The cold water ordeal is in some ways the most interesting of all. In this instance the accused was thrown into a pond or tank, which was technically described as the _fossa_ or "pit." If he floated, he was adjudged guilty; if he sank, his innocence was regarded as divinely proved. It is sometimes stated "if he floated without any appearance of swimming," but swimming appears to have been precluded if it be true that his thumbs were tied to his toes, or he was bound hand and foot! Grimm explains the principle of this test by tracing it to an old heathen superstition that the holy element, the pure stream, would receive no misdoer within it. King James I. in his "Demonologie," however, lays it down in the case of witches that they having renounced their baptism, the element with which the holy rite is performed will justly reject them. This elucidation is in exact accord with the ancient formula of consecration pronounced over the accused, which was as follows: "May omnipotent God, who did order baptism to be made by water, and did grant remission of sins to men through baptism; may He, through His mercy, decree a right judgment through that water. If, namely thou art guilty in that matter, may the water which received thee in baptism not receive thee now; if however, thou art innocent, may the water which receive thee in baptism receive thee now. Through Christ our Lord." The priest afterwards exorcized the water, saying to it: "I adjure thee, water, in the name of the Father Almighty, who did create thee in the beginning, who also did order thee to be separated from the water above ... that in no manner thou receive this man, if he be in any way guilty of the charge brought against him; by deed, namely, or by consent, or by knowledge, or in any way; but make him to swim above thee. And may no process be employed against thee, and no magic, which may be able to conceal that" [i.e., the circumstance of his guilt]. THE JUDGMENT OF THE MORSEL A fifth form of the ordeal was the test of eating consecrated bread and cheese. This was known as the _corsned_, or morsel of execration. The priest wrote the Lord's Prayer on the bread, of which he then weighed out a certain quantity--ten pennyweights--and so likewise with the cheese. Under the right foot of the accused he set a cross of poplar wood, and holding another cross of the same material over the man's head, threw over his head the theft written on a tablet. He placed the bread and cheese at the same moment in the mouth of the accused, and, on doing so, recited the conjuration: