Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 07.pdf/542

 Appeals to the Highest Court.

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APPEALS TO THE HIGHEST COURT. By George H. Westley. THE student of ancient and mediaeval jurisprudence will find no two phases of his subject of more fascinating interest than those of the trial by ordeal, and the appeal to the high court of Heaven against human injustice. With the former of these history has made us all more or less familiar. The trial by ordeal was an acknowledged institution of superstitious times. When two persons appeared before a judge with a case which he was unable to decide, he would remit the matter to the supreme court of Heaven. Then would follow one of those strange ceremonies. A familiar form was to present plaintiff and defendant each with a sword and let them fight it out, the winner of the duel being adjudged the winner of the case. Another method was to have the accused plunge his arm into a cauldron of boiling oil, and still another, to offer him blessed bread which he was to swallow, after saying, "If I be guilty, may this bit of bread choke me." We are told that Richardis, wife of Charles the Fat, in order to prove her innocence, had to walk in a waxed linen dress between two blazing fires. And again that the Empress Cunegunda, being charged with infidelity, was compelled. to walk barefoot over red-hot ploughshares. The trial by ordeal appears to have arisen from the belief that God would defend the right, if need were, by a miracle. With the second phase I have mentioned we are not so familiar. In olden times, when religious intolerance prevailed, and when might was right, and the weak were often overborne by the strong, it sometimes oc curred that the victim of an unrighteous judge would, in righteous indignation, cry out for justice to the great Judge of all the

earth. Instances of this nature are not rare, although they have not often been drawn from their obscurity and collected together. One of the most striking appeals against human injustice was made in 13 13, when, because of their wealth and power, but for no crime, the Templars were condemned by Pope Clement V and King Philip the Fair of France. Du Molay, the grand master of that order, was arrested and burnt alive. As he stood on his funeral pyre, he said in calm, clear tones, " Before heaven and earth, on the verge of death where the least falsehood bears like lead upon the soul, I protest that our sole guilt has been that we trusted the seductive words of the Pope and the King." Then raising his voice he cried, " Clement, iniquitous and cruel judge, I summon thee to meet me before the throne of God!" Some accounts say that he included Philip also. However, before a year had passed both the Pope and the King were dead. A still more remarkable incident of this nature occurred in Gothland. It appears that a certain John Turson, being accused of a crime, was at once dragged before a magistrate. Although the man was not guilty, that worthy, who was found seated on horseback, condemned him to an imme diate death. Turson protested his innocence, but finding his words in vain, he summoned his judge to appear with him before the judgment seat of God. As the executioner struck off Turson's head, the magistrate fell from his horse and broke his neck. Knyghton; the old chronicler, tells us that a year after the death of Robert Grostete, Bishop of Lincoln, who had many a struggle with Pope Innocent IV, he, the dead bishop, appeared before his old enemy and said to him, " Stand up, wretched one,