Ordeals

An ordeal is a test of authenticity of an oath or of a person's innocence, when divine or supernatural judgement is invoked in some test involving the ability to survive pain, fire, water, poison or some form of combat. The accused may be required to grasp a heated metal bar or plunge his hand into boiling oil; or the ordeal may not, in itself, be dangerous but becomes so if the accused swears innocence when in fact guilty. Although not always recognized under law, trial by ordeal has been popular in many cultures, based on the instinctive belief that if a person is in the right then that person will receive divine approbation. Conversely, guilt is thought to weaken the wrong-doer and make him or her susceptible to either natural or magical injury.