Hugh of Lincoln

   1) (Little St Hugh)

    (d. 1255)

   Martyr.

   As a child of nine, Hugh was murdered in the town of Lincoln and his body was thrust into a well. His murderer was unknown, but it was rumoured that a wealthy Jew named Koppin had conspired with his co-religionists to torture and crucify the boy. Although there was no firm evidence, Koppin and eight other Jews were executed for the crime. This was one of the first cases in which Jews were accused of the ritual murder of Christian children. The charge became commonplace in the Middle Ages and the ‘blood libel’ has been revived by anti-Semites even in modern times. It has been a frequent excuse for the persecution of whole Jewish communities and for the confiscation of Jewish property. The best-known version of the story of Little St Hugh in English is to be found in the Prioress’s Tale in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

   C. Roth, Ritual Murder Libel and the Jews (1935).

   2) (c. 1140–1200)

   Saint and Bishop.

   Hugh was a native of Burgundy. He first joined the Regular Canons, but then became a member of the Carthusian Order at Chartreuse. He was appointed the first Prior of King Henry II’s new Carthusian house at Witham, Somerset, and he was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln in 1186. He is remembered for his tireless efforts in reforming his diocese, for helping rebuild the cathedral and for his courage in standing up in the cause of justice not only to Henry II, but also to his sons King Richard I and King John. A saintly figure, he used to say that the lay-person who practised charity in his heart, truth on his lips and chastity in his body, would have in Heaven a reward equal with monks and nuns. He was canonised in 1220 and, until King Henry VIII’s Reformation, his tomb attracted almost as many pilgrims as that of Thomas Becket in Canterbury.

   D.H. Farmer, Saint Hugh of Lincoln (1985);

   H. Mayr-Harting (ed.), St Hugh of Lincoln: Lectures delivered at Oxford and London (1987).