CURRENT RESEARCH
The Life and Passion of William of Norwich (ca. 1150-1172) features the first English example of ritual murder by Jews, and this aspect of William's biography has dominated the discourse about the Life. Although an emerging body of scholarship has begun to consider the miracles attributed to the boy saint as they were recorded by his sacrist, Thomas of Monmouth, most scholars who consider him at all continue to focus on the blood libel legend associated with him. Nevertheless, the miracles attributed to William form the core of the Life, which is why it is surprising that they have yet to be systematically categorized by analyzed to see what they might suggest about life in twelfth-century Norwich.
The Life tells the story of a twelve-year-old boy who was said to have been ritually murdered by Jews during Easter Week in 1144. His sacrist, Thomas of Monmouth, records 110 miracles,eighty of them concerning physical and mental impairment. In this project, I will look at this subset of miracles for what they suggest not only about disability and impairment in the English Middle Ages, but also about the logistics of pilgrimage and family structures in the twelfth century. This thesis is divided into four chapters. First is the introduction, which explores the relevant historiography, historical contexts, and theoretical frameworks which I will subsequently draw on in my analysis. Chapter 2 is a systematic categorization and analysis of the eighty medical miracles in the Life. Chapter 3 considers some of these miracles for what they suggest about familial support and technological aids in the Middle Ages. Chapter 4 is the conclusion, where I will discuss how these journeys were vital to pilgrims' reintegration into society by restoring their health, and with it, their autonomy. By taking a bottom-up approach in analyzing the miracles of medical healing from a variety of theoretical standpoints, I hope to show that The Life and Passion of William of Norwich is indeed much more than the blood libel and ritual myth that has been associated with it and that has been the primary focus of medieval scholars.
In addition to writing this thesis in the usual format, I also use Digital Humanities in this project. I have taken the data from the Life and created six maps. The first shows all of the pilgrims whose origins could be determined, and they are marked accordingly, along with further details giving the viewer their name, the ailment they suffered from, and where their story can be found in the Life. The second map is of child pilgrims, all of whom came with familial support. The third map concerns adult pilgrims who came to the shrine in Norwich with the support of family. The fourth map is of adult pilgrims who came Norwich not only with familial support but also technological aid such as handbarrows or horses. The fifth map is of those pilgrims who came to the tomb by themselves; they all used some kind of technological aid, whether is was also a horse, a staff, hand trestles, or crutches. The final map shows the lone pilgrim who came to the shrine aided by the spirits of Thomas Becket and King Edmund; this tale of a miraculous cure preceded by a miraculous journey is the last story recorded in the Life.
By making these maps, I have been able to make calculations about the pilgrims and their journeys. For example, I have found that the average distance a pilgrim traveled was 39.48 miles, yet a full forty percent of the pilgrims only had to travel less than ten miles to get to the tomb. The visual depictions of the pilgrims' origins, moreover, help not only to bring into focus exactly who was coming to William's shrine in Norwich but also to give us a deeper appreciation for the distances they traveled in search of a cure for a wide variety of ailments.
