ordeal by water
Drowning proves innocence
Ordeal by water was a medieval method of determining guilt or innocence by divine judgment.
In one form, the accused was bound and thrown into water—floating indicated guilt (the pure water rejected them), while sinking suggested innocence.
In another form, the accused retrieved a stone from boiling water; how the scalded hand healed revealed God's verdict.
The practice died out as legal systems came to favor evidence over appeals to the supernatural.
- witch trialsLegal proceedings against alleged sorcerers
- Salem witch trialsColonial American persecution of alleged sorcerers
- trial by fireTest through difficult experience
- trial by combatLegal battle to death
- justiceFair treatment under law
punishment · ducking stool · sink or swim · accusation · guilt · innocence · drowning · superstition · divine intervention · ritual · Malleus Maleficarum · baptism · purification · immersion · cleansing · retribution · absolution · medieval law
- feudal punishmenthanging, flogging, whipping, pillory, dungeon
- ordealstribulation, hardship, torment, crucible, agony
- historical justicetrial by combat, truth commissions, trial by fire, reparations, witch trials
- Anglo-Saxon EnglandAnglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon, witenagemot, doom, Northumbria
- Germanic lawAnglo-Saxon law, law codes, blood feud, trial by combat, trial by fire
- medieval lawMagna Carta, medieval justice, assize, writ, law codes
ordeal by watertrial by jury
Legal proceeding with citizen judges
cross-examination · forensic investigation · due process · plea bargaining · arbitration
ordeal by waterempirical evidence
Proof from measurable observation
scientific method · forensic analysis · DNA testing · logical proof · eyewitness account
ordeal, ordeals, water, waters, watery, waterless, watered, watering