A Convert of 1096: Guillaume, Monk of Flaix, Converted from the Jew

Guillaume de Flaix was a child convert and a forced convert from Judaism, baptized during the Crusaders’ assaults on Rouen’s Jews in 1096. This article considers Guillaume’s baptism, his extant works, and his conversion. It begins with the account of Guillaume’s forced baptism. It then considers his works, and argues that Guillaume was more Christianized than the other converts from Judaism of his day. Finally, it extrapolates Guillaume’s paradigm for converting from his writings, and argues that his model was built on his experiences as a forced convert, a monk, and a Jewish convert. Guillaume defined conversion as involuntary, a rejection of family and vice, reciprocal, an internal reorientation of self, monastic, precarious, and penitential. Thus, this article concludes that Guillaume converted again after his baptism, embracing Christianity as a sincere convert and an orthodox monk.