The Virgin Mary against the Jews: Anti-Jewish Polemic in the Pilgrimage to the Schne Maria of Regensburg, 1519-25

Author(s): Allyson F. Creasman Source: The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 33, No. 4 (Winter, 2002), pp. 963-980 Published by: The Sixteenth Century Journal Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4144117 . Accessed: 17/05/2011 17:25
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Sixteenth CenturyJournal

XXXIII/4 (2002)

The Virgin Mary against the Jews: Anti-Jewish Polemic in the Pilgrimage to the Schone Maria of Regensburg, 1519-25
AllysonF Creasman DavidsonCollege to the Thispaper examines propaganda polemicsurrounding pilgrimage the the and vioof between anti-Jewish the Maria Regensburg, the exploring connections Schline to lence thatprecipitated pilgrimage the intensedevotionalism theVirgin the and in it. on Jewishsynagogue Marythatcharacterized Founded the ruinsof the city's in sites to Maria stands a longline of Marian 1519,thepilgrimage Schone pilgrimage and associated with anti-Jewish violence.Contemporary writingsboth celebrating the the drew beliefs demonized that on condemning pilgrimage heavily long-standing a betweenanti-Jewish violenceand Jews,suggesting linkin the popular imagination association the"diabolic" influence theJewsoverthe of Marian devotionalism.The of of siteandthepurifying revelation theVirgin Mary's lighton poppowertheresheds and of ularChristian understandingsthe roleof theVirginMaryin humansalvation in of the interaction the divineandthe profane the creation sacred of space.
IN FEBRUARY 1519, THE CITIZENS OF THE IMPERIAL CITY OF REGENSBURG celebrated

the expulsionof theJews fromtheir city by joining togetherin the demolitionof the Jewish synagogue. During the demolition,a portion of the roof collapsed,crushing masterstonemason Jacob Kern.Criticallyinjured,he was takento his home, where he receivedthe lastrites of the church.Kern'swife, meanwhile,prayedto theVirgin life. Miraculously, Kern recoveredand returned to Mary to spare her husband's work. His injuries had meant nothing to him, he told his astonishedneighbors, becausetheVirginMaryhad at all times held him in her hand.1 The news of Jacob Kern'sremarkablerecovery quickly spread through the community.The revelationof Mary'spower amid the ruins of the Jewish ghetto gave a devotional cast to the anti-Jewishfervor alreadygripping the city, further Within a month, the escalatingthe violence againstthe Jews and their property. City Council of Regensburghad erected a wooden chapel on the ruins of the synagogue to receive the flood of pilgrims seeking the aid of the wonder-working The chapel,consecratedto the Sch6ne Maria,or Beautiful Virgin of Regensburg.2
Die zu Mariazu Regenspurg zaichenbeschehen derSchonen (Nurem1GeorgHarder, wunderbarlichen cited as Die wunderbarlichen zaichen). berg:JobstGutknecht,1519), sigs.A2r-3r (hereafter des zur zur 2GerlindeStahl,"Die Wallfahrt Sch6nen Mariain Regensburg," Beitrige Geschichte Bis2 turns Regensburg (1968):63.Jacob Kern,meanwhile,had returnedto his sickbed,where he died of his injuriesa short time later.The City Council voted to pay his medical expensesfrom the income of the ed. Chronik, Heinz Angermeier (1821;repr., pilgrimagechapel.CarlTheodor Gemeiner,Regensburgische
Munich: C.H. Beck, 1971), 4:358n; Leonhard Theobald, Die Reformationsgeschichte der Reichsstadt Regensburg,vol. 1, Einzelarbeiten aus der Kirchengeschichte Bayerns, bd. 19 (1936; repr., Nuremberg: Eigenverlag des Vereins flir bayerische Kirchengeschichte, 1980), 51.

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during the firstthree Virgin Mary,recordedmore than seven hundredintercessions yearsof its existence3and drew hundredsof thousandsof pilgrimsfrom throughout southern Germanyand beyond.4The dramaticoutpouring of enthusiasmfor the Sch6ne Mariaof Regensburg,however,also drew fire from criticswho saw the pilgrimage as, at best, socially destabilizing or, at worst, demonically inspired. By 1525, the pilgrimshad stopped coming to the chapel,and the fervent devotion to Sch6ne Mariahad,it seemed,all but evaporated. The expulsionof theJews fromRegensburgand the subsequentpilgrimageto Sch6ne Marialeft their mark in the miraclebooks of the shrine,popularballads, of and the observations contemporarychroniclers.Theviolent origins of the shrine there made it a subjectof controversy both and the ferventdevotionalismdisplayed While contemporariesfretted over during its short existence and ever afterwards. the conduct of the shrine'spilgrims and debated the source of its miracles,the with shrineis also representative a long line of Marianpilgrimagesitesassociated of incidents of anti-Jewishviolence. I propose,in this article,to examine the propagandaand polemic surroundingthe controversial pilgrimage to the shrine of the Mariain order to explore the connections revealedin such texts between Sch6ne the anti-Jewish violence that precipitated pilgrimageand the intense devotionthe alism to the Virgin Mary that characterizedit. Contemporary books and ballads both celebratingand condemning the pilgrimage draw heavily on long-standing popularbeliefs that demonized the Jews,suggestinga link in the popularimagination between anti-Jewishprejudicesand Marian devotionalism.The associations made by the shrine'sdefendersand detractors between the "diabolic" influence of theJews over the site and the purifyingrevelationof theVirgin Mary'spower there shed light on popularChristianunderstandings both the role of theVirgin Mary of in humansalvation the interactionof the divine and the profanein the creation and of sacredspace. The devotion of Sch6ne Maria'sfaithful and her changing fortunes in the 1520s cannot be fully understood apartfrom the history of Regensburg'sJewish community.Once a thriving mercantilecenter,Regensburg experienced a severe had an impact economic decline in the late fifteenth century.Economic pressures on the entire population,including the city'sJewish community.While the Jews had once engaged in large-scale commercial lending and an extensive trade in commodities,they were forced into an increasinglymarginalizedeconomic status in the closing decades of the fifteenth century.5 Relegated largely to petty money-lending, the RegensburgJewish community became ever more the focus
100. 3Stahl,"Wallfahrt," 4Most of the pilgrims came from the Upper Palatinate,Upper and Lower Bavaria,Franconia, Bohemia, andAustria,while some came from as farawayas Breslau, Baden,Alsace,and Hungary.Stahl, 174-77. "Wallfahrt," and trans.Felix N. Gerson (Philadelphia:Jewish 5RaphaelStraus,Jewish in Regensburg Augsburg, Life Man bedarfkeinerJuden Ursachen Hinmehr: und PublicationSociety,1939), 42-43; Markus J.Wenninger, im (Vienna:Herman Bohlaus, Vertreibung den deutschen aus Reichsstiidten 15. Jahrhundert tergrinde ihrer
1981), 167.

Creasman/ Anti-Jewish in Polemic thePilgrimage theShoneMaria 965 to of Christianhostility,directedprimarilyagainst Jewish economic competition and the taking of interest.6 The economic tensions in the city only brought to the surfacethe lingering religious hatreds and suspicions that had marked Christian-Jewish relations in Europe for generations.In 1476, anti-Jewishsentiment in Regensburg flaredwith the arrestof severalprominentmembers of the Jewish community for the alleged ritual murder of six Christian children.7 For four years, the Regensburg City Council, urged on by an angry populace, sought "justice"against the Jews. The emperorintervened,however,and threatenedto withdrawthe city'simperialstatus if prosecution of the Jews continued.8 The Jews of Regensburg were finally released,but not before they promised to reimbursethe city for the costs it had incurredin their imprisonmentand prosecution.9 Although the ritualmurderprosecutionwas over,anti-Jewishsentimentin the city did not abate.10 Popularuprisingsin the city in 1493 and againin 1513 brought As aggressivelyanti-Jewishfactions into the city's political leadership.11 the new century began,Jewishmoney-lending remaineda source of resentmentin the economically stricken city, and the economic tensions between the Christian and Jewish communities were exacerbatedby the high inflation pervasivethroughout the region duringthis period.12Representatives the city'sguildsappeared of before the Council twice to protest the Jews' economic competition.13The Jews, they alleged,unfairlyundercutthe tradesmenby selling inferior goods at lower prices,
Life, "Straus,Jeuwish 146-51. An analysisof a registryof pledges confiscatedfollowing the expulsion of the Jews indicates that Jewish money-lending during this period was largely directed toward the extension of smallconsumerloans to the lower and middle strataof Regensburgsociety.KlausMatzel andJ6rg Riecke, "l)as Pfandregister Regensburger der r Juden vom Jahre 1519,"Zeitschriffii bayerische 51 Landesgeschichte (1988):767-806. and 7R. Po-chia Hsia,TheMythofRitualMurder:Jews Magicin Reformation (New Haven: Germany Yale UniversityPress,1988), 72-85. 8The Jews of Regensburgwere not constitutionally incorporatedwithin the communitybut were, as a practicalmatter,subjectto the City Council'sauthority. Ultimate control over the Jews within the Holy Roman Empirerestedwith the emperor.In the fourteenthcentury,the dukes of Bavaria acquired control over the Jews of Regensburgfrom the emperor,but such rightshad revertedto the emperorby the time of the expulsion of the Jews in 1519. Raphael Straushas linked the comparativestabilityof Jewish-Christianrelationsin Regensburg in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries relative to other Germancities of the era to this division of authorityover the Jews. Straus,Jewish 50, 97, 138-41. Life, 72-82. 9Hsia,RitualMurder,
Ritual Murder,83. "1)Hsia, 11Marita A. Panzer, Sozialer Protest in SiiddeutschenReichsstddten 1485 bis 1525. Anhand der Fallstudien: Regensburg, Augsburg und Frankfurtam Main (Munich: Kommissionsverlag UNI-Druck, 1982), 39107; Peter Herde, "Gestaltung und Krisis des christlich-jiidischenVerhdiltnisses in Regensburg am Ende des Mittelalters," Zeitschrift bayerische 22 Landesgeschichte (1959): 370-71; Straus,Jewish Life, 156-57. fiur 12Wilhelm Abel, AgriculturalFluctuations in Europefrom the 13th to the 20th Centuries, trans. Olive Ordish (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1980), 117-18; Torsten Bergsten, Balthasar Hubmaier:Anabaptist Theologian and Martyr, trans. Irwin J. Barnes and William R. Estep (Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1978), 53; Henry C.Vedder, BalthasarHiibmaier:Leader of the Anabaptists (NewYork: AMS Press, 1971), 39-41. 13See "Complaints of the Trades to Regensburg," 29 March 1516, and "Petition of Regensburg to Imperial Court at Innsbruck," 28 June 1518, document nos. 833 and 979 in Urkunden undAktenstiicke zur Geschichte derJuden in Regensburg,1453-1738, ed. Raphael Straus, Quellen und Erorterungen zur bayerischen Geschichte, bd. 18 (Munich: C.H. Beck, 1960), 290-93; 348-53.

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contractingwith foreign artisans,and dealing in stolen merchandise.Moreover, them in theirpersonsand their Jewishusurysuckedthe Christianfolk dry,"injuring The property."14 Regensburg City Council gave the guilds a sympathetichearing To andjoined with them in a petition to the emperor. the guilds'complaints,the over the Jews'failureto fully reimbursethe City Council addedits own frustrations Relations between the communities city'scostsfor the ritualmurderprosecution.15 had deterioratedto such an extent that the emperoragain intervened,dispatching on imperialcommissioners threeoccasionsto attempta mediationbetween the factions.16 By the second decade of the sixteenth century,resentmentagainstthe Jews' perceivedeconomic competitionwasjoined with Christianreligiousenthusiasmto furtherfuel popularunrest againstthe Jews in Regensburg.The new preacherin Balthasar the city'scathedral, Hubmaier, spoke out againstthe Jews'money-lending arguingthat tolerationof the sin of usury in the community represented practices, Hubmaierwas joined in his a great dangerto the souls of the city's Christians.17 agitationagainstthe Jews by much of the local clergy,who denounced the Jews' offenses against"the common man" and the politicians who defended them.18 With the supportof the local clergy,the Council secureda papalbull in 1517 conof in demningusuryand the participation Christians activitiesin any way associated with it.19 Regensburgers organized a boycott of Jewish merchants, and some refusedto sell to Jewishcustomers.20 emperoragaininterThe Christianmerchants vened in 1518, orderingthe City Council to expel Hubmaierand halt furtherviolationsof the Jews'privileges.21 With the death of EmperorMaximilianI in January1519 and the subsequent the interregnum, Jews of Regensburg found themselveswithout an imperialprotector againstthe still hostile City Council. On 21 February1519, representatives before the City Council urging the Council of Regensburg's guildsagainappeared
in 14R. Po-chia Hsia,"The UsuriousJew:Economic Structureand Religious Representations an in Relations LateMedieval Early in Anti-Semitic Discourse," In and Out of the Ghetto:Jewish-Gentile and ed. ModernGermany, R. Po-chia Hsia and Hartmut Lehmann (Washington,D.C.: German Historical Institute,1995), 164. 348-53. 15 "Petitionto ImperialCourt,"document no. 979 in Urkunden Aktensticke, nnd
16Straus,JewishLife, 158.

of ca. und 17"Statement Baldasar Huebmaier," 11 January1518, document no. 950 in Urkunden in in 336-37; Philip M. Soergel,Wondrous His Saints: Aktenstiicke, Counter-Reformation Propaganda Bavaria Balthasar 39-44. UniversityCalif. Press,1993), 53;Vedder, (Berkeley: Hiibmaier, 68. Sozialer 18Panzer, Protest, 7 19See"Pope Leo X to Administrator Johannesof Regensburg," June 1517, document no. 916 in Urkunden Aktenstiicke, 324-25. The implementation of this bull was blocked by the emperor. und Life, Straus,Jewish 160. 20"ChristophorusOstofrancuson the Expulsion of the Jews from Regensburg,"21 February und 385; 174; 1519, document no. 1040 in Urkunden Aktenstiicke, Wenninger,Man bedarf keinerJuden, im Barbara Schuh,"Die GewaltendesWunders.Zeichen der Machtausiibung Bereich einer splitmittelin und alterlichen Sozialhistorische zum Wallfahrt," VonMenschen ihrenZeichen: Untersuchungen Spaitmittelalterundzur Neuzeit,ed. Ingrid Matschinegget al. (Bielefeld:Verlag Regionalgeschichte,1990), 85. fir Balthasar 89. Hubmaier, 57-59; Schuh,"GewaltendesWunders," 21Bergsten,

Creasman / Anti-JewishPolemicin the Pilgrimageto the Sh6ne Maria 967

to take advantage of the interregnum to finally expel the Jews.22 Seeing its chance, the Council issued an order the same afternoon commanding the Jews to vacate the city within five days.23 The Jews were given two hours to vacate their synagogue, after which the structure was demolished by a jubilant Christian mob "with unreasoning passion."24 Stirred by the news ofJacob Kern's miraculous deliverance at the hands of theVirgin Mary during the synagogue's demolition, men and women united under theVirgin's banner to destroy the Jewish cemetery, carting off the gravestones as trophies and disinterring some of the dead.25 Although some Jewish homes also sustained damage, the mob's greatest violence was directed against the Jews' most holy places: their house of worship and their burial ground.26 The deliberate desecration of these sites suggests not only the depth of popular hatred against the Jews, but also its source. The crowd lashed out not simply against an economic competitor, but a spiritual enemy.27 Hubmaier's sermons had stressed the Jews' alleged usury as a source of spiritual pollution to the Christian community. The font of this pollution was represented most concretely in the Jews' synagogue and burial grounds. By obliterating these places, the Christians of Regensburg sought to cleanse their city of the supposed Jewish contamination endangering their souls. Even prior to the destruction of the synagogue, Hubmaier had recommended to the City Council that the site be dedicated to theVirgin Mary and that the structure be converted into a chapel in her honor.28 For the people of Regensburg, the construction of a Marian chapel over the ruins of a Jewish synagogue would have held particular significance. The prior litigation between the city and its Jews over the ritual murder investigation and the infringement ofJewish economic privileges had taught the City Council to expect that its expulsion of the Jews would be subject to close imperial scrutiny. Indeed, the Jews had dispatched a grievance to the imperial court within hours of the expulsion, followed closely by a letter from the Council seeking to justify its action.29 Anticipating a challenge, the Council sought
22Gemeiner, Regensburgisclhe Chronik, 4:354; Wilhelm Volkert, "Die spditmittelalterliche Judengemeinde in Regensburg," in AlbrechtAltdorfer und seine Zeit, ed. Dieter Henrich (Regensburg: Mittelbayerische Druckerei &Verlagsgesellschaft, 1981), 139. 23Stahl, "Wallfahrt," 57. About eight hundred people were expelled in 1519, approximately 5 to 10 percent of the total population of the city. Straus,Jewvish Life, 161-62. 24Leonhart Widmann, Chronik von Regensburgin Die Chroniken der deutschenStiidte vom 14. bis ins 16.Jahrlundert, bd. 15 (Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1878), 31 ("mit unverniifftiger hizigkait"). 53-54; Soergel, Wondrousin His Saints, 54. 25Theobald, Reformationsgeschichte, 26About thirty Jewish homes were destroyed. Stahl, "Wallfahrt," 53. 27Volkert, "Judengemeinde," 144; Schuh, "Gewalten des Wunders," 82; Marcel Simon, "Christian Anti-Semitism," in Essential Papers on Judaism and Christianity in Conflict from Late Antiquity to the Reformation,ed.Jeremy Cohen (NewYork: NewYork University Press, 1991), 134-39. 28"Interrogation of Balthasar Hubmaier at Ziirich," 13 January 1526, document no. 1152 in Urkunden und Aktenstiicke,428. 29"Supplication of the Jews of Regensburg to the Imperial Court at Innsbruck," 22 February 1519, and "Regensburg to Imperial Court at Innsbruck," 22 February 1519; document nos. 1052 and 1045 in Urkunden undAktenstiicke,391-93.The expulsion of the Jews was illegal, but their protest to the imperial court brought them little satisfaction. A portion of the Jews' confiscated property was returned to them, and the city was ordered to assume the Jews' tax obligations. However, the order of expulsion

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to place itself in the strongest possible position.The consecration of a church on the site of the destroyed synagogue suited the Council's political needs perfectly: even if the Council were held to have acted illegally, no emperor would order them to destroy a church to make way for the return of the Jews.30 If the Council acted quickly, the completed church would make it all the more difficult for a new emperor to mandate the return of the Jews and the recovery of their property.31 Apart from the political value of the construction, the veneration of Mary on this site was intended to convey a religious message as well. Since the early Christian era, sites of anti-Jewish violence have frequently been consecrated as Christian holy sites.32 The appropriation of Jewish holy places as Christian shrines became particularly pronounced, however, in the mid-fourteenth century following a rash of expulsions and massacres of the Jews within the Holy Roman Empire. In the wake of the violence, Christian shrines-usually to Christ or to theVirgin Marywere often dedicated where the Jews' synagogues had once stood.Two recent studies find evidence for thirty-three churches and chapels dedicated on the sites of Jewish synagogues within the empire between 1349 and 1520, almost all concentrated within the southern territories of the empire.33 The concentration of such dedications, in time and place, together with the Marian associations of such shrines, suggests a deliberate linkage between the cult of the Virgin Mary and anti-Jewish violence. The upturn in such dedications coincides not only with the intensification ofJewish persecutions within the empire in the mid-fourteenth century,but persists into the early sixteenth century-a 170-year period that also marks a pronounced intensification of theological interest in and lay devotion to the cult of the Virgin Mary.

luhrzeln und Wirkungen des Judenhlasses in der deutschen Geschlichte (Cologne: R6derberg im Pahl-Rugenstein, 1988), 302-3; Christopher S. Wood, "Ritual and the Virgin on the Column: The Cult of the Sch6ne Maria in Regensburg,"Journal of Ritual Studies 6 (1992): 93. B. 31"Gerhard Winkler, "Die Regensburger Wallfahrt zur Sch6nen Maria (1519) als reformatorisches Problem," in AlbrechtAltdorfer und seine Zeit, ed. Dieter Henrich (Regensburg: Mittelbayerische Druckerei und Verlagsgesellschaft, 1981), 104; Volkert, "Judengemeinde," 140; Schuh, "Gewalten des Wunders," 80. 31Gemeiner, Regensburgische Chronik, 4:370. 32Simon, "Christian Anti-Semitism," 155-56. 33J.M. Minty notes that from 1390 to 1520, churches were dedicated on the sites of synagogues in Heidelberg, Amberg, Ingolstadt, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Linz, Iglau, Cologne, Deutz, Eger, Jauer, Graz, Munich, Mainz, Coburg, Landshut, Schweidnitz, Striegau, Bamberg, Trent, Passau, Erfurt, Magdeburg, Wiener-Neustadt, Budweis, Regensburg, and again at Rothenburg ob der Tauber. J. M. Minty, "Judengasseto Christian Quarter: The Phenomenon of the Converted Synagogue in the Late Medieval and Early Modern Holy Roman Empire," in Popular Religion in Germany and Central Europe, 1400-1800, ed. Bob Scribner and Trevor Johnson (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1996), 61. In addition, Hedwig Rockelein lists Christian shrines dedicated on the sites of Jewish synagogues in: Nuremberg (1493), and WeiBenburg (1520). Hedwig Rickelein, "Marienverehrung und Judenfeindlichkeit in Mit-

Schuder RudolfHirsch, Gelbe and Der Fleck: wasnot rescinded. Life, Straus,Jewuish 158-59;Rosemarie

(1349),Miltenberg (1349),Bamburg (1429),Wertheim (1447),Hallea. d. Salle (1349),Wiirzburg

Maria der und in Wlelt: imKontext Sozialgeschichte telalter friiher Neuzeit," Marienverehrung der 10.-18. 280-83. Chronos, 1993), Jahrhundert (Ziirich:

to Polemic thePilgrimage the ShoneMaria 969 in Creasman/ Anti-Jewish The Catholic church,in the wake of schismand dissension,activelypromoted Mariandevotion in the fifteenthcenturyas a unifyinginfluence within the church. Throughout Europe,heightened interestin theVirgin Mary was reflectedboth in the theological debate on the ImmaculateConception of Mary and, on a more popularlevel, in the adventof the cult of the Rosary in the 1470s.34Similartrends where devotion to the Virgin led to the dedication were also presentin Germany, of a number of importantMarianshrinesin the late fifteenth century,particularly In in southern Germany.35 the sixteenth century,an estimated twelve thousand conThe apparent wonderswere recordedat pilgrimageshrinesin Bavariaalone.36 centration of Marian devotionalism within the southernmost territories of the empire during the late medieval and early modern periods may help explain the region'sconcentrationof pilgrimageshrinesdedicatedon sites of anti-Jewishviothe lence.As the accountsof the Regensburgpilgrimageto Schone Mariaillustrate, associationsof these sites were deemed to underscoreMary'sunique status Jewish as the fulfillmentof theJewishprophecies,theVirgin who broughtforth the promised Messiah.Founded in recompensefor the Jews' alleged resistanceto this truth and complicity in the death of Christ,such shrinesaffirmedMary'scentralrole in The nucleus of Christianshrinesassothe Incarnationand the Passionof Christ.37 ciated with anti-Jewishviolence in these territories,therefore,reflectsthe concentration of Mariandevotion within this region during the late medieval and early modern periods. The extant accounts of the expulsion of the Jews from Regensburg and the constructionof the chapel on the site indicate that,to the people of Regensburg, the land on which the synagoguehad stood had been profanedby the Jewish worship focused there.The Jews were equated with the Devil in these accounts,and One those who defendedthem merited eternaldamnationas the Devil'sservants.38 miracle book concluded its account of the miracles performed by Regensburg Sch6ne Mariawith these words:

the Under HeelofMary(London: 34NicholasPerryand LoretoEcheverria, Routledge, 1980), 19-26. 35LionelRothkrug has linked the increasedpopularityof the Virgin Mary in fifteenth-century Germanyto imperialeffortsto promote Mary,the ImmaculateQueen of Heaven, as the protectressof Hidden Homologies in the empire.Lionel Rothkrug,"Religious Practicesand Collective Perceptions: 7 Historical the Renaissanceand Reformation," Reflections (1980):62, 93. Historical "MiracleBooks and PilgrimageShrinesin Late Medieval Bavaria," 36StevenD. Sargent, 13 Reflections (1986): 457-59. Rothkrug estimates that there were more than a thousand shrines in Rothkrug,"Religious Practices," Germanyat this time, over halfof them located in southern Germany. 28 205. See also Dieter Harmening,"FrankischeMirakelbiicher," Diozesangeschichtsblitter Wiurzburger (1966):25-241. 80-84. See also,JohannesHeil and 292-94; Minty,"Judengasse," 37Rickelein, "Marienverehrung," Sion? Mariologie,Marien-Frmtnmigkeit judenfeindschaft Rainer Kampling, eds., Maria-Tochlter und (Paderborn: Sch6ningh,2001). die melodei Ausschafzaichen, sigs. D3v-4r; Hieronymos Ell, Ein lied in Tolner 38Die wunderbarlichen bezaichendt 1519), Lied no. 339 in Die (Landshut: JohannWeyssenburger, fung der]udenvonRegensburg vol. der vom 13. bis 16.jahrhundert, 3, ed. Rochus von Lilienchron(Hilhistorischen Volkslieder Deutschen cited as In tolner descheim:Georg Olms, 1966):verse 24, pp. 335-36 (hereafter melodei).

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you pious Christians, Praydiligently, let not your sins confound you For,in this hour, BeelzebubI mean, by that,the Jewish dogsRest by neither night nor day to breakus with hardshipsAnd the Jews' associates, too, who protect and defend them in their wickedness: Believe me, you are the Devil's servants.39 In this,the Regensburgsourceswere drawingon a long traditionof Christian polemic demonizing the Jews.40The Jews, these accounts maintained,had stubbornly refusedto recognizeChristas theirMessiaheven though their own prophets confirmed the truth of this.41But, accordingto these authors,the Jews were not they were willfullyhostile to Christianityand dedicated merelyblind and stubborn; had to its destruction.42 Moses and David,one pilgrimagesong asserts, damnedthe to hell for their impiety;it was no wonder then that they failed to heed the Jews prophetsand had crucified God's son.43 The Jews' irrationalhostility to the truth linkedthem in the publicmind to thatother inexorableenemy of Christ:the Devil. and The Jews, therefore,were seen as the Devil's creatures, their synagogueswere as templesto the Antichrist.44 reputed The consecrationof Mary'schapel on the site where the Jews had practiced their wickednesswas thereforenecessaryto exorcise the evil that had once claimed one the site and re-createit as a Christianholy place.45On Good Friday, pilgrimage exulted, Christianswould raise three crosseson the site of the Jews' burial song
39Die 'iunderbarlichen zaichen, sigs. 1)3v-4r ("Pit euch mit fleyBl ir frumen Christen / Last euch ewr Sundt nit uberlisten / Den Beelzebub zu diser Stundt / Ich mayn darzu die Juden hundt / Wann sie nicht rasten nacht und tag / Wie sie uns brechten in ungemach / Die Juden veter auch dabey / Die sie bschirmen und bschiizen frey / Und geben inn ir bolheyt recht/Glaub mir du bist des teuffels knecht"). 4()Elaine Pagels, The Oriqin of Satan (NewYork: Random House, 1995); Moshe Lazar,"The Lamb of the Jews in Medieval Propaganda Imagery," in and the Scapegoat: The Dehumanization Anti-Semitism in Times of Crisis, ed. Sander L. Gilman and Steven T. Katz (New York: New York University Press, 1991), 39-56. "Christian Anti-Semnitism," 138-39. 41Sinmon, ist 42Georg Harder, Wie die newe Capell zu der Schiinen Maria in Regenspurg Erstlich auff kommtnen (Nuremberg:Jobst Gutknecht, 1519), sig. A3v (hereafter cited as Die newe Capell). 43Die newe Capell, sig. A3v ("Der Moises, ir halber got / David, wie es im psalter stat / habens verfliicht bilBin die hell / wann es ist in kein weg nit fel / dai sie gottes son gecreuzigt hand / und glauben keins propheten mund"). 44JoshuaTrachtenberg, The Devil and theJews: The Medieval Conception of theJew and Its Relation to

Modern Antisemitism (New Haven:YaleUniversity Press,1943), 18-31, 59-60; Stefan Rohrbacher and Michael Schmidt,Judenbilder: ant(itidischer (Reinbek Mythenundantisemitischer 1Vorurteile Kulturgeschichte, im bei Hamburg:Rowohlt Taschenbuch,1991), 151-68; Christoph Daxelmiiller,"Volksfr6mmigkeit in Reformationszeitalter: Epochenschwelleoder Kontinuitit (am Beispiel Regensburgs)," Reformation ed. und Reichsstadt: Protestantisches in Regensburg, Hans Schwartz (Regensburg:Universititsverlag Leben in on Papers Judaism Regensburg,1994), 109;LesterK. Little,"The Jews in ChristianEurope," Essential
and Christianity,ed. Cohen, 288-89.

Polemic thePilgrimage theShoneMaria 971 in to Creasman/ Anti-Jewish ground,reclaimingthe land from those who had crucified the Messiah."Thatmay annoy the dogs,"the song continued, "but they must atone for it; the Devil will The receive them, and will give them their reward."46 obliterationof the Jewish was both a cleansingand an act of penance,atoning for the city'sprior toltemple eration of the Jewish evil.According to one Regensburg miracle book, there was "no city may ever have happiness, no greatersin than to shelterthe Jews;therefore, "The Jew never goes right,"another pilgrimage where the cursedJews dwell."47 song asserts,"nor correctly understandsthe prophets; therefore he is eternally unholy,and who gives him sanctuaryis a bad Christian."48 Another pilgrimage song affirmsthat great sin had prevailedwhere the Jews dwelled,and for that God had punished the city.Now that the citizens had rallied to drive the Jews out, the city was blessed with great wonders.49Once polluted by the Jews, the site was now holy. Grace streameddown from heaven there, testifying to Mary'sglory.The place should smell of incense and gleam with ornaa ments, one poet proclaimed; great palace had to be constructed there to honor Christ'smother.50 According to these accounts, these wonders showed that Mary herself had chosen the Jews' holy place to vindicate her power and demonstrateher triumph over the falsereligionof theJews.51One pilgrimagesong explainsthat theJews had insulted the honor of Mary,"the beautiful maid,"and now she brought justice down upon her enemies,presidingover God'sjudgment upon them.52According to another miraclebook, "wondroussigns"occurred daily on the spot where the "in had Regensburgers castdown the Jews'houses and their synagogue, which they had daily disgraced,reviled and heavily blasphemedagainstour lord Jesus Christ The and his worthy mother,the highly praisedqueen, the Schone Maria."53 wondroussigns Mary revealedthere also testifiedto the rectitudeof the citizens'action in expelling the Jews.54One chroniclernoted that,although some Regensburgers had pitied the Jews,the revelationof Mary'spower on that site confirmed the Jews' arousguilt in the eyes of the community.Theplight of the Jews was heartbreaking,
and 81; 295-96; Minty,"Jndesngasse," Mircea Eliade,The Sacred 45R6ckelein, "Marienverehrung," the Profane: The Nature of Religion,trans.Willard Trask (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1959); Mary and of (NewYork:Praeger,1966). of Analysis Concepts Pollution Taboo Douglas, PurityandDanger:An verse 24, pp. 335-36. 461!Tiolner melodei, 47Die neweCapell, A3v-B 1r. sigs. 48Die neweCapell, A3v ("DerJud nie recht in sich wolt gan/noch die prophetenrecht verstan sig. /darumb er unselig ewig ist / und der in behaustein b6ser Christ"). verse melodei Ell, Volkslieder, 49Hieronymos InToller (Regensburg,1520), Lied no. 338 in Historischen cited as In Toller 2, p. 323 (hereafter melodei). Gratiose Mariam in Ratisponae Area Ivdaeorvm Virginem 5(JakobLocher,Ad Formosam Expvlsorvm Residentem Grandibvs et Miracvlis Corvscantemn (Regensburg,1520),verse 1, lines 13-24. MariaderhymelKonigin wie Ein ansprach die new Capellzu derSchonen 51GeorgHarder, andechtige nd muiitter des alnmechtigen in Regenspurg Erstlich kommen nachChristi ist, geburtMCCCCC und gottes auf cited as Ein andechtige ansprach). xix.Jar(Regensburg,1519), verses8-9 (hereafter 6, melodei,verse p. 333. Tolner 52Indisem der seind die zu
531n biichlein begriffen zaychen Beschehen wunderbarlichen Regenspurgzu Schonen

Mariadermutter gottes(Nuremberg,1519), sig.A2r. "GewaltendesWunders," 94. 54Schuh, 90,

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yet ing compassionin many Regensburgers; the wondrous signs revealed in the their pity.55 ghetto suppressed Mary's victory over her Jewish enemies was underscored by her epithet "Sch6ne,"emphasizingher beauty and purity in the face of allegedJewish slanders.56 Jews,the Regensburgers The the alleged,had slandered ever-virginMary as her wife."57 a common whore or dismissed contemptuouslyasmerely"a carpenter's So that the pilgrimswould not forget the Jews'insultsagainstthe Beautiful Virgin, Hubmaier,the newly appointedchaplainat the shrine,posted a panel in the courtyard of the chapel detailingthe Jews' slandersagainsther.58The allegations-and the public memorial of them-were doubtlessly aimed at fostering devotion to Schone Maria by fomenting outrage against the Jews. Such charges were not unique to Regensburg,but had been circulatingin ChristianEurope for generations.The allegationsdrew on a long-standingChristianbelief that the Jews bore a animusagainstthe Virgin Mary.59Christianbelief in the Jews' hatredof particular Maryreflected,in part,the significanceattachedto the figureof Mary in late medieval piety.The role of Mary in human salvationand the respectproperlydue her formed an importantline of demarcation dividing Christianfrom non-Christian.60o Jews rejectedthe Christianbelief in the virgin birth of Christand the eternalpurity of Mary as being both contraryto the naturalorder and unsupportedby any standards of scripturalinterpretationJewish scholarship was prepared to accept.61 however,saw Mary and the miraclesassociatedwith her as clearlypreChristians, To saged in the Jews' own scriptures. Christians,the Jews' failureto recognize this was merelyfurtherevidence of the Jews'perversewickedness.62 Jewish rejectionof and Mary'sexaltedstatuswas shocking to prevailingChristiansensibilities, thus all to mannerof outragesagainstthe Mother of God were attributable them. saw The Regensburgers Schone Maria's wondersas a testamentto the achievement of God's purpose in Mary.To them, her appearanceon the ruins of the destroyedsynagogue proclaimednothing less than the nullification of the entire Jewish faith.The wondroussigns she worked in the Jews' holy place revealedthat she was, in fact, the fulfillment of the prophecies to her people. In the eyes of Christiancommunity,theJews had earnedthe wrathof God for their Regensburg's failure to heed the words of his prophets.63Mary was the fulfillment of those
4:359. 55Gemeiner, Chronik, Regensburgische 56Stahl, "Wallfahr," 55-57; Die ne'we Capell, Clv. The title also linked the new shrine to other sig. in popular Marian pilgrimage sites at Ingolstadt and Altotting. Soergel, W/ondrous His Saints,53-54; 850 Achim Hubel,"Die'Sch6ne Maria'von Regensburg.Wallfahrten-Gnadenbilder-Ikonographie," 1127-1977 (Munich:Schnell & Steiner,1977), 202. in JahreKollegiatstift St.Johann Regensburg, verse 1, lines 4-5. 57Dieneue Capell, Clv; Ein andechtige ansprach, sig. "Die Regensburger 94. 58Winkler, Wallfahrt," Schuh,"GewaltendesWunders," 108; Man bedarf 28. 59Wenninger, keinerJuden, 279. 60R6ckelein,"Marienverehrung,"
61Simon, "Christian Anti-Semitism," 142-43. 62Heiko A. Oberman, The Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Age of Renaissance and Reformation, trans. James I. Porter (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984), 83; Simon, "Christian Anti-Semitism," 145-47. 63Die newe Capell, sigs. A2r, A3v, C v; Simon, "Christian Anti-Semitism," 138-39.

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prophecies-she was the virgin foretold by Isaiah, who brought forth the Emmanuel to supplant the Jewish faith.64 Thus, the Regensburg miracle books and pilgrimage songs repeatedly portray Mary as the culmination of God's work among the Jews. She was the "daughter of Zion," the "Rose of Jericho," the channel through which the Messiah was finally revealed to his people.65 One poem hailed Sch6ne Maria as the mother of the Messiah, a heroine descended from and prefigured in the Jewish heroines of the Old Testament: They [the Jews] offend not just God but also the gentle Maria, who gave birth to the Messiah and was figured in Judith, and in Esther, who advised Ahasuerus and saved her people. Maria, too, gave us life, but even greater grace.66 According to these accounts, after Sch6ne Maria had brought forth the Messiah, there was nothing left to the faith of the Jews. They had rejected the message revealed in Christ through Sch6ne Maria, for which they were justly cursed by God and all pious Christians.67The Jews had, in effect, forfeited their claims to the place Sch6ne Maria now graced with her wonders. As the culmination of the prophecies foretold to her people, Sch6ne Maria was the natural heir to the Jewish lands. By the time the chapel was finally dedicated on that land in March 1519, pilgrims were already arriving at the site to invoke the aid of Sch6ne Maria. Chroniclers were in agreement that, in the early years of the pilgrimage, pilgrims flocked to Sch6ne Maria's shrine in extraordinary numbers. On Pentecost in 1520, an estimated twenty-seven thousand people were in attendance at the chapel, with another fifty thousand present on St. George's Day. Between St. George's Day (April) and St. Martin's Day (November) 1520, approximately fifteen hundred processions had made their way to Regensburg.68 During the years 1519 through 1522, an estimated 25,374 masses were said in the chapel, for an average of twenty-three masses every day.69 For many, the cult was suspect because of its very popularity. Pilgrims were said to flock to the chapel apparently without forethought, abandoning their responsibilities and setting out for Regensburg without adequate food or clothing, sometimes with their tools still in their hands, as if some unseen power propelled them
64Isa. 7:14; Matt. 1:22-23. verse 1, lines 7-9; Die newe Capell, sig. A3r-v. 65Ein andechtigeansprach, 66Die newe Capell, sig. A3v ("Dann sie schelten got nit allein, / sonder auch die Mariam zart, / von der Messias geboren ward, / welche auch die Judith figurirt / und Hester, die Asvero riet / und irem volk fristet das leben. / Das hat uns auch Maria geben, / noch grollere gnad, als ich das find"). "Christian Anti-Semitism," 138-39, 150. 67Simnon, 68Widmann, Chronik von Regensburg,36. 69Widmann, Chronik von Regensburg,34; Soergel, Wondrousin His Saints, 56-57.

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When askedwhy they journeyed to Regensburg,pilgrims towardRegensburg.70 On were liableto respondthat they were carriedthere"by the Spirit."71 feastdays, the crush of pilgrims could createhavoc in the chapel.People fainted,it was said, and so many priestssought to say mass at the chapel'saltarsthat often one priest To startedsayingmasseven before anotherhad finished.72 managethe crowds,the City Council askedmembersof the local monastic communitiesto circulatein the chapel and help keep order.73 Even greaterdisorderwas said to prevailoutside the chapel.Pilgrims prayed before the large stone statue of the Virgin Mary in the chapel'scourtyard(fig. 1). Some threw themselveson the groundbefore it; others sang and dancedaroundit. Many pilgrimswept.74 In this highly chargedatmosphere,a mood of apocalyptic Hystericalmen and women, it was said,could be expectationsometimesprevailed. heardprophesyingthe coming of the last days.75 the In the eyes of many observers, pilgrims'behaviorwas unseemly,an offense againstthe proper reverencedue to God, and a threat to the social order he had Even the City Council was troubledby reportsof the pilgrims'behavior ordained. While the Catholic City Council and took steps to try to rein in their excesses.76 saw in the uncontrolledbehavior of the pilgrims merely an excess of folk piety, criticssaw something quite different: control by the Devil. The pilgrims Protestant were not simply out of control;they were under the sway of a diabolicalpower. None of these critics denied that the miraclesreportedat Regensburgwere genuine; they simply denied that the Virgin Mary was the cause of them.The Devil, it was said,wasjust as capableof working wonders to deceive the simpleminded.77 Martin Luther saw the pilgrimage as all the Devil's work: "to strengthen greed, to createa false and fictitious faith,to weaken the parishchurches,to multo tiply tavernsand harlotry, lose money and working time to no purpose,and to Martin Bucer likewise attackedthe pilgrimlead ordinarypeople by the nose."78 age to Sch6ne Maria as the work of the Antichrist.The Devil, Bucer said,sought

de 7"WilhelmnRem, Cronica neuwer Stiidte omn geschichten, 1512-1527, in Die Clironiken d deutschcen & Ruprecht, 1966), 131-32; Sebastian 14. bis ins 16. Jahrhundert, bd. 25 (G6ttingen:Vandenhoeck Franck, Clironica (1536; repr., Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1969), 260; Martin Luther,"Luther an Biirgermeister und Rat der Stadt Regensburg," 26 August 1523, in D. Martin Luthers Werke,4th ed. (Weimar: H. B6hlaus Nachfolger, 1933), 3:141-42. 71Harmening, "Frankische Mirakalbiicher," 135. 72Soergel, Wondrousin His Saints, 56-58. 73Gemeiner, Regensburgische Chronik, 4:392-93. 74Gemeiner, RegensburgischeChronik, 4:385. See Michael Ostendorfer's woodcut depicting this behavior at fig. 1. 75Gemeiner, Regensburgische Chronik, 4:392-94. 76Gemeiner, Regensburgische Chronik, 4:385. 3:142. 77LutIhers Werke, 78Martin Luther, "To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation concerning the Reform of the Christian Estate" (1520), trans. Charles M. Jacobs in Luther's Works,American Edition, ed. James Atkinson (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966), 44:185-89.

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Figure 1. Michael Ostendorfer, Pilgrimageto the Schone Maria of Regensburg(Coburg, 1520), from Der deutsche Einblatt-holzschnitt in der ersten Hiilfte des XVI. Jahrhunderts,ed. Max Geisburg (Munich: H. Schmidt, 1923)

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to pervert the Christian faith by inducing people to flock to such shrines, as if God were present in one place and not in another.79 Like Luther, many Protestant critics were troubled by the threat to social order posed by the pilgrims' leaving their jobs and masters on apparently irrational, unauthorized pilgrimages. This uncontrollable behavior was also a sign of the Devil's work in the eyes of Sebastian Franck. According to Franck, peasants walked out of the fields towards Regensburg with their tools still in their hands as if they were bewitched or possessed. In Franck'smind, this could only be the work of the Devil, not the Mother of Christ.80 Such criticisms formed a favorite charge of sixteenth-century Protestant polemicists against Catholic pilgrimages.81 Allegations of demonic influence had been, and would continue to be, leveled against other pilgrimage sites.82 The pilgrimage to Sch6ne Maria, however, came in for particular abuse, perhaps because its fame and popularity in the early years of the Reformation era made it a readily identifiable target for Protestant attack. However, Sch6ne Maria's chapel also had something that distinguished it in the eyes of its critics: it still had the taint of the Jews on the place. According to Schone Maria's partisans, the presence of the accursed Jews had drawn down the Virgin's power in the first instance, remaking the site into a holy shrine. According to Protestant critics, however, the place was still infected with the Jews' demonic influence.The ruin of the Jews' holy place was once again occupied by a supernatural visitor, but this time the resident was Satan, the Jews' supposed master. Only the Devil, the Protestants suggested, would bless ground once occupied by the accursed Jews.83 The pilgrimage to Sch6ne Maria therefore had to be false, for nothing of God could ever have been found where the Jews dwelled. Protestant attacks on the pilgrimage to Sch6ne Maria, therefore, buttressed the favorite charge of demonic influence over the pilgrims with the diabolical contamination of the Jews. In a 1523 letter to the Regensburg City Council, Martin Luther made this point explicit. According to Luther, the pilgrimage chapel had to be leveled because the Devil now occupied the Jews' place:
79Martin Bucer, "Martin Butzers an ein Christlichen Rath und Gemeyn der Statt Weissenberg Summary seiner Predig daselbst gethon," in Martin Bucers Deutsche Schriften, ed. Robert Stupperich (Paris: GiitersloherVerlagshaus, 1960), 1:110-12. 8()Franck, Chronica,260. 81Daxelmiiller, "Volksfr6mmigkeit," 111; Wolfgang Briickner, "Forschungsprobleme der Satanologie und Teufelserzahlungen," and Rudolf Schenda, "Hieronymous Rauscher und die protestantisch-katholische Legendenpolemik," in Volkserzdhlung und und Reformation:Ein Handbuch zur Tradierung Funktion von Erziihlstoffen und Erzdiilliteraturim Protestantismus,ed. Wolfgang Briickner (Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 1974), 179-259, 393-417. 82Charles Zika, "Hosts, Processions and Pilgrimages: Controlling the Sacred in Fifteenth-Century Germany," Past & Present 118 (1988): 57-59; Edith Turner and Victor Turner, Image and Pilgrimage in Christian Culture:Anthropological (NewYork: Columbia University Press, 1978), 31. Perspectives 83j. M. Minty concludes that the conversion of Jewish structures to Christian religious purposes suggests that Christians did not believe the sites to be permanently "contaminated" by their Jewish origins. However, Minty does not address the comments of Protestant writers who made precisely this 76-86. charge with respect to the shrine of Schiine Maria at Regensburg. See Minty, "Judengasse,"

Creasman / Anti-JewishPolemicin the Pilgrimageto the Shone Maria 977

... the Devil, after the Jews were expelled, set himself up in their place and works false miracles in the highly-honored name of Mary and carries away you and many others. Now, if he has the power to subvert the names of God's Majesty, of Christ, and of the Holy Spirit, how should he not be able to subvert the name of Mary or some lesser saint?84 According to Luther, it was "a sure sign" of the Devil that people came to Schone Maria's chapel so "impetuously." If the pilgrims had, in fact, been moved by the Holy Spirit instead of the Devil, they would have stayed home instead of running off in disobedience to their masters.85 Likewise, the Protestant chronicler Caspar Goldwurm, writing in the mid-sixteenth century, recounted how the Devil had set himself up in Regensburg in the place of the Jews: In the year 1516, Dr. Balthasar Hubmaier of Regensburg frequently preached against the Jews, which moved the Christian government to expel the Jews and destroy their houses and synagogue to the ground. While this was a Christian undertaking and work, the Devil set himself up in the place from which the Jews were expelled. However, he did not abandon his old, cunning style. Rather, he worked through the aforesaid Dr. Balthasar so that he would build and erect a mighty temple in the honor of the Sch6ne Maria on the site of the expulsion of the Jews and their destroyed synagogue, where people from far-off lands would come running in search of mercy and help like mad and senseless people.86 The Devil, Goldwurm alleged, was lurking in the Jews' place, looking for an avenue through which to lead Christians into idolatry and error. Goldwurm reminded his readers that although the Devil operated through the Jews, he could easily set up his false worship among Christians if given the opportunity.87
3:141-42 ("derteuffel,nach dem die Juden vertriebensind,sich selbsan ihre Statt 84Luthers Werke, geseft und durch den hochgelobten namen Mariafalschezeichen thutt und euch samptvielen andern betrugt.Denn so er die macht hatt,daser auch gottlichermaiestetnamen,Christusnamen und des heiligen geistsnamen tharund kan fur wenden, wie sollt er denn nicht Marien namen odder eins geringen heiligen namen auff werffen?").For a discussion of Luther'sattitudes toward the Jews, see Steven Bucer,and Eck on the Jews,"Sixteenth Rowan, "Luther, Century Journal16 (1985):79-90. 3:141-42. 85Luthers Werke, und Buch. Goldwurm,Wnderwverck wvunderzeichen Darinne furnemste alle Gottliche, 86Caspar geistliche, vnd so sich von der allem Anfange WeltSchopfung himlische, Wunderwerck, in solchem elementische,jrdischeteuflische bissauff kurtzlich vnndordentlich von vnd Zeit,zutragen begeben haben, sein, vnserjetzige verfasset derGestalt nie am worden (Frankfurt Main:Dauidem Zephelium,1557), sig. X4v ("ImJar 1516 predigetD. Balgedruck thasar Hiimenrzu Regenspurg/ hafftigwider dieJiiden / dadurch wardein Erbare ChristlicheObrigkeit bewegt / die Jiiden zu vertreiben/ warenihnen ihre Heuserund Snnagogain grundund bodem abgeWelches / wiewohl es ein Christlichflirnemen und werck war / und stellet sich derTeuffel/ brochen. als w6lt er in dem / daBdie Jiiden vertreibenwurden / an dem ort weichen / Jedoch font er sein alte art dahin /dafl er an dis arglistige nicht lassen/sonderner bearbeitetsich durchobgemelten D. Balthasar Stattder vertribenen Jiiden / und ihrerabgebrochenenSnnagoga/ ein gewaltigenTempel / in der ehr
der Schonen Maria genannt / erbawen und auffrichten lieB / dahin die Leuth aul ferren Landen / als tolle und unsinnige Leuth / lieffen/genad und hiilff da zu suchen.") 87Goldwurm, Wunderwerck, W4r. sig.

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The pilgrimsat Regensburgwere in thrallofJewish blackmagic,accordingto tract.In a 1523 pamphletcriticizingthe pilgrimageto theVirgin anotherProtestant Mary at Grimmenthal,a fictionalpeasantand an artisanspeculateconcerning the causeof the popularityof the pilgrimageto Schone Mariaat Regensburg.Theartihad sanrecountsa frighteningstory about how Jewish sorcerers been known to use animal heartsto trigger spontaneousmass movements of swine.The artisanhints ominously that the Jews had been performing similarmagic with human hearts, drawingpeople to Regensburgin droves.88 In these accounts,theJews manipulateunsuspectingChristians as they had just been said to control the Christianeconomy in the earlierRegensburg polemics in againstthe Jews.Christians, these accounts,had forfeitedcontrol over themselves to the Jews and to their diabolicalmaster. Thus, it was the pilgrims'apparentlack attack.Most of this behaviorwas of controlat the shrine that came in for particular focused on a feature apparentlyunique to Schone Maria'sshrine: the imposing mounted on a column in the chapel's stone statueof the ImmaculateVirgin89 public square.Michael Ostendorfer'swoodcut (fig. 1) depicts pilgrims praying to the image and fallingto the groundbefore it. Some of the pilgrimsareshown embracing the column, craning to touch the statue.Other reportsdescribe the pilgrims engaging in wild dancesaroundthe column.The pilgrimsevidently imitatedeach other, with the behavior of some encouraging others to engage in even more of ecstaticdisplays devotion. The pilgrims'behaviorbefore the statuewas roundlydenounced.Many critics controversial woodcut, may haveknown of the pilgrimageonly from Ostendorfer's which was widely circulatedby the City Council. AlbrechtDiirer owned a copy, of on which he noted his disapproval this"dishonor"to God's"worthymother."''9 Francklikewise denounced the pilgrims who fell to the ground before the image the of Sch6ne Maria"asif they had been struckby lightning." Accordingto Franck, in the pilgrimsthought it was the work of God and foolishly emulatedeach other Even Hubmaierwas disturbed belief that it was a necessarysign of divine favor.91 by pilgrims dancing aroundthe image.The pilgrims told him that they had seen others dancingand had been moved by a "suddenupsurgeof the blood" to do the same.Hubmaierwas so disturbed the pilgrims'conduct that he askeda physician by friend to providean explanation.Thedoctor'sdiagnosiswas"nervousirritation."92 The pilgrims, in short, couldn't help themselves.The critics agreed that the to theirgood judgment and their self-restraint some other pilgrimshad surrendered
odder entstanden (Erfurt, daraus 1523), sig.A4r. sey fur unradt biiberey 89This image, depicted in Michael Ostendorfer'swoodcut at fig. 1, did not conform to the but iconographyof Sch6ne Maria, to the form of Mary as the ImmaculateQueen of Heaven.The statue in inside the hadbeen commissionedfor the city'scathedral 1516 and was probablyoriginallydisplayed cathedral before being moved to the squarein 1519.Wood,"Virginon the Column,"98.
9?Wood, "Virgin on the Column," 89. 91Franck, Chronica,260. 92Bergsten, BalthasarHubmaier,65. was 88Eyn gesprechziwyschen vyer Personen wye sie eyn getzengk haben, von der Walfartym Grinmmetal,

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power. The source of this power seemed to be focused around the statue. Outdoor freestanding columnar statues of religious figures were apparently exceptional in this period. One recent study of the Schone Maria cult suggests that such statues were rare because they were associated, in the public's imagination, with pagan idolatry. Woodcuts of the period routinely picture the ancient Israelites dancing around the image of the golden calf mounted on a column.93 However, the association with the story of the golden calf94 also evoked a centuries-old anti-Jewish polemic. Christian polemicists drew on the biblical account of the Israelites' idolatry to contrast the allegedly pure spirituality of the Christian faith with the supposed carnal superstition of the Jews. The Israelites' worship of the golden calf, it was alleged, revealed the Jews to be sunk in ignorance and carnality, forsaking the word of God for the worship of false idols.95 The pilgrims' ecstatic displays before the Virgin's statue, therefore, crossed the line from legitimate worship into idolatry and, in the process, revealed them to be no better than the Jews. Like the Jews, the pilgrims had forgotten the proper reverence due to God and had abandoned themselves to base revelry and excess. In the eyes of the shrine's critics, then, the contaminating influence ofJewish worship could still in some form be felt at the site. By 1525, the pilgrimage to the shrine of Sch6ne Maria was essentially at an end.96 Her church was eventually torn down to make room for a new structure, and her icon was lost.97 The unfinished stone church that was to have replaced the wooden pilgrimage chapel was eventually completed as Regensburg's first Protestant church in 1542.98 Although pilgrimage to other Marian shrines in Regensburg enjoyed a resurgence during the Counter-Reformation, the veneration of Sch6ne Maria was not revived.99 The late medieval world from which Schone Maria originated saw the supernatural fully operating within the natural world and revealed, sometimes, in certain uniquely focused loci of power. For the Christians of Regensburg, one such site of otherworldly power could be found in the heart of their city, in the ruins of the Jewish synagogue.The synagogue became the focus of all the resentments and fears
93Wood, "Virgin on the Column," 90. 94Moses retreated for forty days and forty nights to Mount Sinai, where God revealed the Law to him. Despairing of Moses and his God, the Israelites beseeched Moses' brother, Aaron, to create a new god for them.The Israelites melted down their gold into the form of a calf, which they worshiped with feasting and revelry. Moses destroyed the idol, and in punishment for their sin, three thousand Israelites were put to death. Exod. 32:1-28. trans. David Wood 95Pier Cesare Bori, The Golden Calf and the Origins of theAnti-Jewish Controversy, (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990); Simon, "Christian Anti-Semitism," 142-43, 146-47. 96Soergel, Wondrousin His Saints, 61. 97Stahl, 79-80, 86. "Wallfahrt,"' 98Wood, "Virgin on the Column," 104. The much-maligned statue of the Virgin in the chapel square was destroyed in 1543. 99In the mid-eighteenth century, the Regensburg clergy began promoting a new devotion to a Sch6ne Maria at the Franciscan cloister of St. Kassian. Hubel, "'Sch6ne Maria' von Regensburg," 2068. Regensburg's many shrines continue to make it a popular destination for pilgrims. The history of pilgrimage shrines in the diocese of Regensburg, with particular emphasis on the post-Reformation era, im is traced in Hans J. Utz, Wallfahrten Bistumn Regensburg(Munich: Schnell & Steiner, 1981).

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the Regensburgershad once directed againstthe Jews, and they invested the site with all the evils they imagined to be associatedwith the Jews and their supposed demonic master.The Jews'holy place thus became a source of spiritualcorruption to the community,an evil to be exorcisedand remadeinto a font of divine grace. The wonders revealedon that site investedit with a specialsanctityin the eyes of devotees.But, for her critics,the profaneinfluence of the original Sch6ne Maria's occupantswas still manifestin the behaviorof her faithful. and worlds This continuingbelief in the linksbetween the natural supernatural atteststo the power of the impulsesthat firstgave rise to the cult of Sch6ne Maria. The contemporarybooks and balladsboth celebratingand condemning the pilgrimage sharea common animusagainstthe Jews and a heavy relianceon the sad legacy of anti-JewishChristianpolemic.The connections drawn by both Sch6ne Maria'sproponentsand critics between the alleged unholy influence of the Jews there suggesta common link over the site and the devotion to theVirgin displayed in the public imaginationbetween anti-Jewishhatredsand Mariandevotionalism. To Sch6ne Maria's followers,the revelationof theVirgin'spower on the ruins of a testifiedto Mary'sunique role in human salvationas the Jewishsanctuary destroyed vessel throughwhich the Messiahwas revealedto his people and the supposedly falsereligionof theJews was foreversupplanted. Marywas the culminationof God's work among the Jews and the only rightfulheir to the site once polluted by their sin.The Jewish associationsof the shrine were equally significantto its Protestant critics,for to them, the Jews' presence offered particularly cogent proof both that the site was cursedand that the pilgrimswho flocked there were sunk in the same base superstitionfor which they believed the Jews themselves had been forever then, the ruins of the damned.For both Sch6ne Maria'sdevotees and detractors, and Jewish sanctuary, the attitudesthat led to its destruction,gave powerfulwitness to the interactionof the divine and the profanein the creationof sacredspace.