The text presented here is a decree of a Lithuanian Tribunal against Jews involved in a church robbery in a small Lithuanian town in 1700. As with most court records preserved in Poland this document is a summary of the trial, it is repetitious, repeating testimonies, each time it refers to a previous court action. Some of these verbatim repetitions have been shortened here. For Polish court records, it is extremely rare to have full records of interrogations similar to those found in Inquisition records in Italy, or Spain. Most of the time, it is a final narrative, composed by the court scribe for permanent record, the so called “clean copy.” The “clean copy” is based on notes compiled during the whole trial known as brudnopis, literally “a smudged/dirty copy.” The brudnopis was customarily destroyed after the “clean copy” was filed. As a result we are left with a scribal narrative, with actual testimonies omitted, roughly summarized, or with some verbatim fragments sometimes included at the scribe's discretion.

The text presented here shows a narrative that can be seen as a transitional narrative from the medieval, although characteristic of the early modern period in Poland, host desecration accusations that include miracles caused by the abuse of the host to narratives of church robbery, a criminal offence. Toward the end of the early modern period era, theological significance of the accusations is gradually lost even in Poland, although, as in this document, the traces of theological anti-Jewish rhetoric continue to appear in sources. A similar transition process occurs with ritual murder accusations, which are gradually transformed into narratives of cruel murder cases, devoid of their religious significance.

For more information about the accusations of host desecration against Jews see, the introduction to chapter VIII: “O Świętokradzwach Nayświętszego Sakramentu” [On the Desecrations of the Most Holy Sacrament] from Stefan Żuchowski's book Process Kryminalny o niewinne dziecię Jana Krosnowskiego [A criminal trial concerning the innocent child Jan Krosnowski] (Sandomierz 1713?).

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