or Morsel of Exorcism (Sax. corsnede, compounded of cors, curse, and sned, a mouthful or piece), a kind of trial or purgation practised in ancient times in England. A piece of bread consecrated with a form of exorcism was to be swallowed by a suspected person, as a trial of his innocence. If guilty, it was supposed that the bread would produce convulsions and paleness, and find no passage; but if innocent, it was believed that it would turn to wholesome nourishment. At the same time also the person received the holy sacrament, if indeed the corsned was not, as some have suspected, the sacramental bread itself. In our ancient historians it is related, that Godwin earl of Kent, in the reign of Edward the Confessor, after abjuring the death of the king's brother, at last appealed to his corsned, per buccellam deglutendam abjuravit, which stuck in his throat and caused his death. A remnant of this superstition subsists still 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.—(Blackstone's Commentaries, iv. 345.)