At first sight it might seem out of place to make the criminality and punishment of Jews in the early modern period the subject of an essay. That is to say, it may be unseemly to study the crimes of the victims of persecution and expulsions, of repression and discrimination, and, it might be added, of robberies and theft. Nevertheless, if it can be demonstrated that the topic enhances our understanding of Jewish-Gentile relations, then no doubt such a study is important and appropriate. The importance of the investigation of Jewish criminality can be shown by looking at the various stereotypes of the Jew. Before 1650, accusations of ritual murder, desecration of the host, and poisoning of wells were commonplace. Whereas this stereotyping was intimately connected with the role of the Christian religion in society, the traditional reproaches of usury and fraud, though not without religious underpinnings, originated basically in the world of business and commerce. The old reproach of usury and fraud continued to be leveled at Jews after 1650, but in the seventeenth century accusations like ritual murder began to be regarded with skepticism and were replaced by another, real crime.