THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
eighth to the twelfth centuries, such as the Salic, Visigothic, Anglo-Saxon, and Lombardic, ranging from England to Hungary and from Norway to Spain and Italy (cf. MGH, Leges, v. 599 sqq., and translations in Thatcher and McNeal, Source Book, pp. 400 sqq.)- The relation to the Church is shown by the fact that the ordeal was often preceded by a two days' fast on bread and water in the case of the iron ordeal, three days if water was used, and the test took place after reception of the sacrament, that (as in Spain) the bishop blessed the iron, that often the abbeys were the custodians of the implements used, that the inquisition had recourse to it, that such adjurations were used at the sacrament preceding as: " This body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ be to thee this day a manifestation " (E. Baluze, Miscellanea, ed. J. D. Mansi, ii. 575 etc., 4 vols., Paris, 1761-64), and that exorcism of water was carried out with the use of a number of formulae still preserved in Baluze. There was in many cases a solemn ceremony in the church, while the water, iron, or plowshare was placed in the church porch and sprinkled with holy water. The Slavs of Mecklenburg (to cite only one example out of many) when converted were directed to refrain from taking oaths at sacred trees, fountains, and the like, to bring criminals to be tried by the hot iron or plowshare (E. Lindenborg, Scriptores rerum Germanarum, p. 215, Frankfort, 1609). Hincmar of Reims defended on symbolic grounds the ordeal of boiling water, since it combined the elements of fire and water, and thus represented the final judgment and the deluge (De divortio Lotharii, vi. in MPL, cxxv.). The ordeal of cold water he defended on the same ground as did non-Christians: " The pure nature of water recognizes as impure and rejects as incompatible human nature which has become infected with guilt."
Yet the official attitude of the Church was not consistent. Synods in numbers directed, approved, or commended its use (so Salzburg, 799; Mainz, 848; Soissons, 853; Worms, 868, cf. Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, iv. 370; Tribur, 895; Tours, 925; Seligenstadt, 1023; Mainz, 1028; Auch, 1068; Gran, 1099;
and Reims, 1157, against the Cathari).
9. Official Gregory VII. (1073-85) approved and
Ecclesiasti- used it; Calixtus II. approved it at
cal Position. Reims (1119). Other ecclesiastics than
Hincmar (ut sup.) defended it, such as Guibert of Nogent (q.v.) and John, bishop of Avranches (1061); Ivo of Chartres (q.v.) pronounced its decisions indisputable, while Honorius of Autun (q.v.) claimed it as a prerogative of his order (the Benedictine). In 1182 the abbey of La Seauve received the right to enjoy the revenues proceeding from the fees charged for the process. Yet there was an intermittent undercurrent of protest beginning early. Avitus of Vienne (see Avitus, Alcimus Ecdicius) in the sixth century objected to the use of the wager of battle; Agobard of Lyons (q.v.) wrote two works against the ordeal; Pope Leo IV. (847-855) condemned it, as did Stephen V. (885-891), Sylvester II. (999-1003), Alexander II. (at the Fourth Lateran Synod, 1215, which forbade ecclesiastical ceremonies at ordeals), and Honorius
III. (1216-27). The civil power shows the same wavering. Charlemagne sanctioned the ordeal of the cross among his descendants in cases of dispute regarding territory; Louis le-D6bonnaire prohibited it (816); his son, Lothair, first followed Louis, and then sanctioned it; Henry IV. in 1219 directed judicial officers to employ other methods, this being prohibited by the Church; Alexander II. of Scotland (thirteenth century) forbade it, as did the Neapolitan code of 1231. While then the ordeal was used under Christian auspices at least as early as the sixth century it was still alive at the end of the thirteenth century in Germany, in the sixteenth it survived in Spain. During the sixteenth century the cold-water ordeal was revived in Germany for the trial of witches, and in the seventeenth was a recognized judicial procedure in France. James I. of England defended the ordeal, and in his times it was employed in Scotland, and in the nineteenth century in Belgium; while upon the basis of a confession procured by the use of the bier-right a conviction was obtained in New York State in 1824 and is recorded in the law books. On Nov. 17, 1908, it is reported from Monticello, Ark., that an odd ordeal was proposed at a coroner's inquest, viz., that the suspect's gun be fired, it being claimed that if he were guilty, blood stains would show on the barrel. After the test, the negro who proposed it pointed out a red stain on the barrel (which proved to be a rust stain), and the accused at once cut his throat. Geo. W. Gilmorb.
Bibliography: Numerous German liturgical formulas for the ordeal are collected and edited by K. Zeumer in MGH, Leg., sectio V., i (1886), 599 sqq.; material is collected in Translations and Reprints from the Original Sources, vol. iv., Philadelphia, 1897. The chief work on the ordeal as employed by Christendom is F. Patetta, he Ordalie, Turin, 1890; the best work in English is H. C. Lea, Superstition and Force, Philadelphia, 1893 (very full and satisfactory). Consult J. L. C. Grimm, Deutsche Rechts-Alterthilmer, pp. 908 sqq., Gottingen, 1828; H. T. Buckle, Hist, of Civilization, London, 1867; H. Brunner, Deutsche Rechtsgeschichte, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1892; K. Lehmann, Das Bahrgericht, in Germanistische Abhandlungen zum 70 Geburtstag K. von Maurers, Gottingen, 1893; J. B. Thayer, Preliminary Treatise on Evidence, vol. i., Boston, 1896. On the practise among orientals consult: E. Schlagintweit, Die Gottesurtheile der Inder, Munich, 1866; S. Das, Journey to Lhasa, pp. 188 sqq., Calcutta, 1893; L. Decle, Three years in Savage Africa, p. 76, London, 1898; Miss M. H. Kingsley, West African Studies, pp. 162-166, London, 1899; J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, 3 vols., ib. 1900; C. Keller, Madagascar, pp. 95-96, ib. 1900; E. B. Tylo'r, Primitive Culture, ib. 1903. The best sources for a study of the ethnic phase of the subject are the books of travel among primitive peoples.
ORDER OF SALVATION (Ordo salutis): A technical term of Protestant dogmatics to designate the consecutive steps in the work of the Holy Spirit in the appropriation of salvation. The phrase seems to occur for the first time in Buddeus (Institutiones theologice dogmaticm, p. 40, History Leipsic, 1723), but the idea is an inherof the ent constituent of the older Protes- Term. tant dogmatics. In medieval theology no definite analogue appears. As Protestantism proceeded from ths criticism and displacement of the Roman Catholic conceptions of repentance, faith, and works, and as it recognized in faith the form of the religious conviction, its interest