Note 1 — PART I. STATUTES 1154-1216

The Judgment of Boiling Water.—"The priest shall sprinkle over them some of the water itself; and to those who are about to go into the judgement of God, to all of them, he shall give to drink of that same holy water. And when he shall have given it, moreover, he shall say to each one: 'I have given this water to thee or to you for a sign to-day.' Then pieces of wood shall be placed under the cauldron, and the priest shall say ... prayers when the water itself shall have begun to grow warm.—And he who puts his hand in the water for the trial itself, shall say the Lord's Prayer, and shall sign himself with the sign of the cross; and that boiling water shall hastily be put down near the fire, and the judge shall suspend that stone, bound to that measure, within that same water in the accustomed way: and thus he who enters to be tried by judgement shall extract it thence in the name of God himself. Afterwards with great diligence, his hand shall be thus wrapped up, signed with the seal of the judge, until the third day; when it shall be viewed and judged of by suitable men."—Historical Documents of the Middle Ages, p. 316. (Published by G. Bell & Sons.)