Book 4, Chapter 7: Solemn Oaths
The destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a.k.a. the Church of the Holy Anastasis, in AD 1009 at the order of the Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, a.k.a. “The Mad Caliph”, was part of Al-Hakim’s larger personal campaign of persecutions against those in his Caliphate who were not Shia Islamic. This campaign included outlawing various religious ceremonies and ritual materials (especially wine) of both Christians and Jews, confiscating or destroying churches, convents, and synagogues, mandating distinctive and humiliating forms of public dress, and other ordinances designed to persecute non-Shia.
However, the demolition of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre had longer-lasting consequences than the unfair laws and ordinances Al-Hakim had imposed on his populace, which were repealed or weakened after his death. The Church, which is built on the site of Jesus’ death and resurrection according to Christian tradition, is seen as one of the holiest sites in Christianity and had been a major pilgrimage site since its consecration in September AD 335. As a result, a sense of shock and anger rocked the Christian world at the total destruction of the holy site, which was so complete that, according to the chronicler Yahia, “only those things that were too difficult to demolish were spared.” However, with the Caliphate out of reach for most of Christian Europe to effectively retribute against, they sought a scapegoat to punish in lieu of the actual perpetrators, and found one in the form of the Jews. Some European regions merely expelled their Jewish residents, while others, such as Francia, actively persecuted their Jewish populations.
According to multiple Francian sources, the rumor was spread that the Jews of the city of Orléans had sent a letter to either Al-Hakim or to the Jews in residence in the Caliphates via a beggar. This letter allegedly provoked the destruction of the Church, and thus the persecutions were justified in response. The Francian king, Robert II ‘the Pious’, coordinated with his vassals to destroy all of the Jews in their lands who would not accept baptism. The Bishop of Limoges, Alduin, offered the Jews of his diocese the choice of baptism or exile in AD 1010. For a month, Christian theologians held disputations with the Jews, forcing them to defend their beliefs or be baptized or expelled. This did not have much success from the Christian perspective, as only three or four Jews accepted baptism, while others killed themselves, and the rest either fled or were exiled. There were similar persecutions and expulsions elsewhere across Francia. In Rouen, Normandy, a mob attacked the Jewish quarter with such violence that Jewish women jumped into the river to escape them, and drowned. In other cities, Jews were burned at the stake along with Christian heretics at the order of King Robert II.
While this period of active persecution died down after Jacob ben Jekuthiel managed to bribe the Catholic Pope with seven gold marks and two hundred pounds, to send a special envoy ordering King Robert to stop, these events laid the groundwork for the Crusades in the coming decades by sowing a deep and unsated hatred of non-Christians in general and Jews in particular into the Christian populace...
—A History of Old Francia, 1432, Oxford Press
Tropes that appear in this chapter:
- Armor-Piercing Question: Spitelout asks his father Clodgall one after finding out about Clodgall talking with Mac Bethad's spies about replacing Hiccup with Snotlout as the tribe's heir.“It’s one thing to argue within the family of the tribe over who should lead, especially when you think that the heir isn't suitable—which I did then and I don’t anymore. It’s quite another thing to conspire with an outsider, Father! Why, exactly, did you think they were helping you!? For our benefit, or for theirs!?”
- Calling the Old Man Out: Spitelout gives his father Clodgall a piece of his mind for not only not reporting three of Mac Bethad's spies but also for talking with them about possibly replacing Hiccup with Snotlout as the tribe's heir.
- Clarke's Third Law: The Amazigh guide Warmaksan calls the synlengra (telescope) a “magic treasure.”
- Content Warnings:Chapter Trigger Warnings: Implied Reference to Miscarriages, Explicit Minor Character Deaths, Explicit Limb Trauma
- Culture Clash: Among Norse, even Christian Norse, it is the women who handle financial matters, so Sigvatr finds it strange that among the Anglo-Saxons, it is the men who handles that.
- Financial Abuse: Mildred filed a case against her husband Osgar due to him taking the whole family's share of the Food and Bed Rights payments, and instead of holding it on trust to spend on his family's needs, spending it on alcohol. It turns out to be a more widespread problem in England as many Bog Burglars were provoked into attacking one brothel owner who withheld those payments from his sex workers.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Invoked by Spitelout. Because Clodgall was talking with Mac Bethad's spies, the same man responsible for Fritjof's death, and Clodgall never reported them, a furious Spitelout refuses to speak to his own father outside of official business until further notice.
- Not What I Signed on For: What Sigvatr feels about hearing a case about a man taking his family's Food and Bed Rights payments and spending it on alcohol.
- The Scapegoat: The epigraph discusses how the Jews were blamed by Christian Europeans for the destruction of their most holy church even though they had nothing to do with it and in fact, the perpetrator also persecuted Jews.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Lopsides asking Picknose to do an errand for her prevents Picknose from sending a vital message to Astrid in time to prevent an unsanctioned raid.
