Note 81 — Chapter V · Trial by Ordeal.

Rymer, Foed. I., 228; II. Pollock and Maitland’s History Eng. Law, supra.

Illustrative of the approval of the church of Rome in the ancient procedure by ordeal, we find, in the ninth century that Hincmar expatiated upon the blessing of such a test, in that it combines “The elements of water and of fire: the one representing the deluge—the judgment inflicted on the wicked of old; the other authorized by the fiery doom of the future—the day of judgment, in both of which we see the righteous escape and the wicked suffer.” Hincmar, de Divort. Lothar. Interrog. vl; Lea, “Superstition and Force,” (3 ed.) 244.