A Popular Story--Ordeal of Red-hot Iron--Ordeal by
Boiling Water--Theatberge, wife of Lothaire, accused
of Incest--Purgation by Cold Water--Forbes's
Memoirs--Ordeals by Boiling Oil--Trial by Wager of
Battle--When Trial by Wager of Battle ceased--Trial by
Jury--Combats in Germany--Bier placed near the
Combatants--Court of King's Bench deciding the
Legality of Trial by Battle--Sir Walter Scott's
Illustrations of Superstition and Trial by Battle in
Olden Times.
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 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 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 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, "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. 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-a-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 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. 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.
CURSES AND EVIL WISHES.