Trial by Ordeal was more ancient than the Church itself. There are traces of it in the Old Testament; it is discussed in great detail in the Laws of Manu; a famous passage in the _Antigone_ (verses 264-267) reveals it as well known to the Greeks, and before Augustine came, or St Columba preached, it prevailed in some form or other in Britain. Yet the higher ecclesiastical powers continually thundered against it, and finally brought about its disuse. There were several varieties, but many forms were common to all. First, there was the ordeal of cold water, chiefly reserved for the baser fellow. As a preliminary the accused submitted to a fast of three days, during which he was watched by a priest, then he was taken to church to hear Mass; and was adjured by Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, by the gospels and relics of the saints, by everything held most sacred, not to partake of communion if he were guilty. Next came the _adjuratio aquæ_, wherein the water was enjoined to cast him forth if he were guilty, but to receive him into its depths if innocent. And now, having been stripped, he kissed the Book and the Cross, was sprinkled with holy water and was cast in, to float if he were guilty, to sink if he were not. But there was the rub--how about death by suffocation? Sir James Stephen suggests that it was all a mode of happy despatch! Or (one fancies) it might be an elementary form of the famous verdict "not guilty, but don't do it again," with the chance of doing it again effectually provided against. On the other hand, a recipe for immersion in a thirteenth century MS. of the Monastery of Becca reduces the proceedings to the level of farce. The hands of the accused were tied, and a rope was put round his waist; "and let a knot be made in the rope as high up as the longest hair of the man's head will reach, and then in this way let him be gently lowered into the water; and if he sinks down to the knot, let him be pulled out as innocent; if not, let him be adjudged guilty." How _not_ to sink under such conditions? The practice of testing witches by throwing them, securely tied, into the nearest pond was clearly a survival of this form of ordeal.