Patrick Comerford
When we were in Norwich Cathedral last week, I visited the Chapel of the Holy Innocents to learn more about the way the cathedral recently removed leaflets linked to one of the most infamous cases of antisemitism in mediaeval England. The information leaflets that were removed from the chapel last month (December 2025) recounted the 12th century ‘Norwich blood libel’, a pernicious antisemitic myth that accused the Jews of Norwich of ritually murdering a local boy named William.
We were staying in Norwich beside the Cathedral Close, and visited the cathedral twice, before and after a funeral in Saint Peter’s Church in the nearby Norfolk village of Lingwood.
The Chapel of the Holy Innocents recalls the biblical story of King Herod’s massacre of all infant boys in Bethlehem under the age of two following the visit of the Magi in his attempt to murder the Christ Child (see Matthew 2: 16-18).
The chapel of the Holy Innocents is thought to be near the site of William’s mediaeval shrine, which was destroyed at the Reformation. When the chapel was dedicated to the Holy Innocents in 1997, it displayed material that linked the blood libel to the Gospel account of Herod’s massacre of infants in Bethlehem.
A plain white leaflet linked the mythical murder of one boy in mediaeval Norwich, which was blamed on local Jews, to the Gospel story of the massacre of children by a Jewish king. But the Jewish community in Norwich has long argued that presenting the 12th century story of ‘Saint William’ in the chapel created an offensive, false and dangerous conflation.
The myth began in 1144 when Thomas of Monmouth, a monk at the priory at Norwich Cathedral, claimed Jews had crucified 12-year-old William. In reality, the fable may have been fabricated in a ruse to attract pilgrims to the cathedral and with them their donations.
The story of William of Norwich is the first recorded instance of the ‘blood libel’ – a lie that spread across Europe, resulting in centuries of persecution for Jewish people and set a precedent. What began as a local antisemitic rumour evolved into a conspiracy theory that became known as ‘Blood Libel’. Similar accusations of child murder by Jews followed: Gloucester (1168), Bury Saint Edmunds (1181), Winchester (1192), Norwich again (1235) and Lincoln (1255).
Within a century it was being claimed that Jews harvested a child’s blood and distributed it to other Jewish communities. These ideas spread across Europe, and the ‘Blood Libel’ became firmly established in western European, so that it eventually fed into the Holocaust in Europe 800 years later.
The Dean of Norwich, the Very Revd Dr Andrew Braddock, acknowledges the damage this myth has caused and says the cathedral needs to be honest about its history and that the leaflets needed to be removed. The cathedral and the Norwich Hebrew Congregation are now working together to find a better and more accurate way to present the story of William of Norwich.
The whole incident highlights a continuing effort by the Church to address its role in what Dean Braddock describes as the ‘long and dark history of antisemitism’.
The leaflets were removed from the chapel at the prompting of a new short documentary, The Innocents, made for the UK Jewish Film Festival last year and shown in Norwich last month (4 December 2025). In the film, members of the Jewish community in Norwich express their discomfort at the presence of the story in the Chapel of the Holy Innocents.
Responding to the removal of the leaflets, the president of Norwich Hebrew Congregation, Dr Marian Prinsley, told the BBC: ‘Symbolically it’s very important for all Jewish people in this country and wider. You can’t have the story of King Herod and the story of William of Norwich being conflated and the Jews being blamed for the killing of babies.’ She says in the film that presenting the two stories together was ‘an issue that has been festering within the Jewish community’.
Professor Oren Margolis of the University of East Anglia (UEA) explained why the material in the chapel was offensive: ‘The problem with the dedication of the chapel to the Holy Innocents was that it was an attempt to draw new meaning from a blood libel’.
He said that while the cathedral claimed to be commemorating innocent Jewish victims of persecution up to and including the Holocaust. But by ‘putting them in the place of William, they effectively turned them, like the boys of Bethlehem, into honorary Christians.’
‘It was essentially supersessionist; and in both cases, Jews – Herod, the Jews of Norwich – are the perpetrators,’ Professor Margolis said.
The Dean of Norwich, the Very Revd Dr Andrew Braddock, said: ‘We’ve got to be honest about our history as a cathedral. This is one of the places where that blood libel myth starts to be propagated and shared, and the terrible, terrible damage and suffering that’s caused.’ He added that the Norwich blood libel ‘has played a tragic part in the long and dark history of antisemitism’.
Jonathan Weinberg, who made the film, said the way the story was presented in the chapel would not necessarily lead people to believe the blood libel myth. But, he added, ‘the way that it was presented was definitely, I think, still a bit offensive to the Jewish community’.
Dean Braddock acknowledged the leaflet was not appropriate: ‘The Norwich blood libel – the false accusation made in the 12th century that Jews ritually murdered a boy called William (who was then buried in the cathedral) – has played a tragic part in the long and dark history of anti-Semitism.’
Dean Braddock is clear about the stakes when discussing the story of William. ‘The blood libel has done untold damage – that is the thing we need to address. The stories that were created around that period and associated with the story of William in Norwich – we need to address the terrible consequences of that.’
The shrine to William once gave ‘credence’ to the lie, he said. ‘The shrine to William validated the accusation. It is appalling.’
Dean Braddock said he hoped the cathedral had become ‘more sensitive, more aware of the impact, and more open about it. We can be open about the past without letting it define us. We have a responsibility to stand up to antisemitism in all its forms and to build a positive society.’
In the closing scenes of the new film, Dean Braddock tells Dr Prinsley the leaflet has been removed from the cathedral after admitting ‘we need to do this better’. Representatives of Norwich synagogue and the cathedral are meeting this month to start a process to decide how best to tell the story of William in a more ‘meaningful’ way.
Meanwhile, in the Chapel of the Holy Innocents in Norwich Cathedral last week, I found a prayer found on a scrap of paper in Ravensbrück, the largest concentration camp for women in Nazi Germany. It was written by Hildegard Schäder, Prisoner No 31,795, and is a prayer that good may come from the evil that people do to one another:
‘O Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted upon us; remember the fruits we bought, thanks to this suffering: our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of this; and when they come to judgement, let all the fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness. Amen.’
Hildegard Schäder (1902-1984) was a theologian and church historian whose research focused on the Eastern Orthodox churches. When the Nazis came to power she returned to Germany, became a member of the Confessing Church and worked in Martin Niemöller parish in Dahlem, caring for persecuted Jews. She was taken into custody in 1943 for ‘favouring fugitive Jews’ and was held at Ravensbrück until it was liberated in 1945. She was posthumously honoured as Righteous Among the Nations in 2000.
Holocaust Memorial Day this year is on Tuesday next (27 January 2026), and has the theme ‘Bridging Generations’.
Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום
• For the history of the Jewish community in Norwich, visit here
