Superstition and Force: Essays on the Wager of Law, the Wager of Battle, the Ordeal, TortureLea, Henry Charles
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Superstition and Force: Essays on the Wager of Law, the Wager of Battle, the Ordeal, Torture
Lea, Henry Charles
Ordeal; Torture; Wager of battle; Wager of law
“O Lord Jesus Christ, ... grant, we pray thee, by thy holy name,
that he who is guilty of this crime in thought or in deed, when this
creature of sanctified bread is presented to him for the proving of
the truth, let his throat be narrowed, and in thy name let it be
rejected rather than devoured. And let not the spirit of the Devil
prevail in this to subvert the judgment by false appearances. But
he who is guilty of this crime, let him, chiefly by virtue of the
body and blood of our Lord which he has received in communion, when
he takes the consecrated bread or cheese tremble, and grow pale in
trembling, and shake in all his limbs; and let the innocent quietly
and healthfully, with all ease, chew and swallow this morsel of bread
or cheese, crossed in thy holy name, that all may know that thou art
the just Judge,” etc.[1080]
And even more forcible in its devout impiety is the following:—
“O God Most High, who dwellest in Heaven, who through thy Trinity
and Majesty hast thy just angels, send, O Lord, thy Angel Gabriel to
stick in the throat of those who have committed this theft, that they
may neither chew nor swallow this bread and cheese created by Thee. I
invoke the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with twelve thousand
Angels and Archangels. I invoke the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John. I invoke Moses and Aaron, who divided the sea. That
they may bind to their throats the tongues of the men who have
committed this theft, or consented thereto. If they taste this bread
and cheese created by Thee, may they tremble like a trembling tree,
and have no rest, nor keep the bread and cheese in their mouths;
that all may know Thou art the Lord, and there is none other but
Thee!”[1081]
As the efficiency of the ordeal depended upon the effect produced on
the imagination of the patient clerical ingenuity exhausted itself
in devising tremendous and awe-inspiring exorcisms. One like the
following, for instance, could hardly fail to constrict the throat of
the most hardened sinner:—
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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