A popular story is told of Emma, mother of Edward the
Confessor, being accused of too great familiarity with the Bishop
of Leicester. To justify herself, she demanded the ordeal of
red-hot iron. Her demand was complied with, and she passed
barefooted and blindfolded over nine red-hot ploughshares without
touching them. Her innocence was thereby held to be proved.
Nobles and great persons who submitted to ordeal by water were
purged by boiling water, but the populace had to undergo the
cold-water test.
Theatberge, wife of Lothaire of France, having been accused of
incest, certain bishops were consulted as to the manner of
establishing her guilt or innocence; and they concluded that
recourse should be had to proof by boiling water. She was ordered
to plunge her hand into a basin of boiling water, and take out a
ring put therein. In place of complying, she availed herself of a
privilege the law allowed—to find a substitute. He whom she
chose produced the ring without injuring his hand, in spite of
the fire under the caldron being so intense that the water boiled
over.
In the trial or purgation by cold water, the accused, after
prayers and other ceremonies, was cast into deep water, swaddled
or tied in such a manner as to make it[Pg 446]
impossible for him or her to swim. If the accused sank, he or she
was held criminal, and allowed to drown. If the person floated,
it was regarded as a proof of innocence, and the lucky one was
drawn out of the water to be set free.
Mr. Forbes, in his Oriental Memoirs, says that, among
the curious circumstances connected with his administration of
justice at Dheeborg, he was sometimes obliged to determine causes
by ordeal trial. In one instance a man was accused of stealing a
child wearing many jewels. Circumstances were against him, on
which he demanded trial by ordeal. Mr. Forbes was at first averse
to adopt such a measure, but, at the request of the Hindoo
arbitrators, who sat on the carpet of justice, and especially at
the request of the child's parents, he consented. A vessel full
of boiling oil was brought into the durbar, and, after a short
ceremony by the Brahmins, the accused person, without showing any
anxiety, plunged his hand to the bottom and took out a small
silver coin. He did not appear to have sustained any hurt, or to
suffer the least pain. The suspected person's innocence being
thus established in the eyes of the arbitrators and parents, he
was set free.
Another instance of trial by ordeal is mentioned by Mr.
Forbes. The coolies of a village in the northern part of Guzerat
were accused of having seized and imprisoned a Bohra, and, of
extorting a bond from him for 450 rupees. The chief, a Khemaria
coolie, named Wagajee, denied the charge, and, for proof of his
innocence and that of his people, offered to submit to trial by
any kind of ordeal. The Bohra agreed to this mode of proof, and
it was determined that the coolie should immerse his hand in a
vessel of boiling oil. A large copper-pot full of oil was put on
a fire in the market place, and a pair of blacksmith's bellows
applied to blow the fire until the oil became very hot. A rupee
was then thrown into the pot. The accused, when requested, came
forward, stripped himself, said his[Pg 447] prayers, and
protested his innocence. He resisted every attempt to dissuade
him from the trial. A crowd of people, impressed with the
awfulness of such an immediate appeal to the deity, prayed
devoutly that, if he were not guilty, he might pass through the
test unhurt. Wagajee walked up to the boiling oil, dipped his
hand into it, and laid hold of the rupee. He then held up his
hand, that the spectators might satisfy themselves of his
veracity. His hand appeared as if it had been merely put into
cold oil. All parties were satisfied, and Wagajee was dismissed
with the present of a new turban.
Trial by ordeal was introduced into England by the Saxons.
Under the English laws, a prisoner might choose whether he would
be tried by ordeal or by jury. Trial by ordeal was abolished in
this country in the year 1218.
Trial by or wager of battle may be mentioned as a form of
superstition which remained as a legal way of deciding criminal
cases down to the time of George III.
In 1817 a young man, charged with murdering his sweetheart in
England, claimed the right to have his case decided by wager of
battle: the court admitted the claim, but he whose right it was
to accept the challenge refused to fight, and so the accused
escaped punishment. This led to the law, which allowed trial by
battle, being repealed in 1819.
Before commencing the fight, the combatants were compelled to
swear that neither of them would resort to sorcery or witchcraft.
If the accused were slain, the judges regarded the fatal deed as
proof of his guilt. If overpowered, but not killed, he was
adjudged guilty, and sentenced to be immediately executed. Women,
priests, infants, men sixty years of age, or lame or blind, had
it in their option to refuse wager of battle, and were entitled
to demand trial by jury.
An old author says: "If two neighbours dispute respecting the
boundaries of their possessions, let a piece of turf[Pg 448] of
the contested land be dug up by the judge, and brought by him
into the court, and the two parties shall touch it with the
points of their swords, calling on the Most High to witness their
claims. After this let them combat, and let victory prove who is
right and who is wrong."
Sir Walter Scott gives a good illustration of the superstition
of olden times, and of trial by battle, in Ivanhoe. We are
told that after Ivanhoe was wounded at the tournament, Rebecca,
the Jewess, lost no time in causing the patient to be removed to
her father's dwelling, and with her own hands bound up his
wounds. The Jews, both male and female, possessed and practised
the medical science; and the monarchs and powerful barons of the
time, says the novelist, frequently, when wounded or in sickness,
committed themselves as patients to the charge of an experienced
person among the despised people. A general belief prevailed
among Christians that the Jewish rabbins were acquainted with the
occult sciences, and particularly with the cabalistical art. The
rabbins did not disavow such acquaintance with supernatural arts.
Rebecca's knowledge of the healing art had been acquired under an
aged Jewess, the daughter of a celebrated doctor. Miriam fell a
sacrifice to the fanaticism of the times, but her secrets had
survived in her apt pupil. The wounded knight, as might be
expected, recovered under the medical treatment of Rebecca. For
this she was accused of working cures by words, sigils, and other
cabalistical mysteries.
"Nay, reverend and brave knight," answered Isaac, Rebecca's
father, in reply to Beaumanoir, who brought the charge against
the Jewess, "but in chief measure by a balsam of marvellous
virtue;" and in reply to another question, Isaac reluctantly told
that Rebecca had obtained her secret from Miriam, whom the Grand
Master designated a witch and enchantress, whose body had been
burned at a stake, and her ashes scattered to the four winds.
"The laws of England," exclaimed Beaumanoir,[Pg 449]
"permit and enjoin each judge to execute justice within his own
jurisdiction. The most petty baron may arrest, try, and condemn a
witch found within his own domain.... The witch shall be taken
out of the land, and the wickedness thereof shall be forgiven.
Prepare the castle-hall for the trial of the sorceress."
Poor Rebecca was brought before the Grand Master, charged with
various crimes. "We have," said the Master, "summoned to our
presence a Jewish woman, by name Rebecca, daughter of
York—a woman infamous for sortileges and for witcheries;
whereby she hath maddened the blood, and besotted the brain, not
of a churl, but of a knight—not of a secular knight, but of
one devoted to the service of the holy temple—not of a
knight champion, but of a preceptor.... By means of charms and of
spells, Satan had obtained dominion over the knight, perchance
because he cast his eyes too lightly upon a damsel's beauty."
Witnesses being invited by the Grand Master, forward came a
once bedridden man, whom the prisoner had restored to the perfect
use of his limbs by a miraculous balsam. Unwillingly he testified
to Rebecca curing him, giving him a pot of spicy smelling
ointment, and supplying him with money to pay his expenses to his
father's house, whither he wished to repair. Other witnesses
deponed that Rebecca muttered to herself in an unknown tongue,
that the songs she sang were peculiarly sweet, that her garments
were of a strange mystic form, and that she had rings with
cabalistic devices. A soldier testified that he had seen her cure
a wounded man in a mysterious way. He said she made certain signs
upon the wound, and repeated words he understood not. The result,
he declared, was that the iron head of a cross-bow bolt
disengaged itself from the wound, the bleeding was staunched, the
wound closed, and the seemingly dying man was within a quarter of
an hour walking upon the ramparts.[Pg 450] Another soldier
deponed that he had seen Rebecca perch herself upon a high
turret, and there take the form of a white swan, under which
appearance she flitted three times round the castle of
Torquailstone. Again she settled on the turret, and once more
assumed her womanly form. The evidence was considered more than
enough to condemn the unhappy Jewess; and in a solemn tone the
Grand Master demanded what she had to say against sentence of
condemnation being pronounced against her. Rebecca knew the law;
she maintained her innocence, claimed the privilege of trial by
combat, and offered to appear by a champion.
Brian de Bois-Gilbert was appointed to do battle on behalf of
himself and the order of knights to which he belonged; and the
day came when the die would be cast that was to decide the fate
of Rebecca. At the castle of Templestowe everything was prepared
by the prosecutor for the combat, but for poor Rebecca no
champion appeared. Near the lists was a pile of faggots so
arranged around a stake as to leave a space for the accused to
enter within the fatal circle, chained by fetters, in order to be
ready for the fiery punishment. At the hour appointed for the
champions to meet, the large bell of St. Michael tolled
mournfully, the drawbridge fell, the gates opened, and a knight,
bearing a great standard, sallied forth from the castle, preceded
by six trumpeters, and followed by the knights preceptors, the
Grand Master coming behind. Then came Brian de Bois-Gilbert,
armed cap-à-pie, accompanied by two godfathers and
many squires and pages. After these followed a guard of warders,
with the trembling Jewess, stripped of all her ornaments, lest
there should be among them amulets, which Satan was supposed to
bestow upon his victims, to deprive them of the power of
confession, even when under torture. While the Grand Master took
his exalted seat, the unfortunate culprit was conducted to the
black chair, near the ready prepared pile. Everything[Pg 451]
being arranged, a loud and long flourish of trumpets announced
that the proceedings of the court were to begin. Brian de
Bois-Gilbert stood ready for the combat, but a champion was still
wanting for the appellant. Lest Jew or Pagan should charge the
court with injustice, the Grand Master declared his readiness to
wait till the shadows were in the west, to see if a champion
would appear for the culprit. But the general belief prevailed
that no one would stand up for her; and the craven knights
whispered to each other, when the day was far gone, that the time
had come for declaring the pledge of Rebecca forfeited. At this
instant, a knight, urging his horse forward, appeared on the
plain advancing towards the lists. A hundred voices exclaimed, "A
champion! a champion!" Yes, it was a champion, the renowned
Wilfred of Ivanhoe. "Rebecca," said he, riding up to the black
chair, "dost thou accept me for thy champion?" The answer was in
the affirmative. Little time was now lost; the champions
confronted each other. Trumpets sounded, and the knights charged
in full career. The wearied horse of Ivanhoe, and its no less
exhausted rider, went down, as all had expected, before the
well-aimed lance and vigorous steed of the Templar. This result
all had foreseen; but although the spear of Ivanhoe did but
lightly touch the shield of Bois-Gilbert, that combatant reeled
in his saddle, lost his stirrups, and fell in the lists. Ivanhoe,
extricating himself from his fallen horse, was soon on foot,
hastening to mend his fortune by the sword; but his antagonist
rose not. Wilfred, placing his foot on his opponent's breast, and
the sword's point to his throat, commanded him to yield, or die
on the spot. Bois-Gilbert returned no answer. The fallen knight
was unhelmed. His eyes were closed—he was dead, supposed to
have died a victim to the violence of his own passions. When the
first moments of surprise were over, the Grand Master pronounced
the maiden free and guiltless.
The conclusion of this story is touching in the
extreme.[Pg 452] Soon after this Ivanhoe and the
Lady Ravena were married. On the second morning after the
nuptials, Rebecca waited on the Lady of Ivanhoe, and presented
her with a small silver casket containing jewels of great value;
and leaving a message to her champion, who never ceased to
remember her, she hastened away to other lands, to tend the sick,
feed the hungry, and relieve the distressed.
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