Who May Hear Without Weeping?

Cursor Mundi, Stanzaic Life of Christ, Northern Passion and Southern Passion treat Jesus’s Passion in ways that emphasize both his human suffering and his divine power. Jesus is typically identified as a king throughout the Passion, though Northern Passion makes him king of heaven, not on earth. As king and conqueror, Jesus’s omnipotence, intention to sacrifice himself, and defeat of the devil are foregrounded. According to these works, Jews arrest Jesus as if he were a thief and accuse him of treason against Caesar, as well as blasphemy and assorted other crimes. Their error lies in their believing Jesus to be only a man, whereas the earliest believers know him to be both man and God. Jews’ rejection of their king justifies the supersession of Judaism by Christianity. The literature both attributes Jesus’s human pain to Jewish enemies of the faith and recognizes that Jesus’s divine nature transcends the Passion. Accordingly, some passages exhort readers to pity and love Jesus who suffers for them; other passages picture Jesus as a triumphant conqueror who defeats the devil and needs no compassion. Writers often perform an exemplary affective piety, contrasting their compassion for Jesus with Jews’ viciousness. Anti-Judaic attitudes and sentiments emerge in this chapter as an integral part of affective piety and pastoral instruction about the Passion. The chapter is structured as a series of case studies, which preserves the integrity of each work and allows their differences to emerge.