Professor Rubin’s book is not so much a history of Mary per se as an exploration of the reception and construction of “Mary” over a dizzying range of cultures, as her narrative strides over countries and centuries at a breathless pace. Its aim is to present a history of Mary from the New Testament to the late 1600s.
MIRI RUBIN’s Mother of God: A history of the Virgin Mary is a big, ambitious book by a leading cultural historian of late-medieval Europe. By utilising hagiographical material, chronicle accounts, and literature created in post-expulsion England, this thesis aims to present a cohesive analysis of different narrative strands that were woven together to construct and develop the accusations of ritual murder.Mother of God: A history of the Virgin Mary By tracing the accusations back to their origin in England, and analysing how it evolved during the space of two centuries, an increasingly comprehensive understanding of the narratives can be constructed. This thesis will add to the evolving discussions surrounding the emergence of ritual murder and the subsequent spread of the blood libel accusation. This development in the nature of the ritual murder narratives is a reflection of both English society and the changing nature of the Anglo-Jewish relationship during the central Middle Ages. Hagiographical elements, Marian tales, and biblical stories that manipulation of the innocence of children were incorporated into the narratives of ritual murder which served to elicit a specific emotive response and engagement with their audience. This adaption is due to the ability that these narratives have to incorporate other narratives that are popular in different communities. However, the power of these accusations lies in their ability to be constructed as narratives and to spread through adaption into different communities and societies.
Historians have long treated the accusations of ritual murder as separate events and analysed them as such. The accusations that gave rise to these narratives have their origin in the specific social, cultural, and religious environment of twelfth century England. The role that these accusations played in ‘demonising’ Jews did not diminish during the following centuries but instead grew in popularity. This thesis will explore the emergence and development of the narrative that Jews ritually killed Christian children in twelfth and thirteenth century England.
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