CHAPTER XV. CONDITIONS OF THE ORDEAL. It is a regular judicial procedure 383 Compounding for ordeals 383 Ordeal for defeated accuser 385 Absence of testimony usually a prerequisite 386 Usually a means of defence 389 Used in failure of compurgation 390 Sometimes regarded as a punishment 391 Its use in extorting confessions 394 Practically amounts to torture 395 Influence of imagination 396 Champions in ordeals 398 CHAPTER XVI. CONFIDENCE REPOSED IN THE ORDEAL. Conflicting views as to its efficacy 399 Explanations of its unjust results 401 Regulations to enforce its impartial administration 404 Usually results in acquittal 406 Use of magic arts 407 CHAPTER XVII. THE CHURCH AND THE ORDEAL. Complex relations of the Church to the ordeal 408 Occasional opposition of the papacy 409 But it is sustained by the clergy 409 Its use in trials of heretics 410 Impressiveness of its ritual 413 Reasons of papal opposition 414 Advantages derived from it by the clergy 415 The popes at length accomplish its abolition 417 CHAPTER XVIII. REPRESSIVE SECULAR LEGISLATION. Forbidden in England in 1219 420 Gradually falls into desuetude 422 Persistence of superstition 427 IV. TORTURE. CHAPTER I. TORTURE IN EGYPT AND ASIA. The ordeal and torture are substitutes for each other 429 Torture in Egypt—in Assyria—not used by Hebrews 430 Not used by Oriental Aryans 431 Not used in China—used in Japan 431 CHAPTER II. GREECE AND ROME.