TRIALS BY ORDEAL

Divine judicial oversight took many forms

Trial by fire

The use of fire to adjudicate guilt or innocence has taken many forms in different areas of the world and in different periods. In medieval Britain a defendant would be made to carry a hot poker, with the verdict decided by the burns on their hands. Meanwhile the Hindu story The Ramayana sees Sita walk through fire to prove her innocence when she’s accused of adultery.

Trial by water

The most famous use of this ordeal comes from witch trials, but it could be applied to anyone thought to have committed a crime. Defendants would be bound and if they sank, they were innocent (and usually retrieved rather than being allowed to drown). A trial by water might also mean hot water, with a defendant having to keep their hand submerged. If they avoided blistering, they were free.

Trial by sacred morsel

You might not think eating bread and cheese would prove someone’s guilt or innocence, but that’s what the sacred morsel was meant to do. Eating it without choking proved your innocence but one famous example saw Godwin, Earl of Wessex, die while eating the sacred morsel having denied involvement in the death of Edward the Confessor’s brother, Alfred.

Trial by cross

Rather than involving crucifixion, as the name might suggest, this was actually an ordeal of endurance where the accuser and accused had to stand with their arms out horizontally on either side of a cross. The person who held the position longest was deemed in the right. It was used to replace trial by combat by Charlemagne, which was the only other ordeal that saw accuser and accused face off.

Trial by bean

A West African version of the trial by ordeal came from the Calabar bean, which came to be known as the ‘lie detector bean’. The bean was highly poisonous, acting similarly to a nerve agent, but if the accused was innocent then God would save their lives. Actually, the bean is usually only poisonous if chewed, so swallowing it whole could mean the person would survive the trial.