iven a drink of holy water and then bound hand
and foot and thrown into water. If he floated, he was guilty. If
he sank, he was innocent. It was not necessary to drown to be
deemed innocent. In the ordeal by hot water, he had to pick up a
stone from inside a boiling cauldron. If his hand was healing in
three days, he was innocent. If it was festering, he was guilty. A
similar ordeal was that of hot iron, in which one had to carry in
his hands a hot iron for a certain distance. The results of the
ordeal were taken to indicate the will of God. Presumably a person
convicted of murder, i.e. killing by stealth, or robbery [taking
from a person's robe, that is, his person or breaking into his
home to steal] would be hung and his possessions confiscated. A
bishop's oath was incontrovertible. Accused archbishops and
bishops could clear themselves with an oath that they were
guiltless. Lesser ranks could clear themselves with the oaths of
three compurgators of their rank or, for more serious offenses,
undergo the ordeal of the consecrated morsel. For this, one would
swallow a morsel; if he choked on it, he was guilty.

Any inanimate or animate object or personal chattel which was
found by a court to be the immediate cause of death was forfeited
as "deodand", for instance, a tree from which a man fell to his
death, a beast which killed a man, a sword of a third party not
the slayer that was used to kill a man. The deodand was to go to
the dead man's kin so they could wreak their vengeance on it,
which in turn would cause the dead man to lie in peace.

This is a lawsuit regarding rights to feed pigs in a certain
woodland:

"In the year 825 which had passed since the birth of Christ, and
in the course of the second Indiction, and during the reign of
Beornwulf, King of Mercia, a council meeting was held in the
famous place called Clofesho, and there the said King Beornwulf
and his bishops and his earls and all the councilors of this
nation were assembled. Then there was a very noteworthy suit about
wood pasture at Sinton, towards the west in Scirhylte. The reeves
in charge of the pigherds wished to extend the pasture farther,
and take in more of the wood than the ancient rights permitted.
Then the bishop and the advisors of the community said that they
would not admit liability for more than had been appointed in
AEthelbald's day, namely mast for 300 swine, and that the bishop
and the community should have two thirds of the woo