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

This paper examines the propaganda and polemic surrounding the pilgrimage to the Schöne Maria Regensburg, exploring the connections between the and-Jewish violence that precipitated the pilgrimage and thc intense devotionalism to the Virgin Mary that characterized it. Founded on the ruins of the city's Jewish synagogue in 1.519, the pilgrimage to Schöne Maria stands in a long line of Marian pilgrimage sites associated with anti-Jewish violence. Contemporary writings both celebrating and condemning the pilgrimage drew heavily on long-standing beliefs that demonized the Jews, suggesting a link in the popular imagination between anti-Jewish violence and Marian devotionalism. The association of the "diabolic" influence of the Jews over the site and the purifying revelation of the Virgin Mary's power there sheds light on popular Christian understandings of the role of the Virgin Mary in human salvation and the interaction of the divine and the profane in the creation of sacred space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]