Tzafrir Barzilay - Poisoned Wells: Accusations, Persecution, and Minorities in Medieval Europe, 1321-1422

THE MIDDLE AGES SERIES

Ruth Mazo Karras, Series Editor

Edward Peters, Founding Editor

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POISONED WELLS

Accusations, Persecution, and Minorities in Medieval Europe, 13211422

Tzafrir Barzilay

PENN

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PRESS

PHILADELPHIA

Copyright 2022 University of Pennsylvania Press

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Barzilay, Tzafrir, author.

Title: Poisoned wells : accusations, persecution, and minorities in medieval Europe, 13211422 / Tzafrir Barzilay.

Other titles: Middle Ages series.

Description: 1st edition. | Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2021] | Series: The Middle Ages series | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021028022 | ISBN 9780812253610 (hardcover)

Subjects: LCSH: PoisoningEuropeHistoryTo 1500. | WellsEuropeHistoryTo 1500. | PersecutionEuropeHistoryMiddle Ages, 6001500. | MinoritiesViolence againstEuropeHistoryTo 1500. | JewsPersecutionsEuropeHistoryTo 1500. | Black DeathEurope. | EuropeEthnic relationsPolitical aspectsHistoryTo 1500. | EuropeEthnic relationsSocial aspectsHistoryTo 1500.

Classification: LCC D202 .B37 2021 | DDC 909.07dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021028022

To Timna, Yotam, and Beeri

A new fear fueled suspicions of minority groups in late medieval Europe, as the belief took hold that lepers, Jews, and others were conspiring to poison drinking wells in order to cause widespread illness and mortality. These minority groups allegedly organized this plot to eliminate the elite and subvert the social order. The response to them was persecution. This book tracks how these ideas emerged and developed over time, explains how they gained popularity, and shows how they ultimately triggered violence.

Due to its unique characteristics, the threat of well poisoning was particularly intimidating and unparalleled in medieval culture. Water, often supplied in medieval cities through a system of public wells, was essential for daily life. If water sources were poisoned, no one was safe. Furthermore, since poison is imperceptible until the victim is ill, the threat was perceived as particularly insidious. Well poisoning sparked rumor and struck fear in the hearts of late medieval Europeans. At the same time, well poisoning was distinct from other criminal poisoning charges and from the ritual murder allegations notoriously directed against Jews. Whereas standard poisoning or even ritual murder targeted a specific person, well poisoning was an attack against the publica medieval version of modern weapons of mass destruction.

In addition to the radical threat posed by well poisoning to the public, the communal nature of water sources in medieval towns triggered another layer of allegations. As Christians shared water sources with Jews and other minorities, any minority group seeking to poison the Christian majority would have to consider that its own members would be at risk from this action. Thus, the safety of these individuals would depend on a communal conspiracy ensuring that group members knew not to drink the poisoned water. This belief, that effective well poisoning called for extensive collusion, added to the distinct character of this phenomenon.

Fears of well poisoning went beyond mere emotion and entered the sphere of action: several European minorities were persecuted for alleged well-poisoning attempts. Best known are the attacks perpetrated against Jewish communities in the German Empire (known as the Holy Roman Empire) between 1348 and 1350, when the Black Death devastated the continent and Jews were accused of intentionally spreading the disease by poisoning the water supplies. A series of terrifying massacres ensued, destroying many Jewish communities across Europe. Even earlier, in 1321, lepers in southwestern France had been accused of spreading their illness by poisoning water sources with the aid of Muslim rulers and local Jews; both Jews and lepers suffered violent reprisals, from expulsion or isolation to execution by fire. Similar, albeit more localized, cases can be traced from the early fourteenth to the early fifteenth centuries. Often Jews were the victims, but lepers, Muslims, paupers, and foreigners also suffered persecution.

Delving into this phenomenon, Poisoned Wells asks the following set of intersecting questions: What were the origins of the fear of well poisoning? How did this notion spread across Europe, and how can we account for the variation in its reception? Which minority groups were targeted in each case and why? And, finally, why did the accusations begin to peter out in the fifteenth century? To answer these questions, this book examines and contextualizes the development of the accusations as they emerged. Most important, the book focuses on the process by which rumors of well poisoning became accepted as plausible by the public and even more so by political institutions. It studies the narratives that were presented to convince leaders and officials that minority groups committed well poisoning and the legal and bureaucratic mechanisms that then solidified rumors into officially accepted crimes. The common thread of the book is the development and spread of the accusations; my main emphasis throughout is on medieval legal and formal institutions, the ways they were operationalized and the actors who used and abused them.

The book locates well-poisoning accusations within a range of local phenomena specific to the later Middle Ages, when Europe was in the throes of major environmental, demographic, and economic crises such as famine, war, and the Black Death. This broad-based contextualization helps to account for the quick diffusion of the accusations across multiple political and linguistic boundaries and their transfer from one minority to another. Moreover, the accusations often derived not from a royal ordinance or a rise in popular hatred but rather from the organized political action of local officials. By analyzing the intricate sociopolitical dynamics embedded in their decisions in light of broader contexts, the study uncovers the interlocking factors motivating royal officials, town councils, and local nobles.

Poisoned Wells is based on an analysis of diverse primary sources, including chronicles, official correspondence, financial documents, and records of interrogations in Latin, French, German, and Hebrew. These documents are located in archives throughout France, Spain, Germany, and Switzerland, and some have never been published. The analysis of such divergent source material presents methodological challenges. The book presents arguments from different historical fields: from social and cultural history, economic history, and environmental history. Some of the sections below discuss the historiography relevant for each kind of source. The major question of the study, why and how medieval people and institutions accepted, adopted, and spread well-poisoning accusations, binds together these perspectives.