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. 317a.
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. 317a).
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. 8a. (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.