Editing Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln (section)

==The accusation and myth==
[[File:Drawing of the Headless Statue of Little St Hugh, Smart Lethieullier, Lincoln Cathedral.png|left|thumb|Drawing of a 13th-century statue of St Hugh at [[Lincoln Cathedral]], by 18th-century antiquary [[Smart Lethieullier]]. This statue was posed at the head of the shrine of Little St Hugh.{{sfn|Hillaby|1994|p=96–98}}]]
The nine-year-old Hugh disappeared on 31 July, and his body was discovered in a well on 29 August. It was claimed that Jews had imprisoned Hugh, during which time they tortured and eventually crucified him. It was said that the body had been thrown into the well after attempts to bury it failed, when the earth had expelled it.<ref name = "brit">{{harvnb|Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica|2006}}</ref>

The chronicler [[Matthew Paris]] described the supposed murder, implicating all the Jews in England:

<blockquote>This year [1255] about the feast of the apostles Peter and Paul [27 July], the Jews of Lincoln stole a boy called Hugh, who was about eight years old. After shutting him up in a secret chamber, where they fed him on milk and other childish food, they sent to almost all the cities of England in which there were Jews, and summoned some of their sect from each city to be present at a sacrifice to take place at Lincoln, in contumely and insult of Jesus Christ. For, as they said, they had a boy concealed for the purpose of being crucified; so a great number of them assembled at Lincoln, and then they appointed a Jew of Lincoln judge, to take the place of Pilate, by whose sentence, and with the concurrence of all, the boy was subjected to various tortures. They scourged him till the blood flowed, they crowned him with thorns, mocked him, and spat upon him; each of them also pierced him with a knife, and they made him drink gall, and scoffed at him with blasphemous insults, and kept gnashing their teeth and calling him Jesus, the false prophet. And after tormenting him in diverse ways they crucified him, and pierced him to the heart with a spear. When the boy was dead, they took the body down from the cross, and for some reason disembowelled it; it is said for the purpose of their magic arts.<ref name = "bod"/>{{efn|See {{harvnb|Paris|1852|p=138}} (links to online version) }}
</blockquote>

While the Paris account is significant as the most famous and influential version of the myth, due to his own popularity as a chronicler and talent as storyteller, it is also thought to be the least reliable, and most fabricated, of the contemporary accounts of what had supposedly taken place.<ref name="Langmuir 1972 459–482">{{harvnb|Langmuir|1972|pp=459–482}}</ref> Other contemporary accounts include the [[Annals of Waverley]] and [[Burton Abbey|of Burton Abbey]].<ref>{{harvnb|Jacobs|1893|p=96}}</ref>

===Role of the Bishop===
A Jew, Copin, reportedly confessed to the murder. He was also offered immunity from sentencing in return for his confession according to contemporary accounts.<ref>{{harvnb|Langmuir|1972|p=478}}</ref> Copin appears to have been interrogated under torture by [[John Lexington|John of Lexington]], brother of [[Henry of Lexington|Henry]], the new [[Bishop of Lincoln]], and servant of the King.<ref>{{harvnb|Huscroft|2006|p=102}}, {{harvnb|Hillaby|Hillaby|2013|p=658}} and {{harvnb|Langmuir|1972|pp=477–478}}</ref> This leads to the conclusion by modern historians that there was likely clerical collusion to give credence to the accusation, with the aim of profiting from a new cult with pilgrims and their gifts.<ref>{{harvnb|Huscroft|2006|p=102}}; {{harvnb|Hillaby|Hillaby|2013|p=658}}; {{harvnb|Langmuir|1972|p=478}}</ref>

===Royal intervention===
A number of circumstances exacerbated the impact of this event.<ref name = "bod">{{harvnb|Bennett|2005}}</ref> Henry III arrived in Lincoln around a month after the initial arrest and confession. He ordered Copin to be executed, and for ninety Jews to be arrested at random in connection with Hugh's disappearance and death and held in the [[Tower of London]]. They were charged with [[human sacrifice|ritual murder]]. Eighteen of the Jews were [[Hanging|hanged]] for refusing to participate in the proceedings, claiming this was a [[show trial]] and refusing to throw themselves on the mercy of a Christian jury.<ref name="Langmuir 1972 459–482"/> [[Gavin I. Langmuir]] says:

<blockquote>What distinguished the Lincoln affair from other accusations of ritual murder was that the king took personal cognizance and had one Jew executed immediately and eighteen others spectacularly executed later. That royal substantiation of the truth of the charge was probably decisive for Hugh's fame, which far outshadowed that of William of Norwich, Harold of Gloucester, Robert of Bury St. Edmunds, and the poor anonymous infant of St. Paul's.<ref>{{harvnb|Langmuir|1972|pp=477–478}}</ref></blockquote>

Garcias Martini, knight of Toledo, interceded for the release of Benedict son of Moses of London, probably the father of Belaset, whose wedding had been taking place. In January a further pardon was extended to a Christian Jew, John, after the intervention of a Dominican friar.<ref>{{harvnb|Langmuir|1972|p=479}}</ref> A trial took place on 3 February at Westminster for the remaining 71 prisoners. They were condemned to death by a jury of 48. After this point either the Dominicans or Franciscans interceded, together with [[Richard of Cornwall]]. By May, the prisoners were released. It may be that doubt as to their guilt had set in, as it is unlikely that the monks or Richard would have interceded without thinking the charge was false, given the severity of the charge.<ref>{{harvnb|Langmuir|1972|p=479}}; see also {{harvnb|Hillaby|Hillaby|2013|p=658}}</ref>

The difficulty remains as to why King Henry and his servant John of Lexington would have believed the accusations in the first place. For Lexington, his motivations may be his personal connections to the clerics of Lincoln, including his brother the Bishop, who stood to benefit from the veneration of the 'martyr' Hugh. He may have believed, or wished to believe, what he heard. While the decision to act belonged to the King, Langmuir believes that he was weak and easily manipulated by Lexington. Langmuir says Henry III has been described as; "a suspicious person who flung charges of treason recklessly, [who] was credulous and poor in judgment, and often appeared like a petulant child. When to these qualities we add his addiction to touring the shrines of England, it becomes easier to understand why he acted as he did, both when he heard Copin's confession and when the friars and cooler heads intervened later."<ref>{{harvnb|Langmuir|1972|pp=480–81}}</ref> Langmuir therefore concludes that Lexington "incited the weakly credulous Henry III to give the ritual murder fantasy the blessing of royal authority".<ref>{{harvnb|Langmuir|1972|p=481}}</ref> Jacobs on the other hand sees the financial benefits that Henry received as a major factor, conscious or unconscious, in his decision to arrest en masse and execute Jews. As noted above, he had mortgaged his income from the Jews to Richard of Cornwall, but was still entitled to the property of any Jew executed, adding that Henry, "like most weak princes, was cruel to the Jews".<ref>{{harvnb|Jacobs|1893|p=100}}</ref>

===Veneration===
{{multiple image
|header=The shrine of Little St Hugh, at the south choir aisle of Lincoln Cathedral.
|image1=Drawing of the Shrine of Little St Hugh, Lincoln Cathedral, William Dugdale, 1641.png
|caption1=Drawing of the shrine by [[William Dugdale]] (1641){{sfn|Hillaby|1994|p=96}}
|image2=The shrine of Little St.Hugh - geograph.org.uk - 276275.jpg
|caption2=Remains of the shrine in 2006
|total_width=450
}}
After news spread of his death, miracles were attributed to Hugh; and he became one of the youngest individual candidates for sainthood, with 27 July unofficially made his feast day. Many local 'saints' of the medieval period were not canonised but were locally dubbed saints and venerated. 'Little Saint Hugh' was for a while [[Folk saint|acclaimed as a saint]] by local people but never officially recognised as one.<ref>[https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1080/1474225X.2017.1406278?scroll=top&needAccess=true Sagovsky, Nicholas. "What makes a saint? A Lincoln case study in the communion of the local and the universal Church", ''International Journal for the Study of the Christian Church'', Volume 17, 2017 - Issue 3]</ref> Over time, the issue of the rush to sainthood was raised, and Hugh was never canonised<ref>[https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/AUTH233565 "Hugh of Lincoln", The British Museum]</ref> and was never a part of the official Catholic [[calendar of saints]]. The Vatican never included the child Hugh in Catholic [[martyrology]] and his traditional English feast day is not celebrated.<ref>{{harvnb|Editors, Catholic Saints|2013}}, {{harvnb|Butler|1910}}</ref>

[[Lincoln Cathedral]] benefited from the episode; Hugh was regarded as a [[Christian martyr]], and sites associated with his life became objects of pilgrimage.<ref name = "brit"/>

The [[shrine]] dated to the period immediately after the expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290, partly funded by [[Edward I of England|Edward I]], as a propaganda tool helping to justify his actions by emphasising the danger that Jews supposedly posed to Christians. The royal coat of arms was prominently displayed.<ref>{{harvnb| David Stocker|1986}}</ref> As Stacey notes: "A more explicit identification of the crown with the ritual crucifixion charge can hardly be imagined."<ref>{{harvnb|Stacey|2001}}</ref> The design included decoration commemorating Edward I's wife [[Eleanor of Castile]], who had been widely disliked for large-scale buying and selling of Jewish bonds, with the aim of requisitioning the lands and properties of those indebted;{{sfn|Hillaby|Hillaby|2013|p=658}} it may have deliberately echoed that of the [[Eleanor crosses]], also commemorating her.<ref>{{harvnb|David Stocker|1986}}</ref> This intervention was a major "propaganda coup" rehabilitating Edward and Eleanor's image and claiming credit for the [[Edict of Expulsion|Expulsion]].{{sfn|Hillaby|1994|p=94-98}}

While popular into the 1360s, the cult seems to have declined in the next half century, as it was raising just 10½d. in 1420–21.<ref>{{harvnb|Hill|1948|pp=228–29}}</ref> The shrine was largely destroyed after the [[English Reformation]]. During the Cathedral restoration of 1790 a stone coffin, 3 feet 3 inches (1 metre) long, was found containing the skeleton of a boy; this was drawn by [[Samuel Hieronymus Grimm]].