The Life and Miracles of St William of Norwich by Thomas of Monmouth

This work marks a significant and tragic moment in the history of medieval Jewish-Christian relations, as it promulgates one of Europe’s first allegations of Jewish ritual murder of a Christian child. Composed in stages between 1150 and 1173 by Thomas, a monk at the Benedictine priory of Norwich, the Life narrates in seven books the murder (in 1144), discovery, miracles and canonisation (though he was deprived of sainthood at the Reformation) of a local boy, William. Offering an invaluable window into daily life in twelfth-century East Anglia, the work also stands at the origins of a myth with profound consequences for medieval Jewish communities. Edited by Augustus Jessop (1823-1914) and M. R. James (1862-1936) from a unique manuscript, this 1896 edition offers the original Latin text and a modern English translation, supplemented by detailed considerations of the textual, historical and political contexts shaping this remarkable document.