The iron was placed before the altar, whence the priest, clad in full canonicals with the exception of the cope, removed it with a pair of tongs to the fire, singing as he did so the hymn of the Three Children, Benedicite, Omnia, Opera. Over the place where the fire was he then recited the prayer: "Bless, O Lord God, this place, that there may be for us in it sanctity, chastity, virtue, and victory, and sanctimony, humility, goodness, gentleness, and plenitude of law, and obedience to God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost."[9]
We learn from the laws of Athelstan that no man was permitted to enter the church, after the fire had been borne in wherein the ordeal was to be heated, with the exception of the mass priest and the accused; and the latter had to measure with his feet nine feet from the stake to the mark. When the ordeal was ready two men were admitted on either side, who certified that the iron was of the required heat; and then an equal number of witnesses on either side having been summoned, were ranged along the church on each side of the ordeal. All were to be fasting and abstinent from their wives on the previous night. The mass priest then sprinkled them with holy water, let each of them taste the holy water, and gave them the book of the Gospels and the image of Christ's rood to kiss.
Whilst the iron was heating the priest celebrated mass, and after he had taken the Eucharist, he adjured the person who was to be tried, and made him also take the Communion. From the time the hallowing was begun no one was allowed to mend the fire, but the iron rested on the hot embers until the last collect. It was then laid on the stapula, and the priest, having sprinkled holy water over it, recited the prayer: "The blessing of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, descend upon this iron for the discerning of the right judgment of God." Meanwhile all were enjoined to observe complete silence "except that they earnestly pray to Almighty God that He make manifest what is soothest."
The accused then proceeded to the ordeal and carried the iron the measured distance—nine feet, divided into three equal parts, over which the person had to pass in as many steps regulated by signal. His hand was thereupon enclosed in an envelope under seal, and so remained until the expiration of three days, when the envelope was removed and an examination took place to see whether the hand was foul or clean within. If festering blood was found in the track of the iron, the accused was judged to be guilty; if otherwise, he stood acquitted. An infraction of the rules not only rendered the ordeal void, but was punishable by a fine of 120 shillings.
The Judgment of the Ploughshares
Instead of carrying iron of a given weight a stipulated distance, an accused person might traverse barefoot a certain space in which nine hot ploughshares were laid lengthwise. To this species of judgment Queen Emma, mother of Edward the Confessor, is alleged to have submitted, when charged with adultery with Alwyn, Bishop of Winchester. The precise nature of this trial is more than usually obscure, and there is some reason for doubting whether Blackstone's account is accurate. He states that the accused person was blindfolded and that the ploughshares were placed at irregular intervals—evidently with the design that the person might escape contact with some of the irons: possibly all. Blackstone's authority, Rudborn, in his story of the trial of Queen Emma, conveys a totally different impression of the proceedings—at any rate, on that occasion. He says distinctly that she was not blindfolded, and that she pressed each ploughshare with the whole weight of her body: "Emma vero nullam mamphoram sive pannum ante oculos habens—super novem vomeres novem passus faciens et singulos eorum totius corporis pleno pressens pondere."
On such occasions the following collect was in use: "Lord God Omnipotent ... we invoke Thee, and, as suppliants, exhort Thy majesty, that in this judgment and test Thou wilt order to be of no avail all the wiles of diabolical fraud and ingenuity, the incantations either of men or of women; also the properties of herbs; so that to all those standing around, it may be apparent that Thou art just and lovest justice, and that there is none who may resist Thy majesty. And so, O Lord, Ruler of the heavens and the earth, Creator of the waters, King of Thy whole creation, in Thy holy name and strength, we bless these ploughshares, that they may render a true judgment; so that, if it be so that that man is innocent of the charge in this matter which we are discussing and treating of amongst us, who walks over them with naked feet; Thou, O omnipotent God, as Thou didst deliver the three youths from the fiery furnace, and Susanna from the false charge, and Daniel from the den of lions—so that Thou mayest see fit, by Thy potent strength, to preserve the feet of the innocent safe and uninjured. If, moreover, that man be guilty in the aforesaid matter; and, the Devil persuading, shall have dared to tempt Thy power, and shall walk over them; do Thou, who art just and a Judge, make a manifest burn to appear on his feet, to Thy honour and praise and glory; to the constancy and confidence in Thy name, moreover, of us Thy servants; to the confusion and repentance of their sins of the perfidious and blind; so that, against their will, they may perceive, what willingly they would not—that Thou, living and reigning from ages to ages, art the judge of the living and the dead. Amen."
The Judgment of the Boiling Water
When the ordeal was by boiling water, the priest first performed mass and then descended to the place of trial, bearing a cross and a book of the gospels. After he had chanted a litany, he exorcized and blessed the water, which was to be boiled. He then stripped the accused of his clothes and arrayed him in ecclesiastical vestment of the kind worn by an exorcist or a deacon; sprinkled some of the water over him, caused him to drink of it, and gave him the cross and the gospels to kiss. The priest having said, "I have given to thee this water for a sign to-day," wood was laid under the cauldron, which might be of iron, of brass, of lead or of clay. As the water grew warmer, prayers were recited by the priest, and it continued to be heated until it lowed to boiling. The accused then said the Lord's Prayer, and signed himself with the sign of the cross; and the cauldron having been quickly set down beside the fire, the judge held suspended in the water a stone, which the accused, in the name of God, had to draw forth at the depth of his wrist or his elbow, according as the ordeal was single or triple. On the third day his hand was inspected, and his innocence or guilt determined.