Throughout Christian Europe, Jews were periodically accused of killing Christian children and using their blood for religious purposes such as making unleavened bread for Passover. Accusations of child sacrifice had been a common form of hate speech since antiquity. The Romans, for example, had accused the Christians of the same imaginary crime. Though Rabbinic law forbade any kind of blood sacrifice, even of animals, these libelous attacks continued to be made.

These so called "blood libels" led to elaborate trials and executions, and were used to justify the persecution of entire communities. Although rulers and church officials generally sought to discredit the accusations, there were more than 150 cases throughout western and central Europe in the thirteenth through sixteenth centuries.

St. Simon of Trent, 1521. Painting depicting the supposed ritual murder of a child at the hands of Jews in Trent in 1475.
(Provincial Museum of Art, Trento, Italy)