TY - CHAP
T1 - When They Come of Age
T2 - Religious Conversion and Puberty in Fifteenth-Century Ashkenaz
AU - Liberles, Ahuva
N1 - Funding Information:
The first document was composed a number of months after the events of 1421, on St Benedictine’s day (21/3/1422).36 In the document provost Erhart from the convent of St. Andrä (Augustiner-Chorherrnstift) affirmed in the name of his monastery, that they had received a sum of 50 pounds in Viennese pfennig to keep for the boy (chnaben) until he reaches the age of majority (wan er vogtper wirt). If the child should die before coming of age, the sum will then return to its owner, Duke Albrecht V “unserm gnedigen herrn hertzog Albrechten hertzogen ze Osterreich.” Martha Keil emphasized in her discussion on this document that Duke Albrecht saw himself as responsible for the child’s upbringing and livelihood, almost as if he were his guardian, since “the ducal measure not only aimed at the salvation of the children’s lives but predominantly at the salvation of their souls.” Along with financially supporting this baptized child, Keil proves the financial support given by the duke to other adult men and women converts from the 1420/1 persecutions.37
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s).
PY - 2019/1/1
Y1 - 2019/1/1
N2 - This chapter focuses on orphaned Jewish children from the persecutions of the Jews in Vienna in 1421 who were converted to Christianity. Using both Jewish and archival legal sources—I discuss different ways these children were perceived by adult society, and examine different approaches regarding the religious affiliation of the Jewish children who were forced into baptism. The sources demonstrate that the age 13, was incorporated to determine the rights of these orphans over their Jewish and Christian inheritance. In the discussed legal sources, the age 13 functioned as a watershed or an age threshold from childhood to puberty, after which the young converts were to be considered responsible for their religious status and their conversion complete, regardless of the violent events that led them into a new religion.
AB - This chapter focuses on orphaned Jewish children from the persecutions of the Jews in Vienna in 1421 who were converted to Christianity. Using both Jewish and archival legal sources—I discuss different ways these children were perceived by adult society, and examine different approaches regarding the religious affiliation of the Jewish children who were forced into baptism. The sources demonstrate that the age 13, was incorporated to determine the rights of these orphans over their Jewish and Christian inheritance. In the discussed legal sources, the age 13 functioned as a watershed or an age threshold from childhood to puberty, after which the young converts were to be considered responsible for their religious status and their conversion complete, regardless of the violent events that led them into a new religion.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85145340516&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-030-29199-0_11
DO - 10.1007/978-3-030-29199-0_11
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:85145340516
T3 - Palgrave Studies in the History of Childhood
SP - 299
EP - 318
BT - Palgrave Studies in the History of Childhood
PB - Palgrave Macmillan
ER -