(Desecration of the Host). Single sheet displaying twelve woodcuts depicting the alleged profanation of the Host by Jews. Each with German caption below, recounting the story of the alleged desecration

(ANTISEMITICA)

c.

German

1749

The Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation, first officially recognized at the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, believed the wafer consecrated in Church ceremony of the Eucharist to be the actual body of Jesus. It was imagined in some Christian circles, that Jews desired to visit upon the Host the agonies of the Passion, by stealing it and subsequently tormenting or burning it. The charge of desecrating the Host was leveled against Jews all over the Roman Catholic world, frequently bringing in its train persecution and massacre