ABSTRACT
William of Norwich’s cult is well known for its violent beginnings in the horrific libel made against Norwich’s Jewish community, who were accused of torturing and crucifying the boy ‘martyr’. The Life and Miracles of William of Norwich (c.1154–55 and c.1173) contains several records of mad men and women who were brought to William’s tomb in the hope that they would be miraculously cured. These mad people could act savagely and were often violently restrained. This chapter examines the particularly savage representations of madness in William’s miracles, which are often overlooked in favour of his Life, as products of a different type of saint’s cult. Though madness was not portrayed as a divine punishment and was, instead, a condition that the saint healed via his miracles, some of the negative physical, mental and spiritual implications of madness endured. Violent mad people were said to act ‘savagely’, as were the Jews when they were accused of torturing young William. Thus, the saint’s enemies (the Jews of Norwich and their defenders) were not punished with madness, but their conduct still resonated with the behaviour of the mad.
