An Arian presbyter, disputing with a deacon of our religion, made venomous assertions against the Son of God and the Holy Ghost, as is the habit of that sect.[293] But when the deacon had discoursed a long time concerning the reasonableness of our faith, and the heretic, blinded by the fog of unbelief, continued to reject the truth (according as it is written, "Wisdom shall not enter the mind of the wicked") the former said: "Why weary ourselves A challenge to the ordeal by hot water with long discussions? Let acts demonstrate the truth. Let a kettle be heated over the fire and some one's ring be thrown into the boiling water. Let him who shall take it from the heated liquid be approved as a follower of the truth, and afterwards let the other party be converted to the knowledge of this truth. And do thou understand, O heretic, that this our party will fulfill the conditions with the aid of the Holy Ghost; thou shalt confess that there is no inequality, no dissimilarity, in the Holy Trinity." The heretic consented to the proposition and they separated, after appointing the next morning for the trial. But the fervor of faith in which the deacon had first made this suggestion began to cool through the instigation of the enemy [i.e., Satan]. Rising with the dawn, he bathed his arm in oil and smeared it with ointment. But nevertheless he made the round of the sacred places and called in prayer on the Lord. What more shall I say? About the third hour they met in the market place. The people came together to see the show. A fire was lighted, the kettle was Preparations for the ordeal placed upon it, and when it grew very hot the ring was thrown into the boiling water. The deacon invited the heretic to take it out of the water first. But he promptly refused, saying, "Thou who didst propose this trial art the one to take it out." The deacon, all of a tremble, bared his arm. And when the heretic presbyter saw it besmeared with ointment he cried out: "With magic arts thou hast thought to protect thyself, that thou hast made use of these salves, but what thou hast done will not avail." While they were thus quarreling, there came up a deacon from Ravenna named Iacinthus, who inquired what the trouble was about. When he learned the truth, he drew his arm out from under his robe at once and plunged his right hand into the kettle. Now the ring that had been thrown in was a little thing and very light, so that it was tossed about by the water as chaff would be blown about by the wind; and, searching for it a long time, he found it after about an hour. Meanwhile the flame beneath the kettle blazed up mightily, so that the greater heat might make it difficult for the ring to be followed by the hand; but the deacon extracted it at length and Result of the ordeal suffered no harm, protesting rather that at the bottom the kettle was cold while at the top it was just pleasantly warm. When the heretic beheld this, he was greatly confused and audaciously thrust his hand into the kettle saying, "My faith will aid me." As soon as his hand had been thrust in, all the flesh was boiled off the bones clear up to the elbow. And so the dispute ended.
(b)
Now the one about to be examined is bound by a rope and cast into the water because, as it is written, "each one shall be holden with the cords of his iniquity." And it is manifest that he is bound for two reasons, namely, that he may not be able to practice any fraud in connection with the judgment, and that he may be drawn out at the right time if the water should receive him as innocent, so that he perish not. For as we read that Lazarus, who had been dead four days (by whom is signified each one buried under a load of crimes), was buried wrapped in bandages and, bound by the same bands, came forth from the sepulchre at the word of How the ordeal of cold water is to be conducted the Lord and was loosed by the disciples at His command; so he who is to be examined by this judgment is cast into the water bound, and is drawn forth again bound, and is either immediately set free by the decree of the judges, being purged, or remains bound until the time of his purgation and is then examined by the court.... And in this ordeal of cold water whoever, after the invocation of God, who is the Truth, seeks to hide the truth by a lie, cannot be submerged in the waters above which the voice of the Lord God has thundered; for the pure nature of the water recognizes as impure, and therefore rejects as inconsistent with itself, such human nature as has once been regenerated by the waters of baptism and is again infected by falsehood.
(c)
All these things were pleasing to us and, having enjoined on him a fast, we declared that a fire should be prepared upon the day on which the Lord was beaten with stripes and put upon the cross for our salvation. And the fourth day thereafter was the day before the Sabbath. So when the appointed day came round, a fire was prepared after the noon hour. The leaders and the people to the number of 60,000 came together. The priests Preparations for the ordeal by fire were there also with bare feet, clothed in ecclesiastical garments. The fire was made of dry olive branches, covering a space thirteen feet long; and there were two piles, with a space about a foot wide between them. The height of these piles was four feet. Now when the fire had been kindled so that it burned fiercely, I, Raimond, in the presence of the whole multitude, said: "If Omnipotent God has spoken to this man face to face, and the blessed Andrew has shown him our Lord's lance while he was keeping his vigil,[294] let him go through the fire unharmed. But if it is false, let him be burned, together with the lance, which he is to carry in his hand." And all responded on bended knees, "Amen."
The fire was growing so hot that the flames shot up thirty cubits high into the air and scarcely any one dared approach Peter Bartholomew passes through the flames it. Then Peter Bartholomew, clothed only in his tunic and kneeling before the bishop of Albar,[295] called God to witness that "he had seen Him face to face on the cross, and that he had heard from Him those things above written."... Then, when the bishop had placed the lance in his hand, he knelt and made the sign of the cross and entered the fire with the lance, firm and unterrified. For an instant's time he paused in the midst of the flames, and then by the grace of God passed through.... But when Peter emerged from the fire so that neither his tunic was burned nor even the thin cloth with which the lance was wrapped up had shown any sign of damage, the whole people received him, after he had made over them the sign of the cross with the lance in his hand and had cried, "God help us!" All the people, I say, threw themselves upon him and dragged him to the ground and trampled on him, each one wishing to touch him, or to get a piece of his garment, and each thinking him near some one else. And so he received three or four wounds in the legs where the flesh was torn away, his back was injured, and his sides bruised. Peter had died on the spot, as we believe, had not Raimond Pelet, a brave and noble soldier, broken through the wild crowd with a band of friends and rescued him at the peril of their lives.... After this, Peter died in peace at the hour appointed to him by God, and journeyed to the Lord; and he was buried in the place where he had carried the lance of the Lord through the fire.[296]
CHAPTER XIII.
THE FEUDAL SYSTEM
34. Older Institutions Involving Elements of Feudalism
The history of the feudal system in Europe makes up a very large part of the history of the Middle Ages, particularly of the period between the ninth and the fourteenth centuries. This is true because feudalism, in one way or another, touched almost every phase of the life of western Europe during this long era. More than anything else, it molded the conditions of government, the character and course of war, the administration of justice, the tenure of land, the manner of everyday life, and even the relations of the Church with sovereigns and people. "Coming into existence," says a French historian, "in the obscure period that followed the dissolution of the Carolingian empire, the feudal régime developed slowly, without the intervention of a government, without the aid of a written law, without any general understanding among individuals; rather only by a gradual transformation of customs, which took place sooner or later, but in about the same way, in France, Italy, Christian Spain, and Germany. Then, toward the end of the eleventh century, it was transplanted into England and into southern Italy, in the twelfth and thirteenth into the Latin states of the East, and beginning with the fourteenth into the Scandinavian countries. This régime, established thus not according to a general plan but by a sort of natural growth, never had forms and usages that were everywhere the same. It is impossible to gather it up into a perfectly exact picture, which would not be in contradiction to several cases."[297]