Those who were accused of robbery in these times were put to trial by a piece of barley bread, on which the mass had been performed; and if the accused could not swallow it, they were declared guilty. This mode of trial was improved by adding to the bread a slice of cheese; and such was their credulity and dependance on heaven in these ridiculous trials, that they were very particular in this holy bread and cheese, called the corsned. The bread was to be of unleavened barley, and the cheese made of ewes milk in the month of May[[5]].
The bleeding of a corpse was another proof of guilt in superstitious ages; nor is the custom yet entirely abolished. If a person were murdered, it was believed, that at the touch or approach of the murderer, the blood gushed out from various parts of the body. By the side of the bier, if the smallest change was perceptible in the eyes, mouth, feet or hands of the corpse, the murderer was conjectured to be present, and many innocent persons doubtless must have suffered death from this idle chimera; for when a body is full of blood, warmed by a sudden external heat and symptoms of ensuing putrefaction, some of the blood vessels will burst, as they will all in time. This practice was once allowed in England, and is still looked on in some of the uncivilized parts of these kingdoms as a means of detecting the criminal. It forms a rich picture in the imagination of our old writers; and their histories and ballads are laboured into pathos by dwelling on the suppositious phenomenon.
All these absurd institutions, Robertson observes, cherished and inculcated, form the superstitions of the age believing the legendary histories of those saints who crowd and disgrace the Roman calendar. These fabulous miracles had been declared authentic by the bulls of the Popes, and the decrees of Councils—they were greedily swallowed by the populace; and whoever believed that the Supreme Being had interposed miraculously on those trivial occasions mentioned in legends, could not but expect his intervention in matters of greater importance when solemnly referred to his decision. Besides this ingenious remark, the fact is, that these customs were a substitute for written laws, which that barbarous period had not; and as it is impossible for any society to exist without laws, the ignorance of the people had recourse to these customs, which bad and absurd as they were, served to terminate controversies which might have given birth to more destructive practices. Ordeals are, in fact, the rude laws of a barbarous people, who have not obtained a written code, and not advanced enough in civilization, to embrace the refined investigations, the subtle distinctions, and elaborate inquiries, which are exacted by a Court of Law.
It may be presumed, that these ordeals owe their origin to that one of Moses, called the “Waters of Jealousy.” The Greeks also had ordeals, for we read in the Antigonus of Sophocles, that the soldiers offer to prove their innocence by handling red hot iron, and walking between fires.
One cannot but smile at the whimsical ordeals of the Siamese. Among other practices to discover the justice of a cause, civil or criminal, they are particularly attached to the use of certain consecrated purgative pills, which the contending parties are made to swallow. He who retains them longest, gains his cause! The practice of giving Indians a consecrated grain of rice to swallow, is known to discover the thief in any company, by the contortions and dismay evident on the countenance of the real thief.
In the middle ages they were acquainted with secrets to pass unhurt these secret trials: one is mentioned by Voltaire for undergoing the ordeal of boiling water; and this statement is confirmed by some of our late travellers in the East. The Mevleheh dervises can hold red hot iron between their teeth. Such artifices have been often publicly exhibited at Paris and London. On the ordeal of the Anglo-Saxons, Mr. Sharon Turner observes, that the hand was not to be immediately inspected, and was left to the chance of a good constitution to be so far healed during three days (the time they required to be bound up and sealed, before it was examined) as to discover those appearances when inspected, which were allowed to be satisfactory. There was also much preparatory training, suggested by the more experienced: besides, the accused had an opportunity of going alone into the church, and making terms with the priest. The few spectators were always at a distance; and cold iron or any other inoffensive substance might be substituted, and the fire diminished at the moment. There can be no doubt they possessed these secrets and medicaments, which they always took care to have ready at hand, that they might pass through these trials in perfect security.
There is an anecdote of these times given by Camerarius, in his “Horæ Subscecivæ,” which may serve to show the readiness of this apparatus. A rivalship existed between the Austin Friars and the Jesuits. The Father-general of the Austin Friars was dining with the Jesuits; and on the table being removed, he entered into a formal discourse of the superiority of the monastic order, and charged the Jesuits, in unqualified terms, with assuming the title of “Fratres,” while they held not the three vows, which other monks were obliged to consider as sacred and binding. The general of the Austin Friars was very eloquent and very authoritative: and the superior of the Jesuits was very unlearned, but not quite half a fool. He was rather careless about entering the list of controversy with the Austin Friar, but arrested his triumph by asking him if he would see one of his Friars who pretended to be nothing more than a Jesuit, and one of the Austin Friar’s who religiously performed the above-mentioned three vows, show instantly which of them would be the readiest to obey his superiors? The Austin Friar consented. The Jesuit then turning to one of his brothers, the Holy Friar Mark, who was waiting on them, said, “Brother Mark, our companions are cold; I command you, in virtue of the holy obedience you have sworn to me, to bring here instantly out of the kitchen fire, and in your hands, some burning coals, that they may warm themselves over your hands.” Father Mark instantly obeys, and to the astonishment of the Austin Friars, brought in his hands a supply of red burning coals, and held them to whoever thought proper to warm himself; and at the command of his superior, returned them to the kitchen hearth. The general of the Austin Friars, with the rest of his brethren, stood amazed; he looked wistfully on one of his monks, as if he wished to command him to do the like; but the Austin Monk, who perfectly understood him, and saw this was not a time to hesitate, observed,—“Reverend Father, forbear, and do not command me to tempt God! I am ready to fetch you fire in a chafing dish, but not in my bare hands.” The triumph of the Jesuits was complete; and it is not necessary to add, that the miracle was noised about, and that the Austin Friars could never account for it, notwithstanding their strict performance of the three vows.
ASTROLOGY, &c.
“This is the excellent foppery of the world, that when we are sick in fortune (often the surfeit of our own behaviour) we make guilt of our disasters, the sun, the moon, and the stars; as if we were villains by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers (traitors), by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an inforced obedience of planetary influence; and all that we are evil in by a Divine thrusting on; an admirable evasion of whoremaster to lay his goatish disposition to the charge of a star! My father compounded with my mother under the Dragon’s tail; and my nativity was under Ursa Major; so that it follows, I am rough and lecherous.—Tut, I should have been that I am, had the maidenliest star in the firmament twinkled at my bastardizing.”—Shakspeare.
It is a singular fact, that men the most eminent for their learning were those who indulged most in the favourite superstition of judicial Astrology; and as the ingenious Tenhove observes, whenever an idea germinates in a learned head, it shoots with additional luxuriance. At the present time, however, a belief in judicial Astrology can only exist in the people, who may be said to have no belief at all; for mere traditional sentiments can hardly be said to amount to a belief.