xvi

TCE, i- x
Tewkesbury
TNA
Torigni
Trans.
TRHS
VCH
Waverley
Wendover
WHR
Winchester
WL
Worcester
Wykes
Abbreviations
Thirteenth Century England, 9 vols so far, i- v, ed. P.R. Coss and
S.D. Lloyd; vi-x, ed. M.e. Prestwich, R.H. Britnell and R.E Frame
(Woodbridge, 1986-2003)
' Annals ofTewkesbury' , in Ann. Mon. , i. 43- 182
The National Archives, see PRO
Robert of Torigni, in Chronicles o/the Reigns o/Stephen, Henry 1/
and Richard I, ed. R. Howlett, 4 vols (RS 82, 1884-9), iv
Transactions [0/ the 1
Transactions 0/ the Royal Historical Society
The Victoria His/ory 0/ the Counlies 0/ England, ed. H.A.
Doubleday and others (London, 1900- )
'Annals of Waverley', in Ann. Mon., ii. 129-412
Rogeri de Wendover Chronica sive Flores Historianml , ed. H.O.
Coxe,5 vols (London, Engli sh Historical Soc., 1841-4)
The Welsh History Review
'Annals of Winchester', in Anll. Mon., ii. 3- 128
The Royal Charter Witness Lists: Henry 1/1, ed. M. Morri s, Li st and
Index Soc. 291- 2 (2002); Edward I, ed. R. Huscroft , List and Index
Soc. 279 (2000)
'Annals of Worcester', in Ann. Mon., iv. 355- 562
'Thomas Wyke's Chronicle', in Ann. Mon. , iv. 6-354

'Adam of Bristol' and Tales of Ritual Crucifixion
in Medieval England I
Robert C. Stacey
Stories describing the ritual crucifixion of Chri stian children by Jews were widely
fOld and commonly believed by Chrlst,.ns throughout medieval Europe from the
middle of the twelfth until the end of the sixteenth century.' Such stories seem to
bae had a particular appeal in medieval England, however, for reasons that remam
only partially understood.' Between 1144, when the first allegation of ritual cruci-
fixion was made against the Jews of Norwich, and 1290, when the entire JewISh
population of England was expelled from the kingdom, at least a dozen allegations
tbat Jews had murdered a Christian child were recorded by Enghsh chroniclers,
hagiographers, or royal justices.- Not all these cases resulted in a saint's cult devel-
oping around the body of the murdered child. Although devotional shrmes to the
.ueged victims of ritual crucifixion were successfull y estabhshed at Norwich by c.
1150, Bury St Edmunds in 1181 , and Lmcoln 10 1255, similar efforts at Gloucester
in 1167, at London in 1244, and at Northampton in 1279 seem to have ended in
failure.
s
The expulsion of 1290 brought an end to the establi shment of new such
cults, at least in England. But the shrines at Norwich, Bury and Lincoln continued to
IIbaCI pilgrims until the end of the Middle Ages, and tales of ritual cruci fixion
continued to be told, not only by Geoffrey Chaucer in his Prioress's Tale, but also by
John Lydgate and a number of other late medieval Engli sh authors'
I AD earlier version of this paper was deli vered at the Uni versity of Southampton in June 2004. I am
.-ftaI to Dr Patricia Skinner and to the participants at that workshop for their kind invi tation and their
eamments, as I am also to the participants at the 2005 Gregynog Conference.
2 For recent studies of ritual crucifixion stories. scc Gavin Langmuir. Toward a Definition of
A.u.ltism (Berkeley and London, 1990); Ronnie Po-Chia Hsia, Trent /475: Stories of a Ritual Murder
7HaI (New Haven and London, 1992) and The Myth of Ritual Murder: and Magic in Reformation
Gtrwwmy (New Haven and London, 1988). Miri Rubin's work on host desecrat ion tales is very important
far dUnking about ritual crucifixion stories also: sec in particular ' Desecrati on of the Host: The Birth of
Accusation' , in Christianity and Judaism, ed. Diana Wood, Studies in Church History 29 (Oxford,
1992), 169-82; and Gentile Tales: The Narrative Assault on Late Medieval Jews (New Haven and

J I have offered some suggesti ons on this subject in 'Anti-Semitism and the Medieval English Stale' , in
lit Medieval State: Essays Presented to James Campbell, ed. lR. Maddicott and D.M. Palliser (London
... Rio Gnonde, 20(0), 163-77.
.. Joe Hillaby, ' The Ritual-Child-Murder Accusat ion: Its Di ssemination and Harold of Gloucester'.
Historical Studies 34 ( 1994-96),69- 109, esp. 86 li sts ten such accusations. My estimate includcs
.. ofHillaby's cases (excluding the 11 92 Winchester case), along wi th several additional allegations of
JewiIb child murder that are recorded only on the cyre rolls. For these additional a\1egati ons, sec Stacey.
and the State', 170 n. 31.
5 Hillaby, ' The RitualChild.Murder Accusation' . 69- 109.
6 Studies of the Prioress's Tale are numerous: the most recent is Roger Dahood, 'The Punishment of the
-.. Hugh of Lincoln, and the Questi on of Satire in Chaucer's Prioress's Tale' , Viator 36 (2005),
46$-91. On Lydgate's 'Prayer to St Robert of Bury', see now the important article by Anthony Bale,
Robert C. Stacey
2
Despite the apparent ubiquity of the ritual crucifixion allegation in medieval
England, relatively few such stories survive as properly developed saint 's lives. For
William of Norwich (d. 1144), the first such martyr, we have the Vita et Passione
Sallcti Willelmi Martyris Nonvicensis, written by Thomas of Monmouth in the third
quarter of the twelfth century at Holy Trinity Priory, Norwich.' For Hugh of Lincoln
(d. 1255), we have chroniclers' accounts by Matthew Paris in hi s Chrollica Majora
and by anonymous authors at Burton and Waverley Abbeys, along with a more or
less contemporary Anglo-Norman ballad.8 For Robert of Bury (d. 1181), the saint 's
life written for him by Jocelyn of Brakelond does not survive; beyond Jocelyn' s brief
remarks about Robert in his Life of Abbot Samson of Bwy and an equally short
account by Gervase of Canterbury, we have only a narrative pictorial cycle and
Lydgate' s 'Prayer to St. Robert' , both dating from the fifteenth century, to guide us."
The survival of an elaborate but relatively little-studied ritual crucifi xion tale
from medieval Bristol is therefore of considerable importance. Although the exis-
tence of thi s tale was first noted by Sir Humphrey Wan ley in the eighteenth-century
Catalogue a/the Harieiall Manuscripts ill tire British Museum, its Latin text was not
published until 1995, and it remains surprisingly little known by scholars of medi-
eval England or medieval Judaism.
lo
I am currently working on a book on the tale
which will include the Latin text with English translation, notes and commentary on
the text , together with several interpretative chapters attempting to place the tale in
its historical , literary, theological and liturgical setting. I I This paper presents some
of the preliminary conclusions from that larger project. But since the tale itself is
still so relatively little known, it may be helpful to begin with a summary of its plot,
before we begin to try to analyze it.
. " House Devil. Town SainI": Anti-Semitism and Hagiography in Medieval Suffolk', in Clltlllcer (mel t i ll!
Jew ...: Sollrces. COl/texts. Met",illgs. cd. Sheila Delancy (New York and London. 2002). 185- 210. On the
continuing presence of Jews in the religious culture of later medieval England. the essays of Denise
Despres afC of great importance. Sec in part icular 'Cullie Anti-Judaism and Chaucer's Litt le Clcrgcon',
Modern Phi/olag\1 ( 1994). 4 13- 27: ' Mary of the Eucharist: Cull ic Anti-Judaism in Fourt eenth-Century
English Devoti onal Manuscripts'. in From Willless 10 iVilchcraft: Jell's oml Judaism ill Medie"al Cll/"is-
l i on Thoughl , ed. Jeremy Cohen (Wiesbaden, 1996),375-401; and ' The Protean Jew in the Vemon
Manuscript' . in Challcer alld the Jews, 145-64.
7 The Life tmd Mimc/es ofSI William of Norwich by Thomas of MOllmoulh, ed. and trans. by Augustus
Jessopp and Montague Rhodes James (Cambridge, 1896). A new editi on of thi s te)(t (which is badl y
needed) has been promised by Dr Willis Johnson to appear in the Oxford Medieval Texts series. On the
date of composition of this tale, see Gavin Langmuir. 'The Knight 's Tale of Young Hugh of Lincoln'. in
Towards a Definition of Antisemitism. 237-62. and the important revisions to Langmuir's argument sug-
gested by John M. McCull oh. ' Jewish Ritual Murder: William of Norwich. Thomas of Monmouth, and
the Early Dissemination of the Myt h' . Speculum 72 (1 997).698- 740.
8 eM v. 516- 19, 546, 552; Anti. Mall . i. 340-6, 348 (Burton): ii . 346-8 (Waverley); Francisque Michel.
Hughes de Lincoln ( Paris. 1834). 1- 16.
9 The Memorials of Sa ill I Edmulld s AbbeI'. cd. Thomas Arnold ( RS, 1890). 1. 223; Gervase of Canter-
bury. Opera J-lislorica, ed. William Stubbs (RS. 1879), 1. 296: Bale. 'House Devil. Town Saint' . 188-210.
10 A Catalogue of the Horleiall Malll/scripts itl the Bri/ish Museum. cd. H. Wanley. continued by D.
Casley. W. Hocker and C. Mort on. 2 \'ols (London. 1759-62); revised by R. Nares. S. Shaw. J. Planta and
F. Douce, 4 vols (London. 1808- 12). Wanley' s description oflhe tale appears in vol. I of the 1808 edition,
p. 484. The Latin te)(t has been published. with a useful introduction. by Dr Chri stoph Cluse .. "Fabula
ineplissima". Die Ritualmordl egende um Adam von Bristol nach der Handschrift London. British
Library. Harley 957'. Aschkenas: Zeilschrift fiir Geschichte ulld Kulwre del' Juden 5 ( 1995). 293- 330.
II I have dealt with somc ofthc theological implications of the tale in a previous article. "From RitU31
Crucifi xion to Host Desecration: Jews and the Body of Christ' . Jewisll History 12 (1 998) 11- 28.
'Adam of Bristol' and Tales of Ritual Cnlcijixion 3
The death and martyrdom of Adam of Bristol: A synopsis 12
The story opens with an address by God to .. .
attention to ' what the Jews have d t commandmg the audience's
Throughout the story that follows and garrulous England' ."
on the action, sometimes to inter' ret it WI penodlcally mtelJect comments
audience that the events being but more often to reassure the
His own full knowledge and consent. God i 10 the story took place with
partIcIpates in the events the stor reco s us t eauthor of the story; but He also
dual role in Adam's story as He d;' God, 10 other words, plays the same
itself. s, or flstlans, to the biblical story of Creation
A narrator's voice then enters th tal .
widowed sister and to inform the e, to mtroduce the Jew Samuel and his
witness took place in Bristol 'in the da the events they are about to
This was presumably meant to refer to . IDg f father of the other Henry'.
eldest surviving son, also named Henry (d IDg Henry \I (1154-89), whose
father's lifetime and was known the " was crowned 'co-kmg' during his
however, that the author intended to the Youn
r
King' . It is just possible,
whom people in thirteenth- and fourteen:h_
o
e reIgn 0 King Henry I (1100-35),
believed to have been the father rather tha somellmes mistakenly
way, however, the story is wnth gran ather, of King Henry II. Either
century past. ' I e actIon placed fIrmly in the twelfth-
With these preliminaries established Adam' ..
approaching his sister and asking to speak ' th h s story begms WIth Samuel
arrive at this secret place Samuel tells her th her 10 a secret place. When they
son had gone into the of ' a on t e prevIous day, he and his young
Pretending to be a al so ;-:-'here they encountered a Christian boy.
tn their house where the two ;, ue s son IDvlted the boy to follow them back
cautioned the Christian boy to together and eat apples. But he
cover his face with his hood when h t ;t a . IStance back to their house, and to
to his sister, he had taught his son to door. As Samuel proudly declares
pant ID hIS father's crimes. The son kn I IS' I orhwas the son an unwtttmg partici-
mate would be ( ew c ear y w at the fate of hIS Christian pia -
Christian boys on to reveal) Samuel had crucified three
the neighbouring suburban frBom Bnstolltself, and the third from
Wh th bo ' ary s, edmmster.
en e ys arnve at the Jews' house S I" .
lays out a luxuriou;
neighbours h ' hI Ie, goes outSIde to make sure that none of hl's Cht t'
ave seen the bo Wh'l IS Ian
Christian boy his name y enter: I e Samuel is outside, his wife asks the
Adam the opportuni he Itves, and . who his relatives are. This provides
&ct that his father \heaUhdlenCe) not only his name, but also the
Redcliff, just outside the city walls oaf
12 'I1tio pt'"
16-19 summary follows closely the one 1 ffi d ' , .
IJ ' .1 am arateful to Ken Stow: the ed' l [J, 0 From Ritual Crucifi xion to Host Desecrati on'
6", fecerint . . I or 0 eWlSh HlSlorv for .. .
.... mtchi Judei in Anglia dolatra et . - ' pernlisslOn to reuse this material.
-. from Cluse' s published edftio IFrui
a
. (Cl use. 305: fol. 19r). Although I shall cite
__ ";'UIin.. transcriptions I offer here arenas we as oho numbers for all direct quotations from the
ipl My readings do sometimes diffi own
h
, and have been taken directl y from the Harley 957
er Irom t ose offered by Cluse.
-------
4 Robert C. Stacey
who are shoemakers (sutores); that his mother birth to her second
child the previous OIght; and that compare notes. Having deter-
Samuel re-enters the house, an f B . t I and that no one has seen the boy
mined that Adam is from a remote part o. ';:! 0 afe to crucify him. Samuel's wife
enter their house, they conclude that It wIll beer But when Adam insists on
then re-enters the chamber and phe.s, thhe boy d hlm that she is his father's niece
. ft Samuel's Whe as assure .
gOlOg home, even a er . th gifts for his mother Samuel spnngs
and will return him home in the mornmg ds the Christian boY. and covers him
the trap. He closes all the doors, gags an to wait for nightfall.
with a linen sheet. The Jews then depart the cross in their outhouse - the same
After supper, Samuel and his son prepare a cified three other Christian boys. A
location where in the prevIOus year th,ey had ow begins in which Samuel
lengthy and lurid account of Adam s CruCI :nd him as Christ,
repeatedly identifies . as ;he so that they might believe in
mocking him and telhng hIm to h the Virgin Mary, and specifically to
him. \4 In his agony, Adam cnes out or e p 0 rtunity to demonstrate his
St Mary of Redcliff, ,thus break for refreshments,
partIcular hatred for that w 0 . . d f d to his cross in the outhouse.
leaving Adam bound, gagged, naIled an S Ie I nee again addresses Adam as the
When they return to the outhouse, ,amue 0 d u er lip with a bread knife,
Christian god. HIS wIfe cuts, God of the Christians
remarkmg as she does so, Be . h bl d the Jews offer him a hot, bItter dnnk,
smiles!" As Adam's face streams Samuel's son then stabs Adam in the
of which Adam can bear to taste on y a \ e
h
life offering his tunic and hood in
face with his mother' s knIfe. Adam begs or m' now from the cross, they throw
return, but the Jews reject the offer. RemovlOg a
his body to the ground and stomp on :Im. I . the Jews' outhouse, located at the
Thus far Adam's tortures have ta en pace 10 h d la ed Now however, the
back of the house beyond the where the bfor:e :o:'e y proceed to
three Jews drag Adam's body to ,the ront room over a ;eat fire.17 At this point,
bind him to a SpIt and roast hIm, hke a fat chIck ' . A!m,S throat declaring, 10
a loud voice suddenly booms out fromdtihe uncodnsJcalcooubs Desist wretch, desist! It
h
God f Abraham an saac an . . ., .
Hebrew, 'I am teO , 18 Th J re stupefied, not least because the VOIce
is God whom you persecute. e ewS a Removin Adam from the SPIt,
has spoken to them in Hebrew,. theIr the voice
g
they have all heard,
they attempt to revIve hIm WIth beer. b until he recovers consciousness
Samuel's wife suggests that they put Adam to e returning him to the outhouse
and can speak to them. Samuel, however" see if his Christ comes to free
and nailing him once agam to the cross, an we WI
him from our hands' ." k d Samuel's wife questions him
Nailed back onto the cross, Adam now awa es, f Adam tells them that he
about what he has seen while being roasted over t e Ife.
. I 20)' ' Ecce deus christianorum' (Cluse. 309: fol. 20v);
\4 'Hie est deus christianorum' (Cluse. 308 . 0 . r .
' corpus dei christianorum' (Cluse. 309; ,f?1. 20v): ssimam' (Close. 308; fol . 20r).
IS 'jlla meretrix' (Cluse, 309; fol. pe 309' 1 20v)
16 'Ecce quam pulcre ridet deus chnstlanorurn (Cluse. . o . .
17 'sicut gallina crassa' (Cluse. 309; fol. 20v). J b Desine miser desine. omnipotens est quem
18 'Ego sum deus Abraham et deus Ysaac et deus aco ."
hI ..... ..IIIt:ris' (Cluse. 310; fol. 2Ir). . .. __ .1 _ _ .. .. a,,, ,, (Cluse, 31 t : fol. 21 r).
'Adam of Bristol ' and Tales of Ritual CrucifIXion 5
had been comforted by a beautiful lady, and by a boy who kissed the wounds on
Adam' s hands and feet and called him his beloved brother. The Jews ask where this
boy is now, and Adam replies that he is still with him on the cross. Samuel ' s wife
asks Adam who the boy is, and once again a voice booms out from Adam' s throat,
declaring' Jesus Christ the Nazarene is my name' 20
Now thoroughly terrified, Samuel's son begs his mother to leave the chamber
with him so that they can go to sleep. Samuel, however, again wonders why, if Jesus
is God, He does not rescue Adam; and declares, furthermore, that if he can get his
hands on the boy whom Adam has seen in the fire he will crucify him too. Samuel
then stabs Adam to the heart with a knife and Adam dies, whereupon immediately
the voices of thousands of angels are heard exclaiming, 'Blessed are all the works of
the lord God'. " This is too much for Samuel's wife, who immediately declares her
intention to convert to Christianity and is promptly murdered by Samuel. Samuel
then asks his son whether he also intends to convert. When the son responds that he
too wishes to become a Christian like his mother, Samuel stabs him to death also.
Grieving and raging at these events, Samuel digs a grave in the floor of the
outhouse, into which he casts Adam's body, the cross on which he had been cruci-
fied, and the nails and ropes by which he had been bound to the cross, swearing as
he does so that he will never again crucify a Christian. After filling Adam's grave
with dirt, and smoothing the ground above it as best he can, Samuel returns to the
main house. There he covers the bodies of his wife and son with a piece of rough
woollen cloth. He scatters dirt over both the cloth and the floor (presumably to soak
up the blood), banks the fire (a job which, the text notes, would have been done by
his wife, had he not murdered her), and goes to bed.
In the morning, however, when Samuel goes out to use his outhouse, he is
confronted at the entrance by an angel with a fiery sword standing guard over
Adam's grave, who declares: ' Wretch, you shall not empty your bowels here! '"
Samuel, astonished, falls backwards out the door of the privy, and decides to flee
from Bristol. Noticing, however, that his clothes and sandals are still stained with
blood from the previous night's atrocities, Samuel returns to his house to wash.
After locking his house securely, he decides to report all these events to his sister,
and to seek her advice about what to do.
Up to this point, the audience has thus been 'eavesdropping' on Samuel and his
lister, listening in as he tells her of the events of the preceding eighteen hours. Now,
however, the action of the story becomes contemporaneous. After ascertaining some
further details from Samuel as to the fate of his wife and son, the appearance of the
.... 1, and the whereabouts of Adam's body, Samuel's sister begins to make plans to
her brother's crimes. Returning to Samuel's house, the two of them bury his
wife and son along with all their clothing beneath the floor of Samuel's back room,
!be lister declaring that they will tell their fellow Jews that Samuel's wife and son
hDe left him without telling him where they were going. Samuel 's sister then
declares her intention to go and see the angel in the outhouse, but Samuel begs her in
of the living God not to do so, because his visage is so terrible. Because
asb her m God's name not to do this, the sister agrees not to go - at which
= VOIce of God Himself breaks in to declare, 'The woman was indeed strictly
to her law' .23
: nomen meum' (Cluse, 312; fo1. 2t v).
II ...... .:omn .. domino' (Cluse, 312; fol. 2t v).
..... . 314; fol. 22v).
... muher ceca fidehs m lege sua, di cit dominus deus ' (Cluse. 315; fol . 23r).
-------------------
Robert C. Stacey
6
None of this, however, solves the problem of the angel in the outhouse. Samuel
decides he will live with his sister for the time being, until the two of them can
figure out a way to resolve the problem of Samuel's intrusive celestial visitor. After
Samuel and his sister return to her house, Samuel's sister asks him to explain why he
crucified Adam. Samuel responds that he did so to insult both Jesus and the Virgin
Mary, against whom he holds a particular hatred. Hi s sister then asks him why he
hates Jesus and his mother: ' What evil has he done to you?' Samuel responds by
declaring, ' I hate him because he has said, "I am Christ the son of the living God.'"
To which his sister then responds: ' What is it to us if he said that? Let us hold to our
law, which Jesus gave to us by the hand of Moses and Aaron, and that is enough for
US.'24
As the story goes on to make clear, Samuel's sister is prepared to conceal hi s
crimes not because she has any sympathy for her brother's criminal conduct, but
rather because the entire Jewish people would be in danger if Samuel's crimes
should ever become known. The story goes out of its way, indeed, to emphasize her
disapproval of her brother's murders, and her recognition that in Adam her brother
has killed 'a holy friend of God'.'5 The fact of the matter is, however, that if it
should ever become known that Samuel had crucified a Christian boy, they and all
the Jewi sh people would be destroyed by the avenging Christians. The two Jews
conclude, therefore, that they will have to find a Christian priest who will , for a fee,
remove Adam's body from Samuel's outhouse to a cemetery, without revealing his
actions to anyone.
Samuel's sister finds such a man in the person of an Irish priest, newly arrived
with several companions on the first stage of a pilgrimage to Rome, and so an utter
stranger in Bristol. Samuel's sister brings the priest and his companions back to her
house, feeds and lodges them, pretending all the while that she and Samuel are
Christians. The ruse is entirely successful. The Christians all get drunk, and the
priest unsuccessfully propositions the sister'S serving maid. The entire household
then retires for the night.
The next morning, after first swearing the Irish priest to secrecy, Samuel and his
sister explain to him that the boy buried in Samuel's outhouse is in fact their son,
who has been crucified by Jews, but whose death they wish to conceal for fear that
the king's officials, if they learn of it, will blame them for the crime in order to
extort from them all their money. The two Jews then offer the priest money, for
himself and his companions, ifhe will conceal the crime and bury the body honor-
ably. The priest is completely taken in by this story, and after accepting the Jews'
money, goes off with his two male companions to exhume Adam's body and remove
it to a Christian cemetery outside the city walls.
When the priest enters Samuel's house, he and his two companions are met by the
odour of sanctity and the sound of an angelic choir, whose si nging the story
describes in quite precise detail. When the priest tries to enter the outhouse where
Adam is buried, however, his entrance is barred by an angel, who orders him to go
first to a local parish priest to confess his sins and be cleansed of them. The Irish
priest does so immediately, making his confession, in French, to a married priest of
24 'Cui SOTor in secreto: "Frater, quare crucifixisti parvulum ilium"? Et ille: "Ad contumcliam Christi
Ihesu Nazaren; dei sui , quem semper hodio habui veementcr ct matrern illius", Cui soror: "Quare ilium
hodio habes cum matre? Vel quid mali lib; fecit?" Cui Samuel: "Nichil mali mihi fecit , sed hodio ilium
habui quia dixit 'Ego sum Chri stus filius dei vivi.'" Et ilia: "Quid ad nos si dixerit? Teneamus legem
nostrarn quam dedit nobis Ihesus per manum Maysi et Aaron et sufficit nobis:' . (Cluse. 316: fol . BT).
... c _.,* .. _ .. ......... ,,,"' (Cluse. 316: fol. 23r),
. 'Adam of Bristol 'and Tales of Ritual CrucifIXion 7
the CIty. Returning now to Samuel's hou e h . .
have seen and heard in his abse d s h' t e pnest asks hIS compamons what they
tical procession which has t to him an elaborate ecclesias-
a boy, both dressed in purple and the house, led by a woman and
With considerable trepidation the . elr respective wounds.
outhouse; but the an el who . ' . prtest now approaches the door of the
and admits him into It hIS confession efficacious
With the assistance of the an els the e ange IC ost around Adam's grave.
sews it into a shroud The the . ,,;"ps Adam s body 10 Imen cloth and
sister to convert Samuel ructs 1m to return to the house of Samuel's
wooden coffin in which to trans ort to and to construct a
Only.t thi s point does the pries; church in Ireland.
remains unclear even now wh h " n IS sister are Jews, but It
himself has murdered Adam. et er the Insh prtest fully understands that Samuel
The priest's efforts to convert the two J
Samuel does, however, borrow some tools perfunctory and unavailing.
qUIckly procures some wood out of wh ch th . hIS ChrIStIan neIghbours and
body. Refusi ng to remain an; Ion er i I h t e prtest constructs a coffin for Adam's
priest gathers up his companions gret:rn: be a Jewish house, the
Adam's body and the entire' . . e co 10 to amuel's house, collects
Ireland. Nothing more is SmaCmludlln
g
h
the
angels, takes ship with it to
Aft
' ue or IS sister
er returnmg to Ireland the . b d' .
by the angel. Also by :ms body in a spot revealed to him
martyrdom _ the cross the nails and e .ones the mstruments of Adam's
(presumably in the cry'pt). The;n el the:
opes
- 10 the cemetery beneath his church
resume their interrupted Pilgrim;ge to pnes;, WIth hIS companions, to
when he returns to Ireland from hi s i . e. e ange tells hIm, however, that
buried Adam's body and all th Pflghnmage, he WIll have forgotten where he has
. . e rest 0 t ese holy ob;ects Th h .
by dlvme decree because God has d . ,. IS, t e angel explams, is
the day predestin'ed by God the that the spot shall remain hidden 'until
When the priest returns from R h h .
was buried But he has I orne e as mdeed forgotten the spot where Adam

to you and to all h . spo en to 1m: ThIS place shall be unknown
The text ends hUe
man
tcrheatures untIl the day predestined by God the Father." '27
re, ate very bottom of the d ' b
we have it. Immediately after in red . k h .b
Page
, an IS 0 vlously complete as
'Amen. The book s f . h d' . 10 , t e scn e who copIed the text has written
I lOIS e PraIse and glo t Ch .
leader bless the body of the writer." s ry 0 nst. May the tongue of the
........
ta.a.. aulem iSle ignotus erit t 'b' .
if -w 27r), I I et omm humane creature usque in diem prefinilam a deo patre'
'OIIlm. aum erat se' . _ . rmoms quem dlxerat sibi ang I . "L . ,
...... :::.m d.iem prefinitam a dec patre" '(Cluse e Isle Ignolus eril libi el omni humane
...... as difficult here It d' . ' , . 0, r),
..... IiDaua legentis.' The s fimlo IIbro si l I,aus el gloria Christo, Corpus scribenlis
1_ Beatt Froncisci, AnalectQ e echoes Ihe envoI 10 Thomas of Celano's Troctatlls de
-reference to Professor Adam KOSI:''''' 10 (1941). p. 330: 'Finito libro sit laus et gloria Christo' .
8
Robert C. Stacey
The date of the manuscript . . survive in a volume of
Only a single copy of the Adam of Bnstol story IS century.'. A
miscellaneous texts bound together to William Spink, prior of Holy
century or so because at the top of folio 18v,
Tnmty, NOrwIC, om '. f ' h ge on which the Adam of
on an otherwise blank page immedIately aClngl\t e a late fifteenth- or early
Bristol story begins, we have a book of Brother William
sixteenth-century Enghsh han , ,3\ 1700, this bound volume
Spink, monk of NorwIch, pnce IveHPenlce.. . e 1757 it has been in the British
passed into the library of SIr Robert ar ey, SlnC ,
Library, where it is now MS Harley 957.. terial typical of a fourteenlh-century
For the most part, the volume containS rna . d from Boethius's De
monastic library: extracts from vari ous that so far 1 have
Musica; two late twelfth-century copIes 0 ertius's Ele ies; and some tahles and
been unable to Identlfy;selectlOns from Prope orts uir;s 3 and 4, however, onto
charts containing esotenc WIsdom of vanou; s a quite different selection of
which the Adam of Bnstol story was cople ,co. ndentl before being bound
texts. This two-quire booklet probably ini{ially produced for a
into MS Harley 957; and ItS cokntlents suggesthree maJ' or texts ' Adam of Bristol' is
. d' e The bon et containS '.
non-monastic au lene . . . I ribe who wrote In an early
written in Latin, and was copIed by sing e The ' Adam of Bristol' story
fourteenth-century Anglicana ofmo that reflecl a detailed
is rubricated and illustrated WIt two I d t t 'The 33 Follies' is an anon-
knowledge of the plotline of the story. T e secon e:
d
, by the same scribe (Scribe I)
ymous in the booklet is Nicholas
who copIed A m 0 f G d Teaching' written In Anglo-Nonnan, but
Bozon's poem, ' The hPrLoverbs d MO:dle Engli sh.i3 This poem was copied by two
With some use of bot atm an I
. . late fourteenth-century hand. survives on the first.
29 A table of contents for the vO,lume. wottcn In a ks to indicate whet her the volume was at
unnumbered folio of the manuscnpt. but there are f Norwich pressmarks see Neil R. Kef.
this date owned by ,Norwich Cathe.drhlc Pnho:r' f;': of the Bibliogrtlphicul
'Mcdieval Manuscnpts from Norwlc at e ra n ,
Society 1 (1949},1- 28. B' J' I Re .. isrer of the English Cathedrtll priories of tile
30 On Spink, see now Joan Greatrex, logrtlp IIca I'::>
province ofCamerbury. c. 1066- 1540 1,997): . 5 d' The only other surviving book that
31 ' Ii ber fratns Spynk. monach! but the calligraphic, late-Gothic
contains Spink' s name IS. IS: Ai verso is completely different from
bookhand that records Spink 5 ownership of thiS v.o urn, ' H I 957 Cluse (294) misread thc pnce
, . h' hS ' k's namelswnttcnln arey ,
informal secretanal hand In w IC ,P,In h fi ce Fi ve shillings seems an altogether more
oflhe
Harl ey 957 volume as five shllhngs rather t an we ,
. 1 'd' (not's') IS clear.
likely price for such a volume. but the secretana 11 t d by Tony Hunt 'The Anglo-Norman
32 This poem has been edited, and its many versions u e . f ersions of thi S poem can be found
" Folies" Poems', Plulells 3 (1985). 14-32, The most recent 0 d
V
R th J Dean and Maurecn B,M,
in Anglo-NomwlI Literature: A Guide 10 ul"pd 1999), 150--1. no, 266.
S ' ty Occaslona u Ica Ion '
Boulton, Anglo-Norman ext OCle , ' nth or carl fourteenth century.
All known copies of this poem d<i:
tc
from late Christ;phcr Thorn, Les prow!/,/}e,( de bon
33 The standard edition of thIS poem. IS ?y n 1' 17/4(LundandLeipzig,1921): fo.ra
enseignemelll de Nicole Bozon, Lunds Umversltets ,Arss n no 252. On Bozon, who was act ive
complete list of manuscripts, see Anglo-Norman 'ric' A,;,hology. cd. David L. Jcffrey and
from the late 1290s untH the I32Os, see The r ' d 'Nicole Bo"on Frere Milleur, ed. LucY
Brian J. Levy (Toronto. 1990), Les Contes /. ora Ises e - ,
Toulmin Smith and Paul Meyer (Pans. 1889).
'Adam oj Bristol' and Tales oj Ritual Crucifuion 9
different scribes, neither of whom were the' Adam of Bristol' scribe; but all three
hands are sufficiently similar as to suggest that the three scribes were probably
working in the same scriptorium.
14
All three hands date to the early fourteenth
century, most likely between 1310 and 1320; but in copying the 'Adam of Bristol'
text, Scribe I seems to have gone to some trouble to make his hand look 'old fash-
ioned' by adding forked ascenders, heavy shading on hi s diagonal s and on his hori-
zontal lines, and by lessening the tapering on hi s long vertical strokes. Together,
these features were sufficient to make me once think the hand could have been as
early as c. 1260. J5 Butl am now convinced that the text of 'Adam of Bristol ' as we
have it is an early fourteenth-century copy of a tale that was composed earlier:
certainly before 1290, when the entire Jewish community was expelled from
England, and most likely in the middle third of the thirteenth century, when the
issues it addresses were particularly current.
For whom might this booklet have been written? Someone with some disposable
cash, obviously; but although books were without question luxury items in the early
fourteenth century, this booklet was by no means a deluxe production, despite the
fact that it contains two small illuminations. My guess is that when this booklet was
made it would have sold for no more than a few shillings (around 1500, the entire
manuscript was apparently pri ced at only five pence); and because it was never
properly finished (the rubrication ends two-thirds of the way through the text, and
the opening illuminated capital was never added), it might have sold for less than a
shilling even when new.
36
Nor are the three texts contained in this bonklet particularly demanding, either
intellectually or linguistically. Any literate French speaker with a modest knowledge
of Latin would have been able to read and understand them. They strike me, indeed,
as precisely the sorts of texts that an early fourteenth-century layperson might have
owned and used as devotional reading. But they would have been even more useful
to a cleric, who could have drawn from them the sorls of exemplary stories and prov-
erbs that enlivened contemporary sennons. Franciscans were of course particularly
notable for their vernacular preaching to the laity, and also for their fondness of
incorporating French lyric poems into their sermons. Indeed, as David Jeffrey and
Brian Levy have noted, ' the vast majority of thirteenth-century Anglo-Nonnan
lyrics that survive today are found in manuscripts compiled or transmitted by the
friars',l7 All three of the texts contained in this bonklet are characteristic of a style
ofpiety with which the Franciscans were particularly associated
38
Indeed, Nicholas
Bozon, the author of the ' Proverbs of Good Teaching' , was himself an English
Fnnciscan friar, active between the late 1290s and the 1320s, whose poems circu-
IMed mainly in Franciscan-connected manuscripts. As noted above, the scribal envoi
willi which the ' Adam of Bristol' tale ends may also point toward a Franciscan
J4, 1_ peful to Dr Just in Clegg and to Dr Michelle Brown of the British Library for advice on the
; oipby oftbe manuscript.
....
1tIcey. "From Ritual Crucifi xion to Host Desecration'. 15. where I described it as being from 'the
ItoIf or!be thineenth century' .
., :.. ........ Itudy ofthc price of books in the later Middle Ages would be warmly welcomed.
....... AItaIo-Nomron Lyric. 3 (paraphrase). On this same point. see also David L. Jeffrey. The Eurly
1_ t.,rIc tIItd Spirituality (Lincoln, Nebraska, 1975), 169- 90,2 10-- 11 ; and M. Dominica
..... In the (Edi nburgh, 1950), 77- 90, 11 0--18.
, IW'r.. I tnvolvement promoting a 1247 rimal murder charge at Val reas in France, see Gavi n
'si 7' d'accusatlon de meurtre ri!Uel a I'ouest du Rhone', Juijs el Judafsme de
:c. CIbien de Fanjeaux 12 (Toulouse, 1977),235-49, esp. 243-4.
10
Robert C. Stacey
connection." None of this is enough to prove that this two-qh
uire
bookthleet ,
. d I both style and content, owever,
within a Franciscan milieu, whether lay or
clerical.
Situating the tale geographically d at
f h 'Adam of Bristol' text was preserve
Although the only known cO
PY
d
b t e who knew the spiritual and spatial

composed with a specifically Bnstohan . acrosS the River Avon
parishioner ofSt Mary's Redchff, an one of Samuel's three
from the old walled cIty of Bnstol. e pans . located ust south of
previous Christian victims St were plrt of the old
Redcliff. Redcliff and Bedmmster were m e d part of the medieval
fitz Harding fee when they became. part of the
dloce
l
se of se of Bristol 40 Redcliff and Bedminster were thus qUIte separate
new y create loce . : . h was located in the medieval diocese of
from the old wathlled is less than five minutes walking distance
Worcester, even oug I' e tion that Adam had
from the old city, even on very ;0 his neighbours in
come from a long distance away an so wou . . I eone who knew
Bristol is likely therefore to be accurate. But thIs IS a fact on y som
an outsider writing in the

, . d f t from the castle. SometIme In e
this area and
the city, near the royal castle along present-day :me massive,
cation of the JewIsh commuOlty may have een thn Bristol and with the
mid-thirteenth-century rerouting of the and I 240s; or it could
simultaneous constructlohn of new
k
s community of Bristol by
have been prompted by t e anac s, ID, . h h f
M
< rt 41 The 'Adam of Bristol' story, however, imagmes t e geograp yo
the onho lans. . . h Jr on the western
Bristol as it would have been prior to this then have
edge of the city, close to thhe w
J
on Brandon Hill outside the
landed, and close too to t e eWIS U
western city walls.
39 On this envoi, see note 28 above. ha I of ease sponsored by St Mary's
40 51 Mary's Redcliffwas founded in the mid-twelfth century as a dral Although Redcliff rapidly
Bedminster Both churches were held by the canons SI
3h
,SbUry , desubo,d,nate to Bedminster until
, , " technical y It remame )
became much the larger of the two mstltUtiOnS, ' J AS d ' Atlantic Civilisation (london, 1954 ,
1852. See Bryan lin ie, The City and County of and Gloucestershire History: The
41 - 2; D.C. Douglas, 'Bristol under the Normans ssays I ical Socie ed. Patrick McGrath and
Centenary Volume of the Bristol and Glollcestersh,re .WI nry 'Bristol'. in The Alias 0/
John Cannon (Bristol. 1976), 101 - 8; M.D. Lobel and E,M
d
arus I so ,
L
bel (L d t975) 1- 26 an maps. ...,.,
Historic Towns , 11 , edt M.D, a on. on. h' , t H' lIaby inclines toward the latter date. I sus!""
41 I am grateful to Joe Hillaby for advice t IS pam . ' Id'. d the 12305 and 1240s. Either way.
r d ted With the rebut mg unng
that the move was eark,e'l' an during the middle third of the thirteenth century.
however, the move too p ace
'Adam of Bristol ' and Tales of Ritual CrucifIXion II
Situating Ihe tale historically
If the tale was indeed composed somewhere in the middle third of the thirteenth
century, then we can see that it is engaging with many of the ' hot bunon' issues of
the day. Most striking in this respect is the text's apparent awareness of the terms in
which anti-Christian polemics were being cast within the Jewish community itself.
To be sure, the author frames his knowledge of some of the ways Jews talked about
Christians by placing it within a typically mid-thirteenth-century Christian concern
with Jews as blasphemers against the Christian god'2 But in emphasizing Samuel's
particular odium toward the Virgin Mary ('that whore', as he calls her); Samuel 's
offense at Jesus's claim to be the son of the living God; the mocking tone Samuel's
wife takes toward the visuality of Christian religious culture ('how beautifully the
Christian God smiles' ; her description of Adam's eyes, wide open on the cross, as
being 'like the insane God of the Christians'); and in emphasizing Samuel's sister's
conviction that Christians seek to obliterate the memory of Jews from the face of the
earth, the 'Adam of Bristol ' author does indeed rellect the actual terms of an internal
anti-Christian polemic that we can trace in contemporary Hebrew sources.
43
Even
Samuel's spining three times at the mention of the Virgin or when the Irish priest
makes the sign of the cross is a halachically enjoined response to outright blas-
phemy. 'Adam of Bristol' makes one wonder, therefore, just how truly 'internal' and
'secret' anti-Christian polemic actually was amongst thirteenth-century Jews, and
raises the possibility that, in England at least, Christian perceptions of Jews as blas-
phemers may sometimes have been rooted in real knowledge of the ways some Jews
spoke and acted toward Christians when they thought it safe to do so.
Apart from the issue of blasphemy, the 'Adam of Bristol' author is also concerned
with other aspects of mid-thirteenth-century Christian/Jewish interactions. He goes
out of his way to note, for example, that Samuel's maidservant is a Christian,
whereas his sister's maidservant is a Jew. Prohibitions on Christians as servants in
Jewish households were repeated regularly in thirteenth-century church councils and
in royal legislalion also.
44
Closely connected with these prohibitions on Christians
serving in Jewish households were more general concerns with Jews and Christians
eating together at the same table, or engaging in other sorts of neighbourly interac-
tions, such as anending weddings'S What 'Adam of Bristol' shows us, however, is
bow easy and regular such neighbourly interactions apparently were between Jews
IIId Christians in mid-thirteenth-century Bristol. We see Samuel and his family
sitting out in front of their house in the evening, as did their Christian neighbours;
we see Samuel chaning easily with hi s neighbours, and so being quickly able to
detennine that none of them have seen Adam enter his house; and Samuel is also
immediately able to borrow carpenter's tools from them with no questions asked.
But the tale also shows us how dangerous such neighbourliness could be, because by
ialeracting with Samuel in these ways, his Christian neighbours unwittingly facili-
- Samuel's crimes. The story shows us, therefore, not only how 'necessary'
LA: Watt. 'The English Episcopate. the State. and the Jews: The Evidence of the ThirteenthCentury
Dec:rces', TeE, ii, 37-47; Jeremy Cohen, The Friars and the Jews: The ,'o/Iltion 0/ Medif!'l.'al
h+tnr (Ithaca, 1982).
for example, the Nizzahon Yashan in David Berger, The JewishChriSlilln Oehme in the High
;--Aaa(Philadelphia, 1979) .
"'"The Episcopate' , collects the key references.
.... t' prohibitions on Christians attending a Jewish wedding at Hereford in 1286 are
_Cecil Roth, A Historyo/theJews in England, 3rd edn (Oxford, 1964), 20.
12 Robert C. Stacey
thirteenth-century efforts to segregate Jews from Christians were perceived to be,"
but also how unavai ling such efforts could be in the absence of local knowledge.
The Irish priest and his companions did not recognize Samuel , his sister, or ber
mai dservant, as Jews; and there was apparently nothing in either Samuel 's or his
sister' s house, apart from the sister's refusal to serve them pork, that would have
tipped them off that they were residing in a Jewish household. Samuel' s neighbours,
of course, did try to warn them; but their warning failed because the priest himself
had already entered the house and so did not hear the shouted warning, while the
pri est's Irish companions, who did hear the neighbours' shouts, did not understand
them because the Irishmen did not understand English.
As this incident may suggest, issues of language and identity clearly preoccupy
our author, who pays extraordinary anention to the different language each character
speaks at different moments in the drama.
47
Samuel and his sister speak English,
French and Hebrew, but no Irish. The Iri sh priest speaks Irish, French, Latin and
some English. His Irish companions, however, speak only Iri sh, and therefore cannot
understand the shouted warnings, in Engli sh, of Samuel's neighbours that they are
about to enter a Jewish house. A married priest of Bristol takes the Irish priest's
confession in French. When the Virgin Mary speaks to Adam, she does so in
English; although Adam apparently understands some French, he speaks only
English himself. God the Father speaks Latin, but God the Son speaks Hebrew, to
the astonishment of Samuel and hi s family who declare the language to be unknown
to any of the Chri stians of Bristol.
What ought we to make of this attention to language? We might begin by
observing that our author's interest in language as a marker of identity is character-
istic of mid-thirteenth-century English culture more generally. The famous remark
in the Flores Historiarnm about Simon de Montfort's partisans treating as an enemy
anyone who did not speak Engli sh is a case in point
48
Even more significant for our
story, however, is the growing suspicion that English Chri stians felt toward Hebrew.
In the late twelfth century, England had been one of the European centres for Chris-
tian Hebrai sm.
4
' Some of this interest had continued into the thirteenth century,
particularly among the English Franciscans in the circle around Bishop Robert
Grosseteste.
50
By the 1250s, however, the tide was turning. In the 1220s, when a
Christian deacon converted to Judaism, he was induced to do so by the beauty of hi s
Jewish 10ver.51 In the I 270s, however, when another cleric, the Dominican Robert of
Reading, also converted to Judaism, he was seduced into apostasy by his study of the
Hebrew language, which led him to conversion and death." The 'Adam of Bristol'
46 On the enforcement (or non-enforcement. at least prior to 1253) of the Jewish badge in England, see
Nicholas Vincent, 'Two Papal Letters on the Wearing of the Jewish Badge, 1221 and 1229' , Jewish
HiSloricaJ SlIIdies 34 ( 1994-6),209- 24.
47 This and the following paragraph are drawn from my article .. Jews and Christians in Twelft h-Century
England: Some Dynamics of a Changing Relati onship', in Jews and Christians in Twelfth-Centllry
Europe. ed. Michael A. Signer and John Van Engen (Notre Dame. 2001). 344-5.
48 Flores Historiamm, ed. H.R. luard (RS, 1895). 11 .481.
49 Beryl Smalley, The Study o/ the Bible in the Middle Ages, 2nd edn (Oxford, 1952). 186-95, 235;
Raphael Loewe. 'The Medieval Christian Hebraists of England: Herbert of Bosham and Earli er Scholars'.
Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society 0/ England 17 ( 1953). 225-49; Beryl Smalley. The Beckel
Conflict and the Schools (Oxford, 1973).73-4.
50 Deeana Copeland Klepper, 'Nicholas of lyra and Franciscan Interest in Hebrew Scholarship'. in
Nicholas a/Lyra: The Senses of Scripture, ed. Phil ip Krey and lesley Smith (Leiden. 2000). 289-3 11 . .
51 F.w, Maitland. 'The Deacon and the Jewess' , Roman Canon Law in the Church of Eng/and: SIX
Essays (London. 1898). 158-79.
.. - ro, -_ .. :_,_ ... , r;;, Pnmllnds. 1212- /301 . ed. Antonia Gransden (london. 1964).58.
'Adam of Bristol' and Tales of Ritual Cmcij'lXion 13
author seems to have caught this gatherin w . . .
secret language in which Jews plot th ' g ave of SUspICIOn; for hIm, Hebrew is a
linguistic difference was thus com in In mld-thlrleenth-century England,
previously beeD' and Hebrew like F g 0 h e seen as dangerous 10 ways il had not
that might threaien Ihe well be'I'ng ofrEencl .' hwas DOW being portrayed as a language
. . - ng IS men.
The euchansllc concerns of thi s text will ne d \' I . 53
the crucified Adam directly as ' the God f th eCh'.r\ e Samuel addresses
Christians' God'." Jesus in the fo / e nsllans and as 'Ihe body of the
Cross, while God the Faiher decla: : boy, accompanies Adam on the
Samuel 's wife culs Adam's nose and \' .. IS e whom Ihe Jews are torturing.
fire also has eucharist ic overtones a kmfe. Adam's roasting over a
ofBourges' tale, in which a Jewi sh s with both the well-known ' Jew
son reports havi ng seen the Christ child rOws IS own son mto an oven when the
preserved, unharmed, by the Vi in Ma p esent 10 a Euchansllc host (the son is
host itself, prior to its as the bakmg of the eucharistic
Adam - stomping burning stabb' yo nsl. The tortures mtllcted upon
accused of u the 109 -:- are also .typlcal of the abuse Jews were
should we ignore the sfgn;ficance bread 10 host desecratIOn stories." Nor
Christ, the second Adam, with the way of identitying
Even the Interest shown by the tale in the ' . y Bnstol.
eucharistic significance The Irish . t mtegnty and efficacy of confession has
must first confess his and be personal holiness to be sure,
broken and rna db ' 0 em .ore he can approach Adam's
their sins Chr:stians after 1215 were. required to confess
confession is als h yes 0 the euchanst. Thi s interest in
the clergy and in the tale exhibits in the state of
to emphasize that the Irish pri est?' c r. ' e laity. The author goes out of his way
made to a priest who was living in e
l
vend though it was
lltenbon to the prayer I . e a so evotes special
NO&ler and the Ave expecled to know, the Pater
= saying thank you when handed
There is .:: upon a house when one enters it for the first time.
lesitimate marria e and 109 attentJon paid 10 the tale to the distinctions between
of Bristol, bUI in only 10 ItS criti.cism of the married clergy
...... _'s I 't' . IS mctlon Adam hImself makes betwee h'
.....,. egl Imate marnage to Ada ' h . . n IS
IIIOIber of Adam's two elder er and hIS ITregular liaison with the
So wbat SOrt of a story ' th'? Th .
( .. ); and the text ' IS IS .. e scnbe who copied it described it as a book
be read. feadlures that suggesl it was intended to
IacIIed quite recisel' mIla s, an two Illustrations that have been
0IIdute to has to the textuaI passages they illustrate - all
Bot the pI a grammar ofleglblhty'
acement of the rub ' . .
...., for legibility Ea h ncatlOns suggesls something more than merely a
....leGion mark tb paragraph 10 .the texl was intended to be set off by a red
, e p acement of whICh was indicated by the scribe so as to set
"'1IJUed !hi
al much greater length in 'From Ritual Crucifixion to Host Desecration'.
Geutk Tales, passim.
14 Robert C. Stacey
each speaker's lines off into a separate paragraph. The text is meant to be read, in
other words, as a dramatic dialogue. This dramatic structure is further emphasized
by the fact that the text introduces each new speaker (and hence each new para-
graph) with a set phrase: 'Cui puer'; 'cui Judeus' ; etc. We could typeset it, in other
words, using the modem conventions for what a dramatic text 'should' look like,
with only minimal rearrangement of its early fourteenth-century paragraphing. 56
Dialogue, of course, is a common literary technique in medieval narrative. We
cannot simply leap from the fact that 'Adam of Bristol' is written in dialogue form to
the conclusion that it must therefore be a drama. But there is more evidence than
simply dialogue to suggest that what we have here is a tale that was intended to be
performed as a drama. First is the fact, already noted, that there is no narrator's
voice in thi s story, except insofar as God himself functions in that role in the tale's
opening lines. And God, of course, is present throughout the tale, commenting on
the action to the audience. Apart from the opening paragraph setting the scene,
which might have been delivered by the actor playing God, the rest of the tale's
narration is really stage direction. There is nothing, in other words, that an audience
would need to know to understand the action in this tale that could not be conveyed
directly by the actions and speeches of its characters on a stage.
The tale is also intensely visual. No other ritual crucifixion story goes to such
lurid lengths in describing the tortures inflicted upon its victim; and none has
anything approaching the slapstick humor of Samuel trying to bank his fire or do his
laundry; much less Samuel being knocked backwards out the door of hi s own privy
by an angel with a flaming sword. The two illuminations in the text may also have
performative significance, by illustrating the costuming of Samuel, his wife and son,
and the staging of Adam's crucifixion in the privy. The background to the illustra-
tion of Adam's crucifixion may even be showing us a scene on a theatrical platform,
with a brocaded cloth embroidered with fire-breathing demons serving as a back-
drop to the action."
The other piece of evidence that pulls in the direction of seeing this as a drama
meant to be performed is the tale's attention to the musical settings of the hymns and
antiphons sung by the angelic choir surrounding Adam's tomb. This choir is
described as performing ' like a body of singing monks, with thousands of thousands
of boys singing the highest of the three parts, one among them singing above all the
others, singing with thousands in organa, with ineffable sweetness, and saying " To
God alone be all honor and glory, Jorever and ever, amen'" .58 Later on, the choir
sings the entirety oflbe Benedicite hymn (the 'Canticle of the Holy Innocents') from
Daniel 3.57- 88, complete with antiphonal variations on 'quia dignatus est lIasci de
gloriosa virgine Maria' , 'the choir si nging the lower part in a softer voice, the
angels, in three parts, singing in a high voice in orgallo with a most ineffable
S6 As Carol Symes has noted. the presumptions created by such modem typeselting conventi ons have
almost certainl y caused scholars to overlook a number of medievailexis which might in fact be dramas,
but which do nol 'look like' dramas on the manuscript page. In fact , we know very little about what a
medieval dramatic text 'should' look like. Carol Symes, 'The Appearance of Early Vernacular Plays:
Forms, Functions, and the Future of Medieval Theater', Specllillm 77 (2002), 778-831 .
S7 I am grateful to Professor Carol Symes and to Professor Sara lipton for observations and advice on
these points.
58 'quasi corum monachorum canenci um cum millesies milibus puerorum trefarie ahissime canencium.
ordine trefario. unus autem ex millenis milibus supcrius precinebat canens cum milibus in organa
du1cedinis ineffabilis et dicens: "Soli deo honor et gloria in secula seculorum amen'" (C1use, 322; fo.ls
25r- 25v). I am grateful to Benjamin Albritton for advice on the musical terminology and descriptions 10
these passages.
'Adam a/Bristol ' and Tales oj Ritual Cmciflxion 15
sweetness, and so they sang all the v f
After a short break the ch . th . erses 0 the hymn distinctly and c1early'.'9
, Olr en slOgs Psalm 148 (La d d .
laudate eum in excelsis) and finishes u . h . Ii ate ommum de caelis.
would suggest, is precisely what w p a rousmg Te Deum
60
None of this, I
devotional reading, not least becau:e wou In a tale composed for private
words the angels actuall san Th ,as rea ers, we are gIven only a few of the
the text, but they are recogr'ded
e
settmgs, words and antiphons are indicated in
rfi
111 extenso What we h h .
pe onnance notes for a musical director wh . Id I ave ere, J belIeve, are
and settings, and who simply needed to wou h
a
rhead
y
have known the words
where.61 ow w IC pieces and settings went
we behind the tal e of of Bristol' as
of) the church of St Mary Redcliff. 0 th 10 (or ImmedIately outside
Assumption of the Bless;d Vir in' M
n
e I een day of August, the Feast of the
clearly indicated in the tale' Adagm wary. Tfhedadssoclatlon WIth the Assumption is
f
. as crUCI Ie unng the . ht d' . .
o the Assumption, and his body wa tr I d mg prece 109 the VIgil
Most likely this drama would have ate to Ireland on the feast day itself.
Assumption, probably by combining La : Redchff on the morning of the
with Matins which, 00 major feast days ; IC h would have featured Psalm 148,
Where, why, and for whom thi s tale . e .. wlt aTe Deum m the Sarurn rite.
62
at present answer. Nor can I shed hasllnhltJally composed are questions I cannot
. muc Ig t as yet 0 th . 'f '
mIght have had for the parish life ofSt M 'R d ' n e SlgOl Icance this tale
residents of thirteenth-century Brist I s e chff, or for the lives of the Jewish
another time. If. however I am . h o. ese are subjects I hope 10 consider at
local parish dra;"a perfor;"ed at that behind this text there lies a
ofberAssumption, then the extraordinary I
Mary
on the Feast
Not only does this tale 0 e . am 0 nsto . takes on an addi-
boos in thirteenth-century Bristol . tiP n wmdow onto JewIsh-Christian rela-
between anti-Semitism and the Of ers
l
prEeclolus eVIdence of the links
o ear y ng Ish drama.

I' '.
n, ange IS trefana 10 voce sUblimi in organo dulcissim .
26v, versus ymni distincte et apertc' (Cluse, 324; fol . 26r). 0 supenus

directors in early dra R' h Drama (Cambridge. IC ard Raslall, The Heaven Singing:
Mass and Office: A Guide to their Organization and Ter-