is election between a pound-worth
oath or single ordeal. If the seven persons summoned declined to take
the oath, the triple ordeal was inevitable, and if the guilt of the
accused was established by this process, he had to restore to the
accuser twofold, pay a fine to his lord, and find sureties that he would
abstain from evil for the future. If he absconded and avoided the
ordeal, the _borh_ was obliged to pay the _ceap-gyld_ or monetary value
of the article stolen to the accuser and the fine to the lord. If the
accused happened to be _theow man_ (servant), and he failed in the
ordeal, the law was that he should be branded the first time; the
second time, there was no _bot_, or reparation, but the head! Finally,
the appellor was obliged to swear by seven lawful men, who were to be
named, that he had laid upon the accused the necessity of the ordeal
neither from hatred nor from any other cause but that he might acquire
his right.

There were various forms of ordeal. A man might be tried by fire or
water, and there was a cold-water as well as a hot-water test. Moreover,
the ordeal might be single or triple, according to the degree of
immersion or the weight of the iron employed. The laws of Athelstan
prescribe that in the hot-water ordeal, if single, the hand should dive
after the stone up to the wrist; if triple, up to the elbow. Similarly,
by the laws of King Edgar, the weight of the iron for the single ordeal
was to be one pound, and for the triple ordeal three pounds.

The ordeal, being the Judgment of God, was distinctly a religious
ceremony, and the whole of the proceedings were in the hands of the
clergy. The three days following the accusations were spent in prayer
and fasting, and the rite, varied according to the nature of the ordeal,
was performed in a church.

THE JUDGMENT OF THE GLOWING IRON

The iron was placed before the altar, whence the priest, clad in full
canonicals with the exception of the cope, removed it with a pair of
tongs to the fire, singing as he did so the hymn of the Three Children,
_Benedicite, Omnia, Opera_. Over the place where the fire was he then
recited the prayer: "Bless, O Lord God, this place, that there may be
for us in it sanctity, chastity, virtue, and victory, and sanctimony,
humility, goodness, gentleness, and plenitude of law, and obedience to
God the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost."[9]

We learn from the laws of Athelstan that no man was permitted to enter
th