TIPAY, SHARMAGNE B.

2-HOTEL

DIFFERENT TYPES OF ORDEALS IN 13TH CENTURY

`1. ORDEAL BY COMBAT

In ordeal by combat, or ritual combat, the victor is said to win not by his own strength but
because supernatural powers have intervened on the side of the right, as in the duel in the
European Middle Ages in which the “judgment of God” was thought to determine the
winner. If still alive after the combat, the loser might be hanged or burned for a criminal
offense or have a hand cut off and property confiscated in civil actions.
2. ORDEAL BY BALANCE
- Ordeal of balance (Tula, Dhata)—mostly given to women, minors and old or disabled
people. The person. performing the ordeal was twice weighed on a balance. If the person
weighed lighter than the previous weight. they were considered innocent; if they were heavier
the second time they were considered guilty.
3. ORDEAL BY BOILING WATER
- The most common trial by ordeal was the 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.
4. RED HOT IRON ORDEAL
- The hot iron ordeal involved a defendant carrying a red-hot iron bar and, as with other trials
by ordeal, tended to be used by the powers that be when there were no witnesses to a crime or
when the word of the accused was not deemed wholly credible. The belief at the time was
that, if the defendant was burned, they were guilty and if they were not burned they were
innocent but Leeson suggests the process was not quite so binary.
5. CROCODILE ORDEAL
- The accused would cross a river full of crocodiles, if he
reached the other side unharmed then he deemed innocent.
6. ORDEAL BY HEAT AND FIRE
-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 three,
over red-hot plowshares or holding a red-hot iron
7. TRIAL OF THE CROSS (Test of the Cross Ordeal)

-The accuser and the accused were placed under the cross with their arms
extended or crosswise and the first to move his hands or suffer them to fall was
held guilty.
8. TRIAL BY TORTURE
-The accused was put into a severe Physical test.
9. ORDEAL OF THE TIGER
-Ordeal of the Tiger Practiced in Siam, the accused and accuser are
place on a cage of a tiger; if the tiger spare one of them he is
considered innocent.
10. THE BLEEDING ORDEAL
- This form of ordeal was meant to ascertain the guilt or innocence of
a person accused of murder. The suspect would be taken to the
exposed body of his alleged victim. The accused placed his hand on
the mortal wound, then swore an oath to his own innocence. If the
corpse bled, the accused was guilty; if it did not bleed, he was
innocent. The bleeding ordeal was predicated on the assumption that
the soul of the deceased continued to reside inside the body and
wished to revenge the loss of its body against the killer.