“In boiling in water the guilty are scalded and the innocent are unhurt, because Lot escaped unharmed from the fire of Sodom, and the future fire which will precede the terrible judge, will be harmless to the saints, and will burn the wicked as in the Babylonian furnace of old.” Of course the correctness of this syllogism, depends upon the correctness of the first assumption, based upon the delusions and superstitions of a past age, but the conclusion seemed to satisfy a large number of that day, judged by the standards then obtaining, among which was the idea of a Deity who was a bigger, stronger, crueler man—a more “terrible judge.” Some few of the many interesting trials by ordeal, which obtained during the twelfth century in the reigns of Richard I. and King John, have been reproduced by Sir F. Palgrave, in his “Proofs and Illustrations,” to be found in the _Rotuli Curiae Regis_[67] for those reigns. Let us examine a few of these old Rolls. “_Roll of the Iter of Wiltshire, 10 Richard I._—The jurors say that Radulphus Parmentarius was found dead with his neck broken, and they suspect one Christina, who was formerly the wife of Ernaldus de Knabbewell, of his death, because Radulphus sued Christina in the ecclesiastical court for breach of a promise of marriage she had made to him and after the death of her husband Ernaldus, Reginald, a clerk, frequented her and took her away from Radulphus, and Reginald and Christina hated Radulphus for sueing her, and on account of that hatred, the jurors suspect her and the clerk of his death. And the country says it suspects her. Therefore, it is considered that the clerk and Christina appear on Friday, and that Christina purge herself by fire.[68] _Roll of the Iter of Stafford, in 5 John._—One Elena is suspected by the jurors, because she was at the place where Rainalda de Henchenhe was killed and because she was killed by her help and consent. She denies it. Let her purge herself by the judgment of fire; but as she is ill, let her be respited, till she gets well. Andrew of Bureweston is suspected by the jurors of the death of one Hervicus, because he fled for his death, therefore let him purge himself by the judgment of water.”[69] During the witchcraft craze, in Europe, the ordeal of fire and water was frequently invoked by the accused persons, to clear themselves of the charge, but so incensed were the people against those arraigned for this offense that it was difficult to convince the courts and juries of the innocence of the alleged offender, even by this supposed infallible test of the judgment of God. It was presumed that the Devil interfered with the correctness of the termination of the tests in this hated crime and so the poor suspects were condemned, after suffering untold tortures, even though the test of the ordeal favored their innocence of the charge.