samuel 's or his sister' s house, apart from the sister's refusal to serve them pork, that would have tipped them off that they were residing in a Jewish household. Samuel' s neighbours, of course, did try to warn them; but their warning failed because the priest himself had already entered the house and so did not hear the shouted warning, while the priest's Irish companions, who did hear the neighbours ' shouts, did not understand them because the Irishmen did not understand English.

As this incident may suggest, issues of language and identity clearly preoccupy our author, who pays extraordinary anention to the different language each character speaks at different moments in the drama.47 Samuel and his sister speak English, French and Hebrew, but no Irish. The Irish priest speaks Irish, French, Latin and some English. His Irish companions, however, speak only Irish, and therefore cannot understand the shouted warnings, in English, of Samuel's neighbours that they are about to enter a Jewish house. A married priest of Bristol takes the Irish priest's confession in French. When the Virgin Mary speaks to Adam, she does so in English; although Adam apparently understands some French, he speaks only English himself. God the Father speaks Latin, but God the Son speaks Hebrew, to the astonishment of Samuel and his family who declare the language to be unknown to any of the Christians of Bristol.

What ought we to make of this attention to language? We might begin by observing that our author's interest in language as a marker of identity is character­istic of mid-thirteenth-century English culture more generally. The famous remark in the Flores Historiarnm about Simon de Montfort's partisans treating as an enemy anyone who did not speak English is a case in point48 Even more significant for our story, however, is the growing suspicion that English Christians felt toward Hebrew. In the late twelfth century, England had been one of the European centres for Chris­tian Hebraism.4' Some of this interest had continued into the thirteenth century, particularly among the English Franciscans in the circle around Bishop Robert Grosseteste. 50 By the 1250s, however, the tide was turning. In the 1220s, when a Christian deacon converted to Judaism, he was induced to do so by the beauty of his Jewish 10ver.51 In the I 270s, however, when another cleric, the Dominican Robert of Reading, also converted to Judaism, he was seduced into apostasy by his study of the Hebrew language, which led him to conversion and death." The 'Adam of Bristol'

46 On the enforcement (or non-enforcement. at least prior to 1253) of the Jewish badge in England, see Nicholas Vincent, 'Two Papal Letters on the Wearing of the Jewish Badge, 1221 and 1229' , Jewish HiSloricaJ SlIIdies 34 ( 1994-6),209- 24. 47 This and the following paragraph are drawn from my article .. Jews and Christians in Twelfth-Century England: Some Dynamics of a Changing Relationship', in Jews and Christians in Twelfth-Centllry Europe. ed. Michael A. Signer and John Van Engen (Notre Dame. 2001). 344-5. 48 Flores Historiamm, ed. H.R. luard (RS, 1895). 11 .481. 49 Beryl Smalley, The Study o/ the Bible in the Middle Ages, 2nd edn (Oxford, 1952). 186-95, 235; Raphael Loewe. 'The Medieval Christian Hebraists of England: Herbert of Bosham and Earlier Scholars'. Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society 0/ England 17 (1953). 225-49; Beryl Smalley. The Beckel Conflict and the Schools (Oxford, 1973).73-4. 50 Deeana Copeland Klepper, 'Nicholas of lyra and Franciscan Interest in Hebrew Scholarship'. in Nicholas a/Lyra: The Senses of Scripture, ed. Phil ip Krey and lesley Smith (Leiden. 2000). 289-3 11 . . 51 F.w, Maitland. 'The Deacon and the Jewess' , Roman Canon Law in the Church of Eng/and: SIX Essays (London. 1898). 158-79. ~ .. - ro, -_ .. :_,_ ~;Q" ... , r;;, Pnmllnds. 1212- /301 . ed. Antonia Gransden (london. 1964).58.

'Adam of Bristol' and Tales of Ritual Cm cij'lXion 13

author seems to have caught this gatherin w . . . secret language in which Jews plot th ' g ave of SUspICIOn; for hIm, Hebrew is a linguistic difference was thus com in el~ c~mes . In mld-thlrleenth-century England, previously beeD' and Hebrew like F g 0 h e seen as dangerous 10 ways il had not that might threaien Ihe well be'I'ng ofrEencl .' hwas DOW being portrayed as a language

. . - ng IS men. The euchansllc concerns of this text will ne d \' I . 53

the crucified Adam directly as ' the God f th eCh'.r\ e ur~mg. Samuel addresses Christians' God'." Jesus in the fo / e nsllans and as 'Ihe body of the Cross, while God the Faiher decla: ~h : youn~ boy, accompanies Adam on the Samuel 's wife culs Adam 's nose and \' .. ~t IS e whom Ihe Jews are torturing. fire also has eucharist ic overtones est~~lw~l. a Ibr~ad kmfe. Adam's roasting over a ofBourges' tale, in which a Jewish fathe:sth~ng I~ . s with both the well-known 'Jew son reports having seen the Christ child rOws IS own son mto an oven when the preserved, unharmed, by the Vi in Ma p esent 10 a Euchansllc host (the son is host itself, prior to its consecrati~ as the1~dandf~~h the bakmg of the eucharistic Adam - stomping burning stabb ' yo nsl. The tortures mtllcted upon accused of perpetr~tin u o~ the 109 -:- are also .typlcal of the abuse Jews were should we ignore the sfgn;ficance e:~~~nstl~ bread 10 host desecratIOn stories." Nor Christ, the second Adam, with the cruci~~ sC~~I~~a:ri:1 ~~other way of identitying

Even the Interest shown by the tale in the ' . y Bnstol. eucharistic significance The Irish . t mtegnty and efficacy of confession has must first confess his si~s and be :b~~~~e~o j~~gonbe°~ personal holiness to be sure, broken and rna db ' 0 em .ore he can approach Adam 's their sins befo~;rese':::r~~u~:~~!: Chr:stians after 1215 were. required to confess confession is als h yes 0 ~ecelve the euchanst. This interest in the clergy and in ~he ~;::~t:~i o:t:o~a:~~ ~nteresl the tale exhibits in the state of to emphasize that the Irish priest?' c r. ' e laity. The author goes out of his way made to a priest who was living in ~i~ ":~;~~ ':'i~:~~~CtalOlus, e

l vend though it was

lltenbon to the prayer I . e a so evotes special NO&ler and the Ave M~~;:':~Yioe~~~ :;~ds ~;~~een expecled to know, the Pater = ~~o~o~~~, saying thank you when handed ~os~~~hf~:,d:e~~:; ~~;::~~ There is .:: equal\~I~:;;~blessmg upon a house when one enters it for the first time. lesitimate marria e and 109 attentJon paid 10 the tale to the distinctions between of Bristol, bUI a~o in t~~n~~~~~r~nlot only 10 ItS criti.cism of the married clergy ...... _'s I 't' . IS mctlon Adam hImself makes betwee h' .....,. egl Imate marnage to Ada ' h . . n IS IIIOIber of Adam's two elder half_bro~e~smot er and hIS ITregular liaison with the

So wbat SOrt of a story ' th '? Th . ( .. ); and the text ' IS IS .. e scnbe who copied it described it as a book be read. RUbricati~!:el~I~~:i~=~~lt s~ve;al feadlures that suggesl it was intended to IacIIed quite recisel'· mIla s, an two Illustrations that have been 0IIdute to ~at has ~e;~~a;~esdpec,t to the textuaI passages they illustrate - all

Bot the pI a grammar ofleglblhty' acement of the rub ' . . ...., for legibility Ea h ncatlOns suggesls something more than merely a ....leGion mark tb ~ paragraph 10 .the texl was intended to be set off by a red

, e p acement of whICh was indicated by the scribe so as to set

·"'1IJUed !hi =:-I"abov~.case al much greater length in 'From Ritual Crucifixion to Host Desecration '. Geutk Tales, passim.

14 Robert C. Stacey

each speaker's lines off into a separate paragraph. The text is meant to be read, in other words, as a dramatic dialogue. This dramatic structure is further emphasized by the fact that the text introduces each new speaker (and hence each new para­graph) with a set phrase: 'Cui puer'; 'cui Judeus ' ; etc. We could typeset it, in other words, using the modem conventions for what a dramatic text 'should' look like, with only minimal rearrangement of its early fourteenth-century paragraphing. 56

Dialogue, of course, is a common literary technique in medieval narrative. We cannot simply leap from the fact that 'Adam of Bristol' is written in dialogue form to the conclusion that it must therefore be a drama. But there is more evidence than simply dialogue to suggest that what we have here is a tale that was intended to be performed as a drama. First is the fact, already noted, that there is no narrator's voice in this story, except insofar as God himself functions in that role in the tale's opening lines. And God, of course, is present throughout the tale, commenting on the action to the audience. Apart from the opening paragraph setting the scene, which might have been delivered by the actor playing God, the rest of the tale's narration is really stage direction. There is nothing, in other words, that an audience would need to know to understand the action in this tale that could not be conveyed directly by the actions and speeches of its characters on a stage.

The tale is also intensely visual. No other ritual crucifixion story goes to such lurid lengths in describing the tortures inflicted upon its victim; and none has anything approaching the slapstick humor of Samuel trying to bank his fire or do his laundry; much less Samuel being knocked backwards out the door of his own privy by an angel with a flaming sword. The two illuminations in the text may also have performative significance, by illustrating the costuming of Samuel, his wife and son, and the staging of Adam 's crucifixion in the privy. The background to the illustra­tion of Adam's crucifixion may even be showing us a scene on a theatrical platform, with a brocaded cloth embroidered with fire-breathing demons serving as a back­drop to the action."

The other piece of evidence that pulls in the direction of seeing this as a drama meant to be performed is the tale 's attention to the musical settings of the hymns and antiphons sung by the angelic choir surrounding Adam's tomb. This choir is described as performing ' like a body of singing monks, with thousands of thousands of boys singing the highest of the three parts, one among them singing above all the others, singing with thousands in organa, with ineffable sweetness, and saying " To God alone be all honor and glory, Jorever and ever, amen'" .58 Later on, the choir sings the entirety oflbe Benedicite hymn (the 'Canticle of the Holy Innocents ') from Daniel 3.57- 88, complete with antiphonal variations on 'quia dignatus est lIasci de gloriosa virgine Maria' , 'the choir singing the lower part in a softer voice, the angels, in three parts, singing in a high voice in orgallo with a most ineffable

S6 As Carol Symes has noted. the presumptions created by such modem typeselting conventions have almost certainly caused scholars to overlook a number of medievailexis which might in fact be dramas, but which do nol 'look like' dramas on the manuscript page. In fact , we know very little about what a medieval dramatic text 'should' look like. Carol Symes, 'The Appearance of Early Vernacular Plays: Forms, Functions, and the Future of Medieval Theater', Specllillm 77 (2002), 778-831 . S7 I am grateful to Professor Carol Symes and to Professor Sara lipton for observations and advice on these points. 58 'quasi corum monachorum canenci um cum millesies milibus puerorum trefarie ahissime canencium. ordine trefario. unus autem ex millenis milibus supcrius precinebat canens cum milibus in organa du1cedinis ineffabilis et dicens: "Soli deo honor et gloria in secula seculorum amen'" (C1use, 322; fo.ls 25r- 25v). I am grateful to Benjamin Albritton for advice on the musical terminology and descriptions 10 these passages.

'Adam a/Bristol ' and Tales oj Ritual Cm ciflxion 15

sweetness, and so they sang all the v f After a short break the ch . th . erses 0 the hymn distinctly and c1early'.'9

, Olr en slOgs Psalm 148 (La d d . laudate eum in excelsis) and finishes u . h . Ii ate ommum de caelis. would suggest, is precisely what w p ~~ a rousmg Te Deum60 None of this, I devotional reading, not least becau:e wou ~xpect In a tale composed for private words the angels actuall san Th ,as rea ers, we are gIven only a few of the the text, but they are n~ recogr'dede settmgs, words and antiphons are indicated in

rfi 111 extenso What we h h . pe onnance notes for a musical director wh . Id I ave ere, J belIeve, are and settings, and who simply needed to ~ wou ha rheady have known the words where.61 ow w IC pieces and settings went

we ~::en:/?s ~u~~;i~~ ::;~~~:~~:;~a~~~:s behind the tale of ~Adam of Bristol' as of) the church of St Mary Redcliff. 0 th f~een ~ayed 10 (or ImmedIately outside Assumption of the Bless;d Vir in' M

n e I een day of August, the Feast of the

clearly indicated in the tale' Adagm wary. Tfhedadssoclatlon WIth the Assumption is f . as crUCI Ie unng the . ht d ' . .

o the Assumption, and his body wa tr I d mg prece 109 the VIgil Most likely this drama would have ~en an~a ate to Ireland on the feast day itself. Assumption, probably by combining La : y~d ~t Redchff on the morning of the with Matins which, 00 major feast days ~n~ ; IC h would have featured Psalm 148,

Where, why, and for whom this tale ~ . e .. wlt aTe Deum m the Sarurn rite. 62

at present answer. Nor can I shed hasllnhltJally composed are questions I cannot . muc Ig t as yet 0 th . 'f '

mIght have had for the parish life ofSt M 'R d ' n e SlgOl Icance this tale residents of thirteenth-century Brist I ;~ s e chff, or for the lives of the Jewish another time. If. however I am . h o. ese are subjects I hope 10 consider at local parish dra;"a perfor;"ed at r;re~cll~d~;1estmg that behind this text there lies a ofberAssumption, then the extraordinary tal~~~~dofthef~rgln IMary on the Feast ~onallmportance. Not only does this tale 0 e . am 0 nsto . takes on an addi­boos in thirteenth-century Bristol . tiP n ~ wmdow onto JewIsh-Christian rela­between anti-Semitism and the dev;l~pmaeSnOt Of ers

l prEeclolus eVIdence of the links

o ear y ng Ish drama.

i~;~~~~:::invocemediOC ' I' '. n, ange IS trefana 10 voce sUblimi in organo dulcissim . 26v, 2;~nes versus ymni distincte et apertc' (Cluse, 324; fol . 26r). 0 supenus

.:I~~~~~~i~;£~mUSiC directors in early dra R' h Drama (Cambridge. 1 996).a8~;. IC ard Raslall, The Heaven Singing:

5(}....6~~nuscrjptsfor Mass and Office: A Guide to their Organization and Ter-