Sinners on Trial: Jews and Sacrilege after the Reformation
In post-Reformation Poland--the largest state in Europe and home to the largest Jewish population in the world--the Catholic Church suffered profound anxiety about its power after the Protestant threat. Magda Teter reveals how criminal law became a key tool in the manipulation of the meaning of the sacred and in the effort to legitimize Church authority. The mishandling of sacred symbols was transformed from a sin that could be absolved into a crime that resulted in harsh sentences of mutilation, hanging, decapitation, and, principally, burning at the stake. Teter casts new light on the most infamous type of sacrilege, the accusation against Jews for desecrating the eucharistic wafer. These sacrilege trials were part of a broader struggle over the meaning of the sacred and of sacred space at a time of religious and political uncertainty, with the eucharist at its center. But host desecration--defined in the law as sacrilege--went beyond anti-Jewish hatred to reflect Catholic-Protestant conflict, changing conditions of ecclesiastic authority and jurisdiction, and competition in the economic marketplace. Recounting dramatic stories of torture, trial, and punishment, this is the first book to consider the sacrilege accusations of the early modern period within the broader context of politics and common crime. Teter draws on previously unexamined trial records to bring out the real-life relationships among Catholics, Jews, and Protestants and challenges the commonly held view that following the Reformation, Poland was a "state without stakes"--uniquely a country without religious persecution.
The Orthodox Liturgy: The Development of the Eucharistic Liturgy in the Byzantine Rite
How has the Orthodox liturgy come to have the shape it has? How different is it from the eucharistic rites of the Western churches? Hugh Wybrew's authoritative but splendidly readable book traces the development of the Orthodox liturgy from the Last Supper to the present day.
The Temple Scroll: Aspects of Its Historical Provenance and Literary Character
Late in 1977, the Hebrew edition of The Temple Scroll (Megillat HammiqdiL() by Professor Yigael Yadin appeared in three volumes: Vol. 1, Introduction; Vol. II, Text and Commentariy; and Vol. Ill, Plates and Texts, with a Supplement containing additional plates (Yadin 1977).' An English version is in preparation. Since the latter is being planned as a precise rendition of the Hebrew edition, with only minor modifications, I considered it advantageous to begin work immediately on a study of the Scroll, based on the Hebrew edition, for submission to an American journal. I reasoned that whatever I discuss would remain