Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/884

820 O R D O R D The passing through the fire is described in the Hindu codes of Yajnavalkya and others, and is an incident in Hindu poetry, where in the Rdmdyana the virtuous Sita thus proves her innocence to her jealous husband Rama (Stenzler, p. 669 ; Pictet, Origines Indo-Europeennes, part ii. p. 457). It was not less known to European law and chronicle, as where Eichardis, wife of Charles the Fat, proves her innocence by going into a fire clothed in a waxed shift, and is unhurt by the fire (Grimm, Deutsche Rechts- alterthiimer, p. 912). Yet more minutely prescribed in the Hindu ordeal-books is the rite of carrying the glowing hot iron seven steps, into the seven or nine circles traced on the ground, the examination of the hands to see if they show traces of burning, and the binding them up in leaves. The close historical connexion of the Hindu ordeal laws with the old European is shown by the correspondence of minute details, as where in a Scandinavian law it is pre scribed that the red-hot iron shall be carried nine steps (Grimm, op. cit., p. 9 1 8). In Anglo-Saxon laws the iron to be carried wus at first only one pound weight, but Athelstan s law (in Ancient Laws and Instates of England, iv. 6) enacts that it be increased to weigh three pounds. Another form well known in old Germany and England was the walking barefoot over glowing ploughshares, generally nine. The law-codes of the early Middle Ages show this as an ordinary criminal procedure (see the two works last referred to), but it is perhaps best remembered in two non-historical legends. The German queen Kunigunde, "heec dicens stupentibus et flentibus universis qui aderant, vomeres candentes nudo vestigio calcavit et sine adustionis molestia transiit " ( Vita Henrici, ap. Canisium, vi. 387). Queen Emma, mother of Edward the Confessor, accused of familiarity with Alwyn bishop of Winchester, triumphantly purges herself and him by the help of St Swithin, each of the two thus acquitted giving nine manors to the church of Winchester, in memory of the nine ploughshares, and the king being corrected with stripes (John Bromton ; see Freeman s Norm. Cong., vol. ii. App.). To dip the hand in boiling water or oil or melted lead and take out a stone or ring is another ordeal of this class. The traveller may find some of these fiery trials still in use, or at least in recent memory, in barbaric regions of Africa or further Asia, the negro plunging his arm into the caldron of boiling oil, the Burman doing feats with melted lead, while the Bedouin will settle a conflict of evidence by the opposing witnesses licking a glowing hot -iron spoon (Burckhardt, Aralien, pp. 98, 233). This latter feat may be done with safety by any one, provided the iron be clean and thoroughly white hot, while if only red-hot it would touch and burn the tongue. Probably the administerers of the ordeal are aware of this, and of the possibility of dipping the hand in melted metal ; and there are stories of arts of protecting the skin (see the recipe in Albertus Magnus, De Mirabil- ibus), though it is not known what can be really done beyond making it horny like a smith s, which would serve as a defence in stepping on hot coals, but not in serious trials like that of carrying a heavy red-hot iron. The fire- ordeals are still performed by mountebanks, who very likely keep up the same means of trickery which Avere in official use when the accused was to be acquitted. The actual practice of the fire ordeal contrasts shamefully with its theory, that the fire rather than harm the innocent re strained its natural action. Thus it stands in the Hindu code of Manu (viii. 115) : "He whom the flame does not burn, whom the water does not cast up, or whom no harm soon befals, is to be taken as truthful in his oath." The water-ordeal here referred to is that well known in Europe, where the accused is thrown bound into the water, which receives him if innocent, but rejects him if guilty. The manner of carrying out this test is well explained in the directions given by Archbishop Hincmar in the 9th cen tury : he who is let down into the water for trial is to be fastened by a rope, that he may not be in danger if the water receives him as innocent, but may be pulled out. In the later Middle Ages this ordeal by "swimming" or " fleeting " became the most approved means of trying a suspected witch : she was stripped naked and cross bound, the right thumb to the left toe, and the left thumb to the right toe. In this state she was cast into a pond or river, in which it was thought impossible for her to sink. (Brand, vol. iii. p. 21.) The cases of "ducking" witches which have occurred in England within the last few years are remains of the ancient ordeal. If there is one thing that may be predicated of man in a state of nature it is that two disputants tend to fight out their quarrel. When in the warfare of Greeks and Trojans, of Jews and Philistines, of Vandals and Alamans, heroes coine out from the two sides and their combat is taken to mark the powers of the opposing war-gods and decide the victory, then the principle of the ordeal by battle has been practically called in. Among striking instances of the Teutonic custom which influenced the whole of medieval Europe may be cited the custom of the Franks that the princes, if they could not quell the strife, had to fight it out between themselves, and Wippo s account of the quarrel between the Christian Saxons and the Pagan Slavs as to which broke the peace, when both sides demanded of the emperor that it should be settled by duel, which was done by choosing a champion on each side, and the Christian fell. The Scandinavian term " holmgang " refers to the habit of fighting duels on an island. A passage from old German law shows the single combat accepted as a regular legal procedure : " If there be dispute concerning fields, vineyards, or money, that they avoid perjury let two be chosen to fight, and decide the cause by duel" (Grimm, Rechtsalterth., p. 928). In England, after the Conquest, trial by combat superseded other legal ordeals, which were abolished in the time of Henry III. Among famous instances is that of Henry de Essex, hereditary standard-bearer of England, who fled from a battle in Wales, in 1158, threw from him the royal standard, and cried out that the king was slain. Robert de Montfort afterwards, accusing him of having done this with treasonable intent, offered to prove his accusation by combat, and they fought in presence of Henry II. and his court, when Essex was defeated, but the king spared his life, and, his estate being confiscated, he became a monk in Reading Abbey. A lord often sent his man in his stead to such combats, and priests and women were ordinarily represented by champions. The wager of battle died out so quietly in England without being legally abolished that in the Court of King s Bench in 1818 it was claimed by a person charged with murder, which led to its formal abolition (Ashford v. Thornton in Barnewall and Alderson, 457 ; see details in H. C. Lea, Superstition and Force, ii.). A distinct connexion may, however, be traced between the legal duel and the illegal private duel, which has disappeared from England in our own time, but still flourishes in France and Germany. (E. B. T.) ORDER, or ORDINATION (Ordo seu sacra ordinatio), one of the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church (see SACRAMENT), is the rite by which the ministers of that church, in their respective ranks as priests, deacons, subdeacons, acolytes, exorcists, lectors, and doorkeepers (ostiarii), receive power and grace for the discharge of their several functions. The nature of these functions is stated in separate articles (see ACOLYTE, <tc.). The sacrament of order or ordination cannot be administered except by a bishop. The seven ranks just mentioned are themselves called "orders," the first three being distinguished as the