Chapter X: Decline of the Torture System (1)

A system of procedure which entailed results so deplorable as those which we have seen accompany it everywhere, could scarcely fail to arouse the opposition of thinking men who were not swayed by reverence for precedent or carried away by popular impulses. Accordingly, an occasional voice was raised in denunciation of the use of torture. Geiler von Kaisersberg, the most popular preacher of his time in Germany, who died in 1510, endeavored to procure its disuse, as well as to mitigate the cruelties practised upon prisoners.[1845] The Spaniard, Juan Luis Vives, one of the profoundest scholars of the sixteenth century, condemned it as useless and inhuman.[1846] The sceptic of the period, Montaigne, was too cool and clear-headed not to appreciate the vicious principle on which it was based, and he did not hesitate to stamp it with his reprobation. “To tell the truth, it is a means full of uncertainty and danger; what would we not say, what would we not do to escape suffering so poignant? whence it happens that when a judge tortures a prisoner for the purpose of not putting an innocent man to death, he puts him to death both innocent and tortured.... Are you not unjust when, to save him from being killed, you do worse than kill him?”[1847] In 1624, the learned Johann Gräfe, in his _Tribunal Reformatum_, argued forcibly in favor of its abolition, having had, it is said, practical experience of its horrors during his persecution for Arminianism by the Calvinists of Holland, and his book attracted sufficient attention to be repeatedly reprinted.[1848] Friedrich Keller, in 1657, at the University of Strassburg, presented a well-reasoned thesis urging its disuse, which was reprinted in 1688, although the title which he prefixed to it shows that he scarce dared to assume the responsibility for its unpopular doctrines.[1849] When the French Ordonnance of 1670 was in preparation, various magistrates of the highest character and largest experience gave it as their fixed opinion that torture was useless, that it rarely succeeded in eliciting the truth from the accused, and that it ought to be abolished.[1850] Towards the close of the century, various writers took up the question. The best known of these was perhaps Augustin Nicolas, who has been frequently referred to above, and who argued with more zeal and learning than skill against the whole system, but especially against it as applied in cases of witchcraft.[1851] In 1692, von Boden, in a work alluded to in the preceding pages, inveighed against its abuses, while admitting its utility in many classes of crimes. Bayle, not long after, in his Dictionary, condemned it in his usual indirect and suggestive manner.[1852] In 1705, at the University of Halle, Martin Bernhardi of Pomerania, a candidate for the doctorate, in his inaugural thesis, argued with much vigor in favor of abolishing it, and the dean of the faculty, Christian Thomas, acknowledged the validity of his reasoning, though expressing doubts as to the practicability of a sudden reform. Bernhardi states that in his time it was no longer employed in Holland, and its disuse in Utrecht he attributes to a case in which a thief procured the execution, after due torture and confession, of a shoemaker, against whom he had brought a false charge in revenge for the refusal of a pair of boots.[1853] His assertion, however, is too general, for it was not until the formation of the Republic of the Netherlands, in 1798, that it was formally abolished.[1854]

These efforts had little effect, but they manifest the progress of enlightenment, and doubtless paved the way for change, especially in the Prussian territories. Yet, in 1730, we find the learned Baron Senckenberg reproducing Zanger’s treatise, not as an archæological curiosity, but as a practical text-book for the guidance of lawyers and judges. Meanwhile the propriety of the system continued to be a subject of discussion in the schools, with ample expenditure of learning on both sides.[1855] In 1733, at Leipzig, Moritz August Engel read a thesis, which called forth much applause, in which he undertook to defend the use of torture against the dictum of Christian Thomas nearly thirty years before.[1856] The argument employed is based on the theory of the criminal jurisprudence of the time, in which the guilt of the accused is taken for granted and the burden thrown upon him of proving himself innocent. Engel declares that in all well-ordered States torture is rightfully employed; those who are innocent and are the victims of suspicious circumstances have only themselves to blame for their imprudence, and must make allowance for the imperfections of human reason; and he airily disposes of the injustice of the system by declaring that the State need not care if an innocent man is occasionally tortured, for no human ordinance can be expected to be free from occasional drawbacks. Another disputant on the same side meets the argument that the different sensibilities of individuals rendered torture uncertain, by boasting that in the Duchy of Zerbst the executioner had invented an instrument which would wring a confession out of the most hardened and robust.[1857] It was shortly after this, however, that the process of reform began in earnest. Frederic the Great succeeded to the throne of Prussia May 31, 1740. Few of his projects of universal philanthropy and philosophical regeneration of human nature survived the hardening experiences of royal ambition, but while his power was yet in its first bloom he made haste to get rid of this relic of unreasoning cruelty. It was almost his earliest official act, for the cabinet order abolishing torture is dated June 3d.[1858] Yet even Frederic could not absolutely shake off the traditional belief in its necessity when the safety of the State or of the head of the State was concerned. Treason and rebellion and some other atrocious crimes were excepted from the reform; and in 1752, at the instance of his high chancellor, Cocceji, by a special rescript, he ordered two citizens of Oschersleben to be tortured on suspicion of robbery.[1859] With singular inconsistency, moreover, torture in a modified form was long permitted in Prussia, not precisely as a means of investigation, but as a sort of punishment for obdurate prisoners who would not confess, and as a means of marking them for subsequent recognition.[1860] It is evident that the abrogation of torture did not carry with it the removal of the evils of the inquisitorial process.

When the royal philosopher of Europe thus halted in the reform, it is not singular that his example did not put an end to the controversy as to the abolition of torture elsewhere. German jurisprudence, in fact, was not provided with substitutes, and legists trained in the inquisitorial process might well hesitate to abandon a system with which they were familiar in order to enter upon a region of untried experiment for which there was no provision in the institutions or the ancestral customs of the land. These natural doubts are well expressed by Gerstlacher, who, in 1753, published a temperate and argumentative defence of torture. He enumerates the substitutes which had been proposed by his opponents, and if he does them no injustice, the judges of the day might naturally feel indisposed to experiments so crude and illogical. It seems that the alternatives offered for the decision of cases in which the accused could not be convicted by external evidence reduced themselves to four—to dismiss him without a sentence either of acquittal or conviction, to make him take an oath of purgation, to give him an extraordinary (that is to say, a less) penalty than that provided for the crime, and, lastly, to imprison him or send him to the galleys or other hard labor, proportioned to the degree of the evidence against him, until he should confess.[1861]

In Saxony, as early as 1714, an Electoral Rescript had restricted jurisdiction over torture to the magistrates of Leipzig, to whom all proceedings in criminal prosecutions had to be submitted for examination prior to their confirmation of the decision of the local tribunals to employ it.[1862] This must have greatly reduced the amount of wrong and suffering caused by the system, and thus modified it continued to exist until, in the remodelling of the Saxon criminal law, between 1770 and 1783, the whole apparatus of torture was swept away. In Austria the _Constitutio Criminalis Theresiana_, issued in 1769 by Maria Theresa, still contains elaborate instructions as to the administration of torture, with careful descriptions and illustrations of the implements in use and the methods of employing them;[1863] but the enlightenment of Joseph II., soon after his accession in 1780, put an end to the barbarism, and in Switzerland about the same time it was similarly disused. In Russia, the Empress Catherine, in 1762, removed it from the jurisdiction of the inferior courts, where it had been greatly abused; in 1767, by a secret order, it was restricted to cases in which the confession of the accused proved actually indispensable, and even in these it was only permitted under the special command of governors of provinces.[1864] In the singularly enlightened instructions which she drew up for the framing of a new code in 1767, the use of torture was earnestly argued against in a manner which betrays the influence of Beccaria.[1865] Under these auspices it soon became almost obsolete, and it was finally abolished in 1801. Yet, in some of the States of central Europe, the progress of enlightenment was wonderfully slow. Torture continued to disgrace the jurisprudence of Würtemberg and Bavaria until 1806 and 1807. Though the wars of Napoleon abolished it temporarily in other States, on his fall in 1814 it was actually restored. In 1819, however, George IV. consented, at the request of his subjects, to dispense with it in Hanover; while in Baden it continued to exist until 1831. Yet legists who had been trained in the old school could not admit the soundness of modern ideas, and in the greater part of Germany the theories which resulted in the use of torture continued to prevail. The secret inquisitorial process was retained and the principle that the confession of the accused was requisite to his condemnation. Torture of some kind is necessary to render the practical application of this system efficacious, and accordingly, though the rack and strappado were abolished, their place was taken by other modes in reality not less cruel. When appearances were against the prisoner, he was confined for an indefinite period and subjected to all the hard usage to be expected from officials provoked by his criminal obstinacy. He was brought up repeatedly before his judge and exposed to the most searching interrogatories and terrified with threats. Legists, unwilling to abandon the powerful weapon which had placed every accused person at their mercy, imagined a new justification for its revival. It was held that every criminal owed to society a full and free confession. His refusal to do this was a crime, so that if his answers were unsatisfactory to the judge the latter could punish him on the spot for contumacy. As this punishment was usually administered with the scourge, it will be seen that the abolition of torture was illusory, and that the worst abuses to which it gave rise were carefully retained.[1866] Indeed, if we are to accept literally some letters of M. A. Eubule-Evans in the London “Times” of 1872, the _Untersuchungschaft_ or inquisitorial process as employed in Prussia to the present day lacks little of the worst abuses recorded by Sprenger and Bodin. The accused while under detention is subjected to both physical and moral torture, and is carefully watched by spies. In the prison of Bruchsal there is a machine to which the prisoner is attached by leather thongs passed around head, trunk, and limbs, and drawn so tight that the arrested circulation forces the blood from mouth and ears; or he is confined, perhaps for a week at a time, in a small cell of which floor and sides are covered with sharp wooden wedges, rivalling the fragments of potsherds which Prudentius considered the crowning effort of devilish ingenuity for the torture of Christian martyrs.

Spain, as may readily be imagined, was in no haste to reform the ancient system of procedure. As late as 1796, in the Vice-royalty of New Granada, when the spread of the ideas of the French Revolution began to infect society, some pasquinades appeared in Santafé displeasing to the government. Though the Viceroy Ezpeleta was regarded as a singularly enlightened man, he had a number of persons arrested on suspicion, one of whom was put to the torture to discover the author of the obnoxious epigrams. It is satisfactory to know that although several of the accused were convicted and sent to Spain to serve out long terms of punishment, on their arrival at Madrid they were all discharged and compensated.[1867] After the revolution, the authorized use of torture was abolished, but as recently as 1879 its application, by various methods showing skill and experience in its use, on an American citizen falsely accused of theft, led to a correspondence between the governments of Venezuela and the United States, recorded in the journals of the time.

In the mother country the employment of torture, though becoming rarer as the eighteenth century neared its end, continued legal until the overthrow of the old monarchy, and it was not abolished until the Cortes of Cadiz in 1811 revolutionized all the institutions of the nation. In the reaction which followed the return of the Bourbons it was not reinstated, but moderated appliances known as _apremios_—which were sometimes as severe as the rack or the pulley—continued to be used, especially in political offences, by the arbitrary despotism of the Restoration.[1868]

Even France had maintained a conservatism which may seem surprising in that centre of the philosophic speculation of the eighteenth century. Her leading writers had not hesitated to condemn the use of torture. In the _Esprit des Lois_, in 1748, Montesquieu stamped his reprobation on the system with a quiet significance which showed that he had on his side all the great thinkers of the age, and that he felt argument to be mere surplusage.[1869] Voltaire did not allow its absurdities and incongruities to escape. In 1765 he endeavored to arouse public opinion on the case of the Chevalier de la Barre, a youthful officer only twenty years of age, who was tortured and executed on an accusation of having recited a song insulting to Mary Magdalen and of having mutilated with his sword a wooden crucifix on the bridge of Abbeville.[1870] He was more successful in attracting the attention of all Europe to the celebrated _affaire Calas_ which, in 1761, had furnished a notable example of the useless cruelty of the system. In that year, at midnight of Oct. 13th, at Toulouse, the body of Marc-Antoine Calas was found strangled in the back shop of his father. The family were Protestants and the murdered man had given signs of conversion to Catholicism, in imitation of his younger brother. A minute investigation left scarcely a doubt that the murder had been committed by the father, from religious motives, and he was condemned to death. He appealed to the Parlement of Toulouse, which after a patient hearing sentenced him to the wheel, and to the _question ordinaire et extraordinaire_, to extract a confession. He underwent the extremity of torture and the hideous punishment of being broken alive without varying from his protestations of innocence. Though both trials appear to have been conducted with rigorous impartiality, the Protestantism of Europe saw in the affair the evidence of religious persecution, and a fearful outcry was raised. Voltaire, ever on the watch for means to promote toleration and freedom of thought, seized hold of it with tireless energy, and created so strong an agitation on the subject that in 1764 the supreme tribunal at Paris reversed the sentence, discharged the other members of the family, who had been subjected to various punishments, and rehabilitated the memory of Calas.[1871] When Louis XVI., at the opening of his reign, proposed to introduce many long-needed reforms, Voltaire took advantage of the occasion to address to him in 1777 an earnest request to include among them the disuse of torture;[1872] yet it was not until 1780 that the _question préparatoire_ was abolished by a royal edict which, in a few weighty lines, indicated that only the reverence for traditional usage had preserved it so long.[1873] This edict, however, was not strictly obeyed, and cases of the use of torture still occasionally occurred, as that of Marie Tison at Rouen, in 1788, accused of the murder of her husband, when thumb-screws were applied to both thumbs and at the same time she was hoisted in the strappado, in which she was allowed to hang for an hour after the executioner had reported that both shoulders were out of joint, all of which was insufficient to extract a confession.[1874] There evidently was occasion for another ordonnance, which in that same year, 1788, was promulgated in order to insure the observance of the previous one.[1875] In fact, when the States-General was convened in 1879, the _cahier des doléances_ of Valenciennes contained a prayer for the abolition of torture, showing that it had not as yet been discontinued there.[1876] The _question définitive_ or _préalable_, by which the prisoner after condemnation was again tortured to discover his accomplices, still remained until 1788, when it, too, was abolished, at least temporarily. It was pronounced uncertain, cruel to the convict and perplexing to the judge, and, above all, dangerous to the innocent whom the prisoner might name in the extremity of his agony to procure its cessation, and whom he would persist in accusing to preserve himself from its repetition. Yet, with strange inconsistency, the abolition of this cruel wrong was only provisional, and its restoration was threatened in a few years, if the tribunals should deem it necessary.[1877] When those few short years came around they dawned on a new France, from which the old systems had been swept away as by the besom of destruction; and torture as an element of criminal jurisprudence was a thing of the past. By the decree of October 9th, 1789, it was abolished forever.

In Italy, Beccaria, in 1764, took occasion to devote a few pages of his treatise on crimes and punishments to the subject of torture, and its illogical cruelty could not well be exposed with more terseness and force.[1878] It was probably due to the movement excited by this work that in 1786 torture was formally abolished in Tuscany. In this the enlightened Grand-duke Leopold was in advance of his time, and the despots who ruled the divided fractions of the peninsula, although they might be willing to banish torture from ordinary criminal jurisprudence, had too well-grounded a distrust of the fidelity of their subjects to divest themselves of this resource in the suppression of political offences. Hardly had the Bourbons, after the overthrow of Napoleon, been reseated on the throne of the Two Sicilies when the restless dissatisfaction of the people seemed to justify the severest measures for the maintenance of so-called order. The troubles of 1820 led to arming the police with exceptional and summary jurisdiction, under which it deemed itself authorized to employ any methods requisite to detect and punish conspirators. This continued until the revolution of 1848 aggravated the fears of absolutism, and from its suppression until the expedition of Garibaldi the régime of the Neapolitan dominions was an organized Terror. Grave as we have seen were the abuses of torture when systematized in the detection of crime, they were outstripped by the licensed cruelty of the ex-galley slaves of the Neapolitan police, who were restrained by no codes or rules of practice, and were eager to demonstrate their zeal by the number of their victims. The terrible secrets of the dungeons of Naples and Palermo may never see the light, but enough is known to show that they rivalled those of Ezzelin da Romano. Police agents competed in inventing new and hideous modes of inflicting pain. Neither age nor sex was spared. In one case an old man and his daughter, five months gone in pregnancy, died under the lash. If a suspected man took alarm and fled, his mother or his wife and daughters would be tortured to discover his hiding-place. The evil records of the dark ages have nothing to show more brutal and inhuman than the application of torture in Naples and Sicily in the second half of the nineteenth century.[1879]

That the mortal duel between autocracy and Nihilism in Russia should lead to the employment of torture in unravelling the desperate conspiracies of the malcontents is so natural that we may readily accept the current assertions of the fact. The conspirators are said frequently to carry poison in order, if arrested, to save themselves from endless torment and the risk of being forced to betray associates, and the friends of prisoners spare no effort to convey to them some deadly drug by means of which they may escape the infliction. Polish aspirations for liberty are repressed in the same manner, and in 1890 the journal’s recorded the case of Ladislas Guisbert, rendered insane by the prolonged administration of Marsigli’s favorite torment of sleeplessness.

So long as human nature retains its imperfections the baffled impatience of the strong will be apt to wreak its vengeance on the weak and defenceless. As recently as 1867, in Texas, the Jefferson “Times” records a case in which, under the auspices of the military authorities, torture was applied to two negroes suspected of purloining a considerable amount of money which had been lost by a revenue collector. More recently still, in September, 1868, the London journals report fearful barbarities perpetrated by the Postmaster-General of Roumania to trace the authors of a mail robbery. A woman was hung to a beam with hot eggs under the armpits; others were burned with grease and petroleum, while others again were tied by the hair to horses’ tails and dragged through thorn bushes. It must be added that the offending officials were promptly dismissed and committed for trial. A still more recent case is one which has been the subject of legislative discussion in Switzerland, where it appears that in the Canton of Zug, under order of court, a man suspected of theft was put on bread and water from Oct. 26th to Nov. 10th, 1869, to extort confession, and when this failed he was subjected to thumb-screws and beaten with rods.

* * * * *

In casting a retrospective glance over this long history of cruelty and injustice, it is saddening to observe that Christian communities, where the truths of the Gospel were received with unquestioning veneration, systematized the administration of torture with a cold-blooded ferocity unknown to the legislation of the heathen nations whence they derived it. The careful restrictions and safeguards, with which the Roman jurisprudence sought to protect the interests of the accused, contrast strangely with the reckless disregard of every principle of justice which sullies the criminal procedure of Europe from the thirteenth to the nineteenth century. From this no race or religion has been exempt. What the Calvinist suffered in Flanders, he inflicted in Holland; what the Catholic enforced in Italy, he endured in England; nor did either of them deem that he was forfeiting his share in the Divine Evangel of peace on earth and goodwill to men.

The mysteries of the human conscience and of human motives are well-nigh inscrutable, and it may seem shocking to assert that these centuries of unmitigated wrong are indirectly traceable to that religion of which the second great commandment was that man should love his neighbor as himself. Yet so it was. The first commandment, to love God with all our heart, when perverted by superstition, gave a strange direction to the teachings of Christ. For ages, the assumptions of an infallible Church had led men to believe that the interpreter was superior to Scripture. Every expounder of the holy text felt in his inmost heart that he alone, with his fellows, worshipped God as God desired to be worshipped, and that every ritual but his own was an insult to the Divine nature. Outside of his own communion there was no escape from eternal perdition, and the fervor of religious conviction thus made persecution a duty to God and man. This led the Inquisition, as we have seen, to perfect a system of which the iniquity was complete. Thus commended, that system became part and parcel of secular law, and when the Reformation arose the habits of thought which ages had consolidated were universal. The boldest Reformers who shook off the yoke of Rome, as soon as they had attained power, had as little scruple as Rome itself in rendering obligatory their interpretation of divine truth, and in applying to secular as well as to religious affairs the cruel maxims in which they had been educated.

Yet, in the general enlightenment which caused and accompanied the Reformation, there passed away gradually the passions which had created the rigid institutions of the Middle Ages. Those institutions had fulfilled their mission, and the savage tribes that had broken down the worn-out civilization of Rome were at last becoming fitted for a higher civilization than the world had yet seen, wherein the precepts of the Gospel might at length find practical expression and realization. For the first time in the history of man the universal love and charity which lie at the foundation of Christianity are recognized as the elements on which human society should be based. Weak and erring as we are, and still far distant from the ideal of the Saviour, yet are we approaching it, even if our steps are painful and hesitating. In the slow evolution of the centuries, it is only by comparing distant periods that we can mark our progress; but progress nevertheless exists, and future generations, perhaps, may be able to emancipate themselves wholly from the cruel and arbitrary domination of superstition and force.

INDEX.

Aames II., story of, 260

Abbeys, champions of, 197

Abbo of Fleury claims exemption from ordeal for clerics, 414

Abelard and Heloise, legend of, 364

Aben Ezra on water of golden calf, 262

_Abiadiong_, or sorcerer, 254

Abingdon, Abbey of, uses ordeal of chance, 356
the black cross of, 373

Abraham, covenant of, 27
exposed to fire ordeal, 303

Abraham of Freisingen takes ordeal of Eucharist, 348

Absolution for use of torture, 485
secures escape in ordeal, 402

Abuse of the ordeal, 405, 417
of power by judges, 545
of torture under Wisigoths, 461
by modern judges, 539

Accessories of oaths, 29

Accomac County, Va., case of bier-right, 366

Accomplices, the weakest tortured first in Rome, 448
in Spain, 463
in Germany, 543
evidence not used against in Rome, 443, 445
in England, 563
received in Wales, 564
torture to discover, in Inquisition, 484
in France, 515, 517, 584
in Germany, 546
in Denmark, 562
in Massachusetts, 570

Accusation withheld from accused, 514

Accusations, repeated, 45

Accusatorial conjurators, 94
in France, 94
in England, 95
in Béarn, 96
in Germany, 96, 97
in Northern kingdoms, 97
in Vehmgericht, 99

Accusatorial ordeals, 389

Accused (see also _Defendant_),
advantage of compurgation to, 62
allowed to present a warrantor, 121
entitled to duel though guilty, 131
obliged to accept the duel, 140, 141, 143
his right of election, 144
swears to his innocence, 166
allowed choice of weapons, 177
selects the ordeal, 292
obliged to submit to the ordeal, 383
compounding for the ordeal, 384
fined if his adversary escapes in the ordeal, 384
can demand ordeal, 387
counsel denied to, by Inquisition, 486
in France, 517
allowed counsel in Castile, 469
in Germany, 544
hearing allowed him, 518
refused a hearing, 547
entitled to see adverse testimony in Castile, 468
in Italy, 507
in Valtelline, 508
in France, 504, 512
evidence refused him in France, 514
in Germany, 544
held responsible for torture, 532
torture of witnesses against absent, 542
confrontation with accuser, 545
tortured after conviction, 545, 546
absolved by retraction of confession, 550
after acquittal pays expenses, 552
Damhouder’s advice to, 553
not to be chained in England, 565

Accuser (see also _Appellant_, _Plaintiff_),
selects the conjurators, 48, 49
onus of proof on, 74, 272
obliged to accept the duel, 140, 141
not obliged to accept duel, 143
his right to demand duel, 144, 145
allowed choice of weapons, 176
selects the ordeal, 291
fined if accused escapes in the ordeal, 384
defeated, ordeal for, 385
guilty of perjury, 386
can demand ordeal, 386
ordeal for, 389
must be present at ordeal, 405
subject to _talio_ in Rome, 440, 445
under Wisigoths, 459
must inscribe himself in Rome, 440, 446
his responsibility for torture under Wisigoths, 458, 460
relieved of responsibility in inquisitorial process, 513
confrontation with accused, 545

Accusers, limitation of, in China, 122
fire ordeal used by, 305

Achan, case of, 262

Acquittal usual in ordeal, 406
in ordeal, fees for, 416
accused pays expenses after, 552

Adalbert, St., power of his intercession, 377

Adalger at Council of St. Baseul, 395

Adaulfus of Compostella, legend of, 372

Admiralty courts, duel not admitted by, 165

Adrian, his restrictions on torture, 446
his estimate of torture, 446

Adrian II. administers ordeal of Eucharist, 349

Adulteress, escape of, in ordeal, 402, 403

Adultery, accusation of, in Wales, 45
accusation of, in the Koran, 46
compurgation prescribed for, 87
ordeal for, 413
in China, 253
torture for, in Rome, 439, 448
under Wisigoths, 460
torture of partners in, 551
evidence of slave received in Rome, 444

Adurabad, ordeal of, 267

Advocates, use of, 70
exempt from torture in Castile, 467
must testify against clients in witch-trials, 555
of churches, 198

Advowson, origin of, 198

_Æneum_, 278

_Affaire Calas_, 584

_Afia-ibnot-idiok_, 254

_Afia-edet-ibom_, 254

Africa, ordeals in, 254

Agde, council of, in 508, condemns the _sortes sanctorum_, 354

Age, compurgation as privilege of, 57
minimum, liable to duel, 141
subject to torture in Rome, 446
in Spain, 463, 466
in Germany, 527
advanced, exempted in Germany, 527

Agobard, St., denounces the duel, 206
on confusion of laws, 275
his tracts against ordeals, 409
cold-water ordeal unknown to, 321

Ahyto, Bishop, prescribes the ordeal, 409

Ainos of Japan, duel among, 108
ordeals used by, 253

Aix-la-Chapelle, merchants exempt from duel, 204
council of, 816, prohibits ordeal of cross, 338

Alamanni, Laws of—
selection of compurgators, 43
compurgation for murder, 52
formula of compurgation, 60
perjury of compurgators, 63
judicial duel in, 113, 119
fine for defeated combatant, 167
kinsmen as champions, 180

Albenga, conviction by ordeal at, 418

Albero of Mercke, ordeal refused to, 418

Albert I. substitutes compurgation for the duel, 81

Albertus de Gandino, his work on torture, 525

Albertus Magnus, his recipe against fire, 408

Alby, Council of, 1254, denies counsel to accused, 487

Alcalá, Ordenamiento de, on the duel, 216

Alexander I. (Pseudo) on extorted confessions, 478

Alexander II. forbids ordeal of Eucharist, 369
denounces the ordeal, 414

Alexander III. forbids duel to clerics, 156, 207
on extortion in ordeals, 417
prohibits the ordeal, 417
secures confession by deceit, 559

Alexander I. (Scotland), his charter to Scone, 162

Alexander II. (Scotland) on use of champions, 192
restricts ordeals, 421

Alexander the slave, his torture, 447

Alexander of Constantinople, case of, 379

Alexis Mikhailovich abrogates the duel, 239

Alfin, his duel with Olaf Trygvesson, 115

Alfonso VI. (Castile) introduces Roman ritual, 132

Alfonso VII. undergoes compurgation, 67

Alfonso X. introduces the _jure de juicio_, 22
rejects negative proofs, 74, 425
his charter to Treviño, 202, 424
restricts the duel, 214
his regulation of torture, 462

Alfonso XI. allows accused to see testimony, 468
duel ordered by, 215
his regulations of the duel, 216

Aliprandus of Milan on punishment of conjurators, 64

_Alltud_, 39

Alphonse of Poitiers, his charter to Riom, 203
to Auzon, 490

Alsace, cold-water ordeal for slaves, 322

Altars, oaths on, 28

Alternative numbers of conjurators, 43

Altoviti and Gaddi, duel of, 236

_Althing_, or Icelandic assembly, 18

Ambassadors, champions necessary to, 129

America, appeal of death in, 246
compurgation in, 88
bier-right in, 366
torture in, 569
_peine forte et dure_ in, 575

Amiens, bailli of, compurgation prescribed for, 77
duel restricted in, 201
nobles of, claim the duel, 227
torture of clerics in, 491

Amsterdam deprived of its headsman, 536
exile for retracted confession, 549
use of torture in 1803, 578

Amula of Modena, story of, 293

Andernach, battle of, 400

André de Trahent, case of, 397

Andreas of Lunden regulates fees for ordeal, 416

Andres, founding of abbey of, 316

Andrew, St., his lance tested by ordeal, 308

Angelo da Chiavasco describes compurgation, 92
his allusion to ordeals, 425

Angli & Werini, laws of—
judicial duel in, 114
limit of duel, 147
kinsmen as champions, 180
ordeal of red-hot iron, 291

Anglican Church, compurgation in, 93

Anglo-Saxons, compurgation for injuries, 17
classification of oaths, 24
reduplicated oaths, 28
rules for compurgation, 46, 48
_juramentum supermortuum_, 55
oath of compurgators, 58
_overcythed_, 61
_forath_, 95
judicial duel not used, 114
ordeals in suits with Welsh, 276
use of hot-water ordeal, 283
of red-hot iron ordeal, 287
accuser selects the ordeal, 291
the dead cleared by ordeal, 294
formula for cold-water ordeal, 318
use of cold-water ordeal, 322
triple ordeal for sorcery, 326
corsnæd for clerics, 341
Eucharist for clerics, 348
ordeal of the lot, 353
enforcement of ordeal, 383
compounding for the ordeal, 384
accuser can demand ordeal, 386
ordeal for all suspects, 489
in failure of compurgation, 390
for perjurers and convicts, 392
prevention of collusion in ordeal, 405

Anjou, hired champions allowed, 193

Anselm and the sacred vessels of Laon, 136, 324, 474

_Antejuramentum_, 95

Antioche, Assises d’, 143

Antonino, St., his allusion to ordeals, 425

Antoninus Pius orders torture of slaves in civil suits, 441
rejects evidence of accomplices, 445

Antrustions, hot-water ordeal for, 323

Apollonius of Tyana, his power, 447

Appeal of death, 242
in Massachusetts, 245
in Maryland, 247
abolished, 246

Appeals determined by duel, 123
from feudal courts, 473
denied to villeins, 491
from sentence of torture in Castile, 465, 467
in France, 514
in Germany, 545
refused, 547
from conviction, torture to prevent 546
after conviction, torture to prevent, 552

Appellant (see also _Accuser_).
selects conjurators, 48, 49
his right to demand duel, 144
swears to justice of his cause, 166
punishment of defeated, 167
for default, 173
allowed choice of weapons, 176
use of champions by, 181

Approvers, 175, 243

_Apremios_, 583

Aquitaine, torture resisted in, 498

Aquinas on duel and ordeal, 209

_Ara maxima_, the, 27

Arabs, ordeal among the, 264

Aragon, limit of value for duel, 148
duels between Christians and Saracens forbidden, 151
duel prohibited, 214
bier-right in, 366
ordeals prohibited, 424
torture restricted in, 462, 469

Arcadius and Honorius on exemption of decurions, 438

Arckel, Jan van, his duel, 104

Ardennes, ordeal of staff in, 397

Arducius, Bishop of Geneva, 162

Arezzo, Bishop of, grants the duel, 161
admits champions in a duel, 189

Argenton, Seigneur d’, subjected to torture, 499

Argentré, Bertrand d’, accepts bier-right, 366
on preliminary proof, 515

Arian, ordeal to convert an, 296
defeated by hot-water ordeal, 279
worsted by fire ordeal, 304
relics tested by fire, 315

Aristogiton, torture of, 433

Aristotle quoted for bier-right, 359

Arius, death of, 379

Armagnac, Count of, his duel, 222
challenges Foix, 225

Arms of witnesses blessed at altar, 120
choice of, in duel, 176
coats of, duels concerning, 105

Arnoul of Flanders offers the ordeal, 294

Arnoul, St., his relics tested with fire, 316

Arnustus, his death, 343

Arques, punishment of murder in, 13
restriction on duel in, 203

Arras, ordeal of fire at, 310
Bishop of, uses ordeal for heretics, 411
council of, 1025, tortures heretics, 474

Aryans, social organization of, 13
the duel a custom of, 108
ordeal among, 265
use of torture among, 431, 432

Ashantee, poison ordeal in, 255

Ashford _vs._ Thornton, case of, 246

Askew, Ann, torture of, 568

Aspres, customs of, 19

Assizes of Clarendon order cold-water ordeal, 322, 388, 400

Assyria, use of imprecations in, 260
use of torture in, 430

Astesanus on oaths, 30
condemns the ordeal system, 420

Astin of Wispington, case of, 389

Astyages, his use of torture, 431

Atharva Veda, allusion to ordeals in, 267

_Athia_, 147

Atto of Vercelli objects to compurgation, 37
denounces the duel, 128
on clerical liability to duel, 155, 157

Audefroy le Bâtard, ballad by, 68

Augsburg, duel in 1409, 172

Augustin, St., on oaths on relics, 31, 372
favors the lot, 352
condemns torture, 477, 576

Augustus tortures Q. Gallius, 435
his opinion of torture-evidence, 441

Ausch, Council of, 1068, confirms the ordeal, 410

Australia, duel among aborigines, 108

Austria, case of bier-right in, 364
torture of page of Richard I., 474
abolition of torture, 580
Dukes of, allowed champions, 134

Auxerre, relics of St. Martin at, 380

Auzon, charter of, exempts from torture, 490

_Avantparlier_, 70

Aventinus on judgment of God, 102, 426

Avesta, responsibility of kindred in, 14
ordeal prescribed by the, 265

Avitus, St., denounces the duel, 206, 409
his dispute with the Arians, 379

_Avoués_ of churches, 198

Ayesha accused of adultery, 46

Aymar, Jacques, 427

Aztecs, oath ordeal among, 259

Bacon, Francis, recommends torture, 568

Bacon, Roger, admits virtue in ordeals, 424

Baden, torture abolished, 581

Baglioni, lord of Spello, grants the duel, 236

_Bahr-recht_, 359

Bail required of combatants, 173
liability of, 174

Baioarian law—
admission of compurgation, 53
witnesses and conjurators, 62
accusatorial conjurators, 94
challenge of witness, 103
judicial duel, 113, 119
minimum limit for duel, 147
champions always used, 181
use of ordeal, 274
torture of slaves, 452

Bajazet, his method of investigation, 576

Balance, ordeal of, 334
used in witchcraft cases, 335

Balbás, Fuero of, compurgation in, 34, 49

Bâle, council of, denounces abuse of oaths, 23

Baldus de Periglis, his work on torture, 525

Baldwin VII. (Flanders) his charter to Ypres, 48, 201

Bands of iron used as an ordeal, 377

Banishment after success in ordeal, 401

Bankruptcy cases, torture used in, 530

Baptista de Saulis describes compurgation, 93
his allusion to ordeals, 425

Barbarian laws, personal not territorial, 131, 275, 453
rest on negative proofs, 73
accusatorial conjurators, 94
judicial duel, 112
use of champions, 180
ordeal of the lot, 353
no trace of bier-right, 359
use of torture, 449
corporal punishment unknown, 451
torture of slaves, 451

Barbarians, the, their jurisprudence, 16
lack of confidence in oaths, 24
universal use of compurgation, 34
general use of ordeal, 275
cold-water ordeal not used, 320

Barberousse punished for suspicion, 521

Barcelona, council of 599, prescribes the lot, 355

Bari exempted from duel and ordeal, 201

Barker, Janet, case of, 571

Barriller and Carrington, duel of, 231

Bastards, their right to the duel, 140

Battle, Wager of, 101

Battoon, the, for duels, 176

Bavaria, torture in, 473
torture abolished, 581

Bavarian house of Guelf, founding of, 133

Bayle, Peter, condemns torture, 577

Béarn, selection of compurgators, 51
formula of compurgation, 58
compurgation retained, 79
accusatorial conjurators, 96
duel between prince and subject, 135
limitations on duel, 145
penalty for defeat in duel, 168
for default in duel, 174, 233
use of champions, 194
duel legal till 1789, 232
hot-water ordeal, 283
red-hot iron ordeal, 295
cold-water ordeal, 323
torture not used in, 487

Beaulieu, Abbey of, its jurisdiction, 161

Beaumanoir, silence as to compurgation, 75
limitations on duel, 140
on punishment of defeated champion, 185
his opinion of the duel, 221
rejects negative proofs, 74
no reference to torture, 488

Beauvais, champion of, 196

Beccaria on torture, 516, 546, 549, 586

Belfast, relic of St. Patrick at, 374

Belgium, witches tried by ordeal in 1815, 323

Belief, compurgators only swear to, 71

Benares, ordeal in 1783, 284, 290

Bera and Sanila, duel of, 117
opposition excited by it, 206

Berkeley, Abbey of, 40

Bermuda, compurgation in, 87

Bernard, St., on study of Roman law, 73

Bernard, St.—
approves of ordeal for heretics, 410

Bernard Gui complains of restrictions on torture, 511

Bernard of Italy, his rebellion, 470

Bernard VI. of Armagnac, 203

Bernhardi, Martin, opposes torture, 577

Berthaut Lestalon, case of, 501

Bertin, St., power of his intercession, 378

Bertrand, St., of Comminges, his improvised ordeals, 285, 374

Bertulf of Bruges, case of, 152

Béziers, council of, 1255, 490

Bible and key, ordeal of, 357

Bibliomancy, 335

Bier-right, 359
explanations of it, 369
weight of its evidence, 370
influence of imagination, 396

Biers placed in the lists, 172

Bignon, Jerome, on cold-water ordeal for witchcraft, 330

Bigorre, conjurators in, 43
exemption of widows from duel, 146
hired champions, 195
duel not obligatory, 202
profits of ordeals, 415

Bilateral ordeals, 249
ordeal of cross, 336
in Tibet, 269

Binsfeld on cold-water ordeal in witchcraft, 327

Bishops, oaths taken on hand of, 30
number of conjurators for, 43
select compurgators for clerics, 51
decree duels in their courts, 162
selected by the lot, 355
fitness determined by ordeal, 410
their profits from ordeals, 416
their unrestricted power to torture, 511
Spanish, their privilege in swearing, 36

Bitter water, ordeal of, 262

Blind, the, torture of, 528

Blois, assembly of notables in 1498, 513

Blondel, Geoffrey, a salaried champion, 196

Blood swallowed as an ordeal in India, 258
in Greece, 270

Blood-money (see _Wer-gild_).

Bobenzan, Dr., his torture, 526

Boccaccio’s story of Calendrino, 341

Boden, von, opposes abuses of torture, 577

Bodin on cold-water ordeal in witchcraft, 327
urges punishment for suspicion, 519
approves deceit in witch-trials, 559

Boguet complains of uselessness of torture, 558
disapproves deceit in witch-trials, 559

Bohemia, judicial duel used, 110
duels of women, 153
universal use of ordeals, 274
iron bands to punish fratricide, 377
compounding for the ordeal, 384
ordeal for all suspects, 388
in prohibited marriages, 410
fees for ordeals, 416
use of torture, 473, 476

Bohemian Brethren use the lot, 355

Bologna, regulation of champions, 195
torture in cases involving fines, 529

Bones, bleeding, murder revealed by, 364

Boniface, St., on perjury of compurgators, 63

Boniface converts Russia by an ordeal, 310

Bonifazio de’ Vitaliani, his work on torture, 525

Bonuszeno of Soavo, 196

Books tested by fire ordeal, 313, 314

Boot, torture of, 573

Bordeaux, oath of plaintiff in, 98
bier-right in, 366
torture resisted in, 498

Borneo, ordeals in, 257

_Borru_, ordeal of, 256

Bothwell, his offers of the duel, 240

Bourbons of Naples, their use of torture, 587

Bourges, torture of Jews in, 492

Bourges, Nicholas, case of, 492

Bowgas, Margery, cleared by compurgation, 92

Boys with greased boots detect witches, 539

Bracton on use of compurgators, 71, 84
ordeals obsolete in his time, 421
knows nothing of torture, 564

Brahm, F. M., on water ordeal for witches, 331

Brahman caste, oaths prescribed for, 25
hot-water ordeal for, 284
ordeal of balance for, 334
their presence required at ordeals, 269, 280

Brant, N., water ordeal for witches, 331

Bread and cheese, ordeal of, 339

Brehons, inspiration of, 272

Bribes in ordeal, 406

Brice, St., his ordeal, 304

Bridewell, the, torture used in, 569

Britanny, accusatorial conjurators in, 99
duel permitted till 1539, 231
bier-right in, 366
charter of 1315, 495
use of torture, 504
responsibility of judges for torture, 515

Brothers, duel between, 141, 218

Brown and Hepburn, duel of, 240

Bruchsal, torture in prison of, 582

Bruges, duel prohibited in, 203
ordeal at choice of accused, 387
for convicts, 392
witch-trial in, 567

Bruntfield and Carmichael, duel of, 240

Brunnemann on facilities for defence, 547

Brzetislas, ordeal in his laws, 274

Buda, Council of, 1279, prohibits ordeals, 423

Buddha, his relic tested by fire, 314

Buddhism, its influence in China, 252
accepts the ordeal, 269

Bulgaria, survival of the duel, 239
use of torture in, 478

Bull’s blood, ordeal of, 270

Burchard, Bishop of Chartres, subjected to ordeal, 410

Burckardt of Worms on the ordeal, 392, 410

Burgmeister on water ordeal for witches, 329, 331

Burgundian law, kindred as compurgators, 50
judicial duel, 112, 119
champions unusual, 181
witnesses must be of same race, 275
torture of slaves, 451

Burgundy, nobles of, claim the duel, 227
duel abolished by Philippe le Bon, 231
ordeal for witches in 17th century, 331
bier-right in, 366
charter of, 1315, 495

Burial alive, women punished by, 153, 503

Burke defends the appeal of death, 246

Burning for refusal of ordeal, 411

Burnt Njal, saga of, 17

Byzantine Empire, ordeal used in, 277, 299, 304, 313

_Cacabus_, 278

Cachielawis, torture of, 573

Cadiz, Córtes of, abolishes torture, 583

Cæsarism, extension of torture by, 435

Cæesarius of Heisterbach, his theory of ordeal, 402
on ordeal for heretics, 411

Cæsarius of Königswinter, case of, 374

Cagots as conjurators, 43

Cain and Abel, their duel, 107

Calas, case of, 584

_Caldaria_, 278

Calendrino, story of, 341

Caligula, his relish for torture, 436

Calixtus II. approves of ordeal, 412

Cambrai, heretics convicted by ordeal, 297

Campetti, his use of divining-rod, 428

Campion, Jesuit, his torture, 569

Canon law on perjury, 30
adopts compurgation for heretics, 36

Canonical compurgation, 33

Canute, his laws on compurgation, 48

Cappadocians hardened to torture, 558

Caracalla allows torture for poisoning, 439
of slaves in adultery cases, 444

Caraffa, Cardinal, his trial, 541

Cardigan, holy taper of, 32

Cardone, Raymond de, challenges Armagnac, 225

Carena on bier-right, 359
his explanation of it, 369

Carlovingian law—
selection of compurgators, 50
admission of compurgation, 53
punishment of compurgators, 64
accusatorial conjurators, 95
judicial duel proscribed, 113, 118
challenging of witnesses, 120
liability of ecclesiastics, 155
penalty for defeat in duel, 167
for defeated champion, 184
robbers not to serve as champions, 186
reliance on judgment of God, 250
red-hot iron ordeal, 291
cold-water ordeal, 322
ordeal of cross, 336
in failure of compurgation, 390
for ill-repute, 392
as a punishment, 393
confidence reposed in the ordeal, 399
use of chrism in ordeal, 407
of torture, 469

Carlos, Don, his torture, 468

Carmichael and Brentfield, duel of, 240

Caroline Constitutions, torture in, 522
adopted in 1532, 524

Carpzov on the evidence of bier-right, 370
denies appeal from sentence of torture, 545

Carrington and Bariller, duel of, 231

Carrouges and le Gris, duel of, 229

Carter, Paul, bier-right in case of, 366

Casimir III. (Poland) regulates compurgation, 83
forbids inquisitorial process, 509

Casimir IV. (Poland) restricts compurgation, 83

Castelnau, Sire de, offers the duel, 233

Castile, purgatorial oaths, 24
compurgation in, 80
Mozarabic rite defended by duel, 132
by fire ordeal, 313
duels only permitted between gentlemen, 151
use of champions restricted, 195
duel restricted, 214
bier-right, 366
ordeals prohibited, 424
use of torture in, 462

Catalonia, limitation on duels, 146
Truce of God enforced by the ordeal, 323

Cathari, ordeal used to convict, 411

Catherine II. restricts torture, 581

Catholics tortured under Elizabeth, 568

Cats, use of, in torture, 554

Caussade, Raymond de, challenged by Thomas Felton, 229

Caussois, Gervaise, case of, 501

Cautinus of Auvergne uses ordeal of Eucharist, 348

Celestin III. on perjury of compurgators, 64
forbids clerical duels, 158, 207

Celtiberians, judicial duel among, 108

Celts, solidarity of the family among, 15
judicial duel among, 108
ordeals used by, 272, 273

Cemeteries, duels forbidden in, 209

Centulla I., his charter to Lourdes, 202

Centulla IV., employs the ordeal, 295

Ceremonial of compurgation, 60

Calchuth, council of, condemns the lot, 353

Chaldea, use of imprecations in, 260

Challenging of witnesses, 103, 120
of judges, 123

Champagne, nobles of, claim the duel, 227
cold-water ordeal for witchcraft, 330
resistance to torture, 496

Champion of England, the, 134

Champions, 179
put forward as warrantors, 121
denied to witnesses, 121
of ambassadors, 129
allowed to Dukes of Austria, 134
used to convict thieves, 135
oath of, 139
in duels of different ranks, 150
supplied by the State, 152
allowed to clerics, 157
defeated, penalties of, 168, 184
as witnesses, 182
disabilities incurred by, 187
restrictions on their employment, 189
hiring of, 190, 193
equalization of, 194
of towns, 196
of churches, 197
in ordeals, 295, 337, 390, 398, 400

Chance in selection of compurgators, 49
ordeal of, 352
in China, 253
in Borneo, 257
in Rajmahal, 259

Charlemagne tries Leo III., 35
on number of conjurators, 43
urges use of judicial duel, 118
prohibits duel between his heirs, 127
his duel with Witikind, 130
cold-water ordeal ascribed to, 321
favors ordeal of cross, 337
on iron bands for parricide, 378
his confidence in the ordeal, 399
on use of chrism in ordeal, 407
orders buildings for the _mallum_, 471
torture for sorcerers, 470

Charles le Chauve attacks Louis of Saxony, 400

Charles IV. (Emp.) interferes with duels of Bishop of Liége, 160
his charter to Worms, 205
torture in his Golden Bull, 504

Charles V. (Emp.) prescribes compurgation, 81
challenges Francis I., 106
duel ordered by, 216
on sentences of torture, 467
his laws on torture, 522

Charles V. (France) alludes to compurgation, 77

Charles VI. (Fr.) limits the duel, 230
admits women as witnesses, 228

Charles IX. (France), edict against duels, 104, 235

Charles I. (England) tries to prevent duel, 244

Charles XI. (Sweden) restricts compurgation, 83

Charles of Anjou challenges Pedro of Aragon, 105
prohibits the ordeal, 422

Charles de Valois, his use of torture, 494

Charles the Good, of Flanders, his murder, 152, 474

Charles the Bold tries to prevent duel, 232

Charms forbidden in duels, 139
in ordeals, 407
use of, against torture, 556, 557

Charteris and Douglass, duel of, 239

Charters exempting from duel, 200
of prelates granting jurisdiction of ordeal, 412

Chartres, council of, sanctions ordeal, 412

Chassanée accepts bier-right, 366

Chastity tested by fire ordeal, 304

Chateaudun, church of, its interest in ordeals, 415

Château-Neuf, case of torture in, 493

Châtelet of Paris, its use of torture, 493, 500

Cheese, ordeal of, 339

_Cherleman_, 47

_Cherreen_, ordeal of, 259

Children, responsibility for, 20
as substitutes in ordeals, 398
their evidence received in witch-trials, 554
not subject to torture in Rome, 446
in Spain, 463, 466
in Germany, 527

Chimpanzee skull used in ordeal, 254

China, redemption of punishment, 122
freedom from superstition, 251
torture not used, 431

Chindaswind prohibits Roman law among Goths, 458
his regulation of torture, 460

Chivalry, duels of, 242

Choice of conjurators made by sheriff, 48
by plaintiff, 48, 49
by court, 49
by judge, 51
by defendant, 57
of weapons in duel, 176

Chrism, use of, in ordeal, 407

Christ, his swaddling-cloth tested by fire, 315

Christian burial, ordeal prerequisite to, 412

Christianity, its influence on torture in Rome, 444

Christians, their torture in Rome, 436

Christiern IV. abolishes compurgation, 82

Christiern V. prohibits compurgation, 82
restricts use of torture, 562

Church, the, supersedes family ties, 19, 35
favors the use of oaths, 22
its teachings as to perjury, 30
its profits in administering oaths, 32
adopts compurgation, 35
degree of confidence in compurgation, 61
it modifies the compurgatorial oath, 71
disabilities imposed on women, 122
deprived of exemption from duel, 131
its secular jurisdiction, 161
its champions, 197
its opposition to duel, 206
its perplexities as to the duel, 211
influence in favor of ordeal, 276
does not favor the lot, 352
its relations with the ordeal, 408, 409
its opposition to the papacy, 415
its condemnation of torture, 471, 477
extorted confession invalid, 478
adopts use of torture for heresy, 484
adopts the _talio_, 169, 513

Churches, oaths taken in, 29
champions of, 197
local, their interest in ordeals, 415

Cicero, his estimate of torture, 447

Cid, the, requires compurgation of Alfonso VI., 68

Ciruelo on Eucharist ordeal, 351
his theory of ordeals, 403

_Cin_, 18

Citizenship in Rome, 440

Civil cases, champions required for, 192, 193
ordeal in, 385
lack of testimony requisite for ordeal, 387
torture of slaves in, 433, 441
torture used in, 530

Clarendon, Assizes of, ordeal for all suspects, 388
disbelief in ordeal, 400

Class-privileges as to oaths, 24
in compurgation, 57

Claudia Quinta, her ordeal, 271

Claudius, his relish for torture, 436
swears not to torture freemen, 439

Claxton _vs._ Lilburn, case of, 244

Clement III. forbids clerics to fight, 156

Clement V. forces torture of Templars, 511

Clergy, the, sustain the ordeal, 417

Clerics, their _wer-gild_, 20
purgatorial power of their oaths, 22
oaths administered by, 30
their claim of disculpatory oaths, 36
not allowed to select compurgators, 47
compurgators for, 51
their evidence decisive in Wales, 55
not to serve as advocates, 73
Irish, their use of the duel, 109
not received as witnesses, 122
duel unfitted for, 128
subject to duel by Otho II., 131
their liability to the duel, 155
they fight personally, 156
champions allowed them, 157
dispensations for fighting duels, 160
exempted from secular laws, 161
forbidden the duel, 207
ordeal of corsnæd for, 342
ordeal of Eucharist for, 348
shaving reserved for, 403
they uphold the ordeal, 409
ordeal specially for, 412
exempted from the ordeal, 414
relieved from ordeals and duels, 415
subject to torture in Rome, 438
exempted from torture in Castile, 467
in France, 491
their presence forbidden at torture, 471, 475
use of torture renders them irregular, 484
their exemption from torture limited, 527
tortured in England, 566

_Clog Oir_, the, 397

Clotair II., his legitimacy proved, 39
prevents collusion in ordeal, 405

Clovis and the vase of Soissons, 450

Club, the, for duels, 176

Coblentz, council of, on conjurators, 43

Cobra used as an ordeal, 376

Cock used in ordeal, 256

Coke, Sir Edward, on use of torture, 567

Coke, Sir Thomas, his torture, 566

Colbert refuses counsel to accused, 517

Cold-water ordeal, its process, 318
its use in India, 319
its introduction in Europe, 321
a patrician or plebeian ordeal, 322
used in witchcraft cases, 325
in cases of heresy, 410
abuse of women, 417

_Collaudantes_ (see _Conjurators_).

Collusion in the ordeal, 405

Coloman, King, regulates privilege of ordeals, 415

Colville, Sir Thomas, 197

Combat, Trial by, 101

Commerce, its influence on the duel, 204