debt or the crime with which he was charged, he was of course acquitted.
But when the first fervors of religion began to decay, and fraud and the
temptations to fraud to increase, they trusted no longer to the
conscience of the party. They cited him to an higher tribunal,--the
immediate judgment of God. Their trials were so many conjurations, and
the magical ceremonies of barbarity and heathenism entered into law and
religion. This supernatural method of process they called God's Dome; it
is generally known by the name of _Ordeal_, which in the Saxon language
signifies the Great Trial. This trial was made either by fire or water:
that by fire was principally reserved for persons of rank; that by water
decided the fate of the vulgar; sometimes it was at the choice of the
party. A piece of iron, kept with a religious veneration in some
monastery, which claimed this privilege as an honor, was brought forth
into the church upon the day of trial; and it was there again
consecrated to this awful purpose by a form of service still extant. A
solemn mass was performed; and then the party accused appeared,
surrounded by the clergy, by his judges, and a vast concourse of people,
suspended and anxious for the event; all that assisted purified
themselves by a fast of three days; and the accused, who had undergone
the same fast, and received the sacrament, took the consecrated iron, of
about a pound weight, heated red, in his naked hand, and in that manner
carried it nine feet. This done, the hand was wrapped up and sealed in
the presence of the whole assembly. Three nights being passed, the
seals were opened before all the people: if the hand was found without
any sore inflicted by the fire, the party was cleared with universal
acclamation; if on the contrary a raw sore appeared, the party,
condemned by the judgment of Heaven, had no further plea or appeal.
Sometimes the accused walked over nine hot irons: sometimes boiling
water was used; into this the man dipped his hand to the arm. The
judgment by water was accompanied by the solemnity of the same