feb 27, 380 - Trial by Ordeal (fire, water)

Description:

- Não era tortura, nem pena; era meio de prova.
- Punição somente viria se o acusado falhasse.
- Ordálias eram supervisionadas pelos clérigos, devido ao seu caráter religioso (igreja Católica).
- Julgamento por ordália dava à igreja católica um papel central nos julgamentos e, com o passar do tempo, a execução dos julgamentos pela igreja com base na lei estabelecida pelo rei tornou-se um grave problema político. A conquista normanda, contudo,
- Exemplos de ordálias:
1) Carregar ferro incandescente com as mãos e examinar as consequências futuras (e.g. infecções ou cura). Antes da ordália, o clérigo abençoava o ferro incandescente.
2) O acusado era amarrado e jogado em água "santificada". Se ele afundasse, seria inocente; se flutuasse, seria culpado.
- Esta não era a única forma de resolução de disputas.
- The laws of Ine, king of the West Saxons, produced around 690, contains the earliest reference to ordeal in Anglo-Saxon law; however, this is the last and only mention of ordeal in Anglo-Saxon England until the tenth century.[27]
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Trial by ordeal was an ancient judicial practice by which the guilt or innocence of the accused was determined by subjecting them to a painful, or at least an unpleasant, usually dangerous experience. The test was one of life or death, and the proof of innocence was survival. In some cases, the accused was considered innocent if they escaped injury or if their injuries healed.

In medieval Europe, like trial by combat, trial by ordeal was considered a "judgement of God" (Latin: judicium Dei): a procedure based on the premise that God would help the innocent by performing a miracle on his behalf. The practice has much earlier roots, attested to as far back as the Code of Hammurabi and the Code of Ur-Nammu.

In pre-modern society, the ordeal typically ranked along with the oath and witness accounts as the central means by which to reach a judicial verdict. Indeed, the term ordeal, Old English ordǣl, has the meaning of "judgment, verdict" (German Urteil, Dutch oordeel), from Proto-Germanic *uzdailjam "that which is dealt out".

Priestly cooperation in trials by fire and water was forbidden by Pope Innocent III at the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 and replaced by compurgation. Trials by ordeal became rarer over the Late Middle Ages, but the practice was not discontinued until the 16th century. Certain trials by ordeal would continue to be used into the 17th century in witch-hunts.[1]

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