a form of trial, or of discovering innocence or guilt, formerly practised over almost all Europe, and which prevailed in England from the time of Edward the Confessor, till it was abolished by a declaration of Henry III. It was called purgatio vulgaris, or judicium; in opposition to bellum or combat, the other form of purgation; and was of various kinds, as that of fire, that of red hot iron, that of water, that of judicial pottage, that of hallowed cheese, that of the green cross, and that of dice laid on relics covered with a woollen cloth. To each of which kinds particular masses were appointed.

In England, an offender, on being arraigned and pleading not guilty, had it in his choice to put himself upon God and his country; that is, upon the verdict of a jury; or upon God alone, on which account it was called the judgment of God, it being presumed that God would deliver the innocent. The more popular kinds of ordeal were those of red-hot iron and water; the first for freemen and people of fashion, and the last for peasants. That by fire, as practised here, was the person's walking bare-footed and blindfold over nine red-hot ploughshares; and if he escaped unhurt, he was acquitted; otherwise, condemned. That of water was of two kinds, viz. either with hot water, or cold: the former was where the person suspected put his arm or leg into scalding water, and brought it out unhurt; and the latter was when his body was not, contrary to the course of nature, borne up by the water.