An atlas of where ideas come from
Where does what we think we know come from?
Pick a claim. ORIGINES shows you where it comes from, how it travelled and what the documents really allow us to say about it — always separating what is established from what remains unknown.
First dossier · Norwich 1144
'Jews practised satanic rites involving the murder of children.'
Did Jews practise rites involving the murder of children?
No. The accusation appears in Norwich, England, in the mid-twelfth century and then spreads across Europe. None of the cases studied provides reliable evidence of any such Jewish rite; the accusation was already rejected in the Middle Ages by an emperor and by popes, and it contradicts documented Jewish religious rules. This dossier shows where the idea comes from, which documents it rests on and what they actually prove.
A
Start from a belief
Pick a claim you have heard: see its status and its evidence.
- “An accusation of child murder targeted the Jews of Norwich in the mid-twelfth century”Established
- “Jews were accused of William's murder as early as 1144”Plausible but uncertain
- “William was killed by Jews”Not demonstrated
- “The murder allegedly re-enacted the crucifixion”Not demonstrated
- “Jews used human blood in their rites”Refuted
- “Medieval Christian imagery associated Jews with the devil”Established
- “Jews practised satanic rites”Contradicted by the evidence
- “The Trent confessions prove a ritual murder”Refuted
- “These accusations spread across medieval Europe”Established
- “Each new case derives directly from Norwich”Plausible but uncertain
B
Start from history
Pick a moment or a place: see the accusations linked to it.
- 1144Norwich (England)March 1144, Thorpe Wood
- 1144Norwich (England)1144, according to Thomas
- 1150Norwich (England)A debt, a Jewish banker killed
- 1168Gloucester (England)1168
- 1171Blois (France)1171 — about 31 to 33 dead
- 1181Bury St Edmunds (England)1181
- 1232Winchester (England)c. 1232 — the accusation reaches the royal court
- 1235Fulda (Holy Roman Empire)Christmas 1235 — the blood accusation
- 1247Lyon (papal residence)5 July 1247
- 1255Lincoln (England)1255 — King Henry III steps in
- 1475Trent (Italy)1475 — confessions under torture
- 1475Trent (Italy)1475–1476
- 1965Trent (Italy)28 October 1965
Our principles
Sources first
Every conclusion links to the documents that justify it. No quotation is ever invented.
Statuses, not percentages
Established, not demonstrated, refuted… every status is explained, dated and open to revision.
Uncertainty shown
What we do not know is displayed. Absence of evidence is never presented as evidence of absence.
More dossiers will follow, on the same model.