ordeal
American Heritage Dictionary:
Top
or·deal
(ôr-dēl') 
n.
n.
- A difficult or painful experience, especially one that severely tests character or endurance. See synonyms at trial.
- A method of trial in which the accused was subjected to physically painful or dangerous tests, the result being regarded as a divine judgment of guilt or innocence.
[Alteration (influenced by DEAL1) of Middle English ordal, trial by ordeal, from Old English ordāl.]
Top
In customary law, a test of guilt or innocence in which the accused undergoes dangerous or painful tests believed to be under supernatural control. Ordeals by fire or water are the most common. Burns suffered while passing through fire (as in Hindu custom) or rejection (i.e., being buoyed up) by a body of water (as in witch trials) would be regarded as proof of guilt. In ordeal by combat, as in the medieval duel, the victor is said to win not by his own strength but because supernatural powers have intervened on the side of the right.
For more information on ordeal, visit Britannica.com.
Roget's Thesaurus:
Top
ordeal
noun
- A state of pain or anguish that tests one's resiliency and character: crucible, trial, tribulation, visitation. See easy/hard.
Oxford Dictionary of British History:
Top
trial by ordeal
Trial by ordeal was used to decide the guilt or innocence of a suspected criminal by invoking divine justice. There were several forms of ordeal in Anglo-Saxon and Norman England. In one the accused held a red hot iron or put his hand in a flame. If the wound healed, the accused was deemed innocent. In ordeal by cold water, used particularly for villeins, the accused was thrown, bound, into a pond or river. If he sank, he was deemed to be innocent, but if he floated he was regarded as guilty. In ordeal by accursed morsel, the accused was required to eat a piece of meat with a feather or other foreign body in it, and was adjudged guilty if he choked. When in 1215 the Lateran Council of the church forbade clergy to take part in ordeals, they fell into disuse and were eventually replaced by jury trial.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
Top
trial by ordeal
ordeal, ancient legal custom whereby an accused person was required to perform a test, the outcome of which decided the person's guilt or innocence. By an ordeal, appeal was made to divine authority to decide the guilt or innocence of one accused of a crime or to choose between disputants. This custom was known to ancient peoples as well as to those of fairly advanced material culture. Until recent times the ordeal was practiced in many parts of Asia and Africa. In the early Middle Ages it was widely used to settle legal questions in Western Europe. In England it was a regular form of trial and persisted until trial by jury became common. Forms of the ordeal varied with the locality and with the nature of the crime. The ordeal by fire-walking through fire or putting the hand into a flame-was common, and there were other fiery ordeals, such as walking on hot plowshares or plunging the hand into molten metal. Usually it was believed that if the accused were innocent God would spare him. Commonly there was a lapse of several days before the injuries were inspected; then someone considered a competent judge decided from the severity of the injuries as to innocence or guilt. One form of ordeal, the trial by water, was that used to determine whether or not an accused woman was a witch. The woman was bound and cast into water that had been blessed. If the water rejected her-i.e., if she floated-she was considered guilty. If the water received her, she was considered innocent. A common form of ordeal in contentions between two parties was the submission to some trial of chance, e.g., casting lots. Allied to this in spirit was the duel, which supposedly worked on the principle that God would favor the cause of the righteous in the battle. The trial by battle or by combat (sometimes called a judicial duel or wager of battle) was a recognized procedure in the Middle Ages. It was introduced from France to England after the Norman Conquest. In this trial, one of the contending parties issued a wager of battle, or challenge. Both parties under oath declared their assertions truthful; a duel was fought, and the victor was awarded the decision. In case one of the parties was a woman, a child, or a feeble man, he or she could be represented by a champion, i.e., a knight who was a relative or who had agreed to fight. As time went on a class of professional champions arose. The Roman Catholic Church from early times disapproved of the ordeal despite its apparently religious aspect, and in 1215 it categorically forbade the clergy to take part in such ceremonies.
Top
This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.
One of the most ancient forms of trial in England that required the accused person to submit to a dangerous or painful test on the theory that God would intervene and disclose his or her guilt or innocence.
Trials by ordeal were a pagan custom that took on added ritual when Christianity was introduced into England. There were various ordeals, and at different times certain ordeals were reserved for people of higher rank, whereas others were used for common people. All were based on the belief that supernatural forces would rescue the innocent from perils to which they were exposed and would allow the guilty to be physically harmed.
The ordeal of water was performed by casting the suspect into a pond or river. If the suspect floated to the surface without any action of swimming, she was deemed guilty. If the suspect sank, she was pulled out and pronounced innocent. The hot water ordeal required the accused to plunge his bare arm up to the elbow into boiling water without injury. In the ordeal of the cursed morsel, the suspect swallowed a piece of dry bread with a feather in it. If the suspect did not choke, he was found innocent. The ordeal of the red-hot iron required the accused to carry a heated poker weighing one, two, or three pounds over a certain distance. After that, the suspect's hand was bound, and in three days the bandages were removed. If the wound had not become infected, the suspect was pronounced innocent. A variation of this ordeal required the accused person to walk barefoot and blindfolded over nine red-hot plowshares placed at uneven distances. The ordeals of the red-hot iron and the plowshares were also called the fire ordeals and were often reserved for nobility.
Evidence from very early cases indicates that there were more acquittals than convictions by ordeal, but the severity of the methods may have encouraged cheating. It is impossible to tell exactly how compelling the psychological stresses of the ordeal were, but all were administered amidst the ritual of the church at the high moment of the mass. In time church leaders came to disapprove of the participation of clergymen in a somewhat pagan tradition, and in 1215 priests were forbidden to take part in trials by ordeal. In remote places, the practice continued for a time as priests disobeyed the order, but eventually trial by ordeal was eliminated. This made the criminal law of England unenforceable because the chief means of determining guilt or innocence had been abolished.
The people were reluctant to accept a system that permitted a judge to determine the facts in a criminal case. That would be replacing the voice of God with that of a mortal man. For a while, the law enforcers imprisoned persons with a general reputation for wrongdoing, banished those guilty of moderately serious crimes, and required pledges of security to ensure the peacefulness of persons accused of small crimes. When these measures proved unsatisfactory, judges began calling upon groups of people in the community to make decisions. As many as forty-eight neighbors might be asked whether the accused was guilty or innocent. Their opinions were based on what they knew or could find out about the case and not on the presentation of evidence or testimony. This procedure was a forerunner of the modern jury.
Word Tutor:
Top
ordeal
IN BRIEF: A severe test or experience.
I am prepared to meet anyone, but whether anyone is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
— Mark Twain (1835-1910), American writer, pen name for Samuel Langhorne Clemens.
LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!
See crossword solutions for the clue Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Top
Trial by ordeal
Trial by ordeal is a judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused is determined by subjecting them to an unpleasant, usually dangerous experience. In some cases, the accused are considered innocent only if they survive the test or if their injuries heal.
In medieval Europe, like trial by combat, trial by ordeal was considered a judicium Dei: a procedure based on the premise that God would help the innocent by performing a miracle on their behalf. The practice has much earlier roots, however, being attested as far back as the Code of Hammurabi and the Code of Ur-Nammu, and also in animist tribal societies, such as the trial by ingestion of "red water" (calabar bean) in Sierra Leone, where the intended effect is magical rather than invocation of a deity's justice.
In pre-modern society, the ordeal typically ranked along with the oath and witness accounts as the central means by which to reach a judicial verdict. Indeed, the term ordeal, Old English ordǣl, has the meaning of "judgment, verdict" (German Urteil, Dutch oordeel), from Proto-Germanic *uzdailjam "that which is dealt out".
According to a theory put forward by Peter Leeson, trial by ordeal was surprisingly effective at sorting the guilty from the innocent.[1] Because defendants were believers, only the truly innocent would choose to endure a trial; guilty defendants would confess or settle cases instead. Therefore, the theory goes, church and judicial authorities would routinely rig ordeals so that the participants—presumably innocent—could pass them. If this theory is correct, medieval superstition was actually a useful motivating force for justice.[2]
Priestly cooperation in trials by fire and water was forbidden by Pope Innocent III at the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 and replaced by compurgation.[3] Trials by ordeal became rarer over the Late Middle Ages, often replaced by confessions extracted under torture, but the practice was discontinued only in the 16th century.
|
Contents
|
Ordeal of fire
Ordeal of fire typically required that the accused walk a certain distance, usually nine feet, over red-hot ploughshares or holding a red-hot iron. Innocence was sometimes established by a complete lack of injury, but it was more common for the wound to be bandaged and re-examined three days later by a priest, who would pronounce that God had intervened to heal it, or that it was merely festering—in which case the suspect would be exiled or executed. One famous story about the ordeal of ploughshares concerned Edward the Confessor's mother, Emma of Normandy. According to legend, she was accused of adultery with Bishop Ælfwine of Winchester, but proved her innocence by walking barefoot unharmed over burning ploughshares.
Another form of the ordeal required that an accused remove a stone from a pot of boiling water, oil, or lead. The assessment of the injury and the consequences of a miracle or lack of one, followed a similar procedure to that described above. An early (non-judicial) example of the test was described by Gregory of Tours in the 7th century. He describes how a Catholic saint, Hyacinth, bested an Arian rival by plucking a stone from a boiling cauldron. Gregory accepted that it took Hyacinth about an hour to complete the task (because the waters were bubbling so ferociously), but he was pleased to record that when the heretic tried, he had the skin boiled off up to his elbow.
During the First Crusade, the mystic Peter Bartholomew went through the ordeal by fire in 1099 by his own choice to disprove a charge that his claimed discovery of the Holy Lance was fraudulent. He died as a result of his injuries.
Ordeal of water
English common law
In the Assize of Clarendon, enacted in 1166 and the first great legislative act in the reign of the English Angevin King Henry II, the law of the land required that: "anyone, who shall be found, on the oath of the aforesaid [a jury], to be accused or notoriously suspect of having been a robber or murderer or thief, or a receiver of them ... be taken and put to the ordeal of water."[4]
Ordeal of boiling water
First mentioned in the 6th century Lex Salica, the ordeal of hot water requires the accused to dip his hand in a kettle of boiling water and retrieve a stone.
King Athelstan made a law concerning the ordeal. The water had to be about boiling, and the depth from which the stone had to be retrieved was up to the wrist for one accusation and up to the elbow for three. The ordeal would take place in the church, with several in attendance, purified and praying God to reveal the truth. Afterwards, the hand was bound and examined after three days to see whether it was healing or festering.[5]
This was still a practice of 12th century Catholic churches: the priest would demand a suspect to place his hand in the boiling water. If after three days, God had not healed his wounds, the suspect was guilty of the crime.[6]
Ordeal of cold water
The ordeal of cold water has a precedent in the Code of Ur-Nammu and the Code of Hammurabi, under which a man accused of sorcery was to be submerged in a stream and acquitted if he survived. The practice was also set out in Frankish law but was abolished by Louis the Pious in 829. The practice reappeared in the Late Middle Ages: in the Dreieicher Wildbann of 1338, a man accused of poaching was to be submerged in a barrel three times and to be considered guilty if he sank to the bottom.
Gregory of Tours recorded in the 6th century the common expectation that with a millstone round the neck, the guilty would sink: "The cruel pagans cast him [Quirinus, bishop of the church of Sissek] into a river with a millstone tied to his neck, and when he had fallen into the waters he was long supported on the surface by a divine miracle, and the waters did not suck him down since the weight of crime did not press upon him."[7]
Witch-hunts
Ordeal by water was later associated with the witch-hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries, although in this scenario the outcome was reversed from the examples above: an accused who sank was considered innocent, while floating indicated witchcraft. Demonologists developed inventive new theories about how it worked. The ordeal would normally be conducted with a rope holding the subject connected to assistants sitting in a boat or the like, so that the person being tested could be pulled in if he/she did not float; the notion that the ordeal was flatly devised as a situation without any possibility of live acquittal, even if the outcome was 'innocent', is a modern elaboration. Some argued that witches floated because they had renounced baptism when entering the Devil's service. Jacob Rickius claimed that they were supernaturally light and recommended weighing them as an alternative to dunking them.[8] King James VI of Scotland (later also James I of England) claimed in his Daemonologie that water was so pure an element that it repelled the guilty. A witch trial including this ordeal took place in Szegedin, Hungary as late as 1728.[9]
The ordeal of water is also contemplated by the Vishnu Smrti,[10] which is one of the texts of the Dharmaśāstra.[11]
Ordeal of the cross
The ordeal of the cross was apparently introduced in the Early Middle Ages by the church in an attempt to discourage judicial duels among the Germanic peoples. As with judicial duels, and unlike most other ordeals, the accuser had to undergo the ordeal together with the accused. They stood on either side of a cross and stretched out their hands horizontally. The one to first lower his arms lost. This ordeal was prescribed by Charlemagne in 779 and again in 806. A capitulary of Louis the Pious in 819[12] and a decree of Lothar I, recorded in 876, abolished the ordeal so as to avoid the mockery of Christ.
Ordeal of ingestion
Main article: corsned
Franconian law prescribed that an accused was to be given dry bread and cheese blessed by a priest. If he choked on the food, he was considered guilty. This was transformed into the ordeal of the Eucharist (trial by sacrament) mentioned by Regino of Prüm ca. 900: the accused was to take the Eucharist after a solemn oath professing his innocence. It was believed that if the oath had been false, the criminal would die within the same year.
Another version states: "The priest wrote the Lord's Prayer on a piece of bread, of which he then weighed out ten pennyweights, and so likewise with the cheese. Under the right foot of the accused, he set a cross of poplar wood, and holding another cross of the same material over the man's head, threw over his head the theft written on a tablet. He placed the bread and cheese at the same moment in the mouth of the accused, and, on doing so, recited the conjuration: 'I exorcize thee, most unclean dragon, ancient serpent, dark night, by the word of truth, and the sign of light, by our Lord Jesus Christ, the immaculate Lamb generated by the Most High, that bread and cheese may not pass thy gullet and throat, but that thou mayest tremble like and thou mayest tremble like an aspen-leaf, Amen; and not have rest, O man, until thou dost vomit it forth with blood, if thou hast committed aught in the matter of the aforesaid theft.'"
Numbers 5:12–27 prescribes that a woman suspected of adultery should be made to swallow "the bitter water that causeth the curse" by the priest in order to determine her guilt. The accused would be condemned only if 'her belly shall swell and her thigh shall rot'. It is known as the Sotah. One writer has recently argued that the procedure has a rational basis, envisioning punishment only upon clear proof of pregnancy (a swelling belly) or venereal disease (a rotting thigh).[13]
Ordeal of poison
Some cultures, such as the Efik Uburutu people of present-day Nigeria, would administer the poisonous calabar bean (known as "esere" in Efik) in an attempt to detect guilt. A defendant who vomits up the bean is innocent. A defendant who becomes ill or dies is considered guilty.[14]
Ordeal of boiling oil
Trial by boiling oil has been practiced in villages in India[15] and in certain parts of West Africa, such as Togo.[16] There are two main alternatives of this trial. In one version, the accused parties are ordered to retrieve an item from a container of boiling oil, with those who refuse the task being found guilty.[15] In the other version of the trial, both the accused and the accuser have to retrieve an item from boiling oil, with the person or persons whose hand remains unscathed being declared innocent.[16]
Other ordeal methods
An Icelandic ordeal tradition involves the accused walking under a piece of turf. If the turf falls on the accused's head, the accused person is pronounced guilty.[17]
Residents of Madagascar could accuse one another of various crimes, including theft, Christianity and especially witchcraft, for which the ordeal of tangena was routinely obligatory. In the 1820s, ingestion of the poisonous nut caused about 1,000 deaths annually. This average rose to around 3,000 annual deaths between 1828 and 1861.[18]
See also
- Bisha'a - trial by ordeal among the Bedouin
- Running the gauntlet
- subpoena ad testificandum
- subpoena duces tecum
Notes
- ^ Peter Leeson, "Ordeals."
- ^ Peter Leeson, "Justice, Medieval Style," Boston Sunday Globe, January 31, 2010.
- ^ Vold, George B., Thomas J. Bernard, Jeffrey B. Snipes (2001). Theoretical Criminology. Oxford University Press.
- ^ The Assize of Clarendon, as published in English Historical Documents v ii 1042—1189, D C Douglas editor, Oxford University Press, London 1981, p 441.
- ^ Medieval Sourcebook: The Laws of King Athelstan AD 924-939
- ^ Medieval Sourcebook: Ordeal of Boiling Water, 12th or 13th Century
- ^ Historia Francorum i.35
- ^ Superstition and Force, Henry C. Lea, 1866
- ^ Böhmer, ius eccles. 5.608
- ^ Sacred Books of the East, vol. 7, tr. Julius Jolly, chapter 12
- ^ XII.
- ^ MGH, Capitularia regum Francorum, c. 138, 27.
- ^ Sadakat Kadri, The Trial: Four Thousand Years of Courtroom Drama (Random House, 2006), p.25.
- ^ "Calabar Bean". Flora Delaterre. http://www.floradelaterre.com/?id=19.
- ^ a b "Men undergo trial by boiling water over stolen food". The Irish Independent. 19 September 2006. http://www.independent.ie/national-news/men-undergo-trial-by-boiling-oil-over-stolen-food-78929.html.
- ^ a b "Justice". Taboo. episode 1. season 2. 6 October 2003. http://www.tv.com/taboo/justice/episode/931067/summary.html.
- ^ Miller, William Ian. “Ordeal in Iceland,” Scandinavian Studies Issue 60, 1988. pp. 189-218
- ^ Campbell, Gwyn (October 1991). "The state and pre-colonial demographic history: the case of nineteenth century Madagascar". Journal of African History 23 (3): 415–445.
References
- H. Glitsch, Mittelalterliche Gottesurteile, Leipzig (1913).
- Kaegi, Alter und Herkunft des germanischen Gottesurteils (1887).
- Henry C. Lea Superstition and Force (Greenwood, 1968; reprint of 1870 edition.)
- Sadakat Kadri The Trial: A History from Socrates to O.J. Simpson (Random House, 2006).
- Ian C. Pilarczyk, "Between a Rock and a Hot Place: Issues of Subjectivity and Rationality in the Medieval Ordeal by Hot Iron", 25 Anglo-American Law Rev. 87-112 (1996). http://iancpilarczyk.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/BetweenARock.pdf
- Robert Bartlett, Trial by Fire and Water: The Medieval Judicial Ordeal, New York: Clarendon Press, 1986.
- William Ian Miller, “Ordeal in Iceland,” Scandinavian Studies 60 (1988): 189-218.
External links
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ordeal |
- Encyclopædia Britannica Online "Ordeal"
- http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/ordeals1.html
- http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/water-ordeal.html
"Ordeals". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Translations:
Top
Ordeal
Dansk (Danish)
n. - prøvelse, gudsdom
Nederlands (Dutch)
beproeving, bezoeking
Français (French)
n. - (gén) épreuve
Deutsch (German)
n. - Qual, Tortur, Gottesurteil
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - δοκιμασία, δεινοπάθημα, βάσανο, βασανιστήριο
Italiano (Italian)
sofferenza, tribolazione, patimento, travaglio, prova
Português (Portuguese)
n. - provação (f), ordálio (m)
Русский (Russian)
мука, тяжелое испытание
Español (Spanish)
n. - prueba muy dura, sufrimiento
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - eldprov, pärs
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
严酷的考验, 折磨, 痛苦的经验
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 嚴酷的考驗, 折磨, 痛苦的經驗
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 試練, 神盟裁判, 苦難
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) محاكمه بالتعذيب, محنه
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ניסיון קשה, חוויה מרה, מבחן (לקביעת אשמה), מסה
If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2012 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
Roget's Thesaurus
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 byHoughton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Read more
Oxford Dictionary of British History
A Dictionary of British History. Copyright © 2001, 2004 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/.
Read more
West's Encyclopedia of American Law
West's Encyclopedia of American Law. Copyright © 1998 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
Read more
Word Tutor
Copyright © 2004-present by eSpindle Learning, a 501(c) nonprofit organization. All rights reserved.
eSpindle provides personalized spelling and vocabulary tutoring online; sign up free. Read more
eSpindle provides personalized spelling and vocabulary tutoring online; sign up free. Read more
Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary
Collins Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary © Anne Bradford, 1986, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008
HarperCollins Publishers
All rights reserved.
Read more
Wikipedia on Answers.com
This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Trial by ordeal.
Read more
