Note 1331 — Chapter XVII · THE CHURCH AND THE ORDEAL.

Leg. Scanicar. Lib. VII. cap. 99 (Ed. Thorsen, p. 171). There is another provision that in certain cases of murder the accused could not be compelled to undergo the ordeal of the red-hot ploughshares unless the accuser was supported by twelve conjurators, when, if the accused was successful each of the twelve was obliged to pay him three marks, and the same sum to the priest.—Ib. L. V. c. 58 (p. 140). It was scarcely intelligible why these ordeals were not allowed to be performed in any week in which there was a church-feast (Ibid. p. 170-1).