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.

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—

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.