St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1863-12-10

J
III 1891 and from England in 1880.
Modes Of Trial.
In ancient times there was trial
called trial by ordeal. There Ware two
I kinds-tire.c ordeal and water-ordeal,
whence arose the expression in very
common use of "going through fire and
water to serve another" The former
was confined to persons of high rank,
and the latter to persons of the lower
Fire ordeal was performed by taking up
in the hand, unhurt, piece of red-hot
iron of .oac, two, or three pounds
weight, or else by walking barefoot
and blindfolGed over nine red-hot plow-
Shares laid lengthwisc at unequal dis
tances and if the party escaped 6eing
hurt he was adjudged innocent. IF the
trial was performed by'depaty the p'fin-
cipal was responsible. 1t is said that
Queen Emma; 'thc mother of Edward,
the Confessor, cleared her character by
this latter method.
Water-orleal was perlor Led by
plunging the naked arm into boiling
water and if ho escaped unhurt, was
declared innocent, or by casting the
person suspected into river or pond
of cold water and if he foated therein
without any action of swi lining, it was
deemed an evidence of his guilt, but il
he sank he was acquitted.
1t is easy to trace out the traditional
relics or this water-ordcal in the igno-
rant barbarity still practised in many
countries to d1scover~wftthcs, by cast
ing them into a pool of water, and
drowning them to prove their innocence!
And in the Eastern Empire he.6re-or7
dealswas'used to the same purpose by
the sNmperor Theodore ,Fsscaris, who
attfibuting his sickness tc magic, caus-
ed all those whom he:suspected, to ham
die thehot iron thus joining, as has
been well remarked, to the most dubi-
GUS crime in the world, the most dubi-
Gus proof Of innocehcy. And indeed
this purgation by ordeal, seems to have
been very ancient and very universal
III the times Of superstitious barbarity.
1t was known to the ancient Greeks,
for in the >Antigone Of Sophocles, per-
son suspected by Creon of amisdemean-
or, declares himself ready to 'handlc
red-hot iron and to walk over fire in
order to manifest his innocence, which
the scholiast tells US was then'a very
usual purgation. Crotius gives us ma
ny instances of water-ordeal in 'Bithy-
MIA, Sardinia and other places.
There is also'a very peculiar species
OF water-ordeal, said to prevail among
the Indians on the coast OF Malabar,
where a person accused of any enor-
nous crime, is obliged to swim over a
large river Astounding in crocodiles, and,
if he escapes unhurt, he is reputed
innocent. And in Siam, besides the
usual methods 6te.&hd*water ordeals,
both parties are sometimes exposed to
the fury of tiger let loose for Chat
purpose. If the beast spares either,
that person is accounted innocent if
neither, both'are held to he guilty; but
if he spares both, the trial is incom-
Plete and &ev proceed to more GER
tain criterion.
Both in England and Sweden, the
clergy presided at this trial, ard it was
only performed in churches or other
consecrated ground.
Another species of purgation some
what similar to the above, but probably
sprung from prcsunptuous abuse OF
revelation in the:&ges Of dark supersti-
ton, was the cersned, or morsel of exc
Grafton, aseeing 4 piece Of cheese or bread
Of about IN ounce in weight, which was
oonsecrated with a form>of exorcis1n,
desiring Of the Almighty, that 1T
might cause oonvulsions and paleness,
and find no passage, if the man was
- L A.