Ordeal - Law Dictionary Search Results
Home Dictionary Name: ordealOrdeal
Ordeal [fr. ordal, Sax., fr. or, great, and dele, judgment], an ancient manner of trial in criminal cases practised amongst our Saxon ancestors, who affected to believe that God would actively inter-pose to establish an earthly right. There were four sorts: (1) campfight, duellum, or combat; (2) fire ordeal; (3) ot water ordeal; (4) cold water ordeal. See Verstegan's Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, 64; Turner's Ang.-Sax., vol. ii. 532; 2 Hallam's Mid. Ages, 466....
Fire-ordeal
Fire-ordeal. See ORDEAL....
Water-ordeal
Water-ordeal. See ORDEAL....
trial by ordeal
trial by ordeal ...
Corsned bread
Corsned bread [fr. Corsian, to curse, and snaed, a morsel, A.S.; panis conjuratus, or offa execrata, Lat., the morsel of execration, or ordeal bread]. It was a kind of superstitious trial or ordeal used among the Saxons, to purge themselves of any accusation, by taking a piece of barley bread and eating it with solemn oaths, curses, and excrations, that it might prove poison, or their last morsel, if what they asserted , or denied, were not true. 4 Bl. Com. 345, 414; and see Norton's City of London, 34d Edn. 36, 265....
Dei judicium
Dei judicium, the old Saxon trial by ordeal, so called because it was thought to be an appeal to God for the justice of a cause, and it was believed that the decision was according to the will and pleasure of Divine Providence. See ORDEAL...
Judicium Dei
Judicium Dei (judgment of God), a term applied by our ancestors to the now prohibited trials of undiscovered perpetrators of crimes; as those by arms and single combat; or by ordeals, as by fire or red-hot plough shares (see ORDEAL), which were founded on the belief that God would work a miracle rather than suffer innocence to perish....
jury
jury pl: ju·ries [Anglo-French juree, from feminine past participle of Old French jurer to swear, from Latin jurare, from jur- jus law] : a body of individuals sworn to give a decision on some matter submitted to them ;esp : a body of individuals selected and sworn to inquire into a question of fact and to give their verdict according to the evidence occasionally used with a pl. verb [the are always to decide whether the inference shall be drawn "Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr."] see also advisory jury, array, grand jury, inquest, jury nullification, petit jury, special jury, trial jury, venire Amendment VI to the Constitution in the back matter NOTE: The jury of American and English law most likely originated in early Anglo-Norman property proceedings, where a body of 12 knights or freemen who were from the area, and usually familiar with the parties, would take an oath and answer questions put to them by a judge in order to determine property rights. Jury verdicts began to be us...
Corsned
The morsel of execration a species of ordeal consisting in the eating of a piece of bread consecrated by imprecation If the suspected person ate it freely he was pronounced innocent but if it stuck in his throat it was considered as a proof of his guilt...
Ordal
Ordeal...
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