279. THE ORDEAL. 341
between neighbors, friends or foes on four days of the week, namely, on Thursday, on account of Christ's ascension, on Friday on account of his crucifixion, on Saturday in memory of his burial, on Sunday in memory of his resurrection. They add: "All who love this Treuga Dei we bless and absolve; but those who oppose it we anathematize and exclude from the church. He who punishes a disturber of the Peace of God shall be acquitted of guilt and blessed by all Christians as a champion of the cause of God."
The peace-movement spread through all Burgundy and France, and was sanctioned by the Synods of Narbonne (1054), Gertindum in Spain (1068), Toulouse (1068), Troyes (1093), Rouen (1096), Rheims (1136), the Lateran (1139 and 1179), etc. The Synod of Clermont (1095), under the lead of Pope Urban II., made the Truce of God the general law of the church. The time of the Truce was extended to the whole period from the first of Advent to Epiphany, from Ash Wednesday to the close of the Easter week, and from Ascension to the close of the week of Pentecost ; also to the various festivals and their vigils. The Truce was announced by the ringing of bells.1
§ 79. The Ordeal.
GRIMM : Deutsche JRechtsalterthumer, Gottingen 1828, p. 908 sqq. HIL- DENBRAND: Die Purgatio canonica et vulgaris, Miinchen 1841. UNGER : Der gerichtliche Zweikampf, Gottingen 1847. PIIILIPPS : Ueber die Ordalien, Mfinchen 1S47. DAHX : Studien zur Gesch. der germ. Gottesurfheile, Miinchen 1867. PFALZ : Die (jerman. Ordalien, Leipz. 1865. HENRY C. LEA : Superstition and Force, Philad. 1866, p. 175-280. (I have especially used Lea, who gives ample authori ties for his statements.) For synodical legislation on ordeals see HEFELE, vols. III. and IV.
Another heathen custom with Avhich the church had to deal, is the so-called JUDGMENT OF GOD or ORDEAL, that is, a trial
1 See further details in Mansi XIX. 549 sq. ; Kluckhohn; Hefele (IV. 696- 702, 780) ; and Mejer in Herzog 2 V. 319 sqq.
342 FOUKTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1041.
of guilt or innocence by a direct appeal to God through nature.1 It prevailed in China, Japan, India, Egypt (to a less extent in Greece and Rome), and among the barbaric races throughout Europe.2
The ordeal reverses the correct principle that a man must be held to be innocent until he is proved to be guilty, and throws the burden of proof upon the accused instead of the accuser. It is based on the superstitious and presumptuous belief that the divine Ruler of the universe will at any time work a miracle for the vindication of justice when man in his weakness cannot decide, and chooses to relieve himself of responsibility by calling heaven to his aid. In the Carlovingian Capitularies the following passage occurs : " Let doubtful cases be determined by the judgment of God. The judges may decide that which they clearly know, but that which they cannot know shall be re served for the divine judgment. He whom God has reserved for his own judgment may not be condemned by human means."
The customary ordeals in the middle ages were water-ordeals and fire-ordeals ; the former were deemed plebeian, the latter (as well as the duel), patrician. The one called to mind the punishment of the deluge and of Pharaoh in the Red Sea ; the other, the future punishment of hell. The water-ordeals were either by hot water,3 or by cold water ; 4 the fire-ordeals were
1 From the Anglo-Saxon ordael or ordela (from or=wr, and dcel=theil) : German: Urtheil or Oottesurtheil ; Dutch :' oordeel ; French: ordeal; L. Lat. ; ordalium, ordale, ordela. See Du Cange sub. ordela, aquos frigidce judicium, Duellum, Ferrum candens ; Skeat (Etymol. Did. of the Engl. Lang.) sub. Deal.
3 See the proof in Lea, who finds in the wide prevalence of this custom a confirmation of the common origin of the Aryan or Indo-germanic races.
3 Judicium aquce ferventis, ceneum, cacabus, caldaria. This is probably the oldest form in Europe. See Lea, p. 196. It is usually referred to in the most ancient texts of law, and especially recommended by Hincmar of Kheims, as combining the elements of water — the judgment of the deluge — and of fire — the judgment of the last day. The accused was obliged, with his naked arm, to find a small stone or ring in a boiling caldron of water (this was called in German the Kessel/ang), or simply to throw the hand to the wrist or to the elbow into boiling water. See Lea, p. 196 sqq.
* Judicium aquce frigidce. It was not known in Europe before Pope Eugenius