Efforts of course were made from time to time to preserve the purity of the appeal, and to secure impartiality in its application. Clotair II., in 595, directs that three chosen persons shall attend on each side to prevent collusion;[1280] and among the Anglo-Saxons, some four hundred years later, Ethelred enjoins the presence of the prosecutor under penalty of loss of suit and fine of twenty ores, apparently for the same object, as well as to give authenticity to the decision.[1281] So in Hungary, the laws of St. Ladislas, in 1092, direct that three sworn witnesses shall be present to attest the innocence or guilt of the accused as demonstrated by the result.[1282] A rule announced by the Council of Grateley in 928, that if the accused is accompanied by more than twelve comrades he shall be adjudged as though he had failed in the ordeal, points to an obvious source of miscarriage of justice by which a crowd of partisans could interfere with the proceedings and then proclaim that the result had been successful.[1283] A law adopted by the Scottish Parliament under William the Lion, in the second half of the twelfth century, shows that corruption was not uncommon, by forbidding those concerned in the administration of ordeals from receiving bribes to divert the course of justice,[1284] and a further precaution was taken by prohibiting the Barons from adjudging the ordeal without the intervention of the sheriff to see that law and justice were observed.[1285]

In spite of all that we have seen, the ordeal, with its undoubted cruelty, was not as cruel as it appears to us, and in its practical results it probably acquitted the guilty far more often than it convicted the innocent. Mr. Maitland tells us that in his researches in the English records from 1201 till the abolition of the ordeal in 1219—a period in which, as stated above (p. 387), it was in constant use—he has found but one instance in which it failed to clear the accused.[1286] It is true that the cold-water ordeal was the one most freely resorted to, but the red-hot iron was also freely employed, and the one case of failure occurred in the water ordeal. At this distance of time it would be useless to frame a positive explanation of this, although bribery and collusion of course naturally suggest themselves in the notorious and almost universal corruption of the period. Contemporaries reconciled themselves to this as best they could, but while relying comfortably upon the inscrutable judgment of God, and the preservative power of contrition and confession, they were not without other solutions of the problem.

We have seen that in the judicial duel magic arts were popularly supposed to have power to control the interposition of God. This was likewise the case with the vulgar ordeals, and in addition a special power was attributed to the use or abuse of the holy chrism. The Council of Tours, in 813, informs us that it was generally believed that a criminal who drank the chrism or anointed himself with it could not be convicted by any ordeal.[1287] So serious indeed was this considered that Charlemagne in 809 decreed that a priest giving out the chrism for this purpose should not only be degraded but should lose a hand—a law which long continued in force, nominally at least.[1288] The belief was not ephemeral, for until the early part of the twelfth century a canon was carried through all the collections which speaks of the matter as a fact proved by experience.[1289] The superstition probably died out towards the middle of the century when the number of sacraments was increased from three to seven, and the comparative importance of the chrism was thus diminished in the popular eyes. The belief that the judgment of God could be perverted or eluded by magic arts still continued, however, and precautions were commonly taken to prevent their use.[1290] Holy water, moreover, was lavishly sprinkled on the materials employed in the ordeal and on the patient, and was given to him to drink to prevent diabolic illusions by which it was imagined that the purposes of God could be defeated.[1291]

Precautions also were taken to guard against processes by which, in the fire ordeals, it was believed that the human frame could be rendered incombustible, and for this object a widely prevailing custom required that for three days previous the hand should be wrapped up to guard against its being thus fortified.[1292] The nature of these unguents may be guessed from a prescription given by Albertus Magnus, consisting of mallow and radish juice, white of egg, lime, and “psillus” seeds, the use of which he assures us will enable a man with impunity to enter the flames or to carry red-hot iron.[1293] Doubtless reliance on some such expedients may partially explain the readiness with which the ordeal was undertaken.

[CHAPTER XVII.]
THE CHURCH AND THE ORDEAL.

The relation of the Church to the vulgar ordeals presents even a more complex question than that which has already been discussed of its connection with the judicial combat. The ordeals were less repugnant to its teachings and more completely dependent upon its ministrations, for while a duel might be fought without the aid of a priest the efficacy of an ordeal depended wholly upon the religious rites which gave it the sanction of a direct invocation of the Almighty.

We have seen above that the Church readily accepted the pagan practices of its Barbarian converts, and gave them fresh claim to confidence by surrounding them with the most impressive solemnities of the faith. Notwithstanding the worldly advantage derivable from this policy, there were some minds superior to the superstition or the cunning of their fellows. Even as early as the commencement of the sixth century, Avitus, Bishop of Vienne, remonstrated freely with Gundobald on account of the prominence given to the battle ordeal in the Burgundian code; and some three centuries later, St. Agobard, Archbishop of Lyons, attacked the whole system in two powerful treatises, which in many points display a breadth of view and clearness of reasoning far in advance of his age.[1294] Shortly after this we find an echo of these arguments in some utterances of the papacy, such as the disapproval of the lot by Leo IV. (p. 353), of the duel by Nicholas I. (p. 207), and the more general condemnation by Stephen V. (p. 395), while on the other hand we have seen (p. 382) the ordeal adopted by Stephen VII. in the trial of his predecessor Formosus.

Whether the Holy See condemned or approved the judgment of God was a matter of the utmost indifference to the Church at large. The universal use of the ordeal, involving as it did the indispensable employment of priestly ministrations, shows sufficiently that no ecclesiastic hesitated to sanction it, and that practically it had the universal sympathy and support of the Church. Nor was this left to be merely a matter of inference, for the local churches had no scruple in advocating and prescribing it in the most authoritative manner. In 799 the Council of Salzburg ordered the red-hot iron for the trial of witches and necromancers.[1295] In 810, Ahyto, Bishop of Basle, could suggest no other mode of determining doubtful cases of consanguinity between husband and wife.[1296] In 853, the Synod of Soissons ordered Burchard, Bishop of Chartres, to prove his fitness for the episcopal office by undergoing the ordeal.[1297] Hincmar, Archbishop of Reims, lent to it all the influence of his commanding talents and position; the Council of Mainz in 888, and that of Tribur near Mainz in 895, recommended it; that of Tours in 925 ordered it for the decision of a quarrel between two priests respecting certain tithes;[1298] the synod of the province of Mainz in 1028 authorized the hot iron in a case of murder;[1299] that of Elne in 1065 recognized it; that of Auch in 1068 confirmed its use; a penitential of the same period in Bohemia ordered the ordeal for those who pleaded ignorance when accused of marrying within the prohibited degrees;[1300] Burckhardt, Bishop of Worms, whose collection of canons enjoyed high authority, in 1023 assisted at the Council of Selingenstadt, which directed its employment, and in his penitential he prescribes five years’ penance for endeavoring by magic arts to escape conviction by it—a practice which, as we have seen, was not uncommon.[1301] The synod of Gran, in 1099, decided that the ordeal of hot iron might be administered during Lent, except in cases involving the shedding of blood.[1302] Moreover, we find St. Bernard alluding approvingly to the conviction and martyrdom of heretics by the cold-water process,[1303] of which Guibert de Nogent gives us an instance wherein he aided the Bishop of Soissons in administering it to two backsliders with complete success.[1304] In 1157 the red-hot iron ordeal was prescribed by the Council of Reims for all persons accused of belonging to the fast-growing sect of the Cathari or Manichæans, whose progress was alarming the Church;[1305] and in 1167 two heretics at Vezelai were tried by cold water in the presence of the Archbishop of Lyons and two bishops, when, singularly enough, they escaped.[1306] In 1172 a learned clerk named Robert was involved in a debate with a knight on the delicate question whether the Eucharist became corrupted when voided from the body: he was accused as a heretic to the Bishop of Arras, who called in the Archbishop of Reims and numerous clerks to try him. Robert was so confident of his innocence that he offered to undergo the hot-iron ordeal, but his guilt was miraculously shown when burns appeared not only on the right hand that carried the iron, but also on the left hand, on both feet, both sides and on his chest and belly, wherefore he was promptly burned alive as a heretic.[1307] Other cases, moreover, are related by Peter Cantor, in which good Catholics were successfully convicted of heresy in this manner, and one instance presents a curious view of the singular confusion which existed in judicial logic at the time. A poor fellow who professed the most entire orthodoxy, and against whom there was no proof, was ordered to carry the red-hot iron. This he refused unless the assembled bishops would prove that he could do so without incurring mortal sin by tempting God. This they were unable to accomplish, so all unpleasant doubts were settled by promptly having him burnt.[1308] Even after the Lateran Council of 1215, some miracles related by Cæsarius of Heisterbach show that the conviction of heretics by the hot iron was regarded as a matter of course,[1309] and a penitential of a somewhat later period complains that suspected heretics on trial had no other means of proving their orthodoxy or their conversion to the true faith. It also mentions a curious custom prevalent in some places that where there was doubt as to a man having died in grace, his friends had to prove his penitence by undergoing the cold-water ordeal before he was admitted to Christian sepulture.[1310]

Prelates, moreover, were everywhere found granting charters containing the privilege of conducting trials in this manner. It was sometimes specially appropriated to members of the Church, who claimed it, under the name of Lex Monachorum, as a class privilege exempting them from being parties to the more barbarous and uncanonical wager of battle,[1311] and in 1061 a charter of John, Bishop of Avranches, to the Abbot of Mont S. Michel, alludes to hot water and iron as the only mode of trying priests charged with offences of magnitude.[1312] St. Ivo of Chartres, who denied the liability of churchmen to the ordeal, admitted that it could be properly used on laymen, and even pronounces its result to be beyond appeal.[1313] Pope Calixtus II. in 1119 gave his sanction to it at the Council of Reims, and soon afterwards at the Council of Chartres he admitted the red-hot iron to decide a case of alleged violation of the right of asylum in a church.[1314] About the same time the learned priest, Honorius of Autun, specifies the benediction of the iron and water of the ordeal as part of the legitimate functions of his order;[1315] and even Gratian, in 1151, hesitates to condemn the whole system, preferring to consider the canon of Stephen V. as prohibiting only the ordeals of hot water and iron.[1316]