about half an hour, with hands and feet tied.[1047] F. M. Brahm, in 1701, alludes to the ordeal as no longer in use;[1048] but in 1714, J. C. Nehring describes it as nearly, though not quite obsolete, and considers it worthy of an elaborate discussion. He disapproves of it, though he records a case which occurred a few years previously, in which a woman accused of witchcraft managed to escape from her chains, and went into the water to try herself, and could not be submerged. Notwithstanding this he declares that even when a prisoner demands the ordeal, the judge who grants it is guilty of mortal sin, for the Devil often promises witches to save them in this manner, and, though he very rarely keeps his promise, still he thus succeeds in retaining men in superstitious observances. The success of the ordeal thus is uncertain, and his conclusion is that laws must be made for the generality of cases, and not for exceptional ones.[1049] In 1730 thirteen persons were exposed to the cold-water ordeal at Szegedin, in Hungary, and though their guilt was proved by it, any remaining doubts were settled by submitting them to the balance;[1050] and five years later Ephraim Gerhardt alludes to it as everywhere in daily use in such cases.[1051] Even in the middle of the century, the learned and pious Muratori affirms his reverent belief in the miraculous convictions recorded by the mediæval writers as wrought in this manner by the judgment of God; and he further informs us that it was common in his time throughout Transylvania, where witches were very numerous;[1052] while in West Prussia, as late as 1745, the Synod of Culm describes it as a popular abuse in frequent use, and stringently forbids it for the future.[1053] Although, within the last hundred years, the cold-water ordeal has disappeared from the authorized legal procedures of Europe, still the popular mind has not as yet altogether overcome the superstitions and prejudices of so many ages, and occasionally in some benighted spot a case occurs to show us that mediæval ignorance and brutality still linger amid the triumphs of modern civilization. In 1815 and 1816, Belgium was disgraced by trials of the kind performed on unfortunates suspected of witchcraft;[1054] and in 1836, the populace of Hela, near Dantzic, twice plunged into the sea an old woman reputed to be a sorceress, and as the miserable creature persisted in rising to the surface, she was pronounced guilty, and was beaten to death.[1055] Even in England it is not many years since a party of credulous people were prosecuted for employing the water ordeal in the trial of a woman whom they believed to be a witch.[1056]