Trial by Ordeal. sorceress, who, on persistently rising to the surface, was pronounced guilty and beaten to death. Grotius mentions many instances of water ordeal in Bithynia, Sardinia, and other countries, it having been in use in Iceland from a very early period. In the primitive jurisprudence of Russia ordeal by boiling water was enjoined in cases of minor importance; and in the eleventh century we find burning iron ordered where the matter at stake amounted to more than half a grivna of gold. A curious survival of ordeal superstition still prevails to a very large extent in southern Russia. When a theft is committed in a household, the ser vants are summoned together, and a sorcer ess is sent for. Should no confession be made by the guilty party, the sorceress rolls up as many little balls of bread as there are suspected persons present. She then takes one of these balls, and, addressing the near est servant, uses this formula : " If you have committed the theft, the ball will sink to the bottom of the vase; but if you are innocent, it will float on the water." The accuracy of this trial, however, is seldom tested, as the guilty person invariably confesses before his turn arrives to undergo the ordeal. Again, in Spain, trial by ordeal was largely practised; and it may be remembered how, during the pontificate of Gregory VII., it was debated whether the Gregorian ritual or the Mozarabic ritual contained the form of worship most acceptable to the Deity. When the chance of deciding this contest amicably seemed hopeless, the nobles resolved to ar range the controversy in their customary manner, and, according to the historian Robertson, the champions — one chosen by either side — met and fought. But in the year 1322, in Castile and Leon, the Council of Palencia threatened with excommunica tion all concerned in administering the or deal of fire or water, — a circumstance which is important, as pointing to the disappear ance of this mode of trial in Spain.. Furthermore, the practice of trial by or deal was under the Danish kings substituted 46
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for the trial by combat, which, until the close of the ninth century, had been resorted to among the Danes for the detection of guilt and the acquittal of innocence. In Sweden, says Mr. Gibson, the clergy " presided at the trial by ordeal; and it was performed only in the sanctuary, or in the presence of min isters of the church, and according to a sol emn ritual." And yet, as he rightly observes, its abolition in Europe was due to the con tinued remonstrances of the clergy them selves. One form of ordeal practised in Sweden was popularly known as the inix tarn, and consisted in the accused carrying a red-hot iron and depositing it in a hole twelve paces from the starting-point. In accordance with the accustomed mode of procedure, the accused fasted on bread and water on Monday and Tuesday, the ordeal being held on Wednesday, previous to which the hand or foot was washed. It was then allowed to touch nothing until it came in contact with the iron, after which it was wrapped up and sealed until Saturday, when it was opened in the presence of the accuser and the judges. In the year 1815 and 1816 Belgium, says Mr. Lea, was disgraced by ordeal trials per formed on unfortunate persons suspected of witchcraft; and in 1728, in Hungary, thir teen persons suspected of a similar offence were, by order of the court, subjected to the ordeal of cold water, and then to that of the balance. Referring to the ordeal of the bal ance, Mr. Tylor informs us the use of the Bible as a counterpoise is on record as re cently as 1759, at Aylesbury in England, where one Susannah Haynokes, accused of witchcraft, was formally weighed against the Bible in the parish church. In Lombardy, ordeal by hot water was a form of procedure much resorted to; and in Burgundy this was also supplemented by the trial of hot iron. The instances thus quoted show how uni versally practised throughout Europe in by gone days was the trial by ordeal; and if we would still sec it employed with the enthusi astic faith of the Middle Ages, we must turn
