Chapter X: Decline of the Torture System (6)

[682] L. Burgorum, c. 14, 15 (Skene).

[683] Warnkönig, Hist. de la Flandre, IV. 129.

[684] In omni mercato Flandriæ si quis clamorem adversus eos suscitaverit, judicium scabinorum de omni clamore sine duello subeant; ab duello vero ulterius liberi sint.—Warnkönig. Hist. de la Flandre, II. 411.

[685] Nemo mercatorem de Flandria duello provocabit (Ibid. II. 426).

[686] Traité de 1228, art. 3 (Esneaux, Hist. de Russie, II. 272).

[687] Belitz de Duellis Germanorum, p. 9. Vitembergæ, 1717.

[688] Constit. Frid II. de Jur. Norimb. § 4 (Goldast. Constit. Imp. I. 291).

[689] Sachsische Weichbild, Art. xxxv. lxxii. lxxxi.-lxxxiv. lxxxix. xc. xcii. cxiv.

[690] Henke, Gesch. des Deut. Peinlichen Rechts I. 192 (Du Boys, op. cit. II. 590).

[691] Goldast. op. cit. I. 314.

[692] Jur. Cæsar. P. IV. cap. i. (Senckenberg Corp. Jur. German. I. 118). This portion of the Kayser-Recht is probably therefore posterior to the rise of the Hapsburg dynasty.

[693] Belitz de Duel. German. p. 11.

[694] Jura Primæva Moraviæ, Brunæ, 1781, pp. 33, 102.

[695] “Liber adversus Legem Gundobadi” and “Liber contra Judicium Dei” (Agobardi Opp. Ed. Baluz I. 107, 301). Both of these works display marked ability, and a spirit of enlightened piety, mingled with frequent absurdities which show that Agobard could not in all things rise superior to his age. One of his favorite arguments is that the battle ordeal was approved by the Arian heretic Gundobald, whom he stigmatizes as “quidam superbus ac stultus hæreticus Gundobadus Burgundionum rex.”

[696] Concil. Valentin. ann. 855 can. 12.

[697] C. 22 Decreti caus. II. q. v.

[698] Pet. Cantor. Verb. Abbrev. cap. LXXVIII.

[699] C. 1 Extra Lib. V. Tit. xiv.

[700] C. 2 Ibid.

[701] Innocent. PP. III. Regest. XI. 64—Verum quoniam hujusmodi duellorum judicia juxta pravam quarundam consuetudinem regionum non solum a laicis seu clericis in minoribus ordinibus constitutis, sed etiam a majoribus ecclesiarum prælatis consueverunt, prout multorum assertione didicimus, exerceri.

[702] Concil. Lateranens. IV. can. 18.

[703] Consuetud. S. Montisfortis (Contre le Franc-Alleu sans Tiltre, p. 229).

[704] Concil. Parisiens. ann. 1212, P. IV. c. xv. (Harduin. vi. ii. 2017).

[705] S. Raymundi Summæ Lib. II. Tit. iii.—Cardinal Henry of Susa is equally uncompromising—Hostiensis Aureæ Summæ Lib. V. Tit. _De Cler. pugnant._

[706] Alexandri de Ales Summæ P. III. Q. xlvi. Membr. 3.

[707] Sec. Sec. Q. 95 art. 8.

[708] Wilhelmi Egmond. Chron. (Matthæi Analect. IV. 231). Proost (Législation des Jugements de Dieu, p. 16) gives this story, with some variations, as occurring at Mons, and states that the duel was authorized by no less a personage than Pope John XXII. Cornelius Zantfliet in his Chronicle (Martene Ampl. Collect. V. 182) locates it at Cambron in Hainault, and states that the Jew was a favorite of William Count of Hainault. Mr. Neilson informs me that Olivier de la Marche likewise adopts Cambron as the scene of the occurrence. The tale apparently was one which obtained wide currency.

[709] In 1374 Gregory XI. when condemning the Sachsenspiegel laid especial stress on the passages in which the judicial duel was prescribed (Sachsenspiegel, ed. Ludovici, 1720, p. 619). As late as 1492, the Synod of Schwerin promulgated a canon prohibiting Christian burial to those who fell in the duel or in tournaments.—Synod. Swerin. ann. 1492, Can. xxiv. (Hartzheim Concil. German. V. 647).

[710] “Et si Deus adest nonne nefas est habendo justitiam succumbere posse?... Et si justitia in duello succumbere nequit, nonne de jure acquiritur quod per duellum acquiritur?... stultum enim est valde vires quas Deo comfortat inferiores in pugile suspicari.”—De Monarchia II. 10 (Patetta, Le Ordalie, p. 415).

[711] Joh. Friburgens. Summæ Confessorum Lib. II. Tit. iii. Q. 3-5.

[712] Constit. Sicular. Lib. II. Tit. xxxii. xxxiii.—“Non tam vera probatio quam quædam divinatio ... quæ naturæ non consonans, a jure communi deviat, æquitatis rationibus non consentit.” Cf. Lib. I. Tit. xxi. cap. 2.

[713] Cum viderit innocentes in duello succubuisse, et sontes contra in sua iniustitia nihilominus victoriam obtinuisse. Et ideo in jura imperii scriptum est, ubi duo ex more in duellum procedunt, hoc non pertinet ad imperium.—Jur. Cæsar. P. II. c. 70 (Senckenberg I. 54).

[714] Quilibet sciat imperatorem jussisse ut nemo alterum ad duellum provocet.... Nemo enim unquam fortiores provocari vidit, sed semper debiliores, et fortiores semper triumpharunt.—Ibid. P. IV. cap. 19.

[715] Rudolphi I. Privileg. (Ludewig. Reliq. MSS. T. IV. p. 260).

[716] Goldast. Constitt. Imp. III. 446.

[717] Malleus Maleficar. Francof. 1580, pp. 527-9.

[718] Villanueva, Viage Literario, XXII. 288.

[719] Los sabios antiguos que ficieron las leyes non lo tovieron por derecha prueba; ed esto por dos razones; la una porque muchas vegadas acaesce que en tales lides pierde la verdat e vence la mentira; la otra porque aquel que ha voluntad de se adventurar á esta prueba semeja que quiere tentar á Dios nuestro señor.—Partidas, P. III. Tit. xiv. l. 8.

[720] Ibid. P. VII. Tit. iii. l. 2, 3. According to Montalvo’s edition of the Partidas (Sevilla, 1491), these laws were still in force under Ferdinand and Isabella.

[721] Tres dias débese acordar al reptado para escoger una de las tres maneras que desuso dixiemos, qual mas quisiere porque se libre el pleyto. ... ca el re nin su corte non han de mandar lidiar por riepto.—Ibid. P. VII. Tit. iii. l. 4. Some changes were introduced in these details by subsequent ordinances.

[722] Muera quito del riepto; ca razon es que sea quito quien defendiendo la verdad recibió muerte.—Ibid. P. VII. Tit. iv. l. 4.

[723] Crónica de Alfonso el Onceno, cap. CCLXII.

[724] Ordenamiento de Alcalá, Tit. XXXII. ll. vii.-xi. See also the Ordenanzas Reales of 1480, Lib. IV. Tit. ix.

[725] Meyer, Institutions Judiciaires, I. 337.

[726] Nous deffendons à tous les batailles par tout nostre demengne, més nous n’ostons mie les clains, les respons, les convenants, etc.... fors que nous ostons les batailles, et en lieu des batailles nous meton prueves de tesmoins, et si n’oston pas les autres bones prueves et loyaux, qui ont esté en court laye siques à ore.—Isambert, I. 284.

Laurière (Tabl. des Ordonn. p. 17) alludes to an edict to the same purport, under date of 1240, of which I can nowhere else find a trace. There is no reference to it in the Tables des Ordonnances of Pardessus (Paris, 1847).

It is a curious illustration of the fluctuating policy of the contest that in his struggle to enforce the supremacy of the royal jurisdiction as against the prelates of the province of Reims, one of the complaints of the bishops at the Council of Saint-Quentin in 1235 is that he forced ecclesiastics in his court to prove by the duel their rights over their serfs—“Item, supplicat concilium quod dominus rex non compellat personas ecclesiasticas probare per duellum in curia sua homines quos dicunt suos esse de corpore suo” (Harduin. VII. 259).

[727] Se ce est hors l’obeissance le Roy, gage de bataille (Étab. de St. Louis, Liv. II. chap. xi. xxix. xxxviii.). Beaumanoir repeats it, a quarter of a century later, in the most precise terms, “Car tout cil qui ont justice en le conté poent maintenir lor cort, s’il lor plest, selonc l’ancienne coustume; et s’il lor plest il le poent tenir selonc l’establissement le Roy” (Cout. du Beauv. cap xxxix. § 21). And again, “Car quant li rois Loïs les osta de sa cort il ne les osta pas des cours à ses barons” (Cap. LXI. § 15).

[728] Liv. I. chap. xxvii. xci. cxiii. etc. This is so entirely at variance with the general belief, and militates so strongly with the opening assertion of the Établissements (Ordonn. of 1260) that I should observe that in the chapters referred to the direction for the combat is absolute; no alternative is provided, and there is no allusion to any difference of practice prevailing in the royal courts and in those of the barons, such as may be seen in other passages (Liv. I. chap. xxxviii. lxxxi. cxi. etc.). Yet in a charter of 1263, Louis alludes to his having interdicted the duel in the domains of the crown in the most absolute manner.—“Sed quia duellum perpetuo de nostris domaniis duximus amovendum” (Actes du Parlement de Paris No. 818 A. T. I. p. 75, Paris, 1863).

[729] Établissements Liv. I. chap. clxvii.

[730] Jur. Provin. Alamann. cap. CLXXI. §§ 10, 11, 12.

[731] Pilori, échelle, carquant, et peintures de champions combattans sont marques de haute justice.—Instit. Coutum. Liv. II. Tit. ii. Règle 47.

[732] Beaumanoir, op. cit. chap. LXI. §§ 11, 12, 13.

In Normandy, these advantages were enjoyed by all seigneurs justiciers. “Tuit chevalier et tuit sergent ont en leurs terres leur justice de bataille en cause citeaine; et quant li champions sera vaincuz, il auront LX sols et I denier de la récréandise.”—Etab. de Normandie (Ed. Marnier, p. 30). These minutely subdivided and parcelled out jurisdictions were one of the most prolific causes of debate during the middle ages, not only on account of the power and influence, but also from the profits derived from them. That the privilege of decreeing duels was not the least remunerative of these rights is well manifested by the decision of an inquest held during the reign of Philip Augustus to determine the conflicting jurisdictions of the ducal court of Normandy and of the seigneurs of Vernon. It will be found quoted in full by Beugnot in his notes on the Olim, T. I. p. 969. See also Coutumes d’Auzon (Chassaing, Spicilegium Brivatense, p. 95).

[733] See Coutume de Saint-Bonnet, cap. 13 (Meyer, Recueil d’Anciens Textes, Paris, 1874, I. 175).

[734] Les Olim, I. 491. It is perhaps needless to add that Mathieu’s suit was fruitless. There are many cases recorded in the Olim showing the questions which arose and perplexed the lawyers, and the strenuous efforts made by the petty seigneurs to preserve their privileges.

[735] Actes du Parlement de Paris, I. 407.

[736] Recueil de Chants Historiques Français, I. 218. It is not unreasonable to conjecture that these lines may have been occasioned by the celebrated trial of Enguerrand de Coucy in 1256. On the plea of baronage, he demanded trial by the Court of Peers, and claimed to defend himself by the wager of battle. St. Louis proved that the lands held by Enguerrand were not baronial, and resisted with the utmost firmness the pressure of the nobles who made common cause with the culprit. On the condemnation of de Coucy, the Count of Britanny bitterly reproached the king with the degradation inflicted on his order by subjecting its members to inquest.—Beugnot, Olim I. 954.—Grandes Chroniques ann. 1256.

[737] Et se li uns et li autres est si enreués, qu’il n’en demandent nul amesurement entrer pueent par folie en périll de gages (Conseil, chap. XV. Tit. xxvii.). Car bataille n’a mie leu ou justise a mesure (Ibid. Tit. xxviii.). Mult a de perix en plet qui est de gages de bataille, et mult es grans mestiers c’on voist sagement avant en tel cas (Cout. du Beauv. chap. lxiv. § 1). Car ce n’est pas coze selonc Diu de soufrir gages en petite querele de meubles ou d’eritages; mais coustume les suefre ès vilains cas de crieme (Ibid. chap. vi. § 31).

[738] Actes du Parlement de Paris, T. I. No. 2269 A. p. 217.

[739] Beaumanoir, op. cit. chap. lxi. § 63.

[740] Grandes Chroniques, T. IV. p. 104.

[741] Isambert, II. 702, 806.

[742] I have not been able to find this Ordonnance. Laurière alludes to it (Tabl. dés Ordonn. p. 59), but the passage of Du Cange which he cites refers only to prohibition of tournaments. The catalogue of Pardessus and the collection of Isambert contain nothing of the kind, but that some legislation of this nature actually occurred is evident from the preamble to the Ordonnance of 1306—“Savoir faisons que comme ça en arrière, pour le commun prouffit de nostre royaume, nous eussions defendu généraument à tous noz subgez toutes manieres de guerres et tous gaiges de batailles, etc.” It is worthy of note that these ordonnances of Philippe were no longer confined to the domain of the crown, but purported to regulate the customs of the whole kingdom.

[743] Willelmi Egmond. Chron. (Matthæi Analect. IV. 135-7).

[744] Dont pluseurs malfaicteurs se sont avancez par la force de leurs corps et faulx engins à faire homicides, traysons et tous autres maléfices, griefz et excez, pource que quant ilz les avoient fais couvertement et en repost, ilz ne povoient estre convaincuz par aucuns tesmoings dont par ainsi le maléfice se tenoit.—Ordonnance de 1306 (Éd. Crapelet, p. 2).

[745] Car entre tous les périlz qui sont, est celui que on doit plus craindre et doubter, dont maint noble s’est trouvé déceu ayant bon droit ou non, par trop confier en leurs engins et en leurs forces ou par leurs ires oultrecuidées (Ibid. p. 34). A few lines further on, however, the Ordonnance makes a concession to the popular superstition of the time in expressing a conviction that those who address themselves to the combat simply to obtain justice may expect a special interposition of Providence in their favor—“Et se l’intéressé, sans orgueil ne maltalent, pour son bon droit seulement, requiert bataille, ne doit doubter engin ne force, car le vray juge sera pour lui.”

[746] Ordonnance de 1306, cap. i.

[747] Isambert, II. 850.

[748] See Les Olim, _passim_.

[749] Actes du Parlement de Paris, I. 446.

[750] Les Olim, III. 381-7.—Vaissette, Hist. Gén. de Languedoc, T. IV., Preuves, 140-44.

[751] Wadding. Annal. Minor. ann. 1312 No. 2.

[752] Isambert, III. 40.

[753] Chronique Métrique, I. 6375.

[754] Et quant au gage de bataille, nous voullons que il en usent, si comme l’en fesoit anciennement.—Ordonn. Avril 1315, cap. I (Isambert, III. 62).

[755] Nous voullons et octroions que en cas de murtre, de larrecin, de rapte, de trahison et de roberie, gage de bataille soit ouvert, se les cas ne pouvoient estre prouvez par tesmoings—Ordonn. 15 Mai 1315 (Isambert, III. 74).

[756] Ancien Coutumier inédit de Picardie, p. 48 (Marnier, Paris, 1840).

[757] Ordonn. Mai 1315, P. I. chap. 13 (Isambert, III. 90).

[758] Ibid. P. II. chap. 8 (Isambert, III. 95).

[759] Isambert, III. 196-221.

[760] Ordonn. 9 Mai 1330 (Isambert, IV. 369).

[761] Neron, Récueil d’Édits, I. 16.

[762] Dissertations sur la Mythologie Française.

[763] Bofarull y Mascaró, Coleccion de Documentas ineditos, VI. 355-59.

[764] De Laurière, note on Loysel, Instit. Coutum. Lib. VI. Tit. i. Règle 22.

[765] Froissart, Liv. III. chap. xlix. (Éd. Buchon, 1846).

[766] Hist. de Charles VI. ann. 1386.

[767] Hist. de Charles VI. Liv. VI. chap. ix.

[768] Buchon, notes to Froissart, II. 537.

[769] Registre du Châtelet de Paris, I. 350 (Paris, 1861).

[770] Que jamais nuls ne fussent receus au royaume de France à faire gages de bataille ou faict d’armes, sinon qu’il y eust gage jugé par le roy, ou la cour de parlement.—Juvenal des Ursins, ann. 1409.

[771] Monstrelet, Liv. I. chap. lv.

[772] Nic. Uptoni de Militari Officio Lib. II. cap. iii. iv. (pp. 72-73).

[773] Très Ancienne Cout. de Bretagne, chap. 99, 129-135 (Bourdot de Richebourg).

[774] Ancienne Cout. de Normandie, chap. 53, 68, 70, 71, 73, etc. (Bourdot de Richebourg).

[775] Fors et Cost. de Béarn, Rubr. de Batalha (Bourdot de Richebourg, IV. 1093).

[776] Mathieu de Coussy, chap. cxii.—Ol. de la Marche, ch. xxii. Such a case as this justifies the opinion quoted by Olivier de la Marche, “que le gaige de bataille fut trouvé par le diable pour gagner et avoir les âmes de tous les deux, tant du demandeur que du deffendeur” (Traité du Duel Judiciaire, p. 4, communicated to me by George Neilson, Esq.).

[777] D. Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine.

[778] Jehan Masselin, Journal des États de Tours, p. 320.

[779] Archives de Pau, _apud_ Mazure et Hatoulet, Fors de Béarn, p. 130. There may have been something exceptional in this case, since the punishment was so much more severe than the legal fine of 16 sous quoted above (Fors de Morlaas, Rubr. IV.).

[780] D. Calmet, Hist. de Lorraine.

[781] Brantôme, Discours sur les Duels. An account of this duel, published at Sedan, in 1620, represents it as resulting even less honorably to Fendilles. He is there asserted to have formally submitted, and to have been contemptuously tossed out of the lists like a sack of corn, Des Guerres marching off triumphantly, escorted with trumpets.

[782] Fontanon, I. 665.

[783] Statuta Criminalia Mediolani e tenebris in lucem edita, Bergomi, 1594.—Statuta et Decreta antiqua Civitatis Placentiæ, Placentiæ, 1560.

[784] Patetta, Le Ordalie, p. 449.

[785] Julii PP. II. Bull. _Regis pacifici_ § 2, 1509 (Mag. Bull. Rom. I. 499).

[786] Leon. PP. X. Bull. _Quam Deo_, 23 Julii, 1519 (Ib. p. 596).

[787] Patetla, op. cit. pp. 438-46.

[788] Eph. Gerhardi Tract. Jurid. de Judic Duellico c. ii. § II.

[789] Quia in duellorum dimicatione plurimæ hinc inde fraudes committi possunt; raro enim illi inter quos illud fit judicium per se decertant, sed pugiles conducunt, qui nonnunquam dono, favore, et promissis corrumpuntur.—L. Uladis. II. c. ix. (Batthyani, I. 531).

[790] Reperio tamen indubie vulgarem purgationem sive duellum in casu sine scrupulo admittendum quum publicæ salutis caussa fiat: et istud est admodum laudabile.—Damhouder. Rer. Crimin. Praxis cap. xlii. No. 12 (Antverp. 1601).

[791] Concil. Trident. Sess. xxv. De Reform, cap. xix. Detestabilis duellorum usus fabricante diabolo introductus.

[792] Anne is usus relinquendus sit arbitrio principis? Videtur quod sic, et respiciendum esse principi quid discernat.—Le Plat, Monument. Concil. Trident. VII. 19.

[793] Le Plat, VII. 75.

[794] Würdinger, Beiträge, pp. 17, 19.

[795] Belitz de Duellis German. p. 15.

[796] For these details I am indebted to Du Boys, Droit Criminel des Peuples Modernes, I. 611-17, 650. See also Patetta, Le Ordalie, p. 161. The Sachsenspiegel was extensively in use in Poland, and under it duels continued to be lawful until its abrogation early in the sixteenth century by Alexander I. (Ib. p. 162).

[797] Statut. Roberti III. cap. iii. The genuineness of this statute has been questioned, but it undoubtedly reflects the practice of the period. For the evidence, see Neilson (Trial by Combat, p. 256), who further notes the identity of these provisions with those of Philippe le Bel’s ordonnance of 1306.

[798] Neilson’s Trial by Combat, p. 292.

[799] Knox’s Hist. of Reformation in Scotland, pp. 322, 446-7.

[800] Neilson’s Trial by Combat, pp. 307, 310.

[801] Neilson’s Trial by Combat, p. 35. See also a very interesting essay on the origin and growth of the jury by Prof. J. B. Thayer in the Harvard Law Review, Jan.-March, 1892.

[802] Maitland’s Select Pleas of the Crown, p. xxiv. Whatever may have been the desire of the royal judges, King John himself was not averse to it, for there is a record of two duels between common malefactors ordered to be fought before the king “quia ea vult videre” (Ib. p. 40).

[803] Spelman (Gloss. s. v. _Campus_) gives a Latin translation of this interesting document from a MS. of the period.

Mr. Neilson draws (pp. 167, 168) a distinction, which is evidently correct, between what he calls the chivalric duel, conducted by marshals and constables, and the ordinary combat adjudged by the courts of law. The former makes it appearance in the latter half of the fourteenth century, when the common law duel was falling into desuetude. As we have seen above, a somewhat similar development, though not so formally differentiated, is traceable in France and Italy.

[804] 3 Henr. VII. cap. I.

[805] John Myrc’s Instructions for Parish Priests, p. 26 (Early English Text Society, 1868).

[806] Stow’s Annals, ann. 1492.

[807] Spelman, Gloss, p. 103.—Stow’s Annals, ann. 1571.

[808] Neilson, Trial by Combat, p. 205.

[809] Maitland’s Select Pleas of the Crown, I. 92. See Neilson, p. 154, for an account of a savage combat in 1456 with an approver who had already caused the hanging of several innocent men. In this case the judge laid down the law that if the approver was vanquished the defendant must be hanged for homicide. This strange ruling is not in accordance with earlier practice. In 1220 an approver accuses seven persons, but is defeated in the first combat and hanged, whereupon the accused are discharged on bail (Maitland, Select Pleas, I. 123). See two other cases in the same year (Ibid. p. 133).

[810] Hale, Pleas of the Crown, II. chap. xxix. According to Pike (Hist. of Crime in England, I. 286 sq.), the record shows that approvers almost invariably either died in prison or were hanged in consequence of the acquittal of the party whom they accused. It was very rare that a combat ensued.

[811] Rushworth’s Collections, Vol. I. P. I. pp. 788-90, P. III. p. 356. The gloves presented by the champions in such trials had a penny in each finger; the principals were directed to take their champions to two several churches and offer the pennies in honor of the five wounds of Christ that God might give the victory to the right (Neilson’s Trial by Combat, p. 149).

[812] Hale, loc. cit.

[813] Campbell’s Lives of the Chancellors of England, VI. 112.

[814] I. Barnewall & Alderson, 457.—In April, 1867, the journals record the death at Birmingham of William Ashford the appellant in this suit. Thornton emigrated to America, and disappeared from sight.

[815] Campbell, Chief Justices, III. 169.

[816] I. Harris and McHenry’s Md. Reps. 227.

[817] Cooper’s Statutes at Large of S. C. II. 403, 715.

[818] Kilty’s Report on English Statutes, Annapolis, 1811, p. 141.

[819] Capit. Lib. VII. cap. 259.

[820] Vita Patrum Lib. III. c. 41 (Migne’s Patrologia, T. LXXIII. p. 764).

[821] Shu-King, Pt. IV. ch. 4, 27 § 21 (after Goubil’s translation).

[822] Staunton, Penal Code of China, p. 364.

[823] Livre des Récompenses et des Peines, trad. par Stan. Julien, Paris, 1835, p. 220.

[824] W. T. Stronach in “Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society,” New Series, No. 2, Dec. 1865, p. 176.

[825] Griffis’s “Mikado’s Empire,” New York, 1876, p. 92.

[826] Hutchinson’s Impressions of Western Africa, London, 1858.

[827] Examination of the Toxicological Effects of Sassy-Bark, by Mitchell and Hammond (Proc. Biological Dep. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1859).—T. Lauder Brunton’s Gulstonian Lectures, 1877 (Brit. Med. Journ., March 26, 1877).

This would seem to support the theory of Dr. Patetta (Ordalie, p. 13) that the original form of the poison ordeals was the drinking of water in which a fetish had been washed, the spirit of which was thus conveyed into the person of the accused. On the other hand, there is the fact that in some of the poison ordeals sickness was a proof of innocence.

[828] London Athenæum, May 29, 1875, p. 713.

[829] Schweinfurth’s Heart of Africa, New York, 1874, Vol. II. pp. 32-36.

[830] Patetta, Le Ordalie, p. 70.

[831] Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, March 7, 1871.—Ellis’s Three Visits to Madagascar, chap. I. VI.

[832] Patetta, Le Ordalie, p. 61.

[833] Ellis’s Polynesian Researches, Vol. I. ch. 14.

[834] Königswarter, op. cit. p. 202.—E. B. Tylor, in Macmillan’s Magazine, July, 1876.

[835] Patetta, Le Ordalie, p. 61.

[836] Macpherson’s Memorials of Service in India, London, 1865, p. 83.—See also p. 364 for modes of divination somewhat akin to these.

[837] Lieut. Shaw, in Asiatic Researches, IV. 67, 84.

[838] Patetta, Le Ordalie, pp. 57, 67.

[839] Herod. II. 174.

[840] Oppert et Ménant, Documents Jurid. de l’Assyrie, Paris, 1877, pp. 93, 106, 122, 136, 191, 197, 209, 238, 242, 246, 250, 253.

It is interesting to compare with these primitive formulas the terrible imprecations which became customary in mediæval charters against those who should seek to impair their observance.

[841] Numb. xxvi. 55-6; xxxiii. 54.—Joshua xviii. 8-11; xix. 1, 10, 17, 24, 51.—I. Chron. xviii. 5-18, 31.—Nehem. x. 34; xi. 1.

[842] Josh. vii. 14-26.—I. Sam. xiv. 37-45. Cf. Michaelis, Laws of Moses, art. 304.—Ewald’s Antiq. of Israel, Solly’s Translation, pp. 294-6.—Kuenen’s Religion of Israel, May’s Translation, I. 98.

[843] Mishna, Sota ix. 9; Wagenseilii Comment. op. cit. vi. 4 (Ed. Surenhus. III. 257, 291). The curious who desire further information on the subject can find it in Wagenseil’s edition of the Tract Sota, with the Gemara of the Ain Jacob and his own copious and learned notes, Altdorf, 1674.

[844] Mishcat ul-Masabih, Matthews’s Translation, Calcutta, 1810, vol. II. pp. 221-31.

[845] Loniceri Chron. Turcic. Lib. II. cap. xvii.

[846] Königswarter, op. cit. p. 203.

[847] Collin de Plancy, Dictionnaire Infernal, s. v. _Céromancie_.

[848] The Dinkard, translated by Peshotun Dustoor Behramjee Sunjana, vol. II, p. 65, Bombay, 1876.

[849] Vendidad, Farg. IV. 156-8. If Prof. Oppert is correct in his rendering of the Medic Behistun inscription, the Zend version of the Avesta is not the original, but a translation made by order of Darius Hystaspes from the ancient Bactrian, which would greatly increase the antiquity attributable to this record of primæval Aryan thought. See “Records of the Past,” VII. 109.

[850] Firdusi, Shah-Nameh, XII. 4 (Mohl’s Translation, II. 188). Kai Kaoos was the grandfather and immediate predecessor of Cyrus.

[851] The Dabistan, Shea and Troyer’s translation, I. 219.

[852] Quoted from the Dinkard by Dr. Haug in Arda-Viraf, p. 145.

[853] Hyde Hist. vet. Persar. Relig. p. 280 (Ed. 1760). See also, Dabistan, I. 305-6.

[854] Bk. VII. st. 108.

[855] Atharva Veda II. 12 (Grill, Hundert Lieder des Atharva Veda, Tübingen, 1879, p. 16).—Khandogya-Upanishad. VI. 16 (Max Müller’s Translation, p. 108). In this latter passage there is a philosophical explanation attempted why a man who covers himself with truth is not burnt by the hot iron.

[856] Monier Williams, Indian Wisdom, 2d ed. p. 360.

[857] Man. Dharm. Sast. VIII. 114-16, 190.

[858] Institutes of Vishnu, IX.

[859] Institutes of Gautama, XIII. 1, 3, 23 (Bühler’s Translation).

So the Vasishtha Dharmasastra is equally ignorant of ordeals and even more immoral in its teaching—“Men may speak an untruth when their lives are in danger or the loss of their whole property is imminent”—Vasishtha XVI. 10, 35 (Bühler’s Translation).

[860] See Halhed’s Gentoo Code, chap. iii. §§ 5, 6, 9, 10; chap. xviii. (E. I. Company, London, 1776).—Ayeen Akbery, or Institutes of Akbar (Gladwin’s Translation, London, 1800), vol. II. pp. 496, sqq. Also a paper by Ali Ibrahim Khan, chief magistrate of Benares, communicated by Warren Hastings to the Asiatic Society in 1784 (Asiatic Researches, I. 389).

[861] Duclos, Mém. sur les Épreuves.

[862] Smith’s Dict. of Antiq. s. v. _Marlyria_.

[863] Pausan. VII. xxv. 8.

[864] Festus s. v. _Lapidem_.—Liv. I. 24; XXI. 45.—Polyb. III. xxv. 6-9.—Aul. Gell. I. 21.

[865] Liv. XXII. 53. Cf. Fest. s. v. _Præjurationes_. See an example of a similar oath taken by a whole army, Liv. ii. 45.

[866] Val. Maxim. I. i. 7; VIII. i. 5.—Ovid. Fastor. IV. 305 sqq.

[867] A scholiast on Horace, dating probably from the fifth century of our era, describes an ordeal equivalent to the _judicium offæ_. When slaves, he says, were suspected of theft they were taken before a priest who administered to each a piece of bread over which certain conjurations had been uttered and he who was unable to swallow it was adjudged guilty (Patetta, I.e Ordalie, p. 140). Not only the date of this deprives it of value as evidence of Roman custom, but also the fact that Romans might well employ such means of influencing the imagination of Barbarian or ignorant slaves.

[868] Senchus Mor. I. 25, 195. Comp. Gloss, p. 199.

[869] Anthol. IX. 125.—Cf. Julian. Imp. Epist. XVI.—Claud. in Rufinum II. 110.—Pliny describes (Nat. Hist. VII. ii.) a somewhat similar custom ascribed to the Pselli, an African tribe who exhaled an odor which put serpents to sleep. Each new-born child was exposed to a poisonous snake, when if it were legitimate the reptile would not touch it, while if adulterine it was bitten. Another version of the same story is given by Ælian (De Nat. Animal. I. lvii.).

[870] Keyser’s Religion of the Northmen, Pennock’s Translation, p. 259. The extreme simplicity of the _skirsla_ finds its counterpart in modern times in the ordeal of the staff, as used in the Ardennes and described hereafter.

[871] First Test of Pardessus, Tit. liii. lvi.

[872] Decret. Tassilon. Tit. ii. § 7.

[873] Grimm, ap. Pictet, Origines Indo-Européennes, III. 117.

[874] Annal. Saxo ann. 1039.—Ruskaia Prawda, art. 28 (Esneaux, Hist. de Russie, I. 181).

[875] L. Wisigoth. VI. i. 3.

[876] Lib. adv. Leg. Gundobadi iv. vi.

[877] Senatus Consult. de Monticolis Waliæ c. ii.

[878] A great variety of these _Ordines_ will be found in the collections of Baluze, Martène, Pez, Muratori, Spelman, and others. From these we derive most of our knowledge as to the details of the various processes.

[879] Batthyani Leg. Eccles. Hung T. I. pp. 439, 454.

[880] Anon. Chron. Slavic. cap. xxv. (S. R. German. Septent. Lindenbrog. p. 215).

[881] Hincmar. de Divort. Lothar. Interrog. VI.

[882] Dooms of King Æthelstan, iv. cap. 7.

[883] Adjuratio ferri vel aquæ ferventis (Baluz. II. 655).

[884] De Gloria Martyrum Lib. I. cap. 81.—Injecta manu, protinus usque ad ipsa ossium internodia caro liquefacta defluxit.

[885] Institutes of Vishnu, IX. 33 (Jolly’s Translation).

[886] Formulæ Exorcismorum, Baluz. II. 639 sqq.

[887] Doom concerning hot iron and water (Laws of Æthelstan, Thorpe, I. 226); Baluze, II. 644.

[888] Martene de Antiq. Eccles. Ritibus, Lib. III. c. vii. Ordo. 19.

[889] Florez, España Sagrada, XIX. 377-8.

[890] “Quia in aqua ignita coquuntur culpabiles et innoxii liberantur incocti, quia de igne Sodomitico Lot justus evasit inustus, et futurus ignis qui præibit terribilem judicem, Sanctis erit innocuus et scelestos aduret, ut olim Babylonica fornax, quæ pueros omnino non contigit.”—Interrog. vi.

[891] Vit. S. Æthelwoldi c. x. (Chron. Abingd. II. 259. M. R. Series).

[892] First text of Pardessus, Tit. liii. lvi.; MS. Guelferbyt. Tit. xiv. xvi.; L. Emend. Tit. lv. lix.

[893] L. Frision. Tlt. iii.; L. Æthelredi iv. § 6; L. Lombard. Lib. I. Tit. xxxiii. § 1.

[894] Grágás, Sect. VI. cap. 55.

[895] Ruskaia Prawda, Art. 28.

[896] Jur. Provin. Saxon. Lib. I. art. 39; Jur. Provin. Alamann. cap. xxxvii. §§ 15. 16.

[897] Du Cange.

[898] Defens. Probæ Aquæ; Frigid, §§ 167, 169, etc.

[899] J. H. Böhmer, Jus. Eccles. Protestantium T. V. p. 597.

[900] Ayeen Akbery, II. 498. This work was written about the year 1600 by Abulfazel, vizier of the Emperor Akbar. Gladwin’s Translation was published under the auspices of the East India Company in 1800. See also Ali Ibrahim Khan, in Asiatic Researches, I. 398.

[901] Ali Ibrahim Khan, loc. cit.

[902] D’Achery, Not. 119 ad Opp. Guibert. Noviogent.

[903] Vit. S. Bertrandi Convenar. No. 15 (Martene Ampliss. Collect. VI. 1029-30).

[904] Pet. Cantor. Verb. Abbrev. Not. in cap. lxxviii. (Migne’s Patrol. T. CCV. p. 471).

[905] Natur. Histor. L. VII. c. 2.

[906] “Si titubaverit, si singulos vomeres pleno pede non presserit, si quantulumcunque læsa fuerit, sententia proferatur.”—Annal. Winton. Eccles. (Du Cange, s. v. _Vomeres_). Six is the number of ploughshares specified in the celebrated trial of St. Cunigunda, wife of the emperor St. Henry II. (Mag. Chron. Belgic.). Twelve ploughshares are prescribed by the Swedish law (Legg. Scan. Provin. Lib. VII. c. 99. Ed. Thorsen. p. 170).

[907] Legg. Æthelstan. iv. § 6; Ætheldred. iii. § 7; Cnut. Secular, § 58; Henrici I. lxvi. 9.

[908] Legg. Scan. Provin. Lib. VII. c. 99 (Ed. Thorsen, pp. 170-2).

[909] Fuero de Baeça, _ap._ Villadiego, Fuero Juzgo, fol. 317_a_.

[910] Du Cange, s. v. _Ferrum candens_.

[911] Laws of Ethelstan, iv. § 7.—Adjuratio ferri vel aquæ ferventis (Baluz. II. 656).—Fuero de Baeça (_ubi sup._).

[912] For instance, see various forms of exorcism given by Baluze, II. 651-654. Also Dom Gerbert (Patrologiæ CXXXVIII. 1127); Goldast. Alamann. Antiquitat. T. II. p. 150 (Ed. Senckenberg).

[913] Petri Cantor. Verb. Abbreviat. cap. lxxviii. (Patrol. CCV. 233).

[914] Weber’s Hist. of Indian Literature, Mann & Zachariae’s Translation, p. 73.

[915] Travels of Hiouen Thsang (Wheeler, Hist. of India, III. 262).

[916] Institutes of Vishnu, XI.—Yajnavalkya II. 103-6 (Stenzler’s Translation, p. 61).

It is easy to understand the prescription of Vishnu that the fire ordeal is not to be administered to blacksmiths or to invalids, but not so easy that it was forbidden during summer and autumn (Ib. X. 25-6). Yajnavalkya, moreover, says that the ordeals of fire, water, and poison are for Sudras (II. 98).

[917] Ayeen Akbery, II. 497.—Patella, Le Ordalie, p. 106.

[918] Asiatic Researches, I. 395.

[919] Lieut. Shaw, in Asiatic Researches, IV. 69.

[920] Capit. Carol. Mag. II. ann. 803, cap. 5.

[921] Concil. Risbach. can. ix. (Hartzheim Concil. German. II. 692).

[922] L. Anglior. et Werinor. Tit. xiv.

[923] Si presbyterum occidit ... si liber est cum XII. juret; si autem servus per xii. vomeres ignitos se purget.—C. Mogunt, ann. 848 c. xxiv.

[924] Concil. Triburiens. ann. 895 c. 22 (Harduin. Concil. VI. I. 446).

[925] Laws of Ethelred, iv. § 6.

[926] The Jus Provin. Alaman. (cap. xxxvii. §§ 15, 16; cap. clxxxvi. §§ 4, 6, 7; cap. ccclxxiv.) allows thieves and other malefactors to select the ordeal they prefer. The Jus Provin. Saxon. (Lib. I. art. 39) affords them in addition the privilege of the duel.

[927] Après les serements des parties soloit lon garder la partie, et luy porter a la maine une piece de fer flambant sil fuit frank home, ou de mettre le main ou la pié en eaw boillant s’il ne fuit frank.—Myrror of Justice, cap. III. sect. 23.—Cf. Glanville, Lib. XIV. c. I.

[928] Baisse Court, cap. 132, 261, 279, 280, etc.

[929] Lesbroussart’s Oudegherst, II. 707.

[930] Radevic. de Reb. Frid. Lib. I. cap. xxvi.

[931] Rouskaïa Prawda, Art. 28.

[932] Grágás, Sect. VI. c. lv.

[933] Maitland, Pleas, etc., I. 5. Again in another case in 1207 (p. 55), while in yet another a man and woman, accomplices in the same crime, are both sent to the hot iron (p. 77). In 1203 a case occurs in which the court offers the accused the choice between red-hot iron and water, and he selects the former.—Ib. p. 30.

[934] O’Curry, _ap._ Pictet, Origines Indo-Européennes, III. 179.

[935] Regino. ann. 886.—Annales Metenses.

[936] Vit. S. Kunegundæ cap. 2 (Ludewig Script. Rer. German. I. 346-7).

[937] Gotfridi Viterbiensis Pars XVII., “De Tertio Othone Imperatore.” Siffridi Epit. Lib. I. ann. 998. Ricobaldi Hist. Impp. sub Ottone III.—The story is not mentioned by any contemporary authorities, and Muratori has well exposed its improbability (Annali d’Italia, ann. 996); although he had on a previous occasion argued in favor of its authenticity (Antiq. Ital. Dissert. 38). In convicting the empress of calumny, the Countess of Modena appeared as an accuser, making good the charge by the ordeal; but if we look upon her as simply vindicating her husband’s character, the case enters into the ordinary course of such affairs. Indeed, among the Anglo-Saxons, there was a special provision by which the friends of an executed criminal might clear his reputation by undergoing the triple ordeal, after depositing pledges, to be forfeited in cases of defeat (Ethelred, iii. § 6), just as in the burgher law of Northern Germany a relative of a dead man might claim the duel to absolve him from an accusation (Sachsische Weichbild, art. lxxxvii.). This was not mere sentiment, as in crimes involving confiscation the estate of the dead man was at stake.

[938] Giles states (note to William of Malmesbury, ann. 1043) that Richard of Devizes is the earliest authority for this story.

[939] Dudon. S. Quintini Lib. iv.

[940] Order. Vitalis Lib. X. cap. 13.

[941] Grágás, Sect. VI. cap. 45. Andreas of Lunden early in the 13th century speaks of it as formerly in vogue for these cases, but disused in his time (Legg. Scan. Provin. Ed. P. G. Thorsen, Kjobenhavn, 1853, p. 110).

[942] “E si alguna dixiere que preñada es dalguno, y el varon no la creyere, prenda fierro caliente; e si quemada fuere, non sea creyda, mas si sana escapare del fierro, de el fijo al padre, e criel assi como fuero es.”—Fuero de Baeça (Villadiego, Fuero Juzgo, fol. 317_a_).

[943] Roger of Wendover, ann. 1085.

[944] Eadmeri Hist. Novor. Lib. II. (Migne, CLIX. 412).

[945] Gudeni Cod. Diplom. Mogunt. T. I. No. liii.

[946] Mazure et Hatoulet, Fors de Béarn, p. xxxviii.

[947] Hyde Relig. Vet. Persar. cap. xxiv. (Ed. 1760, pp. 320-1).

[948] Widukindi Lib. III. cap. 65.—Sigebert. Gemblac. Ann. 966.—Dithmari Chron. Lib. II. cap. viii.—Saxo. Grammat. Hist. Danic. Lib. X. The annalists of Trèves claim the merit of this for their archbishop Poppo, whose pontificate lasted from 1016 to 1047. According to their legend, Poppo not only drew on an iron gauntlet heated to redness, but entered a fiery furnace clad only in a linen garment soaked in wax, which was consumed by the flames without injury to him.—Gest. Trevir. Archiep. cap. xvi. (Martene Ampliss. Collect. IV. 161).

[949] Guibert. Noviogent. de Incarnat. contra Judæos Lib. III. cap. xi. Guibert states that he had this from a Jew, who was an eye-witness of the fact.

Somewhat similar was a volunteer ordeal related by Gregory of Tours, when a Catholic disputing with an Arian threw his gold ring into the fire and when heated to redness placed it in his palm with an adjuration to God that if his faith was true it should not hurt him, which of course proved to be the case.—Greg. Turon. de Gloria Confess, c. xiv.

[950] Legend, de S. Olavo (Langebek II. 548).

[951] Cæsar. Heisterbach. Dial. Mirac. Dist. III. c. xvi. xvii.

[952] Raine’s Church of York (English Historical Review, No. 9, p. 159).

[953] Legg. Scan. Provin. Lib. v. c. 57 (Ed. Thorsen, pp. 139-40).

[954] This text is given by Kausler, Stuttgard, 1839, together with an older one compiled for the lower court of Nicosia.

[955] Pardessus, Us et Coutumes de la Mer, I. 268 sqq.

[956] Patetta, Le Ordalie, p. 475.

[957] Du Cange, s. v. _Ferrum Candens_.

[958] Pachymeri Hist. Mich. Palæol. Lib. I. cap. xii.

[959] Raynouard, Monuments relatifs à la Condamn. des Chev. du Temple, p. 269.

[960] Bonif. de Morano Chron. Mutinense. (Muratori Antiq. Ital. Diss. 38).

[961] Malleus Maleficar. Francof. 1580, pp. 523-31.

[962] P. Burgmeister, who relates this in his thesis for the Doctorate (De Probat. per aquam, &c. Ulmæ, 1680), vigorously maintains the truth of the miracle against the assaults of a Catholic controversialist who impugned its authenticity. The affair seems to have attracted considerable attention at the time, as a religious question between the old Church and the Lutherans.

[963] Cæsar. Heisterb. Dial. Mirac. Dist. X. c. xxxvi.

[964] Godelmanni de Magis Lib. III. cap. v. § 19.

[965] Annalista Saxo ann. 993.

[966] Thus Rabelais, “en mon aduiz elle est pucelle, toutesfoys ie nen vouldroys mettre mon doigt on feu” (Pantagruel, Liv. II. chap. xv.); and the Epist. Obscur. Virorum (P. II. Epist. 1) “Quamvis M. Bernhardus diceret, quod vellet disputare ad ignem quod hæc est opinio vestra.”

[967] Ali Ibrahim Khan (Asiatic Researches, I. 390).

[968] Wheeler’s Hist. of India, III. 262.

[969] Targum of Palestine, Gen. xi. (Etheridge’s Translation, I. 191-2).—Shalshelet Hakkabala fol. 8_a_. (Wagenseilii Sota p. 192-3).

[970] Daniel, iii. 19-28.

[971] Rufini Historia Monachorum cap. ix.

[972] Theodori Lector. H. E. Lib. II.

[973] Greg. Turon. Hist. Francor. II. 1.—Ejusd. de Gloria Confess. 76.—S. Hildefonsi Toletani Lib. de Viris Illustribus c. iii.

[974] Quodsi servus in ignem manum miserit, et læsam tulerit, etc.—Tit. XXX. cap. i.; also Tit. XXXI.

[975] Vit. S. Johannis Gualberti c. lx.-lxiv.—Berthold. Constantiens. Annal. ann. 1078.

[976] Landulph. Jun. Hist. Mediol. cap. ix. x. xi. (Rer Ital. Script. T. V.).—Muratori, Annal. Ann. 1103, 1105.

[977] Cæsar. Heisterb. Dial. Mirac. Dist. x. c. xxxiv.—The same incident is related of St. Francis of Assisi (Vita et Admiranda Historia Seraphici S. P. Francisci, Augsburg, 1694, xxiii).

[978] Fulcher. Carnot. cap. x.; Radulf. Cadomensis cap. c. ci. cii. cviii.; Raimond. de Agiles (Bongars, I. 150-168). The latter was chaplain of the Count of Toulouse, and a firm asserter of the authenticity of the lance. He relates with pride, that on its discovery he threw himself into the trench and kissed it while the point only had as yet been uncovered. He officiated likewise in the ordeal, and delivered the adjuration as Peter entered the flames: “Si Deus omnipotens huic homini loquutus est facie ad faciem, et beatus Andreas Lanceam Dominicam ostendit ei, cum ipse vigilaret, transeat iste illæsus per ignem. Sin autem aliter est, et mendacium est, comburatur iste cum lancea quam portabit in manibus suis.” Raoul de Caen, on the other hand, in 1107 became secretary to the chivalrous Tancred, and thus obtained his information from the opposite party. He is very decided in his animadversions on the discoverers. Foulcher de Chartres was chaplain to Baldwin I. of Jerusalem, and seems impartial, though sceptical.

The impression made by the incident on the popular mind is manifested in the fact that the Nürnberg Chronicle (fol. cxcv.) gives a veritable representation of the lance-head.

[979] Raynaldi Annal. Eccles. ann. 1219, c. 56.

[980] Martyrol. Roman. 19 Jun.—Petri Damian. Vit. S. Romualdi c. 27.

[981] Petri Cantor. Verb. Abbreviat. cap. lxxviii. (Patrol. CCV. 229).

[982] Cæsar. Heisterbach. Dial. Mirac. Dist. III. c. xv.

[983] Luca Landucci, Diario Fiorentino, pp. 166-9.—Burlamacchi, Vita di Savonarola (Baluz. et Mansi I. 559-63).—Processo Autentico (Baluz. et Mansi I. 535-42).—Villari, Storia di Gir. Savonarola, II. App. lxxi. lxxv. lxxx. lxxxiii. xc.-xciii.—Diarium Burchardi ann. 1498.—Guicciardini, III. vi.

[984] Roderici Toletani de Reb. Hispan. VI. xxvi. (see ante p. 132).

[985] Pet. Val. Cernaii Hist. Albigens. cap. III.

[986] Niceph. Gregor. Lib. VI.

[987] Chron. Samaritan. c. xlv. (Ed. Juynboll, Lug. Bat. 1848, p. 183).

[988] Dathavansa, chap. III. 11-13 (Sir M. Coomara Swamy’s Translation, London, 1874).

[989] Plinii Hist. Natur. L. VII. c. ii.

[990] Gospel of the Infancy, III.

[991] Concil. Cæsar-August. II. ann. 592 c. 2.

[992] Martene de Antiquis Ecclesiæ Ritibus Lib. III. c. viii. § 2.

[993] Chron. Casinensis Lib. II. c. xxxiv.

[994] Matthew of Westminster, ann. 1065.

[995] Olaf Haraldss. Saga, ch. 258 (Laing’s Heimskringla, II. 349).

[996] Guibert. Noviogent. de Vita sua Lib. III. cap. xxi.

[997] Chron. Andrensis Monast. (D’Achery Spicileg. II. 782).

[998] Villanueva, Viage Literario, T. XIX. p. 42.

[999] Patetta, Le Ordalie, p. 34.

[1000] Hincmar. de Divort. Lothar. Interrog. vi. It may readily be supposed that a skilful management of the rope might easily produce the appearance of floating, when a conviction was desired by the priestly operators.

[1001] L. Æthelstani I. cap. xxiii.

[1002] Martene de Antiq. Eccles. Ritibus Lib. III. c. vii. Ordo 8.

[1003] Petri Cantor. Verb. Abbreviat. cap. lxxviii. (Patrol. CCV. 233).

[1004] De Divort. Lothar. Interrog. vi.

[1005] Ordo S. Dunstani Dorobern. (Baluze II. 650).

[1006] Institutes of Vishnu IX. 29-30, XII.--Yajnavalkya II. 98, 108-9.—Ayeen Akbery, II. 497.—Some unimportant variations in details are given by Ali Ibrahim Khan (As. Researches, I. 390). Hiouen Thsang describes a variant of this ordeal in which the accused was fastened into one sack and a stone in another; the sacks were then tied together and cast into a river, when if the man sank and the stone rose he was convicted, while if he rose and the stone sank he was acquitted (Wheeler’s Hist. of India, III. 262).

[1007] Canciani Legg. Barbar. T. I. pp. 282-3.—Martene de Antiq. Eccles. Ritibus Lib. III. c. vii. Ord. 9, 16.

[1008] Baluze II. 646.—Mabillon Analect. pp. 161-2 (_ap._ Cangium).—Muratori Antiq. Ital. Diss. 38.—Jureti Observat. ad Ivon. Epist. 74. An Ordo printed by Dr. Patetta from an early tenth century MS. (Archivio Giuridico, Vol. XLV.) mixes up Popes Eugenius and Leo, the Emperor Leo and Charlemagne in a manner to show how exceedingly vague were the notions concerning the introduction of the ordeal, “Incipit juditium aqua frigida. Quod dominus eugenius et leo imperator et episcopi vel abbati sive com ti fecerunt.... Similiter fecit domnus carolus imperator pro domnus leo papa, etc.”

[1009] Lib. adv. L. Gundobadi cap. ix.—Lib. contra Judic. Dei. c. i.

[1010] Arguments for its earlier use in Europe have been drawn from certain miracles related by Gregory of Tours (Mirac. Lib. I. c. 69-70), but these relate to innocent persons unjustly condemned to drowning, who were preserved, and therefore these cases have no bearing on the matter. The Epistle attributed by Gratian to Gregory I. (c. 7 § 1 Caus. II. q. v.), in which the cold-water ordeal is alluded to, has long since been restored to its true author, Alexander II. (Epist. 122).

[1011] Capit. Wormat. ann. 829, Tit. II. cap. 12.—L. Longobard. Lib. II. Tit. lv. § 31.

[1012] De Divort. Lothar. Interrog. vi.

[1013] Assisa facta apud Clarendune §§ 1, 2.—Assisa apud Northamtoniam (Gesta Henrici II. T. II. p. cxlix.; T. I. p. 108.—M. R. Series).

[1014] Opusc. adv. Hincmar. Laudun. cap. xliii.

[1015] L. Longobard. Lib. I. Tit. ix. § 39.

[1016] Recess. Convent. Alsat. anno 1051, § 6 (Goldast. Constit. Imp. II. 48).

[1017] De Legg. Angliæ Lib. XIV. cap. i.

We have seen above (p. 292), however, that this rule was by no means invariable. In addition to the cases there adduced another may be cited when in 1177 a citizen of London who is qualified as “nobilissimus et ditissimus,” accused of robbery, was tried by the water ordeal, and on being found guilty offered Henry II. five hundred marks for a pardon. The dazzling bribe was refused, and he was duly hanged.—Gesta Henrici II. T. I. p. 156.

[1018] Regiam Majestatem Lib. IV. cap. iii. § 4.

[1019] Text. Herold. Tit. LXXVI.

[1020] Mazure et Hatoulet, Fors de Béarn, p. xxxi.

[1021] Conrad. Ursperg. sub. Lothar. Saxon.

[1022] Quidam illustris vir.—Othlon. de Mirac. quod nuper accidit etc. (Migne’s Patrol. T. CXL. p. 242).

[1023] Concil. Ausonens. ann. 1068 can. vii. (Aguirre, IV. 433).

[1024] Juris Feud. Alaman. cap. lxxvii. § 2.—Jur. Prov. Saxon. Lib. III. c. 21.

[1025] MS. Brit. Mus. quoted by Pertz in Hugo. Flaviniac. Lib. II.

[1026] Hermann. de Mirac. S. Mariæ Laudun. Lib. III. cap. 28.

[1027] Lodharius ... Gerbergam, _more maleficorum_, in Arari mergi præcepit.—Nithardi Hist. Lib. I. ann. 834.

[1028] Plinii Natur. Histor. L. VII. c. ii.

[1029] Ameilhon, de l’Épreuve de l’Eau Froide.

[1030] In earlier times, various other modes of proof were habitually resorted to. Among the Lombards, King Rotharis prescribed the judicial combat (L. Longobard. Lib. I. Tit. xvi. § 2). The Anglo-Saxons (Æthelstan. cap. VI.) direct the triple ordeal, which was either red-hot iron or boiling water.

[1031] Regest. Ludovici Hutini (_ap._ Cangium).

[1032] Mall. Maleficarum.

[1033] Wieri de Præstigiis Dæmonum pp. 589, 581.

[1034] Scribonii Epist. de Exam. Sagarum. Newald Exegesis Purgat. Sagarum. These tracts, together with Rickius’s “Defensio Probæ Aquæ Frigidæ,” were reprinted in 1686 at Leipsic, in 1 vol. 4to.

[1035] De Magor. Dæmonomania, Basil. 1581, pp. 372, 385.

[1036] Binsfeldi Tract. de Confess. Malefic. pp. 287-94 (Ed. 1623). He argues that, as the proceeding was unlawful, confessions obtained by means of it were of no legal weight.

[1037] Wieri _op. cit._ p. 589.

[1038] Godelmanni de Magis Lib. III. cap. v. §§ 30, 35.

[1039] P. Burgmeister Dissert. de Probat. per aquam, etc. Ulmæ, 1680, § 44. Burgmeister adopts the explanation of Binsfeld to account for the cases in which witches floated.

[1040] Königswarter, _op. cit._ p. 176.—Bochelli Decr. Eccles. Gallicanæ, Paris, 1609, p. 1211.

[1041] “Porro, nostra memoria, paucis abhinc annis, solebant judices reos maleficii accusatos mergere, pro certo habentes incertum crimen hac ratione patefieri.”—Notæ ad Legem Salicam.

[1042] Tanquam aqua suum in sinum eos non admitteret, qui excussa baptismi aqua se omni illius sacramenti beneficio ultro orbarunt.—Dæmonologiæ Lib. III. cap. vi.

[1043] Rogers’ Scotland, Social and Domestic, p. 266 (Grampian Club, 1869).

[1044] Dissert. Inaug. de Torturis Th. XVIII. § xi. Basil. 1661.

[1045] N. Brandt de Legitima Maleficos et Sagas investigandi et convincendi ratione, Giessen, 1662.

[1046] P. Burgmeister Dissert. de Probat. per aquam ferventem et frigidam, §§ 29, 39-41, Ulmæ, 1680.

[1047] Le Brun, Histoire critique des Pratiques Superstitieuses, pp. 526-36 (Rouen, 1702).

[1048] F. M. Brahm de Fallacibus Indiciis Magiæ, Halæ Magdeburg. 1709.

[1049] J. C. Nehring de Indiciis, Jenæ, 1714.

[1050] J. H. Böhmer, Jur. Eccles. Protestant. T. V. p. 608.

[1051] Per aquam, tum frigidam ut hodiernum passim in sagarum inquisitionibus.—Eph. Gerhardi Tract. Jurid. de Judic. Duellico, cap. i. § 4 (Francof. 1735).

[1052] Antiq. Ital. Dissert. 38.

[1053] Qui ex levi suspicione, in tali crimine delatas, nec confessas, nec convictas, ad torturas, supernatationem aquarum, et alia eruendæ veritatis media, tandem ad ipsam mortem condemnare ... non verentur, exempla proh dolor! plurima testantur.—Synod. Culmens. et Pomesan. ann. 1745, c. v. (Hartzheim Concil. German. X. 510).

[1054] Meyer, Institutions Judiciaires, I. 321.

[1055] Königswarter, op. cit. p. 177.

[1056] Spottiswoode Miscellany, Edinburgh, 1845, II. 41.

[1057] V. Bogisic, in Mélusine, T. II. pp. 6-7.

[1058] Hartausen, Études sur la Russie (Du Boys, Droit Criminel des Peuples Modernes, I. 256).

[1059] Institutes of Vishnu, X.—In the code of Yajnavalkya (II. 100-102) there are some differences in the process, but the statement in the text is virtually the same as that in the Ayeen Akbery (II. 486) as in force in the seventeenth century.

[1060] Rickii Defens. Probæ Aq. Frigidæ, § 41.

[1061] Collin de Plancy, Diet. Infernal, s. v. _Bibliomancie_.

[1062] Kœnigswarter, _op. cit._ p. 186.

[1063] J. H. Böhmer, Jur. Eccles. Protestant. T. V. p. 608.

[1064] E. B. Tylor in Macmillan’s Magazine, July, 1876.

[1065] Formulæ Bignonianæ, No. xii.

[1066] Vit. S. Lamberti (Canisii et Basnage, II. 140).—Pseudo Bedæ Lib. de Remed. Peccator. Prologus (Wasserschleben, Bussordnungen, Halle, 1851, p. 248).

[1067] Capit. Pippini ann. 752, § xvii.

[1068] Chart. Division, cap. xiv. Capit. ann. 779, § x.; Capit. IV. ann. 803, §§ iii. vi.; in L. Longobard. Lib. II. Tit. xxviii. § 3; Tit. lv. § 25, etc.

[1069] Ughelli Italia Sacra T. V. p. 610 (Ed. 1653).

[1070] Capit. Car. Mag. incerti anni c. x. (Hartzheim. Concil. German. I. 426).

[1071] Capit. Lud. Pii ann. 816, § 1 (Eccardi L. Francorum, pp. 183, 184).

[1072] Rudolph. Fuldens. Vitæ S. Liobæ cap. xv. (Du Cange, s. v. _Crucis Judicium_).

[1073] Concil. Aquisgran. cap. xvii.

[1074] L. Longobard. Lib. II. Tit. lv. § 32.

[1075] Not. ad Libb. Capit. Lib. I. cap. 103. This derives additional probability from the text cited immediately above, relative to the substitution of this ordeal for the duel, which is given by Eckhardt from an apparently contemporary manuscript, and which, as we have seen, is attributed to Louis le Débonnaire in the very year of the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle. It is not a simple Capitulary, but an addition to the Salic Law, which invests it with much greater importance. Lindenbruck (Cod. Legum Antiq. p. 355) gives a different text, purporting likewise to be a supplement to the Law, made in 816, which prescribes the duel in doubtful cases between laymen, and orders the ordeal of the cross for ecclesiastical causes—“in Ecclesiasticis autem negotiis, crucis judicio rei veritas inquiratur”—and allows the same privilege to the “imbecillibus aut infirmis qui pugnare non valent.” Baluze’s collection contains nothing of the kind as enacted in 816, but under date of 819 there is a much longer supplement to the Salic law, in which cap. x. presents the same general regulations, almost verbatim, except that in ecclesiastical affairs the testimony of witnesses only is alluded to, and the _judicium crucis_ is altogether omitted. The whole manifestly shows great confusion of legislation.

[1076] Chart. Divisionis ann. 837, cap. 10.

[1077] Meyer, Recueil d’Anciens Textes, Paris, 1874, p. 12.

[1078] Sir John Shore, in Asiatic Researches, IV. 362.

[1079] Half an ounce, according to a formula in a MS. of the ninth century, printed by Dom Gerbert (Migne’s Patrolog. CXXXVIII. 1142).

[1080] Baluze II. 655.

[1081] Muratori, Antiq. Ital. Dissert. 38.—For three other formulas see _Fasciculus Rerum Expetendarum et Fugiendarum_, Ed. 1690, II. 910.

[1082] Martene de Antiq. Eccles. Ritibus Lib. III. c. vii. Ordo 15.

[1083] Decam. Giorn. VIII. Nov. 6.

[1084] This account, with unimportant variations, is given by Roger of Wendover, ann. 1054, Matthew of Westminster, ann. 1054, the Chronicles of Croyland, ann. 1053, Henry of Huntington, ann. 1053, and William of Malmesbury, Lib. II. cap. 13, which shows that the legend was widely spread and generally believed, although the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ann. 1052, and Roger de Hoveden, ann. 1053, in mentioning Godwin’s death, make no allusion to its being caused in this manner. A similar reticence is observable in an anonymous Life of Edward (Harleian MSS. 526, p. 408 of the collection in M. R. Series), and although this is perhaps the best authority we have for the events of his reign, still the author’s partiality for the family of Godwin renders him not altogether beyond suspicion.

No great effort of scepticism is requisite to suggest that Edward, tired of the tutelage in which he was held, may have made way with Godwin by poison, and then circulated among a credulous generation the story related by the annalists.

[1085] Lives of Edward the Confessor, p. 119 (M. R. Series).

[1086] Dooms of Ethelred, IX. § 22; Cnut. Eccles. Tit. v.

[1087] Alium examinis modum, nostro etiamnunc sæculo, sæpe malo modo usitatum.—Cod. Legum Antiq. p. 1418.

[1088] De Mirac. S. Benedicti. Lib. I. c. v.

[1089] Gesta Treverorum, continuat. I. (Migne’s Patrol. CLIV. 1205-6).

[1090] Ayeen Akbery, II. 498.

[1091] Ali Ibrahim Khan (Asiatic Researches, I. 391-2).

[1092] Lieut. Shaw in As. Researches, IV. 80.

[1093] Institutes of Vishnu, XIV.—Yajnavalkya, II. 112-13.

[1094] Vitodurani Chron. ann. 1336.

[1095] Roger of Wendover, ann. 1051.

[1096] Cæsar. Heisterbacens. Dial. Mirac. Dist. II. c. v.

[1097] Ibid. Dist. IX. c. xxxviii.

[1098] Baluz. et Mansi Miscell. II. 575.

[1099] Rod. Glabri Hist. Lib. V. cap. i.

[1100] Greg. Turon. Hist. Lib. X. cap. 8.

[1101] Dooms of Ethelred, X. § 20; Cnut. Eccles. Tit. V.

[1102] C. 23, 26 Caus. II. q. v.

[1103] Reginonis Continuat. ann. 941.

[1104] Dithmari Chron. Lib. II.