35 



eient authorities represent menials as undergoing the Ordeal of fire. 

 In the tragedy of Antigone (v. 270) for instance, Sophocles makes an 

 humble character express his readiness to lift ' ' masses of red hot iron, 

 and pass through fire," to purge himself of a charge. 



It is not easy at present to ascertain the number or variety of the 

 methods of Ordeal used by the different nations. All the Teutonic na- 

 tions seem to have had nine forms (if not twelve) ; the inhabitants of 

 India, according to Hastings, had nine also. The Greeks, if they had 

 not twelve forms, appear to have had regard to the number twelve ; for 

 they used twelve hot ploughshares. The ploughshare seems to have 

 been the instrument by which the hot iron Ordeal was anciently most 

 usually practised. It is not in our Irish list, and I confess that its absence 

 therefrom is not without significance. It is worthy of remark that there 

 is no reference to the subject of Ordeal in the ancient monuments of Norse 

 literature, except one allusion to the hot water test which occurs in the 

 " Edda," in the third Lay ofGodrun ; butthis poem bears internal evidence 

 of its German origin. Nevertheless, it would be strange if a people so 

 superstitious as the Pagan Norse should have been without some form 

 of it, particularly as it was a regular institution among their neighbours, 

 the Danes and Germans ; although, indeed, from a passage in Helmold (1. 

 83) quoted by Leibnitz (p. 608), it would appear that the Sclavic nations 

 did not practise it until after their conversion to Christianity, when the 

 clergy interdicted them from swearing by trees, lakes, and stones, but 

 commanded that they should pass over burning ploughshares with naked 

 feet. 



At a very early period in the history of the Christian Church we 

 find the Ordeal of fire and water practised on the Continent, even in the 

 case of ecclesiastics. Gregory of Tours records that the fire Ordeal was 

 submitted to by St. Briccius, the successor of St. Martin, who died in 

 the year 412; and in the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick (p. 32 of the 

 Irish manuscript in the Royal Irish Academy), we are told that the 

 double Ordeal of fire and water was resorted to in the Saint's contest 

 with the Druids of King Laeghaire. (It is curious, too, that in the latter 

 case the Druids are represented as dissatisfied with the form suggested 

 by St. Patrick, as if it was not in accordance with the Irish system). 



At a subsequent period, and during the Middle Ages, the forms most 

 in use throughout Europe were nine in number, — viz., hot iron, hot 

 water, cold water, the cross, consecrated cheese, the Eucharist, corsned, 

 offajudicialis, and the duel, in which latter they all eventuated. I 

 have not met any well- authenticated instance of the use of any of these 

 forms by the purely Irish people, unless the duel ; but the earliest in- 

 stance of this is not older than the year 1583. 



It is possible, however, that the practice which is so frequently re- 

 ferred to in the lives of the Irish saints, under the name of cpop pi sell, 

 may represent the "Judicium Cruris" The meaning of the words 

 cpop pi gell is explained by O'Clery asa" vigil which a person makes 

 on his knees, his hands being extended in the form of a cross." Many 

 of the Irish saints are represented as possessing, among their other attri- 



