Author’s Note: Not that the jury is still out on Satanic Ritual Murder, nor that Jewish participation is not an issue, but one needs to realize the broader range of man’s capacity for wickedness, in this case, a typical British King.
4 Dec 2010 : http://wakeupfromyourslumber.com/blog/fester/ballad-little-st-hugh-cuts-pasque-di-sangue
Martyred nine year old of Lincoln, England, reportedly a victim of ritual killing by English Jews. King Henry III conducted the investigation of the crime which resulted in eighteen or nineteen Jews being hanged. Hugh had been scourged, crowned with thorns, and crucified. Miracles supposedly accompanied the recovery of the lad’s body from a well, and the martyrdom became part of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The feast of the saint is no longer kept by the Church, and the entire account of the young saint is considered an example of the anti Semitism which was rampant throughout the Middle Ages (kicked out of 34 places by 1400 with another 25 expulsions coming by 1500 on their way past the century mark). In art, he was depicted bound in cords, kneeling before the Blessed Mother.
from Wikipedia: Hugh is known as Little Saint Hugh to distinguish him from Saint Hugh, otherwise Hugh of Lincoln. The style is often corrupted to Little Sir Hugh. The boy disappeared on 31 July, and his body was discovered in a well on 29 August.
Shortly after his disappearance, a local Jew named Copin (or Jopin), under torture, admitted to killing the child. Copin was executed, and the story would have ended there were it not for a series of events that coincided with the disappearance.
Some six months earlier, King Henry III had sold his rights to tax the Jews to his brother, Richard, Earl of Cornwall. Having lost this source of income, he decided that he was eligible for the Jews’ money if they were convicted of crimes. As a result, some ninety Jews were arrested and held in the Tower of London, while they were charged with involvement in the ritual murder. Eighteen of them were hanged for refusing to participate in the proceedings and refusing to throw themselves on the verdict of a Christian jury. It was the first time ever that the civil government handed out a death sentence for ritual murder, and King Henry was able to take over their property. The remainder were pardoned and set free, most likely because Richard, who saw a potential threat to his own source of income, intervened on their behalf with his brother.[citation needed]
Cultural influence – Meanwhile, the Cathedral in Lincoln was beginning to benefit from the episode, since Hugh was seen as a Christian martyr, and sites associated with his life became objects of pilgrimage. The legend surrounding Hugh that emerged became part of popular culture, and his story became the subject of poetry and folksongs. Geoffrey Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales makes reference to Hugh of Lincoln in “The Prioress’s Tale“. Pilgrims devoted to Hugh of Lincoln flocked to the city as late as the early 20th century, when a well was constructed in the former Jewish neighborhood of Jews’ Court and advertised as the well in which Hugh’s body was found.[citation needed]
In 1955, the Anglican Church placed a plaque bearing these words at the site of Little Hugh’s former shrine at Lincoln Cathedral: By the remains of the shrine of “Little St. Hugh”.
Trumped up stories of “ritual murders” of Christian boys by Jewish communities were common throughout Europe during the Middle Ages and even much later. These fictions cost many innocent Jews their lives. Lincoln had its own legend and the alleged victim was buried in the Cathedral in the year 1255.
There is a private preparatory school in Woodhall Spa, near Lincoln, named after St Hugh, which uses a stylised ball and wall as its school emblem.
From the Ballad of Little Sir Hugh – The following text from 1783, describes the murder of Hugh of Lincoln, as it was depicted in a popular ballad.
She’s led him in through ae dark door,
And sae has she thro’ nine;
She’s laid him on a dressing-table,
And stickit him like a swine.
And first came out the thick, thick blood,
And syne came out the thin;
And syne came out the bonny heart’s blood;
There was nae mair within.
She’s row’d him in a cake o’lead,
Bade him lie still and sleep;
She’s thrown him in Our Lady’s draw-well
Was fifty fathom deep.
According to the notes by Cecil Sharp on a variant of the Ballad of Little Sir Hugh, the story is as follows:
The events narrated in this ballad were supposed to have taken place in the 13th century. The story is told by a contemporary writer in the Annals of Waverley, under the year 1255. Little Sir Hugh was crucified by the Jews in contempt of Christ with various preliminary tortures. To conceal the act from the Christians, the body was thrown into a running stream, but the water immediately ejected it upon dry land. It was then buried, but was found above ground the next day. As a last resource the body was thrown into a drinking-well; whereupon, the whole place was filled with so brilliant a light and so sweet an odour that it was clear to everybody that there must be something holy in the well. The body was seen floating on the water and, upon its recovery, it was found that the hands and feet were pierced with wounds, the forehead lacerated, etc (<- meaning with the ritual incisions evident). The unfortunate Jews were suspected. The King ordered an inquiry. Eighteen Jews confessed, were convicted, and eventually hanged.
Sharp then goes on to make the following observations:
Bishop Percy concludes “the whole charge to be groundless and malicious.” Murders of this sort have been imputed to the Jews for seven hundred and fifty years or more; and similar accusations have been made in Russia and other countries of Eastern Europe even in the 19th century and as late as 1883.
In 1975 the English folk-rock group Steeleye Span recorded a version of “Little Sir Hugh” on their album Commoner’s Crown. In the song, the murderer is “a lady gay” “dressed in green”.
The contemporary theological consideration – shortly after news was spread of his death, miracles were attributed to Hugh and he was rushed into sainthood. Hugh became one of the youngest individual candidates for sainthood, with 27 July unofficially made his feast day. Over time, however, the question of the rush to sainthood was raised, and Hugh’s name was not included in Butler’s Lives of the Saints (1756–1759). Today, Hugh’s sainthood is abolished. The Vatican has not officially revoked the status of sainthood for the child since he was never officially canonized and was never included in Catholic martyrology. His traditional English feast day is not celebrated.
See also:
Ariel Toaff (professor of Medieval and Renaissance History at Bar Ilan University, son of Elio Toaff, former Chief Rabbi of Rome.) Pasque di sangue (“Passovers of Blood: The Jews of Europe and Ritual Murders”), was published in 2007. The book sparked intense controversy, including threats to his life and demands that he be prosecuted.
In response to attacks, Toaff initially said, “I will not give up my devotion to the truth and academic freedom even if the world crucifies me…Over many dozens of pages I proved the centrality of blood on Passover…based on many sermons, I concluded that blood was used, especially by Ashkenazi Jews, and that there was a belief in the special curative powers of children’s blood. It turns out that among the remedies of Ashkenazi Jews were powders made of blood.”
Text of Pasque di Sangue
Arnold Leese‘s Jewish Ritual Murder
Jewish Witness speaks on Oprah about Jewish Ritual Murder
Why I Believe in Jewish Ritual Murder
Other Victims:
Sir Hugh ballad, also known as “The Jew’s Garden”, and “The Fatal Flower Garden”