the right hand, decapitation, scalping, and other punishments were added. Archbishop Raimbald of Arles with other bishops and abbots asked the Church in Italy in 1041 to adopt the "Truce of God."[360:1] Pope Nicholas II. (1059) and Alexander II. (1068) made public proclamation of the peace, and, as a result of all these endeavours, it soon spread over France,[360:2] Italy,[360:3] Burgundy, Spain, and Germany.[360:4] Rulers were not slow to sanction and to enforce these peace measures. Emperor Henry IV. issued an edict in 1085 to enforce the "Truce of God" under frightfully severe penalties.[360:5] Pope Urban II. in the Council of Clermont, held a decade later, made it the general law of the Church.[360:6] The time was extended to the periods between Advent and Epiphany, Ash Wednesday and Easter, Ascension Day and Pentecost.[360:7] Various festivals and vigils were also included. If strictly enforced the "Truce of God" would have given Christendom peace for about 240 days out of the year. Its operation was preceded by the ringing of bells. The first Lateran Councils (1121, 1139, 1179) confirmed it and made it a part of the Corpus Juris Canonici. The "Truce of God" later helped to produce the "land peace" in various parts of the Empire.[360:8]
The Church sanctioned and used the "judgment of
God" or the ordeal as a better means of obtaining justice than by war.[361:1] This process of justice was not new, but had prevailed in the Orient and among the Celts and Teutons. It rested on this fundamental principle that the accused is guilty until he proves himself innocent and that God, as the source of justice, will protect the innocent. "Let doubtful cases," ran a Carolingian capitulary, "be determined by the judgment of God. The judges may decide that which they clearly know, but that which they cannot know shall be reserved for divine judgment. He whom God has reserved for His own judgment may not be condemned by human means."
There were four different kinds of ordeals: by water, by fire, by battle, and by some sacred emblem.[361:2] The ordeal by hot water was the oldest form in Europe.[361:3] It typified the deluge and hell. Hincmar of Rheims appears to have recommended it first. The accused was compelled, with naked arm, to find a stone or ring in a kettle of boiling water, or merely to thrust his arm into it. If his arm was scalded he was guilty, if not, innocent.[361:4] The ordeal by cold water was probably introduced by Pope Eugenius II. (824-827). The theory was that pure water will not receive a criminal, hence it was believed that the guilty would float and the innocent sink. The accused, therefore, was bound and thrown into the water, but held by a rope with which to pull him out.[361:5]
The ordeal by fire was performed either by hot iron or stones, or by a pure flame of fire. The accused was compelled to walk barefooted over six or twelve red-hot ploughshares, or to carry a piece of red-hot iron in his bare hand nine feet or more. The unburned, of course, were innocent.[362:1] Or the accused was asked to stick his hand into a flame, or walk with bare feet and legs through the fire.[362:2]
The battle ordeals were very old and widespread in Europe although not introduced into England until the Norman Conquest. They were used for both personal and international disputes. The right to contest was usually restricted to free men, but the young, sick, old, female, and clergy could furnish substitutes. Here again God, the Judge in all these cases, gave victory to the innocent.[362:3] The Church regarded this form of ordeal with disfavour. Both councils and Popes declared boldly against it. Innocent II., Alexander III., Clement III., Celestine III., and Innocent III. were outspoken in their opposition. It was expressly forbidden the clergy to engage in these combats without special license. Christian burial was even refused to those who fell in such combats. Civil law enforced the ecclesiastical opposition and thus gradually secured the elimination of the evil. This ordeal did not die out until the sixteenth century.
The sacred ordeals had to do with religious emblems. In the ordeal of the cross both the accused and the defendant stood before a cross with uplifted arms while special divine service was performed, or the arms were
extended in the form of a cross. The arms of the guilty person dropped first. Pepin first used it for divorce cases (752). Charles the Great extended it to territorial disputes (806). Louis the Pious abolished it in 816 because it brought the holy symbol into disrepute. The eucharist was likewise employed to protect the innocent and punish the guilty. The synod of Worms in 868 enjoined it upon bishops and priests accused of murder, adultery, theft, and sorcery. In the trial the eucharist was swallowed with this adjuration from the priest: "May this body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ be a judgment to thee this day." In the famous encounter of Hildebrand and Henry IV. at Canossa, the Pope challenged the Emperor to undergo this ordeal, but the wily German refused.[363:1] A use was also made of relics for similar purposes—a test that was probably of ecclesiastical origin. The accused placed his hands on the sacred relics and made an oath of his innocence.
The Church played a very conspicuous part in all these ordeals. Church councils sanctioned them[363:2] and the clergy favoured them.[363:3] Not infrequently they were used to further the interests of the Church and to punish heretics. Priests usually prepared the contestants by fasts, prayer, and special service, presided over the trial, and pronounced judgment in God's name. This method of securing justice, however, provoked considerable opposition within the Church. As early as the sixth century Bishop Avitus of Vienne opposed the battle ordeal in the Burgundian Code. St.
Agobard of Lyons (d. 840) wrote two enlightened treatises against the duel and the whole system of the ordeal.[364:1] Occupants of St. Peter's Chair like Leo IV., Nicholas I., Stephen VI., Sylvester II., Alexander II., Alexander III., Celestine III., Honorius III., all condemned the institution.[364:2] The famous fourth Lateran Council held under Innocent III. in 1215 forbade the use of religious ceremonies in these trials and thus practically abolished the institution. Secular rulers also sought to end the practice. Unfortunately, the Inquisition, which employed methods somewhat similar to the ordeal, followed too closely in its wake.