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The Passion of the Jews of Prague: The Pogrom of 1389 and the Lessons of a Medieval Parody
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 March 2012
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Outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence in late medieval cities were hardly rare. For that reason, among others, surviving records are often frustratingly brief and formulaic. Yet, in the case of the pogrom that devastated Prague's Jewish community on Easter 1389, we have an extraordinary source that has yet to receive a close reading. This account, supplementing numerous chronicle entries and a Hebrew poem of lament, is the Passio Iudeorum Pragensium, or Passion of the Jews of Prague—a polished literary text that parodies the gospel of Christ's Passion to celebrate the atrocity. In this article I will first reconstruct the history, background, and aftermath of the pogrom as far as possible, then interrogate the Passio as a scriptural and liturgical parody, for it has a great deal to teach us about the inner workings of medieval anti-Judaism. By “parody” I mean not a humorous work, but a virtuosic pastiche of authoritative texts, such as the Gospels and the Easter liturgy, that would have been known by heart to much of the intended audience. We may like to think of religious parodies as “daring” or “audacious,” seeing in them a progressive ideological force that challenges corrupt institutions, ridicules absurd beliefs, and pokes holes in the pious and the pompous. But The Passion of the Jews of Prague shows that this was by no means always the case.
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References
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30 Baron, Social and Religious History, 9:318n30. Huler's charter is dated 19 April 1389.
31 “V tunnas plenas argento”: Chronicon Engelhusii, 1134. A tun was a large cask or barrel used for wine.
32 Steinová, Passio, 60.
33 Demetz, Prague in Black and Gold, 120; Machilek, Ludolf von Sagan, 142.
34 “inito consilio, ne ex usuraria pingwedine aeris corruptio inficeret civitatem, statuerunt, ut quidam indigentes et egeni cristiani tamen precio apreciati comportatis omnibus cadaveribus in cumulos, que nondum ignis consumpserat, eadem in cineres redigerent igne forti, adiunctis illis et si quos adhuc vivos in latibulis reperissent.” Passio, ed. Steinová, 6.
35 These mss. respectively are P (Prague, Národní Univerzitní Knihovna, XI D 7); K (Prague, Knihovna Metropolitní kapituly u sv. Víta v Praze, O 3); and T (Třeboň, Třeboňský archív, A 14): Steinová, Passio,12–13. The first two were identified by Lehmann in Die Parodie, 211; ms. T was unknown to him.
36 “Bvoh wyemohuczy zpyewachu prazene, tepucze zydy. Alleluia!” (Almighty God, sang the people of Prague as they destroyed the Jews, alleluia!) Historia de caede, ed. Jireček, 229; ed. Steinová, 29. I thank Benjamin Frommer and Andrea Orzoff for help with the translation.
37 “M semel, tria C, bis L, undecim removeto, / Pascha luce reus periit tunc ense Judeus. / Punitur dire, contingit nos modo scire: / Paschali festo Judeus vespere facto / Transfigitur, ceditur, crematur, fune ligatur, / Scelus blasphemie penam meruitque subire. / Signum erat ire, punitur, quod vidimus, dire.” “Paběrky z rukopisu Klementinských,” 39, ed. Truhlář, J., Věstník české akademie věd 9 (Prague, 1900), 295Google Scholar.
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44 On late antique and medieval centos, see Bayless, Parody, 129–76.
45 Lehmann, Die Parodie, 85.
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59 Of the three other texts, only the one concerning Edward I's regent is called a passio in the manuscript (“Passio iusticiariorum Anglie”); the other two begin with the liturgical rubric in illo tempore. All of them range much more broadly across the Bible. Lehmann, Die Parodie, 199, 202, 205.
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66 Modern liturgical recitations of the Passion short-circuit this process by having the entire congregation shout “Crucify him!” The phrase “the religious authorities” is often substituted for John's references to “the Jews.”
67 Bestul, Texts of the Passion, 94–95.
68 Bestul, Texts of the Passion, 83–90 (on Ekbert of Schönau or pseudo-Bernard), 93–97 (on Bonaventure), and 102–03 (on perfidus and perfidia in anti-Jewish texts).
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74 “Nobis, fratres, istae lacrymae Domini fiunt ut Magistrum imitemur, et ab hoc tanto praeceptore nostro discamus quid in nostrorum inimicorum morte, et ruina agere debeamus. Unde et ipse ait: Diligite inimicos vestros, benefacite his qui oderunt vos. . . . Iste fletus Domini compatientis Civitati de miseria, quae illi mox imminebat, praefiguratus fuit olim in lamentationibus Jeremiae, . . . sic et nos in afflictione proximorum, etiam inimicorum, ex compassione flere debemus, exemplo Christi, qui compassus est suis inimicis.” Ludolph of Saxony, Vita Jesu Christi II.28 (Paris: Palmé, 1865), 496Google Scholar.
75 “Igitur cum me filii tenebrarum crucis patibulo affixissent, non suffecit eis horrendum supplicium mihi illatum, sed crudelius saevientes coram dolente et moriente stabant, et me deridebant, et blasphemando subsannabant, moventes capita sua, et opprobriis impiissime miserum affligebant. Ego autem his non motus, sed patienter sustinens aiebam: ‘Pater ignosce eis, quia nesciunt quid faciunt.’ Seuse, Heinrich, Horologium Sapientiae 1.15, ed. Künzle, Pius (Freiburg, Switzerland: Universitätsverlag, 1977), 499Google Scholar; Wisdom's Watch upon the Hours, trans. Colledge, Edmund (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1994), 208Google Scholar.
76 “Respondens autem Ieško quadratus ait: ‘Non iocundabor ad plenum, donec inebrietur gladius simul et animus meus de sanguinibus Iudeorum. Spiritus quidem meus ad hoc promptus est et caro non infirma.’” Passio, ed. Steinová, 20.
77 “Diviserunt autem inter se vestimenta eorum, unusquisque quantum rapere valuit. Nec sortem miserunt super eos, sed integre et cumulatim ceperunt indifferenter non solum vestimenta, verum tamen omnem thesaurum et suppellectilia eorum cum illis.” Passio, ed. Steinová, 20.
78 “monumenta eorum per cristianos aperta sunt, nec tamen ulla corpora Iudeorum surrexerunt. Sed post diem novissimum venient in prophanam infernorum civitatem et apparebunt Lucifero et cum eo multis demonibus.” Passio, ed. Steinová, 21.
79 “Ut non sicut ipsi volunt, sed sicut nos volumus. Calix, quem disposuit eis Deus Pater, non transibit ab eis, sed bibent illum. Fiat voluntas nostra.” Passio, ed. Steinová, 21.
80 McNamer, Sarah, Affective Meditation and the Invention of Medieval Compassion (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010), 150–73Google Scholar.
81 “una Iudea antiqua . . . post regeneracionis lavacrum suo retulisse dicitur confessori, quod beatam virginem Mariam, Genitricem Domini nostri Iesu Cristi, stantem viderit supra portam Iudeorum.” Passio, ed. Steinová, 23.
82 “Videns autem potestas civitatis communem plebiculam magno contra Iudeam fremitu incandescere, mandavit preconibus, ut clamore valido publice per plateas congregacionem tocius populi ad resistendum futuris Iudeorum periculis in pretorium convocarent. Sed dispensacione divina factum est, ut Spiritus Sanctus lingwa preconum oppositum precepti uteretur clamancium. Clamabant enim, ut regio edicto et consulum tota simul plebs irrueret in predam et in exterminium Iudeorum.” Passio, ed. Steinová, 19.
83 Thornton, T. C. G., “The Crucifixion of Haman and the Scandal of the Cross,” Journal of Theological Studies, 37 (1986): 419–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Yuval, Two Nations, 165–67. On Jewish violence against Christians at Purim see Horowitz, Reckless Rites.
84 “Concluserunt itaque omnia in gladio et ferro et igne, paucis elegantioribus infantulum de camino ignis ardentis abductis.” Passio, ed. Steinová, 21.
85 “Sic itaque non moti penitencia, sed desperati in malicia, sonantibus inter ardores ignium musicis instrumentis, quidam ex eis propriis mucronibus sua viscera et puerorum suorum confoderunt.” Passio, ed. Steinová, 22.
86 This canticle was sung on the Ember Saturdays of Advent and Lent, and the passage about King Nebuchadnezzar was one of twelve Old Testament lessons read at the Easter Vigil between the Exsultet and the rite of baptism. Hughes, Andrew, Medieval Manuscripts for Mass and Office: A Guide to Their Organization and Terminology (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1982), 36, 98, 264Google Scholar.
87 Yuval, Two Nations, 190–91.
88 “[infantulos] . . . postmodum viscera misericordie cristianorum fidelium per regeneracionem sacri baptismatis a tenebris errorum Iudayce perfidie ad lucem vere et orthodoxe fidei perduxerunt constituentes eos sibi in filios et filias adoptivas.” Passio, ed. Steinová, 21–22.
89 “Altera autem die post occisionem maledictorum Iudaeorum paruuli, qui reseruati fuerant, a deuotis mulieribus collecti, baptismi gratia insigniti sunt.” Historia de caede, ed. Jireček, 229.
90 “Quod audientes Skopko et (sub)camerarius, ad notitiam regis perduxerunt, dicentes, quod extra voluntatem parentum illorum haec facta fuissent. Propter quod provocatus rex indignari coepit in communitatem Pragensium.” Historia de caede, ed. Jireček, 229.
91 Rubin, Gentile Tales, 108; Yuval, Two Nations, 254.
92 Graus, Struktur und Geschichte, 55; Bestul, Texts of the Passion, 74–75. Canon 68 of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) repeated this ancient prohibition. For later iterations of the law see Grayzel, in The Church and the Jews in the XIIIth Century, ed. Stow, Kenneth, vol. 2, 1254–1314 (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1989), 258–61, 270Google Scholar.
93 Yuval, Two Nations, 68–90.
94 “Haec nox est, in qua primum patres nostros, filios Israël eductos de Aegypto, mare Rubrum sicco vestigio transire fecisti. Haec igitur nox est, quae peccatorum tenebras, columnae illuminatione purgavit. Haec nox est, quae hodie per universum mundum in Christo credentes, a vitiis saeculi et caligine peccatorum segregatos, reddit gratiae, sociat sanctitati. Haec nox est, in qua destructis vinculis mortis, Christus ab inferis victor ascendit. . . . O vere beata nox, quae exspoliavit Aegyptios, ditavit Hebraeos! Nox, in qua terrenis caelestia, humanis divina junguntur.” Exsultet, , “De Vigilia Paschali,” Liber Usualis Missae et Officii, ed. monks of Solesmes (Tournai: Desclée, 1953), 776nGoogle Scholar. The clause “quae exspoliavit Aegyptios, ditavit Hebraeos,” was removed in a liturgical reform of 1975.
95 “O vere beata nox, que spoliavit Iudeos, ditavit cristianos. O sanctissimum Pascha nostrum in quo fideles incontaminati agni esu, corpore videlicet et sanguine Cristi Iesu, pridie et tunc refecti et a pecatorum vinculis per contritam confessionem liberati, . . . nec infancie nec caniciei Hebreorum pepercerunt.” Passio, ed. Steinová, 21.
96 For Jewish fantasies of vengeance against Christians, see Yuval, Two Nations, 92–134.
97 “Nam que tunc potestas tantum vilis et communis plebicule fortitudinis impetum quovis ingenio poterat cohibere, quin pro ulciscenda Dei iniuria proficerent, pro quo Spiritus Domini ipsos . . . in unitatem voluntatum et sancte fidei congregavit?” Passio, ed. Steinová, 22.
98 Cf. Graus, Struktur und Geschichte, 56.
99 Jones, Michael, “‘The Place of the Jews’: Anti-Judaism and Theatricality in Medieval Culture,” Exemplaria 12 (2000), 353Google Scholar.
100 Jones, “‘Place of the Jews,’” 330.
101 Rubin, Gentile Tales, 3. For similar views in an English context, see van Court, Elisa Narin, “Socially Marginal, Culturally Central: Representing Jews in Late Medieval English Literature,” Exemplaria 12 (2000), 293–326CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
102 Reflecting more than twenty years later on their absence from her visions, Julian said she knew as a matter of faith that “the Jewes that did him to deth . . . ware acursed and dampned without ende, saving tho that were converted by grace.” Yet she added that she never saw their acts or their fate “properly specified.” A Revelation of Love, ch. 33, in The Writings of Julian of Norwich, ed. Watson, Nicholas and Jenkins, Jacqueline (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006), 225Google Scholar.
103 The influence of the Passio has yet to be fully explored, but a later text describing a pogrom at Wrocław (Breslau) in Poland may be indebted to it: “De persecutione Iudaeorum Vratislavensium a. 1453,” in Monumenta Poloniae historica, ed. Bielowski, August, 6 vols. (Warsaw: Panstwowe Wydawn Naukowe, 1960–61), 4: 1–5Google Scholar; Rubin, Gentile Tales, 119–28; Steinová, Passio, 107.