or MORSEL OF EXECRATION, a species of trial or purgation * anciently in use among us, and which probably arose from an abuse of revelation in the dark ages of superstition. It consisted of a piece of cheese or bread, about an ounce in weight, which was consecrated with a form of exorcism; deriving of the Almighty that it might cause convulsions and palpitations, and find no passage if the man was really guilty; but might turn to health, and nourishment if he was innocent; as the water of jealousy among the Jews was, by God's especial appointment, to cause the belly to swell, and the thigh to rot, if the woman was guilty of adultery. This corseled was then given to the suspected person, who at the same time also received the holy sacrament: if indeed the corseled was not, as some have suspected, the sacramental bread itself: till the subsequent invention of transubstantiation preferred it from profane uses with a more profound respect than formerly. Our historians assure us, that Godwin, earl of Kent, in the reign of King Edward the Confessor, abjuring the death of the king's brother, at last appealed to his corseled, "per buccellam deghitendum abjuravit," which stuck in his throat and killed him. This custom has been long since gradually abolished, though the remembrance of it still subsists in certain phrases of abjuration retained among the common people: as, "I will take the sacrament upon it; May this morsel be my last;" and the like.