Ordeal
A Dictionary of Law · Henry Campbell Black · 1891
A Dictionary of Law
The most ancient species of trial, in Saxon and old English law, being peculiarly distinguished by the appellation ot “judicium Dei,” or judgment of God, it being supposed that supernatural intervention would rescue an innocent person from the danger of physical harm to which he was exposed in this species of trial. The ordeal was of two sorts,—either fire ordeal or water ordeal; the former being confined to persons of higher rank, the latter to the common people.
4 Bl. Comm. 842.