Little, if any good, could result from a discussion of the power of a Court to order submission to such barbarous treatment, for the courts assumed the power and it was backed-up with the influence of the Church and the authority of the King. The citizens could do little else than submit to such a formidable alliance, which proceeded in the name of the Majesty of the Law and the Solemn Assurance of the Church, for there were no constitutions to protect the citizens from cruel or unusual punishments; might was right when used against the weak and oppressed and the power of the Church and State was too much for any individual to overcome. Society was not organized, as at present, to protect the rights of the individual, but the Church and State were all-powerful and their orders had the force to overcome all private resistance. As shown, in the beginning, the institution known as trial by ordeal, like many other of the cruel customs of the ancient world, had the Mosaic law as its foundation and the Church’s approval, in the construction of the foundation and the recognition of the whole institution. The Church was not only ready to accept the barbarous practices of its pagan converts but itself gave them fresh claim to confidence, by throwing around them the solemn ceremonies of its own approval. The ordeals were all conducted with the aid of the priests, and prelates in all the Catholic countries were everywhere granting special charters authorizing the privilege of trials by ordeals.[79] But as the Church was partly responsible for the practice of trials by ordeal, because the Churchmen were but human and, as such, entered into the manners and customs of the people of the period when they lived, the Church had no inconsequential part in abolishing this barbarous custom, for ever since the sixth century and perhaps from the beginning of the custom, eminent Churchmen had opposed the institution as a pagan custom, not authorized by the teachings of the ancient Jews or the religion of Christ, and finally, the protests of these wise Churchmen culminated in the suppression of this old test, and in 1215 the Lateran Council forbade the clergy from afterward taking part in the ceremony known as trial by ordeal.[80] And Henry III., following the lead made by the Church, “Seeing that the judgment of fire and water is forbidden by the Church of Rome,” directed his judges, starting on their circuits, to adopt other methods of proof and to forever discard this brutal test.[81] If the Church was remiss in its duty to oppose the ordeal, therefore, in the beginning, it brought about the repression of the practice, and is, at least, entitled to the benefit of the approval of the friends of humanity for this tardy beneficence, upon its part.