I forbid any to sell a man out of the country on pain of full forfeiture to me.
I prohibit also that any man be killed or hanged for any crime, but his eyes shall be plucked out or his members cut off. And this command shall not be violated on pain of full forfeiture to me.
THE ORDEAL OF THE GLOWING IRON.
Source.—Gengler, Germanische Rechtsdenkmäler, p. 759.
After the accusation has been lawfully made, and three days have been passed in fasting and prayer, the priest, clad in his sacred vestments with the exception of his outer garment, shall take with a tongs the iron placed before the altar; and, singing the hymn of the three youths, namely, “Bless him all his works,” he shall bear it to the fire, and shall say this prayer over the place where fire is to carry out the judgment: “Bless, O Lord God, this place, that there may be for us in it sanctity, chastity, virtue and victory, and piety, humility, goodness, gentleness and plenitude of law, and obedience to God the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.”—After this, the iron shall be placed in the fire and shall be sprinkled with holy water; and while it is heating, he shall celebrate mass. And when the priest shall have taken the Eucharist, he shall adjure the man who is to be tried ... and shall cause him to take the communion.—Then the priest shall sprinkle holy water above the iron and shall say: “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.” And straightway the accused shall carry the iron to a distance of nine feet. Finally, his hand shall be covered under seal for three days, and if festering blood be found in the track of the iron, he shall be judged guilty. But if, however, he shall go forth uninjured, praise shall be rendered to God.
ORDINANCE OF WILLIAM I., SEPARATING THE SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL COURTS.[3]
Source.—Ancient Laws and Institutes, p. 213.
William by the grace of God King of the English, to R. Bainard and G. de Mandeville, and P. de Valoines, and to the rest of my trusty men of Essex and of Hertfordshire and of Middlesex, greeting. Know all of you and the rest of my trusty men who remain in England, that in a common council and by the advice of the archbishops and bishops, and abbots, and of all the chief men of my kingdom, I have decided that the episcopal laws, which up to my times in the kingdom of the English have not been right or according to the precepts of the holy canons, shall be amended. Wherefore I command, and by royal authority decree, that no bishop or archdeacon shall any longer hold in the hundred court pleas pertaining to the episcopal laws, nor shall they bring before the judgment of secular men any cause which pertains to the rule of souls; but whoever shall be summoned, according to the episcopal laws, in any cause or for any fault, shall come to the place which the bishop shall choose or name for this purpose, and shall there answer in his cause or for his fault, and shall do right to God and his bishop not according to the hundred court, but according to the canons and the episcopal laws. But if any one, puffed up by pride, shall scorn or refuse to come before the judgment seat of the bishop, he shall be summoned once and a second and a third time; and if he come not even then to make amends, he shall be excommunicated; and, if it be needful to give effect to this, the power and justice of the king or the sheriff shall be called in. And he who is summoned before the judgment seat of the bishop and refuses to come shall, for such summons, make amends by the episcopal law. This also I forbid and by my authority prohibit, that any sheriff, or provost, or minister of the king, or any layman intermeddle with the laws which pertain to the bishop, nor shall any layman summon another man to judgment apart from the jurisdiction of the bishop. But judgment shall be passed in no place except within the episcopal see, or in such place as the bishop shall fix upon for this purpose.