Chapter X: Decline of the Torture System (7)

[1105] Hist. Archiep. Bremens. ann. 1051.—Lambert. Hersfeld. ann. 1050.—Hartzheim. Concil. German. III. 112.

[1106] Regino ann. 869.—Annal. Bertiniani.

[1107] Helgaldi Epitome Vitæ Roberti Regis.

[1108] Duclos, Mémoire sur les Épreuves.

[1109] Lambert. Hersfeld. ann. 1077.

[1110] This anecdote rests on good authority. Peter Damiani states that he had it from Hildebrand himself (Opusc. XIX. cap. vi.), and Calixtus II. was in the habit of relating it (Pauli Bernried. Vit. Greg. VII. No. 11).

[1111] Bernald. Constant. Chron. ann. 1077.

[1112] Hugon. Flaviniac. Chron. Lib. II. ann. 1080.—Lambert. Hersfeld. ann. 1076.

[1113] Ciruelo, Reprovacion de las Supersticiones, P. II. cap. vii. Barcelona, 1628. The first edition appeared in 1539 at Salamanca.

[1114] Del Rio Disquis. Magic. L. IV. c. iv. q. 3.—P. Kluntz Dissert, de Probat. per S. Eucharist. Ulmæ, 1677.

[1115] Ayeen Akbery, II. 498. This form of ordeal is allowed for all the four castes.

[1116] Ali Ibrahim Khan (As. Researches I. 392).

[1117] “Sors enim non aliquid mali est, sed res est in dubitatione humana divinam indicans voluntatem.”—S. Augustini Enarrat. in Psal. XXX. Serm. ii. §13.—Gratian. c. I. Caus. XXVI. q. ii.—Gratian, however, gives an ample array of other authorities condemning it.

[1118] Ad ignem seu ad sortem se excusare studeat.—Tit. XXXI. § 5.

[1119] Pact. Childeberti et Chlotarii, ann. 593, § 5: “Et si dubietas est, ad sortem ponatur.” Also § 8: “Si litus de quo inculpatur ad sortem ambulaverit.” As in § 4 of the same document the _æneum_ or hot-water ordeal is provided for freemen, it is possible that the lot was reserved for slaves. This, however, is not observed in the Decret. Chlotarii, ann. 595, § 6, where the expression, “Si de suspicione inculpatur, ad sortem veniat,” is general in its application, without reservation as to station.

[1120] Ecgberti Excerpt. cap. lxxxiv. (Thorpe, II. 108).

[1121] Conc. Calchuth. can. 19 (Spelman. Concil. Brit. I. 300).

[1122] Leon. PP. IV. Epist. VIII. c. 4 (Gratian, c. 7. Caus. XXVI. q. v.).

[1123] L. Frision. Tit. XIV. §§ 1, 2. This may not improbably be derived from the mode of divination practised among the ancient Germans, as described by Tacitus, De Moribus German, cap. x.

[1124] Sullivan, _ap._ Pictet, Origines Indo-Européennes, III. 179.

[1125] When used for purposes of divining into the future, these practices were forbidden. Thus, as early as 465, the Council of Vannes denounced those who “sub nomine fictæ religionis quas sanctorum sortes vocant divinationis scientiam profitentur, aut quarumcumque scripturarum inspectione futura promittant,” and all ecclesiastics privy to such proceedings were to be expelled from the church (Concil. Venet. can. xvi.). This canon is repeated in the Council of Agde in 506, where the practice is denounced as one “quod maxime fidem catholicæ religionis infestat” (Conc. Agathens. can. xlii.); and a penitential of about the year 800 prescribes three years’ penitence for such acts.—Ghaerbaldi Judicia Sacerdotalia c. 29 (Martene Ampl. Coll. VII. 33).

[1126] Baldric. Lib. I. Chron. Camerac. cap. 21 (Du Cange, s. v. _Sors_).

[1127] Decret. Caus. XXVI. q. ii.

[1128] Concil. Barcinon. II. ann. 599 c. 3.

[1129] Goll, Quellen und Untersuchungen, II. 99-105.

[1130] Hist. Monast. de Abingdon. Lib. I. (M. R. Series I. 89).

[1131] Grimm’s Teutonic Mythology, Stallybrass’s Translation, p. 1109.

[1132] E. B. Tylor on Ordeals and Oaths (Macmillan’s Mag. July, 1876).

[1133] Patetta, Le Ordalie, p. 216.

[1134] Grimm’s Teutonic Mythology, pp. 1108-9. Grimm quotes Theocritus and Lucian to show that similar forms of divination with a sieve were familiar in classical antiquity.

[1135] Inderwick, Side-lights on the Stuarts, p. 152.

[1136] Patetta, Le Ordalie, p. 158.

[1137] Carena, Tractatus de Officio Sanctiss. Inquisit. P. II. Tit. xii. § xxii. In Carena’s first edition (Cremona, 1636) there is no allusion to the subject. His attention apparently was attracted to it by a case occurring at Cremona in 1636, where he was acting as criminal judge. In this, Gonsalvo de Cremona, the clerical governor of Cremona, applied to the Council of Milan in February for instructions and received an unsatisfactory reply. He returned to the charge in June and was effectually snubbed by the following:—

“Philippus IV. Hispaniarum Rex et Mediolani Dux.

“Dilectiss. Noster: satis fuit responsum litteris quas die 28 Febr. proxime præteriti scripsistis ad magnificum Senatus nostri præsidem de nece Juliæ Bellisellæ et Jo. Baptisti Vicecomitis, cujus ex vulneribus sanguis exivit in conspectu Vespasiani Schitii, non autem Gasparis Picenardi, pariter suspectorum eius facinoris. Igitur novissimis litteris quibus petiistis vobis dici quid de ea re sentiamus nihil est quod præterea respondeamus nisi ut meliora quæratis indicia et juxta ea procedatis ad expeditionem causæ, referendo referenda.

“Mediolani 3 Julii, 1636.”

[1138] Marsilii Ficini de Immortal. Animæ Lib. XVI. c. 5.—Del Rio, Magicarum Disquisit. Lib. I. cap. iii. Q. 4, ¶ 6.—C. C. Oelsner de Jure Feretri cap. I. § 6 (Jenæ, 1711).

The passage relied on has usually a much less decent significance ascribed to it—

“Idque petit corpus mens, unde ’st saucia amore:
Namque omnes plerumque cadunt in volnus et illam
Emicat in partem sanguis unde icimur ictu,
Et si cominus est hostem ruber occupat humor.”
De Rer. Nat. IV. 1041-44.

[1139] Gamal. ben Pedazhur’s Book of Jewish Ceremonies, London, 1738, p. 11.

[1140] Roger de Hoveden, ann. 1186; Roger of Wendover; Benedicti Abbatis Gesta Henricii II. ann. 1189.

[1141] Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.

[1142] Nam ut in homicidio occulto sanguis e cadavere, tangente homicida, erumpit, quasi cœlitus poscens ultionem.—Demonologiæ Lib. III. c. vi.

[1143] Scott’s notes to the ballad of Earl Richard.

[1144] Cobbett’s State Trials, XI. 1371.

[1145] Spottiswoode Miscellanies, II. 69.

[1146] Alphonsi de Spina Fortalicium Fidei Lib. III. consid. vii.

[1147] Vitodurani Chron. ann. 1331.

[1148] Swartii Chron. Ottbergensis § xlvii. (Paullini Antiq. Germ. Syntagma).

[1149] Val. Anshelm, Berner-Chronik, ann. 1503 (Bern, 1886, II. 393).

[1150] Oelsner de Jure Feretri c. iii. § 8. This little thesis was written in 1680. It seems to have met with approval, for it was reprinted in 1711 and 1735.

[1151] Oelsner _op. cit._ cap. iii. § 7. A variant of this story is told by Scott in his notes to the “Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border.” In this the bone chances to be fished up from a river, where it had lain for fifty years, and the murderer, then an old man, happens to touch it, when it streams with blood. He confesses the crime and is duly condemned.

[1152] Carena, _op. cit._ P. II. Tit. xii. § 22.

[1153] Oelsner, cap. iii. § 6. Joh. Christ. Nehring de Indiciis, Jenæ, 1714, p. 19.—Königswarter (_op. cit._ p. 183) tells us that this custom was observed also in the Netherlands and throughout the North.

[1154] Unde forte contingit ut occisi hominis vulnus etiam jacente cadavere, in eum qui vulneraverat, si modo ille comminus instet, vulnus ipsum inspiciens, sanguinem rursus ejiciat, quod quidem evenire nonnunquam Lucretius affirmavit et judices observarunt.—De Immortalitate Animæ Lib. XVI. c. 5.

[1155] Marsil. Pract. Criminal. (_ap._ Binsfeld, de Confess. Maleficar. pp. 111-12).

[1156] Carena, _loc. cit._

[1157] Patetta, Le Ordalie, p. 34.

[1158] Cujus rei rationem petunt e causis naturalibus et reddere conatur Petrus Apponensis; quæ qualescunque tandem hæ sint, constat evenisse sæpe, et magnis autoribus tradita exempla.—B. d’Agentré Comment, in Consuet. Britann. p. 145 (Ed. Antverp. 1644).

[1159] Carena, _loc. cit._—Oelsner, _op. cit._ c. iv. § 2.

[1160] Carena, _loc. cit._ A similar dramatic exhibition by a corpse is recorded in a case occurring in Germany in 1607.—Oelsner, c. iii. § 5.

[1161] I owe this account to the kindness of L. S. Joynes, M.D., of Richmond, who informs me that he found it while examining the Accomac County records.

[1162] Annual Register for 1767, pp. 144-5.

[1163] Dunglison’s Human Physiology, 8th Edition, II. 657.

[1164] Phila. Bulletin, April 19, 1860.—N. Y. World, June 5, 1868.—Phila. North American, March 29, 1869.

[1165] Oelsner, _op. cit._ cap. i. § 10; c. iii. § 8.

[1166] Malleus Maleficarum, Francof. 1580, pp. 21, 32.

[1167] Magicarum Disquisit. Lib. I. cap. iii. Q. 4, ¶ 6.

[1168] Tract. de Officio Sanctiss. Inquisit. P. II. Tit. xii. § 22.—“Sed utcunque sit certum est in judiciis passim fuisse practicatum indicium istud sanguinis emissi sufficere ad torturam si doctoribus nostris credendum est.”

[1169] De Jure Feretri, cap. ii.

[1170] Oelsner, _op. cit._ c. iv. §§ 2, 3. Cf. Zangeri Tract. de Quæstionibus cap. ii. n. 160.—It is perhaps worthy of remark that the earlier jurists made no allusion to it. Angelus Aretinus, Albertus de Gandavo, and Bonifacius de Vitellinis, in discussing the proofs requisite to justify torture, do not mention it.

[1171] As late as 1678, an anonymous _Praxis Criminalis_, printed at Altenburg, speaks of it as a recognized process, gives instructions as to the cautions requisite, and says the record must be sent to the magistrate (Ib. c. i. § 11).—In 1714, Nehring (De Indiciis, Jenæ, 1714, pp. 42-3) still quotes authorities in favor of its justifying torture, and feels obliged to argue at some length to demonstrate its inadequacy.

[1172] Martene de antiq. Ecclesiæ Ritibus, Lib. III. c. vii. Ordo 8, 16.

[1173] Hesiodi Theogonia, v. 794-806.

[1174] August. Epist. lxxviii. §§ 2, 3 (Ed. Benedict.).—“Ut quod homines invenire non possunt de quolibet eorum divino judicio propaletur.”

[1175] Decreti c. 6, Caus. II. q. v.—Gregor. PP. I. Homil XXXII. in Evangel. cap. 6.

Dr. Patetta (Ordalie, p. 15) informs us that in some parts of Piedmont it is still believed that a perjurer will die within the year.

[1176] Munionis Histor. Compostellan. Lib. I. cap. 2, § 2.

[1177] Gregor. Turon. De Gloria Martyrum cap. 58, 103.

[1178] Sancta enim adeo est, ut nullus, juramento super eam præstito, impune et sine periculo vitæ suæ possit affirmare mendacium.—Hist. Monast. Abing. Lib. I. c. xii. (M. R. Series).

[1179] Radulph. Tortarii Mirac. S. Benedicti cap. xxii. (Migne’s Patrol. T. CLX. p. 1210).

[1180] Gregor. Turon. de Glor. Confess. c. xxix.

[1181] Chambers’s Book of Days, I. 384.

[1182] Patetta, Le Ordalie, p. 34. In Tonga and Samoa false oaths taken on certain sacred articles are likewise believed to be followed by speedy death (Ib. p. 63).

[1183] Vit. S. Bertrandi Convenar. No. 26 (Martene Ampliss. Collect. VI. 1035).

[1184] Cæsar. Heisterbach. Dial. Mirac. Dist. IV. c. lviii.

[1185] Institutes of Vishnu XIII.—Yajnavalkya, II. 110-111. Yajnavalkya classes it among the ordeals reserved for the Sudra caste (Ib. II. 98).

[1186] Ayeen Akbery, II. 497.

[1187] Ali Ibrahim Khan (As. Researches, I. 391).

[1188] Wheeler’s India, III. 262.

[1189] Ali Ibrahim Khan, _ubi sup._

[1190] Fratricidas autem et parricidas sive sacerdotum interfectores ... per manum et ventrem ferratos de regno ejiciat ut instar Cain jugi et profugi circueant terram.—Leg. Bracilai Boæmor (Annal. Saxo ann. 1039). So also a century earlier for the murder of a chief.—Concil. Spalatens. ann. 927, can. 7 (Batthyani, I. 331).

[1191] De Successoribus S. Hidulfi cap. xviii. (Patrolog. CXXXVIII. p. 218). A similar case attested the sanctity of St. Mansuetus (Vit. S. Mansueti Lib. II. c. 17.—Martene et Durand. Thesaur. III. 1025).

[1192] Folcardi Mirac. S. Bertin. Lib. I. c. 4.

[1193] Batthyani, Legg. Eccles. Hung. T. I. p. 413. See also Mirac. S. Swithuni c. ii. § 32.—Mirac. S. Yvonis c. 21 (Patrol. CLV. 76, 91). Various other instances may be found in Muratori, Antiq. Med. Ævi, Diss. 23. Charlemagne seems to have considered it a deception to be restrained by law.—Car. Mag. cap. I. ann. 789, § lxxvii.

[1194] Martene de antiquis Ecclesiæ Ritibus Lib. I. cap. vi. art. 4 n. 12.

[1195] Cæsar. Heisterb. Dial. Mirac. Dist. XI. c. xxvii. xxix.

[1196] Greg. Turonens. Vitæ Patrum, Cap. viii. n. 10.

[1197] Bernald. Vit. S. Gerald. cap. xv. (Baluz et Mansi I. 134).

[1198] Socratis Hist. Eccles. Lib. I. c. 25.

[1199] Theodori Lector. H. E. Lib. II. When, about the year 500, St. Avitus bishop of Vienne was disputing with the Arians before King Gundobald, he offered to leave the decision as to the rival faiths to Heaven by both parties going to the tomb of St. Justus and appealing to him, but the Arians prudently refused to imitate Saul and practise necromantic arts.—Collatio Episcoporum coram R. Gundebaldo (Migne’s Patrologia, LIX. 391).

[1200] Remberti Vit. St. Anscharii c. xvi. (Langebek I. 458-9).

[1201] Gesta Consul. Andegavens. c. iii. § 16 (D’Achery III. 241).

[1202] Cæsar. Heisterbach Dial. Mirac. Dist. VIII. c. lxxiii.

[1203] Legendæ de S. Olavo (Langebek II. 551-2).

[1204] Pet. Damian. Opusc. LVII. Diss. ii. c. 3, 4.

[1205] Conc. Roman. ann. 904 (898) c. 1 (Harduin. VI. I. 487).—Liutprand. Antapodos. Lib. I. c. 30, 31.

[1206] Patetta, Le Ordalie, p. 218.

[1207] Wieri de Præstigiis Dæmonum, pp. 589-90.

[1208] That this was a settled practice is shown by its existence in the earliest text of the law (Tit. LVI.) as well as in the latest (L. Emend. Tit. LIX.).

[1209] Si aufugerit et ordalium vitaverit, solvat plegius compellanti captale suum et regi weram suum.—L. Cnuti Sæc. cap. xxx.—See also cap. xli.

[1210] Et eligat accusatus alterutrum quod velit, sive simplex ordalium, sive jusjurandum unius libre in tribus hundredis super xxx. den.—L. Henrici I. cap. LXV. § 3. By the municipal codes of Germany, a choice between the various forms of ordeal was sometimes allowed to the accused who was sentenced to undergo it.—Jur. Provin. Alaman. cap. xxxvii. §§ 15, 16. Jur. Provin. Saxon. Lib. I. Art. 39.

[1211] Dooms of Ethelstan, I. cap. 21.

[1212] First Text, Tit. LIII. and L. Emend. Tit. LV.

[1213] Jura primæva Moraviæ, Brunæ, 1781, p. 27.

[1214] Yajnavalkya, II. 96.

[1215] Institutes of Vishnu, IX. 18-19.

[1216] Yajnavalkya, II. 22.

[1217] Leg. Frision. Tit. III. c. 8, 9.

[1218] Guthrunarkvida Thridja, 9, 10 (Thorpe’s Elder Edda, pp. 106-7).

[1219] Roberti Pulli Sententt. Lib. VI. cap. liv. (Migne’s Patrologia, T. CLXXXVI. p. 905).

[1220] Si certa probatio non fuerit.—L. Sal. Tit. XIV. XVI. (MS. Guelferbyt). The same is found in the Pact. Childeberti et Chlotarii § 5.—Decret. Chlotarii II. ann. 595, § 6.—Capit. Carol. Calvi, ann. 873, cap. 3, 7.—Cnuti Constit. de Foresta § 11: “Sed purgatio ignis nullatenus admittatur nisi ubi nuda veritas nequit aliter investigari.”—In the customs of Tournay in 1187, when a man has been wounded and has no witnesses the accused can clear himself with six conjurators if the affair occurred in the daytime, but if at night he is forced to the cold-water ordeal (Consuet. Tornacens. § ii. _ap._ D’Achery, Spicileg. III. 551). Horne’s Myrror of Justice, cap. III. Sect. 23: “En case ou battaille ne se poit joindre ne nul tesmognage n’avoit lieu ... e le actor n’ad point de testmoignes a prover sa action, adonque estoit en le volunt del deffendant a purger sa fame per le miracle de Dieu.” Yet in an English case of murder early in the thirteenth century, the accused was found with the murdered man’s cap and the knife with which he had been slain, and the whole vicinage testified to it, yet he was allowed to purge himself with the water ordeal.—Maitland, Pleas, etc., p. 80.

[1221] Ruskaia Prawda, art. 28. Even the evidence of a slave was sufficient to condemn the accused to the red-hot iron. If he escaped, the accuser paid him a small fine, which was not required if the witnesses had been freemen. In all cases of acquittal, however, there were fines payable to the sovereign and to the ministers of justice.

[1222] Et omnis accusator vel qui alium impetit, habeat optionem quid velit, sive judicium aque vel ferri ... et si fugiet (accusatus) ab ordalio, reddat eum plegius wera sua.—Ethelr. Tit. III. c. vi. (Thorpe II. 516).

[1223] Thus, in the Icelandic code—“Quodsi reus ferrum candens se gerere velle obtulerit, hoc minime rejiciatur.”—Grágás, Sect. VI. c. 33. So in the laws of Bruges in 1190 (§ 31), we find the accused allowed to choose between the red-hot iron and a regular inquest—“Qui de palingis inpetitur, si ad judicium ardentis ferri venire noluerit, veritatem comitis qualem melius super hoc inveniri poterit, accipiet” (Warnkönig, Hist. de la Fland. IV. 372)—showing that it was considered the most absolute of testimony. And in a constitution of Frederic Barbarossa “Si miles rusticum de violata pace pulsaverit ... de duobus unum rusticus eligat, an divino aut humano judicio innocentiam suam ostendat.”—Feudor. Lib. II. Tit. xxvii. § 3.

[1224] Thus an anonymous ecclesiastic, in an epistle quoted by Juretus (Observat. in Ivon. Carnot. Epist. 74)—“Simoniaci non admittuntur ad judicium, si probabiles personæ, etiam laicorum, vel feminarum, pretium se ab eis recipisse testantur; nec aliud est pro manifestis venire ad judicium nisi tentare Dominum.”

[1225] Duellum vel judicium candentis ferri, vel aquæ ferventis, vel alia canonibus vel legibus improbata, nullomodo in curia Montispessulani rati sunt, nisi utraque pars convenerit.—Statut. Montispess. ann. 1204 (Du Cange).

[1226] Si accolis de neutrius jure constat, adeoque hac in re testimonium dicere non queant, tum judicio aquæ res decidatur.—Jur. Provin. Alaman. cap. cclxxviii. § 5.—Poterit enim alteruter eorum petere probationem per aquam (wasser urteyll) nec Dominus nec adversarius detrectare possit; sed non, nisi quum per testes probatio fieri nequit.—Jur. Feud. Alaman. cap. lxxvii. § 2.

“Aut veritas reperiatur de hoc per aquaticum Dei judicium. Tamen judicium Dei non est licitum adhiberi per ullam causam, nisi cujus veritas per justitiam non potest aliter reperiri, hoc terminabitur judicio Dei.”—Jur. Feud. Saxon. § 100 (Senckenberg. Corp. Jur. Feud. German. p. 249).—So, also, in a later text, “judicium Domini fervida aqua vel ferro non licet in causa aliqua experiri, nisi in qua modis aliis non poterit veritas indagari.”—Cap. xxiv. § 19 (Ibid. p. 337).

[1227] Établissements de Normandie, Tit. de Prison (Éd. Marnier). Precisely similar to this was a regulation in the early Bohemian laws.—Bracilai Leges. (Patrol. CLI., 1258-9). And an almost identical provision is found in the Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence.—L. Cnuti Sæc. cap. xxxv.—L. Henric. I. cap. lxi. § 5.—See, also, Assises de Jerusalem, Baisse Court, cclix.

[1228] Batthyany, Legg. Eccles. Hung. II. 105.

[1229] Et qui inveniatur per sacramentum prædictorum rettatus vel publicatus quod fuerit robator vel murdrator vel latro vel receptor eorum, postquam dominus rex fuit rex, capiatur et eat ad juisiam aquæ.—Assisa de Clarenduna § 2 (Stubbs, Select Charters, p. 137). For examples, see Maitland, Pleas, pp. 3, 4, 5, etc.

[1230] Maitland, Pleas, etc., I. 1. P. 75 is a case of a youth detained in prison and sent to the ordeal apparently without a trial.

[1231] Ruskaia Prawda, Art. 28.

[1232] Maitland, Pleas, etc., I. 10.

[1233] Hincmari Capit. Synod. ann. 852, II. xxi.

[1234] Hincmari Epist. xxxiv.

[1235] Capit. Car. Mag. ann. 794, § 7.

[1236] Se juratores non potuerit invenire, aut ad ineum ambulat aut, etc.—MS. Guelferbyt. Tit. XIV.

[1237] Quod si ... juratores invenire non potuerit, ad ignem seu ad sortem se excusare studeat.—L. Ripuar. Tit. xxxi. § 5.

[1238] Dooms of Edward the Elder, cap. iii. So also in the laws of William the Conqueror, Tit. I. cap. xiv.—“Si sen escundira sei duzime main. E si il auer nes pot, si sen defende par juise.” The collection known by the name of Henry I. has a similar provision, cap. lxvi. § 3.

[1239] Radevic. de Reb. Frid. Lib. I. cap. xxvi. This was an old feature of the Barbarian codes which continued till late in the Middle Ages. See _ante_, p. 22.

[1240] Concil. Tribur. ann. 895, can. xxii.

[1241] Yajnavalkya, II. 99.

[1242] Chart. Commun. Laudun. (Baluz. et Mansi IV. p. 39).

[1243] Consuetud. Tornacens. § iii. (D’Achery III. 551). See above, p. 54.

[1244] Ut deinceps non sint digni juramento sed ordalio.—Legg. Edwardi cap. iii.; Æthelredi cap. i. § 1; Cnuti Sæcul cap. xxii. xxx.; Henrici I. cap. lxv. § 3.

[1245] Capit. Car. Mag. I. ann. 809, cap. xxviii.—Capit Ludov. Pii. I. ann. 819.

[1246] Burchardi Decret. Lib. XVI. cap. 19.

[1247] Keure de la Châtellenie de Bruges, § 28 (Warnkönig, Hist. de la Fland. IV. 371).

[1248] Jur. Provin. Alaman. cap. clxxxvi. §§ 4, 6, 7; cap. ccclxxiv.—Jur. Provin. Saxon. Lib. I. Art. 39.—Sachsische Weichbild, Art. xcii. § 2.—Richstich Landrecht, cap. lii.

[1249] Si non fuere provada por mala, que aya yazido con cinco omes.—Fuero de Baeça (Villadiego, Fuero Juzgo, fol. 317 _a_).

[1250] Capit. Car. Mag. III. ann. 813, cap. 46.

[1251] Concil. Mogunt. ann. 847, can. xxiv.—Burchardi Decret. Lib. XVI. cap. 19.—Keure de Gand, §§ 7, 8, 12 (Warnkönig, II. 228).

The law of William the Conqueror (Tit. II. c. 3.—Thorpe, I. 488) by which the duel was reserved for the Norman, and the vulgar ordeal for the Saxon, might be supposed to arise from a similar distinction. In reality, however, it was only preserving the ancestral customs of the races, giving to the defendant the privilege of his own law. The duel was unknown to the Anglo-Saxons, who habitually employed the ordeal, while the Normans, previous to the Conquest, according to Houard, who is good authority (Anc. Loix Franc. I. 221-222), only appealed to the sword.

[1252] Martene de Antiq. Eccl. Ritibus Lib. III. c. vii. Ord. 6. For the beliefs connected with mortuary masses see Concil. Toletan XVII. ann. 694 c. 5; D’Argentré Collect. Judic. de novis Error. I. II. 344; Angeli de Clavasio Summa Angelica s. v. _Interrogationes_; Diaz de Luco, Practica Criminalis Canonica cap. xxxv.; Grillandi de Sortilegiis q. xiv.

[1253] The severity of the ordeal, when the sufferer had no friends among the operators to save him, may be deduced from the description of a hand when released from its three days’ tying up after its plunge in hot water: “inflatam admodum et excoriatam sanieque jam carne putrida effluentem dexteram invitus ostendit” (Du Cange, s. v. _Aquæ Ferv. Judicium_). In this case, the sufferer was the adversary of an abbey, the monks of which perhaps had the boiling of the caldron.

[1254] L. Wisig. L. VI. Tit. i. § 3.

[1255] Ivon. Carnot. Epist. 74; Ejusd. Decr. X. 27.—C. 20 Decr. Caus. II. q.v.

This epistle is generally attributed to Stephen V., but two MSS. of Ivo of Chartres ascribe it to Sylvester II. (Migne’s Patrologia CLXII. 96).

[1256] Concil. Basol. cap. xi. Rainer, private secretary of Arnoul, offered to prove his statement by giving up a slave to walk the burning ploughshares in evidence of his truth (Ibid. cap. xxx.).

[1257] Yajnavalkya, II. 99.

[1258] Wharton and Stillé’s Med. Jurisp., 2d Edit. 1860.

[1259] Michelet, Origines du Droit, p. 349.—Proost, Jugements de Dieu, p. 80. This seems to be derived from the _skirsla_ of the Norsemen described above.

[1260] London Athenæum, Aug. 20, 1881, p. 247.

[1261] Polyptichum Irminonis, App. No. 34 (Paris, 1836, p. 373).

[1262] Martene, De Antiq. Eccles. Ritibus Lib. III. cap. vii. Ordo 5.

[1263] Patetta, Le Ordalie, p. 192.

[1264] Hincmari Remens. Epist. XXII. (Migne’s Patrol. CXXVI. 136).

[1265] Quod si accusatus contendere voluerit de ipso perjurio stent ad crucem.... Hoc vero de minoribus rebus. De majoribus vero, aut de statu ingenuitatis, secundum legem custodiant.—Capit. Car. Mag. ann. 779, § 10. That this was respected as law in force, nearly a hundred years later, is shown by its being included in the collection of Capitularies by Benedict the Levite (Lib. V. cap. 196).

[1266] Ut omnes judicio Dei credant absque dubitatione.—Capit. Car. Mag. I. ann. 809, § 20.

[1267] Aimoini Chron. Continuat. Lib. V. c. 34.

[1268] Assisa facta apud Clarendune §§ 12, 13, 14 (Gesta Henrici II. T. II. p. clii.—M. R. Series). A case in accordance with this occurs in 1212 (Maitland, Pleas, I. 63).

[1269] Gesta Henrici II. T. I. p. 108.—Cf. Bracton. Lib. III. Tract, ii. cap. 16 § 3.

[1270] Simili modo, cauterium militis nullum tibi certum præbet argumentum, cum per examinationem ferri candentis occulto Dei judicio multos videamus nocentes liberatos, multos innocentes sæpe damnatos.—Ivon. Carnot. Epist. cccv.

[1271] Pet. Cantor. Verb. Abbreviat. c. lxxviii.

[1272] Vit. Carol. Comit. Flandren. cap. xx.

[1273] Collin de Plancy, op. cit. S. V. _Fer Chaud_.

[1274] Cæsar. Heisterbach. Dial. Mirac. Dist. X. c. xxxv.

[1275] Ciruelo, Reprovacion de las Supersticiones, P. II. c. vii.

[1276] Othlon. Narrat. de Mirac. quod nuper accidit, &c. (Migne’s Patrol. CXLVI. 243-4).

[1277] Polyptichum Irminonis, App. No. 20 (Paris, 1836, p. 354).

[1278] Olaf Haraldssons Saga, cxlv. (Laing’s Heimskringla, II. 210).

[1279] Enimvero mirum fuit ultra modum, quod fautores arsuram et inflationem conspiciebant; criminatores ita sanam ejus videbant palmam, quasi penitus fulvum non tetigisset ferrum.—Mirac. S. Swithuni c. ii. § 37. In this case the patient was a slave, whose master had vowed to give him to the Church in case he escaped.

[1280] Ad utramque partem sint ternas personas electas, ne conludius fieri possit.—Decret. Chlotharii II. cap. VII.

[1281] Ethelred, III. § 4.

[1282] Synod. Zaboles can. 27 (Batthyani, Legg. Eccles. Hung. T. I. p. 439).

[1283] Martene de Antiq. Eccl. Ritibus Lib. III. c. vii. Ordo 1.

[1284] Statut. Wilhelmi Regis cap. 7 § 3 (Skene II. 4).

[1285] Ibid. cap. 16.

[1286] Maitland, Pleas of the Crown, I. 75.

[1287] Nam criminosos eodem chrismate unctos aut potatos nequaquam ullo examine deprehendi posse a multis putatur.—C. Turonens. III. ann. 813 c. 20 (Harduin. IV. 1026).

[1288] Capit. Car. Mag. II. ann. 809.—Capitul. Lib. III. c. 55.—Reginon. de Discip. Ecclesiæ I. 73.

[1289] Reginon. _op. cit._ I. 72.—Burchardi Decret. IV. 80.—Ivon. Carnot. Decret. I. 274.

[1290] Martene de Antiq. Ritibus Ecclesiæ Lib. III. c. vii. Ordo 8. So in a ninth century exorcism of the hot water—“et si culpabilis de hac causa est et aliqua maleficia aut per herbas peccatum suum tegere voluerit tua dextera evacuare dignetur.”—Patetta, Archivio Giuridico, Vol. XLV.

[1291] Martene, _loc. cit._ Ord. 10, 18.

[1292] Du Cange, s. v. _Ferrum candens_.

[1293] Experimentum mirabile quod facit homines ire in ignem sine læsione, vel portare ignem vel ferrum ignitum sine læsione in manu. Recipe succum bismalvæ et albumen ovi et semen psilli et calcem et pulveriza et confice; cum illo albumine ovi succum raphani commisce et ex hac confectione illinas corpus tuum et manum et dimitte siccari; et postea iterum illinas et post hoc poteris audacter sustinere ignem sine nocumento.—Alb. Mag. de Miraculis Mundi (Binterim, Denkwürdigkeiten der Christ-Katholischen Kirche, Bd. V. Th. iii. p. 70).

[1294] The “Liber adversus Legem Gundobadi” and “Liber contra Judicium Dei.”

[1295] Concil. Salisburg. I. can. ix. (Dalham Concil. Salisburg. p. 35).

[1296] Ahytonis Capitular, cap. xxi. (D’Achery I. 585).

[1297] Capit. Carol. Calvi Tit. XI. c. iii. (Baluze).

[1298] Concil. Turon. ann. 925 (Martene et Durand Thes. T. IV. pp. 72-3).

[1299] Annalist. Saxo. ann. 1028.

[1300] Höfler, Concilia Pragensia, p. xiv. Prag. 1862.

[1301] Burchardi Decret. Lib. XIX. c. 5 (Migne’s Patrologia CXL. p. 973).—Corrector Burchardi cap. 155 (Wasserschleben, Bussordnungen der abenländischen Kirche, p. 660).

[1302] Batthyani, Legg. Eccles. Hung. II. 126.

[1303] Examinati judicio aquæ mendaces inventi sunt ... aqua eos non suscipiente.—In Cantica, Sermon. 66 cap. 12.

[1304] De Vita Sua Lib. III. cap. 18.

[1305] Concil. Remens. ann. 1157, can. 1 (Martene Ampl. Coll. VII. 75).

[1306] Hist. Vizeliacens. Lib. IV. (D’Achery Spicileg. II. 560).

[1307] Godefridi S. Pantaleon. Annal. ann. 1172 (Freher et Struv. Rer. German. Scriptt. I. 340).

[1308] Pet. Cantor. Verb. Abbreviat. cap. lxxviii. (Patrol. CCV. 230).

[1309] Cæsar. Heisterbach. Dial. Mirac. Dist. III. c. xvi. xvii.

[1310] Döllinger, Beiträge zur Sektengeschichte des Mittelalters, München, 1890, II. 621, 622.

[1311] Theodericus Abbas Vice-Comitem adiit paratus aut calidi ferri judicio secundum legem monachorum per suum hominem probare, aut scuto et baculo secundum legem secularium deffendere.—Annal. Benedict. L. 57, No. 74, ann. 1036 (_ap._ Houard, Loix Anc. Franç. I. 267).

[1312] Judicium ferri igniti et aquæ ferventis Abrincis portaretur, si clerici lapsi in culpam degradationis forte invenirentur.—Chart. Joan. Abrinc. (Patrolog. CXLVII. 266).

[1313] Ivon. Carnot. Epist. ccxxxii. ccxlix. cclii.

[1314] C. Remens. ann. 1119 (Harduin. VI. 1986).—Hildeberti Cenomanens. Epist. (D’Achery Spicileg. III. 456).

[1315] Gemma Animæ, Lib. 1 cap. 181. At least this is the only reading which will make the passage intelligible—“Horum officium est ... vel nuptias vel arma, vel peras, vel baculos vel judicia ferre et aquas vel candelas ... benedicere,” where “ferre et aquas” is evidently corrupt for “ferri et aquæ.”

[1316] Hoc autem utrum ad omnia genera purgationis, an ad hæc duo tantum, quæ hic prohibita esse videntur, pertineat, non immerito dubitatur propter sacrificium zelotypiæ, et illud Gregorii.—C. 20, caus. II. q. v.

[1317] Ordo ad Frigidam Aquam, etc. (Pez, Thesaur. Anecd. T. II. P. II. p. 635).

[1318] Ivon. Decret. X. 15.

[1319] Dialog. Ecbert. Ebor. Interrog. III. (Thorpe, II. 88).

[1320] Abbon. Floriac. Epist. viii.

[1321] Ivon. Carnotens. Epist. lxxiv.

[1322] I have treated this matter in some detail in “Studies in Church History,” pp. 69-74, 190 sqq.

[1323] Du Cange, s. v. _Adramire._

[1324] Revue Hist. de Droit, 1861, p. 478.

[1325] Decret. Coloman. c. 11 (Batthyani T. I. p. 454).

[1326] Lagrèze, Hist. du Droit dans les Pyrénées, p. 246.

[1327] “Presbyter de ferro duas pensas et de aqua unam pensam accipiat.” Synod. Zabolcs. ann. 1092 can. 27 (Batthyani I. 439). Another reading makes the fee equal for both (Ib. II. 101).

[1328] Jura Primæva Moraviæ, Brunæ, 1781, p. 26.

[1329] Pet. Cantor. Verb. Abbreviat. cap. xxiv.

[1330] Orderic. Vital. Lib. V. cap. v.

[1331] Leg. Scanicar. Lib. VII. cap. 99 (Ed. Thorsen, p. 171). There is another provision that in certain cases of murder the accused could not be compelled to undergo the ordeal of the red-hot ploughshares unless the accuser was supported by twelve conjurators, when, if the accused was successful each of the twelve was obliged to pay him three marks, and the same sum to the priest.—Ib. L. V. c. 58 (p. 140). It was scarcely intelligible why these ordeals were not allowed to be performed in any week in which there was a church-feast (Ibid. p. 170-1).

[1332] Post. Concil. Lateran. P. II. cap. 3, 11.

[1333] Holophernicos.... Presbyteros, qui animas hominum carissime appreciatas vendant; fœminas nudatas aquis immergi impudicis oculis curiose perspiciant, aut grandi se pretio redimere cogant.—De Casibus S. Galli cap. xiv.

[1334] Alex. PP. III. Epist. 74.

[1335] Alex. PP. III. Epist. (Harduin. VI. II. 1439).

[1336] Pet. Cantor. Verb. Abbreviat. cap. lxxviii.

[1337] Hermanni Opusc. de sua Conversione c. 5 (Migne, CLXX. 814).

[1338] Anon. Libell, adversus Errores Alberonis (Martene Ampl. Coll. IX. 1265).

[1339] C. 8 Extra V. xxxiv.

[1340] Can. 10 Extra V. 31.

[1341] Innoc. PP. III. Regest. XIV. 138.—Yet abundant miracles in Strassburg testified to the divine favor in these trials.—Cæsar. Hiesterbac. Dist. III. c. 16, 17.

[1342] Nec ... quisquam purgationi aquæ ferventis vel frigidæ, seu ferri candentis ritum cujuslibet benedictionis seu consecrationis impendat.—Concil Lateran. can. 18. In 1227, the Council of Trèves repeated the prohibition, but only applied it to the red-hot iron ordeal. “Item. nullus sacerdos candens ferrum benedicat.”—Concil. Trevirens. ann. 1227, cap. ix.

[1343] Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1215.

[1344] Vulgaris purgatio est quæ a vulgo est inventa, ut ferri candentis, aquæ ferventis vel frigidæ, panis vel casei, monomachiæ id est duelli et ceteræ hujusmodi: sed ista hodie in totum reprobata est et maledicta, tum quia inventa est a diabolo fabricante.—S. Raymundi Summæ Lib. III. Tit. xxxi. § 1.

[1345] Ergo hujusmodi judicia sunt penitus reprobanda et purgatio per talia.—Alex. de Ales Summæ P. III. Q. xlvi. Membr. 3.

[1346] Hostiensis Aureæ; Summæ Lib. V. _De Purg. Vulg._ § 3.

[1347] Joh. Friburgens. Summæ Confessorum Lib. III. Tit. xxxi. Q. 2, 3.

[1348] Astesani de Ast Summæ de Casibus Conscientiæ, P. I. Lib. I. Tit. xiv.

[1349] Sachsenspiegel, ed. Ludovici, 1720, p. 619.

[1350] Fontanon, IV. 942.

[1351] Rymer, Fœd. I. 228.

[1352] Prohibitum est judicium quod fieri consuevit per ignem et per aquam.—Mat. Westmon. ann. 1250.

[1353] De cetero non fiat judicium per aquam vel ferrum, ut consuetum fuit antiquis temporibus.—Statut. Alex. II. cap. 7 § 3. There is some obscurity about this provision owing to variants in the MSS., but Mr. Neilson holds (Trial by Combat, p. 113;) that there can be little doubt that it abolished the ordeal wholly.

[1354] Leges quæ a quibusdam simplicibus sunt dictæ paribiles ... præsentis nostri nominis sanctionis edicto in perpetuum inhibentes omnibus regni nostri judicibus, ut nullus ipsas leges paribiles, quæ absconsæ a veritate deberent potius nuncupari, aliquibus fidelibus nostris indicet.... Eorum etinim sensum non tam corrigendum duximus quam ridendum, qui naturalem candentis ferri calorem tepescere, imo (quod est stultius) frigescere, nulla justa causa superveniente, confidunt; aut qui reum criminis constitutum, ob conscientiam læsam tantum asserunt ab aquæ frigidæ elemento non recipi, quem submergi potius aeris competentis retentio non permittit.—Constit. Sicular. Lib. II. Tit. 31. This last clause would seem to allude to some artifice of the operators by which the accused was prevented from sinking in the cold-water ordeal when a conviction was desired.

This common sense view of the miracles so generally believed is the more significant as coming from Frederic, who, a few years previously, was ferociously vindicating with fire and sword the sanctity of the Holy Seamless Coat against the aspersions of unbelieving heretics. See his Constitutions of 1221 in Goldastus, Const. Imp. I. 293-4.

[1355] Statut. MSS. Caroli I. cap. xxii. (Du Cange, s. v. _Lex Parib._).

[1356] Königswarter, _op. cit._ p. 176.

[1357] Emon. Chron. ann. 1219 (Matthæi Analect. III. 72).

[1358] Issued in 1323.

[1359] Cod. Leg. Norman. P. II. c. X. §§ 2, 3 (Ludewig, Reliq. Mictorum. VII. 292). It is a little singular that the same phrase is retained in the authentic copy of the Coutumier, in force until the close of the sixteenth century.—Anc. Cout. de Normandie, c. 77 (Bourdot de Richebourg. IV. 32).

[1360] C. iii. Extra, Lib. V. Tit. xxxv.—As embodied in the Decretals of Gregory IX. this canon omits a clause indicating how great was the detestation of the people for the ordeal thus imposed on them—“quare conversis et convertendis scandalum incutiunt et terrorem.”—Quint. Compilat. Honorii III. Lib. IV. Tit. xiv.

[1361] Batthyani, Legg. Eccles. Hung. T. II. p. 436.—Hartzheim, IV. 27.

[1362] Rogeri Bacon Epist. de Secretis Operibus Artis c. ii. (M. R. Series I. 526).

[1363] Richstich Landrecht, cap. LII. The same provisions are to be found in a French version of the Speculum Suevicum, probably made towards the close of the fourteenth century for the use of the western provinces of the Empire.—Miroir de Souabe, P. I. c. xlviii. (Éd. Matile, Neufchatel, 1843).

[1364] Villaneuva, Viage Literario, XXII. 288.—Du Cange, s. vv. _Ferrum candens_, _Batalia_.

[1365] Coleccion de Cédulas, etc., Madrid, 1830, Tom. V. p. 142.

[1366] Memorial Histórico Español, Madrid, 1850, Tom. I. p. 47.

[1367] Concil. Palentin. ann. 1322, can. xxvi.

[1368] Non es tenuda la parte de probar lo que niega porque non lo podrie facer.—Las Siete Partidas, P. III. Tit. xiv. l. 1.

[1369] S. Antonini Confessionale.

[1370] Angeli de Clavasio Summa Angelica s. v. _Interrogationes_. The contemporary Baptista de Saulis speaks of ordeals in the present tense when saying that all concerned in them are guilty of mortal sin.—Summa Rosella, s. v. _Purgatio_.

[1371] Patetta, Le Ordalie, p. 450.

[1372] Plees del Corone, chap. xv. (quoted in 1 Barnewall & Alderson, 433).

[1373] Ciruelo, Reprovacion de las Supersticiones. P. II. cap. vii. Salamanca, 1539.

[1374] Aventini Annal. Boior. Lib. IV. c. xiv. n. 31.

[1375] When, in 1692, Jacques Aymar attracted public attention to the miracles of the diving-rod, he was called to Lyons to assist the police in discovering the perpetrators of a mysterious murder, which had completely baffled the agents of justice. Aided by his rod, he traced the criminals, by land and water, from Lyons to Beaucaire, where he found in prison a man whom he declared to be a participant, and who finally confessed the crime. In 1703 Marshal Montrevel and the intendant Baville made use of Aymar to discover Calvinists, of whom numbers were condemned on the strength of his revelations (Patetta, Le Ordalie, p. 33). Aymar was at length proved to be merely a clever charlatan, but the mania to which he gave rise lasted through the eighteenth century, and nearly at its close his wonders were rivalled by a brother sharper, Campetti. The belief in the powers of the divining-rod has not yet died out, and it is frequently used to discover oil wells, springs, mines, etc.

A good account of Aymar’s career and the discussion to which it gave rise may be found in Prof. Rubio y Diaz’s “Estudios sobre la Evocacion de los Espiritus,” Cadiz, 1860, pp. 116-28.

[1376] Diod. Sicul. 1. lxxv.—Sir Gardiner Wilkinson (Ancient Egyptians, Vol. II.) figures several of these little images.

[1377] See the translation of the Amherst Papyrus by Chabas, Mélanges Égyptologiques, III.^e Serie, T. II. p. 17 (Sept. 1873). The interpretation of the groups relating to the hands and feet is conjectural, but they unquestionably signify some kind of violence. M. Chabas qualifies this passage as highly important, being the first evidence that has reached us of the judicial use of torture in Egypt. The question has been a debated one, but the previous evidence adduced was altogether inconclusive.

[1378] Lenormant, Man. de l’Hist. Ancienne de l’Orient, II. 141.

[1379] Herod. I. 116.

[1380] Behistun Inscription, col. II. 25-6 (Records of the Past, VII. 98-99). It is worthy of remark that this Medic version of the Inscription is more circumstantial as to these inflictions than the Persian text translated by Rawlinson (Records I. 118-19).

[1381] Manu, Bk. VIII.—Institutes of Vishnu, VI. 23, VIII. IX.—Ayeen Akbery, Tit. Beyhar, Vol. II. p. 494—Halhed’s Code of Gentoo Laws, chap. xviii.

[1382] Albany Law Journal, 1879.

[1383] Lib. III. cap. iii.

[1384] Aristophanes (_Ranæ_, 617) recapitulates most of the processes in vogue.

_Aiachos._ καὶ πῶς βασανίζω?

_Xanthias._ πάντα τρόπον, ἐν κλίμακι
δήσας, κρεμάσας, ὑστριχίδι μαστιγῶν, δέρων,
στρεβλῶν, ἔτι δ’είς τὰς ῥῖνας ὅζος ἐγχέων,
πλίνθους ἐπιτιθείς, παντα τἄλλα.

The best summary I have met with of the Athenian laws of torture is in Eschbach’s “Introduction à l’Étude du Droit,” § 268.

[1385] Sueton. August. xxii.

[1386] Sueton. Tiberii lxii.

[1387] Ibid. Caii xxxii.—Claud. xxxiv.

[1388] Ibid. Tiber. lviii.

[1389] Tacit. Annal. XV. xliv.

[1390] Lactant. de Mortib. Persecut. cap. xiii.

[1391] Tormentorum genera inaudita excogitabantur (Ibid. cap. xv.).—When the Christians were accused of an attempt to burn the imperial palace, Diocletian “ira inflammatus, excarnificari omnes suos protinus præcipit. Sedebat ipse atque innocentes igne torrebat” (Ibid. cap. xiv.).—Lactantius, or whoever was the real author of the tract, addresses the priest Donatus to whom it is inscribed: “Novies etiam tormentis cruciatibusque variis subjectus, novies adversarium gloriosa confessione vicisti.... Nihil adversus te verbera, nihil ungulæ, nihil ignis, nihil ferrum, nihil varia tormentorum genera valuerunt” (Ibid. cap. xvi.). Ample details may be found in Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. Lib. V. c. 1, VI. 39, 41, VIII. passim, Lib. Martyrum; and in Cyprian, Epist. X. (Ed. Oxon. 1682).

[1392] Tacit. Annal. XV. lvi. lvii.

[1393] L. 10 § 6, Dig. XLVIII. xviii.

[1394] L. 12, Dig. XLVIII. xviii. (Ulpian.).

[1395] Const. 8 Cod. IX. xli. (Dioclet. et Maxim.).

[1396] Const. 11 Cod. IX. xli.

[1397] Ibid. § 1.

[1398] Const. 16 Cod. IX. xli.

[1399] Const. 8 Cod. I. 3.

[1400] Const. 4 Cod. IX. viii.

[1401] Dion. Cass. Roman. Hist. Lib. LX. (Ed. 1592, p. 776).

[1402] Sueton. Domit. cap. viii. To Domitian the historian also ascribes the invention of a new and infamously indecent kind of torture (Ibid. cap. x.).

[1403] Const. 3 Cod. IX. xli.

[1404] Const. 31 Cod. IX. ix.

[1405] Const. 7 Cod. IX. viii.

[1406] Novell. CXVII. cap. xv. § 1.

[1407] Hieron. Epist. I. ad Innocent.

[1408] Const. 17 Cod. IX. ii.—Const. 10 Cod. IX. xlvi.

[1409] Const. 3 Cod. IX. viii.

[1410] Acts, XXII. 24 sqq.

[1411] L. 21 § 2, Dig. XXII. v.

[1412] Novell. XC. cap. i. § 1.

[1413] Quæstiones neque semper in omni causa et persona desiderari debere arbitror; et cum capitalia et atrociora maleficia non aliter explorari et investigari possunt, quam per servorum quæstiones, efficacissimas esse ad requirendam veritatem existimo et habendas censeo.—L. 8, Dig. XLVIII. xviii. (Paulus).

[1414] L. 9, Dig. XLVIII. xviii. (Marcianus).

[1415] L. 9 § 1, Dig. XLVIII. xviii.—L. 1 § 16, Dig. XLVIII. xvii. (Severus)—L. 1 § 18, Dig. XLVIII. xviii. (Ulpian.).

[1416] Pauli Lib. v. Sentt. Tit. xvi. § 7.—The same principle is involved in a rescript of the Antonines.—L. 1 § 14, Dig. XLVIII. xvii. (Severus).

[1417] L. 1 § 7, Dig. XLVIII. xvii. The expression “in caput domini” applies as well to civil as to criminal cases.—Pauli Lib. V. Sentt. Tit. xvi. § 5.

[1418] L. 3, Dig. XLVIII. xviii.—Const. 13 Cod. IX. xli.

[1419] L. 10 § 2, Dig. XLVIII. xviii.—Const. 2 Cod. IX. xli. (Sever. et Antonin. ann. 205).

[1420] L. 1 § 11, Dig. XLVIII. xvii.

[1421] L. 1 § 9, Dig. XLVIII. xvii.

[1422] L. 1 § 13. XLVIII. xvii.—Pauli Lib. V. Sentt. Tit. xvi. § 9.

[1423] Const. 10 Cod. IX. xli. (Dioclet. et Maxim.).

[1424] Tacit. Annal. II. 30. See also III. 67. Somewhat similar in spirit was his characteristic device for eluding the law which prohibited the execution of virgins (Sueton. Tiber. lxi.).

[1425] This principle is embodied in innumerable laws. It is sufficient to refer to Constt. 6 § 2, 7 § 1, 8 § 1, Cod. IX. viii.

[1426] L. 18 § 6, Dig. XLVIII. xviii. (Paulus).

[1427] L. 1 § 19, Dig. XLVIII. xviii. (Ulpian.).

[1428] Const. 1 Cod. IX. xli. (Sever et Antonin.).

[1429] Constt. 3, 32 Cod. IX. ix.—L. 17, XLVIII. xviii. (Papin.).

[1430] L. 5 Dig. XLVIII. xviii. (Marcian.).

[1431] Fl. Vopisc. Tacit. cap. IX.

[1432] Du Boys, Hist. du Droit Crim. des Peup. Anciens. pp. 297, 331, 332.

[1433] Const. 7 Cod. IX. xli. (Dioclet. et Maxim.).

[1434] Pauli Lib. v. Sentt. Tit. xvi. § 3.—See also Ll. 6, 13 Dig. XLVIII. xviii.

[1435] Const. 6 Cod. IX. xlvi. This provision of the L. Julia appears to have been revived by Diocletian.

[1436] Lib. IX. Cod. Theod. i. 14.

[1437] L. 16 § 1, Dig. XLVIII. xviii. (Modestin.).

[1438] L. 10 Dig. XLVIII. xviii. (Arcad.).

[1439] L. 3 Dig. XLVIII. xix. (Ulpian.).

[1440] L. 10 § 3, Dig. XLVIII. xviii.

[1441] L. 22 Dig. XLVIII. xviii.

[1442] L. 21 Dig. XLVIII. xviii.

[1443] L. 1 § 1, Dig. XLVIII. xviii. (Ulpian.).

[1444] Const. 8 Cod. IX. xli. (Dioclet. et Maxim.).

[1445] L. 7, Dig. XX. v.

[1446] L. 1 § 4, Dig. XLVIII. xviii. (Ulpian.).

[1447] L. 1 § 23, Dig. XLVIII. xviii.—Res est fragilis et periculosa et quæ veritatem fallat.

[1448] Altera sæpe etiam causam falsa dicendi, quod aliis patientia facile mendacium faciat, aliis infirmitas necessarium.—M. F. Quintil. Inst. Orat. V. iv.

[1449] Val. Maximi Lib. VIII. c. iv.

[1450] Philostrati vit. Apollon. VII. xxiv.

[1451] Valer. Maxim. Lib. VIII. c. iv.

[1452] Hieron. Epist. I. ad Innocentium.

[1453] Q. Curt. Ruf. Hist. VI. xi. Anceps conjectura est quoniam et vera confessis et falsa dicentibus idem doloris finis ostenditur.

[1454] Pauli Lib. V. Sentt. Tit. xiv. § 2.—L. 18 Dig. XLVIII. xviii.

[1455] Aurel. Prudent. de Vincent. Hymn. v.

[1456] Greg. Turon. Hist. Franc. Lib. II. c. xxvii.

[1457] De Bell. Gall. VI. xix.

[1458] These provisions are specified only in the Salic Law (First Text of Pardessus, Tit. XL. §§ 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.—L. Emend. Tit. XLII. §§ 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13), but they were doubtless embodied in the practice of the other tribes.

[1459] L. Burgund. Tit. VII.—The other allusions to torture in this code, Tit. XXXIX. §§ 1, 2, and Tit. LXXVII. §§ 1, 2, also refer only to slaves, _coloni_, and _originarii_. Persons suspected of being fugitive slaves were always tortured to ascertain the fact, which is in direct contradiction to the principles of the Roman law.

[1460] L. Baioar. Tit. VIII. c. xviii. §§ 1, 2, 3.

[1461] L. Salic. First Text, Tit. XL. §§ 1, 2, 3, 4.—L. Emend. Tit. XLII. §§ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.—In a treaty between Childebert and Clotair, about the year 593, there is, however, a clause which would appear to indicate that in doubtful cases slaves were subjected, not to torture, but to the ordeal of chance. “Si servus in furto fuerit inculpatus, requiratur a domino ut ad viginti noctes ipsum in mallum præsentet. Et si dubietas est, ad sortem ponatur” (Pact. pro Tenore pacis cap. v.—Baluz.). This was probably only a temporary international regulation to prevent frontier quarrels and reprisals. That it had no permanent force of law is evident from the retention of the procedures of torture in all the texts of the Salic law, including the revision by Charlemagne.

[1462] First Text, Tit. XL. § 4.—MS. Monaster. Tit. XL. § 3.—L. Emend. Tit. XLII. § 6.

[1463] Grimnismal, Thorpe’s Sæmund’s Edda, I. 20.

[1464] Greg. Turon. Hist. Franc. Lib. VII. c. xx.; Lib. VIII. cap. xxxi. Also, Lib. V. cap. xxxvii.—Aimoin. Lib. III. c. xxx. xlii. li. lxiv. lxvii.—Flodoard. Hist. Remens. Lib. ii. c. ii.—Greg. Turon. Miraculorum Lib. I. cap. 73.

[1465] Gregor. Turon. Hist. Franc. Lib. V. c. xlix.

[1466] Edict. Theodor. cap. c. ci. cii.

[1467] Cassiodor. Variar. iv. xxii. xxiii.

[1468] L. Wisigoth. Lib. VI. Tit. i. l. 5.

[1469] Ibid.

[1470] Ibid. II. iv. 4.

[1471] Ibid. VI. i. 4; VII. vi. 1; VIII. iv. 10, 11.

[1472] L. Wisigoth. VI. i. 1.

[1473] Ibid. VI. i. 2.

[1474] Concil. Toletan. XIII. ann. 683, can. ii.

[1475] See the Fuero Juzgo, Lib. I. Tit. iii. l. 4; Tit. iv. l. 4.—Lib. III. Tit. iv. ll. 10, 11.—Lib. VI. Tit. i. ll. 2, 4, 5.—Lib. VII. Tit. i. l. 1; Tit. vi. l. 1. The only points in which these vary from the ancient laws are that, in Lib. VI. Tit. i. l. 2, adultery is not included among the crimes for suspicion of which nobles can be tortured, and that the accuser is not directed to conduct the torture. In Lib. VII. Tit. i. l. 1, also, the informer who fails to convict is condemned only in a single fine, and not ninefold; he is, however, as in the original, declared infamous, as a _ladro_; if a slave, the penalty is the same as with the Wisigoths.

[1476] Jacobi Regis constitutio adversus Judæos, etc. c. xiii. (Marca Hispanica, p. 1416).

[1477] Partidas, P. VII. Tit. i. l. 26.

[1478] Ibid. P. VII. Tit. ix. l. 16.

[1479] Ca por los tormentos saben los judgadores muchas veces la verdad de los malos fechos encubiertos, que non se podrian saber dotra guisa.—Ibid. P. VII. Tit. xxx. l. 1.

[1480] Por premia de tormentos ó de feridas, ó por miedo de muerte ó de deshonra que quieren facer á los homes, conoscen á las vegadas algunas cosas que de su grado non las conoscerien: e por ende decimos que la conoscencia que fuere fecha en algunas destas maneras que non debe valer nin empesce al que la Face.—Ibid. P. III. Tit. xiii. l. 5.

[1481] Partidas, P. VII. Tit. xxx. l. 4.—Porque la conoscencia que es fecha en el tormento, si non fuere confirmada despues sin premia, non es valedera.

[1482] Alvari Pelagii de Planctu Ecclesiæ, Lib. II. Art. xli.

[1483] Partidas, P. VII. Tit. xxx. l. 2. Except the favor shown to the learned professions, “por honra de la esciencia,” which afterwards became general throughout Europe, these provisions may all be found in the Roman law—Const. 4 Cod. IX. viii.; L. 3, Dig. XLVIII. xix.; L. 10, Dig. XLVIII. xviii.; Const. 11 Cod. IX. xli.

[1484] Partidas, P. VII. Tit. xxx. l. 5.—Imitated from L. 18, Dig. XLVIII. xviii.

[1485] Partidas, P. VII. Tit. xxx. l. 7. Cf. Tacit. Annal. XIV. xliii.-xlv.

[1486] Partidas, P. VII. Tit. xxx. l. 16.

[1487] Ibid. P. III. Tit. xvi. l. 43.—P. VII. Tit. xxx. l. 8.

[1488] Partidas, P. VII. Tit. i. l. 26, “Home mal enfamado.”—P. VII. Tit. xxx. l. 3, “Et si fuere home de mala fame ò vil.”

[1489] Ibid. P. VII. Tit. i. l. 26.

[1490] Ibid. P. VII. Tit. xxx. l. 4; Tit. ix. l. 16.

[1491] Ibid. P. VII. Tit. xxx. l. 9.

[1492] Ibid. P. III. Tit. xxiii. l. 13.

[1493] Partidas, P. VII. Tit. xxx. l. 1.

[1494] Ordenamiento de Alcalà, Tit. xxviii. l. 1.

[1495] Simancas, however, states that a single repetition of the torture was allowable.—De Cathol. Instit. Tit. LXV. No. 76.

[1496] De Cathol. Instit. Tit. LXV. No. 44-48. Cf. Novísima Recopilacion, Lib. VI. Tit, ii. leis 4 y 5 (Ed. 1775).

[1497] Villadiego, Gloss, ad Fuero Juzgo, Lib. VI. Tit. i. l. 2, Gloss. _c_, _d_, _e_, _f_, _g_.

[1498] Novísima Recopilacion, Lib. II. vii. leis 1 y 13.

[1499] Villadiego, _op. cit._ Lib. VI. Tit. i. 1. 5, Gloss. _b_, _c_.

[1500] Simancæ de Cathol. Instit. Tit. LXV. No. 8.

[1501] Novísima Recopilacion, Lib. II. Tit. vi. lei 6; Lib. VIII. Tit. i. lei 4. Aragon is said to have been an exception as regards the use of torture (Gomez Var. Resolut. T. III. c. 13—_ap._ Gerstlacher. de Quæst. per Torment. p. 68). In Navarre there is no trace of the use of torture prior to the fifteenth century.—G. B. de Lagrèze, La Navarre Française, II. 342.

[1502] Capit. Carol. Mag. II. ann. 805, § xxv. (Baluz.). No other interpretation can well be given of the direction “diligentissime examinatione constringantur si forte confiteantur malorum quæ gesserunt. Sed tali moderatione fiat eadem districtio ne vitam perdant.”

[1503] Capitul. Lib. VI. cap. cxxix.

[1504] Non solum se tradunt sed ultro etiam non admoti quæstionibus omnem technam hujus rebellionis detegunt.—Goldast. Constit. Imp. I. 151.

[1505] Non licet presbytero nec diacono ad trepalium ubi rei torquentur stare.—Concil. Autissiodor. ann. 578, can. xxxiii.

Ad locum examinationis reorum nullus clericorum accedat.—Concil. Matiscon. II. ann. 585, can. xix.

[1506] Under Charlemagne and Louis le Débonnaire seems to have commenced the usage of holding the court under shelter. Thus Charlemagne, “Ut in locis ubi mallus publicus haberi solet, tectum tale constituatur quod in hiberno et in æstate observandus esse possit” (Capit. Carol. Mag. II. ann. 809, § xiii.). See also Capit. I. eod. ann. § xxv. Louis le Débonnaire prohibits the holding of courts in churches, and adds, “Volumus utique ut domus a comite in locum ubi mallum teneri debet construatur ut propter calorem solis et pluviam publica utilitas non remaneat” (Capit. Ludov. Pii. I. ann. 819, § xiv.).

[1507] In 769, we find Charlemagne commanding the presence of all freemen in the general judicial assembly held twice a year, “Ut ad mallum venire nemo tardet, unum circa æstatem et alterum circa autumnum.” At others of less importance, they were only bound to attend when summoned, “Ad alia vero, si necessitas fuerit, vel denunciatio regis urgeat, vocatus venire nemo tardet” (Capit. Carol. Mag. ann. 769, § xii.).

In 809, he desired that none should be forced to attend unless he had business, “Ut nullus ad placitum venire cogatur, nisi qui caussam habet ad quærendam” (Capit. I. ann. 809, § xiii.).

In 819, Louis ordered, that the freemen should attend at least three courts a year, “et nullus eos amplius placita observare compellat, nisi forte quilibet aut accusatus fuerit, aut alium accusaverit, aut ad testimonium perhibendum vocatus fuerit” (Capit. Ludov. Pii. V. ann. 819, § xiv.).

[1508] Placuit ut adversus absentes non judicetur. Quod si factus fuerit prolata sententia non valebit.—Capit. Lib. V. § cccxi.

[1509] This right of appeal was not relished by the seigneurs, who apparently foresaw that it might eventually become the instrument of their destruction. It was long in establishing itself, and was resisted energetically. Thus the Kings of England who were Dukes of Aquitaine, sometimes discouraged the appeals of their French subjects to the courts of the King of France by hanging the notaries who undertook to draw up the requisite papers.—Meyer, Instit. Judiciaires, I. 461.

[1510] Annalist. Saxo ann. 928.

[1511] Dithmari Chron. Lib. VII. ad. fin.

[1512] Multa dissimulatione renitebant, adeo ut nullis suppliciis possent cogi ad confessionem.—Synod. Atrebatens. ann. 1025 (Hartzheim III. 68).

[1513] Hermannus de S. Mariæ Lauden. Mirac. Cf. Guibert. Noviogent. de Vita Sua. cap. xvi.

[1514] “Cumque captum eduxissit Isaac, virgis et vinculis coactum et flagellatum constringit, et ita extorsit ab eo ut reos in comitis traditione proderet.”—Galberti Vit. Caroli Boni cap. ix. n. 66.

[1515] Chron. Montis Sereni (Mencken. Script. Rer. Germ. II. 172).

[1516] Radulf. de Coggeshale Chron. Anglic. ann. 1192.

[1517] Hildebert. Cenoman. Epist. xxx.

[1518] Feudor. Lib. II. Tit. xxvii. § 8.

[1519] Fred. II. Lib. Rescript. II. §§ 1, 6. (Goldast. Constit. Imp. II. 54).

[1520] Erphurdianus Variloquus, ann. 1125.

[1521] Annal. Bosovienses, ann. 1129.

[1522] Cod. Epist. Rudolphi I. p. 216-7 (Lipsiæ, 1806).

[1523] Cosmæ Pragens. Lib. III. ann. 1108.

[1524] Annalist. Saxo ann. 1123. See also, about the same date, the Chron. S. Trudon. Lib. XII. (D’Achery II. 704); and the Epist. Friderici Episc. Leodiens. in Martene, Ampliss. Collect. I. 654.

[1525] Gerardi Hist. Compostellan. Lib. II. cap. 80.

[1526] Anglo Saxon Chronicle, ann. 1137.

[1527] Pike, History of Crime in England, I. 427.

[1528] Jaffé Regesta p. 884.

[1529] Matt. Paris. Hist. Ang. ann. 1210.

[1530] Synod. Roman. ann. 384, can. 10.

[1531] Innocent PP. I. Epist. III. cap. iii.

[1532] De Civ. Dei Lib. XIX. cap. vi.

[1533] Gregor. PP. I. Lib. VIII. Epist. xxx.

[1534] Nicolai PP. I. Epist. xcvii. § 86.

[1535] Pseudo-Alexand. decret. “Omnibus orthodoxis.”

[1536] Ministrorum confessio non sit extorta sed spontanea.—Ivon. Panorm. IV. cxvii.

[1537] Quod vero confessio cruciatibus extorquenda non est.—C. I. Decreti Caus. XV. q. vi.