JOEL C. CARDENAS JR.

BSCRIM-3E

Atleast 7 or more Examples of Ordeal with definition

1. Ordeal by hot iron where the accused person would carry a burning hot iron so many paces
without being burned to prove their innocence.
2. Ordeal by hot water, where the accused would reach into a pot of boiling water and retrieve an
object. If the accused was innocent, the water would not burn their skin, but if they were guilty,
then the burns would reveal their guilt.
3. Ordeal by the sacrament, whereby an accused priest would be required to take the wafer of
communion. If they were guilty, the accused clergy member was expected to choke on the
sacrament, and if innocent they would swallow it without incident.
4. Ordeal by combat, took place between two parties in a dispute, either two individuals, or
between an individual and a government or other organization. They, or, under certain
conditions, a designated “champion” acting on their behalf, would fight, and the loser of the
fight or the party represented by the losing champion was deemed guilty or liable. Champions
could be used by one or both parties in an individual versus individual dispute, and could
represent the individual in a trial by an organization; an organization or state government by its
nature had to be represented by a single combatant selected as champion, although there are
numerous cases of high-ranking nobility, state officials and even monarchs volunteering to serve
as champion. Combat between groups of representatives was less common but still occurred.
5. Ordeal by fire, was one form of torture. The ordeal of fire typically required that the accused
walk a certain distance, usually 9 feet (2.7 meters) or a certain number of paces, usually 3, over
red-hot ploughshares or holding a red-hot iron. Innocence was sometimes established by a
complete lack of injury, but it was more common for the wound to be bandaged and re-
examined 3 days later by a priest, who would pronounce that God had intervened to heal it, or
that it was merely festering-in which case the suspect would be exiled or put to death. One
famous story about the ordeal of ploughshares concerns the Anglo-Saxon King Edward the
Confessor's mother, Emma of Normandy. According to legend, she was accused of adultery with
Bishop Elfwine of Winchester, but proved her innocence by walking barefoot unharmed over
burning ploughshares.
6. The ordeal of cold water, has a precedent in the thirteenth law of the Code of Ur-Nammu (the
oldest known surviving code of laws) and the second law of the Code of Hammurabi. Under the
Code of Ur-Nammu, a man who was accused of what some scholars have translated as “sorcery”
was to undergo ordeal by water. If the man were proven innocent through this ordeal, the
accuser was obligated to pay 3 sheckles to the man who underwent judgement.
7. The ordeal of the cross, was apparently introduced in the Early Middle Ages in an attempt to
discourage judicial duels among Germanic peoples. As with judicial duels, and unlike most other
ordeals, the accuser had to undergo the ordeal together with the accused. They stood on either
side of a cross and stretched out their hands horizontally. The first one to lower their arms lost.
This ordeal was prescribed by Charlemagne in 779 and again in 806.