ORDEAL (AS. °IWO, orda/, 01IG. urteili, Ger. Urteil, decision, judgment, from AS. a-, 011G. or-, ir-, or-, Ger. cr-, out + AS. drel. Goth.
daila, 011G. tell, Ger. Toil, part, connected with 01, hureh Slay. (Nil, part). A practice, which has prevailed among various widely rated nations, of referring disputed questions. particularly such as relate to the guilt or inno cence of an individual, to the judgment of God. determined either by lot, or by the success of certain experiments. Of its existence among the ancient Jews we have an instance in Num bers v., where a Hebrew woman, accused of adultery. is required to drink the as a test of innocence; a similar ordeal for in continence is said to be in use among the natives of the Gold Coast of Africa. The practice of ordeals as existing aiming the Greeks is referred to in Antiyone. Among the Hindus the ordeal has been practiced in nine different ways—by the balance, by fire, by ureter, by poison, by the eogha, or drinking water, in which images of the sun and other deities had been washed. by (-hewing rire, by hot oil, by red-hot iron, and by drawing two images out of a jar into which they have been thrown.
The Celts in Ireland. the I lermans before their conversion, and the early Slays made use of ordeals. After their conversion to Christianity they employed ordeals with the full sanction of the Church. In the early Aliddle Ages there was no Dial in the modern sense of the word. The accused was required to e lmis innocence by compurgation (q.v.), the wager of battle (q.v.), or an ordeal. In the wager of battle and the ordbal of the cross (see below) both plaintiff and defendant were put to the proof, but in all other ordeals and in compurgation the burden of proof rested upon the negative. Christian rites took the place of pagan ceremonies and God was called upon to show the truth. The forms most commonly employed were the ordeals of boiling water, of tire, of iron, of cold water, of the cross, of the corsncd, and of the euebarist.
In the ordeal of boiling water the accused was obliged to insert his hand into a caldron of boiling water. Sometimes he had to take out a small object; in some cases he put in hi, hand only as far as the wrist; in the triple ordeal, as far as the elbow. After the trial the hand was sealed up for three days. or guilt was held to he proved by its condition when un sealed. In the ordeal of fire, the original custom may have been that the accused placed his hand in the fire. Later two piles of wood were laid
a short distance apart and then were set on fire. The accused walked between the two. In such Cases it is probable that fifteen days were lowed to the accused before his injuries were spected. The genuineness of relics was often tested by this ordeal. The ordeal of red-hot iron was employed in two forms. In one case 6, 9. or 12 red-hot plowshares were placed on the ground, among which the accused walker( blindfolded, and his innocence was shown by his avoidance of them; or he was compelled to step on each. In the second form the accused was com pelled to carry a iron. usually for a dis tance of nine feet. This ordeal was generally chosen by persons of rank. The ordeal of cold water rested upon the belief that the water when sanctified by religious rites would refuse to ceive the guilty, while the would sink. This method long remained in use for witches. In the ordeal of the cross, both accuser and ac cused stood with uplifted hands before a cross and the one who kept his position longest won. This was prohibited by the Emperor Louis the Pious (8114-40), but was frequently employed. The corsned was in use by the and was carried out by giving the accused a piece of bread or cheese to swallow. If be was suc cessful he was innocent. The ordeal of the eueharist was similar. In all of the forms the ordeal was administered only after special re Iieiouis )(her kinds of ordeal were practiced under particular ciremnstances in different of Europe. In the ordeal of the r. a supposed murderer was required to touch the body' of the murdered person. and was pronounced guilty if the blood flowed from his wounds.
Trial by ordeal at first carried with it the sanetion of the Church. as well as of the civil power, though the clergy in the course of time earn, to discountenance it At the fourth an Council in 1213 ecclesiastical ceremonies at ordeals were absolutely forbidden. Secular rulers followed the example in condemning the ordeal. and it was abandoned generally in the thirteenth century. although, as noted above, cer twin isolated usages long prevailed. Consult: Sehlagintwcit, Guttcsarthcite (Munich, 181;4); Lea, ,Wunerstition and Force (4111 ed., Philadel phia. 1892) Patella. Le units lie (Turin. 1890); Itrunner. Ih•Hisehe Reel, tsgesch ich te ( Leipzig, ]tile') : Thayer, Pr,•I i mina ry Treatisc on Erick/tee, etc. (11.,ston, IS9fi).