5 Strange & Disturbing Trials By Ordeal From History

in the modern era a trial by judge and jury we're a range of carefully gathered evidence can be considered and debated before a verdict of guilt or innocence is passed down is deemed to be the most reliable form of justice but such a fair and balanced legal system is a relatively new invention for most of human history people had no access to fingerprints DNA testing video surveillance and impartial investigators and so the responsibility for carrying out trials to determine innocence or guilt fell upon the church and the priesthood faced with the difficult task of preventing society from descending into criminal chaos the priests took advantage of man's more superstitious side leveraging the widespread belief in the omnipotent nature of God to construct a legal system that despite its barbarism to modernize has actually been argued by some to have been extremely effective in achieving his goals what became known as trials by ordeal the time and innocence and guilt by requiring the accused to undertake horrific ly painful and often life-threatening tasks the logic being that the outcome of such an ordeal would be the judgment of God himself should the accused be innocent God would surely intervened to prevent any harm from coming to an innocent man whereas if he were in fact guilty no such miracle would be forthcoming although this sounds like nothing short of madness there was in fact an effective strategy behind the practice in a society where the majority of people steadfastly believed in God being all-seeing and all-knowing it stands to reason that a guilty individual would have been unwilling to undertake the ordeal since they knew what the outcome would be not only would they be left with a horrific or even fatal injury but should they survive they would also have to pay a far harsher penalty since the punishment for confessing before an ordeal was almost always far more lenient than the punishment for somebody who was found guilty by the ordeal they performed on the other hand somebody who was truly innocent would have been far more willing to perform the ordeal or required of them confident that God would see their innocence and therefore intervened to save them from the beginning the system was set up to induce the guilty to confess thus securing criminal justice in cases where a lack of reliable evidence or witnesses meant that the guilty may have otherwise profited from their crime and where torture simply forced both the innocent and the guilty to confess yet there is one line a problem with such a system namely that innocent people would still need to undergo the ordeal since if it was never carried out then the guilty would have nothing to fear and so the whole system would fall apart it was in this situation that the discretion of the priest came into play as the men in charge of administering the ordeal they would have spent a great deal of time assessing the accused and would have been able to judge from the reaction to the terrifying ordeal awaiting them just how confidently seemed in God intervening on their behalf should the priests team that the person was innocent the ordeal could be manipulated to be far less severe giving the impression to outsiders that God had intervened on maintaining the system's effectiveness nevertheless in order for the ordeals potency as a deterrent to be maintained every now and then a few unfortunates would still have to suffer the full extent of its horrors here are five of the most disturbing examples of trials by ordeal that are thankfully a thing of the past number five ordeal by fire one of the most common ordeals used was also one of the simplest yet its lack of complexity made it no less terrifying for the unfortunate soul who faced the very real prospect of having their flesh seared and melted down to the bone should God fail to intervene on their behalf as they faced one of the many forms of trial by fire in cases where no witnesses to a crime could be found and where no damning evidence indicating guilt existed an extremely popular method for settling justice would be to wield the burning properties of extreme heat to discover the truth of a matter this ordeal came in a variety of forms with perhaps the most popular being for the accused to grasp in the hand a bar of iron which had been heated in a fire until it was glowing red-hot weighing somewhere between one and three pounds depending on the severity of the crime with which the accused was charged the bar of iron would be placed in a raging fire as the defendant looked on in terror knowing that with each second the past the inconspicuous piece of metal in the flames grew ever hotter after a series of prayers had been whispered the glowing bar would be placed into the hand of the accused who would then have to walk across a distance of nine feet in full view of the bored caught before finally being allowed to release the terrible package from the grasp the immediate lack of any obvious injury would have been seen as proof that God had performed a miracle demonstrating to all that the defendant was indeed innocent however should there have been any burning of the skin the hand would be bandaged and examined three days later by priests where innocence or guilt could be determined by how well the wound had healed allowing for a great deal of discretion land outright manipulation to be applied by the priests charged with examining the wound a guilty verdict could result in a severe fine however would often carry a far more serious penalty including everything from being sent into exile to being stoned to death by your neighbors penalties which were far more severe than had the accused simply confessed before undertaking the ordeal a fact which often encouraged the guilty to readily confess to the crimes when arrested other forms of trial-by-fire included walking barefooted along nine red-hot plowshares or walking along burning coals for nine paces how before dozens of variations have been used around the world over the centuries in ancient India a woman suspected of adultery could be forced to stand inside a flaming circle or upon a burning pyre to settle the dispute with burning of the flesh indicating guilt this practice is thought to have been based upon the trial of Sita in the Ramayana who is said to have undergone a similar ordeal and not had a single flower petal in her hair be wilted by the heat of the flames because of her purity in ancient Persia those accused of lying or cheating could be asked to prove their innocence by undertaking an ordeal of fire which could take as many as 30 different forms the most commonly used beings have to walk through a raging fire unharmed or to have molten metal poured upon their chest with the likely horrific death of such a test indicating guilt while an improbable survival would indicate divine intervention yet the situation was not always so black-and-white a surviving 13th century record of trials by fire in Hungary shows that of 208 defendants who undertook a hot iron ordeal in just one town an incredible two thirds are said to have emerged unscathed by the ordeal resulting in all charges against them being dropped he the miracles were extremely common or the priests conducting the trials were rigging the system the rules governing these trials by fire were strict and rigid with only the clergy being allowed to prepare and administer the ordeal while at the same time having unfettered access to the accused this gave them the opportunity to use their own discretion to judge whether the defendant was guilty as it could be deemed likely that only an innocent would be prepared to willingly grab a red-hot bar of iron in the unprotected hand if they believed the defendant was in fact innocent the priest could manipulate the entire process perhaps ensuring that the iron bar was not heated to such a scalding temperature mitigating the physical damage the accused received when performing the ordeal or dragging out the pre audial prayers long enough to allow the bar of iron to cool down to a far less dangerous temperature so that it only inflicted minor burns injuries which after the three-day waiting period could be declared to have healed to such an extent that God had surely performed a miracle in their favor yet a fine balance had to be struck between the guilty who confessed and the innocent who underwent the ordeal too many confessors would be a sign that even the innocent had lost faith in the process while too many people willingly going through with the trial by fire would be a sign that it had lost his effectiveness and so severe burnings would have to be administered to reestablish public fear of the ordeal the sight of such horrific injuries more than enough to restore the balance and once again induce the guilty to confess number 4 ordeal by water plunging an alleged criminal into deep cold water to see if they float might seem bizarre and in fact nothing short of barbaric to modern observers especially when you consider that floating and therefore survival of the ordeal actually indicated guilt after all what kind of justice system would condemn the innocent to drowning yet like so much of history the truth of the matter is rarely so clear-cut the roots of this unusual practice stretch back deep into human history as early in time as mankind's first codified laws in ancient Mesopotamia and has sprung up around the world throughout the millennia were the practice of submerging the accused in cold water to determine guilt has been used on those accused of anything from theft and murder - sorcery and heresy however it has perhaps most famously become associated with the witch trials and surrounding hysteria that gripped Europe and North America in the 16th and 17th centuries after an elaborate ceremony consisting of lengthy prayers incantations communions and rituals to ward off the devil the accused which would be horde from their cell to the chosen body of water which might be a river or even just a dug out hole filled with holy water where they would be unceremoniously stripped of their clothing after hands and feet bound by coarse ropes before finally being plunged into the water below to see if they would sink or float the logic behind this peculiar test of guilt was that since water was pure it would repel the guilty forcing them upwards to the surface in doing so displaying their unquestionable guilt to the world others believed that since witches had renounced baptism when entering the devil service the water would reject anyone under Lucifer's thrall while some even believe that witches were supernaturally light and therefore physically unable to sink even recommending weighing the accused as an alternative to making them perform the ordeal those witches who floated would be whisked off for a public execution usually by being burned at the stake however what became of the innocence who sank beneath the water's surface from the beginning such a test seems fatally flawed in that the innocent are seemingly condemned to drowning however contrary to this widespread belief about the water ordeal those who did sink would be promptly poured back to the surface by the officials carrying out the test via a rope tied around their waist however of course accidental deaths by drowning did occasionally happen another variation of the water ordeal involved what was known as the docking stall where the accused was tied to a chair which was attached to a wooden log before being repeatedly dunked in the water and held beneath the surface for a fixed period of time before being raised above the surface again while a somewhat lower tech version consisted of simply submerging the subject in a barrel of water to check for flotation and therefore guilt yet it wasn't only in superstition gripped medieval Europe that the water ordeal was put to use examples of similar tests for guilt were supposedly found by british east india company officials exploring areas of siam burma india and cambodia in the 17th and 18th centuries the company men found that in lieu of any centralized legal system villagers in many small rural settlements practiced what became known as ordeal by diving where men accused of committing crimes would be forced to dive into a pond or river and hold their breath beneath the surface for a preordained period of time in order to prove their innocence while underwater the accused would pray to the water gods whom it was believed would protect the diver if he was innocent or drag him to the riverbed below and watery grave if he was guilty survived of the ordeal would result in the accused being acquitted of all charges and just like the witches in Europe a safety rope tied to the waist would ensure some level of safety to prevent drownings or strong tides from sweeping the accused away however once again accidental deaths did occur number 3 ordeal by poison most of the ordeals discussed so far a little more than relics from an almost forgotten dark history yet the use of poisons to determine guilt is a practice that is still very much alive in the modern world and despite being officially outlawed remains a cultural tradition that many are simply unwilling to part with making it extremely difficult for governments to stamp out like all of the other ordeals the absence of any trusted and consistent legal system made way for superstition to reign supreme with the often dramatic visible effects of poison on the individuals who ingested them routinely being misinterpreted as the work of a magical or divine power the practice known as sassy wood has been used in Liberia and across western Africa for perhaps thousands of years as a widely accepted method for determining guilt in those accused of both criminal and supernatural behavior the ritual varies depending on the region but the bark of a highly poisonous tree is ground into a lethal elixir which the suspect is then forced to drink the tree produces toxins which act as a blood thinner and Volland which after imbibing can cause extreme outward displays of distress in the victim which onlookers will view as being the work of some otherworldly entity those lucky enough to vomit up the toxic beverage before it can do enough damage to kill are considered innocent since survival is seen as the result of intervention by spirits or some other divine power while those who keep the deadly mixture inside them will almost always meet with death which is equated with certain guilt that the charges levied against them incredibly the practice was legal in Liberia until as recently as 2009 only being outlawed after several innocent women died from partaking in the poison ordeal after being accused of witchcraft by the neighbors however the deep roots the practice has within Liberian culture coupled with the disruption to conventional legal systems during the country's civil war have caused many to view the ritual as being far more legitimate and reliable than foreign systems of justice another widely used variation of the poison ordeal centers around the Calabar bean which is believed to be a magical plant placed on earth by God to help humans discover the truth and see through the lies of others the beans are highly toxic and contain one of the chemicals used in the production of nerve gas a substance which attacks the nervous system and services links with internal organs causing seizures and vomiting eventually leading to this fixation brain damage and ultimately death the beans were normally crushed and mixed with water but were sometimes simply swallowed whole by the unfortunate individual who found themselves accused of witchcraft or some other crime in a short space of time convulsions and seizures would begin traumatic outward displays of the poisons assault on the nervous system which onlookers were convinced was the work of demons and evil spirits with those who succumb to the poisons fatal effects deemed to be guilty while the lucky survivors would be declared innocent the logic being that God had directly intervened to save their life while survival of the ordeal might seem to be nothing more than a lottery there might actually be a grain of truth to this outcome the innocent defendant who believed in the ordeal might be more prone to confidently swallowing the whole beam or drinking the elixir in one quick gulp which was more likely to result in rapid vomiting expending the poison from the system before it could do too much damage conversely the guilty might be more likely to nervously sip on the poisonous liquid or chew the beam allowing a far larger volume of the poison to be absorbed by the body making death almost a certainty yet perhaps the most disturbing and destructive use of the poison ordeal took place on the island of Madagascar during the reign of Queen Rania Valona in the first half of the 19th century the traditional practice of trial by tangina a highly poisonous nut was hijacked and used as a means to install terror into the population while providing a convenient tool for the removal of anyone who might oppose or threaten her position usually reserved for those charged with crimes such as treason and witchcraft the nut would be mixed with water and swallowed by the accused along with three pieces of chicken skin if all three pieces of the chicken skin were formatted up then the accused was declared innocent however death from the poison or failure to regurgitate the three pieces of chicken skin implicated guilt the numbers who perished at the hands of the poison were immense with entire villages often forced to undertake the ordeal while anyone who dare to criticize the Queen's actions found themselves charged with treason and facing the tangina trial which was thought to be fatal in around 1 in 10 cases ordinarily but could be made far more lethal by picking nuts that were darker in color and therefore contained more poison mixing the nuts with a smaller amount of water as well as forcing the target to perform the ordeal on an empty stomach meaning the fatality rate for those considered to be undesirable was in fact far closer to 100% simply being accused of witchcraft or practicing Christianity by a neighbor would make undertaking the ordeal compulsory and with the Queen using the ritual to wipe out those who opposed her or might threaten her base of power deaths from the strange practice sword with as many as 3,000 perishing every year through Queen ran of alona's rain peaking at an incredible 100,000 deaths in 1838 alone which was thought to be as much as 20 percent of the entire population number to ordeal by boiling water plunging your hand into a cauldron of boiling water might seem like a course of action that has only one grim outcome the horrific burns inflicted by the scalding water an unavoidable consequence of placing your exposed flesh into such a dangerous environment however for many people throughout history such a grisly outcome was not always expected and indeed did not always occur one of the most common and easy to prepare trials the boiling of water ordeal has been used all over the world throughout history to test those accused of everything from somewhat minor crimes to even the most serious of charges in medieval Europe the accused would first be forced to fast for three days spending this time living with a priest who had assists with prayers to God designed to help him endure the forthcoming ordeal once the three days had passed a cauldron of water would be blessed by the priest and a roaring fire would be prepared to bring the holy water inside to a boiling temperature finally a stone or ring would be placed inside the cauldron which the accused would be tasked with retrieving from the scalding water with his bare hand the depth of the water varied depending on the severity of the crime the water being just up to the wrists for minor crimes - as deep as the elbow for more serious charges however the ordeal always took place inside a church where it was thought that God could more closely watch over the trial and intervened to reveal the truth of a matter with all preparations complete the accused would plunge his hand into the bubbling water retrieved the object at the bottom of the cauldron then quickly have his hand and arm bandaged by the watching priest who would check back three days later to see how well the wounds had healed a well healed arm or one bearing no burn marks at all would be interpreted as the accused being innocent for surely God had intervened in the ordeal to prevent a serious injury from taking place while severe burns and festering of the wound would indicate certain guilt yet although this ordeal has been used on perhaps thousands of occasions dating back to as early as the 6th century the trial did not have the 100% of failure aid that you might expect calm with placing exposed flesh into boiling water while the outcome of such an ordeal should be at best horrific burns and at worst the complete melting away of all skin and flesh down to the bone upon the affected hand many of those who took part in the ordeal escaped with minor blistering or even no wounds at all any audio with a 100 percent failure rate would have failed in its intended purpose which must act as a deterrent designed to induce the guilty to confess without being so difficult that even the innocent falsely admitted to any charges made against them and so there were a number of ways in which the ordeal could be made less dangerous if the assigned priests decided that the accused was in fact innocent the fire could be lit right before the audio took place not allowing the water inside the cauldron time to reach boiling point or conversely the act of water heating could take place hours before the ordeal with the accused ending up plunging the hand into water that was now little more than warm in fact because of the multiple ways in which the ordeal could be manipulated it was one of the easiest trials for priests to fix the outcome of meaning the fate of the accused would usually rest on the views and whims of the priests in charge of the ordeal rather than any divine power number one trial by combat fans of the book and TV series Game of Thrones will be well aware of the concept of trial by combat above a few realized that such armed duels were in fact frequently used in medieval Europe as a method for settling disagreements between two parties as well as a means for determining guilt when a crime had been committed whereby the accuser and the accused although nominated champions would fight a brutal armed contest often to the death to determine innocence and guilt with origins dating back as far as the 7th century trial by combat seems to have mainly been practiced in Europe primarily in Germanic cultures where tribal laws and customs allowed for the settling of disputes to take place on the battlefield where like other ordeals it was widely believed too that the gods would intervene to help the righteous to emerge victorious with the guilty or individual in the wrong holding to his opponent's sword or pleading for mercy before the end came although such combat could be used to settle all kinds of disputes and arguments it also became the ordeal of choice in cases where a serious crime had been committed but no reliable witnesses or confessions existed this judicially sanctioned or held to settle the question of guilt under the eyes of God the two parties involved in the dispute or crime fighting in single combat with the winner proclaimed to be in the right the audio was often governed by an elaborate and strict set of rules which covered everything from the types of weapons and armour which could be used to the size of the battleground the time of day as well as who was allowed to fight swords and shields accompanied with light linen or leather based armor seems to have been common however many fights had to be conducted with both sides leaving their heads and hands exposed and unarmored presumably to increase the likelihood of injuries and therefore speed up the conclusion of the fight the dueling ground was often carefully measured to be exactly 60 feet square and the position of the Sun had to be to the side of both parties so that its glaring light would give neither side an advantage in the fight although the two parties in dispute would usually be the ones to fight this was not always the case sometimes two witnesses who held the sputum accounts of the events that took place in an alleged crime would be forced to fight each other to determine whose version was the most factual while in other instances champions could be hired to fight in the place of the accuser or accused with the most successful champions able to command enormous fees and even annual retainers to remain in the surface of important and wealthy families with those possessing the most fearsome reputations often able to intimidate the opposition into settling the case without a fight needed yet not everyone would have to settle the question of guilt in single combat women those over the age of 60 children the disabled or blind as well as priests and other important officials could all refuse trial by combat and instead be judged by a jury and while commoners often had to present their case to a judge for permission before dueling members of the nobility did not paving the way for trial by combat evolved into the gentlemanly jewels so common in later centuries which were themselves only outlawed in most countries as late as the 19th century once the fight began it would not end until one of the combatants was dead however if one of the fighters decided that things were not going his way he could end the trial by a crying out that he was vanquished yet doing so could carry a hefty price since such defeat would be interpreted as guilt and be subsequently punished with the full force of the law usually resulting in the defeated but surviving party being hanged or burnt for their crimes however fatalities could be avoided if both sides managed to fend each other off until sunset when the bout would be declared over with all charges against the accused dropped the fear of a violent death would often be enough to induce the guilty into confessing their crimes before combat took place or encouraged disputing parties to settle their differences peacefully and lengthy pre-fight checks evolved to give both sides ample opportunity to settle their differences before bloodshed began yet as modern ideas spread across Europe such an archaic form of Justice was doomed to be swept away as the many glaring problems with administering justice through combat meant that the audio all but disappeared in the 16th century as the emergence of a professional class of lawyers guarded their own best interests by preferring to keep their clients alive steering them away from combat trials and every possible opportunity preferring to settle legal matters in a more modern court of law closer to what we have today like all the ordeals I've mentioned the whole system was only as strong as the superstitious beliefs underlying it and as people's faith in the church and divine power forted so too did their belief in the ability or willingness of any God to intervene on behalf of the innocent in such trials leading to the use of trials by ordeal quickly falling out of favor and disappearing as an age of reason and laws began so those are my choices for five of the most disturbing trials by ordeal in history I hope you enjoyed the video let me know your thoughts in the comments below and I'll see you again soon

Channel: Unknown5

Views: 169,749

Rating: 4.8184319 out of 5

Keywords: Trials By Ordeal, trial by ordeal, medieval justice, trial, history, education, documentary, unknown5, top 5, top 5s, top 10, entertainment, ancient history, medieval history, documentaries, trial by fire, trial by combat, trial by water

Id: CtCwlVN6E5o

Length: 26min 11sec (1571 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 06 2018