ritual murder was raised for the first time in the twelfth century, accusing the Jews of murdering Christian children to use their blood for ritual purposes. Another accusation of Host desecration was made. The Jews supposedly stole and then desecrated the Christian Eucharistic bread.
             A typical incident was a case in Fulda in 1235. A grain mill burned down and, in their parents' absence, the children of the miller and his wife had perished in the flames. Several crusaders happened to be in Fulda at the time, and they started the rumor that the Jews were to blame for the fire and the deaths. In the violence that followed, thirty-two Jewish men and women were killed; all Jews in the Holy Roman Empire were placed under th
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