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, ...
Read More
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.
Read Less
Add this copy of Sinners on Trial: Jews and Sacrilege After the to cart. $40.00, good condition, Sold by Moe's Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Berkeley, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2011 by Harvard University Press.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
Good in Good jacket. Jacket is sunned and shelf worn, not affecting legibility of text. Cover is in great condition. Spine is shaken and cracked, but binding is secure. Ink inscription from previous owner on front endpaper but all other pages are clean and unmarked.
Add this copy of Sinners on Trial: Jews and Sacrilege After the to cart. $40.77, good condition, Sold by Books From California rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Simi Valley, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2011 by Harvard University Press.
Add this copy of Sinners on Trial: Jews and Sacrilege after the to cart. $61.60, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2021 by Harvard University Press.
Add this copy of Sinners on Trial: Jews and Sacrilege After the to cart. $85.32, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hialeah, FL, UNITED STATES, published 2011 by Harvard University Press.
Add this copy of Sinners on Trial: Jews and Sacrilege After the to cart. $152.23, new condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hialeah, FL, UNITED STATES, published 2011 by Harvard University Press.
