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From Nordan Symposia
Jump to navigationJump to searchCreated page with 'File:lighterstill.jpgright|frame ==Etymology== [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD...'
[[File:lighterstill.jpg]][[File:Trial_by_ordeal.jpg|right|frame]]
==Etymology==
[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle English] ordal, from [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._600-1100.09THE_OLD_ENGLISH.2C_OR_ANGLO-SAXON_PERIOD Old English] ordāl; akin to Old High German urteil [[judgment]], Old English dāl division
*Date: before [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_Century 12th century]
==Definitions==
*1 : a [[primitive]] means used to determine [[guilt]] or [[innocence]] by submitting the accused to [[dangerous]] or [[painful]] tests believed to be under [[supernatural]] [[control]] <ordeal by fire>
*2 : a severe [[trial]] or [[experience]]
==Description==
[[Trial]] by '''ordeal''' is a [[judicial]] [[practice]] by which the [[guilt]] or [[innocence]] of the accused is determined by subjecting them to an unpleasant, usually [[dangerous]] [[experience]]. In some cases, the accused was considered innocent if they [[survived]] the test, or if their injuries healed; in others, only [[death]] was considered [[proof]] of innocence. (If the accused died, they were often presumed to have gone to a suitable reward or [[punishment]] in the [[afterlife]], which was considered to make trial by ordeal entirely [[fair]].)
In medieval Europe, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_by_combat trial by combat], trial by ordeal was considered a ''judicium Dei'': a [[procedure]] based on the premise that [[God]] would help the [[innocent]] by [[performing]] a [[miracle]] on their behalf. The [[practice]] has much earlier [[roots]] however, being attested as far back as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi Code of Hammurabi] and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Ur-Nammu Code of Ur-Nammu], and also in animist [[tribal]] [[societies]], such as the trial by ingestion of "red water" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calabar_bean calabar bean]) in Sierra Leone, where the intended [[effect]] is [[magical]] rather than invocation of a [[deity]]'s [[justice]].
In pre-[[modern]] [[society]], the ordeal typically ranked along with the [[oath]] and [[witness]] accounts as the central means by which to reach a [[judicial]] [[verdict]]. Indeed, the term ordeal itself, [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._600-1100.09THE_OLD_ENGLISH.2C_OR_ANGLO-SAXON_PERIOD Old English] ordǣl, has the [[meaning]] of "[[judgment]], [[verdict]]" (German Urteil, Dutch oordeel), from Proto-Germanic *uzdailjam "that which is dealt out".
According to one [[theory]], put forward by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Leeson Peter Leeson],'' trial by ordeal'' was surprisingly [[effective]] at sorting the [[guilty]] from the [[innocent]]. Because defendants were believers, only the truly innocent would [[choose]] to [[endure]] a [[trial]]; [[guilty]] defendants would [[confess]] or settle cases instead. Therefore, the [[theory]] goes, [[church]] and [[judicial]] [[authorities]] would routinely rig ordeals so that the [[participants]]—presumably innocent—could pass them. If this [[theory]] is correct, medieval [[superstition]] was actually a useful [[motivating]] [[force]] for [[justice]].
[[Priestly]] [[cooperation]] in trials by [[fire]] and [[water]] was forbidden by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Innocent_III Pope Innocent III] at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Lateran_Council Fourth Lateran Council of 1215], and replaced by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compurgation compurgation]. Trials by ordeal became rarer over the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Middle_Ages Late Middle Ages], often replaced by [[confessions]] extracted under [[torture]], but the [[practice]] was discontinued only in the 16th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Hartlieb Johannes Hartlieb] in 1456 reports a popular [[superstition]] of how to identify a thief by an ordeal by ingestion practised [[privately]] without [[judicial]] [[sanction]].
[[Category: Law]]
[[Category: Anthropology]]
==Etymology==
[http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._1100-1500_.09THE_MIDDLE_ENGLISH_PERIOD Middle English] ordal, from [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._600-1100.09THE_OLD_ENGLISH.2C_OR_ANGLO-SAXON_PERIOD Old English] ordāl; akin to Old High German urteil [[judgment]], Old English dāl division
*Date: before [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/12th_Century 12th century]
==Definitions==
*1 : a [[primitive]] means used to determine [[guilt]] or [[innocence]] by submitting the accused to [[dangerous]] or [[painful]] tests believed to be under [[supernatural]] [[control]] <ordeal by fire>
*2 : a severe [[trial]] or [[experience]]
==Description==
[[Trial]] by '''ordeal''' is a [[judicial]] [[practice]] by which the [[guilt]] or [[innocence]] of the accused is determined by subjecting them to an unpleasant, usually [[dangerous]] [[experience]]. In some cases, the accused was considered innocent if they [[survived]] the test, or if their injuries healed; in others, only [[death]] was considered [[proof]] of innocence. (If the accused died, they were often presumed to have gone to a suitable reward or [[punishment]] in the [[afterlife]], which was considered to make trial by ordeal entirely [[fair]].)
In medieval Europe, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_by_combat trial by combat], trial by ordeal was considered a ''judicium Dei'': a [[procedure]] based on the premise that [[God]] would help the [[innocent]] by [[performing]] a [[miracle]] on their behalf. The [[practice]] has much earlier [[roots]] however, being attested as far back as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Hammurabi Code of Hammurabi] and the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_of_Ur-Nammu Code of Ur-Nammu], and also in animist [[tribal]] [[societies]], such as the trial by ingestion of "red water" ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calabar_bean calabar bean]) in Sierra Leone, where the intended [[effect]] is [[magical]] rather than invocation of a [[deity]]'s [[justice]].
In pre-[[modern]] [[society]], the ordeal typically ranked along with the [[oath]] and [[witness]] accounts as the central means by which to reach a [[judicial]] [[verdict]]. Indeed, the term ordeal itself, [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=English#ca._600-1100.09THE_OLD_ENGLISH.2C_OR_ANGLO-SAXON_PERIOD Old English] ordǣl, has the [[meaning]] of "[[judgment]], [[verdict]]" (German Urteil, Dutch oordeel), from Proto-Germanic *uzdailjam "that which is dealt out".
According to one [[theory]], put forward by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Leeson Peter Leeson],'' trial by ordeal'' was surprisingly [[effective]] at sorting the [[guilty]] from the [[innocent]]. Because defendants were believers, only the truly innocent would [[choose]] to [[endure]] a [[trial]]; [[guilty]] defendants would [[confess]] or settle cases instead. Therefore, the [[theory]] goes, [[church]] and [[judicial]] [[authorities]] would routinely rig ordeals so that the [[participants]]—presumably innocent—could pass them. If this [[theory]] is correct, medieval [[superstition]] was actually a useful [[motivating]] [[force]] for [[justice]].
[[Priestly]] [[cooperation]] in trials by [[fire]] and [[water]] was forbidden by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Innocent_III Pope Innocent III] at the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Lateran_Council Fourth Lateran Council of 1215], and replaced by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compurgation compurgation]. Trials by ordeal became rarer over the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Middle_Ages Late Middle Ages], often replaced by [[confessions]] extracted under [[torture]], but the [[practice]] was discontinued only in the 16th century. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Hartlieb Johannes Hartlieb] in 1456 reports a popular [[superstition]] of how to identify a thief by an ordeal by ingestion practised [[privately]] without [[judicial]] [[sanction]].
[[Category: Law]]
[[Category: Anthropology]]
