=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.