'They next seized the innocent victim with bloody hands, and raised him from the ground. He was put upon the cross, and they competed among themselves in rivalry to kill him.'
The Life and Passion of William of Norwich gives a remarkable insight into life in a medieval cathedral city, vividly describing the miraculous cures carried out at a shrine to a martyred young boy. But it was no ordinary shrine, for on this spot fervent worshippers gathered around what they believed was the burial-place of a boy murdered by the Jews of Norwich. The Life and Passion of William of Norwich is, as far as is known, the earliest version of what was to become the 'blood libel' that inflamed anti-semitism in England and has haunted Europe ever since.
Edited with an introduction by Miri Rubin
