Trial by ordeal

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Trial by ordeal is a judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused is determined by subjecting them to a painful task. If either the task is completed without injury, or the injuries sustained are healed quickly, the accused is considered innocent. Like trial by combat, it was a judicium Dei: a procedure based on the premise that God would help the innocent.

The ordeal was, in Europe, often by fire or water; red-hot metal in the first instance and boiling water in the second. The exact use of the ordeal varied considerably, a practice was for the accused to walk nine paces with a red-hot iron bar held in both hands. Depending on the custom of the time innocence would be shown by a complete lack of injury from the ordeal or the wounds would be bound and regularly examined for healing or festering. An English version had nine red-hot ploughshares placed on the floor, the accused was blindfolded and if they successfully crossed the floor without injury they were judged innocent.

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Ordeal by water

Ordeal by water varied. Gregory of Tours (d. 695)recorded the common expectation that with a millstone round their neck, the guilty would sink: "The cruel pagans cast him [Quirinus, bishop of the church of Sissek] into a river with a millstone tied to his neck, and when he had fallen into the waters he was long supported on the surface by a divine miracle, and the waters did not suck him down since the weight of crime did not press upon him." (Historia Francorum i.35)

A variant on the ordeal by water was the requirement to remove a stone from a pot of boiling water, the injury sustained indicating guilt as in the trial by fire; sometimes the liquid medium used could be oil or molten lead. Trial by water could also be the consumption of bitter water without harm — this is present in the Torah as a test for a woman who allegedly committed adultery and is called the Sotah procedure in Judaism; however, it is the reverse of the normal case as the physically harmless water is seen to be transformed into a deadly potion if the accused was guilty. Or, it could be a variant on the dunking of witches, the accused would be bound and thrown into water — an innocent person would sink and a guilty person would float. The innocent person would then be rescued; not left to drown, as is sometimes portrayed (though the rescue was not always successful). Witches were imagined to supernaturally float above water because they had renounced baptism when entering the Devil's service. Some researchers theorise that specific diet was used to cause witches to float by increasing the amounts of gas within their intestines. By other theories of the time, the innocent person would float with God's aid while the guilty one would sink. Either way the accused had little chance of surviving this ordeal.

In England trial by ordeal was in use in Saxon and Norman times. Ordeal by fire was restricted to upper-class defendants. A deputy could be nominated in certain circumstances. The cooperation of priests was forbidden by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, which was the reason it appeared less. It became also superfluous with the rise of the inquisition in which the Church and the people found a suitable alternative.

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Other ordeal methods

  • In Hindu law, a husband may require his wife to pass through fire, proving her fidelty by having no traces of being burnt.
  • A Burmese ordeal tradition involves the two accused persons to light a candle, with the winner being the owner of the candle that outlasts the other's.
  • If the loser is alive after a duel, burning or hanging might ensue to assure that victory belongs to the “judgment of God” (since the victor was believed to have won only due to the aid of divination).
  • Also, in the medieval times, there was a Trial by Sacrament, which was normally given to nobles or people who would pay for that Trial. The criminal would be forced to swallow bread down their throat without chewing and must have done it quickly. If the accused criminal choked, God wasn't considered on their side and they were killed. If they were successful, then God had protected them and they weren't punished.


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External links

de:Gottesurteil es:Ordalía fr:Ordalie it:Ordalia he:משפט האל nl:Godsoordeel pl:Ordalia pt:Ordália

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