ORDALIA. – From Anglo-Saxon ordeal, German Urtheil “sentence,” “judgment,” the o. is a judgment which the divinity or a supernatural power is called upon to pronounce concerning the innocence or guilt of a presumed culprit through the result of a physical test to which the accused is subjected. It is practiced by peoples belonging to the most diverse types of civilization, with the exception of the lowest and the highest.
At certain periods the Church tolerated o. among the peoples whom it was receiving into her fold, but she never approved them in an absolute, formal, or official manner; indeed, even in the ages of deepest barbarism, she raised her voice against the horrors they caused (v. GIUDIZIO DIVINO).
Various types of o. are known. The o. of poison is widespread in the primitive world (especially in Africa, etc.) and is connected with the idea that death is not a natural phenomenon. It is often practiced on widows. The widow who succumbs to the trial by poison has killed her husband. In the vicinity of Lake Tanganyika, Livingstone, on hearing a man and a woman insulting each other over a marital dispute, heard them both shout, “Bring the nuace,” that is, the trial poison. The o. of pseudo-poison is that in which the presumed culprit is made to drink not poison but some emetic or other harmless beverage that acts through the force of suggestion. Among these beverages was, for example, ox blood, used by the Greeks in tests of chastity. The o. of fire generally consists in walking over burning embers. Related to these are the o. of the pyre, so widespread in the Middle Ages, and the o. of red-hot iron, which consist in bringing a heated iron into contact with the body (usually, in particular, with the tongue) or in having it carried from one place to another. The o. of water, widespread among Indo-European peoples until modern times, consists in immersing the accused in water: if he is guilty, the water refuses to receive him and he floats. The o. by combat has persisted into our own day in the form of the duel, especially widespread in the Germanic world.
The o. may be practiced directly upon the accused or upon another person. In ordeals by combat, it is possible to have someone else act as one’s substitute, especially in the case of women or individuals unfit for combat. Sometimes the substitution is made by animals, as in certain cockfights. It is also possible to have someone else take one’s place in drinking the poison (for example, among the Dinka of Africa, the wealthy have an ox act as their substitute). In addition to an animal, the substitute may also be a slave.
Some oath formulas have an ordalic character (“May God strike me down…” and the like), both among primitive peoples and in the modern world.