Cold Water and Hot Iron
Trial by Ordeal in England
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4976117 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Margaret Helen Kerr, Richard D Forsyth, Michael J Plyley |
| Year | 1992 |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 573 |
| Publication date | 1992-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Journal of Interdisciplinary History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0022-1953 • E-ISSN: 1530-9169 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/205237 |
| OpenAlex | W2315011204 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 9 |
Cold Water and Hot Iron: Trial by Ordeal in England The ordeals of cold water and hot iron as the ordinary methods of trial of crown pleas of felony in medieval England had only a brief existence. Although trial by ordeal is mentioned, for example, in a number of Anglo-Saxon law codes and in the Leges Henrici Primi (c. 118), its consistent and mandatory use in the criminal justice system appears to date from II66 and the Assize of Clarendon, according to which all those said by a jury of presentment (an accusing jury) to be accused or notoriously suspect of being robbers or murderers or thieves, or of receiving such wrongdoers, were to be put to the ordeal of water.1 Less than fifty years later, in 1215, a decree of the Fourth Lateran Council extinguished the use of the ordeal altogether in England. But what end, exactly, did trial by ordeal serve in England during that half-century? Legal scholars have explained the ordeal's role in a number of ways. Maitland supposed that there was a strong feeling that mere human testimony is not enough to send a man to the gallows. Plucknett, while accepting that the purpose of the ordeal was to determine guilt or innocence, suggested that it also had a practical value as a psychological test of truth-telling. Morris called the ordeal an instance in which God's guidance was not merely hoped for; it was required for the normal administration of justice. Men were convinced that they could not run
Political science · Trial by ordeal · Historical Legal Studies and Society · History · Law · Medieval and Early Modern Justice · Medieval Literature and History
The Cultural Evolution of Oaths, Ordeals, and Lie Detectors
The Ordeal of Scripture
Truth-making institutions
The Ordeal of Scripture
Experiments in the Courtroom
Settlement and the Decline of Private Prosecution in Thirteenth-Century England
Angevin Reform of the Appeal of Felony
Violencia, paz y justicia en la Edad Media
Legal culture in the Danelaw
| Citations per year | 0.27 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1993 - 2020 (28) |
| Highly cited | No |