Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/87

 THE BARBARIAN WORLD 5r ceremonial witnesses to the effect that in the case in ques- tion the legal forms prescribed by custom, such as handing one a spear, glove, or sod, had been duly observed; or the sworn assertions of the friends and kinsmen of each party that they believed him to be a credible person. Both oath and ordeal were religious tests. In taking an oath one in- voked the gods and feared condign punishment from them if one perjured one's self. Sometimes one litigant was allowed to establish his side of the case by his solitary oath, but more often either the plaintiff or defendant was required to produce a certain number of oath-helpers to swear with him. Ordeals, as we know them later, had been considerably altered by the Christian Church from their original form of appeals to the judgment of heathen deities. The two liti- gants might draw lots to determine who was in the right, or they might engage in single combat with the idea that God would give victory to the right. Or the one who had made the less favorable impression upon the court by his pleading might have the burden of proof put upon him in the form of undergoing the ordeal of fire or of water. He might be thrown into holy water, which was supposed to reject any guilty person, so that if he floated on its surface he was condemned, while if he sank he was believed to be innocent. Or he might have to plunge his hand into boiling water, or carry a red-hot bar for three paces, or walk a short distance over hot ploughshares. The injured member was then bound up, and if after three days it was found to be healed, the decision was in his favor; if otherwise, he was pronounced guilty. Still another ordeal consisted in trying to swallow a large morsel of bread or cheese without its sticking in the throat. It has been said that there were no police to enforce this system of justice, but public opinion was behind it, and if any man refused to submit to it, he was liable 0utlawry to be outlawed ; that is to say, he was put outside the peace of the tribe. No one in the tribe could protect or shelter him; in fact, it was the duty of all the tribe to hunt him down ; he became a wanderer on the face of the earth,